2014 — 18 June: Wednesday
Last time we tried our Exbury walk we were defeated en route by the traffic queues to a County Show.1 Today (mid-week, not a Bank Holiday) we are more confident of being able to reach our destination within our lifetime. We shall see.
Tedious
As I listen, yet again, to one of Christa's favourite pieces of music I've been glancing at the 'molehole' server logs. They show not only some bots2 assiduously "in a manner involving great or constant activity" scouring my pages to an extent three times greater than even the mighty Google and MSN but also constant (if lower-volume) attempts to break in. People are clearly probing the various software administrative methods3 by which I assume they are still assuming molehole's web pages are constructed and served.
I was often criticised (though never by other webmasters) during my decade or so as IBM Java webmaster for my, erm, conservative approach to these tools (which were, of course, far more primitive back then) and other fads (such as frames) that came and thankfully went again. Who knew that one of the primary advantages of my being a web Neanderthal would be a relatively robust structure without actually having to give the matter much thought (or effort)? Cool.
Alas, poor Yorick
Amazing what you can find on a beach...
... there's a larger image here for the morbidly curious.
The pollen levels were pretty ghastly today. Sneeze. [Pause] And now I see that Daniel ("Flowers for Algernon") Keyes has died.
The "Regulation of Investigatory Powers" Bill...
... was examined by a House of Lords committee on 19 June 2000. It got off to a good start:
The noble Lord said: On this occasion, my leader, the noble Lord, Lord McNally, has wisely disappeared into the bushes leaving me to attempt to explain what is intended by the innocent-looking Amendment No. 63A. I say "attempt" because I make no claim of being master of my brief or of the ramifications of this extraordinarily complicated measure. Like many noble Lords, I am extremely grateful for the help given by the Foundation for Information and Policy Research in general and in particular on this clause. Mr Caspar Bowden deserves special mention in despatches. However, at this moment I am bound to say that I wonder whether the messenger is up to the task of delivering the purport. The purport is important. It will help me and, I believe, Members of the Committee if I explain the background to Amendment No. 63A. As I understand it, the Bill provides a series of checks and balances for the citizen and companies against attempts by the state to extract information from them according to the particular needs set out in the Bill.
Mr Bowden had helped brief (a largely-empty) House of our noble Lords, and GCHQ duly went on to get the power to intercept what it wanted. A fact apparently not reported except in Hansard.
The BBC is now gently digging at this little pickle because our chief spook (I wonder how many such we employ?) asserts his merry gang of GCHQ snoopers can snoop away at Google, Facebook and web-based email within the UK without specific warrants simply because some of the packets of info flow to or from the UK on their digital way to or from the computers that host these widely-used services. (Link.)
In fact, it's not quite as simple as that. (It never is, is it?) Mr Chief Spook goes into quite some detail (starting at Section IV, para 126) in his "open witness" statement. I don't fancy his job, I have to admit.
I decided...
... to read through the info on Directors' Remuneration before casting my vote at the AGM of my latest bank (which is actually a building society). <Sigh> Flipping heck! These guys know how to reward themselves. In general, they need only work a year or two at the most to receive more than my lifetime4 earnings.
I also decided...
... to connect the 60" Kuro plasma screen temporarily to the new graphics card just to take it for a little spin. All seemed well, but I won't be using this connection. I simply don't need it.
Nearly forgot: we were buzzed by a Spitfire a couple of times as we left the vicinity of Lepe country park after our pause for a snack lunch. Merlins make an unmistakeable noise.