The Dead Letter

What would you say if you were dead? Imagine your life is over and you have one more chance to say something to the world.

San Francisco

No idea how many times I've been to San Francisco. But I leave a part of me there every time I go. What a great city
First time was in 2000. Of course Jim Sherry facilitated the visit.
There was some kind if fuel protest in the UK. We all drove to Warwickshire. Cath and L were running a pub in the back of beyond. It had an old steam train out front and a suspended toy train running sound the ceiling of the drinking area. Cath had gamely agreed to look after Con and Ky for the week (they were just 6 mths and 3yrs) - saintly of her. So we dropped em off and headed to Heathrow: we had the idea that we'd stay in their flat in Twickenham which Ed and his girlfriend had been using. When we saw it we changed our mind and went to an airport hotel. Stand-on-their-own towels, dog hair carpets and the 'sex dice' decide for us (never seen a sex dice since - six faces: oral, anal, toys etc - can't remember the rest'.
We'd been in touch with Jim in SF - first time in a few years. Told him we were headed to Vegas. He insisted we come early and head to him in SF. We flew to LAX then hopped on a shuttle to SFO. Jim met us and we had two brilliant nights somewhere near the city. Come to think of it didn't actually see the city - felt it though. Really reconnected with Jim and his wine collection. - thanks Jim. He dropped us of for our south western flight to Vegas. First thing I noticed was the tables for groups of four seats. Real party atmosphere: funny hats, lots of booze. Second thing I noticed was the pilots announcement "thank you for joining us today for this flight to mexico city - we'll shortly be crossing the border and if you look down you will see...". At first I didn't clock it then Mo said 'I thought we were headed to Vegas?". Then the whole plane burst out laughing - a great intro to Vegas !




Then it was a taxi (technically a Limo)

I was invited to a GE SMallworld trade show - visited a load of fire departments - Pleasanton, San Ramon. But the highlight was meeting the California State Fire Marshall for the first time. y.

San Francisco - Microsoft

No ideal how many times I've been to San Francisco  - but I leave a part of me there every time.  Most recent visit was courtesy of Microsoft.  They launched Office365 on 19th October and flew me out to help them do that. Here's a few notes from that visit...

Just off the plane having spent the week in San Francisco.  Microsoft invited The Wise Group along with three other customers to help them launch their new cloud computing initative - www.office365.com.  Here's some notes I kept during the week:

Monday afternoon and evening here in SF was when we I got to socialise with Microsoft’s senior people as well as 6 partners and 3 customers.

Tuesday was the actual launch event for what’ they’re calling ‘Office 365’ or as they call it ‘Office three-hundred sixty five’ (more details at: www.office365.com)

Monday – Meet and Greet Microsoft Senior Executives

Spent some great time with Kurt DelBene (President of Microsoft Office Division and second to CEO Steve Ballmer); Chris Capossela (formerly Bill Gates Speech Advisor and now  Senior Vice President of Information Worker Group in Microsoft Corporate) and Betsy Frost Webb (General Manager – Unified Communications). 

They had asked 3 customers to the event – including the Wise Group

1.       Susan Erickson  and James D Smith - both Senior Directors of Intranet Services of Starwood Hotel’s and Resorts (Starwood own Meridien, Westin, Sheraton, St Regis etc etc) with around 20,000 users of Microsoft Cloud Services

2.       Robert Franch (Global Product Manager Messaging and Collaboration at AON with around 40,000 users of Microsoft’s cloud ( a totally mad Italian American from New Jersey with the best New Jersey accent I’ve ever heard)



Kurt DelBene - President Microsfot Office Division



We spent a long time at the table and later at various bars talking about Microsoft’s cloud offering.

It turns out it was very difficult to get on to the beta test programme but now that we are we get to test out ‘office 365’  - its got e-mail as before but also SharePoint which we currently have installed locally in the server room.  This new cloud version of SharePoint though looks like it has functionality that we can deploy our full Intranet site on – something that wasn’t clear before the launch. I will make sure we do that during our pilot.

