Posts by David Pollard

Pharmacist caught spying on friends' med records fined £1,000

Conspiracy?

Is conspiracy to inspect patient records also a criminal offence?

European Commission decides it won't have a science advisor after Greenpeace pressure

With a track record including the Fipronil tests

In 1997 the EU funded a programme to control locusts in Madagascar using Fipronil, a pesticide for which field trials were needed before it could be sold in the lucrative American market. Apparently there didn't actually seem to be any major problem with locusts at the time, though a great deal of harm was done to wildlife by the tests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/806641.stm

Perhaps the EU record of impartiality in the field of plant science really is a bit tarnished.

Poll trolls' GCHQ script sock puppets manipulate muppets

Isn't this ...?

Does the Behavioural Insights Team, a.k.a. the Nudge Unit, go in for this sort of thing? Their Wiki entry makes fascinating reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_Insights_Team

UK PM Cameron says Internet must not 'be an ungoverned space'

... being more proactive in taking down this harmful material

Perhaps he should set his own house in order first, by having a word with whoever looks after UK government internet security. A trivial Google search with [site:gov.uk paypal viagra}, for example, brings up a slew of hacked sites advertising all manner of stuff. There seem to be quite a few hacks of NHS sites too.

ITU thought bubble ponders mass mobe-tracking to kill fake IT

Re: I find it fascinating...

My interest is more like horror than fascination. As the article notes, "the technologies mentioned hinted at a desire to identify and track [all] devices that touch a network."

Maybe counterfeits don't provide such easy access for the system controllers.

NHS: Go digital or you won't get paid, warns Kelsey

Be recorded or you won't get treated?

Is this an early hint of plans to use Care.Data to save the NHS money?

'Chinese hackers' pop US weather bureau, flatten forecast feeds

Re: The first lesson in network security ...

Is there any way to get the people building Care.Data to realise this?

My HOUSE used to be a PUB: How to save the UK high street

Is there room for workshops and small businesses?

One of the changes in recent decades has been that small workshops in towns and cities are being closed and converted to housing. Where are the electricians, plumbers, carpenters, builders and handymen, furniture makers and restorers ... or even small offices and computer shops? They are now mostly expensive and a few miles away. It's generally hard to start a small business because premises are hard to get, business rates are high, and there are swathes of regulations.

Regulations and planning, among other factors, have forced a change towards business on the trading estate, shopping in the shopping centres, and people in dormitory zones when they are not working or shopping..

To my way of thinking this move towards cold efficiency is sterile, and loses much of the vitality that is is seen in more integrated environments.

Most convincing PHISHING pages hoodwink nearly half of you – Google

Re: For a particular value of 'you'.

It should be obvious when a phishing page arrives ... but for some reason many people don't notice.

Maybe the Invisible Gorilla phenomenon explains why we often don't see something that should be obvious. It happens to all of us some on the time.

http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html

Has Switzerland cracked the net neutrality riddle?

Re: To my simple brain, the issue is quite simple

It's not just the volume of data, it's also the rate at which it needs to flow. The 3 GB iso download could often be done at off-peak times or could tolerate patches of reduced rate. Movies need an uninterrupted flow.

'Tech giants who encrypt comms are unwittingly aiding terrorists', claims ex-Home Sec Blunkett

And what does it tell y'all ?

That the article is actually a cunningly disguised piece of Tory PR in anticipation the forthcoming election, designed to pre-emptively spike any attempts by ReNew Labour to bang the Law and Order drum and thereby grab a bundle of votes ?

Cameron Diaz covers top boffins in gold at Breakthrough Prizes

Publication too?

It's all very well having a show-biz spectacle which promotes science to the masses, but how about something a bit like Mark Abrahams' Improbable Science or Edge.org's New Year Questions. Quite a few of the winners would appreciate an opportunity to explain their work to a general audience.

Perhaps to accompany this prize-giving there could be a lecture set and a collection of articles where the recipients explain something of the work behind each prize. Low-budget lectures might not suit everyone, but it would be better than Horizon.

NHS XP patch scratch leaves patient records wide open to HACKERS

A Conspiracy Theory

This is all deliberate. The plan is to have lots and lots of medical data leaked and to be able to pass the buck and blame someone else; in this case Microsoft who lots of people hate anyway. Then when it comes to questions about the new Care.Data database no one will have anything to lose.

Icon because the alternative it to cry.

