Computers Can Do Astonishing Things

Stay with me on this one… Let’s start off with a very small camera, taking an admittedly black and white and fairly low-resolution picture. Let’s call this Picture 1. 

Then take another one but from a slightly different place. We’ll keep it simple and do this in only two dimensions rather than three. But in the second picture, the camera can have moved in both x and y by a little bit, or quite a lot. 

Now to do some computing!  

Take the first picture and shift everything up one pixel. Does that match Picture 2? No? Then move everything across a pixel. Does that match now? If not, keep moving Picture 1 around until you get a match. When you get a match, by the magic of maths, you’ll know how far the camera has moved. Now repeat the whole process, but quickly. About 1,000 times per second quickly. That’s a lot of maths. Probably needs a big, expensive computer, right? No, because that’s roughly what’s going on inside an optical mouse, like the one you might be using right now. A mouse like the one I can currently buy on Amazon for £5.39 (including next day shipping).  

That something so complicated and needing to be done so fast can be achieved in a device that appears to cost much less than the sum of its parts is some kind of weird computer magic. Is there nothing that can’t be done better, faster and cheaper with computers? 

People can do astonishing things too. I’m a fan of Cirque du Soleil, but behind all their theatrical magic, the shows would be little to nothing without the amazing things a trained human body can do. Things a normal person could never do. Even somebody much smarter and stronger (and lighter) than me. 

Just recently I have learned how to ride a bicycle. It’s not what you might be thinking! I learnt to ride a bike at the age of 5 but I could not tell you how I did it. It just happens. I have taught both my children to ride bikes and was able to do so successfully without having any idea about what to tell them to do. Yet what is going on, is not unlike what’s going on inside the mouse. Lots of calculations being made very quickly but in three dimensions, not just two. Immediate corrective action being applied when any of those calculations is out of spec. Did you know that you cannot turn a bike right without first turning it left to unbalance the whole system? It’s the recovery from that instability that allows you to turn. Try and turn right without first moving the handlebars to the left (just a bit) and I will not be held responsible for the medical consequences. 

The act of riding a bicycle, driving a car, walking upright or any number of apparently simple things is evolutionary computational mastery. That said, I’m pretty sure a computer could ride a bicycle, probably really well. Computers don’t get sick, tired or grumpy. They are happy to work long hours, or on holidays. They don’t fall out with other computers. My life would be about a million times easier if Delt employed 200 computers instead of people.  

But, and in this case it’s a huge, flashing neon but, there are some things that computers really aren’t very good at. One of them is answering the phone and fixing problems with computers. There are elements of technology support that can be automated and actually serve to benefit the consumer, not just the supplier. However, when somebody needs help, then the best way to get them working again is usually through a conversation with one of those utterly brilliant pieces of evolutionary computational mastery – a person 

A person who understands that you are frustrated, have work to do and really don’t want to engage in a machine led ‘Simon-Says’ with as much empathy as a brick to the face. 

We sometimes use recorded messages – if we have a big outage for example, but beyond that we try to answer the phone in person and quickly. It is our job to get you up and running again with minimum frustration, and the best way to do that is by talking to you, one on one. 

It’s no surprise that this approach (or rather the cost of it) comes in for some criticism but there is little point in providing a lower cost service, if the way we do it is by pushing the costs straight back to the customer in the form of increased non-productivity.  

For now, despite the astonishing things that computers can do, we’ll continue to take the position that there are some things that people do better. 

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

What does Workplace Wellbeing Look Like at Delt? 

One of the silver linings from the pandemic has been the increasing willingness of employers and employees to talk about the importance of mental health and wellbeing. There’s an increasing understanding that employee wellbeing leads to increased productivity and turnover, with a decrease in those expensive absences from work.  For businesses to remain competitive, they need to put employee wellbeing at their very core.  

At Delt, we constantly review our Wellbeing practices and initiatives – drawing on employees’ needs and feedback. We provide a tailored wellness portal with free workouts, healthy recipes, financial advice and an abundance of resources. But these online portals can miss the real problems.  

Our strategy integrates mental health awareness with hands on support. Many of our staff are trained in Mental Health First Aid and provide an initial port of call for anyone who may be struggling and unsure where or who they should turn to.  

Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) can be accessed 24/7 and is not only available to our staff but their partners too. With one to one counselling available, employees can truly feel supported through any difficulties they may be experiencing in a confidential and safe environment.  

From my experience with Delt we have been able to identify a number of benefits to adopting a rounded wellness strategy… 

• Through the EAP we are able to recognise that problems can’t usually be compartmentalised; issues that affect our employee’s personal lives will often affect their work life and vice versa, so employees can discuss any and all types of problems, from debt management advice to relationships to health. 
• Confidentiality is paramount. All our Mental Health First Aiders are educated in confidentiality and our employees know they are in a safe space. Our outsourced, third party provider of our EAP means our employees can be certain that any problems they discuss are kept in complete confidence. 
• Accessibility and flexibility need to suit all employees. Our EAP helpline and online support is available to our employees 24 hours a day, seven days a week offering immediate information, answers and advice. 
• Mental Health and Wellbeing is more than talking. We understand that some of our employees don’t feel comfortable talking but would rather look to fitness or other activities to help their mental wellbeing. We make sure to offer as much variety to our staff as possible. From online resources, fitness challenges to opportunities to learn new skills and develop themselves in areas of genuine interest.   

 Of course, we know we can’t solve the problems for everyone, but we work to achieve a positive workplace and happy and healthy employees at all costs.

Helena White, Head of HR Services

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

Holiday Pictures 

I recently flew 3000 miles to Iceland to cross ‘see a live volcano’ off my bucket list. I should have known better. As soon as I set foot in the country the volcano went to sleep. A few days after I left, it let rip again, with glorious rivers of molten lava rolling along, blissfully far away from habitation but close enough to be a relatively short drive from civilisation. 

Iceland is not a big country and almost everyone seems to live within an hour or so of the capital. I decided not to do the typical tourist thing and stay in the comfort of Reykjavik where the hot water is delivered by mother nature (and smells like rotten eggs) but be bold and stay a couple of hours outside the nearest thing you could call a city and at least 30 minutes’ drive from the nearest paved road. This was to be blissful isolation, unbothered by phone, email, Microsoft Teams or the rest of the world. 

I was almost at my AirBnB shed, hidden in the vast, flat and largely featureless volcanic wasteland that makes up much of Iceland’s southern interior when my mobile rang with a WhatsApp call. This was super annoying because I was using my phone for SatNav and with no real roads, knowing where you were was quite important. More annoying was the fact it was my son, who having been too embarrassed to go on holiday with his father, had stayed at home, made himself a cup of tea, spilt it on the upstairs floor above where the fusebox is and was now wondering why there was a smell of burning in the house and no power. Even from 3000 miles, cause and effect was fairly obvious and a short drying time later, all was well. 

It transpired that despite being somewhere that looked rather remote, and according to the map, of having no cellular coverage, I still had four bars of solid 4G. In fact, every single place I went in Iceland, except for 50m inside a glacier and 140m down a hole that was once a volcano, I had perfect data coverage. Cornwall, where I live most of the time, is full of coverage holes. So is Devon. I’m tempted to have a rant about this but there’s probably a good reason. Iceland is mostly flat with some big mountains – perfect for cellular. Cornwall is not. I was roaming in Iceland, so could use any available signal but in the UK, we are not allowed to roam between networks due to a deal between the Telcos and Government. I’m not sure if I am madder that my son could reach me in nowhere, Iceland or that I can’t make a call from just outside Stratton. 

The main active volcano in Iceland is only a 45-minute drive from the capital but bear in mind that a 10-minute drive from said capital removes you from most signs of humanity. There is no tourist sign saying ‘Volcano’, just an unmarked gravel track. But SatNav in hand, it was easy enough to find. There was a field to park (no charge – clearly, we aren’t in England) in followed by a 45-minute hike up the ridge of what is probably a relatively small and not very steep hill. Google maps tells me its roughly 2km with a vertical climb of around 250m. This should not be that hard a walk but when it’s blowing a force 8 and raining, this is not a fun afternoon stroll. I really got to understand what ‘leaning on the wind’ means. After nearly deciding to give up several times I finally made it to the top where I should have been able to see the crater of the Fagradalsfjall Volcano in all its glory. You already know I didn’t find my view of a lava spewing monster at the top. But what did I find? 

