Piggy-Back

Few days ago I was reading an article on the Malaysian KM site http://www.kmtalk.net/index.php . I was attracted by the 34 comments posted on this particular article. I clicked on the comment icon and was looking forward to read what others are saying. To my horror and surprise, reader Anonymous (of course) single-handedly posted all those comments, or shall I say sex-links? Embedded inside each comment Anonymous posted, there must be a hundred or more sex-links.

I have problem to understand persons such as THIS Anonymous. Hiding behind the weakness of cyberspace (invincible and troublesome to trace), they not only is using someone else's property for his/her own purpose, but is degrading the site as well.

A few days ago I read an article (unfortunately I did not save the link) about teenagers in the US tapping into WIFI/hot-spot of other subscribers. They hunt, they found, they then use the wireless channel to check emails etc. AND they do not think they are thieving! They consider their actions is no different than reading newspaper over someone's shoulders. They crashed-in, took up spaces that are meant for the subsriber, therefore response time for the person who pays for the service degraded to the point of crawling.

These are just two examples of what miseries cyberworld can bring to us. It also shows some ugly human behaviour. Can we blame technology? I suppose we can. Most of all we should wonder what kind of people we are dealing with these days?

I am also wondering about security. Well, I am happy I don't have a lap-top (I don't want one), and neither do I care to have wireless internet access in my own house. I still prefer the old fashion way of using the wire-line sticking out from the wall.

Are we Overly and Unnecessary connected?

I called my x-colleague in the US over the weekend. She still works for the same telco/wireless manufacturer. I left 3 years ago.

During our conversations, we both admitted we turned off our mobile phones most of the time and only use it when necessary. The last time I sent a text message was months ago, but she is worse, she has never send a text message and she dosen't want to know! We don't want to know about podcasting, Skype and many other multimedia tools because we actually DON'T want to be connected all the time. Furthermore we both prefer to have hardcopies for serious reading so that we can scribber notes and highlight pages as our brains race along.

How advance are we (me and my friend) in the sense of making use of communications/multimedia technology? Are we backward because we are not tuned to all these modern gadgets? OR are we sensible users? Is the world over-connected? How absolutely necessary most of the 'connections' are? For example my friend is complaining the IM feature at her office intranet meant she is constantly distracted by messages coming from her boss (her boss, a non-techi would send messages requesting tech info during her meetings), and others, effectively making many of her days (my friend) unproductive.

One of my MANY managers (they kept changing their jobs for better promotions!) used to cliam proudly she has 'open door' policy. But she was never there. So, would the same effect will one day be the relationship between my friend and her office IM (for example)? She would just refuse to answer the IM messages (thus open-door but never there!). Then what good would be to have the IM feature to start with? Could we wonder alound IF she is the only person in her organization feels that way?

I think people have to make conscious effort to make effective use of the technological tools we are overly shower with (I am easily distracted by messages and things therefore is a SELF-confessed NON-effective person, but see the problems). AND people have to 'think' what their actions can work on other person. A virtual-society is no different than a physical-society. What works and not-works in the physical world should not be any different than the virual environment. Take the case of my friend and her boss, it would be wise from her boss to make appointment with her before hand regarding the meetings. Set out expectations, brief her about the meetings, the kind of inputs expected from her, the time duration of the meeting, who will be at the meeting, ASK if she can assit her with tech info etc. IF the boss is doing that, not only they can pre-discuss the do-and-don't about the meeting, the discussions would clear up many points that might be crucial (therefore effectively the boss would protrate a better picture of herself), my friend would be able to schedule/organize her agenda more effectively, and her mood would be in better shape etc. We must also understand emotion has snowball effect. If my friend is not happy (or happy), her vibes would send out the messages, her mood would affect those around her, her performance would depend on her mood ...

It is good to 'feel' connected. It is good to be able to reach someone when you need them. BUT perhaps we should value the SOS receipents, we should care a bit more. We should also want to make our casual-connections such as calling a friend to say HI, a happy occassion. Having the ease to connect does not mean we should call a long-distance friend at 3 in the morning!

A car is a tool. If we use it correctly it will take us to places. The consequences of misusing it with speed can kill.

Cartoons

The recent cartoons incident with the Moslim allows me the leisure to examine human natures, human power hunger, cultures differences ...

Now I am just wondering if the Moslim would start asking for compensation? Especially in the poorer countries? So far the wrackage happend in their countries. Granted the gutting of the embassies mean lost of what are inside the buildings ...

I am also wondering if 'those power behind' the riots actually did a proper calculations of the LOSSES these riots would bring to them and moslims? I am not talking about material lost. I am more interested in how much the riots and behaviour of the rioters damaged the good name of Islam? I shake my head looking at the huge gaps reveal. Any wonder/understanding why we have so much problems with some of them that reside in the west? The fundamentalists do not belong in the west. It is a wrong environment for them. If they so wish to stay in the west to benefit from the freedom that we enjoy, they THEMSELVES have to CHANGE. Nobody in their sane mind in the free countries would want to turn back the clock like Khomenia did in the 70s in Iran.

Goudstikker collections: Moral? Ethics? Whoes Moral? What ethics?

On Monday 6 Feb, 2006 the Dutch goverment returned 202 of the 267 painting from the Goudstikker collections to the heir of Goudstikker. Based on the principles of 'moral'.

Now here comes the interesting twist: the Dutch goverment and her citizens now has very HIGH MORAL. If I am the heir of GOudstikker I should think more about if I should take the paintings and run. Don't they now have to face the MORAL and ETHIC issues?

