Chinese Rooms as Russia Dolls

The human John Searle created a thought experiment to refute the possibility of "Strong AI" (Computers that Think) proving in his mind the likelihood of "Weak AI" (Computers only simulate Thought)

Worse he constrains the use of the Chinese Room thought experiment to hold that human thought cannot be just processing, a sort of Morecambe and Wise argument..."Get out of that without moving!"

If we put the Chinese Room A inside a Chinese Room B and feed meaningless symbols into Chinese Room B will Cohones Room A notice? You might ask what this proves about the existence of, or definition of thought, especially if you first define thought to be " Not Processing". I suspect it simply proves that Searle has balls!

The joke is that Human Philosphy itself to the first person observer in a "Philosophy Room", is a set of meaningless symbols operated upon, using rules known only inside the room. Which leads to the inevitable conclusion, according to Searle, that Philosophy is not real thought! None-the-less outside observers have been tricked into seeing it in a much better light!

Their programmer must be wetting herself!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Spammers have a new method!?

The latest round of Spam has demonstrated that Spammers are now using more sophisticated techniques to gather email addresses. Emails I created for specific organisations, like boxnet"at"s-mail.me.uk are now being spammed.

There are three possible techniques I have envisaged
1) They are monitoring the outbound traffic of the 1and1 smtp servers, I transmit to these servers securely, but they send emails in the clear.
(This would mean that they have sniffers on 1and1 servers, or at least in their network, not good)
Have been monitoring the news 1and1 have not publically admitted this as far as I can tell.

 2) They have compromised the Google Mail servers in some way, I forward all my emails to googlemail as a backup

 3) Less likely, they have compromised a lot of individuals personal mail boxes, including mine

Either way they are successfully targeting a lot more email accounts, the practise though simply increases the frustration with SPAM reducing the likelihood for there clients message to be read. So the folks from www.hotvegascash.com are going to be out of luck! url no longer found on DNS.

So folks apologies if you start getting emails purportedly from Jamie_Oliver"at"s-mail.me.uk

Just know that that was Jamie's email for me, and neither of us sent the messages...

Sorry!

Unintended Consequences

The closure of Apple's iDisk service had me looking around for alternate places to store my files. In my search I bumped into the new Google Drive service. So I moved all my iDisk files to Google Drive, the place where I also find my Google Docs.

I wonder if Apple meant to push me out of their world, into the arms of Google?

I still feel very uncomfortable in this "free world of Google"

I keep being reminded of the cartoon with two pigs talking in a barn...
"Great here isn't it!?"
"Yes and the foods free too!"

I somehow doubt that I will be able to sue Apple for what they have done to me...

I moved from being Chicken to Pig without really noticing the switch!
You remember... the old joke about the difference between involved and committed!

Doh!!!!

Fungibilsation of Humanity

An interesting read http://www.forbes.com/sites/rawnshah/2011/05/17/the-future-of-work/ Part of the article reminded me of the day that I realised that my employer had shifted "our" Values in such a way that humans had become fungible resources I believe this is a trend that is spreading like a cancer across the world The companies Values used to be: Respect for People, Integrity and Excellence in that order, in the short form P.I.E. The company like many I see are shifting their Values to Respect for Profit, Discretion, and Agility Some organisations are still clinging to their original values and avoiding this shift, but the "market" will punish them until they bend to the inevitable. fungible - of goods or commodities; freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind in the satisfaction of an obligation It seems I am not alone in thinking that making humanity fungible is the ultimate sin http://www.patrickemclean.com/2011/10/a-word-patrick-likes-fungible-adj/ One might call this trend the Commoditisation of Humanity, I personally abhor the trend whatever we might call it! Is the trend exacerbated by our dire economic situation, or was our dire economic situation a result of the "Fungibilisation of Humanity"? There was a time when Companies thought differently: Cadbury used to be one such company, a firm run by Quakers whose beliefs helped direct their enlightened management style Sadly even this firm has fallen to the "market" for Cadbury Shareholders chose the 11.4 Biilion offered by Kraft, the temporary promise of continued employment for the Cadbury staff has now lapsed... The "Market" is apparently driven by Shareholders... I am one…. But do I really want the goal of any organisation that I hold shares in to treat humans as fungible resources to be cast aside when someone or something equivalent can be found to do their work for less? My answer is a resounding NO! But apparently I am alone… What must change? A word of warning or a glimmer of hope: Humans are not unthinking commodities, they can think, and act! Merry Christmas

Long time no see...

