Problems in a Connected World

Posted on by
Reply

The Beeb has an article on cyberwar which then slips into talking about consumer products, I assume to highlight the point that these systems are also open to attack (as they’re designed by engineers and not coding pros, that’s what is says):

“In the home, fridges will automatically replenish themselves by talking to food suppliers; ovens and heating systems will respond to commands from your smartphone. Cars may even drive themselves, sharing GPS data to find the best routes. For industry, commerce and infrastructure, there will be even more reliance on cyber networks that critics claim are potentially vulnerable to intrusion.”

The threat they fail to think of is economically-motivated hacking, could we see viruses that swap products to particular brands when your fridge automatically orders? This could be to earn the miscreant referral bonuses or simply benefit a particular brand (“My fridge will only order XXX bread”). Instead of corporate espionage, we could see corporate-sponsored hacking. Continue reading →

Building Down

Posted on by
Reply

Watching a TED talk video presented by Bjarke Ingels – who works at BIG, a Danish architecture firm — with a friend of mine, it raised a question I’ve had for a while about buildings in the UK: why don’t we build down?

I don’t know anyone who has a basement, which is strange for a nation as populous as ours, certainly one that is (relatively) land poor (actually, we only rank as the 53rd most densely populated country, though that is the UK rather than England, which is close to 30th). In London it seems basements were all the craze (back in 2009 at least) to expand your home as there was no other way, but it doesn’t seem done much anywhere else.

I’m not just talking about homes either, what about commercial buildings, why aren’t they adding floor space and parking below ground so they can better utilise the space above?  I’m not the only nutter inspired thinker to propose making better use of space below the surface either, just look at this design for an ‘Earth-scraper’ from an architect in Mexico. Continue reading →

Why I (sometimes) Hate Cyclists

Posted on by
Reply

To be fair, it’s not their fault, but when I’m driving around I regularly encounter cyclists on the road and it generally drives me nuts (no pun intended). The reason is simple, British roads are often narrow little things, claustrophobic at times, in fact some of the roads I use feel like you need to breath in when you meet oncoming traffic.

So what you do not want to meet is a cyclist, because the road isn’t wide enough to go around them if there’s anything coming the other way.  If you do meet one you end up sat behind them travelling at ten miles an hour, or, usually, much less (meet one going up hill and it feels more like you’ve stopped). When there’s a lot of traffic coming the other way it can be hugely frustrating, especially when you add the pressure of traffic behind you.

What’s worse is that there are plenty of cycle paths around where I live and the cyclists are often pedalling along, blocking my smooth transition, right beside a path dedicated to them. It has caused me to utter more than a few obscenities at the offender.

Generally I can sympathise though. I’ve been out on a bike in the not-too-distant past and there’s a frustration when using cycle paths because they’re an afterthought, built by people who don’t cycle. Taking a pavement, widening it a bit (if at all) and slapping a sign on it does not make a cycle path. Continue reading →

Steal this Idea: The Save Africa Game

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t ask me why, but occasionally my mind turns to the problem of Africa, of people living in poverty, dying of starvation or disease, people who seem to perpetually need our help. And therein lies the rub, because despite the billions we’ve poured into Africa we seem no closer to solving the problems.

My theory has been that we need to pick a nation, one with a stable and open-minded government, then attack the problems in that country as a showcase to the rest.  The help would mainly be through advice and expertise. The first issue is feeding the country, aside from the obvious issue that you can’t achieve anything if your people are starving, it avoids the need for handouts and frees up money used to buy in food for other things.

So you look at improving farming techniques, run schools for farmers on how to improve crop yields, simple stuff, tailored to their environment and crops, but enough so the country is capable not just of feeding itself, but also generating a surplus to sell. Continue reading →

Kickstarter Stole My Idea

Posted on by
Reply

Okay, so that’s not strictly true, it’s just a bombastic title. I can still kick (no pun intended) myself for not realising a similar idea for people power. So I thought I would spell it out here (for posterity and to sooth my wounds).

The year was 2003 and I had stopped off in San Jose to stay with my parents for a while on on my way back from nine months of travelling. While I was there, late into the night and early hours as the rest of the family slept (I could sleep late) and my mum’s venerable Dell was free, I taught myself how to build websites with CSS instead of tables (which is what I’d previously used). I also taught myself some Javascript, some PHP and MySQL and I started to build some of my numerous websites (at one point I had so many a friend commented I could have started my own internet).

Many of those sites are now gone, but one of those early registered domains still exists in my portfolio. Fund a Film was an idea spawned from reading an article about a woman who had asked her site visitors to donate money to help her get out of debt (it may even have been Save Karyn). I figured that if people were prepared to donate (at that point) $13,000 to a stranger to help her out of a whole she created, why wouldn’t they do it for a chance to be part of making a movie? Continue reading →