The story begins with a Usenet newsgroup that was being overrun by trolls. A couple of people volunteered to set up a moderated version of the group and I was one of the people who promised to do a bit of moderating. For those of you unfamiliar with this, all it means is that posts to the newsgroup have to be approved by someone trusted before it appears in public. In this way the off-topic and obnoxiously provocative posters are denied an opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves; leaving the rest of us to discuss matters and ask questions without being abused, shouted at and interrupted by obnoxious people who’s only enjoyment in life seems to be being a pain in the arse for others.

Anyone can set up a newsgroup in the usenet hierarchy provided they say what the subject discussion should be focussed on and other ground rules.1 Typically a self-appointed group cobble together some fine words that attempts to be a watertight definition of what is and isn’t allowed. This is called a charter.

Lesson one was that even though the hoards were at the gates there was still room for an enormous amount of dispute over the exact form of words. The basics were understood but then somebody would point out a potential loophole or disagreed with a particular nuance of a particular word. Strewth! Why don’t you guys (and they were all men) just get on with it. I was paxed.2 Whatever happened to “the ends justify the means”.

There was now a hiatus as the rusty and decayed Usenet machinery creaked into action. This was beyond our control. The moderation software turned out to be buggy and not very well presented. I could fix some of those things so I found out how to do it and passed on my detailed suggested fixes to the bods in charge of the engine room. It turned out that the bod I passed this on to was using a text-based web browser – something that is completely inappropriate to modern use of the web by 99.9999% of the rest of us. So that didn’t get too far – A bit like taking your car to a blacksmith to get it serviced. On the other hand when we started running the system for real we were able to adapt various aspects quickly.The open source software paradigm is brilliant in that it allows fast fixes and multiple strands of development.

Lesson two was that although the Internet is pretty good at evolving, improving and adapting, sometimes this is at the price of bumbling amateurism.

At last we had a live working newsgroup and the fun really started. At the charter definition stage people had been suggesting all sorts of scenarios so they were well fired-up to pounce on malefactors. Once again there has been a huge amount of missing the point going on. The object is to keep out the mischief makers not to sanitize and suffocate debate. What amazes me is that some moderators are so sure of their right to reject posts on trivial grounds yet show the greatest nervousness when there might be the very slightest whiff of impropriety on their behalf. One post was rejected on the grounds of misuse of punctuation and I’ve researched this poster on Google and they are provocative! Really that’s true and was meant seriously.

Lesson three is that there are some people that shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a censorship role as they have a passion for the job that exceeds their discriminatory abilities many times over.

Lesson four is that just because people appear to be ‘good eggs’ doesn’t mean they can be trusted to exercise judgement.

I wonder if there is some personality test that could be applied here to get the right combination of abilities to see the wood for the trees?

1. And they have to show some level of support.
2. See blog entry for 16 Oct 2009.

I’m the creep of Maldon quay. Your cash belongs to me.
One day when you are moored, I’ll sneak my way on board
When you’re glued in the ooze, I’ll collect my harbour dues
I’ll take your mooring fee, I’m the creep of Maldon quay

My welcome ‘s unfriendly; please stay away at sea.
If you’re deep in the sludge you’ll need a tow to budge.
There’s mud at Maldon quay, sprinkled with debris,
Of that I’ll guarantee. I’m the creep of Maldon quay

Oh I’m the Creep of Maldon quay. I’m a council employee.
When in the mud you’re stuck – Then I don’t care a lot.
When you can’t get afloat, Then I will sit and gloat.
I’ll count my cash with glee. I’m the creep of Maldon quay.

1. Tune: The sheik of araby

All you do is drill a 3mm hole at the apex of the curve in the spout. This is small enough not to spew beer out of but large enough to admit air after the tap has been turned off and break any air-lock effect.

This combination works well in pubs where in my opinion there are people best left well alone, while the rest have all sorts of weird ideas and mis-conceptions. If you believe in organised religion then you won’t get a moment of accommodation from me.

Dustibro The unused parts of a house that collect junk and dust.

Paxst / Paxed Present and correct hours ago and keen to start. eg “Come on! We’ll be late! No you can’t clean the crumbs from the toaster! I’m Paxst.”

