Neil Turner

Akismet and Data Protection

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In Britain, we have this law called the Data Protection Act, which dictates what companies and organisations can and can’t do with data about its customers, clients or employees. It basically puts a duty on organisations to ensure that a person’s data is kept private and cannot be compromised, that the person is aware if that data is being shared with third parties (and seek their permission if needed) and that the person is aware if data is to be processed in another jurisdiction, where data protection laws are not equivalent to this act. There’s more to it than that – Wikipedia goes into more detail and the full text of the act is here.

So how does this relate to Akismet, the spam-filtering web service that I conveniently mentioned in the title of this post? Well, I use Akismet on this site as a way of stopping spam (though to be honest it’s been largely redundant since I started using Comment Challenge). This site is based in the UK, and therefore falls under UK law, but Akismet is a US service, and right now every comment submitted (bar those from approved TypeKey and OpenID commenters) is being sent through it.

Though I haven’t yet got a privacy policy on this site – it’s something I’ve been working on now and again for some time – this does bring up some privacy implications. Without Akismet, the privacy policy would say something like this:

Upon submission of a comment, the details provided (name, email address, URL and comment), along with your IP address, will be stored in a database. Your comment will also be displayed publicly on this web site.

Any comments you have made can be removed at any time, by contacting the site owner and requesting their modification/removal.

With Akismet brought into the equation, we have to add the following:

The details you submit will also be sent to the Akismet service, for the purpose of identifying possible spam comments. Akismet is based in the United States of America and falls under the laws of the State of California. The details submitted will not be stored, unless the comment is marked as a ‘false positive’ (a legitimate comment which is automatically identified as spam) in which case it may be stored for some time for diagnostic purposes.

For more details, please consult the Akismet Privacy Policy.

Now I’m not a lawyer and my experience with data protection mostly comes from a university module that I took recently, so this is certainly not legal advice. But it’s something that I hadn’t thought about until reading an email from the Six Apart Professionals Network this morning.

Akismet is done by the WordPress guys and I’m sure they’re trustworthy, and it’s also not entirely fair to pick them out as this could be any other web service – it just happened to be the topic of conversation at the time. But while a few bloggers using it isn’t going to cause much of a kerfuffle, a big organisation could land themselves in hot water if they’re not totally upfront about what is happening to their users’ data.

It’s here

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The MacBook is here, and currently downloading about 10 system updates. Unfortunately, I have an exam in 3 hours so I can’t play with it much, but for now I can say the following:

  • Wow, it’s so small and light
  • The battery seems to be charging up really quickly
  • I really wish my Mac Mini had an Apple Remote

More later (including photos), after I’ve spent 2 hours sat in a room writing about internet security and encryption protocols.

The Un-Funny Truth about Scientology

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Screenshot of the Un-Funny Truth of Scientology

This was originally a guest post at Stupid Evil Bastard, re-posted here following that site’s demise.

If you have a few moments to spare, watch The Un-Funny Truth about Scientology over at YTMND. It’s a presentation showing how people’s lives have been affected by the Church of Scientology and how events have been covered up. If you were ever in doubt about just how cooky these people are, then this should confirm your suspicions. Beware of some disturbing images, however.

A sequel has also been published which details the Church’s reaction to it.

Things

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Thanks for all of the birthday wishes over the past couple of days – I had quite a good birthday but most of my presents aren’t coming until tomorrow. Not entirely sure what I’m getting but I think they will mostly be vouchers for driving lessons.

I’m having a brief experiment with Trackback. A while ago I removed the block of code that allows other weblogs to discover the trackback URL and post to it, in an effort to reduce trackback spam. This turned out to be very successful, making the trackback problem almost non-existent, however since then I’ve been getting almost no trackbacks at all which makes the feature almost useless. So I’ve re-added it, but now I’ll only be opening trackback on a handful of entries (with it off by default). I’ll see if I start getting more pings this way, or if the spam problem becomes intolerable again.

I’m looking at alternatives to trackback, such as getting data from Technorati and displaying a list of blogs that link to that entry, but I’d like to give trackback another chance before I give up on it.

Poorest Brits are healthier than Richest Americans

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This was originally a guest post at Stupid Evil Bastard, re-posted here following that site’s demise.

A study published by the American Medical Association shows that even the poorest Brits are healthier than the richest Americans:

Middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England, startling new research shows, despite U.S. health care spending per person that’s more than double what England spends.

A higher rate of Americans tested positive for diabetes and heart disease than the English. Americans also self-reported more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer.

The gap between the countries holds true for educated and uneducated, rich and poor.

The study focused only on non-Hispanic whites and took factors like smoking, drinking and obesity into account – Brits tend to drink more heavily and more Americans are obese. It concluded that Americans tend to have a worse diet (eating more junk food) and took part in less exercise, but also that in Britain the primary health care provision was better, so that ailments were being picked up and treated earlier.

