Getting Technical

I found this meme on Charlotte’s Web and thought it would be a good way to summarise my approach to this blogging malarky.

1. Do you promote your blog?

Not really, I link to it a bit from here and there and a few others have included it on their blogrolls which is nice of them. I am just seeing how it grows from there.

2. How often do you check hits?

Maybe once or twice a week. I am not complusive about this but I do like to see what gets traction and what doesn’t.

3. Do you stick to one topic?

I try to stick to software related topics as much as possible. The title of the blog is ‘Getting Technical’ so I try an honour that. My other passions will leak out occasionally. No one listens to a radio station that plays everything so the people that tune into this blog can expect the topics to be loosely congregated around software.

4. Who knows that you have a blog?

Aparently a few guys at SAP do! Thanks for the invite to TechEd guys. I am looking forward to it.

5. How many blogs do you read?

Again I read mainly technical blogs for the improvement of my skills and staying in touch with the industry. I haven’t counted them, but it would be less that 200.

6. Are you a fast reader?

I could be faster but I am not slow. I do skim a lot and will often not ready past a title of a blog.

7. Do you customise your blog or do anything technical?

I changed the theme and I am on the prowl for a good picture I can use instead of the standard one but I am in no rush. I should install Oliver Kohl’s cool SDN WordPress widget.

8. Do you blog anonymously?

No and I like it like that. I understand why people do but that would waste a lot of google juice.

9. To what extent do you censor yourself?

I have written some things I haven’t published. Partly due to the answer to 8. and the fact that the internet never forgets.

10. The best thing about blogging?

Making connections around the world with a whole buncha great people. That rocks.

When travelling in outback Australia, many moons ago, we stayed one night in a particular Bed and Breakfast. The host was a man of many tales and apparently he knew one of the marketing exectives of Penfolds, one of Australia’s largest wine brands. The executive complained that all the customers ever asked for was ‘a nice red’. Most people wouldn’t ask for wine by its region, or grape variety or any other metric that would mark people as a wine buff. All they wanted was ‘a nice red’.

So he obliged and produced ‘a nice red’. Our host then pulled the nice red from his wine rack and there to our astonishment was  a genuine bottle of Penfolds wine labelled as ‘A Nice Red’. The back label was equally comical and totally absent of the standard ‘grassy overtones’ and ‘hints of pepper’.

Personally I am not a big wine buff. In a blind test I could identify white and red but that’s about it. I know what I like to drink and will have a glass or two when entertaining guests or out with friends.

Now those who dispute the face that wine is a social object will have to look no further that this image above taken from my brother’s outhouse. What better way to pass the time when you are ‘doing your business’ to see the wonderful array of lables around you and remember all the good times you have had with friends. Looking at the picture in the bottom right hand corner is the lable of a 1986 Vasse Felix Cab Sav. Mmmmm…

Which brings me on to the announcement of the day from ‘Mr Wine as a Social Object’ himself. Stormhoek Blue Monster Reserve. It has a nice ring to it. What a great way to stimulate a conversation about a company. I love the sentiment about the Blue Monster. If you are not going to change the world the pack up and go home. It is a sentiment I have written about before.

It applies to whatever and whomever you are. SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, SFdCom. If all you are going to do is flog a few bits of sand and a few bits and bytes then pack up now. Software (and hardware) is more than just a buggy solution that you force on people. It is an enabler and transformer of people and processes.

It’s not just Microsoft that has to tell its story better. We all do. We all have to find better ways to tell our story, because we all have a story to tell.

The new wine won’t fit in the old wineskins anymore.

Technorati Tags: Stormhoek, Microsoft, SAP, Software, conversation, wine