The E-Type is Fifty!
That amazing style icon of the 1960’s, the E-Type Jaguar is now 50. There a report here.
BP’s Gulf Crisis
I’ve done a lot of interesting things in a long working life. One that might help BP is a type of reusable oil rig/platform, for which I did the calculations in about 1972. It was called a Balaena and the company was called Balaena Structures. It was based in Cambridge. I wonder what happened to the idea.
An automated/instrumented body
As I lie here I’m connected to a heart monitor, that reports by radio to the central support unit. But they also take my blood pressure, pulse rate and temperature every hour or so.
How long will it be before I could wear a body suit, that did everything automatically, even if I was at home in bed?
This could take a complete map of everythung the wearer did.
In addition to medical treatment, it could have implications in the treatment of mental health and drug addition. especially if it contained a two-way communication link, so they could be informed when to take their medication.
My Infuriating Nokia X6
It must be the name X6. It’s the name of much disparaged BMW!
But it really is an infuriating device.
Take today! I’ve just uploaded a few albums from CDs so that I can play them if I get bored on the journey and need some music. But can you do it by just clicking an album. No! You have to create a Playlist. I don’t work that way. I take the CD out of it;s box and put in the player. Where is the equivalent?
As I learn more about this phone, I’ll return to it.
Finger Friendly Packaging
If we want to see how a company in a small country can create a very large high-tech niche for themselves, you need look no further than Logitech, who are based in Switzerland. Their products aren’t very cuckoo clock.
As I’ve bought myself a new laptop for the journey, I felt it would be a good idea to get a new mouse. I hate those pads on laptops which never seem to work for me! So as I’ve got several of their products, I looked no further than Logitech.
The mouse works well and has a very small transmitter, so I can leave it in all the time. And the mouse works on just one battery. In fact I’m using it now.
But what surprised me was the packaging.
Logitech's Finger Friendly Packaging
Note the red arrow at the top. It points to a perforated area in the packaging, which you tear along in the age old fashion and hey presto, you get access to the contents.
No broken nails, knives or scissors.
This type of packaging should be compulsory!
10/10 to Logitech.
Nuclear Waste
I have been over several nuclear power stations and on the whole they weren’t a chilling experience, where you felt that any minute, you’d be engulfed in some radiation-related explosion. At only one did I feel a bit uneasy and that was because the site was untidy and cramped. It just didn’t have the aura of being well-run that I got from say Sizewell A or AEP Cook. But I visited this plant twenty years ago and it has operated safely since.
But when I saw an article entitled, Areva plans new reactors that make nuclear waste disappear, in The Times on Monday, I was initially sceptical.
But it does look that it may be the solution to the problem of nuclear waste. I hope so!
What puzzles me about the story is that the technology was first proposed in the 1950s. If it is that good, why hasn’t it been developed earlier.
Not What It Says on the Tin!
I have recently put in some new radiators. The pipes from the floor need to be painted and I got some Dulux to match the radiator.
Paint Colours
Note that the pipe colour doesn’t seem to be anything like the oval on the tin.
Saying Sorry is Good for Your Business
I first heard this story on Radio 5 and it’s here in full in the Daily Mail.
Nottingham University does a lot of excellent research and this detailed study shows how a simple apology can be better than offering unsatisfied customers a cash payout. The experiment was interesting too, in that it was carried out using a company that made sales on eBay. I wonder how much other good research can be performed in this manner?
The levels of satisfaction were actually 42% with an apology and 23% when a cash payout was offered. So it wasn’t just a small difference!
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post talking about the service I got with a freezer from John Lewis.
So perhaps things are getting a lot better.
They may be in commercial companies, but we will really only have completed the customer-relations revolution, when the various Agencies of the Government get their customer focus perfect. There are ones that are good, but there are others that are terrible.
Get it right and it could help the next government govern for a long time.
An interesting aside to saying sorry, is that an old friend used to run a large hospital department. They implimented an immediate sorry-policy and it cut the level of complaints drammatically.
Looking for Lights
I don’t know whether this post will get any results, but I have a problem in finding the right lights for my kitchen/living room. I know what I want, but I can only get them in small sizes. And I want a large one to replace a chandelier.
Conical Wire-Wrap Shade
This was the original ones that my late wife bought, when we moved into this house about sixteen years ago, they came from John Lewis.
Note the bulb which is one a Philips Tornado. They start immediately and are rated as the equivalent of a 115 watt conventional bulb. They are better, but still only a stop gap until we get proper LED light bulbs, that look like a conventional bulb, emit light like a conventional bulb, last virtually forever and run cold on about a tenth or less of the electricity.
Three weeks ago, I bought this pumpkin shaped shade from Homebase.
Pumpkin-Shaped Wire-Wrap Shade
This one is a lot smaller, but although made many years after the original, it has the same design, company and/or machines written all over it.
Then I found this one in B & Q.
Globe-Shaped Wire-Wrap Shade
Again it was identical in similar in detail design and certainly method of manufacture.
I’ve put two on the gallery in the kitchen to replace a wall light.
Lights on the Gallery
What I now need is a large fitting, say about 80 cm. in diameter, made to a similar design for the centre of the room. Perhaps though a globe shape would be best, or at least one with a narrow aperture, so the bulb is semi hidden. I’ve seen one in hotel. Or I might have!
Any ideas?
Ideas – Control Through a Computer Network
I have a pretty extensive computer network in my house and the buildings. It’s all very standard stuff based on Cat5e cabling and a few switches.
I have a couple of cameras on the network to watch over the horses and these work well. Effectively they are cameras with an inbuilt web server that takes an address on the network. You type in that address and you see the pictures.
But there do not appear to be many other devices, that work in a similar way.
For instance, I would like a switch that could sit on the network and be used to switch exterior lights on and off at night. Or more likely when I think there is something suspicious happening. I would just click a small window on the computer screen.
There are other devices I would like to put on my network; speakers, weather sensors and level gauges for my gas tank.
I can’t find anything on the Internet, that you just plug in and start playing.
Go on! Make my day build one. I think you’ll sell lots!
The Anonymous Widower 