journal

Life in London

2010-06-30T13:12:41Z

It’s been three and a half weeks since I moved out of Plymouth, and two and a half since I started work at Mendeley, so I thought I’d post an update.

Work’s been interesting; as well as web development (which is my primary role, but not really something I want to do forever), I’ve been learning the server and network setup so that I can do some sysadmin work too (and stand in for our sysadmin when he’s on holiday, like he is this week). As part of that, it’s also possible I’ll end up writing Java for the datamining team; again, not something I necessarily want to do long-term, but improving my Java would be useful, I think, if only so that i can add it to the list of languages I’m comfortable coding in.

I’ve been reading a hell of a lot; it’s 35 minutes each way on the Tube to work, so I’ve had a lot of time with not much else to do. I’m half-way through my fourth book since moving; first was The Gathering Storm, the latest book in the Wheel of Time series. I was expecting it to be fairly mediocre, as the original author (Robert Jordan) died and a new author (Brandon Sanderson) was brought in to finish the series. However, it’s actually bloody good; probably better than a few of the previous books (towards the end, the series was starting to drag, in my opinion). So, based on that, I’ve been reading Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, which is again rather good. It has an original take on magic, plus some very clever plot twists. Also, Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road is awesome. I could live there.

At the moment I’m living near Grange Hill tube station, which means it’s a direct train to work with only a couple of minutes walking, but it’s a little inconvenient to be so far out (especially in the evening, when it can sometimes be nearly 8pm before I get home). This place is only temporary, though, so (hopefully!) next month I’ll be moving to Hackney, which will be within cycling distance of work (and walking distance, at a push — it’s only four miles), though not so great for public transport.

Hopefully at some point I’ll get around to going along to the local LUG and Python/Ruby groups, etc., but mostly so far I’ve been too lazy. I did go to a goth night with Loupie a couple of weekends ago, which was fun (it’s not often that I go out somewhere that actually plays decent music…).

Moved to London

2010-06-06T18:41:22Z

As mentioned in a previous entry, I’ll be working in central London from the 14th. So, since the commute from Plymouth would be pretty horrific, I’ve moved to somewhere slightly closer: Grange Hill in Essex. This is only temporary: Loupie’s sister had a spare room until the beginning of August. That should give me enough time to sort out somewhere more permanent.

Currently my room’s a bit of a tip; it’s smaller than my old room and I have a lot of stuff. I’ve put some of it in storage (mainly the four boxes of books, two of computer hardware, three computers that I don’t use regularly, etc.) but it’s still a bit crowded. My bike’s also in there temporarily, as it’s a bit far to cycle to work (also, drivers around here are frankly scary, and I don’t want to be on a road anywhere near them).

I’ll still be down in Plymouth every so often; I have too many good friends there to stay away. I’m particularly looking forward to terrifying some newbies at the Freshers’ Fair, and I should also be around for Gem’s and/or Ross and Christa’s housewarming.

Current plans are to get to know the area and to brush up on my PHP before the 14th, get stuff unpacked (assuming there’s space to do so), and acquire more books.

Job!

2010-03-08T14:09:31Z

On the 25th of February I was up in London for a job interview. Apparently I didn’t do as badly as I thought, because a few days later they emailed me to offer me the job. So, starting on the 14th of June I’ll be working for Mendeley as a PHP/MySQL developer.

Next obstacle: finding somewhere to live within a reasonable distance of Farringdon tube station. After that, I get the fun of trying to move all my stuff (including two bookcases full of books) 250 miles. Any volunteers?

Empty Tory Promises

2010-05-19T23:20:55Z

Yesterday I received Tory propaganda in the post, along with a questionnaire. They are still repeating their claims that not only will they not cut NHS funding, but they will improve the service. On the face of things this seems like a reasonable proposition, but from the Tories it seems to demonstrate a disturbing lack of arithmetic ability.

The problem is, the Tories insist that they will not increase the deficit. They also claim that they will cut taxes (on rich people at least). How exactly do they propose to reduce government income and increase or maintain government spending without increasing the deficit?

The only solution is for them to cut some other services, but they attempt to gloss over this in the vain hope that people won't ask how they intend to pay for anything. They make vague and misleading promises and hope that they won't be caught out.

The simple fact of the matter is that the NHS, and the welfare state, are socialist ideas, and yet no matter how much some Conservatives might want to, they have no hope of ever getting rid of them. The Tories have no choice but to maintain and even improve these embodiments of left-wing principles, because like it or not, people want them. If they were to promise to abolish the NHS and replace it with a US-style system of private healthcare, I suspect that they'd not only be soundly beaten by Labour, but the Liberal Democrats would give them a tough time too; thus, they're reduced to basing their campaign on not Conservative principles, but Labour ones.

Atheism, Liberalism, and Freedom of Religion

2010-02-09T19:54:06Z

The French report calling for a ban on women wearing Islamic face veils worries me, for a number of reasons. Don't get me wrong, I think the world would be a better place in general if religion ceased to exist, but I don't think banning it, or specific religious practices, is the way forward.

