The Real Stephen Booth

Fake e-mail messages from HM Revenues and Customs

2009-04-30T12:05:00.002+01:00

This was circulated at work

Some staff may have received an e-mail message purporting to come from HM Revenues and Customs and suggesting that you may be due a tax rebate. These messages are fake and are an attempt to obtain personal and financial details which could be used to commit fraud or other crimes. HMRC do not communicate with taxpayers in this way.

"Not a glass ceiling, sticky floor"

2009-04-29T13:09:00.002+01:00

Gail Rebuck, CEO of Random House publishing (first female to head up a major publishing group), has won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. She said that she feels it's not that there is a glass ceiling stopping women getting into the higher levels (i.e. progress so far then stop) but rather that women find it difficult to rise from the lower levels of a company. She said, "Women don't particularly want to progress onto the next stage - it doesn't look very pleasant, because it is full of stress or because it might interfere with other aspects of their lives."

A couple of years ago Harvard Business Review ran an article that similarly cast doubt on the existence of a 'Glass Ceiling'. The article argued that rather than a simple barrier just below the board room women traversed a labyrinth through out the company to progress to higher levels. The HBR article itself is not publicly accessible, you need to subscribe to the magazine, but a similar article can be found here. There's also an article on Bosswoman from Susan Robinson, PhD, referencing the HBR article.

In her article Robinson makes a number of recommendations, most of which relate to the fact that women are far more likely than men to be responsible for caring for dependants and the home. In particular she recommends that women not complain about their home life at work, if they have to leave early due to a family situation they simply state that they have a commitment rather than going into details and that they be realistic about their home and standards of cleanliness, choose a home setup they can easily maintain (e.g. avoid nicknacks that are just dust traps, choose fabrics that are easy to maintain &c) and set realistic standards about cleanliness. There are 168 hours in a week so if we assume 8 hours sleep a night plus 5 days of 8 hours at work and 2 hours commute a day that leaves 62 hours for leisure, eating, socialising, networking (these days a vital part of career development), overtime, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, shopping &c. The more time you spend on cooking and cleaning the less is available for the fun stuff and career development.

The only issue I really have with Robinson's recommendations is that they are firmly entrenched in the presumption that cleaning and looking after the family are the sole responsibility of women. Maybe that's just pragmatism, or perhaps it's surrender. I see it as a social issue that needs to be addressed.

Incidentally, I'm single and live alone. If my house needs cleaning I have to clean it (although I do sometimes bung my nieces (no kids of my own, just two nieces, no nephews) twenty quid to help me with a big 'spring Clean'). I have had to settle on a standard of cleanliness that balances between how clean I want my house to be and the time I'm prepared to spend achieving it. Others may set higher standards, that's their choice but then the time taken to achieve it is therefore also their choice.

What is a manager?

2009-03-31T14:22:00.002+01:00

A question was posted on one of the discussion forums I use asking "What is a manager?". I came up with: "A manager is a person employed to facilitate and direct the activities of their staff to deliver to the goals of the company."

Coincidence

2009-03-26T22:51:00.003Z

I discovered today that one of my colleagues at work was at the same university as me at the same time as me. Well, she started the same time as me but studied a 3 year programme where as I studied a 4 year programme so she graduated a year earlier than me.

Keele was a small university, 5,000 students, but I don't think we moved in the same circles. On the other hand, it's been getting on for 20 years ago we both started and I have a shocking memory for names so we might have met. Also, I was heavily involved in the student's union (I think I spoke at every Union General meeting during my 4 years at Keele bar one) and RAG so there's a chance that she might have seen me pontificating from the lectern or out fund raising.

New Blog - Stephen's SAP Blog

2009-03-26T22:48:00.000Z

As I'm now beginning to work on SAP I've started a blog about it, mostly just somewhere to make notes about interesting/useful things I come across. If it also helps anyone else then great but if it doesn't then no worries.

One of the things I have noticed, comparing Oracle with SAP, is that whilst for Oracle you can find online free resources at pretty much any level (both official Oracle sites and individual sites and blogs) in SAP there seems to be loads of 'salesy' type sites telling you how wonderful SAP is and how it will revolutionise the way you do business (presumably for the better) and some very in depth technical sites (mostly forums), where you're sunk if you can't get in an manually edit the data and code, there's nothing anywhere in between. There certainly don't seem to be any how-tos, any pages that seem to be telling you howto when they come up in Google searches are actually saying "If you want to find out how to sign up for our course and pay us a lot of money." Of community there seems to be little, aside from the aforementioned bit twiddler forums.

http://stephenssapblog.blogspot.com/

I admit I'm a bit Leonard of Quirm when it comes to blog names.

How about Free Prescriptions for England?

2009-03-08T11:36:00.004Z

Having read recently about how Scotland and Norther Ireland were soon to join Wales in giving free prescription medicine to all, I thought I'd go to the Nomber10 petitions site to see if there are any petitions to extend that to England. I found 2:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/prescriptionfree/
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Prescription-s/

I would suggest that anyone (in the UK,obviously) who agrees that prescriptions throughout the UK should be free, not just in 'Everywhere that isn't England', signs these. The first closes April this year and the second closes January next year but currently has more signatures. Maybe it will do some good, maybe it won't, but it's got to be worth 5 minutes.

Only 11% of precriptions redeemed are chargable, the vast majority being exempt for any of a number of reasons. In all likelihood the added cost of those 11% being made free would not be onerous. Infact, I do wonder if the costs of administering those charges may not outweigh the income. I submitted an FOI request to the Department of health to find out:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/income_from_prescription_charges#incoming-19483

I fully expect them to come back with one of the normal excuses like "We don't hold that information, try the local PCTs" or "We do hold that information but it will cost too much to collate it and send it to you." Worth a try though. If anyone else wants to submit a similar request to Department of health or their own PCT, have at 'em.

