By Ruben(nerd) Schade, a UTS university student and IT guy in Sydney and Singapore. c.2004
Just quickly doing my part to spread the word, Wikileaks is available on Wikileaks.ch now, and at 213.251.145.96.
Wikileaks.org was suspended by EveryDNS, as it had been in the past with DynDNS and Amazon, for being the victim of repeated DDoS attacks. Allegedly. Now that Julian Assange is being Anwar Ibrahim-ed, one can't be too sure.
TheNextWeb Canada is reporting that ministers in Saskatchewan (hey, spelled it right the first try!) have started using iPads. They seem almost too excited by their new toys... or at least one of them is!
Don't get me wrong, I love the hardware and think that anything that can reduce costs and improving service is a Good Thing, but I'm wary of governments relying upon one device from one foreign company. As much as it pains me to admit it, in this circumstance I'd probably prefer them using Android tablets. Android isn't entirely free either, and the tablet hardware will be unabashedly and unashamedly cloning the iPad, but it's a start.
According to the Twitters, here in Australia Greens senator Scott Ludlum and Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull have started using iPads too, but more in a personal capacity.
Of course I didn't notice this until this morning, but yesterday was the United Nations' World Statistics Day!
The celebration of the World Statistics Day will acknowledge the service provided by the global statistical system at national and international level, and hope to help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics. It serves as an advocacy tool to further support the work of statisticians across different settings, cultures, and domains.
I'll admit right up front that while mathematics is not one of my strong suits (owing to the fact its hard to make an affordable suit out of carbon fibre), I love statistics and maps. I used to read atlases as a kid, and I've always loved looking at graphs. I'm weird.
Anyway this event served to highlight that the UN has a UN Data website with statistics from countries around the world, as opposed to countries from the same place. Remarkably, there are very few of those places around. Unfortunately the page is served up from Active Server Pages which is fairly disappointing, I would think a world body agency thingy would be using something more... open? There's a joke there about the functioning and effectiveness of the UN somewhere, but I can't think of one right now.
Unfortunately for me, while Australia has a fairly well fleshed out article, Singapore's seems not to exist, ditto for Malaysia. The Republic of China doesn't either, but for other reasons.
I celebrated World Statistics Day by wearing a purple scarf.
People have already discussed this issue to death already, but Gillard's comments have been festering in my brain like a... thing that festers.
I'm going to take a controversial stance here. When Julia Gillard billed the proposed compulsory internet filter in Australia as a "moral issue", she was right. The problem is, despite numerous campaigns by organisations like the EFA, the misinformed still believe that this filter will not only be effective, but is necessary to maintain moral hygiene.
I've always asserted that the latter is irrelevant because the former simply isn't true. Even if it were this deeply important issue and we were all in favour of curbing our civil liberties, technologically it wouldn't be effective. Anyone who's used the internet for more than five minutes knows this.
Right right right... the right is the bight. Bird bird bird... the bird is the word.
Now Conroy claims they don't intend to filter P2P or channels other than the regular tubes. Right there, he's not only admitting the shortcomings of his policies and that ultimately its going to be useless, but he exposes it for what it is: a token effort to appease the religious right.
It is a moral issue Ms Gillard, its about treating the Australian public like adults, not sacrificing their rights, and not putting the country at a further disadvantage to the rest of the world technologically.
Political history has taught us that sacrificing rights is easy, winning them back is like trying to make diamonds by putting quartz under your bed. I did this for many years, and all I ended up with were a couple of heavy shoeboxes.
I suppose nothing has changed since August after all. Which is a right royal bummer.
Huge hug to all my German friends and relatives :). Suck on it, Margaret Thatcher!.
At the same time I'm preoccupied and sad at the thought of Korea still divided when I see how Germany and her people are now. Why didn't the Cold War powers fight themselves instead of doing it in innocent proxy states? Or even better... act more like adults? Ah politics.
Credit to Thomas Wolf on Wikipedia for that amazing photo of the Brandenburg Gate. I've been to Munich, Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart but still not Berlin.