I'd base my reasoning, in part, on John Stuart Mill: “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others”. The wearing of a veil, when done willingly and without coercion or manipulation, harms nobody; therefore, it should be permitted.

The supporters of the report claim that “it is the symbol of the repression of women”; while ending the oppression of women is a goal I'd wholeheartedly support, I'm not entirely convinced that fining women for being oppressed is a particularly helpful solution. Punish men who force women to wear the burka; don't punish women who are forced to wear it (and, for that matter, don't punish women who wear it by choice).

The report also recommends that anyone showing signs of “radical religious practice” be refused citizenship or residence. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, assuming for the moment that “radical religious practice” is harmful to others; however, I suspect that the burka is a much more obvious symbol of “radical religious practice” than anything that might be worn by men, leading to disproportionate punishment of women.

In discussion with members of TermiSoc, I took my position further: though in many cases, religion is harmful to liberty, banning or restricting religion and most religious practices would be in contradiction with the Harm Principle quoted above.

It does not hurt others, for example, for someone to believe that the world was created by an omnipotent being. It does not hurt others, even, for someone to believe that the world was created in six days 6014 years ago, any more than it hurts others for someone to believe that the sky is green or that there is a china teapot orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. They are almost certainly incorrect, but they have the right to be.

The point at which it becomes legitimate to oppose religion is the point at which it begins to affect others. When people demand that children are taught about the orbitting teapot as if it were fact, or at least likely, oppose it: being taught something as if it is fact when it is not is harmful. When people demand that women wear robes that covers their entire body aside from their eyes, oppose that, and oppose violence against women who don't wear it (in fact, oppose violence against all women) – but don't, as explained above, punish the victims for being victims. Conversely, when people try to demand that someone not wear a symbol of their faith, oppose that – a crucifix or turban harms nobody, and thus there are no grounds on which to forbid it.

When people try to pass laws based solely on their religion, oppose them, because while people may opt into a set of religious laws if they like, such laws shouldn't be enforced upon others. In fact, any laws that are not simply an application of the Harm Principle should be opposed: government has no right to exercise power over individuals for any other purpose, and neither do other individuals.

This was written for week 4 of project52, see others .

Freedom of Speech and Proscribed Organisations

2010-02-20T17:56:46Z

There's been a lot of discussion recently about the banning of the fundamentalist group “Islam4UK”. Opinions are strongly divided; many people on both the left and the right think it was perfectly acceptable, while others (at least on the left; I'm afraid I don't know of any sensible right-wingers, or even if such a thing exists) believe that “free speech should be absolute”, or at least that Islam4UK had not abused freedom of speech (nobody had shouted “fire” in a crowded theatre, for example).

I'm in the second camp; I'll explain my reasoning shortly, but first I want to talk about the Governmental tactic of proscribing organisations that are seen to be a threat.

What exactly does this achieve? Fundamentally, all any organisation, of any kind, is, is a group of people and a name. Proscribing an organisation does not forbid its members from associating with any other members (and indeed cannot, as freedom to associate is a fundamental human right). Therefore all it does is prevent people from using a particular name, which is completely impractical in preventing any sort of crime (al-Qaeda would be unlikely to operate under that name in the UK even if it were permitted, so why should they care what name they use?). In fact, Islam4UK is just the latest of a series of names used by what is effectively the same organisation: proscribing it is clearly achieving nothing.

If the members of Islam4UK have committed a crime, prosecute them for it. If they have not, then do not. It's not a complicated matter. “Proscribing” an organisation is about as effective as demanding that they stop misbehaving without actually doing anything about it.

As for the wider freedom of speech issue: as David Mitchell argued in the Guardian, protecting the right of free speech even for people with whom you disagree is essential for a free society. I don't agree with what Islam4UK have to say – but then, I don't agree with what the other side have to say either. I doubt that living in a Muslim nation with enforced Muslim religious law would be any worse than living in a Christian nation with enforced Christian religious law (or “values”, as they're generally called). I put up with Islamic nutters like Anjem Choudary for the same reason that I put up Christian nutters like Rowan Williams – because, loony or not, they have the right to an opinion and to express it. (Incidentally, Dr Williams: yes, I do think you're an oddball, along with any other grown man or woman with an imaginary friend, but you're not doing any harm so feel free to carry on.)

Nobody seriously considers preventing the BNP and similar organisations from having their say – as much as I wish they'd shut up and go away on their own, and as much as I support acting against them wherever possible, even I don't believe that banning them outright would help in the slightest. Why, then, should they be permitted to have their say and not other, similarly extremist groups?

I'm not arguing that free speech is, or should be, absolute – as mentioned, the crowded theatre is the canonical example of when free speech should be limited. If their speech caused harm, or was likely to cause harm, then by all means restrict it; if they want to incite a mob to rampage across a city, burning and looting as they go, then lock them up. If they want to express their disagreement with the UK's involvement in the Middle East (which, by the way, I would entirely sympathise with), then stop whinging, let them go ahead, then organise your own march to express your support for the war. Don't stop people having their say, just have your own say back. More speech, not less, is the way forward.

