Since I overhauled this website a couple of years ago, the main focus on the site has been through the Joomla! blogging extension MyBlog. This is a commercial extension from Azrul, and I have to say I've been very pleased with it.

Unfortunately I'm less enthusiastic about Azrul's commenting extension, JomComment, designed for use with MyBlog. It has a caching activity, which seems to generate huge numbers of files which are supposed to be deleted each time a comment is posted. Well, maybe I suffer from a paucity of readers willing to comment, but the cache just grows and grows indefinitely. I have tried commenting, but no decline in the sheer volume of the JomComment cache.

There's a report in Cyclingnews.com today that, if the rider's assertions are proven, makes me a little concerned (Bani Says Team Doped Him Without His Knowledge | Cyclingnews.com)

Eugenio Bani has said that his former team Ambra Cavallini Vangi “forced” him to take medications and that he did not know what they were. The 18-year-old, who tested positive for the pregnancy hormone HcG (Human chorionic gonadotrophin), has signed for this year with Amore & Vita despite a 21-month ban within Italy.

So here we have a rider who's barely more than a kid being doped with bioactive human hormones.  Who knows what long-term damage can be caused by modern hormonal doping?  And I include here "more conventional" steroids, growth hormones and EPO in its mutifarious forms.

It's long seemed to me that professional teams escape serious scrutiny in the war against doping - it takes considerable negative publicity to dent a team, and even then it seems as though the team only folds if the sponsor takes the view that the negative publicity has reached excessive levels.

Bani goes on to describe how he was regularly injected with liquids that were pre-loaded in syringes - liquids that were only described as "tonics" or "vitamins".  A cycling team with riders as young as this owe a considerable duty of care, and should not only behave with utmost propriety but should be seeking to protect their riders from getting involved with doping.

A new site promoting a rational attitude to homeopathy has gone live (Homeopathy: There's nothing in it | The 10:23 Campaign | #ten23). The focus appears to be

The 10:23 campaign aims to raise awareness of the reality of homeopathy - how it can be proven not to work, how it can be shown to be impossible, and why it's important to give patients the right information to allow them to make an informed decision on their healthcare.

The site features an open letter to Boots (probably the biggest UK high street pharmacist), who persist in selling homeopathic "remedies" despite knowing these "remedies" contain no active ingredients (I'm not even taking into consideration whether or not the starting ingredient has any activity).  This was clearly stated at a recent Commons Science and Technology Committee enquiry (see Ben Goldacre's Bad Science blog, for example).

I imagine the site's name reflects Avogadro's Number (now known as the Avogadro constant) - 6.022 x 10²³ mol^-1.  What's less clear to me is why there appears to be a countdown timer on the site's front page!  See also the
In unrelated news (other than the general topic of homeopathy) David Colquhoun has reported on the content of the University of Central Lancashire's now discontinued Homoepathy course at his blog (What actually gets taught on a homeopathy course: part 1).

As I mentioned the other day (Christmas project 2009: installation of a NAS...), I was spending some time over the Xmas break configuring a new NAS device.  This was set up as a two drive RAID1 array of 2x1Tb.  However, once I'd set up the rsnapshot backup system (which seems to be pretty efficient in terms of disk space and ease of setup), I turned my eye to the other uses of the device.  I've installed the following via the QPKG system or by activating the firmware options (during all this, I upgraded the firmware to the latest stable version):

MySQL - to enable this, I needed to upgrade the firmware.  Or at least that was what the system said, and who am I to object?  Administering MySQL databases is easiest using a GUI such as PhpMyAdmin, so I installed...

A bright but very cold morning greeted the five intrepid (or possibly foolhardy) riders who turned out for the 2010 edition of the North Bucks Road Club's annual New Year 10 mile time trial.  As last year, the event was run on the F5d/10.  I suspect it was actually colder this year than it was last year, but bathed in sunshine instead of the clammy atmosphere of last year, it almost seemed balmy. 

This was the first competitive outing for my new time trial bike, so I was bound to be a bit cautious as I made my way over to the club room.  I'll probably write some more detailed notes on the bike later, but two points for now - the steering seemed alarmingly twitchy as slow speed, but once down on the tribars and at racing speed, everything seemed very good; this was my first proper ride on Speedplay pedals, and I'm most impressed.  I had decided to try out the GPS receiver for the Polar bike computer, but I couldn't get it to work, so rode the event solely on heart rate.

