PC Pro - Issue 325 November 2021

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO The Network Reviews

fTAsbTewuLPnad--itatSgLufcefGirhonte3rwkasd2ntiat1odhb0mmlaXeaabmHtnicgPuahlpg-tMeoi-mwG2ieegrnPtoE+ willfindonmoreexpensivefull ABOVE Eightmulti- management console. Adding the
Layer 3 switches. Gignetworkports switch to our site was simple: as soon
VoIP networks are particularly shareabig240W as we’d connected it to the office
SCORE well served. The switch can identify PoE+budget network, the controller detected it

PRICE £263 exc VAT traffic from IP phones using and presented it in the console as
from broadbandbuyer.com their organisationally unique “pending”. We could then click to
W identifier (OUI) and prioritise it by adopt it, after which the switch
dynamically creating voice VLANs. RECOMMENDED disabled its own web interface and
hen it’s time to move your Switch monitoring and diagnostics took its settings from the controller.
office network onto Wi-Fi features are a cut above the rest as
6, you don’t want to be held well: as well as supporting all Selecting the switch from the
controller’s device page brings up a
back by a last-generation gigabit versions of SNMP, the switch can run handy graphic showing which ports
switch. To reap the full bandwidth of an internal sFlow agent for sending are active, with details of connection
802.11ax you need a multi-gigabit packet sampling data to a collector speed and power status. An overview
back-end. Thankfully, that doesn’t device – a feature we very rarely see below shows the power budget, with
have to mean a jacked-up price: for a at this sort of price. tabs provided for assigning profiles to
shockingly reasonable £263, As for power management, you each port, rebooting powered devices
TP-Link’s TL-SG3210XHP-M2 can assign a priority to each port, and and viewing attached clients.
desktop/rack switch offers eight if the total power drain reaches the One slight oddity we noticed is
2.5GbE ports and two high-speed threshold, devices with the lowest that not all of the switch’s settings can
10GbE SFP+ fibre uplink ports. priorities will be switched off first. be accessed from the
That’s not all. Each of the switch’s It’s a simple, practical approach that bpi“vdToyhehiodcnenyetesniVfswayLamitAntricNdcahasfpfl”irlsiyicaocfbrrriloeteiamtstoeiIniPtg cloud portal. But you can
we’ve seen on plenty of other configure them in
eight copper ports presents 802.3af/at switches – the only difference being standalone mode, and
PoE+, with a generous total power that, in this case, the TL-SG3210XHP- then apply a cloud profile
budget of 240W. This means that the M2’s big power budget means most that tells the switch to
switch can deliver 30W on every offices won’t ever trigger it. keep its existing settings
multi-gig port at once, making it a
great choice for anyone wanting to For larger organisations the switch after adoption. Another
upgrade or install an office full of APs can also be cloud-managed. Here option is to use the profile override
with a minimum of cabling. TP-Link takes a similar approach to feature to manually apply settings for
The TL-SG3210XHP-M2 can be Ubiquiti Networks, with each site functions such as port mirroring, PoE
managed locally from a smartly requiring a cloud controller to modes and rate limiting.
designed web console. Standard L2 manage all local devices. You can For monitoring on the move,
features are plentiful and include download software for Windows and TP-Link provides free mobile apps,
port, MAC and protocol-based VLANs, Linux that will handle this for free, and we tried using the iOS version on
QoS traffic prioritisation and static but for testing we used TP-Link’s an iPad to check on our sites. We were
and LACP link aggregation groups. Omada OC300 hardware controller, a happy to see plenty of status details,
There’s even a basic set of Layer 3 little black box that is preconfigured including full power consumption
routing capabilities, sometimes for the role and costs around £120. information, and controls to reboot
referred to as Layer 3 Lite or Advanced All controllers assigned to your the switch or upgrade its firmware.
L2+ – although the switch lacks the account appear in the cloud portal, Don’t be fooled by the low price:
dynamic routing capabilities you and selecting one transports you to its TP-Link’s TL-SG3210XHP-M2 offers a
BELOW Theswitch remarkable range of features. With
canbemanaged ten multi-gig sockets, eight of them
locallyorviaTP-Link’s offering full PoE+ services, and a
freecloudplatform generous total power budget, it’s a
terrifically versatile switch, and is
particularly well suited to SMBs
looking to deploy high-performance
Wi-Fi 6 services. DAVEMITCHELL

REQUIREMENTS
1Urack/desktopchassis 8x2.5GbEports
withPoE+ 2x10GbESFP+ports 240W
powerbudget 802.3af/atPoE/PoE+
80Gbits/secbackplanecapacity 16KMAC
addresses internalPSU 440x180x44mm
(WDH) webbrowsermanagement,Omada
controller software for Windows/Linux (free
download) limitedlifetimewarranty
OPTIONS OC300 controller appliance,
£120 exc VAT

101

ZSfrowoomitmch

ypHvoilodauwetrfootocorwomrnnufnerencing

rnOiensclkiensseosmfarreuielnytnitnihngegsbyaeorsuetr.hNoewirkenRtcaoowsntlfaienyrs,eobnnucteitnxhpgelsoeeraresvsieetrhstesboelnuetifoitnsiasnn’dt platform; it works very well, but it
comes with a hefty price tag, per user
licences with a lot of add-ons, plus a
quite expensive dial-in feature.”

It’s time to explore your
alternatives – and one you might not
F or most businesses, the have considered is hosting your own
pandemic has been a huge ABOVE Whypayfor familiar way for employees to videoconferencing service.
disruption – but some have Zoom when third communicate during lockdown.
benefited. Delivery services, parties can do a Free and easy
similarly slick job? Now, although pandemic
restrictions are finally easing (touch You don’t necessarily need to pay for
fully functional conferencing
online supermarkets and streaming all available wood), many software. Open-source Jitsi (jitsi.org)
sites have all boomed. Perhaps none organisations intend to allow is a complete free-to-use option that
has seen such a meteoric rise as Zoom. employees to keep working from includes end-to-end encryption and
Zoom’s growth isn’t simply a case home, at least part of the time. And integration with Google, Microsoft
of offering the right service at the for businesses that settled on Zoom products and Slack. First appearing
right time. There were plenty of – or some other service – at the start under the name SIP communicator in
online meeting platforms to choose of the pandemic, that raises an the early 2000s, it was acquired in
from, including 8x8, Cisco Webex and important question. Is the service still 2015 by Atlassian – the Australian
Microsoft Teams, but Zoom was the the right solution for an era where software company behind Trello –
one that broke out of the business video calls are not a stopgap solution then, in 2018, sold to communications
realm to facilitate remote pub but an integral, ongoing part of your specialist 8x8, which today supports
quizzes, online fitness classes and working practices? the ongoing development of Jitsi
virtual family get-togethers. As Stefan Walther, CEO of alongside its commercial hosted
A key reason is ease of use. Zoom communications solution provider videoconferencing solution.
made it supremely easy to invite 3CX points out, the To get started with Jitsi, you just
non-subscribers into your meetings, deos“eZmpueotrpikoionlmionngygfbleooeaecrcrskbaetdumlooisaecwibnoalnemed”sewmsfeuaasnyuilfctoarte downsides of Zoom are need something to run the back-end
and for those people to join. In the starting to become on. Server code for Debian/Ubuntu
first half of 2020, as its name became apparent. “A lot of people and Docker can be downloaded for
synonymous with videoconferencing, don’t need the extent of free, along with a range of support
it became an obvious default option the feature set,” Walther packages on GitHub (github.com/
for businesses seeking a reliable, told PC Pro. “It’s a great jitsi), plus Chrome extensions, iOS

102

COM/PCPRO The Network Videoconferencing

Hangouts, Cisco Webex yoRueraoswonnssetorvreurn
and others allow free Installing and managing
meetings for limited
numbers of participants your own
or limited times; 3CX only videoconferencing
starts charging for its solution is more complex
hosted conferencing than opting for a ready-
solution after the first made alternative, but it
year’s use. has benefits. Businesses
and educational
forWeedbuccoantifoenrencing establishments can
Another free, open- more finely tune their
spending and back-end
source option is management, as well
BigBlueButton as gain greater control
(bigbluebutton.org). It’s over add-ons and the
a popular choice in location of data.
education settings: With third-party
having emerged from the services, this type of
Technology Innovation control varies
Management program considerably between
at Canada’s Carleton the different providers.
University, it’s now suppo ABOVE promises ount owners and
more than three quarters of the greatflexibility,witha administrators can customise which
worldwide market for learning choiceofplatforms data centre regions they use for
management systems (LMSes). anddatalocations hosting real-time meetings and
BigBlueButton is straightforward webinar data, although the default is
to deploy. The server runs happily on locked to the region in which your
64-bit Ubuntu 18.04 inside a Docker account was originally provisioned.
container, and it uses no client With 3CX there’s more flexibility.
software at all, relying instead on CEO Stefan Walther told us that, on
native browser features. This makes his company’s platform, “you’re
it ideal for home-teaching always 100% in charge of your
environments, but also for businesses location, your data and the people
seeking an easy way to ensure that you invite”. There’s no
employees can stay in touch, nweb“Ineahfmoreyueetogahsuhser’srfreuoelJryrwietyodsoonintuiihdstr”aegctroosiomnodgmpaenbyi,g need to install a dedicated
regardless of what device they’re app if you’re happy to
using or where. host meetings in the
and Android apps. Jitsi rooms can also As you’d expect, some of browser, and British
be embedded in your own website, BigBlueButton’s features have a users’ data will stay
and there’s a hosted web front-end at distinctly educational flavour. It within the UK while
meet.jit.si for anyone who doesn’t supports online whiteboards and European user data
want to host it themselves. allows hosts to pick a random user to resides within the EU.
If you’re wondering whether Jitsi answer questions. Like many Skype for Business is another
is good enough for your company, be videoconferencing platforms, it service that supports a self-hosted
reassured that some big names rely on allows the participants to raise a back end; however, owner Microsoft
it – including Wikimedia, which hosts digital hand to ask a question or offer is currently encouraging customers
a public portal at meet.wmcloud.org. a response, and the host can click to to ditch Skype and move onto Teams
In choosing a video platform, the lower all raised hands at once. instead, which resides wholly on
organisation said it found that, for However, BigBlueButton sports a Microsoft’s own servers.
meetings of 10-15 participants, Jitsi’s range of business staples, such as Another factor to consider is
performance was “subjectively on par document sharing and breakout BELOW Open-source the breadth of services you require.
with Google Meet and Zoom”. rooms, along with screen sharing and Jitsiintegrateswith Buy into 3CX’s integrated
Indeed, the developer says the integration with CMS software as well Google,Microsoft communications service and you’re
platform is suitable for hosting as LMS tools. productsandSlack getting more than just a
unlimited free meetings videoconferencing solution: it’s a
with up to 100 fully featured PBX with a lot of extras,
simultaneous including VoIP for regular phone
participants – although calling, messaging and presence
if you need a bigger tools, with support for both software
capacity, or advanced clients and physical phones. Skype
features such as closed for Business has a similarly wide-
captioning, moderation ranging feature set. Having all of this
and analytics, it in one place can help productivity, as
recommends you step employees don’t need to mess about
up to the paid-for 8x8 switching between multiple tools,
Meet service. but smaller businesses often won’t
While Jitsi can be need to go beyond video, group chat
appealing for certain and messaging.
scenarios, it’s not your Managing your own service –
only free option. Google even if it’s not hosted on your own

103

The Network Videoconferencing

Redundancy
nning an on-site
oconferencing solution can cut
ing costs, but it risks creating a
point of failure if your local
frastructure goes down.
For this reason, even if you’re
ppy to own and manage your own
mmunications services, it can
ke sense to let someone else host
e server: cloud-based services
ould have contingencies for
ges and multiple lines with
atic failover.
Many of the solutions discussed
can be hosted on the Azure, AWS
Google Cloud platforms. Amazon’s
Chime communications service,
ich runs on AWS, goes one step
rther, offering an SDK that
velopers can use to integrate its
atures into their own web or mobile
applications, including SIP
trunking, chat, collaboration and
hardware but cloud services such have limited recourse to external ABOVE Zoomoffersa screen sharing.
as Azure or AWS – means that you’re support. Jitsi, for example, warns that Zoom out?slickexperience,so
free to switch providers when you “neither the immediate Jitsi team or
choose. Or even migrate to an 8x8 provide commercial support for you’ll need to match it
alternative videoconferencing Jitsi. Jitsi does enjoy a large developer withwhatyouprovide If you’ve only ever thought of
platform entirely. Should you instead community with many development videoconferencing as a closed,
choose to roll hosting and app shops and individuals that provide third-party service, the potential of
provision into a single payment, you support and commercial development setting up and operating your own
don’t have this flexibility: there services. If you need help, we services can be liberating – and
might be a minimum lock-in, and recommend you do a search or post a economical. However, it also means
even if you migrate because your request on our Community Forum.” taking on responsibilities, for
current provider no longer meets It’s better than nothing, but you installation, for maintenance, and
your requirements, there may be might have trouble convincing the possibly for loss of
residual bills to be paid. board that this is a viable solution. lvo“hoIiradnnvaegepgoeasicrmseottenmhymfeeiececarkdare.sslniTe,kcho”eiannatlgi’lnsumenxioguhryt business if your system
goes down.
Support and hosting You’ll need suitable server
hardware too. Thankfully, this isn’t Taking a cloud-hosted
While features are an important a big ask: most services don’t need a approach reduces that
consideration when choosing a ton of resources and will run in a risk, but brings ongoing
conferencing platform, another container or virtual machine. connectivity and capacity
critical issue is support. A Alternatively, you can use a very costs to consider, even if
communications server is a key piece lightweight dedicated system; Jitsi the software you’re running is itself
of business infrastructure, and you’ll and 3CX can both be installed on free. And if you opt for a system
need the expertise to keep it running. Raspberry Pi devices, for a terrifically without professional support then a
In many instances – but by no means cheap one-box solution. misconfiguration or corrupted
all – a charged-for service will often upgrade could also prove costly in
be easier to get up and running more TrueConf (trueconf.com) is engineer hours and lost productivity.
quickly. Likewise, less tech-savvy another commercial service that For all these reasons, we’d
end users may find it easier to work supports the Raspberry Pi – and even recommend you don’t rush to ditch
on the move if they can do so using allows you to download a ready-made BELOW Zoomwon your current conferencing service.
apps, rather than a mobile browser. Linux-based image that’s preinstalled overpeopleduetoits Today’s crop of commercial systems
with the conferencing software and easeofuse,nomatter are robust, well-supported and easy
Some services have quick setup all necessary documentation. wheretheywere to use – and often easier to roll out
wizards for easy deployment, but thin an organisation than a
others expect a significant level of lf-managed solution.
technical know-how on the part of Rather, the point is this:
administrators, which may make past years, online
them an impractical choice for videoconferencing might have
smaller organisations, at least as far emed like a luxury or a
as self-hosting is concerned. Even mmick. That’s no longer the
for the larger enterprise, an option case. Videoconferencing is
that requires constant monitoring right at the heart of business,
could justify adding one to the head and likely to remain there for a
count which, over the course of a long time to come. It’s time to
year, could end up costing just as take a fresh look at your
much as opting for a provider- needs, and weigh up whether
hosted alternative. the time is right to take these
crucial services into your
At the same time, depending on own hands.
which path you choose, you may also

104

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO The Network Cheat Sheet

Rather than trying to perfect the
product to your own internal
standards before you present it to the
public, you might offer a prototype to
potential customers at the earliest
possible juncture. No matter how
much internal planning and testing
you’ve done, users with no personal
investment in the project, or its
technical underpinnings, are often
the ones who generate the most useful
feedback. This approach gives you an
opportunity to identify and remedy
missteps that a top-down approach
would miss – until the site went live.

