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Category: <span>Uncategorized</span>

Category: Uncategorized

Tony Abbott and Vladimir Putin share the same authoritarian views on media freedom and we need to be very scared

According to Russian president Vladimir Putin, all state run media should be run by patriots. No real surprise here, because Putin is widely known as an authoritarian leader intolerant of dissent (and homosexuals). Unfortunately things are no different in Australia. Like the Putin administration, the Abbott government is firmly behind the idea of spreading propaganda in the most efficient way possible, and that is of course through our very own state owned media, the ABC.

SuperTooth buddy Review

Buying a hands free Bluetooth car speakerphone like the SuperTooth buddy is making a big statement that you can’t afford a fancy new car that comes with hands-free, voice activation, and a heads-up display, but despite this, are firmly committed to not having an accident while discussing the weather or whispering sweet nothings to your lover while hurtling down the highway at 100 km per hour. As a hands-free speakerphone the SuperTooth buddy is a ripper. Installation is easy, it comes with a micro USB cable, a DC car charger, and a neat magnetised clip that makes attaching to your …

What Germaine Greer thinks about corporate culture

I have always respected the intellectual force of Germaine Greer. She may tout controversy and seem to be peddling the same old curmudgeon shtick, but she can always be trusted to inspire anger, provoke thought, or inspire action. That is the job of an intellectual, and she is one of Australia’s most eminent (even if she has called the UK home for thirty or so years). This is from an interview with her on the ABC, on a show called One plus One Her comments about capitalism remind me of some of the recent writing about how capitalism and corporations …

Real Aussie Men Like Tony Abbott are Never Wrong

Tony Abbott is an old fashioned Aussie bloke doesn’t say sorry and is never wrong. Saying sorry is an admission of weakness and Tony Abbott isn’t weak. This Monday he dug his heels in after Indonesia recalled their Ambassador to Australia because of spying allegations that we’re being reported in the media. In a statement to Parliament he said. “Australia should not be expected to apologise for the steps we take to protect our country now or in the past, any more than other governments should be expected to apologise for the similar steps that they have taken.” Aussie men …

Not inspiring people? Try shutting the fsck up

I love being around passionate people. They get things done, they dream big and take action, they freely debate ideas, they stay committed to a cause, and can move mountains with their belief. Passion changes the world. Passion also never shuts up. When the ideas spark and the passion is in flow, other, sometime equally passionate people struggle to get a word in. Quickly it stops being a free exchange of ideas and a speech about how clever your ideas idea, and they are AMAZZZING. Others are left disengaged and uninspired. Someone talking at you isn’t inspiring. I’ve often been …

The cloud needs to get personal

Beyond status updates and pictures of food, digital technologies have yet to have a massive impact on how people collaborate out of the office. Facebook, text and instant messaging, and email provide a toolset which allows families and friends to communicate and plan activities in a fairly clumsy way. The process is crude and prone to failure resulting in missed commitments, clashing dates, and difficult conversations which start with, “But I told you I was going to be out on Friday” or “I have Pilates, whose gonna look after the kids?”. 

A nation of horses arses

I don’t know why I do it, but occasionally I read news.com.au. Perhaps it’s a perverse desire to be outraged and offended by Rupe Murdoch’s linkbait or more likely the early signs of dementia. So this Melbourne Cup morning I read that: “Melbourne Cup day is one of those excellent days of the year, like Christmas and New Year’s and Anzac Day, when it’s socially acceptable, if not compulsory, to drink just a bit too much. Because we’re Australian, and that’s how we express ourselves.” The article itself postulated that Melbourne Cup was Australia’s real national day because we like …

Trust and transparency in the social age

One of my first jobs was working for a Dutchman who refused to put prices on any of his products. He would work out the price when someone entered the warehouse or sent him a fax. His principle was that people should pay according to their need – the greater the need, the greater the price. One of his senior managers called it the “rip off factor”. Unfortunately, customers did not warm to a business built on subterfuge and Michel had to learn to adjust his ways. In the social media era, trust and transparency are becoming more and more …

Review: Veho 360 Bluetooth Speaker

Before I got the Veho 360 Bluetooth Speaker my only experience of Bluetooth speakers was when a prankster at the office hooked hid it one in the atrium and played fart noises to startled geeks, accountants, and, telesales jockeys. Hilarious! I should mention that I also had some Bluetooth headphones that I paid an extraordinary amount of money to be disappointed by. I would hook them up to my O2 Atom and b the coolest kid on the tram. Look mum on cord. I was so cool. Then one day I was walking to meet my wife after work and …

7 tips on being a great leader from Qantas’ Alan Joyce

I saw Alan Joyce chat with John Bertrand as part of the Monash University Leadership series. Before the chat I was looking forward to learning how he had the cojones to take on three unions, shut down a global airline, and earn the scorn of politicians and media in the aftermath. I was expecting a hard arse.  What I got was an engaging, likable, and empathetic manager with a relatively sophisticated view of modern workplaces, the importance of culture, and a refreshing view of who the stakeholders are in a modern business (tip: it’s never just the shareholders).