Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Entry: RC Sensitive Sunglasses
Description: Eye wear proscribed by the Australian Government, designed to go black, preventing ‘inadvertent exposure’. Always keep your cool when viewing the Internet.
Tag Archives: Australia
Australian Internet Blackout v1.0 released
Just updated my Australian Internet Blackout WordPress plugin to version 1.0.
Version 1.0 makes use of the wp_enqueue_script() function to load the Blackout JavaScript. This should stop the double loading of jQuery, and avert possible conflicts (that is the theory anyway).
You can find the new version here:
You can also get later versions of WordPress to install it themself. Just search for ‘blackout’ on the ‘Add New‘ plugins page.
Australian Internet Blackout WordPress Plugin
I have been a bit lax recently about posting to my blog, and updating the Conroy’s Christmas present list. But my spare time has been taken up learning to write WordPress plugins.
For my first WordPress plugin I present the Australian Internet Blackout.
This plugin automatically adds the necessary JavaScript to you blog to display the protest message to people visiting your site. With the hope of bringing the government’s censorship plans to a larger audience.
The Easy way to install:
- Go to the ‘Plugins’ ‘Add new’ menu in your WordPress blog
- Search for ‘Australian Internet Blackout’
- Find the plugin in the list returned (it should be the first one) and click ‘Install’
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
The hard(er) way to install:
If you prefer to install things on you blog yourself you can.
- Download the Australian Internet Blackout plugin
- Unzip the plugin.
- Upload it to your blog’s plugins folder
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
For more information about the protest please visit:
Which anti filter group should you belong to?
Filed under Social, Tech, Web sites
Tagged as Australia, censorship, Internet, Monty Python, nocleanfeed, politics
Tagged as Australia, censorship, Internet, Monty Python, nocleanfeed, politics
One of the big problems is the anti filter campaign at the moment is its divided front. There is no clear leader giving direction to the campaign.
The No Internet Censorship site, run by the Australian Democrats, has an interesting article about this problem: ‘Taking control of the campaign against internet censorship‘. It clearly addresses the problem with having multiple bodies trying to run the campaign from different angles.
Although, it makes me think of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Here is my adaptation of The Colosseum skit:
Brian: Are you the Internet People's Front?
Reg: F*ck off.
Brian: What?
Reg: Internet People's Front. We're the People's Front of the Internet. Internet People's front, caw.
The article mentions that there are 3 political parties involved in opposing the filters: The Australian Democrats, The Greens, and The Australian Sex Party. And it asserts that one of these would be best to lead the campaign.
Brian: I hate Stephen Conroy as much as anybody.
PFI: Sssh. Ssssh, sssh, sssh, ssssh
Judith: Are you sure?
Brian: Oh. Dead sure... I hate Stephen Conroy and his Internet filters already.
I noticed they missed Pirate Party Australia. Though, reading PPA’s FAQ, I see that they are not yet a registered party. Hence the current membership drive to get the required 500 members.
Reg: Listen. If you really wanted to join the PFI, you'd have to really hate Stephen Conroy.
Brian: I do.
Reg: Oh yeah? How much?
Brian: A lot!
Reg: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than Stephen Conroy are the f*cking Internet People's Front.
The underlying message of this article is good, but it also looks like political posturing. With The Democrats having no members in parliament since the last federal election.
My take on it all
In my opinion these political parties should take a back seat on pushing the issue. The Democrats are seen as irrelevant to current Federal politics; The Greens polarise people with their other politics; and The SEX Party is seen as representing that which Conroy is telling the public is bad about the Internet.
Their article also forgets to mention of the two non political party groups that are involved in the campaign: the Electronic Fronteirs Australia (EFA) and GetUP. Both of whom have had an important role in delivering the message to the public.
In my opinion the EFA has the best mandate for being the focus for the campaign. The EFA is an organisation ‘independent of government and commerce‘ and formed in 1994 ‘representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms and rights‘.
There are many sites that are campaigning against the filters. There needs to be one central hub, that people link to and that provides a clear direction to the campaign.
Conroy already has the jump on the anti censorship people. The anti filter folk don’t have time for a long Darwinistic evolution to find the best candidate, the creationists are currently on their crusade against the Internet. And a divided campaign will be easily swept aside.
Conroy’s Christmas present, Internet censorship #nocleanfeed
Filed under Links, News, Social, Tech, Web sites
Tagged as Australia, censorship, filter, Internet, Links, manditory, nocleanfeed, Open Internet, politics, Stephen Conroy
Tagged as Australia, censorship, filter, Internet, Links, manditory, nocleanfeed, Open Internet, politics, Stephen Conroy
Stephen Conroy has delivered his Christmas present early, ISP level Internet filter. Tuesday afternoon the government announced that was giving the green light to its controversial censorship plan. And Conroy stated that we can look forward to legislation being introduced next year, ahead of the election.
