Whilst this website is primarily focused towards iPhone and Mac reviews we do sometimes have to step back and take a look at the grand picture. So to summarise that’s exactly what I did today.

I was greeted with the opportunity to spend the morning with Ford and their customer safety team looking at some of the new advances which are coming into the Ford range over the next few years.

Although it may not seem obvious for a website like this, we do try to focus on technology as best as we can and not just limit ourselves to Mac and Apple and this really was too big of a subject to miss.

Since this is technology and some pretty clever stuff too I’ve chosen to do a very in depth review of some of the technologies that were demonstrated today. If you’re looking for a short version then you’re out of luck. There isn’t one. However I think you’ll be find the post more than meaty enough.

With more and more young drivers on the road we are seeing an increased number of them being convicted or cautioned from using a mobile phone or indeed any handheld mobile device. Ignoring the fact that using a mobile phone while driving is illegal, the iPhone in particular presents a problem in the fact that there is no physical keyboard making it an even bigger distraction. Couple this with a loud radio station and or passengers in the car at the same time and it becomes very easy to see how the technology you use may provide enough of a distraction for you to have an accident while driving.

The key focus of Ford, as explained by their safety expert, is to ensure that the drivers focus is on the road at all times and this is something that we can wholly agree with.  Unfortunately however distractions do occur and that’s why this safety event has been touring the country showcasing innovative new features and driver aids to help prevent accidents and also increase the convenience and pleasure of driving a motor vehicle.

Driver aids such as assisted parking, Lane assist and collision avoidance have been available for some time however few have been done well.  For the ones that have been done well they are usually priced so far out of the market of the everyday consumer that you will only ever see them on prestige brands (the E-class Mercedes for example).  even then, brands like Lexus had a self parking vehicle which on every video I’ve seen managers to embarrass itself.  In the case of Volvo  they demonstrated a collision avoidance system which resulted in a written off car and some very embarrassed faces.

Unfortunately as you can see my opinion has been somewhat coloured by past events however I was very grateful for the opportunity and I promised myself that I would enter this with an open mind.

After spending some time speaking to their safety expert  it became obvious that many of my misconceptions and fears were unjustified. True, features like the active city stop and Lane assist are built upon the Volvo platform. However it’s fair to say that significant advances have been made over the past few years.

Today however Fords’ focus was on four main innovations. Active City Stop, Rear Seatbelt Airbags, Park Assist and Driver Alert.

Active City Stop

Active city stop is based on the original collision avoidance system that we saw with Volvo. However this system is designed for use in lower speeds hence the name city. The primary idea with this is that if you’re distracted  in low speed, stop and start traffic or if you’re coming up behind a car stopped at a traffic light, the vehicle will bring itself to a safe stop  if for instance you’re distracted or have a momentary lapse in judgement. This is not to be confused with full collision avoidance of this system is designed to work from reflective surfaces (such as that found in numberplate) and is generally designed for low speeds.

Unlike similar systems, the Ford version will not bring the vehicle to a gradual halt. This system is designed to act at the last minute was providing enough of a jolt to remind the passengers and the driver that their attention should be focused on more important matters.

Ford were kind enough to lay on a demonstration of this, both with a demonstrator and one you could try yourself.  To put it mildly being told to drive the car into a wall is a somewhat unnerving experience. However it provided an effective demonstration of a very effective technology even if they were harmless foam blocks.

the key thing should be noted here however, is that this system is designed to  bring the driver’s attention back to the road rather than providing some rudimentary way for someone to pay less attention at slow speeds thereby keeping the driver in control vehicle.

This technology also goes hand-in-hand with Ford’s next technology, driver alert.

Driver Alert

The driver alert system is just that. A series of complicated computer algorithms combined  with a wealth of sensors mounted on the vehicle to detect when a driver is either not in full control of the vehicle or is driving tired. Indeed there are a number of studies that show  that driving tired is almost as bad as driving drunk.

As you can see from the picture, the dashboard displays a small graphic depicting the traffic sign it’s on board camera just saw.

Using the vehicle mounted camera and whilst tracking the way the vehicle moves the system is able to make a decision about when the driver needs to take a break. The system will provide two warnings, a ‘yellow’ or ‘light’ warning indicating that the driver should rest soon, and a ‘red’ warning indicating that the driver should rest immediately.

There are also a number of other systems to assist the driver. Blind spot assistance where the vehicle actively monitors what’s around it, and a speed limiter. Given the number of speeding tickets that are issued these days, that last one might just be a good idea.