There’s also the MS Office product set.  Basically we can use office products from the cloud without having them locally installed. Interestingly the lessons from Starwood and AON seem to be that they plan to use this in a tiered way.  In other words some staff will still have full Office product installs while some will have access just to the on-line version.  Typical way of cutting it seems to be ‘executives’ with full installs ‘back-office’ staff with on-line access only.  We need to look at that however Starwood and AON use it that way.

Something I hadn’t been aware of is for users with full Office installs – instead of ICT doing the install Microsoft will do it automatically – its called ‘Office as a service’ and works a bit like when Windows does it own updates automatically.  Again, this could remove a large update burden from ICT.  Starwood and AON haven’t rolled this out yet since it hasn’t been available, however I’ll keep in touch with them on it and we can test this out in our pilot.

Microsoft have now re-named their ‘Office Communicator’ product ‘Link’ .  We have it but don’t use it much.  I had long conversations with Starwood and AON and Kurt DelBene about how to get it adopted and the benefits.  I think we need a small campaign to get it going properly because both Starwood and AON talked about how much the users liked it for quick communications.  (Basically it’s a company instant messenger with ‘presence’ notifications).

We also discussed using what they call Exchange 2010 – among other things this gives us ‘soft telephony’ – I am currently liasing with Betsy Frost Webb on this because I would like to plan to have it tested and maybe installed by the end of 2011 for the Wise Group potentially replacing our aging telephony systems.

Though not part of this event I had tangentially found out about a test programme Microsoft are doing here in the USA to put Dynamics CRM in the cloud.  When I got here I knobbled Kurt DelBene and as a result of that just last night we got an invitation to participate in the programme (he works fast does Kurt!).  This is exciting because as you know I recently put a cloud outsourcing proposal to SMT (as was) which we accepted.  However depending on the results of the CRM test I may have to revise that proposal (hopefully downwards) to take account of the fact that CRM could be outsourced.  Its too early to be definitive about this however it’s a good start. 

Later on Monday things degenerated slightly as we wandered around downtown San Francisco going from bar to bar.  I remember the mad New Jersey Robert Franch and I wandering along some seedy back-street carrying between us a very senior Microsoft executive because he had temporarily lost the ability to walk.  We were heading for an upmarket bar called the ‘Sir Francis Drake’ however someone had Googled it incorrectly and we found ourselves at the front door of a hotel called the ‘Drake’ which seemed to rent rooms by the hour.  We beat a hasty retreat and finally found the Sir Francis.

Tuesday – the Launch Event of ‘Office 365’

Tuesday at 8am was the global launch of the until-then top secret brand for the new version of BPOS – Its when the press turned up (including the BBC) and its when they announced ‘Office three-hundred sixty five’)

Although due to the effects of alcohol the night before the name hadn’t been embargoed quite as well as they’d hoped

Betsy Frost Webb introduced the new product then Kurt DelBene went through Microsoft’s cloud philosophy.  Then Chris Capossela went into the detail. 



Besty Frost Webb - Microsoft



There’s a   transcript of Kurt and Betsy’s speeches here.

There was TV there and this event seemed to be broadcast globally.

What was good about it was the had the Wise Group logo up there as one of the early adopters and much of the speeches were done with that logo in the background. 

Note: I videoed all speeches and there’s some excellent nuggets in there.  I’ve also sourced the video from the Steve Ballmer Cloud event in London where he mentioned us and where I presented and Diane and I were interviewed.  I’ve asked Ian Maclean if he could cut a 5 minute video pod-cast for us to capture the essence of these recent activities.



After the launch they did ‘talking head’ interviews with myself, AON and Starwood (as they did in London with Diane and I) which Microsoft will use as case studies for these senior executives as they take the story round the world.

Overall Impressions

Ultimately a very worth-while event and great to see the Wise Group punching above our weight with some pretty hefty global players and being used as an example of best practice 6000 miles from home.

