"Blacklist" — if that's how Facebook reacts when a website declines to hand over unnecessary data to them, how does Facebook react to the sites which deliberately manipulate the data sent back to Facebook? Or maybe Facebook doesn't realise the extent to which that is happening already?

I hope the Turtleneck of Power gets passed on to Cook.

Bill Gates held on to his Thongs of Virtue when he stepped down from Microsoft, which he put to most excellent use in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation... but just look at what happened to Steve Balmer when he didn't receive The Thong (think: monkey dance).

Someone set up a madeleinepulver.com site plastered with advertising, including Google ads of course.

Yet curiously it was a competing ad network which placed the advertisement "Live in the USA!" on top of photos of Madeleine Pulver, not Google. With all the data in gmail about this guy moving to the USA, surely Google should have been placing that ad?

PS. Site is now down, screenshot at http://i54.tinypic.com/2ducdvn.png

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Facebook

Yes, it's quite obvious that they're jokes when you look up the original sources. For example, the article only quotes the first warning of the following:

WARNING
Do not attempt to install if drunk, pregnant or both.
Do not eat antenna.
Do not throw antenna at spouse.

http://www.antennasdirect.com/cmss_files/attachmentlibrary/pdf/generic_instructions.pdf

Yes, they are decommissioning the entire copper network: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/350563/telstra-nbn_co_deal_telstra_plans_phased_copper_decommission/

Or, to put it more rationally:

The NBN takes the aging copper network out of private hands where Telstra was using it to restrict competition, and replaces it with an open-access high speed network open to full competition.

Just to be clear: almost everyone being forced to switch to the NBN is currently using Telstra infrastructure. If you're on iiNet, Internode, TGP, Optus ADSL etc then you're using Telstra copper. The only people being forced to switch to the NBN who aren't using Telstra infrastructure now are the relatively small number of people on Optus Cable Broadband. After the switch to the NBN, you'll still be using iiNet, Internode, etc for your internet access (if you want to) but instead of using Telstra's infrastructure you'll be using NBNCo's infrastructure. And it will be damn fast and more reliable. And it won't be Telstra... which in itself is simply wonderful.

I say yes, I doubt one influenced the other.

Both the ISP filtering and the NBN/Telstra/Optus deal have been in the works for years now. Neither is a surprise, they both were obviously going to happen.

If I was Stephen Conroy, I'd censor posts like that.

Isn't that redundant?

"'We are only driving on public roads and taking publicly available imagery so what we are not doing is going into a specific installation and taking private pictures and obviously we are working with the authorities so if there are certain locations they don't want us to be there we won't go there, we are happy working with the authorities here."

61 words in a single sentence makes Google sound rather flustered by the accusation.

This manager would sound much more relaxed with a bit of punctuation:

"'We are only driving on public roads and taking publicly available imagery. So what we are not doing is going into a specific installation — and taking private pictures. And obviously we are working with the authorities. So if there are certain locations they don't want us to be there, we won't go there. We are happy working with the authorities here."

Offensive versus risqué is irrelevant. Duke Nukem Forever is denigrating to women, which is a completely different thing.

You can be as offensive and as risqué as you like in your own home. But if you treated women in your home like they are treated in Duke Nukem Forever, it would be a matter for the police.

What comes after forever?

Does that mean my Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3 camera — with two lenses to capture 3D images — counts as two cameras?

+1... having a camera restricts you in so many places, I have many friends who look longingly at the iPhone but simply cannot purchase it because it has a camera. They don't work in exotic military installations, they work in some of the important and unglamourous jobs of this world:

Nurses and paramedics who can't bring cameras into some hospitals — youth workers who work with young children, in the curent climate of child porn paranoia — psychologists who need to visit involuntary mental health patients (ie people locked up because they're mentally ill) — bicycle couriers who deliver letters and small packages directly to offices (they don't know the rules of each building they enter, so they can't risk having a camera) — and I'm sure there are many others that I don't know about...