A couple of days out from the election and neither party has announced a comprehensive ICT policy…because neither party has one. Kevin Rudd today talked about taking Australia up a gear and the need to fulfil our great potential, but apparently IT isn’t part of that future. The real banger: the reiteration of a policy originally announced by Kim Beazley in 2006 which I’m now officially calling “The Great Firewall of Australia” policy. Yep: no policies to encourage Internet startups in Australia or promote what Keating once referred to as the clever country, but they’re going to censor our Internet instead and I’m more than pissed. So pissed in fact that I may not preference the ALP in front of the Libs when I vote on Saturday, despite the fact that I cant stand the local Liberal candidate.

Here’s some highlights from Mao ZeRudd’s cyber-safety policy:

 a mandatory ?clean feed? internet service for all homes, schools and public computers that are used by Australian children.  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will filter out content that is identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).  The ACMA ?blacklist? will be made more comprehensive to ensure that children are protected from harmful and inappropriate online material.

Note the word mandatory. But wait, there’s more

A Rudd Labor Government will require ISPs to offer a ?clean feed? internet service to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible by children, such as public libraries.

What’s the alternative, a dirty feed, if indeed there is an alternative? And lets not forget the cost of providing this filtering, a cost that will no doubt be passed along by ISP’s who already (mostly thanks to Telstra) charge us at rates 2-3x higher (even more, given we don’t have uncapped plans) than rates the United States.

How do they determine if a computer is used by a child? My son uses 1 computer, but not my laptop + desktop, so is there going to be multiple feeds? Unlikely, because any of these computers are accessible by a child I’m going to get a mandatory censored internet…presuming that they’ll know that I have a child…which they’ll check up on via Medicare, so big brother will be imposing his will on me and I wont have a say on it as well.

This is a typical response from a traditionally socialist party that believes that the Government can interfere in everything.

Like all censorship the question is: once it starts when will it stop? Remember that Australia doesn’t have an electronic R rating (at least for computer games)…so there goes violent sites. Dissent on global warming is probably hate speech to the ALP, so that should get censored….once it starts it will never end. Do-gooder groups will petition the Government to block more and more sites, and the Government, always wanting to find support will block these sites.

The stupidest thing of all: Mao ZeRudd justifies the policy on the basis that computer level filtering is too easy to bypass. He’s obviously never heard of proxy sites, TOR or even OpenDNS to bypass server level firewalls…unless of course he’s planning on banning them as well!

If Rudd is elected on Saturday (and that’s a 95% chance) we need to start speaking up against this policy immediately. It is our duty as supporters of free speech in a democratic country to stand opposed to Government attempts to stifle free speech online. They may claim now it’s all about porn, but remember (with apologies to the original author),

first they blocked the porn sites, and no one said a thing,

next it was the dissenters, and still no one said a thing.

Next it was bloggers, and although I was one of them I said nothing.

Then they blocked me.

This time twelve months ago I was in Toronto, where it was cold, and not just the weather.

I’ve learnt a lot of things from this time.

1. Trust no one

2. People are selfish and usually look after themselves first. I lost out because I went into bat for their concerns, yet they never so much as said boo themselves.

3. I’ve had people come to me asking for references. Hardly anyone so much as said goodbye to me when I left (maybe a handful)…I learnt that this was because they were told I was persona non grata however sometimes you do the right thing, not what you’re told. To have the very same people come to me 6, 9 and 12 months later asking for more from me when they couldn’t even do a simple thing such as say goodbye. Farking unbelievable, with maybe only one of two exclusions (I wont name them, but they know who)

4. I have an internal conflict between apathy and caring. Most people look out for themselves, and it makes them a smaller target. One part of me says I should have done that, but the other side says that you should do what’s right, even when it puts you in harms way. I’m slowly teaching myself apathy, it’s probably better for my health and sanity in the long term.

5. I was unduly harsh on Toronto when I got back, and as I’ve since discovered that San Francisco has more beggars, but only just. At least it’s warmer in SF 🙂  Seriously though next time I’ll come back under better circumstances, and I might end up liking the place. It reminded me a little of Sydney, although with more French speakers.

6.  Venture Capital is not an end to a means. There’s a place for VC, but you shouldn’t sell your soul for it.

7. You can tell how well a company is going by assessing the terms from which ppl depart it.

8. Rick Segal is a hard ass but not a bad bloke, I wish we had met under better circumstances. One of the more interesting ppl I’ve met, and I’ve met a lot of people in the last 12 months.

9. NDA/ No-disparage contracts etc are shite when you’re expected to follow them and no one else is. Worse still when your protests fall on deaf ears but when you so much as say boo, you’re the worst bastard out there.

10. Control is everything. I’ll struggle to ever give up control of anything again, and I certainly will never put my heart, soul and full time work into something that I don’t control again…unless of course I’m being paid well for it, upfront 🙂

11. It was a hard time, but I still feel good in myself that although I lost out, I did what was right and I can sleep well at night. In fact, despite some of the anguish I’ve never had a bad nights sleep because of it.

