If you’ve heard the furore over the MegaUpload website being taken down, but haven’t heard of the beast, then quite simply it was a place where you could drop files, and allow people to download them from your account.

According to the FBI, this allowed users to openly share illegal copyrighted material, and completely closed the site, confiscated it’s URLs, and arrested it’s owners.

This had the effect of all users of the site losing all of the data they had stored there ~ legitimate or not.

Personally I think this is a dangerous step, and is already producing a range of responses from other Digital Locker websites.

Filesonic has removed all access to be able to share files, whilst uploaded.to has completely blocked all access from the USA, annexing all it’s users ~ this is the bit I’m worried about.

This also prompted the biggest hack attack in history from the notorious hacker group Anonymous to be directed against the USAs’ Department of Justice and other sites.

If the USA continues this course of action, the very nature of the Internet is threatened, as they try to set themselves up as the Internet Police. Do we really want an Internet governed by people who themselves have a strange moral compass?

For instance (although not related to this topic exactly) how can it be morally correct to complain loudly over the showing of a female nipple at the Superbowl XXXVIII (the infamous ‘Wardrobe Malfunction by Janet Jackson), whilst having the globes largest legal Pornography industry?

Back on topic…

The blocking of the USA is the interesting part ~ the very nature of the Internet, and it’s greatest strength, is the ability to share things, and this is the very crux of the problems with MegaUpload; What should be available to share, and who should be responsible for checking. Blocking the USA has set a dangerous precedent in breaking that fundamental strength.

Also if I publish an article (such as this one) in the UK which contravenes some law in the USA, can I be held responsible in that country? Should I be forced to remove the offending post? Should I be arrested and taken to an American jail?

Apparently the FBI think so.

You must bear in mind that MegaUpload was a Hong Kong based company, and it’s top guy is German (Kim Dotcom ~ formally Schmitz, read the article, he’s a colourful character!), living  in New Zealand. Spot the complete lack of USA in those countries.

Add to this the recent Internet protests over the proposed new laws in America ~ the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) ~ and you’ve got a perfect storm brewing.

Maybe the USA should simply be disconnected from the Internet if it has such a problem with it!
Just imagine Apple, Mircosoft and Intel all offline, permanently!
A boy can dream 

The next biggest site to offer these services ~ Rapidshare ~ has yet to do something (at time of writing), but is being watched keenly by those in the know, their response will be seen as another precedent…

I’m going to watch these event with a keen interest as they are shaping the Internet for the future.
This is a dark time online…

Filed under : General  |  Be the first to comment! »
7 views

=============== ===============

#Rant# No Apology for this one…

Picture the scene…

Visitors on the way, dashing round the house in full ‘panic cleaning’ mode, when an ungodly sound emerges from the living room where my co-skivvy was vacuuming.

What follows is an exercise in the more colourful use of the English language and a very pretty coloured cloud of smoke floating over the now to be known as ex-vacuum.

-1 vacuum in the Rochester household

Visitors enjoy a fun filled time and, despite the initial worries causing the cleaning frenzy, don’t seem to be too perturbed to be sitting in a quagmire morass of filth (this is what I assume my GF sees when looking at a room not immediately available for surgery due to the less than surgical level of cleanliness).

1 cup of tea later and I’m on the web – I’m a wolf searching out the prey of pre Christmas deals for the replacement of the aforementioned ex-vacuum. Seeking out those little known sites where the mythical ‘Bargain Beast’ resides.

Littlewoods – best deal – who’d have believed that!

Ordered – paid – time for the patience of the saints to manifest… ETA 12th December…

Nope

HDNL or as they are now known ‘Yodel’ seem to think that the company of my vacuum is a pleasure to savour. It’s obviously a vacuum of some social standing as they choose to delight in it’s presence for a full 7 days before reluctantly relinquishing the pleasure and dropping it to my home.

Meantime I’m corresponding with Littlewoods – via a system that seems to have an inherent delay longer than that encountered by NASA when speaking to the International Space Station ~ every time I send a reply it takes 2 days to receive a reply!

