Jambalaya

My ISP's newsgroup was subjected to a lively barrage of discussion about data protection yesterday, that almost amounted to a DOS (or at least denial-of-productive worktime) attack.

In brief, a customer asked who the company's data protection officer was, so he could send him the ｣10 fee for full disclosure of all data held on him. Innocent enough, but the ensuing discussion raised an number of interesting questions and exposed a good deal of uncertainty and maybe ignorance about the whole area. As one correspondent pointed out, the area is ripe for test cases, and the lawyers are hanging around like vultures.

My interest was stimulated because patient confidentiality and data protection is partly my responsibility at work.

In general, ISPs hold customer information for accounting purposes (which is exempt from notification under the DPA, but they also hold and process data which could be construed as personal data. This includes IP addresses (the identity of the owner can be discerned from the RIPE database and also email addresses in mail transport logs.

Personally, I think this is a bit of a storm in a teacup. I don't think that an IP address is a personal identifier: it identifies a device on the network which may or may not be used by the owner of its domain. On the other hand, if it proved to be legally necessary it would not be very difficult for an ISP to have grep extract log records pertaining to an individual's email address. Having to do so may deter archiving of historical log information, but this may be a good thing. I would expect my ISP not to disclose any records identifying me to a third party without my prior consent. I suspect that any ISP who does this deviously would very likely not disclose the fact to me if I asked.

The general issue is of some concern to me as a 'secondary' ISP: I run mail and webservers for a small number of domains (most but not all of which I own) on a strictly informal non-commercial basis, for purposes largely if indirectly concerned with my work and mainly at my own expense. Perhaps I too should notify, but the annual charge of ｣35 for the privilege is off-putting.

And then there are weblogs: I run two weblogs which occasionally receive posts from others, such that my computers come to store 'personal data' about them. I may also identify others by name in my own posts. Does this mean that all UK weblogs should be covered by DPA notification?

The yardstick most often trotted out to assess cooking abilities is 'how to boil an egg'. Actually, boiling an egg is not that straightforward, and the news media usually manage to come up with the wrong answer anyway. A much better test would be soffrito.

Soffrito comes from the Italian 'to fry gently' but the technique has wide applications in cookery and forms the basis of many well known dishes - yes, even spag bol. Indeed, its origins can be traced back to a mediaeval Catalan manuscript, the Libre de Sent Sovi and the method has its counterpart in the Catalan sofregit and Castillian sofrito. Whatever the origin, some aromatic vegetables are gently fried in oil until soft. Sounds easy enough, but some common sense and attention to detail makes all the difference. Here are a few tips:

Afficionados of Pringles snacks will be devastated to learn that their factory was destroyed by a tornado earlier this month. (It's only bad news that travels like wildfire.)

A Guardian Unlimited reporter relates how he underwent a whole-body MRI scan in an American shopping mall. His experience was courtesy of Ameriscan, a company which promises to "...change the focus of health care in America from a reactive disease treatment to a pro-active wellness approach."

That's all very well if the scan is normal, when it can indeed be reassuring. However, if your lifestyle is risky, it may still only be a matter of time...

The real problem comes when the scan finds an abnormality. This will immediately cause a degree of anxiety, and further tests may well be needed to determine its significance. These will mostly eventually lead to reassurance, but the experience (which has been totally unnecessary) is likely to have been a harrowing one.

The compact you may think you have entered into with the screeners is that early detection means that anything nasty can be dealt with quickly...and will more likely be cured than if it had come to light later. Sadly, this is not always the case, and we simply do not yet have the information to say with confidence that this form screening is useful, and for whom.

There are undoubtedly benefits from this approach: it empowers consumers, and the screening company, the scanner manufacturers and the healthcare industry generally get to make a lot of money. Would it be too much to expect them to use some of it to undertake good quality studies of the utility of this approach?

Judging by a Guardian article today, Blair and Milburn do seem to be moving towards opening up the NHS to competition from private providers. Let's be clear: anything that reduces Whitehall's control and interference in the management of things they don't understand is a Good Thing (assuming of course that those taking the reins DO understand: but that's another story).

