A call on the phone when I’m driving home is rarely a good thing. I’m never sure I should take them but the hands free option makes it hard to say no. The number was from Manchester and not one I recognised, nor was the voice on the other end of the line when I … Continue reading Why my website?
Being a director
How many of us are doing things which we never really set out to do? I always hope that I will wake up one day and know what it is that I want to be when I grow up. In the meantime, I’m just going to take the opportunities that come my way and that … Continue reading Being a director
A successful implementation
It’s a long time back now since I helped North Tyneside Council move into their new offices at Cobalt. It must be at least ten years yet I remember it well. Our job was to make sure that the technology worked and that people were able to carry on as normal having moved from their … Continue reading A successful implementation
Data Mill North
Today, a bunch of us went down to visit Leeds Data Mill. By the time we got there it had been rebranded to Data Mill North. The name offered a wider catchment area and allowed for a broader political scope yet this is not germane to the story. Data, both open and big has been … Continue reading Data Mill North
A boom and bust kitchen
We’ve had the benches replaced in our kitchen. The old ones were looking a little tired and didn’t quite fit in with a more modern colour scheme. Bench tops are a first world problem. It doesn’t sound like a big job yet we ended up having to move a fair bit of stuff. It wasn’t … Continue reading A boom and bust kitchen
The quadruple helix
Have you heard this one? The quadruple helix. Not the double helix of Watson and Crick or even the triple helix of university, industry and government. They’re old hat. Genetics came of age in the fifties while Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff were talking triples in the nineties. Like industry 4.0, I keep hearing this phrase. It … Continue reading The quadruple helix
Talking about satellites
They say there is no such thing as a free lunch but this was dinner. Does that count? I was at the boutique Hotel du Vin in Newcastle for a problem framing dinner as a guest of the North East Satellite Applications centre, or the catapult as it is otherwise known. A group of us … Continue reading Talking about satellites
There is just too much
My head is aching. There is just too much to take in these days. Life is changing so fast and in so many directions you could spend a life time working on a single item in a single field and never run out of things to do. Last week’s Socitm North East meeting was a … Continue reading There is just too much
A continuity of business
Is your resilience ever that resilient? Can you ever be sure that your failover will fail over or will your n plus one leave you with nothing? The problem with your business continuity is that it is almost impossible to test. Of course it works on paper and the salesperson isn’t wrong in trying to … Continue reading A continuity of business
Suffragettes
I know it’s not the same thing but there are a lot of parallels between today’s political machinations and the challenges faced by the suffragettes: disenfranchisement of a large part of the population, a feeling of unfairness, not being listened to and a string of simplistic solutions to very complicated problems. I see this because … Continue reading Suffragettes
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 