I had breakfast in Aberdovey and then made my way inland up the Dovey estuary to Mac. Where I watched some foot-ball with Louise in the Red Lion. Blod was allowed in so I stayed for another pint.
I strolled down the hill, back to the rail station. Rollies were getting thin on the ground.
I inhaled deeply; the last drag and pushed the door open. She was reading '50 shades Darker'.
I smiled to my self and made my way to the platform.
'I hope you're using both hands to read that' I said as I passed.
'Have you read it'
'No.... but the Guardian review was pretty scathing'
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Monday, 8 October 2012
On Night in Aber
That weekend should have been the last of my sick leave before i should have returned to work, and i was determined to make the most of it.
I got up early, taking Blod with me down to Harlech beech below the ruined hotel, the known as 'The Dai's. It was still dark and as the train wouldn't becoming for another hour I decided to walk along the railway track to Llandanwg halt.
I got on the near empty train and sat close to Barry, a care worker in Fairbourne. I managed to get on and off in Barmouth to hastily purchase The Guardian and a pint of milk.
I got up early, taking Blod with me down to Harlech beech below the ruined hotel, the known as 'The Dai's. It was still dark and as the train wouldn't becoming for another hour I decided to walk along the railway track to Llandanwg halt.
I got on the near empty train and sat close to Barry, a care worker in Fairbourne. I managed to get on and off in Barmouth to hastily purchase The Guardian and a pint of milk.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
Portmerion No.6 festival
Well I can say I was there; the 'first rock festival at Portmerion', because it certainly won't be the last.
The No.6 festival has an eclectic lineup, as any of this summers festival, the first night seemed to go like clockwork. The line up can be found here with British Sea Power giving a blinding performance next to the hotel swimming pool.
The spring tide meant that the usually exposed sand banks of the Dwyryd estuary were completely submerged and the mountains above Harlech were reflected in the silvery dusk light on the water.
I'm going again this afternoon specifically to see Jerry Dammers (Specials AKA) with whom I DJ'd with at an anti-apartheid gig at NMH King's College, London some 25 years ago.
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Eco Musings I
Yesterday I applied for a part time MSc at C.A.T. in Renewable Energy and the Built Environment. If accepted it wouldn't start until September 2013 so I've got some time to think about it and try and work out where the money could come from.
I believe I've kept abreast of the technology involved and quite like C4's Grand Designs and so I feel I have to work out how I could justify doing the course to bank manager and or parents.
To be frank I think through a combination of population growth, global warming, corporate greed and ineffectual national and international government the world is going hell in a handcart and I would advise my daughter not to have any children. See the writings of Geoge Monbiot if you want referenced facts on this (perchance he lives in near Macchynlleth where C.A.T. is based). I do struggle with his stance on nuclear power but I can appreciate the economic argument. Other writers have also broken down the argument down with detailed technical analysis to the following:-
Finally my better half is starting an MSc this year and anything she can do etc....
I believe I've kept abreast of the technology involved and quite like C4's Grand Designs and so I feel I have to work out how I could justify doing the course to bank manager and or parents.
To be frank I think through a combination of population growth, global warming, corporate greed and ineffectual national and international government the world is going hell in a handcart and I would advise my daughter not to have any children. See the writings of Geoge Monbiot if you want referenced facts on this (perchance he lives in near Macchynlleth where C.A.T. is based). I do struggle with his stance on nuclear power but I can appreciate the economic argument. Other writers have also broken down the argument down with detailed technical analysis to the following:-
- Global warming is happening
- The reliance on fossil fuels must be reduced
- Carbon capture isn't going to happen any time soon
- Renewable Energy supplies cannot replace fossil fuels at current energy demand levels
- The planet has finite resources
- Population growth is quite frightening in terms of feeding and watering ourselves
- The BRICs are coming and they are resource hungry
Internationally economic growth and individual energy consumption is at an already unsustainable level in the western world but doing anything about this is still considered to be a bit hippy or un-affordable.
So one of the principle reasons for doing this course is to refine my knowledge on some of the salient technical aspects of the subject and to learn how they can be best incorporated into our modern lives and homes. I believe that my engineering background would prove to advantageous for such a course
The next is the political ammunition I would hope to gain. The ignorance people have about it all needs to be counteracted and honestly and persistently driven home by the government and the media. The truth is this no longer scare stories but fact.
