Jim Killock’s blog

If we are to understand why TfL assumes some projects work better than others, we need to see the workings

I took the train from Prague to Amsterdam, then the ferry back from Rotterdam, just because it seemed the easiest route. The European overnight trains are a pretty slick operation, with parts of trains leaving and joining in different cities, so the train I was on divided and a section went to Copenhagen, and when it arrived in Amsterdam, a new part had joined from Poland.

Some quick notes on the places I passed through. Many German towns in this area are quite mundane, probably like everywhere, they are somewhat victims to postwar redevelopment as well as the war.

Amazing how much you come to rely on some piece of equipment. In my case, my Garmin GPS, attached to a Mac and thereby importing routes from Bike Route Toaster. Unfortunately, my Garmin gave up talking to my computer on day one.

In January this year, young programmer and open society evangelist Aaron Swartz killed himself at the age of 26. As someone who had helped create RSS, developed Reddit, and been a huge force in recent Internet campaigns against the US SOPA and PIPA bills, his death was a huge blow to digital rights supporters.

I was lucky enough to talk as a guest on BBC R4’s Bringing up Britain this week. I wasn’t prepared for the full onslaught of opinion loaded towards filtering the Internet wherever possible.

An unprecedented lobby effort is threatening to derail changes to data protection laws aimed at giving you new rights over your data. Lobbyists from the USA and Europe are shouting extremely loudly in an attempt to water down new regulations, which they fear will cost them money.

It’s January, and with luck you have lots of new toys to play with. Maybe you’ll have a new games console, a phone or iPad. Perhaps you’ll have bought some software with them, downloaded directly through a curated store.

Some years you look back and think, thank God that’s over. You wonder how on earth industry lobbyists and ignorant, lazy politicians are allowed to decide the fate of our digital rights, and how they can justify the erosion of free speech and privacy that their policies will cause.

A spate of arrests since 2010 has landed around seven people in court or gaol for sending shocking remarks on the Internet. These “social media trials” have centred on individuals sending “grossly offensive” Tweets or Facebook updates. They have been prosecuted under Section 127a of the Communications Act, and the sentences have left many of us wondering exactly what might land us in trouble with the law: merely for expressing opinions that other people find offensive.