I wouldn’t trust KCC to dribble in their bibs.

Email to chief executive of KCC

Freedom of Information act 13th October 2009
A I wish to know the (i)Cost (ii)Purpose (iii)Management checking procedures for the solar PV panel associated with the recently installed zebra crossing in Childsbridge lane, seal.
B I wish to see the safety audit that was planned for the junction of School lane and Childsbridge lane, Seal. Including the identity of whichever organisation did the audit.
ALSO
1Question: Are the people who designed/checked/installed/managed the Zebra crossing in Childsbride Lane, Seal, still employed by the council?
2If so why?
3How much will it cost to audit the other Solar PV installations in Kent
4When will this be done by?
Notes:
* See the privacy policy for the blog public interest beats ‘private and confidential’
* Whoever actually replies on your behalf it will be YOUR REPLY.
* Please be sure to reply immediately with a reference.
* If you have any queries regarding the scope of this request then please contact me as per the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs’ Code of Practice on the discharge of public authorities’ functions under Part I of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

1. Postcode TN15 Map reference TQ 549 568
2. editor and co-author of the well received book on SealThe History of a Parish and West Kent Wills and Families up to 1650
3. This is the one where the water and stones run down school Lane and straight into the junction. The durbrains from KCC unable to understand that water tends on the whole to run downhill. They were told but wouldn’t listen.

]]> http://www.vulpeculox.net/omnilog/archives/500/feed 0 http://www.vulpeculox.net/omnilog/archives/495 http://www.vulpeculox.net/omnilog/archives/495#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:36:43 +0000 admin http://www.vulpeculox.net/omnilog/?p=495 Bad news A lot of free software is rubbish. Many paid-for programs are rubbish as well. Loads of it is pre-loaded by manufacturers 1 and starts of its own accord serving to clutter up your system, use resources, open up security holes and many worse things. The next post in this series will cover how to slim your system

Good news You can do just about everything for free. Paying for programs should be an absolute last resort. There are some tricks you need to be aware of as often the ‘free’ software advertised on the web site is really the ‘free trial’ software. You sometimes need to read the websites very carefully to find the really free version.

Browser : Firefox

I’ve mentioned this before. Like other browsers it is free And better

Word processor / office suite : Open office

Don’t get stuck with Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office. Open office is a direct replacement which will read and write Microsoft files. People are often told they need to use Word to submit homework etc. Rubbish! So long as you save in Word format you’re perfectly compatible.

Firewall : Zone Alarm

A firewall is a gatekeeper program that only lets certain traffic in and out of your computer on the Internet. The firewall supplied with windows should be replaced as it is pretty feeble. When downloading from the Zone Alarm website you need to be careful to avoid the ‘free trial’ version of ZA and just go for the completely free one. Once installed you will be asked whether to let certain programs access the internet. Obviously browser and email need to access the internet but may others can be blocked. The ‘program control’ section of Zone Alarm allows you to change your mind.

Anti virus : AVG

Once again you may have to carefully seek this out on the AVG website. I use it and it is simple to setup and forget.3

Desktop search : Copernic

Everyone should have a desktop search facility. Windows’ built-in version is a bit crude. Copernic is much better but tries to give you adverts as well! The way to squash these adverts is to set up your firewall not to let Copernic see the Internet.2

Media player : VLC Media player

I prefer this to the others that want to ‘phone home’ keep updating and generally being a nuisance.

Graphics

There are lots to chose from. Some are simply for tidying-up photographs others have much more sophisticated features for painting, annotation, cutting and pasting special shapes and layers. Everyone who takes digital photos should edit them with some program it’s just a matter of whether you need the extra features and want to spend the
time learning how to use them.

1. Called Bloatware
2. To block outgoing traffic such as Copernic trying to give you loads of adverts or other software/spyware/malware with its own agenda you need a better firewall than the one that comes with Windows. You also need to set it to block anything unless you make an exception. In ZoneAlarm you say ‘no’ when Copernic tries to access the internet. To check go to ZoneAlarm’s ‘control centre’ then ‘program control’.
3. The paid-for anti-virus programs are generally not better at detecting viruses but they will have better explanations and fixes. Also it is worth remembering that all AV programs miss a fair proportion of nasties.

