James Duncan

2012-01-25T18:25:00.001Z

Test.

Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory

2012-01-16T15:48:00.000Z

This American Life: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory left me spellbound; it's a This American Life podcast dealing with the working conditions of Shenzhen's factory workers (and, in particular, those working for Foxconn on the Apple production lines). Daisey not only does an excellent job reaching real workers to interview, but recounts his experience with sumptuously beautiful descriptions and the sort of lyricism one would expect of a novel rather than reportage. It's one of my favourite pieces of journalism, and indeed one of my favourite pieces of spoken word/radio broadcasts ever.

What's really powerful about the piece is the reminder that for all that globalisation is often said to make things more equal, there is a fundamental divide between the people who produce and those who consume. It is extremely easy to forget that much of the wealth that I have is produced by the labour of those that very little of that wealth is shared with, and it is of course a story that the companies that produce those goods are very reticent to share. In 2010, one had to earn US$34,000 to be in the global richest one percent. I am the 1%; frankly a great deal of the West is, and even those who are not are the Eloi. It's worth taking at least a glimpse into the lives of those who make that possible.

Act one is where most of the action is contained, but it's really worth making time to listen to the whole hour.

[TAL episode link] [Direct MP3 link] [Local MP3 mirror]

Thoughts from Vanuatu

2011-10-06T19:55:00.001+01:00

There was a tropical storm here. The sound of the rain was less of a pitterpatter than a torrent, a constant thrum of water against metal. The rain is elemental here, the clouds sweep across the Pacific picking up water and then hit the mountains here and explode with it. It's awesome to be in amongst it, feeling the wind blow through the netting windows and the wetness of my hair. They come and go so quickly, too; it isn't at all like UK weather. Just a rush of wind, rain and lightning, crazy, wild, and then gone. It was 0430-0500 that it lasted, maybe. There was a brief silence, and now I am sitting in the predawn humid air, listening to the start of the dawn chorus of insects and birds.

Whatever else there is to say about it, there is a certain glory in Vanuatu as the wilder end of the world. Just a sense that it exists at the forebearance of the fates, the building standards and altitude of the cities suggesting it's really one properly big cyclone away from untold damage.

It's also been a political condundrum; it is at once the happiest place I've been to, and one of the most corrupt. The government and the governed seem to have almost nothing to do with each other, and that seems perhaps to the good.

The police are almost never seen here save when they hurtle down the US built highway in their aircondtioned AusAID police station wagons (ah, tied aid; it was obvious because they are all Holdens and everyone else drives Toyotas). There's really very little contact, and on having conversations with a local chief, it turns out that one of the reasons for that is that the chiefs control all witnesses. By the time the police turn up (and this is even ignoring how long that can take on smaller islands) they will either have their man with 10-15 witnesses or the chief will have taken the decision to deal with it under the more reliable custom law and nobody will have seen or heard of the crime at all.

It is the same with taxes; there is no income tax here, and the deal largely seems to be that the people pretend to pay money to the governement and the government pretends to provide them services. Even the schools are EU built, and the local hospital in Vila has aid logos all over it. It's just such a disconnect between what one would expect in provision and care and what actually happens. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Eastern Europe and Nepal (both with heavy central planning), but I've never seen such a disconnect between capital city and the rest of the state. I would come again, and partly because of the fascination that I have with the political situation. It's just so alien, and yet the chief system reminds me of the role organised crime used to play in the US in areas where the state did not provide effective services. It feels like a place in transition, and I can't imagine that the reach of the central governement would remain so limited. I will return to watch, I think.

Dan Savage on the Virtues of Infidelity - NYTimes.com

2011-06-30T17:32:00.001+01:00

Dan Savage really is kind of awesome, and hits on what I personally believe. It's more important to be emotionally giving and generous to your partner than it is to be in bed with one person for the rest of your life (consent of partner given, of course). Sometimes I wonder if it's just being culturally gay that does it, but there's a lot to be said for the lessons learned from gay culture being applied to straight relationships as an alternate model. It seems hard to me to call Dan's act immoral.

