The festival.

Gary Drostle, the Erith based artist who was responsible for the controversial Erith De Luci Fish Sculpture situated on the large roundabout (photo above - click for a larger view) that connects Bronze Age Way, Walnut Tree Road, Bexley Road and Queen's Road has been very busy of late; he has been working on a commission for the Chelsea Flower Show, which will be sponsored by the holiday firm Viking Cruises. Gary Drostle specialises in mosaics, though he also does paintings - the excellent Thames Barge mural on the side of the White Hart is also his work. His studio is located in what used to be the old Europa Gym Centre - part of the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road. In an interview with the Bexley Times, Gary said of his new commission:- "I’ve been creating mosaics for over 30 years now, but I knew that I needed some inspiration from the city itself. Viking Cruises run a journey from Barcelona to Venice, so I went on that, and my design went from there. When I got there, I had a eureka moment, where I realised what I needed to do was strip back the work, and hand make it using Venetian glass. The aim is to create a modern twist on Gaudi’s works. It’s a quick job compared to usual, as some murals take years to create, but this one has only taken four months. Last time I did anything for the garden show is was for Leeds Council - I made it and they just transferred it to the site, but this time I need to actually be at the show to put it together myself. I’ll have to finish building it, then break it up into jigsaw pieces, and then reassemble the wall when I’m in Chelsea. Mosaics are much more durable than painted murals, which is why I started creating them in the first place, but to be honest, this challenge is a lot more colourful and vibrant than the works I usually do. It’s been a really great challenge, and I’m excited to get the chance to visit the garden show.” Erith actually has quite a remarkable number of public art exhibits, especially considering the relatively small size of the riverside town. Even the gates to Erith Riverside Shopping Centre are works of art; the are covered with X-Ray images of common household objects. There are a number of different sculptures in and around the town centre, and the famous artwork that was removed from the side of the old Riverside Swimming Baths before they were demolished has been relocated to the public space next to the Kassiopi Cove childrens soft play centre (what once used to be the Blockbuster video hire shop - remember them?) Erith has a lot of public art if you care to look for it.

The 12th annual Bexley Beer Festival took place at The Old Dartfordians sports club in Old Bexley on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week. Despite the cold and blustery weather, there was as usual a huge turnout for the event, as you can see from the photos above - click on either for a larger view. Due to the inclement and unseasonal weather, it was not really possible to spend much time outside, and the main marquee was crammed with people. The clubhouse building next door was also very full with festival attendees. As usual, everyone was very polite, friendly and accommodating. What strikes me as being notable, is that the press often link alcohol consumption with violence and anti social behaviour. Indeed this may have a degree of basis in reality when considering an average high street pub and the usual lager drinking yob out to consume as much fizzy and tasteless "wife beater" as possible before closing time. Conversely I have never heard a voice raised in disagreement at a real ale festival, let alone any form of a fight - indeed I am led to understand that at the time of writing, the Police have never been called to any micro pub / ale house to resolve a conflict. I think this is primarily due to the type of people who drink real ale - who tend to be better educated, cultured and concerned with quality rather than quantity than your average lager drinker. The cliche of real ale enthusiasts tending to be middle aged and older men is really not true; the diversity in the crowd at the Bexley Beer Festival was interesting, as can clearly be seen in the upper photo. What cannot be seen is that in the upper photo, just out of shot there was a young lady in an electric wheelchair - the crowds parted like the Red Sea when she needed to move around, and she had many offer of assistance. A good festival, and much fun was had by all - it was just a pity that once again the weather was so inclement. Did you attend? What did you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

On Tuesday afternoon last week, I was using the Zebra crossing outside of the KFC in Manor Road when a woman in a VW Polo almost ran me down as I was actually on the crossing. She did not see me, as she was apparently having a row with someone on her mobile phone – something that not only is illegal, but has seen the penalties for so doing increased recently – not that anyone ever seems to get caught doing it. Despite tough new police crackdowns, one in five admits illegally texting or talking on the phone whilst driving. Car makers are aware of this issue, and some companies have been trying innovative approaches to remedy the situation – I suppose not only from a legal and safety perspective, but also in an effort to avoid damage to their brand and reputation should one of their vehicles become involved in a mobile phone related accident, or even fatality. Sunderland based Nissan UK have been one of the first to market with a new product aimed at reducing mobile phone related accidents in their cars. They have created a prototype compartment within the armrest of a Nissan Juke lined with a Faraday cage, an invention dating back to the 1830s. Once a mobile device is placed in the compartment and the lid closed, the Nissan Signal Shield creates a ‘silent zone’, blocking all the phone’s incoming and outgoing Cellular, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. The concept is designed to give drivers a choice about whether to eliminate the distractions caused by the millions of text messages, social media notifications and app alerts that are ‘pushed’ to smartphones each day. The innovation works on the principle of the Faraday cage, an enclosure made of a conductive material, such as wire mesh, which blocks electromagnetic fields. It is named after the pioneering English scientist Michael Faraday, who invented it in the 1830s. When an electronic device, like a smartphone, is placed inside, any incoming electromagnetic signals – such as cellular or Bluetooth data – are distributed across the cage’s external conducting material and so prevented from reaching the device. RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “Our research shows that handheld phone use by drivers has reached epidemic proportions. “As mobile phone technology has advanced significantly many people have become addicted to them. However, the use of a handheld phone when driving represents both a physical and mental distraction and it has been illegal since 2003. The Nissan Signal Shield is a good example of a technology that can help drivers be phone smart. For those who can’t avoid the temptation, this simple but pretty clever tech gives them a valuable mobile-free zone”. It will be instructive to see if this project bears fruit; it is an interesting and different approach, but just how many drivers will take up the Faraday cage option? Time will no doubt tell, but I don't think very many.

