I ticked the wrong box

I’ve been struggling to find podcasts that I really dig. Redmonk radio lost me as a listener. I thought their early episodes (up to around 40 or so) were great. A good mix of strategy, business, and IT - in a general sense. I’m quite an enterprise focussed generalist, so that really appealed to me. However, recently they have released the RIA and IT Management podcasts, and they are not for me at all - so I unsubscribed.

I went looking last night for some new podcasts in iTunes that might appeal to me. I found a couple, but am still left unimpressed.

What I found was…

• Deloitte UK Insights - Interesting analysis from Deloitte UK - based around their recent releases of sector based 2008 predictions. I liked this, but I’d like it to be more frequent than yearly
• boagworld.com - not listened yet
• Enterprise Architecture with Jan Popkin and Enterprise Architecture: Lessons Learned - thinly veiled sales podcasts from Telelogic - authors of the Popkin System Architect tool (which I personally like as a tool, but not as much as Metis Architect)
• Manager Tools - not listened yet
• Pragmatic Programmers - not listened yet
• TelcoTalk - product reviews, US based, but features some international news. I think this has promise, but needs to leave just reporting about device press releases and features, and start to comment more on how the devices are unique in the market, their competitors, business value they create etc…
• The Web 2.0 Show - not listened yet

What I’m actually looking for is IT / Telecommunications / Enterprise / business / strategy / analysis style talking. I’m not after development podcasts (although the Ruby On Rails podcast is good, and I’m expecting PragProg, boagworld and web2.0 show to be similar), but I do enjoy the style of them - talking about new ways of working, the business value of agile methods, interviews with startups and businesses on introduction of new technology into the enterprise etc.

Does anyone know of anything that will fit the bill?

I’m doing a bit of Flash work for a mate who is setting up a website to host video. One of the problems I just solved was how to get some text to flow around an image. I was hoping there would be some sort of way to make a textfield of arbitrary shape (with vectors or something) because I really wanted an L shaped textfield, so I could place an image in the upper left corner, but sadly, they are just rectangles. I found this post though, and the solution was so simple.

Just convert the textfield to Render text as HTML!  Put your normal HTML tags in, and it’s all good bro.

That’s what I like about this whole Flash thing - it’s very easy to merge the richness of Flash with the simplicity of the web.

What I don’t like is that the content isn’t searchable by Mr. Google

Well, last friday (29th) was my last day at Vodafone Group Services. It feels a bit weird not working there anymore, although I don’t even know if it’s really hit me. After 8+ years in the same group of companies it’s just a bit strange to be out.

I’ve got a new role at a consultancy based in London, starting with some intensive training on the 10th March. Should be very interesting to start working on the other side of the consultant/customer relationship. I’m really looking forward to it - it’ll be great to be able to interact with a wider range of companies, industries and perform a much more cross-functional role. It should be great! And finally being able to feel like I’m delivering value to people and organisations again - that will be the most rewarding part of the move (of course, I have been delivering value for the past 8 years, it’s just in the last 2 it’s been in a very different way - all advice and recommendations, rather than something tangible).

The biggest thing that I think I’m going to struggle with though is having to pay for phone calls! Spending a long time with free wireless voice and data services builds up some bad habits (from my bank balances point of view!)