Friday, November 04, 2005

The Thick Of It


Watch it now. Really very good!
posted by Alun , 10:01 PM Þ 

I've been enjoying the vocal musings of Feist of late ... she has a lovely voice. In concert a few weeks back, she sang songs alone, with a sampler, and created some beautiful harmonies, looping her voice and her guitar in layers. She makes the pouring rain at least bearable.
posted by mary13 , 8:24 PM Þ 

Stuff thats just too cool:

Salling Clicker: http://www.salling.com/Clicker/mac/

When you combine that with Front Row on your mac, you get this.

Which is very very cool indeed.

And related...

A new phrase to take over the world, to be said in response WHENEVER someone has computer problems AND is running Windoze:

"First of all, why on earth are you running windows?"

You can then solve their problem. Or not.
posted by Irdial , 2:44 PM Þ 

re: the new Kate Bush song; the drums sound odd to me. There's something not quite right about them. Other than that it's already a song that will remind me of autumn 2005, just like "Rubberband girl" reminds me of autumn '93.
posted by captain davros , 2:39 PM Þ 

she's 92

Papa don't preach; time goes by so slowly (quicker than a ray of light).

Indeed.
posted by meau meau , 1:11 PM Þ 

you may like this ... hide & seek


Listened... and half an hour later a thought hit me from nowhere... O Superman!
It's a superficial likeness, but... it's Friday!

The image “http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40981000/jpg/_40981788_madonna_getty.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Talking of superficial, she's 92 you know!
posted by Alun , 12:55 PM Þ 
Thursday, November 03, 2005



The Bubble Project

I went climbing Snowdon a couple weeks ago with some friends. Some photos are here.

I saw the KB video a week or so ago. Can't say that I enjoyed the song. It felt a bit 'hollow' compared to her previous work. I'm reserving further judgement until I hear the album.
posted by chriszanf , 8:43 PM Þ  

