As we were sitting in the shade, I was listening to the smooth French accent of a nearby tour guide describing the bar in the park as the third best in the world according to Lonely Planet. I was pretty interested, I had a look around, I certainly like Budapest, one of the better cities in the summer, I have never been there in the winter though.

Budapest’s Erzsebet is definitely saved on Google maps, will be coming back here for sure. She told her listeners, you can come back later and find out for yourself – what great advice. This seemed a pretty casual outdoor bar, people were lazing about, having a relaxing time, this was a pretty good place. This time I wasn’t having a drink, next time I will be.

I love an outdoor bar, there was plenty of sunshine in Budapest when we were there, the days were warm, this was summer and were were enjoying our time in this beautiful city, I will be back for sure. This is a central Eastern European city, sure, it will be cold in the winter, the requirement is to have enough warm clothes I guess, I want to spend a summer here.

I was asked during a course, what do you see as the benefit to the study of management of the open systems theory? A strategic view of management processes is imperative for modern managers; while a purely operational view serves frontline and middle management with a fast changing operating environment requires strategic management thinking.

Open systems theory maintains organisations, and more importantly the people who make up those organisations adapt a close working relationship with their external environment to ensure long term viability. A complex relationship exists between internal and external customers, suppliers and the staff members who interact with them. The modern operating environment requires organisations to quickly adapt to external factors due to global organisations, modern communication systems, international managers and flatter organisational structures.

The vocational education and training sector is under siege by the higher education sector, the schools sector, government funding models and international universities offering free online education. A modern vocational training organisation that fails to address the needs of their students will rapidly lose market share to organisations targeting such client relationships.

Shall we live as slaves or free men? It isolated the east from the west, it split Europe and the world, it took away our freedom, it held us in captivity and fear, it tormented and humiliated us and we finally wore it down.

This was an interesting installation, this was street art in Budapest, they lived under the threat of severe punishment during the Soviet communism occupation. They lost their freedom, they lost their individuality, they lost humanity. With the collapse of the Soviet communist empire and the iron curtain extending across eastern Europe, the people have gained freedom again.

Burn rate is a measure for how fast a company will use up its shareholder capital; it is negative cash flow. If shareholder capital is exhausted, the enterprise will either have to find additional funding, close down or generate a profit from internal cash flows.

I purchased this hard cover book in the Latin Quarter in Paris for 1 euro and although a very old publication, it provides a fairly good history of the internet. I found it in the business section of a second hand bookshop with it providing a compelling read on buses, trains and planes throughout the next stage of the trip through the United States.

With an increasing number of investors and entrepreneurs blaming the dot-com bust not only on unsound management practices but also financial management to maintain the burn rate, it was accepted as the proxy measurement of how fast the start-up company was acquiring a customer base. Does the book adequately describe the principles behind the current raft of technology companies heading to the market for funding? I am not sure but I will certainly treat with suspicion estimated revenues promoted by underwriters on the unsuspecting public.

The battleground for smartphone supremacy appears to be India, well it is the launch pad at any rate for low cost smartphones. Following the launch of the low-cost Firefox OS smartphone into the Indian market, the Android One retails for a little over $100, a bargain at any price.

Throughout the rest of 2014 and into 2015, the Android One will be progressively launched into South East Asian markets. Powered by 4.4.4 KitKat, the smartphone will not be running obsolete software for budget consumers with free Android updates for the first two years, after that, I assume you will be charged for updates. It will be interesting to see if budget smartphones will be released into premium markets like Australia or online sales will allow postage to outside countries.

I am considering my application for an MBA course, just putting together a top notch application should be considered an achievement in itself. Limited numbers of post graduate positions are available at the top business schools, so competition is fierce, the cost is significant, so selecting the right provider is paramount.

You do get a couple of cracks at it though, because if first choice is not accepted, you move to second, third and fourth choice, I suppose. Once you have selected your preferred provider – you want to make your application count. There are the top tier international programs, they are very difficult if not impossible to secure a position.

So generally, for the most of us, you look to the second tier university and business school programs. Then, although still extremely expensive, you have options as recruitment for these schools is competitive, all of a sudden, they are trying to recruit you. Now the dynamic has changed, you have leverage, now you have the ability to negotiate.

Then there is the GMAT at some but not all institutions, the graduate management admission test, having taken 2 1/4 hour written examinations, a 3 1/2 test incorporating analytical reasoning, integrated reasoning, quantitative reasoning and a verbal assessment is another step up again, not looking forward to that one. Not every business school requires the GMAT, that is generally a selection criteria for top schools only.

I have read that only 6% of MBA applications for Stanford University are successful with 10% of Harvard applications making it through, now I know this is the top end and other business schools are closer to 50%, still, it is discouraging. Then, once you have been accepted, hopefully at an institution high on your list, a couple of years of your life are gone, just slip past – you are under pressure to land that big job or promotion to make it all worthwhile.