Brent Simmons has shipped a new version of his excellent NetNewsWire news feed reader. This apparently fixes a number of crashing bugs, amongst other things, but I have to say it has never crashed on me. I am posting this to my Movable Type weblog from NetNewsWire's weblog editor. After a few moments frustration figuring out how to paste a URL into the URL box, I figured that this is a Movable Type restriction. Pity: one up to Radio/Manila, I should say.

Good to see Jambalaya in the 'Recent Additions' site drawer: thank you Brent!

Lance Knobel writes "I've written a lot about anti-Americanism being an acceptable prejudice in Europe. Antisemitism attracts more criticism, but remarks like Dalyell's are accepted to a degree that would not be tolerated in the US" in response to Jonathan Freedland's Guardian article on Tam Dayell's recent racist slur. Both are off the mark.

There is no question this this was a racist slur: it was out of order and unacceptable. We all know that, and Tam Dayell (who is a spent force anyway) is further diminished by it. But it certainly does not warrant a public display of righteous indignation.

One should not take absence of condemnation as acceptance; tolerance is surely a virtue to which we should aspire; 'America's advanced intolerance' is not.

My demo version of Brent Simmons's excellent NetNewsWire just expired, so over to Kagi for one of my happier on line payments.

American record companies are reportedly financing the development of new computer software that would sabotage Internet connections of people downloading pirated music. The new tactic is the most aggressive yet by the record industry in combating the copying of songs over the Internet

Never mind its dubious legality, this strategy smacks of desperation. My intial reaction was to recall the George Santayana saying Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. I fear, however, that the recording industry is very clear about its aim: to make money no matter who they trample on in the process.

Well, we could vote with our money - or rather keep it in our pockets. The trouble is, music is addictive and the recording industry is the dealer. What goes against the modern grain is its total inability to provide what users want, (though if they did, there would be no addiction to feed).

Think different
Apple's new music store might just be able to undo this particular bind by addressing two of the most frequently expressed needs: ability to aquire digital music on line easily, and ablilty to 'mix and match', that is to buy a selection of tracks from different albums rather than whole albums. The news that a million tracks have been sold in the first week is invigorating: that more than half of the songs were purchased as whole albums goes a long way to counter fears that selling music by the track would reduce album sales. Together, these show that consumer choice has been increased substantially. More importantly, they shows that we are not all pirates at heart! Not bad for a week's work.

There are some questions lurking: what exactly is the deal the Apple has struck with the industry, and where will it go from here? Are the obvious benefits to users sustainable? The industry's actions against bootleg downloads has worrisome Luddite charactersitics that do not augur well. Let's hope that the indiustry has at least a few doves.

As Iraq fades into ancient history our beloved media have had to cast around for something else to fill the column inches over the Bank Holiday weekend, and once again the spotlight has fallen on the good old NHS.

This time it is the plan to turn some of the better behaved hospital Trusts into Foundation Hospitals, in theory more autonomous and less under 'direct' Whitehall control. This is sparking a Labour backbench revolt, led by the antediluvian Frank Dobson who did so much to wreck the NHS and demoralize staff when he was at the helm. The irony is that the Tories, who invented 'self-governing' hospital Trusts in the first place, look set to vote against them this time round. That's just plain silly - but what we have come to expect from Irritable Dowel Syndrome and his cronies.

It may have taken a while, but Alan Milburn has at last recognised that "You can't run the National Health Service as if it's the Chinese Red Army, from an office in Whitehall." Devolving power and responsibility is a sound management principle for a vast, monolithic organization: Margaret Thatcher new that. The main problem with the current plan is that, to start with, only selected hospitals will earn Foundation status. This is the real divisive issue. Alan and Tony should take courage and go the whole hog: make us all Foundation Hospitals at a stroke. That should disarm the critics.

Well: installing MT wasn't too bad after all. The instructions were clear and mostly accurate, but they could have spelt out the need to remove the commenting '#' at the beginning of the StaticWebPath line in the mt.cfg file!

My installation is on a Mac OS X 10.1.5 system. Fortunately Perl and all the important modules were there and waiting and I didn't need to install any of these. I can't remember though whether this version of OS X originally shipped with Perl, or I had to install it. I have vague memories that some time ago that's what I did.

Following my earlier rant about Radio and Userland, I shall comment here on any notable differences, pros and cons, etc of the two systems.