Politicians work for us, if we keep bothering them they might remember it. Squeaky wheel gets oil and all that.

Dumb Spammers

2008-11-12T13:47:00.001Z

Just received the following spam mail to my work account:

Please note: we tried to contact you several weeks ago, unfortunately we did not receive a response. You still may qualify to become a member and we are extending our invitation to you one more time. As a reminder the date below reflects the initial attempt to contact you. We are providing an additional 5 day extension through November 18, 2008.

Stephen Booth,

I am pleased to inform you that today, October 22, 2008 Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals has selected you as potential candidate into our organization to represent Birmingham, , United Kingdom. Your professional experience with Birmingham Air Conditioning Ltd. as Company Secretary has been recognized and has qualified you to possibly be included. Emerald Who's Who is the authority for professional networking and recognition in virtually every industry across the globe.

Based on the research our team and our affiliates were able to find, you are the type of professional we would like to include as part of our executive and professional organization.
Our members assist each other with business and career opportunities everyday. Emerald Who's Who is consistently helping our members increase existing business, develop new ventures and acquire new contacts, locally, nationally and internationally.

Should you be inducted into Emerald Who's Who, you will also be included in the 2008-2009 edition of Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals. This is an annual edition of accomplished individuals across the world.

Your inclusion into our organization requires that further professional information about you is provided within the next 5 days.

Please note there is no charge to be considered into the Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals.
We have provided the below links to help you submit your information quickly and easily. Both URL's are the same, however should you not be able to click, please copy and paste #2. Please note your information will be encrypted and transferred safely over the internet as we use, the leading security service for security and protection. Your information will also be protected once stored on our secure servers.
> Click on this hyper link
1) http://ewwdirectory.com/ [MUNGED]
Or manually enter the below link into your web browser
2) http://ewwdirectory.com/ [MUNGED]

While our editorial department is continuously working on publishing timelines, I cannot assure that you will be included in our next annual publication featuring all executives and professionals like yourself. If we receive your information in the next 5 days, we can still consider your submission.

Kind regards,

Anthony Miller

Research Director

Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals Inc.

954 3rd Ave, Suite 817, NY, New York, 10022
http://ewwdirectory.com/ [MUNGED]

Emerald Who's Who for Executives and Professionals is not affiliated with Marquis Who's Who or any other Who's Who organization or publication.

Thank you for your time, should you wish to no longer receive any further e-mail from us at this address, please follow the directions below.
We make every effort to remove those individuals who have asked to be unsubscribe, however if you have done so via email, and have received this for a second time, we apologize. Please use the unsubscribe link below to ensure you are removed from our invitations. Thank you for your time and patience.

I am not nor ever have been a Company Secretary and I don't work for and have never worked for Birmingham Air Conditioning. Not only are the spamming but also they're spamming the wrong person.

They should be drowned!

Is this a scam? Calls from 01792572140

2008-11-11T18:18:00.000Z

I've been getting a number of calls from people claiming to work for 3 who then ask a bunch of questions to "Confirm [my] identity", the sort of questions someone running an identity theft scam might ask. I've emailed 3 to check:

Hi,

I have received a number of missed calls from a number apparently in Swansea (01792572140) today I managed to pick on up and the person on the other end identified themselves as being from yourselves. They said that someone would call me to talk about handset upgrades (despite me saying I'm quite happy with my handset and I had selected it explicitly because it is a Skype Phone and I had bought it to use Skype). they then went on to ask a series of questions, "To confirm [my] identity". These questions were the sort that an identity thief would be likely to ask (home post code, date of birth &c) and, as I pointed out to them, they called me so of the two people on the call I'm the one who's identity does not need to be confirmed.

Can you please confirm if the phone number 01792572140 is one you use for outgoing calls (this was the first thing to trigger my suspicions, it's rare for an outgoing line from a call centre to identify itself).

Thanks

Stephen

Hopefully they'll respond soon.

A new stop on the 900 route

2008-08-11T16:45:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking of lobbying for an extra stop on the 900 bus route. For those not familiar with this route, it's a limited stop route from Birmingham City Centre to Coventry via Birmingham International station (which links to NEC and Birmingham International Airport). Most of the route is along the A45 Coventry road but between Bordesley Island and Hay Mills Island (also known as Asda Island because there's a large Asda next to it) it goes along Small Heath Bypass, to avoid the heavy traffic congestion in Small Heath. This is a long span without a stop, possibly the longest until it leaves Birmingham International Station towards Coventry (and vice versa on the return).

The extra stop I'm thinking of proposing is at the point where Small Heath Bypass crosses Golden Hillock road (where there is a small traffic island). From what I can see there is ample space before the small traffic island in both directions for a recessed stop allowing for space before the junction to pull out.

A stop there would link the 900 route to the Inner Circle (8) route and to Small Heath rail station. It would also serve Ghamgol Sharif Mosque, the houses near by and the businesses near by. It would also provide an almost direct bus link (either the 900 then walk about a third of a mile or the 900 then take the 8a down Golden Hillock road) to the Ackers activity centre from the centre of Birmingham, Hay Mills, Yardley, Sheldon, Elmdon and all along the A45 as far as Coventry centre.

I guess my local councillors are my best starting point. I'm in the process of formulating my communication and deciding how to send it. This entry is very much draft 0.9.