Brit cops nab six in Silk Road 2.0 drugs sting

brain usually gets damaged

I know a couple of people who have managed to overcome their alcohol addiction, at least for a while. There appears to be a certain amount of recovery over a period of a few months, but like others who have over-used this drug I fear their may be some permanent impairment of mental capacity. Alcohol is not terribly safe, especially if used on a regular basis.

Amazon: Put our ALWAYS ON MICROPHONE in your house, please. WHAT?

Re: This is bad but inevitable - "trojan horse"

Shouldn't that be Trojan House ?

GP records soon wide open again: Just walk into a ‘safe haven’

Too late to change to a distributed database?

Perhaps the way to make care.data more acceptable would be to change the order of collation and analysis, by pre-processing queries at the local level, at the GP surgery, clinic or hospital, and then sending in the statistical results securely to build up the complete picture. In most cases the pre-processed data would be truly anonymous rather than being in the form of records 'anonymised' and tagged for central collation.

Rather than creating an extra copy of all data to be collated in an additional large and potentially vulnerable central database this alternative approach would use only the presently held distributed data. Security would be much greater. There would be much less likelihood of loss, theft, malfeasance, system creep or covert access.

In addition the uses to which the data was being put would be open to inspection. This aspect could even be enhanced with appropriate choice of query language so that queries would be reasonably easy to interpret, perhaps for comment in the public domain.

The gain in accountability and consequently in public trust would be immense. And none of the benefits that are being claimed for the centralised system would be lost.

Rovnix Trojan infection outbreak infects 130,000 machines in Blighty

Re: In many years of using Windows ...

"Do so many people really click on the links ?"

Enough!

UK.gov mulls what to do about digital currencies

Around £60m worth are circulating

Does this mean that the EU paymasters will be increasing their demand, or has it already been included in estimates of the hidden economy?

New GCHQ spymaster: US tech giants are 'command and control networks for terror'

Calling NHS techies

It would be interesting to know if or to what extent there are plans to integrate medical records from the NHS Care Data programme into the spooks' databanks. As background information this would presumably be quite valuable to them.

In fact such central collation of personal data and snooping would do more harm than good, and not only because of the loss of public confidence. It would present a huge risk if such data were to become available for blackmail, coercion and spear fishing.

If any NHS contractors have inside knowledge of this, or plans to redeploy a version of the Child Database, or development of Deloite's RYOGENS programme for predictive policing of potential troublemakers, then I believe El Reg is among others who have set up facilities for secure and anonymous communication.

Data protection laws come to the rescue of poor, underpaid UK MPs

Inland Revenue rules

OK it's HMR&C these days, this isn't quite the same as a tax return, and there's something of a conflict between the more stringent requirements of public service and the necessary flexibilities of parliamentary privilege ... but .. if you don't have the paperwork to back up your tax return then you have to prove that their estimates of what has occurred is wrong.

Bona-fide science: Which forms of unusual sex are mainstream?

Masters and Johnson ...

... certainly set a trend with their 'work' in the 1950s.

And they managed both to get paid and to stay within the law.

UN: Fossil fuels should be terminaated 86 years from now

Re: Hydrogen?

Scale of human meat consumption, graphically illustrated:

http://xkcd.com/1338/

BIGGEST THREAT to Europe’s cybersecurity? Hint: not hackers

NHS care data

It would be interesting to know how much of a threat the theft of data from the projected NHS database might present, if indeed this is among the 2,000 cyber-threats being considered.

The direct costs, perhaps requiring a re-issue of all NHS numbers, and a deal of chaos in treatments, could be substantial. Maybe the greater threat would be from opportunities for blackmail and coercion and the opening up of opportunities for spear fishing.

Given that the main benefit from the database is supposed to be from statistical use of data collated nation-wide, could this not be achieved with pre-processing at a local level and with truly anonymous statistics sent securely from individual practices, clinics and hospitals? This would obviate the requirement for a potentially vulnerable central store of records.

OK Google, do I have CANCER?

Re: Aaargh.

Is it applicable to homeopathic diagnosis?

Perhaps there is a previously undiscovered aspect of Moore's Law here.

Doctors urged to adopt default opt-out approach to care.data scheme

Re: explaining the benefits and risks of data sharing

In order to recover from a large theft of data, South Korea may need to issue new national identity numbers to each of its 50 million citizens.

http://www.zdnet.com/zero-day-weekly-drupal-disaster-poodle-ebola-phishing-scams-7000034741/

On the basis of various precedents it seems not all that unlikely that the UK health summary database will at some stage be hacked or otherwise compromised. Although personal health records are to be 'anonymised' they are uniquely indexed by NHS number.

