June Update

I’ve neglected this blog for longer than I had intended in the last couple of weeks and I’m probably not going to get round to a whole lot of blogging for the rest of this month either. Regrettably, the Michael has been beset with a number of traumas recently, none of which have been particularly pleasant.

Just over a week ago I was hit with a computer virus outbreak, which nearly hosed my entire system. In the end it necessitated a clean install of Windows just to be completely sure all traces were gone. To be fair, this one was largely self-inflicted so have no one else to blame... damn uTorrent!! Oh well. To make matters worse, after a quick trip back home to Cornwall last Saturday, I went down with food poisoning on Sunday night and am only getting back up to speed now. I’ll spare you the details but believe me, it wasn’t pretty!

On the plus side, though, we’ll be moving house late next week so will have a change of scenery and a bunch of other things to occupy me for a while. That’s after another trip down to Cornwall for dedicated fishing expedition, though. Can’t wait!

Quite when and where I’ll next be blogging from is hard to say but a June hiatus isn’t exactly ill-timed as the blawgosphere naturally winds down after the exam period. Whatever you’re at this summer have a good one and enjoy the sun – as and when it graces us with its presence, of course!

Windows Seven: Much ado about nothing

Paul Thurrott on Wininfo Daily News 27/05/08:

Microsoft has been very cagey about Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista that's set for a 2010 release. Theories about the company's silence on Windows 7 are numerous, but most point to Microsoft Senior Vice President Steven Sinofsky, the man most directly responsible for Windows development. That's because Sinofsky is close-lipped and calculating, in direct contrast to his predecessor, Jim Allchin. This week, however, Sinofsky and company opened the doors and offered a brief peek at Windows 7 for the first time. A very brief peek.

Both [Sinofsky and Flores] claimed that Windows 7 would be a "major" or "significant" version of Windows, but both then went to great lengths to describe how the technical underpinnings of Windows 7 are based on Vista and will thus not incur any additional compatibility headaches. That, dear reader, is how Microsoft typically defines a minor, or R2 ("release 2") version of Windows.

Despite these mixed signals, my understanding was that the next version of windows was always going to be a Vista Second Edition. That said, Microsoft have got their work cut out rebuilding the credibility of windows after the public perception problems that have plagued Vista. Maybe that’s why they are keen to distance the upcoming release from the Vista nomenclature.

Mosley’s sexual antics, no reason to remove him

Being an avid F1 fan, I’ve been following closely the most recent scandal to afflict Formula One. Way back in March, the News of the World released an expose of FIA president Max Mosley’s sexual shenanigans with 4 prostitutes in which he was filmed participating in an array of sadomasochistic capers. Alleged by the News of the World, although fervently denied by Mosley, was that role-playing scenes based on a Nazi concentration camp setting were acted out in the course of the activities.

Given the highly sensitive and contentious nature of Mosley’s alleged activities, many in the F1 paddock have been keen to distance themselves as far as possible from the beleaguered FIA president. Many consider Mosley’s continuance in the role as untenable. In April, even F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone turned against his tacitly acknowledged right-hand-man.

With Mosley up to face a vote of confidence in an extraordinary general meeting he called of the FIA, scheduled for 3^rd June, time may well be running out.

Personally, I have always believed Mosley to do a good job in what is an incredibly difficult role. He works hard as FIA president, has helped the sport weather many crises and is sufficiently forward-thinking to help lead the sport in the future. Whatever Mosley chooses to do in his private time, it does nothing to detract from the great job he does as president.

As David Pannick points out in his article for the Times Law supplement this week:

“while there are many reasons for removing Mr Mosley from office, his sordid private life, as exposed in the News of the World, is not one of them.”

Mosley currently has a high court action pending in which he is suing the News of the World for breach of privacy.  Pannick again:

 There is no conceivable public interest, however interested the public may be, in a newspaper exposing that Mr Mosley,...
The newspaper seeks to justify the intrusion by arguing that Mr Mosley is a public figure and the public are entitled to know what sort of man he is.

