I think the probability it was manufactured is very low. More to the point anyone disappointed by the possibility that Susan Boyle may be a product of Simon Cowell’s creativity needs a reality check. It’s entertainment, not reality. Consume it for what it is, not what it isn’t, and you will be a lot happier. And, if you are one who doesn’t consume it at all, that’s fine too.

Today what fascinates me is the analysis some are making of Susan Boyle’s performance. Why it’s achieved such wide appeal and where all the hype might go from here. I’ll grant you this, where it goes from here will be the part that may be manufactured.

To date, the wrong analysis has been made of why or which specific part of Susan Boyle’s performance is responsible for the chills, the goose-bumps, and the world-wide reaction. It’s not, as some have argued, a case of underdog vindication. Nor is it some sort of guilt-ridden twisted penance for our usual desire to be consumed by the success of the young and sexy versus the likes of, well, a Susan Boyle.

Keeping in mind that I spend the better half of my professional life in a focus group setting observing the way people consciously and subconsciously react to things, our feelings and reaction has less to do with Susan Boyle’s actual singing ability and more to do with the way we react the judges and audience reaction. This is one time I wish it was possible to go back in time and prove the point by using Martin Lindstrom’s fMRI technique. As much as there are moments in the Susan Boyle’s signing that would cause spikes in the readings, these would pale in comparison to instances where a judge’s raised eyebrow, jaw-drop, swallow, or audience cheer are chiefly responsible for the chills and goosebumps. Don’t believe me? Watch the you-tube video again, pay close attention to where “it” gets to you, and let me know.

Manufactured or not, it will serve as more good entertainment to see where it all goes.

I know this, if i was in the business of helping to manufacture next steps I’d have Susan Boyle secretly appear on tonight’s or tomorrow night’s live airing of American Idol. The spin-off effect on both sides of the pond would be a producer’s or an advertiser’s wet-dream. At a minimum, I can’t imagine there being no reference whatsoever. One way or another Susan Boyle will be mentioned on American Idol or, as I said, there will be a surprise guest appearance.

As for other Idol-like predictions, Adam Lambert will win season 8, and by not later than the summer ‘09 he will be manufactured to the top of the pop-charts. Bet on it.

As for Susan Boyle, let the makeovers begin.

Not sure what’s gotten into me. Maybe turning 50 a year or so ago has me looking at things in more practical than ideological terms. For example last June I ditched my Windows Mobile smartphone for a Blackberry, something I swore I’d never do. However, not two days after testing a Blackberry Curve, I wondered what had taken me so long.

Perhaps the Blackberry experience was reason to be not so closed-minded when my technical advisor, Scott Allan pictured right, who seemingly lives for teasing me about such things, resumed egging me about the Mac vs. PC debate. Or, perhaps it was additional creds Scott earned when he helped me move to this blog format from what I’d been doing in MS Front Page. The blog migration went so swimmingly that, if nothing else, it raised my head a few inches from the sand when renewed jabs about the PC world resurfaced. Could Scott be right about Macs too?

A Blackberry maybe, but a Mac? No way!

Not that I was in the market for a new laptop, but a few weeks ago when my 6 month old already c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g LG running Vista and Office 2007 began competing as a heat source with my furnace, I did as I do in the car market. I dusted off my knowledge of what’s out there in case an emergency like last Fall when my HP was stolen from my car in Montreal. Don’t get me started on HP bloatware.

A fan of wireless miniaturization, I tested a netbook. Specifically, the Asus N1OJ, which in my view is the best of these feeble machines, but turns out isn’t a good fit with someone with my level of impatience for waiting. Careful to repackage to store-bought condition and appearance, I returned the Asus within Staples’ 14 day return policy. 

I next thought to try and make do until this Fall when Microsoft promises/threatens to release Windows 7. Yes, I was one of those who lined up on January 30th 2007, to get a Vista box. Pride over stupidity is all that stopped me from downgrading to XP.

Impatience and impulsiveness still controlling me, I was okay with lending Best-Shop or Future-Buy the funds needed to road-test a Macbook. It was the Easter/Masters long weekend. Somehow I’d manage enough technology playtime. But what about Office? How does one test a quantum leap in Operating Systems without testing the equivalent half-dozen or so software titles I live in 90% of the time, i.e., Explorer, Outlook, Word, Power-Point and Excel?

Initially that was going to be easy. Surely Apple computers, like their PC counterparts, come with trial versions of Mac-Office? Guess again.

“Okay fine,” I convinced myself, “I’ll buy Mac-Office too, but I won’t take it out of the shrink-wrap until I am sure.”  

That was last Thursday at 3:04 p.m.

“Screw-it,” or words more profane, were uttered just after dinner on Thursday. The Mac-OS is pretty-and-all, and once I stopped looking to click the X to close programs on the right, and once I’d gotten over the fact Explorer was called Safari, and, Outlook – if I was to agree to the terms-and-conditions that come with breaking that impenetrable seal known as shrink-wrap – would hereafter be baptized “Entourage.” Worst case scenario, my technology pal would be the proud new owner of Mac-Office 2008 as “payback” for all he’d put me through.

Scott must be a strategy guy too because seconds before the exacto-knife approached the shrink-wrap he said, “be prepared to bear the cost of putting your fist through the screen at least once in the first month … after that, and if you make it, you’re good-to-go and you’ll never go back.” With that advice firmly impacted on my frontal cortex, I prepared and expected the worst while hoping for the best.