Partly as I have not been moved to remonstrate or share at length = > 140 Characters

Today I finally have...

Open Letter to Tim Cook, Steve Jobs' replacement

I just wanted to wish you luck in stamping your own mark on Apple. I read with interest that Steve has inserted his DNA into the company and that it will continue on it's merry way with the innovative zeal that Steve is so famous for. That has some clear benefits as well as some very dangerous implications. I would like to think that you are aware that your Customers are moving with the times and Apple is rapidly being left behind. So what are the signs....

Exhibit One: The Apple Store Purchasing Experience
I today decided to never again purchase any more Hardware from the Online Apple Store, having placed my order for the new Mac Mini I was disappointed to find that to Apple Next Day Shipment still means Next Month Delivery! I have made this complaint directly at every opportunity that I can find. The MAC MINI was indeed "shipped" next day as you proudly informed me and "happily" it only took TWO WEEKS to arrive, which assuming an average speed of 70 MPH produces a distance travelled that is remarkably similar to the circumference of the Earth. (Methinks something is very wrong in Apple Distribution land). With a little perusal I have now found that I could have bought my Mac Mini from Amazon and get Next Day Delivery for LESS than I paid from the Apple Store, teach me to be blindly loyal!!. So, goodbye Apple Store

Exhibit Two: The Mac Mini Installation Experience
Happily getting ready to instal the Mac Mini with the new Magic Track Pad that you implied might have been the reason for the delayed delivery, "we have to get all the parts of the shipment in one place before we can ship to you"

I powered up the Mac Mini and the Magic Track Pad and my previously acquired Apple Blue tooth keyboard. The Track Pad stubbornly refused to be recognised by the Mac Mini, and as a result I could not get the keyboard connected either. So I had to go find a USB Mouse to gain control. At this stage I was able to cajole the Track Pad into working in a fashion. The Track Pad refused to produce a "Click" apparently it was defaulted to not do so? So I set the appropriate Box to persuade it to, and then found that there is a system wide default that meant that when I started up the box and tried to select which user I was, I couldn't, as I could not click! When I was in my own user domain clicking was possible. I have temporarily bypassed the problem with Auto Login, something I do not want to keep as the final option, currently I am stuck with that though... This is not the simple user install experience I expect from Apple. There where other similar glitches that all point to some poor UI testing... Hey Apple your UI DNA has been compromised somehow?

Exhibit Three: The LION OSX 10.7 Experience
Here I am quietly apoplectic, how am I supposed to bray about how good my new Apple is when you create a user experience that reminds me of the reason I set up this Blog. http://vista-log.blogspot.com/

On 10.7 eMail blows up regularly for no reason that I can tell even after the rapidly rolled out update.
You have also turned my world upside down, while I do get the reason, it is making my head swim watching the up and down scroll become the down and up scroll. I will get there but oh the pain!

I could go on but as I said I am apoplectic and a symptom of that condition is irrational irascibility.

Exhibit Four: A lost key...
Having lost, of all things, the Apple Key on my trusty MacBook Pro keyboard, don't ask me how! I simply asked how I might "buy" a replacement to clip back on myself. I prepared myself for a stupid price for a silly bit of plastic (I set my upper limit at £10) Sorry sir, the only way we can do that is to replace the whole keyboard. Say What?! Needless to say I am still missing the Apple Key and EVERY time a I press the transparent plastic nipple I get yet another mini shot of Apple Frustration.
What really annoyed me is that I was watching other "Apple Geniuses" agree to replace whole devices on a whim, and I could only imagine the pile of dead Apple Mac Book Pro's out the back. Methinks that the Apple Geniuses could do with being given a dose of common sense!

Apple Delight = MISS!

Exhibit Five: The Enterprise Experience
I work with an organisation that gives senior executives a glimpse into the future of technology, you are the one company on the West Coast that is so up it's own posterior, that you refuse to even consider groups of potential customers understanding the future of technology through your own eyes. Why??? OK so I am now beyond apoplectic. Which means that anything I type after this may start getting me into trouble.


