Alvin's Stuff, Bracknell, computers and things

Tidal Power

2011-12-18T23:45:00.005Z

My New Scientist Magazine did not arrive on Friday. What to do for bedtime reading I thought? Perhaps an old copy? Well I did find an old copy under the bed, and it had some interesting stuff in it about tidal energy.

Recently there has been talk of the Severn Estuary project being looked at again. Part of the problem with this could be environmental.
The bit in the New Scientist talked about the strong tides around the Orkney Islands, which has led the European Union-funded European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) to use Orkneys' waters as the world's largest test bed for a renewable energy source. The new turbine designs being tested here appear to be surviving the Scottish swells, and should be capable of taming one of the world's most promising sources of renewable energy. If we can use this technology to harness the powerhouses of Ocean currents, tidal power could help smash all previous predictions of how much energy the oceans can provide.The power can be environmentally friendly as well.

Neil Kermode, who manages EMEC says tidal turbines have taken the lead in the race to develop marine energy sources, surging past both barrages and wave power.

Back in May, an article in the IET E&T magazine recons that the growing marine sector in the UK could boost the economy by up to £76bn by 2050 and also generate over 68,000 jobs, if the country builds on its existing lead and successfully develops and deploys its technology.

- http://www.reuk.co.uk/Lunar-Energy-Tidal-Power.htm
- http://www.power-eng.com/news/2011/12/1558510906/renewables-rolls-royce-moves-into-the-fast-sea-lane.html

As well as tidal power looking good, wave power is also on the agenda. Anaconda says that wave energy is a particularly rich yet untapped energy resource which government studies state could produce 3%-5% of our electricity initially and up to 20% eventually. more in the August edition of NS.

The Crown Estate owns the majority of the seabed within a 12 nautical mile limit of UK territorial waters.
The estate has already made available areas for the development of offshore tidal power projects.
The Crown Estate, which manages the monarch's property holdings, already has properties that generate 1.55 gigawatts of offshore wind projects in Wales, Scotland and England.
It has recently launched offshore wind and tidal stream leasing rounds to select developers to take forward up to 800MW of projects in Northern Ireland waters.

Predicting Magnetic Storms

2011-12-13T22:41:00.012Z

I was musing a while back about the GPS system, and what would happen if it suddenly went missing.
This weeks New Scientist says:

Over the past two decades, several solar flares and magnetic storms of varying intensity have hit Earth. Solar flares are surges of X-rays, gamma rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation, and they can damage electric grids, fry satellite electronics and endanger astronauts in space. Even passengers and pilots on aircraft flying over the poles are at risk.A team at Montana State University in Bozeman are automating the process of studying the sun, and have developed computer programs using image-processing techniques to identify changing features on the sun's surface.

Accurate forecasts of the sun's activity could prove very useful, and not just for the GPS system. Any electrical or electronic equipment could be compromised.

At 2:45 AM on March 13 1989, electrical ground currents created by the magnetic storm found their way into the power grid of the Hydro-Quebec Power Authority. Giant capacitors tried to regulate these currents but failed within a few seconds as automatic protective systems took them off-line one by one. Suddenly, the entire 9,500 megawatt output from Hydro-Quebec's La Grande Hydroelectric Complex found itself without proper regulation. Power swings tripped the supply lines from the 2000 megawatt Churchill Falls generation complex, and 18 seconds later, the entire Quebec power grid collapsed.

http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms.html

The cosmonauts on the Mir station were subjected to daily doses of about twice the yearly dose on the ground, and during the solar storm at the end of 1989 they absorbed their full-year radiation dose limit in just a few hours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm

Money without Banks?

2011-12-13T22:25:00.003Z

The New Scientist editorial poses the question "Can citizen banking neuter the fat cats?"
The editorial refers to an article about Peer to Peer banking, Essentially cutting out the middle man (and his cut) from money transactions.
P2P lending could cause more money to circulate in the real economy, if interest payments could go directly to the masses, rather than to banker bonuses etc.
This remind me of several systems that use mobile phones to transfer money amongst users. Would you trust your phone company more than your bank?
http://thinkafricapress.com/economy/mobile-money-sparks-banking-boom
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8194241.stm

Malta Holiday

2011-11-14T09:59:00.004Z

It took a while plugging away at the Internet, but we finally booked ourselves a holiday in Malta. The hotel we stayed at turned out to be quite good. It was rather spoilt at our arrival though. The desk staff told us that the hotel was working on winter times and the pool and bar were closed - we would have to wait for the room to be free elsewhere. This later turned out to be false. The housekeeping staff were excellent, but rather let down by the front desk.

We spent a fair bit of time relaxing by the pool or in a bar near the sea.
On the 11th of November we visited the air museum. Diane's farther is chairman of 249 Squadron Association, and I am an associate member.
http://www.maltaviationmuseum.com/
http://merlinsovermalta.gdenney.co.uk/

We also spent some tome in Valletta. Returning to the Anglo Maltese League that we visited on a previous trip.
http://rfaaplymouth.org/talhandaq/thgallery/displayimage.php?pid=3043
http://www.rfaaplymouth.org/talhandaq/thgallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pid=3949

Wedding Bells

2011-11-07T14:13:00.002Z

Much nervousness at having to compose a Best Man's speech for my great friend Mike King.
In the end the day went off very well.
I managed to not tell any of those important stories that the blokes know about anyway, and somehow got away with the rest.
Hard work following two other good speakers, one of whom had already given a guitar recital during the signing of the registers.

We hired our gear from Anthony Blay in Wokingham, and looked good but were still outshone by a beautiful Bride.

The wedding was at Warfield church, and the reception at Stirrups.

Tag Rugby

2011-11-04T12:45:00.006Z

Bracknell Rugby Club hosted a fine day of Tag Rugby.
Schools from around Bracknell competed in a game where each player wears either a belt or shorts with Velcro tags and the aim of the game is to remove the tag from the player in possession of the ball.

The Borough Mayor had the task of decorating everyone afterwards.

Bracknell Rugby Club says:
Tag rugby is a non-contact sport with the emphasis on running and passing whilst staying on the feet. Training takes place at BRFC in Lily Hill Park between 10.00 and 12.00 on a Sunday.
We welcome any new players whether; new to the game, graduating from Rugby Tots or just starting to play at school. The RFU doesn't allow children to play competitive rugby before the age of 6 but they can start training with us from reception year at school. They will then stay with the U7s until the end of year 2.
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/bracknell/m/team-info-3488.html

It was very pleasing to see Meadow way Primary school do so well!
http://www.meadowvaleprimary.co.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=1&storyid=71

Book Party

2011-10-23T23:56:00.026+01:00

It is always interesting to meet a colleague from the past and catch up.
This was a special catching up as he has written a book about nothing.

I missed taking more videos or pictures, because the home made demonstrations of the power of nothing were very good.

Thinking About Nothing: Otto Von Guericke And The Magdeburg Experiments On The Vacuum.

So far the book has proved very interesting!

Conservative Party Conference

2011-10-12T14:24:00.003+01:00

The various staged debates and other stuff in the main area were a little bit interesting. The fringe events and the bar gossip ware more exciting..
Whilst I found the conference interesting, Diane wore herself out with retail therapy.

Amongst others, I attended an interesting thing about google and the UK, and a CPRE event about keeping food local.
The Comedy Store at Deansgate Locks provided an interesting venue for FOREST.and campaigns to keep pubs open.

Both myself and Diane went to the church service and enjoyed the local children singing.

It was a bit of a dash getting back for the NAG meeting on the Wednesday, and in the event we did arrive a bit late.

Bracknell / Thames Valley Policing

2011-08-11T16:51:00.001+01:00

The whole Thames Valley Police area was reported very quiet last night. This was perhaps due in some part to the intermittent showers of rain. The Police are prepared for any potential events.

BFC Cllr Iain McCracken has been in touch with DCC Hapgood who reported that there were no arrests for disorder and the minor incidents that did occur were very quickly resolved. The incidents earlier in the week in Reading have been swiftly followed up with the Crown Prosecution Service and strong sentences are expected.

The Police have reported very little adverse activity in Bracknell Forest. Currently the local Police have three times the usual number of officers in the town centre and are engaging with people in the community to check the concerns of local residents. From this they picked up concerns from local children who are frightened by what they have seen on TV. There has been evidence of malicious rumours which have mainly been circulating through social media. Monitoring of social media channels is being regularly performed for further information.

The Police are working to a clear patrol plan across the Borough covering specific difficult areas and have stepped up the number of available officers. They would welcome any information or concerns people have so they then can issue a reassurance to residents.

Can You Keep Control of Your Mobile Phone?

2011-08-07T20:30:00.001+01:00

The New Scientist reports that Researchers are working on a system that hitchhikes on the mobile phone network to provide an extra layer of vigilance/surveillance.
Cheap sensors mounted in your Smart Phone could monitor the environment for chemicals such a nerve gas, and automatically alert the authorities to anything suspicious.

Mobile phones are getting ever more things built into them. Manufacturers are looking to not only build in biometric data, but readers as well. I mused on this use in a short story a while back, and in a bit of blogging about RFID capabilities.

We could one day end up with the Star Trek Tricorder capability in our phones as I speculated some time back.
The trouble is that that without safeguards, the data gathered might one day be used to undermine rather than to protect your freedom.

Smart phones already have sensors such as GPS receivers, accelerometers and gyroscopes.
An example that New Scientist quotes is that drivers in Boston will soon be able to download an app called Street Bump that uses their phone's accelerometer and GPS to record the location of a pothole whenever their car bounces over one.

With a few extra tweaks your cell phone, car satnav, along with other everyday devices could work together to find stolen electronics, gather images for the police in real time, and sniff out banned drugs or gas leaks.
Not forgetting of course that your mobile phone has already got audio and video built into it.

I already blogged about some rebellious drivers use a small device which beams out a jamming signal to prevent their movements being monitored – Phones could work out the deviation to normal in the GPS system by triangulating on the network base stations.

A growing number of new cars have satnav and wireless connectivity, as well as video cameras incorporated into parking systems. Add a licence plate recognition system, like those already used by police and you have a spy in your car. All connected together with the Blue Tooth system in the car. How easy would that be to control or hack?

While data collected by your mobile phone or Satnav unit could help to trap a criminal, it could also reveal where you live and work, how you get to work, what places you visit and where your friends live.
A lot of which I speculated about in Cold Suspenders.

Biometrics and parts from the dead

2011-07-24T14:26:00.002+01:00

Reading through my New Scientist this week I see that there has been concern about dead parts being used to spoof fingerprint scanners. Severed fingers and fingers removed corpses can be used to enter secure facilities, steal cars or log on to computers.

I did mention this in the book Cold Suspenders, and alluded to the first reported case in March 2005, when thieves stole a biometrics-activated Mercedes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Attackers forced Mr Kumaran to put his finger on the security panel to start the vehicle, bundled him into the back seat and drove off. But having stripped the car, the thieves became frustrated when they wanted to restart it. They found they could not bypass the immobiliser, which needed the owner's fingerprint to disarm it. They cut off the end of his index finger with a machete, stripped Mr Kumaran naked and left him by the side of the road.

The New Scientist reports that researchers at Dermalog Identification Systems in Hamburg, Germany, have developed a way for a fingerprint scanner to differentiate between live and dead tissue. It is based on the way living tissue "blanches" - or changes colour - when blood is squeezed out of capillaries, for example as a fingertip is pressed against a reading machine.

Fake fingerprints can be also created by imprinting copies in rubbery gels or silicone plastic. There is a suggestion that a valid user can leave an greasy print on a reader, thereby allowing a subsequent user to gain access by putting his finger near enough to the reader to activate it. That may have been one of the problems at Glenochil Prison.

See:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128225.100-fingerprint-scanner-to-spot-the-living-dead.html?

Can any system ever be totally secure?
Does more technology actually create more problems?

New and old Media control

2011-07-17T19:02:00.002+01:00

The New Scientist this week talks about how the internet is different in North Korea. The nation puts heavy restrictions on net access. It wants to control what its people learn about rest of the country and world.
Have you ever thought about out how you see the internet? Allow Google to personalise your search results, they will be skewed towards what it thinks you would like to find.

This “personalisation” can be found in other sites such as Facebook and Yahoo.
The New Scientist warns that we could “create digital dictators in our own image”.

Our MP Dr Phillip Lee picked up on this in the recent discussion about News International.
Part of what he said:
“…discuss media plurality in reality, as it is now in this world. The way in which individuals search for news, and indeed share news, is changing and has changed. As for the idea that the ownership of one news channel watched by a relatively small number of people should concern us greatly, I suggest that the ownership of search engines and social media should concern us more.”
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2011-07-13a.390.1&s=phillip+lee#g414.2

This was picked up in a Lib Dem Blog.
“The algorithms the search engines use to generate their results are commercially secret and how would we know that they haven’t been tweaked so that news sites favourable to the engine’s owner don’t get weighted higher than those unfavourable? How often when searching does on go past the first page of results?”
This blogger goes on to quote an example from Belgium, where some newspapers disliked Google indexing their pages and pictures. The same papers are now annoyed that people cannot find the newspapers’ stories because Goggle no longer creates an index to them.

Have you checked your settings recently?

Computer scams

2011-07-15T17:10:00.003+01:00

I have recently had some of my Ask Alvin customers phoned up by a company purporting to be working in association with Microsoft. They normally get you to look at an internal computer log, and then claim that there are a lot of errors (there are often warnings in these files, but usually nothing to worry about).

Sometimes they tell you that your computer is sending out error reports. They encourage people to download a small application that enables them to take control of a computer. Having spent several minutes doing things on your computer they may at best ask you for money to fix a problem, or maybe worse that will install a “fake” anti-virus program that will not let you use your computer until you pay over money. The perpetrator may ask you for money to fix the computer, or ask you to buy a licence.

I have also had them call myself. I did play along with them for a while just to see where the scam would lead.

The scams are further explained in the following links.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/windowssecurity/archive/2011/06/16/dealing-with-fake-tech-support-amp-phone-scams.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres

http://money-watch.co.uk/7118/beware-of-the-windows-phone-scam

http://www.southtyneside.info/article/12908/computer-virus-phone-scam-warning

Please be careful!

What if GPS went out?

2011-07-01T13:53:00.005+01:00

A recent edition of the IET Magazine picked up some interesting issues with the GPS system.
In January 2007 the Commander of the US NAVCEN, reported the loss of GPS signals. Navigation equipment for general aviation stopped, cellular phone operations were disrupted, and the hospital's mobile paging system went down.
It took three days to pinpoint the source – a two-hour US Navy training exercise in communications jamming between two ships in the area. They stopped the exercise but didn't report the incident beyond their usual channels because the jamming was not meant to be in the GPS L-band.
A GPS jamming attack on the ship THV Galatea two years later off Newcastle-upon-Tyne showed some of the more subtle effects of jamming. Under low-power jamming, at about the same level as the real GPS signal, the ship's GPS-driven bridge instruments showed plausible but wrong positions and velocities.

Earlier this year in the New Scientist reported on a device that is illegal to use in the US, UK and many other countries. The low-tech devices can be bought on the internet for $30. Sellers claim they're for protecting privacy. Since they can block devices that record a vehicle's movements, they're popular with truck drivers who don't want an electronic spy in their cabs. They can also block GPS-based road tolls that are levied via an on-board receiver. Some criminals use them to beat trackers inside stolen cargo.

