November 2011
1 post
American Censorship Day →
This new bill, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is set to pass the U.S. Congress soon. If it does, it could mean the end of the open Internet as we know it.
This law would make it possible to censor entire websites which might contain copyrighted material (think YouTube, or if “there’s no way they’ll shut down YouTube”, the next thing to come along), and jail people for 5...
October 2011
4 posts
I'm mostly on Google+ now
When Google+ launched, I tried to keep this blog going and link to posts here from G+. But I’ve found over the months that it’s just easier to write a full post there, and I get a much bigger discussion. So a question: is there anybody who follows this blog that does not also regularly see my Google+ stream?
If not, I might phase out cross-posting here.
How does lobbying work?
It’s easy and common for people to say “corporate lobbyists write the legislation and control the government,” but in a recent argument, I found it much harder to actually back that up. Do companies just throw money at the government and legislators? Do companies influence the lawmaking process, or just political parties? Do companies actually write the wording in the law,...
There was a discussion on Google+ about which song...
On garbage collection
I just re-found a humorous anecdote by John McCarthy on an early LISP demonstration, before anybody knew what a garbage collector was:
The first on-line demonstration of LISP was also the first of a precursor of time-sharing that we called “time-stealing”. The audience comprised the participants of one of M.I.T.’s Industrial Liaison Symposia on whom it was important to make a...
September 2011
5 posts
Linux Australia may have a case on Windows 8: ACCC →
ZDNet Australia:
Linux Australia members who complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about Microsoft’s plans to mandate the enabling of a secure booting feature on Windows 8 machines have been told by the competition regulator that they may in fact have a case.
Courtesy Paul.
Saving Star Wars →
A fascinating, detailed, and film-geeky look at the restoration of the original Star Wars trilogy. Note: This is about the actual film stock restoration itself, and not (very much) about the new content. I remember watching this documentary (Star Wars: The Magic and Mystery) on the 1997 Special Edition VHS copy, about how when they got the negatives out of the Fox Studios vault, they were ...
WikiLeaks password leak FAQ →
My full 7000+ word write-up on the cryptography behind the WikiLeaks password fiasco. This answers all of the common accusations I’ve seen floating around and demonstrates that WikiLeaks was not really at fault here (from a security standpoint).
August 2011
15 posts
Bogan Ipsum →
You little ripper troppo no worries he hasn’t got a hit the turps. You little ripper bludger with oldies. Grab us a dag how it’ll be veg out. Grab us a battler bloody as busy as a chuck a yewy. Built like a brizzie flamin grundies. Grab us a crack a fat flamin as dry as a chuck a yewy. Mad as a billabong heaps lets get some dunny. As busy as a cactus mate where he’s got...
WikiLeaks: Why the Guardian is wrong and shouldn't...
Today, WikiLeaks has issued a statement accusing the Guardian, a UK newspaper, of publishing a book that negligently divulged the password to an encrypted file circulating the torrents which contains the full unredacted text of all 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. While WikiLeaks ruminates on whether to publicly release the cables, it doesn’t really matter — the full cables are now...
WikiLeaks: Australian Film Industry vs iiNet →
Interesting “inside look” into the film industry’s copyright battle with iiNet, in the form of a confidential cable via WikiLeaks.
Of particular interest:
[Asia-Pacific MPA president Mike Ellis] confirmed that MPAA was the mover behind AFACT’s case (AFACT is essentially MPAA’s Australian subcontractor; MPAA/MPA have no independent, formal presence here), acting...
Off The Grid →
Security researcher Steve Gibson of Security Now and Spinrite fame has invented what he thinks is the world’s first secure (not feasibly crackable with modern computers) encryption cipher that does not require a computer to use. Inspired by the 1854 Playfair cipher, Gibson’s “Off The Grid” system is designed with passwords in mind: like SuperGenPass, you could...
Java 7 API →
Holy crap: Javadoc had a makeover!
Carl Katter video address re gay marriage →
Awesome follow-up to yesterday’s news: GetUp! has produced a video featuring Carl Katter, the half-brother of wanton bigot and federal independent MP Bob Katter. Carl, a homosexual, denounces his brother’s hatred of gays.
