or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
[ 11 minute read ]
No Thanks
Just quietly do your job
While the world seems to want to be more closely linked in personal ways, I vehemently eschew such interaction. There is a strap-line for a Google SmartPhone that goes something like this: 'If someone asks you a question and the answer is on your phone, why not let your phone answer for you?' When the world got widespread availability of mobile phones we all wanted to talk, to share our experiences in real-time. It was fun and fine to do this. I liked it. Then we got social media in which we were able to make artifices of ourselves; we could pretend we live in a big house or near a white sandy beach when we really live on a council estate in Manchester.
It is okay to lie because we all seemingly do it even if we don't recognise we are doing it. 'I don't have time to do that' You probably do. 'I did the best I could' No, you didn't.
Now though there is a drive towards the personal approach in business and business entities. This came about decades ago when after-sales care became interesting for businesses, largely in the USA. It transmuted itself into the UK and now the personal approach is making itself known in the government bodies in the UK.
I received a text message on my phone. It used to be until quite recently that my phone was not a SmartPhone with internet capabilities. However, the government practically overnight took away our hopes of privacy by mandating that the 3G network be discontinued. DumbPhones worked on the 3G network and as we know, they are dumb because they have no internet capability. That is precisely why I had one. I have a whole gamut of procedures to prevent my personal information escaping from my devices. The most important one is that I never let my SmartPhone go on the internet, not even to update itself. It is a phone, not a media device, to me. I have laptops with internet capability that have manual switches or manually inserted dongles to access the internet, if I want to play.
It is no secret that I am an Open University student; A.I. established that long ago; before I even realised it did. Here is an example of why I never let my SmartPhone go online:
My local council sent me a text that said that they are updating their records and that I should use the link (in the text) to access an online form. Of course, I could allow internet access because I have 20Gb data allowance with my SIM plan, but I didn't. Instead, I very carefully typed the link address into the website bar in one of my laptops. I received a default message, ostensibly saying that there was a problem and access is not enabled. I am used to coding and recognise that the tiniest error will result in absolutely nothing happening. The address though is very simple and I rewrote it and treble checked it; same result. I phoned the council and told them that I could not access the online form.
'Let's fill out the form over the phone then, Mr Cadwell'
'Okay'
'What is your date of birth and national insurance number?'
'Why do you want to know that?'
'I don't know.'
I did not announce who I was when I phoned, but because they have my telephone number on record they knew who was calling. I explained that I would never click on a link on my SmartPhone, which is what prompted the offer to fill out the form over the phone. I knew that by allowing my phone to go online all sorts of interrogatory software would be downloaded and everything on my phone would be uploaded somewhere. That is a matter of course. Samsung, the phone manufacturer, wants to know how we use our phones. Does it have expanded memory? for example. Google want to know who we are and what we do and like, and who our contacts are. Remember, if it is on your phone and someone asks you a question, why not let your phone answer for you?
We all know that a government body can use our national insurance numbers to ascertain our tax position. My council, if I tell them what my national insurance number is, would be able to place me in a socio-economic band. Why do they need to do that? Even credit reference agencies can do this with our national insurance numbers. As an ID it is not as good as a passport or driving licence so asking for this information is not for the purposes of identifying someone, in itself.
The reason the link in the text from the council didn't work when I typed it into my laptop website bar is because the link goes to a site that expects a SIM to be in a SmartPhone with the appropriate operating system. My laptops do not use any SmartPhone operating systems. That is why I use them for internet use; because practically everyone else uses their phone to access the web, it makes my web fun safer since there is a reduced chance of phishing software accessing my data; simply put, it is inefficient to write software to also deal with computer operating software when data can easily be garnered from people's phones anyway.
