Learning, technology and research centre Ultralab will be featured on BBC Essex Radio’s ‘Drive Time’ programme with Simon Baldock.

A couple of weeks ago Swedish Television visited Ultralab to find out more about Ultraversity and with continued international coverage of this groundbreaking degree, its only fitting that local radio covers the story too!

I recently visited the BBC Essex Radio Studio’s with Ultralab’s Industrialist in Residence, Dr. Stan Owers after suggesting Stan for ‘Tea at Three’. I got talking to the ‘Steve Scruton show’ producer, while Stan was on air with Liz Mullen. On talking about Ultralab, and our projects the producer was keen for me to contact the presenter of the ‘Drive Time’ show, Simon Baldock to talk about ‘Ultraversity’ as a potential feature to share with the local community.

Simon made contact and we’ve arranged that our very own Malcolm Moss will appear live on air tomorrow at 4:45pm to share with the local community our online degree course called Ultraversity, the new way to graduate.

Malcolm will be on the air on Tuesday March 1st at 4:45pm.

Click the links to find out more:

• How to listen to BBC Essex Radio via the Internet
• Listen to Dr. Stan Owers on BBC Essex
• Dr. Stan Owers Breaking News Item
• Swedish SVT Television Story on Ultraversity

So why do our high profile projects and the Ultraversity degree continue to attract media attention?

In the case of Ultraversity, it is the UK’s first completely online work based undergraduate research degree, due to start its third intake of online based student researchers later this month. The vast majority of these students will continue in full-time work using their work place as the focus of their research and study. Over 300 students are already enrolled on the course and are working hard towards their negotiated objectives.

It is not a “postal” degree, or a rather dubious “pay and graduate” degree from a place you’ve never heard of; or an “equivalent qualification”. Ultraversity is a fully validated British degree supported by the Department for Education and Skills, which has very high standards and cares about learners and their research.

The degree is centred round the students’ work place practice and allows students to develop research skills that are appropriate to any work place context. Students attend a university virtually, via the web, without the stress of travel. All they need do is ‘logon’ to meet their friends, experts and learning facilitators. The online community enables students to discuss their work with others and share learning practices, providing a network just as close as with a physical university.

Philip McCann, a student said, “I’m taking part in online discussions with 10 to 15 nursing auxiliaries from all over the UK. We are sharing ideas and I am now reflecting on work place procedures and how to respond better to critical incidents.”

Professor Stephen Heppell, Founder of Ultralab and founder of Ultraversity said “Ultraversity has shown that radical thinking can give access to higher education for many talented people without compromising on quality and the community of learners it creates are actively changing their work places as they study.”

You can listen live to the show via the Internet, Click this link to find out how to listen to BBC Essex Radio.

UPDATE 01/03/2005: Click to find out how to listen to the completed show.

I have to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what I weigh this week, each time I move the scales around the bathroom, they come up with a different figure, and when I weigh myself on another set of scales, I end up even less.

I’m going to take the safe option, and state that I’ve lost two pounds in the last week, taking my grand total up to twelve pounds lost as I head into week six.

I was expecting to loose more weight this week, as I have been to the gym four times.

• Wednesday = 500 Calories in 30 minutes
• Thursday = 500 Calories in 30 minutes
• Friday = 520 Calories in 30 minutes
• Sunday = 1120 Calories in 70 minutes

I’ve been eating my breakfast cereal, drinking two litres of water a day, waiting five hours between meals, eating fruit when I’m hungry, yet I’ve still only lost a couple of pound?

The big surprise of the week is that I’ve now moved along a hole on by belt…..and I don’t feel as big in the face

All I can conclude is that fat is turning into muscle and that although I’m burning fat, the increased attendance at the gym has strengthened muscles in my arms and legs.

On this weeks list of ‘naughty things’ are:

• Ice lollies with icecream centres, I ate three this week last thing at night, that is not good
• Saturday evening we went out for a meal and I had Gammon steak with too many chips

….but thats not many bad items on the list this week is it?

On the 24th of January I wrote about Ultralab’s involvement in ‘Create at BETT’, the stand at the show in London’s Olympia for young people who are creative with new and emerging technologies.

Ultralab Director, Richard Millwood and myself have been building the Create at BETT website, which include the movies made by the young people during the show.

