traveller with a tale

For those of you cut off from the outside world, Spooks Code 9 is the brainchild of BBC 3 Controller, Julian Bellamy, a so called spin-off series of the BBC 1’s BAFTA award-winning series Spooks. Set in the quasi-post-apocalyptic future in which London and the South East have been destroyed by an unsubstantiated terorrist group (presumably al-Quaida) during the 2012 Olympics, MI5 is forced to hire the most incapable, dim witted and immature spooks since Austin Powers. This is justified as the disaffiliation to the ‘private sector’ of the vast majority of 5’s former employees has left the service bereft of capable individuals. What’s not adequately justified is why they were incapable of hiring anyone with any relevant experience.

I’m not saying that recent graduates shouldn’t be spies, but that the production lacks any sense of realism, which was one of the crucial factors in the early series of the original series. Furthermore it is Code 9’s (I refuse to denigrate Spooks’ reputation by associated their names), flaccid attempt at mimicry that is it’s greatest downfall, right down to the early execution of an officer. Unfortunately for Code 9, Spooks really set the bar high, what with boiling an officer’s entire head in hot chip pan oil, possibly one of the grizzliest scenes the BBC has ever conceived, and an execution carried out by a 15 year old sniper simply doesn’t hack it these days.

The BBC also seem to believe that decent spy drama necessitates the use of deadly force by intelligence officers, from torture through to carrying guns in the street. They are supposed to be spies, under the radar, blending in. Leave the gun wielding to the police or any other organisation whose officers are publicly known, and if you must, please find a more creative way to torture people.

My advice to the production crew is to abandon any links with Spooks, build up your own identity, rather than living in the shadow of your much better cousin, and you might have a chance at succeeding. Don’t be afraid to take risks, and I mean real risks, not the use of a racist slur.

Finally get your digital act figured out. I have no interest in viewing extended background information on the web, in some sort of 21st century copy of the gamebooks of my childhood, nor in taking part in some sick prediction of the outcome of nuclear holocaust Real interactivity is needed to keep modern day audiences interested. Simply showing me different videos based on a few link choices no longer makes the grade. I want real responses, I want to interact with real people, I want to feel like I’m part of the show, and not merely and observer.

For those of you who don’t follow my twitter stream (and you really should), I held an impromptu barbeque the other night (pics), which was a massive success and will, at some point, be followed up. I provided all manner of goodies, included burgers and hot dogs (which tasted fantastic, if I might say so myself). Now, those of you who know me will know that I’m not a big fan of cooking, and as such don’t frequently buy food, especially of quantity. This being a barbeque, things were different, and off I went to the local superstore to buy said produce.

I picked up some burgers. Packs of 6. Then some hot dogs. Packs of 8. Easy peasy I thought, I can do this, so off I trundle to find the buns and rolls, and that’s where it all goes wrong.

The buns and rolls are located about as far away as you can get from the burgers and hot dogs, but never mind, I found them with the help of a few friendly staff members. First the burger buns. Packs of 8. Then the hot dog rolls. Packs of 6.

I was close to going steve martin right there and then. I had always assumed that the film was making a joke, and that in the real world products were packaged in sensible amounts. Apparently not. I could, of course, have chosen to buy a combination of the lowest common multiple of both burger / buns and hot dogs / rolls, but it’s not like I had invited the entire internet to my home to feast! And furthermore this would have precipitated a journey back through the store’s maze of isles to find more meat, probably to find it had run out.

It’s crazy, it really is. If anything it’s wasteful. If they priced the buns and rolls the same as they are now, but gave me less so that they came in sensible quantities I don’t think I would care, at least I wouldn’t be wasting. Who eats a burger bun with out a burger? Not me

Yesterday was the Big Geek Day Out to Alton Towers, and was, of course, a day full of drama and adventure. I was one of seven people to be accidentally culled from twitter (although now restored, thankfully), disastrous on a day when communication between people whose mobile number you don’t necessarily know is essential. 

This started me thinking about how much we rely on services like Twitter, and how they control access to our data and communications channels. Even though my culling was only accidental, and was restored within 24 hours, whose to say that it won’t be longer next time, or that restoration might not be complete and data might actually be lost, or that it will be accidental. Information stored in my DMs might exist nowhere else and disappear forever. I have information in DMs that exists nowhere else. I would struggle to find even 50% of the people I follow. Many of my followers wouldn’t know how to find me if I was no longer at twitter.com/emmapersky. 