Designthinking So design thinking really means
design by opinion poll?
Some issues are subjective, such as
whether your shopping basket button
ought to be square or rounded. In
other areas, there’s not much room
for debate: does the button actually
work? You may choose to disregard
some feedback, but the key is making
informed decisions. If you have to
compare the design thinking proposal
with an old-school concept, it’s like a
checklist of milestones on the way to
project completion (see “The five
steps of design thinking” below).

Wanttocreateslick,customer-friendlyappsandwebsites? This is going to add to our project
SteveCassidyexploresanapproachthatputstheuserfirst costs – can we be sure it will benefit
the bottom line overall?
That’s an understandable concern.
But perhaps there’s a nagging voice
in your subconscious that knows you
have been counting too many beans,
Is this about taking a course at MIT in order to understand how “When people explore and have lost track of some subtle
our own business works? itftah’iseluhrraeeradsoolfynaesgvfievorerndthopewronjetcot, aspects of being human, such as
From the question, I can tell which Google links you’ve been clicking the technology” being elegant, engaging or helpful.
on. MIT’s Sloan School of Management does offer courses in design Design thinking helps you direct
thinking, but they’re talking about big-picture business processes. your resources towards what’s really
When we techies talk about design thinking, it’s more about the important, and that surely will
particular operation of websites, apps or other lumps of technology. contribute to the bottom line. The
effect might be indirect, but watch
So in the context of IT development, how does design thinking other indicators to see the benefit of
differ from just… design? a more correct, more user-focused
Design thinking focuses on understanding how (and why) users design process.
want to interact with a product. It isn’t about making sure your
compiler doesn’t run out of stack space. You may recognise this
distinction from earlier discourse about the user experience (UX);

The five steps of design thinkinginasense,designthinkingmerelyexpandsthelistofbestpractices,
and indeed the list of stakeholders. Asoftenwithsuchideas,there’sno groups,orstaffwhoaren’tdirectly
official,universaldefinitionof involvedintheproject.
What do you mean by stakeholders? I’m the one paying the bill, so designthinking.However,thereisa Thefourthstep,asdiscussed
I’m the only one who needs to approve the design. widelyacceptedfive-stepprocess above,istocreateaprototypethat
This is where design thinking can help, albeit in a way that might be thatexemplifiestheapproach. attemptstoimplementyourideas.
a little hard to swallow. From the driest academic study to the Thefirststepistoempathise Finally,youtestyourprototype,by
cheesiest self-help book, when people explore the reasons for the withtheuser:forgetaboutbusiness exposingittorealpeopleand
failure of a given project, it’s hardly ever down to the technology. considerationsandworkoutwhat collectinginsightsaboutwhat
Projects fail because people are fallible, and one of the worst types yourcustomerwantstoachieve. worksandwhatdoesn’t.
of fallibility is the idea that being the boss makes you infallible. I’ve Youcanthenmoveontothesecond Theterminologymaysuggest
seen this myself in multiple projects: some people seem to consider stepanddefineyourproduct,in alinearprocess,butafteryou’ve
that, as the buck stops with them, their own whims and preferences termsoftheproblemsitsolves. finishedstepfive,youcaniterate
are all that matters. That’s not a model for success. Thethirdstepistogenerate backandrepeatearliersteps,
ideasforsolvingthoseproblems. buildingonwhatyou’velearnt–until
How does design thinking change that? Freshthinkingiskey:thismightbe eventuallyyouendupwiththe
Design thinking is about putting the user first, effectively treating anopportunitytoturntofocus perfectproduct(perhaps).
them, rather than you, as the primary stakeholder. This can mean
turning the traditional development process almost on its head.

105





Rcoemalpwuotirnldg
Expert advice from our panel of professionals

Jd“tOhWNisHaOahNtEp’YosBpAlpLeLeamarrafeondr-wothneetehckiossuhjorausvere,nietsye,beumts”
Jon solves the mystery of slow Wi-Fi on his Windows laptop, gets annoyed
by label-printing software and then kicks back with Flight Simulator

iPerf3 is one of those industry- a thin translation layer between Jon is the MD of an common currency, sometimes
standard tools for measuring Linux-style network calls and the IT consultancy that wrapped up in the shell of an app, to
network performance. You run it at Windows API stack. specialises in testing measure throughput and maybe this
each end of a connection and then fire and deploying kit was the way the world was moving.
it up to determine how quickly the I was getting inconsistent results
data gets sent over the wire (or Wi-Fi). with the Windows version of iPerf 3. @jonhoneyball I downloaded the OpenSpeedTest
It’s been around a while and is very When connected over 10Gb Ethernet I BELOW Bewarethe toolkit (openspeedtest.com) and
much a known quantity. could get a solid 4-5Gbits/sec installer from the installed it onto my Dell desktop test
throughput, so although it wasn’t “official” iPerf site, server box. In the meantime, I had
The app is usually controlled from hitting the bump stops of the which is from 2016 also installed Linux Mint onto the
a command line, which gives a good expected 9.4Gbits/sec, it certainly Dell, taking the opportunity to
indication of how hair-shirt it really wasn’t shabby. Maybe this was the repartition the live Windows
is, but the core technology is available Intel 10GbE drivers for Windows partition to make space for Mint, thus
on just about every computing choking on the traffic levels? allowing me to dual boot. Having
platform out there. Some developers Connecting a Windows laptop with gone to Mint, I found that the Dell test
have wrapped a graphical user the latest 802.11ax chipset through server could deliver up to 9.3Gbits/sec
interface around the core code to to a hot Wi-Fi 6 router would give on iPerf 3 from a macOS client
make it more friendly, but being a good performance on various devices, running on a MacBook Pro. This was
keyboard warrior, the command line but Windows laptops with Wi-Fi 6 connected to the 10GbE network
with its endless switches and options seemed throttled. I put it down to the backbone via a Thunderbolt dock that
is The One True Way. various horrors of buggy firmware comes with a 10GbE adapter. Clearly
that I was seeing. My Dell XPS 15 something was amiss with the
Well, most of the time. I use Magic laptop with the Killer AX chipset Windows stack. This was confirmed
iPerf on Android, which works well seemed to get new drivers and by using OpenSpeedTest tools, which
despite its somewhat leggy status. On firmware every five minutes. would cheerfully give me full speed.
macOS, I’m liking iPerfUtil with its
native M1 support and it now supports However, I started looking at Much debugging ensued. I was
the new Streams (-P) option too. other tools. Although iPerf 3 is still doing over the air packet capture
well respected, and built into other using AirPcap to see if the 802.11ax
A Windows version continues to toolsets that I use such as NetSpot, it’s signal was going awry on Windows.
be an issue. If you Google iPerf, you’re old. Worse still, tools like Speedtest, Nothing seemed to make sense.
pointed to iperf.fr, which appears to made famous by Ookla amongst
be the quasi-official site for all things others, take a different approach – Then I discovered a deep and dark
iPerf. It has links for just about every there’s no client app, just a modern posting from a Windows core
platform out there, but on Windows web browser that connects to a server engineer at Redmond that revealed
development stalled at version 3.1.3 web process. This seems to be a the issue was actually inside Cygwin,
back in 2016. Not surprising: iPerf 3 and that this was throttling the
does what it does and there hasn’t throughput. There was a new API for
been much need to change it. automatically assigning the sockets
on a net call like the one iPerf was
If you go to the downloads section making, and that the version of
and pull down the Windows 64-bit Cygwin held within the ZIP file hosted
version, you will get a ZIP file. Inside on iperf.fr was well out of date. All I
that is the iPerf 3 executable along had to do was to go to the Cygwin site
with a DLL file called cygwin1.dll. and download the latest version of the
Cygwin is an open-source interface file, use that and all would be good.
layer, specifically designed to act as Which turned out to be the case.

So I had been banging my head
against the wall with Windows iPerf 3
because the ZIP file on iperf.fr used a
Cygwin file that is out of date. Both
components are open source, but

108

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

Jon Honeyball Paul Ockenden Lee Grant Mark Parvin Davey Winder Steve Cassidy
OpiniononWindows,Appleand Uniqueinsightintomobileand Talesfromthefrontlineof GuestcolumnistMarkshareshis Keepingsmallbusinessessafe Thewidervisiononcloudand
everything in between – p108 wireless tech – p111 computerrepair–p114 approachtoscammers–p116 since 1997 – p118 infrastructure – p120

unless someone joins up the dots, it star wi e’s t a ABOVE Ibootedinto I oug t e i ay river t e
can be difficult to work out what is laptop, which I’ve resurrected several Linux Mint on my Dell the issue, so I tried logging in blind,
going on. times over the past decade. This time laptop to try out by just typing in the password. That
it decided that it would take over five OpenSpeedTest didn’t work. So I had to resort to
Now I have 802.11ax Windows minutes to boot into Windows 10. My firing up Safe Mode. It has been a
laptops delivering proper iPerf 3 initial suspicion that it was malware “ohTladhredendlaorpuivtgoehpits’os while since I have had to recover a
speeds. And I’m really liking the at work proved to be false. The rfhouarsvtsetpaolasrptatigneern”ing Windows 10 machine, as I keep most
OpenSpeedTest platform too. At least computer was clean, and pretty much of my Windows 10 installs inside
on the Linux version, it comes as one up to date. There was nothing obvious LEFT Thishasbeena virtual machines, for all the benefits
self-contained package, and you just in Task Manager, and a few sweeps of month of laptops that brings.
point your client web browser at it on the computer showed nothing dying on me, which led
port 3000 by default. iPerf 3 is still untoward. Which might point the to software snafus So I had to remind myself that the
useful, especially if you want to run finger at a failing hard disk, which is way to get into Safe Mode is to boot
data testing over many minutes or old enough (at over a decade) to have three times in succession,
even hours. OpenSpeedTest is more of a spinning rust platter for storage. interrupting it in the process. That
a quick one-shot tool. Nevertheless, I then did something rather silly: I worked, so I took a spare external SSD
both have their place, and iPerf3 is ran Windows Update. This ran with and copied off all of the important
useful on Windows once you get the no issues, but after a reboot all I got data; family photos and files that
right DLL in place. was a blank screen with no login box. obviously have much value to Mike. I
think he has a backup on an external
Whole man-weeks have USB drive, but it was best to be sure.
disappeared on this journey, but
that’s par for the course, it seems. It’s After a few hours of fiddling, I gave
been a good reminder to check and up. I returned the tired old Toshiba
double-check the veracity of the to Mike and told him that he really
sources. In my journey, I discovered ought to buy something new. He went
that iPerf 3 has been split off with a to Dell and ordered up a low-end spec
splinter group pushing forward with laptop cost about £350. Fortunately,
versions after 3.1.3; head to software. he took my recommendation of going
es.net/iperf for this group. It doesn’t with 8GB of RAM rather than the
provide binaries, assuming that you’ll default 4GB, so hopefully this will
compile your own. But in a somewhat have a long life ahead of him. It might
cruel twist of fate, its site has a page not last a decade, but at this price
covering binary distribution that it’s not expensive computing viewed
states “Windows: iPerf3 binaries for over a number of years.
Windows are available from iperf.fr
(and other sources)”. So it’s pointing And then Gemma’s old MacBook
me in the direction of iperf.fr! And Air died. Gemma works for Manfood
going back to iperf.fr would take me (@welovemanfood), our pickles and
full circle to the version that has condiments company. She does
issues. I think I need gin, and lots of it. paperwork on it – production

