Rowan Williams’ debacle escalates further

From The Telegraph 08/02/08:

“The Archbishop of Canterbury faced calls for his resignation today as bishops joined politicians in criticising his remarks supporting the adoption of sharia law in Britain.

To add to his woes, Lord Carey, his predecessor at Canterbury, and the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, challenged his view that aspects of Islamic law could be incorporated into the English legal system.

The row erupted on Thursday when Dr Williams suggested the introduction of Muslim laws into the UK was "unavoidable".

I’ve been following this story carefully since it first emerged. Thus far, it’s gone down like a lead balloon and got the UK public up in arms in a way I’d almost forgotten they were capable of doing. What I still don’t get, of course, is why he broached such a nightmare subject anyway – at least using the sharia example that he did. As has been frequently pointed out, the subject of interaction between religions etc. is topical and worthy; launching straight in with the sharia example, though, was surely ill-advised.

Leo Laporte: “Grandpa did not infect the computer with porn, Come on!?! Come on!?!”

My consumption rate for podcasts has always been high. I’ve been on the Twit (this week in tech) podcast bandwagon for 2-3 years now but just recently, I’ve found myself listening to an unprecedented amount of content.

As well as my beloved Windows Weekly – I haven’t missed an episode since it launched in September 2006 –I’ve been tuning into Macbreak Weekly, The Tech Guy, Security Now and This Week in Tech. I’ve even listened to Jumping Monkeys (go, figure) but, somewhat worryingly, not This Week in Law. Well, you know how it is, blawgwatchers – there’s only so much law you can take in a working week. 

Tonight as I was finishing off listening to Leo Laporte’s The Tech Guy, there was a great call taken involving a woman and her husband who liked to email out jokes to friends and family they find on the internet. Just the text, mind you. On one occasion recently, when they emailed some jokes out to their son-in-law, he responded by alleging that they sent him a virus/spyware which not only infected his work computer, but also sent him to several ‘porno sites’. Lovely stuff.

Given all the facts, Leo gave short shrift to these arguments and concluded, correctly in my opinion, that the son-in-law was pis*ed with them over something else. Leo wisely asked if the son got a decent Christmas present last year to see if that was his gripe. The answer was amusing: yes he did but he’s not gonna get another.

The caller seemed genuinely innocent and had done everything you could expect: explained immediately to the son it was nothing to do with them, had her computer checked by a professional and ran anti-virus and anti-spyware software anyway. The son-in-law is now not talking to them, thus making life difficult considering there are grandkids involved. Maybe the son had gotton his computer infected with the nasty stuff having been on a self-inflicted porn-fest and sought an excuse to give to his partner: “Honestly, darling, that’s why my computer's weighed down with porn – your daddy sent it to me”. Like that’s going to help his cause.

You mean it’s Pancake Day TODAY?

The whole Shove Tuesday/Pancake day thing almost passed me by this year. Having heard a few mumblings about pancakes throughout the day, it was only when I came in through the door this evening to be greeted by a room full of smoke and the smell of pancakes that I finally twigged.

My girlfriend is a self-professed pancake connoisseur and by extension, I’ve been exposed to a fair few p-cakes myself. So for us, Pancake Day is almost a non-event. Her reckoning is simple: as pancakes are such a sumptuous delicacy filled with magic and wondrous glory, why limit your intake to just one day. So we don’t.

Hit 'n' run with ... mobility scooter

From Yahoo News 03/02/08:

A 53-year-old man is being questioned by police in connection with a hit-and-run incident involving a mobility scooter which left an elderly woman woman needing hospital treatment.

Pensioner Audrey Lane, from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, was knocked down by an electric vehicle which drove off at less than 8mph.

The former Land Girl, 84, is still being treated in hospital for a broken leg and wrist.

The man could face charges of assault or dangerous driving under changes to the Road Traffic Act made two years ago.

Mrs Lane's son, Daniel, 59, said: "My mother was standing with her shopping in the High Street, waiting to cross the road. The next thing she knew, she had been hit from behind by this man on a mobility scooter. She was in the middle of the road lying on the floor and her shopping bag was thrown half-way across the street.

"She remembers the incident clearly. He told her, 'I can't stop. I'm busy', then went off.

I've always said that driving competency tests should be mandatory before someone is let loose in one of those contraptions.  A pedestrian who's had a near miss or even bruised skins from an encounter in the street or supermarket from one of those hot-rods will know exactly what I'm talking about.  And the beeping when they're reversing: what's all that about?!  They tend to be safest when in reverse; it's all the other times you've got to watch out, particularly if you treasure your toes.  Some users, of course, do treat them carefully and 'drive' them in a safe and responsible manner.  But there's no getting away from it, there's certainly others that don't.  I've personally seen mobility scooters get raced round the local streets by the over 60s as if they were Ducati 1098s in ways that would give Valentino Rossi a run for his money.  I guess it all had to all end in tears, sooner or later. 

