Cyberpsyche

Happy valentines.

My heart has made its mind up
And I'm afraid it's you.
Whatever you've got lined up,
My heart has made its mind up
And if you can't be signed up
This year, next year will do.
My heart has made its mind up
And I'm afraid it's you.

---Wendy Cope

Occasionally I read a book that changes my point of view, one of the reasons that I think it’s important to read. One book that did this was Life of Pi, I read this a few years ago now, just after it won the Man Booker Prize. The book advertises that it will make you believe in God. Well as not believing at the time I thought it might be an interesting read, although it didn’t get me to believe in God, it did change my perception. The book quite brilliantly tests why we might believe.

Recently I've been thinking about expectation. I remember working with some management consultants once and their favourite turn of phrase was: You have to manage expectations.

They kept saying this. Practically it meant they needed to know what could go wrong, allowing them to manage the situation should it happen.

Recently on British terrestrial television there was a popular psychology program and they illustrated how the expectation of reward affects children; and indeed adults. Three groups of children were asked to paint; one group was left to paint, one after a brief period was given a surprise reward for their work and the third group: were told right from the start there would be a reward for painting.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name
Belonging to a man.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.

Remember Engrish.com, or you might not of heard of it. How funny English is often used in the orient to mean a completely different thing. Well it turns out the western world does the same, the recent trend in using chinese characters in tattoo designs doesn't anways say what's advertised.

It's interesting that companies are beginning to take blogging seriously. The New York Times notes how much blogs sways public opinion, and changes people's perceptions of companies.

Yet another move towards the invisible computer. The big players including microsoft see integrating the web with television in the next generation of home entertainment. With the move to having web based office suites will PCs be used less, the technology being integrated into now what is the Television.

However some are not so sure of the succe