Archive for November, 2007
What a bunch of discs
When the Guardian urged the government to “free our data”, I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean that the government should compromise the personal data of half the population. The “discgate” (gah, why does everything need to be called “-gate”?) scandal is all the more horrifying because of the sheer stupidity involved: it seems that 25 million people’s data was entrusted to a junior clerk and stored without encryption before burnt to CD and lost in the post. [The data was encrypted after all. Thanks Charles.]
It’s a spectacular display of utter incompetence, but of course there’s a bigger point here. There are all kinds of rules, procedures and laws to prevent such stupidity from happening, and none of them made any difference.
These are the people who will protect us from ID thieves? Jesus wept.
And that’s why the ID card scheme gives sensible people the heebie-jeebies. It’s not fear of Big Brother watching us; it’s the perfectly reasonable fear that Big Brother is D-U-M dumb. What’s the point of biometric scanning and other high-tech protection if the entire system can be compromised by a clerk with a CD burner?
As this sorry saga proves, relying on the government to safeguard our personal data is like asking Fred West to babysit.
More sleep deprived odds and sods
* The new Girls Aloud album isn’t as good as Chemistry - what is? - but Call The Shots is yet another perfect pop single. The baby seems to like it too.
* I’ve got a new camera lens. It’s an f1.4 which, photo buffs will appreciate, is several Fs less than standard kit lenses. Those absent Fs give me super photo powers, or something.
* passports for babies. What a load of (expensive) shite.
* amazon’s ebook reader. Not the iPod of the book world.
* that Robert Plant / Alison Krauss album is really rather wonderful, you know.
* the royal bank of Scotland’s new online banking system. Yet another bloody bank card, yet another pin number, plus a portable card reader you need to use for arranging transfers and the like. How very convenient!
Wi-fi grows tits on bulls, or something
I’ve just been given a press release (thanks, Paul) showing that Wi-Fi may be linked to autism - if by “linked” you mean “not linked”. It’s toss, of course, based on studies by a nutritionist and the infamous Wi-Fi “expert” Dr Carlo, a regular subject of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog. An extract:
The autistic children followed specific detoxification protocols in an environment that was mitigated with regard to sources of EMR including mobile phones and WiFi. Heavy metal excretions were monitored from hair, urine and feces over periods ranging from several weeks to several months. The researchers found that with protocols administered in the mitigated environment, heavy metals were cleared from the children?s bodies in a pattern dependent on time and molecular weight. The heaviest metals, such as mercury and uranium, cleared last. In many of the children, the decrease in metals was concomitant with symptom amelioration.
It’s a classic of its kind, actually. Not only does it have killer wi-fi, but it also has the heavy metals/autism link - which doesn’t exactly have a happy history:
An autistic boy died after receiving an unproven treatment that some people believe may cure the neurological and developmental disorder, officials said.
Abubakar Tariq Nadama, 5, had received his third treatment of chelation therapy at a doctor’s office Tuesday before going into cardiac arrest, said Deputy Coroner Larry Barr.
…Some people believe that autism can be linked to a mercury-containing preservative once commonly used in childhood vaccines, and these people sometimes advocate chelation therapy, which causes heavy metals to leave the body through urine.
…Howard Carpenter, the executive director of the Advisory Board on Autism-Related Disorders, said it was just a matter of time before there would be a death linked to the therapy.
“Parents of children with autism are desperate. Some are willing to try anything,” Carpenter said.
Buried in the wi-fi/autism study:
…the study was a retrospective observation based on subjects with severe autism whose parents chose to pursue alternative metal detoxification methods after other traditional approaches had failed.
In other words, desperate parents who were willing to try anything.
Expect to see it in the papers tomorrow.
It’s not news, it’s FARK: the book
Just a quick book recommendation: It’s Not News, It’s FARK: How the mass media tries to pass off crap as news, by Drew Curtis of Fark.com fame. It’s very good and very, very funny. I’ll scribble a quick review when I finish it; if you’re interested, you can read chapter 1 online.
