Wednesday and 2pointfive_man looks for his Meccano set

Tilting at Windmills, old technology,
can have it's uses as
a model for new technology

Started Wednesday 29th December 2010.  Time: 600 am.

Woke up at about 5.15 am to the sound of Geese flying over the house.  The cat had also decided she wanted a bit of quality time.  She had crawled onto my chest where she proceeded to do a bit of industrial purring that convinced me I was actually awake.  Not one to turn over and ignore the world I sought out the BBC news.  I had last updated myself of the cricket about 130 am by wirelessly accessing BTBroadband on my  Blackberry.  So knew already England had retained the Ashes. Does sport give a feel good factor? I think it does.

By 550 am  I had the pre-breakfast diet of news and information.  I had listened to the BBC News channel, the Telegraph, Shanghai Daily and Hindustan Times had all been delivered to my Kindle.  A great facility within Kindle editions is the View Section List tab.  I have long been a headline and first paragraph reader.  I can usually consign a newspaper to the recycle bin in a number of minutes that are inversely proportional to the that days' news' relevance to my present egocentric world.

In amongst the stories that grabbed my attention this morning there was reason for optimism.  Ignoring all  the doom laden stories of how the weather has affected small businesses, the ski slopes are open.  The 300 direct jobs are benefiting.  More importantly as was pointed out, so do greater rural economy of petrol stations, hotels and restaurants.  As one person interviewed intimated, who  needs to get on a plane to ski in the alps, even if you could travel.  The distributive effect of wealth transfer to the highlands from the lowlands seems to be alive and well and healthy.  We just need to hope that there is not too much of a good thing and the snow gates on the A9 are closed because of wait for it .....  the wrong type of snow.  Infrastructure?  A comment from the Scottish transport minister could be imminent. 

The trade in rare earth elements has hit the headlines.  China has decided to reduce it's exports of raw materials used  amongst others in manufacturing of  IT chips.  American businesses are starting to grumble as they can see restrictions affecting their supply chain.  Rare earth elements are quite abundant but they are distributed thinly in the Earth's crust.  They have to be mined and due to the nature of their distribution a lot of rock needs to harvested to yield useable quantities.  

South Korea's business intelligence must be working more efficiently than some of American's corporations since the Telegraph (Article Challenge to China over rare minerals by Ian McKinnon) has reports that a deal has been struck with Burma to develop it's mineral reserves.  South Korea's familiarity with totalitarian regimes probably makes them more willing to become bedfellows with the Burmese.  However, I can see a potential for a new viral or tweet campaign around "conflict minerals".   Daewoo might be hit by brand avoidance for conscience sake.   Personally, if I was really switched on  I'd be looking into property round Ytterby, in Sweden where rare Earth elements were first discovered. That also assumes that there are any rare earth elements left in the ground around Ytterby.

Recycling and recovery from waste could therefore be a viable alternative.  A crop production solution for mineral recovery would be my pet preference.  We already use varieties of plants that are tolerant of toxic soils to rehabilitate old British Coal board sites.  Let the plants mine the slag heaps of Latvia that are apparently rich in rare earth oxides.   The added advantage would be the locking up of carbon.  Using the plants to produce micro-charcoal which could then be injected back into soils could yield the minerals and create a carbon sink.  Joining up the technology, how much would it cost? What would be the time frame? Would it be a good use of the artificial trading carbon trading market to make the process viable?

Back to the Blog headline.  Meccano has just replaced EastEnders (the former booze cruise destination) as the success story of Calais.  Production is being moved back from China (a reverse of globalisation, see previous blog).  Competitiveness was sited in the BBC interview.  I can recall stories two summers ago reporting the difficulties companies in the special economic zones were having recruiting workers.  Apparently the wages were not high enough to make workers economically dependent on factory work and were instead choosing to return back to their villages and a marginally less well-paid  sustainable rural life.  The report and the move by Meccano are about two years apart.  Is this the start of a flood of manufacturing jobs back to the EU.  I say EU as Meccano although an iconic British Toy Brand is actually French. 

Finally, the average British worker will now have to work two extra days apparently before they have payed off their tax liability.  

I have blogged out for now.  I will go and do something productive.  I have subscribed to the Teleworking Association as it provides a fit with other economic activities I am investigating to supplement any earnings within the dwindling Supply Teaching market.  Further looking into the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs and updating Linked-in profile should be the tasks for the day.  The time between Christmas and New Year always has the potential to be "dead days" in the UK as everybody is on holiday.

It is extremely foggy outside so a good day for the bodywork repair shops!

        

2pointfiveman plays Robinson Crusoe in a Digital ocean

Shot of andvanced technology
 site circa. 3000 B.C.   Grimes Graves modern
addition of ladder for tourists 

Swimming or drowning in the digital ocean

Saturday morning: This is being written offline. As a Broadband customer I have used BT in England for the past 12 and a half years. At every new innovation I have taken early upgrade and  have taken the leap of faith and curiosity as the web has developed in the UK.

