Where technology meets humanity...

2012-01-06T13:31:00.002Z

Remember at Christmas

Christmas is a time to remember others
Those who are with us
Those who are not
Its a time to remember the good they bring
And the joy you have shared together

Christmas is a time to remember the important times
Times that were special
Times that were sad
Its time to remember life is too short for misery
And laughter can lift others spirits around you

Christmas is a time to remember we have a choice
A choice to make life good
A choice to make life better
Its time to remember the importance of change
And how change can bring happiness to those around us

Christmas is a time to remember relationships
To embrace the good in others
To embrace their flaws
Its time to remember perfect is subjective
And tolerance shows wisdom

Christmas is a time to remember we share this world
To respect the beauty around us
To respect the complexity of life
Its time to remember our responsibility to the future
And to leave our world a better place

© Raymond Taylor 2012

Its all in a sausage

2011-02-24T17:40:00.007Z

For the last few years now I've spent a fair amount of time working away from home and being stuck in a hotel over night. Generally its not a bad experience, most hotels are clean and tidy, some of the staff want to help, most seem indifferent, the entertainment can be expensive, and the breakfast in the morning generally sums up the entire experience.

The first thing I register on arrival at the hotel is how the advertising photos of the hotel compare to reality. I appreciate that the façade is just that, but when its skewed and stretched to something unlike the reality then I start to worry.... Next come the welcome, having a happy, not over friendly receptionist, someone who seems genuinely interested in helping gives a positive vibe to the place. I can cope with receptionists being a little "busy" but I have to draw the line at the receptionist who talks down at me, or worse still some sycophant, come on, do you really think I believe you?

Once I've booked in, got my key card, etc, I arrive at the room. As I walk in I hope it has some warmth to the place. Its nice to see the TV showing "Welcome Mr Taylor", its a lovely touch but now days I think, however much does that cost in electricity.... I take a quick look around, the TV looks OK, the remote control has a battery cover on it, and the décor seems appropriate. There is tea and coffee with those bloody awful milks in on the tray, as usual stupid little tea cups, not that I know many people now days who actually use tea cups, and if I'm really lucky a biscuit or two. I then move onto the bathroom, first to fill the kettle, then to make sure they have provided soaps, a bath towel that isn't the size of a hand towel, and a shower curtain that is clean and gives plenty of room so that it doesn't stick to me during the duration of my shower.

OK, tea made, TV on, scanning the channels, all seams OK. So onto my a useful tip, TV channels. For as long as I can remember hotels have only ever provided the bear minimum of TV channels, or those ridiculously priced "Pay Films" that unless you go to the "right" hotels are utter kack. So I decided I'd buy a TV card for my laptop and pop the TV aerial from the back of the TV and scan the airways to see what other normal channels could receive. Well, much to my surprise not only did I have a selection of channels that you would expect but I also had all the film channels "in the clear", Wahoo, in a homer voice! Saying that now with the advent of Digital TV channels I usually now just setup a very small digi box if I'm desperate watch QI or Mock the Week on Dave, sad I know :)

I power my laptop up and hope there is a WiFi signal to connect to. Assuming there is I connect and hope its not going to be too expensive to use. What does get me going is when their marketing material says "Free WiFi" and when you get to the hotel the free WiFi is in a corner of the bar where the big screen TV that has the latest football match on.

Evening meal can always be entertaining, if I'm on my own I find it amusing being shown to a group of small tables where there's a selection of men eating. Most "busy" reading something or texting away, but no one saying a word to one another. Its always a surprise to see a lone woman eating as it seems most of the women have been wise by stopping in their rooms and having room service. If on the other hand I'm with my wife and children we get shown to a table on the opposite side of the restaurant. I assume this is a tactic to stop the children disturbing the single guys enjoying their steak & chips. Forget the group out on a works due, they don't make any noise, do they? Suffice to say I hardly ever use the restaurant now days as its just not a nice experience.

