Brave New World (ctd)

“What makes Memletics remarkable is the digital rights management (DRM) scheme it uses on its books. The company’s main product is a training manual that explains the “Memletics advanced learning system” — and if you loan it to a friend, you do so at considerable personal risk. You see, Mimletic prints out your “name, address, telephone number, credit card number, and other information” on every tenth page of the e-book. The truly amazing part is that the company does this with its printed manuals too.”

more here

say no to ID cards

those nice people at Say No to ID have a nice new facility on their site.

you can now fill in your postcode, and they will give you info about your MP, how his party voted last time, and some key points which you can use to write to your MP via www.writetothem.com. Click the image below to go straight to it.

come on – what are you waiting for?! Contact your elected representative and tell them what you think. I wrote to our chap, the fragrant Liam Fox, months ago, and got a weasley* letter back, but you might be luckier.

* no, not Ron.

boo to biometrics

perlmonger‘s passport was due for renewal in October and, inspired by Pledgebank, he signed up to renew it today.

and although mine doesn’t actually expire until 2010, I decided to say “soddit” and send mine off for renewal too, thus wasting four years’ worth (I get 9 months “credit” on the new one, I think), but neatly avoiding having to get a biometric one for another ten years.

take *that*, Clarkey.

RIP Robin Cook

I’m more upset by the demise of Robin Cook than I expected to be.

we’ve lost a man of principle (a rare beast among politicians) and a superb parliamentarian, and the HoC will be the poorer for his absence. While I smiled at Dead Ringers‘ portrayal of him as an incomprehensible Scottish gnome who required subtitles, he was a witty and intelligent man, who had the courage to resign one of the great offices of state over our involvement in Iraq, leaving Clare Short looking “all mouth and trousers”.

if you have to go, doing so at the top of a mountain in north west Scotland has to be one of the best ways to do it. But *59* … that’s only eight years older than I am …