Power distribution networks, banking and financial trading systems, broadcasting and industrial-control networks all use GPS timing making them vulnerable to unintentional or deliberate (the civilian equivalent of navigational warfare) interference.

There is available a backup.
The 100kHz terrestrial radio navigation system eLoran is a strong contender in the UK and Europe as a systemic timing back-up, according to Dr Sally Basker, president of the International Loran Association. 'GPS is low-power, high-frequency, whereas eLoran is the reverse, which means you get very different failure mechanisms.

I was interested to read about the Loran system, as I wrote interfaces to use these systems many years ago. The Loran system was used alongside, Decca, and Omega systems. One small bit of coding I performed during the late 1970’s was to provide an “autofix” feature for the navigation system for a cable repair ship. The “autofix” would automatically reset the ships position to that given by the satellite system, as long as it was within a set distance of the currently calculated location.

America has just closed down its Loran-C network, which had been used for marine navigation, with no published plans to upgrade it to eLoran

In the closing of its article the IET E&T says - Of course, until there is a major GPS outage, we may not know the extent of our dependency on GPS. Space weather events such as sunspots and solar flares may do the job for us, says Bob Cockshott, location and timing programme director of the UK Technology Strategy Board's Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network. 'In 1859 a solar flare known as the Carrington Event electrified transmission cables and set fire to telegraph offices,' he explains. 'That was the limit of the technology then. We don't know enough to be able to predict such events or their effects now.'

There is nothing much to find out about “Hydroplot” on the web. There is an article that I have found:
“Later this month Cable Ship Mercury arrives at Immingham dock to be fitted with a new navigation system, Hydroplot, that was developed for the Royal Navy's hydrographers. Widely recognised as one of the most accurate commercial systems available, Hydroplot uses an Elliot 905 computer and signals from US Navy space satellites to pinpoint the ship's position to within 300ft. The £100 000 system, supplied by Marconi Space Systems and International Marine Radio, integrates all the ship's other navigational aids and is able to produce an accurate plot of the route the cable is laid over. This will be a vital aid to any repair operations the cable may require.”

http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/diad/article.php?title=3&year=1966&article=d.288.38

There is also a small mention of the Royal Navy Hydrographic ships here:
http://www.btinternet.com/~warship/Today/hecla.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Herald_(H138)

An awful lot of natter going on here, but it is interesting how the past may come and help with the present.

Bracknell Business Club

2011-06-27T01:28:00.001+01:00

The Bracknell Business Club is again meeting at The Bull in Bracknell.
If you are a Bracknell Business put Thursday 7 July in your diary.

It is an opportunity to meet other small businesses, exchange ideas and network.
The people who attend make the meeting useful, but there is also much support from the Bracknell Forest Standard and Business in Berkshire.

The idea was first brought to life by Richard Knight, vice-chairman of the East Berkshire Branch of the Federation of Small Businesses.

The event is held every 6 weeks and alternates between a Tuesday and a Thursday to allow more businesses to attend.

Local businesses are also local people - Consumers, and potential users of each others services. Previous meetings have been attended by local small business champion Bob Wade, and Bracknell MP Dr Phillip Lee.
The club wants to encourage all parts of our community to work closer together – the council, BRP, businesses and the local people.

The club are always looking for a food sponsor for the event. Neil at the Bull has been very kind to lay on sandwiches for the last two events, but it would be really helpful if there could be one or two food sponsors for each event. The total cost of a decent buffet is £150 plus VAT.
The benefits to a food sponsor is as follows:

1. Promotion of your business through the local press

2. Name of business on every guest list

3. You will be the only business allowed to promote your business to the audience.

What future for the High Street?

2011-05-23T17:39:00.006+01:00

I had a previous couple of musings about the future of town centres and shopping. There have been a couple of articles in the press recently about what will happen to high streets.

Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail poses the question “Will the internet monster eat the High Street” He reports that TV presenter Mary Portas, self-styled ‘Queen of Shops’, might have the answers. This week David Cameron appointed her to advise on how to rejuvenate Britain’s ailing High Streets.

The Sunday Times reports that what makes a perfect high street is now on the political agenda.

Hugh Ellis, chief planner of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) says that “We’ve engineered their decline; it’s as simple as that, if you approve a tremendous amount of edge and out-of-town retail space, you don’t have to be very smart to work out that has an impact on town centres.”

Out-of-town shopping has increased by 36% in a decade and the internet, is now the marketplace or 9.3% of all retail sales.
The opinion in the Daily Mail is that the truth is that ministers seem reluctant to acknowledge that all-powerful, unregulated, monopolistic online enterprises such as Amazon and Google are among the causes of Britain’s lagging economic growth and the creation of a retail wilderness. It goes on to say however enjoyable an experience traditional shopping may be, it is no longer necessary to visit the High Street. Why browse in a book shop if we can download the book onto our computer or Kindle? No wonder Amazon announced yesterday that it is selling more ebooks in America than print books for the first time.

On the subject of books, what will struggling independent booksellers make of J Sainsbury winning the prize for “bookseller of the year?”

For Portas, high-street shopping is more about pleasure than bargains. “Experiential shopping is about loving being in the shop — the smell, the light, the people — rather than saying, ‘I could have got that on Amazon £4 cheaper’.” She imagines a high street that is “more social, with meeting spaces and diversity”. Portas would like supermarkets to sponsor retail entrepreneurs
George Pye, of thinkingplace, a company that helps towns to redefine themselves, says: “Consumers today have become more sophisticated; rather than simply finding the goods they are looking for, they have become conditioned to expect more — an experience. “For town centres to thrive, they need to rediscover their points of difference, distinctiveness and character. Answer the questions, ‘What is this place for?’ and ‘Who is this place for?’, agree your story, develop the experience around that story and you have an opportunity to compete.”

John Thompson, honorary president of The Academy of Urbanism would like high street developers to include affordable space for entrepreneurs; just as residential developers are required to make a proportion of the homes they build affordable housing.
Portas says she does not have the answer yet, but hopes she will in the next six months. She says it has to start with the government and local councils
Alex Brummer says that the pressure from cyberspace is increasing, and unless consumers and communities take matters into their own hands by supporting local, specialist businesses, the game will be up.

One interesting bit, after reading the potential doom and gloom in the articles, is that some High Streets are thriving. It seems that Bracknell High Street is at number five in the top ten.

Renewable Energy or a Perpetual Motion Machine?

2011-05-11T00:11:00.002+01:00

Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute has concluded that it is a mistake to assume that energy sources like wind and waves are truly renewable.
His analysis says that if you build enough wind farms to replace fossil fuels, we could seriously deplete the energy available in the atmosphere, with consequences as dire as severe climate change.

It appears that the idea that we can harvest unlimited amounts of renewable energy from our environment is as much of a fantasy as a perpetual motion machine.

Humans currently use energy at the rate of 47 terawatts. Axel calculates that this is roughly 5 to 10 per cent of the “free” energy available. About 17 TW comes from burning fossil fuels. So to replace this, we would need to build enough sustainable energy installations to generate at least 17 TW, but because no technology can ever be perfectly efficient, some of the free energy harnessed by wind and wave generators will be lost as heat.

Axel says "Large-scale exploitation of wind energy will inevitably leave an imprint in the atmosphere." "Because we use so much free energy, and more every year, we'll deplete the reservoir of energy." He says this would probably show up first in wind farms themselves, where the gains expected from massive facilities just won't pan out as the energy of the Earth system is depleted.

Axel says that we are going to need to think about fundamental principles much more clearly than we have in the past. He says "We have a hard time convincing engineers working on wind power that the ultimate limitation isn't how efficient an engine or wind farm is, but how much useful energy nature can generate."

The answer may lie in direct solar energy, but to be sustainable, it will probably have to be based on cheaper and more readily available materials such as zinc and copper. Unfortunately many of the most efficient of today's thin-film solar cells require rare elements such as indium and tellurium, whose global supplies could be depleted within decades. The trouble is that current systems convert only a small fraction of the light that hits them to power, and absorb most of the rest, passing heat into the environment.

New Scientist - Wind and wave farms could affect Earth's energy balance

As with everything there must be a balance somewhere. But this type of article does make one stop and think.

Making Voting Easy

2011-05-10T17:47:00.003+01:00

I have come across an interesting article and blog in Computer Weekly about voting.

Programmers have decided to take FPTP AV and PR a stage further.

First Past the Post is simple and understandable; as one works though the other systems it gets ever more complex. So the Programmers have decided to eliminate any complication by inventing a system that will vote for you the way that you would want.

Wireless devices placed on streets throughout the UK would sense when someone walk near them. The software could analyse them and decide which party they would be better off with and record their vote. Using a DNA reader the system could ensure voters are only recoded once.

The clever part is that the people don't actually get to vote, but the computer would make the decision for them using complicated algorithms. The success of such software in the share trading sector, where computers buy shares automatically, has convinced politicians that it could be a way forward.

The software expert in charge of the project says the scanner will quickly be able to tell which party the voter will be most suited to by analysing characteristics such as clothing, gait and even the type of dogs being walked.

There was a short story by Isaac Asimov written in August 1955.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchise_(short_story)
It goes even further than the above.

Thank You for Your Vote.

2011-05-10T17:37:00.000+01:00

To everyone that voted for me on the 5th of May.

Thank you for your confidence in me.
I will do my best for the Wards of Priestwood and Garth.

Bracknell Forest Fires

2011-05-03T19:34:00.001+01:00

Members of the public are being urged to stay away from the area to allow for emergency services personnel to continue working together to tackle the fires. People must not impede firefighters in their work and should be aware that the travel of both fire and smoke can change unexpectedly.

The fires are not at a stage where the fire authority are confident that matters are under control.
There are 16 fire tenders still on site out of 22 available to them. Fire crews have come in from Surrey, London and Hampshire.
They also provide the backfill cover for the appliances in use so the fire risk to the general public is not being compromised.
Even so, the situation continues to be serious.
The wind direction puts Crowthorne downwind and at greatest risk.
The houses in Brookers Row were evacuated last night due to fire risk and seem likely to remain so tonight.
There is limited access for residents to return to get possessions etc.

The fire authority asked for the schools in Crowthorne to be closed today.
They were closed because of the high level of smoke around this morning as well as concerns about road traffic and the problems that would have been caused if an evacuation was needed during the day.

The Look Out was closed because it provides the point of access to the woods and was at risk if the wind had turned.
Coral Reef was closed for much the same reason.
With Coral Reef the thinking is that access might be possible there is way to control access to the car park for users only.
The council is looking at this as a possibility.

The situation is now being managed by the Fire Authority from their Silver Command by the Golden Retriever pub on Nine Mile Ride.
There are problems with the public going on site generally and messages are being put out via comms asking people to stay away.
Despite this, there are still joggers going into the woods for example.

Decisions as to whether or not the schools should open tomorrow can't be taken yet.
The schools will be informed that they may have to be closed again and the message will need to go out as we do closures due to the snow.
The low temperatures forecast tonight could mean that there will be a temperature inversion and the smoke will hang around unless the wind keeps blowing.

The Councils Adult Social Care have made checks on the vulnerable residents in the community who might be affected and we are in liaison with the HPA.

The main roads (Foresters Way and Nine Mile Ride) need to stay closed to facilitate access for the emergency services and to enable them to pump water around using hoses along the roads.
There have been some problems with the public ignoring the closures.
There are additional barriers in place and the main points have Police in attendance.
At the moment it seems that the roads will need to stay closed for at least another 24 hours, perhaps longer.

This afternoon the forestry commission are bringing in plant to construct more fire breaks across the woods to reduce the risk of fire spread.

See:
Council Website News

See also:
BBC News

There is a map at:
http://bracknellblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/map-of-fires-in-bracknell-area.html
Courtesy of
http://bracknellblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/map-of-fires-in-bracknell-area.html

Foot Slog, no Blog

2011-04-13T21:28:00.000+01:00

Keep meaning to get on and Blog.
The trouble is what with working, and then slogging around the streets meeting people and delivering election literature, I have felt too tired to do so.
Perhaps later, after walking the dog and having a quick pint.
(Thinks OH NO more walking...)

Myself or my Id? A Short Story from the Future

2011-03-24T18:58:00.000Z

Darcy mooched in the shop doorway, glumly scanning the street and nearby store for money wallets. The only interesting thing his RFID scanner had picked up was a young lady wearing expensive designer clothes, with what appeared to cheap jewellery. He watched the scanner as people moved about the street hoping for unguarded ID that he could filch.
He moved, peering into the store. Someone had started a monetary transaction. His modified Travinetter caught the identifying keys of the transaction, and flashed up that they were stored along with the target’s ID signatures. He activated the Travinetter, inserting his biometric data in place of the targets, but keeping the bank account references. It would be a simple matter to enter the store, and buy an item with the replicated ID.
The interesting young lady passed him again. He checked, and rechecked his Travinetter. The jewellery she was wearing looked similar, but was transmitting the ID of a much more expensive make. Intrigued, he decided to follow the lady. Perhaps she would perform the trick again?
As they approached the outskirts of the town, the lady turned around and smiled at him. He stopped, and then realised that someone was holding on to him from behind. The smile got bigger. A Cheshire cat he thought. “Scan him” she commanded, pointing over his shoulder. Darcy scanned the man who was gripping him. The results made him look twice. “Well” the lady demanded.
“Not well at all.” Darcy replied. “IDINFO is there, but the person is dead?”
Darcy felt something penetrate his skin, and a sharp pain. The body behind him spoke. “You like nicking ID mate?” Darcy could see the world turning dark. The body spoke again. “Well, I do too. I nicked the wrong one last time, but I think this is the last time you nick an ID.”
Darcy’s grip on the world receded. He felt he was leaving his body, or was it his Id leaving his body? The new Darcy kissed his companion, feeling a boost to his ego as he did so.

Church, Graves and Tombs

2011-03-22T15:57:00.001Z

There seems to be a lot about the church in my life just recently. There was the SACRE thing, last Sunday the Civic service, and the Sunday before the blessing of my father's headstone.

There was a Civic Service to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the panels in the memorial chapel. This displays the names of the fallen from two World Wars. It is also the 90th Anniversary of the Royal British Legion.
They were there parading their standard. The service included items from the original service sheet from 1921. My mother managed to find the original service sheet at home amongst some other items. She thinks it probably came from the time that she was editor of the Parish Magazine.

The Royal British Legion and Holy Trinity Church want to hear from families who have lost a loved one to enable them to update the roll of honour with servicemen and women from Bracknell who have died in conflict in wars since.
See http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2089744_more_soldiers_to_be_remembered

It was good that we finally we got the headstone in after about a year. It was blessed the the Team rector - Rev Canon Nick Parish.

http://www.bracknell-parish.org/magazine/2010/jul10_2.html#item12

http://alvin-finch.blogspot.com/2010/03/farewell-to-my-farther.html

The Meteorological Office symbol was one that my father was asked to design when he was based at Strike/Bomber Command - He was indeed a man of Many Talents.

The symbol below the main inscription is taken from the tomb in Brixham where other family members are buried.

We do miss him.

Religious History Trails

2011-03-22T15:26:00.000Z

The Bracknell Standard recently picked up on some work that is being done by the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE).

At the November meeting of SACRE we talked abot the "Celebrating RE Month" March 2011.