The Conservatives, fired by the controversial arrest of their immigration spokeman within the House of Commons earlier this year appear to be somewhat exercised by the issue DNA sample retention by the police (Police policy on deletion of DNA records is shambles, say Conservatives | Politics | The Guardian).  The dear old UK Government appears to be fighting a rearguard action to evade the judgment from Europe that the retention of DNA samples and associated data on individuals who end up either not being charged or not being found guilty infringes human rights.

Freedom of information requests to police forces in England and Wales by the shadow immigration spokesman, Damian Green, reveal a huge disparity in the way records are treated. "The force most likely to remove your DNA profile is South Yorkshire, with 83% of requests granted," said Green. "However, of the total requests to 26
different forces, less than half were granted. Some forces, including Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire and Nottingham, refused to remove any profiles."

What's even more astonishing is the Government's belief that an individual arrested but not found guilty of a minor offence is in some way more innocent than an individual arrested but not found guilty of a serious offence.  As the Guardian reports:

One would have to be a spectacularly unaware competitive cyclist to remain ignorant of the spread of power meters in the ranks of bike racers.  In the past I've not moved in this direction, for a number of reasons, some practical (e.g. typical power meters would be a faff to move from bike to bike, unlike the typical HRM), some more theoretical ( e.g. isn't it best to assess the physiological demands of a training session).

At the end of the 2009 season I bought a Polar CS600X bike computer with power metering capability.  I've written the first part of a review on the usage of power meter data (framed by a book review) over at the Team Grumpy website.

So, the latest investigatin of an organised doping ring (Virú Investigation Turns Up Kelme Documents - Cyclingnews.com) appears to be turning up evidence that accusations of systematic doping were suppressed.

Wind back the clock a few years to 2004, and we find Kelme rider Jesús Manzano (who I recall collapsed from side effects of doping practices) made accusations of systematic doping in the Kelme team.  I don't however remember any significant action being taken.  Cyclingnews reports that

According to Tuesday’s edition of Spanish sports daily AS, among the papers found during a search of a Valencia clinic run by ex-Kelme doctor Walter Virú were records of doping plans and treatments. AS indicates that some of the plans could have been drawn up for riders who are still competing.
AS claims that these plans are exactly the same as those that former Kelme rider Jesús Manzano showed to the Spanish cycling federation and police investigators back in 2004 when Manzano alleged systematic doping had taken place within that team.

Even better is the secretive system of using code words to denote different doping substances.  My goodness these doping clinics do seem to fancy themselves as being in some kind of James Bond business.  I just worry that someone, somewhere will give them a licence to kill.

Each year, I try to have a project for the christmas break - it's usually a bit more interesting than sitting around in an overfed state watching poor quality TV.  A few years ago I decided to do internet genealogy, which became something of an obsession for a few months (and which I occasionally revisit) and indirectly resulted in this website's first incarnation.  This year, I decided to re-evaluate our domestic computer provision.

While I have almost completely moved to using GNU/Linux on my computers (for the last few years I've been using Ubuntu), Mrs Grumpy remains a Windows user (principally XP), so whatever changes I make need to take that into account.  At the moment, we have a number of portable devices which hook up wirelessly to our router, and two Ubuntu desktop PCs and a printer which connect via ethernet cables.  One of those desktop PCs is rarely booted, while the other is used to make backups from laptops and stream music to a Squeezebox 3 (now renamed Squeezebox Classic and no longer marketed).  Backups are handled using BackupPC, which is fairly fiddly to set up, but which is really rather robust and easy to manage via a web interface.

The BBC reports the latest planned device from OLPC BBC News - OLPC unveils slimline tablet PC. Turns out that the last proposal, for a sort of hinged design (XO-2) has been scrapped in favour of a tablet design (XO-3).  They are aiming for launch in 2012.  But in two years' time, what will the tech landscape be like?

And, despite my admiration for the aims of OLPC, might this not just turn into vapourware?  I do note that the BBC report says

OLPC recently said that the organisation would just focus on promoting its concepts and educational aims, rather than manufacturing laptops.

The Register reports that Mobile networks line up to bash net snooping plan. El Reg has used FoI requests to obtain information related to the public consultation on the UK Government's euphemistically named "Internet Modernisation Programme", under which all ISPs were expected to eavesdrop and record information about their clients' communications.  Criticism has been severe enough to stall development of this vile and intrusive plan until after the next election.  The Register reports that

The mobile operators variously attack IMP's technical feasibility, its legality, its impact on customer privacy and its opaque £2bn cost estimate. They also question the consultation's assertion that the ability to access records of all communications is essential for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to do their jobs.