This problem is not restricted to twitter. Any service which we use of communication or information management is liable to the same problem. Facebook links me to hundreds of people I know, but people whose contact information is only stored there. Friends who I see once a year are do not become detached, they are just a few clicks away.

Is it foolish of me to store all of this information like this? Yes, but do I have a choice? Not really. Facebook’s restrictive information policies do not let me export the email addresses of my contacts (although I could, and probably should, go through them manually). Twitter, on the other hand, allows me to export my friends lists (through the api), but I don’t receive any contact information useful outside of twitter. 

Both Twitter and Facebook have sections in their Terms and Conditions which allow them to terminate user accounts. Yes, when you signup to one of these services you agree that they can delete you from their service, without reason. Twitter’s Terms of Service provides for this in it’s Terms of Service with a simple line

We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time.

Deep within the Facebook Terms of Use (which is longer than some novels I have read) I found this

The Company may terminate your membership, delete your profile and any content or information that you have posted on the Site or through any Platform Application and/or prohibit you from using or accessing the Service or the Site or any Platform Application (or any portion, aspect or feature of the Service or the Site or any Platform Application) for any reason, or no reason, at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice

serious stuff. Twitter and Facebook can actually remove anyone from their portion of the internet at any time without reason.

Why is this? Because the contract between us is basically one way. They give us service for free, and thus they are not obligated to do anything more. This notion does not only apply to Twitter and Facebook, but almost any service you use for free on the internet.

In contrast, many real world services have contracts between provider and consumer that are full of conditions explicit on the provider. They must conform to a number of conditions such as informing consumers of changes in the conditions, providing a minimum level of service, etc.

The fundemental difference between these types of services is money. When you pay for a service, the contract between your and the provider is just as stringent on them (otherwise you probably shouldn’t hand over your cash).

I would be certainly strongly consider a small payment to use twitter if it meant that I was entitled to a contract with obligated them to a higher level of service, including not deleting because they felt like it. Is this a viable alternative business model for free service websites outside of the traditional (well, recently traditional) model of displaying advertising to users to generate revenue. Can free services move away from distracting adverts? Can websites really charge for their use? If you ask me, yes then can.

I came home tonight and twitterific asked me to login. Strange. So i re typed my details but it refused to accept them. When i tried to login to twitter.com I was presented with this

Yes, thats right, I have been deleted from twitter!

I’m not sure what happened, but I guess my account was hacked, so that’s the last time I’ll use a twitter client until proper authentication comes into play (not that I’m pointing the blame at anyone specific, but it’s awfully easy to steal password that way).

I’ve submitted a request to twitter to have myself reinstated, but not sure how long that will take. In the mean time please email me emma.persky@gmail.com

Last night I was wined and dined at the apparently well known celebrity hang out, The Ivy, for my sister’s 21st birthday. She has been clamoring to go there for several years, but their strict booking policies, and popularity have made it difficult to match diaries and fine a time for them to accommodate us. It was certainly a pleasent evening, company included, though not quite what I expected.

Located on the fringe of Soho, in a quiet side road, the top hatted doorman invited us inside, where we were swiftly shown to our table by a hostess who seemed to know that we had a reservation “ah yes, the Perskys,” indeed. Having already done some research, I immediately ordered a bottle of the award winning 2005 Balfour Brut Rose by Hush Heath, located on our own fair island, in the county of Kent. This champagne-like sparkling rose has a superb, unique character that I can only liken to the feeling of being a child running free in the country eating fruits and berries, and is a wine I am sure to order a stock of. Something about serving British bubbly instead of the usual French libation appeals to me. We followed this with a solid bottle of Cote du Rhone 2006, superbly smooth, with a slight twang of citrus.

Enough of the wine. The food was pleasantly acceptable, whereas too often in venues chosen by name alone the food is mediocre. It was not adventurous or outstanding, and the burger I chose for my main was a little lacking, it could have done with some garnish beyond a sliced on onion, tomatoe and pickle on the side of the plate, but was nonetheless tasty for it’s simplicity.

The desert was above my expecation from the main cause, especially when the Basked Alaska I chose was subject to a decent Flambeing in front of my eyes. And this spectacle was far more interesting that any of the other patrons, whom I assume my sister came to see. In fact, despite the title of this post, I was the most famous person in the room.

What topped the evening off perfectly was the ride home in an Addison Lee Mercedes E220, what better way to arrive back home than in chauffeur driven luxury.

