Why only mobile phones? - We believe that mobile phones have changed their characteristics. For the first time students are now always carrying powerful computers that are capable of providing highly personal learning experiences.
It would be nice if we could say that this is the age of the “Personal Digital Assistant”, but John Sculley beat us to that 14 years ago. At that stage the PDA was a fairly small computer with handwriting recognition, not the intelligent assistant that today’s mobile phone is.
It is a shame that we can’t use that great label, the best we have at the moment is smartphone so lets stick with that!
So to the real nitty gritting, what’s so great about these smartphones? Well, they can run fairly complex programmes with good graphical capabilities. OK they are not fully functioning games consoles yet - but they have the power to manage adequate 2D and 3D graphics. Installing software on a smartphone is easy, in most cases, it is just a matter of sending a text message and getting the software as a reply.
If these smartphones have limitations, it is not really in computing power, the limitations are screen size and restricted input. However, when looked at carefully, these provide new opportunities.
The screen size means that software must be carefully designed to ensure that learning is enjoyable.This level of design can increase signficantly the challenges of designing for these platforms.
A consequence of the small screen is that only one person can review the content at a time, so learning is highly personal. For example, if a student makes a mistake whilst working on a problem, or takes longer to complete a problem than others, the mistakes are private, which can increase comfort for the student whilst learning. If a peers create stigma when studying, in this personal environment the student can keep their activities private, who knows what they are doing: revising, texting or playing a game. For this reason, as we’ll cover later, phones do not have a place in the classroom.
Restricted input means that input is restricted to numbers, movement and a few other buttons. For users, these restrictions mean usability is simple and this generally suits the environments in which the phone is used. It also means that existing or conventional software is not easily adaptable, but must be severely reworked or designed specifically for these devices. This is good as the restrictions cause the designer to really re-imagine and re-design how users interact with the software.
Completely new learning opportunities are created by these devices because they are with the student at all times. This allows mobile software to become pro-active in assisting the student, using artificial intelligence techniques our software assesses a student’s existing knowledge, the software can then provide optimised assistance at appropriate times to maximise the students ability to recall.
Ironically, the one place that the student will not have a mobile device available is probably the class room. In this setting mobile phone learning can be highly disruptive and the strengths of the personal learning environment are quickly eroded by the weaknesses. A problem for a tutor is to assess what a student is doing on their phone - even the most studious of students might prefer to respond to a message rather than complete an exercise on the phone. For these reasons it is our belief that educational tools on mobile phones will not have a place in the classroom, until there are methods that will allow tutors to overcome these issues.
Luzia Research was set up to discover ways to take the unique features of the modern mobile phone and create innovative software. We want our software to play to the strengths of these devices and allows us to compliment classroom learning in completely new ways.
We have much more to tell you about our vision for mobile educational tools, and that is what this blog is here to do.
Stay tuned!
]]>As UK residents we are all licence fee payers and therefore we fund the BBC, and on questions of the value we get for that licence fee we are happy with the TV and Radio broadcasts and the extensive access that the BBC has given us to news and all it’s other content via the BBC website.
We have also read stories relating to complaints about the BBC and it’s effect on competition and innovation in certain markets - newspapers, television companies and publishers. The general feeling after reading these stories is that the BBC should continue to publish it’s content online and not hold content back. Holding content back would only mean that companies would sell similar content to us, even though we have already paid for it.
Our perspective has changed now we can see that the BBC is commissioning mobile content for education - and the question for us is how much will this impact on Luzia. If the BBC is giving software away for free - can we compete?
Will the BBC, by experiementing in this area, highlight to a wide audience the benefits of using these techniques? Will they take our ideas and their great resources and commission work with us? Will they encourage larger organisaitons into this area?
At the moment we are unable to see the effect the BBC is having, only over the next year will it become apparent, for the moment we welcome the BBCs work and hope it helps create demand for mobile educational tools. We hope this involvement is kept to a minimum and once they have helped promote this area, they make sure that their activities do not create an environment that stiffles innovation.
]]>The interviews have turned up two unexpected points so far:
1.Only 40% of the students interviewed had mobile phones.
2.The use of Bluetooth by students in the school is huge.
The first was a surprise as the national statistics suggest that 95% of children in this age range have mobile phones - and this has been a basis of some of our assumptions. We believe the 40% is related to the sample of students (10 out of 300). We will compiling a full survey of the 300 Year 9 students in the near future to find out if this is a trend across the entire school.
The second point is of much more interest as our current software designs make no use of Bluetooth. We have assumed Bluetooth would only introduce set up issues and complications, especially between different handsets. We are now thinking of ways to engage students using Bluetooth - but still create personal learning spaces.
The high usage of Bluetooth has lead us to think carefully about activation of software. Using Bluetooth means that our software could appear on mobiles who have not paid for the software. As complimentary as this would be is it also an aspect we need to think about to make sure that our ventures and ideas can keep us properly rewarded.
]]>He told me about a brilliant idea where students from different schools travel to The Hague to join a student version of the UN - see here for more details. He had recently taken a group who got the privilege of taking Israel’s seat (each school represents a real UN country). The experience was eye-opening for both him and the students, seeing how they were treated by other “countries” and to reflect on Israel’s history. I was very impressed with this idea and think that it is a fantastic opportunity for students to understand the UN and world affairs.
We also talked about mobile education ideas and since I have been back he posted me a link to this site: www.radicalgeography.co.uk and in particular this article.
Tony Cassidy the guy who runs the site, teaches in Nottingham and has been getting Bluetooth education going for a while in a nice and simple way. Teachers and students are creating small images that have text overlaying a picture which helps re-enforce a concept. These pictures are easy to create with standard windows software and are made small enough to be seen on a mobile phone screen.
Bluetooth is then used by students to swap the images between each other. As we have seen in our interviews Bluetooth is used in schools already by most students for messaging and file transfer, so this is a nice way to make sure it is used positively.
There is no mention on the site about how successful the idea has been - but I look forward to more news coming out from there.
]]>This software has been built using content ideas from Sums Online, which is already being used in 700 UK schools. The Sums Online software covers 80 different aspects of the Key Stage 1 & 2 curriculum and we have adapted 4 of these games for the mobile phone to test usability and interest with children.
Whilst gathering feedback from the teachers we also had a questionnaire, which turned up some interesting results. The results of this survey can be seen on our site.
The feedback on the software gave us a few points that need to be refined, but most of these we already knew as it was the Alpha version. Overall the feedback was that teachers would recommend the software, once it was shown to have a positive impact on children’s learning.
It positive to have a general acceptance from the teachers of the ideas. There were a few teachers who felt that children should not be encouraged to use phones anymore than they already do. The teachers who were resistant to the idea, did also say that they themselves should review their attitude to new technology as they couldn’t see students putting the phones down and in that case it was better to have educational programmes being used.
These trends are not just based in the US - Islington council in London has similar plans and other cities here are also looking into it.
The reasoning behind a lot of the free wireless access is to make sure that all of a cities population have equal access to information and services and that any “digital divide” is reduced. Brighton’s council are putting together a wireless service to link up schools and remote offices cheaply, but also selling bandwidth to internet cafes, residents and businesses to help support this.
What might this mean for m-learning? At the moment when focusing on school age students our software does not rely too heavily on internet access. This is because the access they have to internet connections is limited and this is mostly because of the cost of connecting from a mobile phone to the internet. A new generation of phones is starting to provide wireless access along with normal phone connections, if the student can access free wireless then the internet can be relied upon much more.
Will this herald an age of connected/supportive learning with peers - perhaps “social learning”? Possibly - most computers today are internet connected and “social learning” has started to happen. Schools are now handing out home work via the internet and getting homework submitted via the internet. Students do use MSN and other chat programs to support each other during homework.
Perhaps the biggest aspect of “social learning” that mobile phone software will be able to foster will be motivation though competition, which can be quite important in motivating boys, by allowing them to publish their progress on a website.
Let’s see what happens!
]]>One of his main motivations seems to be that he would like to spend more time focused on tutorials and small groups. He also believes that his students will review more of his content if they can do that where they want, and when they want.
I am intriuged by this idea and commend Dr Bill Ashraf at Bradford University for trying it out, I do have some questions though. Will he get more time with the students? Will this free up his time or initially will it take up much more time with technical support of problems, recording the lectures etc? I imagine next year things will be more effective as the lecture series can be re-run and that will free up a lot of time - but what about this year’s students will they suffer?
I imagine that things will balance out this year as students will be able to “attend” more of the lectures and also review the content as they are struggling with concepts during their revision and assignment work.
One of the other ideas, submitting questions via text message, I am not so sure of. I will be interested to see how many people use this route rather than in person or via email.
Providing all answers via a blog though must again only help students who need to review work for revision and other work. The body of work in this blog will also help students in succesive years.
Good Luck Dr Ashraf - and should you happen to come across this note - please keep us informed of your progress.
]]>Not a surprising statistic on it’s own but 80% of the children in the survey who have a mobile phone said that they have a better social life.
50% of those questioned admitted to sending and receiving a text during a lesson. They also preferred texting to making a phone call, and send on average 10 texts a day.
Nice statistics, but what can we learn from them. Well certainly the phone is now ubiquitous from the age of 12 upwards. The phone also has a key role in the social life of children.
I’ve looked for further psychological research or evidence to see if anyone is looking into the impact these trends but have none - feedback welcome if you know of some!
]]>You can now learn German, French, Italian or Spanish - links in the sidebar!
Feedback welcome.
]]>The talk was about how the media landscape is changing and how there is a lot of bewilderment about it - and why he thinks there shouldn’t be.
I took a lot from his talk - but I’m not sure I completly picked up the right end of the stick John was throwing - here are my musings inspired by his talk though.
He proposed a idea that was new to me - that economics is struggling to cope with modelling and explaining how things succeed or fail in this totally connected world. His theory is that economics was created for and works with markets that have a scarcity of resources. The world of on-line applications and digital media means that there is a no longer a scarcity of resources, but in fact there is an abundance of resource - and economics struggles to cope with modelling this.
The proposition of abundance is true - internet sites such as google, flickr, myspace and youtube have all been started as small “bootstrapped” projects. They needed money and resources to get to where they are now - but by the point they looked for capital either the capital they needed was low - or they had taken out a lot of the risk of the investment by proving things worked. (OK OK I know that there are a lot of companies that have failed - but lets just put that down to bad investment decisions by idiots rather than ruin my whole flow here!).
So where an Economist would talk about supply and demand - we can see that the only big supply issue here is ideas. If demand is there - you have a nice model, if not - go get another of those cheap ideas and try again. Abundance of resource is confusing things - consumers are in the driving seat.
In this world though where the consumer calls the shots and resources are abundant - the idea that a competitor can copy what you are doing overnight (almost) means that things are harder for on-line businesses.
Take Microsoft for example - they have lived in a distorted marketplace for years, where they have all the power - I don’t believe in the on-line world this will happen again (but they can probably look forward to another 5-10 years).
Google - the Internet’s favourite new monopolist (and the Overloads of blogger.com), they have created their position by listening and reacting to the consumer - recognising the consumer has the power - and rarely disagreeing. Could it all change for them? yes I think so - their monopoly is not with consumers it is with advertisers. They now have the majority of the search market and therefore have considerable power with advertisers (there is no abundance of consumers - so supply and demand still work here). Onewrong step though (maybe 5) - stop listening to consumers - and that will be the end of that.
This is where Ecology comes into the picture - John’s argument was that Ecology is used for studying complex interactions and symbiosis of many organisms. Our totally networked society is such a complex landscape of interacting people, organisations and applications that Ecologists already have the tools to start analysing it.
OK - I don’t think John was suggesting we all go and get our stock tips from the nearest Ecologist quite yet - but what he was saying was that the fact that so many economists are baffled by the behaviour in this “new” world - is completely understandable - they have no way properly understand it.
What next then - how to use these ideas? I’m not sure I’ve emailed John for any links and papers he can give me on the subject.
His talk ended with a point that success on-line is less survival of the fittest (resource rich) but the smartest (listen, look and analyse) - a rallying call if ever I heard one - when you are a small company - let’s hope it holds true.
I’m not sure if my piece here makes 100% on the subject - John has written about New Media Ecology previously and this could well be a good starting point for anyone interested.
I’d also suggest - reading the Wikipedia article on Media Ecology to see that the idea was first raised by Marshall McLuhan when looking at the dominance of television as “the” dominate media in 1977.
]]>I’m still struggling to understand the relevance of Ecology - apart from I can see the shape of something that should make sense.
I talked about the market yesterday and abundance of resources meaning the consumer holding all the power. John also brought up examples where consumer power was increasing off-line because of the increased information that consumers now have access to prior to making their purchase. None of this seems to contradict an economic viewpoint - if anything it create a more utopian marketplace where both supply and demand is balanced and competition is ripe.
So I’m wondering still what can be learnt from this idea of Ecology or if it is just a stretched analogy that served it’s purpose on Monday and would do well not be taken any further.
The rise and fall of internet businesses and the trends that survive and those that fall by the wayside seem to still have as much basis in the ideas of Adam Smith and Charles Darwin as they did on Sunday for me.
I want to take something more from this - but I think this is more about the changing role of television and mass media than it is about economics and success on the internet.
Shame though as I liked my end of the stick!
I’ll keep the phrase “survival of the smartest” to motivate me though and look out for any Ecologists who are winning on the stock markets.
Well I’m off to find another stick to pick up at the wrong end and slowly work my way up to the other end.
]]>The idea that we can have one device to meet all of these needs is obviously far fetched - but I think still we will try - but if anything this goes to show why the mobile world will continue to have an range of devices and then a range of manufacturers.
Mobile devices are just much more personal and need to reflect the needs of the owner either in form and function or just in fashion.
]]>What a dream to use - probably shouldn’t say that on a blogger website - hopefully the overlords won’t mind!
Just in case anyone is thinking of using it I can only recommend it!
One of the best things is the sitemaps plugin that pings google each time you publish a page and rebuilds the sitemap.
]]>Guy was talking about using twitter as a notepad - sending ideas to a store on the internet - a use I hadn’t considered it for.
We also discussed the ability to broadcast messages to people and how this could be used in group work - more applicable to adult or university education than schools, would be interesting for distance learners.
It seems that the idea without a business model (Twitter) seems to be able to potentially have lots of uses - but still none that are likely to make the current developers much money.
Talking of which I hope they get their infrastructure upgraded soon as these outages are not encouraging me to use the service at the moment.
]]>FTA : “Studies are beginning to show that cellphone-toting execs and Facebook-friendly teens may be multi-tasking their way into taking on even more, by rewiring their brains to handle it.”
Now we have even more reasons to find new ways to support their learning - their brains are different to ours!
]]>Research deciphers ‘déjá-vu’ brain mechanics - MIT News Office
The research seems to only cover spacial déjá-vu not the situation ones that I tend to suffer from a lot - but I guess it is a step forward.
]]>Children’s experiences of technology outside the classroom way ahead
I’d love to find a way to get he classroom more interactive - but with my focus on the mobile phone I guess I’m going to have to stay out of the class room and just help with the powered up state.
]]>I’m not sure what use the research is yet - apart from providing a good excuse for me to explain why picking up Mandarin* was so hard - but it is certainly interesting.
I would be interested to see if there are common differences in the language processing areas of the brains also - otherwise I am confused as to what the genetic difference means.
Anyway it is interesting research and I thought I’d make sure any current Mandarin* students could add it their list of reasons why it is so hard to learn, listen and talk tonal languages.
Linguistics | Words in code | Economist.com
*Other tonal languages exist
]]>I hope more of this happens it seems that this could get rid of some myths in teaching and parenting, but until the results are repeated and tested in alternate ways it could also create some new myths.
I have this picture that because of the research that rhythm has something to do with dyslexia is one of those newly proven links that if not researched and proven in more depth could result in the next generation in the UK all turning to percussion and drumming because of a well intentioned parents.
Find out more about learning a language using your phone at http://getawayphrases.com.
]]>Skype is a great tool at connecting people and very good at connecting a English speaking person wanting to know Mandarin with a Mandarin speaker who wants to learn English.
Podcasts and other technologies also get a mention - pity they overlooked the impact that memory training and learning a language with a mobile phone is also making.
]]>To do with the price of fish | Economist.com
I have used the story because it shows how the most unexpected of consequences can arise from the introduction of a technology. In this case the introduction of better communications has meant that a marketplace has operated more efficiently. this could never have been seen as a consequence of creating SMS or introducing SMS to India.
When looking at mobile education in schools a similar surprise seems to come from the trials in Wolverhampton. An unexpected consequence of introducing hand-held devices to the classroom and giving one to each student has been better communication about school between students and parents. As far as I understand it this has been as a result of the fact that students have been easily able to show parents what they have created that day at school - because it is in their pockets.
This could never have been foreseen by the Dave Whyley and the team - but what a great outcome.
]]>Please don’t get me wrong I not sitting around passively waiting for something / anything to happen - I find myself waiting for a very particular thing to happen.
I’d like not be so passive in the process but there is little I can do, I waiting on a decision that is completely out of my control. The worst thing is that not only is it out of my control, but it is being made by people I’ll never meet, in another country, and they have no idea of the consequences of their decision.
For them it is a just business deal, if they take the right decision it should help grow their business and increase the satisfaction of their end users and that is all they care about. For me it is big deal, if they chose to go ahead it will mean that my girlfriend, Nicole, will be asked to move to Germany and establish a German version of the company she works for.
We have both discussed what would happen and I am keen to try out living in Germany, Nicole however has some reservations. Nicole is German, and returning to Germany is not a priority for her or necessarily appealing. There are positives, like being much closer to her family - she recently became an aunt and is missing the development of her new Nephew. I think the main thing though is that she made a decision to leave Germany and discover the rest of the world so going back in some ways seems like a failure.
I like the idea a lot, I’d like to improve my German so that I can better communicate with her family. I also recognise that initially Nicole moved to the UK, to be with me and I think that in a balanced relationship it would be better to spend some time also in Germany so that there is no lingering guilt around about why we live in a particular place or unbalanced sacrifices that we have made.
As of now however - we are waiting for a decision that will have a huge impact on our lives and that is made by a group of people in Germany who have no idea about what they are really deciding. The decision has so far been put off twice, but we are now waiting until the 26th June for what we hope will be the definitive decision.
In the meantime I’ve decided to start a blog.
]]>It is an interesting read - mostly because it wasn’t something I would expect of Germany, generally quite an open country, you certainly see more nudity there than in the UK. The English Garden in Munich is an example, some of the posters on lamp posts I saw when I cycled there etc give the impression of a country pretty comfortable with nudity and the human body.
News like this also upsets me as I am one of the people who believe what is described in the article as the ‘myth’ that the internet is uncontrollable / unregulateable. I understood the viewpoint of the different European countries that told eBay they must not allow Nazi memorabilia to be sold in their countries as it was illegal, but it is moves that limit people’s freedoms like this that allow laws that have enabled the above story.
It is hard to know where to draw the line of freedom of information - I am still of the view that the more information is free the more people can decide for themselves. The only problem is that I am not sure my idealised world works when others limit what people can see (Governments, ultra-extremists Muslims, Scientologists, creationists etc.).
]]>The key points to note seem to relate to English skills and maths - where the investment has had an impact.