Label printing software

This month has seen a raft of old and
dying laptops crossing my path. It

109

batch monitoring, labelling and so been repurposed several ABOVE We’vegot macOS. But it might be a good
forth. The Mac was deader than a dead times through a the product, but opportunity for a spring clean and a
thing, and no amount of trying to hierarchical hand-me- shipping it is tricky fresh installation.
reset the PRAM and SMC helped. I had down system. But it’s without labels
a Time Machine backup on a server, clear that daily hard use BELOW Asyoucan OneDrive Mac mess
and even though this was a few weeks was becoming a risk on see, OneDrive isn’t
out of date nothing had been done this old trooper. overly fond of quote Part of setting up Gemma’s new-to-
with the laptop in that time. I tried to marks in file names her 2016 MacBook Pro was installing
do a recovery from Time Machine into I would have moved Microsoft Office onto the computer. I
a macOS VM, but that choked. Andre to an M1 MacBook Air months thought it might be a good idea to use
ago, except I knew he had two key OneDrive to provide a solid solution
Intrigued, I decided to dig deeper pieces of hardware at Manfood, and for ensuring that the data is backed
– and found that it is possible to copy both of them are label printers. One is up when the laptop is away from the
the SPARSEBUNDLE from a Synology a standard Dymo desktop printer, the core network. What could possibly
server running the Time Machine other a specialist large-label printer go wrong?
process to a local macOS disk and from Zebra. The software from Dymo
then just double-click on it. A miracle is fairly miserable, and the Zebra I fired up OneDrive and dragged
occurs, and the volume is mounted printer required much fiddling with and dropped the existing data to the
on the local machine. I could then dig the CUPS UNIX printer subsystem to
into it and find all the files for make it work. Let’s not talk about do a sync. Oh my
recovery. I wasn’t aware that a Time issues and assumptions about the M1 goodness, what a
Machine SPARSEBUNDLE file could processor compared to the previous horrible mess. I shut it
be used that way, but it’s obvious Intel. I simply didn’t have time to down after it reported
when you think about it. And it was a look into this deeper, but the day of that well over 300 files
huge help in recovering everything to reckoning was fast approaching. had failed to sync, and
a new (to Gemma) 2016 MacBook Pro. that I had to sort out the
Fortunately, a quick Google threw mess. The issue is one of
Then Andre’s 13in MacBook Pro up a solution: a small filenames: macOS allows
decided to glitch. The screen hinge company in Hunmanby, you to use letters in a
has gone wobbly and I think the North Yorkshire called ename that are not
battery is on the way out. This is a Peninsula Group appears to Windows-compliant. For
laptop that has had a hard life. It’s a have written a thoroughly
2015 model, which I bought in New modern and comprehensive e, Gemma had
York on a business trip at the iconic label printing solution for used some filenames like “gemma
Fifth Avenue store. The backstory is macOS. I downloaded the 20:4:21 batch 2112.xlsx”, which is
that I had convinced myself that I demo and it worked well. perfectly legal on macOS. But the “:”
could do this US trip just using an The company even claims makes Windows choke. And, because
iPad. Which was fine until I landed in it’s used by Apple for all of OneDrive is just a wrapper around
New York and had some emails that its shipping labels. At £97 Windows cloud storage, it won’t
required more capability than the for the licence, I think it will accept the filenames.
iPad could give me at that point. The remove the bottleneck for
only solution was to get a laptop. Andre to move to M1, so an What’s particularly galling about
Since then, like all of my kit, it has appropriately sized M1 this is that I raised this very issue
MacBook Air has been some months ago with the OneDrive
ordered. Transferring his team on Twitter and they assured me
world over to the new it was being addressed. Maybe so, but
computer should be quite not yet.
straightforward using the
migration tools built into Of course, OneDrive for Mac gives
you no help in sorting things out.
Instead, youneed to go through each
file and rename it to make it

OneDrive-compliant.
Frankly, life is too short –
and Dropbox doesn’t have
this problem. Dropbox
might not sync a “:”
filename to a Windows
desktop, but I just wanted a
cloud copy of everything,
which I could pull down to
a Synology for archiving.

I realise that there are
bulk-renaming apps – I use
Better Rename 11 on the Mac
– but this is all a huge and
entirely avoidable pain in
the wotsits.

mMaacghniinfiecent flying

I nearly bought a high-end
gaming computer. I know I
said I was going to do this

110

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

last year, but the lack of availability of PAULOCKENDEN
GeForce RTX 3090 cards meant I
“For me it’s partly fun, and alsoshowed that it had preconfigured
didn’t go ahead. A quick check of the
Alienware part of the Dell UK website
anattempt at doingmy bit tothat would come with the 3090 GPU.
machines ready to ship in a fortnight
save the planet”the price tag pushing nearly £5,000.
This was a serious temptation, despite

And then Microsoft announced the Paul begins a two-part series about how to use tech – such as
availability of Flight Simulator on the aircons, boilers and meters – to save energy in the home
Xbox. This is the point where I confess
that the gaming purchase was really
so I could run Flight Simulator, a Ioften write about how I use I’ve written about this in several
“game” (if you can call it that) that I automation to switch things on previous columns, so won’t bore you
have enjoyed for decades. Making it and off automatically to reduce with too much detail, other than to
available on Xbox turned the whole
purchasing decision on its head. I fuel costs and save energy. I’ve had say that what’s great about Evohome
wanted to buy an Xbox Series X, but quite a few requests asking to provide is that you can set individual
more detail of the setup that I use, so temperature profiles for every room
that’s what I’m going to do over the in your house. For example, I only
next couple of months. Not just what heat the bedrooms from early evening
works well, but also the mistakes I’ve Paulownsanagency until the morning. There’s no point in
made along the way. Oh, and before thathelpsbusinesses paying to heat them during the day
I start I should probably admit that exploittheweb,from (although I can override the schedule
I’ve spent far more on the kit to save salestomarketing if I fancy a day in bed). Likewise my
energy than I’m likely to actually save @PaulOckenden living rooms aren’t heated at night,
in the short to medium term. For me while my office is set to only get warm
it’s partly fun, and also an attempt at Monday to Friday. It all works
doing my bit to save the planet. smoothly and has a noticeable effect
Let’s start with a descriptive on the gas bill.
picture of my setup. My house has Evohome connects to the boiler via
mains gas and electricity, with a an OpenTherm interface. In the old
ABOVE What’snottolikeaboutFlightSimulator smart meter on each – more about days a boiler would either be off or on
on a big-screen TV? that in a moment. I have solar panels sacfw“euIalratwpne’tpsfeableordyoenyoisdelnihedwoertefsahi”ttteyhheoedu full blast, and it would cycle between
on the roof with microinverters on the two to maintain some semblance
there are none available. But the the panels. This means that the feed of stability once the house was up to
Series S, its smaller brother, was from the roof is 240V AC, and I can temperature. Your radiators would
available for next day delivery from just connect it into my house wiring. either be red hot or stone cold, often
the usual suppliers. At a few hundred pulsing between the two every half
quid, this was simply irresistible. My house has conventional gas hour or so. OpenTherm allows the
central heating from a combi boiler. heating controls to request a lower
I’ll ignore the updates and The boiler also delivers instantaneous
downloads that seemed to total over hot water. I chose to fit a boiler from flow temperature rather than pulsing
100GB. Gigabit fibre to the internet the Dutch company Intergas for two the boiler on and off. As a result, my
has its upsides. In the meantime, I can reasons: firstly, it’s a clever design radiators usually just feel warm, and
enjoy Flight Simulator on a big TV in that has far fewer moving parts than if I look at the requested temperature
our lounge, and marvel at the work a conventional combi, so there’s less on the boiler it will usually be
that Microsoft has done. Maybe I’ll go to go wrong. None of that diverter BELOW Ichosean somewhere between 30°C and 35°C.
for the Xbox Series X in the future, or valve nonsense that you get with a Intergasboilerfor Just enough to compensate for the
even a 3090-based games machine. traditional combi boiler. Secondly, bothitsflexibilityand heat losses in the house. By the way,
But for the moment, I’m enjoying it’s one of the few boilers you can feed itsreliability OpenTherm isn’t exclusive to
every minute of it. with already heated water o he Evohome – other heating controllers
supply side (I’ll come on to too these days.
Bletchley Park Gin that’s important in a while e great thing is that because
And finally, I recently made my The high reliability aspect ators don’t oscillate
annual pilgrimage to Bletchley Park with Intergas boilers is, I hot and cold, the room
and the National Museum of suspect, why you won’t eratures are more stable
Computing. To my delight, I found a lot of heating engineers o the comfort levels are
that Bletchley Park now has its own recommending them. They ased. A nice side effect is
gin. Well, it would have been rude to realise there won’t be as u’ll find you end up
pass on that. Cheers! many callouts. When I was the room temperature
[email protected] looking for quotes, one told s to be somewhere
me “I don’t see many of en one and two degrees
those”. He thought that was than you would with a
a bad thing, I thought the entional heating system,
exact opposite! his of course saves money.
The heating is controlled ough in my case I’ve
by Evohome from Resideo. eciated the increased

111

comfort level far more than I ave the energy-sa ing materials
financial savings. now, so y u’ll need to
I also have aircon fitted: a ig box pay the full standard 20%
in the garden and six wall unted (unless it’ for a new
units dotted around the hous . It’s build, in hich case
nice in the summer, keeping he there’s no VAT to pay).
house cool during our incr ingly
frequent baking hot days. Being able Notsos art
to sleep properly on hot nigh s is I mention d that I have
another bonus. And it’s much smart met rs earlier, and
free to run during the day because I know th t some of you
when it’s hot outside the sun is flinch at t e idea of
inevitably shining and so my olar installing hem. There
panels are generating full bla t. are many rguments
As with most modern t t m, some more
systems, you can use the sys e press has
reverse for heating. It’s surpri s about the
efficient to do so too because a le, and people
gains that you get with heat- ump ABOVE ogus ills for
technology. It’s essentially he first
warmth from outside (even on a cold as well as time-shifted cheaper differenttemperature generation of smart meters was
day), concentrating the extracted electricity, using the aircon units for schedulesinrooms indeed a bit dodgy, but modern
warmth so that it’s more than the heating makes good economic sense. SMETS2 installations usually go
temperature inside, and then using Plus it’s better for the environment without a hitch.
this to heat the air in the rooms. With – gas is a carbon-laden fossil fuel Some people are worried about
a normal electric heater (think of whereas more and more electricity data implications, with smart meters
something like a traditional bar comes from renewable sources, potentially allowing third parties to
heater), and simplifying things by especially the electricity that I know when their house is
ignoring losses, it takes 1kWh generate on my roof! unoccupied, for example. I’ve found
of electricity to dump 1kWh of heat It’s a different type of heat to that these are often the same people
into the room. The coefficient of radiators, though. Blown hot air will that will post photos on social media
performance (COP) is one. With an quickly take the chill off a room, but “Smart meters showing them and their family on
aircon unit running in heating mode, it’s more of a “dry” heat. It warms icdstnhooifetuufhtnenehrtorUeorynftK”httwlhayenoindrk holiday! Others seem to be obsessed
the COP will be somewhere between your skin rather than your bones. So with the fact that smart meters
five and six. So to add 1kWh of heat what I’ll do is have a blast from the contain a remote kill switch. This is
to a room takes just 200Wh of aircon units to help the radiators to because the same meter supports both
electricity, the rest being extracted bring a room up to temperature, but monthly payment type contracts and
from the air. once the room is heated up I’ll switch pay as you go – the latter needs to be
Of course, you need to factor in the aircon heating off. Luckily my able to disconnect if you don’t pay for
that gas is currently cheaper than Daikin units are Wi-Fi equipped so your fuel, just as would happen with
electricity by a factor of four; gas costs it’s easy to do this via automation. an old-fashioned prepayment meter.
around 4p per kWh, electricity 16p. Many people expect aircon to be I did a search and found a couple
On purely economic grounds, ripping expensive but my system cost just of stories where there had been
out your gas boiler and replacing it over five grand, and I’m pretty sure mistaken disconnections, but both
with aircon units doesn’t make any that it’s added more than that to the were a while ago and were genuine
sense at all. But if you heat your home value of the property. When I had my BELOW Amodernair errors that were quickly corrected.
using LPG or oil from a tank in your system fitted it attracted a VAT rate conditioningunitwill And two out of the 20 million smart
garden, the electricity options start to of just 5%, but the government has providebothcooling meters that have been installed in the
make more sense, because these fuels scrapped the reduced rate for and heat UK (as of March 2021) is, I think,
vanishingly small odds, so I’m happy.
But feel free to contribute to the
letters page if you disagree!
One interesting aspect of smart
meters in the UK is that they work
differently in the north and south of
the country. In both instances your
meter connects to the mesh-based
Smart Metering Wide Area Network
(SMWAN). The SMWAN is responsible
for passing the readings to Data
Communications Company (DCC), a
government-funded project set up by
Capita and overseen by Ofgem.
In the south and the Midlands, as
well as Wales, the system uses 2G/3G
mobile data provided by O2/
Telefonica. Whereas in the north of
England and in Scotland the system

112

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

uses long range radio sense if you can minimise your usage ABOVE Smartmeters boiler (this is for the domestic hot
communications, similar to the kind during these periods, but for most mean I no longer have water and has nothing to do with the
of stuff that I’ve written about families the early evening is when the to upload readings to a central heating loop). If I have excess
previously in this column. The latter kettle goes on, the dinner is cooked, supplier’s site or app generation from my solar panels – in
runs on 423MHz – unless you live near the washing machine starts, the kids other words if the house is generating
RAF Fylingdales where, for “national have their baths and so on. “umSpemttaearrriiftnfgsofrpoemns more than it’s actually using – then
security” reasons, the system uses sienunnpeoprvgliayetrivs”e rather than exporting the excess to
454MHz instead. The official reason The only thing I don’t like about the grid I use it to heat the water.
is that the kit at Fylingdales interferes Octopus is that it makes extensive use BELOW Peopleworry
with the smart meter transmission, of referral bonuses. I flinch at reviews about smart meters, The tank will heat up to around
but some believe it’s the other way that include a referral link because but for me the benefits 75°C, but I have a blending valve on
round, and that nearby smart meter you can never be sure whether the far outweigh the risks the top so that the feed hitting the
transmissions would impede the UK’s person genuinely likes the company boiler will be at a maximum of 60°C,
early warning technology. Whichever or is just looking for a quick bung. As which is also the temperature that the
frequency a meter uses, the network you might have noticed, there’s no boiler is set to when delivering hot
is run by Arqiva, the company that referrer code in this column! water. I could set my tank to have a
also runs the UK’s terrestrial TV maximum temperature hotter than
transmission infrastructure. Oh, and Octopus isn’t alone in offering 75°C; after all, it’s at mains pressure so
bad luck if you live in Northern time of use (TOU) tariffs – even the even at 100°C it wouldn’t boil. But I
Ireland because you can’t get smart “big six” suppliers are starting to dip worry about what would happen if
meters at all if you live there. their toes into this area. I expect it there’s a sudden loss of mains
will get quite competitive over the pressure – I don’t want my pre-heat
For me, smart meters give two next year or two. tank turning into a bomb!
advantages, one relatively small and
the other much more important. The I mentioned earlier that my boiler If my tank is up to full temperature
minor plus point is that I don’t have to will accept hot water. The reason for the hot water simply passes straight
read the meters once a month and this is that I have a stainless-steel through the boiler and it doesn’t need
upload them using my supplier’s app tank with an immersion heater in it to fire, so no gas used. But if the tank
or website. But much more important on the water feed just before the is only at, say, 50°C then the boiler
is that smart metering opens up only needs to add a further 10°C,
previously unavailable tariffs from rather than the extra 40°C that would
innovative energy suppliers, be required if you assume the mains
particularly on the electricity side. water comes in at 20°C. This ends up
saving me quite a lot from my gas bill.
Old-fashioned meters were
usually single rate or dual rate. Dual Next month I’ll explain how I
rate was either Economy 7 or the rarer divert my excess solar generation into
Economy 10, where you got either the pre-heat tank, as well as the other
seven or ten hours of cheaper pieces of my energy jigsaw such as the
electricity overnight. But the whole car charger, and a bank of batteries.
thing was inflexible. Smart meters More important than the kit is how it
being able to deliver a reading every all works together: if you get the
half an hour has opened up many energy flows wrong you can easily
more possibilities. Take Octopus end up using more energy than you
Energy, which offers Go Fast and Go otherwise would. Especially if you
Faster tariffs: the former offers 5p have several different technologies all
per unit electricity for four hours fighting each other to mop up the
overnight, while the newer Go Faster excess solar generation. That was a
offers three, four or five-hour periods very expensive month!
(with configurable start times) at
4.5p, 5p and 5.5p respectively. @PaulOckenden
Outside these cheaper hours the day
rate is competitive, although it will
vary by region.

