Am I a Cartesian Product ?

Whilst being involved in the world of computers and technology, I have always tried to stay clear of technical acronyms and confusing (unnecessary) 'tech speak'(I frankly refuse to use the words g**k speak)... but every now and then I enter the abyss and talk in terms that alienate 90% of the population. This becomes particularly surreal when laughing and joking about a technical phrase... especially if the participants of the conversation can see the humour on multiple levels... as a joke between each other and as a fly on the wall... looking around at the strangest faces as 'non-technical' people struggle to comprehend what the hell it all means... The particular phrase that amused us was Cartesian Product... how the hell do you even start to explain it to not only non-technical people... but even to people on the technical ladder... For those of you who have escaped falling into a coma... a Cartesian Product is a table created when data is pulled from two other tables with no WHERE clause... all that happens is that you end up with a table that is full of data... but 9/10 that data is rubbish and meaningless... So where is the humour in that... well for the technical team the momment came about when we considered that there is a term for a relatively pointless process... someone actually thought it required naming ? Referring to the SQL for Dummies book... which in itself is nuts... PC's for Dummies I understand... Driving a car for Dummies I could get... but SQL... that is just frankly crazy... it may as well say nuclear fission for dummies... or brain surgery for dummies... unless you had some understanding of the human body... you wouldn't even know where to begin. Anyway back to the Cartesian Product... in the previously mentioned giant of the literal world... a Cartesian Product is descibed as... "When youre trying to get useful information out of a multitable database, the Cartesian Product produced is almost never what you want. It's almost always the first step toward what you want...' Does that make me a Cartesian Product... I am certainly at the first step towards what I want...

Blogging... should you watch what you say ?

My good friend RS is a big fan of 'freedom of speech' when it comes to blogging... but I had an interesting discussion two days ago about blogging, with someone who felt that one should be careful about what one says... When I enquired further, the reason given was that you could undermine yourself by giving a collegue/someone else ammunition/ideas to do your job ? i.e. if you are too open with your blog, someone could either gain significant knowledge to do your job and/or find out what type of character you are... thereby undermining you position/reputation. I thought about this comment for about 2 minutes before drawing my conclusion (does that mean I say things before I think ?)... ah so yes my conclusion (hesitation now... what could that mean)... is the same as my lifes philosophy... DONT LOOK BACK... KEEP MOVING FORWARD... YOU CAN NEVER UNDO THE PAST... ONLY INFLUENCE THE FUTURE... I do not tend to make comments/blog half baked ideas... I try to talk about/post comments/thoughts that I have considered and completed... i.e. I have moved on in my thoughts and am now thinking about the next idea/plan/thought... so if someone thinks of using my 'cast-off' thoughts... I'm letting you know your behind the times... **** And before I sign off... this is a quick mention for anyone 'using my ideas to undermine me' to visit the blog of one of the coolest and most beautiful young ladies around at sportastic.blogspot.com ****

A Little Something For Billy...

Billy... hope this template helps... tip: print before you go out...

Freedom of the mind...

Not only do I hope to cover a little of my personality in this blog (see comments to my previous posting)... but I intend to try and explain my role in emart... and how I can use my experience to develop the emart concept... hopefully that will give a mixture of humerous and serious postings... they say variety is the spice of life... When starting a new project, creating an idea is one thing... to then create a design concept is something else... especially when several people have their input. How long is long enough when throwing 'ideas into a pot' ? For how long does one keep refining I(and hopefully improving) a design/concept ? I think input from many sources is a critical part of the 'creative process'... certainly when we started thinking about emart and what it would start to become... we had the opinion of 6 males. Although we tried to be as open to ideas as possible... we were still 6 males... The first advancement from 6 males... was to look to design agencies for their input... but I have to say (my personal thoughts) that in terms of e-commerce sites and design... the market is surprisingly dissappointing... far too many sites now follow the same tired traditional route of muted colours on a white background... how creative is that... and too be honest many design agencies don't seem to want to break free from that look ? Why ? Our second advancement was the recruitment of 5 young ladies to the team... at last some female opinions... and very valuable they are !!! I am sure that as sections of the website evolve the site will appeal to a great cross range of customers... So with the deliberation of many agencies... 12 members of the team... 8 weeks of mood boards and ruling out ideas and designs that either did not work or that we just did not like... we seem to be nearing a design that I think will be different and inviting to our visitors... So how do I see my role in this process... I see it as one who has used the above 'assimilative process' to take those ideas to that point whereby a website of distinction can be developed... the last 4-5 days have seen us move much closer to that point...

OK now I've started...

What a day yesterday became... RGB for screen... CMYK for print... ahhh... get it wrong and frustration can soon appear around the corner... eventually the finish line was reached... Hatch summed up the process in his post yesterday (CMYK blues...) My main role is to creatively develop the emart web platform... and I can not wait... some of the products are already incredibly inviting... New World Wines in the wine store... scooters and some mad bike contraption in the sports store... Talking of the web platform, it is interesting to compare different views on technical acronyms... maybe it is because there are so many out there... how many of them are really needed ? How many people truly understand what they mean... feel free to leave your comments on acronyms... Now back to the job in hand... and SEO... how many understand that one ?

it has to start somewhere...

Welcome to my blog... it has to start some where and this is the beginning. The aim of my blog is to journal my thoughts on a really exciting project that I am working on. The project is called EMART and you've guess it... it is about creating an electronic market... yes an online store. But before you think... not another one... I truely believe this one could be different... it may even make you excitied about shopping online...