The website was made in Plone. I have been writing about Plone this week.

Go and visit the Create at BETT website, and if you are interested in digital creativity, take a look at Ultralab’s SummerSchool website.

I wrote yesterday about our expereinces with Marratech software.

Today at 3pm group of five of us, including a live link in from Ian in Cornwall and our colleagues at transformation design company, Sodium.

I am impressed with the software, it was as if James and Ian were in the same room. Neil is trouble shooting some minor glitches….this really does look like an excellent piece of software!

I’ve been working with Ultralab’s Director, Richard Millwood on the Create at BETT website.

To find out more about Create at BETT, follow this link to my article and read about it.

The ‘Create at BETT’ website is built within the Plone content management system environment.

Basically, I’m a big fan of Drupal, this webpage you are reading is written with a Drupal system….but now I’m investigating other online community software too.

This weblog was once hosted in Ultralab’s installation of Movable Type, like Drupal, online communityware for bloggers. The Ultralab server suffered from serious amounts of Internet spamming (loans, viagra, casino, free money, etc) and it became a terrible pain to remove the spam. Pete Bradshaw found some code to solve the spamming problem, and Ultralab’s community of Movable Type bloggers are now safe from the scum of the Internet spamming them.

I moved to Drupal, and find Drupal much easier to configure and manage. Soon after installing Drupal on ‘Captain Birdseye’, my faithful server (touch wood) she also got spammed. Jonathan Furness of Jonathan’s Blog pointed out how the Drupal community were very fast at coming together to resolve the issue. My blog (this webpage) does not get spammed anymore, but when it was spammed, I was able to remove the spam much more easily than in Movable Type, as I had full control over the database content, stored in a PHP database.

The great thing about the ’spamming’ is it got me back into ‘IP’ (Internet Protocol) tracking. When I was at University we covered IP in incredible detail, it was great to re-investigate IP, and revisit my skills in tracking down where data is posted from. I was able to identify and block the servers spamming me. This Drupal blog is great in giving IP’s when comments are posted, although I’m spam free now, so there is no need anymore to trace where data is coming from.

Movable Type, Drupal and Plone are all open source software projects. This means that they are all free, and are developed mainly in peoples homes, as solutions to provide free alternatives to the major software houses selling content management systems.

Working with Richard, I am impressed by Plone, which I have downloaded and installed on my laptop.

On and off, over the next few weeks I’ll be playing with Plone, and I’ll feedback what I learn….but as a place to host a community, to share ideas, collaborate, communicate and discuss…..it is pretty fine.

If anyone in the Ultralab team is interested in having a play too, let me know and I’ll grant access to my Plone Play Area.

Straight from the Plone website, in their its own words, this is Plone:

Plone: A user friendly and powerful open source Content Management System

Development Actions

This is the development and community site for Plone. Here, you’ll find news about Plone and its related products, documentation, links to downloads, and information about the non-profit Plone Foundation.

What is Plone?

Plone is powerful and flexible. It is ideal as an intranet and extranet server, as a document publishing system, a portal server and as a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located entities.

Plone is easy to use. The Plone Team includes usability experts who have made Plone easy and attractive for content managers to add, update, and maintain content.

Plone is easy to install. You can install Plone with a click-and-run installer, and have a content management system running on your computer in just a few minutes.

Plone is international. The Plone interface has been translated into over 40 languages, and tools exist for managing multilingual content.

Plone is standard. Plone carefully follows standards for usability and accessibility. Plone pages are compliant with US Section 508, and the W3C’s AA rating for accessibility, in addition to using best-practice web standards like XHTML and CSS.

Plone is Open Source. Plone is licensed under the GNU General Public License, the same license Linux uses. This gives you the right to use Plone without a license fee, and to improve upon the product.

Plone is supported. There are close to a hundred developers in the Plone Development Team around the world, and a multitude of companies specializing in Plone development and support.

Plone is extensible. There are many add-on products for Plone that add new features and content types. In addition, Plone can be scripted using web standard solutions and Open Source languages.

Plone is technology neutral. Plone can interoperate with most relational database systems, open source and commercial, and runs on a vast array of platforms, including Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris and BSD.

Plone is protected. The nonprofit Plone Foundation was formed in 2004 to promote the use of Plone around the world and protect the Plone IP and trademarks.