Also great to be able to keep in touch with AON and Starwood and learn best practice from them which we can use at the Wise Group.

Also great to be able to contact people like Kurt, Besty and Chris (first name terms now)  directly. 

I’ve got some more thoughts but will sign off now as being kicked out of my hotel room shortly.

Have attached a couple of SF pictures – great city







Powell & California





Telegraph Hill and TransAmerica from Pier 19



Words...

And when we die he says he'll catch some blackbird's wing
And we will fly away to heaven
Come some sweet blue bonnet spring

She walked through springtime when I was home
The days were sweet, our nights were warm

Emmylou Harris - Gulf Coast Highway

I slept a summer by her side
She filled my dreams with endless wonder .. She took my childhood in her stride
I dreamed a dream - Les Miserables

In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Mo
Carl Sagan - Cosmos

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...all these memories.. Washed away...like tears in the rain ... Time to die..

GPSed Track "Annbank stair r ayr"

View my new track "Annbank stair r ayr" started in United Kingdom, Scotland, Ayr. Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

Cycling - love it

(Nov 2010): 18 years ago I visited Edinburgh Cycles on Bruntsfield Links and paid £275 for a 'Contour 200' mountain Bike. Being a mountain bike first thing I did was take it up a mountain - Cairnsmore of Carspahirn. http://www.munromagic.com/MountainInfo.cfm/452. 2614 feet.
Which was great until I passed 'Green well of Scotland' and got onto the trackless hillside. From there I pushed / carried the bike all 2614 ft to the summit. It was then I figured mountain bikes aren't for mountains as such. I was living on my own in Linlithgow and would cycle the canal towpath (almost to Edinburgh airport ) also to Blackness in my canoeing jacket to make me sweat. Biggest run was on the old drovers road from Tyndrum to kingshouse hotel and back. Also did many a run in the lakes with Edward Malc and Stephen - a lot out of Grizedale forest.


Fast forward 18 years ..
In '09 did a lot of walking - all on the coast. Started out to Dunure with bus home. Then bus to Maidens and walk home. Big one was train to Girvan and walk home around 20 miles. Brilliant but lengthy - Girvan took me 8 hours.

So this year dusted off the old 'Contour 200' and started a regular training run - home to masts on Brown Carrick then to Greenan then pier - River walk and home. Around 18 miles with 900 feet climb. Got the home to masts ascent down to 60 mins with total run around 100 mins.

By May the old contour was creaking a bit and the brakes were shot. Mo got me a new bike. Specialized Rockhopper - very light, disc brakes, front suspension. So as well as the training run started doing bits of the Carrick way across the southern end of the Carricks. Also found the R Ayr way. Perfect for the MTB. Did the Failford Bridge to pier run a lot. Biggest one (so far ) is the Sorn to Sea (34 miles mostly offroad).
Meanwhile bought David Robertson's wifes nearly new MTB for Mo. Really light. Mo uses it for work when she can. Also did the failford run though the tyres are a bit thin - next time need to put the knobblies on.
Also discovered the '7 Stanes' . Has never been to a pre designed MTB place before. Went to Maibe in April for Stephen's 50th. Absolutely brilliant and designed to be so - berms, jumps just superb. Went back at end of July with Stephen, Malc and Edward. Cut short tho - Stephen twatted his coupon and loosened a front tooth so we spent the afternoon in A and E in Dumfries . The perils if cycling!


