Stilgherrian » tv

Clive Hamilton doesn’t quite win “Cnut of the Week”

Stilgherrian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:21:19 +0000

I’m surprised. I thought that given Senator Conroy’s three-in-a-row victory as “Cnut of the week”, this week’s winner would be Clive Hamilton for his irrational rant in favour of Internet censorship in Crikey yesterday. But no.

Hamilton is certainly Cnutworthy, trying to hold back two strong tides of change: the change of the Internet, which will deliver whatever people want to send down its pipes, whether you try to block it or not; and the tide of rationality which increasingly renders shrill fear-mongering and name-calling irrelevant. But no.

The winner was Qantas for continuing to resist a tide of public opinion which clearly shows their reputation slipping thanks to unreliable service — which appears in turn to be the result of cuts to maintenance processes.

Last night’s episode of Stilgherrian Live is online for your viewing pleasure, though it’s not the same without the live chat.

But Clive Hamilton… Two hints, Clive.

First, in a hyperconnected world, we can see that your depiction of the opponents of censorship is a lie, because we can just look up their words directly. We can see that you’re continuing this crap about “They want to flood the world with dirty, dirty pornography”, Conroy’s grubby name-calling tactic. No, Clive. The arguments are really about ISP-level “filtering” being a total waste of money because it’s easy to circumvent and detrimental because it degrades Internet performance and blocks legitimate material.

Second, just wanting something doesn’t make it possible — or even desirable when you think through the ramifications. Even if we take at face value the assertion that “93% of parents of teenagers… [support] automatic filtering of internet porn” — and I must admit I’m sceptical of that figure because Newspoll has form — that doesn’t mean it can actually be done. Unlike fear-filled parents, Internet technology’s behaviour can’t be changed by telling it scary stories about “Net videos of a woman having sex with animals” or “Watching someone being raped”.

You can assert all you like that…

Independent expert opinion appears to be that filters can sharply reduce the availability of material deemed offensive or unsafe at the cost of a small degree of degradation of the system…

… but it isn’t true.

We’ve linked to the actual report before. We’ve read past the government-pleasing Executive Summary and looked at the actual numbers. We’ve seen that deceptive people have cherry-picked the numbers, always using the best of the best score for effectiveness and the best-of-the-best score for speed degradation when they were for two different filters. We’ve read how none of the filters can deal with peer-to-peer traffic. We know from network engineers that just encrypting the traffic and sending it through anonymous proxy servers defeats central filters.

This. Has. All. Been. Done. Before. And. Wishing. Really. Really. Hard. Will. Not. Change. It.

What’s truly appalling about Hamilton’s rant is that the man trained as a mathematician. He should be well aware that computers do not respond to rhetoric. He should have more respect for numeracy, and respond to the numerically and technically literate arguments which point out that ISP-level Internet filtering simply will not achieve the aim of “protecting the children”.

This. Has. All. Been. Done. Before. And. Wishing. Really. Really. Hard. Will. Not. Change. It.

We have dismantled your lies before, yet you keep repeating your lies. Why is this?

A quick visit to Clive Hamilton’s website reveals that immorality is his current bête noire.

[T]he paradox of modern consumer life is that we are deprived of our inner freedom by our very pursuit of our own desires. [Hamilton] turns to metaphysics to find a source of transformation that lies beyond the cultural, political and social philosophies that form the bedrock of contemporary western thought.

His search takes him to an unexpected conclusion: that we cannot be truly free unless we commit ourselves to a moral life. The implications of this conclusion are profound, and they challenge many deeply held beliefs in modern secular society.

Now a man may certainly choose a moral path. Morals can be debated, though, and morals change and have changed over time. Merely claiming that one has morals doesn’t give one the right to slur others.

“Logic without moral clarity is no logic at all,” says Hamilton. Alas, Dr Hamilton, you are wrong. They are two different axes of measurement. More to the point, Logic without logic is no logic at all.

