Hate

Is arguably overused, however it can be a lot of fun as this* and this prove
- especially, of course if they fit in with your own view of the world.

*...er - not strictly entitled hate but that was how I found it.

I was sure I remembered reading a very good justification for taking a negative view of things from Neil Tennant ages ago - but now all I can find is people saying Neil Tennant wasn't negative in their web reviews. Oh well.

I don’t mind if he shouts at you

One of the perils of working as the person trying to implement a big expensive piece of software for a customer is if you also work for the software supplier. In the minds of the customer’s workers you are solely responsible for all of the failings of the supplier and expected to work miracles to make things happen. This is fine if the supplier is good at customer care as a whole. It becomes less fine when they aren’t too bothered. (Thankfully I don't have to do this any more).

Every now and again something happens that really stops me in my tracks and makes me think.

On this occasion we had a problem – I was talking to more techy people than me back at the office but not making much headway – they were busy and seemed to be asking for more and more evidence – in a bid it seemed to keep me at arm’s length whilst they did something else. In the meantime – I thought I knew what the problem was and was trying to short circuit the process (never a good idea with people who think they know better than you – but fatal if they are also under pressure) . I was also being taken to task on a regular basis by an employee of the customer.

This young man knew our system was complete rubbish and implored me to fucking sort it out. More worryingly, he was busy telling all his colleagues how uesless the system was. Any time anything he didn't expect happened he came and shouted at me. I'm not easily intimidated - but I did think I ought to do something about the situation for the sake of the project and myself.

An opportunity presented itself when we had a meeting with the customer's senior manager - a woman who I thought had shown some compassion and decency in the past. I mentioned Mr fucking sort it out, explained I was doing my best, but voiced my concern about the way he was mouthing off to all and sundry about the system, and also threw in the fact that I didn't really like being shouted at so much. "Oh I don't mind if he shouts at you" she said (at first I thought she was joking but then I could see from her face she was serious), "but I am concerned if he's spreading negativity about the system" - ok my view of things properly readjusted.

Other Blogs and Mrs Thatcher

Spent a bit of time reading other blogs. I've read loads of 'em lately, mostly in connection with my opposition to ID cards. However, tonight I thought I'd have a night off from politics - so found this where Thatcher's plans to nuke the Argies (as reported in the Guardian) are discussed at some length and some interesting points raised. This reminded me of the excellent 20 reasons why I hate Thatcher on Neil Harding's blog. I've always suspected (without intending any disrespect to those who fought in the war) that Thatcher could have avoided it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed quite a bit of Andrew Skudder's blog. Not least because it introduced me to the excellent Mailwatch I am a long time detractor of the Mail, due mainly to it's bitter, envy ridden, twisted attitude to anyone or any group it decides are the architects of the terrible assualt on comfort, riches and house price increases that it imagines is always with us. Since I refuse to ever pay money for it, I don't often get a chance to marvel at how truly awful it is.

All my (schoolmate's) yesterdays

It seems a bloke I was at school with was more famous than I realised. I was at school with Dave Parsons AKA Dave Moscow, lead singer of SPLAT! - the website was created by another band member John Allsopp who I was also at school with - he now does websites as a career.

So I did vaguely know that Dave was running a record label, however, I didn't realise that there had been quite so many releases on the Ron Johnson Label.

On a slightly related note I came across a website for Stump, one of "Ron's" early "signings".

Oi you! Get orf my bandwidth

Seemingly, every piece of software I run wants to use my Internet connections (OK I know it's my fault for running Windows – XP in my case). These applications don't usually have the courtesy to bother asking me before going for a surf, so the only reason I know is because of firewall warning. Of course, for anti-virus and similar software, it's essential that it stays up to date. However, because of the peripatetic nature of my work, I have a variety of connections available to me in variety of circumstances, and it's not always appropriate for applications to go and get stuff of the Internet, even if it's available.

Aside from this, call me a control freak, but I'd prefer to know when this stuff is going on rather than have it all going on behind my back.

Microsoft Word has always been on my list of most annoying offenders – why does a word processing application think it needs to connect to the Internet every time it starts? Maybe they could make it a bit quicker to start if they took this bit out.

Then there are the applications that use the Internet to provide help. I have a couple of shareware apps that were so useful I bought licences for them, I can just about excuse their having help on the Web – after all they are operating on the margins, so I don't mind. They are small apps in any case so they don't need a lot of help. I now find that Microsoft word 2003 uses help from the Internet as its first option, only grumpily offering something from its own files if the Internet connection is denied.

Continuing my “who's the slave and who's the master?” theme, I want the machine to start up as quickly as possible so I can get on with whatever I want to do – I'm happy to start the apps I need and take the hit if they take a bit longer because I didn't load something at startup.

I don't want every app to slow down its starting time while if naffs off over to the Internet to look for something I haven't asked for and which almost certainly isn't for my benefit.

