The Straits Times 266 pages in nine parts: a mighty newspaper for a Saturday morning. The adverts caught my eye, I have to say: the news is fine but rather parochial for the most part and of only passing interest for an erstwile nomad like me. 45,000 people have signed up for the free wifi broadband service now opening up across Singapore. 600 hot spots started up yesterday and there will be 4,400 more by September next year. Read about it here. Those adverts, then: digital products are definitely the order of the day. Of the 40 pages in the first section of today's edition

• there are mobile phone adverts on pages 2, 3, 4, 13, 17 (this advert for Sony Ericsson is ruined by including a large mug shot of that odious Robbie Williams), 18, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 36, 38
• there are adverts for other digital products on pages 5, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 29, 30, 32, 34

I must say that there are some really good looking bargains here too. DW

BBC World? Wouldn't give you tuppence for it! The BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation? Don't think so. Along with all other news services that I know of, BBC World has a strapline running across the bottom of the screen that keeps us up to date with latest developments. It's filled with stories to keep us interested or keen to learn more. So, Sport come up and I fully expect the first cricket story to tell us the lastest score in the world's most important match going on at the moment ... The Ashes. No, they start with India and South Africa. So, it's the second story, then: no, that's reserved for the Pakistan WIndies match. Then there is no third cricket story. I really can't believe it. It took them years even to begin acknowledging the English football league so cricket clearly has a long way to go. Singapore's cloudy this morning: just thought I'd tell you that. I'm reading Alan Bennett's Untold Stories at the moment and although it's a tome, a lot of it keeps the interest but I have just read two shocking chapters in which he talks about the art wot he likes. Truly shocking. I should finish the book 'ere long and will review it in full then. DW

The course in Singapore has ended now and it went quite well. Not perfectly as the needs of the delegates and the content of the course didn't match perfectly. However, the spirit in the room was good at all times. Well done and let's hope I'm invited back for more. Went to the local IT mall again and bought a gift for someone. Well done again! I learned that those oafs from the House of Commons blagged their way over here on a "fact finding mission" to study Singapore's ERP, congestion charge system. It has taken me two conversations with two taxi drivers to sort it out. I could have told them all they need to know. Every car and bus and lorry and motor bike is fitted with a card and receiver/transmitter. Every time it goes into the charging zone it clicks off the relevant price: time zoned. If you try to beat the system by "forgetting" to put your card in the reader, your transmitter sends a signal and you are awarded an automatic S$10 fine. Well done! I'm in the middle of receiving almost 3,000 messages for some reason and it will not be stopped. Singapore needs 15,000 extra workers over the next three years so the feelers are out and you will be offered permanent residency if you are suitable and accepted. Civil Servants here are about to be paid a 2.7 month bonus for their hard work and efficiency. Ahem, imagine the bonuses to be paid over in Blighty: negative. Sorry, couldn't resist!! All employees here pay 25% of their salary to pay for their housing when they need it and their pension for later on. So, start paying in when you're 18 and then take out a mortgage when you are ready to put down roots ... If you want to own a car you have to buy a permit and that can cost upwards of S$10,000 (£3,333) and that's just for permission to buy and it's in addition to the car itself. You will then pay the equivalent of £300 - 400 a year road funlicensece. Want wifi for your laptop? Come to Singapore as they have just opened up the first batch of the planned thousands of Statewide FREE wifi hot spots. The freebies will be available to anyone who signs up for three years. After three years the funding runs out but who knows, someone could well pick up the bill from then on. Just a few things I discussed with my taxi drivers today. DW

So what's this then? Well, a prize for the first right anwer: DW

How about this, then? A representation of the wife ... Bangkok Airport Thailand Nov 2006. Three headed monster! Hope I won't be punished for that now! DW

Wouldn't you just want to hear this over the public address system? Welcome to Singapore everyone on Wednesday 29th November where the local time is 2:55 pm and the temperature outside is 32 degree centigrade, that's 89 degrees Fahrenheit. I did, this afternoon, on arrival from Bangkok where I have just presented a successful training course. Doing the same here too. Here's me out on Orchard Road this evening, in front of some of the Christmas decorations that are festooning the city. Firstly, the picture refused to upload even though it said it had! I'm trying again. Secondly, as if to be punished for showing off, I received a phone call last night from someone in the UK who didn't know I am in Singapore ... At 1:40 am. I then couldn't get back to sleep for a couple of hours. Sorry, I didn't mean to gloat. However, there is an IT mall here that would go down a storm anywhere in the UK. Moreover, that mall has a bookshop with the biggest selection of business books I have ever seen anywhere. In another part of the mall there is the biggest and best collection of computer books I have ever seen anywhere too. What a place! Let's try that picture again. DW