To further assist the driver the dashboard can also display local roadsigns that it sees through its centrally mounted camera. Additionally the steering wheel provides a physical level of feedback if you start to wander out of your lane. A system that’s been introduced before in other vehicles, however this time it seems to be done right. Rather than having a vibrating seat cushion or an audible chime the system will shake the wheel rapidly.

Rear Seatbelt Airbags

At last passengers in the back of the car finally get some attention!  Well, at least in the safety department! One of Fords major new advancements is bringing rear seat belts to passengers combined with airbags. Unlike normal airbags these don’t require pyrotechnics to get them going. These, use a pressurised gas cylinder stored underneath the seat reducing the risk of contact burns. Indeed the seatbelt itself is slightly thicker which many people have reported is slightly more comfortable since it’s akin to wearing a padded seatbelt.

The real advancement here is that not only does this mean a safety device is already in contact with you, thereby reducing the risk of injury and accident, but rather surprisingly the seatbelt airbag is safe to use with a number of child seats!  granted if you use the iso-fix system you won’t be using the vehicle seatbelt however if you have a seat that requires a seatbelt this will increase the safety of your child significantly.

Since the belt covers an extremely large area of your upper torso including an airbag in this reduces the risk of injury especially for those at a higher risk such as young children and the elderly. A specially designed tubular buckle allows the gas to flow into the airbag, protecting five times more of the body including head neck and chest protection.

Park Assist

This is perhaps one of the most fun and eagerly awaited demonstrations today. It’s not often you required to give up control of your vehicle whilst being in the drivers seat.  fortunately however you don’t have to give up all of your control.

As I mentioned above I have many preconceptions and fears about self parking cars after seeing it poorly executed on many different vehicles with embarrassing results. As I said to the team at the event “it’ll be very interesting and exciting to see one that actually works”.

Despite my preconceptions I was pleased to see that the Park assist system was perhaps more cautious than others. Choosing to ignore a space rather than attempt it when the conditions were not quite right.  when the system did take over however it left a lot of work up to the driver. This is a lot better than we might think it’s.  asking the driver to give up control of the vehicle is like cutting off a limb however the Ford system  asks you to control the clutch, accelerator and brakes  whilst it simply does the steering.  Indeed even in automatic cars the system will ask you to manually select reverse or forward gears.

Keeping this level of control allowed me to feel a lot more comfortable in allowing the system to take over. That being said it’s extremely disconcerting the first time it happens,  after that it becomes very entertaining. Don’t ask me why but it does! It would certainly make a long journey far more entertaining and pleasurable knowing that this feature alone was there to greet me at the end.

It’s pretty powerful as well, needing only a space only twenty percent longer than the car itself. If you don’t parallel park that often then having just 20% more than the length of the car is enough to put me off attempting it. It’s a very small spot indeed.

All of the technology here is part of a larger system, the Driver Awareness Package with a sensor pod mounted underneath the rearview mirror.  Contained within this pod is a camera (not unlike a digital video camera), a laser system and a radar system. each of these plays a specific role in all the new technologies being demonstrated today combined with front and rear parking sensors.

In fact for the first time ever I’d say that this has all been done right. As I mentioned before, we’ve seen a number of different attempts over the years but few of them seem to have worked as well as the ford system has today.

Not only have many, if not all, of my preconceptions and fears been eliminated today but Ford have taken it upon themselves to providing effective and clear demonstration of just how far they are prepared to go in the pursuit of safety.

I was genuinely impressed at each and every one of the different products I saw today and I’m confident but by the time these vehicles get the new market and second-hand market we will see a marked improvement in driving and a reduced number of insurance claims. what’s even more exciting is that at least 70% of the new Ford focus is going to be the same as every other Ford focus in the rest of the world. Keeping such commonality between different market versions of the vehicle mean that Ford can keep its costs low.

So what about the future?

Well from all this you can begin to see just how much information the vehicle is recording any one time. it’s easy to see and imagine an iPhone app or a dedicated computer program that you will be able to download your driver profile into in the near future. Not only that but with all this information and telemetry on hand it could mean the insurance companies have an easier time making a decision when it comes to final settlement claims.

Ford also have footholds in something called a smart intersection.

Whilst this is a long way off the basic principle is the information collected from the sensors used to provide the technologies mentioned above is fed to a larger network which feeds an intersection computer system which in turn monitors every other vehicle around it I communicates back to your vehicle whether it is safe to turn, continue and if someone is choosing to run a light.

In fact, because this is all one’s system the software used to make it work can easily be upgraded. Ford have already agreed a standard dataset which will be sent to the intersection and indeed intersections run by competing car companies. The standardisation practice here means that we won’t just see junctions which will work with Ford is only the junctions that may work with other manufacturers making driving one of the safest things you can do.