Then there’s Octopus Agile, where
the price you pay for electricity varies
throughout the day. Most of the time
it will be significantly cheaper than
the big energy suppliers, and very
occasionally it will go below zero for
an hour or so overnight. But during
the early evening (between around
4pm and 7.30pm), when there’s more
demand on the grid, the cost shoots
right up to around 35p per unit, well
over double the industry average. The
tariff follows the wholesale energy
price, which fluctuates throughout
the day based on both demand and
weather conditions. So Agile makes

113

LEEGRANT properly and those that couldn’t. This
is certainly in the top three reasons
ti“saNauegmahraltcymh2ei0nteyhetahatarwsthwinaoPtrpCkersoe”ptaleillhoavse why the public clung to XP for so long.

Why this trip into ancient
computing history? Because
Windows 11 is triggering my traumas
of selling Vista to the public. The
rhetoric of Windows 11 is exemplified
by Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief
product officer, writing “Windows 11
Prepare your email clients for action as Lee defends Windows Vista, before is designed to bring you closer to what
explaining how he turned a Windows 10 PC that wouldn’t into one that would you love” in his treacly blog about the
new OS (pcpro.link/325panos).
Windows 11 has crashed into glass effect translucency to graphical Nearly 20 years in PC retail has taught
view and it’s a critical elements, first seen in Vista as part of me that what people love is a machine
moment in the history of AERO (Authentic, Energetic, that works and doesn’t take a
fortnight to start up.
computing. Will it be inducted into Reflective and Open). I won’t go on, Microsoft needs to use its brilliance
the “Windows Hall of Fame” to join but it’s a reminder that Vista was very to make Windows 11 super-smart. I
3.1, XP and 7 or exposed in the tabloid progressive, but its awful reputation want the company to recognise that
“Hall of Shame” with ME, 8 and RT? is down to the clumsy way that it was not everyone can afford a £1,500
As a retailer, a new OS can be a launched, marketed and delivered to laptop and that the default 11
delight. It drives sales as the public use LeeGrantandhiswife the end user. experience on a £300 unit shouldn’t
the release as a justification to thrash AlisonrunInspiration Many manufacturers were simply be “the same, but slower”. All of
the plastic and treat themselves to Computers,arepair tearing off the XP stickers from Windows 11’s features should be
something shiny with a warranty. shopinKirkheaton existing stock and slapping on a Vista offered, but the software should not
As a system builder, a new OS can @userfriendlypc badge hoping that no one would install ones that will kill a lower-
drive me insane. When customers notice. Users did – normally within a powered PC. Perhaps the choice
take delivery of a machine loaded few hours of opening the box. We’d should go back to the user with a
with the latest OS, there’s an spotted that Vista needed much more helpful message: “We can re-enable
unspoken expectation that it should power to deliver performance parity this feature, but your hardware
be faster than their old PC. If I delve to XP, so our builds had more RAM, really isn’t up to it.”
back into the archives of our business, higher speed CPUs and better GPUS. Vista tried to bring everything to
this hasn’t always been easy to pull This is why our prices went up. everyone, but it was a disaster and
off. You’re one of the sharper-eyed “rMIeicwcoragonnstiosfettthoat When the public outcry became Windows 10 is the same. My 10
readers and spotted the omission £ncao1,nt5ea0vf0feolrarypdotnaoep” too loud, the Microsoft and machines are crammed with Xbox
from our Hall of Shame, so brace manufacturers solution was Vista integrations, gulping resources whilst
yourself as I’m about to spout a Basic (strapline: “Like XP, but waiting for me to press something.
heretical viewpoint: Vista wasn’t a worse!”), which was bundled onto Not once has an annoying paperclip
bad operating system. lower-powered machines and had the popped up with, “It looks like you
AERO turned off. Bizarrely, Microsoft don’t own an Xbox, shall we unload
Take a moment to gather yourself also removed DVD Maker, but all this junk and give you back some
before continuing. I remember the
day that I built a Vista pre-release test presumably this was to shame people resources?” Injecting performance
rig to see how responsive and who were too poor for a “real” Vista back into 11 is vital because there is an
resource-hungry the forthcoming OS machine into not being able to make elephant in Microsoft’s room and it’s
was. My first thought was that there DVDs of the holidays that they clearly enjoying an Apple.
was something wrong with the couldn’t afford. The low-power and During the Windows 11 launch, no
machine, so I swapped components, BELOW Theancestor low-cost Vista Basic experience was direct mention was made of ARM,
tweaked a few settings but the ofWindows11’s horrible, and it created a two-tier with references hidden behind
performance remained poor. XP on Widgets:Vista’s system of those that could manage to Qualcomm branding. Apple’s own-
the same unit was, for pre-SSD times, DesktopGadgets buy laptops to make the OS run brand, ARM-based “M” hardware has
blisteringly quick, so Alison and I phenomenal performance,
made ourselves unpopular with which Apple has shoehorned
customers. We put our prices up. into a sub-£800 iPad – and it
Vista introduced Windows will eventually drip down to
Desktop Gadgets or, as Windows 11 is the sub-£350 version. If
calling them, Widgets. Microsoft is you’re an everyday user
(rightly) making noises about how needing a new machine for
Windows 11 can play Xbox content, £350, would you buy a
but Windows Vista was the first OS to turbo-charged iPad or a
allow Movie Maker playback on the Windows PC that will only
console. Windows 11 has stunning get faster if you drop it from
a great height?
Maybe Microsoft’s
continued reliance on AMD
and Intel will turn out to be
correct, but at a time when
I’m gearing up to sell a

114

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

product that the Windows 10 team
promised would never exist, I’m
minded of the wisdom of restaurateur
Sir Arthur
Streeb-
Greebling: “I
have learned
from my
mistakes, and
I’m sure I could
repeat them
exactly.” (Visit
pcpro.
link/325ball if
you have no idea
what I mean.) The approved fix, as laid out in the ABOVE Withabitof day-to-day unit, which would keep
ABOVE Anyreference handbook of the Amalgamated Union luck, Pale Moon can the editing system offline. Wiser
to ARM was hidden Bfuatcukreto the of Technology Creators, is to declare still generate an people than me will explain that
behind Qualcomm Computer retail that the whole lot should be ploughed Adobe licence code… using Windows 7 isn’t a great idea,
into the ground and a new setup but in an offline environment, the
and repair isn’t always about the purchased without haste. If Howard wam“wthAdaieevllytlwawhannloaaowcunytegtabt,”hyhietsatientch major risks have been reduced to the
future. Howard’s PC has done a few upgraded to Premiere Elements 21, point of insignificance.
miles, but it popped along on he’d gain headline features such as BELOW ...whichgot
Windows 10 until the GPU died and Adobe Sensei AI to apply effects with Howard out of the The machine’s performance on
that’s where the fun stopped. step-by-step guided edits and the Flash activation page Windows 10 was acceptable – on
Just over a year ago (see issue 311, ability to post videos straight to social dead end Windows 7 it was fast to the point of
p116), I mentioned Arthur and his media. Each one a significant feature being suspiciously rapid. In Olympic
filmmakers club who specialise in and useful to many users, but terms, Howard’s machine would be
films with a social and community unnecessary for a man with over 30 escorted to a tent and asked to wee
twist. Howard is the club’s archivist years of NLE experience whose into a bottle. The little gremlins were
and possesses hundreds of analogue footage was not for public release. gone but when I reloaded Elements
and DV tapes that need digitising, 10, the video playback issue had
editing and cataloguing. Premiere Elements 21 recommends returned. Nvidia’s graphics packages
In 2011, we built his second-gen a seventh-generation Intel chip, so cover a wide range of OSes (hurrah!),
Core i7 PC around Windows 7 and Howard’s PC was lacking. Timelord which brought the same problem to
threw in 16GB of RAM and some SSDs nomenclature (see issue 308, p117) this setup (boo!). I swapped the Nvidia
to make a system that easily handled clearly illustrates that jumping from card for an AMD equivalent and
the archiving tasks. One sunny Troughton to McCoy is beyond a Howard was back in business. Almost.
morning, the machine emerged from quick-fix hardware upgrade. Even if
its cocoon as Windows 10 and was I’d conjured a solution to this Howard shoots new films on what
unaffected from the transformation restriction, a show-stopping issue he considers to be a modern(ish)
for some time. Eventually gremlins remained. Archiving from tape camera and Elements 10 plays nicely
arrived, causing irritating glitches so required FireWire to connect the PC with the footage. In the intervening
the system was booked in for some to his array of tape players and decade, I’d forgotten that for
TLC – but a GPU issue added urgency recorders. Native FireWire support Elements to use certain file formats
to the proceedings. was “depreciated” from Elements in (MPG2 for example), it required a free
I replaced the faulty GPU with a 2014 so even if he bought a new PC licence code from the Adobe licensing
basic Nvidia card and the machine’s with software, it would have fewer server. The link provided by Elements
non-linear editing (NLE) software required features than his existing, 10 had died, but detective work
refused to play video. Howard’s NLE non-broken PC. That’s not an unearthed a working Adobe encoder
was Premiere Elements 10 (from 2011) upgrade, it’s a waste of money. activation page proclaiming, “This
and eventually I realised it was the content requires Flash”. We needed to
Nvidia drivers causing the issue. And if one of you pipes up that get crafty. Pale Moon (palemoon.org)
Reverting to Basic Microsoft Display Howard could have used a third- is an open-source browser that still
Driver solved the problem instantly, party app to capture the footage and supports Windows 7 and if you
but not permanently. then import it into Elements 21, you introduce it to Flash Player 32.0.0371
Let’s acknowledge and ignore the have just failed your interview as our (the final release) and cross your
fact that incorrect drivers don’t third assistant tea-maker. fingers, it still persuades Adobe to
extract the maximum performance generate a licence code that Elements
out of a component. The The agreed solution was to revert 10 will accept.
the machine back to Windows 7.
Howard’s laptop was to become his Howard is delighted, which is the
important thing, but the moral of the
issue here was Windows’ story is that although tech will always
insistence to update drivers advance, it may not be in the way that
irrespective of what it’s told we want. If you’re like Howard and
to do. Windows Home lacks sitting on a time-consuming project
the granular control of Pro, that requires the use of fragile and
so eventually the Nvidia aging tech which is currently at your
drivers snuck back into the fingertips, GET ON WITH IT!
system, killing the thing.
[email protected]
115

Guestcolumnist similar in the past, and I’m supposed
MARKPARVIN to be the expert.

f“ooMrrpaaonrtyiesoneftbtihaelecuaissusesureeeosrfrIcogoeri”tnbcliadmenecde The phone support scam