Why did the EFA retweet my post about Ned Flanders, and what does he have to do with the proposed National Broadband Network (Wikipedia)? Read on my friend!
During an impassioned discussion on security and the NBN at this year's EggNOG conference (sorry Andrew!) Arbor Network's Roland Dobbins asserted the internet fit the critera of a failed state and urged that the NBN be designed in a more secure fashion. If we don't he fears we may be responsible for creating a "cesspit".
As Ry Crozier reported in IT News Australia:
"Jonathan really likes it when I mention his name in posts for absolutely no reason."
Well that was clearly the wrong quote.
"If the network isn't defensible and there's not an active push to impose law and order, there's a danger [the network] wil [sic] become a cesspit and fail," as it had in China and Russia where criminal hacking had taken the place of litigation in the West as part of "legitimate" business strategies, he said.
I first read that as a "cesspit of fail". That colourful language would have been way cooler, and probably would have soften up the audience of nerds in attendance. While we're on this subject, it has always bugged me that attendance has a double T. Why does it need it? Even Mr. T only needs one, and if I brew a cup it only needs one. Except for green tea, they often need two.
"We have to take positive action," he said, believing that an unmanaged network could rapidly become unmanageable, insecure and then un-securable.
I read this and my nervousness centre started up. I was shattered. These Rolling Stones lyrics doing anything for you? No? Okay then. The problem with security, as he rightly points out, is its much harder to patch an insecure system than it is to actively design a system with security in mind from the beginning. This I can completely understand and appreciate.
I suppose the thing that worries me is what he means by "positive action". To be blunt, it sounds ever so slightly Conroy-eque. Take these recommendations, implement them, and don't ask questions otherwise... you're against positive action!
We could read this as a cynic and assume his company has some magical new software or system to make the NBN more secure, or that he'd be able to offer his services for making it more secure for a fee. I know Singapore networking folks but I'm a complete AusNOG virgin so I wouldn't know. Frankly, its hard to judge his intentions, or the intentions behind Orewllian-ly titled "positive action".
The point I made on Twitter and got retweeted for this afternoon by the EFA (HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!1!!!one!!!) was the idea of inventions. Why did my iTelephone autocorrect that word to that? Even if such a plan was founded on good intentions, as Ned Flanders said to Marge when the residents of Springfield rebuilt his destroyed house only to have it collapse as a result of faulty workmanship: "I can't live in good intentions Marge!".
I would be more than happy to be proven wrong about this, but talk of this nature creeps me out.
With the Australian federal elections less than a week away, I decided to plot on a handy table the positions of the leading two parties and their leaders that matter to me. This way I can make a more informed decision, and ultimately help others.
By my definition, plan is shorthand for comprehensive plan. This means they've made them public, debated them and have a clear direction backed up with these trifling things called "facts". If they do have a good plan but it contradicts something else they stand for, I reduce it to a nah.
Candidate for Prime Minister Julia Gillard Tony Abbott Political party Labor The Coalition Position (officially) Centre left Centre right Position (probably) Centre right Far right What to do Nothing! Go backwards! Grown up immigration position Nah Nah Plan for IT, communications Nah Nah Plan for public transport Nah Nah Plan for higher education Nah Nah Plan for environment, energy Nah Science-what? Supports equal marriage rights Nah Nah Represent us well globally Nah Nah No juvenile attack attacks Nah Nah Returned any of my emails Nah Nah Has double letters in name Yup Yup Stepped over Rudd Turnbull Would make a good laksa Maybe? What's Asia?
I'll be voting for the Greens, but I must be frank and admit it's mostly because the two biggest parties are such a joke now. I watched two of their debates. I've been watching the news. If I hear one more mention of so-called "boat people", I'll scream.
Ideally I'd like Labor to get back in, but with a much reduced mandate to govern. Let them know we're not happy with their performance, and we only kept them in because they scare us less than someone who'd like to set women's causes and progress back 50 years.
Then again that's just me. This whole mandatory internet filter talk made me come this close to voting for Liberal for the first time, no joke! Eh, I'm depressed, I'm off for a coffee. Wait, I'm already at a coffee shop. Time for another one then.
