The Anonymous Widower

Will The Real Leroy House Please Stand Up

Leroy House is a rather drab  1970s office block near me.

They are updating the building for the twenty-first century, so I went to look.

It’s actually a business centre with lots of serviced offices, but you wouldn’t know that from the outside. It is extremely anonymous and could contain something that doesn’t want to be noticed like the Islington Parking Revenue Collectors.

If it was my building, I’d do the following.

1. Whilst the building is being updated, I’d put up some information on the wall, about what is happening and why you would want to use offices and services in Leroy House, when the updating is finished.

2. I’d give the building a web site like businesscentre.islington or leroyhouse.london and put that in clear signs on the building.

3. If the domain name extension of .islington does not exist, then I’d either get the council to create it or if they thought it wasn’t a good idea, then I’d get it for the building. It might become a nice little earner for every butcher, baker and candle-stick maker in the Borough.

4. Once the building is updated, I’d think carefully about what was plastered all over the building to entice punters to come inside.

5. A lot of the pictures I took, were taken from the top of a passing bus. The 38 actually load up the tail-gunner outside the building. So why not give all those bored passengers something witty to read? You never know, they might know someone who needs an office.

6. I would develop the cafe, they are planning to put inside, as a local business meeting point.

Updating the building as they are planning, seems to be a good idea and I can’t see it will cause local residents any problems unless offices are rented to someone with totally unacceptable political beliefs and this provokes massive demonstrations outside.

February 9, 2015 Posted by | Computing, World | , , | 2 Comments

BT Broadband’s Crap Football Broadcasts

BT now deliver their sport channels by broadband, which generally makes it unwatchable, unless you’ve got BT Infinity. Which of course is not available to me, as I’m too close to exchange. BT’s words not mine!

I often joke about what Brian Redhead said about the relative merits of radio and television.

If television had been invented first, radio would be the dominant medium, as the pictures are better!

Today, it’s absolutely true, as the pictures my mind are creating from the words on BBC Radio 5, are an order of magnitude better than BT’s crap pictures of the football.

February 3, 2015 Posted by | Computing, Sport, World | , , | Leave a comment

FRS Logistics Ltd.

I received this e-mail from FRS Logistics.

Greetings
We would be glad to say that we are grateful that you count our crew as your future chief. Pay attention that all aspirants are greatly wrathful for our company.

Our international B2B commerce company, peculiarly in EU and Asia.
� We started to collaborate in America, we possess a remarkable potential for Administrative
� in the United States. Just now, we are looking forward to finding the Sales Assistance .
We would like to remind that, we appreciate every applying candidate, so if you will fill in a questioner to get along with your future career, we would fully acknowledge your choice.
For additional employment information, please properly glance through the vacancy characterization, additional documents or find the information on our site. We also give all the allowed certificates that allow us to work in the United States.
We hope for your beforehand answer.
We are a leading large European global company, and we are going to open launch an American branch in order to provide supply our customers with world-class services. We need a Customer Service Representative who can start begin and handle our business needs for our company in the EU, United States.

What we require need from you:
1. A Computer with reliable internet connection;
2. Skills enough to use computer;
3. Accessibility by phone or e-mail during business time five days a week. Supervisor can contact you at any time;
4. Strong communication skill.
Salary starts at $3,000\month + benefits.
If You are interested in our work, please contact us via e-mail to get further information concerning the position and the company.
Please, reply to this email address wankers@internet.com

Yours faithfully, Andrius Kubilius Hiring Department Senior Manager

LTD. frslogiscits

 

It is an absolute copybook scam, so if you get one, give it a touch of the Delete key.

Some of the English and spelling definitely needs putting out of its misery.

January 20, 2015 Posted by | Computing | , | 1 Comment

BT Annoys The Big Six Energy Companies

You would think that BT would be very much in bed with the Big Six energy companies, as they probably draw their directors and advisers from the same pool of fat cats.

So I was surprised to find this guide to the quirkier small energy companies on BT’s web site.