Yesterday news sites, blogs and twitter erupted in a furore over the plans. Below are some articles on the subject I though were interesting:
- Internet censorship plan gets the green light (Asher Moses, SMH, 15 Dec 2009)
- Scott talks to ABC PM about net filtering (Scott Ludlam, The Greens, 16 Dec 2009)
- Internet filter to protect her children from porn and other horrors gives mother some peace of mind (Mahesh Sharma, The Australian, 16 Dec 2009)
The tale of computer-illiterate mother who is deluded, and thinks that te filter will protect her children. - Australian Internet Screwed (Jeff Engert, 15 Dec 2009)
- SMH poll on the Internet Censorship
Over 21000 votes, 96% NO. - ZDNet Australia poll – Do you support a mandatory internet filter?
Over 1100 votes, 96.4% NO. - ISP blocking – our evaluation report (Telstra, 15 Dex 2009)
Telstra’s report on why they think the filtering they tested works. And people’s comments about this. - Our views on Mandatory ISP Filtering (Iarla Flynn, Google Australia, 16 Dec 2009)
How Google thinks the proposal is extreme and uncalled for. - Net censorship move a smokescreen: expert (Asher Moses, SMH, 16 Dec 2009)
How the filter test was designed to succeed, so wasn’t really a fair trial. - Conroy’s Clean Feed Won’t Block Child P*rn (Mark Newton, NewMatilda, 16 Dec 2009)
- Net censorship trial report brings more questions than answers (EFA, 15 Dec 2009)
- At what point does internet filtering become censorship? (Gordon Farrer, SMH, 16 Dec 2009)
- Abbott drawn into filter debate (Suzanne Tindal, ZDNet Australia, 16 Dec 2009)
- Child groups slam Conroy’s ISP filtering plans (Kathryn Edwards, Computerworld, 16 Dec 2009)
- Net filters ‘thin end of the wedge’: Kirby (Asher Moses, SMH, 17 Dec 2009)
Kirby’s view on the filter, and a rehash of what everyone else has said of the last day.
Australia only 3rd most mono lingual
A recent SMH article[1] says that Australia is the 3rd most mono lingual country in the world. According to a report[4] by Griffith Asia Institute we come almost last on the list of the language proficient. With over three quarters, or 78.4% of the population only speaking English.
And, although we only got the bronze medal for this contest, it would be worse to have gotten gold.
So, who actual came last?
Do we dare to guess that is is the USA? But don’t they have a large Spanish speaking population? Maybe it is New Zealand? Do many people speak Māori? Or is it somewhere else in the world that only speaks their own language?
Well the list of the language deficient was a little hard to find. The web version of the Griffith Asia Institute report[4] is a little short on for details in this area. It outlines Australia’s shortfalls, what steps should be taken to address the problem, and how much it will cost. But no indication of how they determined we were 3rd worst.
Any idea of who is more limited in their language than Australia?
- In Asia, English tongues still tied (Yuko Narushima, SMH, 10 July 2009)
- Australia being left behind on Asian languages (ABC, 11 July 2009)
- Australians to adopt Asian languages (Julia Phipps, Griffith Uni, 9 July 2009)
- Australian Strategy for Asian Language Proficiency (Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith Uni)
NBN awarded unto itself
Today the Australian government announced its decision on submission to build the new National Broadband Network. Telstra put itself out of the bid last year by putting in an incomplete submission. So who of the remaining tenders were to take the cake?
None of them it seems. The government decided that none of the bids were up to scratch. So awarded the contract to itself.
The government announced its intention to establish a new public company to build the network. Spending $43 billion on the new entity to create a new fibre network. And interestingly, they now intend to do fibre to the home, rather than fibre to the node. Which seems like a much better proposal.
A question remains though, which a friend put forward: If the government is building the network, is this so it can bypass all the ISPs, and more easily implement its own filtering/censorship policy?
- National broadband network gets go ahead (SMH, 7 Apr 2009)
- Internet up to 60 times faster (SMH, 7 Apr 2009)
- Have the Aussies backed a loser? (SMH, 7 Apr 2009)
- Government spends $43 billion to establish National Broadband Network (ComputerWorld, 7 Apr 2009)
- ISPs hail National Broadband Network announcement (ComputerWorld, 7 Apr 2009)
- NBN plan scrapped; govt seeks new partners (Australian IT, 7 Apr 2009)
Conroy backtracks on Internet Censorship policy
Australian politician Stephen Conroy has begun distancing himself from his highly controversial internet censorship policy. Although this is not a complete backdown. There still the intention to implement a list of filtered sites, just changing what is deemed to be filtered.
Stephen Conroy Scope Creep
Filed under News, Tech
Tagged as Australia, censorship, Internet, nocleanfeed, scope creep, Stephen Conroy
Tagged as Australia, censorship, Internet, nocleanfeed, scope creep, Stephen Conroy
It was interesting to read that Stephen Conroy agrees that scope creep is a ‘legitimate point to raise’. Though he tries to duck any blame by pointing the finger at ‘parliamentary process for the possibility of the list expanding’.
Just recently Conroy asked us to have faith in our elected parliment to pass the right legislation. And is now suggesting that our faith could be misplaced.
It would be nice if we could have a seperation of church and state. Or at least have the clergy listen to the laypeople. 
OZ Internet filters insufficient to filter politicians
Parents are worried about their children looking at the Australian Prime Minister’s or Oppositions Leader’s web site, when they should be finding out about pop stars. Worried about the bad influence this could have, their children growing up to be politicians themselves. – A funny parody of the current Internet filtering debate.
