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What would you call this?
Answers on a postcard or, failing that, in the comments section below! 
I’ve just returned from seeing The Expendables.
I knew it was an action movie. I knew there’d be violence, guns, explosions and perhaps even some wooden acting. But The Expendables is truly a film to avoid.
Why?
Let me explain.
The trailer is basically a list of the name of the people who are in it. The trouble is that Arnold Schwarzenegger appears for about 30 seconds and Bruce Willis for about one minute. The main guys are Sylvester Stallone (also director/co-writer) and Jason Statham. Jet Li plays a smaller role; Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, et al. appear even less.
People’s heads are blown off. In some films this is funny and you’re meant to laugh. You’re not quite sure in this one and the fighting moves are somewhere between realistic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lame.
Fair enough, it’s an action film so I wouldn’t expect marvellous character development. Having said that, the characters’ motivations are weak and its portrayal of women takes us back about 30 years.
By going to see films like this we’re ostensibly against ‘The Man’. But are we? We’re sitting there, having paid £7 or so to watch explosions and actors who should perhaps be starring in different films, making way for newer talent. Communism (and by extension, given this is an American film, socialism) is given short shrift with faux-Cuban reference points and stereotypical posturing. We’re supposed to be on the side of the heroes, but even they struggle to find what they actually stand for.
Avoid. At 103 minutes, it’s mercifully short, but it’s part of your life you won’t get back. For an action movie, it’s lacking. And for any other type of movie it’s, quite frankly, laughable.
I usually concur with the average rating on IMDB. For example, 9.1 for Inception is spot-on. At the time of writing, it’s 8.5 for The Expendables. You could reverse those two numbers and I’d still say it was a bit generous.
I stumbled across the above in The Origin of English Surnames whilst taking my lunch break in Newcastle City Library today. So ‘Belshaw’ is a surviving form of ‘Belcher’ meaning ‘pretty face’, ‘pretty look’ and ‘one of a pleasant, cheerful demeanour’.
Could be worse. 
It’s amazing that, despite her stopping blogging over 3 years ago, I still use examples and graphs created by Kathy Sierra. She was that good.
I played golf for only the second time in my life today. I suck at golf. I suck at golf because I don’t particularly like it, but more importantly have no reason to invest time in it. I played today to spend time with my Dad who spends most of his time living in a far-off land. Looking at the above graph shows that the main problem I have with golf that there’s too much time between me taking it up and kicking ass.
The 10,000 hours thesis put forward by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers is that it takes around that amount of time to become ‘expert’ at something and achieve success. But there has to be a reason behind the commitment to put all that time in. In all probability it all boils down to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
Nick Dennis was explaining to me recently how Bill Gates showed tremendous dedication to put in his 10,000 hours whilst still a teenager. However, he was also given a massive chance in life by his school being one of only a handful to have a computer at a time when even some universities didn’t have them.
So one take-away from this post would be to stick with what you’re both good at and interested in. The other would be to identify what benefits you’ve been afforded by your circumstances, and start practising.
Everyone has domain knowledge. The guy in the self-storage warehouse, the History teacher, the researcher. Anyone can gather domain knowledge. It’s based on experience. The value comes in adding value to that domain knowledge.
How can we do that?
The first way is to share the deep, specialised knowledge that you’ve got. Give it away. Know about obscure 1980s Japanese comics? Share it. Help people. Found a cheap way to fix that long-discontinued engine that a couple of people you know have been having problems with? Likewise.
The second way is equally important. Seek out new domains. Find synergies between the two domains. Find metaphors and procedures from one that fit the other. Insights come through immersion and reflection.
Can you think of a third?
The more time I spend in front of a computer the more I feel the need to temper it with being outside. We bought two tents last weekend – a family-sized one and another for Ben (my 3 year-old son) and I to go away together. It’s something I really want to do regularly so it’s second nature to him.
(more…)
Please excuse me. I’ve taken a flexi day today as I’ve got a deadline for a journal article. I’ll be back tomorrow – promise!