Why is the impact not as high as technophiles might have liked it to be? Well that is hard to guess from the outside - there is a reference in the report to say that the curriculum was not flexible enough in a lot of areas to make the most of the technology.
Is a study like this happening for handheld technologies?
]]>I guess we really shouldn’t have got our hopes up so much, visiting Stuttgart and seeing where we might live made the whole thing much more real for us. Nicole found a building for the office they would have and we could imagine what life would be like there and we liked it.
Anyway another week of waiting! :-(
]]>The set that went north got stuck in ice packs and have been slowly moving north of Russia at the rate of a mile a day in the ice and after 8 years are now coming out of the ice and into the north sea.
They have been bleached by the sea and ice and are now white duckies not yellow ones - but after all of that they are on their way to the UK and Ireland - even better if you find one there is a £50 reward from the manufacturer or even better a £250 auction price on eBay.
Keep your eyes peeled!
]]>We are still waiting for a decision that might change our lives, but after things started to make the move more unlikely last week - we have spent a while reducing our expectations of an imminent move to Germany.
I was quite surprised emotionally how attached I was to the idea, it took me a few days to fully deal with the fact that we would probably not now be going to Germany.
Tomorrow is still a key deadline - and you never know it might swing the other way again - but for the moment our expectations are much lower and we are expecting to still be in Milton Keynes by Christmas.
]]>BBC NEWS | Health | Yawning may keep us ‘on the ball’
Apparently yawning cools down the brain - to help keep us awake and it may be infectious because it is a survival instinct to yawn when you see others yawning - i.e. staying awake and alert.
]]>Now at least technology and eDemocracy have allowed some people to vote for a new 7 wonders of the world (n7w: 07.07.07) - apparently people have been voting for a set of wonders via text message and on-line.
The only annoying thing - how come I’ve only found out afterwards!!!
Anyway I am sure that this will get updated each year and so it should - wonderment changes as we discover new and interesting things - will the pyramids ever stop being a wonder? Thank god the Hoover dam had left the list!
]]>The idea sounds simple and easy to use - and I am a little worried about the amount of information that can be contained in a response - but it really sounds like it is going in the right direction.
Press Release here : News Centre : Department for Children, Schools and Families
]]>Bridgeit: Using Mobile Technology to Improve Educational Opportunities - Shareideas
Whereas we might think of a large store of DVDs with content or even to stream content from a server - this really simplifies the equipment needed - a phone, a satellite dish and a TV.
I love simple ideas!
]]>After bring you news of the little white duckies that have taken 8 years to travel through ice to land on British shores, I thought I must point out the 105 foot rubber duck that has be set adrift from the French coast:
SFGate: World Views : Why a giant duck? This summer, why not?
]]>Obviously we have heard this before - but we can see.
So our finally the waiting is coming to an end - another thing that is now certain the previous date of September looks unrealistic and now January might be a possibility.
Tune in for news next week.
]]>There is a man in china though who can clap as loud as a helicopter!
I am not sure if this sort of thunderous clap counts as a god-like power - be I wonder if he could turn this super-power to better purposes? Is this what the world needs now? Clap-Man?
]]>As ever the final weeks feel like the hardest push and there is far too much to do.
We hope to launch on the 1st August with a new way to take your driving theory test (until then the website just a set of articles on the driving theory test).
As you might guess this has an element of mobile phones in it - but with some exciting new technology involved also.
]]>I used to have a great log of my travels here from 2003-2004 with pictures etc but this can now only eb found on the wayback machine cache from Jan 2004.
The wayback archive is great but the images don’t always display and also it can’t be edited - I’d like to pull down all of the content and repost it but this is taking ages - slowly I will get it rebuilt though.
]]>We’ve just launched the website uHavePassed.com to help 16-20 year olds pass their driving theory test.
It has been hard work getting everything ready for this as we are using some new technology we have created to allow us to synchronise data between mobile phones and the website.
If you want to see how you can now practice your driving theory test on your mobile phone then pop over to the site and have a look.
We are actively looking for beta testers - so if you are based in the UK then please register to beta test our driving theory test software.
]]>It has taken a long time to develop as we have been developing a platform that will allow us to synchronise data between the website and the mobile phone. This may sound simple but can become quite complex quite quickly.
With our service you can practice mock driving theory tests both on-line at your computer and “offline” on your phone. We have spent a long time researching how people prepare for the UK drving theory test and this has shown us several things.
We wanted to ensure that as students had reason to take both on-line and “off-line” tests - that they wouldn’t face duplicate questions on each platform. Also analysis of the results seemed to be key to providing a good service for students and we realised this analysis must cover all of the results.
There was also some technical reasons for developing our synchronisation platform, because phones are limited on their resources - we could not install all of the questions on the phone - 1000+ questions and 400+ images would exceed the storage on the phone.
As a final way of engaging the students we are creatign simple games to re-inforce various concepts that are important for the driving theory test.
We think that we have developed not only an interesting and engaging way for students to practice and prepare for the driving theory test, but also a great platform to build other mobile based assesents.
We are looking for students to sign up for our beta test - so if you are aware of anyone taking the driving theory test in the near future who would appreciate free access to the entire question bank in return for testing our software - please send them to http://uHavePassed.com/beta.
]]>This is only temporary as far as I can gather.
]]>One project we have teamed up to create is a mobile phone-based study support tool that helps people get to grips with key mathematical concepts like averages and statistics.
The interactive programme allows students to collect data on their phone, and then use a variety of tools and graphs to learn about interpreting that data.
The Open University have a similar approach to mobile phone support tools as we do. They recognise that tools aimed at busy OU students, will provide greater flexibility and easy access to study support and learning materials, by being optional support and not core activites.
]]>We started today to offer 30 day subscriptions for the service - you can find out more about Mobile Phone Driving Theory Tests.
We think we have created a great new way to engage students in the content of the driving theory test - and help them get through the 1000+ questions that could come up in their real theory test.
It has been interesting working with the Driving Standards Agency to get the approvals needed to launch the test - but we are now there.
We now have a huge list of things that we want to add on to the service - but our first priority is to get out and promote the existing software and service.
]]>We have been developing this service over the last few months and just completed our beta testing which has given us great feedback.
Although we have many more plans for the service - we are proud to finally open up access to the service to the general public.
We believe we have created a new and engaging way to get students to interact with the core content of the driving theory test - and we are keen to help as many students as we can to pass the new Theory test that has been introduced this September.
Please visit the website for more information about practice the driving theory test.
]]>From the Article :
“To start revising on a computer or other resource generally involves moving to where the computer is located, once moved to the correct location it takes time to start up and begin revision. This change of location creates a barrier that stops students from revising.”
We believe there are 5 key reasons, of course this only works with suitable content and audiences and the type of revision activities must work on a phone.
]]>The other two groups in the study were a control group who had no access to any brain training software and a group who used the Brain Gym methods to increase ability. Three variables were assessed both before and after tests, the student’s perception of themselves as learners, their scores in a maths test and the time it took them to complete a maths test.
What is interesting is that for the control group and Brain Gym group the student’s perception of themselves as learners significantly decreased over the 10 week period, but the perception of those using the Nintendo software increased.
All the student’s average scores increased over this period but only the Nintendo group showed a significant increase in score. Surprisingly all of the groups showed a decrease in the average time taken to complete the test but the Nintendo students showed a significant decrease in time taken.
So what conclusions can we draw from this? Before drawing any conclusions worth acting on the study should be repeated on a larger scale. It would also be worthwhile to keep teachers constant across groups to eliminate any effect they are having on the groups they are tutoring, and rather than just comparing with Brain Gym it would also be useful to see the effects of other software (for example Sums Online).
]]>Cost Effective Websites
The first thing you need is a domain name . To get a domain should be cheap I really recommend using : domainmonster.com - £2.95 per year for .uk and £8.89 /year for .com - they are cheap but also their customer service is excellent ad they have a very helpful site and useful tools also.
Once you have a domain registered you need make a decision if you are going to go DIY or use a design company to build the site.
If you go the DIY route you will next need a hosting company - I recommend nativespace.co.uk - you can get very good hosting with them for £3.99 a month which is reliable and flexible, there are other alternatives around but you need to make sure that you don’t comprise quality with price.
Next you need to sort out a content management system (sounds more complex than it is) - I recommend wordpress - free and one of the most popular on the web - if you choose nativespace they have a simple wizard that will install wordpress for you - quick and easy!
Finally you will need to get a design - there are a lot of free wordpress templates or you can pay for one - or commission one to meet your exact needs from a designer.
If you suffer from techno fear then this may sound complex - but I think you will find the process fairly painless and there is lots of help on the internet, and when you think you could be up and running with a good hosted site for less than a £10.
There is an even easier way and that is to use the wordpress.com site where they provide the hosting for free - and so you don’t have to install anything - there is a limited set of template designs already available - and if you want your domain to point there you just pay them £7.50 per year and they will allow you to use your domain. This is the the simplest and cheapest option but you have more restrictions - value for money is fantastic - for a .uk domain you have got it all sorted for a year for just over a tenner!
One of the great things about trying it yourself is that it helps to play around with ideas on content and what you want to do with the site - before you approach the professionals - the £10 is worth it for these reasons alone - even if you have low expectations of what you might actually create.
Good Luck
]]>The excitement and the speculation that lasted for months earlier this year about whether we might get an opportunity to go to Stuttgart with Nicole’s work and then disappointment of the eventual bad news that the deal never got signed left it’s mark on us both. One conclusion we had once we had the bad news was that if we were to leave the country it would be better if it was a decision that we had made and were in control of than if it was in someone else’s hands.
So back at the start of November we had a chat about our future options and decided that we would like to leave the country and do it based on our own decision. We decided that we would take some risks and just leave, try to make money from the various on-line work I am doing and just see what happens. In the worst case we decided we would end up back in Milton Keynes again.
So here I am only 7 weeks later - Nicole has resigned from her job, and we are in Valencia, Spain on phase 1 of our project looking to see if this is the place for us.
There are so many things to comment on at the moment - but I will leave my reflections on Spain for the moment and mention a little more about our plans.
Nicole’s notice period was 3 months - so this means that she will finish working for her current company on the 19th February 2008, and our aim is to leave the UK on the 1st of March to then spend 2 months in Nicole’s village in Germany (Serrig). After that we are going to move on to warmer places and Valencia at the moment is the place we plan to head for.
Between now and March we have a lot to do - fix up the house for renting out, rent it out, buy a new vehicle, sort out all sorts of legal and tax issues and throw out loads of the junk we have accumulated over the years. It is our aim to get the essentials bits and pieces of our lives down to a small enough amount that we can fit it all into a van / people carrier (possibly with a trailer) and then if we don’t like Valencia, we can try Barcelona, if we don’t like Barcelona try Madrid etc - without it being too much hassle.
That’s the plan though … but stay tuned to find out what might actually happen - more news as it comes
]]>First of all the airport - we landed through cloud and fog and then they had to park the plane for a few minutes. The pilot announced that unfortunately there was still a plane in our space so we would have to wait until it was moved somewhere else. After 10 minutes or so we were taken to our slot then we had to stand there for 10 minutes whilst they brought the landing stage over and connected it to the plane - much confusion with the cabin crew and the ground crew.
Once the landing stage was brought over we disembarked from the plane and were then directed to use the steps down the side of the landing stage to get to the tarmac - not use the nice corridor into the arrivals area of the airport - there was a woman there frantically talking on her walky-talky - who seemed quite surprised that a plane had landed at the airport. We wandered across the tarmac to a backdoor of the airport and then went through passport control.
This all lead to me feeling that life in Spain may not be quite as organised as the UK and that there were somethings I would need to get used to. Writing this though has made me realise that we probably had to enter through the backdoor as we needed to go through passport control because the UK is not in the Schengen Agreement. The surprised lady and the plane in our space could have been related and I know that planes go to the wrong places at Stansted so on reflection my initial feelings were probably a little harsh.
We got picked up at the airport by the woman we are renting the apartment from, she is German and so apart from the small talk Nicole had to do all the talking with her. As soon as we left the car park (and for the next 30 minutes) it became clear that complaining about traffic in the UK would fall on deaf ears to anyone who regularly visits Valencia airport - chaos! Not only were there just queues on all of the roads - frustrated and impatient drivers zoomed up the inside lane to push in ahead - which was making the queues much worse! I asked when was a good time to fly into the airport of Helga (our landlady) and she said it doesn’t make a difference what time - even 2am there are problems!
So my first impressions of Spain / Valencia are disorganised and chaotic - the first may be harsh but the second so far seems fair comment.
]]>As soon as you start to think about it - suddenly paella makes sense - but still a bit of trivia I did not know!
Apparently the Valencia region is the best rice in Spain (but they would tell me that wouldn’t they!).
Other farming trivia I have found out - they have three harvests a year here - and it seems almost everything can be grown here. I had honestly never thought about agriculture in Spain - but apparently they are one of the largest agricultural producers in Europe!
That is the end of “Farming Today” from Spain.
]]>One interesting thing about Valencia is that they moved the river (Turia) in the 1950s because it kept flooding - the old course of the river has been turned into a park that you can see on the map - that follows the path of the river. The park is at the level of the old river and therefore much lower than the rest of the city this makes it quite quiet. All of the bridges that crossed the original river are still in place so the park seems very detached from the rest of the city - which is nice.
Below is the Google Maps satellite view of our apartment - you can use it to zoom in and out and see the area around us - the beach is just to the right off the screen.
]]>Yesterday we went for a cycle down the coast about 10-12 miles, we are staying in a village to the south of Valencia called Pinedo which is just inside a national park. The Park is there because there is a large freshwater lake and the land around this lake is used to grow rice, this agriculture and the sand dunes are what the park is protecting.
The cycle south was lovely, we were curious to see what two of the villages / towns were like at the other end of the park (which is about 12 miles long). The village we are in is very nice - but it has one thing that spoils it - the port of Valencia which is to the north. The port spoils the view in a few ways - the lights are always on and this mucks up the sight of the stars at night, if you look to the north the cranes of the port are always there and if you look to the south in the distance on the water you can normally see a few boats queueing to get into the port (huge cargo boats that must be about 0.5 km long).
We were interested in seeing if the villages further south were that bit nicer without the proximity of the port.
The cycle was really nice, through the sand dunes and on a newly built path that was part of the improvements to Valencia that were made for the Americas Cup this year. Eventually we reached the first village, El Saler, this was nice but quite a way from the sea - then we saw lots of huge apartment blocks, with the sand dunes around them. The strange thing was there was no one there, this was before the siesta so there was no reason for it to be so quiet. The setting of these tower blocks was actually in the sand dunes and there was lots of trees between each block so the lack of noise and people seemed quite appropriate.
We cycled on, at one point we stopped to put on sun cream and watched a team of park rangers who were being taught how to use a Segway which I thought was really interesting, but most of the cycling was through the dunes and park land. We then arrived at El Perellonet and then the park evaporated to be replaced by lots of tower blocks and the odd set of smaller houses.
El Perellonet was one of the places we had seen adverts for and were interested finding out more about - it sounded nice in the national park and also not too far from Valencia. What we found was not what we had expected!
The tower blocks and other houses were all deserted - there was no one there. We had heard that people in Valencia had places to go to at the weekends but did not expect them to be on this scale. There was block after block after block and then some smaller terraced houses and more blocks - all within about 150 meters from the all seemed to be empty. We must have cycled 3 miles along this area near the beach and all of it was covered in property, but we only saw about 30 people!
The shame is we took no pictures because I think it would have explained it better than I can with words. We are very glad we went though as it would be awful to live in one of these villages in the winter or maybe even just in the middle of the week. The next time we are likely to visit El Perrellonet will be in May and I am sure it will look a lot different then!
]]>Firstly the bars all shut at 9pm on New year’s Eve - reopening at 00:30 the following year!
At midnight you have to eat 12 grapes, one on each dong of the bell.
They set the fireworks off 14 hours into the new year - during the day - see below.
All said though highly enjoyable and great atmosphere!
]]>In total time it will probably take about 8 weeks for us to have sorted though all of our stuff in the UK and box it up, redecorate our house and buy a van to travel in. When we are in Valencia we would love to just be able to decide to move onto somewhere else and know that all we have to do is hand our notice on a flat in and then pack up and move on!
We started the process of decluttering our lives this weekend by sorting out the loft. The loft has just had stuff added to it since I moved into the house in 2002 and then when I went away in 2003 I moved everything up there and only took out the stuff I really needed when I came back in 2004. In 2004 we also added a load of stuff from Nicole’s parents house and in 2006 my mum gave me a load of stuff that had been sitting up in her loft.
So this weekend was spent going through all of this and categorising this as either going with us, going up into my mum’s new loft, going to a charity shop or going to the tip. This took a very long time and has made our house a complete tip. Luckily at lunchtime today we got rid of the last of the stuff for charity shops (4 different charity shop visits with a full car!). We have visited the tip three times with a full car and tonight we will drive over to my mum’s and load up her loft with all the stuff we just couldn’t chuck out!
The spare room at the moment is our store room for the stuff we want to take with us - it just feels great to be able to look in there and see how little stuff we have got our lives down to .
I think over the next 6 weeks we will probably decide to get rid of some more stuff especially as we cope with the reality of the size of the van we are getting and realise we are going to have to take even less than we thought.
]]>We loaded everything we own - yes everything into our lovely green van (The Big Green Monster) and left. Luckily we got some help from Jon, Vicki, Ruby and Gary which meant we only left 40 minutes later than we had planned at 9:40.
Apart from a strike by the French crew of the SeaFrance ferry - the journey was great and we got to Serrig at 9:30 yesterday evening. We unloaded the van, had a celebratory beer with Nicole’s parents and then showered and headed out to a 44th birthday party. The party was something that Nicole really wanted to attend as yesterday was the 29th Feb and the poor guy whose birthday it was only gets to celebrate it every 4 years (this is his 11th birthday party!).
Anyway today has been spent sorting out boxes and setting up our German office of Luzia Research - all gone well.
I’lll get some pictures up soon.
]]>Talking of the weather - whenever I visit here, someone normally mentions the bad weather in the UK, which always winds me up as in my mind it is a stereotype and not based on any facts (but when has that ever stopped me!). Well it has been highly enjoyable that it has rained for two days here whilst there is sunshine in the UK. The other popular wind up is about the European Football Chamionship this summer - they are often keen to ask me who I think will win - and then wait with a smile knowing that I can’t say England as they are already out - hilarious!!! :-D
So in absence of any photos of Serrig - I though I would help promote the stereotype that all they eat here is sausages and bread - our meal yesterday was Lentil soup with fresh bread and a Mettwurst.
A Mettwurst is not so much a sausage but a carefully built booby trap for the unsuspecting - with pockets of exploding hot oil built into the sides.
Meal was great though and I can see that 2 months here will be a pleasure - the big meal of the day is at lunchtime normally rather than the evening - but that is the only difference really.
]]>We currently live in the basement of Nicole’s parents house - where we have a nice size bed room, a storage room and a good sized toilet and shower room. The bed room is quite crowded and has many unpacked boxes littering it - but is nice enough. The windows in our room are all quite small and high-up and the weird thing is that there is no need for this. Although we are technically in a basement as it is below the rest of the house - all the walls around us are full length on the other side - even those that are external - so there really is no reason for such high windows.
