Author: The Information Badger

With no internet, no satellites, no drones…we must remember them…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Life

No smart phones, no computers, no email, no internet, no Google Maps, no instant news or weather forecast, no social media, no lasers, no drones, no satellites, and no National Health Service. That, plus military conscription, wrecked housing, and food and clothes rationing, was how it was for the UK population living through the 1940s. Life was very different then. We owe today’s freedoms to the soldiers, airmen, and sailors who fought during World War II and to the civilian population who lived through  that time. Today the Badger is marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 1944, the scale of which was awesome, by celebrating those who took part and all the 1940s civilians whose spirit during hardship and adversity influenced society in subsequent decades. Here’s the story of one war time civilian.

Born in the London Borough of Holloway in 1928, this civilian was a boy who enjoyed school and played football in the street with a ball made from rolled-up newspapers and string in the 1930s. At the age of 10 in 1938, the boy’s father died from the long-term impact of an injury sustained during the 1914-18 War. In 1939, a year later aged 11, the boy and his 6-year-old brother were evacuated to Hitchen on the declaration of war. They were hosted together by a number of different families until 1942 when their mother died in London making them orphans. The boy, now deemed an adult at the school leaving age of 14, was separated from his brother who was sent to a Dr Barnardo’s home. The 14-year-old boy found work in a Hitchin leather tanning factory until 1946. He spent much of his spare time with the local Home Guard as a young volunteer doing routine chores. It was something he enjoyed, and it gave purpose to his life. In 1946, aged 18, the man was called up for 18 months National Service with the Royal Engineers, during which he enlisted in the regular Army because ‘it  provided purpose, camaraderie, structure, discipline, education, and an opportunity to better oneself’.

The man served in Germany as part of  Operation Woodpecker providing reconstruction timber from Luneburg Heath and the Harz Mountains, and then in the Suez area as part of Middle East Land Forces (MELF). He progressed through the ranks and left the army to marry in 1953 taking with him an integrity and a set of standards, disciplines, and values that he lived by throughout his civilian life. This man was the Badger’s father. He didn’t  participate in D-Day, but his hardships and spirit, and those of others like him, had a big influence on the Badger’s generation and have contributed to the freedoms we value today.

Make do and mend. Keep calm and carry on. No such word as can’t, try. If you want a good life, get some qualifications. Things are never what they seem. If life knocks you down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again (from Nat King Cole’s song). These were the mantras of his life. Will we ever see a future generation with the determination, discipline, resilience, and values of those who lived through the 1940s again? That’s an open question, because the digital world continues to change  everything…

Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Light underpin the digital world of tomorrow…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Batteries, Change, Education, Information Technology, Learning, Obsolescence, Science & Engineering, Smart & New Technology, Technology, Transformation

A trip to the supermarket provided a reminder that without physics, chemistry, and mathematics none of our modern tech, internet, and online services would exist. Hardly a revelation, but what triggered this heightened awareness? Well, just the simple act of taking a small bag of spent disposable batteries to a recycling bin in the supermarket’s checkout area. The bin was full to overflowing with used disposable batteries from toys, clocks, TV remotes, cordless computer keyboards, wireless mice, and a myriad of other sources that use replaceable batteries as a power source. The act of depositing his spent batteries reminded the Badger that each one is actually a little capsule of physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and that our digital world depends on these subjects and batteries of one form or another.

On returning home, the Badger reflected on the science, materials, manufacturing, and recycling of these disposable batteries and whether they’ll ultimately be made redundant by newer power source innovations in the decades ahead. After all, the Titanium Citizen Eco-Drive watch on the Badger’s wrist uses solar and artificial light for power rather than replaceable batteries. It’s a technology that dates back to the mid-1970s, so it’s not new. Furthermore, the 1980s pocket calculator sitting on the Badger’s desk is also solar powered with no replaceable batteries. It’s a memento from a major 1980’s software development project and it works just as well today as it did back then! The Badger thus found himself wondering why power derived from light sources hasn’t rendered the disposable battery redundant in the last 40 years. Well, to make a functionally reliable, manufacturable, commercially viable product that has physics, chemistry, and mathematics at its core takes years of research to come to fruition. The good news is that it looks like lengthy research is bearing fruit and we may soon see a revolution that makes natural and artificial light the power source for a wide range of our devices, see here and here.

