Social engineering? What social engineering?

Absolutely no attempt to be clever about this scam spam. Straight in there asking for personal id details, even though they supposedly already sent me some money? Laughable.

I wish to informed you that your ATM CARD has been credited with the sum total of $1,350,000,00,contact MR JAMES TOUCH,the FedEx co coordinator,with your full name and address with a scan copy of your identity along with your country and phone number to his personal EMAIL,{jame-touch@qatar.io}

Driving routes from England to Scotland (Cambridge to Inverness)

I'm often asked about driving to Scotland - since I do the journey myself pretty often. There are fewer main roads in Scotland which simplifies the choices, but there are still options for distance versus scenery. My main recommendations are presented below, based on a journey from Cambridge to Inverness - which raises the question: do I go East or West?

Option 1: Head West

The most scenic route in my opinion (for the scottish part) is the west - through GLENCOE- i.e. A82... 

My recommended way to take that from is:  (524 miles)

A1 north -> A66 at scotch corner to cut west -> M6/M74 north -> M8 round glasgow -> Erskine bridge -> (A82) Glencoe -> Fort William -> Inverness

Route Map

At the scottish end this is the more interesting route as it goes through Glencoe and past Loch Ness. The English end is basically just motoroway.

Option 2: A9 East Scotland

The M6 is the main motorway up the west of the country - and surprisingly it costs very little in extra miles to cut across to the west then back again. 

Via M6 / A9 (510 Miles)

Route Map

Google suggests this route - which is basically simplest, but also arguably most boring.. The English and lowland Scotland stretch is the same as option 1, but then it takes the A9 (i.e. the eastern side of the highlands) up to Inverness, so is more direct... saves about 15 miles - (amazingly you'd think it would be a lot more.. )

Option 3: Stay entirely East

499 miles

The natural inclination might be to stay East for the whole journey and head towards Edinburgh. Instead of doing that all the way up the A1, it is shorter and quicker and more scenic to cut across country from Newcastle. You CAN go through Northumberland National park which is a very scenic, but quite twisty route... so I tend to skirt round the edge on this route through COLDSTREAM:

Route Map

As you can see - this misses out Glencoe on the west and uses the A9 - i.e. stays East for the whole journey. Consequently it is the shortest route, but still by less than 30 miles...   this is the route I would take if pressed for time and wanting "just to get there" without being too bothered about scenery..

Option 4: The tourist route

535 miles

This is option is if you really want to go past Edinburgh and also do the scenic route through glencoe...  so overall, it probably is THE most scenic route..

This is longest - but picks up Edinburgh, Glencoe and Loch Ness

Route Map

As you can see, timewise and distance wise there is not a whole load in it..

[photos: Nik Sargent]

Driving Tips for Freshers

For students starting university this term, the last thing on their mind is probably driver safety.

But the roads before Fresher’s Week are increasingly filled with students moving their worldly possessions across the country - usually in heavily-laden, small, second-hand cars, raising a number of potential risks; fatigue, view blocking and driving on unfamiliar roads.

The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) has a few tips for those travelling to university this week on how to load all their clothes, books, stereos, TV’s and food, and allow students to kick-start their uni life safely.

• Make sure belongings are securely packed - bear in mind, drivers can face prosecution for travelling with an ‘unsecure load’. More importantly, loose objects can be distracting and if the driver needs to brake sharply, unsecured items could fly forward and hit those sitting in front.
• Loading a car until it’s ready to burst can obstruct the already dangerous ‘blind spot’ view further, making the driver more vulnerable when changing lanes. Loads should be made as small as possible and positioned for a clear view. Students should take essentials on the first trip and ask family to bring more when they visit.
• A long drive can lead to fatigue, so drivers should get plenty of rest beforehand. For the journey, comfortable, loose clothing should be worn, the driving seat should be adjusted to a safe upright position and the heating/air-conditioning set to a cool – not cold – temperature, regular breaks should be taken at least every two hours and driving at night should be avoided.
• Having a full car will use more fuel; keep an eye on the fuel level to ensure it doesn’t run out.
• Check tyre pressures before setting off. Tyres on a full and heavy car usually require higher pressure. The right pressures prevent unnecessary wear, excess fuel consumption and potentially dangerous blow outs.
• Finally, driving on unfamiliar roads can be unnerving. Sat navs can help and enable the driver to re-route quickly and relatively easily, however, they can be expensive so it is best to plan the journey before hitting the road. 

