Blog > 2010
I've updated the Salary Timer with the new 2010-11 tax brackets, including the new
50% threshold (assuming any of you are lucky enough to be earning over £150,000).
You can download the latest version from the
Salary Timer project page. If you've
never heard of the Salary Timer, well what are you waiting for, download yourself
a copy right away!
I've also updated the Tax Calculator
and Raise Calculator, both of which
you can use on this very website (no download required).
Last time I updated the Salary
Timer I promised myself I would re-write it using
a shiny new technology in an easy to maintain fashion (updating the existing project
and adding new features is a bit of a pain). As usual the months crept up on me,
and almost a year later the Salary Timer was still languishing in its old form.
Shame/pride finally kicked in, and I'm pleased to say I'm close to finishing the
migration of the Salary Timer from C++/Win32 to C#/.NET.
Why am I boring you with this? Only because I've had to disable the Tax Brackets
window in the new version of the Salary Timer (it was far too much of a pain to
update in the old project). But never fear, it will reappear in the shiny new Salary
Timer which I hope to finish soon.
I had an interesting conversation recently that made me wonder - is it possible
to make a (relatively low risk) living from gambling?
I was talking to a friend of a friend, a guy who indeed makes a living from
gambling. That doesn't really do him justice - when I say "gambling", he actually
owns a company that uses complex mathematical modelling to predict the outcome of
sporting events. And when I say "makes a living", he makes a lot more than a living
- anyone who flies their own helicopter to work must be doing something right! For
this guy, it's fair to say that gambling does indeed pay.
It got me thinking - if this company can make huge profits by modelling all manner
of global sporting events, can modest profits be made by modelling a tiny subset
of the sporting world - English Premiership football for example?
To be clear, this has nothing to do with sporting knowledge. My acquaintance knows
even less about sport than I do. He's an Oxbridge educated mathematics boffin -
all of his success comes from his mastery of complex statistical analysis. Now,
I don't know much about sport, and I'm not that hot at maths either, but I reckon
I know enough to have a stab at this.
As an aside, I worked as a software developer in the City for a number or years
where this sort of software modelling is common. Instead of sporting events, we
used to model complex financial products, predicting changes and trends in international
markets, currency prices, etc. The difference between gambling on financial products
and gambling on sporting events is that in the City most of the people you're gambling
against are using their own complex software models - success and failure ends up
being more a question of luck than skill. And the margins are so tight that the
only way to make substantial gains is to take huge risks. And we've all seen where
that leads...
In the world of sports betting you're competing against a much more varied range
of opponents. Some, like my maths acquaintance, will be using complex software models,
some will be betting based on their vast knowledge of the sport, and plenty of others
will be betting on nothing more than an emotional feeling - maybe their team made
it to the cup final, haven't got a chance of winning, but what the hell, worth a
flutter!
In part 2 we'll take a look at the software model itself. I'll suggest the approach
I'd take in building something like this, and if I ever find the time I might even
try and put my hair-brained scheme into practice!
It occurred to me that the dearth of updates to the Projects
section of the site might be giving the impression that I'm not working on any new
MrCeri apps.
This is not the case!
True, my busy work schedule has slowed down MrCeri's output, but rest assured I'm
still tinkering away when I get the chance. To give you an idea of what I'm working
on I've added a Work in Progress
page to the site.
At the day job, a worrying number of clients (worrying to me at least) are asking
us to deploy their websites "sans SSL".
I know that in some cases the client doesn't have access to any email addresses
at their website's domain, so configuring SSL is very difficult. In other cases
their site is a microsite with such a short lifespan that security isn't a high
priority - easier instead to simply disable access to the CMS. And some clients
are simply too stingy to cough up the small amount of money required for an SSL
certificate.
It's left me wondering whether one of the reasons for the low uptake of SSL is that
we're not explaining it well enough? In an attempt to rectify this situation I wrote
a blog post on our company website - an excerpt of which is included below:
If a website doesn't use SSL it sends and receives information in plain text - including
usernames, passwords, and even financial information (in the case of an ecommerce
website). This information can be easily intercepted by those with malicious intent.
This is a particular problem when you are connecting to a website using an untrusted
network connection, such as public WiFi or an internet cafe. But bear in mind that
your data travels along a huge number of servers, routers, and hubs on its journey
between your computer and a website - sending this information without SSL encryption
is like writing your details on the back of a post card and popping it in a post
box.
(read the full article here:
What is SSL, and does my website need it?)
Hopefully I've struck the correct balance between grave warning and factual information.
It can be difficult, because clearly many websites don't use SSL and never get hacked.
But it's like wearing a seatbelt - for 99.99% of your journeys you'll never need
it, but when you do you'll be damn glad you're wearing one *.
There are so many ways a website can be hacked, cracked, broken and pillaged that
it seems crazy to me that website owners would choose to ignore this simple yet
hugely effective method of security. The main reason for building a website (among
our clients at least) is to promote brand identity - surely protecting the brand
is worth a few quid each year?