Now I get to endure the cleansing of the knee-deep banks of dust that have built up in the interim.

So, to recap, this is the delivery procedure from Littlewoods via Yodel

• Order
• Pay
• Wait the 3 days Littlewoods say the deliver will take (track the package online)
• Expect the delivery to be enacted within a day or so of the ‘arrived at depot’ report
• 2 days later spend about 45 minutes trying to converse with a bored employee of the couriers attempting to discover the location and likely ETA
• Send an email to Littlewoods complaining that this is not good enough – Google ‘Worst UK Courier” and experience a sad sinking feeling when multiple results come up with HDNL and/or Yodel
• 2 days later, receive an email asking for account confirmation details for ‘security porpoises’ (spelling intentional!) – reply as soon as possible
• 2 days later receive the stock “sometimes these things happen’ email – reply as soon as possible
• Finally get an update on the tracking system saying the package is on the drivers van
• Receive a package nearly 9 days after ordering it

Sigh…

 

Filed under : General  |  Be the first to comment! »
11 views

=============== ===============

Even though it’s an extremely early start to the day, it’s going to be a sad one for many millions of people.

Just now Apple have released information saying that their much loved co-founder Steve Jobs, has died.

He was diagnosed as having Pancreatic Cancer in 2004, and lived to be 56.

Rest in Peace Steve – you will be remembered with love by millions of people across the globe.

Remembering Steve Jobs

Filed under : General  |  Be the first to comment! »
5 views

=============== ===============

Details were recently released on who the nation think is the worst broadband supplier.
Guess who managed to be right there at the top of the ‘Most Complaints List’?

TalkTalk tops UK complaints list

Here’s the stats:
TalkTalk – 0.58 (complaints per 1,000 customers)
BT Retail – 0.43
Orange – 0.37
BSkyB – 0.20
Virgin Media – 0.15

Nice!

It’s really sad to see TalkTalk up there again – they’ve consistently been having problems and have been in the news for bad service. Still, they are obviously still running a business that people wish to buy from.

Not surprised to see BT there though…

I call it the ‘British’ syndrome ~ somehow some companies get a reputation that contradicts the truth of the matter, and people trust them despite what the evidence tells them. In the case I usually use, how many older people still use British Gas because they use the word ‘British’? despite usually being more expensive and offering poor service. Royal Mail is another…

Well, I suppose we can only wish that these stats get somewhere toward giving us consumers a better level of service…

Filed under : General  |  Be the first to comment! »
2 views

=============== ===============

My life, in general, is dealing with everyone else’s problems ~ if it’s not an issue with some tech somewhere, it’s an issue with a website or a purchase etc.

Now I’d like to think that I am a positive type person ~ I am predominately a ‘Glass is half full’ type, with minor negative expectations.

Call me am optimistic pessimist if you will: I believe that it will be fabulous, but experience tells me otherwise

Having said this, something I, and other small business owners, suffer from, from time to time, is a feeling of despondency - that feeling of “Why the **** am I doing this??!”

Well, today was one of those days…

I had some driving to do today: a special pick up from the suppliers then a brief sojourn down to a client near the Drax power station, after which I zoomed across to sunny Scarborough (amusingly renamed ‘Scarbados’ by the clients).

Usually I love these times, as it give time to think – get in car – apply liberal amounts of music and goooooooo!
On this occasion though, the doomsayers got there first, and the “what’s the point” message was coming through ‘loud and clear’.

BUT…

I had a client call (out of the blue) to say that he’d been to a networking session, where someone said they would review the other participants websites. One of these I had designed.
The review came back as extremely positive, and that the clients website was ‘One of the more pleasing designs’

That cheered me up no end!

I went on to have a great day – making several peoples lives easier and happier (I was delivering a new PC ~ it was like Christmas all over again!)

Filed under : General  |  Be the first to comment! »
5 views

=============== ===============