"In “The Commitment,” Savage’s book about his and Miller’s decision to marry, he describes how a college student approached him after a campus talk and said, as Savage tells it, that “he got off on having birthday cakes smashed in his face.” But no one had ever obliged him. “My heart broke when he told me that the one and only time he told a girlfriend about his fetish, she promptly dumped him. Since then he had been too afraid to tell anyone else.” Savage took the young man up to his hotel room and smashed a cake in his face."

Russia Today on US culture

2010-08-26T11:31:00.002+01:00

This picture was used to illustrate the export of US culture. Ah, they do amuse me sometimes.

Proposition 8 found unconstitutional - some initial notes.

2010-08-05T09:27:00.001+01:00

Photo by Tim Hamilton, under CC-NC-ND

Firstly, excitement.

Secondly: If the 9th circuit uphold this decision it's not just CA that will get gay marriage. The 9th covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. If the USSC upholds it, everyone does. The stakes rise hugely at each appeal.

Thirdly: Best non-lawyers read on findings of fact vs findings of law in this case: http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2010/08/judge-walker-prop-8-unconstitu.html

The crucial findings of fact from this (IMO) are:

Sexual orientation is commonly discussed as a characteristic of the individual. Sexual orientation is fundamental to a person’s identity and is a distinguishing characteristic that defines gays and lesbians as a discrete group. [emphasis mine] Proponents’ assertion that sexual orientation cannot be defined is contrary to the weight of the evidence.
Individuals do not generally choose their sexual orientation. No credible evidence supports a finding that an individual may, through conscious decision, therapeutic intervention or any other method, change his or her sexual orientation.
Same-sex couples are identical to opposite-sex couples in the characteristics relevant to the ability to form successful marital unions.
Permitting same-sex couples to marry will not affect the number of opposite-sex couples who marry, divorce, cohabit, have children outside of marriage or otherwise affect the stability of opposite-sex marriages.

This demands protection, as they are a discriminated discreet group rather than being discriminated on based on conduct. If these findings of fact are accepted it is almost impossible to conclude that equal protection should apply, and the finding that hetrosexual marriage will not be affected is designed to head off policy arguments against it. This decision is designed to be tough to overturn.

Interestingly, Walker's judgement reads like it was written partly as an argument to Judge Scalia in the conclusion, as it states that

"Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples. FF 76, 79-80; Romer, 517 US at 634 (“[L]aws of the kind now before us raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected.”). Because Proposition 8 disadvantages gays and lesbians without any rational justification, Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."

This is very similar to some of Scalia's own logic in the Lawrence vs Texas sodomy case dissent, where he opposed sodomy laws on the basis that they failed the equal protection clause. This logic - as admitted by Scalia(1) - cannot stop at sodomy law. Once he agreed that the class of homosexuals was a class, it is hard to deny an Equal Protection argument.

(1)'Today’s opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned. If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is “no legitimate state interest” for purposes of proscribing that conduct, ante, at 18; and if, as the Court coos (casting aside all pretense of neutrality), “[w]hen sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring,” ante, at 6; what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising “[t]he liberty protected by the Constitution,” ibid.? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and the elderly are allowed to marry. This case “does not involve” the issue of homosexual marriage only if one entertains the belief that principle and logic have nothing to do with the decisions of this Court.'

Scalia wouldn't nessisarily be expected to be a liberal vote, but this reasoning is from 2003. A swing vote from Kennedy or Scalia is needed, and Scalia is going to find it hard to refute Walker's findings of law based on both his own previous reasoning and the internal logic of the argument. I think the Supremes would actually uphold this.

Controversy at the World Cup (and in the newsroom)...

2010-06-17T13:38:00.001+01:00

The picture says it all, really.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 law essay

2010-02-09T22:30:00.003Z

The Rag Committee approaches Cam TV with an idea for a programme to fill an entire day's schedule. The programme is to be called 'Secret Rag', and involves the recording of a number of events during rag week. Advise Cam TV whether they could broadcast the following without infringing any intellectual property rights.