But as Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, as Master of the Rolls, stated in the Naomi Campbell case in 2002: “The fact that an individual has achieved prominence on the public stage does not mean that his private life can be laid bare by the media.” Even if Mr Mosley’s sex life involves fantasising about concentration camps (which he denies), that does not make it anything more than part of his fantasy sex life. To recognise a defence for the newspaper in such a case would be generally to deny public figures a right to privacy for their sexual identity.”

On the face of it, you can’t argue with the logic of that. I’m no expert in privacy law but I’d say that Mosley is certainly in with a shout as far as the high court action is concerned. As for the future of his role as FIA president, the outlook is perhaps more bleak. The meeting on June 3rd is going to be nip and tuck to say the least. I’ve no doubt of Moseley’s continued aptitude to do his job, but in a sport in which politics and scheming machiavellian chancers are rife, I’m not sure if this is one battle Mosley has already lost.

Wii Fit calls girl fat

From vnunet.com 21/05/08:

"Nintendo has admitted that its Wii Fit game may not be suitable for children as its calculations of body mass index are designed for adults.

A row erupted after 11 year-old Tabea Paul was told by the game that she was overweight.

The girl's parents were angered by the suggestion, and have said that the game could have given the child an eating disorder."

What I loved, though, was the response to this story in an email from vnunet.com weekly news report:

"An offhand prediction based on a very 'rule-of-thumb' calculation would not cause an eating disorder in a young girl unless she already had a range of much more deep seated psychological issues, probably brought on by years of smothering by over-protective parents.

That the game might have been wrong in this case is secondary. In any person's life they are going to be confronted by things they don't like and sometimes they aren't going to be true. That's life and people really need to learn to deal with it."

Amen to that.

Blogging - a bit 'last year'

Have web technologies evolved far beyond the blog already? Are bloggers a bit 'last year'?  Granted, blogs aren't exactly the newest thing on the web these days and the style and purpose of blogs continue to evolve into something more community-oriented. 

But is being a blogger something to be ashamed of?

According to Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur in this week's Net @ Night podcast the blog is far from the cutting edge.

Leo: "it just feels to me that it's sooooo nineties" ...."the term 'blog' just seems diminutive".

"Blogs are big but they're a little bit mainstream"... [they] "seem a bit old-fashioned".

Amber: [the term blogger] "almost seems like an insult". 

And her response to people who introduce her as a blogger? "You know what, I don't actually blog that much". 

When social networking goes too far

All regular visitors to Law Actually know of my dislike of the more popular social networking sites out there.  This video, I think, neatly encapsulates everything I hate about the highly pervasive and over-powering nature of these Facebook, My Space, Bebo etc. etc. and their perceiving importance on the web and in people's lives right now.  On seeing this video it really drives home exactly how 'social' and 'communitised' the web has become and how such platforms think they know what people want to see, read and do on the web.

Quite frankly, I find the whole concept of them something akin to being overrun by poison ivy.

In the video the social networking sites try to make 'My Space' wake up and realise the dream is over, and how he is already sliding into obscurity.  After initially holding his nerve, poor My Space is forced to admit defeat, firstly to Facebook.  "You've been dying for this to happen with your 'superpokes' and your 'megawall'.   How am I supposed to compete? -  there's a new application on there everyday, every God-damn day"!

On the brink of cracking, Adult Friend Finder recognises that he 'needs a girlfriend'.  Luckily she knows "12 girls in this area looking for sex, tonight!!!" 

Great stuff.

The Mobile Phone has come a long way

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've never been a massive mobile phone user and generally find  'txting' a massive annoyance.  That said, I have possessed a fair few mobile handsets over the last 8 years - some good, some not quite so and one downright awful.  This amusing little number that I found via Windows Secrets documents exactly how far the mobile phone has come.