WING to Valentine’s Day I recently found myself singing again, just like I did about 10 years ago when I was 19 or even 20 (I uploaded some stuff that I amateurely recorded on my PC). Much of it is stuff that Sinatra, my favourite singer, had sung.

n December 17^th I will turn 30 and I recently went through some old photo albums trying to gather some memories from favoured times in the past — times when life when generally quite easy and fun. This made possible and easy to assemble the following collage which spans mostly a year or more after birth, 15 years after that, and another ~15 years later, at age 29 and 11 months.

1983

1983

1983

1983 (with my dad)

1983 or 1984

1991

1998 (age 16)

1998

1998

1999

2011 (days ago)

2011

2011

ust over 15 years ago I started lifting weights. I had only just turned 14 at the time. The memories are many and it was only about 7 years ago that I started writing abut it. I can probably reference my older blog posts about health and exercise, starting with recent and older photos of times when I was in top shape and before I turned to more running (I could run long distances well) and cycling. Back in the days I competed in Mr. Fitness contests (see 2008 victory and photos also from prior years as I had won several times since 2004). I did well at strength events of all kinds. My main competitor was Mike Coogan, who won previous contests (here are some highlights and awards).

I participated in mini triathlons and won rowing competitions too, several times in fact, until recent years.

As a scientist, I strongly reject sport quacks and embrace solid, credible research instead. Although I did not pursue sports professionally as a child (I preferred it being a hobby/game), I do maintain a high degree of knowledge and skill in the area and I spent most of my life (over 15 years) doing regular exercise without ever taking a long break, even when time management seemed hard.

T HAS BEEN many years since I last updated or maintained the family tree pages on this Web site (not public), but moments ago I expanded the collection and also found this old photo of my great grandmother, whom I never met in person. It is saddening that several generations down the line people are no longer remembered, neither by their photo/s (they are not tagged with names, so blurring and fading are not the main issue, which digitisation can slow) nor their name; often enough not even a date of birth is recorded, let alone a short biography. It will be interesting to see what the Internet generation can do to change this.

I watched the film Mamma Mia a couple of days ago with my 12-year-old sister. it was only then that I discovered this song, which dates back to older days — prior to my birth.

So, the song now reminds me of my little sister. I too will have children when I grow older, but the lyrics can be generalised to other family relationships.

Don’t believe it? Just watch.

Patents being exchanged, promises with regards to products, etc.

This makes Novell (at least) the 4^th company which falls into the very same trap. Previously in the series:

• Sun Microsystems
• SCO

The links above contain side-by-side comparisons.

Beware of the ‘marketing cowboys’

ARKETING can be a rather sick ‘science’. The story that I present here should hopefully illustrate this. The other day, after I had played my 3^rd game of squash in this year’s competition, I got a free running technique (or stride) examination. This was conduced with a laptop (runs Winders, quite sadly) and a video camera.

Needless to mention, the intent was to sell me corrective footware by suggesting there will be horrible consequences without it. It’s the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) method to marketing some medicine or other remedies. Say to someone “there is problem with you”, then offer the cure. Moreover, part of the techniue is put the elixir close to one’s reach using, e.g. some leaflet. Some would argue this explains the separation between a doctor (who can’t/won’t directly sell) and the pharmacy where nothing is being prescribed. It’s like a self-supervising/moderating system; a peer-review framework if you like, and one which involves more than one person or practice.

Insurance companies like to take advantage of this sleazy marketing approach. I can recall a funny robots clip which aired on Saturday Night Live. In the video, robots are said to steal seniors’ pills and terrorise them. In turn, naive citizens are advised to buy insurance that covers no concrete threat. Greedy companies essentially cash in on ignorance.

Returning to my story which demonstates this case, I was advised to change sneakers every x miles (3-4 months). I was offered ‘special’ shoes that would suit me and was even pointed towards a shop that is run by the examiners. Being a computer-oriented person, I could not help thinking of ‘waste culture’ in this context, much like Vista’s steep hardware requirements. There’s also that old advice which says businesses should throw away malware-infected workstation. Go figure… or come to think of Live OneCare, which is a security product which Microsoft sells in order to protect its already-broken product.

I thank the folks who did the test for teaching me a lesson about myself (as useless as it was), as well as the (sort of) self-branded gift and leaflet. However, I am unlikely to fall for that marketing trap. As a child I saw my parent almost falling victim the the highly prevalent vacuum cleaner salesman tactic — reveal a lot of filth, spend many hours working without pay, then offer a pricey electronic appliance. I can’t recall if it was a Hoover or a Dyson.