back to article Tech City hailed as saviour of THE ENTIRE PLANET

"Tech City can be a catalyst that improves the lives of the whole area, the city, the country and in fact the whole world," the Prime Minister's ambassador to Tech City told Queen Mary University's Mile End Group in a lecture this week. "Technology diplomat" Ben Hammersley – who has worked as a journalist at The Times, Wired …

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  1. Nextweek

    Turning off servers at 6:30?

    I would argue that as a country we need to be more responsive and flexible. Not shutting down at a certain time and be damned with the consequences.

    If you shut off email to save stress then perhaps the underlying issue of stress management needs looking at. Burying your head in the sand is only going to make you dread going into work the next day.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

      You beat me to it. My first thought was that a company which switches its e-mail servers off at 6:30 (in the evening, I hope) is not interested in international business. Whether it switches the rest of its kit off depends on how much business it wants to do.

      1. Arrrggghh-otron

        Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

        What about all the extra bandwidth and computing power consumed elsewhere dealing with the bounce messages and deferred email?

        1. TakeTheSkyRoad

          Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

          Yeah, that one comment of this alone served to show to me he has no idea what he is talking about. Plus how many startups have employees finish by 6:30 ? Thought that the early days meant long hours and late nights... leading to a bonus paid in shares of course

    2. big_D Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

      VW did the same thing, well, similar. The E-mail server is left running, but the push service is switched off in the evening and turned on again 30 minutes before official shift begin the next morning.

      Users working longer hours or who need to respond to problems can still send e-mails and pull e-mails to their phones, but it won't be pushed.

      If you aren't on call, you should not be responding to e-mails when you aren't at work. There are reasons why we are only supposed to work a limited number of hours and why we should take holiday / leave during the year.

      Obviously there are times when it is necessary to receive mail outside of office hours, but that shouldn't be every minute of your free time. If it is that way, your employer is doing something wrong.

      1. fatchap
        WTF?

        Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

        I have never understood this attitude. If I want to respond to emails when I am not at work why shouldn't I? I feel like working 20 hours a day who are you to tell me not to?

        I would rather be measured on results than the time I work to deliver them. The fact that my employer allows me to work in a way that suits me rather than shoehorning everything into 8hrs from 9-5 means in my mind they are doing something very right.

        If others want to work less hard, take holidays and relax that is fine, but they will be left in my wake as I produce more so they had better not complain about that as well. Why should I drop to the lowest common denominator's level of productivity?

        1. James Hughes 1

          @fatchap

          If you think that working 20hrs a day (or even just 10, consistently) makes you more productive, I feel you may be sadly mistaken. It's a diminishing return. Although I agree you should be rewarded for results rather than time spent, if the only way you can get those results is working long hours every day, then the employer is certainly not doing it right. Because that doesn't work in the medium/long term.

          IMO.

    3. big_D Silver badge

      Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

      Forgot to say, yes, I agree, physically turning the servers off is silly. Managing employee downtime effectively is good, however.

    4. JLH

      Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

      Turning off the email servers at 6:30? What a clod this guy is.

      I work for a company which has a global presence - we send teams of engineers and technicians all over the world, complete with racks of servers and data comms.

      We also have branch offices and dealerships all over the globe, which means we are a 24/7 operation.

      I also am very glad to say I work with a team of dedicated, hard working people. I guarantee my office will have people in and working hard at 8pm tonight, same as any other night.

      Turn the email servers off at 6:30? Ha ha ha ha. In what time zone?

      1. Magnus_Pym

        Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

        While it's true that long hours don't improve productivity. It's best if the 8 hours that you do work are the right 8 hours. Working mainly at home I find it much better to carry on working some nights when I'm on a roll and drinking tea and staring out the window when I'm not. I still find I'm 'in the office' for at least 40 hours a week but those hours are generally productive ones.

      2. JLH
        Facepalm

        Re: Turning off servers at 6:30?

        Oh, and another point. A lot of us aren't quiche eaters.

        http://lib.ru/ANEKDOTY/quiche.txt

        Some of us build and install systems which are used for aircraft engine design and nuclear weapons simulations.

