Scargill

Lots going on right now…

After what seems like a lifetime as IT Director and National IT Chairman of the FSB, I’ve decided to give it a miss. The reasons aren’t simple and include changes in the FSB itself – it is simply not the organisation I joined. Every year for the past 14 years, I’ve re-applied for the post and have never been opposed.

I’ve had a rarely- equalled freedom to take things in the direction I’ve wanted IT to go with unqualified support from the other directors. This year, the job role and authority changed, in my view in the wrong direction and when it came to putting in the papers I just could not bring myself to doing it. At the time, I didn’t know if anyone else was going for the role as this was handled externally. I wrote in to decline and left it at that.

I’ve only just found out that in fact someone did go for it – so perhaps it’s as well I stepped down – keeps my unopposed record intact if nothing else. Hah!

The role has been great fun and has helped me travel to Microsoft’s HQ in the USA, UK and Brussels, Google’s European and Irish offices and the Dell Thinktank in Amsterdam to name but a few. I’ve made friends with the EU ESBA team and travelled with them to Brussels, Ireland, Izmir and meetings at the top of the rock in Gibraltar where I’ve met with Gibraltar luminaries and learned so much about the place (as well as discovering what a pain the Spanish are being over there).

I’ve vice-chaired a multi-national EU team representing many nations, I’ve met Prime Ministers (and would-be Prime Ministers)  and countless ministers, been to Numbr 10 and the House of Commons many times, I’ve met stars of stage and screen, visited the various offices of Microsoft, Dell, Google and so much more – and now it is time for a break.

And so we’re planning a long summer in Spain, something we should have done a long time ago because Britain is NEVER going to have a fine summer whereas it is odds-on that when we stop over there until autumn, we’re unlikely to see more than a couple of days of heavy rain. Lovely.

But first, having just finished (more or less) work on Hollyberry Cottage which is now occupied through to the autumn, we’re working on Willow Cottage with a view to clearing the place out in the next few weeks (to rent as it happens) before we head off to the sun complete with cats. I am, accordingly, covered in paint.

Meanwhile the change has prompted me to look at phones! My last contract phone was the excellent Samsung S4 and I had planned to move onto the S6, but recently, two things happened to the phone – firstly the chrome started to come away from the front a little and secondly, being someone who uses LOTS of apps, I found myself running out of internal memory (even though the Samsung can use external memory for Apps (I have a lot)– they still eat up a good chunk of the internal and limited memory) and having seen that Samsung are not entirely invincible I decided to have a look around, concentrating on features rather than name.

It just so happened that a good and knowledgeable friend of mine had been trying out a Chinese phone and I asked him how the new phone was going – he replied saying that it was so good he’d bought more of them! I decided to investigate. I sold the Samsung to a friend who will love it…  and sent off my order for the new phone.

Now, in order to do this justice, you really are going to have to turn a blind eye to the name of the phone.. it’s called a Zopo (Mind you, even some of the big names sound silly – did you know that LG were originally called “Lucky Goldstar”). Yes, Zopo sounds like a cigarette lighter… but once you get past that, lets’ see why this might be a good phone or indeed, an excellent phone.

The model Z999 Pro Lion Heart is big, bigger than the S4 and the new HTC, but just as thin. It has two SIM sockets – rather handy for, erm, travelling to Spain! It also supports external microSD and it just so happens I have a fast 64GB microSim. It has 3GB of RAM – three times earlier phones… and finally it has 32GB of internal Flash memory – and to power all of that, an octal processor! My DESKTOP has an octal processor!!

With an HD screen who’s pixels are so small as to be utterly invisible, rendering text as good to the eye as a quality magazine and with superb colour rendering, this phone was off to a good start but here’s the thing – it is cheap enough to buy – hence I’m on a SIM-ONLY contract with THREE (I stayed with them for two reasons – firstly you can use your minutes overseas and even some data overseas and secondly, they have a little app that allows the phone to work where there is no signal as long as you have WIFI. I also have a 3 BOX that sits in the window sill and does the same thing  – gone are the days of having to drive up the hill to use the phone.

The Z999 is powerful, great looking and cheap – it does not have infra-red which was a shame (most phone don’t but the Samsung S4 and 5 do) but there are ways around that. It does however have a VERY sensitive GPS which unlike many phones, works indoors a treat. It also has Bluetooth, NFC, an FM radio, compass and all the other sensors and features (gesture recognition etc.) you’d nowadays expect with a top phone.

It came (very unusually) with a screensaver already fitted to the glass and a spare included. The camera is a particularly sensitive 14Mpx job and contrary to various articles it does have HDR.

Battery life is not stunning but then it isn’t with any of the top-end phones so I’ve ordered a rather large solar charger to take to Spain with me. I finished the long process of installing satnav maps for Britain and Spain – and then on a trip to Manchester I took some pics to check out the claims of it being better than the Samsung camera – I would say YES. Up to now I am VERY pleased with the phone.

