BBC started airing a very good documentary about the internet a few weeks ago called The Virtual Revolution.  I finally watched the first episode just the other night.  It’s amazing how much has happened in such a small time.

Google was incorporated in 1998 (went public in 2004).  Youtube started in 2005.  Twitter in 2006.  The World Wide Web was created in 1990 with the first web server being created by Tim Berners-Lee in that year.

It was a fantastic documentary and it really makes you think. 

We are still very much in the beginning of all of this.  There are still things to be done that no one has thought of yet.  We still haven’t reaped much of the benefits that the improvements in communication channels will have lent to science and medicine and as much as the internet has changed all of our lives, I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what’s to come.

I routinely chat with people in China and India (and back home in the States) while visiting offices here in the UK. In high school, these places all seemed so far away.

This twenty years of the internet will one-day seem like just a blip to us.  One day years in the future, people will talk about how the newspapers and music industries cried foul before they found their own way.  We will talk about the quaint days of waiting for our favourite TV programs to be aired.  Soon, we will look back on Twitter and Facebook the same way we look back on the old newsgroups (it was all so crude!).

The other day I found myself falling into the trap of thinking that everything had been invented already.  Surely, there are no new opportunities out there because they’ve all been invented.  Or, someone is already working on them.  But the truth is that we’ve hardly scratched the surface. 

There are still things that aren’t quite right in technology.  Still loads to do.  For example, as much as webcam chat is fantastic and a nice novelty, it’s still too complicated to get “ordinary” people to use it. 

As much as things change, we still think in old terms.  Artists still come out with Albums, even though we can buy and download only the tracks we want.  Why do we need the album grouping?  We still have business people who think they need to fly thousands of miles to have a meeting in another office, because we haven’t found a method of communication that is better an 8 hour flight.  Too many of us still get up in the morning and drive or take a train to an office building to do work that could easily be done at home.  When we get to grips with some of these new realities, we will start thinking differently and even more innovation will come.

I was reading the xkcd comic strip (if you haven’t read it, you’re missing out—http://xkcd.com), and saw this this strip:

2003 wasn’t that long ago. Or maybe my age is just catching up with me.

“Superman. good morning. I saw your email about taking Christmas eve off and I’m fine with that.”

“Now I know you are eager to go out and capture Lex Luthor and save the world again, but I need you to put down on paper everything you are planning to do over the next few days in order to catch him. I know you don’t like drawing up project plans, but you know what they say–failing to plan is planning to fail.”

“I really don’t want an incident like the last time you saved the world. Sure you did a great job, no one’s saying you didn’t, but you completely deviated from the plan and didn’t even consult me on your final solution. There were times when I didn’t even know where you were. You made me and the company look bad.”

“You may have all these super powers, but I have leadership skills. I’ve been in this industry for years and I know how the game is played. The truth is, whether you like it or not, you need me. You’d be lost without me.”

Superman spends the next few hours drawing up his project plan.

“It says here you need three days to find and capture Luthor. Is it really going to take you that long? What if you walked out the building now and he is standing across the street, wouldn’t you be able to do it in two days then? Well, let’s just put down two days on the plan then.”

“I can see you’re frustrated Superman. But you aren’t the only one with responsibilities around here. I was up till midnight last night doing budgeting for the next year. It’s very important work.”

“What was that? I’m sorry, do you have over ten years management experience? Do you have an MBA? Are you six sigma certified? Well, let’s leave thinking up to me, huh?”

“Oh, Lois Lane from the Daily Planet wanted to interview you about the train wreck you stopped last week. I told her I would meet with her instead. You are far too busy be spending time talking to reporters. Don’t worry, I won’t take all the credit–I’ll tell her it was a team effort.”

Despite the extra half-hour traveling, I’m really enjoying the new location in London I’m spending most of my days in. I’ve come to know Canary Wharf and West London pretty well–but now I get to learn my way around the City a bit more.

Here’s a picture I took with my phone the other day. This was taken a about 100ft from the new office.

Most of my work is on the south side of London Bridge, but I frequently go into the City to visit the other office.

No showers, so the lunch time run is not on, but a very nice place to work.

So today I started my new contract with a consulting firm. Funny thing, first days. You try not to seem a nuisance when all of your PC accounts and privileges are set up. It seems like a nice place and I’m looking forward to working on the cool project I’m assigned to.

The offices are located near London Bridge, close to the London Dungeon. It’s a nice area of London I haven’t really visited much.

I was doing really well with posting more regularly, but I got bogged down in loads of work recently.

Learning WPF is really a lot of fun. I’ve done the Microsoft learning courses and have started through Charles Petzold’s gigantic book on the subject (called Applications=Code+Markup). I’m really convinced that WPF will make a huge change in the way we use software in the future.

I’ve also taken on a contract (starting next week). I’ll be working for a London consultancy building MIS applications for another investment bank. I’ll give more details later (just in case it falls through at the last second).

I wasn’t looking for a project, but a friend called me about this one and it really took my fancy. I must be getting geekier–I wasn’t interested until he told me about the technologies they’re using. My CV wasn’t even up to date. I’m very excited about it.

So, in addition to the offshoring projects–I’m back into London to do some coding myself.

I’m very late with this.
I left my last contract over a week and half ago and haven’t posted anything to say thank you (if someone should happen upon this site again).
Thanks to everyone and the leaving you and the great present. I’m using that while running through the countryside.
Not much time has past since I’ve left, but it feels like forever. My first week on this project was really long. I’m really putting a lot of time into setting up my PC, the new Overpass site, some flowcharts, etc.
I’m finally getting over the “Oh shit!” stage. Now, I’m focused on getting this thing off the ground.
I’ll try to post more on this site and I will definitely change the way this site looks.
I shall talk to you all later.
Eric