The DOBlog

Author: Daragh

  • Some inanity from Amazon… but in a good way

    Courtesy of Damien Mulley, a tale of Amazon support with a sense of humour.

    Apparently Amazon UK have a more ‘Kafka-esque’ sense of humour about things…

  • Things that peeve me on the web (a revisit)

    Vodafone have launched a Christmas e-card site with a difference called Bosco is back. On this site you can put together a custom video e-card featuring Bosco, a perennial kids TV favourite in Ireland.

    Why does this site peeve me? Well, due to the way the video is put together (pre-recorded video clips that are assembled in real-time) a lot of the process is driven by drop down menus to select names etc. This is where the problem starts.

    As people who have come to my conference presentations know, a lot of my interest in Information Quality stems from the fact that my name (Daragh) has approx 12 alternate spellings and can be either male or female. These simple facts have motivated me over the years to be a bit pedantic about my name (1 ‘R’, a ‘GH’ at the end -silent, Male). So I was a bit dismayed when I flagged my gender as ‘Male’ on the “Bosco is Back” and looked for my name, only to find…

    bosco boobo 1

    That’s annoying. To cater for the alternate spellings (such as Daragh, Darach, Dara, Daire) it would have been easy enough just to link them to the same video insert. However, it is not as bad as if I was a woman. According to Vodafone “Darragh” (and apparently all the phonetic variants thereof) is only a guys name.

    Bosco booboo 2

    Also, some of the inserts give unexpected outcomes. I was going to send my wife an e-card describing her as a “Dreamer”. Thankfully there is a preview mode which showed me what she’d see. Given that the squeaky voiced puppet would have demanded that she “stop thinking about that girl” I decided it might require more explaining at home than I could possibly manage.

    Yes, the whole thing is a bit of fun and I’m probably being overly pedantic. However it does highlight the risk of having ‘non-quality’ outcomes when you rely on drop down menus and defined lists to operate a business process. What, if instead of producing a cheezee e-card I had been applying for phone service from vodafone?

    When I get a chance I’ll post up the slides I use about “why I got into Information Quality”… research this morning has identified another 3 variant spellings of my name at least….

  • Amazon-inania again…

    So, Christmas is coming, the Goose is getting fat. I thought I’d put some euros in Jeff Bezo’s hat..

    So I decided to try to order some Xbox games as part of my Christmas shopping. I fully expected to get big “DANGER WILL ROBINSON” warnings for all the purchases given Amazon’s decision NOT to sell software or electrical goods into the Irish market for no apparent reason (which I’ve written about before here and here and here and which featured on other blogs last year… here…. and which I brought to the attention of the relevant Government Minister here). I haven’t actually received a response on this yet, over a year later. Shame on me for not chasing it up.

    Imagine my fricking surprise when I got this…Amazon Inania

    Apparently the XBox game Ratatouille is not the same class of thing as the XBox games “Cars Mater-national” or “the Simpsons”. Now, this puts Amazon across two of my pet bugbears…

    1. Nonsensical and unexplained restrictions on shipping of goods within the EU (which, in the absence of a REALLY good explanation is probably a breach of EU law)
    2. Buggered up information quality

    If all of the game titles had been restricted I’d have simply shrugged my shoulders and moved on. But they weren’t. This suggests that either:

    • The information which Amazon use to classify their games and software is inaccurate or incomplete and allows exceptions through the net (boo hiss)
    • OR (worryingly) The restriction on shipping electrical goods, games and software has less to do with the WEEE regulations in Ireland (Amazon’s nonsense excuse) but have more to do with producers seeking to create and maintain artificial market segregation. In the context of a web site selling into Ireland, that could raise issues of EU law and, if it is the case that a number of different manufacturers have made similar requests to Amazon to restrict the Irish Market, then that could be viewed as a cartel-like operation, which is apparently a bad thing.

    Not that Amazon would pander to that kind of thing. Gosh no. This has to relate to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations because they define Electrical and Electronic Equipment as:

    “electrical and electronic equipment” means equipment which is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly and equipment for the generation, transfer and measurement of such currents and fields falling under the categories set out in Annex IA of European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment and designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1,000 volt for alternating current and 1,500 volt for direct current;

    Yes. That definitely includes inert plastic with encrypted digital information on it (aka a dvd or cd with MS Office or Halo3 on it – take yer pick). Although, if you were particularly pedantic an Xbox game does rely on “electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly”. But only if you are being RIDICULOUSLY pedantic. I am pedantic. I’m renowned for it. Even I wouldn’t stretch things that far…

    Either way it is an avoidable and undesirable process outcome, and as it is happening inconsistently it is embarrasing. . It is particularly irksome given that Amazon are basing a Customer Service Call Centre in Cork and have a Service and Operations centre in Dublin and have been applauded by our Government for their investments.. Amazon’s relocation from Slough to Ireland was caught by the BEEB…

    I’ve posted on this previously and these posts can be found under the Amazon-Inania category on this blog.