Your free daily drip-feed of thought provocation is now available.

New readers start here

A Cognolog is five small suggestive paragraphs drip-fed one per day. The purpose is to encourage imaginative and critical thinking and also to provide topics for conversation and exploration.

The trouble with everyday written articles is (1) that they don’t really give enough pause-for-thought and (2) they tend to steer the reader, often quite strongly, along the author’s preferred line of argument. See – That’s what I’ve just done!

On the other hand if the object was to fizz-up the reader’s brains …

… the author might provoke thought …

… then pause a while …

… then continue, perhaps at a tangent…

… why a tangent? …

… to look at the thread from a different angle.

The reader isn’t expected to come up with any ‘right answer’ merely to be amused by the possibilities suggested and perhaps join in with a thread on one day then have the author shine the spotlight on that thread from another direction on the next. A simple example of this might be

You can see the process is paced to encourage the reader to follow their own fancies. Perhaps Monday’s provocation leads some readers to think about the dichotomy of actor and role, real-life and on-screen idols, degree of viewer’s identification with the actor or the character on the screen. Or perhaps the degree to which ‘greatness’ developed later or was apparent at an early age. Or perhaps the public relations machinery and how that works. Thursday’s provocation might be a disputable statement such as “ ‘Greatness’ is just a fancy name for ‘significance’. Now the reader has a day to get a lot further than ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ by picking it to pieces.

There’s another important use for Cognologs beyond juicing-up brains and that’s discovering through conversation in the office or the pub who are the shallow people and who take an interest in looking at issues requiring intellectual effort.

I’ve invented the Cognolog format. Currently there are more than two dozen covering all manner of subjects and approaches including Gardening – What’s special about gardening and how to ‘get the bug’? , Santa Claus is dead – replacement shenanigans and The press-up club – A practical experiment into what makes joining a club special.

Start now

Another introductory blog post

A cognostory blog post

The gas was on in the Institute,
The light was on in the shack,
A man was running a terrible cold,
A lass was laid on her back,
When G A Evans the Chippenham man,
G A Evans from Chippenham,
Came writing about the olden time
When chips were made of germanium
Writing about -
Writing about -
Writing about the Mullard
Transistor OC Seventy-One while showing he’s no dullard.

The sun shone low on the railway line
Aroundabouts Bath and Colne
And sat at the upstairs window
Was ‘GA’ all alone
When he saw the ghost of Betjeman,
Sir John with his pen full of ink
Come tripping along in a pin stripe suit
For a Saturday evening drink.
Sipping a drink -
Sipping a drink -
At the bar of the old Bull and Bush
Sipping some more he fell off his stool and faded away in a rush.

There wasn’t a man in Winterbourne
That didn’t think it a fake,
And over the valley in Trowbridge,
And round by Savernake,
When G A Evans the Chippenham man,
G A Evans from Chippenham,
Made him his heir and brought him drinks
And how quickly he’d been sipping ‘em.
Made him his heir
Made him his heir
To write technical information
Paying a call at WH Smith to pick up his publication.

1. The original is called A Shropshire Lad

Yesterday Dame Maggie Smith was quoted as saying It leaves you so flattened. I’m not sure I could go back to theatre work, although film work is more tiring. I’m frightened to work in theatre now. I feel very uncertain. I haven’t done it for a while.

My mum, 82, broke her wrist 10 days ago and has coped very well with it… but although she’s of that generation who grew up with bombs falling on them and getting on with things, the ‘give-up-its-impossible’ demon is getting a say.

These made me think that although when these sorts of things happen we know there’s likely to be various amounts of frustration, anger, disappointment and other emotional fall-out we may not be so clued-up to basic confidence.1 For example somebody might postpone a holiday whilst awaiting ‘results of tests’. The possibility of actual trouble is being turned into actual trouble.

The challenge is to work out how to be a confidence coach. It’s one of those things like giving advice. I expect there are techniques2 but this is all new to me.

1. There may be a name for this. If not I’ll call it The Fox effect and be done with it.
2. Be warned! The obvious ones may be temporary and have a backlash.