The SACRE Associate Advisor reported that a website had been launched: celebratingre.org.uk and was growing rapidly with ideas of activity that could take place across the Country. There were already lots of competitions being set up, it was suggested that the SACRE could develop some ideas at the Joint SACRE Conference.

The Chairman stated that one possible idea that the SACRE had already considered was an R.E trail that could move around various points of religious interest around a local area, perhaps one of the villages or towns of Bracknell Forest.

It was suggested that local school children could be tasked with suggesting where the trail should be and what should be included in the trail, as a research topic.
It was agreed that Councillor Mrs Maureen Beadsley, Paula Ridgeway and Councillor Alvin Finch would set up a working group to progress these ideas.

We have all been looking at different sites, and trying to come up with a coherent plan. Since the article was published in the paper, I have had a suggestion that we should include cycle routes.

I have looked at what can be done with google maps. This may not be a good example for children as it includes several pubs. Perhaps I will just walk it myself. http://www.bracknellblog.com/retrail/

Housing and Council Tax Benefits

2011-03-22T15:05:00.004Z

I came across this article in the Bracknell Standard.
Some time back I was lead member of a review of this service, and also met with the audit commission.

On the face of it the rating in the report does not look that high, but compared with other council we came out very well.
I remember in the report (and here) that one of our concerns was the external interfaces to the DWP, and the potential for a change in circumstances for a client to go unreported for a length of time.
It looks like the changes to be brought into the system my join up these services better, making it less likely that mistakes will creep in.

Local services - What is needed?

2011-03-09T23:26:00.002Z

A while back I Blogged about a chance to redefine what local services should look like and where they should be targeted, as the government is promising local councils much greater powers to decide what is needed locally.
http://alvin-finch.blogspot.com/2010/11/26-cuts-or-opportunities.html

I also mused about what it is that a council must do. What a good council should do, and what could be left out, if residents don’t want it. Councils are legally obliged to fulfil their statutory duties. But what are the statutory duties they are required to fulfil? New ones are added each year and we hardly ever see any taken out.

http://alvin-finch.blogspot.com/2010/07/statutory-duties-and-budgets.html

I read today at http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=96368 that “Councils are being offered the chance to ditch what they regard as their most onerous bureaucratic burdens.”

There are it seems that there at least 1294 statutory duties that councils have to abide by.

16 Whitehall departments and agencies are publishing their initial list of statutory duties for which they are responsible. Councils are now being asked which duties are vital to keep.
They are also being asked whether there are other duties that could also be removed.

More information at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/decentralisation/tacklingburdens/reviewstatutoryduties/

The questions I asked before are:

What sort of things should your council be obliged to do?
How much do you want to pay for those things?

What other questions should we be asking?

What if the Internet was switched off?

2011-03-07T23:23:00.002Z

“Email, telephone and television services would go dark, media organisations become unable to gather and disseminate news, governments struggle to communicate emergency information, commerce grinds to a halt, shops run out of food, the transport system collapses and electricity supplies are be severely disrupted” Says an article in the Independent.

Linx - the London Internet Exchange - handles 80 per cent of our internet traffic. What if it was taken out? What if other key connections to the rest of the world were taken out? Undersea cables and satellite stations could be physically sabotaged, of flooded with data from foreign “botnets”.

The UK has the ability in times of emergency to shut the Internet. But what if it was done for us? What crime could be performed even during a temporary outage of the Internet?
The Independent has an article (mentioned above) about some of the scenarios. But who really knows what would happen? Is it a Postman with an IT background?

Recently thefts, estimated to have cost financial institutions $86 million, were perpertrated by one man. See Kingpin: How one hacker took over the billion-dollar cybercrime underground by Kevin Poulsen. (New Scentist review). What could be done with this money?

Maybe you would like to read my book "Cold Suspenders" with some more muses about this and other things?
Read an extract Here

http://www.coldsuspenders.com/
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/alvin+finch/cold+suspenders/6295639/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Suspenders-Alvin-Finch/dp/1906210896
Join me on Facebook Here

St. Piran's Day - 5th of March

2011-03-07T01:29:00.000Z

Having posted about Britain, and England, I have been reminded that I should not leave out Cornwall, where I was Born.
The 5th of March was St. Piran's Day

Thousands of people took part in events all across Cornwall to mark St Piran's Day. (See BBC)

I did make sure that for at least part of the day I was wearing my Cornish Jumper, and would have worn my rather magnificent Cornish scarf, if only I could have found it.

To celebrate the important place counties play in the nation's cultural heritage Secretary of State Eric Pickles asked that English county standards be flown alongside the Union Flag outside the Department's Eland House headquarters in Victoria.

The Leader of Cornwall Council, Alec Robertson said:

"Cornwall is proud of its history. The natural landscape and our distinct Celtic language and culture have shaped the Cornwall of today. Our industrial mining past, when Cornwall was at the cutting edge of technological innovation, has left a world-wide legacy and Cornish Diasporas in many countries for whom Cornwall is still home. Occupying a central position in the Atlantic Arc, our maritime inheritance is still strong and our ports and harbours still house a fishing industry. In more recent times, Cornwall has become known for its visual and creative arts, of which we are justly proud.

"The ancient flag of St Piran, Cornwall's patron saint, is an enduring symbol of this unique region. I am delighted that our proud flag is flying outside DCLG on St Piran's Day. It is a day that more and more people within the Cornish Diaspora are celebrating, and it is appropriate that DCLG, as the Government Department sponsoring the development of the Cornish language, is celebrating the day too."

http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1853174

On the website http://www.turnbacktogod.com/st-piran/ it says that tradition has it that the saint came from Ireland is extremely strong. Piran’s father and mother are both given Irish ancestries. Read more at http://www.turnbacktogod.com/st-piran/

Interesting that on the O'Hagan side of the family that my uncle has traced back the Cornish O'Hagans to Castlemoore in Ireland.

The Royal Society of Saint George

2011-03-06T21:30:00.001Z

Interesting how one video followed another.
I had an email from another member of the society asking If I had been to the home page recently.
http://www.royalsocietyofstgeorge.com/index2.htm

I was rather a good rendition.

The Societys Objects as laid down in its Royal Charter are:

To foster the love of England and to strengthen England and the Commonwealth by spreading the knowledge of English history, traditions and ideals.

To keep fresh the memory of those in all walks of life, who have served England or the Commonwealth in the past, to inspire leadership in the future.

To combat all activities to undermine the strength of England or the Commonwealth.

To further English interest everywhere to ensure that St. George's Day is properly celebrated and to provide focal points all the world over where English men and women may gather together.

The Society is un-sectarian and independent of party politics. Membership is open to:

All those who subscribe to the Objects of the Society; and

Are born in England or wherever born being English men or English women or children or remoter issue of the same; or

Not being of English descent nevertheless support the aims and objectives of the Society.

British Beer

2011-03-04T23:56:00.000Z

Having just been out for a (late beer at 10pm ish) (Plough and Harrow) after a meeting, on returning home I was very taken by a post on Facebook.about our brewing heritage.
Some booze in supermarkets may be too cheap. There is no end of Larger at rock bottom prices.On the other hand a decent bottle of wine has become very expensive. Why are we not encouraging more sensible drinking in our local Public Houses? Places where drinking is regulated by a licensee. If the Landlord of a Pub sees someone too intoxicated he can refuse to to serve them.I enjoy My beer, cider and wine, and am not just out to get drunk. A pub is a place where people socialise.We have lots of social intercourse.
Anyway back to the Facebook post. Have a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QANARINMQzc produced by the Society of Independent Brewers.

More Blogging

2011-02-22T11:32:00.001Z

It seems too long since I last sat down and blogged.
The New Scientist (as often) prompted me with an article about online reputations.
It is amazing what you can find out about people by Googling them. Interesting what it says about oneself.
It appears that an entire industry has sprung up whose sole purpose is to help people manage their online reputation and gain control over their virtual persona's.

Have you ever stumbled across nasty surprises about yourself on the Internet?
An embarrassing photo?
A small indiscretion?
A false claim?

The thrust of the article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928001.600-keeping-up-eppearances-how-to-bury-your-digital-dirt.html is that putting out MORE not less is the answer. Put out more that the search engines such and Google like, and it will find that first, instead of the tittle tattle that you want rid of - Maybe.

Next time you post that status on Facebook. Who do you think might be looking at it?
Food for thought.

And who are those other people with your name? What mix ups could there be?

Marian Langton

2010-12-31T17:33:00.000Z

It was very sad to hear of the death of Marian Langton. She was a hard working Town Councillor and Mayor of Bracknell one year. I also worked with her as a governor at Garth Hill, where Marion's experience as a teacher was invaluable. Diane and myself would often see her in the Elms recreation ground, picking up bits of litter as she walked her dog. We remember one occasion when we rushed to the main road with her, only to see her "new" puppy hit by a car. The end we thought. The puppy picked itself up, shook itself and ran to Marion. Lesson learnt we thought! More in the Bracknell Standard.We will miss Marion's wit and optimism.

Bird feeding

2010-12-19T22:06:00.001Z

It was good to see a large flock of fieldfares feeding in the trees in the back garden. Pigeons have had a go at eating them before but usually end up falling out of the tree. We try to put out food for all the birds at this time of year, as it can get very difficult for them.
See the RSPB site.
Most years nothing appears to eat these berries, and I did wonder about pruning the trees back. Just a well that I saved energy and left them.

It is hard to see them in the video, as I did not want to frighten them by getting to close. I am also recovering from a nasty virus, and did NOT want to go out in the cold.
The shaking about of the branches that you can see is the birds jumping about and feeding. Sometimes they nearly fall off, just like the bigger birds,

I have blown up the picture here, but the bird is well camouflaged.

Excellent police work

2010-12-09T23:54:00.002Z

10 out of 10 to the Bracknell police tonight, who managed to recover our stolen car while Diane was on the phone to them. Pretty good work!

Advent

2010-11-28T23:01:00.000Z

Advent Sunday!

Now I feel that we are properly on the countdown to Christmas. (Some people tell me that it started at Easter).
As a child, a lot of events were tied to the church, but we now seem to live in a much more secular society.
Anyway, I can now start looking forward to Christmas, and feel less annoyed by the "adverts" for it.

Deaths

2010-11-28T22:20:00.001Z

It was very sad to hear of the death of Tom Agar. He could have had so much still to give. My wife Diane feels for the family (she knew them well) having lost her son when he was aged 29. Tom was a lot of what life and rugby is about, you give your all and enjoy it, and you will get there. Perhaps he has his rewards early?
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/bracknell/s/team-news-3100.html&news_id=212320
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/sport/rugby/s/2082572_bracknell_rfc_to_hold_minutes_silence_in_tom_agars_memory_

Bricks to clicks and town centres

2010-11-23T00:08:00.001Z

I was looking back at a previous post about the changing shape of high street shopping. "Bricks-and-clicks" integrates offline (bricks) and online (clicks) presences.

For example a store chain may allow a user to order products online, and the have the product ready pick up at a local store.

A store may have displays locally from which a customer can then order an item electronically for delivery to their home.

An article I read at the start of the month talked about how John Lewis could have spotted a gap in the retail market. Simon Russell, head of multi-channel sales for the partnership, thinks that improving the “click and collect” experience – that of customers who buy online but collect in-store – could be a big selling point for John Lewis, which has started to roll out collections to Waitrose stores and hopes to add further partners. Bracknell-based Waitrose is the food division of John Lewis.

Another retail website says that with 60% of phones sold today being smartphones, and more users likely to connect to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years, retailers are rushing into m-commerce with alacrity. Apps have been big news.

One wonders whether Waitrose will be taking further advantage of these systems in Bracknell.
http://www.propertyweek.com/news/waitrose-to-sign-ahead-of-bracknell-regeneration/5009165.article

NAG and Garth Hill College

2010-11-01T15:00:00.001Z

One of the subjects at the recent NAG in Priestwood was Garth hill College. The new entrance is providing some challenges.

Bracknell Forest Council is looking at this, and is coming up with some proposals to help alleviate the situation.

The Education Department are currently making arrangements for a School Crossing Patrol to operate here, and for road markings to highlight this.

Some parents are stopping their vehicles adjacent to the splitter island to drop their children off and then performing a ‘U’ turn around the island onto the Millennium Way. These stopped vehicles cause cars to queue on the Millennium Way. Altering the layout of the island, should stop people doing this.

Additional waiting restrictions could increase the number of vehicles using the Albert Road car park to safely drop their children off and decrease the congestion at the school entrance.

The next Neighbourhood Forum is on Wednesday 17 November 2010, 7.30pm, at the Priestwood Community Centre.

The November neighbourhood update for Priestwood from Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Tony Mellish can be found HERE

One of his reports is that there will be patrols outside the local schools with parking wardens over the next month. This is because we are still getting problems with parents picking up their children up outside the school.

The latest College Bulletin contains a message to parents and pupils about road safety. It can be found HERE

26% Cuts or Opportunities?

2010-11-01T09:25:00.000Z

There has been much speculation in the press recently about the amount of money to be available for council services next year.
The second paragraph of the latest Conservative In Touch reads:

"There's a lot of talk about cuts. The cold hard facts are that Labour has let us all down and we will all have to take some of the pain to put the country right. All political parties agree there has to be cuts, the only thing in doubt is where Labour and the local Lib Dems would start first."

It is not all bad news though.This could be a chance to redefine what local services should look like and where they should be targeted, as the government is promising local councils much greater powers to decide what is needed locally.

There is a response form with the In Touch newsletter that can be mailed to the Conservatives, of filled in on-line.
The In Touch newsletter will be delivered to all households in Bracknell Forest by a team of Conservative volunteers.
Look out for yours, or visit the website.

Bracknell Conservatives are looking forward to collating the results of the survey, so that the know what people are thinking.

Please read the newsletter and communicate your opinions.

http://www.bracknellconservatives.com/intouch/

2010-10-28T00:36:00.000+01:00

The Internet is worth £100bn to the UK economy, more than 7% of national income, according to a report.
British consumers' willingness to shop online is powering the Internet's expansion, and has the biggest e-commerce market in the world when measured by the amount spent per capita.

The report also highlights the success of small firms in using the Internet to boost global sales. Online businesses have become so skilled at selling overseas that the UK now exports goods and services worth £2.80 for every £1 it imports.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/28/net-worth-100bn-uk

This is perhaps good news for the the economy, but one wonders about the knock on effect to the high street.
As I mused in http://alvin-finch.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-shape-will-town-centre-of-future.html

Recent articles in the press have been about slow broadband speeds. http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/business/s/2080976_broadband_slows_to_a_trickle_daily
In the above article , I wonder how much time opening Outlook is down to the computer, and what is actually the broadband speed. For a lot of applications even half a Meg works well. For downloads and YouTube type things you ant something quicker. I have noticed that a lot of peoples internet homepages are full of junk. much better to have a blank page or set to something like google classic. Very often people on BT lines forget to put filters on other phone sockets, hobble their broadband speed, and get cut off when the phone rings.
But I do understand that people in rural areas do have problems with the distance from the exchange.

When I started the "Ask Alvin" business 5 years ago, almost everyone was on dial-up, and just moving on to Windows XP. Now most people are on broadband. A lot of people are sill using XP, but recently everyone appears to be moving to Windows 7, having skipped Vista.

New Garth Hill College

2010-10-17T15:03:00.001+01:00

I was invited to a preview of the excellent new Garth hill College.
The central movement area is huge.