The third is that one day I hope to build (or perhaps convert) a zero emissions property myself and in the mean time perhaps get work in this area.
Finally my better half is starting an MSc this year and anything she can do etc....
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Paradigm Shift IV
So what started this internal debate off, before I'd even thought about it or researched it, was what is going to be the big Paradigm shift in tech/human relations? Personally I don't think there is going to be one. Tech will become more and more ingrained in our existence and life without it will seem unimaginably difficult (just imagine it).
I lived for four years on a narrow boat. It did not have mains electricity (think about it) but it was quite possible to live in comfort, and after all it was designed for it. Society demands more and more power but objects to the infrastructure being in sight. Now how about a life with no tech. Every company, organisation and government would cease to function (their backups wouldn't work either in this scenario), how long would it be before society broke down for weeks, days or just a few hours.
Take the example of just one company. In the UK virtually all fixed line infrastructure is supplied by BT (It also routes bulk communications for mobile companies as well). They use packet switching which allows data (including voice) to to go from A to B by different nodes/exchanges. Their system will have built in redundancy and it will have, so called fail safes and hopefully backups for the fail safes. But what if a group or perhaps even an individual found away of taking out the system what would happen? No voice calls, no text and no broadband (I'll give some leeway to cable uses who can only to talk to them selves). Take food retailing the whole supply chain from producers to manufactures is virtually all automated via barcodes. A BT systems failure would see supermarket shelves empty in days. The logistic industry and the whole 'just in time' supply chain cannot function without computers in a profitable way.
There have been several "I lived without my smartphone for a week" newspaper articles and television programs Companies have instigated policies forbidding employees e-mailing people within the same office. Although 'silver surfers' are in abundance many of the 50+ have not wanted to use computers and are excluded from cheaper banking, energy bills etc.
To attempt to conclude, yes user interfaces will develop, this may well include'wetware'(do watch a web TV series called H+ very high production values). The real question I guess is what do I want to do? Can I do it better with technology (The old 10 minute rule should always apply)? I think the technology should adapt for us rather than the other way round. I think that cloud computing will become the norm but there needs to be better security from criminals (Iris/Fingerprint) and government snooping should be curtailed. Let's just hope the lights don't out.
I lived for four years on a narrow boat. It did not have mains electricity (think about it) but it was quite possible to live in comfort, and after all it was designed for it. Society demands more and more power but objects to the infrastructure being in sight. Now how about a life with no tech. Every company, organisation and government would cease to function (their backups wouldn't work either in this scenario), how long would it be before society broke down for weeks, days or just a few hours.
Take the example of just one company. In the UK virtually all fixed line infrastructure is supplied by BT (It also routes bulk communications for mobile companies as well). They use packet switching which allows data (including voice) to to go from A to B by different nodes/exchanges. Their system will have built in redundancy and it will have, so called fail safes and hopefully backups for the fail safes. But what if a group or perhaps even an individual found away of taking out the system what would happen? No voice calls, no text and no broadband (I'll give some leeway to cable uses who can only to talk to them selves). Take food retailing the whole supply chain from producers to manufactures is virtually all automated via barcodes. A BT systems failure would see supermarket shelves empty in days. The logistic industry and the whole 'just in time' supply chain cannot function without computers in a profitable way.
There have been several "I lived without my smartphone for a week" newspaper articles and television programs Companies have instigated policies forbidding employees e-mailing people within the same office. Although 'silver surfers' are in abundance many of the 50+ have not wanted to use computers and are excluded from cheaper banking, energy bills etc.
To attempt to conclude, yes user interfaces will develop, this may well include'wetware'(do watch a web TV series called H+ very high production values). The real question I guess is what do I want to do? Can I do it better with technology (The old 10 minute rule should always apply)? I think the technology should adapt for us rather than the other way round. I think that cloud computing will become the norm but there needs to be better security from criminals (Iris/Fingerprint) and government snooping should be curtailed. Let's just hope the lights don't out.
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Paradigm Shift III
The Qwerty keyboard has been around for over a hundred and thirty years. The problem is it works too well and with enhanced features like extra function specific buttons and software shortcuts it seems indispensable. There is, however, also the need for task specific hardware interfaces for some applications in some industries
I have a love hate relationship with the mouse. At least one jog wheel should be compulsary for scrolling purposes and people should always set up their pointers and mouse functionality before trying to do anything with a PC. Some applications, such as CAD, work better with pen and tablet type devices. However if you ever watch someone new to computers use the mouse it is often something quite alien for them, finding it, then finding the on screen pointer/arrow, seems to take up a lot of time.
