A recent study by the NIH part of the US Health service, have found that people that take a power nap during the day might perform at a higher level. It might disprove that for at least some people, if they can power nap are able to operate for longer hours and still maintain a high level of efficiency. Apparently there is some good company around for the power nappers, Albert Einstein was one.

So I have put together a set of useful links for those that need to find more information to justify that short break in there day.

http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jul2002/nimh-02.htm – Research done in 2002 by the NIH

This wikipedia link is very useful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_nap

Another useful one that cites the newer NASA experiment in 2007. http://ririanproject.com/2007/09/05/10-benefits-of-power-napping-and-how-to-do-it/

Well I have to go and have my power nap

See ya round

Peter

We have been hearing little bits about the DNS bug that could end the world (oh alright have some dire consequences for the usage of the internet). Dan Kaminsky had found a way to poison DNS caches so that clients could be sent to incorrect servers. This was clearly a serious flaw and now there is patches out for this. Please help keep it safe for the less knowledgeable and patch your systems. This is not a difficult thing to do and will save you a lot of grief. It seems Dan took a path that many did not understand in dealing with his finding and has copped a bit if flack, I will say that I feel his approach was correct and he will likely be vindicated with this issue now quietly sliding off the radar for most internet users.

It all slipped out when a security person was speculating on a companies blog or forum and then someone in teh company spilled the beans by confirming the speculation. I guess there will be a bit of discussion on at the next staff meeting about the issues with such online discussions. It can sure have ramifications for a listed company in many places and could amount to an insider trading scare.

http://www.doxpara.com/?p=1164 to reads Dan’s own take on events It seems Big Pond here in Australia has done its thing and patched. Dan’s testing tool has shown clean for my ISP DNS server.

Lets hope that this is the end of such an issue.

See ya round

Peter

Companies in Australia are slowly awakening to the possible benefits of social networking. I yesterday read an article in a local Brisbane newspaper that said 1 in 4 Australian businesses were allowing employees access to Facebook and other social networking sites Read the rest of this entry »

I had a read of a blog and it made me think that there was a few options that could have been considered in this, for one this is a win lose situation and as Toni rightly points out the position she appeared to take is a win-lose and she lost. This has many ramifications, loss of face in some cultures, loss of respect by fellow employees, in many western companies. I think she got to here from missing some crucial part of the idea that the person proposing the idea was trying to make. She has failed to find the third way, the better idea than either had in the first place.

Some things to consider here are did she go to hard in promoting her idea without adequately understanding the colleagues idea, leaving herself no place but to either win or lose. Was she favouring a solution due to some personal bias, I have never met Toni so I can only surmise as to what she may have been doing. She likely very unconsciously placed herself in the position she found herself in, she like many others never set out to loose the battle, but maybe that was the problem in that she decided she had to battle to win it.

Active listening is a crucial part of identify places to meld the ideas and it is possible that she failed to do more active listening to work towards the win-win which is much better than compromise. With active listening and affirmation of understanding of the other persons position the situation might have been avoided and, not lead to the win-lose that occurred.

Win-win when you are successful will make you very powerful as you will gain a lot of respect in a well thinking organisation, I have seen cases of where this sort of behaviour was considered a threat by managers and, people were gotten rid of as they threatened their positions simply by the managers insecuritry and the success cerated by the well negotiated win-win.

Apologies Toni for picking on you, but your article left a great place to try and write a piece on

See ya round

Peter

I have been reading on and off a book “The Tao of Chinese Business”, iIt is a fascinating read. It shows many of the pitfalls that are there in doing business in Asia and more in China. The influence of Taoism shapes many of the ideas that then set the agenda for business. It is interesting how the chinese reconcile things so differently and come to very different conclusions. I see eventually a change that will leave Taoism damaged as the number of young chinese that have been educated overseas, predominately in the west, will bring with them a model learned in those places that will conflict and compete with the more traditional thinking.

Eventually there will be a dilution of the present strong Tao thinking in business. This will evolve the Chinese business landscape to something new. It wont be entirely western either, you can pretty much bet on that.

The family company architectures are slowly evolving to create new entities that are showing greater governance and yet still presently carry much of the old structure. Traditionally the Asian family business model has done very well within the local neighbourhood of China, Singapore or Thailand, however the same things that make them strong make them vulnerable outside of there home countries.

For anyone contemplating business in Asia and especially China this book is highly recommended reading. It will open your eyes, something the early raiders did not have( eyes wide open ) as many were bitten badly by failures in China. It has taken many a long time to develop the local knowledge to be able to successfully compete.