November 29, 2004
Geeks shall inherit the earth?

By LanceW

Click here to visit the wikipedia proxied BBC news article.


The BBC news site has an interesting article on Open Source on its site. Use thelink above to take a look at the Beebs perspective on us OPen SOurce people.

* Posted on: Mon, Nov 29 2004 5:11 PM

Columnists: Seeds of Disaster

By LanceW


URL: Columnists: Seeds of Disaster

Here is quite a nicely written article on IT Security, which looks at MS's Internet Explorers problems and how the causes of these problems may be sowing the seeds of future problems in other MS software.

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Mon, Nov 29 2004 1:33 PM

November 28, 2004
Here, kiddie kiddie

By LanceW


URL: Here, kiddie kiddie

Hmm... an interesting article on Hacking. Although it seems to focus on cracking rather than hacking, but terminology aside it it quite a reasonable piece and worth the read.

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Sun, Nov 28 2004 1:40 PM

Buried Gems of the PS1

By LanceW


URL: Buried Gems of the PS1

A good list of often missed Playstation classics.

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Sun, Nov 28 2004 1:38 PM

How to deal with video games and your kids

By LanceW


URL: How to deal with video games and your kids

As someone with multiple consoles and relatives with Kids of game playing age and disposition, I thought this Blog entry spotted on EyeBeam Reblog was worthy of posting here also.

General statement, if you think the games your kids are playing are bad, then basically you (yes YOU!) should not have let them play it.

PS2 games are generally targeted at the late teen to 30 age group, no really they are. So letting your 8 year old play any old PS2 game is a bit dodgy!

Enjoy

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Sun, Nov 28 2004 8:56 AM

November 26, 2004
Make love not spam

By LanceW

http://makelovenotspam.com/intl

Is a link to a Lycos screensaver that downloads data from Spammer websites.

The theory being that this costs the spammers even more money, so discouraging them from spamming.

I'm willing to give it a go if it stops the tons and tons of spam that I receive each day!

Lance

* Posted on: Fri, Nov 26 2004 5:14 PM

The Importance of Clarity

By LanceW

My latest post on the "Enjoy Judo" campaign got me thinking about the birth of "Capoeira Scotland" and how clarity affects the promotion of Martial Arts.


When we started we made some decisions early on about what we were about and probably more importantly, what we were not.

We decided that Capoeira was not really a martial art in Scotland. We also decided that the quality was so low that we could not push that either. What we did have was a small group of dedicated people who loved and enjoyed doing Capoeira, we had fun doing it!

So as part of the start up process we wrote a brochure which had our inperpretation of what Capoeira was to us, what its history was, etc. What we wrote was what we said, we all argued over content till a consensus was reached. Once we decided, we agreed to stick to it.

The other key thing we did was compress everything we were about into a slogan. (cheesy perhaps, but bear with me)

"Capoeira Scotland - Fighting Fun and Fitness Brazilian Style"

What did writing this do for us? It clarified for everyone what we were about.
We were about:
1) Capoeira in Scotland and Scotland only. (and uniquely Scottish)
2) Fighting, Capoeira is like play fighting which is...
3) Fun, key statement here. We were all about Fun not about being the best.
4) Fitness, Capoeira is aerobic, you don't really stop so fitness improvements come along pretty quick. That and lots of people were participating for health reasons.
5) Brazilian Style, Capoeira is from Brazil, Brazil is Rio, the Mardi Gras, etc. We wanted to carry some of that feel with us.

This phrase was trotted out by everyone all the time.
Everyone knew it off by heart and it showed.
People who came to us knew we were there to do Capoeira in Scotland, that we wanted to enjoy it and get fit (work hard), that fighting was involved and it was all bound up in that whole Latin feeling.

The clarity of message was really valuable, people hearing about us from brochures got the clear message. People hearing by word of mouth got the message.
I had lots of experiences where new poeple would say that they came along because their pal had been talking about it and they thought it was great fun.
This showed that the FUN message made it through.

Okay, so lets look at the "Enjoy Judo" programme.

Okay, the name sounds great, but read the rest of the site and it has nothing to do with enjoyment of Judo. Its about Judo in Schools or about getting kids into BJA clubs or about making sure all kids get to experience Judo.


HUH?!?!?!?!?!


It's so confused, what is it all about?
BJA if you are listening, simplify!!!

What do you want to happen? Clubs in Schools or School Kids in Clubs. Or it is 5 week programmes in Schools? Or is it getting people to Enjoy Judo?

The goal and message should be clearer and should be so close to one another that one indicates the other.

S... what can we come up with for a Judo In Schools Campaign?

How about "Judo in Schools" as a the name of the Programme? Tells us exactly what it is about.

What about the goal?
Well, lets start of by agreeing to have a single goal.
So what do we want to achieve? Get Judo into Schools? Get school kids into Judo clubs? What? Lets assume its getting Judo classes/clubs into the schools themselves. So the goal might be...

