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From the News:

Post Office director cross-examination confirms lack of investigation into branch IT problems

from Computer Weekly
The Post Office failed to investigate alleged computer system errors that could cause losses for subpostmasters despite being offered evidence, the high court heard. This was at a time when the system was under scrutiny from the media and members of parliament as a result of stories about unexplained losses being experienced by subpostmasters, who run Post Office branches. The…
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Torn

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Regular readers of this blog will know three key things about me, if they have given any thought about the threads that run through these posts. Firstly, I like the technology. Of course, it has to be used well and beneficially rather than just being something interesting for its own sake. But there are so many examples where that is […]
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Keep Calm and Carry On

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The title of this blog originates from the popular, but now perhaps somewhat tired slogan, which originated in the war but surprisingly wasn’t used in that era. It has enjoyed sing in vogue relatively recently appearing on mugs, cards and even cushions. It is frequently followed by the phrase “it’s only [fill in event of choice]”. I might suggest we […]
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Knocking on Evan’s door

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I’d like to say something positive about the BBC. No, really. Having written blogs recently about the rapidly diminishing ability to ask questions and even more importantly the need to listen to the answers before asking a follow up question, it’s time to give credit where credit is due. The BBC has brought Evan Davis back to Radio 4 as […]
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Not up to date – and that is okay

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For the first time since I don’t know when, none of my Apple hardware is the latest version. My iMac is the 5k model, Mac mini is late 2012 (although only 18 months old), my iPad Pro is the 10.5” version, my MacBook the late 2014 version and my phone is an iPhone 6S. My Apple Pencil is now just […]
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Complexity

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An old boss of mine, Marjorie Scardino, when she was at Pearson used to say “make things simple. It’s not always easy but it’s usually right”. I’ve quoted her before and I think she’s right – it isn’t easy. There is a lot of discussion about Universal Credit at the moment. Partly because the budget is coming, and vested interests […]
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Good Question

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A couple of blogs ago I was berating the Today Programme for, amongst other perceived sins, asking the wrong sort of questions to get people to open up and actually say something interesting rather than, robot like, stick to the party line. I didn’t name any good questioners. Yet, almost in front of my eyes was a journalist who does […]
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Positive Feelings

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I read an article in New Scientist recently – it is a recent addition to the magazines at my barber. I don’t need to get my hair cur very often these days, but having free access to New Scientist may make me go more frequently. In the latest edition Dr. Alia Crum who heads up the Mind and Body Lab […]
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Any Questions?

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I wake up to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 most mornings. My internet radio gently increases volume to reach the desired point and it’s a pretty painless experience. But nothing can prepare me for the hectoring approach many of the presenters adopt. The Today programme has come in for criticism recently. It appears listeners are leaving in quite […]
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Predicting Failure

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Just this week, we’ve been told that the world is about to burn up because of man-made global warming – as exemplified by this glorious summer, and (yet again) that Brexit will be an unmitigated disaster for the UK economy. There is a long and inglorious list of predictions which turned out to be nonsense. From Thomas Watson’s perspective that […]
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Digital Diversity

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CIO Connect ran the final workshop before the summer break a couple of weeks ago on the topic of diversity. We invited our largely male membership to bring a female colleague with them. Although this was slightly awkwardly done – it’s hard to word such an invitation effectively – we had, probably for the first time, an audience roughly split […]
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Not Normal

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As the late, great Douglas Adams said “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” Whenever the world seems a […]