So that is where we sleep - and we also have an office set-up at one of Nicole’s sister’s houses - again this is in the basement.
You might start to pity us and our underground lives but again this cellar is all above the ground and gets lots of light - the windows on one side are high but on the other there is a glass door / window that can be used to access outside. I think it is all very nice myself - it is a pity the windows aren’t a little lower because when sitting at a desk it is not possible ot see the outside world which is something I miss (every so often I stand up to have a look!).
Another interesting feature of the house we work (which belongs to Nicole’s sister Kerstin and her husband Timo) is that in the guest toilet on the ground floor - there is a urinal!!! I have never seen one of these in someone’s home!
More exciting cultural updates soon!
]]>Staying at Nicole’s parents is quite an easy life - Hanne (Nicole’s mum) pretty much does everything here - the washing, ironing and cooking and that has suited us quite well.
Currently Nicole is lying asleep on the sofa with her sister Sandra on the other sofa - they were both out until 5am drinking with another sister Silke. I decided to have an easier night and leave the sisters to it - which I cam glad of as they seem to have had a good night and Nicole could have a night off translating for me which I think much be a relief.
We are off to Cologne a bit later on to she the new place that Sandra lives and will stay there tonight and go to see FC Cologne play football tomorrow. I will be interested to see how it is when beer is allowed in the stadium - unlike in the UK for football, but I don’t expect it to be very different to UK Rugby matches.
We must also go this afternoon to help Nicole’s other sister Kerstin built the new nursery for their new child that is due in June.
That is life - stress free, nice working environment, and hardly anything to worry about when not working - I think I will only cope with so much relaxing - but I will enjoy it while it lasts - I think in Spain it will be much more stressful.
]]>Ever since Nicole moved to the UK she has noticed regisration plates - foreign cars (especially German ones) and sometimes English ones also. I never look at registration plates - unless for some reason I am forced to, in traffic jam say or when following the same car for ages on motorway. I might know the end three letters for a few friends cars so that I could recognise them but nothing more.
I have always found it strange how Nicole knows the whole of the registrations from all her family and some of her friends - firstly I thought this was something peculiar to Nicole but then found out that this seems to be quite common in Germany.
Now that we have had to register our van I found out much more about the German registrations plates - and it all makes sense.
The first two letters (as you possibly know) represent the city that the car is registerd in, M for Munich and HH for Hamburg and in this region it is TR for Trier. Then there are two more letters and then 3 numbers. When we went to register the van I found out that for €10 you can pick the letters and numbers and most people do - and therefore there is a system for them also.
I know from the top of my head Nicole’s dad’s registration plate as it has his initials and the last three numbers are the month and day of his birthday. Our van has my name AL and the last three numbers are the day after Nicole and I met (the actual day was already taken).
So what I have realised is that once you know the system you keep noticing cars on the road, if I am walking in the village and there is a car coming towards me I look at the first two letters straight away - if they are not TR I probably don’t know the people inside. If they are then I might see if I recognise the car then look at the next two letters to guess who it might be from their initials - honestly I didn’t start this on purpose like a train spotter I just suddenly realised I was doing it - they all do here!
So there you go - another little mystery about Nicole solved for me - each day I learn more! :-D
]]>I did make it out for a two hour walk on Saturday but forgot my camera! :-(
To roughly describe it we are in a large valley of the Saar river. On the opposite side of the valley to us there are steep hills and cliffs which are mostly covered in woods and forests, the steepness makes them inhabitable. The river snakes quite a bit so the valley has an interesting shape. To picture the river it is about half the width of the Thames just near the Houses of Parliment - too wide for many bridges so you have to go for a while in each direction before you can cross it.
This side of the river there is Serrig the village Nicole grew up in. Between Serrig and the Saar is a road and some fields so none of the properties here are on the edge of the river - which probably reflects a history of the occasional flood. Serrig is all set on the side of the valley there are a few properties on the flat near the river - but most go up the side of the valley. The population is about 1500 so it is not a great size but it can still support a baker, a butcher, a grocer, a florist, a bank and two pubs.
Around Serrig there are a few fields, but mostly the land is either Vineyards or woodland - there is an impressive chateau that looks down on the village from one of the vineyards.
On Saturday I went for a walk along the river and then up into the woods and back to Serrig which took two hours. Along the way I manged to spot two deers and a wild pig and her 8 piglets following her about.
I have to say that is really relaxing here and I will certainly enjoy the two months here, but I must remember to carry my camera more!
]]>I decided to do a nice Sunday roast and choose chicken as I really like my mum’s bread sauce in addition to the roast potatoes etc.
Well knowing that it was going to be hard to find any mixes to help me make the stuffing I was already resigned to having to make everything from scratch - thinking this would be the biggest problem with the meal.
This was not to be the case though - the Chicken was the biggest problem!! When I mentioned cooking a roast to Nicole she said yes sounds good but I don’t know where we will get a chicken from. I just did not think that a chicken would not be easy to get. Supermarkets and butchers here do not sell whole chickens (if they do they are frozen - but I wanted a fresh chicken).
Luckily in the village there is a farm / sheltered accommodation for mentally disabled people called Hofgut and this has s large farm shop - then sell their chickens for three weekends a month - you have to book in your request for a chicken. For the first weekend they sell 1Kg chickens, those that survive that weekend make it to the next one where 1.5 Kg chickens are done in, and the lucky few who get to weekend 3 are in a healthy 2.0 Kg state before they go to the great chicken coop in the sky.
We were in the 1Kg chicken weekend though so had to settle for what turned out to be quite a small bird, which I worried about feeding 4 people. As the chicken was so small I wanted to also cook some sausages wrapped in bacon and cover the top of the chicken in bacon - again the challenge was in the simplest of things.
Sausages - not a problem in Germany! Bacon - apparently they don’t have the technology to cut slices of raw pig here (that is what we were told at the supermarket) so I was going to try replacing bacon with cured parma ham. When we got home though it turned out Hanne had something that resembled bacon which worked a charm.
The meal was lovely though - the great thing about a 1Kg chicken is cooks in an hour - the whole experience has only reinforced how I assume that things in the UK will be simple in another country and then find they are not. This gives me nerves about life in Spain but I still am looking forward to the challenge.
]]>As some point in his boredom induced thinking he noticed that many cows in the fields were quite dirty and started to ponder the economics of a mobile cow wash that he could drive up and offer to farmers as a service. I have no doubt that the idea was just a whimsy to pass the time in the car and to entertain people with as a stupid idea.
How surprised was I to find out that those clever Germans have obviously been driving down far more roads than Jon and have a much lower tolerance of the dirty cow (or coo as it is pronounced here) and invented the Cow wash years ago!
]]>Firstly Serrig is a very catholic village and many things revolve around the church - at Easter the bells of the Church are not used for reasons that I must confess I don’t understand (something to do with hearing the bells from Rome). To help the residents of Serrig know when to come to the church various children are sent out with what I can only describe as ‘Clackers’ that make a loud noise to replace the bells. These children then must wander up and down every road in the village at significant times during the day - see video below:
They love to decorate here - in my various visits I have seen decorations outside and inside people’s houses for Easter, Christmas and Autumn - there are probably other periods that I have also missed. The nice thing about decorations here is they are generally subtle and not in your face. So in Nicole’s parents house there suddenly appeared eggs hanging around the place with sprigs of leaves - but if you didn’t look you would not see them - and if you didn’t know the house you might think they were always there. This is similar in Autumn when suddenly Pumpkins and other vegetables will appear outside people’s front doors and in their gardens.Quite a few trees in the area have been decorated with coloured eggs - something that should confuse any young child for a while as clearly there is no connection between trees, eggs and the various colours that they have been painted. I wanted to get some nice pictures of the trees with eggs but I have failed on that so far! :-(
I do have a picture of a basket of painted eggs that Nicole helped create on Saturday and you will just have to imagine these hanging in a tree.
]]>Although not all of it is sausage based a lot is.
We have bread with cold meat, cheese and things twice a day (Breakfast and tea) and the cold meat is all different types of sausage cut up.
My tactic to cope with the two similar bread meals each day is that I try to eat more sweet things on bread in the morning and meat based bread in the evening.
So anyway the purpose of the post is to explain Currywurst to those unlucky enough not to know it. You can find this on the street in many places and when we recently when to a football match I found a Bovril and pie is replaced here with a bier and Currywust. A Currywurst is a long sausage cut up in to many small pieces covered in a sweet thick ketchup which is then sprinkled with Curry powder.
There ends Sausage photo 2.
]]>The first was taken on a cold foggy day as we return to the village on a road through the forest, you can see the cliffs on the other side of the valley rising out of the fog and also the castle/house that is near Nicole can also be clearly seen.
The second was taken a few days later and you can make out the same castle/house on the right of the photo and more hills in the background.
Neither really capture the river which is further down the hill at the bottom of the valley - I have found this video on youTube though from a handglider flying about 2 miles south of the village which shows a nice bend in the river but he never flies over the hill to his right which is where the village is! :-(
The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO59uT2bu3g&NR=1
]]>For the swimming pool you must wear a swimming costume - but for the Sauna you must wear nothing (this is the same for all sauna in Germany). This was not my first time in a German sauna but it reminded me of how quickly you stop noticing that you and everyone else is nude.
It is strange though to balance this with a scene I saw in the shop window of a department store recently where they were in between dressing the models - so rather than leave the people of Trier with the site of plastic lumps and bumps of the models they had decided to cover them with modesty sheets! Somehow the two just don’t reconcile.
]]>How did the wine come - as 5 glasses of wine that had already been poured? As one large carafe for us all to share? Nope! We each got our own individual carafe of wine - that way we all got an equal measure! :-D
Sometimes they really do make me laugh!
]]>It is quite exciting - but it will also be very rushed - it will be hard to make a decision in one day - but for this reason we hope to only sign a 6 month contract.
Will post more details once we are back next week.
]]>We are now at the end of the day and faced with our decision between two properties.
One in centre of Valencia:
And one on the outskirts by but the beach - in fact 8 floors up with a great view of the sea in one direction and the plains of Valencia and the mountains in the other:
What’s the problem - why not just go for the great views? well it feels like it could be quite remote and we will have to work there everyday in addition to living there. What is the problem with the city centre apartment then? It is quite small - and also it is hard to imagine living and working there.
After a sleep hopefully all will be clear to us…
]]>We have decided we are not quite yet ready for a relaxing quiet life out of the city - we have had too much time in Milton Keynes - now we need to have life!! :-D
So we will move into the city apartment and have to cycle to see the views (about the width of Walnut Tree) and be on the beach - hardly a hardship!
The plan is still on for the first week of May - this evening we go to sign and pay the deposit.
Valencia here we come!!!
]]>We saw the local places in our Barrio (I’ll explain that term another time) - the local fruit shops, butchers, bakers, bars and coffee shops.
Got a feel for the neighbourhood and walked down to the beach also.
After going to look at the flat in the evening, we decided to celebrate in true English style in a local curry house. Unfortunately we forgot that nothing serving food really opens here until at least after 8 if not later and we were a little too early.
So we caught a bus back to the old town and headed for another place we had been recommended - a taps bar near the one of the main squares. Wonderful - fairly cheap, nice maze-like interior and a the food was quite good. It was amusing to see that yet again Nicole managed to find a place next to some Germans (this is a curse that has haunted her ever since she came to the UK, she seems to never be more than 10 metres from another German - she hates it (-: ).
Today we are off to find out about the Valencia Tennis Open (see here) we are not sure what to expect but it must be better than the Milton Keynes Open or the Serrig Open (Nicole’s village).
]]>Today we are going to try and get tickets for the football this evening, but we are not sure how easy that will be. We know where the stadium is as we looked at a flat right next door to it. The strange thing here is that football matches start at 10pm - so we plan to watch the game and then go for a curry on our final night here in April.
]]>It is lucky that the photographer (my mum) got the boat on the river as this sets a scale for the river also.
Click on the picture to get a better look. You can see that Serrig is not that large on the bend of a river and all on the side of a valley. If you look carefully at the photo you can also see in the distance along the river Saarburg the nearest town.
It is amazing how those that live here seem to miss the beauty of the place - it is just every day to them - but for me wonderful.
Am very grateful for the 2 months that I have had here - shame it will soon end.
]]>Here are some photos of the great views:
I carried the rucksack with Lunch and some water in it - not realising that we didn’t have enough water and that we had way too much food - for four people we had 11 sausages, 80 meatballs and 2 loafs of bread - not surprisingly I carried a lot of it back down!
Hanne and Rudi decided not to climb to the top of the rock - I didn’t realise why until halfway up the very scary climb up on worn out steps!
On the way home we walked past the impressive lock that I mentioned we went through when my mum came to visit - 14m high - making it the second highest in Europe!
After eating bread and sausages for lunch - it wouldn’t have been a typical German day if it didn’t involve a beer at the end of it - so we stopped in the pub on the way home!
]]>We now feel settled in our new flat in Valencia - it has been a hard few weeks since my last update.
Mostly spent socialising, packing and working - fun but exhausting I shall try to put up a few posts about more things that I learnt whilst in Germany before starting on the Spanish stories!
]]>This is another great invention - once it is dark people lurk around and play mischief on others - simple things like throwing loo roll all over a garden - to planting trees and stealing door mats etc - but all great fun.
I didn’t get to find out about this until 1:30 in the morning on the way home from visiting people - how much fun could have been had with just a little preparation - still there is always a chance we might visit next year :-D
I have heard of this is in the UK - but I can’t remember the night. My mum has told me about similar things happening in York - but I don’t know if this is wider spread in Yorkshire or any other places “up north”.
]]>Apart from seeing mum and for her to get a better understanding of Nicole’s background and Germany - it was also nice to be able to do more tourist type things - in the four days mum and Graham were in Germany I learnt more about the region that I had been able to manage in the past 4 years of knowing about Serrig.
We visited Trier, Sarrburg (which although only a 10 minute drive away - we rarely visit the centre of - only the shops!), Kastel on the cliffs opposite Serrig and took a boat trip up the Saar to Mettlach - through the second biggest lock in Europe (14m).
The whole visit was great and it was a shame to say goodbye again.
Mum’s photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Caldecotte/SerrigSaarburgAndTrierInGermany
]]>I still have no idea - but just before we left Germany I was lucky enough to get involved in another great holiday that is humdrum in the UK - but really made into something special in Germany (and most other European countries).
I should first explain how public holidays work in Germany. Unlike the UK, holidays are held on the day they are associated with no - the next Monday. So May the 1st in Germany is the public holiday - not the first Monday in May as it is for us. This is an interesting system and has plus points and negative points. A big negative is that when May 1st falls on a weekend - you don’t get a holiday. A even worse example is when for some reason two holidays clash on the same day. This year May 1st was on Ascension Day - which is another holiday in Germany - so rather than have two public holidays there was only 1!.
Now Ascension Day is the day that has been turned into a great celebration - this is ignored in the UK - but in Germany - the men have hijacked it - and it is Father’s day. When I say father’s day - it really is - no mucking around with cards and that sort of malarky - men get a cart - fill it with bottles of beer and go off into the woods for a day of walking and drinking (no need to tell you which one is done the most!).
We joined the Brass band of Serrig for a 2.5 hour walk from Serrig to Saarhoelzbach - where there was festival for the day - mostly oompah music but still enjoyable food, drink and company.
So why don’t we celebrate with such enthusiasm - I still have no idea - but next bank holiday - book a flight to Germany and no matter where you go there is likely to be a good simple party! :-D
]]>Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo SF
The basic manifesto this guy has is that there is a huge “Cognitive Surplus” out there that is not being used - it is mostly be wasted watching TV and spending time being passive. He likens TV watching to alcohol consumption and the Industrial Revolution - saying that people needed Gin then to cope with having too many people around them. TV watching has been the way to cope with having too much spare time in the post world war II lives we need.
Clay thinks that the internet is being to create ways to better use the time when we are not working - wikipedia being a very constructive example of the “cognitive surplus” being used and not wasted.
He also thinks the next generations are waking up to live in this world and are treating TV watching as a previous generation started treating alcohol and substance abuse during the industrial revolution.
]]>I had packed most of the van the day before, but we were up at 7 to finish the packing and then at 8 Nicole’s dad and two Brothers-in-law helped load up the heavy stuff onto the roofrack.
We had a final breakfast with Nicole’s parents and Nicole’s sister Kerstin and her husband Timo started saying our goodbyes and then I started having problems with the vision in my left eye. The vision problem always happens when I am going to get a migraine. So I took a pill and said my goodbyes not properly being able to see, and not feeling great expecting the headache to begin. Normally when I get a migraine I go and sleep for a couple of hours - mostly to avoid the numbness that I get in my right hand.
We then popped around to see Nicole’s other sister Silke and Nicole’s nephew Luca to say goodbye. Luca (18 months old) has been a great little friend for me while I have been there. He got attached to my name because it was so easy to say - Al, and I got attached to him because neither of us really understood most of the conversations and everyone talked to us in simple words. I spent a lot of time chasing him around and playing with him.
Once we had done our goodbyes we went to do the next most important thing - buy some bread to take with us (the Spanish bread is not as good!). Finally after all of this we got going at about 10:30.
It was about 20 minutes before we crossed the border to Luxembourg and followed the Mosel into France another 20 minutes later. Just as we crossed into France there was a call on Nicole’s mobile (Handy as they say in German) I saw it was Nicole’s dad so handed the phone to her smiling and saying “What have we forgotten?”.
The phone call was Nicole’s mum (Hanne) saying that we had a letter from the car insurance company saying that we were no longer insured with them. Hanne had phoned the company up and found out that because we had still not proven that we had a large no claims bonus in the UK they were terminating the insurance. This was particularly frustrating as we had spoken to them the week before about this and they said all we needed to do was change the insurance from Nicole’s name to mine and all would be fine. At this point my migraine started feeling even worse.
So there we were just inside France and completely illegally driving - what to do next? Well it seemed there were a few options - either we got some insurance and carried on driving, turned around and went back or we drove on illegally. Nicole was convinced we would not get insurance sorted over the phone (as I would expect in the UK) and I was not happy about going back (“Never go back”) but we are also not the type of people to have taken the risk on driving illegally - so what to do?
After much discussion we decided to try and sort out the insurance over the phone and after 2 hours we were insured again - phew! (if you look carefully at the picture above you will see Nicole on the phone in the front of the van gong through the long winded negotiations). The reason it took so long was that the situation was not simple with us already being in France - me being British and us needing the insurance that day. It became more complex when Nicole’s German phone ran out of pay-as-you-go credit. Then her UK phone refused to phone a German number until we drove back into Luxembourg and were in range of German mobile phone signals again.
The rest of the day went quite smoothly - we drove through France with ease, occasionally stopping but mostly just trucking along. The migraine got better for me - but Nicole started to get some stomach problems.
We got within about 200km from the south coast of France by 10pm and decided to look for a campsite. This proved to be quite easy and we got to see some nice bits of France off the motorways.
Day 2 of our journey went much more smoothly, the motorway went along the south coast of France and then into Spain and along the cost in Spain. The motorway had (selfishly) been built often as far away as 15km from the actual sea - so we only got glimpses of the sea - but it was still a very pleasant drive.