Bedtime looming and now we find if the pillows are comfortable, the sheets are made from a substance that resembles cotton and hope the mattress doesn't resembles a war zone with various bump and dips. I personally cant stand poly cotton sheets, but thankfully I've had very few nights in them. During the night is always entertaining, the people running up and down the corridor making as much noise as they can, the air conditioning units either in the bedroom that can not make its mind up or the air-con plant out side, or the clicking and banging of the pipes, all adds to the character of the experience.

Next morning, its time to make a mouthful of tea, watch the breakfast TV and then shower. Fingers crossed the shower has enough power to strip the flesh from my bones, and the temperature stays consistent even when my wife decides to brush her teeth whilst I'm showering. Grabbing the towel I wipe myself down and hope my body hasn't been scented with the smell of chlorine and whatever other products they washed the towels in. Then its time for breakfast.

To complete the experience I arrive at the restaurant and enjoy being greeted with a smile and shown to my table. As the night before I get to choose the multitude of single seat tables in amongst the lone guys but also there are now a number of women, where did they come from? If I'm lucky its a buffet style breakfast, lots of nice fruit and cereal, a reasonable selection of cooked breakfast, kippers, porridge to order, proper strong coffee, but for me the most telling aspect of the whole experience are the sausages.

Now this is not a scientific study by any means, but when it comes to the ethos of the hotel I find that if the hotel has the customer experience right, clean rooms, decent sized towels, good reception staff, nice tea, decent décor, and so on, the proportion of the profits spent on the sausages seems to relate directly with the spending throughout the rest of the hotel. Attention to detail is important to many of us and to have a rusk filled sausage seems to suggest they are not interested in the clients experiences, just the profit.

OK, so I know profit is important, but return business is also, and be warned, if you can't see the benefit in providing a good sausage, you have probably missed the point in every other aspect of the hotel.

Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

Rules for an ethical life... (R4EL)

2011-02-12T10:43:00.005Z

For many years now I have found myself questioning the rules of our society. I have found myself trying to understand the rational behind them, and why we are controlled in such contradictory way.

During Christmas 2010 I had some time to think about the meaning of life, being 42 years old, a number significant to all Douglas Adams fans, I decided it was about time to put together a set of rules that firstly takes into account not just the human race but also the world/universe as a whole and make them relevant to today’s scientific thinking. I’ve researched a number of different societies rules and ideals and have been able to refine my own thoughts into 15 basic rules for living today.

I shall practice and share these rules for an ethical life irrespective of my god
I shall respect our world and not put myself above it
I shall preserve the weekend as a time for rest
I shall respect and support my family
I shall not kill/murder anything except to live
I shall respect relationships, and act within their boundaries
I shall not steal
I shall speak the truth
I shall not covet
I shall be open to new ideas and learn from them
I shall forgive, forget, and smile
I shall treat others as they expect to be treated
I shall stand up to be counted
I shall take responsibility for my actions and their consequences
I have one life and therefore I shall live it

Brief explanation of the rules

1. Irrespective of the god you worship, may it be by birth or otherwise we shall respect that everyone has the right to “believe” in their god but know that the these 'rules for an ethical life' are formed out of respect for our surroundings. Practicing these rules every day and sharing our views will help to re-enforce these ideals.

2. Everything has an equal right to exist in this world, and you are no exception. You shall use your skills and knowledge to improve your time in this world without adversely effecting the environment or another’s existence.

3. We must not allow ourselves to become a 24/7 society. We must give time for ourselves and others to rest and reflect on life.

4. Parents give unconditional love to their offspring and we must not take this for granted. The family bond (either through birth or union) is stronger than any other as we know we can turn to them in a moment of need, we should be there to help our family in return.

5. Killing another, may it be human or otherwise breaks the trust, tolerance and love we have for one another. We must respect life as a gift and only extinguish that gift either to protect ourselves or as a matter of survival. If we choose to feed ourselves from another life we must ensure that life has been a good and fulfilling life before we take it.

6. A relationship is the union of two or more people who take responsibility for one anothers lives. Their relationship has rules, these rules should be respected and adhered to.

