The UK Government's obsession with knowing what we've done, what we're doing, and what we're planning on doing is not only intrusive but borders on the dangerous.  The Daily Telegraph reports (ID cards: taxman allowed access to personal data) that tax official will have access to data held by the ID card system.

HM Revenue and Customs staff will be able to examine people's financial transactions on the scheme's database and search for evidence of undeclared earnings or bank accounts.

The Internet seems to be abuzz with a new "natural language" search engine called WolframAlpha, widely touted as a Google-killer.  But what the heck is it, and how does it work?  More to the point, how much will it cost?

There's a video from WolframAlpha which seeks to explain it...though it looks pretty spiffy, I guess they've chosen topics they know will produce visually arresting output.   Cnet News has a useful article (Wolfram Alpha shows data in a way Google can't) featuring opinion from several users.

Sunshine and showers today...and flipping strong wind!  Intrepid as ever, I set off in good time to ride over to the race HQ in a Scout hut in Leighton Buzzard.  Unfortunately, this ride came to an abrupt halt half a mile from the house, as I suffered a front wheel puncture.  To add insult to injury, a shower passed over as I was replacing the tube!  Since this was the only spare tube I had with me, I returned home, where I pumped it up properly with the track pump and grabbed two new tubes (and, in a fit of paranoia, some preglued patches).

Off once again, with a bit less latitude in timing.  The wind was really rather strong, and was causing a bit of trouble with the front trispoke.  I was quite confident, based on pat experience, that the wheel woudn't prove too much trouble when racing (higher speed and more weight on the front).  Fortuitously, Alan "Tintin" roared by in his big 4x4 and offered me a lift over to the race HQ, an offer that I accepted after about two nanoseconds of thought.

I've had pretty good exchanges of letters and emails with my MP, Nadine Dorries over the years. While I don't share political beliefs with her, and disagree pretty fundamentally with her on a number of issues, I've found her quite responsive as an MP.

Of course, I'd been wondering when she'd get a communication from The Daily Telegraph as part of their investigation of the sleazy expense claims that MPs make - and I see from her blog that she has indeed received such a letter (Dorries Blog - The Daily Telegraph). Ms Dorries exudes a palpable sense of outrage in her response, which I suspect she wrote in a bit of a rage and in haste! It reads as though the letter was accompanied by a list of accusations, some of which would appear from her response to be errors.  The Daily Telegraph article is available online (MPs' expenses: Tory MP Nadine Dorries admits she only spends weekends and holidays in her 'main home').

The Grumpy tandem will be making its usual Scottish expedition this summer - the usual pattern is to be away for a fortnight and be cycling for about 10 days.  We typically tour in Scotland as that allows us to keep in contact with friends there.  You can read about some of our previous tours via the Cycling menu on the left of this web page (click on "Cycle Tours").

With our 2009 tour only a couple of weeks away, the grumpy tandem reckons it's about time we  firmed up our plans (we often deal with this only days before we go).  So far the plan looks like this:

After forecasting horrendous weather for today, in actual fact the conditions weren't too bad.  The wind has been coming from the east all week, which has made it rather cool.  The other consequence being that the outward leg of the event should have been pretty quick, and the return somewhat harder.

I was feeling a bit wobbly in my stomach as I lined up at the start - probably due to the excessive consumption of fried finger food at lunchtime.  It was also much colder than last week, which wasn't great.  Fortunately, I had Tony P a minute behind me, which I hoped would spur me on a bit!

The forums at nodpi.org are an extremely useful source of information on Phorm and allied aspects of internet privacy issues.  In particular, I've recently found that their coverage of the appearance of the Phorm website which aims to smear their opposition has been fun, particularly the whole "privacy pirate" schtick.  More seriously, some of the accsations on that site have proven to be untrue.  Clearly the nodpi website continues to be a thorn in the side of Phorm - I strongly recommend that broadband customers of British Telecom have a look at the discussions there.

Supporters of Phorm sometimes post on a number of discussion forums around the web, including nodpi, leave comments on articles critical of Phorm (it must be an uphill battle, as most of the articles I see on the topic seem to be critical of Phorm), etc, as it their right.  Last night it seems that a concerted assault on the nodpi forums took place, with Phorm supporters posting articles containing pornographic material and personal attacks on members. As usual, these passed me by (as I was in the land of nod), but I think it took a lot of time for the admins to clear it all up.

It's been a while since I last blogged about peer-reviewed science.  In a recent Departmental Journal Club, I discussed a paper outlining the use of transgenic RNAi in Drosophila.  In this paper, the authors utilise the power of Drosophila transgenics to use RNAi mediated gene knockdown to identify components of an important developmental signalling pathway.

In contrast to other systems, such as mammalian cell culture systems, in which RNAi mediated knockdown of gene expression is mediated by the introduction of short double-stranded RNA molecules, in Drosophila researcher use longer double stranded RNA molecules.  There are two method of using RNAi to investigate gene function in Drosophila.

This time trial is an annual event for me - and in fact Richard (the organiser) this year emailed to remind me of it!  As has so often been the case this year, it was a pretty windy day, with all the signs indicating the race would be a flyer on the outward leg, but a real grovel back to the finish.

And so it proved.  However, to backtrack slightly.  It became immediately obvious that there were real problems with my HRM bike computer.  For a start it was registering about twice my actual speed.  This was (and remains) something of a mystery.  I've checked in case it was some kind of prank played by a clubmate - but no.  I can only assume it's the transmitter on the fork blade playing up.  And to cap the dismay, the heart rate display kept leaping up to unfeasible levels, such as 228bpm.  I was using a chest transmitter unit that was really rather old, and I suspect that the battery life was pretty much expired.