So please Tim stamp your mark! Keep all the good parts that you know exist in Apple, but please get rid of the growing Apple Arrogance and focus on delivering the experience that in the original Apple DNA aimed to deliver "Apple Delight". For those times when you do get close to delighting me, more often than not your systems ahve already frustrated me.

So Tim what say you? How do you plan on keeping me as an Apple Customer?

Crowd Sourced Wedding Album Site

Where-fore-art-thou?

I am looking for a Wedding Album SIte

Design/Specifications
1) Simply enrolment Wedding Guests as Crowd Sourced Photographers (Up to 200 Guests)
2) Clear communications of Album Goals
3) Simple Bulk Uploads (Up to 200 per Guest)
4) Simple Video Uploads
5) Automated Photo Time Synchronisation
6) Automated Face Recognition (linked to a Guest List)
7) Geolocation Tagging
8) Timeline
9) Crowdsourced Photo rating
10) Individual Album Development
11) DVD Creation
12) Printed album creation

Flickr 2/5 Poor Group Tools
Picassa 2/5 Capacity limited for Group Albums 500 Free 1,000 Paid

Is it out there?

To American colleagues and friends, can I commend to you the "Farewell Speech" of George Washington with special reference to the section warning of the dangers of parties..
"In 1792, George Washington was prepared to retire as the first President of the United States. To that end, Washington, with James Madison, wrote a farewell address to the public of the United States of America."

The relevant section warning of the dangers of parties reads: 
 
"20 I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
21 This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
22 The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
23 Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
24 It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
25 There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
26 It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way, which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield."

Pre-tirement or Pre-tardment?

Either way it is way more hectic than one can every imagine, let alone plan for!
(Aargh... I used that nasty four letter word again!)
I had so many things I was going to do when I pre-tired, or as Lord Erroll posited "pre-tarded", thanks for that Merlin!! (It only twinged because it had more than a smidgen of truth to it!).

I hit overload in April, or more correctly I recognised that I hit overload in April, from which time I have been frantically searching for ways to row backwards from the lip of my own equivalent to Niagara Falls.

The fact is, that I had been pushing far too many of my FUN TO-DO items into the period after I was pre-tired. This backlog was in fact a major cause of the overload. Then, to cap it all, my friends in the security world awarded me "Security Person of the Year", which has served to make the whirlwind spin ever faster! I cannot properly explain how pleased I was to have been nominated let alone be, given the award. Thank You Folks! I do know that I was sitting back, bow tie undone, jacket off, when the award was announced. Little did I know that at least two people on my table, who were actually on the Awards Panel, were itching to tell me to "get dressed"! A piece of good luck came from the fact that I was trying out a newly learned trick of wearing a false bow tie and then switching to a real one when it came to relaxing. I owe my godson Matthew a drink, however I am now resolved to practicing doing up a Bow Tie as easily as I can do my shoe laces, but I will do that when I retire properly. (Hmmm, I sense a new overload in the making)

Well, my body has now signalled enough, by allowing me to catch Man-Flu. There will be those uncharitable folks who will point out that the session at Stephens Restaurant, under the shadow of Big Ben, which involved a few too many bevvies, might just have lowered my bodies defences. The subsequent hazily remembered tube and train journey home then provided the surfeit of viruses for the coup de grace. As I said uncharitable...

Whatever!

I have started searching for technical solutions to my dilemma surely there's an iPhone App for this... Apparently there aren't, there are many that purport to be, but they all turn out to be very effective Procrastination Aids, NOT Prioritisation or Action Aids. I suspect the developers of such tools were, like me?, wanting something to take the guilt away, but didn't think through the fact that simply putting it in a Procrastination App doesn't get it done!! Doh!

Ideas any one?

What I really really want....

... is a standard Semantically enabled Wireless Home Piconet Area Network (HomePAN) technology with..
- a USB HomePAN device to connect it to my Mac/PC and the internet
- a Cloud based Data Capture, Storage, Display and Control App
(Of course it would need to be secure!)
- a series of devices that allow me to interact with and measure my Home
(each device would have their own PKI enabled identity and
security would also mediated by a trusted cloud based third party,
"Identity Service Provider".)

