Foiled again
Dave Birch's column about smart use of the internet to fight crime reminded me of an incident last week in Manchester (Second sight, November 22). A car drove through a pedestrian crossing against the light and I wrote the registration number and the time on the corner of the Guardian, thinking I would be able to email the information to the Manchester Police. I was encouraged by the online crime reporting link www.online.police.uk but this site only allows users to report, theft, criminal damage/vandalism, theft from a motor vehicle and damage to a motor vehicle. The final insult was the absence of an email address or even a feedback form on this site, so I couldn't even suggest that they add traffic offences. I gave up.
Adam Funk
jfunk@co.umist.ac.uk

Reality bytes
With regard to Dave Birch (Second sight, November 22), I think his contents are incorrect. Once again a reporter is assuming things are not happening because they cannot see the secret reports on the real abuse of encryption and use of steganography across the internet. His statement: "There has been no reported evidence that the terrorists actually used encryption. Moreover, the use of encryption is still relatively rare. Fewer than 1% of the billions of emails sent around the world each day are encrypted," is foolish. It only needs 10 encrypted emails to kill 7,000.

No one here appears to be saying the "internet is evil". No one can blame the internet. Do we blame the gun, the bullet or the person who pulled the trigger after a shooting? Exactly! The internet is only a tool of the hacker or terrorist. In the intelligence business it is best to assume that it can or is being done, rather than it isn't.
Geoff Guy
geoffrey.guy@energis.com

RISC assessed
With regard to Colin Matthews' lament over Acorn (Feedback, November 8) I have some good news - the successes of Acorn's technologies are alive and well. Back in 1990, 12 engineers from Acorn took the Acorn RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) design, which at the time was the world's first commercially used single-chip RISC processor, and founded ARM.

This was funded by Apple and VSLI, and was charged with developing a new RISC-based microprocessor standard. Over 10 years on, ARM is the world's leading designer of RISC microprocessors. Its designs are inside mobile phones, handheld computers, MP3 players - chances are, you have just used a device which has an ARM designed microprocessor inside it. While Acorn as a single company has sadly become a part of computing history, many of the technologies it pioneered live on, and have become part of the success stories of a new generation of UK companies.
John Williams
silicon_2@hotmail.com

Go potty
In his review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Games watch, November 22), Mike Anderiesz says there are "no more than a few days of enjoyment" in the game - what an understatement! As a great Harry Potter fan I walked into the shop with £30 hard-saved pocket money in my hand thinking this had to be a great game. The gameplay is smooth and the graphics are great but from start to finish it only took me five hours - that's five pounds an hour! I think that kids should get to review kids games and as an experienced game player I would like to volunteer my services. Owen Fenn (age 12)
(email address withheld)

Jack it in
Jack Schofield (Ask Jack, November 22) offers advice to an unlucky user unable to use Word, despite upgrading the memory to 384MB. I've used large mainframe computers with less physical memory than that! And suggesting that the user should "upgrade" to Windows XP, is like advising someone whose house is burning down to throw petrol on it to douse the blaze. Dr David Harper
adh@sanger.ac.uk