A. A video recording of parts of a law lecture. Thanks to heavy editing and shortening, the lecturer appears to advocate the abolition of examinations, although this is not in fact what he said. The video includes footage of the new law building.

B. A recording of a private rehearsal taking place in King's College Chapel. The works rehearsed include a new anthem written by the organ scholar, to be premiered later in the year. On the tape several people are heard to remark that the opening theme of the anthem bears a strong resemblance to a current chart record. The organ scholar dismisses the allegation furiously, claiming that he never listens to such trash.

C. A video-taped interview with a local gallery owner who is mounting an exhibition of contemporary artistic photographs. The interview features two of the photographs in particular. When describing them the gallery owner mixes up their photographers. To make amends, the Rag Committee has reproduced both photographs, correctly attributed, in the Rag magazine.

Please note that when an Act is not mentioned for a section, this indicates a section of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is being referred to.

There are two works here, and I shall examine them separately. The first is the lecturer's speech, which contains copyright at the point that it becomes fixed via the video recording. The second is the footage of the new law building.

When the lecture is recorded, two works are created. The first applies to the lecture given, and the words and performance of them. A secondary copyright applies to the sound recording made by Cam TV. Cam TV cannot violate their own copyright, so the question becomes to what extent Cam TV is allowed to reproduce the speech without permission of the lecturer.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines literary works in s.3(1) as 'any work, other than a dramatic or musical work, which is written, spoken or sung'. This clearly includes the speech given by the lecturer. Lest this should be in doubt, Norowzian v Arks Ltd (No. 2) (CA) [2000] also makes clear in defining a dramatic work as 'a work of action, with or without words or music, which is capable of being performed before an audience’ (Nourse L.J). S.3(2) states that 'copyright does not subsist in a literary, dramatic or musical work unless and until it is recorded, in writing or otherwise', but the fixing of the speech to the video recording activates this provision and so a copyright is created. Assuming this is after 1995, we apply The Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/3297) alterations to s.12(2), meaning that 'copyright expires at the end of the period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies'.

Any reproduction of the speech video recording is thus prevented under s.20(a), which prevents the broadcasting of the work or its inclusion in a cable programme service if it is 'a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work'. This is clearly true in this case, and so broadcast is restricted.

A possible defence is that of fair dealing. s29(1) states that 'fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical, etc, work, for the purpose of research or for a non-commercial purpose, does not infringe any copyright in the work, provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement of the source'. s30(1) then adds that 'fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work, or of a performance of a work, does not infringe copyright in the work, provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement, and provided the work has actually been made available to the public'. This defence is problematic in this case for two main reasons. Firstly, we cannot know on the facts if the purpose is non-commercial, but in general broadcasters are commerical enterprises. Secondly, on the facts it does not seem that the reproduction of the speech is for bona fide research. It is not suggested that commentary is added, and so the claim under s30(1) that the work is for criticism or review is extremely weak as this appears to be a mere edited reproduction. A fair trading defence is thus likely to fail, and Cam TV would thus be screening an infringing work even if we do not consider any other issue.

Separately from this, the question of moral rights arises. The lecturer has the right under s.80 to not to have his work subjected to derogatory treatment. s.80(2)(b) states 'the treatment of a work is derogatory if it amounts to distortion or mutilation of the work or is otherwise prejudicial to the honour or reputation of the author or director'. The distortion of the lecturer's views via the cuts imposed would almost certainly be prejudicial to the reputation of the author of the speech, in that it misrepresents his views and is thus likely to damage his academic standing.

There are thus two major reasons why Cam TV should not broadcast the VT, and both are infringements likely to attract damages in any resultant claims against them. Given that it is produced by the Rag Committee it might well be a parody under US law, but UK fair dealing is far stricter than US fair use and the tape would require huge re-editing not to be a clear infringement.

