Armando Iannucci on the appreciation of classical music.

Ben Metcalfe offers an interesting take on the copyright laws. If you only offer 90% of a file for upload, can you be accused of offering the entire file?

From the department of "Blast, Why Didn't I Think Of This" - the numbers game from Des Chiffres et Des Lettres et Des Lynam as an exercise in knapsack problem solving. Indeed, the Crystal Maze game where the contestant had to find balls of the same weight as the crystal is an exercise along these lines.

A searchable database of editorial cartoons.

How to ... be a great best man.

Britain's university students are facing an uncertain future, as their lecturers are fighting a derisory pay offer. Teaching staff at universities have their pay negotiated nationally, and the government has offered 12% over four years. That's 2.8% per year, scarcely keeping pace with inflation. If the government is serious about awarding degrees to 50% of school-leavers - and there's a whole other can of worms here - the lecturers need to be rewarded appropriately for their work. Four years of standstill pay increases is not the way to do it.

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posted 15 May 2006, 19.22 +0100

In response to Matttt's comment last time, querying what's the problem. Six Apart states that no personally identifiable information is disclosed to third party advertisers. My contention is that the combination of information is sufficient to identify very small groups, possibly individuals, certainly groups small enough to make manual checking a possibility.

An experiment, for someone who has a Livejournal paid account, and ten minutes of time.

Six Apart has previously stated that it will disclose the following information:

- gender
- location: country, county, and city
- age
- up to ten popular interests within the top 100.

As of this afternoon, the 85th most popular interest was "Pink". I would be interested to learn the numbers returned from a directory search:

- All users cited with this interest - apparently, 99,909.
- Users with this interest who have been active in the past month - this will be the baseline number of people who can be expected to see a commercial.
- Users with this interest who are based in the UK.
- Users with this interest who are based in the UK, in the city of Manchester.
- Users with this interest, in Manchester, who have been active in the past month.
- Users with this interest, in Manchester, who have been active in the past month, and are aged 21.

Readers will, of course, wish to repeat this search for different cities and interests.

It will be interesting to see the numbers, and to determine if it's possible to narrow down the number of users to single figures from city and a single interest alone. My suspicion is that a determined advertiser, using the information they've gleaned from Six Apart, will be able to identify people individually, thus making a mockery of everything Six Apart has claimed.

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posted 15 May 2006, 19.27 +0100

We've been flooded with comments these last days. Here's a couple of matters arising.

From my point yesterday about the government (acting through their puppet vice-chancellors) refusing to fund the expansion in universities, Mr Chicken Feet writes,

If, in fact, 50% of school leavers become university graduates (for some value of university) it's reasonable to expect that the number choosing to go on to study for a PhD will also increase significantly. It's a safe bet that the increase in both categories will be in "academic disciplines" of dubious merit.

I'm not entirely convinced of the former point. It seems to me that the government is pushing for a degree in 2015 to have the same currency as an A-level circa 1965 - a metric to divide the sheep from the goats, to distinguish the best from the even better. On the one hand, this may lead to more bachelor-degree holders pressing on to academic masters, and more masters to aim for a doctorate.

On the other hand, an awful lot of first-degree holders will need the paper qualification to get into a decent job, and they'll leave the academic treadmill as soon as is practically possible. And they'll leave saddled with 20 grand in debts that their grandparents never had to suffer.

Overall, I suspect that the absolute numbers of masters and doctorate candidates will increase, but the percentage of those eligible will slowly decrease.

M'learned friend is correct about the growth in paper qualifications, mostly awarded by institutions that lack the academic rigour traditionally associated with a degree. The aim of a degree is to teach people to think for themselves, something that used to happen at O and A-level.

Elsewhere, one of m'learned friends mentions the 1991 McLaren musical piece The Ghosts of Oxford Street, in which various Manchester music stars of the era performed a Victorian ghost story set to music. There was nothing new in BBC3's Manchester Passion last month, and it didn't even feature a riff from Beethoven's 7th.

Max Hastings writes on the systemic failure of the Blair administration.

