There's a couple of people reading this that I really don't want to read it. So I'm going Friends-Only. Apologies for the inconvenience.

There are a few public posts below, but mostly on general non-personal issues that I think should reach a wider audience.

Leave a comment here if you want to be added and I'll consider it.

I've had long hair for what seems like forever. It's a part of me, has been for a long while. It's going, all of it. It's not a choice I made lightly but a choice nonetheless. And because some people don't get that choice, because some people have to go through all the horrible consequences of cancer - of which losing your hair is just a minor one ( Read more... )

You remember Patrick Moore's legendary xylophone performance on Children In Need in 1981? Okay, maybe most of you on my friendslist are too young, but, trust me, it was spectacular. What you won't know is that he double-booked himself that evening and was actually meant to be lecturing at a junior astronomy weekend in, if I recall correctly, Woburn ( Read more... )

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It's been a while, but it seems Phorm have stuck their heads above the parapet again...

Interview with Dow Jones

They seem to think that they'll roll out on BT by the end of the year. BT seems less sureInteresting to note in the Dow Jones interview that they're still working on a cookie-based system - an idea that provoked the most scorn when it ( Read more... )

Finally! Now someone will have to stop passing the buck and do something with Phorm.

Oh, and for those that are interested, an (obviously one-sided) account of the BT AGM yesterday

And an update from across the pond too. Congress is doing more than the UK government at least...

Been a while, but have a Phorm update:

Things seem to have gone a bit quiet with Phorm the last couple of months but might pick up again today with picketing of the BT AGM. World+Dog in terms of regulators, police and government seem to have passed the buck and refuse to investigate saying it's not their remit to do so, but that may change with ( Read more... )

Seems that just maybe the Information Commissioner has grown a pair after all....

Information Commissioner: Phorm must be opt-in only - not great, but it's a start at least, although it completely fails to address the point that an intercept still requires the permissions of both parties (customer and web=page provider), even if the system is ( Read more... )

Conclusive proof that the Information Commissioner has no balls or no teeth or both :(

Meanwhile, it seems that someone has been trying to take all the non-shiny words off the Wiki Phorm page. Bad bad Phorm people.

Independent assessment of exactly what Phorm will do to your data (pdf) by Dr Richard Clayton, treasurer of the FIPR and security researcher at Cambridge University.

Very heavy on the tech but an interesting read if you're familiar with cookies and website indexing by search engines. Whilst the report itself is objective and opinion-free, the BBC ( Read more... )