All in the name of security

I'll start with yet another underwear bomb - expect security check-in desks to feature strip searches soon.

The second is my credit card. I have a User Name (not my real name), I have a Passcode and I have a Password which I can use to check my balance. However using my card online I now have a separate verification procedure which requires yet another Password. If I want to check how that's been used or change the details rather than logging on to my card site and checking I have to log in to a different part of my card provider's site with yet another log in name.

So two log in names with two passwords (and on passcode) for the same damn card. Add in all my other login and passwords and its no surprise that a) people use the same codes for everything and b) they only get changed post compromise.

The doubly dumb thing is that if I had a bank account with this company I'd have a random number generator to use with my card and PIN. Why not use that for the credit cards too? Use my card details for the login, add in my DOB and then the random number. Even if its being sniffed the number will change every time; the only way it can be compromised is if someone steals my card; knows my PIN and DOB and has a number generator. The only thing I need to remember then is my PIN and DOB.

Tie this into an OpenID system with some company selling generators and cards that allow you to login in to various sites (blogger, facebook etc.) using the card number and number shown and again all that needs to be remembered is a PIN.

One PIN for the card; one PIN for logging in. If you can't remember two four digit numbers than you've more problems than security.

Wyre Forest Conservatives NOCed down

From a controlling majority of 24 out of 42 the Conservatives making up the District Council have been dropped to 20. Still the majority party, but it's no longer the case that a Conservative Press Release automatically equals council policy.

Three of the wards have returned to the same party split as 2004 (Habberley & Blakebrook, Mitton, and Wribbenhall) after a few shifts in power between times.

Looking at the patterns since 2004 of those wards with more than one seat and thus have a greater chance of change I note that Lickhill remains ICHC; Offmore & Comberton Liberal; and Sutton Park Conservative.

Turnout was the lowest since 2004 and yet still only two councillors managed an overall majority:

Brian Glass, Lickhill, ICHC, 52.89%;
Douglas Godwin, Rock Conservative, 58.09%.

Which means that from our current crop of 42 councillors only 6 were elected with greater than 50% of the turnout:

Christopher Nicholls, Cookley, Labour, 55.46%, 2011;
John Hart, Wolverley, Conservative, 60.63%, 2011;
Pauline Haywood, Blakedown & Chaddesley, 66.87%, 2010;
Stephen William, Blakedown & Chaddesley, Conservative, 78.58%, 2011.

Currently the lowest 'winners' are:

Adrian Sewell, Broadwaters, Labour, 28.74%, 2011;
Nathan Desmond, Oldington & Foley Park, Conservative, 30.53%, 2012;
Graham Ballinger, Greenhill, ICHC, 32.12%, 2012;
Paul Harrison, Greenhill, Conservative, 32.85%, 2011;
Nicky Gale, Oldington & Foley Park, Conservative, 33.13%, 2010;
Nigel Knowles, Franche, Labour, 34.24%, 2012.

The electorates for 2012 have yet to be released (and given the shoddy nature of disclosure may not be) however using the turnout percentages to gain a rough idea the lowest are:

Nathan Desmond, Oldington & Foley Park, Conservative, 6.9%, 2012;
Graham Ballinger, Greenhill, ICHC, 8.2%, 2012;
Adrian Sewell, Broadwaters, Labour, 10.1%, 2011;
Mary Rayner,  Broadwaters, ICHC, 10.39%, 2012;
Nigel Knowles, Franche, Labour, 10.7%, 2012.
Marcus Hart, Sutton Park, Conservative , 11.14%; 2012

Currently 29 of the 42 councillors are representing less than 25% of their electorate.Only one councillor, Pauline Haywood, achieved over 50% (51.12%) of the electorate.

The UK High Court messes up over Pirate Bay

For those keeping an eye out regarding such sneakiness as SOPA and PIPA etc will undoubtedly spotted the High Court ruling that UK Internet Service Providers must block access to the website Pirate Bay.

Beyond of course not actually working for anyone who really really wants to access it; it also turns out it may be completely unenforceable.

