Would you Adam and Eve it?

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Teachers 'fear evolution lessons'
The teaching of evolution is becoming increasingly difficult in UK schools because of the rise of creationism, a leading scientist is warning.

Head of science at London's Institute of Education Professor Michael Reiss says some teachers, fearful of entering the debate, avoid the subject totally. This could leave pupils with gaps in their scientific knowledge, he says. Prof Reiss says the rise of creationism is partly down to the large increase in Muslim pupils in UK schools.


Those bloody Poles, erm, I mean Polls

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Speculation is rife that the latest opinion polls either show the Tories ahead or at the least dramatically closing the gap on Labour. Surprise? Not really. If Crufts had held a televised AGM in Blackpool over the last few days the opinion polls would now be calling for a Cocker Spaniel to lead the nation. Given the rather obvious fact that from any random group polled on their voting intentions about 60% of them won't actually bother to vote in an election anyway quite why these polls are considered significant is beyond me.

Will the poll results make an election more or less likely? asks Jon Snow.  Jeez, did anyone seriously think the Tories would have a disastrous conference? I suppose it was a possibility but really, does it make sense to think about announcing an election a few days after a conference which could have been predicted to provide the Tories with a 'bounce'?

If Brown is stupid enough to announce a snap election he deserves everything he gets. But, somehow, I just don't think he will.

The Tories are jumping up and down now like emboldened schoolboys who think they can take on the 'gang' and win. And why do they feel like this? Because at the last minute Cameron dumped the New Tory' kaftan he was parading around in and went back to the dressing up box for the old clothes that granny likes to see him in. The little soldier's uniform, the policeman's hat, Grandfather's bowler, Enoch's Homburg...

The Tories have psyched themselves up for a fight and that is exactly why Brown should do absolutely nothing and let them fume away in impotent rage. They'll soon calm down once the Sanatogen wears off.


UPDATE: The Guardian ICM poll shows Labour and Tories neck and neck, both on 38%.  If it dashes any foolish thoughts those around Brown had for a snap election it will turn out to be a good thing. For fuck's sake Gordon just get on with the job you've coveted all these years!




What were we saying about US hosting?

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Web Hosting by DreamHost



"And here it is.. for the big One - Oh, DreamHost is now offering only one plan! It’s called “Happy Hosting” (though it doesn’t really need a name when it’s the only one) and it comes with 500GB of disk, 5TB of bandwidth per month, and unlimited users and mailboxes, etc, etc, etc…

It’s $10.95/month, but if you prepay for 1 year it’s $9.95/month, 2 years it’s $8.95/month, 3 years it’s $7.95/month, 5 years it’s $6.95/month, and 10 years it’s $5.95/month! There may be a crazy 777-ish promo code too (for new customers) if you look around."





So, if you're prepared to stump up about £360 you'll get all your hosting needs met for the next ten years PLUS a webspace increase of 2 gigs every week and a bandwidth increase of 40 gigs every week. By 2017 you'll have 1,540 gigs of space and 25 terabytes of monthly bandwidth. That may seem crazy now but when everyone is hosting their HD videos in a year or two those figures won't look so outlandish.

Will Dreamhost still be around ten years from now? Who knows? Will you? Will I? They've survived for ten years so far in a difficult market and for the sake of £360 (under 10 pence a day) it's worth the risk, especially with a weak dollar at the moment. The three year plan works out at only 15 pence a day  and the two year plan about 17 pence a day. It's true that they had a couple of months of stinking service a while back but they seem to have got their act together. I found their uptime and reliability no worse than Media-Temple who are highly regarded in the hosting world (and at least twice the price). And who could resist a company run by a Mike Myers lookalike (right) who also writes the funniest hosting company newsletter and a pretty mean company blog.

And when it comes to legal threats the guys at Dreamhost don't fuck about either. Here is their response to a lawyer's letter from competitor Lunarpages. You can read the whole exchange here but for now, the Dreamhost lawyer's response will do. I'd love to have seen what they'd have done with Usmanov and Shittings.

Re: Mr. H., Add2Net, Inc dba Lunarpages, New Dream Network LLC
Dispute re activities of Mr. H.

Dear Professional Lunarpages Lawyer Guy:

I represent New Dream Network, LLC (“NDN”). This is in response to your letter to NDN, which my client has passed to me for handling. Please address all future communications to me.

Initially, it is not clear from your letter whether we are discussing a “Mr. H.” or a “Mr. H.-ings.” You have used both spellings repeatedly in your letter.

Additionally, it is unclear to me what you are requesting. Your demand that NDN “immediately Cease and Desist from any further activity contrary to the provisions of Mr. H���s agreement or that would cause a violation of statute or common law” is too vague to convey any idea what you are requesting. Are you demanding that NDN fire Mr. H? If so, please state so clearly. Exactly what do you believe NDN has done that is in violation of what particular law? State specifically what evidence or information you are relying upon.

Furthermore, I do hope you understand and appreciate that the non-compete clause in Mr. H’s employment agreement is hopelessly unenforceable in California, at least to the extent that it purports to restrict Mr. H’s ability to pursue his chosen career with competitors of Lunarpages after his employment there has ended, except to the extent necessary to protect legitimate trade secrets. See California Business & Professions Code §16600 et seq. and the numerous cases applying that statute.

