I've never written a Week Note before, but I was encouraged to do so after an excellent session at the One Team Gov Global conference. Here, in the spirit of openness is what I've been up to, and what I've got wrong in the last few weeks. NHS Open Source A four hour train journey to Newcastle - and four hours back. But so worth it. Chatting to NHS BSA about their plans to open source some of…
Continue reading →
This is the story of my encounter with our justice system. It's a personal post that doesn't necessarily reflect my employers' opinions. September 2017 - I was standing by a bus stop when I noticed a man playing with his phone while driving. So I snapped a couple of photos of him and his car. London's Metropolitan Police have an excellent, mobile friendly, web portal for reporting traffic…
Continue reading →
Another day, another scam caller. Would you fall for this fraud? 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. You'd probably realise that this was a (crap) text-to-voice system and that the tax authorities are more likely to send a letter than a phone call. But not everyone is so switched-on. If you've not had many dealings with HMRC, would you know how they contact people? If you're on a noisy …
Continue reading →
Another in an occasional series of blog posts where I discuss products I've worked on which failed. It boiled down to this. Was there a way we could make normal people want to be on a conference call with their family and friends? Let me explain. ARPU - Average Revenue Per User - that's all mobile network operators care about. When it's up, the money flows like wine. When it's down... the…
Continue reading →
There's a new energy provider launching in the UK soon, Elektrique Power. They've got an innovative pricing structure that I'd like to discuss. As a base rate, they charge 12p/kWh - that's one of the cheapest on the market. But that's where the good deals end. That 12p is only for domestic 13amp sockets. For a 32amp socket - like your oven - that will cost you 17p/kWh. To be clear, you can…
Continue reading →
This is a question I often ask my students. Typically they say a robot looks like this: Or this: Broadly human, but mostly metal. Occasionally, I get non anthropocentric answers like this mule: Or even something stark and industrial like this: One is experimental, the other is rarely seen in day-to-day life. The truth is, we're surrounded by robots. This is what a robot looks like: …
Continue reading →