The media on both sides of the Atlantic constantly derides Britain’s state health care system but actually it does work nearly all the time, and studies like this show that.

British racist politician tries to justify his views on TV

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This was originally a guest post at Stupid Evil Bastard, re-posted here following that site’s demise.

Sky News, a 24-hour-news channel partly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., held an interview with Dr Phill Edwards, the press officer of the British National Party (BNP) – a far-right political party. Though the BNP claims it is not racist, it is essentially opposed to all forms of immigration and several of its members have been taken to court charged with making comments which may incite racial hatred, which is a crime in the UK.

The video of the interview is here – in it, Edwards stands by comments made to a student in January 2005 where he says that young black people have low IQs and are likely to mug you, and that black people generally are not high achievers. Edwards has a PhD and he claims that black people are genetically disadvantaged.

It’s worth a watch.

4 years

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At about 6 minutes past 5pm on the 14th January 2002, I wrote this entry. 4 years, 4821 entries, 6689 comments, 757 trackback pings and a whole shedload of spam later and it’s my fourth blogiversary.

Four years is a, to put it bluntly, a bloody long time, and I’m really pleased that I’ve been able to keep it going this long. So many of my projects in the past have come and go – this is one that I’ve managed to stick with and it makes me proud to think it’s still going strong. I have no intentions of giving up now.

Most of all, I’d like to thank all of you who have commented and trackbacked over the years, especially people like Andy, Kim, Ben, Richy and Ciaran who have been commenting here almost from the beginning. It’s the feedback I get, more than anything, that keeps me going, so keep it up and I should still be here in another 4 years time 🙂 .

The blog has also been with me through some interesting times. Back in January 2002 I was a 17-year-old college student. Since then I’ve had my 18th and 21st birthdays, left home, been to university, got a degree and started another one, met Hari and visited lots of new places, met lots of new people and done many new things. I can’t guarantee that my life will stay interesting but at least if it doesn’t I have a good record of when it was.

And the blog itself has changed – back in 2002, there were no comments, trackbacks or RSS feeds, and I was posting using Blogger to some webspace that only had 100MB of monthly bandwidth. Now I use 100MB in about 6 hours, the site is powered by Movable Type, and I’ve graduated from RSS to Atom for all my feeds. I also started the sideblog in November 2003 which has been doing well too, despite a few quiet periods.
I don’t regret starting this blog one bit – through it, I’ve made many new friends and got a lot of enjoyment.

Here’s to another 4 years! 🙂

Previous anniversary posts: 2003, 2004 and 2005 (when I nearly forgot).

End of year quiz 2005

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In what is now an annual event, it’s about time I did the ‘End Of Year Quiz’. Read my answers from 2004 and 2003, or read on for this year’s answers.

1.What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before?

Get a serious girlfriend 🙂 . I also went to a few new places.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

My resolutions have been the same for a few years now, and they were:

  1. Drink less alcohol. Not entirely sure whether to say I managed this or not. I certainly didn’t binge drink so much (bar a few notable exceptions) but I’m still drinking quite a bit – it just tends to be spread out more evenly. Which health-wise is probably a good thing.
  2. Eat more healthily. Good progress here. I’m eating much more fruit and veg and less chips and pizza.
  3. Do more work. Well, I graduated, didn’t I? Could still do more though.
  4. Do more exercise. At last, some progress here too. I’m now hiking on most Sundays and I live further away from the university so I do more walking during the day too. Not a lot, but an improvement.

For 2006, I’ll continue with 2,3 and 4. Instead of 1, I’ll do “Don’t binge drink”.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, they did. And he’s sooo cute.

Next year I should have another second cousin, which will be nice. He’s due in April.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?

Again, didn’t really get to go abroad this year despite a planned trip to Ireland in November. I did spend a day in Scotland though. Hopefully I’ll be able to get away in 2006.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?

Hmmm. Can’t use the same answer from previous years now. To be honest, I really don’t know – all I can think of are little material things that I probably don’t need anyway, like a new iPod, new laptop…

7. What date(s) from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Meeting Hari in October (because she’s wonderful), the Make Poverty History demo in July (because it was such a big and positive event), my election campaign in March (because I learned a lot and didn’t come out as badly as I’d feared).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Graduating.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not getting a 2:1 or first class honours in my degree.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Just lots of colds. :-/

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My Mac Mini 🙂 . Probably followed by my digital camera.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

I’m tempted to say all my friends again. They’ve been excellent this year.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

George W Bush. Need I say more?

Oh, and the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Like last year, the pub and Apple Computer. But also the University of Bradford now that I’m paying part of my fees myself, eBay, and on stuff with Hari.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Christmas, the beach party, my Mac Mini and Hari. Essentially the same as last year, except last year it was an iPod and I didn’t know Hari.