The IT classrooms are well equipped.

And there are some "Dual Purpose" rooms.

Linking corridors allow staff to monitor.

I will just let the pictures say the rest for the time being.

Ale and Cider

2010-10-02T01:20:00.001+01:00

I see that there is an article in the Bracknell News about Berkshire Pubs week.
http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/bracknell/articles/2010/10/01/48573-raising-a-glass-to-local-pubs/

Branches of Camra are getting together to highlight the role that pubs play. The Berkshire South East Branch of Camra will hold an open evening from in the Priest’s Room at The Old Manor in Grenville Place, Bracknell.

This is all very good, but I am tying to cut down on this kind of stuff. (from a waist and monetary point of view The price of beer has gone sky high. It is only places like the Old Manor that are generally affordable. There are other places that are reasonable, but let's hope that the current government sees that places where alcohol is regulated by licence are better for us all.
ANYWAY - Don't miss the Steam fair at the 'Bottle. It has been going on for years-on-end. I used to Morris dance there more years ago that I care to remember.
http://www.newleathernbottle.co.uk/

I am hoping that with extend dog walking and more Gym stuff that I will start to feel, and be fitter. The first session in the gym might have been a bit too easy. (Don't tell my trainer that) I think that we will start to up the excercice very quickly.

Great new today that the town Council got a Gold award in Bracknell in Bloom!

Oh dear - At least I had a good rest today - Tomorrow I think will be hectic.

Must try and blog more! Must try and get as fit as I was in the photo.

Blogging and stuff

2010-09-30T01:34:00.003+01:00

I have been browsing other people blogs, and wondering how people have the time, energy, and that kind of stuff to be able to post every day. Perhaps I should try harder?

Today was taken up by some free computer help in the morning, a dash off to the council offices to sit on a committee for a licence hearing, a visit to the barbers, a run down to get some proper trainers for tomorrows gym, and then off to a customer in the evening. Lunch was a quick snack, and I was rather glad to get a pint in at The New Leathern Bottle (NLB) at about 8.45pm. Barney came with me in the car in the afternoon, and I also had to see that he got walked around a bit.

Thinking of the NLB, I have been meaning to blog about the excellent cider server there, and having found the list form the Castle Inn to add in my thoughts about the cider I tasted there. Tonight was a pint of Mild, as I had the car. Some of the cider is way too potent for driving after.

I mentioned the gym. The diabetic nurse thought that it might do me good to exercise a little more. I could only agree really. I used to feel much better when I was much fitter. The trouble is it is not easy to get fit when you don't feel fit

There was an interesting seminar given to councillors on Tuesday about the town centre. Lots of boring type stuff has still been going on in the background, but things are still inching ahead. We could be told nothing concrete, due to commercial confidentiality, but we were informed that there could be a major announcement in November, perhaps followed the month after by some cranes on the skyline of Bracknell. Still, at least the planning permission extension passed through the planning committee with no problem last week.

Tomorrow looks busy – Gym – sort car(s) out – customer – customer – Bracknell small business meeting. Barney will need walking as well. I think Diane has the day off, so perhaps she could do that.

Phew – At last I got some blogging done!

Bracknell Business Club

2010-08-11T14:27:00.000+01:00

The Bracknell Business Club is meeting at The Bull in Bracknell on Tuesday, August 17, at 6pm.

It is an opportunity to meet other small businesses, exchange ideas and network.

The people who attend make the meeting useful, but there is also much support from the Bracknell Forest Standard and Business in Berkshire. The idea was first brought to life by Richard Knight, vice-chairman of the East Berkshire Branch of the Federation of Small Businesses.

The event is held every 6 weeks and alternates between a Tuesday and a Thursday to allow more businesses to attend.

Local businesses are also local people - Consumers, and potential users of each others services. Previous meetings have been attended by local small business champion Bob Wade, and Bracknell MP Dr Phillip Lee.

The club wants to encourage all parts of our community to work closer together – the council, BRP, businesses and the local people.

Nags, Police and Forums

2010-08-01T16:29:00.002+01:00

The Local Neighbourhood Updates for August 2010 are available on the website.
Find it it www.thamesvalley.police.uk.

There is also information available from the council at:
http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/nag .

The the August neighbourhood update for Priestwood and Garth from Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Wendy Wiley is available Here.

The next meeting of the Priestwood & Garth Neighbourhood Action Group will be held on Wednesday 20 October 2010, 6pm at Priestwood Community Centre. The Priestwood and Garth Neighbourhood Forum had been scheduled for Wednesday 17 November 2010 at 7.30pm at Priestwood Youth Centre.

Following are some notes on the latest Priestwood and Garth NAG meeting.

The subject of Police visibility was discussed. It was reported that Priestwood and Garth had a high number of police officers and that police presence in the area was good. Officers including; NSOs, PCSOs and Special Constables parole the neighbourhood on a daily basis. The Residents present at the NAG felt that the police visibility in the area was excellent and any feeling that it was inadequate must be perceived rather than real. It was therefore agreed that police visibility would no longer be a top priority action for the Priestwood and Garth NAG.

TVP have undertaken speed enforcement at various times and in various places. The last places targeted were the Binfield Road between 7am and 8am and the Wokingham Road between 8am and 9am On the Binfield Road there were no vehicles exceeding the speed limit. On The Wokingham Road one vehicle was exceeding the limit by 5mph , and the driver given road side education.

Due to the low level of recorded incidents of speeding the Thames Valley Roads Safety Partnership would not support any further speed enforcement in the area. It was agreed that there would always be individuals who exceeded the speed limit; however there was not a significant speeding issue in the neighbourhood. The NAG agreed that speeding would no longer be a top priority action for the Priestwood and Garth NAG.

It as noted that the SID (Speed indicator Device) could still be used with volunteers in the community to promote speed awareness and alter residents perception of speed.

PCSOs have been attending the schools at pick up and drop off times to raise awareness of obstructive parking. Parking offences had been decriminalised which meant that TVP could only issue penalty tickets for cars which were parked obstructively. In order for TVP to issue a penalty notice obstruction needed to be sufficiently proved. Cars needed to allow enough room on the pavement for the use of a pushchair. TVP had been in contact with the organisation enforcing improper parking in car parks and on yellow lines in the area so that the issue of parking could be worked on in partnership.

There was a discussion about the new Garth Hill College development. The NAG were concerned that when the College opens in September that the number of students using the site will increase. It was agreed that the situation would need to be closely monitored to ensure that any parking/ drop off and pick up problems that did arise were addressed. The new waiting restrictions in Folders lane were discussed.

There was a report that vehicles are parking in Anders Corner very close the Wokingham Road junction which created a potential road safety hazard. It was suggested that they could park in the now unused section of Pollardrow Avenue.

In general the number of complaints about parking seems to have decreased.

There are still issues over the ownership of the Merryhill Road garages. Letters had been sent to all garage owners from BFH asking them if they would be willing to sell. It has been an aspiration of BFC / BFH to develop the site as a parking area since 2008. It was agreed that progress would be followed up and reported back to the NAG.

It was NSO Amy Tapping’s last NAG meeting as she was moving on from Thames Valley Police.

PCSO Wendy Wiley is changing roles with Warfield’s PCSO, Michelle Noone, from 2 August 2010.

It was reported that residents were parking inconsiderately in Agar Crescent. It was agreed that the situation would be referred to the PCSOs to monitor and issue penalty notices if vehicles were causing an obstruction. It was suggested that the green in Agar Crescent could be converted in to parking. However, it was felt that residents were unlikely to agree to the reduction of green space. It was agreed that this would be suggested to the highways team at BFC.

In line with a general expansion in primary school places in North Bracknell to accommodate population growth, an additional classroom is to be built in the grounds of Meadow Vale Primary School to facilitate a rise from 2 to 3 form entry. The expansion of the school was to be phased with a second storey being added to the senior block in the future.

It was agreed that the NAG Priority Action Plan would be filled out and circulated

to the Group.

2010-08-01T02:02:00.005+01:00

I was on a while back about visiting The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park

Wrapping up RSS and smashing atoms

Today we finally got there!

Elliott 905.

This was one of the first computers I worked on at Marconi Space and Defence systems. The control panel includes buttons that allow you to single step through your program. These is also a "Cycle Stop" switch that shows you the internal operations of the computer.

The software was loaded from paper tape. The reader is on top of the control panel. The paper tape punch is to the left of the control panel. The doors house the 19 Inch rack mounting units for the power supply and rack of processor boards, core store unit, and probably an Autonomous Transfer Unit. The ATU was an early Direct Memory Access interface (DMA).

A sample program can be found here.

IBM 1130.

I programmed one of these at College. The program was run from punched cards.

More detail cam be found here.

PDP 11/34.

This computer I used at CCL/Travicom. There were several computers in the 11 range. More stuff cam be found here.

I worked on various PDP computer in on different operating systems and languages.

RT-11 was a singe user system.CCL used TSX on top of RT11 to make it multi-user. The RSX-11 operating system was a lot cleverer. Dave Cutler the project leader on that system at DEC, later went on to lead the development of Windows NT.

I also worked on PDP 11 computers at Racal. Following on from contraction at Racal I moved on to the DEC-VAX and the VMS operating system at Northern Telecom.
After Northern Telecom at Travicom that had taken over CCL, computing was now mainly on IBM PC clones.

I had a look around to see if I could spot any disks that I had worked with. I remember the RL01 and RL02,

The RL01 had 5 Megabytes of storage, and the RL02 a massive 10 Megabytes of storage.

We spent quite some time in the computer section, and also had a look at the rebuilt Colossus computer. Colossus was world's first large-scale, electronic programmable computer. It was created to crack the codes used to conceal the messages that Hitler's generals were sending to each other. More here.

As our tickets are valid for 12 months we will have to visit again, and explore more in depth. We did not have much time to look over the rest of the place. We did have time to look at the rebuilt Bombe as well. The Bombe was an electromechanical device used by cryptologists to help decrypt German Enigma-machine-encrypted signals. There is some interesting stuff about Alan Turing here.

Andrew Hodges says on his website that "But I would say that in 1945 Alan Turing alone grasped everything that was to change computing completely after that date: above all he understood the universality inherent in the stored-program computer. He knew there could be just one machine for all tasks. He did not do so as an isolated dreamer, but as someone who knew about the practicability of large-scale electronics, with hands-on experience. From experience in codebreaking and mathematics he was also vividly aware of the scope of programs that could be run."
http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/scrapbook/computer.html

OTS to Tackle IR35 - Tax stuff that is...

2010-07-31T22:52:00.000+01:00

I see that the first task of the new Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is to conduct the review into small business tax, specifically including alternative approaches to IR35. An initial report to the Chancellor should be produced in time for the 2011 Budget.
http://www.shout99.com/contractors/showarticle.pl?id=67896

The Government has already indicated that reviewing IR35 legislation is a priority and that it will seek to replace it with simpler measures that prevent tax avoidance but do not place undue administrative burdens or uncertainty on the self-employed, or restrict labour market flexibility.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/small_business_tax_review_terms.htm

Welcoming the inclusion of IR35 in the review, Colin Ben-Nathan, Chairman of the CIOT’s Employment Taxes Sub-Committee, said:

“In a modern, flexible labour market, workers and engagers should be free to form the contractual relationships they choose, without having their arrangements second-guessed because the tax consequences of their choice differ from those of another possible arrangement.

“Rather than the tax system being used as an override to determine a worker’s status as an employee, we think their status should be based on their legal position in employment law and that the tax and NICs liability should flow from this.”

http://www.tax.org.uk/showarticle.pl?id=9451

I hope that they really do get on to this. It has been a pain for many a small business trying to expand.

Ask Alvin joins Race Online 2012

2010-07-27T18:12:00.001+01:00

Ask Alvin joins Race Online 2012 in bid to get everyone online by the London Olympics

Race Online 2012 is the landmark challenge led by the UK’s Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox which aims to get the UK 100% internet enabled by the London Olympics.

More than 10 million adults across the UK have never used the internet, and worryingly 4 million of this group are also socially excluded. All of them are missing out on the opportunities and cost efficiencies that the web has to offer.

Of the 4 million adults offline who are socially and digitally excluded:

· 39% are over 65 years old

· 38% are unemployed

· 19% are in families with children

Independent Champion for Digital Inclusion, Martha Lane Fox said “When the UK is near 100% online the benefits to society and the economy will be significant and mark a step change for the country as a whole. Race Online 2012 aims to show there is both a moral and economic imperative for the wider business community to take the issue of digital inclusion much more seriously.”

Iain Duncan Smith, secretary of state for work and pensions, said: "Digital literacy is a great enabler of social mobility. It is a way for those who have had bad experiences of institutions to re-engage in learning, and it can break down feelings of social isolation. It is a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/7884842/Everyone-of-working-age-online-by-2015-says-Martha-Lane-Fox.html

As an official Race Online 2012 partner, Ask Alvin joins BT, Google, Comet, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Skype, Moneysupermarket, Sky and Talk Talk whose remarkable vision and support has already resulted in a commitment to get a staggering 600,000 new users online.

The macro-economic environment makes the Race Online 2012 challenge an issue of urgency for all business, no matter what the size. Getting the UK near 100% online will create significant efficiency savings, attract investment, open opportunities and improve work force skills.

Why not become an official Race Online 2012 partner and be a part of this incredible cross-sector movement which will put an end to the digital divide forever?

Race Online 2012 wants any organisation of any size to get involved and help tackle the issue. From encouraging business partners to sign up, to teaching friends and family to get online, or by donating old IT equipment locally - there are opportunities for all businesses to make a difference. It’s simple to sign up and it only takes five minutes to register.

All Race Online 2012 partners are automatically entitled to access the Race Online 2012 partner toolkits which include a Race Online 2012 certificate, online media and communication materials to help promote their initiatives and spread the word, plus access to the Race Online 2012 news feed offering 24/7 digital inclusion news updates.

Please click on this link http://raceonline2012.org/get-involved to become an official Race Online 2012 partner, where you can explain what your organisation is doing or can do to help make the UK one of the first countries in the world to establish a fully online, internet enabled society.

Further Information

· To find out more about becoming a Race Online 2012 Partner visit http://www.raceonline2012.org/get-involved

· For people who are already online and know someone who is not visit http://www.helppassiton.co.uk

· To find out more about getting online call 0800 77 1234 to find your nearest UK online centre where friendly staff are waiting to help you get started.

Cashless spending

2010-07-22T11:41:00.001+01:00

Music festivals goers instead of using money could be forced to pay electronically for everything. Payments could be made via a wristband, which would also act as the event ticket, and be pre-loaded with money. The systems would use radio frequency identification (RFID) - which would see a microchip being embedded into something like a wristband or ticket.

People in London are already used to cashless transactions, with the Oyster card. A bit like supermarket loyalty cards these things can be used to tell what you have been up to, and what you might do next.

Iin a BBC article Barclaycard's Mr Mathieson said that information gathered from transactions could be valuable for future marketing. "For example if the system knows what time you went and bought a beer and at which bar, it can make a guess which band you were about to see," he said."Then the organizers could send you information about upcoming tours. The opportunities are exciting."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10362721

A recent article on TNW said that future generation iPhones will almost certainly contain Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, which will enable the phone to communicate with RFID tags or other NFC capable devices.

