A Mini Tablet Computer With A Built-In Printer
My little tablet computer, which is a Samsung Tab 2 with a seven inch screen. I use it to answer e-mails, keep a list of tasks and details of my drugs and INR results.
It does the job well, but it doesn’t handle all scenarios.
Say I was an architect working on a new house. I could make notes as I walked round the site and type them up later to give to the builder, who may not be very computer literate. But that is more hassle than I need.
Imagine though being able to write on a pad of paper, perhaps a few centimetres across, with a standard ball point pen and then give the paper copy to the builder. This is how many people work, using Post-it notes for the purpose.
Suppose though, that the pad fitted over the screen of the tablet computer and that could capture what was written as an image, so that when I got back to the office, I could download the various images to my computer for safe keeping.
In the late 1980s, I saw a demonstration of a system, where signatures were captured, that had been written by a standard ball point pen, through a thick pad of paper.
So the technology has existed for some time.
This idea has potential and all of the technology exists somewhere.
As with the double-sided credit card holder, I want one. And I want one now!
The Warning That Was Ignored
On the BBC web site, there is this article about the sinking of the ferry Princess Victoria on the 31st January 1951.
The BBC article gives a full time-line of the sinking of the ferry until she sent her last radio message at 13:58. But it leaves out anything of what happened later.
As a child for a few years I lived in Felixstowe and I can still remember the dark marks on the walls of the houses in Langer Road, showing how high the North Sea Floods of 1953 rose later on that fateful day, killing some 38 people in that end of the town.
Many more died in The Netherlands and Flanders.
Sad that the sinking of the Princess Victoria was, it seems inconceivable today, that the warning wasn’t heeded and so many deaths and damage occurred.
I hope we have learned from what happened that night.
Quinoa
I’ve never knowingly tasted quinoa, but it does come up occasionally on the gluten-free lists I belong to.
I was thus drawn to this article about the grain in the Guardian. The title
Quinoa: good, evil, or just really complicated?
Probably sums it all up well.
Win The Toss, Win The Game
They’ve just said this, on the cricket commentary of the last game of the one-day series between England and India, as all games have been won by the side winning the toss.
I’ve always thought that the toss has too much influence.
Perhaps it would be better, if the first toss in a series was done say the day before the first match in a broadcast ceremony. And then after that the toss would alternate.
But then what do I know about cricket?
Peer-to-Peer Lending In Estonia
My Zopa alert found this article from a website called European Voice.
It gives this view on Estonian banking.
Banking is the economy’s biggest weakness. It offers stingy, fee-ridden savings products and over-priced loans with nasty hidden costs. Intermediaries gain colossal profits, especially when they are greedy and reckless. When things go wrong, as they inevitably do, the taxpayer picks up the bill. Apart from that, it works fine.
It then goes on to show how things are changing through a company called Isepankur.
The writer has in fact invested some of his savings, by loaning to Estonian borrowers. This is his experience so far.
My net average return (like most Isepankur lenders) is about 17%. I have so far lent €1,570 to about 50 borrowers, in amounts ranging from €5 to €25. I have received €60 back in repaid capital and €24 in interest. I also got €0.06 in ‘penalties’ (my share in a small fine levied on a borrower called ‘Lillekas’ who paid a few days late).
I don’t think it will be many years, before the peer-to-peer lenders are available in many countries.
Who’d be a retail banker?
Looking For A Double-Sided Card Holder
I spent some time yesterday, looking for a new credit card holder, that meets the specification I laid down in this post.
I was unsuccessful, although an assistant in Selfridges said, he’d got a leather one and used a safety pin clipped in it, to identify the side to use.
Credit Card Transactions
Yesterday, I used my credit cards, twice. I used my Visa card to buy a present in Selfridges and also bought my supper in Marks and Spencer using my John Lewis Partnership card.
Checking my on-line accounts this morning, neither of the transactions have been added. Why not?
In these days of instance pin checking and information, surely the information, should be in my statement, immediately I’ve used the card!
After all, it would be a big security check, for users.
On the other hand, where your partner has a card on your account, it could be major source of friction in a relationship.
Living In The Toilet
This article on the BBC, shows how even the smallest buildings in London are being converted into homes and other uses. The opening paragraph says it all.