A very worrying event took last week, and to compound matters, the News Shopper made an utter hash of reporting it. They ran a story which could have got national coverage, but their inept reporting meant that the story had little sense. They reported that a woman had attempted to abduct a toddler from a shopping trolley in Asda. What was not clear was when this event actually took place, and where the Asda store was located. As you will see from the screen capture above, the headline reads “Attempted child abduction in Asda Belvedere after woman lifts toddler out of trolley”, yet the video clip is entitled “Woman attempts to steal baby in Asda’s Bexleyheath”. The reporter cannot decide whether the alleged offence took place in Bexleyheath or Belvedere. This problem has been getting more common in the once great paper. Now that it is a regional, rather than a local paper, the reporters don’t know the local area – most of them are from West and South West London, and don’t have a clue about the geography of South East London and North Kent. In normal circumstances, this is little more than an inconvenience and an annoyance, but in an important story such as the toddler attempted abduction, it can make a vital difference. Have you noticed anything similar? Is it just me being too discriminating? It strikes me as being exceedingly poor journalism. The whole situation with local papers and their consolidation / merging has been brought about by a number of separate factors – not least of which has been the rise of the web; many local papers around the country have found it exceedingly difficult to  monetise their online content, as reader are extremely reluctant to pay for what they can get for free elsewhere. This has not only affected local papers – even the nationals have felt the pinch. The “never let the facts get in the way of a good story” Sun put their content behind a paywall for a couple of years, and their online readership dropped off a cliff. They were then forced to make their content freely available, as it now is. The News Shopper have gone down a different path, as on top of closing their Petts Wood office and moving to South West London, they have cut the number of editorial and journalism staff, and they have crammed their website with advertising and all sorts of bloated code. You may have noticed  that the News Shopper website takes an age to load and finish rendering – and it does not matter how fast your internet connection or your computer is. The reason for this is the large amount of hidden HTML, XML and JavaScript code that the web browser is forced to download and process. The News Shopper are not unique in this practice, but they seem to do it to a greater extent than most other similar sites. You also get a ton of “Sponsored Content” articles at the bottom of each page; as I have previously written, these are “Click Bait” – designed to get the user interested and to click on the story to read more. The advertisers that sponsor such non – stories give a fraction of a penny to the link host for each click through the link gets. It all adds up for a website that is trying to generate as much cash as possible, even if it does impede page loading / rendering times and gives a negative user experience.

On Tuesday a large number of traveller caravans appeared in the car park of Morrison’s in Erith; one regular reader sent me a couple of discreetly taken photographs, one of which you can see above. I was walking home from work, though the car park as usual when I encountered a large number of caravans that you can see in the photograph. I think the main problem with travellers and non – travelling people is a lack of dialogue. I know that many people have had bad experiences with travellers, but I would hazard a guess that as many travellers have had problems with us in one form or another. The mutual distrust / dislike between the two communities has been ongoing for decades. I refuse to believe that all travellers are criminals in the same way that there are all sorts of people in the general community – some good, some middling, and some bad. The lack of dialogue between the travellers and non-travellers has fed this distrust to the point where I could understand that some travellers might not even try to get along with others, thinking “what’s the point?” The fact is that some in the travelling community do themselves no favours by leaving large amounts of fly tipped litter and damage to the land where they have been camped. One thing is clear; Irish Travellers are a distinct ethnic group. In 2011 an analysis of DNA from forty Travellers was undertaken at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and the University of Edinburgh. The study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a distinct Irish ethnic minority, who separated from the settled Irish community at least 1000 years ago; the claim was made that they are as distinct from the settled community as Icelanders are from Norwegians. Irish Travellers "left no written record of their own" and their families do not date back to the same point in time; some families adopted Traveller customs centuries ago, while others did so more recently. It is unclear how many Irish Travellers would be included in this distinct ethnic group at least from a genetic perspective. I understand that the Travellers that were camped in Morrison's car park have some kind of dispute with the travellers on the permanent site in Thames Road Crayford, opposite the council tip. Fortunately nothing violent took place, although there were concerns that something might kick off. The travellers were served notice to quit on Tuesday evening; the notice said that they had to be clear of the site by 9am on Wednesday morning; they actually left at 2.20pm, according to a reliable source. Two Morrison's staff then spent much of the rest of the afternoon clearing up the mess that had been left behind. All is now back to normal. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Eight percent of the male population and four point five percent of the general population of the UK as a whole are colour blind, and there are estimated to be over 250 million colour blind people worldwide - comparably the condition only affects something like one in two hundred women. The vast majority of people with a colour vision deficiency have inherited their condition from their mother, who is normally a ‘carrier’ but not colour blind herself. Some people also acquire the condition as a result of long-standing diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, some liver diseases and almost all eye diseases. The effects of colour vision deficiency can be mild, moderate or severe depending upon the defect. If you have inherited colour blindness your condition will stay the same throughout your life – it won’t get any better or worse. The retina of the eye has two types of light-sensitive cells called rods and cones. Both are found in the retina which is the layer at the back of your eye which processes images. Rods work in low light conditions to help night vision, but cones work in daylight and are responsible for colour discrimination. There are three types of cone cells and each type has a different sensitivity to light wavelengths. One type of cone perceives blue light, another perceives green and the third perceives red. When you look at an object, light enters your eye and stimulates the cone cells. Your brain then interprets the signals from the cones cells so that you can see the colour of the object. The red, green and blue cones all work together allowing you to see the whole spectrum of colours. For example, when the red and blue cones are simulated in a certain way you will see the colour purple. The exact physical causes of colour blindness are still being researched but it is believed that colour blindness is usually caused by faulty cones but sometimes by a fault in the pathway from the cone to the brain. People with normal colour vision have all three types of cone/pathway working correctly but colour blindness occurs when one or more of the cone types are faulty. For example, if the red cone is faulty you won’t be able to see colours containing red clearly. Most people with colour blindness can’t distinguish certain shades of red and green, although more severe variants are relatively common. It is worth noting that the term “colour blind” is colloquial and imprecise. To the uninitiated it can suggest a complete lack of colour vision, but many with the condition don’t see in black and white. Some people do (though that iteration of the condition is extremely rare), while others also labeled with colour blindness see mostly in shades of blue and yellow. Simply put, there are many types that range in severity from mild to extreme. As such, scientists use the more precise term “colour vision deficient” when speaking broadly about the condition. Scientists have known about the condition of colour blindness for the better part of two centuries. However, while some have worked to develop tools to aid the colour vision deficient, no one has produced a product that can offer people who have the condition much more than a crude workaround. An American scientist by the name of Doctor Don McPherson has come up with a very effective way of getting people with colour vision deficiencies to be able to see colour in the same way as people without the deficiency. Before founding his optical manufacturing company EnChroma, McPherson worked for a company called Bay Glass Research—putting his Ph.D. in glass science to use by engineering better ways to protect the eyes of surgeons using high-powered lasers for precision medical procedures. The first generation of protective eyewear these surgeons wore achieved its goal with thick, coloured glass, which absorbed the powerful, eye-frying energy of the laser. However, those glasses gave the surgeons headaches and made it difficult for them to distinguish between the tan, pink, and red tones of human flesh. The physicians had little choice, they needed to rely on other visual cues during operation. McPherson solved this problem by infusing glass panels with rare earth metals, which worked a bit like the surgeons he was aiding—by precisely targeting specific bands of the visible light spectrum. These glasses effectively deflected the dangerous wavelengths of the laser, while letting all other light pass through. The surgeons liked these glasses but not just in the operating theatre. McPherson soon got word that many of his clients were taking the shades home with them and using them as sunglasses. McPherson wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. And so, he made a pair for himself, inserting the customized glass panels into wrap-around Bollé frames, and unwittingly setting the stage for his breakthrough moment. In 2005, the self-described "avid ultimate Frisbee player" was wearing his high-tech shades at an ultimate tournament in Santa Cruz, California. While he was on the sidelines, resting, he lent the glasses to his friend and teammate. "And he goes: 'Dude! These are so cool! I can see the cones!" McPherson's friend was referring to the orange, sideline-deliniating cones, which, as colour blind man, he had previously been unable to see. McPherson knew this about his friend, and the news that his speciality glasses enabled him to see a colour he had never seen before hit the EnChroma founder like a ton of bricks. "I didn't play well after that," McPherson recalled in an interview. He was lost in thought—considering the nature of colour vision deficiency and what exactly these particular glasses might be doing that to corrected for his friend's condition. After the match he began feverishly researching colour blindness. According to McPherson he could hardly have picked a better time to take up interest in the field. To begin, around 2009, scientists working on gene therapy research found evidence that the brains of colour vision deficient individuals were able to process all of the colours in the visible spectrum, suggesting that if only the eyes could be aided in passing along the correct signal a previously colour blind person might be able to see the way those with normal  vision do. In essence, the software is OK, the problem is just with the hardware. If you can remedy the hardware, then everything would be fine. Most people have three types of pigment-sensitive cones in their eyes—blue, green and red. The information gathered by this trio, along with the information gathered by our light-sensitive rods, is processed by our brain and turned into a three-dimensional world of colour. In the eye of someone with normal colour vision, these cones are arrayed in such a way that the blue cone stands on its own. McPherson says that this pigment sensitive cone was likely the very first to appear evolutionarily. The green- and red-sensitive cones are much more recent developments—at least on the evolutionary scale. The predominant theory is that the green cone was the second to emerge and that the red cone was an advantageous mutation, which came along not long afterward. The Enchroma lenses filter out certain frequencies of light that confuse the malformed light receptor cones in people with colour blindness, allowing them to perceive colour in the normal way. There are caveats - the lenses have to be constructed specifically for an individual after a series of tests to determine precisely what colour perception deficiencies they have, and the lenses work best in bright daylight. Enchroma do make a separate set of lenses for indoor use, but they are not as efficient at rendering colour as the daylight lenses - also not every colour blind person can be helped with Enchroma technology - about twenty percent of colour blind people don't get any benefit from the glasses; having said that, eighty percent do get a marked improvement in colour perception - often in a very dramatic way, as you will see demonstrated in the short video below. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Kentish Belle.

