Annoyances

A nasty comment

During the Christmas rush I have not been in sync with my online life but I have been doing the necessary maintanence. This is mostly typical stuff such as making sure spam does not get through. On the 22 December I recieved the nastiest comment ever on this blog.

The comment was to a post on the Fourth Nordic Conference on Scholarly Communication and made nasty, arrogant, vulgar, abusive & sexual comments about one of the persons mentioned. The comment was a nasty type of Cyberstalking and I simply removed it. But I am still wondering what the correct response should be. Removal from the visible side of the blog was an obvious step, but should I be contacting someone? Maybe the victim? Or the police?

The comment was signed but I rather doubt that the name was a real name. The comment came from IP number 63.117.244.62 which according to the ARIN WHOIS Database may narrow the search done a bit. Beyond that there is not much more information.

Posted on by mklang

Oh just moaning

Runny nose, glassy eyes, red face, feverish and just a bit misarable. That’s right, after a great Christmas I have caught a minor cold and feel like crap. Sitting in front of the fire, wrapped in a blanket watching television, painkillers and tea. What a way to end the year…

Posted on by mklang

Waiting for deliveries

What an annoying place to be. I don’t mean the actual place but more sense of irritation. I am stuck at home waiting for a delivery. Instead of being able to run all errands I need to do I am stuck waiting for the person in uniform to maybe arrive. Frustrating!

Delivery by teotwawki (CC by nc nd)

Posted on by mklang

Fixing leaky legal systems

Too much of the Swedish legal education system is all about learning the law as it is. Attempting to develop a social consciousness about the way in which the law should be is almost frowned upon. This is important if the goal of law school is to produce skilled legal workers (in Swedish I would have used the word hantverkare). This however degrades the ability and importance of the law professional to the level of plumber, electrician or doctor. This last sentence is not meant in any way to degrade the knowledge necessary in these professions but refers to the way in which they approach and resolve problems.

The doctor, plumber, electrician and lawyer see a problem and apply the tools of the trade to fix it. And this is an important task in society. When your boiler is leaking it is important that you can call a plumber who arrives and resolves the issue without re-interpreting the way in which your house is built. But, (you knew that there would be at least one but…) between leaks the plumbers education should have encouraged him or her to think about how and why pipes, houses and people interact.

The ability to fix direct problems should not mean that these professions cannot evolve and challenge the established set of knowledge. The plumber, doctor and electrician all have the ability to change the way in which their professions understand their own work situation. The Swedish legal education system does not promote this kind of critical thinking.

For critical legal thought we must leave the cold Norse climate and look to the Anglo-American legal system. Sure, there are legal systems which promote critical thinking but not as much as the Anglo-American system. And sure, not all Anglo-American lawyers think critically – which is good since sometimes you need a lawyer to be, just a lawyer.

There are a multitude of examples, courses, books, scholars and whole schools of thought to promote critical legal thought or social legal theory. But one of the more enjoyable must be cross between law and literature which provides a mix of deep thought, social criticism and comic relief all in the academic format (not an easy task).

Take for example this article I just came across by Kimberlianne Podlas of the University of North Carolina: Homerus Lex: Investigating American Legal Culture Through the Lens of The Simpsons. (Seton Hall Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law 93, 2007). From the abstract:

The Simpsons is not merely the most successful cartoon in history (and seen in more than 70 countries), but a pop culture chronicle that uses satire to explore a variety of social issues. No subject is immune from its scrutiny, and the law is no different. Though not traditional law programming, The Simpsons includes some of television’s most profound depictions of the legal system, regularly referencing statutes, private settlements, and trials. Accordingly, it is important to understand what its legally-tinged themes communicate about the value of the legal system.
Embracing a socio-anthropological perspective, this paper studies the function, role, and ideology of law in Springfield, the hometown of the Simpson family. Rather than critiquing a few memorable episodes, it employs ethnographic analysis. Hence, it considers every episode of the first eight seasons, systematically recording each “instance” of law, organizing these into themes, and analyzing them with an eye toward understanding the values and operation of law.
Though politicians and media often present a pessimistic view of the legal system, where litigation is out of control and law impedes common sense justice, The Simpsons depicts a system that is just and beneficial to society. The Simpsons may satirize situations prompting legal action, it upholds the value of law in maintaining a civil society and being a tool that citizens use to right wrongs and make them whole.

This is not legal plumbing, this teaching in such a way as to encourge legal criticism and independent thought. No matter what the conclusions of the article, its very existance shows that law schools are capable of producing more than competent hantverkare who can be called to fix leaks.

Posted on by mklang

Useless self-surveillance for the paranoid

There is a widespread misconception that cameras somehow create safety. This misconception has spread to encompass the idea that surveillance somehow creates safety. This morning while standing in an all too crowded buss to work I was forced to stare at an advert which I first thought was for an optician since it contained a picture of a blond woman smiling while trying on different sunglasses… At first I thought it was odd to be advertising sunglasses in Sweden in December since there is no sun to be bothered by. Should the sun peek out everyone would greet it rather than hide from it, but as usual I digress.

paranoia by katiew (CC by-nc-nd)

The add was for a voluntary mobile phone self-surveillance system.