So far the average person has not had any way to interact with RFID tags, so they’ve mainly stayed in shipping and logistics and haven’t made it a noticeable impact on people’s lives. If we were to get NFC-enabled phones we would be able to. Some phone makers such as Nokia have already embarked on this.

TNW has the scenario where you walk out the door with your iPhone in your pocket. You stop for a cup of coffee at the corner and just as you’re about to walk in, you iPhone pushes a notification to you. The notification tells you that you’ve just become the top visiting customer at that location (yes, it will check you in automatically) and asks you if you would like to share that info with your friends. If you hit yes, it sends you to an input screen and you share on Twitter, Facebook, wherever.

http://thenextweb.com/location/2010/07/16/how-apple-envisions-a-check-in-iphone-and-os/

I did some speculation about the use of RFID tags in my book Cold Suspenders. Hint – Tig Tags. I also speculated about how a mobile phone can be located. With GPS systems in phones this has become even easier. Build in RFID to all the other applications on your phone, and allow something like Facebook access, and who knows what people could tell about you?

There has been a lot of discussion about Facebook privacy, but does anyone really know who is tracking what we do? Who would have guessed that the original mission was just to create a facebook for Harvard University? A BBC article tells us that there are now people who make their living advising companies on how to use Facebook and other social networking sites. Companies can use the site for advertising and marketing "based on the extremely exact demographic data volunteered by the individual".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10705923

This is a bit of a ramble on, but I wonder just how many people know what details they are already giving away, and just what might be coming?

Bracknell based company Webroot give some hints about protecting yourself in the following linked article.

http://www.ciol.com/Developer/Enterprise-Tools/Feature/Location-based-social-network-apps-boom-Webroot/138963/0/

Statutory duties and budgets

2010-07-13T11:54:00.000+01:00

The Government has published details of the £1.166bn Local Government contribution to the £6.2bn cross government savings in 2010/11 needed to tackle the UK's record deficit in order to restore confidence in the economy and support the recovery.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/localgovernmentfinance/

In the light of the recent announcements of in year cuts to council spending, I tried to re-visit what it is that a council must do. What a good council should do, and what could be left out, if residents don’t want it.
The Council’s constitution gives some clues, but it is not all obvious. The fact that there are some Statutory Committees gives more clues.
http://democratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/ecSDDisplay.aspx?NAME=SD282&ID=259&sch=doc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_England
Says that Unitary Authorities look after:
housing, waste management, waste collection, council tax collection, education, libraries, social services, transport, planning, consumer protection, licensing, cemeteries and crematoria

The Answer is not simple, and the best I can come up with is at the Conservative Home blog.

I hope here to paraphase what Glyn Gaskarth wrote there.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2010/03/statutory-duties--councils-are-legally-obliged-to-fulfil-their-statutory-dutieshowever-few-know-the-number-of-statutory-dut.html

Councils are legally obliged to fulfil their statutory duties.

But what are the statutory duties they are required to fulfil?
New ones are added each year.
Old ones are rarely repealed.

There should be fewer legal obligations for councils.
We should know what they are.
Any new ones should be costed and funded.

A mistake in a council’s legal responsibility could result in wasting money by performing ‘duties’ they are not legally required to, or left open to penalties if they fail to perform duties that they must.

There are issues of translation of council documents. When Government Quango’s charged with overseeing compliance seem to differ with Government Ministers on the scale of what local authorities are legally required to do. Nobody is completely sure.

Central Government dictates what local authorities must do.

If a Government is serious about giving local authorities more autonomy it needs to understand what they are currently legally required to do. It needs to audit all the statutory responsibilities of local authorities. All these statutory duties need to be listed in one place accessible to the citizen.

A simple search of “Statutory Duty” on the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) site yields 1,000 individual results. This is highly unscientific. However, we can draw three basic conclusions from this fact.
Firstly, there appear to be many statutory duties.
Secondly, we are unsure how many.
Thirdly that DCLG, the department responsible for managing local authority’s compliance does not appear to include a list of local authorities’ statutory duties on their website (none could be found in this search).

A simple list would give greater clarity and flexibility to local authorities.
They would be certain of what they had to do.

Perhaps residents could then be able to vote for a local authority that pledged to tax less because it was required to do less?
Councillors would act when they wanted to because they believed it necessary to act, not simply to comply with the will of Central Government.

The questions are:
What sort of things should your council be obliged to do?
How much do you want to pay for those things?

Road Safety

2010-07-13T11:35:00.001+01:00

There has been talk in the press recently about road safety, and last month the BBC reported that the number of people killed on British roads last year reached a record low. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10408417.stm
I took an interest in this, given that I was involved in a study of accidents in the Bracknell Forest Council area. More about that later…

A bit over a year ago, the Guardian reported that “Road safety, cycling and bus priority schemes across England are under threat amid fears that the government is preparing to cut its £2.1bn local transport budget.”
This month the BBC reported that half of all fatal road crashes occur on one-tenth of Britain's roads. This article also reported that improved junctions and markings, along with resurfacing with high friction, anti-skid treatments, drastically reduced the number of serious accidents.

Just lately the LGA is suggesting that along with Housing, education, major transport projects and social cohesion programmes, road safety may have reduced funding.
It is probably just as well that Bracknell Forest has invested heavily in road safety in the past. Various schemes were implemented throughout the borough to bring down the number of accidents.
In the Working Group report that I contributed to, it is noted that “Further reductions in casualties are increasingly difficult to achieve, and it has to be recognised that there is an irreducible minimum number of casualties which no amount of investment could remedy.”

The Working Group noted that BFC had committed itself to further reduction over and above the targets set by Government. The working group concluded that the Council’s annual targets should not set a step reduction in any one year, but instead be based on a straight-line reduction to the ‘stretched’ targets.
http://democratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=492&MId=2259&Ver=4 (item 12)

Let us hope that there will not be a too drastic reduction in road safety spending. It seems that on-going education is needed in this area, even though the Council has already used many means to engineer-in road safety to our streets and roads

Garden Grabbing

2010-07-02T16:53:00.000+01:00

I noted that the Bracknell Standard picked up on my query to the planning officers about the issue of “Garden Grabbing”. One of the objectors to a recent application had cited the change in policy in this area by the new government.
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2073790_garden_grabbing_gets_green_light

The big headache with planning issues is that we are very much bound by law, the weight given to various government planning edicts, and policies contained in local plans. The local plans themselves although called local, are often constrained by Government policy.

I asked the question to clarify the position that we are now in. It appears that we are now in a much better position to write rules that will prevent future high density development in back gardens. The change in the regulations already gives us more room to manoeuvre.

The previous governments planning rules created a shortage of homes with parking and gardens. Whitehall regulations were pricing a whole generation of low and middle income earners out of buying a family home. As they pledged, the new government are now changing planning rules to encourage more new homes with bedrooms and gardens for families – in place of dense blocks of flats.

A letter that was recently sent to Planning Officers if available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/lettergardengrabbing

I am writing to confirm that the Government has amended Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3) with the following changes:

• private residential gardens are now excluded from the definition of previously developed land in Annex B

• the national indicative minimum density of 30 dwellings per hectare is deleted from paragraph 47

Together these changes emphasise that it is for local authorities and communities to take the decisions that are best for them, and decide for themselves the best locations and types of development in their areas.

In 2000, John Prescott introduced new national planning regulations for housing – which forced all new housing developments to pack in 12-18 new dwellings per acre. The flawed rules also classed gardens as ‘Brownfield’ land. As a result, blocks of flats were increasingly being crammed in the place of existing homes with gardens. This is also known as ‘garden grabbing’. Reports suggest that the price of a family house has risen at eight times the rate of a new flat since 2000, and there has been fall in the number of detached and semi-detached homes being built. There is now a relative over-supply of flats in many areas.

In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for families across Bracknell Forest on modest incomes to buy a home suitable for children to grow up. But house prices don’t change in isolation from government policy. Labour’s national planning rules, laid down on high from Whitehall, have in many areas created a surplus of pokey flats and a shortage of family homes with parking spaces and gardens.

Recent government figures suggest the proportion of houses built on previously residential land, such as gardens, increased from one in 10 in 1997 to one in four in 2008.

Dr Simon Thornton Wood, director of science and learning at the Royal Horticultural Society, said gardens had medical as well as environmental benefits.

"Gardens, like parks, are the green lungs of cities, improving air quality, controlling air temperature and flood risk, and providing a haven for wildlife.

"Beyond these very practical benefits of gardens we know that gardening is great for physical and mental health.

"That's why we would like planning measures to go further than protecting existing gardens, to guarantee high-quality green space and gardening opportunities in all new building developments, wherever they are."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8728633.stm

Now that the new government have scrapped the rigid density rules, let’s hope that it will now let the market build the homes that people want and need.

Road Repairs in Priestwood and Garth

2010-06-30T19:14:00.000+01:00

I am told that the dates for resurfacing roads within Garth have now been finalised. The following will also be advertised in the local paper.

1. Shepherds Lane, Bracknell – From its junction with B3018 Binfield Road to its junction with Folders Lane. The anticipated start date for the re-surfacing is 10^th August 2010 for a duration of 3 days.

The diversion route for this closure will be via B3018 Binfield Road, A329 Millennium Way and Bull Lane, or by this route reversed.

2. Merryhill Road, Bracknell – From its junction with Shepherds Lane to its junction with Horsneile Lane. The anticipated start date for the re-surfacing is 9^th August 2010 for a duration of 2 days.

The diversion route for this closure will be via Shepherds Lane and Horsneile Lane, or by this route reversed.

3. Bull Lane, Bracknell – From its junction with Shepherds Lane to its junction with A329 Millennium Way. The anticipated start date for the re-surfacing is 2^nd August 2010 for a duration of 2 days.

The diversion route for this closure will be via Shepherds Lane, B3018 Binfield Road and A329 Millennium Way, or by this route reversed.

4. Folders Lane, Bracknell – From its junction with Shepherds Lane to its junction with A3095 Warfield Road. The anticipated start date for the re-surfacing is 3^rd August 2010 for a duration of 2 days.

The diversion route for this closure will be via Shepherds Lane, B3018 Binfield Road, Harvest Ride and A3095 Warfield Road, or by this route reversed.

5. Dukeshill Road, Bracknell – From its junction with Shepherds Lane to its junction with A3095 Warfield Road. The anticipated start date for the re-surfacing is 2^nd August 2010 for a duration of 1 day.

The diversion route for this closure will be via Horsneile Lane, Shepherds Lane and B3018 Binfield Road, or by this route reversed.

Details of local Road Works can be found HERE

And HERE

Unplugging the vuvuzela with a plugin.

2010-06-22T11:30:00.002+01:00

I have been following the debate about the vuvuzela on several blogs, including: Blowing the trumpet - Vuvuzelas

The New Scientist asked Trevor Cox, president of the UK Institute of Acoustics and an acoustic engineer at the University of Salford, UK, to explain. (more at http://isophonics.net/content/whats-all-about-vuvuzela) Basically he said that our hearing is an early-warning system: we listen out for sudden changes in the sounds around us which might indicate threats, and ignore benign, persistent noise. When noise becomes as loud as a vuvuzela, however, it becomes impossible to habituate to the sound.

If you are watching the match on a computer, you could try a handy application, from the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London. Here they say that the vuvuzela has been badly received by some television viewers, who have complained that this magnificent pipe, after transmission, comes across as a resonant buzz which the sensitive listener may find hard to tolerate.

The site goes into some complicated stuff about time-frequency plot and the difference between a voice and the vuvuzela. You can read about all the gubbins at the site linked above.

For Windows users who would like to remove some of the sound generated by these things, Stardock have made an application which wraps around the above plugin and automatically filters your web browser's audio output. Get it at http://www.stardock.com/labs/devuvuzelator/ .

What shape will the Town Centre of the future take?

2010-06-14T01:13:00.000+01:00

Recently, I have been looking around to see if there was any more information available on what is happening to the town centre. “Delicate negotiations are still in progress” I am told. Releasing any information could prejudice any of the schemes envisaged. As we all know it will now be “demand led” rather than a “big bang” build.
Whilst nearly every major town centre redevelopment in the country has been hit by the recession, it seems that Bracknell is in a much stronger position. What I am told is that the council is working closely with BRP who are continuing to spend a lot of time and money on the plans, and is totally committed to delivering regeneration as soon as economic conditions allow.
The Council is well positioned with planning permission and compulsory purchase orders in place. It is now able to look at redeveloping the town centre in smaller phases, rather than all in one go, to make sure that the plans are deliverable. This will also have the effect of making the redevelopment more organic - It won’t all wear out at the same time.
All over the country we hear of projects that are abandoned or are on hold. Some like Hatfield will continue, but at a slower pace.

There is an interesting line in a Telegraph article by Mick Brown from Rob Hopkins, who sees the present recession as the first step in the total unravelling of the idea of perpetual economic growth, 'and the beginning of many chickens coming home to roost. The idea that the way we get ourselves out of this economic situation is by doing more of what got us into it in the first place – taking out more cheap credit, buying more stuff we didn’t need in the first place – more and more people are starting to see the flawed logic in that.’
Mick Brown visited both Chester and Totness and found that the recession was biting. The article was written a year ago, but is still quite informing.

Andy McSmith writing in the Independent 18 months ago wondered “Does the high street have a future, and if so what shape will it take? “
A big growth area, which is making life harder for high streets, is online shopping. Ordering your weekly groceries over the internet is no longer the novelty that it was less than a decade ago, and has become a popular time-saver. And what about other things like an intelligent fridge which monitors what you are using and draws up a shopping list?

In the original Bracknell plans one of the first buildings to be constructed would have been the new council offices. People would have been justly annoyed if just that had been built, and the rest of the centre put on hold. Yes Easthampsted house would have been freed up, but there would be no returns from the investment. Having to keep using Easthampsted house though, will be providing the council with logistical problems. The new phasing could have many benefits, but also give us a few headaches. Many people are speculating about what future High Streets and shopping centres will look like. We have a pause where we can second guess what the future holds.

Some time back Hannah Fletcher asked “As retail monoliths crumble around us, whither our faithful old high streets?”

By the end of the recession, whenever that may be, what will the retail landscape look like?
She looks at the following:
Pubs and bars - So many are closing…
Pharmacies - Increasingly about health services as much as about products and will offer optical, dental and health facilities?
Supermarkets - fragmentation as discount food shops take their share?
Music, games, DVD shops - Will these disappear from the high street as we turn to the internet?
Charity shops - How will they evolve?
Mobile phone shops - And the like - move out of town?
Off-licences - So many are closing.
Clothes stores - What impact the internet and supermarkets.

Meanwhile, in Bracknell we have seen around £100 million being invested in regeneration projects that are already underway, planned or newly completed in and around the town centre:

- Bracknell Train Station forecourt
- New Garth Hill College
- New Bracknell and Wokingham College
- Berkshire East Primary Care Trust Bracknell Healthspace
- Celsius Housing Development
- Major improvements to the Peel Centre.

Let’s hope that confidence and money to lend improves and we get the next step in the regeneration in place.

Residents of Priestwood will also be hoping that if they are not going to do anything with it yet, that Comer Homes at least make Winchester House look a bit nicer. Or is it now "The Crystal"?
I blogged about this before: http://alvin-finch.blogspot.com/2009/07/ancient-eyesore.html
Perhaps everyone should write to Comer Homes, and ask them to Remove The Blight of Bracknell?