1) Max/Min Temperature recording/ reporting device
I would have at least 4; Greenhouse, Outside, Garage Freezer,
Indoors (near kitchen water pipes)
2) Infra Red Movement Detectors
I would have loads: Shed, Garage, entrance hall, key rooms.
They would be used for lighting control and security
(I wouldn't mind if the 1 & 2 were combined)
3) Power Switches Wall Mounted
These would in the main replace light switches, would be able to dim also
4) Power switches Plug Mounted
These would control power to devices
5) HomePan to Infra Red Transmitter
Would control entertainment devices
6) HomePan Hand Controller
Used to control everything
7) A HomePAN Dual purpose RFID / Laser scanner
I'd have one by the fridge / larder, and one by the bin,
It would have two buttons Stored and Consumed
8) HomePAN Electricity Consumption Monitor
9) HomePAN Water consumption monitor.
10) HomePAN Weighing Machine
11) HomePAN Exercise Bike
12) HomePAN Module in the car
13) HomePAN Module on my bike
14) HomePAN Pedometer
15) HomePAN Pet Monitor
16) HomePAN Excretion Monitor (Literally this would fit in the pan)
Though there would probably need to be a bum scanner to ensure identity of poorly person is known! Which would likely lead to weird forms of identity obfuscation!


17) HomePAN Health Watch, (on my wrist it would Monitor my vital signs)
18) HomePAN Entertainment Devices would be able to be controlled directly
from the Home PicoNet
19) HomePAN/Skype Video Devices
From: "Who is at the door?" to,
Chatting with remote relatives as if they were there.

and the list goes on!!!

Key would be that status would be always available from any
HomePan device (push and pull)

The neat trick would be the amount of money I would get paid each month for allowing Waitrose or Tesco's access to some of my data. My house insurance would be lower. My health insurance would be lower. And best I will be able to live in my own home into my dotage.

Finally I would have an uncountable number of "Apps for that" on my iPhone that would help me make effective use of all this data!

=====

Yes I know X10 exists, I have loads of them, but status on X10 is very flaky, and ZWave looked like a possibility until you see what HomeSeer want to charge for a temperature device that won't monitor below 0C and no local Max Min storage. Then realise that most of the devices I want don't exist on ZWave. I could see ZWave being a part of the solution but we would need a shift in mindset on price and performance.
Till then it's manual data entry! And flaky statii of X10... wouldn't trust that for my dotage!!!

====

Oh and by the way did I mention all this needs to be secure?

My proof of our zero electricity EarthHour

Thanks to a
battery powered
Wireless
Electricity
Real Time
Consumption
Meter

Minutes before

Earth Hour

we were

consuming...


After the start of Earth Hour we consumed....

Earth Hour is Saturday 8:30pm

On , your Local Time!
Are you going to go dark at 08:30pm in less than 22 hours time?

For Earth Hour happens on Saturday 28th March 2009 at 08:30pm for one dark and not so silent hour.

Have FUN!

Experience it!

Exemplify it!

Be it!.....

E N J O Y I T!

Make your switches count!!!

Turn them off!

Let your house consume no electricity between 08:30 and 9:30 pm on Saturday wherever you live! Some with old half empty Freezers might feel the need to keep them going, but NOTHING ELSE!!!

Read the
Earth Hour Guidebook

I've Typealyzed my own Blogs, TMO's, Jim's and Byn's

It seems I must have been subconsciously copying the style of The Messy One's Blog as we both exhibit the same style in our respective Blogs; ie this blog and Secrets and Lies have both been assessed by the Typealizer as ESTP like Blogs.
(An interesting factoid is the advert that pops up when one Typealyzes TMO's blog is: "MHC: Providers of bespoke Mental Health and Learning Disability Services!" Either the advert was aimed at TMO or myself, my only question is .... how did they know!!! :-) )

I also was interested to see how Jim's first Blog would pan out: it turns out, according to the Typealizer to be of the type ISTJ - The Duty Fulfillers, which is the same as the type of Byn's Blog

Finally my e-Trust comes out as type INTJ - The Scientists
Which the Typealizer describes as: The long-range thinking and individualistic type. They are especially good at looking at almost anything and figuring out a way of improving it - often with a highly creative and imaginative touch. They are intellectually curious and daring, but might be physically hesitant to try new things.


Not so sure about that last sentence!!!!