We got to the flat at 4:30pm and then had to wait an hour or so until the Landlord turned up to let us in - but that was it - the start of a new adventure. By 7pm the Landlord had left and we were in our new home.
]]>I think I have mentioned before but one of the things most people associate with the British is bad weather - within 5 minutes of meeting someone new there is usually a joke about raining Cats and Dogs. I try to do my best to get rid of this stereotype - by pointing out that we have less rain in London than there is in Rome each year. Telling people that it is just a perception and that it is not true - this never works - they look like they believe me - but next time I see them - A British weather joke again. (Incidentally I have found this stereotype is so strong that even the British believe it - there is no way to get rid of it - yet if you actually write down and notice the weather over a month I think you will be surprised.)
It has been great for me that the weather in Germany has been awful the time that we have been there - I think that there were only 4 sunny days - the rest cloudy and rainy (there really has been a lot of rain!). So I have managed to convince people that perhaps the weather is the same in Germany and the UK - an achievement over two months!
In the future I will work on other silly stereotypes that still get taught at school:
Finally a mention of a couple of things the British are referred to in Germany. We are called “The Island Monkeys”, Tommies and Beefeaters among others.
]]>We went to our usual football bar last night to watch the match, it is right by the football stadium and a popular bar for Spaniards, we watched the German semi-final on Wednesday day there also. On Wednesday we had to get there early to get seat - getting there at 8pm for the 8:45 kickoff. Last night we thought it would be more crowded and got there for 7:45 - but it was already full.
The indoor part of the bar is so small that you can only get people queuing for the bar and toliets to fit inside, but outdoors there are hundreds of chairs, from the main bar and two additional bars on either side.
We had to watch the match from a side bar which was a shame, but co-incidently this was the same bar we had watched Russia and Spain play their first match of the tournament. Previously there had been a drunk guy sat in front of us who was quite unpleasant but bearable, this time we got the Spanish National Front as company.
We could not get seats and could only stand leaning on some railings, we were squeezed in behind a table of guys smoking unlawful substances, but the wind was brisk and the fumes were not a problem. Around us though were many skinheaded guys carrying (what I found out later was) a Neo-fascist flag. These guys kept saluting each other with one arm, which came to be quite noticeable.
I had already said to Nicole that if things started going Russia’s way that I didn’t want to be in the area at the end of the match - as it was there was no problems from that. Some of the goals celebrations were great and loud - more like being in a stadium than a bar! I have embedded the three goal celebrations below - you will notice they ran out of fireworks for the third! :-D
We moved to the back of the crowd as the 90th minute went - not sure what to expect as a celebration of the 3-0 victory. It was interesting to note how many people were keen to get away from the area quickly (out of the one and half thousand or so most left quickly).
First Goal:
Second Goal:
Third Goal:
]]>I’ll try to make sure it is not!
We have been increasing the number of users of uHavePassed and currently have just over 3,000 people who have used it to pass their UK driving theory test. We have worked a lot on compatibility of uHavePassed with various handsets and also the communications that are used from the handset to our synchronisation server. We are really pleased how this is helping people and each bit of feedback has been great to receive - both positive and negative, as the product has developed.
The memory training and flashcard concepts in getawayphrases are in the process of being incorporated into uHavePassed allowing users to train their memory in addition to doing formative assessment.
We are looking for content partners and institutions to be able to increase the scope of content on uHavePassed.com beyond the UK driving theory test - so please get in contact if you are interested. We are already working with Leeds University and the Open University on this. More news soon…
With uHavePassed we are also in the process of launching a service so that organisations can use it to provide any assessment content to their users via web and mobile phone. More news soon…
We have also continued to work with the Open University on a couple of ad-hoc projects. These projects have been done at a very low cost and the aim is to push forward ideas and techniques in research of the applications of mobile phones in higher education. Again more to follow…
I (Al) am now going to commit more time also to this blog and try to start up more of a conversation about how mobile phones can (and are) being used in education.
So on with the conversation…
]]>The App Store makes it so easy to install software on these devices in a couple of clicks, and if you need to pay for it - well you just use the same payment method you use for buying music amazing.
No other company / device has the infrastructure and user trust in place to emulate this (and for competition reasons I wish they did).
So what does this have to do with education? Well once you get over the ease of installation - the apps are great - the feel and way they work is so simple they look like they have been designed for a 4 year old - but lets be honest that is what we all want - simple and elegant. I hope that Apple have style guidelines and that they are insisting on developers keeping to them before then can have a place in the App Store.
Yes OK, but what does this have to do with education? Well easy to use and easy to get hold of applications that are engaging and accessible and on devices that students can fit in their pocket have never been available before. Technically all this has been possible, but not on a real device that is being purchased by real students, and working in such an easy elegant way.
So let’s start getting content on to these devices - and find out what works and what doesn’t - this method of easy installation and easy to use apps is the future on this device or others - we can only learn from here on in.
We (Luzia) missed the boat with these devices and I wish we were on the App Store today - but we plan to start work in August rectifying that!
]]>Sizes of small screens vary from the practically unusable 96x96 pixels to what is now becoming quite common 240x320 pixels (see images below).
These canvases do not represent the physical size of the screen - just the amount of pixels that there are on a screen, the canvas that we can paint on.
Confusingly the physical size of phone screens is getting smaller (or staying the same but the canvas sizes are increasing) because new technology now provides better resolution.
Screen resolution of a screen is measured in Dots Per Inch - DPI (the terms dot and pixel are often interchanged), in recent years the number of dots (pixels) that can be fit into an inch of mobile screen has increased from 96dpi to 153dpi. You still see 96dpi screens with a 96x96 canvas which means that the screen is 1 inch by 1 inch (2.54cm x 2.54cm) because they are cheap to make, but phones like the Nokia N95 now have a 240x320 pixel canvas that is 1.56x2.09 inches (3.96cm x 5.3cm).
I may have confused things now, but what I want to make clear is that canvas size on a phone is not the same as physical screen size, writing in a font that is 20 pixels high will result in text of physically different heights on two different phones.
When we develop an application we only know the canvas size of the phone we are working on - not the actual physical size of a phone screen.
Well 96 x 96 pixels is our view is next to unusable, fonts on these screens mean that readable text is physically quite large and you can fit between 10-18 words on a screen, this means the user must do a lot of scrolling, and also there is little space on the screen to make the experience a little nicer using nicer graphics and borders.
We view the minimum usable screen size as 128 x128 and this works well for mostly text based applications, but if images are important in your application then you must move up one more notch to 176x220 as a minimum screen size. An example of this is that in uHavePassed for the UK driving theory test we need to show pictures of road scenes and in our testing with the content for the UK driving theory test - the image detail on a 128x128 canvas was not good enough (even using the tricks mentioned later).
The first thing you need to review when designing a mobile application is how the lack of “spare” or “extra” space on the phone screen will restrict the design, a good analysis of these restrictions and proper understanding of them means that you can in most cases turn the understanding into a positive experience for the user.
Firstly you must look at which parts of the content are actually going to be relevant to the user and if the current organisation of the content is ideal - questions to ask for text based content:
For image based content you might want to consider:
Then you have to start looking at what can be displayed together, do the text and images need to be displayed together, how to show a link?
All of this should lead to a cut down set of content and a cropped set of images perhaps even a library of images for each canvas size.
We firstly like to create mockups of our projects using index cards to mimic the canvas size of a 176x220 phone and try to work out how interactions will work with a brainstorm. I plan to cover interactions in a follow up post.
Here is the iPhone canvas and to get some perspective on this - it has twice the number of pixels of the largest screen we have shown above.
Should we think of this as a small screen? I think so - even though it has more pixels than any of our other examples - the actual size of the screen is still fairly small at 51.42mm x 76.38mm (2" x 3").
iPhone applications don’t waste space and are very aware of the lack of spare screen - so it is generally designed for as a small screen.
In landscape mode this screen is the equivalent of two Nokia N95 phones side by side (casing not included).
]]>Wow what a replacement it has been!
Evernote as a company have some background with the Tablet PC with the input replacement RitePen which I have previously used and although impressed with it on XP found it to be not as great as the native Vista input methods.
Evernote is now in version 3 and this has completely embraced cloud computing and allows you to provide input from many sources and send it up to their servers and then view from many devices.
They now have Windows (not just Tablet PC) and Mac clients and mobile clients for Windows Mobile devices and hot off the press is their new iPhone client. There is a J2ME client in development at the moment - but other mobile devices can email in content and view via their mobile website anything that is on the server.
So what can you input? Text, images and tablet PC ink documents. If you send an image then they will try and process that image - take a picture of a business card and they will OCR the image once it hits the server and make the content searchable. This is true of any document that is sent as an image - from either a photo or a scan.
Students can use Evernote as a central repository of their notes, and other items sending in notes from email or with a phone a nice and easy learning diary straight away. As the sharing and collaboration possibilities come on line it will become even stronger as an educational tool.
Content that is sent up into the cloud becomes accessible anywhere and that is what makes it really useful - if only someone could link the Evernote storage with a VLE that would be really interesting!
The great news - it is free to use, you get 40Mb of uploads a month for free and $5 for uploading anything more.
Please go and give it a try!
]]>Within the DISCA department they teach two courses on programming mobile phones which are project based courses. I met Juan-Carlos Ruiz-Garcia who leads both of these courses and got to see some of the work they have done and are in the process of doing.
One tool allows a PDA or Windows Mobile Phone to take over a PC and has a simple custom controller for Powerpoint. The software can also be used to take control of another PDA or allow the screen from a PDA to be shown on a projector. The software works on bluetooth or over WiFi (I think the bluetooth is too slow to be useful) and can be installed on any windows device (PDA, phone, tablet PC etc). This was impressive software and will be used in anger in a trial of Tablet PCs that they will start using next year.
The second project I saw was a mobile learning platform for languages with really impressive facilities for loading up multi-media clips (both audio and video). I was shown an example of how it worked with “We are the champions” from Queen - the audio was loaded with two text files with the English and Spanish lyrics. The lyrics were automatically matched up so that each line in English was associated with the line in Spanish - but this could be edited allowing for translations that only work for double lines etc. The audio was then played using a neat flash control and the use just has to press the spacebar each time a new line of lyrics started in English. In the end an xml file was generated that could be used with their authoring tool to make up learning objects.
Using the authoring tool - a small course module was built using music, video and text which contained many exercises focused on the needs of the student. This was then shown to be in a web browser.
Where is the mobile stuff? OK the cherry on all of this was the Windows mobile client that allows a user to take the work offline on their phone and complete the assessment. The content was synchronised with the device and then a student can continue to revise offline. At the moment they have a few problems with synchronisation time (20 minutes), but these will be ironed out and I think it will make a nice piece of project work.
The approach is very similar to the uHavePassed system we have built, although their system can take much richer audio and video clips, this is only possible on a Windows device with Wifi - uHavePassed can support any Java based phone on any internet connection and with any QTI formatted data so any authoring platform can be used.
We plan to do some more work with the university and I will be interested to see how these projects move forward.
]]>I really do not know what to think about the fighting - I went because I wanted to decide for myself what to think not just think what others think.
I found myself changing my mind several times over the time we were there and there are several things that I did not like immediately. Firsty I expected it to be a single man (the matador) against the bull but it was a man on a horse and several matadors that were in the ring against a single bull. On top of this the man on the horse changed his horse every 8 minutes or so once the horse was tired. All of this for me made it not fair match for the bull and enhanced the enivtabilty of the bull’s death.
Maybe I went with the wrong expectations, but I thought the bull would at least have chance to live. I thought that if the bull was good enough and put up a good fight then it would live, but this was highly innocent. For one thing if the bull won then the matador would lose and this is not something they would easily cope with-it is all about machismo.
I also did not understand how much it was entertainment and show. To kill the bull they must put a very nicely decoraated skewer into the bull where the spine is. Instead of doing this once with one skewer they do it many times ending with a final skewer that is very long and then kills the bull. Once this long skewer goes in three matadors run out and surround the bull knowing it is no longer a danger. If it is that easy - then why not use the big skewer at the start? ANSWER: Entertainment.
The entertainment part was the cruelest part for me which is strange aas it has nothing to do with the well-being of the bull just the morals of other people which does not help the bull at all. This really got me thinking about the fight from purely an animal welfare perspective. It is not easy to do this - you can black & white about it and say it is cruel to kill the bull - but what does this have to do with animal welfare when you are a meat eater and already responsible for aniimal deaths that you do not see each day.
The next question for me was is this a bad way for the bull to die? I found his hard to answer-clearly there are better ways, but for a bull the chase and fight with multiple wounds seems very natural - the dignity of it for them means nothing. So I still can not answer this question.
I left the stadium feeling like I wished I had not paid to see six bulls die in the same innevitable way. I did not enjoy it particularly but I think it is something that people should see to make up their minds and better understand the experience.
]]>In all it has worked well-even when Nicole’s nephew Luca has taken-over the living room whilst sleeping the large terrace has made this not a problem. I have been able to work during the day fairly normally and they have even taken care of most of the cooking so it has in some ways been better than normal.
It took a bit of work to persuade them to hire bikes as it cost €40 each for the week and they were not sure they would use them. In the end it turned out that we went out on the bikes everyday and most of the days more than once. I had hoped that the bikes would also help them feel independent-and that seemed to be the case.
All in all a good week but it has made us grateful we have such a large flat (and terrace). It has also made us realise a few things we would change when looking for a new flat.
]]>A Gestor is a sort of cross between an accountant, solicitor and administrative assistant. They sort out all of the messy stuff for you and tell you where to sign and if you should sign. On top of that they provide advice on tax and accounting and complete you tax returns.
As you might imagine to get someone to do this for you requires a degree of trust and we chose ours based on a recommendation. Unfortunately the person who recommended our Gestor lives outside of Valencia and so it took about one and half hours to get there.
It is with relief though that we travel back to Valencia knowing that tax, health insurance, our status here and that of The Big Green Monster are all in hand. On top of that our Gestor was a nice and funny lady who gave us great advice on many things.
]]>If you are unware of the N810 it is the latest in a range of devices that Nokia call internet tablets. It has a size similar to that of an iPhone, but it is not a phone at all- it can only use WiFi or bluetooth to access the internet. It also has a touch screen and GPS like the iPhone, but I think that is really where the similarity ends.
Unlike the iPhone the N810 is an open operating system and any software can be installed on it. This openess does a lot to highlight why the iPhone closed system is more suitable for consumers than it will to encourage take up of similar devices.
The device is perfect for me but I can see that it would not be suitable for all. The OS is called maemo and is a linux derivative. The interface is very friendly and it can upgrade over the air which is missing on nearly all mobile devices. The problems come with the software, which is typical of a lot of linux software in my experience in that it just about does what you want. In the week I have been using it I don’t think I have used a piece of software that has not crashed at some point.
Even the apps that come as part of the OS have crashed, and this annoying for core apps like email and the browser (a firefox derivative). Those open source apps that I have installed have worked just about but I can’t see any of them making it in a world where Apple is setting expectations.
I think at this point i should mention that I love the device and feel it is perfect for me. There are times when i want to take a phone out and times when I want the capabilities of the N810 but I am glad that I don’t always have to carry around one device with all my eggs in one basket. It can utilise the 3G connection on my phone to access the internet when there is no WiFi.
It is interesting that Google’s new mobile OS Android can already run on the N810 but in a restricted way (slow). I am not sure of the technicalities but it would be great to see Android replace maemo completly because Android seems to have a much better memory management system and philosophy.
Anyway enough of the technical stuff - how is this device useful in education? Well in short it isn’t - sure it could be shoe horned to have a place competimg against a windows PDA but in all truth without a good range of software it has little use as a school or institutions sponsored device. For an individual who finds it fits their needs then it is perfect!
If Nokia want to make it suceed they need an OS that will give developers more of a platform than one niche device and for that Android makes perfect sense.
]]>The first tool I wrote was a tool to help me learn German vocabulary - I had a list of 1000 words that I wanted to be able to remember and I already had made a pile of flashcards for the first 100 words that I carried in my pocket. I wanted to stop having to remember to take carry the flashcards with me - so putting them on my mobile phone made a lot of sense. I purchased a Windows mobile and in a couple of days wrote a program to help me track and manage these virtual flashcards.
My vision was that I would use these flashcards in the same places I was using the real flashcards - whilst waiting for people, on a train etc. The idea for me was simple - the phone program would make life easier by tracking which vocabulary I knew already and which I didn’t and if I my memory for it was getting progressively better. The program would also mean I would not have to remember to take the flashcards with me.
What really happened though was that I started flicking through the cards in many places, taking 2 minutes here whilst waiting for the kettle to boil at work - another 2 minutes whilst on hold on a phone call etc. I would flick though the cards whilst sitting in front of the telly, lying in bed and in many other unexpected situations.
What became clear to me was that having the program on the mobile phone - did not only help me study outside of the house and office - where it was more difficult before, but it removed barriers to studying in those normal places also. Before I had to go and get the flashcards - organise them in piles, and then work through them - once finished I would have to make sure they were put away carefully and then return them to their place of origin. Now I had ot reach into my pocket and press 2 buttons - state was restored from my previous session and off I went, when finished - press one button - lock the phone and back in my pocket.
The realisation that my mobile program had reduced a barrier to me building my vocabulary, rather than just allow me a more convenient way to package a learning resource was key for me.
Indeed with uHavePassed we receive information back from our users about when they use the software (each time they synchronise with the server) - we can see what time they take tests and it turns out that very late in the evening is a very popular time. It is our assumption that our users are in bed at this time and taking practice tests. The motivation and effectiveness of studying before sleeping should be the subject of a separate debate, but I found this to be further evidence that programs on mobile phones do as much to encourage and support students in the house, school or place of work as they do outside of these places.
Whenever I talk to others about the tools we write for mobile phones - the picture they first create is of people on a bus or train etc. It takes some time to realise that mobile learning tools can be used anywhere (even infront of a computer) because they are designed for short interaction periods, focused only on specific tasks and give good continuity through start / resume functions.
For us the phrase mobile learning is a great way to first introduce the tools we create, but is highly inaccurate in detail - our tools can be used anywhere, but location is not key.
In German the word for mobile phone is Handy (just to prove that first program worked) and reflecting on the English meaning of this word, convenient, says to me it would be better if we thought of what we did as Handy Education - not mobile learning.
]]>I left it out in the sun yesterday to dry out and feel better - and whilst I was listening to some Queen this morning (The Miracle was the track) I plugged the iPod in again - and it works - hooray!
]]>Why are we so focused only on these three areas? We believe that these are the areas where Handy Education (using convenient tools) is most useful and effective.
When revising the content of a course - most of your time is spent in one place with your text books (and other materials) around you - reviewing your notes and writing more concise notes. Of course not everyone revises in this way - but lets call this the most common approach. Is there a place for a mobile phone during these sessions? Maybe (I am sure the imaginative could crowbar in a way to include a phone in these sessions), but I think the phone comes into its own when away from these sessions.
We try to support students here by providing ways to do “micro-revision” to support these sessions - with Flashcards and quizzes to help practice recall of the ideas and concepts.
With process and technique based concepts like those of Mathematics the most effective way of learning the technique or process can be to repeat and practice it. There must be feedback to help the student understand where there are problems in the process, so the student learns to correct these problems.
