Window Washers - The Urban Nightmare

A few months ago the JMPD cleaned the streets of window washers.

Let's be honest, there's a bunch of us that HATE, and I mean HATE, the window washers. We tend to find them aggressive, useless, and annoying. If you actually have had your windscreen washed by them, more than likely your car (not just your windscreen) is in a worse off condition than you started.

Then you have the other people. People with a so-called heart. People who support them. They say "At least they're doing something to earn money". Yes and no. I'm generalising here, there are some "nice" window washers out there, ones who respect your decision and personal property. Unfortunately, one bad apple spoils the rest (or something like that).

The JMPD did, what many really hoped for. They took them off the streets, but they come back. They always will come back. And if they don't come back, they have to earn money somehow. Not all of them will resort to crime, but some will...

There's a particular ***hole that's on Grayston drive. He's arrogant, the more you say no, the more excited he gets. He's a sociopath. He likes getting off at people's frustration.  On Friday, he lifted up my wiper and just stared at me, hoping for a reaction. If you get out of the car, he runs, he gets his kicks and adrenaline rush. If you drive off, he still thinks he's won. It's a lose - lose situation for the driver.

I can see some frustrated driver one day, flame throwers / mace installed on the side or more basic, with a gun. That wont help, they'll just arm themselves

So what can we do?

Option 1 - Corporate Involvement

Outsurance has already been making headway with creating jobs (points people). Someone, probably another car insurance giant, should take up the reigns. Sponsor the guys, get a team leader of a group. Provide them with more up to scratch resources. (New wipers, cleaner water and more effective soap/whatever). Give them flyers / coupons / something to hand out as well. A reason to give them a wage even if they don't clean windscreens.

Most importantly, once they are wearing the colours of your brand, then they have to conduct themselves in a passive and orderly manner. Those who don't, get fired. End of story. A team leader is solely responsible, it's up to him to weed out the bad apples. A method also needs to be put in place, e.g. If you haven't started with a windscreen within 5 seconds of the robot going RED, it will go GREEN before you're finished. And that's obstruction of traffic.

Of course, you don't want just anyone on the turf, considering the JMPD have already arrested window washers before, it's clear it's already illegal. So of course discussions will have to go forward to legalise the particular project only, so rif-raff can't come in and say any different.

Option 2 - Government Intervention

I've said it several times already, it must be illegal. So what the government do? Well, throw them all in jail, give them a criminal record (if they don't have one already) and force them to obtain a living by "other means" OR give them basic training. Register them. Give them Standard Code of Conduct. Make sure they wear their identity, so drivers can identify them. That way, anyone unregistered performing these duties, can be arrested. Anyone registered not performing according to the code of conduct / best practices, can be unregistered and so one.

Road Rage is a dangerous thing. Joblessness is as well.

I'm not too young! Maybe...

Firstly, I need to get this out the way, this post is not an attack on Vusi Thembekwayo's post, it's another perspective at looking at things. Exactly what I hope my blog instigates. I also plead that you do not take this as cynicism either, as I too am a young person with ambition. Just a realist as well.

Just some FYI:  For those who don't know Vusi, (I refuse to accept any different) he IS South Africa's NUMBER 1 public speaker. I've only had the opportunity to see him speak twice, both times on very different topics, but each with very inspiring and uplifting effects.

And now, on with MY perspective: Being a relatively young person (not giving my age away, sorry for you), but been in the IT industry for a fair amount of time, I would definitely consider myself successful for my age. Not exactly Mark Zuckerburg or a young Bill Gates. No, no, no... Just above average.