While I still have the brochure the new bike is:
Specialized Rockhopper SL - hardtail
Fully butted M4 alloy frame
80mm travel RockShox Dart 3 SL fork
Tektro Auriga Pro Hydraulic disc brakes
Shimano Shadow rear dérailleur
Specialized Fast Trak LK sport tyres
http://www.mountainbikereviews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/specialized-rockhopper-sl-hardtail-bike.jpg




Fast forward to 2012 and through the cycle to work scheme I get a Ridley x-Bow Cyclo cross - my first drop handlebar bike for years and years.  A revalation - much lighter, not quite a road bike but great.  Put an 11-34 cassette on it and get my Masts run down to 47 mins (a record).  Also extend the runs between then and 2013 - favourite is the five ferries (55) which I've done twice, Nick of the Balloch (extended) 71 miles with 5700ft of ascent and most recently Sanquhar, Mennock Valley to Lowther Hill (2500ft in 8 miles).  Also did the Craggy Island Tri but that's all off road on the Rockhopper - Also loved doing Wrynose and Hardknott passes in the Lakes in the summer of 2013 with Con - he's a beast when cycling all muscle and no fat - strength to weight ratio of infinite.

 . 


An what's next - well its a full road bike - but one of the first with disc brakes.  A Whyte Sufflok - hopefully will help with the forthcoming Triathlons (London and Craggy Island). 
http://cycletechreview.com/2013/reviews/whyte-road-bikes/3/

Where everybody know's your name

I know I know - cheers did it first. But that's what its like at Geordies - the best pub in the world (probably). When sprogs started at Davie Coulter's Karate around 3 years ago I would drop them off then head to an Irish pub in Burns Statue Sq for a pint. A bit of an out-of-the box Irish pub put good enough. Then I remember a pub much nearer - Geordie's Byre. Years ago an old pal, Dahl (Paul Dahlstrom) had taken me there once. At the time I thought it was an old man's pub. So I decided to try it out. Its got such a small frontage that I wandered past it a couple of times before I finally found it. Its between a bookies and a funeral parlour. Very unassuming front. Great beer. I took to going in on Karate nights. I'd take a book and sit in the corner seat and read. The job I was doing at the time was pretty stressful so my visits were a welcome break. I'd sit quietly for an hour, go pick up the sprogs, buy they an ice-cream and Mancini's (of course) then head home.

There's a fruit machine (sound turned off) of course and two TV's high up on the wall. One TV is on most of the time (sound turned down - of course: occasionally turned up for an item of interest for 5 mins or so then turned down again). The other TV has text showing horse-racing results - again no sound.

Its a small place - maybe you could have 20 sitting - around 18 months after I started going I discovered there's a larger back area which is open sometimes for functions.

Red-leatherette seats and lots of pictures and memoriabilia on the walls - and a vast Whisky range on the optics.

After around a year sitting reading I'd occasionally say hi to one or two of the early evening regulars - 6 months after that I'd pass the odd word or two - six months after that I'd made a pal - Jim. I stopped taking my book and I'd sit at the bar with Jim and pass the time of day for an hour. Great guy - Gas engineer - always just off duty. Parks up and home, gets the bus in to the pub for maybe 90 mins. Likes the dark beer with a Lambs rum chaser. Another six months after that and we'd started buying alternate rounds for each other. Once or twice I'd pick him up at the bus stop after getting the sprogs and run him home to Belmont.

A couple of times I'd mentioned this place to Cal. One day I took him over and he fell in love with the place. Pretty soon (maybe around early 2009) Cal and I took to heading down on a Thursday night: this was on top of my hour on a Wednesday. Cal invited some of his other pals - a lot of teachers from Greenwood - they became my buddies. I enjoyed their initial chat. They'd be allowed 30 minutes to gripe about school. They'd tell some horror stories about the weeks events - mostly I figured I was glad I wasn't a teacher. After the 30 minutes conversation had to turn to something else.

Characters

Martin-quifftastic

Cal C - The panda

Brendan-boy
John McQ - tall boy
Johnny- army

Graeme E - te cricket
ALB - the CIO
Richard - the art
Jools P - the song

Some 'official' Geordie's portraits (with the horns)

Graeme 'Cricket-boy' E

Mr Brendan

The Bar

Cal 'Panda-boy'

ALB

Jools P

Johnny 'Green Machine' boy

Richard McD

The Bar

John McQ

Ian's Dug

Martinos O

Pint of Dark Island in Geordie's - perfection