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?

“Mr Brightside” by The Killers.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

happier or sadder?Quite a bit happier.thinner or fatter?I think I’m a bit thinner.richer or poorer?Probably a bit richer (in terms of money in the bank) but I’m still in debt since I owe the student loans company £9000 now.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Time with Hari. And free time in general.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Playing Solitaire and Freecell. Again…

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

I make this mistake every year don’t I? Oh well, I spent it with my family again. It was nice to see them all again, especially my grandparents.

21. Who deleted question 21?

Davros.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?

Erm, yeah, just a bit…

23. How many one-night stands?

None at all.

24. What was your favourite TV program?

I was really impressed at the revival of Doctor Who this year. I’ve also been enjoying the new series of Family Guy, Top Gear, Have I Got News For You and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (now that’s available here).

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No, not really.

26. What was the best book you read?

Books?!?!? That’s so ‘old media’!

Erm, well, I enjoyed Hacking Movable Type. Haven’t really read any fiction this year… again…

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Probably We Are Scientists and the Kaiser Chiefs.

28. What did you want and get?

A new mobile phone (again), a Mac Mini and some other stuff.

29. What did you want and not get?

Once again, world peace has failed to materialise, and I didn’t get a pony either. Hmph.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?

Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. But the new Harry Potter film was good too.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Not a lot, since it was the exam period and there was a big football game on. I was 21.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Meeting Hari earlier in the year.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?

Same as usual.

34. What kept you sane?

My friends and hobbies.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Kirsten Dunst still. Though Charlotte Church is nice.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

Probably equality and anti-racism, but Fairtrade was up there too.

37. Who did you miss?

My former housemate Jamie who’s now in France.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

Again, Hari, but there were plenty of others.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.

I learned that I can’t drink lager quickly and still expect to be able to stand up.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

“I’m coming out of my cage, and I’m doing just fine” – Mr Brightside, by The Killers.

Merry Christmas!

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Cute Christmas Card

Probably about time I posted my annual Christmas Message, so:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Since it’s about 9am here we’ve opened our presents here already – I’ve got:

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (film) DVD (sponsored link)
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (BBC TV series) DVD (sponsored link)
  • Cocktail shaker and two cocktail glasses
  • Hiking boots
  • 5 small bottles of Absolut vodka
  • A bottle of Cockspur rum and a bottle of Diaquiri cocktail mix
  • Limoncello nougart
  • Green & Blacks organic dark chocolate
  • 2 tubs of Cadbury’s Heroes
  • A fawn-coloured Next long-sleeved t-shirt
  • A black zip-up top
  • A Van Heusen silk tie (in a posh box)
  • A black Mulberry shirt
  • Some Lindt chocolate Reindeer and a chocolate Santa
  • A box of Hazer Baba Turkish Delight
  • Some House of Commons dark chocolate
  • …and a bottle of Fentimans Curiosity Cola

In other words, I’ll be sat watching DVDs wearing some new clothes and hiking boots, eating chocolate and getting drunk on cocktails 🙂 .

Anyway, for those of you who celebrate Christmas (in whatever way you choose), I hope you have an enjoyable and happy day. 🙂

1000 reasons why IE is better than Firefox

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It’s in French, but here’s 1000 reasons why IE is better than Firefox. Except that there’s only actually 14 reasons, so it’s 986 short. And some aren’t really reasons. In fact, it’s a pretty pointless piece of flame-bait designed to stir up the Firefox community.

In any case, here are those reasons translated into English, with the help of the Google Translator and my French A-level (feel free to correct me if I get any of these wrong):

  1. Internet Explorer is integrated with Windows XP so you can surf the internet without having to decide which browser to use.
  2. Internet Explorer is accessible for everyone.
  3. IE can display all web pages – not all of them work in Firefox.
  4. IE requires hardly any extensions, whereas Firefox has a plethora.
  5. IE does not ship with tabs, but they can be added if you wish.
  6. IE does not have an RSS reader, which is a fad. You can just visit the site every day if you need to.
  7. IE is less secure than Firefox, but patches are released regularly.
  8. IE is closely linked to Windows.
  9. IE does not pass the Acid2 test like Safari does.
  10. You need to use IE to access Windows Update – even though Microsoft released a Firefox plugin for Windows Genuine Advantage, they will never open Windows Update to Firefox.
  11. IE doesn’t crash when visiting online banking sites, Firefox does.
  12. IE7 will adopt the standards of 2006 and include innovations of Microsoft and others, such as RSS, SSL3 and better security.
  13. IE does not respect W3C standards in their entirety.
  14. IE is the ‘de-facto’ standard that developers work to.

There you go. Pretty lame reasons, in my opinion, and some of them are reasons not to use IE as far as I’m concerned.

[Via Glazblog]

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