Alex Fear and the Mrs are officially on holiday for 2 weeks from tomorrow, so the blogging will be light. We're actually looking for new flat to rent but we may just skip to the beach if the sun keeps (or catch a cheap 'environMENTALly unfriendly' flight away for a few days).
In the meantime, any time I get at the 'puter will be devoted to testing a new CMS and thinking the best way to go about transferring this to a Wordpress blog (domain name/content). Look forward to changes, and better organisation of the resources (devoted to social action etc).
In the meantime, click on one of the labels below to read through some previous topics.
Mildly Offensive Since it's only offensive to Australians.
Yet more common sense coming from the rulers of that former prison island. Any reasonable Aussie should be as astounded as Justice Spender. What Australian Immigration are actually saying is that anyone who has had even some past association with a *current* terrorist suspect is, by association, a terrorist suspect.
That means if you once shared a house with someone whilst you were a student, or allowed them to use your mobile phone perhaps... then years later that person is indoctrinated into islamic terrorism, then YOU are ALSO a terrorist suspect!
Well done Prime Minister Howard (who is also a friend of Hillsong Australia) for implementing anti-human policies yet again! Do your lips ever get chapped from kissing Dubya's ass?
This Post Is Rated: C for Controversial. Speculation over the decline of trust in British institutions.
In may, the Economist highlighted a YouGov poll taken earlier this year showing a general decline in the British peoples trust in public services, politics, work and journalism.
Unsurprisingly the only people to have gained more trust from the public were judges, whilst the usual suspects, including police, NHS hospital managers, estate agents, MPs and newspapers lost trust.
It's easy to see why. I speak from my own experience in dealing with 'the system'. People are realising that whilst those in authority seek more and more power over every detail of our lives, restricting our freedoms, judges are our last great hope in clearing our name and keeping society in balance.
Whilst the government seeks to speed up justice and skip past important checks and balances, the judge is a human being, our last recourse and hope for clearing our name and defending our innocence and rights. As the government have introduced more and more restrictive legislation, more and more British people have come to rely upon the courts to treat them fairly.
When are we going to have an honest, competent, open government? One that looks to the bottom line when making decisions and laws, a government that stands for integrity and trust?
This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide... yada yada. Warning: More commentary on our total lack of discretion and humanity in today's culture.
I'm aware that I'm going to reference another 'old' news item now but I'm just catching up with some of my saved rss feeds and occasionally I come across an item that is worth my comment but I'm too busy to compile something at the time.
The list of compiled cases showed incidents where officers had been "under such pressure to deliver it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous", he said. "Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask 'What the hell is going on?'."
Of course those who read police bloggers will not be surprised, but what people should be realising is that it's part of a much wider cultural endemic that has been going on for some time.
We no longer know how to relate as human beings. We may even empathise with our victims customers' personal situation, in the knowledge that we are making decisions that will deeply affect their circumstances, but there seems to be no will to to try and break the cogs of this giant machinery that is called 'authorisation'.
How many times have you heard the words to the effect of "Yes, I understand, but I'm sorry sir I cannot do that as I don't have the authorisation" or "I'm sorry I have to process this now, I can't stop it". What they actually mean is:
"I can stop it, but if something goes wrong, it will be my head on the block, or I am financially disincentivised to do anything to help you".
I'm glad the police are concerned, we should all be. We are moving towards, nay, already in a society that sees people as assets to be put in boxes and processed. If someone doesn't fit into the box, discard them or fail them. Why should we be concerned? Let me give you an example from my own life,
You may already be aware of the trouble I had with TalkTalk at the beginning of the year. I ended up cancelling their contract to go with Pipex in February. Today I received the 3rd 'Final Demand' for money on an account that should have been closed 4 months ago (2 phone calls, 1 letter). This is no longer a human looking at the details and realising the error of their ways, this is a machine, that has not been given the right instruction and without intervention, followed through to logical conclusion will pass this onto a debt collection service.
I don't trust those who currently stand for authority, not until I can see an example of a person or organization who can utilise technology responsibly, and not rely on it to cost cut human decisions over human lives.
To slightly modify an old mantra used on this site:
Databases exist to for people, people do not exist for databases.
This Post Is Rated: I for Ooh... Illegal. Or is it... and what are the implications?
It's already been done 1.3 million times and counting. After some careful consideration, I thought I'd join in and "break the law" too:
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
This string of seemingly random numbers forms a key to unlocking the DRM on HD-DVD and Blue Ray hardware. The AACS-LA does not want people to publish this number. In fact it has even threatened legal action against those who choose to publish this set of numbers.
