When Animals Fight

It's amazing what lunchtime discussions at work lead to. Bob's Animal Fights will answer that perennial question of whether a giant panda could beat a mako shark in a fight, or how killer bees would fare against a hippopotamus.

Correction

Okay, I don't know what I'm talking about. SpaceShipOne's flight on Monday was not an X Prize attempt -- it didn't have the extra two-bods-worth of ballast. Apparently there was also a systems problem that needs fixing before the X Prize runs can happen. Still, even with a systems failure, the 100km target was reached, followed by a safe landing.

The Penultimate Frontier

Today was the day that SpaceShipOne, piloted by Mike Melvill completed its first flight outside the earth's atmosphere to become the first privately funded manned spacecraft. If the feat can be repeated within a fortnight, the X Prize can be claimed. This is one of the coolest (in a geeky sort of way) things I can remember happening -- and the spacecraft and launch vehicle look amazingly cool too.

It's interesting that this project was funded largely by Paul Allen, who seems to have devoted his life to using his money in a way that so many geeks would want to -- I understand he also footed the bill for a reproduction Babbage difference engine. Kudos, Paul.

Part of Europe

Today is "Super Thursday", when we have the European elections and a number of UK regional elections (though not near us). Four areas of the UK are trialling compulsory postal voting and putting the our democratic process in the hands of a company who failed to meet any of its targets over the last year. Ho hum.

I'm torn over my vote. I sympathise primarily with the LibDems (am generally pro-Europe, electoral reform, funding of public services, etc) but am strongly considering the Green party, largely due to their position against software patents, a massive blow against innovation getting ready to be struck.

Cookie Translation

<3 returned from a trip to a conference in Madrid yesterday, avoiding the delays due to the failure of a NATS computer, and bearing some delicious Spanish biscuits withe the brand Gamito. In the box came a slip of paper written in both Spanish and English, and here I am proud to reproduce, as accurately as I am able, the delightful English text...

INFORMATION TO CONSUMER You have adquired the traditional chritsmast's sweets, from Estepa (Seville), one of the typical spanish sweet. Their taste is exceptional. They are made of select natural ingredients: wheat's flour, sugar, Clyan's cinnamon, nuts, ...,. TASTING: Opress it with your hand.
Take off paper and eat it. Thank you for your election and bon appétit.

Postcards from Abu Ghraib

Strewth! The Register is reknowned for in-your-face tech journalism, a kind of Geek Tabloid, but it does stay focussed on technology, its applications, and the people involved. But now it seems their remit has been extended somewhat, as Thomas Greene delivers a vitriolic off-topic rant about US human rights abuses in Iraq.

Missing LINC

I finished Beneath a Steel Sky the other day, though I must admit to accepting a little help from my friends in the dieing scenes -- I can't believe I hadn't spotted those tongs! :o)

Biometrics in Someone Else's Words

A short column from last week's Private Eye (issue 1106), which impressed me (they don't publish online, so I've taken a liberty):

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Ten questions for home secretary David Blunkett about his proposed new biometric identity cards.

If, as seems likely, fingerprints are the chosen biometric, how will they be read? At airports, fingerprint scanners are feasible; but what about at ferry ports and the channel tunnel? Imagine the queues if every car exiting every ferry has to disgorge its occupants who then have to queue to have their fingers read. And what about Eurostar trains?

How will a UK national biometric ID card scheme protect us against al Qaeda members travelling on, say, legitimate Algerian passports or members of the Real IRA with Irish passports? Biometric ID systems would have stopped neither the Twin Towers attacks nor the bombs in Madrid.

How will the home office establish an applicant's true identity before issuing a new, "foolproof" ID card?

If the answer to question 3) is "by showing an existing form of ID such as a passport", how will the home office avoid falling for existing bogus IDs?

Who is going to pay for this and where does the home office figure of £3.1bn come from? The answer to the first question is "you are" and to the second, "out of thin air".

Who will have access to the data stored on the card and, for that matter, what information will be stored?

What will people with no fingers do at border crossings or, if iris-scanning is used, what will people with glass eyes do?

The government has a pisspoor record on hi-tech forms of ID. Consider the ridiculous, two-part driving license. The only reason we have to have a sheet of paper as well as a card is pecause Whitehall, under previous management, was too stupid and parsimonious to do the job properly and incorporate the information on a magnetic strip. If the government finds the technology of a supermarket loyalty card daunting, what chance has it with complex and sophisticated biometric ID cards?

Will Crapita be involved?

'Boffin'

For the most part, "like what he said".

Beneath an Irish Sky

We returned from a trip to see the in-laws in Ireland yesterday. Just a short trip, long enough to unwind nicely in the countryside.

While over there I spend a while playing around on my laptop and got distracted from the more serious business of learning to program in Perl by Beneath a Steel Sky, an old graphical adventure game ported to run under Linux via SCUMM VM. This is quite an engaging little game, which I think I am approaching the end of. I worry that this endangers my credentials as someone who shies away from computer games more involved than Freecell or Shisen-Sho.

Management

Just so I could find it again, I wanted to safely stow a link to a great parody of Poe's The Raven supplied t'other day by a buddy I don't often see these days.