Must read editorial on the failure that will be the Great Firewall of China.

Make no mistake, this will be another Labor Bungle.  Although it won’t cause the loss of life the Insulation Affair did, it’s going to cost us far more money is lost productivity and lost opportunity, even before the program costs, which will be huger than huge.

If you think the Global Economy will not be Internet driven (if it isn’t already) in the future, then you’re living in a dream world.  A country without Internet tomorrow will be as competitive as a country without roads was yesterday.  And here’s Kevin Rudd and the crew erecting 10kph speed limit signs.

And to what end?

This will do nothing to combat Child Pornography.

Not one thing.

It’ll be as effective at fighting child porn as throwing out all your silverware, except it sounds more related.

So when Stephen Conroy and Kevin Rudd and all the Labor Party hacks tell you that the Clean Feed will only filter out bad, evil, vile pornographic sites, now you know what they have in mind.  Oh yes, Wikipedia, it’s vile.  Wikipedia is the scum of the Internet, thrusting illegal porn down innocent throats.

This is why we need to say NO to the Clean Feed.

See also: NSW issues $200m PC, wireless tender

Okay, I see a few problems for the plan, but considering the problems and solutions from the OLPC initiative, I don’t think it’s unachievable.

The DET said the laptops must weigh less than 1.75 kilograms with battery, be no bigger than an A4 sheet of paper and include a 8.9- to 12-inch screen with built-in webcam. A disk drive was optional but the battery must be able to run for six hours of the school day under normal use.

Battery life is going to be a huge problem.  My tablet – which I love; cover your ears baby – has trouble lasting 2 hours.  6 hours, that’ll be a push.

The operating system has not been specified but, given that the DET wants the laptops to cost just $500 each, Linux could be picked over the expensive Microsoft Windows.

I suspected it’d be Linux, but I won’t be surprised if Microsoft kicks in to install WinXP.  We are talking about a lot of computers, and more problematic, we’re talking about young people getting comfortable with Linux.  I don’t know if Microsoft will or can step up, but they have to be thinking about it.

Aesthetics has emerged as a key consideration, with the DET keen to ensure students have a “sense of personal ownership” in the laptops so they will look after them.

Design options “may include a range of colours or styles for the case, or options for individualising its appearance” such as the ability to insert a sheet of paper into the lid, an adhesive plastic overlay that can be drawn on or stickers.

Sensible plan.

Here’s the part I think needs some rethinking:

The lightweight computers will be provided to the 197,000 NSW students in years 9 to 12, who will be allowed to keep them after they finish high school.

Okay, so little Bobby gets his laptop in Grade 9.  He uses it for three years.  When he graduates, he gets to keep it – makes sense, it’s three years old, it’s depreciated quite a bit, could we even reuse it?  Nah, Bobby has grown attached to it, plus it gives him a leg up at TAFE or Uni; sure kid, keep the computer.  It’s your graduation gift.

But wait:

The laptops will be locked to the DET’s network, so that even at home students will need to log in with a student ID and their internet access will be filtered just as it would if they were browsing on a school computer.

Students will be able to install their own software but they will not be able to remove the DET’s applications and will be forbidden from modifying operating system settings.

“The machine will not work unless the user has a DET username and password,” the DET said, adding this would make students less of a target for thieves.

So, sure kid, keep the computer, it’s useless now.  You can’t use it any more.

There’s a small flaw in the logic here…

A Map of Broken Promises from the Sydney Morning Herald’s website – an interactive map of cancelled rail lines.  This state government is very good at making announcements – not so good at paying for them.

Courtesy of the "Somebody Think Of The Children" blog

Net censorship plan backlash – BizTech – Technology – smh.com.au.

Stephen Conroy lies like a dog.  So yesterday in Question Time he refuses to retract his statement that this filter is already in place in countries like Canada – a bold faced lie; an untruth to mislead the public.

It’s not just that this Labor Government has shown it is just as out of touch as the previous Liberal Government on Tech issues, my disappointment lies with the fact that this kind of censorship is a complete attack on Freedom itself.

Pay particular attention to Senators Xenophon and Fielding – Labor is courting them hard to support them, and both want to add to the censorship list – yes it starts with Kiddie Porn, and who’d object to that?  But now we’re talking all porn, and gambling to boot.  What’s next?  Are we going to have to read from the Bible before visiting a site?  Oh well, don’t be ridiculous – only sites with Bible verses already existing on them will be allowed through the filter.

Which leads some to the question why am I so opposed to this if it will block Kiddie Porn?  If it works just a fraction, isn’t that the price to pay for the censorship of a few wrongly classified sites and a little (86%) loss in speed?

Well, aside from the fact that the list of “bad things” is growing and Australia is already so far behind the ball in the Tech game that it will hurt our already struggling IT industry – just last week the CEO of Microsoft was calling on Australia to build the infrastructure to give us what most of the developed world already has: broadband (and if you think you’ve got it, you don’t.  Go see broadband in America.  Our Nation is stuck in 1987) – aside from all of that, he’s the problem:

No one who wants Kiddie Porn just types “Kiddie Porn” into Google.  Yes, we’re spending millions (nearing billions) on this, and forsaking our rights and it won’t even stop illegal P2P file sharing, which, no doubt is where most of the Kiddie Porn trading is done.

This is the equivalent of stopping Bank Robberies by lowering the speed limits in this country to 20 kph, so that get-away cars will be easier to catch.  It totally disregards the fact that the crims will speed anyway, it will hurt everyone else, it will destroy business, and it will make us look like bloomin’ idiots to the rest of the world because we are so stupid.

Except it’s worse; we’re not talking about making it to work on time, we’re talking about being able to speak your mind.  We’re talking about building a police state.

Here’s Labor’s Urban Planning Policy

1. Ram another half a million people into Western Sydney
2. Build no infrastructure
3. Telling everyone you’re doing your best
4. Either move to Coogee, get drunk at a bar in Gosford, or party naked with fellow MPs in between votes, whatever it takes to forget the city past Merrickville.