Chris M Evans

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Personal thoughts and background information on Chris M Evans, an IT Professional and Blogger.
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The Problem with Test and Trace

December 14, 2020 by Chris Evans Leave a Comment

This recent BBC article shines a rather sad light on the state of our community. There’s no excuse for rudeness, but I think we’ve reached this point due to a number of escalating issues that the government chooses never to address.

Scam Callers

There are real challenges in dealing with scam calls. I receive around 2-3 a day, some weeks (others not so much). Every call is using either a faked or a VoIP landline number for an obscure location, like the Outer Hebrides. No-one ever leaves a voicemail. The same challenge happens with withheld numbers. 99% of them are scam callers.

Fixing the problem of scam calls should be easy. However, the government chooses not to crack down and the old solutions such as Telephone Preference Service (TPS) don’t apply to overseas “boiler rooms”. Caller-ID should be easy to trace and align to certified numbers. After all, we do it today with website URLs and DNS names. The industry could solve this problem.

Transparency

Many people will be happy offering their data to the T&T service, knowing that it could help virus spread and reduce lives. Unfortunately, there’s little or no transparency from the government on how the data will be used.

This page provides some great detail on the way in which T&T should work. However the data protection statements are incredibly vague and don’t explain basics such as how long data is retained and who will have access to the data itself. The government needs to do more to build confidence in the system.

Competency

Then we get to the biggest challenge – competency. A few months ago we learned that the T&T system uses spreadsheets to share data, and even then is using them in the wrong way, probably due to old ODBC code that uses XLS rather than XLSX format.

When we’re promised a “world beating” system that’s eye watering in expense (£22 billion as quoted in November 2020), then we really deserve something better than the terrible app and the inefficient call handling system that we’ve received. While the £7000 a day figure might not be entirely accurate (more on that in a moment), the average person watching TV will wonder how on earth a government can justify such spending for so little in return.

Audit

A lot of revelations will likely appear in the months and years following the COVID-19 outbreak. I’m sure we’ll hear of collusion and favouritism in awarding contracts (and jobs), like we’ve seen already. By the time the investigations are complete, the MPs in question (and many companies) will be retired or dissolved. None of this builds trust with the general public.

The Final Reckoning

Governments don’t like to be called to account. This is especially true in the UK, but hasn’t been the case globally, where we’ve seen countries like New Zealand coming out of COVID-19 much earlier than the rest of the world. Geography helps there, but transparency, honesty and trust are the biggest winners. If there has to be a “lessons learned” exercise, it will be to understand that without trust and the respect that requires and earns, the UK and other similar countries will never be the leaders in resolving future pandemics.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Name and Shame

December 29, 2019 by Chris Evans Leave a Comment

I’m not a great fan of the UK Honours system. Too often, honours are granted to those who have literally just done the job they have been paid for. Admittedly, some awards are for inspiring the nation rather than just being there, and Ben Stokes’ amazing finale in the cricket against New Zealand is a great example.

However, today we’ve seen a monumental mistake come to light, as we found out that the full contact details of all 1000+ New Year awards recipients 2020 had been published online.

It’s hard to imagine how this could have happened. The government has been publishing awards lists for years through their website. What went wrong this time?

It’s not a glitch

First of all, I hope that the government doesn’t claim a “computer glitch”. Computers do what we ask them to do. If a human presses the wrong button or uploads the wrong data, that’s not a glitch. If the software has been programmed incorrectly, that’s not a glitch. So let’s not use a glitch to swerve the real truth.

Human Error

Somewhere in the publication process, a human made a mistake. The wrong file was uploaded, either inadvertently or carelessly through bad process. Either way, a person is accountable. If the review we can expect into the failure finds a person is to blame, we need to see the person admonished in the correct way. If this was negligence, the individual should be sacked.

ICO

Where does this leave the 1000+ award holders and how can these failings be addressed? We theoretically have robust processes for managing data breaches in the UK, based off EU GDPR rules. The rules need to be strictly enforced in this situation. Fines should be imposed. Precedent should be set.

The more likely outcome is this issue will be pushed sideways, kicked into the long grass or whatever expression is your favourite. After a lengthy internal inquiry, we can expect that “human error” will be quoted as a factor and “lessons will be learned”. The most disappointing outcome is that no-one will take personal accountability. Perhaps this is reflective of the state of the world as we edge closer to 2020.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Data Protection, ICO, UK honours

Should we be reducing our red meat intake?