The banner read (in Swedish, but I translate): Watch over yourself [as in surveillance] with your mobile. The ad then went on to explain that you send a text message with the word “SAFE” to the company who then register your position and follow your movements for 30 minutes. After that time you receive an sms asking if you are safe – to which reply that you are. If no reply comes the company notify your friends, attempts to reach you and notifies the police.

The ad attempts to increase the level of paranoia people feel at the same time attempts to claim that a system such as this will keep you safe from the fears which they themselves promote. Naturally as with all surveillance systems they cannot prevent crime the only thing that surveillance can do is to help clean up the mess after the fact. If you are mugged, beaten, raped, killed…. or any of the other things you fear… this system will be able to tell you were you were.

Posted on by mklang

Ethics of overpopulation

Martin over at Aardvarchaeology has written a post on the ethics of overpopulation that has generated a flood of comments. He begins by stating that there are too many people on earth and presents three suggestions:

  1. It is unethical for anyone to produce more than two children. (Adoption of orphans, on the other hand, is highly commendable.)
  2. It is unethical to limit the availability of contraceptives, abortion, surgical sterilisation and adoption.
  3. It is unethical to use public money to support infertility treatments. Let those unfortunate enough to need such treatment pay their own way or adopt. And let’s put the money into subsidising contraceptives, abortion, surgical sterilisation and adoption instead.

If we ignore the fact that ethics is a notoriously vague term I agree with all of his suggestions. I would like to go a bit further to than this. Considering the position of the earth today and the nonsensical religious pro-life arguments and based on the understanding that children are not a right, I would prefer to propose the following restatement of suggestions 2:

  • Limiting the availability of contraceptives, abortion, surgical sterilisation and adoption should be criminalized.

I fail to see why the concept of religion should be used as a valid argument for limiting contraception which can prevent the spread of disease, cause personal and financial hardship in addition to increasing a world population.

But I also find it bizarre that individuals can motivate spending (and/or demanding public funding) vast amounts of money for infertility treatments while there are children in need of love and care in the world. What is their problem? Sure, “natural” may be nice but if you cannot then please focus on the needs of children not on the egoistic desire to reproduce your DNA.

    Posted on by mklang

    Gör SvD ingen skillnad mellan nyheter och reklam?

    När Bo-Erik Gyberg får skriva en artikel i SvD med rubriken Upphovsrätten gav oss mångfald (16 november 2008) blev jag först irriterad över artikelns bristande faktabas.

    Men när det sedan visade sig att artikelförfattaren Bo-Erik Gyberg är lobbyist och knappast opartisk journalist blev jag ännu mer irriterad på SvDs bristande journalistik.

    Former film consultant to the Swedish Film Institute, film producer and academic, Bo-Erik Gyberg has just been appointed Chairman of the Swedish lobbying group Filmallians. (20/6/2007 läs här)

    SvD låter alltså en lobbyist för filmproducenter att skriva att upphovsrätten behövs för att säkra mångfald. Med vilket författaren hävdar att den rika historiska kulturutbudet före upphovsrättens tillkomst (tidigast 1710) räknas inte som mångfald. Något som jag argumenterar emot här.

    Lika oroväckande är dock att SvD inte meddelar författarens uppenbara agenda. Artikeln bör utpekas för vad det är – en åsikt och inte nyheter. Egentligen, med tanke på dagens upphovsrättsdebatt, borde artikeln räknas till reklam.

    —

    Sorry for this being in Swedish I needed to comment on a Swedish lobbyist writing as a journalist in a Swedish daily – my earlier blog post here.

    Posted on by mklang

    The Quality of Code, Law and Journalism

    In the IT newspaper Computer Sweden a Swedish IT/IP lawyer (Malin Forsman) is quoted as saying that proprietary software is of “better quality” than Free or Open Source software (my translation):

    She recommends against Swedish software providers from going ‘open souce’. According to her using licensing costs is a much better method.
    – You need a carrot to exert yourself properly. If the large source of income is dependent upon the quality of the code then I believe that you will try harder.

    My first problem is with the journalism and the article itself. Like many other short newspaper articles it does not seem to have a point. What is the newsworthiness of this article? That an individual has an opinion? So what? We all have opinions but this does not make them newsworthy. Mind you if this had been my only complaint it would not have been worth blogging about.

    My second problem is with journalistic integrity. By simply blogging the lawyer we arrive at the law firm where she works and her brief bio, where under Memberships we see that she is a member of: Board member of the IT group of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Board Member of the Association for IT and Law, Member of the Swedish Copyright Association and Member of the International Technology Law Association. Her main legal experience outside law firms was working for Microsoft Corporation. Shouldn’t this maybe have been indicated in the article? If the journalist is presenting an opinion as news then shouldn’t some sort of critical analysis be added? I know that journalists are supposed to be objective but this article is hardly reporting the news as it is.

