The USS Quad Damage

So we’re going to have internet filtering. That link is a new zealander saying “oh, poor Australia. Here let me give you a hug.” I feel insulted, and you shuld too. You can see the EFA’s reaction here. At least Johnny Howard’s scheme was purely a waste of money rather than shoving censorship down our throats:

Labor’s mandatory ISP filtering scheme would be a token gesture that blocked only a few thousand pages identified by ACMA. Labor’s plan does not include provision of additional funding to enable ACMA to employ a large number of staff to look for potentially prohibited content among the 8 billion pages on the World Wide Web, in order to develop a vastly larger blocking list necessary to more effectively protect children.

Everyone always says “oh it’s to stop child porn”, and to “protect our children”... Protect our children from what? Child porn? Isn’t kids looking at child porn… kind of… not that bad? EFA says:

Content identified by the ACMA as ‘prohibited content’ under Australian law is a relatively small category of content in terms of the many categories of content that parents may consider unsuitable for their children. The ‘prohibited content’ category consists of content that would be ‘Refused Classification’ (child sexual abuse, acts of extreme violence or cruelty, etc) or would be classified X18+ (non violent sexually explicit). It does not include content that would be classified R18+ that is hosted on overseas site, nor does it include any content that would be classified MA15+, M or PG. Hence blocking of only ‘prohibited content’ would not be effective in protecting children from material that may be unsuitable for them.

Anyway, here’s the EFA on what we’ve got already. And here’s the analysis of how much of a waste of money that was:

• Approximately half of the prohibited items designated as hosted in Australia were found in world-wide Usenet newsgroups, most likely originated outside Australia, and were not taken down from the Internet.
• The ABA’s refusal to provide the URLs or titles of taken-down Australian-hosted web pages, on the ground that such information would enable a person to access prohibited content on the Internet, indicates the ABA believes such content has not been taken down from the Internet.
• Ministerial statements trumpeting the success of the scheme have been, by the Minister’s own admission, based on erroneous statistics.
• Misleading statements have been made by the government about the proportion of prohibited content that is actual child pornography.

So, the new mandatory internet filtering regime exists to block not all that much content by people who don’t have time to check for what should and shouldn’t be blocked. My worry is that this filtering may have unintended consequences.

What if some lazy censor goes and censors a whole subnet? What if there’s some illegal site on my host and it stops my site from showing up? That’s the kind of shit I’m worried about. The filtering causes me, some ordinary dude with a website, to lose my audience. I’m also worried that sites like boingboing may have issues (I mean, it’s pretty much universally banned by filters for god knows what reason), but TBH I’d just go uncensored “just to be safe”.

The biggest shit here is that the filtering system does nothing to stop me from getting malware, spam, or even ads to the really extreme porn sites which are blocked. Between me worrying that my kid / parents are going to see some extreme shit like child porn or fucking my computer with malware, I know what I’m more worried about.

After all, if you asked someone who.. you know.. used the internet, they’d tell you just how pissed off they are with malware and spam, but none of them complain about how they’re “accidentally” ending up with child porn on their machines. This legislation really only pleases old people who’ve only heard of the internet and don’t actually use it.

There isn’t that much bad shit on the internet unless you really look for it, and Google will stop really bad shit from turning up in your searches anyway. This scheme stops adults from getting at child porn, but they could easily get at it by opting out. Meanwhile the rest of us are as fucked as the kids in the pornos. It’s a useless and inconvenient waste of money.

I consider internetty people of “my culture”. I identify with them more than any physical culture at any rate. Unfortunately, many of them have a really hate an activity I rather enjoy: sleeping. The arguement is that you “waste” a third of your life doing, effectively, nothing. I disagree.

It’s a time for your body to relax and recuperate. Your heart rate is slowed, your muscles relax and regenerate. Your eyes get a rest. Your mind gets to process things it wouldn’t have time to process. There have been countless times when I haven’t been able to solve a problem, went to sleep, and woke up knowing the answer. I don’t imagine I’m the only one.