More calls from 01254277054

2008-07-01T17:07:00.000+01:00

Just had yet another call from them (they've been calling me twice a day on average but just silence when I pick up). This time there was actually someone on the line. The call went:
"Hi Stephen Booth speaking."
"Hi, I'm XXXXXXX with GM connect."
"Yes, I've heard of your company. Are you aware that you're calling a number that's registered with the Telephone Preference Service?"
"We're a supplier of mobile"
(interrupting)"Are you aware that you're calling a number that's registered with the Telephone Preference Service and you're probably breaking the law?" (actually I don't know if it's a law or just industry code of practice they're breaking)
"We supply mobile"
(interrupting) "Could I speak to your supervisor or the call centre manager please?"
"" (Silence)
"Could I speak to your supervisor or the call centre manager please?"
""
"Could I speak to your supervisor or the call centre manager please?"
""
"Could I speak to your supervisor or the call centre manager please?"
""
"Could I speak to your supervisor or the call centre manager please?"
(click) He hung up.

Stephen

Nuisance Silent Calls - 01254277054

2008-06-13T12:14:00.000+01:00

Once or twice a day for the past few days I've been getting calls from 01254277054 that hang up as soon as I answer. When I called back I just got music so hung up.

I Googled the number and discovered that apparently quite a few people have been having the same problem. Apparently it's a company called GM Connect who are trying to sell new mobile phones to people. The number they're calling me on is one I've only had for about 8 months and don't give out other than to family members and close friends. The number I normally give out is for my Orange phone which is my main number. This number is on 3 and I only have it because my sister and one of my friends switched to 3 and the cost of calling them from Orange (indeed any network other than 3) is huge, my Orange phone bill more than doubled, and I worked out it would be cheaper to get a phone on 3 just to call them on than to pay for the calls on Orange. My 3 phone bill is about £15 a month but has saved me about £25 a month on my Orange bill. Plus the phone is a Skype phone so I can now call people for free on Skype without needing to boot up my PC.

A while back John Hemming MP was campaigning against silent calls (where a call centre uses an autodialer to call you but when you answer there's no agent to take the call). I wonder if he'd be interested in this?

Council strike suspended

2008-02-25T15:52:00.000Z

The strike by Birmingham City Council staff planned for tommorrow has been suspended when the council agreed to further talks on issues raised by the unions. Further details on the UNISON Birmingham Branch website.

Phones 4 U Suck

2008-01-28T22:29:00.000Z

Met my sister this afternoon, straight from work. She had to take a couple of mobile phones back to the shop due to problems.

At the end of September last year she bought three phones on contract (one on Orange for her daughter and two on 3 for herself and her husband) from Phones 4 U (the one at 87-88 High street in Birmingham), she also took out insurance on each phone. The insurance on each one is £10 a month, which is a total rip off (the going rate is £2-3 a month). In the shop they said that it was a great deal, unfortunately my sister tends to trust what she's told rather than realising that the people in the shop are paid according to how well they can lie without getting caught out or saying something that is actually illegal (a good deal, but compared to what? A good deal compared to the bad deal they're also offering? They don't have to compare it to the deals being offered by other retailers). She also bought a hard protective case for each phone to prevent accidental damage.

Her daughter's phone was sold as being new but when they got it home they found that there were already phone numbers stored on it, clearly it was a refurb. they went back tot he shop and were told "That's wierd." At this point I would have demanded a replacement but of course she didn't. Recently the speaker has been playing up (crackly) and the 4 and 5 keys have been sticking. So we take it back to the shop. The guy in the shop (I tried to get his name but he wouldn't give it (ignored the question) and everyone else in the shop denied knowing him) first denied any problem with the speaker (apparently he was the only one who couldn't hear it) and said that the keys shouldn't stick (a lot fo things shouldn't happen, but they sometimes do). Then he started saying that my niece must have dropped it to cause the problems so she'd have to pay for the repairs. Finally he agreed to send it in for a warranty repair (which will take at least 2 weeks) but kept going on about how if they found any evidence that it was dropped then that will be a charged repair. He also said that if they sent it in for repair under the insurance (that good deal that costs only 3-5 times as much as every other deal) then any damage would be repaired but they'd have to pay a £50 excess, and excess they hadn't been told about when they bought the insurance.

The other phone belonged to my sister's husband, the screen had failed and developed cracks. He insisted that this must be accidental damage (although how a screen on a phone inside a hard protective case that is supposed to be designed to protect the screen could be accidental damage is anybody's guess). They're going to have that done as an insurance fix and pay the £50 excess.

The whole time we were there we were subjected to dismissive and negative treatment by the staff of phones for you as if it was we who were running a scam rather than them. Utterly unprofessional.

My sister and my niece now don't have mobile phones (imagine, a 16 year old girl without a mobile! How ever will she survive), my sister has had to pass her mobile on to her husband (hopefully that one won't break as well, it's the same make and model).

I got my first mobile in 1998, I've had several in that time (including work phones), I now have 4 (two contract on Orange and 3, I got the 3 phone because my sister a one of my friend's had switched to that network and it worked out cheaper to get a 3 contract phone than to call them from my Orange phone), one Pay-As-You-Go and one work. I have had to claim on the insurance a few times due to accidental damage and theft. The most I've ever paid for insurance on a phone is £2.90 a month, I have never had to pay any excess for repair or replacement. I've always gone to the network's own shop (first phone was Cellnet, then Orange and finally 3 for my newest phone). Today's experiences have shown, as far as I can tell, that you should never go to Phones 4 U, certainly never the one on the corner of Birmingham High Street and New Street. I hope they go out of business soon.

UNISON Birmingham Branch gets a website

2008-01-28T19:32:00.000Z

UNISON Birmingham branch finally has a website. The actual content was written months ago, the hold up has been getting those who hold the login details for the web server to release them, serious case of idiocy and not wanting to release even the smallest bit of power despite not being able to use it.

The layout is a bit crap right now but that's because the person who insisted in it being that way thinking purely in a paper documents. I'm hoping to replace it with something better soon, the important thing was to get something up ahead of the strike next week.

