I wrote our company website using Notepad entirely in classic ASP and CSS. There is no javascript. It is now looking pretty dated and I need to refresh it. The days of hand-coding websites seems to be over, and I think I need a decent content management system. The only options seem to be Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress. I'll probably use Wordpress for no particular good reason.

I bought a book on JQuery and Ajax, which I've yet to read, but as someone who doesn't really do web development the learning curve is pretty steep and I'm not sure it's worth my time trying to learn it.

Regarding classic ASP, I'm not bad at it, but it's too old now. I don't know whether to upgrade to dot ASP.Net or switch to PHP.

What always surprises me is how far north Britain actually is. I'm really not looking forward to the Gulf Stream being turned off <shivers>

Never heard of this game, but I've just bought it, cheers. Will have a play this weekend with my lad - I need to get him into something that isn't Minecraft.

Apple devices aren't designed to work with a stylus because Steve Jobs thought they were the devil's work. He thought we should all write with our finger. This despite the fact that the rest of the human race discovered that writing with an implement was better than a finger in around 4,000BC. He was a clever bloke generally, but on this he was a complete idiot.

Northampton, England. 5,000 mile radius if you're prepared to pay Business Class and the job isn't too urgent.

Yes. I have a Wacom Bamboo stylus. It's like writing with a child's wax crayon.

@StrongBad said:

Other than being "convertible" between two poor situations, it doesn't seem to have a good use case.

I haven't used it, but I would say the killer application is the pen. The ability to write notes and draw diagrams easily and accurately is a massive selling point. I flirted with using my Ipad for note-taking in meetings, but it was hopeless. I've gone paperless in pretty much all aspects of my life other than note-taking. I'd love to be able to finally ditch the stationary.

At the moment, they just use enquiry screens for our ERP system. They mainly check stock levels and stock locations. I'm looking to do much more. I want to eliminate paper entirely. They will be able to look at CAD drawings, instead of relying on printed drawings. And instead of static CAD drawings, I can see them watching videos of how our products fit together, which should reduce our training costs and improve quality. Currently, we don't have any kind of bar code reading, but I'm planning on introducing iPods and QR codes. Wi-fi is getting installed next month. iPods will be used for stock taking, tracking stock movements, viewing and updating works orders and e-mail/messaging.

We don't currently get live shopfloor feedback, because the manual process of printing works orders, filling them in by hand, and keying that info back into the ERP system can be a bottleneck of several days. I want that data to be live. So as soon as a worker has completed an operation he feeds that info to the ERP system himself.

How much of this I'll get done and how long it will take, I don't know.

What amazes me is how positive the shopfloor staff are when it comes to implementing new technology and changing working practices compared with office staff. The biggest ballache of implementing ERP is dealing with humans who are resistant to change. Because the shopfloor staff currently have nothing, they're open to anything. Give them an iPod and they're amazingly enthusiastic. It actually makes ERP development fun for a change. Implementing in the Office often feels like walking through mud - every bit of progress has to be fought for.

I get to the point where some office managers are so obstreperous when it comes to implementing new processes that I start looking at ways of simply cutting them out of the process altogether. Getting shopfloor workers on board is a key part of that strategy.

@scottalanmiller said:

Aren't you in England? Where Imperial units come from? And don't you still use pints there? I use pints when I am there.

For some reason, we still measure milk and draft beer in pints. Bottled beer is now metric. We also still use miles instead of kilometres. I don't know why we only partially went metric, probably to appease the traditionalists.

Oh man, you Americans. Go metric! We did, and we've never looked back!! Cups and pints suck.

Do people use their laptops much on their laps then? I use mine on my lap for watching videos and stuff, where I wouldn't use a Surface keyboard anyway (normally when I'm slouching on the sofa or on the bed) , but for serious typing work I always find a table to put it on. Apart from anything, my old laptops used to get too hot to be comfortable with long periods of lapwork.

Lapabilitiness is not an issue for me.

@technobabble said:

Crap now I can't edit my post...@Carnival-Boy what are your 99 problems related to W8 or the Surface?

Nothing. It was my feeble attempt at a Jay-Z related joke. Sorry

I do have problems trying to use my Win 8 Ultrabook without a mouse, using the touchpad. If I'm not careful with my finger it will do things I don't want it to (like zoom in the screen).

@technobabble said:

I remove almost all "metro" apps when I setup W8 for my clients. Some never see the start screen when I check that box and pin 99% of their daily apps/programs to the task bar. 99% of W8 concerns disappear.

"I got 99 problems but Metro ain't one."

@alexntg said:

Not familiar with Holacracy? Check it out: http://holacracy.org/how-it-works

I'm not, but it looks pretty interesting. I will check it out. Cheers.

ZX Spectrum. I will never love a machine as much as I loved that (assuming I'll never afford a Porche 911).

Interesting article here:
http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/new_technology_who_wins_who_loses

It essentially says there are two factors to consider when looking at how technology is transforming the workplace. Firstly, information access is cheaper. Secondly, communication is cheaper. The two factors operate in different, and conflicting, ways.

When I started here ten years ago, there were no computers on the factory floor. Now there are PCs, and I'm looking at rolling out iPods in a few weeks time. I'm interested in how this will effect the jobs of the office workers. Will we need so many office workers?

I'd be interested to hear any ML views.

@Reid-Cooper Really? Because of its size, it feels like more of a touch-screen laptop than a tablet to me, though I'll admit I have no idea (or care) what the formal definitions are. I can see us replacing our existing Windows 7 Lenovo laptops for our sales reps with new Surface Pro's later on this year (although we may yet go with iPads, depending on whether they get on with Office on the Ipad and whether Pertino get round to supporting them). It will impress clients during meetings if nothing else.

For travellers spending a lot of time in hotel rooms, I can see the benefits of the nice screen when watching movies. But sitting on a train reading a Kindle book with a 12" screen? Not so much.

For me, I still prefer an ultrabook. I like the clamshell design of them, and they work better on my lap. Ultrabook plus 7" tablet, FTW.

Boring. I'm not a fan of Goldratt or the Theory of Constraints, but my company is thinking of employing some Goldratt consultants (at huge cost) to look at our manufacturing setup and I'm looking to replace our ERP system next year, so I need to do some research. Is it an interest of yours?

Current books:
"Necessary but Not Sufficient" by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. This is by the far the worst titled book, I've ever read. It's about Goldratt's Theory of Constraints and in particular how it relates to the ERP industry.

"Sams Teach Yourself SharePoint Foundation 2010 in 24 Hours" by Mike Walsh. This has taken me more like 24 months as I've struggled to find the time to sit down with it. I'm aiming to finish it next month though.

"Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914" by Max Hastings. Man, this is a depressing book.

You have to spend your life telling people on the phone "the domain is abc-tek.com, that's tek with a 'k' not a 'ch'", which will confuse people and 25% of your customers will still e-mail you using abc-tech.com and will wonder why you never reply to them.

Bad idea IMV.

I only really like .com domain names. Anything else is just a little less classy.

UK companies have also been using .co.uk, but now Nominet are selling .uk domains, meaning every British company with an existing .co.uk domain will now have to spend more money registering a .uk domain as well. A typical money-making scam by Nominet and a complete waste of time. I hate .co, .london, .xxx, .me and all the rest!