Spencer Davies's Open Salon Blog

London to get own web address

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:09:22 -0400

City Hall is interested in running a new domain name for London which it says could help promote the capital.

ICANN, the body which grants licenses to run top level domains such as .com and .org, is allowing more organizations to apply to run generic top-level domains (gTLD).

London’s Government has joined a number of other top international cities including New York, Paris, Sydney, Rome and Berlin in expressing an interest in establishing local domains.

Officials at tourism agency London & Partners are working to identify the costs and benefits associated with the running a domain for London ahead of making a formal application.

Kulveer Ranger, Digital Adviser to the Mayor commented, “Ownership of the dot London domain could offer a tremendous opportunity to reinforce London’s position as a global center for digital innovation, generate revenue and bring about new employment opportunities.

“There is great potential for engaging with Londoners and the Mayor is interested to understand better what people think this opportunity would mean to them, as well as the marketing opportunities and the business benefit for the capital as a whole.”

The application process opens on January 12th 2012 and the process for allocating domains is expected to last between 9 and 20 months.

This article has been syndicated from: http://itsallmythought.com

BBC Launches Beta HomePage..Takes A Leaf From Windows Idea

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:09:30 -0400

Well it appears as though the BBC wan’t to freshen things up again with their website this time with……..Tiles!.

That’s right folks, tiles. For whatever reason beyond me and most folk’s understanding, this appears to be the rage at the moment with Windows phones going this direction and also the new Windows operating system which will be released at some point. It’s not the first time BBC likes to freshen things up on their homepage, but for me, this doesn’t work. I personally dislike it and as such, will just bookmark the BBC Sport bit and prey that doesn’t go into tiles one day.

Whats everyone elses impressions to it?. Do you like it?. Do you even use the BBC site?

Inspired By Someone Writing Into The Local Paper

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:09:14 -0400

I often on a Friday pick up the Barnsley Chronicle as I like to hear my local team managers view on things at the club. Recently, my home town club has come under lots of stick, mostly unwarranted. What annoys me further, apart from the Chronicle now going up in price is that they pick idiot letters from fans to go into the paper. Today, my view slightly changed on this after reading a letter written by Brian Sheridan who resides in Sheffield.

His letter in a nutshell calls some fans a muppet (in my words) because of the ingratitude some fans have given Patrick Cryne, our owner and some vital times and how we have got by within the clubs history. And to be honest, I totally agree with just about everything he has said.

This is the same Patrick Cryne who saved this club from being none existent. This is the same guy who has put us on even footing. If I was a businessman, I wouldn’t put a penny into the club. Football is so hard to make profit so I can only salute Cryne for everything he has done. Same with John Dennis. I know people hate the guy and he got branded the guy that took us almost out of business. But this is the same guy who built us a North stand, a car park and also took us to the premier league and not only that, almost making a swift return. I too would like to see the North Stand become the “John Dennis Stand”.

I remember Cryne saying once he would like a Barnsley team with Barnsley players. As much as this would be a fantastic vision, it’s not going to happen whilst we are in this league.

Fans at Barnsley football club seem to be too concerned at this moment in time about our managers remarks and thinking they are the manager of the club. Let me make this clear.

What Keith Hill is saying is the reality. Wake up to it. The sooner you embrace it, the easier it will be.
If you want to be a manager, start off in the lower leagues and do it yourself. If you don’t want to do that, stick to your simulation games and shut up!
This league has changed on an epic level from 10 years ago. 1 million plus is now the norm for players in this division where as 10 years ago it was the top end transfer fees. Wake up, we are now a small fish in a big pond with really big fish there!.

Fans at this club also don’t seem to understand some facts behind ticketing.

Still one of the cheapest about
We are surrounded by 3 cities, 2 of which (Leeds and Sheffield) have 3 major clubs between them. We also have nearby Doncaster, Rotherham and Huddersfield. The catchment area is very different and harder
Players are on higher wages and as such, the club needs to compensate for it.
We can’t expect Cryne to keep pumping money in…Would you?..unless you have billions, you won’t. It’s that simple.

Whilst I don’t like the £30 ticket price, instead of spitting dummies out about it, there’s ways to go about it which would have more effect.It also appears that everyone at this club seems to guess what is what when it comes to finance. If a fan with half a brain cell looked at financial records, which are openly available so look at via Company House, you can see that we need to because self sufficient and quick.