Dyspraxia

2008-01-16T16:00:00.000Z

One of my colleagues spoke to me yesterday about a friend of her's who has a 3 year old son with Dyspraxia,a congenital disability that I have. Apparently she had told this person about me and said that I'd talk to her friend and the friend's husband about it and how to deal with it. I emailed this to my colleague to pass on.

This is the link to the Dyspraxia Foundation web site:
http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/

Whilst they're often confused (even by medical professionals) and
often listed together Dyspraxia is not like Dyslexia. There is some
overlap of symptoms but they are different. For example a common
symptom of Dyslexia is not being able to read, Dyspraxics also often
have problems with reading but for us the problem is more about
parsing the word and working out what it means (especially if it is
used in a metaphor or it's meaning is shaded) rather than not being
able to read it at all. Different coloured paper, coloured glasses or
a coloured sheet of acetate can help a Dyslexic but won't help a
Dyspraxic any more than it would someone with neither condition.

A literal translation of the word Dyspraxia would be "Can't Do" or
"UnPractical". It's a condition, or rather family of closely related
conditions, that has as a core symptom problems with balance and
co-ordination. On the plus side these symptoms fade with age, it's a
regressive condition. When I was young and through my teens and early
adult years my disability was refered to as purely "Lack of
Co-ordination" or "Poor Hand-Eye Co-ordination", the only recognised
symptoms were problems with co-ordination and balance, my problems
with social skills were put down to my being shy or even 'just being
difficult'.

I first heard the term Dyspraxia when I was 29 and visited my GP for a
review of my hay fever medication and he looked at my notes and said
something like "Ah, you're the one with Dyspraxia. Did you now we
have a support group?" My first response was to say no but he
explained that the condition that I'd thought was called 'Lack of
Co-ordination' was actually properly called Dyspraxia and had a whole
host of other symptoms attached, many of which I hadn't know were
symptoms of my disability and thought were something 'wrong' with me.
I also discovered that it is a lot more common than I'd previously
thought and not restricted to men, I'd previously been told it was
three in every thousand males but from what I've read it could be as
high as one on 10 depending on how tightly one adheres to the strict
definition and, whilst it mostly affects males, does affect both
genders. Whilst there's no 100% proof it does seem that Dyspraxia
does run in families so if a child has it the odds are that one of
their parents, usually the father, will also have it to some degree.

Typical symptoms include:

Problems with balance, tendancy to trip, especially on moving
vehicles such as buses (if I have to stand on a bus I have to hold on
to a pole with each hand). To get an idea of the impact imagine
getting moderately drunk, say 1.5 to twice the legal limit for
driving, and trying to stand on a moving bus or walk the wrong way on
an escalator

Problems with co-ordination, especially things that require a high
degree of fine motor control such as writing, may develop 'writer's
cramp' much more quickly than most people

Lack of empathy and difficulty 'reading' other people

Tendancy to interrupt

Problems using moving stairs (feelings of extreme discomfort,
falling over, tending to go to extreme lengths to avoid and may 'over
react' if forced to use them)

Bad at sports (will go to kick a football and miss, can't catch
something thrown to them, can't hit a tennis ball with a tennis
racquet &c)

Excessive emotional responses, may have fits of anger or frustration

Untidy dress, rumpled clothes and may have problems buttoning a
shirt (out by one matching buttons to button holes or may skip a
button or button hole)

Generally untidy (messy bedroom, untidy work area &c) but
obsessional about order in specific things (e.g. CDs have to be in a
specific order or grouping that may seem unfathomable to others and
have to be put back into the cases as soon as they are removed from
the player)

Problems developing physical strength, may be much worse on one side
than the other

Problems gripping things, again may be much worse on one side than the
other

Tendancy to take things literally and to express oneself literally

Inability to play a musical instrument

Difficulty sleeping, both difficult to get to sleep and difficulty
staying asleep

Easily distracted

Can't draw or paint, when try they look like those produced by a
small child (I'll bring in some of my paintings sometime)

Problems hearing speech when there's lots of background noise (one
of the things that M****** does that really drives me up the wall is
in a meeting he'll start whispering in my ear whilst management are
talking, if I listen to him I literally cannot hear them and if I
listen to them I literally cannot hear him)

Tactile defensiveness. Physical contact with another person can be
very uncomfortable, this is one of the symptoms I have to a much
higher degree than most dyspraxics

Strong dislike for change that can result in extreme frustration and
even anger, in particular where change has happened when they weren't
present

Problems with memory, especially names and instructions (if you give
me a set of verbal instructions by the time you've reached number 4
I've probably forgotten number 1)

Poor posture leading to health problems and pain (back ache,
shoulder pain, neck pain)

There are many other symptoms as well. It's important to note that
other than the first two on that list the rest can be explained by
labelling a child as 'lazy' or 'rude'. Indeed that's how I was
labelled through most of my life and sometimes still am. Also not all
dyspraxics have all the symptoms or necessarily the same symptoms
(although the ones listed above are very common and the first four are
pretty definitive). For example a fairly common symptom is not being
able to relate a map to the physical world it represents, this is not
something I have ever had major problems with, although I do often
find it easier to navigate a map if I turn it to match the orientation
of the physical area (so if I'm facing south I'll turn the map so it's
upside down), similarly a commonly described symptom of Dyspraxia is
having problems seeing how things fit together (pattern matching
problems, navigating a maze, jigsaws or seeing how the parts of
something fit together to make the whole) but it's not something I've
ever had problems with.

In terms of dealing with it the most important step is the diagnosis.
Because so many of the symptoms can be written off as being the result
of laziness it's important to recognise them for what they are,
symptoms of a disability. As an adult it's a great relief to discover
that some of the more steress causing aspect of your life are finally
explicable.

