ICT education reform

Not a moment too soon, someone thinks that our ICT education is not really cutting it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15926871 Not that this will come as any surprise. I don't however think that pure Computer Science degrees are the answer. I think a programming education should be a part of any engineering discipline. This article is more focusing at school level and maybe college. How do we have a reasonable exposure to programming at these levels to capture peoples interest. It definitely is not about teaching people packages (again this can be done in subjects that want to use the package), and more about the creative and design process behind making software.

Osborne finds some levers

When they came to power Osborne said it was not as if he had some levers he could pull in his office to get economic growth, it was down to the people of the country and businesses to provide it.

Well he seems to have found some levers now, infrastructure investment, loans to smaller companies. All sounds good in principle, it's a shame governments do not think of doing more of this even in the good times.

The spectre of PFI deals looms over us though, a financial trick that allows outside private firms to earn interest payments off public funded developments - with advisors from private firms working in the treasury sounds like another scandal waiting to break

Film: Syriana Directed by Stephen Gaghan

A well done film about the murky world of oil commerce. The film has a few threads running through it. A US "energy consultant" who gets too close to the middle east countries and ruling families, a haggard CIA agent who becomes a liability, and two oil companies merging to carve up more of the oil resource.

It is a complicated plot and probably benefits from watching twice. It is also very contemporary and tells the US audience a few uncomfortable home truths that probably did not have to be spiced up for the big screen.

Harrier Purchase

The Royal Navy scrapped Harriers have been sold for spares to the US marines. It was always bit short sighted to scrap these aircraft (even if it made sense to cut back on Ark Royal, and keep the aircraft just in case they needed quick deployment). As always Lewis Page sums up the UK government myopia: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/15/harriers_saved/

Mclaren Sports Car

There has been an interesting documentary series showcasing British engineering. In reality showcases the niche areas that we still manage to survive in, as we've never really done mass production (although perversely we seem to do it fine with Japanese management in car factories).

This week it was building of the latest McLaren supercar. In effect McLaren are doing the body work, paint work, and out fitting. Engines are built in the UK by another company.

It was an impressive operation, the programme did give an insight into the over meticulous Ron Dennis - who seemed perturbed by cracked or replaced tiles in his foyer area. But a tribute to perfection on one level, part of me did think "Red Bull have taken you to the cleaners this year, maybe this is the wrong thing to focus on!".

The programme had some interesting people interviewed, a 20 year serving employee now working back at the factory after having worked for the F1 team for most of his time. They also showed just how big and expanding a facility it is, they have sold out the first two years of production already - and the expansion means more car production. All an an "affordable" £160K, not bad for a supercar I suppose.

Paul Darrow

He was probably my all time favourite actor growing up, of course from his association from Blakes 7. His career never really blossomed from that lead role, but I always remembered him. Subsequent research and interviews revealed that he had a lot of say in the Avon character - a bit of an anti-hero in himself. So my memory was jogged recently when none other than Paul was doing the voice overs for Jack FM - a local radio station. I found some good interviews with Paul on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0fuzN3hTQo http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=IlewtItRku8

Ubuntu and Unity

A lot of disquiet over the X replacement Unity. I've only briefly tried it on a netbook, and it probably translated well there with the lack of screen real estate. I think like others I would find it a bit limiting on a more powerful system or with more screen space to use. I think also I really like Ubuntu as it is now, so a big change would probably feel strange. But are Canonical making a mistake - is this all really just a misguided attempt to go after the tablet market. Linux never made it on the desktop, we should not be thinking it's going to anything but flop on the tablet. Even with all the ease of use introduced over the years (and that is mighty impressive), Linux is the preserve of geeks in the desktop space - people who care about what their laptop/PC is running.

Watching the odds

I tracked some prices of the England v Spain friendly football international yesterday. Betfair provide an open access API and some sample code that is easily modified to watch the price data over time. Spain were favourites and England were expected to struggle. In the end England despite missing some big names were resolute and saw out the Spanish pressure, managed to score a set piece goal, and held out for the 1-0. This had better not make them favourites for Euro 2012!

