Staying neutral...

PC World reports that Scott Cleland of Precursor LLC released a report last week claiming that Google uses 21 times more bandwidth than it pays for. Facts like this are used to argue for an end to net neutrality, but maybe there's a better way.

Put simply, an end to net neutrality would mean that people pay more the more bandwidth they use. This at first sight seems fair enough, but isn't it like saying that if you make more calls on your mobile phone, you'll be charged more? And what about if your web site becomes popular through no fault of your own and becomes "slashdotted"? What if you're the victim of low level botnet attack designed to bankrupt you through increased ISP bandwidth charges? Has no one considered this may be a vulnerability waiting to happen?

It's probably also worth speculating here that an end to net neutrality might potentially even see people being charged more by their ISPs for receiving more spam than average. It's improbable, but certainly possible.

So, perhaps rather than abandoning net neutrality to charge the likes of Google more due to its success, maybe it would be better to give such companies tax breaks for investing in companies that provide bandwidth in the first place so that they can in turn create more bandwidth. That way, everyone wins.

"...one giant leap for bearkind"

More proof, if proof be needed, that teddy bears are superior to humans. The BBC reports that four bears have become the first Teddynauts following their historic 2-hour sub-orbital flight aboard a helium weather balloon.

The bears took off from Cambridge University's Spaceflight centre and travelled 30km to the edge of space as part of the Nova 9 mission. There are some great pictures on the mission web site, the curvature of the Earth clearly visible behind them. Bears are natureally curious about space and one of the crew seems to have removed his helmet to get a better view of things. To get home, the bears had to wait for a lack of atmospheric pressure to burst the balloon before they could parachute safely back to Earth, landing near Ipswich.

Putting teddies in space might sound frivolous, but it's all in aid of serious science. The plan is to use a similar technique to enable a satellite to be put into orbit for about £1000. Using a rocket, getting into space from the ground is an expensive and dangerous undertaking, but launching a payload from from a balloon already touching the void is far easier.

Davenport Lyons...

Well, well... The Register reports that Atari has ended its association with attack dogs Davenport Lyons. Could this be because, like other companies are discovering, the idea of sending nastygrams to people who really shouldn't be allowed out on the internet isn't so good - or profitable.

In an undated press release on Davenport Lyons' web site, David Gore, a partner at the firm, says: “Illegal file-sharing is a very serious issue resulting in millions of pounds of losses to copyright owners. As downloading speeds and Internet penetration increase, this continues to be a worldwide problem across the media industry which increasingly relies on digital revenues. The damages and costs ordered by the Court are significant and should act as a deterrent. This shows that taking direct steps against infringers is an important and effective weapon in the battle against online piracy.”

The problem is, if law firms keep going for the technically incompetent without stopping to think about the ways in which they may have become unwitting P2P peers through infection, the bad publicity generated means this deterrent becomes increasingly meaningless as more people come forward to challenge their nastygrams. For example, by typing "Davenport Lyons" into Google, I found this thread on a consumer action forum suggesting ways to bog down such actions and otherwise fight back.

It can only be a matter of time before an employee of Davenport Lyons is found to be unwittingly illegally sharing files. As I said in October, the way forward is protection of the innocent from themselves, not their prosecution. That requires technology they can't forget to install or update. The ideal situation is Microsoft putting anti malware protection in the Windows kernel. Great idea, you'd think, but there's now a huge anti-virus industry predicated on them not doing so. It's my guess that not only is this a situation that won't go away, it'll get worse.

Zimbabwe on 18p a day...

The Guardian is reporting that the Zimbabwean army has for the first time rioted.

The report quotes a soldier who (for the pretty obvious reason that he wouldn't last long otherwise) wished to remain anonymous: "We have no food in the barracks. There is no medication in military hospitals, and we cannot access our money in the banks. Even if people are to riot, there would be no enthusiasm to stop them."

The Zimbabwean army has stopped feeding all but senior ranks. Desertions have nearly halved it's size from 40,000 to 26,000. Those who remain cannot get at their money simply because there aren't enough bank notes to go around. The law says you can withdraw a maximum of Z$500,000 a day - that's just 18p (about US$0.09).

Mugabe is capable of complete self-deception. He's a brutal man running a brutal regime. The reason for that brutality is power; when his power goes, he's a dead man and he knows it. So, he has to rely on those he can still afford to pay. When there's no one left to rely on , it'll be over for him, and that can only be a good thing.

It's been noted many times that if South Africa cuts electricity to Zimbabwe (it supplies pretty much all of it), Mugabe's stranglehold would be gone within a week and the country could begin to breathe again. It's also worth noting that this hasn't happened. You have to ask why.

Arduino pet robot head taking shape...

My ideas for an Arduino-based pet robot are slowly taking shape in spare minutes. I have a basic movement-based vision system up and running.

At the moment, it has basic (LDR-based) stereo light input, which feeds a weird real-time event integrator algorithm and some associated data structures - one per sensor. These feed a further algorithm which calculates the position data being sent to a servo upon which the two LDRs are mounted (revolving left and right in the the Y axis). The act of turning this "head" servo to indicate captured attention creates new input data itself, leading to complex feedback.

The whole thing is designed to produce nothing more controlled than emergent behaviour. For example, I never told it that if I sweep my hand in front of the sensors from left to right, the head should turn to follow it. Nor did I tell it that if I sweep my hand the other way the head should follow. For a laugh, I mounted the device in front of the computer's monitor, set the wallpaper to black and moved a small white window around. The head followed it, slowly losing interest when it stopped. I placed the device in front of a TV and let it track moving objects. It's weird to watch the head suddenly take an interest in things. At some point, I'll post a video.

The next phase is to add more LDRs to resolve movement in more detail, followed by a second servo to control the head's X axis (sothat it can look up and down), but already this project is getting very interesting.

The silent treatment...

He he.... do you get a lot of those "silent" phone calls from cold callers? Want to stop them permanently? Here's how. It takes a couple of months for them to stop, but I've done it, it's a lot of fun, and it worked for me.

You receive a silent call. Don't hang up. Every few seconds, keep inquiring, "Hello?" When someone eventually takes the call, keep on asking "Hello?", "Is there anyone there?" "Speak to me." etc. Never be tempted to make any noise other than you trying to hear a reply.

Basically, you're making it appear that there's no sound at your end - even if there's some background noise at your end. Sometimes, the other party will begin again. At other times they'll start again but louder. But the funniest for me is when they begin shouting to see if it clears the line. Have fun. Try asking: "Is this a dirty phone call? Eventually, the caller gives up and marks you down as a trouble maker. Do it a few times and the calls miraculously stop.

Sticking in the boot...

The Daily Mail: it just can't allow anyone their moment in the sun, can it? There always has to be a nasty, pointless little dig. Take the story about Rachel Riley, about to take over from Carol Vorderman on Countdown.

The main online headline is "Rachel Riley's Countdown to 'the coolest maths job in the world'. It's a feel good story of what can happen if you work hard and do your best, have a great personality and are universally liked. But look at the sidebar on the right of the page and there's different slant on the story:

"Countdown girl says it's the coolest job in the world... not surprising when you're getting £100k and still living with your parents. Rachel Riley is just 22."

So what if she's getting £100k for doing sums on telly. That's her job. So what if she's 22 and living at home? Those are her circumstances. Why is the Daily Mail trying to get its readership to think less of her remarkable achievement? Go to a newsagent on any given day. You'll discover that this is the Daily Mail's job. It's a nasty, selfish, mean-minded job.