We should not be surprised that the coming years are likely to see a significant change in how our in-home devices, smart tech, and personal computing devices are powered. The use of replaceable batteries looks destined to decline. There’ll ultimately be no more charging cables, and no more trips to the supermarket to recycle spent batteries! Things, of course, are never that clear cut, but if light photons hitting panels on a home’s roof can generate electricity for household use, then it’s inevitably just a matter of time before light will power our gadgets and render disposable batteries redundant.

Fundamentally, power sources – and everything else in our modern digital world – are determined by physics, chemistry, mathematics and years of research. We should never shy away from being educated in these subjects because they – and light – are the seeds that will determine whatever we want the digital world of the future to be…

The Smartwatch and health care…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital Transformation, Health & Social Care, Information Technology, Public Institutions, Smart & New Technology, Tech for social good

Lots of information about the use of smartphones in the UK is available – see here, for example. In 2012, 66% of those aged 16-24 and 5% of those aged 55+ had a smartphone. By 2023 the percentages had become 98% and ~86%, respectively. Indeed, today 80% of those aged 65+ have a smartphone, which reinforces the fact that they have become an essential component of modern life for young and old alike. The main use of smartphones across the whole age spectrum is for messaging, emails, phone calls, internet browsing, social media, weather forecasts, online shopping, finance and banking, and maps/route navigation. Adults rarely leave home without them, and if they do anxiety tends to be higher during the rest of their day!

While younger generations are more welcoming of advances in digital tech, the rapid rise in smartphone use by older age groups since 2012 shows that seniors will embrace new technology that provides them a benefit. Which brings the Badger to the smartphone’s companion, the smartwatch. Across all age groups in the UK today, ~1 in 4 of us have one. Since the game-changing Apple Watch arrived in 2015, more and more of us have been buying them. The adoption trend looks to be following a similar pattern to that of the smartphone since 2012. Unsurprisingly, smartwatch use is greatest in digital native generations (millennials and younger), but the 55+ and 65+ age groups currently account for ~ 20% of UK users. Take up in these age groups seems to be linked to interest in watch functions associated with health monitoring (e.g. heart rate, ECG, blood pressure tracking), wellness, (e.g. sleep, stress, exercise), and emergency alerting (e.g. falls monitoring). By the end of this decade, it seems likely that most of the adult population will have a smartwatch on their wrist regardless of the device’s pros and cons, The versatility, convenience, and health/wellbeing benefits they offer far outweigh the cons, especially for those in ‘senior’ age groups.

But here’s a question. If every adult wears a smartwatch to complement their smartphone within a few years, will the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) integrate the health and wellbeing data from watch functions into patient care to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and care? Hmm, the NHS seems quiet on this, but the answer is ‘probably not’ because smartwatches are not certified medical devices. The Badger senses that this might ultimately change, because when he accompanied someone experiencing an atrial fibrillation event to hospital recently, one of the doctors on arrival asked if they could look at any ECG and blood pressure traces captured on their patient’s smartwatch! That’s surely a sign that smartwatches will ultimately have a more important role in an NHS which continues to struggle to be fit for the 21st century…

Contracted working hours, and achieving your potential…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Education, Human Resources, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Science & Engineering, Wellbeing

The UK’s A-Level exam period is underway and runs until the end of June.  Students sitting these exams receive their results in the middle of August. It’s an intense time, especially for those who’ve applied for University and need to achieve certain grades to confirm a place on their preferred course. According to UCAS, the proportion of UK 18-year-olds applying for University this year stands at 41.3%. That’s up from 38.2% in 2019, but marginally down on 41.5% for 2023. Since last year, however, applications for engineering/technology courses, and mathematical sciences/computing courses, have increased by 10% and 7%, respectively. The Badger thinks that’s a good thing. These subjects are, after all, at the heart of our lives on this planet. Whether we like it or not, it’s science, engineering, maths, and computing  that make everything possible.