Plone is built using Zope, an object oriented application server. The language that drives Zope and Plone is Python - the agile language preferred by Google, NASA, Industrial Light and Magic and many others. Why? Because Python offers unprecedented programmer productivity.

The Ultralab team is distributed nationwide, with a cluster of Ultranauts in Chelmsford.

Ultralab prides itself in its strong online community. Our long established internal systems allow our team to see the status and current news information associated to every project we are running. Our crossprojectnation means we are able to share ideas between ourselves, and support and encourage where needed. One of the reasons our projects are so successful, the other major reason is the sheer knowledge and talent of our people, who’s backgrounds really are pretty special.

Our monthly team meetings bring our entire team together, to discuss our status, and raise and talk through projects, and future proposals.

Neil and Mark do a fantastic job to enable and include our entire team, no-matter where they are, in the meetings.

Marratech, a company Neil has been talking with for some time have an excellent solution which will enable our entire team to speak verbally during the meetings. Until now, remote workers have only been able to communicate through instant message, although they have full visual and sound from the meeting at their disposal.

It will be interesting to see how this software will cope with more testing, especially with more people, but until now, Ian Tindal (live from Cornwall), Neil Boughen and myself are impressed with our attempts at using it today.

Marratech will allow:

• Live visual images of remote Ultranauts
• Live audio, to and from remote Ultranauts
• Shared note-board, enabling all Ultranauts to draw, share pictures, discuss documents live
• Meetings to be recorded, and played back
• Any user to take control and bring visual content to any users attention
• Text chat transcript

Last Friday was an excellent day. Ultralab was very quiet, lots of tapping of keys on the keyboards….and the occasional telephone ring.

Ultralab’s Jonathan Furness decided that he needed to buy a new weatherproof coat for his night hike that evening with his local Scout group, where he is a volunteer.

Claire also wanted me to take her watch into town and have the white strap replaced with a black strap, the white strap was getting grubby.

We headed into Chelmsford town and first shop called ‘Crafts’. In five minutes they replaced the watch strap, the watch looks brand new and I put it safely in my pocket.

Next, we headed off to Millets, an all-weather specialist. In the shop was a coat reduced from £100 to £50, a good price.

Then we headed down to Field & Trek. In the shop was a more fashionable jacket reduced from £75 down to £55.

In a nutshell….

(Jonathan) (to shop assistant) Like the Jacket, I’ve seen another one in another show for £50, would you knock another £5 off the discount?

(Shop Assistant) Sorry, we do not negotiate on price, it is company policy.

(Jonathan) If I don’t buy it here, I’ll spend my money in the other shop…

(Shop Assistant) You are trying to negotiate over just a fiver?

(Jonathan) I really like the coat, but the other shop has a better discount

(Matt) Yes, they are offering more money off, the deal is better there

(Shop Assistant) Would you go into Marks & Spencer’s, and ask them for a discount?

I can’t believe the attitude of the shop assistant. I worked in Retail for five years, and there are ways to talk with paying customers, this guy really was a bit on the sarcastic side. Also, since when has your company been as big as Marks & Spencer? Small businesses should really be prepared to negotiate seriously with their customers, if they are going to turn into bigger businesses. Also, he should have phoned or spoke to the manager, or acted sincere when someone is genuinely interested in the product. “Its a better design” is not the answer, mate, you did not even seen the jacket in Millets!

So, in a nutshell, Jonathan wanted the coat, and bought it…..but I would have walked out and spent my money somewhere else.

Next we headed back towards Ultralab.

Passing Chelmsford Market, we bought 4 cans of drink from a stall for £1.10, to buy the same 4 cans of ‘Pepsi Max’ in the Railway Station shop cost £2.20. So, Chelmsford Market it is now from now on!

Just as we passed over the zebra crossing and arrived at the APU building, someone shouted from their red BMW car, “Oi, excuse me mate”.

Jonathan and myself walked over to the car….expecting to give directions….The car is bright red, just like the coat Jonathan just bought, although the car does not have toggles.

(BMW Driver) Hello mate (holds out hand to shake)
(Matt) Hello

(BMW Driver) Hello Mate (holds hand out to Jonathan, Jonathan looks confused, does not shake it)

(Jonathan) Hi

(BMW Driver) Are you koppas?