University life is fantastic; students should make sure theirs isn’t postponed by keeping their car safely loaded while driving there.

[source IAM]

Vaxhaull Insignia: Designed to kill you

This car is horrible to drive. 

Through no fault of my own I'm driving a rental Vauxhall Insignia. I wish I wasn't.

It's apparently a "like for like" replacement for my Skoda Octavia vRS. Now, of course, the Skoda's not the most wonderful car on the market - but actually it turns in great JD Power satisfaction results year after year and frankly, is a big-smile-of-joy to drive. 

Not so the Vauxhall. Within 30 seconds I disliked this car. Within 10 minutes I hated it. Let me catalogue a few of the failings.

Ergonomics and usability

I expect to get in a car and figure out to use it in 30 seconds. Consider me new-fashioned but that's the way of the busy modern world. And I design voice user interfaces. 

I can barely begin to catalogue the ergonimic failings of this car - some verging on dangerous. But here are a few:

• Hard to adjust wallowy seat with very hard lumbar support and a bizzare combination of manual and poorly-labelled electric controls. 
• Overloaded with controls of poor design. An example being the "turnable" controls (e.g. for trip computer) on the fingertip stalks. Not only is this type of control hard to location and control accurately (turning motion on the stalk can be prone to operate the stalk in other unintentional directions) but more importantly, you can't fingertip control them - you have to take your hand completely off the wheel to operate. (In contrast, in the Octy, every steering and stalk control can be operated by finger tip).  You can see one such control in the picture below.

I can't decide which of the next two failings are the most ludicrous and/or dangerous.

• First is the console control panel for the audio sytem. A swathe of indistinct plastic which at its biggest is 7 buttons wide by 5 buttons high. Yes, that's right 7 BUTTONS WIDE x 5 BUTTONS HIGH. Why on earth does it need so many buttons? This car doesn't even have extra features like electric seats or bluetooth. And if it does need so many buttons, why do they have to be so unfriendly, badly labelled and hard to navigate by touch.
  You really have to take your eyes off the road to operate this.

• Perhaps the piece de resistance, however, is the insane placement of the gear indication on the automatic gear stalk. When the gears are in use it is completely obsucured from the driver! As a result of this I accidentally selected reverse at one set of traffic lights when I was aiming to select neutral. And there is no indication of the gear the car has selected in the driver's display. The whole set up is dangerous to the point of negligence. I've created a superimposed photo below of the gearstick in two positions, showing how in use it blocks the gear markings. 

Handling 

Woolly and indistinct. You can't really tell how hard you are pressing the brakes, and the steering wheel connects with the road as if through a bungee cord. In fact, it's so like a bungee cord, when you turn a corner the steering is threatening to rip itself out of your hands to return to centre. It actually feels dangerous. Feel the road? No - all I can feel is my heartbeat panicking.

Visibility and Functionality

horrible visibility out the narrow back window, with huge 'C' pillars - made worse by a pointy boot that you can't see the end of. 

Speaking of the boot - it's deep but loses so much width due to needlessly fat rear wings. What makes it worse is the pointed boot lip. But even worse is the non-flat floor. It has so many ridges and "shelves" that it's more like the floor of the Atlantic ocean.

Overall? A triumph of form over function

Installing an iPhone TomTom power cable behind the dashboard

Here's some pictures of how I wired a TomTom iPhone mount behind the dash of a VW Passat.

