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Archives for May, 2017
Broughty Castle – A hidden gem you should visit
Broughty Castle from the landward side. 15th century tower with late 19th century outer works. (Photo: James Kemp) Broughty Castle stands guard over Broughty Ferry and it is a gem hidden in plain sight. From the outside Broughty Castle is a forbidding stone thing, as castles should be. Inside though it has interesting displays on the local history and wildlife, as well as arms and armour. Natural History My five year old daughter and niece spent a happy half hour drawing pictures with the paper and crayons provided. They also loved looking at the diaromas with the stuffed animals. Girls having fun drawing in Gallery 3 of Broughty Castle museum (photo: James Kemp) My son was taken by the maps and the geological story. One of the questions I'd asked before we'd seen the maps was why was the ferry…
Cyber warfare – Just a buzzword or scary reality?
Cyber warfare has been on my mind for a few weeks, even before the WannaCryptor incident. It's been there because I've been looking at the innovation context for a digital service I've been designing as part of my T317 end of module project. That service is for government, and one of the risks is that someone will try to attack or subvert it. The other thing that has brought cyber warfare to my head is the forthcoming general election in the UK. There are signs that both the UK referendum on the EU and the US election night have been affected by cyber warfare. What is Cyber Warfare? A linux laptop running wireshark to illustrate cyber defence in action (photo credit: James Kemp) The popular view is hackers in a basement tracking people, bringing down other computer networks and stealing…
T317 Survey – Innovation in Government Services
I need to conduct some primary research as part of the final innovation project for T317 (Innovation: Designing for Change), so here is my T317 Survey. The purpose of my T317 Survey is to ask a few questions about the sort of government services people use and whether or not they would find it desirable to be able to have their birth or marriage details checked online. T317 Project Historical marriage certificate, not digital! (Photo credit: Wikipedia) My project for T317 is an online verification service for birth and marriage details. It would take the place of having to send in a birth certificate or marriage certificate when you apply for a passport, child benefit or some other government service that needs to verify your name or date of birth. It wouldn't work for everyone, just those born/married in the…
A Child At Arms by Patrick Davis Book Review
A Child at Arms by Patrick A. Davis My rating: 5 of 5 stars A Child At Arms should be on reading lists for junior officers and anyone involved in military policy. It compares well to Sydney Jary's 18 Platoon, which was held up as an excellent example of a platoon commander's war by the British Army. A Child At Arms - review Gurkhas advancing with tanks to clear the Japanese from Imphal-Kohima road India (Photo credit: Wikipedia) In A Child At Arms Patrick Davis gives a his imperfect memory of his time in the army. Davis came straight out of school into officer training, and volunteered to join the Gurkhas in the Far East. At the age of 19 he joined 4/8th Gurkhas at Kohima just as they were withdrawn to rest. Davis is very honest in his account.…
No longer a Floating Voter #GE2017
My job requires political impartiality. I'm involved and invested in the political system that we operate in the UK. I believe passionately in democracy and participation. Not voting is an abdication of responsibility as an adult. We all owe it to each other to participate in choosing our governments and answering the big questions. The penalty good people pay for failing to participate is to be governed by others (Plato) This has always been true, and never so clear as it is now. Like it or not we are living in interesting times. In the proverbial Chinese sense. There is only one key issue in this general election, Brexit. Brexit dominates this General Election more than any other issue. It affects every single one of us, whether we want it hard and fast, soft and slow or never in our…