On 01-Sep-08 14:57:09, R.Thomas wrote:
> [I do wish that the default settings on this list were restored to
> 'reply to all' I wonder how many messages are lost because people
> think that they are replying to the list when their message is
> actually going only to the author of a list message]
This may also depend on what you can configure in your mailer.
Mine (admittedly unusual) will always include the "From:"
address (with an option to "Reply to Sender?" if "Sender:"
is different from "From:"). I can configure "Include all recipients"
to be "Always", "Never" or "Ask". I have it as "Ask".
Thus, in replying to this email, I answered "Yes" and got an address
list of (a) To: Ray Thomas himself, (b) Cc: The RadStats list.
Since I only wanted to reply to the list, I deleted Ray and changed
the List to "To:" instead of "Cc:". Simple.
> This issue on loss of non-anonymised data draws attention to a
> fundamental point about the use of statistics. 99% of users are
> only interested in aggregate statistics. The need to non-anonymised
> data is surely small. So why does it appear that many copies of
> non-anonymised data exist?
No doubt one reason is that it may be easier and quicker to copy
the entire database rather than fiddle with setting up anonymised
versions. An anonymised version (especially if split across more
than one set of tables) will need properly organised identifiers
to allow record linkage, and to set that up someone will have to
think (or rather, take time, which costs money when you use an
external contractor).
Also, as Humphrey Southall and Roger Bivand (who also makes a
similar point to the above) point out, there are good reasons
to preserve micro-detail for some purposes, even if you don't
really need to know names.
Finally, for what it's worth, you may aware that Lockheed Martin
have been awarded the contract for the 2011 Census -- see:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/news-and-events/
press-release---c ensus-reaches-contract-award-milestone.pdf
though according to the convoluted speudo-speak on the radio today
("PM", 16m15s - 21m23s into the "Listen Again"), they "won't
actually handle the data, which will be done by sub-contractors
in the UK". And, anyway, the contract is to Lockheed Martin UK,
which is a British-based company and "not subject to the Patriot
Act" which could require disclosure to US agencies.
So that's OK, then.
Ted.
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 02-Sep-08 Time: 00:14:16
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