I can’t even begin to imagine the long term problems people might start having if they stop sleeping. Worse, I can see a world where my peers start taking drugs to stop them from sleeping, and there’s an expectation from my industry to work 20 hour work-days, simply because some people can actually do them.

I had a ball at our very first “Christmas is over” party. Me and Paulo organised it so that it was the day after boxing day. A day which was hopefully a “black hole” in many people’s agendas. Either they’d gone off to whoop whoop for the NYE party, or they’d be at work, or they’d have nothing planned.

As it turned out, even if they had work the next day, it was OK to turn up for a little bit.

The turnout was excellent. The house was full, there was plenty of conversation, the food and drinks were mostly gone by the time the night ended. I had Kahlua. It was awesome. I had a ball. Judging by the noise, even though we completely forgot to play any music, everyone had fun.

Thanks everyone for turning up. Thanks to the peeps who turned up early and helped get stuff organised, thanks for everyone who just managed to take care of things. As a host, I felt I needed to do very little, and that’s likely because you guys took care of things for me. I had a great time, and hope you guys did as well. I owe you guys.

I should do this every year.

From Routers Apple and Fox plan movie rental deal.

I’m sure there’s alot of different ways people will comment on this however I’d like to comment on one particular paragraph which doesn’t make the slightest sense. Most people however probably just glanced over it.

Pali Research analyst Stacey Widlitz said the deal follows a trend of Hollywood studios selling directly to consumers and “cutting out the middleman.”

Now correct me if I’m wrong but how exactly does changing your distribution model from

Studio -> Netflix/Blockbuster -> Consumer

to

Studio -> Apple -> Consumer

cut out the middle man?

The only real difference I can see is the equivalent to a change from studios selling DVDs to stores to rent. To one where studios rent shelf space from stores for their DVDs to rent to consumers. I’m sure alot of video rental stores would love a relationship like this because it moves just about all the risk onto the movie studios.

The other analyst they quoted gets closer to the mark with his comments about how it’s probably aimed at expanding the business to sell rental videos to a different market. However it could also be the start of a disruptive technology which will eventually replace video rental stores. Depending ofcourse on future computer networking infrastructure (Interweb speed) and the penetration/intergration of set top boxes able to take downloaded movies from the internet and play them on TVs.

From the LAtimes, Free news online will cost journalism dearly. Apparently they can’t figure out why people don’t pay for their news online. Last time I checked the people who read the news aren’t customers. Their customers are the people, institutions and businesses that pay them to publish their advertising or prepared news stories, ie; propaganda, from their PR/marketing departments.

So people whom aren’t your customers aren’t paying for something your not selling. No story here. Infact no one I know buys something I’m not selling either. Perhaps I should write a blog about it and campaign politicians to have people pay me for what ever it is I’m not selling and not getting paid for.

And here’s the link.

Spurred on from recent successes in ad-hoc pasta sauces, I thought I could do more. Having watched “Ratatouille” recently, I felt like the mouse, like I could just “make up” recipes as I went along, and I would be guided by the “music”, sort of like lumines, but with food.

Unlike lumines, I’m less good at the food. The whole house smells terrible now, the food, time and effort, are all wasted. However, I’m spurred on. I believe my theory was solid. Let me explain:

I recently had a moroccan style salad. It was from coles, so you know, probably not authentic, but still. It had chick peas, red onions, peas, corn, a few greens, and herbs and spices, like cumin, chilli, basil, rosemary, etc. It tasted OK, but I thought I could do better.

I basically liked the way peas and corn go together, and that with lemon it sort of “worked”. I figured you could add carrots and mushrooms without too much trouble, add some small potatoes, serve with couscous.

So for the initial try, I decided to forego the couscous, and just see if I could get the saladey thing working. Threw it all together, put it in a fire, and waited.