It was a sublime soup.

So after twittering my praise of the soup, and being asked for the recipe....

It had the magic ingredient of Nutmeg in it, which looks like an alien egg with the "yet to be Mace" outer red parts eerily spreading round the Nutmeg Seedpod.... I had not realised that Nutmeg and Mace were from the same seed pod! We live and learn.
(This was such a good photo, and as I couldn't find the creative commons sign I have simply linked you to see it on the owners Flickr site)

I asked SHHTD if she could send it to me, she ummed and ahhed, but as I was head down in my Lecture Prep, she relented! While juggling two dogs, AND cooking dinner, she typed out the following sublime Veggie Soup recipe.

RUSSIAN VEGETABLE SOUP

25g butter
1 medium onion
225g potatoes peeled and sliced
110g parsnips peeled and sliced
110g carrots peeled and sliced
50g cabbage sliced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
½ teaspoon dried mixed herbs
freshly grated nutmeg to taste < The secret sauce!!!
1.2 litres vegetable stock
salt and pepper

GARNISH

Small leek chopped into 5 cm strips and fried in 25g butter

Melt butter and fry all veg gently for 10mins in a covered saucepan. Add herbs, nutmeg, parsley and stock and cover and simmer for 30 mins. Liquidise and season to taste. Fry leek in butter until crisp.
Serve hot soup garnished with the leek.


This feels like one I could do! :-)

========================

The bad news was that in the juggling; the milk sauce boiled over and Wilf did what he always does at this stage of his potty training when he is not getting what to him is the required amount of attention. (He finds he always gets attention straight away!!)
And as both dogs and humans agree: Any attention is Good attention!!

So it would have been churlish of me not to wrap a Blog round the recipe and launch it into the Blogosphere....

Back to Lecture Tweaking!! Oh yes, and Course Work Prep
This is not going to be one of those EASY Modules that you can get a pass mark on by simply turning up for the Revision Lecture.... No! Dear reader, I am not being CRUEL!

My attitude is that these are some very capable and motivated young adults with a thirst for learning. I do not want to disappoint them!


The size of the ball shows the amount of time spent on my ULearn site, the higher the ball shows the number of visits to the site. There are a number of students at the end of the graph with no balls, as they spent no time during no visits. My initial analysis is showing that I have some highly motivated students, some reasonably motivated students and some who have not yet woken. However term has not yet started. Starts tomorrow apparently, so I should probably give some of them the benefit of the doubt perhaps they just have the right balance in their work and play life.

Perhaps they will kick into gear during the week just before my lecture.

PS Wish me luck the nerves are starting!

"Rag and Bone 2.0"

or The Wonders, Pleasures and Frustrations of FreeCycling

The Wonders
Some of you may not be aware of this underground phenomena called FreeCycling, let me explain:

The person with the unwanted "Whatever" puts a notice on a FreeCycle Page in the form
OFFERED: "Whatever", Location this is then emailed to all those subscribing to the page. At this point a slew of emails are sent winging there way to the inbox of the one who just Offered the "Whatever", resulting in an electronic form of the Scrummage, which involves making your email most likely to be selected. Here the risky bit occurs, the Offerer selects the winning email and sends them the address to come and pick up the "Whatever". You have No Idea who you are inviting to your home.

Please think twice, if you're a single lass, before offering unused thongs on FreeCycle!

A real example of ill considered FreeCycle usage was the person I spotted last week who posted "WANTED: Free Shredding of Confidential Waste"!

When the item has been collected one simply posts an update notice:
"TAKEN: "Whatever" and the cycle is complete.

A less effective form of FreeCycling, is the Wanted form: here individuals with the need post WANTED: "Whatever" this requires avid FreeCyclers who have the unwanted Whatever to be checking their email or the FreeCycle page for these WANTED posts and then emailing the individual concerned. Rarely happens from my experience, I am still waiting for those Unwanted Rhubarb Forcers to come my way! OK So I might have tried for something a little rare to start with.

