A quick post to wish Becky all the best as she starts her bike training today. I’m sure she’ll breeze through it all, and will soon be enjoying the exhilaration of riding a motorbike.
I wonder if they still teach the knee lift to remove wing mirrors from drivers who don’t use their mirrors or indicators and cut you up. 
Thanks to Steph, I managed to get a go on Wii Fit on Monday, and despite my dodgy knee I was able to do a few of the challenges it holds.
The balance board is quite substantial, a lot heavier than I thought it would be, it’s also very sensitive too. Steph set up my Mii, and it asked me to step on so it could work out my BMI. Well I knew where it was going as since the time I was on steroids for my RA, I’ve had a real fight getting rid of the weight i piled on taking them, this has been made worse by my knee which makes exercise difficult.
What I wasn’t expecting was the Wii Fit to inflate my Mii to resemble the fatty I am 
The heading footballs was the first challenge I tried, and while I had no problems with those in front of me or to the left, I missed all the right sided ones, as I couldn’t get my knee to bend enough to head the ball.
I also did the running which, surprisingly, I was quite good at, I also had a few runs on the snowboarding, which I improved on each time I tried. The balance exercises weren’t too bad either. But lets not talk about the ski jump, I ended up as a snowball after falling off the end of the ramp.
Steph enjoys the step aerobics game, and she was getting loads of perfects during the session.
I held off getting Wii Fit, as I was unsure if I’d be able to use it with my knee problems, I do think I’ll invest in one, as it could help shed a few pounds which has to be good all round.
Now it’s just a case of finding one, which will be a challenge in itself.
Big thanks to Bob2002 over on ispreview for the following image
A few weeks ago I popped in the live cd version of Ubuntu and decided to have a play, it took a little while to boot up, but this was to be expected as it was running from a CD. Once it had done it’s thing I was presented with a dektop, firefox, open office and a messenger type program, as well as a few other bits an pieces.
I used it for a few hours, and I must admit that I was quite impressed, it even ran well on my venerable old dinosaur of a machine that some newer windows software runs at a crawl or looks like a slideshow rather than a game demo.
While surfing around Digg this morning I see that the new version of Ubuntu (currently V8.04 and still in beta) is also known as Hardy Heron has some interesting new features, one of these which included the ability to try Ubuntu as if it were a windows program, removing the need to repartition drives, set up a dual boot you simply insert the new Ubuntu desktop CD in while Windows is running, and you’ll get an option to install Ubuntu—inside Windows. This is thanks to a program called Wubi creates a file tucked away in Windows and puts a virtual Ubuntu installation inside it.
I’m just downloading the Beta version, and I’ll give it a try this afternoon, having increasingly seen how much the open source software has improved of late has really inspired me to take a closer look. I’ll keep you posted on how it all works out
So there I was sat drinking a cuppa, after my dinner, and a feature on the six o’clock BBC 1 news about poor cleanliness of surgical instruments and the surgeon who adds my robo parts me was on.
He’s also on the video on the BBC News site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7365019.stm
He’s a really nice guy and does a grand job rebuilding me
Once Skynet goes live I shall spare him
For those of you that use AVG Free as your anti virus software it’s time to update to the new version 8, which was made available today.
The new version continues to protect you from viruses and also now adds anti spyware features.
You can download the new version from here: http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download?prd=afe
It is with a hint of sadness that I have to report that my birds nest hairstyle has gone, my hair hasn’t been in good condition for some time, largely due to the cocktail of medications I’m on for my RA.
Who am I kidding.. sadness that the birds nest has gone…no way!! Yesterday I had my hair done, and it’s not looked so good in years, I really can’t believe how good it looks, Germane did a wonderful job, she really did. I have to say thanks to Steph too for taking me over to see her.
Apart from the knee I’m feeling great at the moment, and a slight improvement in the weather makes a difference too, it’s nice to see the sun shining again.
I also got my new rail passes, and I’m hoping I can get to use them this year.
As if my earlier post wasn’t good news enough.. the FIPR have sent a letter to the Secretary of State informing her about the legality of Phorm. You can read the letter here
http://www.fipr.org/080423holetter.pdf
Oh happy day
The FIPR have dealt a new blow to Phorm today, with the release of an in depth analysis which they have sent to the Home Office. The analysis shows that Phorm’s systems involve interception of communications contrary to the RIPA, fraud, contrary to the Fraud Act, and therefore unlawful processing of personal data, contrary to the Data Protection Act.
You can read more on this new development at the Open Rights Group’s site here
Well I completely forgot that I had a message from Phorm/Webwise about one of my entries here on my blog to reply to. You can see their reply under the entry entitled Phorm’s PR team is Back.
As usual I shall reply to them in my usual fashion
Hi. Alex from Phorm here
Hello Alex, Fancy finding someone from Phorm on my little blog.
You are right about the need for transparency here (and your post shows how powerful the Web is for widening access to information). We have been open about our involvement in the adware business which we admit was a wrong turn. Interestingly F-Secure points out that ‘the motive of Apropos is not to use rootkits for hiding itself’ and makes clear that this class of software is used to ‘avoid detection’. Like it or not, Apropos was highly visible in showing adverts ‘ad nauseam’, as F-Secure describes it (http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00000727.html).
Phorm are as transparent as a bucket of tar, I wouldn’t say you’ve been open about your activity in the SPYWARE business, but then I don’t selectively quote articles as well as anyone involved with Phorm seem to be able to. Many thanks for your link to the f-secure site, but it seems you have missed a paragraph in your cut and paste antics. For the reader I’ll save them the trouble of going to the link and post it here.
Therefore, the motive of Apropos is not to use rootkits for hiding itself. The very advanced rootkit functionality in Apropos is designed to prevent uninstallation and removal.
Alex then tells me
For completeness, Apropos could be uninstalled by the user although it was designed so that competitors could not remove it. And like Sony, which found itself criticised for using rootkit technology to protect its copyrighted material, we offered a tool to uninstall the software (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/index.php?p=8200).
And again f-secure comes to inform everyone, with this recent article on Phorm.
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001420.html
I particularly like the following from that article
It has also come to our attention that Phorm was previously known as 121Media.
121Media was the company behind the brand PeopleOnPage. PeopleOnPage is the friendly wrapper around the advertisement engine ContextPlus. Another wrapper was called Apropos, which was one of the most widespread malicious rootkits of 2005. In 2006 the heat was too much and they shut it down. DNS registrars and website content supported that they were all in it together.
And finally Alex finishes with
We continue to learn from the past and have built the Webwise system with privacy in mind - it will store no personal data unlike the major search engines who keep your information from 13+ months before they even anonymise it. In the spirit of transparency, users will see in the banner ad space that Webwise is on. So if users don’t want it, they will be able to click on these ads and switch it off. (It’s worth noting that the very first thing a user will see when they go online after the system has been deployed is a full-page notice and at that point they can decide to opt out.
So the first thing they will see once the Phorm/Webwise Spyware has been enabled is a full page web notice that they can opt out? So if the person has their homepage set to say the BT or Virgin Media home pages, then by you putting your page up first shows the user that you are intercepting/tampering with their data stream by redirecting them. Will this wonderful OPT-IN page also tell them that it will still collect data on their online activity even if they opt out?
And what of BT’s recent revelation that anyone with BT who blocks any of the Phorm/Webwise domains in their hosts file won’t be able to use the internet at all?
Phorm/Webwise beaks not only UK laws, but also EU laws too. And now that the ICO has started opening cases concerning the illegal trials you’ve undertaken with BT, your share price plummeting and more people becoming aware of the scheme through the media. I think the days of your ISP based spyware system are numbered.