Hamilton, like Conroy, has slurred those criticising the government’s poorly-thought-out and technically useless plan to “filter” the Internet. Hamilton has, like Conroy, simply avoided addressing the coherent arguments being put forward and has instead resorted to name-calling, fear-mongering and outright lies.

Hamilton may think he’s taking the moral path, but he’s wrong. He’s behaving unethically. He’s being a hypocrite. In my view that’s truly filthy.

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So many Cnuts to choose from!

Stilgherrian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:34:36 +0000

Nominations are now open for “Cnut of the Week”. Who do you think is futilely resisting the tide of change? I’ll select the shortlist at 8.30pm Sydney time, and you can vote during tonight’s Stilgherrian Live at 9.30pm.

Senator Stephen Conroy has been the clear winner for the last three episodes thanks to his persistence with the government’s Internet censorship plans. Some have suggested we just make him “Cnut for Life” and open the field to other contenders. What do you think?

We already have a pre-nomination of the bloke who tried to convince his wife that his iPhone accidentally emailed naked photos to another woman. Yeah, sure mate.

Who do you nominate, and why?

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Conroy’s Cnutful Hat Trick

Stilgherrian — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:08:29 +0000

Yes, Stephen Stephen Conroy was voted “Cnut of the Week” for the third time running by the audience of last night’s Stilgherrian Live — which you can watch online now. My people do not like his Internet censorship plans, it seems!

We had so many nominations, ranging from “NSW wheat farmers” (who, despite record crops in some areas, are still whingeing because the world economic recession means they can’t get the price they want for their grain) to “the people of Arkansas” (for their medieval attitude to gay couples adopting children).

Still, despite a strong final field including Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (for calling US President-Elect “tanned”), Vitamin D (you’ll have to watch) and NSW Premier Nathan Rees (for recent state budget cuts), Senator Conroy was the clear winner with 66% of the vote.

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Will Conroy be “Cnut of the Week” yet again?

Stilgherrian — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:28:28 +0000

In just 4 hours, we’ll discover whether Senator Stephen Conroy is chosen as “Cnut of the Week” for the third time running — because it’s just 4 hours until tonight’s edition of Stilgherrian Live (9.30pm Thursdays Sydney time).

Senator Conroy is pre-nominated because… well… he’s continuing his denial-mode tactics in relation to Internet censorship. I know mah peeps, and I know ya want to nominate him. Who else? It’s the same rules as usual. We’re after people (or abstract forces of nature, or organisations or whatever) who’ve been futilely trying to hold back the tide of change.

Who do you nominate, and why?

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No Stilgherrian Live, but some live blogs today

Stilgherrian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:28:55 +0000

I won’t be doing Stilgherrian Live tonight. Instead, I’m covering two presentations via “live blogging”.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of some tin-pot outfit called Microsoft, is doing his Power to Developers presentation at 3.30pm Sydney time. It’s being promoted as a “Liberation Day” and a “live web rally”. Wankers.

Peel away the pseudo-revolutionary bullshit, though, and there’s something worth hearing about: “Microsoft’s vision around Cloud Computing for the software-plus-services world, followed by demo-packed sessions on the new technologies just announced at the Professional Developers Conference — including the much anticipated Azure Services Platform.”

Using “around” as an all-purpose preposition and failing to hyphenate “much-anticipated” confirms Microsoft’s illiteracy, and The Register’s negative review of Azure has already poisoned my view. We’ll see.

Then tonight from 6.30pm consulting firm Gartner has “Gartner meets you in the blogosphere”. They’re previewing material to be presented at next week’s Gartner Symposium: “emerging trends and technologies… and what to expect in 2009″.

I’ll be live-blogging both events at special pages on this website. The links will be posted soon. Stand by.

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The argument is simple, Senator Conroy

Stilgherrian — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:19:41 +0000

For the second week in a row, the Stilgherrian Live audience voted Senator Stephen Conroy our “Cnut of the Week” for his persistence with and behaviour over the Australian government’s Internet censorship “plans”. The program is now online for your viewing pleasure.