From initial evaluation I expected that the whole cycle would be powered by two basic drives "Need to be Tidy" and "Simple Greed". In fact, the well-kempt, middle class folks that are picking up my "Whatevers" don't feel at all greedy, confusingly they feel Charitable??... I was expecting Steptoe and Son, I got Mrs BOUQUET! For example our theory on the extremely well dressed lady, who came direct from Church, to pick up the Electric Pop Corn Maker, is that she got it for the Youth Group she helps run. So we felt really good about having thrown in the huge, (well I say huge, and it was half empty) jar of unused popcorn.

The fella who came to pick up the uplighter was a Greenie, if ever I've see one! Clearly he came to ensure the re-use of the offending "Whatever". The audible street cry of "Rag and Bone!" of my youth has been replaced by the electronic cry of OFFERED: "Whatever", Location. The Rag and Bone men have been replaced by an altogether more upmarket lot!

So my drive to be organised has opened my eyes to the wonders of a whole new world, a world of Charity and Environmental Re-Use.

The Pleasures
Surprisingly I suspect FreeCycling gives you a warm glow however you participate in it. I used to get my pleasures from putting the "Whatevers" in the bin or taking them to the tip, creating a sense of cathartic freedom that was close to sublime. Imagine that same sense but without the effort, its feels nearly sinfull, but so clearly isn't. They come and take the unwanted "Whatevers" away for you! So actually, the real drive of Freecycling is my Laziness and their sense of Charity and Environmentalism. ((Darn That means it is sinfull, for SLOTH is a Sin!)) Whatever the drives are, the result feels REALLY GOOD and I can see more of my Shed floor than I have in ages! What other unwanted "Whatevers" can I find to offer? SWHTD has spotted an issue, she has warned me that I might start offering things that we want, it won't be long before she demands sign-off on the things that can I offer. I haven't plucked up the courage of offering Designer Handbags quite yet but the thought of it feels SOOO GOOOD! (Whoa... wait a minute, that will make space in the Wardrobe for her to buy more..... BAD IDEA!)

As an aside: I bet Freecycling peaks in January, February, and March as the urge to Spring Clean strikes. I was wrong! Data shows that in Indianapolis the peak months are January and July, and in Guildford August and November, go figure!

The Frustrations
I have tried to claim four "OFFERED:Whatever"s, but experienced an interesting phenomena, what would you call it?... "Quick Grabs" and so I got now-where, which was a little frustrating. Clearly I need some ointment!?. There are clearly FreeCycle Professionals out there that go in FAST and I mean very fast and grab the "Whatever"s at light speed. The Antique Sowing Machine disappeared so quick it made my head spin, and just so you know I was trying I responded 5 Minutes after it was offered.


I have also experienced my first frustration as an Offerer,and that is the "No Show", where the person that had said they would be arriving to pick up the unwanted "Whatever" just doesn't! I suspect that there is another frustration waiting for me out there, which might be driven by the same mechanism as is driving my lack of Rhubarb Forcers. If one offers something that is so esoteric that no-one wants it! How devastating would that be.... Must make a note to only offer things that loads of people will want!!! It would be even worse than the Fridge still sitting on the deck waiting, the morning after the supposed collection date!

George: "Right Vision, Wrong Timeline!"

or.. Excuse Me?! Why are you proposing to waste my money?

When I read the book, the very idea that a video display could be used by the government to track citizens activities seemed like a fictional jump too far. I can remember thinking TV's can't do that!

An early rumour Gloucestershire Government Kite Flying?? I didn't respond then to such a silly idea.

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt! The security services try and mold our readiness to be monitored wholesale. Don't get me wrong I am ALL for monitoring terrorists, and certainly agree that techniques need to be developed to ensure that we REALLY can.

Over the holidays, I had heard it was a possibility but having spent 30 seconds considering it, I realised that the Government wouldn't be that stupid! Just shows how stupid I was!

For, today Radio 4's Today program reported that the idea was progressing...

So lets take a look at the reason for doing this: "The Security of Citizens outweighs their right to Privacy". Assuming for the time being I accept that premise.

Taking the total emails sent":

Remove all the emails sent from Companies, as it won't be that simple to track down individual terrorists (and we are after terrorists, right?) from that deluge.

Realise that a nefarious individual (read terrorist) will simply move their communications to a place not being monitored, Twitter for example. "D Terrorist

Remove all emails that are sent from domains set up by individuals and then shared with others, just who are the people using the @pomegranite.co.uk email domain? Good luck with that HMG!

