Well, I have taken the decision to switch to a new web hosting company.  The repeated "500 internal server error" events (which included about 12h solid early this week), coupled with totally inadequate response for the "technicians" at my current hosting company have swung my decision to act.  By totally inadequate, I mean that I received a prompt "cut and paste" response on 13th July, and not a whisper since.

I'll migrate the site as soon as I can make a backup of the database and files.  Unfortunately, this probably means the site will be moribund for a few days.  This affects both the main Flies & Bikes site and the Wonderful Life blog.

It was rather wet when I set off from this house in the morning, and while the weather dried up, the rather strong wind did not moderate appreciably.  A modest field of 13 riders was possibly due to it being holiday season.  The strong wind was blowing almost directly in our faces at the start, and so made it hard on the ride up to the dual carriageway section - at times I was well below 20 mph, though having the rider in front getting closer was a bit of a carrot.  Once up on the dual carriageway, the bike was a bit twitchy at times to the turn (I was riding the Hed trispokes). 

As usual the lovely smooth surface on the new road made things easier, and in particular, the return leg was pretty quick, and I finished with 23:31, which must be one of my better times on this course.

Apologies for the intermittent service over the last 24 hours.  I appear to be having database issues, which I'm trying to rectify.  I'd expect access to the site to be a bit flaky for the next day or so until I can get this fixed.

This video on how to unpeel a banana the correct way (the method used by monkeys) has popped up on a number of atheist-inclined websites (for the explanation, see PZ Myers' blog at Pharyngula).  I can confirm that the method works, even when steering a tandem.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJV56WUDng 425x344]

One of the issues that face those of us with research interests in the biology of ageing is the selection of a model system - and how well that model reflects the biology of ageing in humans.  The two main invertebrate models (the fruit fly Drosophila and the nematode worm C. elegans) have major advantages in their powerful genetics and short lifespan, but of course do differ from vertebrates in significant aspects of their biology.  The difficulty in studying primates lies in no small part in the length of lifepan - in the case of Rhesus macaques studied here, average lifespan is 27 years, so conducting a complete experiment in this system is likely to be a career-long endeavour.

One of the much investigated interventions known to extend lifespan is caloric restriction - this has been shown to be effective in several systems.  This paper reports the results (20 years in) of a research project started in 1989 to investigate the impact of caloric restriction on the

The weather broke a few days before this event - this came as something of a relief for me, as I find the hot and humid conditions we've had recently as something of a trial.  I got a little damp riding down to work (I usually ride to club events directly from work), but the temperature was nice at around 13 degrees C, with only a gentle wind. 

This club event is the North Bucks time trial championship.  Last year I had trouble with the seat pin slipping on my Planet X frame - this year I rode the steel-framed Cougar, with its guaranteed "no-slip" aero carbon seat pin.  In fact, it's more than "no-slip", it's usually "no-budge", at least when servicing the bike.  As it turned out this was the least of my troubles.

The BBC reports (Google to launch operating system) that Google will release an operating system aimed at netbooks in 2010. I particularly like the HAL9000-like logo (see picture). There's a collection of media comments on this development, mostly commenting on the threat to Windows.

Of course, netbooks kicked off with a focus on Linux as their OS, until MS realised they'd committed a strategic blunder and moved to "suggest" to the PC manufacturers that they ought to use Windows XP, which miraculously had its lifetime extended (though this may have been in part due to the poor reception of Vista and its capacity to gobble up computer resources). So forgive me for being a little sceptical that the Chrome OS will unseat Windows in the netbook market (but I would be delighted to be proven wrong - we certainly need a more competitive OS marketplace).

In a brief article in The Guardian (Consumers will see benefits - The case for Phorm), Guy Phillipson and Nick Stringer the chief executive and head of regulatory affairs respectively at the Internet Advertising Bureau attempt to make the case for Phorm.  Of course, they are (in my opinion) slightly economical with the truth in that the objections of the "Privacy Pirates"* over at nodpi.org lies not with targeted advertising, but with the probably illegal interception of internet traffic via deep packet inspection.  The objections focus largely on privacy issues, on copyright issues (making copies of web pages without authorisation), and on legality (e.g. interception of communication).

It would seem that the EU share the objectors' concerns having repeatedly requested the UK Government to respond to their concerns about internet privacy.  Unfortunately HMG won't release their response to Commisioner Reding.  Messrs Phillipson and Stringer believe that Phorm have signed up to the AIB's principles of good practice.  But how sure can the consumer be where Phorm is concerned, given its past identity as 121media?

According to The Times (Phorm stranded as BT and Carphone pull plug on online 'spying' technology), Carphone Warehouse, who's TalkTalk subsidiary were one of the ISPs lining up to use Phorm's invasive DPI technology, have now decided to fall into line an announce they would likewise not implement it.  BT's role as the market leader is evident:

After BT's move, Charles Dunstone, head of Carphone Warehouse, said: "We were only going to do it if BT did it and if the whole industry was doing it. We were not interested enough to do it on our own."

As part of its authoritarian stance on everything the public do, the UK Government has set its sights on controlling ingress and egress across our borders, via the notorious 53 Questions that travellers will need to supply answers to before being allowed to travel.  This whole e-Borders shenanigans is projected to cost the UK Border Agency £1.3bn over the next 10 years.  And with the responsibility for collecting the data falling on the transport companies (ferry companies and airlines for example), it it likely that the traveller will have to cough up for the system, at least in part.  And of course, there is th issue that this applies to travel from the UK mainland to the Isle of Wight, making passports a requirement for internal travel.

Here's a list of the 53 pieces of information they will demand from us (courtesy of the Daily Mail)