Wendy Francis of the Orwellianly-titled Family First political party went online last night and blasted Australia's homosexual community, so I'm standing on my own online soapbox to respond, as well as sending it through her website feedback form.
Ruben Schade
http://rubenschade.com/Wendy Francis
http://wendy4senate.com/contact/Dear Wendy Francis,
A squandered opportunityLike many voters in this upcoming election, I use the internet to help me stay informed of issues. I commend you for being one of the few to reach out to voters like me on Twitter.
However, I was dismayed to read your recent, groundless vitriol against Australian homosexuals and their fitness as parents. Your comments are insulting to the thousands of same sex families in Australia that have children, and to the children who have been real victims of abuse.
You claim homosexuals represent a minority of the Australian population and therefore should not impose their "narrow agendas" on the rest of us. Whatever happened to "Equity For Every Individual", "Protecting And Prospering Families" and "Putting People Above Politics" that you claim to stand for on your site?
As a member of a third party, you have the unique opportunity to provide a genuine alternative to the tired and apathetic Coalition and Labor parties that more Australians are feeling disillusioned with than in any other election in recent memory. It's tragic you would squander such a chance for making a positive impact on Australia by espousing such intolerance.
Elections are as much about the ethical standings of candidates as their policies. May this be reflected in your results this election.
Peace, health and happiness,
Ruben Schade
It seems Wendy has clarified her position in a radio comment.
Dear Wendy Francis,
I just listened to your radio comment where you clarified your position. You think having same sex couples raising children is "emotional child abuse" despite the overwhelming evidence against such a position, and you compare such an environment to... the Stolen Generations?
Forget what I said before about you and your party having an opportunity to do good at all. You're nothing more than a bunch of self deluded twits of the ilk we'll be as horrified to read about in half a century as people now are horrified to read about proponents of segregation, slavery, indigenous rights and denying universal suffrage to women.
May you be treated better for such comments than you treat the people you bafflingly continue to slander. You deserve far less.
Ruben.
It's time to start worrying.
Labor has lost its substantial two-party preferred lead against the coalition in just two weeks, the latest Newspoll has found. [...] The poll, taken between Friday and Sunday, found Labor and the coalition are split 50-50.
Don't get me wrong I'm not a Labor fan (at least not any more), but the prospect of this guy being our PM is absolutely terrifying. We don't need another anti-intellectial theocracy.
From a tech perspective I'm guessing we're screwed either way, unless enough people vote below the line and oust Stephen Conroy, or enough Labor ministers grow spines to stand up against the filter, or enough Greens are elected to put pressure on Labor to straighten up and fly right, or a decent combination of all three.
We all suspected as much, but now it's official: the readers of (uh, Zoo Weekly) have dubbed Stephen Conroy the dumbest politician in Australia.
For those not in Australia, the illustrious Stephen Conroy is the senator who wants to implement a nationwide, mandatory internet filter based on a super secret blacklist, regardless of the technological infeasibility, negative social implications and other such quibbling factors of which I've discussed at great length. If he wasn't taught at the Ted Stevens school of understanding the intertubes, he at least received some free coaching one afternoon from the man over some cheap alcoholic beverages.
"There's a staggering number of Australians being in having their computers infected at the moment, up to 20,000, uh, can regularly be getting infected by these spams, or scams, that come through, the portal (sic)."
Unlike other esteemed survey organisations such as Newspoll, Zoo Weekly is uniquely positioned to gauge the sentiment of the Australian public on the societal impact of technology. Their exposes on how much photoshopping one poor model in a bikini can endure are featured on the front covers of their magazines each week.
As a runner up, I thought Richard Dawkins' description of the Orwellian-ly titled Family First party leader Steven Fielding was particularly apt:
Runner up in the Zoo survey was Family First Senator Steve Fielding, who has been described as having the intellect of an earthworm by eminent scientist Richard Dawkins, after saying he thought the earth was less than 10,000 years old.
I dunno, earthworms can navigate with their eyes closed. Still, I do follow him on Twitter.
