The voting records of Canadian MPs are being made available online. For instance, here is the voting record of Paul Dewar – NDP representative for Ottawa Centre. Things are still in an introductory state and the system hasn’t become as useful as it could potentially be. Nonetheless, it is a nice step forward towards a system in which constituents can easily and effectively monitor what their representatives are doing.
Category: Internet matters
Posts about the internet
Restaurant food safety in Ottawa
As a public service, the city of Ottawa is now posting the results of food premise inspections at restaurants online. Results for all Ottawa area restaurants are meant to be online by fall. Unfortunately, those for the restaurants I visit most seem to be in the ‘yet to be digitized’ pile.
Link placement preferences
For future reference, which approach do people prefer:
A) Putting links at a gramatically sensible place in sentences, i.e.: “A new report has been issued on climate change and water.”
B) Using the keywords as links, i.e.: “A new report has been issued on climate change and water?”
I have used both inconsistently in the past, generally thinking that A is more human-friendly and B is more Google-friendly.
Amazon’s sudden homophobia
In a rather despicable move, Amazon.com seems to have decided that all texts pertaining to homosexuality are somehow obscene. As a result, they have been removed from sales rankings and lists of best sellers. The top result for a search on the term ‘homosexuality’ now leads to A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, followed by several other Christian texts offering to ‘cure’ homosexuality. Farther down, there are some books that are positive towards alternative forms of sexuality, including what I have been read is the most banned book in America at the moment: And Tango Makes Three, the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York who raise a chick together.
Amazon initially claimed that ‘adult’ material had to excluded from “searches and best seller lists.” Obviously, this censorship is deeply inappropriate and Amazon now says it was an error. Until they sort it out, I certainly won’t be buying anything from them.
[Update: 15 April 2009] According to The Globe and Mail, the Amazon rankings have been restored.
Book club, month two
The first month of the non-fiction book club is coming to an end, and I will be posting my review of Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden on Wednesday. As such, it is time to start choosing a second book. I have the following nominees:
1) Speth, Gus. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability.
2) Jaccard, Mark. Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy.
3) Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World. (About a failed Antarctic expedition)
What else would people consider reading?
UK libel laws and global free speech
As explained well in an article by Emily MacManus, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that British laws on libel are a threat to free speech around the world. Because they permit frivolous cases that would be far too costly for most people to fight, they give a great deal of power to anyone who is annoyed enough and has the resources to pursue legal action there. Even the threat of such action may be sufficient to make individuals or publishing organizations censor themselves.
The linked article goes further into the peculiarities, which include the characteristics of ‘no-win-no-fee’ litigation and the broad understanding of who constitutes a ‘publisher.’ For instance, if you said something true but commercially harmful about a company on your website, they might go after you, your internet service provider, or the company that runs the server your site is on. Any of them might feel pressured into removing the statements, rather than face litigation. British law also holds that “every time the statement is downloaded or accessed it constitutes a fresh publication,” which could produce especially absurd outcomes for a popular website.
An important first step could be requiring the party bringing the suit to prove that the allegations are untrue, before the court accepts the case. For instance, if I said that Rio Tinto was polluting a river somewhere with mercury, or that Suncor is emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gasses, they would have to prove the opposite in some sort of pre-trial hearing, before they could come after me. It might also make sense to limit which courts can hear a particular case, so as to prevent people from shopping around in random legal jurisdictions to find the one that gives them the strongest hand.
The article suggests that ‘principled deep-pocketed litigants’ might be able to produce some useful new precedents, limiting the damage the existing rules on libel and defamation could have on honest and open public discourse. For now, however, it suggests that “the reaction to libel remains: take it down, take it down quickly, take it down again. And libel tourism means that this habit is likely to spread.”
One thing the article isn’t clear on is what could happen to you if a British court rules against you, in your absence, and you simply ignore them. Perhaps someone with more legal knowledge could explain whether there is any chance of them coming after assets held in another jurisdiction.
Deep packet inspection in Canada
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has created a new website. In addition to the commissioner’s blog, there is now a website devoted to deep packet inspection, announced here.
Deep packet inspection is quite a profound modification of how the internet works. All information passed across the web goes through a number of machines. In the classic version of this arrangement, they just forward the information to the next link without giving it any consideration. With packet inspection, the datastream can be monitored by those intermediate machines, including the ones at a user’s internet service provider (ISP) between their computer and the rest of the internet. Given that the computers of your ISP see all your traffic, having them implement deep packet inspection raises some especially serious questions. That is especially true given that they may be vulnerable to attack by malicious actors, and may be willing to cooperate with requests from governments, even if those requests are illegal.
The technology could have good uses, like stopping viruses and worms. It could also have many malicious ones. Companies could use it to block competition, by making the internet discriminate against their existing rivals and new startups. It could also be used for data mining, eavesdropping, and censorship. Personally, I would prefer an internet without it, and I am glad to see that it’s something Canada’s official privacy official has been devoting a fair bit of attention towards.
The future of newspapers
In a recent post, Taylor Owen argues that the death of newspapers (if it is happening) is not anti-democratic, because they will likely be replaced by less hierarchical structures. Personally, I think the value of newspapers derives precisely from the resources they have that most websites lack, such as access to powerful figures and the resources required for independent research. While some blogs do have very capable writers and sophisticated analysis, I do think the mainstream media is a very important current flowing into online discussions.
One way or another, I am sure newspapers will survive. They serve too many valuable purposes to be rendered pointless by the internet, and the best of them will eventually develop revenue streams that allow them to keep functioning despite it.
Useful-looking manual flash
The LumoPro LP120 manual flash is interesting for two major reasons.
First, it defies the design logic of the big camera companies. They want to sell snazzy proprietary technologies, like through-the-lens (TTL) metering. This flash generally omits them. The big companies also want to exclude low-cost, useful features from cheap products. That way, they can drive people to buy more expensive ones. For instance, Canon doesn’t include a PC-connection on its US$275 430 EX II flash, but it does on the US$400 580 EX II. The LP120 includes a built-in PC connector, hotshoe connector, 1/8″ jack, and an integrated optical slave. It also has output roughly comparable to the 430 EX II, for US$130.
Second, it seems that the flash was designed primarily to serve a single web-based community: the talented and flash-obsessed photographers at Strobist. That seems like the kind of thing that could produce a very clever trend, where like-minded people assemble with specific needs and niche products are developed to accommodate them effectively.
In any case, I am strongly considering getting an LP120 as a second flash. It would let me do more elaborate things than are possible using just a single flash and an umbrella. I have an upcoming photographic project where better portrait capabilities would be a distinct asset.
[Update: 24 March 2009] I got the LP120 flash today. My first impression is that it feels cheap. The battery compartment is finicky, and flash head doesn’t lock in place, and the flash emits a constant high-pitched whine when on. It certainly shows me part of why people shell out money for flashes like the Canon 430EX II.
We will see whether the photographic performance of the flash is better than the build quality.
‘Book club’ idea
If you count the time spent reading, my book review posts are certainly the ones that have the most effort invested in them. Yet, they generally fail to spawn any substantive discussion. Generally, this is because most readers won’t have read most of the books in question. As a result, any discussions are based around things I happen to mention in my post, rather than the overall content of the book in question.
As a solution, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a monthly non-fiction book club, to be operated through this and other blogs. We would choose a book per month, read it, and then all write posts and/or comments about it. That way, some substantive discussion of the material could take place. I would be most keen about books in subject areas covered on this site, but am not fundamentally averse to trying something more unusual. Even fiction might be considered, provided it is of a practical variety.
Would anyone be interested?