Microsoft discussed the extent of the online security threat, on 13 June before the Tech 2006 conference.

Microsoft’s Malicious software removal tool (MSRT) has removed 16 million items of malicious software from 5.7 million PCs since January 2006. This is an average of one virus, Trojan, rootkit or worm in every 311 computers.

Backdoor Trojans or IRC bots were the most common.

(Argh, and they’ve never even looked at this PC, which has had several occasions when the Greeks have started collecting outside and doing equestrian woodwork in terrifying profusion.)

Well, it looks like this blog has finally jumped to the sub 500,000 mark on the technorati ranks. This is thanks to the latest inbound link from http://shiningst0ne.blogspot.com/2006/06/visit-whydontyou-blog.html; so it would be rude not to make a return link as a thank you.

Thank you 🙂

A few days from the Summer Solstice, it seems the right time of year to consider Stonehenge again. I was ranting on 24 March about the heritage industry and the cavalier treatment of even English Heritage’s major cash cow, Stonehenge, in the name of improving the “visitor’s experience”. (http://www.whydontyou.org.uk/blog/2006/03/) I was also a bit disturbed to find out that Avebury is about to undergo “preservation.”

I was going to have a laugh at the expense of the people who will believe anything about these sites as long as they get to wear silly clothes and invent ceremonies. I was also going to rant about those “proper” archaeologists – especially those of the televisually- rewarded persuasion – who destroy sites at will, with no concern for future generations. They pontificate on theories as ludicrous as some of the most abstract neo-pagan tosh. They will happily help to convert living historic landscapes into frozen heritage “experiences” with convenient fast food facilities and any missing bits of monuments rebuilt in concrete and plastics.

I could even have given another airing to my standard argument that pre-Roman human beings were just like human beings now – mainly concerned with making a living and not necessarily more credulous than the standard 21st century person. So why do we always have to look at their relics on the basis that everything in their lives was devoted to ritual?

Instead I am going to air my own crackpot theory. I can probably argue the toss convinvingly on this, if pushed to it. I could even assemble some evidence to support or falsify it, were I strong-willed enough to get off my butt and go to the library. However, I’m not. So I am just going to present the theory in the hope that someone else will falsify it by proxy.

The theory is – Sefton Park in Liverpool contains the relics of a huge prehistoric site.

There, I’ve said it. It’s batty, I know.

I think that there was probably a prehistoric quarry in the area. I believe that there are also signs of largescale prehistoric construction.

Sefton Park is a large shabby park in the southend of Liverpool. A more or less continuous line of parks goes from Princes Park onwards, ending up in Calderstones Park and CampHill (Both attested megalithic sites. The Calderstones were on what is now called Druids’ Cross Road and have novel markings. Sadly they were dug up in the 19th century (?) and the remaining ones are housed in a Calderstones Park greenhouse) Near the parks are objects such as “Robin Hood’s Stone,” also a megalithic standing stone, moved from its original location. A fair quantity of pre-Roman and Romano-British artefacts has been dug up in the course of building and demolishing Liverpool. A megalithic settlement has been excavated in Wavertree, a mile or two from Sefton Park . There is a hillfort still in existence and cared for by English Heritage on the opposite bank of the Mersey (at Helsby Point)

(Devil’s Advocate : This is a sort of misdirection – setting the scene to make you believe it is reasonable to expect to find megalithic or pre-Roman sites in Liverpool . Which it is, but Liverpool has been so frequently built and rebuilt that even 12th century relics can’t be found in reasonable condition.)

The main basis of my evidence is:

