A story that surfaced in TalkTalk forums a while back, and more recently in the Phoenix Broadband Advisory Community and the No DPI forums has now come to the attention of The Register (TalkTalk turns StalkStalk to build malware blocker).  This one's interesting - under the guise of harvesting URLs for future malware protection TalkTalk have been following their clients around the web.  El Reg:

It's less TalkTalk, more StalkStalk: the UK's second largest ISP has quietly begun following its customers around the web and scanning what they look at for a new anti-malware system it is developing.Without telling customers, the firm has switched on the compulsory first part of the system, which is harvesting lists of the URLs every one of them visits. It often then follows them to the sites to scan for threats.[...]The new system is provided by Chinese vendor Huawei, and customers can't opt out of the data collection exercise. As they browse the web, URLs are recorded and checked against a blacklist of sites known to carry malware. They are also compared to a whitelist of sites that have been scanned for threats and approved in the last 24 hours.If a URL appears on neither list, Huawei servers follow the user to the page and scan the code. According to measurements by webmasters, the TalkTalk stalker servers show up between about 30 seconds and two minutes after TalkTalk subscribers.

Isn't this clear copyright violation?  On guy in the PABC forums has requested the TalkTalk cease visiting his sites: they have refused to stop doing this, claiming they "reserve our rights to check your site for the protection of our users".It would seem that the URL harvesting takes quite a bit of information along with it.  TalkTalk claim that their crawler obeys robots.txt instructions, but from the evidence provided in the PBAC forums this isn't actually true.  It would also seem that the process interferes with gamers' online activities and prevents computers from being able to access the iTunes store (see for example this thread).

Another Sunday, another time trial, another spell of riding between Temsford, Sandy and Buckden on the A1.  After last weekend's '100', it would have been nice to race somewhere else for a change, but once again early Sunday morning found me ploughing my way up and down the same on road.   On a dull morning (only occasional sunny spells), there was a nagging breeze that should've made things easy northbound and a bit tougher heading back south but actually seemed to me to make it tough all the way round.Nothing much untoward during this race - I plugged southward to the Sandy roundabout where I got held up briefly by traffic, then headed north through the Black Cat roundabout to turn at the Buckden Roundabout.  A fairly dull event, enlivened by catching a few riders en route, and hearing what sounded suspiciously like a puncture (but wasn't - good job I didn't stop to investigate).  To be honest, my chest was still feeling the effects of Wednesday's club '10', and by the time I finished, I was coughing quite badly.My period of irritating mechanical problems have continued - after the event, Geoff pointed out I was missing a chainring bolt (and since these are a particularly unusual type using a torx key and from Campagnolo a replacement is stupidly expensive) - presumably it's out there on the A1 somewhere.  On the other hand, during the week, I identified the horrid banging noise that I thought was emanating from the head tube area was really the seat pack with tube, levers, patches and CO₂ cylinder banging the seat post.I finished in 58:30, which was a little disappointing.

For one reason or another, I'd never ridden this course before (I don't even know the course code!), so I was rather looking forward to having a go on this course.  the course itself starts in a laybay on the A422 near Stagsden, and goes west to turn at the roundabout junction with A509, before retracing (see the map).  The straightforward nature of the course didn't stop one rider from going off course...which I suppose reflects the fact that our club events are un-marshalled.The evening was warm and sunny, with a stiff breeze that threatened to make the outward leg quite tough.  And so it proved.  Immediately after the start you have to muscle up a quite steep (it seemed to me) rise, where I found out rather quickly that my legs really hadn't recovered from the '100' on Sunday.  I reached the top gasping and wondering whether it was wise to continue - my thoat was burning with the hot air.  I had no idea what speed I was riding at, since my GPS resolutely failed to communicate with the bike computer.  From there it was a pretty standard ride on an undulating '10' course, past Astwood, through Chicheley, to turn at a roundabout, where ofr a change I had no trouble with traffic, indeed a huge lorry waited behind me before entering the roundabout.The way back was pretty uneventful, and pleasingly quick after the outward leg, and I came over the finish line quite quickly.  But by the time I reached the meeting point, I was coughing uncontrollably.  I coughed all the way home, and carried on coughing till midnight.  I'm writing this blog entry on the following morning, and I can still feel wheeziness in my chest and I'm coughing hard.  So something's not right, and I am wondering whether there was pollen in the air 9though I've never been prone to hay fever. I'm not particularly pleased with my time, which I estimate as 23:14 prior to seeing the results, and I didn't feel I exerted myself particularly, judging from my heart rate recorded during the event.Still onward towards the Verulam '25' on Sunday, where once again I will be riding on the F1.  Yawn,Here's a map of the course (finish point approximate) - manually entered to Google Maps since the GPS messed up. results to follow.
View Stagsden '10' in a larger map

