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Clocks change this weekend (from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time) in the UK, and as usual we get a bunch of silly stories about how we ought to change this practice (for example BBC News - Putting clocks back damages our health, says expert). I'm a cycle commuter, and personally I think increased darkness in the morning would be a dangerous change.  I'm not convinced drivers are fully awake during the morning commute - a suggestion supported in the article by Dr David Lewis, a chartered psychologist who has done research into the effect of sunshine on our well-being

"But there is a danger that people leaving for work in the morning don't really wake up properly if it's not light."

It is apparently recommended that adults take 30 minutes exercise per day and children take 60 minutes.  It does seem to me that the easiest way of getting this exercise is by encouraging people to commute by bike where possible (and take public transport with its attendant walking to/from buses and trains): I expect people are less likely to do so in the dark.

I've finally shaken off the recurrent cold that's been a bit of a burden since I returned from the USA in the first week of October.  This was convenient since my Team Grumpy team mate was visiting and we'd planned a bike ride.  This is actually rather a rare occasion for us. Of course all my assertions that we should 'take it easy' and 'don't forget I've been off the bike for four weeks' had zilch effect as we found ourselves zipping along on a beautifully clear and sunny morning (though it was rather cold at the start), particularly after we encountered an old club mate on the way, with the consequences that generally follow.  We covered around 50 miles in about 3h riding time - the furthest I've cycled since our trip to France in September, and the first 'proper' bike ride in the last month.  We did stop at a cafe in Winslow, which was just as well, since by the last 10 miles, my legs were suffering. It was notable how 'mobile' my heart rate was: while mostly it was in upper level 1 or lower level 2, it didn't take much for it to leap up to levels that I normally see during short time trials.  So recovery is still some way off, I guess.  Added to which, as I write this the following morning, I do seem a bit achy - particularly my neck. Oh, and I did collect a slow puncture a mile or two from getting home.

It would seem as though the UK government has quietly performed an about turn and revived the Intercept Modernisation Plan ('Surveillance state' fear as government revives tracking plan | UK news | The Guardian).  As The Guardian reports:

A £2bn plan to allow the police and security services to track the email, text, internet and mobile phone details of everyone in Britain is to be revived, the Home Office has confirmed. The coalition agreement promised to scrap the "surveillance state" plan by pledging to "end the storage of internet and email records without good reason". Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voiced criticism in opposition. But the project, known as the interception modernisation programme, has been quietly revived - a decision buried in the back pages of the strategic defence and security review published this week. Senior Home Office officials have confirmed that legislation is being prepared.

You might have thought that in the current climate of swingeing cuts in public expenditure this might have remained axed.  But no, it's back. The plan doesn't yet include retention of the content of messages (but as ever, beware of 'function creep').

Following the announcement of the upcoming OSX app store, it's reported that Microsoft is (supposedly) working on a Windows app store, too. Hang on - isn't this what we do with Ubuntu? One of the things that delayed my buy-in to the iPad was the whole walled-garden of the thing - without jailbreaking (with it's attendant consequences) I'm committed to only obtaining and running software available through the App Store.  Now, I eventually concluded that the iPad, like the iPod Touch, is actually a consumer device rather than a computer per se, and I can see why Apple have gone down that route. And I've found the iPad to be an impressive device fr many of my day to day work (and entertainment) activities. Regarding the proposal of an "App Store" for Mac OSX, I was rather relaxed.  After all Linux distros have really had this kind of facility for years - in the form of the repository system used by whatever packaging system used.  In Ubuntu I either access this via the command line or via Synaptic.  There is of course the "Ubuntu Software Centre", which seems to me moving from just a listing of free software to also offering commercial software. In that sense, moving to an App Store model for distributing software for computers isn't particularly innovative, unless it becomes the only way to install software.  It appears that the OSX app store is to be incorporated in next year's OSX 10.7 and added to the current OSX 10.6 pretty soon (Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" - Sneak Peek). I'm a little uneasy about this move: I don't want to work in a completely closed software ecosystem, and I'm not getting a sense of whether this will be the exclusive mode of software installation. I guess this will be resolved quite soon, as it's coming to OS X 10.6 in the coming months. Update:  Ars Technica's review of yesterday's Apple media shindig (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: "Mac OS X meets the iPad") quotes Steve Jobs as saying that the Mac App Store won't be the only place to get applications—just "the best place." So that's OK -  for now...