Country Air, take a good long sniff of that whiff

2010-06-06T11:16:00.001+01:00

It appears that smelly country air may be good for you. The Saturday issue of the Telegraph has an article about how Pungent country air does you good . Researchers fed live bacteria to mice and assessed their ability to navigate a maze compared to control mice that were not fed the bacteria."We found that mice that were fed live M. vaccae navigated the maze twice as fast and with less demonstrated anxiety behaviors as control mice," says Matthews of The Sage Colleges in Troy, New York.

Mycobacterium vaccae is a nonpathogenic species of the Mycobacteriaceae family of bacteria that lives naturally in soil. Its name is derived from the Latin word, vacca (cow) as the first described strain was isolated from cow dung in Austria. Prof Dorothy Matthews, who led the new research, says it “suggests that Mycobacterium vaccae may play a role in anxiety and learning in mammals”, testifying to the fact that “we evolved with dirt as hunter gatherers”. In other words, cowpats fertilise minds as well as fields.
Next time I am walking the dog through Larks Hill, and the cows are there maybe I will sniff the air that bit better.

Health, well-being and council spending.

2010-06-02T19:02:00.001+01:00

An article in the LGA First magazine caught my attention this week. It was about spending on learning, and the knock on effect of lowering heath costs. We have to meet the challenge of an ageing population. The article goes on to say that local authorities can help by helping people maintain their mental and physical resilience and by building networks within communities, so that the first call for support are friends and family, rather than the state.
Helping people and communities to help themselves extends the independent phase of peoples lives. If successful, it is not just the quality of lives that are improved, but also some of the estimated £77bn that mental illness costs the economy each year.

This followed on from something that I saw on the BBC about green exercise. Researchers claim that just five minutes of exercise in a "green space" such as a park can boost mental health
Study leader Jules Pretty, a researcher at the University of Essex, said "A challenge for policy makers is that policy recommendations on physical activity are easily stated but rarely adopted widely."

All of this fitted in with something that I read in the New Scientist and other places some time back: People who exercise tend to be more socially active, which enhances cognitive activity. When the article was written 2 years ago, it sad that we need randomised trials to establish the relationship, but nonetheless exercise undoubtedly has extensive health benefits" This appears to be born out in the recent research.

This fits well with the Bracknell Forest Council Priorities 2 and 3. “Protecting and enhancing our environment” and “Promoting health and achievement”. It just goes to show how spending a relatively small amount of money in the right areas, can have the knock on effect of not only helping people, but saving money.

Star Trekkie stuff, or reality?

2010-05-28T01:03:00.001+01:00

The IET magazine recently celebrated 50 years of lasers. It says that the military and security services are looking to sensing technology to give them Tricorders for finding telltale chemicals that indicate whether the barrel on the road is just a barrel or something far more deadly.
A while back there were flip-up cell phones that looked like Star Trek communicators. We have Bluetooth earpieces that look like the earpiece that Lieutenant Uhura wore. Could we next gat a real Tricorder?

On the subject of cell phones, I read ages ago about the radio waves next to your head being able to produce an image of what was inside your head. It just took some extra modulation of the phone signal. I have been googling for the article, but have not found it yet.

I also read in one of the BCS magizines (I think) about software radios. As its name suggests, the processing of signals both transmitted and received are handled by software controlling any number of radio Integrated Circuits.
One could combine one of the new laser chips, software radio and mobile phone to make the Tricorder. There is already an Android App to use your phone's real sensors to detect magnetic fields, gravity etc.
The instruction say: Use the buttons on the left to select the mode:

* GRAV: monitor the local gravitational field and acceleration
* MAG: monitor the local magnetic field
* ACO: acoustic analysis; waveform, frequency and sound level analysis of the ambient sound
* GEO: display geographical information (enable GPS for full info)
* EMS: scan the electromagnetic spectrum for radio signals -- currently displays cellular and WiFi signals (you have to enable the WiFi to get the latter)
* SOL: display current solar activity data -- downloads current solar data in the background (may take a while) and displays it along with current images

How close could we be to a read Tricorder?

Mathematics, democracy, paradox and pitfall

2010-05-10T16:23:00.002+01:00

The New Scientist Editorial refers to an article in the magazine, and says that “The mathematics of democracy turns out to be so fraught with pitfalls and paradoxes that complete fairness is probably unattainable.”

The principle of voting in the UK is currently simple. Each of our electoral divisions/constituencies elects just one representative. The candidate who gained the most votes in the election is the winner. In this system votes for anyone other than the winning candidate are disregarded. In Bracknell the winner was Dr Phillip Lee who gained over 50% of the vote.

In the NS article it points out that if more than two parties with substantial support contest a constituency, a candidate does not have to get anything like 50% of the votes to win. In this case a majority of votes may be considered to be "lost". Take somewhere like Hampstead and Kilburn where Glenda Jackson got just under 33% of the vote. It could be that 67% of the people there are now quite dissatisfied.

From the NS Article an example by mathematician Donald Saari at the University of California:

Suppose 15 people are asked to rank their liking for milk (M), beer (B), or wine (W).

6 rank them M-W-B,
5 rank them B-W-M,
4 rank them W-B-M.

In a plurality system where only first preferences count, the outcome is simple: milk wins with 40%, followed by beer, with wine trailing in last.

Do voters actually prefer milk?

9 voters prefer beer to milk, and
9 prefer wine to milk
Clear majorities in both cases. Meanwhile,
10 people prefer wine to beer.

By pairing off all these preferences, we see the truly preferred order to be W-B-M - the exact reverse of what the voting system produced.

Saari showed that given a set of voter preferences you can design a system that produces any result you desire. You can read more about systems/anomalies in the article.

Preferential voting comes closer to being fair than plurality voting, but it does not eliminate ordering paradoxes.
Given three candidates, A, B and C, and three voters who rank them
A-B-C,
B-C-A and
C-A-B.
Voters prefer A to B by 2 to 1. But B is preferred to C and C preferred to A by the same margin of 2 to 1.
Every one a winner!

In a proportional representation system each party is awarded a number of seats in proportion to the number of people who voted for them. This may be fairer in a mathematical sense than plurality or preferential voting, but implies large, multi-representative constituencies and central lists of people that may be quite remote from the voter. This system also carries with it the possibly of paradoxes occurring.

The NS article points out that there will always be the possibility that one voter, simply by changing their vote, can change the overall preference of the whole electorate.

It seems that in any system we could end up with a hung result. One way to quantify this is the Banzhaf power index. First, list all combinations of parties that could form a majority coalition, and in all of those coalitions count how many times a party is a "swing" partner that could destroy the majority if it dropped out. Dividing this number by the total number of swing partners in all possible majority coalitions gives a party's power index.There are a number of calculators available that one can Google for.

There is a bit in the article about the word gerrymander, which was coined by a newspaper editor in reaction to a redrawing of boundaries. Governor Elbridge Gerry. It included one sprawling supposedly salamander-shaped constituency. This leads me on to the Conservative policy to reduce the number of MPs by 10%, and ensure each vote has equal value by reducing the wide discrepancies between constituency electorate sizes.

The Guardian says that the adoption of the "alternative vote" electoral system would have had only a minimal impact on the outcome of last Thursday's general election with the Liberal Democrats gaining only an additional 22 seats, according to analysis by the Electoral Reform Society. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives would have benefited significantly from transfers based on last Thursday's vote. Significant regional imbalances would remain between the parties.

The newspaper also has a useful bit on the AV and Plus systems. AV Plus was recommend by the Jenkins Commision. PDF of report HERE. So much for the promises made by Labour since 1997?

IT, Technology, and the General election

2010-05-01T01:12:00.001+01:00

I have visited some IT and technology related blogs recently, and found a lot of misinformation about. I thought I would post here what you can find on the Conservative party website. The information is all there. One of the reasons I first got involved in politics, was down to the introduction of IR35. As was usual with the Brown/Blair administration, this was not in the headlines of the budget, but in the small print. The aim of the legislation may have been laudable, but the outcome has been farcical. It has cost both IT contractors and the country a lot of money for nothing. If you are in IT please read through the following links. The blog may read a bit strange, but it is a collection of replies/cut and paste to other blogs.

From the Conservative Technology Manifesto:

“The Labour Government have spent more per capita than any other government in Europe on IT – but too much money has been wasted on failed projects, and they have failed to use these procurement projects to stimulate innovation and growth in the economy. Conservative government will open up government IT procurement to innovative new companies and small businesses. Under Labour, just nine IT companies received 60% of public sector IT spending. We can’t go on like this.”http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/03/Conservative_Technology_Manifesto_launched.aspx

Conservative will provide a boost to British business and help create highly paid new jobs across the country. Our plans will give Britain the fastest high speed broadband network in Europe, helping to create 600,000 additional jobs. Conservatives will make the British government the most technology-friendly in the world, and meet the ambition that the next generation of Googles, Microsofts and Facebooks are British companies.

See “Where we Stand” – The Conservative goal is simple: to make Britain the easiest and the best place in the world to set up and grow a business.
http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Business.aspx

Mark Prisk, the Shadow Business Minister, has announced that a Conservative Government would undertake a full and fundamental review of small business taxation, including IR35.

The aim will be to provide a simpler, clearer and lasting tax regime, so businesses can plan with confidence.

"For the last 13 years, Labour have constantly meddled with the tax rules for freelancers and self-employed, Prisk said. "IR35 has especially proved to over-complex, uncertain and often unfair".

IR35 has cost business £73 million over 10 years but it has barely raised revenue for the Treasury. Prisk criticised Gordon Brown for making it harder to be self-employed at a time when Britain should be open for business.

"This is why a Conservative Government would mandate the independent Office of Tax Simplification to undertake a fundamental review of current arrangements with the aim of providing a clearer, lasting and fairer tax regime".

http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/03/Conservative_tax_reform_to_aid_self_employed.aspx

New Priestwood Community Association Meeting

2010-04-28T00:31:00.000+01:00

Priestwood and Garth residents are invited to the meeting of the New Priestwood Community Association at 7.30pm at Priestwood Community Centre in Priestwood Court Road.

On the Agenda :
Welcome.
Reports – Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer (Presenting the accounts) Manager.
Election of Officers and Executive for 2010/11.
Refreshments and Raffle.
Spokesmen on Heatherwood Hospital – Frank Minal GMB and Russell Bryant

The primary purpose of the AGM is the approval of the financial statement and elections.
Volunteers are needed to help. People who can make Priestwood and Garth and even better place for all to be.

Useful links:
http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/bracknell/articles/2010/04/27/46140-hospital-on-the-agenda-at-residents-meeting/
http://www.makesachange.org.uk/cms/site/docs/Bracknell%20Forest%20LINk%20Steering%20Group.%20who%20we%20are.pdf
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2019010_mp_backs_petition_to_protect_heatherwood
http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/other_news/2010/february/heatherwood__wexham_nhs_trust.aspx
http://www.bracknellnews.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2010/02/08/44701-casualties-of-costcutting-at-hospital/
http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/yournh/yournh-tvp-pol-area/pub-pg-nh-upds-N346?id=119836

http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/priestwood-and-garth.pdf

Time for a new “save” icon?

2010-04-27T14:32:00.000+01:00

Sony have stopped producing 3.5” Floppy discs.

A spokesman for Sony in Britain said: “Due to dwindling demand, Sony discontinued European production of 3.5 inch floppy disks in September 2009. The last European sale of a floppy disk took place in March 2010.” the firm - which claims to have produced the first 3.5in (9cm) disks in 1981 - has decided to halt sales completely faced with competition from online storage and portable USB drives.

I know a number of people that still use floppy discs. They find them convenient for archiving, as there is a lot more space to write on than on a memory stick.

I still have an attachment to paper (Mylar) tape. I used to be able to run it though my fingers, and get a fair idea of what was on the tape, and there is something of permanence to it that digital media do not have. There is a bit more of that sort of thing in a Guardian article HERE.
More for the Telegraph HERE

Floppies are still available from Verbatim, Imation (3M), and Maxell.

McAfee Antivirus - Very bad false positive with svchost.exe

2010-04-23T19:30:00.002+01:00

IMPORTANT if you are running McAfee on Windows XP Service Pack 3
Your computer may CRASH.
See also https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB68780

One very false positive: McAfee in full damage control mode | Security News - Betanews

www.betanews.com

After a bad .DAT file led to blue screens for possibly thousands of McAfee customers' computers, will the company be able to prevent a reoccurrence?

This took me a while to fathom out on one customers PC. The vist to the next customer revealed the very same problem. The PC may work, but with minimal functionality. You will need to use a DOS command window to copy back the removed file. See the above link to McAfee for more

Phillip Lee - The campaign continues

2010-04-20T02:41:00.000+01:00

A party political blog post. But first a short story from Cardiff Blogger

Serious stuff!
I recently asked my friend’s little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be Prime Minister some day. Both of her parents, New Labour, were standing there, so I asked her:
‘If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would do?’

She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

Her parents beamed.

‘Wow…what a worthy goal.’ I told her, ’But you don’t have to wait until you’re Prime Minister to do that.
You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, weed the garden and sweep my patio, and I’ll pay you £50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the £50 to use toward food and a new house.’
She thought that over for a few seconds then she looked me straight in the eye and asked: ’Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the £50?’
I said: ”Welcome to the Conservative Party!”
Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.

Anyway - moving on...

Participation and Donation
<p><a href="http://www.myconservatives.com/node/1739/widget">Please click here</a> </p>

Anyone and everyone can help Dr Phillip Lee get elected.
He is eager to serve all the people of Bracknell Town, Finchampstead, Crowthorne and Sandhurst. He wants this constituency to remain a great place to live.
www.phillip-lee.com/

Helpers are always most welcome.
You can help by distributing literature.
You could carry out surveys/canvassing in your area in order to gain information about the electorate’s voting intentions, worries and concerns, etc. This information enables us to campaign effectively and helps to increase our membership base.
Many people find that their skills can be best utilised by helping to organise the many varied social events that take place throughout the year, helping to raise funds as well as bringing enjoyment to everyone involved.
Donations to campaign costs are always most welcome.

More at myconservatives.com/dr-phillip-lee-for-bracknell
And at bracknellconservatives.com

Find Bracknell Conservatives on Facebook HERE

Blog Time

2010-04-15T08:22:00.000+01:00

How do people get the time to sit and write interesting Blogs?
I get a few ideas together, but to link them up properly, and then make sense in a few words, takes time.
Perhaps I could spend less time of Facebook and Farmville? Facebook is useful for catching up with people, but Farmville is too addictive. I am not sure how to make time between work, housework council and political stuff.

On the subject of political stuff, canvassing takes up time, but is interesting to do. The Priestwood and Garth councillors try to do walkabouts quite often. With the election coming up the pace gets rather frantic. It will all happen again next year, when there are the local elections for Town and Borough.

I seem to be coming across a lot of fake virus alerts just recently. It would be good to know just how these things sneak on to people computers. There is a very useful guide to removing it HERE.

And to take up more of my time, there is an interesting event on at the Bull. The last meeting was attended by General election candidate Phillip Lee and the Borough Mayor Bob Wade. Nat West have kindly agreed to sponsor the food for the latest event. More HERE. It is all about local people and local Business.

On the subject of the election again, you can catch up with some stuff at the BBC - Dr Phillip and others on the Politics Show, and the Andrew Peach programme - Highlights HERE.