12. Did I lose out? I walked away with some cash in the bank and my morals intact. Maybe I was the winner? only time will tell I guess.

13. Skip, unlucky

14. Bloggers aren’t paid enough full stop, not in any one particular company but most of them. I’d support minimum payrates for bloggers tomorrow. They’d still be a lot lower than in just about any other industry, but I think you need a min for work done. Some blogging jobs (again singling out no particularly company) are slave labor like, and if they were regulated jobs would be illegal in many countries.

15. considering 12, I think I have been lucky. A couple of projects on the way, hopefully the paperwork (business plan etc) done on the new startup before christmas, great writing job working with best in the business Michael Arrington, get to travel in Australia and to the US speaking and working. I’ve never really been more content. 2007 has been an awesome year. Now if only Qantas would hurry up the net access on the Sydney-SFO route 🙂

Remembrance Day 2007.

“MCMXIV” from Philip Larkin. It’s modern poetry, but it’s done well.

    Those long uneven lines
    Standing as patiently
    As if they were stretched outside
    The Oval or Villa Park,
    The crowns of hats, the sun
    On moustached archaic faces
    Grinning as if it were all
    An August Bank Holiday lark;

    And the shut shops, the bleached
    Established names on the sunblinds,
    The farthings and sovereigns,
    And dark-clothed children at play
    Called after kings and queens,
    The tin advertisements
    For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
    Wide open all day;

    And the countryside not caring
    The place-names all hazed over
    With flowering grasses, and fields
    Shadowing Domesday lines
    Under wheats’ restless silence;
    The differently-dressed servants
    With tiny rooms in huge houses,
    The dust behind limousines;

    Never such innocence,
    Never before or since,
    As changed itself to past
    Without a word–the men
    Leaving the gardens tidy,
    The thousands of marriages
    Lasting a little while longer:
    Never such innocence again.

I’ve finally finished reading Australian author John Birmingham’s Axis of Time trilogy. I discovered the series by accident, picking up World War 2.3 at Perth airport on the way to the Valley in July (I always buy a book for the long flight).

I didn’t realize then that the book was part of the trilogy, so I read the final part first. It was only on my next flight that I realized that there were two books before it. I read World War 2.1 in September, and bought and read World War 2.2 in October.

I’m a picky reader, and I don’t read a lot, and what I read I’m fairly hard on. I loved these books.

Here’s the plot summary from Wikipedia: it gives some of it away, but it doesn’t give all three away

In 2021, a US-led Multinational Taskforce, commanded by Admiral Phillip Kolhammer is preparing to wage the latest campaign in the War on Terror: intervention in an Indonesia wracked by civil war between secularist and caliphate forces. The flagship is the aircraft carrier USS Hillary Clinton, named after “the most uncompromising wartime president in the history of the United States.” Attached to the task force is a mysterious research vessel whose scientists attempt an experiment with space and time. The experiment goes horribly wrong: the research ship is destroyed by the resulting wormhole while the task force is sent back in time to 1942 (It is also theorized that the task force fell sideways into an alternate universe 1942). The majority of the task force winds up being deposited in the Pacific on the eve of the Battle of Midway.

Accidentally, the time travelers collide with the US force that would have won the battle. The 21st century personnel are rendered unconscious and control reverts to AIs, a Japanese ship in the task force is spotted and the contemporary US Fleet opens fire. By the time both sides realise their mistake, most of the 1942 US Pacific Fleet has been destroyed.

At the same time, the northern Japanese fleet, en route to attack the Aleutian Islands, stumbles across an Indonesian frigate (Sutanto) and divines both what has happened near Midway and what the future holds for Japan. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is swiftly informed and orders the Japanese Fleet to sail home immediately.

The Allies head for Pearl Harbor, where tensions between the WASP male sailors of 1942 and the mixed-gender/ethnic/sexual personnel of 2021 result in riots, brawls and a murder. However, Allied leaders are already beginning to take note of future mistakes, advances and other windfalls of the Transition. The technology alone is astonishing enough, but the historical ramifications are even more momentous.

The Axis powers are not idle either. With the aid of both contemporary Axis officers and Indonesian sailors Yamamoto prepares a new plan designed to reverse the outcome of the war and stave off America?s rise to power. The Sutanto is stripped down while certain crew members make their peace with Allah and prepare for their final mission. Hitler is soon apprised of the Transition and dispatches his own envoys to Japan.

It’s reality futurism meets what if fiction, a rare mix in a book. Kolhammer meets Einstein who explains that the notion of a grandfather paradox is false due to parallel universe theory: basically by traveling back in time they’ve created a new parallel universe.

All three novels are great reading. It reminds me of Clancy a bit, but with a definite Australian interpretation. The concept of 2021 morals clashing with the ideals of 1942 make it an interesting consideration of the appalling standards of the past.

World War 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 are a recommended read.