This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in 2020, but published four years after the events. It's May 2020 as I write this. I'm typing to capture the moment. Right now, I've no idea what the impact is. This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of them! - to open source the UK's COVID-19 Beta test app. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Open-Source-NHSX.mp4 It was thrilling and terrifying. We'd spent the last few weeks getting…
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These are notes that I wrote during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. I've published them a few years later. By now, you're probably sick and tired of shoving a swab up your nose and / or down your throat. You've grown blasé about the little medical marvel as it reacts to whatever antibodies are flowing laterally. You don't even bother reading the paper leaflet any more. Right? But that swab test wasn't the only option on the table. One of the (many) tasks our team was looking into was …
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Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. The UK's COVID tracing app is finally closing. The app was, by any reasonable measure, a success. A team of experts at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick estimate the NHS COVID-19 app prevented around 1 million cases, 44,000 hospitalisations and 9,600 deaths during its first year. Source Earlier this year, I recorded a short video about what it was like working…
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This is a Retropost. I wrote it contemporaneously - but was only allowed to publish it a year later. Today I took part in "A Phase 2/3, Randomized, Observer-blind, Active-controlled, Multicenter Study to Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of Omicron Variant Vaccines in Comparison with mRNA-1273 (Prototype) Booster Vaccine". In the name of science, I allowed myself to be injected with an experimental mRNA vaccine in the hope that it gives me super-powers and makes me invincible. Or, as…
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I fucking loved my first visit to #EMFcamp. After two years of lockdown, I was over-excited at the chance to be with all my friends in a field this year. I was over-excited about doing a talk about my beloved solar panels. I was over-excited about sleeping in a goddamned camper-van! I was even - sadly - excited at seeing my name broadcast on TELETEXT! Photograph © Skylar MacDonald 2022. All Rights Reserved. The moral rights of the author have been asserted. The universe, of course, had other …
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I am in awe of how simple the booster shot booking process was. I visited the site on my phone while in bed and hungover, typed in my NHS number, confirmed a few details, and it listed a pharmacy a 20 minute walk away as having appointments. A couple of weeks later and my 2xAZ was supplemented with 0.5x Moderna / SpikeVax. What a cool name - my inner Buffy fan is very happy to have been "Spiked" 🧛 Not quite early enough to be fully boosted for Xmas party season, but there's a limit to how mu…
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Nine weeks ago, I got my first does of the AZ vaccine. Yesterday, I received my second. Despite all the dire warnings of overloaded websites and limited slots, the booking process was boringly anticlimactic. I entered my NHS number, date of birth, postcode - and was then given a choice of locations. I picked one, and was given a range of times. I picked one for a few days hence and my wife - on the computer next to me - picked hers for five minutes later. Only after booking did we bother to…
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It's hard reviewing a comic book like this. A weekly or daily feed of little vignettes of lockdown life regularly raises a chuckle. But it long-form, it doesn't quite work. We already know how the story ends - after a year, you're still in lockdown. You've grown around the belly, but have you grown as a person? No, probably not. The sketches are cheerful, relatable, and a little heartbreaking in places. You'll probably recognise your own behaviour in more than a couple. And, I guess that's …
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As part of my MSc, I fell down a research rabbit-hole of 1980s "Office Of THE FUTURE!!" articles. Ultimately, I couldn't find a way to include it in my research - so you're getting my cast offs. So, I present to you some choice predictions from "Technology and the office of the future" by B. W. Manley. Low cost computers (VDU) - yup! Data storage - the article talks about storing "the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on one side of a disc — words and pictures". Digital n…
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I know exactly what I was doing on 9th April 2020. I was worrying about open-sourcing the NHS Covid Tracing app. I was worrying about tech standards for booking test slots. I was worrying if I'd ever see my family and friends again. I was worrying if the NHS websites would contain enough semantic HTML to be useful. I was worrying if the security of 3rd party sites was up to snuff. I was worrying about the Inevitable Pubic Inquiry. I was worrying worrying worrying late into the night. Terence…
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Back when I worked for an ISP, my employer paid for me to have broadband. I was expected to work from home a few days a month and they needed their workers to have high-bandwidth connectivity. Because it was a business expense, we all received BIG SCARY WARNINGS that the broadband was only to be used for work. Absolutely no domestic use allowed. *nudge nudge wink wink* Of course, everyone ignored that directive and used it for web-surfing after-hours. Was that theft? Our employer paid the…
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It has been a full calendar year since my office sent me home for the last time. A few weeks later, lockdown was announced. For years, the biggest lie from customer service call centres was "Your call is important to us!" Then, a few years ago, it became "Due to unusually high call volumes, it may take longer than usual to answer your call." Now, it is "Due to the unprecedented situation, please bear with us while we try to answer your call." Well, no. It has been a year. I totally get…
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