You may have noticed, I recently changed the name of my blog, although the domain remains the same - I’m getting sick and tired of registering domains that I never use for anything useful other than pseudo-branding or self-delusional project aspirations. You know how it goes: have a great idea and go register the domain name as a placebo for actually pursuing the project, or just to add to the infinitely long list of nice-to-do projects parked in the hope-to-do list. Mind you, I’m a big believer in this - you’ve got to stay positive, optimistic and hopeful and always write your ideas down, park them, mull them over. You never know. Like all good things, the right place and the right time might one day coincide to turn an idea into a ‘life experience’.

I just didn’t want to confine myself any longer to having to blog about wireless stuff. Firstly, my mind spends lots of time dwelling on a whole range of topics, not just wireless. Second, my career, inasmuch as that defines me, hasn’t been just about wireless for some time now. I do a lot of work in all kinds of other areas, mostly script writing for corporate videos. I’m also nearly done with writing my first novel and I’ve been asked to write a children’s book about robotics. I also have my own publishing plans, but that’s on my long-term list.

Anyway, writing blog posts is also a common proxy, or placebo, for doing ‘real’ work, which is why so many blog posts are, well, just more blah. There’s nothing new about blah. People have been writing blah for centuries. It’s what Sunday supplements are all about. Most office cubicle and water-cooler conversations are just blah. Heck, many meetings and conferences - expensive ones - are just blah. No wonder people want to bring their laptops to Twitter about the experience.

I remember a friend of mine told an anecdote about his encounter with someone of true scholarly status, although he wasn’t aware of this scholar’s presence in the current gathering. My friend mumbled on about some topic or another, spouting off opinions and factoids as if certain of his material, which he wasn’t. Moreover, the scholar was a genuine expert on the topic, which came to light afterwards. Being of humble character, he didn’t want to offend my friend with correctives and so merely noted out loud, in an indirect manner, that ‘people should talk about things they know something about,’ to which my friend replied that ‘there wouldn’t be much to talk about then.’

So blah is here to stay. With the advent of Twitter and so many other micro-blog status-update thingys on umpteen sites, we have clearly evolved blah into blah 2.0, characterised by (my own definition):

1. Yet more meaningless self-definitions of what anything “2.0″ is all about
2. “Thought blah”, which is completely useless and idle thoughts that are now verbalised, like “I’m thinking of buying a carton of milk”
3. Confusion of “chatter” with something called “the conversation”, which is meaningless nouveau marketing speak for involving the “community”
4. Confusion of the word “community” (see previous one) with “network”
5. Infection with the British affliction of queue-joining (line-joining) that has now evolved into “network joining” - see a network and join it, especially if everyone else is
6. Filling up more of our time with drivel whilst waxing lyrical about all the great new productivity (2.0) tools now available
7. Convincing ourselves that talking about the work is the “new work”

I am thoroughly guilty of all of the above, though don’t confuse this as a lament, pining for the old-school way of doing things. I’m more digital than Wall-E and Negroponte combined. I dream in hex and I don’t let my kids use pens - they have to use a PC! (Just kidding, well almost.) This is all harmless self-mockery, otherwise known as blah 2.0.

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