We have been using mobile programs to help people work through mathematical problems, whilst providing immediate feedback with step by step instructions on how to correctly calculate the answers. These programs are less sophisticated than PC based equivalents - but the convenience of use means that they can be used many times to help build a students confidence in these problem areas.
##Planning
Having convenient access to a list of outstanding work and upcoming deadlines is of great use to students (especially university students and adult learners who have to balance their studies with other parts of their life).
This data should be available to students in any way that they need to access it - via computer or phone or other device.
We are making sure this data is available in all these ways.
Capturing data about your workplace or work situations is very useful in a number of vocational courses these learning diaries are used as new skills are acquired and practised at work. Being able to capture - audio notes, videos, pictures, text and structured data that can be used later by a student to review their progress and used in write-ups - is very convenient when using a mobile phone.
As we continue to develop our platform for students we are making sure all of these areas are covered.
]]>I’ve updated the popular post we have on designing for the small screen to include some notes on the iPhone & iPod Touch screen canvas.
Just showing the screen canvas on a normal computer monitor I think is quite instructive about how much smaller it still is to a computer - but the post also shows the canvas size in relation to other mobile phones.
]]>Part of it is to support the German team, but mostly it is about the stories behind the people and understanding what this all means to them.
For the last winter Olympics that we were in the UK for - Nicole watched the German coverage on our TV but also had a laptop showing her the BBC interactive coverage so that she could see every event going on - and follow any news and updates in English and German from various websites.
This year is not so good though - although the first two channels in Spain have coverage all day of the Olympics - they are very focused on Spain - and keep reshowing their great moments - forgoing live action for endless repeats of cycling and other things they are good at. The have a web streaming service but mostly this just rebroadcasts what is on the TV - which is not really the point.
As we are in Spain the BBC and German internet streams are not available to us - so Nicole is coping with text based updates and the odd illegal feed over the internet.
However Gary has just said that he can do some technical jiggery-pokery and help Nicole watch the BBC coverage from here across the internet. Hooray for Gary - what a great and fine (if a little short) man he is.
It is Nicole’s birthday in a couple of days and this is the best present she could get at the moment!
Thanks to Gary!
]]>I can’t find detailed figures on the iPod Touch - but I have found references saying that the touch is now outselling the iPod Classic, and others saying that Apple is downgrading sales figures for the iPod Touch this year. (If someone can contact me with better figures I’d be grateful!). For the sake of this article let’s assume there are already 6 million iPod Touch devices and that these numbers will continue to increase at a pace similar to the iPhone.
This means that by the end of this year there will be at least 20 million iPhone & Pod Touch devices in the hand of real people.
The really important question is who are these people? I would like to get an idea of the demographics of iPhone and iPod Touch users. It would seem to me that the iPod Touch is more likely to be a school or university student from 15-21 and the iPhone is more likely to be a professional 25-35 - but that is purely gut feeling. At this high level it is clear to see that educational software would be different for those two audiences and gives an indication about what types of software would be useful to them.
Can anyone help me get better figures for the iPod Touch sales? I know that it has none of the country constraints of the iPhone and is available world-wide. Also how can we get to better understand the demographic - has anyone seen any research in this area?
The lack of a good input mechanism make both of these devices of less use in education for classroom work, but the multi-media capabilities are great. The Touch could do with a microphone and camera though so that in can capture in addition to play multi-media (lets hope both of these get announced with GPS for the iPod Touch in September).
]]>I think this is an interesting approach, because most other approaches focus on either a laptop or a PDA when looking to give equipment to students. When the focus is on just handheld computers then a lot of work must go into helping students create content using handhelds with creative tools. The small screen may be OK for creating small pieces of work - but is not suitable for essay writing or creating presentations (I know it is possible and is used for this - but my argument is that it is not really suitable).
As mentioned before we think the Mobile Phone or Hand-held is suitable for delivery of some content, revision, planning and a group of things we call Handy Education.
So to provide students with both devices seems to me to make a lot of sense - I am keen to find out the results of this initiative. One thing that concerns me is the lack of useful tools for the iPhone - iPod Touch platform - especially that synchronise data with a laptop (be it PC or mac).
]]>http://techcrunch.com/2008/08/20/please-sir-where-are-the-education-start-ups/
From the article:
“The market for Education in the UK is massive - there are 26,562 different schools in the UK, and 157 universities and classroom based learning is only part of the picture. There is also adult education, distance learning, workplace training and many qualifications that could be thought of as niche, but have high enrolments each year. On top of formal education there is informal education that is best represented by language learning and the “Dummies guide to” range of books…”
Please follow the link and join the discussion.
]]>]]>The rush to distribute the devices worries some professors, who say that students are less likely to participate in class if they are multitasking. “I’m not someone who’s anti-technology, but I’m always worried that technology becomes an end in and of itself, and it replaces teaching or it replaces analysis” said Ellen G. Millender, associate professor of classics at Reed College in Portland, Ore. (She added that she hoped to buy an iPhone for herself once prices fall.)
In addition to the comments on TechCrunch a link was also pointed to the article in a post on the handheldlearning.co.uk forum - which started another debate.
In the article I point out that the UK education market is dominated by schools, universities and further education colleges but also that there are also segments in this market for informal education - workplace training, language learning etc.
##Structural Problems
The discussion however focused very much on the schools market place and there was discussion around who the actual customer is (schools or local education authorities or central government). The confusion seems to have been created because a head teacher has control over their own budgets and makes the purchasing decision, but local and central government heavily influence these decisions. The picture is not as simple as that because in addition to the local and central government there are other quangos that also influence the decisions - BECTA being the largest.
Can anything be done about this “structural problem”? not easily, but if start-ups were given support and encouragement from the the influencers (BECTA, central and local government) then products and services would be more appealing to schools. This support does not have to come as funding - recognition and support of an idea with appropriate feedback would be good enough to help encourage funding from angel and VC sources.
Another point raised in the discussion was from Paul Sweeney:
There are existing billion dollar players (education publishers), and early successful niche players don’t tend to get bought out for high multiples.
The point about the existing players is true and in my opinion this is what makes the market place prime for disruption - as those existing players are not innovating. The second part talks of niche players and points out that they are not so attractive for venture capital because their value never increases enough to pay back at the levels that are needed.
So niches should be avoided - start-ups looking to help with very narrow areas of education may find problems when scaling especially when what they offer is mostly based on content. The Open University proclaimed that “Content is no longer king” when starting their OpenLearn initiative - and this is an astute move which will will have a large effect for university level education over the next ten years. How will open content affect publishers? Well that is the key question here.
Products and services that solve real problems in education that are neither niche or content focused - should receive funding (if they really do solve the problem and have a good business model behind them).
It seems the answer to this question is quite easy - start-ups avoid formal education because they don’t understand how purchasing works. So they turn to informal learning and look at the biggest consumer sector and realise that language teaching is not niche and that content for language learning is open. Also language teaching is global and means that companies do not have to focus on a UK only market.
This market is very crowded though for this reason - which brings its own problems when looking for funding - but this competition is certainly bringing innovation to the market (for example our own getawayphrases).
What is clear is that within education there are so many market sectors that are not getting any focus from start-ups whilst all the focus in on language learning and to some extent schools.
Hopefully the debate is starting to get people thinking - next I would like to talk to BECTA about how they can help.
]]>Clearly this figure is in no way accurate - and only an indication - but I can’t see any reason why statistically this should not be a good sample.
This shows that either the iPod Touch players are not using the internet, are not game players or that the iPod Touch is nowhere near competing with the iPhone for market share.
I am still curious to find out the figures from outside the US - especially in territories where the iPhone is not available.
]]>The N810 comes with a version of Firefox that is cut down and customised for the N810 so I figured that Fennec must be better than that for them to target the N810 - wrong very wrong!
If this Milestone is an indication of the way the project is going it is clear the project has some big problems.
Startup time was awful - mobile users have less time than desktop users and fast startup is essential - I got to the point I was questioning if I had started the browser or if it had crashed while loading - my estimate would be 20 seconds - 5 seconds is what I would want.
Once the app started it was no responsive and took a further 5 seconds to load the mozilla homepage (no search engine page yet). With a lack of a search page I needed to type in the url to find the site I wanted to visit - not so easy - to be innovative the UI is unlike any other browser - no address bar - the only thing in the UI I recognised was a reload button to the right of the page title.
I touched the upper window bar for that is the standard place to get an application menu on the N810 - nothing - so I opened the keyboard and pressed the menu button - suddenly the screen changed. I got a list of tabs on the left and some buttons on the right - not clear what the buttons did. One of the buttons was a plus sign - that looked interesting - I clicked and that then took me to the add-ons pages! So the most prominent button in the UI with a plus takes you to the add-ons pages - surely add-ons isn’t something people will want to do everyday? The add-ons locked up the system - I had to quit and restart. Eventually I found that if I clicked on the page title in the right way it would turn into an address bar - but the application became unresponsive again.
So I now have two versions of firefox on my N810 - one that has been stripped down, is fast and does everything I want (including support for Flash). This new one is bloated, slow and unresponsive - to the point that I never managed to get to a page I wanted.
OK it is a Milestone release - but my gut feeling is that they have taken the wrong approach to bring firefox to mobile devices and that it won’t get fixed until they review their goals. Mobile users need add-ons - but don’t have the memory, or processing power to just take desktop add-ons - they should have a cut down XUL for add-ons. I hope they look to the Maemo version of Firefox for inspiration - it has been around for at least two years and works very well - they need to better that - and they should do that by questioning why it works so well.
In most people’s minds there is already an open source mobile browser that is deployed on millions of phones and that is WebKit - it is on Nokia S60 phones, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phones and it is available for Windows Mobile already.
]]>The idea behind Ubiquity is that natural language can be used to get the browser to do some tasks in a browser that are beyond a few normal keystrokes. For example you can select an address with your mouse and then press Ctrl-Space and then type map this
and a map will be displayed - click on the map and you can then send this map as an email.
Ubiquity is a platform that allows people to write and share new commands (scripts or macros we would have previously thought of them).
The final idea is that all of these commands can be linked together - so that a user can input some quite complex instructions. An example given on the documentation site is “book a flight to Chicago next Monday to Thursday, no red-eyes, the cheapest. Then email my Chicago friends the itinerary and add it to my calendar.”.
Lets be clear this is very ambitious stuff.
How does this relate to education? Well the open nature of the commands means that commands for anything can be written.
When proficiently used it is possible to quickly pull data together from multiple sources which can be quickly combined. In some ways this can be thought of as cut and paste for the web.
It can also make data come to mean much more - highlight a word then Ctrl-Space define this
and the definition is there on the page. Highlight a piece of text and then Ctrl-Space email this to xxx
and an email will be drafted which can then be added to with other sources.
One very powerful feature is that you can edit a page with a couple of commands - for example select some text and say delete it is no longer in the page, select some text and say bold it can become bold. You can also say edit-page
and the page becomes editable and you can type where you want, delete what you want and insert as you want. This means that students can edit any page on the web (BBC NEWS, Downing Street etc) although the edits only exist in the browser these can be printed off - so a custom BBC News page can easily be created and screen grabbed or printed.
There are already commands to grab something and quickly twitter it - there is no reason why text on a page could not be grabbed and sent to a mobile device for later reading.
In all the analysis it should be remembered that this is just version 0.1 and clearly shows the power of the idea with some very simple commands.
However looking at people who are trying to write new scripts and combine them together it seems that there are still a lot of fundamentals to get working. For example - the email command supports Google Mail only and then only the vanilla version. Customising support to include Google Apps has proved to be quite hard and this has highlighted that something like email relies on the application knowing quite a lot about the user.
Then there is the problem of the natural language - as a programmer I am comfortable that I have to use exactly the required command - but to appeal to a wider audience there is going to have to be some flexibility.
The “Elephant in the Room” here is security - this is a very powerful scripting capability that is installed in firefox - an untrusted script will have the ability to do all sorts of nasty things to your data (files, bank account etc). To go back to the original vision of a sentence that should be supported :
“book a flight to Chicago next Monday to Thursday, no red-eyes, the cheapest. Then email my Chicago friends the itinerary and add it to my calendar.”
This is going to need at least access to my payment details and my address book - it will take a great amount of convincing me to give Ubiqutity this information.
For the moment I’ll be sticking with Dopplr and Skyscanner.net to solve this problem.
]]>The latest iPod Touch advert from Apple was launched yesterday during Steve Jobs Keynote at the Let’s Rock event.
The Tag line for the iPod Touch now is “The Funnest iPod Ever” (not the funniest as I first read it!). The guided tour headlines games with music and movies as the reasons why you want an iPod Touch.
From a commercial point of view this is a problem mostly for Sony with the PSP (Howard Stringer Sony CEO was in the front row of the Key note apparently) - a more bulky gaming device that can play movies without the storage or touch. Nintendo will still compete on price and have all the great titles at the moment - but they must also be worried about the new iPod.
Why is this great for education? Well this increases the market place for iPod Touch (and to a lesser extent the iPhone) to gamers - they are a very picky bunch but if the iPod Touch titles become cool games then it could become a must have device - increasing it’s credibility. Anything that increases the street credibility of the iPod Touch helps create more software for it and also makes it more acceptable.
If Apple could only solve the problem of input - a clip-on keyboard that was also a screen protector as an accessory would be fantastic - or a bluetooth keyboard - or a full screen landscape keyboard for note taking.
]]>The introduction of the second version of the iPod Touch OS brought with it the ability to run third party applications. The opening of the OS in this way meant that the iPod had graduated from being a media player into a mobile computer platform.
The route that the iPod has taken to become a mobile computer platform is as important as the technology that has been used. The brand of Apple was not well known outside of computer users 10 years ago - but with the the iPod it is now a household name. That the iPod is now well known is great - that it dominates the MP3 player market with 75% market share is part and parcel of this. To become a mobile computing platform with this heritage and the buzz of the Apple marketing machine means that the iPod Touch is a much more acceptable and ‘cool’ device for learning than a Windows based PDA.
There are other brands that can also move into this space with more teenage credibility than Microsoft - Sony with it’s playstation brand and Nintendo with the DS. It seems that the heritage of both these companies as gaming companies does not allow them to open up their platforms to a plethora of 3rd party developers as Apple has done with the iPod Touch and Microsoft to a much greater extent with Windows Mobile. The gaming device companies have had a business model for years that involves selling devices at a loss and then making money back with licensing fees from the developers. Apple has always made a profit on every device it sells and therefore opening their platform provides an opportunity for extra income and does not risk existing income.
Sony and Nintendo have also created very targeted gaming devices with inputs and controls that are only found on gaming devices. Nintendo embraced touch and audio input prior to Apple - but the touch area is quite small. The issues for Sony and Nintendo to overcome with the physical aspects of their devices can be resolved in future models and they both still offer the best competition to Apple in terms of ‘cool’ devices.
A final characteristic of both gaming devices is that they rely on physical media to primarily distribute content. This again reflects the heritage of selling games via retail channels. Apple has been extremely lucky with the dominance of the iPod because this has also allowed Apple to become one of the largest digital content retailers with the iTunes Store.
So the iPod Touch is cool and as a mobile computing platform and it faces little ‘cool’ competition as such. Apple is getting aggressive and has inspirations for the iPod Touch to move into gaming and compete with the gaming devices rather than waiting for them to move into the mobile computing market.
There are two other types of devices that can be used for mobile computing in education - Windows based PDA devices and smartphones. The PDAs have a long heritage in mobile computing and provide a very open platform with digital delivery (however lacking a single easy retail channel to compete with the iTunes Store). The problem for PDA devices is that their market is shrinking thanks to competition from smartphones and gaming devices. For business and personal use a PDA makes little sense when a user can get a smartphone that can provide them with the same functionality and the functions of a phone.
This shrinking market means that one of the markets where non-phone devices make sense is when schools or other education institutions sponsor the use of a particular device. Non-phone devices are preferable in schools because they create no problems related to the payment of phone bills and connectivity can be more easily controlled through school WiFi connections. It is not clear if this market is big enough for it to be viable for device manufacturers to continue creating PDA devices.
The final type of devices that offer competition to the iPod Touch as a mobile computing platform for education are the smartphones. Statistics only show the smartphone market to be increasing every year and this had led to a very competitive marketplace that is driving down costs. Smartphones are very fragmented though with many different platforms:
*Windows Mobile
*Blackberry
*Symbian (Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola)
*Linux
*Android (from Google autumn 2008)
All of these platforms are open (more open than the iPod Touch) and on many of the platforms are Java compatible. However there are lots of different screen sizes and input mechanisms that vary across the devices. The variations in device specifications mean that there are phones for every type of user but make it much harder to write software and some phones are just not powerful or large enough for educational content to work.
Phones are ‘cool’ & desirable and already in the pockets of students - but the lack of standard configurations means that there is very little software for these devices. The lack of an ‘education standard’ makes it hard for consumers to choose devices, schools to put their weight behind particular configurations and developers to focus their support.
I am writing this article on a plane with my Nokia N810 so I feel I should also quickly mention the ‘Internet Tablet’ devices. These devices are the successors to the PDAs and are very powerful - with great off-line capabilities, a keyboard and great application distribution features. They lack however any media player credibility (they do it - but not as effortlessly as an iPod). The power & flexibility of these devices is also a flaw when compared with the simplicity & usability of the iPod for “non-geek” users.
Other ‘netbook’ computers like the Asus EEE are not pocket devices and not up for consideration.
The iPod Touch & iPhone platform is a single configuration of screen size and input mechanism which helps in the creation of content. The brand is also well known and understood by consumers as desirable and ‘cool’. It is easier for school to encourage the use of iPods with students and parents.
The heritage of the iPod as a media player provides compelling reasons for students to use one with or without educational content. The addition of gaming to the iPod Touch only makes the devices more compelling to students.
The iPhone is a great device for consumers who want the functionality of a smartphone but can run all the same software as an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is great for schools who do not want to be involved in billing issues. (The media player market is more secure than that for PDA devices and a better investment for schools.)
The digital delivery platform greatly reduces the barriers for developers of niche software (such as education) to compete globally and find viable markets. This distribution method also means that operating system upgrades are applied more easily and more widely than any other mobile platform.
The iPod platform has flaws:
*Lack of keyboard input
*little competition to drive down price
*no compatibility with existing software
*A psuedo-open platform that is tightly controlled by Apple
In my opinion at the moment the advantages mean these flaws are acceptable and in some ways these flaws are a consequence of the advantages.
It has become clear to me in writing this article that to seriously compete with the iPod Touch platform would take a combination of something like Nokia, Nintendo and Amazon.
I hope this has laid out in a bit more detail why I see the iPod Touch and iPhone as being highly important as a mobile platform for education. I welcome comments and opinion to help sharpen my understanding and thoughts on the issues facing students, educators and parents in choosing and using mobile devices in education.
]]>I’ve been following Android since the first announcement last November with interest and excitement at the potential disruption that it could bring to the mobile eco-system and our niche of that eco-system. From my early assessment of Android it was clear that had the typical Computer Science led over engineering of a Google project which mean it was doing some really radical things from technical perspective. I really like how the system has been built and how they have got over the low resource problems in a much more creative way than the iPhone OS with it’s lack of background processes.
