Neil Hopcroft

As some of you know I’ve vaguely started looking for work again – this is more because of boredom than anything else, but I’m also keenly aware of a rapidly diminishing bank balance. So far so good. I’ve found a few odd things to apply for, but I’m not really pushing very hard. It seems nearly everything I find is a fictional role put out by agencies to gather CVs so they can big themselves up in front of potential employers – we’ve got 14 milllion CVs on our books. Whenever I phone nobody has any details whatsoever, coming out with things like ‘its kind of in the M4 corridor somewhere’ and ‘they’re looking for GSM skills’ but when pushed on what layer they don’t even know it has layers (not that I know what the layers are, but it seems to be quite an effective sieve for the fiction).

That said there are a couple of potential real opportunities, theres a consultancy not far from here seeking a permie with my kind of skills, I’m hoping they’re small enough and real enough (as in I can actually talk to them) to consider thinking in a slightly different way, but I’ve arranged to go see them Thursday anyway. I’m vaguely positive about this, but I need to hear more first. I don’t like the idea of going back permie, for reasons which I’ll explain later.

Then today I got a call from these people, they left a message asking me to call back. Now, this puts me in a bit of a spot, since I’ve messed them around enough already that anything I do now has got to be straight ahead decisive and that decision has to be final, I can’t procrastinate. Overnight is fine, the message was recieved at 5:30, but I can’t leave it for a long time. They’re nice people, if a little *dynamic* for my liking – thats normally a good thing but it lead to rather more pressure than I’d really like to have had last time around.

The five year plan, such as it is, is to be setting up a business of some kind. I’m not yet sure of the structure of that business, but I’m intending it to be a self-funded ongoing revenue generator rather than a VC lead capital growth affair. Which doesn’t sit very well with taking a permanent job, unless I can find some fairly understanding employers. Contract positions would have no problem with this kind of structure.

“Some grow wings pincers or stings, the mass remain as roaches“

My copy of Gilb has gone walkabout – did anyone borrow it?

Some kind of hat trick
(3.4 Mb mpg)

Lego Chaos
(in keeping with the ongoing Lego theme here…link from lee_chaos)

I’m putting together some content for my company website, I want it to be a good site rather than a bad one. If you’re looking at a website about a company what kind of information do you want to be available? What annoys you about websites? Can anyone give me examples of good sites or bad ones? (please label which is which, my non-artistic eyes might not be able to tell).

Looking west. The daylight is receding over the horizon. Its one of the few vantage points around here, the fenland is so flat. They’re going to be putting CCTV on the bridge. When they do it won’t be a destination any more – linger here and you become a suspect. You won’t be able to stand and watch as the sun disappears above the headlights heading east, the taillights trying to follow it. I was hoping there’d be more traffic, but thats only there when I’m driving the road. Empty, functional, how it should be.

“My nightmare scene’s on TV screens
Data uncertain Information still being received”

Anyone about Cambridge tomorrow afternoon for geekiness with Grandi and the usual suspects?

I’m just going to strim the jungle in the back garden, see if I can find the lawn that used to be underneath it. I feel so grown up.

Anyone got a rake I could borrow?

“The best way to create passionate users is to figure out:

1) What it looks like when people are passionate about something
2) What kind of things people are passionate about and finally…
3) The characteristics of the things people are passionate about

If you’re serious about creating passionate users, this is what it looks like.”