• A fenced off cave on Croxteth Road which is at least partly man-made. Some of the stones were obviously put there when the park was built, some bits of the cave are 20th century attempts to shore up the dangerous bits of the structure and some of the stones fit together in a much more ancient way. The layout is on the same sort of plan as West Kennet or Wayland Smithy, except that the chambers are large enough for habitation rather than sticking corpses.
• There is a line of almost buried stone lintels (or vaguely arch-shaped constructions) on one side of the raised earth mound on which the Palm House stands. This bit looks exactly like the entrance to Stoney Littleton or West Kennet except for being buried up to its neck and being on a much greater scale. (Three apparent entrances)
  This bit is my strongest argument. Any of the other stone arches or constrcutions or caves in the park can be attributed to Victorians following their fashion for buiding fake megalithic monuments. However, it seems insane to fake authenticity to the point of building the buggars and then burying them.
• The mound of earth that this is buried in is decorated with a few (3 or 5, I didn’t keep notes sorry) huge stone “thrones” set at intervals. They are obviously arranged as part of the landscaping process but they are ludicrously big for garden ornaments and are made of a heavy, more solid stone (i.e like the sort of stone you find durable megalithic creations built from) rather than the standard pink sandstone of the rest of the park.
• Being a bit of a sandstone wall afficionado, I can roughly judge the era in which sandstone blocks were cut by the markings. There are blocks of sandstone throughout the park, some of which were quarried long before the park was built and some of which are on a monstrous scale.
• (The least convincing argument, granted, but one that may encourage the obligatory megalithic nutters to support the idea.) Intuition. I’ve been to loads of megalithic sites, (only thanks to the kindness of Tas, Sarah, the Megster and the Newb) and feel like I can almost smell one. In my only argument in support of this ludicrous argument, I can say that I once detected that we were on a hillfort while walking with colleagues near Snowdon, in Wales. There was mild sarcasm from my co-hillwalkers. Then we came across a metal sign that said it was indeed the site of a Celtic hillfort, so score 1 for the intuition capacity. :-p)

There’s more but I’ve already put in enough to introduce the idea. I don’t want to throw away all my aces although I have already thrown out my strongest cards. I will get photographs and post them. I may even do the research to find the original plans of the area when they built the park….

There are two alternative explanations. I suspect that they both might have some truth. In fact, I’m hoping they both have some truth, rather than just the one that would falsify this idea. One possibility is that there was a major megalithic site in the area, almost on an Avebury scale. (Devils’ advocate rears its head again:) The other (sadly more likely) possibility is that every seemingly megalithic thing in the whole park is a Victorian lawn ornament. My hope is that the park was built on the relics of prehistoric habitation and that the architects made use of the bits and pieces of stone that were lying around, partly to build interesting megalithic style constructions for bridges.

(Devil’s advocate has the last word.) I know the most far-fetched thing about this crackpot theory is that noone – however expert or unskilled – has ever argued it before, as far as I can see. Liverpool has a University with an Archaeology department and a pretty good Museum. The failure of anyone who knows what they are talking about to have suggested it before does argue for the theory being rubbish.

I will place my faith in the concept of falsifiability. Can anyone please come up with any evidence about the area before the park was built or about original park plans? Otherwise I may be forced to go to the local research part of a library ….. Don’t make me do that.

(I am totally aware of the mind’s pattern-making skills, so don’t bother going there when you try to refute it. I’m way ahead of you.)

Following on from our previous article about this – Well, I think this link from google adsense says it all: (The original document is at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/06/letter-from-eric-schmidt-ceo.html)

Dear AdSense Publisher,

There’s a debate heating up in Washington, DC on something called “net neutrality” – and the outcome of this debate may very well impact your business. Therefore, we are taking the unprecedented steps of calling your attention to this looming crisis and asking you to get involved.

Sometime in the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill would give the big phone and cable companies the power to choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.

Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access to everyone else. On the Internet, a business doesn’t need the network’s permission to communicate with a customer or deploy an innovative new service. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all broadband Internet access, want the power to choose who gets onto the high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build tollbooths to block the on-ramps for those whom they don’t want to compete with and who can’t pay this new Internet tax. Money and monopoly, not ideas and independence, will be the currency of their Internet.

Under the proposed “pay-to-play” system, small- and medium-sized businesses will be placed at an automatic disadvantage to their larger competitors. Those who cannot afford the new Internet tax – or who want to compete directly with the phone and cable companies – will be marginalized by slower Internet access that will inevitably make their sites less accessible, and therefore less appealing.

Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Imagine an Internet in which your access to customers is constrained by your ability to cut a deal with the carriers. Please call your representative in Congress at 202-224-3121. For more information on the issue, and more ways to make your voice be heard, visit www.ItsOurNet.org.

Thank you for your time, your concern and your support.

Eric Schmidt
CEO of Google Inc.

P.S. — If you are unsure of who represents you in Congress, you can look them up by zip code at http://www.house.gov. And if you would like to stay informed about this issue, and other policy issues affecting Google, you can opt-in to our policy mailing list at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/googlepolicy/subscribe (powered by Google Groups).