The New Humanist blog is one of many web sites reporting on a fracas involving criticism via Twitter of Scientology (Welsh councillor in trouble for calling Scientology "stupid" on Twitter ). The synopsis of this story is that

When Cardiff councillor John Dixon visited London last year to buy a wedding ring for his wife to be, a stroll past the "Dianetics and Life Improvement Centre" on Tottenham Court Road (just round the corner from our office, as it happens) prompted him to make the following quip on Twitter:“I didn’t know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off.”

This has appeared to generate a bit of a problem for poor John Dixon, as the "Church" of Scientology made a complaint to the Welsh public service watchdog.  As a consequence Dixon's facing disciplinary action.Problem is, as someone who's read Russell Miller's biography of Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard (the wonderfully titled Bare Face Messiah), I rather inclined to agree with Dixon.  It's also why I place quotation marks around "Church", and why I believe Scientology is complete claptrap and an exercise in generating a huge income.  Herewith my modest contribution to the Streisand Effect.On the other hand (and in a spirit of even-handedness), I suggest the core beliefs of most established religions are equally loopy.

During Stage 15 of the 2010 Tour de France, Alberto Contador (Astana) took yellow after Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) suffered an unshipped chain near the top of the major climb of Port de Balès.  Some people reckon this was an "unsporting" thing for Contador to have done, and indeed some quite vituperative exchanges have been going on in cycling forums all across the interweb.Personally, I think you need to bear in mind this was nearing the top of a climb, that the riders will have been really on the rivet, with all the attendant hullaballoo of the motorcade, helicopters and suchlike associated with the Tour de France.  Add into the mix the fact that all the likely podium contenders were there, it seems that Contador did the right thing, and specifically:

• he had no way of knowing how significant the mechanical issue was (assuming he realised there was a mechanical problem)
• he had no way of knowing how long it would take Schleck to deal with the issue
• what would have happened had he waited, and the others had carried on?

I think the critics of Contador's actions need to remember this is race, not a club run...  Here's a video of the event (YouTube)And finally - at last a commentator who takes a rational view of the situation as it unfolds: Opinion: It’s wrong to vilify Contador by Neal Rogers (Velonews.com).  Neal points out pretty much what I do above, and also adds:

But, like most things in life, this situation not that simple — and most people will make their judgments based upon how they already felt about either Contador or Schleck. We saw that during last year’s race, when diehard Lance Armstrong fans vilified Contador, ignoring the facts that Armstrong made his comeback into Contador’s team, that Armstrong did what he could to turn the team against Contador, and that the Spaniard did what he needed to do to assert himself as the strongest rider in last year’s Tour.

You could certainly discern the anti-Contador bias in comments left at the VeloNews site yesterday, and I'd concur with Neal as to the motivation.  Let's all see how this most interesting Tour unfolds en route to Paris.

Dave Jones sent me some photos from this weekend's excessive time trial activity. First off, a picture taken at the API-Metrow '25', presumably at the turn.[caption id="attachment_950" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="At the turn of the API-Metrow '25', on the E2/25"][/caption]I was pretty pleased with my 55:43 in that '25', though a little worried that it might impact on my ride in the following day's '100', organised by the North Middlesex & Herts CA.  On the day, however, the wind presented a bigger challenge that the previous day's racing.  Here are a couple of photos from early in the event.[caption id="attachment_951" align="alignnone" width="627" caption="Riding in the NH&H CA '100', on the F1/100"][/caption]The hump on my back is the Camelbak drinks reservoir.  Actually in itself it was quite comfortable, though it forced my head down because of the shape of my aero helmet.  Hence I'm grimacing.  Well, that's my story, anyway.  Here's a side view.[caption id="attachment_952" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Riding the NM&H CA '100'"][/caption]You can clearly see the problem with the Camelbak hump and my helmet.  More than 24h after the event, my neck's still stiff.  Next time I'll choose a different helmet.