"Re-Introducing Judo into School Curriculum"

So now it all looks a bit easier, its about getting Judo into Schools and specifically getting it back into the school curriculum. (I know I am taking a bit of creativelicense there, not all schools had Judo in the curiculum but I think that sub-conciously its a good message that we are RE-Introducing Judo rather than Introducing)

The next step would be to have a clear "product" to take to the schools. 5 week programmes or clubs? Both? I'd lean towards 5 week programmes as clubs might happen itself afterwards. 5 week programmes are also a much easier sell.

Okay so a 5 week programme, sorted!
Now the hard work is deciding and defining what each week should have in it. Again its clarity and consistency. Each one of these 5 week programmes needs to be virtually identical, country-wide.
So all the important stuff like "What is Judo?" needs to be decided and documented, then the coaches need training in the official message.

If each 5 week programme and each coach does something different and passes onto to the kids a different Judo to the next person, then problems will occur.
Think a successful programme is held by Coach A, who sells traditional style Judo, Kata, Martial aspects. The school loves it and decides to run Judo every term. But Coach A is not available, so they hire Coach B.
Coach B believes in competition only, this is a sport and teaches Judo that way.
The school decides that this is not what they wanted and is pissed off, so they cancel the classes and potentially/most likely do not hire another coach. they are "burned" they have a bad taste in their mouth, Judo is dead in that school!


I hope the above rant shows the importance of getting the basics clear at the outset. I have picked on the "Enjoy Judo" campaign and I do apologise if I have insulted peoples honest efforts.
Lets face it, its not their fault. Judo world-wide has not been able to get this clarity thing right, so why should a BJA programme. And you never know the programme might actually be better than I am giving it credit! (I for one honestly hope so)

I'll be emailing Dermot and offering to help.

Lance

* Posted on: Fri, Nov 26 2004 4:15 PM

School Judo Development

By LanceW

Hmm.... the BJA is trying to get kids into Judo, and have launched a new website and programme to do so. The logo above is... well weird, I'd love to hear an explanation of what it sybolises.

Below is the first text from the site:


British Judo Schools Development Programme Launched

The British Judo Association is pleased to announce the launch of the Schools Development Programme supported by Sport England, which will develop a nationwide programme that will provide the opportunity for every young person to be exposed to the sport and benefits of judo.

The programme will do this by:

* Undertaking judo demonstrations in schools
* Running five week programmes and taster sessions
* Setting up clubs in schools
* Linking in with local BJA clubs

The ultimate long term aim of the programme is to get children from the schools into BJA clubs!

Sounds..okay!
Don't think much of the final line, which basically undermines it all as far as I feel. The goal is not to promote Judo, to get kids to "enjoy Judo" but to get them into BJA clubs.

Why is that bad?
Well, it specifically states they want them out of the schools, which contradicts what they say in the bullet points.

I'm always happy to see campaigns like this one and conceed that getting kids into clubs is a really important goal. However it shows the typical lack of cohesiveness that plagues the BJA and Judo generally.

Do you want clubs in Schools or not?
And what does "Enjoy Judo" the brand do with your stated goals? I hope Dermot Heslop plans on upgrading the website and hopefully expanding on the sparse content there.

I don't want to seem pesimistic, but when your programme starts with mixed messages, then the programme is likely to have conflicting goals and a lack of direction. And that basically does not fill me (or the schools I am sure) with confidence that investing time and effort into Judo is worthwhile.

My experiences with KiwiJudo and more resently with Capoeira Scotland have proven that a clear simple message and objectives are required to suceed.

I'll post a blog about that shortly!

Lance

* Posted on: Fri, Nov 26 2004 4:14 PM

VB and Word Wizards

By LanceW

I have been hacking today a Word questionairre.


Interesting how easy it is to take a boring word document and add some polish/pizzaz to it. Basically have the labels for the fields as protected text, and the fields as... well fields.

Then I added a simple dialog box with a logo and some introductory text and a ok/close button.


Looks pretty damned good if you ask me. (not sure about the Arial font choice) The next step (if requested) would/will be to create dialogue boxes to fill in all the fields, although I don't think its required in this instance.

I did struggle to find and good references on how to do the above on the web, so if anyone has any good links please let me know.

* Posted on: Fri, Nov 26 2004 2:16 PM

November 23, 2004
Say no to Software Patents

By LanceW


Software patents are IMHO bad for the IT industry and for us all generally. Please visit the http://nosoftwarepatents.com/ website to learn more.

* Posted on: Tue, Nov 23 2004 3:13 PM

Kiwi Dolphins are great!

By LanceW

Heres a link to a news story on CNN about a pod of doplhins that protected some swimmers (human) from sharks!


CNN NEWS


Our Dolphins Rock!

* Posted on: Tue, Nov 23 2004 11:41 AM

Laser Printers print secret ID

By LanceW

over at Boing Boing they have highlighted a interesting/disturbing fact about laser printers.

Basically, laser printers from as far back as 1995 have apparently been adding the serial number of your printer to anything you print.

The rational being to help track down counterfeiters, terrorists etc I suppose. But how come its not something we all know about?

Does my printer do it?

Do manufacturers have the right to do this?

Personal privacy?

And all on the same week David Blunkett promotes ID cards (again)

* Posted on: Tue, Nov 23 2004 10:57 AM

November 22, 2004
Navy Judo

By LanceW



As many will know, the British Navy have asked me to help coach their Judo Team in January.