If you’re looking in here for updates, head off to the Bedrock site for the moment as we’re enjoying a spot of sunshine. 8am here in Galera and the sun is out already – promises to be a great day for a spot of swimming.

Meanwhile I’ve been setting up something new on my gear at home – a piece of freeware called OwnCloud… you might not have heard of it but you’ve almost certainly heard of Dropbox – well, this is almost the same but instead of filling up an account, the data is stored at home, in my case on a permanently on “raid” storage system (that means there are two identical disks mirroring each other to ensure that my all important data is never lost). So OwnCloud sits on my PC, phone and tablet and for example (just like Dropbox) takes an automatic copy of any photos I take on the phone and stores them away for almost immediate access on the various systems I’m using – all without manual intervention. If you’re reading this and you are technically inclined you might want to check that product out.

Today once again, the Northern Line is in the hands of private industry and we were hoping for more as Virgin took over running this Scotland to London run.

Sadly it is not looking that way. I’m sitting on the Newcastle to London 14.00pm train to Kings Cross, first class. You will notice the screenshot on the left, taken from the Virgin sign-on page which looks for all the world like a re-branded version of that of it’s predecessor.

Note that “watch video streaming” is not allowed. I guess this is partly understandable because this uses up a lot of bandwidth – but then, that IS what people do these days – maybe it is time to modernise the creaking train connectivity which does not seem to have improved since it was installed years ago.

What is less understandable is “download large files” – by which they actually mean download ANY files. Dropbox is stone, cold dead, clearly blocked in an age where more and more of us use it for temporary file storage – i.e. for taking files on the road, today’s equivalent of the old idea of carrying a memory stuck around (and often losing it – ask the government, they do it all the time). File sharing is of course often used for downloading movies and again I could see that might be an issue – it is also used for transferring legitimate files however. Clearly they don’t want people doing business on the train, just as well they’re not currently running those deceptive ads showing people sitting comfortably doing business on the train.

Were we in a fixed location it would not matter as many of us have high speed connectivity of our own in our mobile phones which unless you were unfortunate enough to buy an iPhone contract as they tend to charge extra, can easily share a mobile connection with a laptop or tablet. But we’re not – and on the Northern run, just as on the A69, signal strength is, well, all too often a joke.

Maybe this is why they keep offering endless amounts of alcohol – to dull the senses so we don’t notice the other issues. Due to changing roles within our organisation, this could well be one of my last regular trips to London – I must say, the public transport journey won’t be missed.

I’m down here tonight to celebrate a colleague’s birthday at a nice Indian near Victoria no doubt and tomorrow morning we have an intense “Vision 2020” meeting, one of those ones with a facilitator and lots of buzzing – and then it’s back on the train again home, hopefully I’ll get a good shot at my home control development this week.

“Attention crew, disabled passenger alarm operating” – he’s probably cut his wrists.

When I started my involvement with the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) nationally – at the FSB’s Silver Anniversary, I recall the IT Chairman of the time rewarding my efforts for getting the Conference onto a website (well, no-one else was doing it so I figured the Northeast may as well be the first) by thanking me on stage and getting my name wrong. His name was John Harris and I later got to know John well before eventually taking on his role as IT Chairman.

Two years later I made sure we put our first (pretty small and poor quality) recorded videos onto a website and from there, every year, the (small) IT team which I’ve headed up for 14 years has put up an increasingly impressive show of technology which last year extended to near HD video recordings.

This year it is all change and for the first time we’ve live-streamed the conference. The FSB Conference website has lots of info and there’s a link to an App with full delegate and speaker information.

We’ve been at the ICC in Birmingham and it all started Thursday with the exhibition and AGM and from there we had two full days of Conference on Friday and Saturday during which we had key politicians and business speakers including Ed Milliband, Nick Clegg and George Osborne. All were excellent.

The venue was marvellous and for those of us staying at the Regency Hyatt, that is a very modern hotel which is so close to the venue they are actually connected by a glass and steel enclosed bridge.

During our brief visit to Birmingham we’ve had the opportunity to checkout the various waterways, some great restaurants and bars and generally we’ve had a great time.

The ICC has a fantastic display system and throughout the event, visitors and our people have made GREAT use of Twitter throughout.

Below we see the library – very impressive looking…

and one of many, many bars around the waterfront

and last but not least – the inside of the hotel

More information with full videos at http://www.fsblive.org/ and more information at http://www.fsb.org.uk/conference2015

#fsbconf

We have just had more than our fair share of celebrities at our Annual Conference which this year is being held in the ICC in Birmingham. I arrived on Tuesday and the festivities began yesterday.

This morning started off with George Osborne doing a really good speech about his views on business and what he feels he is doing to help, then we had Nick Clegg and finally Ed Milliband.

This afternoon there’s Geoff Birch who I was lucky enough to spend quite some time chatting to this morning about Spanish – he’s done a far better job of grasping the language than I have. Very interesting chap.

Anyway, a picture is worth 1000 words and I probably have 1000 pictures – here are just a few.

Met lots of people as this year, David Miles and I volunteered to help out and man the Media Bar and Internet Cafe so everyone heads our way at one point or another. 1000 people in here so it’s quite busy.