My Reading Trip I wrote a long post yesterday on this topic and lost it. Let me try again. Whenever I go to Reading by car I get lost. Always have and probably always will and I can't explain why. Yesterday was no exception and this happened: after an hour of driving around I stopped the car and asked a lady for directions: she was wearing two hearing aids and tried very hard to help me asked a Scottish lady who didn't know where I should be but exclaimed that the layout of streets around there was a disgrace drove on again and asked a security guard: he knew where I wanted to go but I'm convinced he missed out a few turns and I ended up where ... a student type gave me a long list of twists and turns to send me towards a school that had the same name as the House I was going to ... I think he was the nearest ... but most vague a man who told me he'd lived round there for years and have never heard of my destination the porter in a nearby office block who knew where I wanted to go but whose directions I managed to mangle I then drove to and parked at the Oracle: I know it and I thought it gave me a good chance. Decided to call my destination only to find that my mobile phone battery was dead. No phone charger in my car. Set off to find a pay phone: got there to find I'd left the phone number in the car. Went to the O2 shop and bought an in car charger for the phone. Called my destination and the receptionist I was going to see told me that she walked to work and couldn't guide me in. She transferred me to the lady who had organised what I was going there for and she started by announcing that she was in a meeting RIGHT NOW but after asking if I could walk there from the Oracle, she said I could and gave me some landmarks. Now got to the Information desk in the Oracle where another Jock was eager to help. After saying that I was looking for Deloittes the accountatnts he asked what a dee loyt was as he'd never heard of one!! Honestly! Anyway, he set me off on the right track but I still couldn't fnd the building althougha t one time I was within 75 metres of it. I went into another office block and asked another porter for help and even though he was so near he didn't know for certain. He told me to go through a glass arch across the way ... he should have told me to go through the STONE arch a little further down the way! After TWO hours of being in Reading I found my destination and did what I went there to do. All I was doing was collecting some booklets and it took me less than ONE MINUTE to do that. That's life! DW

You can see from the dates on earlier posts just how long it is since I posted on this version of my blogger blog. My intervening blog disappeared about a week or so ago and I decided to come back to blogger since I know it behaves much better now than it used to. I went on a trip to Reading in Berkshire today and it was a nightmare. To cap it all, the long post I wrote about that trip has disappeared into the ether too. It was good as well. Anyway, I'm back with a blog and firing on all cylinders again. DW

Mine

This Blog has been behaving badly. I just want you to know that exciting things are happening but I've not been able to tell you about them. Looks OK now though. Keep reading! DW

HOOOOOORRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY! Daughter Fran's going to Athens to compete for the GB team in the Paralympics in September. Bloody well done girl!! Your adoring Dad DW

Just applied for a job: won't say for what or where since it could scupper my chances; but see if you agree with me that their thanks for applying message could be a tad more friendly and reassuring. First the original then my initial suggestion for change. Thank you for your application for a position with ... We regret that owing to the volume of applications, we will be contacting only applicants short-listed for an interview. The selection process may take up to three months to be completed and no information on applications will be released during this period. However we advise you to check the status of the selection process on our website at the following address ... Why not try something like this instead? Thank you for your application for a position with ... Successful candidates will be invited to attend an interview; but please be patient because our selection processes can take up to three months to complete. Please note that no information on applications will be released; but you can check the status of the selection process on our website at the following address: DW

Dave wrote this: I was reading the combinations/permutations area of your web page and have a query. You mention that if a bank was allocating 4 digit pins then the number of possible pin numbers would be 5040. I don't understand why. If they can have 0000,0001.....9999, then why are there not 10,000 possible numbers? i.e. 9999 + 1 for 0000 any help would be great cheers dave Good question Dave that shows that I didn't explain that bit of that page fully, so I added a couple of examples to help out. Take a look at my Permutations and Combinations page to see the improvements I made. Thanks for helping out, Dave. DW

A problem that arises once a month or so is that someone writes to me with a question or other request which I deal with only to find that the email address they gave me doesn't work. Come on down OEMKY! Oemky wrote to ask for a spreadsheet but when I sent it, whoosh it came back. In case the in box was full at the other end I wrote again to ask them to empty their in box or provide an alternative address but whoosh that came back too. Please provide a valid email address for all replies, please. DW