(Matt) Do what?

(BMW Driver) Are you koppas?

(Matt) Sorry, I thought you just said “are you Coppers”

(BMW Driver) I did, are you koppas?

(Matt) No mate, where are you trying to get to?

(BMW Driver) You wanna buy watch? (pulls watch from glovebox)

Where did you get it from?

(BMWDriver)
I sell to shops, I can sell for less to the public

(Matt) Right

(Jonathan) (Smile, followed by ‘dodgy guy nearby’ look)

(BMW Driver) I give you good price

(Matt) (Thinks: I really need to get out of this one….ahhhhh, I know!)

(Matt) Ermmmm, how much?

(BMW Driver) £70, £60

(Matt) Ermmmmm, no thanks mate, I don’t wear a watch, time is on my phone

(BMW Driver) Are you married? You buy watch from me!

(Matt) Blimey mate, that was a bit quick, I only just met you!  And I already bought one!

(BMW Driver) Where from?

(Matt) The man in the car over there, I just bought it

(BMW Driver) No way, where is he?

(Matt) He was over there (points to the other side of the road)

(Jonathan) (points to the other side of the road) Over there

(BMW Driver) (Looks around)

(Matt) He’s gone now

(BMW Driver) What car he drive?

(Matt) Ermmm, a Rover I think

(Jonathan) Yeah, a Rover

(BMW Driver) Awww Man, how much you pay?

(Matt) £25, listen, if you had of been a couple of minutes faster, I’d have bought from you!

(BMW Driver) You wanna buy a watch?

(Matt) I just bought one mate, goodbye (big grin)

(Jonathan) Seeya (bigger grin)

So…… car traders hey!!!!, Gotcha! Buy a shop, or a market stall, and trade from there!

I’ve been on the ‘Diet’s Don’t Work’ weight loss programme for a month now, I’m heading into week five.

I’m surprised only 3lb came off in the last week, I’ve been to the gym three times. On Wednesday I burnt 450 calories, Friday 500 calories and Sunday 1020 calories.

I’ve been eating more and more healthy, and I’ve been drinking an average of 2 litres of water a day, I’m even eating McDonald’s Salad’s rather than Doner Kebabs on a Friday. I’ve climbed the staircases where I can, rather than take the lifts. I’ve waited 5 hours between meals, and eat fruit when I’m hungry.

So why did only 3lb come off when I’ve exercised more, and have even less on my “I should not have eat that….?” here is the whoops list….

• McChicken Sandwich
• Cheese and Onion Pastie
• Chocolate chip cookie

I think that fat is now burning and forming into muscle, caused by increased exercise, which is fine.

So, 10lb down, 18lb to go, I’ve lost 10lb in four weeks.

Ultralab’s Dr. Stan Owers was the guest on BBC Essex Radio’s ‘Tea at Three programme with Liz Mullen.

Click the following link to see the pictures and listen to the show:

See the pictures and listen to Ultralab’s Dr. Stan Owers on BBC Essex ‘Tea at Three’ with Liz Mullen

Click to read about how Stan got to be on the airwaves.

Click to learn how to listen to BBC Essex Radio on the Internet.

Well well….I’m heading into week four of the ‘Diet’s Don’t Work Programme’ and in the last week I’ve lost another 3lb.

I’m actually quite surprised by that, as I’ve not actually been trying as hard this week, well, I don’t think that I have. I’ve been to the gym once this week on Sunday, I did 850 calories in 65 minutes totaling a distance of 10.2km.

I’ve also felt pretty rough in the last week with a big cold which meant I did not eat much some days.

I have been drinking loads and loads of water. I’m finding the new ‘Shape’ water by Danone is great, it has zero calories and there are three different tastes you can buy. It can be found in all good supermarkets (Tesco, Asda etc etc). I am drinking at least 2 litres a day.

Things I should not have eaten in the last week include:

• 2 x Walkers Crisps
• A Chinese meal (three x fat plate fulls!)
• Small piece of chocolate

I’ve continued to eat breakfast cereal at lunchtime. I am also finding that I am not as hungry anymore as I eat at breakfast time and am therefore not picking at food all day. Flavoured water and fruit are keeping me going when I do get peckish.

So, half a stone in just three weeks.

I’m feeling fitter, I’m eating less and I’m well