Mon, 20 Apr 2009
Series of Scalability Articles by Haytham El-fadeel
As the title says...
Art of scalability (1) - Scalability principles
Art of scalability (2) - Scalability guidelines part 1
Art of scalability (3) - Scalability guidelines part 2
Art of scalability (4) - Scalability guidelines part 3
[2009/04/20 / tech / internet permanent link]
Thu, 05 Feb 2009
Bernadette McMenamin applying the spin, again...
Australian IT is carrying a blog
post by Bernadette McMenamin which is just full of mis-representation and
spin.
One of the most horrendous developments that we have experienced in the last 15
years is the dramatic explosion in the global trade of child sexual abuse
images on the internet.
No one really knows the true quantities because it is mostly traded via peer to
peer and over encrypted networks. And none of these channels will be addressed
by the proposed filter. Ref: http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html#s_stats
76 per cent would change to an ISP that blocked child pornography
There are ISPs that provide filtered access already, yet their market share is
not overly large so while the polls track the sentiment it doesn't appear to
flow through to action. Markets respond to demand, it's clearly not there. Ref:
http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html#s_10
Law enforcement and education are also key strategies and prominent in the Federal Government's Safe internet Policy.
So why is the AFP budget for this going down and not up? Ref: http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html#s_38
Hundreds of millions of dollars is already being spent on law enforcement which
is commendable but this only addresses the problem after the abuse has
occurred.
ISP filtering has the same problem.
Critics of this new scheme have argued that ISP filtering of child sexual abuse
images simply will not work. However these filters are actually working very
effectively in Scandinavian countries and in the UK as well as in recent trials
in New Zealand.
None of these examples is representative of what the ALP is proposing. Ref: http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html#s_6
Critics have also argued that ISP filtering will be costly and slow down the
internet. Again based on overseas experience this is not the case.
The New Zealand trial is not equivalent to what the ALP is proposing. Nor does
it refute the view that the filtering will slow access speeds.
My argument is that how can blocking illegal material (which should not be
produced or stored in the first place) be censorship?
And many, if not all, would agree with you. But the ALP is proposing to block
prohibited material not all of which is illegal. Ref: http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-au-govplan.html#s_21
Having said that I remain open minded as I hope the critics of the scheme will
wait until the trials have been independently conducted to decide on whether
Australia should take this leap into ISP filtering.
I think we're all keen to see the results of the trials. Just have to wait till
they are completed... ...any
minute now...
[2009/02/05 / tech / internet permanent link]
Thu, 12 Jun 2008
Google doesn't seem to care about your privacy...
SMH is
reporting about Google's imminent launch of "Street View" in Australia.
Richard Chirgwin points
out the spineless journalism that let quotes like the following through to
the keeper:
Still reeling from the backlash by privacy activists after Street View began in the US last year, Ms Mayer said Google was developing technology to blur faces and number plates but she did not know whether it would be ready in time for the Australian launch.
My response to that would be: if the technology is coming you should wait for it and avoid the snafus in the first place.
[2008/06/12 / tech / internet permanent link]
Bankwest feedback falls on deaf ears...
$better_half was trying to login to Bankwest the other day and it didn't work
from the desktop. Tried a few different things and eventually tested it from
the laptop which worked. The only difference between the two is that one is
amd64 and the other is x86. I had a look at the source but there didn't appear
to be any wacky javascript to mess things up.
So, I thought I'd be helpful and let their web developers know:
...our home computer which used to work fine. It just returns her to the login prompt without any error message. The system is AMD64 Linux (Ubuntu 8.04) and I had her test with both Firefox2 (2.0.0.7) and Firefox3 (beta4). I had her test from my laptop and that worked fine. The laptop is x86 Linux (Ubuntu 8.04) and Firefox3 (beta4).
I wasn't expecting a great response but I got a "talk to the hand"!
Thank you for your message. Please have your wife contact our 24 hour Customer Help Centre on 13 17 18 to enable one of our operators to assist with the enquiry. Due to security restrictions, we are unable to access or discuss information specific to your account via this unsecure message service as it is not possible to complete the identification requirements. Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience however the strict guidelines of the Privacy Act commit us to this action.
Ummmm, hello?
Sigh.
[2008/06/12 / tech / internet permanent link]
Wed, 12 Mar 2008
It must be a bad day to be in the hosting business...
Dreamhost
- "Due to a typing error on our primary router while trying to block a denial
of service attack, DreamHost is currently offline." Out of band access
anyone?
Nearly Free Speech - It will
probably have changed shortly but right now it reads "Our master MySQL server
has blown more drives, and this is causing most aspects of our service to
stall. We are replacing the entire server as quickly as possible". Ouch.
Edit: Have to say I'm impressed with the information flow provided.
Almost hourly updates until the situation was brought under control.