The Underground Accessibility Guide - TFL's list of exactly how many steps there are at every station on their network, and how to get from line A to line B for all stations where transfers are possible. Also of use to those planning to visit lots of stations in a short period of time - it tells you where you're running uphill, where you're running downhill.

And the annual Metafilter tries to get Eurovision, Metafilter fails to get Eurovision thread. Lordi, Lordi, Lordi, as Lauren Laverne says.

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posted 16 May 2006, 18.12 +0100

From my thought experiment about Livejournal searches, Mr Matttt writes,

Doesn't the closing sentence of the paragraph make it clear: 'LiveJournal shares your voluntarily-provided public profile information (such as sex, age, location and interests)'?

But the first sentence of the paragraph, the one that many people will read and then skip on to the next section, says,

LiveJournal does not share any personally identifiable information with advertisers.

There's a hole in this argument. MatGB can help determine if it's at my end, he has given us some actual data:

101 in Manchester total, and it won't give me meaningful results above that, as it'll only give 1000 results total and anything else goes above that. 18 users with Pink listed in Manchester updated within last month, 0 aged 21 (3 aged between 20 and 22, in case 21 to 21 creates 0 results by default)

OK, the original request was a shot-in-the-dark, but I think the point is made. By sharing age, location, gender, and interests in this way, Six Apart is disclosing information sufficient to identify an individual, and even provides the tools by which such a search can be made. This makes a complete mockery of the company's privacy statement, and makes them look like lying, hypocritical, money-grubbing whores.

Why is this a worry? Livejournal will be selling advertising space to its own users at a discount. It is trivial to target an advertisement at a very small number of users, including cases where that number is one.

It is possible for these commercials to be used to target individual people - all that would be required is a simple criterion match to target, and a system that is stupid enough to allow them to be posted. Given the evidence put forward in recent weeks, I have absolutely no faith in the ability of Six Apart to manage this system in a manner that respects people's privacy.

I must also deviate from my normal practice, adopt the Daily Mail position, and presume the worst about human nature. This technique can be used to target individual people. It can be used by stalkers, by paedophiles, by spammers, by pushy little shits who will never take no for an answer.

Suppose we do know the 20-year-old fan of pink in Manchester. We can buy an advert saying, "Purple is the colour!", aim it at fans of pink in the UK aged 20-24, and be sure that it will be seen by our target. An entertaining little example, but the point holds for less savoury messages - ones that are not offensive on their own, but may cause people anxiety, distress, or panic.

It is now eighteen working days since I asked Six Apart about this matter, and I am yet to receive an acknowledgement, let alone a substantive response. Anyone would think that Six Apart cares as little for its PR as it cares for its customers.

Mena Trott, Six Apart owner, do you want to be stalked through your own service? Do you wish to leap to your site's defence, Livejournal creator Bradley Fitzpatrick? The comments are open to you, as they are to everyone else.

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posted 16 May 2006, 18.43 +0100

We hear that Paul Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft McCartney and his wife Heather Mills Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft McCartney are to separate. Such is the curse of misleading the world on Larry King Barely Live. We do note that Mrs M is not capable of addressing herself correctly - if one wishes to refer to Mr McCartney as Sir Paul, then the correct form of address for his wife is Lady McCartney, or Lady Mills McCartney. Depends what she deems to be her surname. But Lady Heather is simply wrong.

And we hear that the new drugs minister has first-hand experience. Good. We already have an interior minister who has spent time in prison, and a foreign minister who has been overseas. All we need now is an education minister who has been in a classroom, an equalities minister who believes in the rights of minorities, and a finance minister who can count.

Oh, and an environmet policy that includes the environment minister.

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posted 17 May 2006, 19.32 +0100

Back to corporate responsibility, to sell-outs, and in particular to Anita Roddick. She sold her Body Shop organisation to L'Oréal, the cosmetics wing of corporate murderers Nestlé. In a letter to pressure group Baby Milk Action, Ms Roddick said,

"Yes I object to the way Nestlé behaves. I am aware of their track record on baby milk, GMOs and Ethiopia, you [would] have to [have] been living in space not to know of their reputation."

