Slough High Street Restored to Former Glory

Phew! There was me thinking that the current work on Slough's High Street was designed to replace the 70's red brick surface with a pristine, unbroken, light grey slate surface that gleamed in the sun, unblemished by chewing gum and random gobs of other matter.

Fortunately for heritage buffs like me, the craftsmen have managed to restore much of the detritus from the previous surface to the "new" one, thereby preserving the ethos inherent in the name Slough:

n.
1. A depression or hollow, usually filled with deep mud or mire.
2. also slue A stagnant swamp, marsh, bog, or pond, especially as part of a bayou, inlet, or backwater.
3. A state of deep despair or moral degradation.

Source: Answers.com

They've even managed to break up the surface every 20 or 30 feet and replace it with a piece of undressed asphalt, just like before.

Let's hope that non-stick chewing gum never, ever catches on!

SmartPhones, the Internet and Dinner Party Etiquette

Gone are the days when dinner party conversations drifted along, unchecked for factual accuracy, against a background of music from a CD on repeat that no one could be arsed to change.

Today, hosts and guests alike punctuate the discourse with Google-searches, songs and YouTube clips from their smartphones. If you're really lucky, a large flat screen and broadband connection will be made available on or near the dinner table for those particularly graphic clips or complex Wikipedia entries.

Is the art of conversation lost, or are these digitally-supported conversations actually more informative and rewarding than their analogue forbears? Should digital devices be hung up at the door like six guns in a Wild West saloon?

I have the feeling that I'd know the answer if I drank a lot less. By 9 o'clock it's all Mandarin to me.

Crackberry 2, Email 0

Crackberry Adventures

Well, I had a Crackberry for 2 days, returned it, and am expecting another tomorrow.

Two top tips (explained below):

1. Before you get a personal Blackberry, check whether any of your emails are going to come from a Blackberry Enterprise Server. If so, you will need a BES-configured handset.
2. If you are a Vodafone customer, call Vodafone's upgrade or retention team to order your BES handset, and say you'll pay no more than £5 per month (on top of line rental) for email access.

Here's why:

• Crackberrys are configured to run either the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) or the Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES).
• Only a BES-configured handset will accept email from a Blackberry Enterprise Server (really only affordable for larger employers), in addition to email from other servers.
  
• A BIS-configured Crackberry will accept mail from MS Exchange etc., but not a Blackberry Enterprise Server.
• Vodafone's high street stores only stock the BIS-configured Crackberrys, and offer email access for "only" £5 on top of your line rental (for what?). If you ask a store for a BES handset, they will offer to order you one, but charge you £28 on top your line rental for email access.
  
• At the suggestion of Vodafone customer services, I called Vodafone's upgrade or retention team from the store, and they offered to deliver a BES handset with email access for "only" £5 on top of my line rental.

Will IT ever be easy?

Bad Phorm?

Back in February, I commented on the Open Internet Exchange initiative being planned by Phorm, whereby and major ISP partners BT, Virgin Media and Talk Talk will be paid for allowing all the web browsing by their customers to be trawled for advertising purposes.

Not a lot was known about the initiative at the time, but negative news has been snowballing since, and opponents are taking to the streets. The Register is maintaining a dossier, known as "The Phorm files", and a "No Deep Packet Inspection" street demonstration is timed for BT's AGM on 16 July 2008. See also the Facebook Group "Save UK internet privace - reject ISPs that use Phorm".

Incidentally, you might wish to be more wary than usual of the Wikipedia entry on this subject.

The concerns raised are similar to those related to Facebook's "Beacon" initiative that led FB to significantly alter the functionality (though you might wish to be somewhat sceptical of that Wikipedia entry too!). The chief one being that there seems no reliable way to ensure that you are really opted-out. However, the Phorm scenario is worse than with Beacon, because the inspection, storage and use of data is at the ISP layer, making it much harder in practical terms to avoid the service than if it was operated, say, on a site-by-site basis. In other words, you can't decide simply not to visit certain sites if you doubt that the opt-out would actually prevent the abuse of your personal data. Instead, you would need to switch ISPs. However, you may not actually be able to avoid using one of the "problem" ISPs (e.g. at a friend's place, work, or via an internet cafe). And what if all the ISPs join the initiative?

Further, as the Guardian has noted, the challenge for Phorm is to reconcile two apparently contradictory statements:

"Advertisers are told that it will be able to profile the surfers, based on where they have visited, and target them through that uniquely numbered cookie. But users are told they will not be identifiable. It's the apparent contradiction in those statements that has infuriated so many."

If you are remotely concerned, now is the time to make your feelings known to your ISP, your MP, and participating advertisers.