In this month’s guest column, Mark tackles simple fixes, explores his dad’s A more worrying side to these kinds
approach to scammers and wrestles with laptop RAM of scenarios is the telephone support
scam. I get many customers
contacting me asking if these calls are
genuine or whether their internet
really will stop working after 24
hours. Luckily, many of them haven’t
paid the villains any money at this
point and have rung me to check. But,
The saying “there’s nowt so ago, I received a call hours apart from unfortunately, the scammers have
queer as folk” has been rattling two different customers – Jo and also done an excellent job of gaining
around my head these past Hannah – regarding the same issue. their confidence, and I’ve now got a
battle on my hands convincing them
weeks. In my job, this often means The problem was that their printers otherwise. I can spend a long time on
customers not fully understanding wouldn’t turn on. Again, I offered the phone trying to reassure them
how their devices work, and it makes advice about checking the power they don’t have an issue, and it’s all a
for some fascinating conversations. cables, electric sockets and so on. hoax to get them to part with their
A great example of this comes from Both of them assured me they had brass. Thankfully, I have a little trick
Steve. A regular customer, he rang to Markhasbeensolving already checked everything, but it that helps when I’m struggling to get
say he couldn’t get the internet on his computerproblemsin still wouldn’t work. The next piece of my message across: my dad.
iPad. Whenever possible, I always try theYorkareaforthe advice I gave is worth trying with any My father is a retired farmer who
to offer help over the phone before I past15years printing issue: unplug everything has never used a computer. He
book a visit, and my first piece of @mittasmark from the printer, remove the power initially had no interest in tech, and
advice to Steve was to turn his router supply from the wall socket and wait now he’s too old and too stubborn to
off and on. That in itself can be an an hour. Once time is up, reconnect learn (his words, not mine). He’s lived
interesting experience, as people everything and maybe choose a in his current home for over 20 years
rarely know what a router is. “It’s the different socket for the power lead. I with no internet and a landline phone
box near your phone with some lights left Jo and Hannah with this task and as his only form of electronic
on it” usually does the trick, but Steve awaited their verdict. communication. I tell this backstory
remained confused. He couldn’t find to my customers because I can then
an illuminated box, but finally came Customers aren’t always as quick explain that the scammers call him. I
across a black thing with TalkTalk to get back in touch with me when a stress that this is someone who has
problem gets sorted, but they both
written on it. I explained that’s his did so a few days later. Hannah had never had a computer in his life, yet
router and there should be something noticed her wall socket plug wasn’t they contact him with the same cock
shining from it. He assured me it was fully in, had pushed it, and the printer and bull stories of viruses or internet
dark, so I suggested checking he came to life. Jo had “fiddled with the issues. It’s a great way to help them
hadn’t accidentally switched it off. At awt“tthhhJbieeaotitthtbhhraatairahcdcodkek‘uf’dw”,inodadindnreledesd wires a bit around the back”, and that understand these idiots are ringing
this point, Steve told me he was had done the trick. When I carefully anyone randomly on the off chance
having work done on the house, and mentioned that I thought they had they have a computer.
the electricity was off. He also already checked the cables, both
mentioned he was gagging for a cup assured me they had, but this time I also explain that my dad is a
of tea. round was more successful. While major wind-up merchant. He makes
phone calls like this are frustrating, the scammers believe he has a PC, and
I politely explained that the router I’m not here to judge; I’ve done gets them to talk him through the
needs to be powered and working for issues. As they spin their web of
the iPad to get the internet.
Unfortunately, Steve still couldn’t
grasp the relationship. He argued that
his iPad and phone – a traditional
landline – were both working, so why
couldn’t he read the news? Luckily,
the penny dropped eventually after
further clarification of Wi-Fi, routers
and telephone lines. I also suggested
he warm a pan of water on his cooker
for some tea, but he’s all electric. Oh
well, can’t win them all.
If you think Steve’s situation to be

a bit of a one-off, it isn’t. A few weeks

RIGHT Checkingthe
plug and cables fixed
the printer problems
– we’ve all done it!
116

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

deceit, he pretends to be an plained what LEFT&ABOVE Mydad As this was consistent with the issues
incompetent user who doesn’t know plugs did and uses his nonexistent I was seeing, it was time to look
where to click or what to do. Of PC to waste tech inside. The beauty of these gaming
course, this isn’t hard for him, as he ometimes you scammers’ time laptops is usually the ease with which
has no tech knowledge or actual need to turn them off and you can get to the components. In
computer. He continues to frustrate on when issues occur. I also politely r“mwmthIeaooaponrutaneullildaryfapaatbwhctbootiiiunlsupitkhtrye”rs this case, undo five screws, remove
them like this until they hang up, or clarified that this had nothing to do the base, and all the bits I may need
he gets bored and impolitely tells with my previous visit, and I would BELOW Togettothe to replace are within easy access.
them to get lost. have to charge her for the call-out. My faulty RAM, I had to
explanations must have worked, as pretty much take Or so I thought. On closer
I wish all my customers treated she paid me without hesitation. apart the laptop inspection, I couldn’t see the RAM.
these crooks in the sam There were two slots in full view for
but I advise them not to. Right to repair memory to fit into, but nothing filled
Unfortunately, these them. I was fully aware this machine
trained con artists know Regular readers of PC Pro will know had plenty of RAM, so it must live
all the tricks in the Lee Grant is an advocate for the right elsewhere. A quick search on Google,
book to make us to repair. Like Lee, I repair laptops and I found the service manual. Sure
believe them, and and other tech daily. And, like Lee, enough, the motherboard had four
we’re all susceptible. I’m thoroughly frustrated at how memory slots: two at the top and two
So the advice I give is to difficult manufacturers are making it underneath. To get to the faulty RAM,
put the phone down on to do the simplest of repairs, such as I had to take out the motherboard.
them straight away – but replacing memory or storage. Unfortunately, to remove it, I pretty
maybe throw in an odd much had to dismantle the laptop.
swear word before you I target most of my frustration at
the thin and light laptops that have Now, I get why things can be like
I’ll finish this section with become the norm. However, I also see this. Gamers often update their
another saying I hear pretty often. weird design issues in more unlikely laptops, and memory is a valuable and
Okay, it’s not a saying as such, but it places, and Chris’s machine was one easy upgrade; the ability to slap some
will be familiar to anyone who looks such device. The laptop in question more in with little fuss makes sense. I
after computers for others. It usually was a gaming monster, where only wish that laptop manufacturers
starts: “Since you were last here, I’ve “portable” was not a word you would would think more about repairability
not been able to…” ever use to describe it. when designing their machines.

I sometimes change settings on a This powerhouse of a rig was Anyway, after a chat with Chris, I
customer’s machine that misbehaving with random errors and did the necessary and replaced the
inadvertently upsets the status quo. restarts, and my testing software faulty RAM. However, this time I put
The change was for the greater good, revealed problems with the RAM. the working memory in the visible
but it now doesn’t look or work as it slots. It turns out the laptop is a
did. In those situations, I accept, cast-off from his son, and Chris will
explain and correct things as needed. only use it for general computing.
But many of the issues I get blamed With that in mind, I decided that his
for arise because of coincidence or new RAM will probably die well
potential user error – especially when before he ever needs to upgrade it.
it’s months since I visited. I also felt sad that Chris had now
relegated this beast of a laptop to
To give you an extreme example, such mundane tasks, so I asked if he
let me introduce Marion. A while ago, wanted to sell it and buy a run-of-
I called in to help move her over to a the-mill machine. Sadly, he declined.
new email account. It involved Oh well. Once again, I can’t win
nothing more than setting up her new them all.
address and importing her contacts;
she hadn’t even wanted to keep her [email protected]
old emails. Once things were up and
running, I did a general courtesy
check of her laptop, and my work
was complete. When she rang a few
weeks later, I was expecting more
email concerns, but she told me
rather crossly that she couldn’t watch
catch-up on her TV – and hadn’t been
able to since I last visited.

As she wasn’t in the mood for
explanations or telephone help, I
decided it was best to arrange another
appointment. When I arrived, I found
the TV hooked up to the internet via a
powerline adapter. Everything
seemed to be connected correctly, so I
took the next step and restarted the
adapters. A few minutes later, iPlayer
was back in action. While Marion
stared at her TV in surprise, I

117

DAVEY WINDER can also come built into your
smartphone. The use of a security
sa“Ientcd’suGarogitooygocldheeimdceakak-uteopsprtheeagrftuoelaramrslyya”, key is mandatory if you are enrolled
in the Advanced Protection program
at Google, for accounts that are at a
greater risk of targeted attack.

Google also announced in the
spring of this year that it was going
to start rolling out automatic 2FA
enrolment to all users. The initial
How secure is Gmail? Davey details the practical steps you should take, rollout, I was told by Google’s director
before explaining how to block email marketing trackers of product management, Mark Risher,
will only be for those whose accounts
This month I’m concentrating on for a threat actor to overcome thanks already have the appropriate
one of the many pieces of reader to the relative simplicity of a SIM- configuration in terms of account
feedback that reach me across swap attack on your smartphone recovery information, so as to not
lock anyone out accidentally. This
multiple platforms. One of those account. Again, I stress it’s better won’t be mandatory, there will be an
platforms, ironically, being Gmail. than nothing and most people won’t opt-out option, but it’s another good
I say ironically as the reader in enter the threat radar where such an security move in my opinion.
question wanted to know my opinion attack is likely anyway. Consider how the Google
on just how secure the service was Better, though, are options two ecosystem wraps multiple aspects
for personal use. Addressing that Daveyisajournalist and three. Google prompts that are of your online life – email, web,
security question is easy: it’s as and consultant sent to another device you’re signed personal assistants, the list goes on
secure as the steps you take to secure specialisinginprivacy in on, so your phone if using a laptop, – and that means access to your core
your Google account, and your andsecurityissues a tablet if using your phone. This account is a highly prized target for
awareness of incoming risk, allow. @happygeek avoids the SIM-swap vulnerability by cybercriminals. Access to your
The secondary question, which requiring an attacker to be in Google account gives access to Gmail,
was how private it is, is somewhat possession of, and have access to, that which gives access to password
more complicated and I’ll come to device. And, of course, the use of resets, which gives access to, well,
that momentarily. authentication codes churned out by almost everything these days.
For most people, Google account an app such as Google Authenticator, It’s a good idea to perform a
security comes down to two things. or my preferred option of Authy. security check-up regularly, and
First, ensure you have a unique and I recommend using both: one as Google makes that easy. Just visit the
strong password. As I always say at your default and the other for those security section under manage your
this point, a password manager is times when that option isn’t available account: myaccount.google.com/
your friend here, both in creating to you for whatever reason. You will security-checkup. This lets you
that password and when required to also get a set of ten-digit single-use remove account access from non-
use it. Second, switch two-factor codes that you can store somewhere essential apps. You should also, for
authentication (2FA) on. I’d like to safe as another backup for signing completeness, always keep your OS,
think that this was a given, but I’d be “Switch 2FA into your account in an emergency. browsers, and apps up to date and
wrong. Very wrong. IoVtwh’nedai.rnbsIyke’adwtwglhiirkravooteenntntghgo,”ib.sut The final option is the most secure, remove any browser extensions and
apps you no longer use.
I know it’s not Google, but Twitter but can be expensive and more
recently published a transparency intrusive on the user experience: a The privacy issue
report (pcpro.link/325twit) that security key. These keys are either of
revealed only 2.3% of active accounts the hardware variety, such as a Insecurity can, then, be mitigated by
have 2FA enabled, and of those users YubiKey (starting from around £25) getting the security basics right. But
the vast majority were employing or Google’s own Titan key (£30), but what about the privacy issue? There’s
SMS-based 2FA. That’s the least
secure option, but still better than
nothing for most people most of the
time. Hardly anyone, 0.5%, was using
a hardware security key, while under
a third (30.9%) of responders used an
authenticator app.
Back to Google, which also offers
multiple types of secondary
verification factors. You can find
them in your Google account under
security… well, duh. The first is by
voice or text message, which I don’t
recommend as it’s the easiest option

RIGHT Google’s
Advanced Protection
program offers the
highest security level
118

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

a reason that Gmail is the biggest functionality that is one ABOVE Newsletters Email marketing is a big business,
email service, with an estimated 1.5 of the big draws for often contain tracking and not just from the commercially
billion users that eclipses the likes users. Magic spells are beacons to see if the corrupt spamming side of the fence.
of Microsoft Outlook. That reason used when adding email has been opened Legitimate senders, businesses
isn’t the expectation of absolute delivery confirmation whose newsletters you subscribe to,
privacy. Rather, people appreciate email data to Google “nGecoeosgslearisilny’tthe will often include hidden tracking
the ease of use and the value that the Calendar after all. pcbporaaimdnvdtaeoicsemytwi”omheeemnaiitl beacons. Beacons that can inform the
whole Google ecosystem delivers in sender if and when you’ve opened the
terms of functionality, particularly So, how worried LEFT Apple’siOS email, for example.
the highly personalised and cross- should you be? That privacy labels
application functionality. depends on your shocked many Gmail I’ve heard many talk about these
aversion to the collection app users beacons also giving away your
Let’s be clear: I’m talking about the of such data and the location, or at least a general idea of
consumer side of the fence and not importance of the BELOW Disable it, through your IP address. But, quite
business suite users. Consumers want functionality it enables. automatic loading of apart from IPs often just revealing an
what Google delivers, and appreciate Google will say, rightly, external images to ISP nowhere near you, or obfuscated
the delivery of those features free of that what it collects is prevent tracking by use of a VPN, Google has been
charge. Apart from that adage about mostly metadata more serving all email images using its own
when a service is free, you’re no than anything. What’s proxies for years now, so I’m not
longer the customer but the product. more, Google will also assure users convinced there’s anything to see
that, for example, the data found here for most people.
Which brings me back to the from those automated email scans
original reader question, because isn’t used for advertising purposes. But it doesn’t stop at beacons:
they genuinely seemed somewhat According to a June 2020 blog post you must throw in the equally
surprised by the privacy label detail (pcpro.link/325sundar) from Google commonly used link-tracking tactic,
published by Google for the Gmail CEO, Sundar Pichai, “we don’t sell which will also report back to the
app on the iOS platform. And not your information to anyone, and sender. While this data may seem
pleasantly surprised, I should add. we don’t use information in apps irrelevant to many folks, it’s data that
“Why does Gmail need to share my where you primarily store personal you likely aren’t knowingly providing
location, approximate or not?” they content –such as Gmail, Drive, to someone who may use it for
asked, adding “and what about Calendar and Photos – for advertising targeted advertising.
sharing my user ID?” in those iPhone
app privacy declarations. These IDs purposes, period”. So, what can you do about it? I’m
“may be” used for third-party Moving to another email going to stick with Gmail specifically,
advertising, analytics and seeing as that’s what kicked this
functionality. The list is far more provider may not be the whole privacy ball off, but the same or
extensive than that, especially when answer you’re looking for similar approaches will be available
it comes to analytic use, including either, as metadata for other email clients. Dealing with
purchase history, device ID, user data collection and user activity this kind of tracking varies depending
(product interaction) and, of most data are employed by the on how it is being achieved, and more
concern to our reader, user content likes of other highly often than not that’s going to be the
including photos, videos, audio, integrated options such as use of a single-pixel beacon that’s
customer support and a somewhat Microsoft. Sure, there are loaded as a remote image. That pixel
catch-all category of “other” content. niche providers that will be will be, for all intents and purposes,
privacy-focused, but you invisible to the recipient.
I suspect that this will come as a lose the type of cross-
surprise to many users, given that application functionality The simplest way of blocking these
there was a quite high-profile hoo-ha and seamless ease of use trackers is to head into your Gmail
a few years back when it was that drove you towards account settings and scroll down until
discovered that Gmail content was Gmail in the first place.
being scanned to personalise
advertising. That scanning was Email beacons
stopped in 2017. Yet scanning does
continue to deliver the smart I’m going to stick my neck out, which
could be painful, not just courtesy of
the spinal surgery I’m recovering
from but also as it isn’t a popular
opinion: Google isn’t necessarily the
privacy pantomime baddie here
when it comes to email privacy and
tracking. I’m more concerned with
the “hidden” surveillance, the highly
intrusive tracking, that goes on in
most any email client, because it’s
there in the emails themselves and
perpetrated by the sender not the
host provider.