  • Support your local train service…

    As I write this I’m travelling on the new evening rail service from Wexford to Dublin. It is really good. Cleverly Irish Rail have figured out that if they run a commuter service between Wexford and Waterford (using the lines previously hogged by Sugar beet trains that are no more) then they can run a service to Dublin via a connection at Enniscorthy.

    For anyone travelling to or from Wexford this is a very much needed service. Indeed as a total package the new timetables provides a much needed piece of strategic connectivity between the South East and Dublin.

    Passenger numbers on this, the first evening service to run, are OK for an evening train. However I think that with a bit of publicity the numbers travelling on the revised routes will easily justify them. Personally it makes my life a shit load easier as I can actually get some work done and then spend and hour or two with my wife (who was on the morning bus to Dublin today).

    I will be trying out the morning service next week and will blog about my experiences live from the train… I really hope I can blog about overcrowding.

    The only drawback is that the speed of the train is slightly less than that of the bus… but with a bit of investment in the lines we could actually get a viable eco-friendly transport system out of the south-east and reduce the reliance people have on the overstretched bus services.

    Well done to who ever thought of this new schedule… and Santa, if you are listening, I’ve been really good all year and would really like to have faster trains that could get me to Dublin in less than 2hrs from Wexford.

  • I’ll review you tuesday for a book today…

    I have noticed that I’ve been neglecting book reviews recently. This is in part due to other things eating up my time (such as my day job, my family and other extra curricular things) and in part due to my not having had time to put my reviews of the books I have been reading into a human-readable (as opposed to Daragh-readable) form.

    Among the books that I really want to get reviews up for are:

    Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality by Larry P. English.

    this is one of the first and best books on Information Quality that I read. It sets a clear vision and roadmap for improving Information Quality in a sustainable way which challenges us to think bigger and better… I’ll say more in the full review.

    Data Quality for the Information Age by Tom Redman.

    This is the second book I read on Information Quality (Tom calls it Data Quality). The book is quite strong on real world case studies drawn from Dr Redman’s experiences and presents another robust framework for sustainable improvements in the quality of information. Again, once I get the full review blocked out I’ll say more.

    Information Quality, edited by Wang, Pierce, Madnick and Fisher

    A more ‘academic’ focussed book, this is a collection of papers more than a consistent narrative exposition of a methodology or framework. Some sections are very academic focussed and are of limited immediate practical benefit (note -immediate) while others present very interesting approaches to presenting and measuring the importance of information quality to your organisation. Again, the review is still in jottings stage but I’ll say more when I get a chance, hopefully over Christmas.

    Quality – 2nd Edition by John Beckford

    Quite possibly the best crash course primer on the fundamental teachings of Quality Management from Crosby to Stills Nash and Young Deming to Taguchi and beyond. I’m a proud owner of both the first edition (as an ebook) and the second edition (paperback) and the coffee stains on the book are a badge of honour. Summarises core practices and principles of various Quality teachers in a succint and readily digested manner. Again, I’ll say more when I have the time to put the full review together.

  • Amazon Prime

    Amazon. The f*ckers. Yet again they decide to clumsily shaft the residents of the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. Their Amazon Prime service has been launched and I was all clicky-fingered ready to sign up and pay my stg£49 to get this useful service.

    However, I forgot just how crap Amazon are at geography and how they seem to be incapable of recognising that

    • ‘Northern Ireland’ is just one part of a larger island
    • Ireland is a large, literate country with reasonably high disposable incomes
    • ..and a lot of their business is actually based here (customer services in Cork, a data centre in Dublin
    • Deliveries shipped to Belfast or Derry often are transited through Dublin airport

    So, I trundled through the terms and conditions of their service. Deliver to ‘Mainland UK’, delivery to ‘Other United Kingdom Locations’ which includes the Channel Isles and British Forces Posted Overseas, but not a whit of delivery to the Republic of Ireland.

    So, I decided to see if they have any logic that prevents people in the Ould Sod from signing up, much like they have checks and balances to stop us buying software or computer games or electrical goods.