    The next problem is with the lawyer herself. I have no doubt that she is a qualified lawyer and an expert in the IT/IP field but what is wrong with her statements? Unless of course this is simply a case of journalistic misquote she is a legal expert speaking of the quality of code. She does not attempt to define quality even if such a definition was at all possible. By her logic an Open Source project that makes it’s code proprietary immediately improves its code and a proprietary software project that releases its code under an Open Source license immediately deteriorates the quality of its code. Obviously these are ridiculous statements. But when the IT/IP legal expert says them we are supposed to nod our heads in agreement.

    So who would be the right person to make such a statement? Well that person would need to have a vast experience of code not law. This imaginary person would need to have a vast experience of both open and proprietary projects and be able to define the concept of quality in a way that will enable these projects to be measurable and comparable. In addition to this the person would need to be free from suspicions of bias. I doubt whether such a super person exists.

    But what may be said about quality? Here are two quotes:

    Peter Drucker: (Innovation and entrepreneurship, 1985) “Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. “ISO 9000: “Degree to which a set of inherent characteristic fulfills requirements.”

    Now lets complicate the issue even more:

    While both these definitions are relatively common neither takes into full account the nature of software quality. The problem arises from the fact that software is a mix of product and service. The actual code is not what customers buy – they buy a function. Who cares what the software of a word processor looks like? It’s function is what the customer believes he/she has bought. If this is true then the customer has also bought an expectation of support in the case of software failure.

    This was just meant as an illustration of the complexity of software quality and why neither a journalist nor a lawyer can deal with such a question in the space of a 350 word article. What they are really doing is pure advertising in the form of journalism. Advertising a personal, political and business stance on software while puffing up their own egos.

    Posted on by mklang

    Basil Fawlty now has a small hotel in Lund

    Basil Fawlty is alive and well and running a small hotel in Lund. After arriving in Lund I walked to the hotel and attempted to check in to the hotel. This is not my first time staying at a hotel and I knew that I may not be given a room as I was early but I hoped to at least be able to leave my luggage somewhere.

    After waiting for some time a man appeared in the reception stared angrily at me and almost shouted out: “We are fully booked!” Somewhat taken aback I attempted to explain that I had a room booked but he interrupted me and said, in an irritated voice, that I could not have the room as it needed to be cleaned first. Eventually he cooled down enough to let me leave my bag.

    Being told of when attempting to check in was a bit of a novelty but I thought it would be a one-off event. How wrong!

    Attempting to check out in the morning was another interesting experience. Basil was struggling with his computer. His level of frustration was rising and I half expected him to start ranting and hitting the machine. I stood in front of the reception desk patiently and quietly, as I was not in a hurry I made no attempt to rush him. All of a sudden he jerks his head up, looks at me and snaps: I cannot help you.

    Being forewarned by earlier experiences I was not to shocked. I simply explained that the bill for the room was to be sent to those who booked it, I had no extras and I just wanted to leave the key. He huffed and puffed and attempted to demand proof that I was not to pay for my room myself – this was apparently not something they usually did.

    Despite not being able to prove that I should not pay for the room myself he eventually let me leave. Later this evening I am going to pick up my bag… I am kind of looking forward to this…

    Posted on by mklang

    What the Sufi knew about technology

    Before becoming an atheist I looked at many religions and I am still fascinated by the complexities of belief systems. Within Sufism (a mystical form of Islam) I came across a counter-intuitive aphorism which has often proven to be true: Freedom is the absence of choice.

    The ability of autonomous individuals to chose stands in the center of most freedom discourses so at first glance the Sufi thought seems to be dead wrong. Lack of choice cannot be a form of freedom. This is of course until you have to pick a new mobile provider.

    Yesterday I spent way too much time in the trivial decision of picking a mobile phone service. The method was relatively simple. First I ignored the smaller providers. This is a form of arrogance since it is built on the untested premise that they will not be good enough, but it is also a time saving device since a complete comparison between providers would have taken even longer.

    This left three main players. All of them provide a relatively adequate technological base for my needs but the pricing systems vary incredibly.The simplest form of analysis was the cost for calls. But even this can be subdivided into three groups: (1) Calls to other mobiles with the same provider, (2) Calls to other mobiles with other providers, and (3) Calls to land lines. This is also made more nuanced since in addition to the cost for the calls there is the opening cost for each call.

    The next unit of analysis is the cost for text messages this is thankfully simple since it offers a straight comparison. This was followed by the costs for international calls since I often call to and from Norway. This last one can be made more complex by analysing whether additional services with other telecom providers can make for a cheaper choice. The final main unit of analysis was the cost of data since I occaissionally (but not too often) rely on my phone as a modem.

    This is all wrapped up with a bunch of silly but not insignificant sundry costs like billing expenses, startup costs, add-on costs for various services and so on.

    Now all this was just to pick a mobile phone provider. If we were to be serious about our economies we would have to do the same for our energy providers, land line providers, Internet providers, cable tv providers, insurance providers etc etc etc…

    So the Sufi were actually on to something… Freedom may actually be the absence of choices.

    Posted on by mklang