Nosy parkers
Re Second Sight (Privacy debacle set to be repeated, June 27): this message may contain information that is confidential, privileged and thus remains copyright of the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, you may not peruse or disseminate this message. This is despite the Government's intention to let every bureaucrat pry into our intimate communications. If you have received this message, notify the sender immediately and/or destroy the message. In other words, don't be a nosy parker, otherwise I will invoke the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and will dig deep within the common law for rights that protect our liberty as sacrosanct. Failing that, I'll stop using the internet. You'll be held responsible for the failure of the e-commerce boom and the deployment of carrier pigeons that, hopefully, will crap on your car. John Thompson
johnthompson@fromhome.fsnet.co.uk
Our servants
The government should take necessary powers to protect citizens from probable threats to their safety, even if those powers infringe privacy. Such powers must be proportionate, and likely to reduce the threat significantly. The government's proposals to allow a wide range of public bodies to access citizens' electronic communications were neither proportionate nor likely to reduce such a threat. But there is a wider issue. The government is the servant of its electorate. It has a duty to protect us - not only from terrorists, but from oppression and interference by those who are given special powers in the name of security. Every power introduced because of a threat must expire if not renewed in each parliament following an assessment of the scale of the threat. Every power to oppress must be balanced by an effective right of citizens to challenge the use of such powers before an impartial court. The use of special powers must be monitored by an independent agency reporting to parliament. Martyn Thomas
martyn@thomas-associates. co.uk
Starless office
Re: the alternatives to Microsoft Office (Online, Business Solutions June 27). I bought StarOffice 5.2 to run on the Windows XP operating system. It appears to be a good product, but when you try to shut it down, it generates an error message that you can't get rid of unless you switch off the PC. I reported the problem but if a corporation could shrug its shoulders, then that what's they did. At least Gates's product allows me to keep my PC running. Ian McGhee
ian.mcghee@ntlworld.com
Eject it
Brian Seavers has made a brave attempt to combat the hysteria surrounding copy-protected "CDs" in Macs (Online, June 27) but has reiterated a few common misconceptions. The CD drives used in Macs are not always the same as standard PC drives. They often have custom Mac firmware installed that alters their behaviour. This is particularly true of the Pioneer 104 Superdrive fitted to the top-of-the-line new iMac. The method of ejecting removable media by holding down the mouse button while booting will not always work with a problematic protected CD. Most importantly, new iMacs do have the emergency paperclip eject hole in their drives. My webpage http://uk.geocities.com/mssres/ superdrive.html demonstrates the location and use of said hole. Matthew Sylvester
mssres@yahoo.co.uk
Don't accept it
Mike Healan is right: you sign your life away when you accept the lengthy user agreements incorporated in nearly all software. What is the alternative? If you click the "I do not accept" box, the installation or download is terminated. Mervyn Mugford
bodley@eurobell.co.uk
Down time
Has anyone else noticed the amount of downtime on BT's broadband servers? Before ADSL, we had not lost mail service for more than two hours in two years, using a free ISP over an ISDN connection. When service was interrupted, undelivered mail would always be forwarded upon resumption. Since climbing on to the broadband wagon six months ago, we have not had a week without interruption and, more ominously, mail has been undelivered without the sender receiving an undelivered message. John Russell
jr@realnorth.co.uk
Still waiting
Read your article on the O2 XDA and was so impressed I bought one. Four days later I am still waiting for the GPRS connection to be setup. The XDA is a lovely device but BT does not have the infrastructure to sell and administer the connectivity side of it, which is its selling point. How might I connect my XDA into an 802.11b wireless network. Is there a "driver" for the internal radio transmitter (or would this require a soldering iron) or maybe a wireless card for the SD/MMC slot? Adrian Bleach
adrian@dataline.co.uk