OK, that’s a biased sample, sure. But as I wrote in Crikey yesterday, Conroy is thoroughly tangled in his own Rabbit-Proof Firewall. I’ll try to sneak that article out from behind the paywall later. However in summary Conroy is blustering, maligning his critics with the McCarthyist tactic of bullying and calling them child pornographers and generally ignoring the rational questions being put to him.

He’s also back-pedalling fast. On ABC Radio National’s The Media Report yesterday, he was even denying the policy was about censoring legal material at all, despite clear evidence for exactly the opposite.

Not good enough, Senator Conroy.

If the government wants to persist with comprehensive, centralised, secretive, unaccountable Internet censorship — let’s not use the spin-words “filtering” and “clean feed” because that just reinforces their moral-panic frame of the Internet being “dirty” — then they need to deploy this evidence-based policy-making they used to talk about and actually address the evidence.

Mark Newton, the network engineer Conroy’s office tried to bully into silence, has only become more vocal in his criticism. And at Online Opinion yesterday he puts his case more clearly than ever.

I can’t argue with Newton’s logic. Can you, Senator Conroy?

The online community’s argument is a simple one:

there’s no problem to solve because actual illegal material on the Internet is so rare that nobody ever finds it;

even if there was a problem to solve, there’s no serious public demand to solve it;

even if there was a public demand to solve it, none of the solutions proposed by the ALP will be effective, and the Government has handily provided original research to decimate their own case;

even if they were effective, they’ll slow down Internet access and reduce Internet reliability, as shown by the same original research released by the Minister on July 22;

even if the proposed solutions had perfect performance and reliability, none of them are affordable;

even if they were affordable, they’ll be implemented terribly by the same underclass of bureaucrat that deemed Mohammad Haneef a terrorist, or Bill Henson a pornographer. The salivating of hangers-on like Family First and Nick Xenophon, lobbying to have the blacklist expanded before it’s even in force, demonstrate perfectly how open the system will be to political manipulation and lobbying;

even if they were implemented perfectly by perfect administrators, the blacklists will inevitably leak, be published on the Internet, whereupon they’ll fall into the hands of nefarious individuals and consequently enable child abuse all over the world, with the direct assistance of the Commonwealth of Australia; and

there’s no possibility that the blacklists won’t leak. Finland’s list has already leaked, CyberPatrol’s encrypted blacklist is cracked every six months or so. It’s delusional to believe that Australia will be any better at securing its officially sanctioned list of Child Porn and Terrorism sites than anyone else. It might take a month, a year, five years, ten years, or two hours. But it will leak, secrets always do. Pressing it into service will be like setting a ticking time bomb, and when it explodes there’ll be a thronging multitude of critics pointing at Senator Conroy and saying, “I told you so, you were warned, but you did it anyway”.

This isn’t a complicated argument. To justify the ALP’s policy, cogent, successful arguments against each and every one of those independent points will need to be mounted.

So, Senator Conroy, would you care to respond? Would anyone in government? Because if all you can do is slag off those wanting to debate the issue, your plans clearly don’t stand on their merits, do they?

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And this week’s Cnut is…?

Stilgherrian — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:58:54 +0000

Oops! Only 3.5 hours until tonight’s edition of Stilgherrian Live (9.30pm Thursdays Sydney time) and I’m only just opening nominations for “Cnut of the Week”. Still I’ve got four requests for Senator Stephen Conroy already!

Senator Conroy was the clear winner last week for his efforts relating to Internet censorship, and if you’ve ready my piece in Crikey today (behind the paywall for now), or Bernard Keane’s, I reckon you might understand why he’s worthy of yet another go.

Still, maybe someone else is worthy too? It’s the same rules as usual. We’re after people (or abstract forces of nature, or organisations or whatever) who’ve been futilely trying to hold back the tide of change.

Who do you nominate, and why?

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Episode 31 online!

Stilgherrian — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:09:06 +0000

Last night’s episode of Stilgherrian Live is now online for your viewing pleasure.

