Over at http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/careers-hr/people-management/news-analysis/index.cfm?articleid=2085 you can not only read about HP’s proposal to reduce staff salaries you can even read the internal mail the CEO (Mark Hurd) sent breaking the news. Now I believe giving everyone a paycut and no one losing their jobs (except for the bankers who casued this chaos who should lose jobs and possibley body parts) is a sound policy. It’s good for people (most of us could still eat on a bit less and most of us want to keep our jobs) and its good for the company (who don’t lose valuable resources) and it’s seems fairer & more equitable.

The CEO is offering up 20% of his (base) salary and asking for a measley 5% from the lowest ranks of salaried staff. A generous, inspiring lead? Hmm, looks less so once you check the figures http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/71/71087/2009_Proxy_Statement_Supplement.pdf . His base pay is $1.45 million (most of us might think we  could afford a cut on that!) however his bonuses last year amounted to $41 million (that would do me fine) so his actual cut is less than 1% of total. 

I would assume if things were going badly he wouldn’t get any bonus but looking at the bankers that doesn’t seem to be the way things work. In fact assuming that the wage cut allows the company to perform well we can expect his bonus to do well - so he will receive more as the staff get less (ever the nature of business). In effect he pockets the cash that Now, what was I saying about fair & equitable?

Over at http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/music/galleries/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=13794646&GT1=61501&ocid=today
they are listing which famous love songs are written about who. Apart from the fact some of the songs aren’t love songs and some of the songs they admit they don’t know who they are about… it is quite interesting.

One thing they miss is in item 9
“It’s quite…ummm… something to have one of the greatest love songs of all time written about you, but two of them? Pattie Boyd must have been quite…ummm… something in her day”

Surely “Wonderful Tonight” is also about Patti? Giving her 3 major hits to have inspired.

Having played around on the creative side (& more relevantly read a lot of interviews with song writers) it is clear that many songs aren’t from a single inspiration. Something (someone) may inspire the start of a song but other influences then sweep in. The article claims “Sweet Child of Mine” was written in five minutes but ideas within it may have been growing for years and tweaks to it may have occurred for months after.

Just because you slap together the bones of an application in a day doesn’t mean you haven’t been thinking about the algorithm for years and you won’t spend years maintaining and tweaking it…

As a bit of an old hand with computers / internet etc and also with churches I was interested in radio 4’s “god.com” - “Dr Robert Beckford examines the popularity of religion on the internet.” I did have it on this morning but I was working so didn’t really take much in. You can listen for yourself at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hc2cx

I was (still am?) a member of VURCH (http://www.vurch.com/).

The main problem I have with online communities (religious or otherwise) is how easy it is to drop out. Maybe it’s just me & my experience but the online communities I have been involved with do seem to have let people disappear without as much checking from the community that they are OK (as would happen in a real church) and without much thought (guilt?) from the individual.

Sometimes “easy” is not the best option - a bit of commitment from both sides is a good thing in a relationship.

Working from home has many advantages - one of which is not having to struggle through the snow to try and get into the office. Given that I have had no transport problems, haven’t had to get up early to try and get in, haven’t got home late, haven’t wrecked my car or broken a limb in accidents it would be churlish to complain that when my wife and son were both given “snow days” yesterday I had to dip into holiday to join them sledging at the park. So I won’t, I’ll just say it was a day worth taking off.  Even if I wasn’t a home worker & had been forced to stay at home I could have quite easily done some work from home so taking holiday seems a reasonable thing.

There have been various complaints about how schools close so quickly - people blaming our health and safety culture on not wanting to risk kids in an icy playground. Certainly when I was a kid we didn’t get time off for bad weather. The truth is that it is not about icy playgrounds and parents suing for fallen kids but that teachers can’t get into work.  I didn’t get snow days as a kid but all (bar one) of the teachers lived in the town and could walk in.

The difference between then & now is the distance people travel to get to work - and health & safety & political correctness and … But you can’t blame them for everything.