As the Downing Street clock reaches zero, as Whitehall is lit in red, white and blue, as the Union Jacks blanket Parliament Square, I wanted to commemorate Brexit actually happening.

In fact, I’ve wanted to say something about Brexit since before the referendum, but what is there to say that’s new? But original or not, I needed to write something.

Far from a celebration, 11pm on 31st January 2020 marks the culmination of years of misdirected anger and politicians harnessing that for their own personal gain.

Here’s something I’ve seen a few times recently: a startup issues a patch for a critical issue seen by one of their large customers. The “enterprise,” however, takes a week to install and test it. Clearly, the startup concludes, if it takes a week to try a patch it can’t be that urgent or the staff are dumb, or, quite likely, both.

Separately, we all know that a big difference between a startup and an enterprise is process. So why do people suddenly get angry and start to lack empathy when that difference is exposed?

When I see a company that has an “innovation team” or a “chief innovation officer” I immediately understand that it’s not the kind of company I want to work for.

Innovation isn’t found in a particular team, person or department. It’s your culture.

If you need a special team outside the normal management structure to innovate, what does that say?

I was recently asked to recommend a tablet. I thought my reply might be generally useful, so below is a lightly edited version of what I wrote.

The machine I’d recommend depends. It depends mostly on how much you want to pay and what it might used for. The good news is that, by and large, you get what you pay for. (Corollary: don’t get any of the really cheap ones. Argos, for example, do a really cheap one. Avoid it.)

Since I wrote about iTunes Match nearly eighteen months ago I thought it was worth revisiting and seeing how things have changed in that time.

Oddly, the short answer is “not very much.”

The problems that I identified last year are still very much present. Indeed there are some new examples. This is my favourite: when listening to “Man Machine” by Kraftwerk, iTunes Match seems to have decided that track four, which should be “The Model,” is really “Wouldn’t it be nice” by the Beach Boys. I don’t even own a copy of “Wouldn’t it be nice.”

Like all the best upgrades, iOS 6 is almost entirely invisible. It works just like iOS 5 — which is to say, pretty well most of the time — but with some convenient new additions. Also, unlike version five, it’s been relatively stable throughout the beta process.

What’s new and what will you like? I’ve grown so accustomed to most of them that I had to look up the “What’s new” page on Apple’s website. Really, that’s a good thing. Invisibility is the fate of a feature that’s quickly integrated with how you use a device. (The thing that makes it tricky is that it’s also the fate of a completely useless feature that you never use.)

I’ve been using Mountain Lion, the new version of the Macintosh operating system, for less than a day so this isn’t intended to be detailed (see John Siracua’s review) or thorough. I have, however, kicked the proverbial tyres so here are a few, quick thoughts.

Good

• Probably the most stable 10.x.0 release I’ve used
• Little earth shattering but lots of really nice improvements, not all of which I’ve seen documented (for example, attachments in Mail now appear in the “All My Files” view in the Finder, multiple Time Machine disks)
• Notification Center works well; AirPlay mirroring is going to be really useful
• I’ve not found any software that worked in Lion that no longer works. That includes stuff like VMWare (scary because it’s low-level) and Photoshop Elements 6 which is not listed on Roaring Apps compatibility list

Bad

• http://yfrog.com/nxqygvp – Thanks Xcode, very helpful. http://t.co/sYay95eo
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfghLQE3F4 – Re. the privatisation of the Police… Fry and Laurie got there first in the eighties… http://t.co/VmYwnb20
• http://m.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/01/hitchens-201201 – @pdparticle Not necessarily. http://t.co/wnaNlFaj
• http://www.macworld.com/article/165587/2012/02/yahoo_facebook_in_intellectual_property_dispute.html#lsrc.rss_main – I guess this means that Yahoo! are officially on their way out. If you can’t compete, sue over vague IP rights. http://t.co/jCcILiUS
• http://instagr.am/p/HtVldeyQoU/ – Donkeys of Greece calendar: March 2012 http://t.co/UQe7wGzO
• http://bit.ly/ycpIfz – Unite Leader calls for competency on ‘a day of actual action’ http://t.co/OdrDQDjL
• http://geekpanic.com/post/18376086580/the-2-0-paradox – Interesting post on “The 2.0-paradox.” Thinking through this exact problem now. http://t.co/cqLqd2Ni
• http://pinboard.in/talks/biz.pdf – Interesting talk by the founder of @Pinboard. http://t.co/UwAHIHP6 [PDF]
• http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Scoopertino/~3/ntGLHzoJc6U/ – Apple takes the wraps off OS X Cowardly Lion http://t.co/9wM2DYVt
• http://j.mp/wW9h2u – “Apple’s share value hit an unprecedented $500bn… this morning, making the company worth more than Poland.” http://t.co/lkNP7zFY
• Cycling from the Czech Republic to Germany – I’ve updated all the images on my Prague to Meißen cycling trip blog. I’m better with Aperture than I used to be… It was a good trip; can’t believe it was in 2008!
• Rant: I Love Photography – Well said. Plus some great pictures!

Apparently the movie studios are placing further restrictions on rentals in order to promote the purchase of shiny disc. Marco Arment says this won’t work because:

If I’m adding a movie to my Netflix queue, I’ve already decided not to buy the DVD. I’m adding it because it looks mildly interesting and I’d like to watch it sometime.

I take the opposite approach. I am unlikely to buy a movie unless I have previously rented it. Why would I buy it if I don’t know whether or not I like it?

Rumour has it that Yahoo! are looking for a new CEO. Some people have been putting their name forward for the role, or at least offering suggestions for Carol Bartz’s successor. This post is in response to Joe Stumps list of ideas.

To be clear, I know that list is not completely serious. I know that he’s not really angling for the CEO role and I understand that many of the options would not be achievable even if they were the best thing for Yahoo! That’s not the point I’m trying to make.