Ray Sullivan SciFi Zone: March 2012

Saturday 31 March 2012

Sky High iPad

It's fair to say that the penetration of the iPad into all consumer and many business markets is nothing short of phenomenal. From home use to market research to sales presentations to stock control - there doesn't appear to be an industry or application that is immune to its lure.

One industry I would have expected to be resistant, though, is the aeronautical industry. Although it is some years since I worked in aviation I wouldn't have expected much to have changed in terms of technological conservatism - that's one of the paradoxes of the aeronautical engineering world; it's often viewed by those outside the industry as space age and cutting edge but in reality it often lags behind the drag curve in technology adoption. The impression of being cutting edge is probably because many innovations were originally developed to solve an aviation need and then rolled out to other uses, giving the impression that aeronautical engineering is racing ahead when in reality the development will have taken many years to come to fruition.

I have to say the reluctance to rush in with new technology is correct in principle; having worked in aircraft technology procurement I have seen the almost overwhelming amount of checks and balances that have to be met before any change can be made to a design. As an engineer I have worked on a significant variety of military aircraft that have one thing in common - robust systems with multiple redundancy. The consequences of a piece of equipment failing or a chunk of computer code locking up are too serious to contemplate on an aircraft at 50000 feet, so the designs and build standards are such that if a component fails, it shouldn't be remotely catastrophic.

So, I was a little surprised to find out that iPads have not only made it on-board commercial aircraft to assist with passenger manifests but havealso made it into the cockpit.

At the moment they are required to be powered down on take off and landing and are subject to certain restrictions such as being mounted securely. The advantages are obvious - the devices can carry all the manuals and navigation charts an aircraft can ever need, saving significant weight which reduces operating costs or, perhaps more relevantly, increasing potential for revenue. It isn't the first attempt at digitising the essential documentation for a flight, but previous attempts retail at tens of thousands of dollars, took years to develop and had to undergo rigorous testing to satisfy the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the US equivelant to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It must be galling, and not a little perplexing, to the manufacturers who have jumped through multiple hoops to qualify their equipment to see a consumer device used with what looks like unstructured testing.

To be fair, the iPads have been put through some significant tests by various airlines, including an impressive test to demonstrate their abilty to withstand an explosive decompression, but interestingly Apple don't appear to have been involved in these tests, nor do they have the stamp of a structured regime where the parameters are defined, the pass/fail points identified before testing starts and a complete analysis of failure impacts completed.

And it's gaining pace: Delta Airlines have obtained permission to use the devices at all phases of the flight, from pre-flight through to chocks-in. At least one airline is looking at integrating the devices into the existing flight equipment: the details are a little vague so far but I guess we're looking at feeding the iPad navigational information direct from the aircraft sensors. Will it go the other way - will the iPad be allowed to provide inputs to the aircraft? Unless it's properly designed and tested, I hope not.

I'm not against the idea of using consumer products in aircraft - the potential to reduce the cost of mundane equipment that has virtually no safety impact on a flight sounds attractive as it should keep costs down and improve implemention times. However I'm cautious about rushing to use what has become the must-have executive toy in the cockpit purely because it's the sexiest device on the market. Sure, the iPad is one heck of a versatile device, too versatile in the case of a flight deck, but it really should earn its place along with all the rigorously tested equipment up there.

It has already been flagged by opponents to the concept that using an iPad (or Kindle, Kobo, Nook) to replace the navigational charts and aircraft manuals creates a couple of issues - first, if the device fails, you lose all of your essential literature, a situation reasonably resolved by doubling up on iPads and applying a little statistical calculations, one would think. Except anyone who is involved in aeronautical procurement will point out that pattern failures are the next concern, and that requires very careful and detailed testing over time to become comfortable with. The second objection raised is the point that currently, Delta excepted, the iPads have to be powered down on landing. Occassionally the odd chart or manual might be handy just then. Not insurmountable, but robust testing and qualification would be nice.

It's not a question of whether iPads will join the flight deck - they're up there now. It's a question about whether they should continue to be used and, perhaps, whether someone should start writing up a specification for them to be tested against. A difficult task; they exist and they do what they do. Importantly they don't do what they don't, no mattter how important that feature may appear in a specification. My guess is that the specification won't be written - the FAA seem to be rolling over on this one already.

