Smartphones and stupid walking

A smart phone in the hands of a less than smart person, at least whilst they are firmly gripping their handset seems to be increasing; then they attempt to walk intent on tapping the screen whilst weaving down the street.

This is annoying to the average pedestrian sharing the footpath, they are trying their best to navigate past their slow moving counterpart whilst they appear to be doing their utmost to impede their movement.

This is compounded at traffic crossings, our smart phone operator is usually busy updating their online status as the signal to walk turns from red to green, people are walking and mayhem takes place. People travelling in different directions collide, people trying to stumble across the road before the light turns red again - mass confusion.

I have seen smart phone users walk out on the road with a red light illuminated nearly hit by oncoming traffic with their head buried in their screen, earphones in and totally oblivious to the oncoming danger. The term situational awareness seems to be two random words forced together in the same sentence by accident.

WA Inc - a lesson still not learnt

Coming from a rich western country, corruption is something we are supposed to read about in poor developing countries - or so I thought. The Western Australian government led by the now disgraced premier Brian Burke engaged high profile businessmen in shady business deals.

I am now employed by the state government; a large portion of my retirement benefits are invested in the Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB); a number of the WA Inc investments (and hence losses) were underwritten by the fund in the 1980s.

While this doesn't necessarily affect me now as the losses were realised in the 80s, the fund was manipulated by corrupt politicians (and their union lackies) previously and could be corrupted in the future.

Brian Burke is now a government lobbyist, connected to just departed Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister's dealings with Brian Burke as can be described as concerning at best.

Previous Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard is facing her own corruption inquiry, her support of disgraced Labor politician Craig Thompson on 173 corruption charges (that will not be contested) and support for her selected speaker (Peter Slipper) who is facing his own dishonesty charges sets a very low parliamentary standard.

Slipper is also facing court regarding legal action brought about by former employee James Ashby in regards to sexual harassment for vulgar references to female genitalia and grooming Ashby as a sexual partner.

Julia had no issues recruiting this fool from the Liberal party as the Speaker of the House when it kept her minority government in power, no outrage about misogyny when it suits her political goals.

Corruption in the Australian Labor Party, trade unions and trade union members promoted to government positions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions is rife and still largely unaccountable.

The fallout from the WA Inc days where unionists struck business deals using taxpayer money, unionists booking private bills to union credit cards and creating slush funds from union members fees to purchase private property. The corruption of the weakest members of the workforce is incorrigible.

One has to remember, the Australian Labor Party is staffed by a bunch of unionists who have absolutely no experience in business (with the exception of Gary Gray) but have illusions of grandeur of their business abilities.

They have played in business with public funds and lost big time, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan have also played that game with the mining tax and carbon tax having had their pants pulled down, they are confused and unrepentant.

If you are entrepreneurial, get in their and risk your own funds because for too long, the steady flow of funds from gullible union members have funded their ambitions.

Palau Tioman monitor lizards

Whilst on a trip to Palau Tioman, our accommodation near Ayer Batang, popularly known as ABC village is a well known backpacker haunt with numerous budget chalets. Stepping out of our accommodation, monitor lizards could be viewed sunning themselves on the rocks throughout the day - it was great.

I was surprised at the number of monitor lizards spotted around our accommodation, they are really interesting creatures, not acting in an aggressive manner at all. I have spent a fair amount of time working in central Australia finding the large lizards to be somewhat territorial at times. I was able to get really close to photograph these wonderful reptiles while they remained relaxed in human presence.

Critical Perspectives on Management dinner in Madrid

As fate would would have it, I would be I Spain when a post course dinner and get together is announced for Critical Perspectives on Management; the first foray into the wonderful world of Cousera for IE Business School, the Madrid based private higher education provider.

For an online class with thousands of students spread across the globe, the prospect of only eight people attending seems somewhat anti-climatic, it isn't, it makes the dinner more intimate. This has been tremendous advertising for IE Business School.

I was interested to speak to filming director Phil who would also be attending, we will see from his perspective how the class ran and his views on the final product. I am extremely interested to see how this has translated into enquiries and ultimately enrolments into this prestigious business school.

Not only does the IE Business School regularly rate highly with the international face-to-face full-time MBA; the blended delivery executive MBA and global MBA requiring substantial online components and attendance in cities of Madrid, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Boston/New York and Providence. 

The Coursera class is an actual class run in their MBA program, we took the full Critical Perspectives on Management class in its entirely, just as it would be done as a fulltime face-to-face student attending IE Business School.

According to Rolf, if students do not understand or grasp a concept in his class, he tells them to go and review the Cousera video. Also interesting was the fact that the highest score was 78%, about 7200 took the final exam with about 5500 people passing. 

Rolf said that he has incorporated elements of the online class into the fulltime examination making the fulltime examination more difficult. That was interesting, we had already seen the course content and now I know I passed a similar examination the IE Business School offers.