The photo above (click on it for a larger version) shows the former Port of London Authority hut next to the recently repaired wooden jetty adjacent to Erith Riverside Gardens. As regular readers will be aware, I have been calling for this to be put to some constructive use for several years. The hut has been empty and unused for over a decade. It has drainage, running fresh water and electricity, and I had suggested that it would make an ideal substation for the RNLI. My suggestions have not been taken up, but the hut has recently come back into productive use. The hut is now used as a rest point for local bus drivers between shifts. They use the hut to put their feet up and have a cup of tea during their legally required rest breaks. It is not quite the outcome that I had anticipated, but the hut is being used, which to my mind is a very good thing. I also noticed that the new mini bushes have now been planted in the Riverside Gardens, and these will hopefully look really good in a few months’ time. I do have concerns that the bushes may suffer due to the recent lack of rain. Hopefully they will get watered from time to time. FORGE (the Friends of Riverside Gardens Erith) have been instrumental in obtaining and planting the new bushes.

Yesterday morning there was a very serious assault that took place at the junction of Bilton Road and Manor Road in Erith; a man was stabbed in the head, and suffered life threatening injuries. Details of the case are still sketchy, but the London Air Ambulance was called to take the victim to hospital, and a man in his thirties was arrested by the Police. I understand that he was found in possession of a knife, and has been charged with GBH. Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information is asked to contact police on 101 or via Twitter @MetCC Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The Association of Bexley Charities '78 is holding a Spring Fair at the United Reformed Church, Geddes Place, Bexleyheath DA6 7DJ (near the Broadway Shopping Centre) on Saturday 29th April 2017 from 9.45 am  - 1.00 pm. Do give this worthwhile event your support.

Press reports in the last week have given weight to my long held personal concerns over the use of mobile phones, and their possible long - term health effects. An Italian court has ruled that excessive, work-related use of a mobile phone caused an executive to develop a benign brain tumour. In what could become a landmark ruling, the court in the northern town of Ivrea awarded the plaintiff a state-funded pension. The judgment, which was handed down on 11th of April but only made public on Thursday, is subject to a possible appeal. Roberto Romeo, 57, had testified that his work duties obliged him to use his mobile for three to four hours of each working day for 15 years. “For the first time in the world, a court has recognised a causal link between inappropriate use of a mobile phone and a brain tumour,” his lawyers said in a statement. Romeo said he did not want to demonise mobiles, “but I believe we have to be more aware about how to use them. I had no choice but to use my mobile to talk to colleagues and organise work – for 15 years I was calling all the time, from home, in the car. I started to have the feeling of my right ear being blocked all the time and the tumour was diagnosed in 2010. Happily, it was benign but I can no longer hear anything because they had to remove my acoustic nerve.” A medical expert estimated the damage to Romeo at 23 percent of his bodily function, prompting the judge to make a compensation award of €500 per month to be paid by a national insurance scheme covering workplace accidents. It will be interesting to see if this sets a precedent.

You may recall that some months ago I reported that it was hoped that a micro pub was being planned for Barnehurst, but due to a number of factors, the plans ended up falling through. Well, now there is some good news; whilst the Barnehurst deal failed, another entrepreneur is currently transforming the shop at number 8, Pickford Lane, Bexleyheath into a micro pub which will open in June. It is going to be called The Kentish Belle, due at least partly to its close proximity to Bexleyheath Station, which is only seventy five metres from the venue. You can see the Twitter account for the forthcoming micro pub here. When looking at the location of the micro pub, some observers may think that the William Camden pub very close by would mean that the new venture would struggle to attract customers. I feel strongly that this will absolutely not be the case. The two places cater for very different customers; the William Camden is primarily a lager and football pub, whereas The Kentish Belle will cater for discerning real ale enthusiasts. Experience in other areas shows that micro pubs not only survive, but in fact thrive in the presence of mainstream pubs in their vicinity. The Kentish Belle also will benefit from a large foot fall from passing commuters getting off the train at Bexleyheath Station on their way home. I would imagine a number would pop in for a swift pint before their dinner. I will be visiting The Kentish Belle as soon as it opens, and I will be contacting the owners in the meantime; more on this subject in the coming weeks. It is just as well that a new micro pub is opening in the local area, as news was released this week that the number of pubs in London has fallen by more than a quarter because of developers and rising business rates, according to City Hall research. In total the number of pubs in the capital decreased from 4,835 to 3,615 between 2001 and 2016, a decline of 1,220 at a rate of 81 pubs a year. Mayor Sadiq Khan commissioned the research as part of his 2030 Cultural Infrastructure Plan to identify which buildings and businesses should be protected to maintain the capital’s cultural and community life. The study was conducted in partnership with the Campaign for Real Ale and looked only at pubs, as opposed to bars and restaurants. The study is to become an annual audit. In an interview with the London Evening Standard this week, Mayor Mr Khan said: “I’m shocked at the rate of closure highlighted by these statistics. We have partnered with CAMRA to ensure we can track the number of pubs open in the capital and redouble our efforts to stem the rate of closures.”