I am really pleased to be able to attend and am looking forward to it greatly. If any of the squad happen to read this, please do email me and get in touch!


Lance

The navy website is: http://uk.geocities.com/royalnavyjudo/

* Posted on: Mon, Nov 22 2004 12:47 PM

Web redesign

By LanceW

Hi all,
any one visiting my judocoach.com site lately will have noticed how tired its looked and how little time I have been spending there.
To remedy this I have started on a redesign, which (should) be healthy XHTML, so future design work will be easier.
Unburdened from the hassle of having to edit each page to make design changes, I should be able to keep things both looking good and up to date!
Anyway, as the site goes up, things might go missing, so please bear with me!

Lance

* Posted on: Mon, Nov 22 2004 10:35 AM

October 29, 2004
Google Desktop

By LanceW

For anyone who has yet to discover it, go direct to http://desktop.google.com and test the google desktop beta software.

There is an issue if you use roaming profiles however, that your google index is stored in your profile. So... it can slow down your login and logout quite badly.

* Posted on: Fri, Oct 29 2004 10:30 AM

October 4, 2004
SpaceShipOne claims X-Prize

By LanceW

WOOT!!
Private space flights for all!

URL: SpaceShipOne claims X-Prize

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Mon, Oct 4 2004 4:04 PM

September 16, 2004
Microsoft Caught Spamming Google

By LanceW

TYPICAL of the evil empire huh!

URL: WebProWorld :: Microsoft Caught Spamming Google

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Thu, Sep 16 2004 12:10 PM

Amstrad launches videophone

By LanceW

Hmmm....
Proprietary video conferencing, can't say I like the concept. Plus presumably is over POTS so quality will be poor. But perhaps the price £99 will make it a viable prospect?

URL: Amstrad launches videophone

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Thu, Sep 16 2004 12:01 PM

September 8, 2004
Idea Recording

By LanceW

Here is quite an interesting site all about collecting your ideas.
It has examples too, from Leonardo to Edison.
URL: Idea Recording

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Wed, Sep 8 2004 11:45 AM

September 7, 2004
Perl Modules

By LanceW

Today whilst working on a online Perl application I decided to move all my nasty code into a nice Perl module. (seeing as this is for a client and all)
This Site turned out to be a handy little page for reminding me what it was all about. (I haven't really spent much time on Perl module work lately)

* Posted on: Tue, Sep 7 2004 4:31 PM

Hidden MS FIles

By LanceW

Hmm... the link below takes you to the MicroSuck website, the link specifically takes you to an article talking about hidden files on Windows systems... interesting reading for those of us who are confirmed MS-Haters

www.fuckmicrosoft.com

* Posted on: Tue, Sep 7 2004 4:30 PM

September 3, 2004
SMS to BT Landlines!

By LanceW

Due to a technical mistake today, I SMS text messaged my wife on our home phone number not her mobile. Was I ever suprised when it got through.
Try it, text your home phone number and a nice computerised lady will call you up and read out the text message!

* Posted on: Fri, Sep 3 2004 4:54 PM

September 2, 2004
SME SERVER

By LanceW

As a confirmed anti-MS person, it was a pleasure to find a usefull userfriendly replacement server option in SME Server.
www.contribs.org is the home of this open source linux distro. (previously closed source through Mitel) It provides a solid easy to install easy to configure easy to manage server solution for home and SME users.
It has some issues in terms of development, namely having gone OS development has stalled, but there is a strong user base and it all seems to be progressing well.

* Posted on: Thu, Sep 2 2004 10:35 AM

August 26, 2004
SP2torrent.com interview

By LanceW

AN interview with the people behind the sp2torrent websiate that released the latest WIndows XP patch well before MS deemed us all worthy of protecting ourselves from the vulnerabilities in their code!

URL: Blog Torrent: DownHill Battle Interview

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Thu, Aug 26 2004 11:49 PM

Paperformers

By LanceW

Oh yes!
Paper transformers!
URL: Paperformers

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Thu, Aug 26 2004 11:44 PM

Stromotion, "software that breaks an athlete's fluid movements into stop-motion-style freeze-frames"

By LanceW

Interesting sports analysis software, I have downloaded it and shall let people know what I think of it in a Judo context.

URL: Clive Thompson on Stromotion, "software that breaks an athlete's fluid movements into stop-motion-style freeze-frames"

* Source Blog

* Posted on: Thu, Aug 26 2004 11:43 PM

WOOT!! Farscape miniseries is live!

By LanceW

CLick the link above to see the site and trailer!

* Posted on: Thu, Aug 26 2004 4:05 PM

August 25, 2004
Security Cartoons

By LanceW

Here is a collection of cartoons related to computer security.

www.securitywizardry.com/cartoons.htm

* Posted on: Wed, Aug 25 2004 9:19 AM

August 24, 2004
Time to start a blog here at Bloglines.com!

By LanceW

* Posted on: Tue, Aug 24 2004 5:00 PM

Just testing the software to see if I can move my blog into the site, rather than use Bloglines.