Computer screens were once like this:-
(NB The differences between forward slash and backwards slash were vital and that is why the terminology is still in use today)
The MAC OS and then Windows revolutionized things, not because you could do anything different, but because a lot of people could now do something with computers. What they did was typing, spreadsheets and perhaps some database based stuff, perhaps the accounts department did something a bit more complex involving tax contributions but none of it was new, none of it necessarily easier, none of it initially cheaper than the old methods. Computers became pervasive in virtually all white collar work. Computer networks allowed interpersonal communications but these were, and in many cases still are, little more than the inter-office memo they replaced. Enough has been written about the internet to fill the internet (well almost) some people have even made money out of it (not many as a percentage of users I'd wager)
When I did computer studies, at O-level (exams before GCSE), I had to know about punched card readers and flow charts and how to program in BASIC. When I was an undergraduate I used the latest 4MB RAM 286 based IBM PC for my 3rd yr project (Digital Audio Test Signal Generator) and Turbo Pascal. I think I've matured with the PC. I have fundamental knowledge of the the hardware and used the MS operating systems and software (sorry I'm virtually MAC illiterate). I can understand file structures and sub-directories which frequently seem to baffle people who have to start using a computer in anger (i.e. for real work not trolling). Having said all that my 12 year old niece can do things with facebook that amazes me.
OK I'm waffling a bit now but what I'm trying to lead up to is that has any of this changed the basic rudiments of living our lives at all. Sure we do things differently but essentially it is the same things. Yes social media has seen a certain democratization of our ability to communicate to the wider world but only in the same way as the printing press did for pampleteers in the 18th century (or perhaps even the discovery of fire did for sitting around and having a chat) it is only a tool and not the message.
tbc
I have a love hate relationship with the mouse. At least one jog wheel should be compulsary for scrolling purposes and people should always set up their pointers and mouse functionality before trying to do anything with a PC. Some applications, such as CAD, work better with pen and tablet type devices. However if you ever watch someone new to computers use the mouse it is often something quite alien for them, finding it, then finding the on screen pointer/arrow, seems to take up a lot of time.
Computer screens were once like this:-
The MAC OS and then Windows revolutionized things, not because you could do anything different, but because a lot of people could now do something with computers. What they did was typing, spreadsheets and perhaps some database based stuff, perhaps the accounts department did something a bit more complex involving tax contributions but none of it was new, none of it necessarily easier, none of it initially cheaper than the old methods. Computers became pervasive in virtually all white collar work. Computer networks allowed interpersonal communications but these were, and in many cases still are, little more than the inter-office memo they replaced. Enough has been written about the internet to fill the internet (well almost) some people have even made money out of it (not many as a percentage of users I'd wager)
When I did computer studies, at O-level (exams before GCSE), I had to know about punched card readers and flow charts and how to program in BASIC. When I was an undergraduate I used the latest 4MB RAM 286 based IBM PC for my 3rd yr project (Digital Audio Test Signal Generator) and Turbo Pascal. I think I've matured with the PC. I have fundamental knowledge of the the hardware and used the MS operating systems and software (sorry I'm virtually MAC illiterate). I can understand file structures and sub-directories which frequently seem to baffle people who have to start using a computer in anger (i.e. for real work not trolling). Having said all that my 12 year old niece can do things with facebook that amazes me.
OK I'm waffling a bit now but what I'm trying to lead up to is that has any of this changed the basic rudiments of living our lives at all. Sure we do things differently but essentially it is the same things. Yes social media has seen a certain democratization of our ability to communicate to the wider world but only in the same way as the printing press did for pampleteers in the 18th century (or perhaps even the discovery of fire did for sitting around and having a chat) it is only a tool and not the message.
tbc
Monday, 20 August 2012
Paradigm Shift II
Got up, had shower took dog out, bought paper and pint of milk. Went home and read the news section, completed the Sudoku, failed to get very far with the cryptic. Just my normal start to the day. I made a large cafetiere just for me and sat down to look through G2. On page 3 there was this article on Grinders which I've copied here in full:-
"Grinders: the cult of the man machine
Many of us are already cyborgs. If you have a contraceptive coil fitted, or a pacemaker – arguably even if you wear contact lenses or have pierced ears – then you are in a sense part-human and part-machine. For a small but growing global community of "biohackers" or "grinders", however, there is far more fun waiting to be had.