Many people like tablet computers such as the Apple iPad range; personally for any small and portable computing device, I really need a keyboard. Tablet devices are fine for consuming content, such as watching YouTube videos, but less than satisfactory for creating content, such as writing a Blog. Back in 2012 I experimented with what was then a very new technology; Google had recently announced their range of Chrome OS devices, not to be confused with tablets and mobile phones running the similar, but separate Android operating system, also developed by engineers at Google. I have been surprisingly satisfied with it. If you have not heard about Chromebooks, they are a cut down laptop that runs Googles’ Chrome operating system (basically a customised version of Linux) and the Chrome web browser. Chromebooks don’t directly run any software other than the browser, which might make them sound rather restricted. Nowadays however, most people spend a vast majority of their time using a computer on the web – Email, social networking, video watching etc, so a browser only machine is not as stupid an approach as initially thought. The upsides of a Chromebook are 1) very fast start time (my £229 Chromebook starts from cold in seven seconds; half the time of my custom build, very high end iMac, which cost well over ten times as much). 2) They have a very long battery life – eight hours between charges, even with WiFi on and showing HD video. 3) They integrate seamlessly with GMail, Google Docs and other online services (they should  - that is what they were designed for). 4) They are pretty secure – all updates occur automatically in the background. I suppose I have to reboot the machine once a month – that’s it. 5) Unlike a tablet, you don’t need to tether a Bluetooth keyboard to it in order to do some serious typing – and the keyboard (on the Samsung model, anyway) is actually rather good – something that is very important to someone like me who writes around 6,000 words a week online, over half of that on the blog). 6) They are cheap – you can get some models for under two hundred pounds, brand new on Amazon and elsewhere. Chromebooks won’t replace the full computer, but they are great as a second machine on which to surf the web, catch up on Emails and generally keep up with the online world. Something that has happened in the USA, and will almost certainly also happen here. The late 2013 introduction of the low-cost Chromebook has given U.S school districts an affordable alternative that they are gravitating to with enthusiasm. Official numbers from market research firm IDC confirmed the news last December when the company announced that while Apple had shipped 702,000 iPads to U.S educational buyers in the third quarter, Google partners had shipped 715,000 Chromebooks. They are cheaper, more robust, easier to remotely administer, and are better suited to use in classrooms. I wonder how long it will be until we see widespread use of Chromebooks in British schools? And now onto another computer related subject, but one that is far older. 

One of my favoured sources of accurate and up to date information on IT and technical related issues is the excellent website – The Register. Stories that get into the general press usually break on The Register at least a day earlier, and in greater detail. The site is very tongue in cheek, and often finds a humorous angle on technology issues. It broke a story recently that caught my attention; an employment agency are looking for programmers who have skills in writing and maintaining software for the DEC PDP-11 series of mini computers. What is so unusual about that? I hear some of you ask. Well, the PDP 11 computer range was first introduced in 1970, and went out of general production in 1990. The machines were large – even a relatively small installation would be the equivalent of three or four full height fridge freezers, plus a terminal the size of a small school desk. By any modern standards they are museum pieces – indeed, The National Museum of Computing does have some examples of PDP hardware in its collection. When they were first offered for sale, they offered a relatively cheap and reliable entry into business and industrial computing; indeed many PDP 11’s were used to control machine tools in factories – some of the early car welding robots were controlled in this way. Other key users were (and in some cases still are) large banks and insurance companies, who require reliability and very high up time over performance and the latest features. Quite often the old computers such as the PDP 11 range are still employed on the “back end” systems that the customers (and indeed many of the staff) never see. Many of such organisations are exceptionally risk averse, and would rather support an ancient technology than take a chance on upgrading to a modern alternative that may have new and undocumented bugs, possibly causing loss of earnings and damage to reputation. I know that there are a small handful of independent contractors who earn a very good living continuing to support these old clunkers – because the knowledge required to maintain and repair the hardware and software is so specialised, they are able to charge pretty much what they like for their services, as they have their clients “over a barrel” – nice work if you can get it. My first foray into the world of “serious” computers was back in the early 1980’s, when I had a Saturday job as an assistant in Silica Shop in Sidcup. During the 1980’s, Silica Shop were the largest privately owned, independent computer retailers in the UK. They specialised in the early 8 – bit home computers, especially the range made by Atari – for whom they were the European dealers. Silica Shop had its’ HQ in Hatherley Road, Sidcup, where there was a large retail unit on the lower floor of the two storey building, and on the upstairs was a warehouse, an office, and an air conditioned computer room, which housed a large DEC PDP 11- 44 mini  computer - almost identical to the one in the photograph above. As well as working in the shop on Saturdays, I was also able to work during school holidays; during this time I would sometimes be called out of the shop to help the computer system administrator, who for a while made me his unofficial assistant. I learned lots about working with large scale business computers, and all of the basics of system administration – adding and removing users, changing security settings, creating files, running batch processes and the like. Even back then, the 11-44 was quite an elderly piece of kit – the company having purchased the machine second hand, as new they were well over two hundred thousand pounds, depending on the specification and peripherals required. One quirk of the 11-44 operating system was that you could not reformat the large 8 inch floppy disks it used (earlier versions of the machine used reels of magnetic tape). In order to re – use the expensive floppy disks, you first had to manually wipe them of data using a degaussing machine – which was basically a large electromagnet. I think everyone was scared of the degausser – it hummed and buzzed, occasionally emitting a crackle of electricity, accompanied by a faint smell of ozone. I think even by the lax health and safety standards of the time, the machine should have been condemned! What I did to avoid the dreaded machine was looking back, pretty imaginative. The computer room had several old – style telephones with rotary dials. I would place a small pile of disks underneath a phone, then ring it from another extension. The bell ringer built into the phone was an electromagnet, and in ringing it would wipe the disks! Silica Shop wrote their own customer database; what would nowadays be called a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Whenever someone came into the shop and bought something, a sales docket would be completed by the shop assistant. It included the buyer's name, address and what they bought, along with an itemised total. Each item of stock was allocated a unique part number, which staff could look up on VT100 computer terminals in the shop, which would also record how many of that particular item were left in stock; the real old hands would know most, if not all of the popular stock item codes off the top of their heads. When the stock level got down to a certain point, the system would automatically place a re – order, and debit the company account accordingly. The system would also target postal advertising at customers according to what they had already purchased – there was no point in sending a leaflet on Atari 800XL software to a customer who had bought a Commodore 64 for example. You can see an example of a typical Silica Shop advertising flyer below - notice the large amount of detailed text - this was a Silica Shop trait - they lumped huge amounts of technical detail into all of their advertising; something that would put off a lot of potential shoppers today. All this is targetted advertising is routine nowadays, but back in 1983 it was unique, and debatably the most sophisticated customer database used anywhere in the United Kingdom. My own thoughts are that if Silica Shop had taken this ground breaking business software and ported it onto the then new IBM PC, they would have had a huge business in selling and supporting enterprise level CRM applications now. Instead they continued to shift boxes of home computers, and eventually went out of business in the mid 1990’s. If the management had employed a more creative vision, Silica could have been a global software name like Oracle now. I have to say that I learned more about computing in my few years working at Silica Shop than I have learned anywhere else. My entire career in IT has been built on stuff I picked up in a quiet side street in Sidcup.