I was luckily enough to interview Rich Miner in January of this year and he gave me a picture of how seriously Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) were taking the openess of Android. Not only will the OS become Open Source when it hits version 1.0, but it is open to 3rd party apps. The architecture is so open that you can supply alternate programs to manage any task on the phone. The system is so open you can override the core software that comes with the phone if you choose and replace the default dialer with another. Rich made it clear to me that all OHA members are required to keep the platform open - and to implement the core of the OS.
A core part of the power of the iPhone solution is the powerful, simple and well used distribution and payment mechanism that is iTunes. Google have tried to address the lack of an iTunes App Store with the Android marketplace - but missed the point and made it complex by involving operators in the billing - we can only hope this soon gets simplified. The G1 also comes with an unlimited internet connection so that is a match for the iPhone - we can only assume all other Android phones will also. The T-mobile G1 will also launch with an MP3 store from Amazon - one of the few competitors for iTunes - now if Amazon, OHA and operators could come up with a simplified App Marketplace - that would be interesting!
The big worry with Android is that it will quickly fragment as device manufacturers and operators fall into their old habits but Rich gave many convincing arguments as to why this would not happen. The least of which is that members of OHA have all pledged not to.
What worries me most about all the devices is that there is no easy way for consumers to understand that this phone and that phone are similar. If you get a Windows phone you know that it is windows - there will be at least a sticker or logo. Most consumers also know about the Java brand even if they don’t understand it. The iPhone brand is strong even if it is only a single phone. How will consumers know that a T-mobile G1 can run the same software as a Motorola G345 (say). The only brand on the G1 is Google not Android or OHA - will this remain on all Android phones?
Until it is clear what consumer reaction to the G1 is and we can also see how other operators take up Android a lot of these questions won’t matter. This creates a chicken and egg situation: the hope for Android phones is that they will be seen by consumers as internet and application phones in the same way that the iPhone is perceived. for this perception to be true there needs to be lots of apps that consumers talk about and use a lot that will persuade others to get a similar phone. This in turn relies on developers writing for Android which means there will have to be enough users to justify the investment in developing for a quite different platform.
What does all of this mean for education? In my opinion Android is a slow burner - it will take time until there are enough devices out there. For 15-21 year olds it might grab a big marketshare if it is cheap and or cool but so far there is little indication of either. It also lacks a non-phone companion like the iPhone which makes it a lot less appealing for schools to recommend. I cannot see Android worrying Sony or Nintendo in the same way the iPhone must currently be doing.
Standby though there are rumours that Android is really targetted at more than phones and it may become the defacto low power OS on phones, set top boxes, netbooks and many other smaller devices. If it does you can bet that Android will have a big impact on education in developed and developing economies.
]]>The two main features of the device are 2 built in 0.3 megapixel cameras and an SD card slot. There will be software for playing MP3 software included as default as well as camera software. The Gameboy cartridge interface has now been removed so it is no longer backward compatible with the Gameboy. There is a Nov 1st launch in Japan and Spring 2009 for Europe.
This is an interesting move - especially if this is part of an evolution for the DS. I hope Apple are paying attention to this - and not just because Nintendo have put an i in their product name. As I wrote a few weeks back - Apple have started to position the iPod Touch and iPhone in the gaming marketplace in addition to the MP3 market and phone market. The DS has always had Wifi - but in most cases this is under used by games and software - but it is slowly getting there. I think the DSi as a gaming and MP3 platform will be very attractive to younger children and it is a real pity that the DS doesn’t have an open way for 3rd parties to write and distribute software to compete with the iTouch/iPhone/iTunes model.
The addition of the SD card though removes a fundamental problem that the DS has and that was that games could not be downloaded because there was not enough writable storage to put them on - not any more.
I hope that this is the first step in the evolution of a great and innovative platform - and that it will be opened up in the same way that the Wii has - and gets a good delivery platform also. It will be interesting to see if they start making the OS updatable too.
]]>If anyone would like a demo I will on Stand 5 with Sums Online - demoing uHavePassed and looking out for people to trial uHavePassed at their own institution.
Whilst there you can contact me on my mobile +44 7973 623337.
More details on uHavePassed for Institutions will be available after mLearn.
]]>A Wall Street Journal article states that large & established game publishers such as Sega are turning to the i Platform in addition to smaller startup and niche publishers like ourselves. The article puts part of the attractiveness of the platform down to the low costs of entry and simple distribution mechanism.
In the article Sega talk about how attractive the platform is to them and infers that the difference to them in terms of profits on a $10 iPhone game compared to a $40 ds lite game is not much.
Steve Jobs is quoted as saying that this Christmas will really shake things up and that the holiday sales of the device could shift the iPod Touch into being considered a gaming device by both consumers and publishers.With the 2000 titles already available for the platform about 25% of those downloaded have been games.
The article also highlights how a lot of games are either free or advertising supported - which is another interesting trend to watch.
The Wall Street Journal mentions an iPhone user who has sold his PSP and will sell his DS lite as he plays far more on his iPhone and loves the single device and ability to listen to his music whilst playing.
An opinion piece in Business week talks about how surprisingly good the iTouch and iPhone platform is for games. It also provides estimates for the sales of iPod Touch and iPhones globally at 40 million by the end of the year. Which would put it ahead of the DS lite which has sold 42 million devices - but in 18 rather than 12 months.
All very impressive and mean that Apple is continuing to highlight to the mobile operators how wrong they have got both supporting developers and providing simple distribution systems for users and developers.
For education I think this means that the i platform is extremely attractive to students as the overlap into their own interests and needs means purchasing and using a device is not a barrier.
If only there was a keyboard on it - I think Apple could rule the education marketplace too.
]]>This is just a round up of some stories and stats that have been around this week about the App Store going over the 10,000 application threshold.
Before the App Store stories here is a quick note that Apple now own the second most popular smartphone operating system. They have now captured 16.6% of the smartphone market globally - ahead of Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Also note this does not include the iPod Touch - not a phone - but it must be the biggest selling PDA in the world now.
OK App Store news:
148apps.com have put together a page with the icons for all 10,000 apps and have some statistics breaking down the details of the applications on the right. You can see a breakdown of apps by date submitted, price or category. Category shows that there are now 770 apps marked as education in the App Store which by my calculation is 7.7%. This should probably be watered down a little as many of the language applications have the same application many times each with different vocabulary sets e.g. French, German, Russian etc.
Let’s call it 7% of the whole set of applications for the sake of argument. I have no real data about how PC software breaks down in terms of categories - but I think this number must be about right as a proportion of a software market place.
For those wanting more stats you can visit Oreilly Radar for a breakdown of prices that indicates in the US App Store the average price of a top 100 application was now $2.60.
Finally MobileCrunch lists out the top apps in various categories broken down by paid and non-paid. There is not much to be learnt from this - apart from how healthy the market place is and how diverse some of the entries in the Top ten apps are.
]]>On seeing the headline I thought this would be an education related story but the iPod prizes are used as an incentive for the students to eat more healthily.
The overall story is one that we already know - iPods are extremely attractive to students.
I am left with the thought - wouldn’t it be great if they were being used not just to encourage healthy eating but to encourage and increase engagement in education.
I’m preaching to the converted here though!
]]>The mobile internet is also shown to have a bias towards younger audiences (15-24) as this graphic from the report shows:
Source: Nielsen Online, Q3 2008. E.g. 16% of Britons aged 15+ active on PC-based Internet are aged 15-24 years old
It would be interesting to see if the percentage of PC-based internet usage by 15-24 years is also changing (ie reducing) - but there is no indication in the report.
The article mentions the sites most visited by mobile users (Google, BBC, facebook and email) - no surprises there.
It is a shame there are no details of devices within the report - so we don’t know how much the increase of 25% can be attributed to the iPhone.
I recently looked through the details of the 2008 annual Ofcom report about the changes that they have seen in user consumption of media.
The Communications Market Report is huge and it can take a while to find the interesting bits (hint the most interesting bits are in the second PDF).
On page 345 there is a break down of children’s access and usage of both internet and mobile phones:
Source: Ofcom research, fieldwork carried out by Saville Rossiter-Base in April to May 2008 Base: Children aged 5-15 (132 Boys aged 5-7, 150 Girls aged 5-7, 189 Boys aged 8-11, 178 Girls aged 8-11, 187 Boys aged 12-15, 189 Girls aged 12-15)
The graph has a few too many colours for my liking but in the 12-15 age range you can see that access and ownership is highly skewed towards mobile phones.
In the right hand part of the graph we can see that there is a significant difference between boys and girls (again only looking at 12-15) in their daily usage of internet and mobile phones. Girls use their mobile phones more than the internet (+13%) but boys use the internet more but the difference is not as big (+5%).
The report states that across the UK population only 5% use their phones to access the internet (the studies were carried out in April before the 25% increase reported by Nielson ;-D) but this is 8% for 12-15 year olds:
Source: Ofcom research, fieldwork carried out by Saville Rossiter-Base in April to May 2008 Note: Yellow arrows indicate statistically significant differences from Q2 2007. Base: Children aged 8-15 with their own mobile phone (213 aged 8-11, 347 aged 12-15). NB Base too small for 5-7 year olds
]]>The talk of an iPhone killer is premature and Nokia know this - they have a long way to go yet to catch up with Apple - and a lot of it is not about creating the right device. Nokia have no App Store, lack a single platform and have a brand that is more about utility and reliability than it about innovation, cool and media as Apple’s is. The price for an unbundled device will be €550 which means it is aimed at high end users and not even being put to compete with the iPhone.
I have yet to get my hands on a N97 - so my thoughts are based solely on the images I have seen on the Nokia website, engadget and from the always enthusiastic Robert Scoble.
The device could be thought of as a N810 phone, but it’s OS is S60 not Maemo and this makes a difference in terms of how this device will be useful. In terms of the physical device it seems to be slightly smaller than a N810 and similar in width and height to an iPhone - but almost half as deep again.
As you would expect from Nokia the camera is 5 Megapixels and can do
DVD quality video, which is a great improvement over the iPhone.
There are three very striking things about the device:
Reports say that the touch screen interface is good - but not as reactive as the iPhone screen. The reason for this is the technology used for the touch screen. Nokia use a ‘resistive’ touch screen to support pen based input (important for inputting Chinese and Japanese characters) which is something the iPhone apparently doesn’t do well. More importantly the S60 user interface has been greatly improved - but I am not sure yet if it still matches the simplicity of the iPhone. A user interface is ‘only’ software and can be improved upon. There is a problem with the ‘only’ software issue though - are software updates as easy for the N97 as they are for iPhone users?
The obvious differentiator between the devices though is the keyboard - and as I have often argued this is key for educational purposes. Nokia seem to have chosen to keep things simple with the keyboard - it looks easier to use than the N810 which is even better. The N97 continues to show that Nokia devices are great at capturing input (pictures, videos and typing). Improvements to S60 may make using Nokia phones simpler and easier, but the iPhone platform is simple and better for consuming media - from music and video through to applications.
At the moment I still think the iPhone & iPod Touch are the better platform for education even though this device is starting to show Nokia is moving in the right direction. Educational applications will probably always make up about 10% of all applications available for a platform. Until Nokia boasts as many applications as the App Store there will never be as much educational content for a Nokia phone. The number of applications in the App Store (10,000 last week) is an indication of how successful Apple have been in lowering the costs of development for 3rd parties, by providing a single (non-fragmented) platform, handling distribution and billing and guaranteeing the 70% revenue share. Nokia need to address these problems if they want to have a large set of applications and as a result of that educational content.
I think that Nokia need to do the following if they want to generate as successful application platform as Apple:
The N97 shows that Nokia have moved in the right direction and have been able to change themselves and rise to the threat from Apple (which is more than can be said of RIM and Microsoft). This also shows what a competitive market does for innovation in mobile technology which can only be good.
For mobile phones in education - it is still clear that if you want to use the phones in people’s pockets you need to have a cross platform solution (such as uHavePassed and for anything complex you can only aim at a small percentage of phones. The iPhone platform will have 40 million users by the end of the year and is very attractive as a single device. The N97 will not impact on the position of the iPhone - but it shows that a future device from Nokia way well do just that.
]]>The reasons are not simple to outline but they roughly break down as:
We have yet to find a flat in Germany but we don’t expect things to be quite as complex there - we will move to a town which is about 5km from where Nicole grew up.
Thats the news for now - sorry it has been a while - but maybe you want to follow me on twitter:grouchal.
]]>Firstly we sucessfully moved to Germany and we have moved in to a great flat in a quiet part of a small town about 5 Kilometers from Nicole’s family. It took a while for us to settle in as we have been doing quite a lot of travelling for work and social reasons.
In May we found out that Nicole was pregnant which was great news - but has obviously changed our out-llok on life and encouraged us to think about settling down in one place for a while. The baby is due on the 31st of December which should bring 2009 to a fantastic close.
At the start of July I asked Nicole to marry me and she luckily has said yes.
I think that brings everything up to date.
One of my reasons for coming and living in Germany was that I would like my German to improve rapidly. My goal is that I can sit down for dinner with all of Nicole’s family and follow the conversation without needing any help from Nicole. I am still a long way from this and get very frustrated with my pace of learning - especially as I am also very busy with work which cuts the amount of time I have for studying.
Anyway that covers everything new - hope to find more time to write about living in Germany soon.
]]>As I keep updating my status on Facebook or talking to people in the UK or elsewhere they are getting very confused by the German health system and about the experience we have had - which I can only say has been perfect so far! This post is to explain in a bit more detail (for those that have asked) exactly what we have experienced here.
Firstly I should point out that Saarburg hospital is a rural hospital in a town that has a population of about 6000 and serves many local villages in addition to Saarburg. I point this out because everything that we have experienced should not be taken for granted across all of Germany, some of what we have experienced is down to use using a rural hospital too.
Nicole has (like all women in Germany) always visited a Gynaecologist or Women’s doctor since she was 15 for any “women’s issues”. This doctor exists purely for women as in addition to a normal doctor.
So when we found out Nicole was pregnant from a test kit we went straight to her Frauenarzt (Women’s doctor) who immediately gave her an ultrasound scan and at 6 weeks we got our first picture of Lily and could already hear her heart beating. Visits to the Frauenarzt continued every 2 weeks until we passed the 12 week milestone - each time we got an ultrasound scan. From week 12 to week 30 we went to the Frauenarzt every 4 weeks for a scan and from week 30 there was a visit every week for a CTG and every second week we wold get another scan. Our (mandatory) health insurance would only pay for 3 scans so we had to pay €100 to get all the rest of the scans, but this has been the only additional payment we have had to make.
The Frauenarzt was also the doctor in the delivery room who helped bring Lily into the world.
Nicole met our Midwife (Maria) at about week 22 when she attended a class on pregnancy exercises in a swimming pool. At this point we already knew she would be our midwife. Maria met us both at about week 33 and gave us a tour of the delivery room and other facilities and explained exactly how things would work. She gave us her home number and mobile number and told us to phone her when the waters broke and then pack our bag and come to the hospital.
Nicole also met our health visitor & breast feeding advisor (Doris) at about week 26 who gave the antenatal classes. Just like with Maria we already knew at this point Doris would be our breast feeding advisor.
The Frauenarzt, midwife and breast feeding advisor all work as a team and look after Nicole and Lily at different stages of the pregnancy, but are all in contact about how things are progressing.
We were out celebrating Nicole’s mum’s 60th birthday when Nicole’s waters broke and we then phoned Maria who agreed to meet us at the hospital 40 minutes later. We travelled home packed a fairly light bag mostly clothes for Lily and Nicole for when they leave the hospital. The bag didn’t need much because the hospital told us they would provide everything during our stay.
When we got to the delivery area Lily and Nicole were immediately monitored by Maria who said that it would be a while yet and told us to walk around for an hour to try and kick things off. Once we were back from our walk and it was clear nothing was going to happen that night Maria sent us to bed. I should explain that in the delivery area there are two bedrooms one for the midwife and one for the parents. The parents room has a double bed so that we can sleep together and wait until something more starts to happen.
The delivery area has enough rooms to deal with 3 births at the same time, but there was no one else in there - in fact the last baby had been born 3 days before.
We got up at 5am and after another walk Nicole took a bath in the birthing pool to try and relax - still nothing.
After a while things started to kick off and the contractions started getting a bit bigger the Frauenarzt was called and consulted about what course of action to take with Nicole and she was put on some medication to increase the contractions. Eventually the pain was too much for Nicole and she had to have an epidural anaesthetic. This happened quite quickly (not quick enough for Nicole) and was done a team of two doctors and at this point the Frauenarzt had turned up. This was the only point I was asked to leave the delivery room.
Delivery happened quite quickly after the epidural and the Frauenarzt, and midwife worked almost without words. I got to cut the umbilical cord :D.
Once Lily had made her way out and Nicole had picked her up and laid her on her chest the doctor and midwife melted away and left us on our own together for about 90 minutes. Eventually Maria came back to help get Lily breast feeding.
Once Lily was born Nicole and Lily were moved to a care ward in a room of their own, and it was offered that I could stay with them for €25 a night. Nicole could have left the hospital 2 hours after the birth - but she was entitled to stay there for at least 7 days (more if the doctors decided).
We have so far stayed in the hospital 4 nights - but think we will stay at least one more.
In the care area we were one of 3 babies on the first night, the only baby on the 2nd and 3rd nights and are one of 2 babies tonight. We always have a sister around to help with everything and they have changed and washed the baby etc until we have been ready to take on these duties. Also we get 3 meals a day made for us which is work we would have to do if we were back at home. The hospital has also been a better place to receive our first visitors as we don’t have to worry much about keeping it tidy etc.
Every morning we get visited by first Maria, then our Frauenarzt and then Doris is here for the whole morning to help with breast feeding issues. Clothes, nappies, babywipes etc are all provided for the lengt of our stay and we really did need to bring nothing extra. They will even lend us a few things for a week or two after we are here.
All in all the experience has been fantastic - perfect even. I can’t imagine how anything could be improved. I have had to be out buying things etc during the days and doing a few other tasks, if I hadn’t been able to stay at the hospital I’d have been kicked out at 9pm and hardly seen as much of my daughter as I have been able to. The help we have been given in becoming parents and the fact we have been able to slowly get used to it is something I can’t imagine having any other way. I have always been fascinated when friends have had a child and asked them what it was like the moment they got home with their child and closed the front door. This moment for me was when you really had to work out what to do with the baby next and it was now all up to you. For us I no longer fear closing the door behind us when we get home I feel quite prepared for the first weeks of us looking after Lily.
]]>I have found recently that I have so many ideas (too many ideas) for what I want to do with the site that I have had a bit of a paralysis of actually doing things. I have been tweaking this new look and feel for 6 months now, but this week decided enough is enough lets get back to posting stuff.
I hope to visit here a bit more often and use the blog as a place to record and expand on some of the things I do and see on twitter and around the web. I also have plans to include a couple of micro-blogs but more on that once I actually get around to doing it!
I must restore all of the old travel stuff because next year it will be ten years since the trip that changed so much in my life, but that is a big project that will be to tackled in lots of smaller increments.
So hello again from Al, let’s see what happens next.