7. Taking something that does not belong to you is wrong. You have no rights to take anything that you have not earned. This applied to material things, worldly resources, as well as anothers dignity.

8. Truth is what you know to be fact, beyond reasonably doubt, or it has been proven by scientific scrutiny. This truth can change as our knowledge of the truth improves. Truth is not faith, belief, or hearsay.

9. If you have a desire to change your life you should aim for realistic and achievable goals that do not impact adversely on others.

10. Being able to openly view new ideas will allow you to discuss, analyse and improve your own ideas. Knowing there is more to learn than you will ever know means you can be wrong and learn from it.

11. We all strive for a good life. Learning from the past and moving forward will help to improve our lives. Holding a grudge stops our eyes being fully open to new ideas and experiences. Smiling makes us feel good inside, and helps others reactive more positively towards us.

12. We need to ensure we treat others in a way that they want to be treated. Your expectations may not be that of others, but as long as they fit into these rules for an ethical life we can help others to feel happy in their integrations with us.

13. We have a responsibility to shape our world, if we do not make ourselves heard we can not complain about the consequences.

14. Every action you take is taken by you and therefore you must consider the consequences of those actions. If you are of sound mind no one but you is responsible for what happens to you.

When taking responsibility for others consider their needs and act in a selfless manor.

15. We are part of an on-going life cycle and therefore we should strive to feel happy at the end of every day.

I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts on these rules...

Its only Business...

2011-02-12T08:55:00.006Z

So, for the umpteenth time I've heard the phrase, "its only business", ya, right, you are about to do something unethical so "its only business" justifies it, no, it doesn't!

A couple of years ago I sat with my then 4 year old daughter watching "Monsters vs Aliens" and as the baddy alien "Gallaxhar" comes to earth announces "Humans of earth, I have come in peace. you need not fear me, I mean you no harm. However it is important to note that most of you will not survive the next twenty four hours, some of you that do survive will be enslaved and experimented upon. You should in no way take any of this personally, it's just business. So, just to recap, I come in peace, I mean you no harm, and you will all die." This stopped me dead, for the first time I really did realise that everything in this world is personal.

So having a read around the net I looked what others felt and there seems to be quite a strength of option that businesses uses this term as a justification just before they screw another over. So for example, "my client has looked at the case and the law says he doesn't have to pay you," so screw you! It might be legal but is it ethical?

Many people see business as a game, in a game you use stealth, tactics and cunning to win, to beat your opponent. Being a motor racing fan you could look at the battles racing drivers have on the track, those who want to race another day back off a little when they know they are in the wrong place and those who have no thought for the future use dirty tactics, and go for it by forcing the other drivers off the track. Problem is the unethical driver loses respect from their fellow drivers, and fans. You could call this only business, but would you want to be that driver walking up the pit lane?

So when we work in business, unless we are robots, we have personal relationships with the those around us, our work colleagues, suppliers, customers, and most of them we try to like in some way. We do what we can to make those relationships work, know that there are consequences to our actions and that "every" action we make will have an effect on the relationship in the future. So when it comes to just business you have the ability to choose how long your relationships last.

You could say that you should accept that someone shits on you because they are only doing their job, forgive me but I find it very difficult to believe that if it happened to you you would not take it personally. So why is it acceptable to make choices that adversely effect others?

I guess the point I am trying to make is that we have a responsibility in this world to act ethically to one another. No one can say they accept being treated badly, they just don't. So bollocks to the phrase "its just business", its not, its personal, take responsibility!

Protecting children from themselves

2009-07-19T14:32:00.012+01:00

Do you really have an idea of what people, young and old, get up to whilst on the Internet? Over the last few years of working with home and business users I've seen rather a lot of interesting sites on the users PCs; there has been the "professional" who had a hankering for pictures of men dressed like the Les Dawson character Ada, the employee who spent his time pretending to be a woman on dodgy / swinging websites, and a colleagues 13 year old son's PC that was full of same sex images, to mention only a few, I've seen quite a selection. And no, I will never tell you who they were!