As Apple Inc prepared to roll out 4 million pre-sold iPhone 6 mobiles to cashed up consumers willing to pay a massive premium for their product; Mozilla Corp, the non-profit foundation behind Firefox is launching an open source operating system for smartphones targeting a totally different market segment.

I must admit, I am a fan of the Google Chrome web browser as my account is linked where I can access my personal account on any computer. I really like the Android open source system used on most non-Apple smartphones and tablets. I use the Mozilla Firefox browser at work and reckon it is really a pretty good and intuitive operating system. Following on from Google’s lead, rival tech company Firefox has also developed open source software to power mobile phones.

When I inspect the analytics of this particular site, I note with interest approximately 65% of internet traffic is Google Chrome, 20% is Firefox, 6% Internet Explorer, 4% is OS;FBSV 3% Safari and 2% Opera, Mobile Safari, CriOS and other systems. Now this is open to change daily and only an indication although trends have emerged over the year this blog has been running. Based on this information, one might assume the rising popularity of Firefox is eclipsing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as browser of choice.

I am also guessing the dominance of the Google Android operating system for smartphones accounts for the 65% majority. One expects this to last for the next decade or so, we really can’t project any further forward than that. Searching the net, a 16GB iPhone is listed for sale at $869 (non-plan) and a whopping $1249 for a 128GB non-plan smartphone on the Apple Store website. The low-cost Firefox powered smartphone seems to be receiving mixed reviews currently, the phone is fairly simple to use by all accounts.

Two Firefox powered smartphones have been released in India, the Intex Cloud FX and single-core processor Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 are 2G and not 3G enabled phones. The INR 2299 ($43 AUD) Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 is very competitively priced with further roll-outs in regions planned for the future. What I am guessing is the take-up of cheaper smartphones in developing markets will lead to pressure on margins of the established players in developed markets as Firefox powered handsets improve.

The term ISIS/ISIL is interesting, ISIS stands for Islamic State Iraq and Syria whilst ISIL stands for Islamic State Iraq Levant that really takes into account their wider regional ambitions of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

The UN is using the term ISIL and could be possibly seen as not wanting to be in direct conflict with Syria causing military action to escalate. The French are refusing to use either term as they believe the term state gives them some type of legitimacy.

This is not a mob I would like to be in conflict with over there, the concern for many nations is returning fighters trained as terrorists seeking to inflict their way of life on our shores.

The conflict in Syria appears likely to escalate; we have now seen a United Nations Security Council resolution. I initially thought not as the five permanent members of the security council rarely agree on terms. The Russians have supported Syria for a long time, the Chinese didn\’t look like acting against Syria with protagonists saying this is just an issue concocted by western media to justify military action against Syria.

With the UN Security Council recently passing a unanimous resolution to address the growing threat posed by ISIL – the game has changed. This is not a manipulation by western media because we all know both China and Russia are two of the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto power, these two permanent members are not western nations.

There are ten rotating non-permanent members representing the regions of Africa, South America, Europe and Asia. Iraq has invited foreign nations to fight ISIL on their soil with Arab states joining the fight. The issue is not so much Iraq but Syria as the Assad regime will not allow military operations in Syria. Will the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution allowing the coalition of nations to take military action against ISIL forces in Syria? I wouldn’t have thought so.

It is being debated by some members of the community that ISIL does not constitute a threat to the citizens of Australia, that we should just let them go at it in their part of the world while keeping quiet and they will leave us alone. This line of thinking is naïve at best and dangerous at worst. ASIO has reported they have lost track of about 60 odd people travelling to the conflict areas, they are suspected of training and fighting with the ISIL forces, they will at some stage return to the shores of Australia if not killed in action. They are now unsure exactly who they are and where they have been.

Just recently, two police officers were stabbed by a person of interest in Melbourne as he voluntarily came into a police station for questioning, he had already had his passport cancelled. Whilst shot and killed by the officers, he had lunged at the officers wounding both, he had in his possession a longer knife, one presumes for decapitating the slain officers and an ISIL flag folded up in his pocket. It is believed he was to upload the pictures of the decapitated officers to social media draped in the ISIL flag.

The graphics posted on this page are very confronting, I make no apologies for this as these images are freely found on the internet under a basic Google isis search. For a bunch of people seeking to take the world back to the dark ages, they are amazingly proficient in the use of social media. Beheading and crucifixions are taking place in public places to encourage public viewing and one supposes to take photographs and video to upload.

ISIL are using such images as a measure to subdue people through fear, being shot is immediate while beheading is a slow excruciating death.

The image of the James Foley beheading has been confirmed as correct, a number of other images are yet to be confirmed but are still being reported whilst a large number have the ISIL flag in the background to confirm the identity of the group. An image of a beheaded girl in a blue dress has been circulating for a number of years and is thought to be taken in Syria and committed by the Assad regime. It is though this is done to encourage western governments, chiefly being the United States to intervene in the conflict.