Just as the person answering the phone at the council office can see on their screen who is calling if they have recorded a number associated with a person; the web form where the link would go would interrogate a SmartPhone and find the telephone number associated with the SIM, and then be able to present a personalised form to the user. That is fine, except that it demonstrates that interrogatory software is being used. What is your date of birth and national insurance number and what is your email address? It takes me no time at all to recognise that I would willingly and with full permission be creating a profile of myself using an online form, or over the phone, without knowing what the information would be used for. Why would anyone want to have an identifying profile of me? Why would anyone be foolish enough to say, 'Here is my profile, do what you like with it.' ? I presume that if I ask the council they will tell me that they want to personalise their contact with me. And that, is precisely why I never want personalised contacts. That whole idea is merely a way to garner personal information for a profile to be built. I happen to know that our bank accounts can be accessed by Government bodies. In the past, I have signed into my Experian account and been able to see my bank balance in real time. I expect the council for would ask for my bank details. Where do I spend my money? Is there a repetitive amount that denotes a gambling or alcohol addiction or do I have a lot of insurance or a loan, perhaps. In my case, I pay for a website. Might be worth a look to see if I post subversive content, eh?
Imagine this. In its beneficial clothes, personalised contact can make age appropriate information available. If you are young, you might want to be made aware of an upcoming music event; if you are older, you might want to hear about a new lawn bowls green, or vote on one being built. However, the young person will not hear about the new bowls green and the old person will not hear about the music event. Even if neither party cares not for the preferences of the other, the opportunity to search for what interests us is diminished, even if we do not become marginalised by our supposed physical and mental ability or supposed preferences. Let me elaborate: If I want an ice-cream and an ice-cream van comes along, I am unlikely to walk past the ice-cream van to the shop nearby. My opportunity for satisfying my want is increased by the arrival of an ice-cream van; but it really isn't. Having an ice-cream van immediately before me will stop me going into town to a shop and buying a bowl of ice-cream in a cafe; it will stop me going into Lidl or Marks and Spencers to buy ice-cream and a few lollies as well. So, personalising messages reduces social interaction, just as if your phone answers a question for you. It really is a case of, 'I can't be bothered. In any case, I have done enough, and I have done my duty to interact with you by allowing my phone to answer questions and make decisions for me.' (the settings on the phone being a conduit for suggestions from business entities).
I suspect though, that the council has a hidden agenda. If an empty form came up on my laptop when I typed the link in, I would have been able to enter my name; which is a far safer way of accessing and filling out forms. What the council thought appropriate is that my personalised telephone number should be accessed and sent whizzing through the air as data, that data is in a form that can be harvested (hence the resultant personalised web form). Not a good idea yesterday, today or tomorrow! I can only guess whether the pictures of my garden would have also been harvested from my phone. Of course, there are no pictures of my car or my family or of any persons, or even a pet on my phone. All of these are absolutely part of a highly personalised profile if they ever exist somewhere else.
'We only wanted to establish a personal way to approach you. How do you want to be approached?' This seems evident because the person who took my call at the council actually offered to only send letters to contact me. That is weird in itself because no business wants to use paper, that has a cost attached to it, to contact anyone. So, it seems highly likely to me that the council has completely got things wrong in that people actually want to have a personal relationship with them as though they are friendly and listening. This is merely a limping alternative to just doing their job. 'I am sorry you are not satisfied, we understand your frustration...' Just do your job!
On education with he OU: I absolutely do not expect to need to ask any tutor for advice while I am an undergraduate. If I cannot understand the text books it is because the OU has failed to supply adequate and appropriate material. Just supply the information in the first instance. End of story. 'Actually, Mr Cadwell, we don't know how to any more. We recognise that people have different needs and so we propose to treat everyone on a personal basis by getting to know them.' That is no doubt due to the current weird way of educating people in UK secondary schools wherein the strongest are compelled to hep the weakest and so the weakest feel empowered and think they can later do a degree - hence the need for tutors being friendly and approachable. Instead of people recognising their limits they have been sold a lie. I have already written on why not everyone can be what they want.
I understand how to build a rapport with someone because I have studied it. One can 'pace' and 'mirror' someone when you are in their presence, for example. If this is not do-able, then sharing common values is a good way of building rapport - 'agreeing', in other words. However, in agreeing with me the tutor gets to tell me about themself. Here is the rub, for me. A tutor is not part of the subject material. I never need to know what a tutor likes or does not like. I never need to know what their preferences are or how they interact with the world. I only need to know the subject material. I absolutely do NOT want to store information with a hook that is associated with any person who is not part of the subject material. Just mark the assignment and say where I went wrong. You know what? Even though I despise A.I., give the task to an bunch of algorithms and let the feedback be emotionally arid.
