Over the past few weeks I’ve learnt that some cliches really are true. Like the one that goes along the lines of “not enough hours in the day.” A colleague working on the same projects as me remarked recently that working 24/7 wasn’t enough – he needed 25/8.

This is another way of saying that I’m completed swamped and as a result blogging has fallen down my priority list. However I’m also planning visits to quite a few cities in the next ten weeks, so if you’re in one of the following cities, and want to meet for coffee please drop me a line (now *at* rogerdennis *dot* com): Wellington, Auckland, Melbourne, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.

Now that’s going to keep me busy…

Moving house + high workload + lack of broadband connection at home (multiple failures by TelstraClear, my soon-to-be ex-ISP) = low blogging frequency.

I plan to be on top of things shortly.

This is a completely off-topic post for regular readers, and for that I apologise.  However I have just solved a problem with my laptop which has taken hours, and for which there seems to be a lot of mis-information about online.  With that in mind, I though it was worth sharing.

If you do not have an Apple computer which you are trying to upgrade to the Snow Leopard operating system, stop reading now.  There – I’ve said it.  Stop wasting your time.

I’ve had all sorts of problems trying to get Snow Leopard to install, whether it’s clean or an upgrade.  I’ve has messages which talk about files failing to copy, and needing to clean the DVD.  The messages were very unhelpful (for example: “Install Failed: The installer could not copy the necessary support files”), and when you go online people talk about mad solutions like removing RAM.

Here’s what I did.  After the install failed for the fifth time (each effort taking an hour or so) I found that there was an install log.  I looked at the install log (available from the menu) and saw that the error was linked to a missing file called German.pkg (or something similar).

My guess was that this was a language pack, and on my next install attempt I chose the “customize” option from the install menu.  From here I could deselect the language packs, and run the install.  This time the installer did not look for the “missing” files, and hey presto, it worked.

I guess it’s not so good if you are German…

(key words for searching : snow leopard install DVD troubleshooting fail file install initialize clean disc OSX upgrade apple solution error troubleshoot)

I’ve changed my status on LinkedIn to read “running to stand still.”  I’ve had a frantic last couple of weeks, and there’s at least two more weeks of this ahead.  As a result my blogging has moved down the priority list but will be back on schedule after the commercial break. Stay tuned…

On the Twitter stream during Interesting South last week, there were a couple of comments which I would like to reply to. While I’d much prefer to debate points of view in person, there was no time in the conference format for a Q&A session.  Secondly the people that made the comments didn’t come and chat during the breaks so I thought I’d answer them here to start an online conversation instead.

Firstly, Mark Pesce remarked on Twitter that I gave “the standard creative destruction talk. And no Marc did not invent the browser.”

In response:

1. I agree that my presentation is in line with the underlying tenant of creative destruction.  However my point is that increasingly the innovations that lead to industry disruption do not come from within corporations – they come from people on the fringes.  And as organisations become increasingly digitalised they are more and more susceptible to being blindsided by one person working on their own, hence the examples I presented of Shawn Fanning (Napster) and Marc Andressen (the web browser)
2. This leads me to Marks second point about who invented the web browser. When I refer to Marc Andressen as the inventor of the web browser, I am referring to the browser as we know it today.  This means that it has integrated graphics and text. There were text browsers around prior to Mosiac, but I’d argue that for the vast majority of people a web browser minus graphics isn’t a web browser at all.  I have been online since the early 90s, and I clearly recall downloading and running the first version of Mosaic. It was revolutionary. The fine details of this point could be debated for a long time, but for clarity see the Wikipedia entry.

Secondly Adrian Farouk commented “how on earth does roger know that there is a strain of corn that can sweat oil?? What books does he read?”

Apologies if you missed my commentary around this statement Adrian, but this did not come from a book.  It was a statement of fact by the Chief Scientific Officer of one of the worlds largest agricultural biotechnology companies.

The statement was made during a Shell Technology Futures session and as we run these events under Chatham House rule, I cannot give you his name or company.

Given that he runs a global team of a few hundred people whose scientific qualifications read like eye charts, I have a tendancy to belive that he’s quite credible when he talks about corn that sweats oil.

But Adrian is right about one thing –  you won’t read about this in any books.  Not yet anyway.

As an experiment I thought I’d blog my next trip and make an offer of meeting.  If you are interested in having a chat about innovation in your context, let me know.  I have some meetings already arranged, but lets see what happens.  Please mail me directly rather than adding comments (now *at* rogerdennis.com)

Fiji.

Past two weeks.

Loved it.

Retrospective out of office notification :

Just got back from a whirlwind trip : Singapore-London-Hague-London-Sydney. In a mere eight days. Is there some sort of prize for this type of itinerary? Like copious quantities of sleep?? Or maybe a free refill of melatonin…

I was listening to the radio this morning when the Arctic Monkeys came on. In the middle of the tune “Brain Storm” came a line which made me stop dead. It went “see you later innovator.”

You can verify this here.

The jury is out as to whether this means that innovation is waaay cool – as it’s being name checked in music – or that it means that the word innovation (and all it’s variations) is so overused that it has made it’s way into popular culture. After all I never heard of a band use the words “Six Sigma” in any song (but I stand to be corrected).

Or – maybe it means that the band thought it rhymed nicely with the word ‘later’.

It’s a little off topic, but while in London a couple of weeks back I had an interesting chat with Matt Webb about trying to work on planes.

We developed a theory, which basically says that the longer the journey, the more likely you are to end up watching Die Hard 3. I have called this – wait for it – The Theory of an Airline Passengers Diminishing Intelligence.

I know – it’s catchy.

No matter what my intentions are – whether it’s to write the next book chapter, read that interesting paper or write that very cleverly worded email reply – I always end up watching bad movies after a couple of hours.

My dimishing hierarchy goes something like this :
– read article that requires serious thought
– write emails that need some consideration
– reply to emails that don’t need consideration
– try to read the book that I’ve packed
– listen to a podcast

By this time I surrender to inflight banality and plug into the movie channel. And what’s more, it’s usually not a good movie I select. Last week I found myself watching Eragon (feel free to add a melodramatic gasp at this point).

If that’s not proof of my theory, nothing is.