So, Anita, why did you sell out to them? "I am taking money from a company where they have a small stake," For values of "small" that equal 26.4%. That's not a small stake; that's got to be one of the largest individual shareholders in the company.

"Consumer boycotts rarely work and the people you hurt are primarily the weak and the frail. And when all you do is boycott then there is no chance of getting a lever on the way the world is," claimed Roddick. How, then, does she square her statement with this one from her company: "Whether it's signing a petition, using our purchase power to boycott a company, or lobbying governments, we all have the power to effect change." Go on, we're interested. Anyway, the Roddick-ule continued

"So if you have to bloody boycott - then boycott. Boycott all the products that Nestlé own 100 per cent - Perrier, Kit-Kat, Shredded Wheat, Nescafé, Carnation Milk. And boycott every pension fund that may have holdings in Nestlé for whatever reason, and everyone who benefits from them. But for goodness sake strengthen the arm of anyone who sees an opportunity of changing the black hole of the corporate world."

Too right, which is why I cannot possibly give any profit to a company that kills people. Or to a company that pretended to raise consciousness, while only ever raising its own value, waiting to be swallowed up by the very monster it was claiming to fight against.

So, where should someone who is equally interested in staying clean as in supporting development get their toiletaries? I'm not after much; 300ml of shampoo, five cakes of soap, and a little aftershave will do me for a year. (Yes, I do use deoderant, but I have to be very careful owing to allergies, and I've found one that works already.) The Cruelty-free Shop seems to supply most goodies, does anyone have reports of their quality?

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posted 17 May 2006, 20.28 +0100

Phoenix Rising, a scholarly conference about everyone's* favourite* books.

Fact checking Pollyanna (Toynbee), Het Grauniad's most inpotent scribbler.

Douglas Hurd, a man who knows about the decline and fall of governments, on the decline and fall of the Blair government.

This chapter makes the Jerry Springer Show look like Winnie the Pooh. David Plotz is blogging the bible in rather a large number of daily installments. Three days in, and he's already half-way through Genesis. If only my RE teacher had shown such swiftness of foot, we would have finished the entire book before Christmas, instead of getting stuck half-way through Exodus.

One of m'learned friends asks for some simple classics - that's simple as in form, rather than simple as in Classic FM Breakfast.

* I'm certainly with another commentator in nodding to the classical guitar - John Bream and Julian Williams are particularly easily available.

* Light music might be worth a shot - Henry Mancini and Leroy Anderson are the most well-known names, but have a look at some of the past playlists from Brian Kay's programme.

* Other than the modern minimalists (Glass, Bryers, Martland, Nyman et al), Baroque-era compositions are perhaps the least difficult to listen to. Telemann, Albinoni, Purcell, these are all Handels that should be known.

* Finally, at the risk of invoking Simon Bates, the Libera project (hymns and sacred music set to an unsubtle beat) and Einaudi (very minimalist piano) are unthreatening in small doses.

Recommended download sites from the Classical Music List include eMusic, and ClassicalJunk.net. Because all commercial download sites are build around the pop music paradigm, it is very difficult to search efficiently for individual tunes. The sooner someone makes a decent classical store, the better.

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posted 18 May 2006, 19.38 +0100

The death has been announced of Eric Forth, MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, and chief proponent of Making Life Difficult for the Government. His old constituency is the section between and to the east of Lewisham and Beckenham on the London Connections map. It's moderately middle-class suburbia, so ultra-safe C territory - Mr Forth had just over 51% of the vote last time, with Labour pipping the LD for second. Even in 1997, he had 46% of the share.

The main interest in the inevitable by-election will be a) to find which Conservative A-lister gets the nod, and b) whether the LD can pinch enough votes to push Labour into third. The LD or a predecessor party was second in the Ravensbourne seat from Feb 1974 to 1992; the Chiselhurst part favoured Labour until 79, but not again until 1992. If Labour falls to third, it's indication that the party has lost the confidence of the North Kent marginals - the likes of Dartford, Gillingham, Thanet, and Medway that act as bell-weathers for Labour's middle-class appeal. Expect the by-election sometime in July, before the recess.

Blair's values aren't British, argues A. C. Grayling.