Mr and Ms Shouty

I know it's hardly original but this week's round up of shouty mobile phone calls starts withGiles Witham who had a crisis involving training for his project at the Bristol and West – however, if she wasn't a competent trainer, AXA would surely never have employed her, so that's alright. He wanted to touch base with everyone, it seems.

Then there was a woman who didn't identify herself but was counseling her friend against having an affair. She was “not being funny”, but there wasn't a lot wrong with his wife – although as she announced repeatedly “he is a twat” - an
expression that would have mortally offended my Ma.

Top marks go to a woman who will (but doesn't deserve to) remain nameless – she announced her bank security details including name, address (Swanwick, near Alfreton, Derbyshire) and full date of birth so loudly that it would be tempting to arrange to drain her account simply to alert her to the fact that there are in fact other people in the world.

Ian Huntley and Lord Mackenzie

As reported here
Former government crime advisor Lord Mackenzie disagreed with Dame Stella's assessment, saying there were plenty of examples of occasions when ID cards would have prevented crime.
He told BBC News: "Let's look at the Soham murders. If Ian Huntley had had an identity card, would he have got the job at Soham school which allowed him to commit the murders? I think not."

Of course, Lord Mackenzie has form in this area. As reported here:

Humberside police failed to tell Cambridgeshire Police about earlier allegations that Huntley was a serial sex attacker. The force had also destroyed notes about his past misdemeanours.
I [David Blunkett] took the decision to suspend Chief Constable Westwood knowing full well that it would not be welcomed by Mr and Mrs Wells
Both Kevin Wells, father of Holly, and former top policeman Lord Mackenzie have opposed Mr Blunkett's proposed action to sack Mr Westwood.
Lord Mackenzie said Mr Blunkett should take some of the blame for the police failings.
The Labour peer, a former adviser to Tony Blair on policing matters, said Mr Blunkett's department must bear some responsibility for the shortcomings in police intelligence procedures.

This Letter sent to the Northern Echo and Darlington & Stockton Times tells the truth about this stuff:
SOHAM MURDERS: LORD Mackenzie of Framwellgate claims that the tragic Soham murders show the need for compulsory identity cards.
In fact, they show why they would be useless. Ian Huntley was able to get a job in a school because police did not have the training and resources to use the information systems they already had.
Huntley's other name, Ian Nixon, was already known to police. They knew exactly who he was but not about the string of allegations of underage sex and sexual assault.
ID cards wouldn't have changed that. Spending some of the nearly £3bn that Lord Mackenzie wants to spend on the ID card gimmick on making sure police and social services can understand the systems they already have will hopefully prevent such awful tragedies happening in future. - Paul Leake, Durham.

Here's what Lord Mackenzie had to say in the House Of Lords:

Ian Huntley had changed his identity, which allowed him to obtain employment as a school caretaker

It is true that Huntley applied as Ian Nixon, but it seems to me that one significant factor was that no-one checked his references. That simple check, not an unreasonable thing for a school to have done, would surely have raised questions. He provided "open" or "to whom it may concern" references rather than giving names of referees, but not to contact any of them was surely the key to him getting the job?

This is from the Bichard report into the Soham Murders:

1.257 Mr Gilbert accepted that checking for any gaps in an applicant’s employment history, and obtaining a satisfactory explanation, formed an important part of recruitment. However, he had no recollection of going through the dates with Huntley at the interview to find out exactly when one period of employment started and another stopped.

1.263 Mr Gilbert was confident that for support staff appointments, the referee would have been asked for their opinion on the candidate’s suitability to work with children. None of the open references provided by Huntley addressed this. Mr Gilbert accepted this was a question which should have been asked of the referees. However, as the school did not contact any of the referees or follow up the references in any way, this issue was never raised with them. Mr Gilbert accepted that the references should havebeen followed through and that not to have done so was a mistake.

(My Emphasis)

Having an ID card would not have made the school check Huntley's references, or made up for serious shortcomings identified in the actions of two Police forces.

The Practical and the Moral

I'm pleased Neil has changed his mind about the government's ID card plans - even if that does mean there's now apparently no blogger in favour.

One thing I found interesting, and it's something he and I will never agree on, is the basic princple of the thing. I think it's morally wrong for the State to manage my identity for me and to control any of my biometric data unless I've broken the law in which case I can see why they'd want my fingerprints. Neil doesn't and we'll never agree. On ID cards, my hope is the government will be defeated on the practicalities since they share Neil's view of the morality of it, not mine.

However, as someone on the No2ID forum (I think it was) pointed out, if you think an idea is immoral, the practicalities aren't really relevant. He cited slavery, where, for example, you could argue that slavery was a daft project because machines would be more cost-effective and productive than human slaves. This would be to ignore that slavery was wrong.