I won't go into too much detail here because this story is old and there is already plenty of information on the web and it's been covered extensively by BoingBoing.
But is it really illegal to publish a set of numbers? Interestingly (at the time of publishing this post) it has not been tested in court which really raises the question of whether it's actually illegal to own and publish these numbers. Can you really own a number? Something tells me it never will be tested, or if it is, the AACS will probably fail. Can you really see them filing a law-suit against 1.3 million people, many who probably don't even reside in America?
Interestingly, Ed Felton of Freedom to Tinker already addressed the issue of 128-bit number ownership:
Now, thanks to our newly developed VirtualLandGrab technology, you can own a 128-bit integer of your very own (and then presumably, start issuing take-down notices to anyone who publishes the numbers or keeps a copy of them).
Here’s how we do it. First, we generate a fresh pseudorandom integer, just for you. Then we use your integer to encrypt a copyrighted haiku, thereby transforming your integer into a circumvention device capable of decrypting the haiku without your permission. We then give you all of our rights to decrypt the haiku using your integer. The DMCA does the rest. - You Can Own An Integer Too - Get Yours Here!
I'm plan to do a follow up post on this subject as it demands a more thoughtful analysis, but my initial thoughts on this subject is that we have moved beyond a mere Information Age and are becoming part of a type of Information Revolution. Traditional business models and capitalist frameworks are being usurped by Creative Commons and Open Source. These examples speak for themselves:
Whether you know it or not you are witness to a civil war taking place over the net. The internet is a type of 'wild west' or Electronic Frontier if you will. All the rules from the old country no longer count. If you Google search, blog, social network, make internet calls or have ever used any kind of free or open source software then you have already chosen your side or become a sympathiser for the revolutionaries.
My second thought is this, by pursuing legal action even against people who simply publish a string of numbers (regardless of knowledge of how to use them), then the AACS and other vested interests are already losing the battle. They dilute the severity of their claim by attacking anyone without discretion, and they will be opening the door for people to claim ownership of numbers and text (see above)- the end result would be death of progress, innovation and design. Imagine a programmer that would have to obtain rights from a different 'owner' for every line of code they wrote for a new program? Perhaps the only way to move forward would be for programmers to learn Klingon or some other language- until the AACS claimed ownership of certain strings of Klingon numbers and words.
In my view, those who are blurring the lines between what is and isn't illegal copying are the proprietors and proponents of DRM and the DMCA.
This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Contains references to giant robots and how wrong they've all got it.
In March I blogged about real Terminators in the not to distant future, inspired by Prof. Prabhu Guptara's blog post on the subject. I found an interesting post in Paleo-Future's archives recently: Gigantic Robots to Fight our Battles. Of course this was originally written in 1934, but doesn't it sound like a feasible future solution to war and terrorism? Imagine, everyone could live in peace whilst nations no longer kill each other but decide who wins with robots.
Of course... this will never happen and the reason why is simple- death. Death has the final say, wins all arguments and wins all wars.
Suppose a future nation, for trade benefits, decides to conquer another smaller nation. Both nations have powerful robots/weapons and agree to go to war in some distant desert. Eventually one nations robots obtain the upper hand and win the war. Neither nation has experienced bloodshed, sacrificed their armies or lost any territory. So what incentive is there for the 'losing' nation to give up power and be occupied? No leader or nation is going to willingly allow themselves to be taken over simply because they lost a few robots in some remote location that did not affect them. The only logical step for the 'winner' is to then use their remaining robots and weapons against the nation they have won the victory. Even if they succeed to conquer without further violence, it has been through the threat of bloodshed, to induce compliance, not the absence of it.
But there is a greater threat to global freedom and democracy underfoot. Without knowing it, the world is in a new subterranean arms race. It's the race for robots in which the Asian continent seems to be leading. It's the robot arms race, specifically for robots capable of successfully identifying and exterminating (as well as rescuing and serving) human targets. Whoever wins this arms race will probably end up deciding the fate of the planet. The ability to deploy robots into any hostile civilian or combat situation will give the nation with the greatest AI, the keys to the world kingdom. They will either end up dictating the course of other nations for their own benefit, or we will enter another cold war where fear of our enemies robots both keep our fingers on the trigger and prevent us deploying our own AI at the same time.
The only viable way that an AI cold war could be prevented is in much the same way as the last one was ended- by diplomacy. It would require one or more nations to to pledge against using anti-personnel robots on the battlefield (much the same way chemical weapons are forbidden now).