While chatting to a teacher recently, their passionate focus on their pupils and desire for good exam results was strongly evident. In particular, they mentioned that seeing their students attain or exceed expectations in their exams was a source of great personal reward for their teaching over the school year. The teacher had strong opinions, one being that people don’t really appreciate that the hours worked by teachers far outweigh those stipulated in their employment contract. ‘That’s actually no different to people working in commercial enterprises; at least you have a long break over the summer’, the Badger commented without thinking. If looks could kill, the Badger would be dead!

The teacher, who’s never worked in a commercial enterprise, was adamant that no one works as hard, or as far beyond the hours stipulated in their employment contract, as teachers. This rankled with the Badger, because it’s not true! An incoming call to the teacher’s smartphone, however, fortuitously stopped the conversation from taking a potentially disagreeable turn. Health professionals in the NHS often convey a view similar to the teacher’s too, but the reality is that many in technical, management, and leadership positions at project, business, and executive levels in commercial operations often work beyond the hours in their employment contract without tangible reward irrespective of greater work-life balance awareness. The performance of their companies would suffer if they didn’t. In fact, research shows it’s the setting and profile of how additional hours are worked that differs greatly between teachers, doctors and their commercial enterprise counterparts, not the actual number of additional hours worked which do not differ vastly.

Well, good luck to those sitting their exams and striving for a place at University. Whatever the outcome, remember one thing. To be successful and have the job satisfaction and the type of rewards you want in your chosen field, an intelligent, hard-working, flexible and can-do ethos will always be a necessary imperative. Working only the hours in an employment contract will rarely help you achieve your full potential…

Communication is at the heart of everything…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital devices and the environment, Information Technology, Internet of Things, Smart & New Technology, Smart City, Space, Technology

Electric lighting has revolutionised our lives by illuminating our homes, streets, and cities. It was only after the end of the First World War that electricity began to find its way into most of our UK homes. Rolling out electricity supply across the country took time. In 1919 only 6% of homes were wired up, and it took until the late 1930s for this number to grow to ~66%. By then all new homes in urban areas were being built with  electric lighting as standard. How things have changed since! Today the flick of a switch, a tap on an app, or a voice command will light up rooms in our home providing instant artificial light for reading, cooking, and hobbies even on the darkest of nights. It’s something we take for granted today, largely oblivious to the fact that light at the flick of a switch was an unthinkable luxury for the vast majority of people a century ago.

Lighting our homes, community, and city streets has become more high-tech today than ever before. Streetlights come on when it gets dark, help to keep road users and pedestrians safe and secure, and help to extend our activities outdoors. However, they have downsides. Light pollution from urban areas is one of them, as we can readily see in images taken by satellites and astronauts. There’s always a glow on the horizon which dilutes the visibility of stars in the night sky when walking through suburbs after dark. Furthermore, street lighting’s energy consumption is a matter of global concern because lighting accounts for ~19% of global electricity usage. With resources limited, climate change, and the world’s population forecast to be largely urban by mid-century, it’s not a surprise that ‘smart street lighting’ has progressed over the last two decades.

‘Smart street lighting’  – a connected, sensor-heavy, lighting system allowing individual or groups of lights to be controlled remotely in real time – enables public areas and thoroughfares to be lit more considerately based on their use. Motion detectors, for example, mean that areas can be lit only when people or moving vehicles are present. It’s energy efficient, climate friendly, sustainable and a component within the broader umbrella of ‘smart cities’. At the heart of ‘smart street lighting’ is a fundamental capability, namely the ability to communicate data between disparate and spatially separate entities – an ability which has been at the heart of technological progress for many, many, many decades.