Once you've identified the particular symptoms of someone with
dyspraxia, in particular a child, there are loads of ways of dealing
with them. Based on what I've read I think something that is
important for someone who doesn't have Dyspraxia dealing with someone
who does is that due to the symptoms relating to perception a person
with Dyspraxia literally does not see the world the way you do, or to
put it another way we see the world literally and without emotional or
other shading. Something I found very hard as a child and still do to
a degree is around time. If someone says they will come and see me at
three o'clock my first reaction is to expect them to show up at three
o'clock, probably not two fifty nine and certainly not three oh one.
Intellectually I know that three o'clock doesn't mean three o'clock
but my subconscious.

The major issues and how you solve them will vary from person to
person. You have to find out what the symptoms are for yourself or
the person you're dealing with and fit to them, a standardised
solution won't work. Below are some possible things, they may work or
they may not.

Some things you just have to live with and tolerate. For example I
have to live with the fact that any contact with another person is
uncomfortable to me but it's going to happen as part of normal life.
Shaking hands can feel like shaking a slimy fish and a 'bone-crusher'
hand shake is absolute agony, a pat on the back feels like punch, a
touch on the arm can feel like either being touched by something slimy
or burn like having an acid or alkali solution poured on. A hug can
feel like being crushed. Those things are going to happen so I just
had to learn to brace myself and deal with it. Avoiding contact or
trying to explain that it's uncomfortable just leads to being seen as
rude/antisocial or makign a fuss over nothing (one of the people on
the NJB insists on giving everyione a huig and kiss goodbye, she may
as well punch me in the face as do that). Also Dyspraxics often have
behaviours that puzzle others, for example you know how when you go to
a cafe or a pub that serves food there's often a little pot on the
table filled with different sorts of sugar/sweetner or sauces, well in
those situations I have a strong compulsion to sort them so that all
of the same are together and they are neatly lined up with similar
colours separated by dis-similar colours (so sachets of chili sauce
and tomato ketchup (both red) have to be separated by, say, mayonaise
(tends to be blue) or horseradish (tends to be very light creamy
brown)).

Other stuff can be accomodated with little effort, e.g. don't change
things around without warning [1] and only make small incremental
changes with time in between to get accustomed to the new environment,
avoid unnecessary metaphor, realise that someone with Dyspraxia might
need a little longer to digest new information, may have difficulty
telling when you're angry/upset/happy and may act inappropriately
because as far as they are aware their action is an appropriate
reaction to the situation &c.

Co-ordination problems in things like handwriting can be handled by
allowing extra time and opportunity for frequent breaks, in school the
best thing the teachers could have done for me would be to provide
handouts with the bulk of the text of the class which I could then
annotate rather than expecting me to copy reams of text off the black
board or an OHP. Problems with balance can be addressed by making
sure that in areas where it's likely to be a problem (e.g. on a moving
bus or stairs) they have something to hang on to. Apparently there
are physiotherapies that can help but I doubt that someone with
Dyspraxia (unless it's very mild) could achieve complete normalcy.

Problems with sleep can be handled by allowing for a nap during the
day and a later bed time (so let a kid of an age where you'd normally
expect them to go to bed at say 8pm stay up till 9 or 10 but let them
take a nap at lunch or tea time[2]) and minimising light and noise in
their bedroom (double glazing, thick curtains of a dark material (on
both sides) that extend further around the window frame than normal,
close fitting door &c)

Minimise background noise and avoid situations where two or more
people are talking to a person with dyspraxia at the same time.

Give instructions in writing rather than verbally and break tasks down
into chunks.

Stephen

[1] e.g. When I go to a fast food place (e.g. KFC, Burger King &c) I
always have the exact same thing, only changing when they change the
menu so forcing me to change
[2] There actually a lot of evidence that our pattern of stay up for
16-18 hours straight then sleep 6-8 hours solid is unnatural and what
we should really be doing is sleeping less at night but having a
siesta or two during the day. Far better for our health.

Lectures

2006-09-01T15:27:00.000+01:00

My alma mater just emailed me about a couple of lecture series they're running:

Why not retain your intellectual faculties at the white-heat they enjoyed while you were at Keele!

WORLD AFFAIRS LECTURE SERIES

The World Affairs Group has drawn up an extremely stimulating series of lectures and speakers for their 2006-2007 programme. All Lectures start at 7.30 p.m. in the Westminster Theatre, Chancellor’s Building). Please note course fee below.

September 28^th	Prof Paul Rogers	Bradford University	“A War Too Far”
October 5^th	Prof D Stevenson	L.S.E.	War and Peace in the 20^th Century
October 12^th	Dr C Spence	Director Middle East Studies Chatham House	“Iran”
October 19^th	Dr D Nussbuam	Transparency International Berlin	World Wide Corruption!
October 26^th	Sir Digby Jones	Chief Ext C.B.I.	Globalisation – Threat or Opportunity?
November 2^nd	Lembit Öpik	Lib Dem MP	Northern Ireland
November 9^th	Anas Altikriti	Moslem Council	“Iraq” – a case point of Western Moral and Ethical Decline
November 16^th	Bruce Kent	Vice President, Nuclear Disarmament	Getting rid of Nuclear Weapons and War
November 23^rd	Dr G Watts	Science and Medical Author BBC Broadcaster	Mice, Molecules, Men. Moral Ethics and Biological Medicine
November 30^th	Prof Alex Danchev	Nottingham University	Terror and Torture
December 7^th	Prof M Temple	Staffordshire University	Politics and the Media
December 14^th	Dr Tim Jones	Innovara, London and Amsterdam	The World in 2026!
December 21^st	Lindsay Whitehouse	Deputy Governor Werrington Young Offenders’ Institute	Dealing with Young Offenders
January 4^th	Annual Dinner	Keele Hall	Sir Stephen Lander – Director General Serious Crime Squad; Former Head MI5
January 11^th	Werner Sabiers	German Journalist	Germany Today
January 18^th	Prof L Scott	Aberystwyth University	Intelligence in Crisis from Sept 11 to Iraq!
January 25^th	Dr S McKenzie	Keele University	Looting the World’s Culture Heritage
February 1^st	Dr M Breen Smyth	Aberystwyth University	Reconstruction – Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Middle East
February 8^th	Dr P Bou-Habib	Essex University	Justice for the Old and Young
February 15^th	Prof D Dorling	Sheffield University	The World as You Have Never Seen It Before
February 22^nd	Dr M O’Neill	Loughborough University	Immigration
March 1^st	Prof P Styles	Keele University	King Coal is Buried but is he Dead Yet?!
March 8^th	Dr P Fysh	Nottingham Trent University	Racism in France
March 15^th	Dr D Maxwell	Keele University	Zimbabwe
March 22^nd	Prof N Wheeler	Aberystwyth University	Humanitarian Intervention
March 29^th	Dr D Dunn	Keele University	Thinking about Peace