Yes this is a rant, but it needed it!…Some fans are really stupid, face palms don’t even make up for it!.

Learned Something Today

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:09:18 -0400

I did wonder if I should type this up or not, simply because it involves where I work and knowing my luck, I’ll probably be in trouble for it come sometime when it gets picked up. I apologise in advance because this text won’t make much sense because its probably going to be pure waffle but its better me typing this up than keeping it boiling inside.

Today (Friday), I learned something. Sticking to your morals, guns, principles, can win wars even if it looks like a hopeless cause. Today I had a mini war with my manager today, It wasn’t pretty, blows were traded in some sense but I came through it on the right side…which to be fair is very rare.

Recently within my workplace, I’ve been slowly losing motivation, the will and respect to do my job and to respect my superiors. Why?. It’s hard to explain via text, its better said face to face, but when you work hard to no reward and you see the slack folk getting away with things, its deflating. At this point, when you see nothing happening, you wonder; Whats the point?.

I don’t intend to have a go at people for the fun of it and wind them up, I do what I do in my way to show that working hard without sucking up to people, can get you places and that people like me, shouldn’t be pushed aside as one feels fit. This is the feeling I have had for weeks, if not possibly months at my workplace. I’ve not said anything because it always goes on deaf ears and you end up wasting your time.

So what is this all about?

Today I almost got forced by my manager (will not name) to have side by side coaching. I’ve hated side by side coaching and its always had a negative impact on how I work and has also done on previous jobs. It also makes me exceptionally nervous. I explained my reasons to my manager and he pretty much refused to take any of it in. Side by side coaching is good if you can learn something from it. Problem is, I never have. Also I find it an personal invasion of space because there’s hardly sufficient space at work on desks..having someone else next to you, whether its an stunning model or 6″6 basketball player, its something I can’t work with. I need space. I don’t wan’t someone in my face.

To establish my dissent against this and my concerns, I had to send a formal email to my manager explaining that if he chooses to ignore me and is adamant to side by side coaching, I would raise a formal complaint. Now this isn’t something I would take joy in doing, but If that’s what I have to do, then so be it. What got me down the most about this is that I had to send a formal email. The fact that he didn’t take me seriously creates an issue.

So what happened after?

It appears that my manager now understands my concerns. Why he couldn’t in the first instance, I have no clue. Now I have to have a meeting to delegate and see what can be done even when I offered a solution.Not really looking forward to this meeting, because I know more blows will be traded.

My respect for my manager has been rapidly going down hill almost to a point of a sub level temps of Russia. I’m sure he’s a decent enough person out of work, but work wise is a totally different ball game. My personal opinion is that his extra responsibility of late has put too much stress on him and its having an effect on the people who report to him.

Closing Thoughts

I’m happy that I stuck to my guns, regardless of how much trouble i’ve probably put myself in. Lets face it, I’m either going to be in trouble for typing this up or acting the way I did. Something will be twisted over to make me look the bad party. It’s how companies work.
If things improve, work relationship wise, then great, if they don’t, I know where I stand and as does my manager. Today I learned that if you believe in something and you have deep feelings about it and someone tries to get you down over it, fight for it, don’t let anyone push you over. Fight for what you want, its not going to be handed out to you.

Without some of my colleagues at work, I would have not only walked out a couple of months ago, but probably thrown myself off a bridge into motorway traffic!. Thanks everyone. You know who you are!.

Some Auto Post Feed Issues

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:09:04 -0400

Hi all, 3 articles in the space of a couple hours. Where am I getting this time, I have no idea. Anyway, just noticed that there’s a little issue with some of my articles are not auto posting on Twitter and Facebook. This is causing a little traffic issue (low traffic). Most of our traffic currently comes from social networking so its a little issue…Saying that however, there hasn’t been any content up bar Leon’s posts.

I think I might have solved this issue (this post is also a test). I’ll keep an eye on it and troubleshoot.

I also want to apologise for the lack of content recently. To be honest, I’ve lost some motivation for the site and some things at work have got me down or tired which makes me not want to do anything. I’d like to say I can continue to blog, but i’m finding it hard. Time will tell if I can keep going..I guess its stay tuned.

Keep safe everyone!.