Brexit, for once some facts.

Nev

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 1, 2018
1,507
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North Wales
I check on the codgers (I'm rapidly becoming one), look at furry animals, and work. Which is tricky. Half the time I envy the codgers (for not having to work) and hate work. Then I think about early retirement (three years away). Then I feel relief. Then I feel worried. More than one walk on the same beach and I get antsy. Worryingly antsy. Then I think how I sometimes love work. But also often hate it. How does a codger fill the existential vacuum?
I retired nearly 7 years ago at the age of 55, I absolutely love being retired. I didn't hate work but I didn't love it either. I started planning when I was about 40 to try and retire at 55, with a combination of luck and judgement I managed to do so.

I find my day just fly by and often wonder how on earth I ever found the time to actually go to work. I can honestly say I have not woke up one morning and wished I was back in work, in fact I think to myself how lucky I am that I don't have to go.
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,214
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Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
Fingers has returned to the fold and is back here posting again what more could you want?
flecc and vfr seem to have health problem, just to remind us that is something that will affect us all. Covid has imprisoned us for most of this year and looks like it will continue to do so next year too.
 
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oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
here is the explanation of the Apple/Google Notification system:

quote:

5. How will the system protect user privacy and security?
Google and Apple put user privacy at the forefront of this exposure notification technology’s design and have established strict guidelines to ensure that privacy is safeguarded:
• Each user will have to make an explicit choice to turn on the technology. It can also be turned off by the user at any time.

4 • The Exposure Notifications System does not share location data from the user’s device with the Public Health Authority, Apple, or Google
• Random Bluetooth identifiers rotate every 10-20 minutes, to help prevent tracking.
• Exposure notifications are only done on the user’s device. In addition people who test positive are not identified by the system to other users, or to Apple or Google.
• The system is only used to assist contact tracing efforts by public health authorities.
• Google and Apple will disable the Exposure Notifications System on a regional basis when it is no longer needed.
a. Can I turn it off? Yes. The choice to use this technology rests with the user, and they can turn it off at any time in Settings.
6. Will governments have access to the information facilitated by this technology?
The goal of this project is to assist public health authorities in their efforts to fight COVID-19 by enabling exposure notification in a privacy-preserving manner, and the system is designed so that the identities of the people a device comes in contact with are protected. Access to the technology will be granted only to public health authorities. If they create an app, it must meet specific criteria around privacy, security, and data control. The public health authority will be able to access a list of beacons provided by users confirmed as positive for COVID-19 who have consented to sharing them. The system was also designed so that Apple and Google do not have access to information related to any identifiable individual.
7. Where is the data stored and who has access to it? If a user decides to participate, exposure notification data will be stored and processed on device. Other than the random Bluetooth identifiers that are broadcast, no data will be shared by the system with the public health authority unless one of the following two scenarios takes place:
• If a user chooses to report a positive diagnosis of COVID-19, the user’s most recent keys to their Bluetooth beacons will be added to the positive diagnosis list shared by the public health authority so that other users who came in contact with those beacons can be alerted.
• If a user is notified that they have come into contact with an individual who is positive for COVID-19 the system will share the day the contact occurred, how long it lasted and the Bluetooth signal strength of that contact, as well as the type of report (such as confirmed by test, clinical diagnosis, or self-report). Any other information about the contact will not be shared.
5 In keeping with our privacy guidelines, Apple and Google will not receive identifying information about the user, device location data, or information about any other devices the user has been in proximity of.
8. Will my data be monetized by Google or Apple?
No, there will be no monetization from this project by Apple or Google. Consistent with well established privacy principles, both companies are minimizing data used by the system and relying on users’ devices to process information.
9. Who will create the apps and where do I find them? Public health authorities will update or create apps which users may install if they choose to participate. Google and Apple will make available, as normal, the public health authority apps for each region in the Play Store and App Store. In some regions, Exposure Notifications will be available without an app created by the public health authority. If this is available in your region, you’ll receive a notification when it becomes available, and you can decide whether you want to participate.
10. How will apps get approval to use this system?
Apps will receive approval based on a specific set of criteria designed to ensure they are only administered in conjunction with public health authorities, meet our privacy requirements, and protect user data. The criteria are detailed separately in agreements that developers enter into to use the API, and are organized around the principles of functionality and user privacy. There will be restrictions on the data that apps can collect when using the API, including not being able to request access to location services, and restrictions on how data can be used.
11. What public health authority can users contact about Exposure Notifications for their region?
Google and Apple are currently in discussions with various public health authorities globally to provide them with this technology. Both companies will highlight public health authority apps that use this technology where they are available.
12. How do users report themselves as positive for COVID-19?
The mechanism for allowing users to report themselves as positive will be determined by the relevant public health authority and may vary across regions. Some public health authorities may allow users to verify a test result using a pin code, while others may provide different mechanisms for verification.
13. How does the system know when I have been exposed?
The public health authority sets parameters to determine if someone has been exposed. For example, by defining the risk parameters based on estimated time the user has been in contact with someone who has been diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 and the approximate distance between the users. Public health authorities will set a minimum threshold for time spent together. To approximate distance, the system compares the Bluetooth signal strength between the two devices in contact. The closer the devices are, the higher the signal strength recorded. This signal strength can vary significantly based on factors like how the device is being held and as such this only provides an estimate of distance.
I wonder whether Apple and Google will ever exploit Ultra Wideband (UWB) such as is present in iPhone 11 and Galaxy Note 20 (and possibly others as well)?