For my part, I only sought out the class for my close friend and partner; only joining her at the last moment to provide feedback and consultation building on the foundations of her mini-MBA she undertook a couple of years back. 

I quickly found this online offering to be very interesting, informative and challenging - I was hooked. Unfortunately, she was unable to be in Madrid at this time due to her work commitments and she was more than a little annoyed that I made it and she didn't.

Thanks to Mecky, I took the time to complete the unit, I was busy with my graded university course finding it difficult to find time to watch the online lectures, undertake the required readings, quizzes and final exam. 

Throughout, we were busy discussing the course content, principles, helping each other out and generally supporting our endeavors to learn the material. The course run by Rolf was so much more interesting than my change management class, more effort was put into that than actual university class.

No smoking

On a jeepney ride when in Olongopo diving, I had to laugh at the no smoking rules and fines. Firstly, you will normally find the driver hunched over the steering wheel peering through a windscreen littered with all types of advertising junk with a cigarette hanging out his mouth.

Then when you view the fines, 1000 peso for the first offence, 5000 peso for the second and a whopping 10,000 for the third offence. All is not lost because students, senior citizens and the disabled all receive a 20% discount.

Waiting for uni results

For me, the wait is over, uni results posted and I am unhappy again. Planning long service leave saw me firstly select a unit with a written exam, ok, buggered up, unenrolled and selected a unit requiring assignments, case studies and projects for assessment instead.

This way I could rush through, finish early and head off for three and a half months break, no supervised exams to attend. Logic sound flawed - ah, yeah.

Ok, I submitted three weeks early, rushing through and not following the program. I have become arrogant in my preparation, accustomed to credits as a standard mark, if I prepare better, I get better results.

I took two units, actually difficult when working full-time, then there was the medical procedures, a heart catherisation and knee investigation. That cost plenty of money and burnt up finances rapidly - a different kind of pain.

So where did I go wrong? Arrogance, yes - absolutely, poor preparation - yes, not following the program - yes, attitude - again yes and finally medical distractions. I would like to say yes to medical distractions, but then I will make the same mistake after my intermission.

A contributing factor, sure, stress at work also but that didn't affect the result. I had a small business, I was marketing that product, I knew the course material, I should have easily passed, I have applied that discipline in the workplace.

The question then needs to be asked, did I apply marketing solutions in the workplace context to a competent level? I would say yes, however, I was more concerned with business plans, strategy, HR and operations more so than marketing the business.

Of course, spending a fair amount of time with clients, creating marketing materials and presentations. 

The benefit of a university education is to be exposed to the principles, methodology and process of developing high quality strategies receiving feedback from a quality source. After all, anyone can go out and purchase a textbook and make a start for themselves, constructive feedback is what makes higher education worthwhile.

The real outcomes of the unit was to create an integrated marketing mix, analyse feedback and improve results, did I really achieve the course goals? I did actually deserve the mark I was given despite my annoyance, I passed but wasted my money as I didn't learn what I was supposed to learn.

The lure of online learning

I have had to put up with wankers at work with their dismissive attitudes and their petty university snobbery. Coming from a technical trades background and working my way through the ranks, at age 44, I finally gained a university degree, a major bricks and mortar establishment mostly done online. Not that has ever really been an issue, my technical expertise has been more than generous supporting a reasonable lifestyle, life could be better or worse depending on your outlook - no complaints. But as you get older, less hands-on is desired and the step from supervisory to management level is warranted.

The federal government opened the higher education market setting targets of 40% of 25 - 34 year old workers holding a bachelor's degree by 2025. I wanted to make sure that while I had plenty of on-the-job experience, I wasn't going to be automatically overlooked for positions because I didn't meet the selection criteria. Even though at 2025, I will be nearing the end of my working life. You have to keep pace, the job market is changing and you need to remain contemporary, being seen as a first adapter is important for new technologies and methodology. 

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now offering online courses through edX, two of the most prestigious learning institutions in the United States have now gone online. Berkeley in California, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and McGill in Canada are world renown institutes worldwide have also signed to edX.

This is fantastic, this legitimises online education, leading educational institutions are rewarding first adapters utilising the skills of their best and most innovative professors. One imagines, these institutions want to ensure their best talent is on show, not handing off development to adjunct lecturers reaffirms their commitment.

Richard NG and Daphne Koller from Stanford University, teamed up with the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and Princeton to offer high quality free online education. Coursera is a for profit organisation though, I presume revenue is gained through sale of course verification certificates, I am even unsure if graded assessment is offered or just a pass/fail. I have undertaken my first offering at Coursera, so far it looks pretty good but lets see.

Udacity is the third major provider; I had a short look at their course offerings and are yet to commit to any, one suspects they will be aggressively expanding in the future. The future on online learning is looking bright, with the universal acceptance of online courses, current and potential employers should credit this as a legitimate form of learning.