If you are in the US – then please, take note and take action.

Well, this may seem like a forgone conclusion (based on http://linux.sci-tech.co.uk/ as one of our sites), however here at WhyDontYou we are always open to debate.

Today I was in a discussion about the merits of Windows vs Linux and vice versa. One of the main arguments against the wonder that is linux was the boot time.

Now, everyone knows Linux is a powerful server operating system which is why it takes for ever to boot up and let you do things. Windows is soooo much quicker.

Or is it?

Yes, this is a loaded question! To prove a point I booted up a Dual Boot (WinXP and SuSE10) computer. The time to go from GRUB choice to log in screen was, indeed, about twice as long for the Linux machine as for the windows machine. (Both run roughly the same software). In fact, compared to the Linux machine the Windows system provided a log in prompt almost instantly.

However, this is where things went wrong. From entering the password to having a useable machine in windows took about half the lifetime of the universe. Each of the USB devices was checked, MSN started, tried to log in, failed because it had come up before the network device (etc.). Absolute chaos. While it is easy to be fooled into thinking the log on prompt means the machine has “booted,” in windows this is FAR from the truth.

In comparison, the Linux box had a fully loaded desktop (connected to the internet and running more server software) in about a hundredth of the time the Windows machine managed it. The difference made the delayed boot sequence inconsequential in comparison.

If you dont believe me, try it yourself!

Obviously there is a substantial interest in the photoshop effects (previous blog entry). Within about two minutes of the previous image being uploaded to flikr it had been viewed 20 times. Not bad going considering the normal rate of hits.

Lulworth Cove – Coloured Pencil,
originally uploaded by etrusia_uk.

This is another example of what can be done with the photoshop effects. After a long portion of my life being spent thinking the effects were worthless, I am now starting to change my mind!

The original image is reproduced to the side here, and as you can see, this (artistic effect) is quite effective (pun?). It does help that the cove is almost ideal for a pencil effect. I did try with a watercolour but this was no where near as good.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will try experimenting with other filters and effects to see what is good. Obviously, only the best will be posted here…

As an aside, you would be amazed at how hard it is to get the two images into one blog entry. Amazing. So much for the advances of technology!

Insect,
originally uploaded by etrusia_uk.

Found this in the garden.

Any one know what it is?

Well, sadly this rant has been somewhat beaten to the punch by the ever entertaining and ever educational Archeoastronomy site. That said, I am not going to pass up on the chance to complain about how poor journalists are when it comes to science. Sadly, this time scientists themselves as just as much to blame.

A lot of news sites over the last few days have reported the presentation made to the American Astronomical Society regarding the recent discovery that native Americans may have recorded the AD 1006 Supernova. See http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/14926.php and http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13149432/ for examples, or if you don’t mind being depressed read through some of the links at http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=1006+Supernova+Indian+Astronomy. It is a touch depressing, the regularity that the same thing is repeated.

Now, as mentioned on Archeoastronomy, this glosses over some of the more interesting facts from the find – but where “I” disagree with Archeoastronomy is in the interpretation.

Basically, archeologists found some Hohokam cave paintings dating to around AD 1006 which depict what looks like a scorpion with a bright star over it. The AD 1006 astronomical event is assumed to have been bright enough to be visible pretty much everywhere on Earth, and certainly noticable. It took place in the constelation of “SCORPIUS” as this extract from the Tuscon Citizen explains:

To back up their hypothesis, Barentine and Esquerdo (the scientists) created a model of the night sky of May 1, 1006, to show that the relative position of the supernova to the constellation Scorpius matches placement of scorpion and star symbols on the rock.

All well and good you may think. There is precious little evidence that native Americans studied the stars or kept astronomical records, so you can see why people are jumping on this. It seems unlikely that any human civilization didn’t study the stars as part of their agricultural developments, but that is an entirely different story.

The critical thing I took from this is how desparate people are to make links – no matter how tenuous. Why on Earth would the Hohokam have used the same name / symbology for a constellation as the Greeks? Generally speaking each culture has radically different names for the constellations (In Europe we have been to heavily overrun by the Romano-Greeks to retain our own names, but the  Saxons, Celts etc all called them different things – different animals etc)? There is no reason what so ever to think they would use the same concepts and it strikes me that the researchers involved have found a  cave painting and shoe horned their model of what it means.

