AlisonW - caveat lector

Boob aprons

2010-09-06T00:03:31+01:00

It has been suggested to me - by my mother, of all people — that some of the tops I wear show 'a little too much cleavage' (in her words) so she would probably like this off-the-wall idea from the USA.

Language used in the video is not work safe

Internet Governance Forum

2010-09-03T13:59:06+01:00

Originally posted on Vox, 2 Nov 2006

During the last four days I've been attending the IGF conference in Athens, Greece organised by the United Nations to discuss the future of the internet. Sadly, however, I wasn't there in person but was an on-line attendee. There are, however, benefits to this like not having to queue for lunch or coffee (I can retrieve it while 'in the room') or, indeed, having to get out of bed in order to be in the main conference room and get a question put to the panel! Instead of sitting on an uncomfortable chair I am in my big comfy swivel one at home watching the proceedings via a full-screen video stream @ 331k with concurrent translation when I need it. I've also got access to an IRC-like chatroom where there are other remote participants plus some people in the room, and the interaction there has been very useful, with technical asides and political discussions taking place alongside the presentations. igf2006.intgovforum.org/ was the conference website.

As I have commented there on a number of issues and need somewhere to 'archive' them, Vox will do the job!

Looking around the room …

Mon 30 Oct | Diversity

So I'm watching the 'live stream' from the conference and looking at the mix of empty seats and people actually attending in person. To attend a conference online is nothing new for me, I seem to regularly do so for a range of meetings (and it means I can get unlimited good coffee too) but I am already very aware that the attendees are majority white, majority male, and, dare I say, majority well older than the average internet user.

I was at a conference last week where the subject of "Citizen's access to information in a globalised world" was a main topic (The 2006 Belgo-British Conference ) and there too there was lots of discussion around the area of management and control of the people who have access to post their thoughts, rather than ideas of how to enable an increasing number of people to have completely free and open access. So far the IGF seems to be of the 'restriction' side rather than the 'open it up' side.

I shall hope that improves …

Topic poll

Submitted by AlisonW on Mon, 2006-10-30 11:29.

It is an interesting list of options that are being presented here as alternatives, when most of us would surely agree that all are issues which need to be dealt with for the betterment of the internet and the user community.

However, is not "Spam, phishing, security" something more for the end user (and writer of end-user browser software) than for the management of the internet itself? and aren't "Freedom of speech", "Governance", "Copyright" and "Access" the more general issues that will affect growth and reach?

The annoyance of spam (and that is all it is, an annoyance that can be dealt with) would probably be welcomed by those who currently have no access whatsoever …

But …

Submitted by AlisonW on Mon, 2006-10-30 18:22.

You wouldn't expect that a newspaper takes responsibility for every small ad, that a telephone carrier has responsibility for every conversation that takes place on its lines, etc. so why should the internet infrastructure be required to have responsibility for what is carried on the IP traffic across that network?

It is for every individual in the world to caveat emptor, not for the ISP, ICANN or whomever to do it on their behalf.

Falling down?

Wed 1 Nov | Security

The DNSSEC and rootserver discussion just finished was highly interesting, albeit losing some its edge by being audio-only. Part-way in I noticed I'd lost connectivity to this website though, but as I still had the audio stream thought little more about it, there not being a chatroom for the workshops.

The Register, however, has just commented that the site fell over, allegedly because of too many users! Could I express my surprise if that was the actual reason given as, from my direct experience over the last few days, the number of users in the chatrooms and blogs has been remarkably small (indeed I could suggest that the UN would be better off if it had covered the costs of people 'attending online' like myself to attend in person instead of supplying this web-based facility! nudge, nudge …)

My own view though is that these remote participation facilities have been very useful, if limited in certain areas, and I for one appreciate the efforts that UN and local conference staff have made to enable such participation.

Yes, but no, but …

(reply to post about DNSSEC and distributed root server trust) Submitted by AlisonW on Thu, 2006-11-02 11:16.

Whenever there is an intersection between engineering and politics there will be issues over the detail. McTim suggests that it would be a kludge, inherently complex and an overhead on the control of the system, and of course s/he is correct. However as we are all aware, technical issues exist for the enjoyment of engineers to overcome them, and even if there were start-up issues they would not appear to prevent this idea from happening.

But the politics is the thing. Some countries - notably the USA - believe that they have put a majority of the effort into creating the internet and should, therefore, maintain a level of control / co-ordination / supervision over its future management. Others, not surprisingly, believe that this could become a threat at some point in the futre and, whilst neither side is wrong, neither side is completely correct either.

Someone once said "You can't get there from here" and it probably applies to the way we have DNS routing under IPv6 currently, in that we need some organised method of determining those inter-node routes. Either this is a SPOF solution close to that we have currently, or we go to something with more resilience and less likelihood of failure (accidental or externally intended). But whilst we can - technically - create a sensible, secure, verifiable and maintainable solution to this problem and which would also accept the multi-lingual improvements that we so need for the next expansion phase of the internet, persuading the current vested political interests will, in my opinion, very sadly prevent that from happening, or at least delay it significantly.

UK Government sexist

2010-09-03T13:54:17+01:00

Originally posted on Vox on 8 Oct 2006

Week after next I'm heading to Brussels and Frankfurt for meetings, and whilst the first will be on the Eurostar the second will be by plane from London City. But it got me checking the new requirements ^H^H^H^H demands on hand luggage, and I realised that they have become - effectively - sexist.