 A cellphone tower, microwave link and webcam. 5 bars of 4G, so I could WhatsApp my son and tell him that I was standing next to an invisible volcano, but that if he looked on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA-9QzIcr3c and could see through the rain, he might be able to see me waving. 

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Photo by Giles Letheren.

The Stuff of Nightmares 

Ronald Reagan once said ‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’  

Whatever your politics, when the American government decides to spend $2B of taxpayers money on helping, it’s probably something important. In this case it’s cyber security. The Senate have now passed Joe Biden’s big infrastructure bill and assuming it makes its way back through the House largely unchanged – far from certain, it will see £1.9B being made available to secure national critical infrastructure, of which the majority will go to local government. 

Senator Maggie Hassan from my adopted home State of New Hampshire said: ‘A cyberattack on a state or local government network can put schools, electrical grids, and crucial services in jeopardy. Even though cyberattacks are becoming more and more common in today’s threat landscape, state and local governments often do not have the adequate resources to defend against them. This new grant program will be a crucial resource for state and local governments…’ 

Our public services have become utterly reliant on technology, which has (or should have) significantly increased speed and quality of service. It has also driven huge costs savings. I had a job in local government over 30 years ago in which not only did I not have a computer, but my boss nor bosses boss nor bosses bosses boss didn’t have one either. The only computer was in finance…. and I still got asked to help fix it.  

We have adopted all the benefits of technology and wilfully taken many of the operational savings, whilst complaining how expensive IT has got. In fairness I should note that we’ve also shouldered the burden of huge failed projects, projects that delivered late, or projects that cost far too much. That’s misery of the world of IT.  On balance though, I hope the benefits have significantly outweighed the disadvantages. 

The public sector in the UK is facing an unprecedented level of cyber threat. Almost as fast as you can close one door, somebody levers open another. For both the amateur and professional criminal alike, let alone sovereign states, the potential upside is huge and the downside pretty much negligible. If you held up a local government cash office (in the days when local government still handled cash) you’d likely be caught and go to prison for quite a long time. If you hold up a local authority now – as happened not so recently at Hackney and others, the odds are that whilst the authorities might be able to figure out who did it, they almost certainly won’t be brought to justice. There’s little incentive for the bad actors not to try. 

I don’t know what the UK government are spending on local government cyber defence but, the Hackney article referenced above suggests £50m. By head, of population, that’s about 75p a person. In contrast, the US investment, if approved, will be closer to £2.21 a person. I don’t know what the right number is, but having run headlong down the digital path, turning almost everything we do into 1’s and 0’s, spending appropriately to protect our ability to keep delivering public services in the face of a fast growing threat feels like exactly the sort of help you’d expect from government. Unless perhaps you are Ronald Reagan. 

Lest anyone think I’m suggesting the American way is better rather than simply different, let me restore some balance. With half my working life spent in the States, I’ve found a balanced view to be important. In the same infrastructure bill, the Senate have agreed to fund the Office of the White House National Cyber Director. That post was appointed in June but with no funding – no one will get everything right.  

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

How can you make public Wi-Fi as safe as possible?

Having warned you off public wi-fi in a previous post, this post covers how to protect yourself if you do need to use it. 

Ultimately, the best way to protect yourself on public Wi-Fi is still not to use it, enabling you to sidestep all the issues caused by not controlling the local network or the people on it. I would encourage anyone who spends a lot of time on these networks to investigate a large data plan for their mobile phone, or alternatively a “Mi-Fi” device that uses a SIM card. 

With that in mind, this post is written assuming that this is not an option.  

1. Practice mindfulness 

Not in the sense that you’ve probably heard the term more recently (though perhaps given there’s a need for it in this scenario, it doesn’t hurt to be thankful that there’s Wi-Fi available). Rather, be aware of what you’re doing on the network – if you don’t need to check your bank account, don’t. Some attacks don’t need to compromise your device, and instead will look for the traffic being sent on the network. Despite the encryption applied by many websites, it’s still possible to see the domain you’re using. For example, in normal use, it would be possible to view the domain of your bank’s website when you access it, even though the pages you view and data you send will be protected by that encryption. This would give a malicious party a foothold in terms of information about you, and they may in turn be able to combine this with other leaked information to carry out a comprehensive phish.  

