A very sad example of how the need for live news channels to feed the viewer news as it was happening went wrong:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19763649
So they should have been broadcasting a 5 second delayed picture, so they could cut if things turned bad - but the live pictures went out.
Still it is a sad situation that the news channel knew this would be bringing in viewers - and eventually they got more than they bargained for.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Employment Law
Newsnight has had some good stories about the state of low pay employment for immigrants in Britain.
They exposed the fact that Romanina/Bulgarian workers who are not allowed to work as full time employees are exploited by being classed as contract workers. This happens to the extent of mininum wage laws being broken by insisting that payment is for the number of rooms cleaned (the example cites Hotel work).
This has pushed out reputable companies who cannot compete on those terms and lets cleaning contracts go to companies who exploit this type of law.
Part of this is down to the out source culture and contract at cheapest price - the government could go a long way to fine the Hotels involved to ensure they source labour from appropriately run companies.
The frustrating thing is Britain is not short of employment legislation to outlaw this practice - and to provide some protection to these vulnerable workers. As always, typical of the Blair era, we made laws we had no intention or idea of how to enforce - just assuming that everyone would abide by them.
This has pushed out reputable companies who cannot compete on those terms and lets cleaning contracts go to companies who exploit this type of law.
Part of this is down to the out source culture and contract at cheapest price - the government could go a long way to fine the Hotels involved to ensure they source labour from appropriately run companies.
The frustrating thing is Britain is not short of employment legislation to outlaw this practice - and to provide some protection to these vulnerable workers. As always, typical of the Blair era, we made laws we had no intention or idea of how to enforce - just assuming that everyone would abide by them.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Book read: Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy
This is a book I've been meaning to read for a while. It is a mathematical history of prime numbers, and the Riemann Zeta hypothesis.
That may not sound too promising for a book, but it is a very interesting and readable account. The history side is fascinating, the great names that have worked on the this area over the centuries. The book also describes the use of primes in cryptography and also describes the use of computer power to verify (but not prove) Riemann.
So I wish I had read this sooner, but glad that now I have - a book that you could not put down once you had started.
That may not sound too promising for a book, but it is a very interesting and readable account. The history side is fascinating, the great names that have worked on the this area over the centuries. The book also describes the use of primes in cryptography and also describes the use of computer power to verify (but not prove) Riemann.
So I wish I had read this sooner, but glad that now I have - a book that you could not put down once you had started.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Raspberry Pi Manufacture
Raspberry Pi manufacturing was being done in China - the only realistic option for the volumes they were thinking of making.
The first change was getting professional distributors involved once the scale of the orders became clear, and now the device will be manfactured in the UK - presumably the volumes now make it economic to do.
That is really good news, the first British made computer for a couple of decades?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1925
The first change was getting professional distributors involved once the scale of the orders became clear, and now the device will be manfactured in the UK - presumably the volumes now make it economic to do.
That is really good news, the first British made computer for a couple of decades?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1925
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