November 7, 2018 by Chris Evans Leave a Comment

Although I posted this tweet somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the content of both the BBC News article and the research do raise some important issues.  First is whether reduced red meat consumption would in fact save thousands of lives per year.  I have no doubt that reduced red meat consumption would definitely benefit us all.  The science behind processed meat consumption seems a little contradictory, although the general consensus is that sausages and bacon are “probably” bad for us.

I use the term in quotes, because when you read analysis like this (link) from the NHS, the caveats and the assumptions are pretty wide.  Ultimately, of course, reducing red meat consumption is one factor in improving heath.  It would be useful if studies like this put the results in context.  For example, compared to other “bad habits”, like smoking, drinking or doing no exercise, how significant is eating red meat?

We could use the “microlife” concept to establish a comparison.  This shows we lose a microlife (or 30 minutes of our worldly existence) for each 85g portion of red meat we consume.  Conversely, we gain 3-4 microlifes from eating our daily fruit and vegetables.  Smoking a pack of cigarettes loses around 5 hours of life; 2-3 cups of coffee gains a microlife.  Two hours of TV loses another microlife.

Can these be balanced up against each other?  Does one cancel the other out?  Probably not.  But the measurements do give some order of magnitude understanding of the impacts of different types of risk factors.

Looking at my own diet, I would estimate that I have red meat perhaps 2-3 times a week.  The remainder of the time it’s white meat (mainly chicken and pork), fish (white and oily) and seafood.  Processed meat appears even less often with sausages and bacon being consumed maybe once every 2-3 weeks.  Is this a conscious decision?  Probably subtly unconscious, but based on reported news nonetheless.  In general though, simply cutting out red meat isn’t going to save the planet or humanity, but instead a range of factors and behavioural improvements that we can all benefit from.

 

Filed Under: Opinion

Dark Woods Coffee

September 3, 2018 by Chris Evans Leave a Comment

I found Dark Woods Coffee through (of all places) Liberty of London.  Liberty has a small groceries section in their store near Carnaby Street and Dark Woods is sold under the Liberty name.  As a result I decided to buy directly, picking the Crow Tree I had before and a new choice – Under Milk Wood.  As a blend this is a great coffee and does what it promises if you like milk in your drink.

It’s interesting that the UK-based coffee roasters aren’t that obvious to find, even though they invariably do have websites and online shops.  The coffee I’ve purchased in the UK is easily as good as anywhere else, so there is plenty of skill around in achieving effective roasting.

I’m always on the lookout for new retailers, so if you know of any good ones, then share the love!

Filed Under: Coffee

CD#472 – Speak & Spell – Depeche Mode

December 13, 2017 by Chris Evans Leave a Comment

Speak and Spell wasn’t an album I had when it first came out.  In fact I only purchased a CD copy a few years ago.  As with most of my music history, I listened to the radio and followed singles.  As a result, tracks like New Life, Just Can’t Get Enough and Dreaming of Me are my bread and butter.  Depeche Mode or “depeche-ay” as they seem to have been called in their early days (according to TOTP) has always been one of my favourite bands.  I grew up with the synth sound in my early teens and the music still seems as fresh today as it did then.

The tracks on Speak & Spell are certainly an eclectic mix.  The intro to New Life was a call to the dance floor (not that I did that much dancing).  But that almost siren-sounding intro was an instant trigger to get up and move – and still is.  New life has lots of intricate changes, but remains a consistent theme all the way through.

Contrast that to Just Can’t Get Enough, a classic Vince Clark riff, which has everyone tapping the tune out every time they hear it.  The hook is enduring enough that 35+ years later, it still sounds great, despite the tinny and totally synthetic sound of the synthesiser on which is was written.  Although the track sounds simple, the overlays of each melody are incredibly well interwoven that they sound effortless, but clearly aren’t.

So much of this album seems like an experiment.  What can we try?  What works, what doesn’t? What musical variations can we create? I Sometimes Wish I was Dead, with that very odd twinkling sound.  This wouldn’t have been a successful single, but is a great album track (and only 2 minutes long).  Puppets reminds me a little of Computer Love by Kraftwerk, pioneers of the synthesiser sound.

I like this album more and more as I play it.  It shows that great tunes will last the test of time.

Favourite Track: Just Can’t Get Enough

  1. New Life – 3:47
  2. I Sometimes Wish I was Dead – 2:18
  3. Puppets – 3:57
  4. Boys Say Go! – 3:08
  5. Nodisco – 4:16
  6. What’s Your Name? – 2:46
  7. Photographic – 4;43
  8. Tora! Tora! Tora! – 4:39
  9. Big Muff – 4:25
  10. Any Second Now (Voices) – 2:35
  11. Just Can’t Get Enough – 3:45
  12. Dreaming of Me – 4:02

Filed Under: Music

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