12/08/2005 9:35:21 pm  No more devices found
17/08/2005 5:18:48 pm  Dark Knight - Found device
17/08/2005 5:19:56 pm  SGH-E720 - Found device
17/08/2005 5:20:49 pm  Cynth - Found device
17/08/2005 8:30:48 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
17/08/2005 8:31:46 pm   - Found device
29/08/2005 8:07:10 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
29/08/2005 8:07:23 pm  No more devices found
29/08/2005 8:07:27 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
29/08/2005 8:13:50 pm  M@ - Found device
29/08/2005 8:13:53 pm  Keyur - Found device
29/08/2005 8:43:20 pm  Nokia 6680 - Found device
29/08/2005 8:43:20 pm  Nokia 6230i - Found device
29/08/2005 10:08:11 pm  easy veezy - Found device
29/08/2005 10:08:24 pm  No more devices found
30/08/2005 12:17:57 pm  No more devices found
30/08/2005 4:30:33 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:10:15 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:10:35 pm  Nokia 8800 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:10:53 pm   - Found device
26/09/2005 2:10:53 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:11:01 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:11:02 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:13:31 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:13:40 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:13:53 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:13:54 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - OBEX search error -6410
26/09/2005 2:24:43 pm  Nokia 6680 - Found device
26/09/2005 2:24:56 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 2:46:56 pm  fuck u. - Found device
26/09/2005 2:46:57 pm  No more devices found
26/09/2005 3:11:51 pm  D750i Marthijn - Found device
26/09/2005 3:11:52 pm  No more devices found
31/10/2005 5:25:18 pm  Nokia 6230 - Found device
31/10/2005 5:25:29 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
31/10/2005 5:27:12 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
31/10/2005 5:27:16 pm  No more devices found
31/10/2005 5:31:46 pm  Nokia 6230 - Found device
31/10/2005 5:34:39 pm  fat bastard - Found device
31/10/2005 5:34:50 pm  (BIG MAN) - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:04 pm  Miss B.Haven - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:12 pm  Maniak - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:29 pm  lauren - Found device
31/10/2005 5:35:32 pm  K750i - Found device
31/10/2005 5:37:39 pm   - Found device
31/10/2005 5:38:50 pm  Timeout...
31/10/2005 5:40:10 pm  K750i - OBEX Put
31/10/2005 5:40:11 pm  K750i - Bluejacked!
01/11/2005 2:17:40 pm  Charlotte - Found device
01/11/2005 2:17:53 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 2:19:49 pm  entrance - Found device
01/11/2005 2:19:50 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 2:55:23 pm  Melanie - Found device
01/11/2005 2:55:26 pm  Bennyboy - Found device
01/11/2005 2:56:02 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
01/11/2005 6:44:50 pm  P910i - Found device
01/11/2005 6:44:50 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 6:45:32 pm  P910i - Found device
01/11/2005 6:45:36 pm  Rob 6310i - Found device
01/11/2005 6:45:58 pm  spv - Found device
01/11/2005 6:46:05 pm  T610 - Found device
01/11/2005 6:54:30 pm  Fuel - Found device
01/11/2005 6:54:35 pm  Mark - Found device
01/11/2005 6:55:31 pm   - Found device
01/11/2005 6:56:13 pm  Mark - OBEX Put
01/11/2005 7:09:50 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:09:51 pm  BT GPS - Found device
01/11/2005 7:10:11 pm  Mahatma - Found device
01/11/2005 7:10:13 pm  No more devices found
01/11/2005 7:12:46 pm  Timeout...
01/11/2005 7:14:56 pm  Bik5 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:15:05 pm  Linda - Found device
01/11/2005 7:15:11 pm  Nokia 6820 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:17:34 pm  Cby2 - Found device
01/11/2005 7:18:08 pm   - Found device
02/11/2005 2:53:51 pm  Nokia 6230i - Found device
02/11/2005 2:59:30 pm  Nokia 6822 - Found device
02/11/2005 2:59:33 pm  Nokia 6230i - Found device
02/11/2005 2:59:34 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 3:01:43 pm  Nokia 6630 - Found device
02/11/2005 3:01:51 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 3:02:04 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 3:18:41 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 3:19:14 pm  Nokia 6600 - Found device
02/11/2005 3:19:14 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 3:19:17 pm  Nokia 6310i - OBEX Put
02/11/2005 4:41:23 pm  Pocket_PCJKM - Found device
02/11/2005 4:41:23 pm  SGH-E720 - Found device
02/11/2005 4:41:26 pm  Monkey nuts - Found device
02/11/2005 4:41:26 pm  No more devices found
02/11/2005 4:42:18 pm  Monkey nuts - OBEX search error -6410
02/11/2005 4:43:42 pm  Nokia 6680 - Found device
02/11/2005 4:43:43 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 4:43:50 pm  GAVINGELAPUK - Found device
02/11/2005 4:43:55 pm  Nokia 6310i - Found device
02/11/2005 4:44:08 pm  HUNKY MAN - Found device
02/11/2005 4:44:14 pm  SGH-E720 - Found device
02/11/2005 4:44:35 pm  Owl - Found device
02/11/2005 5:00:52 pm  Telford - Found device
02/11/2005 5:00:59 pm  Cesar - Found device
02/11/2005 5:01:00 pm  SAMSUNG SGH-D500 - Found device
02/11/2005 5:01:46 pm  Cesar - OBEX Put
02/11/2005 5:21:08 pm  Il Quesso - Found device
02/11/2005 5:21:21 pm  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:34:26 am  Nick Ward - Found device
03/11/2005 8:34:26 am  Thilaka - Found device
03/11/2005 8:34:29 am  Stephan's Nokia - Found device
03/11/2005 8:34:42 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:34:45 am  Nick Ward - OBEX Put
03/11/2005 8:34:46 am  Nick Ward - Bluejacked!
03/11/2005 8:36:44 am  Stephan's Nokia - Found device
03/11/2005 8:36:44 am  Thilaka - Found device
03/11/2005 8:36:54 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:37:56 am  Timeout...
03/11/2005 8:38:02 am  Thilaka - OBEX search error -6410
03/11/2005 8:48:19 am  70-1 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:53:31 am  T610 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:53:34 am  Stefano - Found device
03/11/2005 8:53:50 am  NOokia 6310i - Found device
03/11/2005 8:54:12 am  Nokia 8800 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:54:13 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:54:16 am  T610 - OBEX Put
03/11/2005 8:56:14 am  T610 - Found device
03/11/2005 8:56:17 am  Stefano - Found device
03/11/2005 8:56:21 am  Nokia 6230ivec - Found device
03/11/2005 8:56:34 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 8:57:36 am  Timeout...
03/11/2005 9:01:25 am  Steve - Found device
03/11/2005 9:01:38 am  Nokia 6230i - Found device
03/11/2005 9:13:14 am  Paul - Found device
03/11/2005 9:13:14 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 9:13:26 am  Paul - OBEX search error -6312
03/11/2005 9:13:28 am  Paul - OBEX search error -6410
03/11/2005 9:33:13 am  Nokia 6230i - Found device
03/11/2005 9:33:19 am  Lincoln Brown - Found device
03/11/2005 9:33:30 am  K600i - Found device
03/11/2005 9:34:11 am   - Found device
03/11/2005 9:34:11 am  No more devices found
03/11/2005 9:34:39 am  Nokia 6230i - OBEX connect failure -36
posted by Irdial , 7:47 PM Þ 

