One mind, many thoughts

Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (1955)

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 11:55:00 +0000

This is a great little film from 1955 where railway workers rescue a goods train stuck in a snow drift at Bleath Gill.

It takes a lot of workers, a big snow plough, some burning rags and a lot of elbow grease.

The railway was the Statinmore railway and the engine was 78018, the railway closed in 1962 but the engine survived into preservation via a trip to the infamous Woodham Brothers scrapyard.Read more at Bleath Gill: Whatever Happened to the Heroes?

What would happen today? The railway would be closed or the train left there until spring....

Always be ready for the perfect moment

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:51:00 +0000

I was on a walk through the grounds at work, I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks. The perfect moment presented itself reminding me to always be ready, as you never know what might happen next or what might be round the corner.

Expect the unexpected and find joy in the perfect moment.

Technology disruption - How to kill the Iphone?

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 20:50:00 +0000

The stagnant pool of smart phone development

Let's face it the whole smart phone development in both software and hardware has reached a plateau where not much is happening. I bought my phone 2 years ago and it still runs the latest version of android and does everything I need it to. There is at least for me no need to upgrade.

If I were to upgrade I would be looking at a faster processor, more memory, more storage, better camera and not a lot else. Will it radically change my life beyond all recognition? Almost certainly not.

The smart phone industry is ripe for the next technology disruption. Which is where Apple usually comes in, but unfortunately all they did this time round was remove the headphone jack.

From Apple's point of view it is a solid business move, the phone becomes more desirable and if you want headphones you can buy yourself further into the Apple eco- sphere. First headphones, tomorrow the world.

So to be the next big bang you have to kill the iphone, you will need to blow it out the water, you need to be the Ipod equivalent sounding the death knell for the Walkman.

The killer blow

Apple were onto something when they binned the headphone jack but they didn't go far enough. So find yourself a large development team, a virtually unlimited budget, a nuclear bunker and plan to take over the world by working out how to get rid of one or all of these parts of a phone.

1. The battery

As space hoggers go the battery is a big item, generally taking up a 1/4 to 1/2 the space and even then the battery only lasts a day before screaming for sweet nectar of energy.

a) Reduce it to a tenth its current size - Ok you now have a battery one tenth the size but it only lasts for two hours.

Problem solving time -
- Find the biggest energy drain item and redesign it
- Kinetic charging - can you harvest energy from the human body?
- solar panel case - every watt counts
- energy from wifi signals?
- redesign the battery - new technology like micro fuel cells.

Are we back at one day, if not how do we get there? back to the drawing board.

b) Set a target - the battery (full size) has to last a week. Think of that a phone that went a week between charges.

This would be an Apollo 13 design meeting, every single component would have be looked at. Find the most energy efficient chip and screen. Strip the phone down to bare essentials, keep pushing that energy consumption down. Find the most energy dense battery and push it to its limits. Redesign the software. Be relentless in your pursuit of the micro-watt and your goal.

2. Cables

Get rid of them all - every last one. Wireless charging is already here, everything else can be done with blue tooth or Wifi. Think of the sleek phone without any external connectors, great for waterproofing too.

3. The Screen

Get rid of it - what about a mini projector that is strapped onto your wrist which can project onto any surface including your other screen. The phone the size of a watch, a simple shiny black circle with just one LED light.

Every command every needed can be voice or gesture controlled, anything you need to see can be projected. Re-imagine the phone and be the envy of all your friends.

4. Go dumb

Lets create a phone, it can phone people and text but that's it, all from a key ring on your keys. OK you cant do anything else but on the upside it costs £1. Leave the smart phone at home and get on with living your life.

So there are a few ideas and if you threw enough money at it maybe you could be the Iphone slayer.

My money, for the next disruption, is on the battery, make a world class battery and every phone manufacture on the plant would have to buy your battery. If they didn't they would go out of business in a matter of weeks. If you had a choice between a phone that went a week between charges and one that didn't which one would you buy?

Who holds politicians to account? It is is time an independent regulator did.

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:37:00 +0000

Following the 2015 election campaign and the more recent EU referendum campaign it is clear that across the entire political spectrum we as ordinary members of the public can no longer trust, at face value, whatever a politician or prospective candidate says.

Time and again we have been lied to, misled and generally had slogans pushed down our throats as some kind of quasi fact.

One of the reasons for this is that there is no arbiter on what constitutes an acceptable statement or fact. The EU Referendum particularly has seen a number of media outlets or social organisations (some semi- political themselves) appoint themselves as fact checkers in order to cut through the constant political / media spin. However, what none of these organisations can do is promote best practice or impose sanctions if and where necessary. This is the kind of action that in most other areas of our lives would be taken by an industry regulator.