Converting abandoned public toilets in London into flats and businesses is providing a solution to rising property prices for some.
I don’t think it’s just about property prices. The conversions that I’ve seen both in the article and on the television, seem to be stylish and are good adverts for their designers and architects.
Remember too, that many of these buildings were very well built in the Victorian era and are still sound buildings. After all we’ve seen offices and warehouses transformed into stylish dwellings, so why not the smaller ones too?
The Spanish Fall In Love With Britain
The Times has an article, where it describes how the Spanish are falling in love with Britain, its culture and the English lanuguage. This is the introduction to the article.
A passion for cupcakes, Jamie Oliver and all things red, white and blue is sweeping Spain — Britannia, it seems, is suddenly very cool.
From Madrid to Barcelona, Málaga to Bilbao, the Union Jack is visible everywhere as Spaniards seek to soak up the spirit of the London Olympics.
They are buying T-shirts, cushions, plates, towels, pencil cases — anything that bears the British flag. They are also flocking to learn the language in increasing numbers.
So amongst all the gloom of the economy yesterday, perhaps we are doing something right!
The Times puts it all down to the Olympics.
I must say though, that you come across a large number of Spanish people in London these days. but then we have the jobs and because of Spain’s unemployment, they have the people to fill them.
High Speed Trains Compared
out of curiosity, I thought I put the various speeds and size of some of the high-speed trains in Europe.
Fyra – V250 – 8 car trains seating 546, running at a maximum speed of 250 km/hr.
UK – IC 225 – 9 car trains running at a maximum speed of 225 km/hr. Although they are limited to 201 km/hr. because of signalling.
Eurostar – 373 – 20 car trains seating 750, running at a maximum speed of 300 km/hr.
ICE 1 – 12 car trains seating 743, running at a maximum speed of 280 km/hr.
ICE 2 – 8 car trains seating 391, running at a maximum speed of 280 km/hr.
ICE 3 – 8 car trains seating 441, running at a maximum speed of 320 km/hr.
Although, they are all different, it’s surprising how with the exception of Eurostar, they are all fairly shortish trains.
The IC 225 is slower, but also as they run on normal lines with other traffic, and generally stop a few times on their journeys out of London, their performance isn’t as slow as you would think.
It may lead you to the conclusion, that on shorter high-speed services with stops, 200 km/hr may well be fast enough.
But as the French like to show, there is quite a lot of pride, that your trains run very fast. But then France and Spain are probably the only countries in Western Europe, that have the space for long high speed lines.
We have had only a few details about HS2, the line from London to the Midlands, North and eventually to Scotland. They seem to be planning for speeds of up to 400 km/hr., but how much is that to just prove they can do what the French do?
Putting an engineering hat on, it’s well known that the faster you go, the more energy you need and the more noise and damage to the track you make. And if you go at 400 km/hr instead of 200 km/hr, you don’t do the journey in half the time, as you have to accelerate and brake for longer.
We also get the old chestnut, of why don’t we have double-deck trains like they do in many places on the continent. Having travelled on a TGV Duplex to the South of France, I am very sceptical about them on short high speed distances, as loading and unloading can be a nightmare, given the excess baggage people take with them these days.
So I am veering towards shorter nimble trains with superb acceleration. Taking the HS2 route to Birmingham, which has two stops between Euston and Birmingham, they might even be as quick as a faster heavier train.
But then the trouble with a slightly slower service, is that it doesn’t polish the egos of politicians, who love to say they have things like the fastest or biggest in the world.
Obviously, past Birmingham, where there is more space, the service could go faster towards the North and Scotland.
You have to remember that most of the saving in journey times from high speed trains come from taking a direct flat route. Brunel and those that built the East Coast Main Line, knew that and were able to create tracks that now allow trains to run at 200 km/hr. The West Coast Main Line had to be threaded through country estates of the landed gentry and over quite a few hills, so it is much slower.
Looking at my target of Fyra, the Dutch don’t really need a 400 km/hr. line and in fact, limit the speed of trains to 300 km/hr., although they’re not going as fast as that yet.
So there would appear to be good reasons for not building short high-speed lines capable of 400 km/hr. But by all means build them capable of 200 km/hr.
The Anonymous Widower 