Bluetooth, Hearables, IoT, Smart Energy and other random Stuff
And everything else…
My favourite T-shirt has four words on it – the elements Fluorine, Uranium, Carbon and Potassium. When I first saw it, I loved the joke and bought it. Since then, I’ve worn it frequently, including at many technical events and conferences around the world. Yet I’ve only found around a dozen people who have got it. Even when amongst fellow engineers, I’m more likely to be asked what it means. So, I’ve made up a story about it. Which goes like this:
It’s one of the best know trademarks in the world, which has been in use for over 125 years. It’s also a surprisingly complicated mark – not many trademarks are oil paintings. If you recognised it, well done. Except it’s not what you thought it was. This is the original painting – not the one that everyone recognises, and it has a strange story.
I have a friend who recently reached 70, having worked in and around the telecoms industry. Hallmark and Scribbler don’t have many cards aimed at that specific combination, so it felt like time to design a custom card. Being of that annoying engineering bent, I wondered what 70 would appear as in different number bases.
Imagine my surprise when I found that 70 in Base 18 is 3G, and In Base 27, it’s 2G. Both of which are being “sunsetted” around the world, as mobile operators refarm their spectrum allocation to increase revenue from their 4G and 5G networks. I couldn’t believe the coincidence. And so, a birthday card was born.
On Thursday 30th January we are finally going to see a debate in Parliament about changing the UK’s “first-past-the-post” voting scheme, which will probably suggest some form of proportional representation, more commonly known as PR.
Two years ago, when it was looking pretty certain that the Conservatives would lose the 2024 election, I wrote an article suggesting that Rishi Sunak should devote his final term to bringing in Proportional Representation. If he had, we might have a very different Government to the one we have today. In 2024, Labour won the election, gaining 411 seats with 33.7% of the votes, The Tories slipped to 23.7% of the total votes, which gave them only 121 MPs. One reason for their poor performance was that the right wing vote split between them and Reform, with Reform picking up 9 seats for 14.3% of the vote. Had Rishi gone for Proportional Representation, and then found a way of working with Reform, their combined 38.0% of the vote would have given them 247 seats, compared to 219 for Labour.
Now that we’re into 2025, Microsoft is ramping up its reminders that we only have nine months of Windows 10 support left, so now’s the time to go out and buy a shiny new Windows 11 PC. The implication is that after 14th October, when security updates for Windows 10 stop happening, every hacker around the world will be stealing your data, turning this into the new Y2K disaster. (For younger readers, Y2K was the belief that computers would stop working on Jan 1st, 2000, sending the world back to the stone age.)
So, we all need to plan for the W10 Armageddon, whether you’re a PC owner, a hacker, or just the manager of the local landfill tip.
London. 1st April 2023. Arts Council England has just announced its support for a new piece of music theatre, awarding £12.8 million for the development of “HS2 – The Musical”. This commitment showcases the Council’s policy of funding the Arts in joining and levelling up the country, reflecting and capturing the ambitions of the Government’s flagship HS2 project.