I reckon this was one of the smoothest-running programs ever, with more controlled ranting — or do you prefer the uncontrolled rants?

Senator Stephen Conroy was our clear winner of “Cnut of the Week” for his continued involvement in the creation of Australia’s Internet censorship regime.

I’d like to do next week’s program from outside the office. Not the Manly Ferry, as @JonoH wants, because it’ll be dark at 9.30pm. I’ll save that for a special Saturday or Sunday afternoon edition — which would be better? So where should I pick? Somewhere that’ll be accessible and interesting after 9.30pm on a Thursday night.

Oh, and did you see the special impromptu edition the other night? It’s in four parts, episode 30A parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. There’s a naked bottom to be seen, amongst other things.

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Just six hours to name your Cnut

Stilgherrian — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:34:51 +0000

Six hours to go! Tonight’s edition of Stilgherrian Live (9.30pm Thursdays Sydney time) will be the first in a fortnight, so I’m guessing there’s plenty of nominations for “Cnut of the Week”.

It’s the same rules as usual. We’re after people (or abstract forces of nature, or organisations or whatever) who’ve been futilely trying to hold back the tide of change.

Who do you nominate, and why?

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Links for 12 October 2008

del.icio.us — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:15:07 +0000

Here are the web links I’ve found for 12 October 2008, posted not-quite automatically.

ABC overtakes Ten in audience share | AdNews: Australian television turned upside down! The traditional pecking order of Channel Nine, TEN, Seven and ABC is now Seven, Channel Nine, ABC and TEN. SBS is still in 5th place, but amongst the “main four” things are very different.
The Taxonomy of Logical Fallacies: A nice structural map of the various logical fallacies, with links explaining them.
Long Pig the Movie: I stumbled across this new movie website. It’s won a few awards so if you’re into horror it might be your thing.

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Off to Cowra!

Stilgherrian — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:50:18 +0000

Road Trip! ’Pong and I are about to leave for Cowra for his OLPC video shoot and my “interpretation” of the journey in words and pictures. Our driver is Matthew Hall.

You can follow our adventures on Twitter by searching for all tweets containing the hashtag #rtcowra. Wish us luck! More soon.

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Marcus Westbury’s “Not Quite Art” is quite unmissable

Stilgherrian — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:17:10 +0000

I can’t be “objective” about Marcus Westbury and his truly awesome TV series Not Quite Art. Marcus, I am totally envious and I want to have your babies!

OK, failing that (for various biological and logistical reasons) I’ll simply demand that everyone — and I do mean everyone — watch Not Quite Art when series two is squeezed like a threatening pimple from ABC1’s transmitters across Australia tonight at 10pm. Or ABC2 at 7pm Sunday. Or streamed from ABC iView. ~~Or downloaded illegally from the torrents.~~

Quite frankly, if you reckon you’re interested in “art” and “culture” and how it’s evolving, then you must consider Marcus’ worldview. If you fail to watch this program, you’re missing out on a delightful, witty and above all intelligent journey.

Now I suppose I’ll have to explain why this series is so important…

First, though, I’d better explain why I can’t be “objective” — in quotes because I think this whole “objective” thing about writing reviews and journalism is a crock of shit. We all have our biases and pre-conceived ideas — whether we like them or not, whether we even realise it or not — so we might as well try to put them on the table.

My bias?

I want Marcus’ job!

But I’m not cool enough any more.

Sulk.

Back in 1993 I discovered the writing of Neal Stephenson through the pages of Wired magazine. While researching his massive article Mother Earth Mother Board the “hacker tourist”, as he was styled, travelled three continents following the route of the global fibre optic network, writing entertainingly about its history and its impact.

I was jealous. Stephenson had the freedom to spend several months and 42,000 words on something he loved and was paid for it. I wanted to do that! Travel, and write and talk about stuff I’m interested in.

Then last year I read Marcus Westbury’s opinion piece Mozart cover bands rake in the moolah, about how “an overwhelming amount of arts funding in Australia goes to organisations that either exclusively or primarily play covers”.