A common procedure is to implant a strong neodymium magnet beneath the surface of a person's skin, often in the tip of the ring finger. This causes nearby magnetic fields – and even their strength and shape – to become detectable to the user, thanks to the subtle currents they provoke. For a party trick, they can also pick up metal objects or make other magnets move around.
Calling this a procedure, though, gives rather the wrong impression. Biohacking is not a field of medicine. Instead it is carried out either at home or in piercing shops, cleanly and carefully with a scalpel, but without an anaesthetic (which you need a licence for). If you think this sounds painful, you are correct.
Britain is the birthplace of modern transhumanism, as the field is known. Probably the most sophisticated implantation ever made can be found inside the left arm of Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, who can now control a robot arm by moving his own. The system also works the other way, so he can now sense his wife's movements in his own body, after she had a similar implantation.
A more intuitive exponent is Lepht Anonym, the name used by a young woman in Aberdeen, who has performed many adaptations on herself at home using nothing more sophisticated than sharp implements and vodka. She began with a sensor that allowed her to lock and unlock her computer, and then fitted a temperature display that emerged through the skin, though this was not a success.
To Warwick, Anonym and the wider grinding community, who meet online in forums such as biohack.me, implanted technology or "wetware" represents the next stage in mankind's evolution. And, indeed, the idea is not outlandish. Brain stimulation from implanted electrodes is already a routine treatment for Parkinson's and other diseases, and there are prototypes that promise to let paralysed people control computers, wheelchairs and robotic limbs.
Last week, X-Men producer Bryan Singer launched a web TV series called H+ prophesying the cataclysmic consequences of all this. Yet the ultimate potential, for good or bad, may be even greater than it imagines. "Bringing about brain-to-brain communication," Warwick says, "is something I hope to achieve in my lifetime." "
It is worth going to those links, and for the record I think Wetware is an unfortunate term.
Anyway, this is all a bit smartphone and tablet based. They of course do some useful things, voice<>text has come on leaps and bounds (it has been nearly 30 years since a friend and I tried to control a robot arm with a BBC Micro and a microphone) but how many people do real work on these devices. I remain unconvinced that anyone would choose to write a complex document on them while they still have access to a full size keyboard, pointing device and screen.
The Ultrabook and MacBook whatever are just the latest incarnations in portable computing. They'll get technically better, lighter, faster, and battery life will continue to improve but I still think that there is still something else to come.
tbc
"Grinders: the cult of the man machine
Many of us are already cyborgs. If you have a contraceptive coil fitted, or a pacemaker – arguably even if you wear contact lenses or have pierced ears – then you are in a sense part-human and part-machine. For a small but growing global community of "biohackers" or "grinders", however, there is far more fun waiting to be had.
A common procedure is to implant a strong neodymium magnet beneath the surface of a person's skin, often in the tip of the ring finger. This causes nearby magnetic fields – and even their strength and shape – to become detectable to the user, thanks to the subtle currents they provoke. For a party trick, they can also pick up metal objects or make other magnets move around.
Calling this a procedure, though, gives rather the wrong impression. Biohacking is not a field of medicine. Instead it is carried out either at home or in piercing shops, cleanly and carefully with a scalpel, but without an anaesthetic (which you need a licence for). If you think this sounds painful, you are correct.
Britain is the birthplace of modern transhumanism, as the field is known. Probably the most sophisticated implantation ever made can be found inside the left arm of Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, who can now control a robot arm by moving his own. The system also works the other way, so he can now sense his wife's movements in his own body, after she had a similar implantation.
A more intuitive exponent is Lepht Anonym, the name used by a young woman in Aberdeen, who has performed many adaptations on herself at home using nothing more sophisticated than sharp implements and vodka. She began with a sensor that allowed her to lock and unlock her computer, and then fitted a temperature display that emerged through the skin, though this was not a success.
To Warwick, Anonym and the wider grinding community, who meet online in forums such as biohack.me, implanted technology or "wetware" represents the next stage in mankind's evolution. And, indeed, the idea is not outlandish. Brain stimulation from implanted electrodes is already a routine treatment for Parkinson's and other diseases, and there are prototypes that promise to let paralysed people control computers, wheelchairs and robotic limbs.
