Had to post this as a follow on from Simon's blog yesterday...

As the Tartan Army prepare to present Maradona tonight with that belated Player of the Year 1986 award it seems only fair to put to rest the 'Hand of God' controversy once and for all.

When faced with evidence like this photograph all fair minded sports fans north of the border can reach only one collective conclusion... it was clearly a header. Obviously, those of you south of the border (plus our Assistant Manager Terry Butcher - very nice man, did an excellent job of hosting my weddng reception but that's another story) will shout "hand ball" but just imagine if you will that at the time the photograph was taken Maradona had already headed the ball towards goal past Shilton and the arm in the air is just the natural body movement of someone jumping up. The 'Hand of God' was simply an optical illusion propigated by the tabloid press south of the border to explain away the quarter-final defeat all those years ago. Honest it was!

A Glasgow woman goes to the dentist and settles down in the chair. "Comfy?" asks the dentist.
"Govan," she replies. 

What did the Siamese twins from Glasgow call their autobiography? Oor Wullie. 

A guy walks into an antiques shop and says: "How much for the set of antlers?"
"Two hundred quid," says the bloke behind the counter.
"That's affa deer," says the guy. 

Did you hear about the fella who liked eating bricks and cement? He's awa' noo. 

After announcing he's getting married, a boy tells his pal he'll be wearing the kilt. "And what's the tartan?" asks his mate. "Oh, she'll be wearing a white dress," he replies. 

What do you call a pigeon that goes to Aviemore for its holidays? A skean dhu. 

How many Spanish guys does it take to change a lightbulb? Just Juan. 

A man takes a pair of shoes back to the shop and complains that there is a lace missing.
"No," argues the assistant, "look at the label - it says Taiwan ." 

What's the difference between The Rolling Stones and an Aberdeen sheep farmer? The Rolling Stones say: "Hey you, get off of my cloud." And an Aberdeen sheep farmer says: "Hey McLeod, get off of ma ewe." 

What do you call an illegitimate Scottish insect? A wee fly b*d. 

What about the Scotsman who lost his testicles in a motorcycle accident? The surgeon re-attached them with Bostik. 

While being interviewed for a job as a bus driver, a guy is asked: "What would you do if you had a rowdy passenger?"
"I'd put him off at the next stop," he says.
"Good. And what would you do if you couldn't get the fare?"
"I'd take the first two weeks in August," he replies. 

Two negatives make a positive but only in Scotland do two positives make a negative - "Aye right." 

A Glasgow man - steaming and skint - is walking down Argyle Street when he spots a guy tinkering with the engine of his car. "What's up, Jimmy?" he asks. "Piston broke," he replies. "Aye, same as masel..."

Many thanks to http://joebangles.blog.co.uk/ 

Just had a laugh reading about a poor passenger on a French train that had to be rescued by firemen after having his arm sucked down one of the on-board toilets whilst trying to fish out his mobile phone (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7693386.stm). Apparently the passenger was carried away by emergency services, with the toilet still attached to his arm...

It reminded me of being on a flight from Edinburgh to London a few months ago that got held up on the tarmac for a couple hours while mechanics tried to retrieve a mobile phone that had been dropped down the toilet. Why did they have to get it back? Because they had to be sure it was switched off as it was against regulations to fly with mobiles switched on. Life was so much easier (and safer) before the bloody things were invented!

In a world of persistent change it's great to be able to put down roots or at least feel that there are certain things that you can depend upon. Yesterday saw the latest, and if word on the street rings true, possibly the final release from proven pioneers of blues based rock, AC/DC. From all my years of listening to rock music, probably pushing 30 now (I was an early starter) AC/DC are one of those bands that have continually hit the nail on the head each time. While my rock musical tastes have diversified and expanded to allow space for more modern takes on the genre I've never forgotten those roots.

I remember as a 9 year old boy pleading with my mum to let me buy the new AC/DC album, 'Highway to Hell', whilst we weren't a religious family my dear mum had her reservations about the impact that a record with so many connotations in it's title and a man on the front with devil horns might have on an impressionable young boy. However, rationality and possibly some tears and snotters won through and I was soon the proud owner of said vinyl which is still one of my prized pieces in a collection that's pushing 500 plus, that's just the vinyl by the way, my cd collection is possibly double that.