Thankfully for those who do search for the usual, and sometimes the slightly unusual, are many applications to help protect you from unscrupulous websites, emails etc. Protection software such as anti-virus, spy-ware and firewall tools can help prevent the user from downloading nasty little programs that can compromise your systems. But how ever hard the protection software tries to protect you, the hackers, or more likely now days the fraudster, is one step ahead.

For those who want to control what others get up to on their computers you can always put software in place to check each website your employee/family member visits; if it is on the "black list", which are predominately made up of sex, gambling, hacking and social networking websites, the software stops their request and shows a warning message accordingly. Well those who don't know how to get round it get a message!

I feel I am quite an open minded person and respect people as individuals and therefore I'm rarely surprised by what I find. But, what I do know is that you can not underestimate the lengths some people go to when wanting access to their desired places in the Internet or covering their tracks; the one thing that's the biggest tell tale sign (and I double checked this with a few of my IT colleagues) is no signs of Internet activity what so ever... Why would you need to clean the Internet history if you have been open and honest??

When you consider your aptitude with the computer you should also consider the aptitude of your staff/family. In most cases the younger generations have far more information available to them than you can imagine. Using Google for less than 30 seconds I came across the following solution for the average surfer Click Here. In essence its a link to a "Proxy" website. If you don't listen to the YouTube video I shall explain; When you browse the Internet your computer can monitor the websites you visit and restrict you accordingly (see above). If however you go to a website that looks, for all intents and purposes, as if it has just a picture on it, then the control software generally lets it right through. Now if that picture was say interactive, as in it acted as if it was itself a website browser, some people might find it useful to use this as stepping stone to their favourite places on the net.

What this means to you and me is that there is a way of getting round expensive protection software. It leaves no trace of where they have been, and you have no control over where they go and what they get up to!

You know what its like when you are looking for a surprise for your loved one, if you are like me and like to use the Internet for purchasing items I know I will find a quiet place to take my laptop, the bedroom, bathroom, out in the shed and find that desired item. The same goes with kids, when they want to chat privately; its now normal for them to hide in their bedrooms, shut & possibly lock the door. How many times have you walked in on someone to see a frantic movement of the mouse and the screen changes dramatically from one image to something completely inane? We can only imagine what they are getting up to, conversations about kids at school, forums discussing how dreadful parents are for not letting them do this, that or the other, but sometimes it gets more involved. What I have found disturbing is when I come across images from web cams or pictures that that quite frankly should not be on their computers. I will let your mind consider that for a moment....

I appreciate we all need space, and the ability to express ourselves, but a level of control is also needed to protect our less than wise loved ones. When your kids have their respective "loving" partners over, are you happy for them to share a bed at the age of say 13/14? Maybe the person they are chatting to is not physically there with them but with webcam technology, they might as well be... And yes they can be quite explicit.

So whats the answer?

You have a number of options, software that you put on the PC to prevent your kids/partner having access to these sites, chats, etc. but as I've explained that's not always as useful as you might think, you could ban them from using the computer but we all know that their academic research relies on this technology, so you could just tell them not to visit these sites, and yes, of course that will work while you are watching... simplest solution is to watch then. Not all the time but put them in a public space in the home where they have to be sensible.

Below is a picture of a coffee bar a kind friend sent me after we talked about this subject. She has three kids who all spend a lot of time on the Internet and she found herself in the same situation as I've described. So rather than making an issue out of it she had someone build this in their kitchen. Perfect solution from my point of view. Its somewhere that the kids or adults can sit comfortably, have space for homework books, but most importantly it does not give them the opportunity to explore the areas of the net we just don't want them to be going to!

So in short, if you want to protect your loved ones from Internet abuse, make it simple, make sure the PC is in a family area, and NOT in the bedroom. You have been warned.

What really grinds my gears....