Another unsolicited testimonial came in from a satisfied customer yesterday evening. Jerry said: Thank you! What more do I need to say! I have been in test engineering for years now and have been dodging to learn statistical maths for along time now! I have worked with various maths including differential equations and some FFT equations. My previous company was low volume wafer (Research and only program managers who tried to save their programs would do statistical maths) I could simply depend on trouble shooting on a real time bases, one by one real time failures. Now that I am in the Market, Test Engineers like myself have to know statistical maths and bell curve troubleshooting. Even though I could make an argument that they need to depend on common logic (circuit debugging and practical knowledge) for failure analysis. Test engineers in today's world need to analyze failure by measured percentages and how to rectify the numbers. I give in and here is my thanks to you. After reading the simple version on Mr. Niles I ran across your web site and found your problems. Ye old familiar symbol of sigma and found the maths not to complex. It seemed very similar in averaging Impedances in complex conjugates. Anyhow I simulated my own data sets of Currents for applied voltages of VBEE simulating some failures and BAM. I am ready to trouble shoot in series now. Just wanted to thank you for easy explanation. Aw, I've come over all embarrassed and shy! DW

Another gap in my literary ambitions. Here are a couple of things, though. Firstly, yesterday was sunny and fairly warm so I was able to tart up part of the garden. Then it lashed it down and I felt happy that I'd beaten the weather. Today was very wet again, which is just about par for a British Bank Holiday, as was today. Then the sun came out late in the afternoon. At which juncture I took to draining the hot water tank since it has been dripping for too long and I was living in fear of it leading to damp in the living room. Done and dusted now with no perceptible problems! Take a look at this that I came across and put together for a discussion list for teachers of business and economics: Anyone interested in some aspects of real live cost accounting, activity based costing in the Royal Mail in particular? There, that’s got rid of most of them! Here’s an ABC case study that is based on a topical issue, has excellent resources available completely free of charge, will enhance understanding of an ABC debate and can use role play as a central vehicle for learning, comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis. The case concerns the application of cost driver analysis and application at, wait for it, the Royal Mail. Surprised that a State owned organisation is using its information and logistical system properly? Be surprised no more and take a look at this page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3660571.stm) from the BBC to see how the Royal Mail has realised that the weight based cost driver for letters and packets is no longer appropriate as the basis for calculating selling prices: maybe it was never appropriate. So now they have moved to a volume based cost/price mechanism and this proposal is known as Sized Based Pricing (SBP). Get the students to find out who and what Postcomm is since the Royal Mail applied to Postcomm in August 2003 for them to consider this change. The time frame for this review must be excruciatingly slow for the Royal Mail as it has taken until now for Postcomm to begin the process proper. In this Crown Copyright PDF dated 27 April 2004, http://www.postcomm.gov.uk/documents/competition/SBPsummary.pdf (Royal Mail’s Proposal to Introduce Size Based Pricing A Summary Document April 2004) Postcomm says: Following this further work, there will be a second consultation document, which will set out the responses to the first consultation and give Postcomm’s proposed decision on whether, and if so how, SBP should be introduced. It will also focus on the cost justification for Royal Mail’s proposal. Royal Mail will be required, amongst other things, to demonstrate that implementing its proposal would lead to prices that are more closely in line with its costs than the present weight-based pricing structure. The cost information provided so far by Royal Mail has not been sufficiently robust for Postcomm to reach a decision on this issue. The above PDF sets out the Royal Mail case for change: ideal lesson materials in which the students can be given paragraphs 6 – 10 and then analyse them with respect to the Royal Mail proposals for applying their case for change in paragraphs 11 – 17. Quite simply, the Royal Mail is saying that costs vary more in proportion to volume than they do to weight. You could set up some basic exercises to demonstrate this effect if you wished. There are further resources at Postcomm (http://www.postcomm.gov.uk/Index2.html), such as this Crown Copyright PDF file dated 26 April 2004, http://www.postcomm.gov.uk/documents/Media/042604SBPPN.pdf. (Royal Mail wants size to matter) In that file you can read that the proposed changes are designed to be revenue neutral … there’s some jargon to lighten up your lives. They also say: “These proposals would involve major changes. They mean that light but large mail such as very large greetings cards, CDs, rolls of photographic film, audio cassettes and video tapes, would cost more to post, but that some heavier items – books for example – would cost less. I hope as many people as possible will let us know what they think.” Royal Mail has suggested three sizes for a letter, a large letter and a packet.

• A letter is mail that would fit into an envelope 165mm x 240mm (approx 6½in x 9½in) and not more than 5mm (approx. 3/16 in) thick
• A large letter is mail that would fit into an envelope 250mm x 353mm (approx 9¾in x 14 in) and not more than 10mm (approx. 3/8 in) thick
• A packet is mail that either measures more than 250mm x 353mm or is thicker than 10mm.