In an interesting approach to judgement, it appears that CONI, the Italian Olympic committee, has proposed that Danilo Di Luca's doping ban should be 3 years rather than 2 because he's aggravated the situation by not admitting his guilt (Di Luca Facing Three-year Ban For Doping | Cyclingnews.com).  Meanwhile Di Luca reportedly claims the whole situation is a result of a conspiracy and that his lawyers will prove the two samples taken during this year's Giro d'Italia are false positives.

Well, what's new.  But the EPO tests are, I believe set up quite conservatively, and tend to yield false negatives rather than false positives.  In an added attempt to punish the errant doper, CONI are imposing financial penalties:

The agency also intends to hold Di Luca to the International Cycling
Union (UCI) rule which fines riders one year's salary for a positive
doping control, as well as the costs of the results management and
B-sample analysis allowed under UCI anti-doping article 275.

Well, I'm no friend of dope cheats (but I do find their defensive bleating quite amusing), but this does seem to pile penalty upon penalty.  On the subject of conspiracy, Di Luca's lawyer said:

I ditched BT as an ISP over a year ago, in protest over their plans to implement the vile Phorm DPI system.  This proved easy to do (apart from the 4 hour New Delhi runaround trying to get them to stop charging my credit card), and resulted in a threefold increase in my download speed through the new ISP.

However, our landline has remained with BT.  But I'm getting fed up with what amounts to an added 10% surcharge for not going with Direct Debit (it's a fixed fee of £4.50).  The search is now on for a land line service that isn't run by such an avaricious bunch of money grabbing crooks.  Or I just cave in and pay by Direct Debit.

I've been thinking about doing a fresh installation of Ubuntu Gnu/Linux on my now venerable Sony notebook for some time.  I had a number of reasons for this - firstly I wanted to eliminate the two partitions associated with Vista (spit, spit), which really wasn't able to run effectively on the limited resources the notebook had to offer.  Secondly, over the last couple of years of 6-monthy updates, I've installed a variety of now unnecessary software (including much installed outside of the excellent packaging system) - much of this seemed to lead to fairly lengthy boot-up time, and I wanted to see how Karmic performs in this regard.  Finally, I was interested to see how the Ubuntu installer works nowadays.

One of the stumbling blocks to wider acceptance of Linux (as far as I can see) is the installation of an OS - most PC users never do this: they buy a computer with a stock install of some version of Windows. I recently received the January 2010 issue of Linux Format (it's always struck me as quite bizarre that the cover dates of computer magazines )are set so far in the future!) with a DVD containing Mandriva, OpenSuse 11.2 and an LXF remaster of Ubuntu 9.10.

The installation process (if defaults are selected) seems to be about 8 steps, including easy setting up of language, time zone etc.  The partitioning step is something that I always get nervous about (I am often reinstalling and I worry about losing data.  There are a few options: to install alongside the existing OS, using the whole disk, or the advanced partioner.  I chose the advances option and removed the Vista and Vista backup ntfs partitions, the existing Ubuntu root partition, and set up the partition table afresh, maintaining the partition mounting as /home.  It's never seemed sensible to me that the default install doesn't set up a separate /home partition.  The partitioner is really very straightforward, if you have a bit of experience, and for the beginner, the default partition is easy to select.

Installation, from accepting the partition arrangement to a bootable system was very quick - unfortunately I didn't time it, but it did seem rather quicker than I'd found in the past, well under an hour to reach a functional state.  Once into the system, I installed a shed-load of software I routinely use, mostly through Synaptic, and did a system update.  It was really easy to restore all my desktop settings to the way I like them.

• There are the usual irritations related to US patent law affecting sound and video codecs, but the Ubuntu forums and wikis steer one very clearly through stages required to enable (for example) DVD playing.  This page - Restricted Formats - in particular was very helpful.
• The installation of Crossover Office (now named Crossover Linux - a user friendly implementation of Wine) went west, but I wasn't too depressed about that as I'm not overwhelmingly convinced I need Windows software at the moment.  In any event, I checked my account over at Codeweavers and was able to download a deb installer.
• The GRAMPS genealogy database installed straight off from the deb file (the repos always lag), and there were no problems with the existing dataset.
• Firefox was a bit of a pest until I persuaded it to look at the correct config folder in my home directory
• I installed the Bibus bibliography app from the Karmic repositories - I still have to configure it, though I'll probably install the latest deb from the Bibus site first.
• Various bits and bobs from Google:  Chrome browser; Picasa;

Still remaining: I need to set up ssh connections to the backup computer (notebooks are backed up daily using backuppc).    I dare say there will be one or two issues...

