With the developments of smartphones that can have tens of thousands little programs added to increase productivity a lot of things that we used to do our selves can now largely be done with one click using smart software.

This is a huge improvement to our lives because we can do stuff quicker and leave more time for making money.

Or does it?

We recently had some strikes in the cleaning sector here in The Netherlands. The workers were fed up with their poor wages combined with the long hours.

And the need for getting more people to work has not been this high for a long time, thanks to the current state of crisis.

What struck me is that most cleaners were people that worked more than one job and still were having trouble to make ends meet.

At the same time the government has trouble to get people of unemployment and in to jobs.

About three years ago I bought an Ipod and I loved it. My experience with electronics made me weary about taking this step and I was worried that using the Ipod would be cumbersome.
The first thing was loading up the thing with music from cd. That went so quick and easy, I was amazed! Everything else was easy as well.

So I bought a macbook.

Because everyone had told me mac was easy I decided to take that plunge. I wondered what the fuss was all about but when I had to return to a windows machine for a project I fully realized it: Mac is easy.

And of course, apple is beautiful!

You probably know the first part of this story:

A production line was giving problems that the regular operators were unable to solve.
So an expert was called in. It was a gentle guy, grey hair and he his services had been called upon for as long as anyone remembered.

He spent all day talking to people in the factory and at about a quarter to five, he went to his car, got out a tiny case and walked to a part of the production line.

I just watched a tv show on how pictures posted on the internet changed the life of some people. A runner-up for a miss contest almost lost her position. 2 young woman would not get hired because of their facebook pages. And finally a young man was sentenced to jail after causing an accident whilst being intoxicated. He had posted some pictures up on a webpage where he was drinking just 2 weeks after the accident.

The 2 young woman had a job interview and the guy who was to interview them read their facebook page.

Yesterday a 77 year old man took a shot at a 13 year old boy with an air rifle.

The boy and a friend were throwing snowballs at the window of the man. When the man told them to stop, they didn't. So the man took out his rifle and shot the boy in his hand.

Now I'm not going to say that it was right for the man to take this measure. But what were his alternatives?

In practice, there were none.

More and more things in this world get scripted.
We all know how we need to go through a phone menu before we actually get to speak to someone when we call our insurance company.
By transferring part of the work to the customer, the company can save quite a bit of money.

Also what happens when you get to talk to a person is often scripted. The person you talk to first can take care of 80% of what needs to be dealt with by the insurer. When they can not solve it, the matter is transferred to a higher authority.

A lot of newspapers are struggling to survive. Everybody says that the free offering of information on the internet is the main problem.

Why would anyone pay for information when you can get it for free on the web?

It looks like Chrysler is safe. For a little while.

A merger with Fiat is on it's way. Two big companies setting themselves up for dismal failure.

First of all, big mergers never work. If it didn't work with Daimler Benz, why should it work with another manufacturer?

But then, a merger with FIAT? Fiat, the Italian car builder?
Fiat is very Italian. It can not get itself organised, just as everything else Italian. It has needed HUUUUUGE sums of money from the Italian government to keep going.

Occasionally I enjoy a good cigar. The only place where I can buy them close to my home is a a shell gas station.

Here in Holland they have the nasty habit of asking me if I want to buy an item they have a promotion going for at the moment. I never want to and I am always annoyed by it. I just want to pay for the stuff I do want and leave quickly.

By now, if I want to buy cigars I hesitate to go to the shell station. I do not want to be annoyed you know.

I buy my fuel at an unmanned shell station. There I do not get hassled to buy more stuff.