So, it looks like I’m stuck with a flaky internet connection and phone call dropouts since I use VoIP on a Naked DSL line.

The fallback solution is to run my laptop and any other laptop in the house through my iPhone when the hardline plays up. This seems to work pretty well, but… the concrete walls also make mobile reception in my place pretty bad.

It would be great if there was a great internet provider combined with great phone wiring that I could use. Guess I’ll just have to wait…. until I move house… urgh… who knows when that’s going to be.

What I’d like is to be able to apply for an agency worker to come out and visit my family and me. Sit down with us, talk to us like people instead of reference numbers and then, having understood our situation, go and figure out the best way for us to benefit. Then, for them to make it happen. I don’t have time to be chasing a hundred different forms to apply for one thing, it’s too much. Especially when we’re raising a young family.

So how the hell does the freeloader that destroys all these free houses he’s presented with get away with it? And who decided that he should get access to another one?? That’s a very bad choice. People like that need to learn how to respect property and people. Giving them free handouts will not accomplish that.

Help those of us that are trying to help ourselves.

Switching to a self-hosted blog, you need to take responsibility for the domain name, hosting, SEO, etcetera. However, this also brings the ability to have much greater control over how your blog works, right down to the database and code level.

Anyway, please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds to the following:

• Web: http://www.cloudproductivity.net
• RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CloudProductivity

This new blog, Cloud Up↑, is for everyone who wants to make their personal and professional lives more efficient.

For business process management, I will be discussing how to manage change, implement and enforce processes, how to decide which processes to stick with and which to forget about and how to devise new processes inline with business strategy.

Many aspects of Cloud Technology and Cloud Computing will be discussed, including the general concepts for various types of cloud technologies right down to specific applications and reviews.

Personal and Professional productivity is very important to me too. I’m a procrastinator and through this new blog I want to share my lessons, tweaks and learnings on my journey to optimize my productivity to create more time to enjoy life, and how to enjoy it!

So please, head over to http://cloud-up.blogspot.com and please do leave me comments and feedback on my posts.

Customers are elephants! They remember.

Some dominos you choose and some, equally as significant are knocked over as you pass by – always follow those ones. They lead to the most unexpected and wonderful places.

Choices. It’s a lot of responsibility.

Absolutely amazing marketing.

There’s no denying that the Apple interface for all its devices is sleek and simple. However, is it actually worth as much as they charge. I don’t think so.

I can just as easily do whatever I need to on a crappy old PC/laptop running Ubuntu linux. So how has Apple climbed back into the everyday? Clever marketing that has been targeted at high-end consumers. Simple devices that, once high-end consumers have tried, become the envy of the everyday people. They become a status symbol.

On the train in the mornings and afternoons I don’t there is an iPhone left in a pocket or bag – they’re all out and being flicked by media hungry, status symbol displaying consumers.

The marketing campaigns that Apple has used to sell iPods, Macs and iPhones hardly say anything about the capabilities of the devices themselves. Somehow people just know what they do. They are infected. It doesn’t matter if there are better, more reliable devices out there. Even the Apple logo has become synonymous with wealth and a ‘look at me’ attitude.

If you recall the older Apple campaigns that really attacked Microsoft, “Hi I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC…“. These ads didn’t really say what a Mac did, but rather what it didn’t do… crash. Let’s be realistic though. If you try hard enough, you can crash a Mac (for example, don’t try using Boot Camp), but it just happens less often and is much less obtrusive to the user.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that Apple does seem to be offering hardware or software, it’s offering status.

Now look at the new release from Apple, the iPad. Is it actually useful? Think about it… when would you actually use it for more than 5 minutes? You wouldn’t. It’s a gimmick, a very expensive gimmick. However, I guess it might be useful for travelling… but then isn’t an iPhone (or pretty much any phone) capable of sending/receiving emails and getting on facebook these days anyway?

The iPad is nothing more than a glorified tv-guide that will live on your coffee table.

And then there’s the ‘Apps’. Wow, my handheld device can now play 100,000 games that are small, fiddly and pointless. If I want to play a game, I go get on the PlayStation. I’m not going to stare at a tiny little screen an swish my finger around. And on that… what can an iPad do that an iPhone can’t? They use the same operating system! It often frustrates me when I see people at a cafe  in a group chatting away, and then there’s a couple of people in the group that will have their iPhones out playing games, checking emails or just scrolling around. Why? Look up people! The world is going on around you. Connect with it in real-time in real-life! Life doesn’t happen in a shiny metal and glass box.