Yup, turns out the European Court of Justice has already ruled on a similar subject in which

Accordingly, the Court’s reply is that EU law precludes an injunction made against an internet service provider requiring it to install a system for filtering all electronic communications passing via its services which applies indiscriminately to all its customers, as a preventive measure, exclusively at its expense, and for an unlimited period.

Which is, in essence, what the High Court is telling UK ISPs to do and yet would you look at that Virgin Media caves in without a fight.

Hopefully one of our other ISPs will show a little back-bone and point at the EU ruling before pulling the plug thus rescinding the, possibly, invalid demand.

Getting the local politics

With an election today I thought it worth reviewing exactly how I receive my political bits and bobs. The vast majority of stuff comes via RSS feeds which I view using Google Reader. How do the main parties add up in this regard locally? In alphabetical order:

Wyre Forest Conservatives - News feed, but titles itself as "News".
Wyre Forest Green Party - Blog feed.
Independent Community and Health Concern - No feeds at all so I only see their stuff if I visit the site.
Wyre Forest Labour - Blog feed; as well as ward blog feeds though the latter aren't well advertised on the main site.
Wyre Forest Liberal Democrats -  No feeds at all again I only see their stuff if I visit the site.
Wyre Forest Liberals - Blog feed, but titles itself as "Blog"

The winner in terms of getting their story in front of my eyes electronically - Labour well in the lead with not only all the blog feeds but twitter feeds too.

Local voting

Today is voting day for Wyre Forest and I'm glad I didn't try to do it this morning as I'd have been even later than I was (thank you Severn Trent Water); my vote is my vote and I'm not going to give out details; however in an unrelated article on the Shuttle WalkerNo5 made the comment regarding the removal of Cllr Marcus Hart from the Sutton Park posse ward. Now while I personally would applaud such a sentiment; the questionfor the electorate really is "What is best for Sutton Park?".

As it stands the Conservatives currently dominate and sadly that's unlikely to change any time soon (I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised) as such if the people of Sutton Park want to have any real influence over events that means voting Conservative. On it's own not really a good enough reason; after all by that logic we should all vote Conservative. However in the case of Sutton Park Marcus is also a member of the cabinet which means they gain even more influence. It gets better as all three Sutton Park members are on the five strong cabinet; therefore even if they had a choice of a different Conservative member standing as well as Marcus it would still be in their own interests to vote for Marcus unless they knew their new Cllr would ascend to those ranks.

Sure one could take an altruistic approach and ask what is best for the district; but that only works if everyone thinks the same way lest you be left out in the cold.

As such, as much as it pains me to say so, it's in Sutton Park's own interests to maintain the status quo and their own disproportionate power within the District Council; and that means voting for Marcus [sigh]

Bridge Street traffic

Not content with messing up Mitton while testing the new lights; this morning traffic lights had been set up just next to the pelican crossing close to Harold Davies Drive on the bridge. According to the schedule of works this is Severn Trent Water renewing a stop-tap.

I mean sure, lights need to be put up. But they put them up and activated them around the 8:15 mark and by the time I reached them around the 8:50 mark no-one was doing any work.

So a set of lights put up during the morning rush hour on the only road into and out of Stourport in order to protect a non-existent work force.

Yet another mark of privatisation because, of course, the people putting up the lights work for a completely different company to those doing the work. So the first group are just told to turn up and place things ready for the second group; who may be having difficulty in reaching the area due to the queuing being caused by the actions of the first group.

Universal's Augmented Reality edition Blu-rays

An email notification popped up of yet another sale so I took a quick gander. One thing that caught my eye was a bunch of re-released Blu-rays advertised as being "Augmented Reality Versions". Reading the blurb is came out as - download this app then point your camera at the cover. Uh-huh and?

Turns out this app from Universal ties to a map. Visit certain locations and point your phone or tablet at a landmark and characters from that movie will appear interacting. So point it at Nelson's Column and see King Kong climbing it; point it at Big Ben's tower and the Back to the Future DeLorean will fly past; point it at Buckingham Palace and see a T-Rex stomping by. Just a neat bit of fun, however did you spot the subtle connection between those locations?

Yup all these locations are in London. I can't see King Kong clambering through the Bull Ring in Birmingham. At times I just get a little fed-up of the London-centric approach that seems to be a given within the UK.