‘Smart street lighting’ and Voyager 1, currently 15 billion miles from Earth in deep space, thus have something in common – both fundamentally need to communicate information to be useful. They are not only both testament to the talent of the scientists and engineers of their eras, but also to the fact that communication in one form or another has always been at the heart of everything in our lives…

A walk in the woods, swarms of drones embodying AI, and fly spray…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Drones, Information Technology, Life, Public safety, Security, Technology

A walk in the woods is good for body and soul, especially in the Spring when bluebells abound. Every walk is memorable in some way, as a couple of encounters reminded the Badger recently. The first encounter involved wildlife. A vixen with two cubs emerged from the undergrowth and sat in the middle of the path to stare at a stationary Badger drinking from his water bottle. They were ~3 metres away, unfazed by human presence, and nonchalantly disappeared back into the undergrowth after about a minute. The second encounter happened ten minutes later as the path bisected an open expanse of scrubland. It was with a police officer landing a drone which had been used in a successful search for someone who’d failed to return from walking their dog in the area. ‘That’s a useful bit of kit’, the Badger quipped to the officer. ‘Yep, but a drone swarm would be better’, the officer responded adding that whereas people knew that individual drones are routine tools for many, swarms embodying AI warrant greater public awareness.

Drones vary in shape, size, function, and sophistication. Everyone has some awareness of them through their appearance in many movies (see here for example) over decades. The capabilities of drones imagined in such movies are today either a reality, or soon to be so. Drones are a growth area. Indeed, the UK Government has envisaged  that 900,000 commercial drones could be operating in UK skies by 2030.  Drones have long been tools in many commercial sectors (e.g. agriculture, energy supply, and property marketing), in the media/broadcasting, and with hobbyists and the TikTok generation, and so this vision seems possible. Drones are also already key tools in law enforcement where they help in monitoring major incidents, events, suspects, crime scenes, traffic, and in the search for missing persons. Military use of them is common and rapidly expanding for reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and lethal force, as readily illustrated in the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts. Military drone use continues to expand (e.g. see here ), and swarms of drones embodying AI will eventually transform  military operations even more dramatically. It thus seems inevitable that drone swarms will eventually become a regular facet of civilian life too.

Personal security and safety advice for when you are away from your home has long centred on being aware of your environment and listening to and observing the behaviour of those around you. With drone swarms on the horizon, we should now be observing and listening to what’s in the sky too! Of course, someone will eventually produce a drone countermeasure for personal use by anyone in the general public. Now that’s an off-the-wall thought to end with, probably triggered by learning that fly spray and insect repellent are essential when walking through woods in the warm Spring sunshine…

Fixing dud pixels on a Smart Meter’s in-home display unit…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Digital Transformation, Energy and Energy Markets, Information Technology, Obsolescence, Smart Meters

The in-home display unit for the Badger’s energy Smart Meter sits unobtrusively on a shelf where it has reliable wireless connectivity to the meter itself. The unit rarely gets looked at. It doesn’t influence energy use and it should really be switched off and consigned to a cupboard. The reason it gets little attention is because the Badger’s always been a thrifty, sensible, and environmentally conscious energy user. A Smart Meter with its display unit hasn’t changed what was already an embedded discipline.

In recent months, the Badger’s noticed an increasing number of dud pixels appearing on  the in-home display screen. This reminded him of two things, firstly that component, communication, and software obsolescence is as much a factor for Smart Meters and their in-home display unit as it is for any smart device, and secondly that the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) raised concerns in October last year about built-in obsolescence in meters already installed. Apparently, out of 32.4 million meters installed by March 2023, 3 million (9%) were not working properly, and ~7 million (21%) will need replacement because 2G and 3G communication networks are being switched off by 2033. Consumers can expect to bear the associated costs in due course. The PAC also highlighted what has been long evident, namely that the UK rollout programme has failed to meet its original targets, repeatedly shifted completion deadlines, has no plan beyond 2025, and has failed to convince the public of the benefit.