Thankfully today there will be no emotional blackmail needed as I take myself off to the shops to purchase the rock legends latest release 'Black Ice' and there will be just as much excitement as I take it home to listen to it as there was nearly 30 years ago. I know exactly what I'm going to get, there will be no surpises, AC/DC have never really pushed the boundaries but what they do, they do so well and it's that dependable and persistent quality that makes them the best. For those of you reading this that think they can sniff the obvious analogy here, no such luck, I'd never be so crass, besides Mimtech continually push the boundaries of what we can do!

As in my blog two back I'm not going to enter into another political minefield, this time the one that is Sarah Palin, and to be honest I'm not the greatest fan of American humour but hats off to Tina Fey. Her sketches of the Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live are very, very funny. My favourite line is, "...I can see Russia from my house." Actually, they're so realistic they're scary (or is that Sarah Palin? - for something truly scary try watching Palin's interview with Katie Couric of CBS News). No doubting which one between Tina Fey and Sarah Palin is the intellectual and if you are in any doubt then I sincerely hope you're not an American of voting age.

By the way, I haven't seen such a good political impersonation since the chimps at http://www.bushorchimp.com/.

We've always played on the fact the we are vendor agnostic and independent from the WCM companies we partner with. Sometimes it's not an easy space to occupy with some vendors being less than comfortable with the arrangement due to numerous perceived 'conflicts of interest' - mostly brought about by their paranoia and blind faith in their 'best of breed' product.

For us, becoming agnostic simply made good sound commercial sense. Afterall, when we started trading almost three years ago we were a 100% Obtree C4 house and what with its end of life in sight (there, someone finally said what everyone knows!) if we hadn't adapted, our own end of life would be fast approaching too.

Now we're actively supporting clients with WCM solutions and developments in Immediacy, Sitecore, EpiServer, Pepperio as well as RedDot and good old soon to be departed (oops, said it again) Livelink WCMPS/Obtree C4. 

Simon has blogged many times about our WCM to WCM Migration offering, MIM:Switch. It's very exciting for us that the MIM:Switch toolset is now being used in anger for the first time at a major UK organisation to assist in their move away from Livelink WCMPS/Obtree C4. Which solution are they moving to? They/we don't know yet but that's not important... we're vendor agnostic! 

It's known as 'communications data' and inline with European directives the UK Government has proposals for a giant database containing all internet and telephone traffic. Currently, details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone calls, numbers called, websites visited and addresses e-mailed are already stored by telecommunications companies for 12 months under a voluntary agreement. Under the new proposal this information would be kept for two years by law and may be held centrally on a searchable database. 

I'm not going to stray into the political minefield that this move conjures up suffice to say that George Orwell would surely see more than a little resemblance of his Ministry of Truth in the present day Home Office's justifications and ramblings. Let's just hope they don't leave a copy of that database lying around.

As an employer it can be hard when you lose a good member of staff. It forces you to do a bit of navel-gazing; why did they leave?, if they were unhappy, why didn't they say?, are we bad employers? ... that sort of thing. This happened to us when the longest serving member of the development team left for pastures new in July. That was a sad day and to be honest the office hasn't been quite the same since. But three months on and guess what, the prodigal son returns in November.

 Happy? You bet we are and not just restricted to clapping hands, might even go as far as the second verse and stamp our feet!

Public Sector Procurement - some you win, some you lose. Either way the process is time consuming, expensive and emotionally draining for all involved, on both sides of the tender equation. We were fortunate enough to win a big one in the summer but have just missed out on another one today. Reason? ...because the project was pulled back inhouse but not before full response documents had been delivered and final selection presentations attended and clarifications answered. Just one of those things that is to be expected in the current financial climate but what a waste of time!

On with the next one..... 

I am in the middle of a pre migration exercise and need a wee break so instead of doing it I am going to blog about it for a few minutes.

  Mim:switch Obtree site analysis tool.

Using the Mim:switch Obtree/Livelink WCM migration tool we have been analysing a site belonging to one of our customers. We have generated all the reports covering the number of objects,  orphaned and inactive objects, missing attributes, duplicates and slots that are populated and are now trying to complete the analysis document. Between this and the Google Analytics I have spent more time looking at statistics than any time since I was an Economist at the Scottish Office back in the 80's. 

St Andrew's House (Scottish Office)