Its happening here

The BBC is reporting that a group called truth in science is sending out "information packs" to UK schools promoting intelligent design. They are using the same techniques as other ID proponents, saying that students should be taught about the debate and keep an open mind. Superficially this seems all well and good, but in reality there is no scientific debate about whether evolution is true or not, there is plenty of debate about aspects of evolutionary theory but not about the concept. The last thing groups like this want is people thinking rationally and critically about the subject, they merely want to undermine the scientific debate and bring religion into science classes. These groups always manage to come up with the most ironic names, The Discovery Institute, Truth In Science and Intelligent Design, nothing could be further from the truth. BBC News

Kip Hawley is an idiot

This is another sad example of how absurd airline security measures create a dangerously oppressive environment. Ryan Bird a very frequent flyer, got so annoyed with the new inane travel restrictions about putting toiletries in a clear zip-loc bag, that he took his bag and with a black marker, wrote Kip Hawley is an idiot. Kip Hawley is the chief of the Transportation Security Administration. This political message got him detained at the airport by the TSA and the local police, before eventually allowing him to go on his way. You can read his full account here http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=606142

Olbermann eviscerates President Bush

I thought Keith Olbermann's previous special commentary that I posted here some time ago was outspoken and bold. This new 10min commentary truly tears into the administration its orwellian policies and its cowardly incompetence. Its a compelling 10 minutes viewing and I hope reflects a growing change in opinion in America about the entire Bush government. Here is part of Olbermann's summary:

Thus was it left for the previous president to say what so many of us have felt; what so many of us have given you a pass for in the months and even the years after the attack: You did not try. You ignored the evidence gathered by your predecessor. You ignored the evidence gathered by your own people. Then, you blamed your predecessor. That would be a textbook definition, Mr. Bush, of cowardice. To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past. That was one of the great mechanical realities Eric Blair—writing as George Orwell—gave us in the book “1984.” The great philosophical reality he gave us, Mr. Bush, may sound as familiar to you, as it has lately begun to sound familiar to me. "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power... "Power is not a means; it is an end. "One does not establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. "The object of persecution, is persecution. The object of torture, is torture. The object of power… is power."

Found via warrenellis.com

Nokia + dust = bad : internets + obsessive people = good

Because Nokia cant seal their phones sufficiently well to avoid dust getting between the screen and the cover, I wanted to clean my 6680. Of course first you have to dismantle it, not easy, but fortunately thanks to the power of the internets, google and sufficiently obsessive people there are diagrams of exactly how to do this, you can find them here at the not so appropriately titled uselessinfo.org.uk

Climb the OXO Tower

One of my favourite London buildings the OXO tower will be conducting guided tours up the tower this weekend, lookout form behind the big OXO and check out the views from the top. The tower has never been open to the public before, and I am sure it will be mobbed, but I am going to check it out.

Free tours up the Oxo Tower – an opportunity to climb the spiral staircases and look through the giant O X O windows with marvellous views from its very top (not a trip for the faint hearted or those suffering from vertigo – flat shoes recommended). A once in a lifetime opportunity – the tower has not previously been opened to the public. Numbers limited and on a first come, first served basis. Tours take place between 12midday-5pm, and must be booked in person from 11.30am at Coin Street Coin Street Community Builders exhibition space next to EAT cafe on the ground floor of Oxo Tower Wharf

Link via Londonist

Secure your checked bags -- fly with a gun

Now that you cannot lock your suitcase one way to protect your valuables on flights is to put a weapon in it. Once you tell the airline that there is a weapon in your hold luggage it gets extra special treatment including being locked and tracked. This kind of reminds me of the story of the man who when discussing the odds of there being a bomb on the plane says "The odds of their being a bomb on the plane are a million to one, the odds of their being two bombs on the plane are almost astronomical, thats why I always carry a bomb on the plane."

A "weapons" is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols - those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets - are considered weapons...and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States. I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare...I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me. That's the procedure. The case is extra-tracked...TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero. It's a great way to travel with camera gear...I've been doing this since Dec 2001 and have had no problems whatsoever.

from uber blog boingboing.net original here Link

Biometric Security Vs Mythbusters

No lock is ever completely secure, but the hype that surrounds biometrics as foolproof certainly needs puncturing. This short clip shows the Mythbusters defeating a biometric door lock with, a latex thumb, a ballistics gel thumb and ultimately a photocopied fingerprint and a bit of spit. What worries me about this is that the manufacturer of this unnamed product says its never been defeated before, exactly what kind of testing did they do? Perhaps its never been defeated before because nobody bothered to try?