]]>I have read plenty of articles on how to deal with this problem but I so far have only found one reliable method of dealing with the problem. This method is called Getting Things Done which I have in turn adapted to best suit exactly how I work.
Getting Things Done (or GTD), a google search for GTD will find you plenty of articles on it, although the definitive read is that of GTD creator, David Allen
The key ideas of GTD are:
Sounds simple? Too simple? It really does work, the only problem I have found is that it is often hard not to drop back into the inbox every so often especially when you are using folders in you mail app to review today’s tasks and this weeks tasks.
This is why I have altered GTD slightly to work with external tools that allow me to close my email for a couple of hours whilst working on the stuff I need to do.
My changes to GTD are simple: when I have emails that I can’t work on immediately I forward them to Toodeldo.com - a task management system - thus removing them from my inbox. If the email contains things I need for reference then I forward the email to Evernote.com.
Both of these services offer an individual email address that can be used to load data into your account e.g. Username123.454545@evernote.com. I have these emails setup in my address book as “Convert to Task” (toodeldo) and “Send to Evernote” (evernote).
Doing this enables me to empty my inbox first thing in the morning and then close my email until later in the day.
I have managed to make my working day much more productive by controlling my email and not letting my email dominate my working day. I think this is something that everyone can do and get great benefits from.
I would encourage people to try this out for at least a week - accounts with Evernote and Toodeldo are free with only a couple of restrictions and
Do you think GTD could help you? Why or why not?
]]>The purpose of our trip to the Schwörer Headquarters was for us to undertake a process called “pre-sampling” where we would get the opportunity to see the many options that we have for the details of the house both exterior and interior. As part of this visit we were given a tour of the factory in Oberstetten where eventually the components of our house will be constructed.
We learned that the factory can build 800 houses a year and that each one is custom made and no two houses are the same and that in normal operation 4-5 houses leave the factory per week. The factory is also producing wood products in addition to houses, but we found out that the huge stock of wood in the photos was only enough to last the factory for 4 weeks.
First we got to see the incredible amount of wood that they have to hold in stock, this was all held outside firstly as tree trunks that slowly became planks of wood and other wood products.
The biomass from the plant is all kept and there is a power station on the site that burns all of the biomass and creates enough energy for 60,000 houses, another impressive number!
Next we went to see the factory floor where our house walls, roof and other components will be manufactured, this was a real surprise for me to see how much of the work is manually done.
After this we saw the loading area.
I found the whole process really fascinating especially the level of detail that is done in the factory. It would be really great if we could visit the factory when they are building the walls for our house. We have a lot work to do until then!
#House2.0
]]>The household scene as I write this 10 years later, is one that is very different to the lifestyle and household I left behind in Milton Keynes all those years ago. Currently I am sitting in our house in a village in Germany, with a newborn baby and toddler making plenty of noise and my fiancé Nicole happily tending to them both.
I would never have met Nicole if not for the journey I took in 2003, and I would certainly not be enjoying this scene, and it gives me great pleasure to remember the version of me that set off a decade ago innocent of all that would come.
If I can manage it, my plan over the next year is to make a brief post each day highlighting where (both physically and emotionally) I was on my great journey of 2003, with a few photos and a bit of text to let me enjoy again that fabulous year.
So where to begin?..
]]>My route through London for some reason took me up Harrow on the Hill and then Notting Hill and I really struggled in Harrow, the first hill I had to walk up with my full bike.
I ended up travelling through Chelsea on a match day, which meant there were no cars and at one point I came across a line of policemen completely across the road looking like they were expecting a riot. Luckily the didn’t consider me to be a one man riot and opened up the chain for me to get through.
Great evening out in London with Martin & Shel and despite my attempts to avoid too many beers Marty kept persuading me that beer was a good source of carbs (plus the inevitable curry).
Went to bed only at 1 but to sleep in a bed was luxury as I had been sleeping on floor of house for a week because my stuff was now in storage.
]]>Got lost on way out of London was regretting having such large scale maps, but all turned out ok in the end, I just headed east whenever I could and used the sun when in doubt. Went through Greenwich and past the Thames flood barrier, under the QE II bridge at Dartford and few places I had only heard of before, Rochester, Gravesend and more…
Ended the day just outside Whitstable, but struggled to find a campsite, when I did I realised I had no cash, so set up my tent and cycled off to find food and cash.
Tent pitch was on top of a hill and I have a vivid memory of sitting there after I had eat my pasta tea and phoning Andy Harris who was out with Kevin in a London pub.
Bed at 10 and slept like a log.
]]>Cycling started halfway up a hill, and the day seemed to involve going up and down every single hill in Kent. Canterbury for a brief stop and then on again to Dover.
Had a lazy afternoon in Dover and stayed the night in a guest house close to the port ready for my early start the next day.
I remember thinking in Dover that this would be my last night in England for who knows how long, as I enjoyed a very nice (and fresh) fish and chip supper.
]]>The sea is very foggy as I leave England, and the reality of my decision to just get on my bike and see where I end up is beginning to dawn on me. My diary states that I spent a lot of the trip thinking about how long a year was and wondering whatever drove me to do this. Excitement and deep trepidation would sum up my emotions on the ferry.
Cycling down the massive ramp off the boat is a hoot and I loved doing it - free wheeling into France and the rest of my year.
I quickly find that I don’t actually have a map of where I am. I have cut the map up about 2 inches too short and will have to cycle in a rough northerly direction until I can find something on the map. The sun is baking and within 20 minutes as I cycle through the bleak industry around the port of Dunkerque I have to stop and apply sun cream.
At the border I stop at a cafe and put my bike up next to a long list of bikes and create one of those domino moments you see in films as 14 bikes come crashing down on top of each other. It takes me 20 minutes or so to get them all standing up again, I am not in a good mood for lunch especially as not one person offered to help.
My first Belgium town is De Panne which seems lovely, great weather and lovely long sea front.
Belgium is flat - this is great after the hills of Kent. I hope it continues.
At 3pm I stop in Niewpoort for a snack and a rest, read a bit of war and peace and the park keeper of the park I am sat in comes over for a chat about cycling. He tells me that I will stay very cheaply in Youth Hostels in Belgium as a cyclist - is a good tip and I use it to find a Youth Hostel in Bruges that evening.
Spend the evening wondering the streets and canals of Bruges and end up eating a massive bowl of pasta in a restaurant to build my carbs.
]]>Lunch was in a park in Aalst, after which I ran out of flat Belgium and found hilly Belgium, which although nothing like Kent it was still a shock after the previous two days.
Faced a challenge breaking through the motorway into Brussels, the cycle track I was on just stopped and after 30 mins trying to find a way under or over the motorway I gave up and just cycled up a slip road on to the motorway and hoped the next down ramp would also have a way to the other side of the motorway.
The hills slowly increased in magnitude as I approached Brussels and I at one point I felt I could understand the plight of a cyclist in San Fransicso. I got lost a bit in Brussels due to the lack of detail on my map - I just kept going in the direction I thought was correct and eventually broke through to the side I needed to be.
Amazingly after the 70 mile cycle and getting lost etc I managed to get to the place I was supposed to meet a friend only 5 minutes late at 17:05. I met Andrew at the British School in Tervuren where he took me to his flat in Leuverne where I was due to stay for the weekend, leaving my bike at the school.
In the evening Zsuzsa flew in from England, she was a colleague from my company in the UK, and we talked until not very late as we were both knackered.
I stayed in Leuverne for the weekend, visiting Brussels with Zsuzsa and getting lost on the wrong train and getting quite drunk with Zsuzsa on strong Belgium beers.
]]>I do clearly remember crossing the border into The Netherlands so for that I don’t need my diary. The border was marked by a farmers track and a row of trees, but that was all there was to it. There was also a convenient bench that straddled the border that I used to eat my lunch. While I was sat there an old man on a scooter appeared on the road int the distance he came humming down the road towards me, stopped his scooter got off and came and sat next me. Unfortunately his English was as good as my Dutch so we communicated mostly with hands and gestures, he smoked a cigar through most of the exchange and then decided to leave and went off again on his scooter back in the direction he came from. I have no idea why he came to that bench to smoke that cigar, or what he talked to me about, but I like to think I had passed the test and was allowed to continue on my journey.
My next visitor in the border bench was a woman who was walking along the border track by the trees. She stood out because she had a metal harness strapped to her belt which was pulling a plastic barrel that was rolling along behind her. She also stopped to have a sit on the border bench, but thankfully spoke some English. It turned out. She had been walking for two days and was on her to Spain to Santiago de Compestella, which was going to take her another 6 weeks or so. Te barrel contained her clothes as her back was too weak to hold a rucksack.
After lunch I continued on my way north with a plan to camp on the edge of Tilburg, but I also needed to visit the centre to buy some maps, as my cut up low detail maps were beginning to frustrate me. I went into the centre and decided to find a hotel to stay in then head for the shops. My budget for a hotel was €50 but I phoned around a couple from the phone book but could not find one for this price. I then headed into the centre to find a map shop with a vague aim of finding a camping pace later.
As I was stood in the centre near some shops, looking vaguely lost and probably a bit confused, a chap came up to me and asked first in Dutch and then English if he could help. It turned out his father had recently cycled to Santiago de Compistella and he could not see someone stood on a bike and not help, because he was grateful to all the people who had helped his father on his journey.
Joost was with his girlfriend Ilona and they both helped me find a map shop and also tried to help me find a hotel, calling around most of the places I had tried. In the end Joost decided that I was trust worthy and offered for me to stay in their spare room, commenting that even if I did steal the TV I would not get far with it on my bike. I didn’t immediately jump on the offer because of y normal British attitude to politely refuse help, but eventually decided that I should take him up on his very kind offer.
Had a great evening with Joost and Ilona, she cooked some great food and we all watched the Ice Age DVD together. They refused to let me pay for anything even some wine to go with the food.
OK so it wasn’t that brief! ;-)
]]>I aimed north with a rough plan to head towards Arnhem and reached the outskirts about 15:30 after getting a bit lost on the way. I found a campsite just outside Oosterbeck and was downhearted to find the office closed. However some other campers phoned up the owner and negotiated with him for me to get a place. Was a fantastic campsite and had a personal shower and toilet as part of my plot - cost was €20.
Was in bed by 9 after a I’d cooked my tea.
]]>Every village or town I went through was having street parties, parades and other celebrations. I had no idea what was going on.
I spent less time cycling during the day as I kept stopping to watch the festivities.
I ended up in Zwolle where there were many stages setup around the city and again parades and more going on - it was brilliant. I found a hotel and headed out for the evening to enjoy the party.
During the partying I met a couple called Ruud and Marleen who told me more about the festival and invited me to come over the next day and visit them on their house boat.
I have vague memories of singing along to lots of English and Dutch songs and Ruud told me some of the performers where quite famous in The Netherlands.
]]>The final thing that they told me was to look out for the Dutch mountains as I headed for the German border. The mountains turned out to be about 40 metres high and hardly noticeable.
During my afternoons cycle I was joined by a 60 year old lady with very good English for about 5 kilometres with me. She had caught me up and when she had enough conversation she took off at a speed far in excess of mine. The conversation was interesting and she was quite an inspiration for me.
I had spotted a campsite on the map near a village called Enter which was my target for the day. When I got there, they refused to let me camp as the guy in change told me that his brother in law needed to be there to me where to go. I told him this was all silly and that I could just pitch my tent where I found a space. Once I had done so he came to find me and I was a bit worried that he was going to turf me off the site, but instead he gave me €5 and told me he was sorry that he had over charged me.
]]>I arrived in Hamelin, to discover a festival in progress which was a nice welcome.
Camped on a island in the river, watched live music and enjoyed the local beer at the festival until 22:30 when I slept.
]]>Cycle to Hannover was event free and just hot.
Diary mentions that I found German road and cycle signs to be a bit random and got lost a bit. I also noticed that Germany seems to have a cigarette machine for every 500m of road.
There was a big festival going on in Hannover and I enjoyed this in the evening, cycling around the fairground and watching bands and enojying the local beer.
]]>I tried to get a cheap lunch by visiting a supermarket, but managed to visit the most expensive organic vegetable supermarket in Hannover (if not Germany).
There was a beach volley ball tournament going on in Hannover too, which was pleasant to watch for a while.
Have realised that my planned entry to Russia on the 28th July is probably too late and I am more likely to get there on the 22nd June, will have to try and see if I can get the visa changed.
]]>The night before my sleep had been interrupted by a crazy italian who had put new bed sheets on my bed on top of my bed sheets, he first complained I was in his bed then once we found out he had made the bed twice I had to get up and strip off his sheets for him.
Campsite was by a pond and very nice - eat a lot of pasta to make the next days cycling better.
]]>I do want to properly document that fantastic life changing year if for no other reason than to make it accessible to my kids for when they want to find out more about our travels. It hasn’t matter how high my motivation has been though because between work, two kids and a new house there was not enough spare time each day to read, write, edit and post the updates. Even worse once I got a week behind in my posts the work needed to catch-up was way more that I could find for so I’ve been ignoring the problem and focusing on more pressing matters.
My plan is still to finish documenting the year. Look out for some more posts about my big trip soon but not at the rate I had originally planned.
Trying to write daily blog posts has been one of many reasons that caused me to reflect on my priorities and the various commitments that I try to juggle on a daily and weekly basis. If I could find some time I might even write some more on this topic. ;-)
]]>In 2002 when I struck a deal with Dave and Jon, my partners at transition computing, that I could take a years break from my job as technical director, there was only a single constraint: it must be exactly one year and no longer. So after leaving on the 21st of April 2003, I needed to be back in the office on the 21st April 2004. On the 20th April 2004 I flew from Sydney to Heathrow and arrived back in the UK still on the 20th April 2004, spent the rest of the day with my mum and the next day was back to work.
Coming back was not as hard as I thought it would be. I was certainly ready to see friends and family again and in some respects I was growing weary of traveling all the time. I had made a conscious decision to spend my last month in New Zealand and Australia so that I was already adjusting back into life in an English speaking country. My last 10 days were with Nicole staying in an apartment in Sydney which was another step in adjusting to a life without as much travel.
This preparation must have paid off because life in the UK was not a culture shock in any regard. I seemed to slip easily into office life without always dreaming of being on the road, perhaps this was just because there was a lot of things to do after a year away.
I had rented my house out for my year away and as I had persuaded Nicole to come and try life with me in the UK, I decided to not to move back into that house until she returned from her travels in July of 2004. I thought that it would be nicer for us to make the house ours if we moved the things back in together and bought new furniture together. This meant that I stayed with a friend in a nearby town from April until July, and this to some extent also helped me adjust to life back in the UK slowly because I did not directly move straight back to life as it was before.
As it turned out my big trip had a massive impact on my life back in the UK and would eventually lead me to sell my shares in Transition and even leave UK permanently but none of this was clear in my first months after a I returned home.
]]>After our visit to the factory last year the next stage was for us to finalise the plans with our architect and then to finalise the contract with Schwörer. This took a while to complete as we were advised that we could reduce the costs if our cellar was built by another company. After four months of research and quotes from other suppliers we frustratingly discovered that it was not true and ended up going with Schwörer for our cellar too.
With the contract signed we had only one more step and that was to return to Oberstetten and make all the detail decisions about colours and materials. This was an intensive two days of decisions on everything from the floorings to the bathroom furniture, window frames to roof tiles etc. The two days were exhausting but at the end of it every single small decision had been made.
After we had left Oberstetten we received a 248 page document with all of the details of our house. This was like a specification for a computer system and went into all the details needed for every room in the house. It took us a while to sign off all the details and some mistakes had to be changed before it was all ready. This final sign off process took us until the middle of January 2013 in the end.
Whilst we were finalising the details we needed to get the earth moved on the site so that the foundations for the cellar could be laid, this happened in early December 2012.
Later in December just before we left for Christmas in the UK the cellar was quickly assembled in a single morning. The whole of the assembly happened so fast and it was fascinating to watch the team work of the 3 guys who built he cellar. They had clearly done it so many times before, they hardly had to speak to each other, they just kept referring to the plans that laid in one corner and it all just happened very quickly.
In January 2013 after we had signed off on all the details the house finally went into production at the factory. We were then given a date at the start of March that the house would be delivered and assembled on site, barely 6 weeks after we had signed it off would our house be built!
I shall follow up with another post on the assembly process as it is a lot to include in a single post.
]]>Once upon a time, those who made loans would profit only if the loan were paid back. If the borrower defaulted, the lender would suffer.
The banks created the 2008 crash and have had to suffer very little for their mistakes, and they are going to be free to do it again, very annoying.
]]>Some people have started referring to the indie web movement. I understand where they’re coming from; it certainly looks like a “movement” from the outside, and if you attend an Indie Web Camp, there’s a great spirit of sharing. But my underlying motivations are entirely selfish. In the same way that I don’t really care about particular formats or protocols, I don’t really care about being part of any kind of “movement.” I care about my website.
I like the idea of the indie web camps and must look into those that occur near me.
]]>My most unusual experience was at a Radio Shack store, where the manager insisted that Apple Pay wouldn’t work, but reluctantly let me try it. I easily bought a $9 wall charger using a terminal originally meant for a competitor, Google Wallet.
I am interested to see how long it is before Apple Pay is launched here in Europe. I can see the convenience of paying this way, but with the battery on my iPhone often running out in the evening, I think it will be a long time before people abandon their wallets completely.
]]>We took a hacker to a café and, in 20 minutes, he knew where everyone else was born, what schools they attended, and the last five things they googled.
There are many private VPN solutions that can help eliminate some of these risks, but best practice seems to be just don’t use public free wifi.
]]>]]>Tonight is my personal favorite night of the Halloween season: the night I carve the pumpkins! Ever since I was a little kid, I couldn’t wait for the night I got to carve pumpkins with my family. Picking out your perfect pumpkin, deciding upon your perfect design, and then drawing it on before you start carving in is just such great fun. Not to mention all the fun of pulling out the guts! Then baking pumpkin seeds, (yum!) and finally, the delightful satisfaction of seeing it perfectly candlelit under a night sky. If you’re still looking for ideas for your perfect carving, here’s a collection of some awesome jack-o’-lanterns to inspire you!
Crash-test dummies are undergoing a makeover to reflect the thicker waistlines and larger rear ends of Americans.
]]>“Studies show that obese drivers are 78 percent more likely to die in a car crash,” said Chris O’ Connor, CEO of Humanetics, the only U.S. producer of the dummies.
]]>Talk about bouncing back. Since the financial crisis, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled. According to OxFam, it would take Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, 220 years to spend his fortune. (Unless he really liked Sushi, in which case it would take about fourteen months.)
If there’s anything I’d take back from labor it would have been the fact that I let two people fish around in my vagina for their own benefit.
I’d been “checked” before. This is what they call it. They want to “check you.” You means your cervix. You are your cervix. “Check” means stick a hand inside of “you”—your vagina—and measure how open your cervix is. They do this with their fingertips, because that is where we’re at with science in 2014: We use fingertips as a unit of measurement. Then you are pronounced whatever number of fingertips wide the gap in your cervix is. You are your cervix.
]]>“I’m a three,” means your cervix is dilated three fingertips. You get checked, typically, at your last few OB appointments. “I” had been found to be closed. Or “soft and closed” or “high and tight.” “Low and soft and closed.” It’s all fucking subjective, obviously, and also means almost nothing. You feel as if you are failing some made-up game you don’t want to be playing in the first place.
