Category Archives: geek

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It’s a brave new world – I just checked in for tomorrow’s flight to Istanbul online. I still have to pick up my boarding pass and drop off my checked luggage when I’m at the airport, but otherwise I’m good to go.
Now all I have to do is finish enough work to get out of the office, figure out what documents I need in print or on the memory stick, work out how much luggage I can take once I’ve weighed the laptop and the tent, pack, clean the flat, leave instructions about the flat, blah blah blah.
And I also have to bite the bullet and book somewhere to stay in Istanbul, finally pick a train or bus from Istanbul to Bucharest and work out how I’m going to get to Lviv or Kamyanets Podilsky or Chernivsti from Simferopol. Eek. I just hope I don’t forget anything important.

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I’ve finally gotten around to adding a better rss feed.
And I’ve taken a look at the only version I still have of the first page, and that suggests the first entry was written in December 1996. I think I bowdlerised it at some point because it was really ranty about people we knew as well as randoms yelling things out in the street outside Kirsty and Fraser’s flat.

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“US politicians have rejected attempts to enshrine the principle of net neutrality in legislation.
Some fear the decision will mean net providers start deciding on behalf of customers which websites and services they can visit and use.
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An amendment to the Act tried to add clauses that would demand net service firms treat equally all the data passing through their cables.
The amendment was thought to be needed after the FCC ripped up its rules that guaranteed net neutrality.
During the debate House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, said that without the amendment “telecommunications and cable companies will be able to create toll lanes on the information superhighway”. ” BBC

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We were evil, Google founder admits
“Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged the dominant internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.” SMH

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Amnesty to target net repression
“Internet users are being urged to stand up for online freedoms by backing a new campaign launched by human rights group Amnesty International.” (BBC)
“Just try logging on to the BBC News website from an internet cafe in China. You can’t. The same goes for websites for The New York Times, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and a host of others which could hardly be described as pornographic or “dangerous”.
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In its quest to control the internet China has sought help from overseas. Some large, US-based computer software companies are believed to have sold Beijing the sophisticated software needed to run its filtering system. Companies like Google and Yahoo! have also been accused of co-operating in China’s internet censorship.” (BBC)
“Some 45 years after an Observer article launched Amnesty, The Observer and Amnesty International have teamed up again to campaign against a new threat to our freedom – internet repression.” (Observer)
Find out more at http://irrepressible.info.
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