There have been teething problems over the years involving upgrades. It used to be don't try to do anything sensible in August as major system and software "updates" were being implemented. The internet services of banks were also prime sources of annoyance and frustration. Bank staff were to a person often very unhelpful where technical problems were encountered, especially in August. The banks saved and will continue to save millions as we have become our own DIY banker employees. So why the visitation to old sores?

Well I have been cut off from my own personal digital ocean since Tuesday morning owing to a technical fault at the exchange (along with 64 other customers).   I won't call it a personal digital cloud because clouds have a nasty habit of turning up in the wrong place and raining on you, sometimes heavily. The appearance of the term “to the cloud” in a certain software manufacturers advert emphasises the comic book nature of digital change that discourages me from using this term. (Grumpy mid-age man syndrome. Possibly?)

The service I am using is a domestic service. It is equally as important as a Business service since I engage in e-commerce when I buy from Amazon or check my local supermarkets for the availability of bargains. So why is the service desk for technical problems only open from 8.00 am in the morning? A lot of us are early risers and work during the week. I certainly would have been driving the hamster wheel of the British economy if I could only have accessed those stores. Quite important if you are twenty miles from anywhere with major high street multiples (no small independent shops any more down you high street) or happen to be a silver surfer.

I will continue to use BT though as the problem as described by the remote call centre, not Inverness this time but Chennai, would not have been any different with another ISP. The main exchange card was not working according to the local visit Engineer. It took 72 hours to establish this fact. The nature of services that use the unbundled exchanges means all ISPs are using the exchange.

This is one of the disadvantages of the “competitive market” that has evolved in this country. Providers are still basically playing with the toys provided by the British Tax payer pre-BT privatisation and still owned by BT. All that is different is the front end changes of who you pay your bill to and what add-ons you achieve in your service. Cable has not reached West Suffolk, operates in Cambridge very well although the original provider did go bust. Pity since we have a cable manufacturer in the town.

Suffolk is the home to BT's Research Institute. Just visited by the Indian Telecoms industry as reported in the East Anglian Daily Times. They appear to have an important role in the digital express to world class service promised by the coalition government. A plea to BT, please could you try to get it right in your own backyard of Suffolk a relatively unpopulated county that is surprising close to major sites of population where Suffolk residents practise innovation. Impressions now can influence future business choices. The relationship of public opinion and this coalition is a good example of influence so far as making noises and then changing their mind as negative opinion rise. Good to see this government doesn't use pollsters as much as the last. Spaniels, vicars and Brussels Sprouts spring to mind. I would be happy to explain this last comment for anybody not familiar with spaniels.

Final thoughts for this blog as I wait for the digital tide to come back in. Did we the British tax payer sell the Goose that apparently is and is going to, lay the Golden Egg? Still this was before the term sovereign wealth funds became the elephant in the room that could be the way forward for UK PLC. Norway used their oil revenue to set up a form of sovereign wealth fund. Chinese banks are effectively in the same league, the long sightedness of the deal to buy Pireaus harbour in Greece for the next 35 years shows an understanding of relatively long cycles. Most of the big construction projects in London, Middle East and Singapore seem to be underpinned by Sovereign wealth funds . In my adult earning life I have experienced at least two major recession, I might have been unaware of a couple. These on average seem to have a fifteen year cycle so 35 years would appear to be a long enough business plan. Words of chairman Mao to Nixon about longevity of civilisations driving this?. Athens could return to the centre of the world again, or is it beware of Chinese bearing gifts? That will get the conspiracy theorists going.

We are potentially in another bonanza time as the World is Turned Upside Down, yet again. It has to be remembered we didn't “abolish Boom and Bust” in the last parliamentary session of the “socialists”. We could even start a fund off with that great piece of service economy business of borrowing money as a government and then lending it to another government at a higher rate. Sorry Ireland, this isn't BandAid. As we get paid back to pay Peter, a 1% diversion of the profits into a sovereign wealth fund would start the ball rolling. Social Enterprise potentially at a national level. We could even have the big players donate their time for free. Could this be Big Society. A bit feudal but if transparent worth considering as it could actually line the British tax payers pockets rather than that of the PFI partners'.

8.00 still a little time away. I have listened to the Farming programme on Radio 4 and the tales of Fat Ducks (not the restaurant) or lack of. Apparently in the cold snap we have the wrong type of ducks. Shooting of ducks has been banned for the next weeks and the RSPB has asked walkers and dog owners not to disturb the birds. Don't make the ducks quackers! Hopefully, I won't be driven crackers with my dealing with BT.