On my way to a series of meetings in London and sat on a train. This train ain’t going anywhere. There has been a fatality on the track at Biggleswade. Not good, especially for the deceased. Delays of at least an hour expected.
Not the end of the world for me as I have plenty of time before my first meeting. I like to get somewhere with plenty of slack in the schedule – in case of delays (QED). Also I am getting on with some work on the train. Preparing a talk for a Retail Technology Conference if you’re interested. I am presenting with my friend and customer Umar Bajwa of Murco Petroleum.
The talk is going to cover a number of things including the Timico Mobile Access Management service. This is the multitenant mobile APN service that allows mobile devices to sit within a corporate MPLS network and has much better access throughput than normal because you don’t need the packet overhead for VPN1. Also great as a backup in case the primary broadband line goes down (Plan B).
It is getting hard to concentrate though. There’s a party of kids in the same carriage and they are getting excitable annoying.
The British Transport police are up ahead. We have some police forces as customers. They use an application of ours called hand-e-pix. When they get to a crime scene they take photos using smartphones which then get filed against the appropriate crime number and can be used as evidence. The photo is automatically GPS and time stamped. Perhaps I should mention it to the British Transport Police as we eventually get moving.
The guard on this train is very good at keeping us informed: “The train wot as struck a person is stopping us from moving” fair play to him.
a few minutes later…
The train is now moving, albeit slowly and we have just passed some men in hi viz jackets carrying flags. Funny how we live in a world filled with technology but when it comes down to it it’s the old fashioned analogue technology that prevails. Always have a Plan B.
That’ll do.
1 notice how I slipped in a quick advertorial there – perhaps you didn’t 🙂
One reply on “Always have a Plan B – Mobile Access Management”
You have to like the overenthusiastic announcements by rail staff –
Once while on the overcrowded London underground – The announcement came over the speakers “Stand clear of the doors please” This was followed with 10 seconds of silence and the same announcement repeated. A further 10 seconds and with more gusto again repeated.
Again – silence.
A deep sigh came over the speakers and in a loud voice “Would the fat man with red suitcase get his case out of the way of the doors so the train can depart!”.
The poor man inched his case into the carriage as far as it would go and we were on our way home.
BE.