Private Market for Personal Identity Data

Apparently, the British Government is planning to create a private data market for personal identity data. There's an interesting item abut this in Computer Weekly. 

You don't need to have a subscription to see the draft discussion document, "Identity Assurance (IDA) - Technical Infrastructure Services". Currently, it's accessible here.

One interesting thing that I learned is that "shared secrets" are apparently aka "memorable information" (see p.7 of the draft report).

Great timing, given the recent security breaches at Sony, Sega, and the like!

© 2011, David E. Giles

RStudio

If you're a user of the R statistical software environment (and you should be - if you're not, it's the best free lunch in town), then the (fairly) recently released RStudio user interface will undoubtedly interest you. Here's a quote from the description on their website, to give you the flavour:

• "RStudio brings together everything you need to be productive with R in a single, customizable environment. Its intuitive interface and powerful coding tools help you get work done faster.
• RStudio is available for all major platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It can even run alongside R on a server, enabling multiple users to access the RStudio IDE using a web browser.
• Like R, RStudio is available under a free software license that guarantees the freedom to share and change the software, and to make sure it remains free software for all its users. "

RStudio has been getting quite of a bit of attention - positive attention - especially in places that matter, such as R-Bloggers.

Anyway, I'd encourage you to check it out. If you're not already an R user, this interface might persuade you to take the leap. Just make sure that you update your installation of R to (at least) 2.11.1 before trying to use RStudio.

© 2011, David E. Giles