The video footage of the new building is comparatively unproblematic in copyright terms; whilst the designs for the building are protected under copyright, the footage of the building itself is unproblematic as s.62(1)(a) defines buildings as a permitted class for filming under s62(2)(c). A building cannot be a work of artistic craftsmanship by definition, and freedom of panorama would apply for any sculptures within the building under s.62(1)(b) as it is a public place. S.31(1) means that any incidental inclusion of artistic work on the walls would also not be an issue if the screen time is so fleeting as to show no intent to include this (I shall look at this further in part C).

The case of the organist's song is somewhat simpler. The potentially infringing work is clearly a song, as defined by CDPA s. 3(1) as a work ‘consisting of music, exclusive of any words or action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music’.

A major question here is if the opening theme is in fact similar to the chart song. Assuming it is, we proceed to the question of if the Hawkes & Son (London) Ltd v. Paramount Film Service Ltd [1934] test is passed: was "a substantial, a vital and an essential part" of the original work copied? This test depends on the importance of the theme to the original work, although it is clear in Ludlow Music v Robbie Williams (ChD) [2001] FSR 271 that this is smaller than might be supposed. The original line "Every son of God has a little hard luck sometime, especially when he goes around saying he's the way" was held to be similar to Williams' lyric "Even the son of God gets it hard sometimes, especially when he goes around saying, 'I am the way'". This is merely one line out of an entire song, but it was held that "the extent of the copying is substantial, although not by much". If we can hold this to be substantial copying, it seems clear that the opening bars should qualify. EMI Music Publishing Ltd v Papathanasiou (1993) E.M.L.R. 306 also makes clear that 'what is worth copying is worth protecting', and this strict attitude can also be seen in Ludlow.

Also, EMI makes clear that unconscious copying (cryptomnesia) is held not to be a defence, although on the facts this was held not to have occurred in EMI. The apparent extreme similarity of the opening bars is likely to invalidate the claim in the facts that the organist 'never listens to such trash' as given the substantially similar nature of the work to the chart work and close timing it is likely that the organist has heard the song played or sung by students regardless of his own choice of listening. The organist's work is therefore highly likely to be deemed infringing.

The original work is thus limited under s.21 from adaptation, and the fact that the organist's piece is a derivative work means that it may not be copied, performed, shown, played, broadcast, or displayed over cable (s.18-20). It should however be noted that the changing of the mere opening bars will render the whole new song a non-infringing work.

There are several issues here.

S.31(1) means that any incidental inclusion of artistic work on the walls would also not be an issue as 'Copyright in a work is not infringed by its incidental inclusion in an artistic work, sound recording, film, broadcast or cable programme', but incidental is hard to define without case law. The Football Association Premier League v Panini UK Ltd [2003] EWCA Civ 995 test "why has work 'A' been included in work 'B'" shows that the CA appears to have defined incidental as close to substantial in s.16(3)(a). This can be seen in the interpretation of the section as it applies in this case; the finding by Chadwick LJ that

"The authenticity of the image of the player as it appears on the sticker or in the album (work 'B') depends on the inclusion in work 'B' of the individual badge and the FAPL emblem (work 'A') in which copyright subsists. It is impossible to say that the inclusion of the individual badge and the FAPL emblem is "incidental". The inclusion of the individual badge and the FAPL emblem is essential to the object for which the image of the player as it appears on the sticker or in the album was created."

gives us a clearer example of this test. Applying the Panini logic here, any pictures purely in the background of the interview are likely to be incidental as they are not essential to the object of the interview. The interview however 'features two of the photographs in particular'. Given that they are featured specifically and described by the gallery owner they are essential to the object of the interview. They therefore exceed the Panini test for infringement, and means that that the interview as a whole is encumbered by the copyright licences of the two photographs at first blush.

A potential defence to this is s.30(1), which allows for 'Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work or of a performance of a work, does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement.' The problem here is that a sufficient acknowledgement has not been given. As s.30(2) and (3) specifically exclude photographs, we must exclude s.30 as a defence.