Last week, X-Men producer Bryan Singer launched a web TV series called H+ prophesying the cataclysmic consequences of all this. Yet the ultimate potential, for good or bad, may be even greater than it imagines. "Bringing about brain-to-brain communication," Warwick says, "is something I hope to achieve in my lifetime." "
It is worth going to those links, and for the record I think Wetware is an unfortunate term.
Anyway, this is all a bit smartphone and tablet based. They of course do some useful things, voice<>text has come on leaps and bounds (it has been nearly 30 years since a friend and I tried to control a robot arm with a BBC Micro and a microphone) but how many people do real work on these devices. I remain unconvinced that anyone would choose to write a complex document on them while they still have access to a full size keyboard, pointing device and screen.
The Ultrabook and MacBook whatever are just the latest incarnations in portable computing. They'll get technically better, lighter, faster, and battery life will continue to improve but I still think that there is still something else to come.
tbc
Paradigm Shift I
I have just ordered a book from my local independent book shop (Harlech Post Office), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (University of Chicago Press) in it as the Observer put it:-
"Kuhn's central claim is that a careful study of the history of science reveals that development in any scientific field happens via a series of phases. The first he christened "normal science" – business as usual, if you like. In this phase, a community of researchers who share a common intellectual framework – called a paradigm or a "disciplinary matrix" – engage in solving puzzles thrown up by discrepancies (anomalies) between what the paradigm predicts and what is revealed by observation or experiment. Most of the time, the anomalies are resolved either by incremental changes to the paradigm or by uncovering observational or experimental error. As philosopher Ian Hacking puts it in his terrific preface to the new edition of Structure: "Normal science does not aim at novelty but at clearing up the status quo. It tends to discover what it expects to discover."
The trouble is that over longer periods unresolved anomalies accumulate and eventually get to the point where some scientists begin to question the paradigm itself. At this point, the discipline enters a period of crisis characterised by, in Kuhn's words, "a proliferation of compelling articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate over fundamentals". In the end, the crisis is resolved by a revolutionary change in world-view in which the now-deficient paradigm is replaced by a newer one. This is the paradigm shift of modern parlance and after it has happened the scientific field returns to normal science, based on the new framework. And so it goes on."
As I understand it Kuhn used his area of expertise, physics, as the stating point. Hopefully examples in biology and chemistry in the book will elaborate on this.
Electronics is a subset of physics and having worked at the end of the war (WWII) in RADAR development he would have been up to speed in valve electronics and 1954 saw the commercialization of silicon transistor technology. How he saw the development of computer science I have yet to discover. The LEO 1 is considered to be the first commercial computer and first operated a business application in 1951. The importance of the new technology. However there has been considerable debate about this:-
"Computer science also differs from physics in that it is not actually a science. It does not study natural objects. Neither is it, as you might think, mathematics; although it does use mathematical reasoning pretty extensively. Rather, computer science is like engineering; it is all about getting something to do something, rather than just dealing with abstractions, as in the pre-Smith geology." Feynman, Feynman Lectures on Computation, 1970.
The phase 'Paradigm Shift' has been miss-used in the fifty years since the book was originally published especially in corporate gobbledygook. I started wondering how the term could be applied to tech/human interaction
The way computers have affected our lives is massive, undeniable and progressing at incredible rate (Moore's Law etc) However you can live relatively comfortably with out even ever touching one. The transition to what is referred to as Web V2.0 may appear to be a 'Paradigm Shift' but the technology behind it and the equipment that it used on has had a reasonably linear progression right back to LEO 1 and before. You put something in, you get something out that you perhaps wanted or as Richard Dawkins more elegantly put it in the Blind Watchmaker "If you don't know anything about computers, just remember that they are machines that do exactly what you tell them but often surprise you in the result."
Artificial Intelegance (AI) has frequently been cited as the big next step, perhaps where a real 'Pardigm Shift' may happen. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. Often the mushroom effect of machines becoming sentient, involving rapid self-awareness coupled with duplication and evolution, has been explored in theory and fiction (Terminator et al) but the Turin Test has constantly defeated the best minds in the field and is optimistically estimated to be at least 20 years away.
To be honest I don't think there will be a 'Paradigm Shift'. I think the technology will continue to develop in it's linear fashion.Virtual augmentation combining GPS, social media, advertising and search will merge into a seamless system.What I find interesting is not the nuts and bolts, it's all possible, it comes down to the user interface and other data i/o pathways.
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