There is in fact no regulator of political campaigns in the UK. Only very limited regulations takes place by the electoral commission in terms of spending and Ofcom in terms of TV or radio advertising.

The Advertising Standards Agency states on their website:

“Complaints about political advertising should be made directly to the party responsible for that advertising.”

Is that fair? If a complaint is made about a police service you can make it to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. “Independent” is the key word, if we do not trust the police to investigate themselves why should we trust the politicians and political parties.

The Electoral Commission states that:

“In general, political campaign material in the UK is not regulated, and it is a matter for voters to decide on the basis of such material whether they consider it accurate or not.”

We are being asked to vote on key decisions that will affect everyone's future yet the lack of regulation means a political statement can be made and it does not have to be true or remotely based in fact as long as you can shout the loudest over those that oppose you. How is that working for us so far? Well it has lead to the slanging matches we have seen in both campaigns and when we the voters feel we have been misled it creates further alienation and a detachment from the democratic process.

We have all begun to question what the modern democratic process is all about and how politicians can possibly be trusted.

I believe that a wide ranging public enquiry similar to the Leveson enquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press needs to be set up to answer the following questions:

1) Is there sufficient independent regulation in place to ensure that political campaigns are in general fought on facts and that individuals taking part do so in line with the 7 Nolan principles. Are sanctions required where standards fall below such requirements for either individuals or parties or other political organisations?

2) Should the Advertising Standards Agency (or similar body) be given the authority to regulate all political advertising in the same way they currently regulate product advertising / claims?

3) Should an independent regulator (or similar) have a public duty to promote best practice or quality standards for political campaign material or political campaigns?

4) Should the media (in all forms) be required to include some element of political balance in news articles? (Editorial content would be excluded from political bias)

5) Should the media have a duty to ensure that all arguments are presented to voters as opposed to just those approved by the editorial team?

This list is only indicative of some of the topics that could be considered. I fully accept that if someone is appointed to lead an inquiry then their first difficult job would be to consider the scope and range of the inquiry.

It is imperative that similar to the Leveson inquiry any inquiry should consider views from any individual or group that wishes to comment. An inquiry would be centred around what the public wants our democratic process to look like not what politicians want.

Now is the time to change how politics works, they work for us or at least they should. The public is entitled to make an informed decision with all the facts laid before us.

If you agree with everything I have said then you need to sign the position so we can raise the issues in parliament:

Set up a public inquiry to examine the regulation of political campaigns.

Thank you for joining the fight back to really take back control.

Sources:

From the advertising standards agency:

Political advertising

All complaints of political bias in TV or radio advertising should be made to Ofcom.

For reasons of freedom of speech, we do not have remit over non-broadcast ads where the purpose of the ad is to persuade voters in a local, national or international electoral referendum. Complaints about political advertising should be made directly to the party responsible for that advertising.

Source: https://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/What-we-cover/Complaints-outside-remit.aspx

From the electoral commission:

In general, political campaign material in the UK is not regulated, and it is a matter for voters to decide on the basis of such material whether they consider it accurate or not. This includes the design of the material. There is one exception to this, which is making or publishing a false statement of fact in relation to a candidate’s personal character or conduct (not their political views or conduct), unless there are reasonable grounds to believe the statement is true. The Commission does not regulate this rule however, and any allegations should be made to the police.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/roles-and-responsibilities/our-role-as-regulator-of-political-party-finances/making-an-allegation/what-we-regulate

Nolan principles:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life--2

The Big National Lottery Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Tue, 31 May 2016 19:49:00 +0000

Maybe this has been done before but not by me.

The big experiment is that I am going to buy one lucky dip Euromillions ticket each week for a year. So that is 52 tickets costing a total of £104.

Will I win more than I spend? Will I win big? Is it a good investment strategy. Who knows?

As an experiment statistically it is a bit limited as I am only playing one line per week. The odds of winning any prize are 1 in 13 on the main draw. So taking the lowest average win which is £2.70 I should earn £10.80 and spend £104 making a grand loss of £93.20.

Of course I could win a lot less or I could win a lot more. It will interesting finding out.

I will post updates whenever the mood takes me or when I have a win to talk about.

So far after week 1 I have spent £2 and received £0 makes an early loss of £2.

Things can only get better!

Get 50% off Amazon movies ( They don't want you to know)

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Fri, 20 May 2016 18:59:00 +0000

Amazon have recently started hiding the cheapest options for renting and streaming new movies. Take "The Martian" which is advertised as £3.45 to £9.99. When you click on the link to go to the buy page you can either rent HD at £4.45 or buy at £9.99.

Amazon are hoping that everyone will click on the £4.45 button but unless you are on a HD laptop or a large HD TV you can get away with SD. If you are on a slow connection or a tablet then SD is the better choice.