The other defence sometimes used is that of the reproduction of artistic works which are for sale. Assuming that the exhibition is commercial, s.63(1) 'It is not an infringement of copyright in an artistic work to copy it, or to issue copies to the public, for the purpose of advertising the sale of the work.' may be claimed. We can dismiss this in this case, as even if we accept that the interview could have been to advertise the works (dubious in and of itself), any reproduction or broadcast of the videotape by Cam TV would itself become an infringing copy under s.63(2) if a legitimate copy 'is subsequently dealt with for any other purpose, it shall be treated as an infringing copy for the purposes of that dealing, and if that dealing infringes copyright for all subsequent purposes'. Cam TV's broadcast would thus be infringing.

Even were we to hold for the sake of argument that the works were not de facto infringing, the moral rights of the authors pose an obstacle to broadcast. Firstly (and briefly), any cropping, bad lighting or colour distortion may be held infringing of the moral right under s.80 to protect the author's work from being subjected to derogatory treatment. s.80(2)(b) states 'the treatment of a work is derogatory if it amounts to distortion or mutilation of the work or is otherwise prejudicial to the honour or reputation of the author or director', and affecting the work negatively can amount to this. This is however the lesser concern.

Secondly, the author has the right under s.77(4)(a) to be identified when 'the work is published commercially or exhibited in public, or a visual image of it is broadcast or included in a cable programme service'. Cam TV's broadcast clearly falls under this clause, and thus is open to action by authors. Clark v Associated Newspapers [1998] 1 All ER 959 makes clear that C can claim both damages to reputation and an injunction against publication if a 'significant number of readers had been or were likely to be misled more than temporarily and inconsequentially into believing that C had written the articles and whether C had or was likely to suffer damage as a result'. If the art is specifically wrongly credited in the interview, the interview is extremely likely to mislead as to authorship. The likely financial implications for Cam TV revolve around the expected income and established goodwill of the artists wrongly identified, and are impossible to quantify on the facts given.

Overall, it is clear that broadcast must be heavily advised against, especially as infringement has been demonstrated as wilful as Cam TV has solicited advice.

To make amends, the Rag Committee has reproduced both photographs, correctly attributed, in the Rag magazine.

The Rag Committee's printing of the photographs with correct attribution to apologise is ironically itself a separate infringement. The reproductions are for no purpose other than the correction of a news report, which itself cannot reproduce photographs. The correction itself also lacks the rights to reproduce the image, and the reproduction and distribution are thus infringing and thus actionable under s16(1)(a) and (b). The one saving grace of this matter is that it may lessen the moral rights damages that can be claimed for the misattribution in the interview, but this could be done without the photographs. Since the date of printing is passed, Rag Committee unfortunately have infringed due to good faith mistake but have nonetheless infringed. It should however be noted that the damage cost of a bad quality reproductions may not exceed the value the publication removed from the damages claimable under due to the interview misattribution, and may have been a positive outcome overall. This depends on knowledge of values of art etc. untold in the facts.

Word count: 2555

Nexus One ADB access on Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid

2010-01-17T21:35:00.000Z

Do you get this error when you connect the Nexus One to your Ubuntu desktop for ADB? I did on stock 64 bit Karmic and Alpha 2 Lucid versions of Ubuntu.

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
???????????? no permissions

To be able to have non-root users talk to the Nexus, you need to edit the udev permissions as follows:

# /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666"

You then need to restart udev and check that the Nexus One has shown up.

$ sudo restart udev
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
HT9CNP810278 device

You may need to kill the adb server as follows:

$ adb kill-server
$ adb start-server

Success, fame, and ADB access should now be yours.

Rememberance Day

2009-11-11T19:11:00.000Z

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Photograph from the album Lieutenant J.S. Purvis, 5th (T) Battalion (1916-1918). Soldiers resting in the forward lines and trying to catch up on sleep, the Battle of the Somme, September 1916.

The best menu in the world.

2009-11-09T11:32:00.001Z

Ah, Georgian humour. For those that don't know, the background to this is the effect of the war on Gori and Russian control of Abkhazia and South Osettia's capital, Tskinvali.