Then add the fun of all the SPAM that needs to be pruned out!
Then realise that the large proportion of free email addresses do not simply connect to individuals.

The result is precious little security for the £12 Billion (one of the rumoured INITIAL costs), a predictable escalation in costs and more importantly in the rapid erosion of Privacy. If I was in the Security Services I'd want the £12 Billion applied more effectively.

If we want to get into the more technical details surrounding the possibility the ISP's will be requested to track the emails from the sending IP addresses; I suspect that the terrorists have heard of VPN. So there goes that idea! All that will be left is George's initial Vision: A Government spying on the daily lives of its normal citizens.

HOW TO STOP THIS INSANITY?



.....
"What's that?"
.....
"You mean you HAVE to because it is an EC Directive?"
.....
"Oh! I see! Forget I said anything!"

Needless to say someone thought it was very funny!!!

The start of the recent IT Crowd sent SWHTD into mild hysterics, she being so very proud of her total lack of any Social Media skills what-so-ever, and a nigh on phobic desire never to acquire any.

Darn embedding disabled by request

But at least you can watch it here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg

at least for now!!! The rest of the program just built on the pain and humiliation.
I really do need to manage this Web 2.0 situation! No-one told me that the Social Media Space had an event horizon!!

Is there a FaceBook Anonymous yet?

Please someone "tweet" me when there is! Doh!

In the past buying a Mac was a certain delight! (or Apple Loyalty RIP)

Back in the old days, Apple knew how to delight there Customers!
You got all you needed in the box. All the information, all the software, and most importantly all the cables! In short, every new Apple Box was a delight!

Having just purchased a new All Aluminium MacBook Pro, which is certainly a nice product. I was NOT delighted as there were NO CABLES IN THE BOX!

I reached for my trusty Apple Standard FireWire 400 cable to transfer the operating system from the previous device I was using, but no, our friends from Apple have decided to put in an alternate Firewire Connector. Namely the FireWire 800 and then not sell the cable on their website? Reason to be frustrated part 1!

But the REALLY annoying experience was when I went to connect to a projector. Apple have decided to create a special Mac proprietary port called the Mini DisplayPort, and then sell two cables on their website, one for VGA and the other for DVI. None of my prior Apple VGA cables would work! I have just purchased the the new cable with a sense of frustration and disappointment.

Yet another nail in the coffin of my Apple Loyalty.

I wonder if they think that we Apple Customers have an unbreakable bond of loyalty?
For it seems to me that they are continually coming up with ways of testing it!

My favourite new productivity aid!!!

Why haven't I found this before!

http://www.jingproject.com/



All I can say is try it for yourself!

It will make your Social Media Experience one step closer to perfection!

One of those times where you are delighted by the realisation that everything that you thought you wanted it to do it does already! And with an intuitive interface....
(Not quite Apple Style Guide but intuitive none the less!

(I have to admit it doesn't quite do everything I wanted Jing to Video me showing you how I could use Jing to do a Video of me, showing you how to.... Seems I need two mirrors! I did figure a way using Share Screen and two computers but it was two juddery!)

Despite that minor hiccup: "I am Adrius42 and I approve this plug for Jing!"

A recent Facebook experience... Hmm let me think!

So why am I fearing flying the atlantic this time?

The answer is simple its Mrs Butterworths fault, she apparently looks buxom.

When I posted recently a picture of Mrs Butterworth on Bridezilla's Facebook page. I seemed to have been misunderstood!

When I said "you are she" I clearly was referring to Mrs Butterworths sweetness!

My only hope is the fact that I posted a Lite Version, surely that must work in my favour...

Wish me luck!

Chi.mp is it or isn't it...

So far I am still refining my profile having achieved access and signup to this beta. I am even more excited than I was with Sho-Zu, a good thing! The key question is will Chi.mp be the answer to my desire for an integrating Social Media Portal? So far the signs are good!! Tagging is rife throughout the site.... BRILLIANT! And it feels like it is meeting the "Connie 2.0 Test". Also good is the fact that in order to associate various sites to Chi.mp I have not yet needed to give Chi.mp the password for any of the sites.

But as I say it is early days...

You can find me here http://adrius42.mp/

I have set most of the privacy to contacts or customized so my Public Space will be quite bare. Sign up and give me feedback!