My Little Black Book

Holiday Reading

13 January 2012

For me, holidays are a prime opportunity to pack in a LOT of reading. In previous years I’ve kicked off by diving into a Robert Goddard, or something similar. You know, a plot into which one escapes for a day, or so, and by the time you emerge from the book the daily grind has [...]

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The Hare With Amber Eyes

3 December 2011

Edmund de Waal, a ceramic artist, is bequeathed a collection of 264 netsuke (small and intricate Japanese carvings) by a great-uncle living in Tokyo. They entered the once-wealthy Ephrussi family in the 1870s when a Paris-based relative, Charles, bought the collection, which he later gave to a Viennese cousin as a wedding gift. In The [...]

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Fantasy vs Reality

7 September 2011

The future of physical book shops is not looking bright. Apart from the fact that many people couldn’t be bothered to read (or, even in developed countries, can’t read), there is the entire digital thing. Books are cheaper and quicker to get in electronic form, and a variety of websites deliver cutting edge references on [...]

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Bargain Shopping

11 August 2011

It is impossible to make the journey from Hong Kong airport into the city without being exposed to AliBaba.com a number of times. The orange posters, with smiling faces of happy customers/suppliers, are everywhere. The Airport Express train has a perpetually looping clip of customers sharing their delight. They are operating on the assumption – [...]

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Running Your Business in the Cloud

3 August 2011

I have – occasionally – been accused of having my head in the clouds. It’s the kind of thing that gets said to people who appear to have little connection with reality (i.e. they “don’t have their feet on the ground”). I won’t deny that I happily give my imagination free rein, but my sense [...]

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Surviving Failure

24 July 2011

I am willing to wager a substantial amount of money that the majority of people in the world have a problematical relationship with failure. Against a backdrop of empirical measurement of our academic ability – especially a method that delivers a pass/fail result – and a general culture that makes it uncomfortable even for sub-optimal [...]

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How to customise Facebook pages

18 July 2011

Facebook pages are being used by a wide variety of business and interest groups. I’m not suggesting that they are appropriate for all businesses, but I think the social component has interesting applications for the likes of restaurants and entertainment venues. And, apart from the usual ‘Wall’ functions, one can add additional tabs to Facebook [...]

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Perfect Tweeting

30 June 2011

I’ve become a little bit addicted to Quora, which in their words is “a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.” You [...]

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An Open Letter to the MyGate MD

15 June 2011

Dear Dan I hope you don’t mind me calling you Dan. I know that’s your name because I asked your employees the name of MyGate’s managing director. I left several messages for you to call me, but perhaps your telephone lines are down, the way that your computers so often seem to be. By the [...]

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Grazie, Graze

2 May 2011

Graze, in Stanford’s main road, is a fabulous little eatery, overflowing with character in a way that makes you want to eat the entire menu. I was there for lunch after a little mountain bike ride, hence my interest in eating was even greater. As you can see from the picture above, the menu is [...]

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