* Stretching the seatbelt analogy further - seatbelts don't always prevent injury
and death. Likewise SSL isn't a silver bullet for website security. Certainly helps
though.
Between finishing my first degree and starting my Masters degree I worked in a call
centre for a while. It turned out that a degree in Human Biology wasn't the
passport to becoming the next
Crick, or indeed
Watson, that I had
believed...
I worked as a "customer service representative" for BT Cellnet, the mobile phone
company that would later go on to become O2. Working in a call centre was a lousy
job (calm down, I know there are worse jobs), but on the plus side we could
get great deals on mobile phones - this was back when they were still mostly confined
to business and luxury use.
Now, I barely make half a dozen phone calls a month, less if I can help it, so a
mobile phone was really the last thing I needed. Then again, I do love a gadget
:o)
Let's take a trip down memory lane and have a look at a few of the phones I've
owned over the intervening years:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Nokia 5110 |
Nokia 3210 |
Nokia 8210 |
Nokia 8310 |
Nokia 6610 |
SPV C500 |
SPV C600 |
SPV E650 |
My early mobiles were all Nokias running various incarnations of their proprietary
operating system. The handsets improved over the years, but they were certainly
"dumb" devices compared to today's modern smartphones.
When I upgraded to the SPV C500 (an Orange re-brand of the HTC Typhoon) a new world
of mobile computing opened up to me. The C500 was the first handset I owned that
ran a Microsoft Windows operating system (Windows Mobile 2003 SE to be precise), which meant
seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook on the desktop, mobile editing of Microsoft
Word documents, and of course, Solitaire ;o)
I was totally blown away.
This was back in 2004. Over the next 6 years I owned two more Windows
Mobile handsets - Orange's SPV C600 and SPV E650 respectively. These were great phones,
and certainly an improvement over their predecessors, but
I never felt the "wow" factor I had when I booted up that C500 for the first time.
So I found myself in 2010, itching for a new gadget - itching for a new mobile phone. The E650 was doing a
fine job, it had been my faithful companion for over 2 years, but I wanted that
"wow" feeling again. I took a look at the WinMo phones out there and it was such
a sorry sight (the only exception being the HD2, but the wow factor there was being
provided by HTC, not Microsoft). The Palm Pre was a bit niche for me (despite its
heritage), and expensive. I even toyed with the idea of getting an iPhone (shock
horror!), but soon came to my senses. And Nokia's best smartphones seemed overpriced
for my tastes.
So where did that leave me? The only obvious choice: Android. I had no loyalty to
WinMo - I felt totally let down for having supported Microsoft's mobile platform
for so long. It was great back in 2004, but 6 years of development should have given
us so much more than Windows Mobile 6.5. If anything I felt myself drawn to HTC
- so I said goodbye to Redmond and embraced the
Mountain
View Chocolate Factory, and the HTC Hero.
 |
| HTC Hero |
It's barely been a week, but so far I love the Hero. It's not perfect - I'm still
missing my physical keyboard for one thing, but I've got the "wow" feeling again,
and for a gadget geek there's nothing better :o)
James asked everyone in the office if they would mind writing a few sentences on “things
to look out for in 2010”. This was just before Christmas, and to be honest I had so much 2009
work to finish that 2010 was the last thing on my mind! Still, I gave it a ponder, and this
is what I came up with:
Google phone, Android and Windows Mobile 7
The rumours of the first Google mobile phone are no doubt causing mild palpitations at
Apple HQ. Google’s Android operating system is already proving to be the hottest thing since
sliced bread with dozens of new Android handsets promised in the first half of 2010. Microsoft
will be hoping they can regain some ground with their long overdue operating system Windows
Mobile 7, and I don’t expect Apple will be resting on its iPhone laurels either. 2010 promises
to be an exiting year for smartphones and mobile web browsing.
Silverlight 4
We’re already up to version 4 of Microsoft’s take on Flash (though I don’t think the folks
at Redmond like to hear Silverlight described that way!) Until now there’s been no sign of
Silverlight upsetting Flash’s position as the ubiquitous technology in this space, but with
the hotly anticipated version 4 just around the corner, 2010 might just be the year that
Silverlight comes of age.
Chrome OS
Web browser as operating system? For me personally this feels like a step backwards in time,
not forward. Anyone remember dumb terminals and mainframes? No? Anyone? Ok, just me then. But
if anyone can pull it off it’s Google, so I’ll be keeping my eye on this. If nothing else it
might result in increased usage of Google’s Chrome web browser – yet another platform to test
against!
You can read
the full article here.
I guess if the list was aimed at a more technical audience I might have added .NET
Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. Saying that, I’m not much of an early adopter when
it comes to technology, and don’t tend to do a lot of future-gazing. I have enough work
in the present to keep me busy without spending too much time daydreaming about the future ;o)