119

Continuedfrompreviouspage STEVECASSIDY
you hit the images options. Ensure
you have “ask before displaying

“Resilienceincloudarchitecturesexternalimages”toggledonandthose

single-pixel beacons won’t load. Nor

is like havingan army ofzombieswill any other remote image, which

means emails may look a tad sparse.

atyour command”That said, you can display those
images on an email-by-email basis as Steve lives life on the edge – edge computing, that is – as he explores the
you’ll see an option at the top of the world of smart buildings becoming ever smarter
email message to either display the
images, just for this email or for all
emails from that sender. At least this y heartfelt thanks go out to most of my favourite music – which
way you’re in control of where you Mission, the British tech and meant I was still poking around the
place your trust. That’s more than can hi-fi business, which held demo room when someone said

Mbe said for some email alternatives
whose clients, such as when accessing the first in-person event I’ve been to something out of the ordinary. Being
email via the browser, provide no for the past 18 months. I picked out quite voice-activated myself, I asked
such option to disable all external my most fetching face mask and what that word was, and how it came
images like this. pedalled over to just behind John to be used in connection with a
There’s a new option coming later Lewis on Oxford Street, where Zuma humble connected lightbulb?
in the year, from DuckDuckGo, which – also known as Mission and found at Steveisaconsultant “Sidereal,” they repeated. “We
is launching an email protection zuma.ai – had a little pop-up shop. whospecialisesin have voice-controlled apps for
service that will strip emails of these It was demoing a smart light networks,cloudand sidereal lighting configurations.” It’s
trackers before you get them. I’m on fitting. Imagine a shotgun cartridge humanresources an odd term, because in other fields it
the waiting list for when the service embedded in your false ceiling. The @stardotpro pertains to methods of measuring
starts rolling out, but it requires a vents around the actinically bright time of day by apparently fixed,
new @duck.com email address to LED element double as sound wave distant stars. Here, it has mutated to
work; that could be enough to exits for the rear-mounted speaker refer to the theory that you ought to
prevent bulk take-up, as people are drivers. This tube fits into the form light up your rooms to imitate the
erse to factor of the old, hot, incandescent presence, and passage, of a large
changing element downlighters we identify as yellow ball of fire in the sky. This
address. As an “stylish and modern” in the strange apparently confers benefits in stress
iOS user, you terminology of home decorations. levels, attention spans and might
could simply use But the visible parts and the lumps even allegedly make you look more
Apple Mail to of wiring accompanying the device interesting on Zoom.
read your Gmail, don’t give the full story. In essence, While this is a simple idea,
as this also Mission is delivering a baby Alexa complexities arise when
provides such speaker that can federate with its implementing it. Should you, for one
tracking nearby siblings. That changes the thing, allow users to pick the axis of
protection. proposition from being a localised BELOW IputtheZuma precession, so that one office cubicle
What Muzak-piping novelty, to being a speakerthroughits lines up on the position of the office
ABOVE Comingsoon, neither will floor-shaking, phone-controlled, paces–althoughnotin building on the planet, whereas the
duck.comemailwithin- help with, as configurable smart room upgrade. achandelier next one along is five hours’ time-
builttrackingprotection far as I can The last time I went near a new
determine, is computerised audio system
the link-clicking tracking problem. in the Royal Albert Hall. On
For that, the advice is to never click that occasion, the system
on links in email in the first place, builders didn’t want
which covers the security angle as anybody’s dodgy old iPod
well. Other than that, you’ll need to plugging into their
use a privacy extension for your web amplifier rack. This time,
browser. I’d be happy to hear from Mission’s team and I
readers of solutions to click-tracking wasted a half hour scrolling
for mobile users that have been tried through playlists as we tried
and tested, but for my desktop to work out the best tracks
browser I use uBlock Origin. In the test the limits of the system.
extension settings, head for the Perhaps intentionally, this
privacy section and tick the “disable stopped me from whipping back
hyperlink auditing” option. various curtains and fittings in search
[email protected] of the subwoofer. I was counting
fittings and I guess that pegs my
expertise level as an acoustician,
because I saw eight little downlights
but couldn’t work out how they
produced the volume levels and
penetrating bass that characterise

120

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Real worldcomputing

Customer AI madness
Let’s agree a few ground rules on the whole
shifted to assist its inhabitant visiting matterof“computersaysno”.I’mtalkingaboutthe
from the US? Having these features growing need for people to understand the
voice-controlled is all very modern, limitations of labelling everything that makes a
but you need to think your way decision as some sort of “AI” device. Just ranting
through a field of jargon to assemble about the awful customer service you’ve received
an instruction for a little fleet of light and blaming AI isn’t going to help either you or the
bulbs to transport you instantly from company understand where the problems are
a damp Dagenham morning to high coming from. In effect, an AI-caused complaint
noon in the ruins of Carthage. turns you into one of the company’s developers.
While the initial list of applications Although we should give some benefit of the
for a lightbulb/speaker/microphone doubt to the people and systems on the other side.
might seem low on business utility, The end of official lockdown means a lot of workers
many unexpected benefits stem from whohavebeenawayfromthefrontlinearecoming ABOVE Toavoidfacepalms,humanworkersneedtobe
the whole style of an invisible, backafteraprotractedbreak,andthatmakesfora abletoseewhattheirAIsystemsareactuallydoing
infinitely configurable command rather bumpy process in getting up to date. Nearly
system for a room or a house. For one twoyearsisenoughtimeforawholelotofchanges problem.It’sincreasinglyclearthatAIsinvolvedin
thing, Star Trek Picard fans will tobemadethat,witheveryone100%attentiveand whatIthinkofastransactionalscutworkinmodern
immediately notice that the Zuma present, would be naturally absorbed into the commerce or banking need to take transparency to
user looks exactly like Riker when workingday.WithWFH,though,theinformationis anewlevel,sothehumansstandsomechanceof
he’s telling his house to scan the less continuous and not put to immediate use. working out what their new masters have actually
neighbourhood for bad guys; It’seasytocharacterisethisasatrainingissue beendoing.It’swhenthingsgowrongthatwelearn
something about talking to the ceiling –oh,justhaveacourseauthorcontinuouslyupdate themostbyopeningupthegutsofthemachineand
shifts your posture, very differently theonboardingmodule–butapartfromthepainful watchingittick.Excusethemixedmetaphor!
from shouting at a blob on the desk. cognitiveloadthisimposes,there’salsothestrange IunderstandthatsometypesofAIarenot
The little pop-up shop behind John needtogothroughaprocessI’mbeginningtocall amenabletothiskindofreview.Iwasbeing
Lewis might still be there when this “handholding”.Notthehumans;themachines. flippanttalkingaboutopeningthegutsthere,but
mag hits the streets, so if you’re in the Letmeputitlikethis.WhenanAIsystemdoesn’t ifyou’redealingwiththemachinelearningtypeof
area, pop by and try out your do what it was expected to do, what can the AI, the ones that function much like the 87 neurons
favourites on Mission’s little speaker- harassedhelplineoperatordoaboutit?Notmuch, thatmakeupthenematodeworm’sbrain,then
lights. No appointment necessary. unlesstheycanseewhatthemachinewasworking thereisnoconceptofadebugger.Youcan’topen
with(thedata),andthenstepforwardandback uporlookinsideanyrunningcodebecauseithasno
Smarter again throughthemovestheAIperformstoseeifsome sequentiality:eitheritflashesandoutputsignals,or
When people talk smart (anything roguetickboxorignoredOKbuttonhasputthe itdoesn’t.
from devices to cities), there are some transactionatrisk.Thisisadebuggingtool,and Hopefully this means that false claimants of
rich providers of confusion in the developershavehadthemforever–butweweren’t AIwonderfulnesswillwindtheirnecksbackin
mix. My favourite right now is the expectingtofindthey’renecessaryinanout-there, whenitcomestomachinelearningAIand“just
cloud. Not the one that you and I customer-facingWeb2.0ecommercesystem. trustthemachine”.Idon’twanttospendmoretime
understand, privately and as techies: Icanfindpeoplewhotreatadebuggerbeingleft onholdwaitingforaresolutiontomystopped
the other cloud. The one that is inasystemwhenitentersproductionasgrounds creditcard,whentheycan’tevenfigureoutwhich
vaguely imagined by great chunks of foranenquiryandsomesackings.However,they’re systemhastohaveitshandheldtoexplainitslogic
the regular populace, who by now old-school managers and this is a new-school to the operator and the customer, alike.
have simply smooshed together all
our carefully detailed descriptions.
Their cloud isn’t owned by that they collect out of everyone of the common cloud names and the
anybody, costs nothing to use, has else’s reach. networks over which they reach us.
perfect resilience and is unfettered by And then on the other, other hand, That’s a lot of moving parts.
topography or the rule of law. This is smart cities are nothing like a cloud Resilience in cloud architectures is
a multifaceted misunderstanding, of at all. Buildings don’t scale up and like having an army of zombies at
course, which only comes to light down at random; overall reliability of BELOW Smartcities your command. It doesn’t matter if a
when a failure in the real, messy, the systems supporting the humans havealotincommon few punters lose their transaction
multi-owner,connection-constrained (remember them?) has to be higher withthecloud–or from an outage because another
cloud lays another bit of the world’s than the overall observed reliability dothey? zombie will instantly be along to
biggest jigsaw open to view. help. Resilience in smart
To an extent, smart cities are like a buildings is more like a
cloud. Everything is spread out, but superhero. No matter
connected; redundancy of the design what goes on outside of
is assumed rather then baked in. your walls, your smart
What looks like all the same network building ought to have the
tech is actually a patchwork of local horsepower and
owners, operators and users, with deployment of tools to fight
strangely mixed expectations about almost anything the world
security and segregation. On the one can throw at it.
hand, a fleet of smart sensors are Making a massive global
meant to be for the public good; on network across the globe
the other hand, the owners of the just to run some local
networks those sensors talk through services is becoming the
are not put there for public-benefit defining sin of the smart
projects. This puts the information building revolution. Yes,

121

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of course there are other networks
that tick some of the same boxes and
use the same jargon, but they’re
either non-time-critical or their
field of interest isn’t obvious to their
human users. And humans must be
able to keep on functioning, even
when the internet is having a bad day.
This requirement of natural
resilience becomes exceptionally
sharp when there is a large-scale,
global disruption of internet traffic.
If you’re going to make quite minor
systems “computerised” then it’s no
use trying to run them from a data
centre halfway round the planet
when all you want is to switch on a
few of Mission’s smart light fittings.
This is where the more business-
focused idea of edge computing
comes in.
For greybeards like me, this harks
back to the old days of strictly local,
cloud-independent horsepower. For up on the company intranet of ABOVE Brainbox’sAI of inhabitants makes that job a lot
the more modern generations, whoever just pushed the button on systemsaimtoreduce harder – which, in edge computing
though, it’s something of a revelation. that funny-looking, oversized entry thecarbonfootprint terms, means more local decision-
Thus the very gentle introduction I phone thing. To be resilient against ofskyscrapers making, less cloud backchat, and
had by Brainbox.ai, which makes entire-planet internet damage, you more responsive control systems.
AI-cooked building-control systems, must design the entirety of your smart Which is great, if your building is
aimed at making classic glass-wall building system to be “unplug just modern enough. Not brand
skyscraper HVAC systems better at friendly” – or at least, to fall back into new, which means potentially loaded
saving greenhouse gases. a failsafe mode that does minimum with the wrong kind of smarts by
If you have a massive sandstorm harm to the building’s human enthusiastic but misguided bricks-
coming, and your internet access is population despite the lack of and-mortar developers. Not so old
above-ground on poles at various operating humidity sensors on the that you’re dealing with lead pipes
points, you both want to do strange east wing. dss‘“umyYenssoaptiugrelutmnmgbyutuosoiutlbdreing and mouldy thatch, birds’ nests and
things to your building’s systems (to friendly’” deathwatch beetle, either.
keep the sand damage to a minimum) In fact, if you step back and think
but without benefit of internet access. about it, you’ll notice that most of the Most of the interest in developing
That requires a lot of “internetising” smart city advertising material smart buildings is focused in on the
of any information your building creates an impression of immediacy. building stock from about the 1950s
You might see a flashing red box and through to the early 2000s; the kind
might be able to collect, whether zoom in to get live video of a crashed of places where even the first couple
that’s heat from the sun, wind speed, milk float, shock horror! In fact, of retrofit moves – a smart switch to
temperature or the amount of rain. successful smart IoT deployments are the fan extractor in the server room,
And internetising means that you less time-critical: if your printer’s or maybe a CCTV webcam pointing
could easily have a rich variety of toner tips into low today, it’s unlikely into the parking area – shows enough
sensor manufacturers, with an to run out until a few days’ time. benefit that a larger investment in
equally rich range of responses to a Moving into more immediate this technology looks worthwhile.
loss of connection to the rest of the reporting and control, an HVAC Brainbox claims many excitable
world. Well-behaved sensors hold on system must be able to adjust the flow BELOW Smart things about its approach to an
to their IP addresses, and don’t worry of air, as buildings respond to the buildingdevicestend edge-deployed cloud device smart
too much about using public-access changing conditions of the day, and toeitherbetoodumb monitoring and control server. I’m
DNS to find their way home. the constant activity and movement ortooclever sure it will find a market that agrees
Unfortunately, smart building with its assertions, but I’ve already
devices tend towards two extremes: seen several false starts in other, very
too small and dumb to live on their similar markets, where people
own and formidably complex. One frankly turn out to be pretty scrappy
friend developed and sold a doorbell building owners and their systems
that booted up much of a Linux reflect that, being made up of
kernel, and spoke IPv6 across your half-a-dozen nasty old boxes running
LAN to its cloud-based central embedded Windows 98 to drive
controller, before putting a picture everything from the air handler to the
cargo bay lift. Tidying and adding
resilience to those kinds of “version
0.7” smart networks is a revenue
stream I am, I must freely admit,
looking forward to a lot.
[email protected]