Shockingly bad astronomy if this is the case. It is a sad statement about education that none of the reporters seem to have noticed this.

Apparently a gamer detoxing centre has opened in Amsterdam. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-06-08-video-game-addicts_x.htm?csp=34 The consultants who operate it say gaming may look harmless but it’s “as addictive as gambling or drugs.”

Well, OK, if I was the director of a spurious clinic to treat an invented addiction, those might be my very words. I thought conning money from the gullible was supposed to be the sort of behaviour associated with addiction to gambling or drugs. I realise that there is a serious new social problem here. The desire to treat any behaviour as an addiction is obviously a dangerously habit-forming thing.

And I can offer a solution.

So I am offering the services of my new state of the art detox centre to any of the unfortunates caught up in the web of offering detoxes for anything that used to be considered a choice or a hobby. Only £6k a week, all in, introductory offer.

You are also included, Carol Vorderman. Offering detoxes for everyday life is surely the ultimate goal of every therapeutic grifter*. You can’t charge as much per “patient” but you have the whole population as potential customers.

* Source- the Simpsons. Before you ask, I don’t know what it means either.

Even our own proto page isn’t seeing what we post for at least twenty minutes 🙂 For example, the World Cup “soccer” page isnt there yes (ten minutes later).

Shame on us.

Following the rant about the “COPE act” I felt the need to say my two pence as well.

What an insane idea this is. Sadly it is self defeating to a large extent. If email is now first and second class then eventually it will either break down – as every email provider pays to have their email first class, or when everyone realises that AOL produce no decent mail (ever) and just block their systems – or email will become superceded.

Email is one of the “Killer Applications” of the internet. It was one the first and has well and truly out lived the others. Is there anyone who remembers gopher: urls for instance? As people are now getting obsessive about using Blackberry and the like, charging the end user for email would be insane.

Not to mention the problems for cross border issues. Can a (for example) Russian company sue an American ISP for delayng its email? Will return gestures be implemented? When an email passes over the GLOBAL internet, how can any one organisation try to charge for anything other than the very last bit of the loop?

All in all, another badly thought out law passed by the steadily more insane US government.

Welcome to 1984, sorry its a bit late.

Amazingly, many workplaces (e.g. mine) are actually encouraging their managers to allow people to watch the World Cup in worktime or give time off to watch it – although in exchange for some repayment of the time spent. This is because it somehow now seems to be our patriotic duty to support our national football team. (That’s “soccer” to you in the USA though I would also require you to wash your mouth out after saying it)

I am all for this principle of time off for leisure activities. It could just do with being extended. E.g., we actually had good weather this week for the first time this year. I will happily swap a few hours in the sunshine for a couple of hours in work in January. I will even pretend to be watching the World Cup if i have to…..

I do enjoy watching football when there’s a good goal or a fancy bit of ball juggling. I just never realised it was my patriotic duty before.

Yes, things move at a slow rural redneck pace here in the UK, at least as far as undertsanding US politics. However, I have just found out about “net neutrality” and why it is no longer going to exist.

No less a person than St. Tim Berners-Lee voiced concerns over this, reported  on the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5063072.stm. He said that this would be a dark period for the Internet.

The so-called COPE Act (What is with laws having to have snappy names now?) was passed by 321-101 votes. This will basically make it OK to have two levels of Internet – the good bit for the companies that can pay and the duff bit for the rest of us. The bill was opposed by Google, E-Bay and Amazon (and a “film star” I’ve never heard of.) They unsuccessfully tried to get support for an amendment that would guarantee equal access.

Having only just heard about this and understanding as little as I normally do about US politics, let alone the business imperatives underlying the Internet, it seems ominous. I need to look into it. If anyone can explain it better, please write to us here.

Another invented addiction – to text and email – discovered. According to the Register and even today’s television news (so I am told anyway) people are now claiming to be addicted to text and email.

Come on. Doing something repeatedly, even obsessively, is surely not a disease.  People too dumb to see that spending 10p every couple of minutes to text mnnglss ste are just stpd. 

At least this explains spam - the random strings of words that I used to think existed only to stop me from bothering to even look for real emails aren’t from shady businesses. They are really from poor deluded email addicts and we should try to help them not condemn.