UKIP Would Shrink Without The Internet
This was the title of an article in The Times yesterday by Hugo Rifkind, in which he comes to some interesting conclusions. I particularly liked this bit.
The decline of traditional media — of printed newspapers, limited radio stations, and everybody watching the same TV news — is best understood as the end of media deference. No longer must we gain our understanding of the world via information collected, curated and presented by others. Instead, we can go looking for whatever we like. Consciously or otherwise, we each build our own little online universe.
I think that Rifkind is right and the world will be a worse place because people will not hear any views opposed to their own.
The Police Workload Due To Social Media
According to this article on the BBC, social media crimes are at least half of all frontline Police work. Here’s the first two paragraphs.
Complaints originating from social media make up “at least half” of a front-line police officer’s work, a senior officer has told the BBC.
Chief Constable Alex Marshall, head of the College of Policing, said the number of crimes arising from social media represented “a real problem”.
I’m not against reporting these crimes to the Police in any way, but I do think that this is a rather large load on the Police.
As a programmer, who has worked in data analysis for many years and as I feel I understand the Internet very well, I do not feel it is beyond the wit of programmers and companies to create a robust and trusted Internet-based system to deal with all the annoyances of the modern age.
Obviously, you could still go to the Police directly, but if say forwarding an offensive message to a semi-automated system had a sensible outcome, you might find this less trouble.
There are very few things that because of my physical and mental make-up that can be said to me as abuse. Although, I do get fed-up with some spam messages that seem to come to me every day. But I can understand how some people get offended and need their tormentors stopped.
I believe that a well-programmed system could handle much of the abuse and unwanted messages we get. If it became trusted and the sanctions it had taken against persistent nuisances were respected, people would think twice before sending offensive messages.
It might even stop crime and disrupt terrorist networks. As I write this, it has been said on the BBC, that you can follow what is going on with ISIS in Iraq through Twitter.
But then politicians don’t understand the power of technology and especially don’t like being bypassed by it. So we are more likely to see draconian laws on social media.
Let’s Have Some Rules For Software!
I am in the process of moving my contacts and e-mails from a Windows Vista computer with Outlook 2007 to another with Windows 7 and Outlook 2010, as the first computer has a disc fault, that means you can’t use Outlook. I can’t even copy or zip the Outlook file, which I suspect means it’s seriously fucked.
I have backups of everything I need from perhaps thirty days ago. But of course you then have the problem of transferring the data from one format to the other.
My preferred solution would have been just to buy a new Windows Vista computer with Outlook 2007, but of course that’s not possible, even if I don’t need support.
So I’m stuck in the process of transferring data from one data format to the other.
I would assume the transfer system was designed by an idiot who was as cruel as Stalin or Hitler, with the intelligence of the Prince Regent as portrayed in Blackadder. Dl Microsoft sub-contract their program design to Boko Horam or ISIS.
Surely, if you want to transfer data from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2010, it should be just a matter of opening the file in the new program and then letting the program do all the work!
It’s been similar with transferring from my Galaxy S4 to S5, where things are all different and some features don’t even exist.
I suppose computer companies don’t see us as consumers who know what we want, but idiots to be ripped-off.
Train Information To Be Free To Developers
The Rail Industry is going to open up its database, so that all train running and timetabling information will be available free to software developers. It is reported here on the Modern Railways web site.
This may seem quite small and technical, but it is an interesting change of philosophy by a public body.
I’ve always believed in giving access to data in a comprehensive manner, when that data is anonymous and disclosure is in the public interest.
For instance, a programme could be written, that collates and analyses some specific data on the rail network, that might be required by a local politician, who is getting complaints about the rail service.
But that is only a simple example and knowing the skill of software developers, free access to the data, will spawn some very useful applications.
The article doesn’t say if passenger journey statistics will be available, but this might be very useful to develop a system, which helped show a company, which would be the best location for their next coffee shop or office development. Or perhaps it could suggest to a coach company, which might be the best route for a new service.
A lot of these applications are speculative, but because the data is available and free, companies with a need will use it to their advantage to grow, increase profits and create jobs.
Let’s hope that this is a first small step to opening up public data,so that companies and organisations can improve their products and services, and consumers can benefit.
Annoyances In My InBox
Every day, I get at least two e-mails asking me to register PDF Suite 2014. I’ve never used it or bothered with this company before.
I also get something every day from IT Brief.
How do we stop spam coming from these companies? All the unsubscribe requests have failed and of course spam like this from across the pond is impossible to stop.
Who Wants A $20 Smartphone?
I found an article entitled Why ARM Believes We’ll See a $20 Smartphone
This is the first paragraph.
ARM Holdings (ARMH) believes the company’s future will be brighter because it’s embracing both ends of the computing business – high-end devices such as smartphones and tablets with quad-core, 64-bit processors, as well as increasingly inexpensive mobile devices running on new single-core chips.