My hope, for my future transatlantic flights, is that when the announcement comes over the intercom insisting that all portable electronic devices are turned off - that the pilots follow suit.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

Digital Life Form is available on Amazon.com in paperback for $8 (or for £5 plus P&P in the UK for UK readers - contact me on raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com for details)

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my book

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Friday 30 March 2012

Project: Evil – The First Double Cross Meeting part 1

Brian jumped in the car and closed the passenger door rapidly. If O’Feld, Daw or anyone from work saw him meeting up with a member of the British Secret Service then his life would be forfeit; if anyone who knew him at all saw him in a Skoda, it would be worse. Bund looked across at Brian.

‘Did you bring the document?’ he asked, his eyebrow raising, stretching the sticking plaster holding his hearing aid in.

‘Yes,’ replied Brian, looking around furtively before withdrawing the envelope from his jacket inside pocket. He handed it over to Bund, who turned it over several times, before pulling it out of the brown envelope to examine it carefully.

‘Is it genuine, or a forgery?’ he asked.

‘A forgery, of course,’ answered Brian. O’Feld Industries forged everything, even public information leaflets that could be picked up for free from the Post Office. Bund nodded slowly, set the time to ‘one hour’ on the document and threw it onto the dashboard under the windscreen, the blue background and white image of a stickman in a wheelchair reflecting off the glass.

‘These things are like rocking horse shit where I work, which is a problem given that we’re all working way past the age we’d traditionally have retired,’ said Bund, easing his door open. ‘Come on, let’s take a stroll now I don’t have to fear the traffic wardens,’ he said.

They braved the sea-front wind, leaning into it as sea spray crashed around them.

‘I have some concerns about your project,’ said Bund, trying to cremate a sandworm using an aerosol can of UHT double cream and a pack of Swan Vestas, but failing as the wind kept blowing the matches out.

‘What sort of concerns?’ asked Brian, wondering why he had to justify his project every step of the way to anyone who felt they had an interest, possibly missing the key purpose of a project manager but absolutely in line with the PRINCE2 principles.

‘It’s the armadillo balls,’ said Bund, ‘they don’t grow on trees.’ Brian was stunned; OK, he was punching a bit above his weight as a Project Manager on a major overseas infrastructure project, given he was a catering manager by training – but for Bund to insinuate Brian might think armadillos were vegetation!

‘No, they grow on armadillos, and I’ve got two in the lab, with plenty more due soon,’ he crowed. Bund looked impressed.

‘On order? Who from? Amazon? Armadillos R Us?’

‘We’re a bit smarter than that,’ answered Brian, sheltering in a bus stop, the sea spray crashing against the Perspex sides. ‘We’re going to get the randy little buggers to mate. Start with two, then you get four, then sixteen, you get the idea,’ he said, adding, ‘and if they’re like my pet mice they’ll be at it with their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers all night long.’ Bund took all of this on board before speaking.

‘Well, the two creatures in your lab, don’t expect too much magic from them unless they’re gay,’ he said, adding, ‘but the success rate for breeding armadillos in captivity is very low, even when you put opposite sexes together. And I don’t know what your definition of randy is, but they don’t mate until they are in their second year of life. So, by your estimate of fifty thousand gonads, assuming two per male and a fifty/fifty relationship between males and female it’s going to take you an awfully long time to get enough to fulfil your project aims.’

‘So, why are you telling me this?’ asked Brian, despondence falling all over him.

‘Because this is my last assignment, but the catch is that they won’t let me retire until it’s complete,’ answered Bund, fiddling with a cufflink in a way that made Brian feel very uneasy. ‘By my estimate, I’ll be one hundred and fifty two before you accumulate fifty thousand gonads.’

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The characters, companies and places referred to in Project: Evil are fictitious and any resemblance to people, companies, businesses or places is entirely coincidental

If you've enjoyed this chapter of Project: Evil then check out the blog every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday as the story unfolds and, if you haven't done so already, why not follow the blog.

If you know someone who has a warped sense of humour please pass them the link to my blog so that they can enjoy 'Project: Evil'.

I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

Visit my books on Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Smashwords (for access to all other formats and access to Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, WH Smith, Kobo and many other good ebookstores.