This was written for week 3 of project52, see others .

Co-operating on Transport

2010-04-27T17:44:29Z

For quite some time, I've believed very firmly that public services should be public — not private, run for the benefit of their shareholders to maximise their profits, but public, run for the public good, to maximise the service provided to the people who use the public service. There's a simple reason for this — while a privately-provided service might operate in the best interests of its users if that provides the maximum profit, if there's another way to make a larger profit (like, say, screwing over the customers any way they can) then they will do so. Further, many public services are natural monopolies (it's difficult, for example, to run multiple competing train services along the same route, without causing accidents), so it's hard to ensure competition (which, hopefully, would keep prices down).

However, more recently, I've become less convinced that having all services centralised under Government control is necessarily a good thing — rather, it's just another sort of monopoly, and even with the most benevolent government in history that's less than ideal. It also limits regional autonomy, which is often desired in public services — Devon and Cornwall are very different to Greater London and should be run in different ways.

However, there's a third wa–no, wait. We've had a third way and it was just like the first one. How about a fourth way? Public services, public ownership (“common ownership of the means of production”, even) does not require ownership by the government — why not ownership by the public?

There are probably a dozen different ways in which a co-operatively-run transport system could work, but the model which occurs to me is one of many small, regional co-operatives running local bus services (and metro, and so on). Think Transport for London, but run by the citizens (London is possibly too big an area for a single co-operative — perhaps one per borough would work better, but I don't want to get too bogged down in specifics — the only way to know is to try and see what works). The boundaries of these co-operatives might coincide with council boundaries, but that's not a requirement — in some cases, it might be more practical for an area to belong to a different co-operative, or to more than one (Torpoint and Saltash spring to mind, on the Cornish side of the river but with regular bus services to Plymouth as well as Liskeard).

These co-operatives would be responsible for all the public transport infrastructure in a small area — managing the local railway station and lines, maintaining bus stops as well as planning and organising services and maintaining the vehicle fleet (of course, there'd be nothing stopping someone starting a private bus company, but why use a private bus when you can use one in which you have a say in the running of?). How, though, would transport on a larger scale work — say national rail services, or (assuming London was split into several co-operatives) services across the capital?

Co-operatives with a stake in the service (both those with stops or stations as well as those responsible for the track used, even if a long-distance service passes through the area without stopping) would work together to negotiate the services needed to best benefit the users. This would work on both a small scale (Plymouth to Torbay bus services, with Ivybridge, Totnes and Newton Abbot consulted as to how many services should stop in each and how many should pass them by, as well as arranging matters so that the buses are sensibly spaced out) and a larger one — the Edinburgh to Penzance service (which would obviously involve many separate groups, all of whom should have a say in how the service is run).

More specifics are difficult to give — it's difficult to say what will work and what won't without trying it, and correcting problems as they arise. Probably someone with more knowledge of co-operatives could say more about the practical details that I could; this is just a general suggestion from me.

This was written for week 2 of project52, see others .

101 things in 1001 days

2010-02-14T19:06:03Z

Since Skippy, Loupie, and Natnie have all published their lists (among others) I thought I'd give it a go myself.

So. If I start counting from tomorrow (2010-01-10), I need to finish by 2012-10-07.

Improve my German and keep in practice.
Visit Germany.
Visit somewhere outside Europe.
Get a driving licence.
Write a program for a mobile phone.
Give up milk (and milk products) for a month.
Play guitar in front of people.
Learn to play two songs on keyboard.
Plan a week's worth of meals in advance, buy everything needed up front, and stick to the plan.
Make a budget and stick to it.
Get up at 6am every weekday for a month.
Start learning another language.
Complete Couch to 5K.
Complete the 100 pushups challenge.
Complete the 200 pressups challenge.

That's all for now. More will be added when I think of some.

(Incidentally, after Nick tweeted about Project52, I've decided to try and take part, with at least one meaningful update — not just “what I've being doing recently” — every week. My Twilight Review was Week One's submission.)

FOSDEM 2010

2010-02-14T19:07:03Z

Finally got around to booking travel and accomodation for FOSDEM 2010; I've left it late again, possibly even later that last year, so it's a little more expensive than I'd like (also, I didn't particularly want to share a room in a hostel with stangers again, so my accomodation isn't as cheap as it could be). On the other hand, I've money saved from my placement, so what the hell.

One thing that did puzzle me, incidentally, was the booking form for the hotel, which offered a choice of rooms: “Standard Room +£0.00” (no additional cost, as the default selection) and “Standard Room (breakfast included) +£41.46”. That's per night.

I cannot quite grasp just how wonderful a breakfast would have to be to justify spending that much on it. To put it in perspective, that's approximately what the room costs per night (I think; it's bundled with the Eurostar cost, so hard to tell). It's also not much less than a return ticket to London. I could quite easily get breakfast in a hundred other places on my way from the hotel to the conference for less than a tenth of that. What the hell are they thinking?