On Poorly-Reasoned Media Articles

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I don’t know if you’ve been following the whole WikiLeaks story, of how some 90,000+ classified documents concerning the war in Afghanastan were leaked, or whether you think it’s a good thing for democracy or not. I’m not about to answer that question, but I did have a few thoughts, in light of the latest article in the series: Shortcomings of US Drones, and in light of my current reading, The Quest for Responsibility: Accountability and Citizenship in Complex Organisations (TQR, from here out).

Taken in light of what I’ve been reading in TQR, I’d have to say that there was a proper procedure which probably wasn’t followed prior to leaking this information (whistleblowing in the military is protected, the same as whistleblowing by civil servants). So, the person doing this … well, certainly didn’t follow procedure. I don’t know how I feel about that, particularly, but I must say that there’s a definite agenda on the part of WikiLeaks, and I’m not entirely certain that I can fathom it. Nor do I wish to, particularly. I am fairly amazed, though, that nobody’s asking questions about the motivation and procedural correctness surrounding this leak. I read lots about WikiLeaks in general, but nothing about how any grievance could have been addressed within the military rather than dumping masses of data into the public domain.

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The latest article, in which der Spiegel paints a grim picture of unsecured, military databases being carried off when military drones crash … well, that bothers me just a bit, because I’d like to think that somebody bright enough to design a remote-controlled weapons platform would at least know how to secure the thing from having its data stripped out by an opponent. I mean, 5 minutes of thought says to me:

  1. Encrypt the hard-drive using strong encryption,
  2. Require an external key be provided to even launch the operating system (on a USB stick, or something of the like),
  3. Load in some encrypted keystores onto each of the onboard missiles when the platform is initialized, such that they are required for boot in the event of radio-loss
  4. Continually update the encryption requirements as those missiles are spent (so that, when the device reestablishes radio communication, you’d be able to remotely boot the system, or could provide a missing key),
  5. Design the system to go into a safe shut-down in the event of a certain number of minutes of radio silence, or upon a signal provided by an impact-sensor.

Now, that probably sounds like a lot of gibberish … but, basically, it would require a monetary expenditure which far outstrips the value of data supposedly “lost to insurgents.” Does anybody believe that, in addition to the “remote-controlled ‘zero-out’ procedure,” the manufacturers didn’t include an extra $100 worth of hardware (and free software) to make these things less vulnerable? When their per-unit price is supposedly around $4.5 million each? Please.

This is not a political rant, this is merely a rant against stupidity.

-D

Early Morning Moonset

Lynedoch Crescent - July 27 Ephemeris

The Photographer’s Ephemeris (available at stephentrainor.com/tools) is a tool I’ve mentioned before. It’s useful because it tells you things like where and when the sun and moon will rise and set. It tells me that tomorrow morning’s going to be an early one (say, 5 a.m.) in the hopes of catching the full moon, on its way down, setting behind the towers. I really hope to awake early enough to catch it! Of course, it won’t be dark, still, as the sun will be rising 20 minutes before the moon sets. I’m going to try to get the shot before the sunrise, though, if only because the moon needs to be still in the sky if I’m going to see it from the flat.

We’ll see if a tripod-mounted series demonstrates that the camera alone was the problem, or whether there’s some lens involvement as well. It’s so difficult to tell. If tomorrow’s shots come out (and if I get any, what with clouds and fog), I’ll know whether I have to send the lens in for an adjustment.

Enjoy the moonset, if you’re up early enough!

-D

Tired of Travel

This past month has been all about travel, it seems, and not enough about the things in our lives which involve peace, introspection, and the things we enjoy locally.

Glasgow Airport 04 HDR

First off, I had to go down to Southampton for a day, which meant leaving Glasgow at 6 a.m. and arriving back at something like 11 p.m. Quite a long day, and it was on the day that the British played in the World Cup. So, lots of chaos, lots of travel, and one tired out me.

