Pet Pixels - Personal

Why isn't UK voting anonymous?

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:59:27 +0100

I voted in the European election today. I was pre-registered and had received my voting card. I went to the polling station where they looked at my card, checked it against my name on the electroal roll, crossed it out, and noted its number on a list next to the unique ID of the ballot paper. I made my choice and put the slip in the ballot box. Much of this process is necessary in order to combat fraud and ballot rigging, however, it's clearly not anonymous - a simple reference back from the paper's ID to my voting card ID means that the government knows what I voted. Knowing what I voted gives no anti-fraud advantage I can see, and means that the collected data is way more sensitive than it needs to be. The simple fact that this knowledge exists is likely to distort voting patterns - people might be afraid of their political leanings being exposed. I'm not particularly worried about that personally, but those with more extreme views (like those that vote for the BNP) might not want this known, and it undermines the absolute right to freedom of association. Political affiliation is regarded as the highest form of 'personal data' under the data protection act, along with ethnicity, sexual preference, medical records etc, and the best way to avoid problems with this kind of data is not to keep it in the first place, as the numerous leaks/losses/exposures of government information have highlighted. So why is it done? Aren't elections meant to be done by secret ballot? Did I miss something? Why aren't more people disturbed by this?

Korg N364 for sale

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:08:59 +0100

I have a Korg N364 synth workstation to sell. It will appear on eBay on Thursday. I'm having a bit of an equipment juggle and I don't have the space any more, so please buy it, it's a great keyboard!

Some people

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:47:34 +0100

Just at the top of a hill that is Friendly street, just near my house, there are traffic lights for the single lane of traffic joining the A20. A woman in a burgundy Fiat Punto pulls up to the lights, first in line, right in the middle of the lane (just as if she had stopped at the lights, as usual). She then turns the engine off, puts her hazard lights on, gets out of the car, locks it, and walks off to nearby shops. Within seconds there is a queue of cars hooting. I was quite incredulous at such flagrant disregard for just about everything and everyone!

Sailing

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:22:23 +0100

Zoë and I sailed from Gibraltar to Almerimar with my Mum this weekend. I use "sailed" a little loosely as there was essentially no wind, so we motored nearly all the way. Zoë had a fantastic time. The weather was lovely, and with so little wind, it was really easy to stop for a swim every so often (like when the water temperature sensor said 27°!). The highlight for me was sitting down for dinner in the setting sun and being joined by 40 or so dolphins. Highly recommended!

Partied out

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:41:00 +0100

Last night was my sister's 10th wedding anniversary party at the RAF club on Piccadilly, followed by even more drinks at Floridita's in Soho. Got home about 2, felt extremely rough this morning, then had to face a 4th birthday party, which was actually quite entertaining! Congrats to Becca & Ander, and best of luck for the next 10!

Transatlantic Mum

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:30:00 +0100

My Mum (and of course Ian, Roger, Curtis & Hannah) has this afternoon succesfully completed a transatlantic crossing in her boat, Elemiah. That's quite an achievement. It took them three weeks, including about 5 days with no wind which they had to motor for. Three cheers for Elemiah! Hopefully I'll get a chance to take Zoë on a weekend hop down the Med over the next month or two.

And they're off...

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:44:00 +0100

My Mum has set off on her transatlantic crossing from Nova Scotia. Their progress should have been reported continuously via blog postings through their Iridium satellite phone, but they could not get the (serial!) modem working in time. For some reason text messages sent through the Iridium web site don't seem to work either. I have a feeling that Motorola is involved with Iridium, which probably explains why it doesn't seem to work properly...

Hot stuff

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:14:19 +0100

Just a little break from the techie stuff. I really like Tabasco Chipotle smoked jalapeño pepper sauce. I realised that I was getting near to the end of a bottle and it occurred to me that that meant that I'd got through SIX 148ml bottles in the last year! Definitely an addict. Maybe I should invest in one of these: unless someone feels like importing one for me one since they don't seem to be available in the UK.

Who's the Daddy?

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:32:00 +0100

I'm very happy to announce the birth of my son, Luc Bramwell Bointon, this morning at 5:32am. He weighed 3.8Kg (that's about 8lb6oz in old money). Delivery was natural and not too traumatic (especially for me!). Now I get to say "Luc, I am your father!"

Cyprus

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 18:00:00 +0100

Back from 3 weeks in Cyprus. Excellent stuff. Some some very disappointing world cup football, but lots of lovely sunshine and sea. I went water skiing for the first time in about 18 years and found that it's like riding a bike (well, not really), but it all comes back pretty quickly and I didn't have any trouble staying up on a mono. Mind you, my arms and shoulders were aching for a week afterwards! Did a couple of dives too - saw the most amazing thermocline - like watching oil and water mixed, with a shimmery reflection off the interface 20m down! Z had a great time - sorted out potty training (hooray!) and she can swim pretty well now.

Evacuated!

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:26:00 +0100

I was bringing Zoë back from Nursery at about 6:40 last night when I noticed some smoke coming from behind the buildings on our road. It turned out to be quite a large fire in some garages and quite a few people were watching what was happening. A couple of minutes later the fire brigade arrived and the access road was quickly shut off. I went indoors and found I got quite a good view from a bedroom window, so I took a few pictures. A few minutes later there was quite a big explosion with a fireball about 30m high. After half an hour or so, the police asked us to evacuate, so we went out for dinner. It was still all cordoned off when we came back, so we stayed at a friends place.

Dinner

marcus@bointon.com (Marcus Bointon) — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:00:00 +0000

Fantastic dinner party this eve, supposedly to review all our skiing photos - Paul, Marlene, Fraser, a very tired Adam, Sandeep & Pam, Mummy & Ian, and of course Henna and Charlotte. Sarah cooked 2 huge legs of lamb, a gratin Dauphinois, and chilli green beans. I made a giant Jaffa cake. We polished off a fair few bottles too, in particular the two Crozes Hermitage Di bought us, which were just wonderful. I made pancakes in the morning, which went down well. Tea at the Horniman museum (after looking at the rabbits, goats and chickens of course) rounded out a very enjoyable weekend. Should probably have done some more work on the hallway though.