But how do you find the £3.45 option. Click on the "More purchase options" to reveal the hidden cheaper option.

Et Voila!

Want to save another pound. If you are a amazon prime user you can select "no rush delivery" when you order something. Each time you do this amazon will give you a £1 promotion code to use on amazon video. The discounts are applied automatically but to check your balance you can click on "Redeem a gift card or promotion code".

Use both tricks to get your 50% off.

If you want to maximise your vouchers you can even split up your orders into single item orders and get a £1 voucher for each item.

Why pay more?

My thoughts on the upcoming EU referendum

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 15:23:00 +0000

For me there is a simple argument which can be easily understood by everyone. Larger groups of countries in this global economy are stronger than individual countries. Or alternatively to quote Aristotle "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

This is simply common sense and those in favour of brexit are simply deluding themselves that Britain will somehow be better off standing on the outside looking in. These are probably the same people that believe we still have a British Empire.

I would agree that Europe is not perfect but let us change it from within not leave in a hissy fit. We are stronger working together and we must work together for a better outcome for all. We must look outward beyond our island than inward and hope for the English channel to protect us.

Some 'pause for thought' comments from the first few days of campaigning:

"But in my view - for reasons of security, protection against crime and terrorism, trade with Europe, and access to markets around the world - it is in the national interest to remain a member of the European Union. " - Theresa May.

Although the brexit campaigners are arguing exactly the same about leaving. Again if you use a modicum of common sense team work would triumph over going it alone. After all terrorist groups are generally global operating in a number of countries so surely it makes sense to work together.

Evening Standard - Anthony Hilton article

"I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union. “That’s easy,” he replied. “When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.”"

If that doesn't convince you to vote to stay in the EU then nothing will...

Open Letter to Google: Bring back the Nexus 7

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 20:07:00 +0000

Dear Google,

I love my nexus 7, I wasn't sure I would like a tablet as I didn't know what I would use it for but since I bought it two years ago I have never looked back. Its the Google Nexus 7 (2013) if you want to know exactly which version.

Lately it doesn't charge as well, probably the abuse on the usb connector has finally taken its toll. To be fair it is not poor craftsmanship but simply my beloved nexus has been used daily and charged almost continuously to keep up with my relentless use. My final idea is to get a wireless charger to keep it going for a while yet so it is not over yet.

I have had to face the inevitable truth that perhaps it will soon be time to find a replacement tablet.

So having had such a wonderful experience I look to see what the latest version of the nexus 7 brings to the table. In reality, nothing, as google have callously binned it.

Damn!

Google - a quite word - basically you have made a mistake. You had the equivalent of the first can of coke and then said lets add lemon to it. Result nobody likes the new drink. People like coke because its coke. People liked the nexus 7 because it was the 7. People did not sit there and think "I really wish I had an extra two inches."

Think of the paperback book. Its pocket sized, fits nicely in the palm and does the job. Nobody except maybe the google design team wants a bigger paperback.

Since the nexus 9 apparently google have been disappointed by sales, could it be that the 7 was the star and the 9 a poor relation.

For the Douglas Adam's fans in the world the best thing about the nexus 7 was that it fitted in my dressing gown. One dressing gown, one tablet, one towel and the world was my oyster. Or it least it would have been had the earth not been demolished.

Enid Blyton wrote the Secret Seven, she knew that nine wasn't going to work.

When the Nexus 7 finally dies do I put it in a frame and hang it on the wall with the label "Google's best and greatest tablet". Do I fall to my knees in Hollywood style and scream to the skies "No!!!!!". Or do I just find a 7 inch tablet from another reputable manufacturer and wonder what the nexus 7 might have become.

Please Google, I am begging you don't give up on the Nexus 7, I am never going to buy a Nexus 9. Google, we could have been great together, you and me against the world. We could have made it, if you had given us the chance.

Kind Regards

Zephyrist.

Railway Ghost Stories

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 19:27:00 +0000

I have been looking for railway stories (non fiction) from 1880 to the Beeching era as like most people I find the lost age of railways very interesting.

Whilst searching I have come across various ghost stories from around the uk.

Some links for others that might be interested:

Rail forum thread - Are our railways haunted? - Excellent thread on a railway forum with lots of short stories.

Tim Vine Style jokes

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 12:21:00 +0000

These jokes are my own creation in the style of / paying homage to Tim Vine. Usual disclaimer applies these were funny in my head, they may not be in reality.

Number 1

DFS delivered my new suite the other day, Sofa so good.

Number 2

I went to the Doctors the other week, he asked for a urine sample. I gave him the sample and he said "I was only pulling your leg" and I replied "No, you are taking the piss".

