I’ve been busy with a few things in the last week. Added a ‘contact us’ email link to the left in the navigation bar, should also see a new theme for the front page appear in the next week.

In the mean time I leave you with a cue for your brain to take leave.

Oscar Peterson (1925 – 2007).

WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK W…… nevermind.

BRAAIIIINNSSSS…

Was out and about today. Was at a workplace that used fairly standard firewall software by the looks of things.  I got blocked trying to access The Australian IT.   The story in question? Stephen Conroy wades into child porn net flood.

What are the chances that the intended system will perform better than a commercial off the shelf solution?

(To prevent the ohno-sayers: Take note of the methods listed by the error box)

Well you might assume it wouldn’t be a problem in a filter the Australian Government is dumping a whole heap of money on. Or will it?

Mr Rizvi—At a very broad level, the purpose of the pilot is to look at two streams of potential filtering. The first stream of filtering is in terms of just filtering the ACMA black list and different methodologies for filtering the ACMA black list. What we will seek to test is the impact of that type of filtering in terms of a range of criteria. We will also test more sophisticated types of filtering that go beyond just simply testing the ACMA black list through to filtering larger black lists and also looking at other types of filtering including dynamic filtering, filtering using key words—those sorts of methodologies—to see what the impact of that type of filtering is in terms of both the ISP and the customer.

Following off of somebodythinkofthechildren.com and the previous “How to be Senator Conroy” post.

5. Bully and silence your critics.

Mark Newton, an engineer at Internode, has heavily criticised the Government and its filtering policy on the Whirlpool broadband community forum, going as far as saying it would enable child abuse.

…

On Tuesday, a policy advisor for Senator Conroy, Belinda Dennett, wrote an email to Internet Industry Association (IIA) board member Carolyn Dalton in an attempt to pressure Newton into reining in his dissent.

“In your capacity as a board member of the IIA I would like to express my serious concern that a IIA member would be sending out this sort of message. I have also advised [IIA chief executive] Peter Coroneos of my disappointment in this sort of irresponsible behaviour ,” the email, read.

It is understood the email was accompanied by a phone call demanding that the message be passed on to senior Internode management.  SMH

It should be noted the SMH article makes mention that even Youtube could be censored.

Far flung, but I have not seen any mention of how these banned site lists will be generated, if the porno-really-kiddy-bad-thanasia-fiddler-banned sites will be derived from the many already commercially available filtering software available off the shelf or whether they will be outsourcing an Indian company to seek out the most horrible filth on the Internet in the name of saving the children.

On that I leave you with a word from Ben (Franklin).

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Also I have received a few emails regarding my lack of pictures. Here’s your damn picture.

That’s bubble-wrap.

1. Discredit and devalue public opinion as wild and HYSTERICAL. Example.

Senator Ludlam – So what are your benchmarks or what is acceptable?

Senator Conroy – We are just at the very early stages. You are actually jumping ahead. I can understand that if you have been reading some of the wild and-

Senator Ludlam – Some of it is not so wild, Minister.

Senator Conroy – enthusiastic commentary that I keep seeing both in blogs and in the media.

2. Brag that you are certain you have read more blogs than the person opposing you even though you have no clue on how much research they have done. Then repeat step one. Example.

Senator Conroy-As I said, we are at the early stages. We have not made any decisions along those lines, so we are taking it step by step. This is a complex issue. Notwithstanding some of the commentary that borders on hysterical at times that you have possibly seen, we are just slowly and methodically working our way through and gathering information through this trial.

Senator Ludlam – Some of the comments that I have seen did not approach hysterical at all. I think there have been some quite well thought through concerns.

Senator Conroy-I am sure I have unfortunately probably seen a wider range of commentary than you have, Senator Ludlam.

3. Lie about your facts or at the very least bend the truth to make your words sound morally right. In fact do it while in Parliament. Example.

Senator Conroy – Just to indicate the countries that have implemented along the lines that Abul is talking about include Sweden, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. This is not some one-off excursion.

Makes you wonder why people who know what the hell they are doing aren’t in Government.  Mark Newton caught this one out.  Itch.

• UK: Government specifically excluded from online censorship by the Communications Act. British Telecom has implemented a private, voluntary clean feed system which its customers can use if they wish;
• Canada: Eight ISPs, without any Government coersion at all, run a voluntary parental control tool. The project’s FAQ specifically states that “There is no legal obligation to do this; it will be entirely voluntary. ISPs may have technical or other reasons for not adopting the system;
• Sweden: One ISP, Telenor, runs an optional blacklist. It was embroiled in controversy last year when the police tried to add P2P trackers to the list as child pornography sites, demonstrating how pernicious “scope creep” is in these systems: As soon as they exist, there’s always political pressure to make them block more;
• New Zealand: Examined the BT Cleanfeed system from the UK in 2005, and concluded that it was only 10-15 per cent effective in a fitness-for-purpose study launched by the Department of Internal Affairs Censorship Compliance Unit. The Government abandoned the idea as something too stupid to pursue; I contacted the President of InternetNZ today to confirm that there’s no NZ censorship system whatsoever, and they don’t expect that situation to change if there’s a change of Government in their election later this year.