The BBC reports (DNA data plan comes under fire) that the Government's wholly inadequate response to the European Court of Human Rights ruling that retention of DNA profiles of individuals who have not been convicted of an offence is attracting considerable criticism.

In response to a number of commentators' objections to the Government's plans to continue to retain these data for up to 12 years,

I have just upgraded this site's blogging software from MyBlog version 2 to version 3 (from Azrul), everything seems to be working OK, but let me know if there are any issues.  I have noticed cosmetic changes, most notably the raindrop panel on the front page, but there seem to be significant improvements in the system's functionality (this posting is mostly to see how they work!). 

This week's time trial event was the third counting event in the NBRC club time trial league, and the first of the 2009 interclub events with the A5 Rangers Cycling Club.  It was held on the F5d/10 course, based on the Stoke Hammond bypass.   At the club room, there was quite a bit of discussion of the tragic events of the previous Sunday's tragedy, and certainly it was with some trepidation that I lined up to start (particularly with the cavalcade of fast and noisy motorbikes that passed just after I started). I had chosen to ride the Cougar with a pair of Hed trispokes.

A minute in front of me was ace fast man Tim Carter, so I knew from the off that I'd not see my minute man!  The wind has been strengthening all day, and must have matched that forecast (see symbols above) - it was pretty hard at the start, with a climb into a strong headwind, sufficient to make the bike quite a handful to control  with the front trispoke seemingly determined to alternately trying to dump me into the verge then into the traffic. An added irritation was that my HRM/computer was registering completely aberrant speed details.

 xkcd on Windows 7.  Actually, I'm looking forward to seeing Windows 7 - my experiences with Vista were rather unsatisfactory.  Mind you, I'm a confirmed Ubuntu user these days...

Over at the Team Grumpy website, I've posted an article on the UCI bike regulations and how they relate to the design of time trial bikes.  At the weekend, I'll measure up my bikes to see how they fare - I expect both to need adjusting to fit the criteria, but the dreadful 1:3 rule probably rules out the handlebars on both bikes, also the front fork and seat pin on the Cougar.  Of course the main reason for this is the suggestion mooted a month or so ago on the timetrialling forum that the Duo Normand would be enforcing UCI regulation in all categories (not just the elite categories).  Whether these rumours have foundation, I don't yet know.  I suppose that formally time trials in Scotland, which are run by the BC-affiliated (and therefore UCI-affiliated) Scottish Cycling Union, ought to enforce these rules, as should the BC-CTT jointly run British Time Trial Championship.

Cycling shoes have a number of distinctive features - they generally have very stiff soles (with screw fixings to take shoe plates that clip to pedals), and often have exotic fastening systems (shoe laces are so last millennium!).  Common fastening systems include velcro straps and a variety of ratcheting designs.  Personally, I dislike velcro straps, and prefer the ratchet systems, as these are more amenable to adjustment while riding.

A couple of years ago, I bought a pair of Specialized S-Works shoes (see left), which featured a ratchet system that tightens up a criss-crossing string across the upper, and which fastens the shoe very effectively.  Unfortunately, the other day, the string snapped, leaving me to compete with a shoe held together with gaffer tape.  I disassembled the ratchet this morning and was struck by how the string resembled plaited dental floss.  I repaired the shoe with three lengths of dental floss, and it seems to have worked.  At least, it's stood up to full tightening with no sign so far of giving way!

12-15 mph NW wind - rather blustery. 

Tragedy on the F1

So, despite Home Secretary Wacky Jacqui's decision to scrap the Interception Modernisation Programme (or at least the database aspects of it), she's still desperate for the security services to get their mitts on our internet activity.

The Register today (Jacqui's secret plan to 'Master the Internet') revealed details of the grandiosely named Mastering the Internet (MTI) project, which will see GCHQ using DPI techniques to monitor internet traffic:

A very pleasant evening for the latest NBRC club event, over on the Stony Stratford course.  Following a few days for rainy weather, I chose to ride the trusty steel Cougar, which doesn't let the rain and road spray into the inner reaches of the frame (also, the saddle is a little less rigid than that on my other TT bike).  In the event, the weather was really rather pleasant - sunny and warm.  Unfortunately, of course, it also became quite breezy during the day.

By the time I arrived to sign on, at about 6.30pm, there were quite a few people milling about: I started as #17.  I got ready then rode up towards Beachampton to evaluate how the breeze would be - sure enough, it seemed as though we'd get a stiff headwind for most of the outward leg, and in particular as far as  Beachampton.

During the Beijing Olympics, I kept a tally of positive dope tests (mostly interesting from the horses that were positive - for capsaicin, as I recall).  You may recall that at the end of the Olympics, it was announced that all the samples would be re-tested for the then-new EPO derivative, CERA.

It seems the test results are now filtering out.  Cycling news.com reports that:

All go overnight on the anti-Deep Packet Inspection front.  Phorm are presumably a bit rattled by the developments of the last week (e.g. the EU action, the FOI requests that revealed that Government departments did not give Phorm their blessing, among others) - they have set up a bizarre website (stopphoulplay.com) to defend themselves against the likes of Alex Hanff and the nodpi.org crew.  This precipitated an article in the Daily Telegraph (Phorm chief labels critics 'serial agitators').

I suspect this will prove to be a collossal own-goal on Phorm's part.  There's a lengthy thread developing over at the nodpi.org forums, and you can read Alex Hanff's response (Privacy Pirates and Angry Activists).