The vision for the Smart Meter programme started taking shape way back in 2008 but published rollout statistics (here) make it difficult for the organisations involved to claim it’s a success. Programmes like this are, of course, always difficult, and so to test if the Badger’s objectivity has become distorted, Microsoft’s Copilot was asked ‘Is the UK Smart Meter Programme a success?’  The first line of its answer, ‘The verdict on the UK Smart Meter programme is somewhat mixed’ reassured the Badger that his objectivity is not overly distorted. The last line of Copilot’s response, ‘Whether it’s a complete success remains a matter of perspective’, represents ‘maybe, maybe not’ which is hardly an endorsement for a programme running for the best part of 15 years.

From the consumer’s perspective, this programme is clearly not a success. In fact, the way consumers have been treated throughout borders on the scandalous. With the UK Post Office scandal high in public consciousness, journalists are associating Smart Meters with the word ‘scandal’ more often. This item, a compelling 3-minute read, is a case in point. But let’s get back to the dud pixels on the Badger’s in-home display unit. This week the issue was fixed – by switching the unit off and consigning it to the back of a cupboard! If only that could happen with the Smart Meter programme itself…

When is a service not a service?

Posted on by The Information Badger in Delivery, Health & Social Care, Information Technology, Leadership & Management, Processes and Practices, Public Institutions, Service, Transformation

As companies grow, they reorganise and establish different business units to serve their needs. Often, a number of units must cooperate to deliver contracted services to clients. This cooperation can sometimes prove difficult causing disjoint service delivery and strained relationships with the client. The Badger took many calls during his IT career from frustrated clients who experienced, and were frustrated by, poor cooperation between different units within his company. One call from a client he knew well, however, has long stuck in his memory.

Their call was to complain about constant bickering at service review meetings between two units, one delivering helpdesk, hosting, and support services and the other developing a new business application. They demanded that cooperation between the units improved to provide ‘joined-up’ service coherency, as required by the contract. Action was taken, but what became cemented in the Badger’s memory were the client’s general words about service, namely ‘Service is not a service when it fails to fulfil its intended purpose or meet the needs of users. A service should provide value, convenience, and satisfaction, but if a service provider’s internal problems become visible and are a hinderance then the service has turned into a disservice. The essence of service is not its existence, but its ability to deliver coherently.’

These words, and the context that triggered this client’s call, came to mind when two friends described their recent experiences with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). One received an outpatient appointment letter from Audiology when they were expecting one from Cardiology! Enquiring revealed that the appointment was indeed with a cardiologist, but the wrong letter template had somehow been used to notify the appointment! The other attended a CT scan appointment arranged months ago only to be told when on the scanner with a canular in their arm that the scan could not proceed because they hadn’t had a prior blood test! The radiologist apologised but said it was common for scans to be aborted for this reason, because departments rarely tell each other – or the patient – that a prior blood test is needed! Having travelled some distance for the scan, the patient was understandably livid at having their time wasted and at having to await notification of a new appointment.

Irrespective of strikes, waiting lists, money, and political posturing, all of which are the mainstay of media reporting about the NHS, it’s no wonder that public satisfaction is at a record low (see here and here) when patients routinely experience interactions similar to these! The words of the Badger’s client resonate. The essence of service is not its existence, but it’s ability to deliver. It’s thus frankly shameful that ‘when it’s the NHS’ has become a valid answer to the question ‘when is a service not a service?’  Without redressing this, oblivion beckons for the NHS and its end-users…

History suggests that a future generation will face a ‘Digital Crisis’…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Automation, Digital Transformation, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Internet, Life, Online Services, Risk, social media, Transformation

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, and Karl Marx remarked that ‘History repeats itself first as a tragedy, and then as a farce’. These came to mind while quietly musing on a future which is in the hands of younger generations who’ve grown up with global communication, the internet, social media, and online services as a norm. It’s sobering to be reminded that in just a few decades, digital technology and IT has transformed life faster than at any time in human history. AI adds to the unabated momentum of tech-driven change. But here’s the thing. History shows that many things that have a transformational impact on society have serious consequences that only become fully apparent decades later, creating a crisis for society that a future generation is forced to address. History thus implies that a future generation will have to deal with a crisis caused by the digital revolution.

