Category: Politics

The COVID-19 Series: Furlough and Childcare

One of the drawbacks with the furlough scheme from the outset is that it’s an ‘all or nothing‘ affair – there’s no option to reduce someone to, say, a half working week and the furlough scheme provide them with 40% of their salary. That would enable people to effectively job...

The COVID-19 Series: Harsh Economy

Forgive me for quoting a meme here, but this one I spotted on a friend’s timeline a few days ago sums things up fairly well. It’s from across the pond where things are (economically) a lot worse than here, without anything approaching the European furlough schemes, but the point remains...

The COVID-19 Series: Reopening Schools

This week, the UK Government has been advocating the opening of schools, but the Trades Union, as well as the British Medical Council have both raised objections at this stage. A few thoughts on that topic. Looking at safety in isolation for a moment – that is to say, excluding...

5G ‘Health Scares’ and the Anti-Tech Bandwagon (Part 2)

Firstly, I should probably explain a little of my background: a fair chunk of my work involves designing point to point wireless networks between buildings, and consulting on rural wireless broadband deployments for people in parts of the country which can’t get fibre broadband, and which BT have shown no...

5G ‘Health Scares’ and the Anti-Tech Bandwagon (Part 1)

A little bit about how the electromagnetic spectrum is allocated. There are 2 elements to this: frequency and power. Let’s talk about power first: the more power you drive a signal with, the further it travels (within reason), but the closer you are to it, the more of that signal...

Summary: 5G ‘health scares’ and the anti-tech bandwagon

In the UK, the spectrum that’s going to be used for 5G deployments is the old analogue TV space around 700Mhz. It’s been in use for well over 50 years, and TV transmitters output at *vastly* higher power levels than cellular transmitters. The data layer – 2.3Ghz (recovered from the MoD)...

Cannaboids and chronic pain

A friend recently mentioned this article in The Lancet about an Australian study into cannabis use in people with chronic pain prescribed opiods. Firstly a disclaimer: I find statistical analysis interesting. I’m not a medical professional, so take everything you read from me with the appropriate pinch of salt, and...

Facebook and the cookie jar – Part II

It’s worth reading the political background to this post if you’ve not already done so: Facebook and the cookie jar As bad as the recent Facebook news stories have been, it’s fairly unlikely many of us are going to stop using it – it’s just too useful as a way...

Facebook and the cookie jar

It’s been a tough week for senior management at Facebook, as the world’s press has finally caught onto what many of us in the tech industry have warned our friends about for years: all those little quizzes you’re doing aren’t just harmless fun. It’s like the world has finally noticed...