Quick test of the new ESP8266 code for driving the ws2812b LEDs… not far off 2 amps at 5v in at one end – GND and ESP8266 signal other end… fully tested with 300 serial LEDS – this is my next WIFI SAD LIGHT once I find something with enough power and some very thick cable. 70 LEDs here.

I have to say I did not hold a lot of hope out for today – this time in CREWE, stuck in a meeting the outcome of which I may not see as I’ll not be on the same committee when they next meet– however, the hotel is actually very pleasant. We’re staying at the Crewe Hall hotel which is a fabulous old building and the atmosphere is great – which is more than can be said for the food. I’d show you some pictures of the superb oak staircases but it’s all a little dark inside and every attempt at grabbing photos with my phone failed miserably.

It was my birthday today and I was quite stunned by the number of Facebook, LinkedIn and Skype good wishes – thanks to all for making my day and thanks to everyone who kept me laughing a good part of the day.

Spent the day in a long meeting – and in the process even managed a tiny trade that netted me enough to buy another Raspberry Pi (I think my enthusiasm in the blogs has contributed in some small way to the fact that everyone is now out of stock) and a complete set of surrounding toys (case, fan, WIFI dongle etc).

The day ended with a small number of us, mere remnants of the once-mighty curry club,  who, faced with the notion of supporting a large business with a not very nice restaurant, or a small restaurant with decent Indian food, decided to go out and do our bit for small businesses – and very pleasant it was too. Even that was not without incident as the management narrowly avoided a fight as one guy who’d finished the meal without actually having the funds to pay for it ended up in a slanging match with the manager. Ultimately he paid half the price and cleared off. As you’d expect, the police, no doubt tied up with something serious like a parking violation, eventually turned up long after the whole affair was over – that could have been exciting as we were material witnesses however they chose not to bother us.

And so tomorrow is another day – a day of meetings– and Ebay shopping.

The FSB had it’s annual Chairman’s dinner last night at Number One Great George Street. Always interesting not least because of the amazing architecture, we had a couple of good speakers but sadly I could not tell you a word they said due to the acoustics in the room which produced a continuous echo whenever the speaker said anything. I figured it might be me so I asked others at my table and the response was always the same … can’t make out a word. We had a number of well known faces in politics such as Stephen Timms but I did note that Vince Cable was missing for once!

That didn’t stop it being a grand event so here are some pics. i left the Canon at home and the lighting isn’t ideal for a mobile phone so bear with me…

Firstly on the right, the hall where we had dinner – you can make this pictures larger by clicking on them. Below, remarks by a very enthusiastic Hushpreet Dhaliwal: ‘Enterprise for All’ at the drinks reception. I trieddozens of shots to get both her and FSB Chairman John Allan smiling at the same time… to no avail.

Why the Big Ben shot? Well, I was there anyway so rather than having a late drinking session (we were up the night before until 1am a the Indian restaurant) I cleared off after dinner and took some photos.

On the way back to the hotel I just happened to stumble on a bar selling Leffe!!

And that was that over for another year.

Perhaps you though I was going to say something relevant about Spain? No… that’s a pub in Brussels – on the corner of Grand Place to be precise and the image you see is half way up the stairs. My trip this week to Brussels went well other than a shocker on timescales which means we need to work more quickly than we’d anticipated.

Our work with ESCO is about to be set in stone and translated into multiple languages – which is gratifying one the one hand but one always would like to do better. I’m like that with some of my electronics – I have to force myself to actually finish something off and move on because you can always improve what you’ve done.

Anyway I’m back – I’m down in London actually for another round of meetings but during my brief stay in Belgium I managed, despite the rather nasty tail end of the flu to meet up with some chums as well as getting a great deal of work done.  When I get a minute I’ll post some more of my pictures up.

This week starts with a trip to Belgium via London – I can’t believe I have to sit around in Heathrow for a couple of hours – sitting here making sure my laptop is up to date so I can do something useful with the time. First stop this week will be Brussels  We have some work to complete rapidly for the EU ESCO project with the international team I’ve been working with now for, well, approaching a couple of years I guess and I’m hoping to meet up with an old pal while I’m over there for a few drinks at the King of Spain in Grand Place (that’s if the remnants of flu will allow it) on Monday night.

2 days of intense meetings in Brussels then I’m back to London – Victoria area for 2 days of FSB meetings – and that just about wraps the week up once you take travel into account. I’ve spent much of the weekend buried in paperwork but this evening we had a very pleasant wine tasting evening in Bellingham, Northumberland.

And that’s about it – I’ve been working on my technical blog which is topping 3,000 page views a day… who would have thought it. The outcome is a vast hike in knowledge thanks to being able to bounce ideas of so many people so next weekend I plan to start constructing some new kit to take to Spain with us in February to bring our home over there into the 21st century.

Both of us have been really bad this week with the flu but Maureen is now starting to come around, I think I have another couple of days to go, can’t stop sneezing right now. Nothing else is new.