Print your own stamps

Finally you can print your own stamps from the royal mail. Check it out here.

Sunday morning

Having a great cup of coffee on a beautiful and quiet sunday morning. London is a different place before the hordes emerge on to the streets.

Amazon Unbox evil DRM incarnate

Amazon's new box service allows you to download movies and watch them on your computer using their unbox software. Now this seems like a step in the right direction, after all you can rent DVD's from amazon now, they just send you them in the post, rather than delivering them over the internet. However, Amazon's unbox service agreement essentially goves them full control over your computer and signs away any rights you might have. Its pretty ugly, Cory Doctorow has a great analysis over at BoingBoing. Amongst the most pernicious of the license agreements clauses are, translated into English from legalese.

• If you delete the software we will delete your purchased movies.
• We can update and change the software at any time, without your permission.
• We can change the rights to the movies at any time.
• If we think you are doing something naughty with the movies, we will delete them.
• We will scan you hard drive for digital media.
• If you leave the country we will delete your purchased movies.

Wow what a deal, read the scathing and detailed analysis here and whatever you do don't buy horrible DRM infected poor value movies from Amazon, use their rental service and rip them instead. http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/15/amazon_unbox_to_cust.html

MacPro Post

I am posting this from a macPro with a 23'' cinema display. the only two dissapointing things so far are there is nothing installed that can even remotely tax it and its not mine.

Mr Picassohead

This great flash application lets you make your own picasso style portrait. Very nicely done and quite a bit of fun creating your own masterpiece. This as you can see is my spectacular effort, i think it looks a little pissed off. http://www.mrpicassohead.com/index.html

Finally a generic Nokia 6680

I have finally managed to make my orange branded nokia 6680 into a generic one by flashing the firmware with all manner of tricky tools. The process is a hassle, but for me at least worth it. Apart from being able to run the latest firmware, with lots of bug fixes and improvements, it also consumes less ram and looks better. Its always interesting to me what effort people will go to do something that they want to do with their device, and what lengths the operators and manufacturers will go to prevent them. Surely i just costs everone involved enormous amounts of time and money. Why not just give people the tools and information they need to make the most out of the product they have bought.  The upcomning chumby looks to be a really good example of a manufacturer getting this philosphy and I will be dammed tempted to pick one up, when they finally go on sale.

Too True

Hmm I wonder what they are talking about, escalators seem so safe.

gmail on the go

I love google mail more and more. I can access it from my nokia 6680 web browser, it gives a great small screen optimised interface and will even display the text contents of attachments such as word files. I can't see myself going back to a desktop client any time soon.

open house weekend

This weekend many of londons most interesting buildings are opening their door to the public. Unfortunately the only way to find out the full details you need to buy either the dead tree booklet or download the pdf. The booklet is £4 delivered, the pdf is £3. Surely the savings justify a lower price for the pdf than this. I ordered the booklet as i am going to end up printing it to take with me.

Azureus Vs. BitRocket

I keep hoping someone will bring a full featured native bittorrent client to OSX. BitRocket is the closest thing so far, but in my informal testing it is no where near as good as Azureus. Azureus is more aggressive at making connections to peers and gets much higher download speeds, around 5x BitRockets peak. Now if only the safepeer plugin didn't take so long to load I could love Azureus despite its cumbersome java interface.

Rich Contact Lists

My contact lists in my various IM applications keep getting longer and longer, some of them are work colleagues some friends some family. I can group these into various groups but often I don't want to share the same presence status information with them all. For my colleagues I want to have info, like am I on the phone or available, for my friends my current iTunes track, for family a personal status message. In the evening I don't necessarily want work contacts to get hold of me just because I am sitting at the computer, with more and more international contacts this can be annoying. Short of having IM accounts for each of the areas of my life is there a way of managing this? It seems I should be able to set per person or per group presence information. Is this in any of the IM application roadmaps?

Too hot

Its 29 deg C thats 84.2 of your foreign numbers here in mid September, and the PC next to me seems to be pumping out air at roughly twice that, making the office a very stufffy place indeed. Ice tea is called for, or my new favourite an Arnold Palmer 50-50 ice tea and lemonade, if that doesnt help I am stuffed.

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