To me it’s overwhelming. The sheer amount of technology here and the potential for it is mind blowing and whilst not strictly falling into the category of iPhone and Mac App reviews it is simply too big a subject to miss. Especially if you are the type to occasionally pick up your iPhone and fumble away at the touchscreen when you’re rolling up to a junction.

If you spend any time walking around a car showroom at late, you will usually find yourself greeted with an iPhone or iPad application that either presents itself to assist you in the sales process, is there is an interactive brochure about the various accessories you can purchase or,  if you look at the Nissan Leaf, an application that provides you with the power to manage your car whilst it’s on your driveway.

Although this event was strictly about safety, it’s easy to see how mobile applications could be introduced in the future which will us to monitor how we drive, our safety as well is how eco-friendly we are being. Let’s face it, we’ve all got our families to think of and safety is no laughing matter.

This feature was originally published on apptacious.com by me on Friday the 26th of August 2011

This site alone has seen three rebuilds and no-one has helped me more on that than Sean(spoofscript.com) for the code and Andrew (stormkeeper.net) for consulting. Thank you both for helping me transform this site, and of course a big thank you to everyone that has visited my site and encouraged me, given me feedback, and more. You’re all valued. Thank you.

I hope that everyone has a very, very merry christmas and will keep following me into 2010 and beyond.

For now though, I’d like to again wish everyone, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year.

Mark Crowle-Groves

For example, something that would take maybe 5 steps on windows, takes about 2 on Mac, things are where they should be, and the problem is Windows has gotten us all used to using the computer in a very-straight-forward-process-that-cannot-deviaite-from-a-set-line-under-any-circumstances. Exactly like that. The best examples I can think of are joining a Wireless network. On Mac, You click the network, enter your encryption key and click join. In Windows, you usually have to enter a utility (unless your lucky enough to have one that pops up for you and gives you a network list) then you have to select the network, enter the key, then tell it what type of network it is, then click a box that says “reconnect automatically” and then click Save.

It’s not that counter intuitive, but it’s still a process we don’t necessarily need to go through. The extra steps are needed to cover a Windows ‘flaw’ so to speak. In Windows it needs you to specify what type of network it is, to apply security settings. In Mac, due to it’s Unix base, has a set, standard profile set up. For joining a network as standard, it’s great, no extra configuration needed, however there are advantages to the way Windows does it by the way it adds preconfigured ‘Network profiles’ to minimise the effort needed, but then going into why that’s actually a bad thing would require a separate article all on it’s own.

Another example is the Start Menu and the Dock. Think of the dock like that little quick launch area on your Windows machine, your commonly used applications are in it, for instance, here’s mine.

I have finder, (think Windows explorer), Mail, Safari, iChat, iCal, iTunes, Address Book, Spaces (more on this later), System Preferences, Tweetdeck, Skype, Adium (MSN Client), Pages (Mac equivalent of MS Word) and Writeroom (Word processor)

There are also three other things on the right which I will get to in a moment, the far right is of course the trash and works pretty much like the Recycle Bin on Windows so I’m not going to explain it to you (if however you do need help knowing what that is, I suggest you stop using a computer and seek guidance)

So, For me, just like quick launch, if I want to open my Word processor I open Writeroom or Pages by clicking it. Nothing else opens up or takes up the space, all you get is that little white dot underneath the application icon to let you know it’s open. And generally I don’t have to go anywhere else. Up until Windows 7 this was totally different to the way Windows worked. The icons would be there, but that’s all they would be, opening a new application would mean a new ‘tab’ would open on your taskbar which if there was any application activity would flash orange and blue at you. Windows seven now is more mac like by giving a glassier feel to it, but it still flashes. But, what If I want to open another application thats not in my quick launch or dock! Well on Mac, here’s all I tend to do if I want to open say ‘Numbers’ (the iWork equivalent to Excel)

All I tend to do these days is go to spotlight (the magnifying glass) and type “numbers” in, and low and behold numbers has popped up, there are of course easier ways to do this, I could open finder by clicking Finder, I click applications, and scroll to Numbers like so

Or if I really want to be daring I could take that applications folder and turn it into a Stack. (More on that here http://blog.woopid.com/?p=398)

Ok so let’s give the example in Windows to open Excel assuming it’s not an application I use a lot so, wouldn’t have it on my desktop, or in my quick launch icons.