122

eInarplryaaisdeoofInspirationalstoriesfromcomputing’slong-distantpast
teDhaaervliwydaaCdyrsooipdotekeesrshsloloiukolekdsysoatuitl w–baehnycdethwleebhIryTatitenecddhusthtrayt nfeelel bdys
W e’ve all encountered
laggards. “One of for decades. Those buying it, RIGHT ThePa m professional market – to the next
those fancy new however, are on the other side of the Pilot caught the group along, the so-called “early
smartphones, is it?,” spectrum to the laggards. They’re the imagination,u like majority”. Similarly, it was early
they will have said a decade ago, innovators and early adopters – folk, I others before it adopters who snapped up Motorola’s
nodding towards the black slab you suspect, who are just like you – and, BELOW TheSega cellphones in the US in 1983 even
just pulled out of your pocket. “My as drivers of the tech industry, they Dreamcast had strong though some considered them to be
old Nokia 3210 does everything I are very important indeed. first day sales thanks rich people’s toys.
need. Fancy a game of Snake?” to early adopters
Taking a risk There’s little doubt that we owe a
In truth, there’s nothing debt of gratitude to these digital
inherently wrong with this attitude. Imagine, if you will, that hundreds drivers, particularly so given the vast
They swore by their device’s long of thousands of people didn’t lay 99 sums of cash they end up splashing
battery life and robust nature, just as notes on Windows 1.0 in 1985; that out. The first console to use ROM
you swore when your phone fell to instead they’d listened to the critics cartridges and a microprocessor, the
the floor with a sickening thud. who, two years after first catching Fairchild Channel F, cost $170 on
wind of the operating system, had its debut, which is the equivalent of
The term “laggards” for people begun writing it off as “vapourware”. $772 today. The first commercially
who prefer to stand still was coined successful portable computer, the
back in 1962, when Professor Everett Or imagine that 200 people didn’t Osborne 1, cost $1,795 in 1981 – that’s
Rogers published Diffusion of snap up an Apple I assembled circuit $5,000 adjusted for inflation.
Innovations. He didn’t intend the board at a cost of $666.66 shortly
word in a rude way, but no company after it went on sale in July 1976. Sometimes it pays off; often it
in its right mind will ever target them. Where would Steve Jobs and Steve doesn’t. But the point is that there are
Wozniak have gone next? Would they people willing to take a punt. More
I thought of the laggards when I have progressed to the Apple II the
heard, in mid-July, that Valve had following year or would the hobbyists than 50,000 people bought the
announced a new portable handheld and computer enthusiasts who first Macintosh within
console designed to play PC games. snapped up their second machine eight weeks of its
have been forced to look elsewhere? going on
Built on Linux and resembling a sale in
Nintendo Switch in many respects, It was those early adopters February
the Steam Deck will prise who kept Apple ticking 1984,
countless PC gamers away along until VisiCalc perhaps
from their computers and launched in taken by
into the fresh air. mid-1979 the lavish
Contrary to reputation, and $1.5 million
they seem keen to television
emerge from their advert directed by
darkened rooms: the
Steam Deck sold out
in minutes.

It’s the kind of device
that has been catching
the attention of tech fans

123

Ridley Scott and aired during the The Nintendo 3DS also had a t rly out them, the tec andscape
third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. its price cut less than five months Betamax adopters would be very different.
after launch, dropping the RRP from were on the losing
Just five months later, however, £270 to £170, although that was to side due to VHS Why? Good early adopters will
the initial 128K version was kickstart sluggish sales. ABOVERIGHT The invest in a product to the extent that
overshadowed by a more expensive reboot of Atari’s VCS they will play around, tweak settings
512K version. Then the Macintosh In general, though, early adopters was backed by 11,597 and push their new devices to the
Plus was released in January 1986 tend to be young and curious, early adopters limits – and they are worth their
with double the memory and a price unsaddled by practical concerns such weight in gold. They will give early
tag some $700 cheaper than the Mac as mortgages, families and the like, so ABOVE Thenew feedback, prompt improvements to
512K. Bad luck on the part of the early they can take the financial hit so long Steam Deck handheld be made and help products cross over
adopters, perhaps, and something as they can enjoy being the first kid console due this year into the mainstream.
that would stick in the throat. But on the block to have something. sold out in minutes
despite having repeated the measure, BELOW Philipsfailed “As customers, early adopters
a good number of Apple fans still like Even so, there’s a lot of careful to reach the “early are vital, otherwise
to get in first, hence the queues seen thinking going on. Take that majority” of buyers
in recent years. Steam Deck: some will be lured with its CD-i many
by the new and shiny but, products simply
Indeed, on 15 August 1998, Apple more likely, those wouldn’t get to version
released the iMac G3. It had its first purchasers will have 2.0,” said Amstrad’s former group
revision on 4 September, upping the spotted the opportunity to technology consultant Roland Perry.
amount of video RAM from 2MB to take their PC games on the “As designers, I’m a strong believer
6MB. There were further tweaks on 5 road and make use of the that the best way to create a product
January and 15 April the following titles piled up in their Steam library. with a hope of a future is to employ
year, introducing new colours and, That’s what Valve will be hoping for. early adopters, with experience in
crucially, faster processors. On 5 similar technologies, on the team.”
October 1999, the tray-loading iMac “Early adopters of a technology are
was discontinued and the lineup was often evangelists and influencers for Perry is well aware of what
then enhanced further. later adopters,” JP Eggers, associate happens to products that don’t benefit
professor of management at New from early adopter investment. In
But that’s the thing. People York University, told PC Pro. “They’re 1990, Amstrad launched the new
become early adopters for the more valuable than a comparable 8-bit Amstrad 464 and 6128 Plus
prestige of getting in early and the number of later adopters.” computers, an enhancement of the
cost of that is not only a big dent to
their wallet but the chance that a new Academic researchers James C existing CPC range – a
version is just around the corner. Brancheau and James C Wetherbe version 2.0, if you like.
What companies have to show is that have long agreed. In their 1990 paper, Unfortunately, the firm
the gamble was worth it; that the The Adoption of Spreadsheet underestimated the
product can quickly assimilate into Software, they not only said early potential customers for
their buyers’ lives. Getting punters to adopters were highly educated but these machines, with
part with their cash as soon as that they were “more attuned to boss Alan Sugar saying:
possible only gets companies so far. mass media, more involved in “The end user doesn’t
interpersonal communication and know whether it’s 16-bit,
Spreading the word more likely to be 8-bit, or if it’s working with gas
opinion or steam or with elastic bands.”
There can be a backlash from time to leaders”.
time. Apple caused an outcry when it
reduced the price of the original
iPhone by $200 two months after it
went on sale, prompting Steve
Jobs to issue a $100 credit.
Amazon upset early adopters
when it released the Kindle 2 in
2009, didn’t mention the Kindle
DX was coming, then lopped a
good chunk off the former’s price.

124

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Retro Early adopters

As it turns out, the end user did “Early adopters are attuned to the potential. The
know and these machines fared badly really different from 68,929 backers who stumped
against the 16-bit Commodore Amiga later adopters in terms up a total of £10.2 million for
and Atari ST. As if to underline how of demographics and the Pebble smartwatch on
wrong Lord Sugar proved to be, the their preferences,” said Kickstarter in 2012 will have
accompanying Amstrad GX4000 Eggers. “This is why shown the likes of Apple and
console also fared poorly against we get phenomena like Samsung there was an appetite
Nintendo and Sega. the challenge of for wearables particularly
‘crossing the chasm’ given how engaged developers
There were simply too few early where early successful were in creating apps and
adopters and too little excited chatter firms struggle to gain watch faces.
from anyone who did buy. Instead traction with the Similarly when Sega
there were moans that there were far mainstream market. launched the Dreamcast in
too few games and disquiet that the 1998, early adopters bought
enhanced colour palette was not “Early adopters are more than 200,000 units in 24
immediately accessible. It took a usually risk tolerant so it hours and 500,000 within two
while for developers and users to see can be possible to target weeks. Sales may have proven slower
how good the machines were, but it that group really well and thereafter (eventually hitting just ten
was too little, too late. “There’s was succeed but then struggle ABOVE Earlyadoption million compared to 158 million of the
nothing ‘early adopter-ish’ about it,” later,” he added. ofthePebblepaved PlayStation 2) but the inclusion of a
said Perry, who also worked on the thewayforfuture modem ushered the dawn of online
hugely successful PCW range. “If Pointing the way smartwatches console games. Within a month of
anything it was at the other end of launching SegaNet, 1.55 million
the spectrum.” Yet failure doesn’t have to be a dirty Dreamcasts were registered online.
word. While it’s desirable to cross the Such popularity didn’t go unnoticed.
Kickstarting new tech chasm into the mainstream and make Of course, being an early adopter
a huge impact, there are still benefits isn’t always straightforward. Systems
It’s fair to say, then, that a lack of for manufacturers having had a bash may prove unstable, teething
early adoption is one reason why tech if things don’t work out. You only problems emerge, and the act of
history is littered with flops, albeit need look at Apple’s Newton buying tech within days or weeks of
not the only one. A decent number of MessagePad – a product that was, its introduction can feel like a voyage
people backed HD-DVD but the with hindsight, years ahead of its of discovery, particularly if features
decision to let PlayStation 3 consoles time – as proof of that. are poorly documented.
play Blu-ray discs meant those early ctu“hEasaunatrabglleylrypaoroduisospskprittbeeolaerllesltyroaawrtneaetrlsgloaenittd You may find a new
adopters were left with a stack of Launched in 1993, it sold 50,000 succeedbutthenstruggle”
obsolete discs and players. Even those units to early adopters and became device isn’t compatible
who backed Blu-ray initially were left one of the firm’s fastest-selling with the old, forcing you
wanting: most early players couldn’t products. Unfortunately, despite into more tech upgrades
upgrade and benefit from new promising to make computing truly (particularly true when
features such as picture-in-picture. portable and thereby proving very new ports are introduced,
attractive, its handwriting from HDMI to USB-C).
There are also cases of tech failing recognition feature was woeful – You’ll also inevitably end up buying
to catch on despite being snapped up making it the butt of jokes to such an at the highest price given technology
in the initial weeks – or even before extent that it was even lampooned in tends to become cheaper not more
it’s been made. The game console an episode of The Simpsons. expensive as times goes on.
Ouya is a prime example: a device But that’s part of the excitement
financed by 63,416 backers to the Apple stuck with it through of being ahead of the curve. It’s what
tune of £8.6 million on Kickstarter in various iterations before giving up in allows innovation to continue,
2013 yet discontinued two years later. 1998. But, 12 years later, Apple monopolies to be broken and tech to
resurrected the idea with the iPad, move on. That Nokia 3210 was once
In this case, the problem was having benefited from the experience exciting; lots of retro tech continues
partly due to the console being and with feedback from early to be. Yet just as early adopters have
technically flawed, but there was also adopters still ringing in its ears. The BELOW TheSimpsons made a big impact in the past, they’ll
a lack of emotional investment. company knew people wanted a lampoonedtheawful continue to do so for many years to
Developers didn’t create killer titles portable device, they just needed to recognitionofthe come, and as we eye the past, we’ll
and early adopters appeared perfect it. NewtonMessagePad always keep a watch on the future.
unwilling to pay for games. Those
who bought it loved the idea that they There are other examples where
could have a console capable of early adopters have found a taste for
playing indie games but, in reality, it new technology and prompted
fell rather short. manufacturers to either persevere

“Kickstarter is a bit odd
because people make
adoption decisions without
knowing what the product
is,” explained Professor
Eggers. “So there often are
products that sound really
cool but then when people
get them they actually suck.
Kickstarter is also rife with
the fear of missing out so
adoption decisions aren’t
always very rational.”

This makes attracting the
“early majority” even harder.