    Ehhh… nope, I’m allowed to right through to the bit where I’d have to part with cash irrespective of what address I use.

    So, Amazon will take money off me for a service that they can’t/won’t deliver (no pun intended), because they are not using information they have about me (my address) to prevent me parting with cash, or they can deliver it (ie Prime deliveries to Irish Republic) but they have bungled their Terms & Conditions because they’re idiots, like those people who claim Oscar Wilde was British.

    I’m fricking angry now. Must go have a coffee to cool off.

    Mulley – if you’re reading a Nintendo Wii will calm me down nicely.

  • Science week.. the final post…

    The quest of The Raiders of the Lost Wii draws to a close.

    What was the best invention of 2007? Invention, rather than product development is how I think of this. The Nokia N95 might be a contender, but it is simply an evolution of existing things. Likewise the Iphone. Neither are particularly unique.

    My friends’ kid the O-meister is new, novel and unique – even though he is based on features from two slightly obsolete models which have been cunningly combined.

    Perhaps an invention could be an existing thing brought about in a new way? Like how we used to cook dinners on a stove, with pots and now we just bung something that looks vaguely like food in a microwave and get back something that tastes vaguely like the slimy residue of the Slugs of Evil in return. Yummy.

    I’d have to go with Monkey cloning. Yes, cloning isn’t new. Technically we’ve been doing it the old fashioned way since the dawn of time. However there is something “Island of Dr. Moreau”-ish about cloning monkeys. However, I’m not citing this as the best invention of 2007 simply because of the possible benefits to medicine from being able to clone and ‘grow’ spare parts for the body or the range of treatments that it may make possible for illnesses such as MS (which a friend of mine struggles with) or Parkinson’s disease (which has probably robbed the world of a 4th Back to the Future movie). I’m not voting for it because it opens the possibility of cloning other higher mammals while we perfect the technology for use with humans. Animals such as whales, dolphins, lawyers and accountants. All coming close to humanity but not quite reaching it yet.

    No, I’m voting for this because, at the current level of the technology, the process is inefficient. It took many thousands of monkey eggs to make the one viable clone embryo. This means that there is scope for a lot of exciting future developments in the field of biotechnology.

    But that’s not the reason…

    …no, the reason is that it gives me the chance to remind everyone that…

    …
    …
    … “You can’t make a monkey without breaking a few eggs”.

  • Science week

    Hmmm… perhaps I should have wished for that time machine after all. I keep missing deadlines for the Science Week thing.

    Today’s question is “What invention has helpd you most with your working life”

    As my job centres on computing and computery things many people would expect me to say “the computer” or “d’Internet”. But Babbage’s calculating engine and its descendants are just fripperies when compared to other inventions that I might mention.

    Booze is another possiblity, given its ability to unlock creative thought processes so that complex problems fall away in a “moment of clarity”. But I suspect that , overall, it may have hindered me more than helped given the fuzzy headed hangovers and general making a tit of myself at Christmas Parties when I was a younger man (ie up to last Christmas).

    However, when I think about the nature of my job and my working life since mid-way through college, I realise that the majority (if not all) of my career has dealt with clearly defining and structuring problems in a way that results in clearly defined and structured solutions becoming possible. Take away my computer and I can still do that. Take away my booze and I can still do that, but I’ll have a much more muted celebration afterwards (“yippee, mine’s a tea please”). Ultimately my career has been about structure and communication.

    To that end I’d like to nominate a combination invention… the dry-wipe whiteboard and the non-permanent marker. With these I can

    • do complex analysis of problems
    • define project structures
    • prioritise work plans for my team
    • diagram for my Masters students the complex set of transactions that resulted in the collapse of enron
    • Map root causes of process failures
    • Draw funny faces
    • Write project acronyms or codenames that will never see the light of day, but which everyone in the meeting finds hilarious
    • and so many more…

    And then when I’m done or when I find we’ve gone down a dead end I can just wipe the whole lot off. When I have a notes worth doing something with they can then be transcribed to Word, MSProject or PowerPoint and a fully formed idea can then be communicated to others.

    Also, I must not forget the smell of the markers.

    A close second place would be flipcharts and post-it notes, for similar but less ecologically friendly reasons.

    Yes, there are lovely technologies out there that I could nominate. However most of them simply technologise the type of creative process that can be had with a humble whiteboard and marker.

    Just for the LOVE of GOD and ALL THAT IS FRICKIN’ HOLY please don’t use permanent markers on the whiteboard. People who do should be shot, treated with the best medical care until they are able to stand up again and then be shot a second time.

