This is really cool. It’s a map of Helsinki showing the current locations of some buses in the city and updating their location as they travel around. No more waiting ages at bus stops if you live there. And are on the routes of the buses covered of course. But very cool.
Month: May 2007
WORK is not play. But maybe it should be.
CRM, Tech, Thought ProvokingThe future of CRM as reported by the New York Times? I wonder how soon Siebel/SAP/Salesforce will be changing their interfaces to suit this model?
In fact, Paul Johnston has remade his company on the idea that business software will work better if it feels like a game. Mr. Johnston is not some awkward adolescent, but the polished president and chief executive of Entellium, which makes software for customer relationship management. Businesses spend billions of dollars on such software to try to track their sales staff, their marketers, their customer service — anything that connects them with customers. Unfortunately, most of the software is the business equivalent of calorie counting. No one does it gladly. Worse, the software has a Big Brother aspect to it.
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Munich
TravelSettling into Munich has been really easy. In fact, I can’t think of anywhere I’ve lived in which has been so straightforward to settle in. I visited a bank last week and I already have a Maestro card, a temporary apartment has been a breeze to set up, there is no problem speaking English (although that may be a problem for my learning German) and there is tons of stuff to do. I found the English language website Toytown Germany and there really does seem to be a great community here. I may just be too busy to blog much! 😉
Country Diary
Achill, Ireland, TravelCountry Diary from The Guardian with a nice piece on Achill.
North we went to spend a few days on Achill Island (it is joined to the mainland). We had Slievemore Mountain behind us and sat facing the great Minaun Cliffs which rise from the sea, sheer in places and angled backwards in others. Such soft brown where heather grows, deepening almost to black where turf (peat) is visible. The cliff slabs change in colour from dark violet to black as the sun slants on their adamantine surfaces. The smell of turf burning fills the air with its acrid, not unpleasant scent.
Saving Turf
Achill, IrelandI went back to my childhood today spending it, spreading turf. It is probably about 20 years since I have done this type of work that I did every summer as a kid. It’s pretty monotonous spreading the turf (or peat) so that it can dry in the air and the sunshine before being brought back to the house for the winter. Of course, harvesting turf is done a lot less these days in Celtic Tiger Ireland but it was nice in a nostalgic sort of way. It will be a world away from my new job in Germany next week.