Posts by Mark Harris
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@stephen - ArtRage is lotsafun, especially if you have a tablet.
@craig - depends on what sort of blood (arterial or venal - what colour is it - bright red or dark?), what sort of flow (drip, drip, drip or run, run, run), and what you're doing about it. I get a lot of nosebleeds due to a persistant and recurring infection. I usually stuff a wad of tissue up for about 20 minutes and it stops. If you've been bleeding for longer than an hour, you should see a doctor. (This is not medical advice, just personal experience)
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omigod! I listened to it and it's going to take me till New Year's to recover.
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Mark wrote:
On topic, can these filters be worked around with a proxy?
No one knows or no one cares? That was an interesting post Mark Harris of Waikanai. Frankly I'm staggered watching the various clampdowns on offer in the name of safety measures to preserve freedom.
The answer is "probably". Proxy servers can get round most stuff in the way.
However, that will drive more innovative means for illicit distribution such as encrypted tunnels, VPNs and the like. It's an discussion I've had over the last few years with DIA and some of the ECPAT and Netsafe people: blocking access is only going to affect the least culpable - the curious and the accidental. It's not going to stop the dedicated, and it's not even going to slow the production of the material.
Their view is that every little bit helps. My concern is the unintended consequences that may arise form technological censorship.
To be fair to them, they are serious and dedicated people, especially at DIA, and my hat's off to them for the work they do. There is a gap, I think, in the policy process that (as you point out) is not being addressed. Though I think no-one would worry too much about nude photos of Angus Young, except the health authorities ;-)
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Excuse my ignorance, but what are you two nerds talking about?
nerdy things
Chrome is Google's browser (and very nice, but I wish they'd hurry up for the real Mac version). Google stuff typically stays in beta (i.e. it's not quite finished, don't blame us if it breaks) forever, so it was a little surprising to see Chrome move to full release status so soon.
If you'll just glance at the top of this page, you'll see a little bue "beta" label next to "Public Address System" (this area is typically called the masthead in newspaper/website parlance) which is Russell's way of saying "don't blame me if this wipes your hard drive/soaks up any supposedly free time (and much that isn't) you thought you had up your sleeve"
Here endeth the lesson. Merry bah humbug.
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Is it a rule that maiden speeches have to be given with George Hawkins fidgeting behind you?
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I'd like to criticize PA for taking up too damn much of my time. It's the only website I have to keep open (other than Gmail) and compulsively refresh (which prolly accounts for a fair few of those page views, sorry) just to stay abreast of the latest Ranapianism ;-)
It's also the only site that made me start my own blog.
Thanks, Russell and all the varied others who make up PAS. It's fun to be here.
Merry wotsit to you and a happy new thingummy
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@rochelle: Superb! Roflnui!
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The problem with Mancer's statement is he's comparing apples with oranges. The Aussies are (apparently) sourcing the Cleanfeed list from the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK. That's all it is - a list. You still have to apply it to filtering software and, while I'm not sure what software method the Ausies are using for the test, each ISP will probably be running a different version of software which could well have operational impact, as the Tasmanian tests have shown.
Mancer's Watchdog operates the same BGP based system that DIA is trialling at the moment. It originates in Sweden and is recommended by the Swedish Police. While Watchdog, as a reseller, is free to trumpet its merchandise, my understanding of the trial is to determine whether the system works well enough to be worth the investment and also whether it has a negative impact on the service delivery.
More importantly, the discussion should really be about the nature of the list. When I reviewed it for InternetNZ and DIA in 2005, it didn't have any false positives that I could find, but was also in no way comprehensive either. One of the things I was looking for was whether pages or images were blocked for political reasons. I didn't find any but the IWF recently put a Wikipedia page into the list because it contained an image of an album that was deemed objectionable. They removed it after an outcry, but that's a thing that needs continual scrutiny to ensure doesn't happen with any filtering technology. Who watches the watchers?
The main question for the Aussies is (as it was for us in 2005) "under which law?" The IWF list is formulated under UK law and includes hate-based imagery but not bestiality. Bestiality is illegal under NZ law and so the filter would not have been effective in that area. I didn't find that the list contained anything that would not be classed as objectionable in NZ, but it most surely did not go far enough for compliance with our legislation, which forbids even images of age-qualified persons who are posed to look as if they are underage.
(Incidentally, my report to the InternetNZ Council seems to have been removed from their website. I don't know why they would do this.)
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Thankee, Jake.
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For instance, I routinely say "pwned" now. Which is weird.
That raises the question of how one actually pronounces a work like "pwned".