Note, this didn't involve finding a new power source or wiring to the fuse box. Instead power was taken from the 12v lighter/accessory socket in the ashtray. The actual ashtray was removed (it is designed to be removable) so it can be put back at a later date.

The jack end of the tomtom power cable can be stowed in the ashtray cavity when not in use, with the lid closed - hiding it from view. 

To perform this job requires a couple of tools designed for the job. Ideally you need "dash tools" - these are strong plastic wedge shaped tools that allow you to pop the fascia off the front of the dash. The fascia in all modern cars is just clip on plastic. You also need a suitable star-shaped spanner set - as most car fittings use this form factor. This is used for removing bolted in items such as the ashtray container and air conditioning controls. A set for about £20 is a good investment if you intend working on your car a few times or on several cars. Finally, i also used a "magnamole" - a new invention (as shown on Dragon's Den") of bendy flexible sticks with a magnetic end - very handy for routing and picking up wires in small spaces you can't get your hand.

The tomtom itself is mounted on the dash using the standard suction mount onto a tomtom-supplied sticky disc, designed for the purpose. They cost about £5 for two. (I've also used one to mount a video camera in the rear of my car)

Pictures of the installation follow:

starting the job: dash fascia removed (tools shown on seat)

upper cable routed behind air vents

 This was a bit tricky getting the USB end through the small hole. Ideally I'd have gone through the gap at the side, but it was just too small.

cable routed behind A/C controls to drop down behind lighter socket

This was the bit that needed the Mangamole to pick up the USB cable from behind the lighter power socket. I removed the A/C controls and dropped the rod down behind to grab the metal end of the cable from inside the lower part of the dash.

 Hole drilled in ashtray cavity to route power cable

     Drilling the hole was unavoidable - the ashtray cavity is totally sealed and any attempts to come round/over the side/top prevent the flap from working. However, the actual ashtray has been removed (it's designed to for cleaning/emptying) so the hole is easily covered if the cable is removed and the ashtray replaced.  

finshed job - mounted on a tomtom dash suction plate

The final job is pretty neat and discreet. It avoids those tell-tale suction marks on the windscreen that thieves love and with or without the mount in place is easily covered with a small hat :-)  It is also much safer for driving as there is no risk of the trailing cable getting caught up in anything (gear lever, hand) and the iPhone is in much closer reach of the driver.

The power cable stows neatly in the ashtray when not in use and is plugged into the lighter socket when required.

The positioning of the iPhone tomtom also improves handsfree performance as both speaker and mic are closer to the driver.

Eat, Drink & Be Atkins Compatible

Anyone that's tried a diet will soon enough probably hit some kind of "plateau"  where the weight loss stops. Even if it's not for an extended period, it's still disheartening - so it's important to try and look at the causes and figure out whether you're sticking to your diet plan as closely as you should be.

In the case of Atkins and low carb diets there are various reports that caffeine and artificial sweeteners (namely Aspartame) can contribute to a slow down in weightloss. Certainly when I hit my plateau recently, both those things were still in my diet - probably in raised quantities because I was drinking as a replacement to eating.

Cutting out the caffeine is easy, but cutting out Aspartame is much harder, when natural fruit drinks are out of bounds and most soft diet drinks contain it. However sucralose based sweetener is ok, so the challenge is on to find diet drinks that contain that rather than Aspartame. 

So far my search has thrown up two very palatable options:

• Tesco Diet Dandelion & Burdock
• Tesco Diet Cloudy Lemonade

I thoroughly recommend both drinks and I'm pleased to report my plateau is on the move again :-)

"Low-carb" muffin recipe

I’m really excited to present this recipe - particularly useful for anyone on a low-carb (low carbohydrate) diet such as Atkins. I’ve adapted it (read “improved”) from a recipe I found on a low carb advice website. The measurements given there were in "cups" (is that an American thing?) which seems wholly unscientific and destined to lead to potential failure - I have at least 5 or 6 cup sizes in my cupboard. So, I applied a bit more science and experimentation to come up with some measures that are more accurate.