4. Suggest that everyone in Australia is a bunch of pedophiles. Example.

Senator Ludlam – Just let me finish. In terms of the countries that you have just listed for me, it is mandatory or is it an opt-in system that, for example, concerned parents could take advantage of?

Senator Conroy – Illegal material is illegal material. Child pornography is child pornography. I trust you are not suggesting that people should have access to child pornography.

Today’s lesson is derived from somebodythinkofthechildren.com

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I’m not feeling too well today so this will be a budget post. However a very important one. Something that’s been riding under the radar since the election.  Hopefully some of the other bloggers who read this will pass this further down the social daisychain better than the FPM site can.  Do take note.

Australians will be unable to opt-out of the government’s pending Internet content filtering scheme, and will instead be placed on a watered-down blacklist, experts say.

…

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) contacted by Computerworld say blanket content filtering will cripple Internet speeds because the technology is not up to scratch.

Online libertarians claim the blacklists could be expanded to censor material such as euthanasia, drugs and protest.

…

“Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked — end of story.”

…

“Once the public has allowed the system to be established, it is much easier to block other material,” Clapperton said.

Please do read the rest of the article at Computerworld.

I’d hate to pull the political bandwagon, but Rudd’s been smoking a bit too much of the Chinese pipe.

For many of us this would probably mean many sites we know well will be blacksited and unavailable to us given the current save-you-from-yourselves type society we live.  How many of the games you know have been banned from Australia?

If you feel you’re against this (and you should) – it’s one switch away from being at China’s censoring levels – contact your local Federal Representative in your area, as well as send a letter (yes an actual physical paper letter) to Stephen Conroy.  Why a paper letter? That’s because Timmy your e-mail basically doesn’t get read – they skim it (if at all) and then send you a pregenerated response.

It’s the proverbial Pandora’s box for Internet censorship. Where does it end?

UPDATE 19/Oct/2008

INTERNET users could be forced to subsidise the federal Government’s quest to censor the internet, with early estimates indicating the scheme could cost $60 million a year.  AustralianIT

When’s the last time you knew a Government project to stay on budget? How often does the Government admit defeat on a project instead of beating it to death to prove that it will work?

Of course you could always call the people opposing the government ignorant extremists.  From “Interview With Media Contact Tim Marshall For Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy.”

and you know there’s a few lobby groups in the sector who are pretty keen to put there extreme view out there without perhaps having too much interest in the facts.  Techwired Interview

I’m one of those people who has no affinity for balancing on bladed contraptions.

Give me both feet planted on one board and I’m perfectly at ease, but anything that requires both feet operating independently of one another in some kind of zen-like dance; and it’s a bit like I’m trying to rodeo on cement mixers. One foot talks to the other, there’s a brief pause while they chatter amongst themselves, followed by the inevitable raucous laughter as my arse takes the brunt of the joke.

Roller-blades, ice skates, ski’s; each is its own type of masochism.

The engineering of an ice rink, however, is a feat of marvel. Its round, has no real exits, and forces people to act like mice on a perpetual wheel. For anyone who’s been to a sushi-train, there are some similarities here that one might draw worthy of metaphor.

I’ve come to appreciate that trying to pick up at the rink is a bit like the “extreme sport” of how speed-dating must be.

Typically, you have three seconds to introduce yourself, state your intentions, ask for courting permission, and swap contact information. Unfair as that may sound, three seconds is all you get – because by the second pass on the rink they’re no longer skating on the outer edge and have decided you’re some kind of looney. To be fair, that’s probably true – so the real challenge, then, is in the delivery.

Try it out some time.

There’s quite a good reason insurance is so high these days.

A woman who claims she was injured going down a slippery slide at a prominent Brisbane private school is suing for compensation.

Fiona Ciranni, 36, is claiming almost $102,000 in compensation from John Paul College Ltd – Queensland’s largest private school – and A&L Hawkins, trading as Affordable Amusement Rides, due to injuries sustained while she accompanied her daughter on a “super slide” at the college on October 2, 2005.

…

Mrs Cirani claimed she was thrown off the super slide “with significant velocity” and a “significant distance into the air”, before landing on her coccyx.   Brisbane Times

If things continue this way, Australia’s Funniest Home videos is going to go out of business.  A bit of research pulls seems to find that the slide should have looked a bit like this one.

Could hazard a guess at what the woman’s mass would have been for her to gain enough momentum to gain injury from the falling distance from a “significant velocity” however if that were the case we would have on the headlines “Woman told she was too fat to ride on fun slide”.