CD of the Month

So much for CD of the week - I don't get through enough music to keep that up, even when I end up stuck in the car in the rain for hours on end.

This week, one of the classic albums from one of the best-ever bands - Supertramp's Crime of the Century. Their third album out of fourteen (so far) is mainstream 70's US pop, contemporary with the Eagles' Hotel California. I think it's the best of their albums, music that I never tire of.

I went to see them at the Pavilhão Atlântico in 2002 - a great show. The location is awful, due to the lousy acoustics, and the public, mostly kids who didn't know the music and spent their time chatting and making phone calls, didn't help at all. Now I'm really showing my age, I suppose.

Present for Grandma

When the Financial Times magazine reviewed a TFT photo frame in the Technopolis section of its October Interiors editions, I thought it was a great idea, though a 3.5" screen seemed a bit small. After a bit of research, I found that the product reviewed, while technologically advanced in being able to receive photos by Bluetooth, is far outshone by products made by such mundane household names as Philips.

This Philips frame is 7 inches across and will read photos from various memory card formats, easily outdoing the competing product, which has only 32MB of memory. It is also stocked by my favourite photo shop, which deserves a plug for its professionalism.

Guess what the grandparents will be getting for Christmas...

Risky Business

In an interview I saw on TV this weekend, a young British millionaire said "Those who are not prepared to take risks will always end up working for those who are". Obvious really!

So how is it possible for accounting firms to survive? Accountants are by their very nature risk averse. But within accounting firms, those who take more risks are likely to be more successful and thus be promoted to partner level. And it is at that level that they, because of their risk-tolerant nature, take risky decisions that sooner or later will lead to the demise of the firm.

Perhaps this phenomenon will be the downfall of the multi-national firms, returning to local practitioners in "real" partnerships where they personally know all their partners in the firm and accept their professional judgement on technical and risk issues. That, on the other hand, gives rise to scale problems where internal resources may not exist for technical and training issues. The fees charged by those smaller firms would have to rise in order to ensure an adequate level of quality.

It's a worrying scenario if I were to return to professional practice. For the moment I will let my shareholders take the risk and keep my risk-averse head down.

Rotas do Mundo

When I went to Rome last month I picked up two travel magazines at the airport, Rotas do Mundo from the TAP free newspaper counter and another, apparently better known publication, which I bought because it had a feature on Rome. (I might review that one too, if I ever get round to reading it.)


I was intrigued by Rotas do Mundo because of its style: first-person reports from people who appear to have travelled independently, not corporate free-loaders. It's hardly of Portuguese origin, with contributions of other nationalities and is simultaneously superficial and oddly focused. Reporters on Brittany, Galiza and Innsbruck dash from cafe to cafe. Those in West Africa, India and French Polynesia try to cover too much area in to little space.

If you are a "Lonely Plant" type of traveller, as I used to be, this may be the magazine for you. Personally I am reserving judgement until I have sampled others.

Unpopular Consultation

It is a fine democratic principle that important matters outside the scope of party politics may be put directly to popular vote. The problem arises when the politicians fail in identifying those matters that are important to the people.

Last time round, voters decided that abortion is unimportant - less than 50% turnout failed to produce a convincing result. I fail to see that anything has changed in that respect.

Personally, as a man of few strongly held beliefs, I have no firm opinion on the matter and have never had a personal experience that made it relevant to me. Just as in the European Constitution referendum that never took place, I don't like the "question" approved by the Constitutional Court; technical precision and clarity are not compatible here.

Above all, I hope that a majority of voters turn out, even if it is to spoil their ballot papers. Otherwise all we will have is proof that it was an "unpopular" consultation, allowing the politicians to waste time and resources on debating the timing of the next repeat, instead of running the country, which is what they were elected to do. Unfortunately, I doubt that there will be enough votes, so the saga will run and run.

Portuguese Losers

I feel obliged to "destacar" the awful headline from one of Lisbon's free distribution daily papers today - the Portuguese are losing millions on Euromillions! Over the last three weeks, the difference between the amounts bet and received by Portuguese punters is more than 64 million euros. Brilliant!

Lets see. If 20% of all bets are lost in tax and the jackpot has not been paid in that period, associated with a sharply increased level of bets due to the huge jackpots, where's the surprise? It would be newsworthy if the Portuguese loss ratio were higher than other countries, but that would have required some serious research. Even so, a little work must have gone into arriving at the 64M€ figure - shame it only qualifies as news for its sensation value.

Personally, I got a 11-1 payout last week - enough to keep me betting for another three months. I wonder where the big prize will finally go - luck of the Irish again, or Portuguese underdogs?

Quote of the Day

"A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing"

Oscar Wilde