But this attitude I have is not normal in the UK today. It seems that because people are so connected with their digital devices they have become augmented by their digital devices to such an extent that removing the digital implants from them would likely bring on a mental breakdown that doctors would foolishly diagnose as PTSD, when all it would really be is acute anxiety.
I worry that world conflict may inhibit me completing the current module I am studying, so I shall jump to the End of Module Assignment, due in May this year, because even with an amazing score for all the Tutor Marked Assignments throughout the academic year, without a pass for the EMA by the deadline I shall fail the whole module. This means that I shall skip at least one TMA, but I have achieved a high enough score at Level One to not need more marks for TMAs.
I cannot imagine beyond being incredulous what people would be like if the phone network breaks down even a little bit. I rather think that most people would die if they were washed up marooned on an island, not from lack of food or water, but from severe anxiety because they have completely lost their personal contacts and reliance on 'how to' advice from the internet.
In today's climate my reluctance to share my personal information makes me seem hostile. No, that isn't me. I simply loathe personal service. As far as I am concerned, personal service is an excuse for not doing the job right in the first place; that is excepting establishments such as expensive restaurants and hotels that were originally built on the novelty of offering personal service.
Of course, if I had been sold a lie when I was younger and actually believed that I can do anything if I am in a team I would never have noticed that the Council are trying to harvest information.
My tutor means well. He simply doesn't realise that I never believed anything about myself that I didn't discover by myself.
My degree is my degree. It is not going to be a team degree. Unfortunately, the Open University seems to award degrees on the basis that undergraduates can't do a degree by themselves. Part of my degree, it seems, will be based on social interaction, or teamwork, or a deep reliance on tutor assistance. I vehemently discard such notions as being a valid position or qualification to aspire to.
Just do your Job well
All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551
or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
[ 11 minute read ]
No Thanks
Just quietly do your job
While the world seems to want to be more closely linked in personal ways, I vehemently eschew such interaction. There is a strap-line for a Google SmartPhone that goes something like this: 'If someone asks you a question and the answer is on your phone, why not let your phone answer for you?' When the world got widespread availability of mobile phones we all wanted to talk, to share our experiences in real-time. It was fun and fine to do this. I liked it. Then we got social media in which we were able to make artifices of ourselves; we could pretend we live in a big house or near a white sandy beach when we really live on a council estate in Manchester.
It is okay to lie because we all seemingly do it even if we don't recognise we are doing it. 'I don't have time to do that' You probably do. 'I did the best I could' No, you didn't.
Now though there is a drive towards the personal approach in business and business entities. This came about decades ago when after-sales care became interesting for businesses, largely in the USA. It transmuted itself into the UK and now the personal approach is making itself known in the government bodies in the UK.
I received a text message on my phone. It used to be until quite recently that my phone was not a SmartPhone with internet capabilities. However, the government practically overnight took away our hopes of privacy by mandating that the 3G network be discontinued. DumbPhones worked on the 3G network and as we know, they are dumb because they have no internet capability. That is precisely why I had one. I have a whole gamut of procedures to prevent my personal information escaping from my devices. The most important one is that I never let my SmartPhone go on the internet, not even to update itself. It is a phone, not a media device, to me. I have laptops with internet capability that have manual switches or manually inserted dongles to access the internet, if I want to play.
It is no secret that I am an Open University student; A.I. established that long ago; before I even realised it did. Here is an example of why I never let my SmartPhone go online:
My local council sent me a text that said that they are updating their records and that I should use the link (in the text) to access an online form. Of course, I could allow internet access because I have 20Gb data allowance with my SIM plan, but I didn't. Instead, I very carefully typed the link address into the website bar in one of my laptops. I received a default message, ostensibly saying that there was a problem and access is not enabled. I am used to coding and recognise that the tiniest error will result in absolutely nothing happening. The address though is very simple and I rewrote it and treble checked it; same result. I phoned the council and told them that I could not access the online form.
