The shrinking size of memory.

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Computer memory, that is!! I am working my way through a backlog of books that I have accumulated over the past eighteen months, the latest one of which is Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson (no relation to the vacuum manufacture).

Not a straightforward history of computing book. But more an investigation into the backgrounds of who was who in the various developments of calculating/computing machines over time, which has led us to where we are today and how a group of people wanted to build a computer that would make Alan Turing’s theory of a ‘universal machine’ reality.

I am only halfway through it, as I can’t stop going to search the internet to look up information relative to the progress of the story. Having worked with computers since I was seventeen after joining the Royal Navy in 1964 it’s fascinating to learn more about how the theories of such things as computer memory became reality.

To show one example of how far computer memory has come, here is an image of an original Ferrite Ring core memory, showing 64 cores in an 8 by 8 matrix to hold just eight bytes!

On top of it is an 8 GB SanDisk memory card, one billion time more memory in one quarter of the area taking up by the Ferrite Core matrix!

Of course this is an old picture, I saw an article last week about a 1.5 TB SanDisk memory card! There are other larger cards with higher capacities, but it’s amazing to see this amount of storage packed into such a small space. What would Alan Turing have made of this?

It caught my eye… 7–2023

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More Big-Brother actions from the UK Government, it seems that a number of government departments including the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business and Trade are searching social media to build ‘dossiers’ on people who are critics of the UK Government as a way of stopping them from appearing on government sponsored platforms. More info here.

Continuing the theme of Big-Brother, with the continuing rise in organised shoplifting, many stores have joined a Government sponsored scheme to install facial recognition software alongside their in-store cameras.

Although there is now a big pushback from various rights organisations including Liberty, Amnesty International and Big Brother Watch due to too many false alarms.

With the government actively sponsoring a downturn in house building, here’s an interesting article about just how bad many of the new house are when new homeowners take them over from developers.

Makes you wonder just what you’re getting for your money.

It caught my eye… 6–2023

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According to press reports, The Guardian, The FT, This is Money; Thames Water could be about to run out of money!

I thought the whole idea of privatization was that it was going to be better for all!

Funny how things turn out.

The UK Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) confirms plans to check bank accounts to stop £1.3 billion in benefit fraud. In an update to legislation, the UK Government has giving itself the power to look into all UK citizens banks account that receive state benefits!

Big Brother on the march, again! Why not look at the UK.Gov?

A very written article about this very subject — How the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is the government’s latest erosion of hard-won rights!

With Climate change high on the agenda at the moment and with COP28 taking place in Dubai, it is interesting to learn that Scientists in Scotland are using robotic subsea gliders to check ocean currents for signs of climate collapse.

They are monitoring the “conveyor belt” which carries warm and cool water between the Caribbean and the Arctic.

Let’s hope that they find out what’s happening soon.

Allotment update

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It’s been eight years since I took on my first ever allotment and over those years I’ve managed to grow quite a variety of produce. The plot had lain unused for two years, so it took quite a bit of work to bring it back into full production. Over that time, I’ve added a couple of dwarf fruit trees and other soft fruits, which have been reasonably successful.

In 2019, I decided to take on a second plot. I do like a challenge; this had also not been used for a number of years. This was of course pre-covid, when not many people were interested in taking on allotments that were ‘unworkable’ without lots of upfront effort. Needless to say, a lot of work has also been carried out on this plot since then to bring this one back into production.

However, time moves on and this year I decided to give up my first plot. Having two plots does require a lot of time/effort to keep up with the various tasks. The Allotment Site run by Woodley Town Council also now has a long waiting list for allotment plots – due to the high interest/uptake of allotments during the Covid period.

So hopefully someone from the waiting list will benefit from an active allotment plot.

Here are a few images from the eight years on that plot.

In the meantime work progresses on the remaining plot, which has taken a little longer than I thought and still have some more tasks stuff to do. However, I do have a good shed!

It has also delivered some great produce and will hopefully keep doing this over the coming years.

Selection of images from remaining plot since 2019

It caught my eye… 5–2023

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Freeview—Free-to-Air

Seems that something might be in the air for major changes to UK Freeview in the not too distant future.

It would appear that the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC23) currently being held in Dubai will make a decision as to the future of Freeview in UK as we know it. In a battle that is going on between free-to-air broadcasters and mobile phone companies, everyone wants a slice of the Radio Frequency Spectrum.

Let’s hope common sense prevails and we don’t have to move to something else to watch free-to-air services after 2030.