There are other challenges, especially with the use of apps, where security warnings and errors may be suppressed so that you don’t even know they’ve occurred. Some may hide that they don’t even encrypt the data at all!  

2. Use a VPN, if you can. 

VPNs are a game of trust – you’re effectively saying, “I would rather the operators of this VPN see my web traffic rather than the operators of the network I’m on”. With that in mind, I’d strongly emphasise you have some scepticism about VPN services that advertise heavily on YouTube or other social media. Ditto the services that advertise that they don’t log any traffic – they almost certainly do in one form or another, but it comes with the added bonus that you’re associating your activity with those of other people interested in a “no logs” service – which may not be what you want (and remember that you’ve probably tied your activity to “you” via a credit card or similar payment, so it’s much less private!). 

If you’re shopping for a VPN, I’d recommend looking at those offered by security companies (such as Antivirus vendors) who have been operating the service for a while and have a proven track record. Many of these will also make their own software available to make the connection process easier.  

To check the VPN is running as intended, access a service that tells you your IP (e.g. https://www.whatismyip.com/) – between the listed location and the ISP, this should give you an idea of whether you’re running traffic through it as it should tally up with the VPN you’re using if it’s working!   

Some operators of networks may actively block the use of VPNs – this may be a point to reconsider whether you want to use the network at all. 

3. Make sure your firewall is enabled 

This is a simple one – go into your security settings and check that your firewall is active. In Windows 10, you can search for “Windows Security” which will open this part of the Settings Menu. You’ll see your firewall status under “Firewall & network protection”. A green tick means you’re good to go – anything else means you need to look at what’s wrong.  

If you get asked what type of network, you’re on when you connect to Wi-Fi, pick “Public” for the highest security. 

Even if you use a VPN, your device will still be able to communicate with the local network (including other people trying to connect to your computer), so it’s important that you check the firewall is active.  

4. Check that your Antivirus is enabled and up to date 

This is more likely to protect you if someone is able to access your system or get you to click a link, but you never know what might happen – in Windows 10 you can check this in the same “Windows Security” menu, this time against the “Virus & threat protection. Green tick again should mean everything’s in a good state.  

5. Check other Windows 10 security features 

It’s well worth making sure you’re in a good place with the other security features in Windows 10 as well. Click into Account protection, App & browser control, and Device security to check that you’re aligned to the Microsoft recommended settings. These include settings like the ransomware protection that’s part of Windows 10 and will be as useful at home as they are on public Wi-Fi. 

6.Patch, patch, patch! 

Install updates for Windows and any applications you have installed! If you’re running woefully out of date software, it can be trivial for an attacker to use an exploit tool like Metasploit and gain access to your system from the same network – having your firewall and antivirus active will make this more difficult for them, but sometimes all it takes is one mistake.  

7. Think about whether you can justify changing your data plan or getting a separate “Mi-Fi” unit 

You had to use public Wi-Fi this time, and whilst I said this guide would be written from that perspective – do you need to do it next time? If you regularly need the access on the go I would strongly recommend getting yourself set up to do this in a way that helps protect you from the pitfalls of public Wi-Fi.  

And that’s it – basic steps you take to protect yourself and your data when you’re out about with the help of technology which is, in many cases, already available to you. 

For more general tips on how to protect your digital presence, check out NCSC’s Cyber Aware, which includes a set of questions you can answer for a personalised action plan.

Joseph Smith, IT Security Specialist  

Photo by Petter Lagson on Unsplash

How to stay connected in a Hybrid working world?  

One of the big, although possibly not yet seen, challenges of the next 6 months is going to be the move from mainly remote working to hybrid working. I think it is a great move in terms of work life balance and flexibility. A recent survey from Microsoft showed that staff want flexibility and remote working to stay (74%) alongside getting back to the office to work with their colleagues (67%) (the report put together by Microsoft has some interesting advice for leaders dealing with these questions if you want a read).   

All of this makes me wonder how businesses and staff tackle the challenges of a split workforce. How will buildings be setup to support this? How do you make someone feel included when they aren’t in the room? Does being productive whilst remote working mask burnout? Does the lack of impromptu office meetings make businesses more siloed than ever?  

Many of these questions are being debated and discussed by senior managers as we speak whilst they try to find a balance which works for their business and their staff. It is going to be an evolving culture but, in the meantime, I have included some of the points I think staff can consider when helping their move to hybrid working smoother.   