There was a lot of talk recently from some apparently well respected bloggers about how users were going to abandon twitter if they continued to be presented with the Fail Whale as frequently as we were. At the time I thought to myself nonsense. I love twitter, it keeps me connected to entirely new groups of friends, many of whom I would have no connection to outside of it. An important tool in my world domination you might think.

However, today I caught myself looking at the Fail Whale and pretty much giving up, instead of my normal click the refresh button. It the occurred to me that I had probably been doing this subconsciously and indirectly for a while especially taking into account blue Twitteriffic eyes and SMS fail too.

So, maybe these bloggers were right, maybe we are giving up on twitter, just not an intentional, mindful, screw you twitter but subconscious mind creep drawing us away without even realising it. don’t want to become disconnected form my twitter friends, so I promise to make more use of it, even if that does mean click refresh an extra few times!

I’m back from my Shetland Islands trip, and am about to start my first day of work, but I can’t go without at least posting one photo from my trip!

This photo was taken on my iPhone (sorry - proper photos are coming) on St Ninian’s Isle, a small island connected by a tombolo (a sand beach bar) to the main island. It’s a stunning island and well worth a visit if you find yourself up that way!

Mashed was an interesting one for me. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, not having been to a traditional hack day before. I was also about 8 hours late, having been at BarCampBelfast during the day, flying straight to Alexandra Place, well, not as close as Ewan Spence’s (t) SocialFlightSimulator made it, but pretty close!

I was interested in the crowd make up, which was quite different from my experience of previous London based events. Almost everyone there was based in the UK, compared to the more European mix found at our BarCamps. It was also quite a change to know so many people, when I’m often found at events where I know so few people. Refreshing change.

I was sorely disappointed with the lack of other female hackers. Or more specifically ones entering the competition. It didn’t occur to me until quite a way through the presentations, so I can’t be sure, but from memory there was only 1 other female entry presenter out of over 50 projects.

As for the hacks themselves, most seem to revolve around some kind of web mashup, which, to be frank, I’m getting kind of bored of. To me, a hack day should be about developing something that is a little bit different, a little bit out there, more than simply a composition of existing technologies in a non-novel way, something whose solution is not immediately apparent to someone in the industry (that sounds vaguely like the patent rules…). There were some really cool hardware hacks (the package which find’s it’s own way springs to mind), and some great bits of novel software, but a massive over abundance of web based mashups. What was more interesting is that the prizes were all awarded to these sorts of projects. Do our industry leaders no longer value the ability to do something outside of reading a few web api’s and hooking them up?

I think we might need a different space for really cool technology hacking. Anyone want to help me start a hack camp where you’re forbidden from using web APIs?

That aside, there was quite a commercial feeling to the event, sponsors were mentioned every 5 seconds, there was huge amounts of money being spent, and the staff didn’t appear to be attendees (something I think is critical for a great event). I’m not criticising the BBC for running it this way, that’s their thing, but again, I would love to see more community events in London (and yes, I know I should organise something, I promise I will eventually).

I loved the rock band playing over werewolf, and interesting change, prompted by my wanted to go home to sleep and not wanting a long game ahead of me. This turned out really well, because on returning the next day I was suddenly inspired and my Johnny Lee Eat Your Heart Out Hack came together - a VR Display from Head Tracking Using a Webcam and no Silly Glasses. People seemed to think that this was my entire degree project, and not a hack from a few hours work.

I was inspired by the people who came to talk to me afterwards about my hack, and pleased to see people genuinely interested in really cool technology. You guys have prompted me to do more work!

The mix of hacking and socialising was complicated. I felt compelled to work on my hack, but at the same time didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to hang out with friends, especially those from out of town who I don’t have a chance to see that often. Maybe it would have been easier has I been there all day, but hey, I had a great time in Belfast!

All in all, an interesting experience, was supplied with lots and lots of schwag and I’m looking forward to the next hack day, rumoured to be Yahoo’s hackday event in early September.

And so the hectic geek-event-fest of June 2008 started on Friday 20th with a short flight over the Irish Sea to Belfast for the latest instalment of BarCampBelfast.

My hotel, the Tara Lodge, as suggested on the wiki was fantastic. If you are going to Belfast I could not recommend this place highly enough. Perfect location (10 minutes walk from the city centre), charming staff, excellent food, and finished off to 4* hotel standards! 