Microsoft & Yahoo Merger?

I have to admit that when I first heard about this a few days ago, I was initially sceptical and very dubious of Microsoft’s proposed merger with Yahoo. My thinking here was that Microsoft was a big and ungainly monolith already, without adding additional baggage. Their MSN brand (since subsumed under the Windows Live umbrella) has solidly ticked-over, but never once truly snapped at Google’s heels.

Microsoft seemed to have lost its wow-factor in recent years and, with exception of Office 2007, its overwhelming successes have been few and far between. Of course, the cold-to-lukewarm reception that Vista enjoyed in its first year of availability is a case in point: of 250 million windows PCs sold, only 100 million were running Vista – leading the observer to the conclusion that 150 million or so machines must have shipped with the previous OS, Windows XP. And what a rocky and tumultuous road, that proved – getting Longhorn out of the door as I documented over a year ago: a meandering journey through 5 years of bumbling development, lack of direction and a culling of previously promised features.

The innumerable antitrust actions that the Redmond giant had been slapped with in the past decade must also be factored-in. Few regulators are prepared to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt now, with Europe taking a particularly tough stance.

That said, Paul Thurrott makes a number of very interesting points and explains why, perhaps, the Microsoft/Yahoo merger is a major step forwards for both the company and the wider internet-surfing public alike. Without it, Microsoft may well continue losing ground against Google in the battle of the titans, with the latter going on to take over the world entirely. Or something like that.

But seriously, Paul’s analysis is usually right on the money. As he points out, “Google is a new kind of competitor and needs to be addressed differently.” Equally, Microsoft, unlike Google and Yahoo still doesn’t ‘get’ the internet, the way the online and computing world is heading and the whole ‘cloud computing’ concept that’s descending on the world right now. As he neatly sum-ups, “Yahoo will bring a healthy attitude about platform-agnostic cloud computing to the insular world of Microsoft and, hopefully, inspire the company to reach for the future instead of just defending the past.”

The Michael visits Oxford

In keeping with my hectic 2008 travel schedule, Friday saw me visit this quaint city for a postgrad interview. I’ve done more ‘business' travelling in the last month than in all of my adult life.

Having never been to Oxford before, I wasn’t entire surely what to expect. My girlfriend seemed to picture a quaint and leisurely city, awash with culture and fine architecture. That’s at least partly true. What the filming of Inspector Morse didn’t reveal, however, was the sheer volume of traffic, people and exhaust fumes that plague Oxford. As we ‘Parked-n-rode’ across the city centre around noontime, we were both aghast at what a madhouse it seemed. Oxford must surely possess a greater quantity of buses and bus stops per square kilometre than anywhere else on earth. Even London seemed positively tranquil by comparison. Coupled with crazy pedestrians who seemed unable to grasp where roads begin and pavements end, kamikaze cyclists who seemed hell-bent on getting ploughed down by a bus, commuting through the city centre was hell on wheels.

The interview went well though. Small mercies and all that.

Kill Suicide Grooming Sites

From Computer Active 21/01/08:

Papyrus, a charity dedicated to stopping young people committing suicide, said eight in 10 people in a Yougov survey it commissioned want the Government to act.

It said there has never been a successful UK prosecution for promoting suicide online. Currently, for a successful prosecution it is most likely that the victim has to meet face to face with the person who wishes to assist in his or her death.

Papyrus said the Government must respond to what it called a "clear public demand" for change in the law to make it illegal to groom young people through online websites and chat rooms to take their own lives.

I’m a fierce believer that the Internet should remain, as far as is possible, an unrestricted forum for free speech, opinion and information. That said, though, sites which dedicate themselves to the grooming of young people, promoting and provoking them into taking their own lives, stands for an assault on morality and the many benefits that the Internet brings. Surely, these sites and practices can never be justified under any circumstances. The nature and purpose of such sites obviously differ from genuinely informative web content that merely seeks to provide information related to suicide methods and, say, the repercussions of such actions. Providing untargeted information is one thing; preying on troubled, and easily-influenced young people is nothing short of demonic.

Attempts to outlaw any site connected to suicide would prove virtually impossible and is, perhaps, contrary to the ethos and nature of the Internet itself.  Still, I am very much for the removal of websites that methodically eek out and deliberately play on the vulnerability of young people, encouraging them into suicide. Other countries – most notably Australia - have proven that legislation remains an effective tool in combating such websites and perhaps it’s time the UK followed suit.  A review of the Suicide Act 1961 would be a good place to start.