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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2008-10-20 03:08 pm

"Clean Feed" Censorship, Gaming Updates (and theory), Other News

Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, is embarking on a mad venture to spend tens of millions of dollars to cripple Australian Internet speed and increase consumer costs through conducting deep packet inspection to filter out "objectionable material" from Australian homes. The filter will be mandatory; there is no opt-out; in other words, the State will determine what adults are allowed to see or read - I'm sure we feel a lot safer now. Electronic Frontiers Australia have put together an informative website and action plan. Parody and ridicule is a fair option in these circumstances. I have written a fairly blunt (and open) letter on the subject to the Senator.

Michael ran another excellent session of Middle Earth Role Playing on Friday night. On Sunday after I followed up with the final session of Dyksund Caverns for RuneQuest's Shadows on the Borderland (I must write a more comprehensive review), which involved negotiations with mad ghosts (with one possessing a PC), discovering that they trapped in the caverns and their supply team had been eaten by ogres, finding a magic crystal that was powering a dormant demigod, launching an attack on a homestead inhabited by said ogres and ogre children (nasty little buggers; rather like the Children of the Corn) and giving chase to a number who escaped into the wilderness (for future plot developments - bwahahaha!). A good roleplaying session involves all the players throughout the session, provides both motivations and conflict (internal and external) for all the characters and occurs within a plausible (albeit often exotic) setting with a consistent sense of narrative flow. Most of my gaming sessions manage to do this reasonable well; this one however worked extremely well. I have also been working an article "Improving Mongoose's RuneQuest" for The Grimoire, which is initially inspired by a thread I started on rpg.net with the title Armour in Mongoose RuneQuest Considered Harmful.

The new rodents have settled in and are proving themselves to be a source of great amusement with 'Trouble' proving to be most social. Most things workwise are just fine, although I'm having a small war getting the Shibboleth module for Drupal to play nice, and ditto for the source version of SciLab. On a health-related issue, I seem to have acquired (goodness knows how) a minor case of pyelonephritis, which I do not recommend to anyone; antibiotics have been prescribed and blood tests are pending.

[identity profile] amarafox.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
What the hell, Australia >.

[identity profile] laura-seabrook.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
Glad the new ratties are settling in.

[identity profile] ultraviolencia.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
I wrote a letter. God knows what good it will do, but it seems like a reasonable thing to do.

[identity profile] trayce.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
Nicely said on the letter to Conroy.

I for one dont care less if they dont want us to see that which 99.99% of us already dont (and usually cant!) find anyway, eg pedophilia and the like - but like everyone points out if this is going to cripple our internet performance, what kind of "digital revolution" are we aiming for, exactly?

It really sounds like they dont have enough IT savvy people involved right up at the highest levels.

Last time this came round in '99 I recall the testing we did at Conn3ct... it all failed miserably - porn was easy to get at and the performance stank. Remember how quietly it went away? I am hoping the same will happen here, that they'll realise how costly and pointless and muddled this is and just drop the idea.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
Australia has never understood the importance of freedom of information. The FOI acts, federal and commonwealth, have so many holes in them they're just an advertisement.

[identity profile] demonhellfish.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
Wow, that's almost American grade destructive moralizing.

[identity profile] amarafox.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
Except the americans don't have a firewall like this - that we know of.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
I share your sentiments. Like yourself any interest on material that is probably going to be blacklisted is purely academic. My political concern is that the blacklist will be expanded and as such our democratic rights are reduced.

After all, the State hardly has a good reputation on such matters, as recent (and local) reports make clear. Basically, I don't really trust this government and I certainly don't trust future governments not to misuse the technology.

As for performance metrics, there have been some recent "improvements" but despite the glowing PR-like responses, it still deserves a fail.


[identity profile] trayce.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
And there are other really pressing concerns about this too: filtering HTTPS traffic is one I hadn't thought about. So we're passing all of our encrypted banking and financial data via a government body that wont tell us what it does with this information?

I'm sorry, that dog won't hunt.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe we can blacklist some banks? :)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
Indeed. Thank goodness for the Bill of Rights. And damn fool Australia for voting against even a minimal version!

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
Australian governments are increasing capable of destructive moralising.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
That's very good of you. I hope the Senator has the brains (he should be used to counting numbers) to see the stack of opposing letters is greater than the stack of supporting letters.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, they're pretty happy - at least one of them has decided he like showers!

[identity profile] fwuffydragon.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
Get well soon!
ironed_orchid: watercolour and pen style sketch of a brown tabby cat curl up with her head looking up at the viewer and her front paw stretched out on the left (Default)

[personal profile] ironed_orchid 2008-10-20 08:24 am (UTC)(link)
Oh for fuck's sake. I thought we'd see the end of stupid internet laws.
ironed_orchid: watercolour and pen style sketch of a brown tabby cat curl up with her head looking up at the viewer and her front paw stretched out on the left (Default)

[personal profile] ironed_orchid 2008-10-20 08:28 am (UTC)(link)
Awesome letter, btw.

[identity profile] severina-242.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 09:29 am (UTC)(link)
You´ve got the male version of pussy flu! Hugs sweetheart!
shehasathree: (can't stop the signal)

[personal profile] shehasathree 2008-10-20 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
oh dear. hope the antibiotics do the trick with a minimal of drama!

nice letter. this stuff is really worrying.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 09:51 am (UTC)(link)
*snicker* Yes, I do. [livejournal.com profile] caseopaya has been teasing me endlessly about it :)

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
The forces of the State are terrified of the Internet... Especially in Saudi Arabia, China... Australia.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 10:25 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. I'm pretty sure I'll be OK.

I really don't want my kidneys to pack it in. That would suck.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
That's me seething with rage.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2008-10-20 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
hope the antibiotics do the trick with a minimal of drama!

I'm surprised nobody has made a pun about me needing a clean feed of my very own :)
shehasathree: (aim to misbehave)

[personal profile] shehasathree 2008-10-20 10:28 am (UTC)(link)
bwahaha! you doooo. but i was too clean-minded treaclebrained to think of it! curse me. :D

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