Don't forget that the twelfth Bexley Beer Festival will be taking place in the Old Dartfordians Rugby Club. The popular festival will take place between Thursday, May 4th to Sunday, May 6th, though the busiest day is the Friday afternoon / evening session, which is when I will be attending. Do come over and say hello if you happen to see me.

KFC have just announced that they are partnering with takeaway food delivery company JustEat to enable local people to order fried chicken and chips and have it delivered to their homes. The pilot scheme is taking place in the following fast food outlet locations:- Bexleyheath, Bromley, Erith, Thamesmead and Welling. The Bexley Times are reporting that Graham Corfield, UK Managing Director at Just Eat commented: “We’re adding KFC restaurants every week, meaning more customers will be able to enjoy KFC at the click of a button in their area very soon.” The growing appetite for home delivery has reportedly seen growing favour for chicken, with JustEat claiming it as one of the top five cuisines ordered through the service in the past 12 months. Not my kind of thing I am afraid. There are additional costs to having your KFC delivered, which the new adverts neglect to mention. Suffice to say that I live a couple of hundred metres from the Erith KFC, but have only visited the outlet twice - and the second time was merely to use their toilets when I had a seriously upset stomach. I don't think that I need to say more.

It seems that the illegal activities of uninsured, unlicensed and no - helmet wearing bikers are not now limited to the Slade Green and Crayford Marshes. Reports have been made to the Police in respect of illegal biker activity in Lower Belvedere. Local Safer Neighbourhood officer PC Robert Holmes reported "Over the Easter period the team have been out and out about across the ward. We have been attending Frank’s Park responding to residents’ concerns over off road bikes driving in the woods. The team did stop one youth and warned him about his conduct. His mother was also spoken to advised on the legality of her son using an off road bike, as well as safety implications. Upcoming events: Police Surgery on the 28/04/2017, Belvedere Library, Woolwich Road at 14:00. Coffee with Cops on 03/05/2017 at the Pop In Parlour, Woolwich Road (next to the library) at 11:30". Another bike related crime has recently taken place in Barnehurst. PCSO Cathy Nolan reports "Barnehurst Ward have suffered another incident of vehicle crime in Martens Close whereby a Silver PCX Honda Moped was taken. Witness saw two persons riding a similar moped to the one that was stolen, both riders were wearing dark clothing with helmets on. The moped was seen driving down Martens Close, one person got off the bike, approached victims bike and was seen then to drive off on it. This incident happened at 21:15 on 12th April 2017. If anyone has any information please call 101 or contact your Local Policing Team. Barnehurst Team will be available to discuss any local issues at Barnehurst Golf Club on Friday 21st April 2017 between 11:00 – 12:00".

The great comic actor Will Hay, a comedy legend in his own lifetime and a huge star of early British film, died this week back in 1949. Will Hay is largely forgotten today, but a comic actor whose best work influenced the likes of The Goon Show, and Monty Python, and his most famous film "Oh, Mister Porter!" was a direct influence on "Dad's Army". I have to declare a family connection with Will Hay; my Great Uncle Horace (whom I have written about previously) was a very close friend of Will Hay for many years. Born in Stockton in 1888, Hay’s family moved him south to Suffolk before his first birthday. As his father became a jobbing engineer so the family’s mobility quickly increased – moving next to Hemel Hempstead then to London and finally to Manchester where Hay Senior established his own firm. Wanting independence, Will refused to join the family company and started instead as an apprentice engineer for Westinghouse. Yet Hay was no typical engineer and his humour hid by the fact that, by the age of 19, he had learnt German, French and Italian to such a high level that he was able to leave engineering and became an interpreter. His nineteenth year also saw him married to fellow teenager Gladys Perkins and when his daughter Gladys Elspeth was born some eighteen months later Hay decided he could make a better living for his new family in the pre-Great War music halls. Stealing some of his sister Eppie’s staff room reminiscences – she was a full time teacher – Hay began to develop his pompous, bumbling schoolmaster act. After working for over three years with the Fred Karno troupe, where Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin had developed their craft, Hay swiftly found himself the talk of the town: selling out Britain’s biggest music halls, playing sets for the Prince of Wales and successfully touring America, South Africa and Canada. Then came Boys Will Be Boys (1935) his first starring film role with a screenplay written by Hay himself. The story wasn't overly deep – a prison teacher cons his way into a boarding school job and helps stop a diamond theft – but it did have its moments. And it was the perfect frame for Hay’s idiot teacher routines. Then, in 1937,  Graham Moffat joined Moore Marriott as Hay’s two sidekicks in the finest comic film any of them would ever be involved with, Oh, Mr Porter! wherein Hay discovers the (Northern) Irish railway station he’s been sent to run, Buggleskelly, is actually a run-down mess. Gun-runners, ghosts, secret windmills and missing trains – Hay and his two stooges come out on top in a film that is, even now, genuinely funny, at times hilarious. Oh, Mister Porter! (1937) was a deserved box office smash in its day, taking some £500,000 in British cinemas alone – the equivalent now would be over £30 million. In the immediate pre - war years, Will Hay was the second highest paid entertainer in Britain, earning a reputed £800 per week - narrowly pipped in the earnings stakes by George Formby. Outside of show business, Will Hay was a dedicated and respected amateur astronomer. He constructed a personal observatory in his garden in Mill Hill and built a glider in 1909. He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1932 and is noted for having discovered a Great White Spot on the planet Saturn in 1933. The spot lasted for a few months and then faded away. He also measured the positions of comets with a micrometer he built himself, and designed and built a blink comparator. He wrote the book Through My Telescope in 1935, which had a foreword by Sir Richard Gregory, formerly Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Queen's College, London. When Hay died, a few items of his equipment were bequeathed to the British Astronomical Association. Some years ago I came across a long out of print book on the life of Will Hay, and it had some photos taken of his garden and his private observatory; in one of the early shots, the construction of his observatory is shown; several people are helping with the digging. One chap is seen stripped to his string vest and leaning on a shovel - it was my late Great Uncle Horace on what must have been a very hot day for manual labour. I wish I had a copy of the book. In 1947, Will Hay suffered a stroke which left him physically disabled. He died at his flat in Chelsea, London after a further stroke in 1949, and is buried in Streatham Park Cemetery, London SW16.