Apparent Jabber/XMPP progress at Facebook

2009-11-08T14:26:00.000Z

$ telnet chat.facebook.com 5222
Trying 69.63.176.191...
Connected to chat.facebook.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
<stream />
<?xml version="1.0"?><stream:stream id="F6DE2CB5" from="chat.facebook.com" xmlns="jabber:client" xmlns:stream="http://etherx.jabber.org/streams" xml:lang="en"><stream:error><invalid-namespace xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams"/></stream:error></stream:stream>
Connection closed by foreign host.

---

That's a Jabber port and a Jabber handshake. Maybe it's actually going to happen.

Nameless salaryman's dancing robots

2009-11-06T15:40:00.000Z

Really the title tells you why it's so cool. I also love that when he moves it around he's in a suit, and thus clearly too mature to be making robots dance to this music. None the less, he wanted robots dancing to cheesy J-pop, and that's what he made.

I salute you, nameless salaryman, you made me smile.

I love this beyond all reasonable bounds

2009-10-22T10:56:00.000+01:00

I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.

It's just beautiful, and makes me smile like an insanely smiling person.

Heinlein

2009-08-19T15:24:00.001+01:00

Some say that Heinlein's immature
Homophobic, sexist, quite the boor
But none the less my childhood dreams
Were bursting Heinlein at the seams.
I dreamt of spaceships, tall and proud;
of travelling beyond the clouds;
a wonderous library in my palm:
no tortured logic, no untrue psalm.
Sitting watching stars above
and living time enough for love.
Such dreams to hold awhile but then
I woke and was a child again.

Ah, EU product regulation

2009-07-23T07:09:00.000+01:00

Is there any horrific marketing plan you can't protect us from...anti-fat water? [Picture taken in the apparently less regulated ex-Soviet Georgia]

From the unsure-if-cool-or-sad department

2009-04-16T04:04:00.000+01:00

Flying into Akaturk airport, Istanbul and having it feel homely because of the amount of times you've flown through it recently.

Demon do directly view the IWF list

2009-02-24T08:54:00.000Z

Demon sysadmins, at least, can view the IWF list but only hijack DNS requests. A screengrab is shown below as evidence of this. Demon's implementation also means that a simple comparison of Demon DNS responses routing to proxy versus OpenDNS routing to the actual site generates a confirmation of the ban for anyone to confirm. The screenshot is evidence of both.

Update: It would appear that Picasa chokes on that large an image - the file is also here.

Ubuntu Intrepid on the Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad x200s

2009-02-08T19:55:00.000Z

This machine came with a preinstall of Windows Vista Business OEM, but only 2GB of RAM. That was clearly an extremely poor choice, so I have installed Ubuntu Intrepid on it (and detailed compatibility and tweaks below). The laptop is light and runs a lot cooler than my previous x61s, although at the price of a slight increase in size. Personally I think that's a price worth paying, and the battery life is currently at about 7 hours on the 9 cell battery so it's also practical for long college lectures. The build quality is extremely good, and I can even race in TORCS, shoot things in OpenArena and use Google Earth on it. I'd recommend it as a linux laptop.

Processor

The processor is an Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9400 @ 1.86GHz, and runs fine under Intrepid including frequency scaling.

Graphics

The 4500MHD works well in performance (700fps in glxgears), but detects resolutions poorly at first, with the autodetect only picking up a 1024x768 resolution. I enclose my xorg.conf, which fixes the issue. It should also be noted that this is already fixed in Jaunty Alpha 3, where it works out of the box.

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/mathematica-fonts/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "xtrap"
Load "dbe"
Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "LEN"
ModelName "4010"
Option "DPMS"
Option "PreferredMode" "1280x800"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "FakeHDMI-1"
Option "Ignore" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "FakeHDMI-2"
Option "Ignore" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Option "DRI"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "Unknown Board"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
Option "monitor-HDMI-2" "FakeHDMI-2"
Option "monitor-HDMI-1" "FakeHDMI-1"
Option "monitor-LVDS" "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600"
# Virtual 1920 1200
EndSubSection
EndSection

The screen resolution preference can then be adjusted correctly. Many x200s models have 1440x900 screens, in which case the resolutions above should be altered accordingly.

