Some people are idiots, some are not. Lifestyle or culture has nothing to do with this.

You’re right kev…didn’t get sound last time I tried it.

The sad thing is that, statistically speaking, most people would do the same. This number may be a little out of date, but over 90% of people choose to terminate after pre-natal tests confirm Down’s.
I find it hard to understand this statistic, do people think having Down’s Syndrome is so bad?
I’m not some raving pro lifer, I fully support a woman’s right to chose, I just don’t get why so many make such a choice…

I’ve had a Chromebook for about 6 months now, every time I use a PC or a Mac I get really annoyed with how long everything takes or how unnecessarily complex things can get.
Chromebooks ain’t gonna change the world, but for surfing and relatively simple tasks it is bloody amazing, 90% of people would never need more that a Chromebook can do…
I have the hp11, currently £180 in currys, the 14 is a bit quicker and a bigger, better screen, but you don’t buy a Chromebook for its processor…
Best thing about it, you can properly mirror your browser to a chromecast with sound and everything (which is better than android devices can currently manage).

By the way, I do not work for google…

Isn’t she a bit young for existential angst?
If she’s like this now, imagine how she’ll be as a teenager…

For fear of repeating myself, my problem is not with the act of monitoring itself, I see it as absolutely essential to protect the young people. My problem is that, as the “computer guy” at work, all this sort of thing falls on me, which means that, when I do find evidence of grooming or criminal behaviour, it will be me that ends up in court, again, not in itself a problem for me. My problem is that, when I am faced with cross examination by a defence lawyer, I don’t want there to be any weaknesses in our processes that could see paedophiles walk free.

I very much believe that it is a good thing to monitor internet use, but I just feel that it has been done very badly in my workplace. The young people have not, in my opinion, given informed consent and we are not doing enough to ensure the process is robust and transparent.

Take, for example, our room search policy. We get a lot of self harm issues and have to search certain young people’s rooms for sharp objects when the need arises. All young people, when moving into the home are made aware of the potential need for staff or Police to search their rooms in certain circumstances. Then, when a room search is carried out, two staff must be involved and must fill out a room search record, which is then given to the young person to read and sign to confirm their understanding of why the search took place. If the young person does not agree with or understand the reasons, a Children’s Rights officer and/or the young person’s Field Social Worker is brought in to review the process and follow up any complaints. We do not arbitrarily search all of the young people’s rooms on a weekly basis, all young people are risk assessed on an individual basis and any need for regular room searches would be a result of that process of risk assessment.

Our internet use policy has a very brief sentence about web monitoring, which the young people may or may not fully understand before signing. We then conduct a search of their public and private internet use on a weekly basis. This check is completed by a single member of staff, who fills in a form with any issues (or a lack thereof), puts it in a folder, then locks it in a cupboard. The young people are not informed of these weekly searches. Obviously, if any issues are found in the search, they are followed up with Police, social workers etc.

To me, searching someone’s room is not really all that different to searching someone’s internet use. They are both (however necessary) an invasion of privacy. I guess the crux of my frustration is the wild difference in policy and procedure. I am happy to carry out searches and monitoring of young people’s internet use, it is, and has been, a vital tool in protecting young people. I just feel that I have been asked to do it within a flawed and potentially unethical framework.

Thanks again for your various comments, cannot find one that was not of help. I know it’s a bit weird posting these sorts of problems on public web forums, but it really has allowed me to focus on what the problem is and find a solution to my dilemma.

Thanks for all the advice, I guess my main uncertainty comes from the fact that the management is a little unprofessional and draconian at times. The phones thing is kind of a separate issue that I have been bothering them about for a couple of years now.
I guess my main problem is not with the act of monitoring communication, but the clarity of the framework around said monitoring.
I think a long chat with the manager may be in order…

Not my decision to make iolo, though I have suggested that.

This is another thing that troubles me, all of the young people have 3g phones, which we top up for them but do not monitor at all. I can’t help but feel I’m being asked to do a bit of “fishing”. We have had young people before at very high risk of sexual exploitation and have managed to protect them through individual risk assessment and good hard work. I just can’t deal with the arbitrary nature of what I’m being asked to do…

It logs a screenshot any time anyone uses foul or sexualised language (which is nearly every conversation a teenager has) and lists all the sites they visit. The young people all sign an agreement which states that use can be monitored, but it is very vague and I don’t feel that the young people fully understand what that means.

That bike is so 90’s it should have Terry Christian presenting it…

The new team bikes, being stainless steel, are mostly bare metal now…

This picture does not do the colours full justice, it really is veryy nice to look at.

It is indeed…

Sorry, it’s ticsmon I must thank for the rebas, no idea why I thought I’d bought them off aracer, must be going mad…

A night about riffs and Sound City with no Slayer?
Wish I’d turned over at 10:00…

Bought a rockhopper comp on cyclescheme 18 months ago.
Have recently gone 1 x 10 with xt casette (11-36), zee mech and on-one ringmaster 30t chainring (because I am fat and weak) on deore cranks.
Replaced the fork with 100mm reba (thanks aracer!)
Replaced the wheels with the new hope tech XC on pro 2 hubs (which are awesome!)
It is like riding a whole new bike!
Not finished though, still have to replace the brakes (probably with deore M615), bars and seatpost (reverb).
Oh, and will also be upgrading the frame eventually (Solaris or sherpa) so I can go the full Trigger…

Collective mixing desk chubby!