If you worry at all about the consequences of interference in State owned organisations, take a look at what I think is an astounding paragraph in the document http://www.postcomm.gov.uk/documents/competition/SBPsummary.pdf (Royal Mail’s Proposal to Introduce Size Based Pricing A Summary Document April 2004) S19. Postcomm recognises, however, that Royal Mail’s proposal is a major change to its pricing structure. Its weight based pricing structure has been in place since the 19th century and many businesses and postal users have evolved their behaviour and business models to fit with this pricing policy. Is Postcomm really saying that because a pricing structure has been in place for over 100 years that it must stay in place irrespective of whether it is, or ever was, appropriate? Could be by the look of it. Postcomm have told us in their SBP Summary document that they have S29. Since Royal Mail’s application, Postcomm has met some trade associations (including the Greeting Cards Association, Intellect, the Mail Order Photofinishers Association, the Mail Users Association and the Periodical Publishers Association) and companies affected by Royal Mail’s SBP proposals. You can set up a three way role play in which students can take the role of

• the Royal Mail’s cost accountant
• Postcomm
• Trade Associations

and see what they can come up with. Marvellous! By the way, it's worth taking a look at the Postcomm pages since there are other reports that are worth downloading relating to this topic. Then there's this that I posted to the same discussion list later on in the same week: Two reports of note on our Public Libraries that will help to explain why the public sector might need a level of reform that is currently beyond comprehension. Tim Coates is a leading light in book selling and he has spent four years researching the ways in which our public libraries, in particular in Hampshire, are working. He tells us that only 9 pence in the £ spent on libraries comes back to us in the form of books: the rest is eaten up in admin and other things, some of which are useful for the end user and others aren’t. Similarly, Coates says that 20% of all money spent on Public Libraries is wasted. See Appendix 2 of the report for the financial data. Be very worried by these extracts from Appendix 3: acquisition costs A total of £2.0m of the total library service budget of £19-20m is probably spent on the Acquisition supply chain. The actual amount spent on books in the year 2003/4 will be £1.4m. Thus, the total cost of books and the various acquisition processes is £3.4m. In simple terms and after allowing for book purchase discounts, Hampshire spends over £24 every time it buys a £10 book. This is broadly in line with figures actually measured in other authorities. It is far too high a cost. Report pages 28 and 29 You can download Coates’ report from http://www.rwevans.co.uk/libri/downloads.htm. One statistic that Coates includes that is a candidate for the rubbish bin can be found on page 5 of his report: for HTML recipients of this message, here’s the graph he presents: Talk about believing all you read in the newspapers! Ask your students to say why the projections contained in this bar chart are probably rubbish. Sorry for the emotive language but I think it’s an irresponsible outburst of hyperbole on Coates’ part! Otherwise, the report is worth skimming for ideas for business and, of course, accounting: there are lots of management accounting ideas buried in this report. For a summary of the report, see yesterday’s Daily Telegraph: sorry I didn’t take a note of the page but I did scan the article for my own purposes should anyone want to borrow it! Charles Leadbeater has also written on the subject of Public Libraries, for Demos this time; and his report, which is nowhere near as comprehensive as Tim Coates’ report, is also available for download free of charge at http://www.demos.co.uk/catalogue/default.aspx?id=262 DW

Long time no Blog ... two weeks since anyone was able to read my tripe. In that time I have worked long and hard for little reward and received a set back to my career aspirations. No doubt life will add another element either to cover that or not as the case may be. At long last I have reformatted my desktop hard disk and reclaimed the majority of the 40Gigabytes that had just about been lost. Although it took me the best part of a day to secure all email addresses, bookmarks, email messages and other personal files (for me and the family) and then reformat and reinstall the software, it should be worth it. Had a small blip where the blessed thing would only want to boot from the CD-ROM drive in spite of BIOS changes to the contrary; but a good night's sleep and a reading of a book on Windows XP sorted that out. Ab initio, setting up a network is a real breeze: let Windows find the network at installation time and it seems completely free of all stress and nerves. However, trying to access the host computer's Windows Explorer directories from the guest desktop didn't go smoothly yesterday. Reading from laptop to desktop, however, was easy. All users have now been banned from installing anything with my say so: anything I find that I don't like will be deleted immediately. That's for the benefit of young Master D who is guilty of the most massive transgressions in this direction. Mrs W adds about a Kb a day and little more, on average! DW

I've started attacking my lawn again: mown the front lawn twice already and the back lawn once. Sonic came to call, too, last night. Here's Sonic and then the before and after back lawn pics! Sonic, although I hideously badly typed Sonics: Back Lawn before: Back Lawn after: DW

Went to Gloucester today with the family and spent some time in Gloucester Cathedral: Harry Potter is partly filmed in its cloisters. A lovely huge cathedral it is too. Worth a visit if you collect cathedrals! Some pics of the very Harry Potter cloissters for you: DW

The laptop's doing well so far, fingers crossed. A virus got in a wreaked havoc but I sorted it in the end. It was a Trojan that mainstream anti virus programs couldn't cure: CWShredder did for it, though! DW