Posts by dcluley

"Up to" again

"Ofcom has said 13.9 million premises have access to speeds of up to 100Mbps..."

My maximum download rate here is 9.5Mbps; I suppose that counts as "up to 100Mbps"

Suicide is sometimes rational

Yet again the assumption behind the article, and the proposal it is reporting, fails to acknowledge that there are occasions when suicide, or assisted death, might be a genuine rational choice.

Let me start by saying that I do not in any way want to minimise the problem addressed. Some people have problems that seem out of proportion to them and need help. The reductions in finance and support of organisations that are there to help seems to me to be a cruel rejection of the caring society that most of us hope that we live in.

However, there are other aspects. The examples most often put forward usually involve people with a terminal condition whose circumstances such as extreme pain or total lack of mobility and who would like the opportunity to be able to decide they have had enough and know that their decision will be acted upon. The palaver and costs and potential liabilities involved in a trip to Dignitas should not be necessary and in any case that option is not open to all. Attempts have been made to make provision for people with a terminal date expected within 12 months and even this has been rejected by MPs.

For me even these proposals do not go far enough. We have all seen horrifying examples of people in care homes with extreme dementia, totally unable to even recognise their relatives, force fed and abused. I for one do not want to get to that state. I am happy enough now in my 70s whilst I can still walk up the village, do my shopping, cook for myself and keep the house reasonably clean. When it gets to the stage where I can no longer look after myself then I want to be able to end it easily and effectively. I totally accept that such decisions should be made whilst one is still rational; but therein lies a snag. Waiting until I am within the 12 months terminal category might be leaving it too late. I want to be able to make the decision now whilst totally compos mentis.

Those opposed to assisted dying are wanting to tell others what to do (or not do). I, on the other hand, am not wanting the right to tell others what to do; I am merely asking for the right to make a decision for myself. It is in the nature of the problem that implementing that decision might be down to someone else; but it should not be beyond us to come up with appropriate safeguards to avoid unfair pressure on vulnerable individuals.

So, to summarise, yes - there are many situations where suicide is perhaps not the right option; but there should be allowances for sane individuals to make a choice about their own continuing existence.

Smart meters

I am waiting to hear about the first co-ordinated hacking of smart meters. Perhaps then the power companies will admit that it is maybe not such a good idea.

It won;t help

The suggested advantages of a smart meter for domestic consumers are illusory. All the programs on TV I have ever seen about our energy supplies focus on peak demand. In the case of electricity the programs always show the controller with her hand on the switch to turn on the pumped storage facility it Dinorwic to cope with the surge created by switching kettles on at the end of a popular TV program. No amount of smart meters is going to cure that problem. More generally domestic demand is going to peak at specific times. People will still want breakfast before going to school or work; and a meal when they return home. Compared to these peaks I suspect that staggering the times of the odd washing machine is going to be insignificant.

I can accept that there is a case in the industrial sector where hard-headed managers might be persuaded to schedule machine/work times to cheaper rate periods but I cannot believe that the cost of installing smart meters in domestic cases will ever pay for itself unless there is a hidden plan to introduce swingeing tariffs for peak usage times.

I worry too about the possibility of hacking the meter wireless traffic; the downsides of the whole idea seem to outweigh the possible benefits by several degrees of magnitude.

Industrial Users Only

I can see some sense in having smart meters for industrial and commercial users who can sensibly organise their workloads. It seems nonsense to install smart meters for domestic consumers. Every report I have seen on electricity generating peaks mentions the classic cases of kettle being switched on at strategic times such as advert breaks or the end of a Cup Final or Coronation Street or whatever. No amount of smart meters is going to help with that.

Upper and lower limits

I can accept that rates will vary according to length of connection and local conditions; but the same applies to (eg) electricity supply. Is not the answer to insist on an advertised range in the same way that grid voltages have to be within specified limits?

So instead of line rates being advertised as 'up to 24Mb/s' they should be advertised as (say) 'between 18 and 24 Mb/s' or 'between 0.5 and 2Mb/s' or whatever is demonstrably provable.

Transport

Just one example of the difficulties of a totally cash free society. There is currently a surge towards card payment of (eg) train fares. OK for London with fixed fares and zones; but if they tried to make it national is thee not a danger that using a card (or equivalent) will get one charged an expensive fare rather than the cheapest. They could rationalise the current fare structure but somehow I doubt it.

In-house solution

This seems a good argument for not relying on outside storage and for producing in-house solutions.

My daughter in Derbyshire only gets a quarter of a megabyte per sec on her landline. BT actually refused to install ADSL and she had to go to Sky who agreed to do it.

Yes - ultrafast it is not.

Changing sides

I remember that, prior to the 1997 election of the Labour Government, Jack Straw was a frequent and very vocal advocate of the need for a Freedom of Information Act. When he was made Home Secretary in that year I fully expected a quick bit of legislation to put the need for information from Government into effect. His immediate conversion to the side opposing FoI was one of the things amongst many that convinced me that politicians were not to be trusted.

Digital motors?

One of the latest Dyson adverts on TV has him saying his are the best because the motor is digital. This is a concept I do not understand. Could someone please explain to me what a digital motor is?

Report or reporter?

I haven't seen the original FT report on which that item is based because it appears to be behind a pay wall. But I assume it is also possible that this was a reporter's mis-transcription.

Stochastic is not deterministic. Stochastic phenomena can be analysed statistically eg we can say with absolute certainty that exactly half of a lump of radioactive material will decay in a certain time; we can never determine which atoms will be the ones to decay in that time.

More balance please

Whilst a lot of what was in the article is true; so, also is much that was left out. Conveniently missing were mentions of all the cases where companies were nationalised because the private sector failed. Too many times have the private sector relied on being bailed out by the public sector and then clamoured to have their assets back when the public has paid for them to be revitalised. Train companies after the War nationalised as British Railways. Turned into a reasonable shape by the public sector which would have been even better if politicians hadn't meddled so much with it. Starved of investment so that the case was made for privatisation since when public money has been poured into the industry at a much greater rate than was allowed when it was a nationalised industry and only so that the private investors benefit - not the public.

Negligent banks bailed out and sorted out then returned to the private sector. I could go on.

The other point that needs to be made is that profit, per se, is not a reliable guide. The main objective of commerce should be to provide required goods and services and thereby make a profit. If the main objective is making a profit this leads to oversupply of unnecessary items. The fashion industry is a good example of this. Why oh why do I need a new jumper this year that is (say) blue merely because last year's is green and no longer in fashion. Madness.

Speed - what speed

I do wish we could stop all the references to potential speeds - fibre or no fibre. I am on an ADSL2 line with a claimed maximum of 24Mb/s and, if I do it at a favourable time, a speed test gives me 17Mb/s. However reality is that most times during the day I struggle to get 1Mb/s; video streaming is often so blighted with pauses I give up in disgust.

Yes - fibre connections promise greater upper limits; but when the number of subscribers increases will the real rate of transfer deteriorate be much lower an no longer value for money?