  • Science Week Ireland Competition

    Curses. I missed the deadline for yesterday’s competition over on Mulley.net to win a Wii in National Science week.

    I will not make the same mistake twice. Today’s question is “What invention would you like to see most in the future?“.

    Given I missed yesterday’s deadline I was tempted to go for a TARDIS or similar time travel machine (not a De Lorean as Simon would probably try to open the gull wing doors to make it fly, thus not breaking the “rules of the game”). However I dismissed this as that would open up the whole time travellers paradox… If I’d posted and been in with a chance to win the Wii would I have wished for a time machine to bring me back in time to post and win the Wii and if I hadn’t would I have won or would the original timeline have continued on.. (ohhh my brain hurts after that).

    I then thought about Giant Killer Robots (ideally made of gold). However Roosta beat me to it. Curses. Perhaps I should ask for my time machine?

    However a more mature pondering of the question made me consider my commuting and the implications for future family life (I live in Wexford, work in Dublin) and my carbon foot print (I tend to travel to the UK and US a few times a year to speak at conferences) and the fact that it took a colleague 2.5 hours to get from Swords to the city centre yesterday due to the buses – or specifically the lack thereof.

    So the invention I’d most like to see in the future is a transporter like wot they have on Star Trek. My commute to the office would be a lot shorter (speed of light vs speed of bus eireann), I could zip back to wexford for lunch with the family, work late for my wage-masters and be back home for tea and tucking in etc. And my colleague would be able to get from Swords to Dublin before he has to turn around again and retire.

    And I’d never have to deal with Ryanair’s baggage allowance or Baggage manglers handlers ever again.

    Yup. Transporters it is. And interestingly we are getting closer to this technology… extend the range and move from simple matter to slightly overweight bloggers.

  • Good kit that just works.

    I’ve been playing around with e-Touch meeting room from Onlinemeetingrooms.com for the past while. To put it bluntly… this product does exactly what it says on the tin.

    • It is a meeting room
    • It is online
    • It just works

    Recently an event I was involved in as a speaker had a problem. A speaker had a last minute problem travelling to the event. In conference land this is usually a crisis situation. The conference organiser called on me to see if I could do a second presentation at the conference, but was concerned as the speaker who was to travel had been ‘ticked’ as one they wanted to see by a lot of delegates. I would very much be a ‘surrogate band’ and people might not welcome the change in running order (particularly if they’d paid mainly to see that presentation).

    Being a cheeky bugger I dropped a quick email to Joe Garde in Onlinemeetingrooms.com to see if he might be able to help. A few additional facts are important here. I emailed him around 18:30 on the Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend. The conference started on Monday in the UK. Monday was a Bank Holiday in Ireland (where Joe is based) and the speaker was due to present on Tuesday afternoon.

    This left a window of Monday to sort something out that we could be confident would work.

    Joe phoned me on Saturday morning and we discussed options (while I furiously texted the conference organiser in the UK to let him know what was happening). With Joe’s help a clear plan formed… we’d use the OnlineMeetingRoom system to video link the speaker into London from Dublin. Ideally we’d need a wired broadband connection, but Joe and I were confident we could make it work.

    Over to London with me… Monday afternoon we did a test (24hrs before the presentation). Over the hotel’s wifi network. No wired broadband available…

    Worked perfectly. No fuss or hassle, no installing equipment (I had a webcam in my bag and the roadies… sorry AV professionals took care of figuring out the hook-up to the PA). The roadies liked it so much they wanted to get in contact with Joe as they do a lot of conferences and seminars that it could add value to… I do hope they buy it.

    Fast forward to the day of the presentation… room full of people, nervous conference organiser and conference chairperson… me very calm and confident because I knew we were using good kit that just works.

    …Presenter comes on from Dublin, audio good, video good, presentation content good. Slide timings a little off because I was running the powerpoint in London to keep as much bandwidth for video and audio as possible and got distracted by how well things were going.

    …everyone happy. Kudos for everyone all round.

    Looking back, I could have done one or two presentational things better but the kit worked. That was the main thing.

    I work in Telco and I’ve seen a fair share of ‘cutting edge’ tools that just don’t cut the mustard when the shit is hitting the fan. My experience with the e-touch Online Meeting room has always been excellent. When the chips were down the tool just worked. And Joe helped out co-ordinating on the Dublin end to make sure that the presentation went as smoothly as possible, which on a Bank Holiday was support above and beyond the call of duty.

    It is so straightforward even my pointy-haired boss could use it…

    Now that’s good kit that just works.