Obviously, UWB can only detect other devices with UWB, so currently a minor factor. But it would be an obvious potential enhancement. Maybe for Covid-21? :)
 

Woosh

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May 19, 2012
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Bluetooth is 31 years old, I am pretty sure that UWB would be used whenever possible.
 
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oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
Bluetooth is 31 years old, I am pretty sure that UWB would be used whenever possible.
From its first announcements, Bluetooth seemed to take forever to become widely available and reliable. For such a promising technology (well, what it promised to allow), it was extremely slow. And I still notice Bluetooth oddities which should have been sorted long ago (though they might be due to the platforms rather than the specifications).
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,128
30,555
Covid has imprisoned us for most of this year and looks like it will continue to do so next year too.
The weird thing is that it's had almost no effect on me whatsoever, my life has continued virtually unaffected. I continued to do all my usual driving, I've seen my usual personal friends with no attempt at social distancing, the same with the dozen committee members of our wildlife organisation.

I've continued to wander daily in our nature reserve, meeting and chatting with all the members, some 240 of them, and absolutely none of us make any attempt at social distancing. Why should we when we'd already been doing this before any lockdown with Covid-19 already present? In fact we've just had a September Open Day as usual, all held in secret and only known to the hundreds of local people who attended, raising us lots more funds! It's also been the same for the over 150 residents of our separate part of the housing estate where we jointly own the freehold and run our own management company. Our housing density means any attempt at social distancing is pointless, how can we when we have to pass on staircases just 36 inches wide?

Yet out of all of those people none seem to have caught Covid to any recognisable degree and there's no deaths from it. I'm certainly not imprisoned in any way, the only visible effect being that since compulsion I perch a mask on the tip of my nose to allow me to still breath freely past it rather than through it for some 10 minutes when I do my supermarket shop. Everything else I get online as I've long done.
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Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,214
16,817
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
Yet out of all of those people none seem to have caught Covid to any recognisable degree and there's no deaths from it.
it may have been helped by random mutation. The Wuhan1 version was a big killer, same with the Spanish flu in some countries. The current Western European Covid does not kill as many. Also, progress in treatment must have reduce the death rate by half.
However, the vast majority of us (including probably yourself) are still not exposed to this virus which may mutate into a more virulent version this winter.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,128
30,555
However, the vast majority of us (including probably yourself) are still not exposed to this virus which may mutate into a more virulent version this winter.
I still find this difficult to believe. My Borough of Croydon was originally London's worst affected and it was almost two months in before some North London Boroughs and then others took over that title in succession. Added to that the way London did it's own thing, ignoring the rules in open defiance and took a hit well over double that of the rest of the country and the proposition that so many of us have had no exposure doesn't hold water.