Think symphony orchestras, opera companies and state theatre companies that produce comparatively little in the way of original, innovative or even Australian work. Like classic hits radio, they are busting out the chart-toppers of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries…

[G]rab yourself a copy of the Australia Council’s annual report. The nation’s cover bands, mostly the state-based symphony orchestras, collectively receive just under $50 million each year from the council.

Whether that figure seems average or outrageous would depend on the context that you choose to put it in. The context that I put it in is the $4.8 million pool that every single musician in Australia who isn’t in a symphony orchestra competes for every year. That’s more than a 10-fold disparity between the orchestras and everyone else combined.

Wow! This certainly resonated with my thoughts. And then:

Culture isn’t something that happened in Europe centuries ago that needs preservation. It’s actually all that messy, beautiful, inspiring and wonderful stuff that is happening around us right now. Arts funding should reward innovation not preservation and vibrancy over bureaucracy

Yes! Precisely!

I watched Not Quite Art series 1 — which of all the programs the ABC put into that 10pm Tuesday arts timeslot pulled the biggest audience — and I loved this man’s worldview. He trotted around Australia showing us the cool stuff!

So I was well pleased when I pressed “play” on the preview DVD the lovely people at ABC TV sent me and heard these words at the start of Not Quite Art series 2 episode 1, “Culture Shock”:

This is a series about culture. Not just this kind of culture [gesturing to the theatre around him] but the living cultures all around us — the ones that are evolving and changing so rapidly that if you nod off for a little while, well, you just might miss it.

Marcus and his nerdy brown pullover led me on a journey through living cultures including Newcastle-bred DJ Mark Newlands, who referred to “the cave-man era before the Internet” and reminded us that “Technology marches on. Either get with it or get fucked”; video game critic Ben “Yahtze” Croshaw whose program pulls 4 million viewers; animator Paul Robertson, who reaches his global audience from his bedroom; a wonderful woman called Jodi Rose who records the sounds that bridges make; and to a remote part of the Northern Territory (pictured above, where Marcus removes his pullover!) and… well I won’t tell you all the tales.

But then he said something which had me spluttering my coffee and and gasping for breath.

What interests me isn’t the technology, but how it’s changing us.

Damn you, Westbury! I said that! On my About Stilgherrian page! Well, in a few more words…

I’m not that interested in technology itself. I’m more interested in the social questions.

What does it all mean for your life? Your family? Your business? Your community? For the law and politics? How will it change the very core of what it means to be human?

This little cunt Marcus Westbury is not only thinking my thoughts, he’s getting paid to put them on TV!

So I take it all back! Do not watch this program. It’s a program I’d want to make, if I were still hip and cool and knew people at the bloody ABC. Do not watch Not Quite Art.

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Episode 30 online!

Stilgherrian — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:12:35 +0000

I’ll do a proper post some time soon, but here’s a quick pointer to tonight’s episode of Stilgherrian Live, uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

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Stilgherrian Live, The Blue Edition

Stilgherrian — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:37:08 +0000

It’s less than three hours until tonight’s edition of Stilgherrian Live (9.30pm Thursdays Sydney time), so we’d better get some nominations together for “Cnut of the Week”.

It’s the same rules as usual. We’re after people (or abstract forces of nature, or organisations or whatever) who’ve been futilely trying to hold back the tide of change.

My first nomination will be Starbucks for leaving taps running all day — ignoring the change to more environmentally-friendly methods and, incidentally, practising a weird kind of Seattle-based neocolonialism by thinking their own “global policy” is more important than the local laws where they operate.

Who do you nominate, and why?

It’s also “The Blue Edition”, mostly in support of Blue Day 2008, but perhaps we’ll show some blue movies too. Watch and see.

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Episode 29 online!

Stilgherrian — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:01:36 +0000

Last night’s episode of Stilgherrian Live was a strange journey through the streets of Surry Hills, Sydney, and is now online for your viewing pleasure. ’Pong took some great photos, too, and I’ll post them later, along with the results of “Cnut of the Week”.