        A lot of us run systems which do Real Work (TM) - which of course includes e-commerce, big databases, high frequency trading in the City.

        In my case I care for and manage hugely powerful Beowulf clusters which run 24 hours a day, running simulations, the results of which my colleagues will look at over the weekend and on Monday morning. If I were to TURN OFF these machines overnight I would be

        a) laughed at

        b) out of a job

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Want we want is real technology

    and not Web 2.0'rreah bollocks hype

  3. mark 63 Silver badge

    hoodies

    well thats all very reassuring.

    sounded green. liked it.

    Glad to hear developers and fashion designers are going to save the world, with the help of some graffiti artists.

    I think enlisting hoodies may have been a step to far - unless its a ruse to get them "first against the wall when the revolution comes"

  4. frank ly

    Who is the other man?......

    The one with the 'I want to run away, but I have to stay' body language.

    1. A.A.Hamilton

      Re: Who is the other man?......

      He'sjust reacting to having heard the expression 'get-go'.

      FFS Reg. can we leave out these blatant 'west of the Atlantic' expressions for ever, from now on? We are, after all, talking about a region of London - you know, London, UK (good grief, how many really significant ciites called 'Paris' are there, aside from that in France?) <sign>

  5. Pete 2 Silver badge

    We know this is excellent advice ...

    > "Technology diplomat" Ben Hammersley – who has worked as a journalist ... Hammersley said that companies shouldn't do community give-back as some kind of add-on after they'd made lot of money, but that the business should be "focused" on the community from the get-go.

    ... As this guy has been so successful at running design companies and startups in the past. Oh, hang on - no he hasn't. He's never done anything entrepreneurial himself, all he's done is sit on the sidelines and write about other people's companies.

    So while his flowery prose and inspirational word-smithing sounds all very fine, he has no practical experience to back it all up (and worse: no personal investment in what he's advocating). So really he's just pontificating about how he thinks things should work. Beware the pundit - inventing new words ("podcast") doesn't mean he knows how to run a tech. business.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We know this is excellent advice ...

      > As this guy has been so successful at running design companies and startups in the past. Oh, hang on - no he hasn't. He's never done anything entrepreneurial himself, all he's done is sit on the sidelines and write about other people's companies.

      There is a Ben Hammersley who is a director of Dangerous Precedent Limited which has been running since 2008 and is described as "A multi-disciplinary design practice". It was started with £5000 and now has liabilities of £11,275 and assets of £7,661 and £0 cash in the bank. Not exactly a success story.

      Isn't the internet a wonderful thing.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: We know this is excellent advice ...

        If the liabilities includes the original capital then he's £1400 up on his start position.

        On the other hand its only 3600 or so in debt, could have spent that much on a conservatory and not had half as much media attention.

  6. moonface

    The Apprentice

    I will now always remember Shoreditch, as being populated by freaky haired hipster buying any old shit thinking they're cool. Got some old rubbish to get rid of, then put a 'Retro' 'Vintage ' label on it. I absolutely pissed myself when people were actually buying those crappy suitcase tables.

    The area, obviously has far too much money, already!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dear Mr Hammersley

    Please recall that the Government invested (on behalf of tax payers) £200m in this venture.

    It would be nice to see some return on this investment as £200m would have allowed a few creative people on Jobseekers Allowance to spout crap until they come up with something praising the hospitals and schools that the community has already provided them.

    While I'm sure your contributions are invaluable, a PR puff piece isn't a particularly useful contribution to the economy as a whole...

    Hugs and kisses

    Grumpy taxpayer of London

  8. Admiral Grace Hopper

    Chairs

    The chairs look a litte under-sized. They look as though the teachers in a primary school were sitting on the pupil's chairs.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anyone else have to go to wikipedia

    to figure out what Tech City is?

    1. Code Monkey

      Re: Anyone else have to go to wikipedia

      Not me, but I do have the Nathan Barley box set instead.

    2. Dotter

      Re: Anyone else have to go to wikipedia

      It's otherwise known as the Silicon Roundabout.

      I preferred that name.

