-
It's a little premature to celebrate the demise the Australia's mandatory internet filtering plans. – There was much jubilation late last week as the digerati claimed a victory over the government's "back down" on plans to implement mandatory ISP-level internet filtering. Don't be fooled, Conroy has in no way capitulated to the demands of the Twitterverse. He's just dreamed up the idea of yet another review, so the Gillard government can sweep the filter under the carpet until after the next election.
-
On Friday Conroy announced a delay to the filter while RC classification was reviewed. But this is not an end to the filter, just a delay till after the election. And there is no indication as to what the review is actually supposed to achieve.
-
THE government's decision to delay legislation for a mandatory internet filter should prompt a complete reassessment. And according to industry figures, the controversial policy should be dumped. Internet security consultant Phil Kernick yesterday called instead for resources to be spent on more police to fight child pornography, the main reason behind the proposed filter.
links for 2010-07-12
links for 2010-07-09
-
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has capitulated to widespread concerns over his internet censorship policy and delayed any mandatory filters until at least next year.
-
Protecting children online could be harder with a mandatory internet filter in place, a coalition including state schools, librarians and key players in the internet industry has warned. The recently formed Safer Internet Group argues that the federal government's proposed filter is a simplistic solution to shielding children from harmful content on the internet.
-
It’s been nearly three years since the Labor government was elected, and for almost the entire time they have been pushing their plan to censor Australians’ internet connections. The debate has been highly controversial from day one. Many people expected that the Government would back away from their plans once they realised how unworkable and contentious they were, but at every step of the way they have pushed ahead with renewed enthusiasm.
-
The Federal Government doesn’t trust large internet companies — which he said were solely interested in profit — to regulate their own sector, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said yesterday in response to questions about the Government’s mandatory internet filter policy.
-
An Open Letter to Senator Conroy by Richard Giles stating why the Internet filters will not work.
-
Filter to be delayed 12 months while Conroy review the classification system.
-
As part of Senator Conroy’s announcement that the government is delaying the implementation of its incredibly narrow minded internet filter, he announced that large ISPs would be voluntarily blocking child porn and child abuse websites.
-
Bad, greedy Twitter client. You are just asking too much of us. – That’s the message Twitter’s central servers have been doling out over the last few days to a hodgepodge of third-party software designed for Twitter’s micro-publishing and communication service.
-
Last week one senator from Canberra essentially made the astounding accusation that another senator for Canberra wanted to “opt into child pornâ€. The antagonistic parties are former Daramalarn student and current Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy and current ACT Senator, Kate Lundy, both members of the Australian Labor Party
-
New Prime Minister Julia Gillard today said she understands concerns about the Government’s controversial mandatory internet filtering policy, but Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was putting effort in to get the policy into shape.
-
The office of new Prime Minister Julia Gillard has declined to answer questions about the Labor leader’s personal views on her party’s mandatory internet filtering policy, directing enquiries to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
links for 2010-07-04
-
My ISP has just increased the monthly download quota. Going from a reasonable 30 GB peak and 30 GB off-peak, to more impressive 50 GB for both. And it only
-
Location-based services on a mobile phone are terrifically helpful when you need to find a nearby business or directions to the freeway. They're also terrifically helpful to advertisers, government agencies and even stalkers who can use them to track your every move.
What do you do with 50GB between 2am and 8am?
My ISP has just increased the monthly download quota. Going from a reasonable 30 GB peak and 30 GB off-peak, to more impressive 50 GB for both.
And it only increased to 30GB for both from 15GB/20GB peak/off-peak last December.
There is the question though of ‘What do you do with 50GB between 2am and 8am?‘. Off-peak being restricted to a 6 hour block in the wee hours of the morning.
So, to help answer this difficult question I put together a short list of things you could do:
- Scheduled backup to remote location
- Scheduled backup from remote location
Not that they are the only ISP to offer a large off-peak quota that nobody will ever use. Really, its all just a marketing ploy to make it look like everyone gets twice as much quota.
And I’m sure the ISP would not want anyone to be using the quota for file sharing.
links for 2010-07-03
-
Piece by Gizmodo on why Kate Lundy should replace Stephen Conroy as Communications minister.
-
Although Kevin Rudd claims his popularity collapsed because he was trying to make 'tough reforms', it appears that a lack of conviction and ability to follow through with the 'tough reforms' was the problem.
-
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read Stilgherrian’s rant on ABC Unleashed yesterday about how Australia’s “digital elites†may understand technology but somehow don’t get the apparently unbelievably complicated world of Federal politics.
-
The Italian Windows website "Windowsette" somehow managed to get a hold of a super-secret, highly confidential PowerPoint presentation outlining many of Microsoft's goals and plans for Windows 8.
-
Despite having just released the latest version of its browser software – Internet Explorer 9 – in beta for developers, Microsoft is still trying to convince home and enterprise users to upgrade from IE6 to IE8.
-
Both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd mentioned the National Broadband Network in their introductory speeches on Thursday morning, but there was no mention of Labor's more embarrassing policies — the internet filter, the vendetta against Google, plans to snoop on email and web usage, Australia's participation in the vindictive ACTA legislation, or even the Big Red Button.
-
∠x 1337% = 42
-
Several of Stephen Conroy’s harshest critics have backed the idea that Julia Gillard should hand his Communications portfolio to fellow Labor Senator Kate Lundy in the event Gillard took the Prime Ministership this morning and conducted a cabinet re-shuffle.
links for 2010-07-02
-
Several of Stephen Conroy’s harshest critics have backed the idea that Julia Gillard should hand his Communications portfolio to fellow Labor Senator Kate Lundy in the event Gillard took the Prime Ministership this morning and conducted a cabinet re-shuffle.
-
By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock-bottomed at raw loathing. You're wrong. There's more. It turns out the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. Here's the rest. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world, just so they could make a fatter profit.
links for 2010-07-01
-
The internet filtering "live trials" conducted by the Federal Government in conjunction with internet service providers (ISPs) were done illegally, according to claims by network engineer Mark Newton.
-
Metcash plans to buy the 85 Franklins supermarkets, comprising 77 corporate stores plus supply to 8 franchised stores in order to convert the Franklins branded stores into IGA supermarkets in order to bolster Metcash’s position against Woolworths and Coles.
-
From today, everyone will have access to a reasonably priced broadband connection, says the Finnish government, in the same way as everyone can access telephone or postal services.
links for 2010-06-28
-
When an aggregator like Google News publishes newspaper headlines, is the company treading on thin ice? What about aggregators that publish headlines and a one-line excerpt? What about those that simply rewrite the facts contained in the story and publish a new account in their own words?
-
A new US Senate Bill would grant the President far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of, or even shut down, portions of the internet.
links for 2010-06-24
-
So US Senator Joe Lieberman has proposed a bill to create an internet ‘‘kill switch’’ that would enable the US president to shut down the web in a time of threat or crisis.
-
The federal government has refused to make clear whether it will force ISPs to record the websites accessed by their customers.
-
The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has embarrassed Communications Minister Stephen Conroy by playing down the seriousness of Google's Wi-Fi spying bungle.
links for 2010-06-23
-
Geordie Guy and EFA responding to comments by Stephen Conroy tabled in Hansard.