Deleted from social media

I have read a number of articles regarding deleting certain people from friends lists on social media; why you should do this and how to react when you meet up with them and they question your decision and display hostility towards you.

But what if you are the one being deleted? I was not in the cool group at school; being somewhat of an outsider, you build up a fair degree of resistance to rejection, if you let it affect you, it becomes all consuming. You ask a girl on a date, she says no, you need to move on pretty quick, sooner or later, you will get your first yes, maybe even a second or third. I have been deleted on social media on numerous occasions and I couldn't really care.

The emphasis of many social media articles has been on why you should cull and delete people; however, what does this really say about the person deleting you? As it can only be used as a weapon against you if you care, what statement are they trying to make about themselves? They are expecting you to be hurt and upset, if you are not, then the power returns to you. Should you have been online friends with them in the first place, or friends at all? Let's face it, they have done you a favour.

Cruising on the river

I love sailing, whilst my preference is racing, heading out on a cruise is a good way to fill the day. We cruise ot to the race site I suppose, then we get into race mode and it is time to get competitive.

Cruising around the Swan River is an excellent way to spend the afternoon, the waters are sheltered and there are plenty of places to go and moor, have a swim on a hot summer day whilst having a refreshing drink or two along the way.

The PADI Boat Diver certification

If I don't have a Boat Diver certification, am I still allowed to dive from a boat? Ever been asked this question before? Yes, I have been asked that exact question more than just a number of times.

You feel like the patsy in a PADI money making scam - you would be right in thinking that. Sometimes you just have to tell it as it is.

PADI are taking you for a fool - don't hand over your hard earned money for such a blatant rip-off. I would like to know if any divers have been refused boat dives because of a lack of a boat diver certification?

You are, after all, not being asked to skipper the boat and resume responsibility for the safety of the vessel or its passengers. Nor are you required to meet any regulatory frameworks or insurance requirements as the skipper has to be licenced.

In many localities, the deckhand doesn't even require licencing or qualifications whilst working under the direction and supervision of the skipper. You are being taken for a ride, not just by the skipper - but by PADI too.

The rise of TripAdvisor

Founded in 2000 by Stephen Kaufer, the TripAdvisor brand is promoted in restaurants, hotels and attractions across the United States, Europe, South East Asia and the parts of the Middle East.

TripAdvisor advertises with decals, certificates and ratings predominantly displayed. Naturally, the reach and exposure of TripAdvisor is far greater than already mentioned, my travels haven't taken me further yet.

TripAdvisor is a business generating large revenues, listed on the NASDAQ exchange, this publicly listed company generates revenue via an advertising based business model. As an early adapter of user-generated content, a fair degree of criticism is directed at TripAdvisor.

On one hand consumers rate establishments, their impartiality may be questioned, also bringing into dispute the authenticity of such reviews. Are proprietors coaxing favourable reviews with enticements that may be deemed inappropriate?

However, are consumers actually sufficiently equipped to critique tourism and hospitality establishments effectively? Has this lead to elitism among professional reviewers in the past? These days, everyone is an expert, all jostling to be heard in a cluttered online environment.

In many cases, these are small business people who have poured their whole financial resources into their business, their work, devotion and effort only for someone with no real experience in review writing.

Hospitality management, culinary skills and knowledge is required to announce to the world this business is terrible. I try to write positive reports where possible, this however hasn't always occurred, you do try and tell it as it is.

Despite my apprehension of user-generated content, a lack of editing and oversight with reviewers lacking technical skills in certain areas, I continue to post content on TripAdvisor as I am one of the hacks generating reviews online too.

Chemical in a can

Wandering the streets of Berlin and Germany in general, I must say, the Germans love their beer. And why not? The quality and selection of German beer is very high unlike our own very drab offerings.

Once upon a time, beer consumption in Australia was very regional, XXXX in Queensland, Swan Lager or Emu Export in Western Australia, Victoria Bitter in Victoria and Tooheys in New South Wales.

There was NT Draught in the Northern Territory and Westend in South Australia - I have no idea what they drank in Tasmania back then. Needless to say, this was awful, chemical in a can - you paid dearly the next day.

The German beer on the other hand is robust in flavour, high quality and not mass produced chemical lager. Fortunately, the Australian beer market has turned the corner, no longer will the breweries be able to pass off this chemical swill as state based loyalty.

Italian drinking fountains

If my memory serves me correctly, in 2001 during my last Roman trip, I recall water fountains throughout the streets of Rome. I never carried a water bottle then, whenever I needed a drink.

I would just saunter up to one of the many fountains for a drink. There are still fountains in Rome, this time I needed a water bottle to fill up as they are few and far between. Are the wonderful Italian drinking fountains in decline?