Quiet in Winter – busy in Summer. Many walks nearby.

Location – Qbajjar, bus stop one minute walk from door, 10 minutes bus to Victoria, 40 minute walk (for me!) to Victoria.

Click items on map for photos of area:   http://g.co/maps/33yhv

FROM DINING

LAYOUT of FLAT

CORNER OF LIVING ROOM

KITCHEN AREA

KITCHEN +DINING AREA

MASTER BED ROOM

MASTER BEDROOM & BACK BALCONY

EXTRA BEDROOM

EXTRA BEDROOM & LARGE SHOWER

TOILET AREA NEAR KITCHEN

BATH

HALLWAY FROM MASTER BED (shows scale of flat)

The CEO of Best Buy just said the iPad is cannibalizing 50% of the company’s laptop sales, the Wall Street Journal reports.

When consumers walk into Best Buy now, they don’t look at or want laptops, instead they’re drawn to the iPad.

“People are willing to disproportionately spend for these devices because they are becoming so important to their lives,” says CEO Brian Dun.

http://tinyurl.com/2eybgc6

Only in Malta!  The Council of Trent meets Modern Times!

From today’s newspaper:

One of the statues used to decorate the streets of St Julian’s for the locality’s feast was the victim of a car which crashed into it just after 4 a.m. this morning.

The driver of the car, travelling along Triq Gorg Borg Olivier towards Spinola Bay lost control and crashed into the statue’s pedestal.

The car was damaged by the fallen angel.

When? Summer of 2011.

Why? Trains, cool weather destinations, fun, food, stir up the brain.

How? Trains as much as possible and CouchSurfing.

Schedules – Routes – Destination (except Helsinki & SP) all subject to changes. Perhaps three weeks of country surfing.

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Nice little museums I want to visit, lots to see in Saint Pete.

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Helsinki  to Saint Petersburg can be cheap

Train looks spiffy   —->

Bus  ticket – €17-25  -    7-8 hours.

Overnight ferry – €35 takes 14.5 hours.

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After Saint Pete? Not sure, I’ve had a few CS people from Poland stay here in my flat, maybe take a train there and then head back to Gozo.

Been to Helsinki or Saint Petersburg?

Please tell me about it.

Dust floated in the light that streamed through the high narrow windows. As I walked, some of  the horses tilted their head to catch a glance at me but most were concentrating on their feed buckets, occasional snorts added clouds of moisture to the streams of light. All were draft horses, not show draft horses but real working animals, closer to the ground.

As I walked along, past countless stalls, men and women tended to chores in the stalls, in the hay mow, walking up and down dusty stairs that lead to lofts. I might have seen forty or fifty people. All were dressed in worn work cloths, darkly dressed. All in the barn were black people. None acknowledged my presence, all were busy doing their chores and didn’t utter a sound. It felt like the 1800′s.

An odd feature in this dream was that my sight could only see to the left, nothing viewed on the right and barely anything ahead.

Somehow I transitioned out of the barn, the scene changed in a flash. I was standing on gravel and pea stone, enormous, industrial looking,  metal buildings all around me. All seemed to be held high off the ground, supported by large iron girders. Long expanses of corrugated, galvanized metal formed the sides and roofs. Barren and lifeless. Cold and hard. It felt like the 1950′s.

This new scene felt alien and sterile compared to the barns. Reflecting now, I could almost say that the dream was about alienation, separation from Nature. However, I know that dreams are tricky, seldom straight forward.

Some of us have been thinking this way for a long time, nice to see Mr. Doerr wake up.

Mr. Doerr should consult the following article by Richard Gaskin:

http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/netapps.html

John Doerr: The Next Big Thing

Beyond Browsers
It’s time to move beyond spreadsheets and word processors, beyond web sites limited by browsers… to interactive, connected applications with incredible simplicity, speed, and fluidity.

To a future that transforms games and entertainment, education and publishing, healthcare, communications and commerce.
And almost everything else.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/05/john-doerr-the-next-big-thing/

RSS was only used by a small part of the tech world but perhaps now things are changing as people who were outside of the tech world are becoming more involved with the web. They also have devices, iPhone & iPad, that make it easier to go to the web.

I always thought that using an acronym (RSS) as a name for this was a major minus, it repels most people, perhaps they think it must be hard to decipher.