A factor that has been hindering my success going up the conventional corporate ladder is... Age. Is it something that should be stopping me? Well, when I first started working, I was hoping to be CEO within 2 years. Ambition is great! But sometimes very unrealistic. For that exceptional, rare and unbelieve quantum leaps to successful requires a few ingredients. Without a doubt, an EXTREMELY important, if not most important, is pure luck. Right place, right time, right mindset, right customer(s), right "product" (anything you sell, is a product somehow)

Some might simplify luck in business as "the gap in market". Absolutely, if there wasn't a gap, there would be the basic economic concept of supply and demand. Your product would then be worthless. The luck comes in as marketing. Someone who'll listen to you, believe in your product. An investor, direct consumers or even a promotor. As a young person, I know how INSANELY difficult it is for people, especially elders, to believe in your personal brand. Without that believe, product is useless.

In my industry I've sold top brands that almost all of the fortune 100 would use. Yet it's a difficult sell because we don't have references.

But that's not it, to paraphrase Vusi a bit, he mentioned that experience should be revered, however experience will restrict you. That, to a degree is very true. Experience will teach you how to talk the language the big boys in business want to hear. Very few, if any, sane people will allow you to put their investment at risk. And that's what a lot of us young people do, we very often hope for the best outcome and expect the worst possible consequence not to happen. When you've got a thousand employees, it would be selfish to risk everything. And that's what the "balls to the wall" approach does.

As an individual, the only risk you have is yourself and whoever invests in you. That's where the luck comes in and the age plays a part.

All that said, nothing stops you from being lucky, except the inability to try. It's obvious you can't win the lotto without buying a ticket. Do you think that most lotto winners won of their first time buying a ticket? Of course not. The more you try, the better your luck will be.

Be young, be ambitious, but more than anything, try*.

*For all those Star Wars fans, if you mention Yoda "Do or do not, there is no try..." Believe you will succeed first time every time, it will get harder to get up every time you fall. Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst.

Black Tuesday

Treason
Noun:
1. The crime of betraying one's country, esp. by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
2. The action of betraying someone or something.

By now people are probably wondering what Treason has to do with the Protection of Information Bill (POIB) controversy in South Africa. The point of the above define is to simply point out that identifying corruption is NOT a crime against government. Identifying corrupt individuals who represent our country in the political manner is NOT an attempt to kill our leader NOR an attempt to overthrow our government.

What the POIB does affect, by definition, is:

Freedom of speech
Noun:
The right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint.

Slander is one thing. Political parties tend to pride themselves around this ability, especially at election time. Is it morally wrong? Yes. Should it be illegal? Of course not.

1994 was the defining moment in South African history. My generation and younger fail to truly appreciate the true meaning of freedom. Yes the country is far from.perfect yet, but we've mostly been brought up ignorant of what our parents and fore fathers went through. Hearing stories of the past is nothing compared to living it.
I, for one, do not want to relive the fight, the struggle, my parents already went through.  "Children are the future" and we are the children of the future. A chance for a new beginning. A chance for a great leap forward for our country and ourselves. Do not let the government deny us what was once fought so hard for.
Corruption will always happen in government. Even in the #1 nation in the world. Bush - oil, need I say more? If we're not allowwd to talk about it, how can we keep it to a minimum impact?

Black Tuesday intends to promote awareness about the POIB. I urge everyone who cares for a single persons voice to wear black. Tweet, blog, facebook, even Google it! Call whoever needs to be called, email whoever needs to be mailed. Every little bit will help. Wearing black and supporting a cause means nothing without action.

Right now we are still a democracy by definition. If that means anything, they should listen to the people. I just wish they rather would get the people to support the bill than oppose it. I guanrantee you, due to the simple fact that people are lazy by nature, the majority of people opposed will not act because they do not want to go through the possible tedious motions.
Freedom is best appreciated when fought for...

Ode to Wikipedia (aka "Web Advertising: Yay or Nay")

Wikipedia is the #5 website in the world. Did that surprise you? Of course not. Every familiar with the internet has heard of it. First people started saying "just Google it" and now some are saying  "Wiki' it" cause at the end of the day (well, search) Google usually shows you Wiki links and most of us click on it.

