An answer to Flash gits

Being a great open source/Linux freak, I love the Firefox browser – its flexibility and ease of customisation are really appealing.

When browsing I like content presented simply too. Except when looking especially for it, I really dislike having Flash animations strobing and morphing before my eyes, particularly if they’re trying to sell me something, which they usually are if you happen to use web-based mail sites such as Yahoo!

Flashblock in action on Yahoo!

Now I’ve discovered an answer to this intrusive eye candy – the Flashblock Firefox extension, which enables one to disable all Flash animations, but leaving a button so you can view any that you actually want to see. My heartfelt thanks go out to its developers, Lorenzo Colitti and Philip Chee: splendid work, chaps!

gNewSense – a new Linux distro from FSF

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has recently unveiled gNewSense, a new Linux distribution that is reported to be free of the proprietary software that’s contained in most Linux distros. Based on Ubuntu and Debian, gNewSense offers users “the stability of Ubuntu with the addition of freedom,” according to developers Brian Brazil and Paul O’Malley.

Moreover, Brazil and O’Malley also stated that, from a philosophical viewpoint, they wanted to create a distribution where the user has access to all the sources for all the software on the system, including everything from the heart of the kernel right up to everyday desktop applications.

You can read the full story on DesktopLinux.com.

For the impatient, the iso of the live CD can be downloaded here.

Any old iron

Last week the Evening Post carried a report of a pensioner, Karl Heinz, who was quoted £15 to dispose of an old kettle. The binmen refused to take it and when Mr Heinz of Redfield rang up the council, he was told it would cost that amount – probably several multiples of what the appliance originally cost – to arrange for a special collection if he did not want to take it to the tip himself.

Fifteen portraits of the Queen is the charge introduced last year by Bristol City Council to collect the bulky items the regular waste collections do not handle, e.g. furniture, white goods, etc. Until that fateful day, collection used to be free. One rang up the council, told them what needed collecting from where, put it out and waited. It did eventually disappear.

Since the introduction of the charge, the streets, open spaces and patches of wasteland have sprouted a profusion of old televisions, kitchen appliances, sofas, armchairs and beds. Even the council itself has admitted the streets have got messier since the charge’s introduction.

Moreover, since the summer Bristolians have been grappling with the complexities of the new waste collection arrangements. Refuse collections are now fortnightly, whilst recycling collections – 2 in number – take place weekly on the same day. Even educated to degree level as I am, it took me some time to work out the complexities of the new system; I dread to think how those for whom English is not a first language are coping, but can imagine they’re not. Added to the mix of old appliances and furniture, we now have full black rubbish bags littering the streets and open space. On the pavements, it’s a real assault course – 3 bins per household now jostling for pavement space with all the parked cars. No wonder pedestrians use the roadway!

As a slight aside, I met my old friend and fellow Bearded Fiend Boris last night, recently returned from New Zealand. He reckons Bristol is the filthiest place he’s seen on all his travels. Visitors to Bristol concur too, with regular admonitory correspondence gracing the pages of the Pest.

By now any sensible council would be having a rethink of its arrangements in the light of the above, but I seriously doubt whether there’s any sense in the Counts Louse.

Gone phishing

Today in my junk email folder, I found a phishing email. Nothing unusual about that, you may think: I beg to differ; this one was for Deutsche Bank – my first for a German financial institution, and one incidentally name-checked by Kraftwerk in Computerworld. Two hours after Deutsche Bank comes another, this time allegedly from Sparkasse, the German savings bank, although the domain – as with the other one – has a .biz suffix, not .de.

Are those who perpetrate phishing scams stupid? I sometimes wonder. They certainly acquire lists of email addresses and fire off their at first sight convincing fraudulent messages to all and sundry. I get several a day alleging to come from Barclays, plus a few a week masquerading as posts from other British financial institutions, e.g. Abbey, Alliance and Leicester, etc. However, I never get one from someone pretending to be my own bankers… strange.

Phishers may, as hinted above, be stupid, but people responding to their fraudulent messages are even stupider. Before you click on that link, just look where it goes; the probably includes your bank’s domain, but the full address is pointing to a server somewhere in the world where ISPs are less concerned about what their users are posting and where government regulation is less strict.

However, it seems lots of people are falling victim to phishing. In 2004 total UK online fraud totalled £12 mn. This total had been outstripped in the first six months of 2005 (£14.5 mn.) and comparable figures for 2006 show a 55% increase. Be very careful, folks.

Free software is legal!

In a recent anti-trust case, the US Court of Appeals has ruled that free software is legal, the Register reports.

The case was brought by one Daniel Wallace claiming that since the source code for Linux is free and free software companies have all contributed to the source under the GPL, those companies have formed a predatory pricing conspiracy to force smaller developers out of the software market. By giving software away, they have stifled competition, creating an environment where small developers can’t compete with Linux. The GPL functions as the conspiracy in this strange world, since it is a common effort to stifle any potential competition.

In his summation, Chief Judge Easterbrook stated that “the GPL and open-source software have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws.”

The full story is in the Register.

Are we being served?

On its website Bristol City Council claims that “Bristol City Council Waste Services and Street Scene Group will clear any fly tipped waste from public areas generally within two working days“. How well does this claim stand up to investigation? The answer is not very well, if you happen to live in Easton.

On 27th September I reported fly-tipped waste on Bannerman Road. It has finally been cleared in the last week – six weeks after it was originally reported. Even emailing a local ward councillor didn’t help. Well done, thou good and trusty public servants.

However, I’m not the only one to suffer such poor service. If you don’t believe how bad things are, Bob Blackmore of Goodpenny Island recently got an item in the Evening Post condemning the service provided to Eastonites by the council. As a result of the Post item, Bob had a meeting with Gary Hopkins, the City Council Executive member for “Environment and Community Safety”, who, according to Bob, made lots of promises regarding future improvements. However, Bob is not holding his breath.

Update 14/11/2006: News has just arrived that Easton Residents’ Network and Somali Voice have organised a public meeting with Gary Hopkins and council staff for 11th December at Easton Community Centre to discuss the filthy state of Easton. I’ll be there to report.

A visit to Dorkbot

Dorkbot – a worldwide movement dedicated to doing strange things with electricity – seems to have settled well into Bristol, having held its second meeting at Watershed on Thursday, 9th November.

Clare makes patterns with light. Photo taken by John Honniball