Comment Re:Perfection Has a Price (Score 1) 726
I think some of the mods must be on crack. How the hell is this guy's post a troll?
Scientist Patents New Method To Fight Global Warming 492
SUNSTOP writes to tell us that a relatively unknown Maryland scientist has proposed a public patent that he claims could combat global warming. The proposed plan would require massive amounts of water to be sprayed into the air in an effort to bolster the earth's existing air conditioning system. "First, the sprayed droplets would transform to water vapor, a change that absorbs thermal energy near ground level; then the rising vapor would condense into sunlight-reflecting clouds and cooling rain, releasing much of the stored energy into space in the form of infrared radiation. Kenneth Caldeira, a climate scientist for the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University whose computer simulation of Ace's invention suggests it would significantly cool the planet. The simulated evaporation of about one-half inch of additional water everywhere in the world produced immediate planetary cooling effects that were projected to reach nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit within 20 or 30 years, Caldeira said."
Comment Re:Senator Conroy's handiwork (Score 1) 158
Sorry to double post.. this is a good article on it too.
Comment Re:Senator Conroy's handiwork (Score 2, Informative) 158
No it's more like this:
Optus spent $5 million creating a 900 page bid proposing an open playing field. I don't think the details are public yet, but that link has the media release. They also fronted a $5 million bond.
Telstra sent in a 14 page memo saying something along the lines of "we'll do it as long as you guarantee our infrastructure monopoly and we wont pay the bond, but we promise to put in $5 billion".
If this gets up, this is a win for all Australian Internet users. "Telstra has said entry-level access to its proposed NBN would start at $39.95 per month for a 1 megabit per second connection with 200MB of download capacity."[ref] This is what we could look forward to under Telstra. More of the same shite. That 200mb includes backhaul too.
Optus spent $5 million creating a 900 page bid proposing an open playing field. I don't think the details are public yet, but that link has the media release. They also fronted a $5 million bond.
Telstra sent in a 14 page memo saying something along the lines of "we'll do it as long as you guarantee our infrastructure monopoly and we wont pay the bond, but we promise to put in $5 billion".
If this gets up, this is a win for all Australian Internet users. "Telstra has said entry-level access to its proposed NBN would start at $39.95 per month for a 1 megabit per second connection with 200MB of download capacity."[ref] This is what we could look forward to under Telstra. More of the same shite. That 200mb includes backhaul too.
Comment Re:A DINGO ATE MAH BEBEH (Score 1) 209
I thought all of the dingo/baby jokes faded away back in the 80's?
Comment Re:Australia Says No (Score 1) 209
At least the $100 million (citation?) spent by the previous government on examining Internet censorship still left us with a choice of whether or not to participate. I would rather see $100 million spent on trying to catch and punish the people making and distributing the real kiddie porn.
In other news,in Sydney, a homeless guy was today charged with having child porn on his phone. It was pictures of kids running around in public in their underwear, so apparently children playing, with clothes on, in a non-sexual context is also considered porn. The implications of this are quite profound, especially in the context of the current debate on filtering. Oh what a slippery slope.
In other news,in Sydney, a homeless guy was today charged with having child porn on his phone. It was pictures of kids running around in public in their underwear, so apparently children playing, with clothes on, in a non-sexual context is also considered porn. The implications of this are quite profound, especially in the context of the current debate on filtering. Oh what a slippery slope.
Comment Re:Australia Says No (Score 1) 209
I can't believe that you voted for those arsehats either. ;)
Comment Re:7000 people, that is a joke! (Score 1) 209
It is sad, however, the media has not got behind this like they did with the anti Iraq rallies, anti gun rallies etc. Without the self righteous media - I'm looking at you Daily Telegraph - telling the sheeple what to do, they won't do it.
Comment Re:I'm prepared to offer a solution (Score 1) 209
We don't have "riders" here in Australia
Comment Re:Good (Score 4, Informative) 209
This is totally to do with "Christian nutters", in particular one Senator Steve Fielding from Family First Party (i.e. the Christian Right). Other party site here. He holds the balance of power in the Senate and this is totally about getting his vote so as to enable the sitting government to get their legislation through. There are plenty of press [pdf] releases [pdf] on these sites to demonstrate their position and lobbying [pdf].
Big Media may be lobbying and pushing, but this is nothing to do with what is happening here in Australia with regards to the current push for filtering.
Big Media may be lobbying and pushing, but this is nothing to do with what is happening here in Australia with regards to the current push for filtering.
Windows Cheap Enough For $2B Aussie Laptop Deal 234
An anonymous reader writes "Windows-based netbooks aren't too expensive to be ruled out of the Aussie government's billion dollar promise to give a laptop to every school-aged child, according to several education departments. The admission follows an earlier report that open source machines based on Ubuntu or Mandriva are the only option to deliver up to four million computers to students for under $2 billion. Microsoft itself claimed it will keep costs per unit down by hosting a lot of the educational software in the cloud rather than on the netbook devices."
Comment Re:A lack of transparency (Score 1) 148
Here's an idea - how about the government gets gets on with the job of catching the people making child porn etc and gets the fuck out of my life. I don't need you to decide what is good for me and my family. I've been well able to do that myself for many years. If I want a filtered feed, I will filter it. Indeed, the kids' computers are filtered with K9, which seems to be working quite well thank you very much. If I need to ramp it up, there is always Dan's Guardian & Squid and plenty of other options
Comment Re:Simpsons Movie (Score 1) 612
No. Naked != Porn.
If Bart was depicted with his "junk" out in a sexual context, then it would be child porn.
If Bart was depicted with his "junk" out in a sexual context, then it would be child porn.
Comment Re:10,000 URLs? (Score 3, Insightful) 193
For God's sake. When are these do-gooders going wake up to themselves? Naked != Porn. There has to be more to it than that. Some kind of sexual context at least. It seems that the definition of "kiddie porn" has gone from depraved sexual acts against young children to holiday snaps of kids swimming in the lake naked. There is light years between those two contexts. And another thing - in the 15 years or more that I have been using computers, I have never come across any kiddie porn on the net. Never. Not Ever. It's not out there lurking on every wrong mouse click waiting to "damage" some innocent child. Talk about a fear campaign.
I've seen police write comments here saying that they have the tools and laws they require now and are doing fine thank you very much.
So Senator Conroy - fuck off. We'll manage the content that we want to stop our children from viewing. We don't need you to decide for us. K9 filters work just fine on the kids PCs along with a set of written rules of what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.
I've seen police write comments here saying that they have the tools and laws they require now and are doing fine thank you very much.
So Senator Conroy - fuck off. We'll manage the content that we want to stop our children from viewing. We don't need you to decide for us. K9 filters work just fine on the kids PCs along with a set of written rules of what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.
Comment Re:Oh boy. (Score 1) 503
This makes me want to go to my shed and retrieve the Compaq 486 dx 2/66 for a test run.
