Sending People To Coventry
This very English phrase has been used in a comment on my post about Lance Armstrong, by one of my Australian followers.
I would have thought the Australians would have used an appropriate Australian town.
We also have a few other geographical phrases like.
Carrying coals to Newcastle
So what do other countries use?
Wikipedia has an interesting explanation of the phrase Sending to Coventry. They cite the origin as.
It is believed that the city of Coventry in the United Kingdom had one of the strictest monasteries, where monks that misbehaved were sent and given the punishment of a vow of silence. therefore being “sent to Coventry” means not being spoken to or communicated with.
So it is a lot older than industrial relations.
Perhaps, we should bring it back as a legal punishment.
A Circular Journey In The Snow
Very often on a Sunday I go across the Emirates Air-Line cable car, have a tea, coffee or lunch somewhere and then return home by a different route.
Today with all the snow, was just too good to miss.
My route was to walk to Dalston Junction station and then get a train south to Shadwell. I then took the DLR from there to the cable car. I came back via Canary Wharf, where I had a cup of tea and the London Overground back to the start.
The only problem, was that visibility wasn’t that good, but it was what the cable-car is for. It must have felt pleased to be in the land of its birth; Austria.
Improving Banking Security
There is an article about the security level of chip and pin on the BBC’s web site. It got me thinking.
I am careful with my bank debit and credit cards and feel that with on-line banking, not enough is done to create a more flexible and much more secure system, by using the power of the servers to make things difficult for a criminal.
Logging In
I always log in from memory, rather than use the little machine that my bank gave me. As the customer number and passwords are not written down anywhere, even with the card and the machine, it would be difficult to log in to my account, unless they had co-operation from someone inside the bank.
There is a big flaw in the bank’s security, in the fact that all the machines are identical, which means criminals only have to get one to use this method of logging in, if they have a stolen debit card and the customer number. I needed a new one and just went into a branch and asked for one. They didn’t ask me any questions, before I got a new one.
I very much like the login system used by Zopa. It is very secure and very simple, and I would suspect most people would not need to write anything down to login first time. Something, you can’t say about many systems I’ve seen.
Restricting Cash Withdrawals
I have never understood why thee is nowhere in your on-line banking account, where you can set parameters about how and where you can draw money out through cash machines.
In a simple case, you might impose limits on the amount of money that could be withdrawn at any one time, or say in a week or month.
I would impose a limit of up to a hundred at any one time. If I needed more, I could always change the limit. You wouldn’t want to make it too complicated, as it would start to get onerous.
Better Bank Statements
When I look at my bank statement on-line, the cash withdrawals, just say how much I’ve withdrawn and the name of the bank. Some of the direct debits are well documented either.
it would be very easy to say give every cash point machine a unique reference, so when you checked the statement, you would quickly notice a transaction that was perhaps done with a cloned card.
The more information you gave customers, the more likely they would be to spot something that wasn’t correct.
An Emergency Pin Number
You hear stories about criminals threatening cash point users and getting them to draw money out. So why not have an emergency pin number, that smallows the card, perhaps gives out a few pounds and then says something like.
This machine as run out of money, please try another machine.
Whatever the system did would have to be carefully thought out, to avoid the criminal taking it out on the victim.
SMS Confirmation Of Bigger Transactions
I’ve never understood, why this couldn’t be done, as any message relating to a purchase you hadn’t made, would give you warning.
I’ve always felt that this would be very effective, even if only a few cards were setup this way. But would criminals take the chance of using a card that was, when it might start an immediate chase.
In some ways, what seems to be sad is that all on-line banking is so similar, when there are so many things that can be done to make the system much more secure for both the bank and its customers.
Banks are just so conservative and don’t innovate. Which is why they’re going to fail even more.
An Advantage Of Living In A City
I’ve lived for forty years of my life in the country, where of course in weather like this you have to clear snow, so you can get into your house.
I’ve just walked down the road to get my paper and on the other side of the road, three workers from Hackney Council are clearing the pavement. They have a rather nifty pair of grit spreaders!
A Pair Of Nifty Grit Spreaders
I suppose to be fair to the Council, they spent a lot of money replacing the pavements last year and they’re only protecting their investment. And helping the residents’ balance!
My Central Heating
There’s something weird about the central heating in this house.
I haven’t had it switched on upstairs due to its homicidal tendencies for a few weeks. So today, as it’s so cold, I switched in on again.
It must be the first time, anybody has switched the heating on and the temperature has fallen. Despite the fact that the floor is now quite a bit warmer!
Algeria
I had a unique insight on Algeria as a child. Next to where we lived in Cockfosters, in about the late 1950s, a family moved in next door. The father was English, but unusually for the time, his wife was a white Algerian of French extraction. I can remember her talking to my mother about life in Algiers during the Second World War and I think my mother was sympathetic to her flight in those years.