Here is the meaning of MORAL according to one dictionary: Of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character: moral scrutiny; a moral quandary.

So, fellow Dutch citizens, be happy! We are now a nation with very high moral Standards. Why should we care if we lost our heritage that are rightfully belong to us?

A similar case happened to the Austrian nation in January. Another claimed by Jewish family of some paintings. In this case the family offered the Austrian government 250 millions to purchase the 'returned goods' .. The Austrian governement turned down citing 'TOO EXPENSIVE'. Personally I think is bad taste from the family.

I just wonder, IF the 267 paintings are 267 strayed cats and dogs, or orphanes, would the heires of Goudstikekrs be interested to CLAIM back from the Dutch nation? I know I am mean. But I am also tired of people using such 'heart wrenching' words to make us want to weep for them. I wonder too if the lawyers receive any bonus from winning the case?

When I have time I will update with links and more details.

Random thoughts for 2006

2005 has been one great string of illnesses and mishaps for me. The last inconvenience is the injury to my right arm and shoulder. That makes even simply thing like picking up a spoon difficult and of course typing is slow (right hand) and painful.

The past few years, for fun and serious observations, I am using a Chinese astroger's yearly forecast to see how accurate he is. As a rule I use his forecast to keep an eye on all evils and ill-luck that suppose to happen to me of that particular year. He cautioned about injury to my limbs. In April 2005 I had severe septicemia to my bad left leg that lasted for months. By end November I was thinking he is 1/4 right (1 leg out of 4 limbs), then a week later he is 1/2 right ! (now 1 leg, 1 arm) ... OK Mr. Ming, you don't have to be perfect!

Enough of 2005.

When I was YOUNG, homework asignment from our teacher during the new year's break was to come up with a list of things we were supposed to accomplish for the new year. Well, age told me life is unpredictable. Plans don't always go the way we want. Should I still make a list of wishes and goals for 2006? I don't think so. BUT I do have 2 items left over from 2005 (due to illness) that I must complete. If I can manage them within the next 4 months I would be very contended for 2006. The most important is my thesis. The second is to learn how to use a home knitting machine. Finishing the thesis might not even land me with a job that I want to do. Learning how to knit with a machine might finally put a plan in place for a new venture. That is if my right arm cooperates.

I am not sure where my blog would bring me to. Nor how long would I use it to rant and rave! As a rather private person, keeping a blog is something not my cup of tea so to speak. On the other hand since I am hoping to transition from an 'office person' (that is when I finally able to land a job) to a handy-person (knitting), therefore keeping a blog is to allow me to keep writing and use my other side of the brain.

Would I be talking about collaboration, KM, elearning, cultures ... things that I am still very much interested in but not an expert? I don't know. My disappointment with just 'talking' about them is: I have not yet found a place where I can use them. I feel like a mad woman at times raving and ranting about my point of views with nowhere to try them out. Theory and practice.

I am also sad to see newspaper and journals fighting for survival because bloggers are spring up everywhere. BUT bloggers is not journalists. What they write based on their own opinions such as this one person. Whereas professional news media, if they do it right, based their opinions from the public (I will come back to this topic again). That would be such a shame if the world eventually ends up without a newspaper. Some would argue bloggers are giving their opinions. True. But how many blogs is one suppose to read to get the right opinions? And using RSS feeds to collect information is too one-sided. I like to flip over pages, scan on columns ... sometime I come acrossed something that is completely unexpected ...

Innovation

This is just some random thoughts about innovation I commented on Ton's blog . Just a holding place till I have time to think more about it.

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The problem i see 'innovation' as talked about, wrote about is: 'inovation' is equate to 'invention'. But is it?

Most of us 'innovate' all the time, but if it not BIG enough that can be noticed, it is not 'inovation', it is NOT new idea.

Before the craz about 'innovation' (the same I feel about all these talks about knowledge management), does it mean that we NEVER inovate? I think the more we talk about things such as inovation, KM, trust, the more we are confusing the 'average person'. THe more we confuse them, the more they become wondering if the belong to the 'inovative' society. All these talks about inovation actually kills innovation. People become scares of doing things that is wrong in the eyes of all these talks from clever researchers.

All these reminds me of the time I took an appetitude test to be a software programmer. In 1980. The report came back and told me/my manager the tests shown that I can do 'simple thing'. I did not get the job of course. Worse still that same casual remark crashed me. For years I walked around wondering how simple is simple enough for me to manage.

And if such a report can crashed a person who has a strong personality like me, can one imagine what it would do to anyone who has lesser self-confidence?

In my observation, we as a people, has one thing to learn: to be less of an individual, and more as a team player and support one another. No matter how clever or inovative you think you are, you need others to support you and your ideas. Inovation can never happen from the idea of JUST ONE SINGLE person. That I think is what is missing in most of the discussions that I read.

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Who is Cindynics???

Almost 2 years ago, Jacques, alerted me the true meaning of Cindy. Or rather CINDYNICS.

Here I am, at 4am and after 5 unsuccessful attempts, looking for a name for my blog that will not be rejected by Blogger, I decided to give CINDYNICS a try. It works.

CINDYNICS ...

A holistic development of a global, systemic approach to hazards and perils is at the center of the new science of cindynics.

Risk management's future development may be greatly aided by cindynics. Cindynics is derived from "Kindunos," the Greek word for danger, and refers to the new science of hazard identification. The latest developments in cindynics were discussed at a roundtable held last year during the RIMS National Conference in New Orleans, based in part on "Chaos Theory," an article written by Anthony J. Burlando an published in Risk Management magazine in April 1994