There’s a major book, a classic on marketing technology, named “Crossing the Chasm” that describes how difficult it is to sell technology to people who are not early adopters or techno-enthusiasts. A different strategy must be used to reach the masses. The technology must become viewed as “safe” and widely known before most people will even look. That is sort of happening now, especially with the iPad.

My sister is probably more of an advanced technology user than she admits, but she’d still fit that part of the curve that Moore wrote about. Maybe there’s a tidal wave of potential RSS users coming – if they have something easy to use and more easily explained – more obvious.

Perspective is one of my favorite words.

Thanks goes to Who is the Absurd Man? for the link to that image.

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Johnny Cash – four part BBC podcast

Early adopters jumped the walls of AOL and it never recovered. Early adopters are not looking for safety. AOL isn’t entirely innocent for the demise.

The sale of multi-media CDs was greatly, almost totally destroyed by the Web. Immediate gratification and no cost killed the beast. Internet killed the CD star.

Magazines have been decimated over the last x number of years. Why? Think the Web had any place in that? Magazines are really an advertising vehicle, mind you.

There’s been a lot of floundering about, searching for a means to build walls so advertising revenue doesn’t spin down the drain.

The amount of people using the Web has been large but there’s still a huge number of people that either don’t have a computer or underuse the one they have. Lots of people even view Google as “the internet”.

The iPad will entice that population out of the woodwork. The iTunes store will feed them, and the magazine and publishing industries probably live on, reluctant captives inside walls built just for them.

So, an extremely easy to use appliance for looking at what may have been multi-media CDs, plus easy peasy to use and certified safe little applications will enable a large group to join in to the fun. All the goodies safely corralled inside the iTunes fence and presented by a highly controlled device. Like a safe, patrolled, certified internet of sorts.

There’s an excellent book named “Crossing the Chasm”, written by Geoffrey A. Moore.

Amazon.com describes the book:

Author Geoffrey Moore makes the case that high-tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. His chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.

Apple is pretty much following the strategy put forth in this book, written years ago.

I’m looking forward to developing my own bit of content for this large market heading our way. Got a pretty good idea of what I’m going to do.

He seemed very impressed with the app, raved about it.

So, I’ve started looking at the app again. Already have some encouraging feedback on it.

When I first built it I was focusing on “users”, you know, like normal people. I am now going to narrow my focus, stay on track and get where I want to go.

Adding a wider range of projects, mid-range and small, is a healthier way to proceed. I am actively pursuing this.

more mix to my work brings

more consistent income

more reliable income

more contacts made

more options

Paul Gauguin’s Two Women on a Beach has balance. Not by having equal blocks of color, shapes parceled out in percentages. The painting has balance through intensity. The color value of the vivid red skirt is balanced by the color value of the much larger, neutral dress. The painting feels complete, nothing to add or take away.

Two friends of mine expressed recently a need for balance, or perhaps a need for more completeness in their lives. They expressed great uneasiness and dissatisfaction in the way their life had become crowded – they felt boxed in. Both are highly successful in what they do for work. Both expressed  a need for change in their life.

One, a top notch software engineer, knew he was agitated, unhappy. While on a long planned trip, four months in Australia and Asia, things became clear for him. His life became more in focus as he gained a bit of distance. He’s changed jobs, made lots of life decisions, and clearly has regained balance. Right now he’s on a five day diving trip.

The other friend is a G.P. doctor in the UK. High pressure job, long hours, runs long distance events, and seems to push herself extremely hard. We had a conversation about philosophy in general, eastern philosophy in particular. At one point I asked her what color she felt an affinity towards. She was puzzled by my reference to color. The following day, after long hours seeing patients,  she said she knew that orange was her color. She insisted that I explain why it was so important to have an affinity to a particular color and what would she need to do with the color. The topic had clearly bothered her deeply all day. When I replied that it wasn’t important at all. She pressed the point with exasperation in her voice. I then told her that I’d merely asked that as a way to enable her to think out of the box, to continue with a questioning frame of mind. Luckily she enjoyed my reply and did not try to kill me. This weekend she is attending a meditation and yoga retreat. Stillness might offset the active orange of her life, so to speak.

What about me?