I'm sure it's the opposite, a high proportion of us have been exposed and are virtually unaffected beyond common cold like symptoms. We know that very early on sample testing showed 21% of Londoners had antibodies against 5% elsewhere, so in London's unhelpful circumstances that 21% could easily be far above 50% now.

I don't foresee any particular problem in London this Winter, and I mean the 13.2 million supercity of London, not the lines on the map.
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Danidl

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2016
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The weird thing is that it's had almost no effect on me whatsoever, my life has continued virtually unaffected. I continued to do all my usual driving, I've seen my usual personal friends with no attempt at social distancing, the same with the dozen committee members of our wildlife organisation.

I've continued to wander daily in our nature reserve, meeting and chatting with all the members, some 240 of them, and absolutely none of us make any attempt at social distancing. Why should we when we'd already been doing this before any lockdown with Covid-19 already present? In fact we've just had a September Open Day as usual, all held in secret and only known to the hundreds of local people who attended, raising us lots more funds! It's also been the same for the over 150 residents of our separate part of the housing estate where we jointly own the freehold and run our own management company. Our housing density means any attempt at social distancing is pointless, how can we when we have to pass on staircases just 36 inches wide?

Yet out of all of those people none seem to have caught Covid to any recognisable degree and there's no deaths from it. I'm certainly not imprisoned in any way, the only visible effect being that since compulsion I perch a mask on the tip of my nose to allow me to still breath freely past it rather than through it for some 10 minutes when I do my supermarket shop. Everything else I get online as I've long done.
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But that perched mask, actually protects others ..were you a carrier . It deflects air flow downwards.
 
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Danidl

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2016
8,611
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I still find this difficult to believe. My Borough of Croydon was originally London's worst affected and it was almost two months in before some North London Boroughs and then others took over that title in succession. Added to that the way London did it's own thing, ignoring the rules in open defiance and took a hit well over double that of the rest of the country and the proposition that so many of us have had no exposure doesn't hold water.

I'm sure it's the opposite, a high proportion of us have been exposed and are virtually unaffected beyond common cold like symptoms. We know that very early on sample testing showed 21% of Londoners had antibodies against 5% elsewhere, so in London's unhelpful circumstances that 21% could easily be far above 50% now.

I don't foresee any particular problem in London this Winter, and I mean the 13.2 million supercity of London, not the lines on the map.
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..when troubles come, they come not singly but in battalions..... If none of your current group infected, then they don't pass it on. If one does get infected .
I have never accepted the arguement that any person tested after the event and with fragments of RNA in their system was ever infected. The noise introduced by the multiplier in the amplification process renders it inaccurate.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,128
30,555
..when troubles come, they come not singly but in battalions..... If none of your current group infected, then they don't pass it on. If one does get infected .
I have never accepted the arguement that any person tested after the event and with fragments of RNA in their system was ever infected. The noise introduced by the multiplier in the amplification process renders it inaccurate.
You really make me laugh. Read what I posted and lose your village mentality.
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,128
30,555
But that perched mask, actually protects others ..were you a carrier . It deflects air flow downwards.
Actually upwards. The mask fits very snugly around my chin, I breathe through my nose and I feel the air passing upwards and downwards past my cheeks to and from my eyes on both sides. When I say the mask is on the tip of my nose, I really mean the tip.
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Danidl

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2016
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Actually upwards. The mask fits very snugly around my chin, I breathe through my nose and I feel the air passing upwards and downwards past my cheeks to and from my eyes on both sides. When I say the mask is on the tip of my nose, I really mean the tip.
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Even so that does work, it has no forward momentum.
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,128
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Even so that does work, it has no forward momentum.
Agreed, though that is not my intention. I just put the damn thing on as I enter the door to avoid causing the mainly junior door staff the embarrassment of tackling me. That said, at least a third of the also junior staff inside that superstore don't wear masks, so I'm not sure they would.
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