The House of Lords last night gave the ID cards bill its second reading and moved it to committee stage. Here are some choice quotes from the debate, with some questions from me (Ian Brown of FIPR).

Baroness Scotland: "the identity card scheme is first and foremost to provide individuals with a convenient method of proving their identity"
-- so why will we be forced to get one?

Baroness Anelay: "I thank the Minister for setting out the Government's case with such care and charm that, for one passing moment, it could seem the most reasonable thing in the world to believe that they were doing us all a big favour by bringing forward this Bill. But that moment passes rapidly and we return to reality."

Lord Phillips: "What none of us wants—even the Government, I think—is a slippery slope, at the bottom of which broods an over-mighty state, where the privacy of the citizen is largely figmentary, the whole culture of freedom is undermined and the managerialist and corporatist values that now seem to dominate the public as well as private realms triumph."

Lord Waddington: "In one case in 1951, Lord Goddard castigated the police for using powers passed to safeguard national security to require motorists to produce identity cards as a matter of routine whenever they were stopped on the road for whatever reason. In another case, two girls minded to spend the night in a hotel with men friends registered in false names and were prosecuted—mark you, prosecuted under a measure passed for reasons of national security. I do not think that anyone in the House today would be brave enough to say that under this scheme, such abuse would not take place... I do not argue that no national identification scheme could ever be justified, but when the Government present to Parliament a Bill that gives the Secretary of State power to make no less than 61 statutory instruments; when they ask for enormously wide powers to collect and store on a national identity register information about every person in the land and then allow that information to be accessed by a wide range of public bodies; when they seek power to require the citizen to have a card and to pay the cost of getting it, and keeping it up to date, it is surely up to the Government to show not just that some benefit may come of it all, but that the scheme is absolutely necessary to meet the threat that the country faces and that the cost in terms of individual liberty and money is absolutely justified. So far, the Government have done nothing of the sort."

Lord Holme: "this Bill fundamentally adjusts the relationship between the citizen and the state. How could it be otherwise when it will put the state in possession of an unprecedented, consolidated file of information about every individual which it did not have before?"