Bold thinking? Maybe, but consider this. History shows that motor vehicles revolutionised transportation. It’s only in recent decades, however, that society has realised, and started addressing, the true impact of motor vehicles on public health and the planet. History also shows that the use of fossil fuels (particularly coal) during the Industrial Revolution transformed the world. Our dependence on them since, however, has impacted the climate and sustainability of life forcing society into corrective action, but only in recent decades. Similarly, plastic – a material that’s made the modern world possible – has gone from being a wonder substance a century ago to being reviled as an environmental scourge today. It therefore seems perfectly feasible that history will repeat itself with regard to the digital revolution we are living through.

Falling happiness in younger generations (see here, for example) and a tense interview with Elon Musk , who remarked that ‘moderation is a propaganda word for censorship’, illustrate that history may well repeat itself regarding social media. Social media platforms have revolutionised information sharing over two decades, but amplifying misinformation, disinformation, bullying, mental health issues, and eroding personal privacy in the process. They are commercial enterprises bound by the law, but they set their own rules and guidelines for content and its moderation. When a US Surgeon General says allowing young people to use social media is like giving them medicine not proven to be safe, and that it’s insane that governments have failed to adequately regulate them, then society has a problem regardless of Mr Musk’s dislike of challenging scrutiny. History means that society today is having to face up to a ‘Climate Crisis’. Taking note of history is always wise, which is why it’s not outlandish to think that a future generation will face and need to address some kind of existential ‘Digital Crisis’ …  

Systems failure? keep calm and carry on…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Business Continuity, Information Technology, Life, Online Services, Risk, Service

Fred (not his real name), an 80-year-old retired civil servant, walks past every morning on his way to the local supermarket for a newspaper. He does this regardless of the weather. Fred walks slower on his way back because the round trip to the supermarket is the limit of what he can manage in one go. On his return leg, therefore, Fred and the Badger often chat if the opportunity arises. Fred has a passion for modern history, current affairs, financial markets, and public service, and while he may be slowing up physically, his mind remains sharp, informed, and impressively analytical. Our conversations are always enjoyable and enlightening.

On Sunday, we had one such chat. Fred knows the Badger’s background is in IT and so he asked about the previous day’s delivery order and contactless payment problems at a well-known UK supermarket chain. ‘In IT there’s always going to be unexpected failures due to software defects, hardware and system problems, human error,  or any combination of the three’, the Badger answered benignly. ‘Didn’t affect me; a good old-fashioned visit to the supermarket and cash will always be my preference’, Fred responded, adding that it didn’t reflect well on the state of society when shrill hysteria and blame floods social media and the news whenever there’s an outage of online services. Fred thinks people take online services for granted and have lost the ‘keep calm and carry on’ spirit that’s normally a strength of the British character! Whether you agree or not, it’s an understandable point of view.

The conversation moved on when Fred mentioned that he’d been reading books about Mr Putin, cyber security, and artificial intelligence. He reckons humanity’s future is bleak, not because of technology, AI, or cyber warfare, but because younger digital-native generations are already slaves to algorithms, aren’t interested in facts and share comments before thinking, have a first response to everything which is a search for blame, and are too willingly ‘followers of the herd’! Again, it’s an understandable point of view. Fred added that Mr Putin doesn’t really need sophisticated cyber tools or AI. He just needs his supporters in key IT roles in some supermarkets, banks, fulfilment and distribution companies, energy suppliers, and network providers to coordinate a simultaneous ‘human error’ moment when making changes to systems! Fred thinks this would cause national mayhem.

Fred’s an interesting guy whose views are shaped by his eight decades of life and what he sees, hears, and reads on a daily basis. Our conversation reminded the Badger that he learned early in his IT career that systems will fail, often in unexpected ways, at an inconvenient time, and disruptively. When they do, it’s important for everyone to ‘keep calm and carry on’. Sadly, calm, patience, and individual resilience seems to be in increasingly short supply in our digital-dominated world…