Had my 'Smart Meter' installed last year then - as the price of the supplier increased dramatically, took the advice to change. I now have a useless meter...but at least it can display the current meter readings...
Posts by johnarudkin.net
10 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Apr 2012
Smart meters: 'Dog's breakfast' that'll only save you 'a tenner' – report
Apple wets its pants over Swatch ad tagline
UK govt right to outsource everything 15 years ago – civil service boss

We've seen it before, and the danger is, we'll see it again
The issues here are unfortunately too common. @DigitalNW discussed the "Skills Gap" in its salon in January. The problem is that leaders themselves are only the products of the last generation. It is not easy to find original thinkers and decision makers - but that is what is needed. How do we do that? It has to be based on the test of time and how close to correct these leaders have been over time - ie. Have they REALLY been successful?; Have they predicted things well in the past?; Have they been proved right?. Are they able to address the sort of things needed for the future? We need to identify these people - and I am not being critical of the person here. That will happen in places like this. There are two areas that need immediate attention... identify these people with the insight and capacity to get it 'righter', and address the need to educate those coming up with the skills and capacity to use skills and ideas in ways that are 'future-proof'. That last point is not a difficult one to address. Alas, it is a shame that todays education system is so poorly informed by those who also do not understand the key to future proofing our next generations potential...
If it still works six months from now, count yourself lucky

Go with what you trust.
Anyone who knows me knows I'll back Apple all the way in areas such as longevity and ROI. When I worked at Blackpool Council I took it upon myself the try and bring Apple into the frame simply by presenting its advantages. It wasn't all plain sailing as you can imagine, but my first convert was the CEO. He never looked back. Alas he also accepted the advantages he utilised without putting pressure on anyone else...but we often (Oh yes) sat and watched ICT elsewhere in the Council, and the problems that staff put up with. No, Apple is not faultless, but my experience is a predominantly greater user satisfaction than many people using other platforms. I have watched frustration, anguish, inefficiency. I don't prescribe going down the Apple route, but I do advise that experience and trust are key to personal ICT satisfaction. Go with your experience. A great ICT team, lower actual use, being free of problems, minimal down time, ease of use...go with it. Alistair's article treads a line and is well balanced. What I detest is purposely user bashing. If you have a choice and you are lucky enough to have experience f multiple platforms...why shouldn't you go with your belief. Talk to anyone at IBM. Staff are given the choice, but they have to understand that they have a job to do. Their experiences make very interesting reading.
Blighty's Parliament prescribed tablets to cope with future votes
As I understand it, its not long since everyone was equipped with a particular fruity tablet anyway. Why another type of tablet? This seems totally illogical. IT in the Public Sector gets too many thumbs down... the latest announcement of NHS24 apologising for the waste (and abandonment) of a £117m patient information system is the latest disaster. No excuses.
Freedom of Info at 10: Tony Blair's WORST NIGHTMARE
The only reason not to make information available to the public (if paid for publicly, or from a public purse) is if it is:
1) Private Individuals Information
2) It is genuinely not known.
3) There is something to hide.
I have worked closely with people who answer FOI requests. I have also worked with a Council that used FOI to gain information from other Councils so that it could set up a service eventually set up to do private business and make its ex Head of ICT a significant amount of money.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/erdf_records_access_to_retained#comment-56087
The first thing that needs to happen is that the 'fallback' claim of applications being called 'vexatious' needs to be challenged. (Read the reference application above). By the way - a burden? No way.
Apple surges in on the BYOD wave
"And it is not going away because many of the people now using it are the same people that tell the IT department what to do."
If only!
11 years ago, when I joined Blackpool Council, the IT Dept had a request, and it was handed around like a poison chalice. The CEO wanted "the best computer for his use". He never looked back after I specified a Mac. The IT Dept hated that...then Macs began to spread, but IT resisted. 6 years later, after the Architects Team celebrated their Mac deployment - the only Department able to operate during a massive Conficker infection, the Head of IT said "Apple will never be allowed by B******** Council, and it will never be used in Enterprise. It was a NO to iOS "We will use Windows Mobile - and XP. Microsoft will never drop them" Well, how things change. They are still resisting BYOD, What is wrong with these people. Apple haters. The Head of IT even cited it as a "problem". I was "out of touch" highlighting the positive aspects of the Apple platform in an all-MS organisation.
So guys, who was "out-of-touch"?
Apple will FAIL in corporate land 'because IT managers hate iPads'
"Never say never again?"
When I worked at Blackpool Council. I worked under a Head of ICT who took the attitude that iPads would never be good enough for enterprise. I decided to make use of one (and staff were very interested), using Citrix and made some remarkable revelations. I was able to show that iPad was far more effective than anyone would have guessed, with Windows log-in on Council PCs and laptops sometime taking 20- 30 minutes and log off from services that people needed to use. iPad logged on in 30 seconds, so after 30 seconds you could work! Imagine 1000 plus PCs each delaying work by an hour a day. Everyone just put up with it. When we had a Conficker infection, which took many services out, the iPad and Mac I used (with a few others) were the only computers safe to use.
This attitude about iPads and Apple in Enterprise situations has existed for many years. Some supposedly experts simply do not, or decide that will not invest any time in understanding the alternatives for their customers.
BYOD: A bigger headache for IT bosses than Windows Metro?
BDYEICTTSOTOEEWHTD!!!
This is my slightly tongue-in-cheek alternative to the now-standard BYOD acronym: ‘Bring-Devices-You-Expect-I-C-T-To-Support-On-Top-Of-Everything-Else-We-Have-To-Do’. Aka often shortened to a noise a bit like an "Exasperated Sigh," with eyes flicking towards the ceiling (often accompanied by a "tutting" sound…..).
I have two points to make on this both warnings.
First - I was made redundant from an ICT Dept in the main because I challenged a Council to look at BYOD openly and in a positive way. My role included "to challenge what we do". I think the word "Apple" worried people, and my Asst Director (who called all modern ICT 'Gizmos', and is was leader in his field apparently, said "iPads will never have a place in B********".
Second - I am aware of a situation in which an ICT Manager decided to start setting up his colleagues personal iPhones with the 'company email'. An error by a slightly ICT naive employee has now resulted in big trouble, and a pending legal case. There was no accepted policy for BYOD.
BYOD is a challenge, but it has real advantages. If, however, an ICT Dept decides to fight it without accepting that people will try to BTOD (Bring Their Own Devices), then problems are surer to result. It is as bad to ignore it as it as anything else. Careful advice and responsibility needs to be established. BYOD is now less a technical challenge, more people one.
Silly people eh?
Compulsory coding in schools: The new Nerd Tourism