Ecommerce software experiences
Stephen asks:
does anyone have any experience with simple e-commerce solutions? My optician client wants to start selling sunglasses online
I’ve recommended the usual suspects - Actinic LE, EROL Small Business etc. Any other suggestions or hard-learnt lessons would be appreciated, I’m sure.
Attack of the site scrapers
Anybody else getting this with their blog? My incoming links have suddenly become populated by lots of sites like this one, which looks awfully like a splog to me. Very annoying.
It’s only database driven marketing, but I like it
First email of the day:
It’s Nadine, Cheryl, Sarah, Kimberly and Nicola of Girls Aloud, and we just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday!
Hope you’re having a great day and you celebrate in style.
Heh heh heh.
The US writers’ strike: good point, well made
Michael Colton, writing in The Boston Globe:
The way that the big media companies treat writers would be hilarious if it weren’t so frightening. For instance, NBC streams full episodes of shows like “The Office” online - with ads - and avoids paying the writers by calling it a promotion. Yet when a 15-year-old posts an episode of a show online without compensating writers, the studios call it piracy.
[Via Fark]
iPhone ownership is like school dinner custard
…there are runny bits, and there are lumpy bits.
The runny bits:
* The iPhone in general. It’s a superb wi-fi web tablet, a great iPod, ideal for boring people senseless with baby photos and it makes the odd phone call too.
* Integration between iPhone apps. It - ahem - just works.
* The keyboard. Once you realise you can generally trust the autocorrect, it’s very, very fast.
* Syncing with iCal and iTunes. Doddle.
* Visual voicemail.
* Free Wi-Fi (provided of course you’re near hotspots).
* Ownership joy. Every single person who’s seen it loves it.
* Standard dock connector - which means it works with my existing chargers and my in-car stuff. Hurrah.
The lumpy bits:
* EDGE. Coverage round here is non-existent. If you know Glasgow, EDGE coverage seems to disappear once you get to Anniesland, let alone further north, which isn’t very impressive. Not sure what it’s like outside the city but I don’t imagine it’s great. Or there at all.
* EDGE. Even when you can get it, it’s shit. Downloading emails via an EDGE connection reminds me of the bad old days with a Psion Series 3 and an infra-red mobile phone connection.
* The headphones. They’re not bad, but they’re not great either. So you have a choice: get an ugly adapter for your existing phones and forget about hands-free; get an expensive adapter for your existing phones so you can still get hands-free; or get an expensive set of phones with hands-free built in.
* Various minor irritants. Mail needs filters; the horrible typeface in the Notes application; detection scripts that give you a mobile version of websites instead of the full-fat ones (fine when you’re on evil EDGE, but annoying on Wi-Fi); the lack of copy and paste; it’s very easy to dial the wrong contact; the lack of ability to use your own tunes as ringtones without hitting the hacking sites.
* Mugger fear. I’ve never had mugger fear with a normal iPod, but then a normal iPod doesn’t have a big “look at me! Look at me! I am very bad at fighting!” screen that’s visible from space. A proper remote on the headphones wouldn’t be a bad idea.
* Contract costs. It’s cheaper than a Blackberry (on O2 at least) but £35/month is still a lot of money for a mobile. Unless you’re a real power user, the combination of your existing mobile and an iPod Touch would give you pretty much the same amount of fun. And mugger fear. I’d definitely recommend a protective case and phone insurance (O2’s own handset insurance isn’t too pricey).
And that’s pretty much it.
There’s been a murder. A burd murder
Recently Megan the dog has been amusing the neighbours by barking at sod all in the early hours, which is particularly hilarious if you’ve just settled the baby after an epic crying fit. But this morning it turns out she’s a doggy Taggart, because there’s been a murdurrr. Some kind of hawk’s killed a pigeon in my garden, and it’s sitting on its prey while utterly ignoring the dog.
Cleaning that up should be fun…