The video clip below dates from the time when Will Hay was approaching the height of his fame and fortune; it shows Danson Park as it looked back in 1935. Do give it a watch and either leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Clearing the bushes.

Over the last couple of weeks there has been much concern about the activities going on at Erith Riverside Gardens; this has mainly been brought on by the appearance of a tracked mechanical digger that I featured two weeks ago. The level of trust in Bexley Council is (understandably) so low that the explanation that the Friends Of Riverside Garden Erith (FORGE) and the council were working together to clear out the old overgrown bushes and vegetation in the Riverside Gardens to replace them with new and more pedestrian friendly bushes was not believed by some local residents. I have had a number of Emails from locals over the last couple of weeks, many of whom expressed suspicion about the works under way, and expressed the opinion that the council were trying to demolish the gardens "by the back door". I took the photos above on Monday afternoon, which show the gardens after the bush removal had been completed, and the digger has now been removed from the site. The next phase will be to plant new, smaller and visually less overwhelming bushes to replace those that have been removed. To my mind the gardens are looking better already. I am a very great supporter of FORGE and the Riverside Gardens, which I believe are the jewel in the crown of Erith, and are one of the most beautiful leisure areas in the whole of the London Borough of Bexley. Some may like Danson Park - and yes, it is very nice, but in my opinion it is overshadowed by the Erith Riverside Gardens, the only place in the borough where you can get access to the River Thames, and the famous Erith "Big Sky".

The News Shopper, whilst now a shadow of what it used to be, still does attract a lively bunch of commenters on its website. The trouble is that the comments are not really moderated with any level of effectiveness. Consequently there are a handful of “keyboard warriors” who troll multiple message threads. Three of the worst of these call themselves Nobby Knuckles, Gypo Joe, and the outlandishly monickered TheProfessionals1970TheRealAccountNotTheImposter – quite. These three, amongst a number of other lesser idiots continually throw insults at other contributors and generally do all that they can to annoy and irritate other people. The problem with online trolls of this nature is that people will rise to them – which is exactly what they want. The old expression “don’t feed the troll” still very much holds true. I don’t quite understand what thrills such trolls get from causing irritation and annoyance to other users of the website. Perhaps someone can enlighten me? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Have you suffered domestic abuse? Would you like to meet up and talk to others who have? Bexley Women's Aid is a friendly group who get together and offer support, guidance or just a sympathetic ear to anyone who has or is in need of someone to talk to. Their group is informal and relaxed, and they would love you to join them whatever your circumstances. They also provide helpful information by service providers and welcome any suggestions for activities or social events. Please join them for a coffee and a chat in a relaxed setting. Tuesdays (term time) From 9.30 til 11.30am, Welling Baptist Church Hall, Axminster Crescent, Welling, DA16 1HF. Play area for children supervised by parents. For more information, they can be contacted on 0208 301 1536, or just turn up. If you are a man suffering domestic abuse please contact the Men’s Advice Line on 0808 801 0327.

A serious assault was reported to Police, which his being published here in case anyone can help. An incident occurred in the Upper Belvedere Recreation Park opposite the former water park in Woolwich Road. "On Sat/Sun 18th/19th March around 12.30 to 01.30 am night three adults aged between 19 to 22 years were attacked while in the park by 6/7 males. Of the attackers, one was Asian, others white males over 5.10" tall early twenties possibly, one about 17 years old all had been drinking. Attacked without provocation two of the lads and one female with them. Two of the youths were severely beaten with baseball bats, punched and kicked one was taken to floor and repeatedly kicked and punched and also both threatened with a knife by the 17 year old to the throat. One of the boys was my son, aged 21 years old who was taken to hospital with his friend suffering being bottled in the face, hit with baseball bat and punched/kicked, both suffered severe injuries and have concussion and my son has stitches to his head following being bottled in the face. So far no arrests have been made police are investigating attack. I have posted for help on Facebook and one lady says she witnessed lots of youths earlier in that night having a fight and police attended. One person has come forward anonymously linking them with the pub The Fox, Belvedere. The lady also said she saw them again later that night when my son and friend were attacked and has cctv she is willing to share with police. Any help with this investigation would be appreciated as my son still has bad injuries and his friend still severely ill. Belvedere Police Safer Neighbourhood Team can be contacted on Tel 020 8721 2050, Email belvedere.snt@met.police.uk"

Once again I regret to have to report on some very weak and lazy journalism from the News Shopper, a paper that is sadly a shadow of its former self, due to major financial cutbacks and staff redundancies. On Wednesday they were reporting that "One of the Islamic extremists who murdered soldier Lee Rigby has reportedly been moved to a ‘softer’ prison. Michael Adebowale, 25, and accomplice Michael Adebolajo murdered Mr Rigby in Woolwich in May 2013. Adebowale has now reportedly been moved to Broadmoor Hospital from the notorious Wakefield prison where he has been since 2015. Prisoners at Broadmoor cost the taxpayer £250,000, up to five times more than the price of a prisoner in a category A prison". Oh dear, it would appear that some basic journalistic principles have not been followed in this case. For example there is a lack of research and story verification - Broadmoor is not a prison. It is a secure, high-security psychiatric hospital. There is a vital difference - Broadmoor is staffed mainly by highly trained specialist psychiatric doctors and nurses, rather than prison officers. Because of its high walls and other visible security features, and the inaccurate news reporting it has received in the past, the hospital is often assumed to be a prison by members of the public. Many of its patients are sent to it via the criminal justice system, and its original design brief incorporated an essence of addressing criminality in addition to mental illness; however, the layout inside and the daily routine are designed to assist the therapy practised there rather than to meet the criteria necessary for it to be run along the lines of a prison in its daily functions. The Broadmoor complex houses about 210 patients, all of whom are men since the female service closed in September 2007, with most of the women moving to a new service in Southall and the remainder moving to Rampton and elsewhere. At any one time there are also approximately 36 patients on trial leave at other units. Most of the patients there suffer from severe mental illness; many also have personality disorders. Most have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. The average stay is six years, but this figure is skewed by a few patients who have stayed for over 30 years; most patients stay for considerably less time. Michael Adebowale would only have been transferred to Broadmoor if he had extremely serious mental health problems which would have caused him to be a risk to himself or others.  Broadmoor is not a "soft" option by any standards, whatever the misguided reporter at the News Shopper might have its readers believe.