2009-05-12T16:33:00.007+01:00

Over the last few years I’ve found driving to be increasingly frustrating. Long gone are the days of enjoying gentlemanly behaviour and respect for your fellow road user. Now it seems to be about how quickly you can get from A to B but more than that its a competition, who will exit the roundabout first, who’s car can accelerate quickest and how can I protect the queue I’m in; I will not be overtaken! I’m sure you recognise the issues, vehicles give us a greater sense of invincibility, protecting us from face to face confrontation. I guess that’s why so many feel they can get away with being “rude, obnoxious and daft, and you feel like you’ve have quite enough.” But this lack of respect for others has taken away the pleasure of driving. Getting a wave let alone an acknowledgment, or thanks, from a fellow driver is now the exception, not the rule.

With this need to be more productive with our time comes the restrictions’ our nanny state inflicts upon us. A recent government announcement has suggested we reduce speeds even further, 20mph in most built up areas, 50mph on any road with a bend in it, and but thankfully we shall still be allowed to travel at 70mph on motorways, for now.

One insurance company was working on a “Pay as you Drive” system, using a black box fitted to your car containing Sat-Nav and mobile phone technology. It tracked your location, speed, and times driven and charged you depending on your driving habits. But from what I understood it was going to be prohibitively expensive to introduce so it’s been shelved, for now. Interestingly its main revenue stream was through of the sale of the collected data to such organisations as the government.

Recently I attended a Driver Awareness Course; yes I was caught speeding, 36 in a 30 if you must know, and I found the experience to be incredibly patronising, and ironically very much one way. It did however save me from 3 points on my licence and a £60 fine. The aim of the course is to help you understand why you need to reduce you speed; to increase road safety by not killing other people. I did learn a few things from the course, mainly don't cross your arm over the centre of the steering wheel; if the airbag goes off it will hit your arm and be less effective saving you. Now I appreciate the sentiment and there is a need to increase safety on the road but the increase in monitoring our activities though devices like speed cameras, and fining us for misdemeanours does seem to be disproportionally on the increase...

What I am building up to is that driving is getting to a point where it’s a chore not a pleasure. We seem to be in a downward spiral of bad behaviour, lack of respect and an increase in the technology to control us “being free willed humans.” What we need is a way to control our speed, reducing time spent travelling, improve safety, and a solution to the way we use vehicles to assert our superiority over others. There is a solution; "Driverless Vehicles".

Can you imagine the day when you step out your front door, climb into your car, or maybe one you have summoned via the "interweb." You tell it you need to get to London, the car asked you how much you are prepared to contribute to the Carbon tax, that determines’ how fast will arrive at your destination. The vehicle sets off, manoeuvres out of suburbia, joins the traffic train and is moving at the greatest pace for the conditions. Speed limits will be a thing of the past as computer control can compensate for road conditions, potential obstacles and fuel efficiency.

Once on the highway you will be travelling at say 130+ MPH, but that could increase depending on your carbon payment, you will be part of a train increasing aerodynamic efficiently and weave smoothly in and out of the slower freight and service vehicles. >You will relax whilst catching up on the latest blog entries, reading your email, or maybe trying to sleep whilst your passengers talk about the days when they used to be able to drive for themselves, the fights they had because someone cut them up and the freedom they thought they had...

These systems are already being developed; Jeremy Clarkson was driven round the Top Gear track recently by a BMW without touching the controls (try searching Google for "Driverless BMW Top Gear"), mind you I do recall a slightly more embarrassing example of a Mercedes that was demonstrating its driverless control - imagine the seen, driving into a foggy patch on a road and unbeknown to you there is a stationary car within the fog, another Mercedes as it was. Well the idea was the driverless car would spot this via various clever sensors and swerve & brake to avoid it. Well unfortunately it didn't and ran straight into the rear. Doh!

As you can see I have described just a few of the technologies that could be combined to make this new “transport system” work. >We already have driverless trains, there is talk of busses doing it, aeroplanes spend most of their flight in auto-pilot, so why not cars?