The potatoes were my undoing. They take a lot longer to cook than anything else. I should’ve put them in the microwave first. I’m going to try this again once I get game. It will be awesome…

Since neither of us play WoW anymore and I forget your phone number you’ve now become unreachable.

I suppose I could rock up to your house randomly but with the shift work you pull chances are you wouldn’t be home anyway.

Anyway turn on MSN when your at your computer as MSN doesn’t allow offline messages.

Is on the ABC at 3:42pm today. I know not much notice.

I couldn’t quite think how to put this down as a proper entry so here’s an extract from the distant future about the attempt to tackle global warming in the 21st century which should highlight the point I wanted to make. Obviously it’s fictitious or I’d have taken a page from Back to the Future and be ridiculously rich. It was inspired after reading this.

“Far from stopping global warming the carbon dioxide emission targets imposed on developed nations instead resulted in massive transfer of industry, wealth and power to populous developing nations.

It is generally accepted that this shift was one of the major contributing factors in the 3rd World War. The massive and fast pace of the increase in wealth and power to countries without long standing and strong social institutions to protect democratic principals lead to the rise of numerous and powerful totaliarian states.”

Here’s that picture I rushed to take while Harpreet and Nathan were over the other day. I think it turned out well.

A link to a SMH article.

And no comment by me. Yay how exciting.

Well… it’s more than Harpreet is writing!

Incase you haven’t heard game review sites have lost their ability to pass themselves off as impartial reviewers of games. Thanks to Gamespots recent firing of Jeff Gerstmann which has been depicted here at Penny Arcade.

I’m not sure why Gamespot was so upset if EA only decided to cancel their Kane & Lynch advertising campaign. I mean if they’d looked at the game and realised it was a steaming pile of shit, wouldn’t they have then realised that the EA marketing department had been living in a negative feedback loop. Thus it was only a matter of time before it popped when exposed to the real world and they canned the whole advertising campaign without limiting themselves to Gamespot anyway?

Sadly I doubt thats the world we live in. EA probably knew their game was a steaming pile of shit. They launched their massive hype campaign in the hope they’d be able to see a massive number of title sold before the general public woke up and realised that it was a horrible game, didn’t even come close to the hype and should have been fished out of the bargain bin in a few months time if at all.

Anyway all this means is that if game review sites are bought and paid for then it adds further legitimacy to copyright infringement being consumer insurance against poor quality products. Or perhaps the need for a 30 day money back guarantee. Or I suppose a look at how advertising works with journalism because right now all I’m seeing is propaganda in it’s place. Thats not limited to game review sites either.

Fark.com with the description of “You can now lose your driver’s license in the state of NC for an offense totally unrelated to driving if you provide alcohol to anyone under 21 thanks to MADD’s ridiculous fascist grip on the nuts of the political machine”.

Sure enough thats in the article and probably worthy of a blog entry by someone somewhere. However it isn’t what bothered me about the article. That is saved for this.

Several new laws affect animals. Penalties have increased for anyone who kills an animal through intentional starvation, or anyone who kills a police animal or an assistance animal such as a seeing-eye dog.

Ok not so shocking in itself I admit. However look at the next few paragraphs ending with this little gem.

[Stephanie] Bell [of the PETA] said that anyone who willfully kills an animal – which is defined by state statute as mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds – should go to prison.

Ok on the surface it sounds reasonable. However when you look at it a little closer and realise it’s from someone at PETA. It’s only then that you realise exactly what this person has asked for. They want to make it a felony offense to kill any animal.

Still don’t get it? S’ok here’s how PETA would want it to go down.

See that steak in your fridge your saving for steak night? With PETAs proposal no one will be able to kill cows to make your steaks.

Rat or mouse problem in your house? Sorry but there’s no such thing as exterminators anymore because they’d all be out of a job or in gaol. Do it yourself and you’ve bought yourself some PITA prison lovin’

Stepped on a lizard in your backyard? You guessed it. Prison time.