News of another local park has also come to my attention; the much missed former Splash Park in Woolwich Road, Upper Belvedere is due for some extensive work, which will mean that the park will be closed from April the 18th until the middle of the Summer whilst the works take place. The renamed Belvedere Beach Playground will offer a range of fully inclusive equipment, including sensory and educational play areas, as well as an interactive water play area. The new ‘Belvedere Beach’ park has been made possible thanks to funding from the Cory Environmental Trust in Britain (CETB). There is no way that Bexley Council would have funded the park refurbishment, it was clear from their initial announcements that they were intent on removing the much loved Splash Park, and only now that another organisation is footing the bill do they then take credit for it. I am aware that a certain local councillor said of local residents "Some malicious ill-informed idiots would like people to believe we planned to sell the park. That was a lie peddled whilst we worked hard to create a playground that will be unique and different with an educational and developmental bias including areas such as sensory play which is so important for many children. The result of all that hard work is Belvedere Beach which will be an exceptional facility targeting the needs of children with disabilities of one form or another. Bexley should be very proud of Belvedere Beach and ignore the sterile contributions of those in the Labour Party who lack the ability to welcome change for the better". This was a very cheap shot - turning a social issue into a purely political one. The Save Our Splash Park campaign was apolitical, and attracted supporters from multiple political parties, and people of no political persuasion whatsoever. The story that at one point the council considered moving the rides and communal play attraction from the main park on the opposite side of Woolwich Road into the Splash Park site, then selling off the main park, along with Belvedere Library was not just a rumour, I, and a number of other local people got the information from a reliable source. It would appear that someone in authority must have been rattled when the story got out last year, and some form of back pedalling took place. At least both parks would seem to be safe for the time being, but we need to remain vigilant.

Following on from my article two weeks ago about the automation of paying parking fees in Bexley, using a new service which is known as RingGo - with which you book your car park via a mobile phone application. When you come to park, you’ll have to provide the location code (a five digit number shown on signs near the parking bay) and say how long you want to park. RingGo can be downloaded or drivers can go online to www.RingGo.co.uk to pay, however, a charge of 20p is added each time you use the service. A regular reader has Emailed me with this recent experience:- "I've just come back from Bexleyheath having failed to meet an appointment with an optician. I drove into the car park at the western end of the Broadway to discover that I could no longer pay parking fees by inserting coins. One now has to ring a number and use one's debit card. I could go along with that if that was an alternative to using cash, but it's apparently not. A notice board informs that there is a small convenience charge. I initially took that to mean "inconvenience"  and that I would be given a small refund. Silly me. On driving into the car park I was surprised to find that there were only about 6 or 7 vehicles there. Normally it's virtually full. There are a lot of pensioners and others who do not have a mobile, or a debit card. The Council's action means that, for a lot of people, myself included, Bexleyheath is now a no-go area. That should please businesses, not a lot. I am very angry at the Council's action. I suppose I should accept that we exist to serve the Council. Hopefully, the emptiness of the Broadway car park will persuade the Council that their new procedure is not good and cause them to use their common sense. They're not noted for that, though, are they? I've realised that in future, I can park at Asda for much the same level of car parking charge and make other visits to shops etc. as necessary. Asda will also, I'm told, refund car parking charges if I do some shopping with them, providing one spends £5 per visit. If enough people catch on then car owners and Asda, but not the Council, will benefit." I think that the reason that Bexley Council have chosen this time to put all of their car park fee payment online is to avoid having to upgrade all of the old parking meters to take the new design of £1 coin, with the associated expense that this would bring. The problem is that the new system does not suit casual parkers, or those without mobile phones. I think this is a case of unintended consequences; I do not think that Bexley Council have really thought the parking situation through thoroughly; time will tell. If you have experiences with the new system versus the old one, please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The Local Government Boundary Commission has proposed Bexley be represented by 45 councillors, 18 fewer than it has currently. Their report summarises the proposed cuts thus:- "The Commission has listened to local feedback on the proposals it originally published in February and has made changes its recommendations to reflect those views. For example, the Commission’s original draft proposals recommended combining Erith and Slade Green in one ward. Following local feedback and an extra phase of consultation, the Commission proposes a single ward for Erith to be represented by two councillors. Local people and organisations also told the Commission during consultation that its recommendation for a Northumberland Heath ward that stretched almost to the river was not an accurate reflection of community ties. The Commission has therefore amended its proposals for a Northumberland Heath ward that is smaller than the original proposal and provides a more recognisable boundary with Erith. In the north east of the borough, the Commission now proposes a Slade Green and North End ward as a better reflection of community identity than its previous proposal to combine Slade Green and Erith. The Commission’s draft proposals had also proposed to combine communities in North End with the Barnehurst area. However, in response to public feedback, Barnehurst is now included in its own ward to be represented by two councillors. Elsewhere in Bexley, the Commission received submissions that suggested that its proposed Crook Log and Brampton wards contained communities that shared local ties and interests and that they should not be divided between wards. The Commission has therefore changed its recommendations to combine the two areas into a single Crook Log ward to be represented by three councillors. In a similar way, local people and organisations contacted the Commission during the consultation phase to suggest that the proposed Belvedere Village and Lower Belvedere wards were a single community that should not be divided between council wards. The Commission has amended its recommendations and now recommends a single Belvedere ward, represented by three councillors, to cover both areas. In the south of the borough, the Commission has made a small adjustment to its proposals so that the shops at Wellington Parade are included in the Blackfen and Lamorbey ward rather than the Blendon and Penhill ward as previously proposed. Respondents told the Commission that this boundary would better reflect local identities and interactions in that part of Bexley. As well as further minor changes to the recommendations, the Commission has also responded positively to suggestions for amending the names of some its proposed wards. As such, Bostall ward is renamed West Heath ward and the proposed Christchurch ward becomes Bexleyheath".