  10. Dr Who

    FOSS

    It seems to me that Tech City is trying to jump on the extraordinarily successful FOSS bandwagon. Trouble is, although they're getting there with the hippy communal cooperative side of things (sort of), they haven't got the awesome intellects and outstanding engineering skills that drive open source development. Lots of beards but no brains as it were.

    It's a bit like having a bag of chips with no salt or vinegar. All you end up with is a cold, greasy pile of stodge (is that analogy stretched just a tad too far?).

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Like so many tech-"gurus"...

    ... he's not a techie. Or even, as already pointed out, an entrepeneur. But his tech-centered self-congratulatory outlook, procured from wired, is top-notch. Even does the mystique sauce quite well; offering the sound of deepness for that all-important tinge of reverb, yet shallow enough for a popular article.

    And, of course as it seems to be mandatory, get most of the parable-drawn examples wrong. The only thing that doesn't ring hollow is his enthousiasm. Which is nice and all, but on the whole his efforts seem to lack a bit substance. At least it brings back that special turn-of-the-millenium bubbly fragrance, eh? Eh?

  12. Paul Sanders

    Offensive twat

    I started my business in 1991 in what has been branded Tech City because rent was cheap, there was plenty of space, and the area wasn't full of twats. The people who have been here for more than 10 minutes don't need lectures in community spirit from wankers on Government grants.

  13. Cazzo Enorme

    Please tell me this was a piss take, like the Steve Bong column. If not, then I despair.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sad thing is, the mildly humourous Bong column wasn't as unintentionally hilarious and altogether nuts as some of the comments in this article.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Contributing to the Community by driving the Community out?

    http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/04/25/the-east-end-trades-guild/

    1. Cazzo Enorme

      Re: Contributing to the Community by driving the Community out?

      Yes, but those square types had to go. They couldn't even appreciate the important distinction between a Mocca-Soy Latte and a Flat-White with Choco sprinkles. Plus they were such an eyesore with their yawn inducing lack of dress sense that showed no appreciation for a pair of boot cut, hipster waisted skinny jeans in pastel shades of pre-stressed denim, combined with self-consciously non-colour-coordinated, boutique label skate shoes. As for their so called haircuts, no sign of a swooping fringe or ironic mullet. Need I say more?

  15. Magnus_Pym

    Tech City?

    Gov Tech Guru: What? Someone invented software? Why wasn't I told. Oh my god, throw some money at something quick. Who's nearest?

    Wonk: There is something going on in Shoredich I believe sir.

    Gov Tech Guru: Well give them £200 million and get someone to interview someone for christ's sake.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Tech City?

      On the other hand there had been a Science Park outside Cambridge (and many companies in the city itself) that has been doing this stuff and more for the last 30 years. When did this suddenly because news? Because it's in London?

  16. disgruntled yank

    the point

    "Yes, some people will get rich. But if you ask why enough times, you'll discover that getting rich isn't the point."

    If you ask "why" enough times, the point will be to say something that ends the interview.

    ""It's not a matter of policy, but one of the things the government can say is: 'We're going to have a renaissance – let's do it'.

    A professor from whom I took a course on Renaissance literature, a Swede by birth and education, remarked that in the 17th Century Sweden was well positioned to have its own Renaissance; it controlled the Baltic and a lot of money came along with that power. But, he said, the literature was unreadable, the music dreadful, the art not worth looking at.

    He does sound like a Renaissance man, but I leave it to better judges to decide whether he sounds more like Malvolio or Dogberry.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: the point

      you need better light for the renaissance. Sunny Tuscany yes, snowy Stockholm no

  17. JDX Gold badge

    That photo is scary

    The guy on the right is some kind of giant!

    1. Dotter

      Re: That photo is scary

      A giant of technology!

      And nothing else.

  18. bag o' spanners
    Pint

    all mod cons

    Can I get an olive and one of those pretty umbrellas in my Rambotini? And a side order of jerk unicorn?

    I bless the day that I decided not to join a cowboy procrastination enterprise and get a real job instead.

    The quality of shmooze in the real world is petayears ahead of the Dopium Triangle's tiresome overpriced hostelries. And much less wankersome. And I get paid in beer tokens. Hallelujah!

  19. Godwhacker

    Why...

    ...is the furniture in that photograph so small?

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