The recipe is based on "almond flour", sometimes known as "almond meal": though basically it's ground almond. I never knew you could bake with it, but if these come out as they are meant to for you, like me you'll realise you can indeed bake very successfully with almond instead of wheat/flour!

Some notes on modifications to original ingredients

• The original recipe contained salt. After trying it, the cakes were way too salty, so I have eliminated the extra salt. What’s more - I find that when on a low carb regime, I’m far more sensitive to salt. If you want to add it back in, so be it.
• The original recipe suggests that liquid sweetener is preferred - whether this really makes a difference or not, I'm not sure - as these muffins come out just fine with granulated sweetener. Personally I just go for what's simple. 

Ingredients:

• 200g Ground Almond (this is basically your flour)
• 100g dessicated coconut (this is optional - I add it to add sweetness & I like the texture. I think it's worth it!)
• 35g butter - I find regular butter too salty (esp. on Atkins) so I used Tesco "Soft Spread"(which says "perfect for cakes" on the side! - and I agree)
• 4 medium eggs
• 10g of sucralose-based sweetener - e.g. Splenda (though Tesco do their own brand for almost 1/3rd the price) - remember that 10g of this type of sweetener is basically equivalent to 100g of normal sugar. 
• 75mls lemon juice (or you can use water, I guess, but for best flavour go with the lemon)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Flavourings/Optional (I add all off these)

 

• half to 1 capful of orange natural extract 
• half to 1 capful vanilla flavour 
• a sprinkling of something like chopped orange/lemon peel which you can buy in small tubs

Of course, you can vary the flavours and quantities to suit your own taste

Instructions

• pre-heat the oven to a temperature 350F / gas mark 4 - 4.5 / 180C
• thoroughly mix all dry ingredients
• thoroughly mix in all wet ingredients
• spoon into the tin and bake - cooking time 15 - 20mins (if done in a mincepie/yorkshire pudding/muffin tray) - e.g tray with 12 individual portions

The recipe above is perfect to make 12 small muffins.
 

If making 12, I estimate the carbohydrate content of each muffin to be approximately 2.2g based on the manufacturers' measures on the raw ingredients and the respective proportions

My Governor Election Statement

I'm standing for (re)election as a Public Governor of Cambridgshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust - the NHS organisation that provides the mental health care for the Cambridgeshire region, with votes closing on the 31st May 2010. I have been a Governor for 2 years since the formation of the Trust as a Foundation Trust. 

Below is my election statement. If you are a member of the Trust you'll have received a voting form and if you agree with my statement I would welcome your vote.

2010 Election Statement

If re-elected I’ll continue to represent those who feel unheard, misunderstood, inadequately cared for and isolated by mental illness, whether sufferers or carers. I’ll also focus on cost control and value for money as well as new ways to engage closely with users using Internet technology. 

I’ve been an active voice as a Governor, involved in anti-stigma, information provision and getting out on the street and online with direct action and communication.

My experiences have brought me into close contact with the devastating effects of conditions such as Depressive Illness and related aspects, whilst highlighting the misunderstanding and stigma associated with mental health issues. I'm dedicated to doing everything possible to change this perception and improve the care available for sufferers and carers, who often go unsupported.

 

I'm passionate about "levelling the playing field" for mental health, with greater provision, awareness and education, ensuring available funds are well spent.

If re-elected I’ll continue to represent those who feel unheard, misunderstood, inadequately cared for and isolated by mental illness, whether sufferers or carers. I’ll also focus on cost control and value for money as well as new ways to engage closely with users using Internet technology.

 
I’ve been an active voice as a Governor, involved in anti-stigma, information provision and getting out on the street and online with direct action and communication.