Despite it being some what in the distant future I do find the whole idea really exciting. Not having the stress of driving would be a pleasure, knowing you arrival time within a few minutes, having time to do other things than concentrate on driving, being able to take a phone call and not worry about being caught or just having a kip, how lovely would that be? Taking away the human element of driving, incompetence, inability, tiredness, bloody-mindedness, etc. will only improve safety.

But what about those who still enjoy driving; I'm sure we shall still see events like F1 and Touring car take place, Moto GP's etc. but maybe with different fuels, track days or skid pad events, not unlike horse jumping today, who rides a horse to work nowadays?

Maybe we will be monitored, but once parameters are set the vehicle does the rest, all under the “sensible controls” allowed by the highways agency or whoever’s in control by then?

It may be a long way off but the fundamental technology is there, all we need to do is apply it.

KERS: Could it save the planet?

2009-05-10T13:47:00.002+01:00

Some of you know I am an great fan of Motor Racing; Its been in the blood since the days of James Hunt, but most significantly due to my little brother Shawn, of Shawn Taylor Racing, who I've followed since his first motocross outing back in 1989/90.

This year the FIA introduced the option of the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) for the Formula 1 race cars. KERS is effectively a battery and electric motor system that gives the racing cars a boost of power (80bhp if you are interested), improving overtaking and charging up whilst breaking (reducing brake wear). It does however penalise the car by adding 30 kilos and weight is a premium in any racing car. It's very similar to the so call hybrid car now on the road today.

At present Ferrari, Renault and McLaren have chosen to use KERS on their cars this year but I get the impression the teams are not gaining the advantages the system was predicted to give, and like the Chinese GP Ferrari decided to ditch it for that race.

Looking at past we have seen many technologies given a huge development boost when the governing body allow access to the technology in events, like F1. The one technology that springs to mind is Active Suspension; in essence rather than the car "reacting" to the lumps, bumps and corners on the road, with the aid of computer control, the suspension became proactive, in essence preparing the suspension, by changing its stiffness, height or rebound (OK to techie for some, sorry), to allow the car to pass smoothly and stably over the road. The sad thing was it was removed not long after its introduction as it gave to much advantage to the cars that used it. But it didn't end there; now a multitude of vehicles come with active suspension as standard, mainly mid to high end vehicles, providing better road holding, more comfort and more importantly improved safety. Need more info, try this PAGE

With the present focus on the state of the economy, and more importantly to me the wasteful way we use energy, fuel, petrol, electricity etc. we are aware that we need to find more efficient ways to use the finite resources we have. I do feel we are missing a trick if we allow F1 to give up on a technology like Kers. Effectively it could provide a boost we need for battery technology, which is still has a very long way to go if Star Trek is to be believed?

Why am I bothered about battery technology, well I assume you know that the "the sun is the source of all our power" quoting Monty Python, utilising this free source of power we could not only heat our homes, water, etc. but we could make more use of the suns rays and store more of it as electric energy. Now if we have cheap, high capacity, low weight batteries, who knows what could do? I feel it could be quite a significant step in the way reduce the massive fossil fuel consumption our society has and facilitate cheaper energy, and wouldn't we all be happier with that?

1st blog entry in 27 years!

2009-05-07T08:35:00.004+01:00

Welcome to my first ever blog!

I've been working with technology and people for over 27 years now and thought it was about time to share some of my experiences with you. In those 27 odd years I've undertaken various professional courses, had lots of real-life experiences and have learnt loads along the way. Most importantly I have a passion to make the technology work for humanity, helping people understand and feel comfortable with "the beast". Hence why the strap line of my business is "Where technology's made simple..." (By the way, this blog is not an advert for my business, its about me, I guess that's one of the same in many ways.)

My hope is to be able to put technology into perspective; give you real life reasons why we should embrace the technology and not be afraid of it; explore a wide range of ideas & concepts and make sence of then without the jargon. Most of all I hope to inspire you!

So, why OmanDry you may ask, most of you clever types will see its an anagram of Raymond, that simple and as it seems to be relatively unique on the web so far I thought there is nothing wrong with that!

For now I shall wish you all a great week and hope to share more of me soon,

Raymond :-)