Bob Katter's gay brother airs his disgust →
The Age: So after Bob Katter’s offensive rant last week against gay marriage, it turns out his half-brother is gay, and not too happy with the MP’s remarks.
It’s hurtful, it’s dangerous, it’s damaging and it’s really inappropriate … He doesn’t seem to represent all the views of his community.
Go Carl! Courtesy Shani
Rat poison →
Jeff Jarvis on the Google/Motorola deal. +1
Penny Arcade on Diablo III DRM →
Interesting: Penny Arcade posted a comic ridiculing the fan reaction to the Diablo III “always on” DRM announcement, and a blog post supporting the fan reaction, on the same day. Apparently Gabe and Tycho disagreed on this point.
I think the blog post is quite astute. As for the comic, well I am frankly sick of both of those arguments: “Saw this article 23 seconds after it was...
Anonymity and social censorship in the UK riots →
Jeff Jarvis of This Week in Google again has a great write-up on the knee-jerk censorship cry from Britain’s PM.
London riots: Ban the Internet →
When your citizens are out of control, what do you do to stop them? Why not knee-jerk and engage in some quick Internet censorship. That always makes governments feel better about themselves. And hey, it worked in Egypt.
Dumbasses.
One in three Australians are fucking stupid →
Of the two million people who used the online census form last night, 670,000 of them apparently forgot to hit the Send button. That’s just over 33%. And this isn’t 33% of the nation — it’s 33% of the people who felt comfortable enough with technology to opt in to doing it online!
Having said that, when I clicked send, it told me that I hadn’t completed all of the...
A Brief Explanation of Microsoft's Anti-Google... →
Groklaw has a good piece on Google’s multi-sided patent war for Android, against Microsoft, Apple and Oracle.
In today’s shades-of-grey world it’s usually quite silly to say “these are the good guys” and “these are the bad guys”. So rarely do companies ever act in anybody’s interest other than their own, there are hardly ever any good guys at all....
“We just want to eat your brain
No, it’s not so stupid
It will not...”
– Google Translation from French to English of Jonathan Coulton’s Re: Vos Cerveaux.
I have no idea how accurate the translation is.
Apple blocks Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia →
The patent system screws innovation and reinforces monopolies once again.
This is about as bad as it gets: Afraid of some legitimate competition, Apple gets the courts to legally prevent their competitors from selling their own product because the competing product has ripped off such novel “inventions” as slide to unlock, pinch to zoom and edge bouncing.
There is really nothing to...
July 2011
39 posts
Extra credits: Microtransactions (video) →
A ten-minute video exploring the new video game trend of microtransactions (free-to-play games with small in-game purchases), and the fact that it can be a good thing if done right.
There’s still a niggling feeling that microtransactions ruin the game because everybody ends up wearing stupidly out-of-context silly hats. But hey, if that’s the price to pay for free gaming, go right...
Athiests: No jokes on the census this time! →
The Athiest Foundation of Australia is running a campaign to get athiests to mark “No religion” under the “What is the person’s religion” question on the national census on August 9.
The message is this: writing “Jedi” or “Pastafarian” may be funny*. But unfortunately the people who read it won’t laugh. They’ll roll their eyes, and...
Zork: Grand Inquisitor on GOG →
Zork: Grand Inquisitor is finally available on GOG.com. The greatest and funniest game in the series, this is a must-buy for adventure fans (at $5.99 US). Read my review on the site (it’s the one at the top ;)).
Sun CEO explicitly endorsed Android's use of Java →
Groklaw has turned up an interesting gem from the Wayback Machine — a blog post by former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz publicly congratulating Google for using Java to build their then-new Android platform.
I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of others from Sun in offering my heartfelt congratulations to Google on the announcement of their new Java/Linux phone platform, Android....
The Flat Earth Society →
Amazing: A real Flat Earth Society actually exists and actually believes the world is flat.
Apparently the Earth is a flat disc, with the north pole in the centre and Antarctica is actually a large continent that surrounds the entire disc. If you walk or fly to the edge, you will fall off. And gravity? That’s the Earth accelerating upwards at 9.8m/s/s.