As a very frequent flyer on business in years gone by, I used to do the 'get everything into the carry-on bag' so that I didn't have to wait anything up to an hour for someone to get the luggage off the plane, transport it to the terminal, put it on the wrong conveyor, and then wait for it to hit a carousel, This could be a saving of at least 30 minutes at each end, so making the trips less tiring (and being first to the taxi rank!)

Now though, while most men can still do this, most women cannot!

Because we have makeup (foundation is a liquid so banned) and toner/cleanser (more liquids), and keep our nails trimmed/cleaned (sharp objects are banned), etc. Yes, I supposed on each trip the first thing one could do on arrival is go shopping, but that would cost time and be wasteful of money too.

Seems to me that these new rules help the men get out the airport first …

Goodbye to Vox

2010-09-03T13:46:26+01:00

The closing.vox.com/Vox blogging service from SixApart is closing down at the end of this month. An attempted spin-off from its then Livejournal offering (later sold) nearly four years ago it never seemed to me that it achieved a substantial-enough market share to remain viable, indeed they are asking their customers to transfer to their TypePad service. It is always sad to see a service fold though.

I used Vox briefly when it first launched so, in the hope of never losing anything I write, I might copy across a couple of the posts I made 'way back when'.

TED talks … about Orgasms

2010-09-01T11:15:26+01:00

TED talks … about Orgasms

Conversations

2010-08-18T23:51:11+01:00

In my previous post I wrote an open letter to Lynne Feathersone about her proposed ban on the enforcement of parking controls on private grounds; specifically on private estates.

Where I live — in a small flat in a mansion block with a wonderful view looking over central London — is within such a private estate. It is pretty large: there are over 600 flats (apartments) and a similar number of houses, spread over a good-sized area of land, and there are two road entrances (except in bad weather when more side gates may get opened) and while each mansion block had an entryphone system installed about ten years ago it would be financially impossible to install something similar from every home across the estate to the top and bottom gates. The top one has an automated barrier fitted which closes automatically each night around 11pm and opens around 10am, although between those hours it will rise to let you leave the estate or you can enter with a 'beeper' which you can rent from the estate management committee for £50.

The lower gate is closed a few times each year for a few hours so that the 'private' nature of the roads can be legally enforced and maintained. At these times (and on the evening of Halloween) one of the estate staff stop vehicles and pass them through if they have a valid reason to be on the estate. But it wouldn't be a practical option to have a 24/7 attendant on the gate (though, as it happens, there used to be one in the 1930s when the estate was built, as there was also a pony and trap to bring people up the hill to their home from that main lower entrance.)

So returning to that post, Lynne and I engaged in a 'conversation' yesterday via twitter, and this is a record of that interaction.

lfeatherstone: Holly Lodge has gates-first defence-and ticketing better alternative which is properly regulated and a proportionate punishment

alisonw: Two gates, neither staffed. Top closed 11pm-11am otherwise open, bottom always open. No deterrent therefore. Thx for reply.

alisonw: plus a ticket has no effect on a dumped vehicle, which has been the major problem in the past.

lfeatherstone: duumped vehicles can be removed if no tax etc. Why don't you close gates? No need to answer - but seems the logical way forward

alisonw: sometimes (amazingly) dumped vehicles still have tax discs on display. Closing gates if few homes is fine but not if 600+

lfeatherstone: well - ticketing is an adequate 'punishment' for what is, after all, a parking offence

alisonw: except that the legal & actual effectiveness of a privately-issued 'ticket'is very close to zero so minimal effect.

And that is where we've currently left it. I still feel that the current proposal is going to lead to serious problems. It is sensible where the area to be managed is small enough to be gated in a controlled manner, but not for the large-size residential estates so common across London.

The ban on clamping.

2010-08-17T13:17:49+01:00

The BBC are reporting that Lynne Featherstone, as the Equalities and Criminal Information Minister, is to bring forward a bill to ban the clamping or removal of vehicles parked on private land. It is "committed to ending the menace of rogue private sector wheel-clampers once and for all" she says. In the main I completely agree with the sentiment where it is unclear that you are on on 'private land', for example where there are no gates to pass through from the public highway.

But where I live this will cause serious problems, so I have just written to Lynne asking that she reconsider the detail of her proposals.

"Hi Lynne,

Though I live 'just over the border' so to speak, I felt I must write to you as a matter of urgency over today's announcement about the banning of wheel clamping and towing away on private land in England and Wales.

The Holly Lodge estate, where I live, as with many other similar estates is actually private property; the road upkeep is paid via a fee from each householder (and a substantial contribution by Camden Council for the blocks they lease).

As private land - and outside the remit of parking controls by the Council - it has been for the estate management committee to deal with dumped vehicles and such, usually by removal after warnings have been left on a vehicle for many days but occasionally when it is blocking an entrance.

The proposals you have announced today would appear to place the maintenance and free access to such roads on many estates in severe danger of becoming dumping grounds for old vehicles.

The council haven't the power to manage this, and the police only get involved where they is 'danger' involved.

Could I ask that this situation - which I know is widespread in London and elsewhere - is urgently considered before the bill is brought forward.

Thankyou"

We already have the occasional problem with people realising that they can park on the estate when the adjacent roads are subject to parking restrictions, so this would make it massively worse. If dumped vehicles, especially, can never be removed then the possibility for residents to find themselves a place to park near their home will reduce and, in time, disappear. And although we have gates to the estate it isn't practical or feasible to have them staffed around the clock.

If you also live on such a private road please let Ms Featherstone know by using the contact form on her website, or by commenting here.

My place is small but really!

2010-08-10T14:57:37+01:00

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

My place is small but really!