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!
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.
Why Does Software Go Backwards?
My ten-year-old Hewlett-Packard laptop is at death’s door, so I’ve had to switch to a much newer Sony. I bought the Sony, because i found the keyboard easy with my gammy left hand, which means I have difficulty with the shift key. Most capital letters are done by spanning my right hand.
Why is the version of Windows and Office 2010 so inferior to Windows Vista and Office 2007?
I would love to go out and buy a new laptop pre-loaded with Vista and Office 2007! And if it cost me more than it was worth, I wouldn’t mind.
Let’s face it, the hardware and software are the canvas on which a writer of software or all sorts of documents weave their fantasies.
So why should computer companies tell me what I can buy? If I wanted a part for most ten-year-old cars, it’s usually an easy purchase.
And then when you buy a new standalone product, like my Samsung mobile phone, it’s got more bugs than the insect house at the London Zoo. They may be clever and get a lot of sales, but the designers don’t think like users, which is the key to writing good software.
Why Does Everyone Have To Fiddle?
I’ve just returned home and I wanted to get the football on quickly, whilst I put my shopping away.
But some idiot has decided that my Sky box needs updating with yet more features that I will never use.
Whilst I was getting round their unwanted help and demo, a goal was scored.
Luckily it was only scored by that prawn sandwich mob in red from Manchester, but it could have been scored by Aston Villa.
There’s an old adage, that says if it’s not broken, then don’t fix it!
The trouble with updates involving any form of computing or software, is that I’ve only known one person, who never created a bug when writing updates. On the other hand, they never delivered anything on time!
Microsoft Outlook Is Full Of Bugs
I would be annoyed with myself, if I’d written software with as many bugs as Microsoft Outlook.
What is driving me hairless at the moment is trying to send the e-mail address, telephone numbers and physical address of a sick friend, to those in my address book who know him. I’m using a vcf format Business Card.
Unfortunately, since I first sent his address by this method a couple of years ago, the entry has changed, as my friend has moved.
But Outlook persists in sending the old details. Do I have to delete the entry and reenter everything?
That to me is a triple-X rated bug.
Poor Computer System Design
I just tried to make a payment through my on-line bank account. As the payee has moved their account since last time, I needed to change the sort code and account umber. But you have to delete the old entry and re-enter a new one, as there is no other way.
I finally did the transfer, but even then, there were quite a few textual bugs in the screens I saw.
This is very poor system design and is another entry in that fat book called How Not To Design A Banking System.
The Peer-To-Peer Invisible Firewall
I still have some money on deposit with my bank, as I need it to pay builders and things like that, but I don’t think I will have it there for much longer.
This morning, I got a load of messages trying to target my non-existent NatWest account. As I have never had a message targeting any of my peer-to-peer lending accounts, it would seem logical that any fraudster will more likely get my bank account details than say those of the peer-to-peer lenders.
But suppose they did break into my peer-to-peer accounts, they could only transfer money back to my main bank account, which was used to load the money to the accounts. So I doubt it would do them any good.
So to get any of my money out of the peer-to-peer sites, they’d probably need to take complete control of the site and replace the software with their own.
With my software hat on, I would propose that that is virtually impossible.
So in my view in addition to the obvious security on peer-to-peer sites, there is an additional invisible firewall, due to the design of the sites.
This would make them a very unlikely target for a sophisticated criminal. They would find it easier to set up a completely bogus site and get punters to deposit money with them, for onward transmission out of the country. Hopefully, that would be spotted, given the high-profile nature of sites like Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter, who have been through the mill on credibility with the media, regulators and politicians.
They can’t all be wrong!
Happy Hundredth Birthday To Isotopes
I was having a cup of tea in a cafe, when the geologist I was talking to, said that isotopes, were first discovered a hundred years ago, and that there was a bit of a celebration.
I learned about isotopes in my physics many years ago, but now all that I seem to remember is that two isotopes of the same element, have the same numbers of electrons and protons, but differ in the number of neutrons. Carbon for example has three forms, Carbon 12, Carbon 13 and Carbon 14. The three forms all contain six protons and electrons, but 6, 7 and 8 neutrons respectively. If you ever have heard of the Carbon 14 dating of objects, there is an article here, which describes the process.
I used the different isotopes many years ago, in one of the first pieces of decent software I wrote. I was trying to analyse the compounds in the output of a mass spectrometer. The samples contained lots of carbon compounds and I was told that the two common isotopes of Carbon 12 and Carbon 13, were in the ratio of ten to one, which meant that if you had a compound with several carbon atoms, you got a particular pattern. Experienced operators could identify the patterns. So I worked out how to calculate the patterns and match them to the compounds.
So that is how I learned about one of the uses of isotopes in the analysis of compounds.
This was in 1969 and the mechanics of writing the program on a machine with only 4 Kb of memory, were much more difficult than the methods involved.
I Know How Kevin Phillips Feels
It is being reported that Kevin Phillips penalty kick in the Championship Play-Off Final was worth £120,000,000.
I know to a certain amount how he feels today.
I was part of the team that sold Metier Management Systems to Lockheed for a similar sum in 1985., although with inflation it’s probably worth a lot more today.
As we went about the pre-sales process, we realised we had good methods and software, but everything was rather boring. So I was asked if I could create a version of Artemis with style and charisma. I did nothing else for six weeks, except write software, eat and sleep occasionally, but the result was that we received a lot more money, than we had decided we would accept.
It was the software and business equivalent of Kevin Phillips’s spot kick.
I also have two other characteristics that I share with Kevin. We’re both about the same height of 1.70 metres and we both performed our most important feats at just under forty years of age. He also is a man from North Hertfordshire, whereas I was brought up in that part of London, that used to have a Barnet, Herts postal address.
Apologies To My Readers
For some reason, I am now unable to edit the galleries, so the pictures aren’t as I would like.
WordPress seem to have changed the software, so that it is impossible to click on the gallery to add more pictures or edit the existing ones.
I would assume that they’ve put new software up and it’s not compatible with Windows Vista and Chrome.
The Anonymous Widower 