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).

So, all four upgrades completed, with absolutely no problems or hitches (at least none that have manifest themselves so far).  Now, I'm fairly competent at running my computers, but I wouldn't class myself as a serious "under-the-hood" mechanic.  That's to say, I'm happy enough to mess around with config files, set up hardware and all that, but I don't have the sophisticated understanding that would allow me to appreciate subtle changes between Ubuntu releases. That being said, presumably there must be some evidence of an upgrade?

Gnome - this is my preferred desktop environment, and with Compiz effects is quite flashy enough for me.  (I've always found KDE a little garish for my tastes.  I did give KDE4 a whirl when it was released, but it seemed a bit flaky at that time.  I'll try it again in the coming months as I hear it's  a bit more stable now, and it's quite possible that it offers a fresh new way of using the desktop.)  Gnome seems to be characterised by small incremental changes - here we have version 2.26, which on the faceof it seems pretty much the same as before.  You can read about the main changes at the gnome website.

Henry Porter's written in The Guardian on the growing desire of the present UK Government for data control...and the spiralling costs (Paying billions for our database state).  There are two frightening aspects.

Firstly, the evident desire of our Government to find out what we are all up to - innocent or under suspicion, we are all targets for the prying eyes of the State.

Today dawned gloriously sunny, so Mrs Grumpy and I decided to cycle over to Brill on the Longstaff tandem.  This tandem is a bit lighter and more sprightly than the Dawes touring tandem we use for commuting and cycle touring.  Brill is most famous for its old windmill, of a type known as a "pin mill": the entire superstructure pivots into the wind on a pin.

This is a picture of the mill - it's not been used for milling since about 1902, and is a bit decrepit (it dates from the 17th century).  However, after climbing the hill, it provides a pleasant backdeop to some splendid views.  Unfortunately today the mill was shrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting for restoration by English heritage.

The latest release of Ubuntu linux (Ubuntu 9.04 - Jaunty Jackalope) was released a couple of days ago.  In case you were wondering, this is a jackalope (by "Albrecht Durer" - published here on April 1st, 2008): 

We had a splendid evening for this North Bucks RC club event, once again held up at the Astwood circuit - sunny, and with not much more than a breath of wind.  This event was designated as a "Come and Try It" event, and riders were requested to be there by 6.30pm (also, starts were limited to 30 due to the failing light as this is still early season for an evening event).  I had brought along a couple of guys along from work, but sadly we were thwarted.  By the time we arrived, there appeared to be hundreds of riders milling around and all 30 slots had unfortunately been allocated.  Fortunately, this didn't seem to disappoint my two new acquaintances, and Ian Stokes kindly suggested I ask someone of they'd be interested in riding a 2-up.  At this point my beady eye cast around and spotted Lindz Barrall, with whom I had ridden a 2-up at Astwood earlier in the season.

Fortunately for me, Lindz was up for a two up, and set his Garmin for a 23:30 pace.  Last time we had finished in 24:19, so that was quite a proposed improvement.  But then again, this was a lovely evening...  The only strategic discussion we had was to decide that this time I would lead off from the start.  Once out on the road, we didn't exchange a single word - all chanegovers (bar one) were accomplished smoothly, and all in all we rode very well.

We were promised consultation on the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) by early in 2009, but as far as I can see this hasn't happened yet.  Of course, in that time, we've seen considerable discussion of communication interception technologies (such as those devised and proposed by Phorm for commercial purposes) and the data retention directive emanating from the EC.

Now, The Register reports that developments in eavesdropping capacity are moving ahead (Spy chiefs size up net snoop gear):

After all the accusations of conflicts of interests (see for example 80/20 Thinking drops advisory work, after accusations of conflict of interest), Privacy International have apparently made a public statement concerning the implications of deep packet inspection on privacy.  Oddly, you can read the statement at the nodpi website (Privacy International's Official Reponse on Deep Packet Inspection), but I can't see a mention yet at Privacy International's website.  Perhaps the announcement at nodpi.org is connected with the announcement in the statement that the driving force behind nodpi, Alex Hanff, has joined the PI team on this matter:

To this end, we are pleased to announce a new addition to our team. Alexander Hanff, a social scientist and technologist who has led a long campaign against the use of Deep Packet Inspection for behavioural advertising models in the UK, will be taking the lead for Privacy International on these issues. 