Interview Number 1

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 15:33:00 +0000

I have started a new project, yes another one. This one is about writing fictional comedy around interviews of some sort. This is basically all about the conversation between two people which can be quite random and hopefully slightly funny.

Standard disclaimer applies in that these were funny in my own head, you may not find them funny at all.

Interview Number 1

Person A: So why do you want this job?

Person B: I don't

Person A: Pardon?

Person B: I don't want this specific job.

Person A: Then why come to the interview then...

Person B:Well, lets say no one comes to an interview for this job.

Person A: They do, you're here.

Person B:You are not following me at all
You are interviewing for an administration assistant right?

Person A:Well...Yes.

Person B:There are billions of admin jobs right?

Person A: I suppose...

Person B: So what I want is an admin asst job, it does not have to be this job.

Person A: So you don't want this job then.

Person B: Well I wouldn't say no.

Person A: Well thats interesting because I wouldn't say yes.

Person B: Can I suggest next question?

Person A: Do you think that would help?

Person B: At this point in the interview who can say?

Person A: Quite

Person A: Let's move on to what you know about our organisation?

Person B: The business or your personal organisation

Person A: The business of course

Person B: I know very little... I'm afraid

Person A: You are afraid?

Person B: No, I am not scared

Person A: Good, because I have had feedback I am an aggressive interviewer.

Person B: That's ok I have had feedback I am agressive when interviewed.

Person A: I always feel like I am being judged at interviews.

Person B: You are

Person A: Well yes

Person B: It is just so personal though isn't it.

Person A: Yes but that is an interview, impersonal and personal at the same time.
It is an imperfect tool in an imperfect world.

Person B: Like a 102 piece screwdriver set.

Person A: Ah but that's a perfect tool, you have the perfect bit for any screw.

Person B: I think we should agree top disagree.

Person A: Anyway, to move the interview forward slightly

Person B:Certainly a better direction than backwards,
or sideways.

Person A:Quite

Person B: I would see myself as the 102 piece perfect tool for the reasons you just described

Person A: Which are?

Person B: I fit any job

Person A: Ah but your philosophy of screw driver bits would suggest you don't fit this specific job.

Person B: That would be one possible interpretation but I could not possibly comment

Person A: It's an interview I think you are required and compelled to comment

Person B: No comment

Person A: This is not a police interview

Person B: Good because I had a disagreement with my lawyer last night

Person A: Do you need a lawyer?

Person B: You tell me, you are the one asking the questions

Person A: Yes, I am and parking this to one side the original question was what do you know about the organisation?

Person B: I know the organisation needs and administrative assistant...

Perl snippets - Date manipulation

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:20:00 +0000

I am an amateur web perl programmer. All my slightly complicated web sites are built using perl. When I get stuck on some small bit of code the answer can sometimes be found on the internet somewhere.

From time to time I am going to post up some of the solutions I have found on my travels in the hope that it may help someone else out.

So the problem:

On one of my website I am automating the creation of a spreadsheet for upload to the google merchant's feed. I needed to create the entry for the Sale price effective date.

This is not something I store in the main database so needed to create the entry on the fly. Basically I needed to create the following entry:

2013-05-19T17:44:51Z/2013-06-19T17:44:51Z

So I started with today's date and then added a month to it, then put in the google specific bits like the '/' and the Z.

Here is the code:

use Time::Piece;

my $t = localtime;
my $t2 = $t->add_months(1);
my $t3 = $t->datetime.'Z/'.$t2->datetime.'Z';

Basically call the module Time::Piece then set variable $t to localtime. Create second variable $t2 which is $t + 1 month and then merge it all together in variable $t3 with $t being put into the correct format "2013-05-19T17:44:51" append a 'Z/' and then amend the other date in a month's time.

Simple really.

Colourscape 2 - Steps

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:22:00 +0000

I have completed a second colourscape.

This one is called steps and takes a random colour as the base colour. Then in each of the red, blue and green components it steps back and forward by a set amount to see what happens if you change the value of one component but keep the others the see.

Basically it will show you what happens to the colour if you change the blue component only, the red component only or the green component only.

Or if you like it is something fun to play with...

Worton Organic Garden Cafe - an unfriendly welcome

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:54:00 +0000

It is not often I write about poor customer service that I receive because in the majority of cases I am fairly easy going. However, at the weekend I took a trip out with my partner in the local area and was so appalling treated that I feel obliged to put pen to paper as it were.

We live in a fairly rural area and being rather green minded I was looking for a local farm shop. I found Worton Organic garden on the internet which had even been recommended by a national newspaper. Why not, I thought, it even had a cafe where we could find a spot of lunch.