Lord Thomas: "The noble Lord, Lord Giddens, made huge claims for identity cards. They were apparently the answer to globalised crime, and would prevent terrorism, forgery and fraud. It seemed rather like saying that the possession of a driving licence would prevent road traffic offences... It is said that the Bill will protect my identity. I think that it hands over the control of my identity to a central government database. As my noble friend Lord Holme put it, it puts my identity at the disposal of the state. It is not just the basic information that will be on the database; it will be cross-referenced by numbers to my medical records, tax records, work records and—if I have them—criminal records. The history of this country is a struggle against authoritarian regimes such as those of Napoleon and Hitler, and against collective societies for individual freedom. Knowing the history of the party represented opposite, it strikes me as strange that it should set about creating an instrument that may be manipulated in future for authoritarian reasons. Knowledge is power, and we are putting power in the hands of a government who may in future have the most malign intentions... Surely a balance has to be struck. As a criminal practitioner, I do not see how the identity card will solve crime, dispose of terrorism and all the other things that are claimed for it. That is rubbish."

Lord Bhattacharrya: "As a technologist, I have no doubt whatever about the security of the system... We must also remember that we are talking about an IT system and we must have an unprecedented level of security. It can be designed in such a way as to prevent failure and attacks in all forms" -- I would have hoped a technologist would pay more attention to the available evidence, such as the high failure rates found by the government's own studies. He obviously doesn't know much about computer security either if he thinks such high-value systems can be designed in a way to prevent all failures and attacks. However, his one insightful comment is that "I can see that there would be pressure to include on a successful identity system key medical questions, prescriptions, medical reports and, as we move towards genetic fingerprinting, our DNA."

Lord Campbell-Savours: "why not let the public decide by giving them the option of offering DNA data for inclusion? Millions would volunteer. Some might say that it would be the wrong millions, but with a foot in the door it would soon become mandatory as part of the long-term exercise that we are engaged in."

The Earl of Northesk: "there is a palpable sense in which the Government now perceive their responsibility to be to rule, rather than govern, us. The distinction is not merely semantic. I hold to the conviction that governments—all governments of whatever political hue—should be servants of the people. Yet the Bill will do much to deliver the reverse. It will move us inexorably towards being servants of the state. Bluntly, I am unconvinced, given the marginal nature of the potential benefits on offer, that this is a bargain that we should knowingly or willingly enter into."

Lord Mayhew: "the devil does not inhabit merely the detail; he resides in many mansions, and from these he must be evicted by the processes at which this House excels. If he cannot be, the Bill deserves to fail. For example, there is the extraordinary feature that in no fewer than 60 instances the Secretary of State is given power to effect substantial legislative changes. This is virtually a skeletal enabling Bill, and I look forward with interest to see what the Select Committee has to say about it. These instances must be drastically reduced."

Baroness Kennedy: "Even if the system of ID cards is really robust, the most that it will do is limit the use of forgeries to those with the funds: terrorists, foreign governments, high-end criminals such as fraudsters, gun-runners and drug importers—precisely the people of whom the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, has spoken. So those people will have no difficulty in forging or in obtaining forged documents. They will be unaffected by the system... What is misunderstood is the fundamental way in which identity cards change the relationship between the citizen and the state catastrophically and permanently. You will have to ask yourselves why most of the rest of Europe has at some time or another succumbed to fascism but we have not. Was that just luck? Was that something to do with the plucky British personality? No, the reason we are as a people the way we are is that we have had institutions and law built on an inherent scepticism of the state. And a good thing, too... My noble friend Lord Giddens said that the assertion of identity was a mechanism of freedom. A requirement to assert your identity is a mechanism of oppression, and that is why so many people in this country, when it is explained to them, will feel affronted by the idea that we are going to be the first common law country to carry identity cards."

Baroness Seccombe: "I have seen many things in my time in politics, but I never thought that I would see the day when a Labour Government were made to look illiberal by Lord Goddard. Doubtless, the noble Baroness, when she next dines with her legal chums and remembers happier days when she had justice and liberty blowing wind in her sails rather than battling against her on Bill after Bill, will reflect on that... We need to know far more about the cost of this plan. There is too much creative accounting; too much laying off of expenses that would not otherwise have been incurred as if they had nothing in the world to do with the ID card scheme. Why otherwise are we going far beyond the level of biometrics in passports required by other nations?... The purpose of all this, as so many noble Lords have said, should be the first thing we get to probe in Committee. It will help us all to know that there is more reason for the freest country in the world building the world's most elaborate system of state registration of identity than a personal passion of one politician whose political life is ebbing away."

