Philip Richardson

Michael Höhne reminded me (via his blog post) that the Titan NDA drops on October 1st. I have lots of stuff to blog about – but I am unsure of what the inaugural posting should be. I'm having a lot of fun with Camtasia BTW so expect to see some nice screencasts.

Michael and some of the other top CRM consultants/trainers were in Redmond this week for Instructer Led Training (ILT) 'train the trainer sessions'. It was great to see some the best people in the broader CRM technical community in one room (eg. Aaron Elder, Michael Höhne, Guy Riddle, David Yack etc). Guy even managed to find time to pop over to our building and hold a lunch session with some our Program Managers to give us feedback on Titan and to give us some inspiration for future releases.

I'm presenting at the Microsoft Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management (BPM) Conference (Oct 29 – Nov 2 in Redmond WA). Check out the site if SOA and BPM is something which interests you.

I met someone at my friend Ben's birthday on Friday. This guy reminded me of this article which is worth sharing. Lets just say he won't be retiring at 50 and he wasn't the one in the Payless shoes.

Once conformism was a relatively guaranteed way to affluence. It's still true that to move up in class (and yes – there are classes in every society) you must break the rules. However in today's world conforming means being a consumer. It means being a voracious consumer who loves debt. Conformism today puts people at huge risk of sliding backwards: not slowly advancing forward.

Before you take your next trip to the big box store you should watch Fight Club and decide if you really need more crap.

"The things you own, they end up owning you." – Tyler Durton

That guy BTW: I should have fought him…

I took an interesting walk from the W to Ritual this morning. Ritual delivered on its reputation as one of America's finest coffee houses. Their espresso was a finely pulled ristretto which was sweet to the last drop. Utterly fantastic.

I wish I could have dragged the occupants from last night's wedding table to Ritual. They had been discussing their favourite brand of coffee: folgers (I won't even dignify it with capitalisation – let alone a link). If they knew that such elixir, such as Ritual's espresso, existed they would abandon their camel piss.

Here is my new cafe lineup:

1) Campos (Newtown, NSW, Australia)
2) Espresso Vivace (Seattle, WA, USA)
3) Ritual (San Francisco, CA, USA)
4) 2kf (Mona Vale, NSW, Australia)
5) Stumptown (Portland, OR, USA)
6) Anywhere in Melbourne (VIC, Australia)
7) Anywhere in Leichhardt (NSW, Australia)
Victrola (Seattle, WA, USA)
9) Anywhere in Italy that doesn't cater to tourists
10) Zoka (Seattle, WA, USA)
11) Segafredo (Shinjuku, Japan)

Note Italy is ranked low. The Italians make great coffee: but they don't take it seriously enough (not neccessarily a bad thing).

Update: I re-ordered some of the cafes and added Stumptown (which I totally forgot about – Sorry Rory). Went back to Ritual on Monday/Tuesday and it was good good good. It came close to displacing Vivace at #2.

Clover Moore is proposing a Small Bars bill in NSW parliament. If you've been to Sydney you'll know that most places are filled with the evil poker machine (aka slot machines). I believe NSW has the more machines/people than anywhere else in the world (including Nevada). Sure – the pokies are great for government revenue – but not great for a night out. Even Russell Crowe (now the co-emperor of South Sydney Rugby) is planning to take the club pokies free.

When I go out to drink: I want to drink. I don't want people smoking. I don't want people gambling (a casino is never like a James Bond movie – so get over it).