So off we went, Worton does have a lovely organic garden and a nice farm shop mainly focusing on what is grown in the garden with a few other oxfordshire bits and pieces. So far so good, we started looking forward to some lunch. Even better it was seafood special weekend with a lovely set menu and we both fancied the lemon sole.

Luckily we managed to find a table and after a while when nobody came we went into the cafe and someone said they would be out shortly. Five minutes later a worker from the garden wandered by and apologised for the delay but someone would be out shortly, she couldn't take our order because she didn't work in the cafe and didn't want to mess up carefully laid plans.

Fair enough, nobody minds a bit of waiting for some good food. After all it was a nice day and we were enjoying the sunshine.

Finally a lady comes over to take our order, her first question is "did we book?", I apologised and said we didn't know we had to, any chance you could fit us in. She asked us whether we had spoken to anyone in the cafe. I answered "No". Off she trots to the kitchen and is back two minutes later. "Sorry, we cant serve you any food, we are really busy". She then went on to say that they served restaurant quality food without the restaurant prices. Plus she explained we are recommended by word of mouth and mainly locals come here and being a special weekend they were fully booked.

Fair enough didn't book , will know for next time. I had checked the website which did not say anything about booking or it being a special weekend. Plus it really does not look the sort of place you need to book.

At this point I was expecting to have a drink and cake order taken. Sadly, no that was it, having said she wouldn't serve us food, it was apparently time to leave.

I was left wondering whether we were just not her type, perhaps not local enough for her. Either way I have not been treated so badly in a long time. Given that you can only get to this place by car and we were not even offered a drink to say I was annoyed is an understatement. I am still fuming 4 days later as I write this.

Of course the food may be very good and it is a lovely place but based on the welcome we had on our first visit we will not be going back. Shame as I would have liked to buy some of the home grown vegetables, I really liked the look of the garlic.

So congratulations Worton Organic Garden Cafe, your poor customer service has lost you some business and I will happily never recommend you to my friends.

Even the well educated lie sometimes

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:57:00 +0000

'Lying Doctor' (BBC news)

I am starting a new research project. Basically it is about people that lie during the recruitment process.

This has all started because after years of interviewing I have finalised realised that the elephant in the room is that people lie and can trick the interviewers.

As evidence I shall offer the following. Recently I have interviewed some people who always tell the honest truth (basically cannot lie), I have asked a simple question where the answer is obvious to any reasonable individual, it asks you what you would do in the situation. There is a text book / right interview answer but in real life there is probably some considerations and thoughts before you do the right thing. The people I interview give me the answer as it runs through their brain not the definitive / decisive answer they should be giving in a formal interview situation.

They are being brutally honest in a way. To quote another well used scenario if given the choice of taking an action that kills one person or 100 people you should say you would kill the one and save the many. Now the people I have been interviewing cant actually lie (or are totally honest depending on your point of view), so they talk about the difficulties they would have in making the decision etc.

However, if you really wanted the job (knowing that the situation probably wouldn't come up that often), you have done the research for the role, you know the answer to the question and regardless of your personal thoughts you would say "I would kill the one person and save the many". So at a very primitive level you have lied to get the job because faced with the decision in real life you have not stated what you would do.

Now pull that back into the mundane and what these candidates have shown me is that in all probability interviews reward good definitive liars. So if we could somehow spot or challenge potential liars then getting the right person into the right job would be easier.

More thoughts on this will follow. For now I am going to start clipping articles off the net and collecting them here on my blog.

First up, a Doctor that lied on his CV. Even those with brains who clearly understand the consequences will still take a big risk in being caught out.

Jamie Oliver - Books for Christmas 2013

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:22:00 +0000

Three years at the top of the book charts for Jamie Oliver's recipe books. Two years with Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals and in 2012 top of the chart's with Jamie's Oliver's 15 minute meals.

According to his publishers Jamie is really pushing the limits of cooking with his next title for Christmas 2012. It is Jamie Oliver's 3 minute meals.

One of the receipe's has been released as a teaser:

Step 1
Visit Sainsbury's

Step 2
Buy Jamie Oliver's Italian meat balls spaghetti ready meal.

Step 3
Take home

Step 4
Put in microwave, set for three minutes and wait.

Step 5
Enjoy another spectacularly quick Jamie meal.

***Sorry Jamie could not resist - zephyrist***

Project Colourscape

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:13:00 +0000

I am not sure why I have named this project colourscape other than it relates to colours. I think the scape part come from my considering the variations of colours as a landscape or surface of colour.

Anyway this project is about looking at colours and creating colour palettes. I am going to create a series of pages looking at RGB colours in different ways. The practical application is that you will be able to create and experiment with various colours to create a colour palette either for a web page or for some other practical applications.