The arrival of Raspberry Pi needs to cause a "ripple" in education. In the late 80s, early 90s Design and Technology really took off in some schools. Some? Well yes, because Design and Technology grew out of Craft Design and Technology (Woodwork and Metalwork to the really ancient!), and it was a really innovative subject, with Control alongside Graphics and Realisation.
At its core?
Design (I was a Design Educator amd teacher before I got into ICT and local Government). This isn't about a lot of people having deep knowledge, but ensuring that everyone can be an informed and intelligent user and consumer with the knowledge to go on and update themselves.
So why didn't the Technology component take off in Design and Technology then? Well it did....whereever a teacher was either skilled, knowledgeable or willing to learn. A lot of money was spent on kits and schemes. Still, it faltered because it was taught by people who often resorted to "step-by-step" instruction instead of inspiration and creativity. They weren't expert enough to know how to make it interesting for the majority. They killed it by stealth. There simply weren't the skills around - and those skills stretch to understanding how to make it interesting enough to engage in learning (or they confused the heck out of students because they didn't understand it themselves).
So, along comes Raspberry Pi. My feeling is that it may meet the same issues. The teachers to teach the skills need to be confident, keen, ready..... I suspect (listening for any noise at all) they will not be, but I look forward to that all kicking off.
In my day organisations such as Nottingham Trent were leading in tech programmes - focusing on getting good teachers better equipped. While I wonder where the "trends" of today are , Raspberry Pi could end up as an expensive replacement for that (also very expensive) Powerpoint regurgitation too often the symptom of another failed teaching initiative! Poor teaching could well turn more future programmers off, than on. Get the training right - or else its "Here we go again"
That "ripple" by the way, should be excitement.