Finally this post is not meant to represent a pro-war stance. I am and will remain anti-war. However as a realist, it seems that as long as their are presidents, dictators, borders and non-renewable resources there will be wars.
This Post Is Rated: M for Mildly Offensive. Londoners may take particular offense at the revelations of this post (and they are welcome to it).
Last year I moved from Warwickshire, England to Ealing, Londonland and having been in this strange culture for several months now, I feel able to comment on it fully.
Londonland is ruled by Supreme Dictator Red Ken, whose rule has been unchallenged for 7 years and at this rate looks set to go on forever. Natives of Londonland refer to it simply as London, but it is quite obvious that the Supreme Dictator considers London to be a separate state from the country of England, where I come from. After all, in England, mayors of large cities tend to serve the inhabitants of their cities and are concerned with matters within their jurisdiction. It would be rare to see an English mayor flying all over the world to attract business and mass-migration, posturing on the world stage like a prime minister, president or royalty would.
The people of Londonland (Londoners) are very different from the English. For example, English people such as myself, enjoy fresh air and open spaces, so they buy and build property that allows them to experience these things. In Londonland, people have a fear of open spaces, so they cover anything green with flats and industrial parkland. Then they buy a large family houses and split each room into several living compartments for single or couples. The Mayor of London has erected a Congestion zone surrounding the City of London and the counties of Kensington and Chelsea. This is to create the maximum amount of congestion in the surrounding areas of Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith, Battersea, Vauxhall and Islington. This has the effect of reducing air quality as traffic takes longer to reach its destination.
The exchange rate between England and Londonland is 1:3. For every 1 pound you spend in England, you spend on average 3 pounds in Londonland. That's why in England a hairdresser is usually a low paid job, but in Londonland hairdressers outrank fund managers and investment bankers.
Londoners have no basic sense of geography. Many Londoners would be able to tell you what time you need to catch the Victoria line to Kings Cross but have no idea how to get home if you offer them a lift in the car. When queried about a place existing outside of the M25, they simply do not know, it doesn't exist.
There is no past-time that Londoners enjoy more than queing. Everywhere you go in Londonland you will find you have to queue. Infrastructure is designed to maximise queue potential by making buildings and streets as small as possible. If Londoners can't queue then they settle for overcrowding, which is just as much fun. The objective of the game is to wait until the tube train pulls up and then try to cram as many people as possible into one space. If you're not breathing the armpit of the person standing next to you, then you simply haven't got enough people in yet. A good tactic of 'overcrowding' is to stand as near to the door as possible to maximise the sardine effect. The Mayor of Londonland knows how much Londoners enjoy 'overcrowding', which is why he doesn't invest money into tube infrastructure to create more capacity.
Motorists of Londonland love nothing more than sitting in their car and going nowhere, especially in the hot sun. So as an alternative to the enjoyable activity of queuing to get into a car park, the Mayor of Londonland has done his best to recreate the a car park on Londonlands roads. This has been achieved by installing as many speed humps, traffic lights and one-way routes as possible. Of course this alone would not slow traffic down enough to simulate all the thrills of sitting in a car park, so the Mayor has also converted as many 2-lane roads as possible into single lanes. In order to do this he marked out long stretches of road with red tarmac. These lanes are specially reserved for the mythical London Bus. 'Mythical' because a bus is rarely seen on these strips of red tarmac, however, plenty can be spotted queuing amongst the cars on the black tarmac.
Londonland has very different traffic rules to England. For example, in Londonland, motorbikes and mopeds usually drive on the right side of the road, and only move onto the left side if the right side of the road is blocked by oncoming traffic. In England, where I am from, people generally use their car horns to express dissatisfaction with another driver, in a situation such as where the other driver has cut them up. In Londonland, the car horn is used to express apology or appreciation of your driving, ie. If someone cuts you up or crosses into your lane, it's not unusual for them to beep you on their horn, the longer they beep the more apologetic they are.
Finally, when living in Londonland it's important to emphasise how great living in Londonland is to visitors from England and other countries. A true Londoner will never mention the foibles detailed above because they don't see them. It makes me think of the line that Morpheus speaks to Neo from The Matrix...
"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself... The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
Londonland is a Matrix. Bleak, concrete, systematic and ruled by sinister government programs and agents. Green spaces and parks seem to be artificial compared to England. There's nowhere you can go that other people aren't and we are watched by a melee of cameras and robots. Welcome to Londonland.