I click start > all programs > Microsoft Office (assuming your application icons are in the Microsoft office folder) and then click Excel. Or if you’re like my last system, Start > All programs > Office applications > Microsoft Office > Excel

It’s a long process that seems normal to us, but, Mac just seems more intuitive. When the original adverts came out that said ‘Think different’ they really meant it.  But after a while you get a feeling that this is really how it should be. You can see on the screenshot above I have a quick link to my Downloads folder, yes you can do this in Windows, but it’s not quite as simple as Mac, you just look at the Places list, think “I want a link to the folder in there” so you drag the folder into the list. it’s simple, intuitive etc.

Oh and installing an application? Usually it’s just drag and drop, and I really mean that.

However I said some things seem alien to me. Let’s start with the first. These things.

On Windows they are on the right hand side of your Application Window. The Far right is an X, meaning “Close the program”(unless your on Windows 7). In the middle is “maximise the current view” and the one on the left of that again is the “hide this application to the taskbar”

On Mac however they are on the left hand side of your application window. The one on the far right in most native applications means, ‘Resize this window to fit the content as best you can” not however to expand the window. The middle on, is minimise the window to the dock. The one on the left we therefore assume is Close the program right? Er… No. I don’t actually know what the technical name for the button is but it’s more like a ‘hide me’ button, thats just infuriating. If i want to close my program I have to press Command + Q or actually go to the application menu and select exit. The button doesn’t close it. it just gets rid of all trace of it yet still leaves it open. This confuses me no end and it’s just utterly counter intuitive.

Other things include the lack of fullscreen web browsing, and decent voice dictation and sometimes getting around. It’s not a major thing but it does sometimes feel a little strange. However I was surprised by the lack of decent voice recognition.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that Mac OS has voice recognition – to a point. It’s more for accessibility than anything else and does work exceedingly well for that purpose, however Windows Vista and Windows 7 came with built in voice recognition, which was actually incredibly good. I always used to use it with a webcam, but almost every blog post up until about a year ago was voice dictated. I loved it, especially as it took fifteen minutes to train and was one of easiest pieces of software to use. I’ve never found anything that worked quite like it, why didn’t mac sort that one out for me?

I guess I really am starting to Think Different….

So naturally being a complete tech geek, I found this out whilst ‘Googling’ for the Out Of Hours information. Did I find it? well, no not really. The problem with technology these days, is that we become so reliant on it that we forget about the other simpler means of finding information out. Like picking up the telephone for example.

Here’s what I did to try and work out what was going on with my ear. It’s a long list but I need to illustrate something, just be patient.

1: Google for symptoms
2: Google for possible home remedies to said symptoms
3: Google for “out of hours doctor cardiff”
4: Panic because I can’t find anything other than medicare insurance plans
5: Resort to trying said home remedies and thus making the problem worse
6: Call my GP, get their out of hours number ring said number, be told I have to call a cardiff GP surgery because I was out of catchment area
7: Google for my mothers local Cardiff surgery
8: Panic because I can’t find it
9: Resort to calling any GP, getting the generic number, making emergency appointment and forgetting to tell them I am a visiting patient
10: Go to appointment, panic, complications, get some sort of prescription

This, is not really how it should have been. Here’s the process as it should have been.

1: Call my GP, be told I am out of catchment area and call Cardiff GP
2: Pull out phonebook
3: Call GP get out of hours number, call it and make appointment
4: Go

Of course, something as simple as pulling out a phonebook never occurred to me, because of course I’ve become so reliant on technology, I forgot such a thing exists. So I ended up spending hours trawling through the websites. I eventually found the page I needed which told me everything I needed to know far too late, the service I have called tonight.

And then of course there is the problem of self diagnosis. I was able to find out that my symptoms could be any number of things, from a simple ear infection, a perforated ear drum, to massive disfigurement, brain tumour or worse (although whats worse than a brain tumour I will leave to your imagination).

Now, I’m going to be hypocritical here and say “I do have enough common sense to know I shouldn’t self diagnose” and I had enough ‘common sense’ to only try the home remedy of getting sterile olive oil in case it was a wax buildup. But then, I didn’t have enough common sense to check the phonebook for local listings before trying the internet.

I’ve done this in the past as well, gone looking for so much information that I’ve ended up never finding what I need, looking for parts, looking for electronics stores, looking for stockists of various things. I’m often left wondering just how much time I’ve wasted, and indeed how much stuff I’ve missed out on just by not pulling out the phonebook. Indeed now I have I find a page in there entitled “NHS OUT OF HOURS SERVICE CALL THIS NUMBER”. That would have saved so much time.