Your cat catches a bird and you don’t shell out hundreds if not thousands so your local vet can try and save it’s life? Welcome to accessory to animal murder charges. Your cat meanwhile has full immunity without even testifying against you.

Welcome to the wonderful make believe world of your local PETA nut job whom would very much like to make it a living nightmare for the rest of us.

Note: If you are looking for the video, before you do anything read the Urban Dictionary description of the video. OK, now you’re probably not looking for it anymore. Read this article instead, it’s really good.

That bit was initially supposed to go at the end of the article. It was supposed to be a “reveal” but considering I consider myself saved by Urban Dictionary on this one, I thought it should be more a public service announcement. This post is about Morbid curiosity.

So… morbid curiosity. It’s really fucked. I mean, curiosity in itself is a funny thing. I remember back in High School, I was younger than most my classmates, and most got cars long before I did. When they talked about cars, it was like something I couldn’t really understand. It was bullshit talk, like “how you hold the steering wheel” but my mind blew it up out of proportion. Of course, after ordinary cars it was manuals. People talk about the clutches and gear shifts and whatever, and it’s really just an ordinary mundane conversation for people who drive manuals, but for people who do not, it’s like they’re talking about magic. You end up asking way too many questions and looking like a toolbox.

So it was with two girls one cup. After all, when you start seeing a lot of blog-talk about it, and start seeing youtube videos of people reacting to the video, people throwing up and what-not, you start asking questions…

“After all, what can two girls do with one cup that’s so gross?”

I’m an engineer. I think that puts me firmly in the “curious” category. I always think that finding more stuff is better than not knowing. The first thing I thought after reading the Urban DIctionary description of “2G1C” was “why on earth would anyone turn this thing into an internet meme”? I can understand now. The meme asks the question: “Is there such a thing as knowing too much.” The answer, clearly, is ‘yes’. It leaves me at shaken at the core, and at odds with the universe. And that’s me counting myself lucky that I haven’t actually seen the video…

So you know those mobile phone ads on tv that you can seemingly get a single ring tone, a horoscope, match your name with someone elses, etc, but it turns out that it’s a subscription service for anywhere from $10 to $30 a week requiring multiple messages for anywhere from $3 to $6 per single sms?

Ofcourse you do. Well guess what. Now they exist on the web.

Look for any sort of flash ad which has a tiny barely ledgible text saying “subscription required” and you can bet your bottom dollar that you need to use your mobile phone to get what ever it is they are selling.

I suppose on the plus side it gives almost everyone access to micro payments over the web. On the downside most of these things give you basically nothing, or atleast nothing better than you could get for free somewhere else on the net, and charge you an arm and a leg for it. In essence your getting fleeced.

So sadly while mobile phones make a semi awesome micropayment system for values between $2 to $6 anyone who asks you for payment via your mobile phone isn’t worth buying from.

I ofcourse have no idea what your mobile phone providers cut is for these premium priced smss. Perhaps thats the problem in that they charge way too much. Thus any legitimate business would be handing over way too much of their revenue forcing them out of business. It would also explain why they haven’t clamped down on them.

Is there actually anyone out there who thinks they are getting $130AUD worth of calls for only $19.90 on Dodo’s capped mobile phone plan?

I mean really if you look at even their own pre-paid mobile raids of 15¢ per 30 seconds, 25¢ flag fall verse their capped plan of 39.5¢ per 30 seconds and your average call is around 2.5 minutes long then your $130 worth of calls is actually more like $65 worth of calls.

Plus lets assume that only half your calls are calls that you need to make and aren’t simply calls because you have this ”$130” worth of calls to get through a month then it’s actually more like $32.5 worth of calls and $32.5 worth of anoying people you know.

Oh wait and lets not forget the %20 buffer so you don’t run out of credit for the month. So that’s $26 worth of calls.

Hmm. $26 worth of calls for $19.90 a month and everyone who’s number you have hating you for calling them for no reason. Clearly thats alot of win right there.