Wind: ENE 14mph; Hum: 48%

Another nice day forecast for this event, which I normally ride as part of a Team Grumpy 2-up entry.  This year, I entered as a solo rider, but due to a misunderstanding with the organiser, ended up starting in the 2-up field. Team MK use a version of the Astwood circuit course that differs from that used by the North Bucks Road Club because the start/finish are located nearer Cranfield.  The event once again used Cranfield University's new sports centre as its HQ, and Ian had managed once again to arrange pretty good weather: on the day, cool and cloudy condition changed to sunny, cool and surprisingly windy conditions which, while I had no trouble with the front trispoke, did make the going quite tough.

Wikimedia, who manage Wikipedia among other sites have announced via their blog that they have officially opted out of Phorm's deep packet inspection system.  In their blog article, they indicate that one of their concerns is that by opting out, they might somehow legitimise Phorm's system.  After due consideration, they decided the appropriate action would be to opt out of the system, and they show an extensive list of URLs that have been removed.

More good news on a week of exceptionally good news on the Phorm phront.

Chris Williams of The Register certainly has been working hard, and this in a week that's absolutely stuffed with stories relating to Phorm's violation of internet privacy!  Today, he reports (Tory 'terror' affair shows danger of ubiquitous surveillance) on the circumstances surrounding the arrest a few months ago of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green:

The "national security" justification offered by Jacqui Smith for the warrantless counter-terror police raid on a fellow member of Parliament's offices was trumped up by officials embarrassed by a series of leaks, we've now learned. The information about immigration failures fed to the Tories was politically damaging to the Labour government, but arguably in the public interest, and certainly no threat to national security.

The first evening event of the NBRC club time trial series! It was also the first event on the F5d/10 since the New Year's Day'10'.

Somewhat ominously, I woke to the sound of a 5am thunderstorm.  Still, I reckoned, over 12 hours before the event, plenty of time for the weather to clear up (the BBC forecast was for sunshine)!  Indeed, when I turned up to the club room at about 6.20, it was not only sunny, but very warm. 

More good news on the Phorm phront.  Alex Hanff over at nodpi.org reports that Amazon exclude all their domains from Phorm's WebWise.  It has long seemed to me that it's the commercial angle that would sink Phorm's devious and parasitic plans.  Hot on the heels of the news that LiveJournal have requested exclusion from the Phorm dpi system, comes the news that Amazon, possibly the biggest internet retailer is to do likewise.

This may the the beginning of an unstoppable momentum, and follows a lengthy (and it would seem effective) campaign led by the likes of Alex Hanff, who has worked tirelessly, with more energy than I have available to work towards the extinction of Phorm's dpi.

Richard Clayton has a nice, very clearly written article on what is wrong with Phorm, over at The Guardian (Whitehall's got Phorm).  This should be required reading by news reporters who fail to grasp the real issue is the interception issue, and not the targeted adverts.

Meanwhile, Simon Davies of 80/20 Thinking and Privacy International, who has failed to make meaningful statements about Phorm (but who works as advisor to Phorm via 80/200, is quoted in an Independent report on the EC action (Internet privacy: Britain in the dock) as saying:

I blogged the other day that there might be an interesting conflict of interest in Lord Carter's office (Why Lord Carter is pro-Phorm?).  Lord Carter of course wrote the Digital Britain report, and is a bit of a mover and shaker in Government circles when it comes to digital issues such as broadband rollout (remember Phorm claim their technology will help fund broadband expansion).  The news revolved around the fact that among other activities, Phorm's Kip Meeks works as an advisor to Lord Carter.

Chris Williams of The Register has been digging (The Register - Phorm director advises UK.gov broadband minister):