MPs attack absurdly high train fares. We only want to travel on the train, not buy it.

And finally, Iain Dale - formerly of Oneword's Planet Politics show - has a new book out. New Labour, New Sleaze.

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posted 20 May 2006, 16.09 +0100

Yesterday, the "National" Post, a daily fibsheet distributed across Upper and Lower Canada and in selected cities further west, deliberately misled its readers. The rag claimed that Iran's parliament would require religious minotiries to identify themselves through their clothing This claim was false. There was no substance behind it at all. Antonia Zerbisias, in the second link, traces the non-story back to its source - far-right war-mongering PR scoundrels.

We know that the NP was founded by Conrad Black-Crossharbour, but we forget who bought the organ when his Hollinger company collapsed amidst its own fraud the other year. Ah yes, it's the pro-Israeli CanWestGlobalCommsCorp, which freely admits to meddling in the paper's editorial line. As that top investigator J. Motson would say, "Case closed!"

AZ has also picked up another interesting point - Judith Miller Knew About Sept. 11 Before It Happened. Someone will explain why she hasn't followed M Moussaoui and stood trial for her livelihood in a provincial court somewhere in the Chesapeake swamp. AZ adds, "Miller's interview makes it very clear -- as if we didn't already know -- that the White House knew that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent, that its own counter terrorism people were warning of an attack -- and were being ignored."

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posted 20 May 2006, 16.41 +0100

Mystic Mug writes... Ooh, hello. Wasn't that a fantastic Eurovision Sing Contest last night. Those nice lads from Finland scored a point or two, those Germans did darned tootin' good, and the Russians are grumpy about losing. There were some shocks - Ireland lost, and Greece didn't give Cyprus a single point. Why? Because Cyprus weren't there, silly. Mr Mel and Mr Weaver both said that no-one would vote for Cyprus in the final, and they score 20 points apiece.

But the wonning doesn't stop there! The Pet Shop Boys' new single came out two weeks ago, and we've finally found out that it will not make the top 5, as Mr Bother predicted. The two people who correctly predicted this failure of purchasing power score a point each, so more points for the dynamic duo of Mel and Weaver. How does that leave the scores?

So we're almost up to the price of a fish 'n' chip supper for one! Details on the prediction page, where you can also see why I'll be back on Wednesday to dish out a few points.

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posted 21 May 2006, 17.25 +0100

With last night's Eurovision ending up with Finland For The Wonning, here's an excuse to look at some of the highlights of their top-selling singles. Now, to call the Finnish chart capricious would be to be putting it politely - it makes the UK chart from ten years ago look calm. There aren't that many sales in the country, and it's perfectly normal for records to crash into the top five one week, then have left the top 20 entirely the next.

Number 20 is a new entry for Most precious love 2006, a dance cover that's already been and gone in the UK. Local acts Humane and Irina hold down the next positions, with Swedish star Darin at number 17 - he's been in and around the lists for over a month. The Raconteurs' Steady as she goes is up one at 16, dance sirens Hi-Tack are in at 15, and local act Jane put VIP at 14 - they've been in and around the top 20 for a couple of months. Timo Rautiainen has Punainen viiva at 13 - in its seven weeks, this has already become the third most-successful song of the year. Kapasiteettiyksikkö are at 12, and Jody Wisternoff is new at 11 with Cold drink, hot girl. Join the dots yourself.

Smak's Teen mitä teen climbs from 19 to 10, and Led Zeppelin have remixes of Baby I'm gonna leave you in at 9. They go for their rock in Finland. Pan-continental hit World hold on is at 8, with local rockers Lauri Tähkä and Fokker scoring positions 7 and 6 respectively. The Don Johnson Big Band are at 5 with Road, Sunrise Avenue's Romeo holds at 4, and Carmen Gray is new at 3 with Lost in my mind again. Up thirteen places to 2 is Shakira with Hips don't lie, but climbing one spot to the top is Hard rock hallelujah. Don't expect a run of Trine Dyrholm proportions - she's had the best part of two years at the top in Denmark - but do expect Lordi to stick around for a long time.