ColourScape 1

This lets you choose colours from a randomly generate selection. You can select a background colour and a text colour to create a pallet of five colours.The hex codes appear in the relevant boxes for you to cut and paste.

The only problem with it is that each time the page loads you refresh the random selection, so you cant choose two colours from the same random page, although you could hover over the colour to get the hex value and then type it directly into a box.

Similarly you can type any hex value into any box to display that colour, which is useful if you are looking for a colour to match some colours you already have.

Add-on possibilities: box to give you the palette html and CSS code.

Possible other Colourscapes

SQL version of Colourscape 1 to store and sort the random colours

slot machine version where the colours are in 3 columns, red, green, blue with the chosen colour in the bottom and then colours with each graduation flowing out like a slot machine. Difficult one to explain, easier to write the perl script.

If anyone has any other suggestions I am always open.

Predictive Market V2.0

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Experimental Predictive Market

Version 1 was a flop that had some very obvious flaws, mainly that the uplifitng mechanism over £10 would encourage people to buy all the stock and hold onto it for ever or I would have to intervene with an upper price limit. Plus why should a price change just because the day has changed.

Experimental Predictive Market The Rules V2.0

Main rules

Each stock is a question i.e. "Workers in the UK should be given 1 extra bank holiday?".
Each stock initially lists at a price of £10 with 1000 shares for sale (Numbers would change if it ever became really popular).
Down Escalator - If no one buys the stock, the price will drop at a rate of 0.04p per day (the stock and therefore idea is unpopular). The idea is that the price of stock will drop until it finds the level at which people are willing to buy
If someone buys stock the price rises at a rate of: 'Number of shares bought * 0.04p'.
If someone sells stock the price falls at a rate of: 'Number of shares sold * 0.04p'.
Trading limit of 100 shares per transaction.
~~If price above £10.00 stock rises at a rate of 0.04p per day (Idea is popular and will keep rising until investors tempted to sell - Price will hopefully stabilise at the value of the idea)~~
If all shares are available for sale, the price gets on the "down escalator" again until the new "willing to buy" level is found
If the stock reaches zero it is archived.

Liquidity Rules

Stock can only be held for 180 days - at the 180 day limit all stock is hold at list price
At close of an event e.g. general election all stock is sold at list price

Futures Market

As well as buying and selling shares you can make a futures bet on whether a certain price will be reached within the next seven days.
You can only have one bet per stock per 7 day period
If the price is reached you win the small amount.
This gives an indication of whether people want to buy or sell. The more buyers in the market the higher the price will go, the more sellers in the market the lower the price will go.

I am sure there will be a new version along shortly when I find some flaws with this one.

The Wisdom of Crowds

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 15:43:00 +0000

I have read a fascinating article, in of all places People Management (September 2012) about predictive markets. Basically the article wasn't exactly well written but the concept was strong. The article may not have been well written because it was extracted from a book, Oracles: How Prediction Markets turn employees into Visionaries, by Donald Thompson (published by Harvard Business School Publishing).

The basic concept is that a few technology and finance companies have been running internal stock markets where any employee can use fictional dollars to invest in ideas. Anyone can post an idea which is good for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is no hierarchy in ideas, it doesn't matter at what level in the organisation you are, you can post an idea and hopefully people will listen. Secondly, because the buying and selling is anonymous just because an idea is from a senior manager doesn't mean you have to support it, unlike in most meeting where if you want to get ahead you need to support the boss (however dumb their ideas are - after all your next promotion might depend on them).

Essentially good ideas are valued commodities and bad ideas are junk stock. This approach frees up innovation and allows companies to see what ideas might work best. There is also a fun element in that if you invest wisely you will become a market leader especially if your ideas work in practice. Another part of life that has now been gameified.

Anyway as is my was I thought about this and decided I could create one of those. So I have created my own model and will build a small website for people to play with. If the model is any good it may become the next big thing or as is more usual it will be become another vaguely interesting project on mycreativeboost.co.uk the repository for all my mini projects.

Experimental Predictive Market The Rules V1.0

Each stock is a question i.e. "Workers in the UK should be given 1 extra bank holiday?".
Each stock initially lists at a price of £10 with 1000 shares for sale (Numbers would change if it ever became really popular).
If no one buys the stock, the price will drop at a rate of 0.04p per day (the stock and therefore idea is unpopular).
If someone buys stock the price rises at a rate of: 'Number of shares bought * 0.04p'.
If someone sells stock the price falls at a rate of: 'Number of shares sold * 0.04p'.
Trading limit of 100 shares per transaction.
If price above £10.00 stock rises at a rate of 0.04p per day (Idea is popular and will keep rising until investors tempted to sell - Price will hopefully stabilise at the value of the idea)

I will admit the above rules are a bit rough and ready and may need refining over time. Think of it as a bit of a starter for ten.