The lady had little time for the non-white Algerians and we’d probably say she was racist now, sixty years later.
It must have been about the time of the Front Algerie Francaise, who were trying to keep Algeria part of France.
You do wonder how those bad relations between the two factions in Algeria left a legacy, that we’re seeing worked out in that part of Africa today.
One thing I do remember about my neighbour, was that she wanted their son to be a Roman Catholic priest, a notion that really horrified my mother, who being of Huguenot descent, wasn’t too keen on that branch of the Christian religion. The son’s name was the same, as a well-known actor and I often wonder what he did in later life, when I see a Catholic priest.
The bonus of living next door, was that occasionally when my mother was away, I got a delicious meal sent in from next door, that had been cooked in the French manner.
David Versus Goliath Or ARM Versus Intel
I have just read this article in the Motley Fool about David or ARM Holdings taking on Goliath or Intel.
The article has been given the title The Reason ARM Holdings Is Dominating Intel, but interestingly the web page is called Why ARM Holdings Destined Destroy Intel. This name is chosen by the blogging software, from the first title used for the article taking out the short connecting words, like is and to. Look at the title and web address of this post.
But I suppose someone in management at The Motley Fool felt it was a bit provocative.
I don’t, as I think Intel is doomed.
As we need to process and store more and more data, one of the biggest limitations will be the amount of power needed.
As an example look at the average smart phone. It may have lots of features and processing power, but this often comes at the price of a short period of operation before the phone needs recharging. Now virtually all smart phones are built around ARM chips, as the Intel chips use too much power. This power consumption of ARM chips is one of the main reasons they are dominant in portable devices like smart phones and tablets.
The vast server farms have a similar problem and I’ve read that about ten percent of the world’s electricity consumption could be used to power them in the future. So a low-power route would be to everybody’s advantage. And ARM is the low power processor, although Intel are starting to design processors that are more efficient. Intel might be able to put up a strong fight, but I believe there’s one big reason, why it won’t.
Intel is a conservative company, that sticks to a philosophy that has worked for years. And getting companies with a vast investment in a proven philosophy to change, when the writing appears on the wall is not easy! Especially, when you are selling product to equally conservative companies, who don’t want to change their philosophies.
Let’s say you are a server manufacturer like Hewlett-Packard. You know you have to go with lower powered processors to maintain your market share.
You have two choices; wait for Intel’s product to arrive or design your own low-power processors around the ARM technology and get them manufactured by any one of a number of companies.
The second approach is probably the one with the lowest risk, so you at least have to try it. If it fails, you can still go with Intel’s new low power chips.
If you don’t succeed, then it is absolutely certain that someone else will develop a low power server using ARM technology. So your traditional market will go bang anyway!
It also has the great advantage, that if you do it successfully, Intel will start to worry, that you’ll go down the same route with all the other chips you buy from them. so you may get better prices for the other chips.
If you don’t succeed, then it is absolutely certain that someone else will develop a low power server using ARM technology. So your traditional market will go bang anyway!
The main loser in either scenario is Intel.
You have to remember how dominant IBM was in the 1960s. They had a philosophy that worked well, but where are they now! They’re just a shadow of their former selves where hardware is concerned. Smaller and more innovative companies chipped away at their market.
I would also throw in a view on how hardware designers and programmers think. Basically, ninety percent are anarchists, who believe in destroy and rebuild much better, so they will always decry the architecture of companies like Intel and go for something that appeals to their dark side.
ARM was that forbidden fruit that only a few companies used. But now it is so mainstream, you can satisfy your own preferences and those of management as well.
In five or ten years time, they’ll be writing articles about how the new processor on the block is going to destroy ARM.
Eskimos
It was so cold today, that I joked to one of the driver/conductors on the 38 bus, that they were outsourcing them with Eskimos.
But seriously, on The One Show tonight, a doctor said that Eskimos shake their hands to keep them warm. I shall be trying it, if this weather persists.
I have heard from my friend in The Netherlands, that it could be as low as -13°C in Rotterdam with quite a bit of snow on the ground.
Hopefully, it won’t get that cold here tonight.
Where’s The Building Gone?
The last time, I walked through here on my way to Liverpool Street station, I’m sure there was a building.
But it’s gone now to be replaced by a new 5 Broadgate, which replaces 4 and 6. Those buildings didn’t live as long as I have so far!
Note that it will be completed in 2015. That shows what I think is a very tight timetable and probably some good project management.
Armchairs Outside St. Paul’s
As someone, who is getting on in years, I do like to see nice places to sit on the street. These chairs were outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Armchairs Outside St. Paul’s
I don’t think, I’ve ever seen single oak armchairs before. Sadly, it was so cold and miserable, I just walked on past.
The Anonymous Widower 