What would be the cost, both in financial terms and as a health cost, if an event similar to the hack which recently hit Korea meant that all NHS numbers had to be re-issued? What is the likelihood this occurring during, say, the next ten years?

Scientists skeptical of Lockheed Martin's truck-sized fusion reactor breakthrough boast

Re: Daft article

In one of the comments just a short way back there's a chap who's putting his DeLorean into the garage. Maybe that's the way to have done it.

South Korea faces $1bn bill after hackers raid national ID database

Maybe when they've sorted this out ....

... they might be persuaded to come to the UK for a while to explain to the people responsible for the NHS how large databases can give rise to large problems.

Wide-ranging UK DATA SHARING moves one step closer

NHS care.data

Other than that there will be a number of regional centres rather than a single database, it looks as though little has changed.

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2374495/nhs-england-to-forge-ahead-with-unchanged-caredata-plans

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/07/care-data-patient-information-accredited-safe-havens

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/records/healthrecords/Pages/care-data.aspx

"Your date of birth, full postcode, NHS Number and gender rather than your name will be used to link your records in a secure system, managed by the HSCIC. Once this information has been linked, a new record will be created. This new record will not contain information that identifies you."

Tesla's Elon Musk shows the world his D ... and it's a monster

Re: Charging issues? Range?

Petroleum products account for about 36% of UK energy consumption, which comes to something like 54 mtoe (million tons oil equivalent) per year. Electricity consumption at 27 mtoe/yr is about half this.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/337452/ecuk_chapter_1_overall_factsheet.pdf

Off-peak and surplus capacity for electricity looks to be somewhat less than half of total capacity.

http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

So it looks as though at best the UK's presently available electricity generating capacity would provide for less than a quarter of our transport needs.

Hinkley Point will not be enough.

Antarctic ice at all time high: We have more to learn, says boffin

Re: @beat666 Meanwhile, in earlier news ...

Wattsup is indeed enlightening:

“I have a problem with the widespread implication (in the popular press) that the West Antarctic collapse can be attributed to anthropogenic climate change,” said Mike Wolovik

...

“I’m not an atmospheric scientist, so I can’t evaluate the strength of all of those linkages.”

How come they aren't screaming 'No Need To Panic'?

Maybe the researchers who have been looking at this are wondering about the relationship between increases in winter sea ice and the droughts that have been seriously affecting large areas of Australia in recent decades.

Trolls are apparently endemic there too.

http://watchingthedeniers.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics-how-australias-denial-movement-cant-read-a-map/

Re: Meanwhile, in earlier news ...

... slight mistake there ... I should have written 'West Antarctic Ice Sheet'. Here's a direct link to the NASA research.

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/may/nasa-uci-study-indicates-loss-of-west-antarctic-glaciers-appears-unstoppable/#.VA9Ug0sV3pg

Meanwhile, in earlier news ...

... it very much looks as though the West Australian ice sheet will continue unabated its gradual slide into the ocean.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/12/western-antarctic-ice-sheet-collapse-has-already-begun-scientists-warn

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/science/earth/collapse-of-parts-of-west-antarctica-ice-sheet-has-begun-scientists-say.html

Britain’s snooping powers are 'too weak', says NCA chief

"The only thing he ever got right"?

Ted Heath also conducted a trial for the 'Age of Leisure'. The three day week was quite successful, though for some reason it never quite caught on.

'Cops and public bodies BUNGLE snooping powers by spying on 3,000 law-abiding Brits'

Pulse today ...

... seems keen on locking me out from that link. This is similar article from the Grauniad:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/06/police-backdoor-access-nhs-health-records

Policing by consent

One of the main reason why the UK has fairly low rates of crime is because there is a good deal of public co-operation. It's a shame to see this co-operation and acceptance of policing being eroded.

The nine principles of good policing are just as valid as they were almost two centuries ago: Perhaps plod could be encouraged to bear them in mind.

http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/policeNine.php

POISON PI sniffs WiFi from your mail room, goes on rampage

Beware of geeks bearing gifts

I'll get my ...

EFF: Cops' spyware for parents is insecure – and a fat waste of money

Re: The EFF uses Wireshark on Windows XP to do its packet sniffing?

Well spotted. But isn't this typical of installations actual users might have?

Want to see the back of fossil fuels? Calm down, hippies. CAPITALISM has an answer

Re: Tim's hopes for solar and wind are doomed

Thanks for reminding me about bravenewclimate.com. The linked article is first rate.