May 3^rd	Lord Carlisle QC	House of Lords	Terrorism and Civil Liberties – Where Now and Next?
May 10^th	Dr S Sharma	Keele University	India
May 17^th	Prof M Dando	Bradford University	Biological Warfare

“There is
a lot of evil in mankind

And we
have to be constantly vigilant to combat it

But there
is a lot of good in mankind

And
properly nurtured it will always triumph!”

Gandhi

Course fee
£25. Pensioners £13. Unemployed and Students free. Please make cheques payable to “World
Affairs”.

Why not
try the first three lectures free of charge? This course is dedicated to the
principles of free political debate. You must, however, have the tolerance to
accept that others may hold opposite views! If you want further information,
please ring Owen Powell on 01782 534934.

INAUGURAL
LECTURE PROGRAMME

DATE

LECTURER

TITLE

Tuesday, 3 October 2006

Professor Matthias Klaes

An
Introduction to Commerce in Five
Aphorisms

Wednesday, 25 October 2006

Professor John Wearden

The
Perception of Time

Thursday, 9 November 2006

Professor Steve Cropper

Playing a part: on
organising and evaluating collaborative
action

Tuesday, 5 December 2006

Professor Serguei Semenov

Imagine and Discover:
medical Imaging

Tuesday, 16 January 2007

Professor Andy Dobson

Political Animals

Thursday, 1 February 2007

Professor Jo Laybourn-Parry

Antarctica – the edge of
existence

Mm
Thursday, 22 February 2007

Professor Stephen Wilkinson

Choosing Children:

the ethics of selective
reproduction

Thursday, 8 March 2007

Professor Richard Hays

Education or workforce strategies? The precarious position of medical
schools.

Tuesday, 27 March 2007

Professor Ronnie Lippens

Whither Critical Criminology?

Wednesday, 2 May 2007

Professor Chris Main

Does
the Reign of Pain fall mainly in the Brain?

Tuesday, 15 May 2007

Professor Tom Scharf

The
Extremes of Age: Challenging
Poverty, Promoting Inclusion

ALL
INAUGURAL LECTURES COMMENCE AT 6.00 p.m. IN THE WESTMINSTER
THEATRE, CHANCELLOR’S BUILDING

Apologies
to those unable to enjoy these events due to
distance.

forever:
keele
John Easom
International Alumni Officer
Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG
Tel
00 44 (0)1782 583370 Fax 584422
Moved house or job? Don't forget to let the
Alumni Office know... www.keele.ac.uk/depts/uso/alumni

The World Affiars doesn't look that interesting but some of the inaugural lectures do. If it weren't for the distance I'd seriously consider going.

Office suite I'd really like

2006-08-22T14:13:00.000+01:00

I was just reading an article on Slashdot about the possibility of a version of Microsoft Office for Linux and it reminded me of something I've been thinking about, off and on, for some time. It first came up whilst I was trying to learn TeX, or rather the LaTeX implmentation of TeX. I got to thinking that what I would find really useful, at work at least, would be a wordprocessor that was entirely styles based and where if you edited a style the change would be automatically propagated to everywhere that style was used (a bit like how CSS is supposed to work, although the ability to 'lock' a document to the current set of styles would be useful although this could be achieved by exporting to PDF). A big problem I've found with styles in current word processors (MS Word, OpenOffice &c) is that if you chage a stle it very often will only change it for new uses of that style, existing text in that style will remain unchanged.

A lot of companies require that all documents be produced with a set set of fonts, sizes and colours to give a corporate standard. A styles based wordprocessor would allow them to create the required styles and provide them to all employees, probably along with document templates for standard corporate documentation. When the management decided they wanted to change the corporate style they could just update the style library and redistribute it, as each document was opened the changed styles would be applied. It would save a lot of hassle having to create the styles yourself and manually change each document when the corporate styles change.

I think that this would get us closer to the intention behind Tex of just getting on with writing the document and not fussing about the look of it. I suspect that it would also help make documents more accessible for people with disabilities as it would make them more readable by automated systems, similarly it would make documents more suited to automatic processing. Styles could be semantic in nature, rather then seeing a block of text which is defined as being "bold, 22pt, Arial Black, centred" the software would see one labelled "ChapterTitle".

Dentally Assaulted

2006-07-26T07:46:00.000+01:00

A filling fell out of one of my teeth last week, taking most of the tooth with it. As I don't have a dentist I had to go to the Dental Hospital.

I called in advance and they the only way to get treatment is to show up at 07:30 to get a number then there'd be a minimum two hour wait and I'd get treated, first untruth. I showed up at 06:45 on Friday morning (I booked the day off work) and there was already a queue of 8 people. By the time they opened the doors at 07:40 there was a queue of about 30 people. After the pushing and shoving I was 12th in line and got number 12. I was then told to come back at 13:30 as they would only be treating 10 people that morning and 10 in the afternoon. So if you want treatment there get there for 06:30 and bring something to sit on (that folds up quickly into something that can be used as a weapon) and a book.