At least I got this written while waiting for a Windows Update on a clients computer to finish.

Garth Hill College, Sandy Lane School, Parking and the old NAGs

2010-03-24T16:59:00.001Z

I see that the replanting of green screening around Garth Hill College has been taking place. It was a great shame that the mature vegetation had to be cut back to provide for a safe route to the new entrance. The new college though, will be a great asset to the area.

At the Priestwood and Garth Neighbourhood Action Group Meetings (NAGs) we have discussed the dangers of parked cars all along Folders lane up to Bull lane. Some parents seem to leave the safety of tier children up to others. I have had a car stop in front of me and a child leap out in the “wrong side”. Very nerve wracking. It also very dangerous when parents park on the bend.

Hopefully the council can come up with a scheme to help make the area safer during the school and college opening and closing hours, once the new College entrance is operational.

The police say that there have been reports from Wick Hill College car park attendants that parents from Garth Hill School and Sandy Lane School keep trying to use the car park at the start and end of the school day. This car park is only for students and the bus from Bracknell & Wokingham College. Some of the car park attendants have been verbally abused by parents. If you are picking your child up from the above schools, you can use Braybrooke Park or Albert Road car parks. There are also reports about some parents stopping on the yellow zigzag lines outside Meadow Vale School. PCSOs have been outside the school as often as possible to stop this happening.
It is good to note, from the above police report, that overall crime was down by 31.2 per cent compared with the same three months in 2008.

Parking as always is a problem everywhere. Of the 291 Priestwood and Garth residents who responded to the neighbourhood survey on five aspects of life in Bracknell Forest which most needed improvement, parking came in at 43% behind Police on the Streets at 50%, the level of speeding at 39%, Litter at 39%, and Anti-social Behaviour at 36%.

On a more positive note; on the five aspects of life in Bracknell Forest people in Priestwood and Garth liked best: Parks and Open Spaces (54%), Access to Nature (42%), Health Services (38%), Sports and Leisure Facilities (29%), Cultural Facilities (26%).

Lights out?

2010-03-21T22:32:00.000Z

I see from the BBC website that that Caerphilly council has agreed to turn off lights along non-residential roads between midnight and 0530 GMT.
Apparently there will first be health and safety assessments on certain routes. "Significant savings" are to be gained according to the council there. Councillors backed the policy after considering the findings of a consultation with residents.

One wonders how they control the system, and what the wiring systems are. I would have thought that one has to look at the whole life energy cost of a scheme. The BBC site also reports on Coventry and a switch to dim lighting. Part of a £64 million package it seems.

The New Scientist had an article about this a while back. This states that street lamps account for 2 per cent of UK electricity consumption. What percentage of that 2% could be saved? Westminster City Council has been trialling the LeafNut system as a part of its SMART Lights project. It believes that it can save up to £46 per street light per year with the system, reducing CO2 emissions by 100kg per street light per year. There is more about this on the New Electronics website.

I wonder what the potential for this is in Bracknell/Bracknell Forest? It would be interesting to find out how the systems are set up. I suspect that there will be several, given the history of the town and surrounds.

Any more would have to involve public consultation. I can see all sorts of worries about crime in the dark, and accidents.

Farewell to My Father

2010-03-12T03:56:00.002Z

There is just so much that I want to put in my eulogy to my farther on Friday (now today) as I write. I just don't know what to leave out. He was such a clever man, and lost so much when he got Alzheimer's. now we have lost him.

Aubrey, until recently, attended the services at Holy Trinity Church, I wish to thank all those who so welcomed him to this church. He had a great fondness for church music, and he was a choir boy in his youth.

Aubrey Finch, an only child, spent the first years of his life in Brixham, Devon.

His Father was a Merchant Navy Captain, who during the Second World War was based at Plymouth, Devon. Aubrey was evacuated to Cornwall during a part of the war with his mother’s relatives, but he still remembered the bombs dropping on Plymouth.

I have a story about him as a child, in the sail loft at Brixham, which is above the now amusement arcade in the town. In a loft owned by his grandfather, his uncle would lay sails out there for cutting, marking out the lines with chalk. The child Aubrey would draw railway lines on the sail, using similar chalk, and walk around the tracks with bits of sail constructing equipment, making his imaginary trains run. In later life he wondered if there were some ships out there will odd looking sails, where perhaps his uncle cut down the wrong lines.

This fascination with rail and the mechanics was taken further when we lived in Gutersloh, Germany, and Prestwood, Buckinghamshire where “I?”, “he?” had an “OO/HO” gauge railway.

As a youth Aubrey studied in the evenings at Plymouth Technological College.

After working long days as a mechanical engineer, he attended evening classes. He went on to gain the National Certificate (Higher Grade) in Mechanical Engineering at Cornwall Technical College. At home we have several books that were awarded to him as prizes for his outstanding work at college, especially in the area of heat engines.

Myself and Diane visited one of his great pals Irven Nute at a nursing home in Cornwall a while back. Irven told me how it was that Aubrey was the only Dockyard Apprentice that was allowed to cut propshafts for ships, due to the precision of his engineering.

Later, I believe partly encouraged by his friend Irving, Aubrey studied meteorology and went on to have a career with The Meteorological Office.

He always had fond memories of working on Radio Sond balloon systems, in Cambourne. I investigated the way that Radio Sond balloons were tracked a while back. I was intrigued to find that they used the now nearly defunct Loran system. The Loran system is one of the Navigational Aids that I wrote interface programs for at Marconi. I was then frequently visiting Plymouth Dockyard to carry out this work. Just a couple of steps behind my farther I suppose.

Going back slightly, to Aubrey’s teens, he & his group of friends formed an amateur band of Rhythms & Blues music – ( 1940s ), which swept Britain in the guise of Rock & Roll in the 1950s; during the 1940s this teenage group swapped British Big Band records for R & B ones with their contemporaries in the U.S.A. He later had great enthusiasm for bands such as the Rolling Stones, and The Animas.

Anyway, lurching forward a bit we come to where Aubrey met and married Lucia. My mother tells me of waiting for her suitor to finish work, and come and collect her. She could hear the roar of his motorbike from miles away. She just hoped that her mother would not put two and two together, and realise that her daughter was waiting for this motoring fiend.

Lucia and Aubrey married In February 1954 whilst Aubrey was stationed at R.A.F. St.Eval. They lived in Cornwall first before Aubrey was posted to Gloucester, Yorkshire, and then back down to St.Eval where I was born in the Officer’s Married Quarters in 1957. I gather that Aubrey was ranting at the inconsiderate Lancaster pilots that were exercising their engines, while his wife was giving birth. Perhaps that is why I feel that there is a certain “something” about the sound of a Merlin Engine?

I have heard that Lucia used to get faintly annoyed by Aubrey visiting the Airman’s or Officer’s mess after work and returning with rude jokes after having few drinks – It seems this stopped after found drink gave him bad head aches – He really was allergic to alcohol. It may also have been the onion sandwiches which he so loved. I think these things perhaps turned him into a fussy eater. Not a bad thing I suppose as these days, we are told to pay great attention to what we eat and drink, and the consequences. Something I must do myself.

In 1958 Aubrey was posted to Germany for 3 years, where Jennie was born in a British Military Hospital in 1959.

In 1961 Aubrey was posted to Buckinghamshire where his children – me and Jennie were able to grow up in a fantastic village community. Aubrey was very active in the Parent Teacher Association also the Village Hall committee.

He was always looking to help other people. Perhaps I should diversify here to his membership of the Institute of Professional Civil Servants. He was very committed to this, and was passionate as any of the greats of other Unions have been in the past about working conditions and pay. As an Air Cadet I went on camp to Topcliff in Yorkshire; one of Aubrey’s earlier postings. I toddled on down to the Met buiding one evening and was welcomed in by the staff. After a bit of discussion it turned out that Aubrey was well known there for the views that he expressed in the IPCS, and they wished that there were more like him. Again as in Plymouth dockyard I had that feeling that I was one or two steps behind.

Wife of Aubrey Lucia was busy in Prestwood,and also an active member on a number of local committees. This she managed as well a being an excellent home-maker. At this stage in our lives holidays were usually camping ones. On these camping trips Aubrey would take us on some very interesting short cuts. This usually involved finding the few bits of nearly impenetrable Jungle in the UK. I think here again I was just that step behind Aubrey – In later years I would lead expeditions to places, and worry people by taking them “interesting” routes. The other step behind was the drive that he had to get involved in things. I am sure that I am still several steps behind him in what I can do at the council as a Councillor, and what I could do as a school governor.

In 1971 Aubrey took a voluntary posting to Bahrain in The Gulf without family for a few months. It was very strange living without a father for a while.

In 1972 Aubrey was posted to Bracknell Meteorological Office where he went from Weather Forecasting to Computer Programming at the age of 45.

At the time that Aubrey was converting to computing from forecasting, I was at Bracknell College learning about computers, as ever following a step or two behind.

In December 1986 Aubrey retired. He was happy with this for a while, and then he stared to get restless, and annoy my mother with asking what he should be doing next. At this time I had a computer company that was attempting to break into the travel business. He helped me by taking on various computer projects for myself and my business partner Tom Conlon. I thought maybe at this point I had caught up with my farther, but no, he eventually had enough of this work stuff, and wanted to get on with the things that really fascinated him. He designed a large Garage for Tom, drawing on his experience of building a garage and extension at Prestwood, and the garage he designed for me at my first house in Harmanswater. Aubrey went on to rebuild a 1930’s Douglas motorbike, and constructing some of the parts himself. His interest in anything mechanical was part of his being until the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Aubrey had time for Holidays with Lucia to many Mediterranean countries, Tenerife & Egypt – both of them being interested in archaeological sites & museums.

In his retirement he had much time for his granddaughter Rebecca being as protective of her as his own daughter. Becky when little, would ride around on his back.

Aubrey sometime made up names, and played with words – Ramble our rough Collie became Bingo Bongo (perhaps a reference to a dog from his childhood). When we were children I remember him saying we were going to “high wick pick wick” – Jennie thought he said we were going for a “pick nick”, and there were floods of tears when we arrived at High Wycombe to go shopping.

He very much valued his visit to David & Margaret Wilkins, neighbours whom he used to go to for an hour or so each week. David & Aubrey in the past used to frequent Auto-jumbles, travelling long distances sometimes because of their combined interest in them.

Sadly Alan Bell, a friend from the past, passed away a few years ago – He also valued the weekly visits from Alan. He will be buried not far from his old pal.

Aubrey will be remembered for his listening to highbrow music, rhythm & blues, and his large collection of CDs, tapes, also records he collected in his youth; With the onset of dementia he said he felt sad when he listened to any of them but never-the-less says he liked to listen to them.

Aubrey - A man of many hobbies, interests, and helping other people out.

Photography – developing & printing

Playing the guitar – he got very sad that he forgot how to due to dementia

Aubrey Loved to potter about in the garden and got very frustrated when he hit limits, both physically and mentally.

In the past Aubrey’s capacity for knowledge on most subjects has been exceptional; over the years he was able to turn his hand to anything from mechanical, architectural drawings, house extension – design & building. He installed every piece of central heating in the Bracknell house (with Lucia’s help), and fitted the house throughout with double glazed windows (with a bit of my help), and repaired all domestic appliances.

I am not sure of his views on life and death – I remember him telling us that we could just dump his body in a black sack, and let the bin men take it, he wouldn’t need it any more.

I said before, that Aubrey was always at least one step ahead of me. He is still one step ahead of me – It is a path I might fear to tread, but as my father, Aubrey has trodden it I am sure that it will be the right one. And there will still be still one more step to take to catch up.

On yer bike

2010-02-26T20:40:00.000Z

I was recently reading an article in the IET magazine. Apparently “significant” numbers of bicycles are still being manufactured in Britain. It also says that a combination of convenience, cost saving and health and environmental concerns have inspired this urge to saddle up.
This, and a question from someone, prompted me to again look at Bracknell’s cycleway provision. It looks like there is money received from developers to join up more of the network in Bracknell. This money has been collected by the way of section 106 agreements, which may be used to support the provision of services and infrastructure. As this money has been already collected for this purpose, it seems that various schemes will be able to go ahead including cyclways. It is likely that it will be possible to provide some missing links in the network, on the Wokingham road in Priestwood.

Since we got a dog the amount of cycling for leisure that me and Diane do has gone down a lot. This has impacted a bit on my cycling for other purposes, as dog walking does not seem to keep one as fit as cycling does. Diane tells me that this means I should spend more time in the Gym at the spots centre. Hmm. Maybe...

This is all the more interesting since at the next council meeting a report of the Independent Remuneration Panel is to be considered. It says "That reimbursement for travel to approved duties within the borough be restricted to travel by bicycle as detailed in paragraphs 22 and 47 of Annex A"

I wonder what shape the other councillors, and their bikes are in?

A Clean Sweep

2010-02-04T02:02:00.001Z

I am often asked what soft of things I do when “cleaning up a computer” with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. I though I would jot down a few things for starters, and if I feel inspired, I may type out some more. There are other tweaks that can improve performance.

Most computers have some form of Antivirus installed, but it is still well to do a scan. Often a scan with a Malware tool such as Spybot, or Malwarebytes will show problems not caught by the AV.
If the computer does not have any sort of AV then one should be installed immediately. You can buy or try for free online at sites such as AVG and Avira.

It takes a lot less time to scan if temporary files are cleaned up first. In fact a lot of little nasties often lurk in this area. The easies way to do this is through a tool such as Ccleaner. It may also be worth running Microsoft’s free clean up scan. The other options in “Windows Live Onecare” may also prove useful.

I mentioned Avira above. They produce a “Rescue System” that can be burnt to a bootable CD. As the software runs independently of the operating system it is better able to remove the “rootkit” type of virus.

If you used the tools above you should now have a virus and malware free computer. You should also have a tidier computer with less rubbish lying about. If you used the “Oncare” tool full scan you may have also have defragmented your hard drive. It may now be worth downloading and running a clever deframentation tool like Mydefrag.

One of the features of the Ccleaner program mentioned above is the ability to turn start-up programs on and off. These programs often feature in the “System Tray” or Notification Area. Removing non-essential ones can speed up log-in, and free up memory space. Programs in this area often accumulate with installations of new software. Another useful tool in Ccleaner is the Registry integrity tool. Running this or the one contained in the Onecare package may help to improve performance.

On a final note, try running the memory scanners at Crucial and Orca. If you have less than a gigabyte on your XP computer more memory could help. Some computers may struggle with just half of that.

Privacy and Dignity in Healthcare

2010-01-28T13:59:00.001Z

The Bracknell Standard reports that new research has shown that 97 per cent of people in Berkshire view privacy and dignity in healthcare as important. This comes after a health service memo, seen by the BBC, which says the government is "rattled" over the "failure" to eradicate mixed-sex wards in English hospitals.

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association said she was glad Alan Johnson finally accepts the government has failed time after time to deliver on its promises on mixed sex accommodation.
"Single-sex accommodation is the only way to ensure patient dignity, privacy and safety.
"Successive ministers have made promises for the past 11 years - patients finally deserve action not words."

Dr Phillip Lee

2010-01-22T02:35:00.001Z

There was a question on another blog about the Conservative candidate for the next General Election. I thought that I may as well post the information here as well with a few useful links.