'Let's fill out the form over the phone then, Mr Cadwell'
'Okay'
'What is your date of birth and national insurance number?'
'Why do you want to know that?'
'I don't know.'
I did not announce who I was when I phoned, but because they have my telephone number on record they knew who was calling. I explained that I would never click on a link on my SmartPhone, which is what prompted the offer to fill out the form over the phone. I knew that by allowing my phone to go online all sorts of interrogatory software would be downloaded and everything on my phone would be uploaded somewhere. That is a matter of course. Samsung, the phone manufacturer, wants to know how we use our phones. Does it have expanded memory? for example. Google want to know who we are and what we do and like, and who our contacts are. Remember, if it is on your phone and someone asks you a question, why not let your phone answer for you?
We all know that a government body can use our national insurance numbers to ascertain our tax position. My council, if I tell them what my national insurance number is, would be able to place me in a socio-economic band. Why do they need to do that? Even credit reference agencies can do this with our national insurance numbers. As an ID it is not as good as a passport or driving licence so asking for this information is not for the purposes of identifying someone, in itself.
The reason the link in the text from the council didn't work when I typed it into my laptop website bar is because the link goes to a site that expects a SIM to be in a SmartPhone with the appropriate operating system. My laptops do not use any SmartPhone operating systems. That is why I use them for internet use; because practically everyone else uses their phone to access the web, it makes my web fun safer since there is a reduced chance of phishing software accessing my data; simply put, it is inefficient to write software to also deal with computer operating software when data can easily be garnered from people's phones anyway.
Just as the person answering the phone at the council office can see on their screen who is calling if they have recorded a number associated with a person; the web form where the link would go would interrogate a SmartPhone and find the telephone number associated with the SIM, and then be able to present a personalised form to the user. That is fine, except that it demonstrates that interrogatory software is being used. What is your date of birth and national insurance number and what is your email address? It takes me no time at all to recognise that I would willingly and with full permission be creating a profile of myself using an online form, or over the phone, without knowing what the information would be used for. Why would anyone want to have an identifying profile of me? Why would anyone be foolish enough to say, 'Here is my profile, do what you like with it.' ? I presume that if I ask the council they will tell me that they want to personalise their contact with me. And that, is precisely why I never want personalised contacts. That whole idea is merely a way to garner personal information for a profile to be built. I happen to know that our bank accounts can be accessed by Government bodies. In the past, I have signed into my Experian account and been able to see my bank balance in real time. I expect the council for would ask for my bank details. Where do I spend my money? Is there a repetitive amount that denotes a gambling or alcohol addiction or do I have a lot of insurance or a loan, perhaps. In my case, I pay for a website. Might be worth a look to see if I post subversive content, eh?
Imagine this. In its beneficial clothes, personalised contact can make age appropriate information available. If you are young, you might want to be made aware of an upcoming music event; if you are older, you might want to hear about a new lawn bowls green, or vote on one being built. However, the young person will not hear about the new bowls green and the old person will not hear about the music event. Even if neither party cares not for the preferences of the other, the opportunity to search for what interests us is diminished, even if we do not become marginalised by our supposed physical and mental ability or supposed preferences. Let me elaborate: If I want an ice-cream and an ice-cream van comes along, I am unlikely to walk past the ice-cream van to the shop nearby. My opportunity for satisfying my want is increased by the arrival of an ice-cream van; but it really isn't. Having an ice-cream van immediately before me will stop me going into town to a shop and buying a bowl of ice-cream in a cafe; it will stop me going into Lidl or Marks and Spencers to buy ice-cream and a few lollies as well. So, personalising messages reduces social interaction, just as if your phone answers a question for you. It really is a case of, 'I can't be bothered. In any case, I have done enough, and I have done my duty to interact with you by allowing my phone to answer questions and make decisions for me.' (the settings on the phone being a conduit for suggestions from business entities).
