Author: Stilgherrian

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Internet filtering trials begin!

I’ve finally had time to ponder The Australian‘s report on Internet filtering trials that I mentioned yesterday. While it describes the current status, the deeper message seems to be that the government doesn’t actually have a plan for this at all.

Yesterday was the deadline for purveyors of filters to register their interest with Enex TestLab, the Melbourne company running the trials. As they said in a newspaper ad:

We invite vendors of all types (hardware appliances, software — proprietary or open-source) of ISP-based internet content filters to participate.

The products will be tested in a “controlled environment” (i.e. the lab) in the first half of 2008, and then the “field trials” happen in the second half.

But looking at the original request for tender at AusTender, this “just” seems to be another exercise in seeing what’s available in the marketplace, rather than providing a “solution” [ugh!] which implements specific policy goals.

Continue reading “Internet filtering trials begin!”

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Olympians score Internet kiddie-chat perk

Not only do Australia’s Olympic athletes have superb pectorals, the government has set them up with a bevy of 5 to 12-year-olds to chat to on the Internet.

Olympian Andrew Gaze says the program will provide inspiration to young people and the Olympic team.

Indeed. And if you set up, say, Wollongong property developers with a bunch of pre-pubescents online, Serious Questions Would Be Asked. Why are Serious Questions not being asked about this initiative?

Creepy.

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Pornography-jaded public demand new orifice

Bored by pornography? You’re not the only one, according to The Onion.

Jaded by the sight of what it deemed “run-of-the-mill” orifices, the nation’s pornography-saturated populace released a statement Monday demanding a new bodily opening to leer at. “At this point, staring at an anus, vagina, or beckoning mouth has become so commonplace that it is no more titillating than ogling, say, the human elbow.”

Read the whole article to discover what the populace demands in its new orifice, so to speak. Hat-tip to Boing Boing.

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3 movies for a lazy Sunday

Image from Ballad for Worlds Fair movie

Three quick movies for you to watch on a lazy Sunday… things which I’ve been sent over the last week.

  1. The 15-minute promotional film A Ballad for the Fair (pictured) tours the 1964 New York World’s Fair, with an emphasis on communications technology since it was produced by Bell System. Marvel at the video-phone! Warning: there is folk music. Hat-tip to Paleo-Future.
  2. A creepy community service announcement about violence against women starring Australia’s celebrity criminal Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read. Chopper even has his own website. Hat-tip to Rhys McDonald via Five Thumbs Down. Check the latter for an amusing AFL players’ social guide.
  3. The US shoots down a spy satellite. Thanks, Richard. I won’t bother discussing the military-strategy and international-politics angles of that one, there’s plenty elsewhere.