There is no doubt that both companies have made a major impact on how we research, find info, win bets, etc. Google is changing everyday, they are constantly offering free services, e-mail, calender, this blog! But is it really free?

Surely it can't be if Google is making billions of dollars and growing exponentially every day. Well, it's not really, they advertise. Is it wrong? Hell no! Is it annoying? Only pop-ups, but that's not the Google way. Millions and Millions of people, love Google. Even though they advertise. They know how to do it without alienating people.

Wikipedia are out asking for donations because they refuse to advertise. Good on them. I applaud their morals and courage. But is it morally wrong? Not if you do it right. There are so many ways without being intrusive.

For example, obviously companies can't sponsor and be in charge of their own Wiki pages, cause if they were, we would never be able to see the news they don't post on their own websites. Yes, no gossip, no scandals, no mishaps. Only good news. However, if Wikipedia were to allow advertisements right at the bottom of their page or somewhere where subtle but effective, they could advertise and I'm sure few (if any) Wiki supporters would complain.

It will not be on every page, but even if they had an advert on every page... If it didn't negatively impact your browsing experience, does it really matter? Most pages I go to have advertising, I am not forced to click on it. I will if I am interested. I find them to be useful at times. I'm sure the masses out there do not disagree with me too much, if they did, the masses wouldn't use Google, Facebook, Linkin, etc, etc...

Advertising is becoming an integral part of our lifestyle, how many more billboards are you seeing being erect these days? Still quite a bit and there's a lot more on the net. We only see it if we want too. It's becoming a new ability.

Wikipedia, make your billions too. I'm sure you're worried about people not visiting your site anymore or losing faith in you. If that's the case, do an extended survey. Over 3, 6 or even 12 months! See what your users think. And those who do the survey, they're obviously the ones who care. So don't take it likely. People who care about Wikipedia will understand the financial implication. So do the survey please, and for those who say "Nay", you don't deserve the right to use the website.

Whether they go advertisements or not, they need your support now. Regardless of how much or little you can spare, please go to their website and donate what you can.

Wikipedia is awesome already, imagine what they could do if they had the financial backing behind them!

HP Personal Direction?

A few months ago HP made several important announcements:

   1. Possible spin-off of their PC division
   2. Purchase of a software company (Autonomy)
   3. Discontinuing the WebOS mobile platforms

Unfortunately for CEO at the time, Leo Aptheker, the rest of the world became very uneasy with points 1 and 3. Stock prices plumetted. Several questions come to mind, why? Why? And why?

  1. For shareholders it could make sense. The PC division could also gain flexibility and innovate faster.
  2. Software is a high margin business with great ROI (remember this!)
  3. They weren't selling as much ad they thought they would.

So surely they could've announced it better? Of course, why do you think poor Leo "stepped down"? Just with rumours of current CEO's, Meg Whitman, possible arrival; stock prices increased! So a few days later she was appointed of course.

27th October 2011, Meg announces that HP will be keeping the PC division. Great news, we're no longer in limbo. What about WebOS?

We first have to ask, why didn't it sell? First, how many people actually heard of the HP Touchpad prior to the "fire sale"? So marketing could've improved a bit. Second, I'm in South Africa, we had it in country for less than a week when it was pulled from market. I.e. Coverage could be better. Third, WebOS had few thousand apps, which had to compete with Apple's 350k+ and Androids 250k+ apps at the time. So what? How many apps does one need? Just migrate the top ones to start with. Very few people will have more than 20 apps on any given mobile device. Most of them being social media, mail/calender and popular games.

HP will say that it didn't sell because it was too expensive. The "fire sale" does support that concept to a degree. They were sold out within two days at a price of $99 and prices stabilised between $200 - $300 on eBay(yes the place Meg came from). Imagine what price it would've stabilsed at if the product wasn't going End Of Life?