Of course I accept no responsibility if I never finish this project, I have a habit of getting distracted by real life sometimes.

A new venture

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Well I am off on another cunning plan to make some extra cash. This time it is a business selling friendship balls. I am trading as The Waterfall Glass company and have secured the valuable internet real estate of friendship-balls.co.uk.

It is all good fun, the products are interesting and I am enjoying creating the website as one of my many projects. Some day soon I might even make some money out of it.

Today Oxfordshire, tomorrow the world.

Signs that bother me

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:04:00 +0000

There are often hand written or hand typed signs that just on a really basic level just bother me in some way.

The current one is in the toilets at work. It says:

"Please leave these toilets in the state that you expect to find them"

Firstly, I do understand that at a basic level it is saying don't make a mess and leave it tidy.

On a whole other level I am afraid that I cant possibly comply with the notice. If I did I would be forced to redecorate the toilet in order to create a brand new toilet that I would expect to find.

To illustrate my point, this is a typical toilet:

From howstuffworks.com

Now if I was to leave the toilet in the state I expect to find it, I might redecorate to give a more tropical feel to the throne room.

http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/tropical-bathroom-design/

Or perhaps improve the entertainment possibilities to add entertainment that I would expect to find.

http://www.lolgallery.com/best-toilet-ever/

Perhaps you get the general idea.

Thought Experiment: Driverless automated cars

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:50:00 +0000

In the linked article you can read about driver less pods at Heathrow airport that take passengers from the car park to the terminal. Driver less automated pods are certainly part of the future, one day they may even replace ordinary cars on ordinary roads.

However here is a thought, a driver less pod will always be programmed to stop for a pedestrian / obstruction as the whole point in driver less pods is to prevent accidents. This all sounds very sensible and logical but what happens when pedestrians know they can never be hit by a car. Simple, they will step out into the road without looking as they know any car will stop and they cannot be hurt.

Now extend this thought, which basically means that pedestrians now have priority. In towns and cities pedestrians would reclaim the streets, traffic would be brought to a stand still and the whole fabric of society would break down. Ok maybe not that last part.

So if cars are no longer dangerous pedestrians would no longer be wary of them. You could either

a) Trust pedestrians to do the right thing - make it socially unacceptable.
b) Allow cars to be slightly dangerous again.
c) Make it a serious criminal offence to cross the road when a driver less car is coming.
d) Or another option which I haven't yet thought of.

Its an interesting thought which may have to be solved before driver less cars go mainstream.

I thought fox hunting with hounds was banned...

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:57:00 +0000

The press hounds have been released and they are on their ten day hunt. The basic idea of a ten day hunt is to start with a slightly dubious story and then keep it going with an extra tit bit of dubiousness each day. If you don't change the story slightly each day the story will falter. The longer you can keep it going from news day to news day the more pressure you can put on the politician and the prime minister (or party leader). The goal is to get the politician to resign or be fired.

Now get the wrong story and you wont make it onto the second day of news. This is a game that the press like to play with the politicians, its very similar to gossiping and the theory that if you throw enough mud it will eventually stick. It is a sort of modern day witch hunt.

I would suggest that most members of the public get caught up in the gossip and the chase. There is something voyeuristic about it.

The politician's only fight back is to try to derail the ten days. They can deny all claims or provide evidence but they have to be careful it doesn't then look like a cover up. They can start an official enquiry which will take a while to report back, by which time the news cycle will have moved on.

It is quite a negative aspect of the press hounding people out of office. It borders on immoral and ungentlemanly conduct.

For the current story here is what I have filtered out to be the facts:

Adam Werrity is a friend of Liam Fox who has spoken to him about work related matters.
Adam Werrity has been on government trips as some kind of self styled advisor.
Mr Fox had a male friend staying with him when he was burgled
There seems to have been some confusion when information of the burglary was given to the press
Mr Fox has had to deny he was in a relationship with Adam Werrity.

Or something along those lines.

Taking it point by point I don't care about points 1, 3, 4, 5 it is not relevant to his day job. I am satisfied that there is an official investigation regarding at least point 2 and I trust parliamentary procedure to investigate and take the right action.

Bottom line, let Mr Fox get on with the job, if the official investigation finds him to have acted improperly he can resign. I am now bored of this story so if the press could go and report on some actual news it would be much appreciated.

Keep running Mr Fox don't let the news hounds pull you down

Note - I am not the first to come up with the ten day hunt, according to the BBC article Alaister Campbell got their first.

I have questions Mr Clarke...

