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Recovering from a second hip op within 7 months gives time to think about stuff. In our case it's how to apply SMART tech to enable older folk to extend the range of things they can do No matter how you fight it, getting older slows you down. Things stop working. For no good reason some things start to hurt. Other things need almost constant gentle first aid. Some things fall off - or out. Some things disappear. Other things double in size and visibility. But then if you read BH for more than a few minutes, you find yourself surrounded by people keen to improve things in the house. And lots of evidence of what can be done to make some of the challenges outlined above less daunting. But reading the threads can be hard work. The Tsunami of new terms and quaint acronyms add to the difficulty of wading through the wide array of market offers. I need things that can for example switch this on or off, or on and off randomly, or make it easy to switch that thing on when I'm not there tell me that the solar pv has finished charging the water tank tell me I'm likely to get a healthy dose of solar radiation tomorrow - less likely to need to boost my water tank let me look at a plug socket and tell me it's 'on' when I'm the other side of the room. [... ] insert your need here .... I'd like to use this thread to be a low-level introduction to help inform readers about the technical assistance that can be made available to help older folk make purchase decisions based on evidence presented and discussed here and elsewhere make recommendations based on user-experience. make judgements on whether a 'tech' approach to a problem can be thought of as DIY or not summarise common concepts make those concepts easy to understand give practical examples of how BH members have applied 'tech' to make their lives easier - with a particular focus on 'getting-on-a-bit' I'd like this place to be where we can present simply expressed evidence. And a place to encourage, and maybe put a smile in someone's mind.

The US regulator has shifted the status of regulation around the internet out of neutral. This has the potential of profound implications I am not sure I can see any upsides for the 'little people' - somebody has said that regulating the internet, so keeping it neutral, is on a par with regulating water quality and Tim Berners Lee thinks thus: Q: Are there any internet-related laws in the United States or the UK that you think need to be scrapped? A: My concern is in America maybe, having been in a leading position really on the internet for a long time that with (the loss of) net neutrality it will…not really be an open internet. I talked a good bit to start-ups in Washington a couple days ago, and they were concerned that if the net neutrality goes away they will…have to negotiate it [their service] and have it unblocked by each ISP (Internet Service Provider). That will be impossible and very transient. Whereas if they had started their service in the UK or Europe…you just launch a new website. And you don’t have to worry about it being blocked by different ISPs. Their Obama-era regulations – rules about net neutrality – were very valuable in the U.S. and we should try to preserve them. (Source: HERE , 15.12.2017) I wonder how the hub feels about it?