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/ianbrown?id=7
posted by Irdial , 6:45 PM Þ 

the woman in the video is not Kate Bush to me
isn't it awful ? ... very saddening, in fact

you may like this ... hide & seek
http://www.myspace.com/imogenheap ( the media player seems a bit ifffy )... she seems to have lost a lot of the sometimes irritating breathiness of previous work ... lovely production

edit
i haven't been able to get this out of my head today, so much so that I've had to buy the limited edition 7" single .... not sure about the rest of the album, but this is a beauty
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 11:26 AM Þ 

A wonderfull little gadget - the Buddha Machine: http://www.fm3.com.cn/
Twentyfour of those please and a Crackle Box: http://www.crackle.org/CrackleBox.htm
posted by Claus Eggers , 12:36 AM Þ 
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

They got the idea from Norway that has haved the same system for years. Where the Norwegians got the idea from I don't know.
posted by Claus Eggers , 11:16 PM Þ 

Curious Finns clamor for tax files

HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) -- Care to find out what your neighbor earned last year, or how much your partner really has stashed in the bank? In Finland you can -- and a lot of people did on Wednesday.

Every November when the Nordic nation's tax records of the previous year become public, Finns indulge on a massive scale in satisfying their curiosity about each other's finances.

Newspapers were crammed with lists of the wealthiest and highest-earning men and women in 2004.

Veroporssi, a private firm which offers income details on everyone in Finland via mobile text message, said it was its busiest day of the year and had no time to comment.

Iltalehti tabloid devoted a 24-page supplement to juicy details on which celebrity earned what, while sports stars like Formula 1's Kimi Raikkonen and Liverpool footballer Sami Hyypia, who escape one of the world's highest tax takes by living abroad, were highlighted for being "zero-income millionaires."

"People have always been interested in taxation, because in Finland you don't talk about your income, it's considered very vulgar, and even more impolite is to ask what someone earns," said Reijo Ruokanen, managing editor of Iltalehti.

"This is your chance to see if you're keeping up with the Joneses."

In a country where keeping your head down and not sticking out has traditionally been considered a virtue, the tax and income publication is a chance to brag a bit, Ruokanen said.

"A lot of them don't like it when we publish their names, but for some it's a way to be known as wealthy people without having to say so for themselves."

So who's the richest man of the republic?

Aatos Erkko, the main owner of media house SanomaWSOY, topped the list with a personal fortune of 192 million euros ($230 million), while Olli Riikala, an executive of U.S. General Electric, was the top wage earner, making 5.3 million euros. [...]

Snarfed from CNN.

I wonder from whence such an idea comes....very odd.
posted by Irdial , 10:27 PM Þ 

In Canada the librarians are so much cooler than the librarians here in Denmark.

Librarians without borders
posted by Alison , 11:39 AM Þ 

There's been some recent developments in digital rights management systems (DRM) that have security implications.
Some DRM systems have started to use rootkit technology.
Rootkits are normally associated with malware but in this case a rootkit is used to enforce the copy control policies
of audio CDs!
Read: Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far
posted by iatromante , 1:42 AM Þ 
Tuesday, November 01, 2005

This is also beautiful to hear... even though there is little apparent musical progression... sometimes it's just irrelevant when you're already so far ahead of the 'competition', but maybe the album will show more. Though the woman in the video is not Kate Bush to me, only the voice.
posted by Alun , 10:10 PM Þ 

The image “http://www.renaissanceyork.org.uk/Images/Heart.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
This is beautiful. It is majestic. York Minster looks stunning painted this way.
Come and see it! I'll buy the beer...
posted by Alun , 9:52 PM Þ 
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