Futures

We explore the trends and technologies that are set to shape the future

aConfamdmtebhdreiicdfuignteeu-r1e
NMcoiecudoldilcecaKhlorabenisgeeeraherevcaehlaetlhrsschafoirnweailNnlyvtgihdeeitaUt’shKfeaircnsodtmpthpueubtlwiecopsrouldwpeerrctohmeypunteeerd. said Huang. Cambridge-1 was named
in honour of the city where genomics
and computing got its start, but it’s
also where Nvidia hopes to base its
UK HQ — if the controversial ARM
deal is approved by regulators.
T he future of AI in medicine “Cambridge-1, and our purchase of
is in Cambridge – and it’s ARM, is our giant investment in the
superfast. Nvidia has and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust UK, giving us a platform to work with
unveiled Cambridge-1, a and King’s College London. the amazing universities, companies,
“Cambridge-1 will empower and over 1,000 AI startups in this
world-leading researchers in business community,” said Huang.
practical name for the most powerful and academia with the ability to
supercomputer in the UK and among perform their life’s work on the Scalable supercomputing
the top 50 globally, installed during UK’s most powerful supercomputer, At eight petaflops of Linpack
the pandemic at a cost of $100 million unlocking clues to disease and performance, the industry standard
(£73 million) to the GPU giant. treatments at a scale and speed for measuring supercomputers,
The aim isn’t just to cozy up to the previously impossible in the UK,” Cambridge-1 is now the UK’s fastest
UK government at a time when Nvidia said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO supercomputer, just pipping the
is hoping its acquisition of British of Nvidia, at the launch of the new current leader run by the Met Office.
chipmaker ARM will be approved, supercomputer. “The discoveries So how has Nvidia, famous for its
but to show off its DGX SuperPOD developed on Cambridge-1 will take gaming GPUs, achieved this feat? The
scalable computing setup for AI – and shape in the UK, but the impact will answer lies two decades in the past,
help power the future of medicine. be global, driving groundbreaking when researchers struggling with
Cambridge-1’s first projects will be research that has the potential to machine learning shifted from
with pharmaceutical giants GSK and benefit millions around the world. standard CPUs to Nvidia’s hardware
AstraZeneca, medical startup Oxford “To do this work, scientists need a for their AI projects, sparking a boom
Nanopore, and researchers at Guy’s powerful rocket for their journey,” in AI that continues today. Nvidia has

126

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO Futures Cambridge-1

reacted by developing hardware
specific to AI tasks, and that includes
the Ampere processor at the core of
Cambridge-1.
The Cambridge-1 is built around
Nvidia’s SuperPOD system, which in
turn is designed around Nvidia’s
AI-system-in-a-box, the DGX. That
features eight A100 Ampere GPUs as
AI accelerators, alongside a 128-core
AMD CPU, and comes complete with
built-in networking and storage as
well as AI software and models. The
idea is that an organisation can scale Ourselin added that it’s key to ensure ABOVE TheSuperPOD Hence the excitement from
up its AI efforts by plugging together that AI is developed using unbiased systemisbasedaround medical organisations to have a go on
multiple DGX modules, while a datasets that actually represent the theDGX,withitseight Cambridge-1. Access to this
SuperPOD stacks 80 of those together demographics of the local population. A100AmpereGPUs supercomputer could spark a leap
in one package, for a supercomputer Otherwise, such systems won’t work forward in more detailed, complex
in a box. as well for everyone. models, in turn finally allowing faster
All of that is impressive, but what’s And there’s more to data than breakthroughs in drugs, genomics
intriguing about Cambridge-1 is that access, notes Rosemary Sinclair and understanding of diseases –
it’s Nvidia’s first supercomputer Dokos, vice president of product and though first researchers need to learn
that people outside the company can programme management at Oxford how to use the machine and develop
have a go on. The chipmaker builds Nanopore: the data needs to be their AI to work on the Nvidia system.
supercomputers for its own uses, in processed to be used too. “There’s The first projects to access
particular developing its tech, but one challenge, which is generating, Cambridge-1 include drug discovery
the Cambridge-1 is the first created cataloguing and curating data, but and medical imaging with
just for third-party partners — and you’re also performing discovery on “Some of the first projects AstraZeneca, genetics and
medical ones at that. “Cambridge-1 is that data,” she said. “So you have the agdmrreyeunsgoutsmes,irinaciegnssdA,odtIfoitsdoucenosmlevoqeecurnketntinoahcv”eeel health predictions with
our first big bet on the digital biology challenge of having to go backwards GSK and genomic
revolution,” said Huang. and forwards and checking and sequencing with Oxford
testing your assumptions all the time Nanopore Technologies. It
The Cambridge-1 isn’t actually in – and having a limit to your compute will also generate synthetic
Cambridge, however. In order for the
supercomputer to be powered by doesn’t help with those challenges.” brain images for King’s
renewable energy, it’s sited at green On the second point, AI is getting College London and Guy’s and St
hosting provider Kao Data’s location more complex to help drive accuracy. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust to
in Harlow, Essex. The more complicated a machine power research into dementia,
learning model is, the more data strokes, cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Future of medicine points that can be pulled in and “Some of the first projects slated for
AI is increasingly applied to medicine manipulated – ideally improving the supercomputer are using AI to
in myriad ways, from scanning accuracy. But that also requires more sequence genomics, discover novel
images to spot symptoms of cancer to data, and the combination of more drugs, and to unlock the mysteries of
sifting through data to spot patterns complicated models and massive dementia by studying MRI scans,”
for research on diseases such as datasets means training a model and BELOW Cambridge-1 said Huang.
dementia. It also develops models to running it takes more computing isinEssexsoitcan
help create new drugs. While we’ve power than simpler systems. “If you bepoweredusing disAcsotvrearZyeneca and drug
been hearing about healthcare AI for scale those things up, the data and the renewableenergy
years, it remains in the early stages, size and complexity of your model, AstraZeneca is now well-known
as ethics and safety concerns mean then the power of your computer thanks to its production of the
development must be done carefully. limits you,” said Lindsay Oxford-developed Covid
Right now, there are “two core Edwards, vice president of vaccine, which was being
problems”, said Sebastien Ourselin, data science and AI, jabbed into arms less than
head of the School of Biomedical respiratory and a year after the pandemic
Engineering and Imaging Sciences at immunology, hit – and speedy drug
King’s College London: access to data biopharmaceuticals development is what
and the computing power to process R&D at AstraZeneca. “If AstraZeneca is hoping to
growing models. it takes you three weeks create on Cambridge-1.
On the first problem, industry and to train a model, your The pharmaceutical
the NHS need to work closely together ability to hone that giant is using a new
to increase accessibility to relevant model is really difficult transformer-based neural
data, an area that’s been fraught in – you need to be able to network architecture. A
the UK because of privacy concerns. iterate quickly.” neural network is a type of

127

Futures Cambridge-1 @PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO

machine learning inspired by the absolutely certain that you have all
human brain, while transformers are the possibilities of how a brain will
a style of model that gives a different look if it’s healthy,” he said. “But
significance to each piece of data what you could do as well is start to
depending on context, meaning it’s generate the same amount of data for
frequently used for natural language a specific disease, and then start to
processing and computer vision. understand the evolution of the
Here, it’s helpful because datasets progression of the disease.”
don’t need to be manually labelled, as
the system teaches itself about each What’s next?
data point. These are only the initial projects: the
The MegaMolBART drug discovery aim is that Cambridge-1 will help
model will be used to predict push British medical research using
reactions to drugs and optimise the AI to the forefront. “Cambridge-1
development process. Just as a [allows us] to try things out that we
natural language processing AI will couldn’t try before,” said Edwards.
learn the basic rules of language by More compute power means not
“reading” as much text as possible, only better accuracy with medical
this system is aiming to learn the rules models, but could lead to personalised
of chemistry, Edwards explained. medicine, according to Ourselin. “If
That’s the main project. The hope, she added, is that access to ABOVE ASuperPOD you don’t do large scale models, there
AstraZeneca is also running another Cambridge-1 will let Oxford uses80DGXmodules, is no way you can personalise them
trial looking at digital medical Nanopore speed up its algorithm whichcomewith further,” he said. “It’s by comparing
images, hoping to apply a trained development, leading to more built-innetworking in-depth information of this specific
algorithm to annotate images of tissue accurate genomic analysis. patient with the entirety of the
samples, while also looking for population, and 20 years or 30 years
anything that could signal a drug Brain scans for research of data, that we… will be able to do
reaction. “One of the challenges with King’s College London and Guy’s better precision medicine.”
digital pathology is the images are and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Nadine Hachach-
huge, the files are incredibly large,” are working on a project to better “mMeaonrsencootmopnulytebpeottweerr Haram, clinical innovation
Edwards said. “What we’ve done in understand brain diseases such as accuracy with medical lead at Guys and St
the past is to break those files up and dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis mpeordseolnsa, bliuset dcomuelddilceiandet”o Thomas’, said that finding
train models on those – but that and cancer, with the aim of speeding new drugs and treatments
comes with a whole host of problems. up diagnosis and improving would unquestionably
Computation on the scale of treatment. The model will be trained change the pharmaceutical
Cambridge-1 allows us to do whole on tens of thousands MRI scans to industry. But there’s more:
slide image processing, which is teach it how to make its own fake “The even more exciting thing for me
really transformational.” brain images with features, such as is how do we start to reimagine
age or disease, giving researchers healthcare where we’re trying to
OxGfeonrdetNicasn,oGpSoKreand more material to work with. bring together cutting-edge life
sciences innovation and compute
GSK and Oxford Nanopore are The aim, says Ourselin, is to better power to ultimately enable us to do
predict the progression of disease.
separately looking at better “By generating so many images, you what we’re all here trying to do:
understanding genetics and can create a situation where you are deliver best care to our patients.”
genomics, in the hopes of better
understanding disease and potential
treatments. Achieving that requires The UK’s top supercomputers
churning through huge amounts of
complicated data.
GSK is using AI to better The most recent Top 500 list of the world’s most 44,800 cores using AMD EPYC and Nvidia A100
understand biology using genetic powerful supercomputers is led by the Fugaku processors
evidence, said Steve Crossan, VP for supercomputer at the RIKEN Centre for 81,920GB memory
AI and machine learning at GSK, to Computational Science in Japan, with its Linpack Linpack performance 4,124TFlop/sec
not only develop drugs more quickly performanceratingof442,010Tflop/sec. Theoretical peak performance 6,641TFlop/sec
but also better understand when and The Nvidia Cambridge-1 isn’t yet on the list, but it
how to use treatments. “We know willrankasthefastestintheUKandinthemid-50s #3=intheUK(#103=globally)
that medicines which have genomic globally with its claimed performance rating of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather
evidence behind them are twice as about8,000TFlop/sec.HerearetheUK’sfastest Forecastshastwoidenticalsupercomputers,
likely to succeed and result in official machines with their global ranking. made by Cray and HPE
successful medicines for patients,” 126,468 cores using Intel Xeon E5 processors
Crossan said. #1 in the UK (#58 globally) 116,032GB memory
Oxford Nanopore is using United Kingdom Meteorological Office, Linpack performance 3,945TFlop/sec
Cambridge-1 to run a model originally madebyCrayandHPE Theoretical peak performance 4,249TFlop/sec
developed for speech recognition, to 241,920 cores using Intel Xeon E5 processors
examine biological markers that 116,032GB memory #5 in the UK (#125 globally)
aren’t yet well understood. “There’s Linpack performance 7,039TFlop/sec Atomic Weapons Establishment’s Damson,
an enormous amount of work to not Theoreticalpeakperformance8,129TFlop/sec madebyAtos
just accelerate understanding what 113,832 cores using Intel Xeon E5 processors
those markers are and how you call #2 in the UK (#100 globally) 404,736GB memory
them and how you get them working UniversityofCambridge’sWilkes-3, Linpack performance 3,243TFlop/sec
reproducibly, but also how they made by Dell EMC Theoretical peak performance 3,792TFlop/sec
impact health,” said Sinclair Dokos.

128

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tiaJnuosanhnemeHianeotlnaatenenmdycbhdpaortlosllyiptsmooouot d

O ne of the advantages of more stuff today compared to 20 handle on our data, and what is
doing this job for over 30 years ago. We are generating data at happening to it, but I’m far from
years is that you have a a rate that is quite terrifying, and convinced this is possible even now.
somewhat different there is no sign that this will let up. There seems to be only tacit
perspective to the whippersnappers. Rumours suggest that Apple might be understanding at government and
I’m acutely aware that people in their going to full cinema-quality digital transnational levels about what is
20s have grown up with the internet video for the next iPhone. Which is required, and only token attempts to
as an integral part of their lives. That fine, but my phone today has more apply some sort of oversight.
Google has always been there. And storage than a decent corporate server It has all become too easy, and
why wouldn’t you use online services of a few decades ago, and I’m already we’ve been so seduced by the charms
to order everything from today’s using most of it. of everything everywhere for
lunch to your underwear? We can marvel at our access to everyone all the time that we’ve
information and the ease with which forgotten that some of these things
To them, it’s natural that all of we can get to it. Asking Alexa or Siri were meant to be hard, and were
this can be done from their phone, to turn on the lights or to find a better for it. I actively stop myself
which they carry with them at all recipe for flambéed peaches is less from reaching for my phone to
times. There is no point trying to information at your fingertips “just check that thing” nowadays,
describe what it was like Before and more information at
Internet, because they simply cannot your moving lips, but we tothhfeeeWsvteieemrt’vheyeittnhbhgieansetgwnweesveore’verseymewfdeouharcngeerotdetttobfeyobnrtethehhevaaecrtrhdsyaoormnmeesaolfl
comprehend it. It was an entirely used to have perfectly
different world, as alien to them as functional light switches
suggesting that Channel 4 was a big and recipe books.
deal when it first appeared because it
took the TV station list from three to Where will this go in the
four. “Hundred, you mean?” they next 30 years? We will
ask, eyebrows raised. know everything about
everything and understand
However, amid all the utterly nothing about any of it. To all intents because I have finally realised that I
radical change, there is also a great and purposes, the major technical don’t actually need to know the
deal of “plus ça change, plus c’est la challenges have been solved. answer to the question. Whether the
même chose”. Taking photos might Compute power, storage and population density of Chile is bigger
no longer involve 35mm film, connection speed are all more than or smaller than that of Paraguay
development and printing, but the adequate for just about any task. You might be useful to slap down a pub
reality of photography is very much can buy enough of anything for argument, but it really hasn’t
the same, even if we are in an era of almost ridiculously low amounts of helped anyone.
democratisation and cheapness that money. The amount of information Maybe this is the downside of
would fair boggle the 20th century we generate will continue to rise, and getting older and having done this
mind. Much work in businesses is we will continue to be the raw for a long time. Maybe being the
still done in a spreadsheet and word ingredients that feed the global product rather than the consumer is
processor, and email isn’t exactly megacorps, which exist only to mine wearing thin. Maybe Timothy Leary
new. We have Microsoft Teams this data, repackage it and sell it on. had the right idea in his saying of
meetings and Zoom calls, but this What a twist to the story – we started 1966 when he said we should “turn
isn’t all that different to a group using computers to get access to stuff on, tune in, drop out”. The answer
phone chat when everyone has and to get work done. The very act of for 2021 might be “turn off, tune out,
turned off their camera to avoid doing that has now become the glue and go dark”.
inflicting their bad hair day on that keeps everything going, as it has
everyone else. shifted from “us using stuff out there” JonHoneyballisacontributingeditorto
to “out there using us”. PC Pro. After discovering that Chile has a
Although it would be easy to say I’m not sure what the future holds, higherpopulationdensitythanParaguay,he
that the cloud, high-speed Wi-Fi and and even if it is desirable at all. It’s wasdelightedtodiscoverthathehadanoff
always-on connectivity has radically clear that we need to get a better switch. Email [email protected]
changed everything, it’s only
noticeable because we have so much

130



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