The Scottish Parliament's e-petitions website is still not operational, more than four full days after it crashed. The Justice for Megrahi petition was opened for signature on 8 October 2010. The last date for signing (fixed, amongst other reasons, so that the petition could be dealt with before the Scottish Parliament elections) is 28 October. The website's failure has already deprived the petition of twenty per cent of the time allotted for signature.
Note, however, that you can sign the petition by SMS. Text the number 417 and your name to 07537 400395 (from outside the UK +44 7537 400395).
Why isn't the Scottish Police investigating what looks increasingly like a cyber attack on the democratic process?
ReplyDeleteSurely the Justice for Megrahi campaign has complained to the police?
Justice for Megrahi is a campaign that proceeds strictly on evidence. It has no evidence that the e-petitions website crash is attributable to malicious or criminal conduct.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks that he/she has such evidence should communicate it to the appropriate authorities.
One conspiracy at a time, please!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if anyone has read my scribblings last night based on my network investigation ('am no just some daft punter aff thi street btw)...however, by examining IP addresses, it looks like the Scottish Parliament 'outsource' that one wee bit of interactive data collection, that is the e-petition. I am sure the lack of progess at fault finding and rectifying 'things' are because of this configuration. Where, physically, that server is I cannot determine - maybe situated in another country - England, perhaps. This explains why the stub of the rogue URL does not show a message right now, but the page on the Scottish Parliament site where that URL is linked from, does contain a message (coz that is under the control of the IT guys at the Scottish Parliament).
[One comment on the current CT under development by those with a proven predisposition to CTs. Reminder: 60 000 NSA employees and 8 500 GCHQ employees cannot stop wikileaks from divulging classified information - is it perverse to suggest that e-petitions probably don't even appear on the spooks' radar screens?]
Anybody know where I can read the Brownlie article that caused a stushie last week? When I look in the archive at Scottish Review dot net it is mislinked (unless there is another CT happening) to an article about 'quango queens' by some other geezer.
ReplyDeleteAlistair Brownlie's piece was in the front page section "The Cafe" but has now been supplanted by reactions to his views. The new edition of the Scottish Review - online tomorrow, Tuesday - is due to have a feature on Mr Brownlie's piece and reactions to it. That feature will, presumably, reproduce the original.
ReplyDelete'Supplanted'? Lol.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete[Yellow Pages advert music playing in background]
ReplyDeleteElderly Gentleman sporting deerstalker: [speaking on telephone] I wonder if you have a copy of ‘Fly Tipping’ by A.R. Brownlie?
Bookshop #1 person: [not audible]
Elderly Gentleman sporting deerstalker: [Replacing bakelite handset] You don’t have? Oh, well…
[Sometime later]
Elderly Gentleman sporting deerstalker: [speaking on telephone] I wonder if you have a copy of ‘Fly Tipping’ by A.R. Brownlie?
Bookshop #2 person: [not audible] You don’t have? Never mind….what dear? [pause] Oh, it’s about a gentleman, getting on in years, who writes letters. Lots of them. Noises people up dear! [Laughing]
[Sometime later]
Elderly Gentleman sporting deerstalker: [speaking on telephone] I wonder if you have a copy of ‘Fly Tipping’ by A.R. Brownlie?
Bookshop #3 person: [not audible]
Elderly Gentleman sporting deerstalker: You do have? Splendid!
Bookshop #3 person: [not audible]
Elderly Gentleman sporting deerstalker: Oh, my name? [pause] A.R. Brownlie.