Yes it's a hellsite, but here's why I love Twitter. Someone I've never met gets in touch to say his son has tested positive, but even though his whole family has the app, none of them have got a proximity warning. Twenty minutes later we're conducting a joint experiment
We're giving it half an hour. I'll let you know how it goes
It's now been 40 minutes and there's no alert. BUT... I forgot that the notifications aren't instant. They're sent out two-hourly to phones
Sorry if you were waiting for the result. It will be along as soon as I get it
The results are in! No notifications sent to any of these phones. No idea why not either
But it's not about the destination, it's about the journey
Here's what I learnt while investigating, with the help of the brilliant @Freedom20T and his jailbroken iPhone
The diagnosis keys files (aka the lists of people who need alerting) are generated every two hours. So even if you've definitely been near someone who's tested positive, you won't get a notification immediately
(That's why we needed to wait longer than I thought last night)
BUT the file with the keys isn't sent out to phones on the same two-hourly timetable
Eg: the 16:00 file was created at 15:50, but not downloaded till 17:09. The 22:00 file wasn't downloaded till 22:50
I've no idea whether this is significant, but it's interesting to me, so perhaps someone else will find it useful
In the meantime, the mystery of the missing notification goes on...
Curiouser and curiouser. A Danish publication has reported on a bug in the Google/Apple system which meant that household contacts weren't getting notified (ht @moltke)
Another theory: the "index case" (he's fine by the way, I wouldn't be doing this if he wasn't) tested positive last week, so wasn't counted as infectious by the API
Of course that doesn't mean the original question isn't good, but it would undermine the results of our test...
Putting this here in case anyone scrolls down the thread
MPs in the north of England are being told that pubs and bars are driving outbreaks. Mass closures are expected in parts of the country. Isn't this the the venue check-in system on the app is for?
This is a huge story. One source tells me that Roche supplies 1 in 5 labs in the UK. The implications of shortages are terrifying news.sky.com/story/thousand…
The focus will be on coronavirus, but this goes far far beyond that. Roche supplies everything from cancer tests to home monitoring systems for patients with heart conditions
At a moment when the NHS is under intense pressure, this will only intensify it
What's the issue? Roche is building new automated warehouse to increase capacity ahead of Brexit
The new warehouse isn’t working, but they haven’t got a backup warehouse - and most labs don't hold their own stock. It's a just-in-time nightmare
The final part of the PM's speech, where he cast forward to 2023, was fascinating. Digital IDs, electric vehicles, super-fast broadband... to enable a life of family and quiet local living
A vision of techno-Conservatism?
Found the bit. He painted a vision of technological transformation, then said it would allow young people in their 20s and 30s to "bring up children in the neighbourhoods where they grew up themselves...
"...and instead of being dragged on big commutes to the city they can start a business in their home town"
This will - I imagine - be appealing to many. But can the UK pivot away from its model in the teeth of a pandemic? And what does this mean for struggling city centres?
The Northumbria University outbreak gives a fresh perspective to the SAGE minutes from 1 September, which were released today
SAGE identified numerous risks with opening colleges and universities, warning that it "has the potential to drive outbreaks"
You don't say
The SAGE minutes pose the question every student must be asking: now they're at uni, how will they ever leave?
SAGE says the risks of national transmission from universities will peak when students go home for Christmas - and that managing it will need “national oversight”