Jinn of Quality and Risk

A giant machine has started burrowing its way under London, carving a new route for [the Channel Tunnel high-speed trains from London to mainland Europe]. Where will it go -- and how close will it cut to the capital's labyrinth of tunnels, pipes and passages? A friend's PhD thesis in civil engineering (at Cambridge) is related to this project; I believe his work involves the application of new materials to "strengthen" tunnel walls while such gigantic machines are boring in unstable rock/sediment (disclaimer: I'm not the expert). I love the kind of engineering project where, when one's mother asks "so, what do you do at work?" one can simply point and generate well-deserved awe. "Showing" an impressive software solution requires much hand-waving, conceptual context, patience, and abstract knowledge. By contrast, there is perceptual glory in the building of bridges and skyscrapers. 

This sheds an interesting light on current debates about patents and copyrights: If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it. — Margaret Fuller (biography)

As Thomas Jefferson wrote, If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispose himself of it. Further, He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. [both quotes found in Copyrights and Copywrongs, MSNBC, July 2001]

Jefferson would have loved computers and weblogs. 

Updated my weblog neighbourhood (last time was in June). It's grown by 30%; the page size is now close to 300KB. Need to check who the new neighbours are. 

John Robb checks his credit at Equifax and finds erroneous information about him: They are recommending to lendors that they provide me a loan without any info on employment history, assets, or potential for future income. Absolutely crazy.

Amusing coincidence: yesterday I requested under the Data Protection Act that Equifax UK send me the credit rating they give out for me. Here's why: This week I wanted to set up a cable TV subscription with Telewest, the local cable monopoly. But they told me I have a bad credit rating and must give them £250 in deposit, while letting them directly debit £18.50 per month from my bank account. The thing is, I have no debt at all, pay all my bills on time, and no other company has asked me for such a deposit during my three years of living in the UK! I know there is a mistake somewhere and Telewest doesn't care — and doesn't get my money, which they don't seem to be very interested in, as I could have also subscribed to their broadband and phone offerings (that's £50 per month they'll never get, because I can choose among their competitors for those services). All they offered was that I could try again in 3 months time, to see if my rating changes... Now Equifax is going to charge me £2.50 so I can find out what the problem is. Then I'll have to spend time trying to get them to correct their records. These rating agencies seem to have a bit too much power and built-in inertia. We'll see.

The majority of [8,875 data protection] complaints received by the [information] commission over the past year dealt with accuracy of credit and financial information collected by companies such as Equifax and Experian. [Guardian Unlimited, July 2001] 

The Great Firewall of China has started blocking Google -- ah well, there's a doomed civilization. How true. Another bizarre twist of a dictatorship's fight for survival: prevent citizens from using the best search engine in the world. Imagine growing up in a country where the State systematically does that to you — because their standard of judgment is not life, nor liberty, nor the pursuit of happiness. [via Boing Boing Blog] 

I've gone back to original Web pages in order to find the permalinks corresponding to posts I had recently routed through my Radio News Aggregator. These updated posts will therefore reappear in my RSS feed. Apologies. Surely there is a setting or trick I am missing in RU. 

John Robb found this weblog, and likes it: Kalle has a wonderful Radio weblog.  It feels smooth and the ideas are fresh.  Subscribed.  (one suggestion -- he should use permalinks to the sites he links to).

Thanks! I'd certainly like to include permalinks, but they don't appear in my Radio News Aggregator. Here's what John's post looks like to me:

where is the permalink? I can get it from the Web site, but there must be a way to have it appear in the news aggregator.

Nothing like such a public link to make me notice my spelling mistakes, remember that my weblog template needs improvements, and want to write a bit more about deep issues.