With respect to any non-solicitation clause, at least one court has held that such clauses are unenforceable under §16600. See Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. Gallagher & Co., No C94-3384 MHP, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18412 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 19, 1994) (unpublished). In any event, applying basic First Amendment principles, no court would enjoin Mr. H from, for example, telling a few of his friends who continue to work at Lunarpages that he is happier at NDN and that NDN is a better place to work than Lunarpages and that they may wish to consider applying for employment at NDN, regardless of what his previous employment agreement with Lunarpages provided. If you are claiming that such isolated conversations would violate some provision of law in California, or that the employment agreement at issue validly prohibits such isolated conversations, please state so clearly so that we will all be on the same page, and provide any authority you have to support your position.

With respect to any alleged trade secrets, please specify what specific information you believe is at issue here that qualifies for trade secret protection under Cal. Civil Code §3426.1 which is the applicable law, and state the measures which your client took to maintain the confidentiality of that information per §3426.1(d)(2). As you probably know, merely reciting within an employment agreement that something is a trade secret hardly makes it so. See Thompson v. Impaxx, Inc., 113 Cal. App. 4th 1425, 1430, — Cal. Rptr. 3d — (2003) (“The recitals alone do not establish anything. Labeling information as a trade secret or as confidential information does not conclusively establish that the information fits this description.”) Once you have identified with particularity the supposed trade secrets at issue, then we can have an informed discussion regarding whether that information qualifies as protectable trade secrets under §3426.1, and whether Mr. H has attempted to give any such information to NDN.

In any event, NDN has not received any list of Lunarpages’ employees. If Mr. H has told one or more friends who continue to work at Lunarpages that NDN is a better place to work, he has done so without any encouragement or participation from NDN.

The portion of your letter that concerns me the most is the portion in which you state, “We have contacted Mr. H recently to remind him of his ongoing contractual obligations under his Employment Agreement . . . ” Because you seem to be laboring under the false belief that a non-compete agreement with an employee is enforceable in California, and you seem to have taken that position in your letter, I presume that you have attempted to persuade Mr. H into believing that working for NDN constitutes a violation of an enforceable non-compete clause. If that is correct, then Lunarpages has, through you its counsel, attempted to intimidate NDN’s lawful employee Mr. H, and have wrongfully interfered with NDN’s relationship with its employee, and have thereby engaged in unfair competition under Business & Professions Code §17200 et seq. Please provide Lunarpages’ assurances that it will cease and desist its attempts to intimidate and to interfere with NDN����s employees in the future, and that it will send a letter to Mr. H advising him that under California Business & Professions Code §16600, non-compete agreements that purport to restrict post-employment competition are invalid. Such a letter will be necessary to undo the damage that apparently has already been done by Lunarpages’ deceitful and wrongful conduct. Please send the required corrective letter to Mr. H, and provide those assurances to me, by May 7 at the latest.

I look forward to receiving your clarifications and your assurances. In the meantime, please call me if you have any questions.

Very truly yours,
Awesome DreamHost Lawyer Guy


US hosting, cheaper, bigger, better and with free cojones!


UPDATE: Septicisle,  from Obsolete, emailed to say: "I'm hosted with them, and their response to legal threats first from Mazher Mahmood's lawyers, Farrer & Co and then from Schillings was to, err, ignore them completely."


Website Grader

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I've just used Website Grader's free SEO report tool and got a respectable 84%. Not bad considering I know very little about SEO and do nothing to improve my SEO performance. Interestingly, they checked out the top 20 bloggers and found most of them were making fundamental SEO errors.

According to WG, I need to add some keywords in the meta-data (although most people don't think this is of much importance, especially to Google) and I need to renew my domain (it's got 79 days left).
WebSite Grade For mikepower.net : 84/100 (October 03, 2007): A website grade of 84 for mikepower.net means that of the thousands of websites that have previously been submitted to the tool, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 84% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over a dozen different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

Talking pictures

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Blabberize
Blabberize Is One Of The Funniest Services I’ve Seen In A Long Time

Blabberize is a new service that allows you to create your own talking picture, basically a moving mouth on a still image. Using Blabberize is simple. Users upload a photo of someone to Blabberize, select a mouth and then record a message. Once done, users can email a link to the Blabberize hosted page or embed the result.
You can try the Blabberize site but as they have said "We're getting slammed with traffic from TechCrunch and scrambling to keep the site up! :)" I'd give it a while to cool down. Looks like fun though :)


This call may be recorded for training porpoises

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EasyCallRecording - easy-to-use, pay-as-you-go inbound and outbound call recording service
Recording your telephone calls provides peace of mind.

Have you ever put down the telephone and wished you had recorded the conversation? Have you ever wished that you had a recording of "that" telephone call with your bank or building society? Or your builder? Or your estate agent? Your local council? The list is endless...

Most UK businesses record telephone calls with their customers routinely. But you can bet the recording of "that" conversation will be conveniently lost if you request it.

EasyCallRecording is a very simple, easy-to-use way to record your telephone calls.

Interesting tech survey

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Silicon Alley Insider: Almost All Consumers Now Use Web for Buying Decisions
US market research company Avenue A / Razorfish surveyed 475 consumers across "all demographics" in July. The findings show the usual divide between what the loud techno-elite minority cares about, as compared to the quiet mass-consumer majority. Some of the results:
  • 47% never share bookmarks
  • 44% never use RSS feeds
  • 65% never use tag clouds
  • Almost all read the "most popular" or "most emailed" items on sites
  • 92%+ use the web when making product buying decisions (research, reviews, retailer location, price comparison, etc.)
  • 54% start their product research at a search engine
  • 68% never use mobile phone to listen to music
  • 76% never use mobile phone to watch video.
  • 64% never use mobile phone to check headlines.