My experiences have brought me into close contact with the devastating effects of conditions such as Depressive Illness and related aspects, whilst highlighting the misunderstanding and stigma associated with mental health issues. I'm dedicated to doing everything possible to change this perception and improve the care available for sufferers and carers, who often go unsupported. 

I'm passionate about "levelling the playing field" for mental health, with greater provision, awareness and education, ensuring available funds are well spent.

How to make election stats say anything you want

I'l be honest - for the first time in my life I've been gripped by the UK 2010 election and the workings of the politics.

We live in such a different era to when I was first able to vote: wall-to-wall blanket media coverage, 24 hour opinion and speculation, and something I've found particularly interesting, helpful, amusing (and silly at times): the whole social media channel - which in a sense has given real-time interaction and access to opinions that are not edited by TV moguls with an agenda.

However - that's not to say all this coverage has been excellent or impartial - far from it. Nothing is more annoying to me than selective use of facts simply to create spin - and there has been plenty of that.

So, I thought I would list out some of the key facts from the outcome of the election and list some of the possible statements that can be made - all true - but selected depending on what spin you wish to give.

If i had more time I'd turn this into an interactive tool that allows you to construct any statement you wish, but for now, here are the guts of it.

Quantity of votes

(Con ~10.7m ~8.6m Lab LD ~6.8m) source bbc

CON > LAB
CON > LIB DEM
LAB > LIB DEM

Thus

"labour did not win"
"lib dem did not win"

CON ~ >1/3rd vote
Lab ~ <1/3rd vote
LidDem ~1/4 vote

"~2/3rds did not vote for con"
"~2/3rds did not vote for lab"
"~3/4ths did not vote for Lib dem"

+ "and yet they are getting their policies implemented" etc.

when it comes to seats

CON < 326 (the number required for an outright majority)
LAB < 326
LD < 326

thus:

"con does not have a mandate to govern" or "con did not win"
"lab does not have a mandate to govern"
"ld does not have a mandate to govern"
"we have a PM that was not voted for"
"we have a Deputy PM that was not voted for"

CON + LD > LAB
LAB + LD > CON
CON + LAB > LD

thus:

a con + LD coalition represents the majority
a lab + LD coalition represents the majority
a con + lab coalition represents the majority

Because both coalition parties have to compromise on policy:

"con no longer represents their voters / has sold itself down the river"
"LD no longer represents their voters / has sold itself down the river"

and so on..

I've not even covered level of turnout, which means something like ~35% of the populations' views are unknown and thus can be used to reduce the mandate of all the above figures.

You can do this stuff all day.. :-)

Some customer service tips for couriers

I find couriers one of the hardest of service organisations to deal with, so here are some suggestions to substantially improve their customer service.

1. The reason you had to leave a card is because I'm not available during the day. Thus if you are going to leave a contact number, make sure it's available AT NIGHT. 
2. It's all very well leaving a card to arrange web redelivery - but the whole benefit of this is that you can relieve yourself of responsibility of my parcel sooner & more reliably. So it's not acceptable that I can't arrange it for the forthcoming day, especially when you can still have at least 24 hours to organise it. You managed the logistics in <24 hours when it was sent, so why not again?
3. If you're going to leave something in a safe and secure space, at least leave a card to say so. I'm indeed grateful for your trouble, but it could be there for weeks because you've hidden it so well. Just a card will do.
4. Why not answer the phone once in a while? Some of us customers are actually friendly and we're actually trying to help you discharge your duties. Oh, and being able to call the LOCAL branch is kind of more helpful since that's where you have my parcel. 
5. Get your driver to wait more than 8 seconds after knocking on the door. Once in a while I'm on a call, in the shower, or just plain on-the-top-floor - it's silly for him to miss me, or for me to fall down the stairs getting to him. 

This is real basic stuff - driven by customer experience and customer satisfaction - not targets and KPIs and time-based metrics. Of course, if you follow these above rules, you'll actually deliver more parcels more successfully anyway. Win-win wouldn't you say?