Screen

Brightness controls function perfectly, as does backlight control.

Optical Drive

I don't have one, so I cannot comment.

Sound

The Intel HDA sound works out of the box, including the internal and external microphone and the volume controls above the keyboard.

Webcam

The webcam is a UVC camera (17ef:480c) that is branded by Lenovo. It appears as a normal UVC device and works fully in Skype, Cheese and Ekiga. The picture quality is good, and it works well even under relatively low light.

Ethernet

The ethernet connector is a e1000e, and works perfectly out of the box. The command "ethtool -s eth0 wol d" allows the ethernet card to sleep, and I have enabled it in /etc/rc.local to save power.

Wireless

The Intel 5300 802.11abgn wifi card works fully, as one now expects from Intel chipsets. Network Manager can handle all forms of encryption, and works after suspend.

The wireless switch works as one would expect.

Bluetooth

The bluetooth works fully out of the box.

56K Modem

I have not attempted to use this.

USB

USB works across all ports, and can autosuspend with a config tweak. Bear in mind that the fingerprint reader and bluetooth work via USB, and will thus prevent autosuspend if activated.

Suspend & hibernate

Both work fully out of the box. The time to come back from suspending to RAM is about 5 seconds.

Gears on 64 bit GNU/Linux

2009-02-03T16:42:00.001Z

I have been enticed to install Gears by the offline support in Gmail, Google Reader and Wordpress, but was unable to easily find a current build to install. To save people trawling through the net, I have listed the builds available here.

The files are linked as XPI files, so a simple click on the links below should bring up the install dialogue. I will update this post as new versions come out.

gears-linux-x86_64-opt-05210.xpi (Current as of 18/05/09)
gears-linux-opt-05110.xpi (2/Feb/09)
gears-linux-opt-0.4.9.0.xpi (27/Jul/08)
gears-linux-opt-0.3.25.0.xpi (18/Jun/08)
gears-linux-opt-0.3.8.0.xpi (07/Mar/08)

I cried.

2008-11-05T06:31:00.000Z

I waited 8 years for a night like last night. 8 years. And I cried, and I was happy, and proud. It was what Gore's campaign always should have been. Intellectual without being too aloof from normal people. Based on hope rather than fear, and conducted in a way that respects the intelligence of the electorate.

And it worked. Now to the actual hard work. I'm so thrilled to be able to see what happens now.

Athletics benchmarks

2008-10-19T00:19:00.000+01:00

Having come back from the 1500 meter inter-college Cambridge running competition, I learnt I still need to do some more distance running work, although I happily avoided last place. My 20 min rowing distance (4200 meters) and 1500m running time (6:30) are left here to make me have to train to improve them before mentioning them again.

My new club membership

2008-10-14T12:58:00.000+01:00

I started rowing yesterday, in what was in fact a moderately insane day. My arms burnt while on the river, I then spent the day doing administrative law, then a solid hour of aerobics (easily the hardest part) and lastly another jogging session. By the end of this year I will either be incredibly fit or dead...

Random Georgian Engrish fail

2008-08-09T17:40:00.000+01:00

Wandering through a Georgian supermarket, and this turned up. Fail, especially for a German-owned chain.

The Russian Embassy protest

2008-08-09T04:45:00.000+01:00

The anti-Russia protest is exciting in a way little UK protest is. A line of police is standing in front of the Russian embassy, and outside are 2-300 clearly pissed off Georgians. Lots of flags, lots of chants of Sakashvelo (Georgia) and mobile phones taking pictures.

It's a bit later and around 1000 people are here. More flags and the protest has spilled onto the street. The 4 lane highway is now 1.5, and since every car is beeping it's impossible to tell who's happy and who simply wants to get home. Some blonde ho Nati knows keeps doing interviews, and I was also on Ossetian TV. Lines of people are holding hands, and an enterprising type is giving out candles for everyone to hold in front of the media. I smell the sweet sweet smell of PR.

There's now got to be 2-3000 people, and we are walking back to town behind a giant Georgian flag. This feels like it will last all night but we're off home.