Digital Life Form is available on Amazon.com in paperback for $8 (or for £5 plus P&P in the UK for UK readers - contact me on raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com for details)

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books

To View My books In....

Thursday 29 March 2012

eBook Publishing Secrets Revealed

I know many of the readers of this blog are interested in self publishing - it's one of the most popular subjects that I write about, up there with info on eReader discounts. So it's a pleasure to let someone else do the talking on the subject.

That someone is Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords and as much an evangelist for eBooks as anyone I could mention. Sure, Mark makes a living out of Smashwords, so it's fair to say he has a vested interest in promoting the medium of eBooks, but I've been reading his blog entries, his site updates and his other material for some time now and it's pretty obvious that Smashwords is more than a job for Mark, it's a vocation.

One advantage Mark has over most of us is the ability to see anything that crosses the Smashwords digital threshold. He will have seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly. He also has access to the stats regarding the books in his store and promoted onwards to the likes of Apple, Kobo, WH Smith, Sony, Barnes & Noble etc. He knows what's selling, what's being browsed even if they're not making sales and, critically he can see which books are being ignored.

On top of this, Mark has clearly taken the time to talk to the authors that do sell on Smashwords and it is clear from his writing that he is someone who is prepared to keep on learning. So Mark has put all of his experience over the last few years into an eBook that has a lot to offer budding and existing authors. Not only is the book brimming with common sense advice and observations, but it is absolutely free. It is also available in any format you wish to read in, too.

But Mark isn't just leveraging his position as CEO of Smashwords to make observations on the trends he can view from his exhalted position, he's also drawing on many years of marketing experience, which is Mark's professional background. To add credibilty to Mark's perspective, he has recently downgraded his belief in the value of marketing in eBooks, recognising that there are many other aspects of the process that contribute to success, should it happen.

And Mark is extremely upfront about the prospects for most of us authors - he tempers expectations right from the off, rightly so, I may add.

Pop along to Smashwords and download a free copy of Mark's book 'The Secrets to eBook Publishing Success'. Even if you've self published successfully there's a fair bet on that you'll find at least one extra nugget you haven't thought of before. Highly recommended.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my book

To View My books In....

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Project: Evil – Design Freeze Meeting part 3

‘You’re nuts,’ shouted O’Feld, which caused one of the scientists to interject.

‘No, not Alec’s, the Armadillo’s,’ he said, adding, ‘it’s not as stupid as it sounds. Well, perhaps it is as stupid, but hear Alec out before you shoot him,’ he said. O’Feld considered this and decided to go against company protocol, which insisted you asked questions only after shooting. Alec pulled a sheet of paper out from his folder and passed it over.

‘Most organic material is shredded when exposed to space radiation, but experiments have shown that armadillo gonads actually become harder than depleted uranium balls when subjected to this radiation. Release enough armadillo gonads in space and they’ll hop around the stratosphere ripping apart every defence and communication satellite they come across.’ O’Feld looked a little impressed, but also had that “so what” look as well. Brian felt that the pitch had gone better than he’d expected, so he crawled from under the table sized boogie box he’d insisted on being in the meeting. O’Feld looked at Brian.

‘Is this true?’ he asked.

‘According to Wikipedia it is,’ replied Brian, adding, ‘Think of the impact this would have – no defence networks, Twitter and Facebook reduced to semaphore, Rupert Murdoch’s empire smashed to smithereens in seconds…’ O’Feld thumped his fist on the table.

‘I like it, blackmail the planet and threaten to destroy a Megalomaniac peer in the process,’ said O’Feld, rubbing his hands together. ‘And I take it that armadillo gonads are cheaper than antimatter?’ Brian nodded, he had two in a cage ready to start breeding already, they looked like armour plated rats and it was his expectation that by January he’d have seven generations humping away.

‘Our calculations are that we only need five thousand pairs of gonads to destroy the satellite networks, and we’ve got a vet on our books ready to start harvesting them.’ O’Feld looked satisfied.

‘The vet, is he fully qualified?’ he asked. Daw pitched in as this was his department.

‘Of course not, he’s only fourteen. He just got released from Borstal having served two years for torturing animals. Absolutely psychotic killer tendencies in the making, so we’ve put him on a modern apprenticeship scheme.’

‘Good,’ said O’Feld. ‘Anything else?’ Brian pulled out roll after roll of technical drawings.