Zuckerberg pictures exposed by Facebook privacy roll-back • The Register
Serves him right.  And everyone should take care to keep their Facebook data restricted to those they actually want to see it. 

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Oh dear.

Cyclingnews.com reports that the investigation into one of the biggest sporting doping scandals in recent years has fizzled out like a damp squib (Operación Puerto: Case Closed | Cyclingnews.com).  Despite there being freezers with bags of easily identifiable blood stored for future use, very few of these cases have ever resulted in action taken against the drug cheats.  To my mind this is a travesty and a failure in justice.  Why should some of these cheats pay the penalty (often resulting career-ending suspension), while others get away scot-free?

Operación Puerto began in May 2006 when the Spanish Civil Guard arrested Madrid doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and Liberty Seguros manager Manolo Saiz, amongst others, after having found massive amounts of doping products and blood doping evidence in an apartment belonging to Fuentes.

I've been using version 3 of the original Squeezebox for some time now for streaming digital music via the home network.  Didn't quite fancy the later Squeezebox Boom.  The Squeezebox radio looks like it might fit the bill, however...

On the other hand, to restrict the remote and battery to an aftermarket pack does feel like, in the words of The Register, "an act of frankly shocking tight-fistedness".  The red version pictured is only available in the USA, here in Blighty we are apparently restricted to the standard Squeezebox glossy black finish.

Is it worth £159?  Mmmm...don't know about that.

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Cyclingnews reports that Lance Armstrong: RadioShack Not Built Around Me.  Well, I'm not so sure - look what happened when he got parachuted into Astana last year.  He says they have 8 of the 9 riders that rode the Tour for Astana last year, plus Bruyneel.  And don't forget the external pressure - I would expect the selling point for the team was his presence, and even if he wanted to take a back seat, I doubt it's possible.

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Google's Chrome browser is now out in beta for Linux (Google Chrome for Linux).  Installation on Ubuntu Karmic 32 bit is straightforward, and the app launches quickly.  Only been running it for a short while, but so far, I've noticed:

1 - The default Chrome window doesn't obey my normal window management.  So the title bar is different, and the behaviour also differs (I have my windows set to roll up when the title bar is double clicked - in Chrome double clicking maximises the window).  However, the options in Chrome are easily accessed, and it's obvious there how to set Chrome's appearance to that of the rest of my desktop.

2 - On first run, Chrome offers to import data from Firefox -  this seems to be effective and quick.  Bookmarks seem to be moved effectively.

3 - Been quickly looking through Chrome extensions, and installed a couple.  As an inveterate Firefox extension user, I would miss quite a few of my favourite extensions, including this one, ScribeFire, which I use for blogging to a variety of blogging platforms (Joomla, Wordpress and Blogspot).  There's a neat-looking  Chrome extension for Blogger, which will bear investigationure the number of extensions will grow rapidly.

I'm looking forward to using Chrome...it's too early to say whether I'll make a major shift to using it.  At the very least having it is essential for website development.

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Cyclingnews.com provides an update on the Alejandro Valverde doping saga - WADA Frustrated By Delays In Valverde CAS Cases. I blogged the other day that I felt that judicial delays in dealing with the fallout of Operacion Puerto would lead to injustice as many of the dopers will have retired by the time much of this mess has been sorted out.  If, indeed, it will ever be sorted out.

Cyclingnews reports that the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) is indeed upset at the length of time it's taking to resolve two cases concerning Valverde:

The first is the Caisse d'Epargne's rider's own appeal against a two-year ban from competition in Italy, enforced by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) for his alleged involvement in the Puerto affair. The second case is a joint action by WADA and the International Cycling Union (UCI), who have appealed the Spanish cycling federation's (RFEC) decision not to launch their own disciplinary proceedings against Valverde as a result of evidence gathered during the Puerto investigation.

This really cuts to the heart of the matter: if Valverde is Valv. Piti, and is guilty of blood doping via the Fuentes clinic, then, yes, he should be punished.  But what if he's actually innocent?  Should he be made to serve a lengthy ban before an appeal is heard?  Similarly, why should Valverde have proceedings against him while all the other implicated athletes carry on training and competing without sanction?

As with all athletes, a professional cyclist's career is short: these cases need to be completed quickly and efficiently.