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:44:00 +0000

Ken Clarke, Justice Secretary has like any other justice / home secretary before him has been going on about how we have a "broken penal system". Ken, unfortunately there has been a broken penal system long before you were born and in all probability it will still be broken long after you are gone. Frankly, the only comfort is that it is almost certain you cant make it worse, although I do think you might give it a go.

At this point you might expect a typical blogger to go off on one about how Ken is a complete idiot, all the politicians are idiots, society is broke, its all the parents fault, just lock them up or some other stuff generally said from a soap box.

For me personally the riots are almost too big to have answers for, all I have is more questions. So what I thought I would do, if dear reader you will indulge me is make a big list of some of them. Feel free to add any more in comments.

74 questions to be precise Mr Clarke.

So here are some questions that have occurred so far:

At what point should a person be considered as un rehabilatable?
What is the "age of intervention", the key year in someone life where an intervention can make the difference between a life of crime and a life as an average citizen?
How do you convince someone that it is better to earn the money to buy a TV by working for a month rather than spend five minutes nicking one (Seriously on this one - what do you say to someone who has been arrested twenty times for burglary)?
Should the government force parents of wayward children to have parenting lessons?
How many times do you give someone one last chance?
Is it the education system's fault?
Is it societies fault?
Is it my fault?
Are more prisons the answer?
Are larger prisons the answer?
Are smaller prisons the answer?
Should more prisons be placed in areas like Dartmoor?
Should military service be an alternative instead of prison?
Does Ken Clarke know what he is talking about?
If we had given the three quarters of rioters over 18 with a previous conviction tougher sentences so that more of them were in jail at the time of the riots would we have still had the riots?
Should the private sector run rehabilitation schemes given their track record on job seekers?
Would the charity and non for profit sector be a better option?
Which problem do we solve first - Drugs?
Which problem do we solve first - Alcohol abuse?
Which problem do we solve first - Unemployment?
Which problem do we solve first - Apathy?
Which problem do we solve first - Respect for authority?
Which problem do we solve first - Job training?
Which problem do we solve first - General Education?
Which problem do we solve first - Literacy and Numeracy?
Were the police ham strung by human rights issues?
Did politicians hinder the police response?
Did Senior Police management hinder the on the ground response?
What responsibility lies with the media?
Does the media making stars out of everyone make it worse?
Should criminals / looters be interviewed?
Has society taught the youth of today to take what they want?
Is the internet causing us to break normal social boundaries?
Is this problem a new one or has it been the same in the past?
Do people understand the consequences of their actions anymore?
Is this related to the culture of "no winners and losers"?
Are we unrealistic with the youth of today, do we offer them the world but give them nothing?
Is this part of a materialistic culture?
Is this part of a selfish culture?
Should we have more positive role models?
How do we get more positive role models?
Does the person who burnt down the carpet store show remorse?
Are these criminals also victims?
Why do people re - offend?
Can we stop re - offending or is it all ready too late by the time of the first offence?
What do the criminals themselves say would stop them re - offending?
Do community sentences actually work?
What are other countries doing?
Is the justice system too slow, should justice be quicker - arrest and imprison same day?
Should first time offenders be treated differently and put in different prisons?
Should criminals be rewarded for not re - offending?
Should the police use tear gas to break up riots?
Should we have weekend prisons Friday night to Monday morning especially for town centre brawlers?
Where should we invest our money - youth crime?
Where should we invest our money - adult crime?
Where should we invest our money - Police?
Where should we invest our money - Criminal justice system?
Where should we invest our money - Social work?
Where should we invest our money - Drug crime?
Can we ever fix the penal system?
What is a timeline for a typical career criminal?
What happens as each stage?
What were the contacts by any government body and what happens at each contact ?
Was there a tiping point?
How much does it cost to rehabilitate a career criminal?
Could we have seen the riots coming?
What should the police have done on the first night?
Why didn't they?
Is swift and harsh justice going to create another problem?
Should we create a body that continually reviews all aspects of society to suggest policies that stop or help prevent low level criminal activity?
Should this body be completely independent from the political system?
Is their already such a body?
How do I join?
Where do we, society go next?

Spring cleaning nuggets

noreply@blogger.com (zephyrist) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 09:32:00 +0000

I am spring cleaning at the moment, going through all my old scrap books and files, sorting them out and weeding them.

One of the outcomes of this is that I come across old notes that I cant even remember writing, a bit like the re-discovery of old masters.

So here is just a phrase that was written on a random scrap of paper:

"The path you take may twist and turn, it may lead you back to where you began or somewhere you never thought you could be"

Or a slight rewrite would be:

"The path you take may twist and turn, it may lead you back to where you began or take you somewhere you never expected to be. In the end the destination doesn't matter, what matters is how you spend the journey".