I suspect though, that the council has a hidden agenda. If an empty form came up on my laptop when I typed the link in, I would have been able to enter my name; which is a far safer way of accessing and filling out forms. What the council thought appropriate is that my personalised telephone number should be accessed and sent whizzing through the air as data, that data is in a form that can be harvested (hence the resultant personalised web form). Not a good idea yesterday, today or tomorrow! I can only guess whether the pictures of my garden would have also been harvested from my phone. Of course, there are no pictures of my car or my family or of any persons, or even a pet on my phone. All of these are absolutely part of a highly personalised profile if they ever exist somewhere else.
'We only wanted to establish a personal way to approach you. How do you want to be approached?' This seems evident because the person who took my call at the council actually offered to only send letters to contact me. That is weird in itself because no business wants to use paper, that has a cost attached to it, to contact anyone. So, it seems highly likely to me that the council has completely got things wrong in that people actually want to have a personal relationship with them as though they are friendly and listening. This is merely a limping alternative to just doing their job. 'I am sorry you are not satisfied, we understand your frustration...' Just do your job!
On education with he OU: I absolutely do not expect to need to ask any tutor for advice while I am an undergraduate. If I cannot understand the text books it is because the OU has failed to supply adequate and appropriate material. Just supply the information in the first instance. End of story. 'Actually, Mr Cadwell, we don't know how to any more. We recognise that people have different needs and so we propose to treat everyone on a personal basis by getting to know them.' That is no doubt due to the current weird way of educating people in UK secondary schools wherein the strongest are compelled to hep the weakest and so the weakest feel empowered and think they can later do a degree - hence the need for tutors being friendly and approachable. Instead of people recognising their limits they have been sold a lie. I have already written on why not everyone can be what they want.
I understand how to build a rapport with someone because I have studied it. One can 'pace' and 'mirror' someone when you are in their presence, for example. If this is not do-able, then sharing common values is a good way of building rapport - 'agreeing', in other words. However, in agreeing with me the tutor gets to tell me about themself. Here is the rub, for me. A tutor is not part of the subject material. I never need to know what a tutor likes or does not like. I never need to know what their preferences are or how they interact with the world. I only need to know the subject material. I absolutely do NOT want to store information with a hook that is associated with any person who is not part of the subject material. Just mark the assignment and say where I went wrong. You know what? Even though I despise A.I., give the task to an bunch of algorithms and let the feedback be emotionally arid.
But this attitude I have is not normal in the UK today. It seems that because people are so connected with their digital devices they have become augmented by their digital devices to such an extent that removing the digital implants from them would likely bring on a mental breakdown that doctors would foolishly diagnose as PTSD, when all it would really be is acute anxiety.
I worry that world conflict may inhibit me completing the current module I am studying, so I shall jump to the End of Module Assignment, due in May this year, because even with an amazing score for all the Tutor Marked Assignments throughout the academic year, without a pass for the EMA by the deadline I shall fail the whole module. This means that I shall skip at least one TMA, but I have achieved a high enough score at Level One to not need more marks for TMAs.
I cannot imagine beyond being incredulous what people would be like if the phone network breaks down even a little bit. I rather think that most people would die if they were washed up marooned on an island, not from lack of food or water, but from severe anxiety because they have completely lost their personal contacts and reliance on 'how to' advice from the internet.
In today's climate my reluctance to share my personal information makes me seem hostile. No, that isn't me. I simply loathe personal service. As far as I am concerned, personal service is an excuse for not doing the job right in the first place; that is excepting establishments such as expensive restaurants and hotels that were originally built on the novelty of offering personal service.
Of course, if I had been sold a lie when I was younger and actually believed that I can do anything if I am in a team I would never have noticed that the Council are trying to harvest information.
My tutor means well. He simply doesn't realise that I never believed anything about myself that I didn't discover by myself.
My degree is my degree. It is not going to be a team degree. Unfortunately, the Open University seems to award degrees on the basis that undergraduates can't do a degree by themselves. Part of my degree, it seems, will be based on social interaction, or teamwork, or a deep reliance on tutor assistance. I vehemently discard such notions as being a valid position or qualification to aspire to.
Thanks, but no thanks.