How can I introduce more balance in my life? I’ve been balancing on the edge a long time – I’ve shown remarkable ability to not fall into the abyss. I think I need little education on that sort of balance. It’s become far too routine in my life. I need more balance and less balancing. What do I need to do that will enable me to get a better idea of the context of my current life, a better view?

Perspective

Leonardo da Vinci. Bird’s-Eye View of a Landscape. 1502. Pen, ink and watercolour on paper. Windsor Castle, Windsor, UK

Leonardo da Vinci wrote When you paint look at your work in a mirror; when you see it reversed, it will appear to you like some other painter’s work and you will be a better judge of its faults.

Leonardo also said  Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.

Maybe distance is something for me to think about.

Also, people hire house sitters so they do not have to take the pets to a kennel. Even more expensive would be if they own horses. I did own horses for over twenty years, I can feed them, water, etc. That would increase the pay for the sitting, taking care of horses is not for everyone to say the least. Had Great Danes also, not your average dogs.

I have to research this some more.

Living in a neighborhood that was designed for people and not for cars has many, distinct, human qualities.

In the hot Summer, people bring their chairs out into the streets and it becomes a giant living room. Smells of soups, sauces, roasts waft in the air. Faces are in clear view, not through a passing monster of glass and steel. Relationships are more easily started and maintained. Really nice.

[these photos were taken early on a Sunday, while everyone was sleeping. Otherwise you'd see lots of activity - people being alive.]

From the New York Times:

Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had “spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork,” Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies. That could help justify a higher price. Apple has declined to discuss any plans for a tablet.

Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.
Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan also wrote: Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it.

Mind you, I’m not saying that this trend is crap but…

From Kickingbear:

The people who are consuming software now are a vast superset of the people who used to do so. At one time, especially on the Mac, we’d see people chose software based upon how well it suited their requirements to get a job done. This new generation of software consumers isn’t like that – they’re less likely to shop around for something rather they shop around for anything. These are people who want to be entertained as much as they want to have their requirements met.

and

An Application represents the developer’s best effort at creating software that applies the capabilities of the device to solving a specific problem. Making people laugh is not a problem an Application can solve; it’s not about the device it’s about the person using it.

and

The thing is these people don’t buy Applications, they download Apps. “Software” is dead, don’t bother putting that word on a sell sheet….  People, lots and lots of people, people who have no idea what software even is, will download Apps like they’re snacking on potatoe chips.

But what does this mean for developers?

Are Apps good business? No, they’re not. From a small developers perspective the App Store is a total disaster.

I’ve just presented a small part of what Kickingbear has to say – go there, read his entire article. His choice of defining words, ability to sum up large concepts and trends is extremely cool.

http://kickingbear.com/blog/archives/67

I do not remember the ‘unable to pedal up that slight hill’, nor do I recall the ‘collapse on bed when I got home’ bits. Lots of walking has not prepared me for bike riding.

Going to take this slowly and work my way up. Impossible to do otherwise.

As the poster says, simplicity is the key to successful living. When I moved here I decided that I wanted to decrease stress in my life as much as possible. Buses and walking became my modes of transportation. I think adding a bike will be a stress  reducer once the old body gets adjusted to the idea. Plus it should add more enjoyment to living on this small island, enable me to get to places that buses don’t service very well. Lots of pluses, including using a bike in different places I want to travel to. Lucca, Italy is a great example of a bicycle kind of city.

Thanks goes out to Richard Gaskin for planting the bike idea in my brain. He is a Code God, lives in Los Angeles, and hooks up saddle bags for extended bike expeditions. Balance in his life also means searching for ancient aboriginal rock art.

http://www.ideaconnection.com/

Solve problems for pay, and potentially earn thousands of dollars.

How it Works – Companies post challenges with IdeaConnection.

Help solve these challanges and be paid $20 to $40,000 USD. As of Nov-20-09, the average award for working collaboratively on a challenge is $5,500 USD per team member.

There are a vast array of problem types: electrical, mechanical, chemical, medical, nanotechnology, virtual reality, manufacturing, design, etc. Problem Solvers are needed in all these areas and more. This is a great opportunity to augment your income by working part-time in your spare time, or as a freelancer. And you can accept only the projects that interest you.

You can also make money while on the move. Check into the ThinkSpace™ with your PDA, read what ideas your team mates have come up with, put in your suggestions, and move on.