I doubt a big broadband/telephone/mobile company would get into the energy business, as the corporate world is littered with failures of companies trying to ride two horses at once. But with smart meters coming in and all the connectivity that a broadband company has, they could offer you a free lifestyle application that calculated your energy usage and suggest how you could save money.

I can certainly see these applications being developed and when properly connected to your house or flat they could make a lot of difference to your lifestyle and how you sustain and support.

Electricity, gas, phone and broadband usage can all be precisely monitored and relayed to the app on your phone, tablet or laptop.

Much modern housing also has an activity monitor in each room of the dwelling. I have one in each room here and they are the controllers for the underfloor central heating. My ones aren’t but others exist that could be connected into the system. As the average adult is quite a large heat source of upwards of a kilowatt, they can effect the heat input to the room to maintain the required temperature.

Given to, that the Internet of things is coming, which will know what’s going on in the dishwasher, microwave, cooker and washing machine, the best apps will be able to tell you why you’re lifestyle is expensive.

And of course, I haven’t linked this to your car and credit card bills, yet!

Suppose too, you had intelligent scales that weighed you each morning and automatically took things like blood pressure and pulse.

Hopefully, these apps will nudge people to a better lifestyle.

I suppose in some ways, they will be a bit like automatic lifestyle coaches, suggesting things you might or should do.

 

 

January 18, 2015 Posted by | Computing, Health | , , | Leave a comment

The Overground And Its Class 378 Trains Turn Up In A Computer Game

My Google Alert picked up this article onPCGames, entitled Train Simulator 2015: hands on with the London Overground train.

It’a well-written article and worth reading.

But I won’t be investing in the game, as I’ve never played a computer game and probably never will.

I certainly wouldn’t play this game, as it seems to be South London-based and doesn’t simulate the iconic East London Line, with the historic Thames Tunnel.

If I want to experience a Class 378 train and the East London Line, all I need to do is walk to Dalston Junction station and take any southbound train.

And with my Freedom Pass, it’s all free! Although the excellent cafes in Dalston aren’t!

 

January 14, 2015 Posted by | Computing, Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment

The Latest Doggie Accessory

Thry’ve just shown see the latest doggie accessory on BBC Breakfast; the iCollar with a GPS locator and other sensors? We had a setter who needed that, who roamed all over the stud, but never left it, so was often difficult to find.

My youngest also needed one, as he used to go everywhere following the horses on his own about seven.

Some of C’s divorce clients probably wished they could have locked such a device on their partners, so they could track their movements. I suspect someone is working on it.

January 6, 2015 Posted by | Computing, World | | Leave a comment

An Impressive Visualisation

The Croxley Rail Link is a major project to improve the links of the Metropolitan line into Watford and connect the line to Watford Junction station.

Out of curiosity I looked at this 3d visualisation of the new link.

I found it very impressive.

Note the following.

1. After Croxley station, the line bends away to the right on a viaduct.

2. At present the line goes straight on at this point to the current Watford station. This line will become a siding, when the Croxley Rail Link is built.

3. As the Grand Union Canal is crossed, this is in the area of this post.

4. Ascot Road station shown in the visualisation is now to be called Cassiobridge station.

5. The next station is Watford Vicarage Road, which serves the football ground and the hospital.

6. The existing Watford DC Line of the London Overground joins before Watford High Street station, from where the two lines share the same track to Watford Junction.

Hopefully, I’ll still be here and can try this route for real to get to the football ground in 2017.

But I don’t think that the project will be implemented as is currently planned. The Watford Observer is reporting that London Underground is taking over the responsibility for the project and I think this will result bin some changes, most likely for the better.

1. Some parties want Watford station to stay open. As it will be possible to run trains from the Croxley Rail Link through Rickmansworth and on to Amersham, could a shuttle be introduced between Amersham and Watford stations? There is a precedent for this type of arrangement in that there is a shuttle between Dalston Junction and New Cross stations on the East London Line. The main purpose is to increase the service frequency on the core of the line through the Thames Tunnel.

2. Both Amersham and Chalfont & Latimer stations are served by Chiltern Railways, who may want to put their view forward.