Apple has managed to convince us that in order the be accepted in society, we need to use their expensive, proprietary technology? Why? Because it’s shiny? Because it’s useful? Because it’s quality? Or, because they can, in order to infect us with their marketing tools, so we infect others.

It’s a big rant, I know. But there’s just something not quite right about the whole Apple wave. Having said all that, I would definitely recommend my parents get an Apple Mac right away and chuck out the data Windows machine they have at the moment. And, I’m actually writing this on a Mac myself.

Infected?

As a result, you are both Stuck and Waiting. Waiting for the right choice to present itself; Stuck sorting the good from the not so good. But, as Pirsig later explains, the right choices, while present in the problem, may never present themselves. They need to be actively sought out. But how do you seek out a solution to a problem where you are presented with so many choices and each one, if followed will take you to in a completely different direction than the others.

It is a situation I seem to find myself in right now. Stuck. Waiting. But for what? It’s not that I’m not happy with how things are right now.  Small pieces. I think the way forward, from a stuck, waiting state, is to think much, much smaller. The problem is a matter of scope. Think too big and you’ll never get anywhere, you’ll just be inundated with options, possibilities, choices. Refine the scope, narrow it down continually until there is very little to do, but choose the right next step. Even though other problems will still present themselves, the choice between them and the correct one will become obvious. It will be a Quality choice.

So how then does this apply to my current situation? It’s not a matter of planning. Planning a solution to an unfathomable problem is not easily done. However, noting down key points to act on is the first step, like an action/task list. Each action then gets broken down in to smaller problems with more readily identifiable solutions. And again repeat this until the smallest possible action, with only one obvious solution is presented. Act on this and roll the solution back up to the parent problem.

It sounds a bit like a divide and conquer approach, but applied to everyday life.

And so it now becomes a problem of time. Time to analyse. Time to observe. Time to decide. But, argh! Now I am back to the beginning. I am Stuck. I am Waiting.

So here presents a problem. If you have thoughts, please advise. Time to note down the problem, the break down, the recursion. The solution will present itself. It will become evident. It will be Quality.

It’s been a long while since my last update. Over three months in fact. I keep having minor ideas about stuff to post, and then think… “who the hell would want to read about that!?” and so I only get as far as writing the title. Lame, I know

I just wanted to take a moment to recap some of our highlights from 2009 before I forget some of them.

It was a very action-packed year. My first son was born, March 26 at 3:17pm. It was absolutely amazing. And, while challenging on the odd occasion, is all completely worth it when I hear him trying to hammer out words such as “mum”, “dad” and “duck” (I think – though this last one will be funny!).

It’s been so strange to hold a baby and know it’s yours. It’s surreal. I don’t ‘feel’ like a dad. Or do I?

The question that occasionally pops into my head and gets me wondering if I’m doing things right, or if I should be feeling differently – I still feel like a bumbling uni student. But, I have discovered that this is completely normal. Phew!

Mere days after the arrival of Noah, my cousin got married! Alas, my wife and son were unable to attend due to obvious reasons. Congratulations again to you both (my cousin and her husband).

Later, around the beginning of July, there was another new arrival in the family and I had a new nephew! (It seemed the glory days of Noah being the newest grandchild were short-lived). Noah now had a fantastic, life-long opportunity to beat up and cause mischief with his marginally younger cousin. Those two have the potential to be trouble.

Such is life. Now, work.

My working life began as a humble web (online application) developer. From the end of 2008 I began to feel slight changes in my role at work…. I was slowly becoming a sales rep! And, by mid 2009, it was official (though I’m told I’m still suppose to spend 20% of my time developing web applications – this is not going to happen).

Within four years of leaving university, I have now worked in two different companies and three different roles! I can’t wait to see what challenges lay in the year ahead.

Ah, the year ahead. What will it hold for this Roberts and his family? More underlings at work (and higher pay)? A new house to rent (fun), or simply evolution? There are no major plans for 2010, apart from maybe getting a new lounge suite. The motto for this year, for me, is “out with the old, in with the new” – enough of old excess baggage and clutter, it’s time to clear out, assess and dive in for the next round! Oh, and hopefully there will be some more blog posts too!