Why?

Wait for it...

So when someone asks where the newly discovered moon is, you can answer: "Bach's there, in the G-Ring."

Thanks! I'll be here all week! Tip your servers and avoid the crab Louie like black death!"

This book also has hallowed status in our house...it was a gift to our son (now 21 months) when he was a few months old. Our daughter took a liking to it right away and when she was going on five she liked to "read" it (actually reciting, but very accurately). She took a break from it for a few months, and then decided to read it to me for a homework assignment, and since her memory was no longer a crutch she actually nailed it. Made me real proud.

Oh Download boy, the pipes, the pipes are crawling
Eircom's gone and blocked the pirate sites
No mp3s, and torrents are appalling
'Tis all because of nutty IP rights.
But come ye back armed with your faithful proxy
Or simply find new URLs to parse.
'Tis not the science of the flying rocket
Oh Download boy, the law it is an arse.

His name is Robert Paulson.

Well, it's empathy from across the ditch. We're getting some pretty shocking ineptness from our governing idiots here in NZ, too.

But at least we're not getting the fires of hell burning entire towns. Chins up, Aussies. I sincerely hope you beat this.

Once a jolly swagman plugged into the internets,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited as he torrented
"Don't go deploying your filters on me".

"Deploying your filters, deploying your filters
Don't go deploying your filters on me"
And he sang as he watched and waited as he torrented,
"Don't go deploying your filters on me".

Down came the content speeding through the internets,
Up jumped the swagman and viewed it with glee,
And he sang as he shoved that content on his backup disk,
"You'll be a-wasting your filters on me".

"Wasting your filters, wasting your filters
Don't go a-wasting your filters on me"
And he sang as he shoved that content on his backup disk,
"Don't go a-wasting your filters on me".

Up rode the Conroy, mounted on his ISP,
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Where's that jolly content you downloaded so illicitly?
You've been evading the filters from me."

"Evading the filters, evading the filters
You've been evading the filters from me."
"Where's that jolly content you downloaded so illicitly?
You've been evading the filters from me."

Up jumped the swagman and handed them his backup disk,
"You'll never crack my encryption", said he,
And his packets are tunneled and proxied through the internets,
"You'll never get your bloody filters on me".

"Your bloody filters, your bloody filters
You'll never get your bloody filters on me".
And his packets are tunneled and proxied through the internets,
"You'll never get your bloody filters on me".

That's a nifty analogy, even if it mentions motor vehicles a total of 0x0000 times.

If I may extend it, let us place a vial in the box containing a deadly virus, and rig a thingy to break the vial at the moment some random script kiddie hits both shift keys simultaneously. In the closed-box model one has no way of knowing if the kitten is intact without opening the box. Just as the computer user has no knowledge of the integrity of the OS, applications and data without full visibility -- the box represents the vendor's level of disclosure. An open box very neatly circumvents the problem.

Man, it's getting late.

Gigantumous.

I walk downstairs.