3. Could the changes mean that costs rise further and a delay is introduced into the project?

December 23, 2014 Posted by | Computing, Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Who Needs Guns And Bombs When There Are Crap Programmers About?

Last nights problems with the UK Air Traffic Control, are an illustration, that increasingly our complex world, is prone to the problem of bad software or systems. It only needs just one bug or failure, accidental or deliberate, to cause all sorts of chaos.

I have always held the view, that those that design and manage technology like banking systems, on-shore oil fields, should live in the community.

The banks have off-shored much of their programming in recent years and I believe it is a factor in the service they provide. It has happened recently some banks have had cashpoint failures. Suppose you were a programmer doing that work for the Bank of Mattress and like many, after a stressful week, you perhaps had a drink with mates in the local on a Friday night. Imagine the conversation, if your bank had had a serious failure in the previous week. So to not lose face, you make sure you and your team do a good job. But if the system is programmed in say Bangalore or San Francisco, the offenders escape the sanction of their friends.

But it’s not just computer systems.

Look at the problems with extracting oil and gas in the UK. We have had the odd disaster like the very serious Piper Alpha, but I can’t find a serious oil spill in the UK onshore in recent years.

You could say that there isn’t much oil and gas fields onshore in the UK. But look at Wytch Farm. Wikipedia says this about the oil field.

Wytch Farm is an oil field and processing facility in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. It is the largest onshore oil field in western Europe. The facility, recently taken over byPerenco was previously operated by BP. It is hidden in a coniferous forest on Wytch Heath on the southern shore of Poole Harbour, two miles (3 km) north of Corfe Castle. Oil and natural gas (methane) are both exported by pipeline; liquefied petroleum gas is exported by road tanker.

Most people have never heard of it, but it sits there unnoticed in the heart of the Jurassic Coast. Incidentally, some of the horizontal drilling techniques that are used in fracking were developed in this field, to get oil out of the far corners of the field. Wikipedia mentions that here.

Could, the field’s invisibility in the media and the public’s imagination be down to the fact that no bad news has come from the field? And could this be due to the fact most of those working on Wytch Farm life locally and obviously would never want to soil their own doorstep?

So to return to the ATC problems!

Did management rely on programmers that were less than perfect and not local?

As someone who knows about both programming and flying, I suspect that the design of the system wasn’t what it should have been.

At least no-one suffered anything worse than a delayed flight.

But system failures like this always worry me, as they give terrorists an easy way to disrupt our lives.

We should always remember the Italian Job, where criminals fixed Turin’s traffic computer system, to help them steal the money.

Truth is often stranger than fiction!

 

December 13, 2014 Posted by | Computing, Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Zopa’s Courageous Decision

I have believed for a long time, that certain databases should be made public, so that they can be properly analysed.

Suppose for example that a suitably anonymised database of all road deaths, was to be made available.

I will not speculate as to what it might show.

But you can rest assured, that some parties would not like some of the obvious conclusions that were thrown up.

How about to a detailed database of all those in prison?

Because of the power of data analysis, I was very surprised to read that Zopa has decided to make their loan data available for analysis.

It is a very courageous decision, that I hope gets other companies and organisations to do the same thing.

November 18, 2014 Posted by | Computing, Finance & Investment | | Leave a comment

Peer-To-Peer Lending For The Non-Digital World

I was an early adopter of peer-to-peer lending in 2008 and now have a six figure sum invested, which returns me over five percent before tax.

Reading the letters about poor broad band and mobile phone coverage in today’s Sunday Times, it strikes me that many people are cut off from this sensible investment.

I could if I wanted to, set up my Zopa account, so that I perhaps looked at it once every blue moon.

Would it be an idea if one of the peer-to-peer lenders offered a minimal input product for those disconnected from the digital world?

Money would be paid in by a direct transfer or even a cheque paid in at a bank branch, if you still use one.

If you needed to check your account or perhaps withdraw a small amount of the interest and repayments that you have received as cash, you would just use a debit card in any ATM.

Obviously, you will still have the option to login normally, if you wanted.

November 9, 2014 Posted by | Computing, Finance & Investment, World | | Leave a comment