]]>But here’s the thing: You don’t want to believe your grandmother is poisoning you. You know that she loves you—there’s no doubt of that—and she’s so marvelously grandmotherly and charming. And you know that she would never want to poison you. So despite your better judgment, you eat the food until you’ve passed out so many times that you can’t keep doubting yourself. Eventually, we would arrive for holidays at Grandma’s with groceries and takeout, and she’d seem relieved that we wouldn’t let her touch our plates. By then, her eyesight was starting to go, so she wouldn’t notice the layer of crystalline powder atop that fancy lox she was giving you.
It was after these incidents that management of the centre decided that the staffing levels made it impossible to protect the children from harm. Their solution was to have the cages custom built for the residents.
However the ombudsman’s report concluded that the cages and any practices employing long-term restraints “are clearly illegal and are in direct contradiction with the obligation for respect and protection of the human rights of the residents,” and he urged the Greek government to take immediate steps to rectify the situation.
But after almost five years the only changes are superficial.
I have read a lot of Jo Nesbo’s books before, mostly from the Harry Hole series, and have throughly enjoyed all of them.
To give you the blurb from the book:
Sonny is a model prisoner
He listens to the confessions of other inmates at Oslo jail, and absolves them of their sins. Some people even whisper that Sonny is serving time for someone else: that he doesn’t just listen, he confesses to their crimes.
Inspector Simon Kefas
is a dedicated police officer Simon has worked for the Oslo police force for years. He’s just been assigned a new murder investigation and a new partner, all on the same day.
Both of them knew Sonny’s father
To Sonny he was the man he idolised, to Simon he was his best friend. Both were left devastated when his corruption was revealed.
But neither of them knew the truth
I was skeptical of a plot without my favourite Oslo detective, but as the book unfolded it was clear the plot would not have worked so well with Harry Hole. After so many journeys with Harry, the reader knows his flaws and guiding values well. So It was refreshing to follow a different, yet equally flawed detective, around the streets of Oslo instead, and be on edge about how he would push the investigation forward.
Another thing that I noticed was that the translator for this book (Charlotte Barslund) was not the same one who translated the Harry Hole series (Don Bartlett). I have often wondered if Don’s translating might be an important part of why I enjoy Jo Nesbo books, and was interested to see if I would miss his work. I can say that I did not miss Don’s voice, and I was equally as gripped by this book, and at times even more so than with the Harry Hole books. The last 3rd of the book was completed in a 4.5 hour session as I could not put down the book and get the sleep I really needed yesterday.
So please do get a copy you will not regret it.
If you do, please get in contact and tell me your thoughts.
]]>In fact, talking about cheese is right up there with talking about wine – there’s a whole lexicon for professionals. In this 2001 paper, researchers tasted a panel of 240 Cheddars and devised a set of 27 words for describing Cheddar, including: catty, for describing a smell like tom-cat urine, and cowy, for a barnyard tang, along with nutty, brothy, and fruity.
Would be nice to have the time and space to experiment how to make milk become cheese. Maybe in 20 years when I retire…
]]>]]>That undercuts the standard notion that the way to persuade people is via evidence and argument. In fact, head-on attempts to persuade can sometimes trigger a backfire effect, where people not only fail to change their minds when confronted with the facts—they may hold their wrong views more tenaciously than ever.
]]>These caveats and cautions aside, the researchers conclude with the bold claim that their results offer clues to better parenting: “Parents may benefit from understanding that when they criticize their adolescents, adolescents may experience strong negative emotional reaction, may have difficulty cognitively controlling this emotion and may also find it challenging to understand the parent’s perspective or mental state.” I think we knew that, but now we know it neuroscientifically. Bonus.
Great, simple and not too far fetched plot, a really enjoyable read.
I really enjoyed the ski chase scene, but always had the back of my head Eddie Izzard’s comment about why there are no car chases in books1.
If you only ever read one Bond book make sure it is this or one of the other greats…
‘There are no car chases in books, are there? (mimes reading from book) “He looked up in the mirror. Behind him, the man was driving. He looked in the mirror and then he was driving. Oh, they drove faster, faster, driving fast and looking in the mirror. The other guy was pulling a face and driving fast, and then there was a terrible crash.” Just doesn’t fucking work, does it?’ transcript ↩︎
There is much to admire in how Stanley Kubrick’s movies are constructed, but the director’s keen compositional eye is perhaps the most noticeable. Before becoming a filmmaker, Kubrick honed his observational skills as a photographer in NYC. Look magazine hired him when he was just 17 years old to fill the pages of the publication with photos of life in the city. A new book, Stanley Kubrick Photographs: Through a Different Lens, celebrates Kubrick’s photography, showcasing how that youthful talent would eventually translate into a great filmmaking career.
Some great photos here.
]]>I did this in a way that in retrospect was quite complex and not as stable as I had hoped. Using an old server at home to check for markdown files in a certain dropbox folder which would then trigger the publishing process.
It turns out this was a stupid idea because I haven’t been able to publish anything for a while because I disabled dropbox on that server.
Anyway things should be working again, if this post turns up on the site.
I am also all HTTPS now too ;-)
]]>It turns out this was a stupid idea because I haven’t been able to publish anything for a while.
The date on that last post was the 5th June 2018, slightly more than two years ago.
Well things were way to complicated as it has taken me nearly a week to get this post on the website, and as may be noticeable, the website has visually suffered in this work.
I shall be optimistic though and hope that getting things working again will herald a new era of blogging, or perhaps the next post will follow in late June of 2022.
Let’s see.
In the meantime please excuse the somewhat simplified appearance of the website - all will be addressed over time…
]]>I tried first to get a server running on my Synology server at Home. I have docked running on there and as I am pretty competent I thought that should be easy. It all fairness it was easy, but it brought my server to it’s knees even without being able to connect to it.
I gave up on the idea and luckily after a few months the kids had moved on from Minecraft so it was no longer relevant. Last month though Minecraft caught on again in our household and in the kids friends circle. With social distancing being important I thought again about a Minecraft server. Then I heard a mention in the Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP) about using Linode to Setup a Minecraft server which piqued my curiosity.
It didn’t go as smoothly as I had expected, and because his was mostly due to a lack of up to date documentation I’ve decided to write down how I got it all to work in the end.
One of the things that attracted me to try the setup with Linode was in the sponsor reads for ATP they give a discount for $20 which when used with the smallest server from Linode amounts to 4 months free usage. You can find details on most ATP Episodes - but here is the code from ATP 383 - atp2020
.
However i didn’t actually need this because when I searched for help with Linode & Minecraft I found this guide on the minecraft site which contained a link to sign-up and get a $20 credit.
Maybe they can even be combined to get $40 - it’s too late for me to try out, but good luck.
My first attempt to get Minecraft running was by following the tutorial I linked to above. This explains very quickly how to install a ‘Minecraft Server’. Unfortunately it turns out that there are two types of Minecraft Server and the one outlined in that article was for me the wrong one.
There is a Java Server which is only compatible with desktop Minecraft (AKA Java Minecraft).
Then there is the Bedrock Server which supports any mobile devices (iOS, Android, Switch etc) and game consoles (xbox, Playstation etc). To make things more confusing this used to be called Pocket Edition.
To make matters even worse - for years there has been no official Bedrock / Pocket Edition Server, so unofficial ones have been created such as Pocketmine. I have chosen the official server to be able to quickly follow any updates to the platform. At the time of writing this server was marked as Alpha software (i.e. an early and buggy version) but I have had no problems in my first month.
If you don’t need the Bedrock server - you can probably follow the rest of the instructions here to get the Java Server up and running, but…
There is a very easy way to install the Java Server on Linode via the Marketplace and you might want to consider that too, but it doesn’t seem to be the latest version of the server, and as I discovered last week understanding how the server is installed is relevant for updating.
It makes no sense for me to go into any details about setting up a Linode here, follow the experts at Linode:
https://www.linode.com/docs/getting-started/
I setup an Ubuntu server as per the recommendations from the Minecraft Page.
There is a second support document from Linode that you can also follow regarding securing your server but for my Minecraft server I have only setup a separate user (‘minecraft’) and not bothered with the rest.
OK so I hope this point you have a server up and running and you have can connect to it with SSH, if so the rest will be quite painless.
One thing that is good to do now is make sure that your non-root user (minecraft in my case) is also in the sudo group. You can do this by issuing the following command as ‘root’.
adduser minecraft sudo
If your user is not called minecraft
then use the correct name here.
Next ssh to the server as minecraft
.
Update the packages on the server before we install Minecraft:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Next you need to get the URL for the current version of the Bedrock Minecraft Server
when I searched the internet (via Duckduckgo) for Bedrock Minecraft Server
I came to the page:
https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/server/bedrock/
This may change in the future.
On the version of the page I found I had to tick a box to agree to the EULA and then the URL for the download was available by right clicking on the button and doing a copy link. At the time of writing this was:
https://minecraft.azureedge.net/bin-linux/bedrock-server-1.16.0.2.zip
So to download this zip file into my Ubunto server I need to issue the following command:
wget https://minecraft.azureedge.net/bin-linux/bedrock-server-1.16.0.2.zip
Then we need to unzip the downloaded file:
unzip bedrock-server-1.16.0.2.zip
This unzips everything into the current directory, which should be the user directory of you user (minecraft
) which is fine for me.
We are not going to setup the Minecraft Server to run as a service, so it will not recover after a system restart, we will just leave it running in a process. (I know it is hacky - but it is simple and fast).
To get the server running type (from the same directory):
screen ./bedrock_server
This runs the server using a process called screen which allows you to discontent from the running process and re-connect later. If you require more help on screen follow the link.
Great! You have a server running! You are likely to want to configure it though - but we will come back to that - first let’s connect to it from a Bedrock client to test it.
Before you can do that you better read the next section otherwise it might take two days of pulling hair out for you to understand what is wrong with the server.
Not mentioned in either of the official Linode guides about installing Minecraft is Firewall configuration.
I had a real problem with this step because of a simple misunderstanding on my part of how the network tools show open ports. It turns out that when you use netscan
and similar tools that they don’t show any information about processes running with UDP ports open.
The default minecraft configuration starts up with a IP4 UDP port open on 19132
which is cool.
Reading the Linode documentation about firewalls led me to believe that all I needed to do was open port 19132
and all would be easy. The command to do this is:
sudo ufw allow 19132
What I missed was that the server was using a UDP port and I had thought the above syntax would open the port for both TCP and UDP. It turns out this command is shorthand for sudo ufw allow 19132/tcp
and therefore I needed to add the /udp
so therefore use:
sudo ufw allow 19132/udp
Check the rule is in place with:
sudo ufw status
If you find the firewall is disabled then enable it with
sudo ufw enable
Updating the settings is fairly easy. If you are familiar with vi
then very easy, if not - somewhat painful.
The settings file can be edited using vi
by typing in:
vi server.properties
Using vi
is not intuitive and you can find more information on how to use vi properly.
To edit this file you need to know:
i
will enter insert mode, then it will work like a ‘normal’ text editing toolESC
to enter command modeqw
and then press ENTER
to quit and saveq!
and press ENTER
to quit without saving.That is the very basic way to get a server up and running, good luck.
If you have any questions or feedback on the instructions here - please contact me on twitter - I am @grouchal.
]]>Very interesting book that challenges a lot of commonly held knowledge, explaining how scientists have continually made false assumptions when trying to understand human health, bodies and brains. I highly recommend this book.
The books takes us on a journey from the dawn of the evolution and the documented misogynistic opinions of Darwin that seem to have prejudiced his thoughts and that of following scientists, up to the modern day and that way that science still seems to be prejudiced against correctly understanding women, their bodies, health and brains. Darwin’s views are of course viewed in the context of the prevalent Victorian attitudes towards women. However it is enlightening to read how often mistakes have been made in scientific research because of the perspective of mostly male researchers over the last centuries and how much bias there is in the fundamentals of sociological, biological and neurological research that still persists despite an enormous catalog of evidence to the contrary.
The book is full of evidence that smashes prevalent attitudes about women that we often believe to be based on “fundamental truths”. Take for example health, we are often told that men are the stronger species, despite the fact that we all know women live longer than mean. Obviously in regards of physical strength, the on average slightly larger male body results in generally superior strength. I was not aware that of the top 15 causes of death (health related and based on US data), 12 of them affect men more strongly than women, 2 affect both sexes equally and only 1 had a greater effect on women. Why is this? Well read the book to find out more, but maybe having two X chromosomes might not be the disadvantage previously believed.
There are a lot of enlightening stories in the book, but one I found very interesting was that about the “missing 142g” in a female brain. In the late 19th century until the middle of the 20th century one piece of evidence of the inferiority of women was that their brains could be seen to be lighter in weight than that of a male. Fighting against this idea seemed to be impossible for any female as they did not have access to the education or tools to formulate any arguments against this notion. One particularly frustrated teacher and writer called Helen Hamilton Gardener, decided to learn as much as she could about neurology to be able to counter the arguments, and ended up working alongside New York doctor Edward Spitzka. Eventually she got a letter published in the Popular Science Monthly, where she revealed all the experts she had worked with could not distinguish between a male and female brain, and that the cause of a slightly larger male brain was related to the slightly larger male body, pointing out that this also explained why elephant brains were larger than human males, yet they were not more intelligent. The conjectures of Gardener have since proven to be true and it is now accepted that brain weight alone has no link to intelligence. An interesting epilogue to Gardener’s story is that when she herself died, her brain was found to weigh the same as a male professor of neurology at Cornell, providing the last laugh to her.
I would highly recommend all people read this book, it is well written and I found it easy and enjoyable to read. The lessons of history and those still existing prejudices are quite shocking. I felt quite shocked when reading the first half of the book and the attitudes of Victorian scientists, but this turned into anger when hearing about the still existing prejudices of modern scientists (male and female).
]]>A sad reflection on the elements of “society” that existed in the UK even in the 1980s. For me, the killing and the killer, were a minor part of this portrait of a set of characters in a Britain that I don’t really recognise from 40 years ago. A slog to get through sometimes, I am glad I have read a P.D. James novel now, but feel it was my last in addition to being my first.
The story starts very violently with a body found in a Church by a boy and an elderly lady. Soon we are introduced to Adam Dalgleish the detective who is responsible for the case. The case revolves around 3 generations of a complex family, and their secrets. How they behave and how much the perception of others influences their behaviours. The book is a portrait of a set of characters, the victim, his family, a wider circle of people involved, and the detectives involved in the case.
Some characters do have interesting stories, but I found the pacing in the book to be quite hard work. I unfortunately can’t say I liked many (any?) of the characters as I could not identify with the decisions that they had made or how they were living their lives. The politics of the author were also a little too far away from my own, and they seemed to skewer her descriptions of some characters in a way I found to be stereotypical and occasionally offensive.
The book is well written, but it was too far away from the type of crime book I have read in the last few years to keep my attention (Harry Hole mostly)and I found myself skipping passages to get to the end of the book. One positive is that the attitudes and behaviour of some characters has given an insight into some of my relations. I have been reflecting on how their upbringing and the society reflected in the book may have shaped their attitudes and prejudices.
]]>Educational, enjoyable and sometimes very shocking violence. Hard work towards the end (~700 pages) and a lot of Jamaican slang.
The story takes place over many years, and a few locations, with a host of narrators. Each chapter is narrated by a different character, I lost count or how many narrators in the end, which can make for jarring changes in style as you progress from one chapter to another.
“The Singer” (Bob Marley) is central to the thread of the story, never a narrator himself he only fleetingly participates in the book. The horrendous out-of-control lives lived by some citizens of Jamaica in this period has shocked me.
I did feel the need to jump out of the book occasionally to find out some things about Bob Marley to help provide context to things going on. That he died of a cancer that started in his big toe is not easy to understand in the book itself, but things made more sense with this knowledge. That he left Jamaica to live a self-imposed exile, also helped at certain points.
Via this story I have learnt more about the geo-political games that played out in the Caribbean and Central America in the 60s & 70s and their long-lasting impact on Jamaica and wider. Via this and the series of books about Mexican drug cartels I have read this year, my eyes have been opened more to the long-term damage cause by the short-sightedness of US anti-drugs and anti-communist policies in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.
I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in reading a good story with a set of good characters. Reading the chapters that are narrated by characters who communicate in Creole with a lot of Jamaican slang can be hard work, well worth it in the end.
The final words will leave any reader moved and changed forever, I am sure.
]]>I waited 10 years to read this book, what a mistake! Great read on the real history of India Pale Ale, at the same time an amusing travelouge of a man trying to bring a barrel of beer from Burton to Calcutta on the route it would have taken about 150 years ago.
I was given this book over 10 years ago (by my mum I think) and it has moved from country to country with us constantly being on my reading list but never making it to the top. The subject was of interest, but never enough so that I wanted to read this book over a more recent purchase. It has sat in our cellar for the last 6 years in a box with most of my paperback books. In the summer this year, due to a combination of a stay at home summer holiday (The Situation) and that I am no longer reading only eBooks, we unpacked our remaining boxes and I found this book again. I somewhat guiltily placed into my current pile of books to read, expecting that it might have the same fate as last time.
One afternoon I decided to start on the first chapter thinking as it was non-fiction it might make a good book for me to dip into every-so-often, however I got hooked. I really like the author’s writing style and perhaps as we are both English males of a similar age I found I shared a lot of his opinions and memories.
The story of India Pale Ale (IPA), how it came to exist, what it’s legacy today is, and it’s relationship to the IPA beer I drunk when younger (Greene King IPA) were all a suprise to me. I did not for instance realise that Burton hosted in the largest breweries in the world at one point, and that many of the brewers who went on to brew some of the most famous and most popular beers we still have, trained in Burton’s Breweries. I was even suprised to read that the paleness of IPA was the inspiriation in Pilsen for the now very famous brewing style, and Pils was the beer that ultimately stopped the world domination of IPA and the Burton Breweries.
The travellouge of Pete and his barrel of beer Barry is also interesting, with a few ups and downs, and unexpected twists of it’s own. All in all a very enjoyable read, but it may be one only applicable to English guys of a certain age who enjoy Pale Ale.
]]>A highly enjoyable review of how to manage risk, using the perspectives of some unusual case studies, sex workers, poker players, paparazzi, a magician and a 3 star general, to name but a few. Easy to read, well presented and a good overview of risk management. Lessons from the book can be applied to many activities from daily life in addition to how to manage financial risk.
I had heard the author on the “Clear and Vivid” podcast with Alan Alder and the stories she told and the perspectives she provided caught interest. I was right to follow up on my first impression and purchase the book, as the author is as capable in her writing as she was on that podcast to make the complex become tangible and understandable.
The many perspectives that are brought to the book really help to dive deeper into different risk management strategies and apply the lessons learnt.
The stories in the book chain together in a well-structured narrative that comes together in a nice conclusion at the end of the book. After reading that last sentence, please do remember this is a non-fiction book that we are talking about here ;-)
If you are interested in risk management already, then this would make a great read to reinforce all you may already know. If you are not into risk management, then this is a fantastic read that will introduce many new concepts in an easy-to-read format.
]]>