First of all stake over time:

My graphs are per minute, with about 30 minutes pre match included. A staggering £8 million changed hands! Next the bets for the home win with implied percentage (interestingly Betfair call the outcomes "runners" in their sample code, betraying their horse betting roots):

The Lampard goal clearly evident, England were drifting as time went on - the market reacting to their dogged defensive work.
The draw as implied percentage:

The away win as implied percentage, you can see Spain throw it away...

Google to announce music service

Apparently this in on the cards they are trying to tie up distribution deals with the publishers. It is probably already a crowded market place. The over walled garden of iTunes, Amazon (which I use), and probably a few others.

The music industry still struggles with having the idea of Digital Download, after all it was a business model that was foist upon them rather than one that they managed to see coming. Maybe things are changing now, and if the only benefit for them is less environmental damage (no physical product to ship and manufacture!) then so be it.

But how different things could have been, had the publishers been willing to see what was coming and get ahead of Tech companies like Google and Apple - they would be much more in control of their destiny. It was laughable how a company like Sony were completely blind sided by the coming of the MP3 - none of their mid 2000s portable players supported it. Nothing like signing your own death warrant and ingnoring market trends.

Having said that I purchased my first CD of the year - yes it still happens occasionally. It was the live Rush Time Machine Live in Cleavland.

Footballing Biographies

In the past I have read a couple of footballer's biographies, with Tony Adams "Addicted" and Stuart Pearce "Psycho" being the best of the largely ghost written genre.

But I have always thought of some ironic or well worn phrases that turn up in football commentary that would make good titles for biographies, so here is my fledging list:

• I don't know how much he knew about that (for the lucky goal scorer)
• How did he miss that
• He must score!
• He thought it was in
• No way back from here
• He's as surprised as anyone
• It's a long way back from here
• How did that happen
• I'm not sure he can believe it
• Not what he hoped
• Nine times out of ten that goes in
• That's disappointing

Betfair new CEO

I read today that Betfair are going to announce a new CEO, recruiting the Chief Operating Officer from the online traditional bookmaker PaddyPower.

An interesting move they have had a lot of bad press, they seem to be throwing away and stagnating a fundamentally good idea. Maybe it is a case of you can only go so many places from where they are now, and there is not the scope to expand the business (although I am sure a lot of other businesses would love to have the opportunities of the market Betfair are in).

I use both sites for some low stakes fun betting. PaddyPower seems the most commercialised, incentives, and special offers based. In some ways that can be a distraction but at least the mechanics of actually betting do not get interfered with. They always market their offers as a fun thing and not as a cold business transaction.

Betfair on the other hand feels like a clean unchanging interface, I actually find it very functional and unfussy. They do a lot of former sportsmen "name" sponsorship which I always feel is a waste of time. These people only seem to get advertised on the site, and by definition you already know about Betfair if you are looking at their site!

So I hope the new CEO can sort out some of the problems they seem to encounter, supposed platform reliability, lack of growth opportunities. I wonder if they may even start to look at the high commissions charged, after all 5% is what the traditional bookmaker will build into their odds - and Betfair have always promoted themselves as better than the bookies - let's start seeing more evidence!

Alex Ferguson 25 Years at Man Utd

I am by no means a Man Utd fan, but you have to recognise his achievement for being in charge for that long.

I was much more into football early into his reign and I was reading today that his 1989-90 season was the one with the lowest win ratio (only 41%). I remember the FA cup game away at Nottingham Forest where they scraped a 1-0 win courtesy of a well taken Mark Robbins goal. It is often cited as the game that kept him his job, but I think that is perhaps a little exaggerated.

Of course they went on to win the FA cup against Crystal Palace in the final, Palace having knocked out Liverpool in the semi final. I remember really enjoying those games.

So after a 25 year reign, and having built successive teams football is very different now. In the current context the best comment I read today was Mourinho builds a team for now (at the expense of tomorrow), Wenger builds a team for tomorrow (at the expense of today), only Ferguson builds a team for now and tomorrow.