Oversight
Martyn Thomas makes a good point about oversight when he states that use of special powers should be monitored by an agency that reports to parliament (Feedback, July 4). The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act would have introduced to the field of communications data the oversight of the commissioner for the interception of communications. Unfortunately the recent campaign against the act has failed to prevent the accessing of data but succeeded in preventing the implementation of this much-needed oversight.
John Donovan
john@donovan.net

IT cynicism
Re: Technology that fakes the 'truth' (July 4). This story almost had me concerned for a second or two. Then I remembered how my kid used to believe everything he saw on TV. Then he realised that if it was animated, it wasn't real. Then he realised that if it was a movie, it wasn't real. I don't think it'll be hard for him to make the next jump: ie, if it's not verified by a trusted source, it's probably not real. There are plenty of spoof video clips doing the rounds, pretending to be real life, then showing a logo at the end. It's no leap to understand that political organisations can do the same thing. News channels will live or die on how reliable their footage is. Anything that can't be substantiated won't be taken seriously. Far from accepting fake news, we'll simply become more suspicious.
Alistair McKechnie
Alistair.McKechnie@ogilvy.com

Case study
Your piece on customised computer cases reminded me of William Gibson's 1996 novel Idoru, in which a tribal group called The Sandbenders makes casings for futuristic laptops out of recycled aluminium cans, coral, turquoise and other natural materials. In his follow-up, All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), two theories are advanced for the beige/grey cabinet rule. Either it's an unthreatening comforter for users, or the designers are unconsciously terrified of their product and, as a result, kept it as unexciting as possible. I know which I prefer...
Chris Rogers
christopher.rogers@glmca.mcs.gov.uk

Bad server/ce
Further to John Russell's letter (Feedback, July 4) about the amount of downtime on BT broadband servers. Every day of the week June 17 - 20 our BT email account was down. A few emails trickled in, out of office hours, and emails could be sent, but things were clearly not working properly at the server end. For three consecutive days I tried their helpdesk, each time giving up after being on hold for more than 30 minutes. On the fourth day I stayed on hold for an hour and finally got to speak to someone. The helpful (yet helpless) operator said yes, they knew, it was all being caused by a migration to new mail servers by BT. Their helplines had been swamped. The thing that really infuriates is this: BT has more websites than you can shake a mouse at. They have my email address. They have a "service update" automated message line that is free to call and always accessible. Yet none were used to alert me - and presumably thousands of others - that planned server work might cause an inter ruption in service. It's amazing how many different ways the digital revolution can give you of failing to communicate.
Nick Parker
nikkus@postmaster.co.uk

Switched off
Ian McGhee's problem with Star Office (Online, July 4) has a familiar look to it. In our case, the operating system is Windows Me, and the office suite is Microsoft Office 2000. If Word gets itself confused, it comes up with an error message telling me that I need to shut down the application; if the problem persists, I will need to restart Windows. Unfortunately, when I click on the OK button, the message pops up again, and again, and again...Even the brutal approach of the Vulcan nerve pinch (Ctrl-Alt-Del) won't break the deadlock - the only thing to do is switch off the power. Sun 15, Microsoft 15, I think!
Ian Park
i.d.c.park@ntlworld.com

Open office
Ian McGhee (Feedback, July 4) should not be surprised that Star Office 5.2 doesn't work with Windoze XP; that particular version of the program was probably written before Bill G even thought of inflicting XP on the world. The good news is that the successor to Star Office, Open Office is now available. The even better news is that it's free and available under the GPL from Openoffice.org
Tony Green
tony@beermad.co.uk