I am not entirely naive. I remember the old “100% effective but only on 10% of the roads” joke. I also know there is still plenty of time in the next month for me to left-hook the figurative guy on the right. But not likely. I’m a fast learner and I likely suffer from just healthy-enough of a dose of OCD to know the only way to do this is cold-turkey, flat-out, full-court-press, or whatever other analogy turns your crank.

It’s day 5 and the only thing in danger of being re-shrink-wrapped is everything I ever thought I knew about computing. The holy-F superlative, along with “you’ve got to be kidding me” has been uttered more times in the past 5 days than it has the past 5 years. Simply put, I truly don’t care what further pleasant, or possibly even unpleasant surprises lurk. The speed, productivity and functionality improvements experienced in the first 5 days are such that I am likely to never go back, if for no other reason than to penalize the Microsoft OS for making me live what I have lived through the past 20 years. For 20 years, I have defended, even boasted, “where Billy Gates goes, I go.” Who knew?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not criticizing Microsoft Office. That suite has generated most of what I have produced and earned in the past 20+ years. But the engine beneath it is no excuse. A network printer installation in the old world that would take 20 minutes took 20 seconds. And where in the morning I used to make coffee and walk the dog while my PC booted, I now know the true meaning of an instant turn-on. And if, in a few days, I find myself yearning for a PC fix (no pun intended) I’ll fire-up a parallel window of Windows without fearing the blue screen of death.

Having said all of this, I must admit to a weird internal feeling I can’t quite define. The equivalent to technological adultery perhaps or that I’ve committed some sort of social faux-pas. Ostracized by family and clientele … as if I’d be sucked-in by the cute commercials. This too, I am sure, shall pass. Especially if I get them one too.  

Like it was yesterday, I recall Statistics Canada’s Caroline Marcotte who in 1985 was learning to use an Excel/Lotus predecessor; Computer Associates’ Supercalc. Caroline was immersed in hour two writing, from scratch, a simple addition formula that needed to be in a column 5,000 or so cells. She was already on row 2,500 when, with a smart-assed smirk on my face, I grabbed the keyboard showed-off the replicate command. In less than 5 seconds the remaining 2,500 cells were done. I will never forget the dual look of amazement and “how could I be so stupid” on Caroline’s face. It’s the exact same look I’ve had on my face for the past 5 days.

And as we speak, holidaying with a bottle of wine somewhere in California with his wife is Scott Allan, smirking.

Welcome to the redux of danbaril.com. The reasons for doing so were plenty. Mostly however, you, the people who read this space asked me to bring this blog into the blogosphere mainstream complete with the opportunity to post comments, trackbacks, and other blog-like functionality.

Secondly, the manual and arduous task of maintaining the site in Microsoft Frontpage became laborious. I found myself spending as much time, if not more, maintaining the site as I did creating content. And if it’s true the new “location-location-location” is “content-content-content,” then something had to give.

Three 3 years ago I registered danbaril.com. I originally intended it as a personal space I would keep separate from my professional space – Core Strategies - to host my amateur portrait photography. For the first few months in 2006 the site did just that. However, never shy to offer an opinion I found myself yearning for a place to do so on line.

While strategy and politics have always been in my blood, the emphasis of this blog on political commentary was more happenstance than deliberate. I tend to wake up early, consume the news, something grabs at my innards, and a couple of hours later, voilà, a post is born. Other times an issue will simmer for a while and more time and thought goes into it. 

There isn’t a topic I have written on I don’t feel passionate about. What would be the point? For every blog that makes it, three or four others don’t get past the stage of cerebral methane. Time is usually a factor as I do have a day job. Mostly it’s a commitment I made to myself and you, that I would never write simply for the sake of writing or because I felt it had been too long since my last post. There are too many bloggers who do just that. If I go days or weeks between posts, so be it. I am either too busy at core strategies or there simply isn’t an issue gnawing at me. To date I have made 94 posts over three years which is, on average, just over one blog every ten days. Reasonable and sufficient in my view. I don’t know if the new and more efficient format will increase the blog rate. That wasn’t the purpose of the redux.

Looking ahead, I expect a disproportionate share of posts will continue to be political in nature. While I am somewhat cynical of the current political system, its processes, and actors, I am more cynical of people who simply give up or who don’t try to make a positive difference. Admitedly, I am naïve enough to think words and action still make a difference. I feel this way about other topics as well, not just politics. My recent exposé on Don Cherry is an example.

That said. I strive to also highlight positive and good news stories.

Finally, a few words of thanks to two people:

Three years ago when I was contemplating this writing and blog thing I consulted with a few people whose opinion I respect. One was the Globe’s John Ibbitson who, in an email exchange, gave me this advice “…still, I cling to this axiom. I don’t give a damn about what you think, and you shouldn’t give a damn about what I think. It’s what each of us knows about a subject and can communicate that matters…” . John’s words of wisdom have stuck with me since, and I try to make bits of it appear in each post.    

Second, a huge word of thanks goes to former client – now friend and technical advisor, Scott Allan, without whose hands-on help and assistance, this blog redux would not have happened. At least not as smoothly and seamlessly.

Thank you John and Scott. 

Now, for all you people who sent me blog comments via email or who complained about not being able to comment as you would on other blogs, get busy!

Now that we are at the mid-way point, I hope all are having a Merry Christmas and gearing-up for a happy New Year. Click here for a little Dan Baril style photo look at the year just past.

  /Best … Dan.