‘The mock volcano is a standard design made from Papier-mâché and polystyrene blocks, mission control we’ve discussed already,’ he said, scattering drawings around the room as he looked for the one he wanted. ‘And the rocket is a standard three stage Atlas style model, stolen from your cousin in Ireland, from his RyanSpace project, designed to challenge Richard Branson’s Virgin Space venture as a low cost space travel company.’ O’Feld looked fit to burst – two of his biggest evil Megalomaniac competitors hurt in one project. He pulled out his pen.

‘That’s fine, Brian, you really do run the best bunch of TWATs this company has ever produced,’ he said, signing off the project. Brian gathered up the various documents as O’Feld slipped his pen in his top pocket. He turned to the TWATs.

‘Good work, men. Now this is signed off we can set up the work orders. No more redesigning from now on, it’s time to make this project run,’ he said, waving to O’Feld as he walked out of the meeting room. Then the door reopened and O’Feld popped his head around it.

‘Just a couple of things, Brian. I’m not keen on the colour scheme for the rocket, I hate NASA white, change it to beige; I’d like a fourth stage adding to the rocket, double the size of the crocodile pool and find a way to have both a pointless monorail and golf buggies. I notice your design only allows for one or the other.’ Brian felt his heart sink.

‘Sure thing, boss,’ he said, hoping that was it.

‘And I notice the mission is meant to be unmanned as henchmen would be pretty useless in space when all we are doing is deploying a load of armadillo balls, but I’d like the mission to have a full complement of henchmen to fight off an attack by US Space Marines using the Space Shuttles they have just dismantled,’ he said, slamming the door as he left.

Public Sector man sidled up to Brian. ‘That seems to be a result, looks like you’ve got everything you wanted, and more,’ he said. Brian just shook his head; he knew that he’d have to compromise again on the specification to fit in all of O’Feld’s requests. He didn’t quite know how he was going to break it to Public Sector man that the Safari Suit Detection System was going to be compromised.

Digital Life Form is available on Amazon.com in paperback for $8 (or for £5 plus P&P in the UK for UK readers - contact me on raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com for details)

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books

To View My books In....

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Head in the Cloud

Hands up if you've got a bookcase crammed with books? How about a CD shelf? A frightening number of DVDs bursting out of your TV cabinet? Box of photos in the attic? And by box, I mean a big box. I'll bet half of you still have video tapes and, if I probe enough of you, at least one will still have some Betamax tapes, next to the eight tracks on the shelf.

Yup, in what seems a blink of my eye, but is probably more than a lifetime for some of you, technologies have come and gone and will probably disappear without a trace in the next ten years.

Books? Well you should know my view by now, sure there will be a resistance to eBooks but that will change - pricing, ecological arguments, the sheer convenience of carrying around countless books will reach a tipping point soon.

Music? In my lifetime I've seen vinyl go, come back, go again, resurface and despite holding respect for a minority of collectors will go once and for all soon. The unit cost of manufacturing, the ecology point (again) and the viable alternatives will render vinyl as relevant as the eight tracks some of you still love to play - both of you. CDs are going the same way, and I'll admit to being a bit of a dinosaur here as I still buy the odd one myself. But the future isn't plastic based, it isn't even physical in the sense of hard drives, USB flash drives and MP3 players.

The same goes for your photos, the fading ones in the box upstairs and the thousands on various media associated with your digital camera. Let's face it, they're becoming unmanageable and difficult to keep track of anyway. Some will be duplicated on several hard drives, DVDs and flash drives, others, probably the ones that you really want to keep, are in one place only. If you can remember where they are, it would be great.

And what about those films on DVD and Blu-ray? Think of it as a temporary solution that is almost played out. Already we're hooking into Lovefilm and Netflix for our old films and TV programmes. The established TV companies are struggling to pay their way using the traditional advertising model. It doesn't work anymore because increasingly we're recording our TV on hard drive recorders and fast forwarding through the ads. Think of 2015 (or thereabouts) as the year the networks went subscription. Once that step is made then programming as we know it will disappear also - programmes will be released at a point in time and will then be available for viewing when required. With subscription YouTube will almost become redundant as we'll all have our own personal YouTube.

Sure, there will still be advertising TV, but it will be for those who won't or can't pay for subscription TV. But who wants to pay to advertise to the poor or the tight fisted?