I hung around in town for a while, did a bit of shopping and drank far too much coffee.

At about 13:00 I went back to the hospital and took a seat in the ground floor waiting room, as instructed. After about 45 minutes they opened up reception and started to call people through. I noticed that a lot of the people they were calling through didn't have a number and hadn't been there at 07:40, which revealed the second untruth. You don't have to show up early and get a number, you can be referred or even make an apppointment if you've been treated there before.

After about 25 minutes my number was called and I went to the reception desk and gave my details (Name, address, full ~~service~~medical history &c) then was sent to sit down in the waiting area again. Another 15 minutes passed and my name was called. I went into a side room which contained about half a dozen dentists chairs. I was dragged to one where a guy in his 40s (I guess a dentist) took my details including stuff like allegies (including the fact that I'm allergic to latex, i.e. what their examination gloves are made of) then looked in my mouth and confirmed that a large chunk of one of my molars had disapeared and the tooth would have to be pulled (the one positive thing about the dental hospital, they don't try to pad their income by 'saving' a tooth), I could have told them that at 07:40 that morning. I was sent to another waiting room, on the second floor this time.

About 15 minutes later I was called through and was seen by a student dentist who (based on his accent, body langauge and general manner) seemed to be from India, probably the Southern half and probably somewhere quite rural but with access to a large town or city (his English was excellent, better than many native speakers), probably Hindu or non-practicing Sikh (when you live and work in such a multi-ethnic environment as I do you learn to spot these things, I'm only mentioning the races to flesh out the story). He poked and prodded for a while and rattled some instruments around in my mouth, then he called over his supervisor to check his conclusions. His supervisor was a practicing Sikh who (from his turban, accent and body language) seemed to have either been born in the UK (probably London) or in Kenya and moved to the UK at an early age. The supervisor looked and prodded then confirmed what the dentist on the ground floor had said, better to have a ~~secondthird~~fourth (remember, I'd said from the get go what the problem was) diagnosis. They then sent me to the first floor to have an X-ray because they wanted to see where the roots went so they'd know if they would need to nick my gum.

I sat in another waiting room for a while then was subjected to a student X-ray tech (East African, I think) ramming his latex covered fingers down my throat (and wondering why I was choking) followed by his supervisor (Sutton Coldfied or Knowle) doing likewise with her fingers and bafflement as they tried to get the film in place. After I fought them off and finished retching I positioned the film (I was, after all, the one who knew for sure where the tooth in question was) and they took the shot. Usual delay for developing and I was looking at an X-ray of my tooth. I went back up to the second floor waiting room and waited.

Five minutes later (at least the waiting times were getting shorter) I was called back through to the treatment room where they told me they'd pull the tooth, they might need to nick my gum but it would be a small nick and they'd be able to sew it up no problems. I had a local aneasthetic (which hurt out of all proportion and tasted awful when it dripped on my tongue) and layed back, I sat up swilled and rinsed then layed back again. The student dentist snapped off the remainder of my tooth above the surface of the gum whilst asking his nurse what the various tools were for. He then called over his supervisor who looked at his work and said they'd have to drill out the rest of the tooth. Much rattling and drilling (interspersed with instructions to mount the burr the correct way around next time) they had removed all but one root and large chunks of the bone of my upper jaw. The supervisor explained that this root was a big one and curved, he also explained that they had to be careful. He then asked the student why they had to be careful. "There's a nerve behind it" the student guessed (wrong), "An artery" he tried again (wrong again). I thought about giving the right answer but the supervisor seemed determined to make this a learnig moment so I lay quietly bleeding into my mouth from the thumping great hole in my gum. Eventually (after the student had worked is way through every organ, bone, nerve, blood vessel and unidentifiable purple wibbly thing known to mankind (and a few known only to grey aliens from Proxima Centauri) except the right one) the supervisor relented and pointed out my sinus cavity, which if pierced would be a bad thing. Realisation dawned. More drilling and burring then some pulling and the root was out along with more hunks of upper jaw. The supervisor put a couple of stiches in then got the student to out some more in. After stiching my gum to my inner cheek then lower lip (also sewing part of my lips together) he eventually got a few stiches where they were supposed to be. I was sent on my way with an instruction to avoid heavy exercise (so not a problem) and to take Neurophen for the pain, not anything with Asprin in as that slows clotting, preferably before the aneasthetic wore off. By the time I got to a chemists (the Dental hospital is right in the jamedoulas so it was a bit of a hike) to buy some Neurophen the anaesthetic had worn off. I bought the pills and some water to take them with then took them and went to the bus stop.

4 days later and I'm still in pain, my gum is still swollen (although less so than it was this morning).

I realise that the dental hospital is used to dealing with indigents, but that's no excuse for poor service and substandard care.

Creating a positive working environment

2006-05-24T18:37:00.000+01:00

I attended a short course on Monday on how to create a positive working environment and stress busting. Very interesting. The trainer handed out a printout of a webpage entitled "How to Create a Positive Work Atmosphere". The signs of a negative work environment seems like a spot on description of where I work right now.

Lib Dems in Birmingham

2006-04-30T20:08:00.000+01:00

In the ward I live in (South Yardley, Cllr Hemming is one of my councillors), or at least the part of the ward I live in (Greet), the Lib Dems have been campaigning on a slogan of "Lib Dem or BNP: It's a two horse race". Reading further into their election material they seem to be saying that the only way to keep the BNP out is to vote Lib Dem. Thing is, I've lived in or near to this ward most of my life. I've never seen anything to suggest that the fascists had any real chance of winning. I can't help but wonder if this is some sort of scare tactice to terrify the voters into supporting the Lib Dems, Greet is largely ethnically Pakistani Muslims with a mix of other South Asians.

