Nevil Shute worked on the problem of making sure that aircraft were properly repaired. When the engine cowling is closed who knows if the work was done properly? His solution is a new religion of aircraft mechanics. Ordinary people pray 5 times a day, but we are special people responsible for keeping aircraft safe, we need to pray 50 times a day, each time we start a task, and each time we finish a task. The book he wrote "Round the Bend" by Nevil Shute is widely available in the bookshelves of elderly engineers. The problem is still alive and dangerous today and we approach this with code walk-throughs and such like.

The elderly often live isolated and confusing lives and would profit from Skype Google Calendar and other specialized apps. It's not the cost of the Tablet or computer, but the repeating monthly charges that is the stopper. We make an app which can operate without any button pushes on the part of Grandma. It shows family pictures, medication reminders and has a way of keeping in touch by telephone, all without any input from Grandma. Several other features require that Grandma is able and willing to press a button, playing videos of the new baby for example, but we are working on that button press. Skype needs a click to receive a call, and another to end it. Well done FreedomPop (and Mom too)

Obviously not the solution for everybody. We write apps for Android Tablets (for old people actually). All the data like Name, email, pictures, and messages are stored in the Android tablet and kept on the Cloud only until they are downloaded. They are encrypted, even the pictures, while waiting on the Cloud database. In the registration part of the app the user does type in his email, but we do not keep it. How to contact the user? We put a record in a table which is checked periodically by an active user's android and they can get the message. Payment is tricky since the PayPal record contains the email of the payer and teh AndroidId of the user's tablet, It's just a matter of throwing away data that does not belong to me!

Power to the People

I looked through the document and could not fins an author.

Alzheimer wandering is very stressful for the family, especially the partner. http://www.alz-locate.com/ outlines the way this works... free for 2 weeks, and the $20 for 2 years. A son living in a distant city can get a call from his grandmother "Fred didn't come back from his walk. Can you see where he is on your computer?" The old Lady just has to keep the phone charged and in his pocket. The watcher can do the rest. You can tell her where he is. For /. readers the encryption and hashing are quite interesting. No person's name ever gets into the system, and everything except the optional email is irreversibly hashed (the email is there only for a forgotten password). There is no need to know who the watcher or the wanderer is, just where he is!

We have one in Montreal for example .

The most important thing about terrorism and car-jacking and home invasions is WHY. If we keep our heads in the sand about why people fly planes into big buildings then we will make little progress to persuade them not to, or even stop them once they start to plan it. John

The comments are all short term and mostly personal. If we stopped building better roads and built better public transport then the usability would sway the other way. If you add the costs of road building to the costs of driving then it's horrendous and not self-sustaining. The availability of public transport is shaping the cities of America and will continue to do so as teh ration of public to private costs and benefits changes