By Ruben(nerd) Schade. Labour of love weblog of nerdish interests by a uni student in Sydney and Singapore! c.2004
As I mentioned previously, I was concerned by SOPA, but was a little irritated that it was getting so much coverage in light of far more dangerous laws that had a greater chance of passing. This opinion piece from The Times via The Australian however made me think twice about the relevence of the SOPA debate.
An unnamed journalist at The Economist on new scientific research into bed bug eradication.
The result, the details of which the team is keeping secret for the moment for commercial reasons, is used to bait a trap, designed by Dr Logan, that is about the size of a standard mouse trap and has a sticky floor similar to fly paper. And it works. To paraphrase the slogan of Roach Motel, a brand of traps aimed at a different sort of insect pest, bed bugs check in, but they don’t check out.
Sounds more like Hotel California to me... just saying!
From RTÉ News, a credible site because of the accented é.
US camera pioneer Eastman Kodak, which brought photography to the masses over a century ago, has filed for bankruptcy. [..] it has been struggling to keep pace with the digital age [..]
The irony is Kodak engineers invented the digital camera, the very device that hastened its demise. Where its competitors succeeded, Kodak faltered. It's a real shame, few companies have had such an impact on people's memories and on the state of technology, research and design.
As an aside, I've noticed a correlation between failing companies and "modernised" logo changes. Kodak discarded their classic red K in 2006.
My latest entry to the Anime@UTS blog, and the first about art! If you want to comment, do so over there :D.
Wikipedia has just gone dark, though initially I didn't notice because I use NoScript. Turns out they're using JavaScript to block it for various reasons and more.
Perosnally, I reckon they should have taken the angle that they're making a statement on the technological infeasiblity of blocking material, given the internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it. Blocking data will only render people more creative in finding ways to get to it. And they will, every time.
I feel like I'm talking about The Great Firewall of Australia again!
Leaving aside the issue that SOPA is a smokescreen, I'll admit, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, SOPA is a serious concern for the future of the Internet in the United States with potential global repercussions, but I'm skeptical these blackouts will accomplish anything.
Legislators have been bought and paid for already, and the fact your Twitter avatar is black or your news aggregation site doesn't have any content on it won't sway them. That's not to say the media and politicians won't jump on this as a reason they're proud to dump SOPA while they enact PIPA, ICANNs compulsory verified registration process, and other legislation you'll be hearing about in coming months. Watch out for them.
In the meantime, instead of glorifying companies, websites and Twibbon-wearers for blacking their sites for a day, why not celebrate and support those who are actually helping to make a real difference on a daily basis. I tried to do that a few days ago, and was called out. Clearly, we have a lot of work ahead of us.
For these reasons, I'm not blacking out my entire site, but rather this one post.
From The CBC, of all places:
The leaders of France and Germany said boosting economic growth across Europe is a priority in their efforts to stem the debt crisis that is showing signs of spreading across the 17 countries that use the euro.
Water also discovered to be wet, and The Bird is The Word!
Okay, I posted this story to get you to click through to the original article. Angela Merkel's expression is priceless!
It's Monday again, so to lift our spirits I thought I'd post something adorable and utterly pointless. Well, more pointless than I usually post. Enjoy.
I didn't intend for this to be a series, but here we are again! We heard of the skimmer problems with DBS ATMs, and the response the bank garnered from customers. Now we're finding out what DBS is going to do about it.
Reminds me of that rehashed Assange quote from last year:
What are the differences between Mark Zuckerberg and me? I give private information on corporations to you for free, and I’m a villain. Zuckerberg gives your private information to corporations for money and he’s Man of the Year.