Understand how you work and what makes you productive   

As the option to work in the office opens, this is a good time to re-evaluate when and how you are the most productive. If you are like me, you tend to love being on your own when you are writing, researching or getting stuck into work but you struggle when you can’t bounce ideas off other people. By understanding that, sometimes, I need to see real people to re-energise myself and create my best ideas can help me plan when to stay home and when I may want a day or two in the office.   

Invest in time to socialise and connect to your colleagues   

As sending a quick chat message becomes the norm for getting answers from colleagues, the chats about daily life and sometimes the odd grumble begins to fade out. This isn’t good for mental health or working relationships. It has been found that during the pandemic people’s networks have reduced and they are speaking to less people outside of their close teams than ever before. This can make an organisation more siloed and out of touch with each other.   

I think there is a risk of this getting becoming a problem when people are working in the office or at home and there is nothing worse than feeling like you missed out on a conversation because you weren’t there (a huge case of office FOMO!). Prioritising personal relationships and even just those brief chats with people from other teams is a good way to help this. If you are a team manager, could you consider cross-team monthly meetups? Offer a mix of remote and in person meets with a good supply of biscuit and cakes to encourage attendance.   

Be inclusive no matter where the team is  

This one links nicely to the above and is something we will all need to try to do. It will be far too easy, when in the office, to forget about those who are not there in person, and it will start to feel very isolating for those feeling being left out or possibly feeling judged for being at home when others are in the office. Being mindful of inclusivity in our day-to-day work can really help with this.   

For example,   

• Having an impromptu meeting about something with a colleague? How about seeing if others who may be able to input are available and quickly Teams call them in?  
• Keep comms and all staff meetings online, this will help stop remote workers feeling out of the loop.   
• Have a quick question for someone working remotely? Why not give them a ring and have a quick catch-up as well.   

My final thought is to remember that going back to the office isn’t going to mean reverting to how we worked before, however, technology and working habits have changed to support this and no one is too far away to be contacted when you need them.   

Helen Day-Cocking, Product Manager – Modern Workplace  

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash 

Location Location Location

We are about to go to market for a new CFO and I’m left thinking about the qualities needed for that role:

1. Must be able to add up better than me (not setting the bar that high)

2. Must be passionate about the public interest sector and helping people do amazing things

3. Must complement our existing senior leadership team, bringing a new voice and new perspective but not breaking the group dynamic

4. Must have the experience and confidence to provide assurance to our stakeholders

5. Must be able to work independently (as I’m not a very good manager) but in a truly collaborative manner, demonstrating high support as well as high challenge with others.

6. Must live locally to HQ?

18 months ago, requirement 6 would have been a must have, but does our enthusiastic adoption of hybrid working change that?

Delt has an objective to deliver sustainable socio-economic development, predominantly targeting the South West. Paying a CFO salary to somebody resident in the South West would help push up our regional gross value add but a good CFO will generate much greater value than their own salary, much of which will be delivered in region, irrespective of where they live. Will they feel more invested in our region if they live here? Possibly, but given I live 90 minutes from HQ (on a good day) I’m not super local myself and just as passionate about what we do and where we do it.

Does it really matter to me if our CFO lives in Totnes, Tunbridge Wells or Toronto?

I really like working from home. I’m more productive, have a better work life balance and don’t spend half my day washing up other people’s coffee cups. I have a better view out of my window than an overfull carpark and find the sound of my sheep and cow neighbours to be more conducive to my sanity than the multitude of open plan conversations that register in my subconscious when sitting in a shared office. However, I really don’t like video meetings for anything strategic. Tactical meetings are OK, even those with numerous participants but the moment you try and move to anything strategic, the technology seems to become a barrier. This might be because I’m Gen X and spent most of my working life sat in a room with others but for me at least, the quality of conversations and debate possible over technology doesn’t compare with being in the same real-world space together.

I really don’t care where our CFO lives. What I care about, is that wherever that is, it doesn’t pose an impediment to our team being able to sit in a room together on a regular basis. That room doesn’t have to be at HQ, it could be anywhere physical. In the gaps, we can exist happily in cyberspace but at least once a month I want to be able to look you in the eye and maybe even buy you a cake. Cake matters. Your home address doesn’t.

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash