I’ve just set up a Tor relay in the hope that every extra little bit of bandwidth will help the protesters in Iran preparing for today’s big rally in Enghelab Square, Tehran. If you’re technically minded and can spare some bandwidth then please consider doing the same. If you’re not technically minded and want a simple, fictionalised and very readable introduction to this kind of technology and why it matters, consider Cory Doctorow’s book Little Brother.
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Just Set up a Tor Relay
Saturday, June 20th, 2009Is the iPlayer a Trojan Horse?
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008I won’t be joining the celebrations around the launch of the BBC’s iPlayer on Mac and Linux.
The encroachment into the network of broadcasting corporations such as the BBC should be vigorously resisted both as a tremendous waste of bandwidth by a company that already enjoys a monopoly on huge swathes of the spectrum and as a step towards the licensing of internet access.
UK readers sensible enough not to own a television will have first hand experience of the Gestapo-like tactics of the BBC licensing authorities whose regular, nasty, intimidatory letters misleadingly and illegally threaten prosecution to anyone found using equipment capable of receiving a television signal including “computers connected to the internet.” The more organisations like the BBC pollute the web with their output, the stronger the calls to extend the license to cover access to the internet.
Already the iPlayer is being tested as a justification for bringing a tiered internet into place.
Combine that with a quixotic and sinister plan to introduce cinema style ratings to websites being considered and we have all the makings of Chinese-style censorship.
Paranoid? Perhaps. But I do live under a government planning on tracking everyone’s calls, emails, texts and internet use.
Wet Neural Nets
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology figured they could learn more from neuron clumps that acted more like real brains, so they’ve developed “neurally controlled animats” — a few thousand rat neurons grown atop a grid of electrodes and connected to a robot body or computer-simulated virtual environment.
A fascinating – but frustratingly brief – look at a something that blurs the boundary between animate life and machines. I, for one, welcome our animat overlords.
New Scientist Has Launched a Podcast Service
Monday, December 12th, 2005OK, so I’m about a month late on this but I’ve been too busy with my studies to keep abreast of news and my toread pile is overflowing.
New Scientist are running a nine-week pilot of podcasts: details here. I’m downloading the last six weeks of shows as I post but I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. Another otherwise wasted 15-mins a week is now filled. Funny how much less stressful having to queue is when you’ve got something intelligent to listen to on your mp3 player.
Microsoft Gets Heavy with Sender ID
Friday, June 24th, 2005Microsoft are trying to strong-arm the internet community into using their technology as a standard by pushing Sender ID. From November email sent to MSN or Hotmail that does not comply with the controversial method will be marked as spam.
Will this turn Hotmail into a walled garden rejecting mail from users of other systems who refuse to comply?
Not Painted with the Crimson Spots of Blood
Tuesday, May 17th, 2005
Demonstrators chained themselves to the Uzbek Embassy earlier today and daubed the building in paint in protest against the alleged murder of hundreds of civilian protestors by the government in Andijan last Friday and in Pakhtabad on Saturday.
This is how the building looked when I walked past earlier.
According to the website Muslim Uzbekistan, a larger demonstration has been planned for tomorrow.