Personally I'm going to vote Labour ont he grounds that of the Birmingham councillors I've met the only ones I've found to be remotely likable have been Labour.

Politics

2006-04-25T15:47:00.000+01:00

Interesting view on the UK 2005 elections.

The site looks at politics not just as a one dimensional line from left to right but as a 2 dimentional graph with left and right applying to just economic/social ideas (taxation, welfare, social security) whilst adding a perpendicular dimension looking at the degree of authoritarianism a person or group exhibits (regulation).

I think I agree in principle with what they're saying, and their discussion around the positions of the labour and conservative parties seems pretty accurate, I don't agree with their assessment of the BNP. From what I've seen and read the BNP are economically more right wing than that, maybe not as much so as the Tories but certainly more so than the Lib Dems. They are also much more authoritarian.

There's a quiz you can take to see where you fit on the scales. I came out on the far left just below middle line.

It would be interesting to see where some of our elected officials come. I've met some Lib Dem councillors who are very authoritarian and a couple of Tories who are socially quite liberal. I had one meeting with a Lib Dem councillor and a Tory councillor at the end of which all the attendees thought each of them was a member of the other's party.

Job Offers

2006-04-24T18:54:00.000+01:00

Just had a call from a recruitment consultancy offering me an interview with Barclay's bank for a DBA role looking after their share trading systems. Unfortunately it was a production support only role (aka DataBase Baby Sitting), which would bore me silly, so I had to turn it down.

The consultant said he'd got my CV off monster.co.uk. I only put my CV up there last Thursday and this is the third recruitment consultant to phone me having seen it there.

Fortunately I'm in the position right now where I have a job I can stand so I can afford to be picky about which jobs I go for, unfortunately all the jobs that seem to be coming through are ones that I either couldn't do (I can't drive so any jobs I can't access via public transport are out) or wouldn't want to do (e.g. the Barclay's one above).

Linked-In

2006-04-02T11:27:00.000+01:00

Anyone else use Linked-In?

It's kinda a social networking type of site but business/job seeking oriented. The idea being that you might not know anyone who has the skills you need for a job you have on offer or who can offer a job that would suit your skills but someone that you know might know someone or someone you know might know someone who knows someone &c. Of course it does rely on you actually knowing people and knowing that they have a profile on Linked-In.

My profile is at :http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/131/a3b

A few people I know are on there but it just seems so crass to invite someone to link to you.

Has anyone else noticed the utter lack of police around Birmingham city centre recently?

2006-01-07T16:37:00.000Z

Following an event last night (recounted below) I've contacted my MP, via WrtiteToThem.com about it:

Sir,

I have of late become concerned about the apparent reduction in the presence of police officers 'on the ground' in Birmingham City Centre. Until quite recently uniformed officers (both regular police and 'Community Support Officers') along with a mobile CCTV van were a common sight around the city centre, both daytime and late in the evening. Now, aside from special events and the occasional CSO during the day, they are not to be seen. I am aware that there are many fixed CCTV cameras around the area, but these seem to provide little if any deterrant and certainly are unable to provide anything by way of direct assistance to members of the public who are victims of crime. Plus many are privately owned and not monitored out of business hours.

This raises a number of concerns for public safety.

For example, last night I was entering the top end of New Street, from Victoria Square, a little after 10pm, having just taken my sister and her two children to see "The Wizard of Oz" at the Rep Theatre. Two black (African or West Indian) men, appearing to be in their late teens or twenties, were walking in the opposite direction. As they past us one started to shout at me calling me a "F**king Jew" (please excuse the use of profanity, I just want to ensure that you appreciate the tone of his speech) and other antisemitic statements (I am not Jewish but, presumably because I have a full beard and tend to wear black, occasionally some people assume that I am). Up until this point none of us had even looked at either of them, although obviously his statements at that point drew our attention. His companion then started walking towards me and threatened to "F**k [me] up good." (again, I appologise for repeating his use of profanity). Before I could react the one who had made the initial statements called him off and they hurried away.

I realise that nothing there would have resulted in any police officer wittnessing the scene to have arrested either of them and that if they were arrested the CPS would have declined to prosecute, deeming threats of violence against an individual to be too trivial to take to court. Which, along with the fact that they would be long gone before any police officers might show up, is why I did not call the police as soon as they were out of sight and earshot. I do, however, believe that if there had been a visible police presence the odds are that the event would not have happened and they would have just walked past.

Pleae bear in mind here that we're not talking about something that happened in some rarely travelled back street. We're talking about something that happened in a major thoroughfare of Birmingham City Centre, a principle route from the entertainment areas of Centenary Square and Broad Street to New Street station and the bus stops and taxi ranks around Corporation Street. There is a low but continuous flow of people through that area at that time of the evening.

I know that in the long term issues around urban poverty and the lack of positive male role models for boys and young men (the dress of the man who threatened me seemed to be straight out of a "50-Cent" video or one of the recent "Grand Theft Auto" console games) need to be resolved to reduce such occurances. I do feel that in the short term a visible police presence around the city centre would go a long way to breaking the cycle of violent behaviour.

Your's most faithfully,

Stephen Booth

NB where I have 'sanitised' words with ** here (to avoid tripping concent scanners) I left them unammended in the origial letter.

Linux for Libraries

2005-10-19T08:37:00.000+01:00

For some months, as part of the Open Source Academy, a small team in Birmingham City Council's Business Solutions and IT section have been investigating the use of Linux, as an alternative to Microsoft Windows, in the Libraries Service. The project is currently in the live pilot stage.

Tommorow night, Thursday 20th, the first public report on the project will be delivered to the South Birmingham Linux Users Group at Birmingham University. The meeting is open to anyone so, if you're interested and can get there feel free to show up. The venue is on the train station side of the campus.