North Europe's Top Twenty

*20 NE Infernal - From Paris to Berlin
 19 18 Depeche Mode - Suffer well
 18 15 Diams - La boulette
 17 12 Pigloo - Le papa pingouin
 16 16 Snow Patrol - You're all I have
*15 NE Pet Shop Boys - I'm with stupid
 14 11 Bob Sinclar - World hold on
 13 10 Dirty Pretty Things - Bang bang you're dead
*12 19 Beatfreaks - Somebody's watching me
 11  5 Juanes - La camisa negra
 10  8 Najoya Bejel - Gabriel
  9  6 Corinne Bailey Rae - Put your records on
* 8 14 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
  7  9 Rhianna - SOS
* 6 13 Zutons - Why won't you give me your love
  5  7 Orson - No tomorrow
  4  3 Kelly Clarkson - Because of you
  3  2 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani california
* 2  4 Mary J Blige / U2 - One
* 1  1 Shakira - Hips don't lie

Eight weeks for that Crazy nonsense, Infernal rise to 2. Christina Milian gets a full release, and climbs to 4, Busta to 6, Subnlock to 9, and Orson to 11. Daz Sampson gets 12th place, which is higher than he managed in last night's contest proper. Sandi Thom is the highest new entry at 15, I wish I was a punk rocker is number 15 on downloads alone. Angels and Airwaves' The adventure is the highest new entry proper, at number 20. Primal Scream, the Feeling, Nerina Pallot, and the Ordinary Boys chart on download alone, the Towers of London and Loletta Holloway have full releases; the latter is the sample used in Blackbox's seminal Ride on time.

Highest new entry on the albums chart is from the Raconteurs, at 2. Feeder are 3, Beautiful South 6, Neil Young 14, Nerina Pallot climbs to 27, and Grandaddy, Hans Zimmer, Forward Russia, Shack, Dionne Warwick, and the Yeahs all enter the lower reaches.

Here's the good stuff on the singles listing:

 5  4 Beatfreaks - Somebody's watching me
 9 48 Sunblock / Robin Beck - First time
11 28 Orson - Bright idea
12 13 Daz Sampson - Teenage life
13 10 Kooks - Naive
15 NE Sandi Thom - I wish I was a punk rocker
16 12 Snow Patrol - You're all I have
18 11 Raconteurs - Steady as she goes
20 NE Angels and Airwaves - The adventure
21 14 Dirty Pretty Things - Bang bang you're dead
23 NE Primal Scream - Country girl
24 19 Fall Out Boy - Dance dance
25  8 Pet Shop Boys - I'm with stupid
27 25 Orson - No tomorrow
28 NE Feeling - Fill my little world
31 17 Boy Kill Boy - Suzie
34 29 Corinne Bailey Rae - Put your records on
35 22 Upper Room - Black and white
36 26 Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla
37 NE Nerina Pallot - Everybody's gone to war
39 NE Eddie Thoneick / Kurd Maverick / Loletta Holloway
        - Love sensation
40 36 Pink - Stupid girls
45 37 Panic At The Disco - But it's better if you do
49 33 We Are Scientists - Nobody move nobody get hurt
50 46 Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats
57 52 Beverley Knight - Piece of my heart
61 NE Less Than Jake - Overrated
63 39 Graham Coxon - You and I
64 41 Beautiful South - Manchester
65 63 Zutons - Why won't you give me your love?
67 54 Embrace - Nature's law
70 58 Fall Out Boy - Sugar we're going down
71 59 Source - You got the love

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posted 21 May 2006, 19.08 +0100

Rain on and off all week.

15 Mo drizzle to sun      10/15, 4.5
16 Tu mist to sun         10/17
17 We cloud to rain       11/15, 3.0
18 Th sun, showers        10/18, 7.5
19 Fr blustery showers    10/15, 3.0
20 Sa heavy showers       15/16,13.5
21 Su rain, clearing       9/15,12.0

The degree cooling days remain at 14, compared to 3/237 at this stage last year. And that's something over an inch-and-a-half of rain this week.

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posted 21 May 2006, 19.12 +0100

older writing... write to