Never piss off the sysadmin 27 Oct 200818 Sep 2017 Users, or Lusers as they are known, learn early not to piss off the sysadmin, who is God. Federal minister Stephen Conroy’s ham-fisted attempt to gag critics of his stupid paternalistic and ultimately failure-ridden net filter scheme has managed to piss off the whole lot of them. This could be fun. Anyone got the popcorn? I have the beer… This, by the way, puts Australia in the company of such civil liberties havens as China, North Korea, and Burma. Yay us. Censorship Internet filtering Politics Technology
Politics Who should be president? 27 Jan 2008 And why would an Australian care? It’s another country, so what business is it of mine? Well, apart from the fact that whoever is US president affects the rest of the world (and historically the best party for Australian benefit is Republican, as their anti-protectionism tends to help Australian exports),… Read More
General Science On ID and the public awareness of evolution 20 Apr 2008 Imagine a scientific theory that very few people know or understand. Let’s call it “valency theory“. Now suppose someone objects to valency theory because it undercuts their view of a particular religious doctrine, such as transubstantiation. So they gather money from rich members of their faith community and start a… Read More
Australian stuff Gillard not wonderful: opposes gay marriage 30 Jun 2010 Julia Gillard has said she opposes gay marriage. Why? She doesn’t say. But there has to be a reason, so what could they be? 1. She dislikes it and thinks she can impose her preferences on everyone no matter what the implications or rights of those concerned. 2. She is… Read More
Lovely. I know some people from SAGE-AU and I hope they put up a hell of a fight. In addition to keeping everything running, sysadmins have a professional and ethical responsibility to ensure that technology is used in a responsible manner. That a member of a government would try to stifle a knowledgable professional from commenting on proposed policy implies that the policy is all about paternalistic authoritarian censorship and government overreach rather than serving Australia’s internet users. I give SAGE-AU credit for being able to get its name and views publicized and for taking a principled stance against what appears to be another bluenosed censor that can bear neither scrutiny nor criticism.
Hmm. “Mark Newton” is this admin’s name. That’s an anagram of “Network Man”. I wonder if this Mr Newton actually exists, or is a made up fiction by a group of admins who wish to vent complaints about being pressured to implement the filter, but not be named publicly?
Hmm. “Mark Newton” is this admin’s name. That’s an anagram of “Network Man”. I wonder if this Mr Newton actually exists, or is a made up fiction by a group of admins who wish to vent complaints about being pressured to implement the filter, but not be named publicly?
Yes, anagram or not, I actually exist. The nature of my name was discovered back in the early ’90s when a FidoNet guy called Andrew Clayton ran my name through an anagram generator that had won one of the International Obfuscated C Code Contests. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.