Ravings fromthe Shell

Formula 1? You gotta love it. I like it for the science, technology and engineering. The actual racing itself is boring and the results are often contrived. (Though I think Bernie and Max read my earlier blog, and adjusted accordingly). Not that things were any better in the ‘good old days’ when there were fewer lawyers around, and things were agreed with a nod a wink and a handshake. The ‘Good Old Days”, that’ll be when Max and Bernie were running teams and not the whole sport.

Recently all eyes have been on the Renault ‘Spygate’ scandal, and this morning it emerged that a ‘Witness X’ had put nails in the coffin of the defense. Now I am not suggesting any connection, but I find it curious that both Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatotre, whom it was rumored to have been behind Max Mosley’s ‘outing’ have both been punted out of F1. Max tidying things up before he leaves, perhaps? And who was ‘Witness X’? Fernando Alonso was called to the hearing at short notice, and it would be inconceivable that a driver of his experience did not want to know why he was put on such a strange race-strategy.

Well the next performance of the circus is in Singapore this coming weekend, and is taking place at night to facilitate better TV audience ratings. Let’s hope it’s not scheduled against the X-Factor.

I was rather pleasantly surprised to read that Michael Vaughn, probably the best England Cricket Captain of recent years, has been retained to coach and mentor young cricketers in the “mental aspects of cricket, decision-making and captaincy.”

My mind travels back to 1981, when Mike Brearley was recalled to the role of England Captain when the current incumbent, Ian Botham, resigned the captaincy due to the adverse effect it was having on his playing. At the time Brearley would never have made the side on his cricketing skills (he probably wouldn’t even have done so a few years previously in his “pomp”), it was purely down to his cricketing brain, and especially his leadership and man-management skills, which allowed him to get the best out of people like Botham, David Gower and Bob Willis. The appointment was clearly a stop-gap measure, and it is here that the MCC (who ran the England team back then) clearly missed a trick.

David Gower was clearly marked out as the golden boy and FEC (Future England Captain), but was seen as too young and inexperienced. What should have happened is that Brearley should have been taken to one side and told “Gower is the future, teach him all that you know”. What did happen is that Keith Fletcher, another older player but experienced county captain, was called into the side, lost a series against India and a test against Sri Lanka before being dismissed. Bob Willis succeeded Fletcher, but combining the roles of fast bowler and Skipper are notoriously difficult and on the 1983/4 Winter tour to Pakistan, Gower took over after the first test. Three years of bumbling around could have been avoided. Now, I am not being wise after the event, since both myself and wiser counsels thought as much, back in ‘81.

Fast-Forward to 2009. Developing England Captains is even harder. The England Cricket team is now run by the ECB (England and Wales cricket Board), who retain the top players on “Central Contracts”. This means that once you are an England Player you very rarely play for your (handsomely renumerated) County. While this may allow better management of the players, by preventing them being flogged to death playing out dull draws in front of the proverbial three men and one dog on the County circuit, it does mean that young players in the England set-up don’t get a chance to develop the leadership skills associated with Captaining their county. And by definition, most county captains haven’t made the grade as an England player. (e.g. Robert Key who was suggested as a candidate to replace Kevin Pietersen before Andrew Strauss was appointed). Therefore there is clearly a need to inculcate young players in the England setup with the necessary skills. Shame it has taken someone 218 years to sort this out.

I’ve frequently been asked about the difference between viruses, trojans, spyware etc, and whey we need different programs to detect each, so I thought I’d write a short primer.

Viruses, Trojans and other nasties.

Virus
A program or code that replicates, that is, infects another program, boot sector, partition sector, or document that supports macros, by inserting itself or attaching itself to that medium. Most viruses only replicate, though many do a large amount of damage as well.

Trojans
Unlike viruses, trojans do not self-replicate. They are spread manually, often under the premise that they are beneficial or wanted. The most common installation methods involve system or security exploitation, and unsuspecting users manually executing unknown programs. Distribution channels include email, malicious or hacked web pages, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), peer-to-peer networks, etc.

Malware (malicious software)
A malicious program. Viruses and Trojans are examples of malware. Potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) are not considered malware.

Adware
Programs (usually free) which make money for their writers by displaying adverts or redirecting people to particular websites, or collecting information about your browsing habits to allow targeting of adverts. Closely related to spyware and malware, there is a grey area where the activities of adware cross-over with malware and particularly, spyware.

Spyware
Software whose function includes transmitting personal information to a third party without the user’s knowledge or consent. This usage is distinct from the common usage of spyware to represent commercial software that has security or privacy implications.

Root Kits
A root kit is a set of software that consists of a program or combination of several programs designed to hide or obscure the fact that a system has been compromised – that is hide the infection from Anti-virus and anti-malware programs. Because they exist at such a fundamental level on the computer they can be very difficult to detect and remove, and there are examples of root kits which can survive a complete re-formatting and re-installation of the Operating System (OS) on the computer.

Continue reading ‘Internet Security Primer’

I don’t consider my self as a ‘Football Fan’, however since the time I used to play as the Midfield Enforcer at school I have followed the (mis)fortunes of Tottenham Hotspur. A good year is one where we just float around in mid-table, bad ones are spent dodging relegation, and being reminded that ‘no-one is too big to go down (c.f. Newcastle United)

However, this year has begun with unbridled optimism as Spurs under the leadership of a ‘well dodgy geezer’ find them selves at the top of the pile. It cannot last, so for posterity I present the evidence.

The Real First Division

I find myself somewhat entangled in the sticky fangs of a Leopard-based dilemma. When I bought my Macbook a couple of years ago, it came with version 10.4 (Tiger) of the Macintosh Operating system (MacOS X). A year later Apple issued 10.5 (Leopard). I chose not to upgrade because (a) the price was too high and (b) it looked like it would degrade the performance of my system. Now however Apple are releasing (August 28) 10.6 (Snow Leopard). This apparently has all the advantages of Leopard but without the hit on system resources.

Snow Leopard

My dilemma is this: Apple have priced the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard at $29 (which due to the unfathomable way that currency conversions and rip-off Britain works equates to £25), however if you want to upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard, Apple say you should purchase the $169 Mac Box Set which includes new versions of iWork and iLife. However, many of us don’t use iWork or iLife. Therefore why should we have to pay $140 for two DVD’s we will never use?

Now according to reliable sources, the disk in the $29 upgrade and the $169 box set containing the OS are exactly the same, and will quite happily install directly on top of Tiger. So, what to do? Have Apple shot their foot off or are they being very clever an hoping that people will at least pay something for upgrading their computer instead of downloading a torrent?