The Oslo massacre and violent video games →
A must-read article for everybody who has read the (typical) hysteria from the media that the Oslo gunman Anders Breivik played violent video games.
This article goes into a lot of detail, including the complete set of quotations relating to video games in the entire 700,000+ word manifesto published by Breivik. The facts are, he cursorily mentions a handful of video games (primarily Modern...
“It’s actually pretty hard to [measure carbon emissions] because carbon...”
– Tony Abbott, showing again that he has no idea about any of this science stuff (The Age).
Courtesy mpp.
Is Jonathan Coulton dead? →
Ask Wolfram Alpha (via @jonathancoulton via @sampotts).
The most hilariously convincing gay marriage signs →
Courtesy Ben
How Facts Backfire →
An interesting (and scary) article about the human brain, and its tendency to have an existing incorrect belief strengthened by facts proving it incorrect.
This explains a lot.
Courtesy Peter.
Q: What's brown and rhymes with snoop?
A: Dr. Dre.
[WikiLeaks] Full Manning chat logs published: new... →
In a very interesting development, Wired has published the full chat logs between alleged WikiLeaks cables source Bradley Manning and hacker Adrian Lamo. These chat logs were originally published a year ago by Wired, and are the sole evidence linking Manning to WikiLeaks.
The full chat logs reveal more details on the nature of the relationship between Manning and Julian Assange (specifically,...
GetUp! Climate Forum →
Activist group GetUp! will be hosting an online live climate forum with Prime Minister Julia Gillard tonight from 5:45.
If you’re short on time, or only interested in viewing part of the program, see the below line-up so you can tune-in at the right time: 5:40pm-6:00pm - Professor Wil Steffen, leading climate scientist 6:00pm-6:30pm - Prime Minister Julia Gillard and GetUp National...
Stanford CS adopts JavaScript →
Oh god, we really have to get out of JavaScript before things like this happen. I’m deeply concerned that JavaScript is actually getting a good reputation — this doesn’t bode well for actual programming languages.
1. Even if JavaScript was an excellent programming language, this still isn’t right. I should clarify what “this” is because JavaScript certainly...
A simple explanation of the carbon tax →
It’s been described as a “merry go round” by Tony Abbott — costing the average family $9 per week more, and compensating them $10 per week. Why not just give everybody $1 per week and call it a day? This article has a good explanation.
Teen sexting's main danger lies in adult... →
Finally, a sensible viewpoint on this topic.
We have descended into the most depraved society, that would lock children away in prisons for taking naked photos of themselves, in order to protect them from psychological damage. I’m not sure what’s more psychologically damaging: having a naked picture of yourself out on the Internet or being dragged through the legal system and then to...
“Well, then make a god for your religion. Call him The Pirate. And create your...”
– Slashdot comment by “maxwell demon”
Apparently in Sweden the “Kopimism” movement has failed to gain religious status. Sure, it is a political agenda disguised as a religion, but it is a legitimate belief system (“human beings should share knowledge”) — why...
YouTube rickrolls HTML5 users →
What on earth? I just noticed this:
Turn on the YouTube HTML5 trial (http://youtube.com/html5). You need a modern browser.
View a video that supports HTML5 (e.g., Meet the Medic).
Right-click and choose Save As in the white drop-down. (Firefox on Linux seems to be able to “defeat” the JavaScript here and gives you the proper drop-down with a legitimate “Save Video As”...
The Onion: Coal lobby warns wind farms may blow... →
[video] A damning report on so-called “green energy” which could actually be catastrophic for our planet.
(Before someone posts this on Literally Unbelievable, </sarcasm>)
Ten myths about patents →
Very good (one-sided) write-up about why the patent system is truly broken.
Proposed Draft Guidelines for R18+ Computer Games →
The Australian Government appears to be serious about introducing an R18+ rating for computer games. They have asked for comments here. (Courtesy Tristan.) Unfortunately, you are limited to 1000 characters so I had to cut my 2300-character response down to this:
Is there any scientific study that shows that interactivity increases the impact of mature content? In particular, “actively...