This of course, is the problem of simply Googling things. Perhaps we all need to downgrade a little. So, next time I need something or, if you need something, check your phonebook first.

Update: Just to let you know I was fine, severe ear infection that’s going to be treated with a huge dose of antibiotics and an antibiotic ‘wick’ (Google said nothing about one of those! but most of the symptoms were right for some of Googles results)

Previously the server that was hosing thelongmile.net was hosted in the United States. In Newark, New Jersey on server newark149 if your interested of course.

Now this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at all, we had response times less than 100 milliseconds from the UK, it was in essence a very fast connection from the UK to the US, however, since the majority of my hits come from the UK, it would always be faster to have the server in the UK rather than the US.

Now thanks to Linode opening a data centre in the UK, (here if your interested)  http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/11/26/video-tour-telecity-powergate-data-center/ we were given the opportunity to move our server to London3 which of course has access to the London LINX exchange.

So, what does this mean for you to visitors? Essentially nothing, if anything the website will be ever so slightly faster but by an amount so small you might not notice it. However it does mean that we will also benefit from future upgrades to the UK london exchange and network speed.

So why am I telling you? I thought you’d like to know that I’m doing things, and of course I am doing them in your interests.

Thanks!

EDIT: Thanks to our new location in the UK, we now have ping times averaging 42ms! We previously had an average of just over 100ms! The site is now twice as fast to respond thanks to being in the UK as displayed by the screenshot below.

Over the past few months the publicity on this subject has grown rather dramatically as ArsTechnica recently broke the news of one particular ISP in the UK that went “medieval” that vowed to disconnect users after a single suspected copyright breach.

However herein lies a few questions.
How does the ISP actually know what we are doing?
and more importantly
If they do know how what we are doing, how do they know what we are doing is illegal?

Now of course, we all know that ISP’s monitor content that is downloaded through their network. They have to. Usually it’s not in depth, it’s more “packet inspection” to ensure that data is coming in and out successfully and without error, however it is possible to monitor exactly what comes in and out. And be exactly, I really do mean exactly. If i send an email out, it is entirely possible for the ISP to pick that up, and read it word for word. Now obviously there are some limitations but I won’t go into that here.

The biggest problem is, that ISP’s like the one mentioned in ArsTechnica, will be looking for P2P connections. And here is the problem, and relating to my second question.

P2P is NOT illegal, Fact. P2P is a technology, not an activity. In fact would it surprise you to know that Microsoft uses P2P? That even I use P2P?
When Microsoft released the Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidates they offered it for download, of course. But the downloads were all through a P2P service. it was the most efficient way of distributing the application whilst producing minimal load on their servers. I.e. parts of the file were downloaded from hundreds of thousands of other users who were downloading it rather than directly from Microsoft.

Now that is a completely legitimate use of P2P technology. Another prime example is Vuze. Vuze is a “content delivery network”. Essentially it has it’s own platform and website where it distributes things like free content, or media released under the Creative Commons Licence or even movie trailers. All completely legitimately. And the files that are downloaded from Vuze are downloaded through the P2P technology. But there is an even bigger problem. Seeding.

When you download a file through Vuze be it legitimately or not, the file sits on your computer and is then uploaded or “seeded” to other downloads, which is how P2P technology works. The problem with this, is of course the fact that ISP’s monitoring these file uploads and downloads might mistake it for illegitimate P2P use. Unless a human is sat looking at every single file, and knows exactly what it is, the ISP’s could potentially block millions of users.

There is of course another method which is site blocking. Bad idea again and here’s why. File sharing sites such as RapidShare or MegaUpload are all well known for their illegal use. However legitimate users would then be blocked. I don’t mind saying that I actually pay for a RapidShare account. Why? Because a lot of the software I download, that is legal and free I might add, is hosted on RapidShare. I also host my own files such as tools and utilities that I use on a regular basis (such as a bootdisk for Windows) so that I can download them quickly and easily without paying nearly five times the price for a hosting plan somewhere JUST to hold files for downloads.

So if ISP’s start blocking these sites then we start to affect the legitimate users and of course destroy all the trust anyone has in ISP’s. Even torrent sites contain legal content. There are quite a few websites out there that also distribute their software through torrents, including several linux distributors. Again all legally.

The fact of the matter is that the internet is really just too large to police in this manner. In fact the ISP mentioned in the ArsTechnica article even changed it’s approach to a ‘softer’ one for potential copyright breaches. But unfortunately with the way things are going, this is going to get ugly, and fast, and there are going to be a lot of people out there that really weren’t breaking the law finding themselves at the wrong end of a court order.