All of these activities will take place on Clouds, the huge server networks being constructed and linked around the planet. Apple have one and millions of us are using it. Amazon are developing theirs - it's up and running in the US but I think they are struggling to broaden it across Europe, which is probably as good a reason as to why the Kindle Fire still hasn't launched here. Your mobile phone probably uses a cloud and if you prefer webmail to a client based service such as Outlook then your emails are sat on a cloud.

Cloud based storage has moved from a concept to a reality in a few short years. It is being used by you and me, often unknowingly, and is used by small, medium and large corporations. Governments and their agencies are tapping into Clouds big time. Bolt on your remaining legacy photos, music, books; add subscription TV, film and music and you'll find that we're up in the Clouds and there's no going back. Or, indeed, down.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my book

To View My books In....

Sunday 25 March 2012

Project: Evil - Design Freeze Meeting part 2

Brian wasn’t finished, though. ‘Additionally, because NoDangerStyle UK feel they’ve let us down a little regarding the antimatter they’ve agreed to provide the glazing for the rocket itself at a BOGOF rate, as long as we change the rocket window design to the dimensions of a standard semi-detached in Wimbledon.’ O’Feld looked impressed; however Daw wasn’t as keen on the deal.

‘There’s such a thing as a standard semi-detached in Wimbledon?’ he queried. Brian shrugged; he’d asked the same question.

‘It’s a very specific standard semi, one which has just reneged on a deal after the windows have been manufactured,’ he explained, adding, ‘but although the cost of redesigning the rocket has increased by four million pounds to accommodate the windows, they are only going to cost us eighty five pounds total and then there’s the three point two million cost of the rocket standard glazing that we no longer need, so the budget seems to be doing OK out of this,’ he said, hoping Daw wasn’t counting. The Head of Finance scribbled some figures down and gave O’Feld a nod in agreement.

‘Continue,’ said O’Feld. Before Brian could open his mouth, Daw had his finger in the air again.

‘If we haven’t got the antimatter for the Super Heated Antimatter Gun, why are we sending a rocket into space?’ he asked. Brian took a slug of water, hoping it was the only slug he’d take that day.

‘Well, me and the team,’ he said, waving an arm expansively across the technical members, none of whom seemed ready to acknowledge membership at this point.

‘Your TWATs?’ asked O’Feld. Brian nodded.

‘We truly are a team here, so I don’t like to think of them as “my” TWATs,’ he said, stalling for time while waiting for inspiration, ‘I like to think that I’m a bit of a TWAT, too, and proud of it,’ he said. If he’d hoped the other TWATs in the meeting would swing around and support him, it wasn’t happening at this point.

‘We’ve got three options,’ said Brian. ‘First, we could forget using a space borne weapon,’ he said. O’Feld turned beetroot red.

‘Then why would we build a launch pad and a mission control?’ he asked, adding, ‘that doesn’t make any sense; the rocket’s non-negotiable,’ he said, sitting down again. Brian gulped and continued.

‘We could ditch the acronym and invent a new one,’ he suggested. O’Feld considered this briefly.

‘Such as?’ he asked.

‘Space Aligned Laser Targetter,’ suggested Brian, forgetting what planet threatening event this posed.

‘SALT?’ exclaimed O’Feld, ‘Which TWAT thought of that?’ he asked.

‘Strictly it wasn’t a TWAT,’ answered Brian, inwardly thinking that actually, it was. ‘It was the Head of Catering’s suggestion,’ he said. O’Feld glowered at the Chief Cook before turning back to Brian.

‘No, I’m vetoing the change of acronym idea as well. We’ll have a rocket, a launch pad, a pointless mock volcano and a SHAG; end of chat. I hope that was your third option?’ he said, absently stroking a pistol he’d found stuffed down his sock. Brian wasn’t certain, but he thought that the pistol had been slipped in there by the Head of Catering.

‘Well, obviously, that was indeed my third option and as I’m sure you know, we always present the no-hoper ideas first in these meetings,’ answered Brian, sweating, trying to remember what O’Feld did when he wanted to provide options. Then he remembered he was working for an autocratic Megalomaniac who never presented options. Unless die standing or running counted as an option.

‘So, we can’t have a Super Heated Antimatter Gun. What can we have?’ asked O’Feld, examining the pistol, finding out that it had dum-dum bullets loaded.

‘Well,’ said Brian, looking at one of his engineers, ‘Alec did have a suggestion,’ he said, watching Alec shake his head vigorously. O’Feld fixed his stare at the engineer.

‘Come on, man, what have you got?’ The engineer gulped as he flicked pointlessly through his project pad.

‘It wasn’t a serious suggestion,’ he volunteered, noting that the pistol had been closed and the cocking lever pulled back. ‘It was just a play on words,’ he said, sweating.

‘Go on,’ said O’Feld, entirely focused on the engineer who, suddenly, found the seats around him had been vacated.

‘Space Hopping Armadillo Gonads,’ said Alec.

Digital Life Form is available on Amazon.com in paperback for $8 (or for £5 plus P&P in the UK for UK readers - contact me on raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com for details)

For quick access to the various Kindle, Kobo, WH Smith and Smashword links please use the table below to view my books

To View My books In....

Saturday 24 March 2012

Wired For Sound (and Vision)

In the Eighties the phenomenon of the day was the Sony Walkman, a genre breaking device that looked futuristic and sleek that allowed everyone to take their music with them. Cliff Richard had one of his biggest hits based on the Walkman with a song called 'Wired For Sound'.

Thirty years on and anyone digging a Walkman out of their attic will wonder what the furore was all about - it has the stying of a washing machine and the profile of a brick. And the media! Cassette tape, prone to stretching, intolerant of mishandling and, for goodness sake, limited to forty-five minutes of music on each side - OK there were 2 hour cassettes but the agreed wisdom was that the longer tapes failed quicker.

Compare that to today - solid state memory rules for portable music devices, although I suspect the days of dedicated MP3 players is near to an end as screens suitable for watching movies seem to appear on virtually every domestic device these days. Creative did have a strong pitch to rival Apple in the early days of the iPod with it's Zen range of hard-drive MP3 players, but I think it lost that battle pretty quickly thanks to the solid state technology and Apple's dominance of the legitimate MP3 market.

But as I pointed out above, it's getting harder to find devices that just play music - images are becoming a must as well as Internet surfing capability. A recent US study identified that a significant number of sports games were watched on mobile phones and tablet devices - not enough to threaten the TV based viewing figures just yet but double the number compared to other computer based devices such as PCs.

This is another example of the convergence in technology we're seeing and I think the only element slowing down this process is the availability of open wireless networks. In the UK, outside of your own home, the availability of free wireless networks is patchy, confined to coffee shops and MacDonald's. Some hotels and guest houses offer it but increasingly the bigger hotel chains expect customers to pay anything from £5 a day to £5 an hour.

While I think it's a great marketing opportunity for commercial traders to draw customers into their business premises, there's an obvious gap here, only filled to a minimal amount by 3G. Yet most cities and larger towns are increasingly desperate to draw in tourists, and those that are unlikely to appeal to holiday makers are trying to make themselves attractive to commerce. Yet I'm unaware that any such location in the UK is looking at providing a free WiFi service for it's inhabitants and visitors. They seem to think that leaving it to the commercial sector to provide Internet access is adequate.

I don't. I think the first towns and cities in this country to build in free WiFi within its tourist and commercial sectors will find both sectors growing, probably exponentially. It won't be the same for every town and city to join the club, though - fortune will tend to favour those who do it first. The ones that come later will do so because they have seen other towns and cities do well because of their initiative, but by then the public expectation will be that WiFi is available for free everywhere.

So the moral is this: Someone will bite the bullet and fill their town or city with free WiFi and will reap the commercial and tourist benefits, hopefully soon. Everyone after them will be playing catch up to some degree until we reach a point where free WiFi is as expected as street lighting. Which is interesting, as street lighting has a number of useful features that would be needed for such a network - height and electrical power supplies, for example. At least street lights would be earning their keep 24 hours a day instead of just at night time if they had WiFi network routers strapped to them. Telephone poles might seem to be a more natural anchor, but they are disappearing fast underground - that shouldn't happen to street lights.

Come that day, or night, then we'll all be wired for sound and vision.

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I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

To find out more about my ancestors visit my sister’s website http://sullivanfamilyhistory.angelfire.com/