@ledswinger

CHP boilers don't use the 8% waste heat from boilers. They generate electricity directly from the fuel, then the leftover energy from the heat engine is used for heating; the electricity is is more 'valuable' than heat. Typically the thermal efficiency of the grid is around 40% so electricity is worth 2.5 times as much as heat.

A really good CHP generator will provide maybe 30% of its output as electricity, the rest is supplied as useful heat and a bit of waste. Assuming that the waste is the same at 8%, it would provide 62% of input energy as heat and 30% as electricity which is 'worth' 75%, thus giving an equivalent combined output of 137% rather than 92%.

Similar sums suggest that there might be something to be gained from heating houses using nuclear electricity with a heat pump.

iPAD-FONDLING fanboi sparks SECURITY ALERT at Sydney airport

Head in the clouds

Coat.

GRAV WAVE DRAMA: 'Big Bang echo' may have been grit on the scanner – boffins

Ontological Insecurity

There's a conundrum: If the universe has always existed, then how did it start? Alternatively, if it started with the big bang then what came before it?

Everyday logic doesn't work too well with this sort of problem and many people have recourse to an act of faith in order to quieten their brains, jumping either to some or other religion or to reductionism.

Special pleading against mass surveillance won't help anyone

Re: Hmmmm time for an u-turn

Technology brings unprecedented opportunities for snooping, and misuse of surveillance is undesirable whoever does it. When public authorities act unaccountably, however, the logic of the situation encourages others to do the same.

To a large extent in the UK we have policing by consent. If this is to continue, public servants in the judicial system must be and be seen to be whiter than white, whatever crimes the rest of us commit.

It's not only whistleblowers who are investigated

Dr Waney Squier, a paediatric neuropathologist, acted as an expert witness for a good many years. In the face of emerging research she changed her views, disputing mainstream opinion which she thought could lead to miscarriages of justice. This seems to have gone down rather badly with the police.

"... Det Insp Colin Welsh, then of the Met’s child abuse investigation command, was reported to have suggested police would investigate such experts and report them to their professional bodies 'to see if we turn up anything'."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/11094379/Shaken-baby-expert-faces-witch-hunt.html

Freshly uploaded EU digi-Czar is CLUELESS ON TECH but it's no big deal, says Steelie Neelie

Clueless on tech

When did lack of experience and understanding ever preclude political appointments in areas which properly require it?

THE DEATH OF ECONOMICS: Aircraft design vs flat-lining financial models

Why the engines on an airliner are set forward

The wings are flexed by gusts in both directions; that's why you can see them moving up and down during flight. And they are made flexible in order to take the strain. By analogy, this would go to show why floating currencies are better than the euro.

The forward mounting of the engines is not to balance upwards gusts. If this were so it would make downward gusts worse. Downdrafts can be very strong and are by no means uncommon. Where balance is needed is that at all times when the wing is generating lift drag from the faster movement of air over the upper surface generates torque on the wing as well as lift.

I don't know whether aircraft designers would be good at economics, but after reading this article I'd now have serious reservations about going in an aeroplane where an economist had anything to do with the design.

Damien Hirst, eat your heart out - these guys chop up TAXIS

London catching up as usual?

In 1969, or was it '68, clothes and accessories vendor Granny Takes a Trip had half a car sticking out from their shop window onto the pavement on the King's Road.

Archaeologists and robots on hunt for more Antikythera pieces

Heliocentric vs Epicyclic Models

Occasionally I've wondered that the epicyclic celestial model might be more useful. It's all very well to know that the planets all move in more or less exact ellipses around the sun, but then how do you calculate how the fixed stars and the other planets will appear at any given time when seen from a rotating body itself moving on an elliptical path?

The use of epicycles might well be the most practical approach to producing a picture of the sky at a given time and place in the future.

Sun's MASSIVE solar storm belch to light up Earth's skies

[It] would likely destroy the US electrical grid

What I'd read about this some years ago was that the problem comes from slowly changing currents being induced in loops in the grid. In 60 Hz transformers this is more or less like DC and it biases them into saturation with the result that they overheat. The solution is to ensure that no long distance loops are connected for the duration of the particle shower.

Are there other ways in which the solar storm can do damage, or is the 'destroy the grid' claim scare-mongering?

Smart meters in UK homes will only save folks a lousy £26 a year

Indoor greenhouses

Someone probably told a few MPs and the like that by monitoring usage patterns with smart meters it would be possible to detect when people are going in for bit of home grown.