Image CC BY-NC-SA foxxyz
I’m delighted to announce that as of this Sunday, my regular series ‘Things I Learned This Week’ will also feature on the xplanation blog is a new section entitled Learning New Tricks. I’m hoping that the things I share here will be of use to the audience over there. I’m more than happy to syndicate my posts to other blogs and, indeed, guest post for people should they desire. 
I’m considering – only considering – using John Gruber’s sponsorship model over at the excellent Daring Fireball. It would consist of a pre-approved, sponsored post in addition to my usual content each week. I’d love to hear from potential sponsors and readers who have views (either for or against) in the comments section below. If you’d like to contact me directly, use this form and I’ll get straight back to you.
Image CC BY-SA Orin Zebest
I’ve explained many times on this blog about how great running is for your whole system of productivity. The trouble with running, though, is that it used to difficult to set yourself goals and targets. With the advent of Nike+ and GPS-enabled devices, however, all that has changed.
I first started GPS-tracking my running with my Nokia N95 a few years ago. I still haven’t found anything better than the Nokia Sports Tracker for ease-of-use and useful feedback, if I’m honest.
Since switching to an iPhone, I’ve tried a number of applications that can GPS-track my runs. Most recently I’ve been using SportyPal which I found pretty good and at a nice price (free!)
A few months ago, Mike Schoeffler, the developer of a new iPhone running app called Roadbud started following me on Twitter and reading this blog. I ended up joining the mailing list for updates and a free copy of the app upon release. After some delays, it was available in the App Store earlier this week.
For reasons only known to Apple, the free codes Mike generated are only available in the US (see the end of this post to win one for yourself!) Mike very kindly reduced the price of the UK version from £5.99 to £0.59 so that he kept his promise. Very noble and much appreciated (but this review remains impartial!)
Given that SportyPal, my previous iPhone running app of choice, is free and Roadbud Pro is £5.99 it had better do something special. Fortunately, it has go some unique features. Not least:
There is a free version (Roadbud Rookie), to be fair, but to my mind that version doesn’t offer anything over-and-above SportyPal. It’s six and two threes…
Whilst I can only give my opinion about Roadbud and my particular running regime, there’s some things I really liked and some things that I thought could probably do with some improvement.
The good:
Room for improvement:
From my contact with the Mike, the first three of the above are already in development for the next version of Roadbud.
Of course, people have different concerns and needs than me. For example, when my wife gets my iPhone in a couple of months, she’ll no doubt want to use it for running. I’ll then be really glad of Roadbud’s one-touch emergency call facility.
Would I recommend Roadbud? Yes.
Do I think it’s worth £5.99? At present, probably not.
I’d expect it to be more of a £2.99 app. I certainly think it’s got potential to be worth the higher price, though! I’m looking forward to seeing how it improves given that the developers keen to make it the best it can be.
Want a free version of Roadbud Pro? I’ve got 3 free copies* for those who reweet this post (using the button below) before midday on Sunday 2nd May 2010!
*US residents only, I’m afraid, for reasons given above…
If you were somehow trapped on a desert island but with a limited amount of internet access, which sites would you choose? As Paul Lewis (@aerotwist) helpfully pointed out, you couldn’t have sites that relied on other sites to serve content (e.g. no YouTube embeds – unless, of course, you chose YouTube as one of your sites). And there would be no point in choosing a search engine. Obviously. 
@BenMawhinney (via @aerotwist) after reading Ewan McIntosh’s Spotify for Desert Island Discs post.
On one (many?) levels this is completely daft as if you were stuck on a desert island the websites you’d choose the websites of rescue services and charities specialising in dramatic desert island rescues.
But I’ll play the game…
If I could only access 5 websites, these* are the ones I’d choose:
I’m tempted to include Spotify, but that would open a whole can of worms and I sense there’s another post in that…
What would YOU choose?
Image CC BY rogerbarker2