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The following week, we were both at Glasgow Airport, on our way to Washington, D.C., for the ALA conference.

Washington D.C. 002 HDR

Washington D.C. 004 HDR

We’ve described the conference a bit already, but the city itself we didn’t really visit: we went from place to place, visiting people, going to coctail parties, and only taking pictures incidentally. The conference, as you can see below, was absolutely packed with people. This wasn’t to our liking, as we both tend to avoid crowds like the plague (which they, no doubt, carry).

ALA 2010 003

The National Cathedral was much more our speed, and I dare say that we spent more time just enjoying the peace there than we did at the ALA Conference. I’d say it’s a shame, but … well, it was peaceful!

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We’re back home, now, and a few weeks have gone by … and we’re feeling as if we’re able to finally look around, examine things a bit, and ask, “what do we want to do, in our final year in Glasgow?”

Around Glasgow 500 HDR

One of the things we’d let drop, this past year, was the choir. When we think back to what we disliked about it … we won’t be going back. But there are other options, such as the Glasgow City Chorus (please schedule any visits with us around their concert schedule). We hope that they’re a bit more about the choir, and less about the soloists / musicians. They practice somewhere in the City Chambers / Council (shown to the right), I think.

We’ll be getting our music early (see The Mutopia Project to get your own, free music, and Lilypond to understand just what goes into the music available there). Between the concert schedule and the (free) music (when we get a chance to transcribe it, as it doesn’t seem to be up there yet), we expect somebody out there to sing along.

-D

Camera’s Back

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So, the camera’s back, and it’s much better than it had been. I think that the lens still needs to be adjusted, because things still aren’t as crisp as I think they should be, when viewed at full size. That could be the result of the lens itself, because it’s a hyperzoom lens (18mm-250mm), so has quite a lot of glass involved in the whole workings.

This picture of a black-headed gull, shot at 250mm, looks to be fairly crisp. I do wonder, though, where the legs have gone.

-D

Link

I’m going to throw this single link out there, because it’s so significant: Software will be unpatentable in NZ. Yes – you read that correctly. New Zealand has decided that patenting software (which is already subject to copyright law) serves only to stifle innovation, in particular because the world of software changes so rapidly. This is along the same lines as some U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding patents; hopefully the rest of the world will get on board and clarify what is “an invention” (and therefore subject to patent law) as separate from what is “a creative work” (and subject to copyright).

This would mean that it is the source code which would be subject to the law (copyright), rather than the functionality itself. So, if a company copied code, it would be violating copyright. But, if a company developed something entirely separate from another company, that company would be safe: it hadn’t copied anything, it had merely developed something which did the same thing.

This is a major difference between patent and copyright, and will hopefully cut down on “patent trolls.” It also recognizes that source code is the “creative work,” rather than privileging the end product and the functionality.

-D

July 12, In Retrospect

Two years ago at this time, we were just finishing our time in Tallinn, Estonia. It was a rainy day there, so there weren’t too many pictures taken, as visibility was poor. We took a tour bus around the town, listening to the commentary until we got tired of being slightly damp. We’d just finished our first full year in Glasgow, and were enjoying a bit of a break in the midst of D. writing his Master’s dissertation / thesis. We loved the red-tiled roofs, and the mixture of old Europe with modernity we found in Estonia. We also enjoyed seeing a different ethnicity and realizing that, yes, Estonians are a different ethnic group, despite being fair of skin and hair. For Americans, it was a big difference; that’s just now how it is in Ye Olde melting-pot of the U.S., and it’s rare to see such a strong set of features repeated across such a large group.

Last year at this time, we were just wrapping up our trip to Oban and Mull. It was, again, a rainy day, yet we’d enjoyed some glorious days of absolutely stunning sunshine and marvelous company. We weren’t quite ready for the return to rain, but we at least felt that we’d gotten a decent amount of sunshine, and had experienced a taste of The Islands.