News has been published regarding security vulnerabilities in a wide range of wireless PC keyboards made by eight different companies, which suffer from a vulnerability that can allow attackers to eavesdrop on keystrokes from up to 250 feet away. If exploited, the vulnerability, dubbed KeySniffer, could let an attacker steal passwords, credit card numbers, security questions and answers – essentially anything typed on a keyboard, in clear text. Keyboards manufactured by Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Kensington, Insignia, Radio Shack, Anker, General Electric, and EagleTec are affected, according to Marc Newlin, a researcher with Bastille Networks (a network security consultancy) that discovered the vulnerability. Newlin began to look into the security of wireless, non-Bluetooth keyboards shortly after Bastille disclosed research around Mousejack, a similar vulnerability he discovered in February of last year, that allows attackers to inject keystrokes into wireless mice. After purchasing wireless keyboards from a number of retail outlets, Newlin’s plan was to reverse engineer the devices, figure out their protocols and start looking for problems with their encryption. It turned out that eight of the twelve they tested – two thirds – didn’t have any form of encryption to begin with. “As soon as I had finished the initial reverse engineering process it was immediately clear that these devices were sending all the keystrokes in clear text,” Newlin said in an interview last week. Newlin claims the devices have three transceivers that were not previously documented. Keyboards from Hewlett-Packard, Anker, Kensington, RadioShack, Insignia, and EagleTec use transceivers from MOSART Semiconductor, while keyboards from Toshiba use transceivers from Signia Technologies. The keyboard from General Electric used an “entirely unknown” transceiver. Transceivers usually feature a combination transmitter/receiver but in the eight keyboards, there was basically no information on what the chips on the devices were, or how they worked. The undocumented transceivers forced Newlin and the rest of the Bastille Research Team to reverse engineer the physical layer and radio frequency packet formats before the data could be examined. All of the keyboards are currently sold in stores in both the USA and UK, as well as much of mainland Europe.  While some of the devices were designed years ago and have been on the market for some time, some were introduced as recently as 2015 or 2016. “We would have expected that more vendors would have started considering security more closely but unfortunately it seems like many of them haven’t,” Newlin said. Similar to the Mousejack vulnerability, an attacker could purchase some fairly inexpensive radio equipment from Amazon – Crazyradio a long range 2.4 GHz radio USB dongle that usually costs £20 to £30 – in order to eavesdrop on victims. After he reverse engineered the transceivers, Newlin was able to write firmware for another transceiver, the one in the Crazyradio dongle, that could make it behave like a dongle from the keyboards. Using that, coupled with a £40 directional antenna, just under £100 in equipment, he could sniff data from around 250 feet as well as inject keystrokes into the keyboard’s USB dongle. Unlike the Mousejack vulnerability, in which the user had to be actively using their mouse or typing on their keyboard in order to be identified, the keyboards’ USB dongles are constantly transmitting radio packets that allow the keyboards to find the dongles. “Even if the user is not at their computer or typing on their keyboard the USB dongle is constantly transmitting data wirelessly,” Newlin said, “that makes it easy for an attacker to survey a building, room or area and quickly identify all these keyboards that are vulnerable to this type of attack.” Bastille gave the manufacturers of the keyboards 90 days to address the vulnerability, but most vendors failed to respond to their findings. Newlin claims that only Jasco Products, a company that manufactures the affected keyboard (GE 98614) for General Electric, responded and claimed it no longer manufactures wireless devices, like keyboards. As there does not appear to be a way to actually fix the vulnerability, it is likely the companies will eventually consider the devices end of life. “As far as I’m aware there’s no way to update the firmware on these devices because they have the functionality that defines the keyboard logic kind of baked into the chip on the device. There’s no room, or at least minimal room for vendor customization,” Newlin said, “To my knowledge, there’s no way they can simply turn on encryption or anything to that effect.” Bastille is encouraging anyone using one of the vulnerable keyboards to unplug it and switch to a wired or Bluetooth enabled keyboard. While Bluetooth is not the most secure protocol, it is demonstrably more secure than those used in the eight keyboards. Both wireless keyboards and Bluetooth usually follow proprietary protocols that run in the 2.4GHz ISM band and can be subject to interference from other devices operating in that same band. Noted hardware hacker and security researcher Samy Kamkar found a way last year to passively sniff, decrypt, and record keystrokes entered on Microsoft wireless keyboards. By piecing together an Arduino controller and other assorted electronic bits, Kamkar created a device, KeySweeper, that looks like a USB wall charger but could easily be used for surveillance. The FBI in America issued a warning around the tool in April last year, but would not go on record that attacks were being carried out in the wild. While KeySweeper exploited a specific weakness in Microsoft’s encryption, Newlin’s KeySniffer research is scarier, because it is tied to the lack of encryption entirely. “It’s not even a matter of weak encryption, it’s simply a complete lack of encryption,” Newlin said recently. Also, unlike KeySweeper, which really only had the range of a Bluetooth device, any attack that leverages the KeySniffer vulnerability could be carried out on a much larger scope. Home users in blocks of flats, employees at office parks; anywhere that wireless keyboards are clustered together could be a ripe target. It is not the first time that wireless keyboards and mice have been the subject of hacking teams' attention. When the first research into the security of wireless devices was conducted back in 2009, scarcely any security was put in place - until the development of KeyKeriki. This device was designed to be small, so that it could be used surreptitiously in the target environment where it would log the key strokes for download and analysis later. "Consider this scenario. You are in your home office and logging into your bank account using your computer that has a wireless keyboard. Someone is outside your window (or has dropped the device there) and is logging your credentials. Or you are making a purchase and typing in your credit card and CVV number. Someone is getting all this information. Another scenario is if someone slips this device into their laptop bag and brings it to work. They can potentially log all the keystrokes from all the people in neighbouring cubicles." Since then, a number of manufacturers have improved the security of their wireless keyboards and mice - most notably Logitech - but many manufacturers, including some big names, still don't appear to have caught up. I suppose the message is, if you will use a keyboard without a cable, use a Bluetooth one wherever possible.

Whilst many parts of Erith are being redeveloped, and the face of the town is changing with almost every day that passses. It seems like almost every part of the town is being rebuilt - all except for one place which mystifies me greatly. The old Erith Pop - In - Parlour inn Cornelia Place closed down in 2010, and was sold off several years ago, but it remains empty and unused to this day. I have not seen a planning application for the site, and nothing seems to be known about it.  A chap called Lee Riordan submitted a Freedom of Information Request to Bexley Council way back in October 2015, which you can see here. In typical fashion, Bexley Council have ignored it completely, which is legally very dubious indeed. You can see a photo of it above - click on it for a larger view. If you know anything about what is planned for the site, either leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The Dartford River Crossing is in the news once again - and for once it is not due to the ongoing difficulties with the Dart Charge system, though this continues to be problematic for many users. This time Dartford Councillor Tom Maddison, who represents Temple Hill, the Bridge and Newtown at Kent County Council, has demanded that the government to hand back cash made from the Dartford Crossing to improve roads in the local area. The call comes after Dartford Crossing’s annual accounts revealed the total income was up over £60 million to £161.6 million. in an interview with the News Shopper, Councillor Maddison said "Our roads are getting worse and that’s why it’s only fair that Dartford should get some of the cash generated by the crossing to fix these problems. I believe a proportion of that money should be ring fenced so it comes back to Dartford." What happens on the roads of Dartford impacts and affects the areas around it, especially Crayford, Slade Green and Erith. One only needs to see the large traffic jams that happen several times a week on Queen's Road, and almost always on a Friday afternoon, to realise that when Dartford sneezes, Erith catches a cold. Whether the government will be willing to share any of the revenues from the crossing I really do not know. The fact that local residents were originally told that crossing the Thames would be free once the tunnel and bridge were paid for, and that this has been conveniently ignored by the crossing operators for years.

The ending video this week is now a few years old, but I feel that overall it still stands up as a piece of short documentary making. It was put together by pupils at Trinity School - see what you think. Leave a comment below, or Email it to hugh.neal@gmail.com.