Microplastic Pollution

Microplastics are everywhere, already discovered in the placentas of pregnant humans, they now appear to be being sucked up into clouds and distributed around the globe with a potential to affect weather patterns.

It seems that the human race still does not seem to understand the impact that our behaviours are having on the planet.

More has to be done to wake us all up!

Delhi Pollution

Talking about pollution. I was amazed to see these series of comparison images of pollutions in Delhi this month.

Truly horrendous pictures that bring home just how much harm we are doing to the planets’ atmosphere.

Reminded me of the Smogs of the 1950’s in London.

It caught my eye… 4–2023

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I participate in a number of medical research projects at Reading University which I find interesting and if they can learn anything, all well and good.

Of course, this means that you give over various personal details to help them move forward on their projects. All covered by various UK data protection rules.

I also volunteered for similar projects with Biobank and again gave up personal details under UK data protection rules. Image my surprise to find that Biobank appears to have given access to that data to insurance companies!!

Seems that was not in the small print that I remember.

Just announce today that Palantir, the USA based Data Analytics company has just been awarded a £ 480m contract for the NHS.

Palantir will work with its UK partner Accenture to set up and operate a Federated Data Platform (FDP) (Link is to NHS explanation) for the NHS. For more information about FDP’s see Wikipedia‘s explanation.

This deal opens up all sorts of data privacy issues, which have already started some serious discussions.

In case you were wondering, how many data breaches — where private data is accidentally released due to errors, system failures or hacking etc.

Here’s a List of Data Breaches and Cyber Attacks in 2023 from the IT-Governance website.

Makes you think!

Wi-Fi — AI knows best? Not here!

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During a recent firmware upgrade to my Vodafone Broadband Fibre Router, changes were made to allow for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to select the ‘best’ Wi-Fi channel to use. All well and good, you might say, but what about if the AI channel selected suddenly causes issues?

There must be a way of manually selecting another Wi-Fi Channel to overcome any issues. Well there was, that is until the same firmware upgrade also took away the ability to for the end-user to manually change to another Wi-Fi channel!

Currently, my Vodafone Broadband Fibre Router’s AI has selected Wi-Fi channel 11 as the best to use.

I have used a Wahoo Bike Computer for a number of years, which has worked fine with my previous ISP—BT’s Broadband Router and with the new Vodafone Broadband Fibre Router’s prior to the AI upgrade.

It turns out that the Wahoo Bike Computer is a USA developed product and only works with Wi-Fi channels 1–9! So how am I supposed to connect now for syncing and updates if I can’t set my Vodafone Broadband Fibre Router to another Wi-Fi channel?

I spoke to both Wahoo and Vodafone support, here are no plans at Wahoo to change their 1-9 Wi-Fi channel ability. At Vodafone, there seems no clear understanding of what impact this ‘AI’ implementation has caused me, one suggestion was that I should move my ‘device’ closer to the router! They did suggest that I do a full reboot of the router, which I did and now the router is using channel 13! Still no good to me.

In the meantime, I am using my neighbours (with their permission) to sync my Wahoo Bike Computer, they (the neighbours) use a different ISP using Wi-Fi Channel 6, it connects with no issues from over 5 meters away.

Watch this space!

Acapulco Hurricane – What!

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Photograph: Francisco Robles/AFP/Getty Images

In an incident that seems to have been initially passed by the mainstream media, a category 5 Hurricane has devastated Acapulco last week.

It was a news story that was of interest to me, as I visited Acapulco some 40 years ago for a long weekend while working in Mexico City for six weeks.

It certainly looked an interesting place then, that has obviously changed tremendously over those years.

Here are some links that I found that are starting to show some devastation resulting from the Hurricane.

The Independent – Acapulco hotel guest describes terror of ‘nightmare’ Hurricane Otis

WION – Damage and distress in Mexico’s Acapulco as Hurricane Otis batters beach resort

CNN – Before-and-after shows devastation from Category 5 Hurricane Otis in Mexico

REUTERS – Hurricane Otis pummels Mexico’s Acapulco, cutting off famous beach resort

BBC – Hurricane Otis smashes into Mexico coast

Space: The Final Frontier!

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Well, not as far as NASA‘s Voyager spacecrafts (1 & 2) are concerned, they just seem to go on and on!

Now into their 46th year of travel on a continuing journey to explore and send back data from the far reaches of space, NASA is uploading a software patch to overcoming issues with communications issues last year as well as addressing some potential thruster issues that might arise going forward.

It seems that these spacecraft are set for quite a few more years service yet!

More information at NASA’s Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch and Thrusters.

Where are the Voyager Spacecraft now?