I was rather nervous for this event, coming so soon after riding the API-Metrow '25' yesterday.  In actual fact, my legs felt fine as I rolled over to the start line.  The event was run on a version of the F1/100 that I'd not ridden before (see map below)  Essentially, the course starts near Tempsford, then enters the A1 northbound at the Tempsford flyover.  The course turns at Buckden three times, with the southbound legs turning at the Girtford underpass, then twice at the Biggleswade North roundabout.  Reaching the Black Cat roundabout at about 86 miles, the course enters a finishing circuit along the new A421, returning to the Black Cat via Great Barford, to return along the A421 for a second passage for a finish a little way before Great Barford  In the past, I've always suffered badly from cramp in my legs at around 75 miles.  On this occasion, I was riding unsupported.Equipment-wise, I rode my Cervelo P3 with Hed trispokes.  This frame has a single bottle cage: I retained the Arundel aero bottle, which I filled with 500ml of electrolyte drink from Hi5 (free with some magazine subscription).  I also rode for the first time with a Camelbak, filled with 1.5 litres of PSP22 energy drink.  I also carried two bananas in my back pocket.  I drank from the Cmelbak at least every 3-5 miles, and had regular slurps from the bottle after about 40 miles.  So - how did it pan out?Well, my strategy was to hold a moderate pace - I was aiming for an HR of around 168-175bpm (which corresponds to upper level 2 and lower level 3 for me.  I pretty well stuck to that aim.  I also intended to sip liquid from the Camelbak and/or the bottle frequently during the race.  Unfortunately the stiff breeze that faced us on the southbound legs intensified during the morning.  I also found the riding position a bit challenging for such a long event (in part undoubtedly due to the Camelbak interfering with my Giro aero helmet's tail.In fact the southbound legs were a sore trial, the first two I was sticking to around 24-25 mph, but the third was horrid.  I found myself looking forward to getting off the A1 and onto the finishing circuit.  If only I'd known.  By the time I got onto the finishing circuit at about 86 miles, my legs were beginning to twinge with cramp.  This intensified on the second lap of the finishing circuit to a point where I had to stop and massage my legs.  And actually the A421 sections were horrendous all gently up hill with a stonking headwind.  All the riders I saw were grovelling on that section.  It was absolute purgatory, and it made the suffering on the Southbound A1 sections seem like a mere bagatelle!I'll update this with results when I can.  I did see a couple of sub 4 hour rides (3:58 as I recall).It was, therefore, rather a relief to finally pass the timekeeper's car for the second time, and noodle back to the race HQ, though with a rather disappointing 4:25:43 (I'd been aiming for a 4:15).  Oh well, win some, lose some.
View F1/100 in a larger map

This was the first of two events planned for this weekend: tomorrow I plan to ride the North Middlesex & Herts CA '100' on the F1.  Well, we'll see how that goes, with only about 13h separating the two events!This 25 mile time trial was held over on the E2/25 near Newmarket, where earlier this season I'd knocked out a couple of 55 minute rides.  Today, Tony and I were pretty apprehensive as there was a very strong and gusty wind with occasional showers.  What's more, the wind promised to make the outward leg rather difficult.And so it proved. I found myself pushing along at a surprisingly slow speed, that correlated with low HR (I think my chest strap was playing up a bit), at least initially.  There were of course some faster downhill sections, but all things considered, the outward leg was slow, and indeed I wasn't really pushing it too hard - in the back of my mind were thoughts of tomorrow's '100'.Things changed once round the turn, when I could feel the full benefit of the tail wind, and thoughts returned to trying for a decent time.  Indeed, by the time I was passed by #95 with about 4.5 miles to go, I found myself cruising well in excess of 30mph.  I crossed the line in 55:43, my third 55 of the season.  It left me wishing I'd put a bit more effort in!  But we'll have to see what tomorrow's like for the '100'.  Tony finished with 54:40 and Geoff with 57:50, results we were all quite pleased with.Actually, once the race was over, my legs felt reasonably OK, so I'm quite optimistic about the bigger event.

I rather like today's xkcd cartoon...even though they understate homeopathic dilutions...[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="271" caption="Dilution"][/caption]

The much-disliked company Phorm, who develop probably illegal systems for probing web traffic using deep packet inspection with a view to selling on internet users' browsing habits, have been hitting rocky times lately.  With no commercial partners currently working with them in the UK, Phorm have moved further afield and explored markets in Braxil and South Korea.  In both locations, their plans appear to have hit the buffers (according to postings at the No DPI forums).  Faced with a bit of a crisis, they appear to be trying to raise a spot of cash, accroding to The Register (Phorm issues shares to raise cash • The Register).What's interesting there is the named markets currently being explored are Brazil and China.  Now there's a market the might succeed.  In the meantime, I wonder who would buy the projected shares in light of the woes that Phorm have been suffering of late?