I finally finished my article on Stack Ranking, it’s three years late and probably could do with some better structure, more reading and some research i.e. some facts. It was provoked by press releases about Yahoo! and Microsoft, both companies with performance problems. I am against these schemes. I think their cynical, unfair and destructive. …
I was pointed at an article in the Washington Post on password security. It’s quite long and so I summarise:
They have conducted some volume research by cracking and survey which they reference in the article and built a password checker based on these lessons but using it breaches one or maybe two of the rules I set myself in my Linkedin blog article “Password Vaults”. It’s on the internet, and we can’t read the code; that’s not to say it’s not a useful training tool. …
In 2011, Andrew Rhodes wrote a paper entitled, Can Prominence Matter Even in an Almost Frictionless Market? He models consumer behaviour in frictionless markets and the role of search engines and their paid placement on the search results page. I have had a look at the article because I am the target of one of Lewisham Labour’s candidates for Mayor’s google ad-campaign. I look at what Rhodes did, and ask a couple of questions about how applicable his model and assumptions are. …
A friend pointed me the THES world’s best Universities scores for 2018, and the fact that Oxford & Cambridge are now considered 1st & 2nd. Last time I looked at this, David Blanchflower criticised the report and its results. Ranking institutions would seem to be hard and the methodologies remain controversial.
What’s interesting apart from the UK taking places one & two is that Harvard & Princeton have been overtaken by CalTech and Stanford, representing a move from East to West Coast and with the addition of MIT at 5th, a switch to science (if not IT) dominated institutions. Also It remains the case that this with the exception of 11th place Zurich, the top 10 (sic) are all English language institutions.
I researched University ranking in 2009; for a full list of my blog articles on University Ranking see here…. …
At the Momentum meeting last night, it was pointed out the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group are consulting on closing the Waldron Centre, the Deptford/New Cross located NHS medical walk-in centre. It would seem that they propose that walk-ins are dealt with at Lewisham Hospital A&E or at local GP surgeries; it’s just as well we managed to keep the hospital open really, although this could be seen as the accountant’s revenge.
The consultation document justifying the proposal, and the online survey are at this page.
http://www.lewishamccg.nhs.uk/get-involved/Pages/Have-your-say-Walk-in-Centre,-New-Cross.aspx
The consultation document characterises the centre’s users by nature of complaint, reason for use of the walk-in centre, and likely alternatives to be pursued. (A not so popular alternative is to look for another walk-in centre; there are none in South London.)
It documents the fact that 43% of its visitors do not have Lewisham GPs and that 23% have no GPs at all. It puts these statistics in the context of cost. Lewisham CCG do not get a capitation fee for these visitors and despite the service orientated arguments, it is likely to the real motivation.
It argues that walk-in centres are not good for treatments, in particular for mental health treatment and then show that the top six complaints are highly physical with the top one being wound care.
No figures are presented about waiting time for GP appointments.
This is a cut in service, you might like to read the document and complete the survey.
A short URL has been created at http://bit.ly/WaldronFuture …
The local Trades Council asked those seeking to be Labour’s Candidate for Mayor to answer a short set of questions; they present the replies in this document, “Judge for yourselves who will be the Mayor we need!”. They asked questions on Cuts, Education, the Living Wage (in the Town Hall and procurement portfolio), employment rights, housing, training and council/union relations.
Richard Abendorff, a member of the Trades Council and the Labour Party, writes,
…There are clear dividing lines, Paul Bell opposes cuts, opposes privatisation, promises to in-source services, opposes privatisation via academies, supports Union rights, will prohibit zero contracts, he will re-establish the town hall trade union negotiating structures and put the Chair of the Trade Union side on the Cabinet.
He also plans to abolish the Mayoralty. His plans are based on concrete promises, not based on aspiration. If not a first choice for Trade Unionists, he must be a second choice.
Simon Phipps comments on Oracle’s decision to close down the SPARC and Solaris business units. He was close to the politics of Sun’s “Dash to Open” in the mid noughties. My feeling is that Sun had failed before Schwartz was appointed; there was no longer room for differentiated hardware company; Oracle’s failure to monetise the SPARC product line may have been caused by management hubris, but the long term economics …
I bumped into another Corbynista who’s left the Party over Labour’s Brexit light policy. Think he’s been out for over 6 months. Says he knows he should come back. …
I calculate that 75 members of the PLP, 29% were appointed as candidates by the NEC. Although some of the 46 members first elected in 2017, had previously won constituency selections in 2015. See also (too long). …
I am supporting Paul Bell to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Lewisham.
I urge you to vote for him here, his manifesto is here, or otherwise available via his campaign website. …