This summer as D. buckles down for this last year of the PhD – data analysis, writing, rewriting, more reading, and more writing – we’re thinking back on our time, here in Scotland, wondering where we’d like to end up. We really have no idea what doors will open, so we’re trying not to hope we’ll end up anywhere in particular … but we’re sort-of looking around, saying, “where have we enjoyed being?”

Just about everybody we know or meet asks us whether we’ll be going “back home” when this is done. We think … we think we’re still up for an adventure, but perhaps one which doesn’t include quite so much rain, nor quite so much cold, nor quite so much darkness. On the other hand, we’re also told that one gets used to the snow: our Norwegian friend claims that, “they know how to deal with the snow, there!” And with full-spectrum bulbs in just about every room of the house … well, we’ve come to deal with the darkness, if not the rain or snow.

And the Norwegians believe in hot tubs. And saunas.

So, where will it be? Probably nowhere which has bagpipe bands practicing in the firehouse, due to rain. But possibly somewhere just as small, and quaint, and quiet. Or not.

-D & T

Try Something New Today! Or, Maybe Not

You know, there’s something to be said for plain old original recipes.

Not the New Coke. Not the chocolate Goldfish. Not the minty Oreos. Not the Pepper Jack Cheeze-Its, the New & Improved Ruffles, not a Lemon-Scented, All-New anything — everything should be the same as what you liked last week. New is not always good, people.

And lest you think we whine too much, we twice in one week have encountered something which is an abomination unto Nuggan. We were minding our own business, visiting the Bears’ Playhouse in Virginia, when our friend brought out a tub of guacamole. Because T. is allergic to many preservatives, we did a quick check of the ingredients before digging in. And choked. Guacamole… that contained peas. We thought they only sold that abomination in the UK.

Oh, HUSH. We do not want to hear about your Weight Watchers diet cookbook. We do not want to hear about how it is lower fat that way, and only adds a bit of bulk, and detracts nothing from the overall awesome that is God’s gift to us, the avocado. GUACAMOLE DOESNOT CONTAIN PEAS. Whole Foods, you ought to be ashamed. Yeah, yeah, so it was well-seasoned, but you over-seasoned it, and over-salted it, just to hide your transgressions. Guacamole celebrates the avocado. The peas were unnecessary! Why? BECAUSE GUACAMOLE DOES NOT CONTAIN PEAS! Nor Double Cream, either, for that matter. (Hello, Sainsbury’s, using saturated fat to replace wonderfully unsaturated fat!). What are you people trying to do???

Guacamole has a history. The ahuacatl was mashed with molcajetes (basically that nubbly stone mortar and pestle set) and prepared with a bit of sea salt, chilies, and a bit of tomato. The ahuacamolli was served to royalty, back in the 500’s and was a feasting favorite of the Aztecs, when Cortes and his earlier cohorts came to call in the early 1500’s. YOU CAN BET THEY DIDN’T SERVE IT TO Ol’ HERNANDO WITH PEAS. (The Spaniards thought avocado was an aphrodisiac and also ate guacamole with sugar. Yeah, way to ruin the New World foods, guys. Bleech.)

Guacamole is more than 40% Avocado. Unless you’re 1) trying to cut down on the (good for you) fat in avocados, or 2) trying to be cheap, or, you know, buying the stuff in a jar, in the UK, GUACAMOLE DOES NOT CONTAIN PEAS.

Listen up, Sainsbury’s.

Of course, if you’re trying to do some low-fat noshing these hot summer days (excluding the good-for-you fat and substituting it with carbohydrate, which will only make you hungrier), then you could try this recipe. You’d be sick and wrong, however. And disgusting. You could just, you know, do some peeling and mashing yourself. If you want low-fat in this case, we urge you strongly to consider eating less.

Because, what SANE person puts PEAS in their GUACAMOLE!?!? Seriously? Who does this? And if you say, “Me,” we have to tell you up front: we might not be able to be friends after this.

Just sayin’.

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