Have I mentioned PledgeBank before? I don’t think I have… it has been in beta for some time time but today it officially launches (with added Brian Eno). The idea is simple - so simple I can’t believe it hasn’t really done yet - if you want to do something worthy, but need other people to join you in order to make it a difference, then you can make a pledge to do it, if x others also sign up to do the same thing.

The idea’s great, it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out, especially as to how effective searching out pledges you might want to join is going to be. While I’m not a folksonomy obsessive like some people out there, adding the ability to tag a pledge with extra keywords would be a help, especially as similarly-linked pledges can be grouped together.

The case of Gary McKinnon (aka Wood Green’s biggest hacker) has hit the headlines - he has allegedly gained unlawful access (the term “Hacker” should be avoided as a misnomer) to US military computers and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars’ damage.

However, the appellation of “World’s worst hacker” is pretty wrong - his attacks were hardly the work of an evil genius: according to the prosecution, he used commercially-available software (Remotely Anywhere) to make his attacks, and used his girlfriend’s email address in registering for it; his attacks were easily traced and recorded. Apparently, the worst ‘hacking’ he did was testing certain common passwords. And all in an attempt to find out more about UFOs. Certainly not the ‘cyberterrorist’ they’re all scared about.

There are scary issues, though. Firstly that the press are more than happy to swallow up and repeat the same old rubbish about “cyberterrorism”; second that the US military’s computers are so easy to break into that a complete amateur managed to (allegedly) find his way in; and thirdly that the UK is more than happy to have him extradited to the US, via the new UK-US extradtion treaty (which does not require prima facie evidence from the US), despite the fact MacKinnon was arrested in the UK two years ago under Computer Misuse Act (which covers the allegations detailed), but not charged.

I’m not going to start clamouring for McKinnon’s freedom - in fact I’m not going to make any sort of judgement whether he is innocent or guilty… all that I am saying on the matter is that he should be given a fair trial, in a fair court with full disclosure of evidence, and without the unbalanced, hysterical treatment the press and authorities have handed out so far.

Sorry for not writing this past week - was down in London for part of it for a recruitment fair (disappointing), and have been busy since I got back to Edinburgh with work, finding a new flat and celebrating friends’ birthdays. Not that it matters, really, as I have very little to talk or blog about at the moment…again… which got me thinking about a form of “extreme blogging”: an Oscar Wilde*-style thingy where you send me a random link and no matter what it is, I have to blog about it with suitable pithy commentary. I’m not sure this is such a good idea, though.

From here - ‘Wilde claimed he could discuss any subject at any time prepared or not. A companion once took him up on this claim, asking that he discourse on the subject of “The Queen.” Responded Wilde: “The Queen is not a subject.”‘

Today I went to see Sin City in the cinema; one of the few times I’ve plumped for a film not knowing at all what the setup is beforehand… all I knew it was an adaptation of a series of comics/graphic novels.

Despite my claims to geekdom, I know a bit, but not very much about the graphic novel world, and so perhaps I’m not best to judge this film….but anyway, I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Not only for the slick, gorgeous visuals (which deserve a separate eulogising blog post of their own) but because the film retains the spirit of the comic book, namely the suspension of disbelief: cars literally jump over the peaks of hilly roads, characters take tremendous beatings (or get shot dozens of times,) and still live, there is last-minute rescue upon last-minute rescue - you know it’s coming but you still enjoy seeing it happen. Unlike some other comic-to-film adaptations like X-Men and Spiderman, it doesn’t indulge in real-worldifying by introducing additional context such as politics or ethical issues; it’s in its own sleazy universe on its own, with no attempt to moralise or make it ‘relevant’. Toss in a good score and a great, verging on perfect cast (just when you think it couldn’t get better - here comes Rutger Hauer!), and you’ve got a brilliant film. I think Tom agrees.

Only gripes - if you don’t like your films long, you might not like this; also it gets quite, quite violent a lot of the time, with some characters meeting quite gruesome demises… but this is a quite essential part of the film’s central premise. If you’re not troubled by either, then do go see it.

One of the many interesting (well, just many) books I am reading as part of my dissertation research is Gerald Weinberg’s The Psychology of Computer Programming. Although (as it acknowledges) short on experimental data, the anecdotal evidence in the book is immensely interesting (as well as some stories of nightmare developers and managers that are fun to recount in geek circles). It’s most striking aspect is how it describes the programmer’s ego, the concept of cognitive dissonance (i.e. how people deal with conflicting or contrary mindsets, such as the moment you find out the code you’ve spent all week writing is actually a load of garbage), and the idea of ‘Egoless Programming’ - subjecting one’s work to peer review, taking suggestions and changes warmly without going on the defensive, and how it produces much better code as a result. This philosophy is along the same lines as the Open Source movement’s own - what makes it so visionary though is that this book was written in 1971 - the Middle Ages of computing; long before the Internet, Microsoft and the PC, in a time where people still used punch-cards and programming was done on a single mainframe that different developers had to timeshare. It initially struck me as amazing that despite the many technological changes that have occurred over that time, the same human and social practices are advocated as being most likely to lead to success; as a sociologist of technology, on reflection it isn’t that surprising, but the computer scientist in me certainly was.

If you can get over the slightly old terminology and use of FORTRAN and other languages of the time, I recommend reading it - there was a silver anniversary edition released in 1996 (which I have been unable to get hold of), which probably updates it into the modern computing vernacular. At the very least, it tells some good anecdotes about how not to manage projects; in fact it’s probably the very first book collection such woes, and thus possibly the grandfather of the Dilbert culture.

Asked whether Edinburgh could handle one million people, the Irish musician said: “Well, they take a million a year with the festival”

Yes Sir Bob, but not all at once. You idiot.

So, a million are marching upon Edinburgh, then - after being suitably roused by the stirring music of Dido, Coldplay and Keane. The first few days of July are going to be fun here, that’s for sure. Not least because I have to move bloody house then.

There are many great problems with the world at the moment - and they need to be solved. Oxford University and Dave Gorman look set to battle it out to see who solves them first.

(As an aside, I have to say I quite like the idea of ’stampvelopes’)