The Right Honourable Liar Carmichael and the problem of Fake News
[This is my submission to the Westminster Culture Media and Sport Committee's enquiry into 'Fake News']
Before the 2015 General Election, a Scotland Office official leaked a story claiming that Nicola Sturgeon had told the French Ambassador, Sylvie Bermann, that she favoured the Conservatives to win. An enquiry was launched into the leak. Alistair Carmichael MP told that enquiry that he had not known of the leak until it appeared in the press. The election happened, and the Right Honourable Liar Carmichael was duly elected as member for Orkney and Shetland.
Hard Cheese
Draft response to Food Standards Scotland's consultation on its regulatory strategy.
Nothing is without risk. All foods have health benefits and disbenefits, some of which are now well understood and some which aren't. Attempting to create a perfectly safe food environment is beyond the scope of modern dietary science. In particular an auto-immune system which is never challenged does not develop resilience necessary for good health; for example, pasteurisation has been associated with the rise in allergies.
There's no doubt that FSS policy to date has been highly detrimental to small innovative food businesses. The destruction of Errington's Cheeses stock on the basis of tenuous and unproven evidence — effectively, on the basis of pure prejudice — has had a very chilling effect on the ability of small food businesses in Scotland to raise capital and find investors. This runs directly against your proposed outcome of 'Enabling business compliance and growth', and detracts sharply from your proposed outcome of 'FSS is a trusted, empowered and effective regulator'.
Post scarcity: Memory, threads and communication
One benefit of getting really annoyed with Daniel Holden's book on how to Build Your Own Lisp is that I have finally started work on building software for my decade-old Post Scarcity Software idea. There are some problems you don't really see until you start to build something.
Almost all previous Lisps have been primarily single threaded; I think all previous Lisps have been single user. Some problems occur with a multi-threaded, multi-user system which don't occur (or at least aren't problematic) on a single-threaded, single-user system.
How not to build your own Lisp
Occasionally one buys a book which is a disappointment. Usually, when I buy a book which is a disappointment, I don't review it, because it isn't nice trashing other people's hard work; and that's especially true when the writer has written as engagingly and sincerely as Daniel Holden has. He's written a book I'd like to like.
But sometimes it's important to explain why a book is a disappointment, what is wrong with it, and what residual merit it still has.
Those tyres: 650b x 42
A couple of weeks ago I posted my review of my Cannondale Slate. And, like more or less everyone who's reviewed the Slate, I said nasty things about the slick tyres. What's wrong with the tyres?
Well, on tarmac, they're excellent. They're fast rolling and supple, which, on tarmac, adds up to excellent grip. The problem is that the Slate isn't designed just for tarmac, and I don't use mine just for tarmac. It's a bike for roads, paths, tracks and trails. On damp grass, damp rocks, mud, or more or less any other off road surface in the wet west of Scotland, the degree of grip available is sketchy at best. To be fair, dropping the pressure does help a little bit.