In my view ID cards are just wrong - I think Mrs Thatcher (as someone else pointed out) would've used 'em to stop miners travelling around during the strike. The Police were already mounting roadblocks and other dirty tricks in what is supposed to be a free country.

Thank you to the Rebels

Not really interested in the Tories who understandably had a vested interest in a policy that made the PM look bad. The Labour rebels, however, are admirable for standing up against the notion that the Police are now in charge of making laws as well as enforcing them. If the Police stopped doing stuff like shooting electricians on tube trains, I might have more of a reason to trust 'em.

Now we find that Kitty Ussher, MP for Burnley, says even those who mounted a principled objection to an illiberal and dangerous measure will have blood on their hands...if we have another terrorist attack that the plod say they could've stopped by holding the perpetrators for 90 days without charge or trial.

(by the way - don't I recall reading somewhere that Inspector Knacker had already taken an interest in one of the 7th July Bombers but decided they weren't a risk)

Talk Politics and Chicken Yogurt say this much better than I can, but I needed to add my voice to those wondering where locking people up for ages started to take priority over her professed interest in "jobs and housing" as described on her website.

Mind, you according to the same website, she "built a new football pitch in the local park" - impressive.

For a balanced view on the 90 day proposal - from someone with first-hand knowledge this takes some beating.

The John Peel Of Politics

I'm very dissapointed in Neil Harding who now claims to be the "John Peel" of politics. I don't know if Peely would've been in favour of ID cards, as Neil is, but I find it tastless in the extreme that he adopts Peely's name in connection with his political activities - I think he should remove it now.

On being a Property Magnate

Whenever I watch these programmes on TV where people want to become a property developer, they always seem to spend loads more than budget on quality fittings - money they never recoup. As I'm moving soon, I hope to find one of these projects so I can get maximum value.

What's the point of a recorded apology?

If my train is late or cancelled - it's just an insult for a computer-generated voice to tell me he/she is sorry. Better not to bother.

Similarly, my call is plainly not important to you - if it was you'd have spent some money employing someone to answer it.

ID cards, Luddites and progress

Change and technology are generally unavoidable. Does this mean all technological change is good? I would argue that Nuclear Power, Land Mines and Nerve Gases are examples of stuff we have done that were great technical advances but haven't been a great benefit to societies.

I take my liberty (civil liberty, if you like) seriously - and this post from the NO2ID website says it better than I could ever have done:

A contempt for civil liberty is very plainly here equivalent to a terrifyingly deep trust in officialdom and a desire for a wholly regulated society. He thinks individuals ought not to be permitted any freedom that we might misuse, indeed that the desire for freedom is a sign of evil intent, whereas government is all-wise and benevolent. A civil liberty is an entitlement to do something in civil society with the government (or other third party) having no right to interfere. It is something you don't need permission from an official to do. It does seem to some of us desirable that the number of such personal or collective liberties remains as high as possible, and that the government needs a very good reason to remove any of them, even those we happen not to be using at the moment.

The "He" in this context is Neil Harding who can see no reason why I shouldn't give the government (and obviously all future ones of whatever type) my fingerprints, photo and Iris details and promise to keep my address and other data on their database up to date at all times, in return for a card. The "benefit" I'll get from this is being asked to provide my card more and more often for trivial reasons. All of this is because Neil and the government assume that I and everyone else will always lie if asked who we are, and must have the government administer our identity for our "own good".

I disagree.

Longrider puts the case here pretty effectively so I'm not going to go over it again.

Finally - for a bit more of a in-depth summary of what Luddism really was - I think this is quite worthwhile.

Luddites

Don’t get me wrong, the Luddites weren’t perfect. In a debate on ID cards Neil Harding uses the term liberally, and in a pejorative sense. I wish he’d read at least the Wikkepedia entry on the Luddites, and particularly the part on E. P. Thompson's view of Luddism.

I found this entry on an area of the University Of Colarado in Denver’s website – I quote it selectively, but the full thing can be found here.

“Today's Luddites continue to raise moral and ethical arguments against the excesses of modern technology to the extent that our inventions and our technical systems have evolved to control us rather than to serve us and to the extent that such leviathans can threaten our essential humanity” (my emphasis)

Here’s what Lord Byron had to say about the Luddites in his speech in the House of Lords (27th February, 1812)

“Such was the state of that county, and such I have reason to believe it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be admitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress: the perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing but absolute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families, and the community.

They were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them: their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employment preoccupied; and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be subject to surprise”.

I’m not a Luddite, at least not in the way Neil Harding means. I embrace and welcome an enormous amount of new technology and I work in IT. The irony of being called a Luddite by a bloke who thinks he can find my street address from the IP address used to post comments on his blog makes me smile.

Technology (and the government) should be our servant, not our master. This corrosive ID proposal wants to make me into a servant of the government – well I have news for the government (not just this one – any government) – that’s not happening to me. Ever.