It’s been a bit mad recently hence the lack of ‘bloggage’, but a few things are worth mentioning and hey it might provoke a reaction. The Butler Inquiry has probably slipped under most people’s radar but this is just what the politicians want to happen. It is I suggest rather important but like the Hutton Report before it does seem to blame things rather than people, as if process, systems and procedure have a life independent of human beings. I’m being kind by calling them cretins. The case for life on Mars, or at least there once was life on the red planet has been strengthened by the discovery of ammonia in the atmosphere. Ammonia has been found to be a building block for proteins and under the right conditions can then go on to form amino acids. Still no “Ack, ack, ack!” though. I’m off to Seattle on Sunday for a week and this time hope to take in the Space Needle and baseball game to see the Mariners take on the Boston Red Sox. Oh and I might even get some work done. The book “In Search of Stupidity” by Merrill Chapman is excellent and well worth a read. Highlights include the demise of Novell who’s adherence to the command line did for them in the end and IBM’s motorway pileup that was OS/2, an object lesson in having superior technology but committing every marketing faux pas known to man and a few others that weren’t. The key to success in the technology market isn’t as surprising as you might think. First put someone in charge who’s a geek or at least someone who loves and understands geeks, and make fewer mistakes than everyone else; easy really. No it is! Right I’m off to walk the dog…