So why did I need to blog this? At about the same time of Leo's announcement Apple took the lead as top company in the WORLD. Personal Computing hardware is a low margin business for everyone. Including them. The profits came mainly from software (app) sales. (Told you to remember Autonomy)
HP had the opportunity to be a much more stable competitor to Apple than Android could be, apps could be scrutinised and optimised to the hardware. Similar to Apple. Additionally, development could include incredible integration with their other business units. Imagine playing Angry Birds, receiving a mail for a new service to be launched, you initiate change control and approval processes immediately from your device. It's approved quickly as it's all electronic and no paper required. And resources provisioned from a template you can select off your Touchpad. Within five minutes you've done the equavalent of 2 months of work without leaving the canteen!

No, this is not far fetched and yes, you can create similar apps for different OS's. Imagine the integration of all devices if everything ran on the sleek WebOS (as a form of hypervisor)? From laptops, to printers, to servers, network and storage. Possibilities are endless! HP would be able to grab the consumer and commercial market.

Without using the Touchpad, I knew it's stable because that's what the HP brand name brings. Reviews on it, support that. Playing with a demo confirmed it.

Meg, not only mentioned HP is keeping the PC division but implied they looking at Windows 8 as the future mobile platform OS they'll. Helloooo??? It's also new to the market. I doubt they'll do much better on numbers compared to the WebOS first few months. Yes, Microsoft has been marketing Windows 8 as the best thing since WiFi. As a business partner pointed out, last time Microsoft was so excited, Vista happened! Eeeek!

Anyway, to end off on a feel good note, I leave you with what is known as HP's "Rules of the Garage", rules inspired by the character, morals and work ethic of the founders of HP. Bill Hewlett and David Packard.

Rules of the Garage


Believe you can change the world.
Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
Know when to work alone and when to work together.
Share tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
No Politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage).
The customer defines a job well done.
Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
Invent different ways of working.
Make a contribution every day.
If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
Believe that together we can do anything.
Invent.

More tax?!?

Everyone is Gauteng has a comment about the SANRAL project. Most of it negative. Let's try to be objective first.
Why even do this? Simply put, to maintain our roads. But we pay tax already? Well, to not get into too much boring detail, our tax goes into a single pool where it is divided where necessary (yes, I hear you in the back. And I agree that lunches that cost more than most peoples cars are not necessary, but as I said we're being objective)
As I was saying, a pool if money where housing and schools should be more important than roads. So this is brilliant, a separate department/company is fully responsible for our roads and pay accordingly. Additionally, so many more jobs have been created by this project.
As per Carte Blanche's economists, this could be done at half the cost via petrol price increases, however it will most likely end up in the single pool that our roads will never see.
A parents wisdom lives eternally through their children. I will never forgey my fathers view on tax. He is always happy to pay tax. The more you're paying, the more you should be earning. This isn't income tax though. Yet the highest earners still have the biggest objections.
For those who aren't high earners, look at it this way. Eventually all companies will have to adjust the low income bracket (yes leading to higher product prices etc) but at the next salary increase would you not prefer 10% of 1000 or 1500?
Short term it will be difficult for many. Back routes will be packed, strikes are expected yet as always, life moves on. With or without you.

Democracy is what?

Earlier tonight I witnessed pure idiocy. Someone tweeted asking if people who pay more tax should have more of a vote.
FIRSTLY, democracy is everyone being considered equal. Seriously people, think! If we were to let people decide that way, the top 1% percent of people would decide our future, what would the country's priorities be?
Yes folks. The top 1% earns more than the rest put together. And there's a 99% percent chance you're not part of that group.
If you are in the 1% league and still thinking that way, stop being an arrogant selfish prick. Just because you're rich doesn't make you special. Coming from a well off background I can say that with no jealousy.
Our country (South Africa) is beginning to progress. Before you argue, think cleary where we were and where we are. We need everyones help to get it to where it needs to be as quickly as possible.
However the second part of democracy is CHOICE. You don't have to care. I plead that you do though. It'll be better for all of us in the end. I can put my Verimark guarantee on that.