The future seems to be ARM
Open Data Will Improve Public Transport
I was actually looking to see if anybody else had spotted that London buses now have time displays, which I reported here.
But I did find this article entitled, Smart data will only work if the network data is truly open.
The article says that London has one of the biggest real-time passenger information systems in the world. All of the data is available free for developers. The article then says this.
Developers have created more than 100 apps for the city’s buses alone. They offer everything from route planners for the disabled to scalable tube maps, with live updates when lines are disrupted, and apps that let you know where to board a train so you can get off as close to your exit as possible.
So is it right to think that as time goes on, more and better apps will be written to make difficult journeys easier?
You could envisage apps, where you entered your start and destination and the system made suggestions, as to how to get there fastest, when say the local low life had nicked the signal cable or a bus or train had broken down.
The one thing that the article misses, is the data connection from the smart device to the central system.
Surely to cope in the near future, all vehicles will have a wi-fi connection. First Manchester is reported here to be fitting wi-fi to all its buses.
Once you have a fast local connection between vehicles and passengers, other possibilities will become feasible.
As an example, I often catch a 38 bus to the Angel, where to get to Kings Cross, I change to a 73 bus or take the Northern line. If the bus had a rearward facing camera, I could link to this to check for the 73 bus.
One of the great things about this technology is that you don’t need everybody to be using it on a bus, as bus passengers will talk to each other and share their information. I say this because you see people at bus stops texting to find the arrivals and then showing them to other passengers.
None of the apps because of the open data will cost Transport for London a penny. The reverse could be true in that the apps might encourage more passengers to travel and travel on the more lightly-used part of the network. If more people travelled by bus, hopefully this would reduce car traffic, thus allowing more road space for buses.
Such is the power of software!
Free Wi-Fi In Gdansk
I was very surprised to find that Gdansk city centre had a totally open and free Wi-fi network.
Free Wi-Fi In Gdansk
I sat in a cafe in the main square and checked all my regular web sites like the BBC on my phone.
There is a list of places listed here on Wikipedia under Municipal Wireless Network. Blackpool, Bristol, Liverpool and Norwich are listed for the UK.
How long will it be before we’ll just list the cities which don’t have it?
One of the reasons, I use Carluccio’s so often is that they have free wi-fi and after connecting once, you get all of their restaurants.
Changing From A Large To A Small Energy Supplier
I recently changed from a large energy supplier; NPower, to a small one; OVO.
So how has the experience been and would I change now, knowing what I now know?
1. Costs
If I compare my actual costs for 2013, when I was with NPower to the estimated costs for 2014 on OVO, they are about the same at £143-145 a month for both gas and electricity. I suspect that for a modern three-bedroomed house, where I cook by electricity, do one load of washing a week and have a deep bath every day, that these figures could be a bit low.
But it is surprising how close the two suppliers are in terms of costs. Partly, this is because OVO set the level of the standing order based on what I was paying NPower
2. Account Management
I am just getting to grips with managing my account to my benefit.
In the previous section, I said that OVO set my initial payments based on my NPower usage.
I have now adjusted my standing order to my usage , as OVO allow you to do. I estimate that when I get this adjusted correctly, my bill could reduce to about £120 a month.
One thing that happens with OVO, is that if you are in credit, they give you a small interest payment. It may only be pence, but it’s more than a big supplier would give. You can also request that the balance be withdrawn to your bank account.
3. The OVO Web Site
Like all new web sites, the OVO web site has a few problems and could be better. In their case, things like remembering your login ID and the general handling of passwords are areas I would improve.
As to the login, they could do a lot worse than look at how Zopa has created a secure login. Zopa’s is certainly one of the best!
I would also recommend that you login once a month and give it a good look around.
4. Customer Support
I don’t think I have any complaint in this area.
You phone them on an 0800 number.
5. Would I Change Again?
Not at the moment, but if I did want to change, I’ve got a single A4 piece of paper with all of my details and relevant numbers on it, so change would be easy.
So for that reason alone, I would advise anybody to change at least once to an energy supplier with good paperwork and web site.
The Computer Software Update Problem
I don’t like automatic updates of computer software and this story from the BBC about Kaspersky Labs and their anti-virus software is vindication of my view . Here’s the first two paragraphs.
Thousands of computers running Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system were unable to connect to the internet after installing an anti-virus update.
Users said they were also unable to access their internal company networks.
I only update my software, when I find the current system has a serious bug, as I’ve been stung so many times in the past. And then I update software, when I want to, so I have time to test it before it drops me in the doo-dah.
Another question thatr has to be asked here, is given the current political situation, why would anybody use Russian anti-virus software.
The Anonymous Widower 