Just finished updating a new page purely for a list of blogs I read, rss or occasionally visit. In no particular order or preference. Here are the blogs. I will be modifying the links page to feature websites only, however some of these may soon cross over to resources. The objective here is to turn AAF into a conglomerate of non-professional advice, information and experience on challenging corrupt or pharisaic authorities that make the decisions and rules for us to live by, but don't necessarily follow the rules themselves.
This Post Is Rated: C for Controversial. Would have been fun if it hadn't been about a life-threatening contraption built by environMENTALISTS.
If anyone wanted further proof that the environMENT has become more important that human life, last month Top Gear released the G-Wiz Crash tests:
This is the car Red Ken, Global Leader and Supreme Dictator of Londonland, wants you and everyone else to drive one of these awful death-traps.
Here's a piece cut from the FAQ on G-Wiz manufacturers site:
What about safety in the G-Wiz? The G-Wiz is a breakthrough product in the fight against climate change... Thanks but we asked about safety Excessive speed, no seat belts, alcohol & drug usage, and driver error are the main causes of accidents and injuries in the UK... Just so you know, it's not our fault if you end up dead in one Whilst larger, heavier cars in general perform better in crash tests, they are also more likely to injure other road users... Our cars will only kill you The G-Wiz has a tubular steel space frame which surrounds the driver and passengers. This includes side impact bars and a front crumple zone designed to protect passengers in low speed collisions... Low speed collision = 2mph?
Why have no manufacturer Euro NCAP crash tests been done on the G-Wiz? Neither the Euro NCAP test nor the Dept of Transport UNECE Regulation 94 test are required or recommended under the European regulation for quadricycles. Both tests are designed for M1 vehicles, primarily cars capable of speeds in excess of 100 mph and not low speed urban vehicles... Wow, that's convenient, avoids any marketing problems. Like all vehicle manufacturers RECC is however constantly reviewing safety features and innovation relative to usage... I feel safer already - as long as the other guy is driving one.
This morning I had a visit from www.gordonbrownforbritain.com, IP 81.152.54.40. I must have struck a nerve because the image http://www.gordonbrownforbritain.com/images/homepage.jpg has been changed.
Either that or maybe they just rotate the images (perhaps they will rotate the images now to give that impression).
Reminds me of a university project I did critiquing the US CIA website back in 1999- A story I'll tell another time maybe.
Just checked out Gordon Brown's campaign website, prepared in advance (against the rules) by Silverfish.
Wow, amazing what can be achieved with Photoshop these days, I prefer The Gimp but each to his own...
Just for your ease, I have added 3 red spots to the image to point out areas they messed up.
In no particular order (you need to be able to zoom on the image):
a) Girls hand next to Gordons head, looks like it was just a straight cut or slightly botched placement next to the girls hair. b) Kids face on Gordon's left shoulder. A trick I learned from a TV program, compare the light reflection (white dots) to the kid on Gordon's right shoulder, the reflection is not in the same area of the pupil, not only that, there, many other kids are lacking white dots in their eyes- which means they were not in the same place or photo. c) Also look at the light reflections of clothing, skin, looks like the sun was only shining selectively this day. d) Bottom of the image. Why is almost every kid in this picture looking in a different direction? Lousy photographer or cut-n-paste. You decide...
Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard is considering banning individuals with HIV from Australia, saying they should not be allowed into the country.
Actually, I'll support his stance as long as he promises to take back all the Australians that have invaded Londonland, and promises not to let himself or any other Australians, HIV or otherwise, out of Australia.
I haven't said anything on the 15 British sailors who were taken captive by Iran. It's pretty obvious it was a sick publicity stunt in order to goad the US and UK governments.
Ahmadinejad has to know that Bliar is on his way out and holds little sway with the British public or even elements of his own party. It is hardly likely such a dubious case as made for the Iraq war could be made for Iran now without solid reasons.
Regardless, it must be a harrowing experience to be taken captive as many former innocent Guantanamo Bay captives will tell you.
But the most striking element of this media circus is how Iran has unwittingly or otherwise, proved that there is no need to use torture to extract the confessions you want- at least not when it comes to British soldier-sailors.
I had respect for them when they refused BA's complimentary champagne and for changing back into uniform once safely on the plane. Unfortunately they began to lose this respect as the truth emerged that they offered zero resistance to the Iranian authorities, going the extra mile for the Iranian propaganda machine and making money (with the exception of Captain Chris Air) f