Godfather of Grunge? Buzz Osborne?

EDIT, Neil Young…BBC no likey, clearly

I guess the lack of anything super interesting or left-field is a bit of a reflection on how conservative the BBC has been over the years…

Thanks for the PSA, really enjoyed that.

I live at the bottom of a biggish hill that’s very popular with cyclists.
On the way home a couple of hours ago in the car, me and wifey were behind two cyclists coming down the hill, no point trying to overtake as there are a few blind summits and corners (plus they were touching 50mph on their bikes anyway!). So by halfway down the hill another car comes up behind, no worries…Then out of nowhere, a black Seat comes out from behind the car behind me and nails it past all of us over a blind summit and into a blind bend. As he gets to the cyclists (Seat doing well over 60 by now), one of whom is (quite fairly in my opinion) in the primary position in his lane, he sees another cyclist coming up the hill, so moves in on the downhill cyclist in the primary. I genuinely do not know how he missed everyone…
I wanted to chase him down myself for a bit of a chat (or at least to get his reg number) but he was long gone…
it really scares me that people think they can drive that way… :evil:

Fair play dannyh, can’t argue with you at all…

Purely out of interest (and from bitter experience) do you find most aggro comes from long time members of the community who feel ownership of the area, or recently moved in residents with a touch of NIMBYism?

I don’t think many of us would have a problem with riding according to set times or days (evenings after 7 or alternate weekends?).

I just don’t get it, how can a community that accepts people clogging up their roads every weekend for 6 months of the year, dogs and horses relieving themselves everywhere (and associated litter problems) possibly be so disagreeable about a few people riding mountain bikes about?

I live very locally an do most of my riding around beacon hill, as it the only place round here which allows biking (albeit in a very limited fashion). I don’t really see any damage from biking on beacon hill and I’ve never caused or been at the receiving end of any aggro. The issue to me seems to be one of entitlement. If people see no cycling signs and know that people are not allowed to cycle, they will resist any change in favour of cyclists.
What bothers me more is all the visitors to the local parks who park all over the grass verges (which, at the crest of beacon hill or corner of Cropston reservoir, is bloody dangerous) to avoid paying £2.50, let their dogs shit everywhere then give cyclists shit just for existing.
I understand the difficult position you are in Peter and do not envy you one bit, but surely money talks, and most cyclists are not afraid of spending a bit of it…the bottom line is that these parks take a lot of money to maintain, surely a couple of fairly unobtrusive mountain bike trails could offer a not insignificant revenue stream. If walkers don’t like it, I don’t really care, they tend not to like anything…

when you have made all your payments, you then have to pay 5 or 7% (depending on the price you paid) as a deposit for a further 3 year rental period (but with no monthly payments). To own the bike outright instead of the three year deal, you basically have to pay them the money you saved from the scheme in the first place.
Unless you have rubbish credit, go and get a 0% loan, it’s easier and, if you do it right, can possibly save you more money anyway…

Also, when working with severely autistic adults, myself and a colleague witnessed our supervisor brazenly abusing a young resident (details are unnecessary, but it involved outdoor, public nudity in November). The scariest part was that my colleague, although in agreement that it was a despicable thing to do, had no intention of reporting the incident and was less than impressed when I reported it. I also got the impression that I was not the first person to see this sort if thing, why would someone be so brazen if they thought someone would report it?
Abuse is a culture and people in that culture can often take years to understand what they have been witness to.
I’m not saying all this stuff about Savile happened or didn’t happen, but I have witnessed first hand the sort of culture that allows it to happen and seen people realise years after events that they should probably speak up…

It’s amazing how people like this warp everything around them. I work in Children’s homes in Leicester and have worked with people who worked with Frank Beck (Wikipedia entry). These people get away with it by bringing everyone in with them, making everyone complicit. They create a culture of abuse where things which seem absolutely insane in reality become totally normal in their world. Abusers win through the cowardice and weakness of others.

Bryn looking rather studious…

This chair cost £600, no human has ever sat in it…

Nessa (the white one) has 3 x-rays next tuesday, suspected arthritis ih her back legs…she’s only six… :(

Altura Mayhem Bamboo

Nice top, good fit, comfortable. Most importantly, doesn’t stink after a few rides.

Great to hear new (old) AFX and new new Snares on the same day.

Today has been a good day…

:D :D :D

Sounds like Mr Funk is back on form (though I suppose a lot of people will moan about him singing).

It doesn’t matter what we think, as long as we keep buying stuff…

He would have a stronger argument if this was something that was thrust on the area at short notice. This has been planned a long way on advance and plenty of notice given. Too many people in this country, when faced with a problem, waste huge amounts of energy blaming others and moaning, presumably in the hope that the problem will be solved for them. When life throws up a problem, try solving it yourself, you might be surprised how much easier your life becomes…

Oh the horror!
We are so lucky to have such a comprehensive road infrastructure, yet some seem to assume that our privileges are actually god given rights.
Maybe he should take a trip to one of the many parts of the world without such an infrastructure to see how people solve problems rather than just sit around moaning (usually because they’re too busy getting on with survival).
I am surprised at how offended I am about this…

There will be nowhere to park within a mile of the park, get the train…

Don’t know if it helps, certainly doesn’t do any harm…does hurt like hell sometimes though…