Dr Phillip Lee has already been on many “walkabouts” in the constituency despite the weather. The reception he has received has been most encouraging. People are impressed by his sincerity and integrity. There have also been deliveries of old fashioned leaflets through the doors. The literature has been somewhat slow going

out due to the weather situation. You can read the thing (in PDF format) at http://www.bracknellconservatives.com/news/itw10.pdf

The Conservative party has a Facebook page for local Conservatives at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=232485490146 and Phillip has a page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=162793066550

If you are really passionate about a better future for tomorrow, why not join the campaign, donate, or just get involved at http://www.myconservatives.com/campaigns/dr-phillip-lee-for-bracknell

Why not go that bit further - join the Conservative Party and Make Change Happen.

The hole problem

2010-01-22T00:41:00.002Z

It is not just Bracknell forest, but in a great many other Local authorities, that they are working flat out to repair large potholes that have appeared across the country’s road network following the worst winter weather for 30 years.

A condition called “freeze-thaw” has attacked our roads. As the water in a road freezes it expands, causing the surface of the road to break up. Councils have asked the public to report problem areas so that holes can be fixed as soon as possible. Call BFC on 01344 352000, or log it online at http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/potholes (Use the highway damage report form on the right). I reported several roads in Priestwood, before the last freeze, but roads like Shepherds lane have suffered even more since. One worries about the knock on effect on next years highways budget, already constrained but the current monetary situation.

At least the rubbish collections are getting back into order. Our HUGE pile of recycling was collected today. We had a lot of it because we were away on the collection day before Christmas, and forgot to ask someone to put the bin out for us. The residuals bin normaly does not have that much in it.
In an article in the LGA First magazine the chairman of the LGA environment board, says rubbish and recycling had been collected as normal wherever possible – but public safety had to come first. “Sending a 26-tonne dustcart down an icy residential street packed with cars and pedestrians is extremely dangerous.”

A further brief on the situation is given here

Choice Based lettings

2010-01-21T22:18:00.003Z

I attended a presentation on Choice Based lettings today.

This new system moves Away from the traditional points base allocation scheme, and gives people applying for housing a say in where they live. It empowers applicants to play an active role in choosing their home. On joining the scheme applicants are advised of which band they are in and the date from which their date on the register will start. Anyone registered for housing will be able to make a bid for any property they would like to be offered.

Properties are allocated to the bidder in the highest band with the longest waiting time. The results of bids will be published so that everyone can see where the winning bidder stood in the system

Properties available for letting will be advertised on a weekly basis, and anyone registered for housing will be able to make a bid for any property within their band that they would like to be offered.

The system make for better transparency all round, and should provide better data on the housing list situation.

Have a look at www.bfcmychoice.org.uk/

So far the feedback from the users of the system has been good. It will be interesting to see how it develops, and what further feedback the council gets when the system is fully functional at the end of this month.

Snow, grit, birds, and things

2010-01-13T09:13:00.009Z

It might not seem like it, but the gritters went out last night and this morning to prepare primary routes, but at a reduced rate of spreading in line with government advice to conserve salt stocks.

I had to drop some people at Heathrow Airport at 7am, and made it there and nearly back. The snow has covered up all our hard work on the road, and the car has to stay at the bottom of the hill for the time being. The birds were waiting for me to put more food out for them when I came back. I must get out to the shops to get more food for the birds. I must check back to the RSPB website to see what it is they need. They have water available from our artificial stream (we are having to keep it trickling through to avoid it freezing), and from a couple of trays.

Three gritters have been out this morning on the primary routes, and one doing the principal roads. Traffic congestion around the borough, caused by the snow of course, is slowing progress. Unfortunately It looks like the bin collection plan is back to square one. I will get out shopping one the main roads look less busy, and the griiters have had a chance to work. Probably after 10ish to allow for the belated school openings today.

The Thaw Spot

2010-01-12T14:31:00.009Z

The Bracknell Standard says "Bracknell is getting back to normal this morning". Well it did on Monday Morning anyway.
Barney the Rough Collie is still enjoying the snow. On Monday evening's walk across the Elms recreation ground we came across some Eskimo types. Maybe Inuits? Igloo dwellers of some type. I thought it best to take a 'photo from a little way back, and not directly into the entrance, so as not to disturb the occupants who were giggling away.

The BBC news web site tells us how Councils and staff at some schools worked throughout the weekend to clear snow to ensure students could sit their GCSE, AS and A-level exams. The Daily Express tells us of just one of many stories of how people have pulled together to help their neighbours. It says a man used his 4x4 to tow an ambulance to a house. He then braved snowdrifts to find an off-duty midwife who arrived with just minutes to spare.

In the Bracknell Standard Council leader Paul Bettison is quoted as saying: “We’re doing what we can to maintain essential services and protect and care for our residents but everyone can help in the effort to keep the borough moving. “We’re asking people to shovel, sweep and salt if they are able to and to check on their neighbours to make sure they have essential supplies and to give them a bit of company as they might not be able to get out during these conditions.”

There is a planned programme of refuse and recycling collection.
The council is prioritise collection of household waste from flats (where there is already a weekly collection) to reduce fire risk.

Subject to the weather, the council will operate a limited waste collection service for refuse only for the remainder of the week, and residents are asked to put their refuse bins out in a safe place from Wednesday, January 14.
There is more detail at www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/abc

Thaw spots where the gritting, and shoveling have been greatest. Too much shoveling might be bad for one. Following an afternoon of shovelling snow, I had great difficulty lifting my pint of refreshing and invigorating liquid. My right arm is quite stiff. Still, It was good to see people in our road clearing their bits, and bits next to the other neighbours.

True Grit

2010-01-07T10:00:00.001Z

It was supposed to be a picture of the hill going down from our house. Due to the flash being on, but all I have are white dots. I suppose it just shows how much snow was coming down.

I did take another picture of Barney (our Rough Collie), but I might of well have of taken a picture of a polar bear in a snow storm. Barney just loves all of the snow. The only bit that upset him was getting the fur on he feet all iced up. We had a bit of a time persuading him to put his feet in some (cold) water to help melt the ice.

Whilst Googling around for the weather I came across an fascinating site HERE. Some interesting data from someone's weather station.

The Bracknell Standard are doing their bit, and reporting the current situation on their website each day. It is interesting to note the comment about the salt/grit level, since the governments "Salt Cell" has taken over. Bracknell's deliveries have suffered since it seems.

A source said: ‘It would be fair to say that while some authorities have shown excellent best practice this time around, some just haven’t got their act together, again, and haven’t learnt from last February’s events
One senior highways officer told LocalGov.co.uk it was unfair those authorities that did nothing to improve their resilience and stock plans were now ‘shouting the loudest for salt’.

‘I accept everyone has to have salt but surely the answer is a properly planned stock management scheme. The other issue that has failed to have been addressed in this country is spreading rates. There is suggestion that the Highways Agency is spreading up to two or three times more salt on average than authorities. Is this really necessary?

Salt reduces the freezing point of water to -3C, so that very cold weather is a further problem. There being less vehicles on the road, there is also another problem it that the salt performs better when "churned", by traffic.

I am told that the SITA staff have been unable to perform the usual refuse, and recycling collections, but this has meant that some can be redeployed on other tasks such as clearing walkways.

There is information about road gritting by the council HERE.

Barney takes us on holiday

2009-12-31T19:58:00.007Z

It was our wedding anniversary just before Christmas, so we decided to have a short break away.

Some searching of the internet identified a pub in West Lulworth, Dorset. We are both familiar with the surrounding places such as Durdle door, Lulworth Cove and Corfe Castle. The pub had the added attractions of being dog friendly and a range of about a dozen different ciders. I sold Diane of the place by telling here about the seaside, and the long walks with us and Barney the Rough Collie. I told her about the best attraction once we had agreed, and booked it.

The Castle Inn very obliging sent us a brochure, and a good bit of tourist authority bumf about the area. The best bit was the stuff about the range of Cider, and Perry. This can be found on the website of the pub.

We did have a good time there, with plenty of walking of the dog, good food, and drink. We had a visit to Wareham, where I bought a great new jacket, and cap in what must be one of the few proper “men’s’” shops left. They have a website that tells just a little bit about them HERE.

While we were away, it turns out that there was so much weather, that the Rugby game against Old Albanians was canc

elled. That means that we can now see it. Let’s just hope for a good win for Bracknell!

I made some notes about the Cider we sampled while away, I must get them down in print soon.

http://www.thecastleinn-

Priestwood's Jewel

2009-12-30T19:20:00.004Z

I was very pleased that the Koh-I-Noor finally got permission to expand into the vacant unit next door. The restaurant is a great asset to Priestwood, and has won awards for the appearance of the frontage. It is a shame to see any of the local centres with vacant premises. Many people, have asked me, as a councillor, what the hold up was with the gaining of permission. The place is popular with both residents, and people from further afield.

I am doubly pleased, being a curry addict, that it ensures that the restaurant does not have to move elsewhere. It is in easy walking distance for me, and there are two pubs to visit on route if I so wish. The food and service is excellent.

Report from the Bracknell Standard HERE.

Review HERE.

Rugby

2009-11-29T14:27:00.001Z

It was good to see that Bracknell (Website - Facebook ) managed an away win at Sutton and Epson. The season started in good form with Bracknell beating Jersey who are the current leaders at 55 points ahead of Old Albanians at 46, and Bracknell at 44. In previous years I have travelled to the away matches with Diane, sometimes staying overnight in some interesting places. We have even had two trips to Launceston. It has been annoying not being able to make it to any away games this year.

It is also very frustrating not being able to get to either of the home matches in December. Other commitments have to be fulfilled. Bracknell are playing North Walsham on the 5th, and Old Albanians on the 19th. Old Albanians beat Bracknell 10 - 6 at the away game, so we should look forward to a good home win. Having a reasonably successful first team is a great spur to the junior teams. In fact the Junior and Mini teams, at their level might sometimes even be out performing the Seniors.

I am sure that there will be a very convivial atmosphere at the Christmas lunch with Old Albanians. We will wish them well, and hope that we win.

www.getwokingham.co.uk/...

Bracknell Standard

2009-11-09T23:58:00.002Z

Very good of them to write about me.

It amused a few friends.

I did a question and answer session for the Bracknell Standard - www.getbracknell.co.uk

Computer and data recovery

2009-10-28T00:29:00.003Z

In a way this is a bit of a follow on from a previous post. There I was looking at how Police BlackBerry smartphone, if lost, can be wiped and disabled by a central administrator instantly.

I read an article about four laptops stolen from ITN staff: One of the thefts occurred at an employee’s house in Bracknell. Returning home, they found their house had been burgled and the company laptop had been stolen. But as soon as the unauthorised user connected to the Internet, Computrace sent an alert to the Absolute Monitoring Centre, allowing the device to be tracked and located. The laptop was found in Bracknell and returned to the organisation.

http://www.securitypark.co.uk/security_article263865.html

This reminded me of the system put in place by our local council. It also uses Computrace software that is embedded in the BIOS firmware of a range of computers. Bracknell Forest Borough Council have made use of the software’s remote delete functionality and Absolute’s recovery process. It has been able to deactivate and remove data from three decommissioned laptops as well as recover a stolen laptop.

http://www.absolute.com/resource_center/casestudies/bracknell-forest-council

Not so much a case of big brother watching you, but watching out for you. It is good that people can rest assured that any data that the council holds is held securely.

Feathered Plucker

2009-10-25T22:47:00.007Z

There I was happily tapping away at the computer with Barney the dog beside me. Barney leapt up, and set his body into a pointing position. Even his eyes seemed to be bulging forward.

Pigeon, I thought, but there was no whining or yapping from Barney. I peered around the curtain, to be greeted by, yes, a pigeon; but with its heart ripped out. Was this some omen I wondered.

I stepped out into the garden, followed by Barney. He was not the least bit interested in the Pigeon now, as dead things are not fun to chase. Pigeons are about the only thing that Barney will chase. Small birds are of no interest, and big birds like Magpies, Crows, and Jays, might just bite back. Ducks Geese, and sometimes big Tom Cats also scare him. His favorite is a rubber chicken, which we have to throw for him to chase, and worry at.

Anyway.

I sat down and continued with whatever it was. I thought I would monitor the situation, and see if the heart specialist returned.

A little later Barney started to taking a lazy interest in something again. I took a stealthy peak around the curtain., to be greeted by a female Sparrowhawk pulling its prey to a safe eating place.

Barney and I watched fascinated, as the Sparrowhawk plucked off the feathers and dug into the meat below. The bird had very quick movements, as it tried to keep its head up to watch for danger, but also carry on plucking and eating.

It was an interesting diversion to the work of the day.

The body disappeared overnight, presumably claimed by a hungry fox.

The pictures were taken through the window, and are unfortunately a bit blurry.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/sparrowhawk/index.asp#

Alvin's Stuff, Bracknell, computers and things

Tidal Power

Predicting Magnetic Storms

Money without Banks?

Malta Holiday

Wedding Bells

Tag Rugby

Book Party

Conservative Party Conference

Bracknell / Thames Valley Policing

Can You Keep Control of Your Mobile Phone?

Biometrics and parts from the dead

New and old Media control

Computer scams

What if GPS went out?

Bracknell Business Club

What future for the High Street?

Renewable Energy or a Perpetual Motion Machine?

Making Voting Easy

Thank You for Your Vote.

Bracknell Forest Fires

Foot Slog, no Blog

Myself or my Id? A Short Story from the Future

Church, Graves and Tombs

Religious History Trails

Housing and Council Tax Benefits

Local services - What is needed?

What if the Internet was switched off?

St. Piran's Day - 5th of March

The Royal Society of Saint George

British Beer

More Blogging

Marian Langton

Bird feeding

Excellent police work

Advent

Deaths

Bricks to clicks and town centres

NAG and Garth Hill College

26% Cuts or Opportunities?

New Garth Hill College

Ale and Cider

Blogging and stuff

Bracknell Business Club

Nags, Police and Forums

Wrapping up RSS and smashing atoms

OTS to Tackle IR35 - Tax stuff that is...

Ask Alvin joins Race Online 2012

Cashless spending

Statutory duties and budgets

Road Safety

Garden Grabbing

Road Repairs in Priestwood and Garth

Unplugging the vuvuzela with a plugin.

What shape will the Town Centre of the future take?

Country Air, take a good long sniff of that whiff

Health, well-being and council spending.

Star Trekkie stuff, or reality?

Mathematics, democracy, paradox and pitfall

IT, Technology, and the General election

New Priestwood Community Association Meeting

Time for a new “save” icon?

McAfee Antivirus - Very bad false positive with svchost.exe

IMPORTANT if you are running McAfee on Windows XP Service Pack 3Your computer may CRASH.See also https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB68780

Phillip Lee - The campaign continues

Blog Time

Garth Hill College, Sandy Lane School, Parking and the old NAGs

Lights out?

Farewell to My Father

There is just so much that I want to put in my eulogy to my farther on Friday (now today) as I write. I just don't know what to leave out. He was such a clever man, and lost so much when he got Alzheimer's. now we have lost him.

On yer bike

A Clean Sweep

Privacy and Dignity in Healthcare

Dr Phillip Lee

The hole problem

Choice Based lettings

Snow, grit, birds, and things

The Thaw Spot

True Grit

Barney takes us on holiday

IMPORTANT if you are running McAfee on Windows XP Service Pack 3
Your computer may CRASH.
See also https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB68780