Apart from some weirdness on Friday night, which involved me being stroked by a strange man, and being asked (in Polish, by an Irish guy) if I was from Poland, and some confusion over finding people at the pre-party it was a pretty damn good weekend. 

The BarCamp itself was held in a venue at Queen’s University Belfast. The layout was perfect with the 2 rooms next too each other, and registration and food just outside. It’s so important for barcamps to get this right because if you start having to run around a building to get from room to room it can be somewhat frustrating. The only downside was that 2 rooms was probably not enough for the sessions.

There were about 14 sessions in the two rooms across the day, which was a little bit tight, I think it would have been better to have 3 tracks, which would have given everyone the breathing space they needed between sessions. Over run can really mess up the timetable, which needed to be rejigged several times to make everything fit. Fortunately none of this detracted from the barcamp as it was seamlessly managed by the fantastic organiser Andy (t), an absolute star for arranging the great event. 

I would also have stuck to the “make a timetable with blank slots and let people fill them in” principle rather than the “tell us what you want to talk about and we’ll slot you in”. Although probably counter intuitive, it really does work. It also means you don’t have to worry about asking how long people need (give every session 30 minutes, even the speakers who say they’ll be done in 10, they’ll need it trust me…). And adding some time (even 5 minutes) between sessions is always a good idea to allow people to change rooms, and so that speakers can be told their time is up! 

The sessions themselves were fascinating, including one on personal development / life coaching by Tracy (t) - I promise to do more photography. And a chat with Grannymar (t) and Darragh Doyle (t) about blogging - I will blog more often! Somehow I missed the talk on good coffee by Andrew Gribben (t) and the very end of the day because I had to catch my flight at 18:30.

It was a shame there was no overnight component, as I find that a game of werewolf and a few drinks in the small hours is the best way to actually get to know people. It’s much harder when your in a talk or grabbing a bite during a quick lunch. Having said that, I did have a chance to meet lots of interesting people, and my only gripe is that I didn’t have more time to spend with them!

The food provisions rivalled those of BarCampLondon3 at Google, with yummy pizza, chips and fizz provided for all. 

As for that, I left at 17:45, cutting it a little fine, but I do like to live on the edge, and Belfast City Airport isn’t exactly that busy. When I tried to go through security with my pre-printed boarding card (thinking “it’ll be OK even if check-in has closed, I have my boarding card”) I was stopped because the essential barcode had failed to print out. Luckily the Ryanair printed me a proper boarding card (the first I’ve had in a very long time), and I made my way back to London. Straight to Mashed!

Would I travel such distances for another event. You bet I would!

Image via Wikipedia

I had the pleasure of spending the day with one of my most long standing (not oldest, he’s younger than me, and really not very old) friends, Yosef Silver (t) who was on a stopover in London. I picked him up at Heathrow, we spent the afternoon traveling around North West London in search of a decent Kosher meal, and ended up back at the airport where we he wanted to take some photos of planes. After capturing some awesome shots from the long stay car park just behind the runway I thought we should head over to Terminal 5, since I had heard so much about it’s wonderful architecture.

I was, I will admit, somewhat excited about Terminal 5. Airports are a fairly big bug bear of mine and I have been known to choose flights based on what airport they are flying in or out of simply to ensure that my experience is remembered for the right reasons. For example I will avoid Luton at all costs, but gladly travel through Stansted. Why? Because Stansted airport is a pleasure to travel through, you’re never confused as to where you are, where you are going or what is around you. It’s a smooth transition from check-in, to security, shopping, gate, and finally  air side. Luton on the other hand is a maze of twists and turns, at one point you do a giant loop as you head up stairs, round a corder, through security, round another corner, and eventually you are lost and facing a giant No Entry sign.

But I’m getting off point, back to Terminal 5. The alleged beauty is hidden behind a concrete behemoth that is the car park. Instead of being treated to the majesty of a giant gleaming glass and steel structure, designed to inspire the traveller, you see nothing but a the raw wall of a car park.

They had free reign when designing terminal 5 and they chose to spoil it by doing what they have done at all of the Heathrow Terminals, hiding the front behind a carpark. Why? They could have sunk some of it into the ground, or spread it wider, so that atleast some of the building could be seen on approach. Or they could have placed the carpark next to the terminal. Instead they left the side vista in the open (which, incidentally, is only visible from small sections of the ring road, and not on approach to the terminal.)

All that remains to say is that next time we build a nationally important terminal, find a proper designer, like Normal Foster!