Sign petition for open Internet in Europe
September 24, 2009 by Cath · Leave a Comment
An interesting link from fsdaily, apologies for the blatant copy and paste, but I am tired…
If you believe Europe merits an Internet that is free and open according to the following principles, please sign this petition and share it with your friends using the “Share it” links below:
- Internet users are entitled to access, send and receive the content of their choice;
- Internet users are entitled to use and run applications and services of their choice;
- Internet users are entitled to connect their choice of software or hardware that do not harm the network;
- Internet users are entitled to choice and competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers;
- Internet users are entitled to an Internet connection that is free of discrimination with regard to type of application, service or content or based on sender or receiver address. Broadband providers cannot block or degrade traffic over their networks, or pick winners by favoring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers’ homes. Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by them.
- Providers of Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices and Internet users are entitled to an Internet connection with a predefined capacity and quality.
These principles should be enshrined in European and national laws, and enforced by the relevant authorities in a consistent manner across Europe.
I am going to sign it now… and then paint my toenails…got my priorities right :P
Virtual Worlds Growing in Popularity
August 1, 2009 by Cath · 4 Comments
The virtual worlds consultancy kzero.co.uk reports that membership of virtual worlds grew by 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million. Some of these memberships are likely to be unused or inactive but this is still a massive rise. Much of the growth comes from children, particularly in the 10-15 age group. Habbo has in the region of 135 million members, and allows users to create and connect, it is incredibly popular with teens. Second Life allows users to create their own content, unlike most of the newer virtual worlds. Whilst OpenSimulator lets you create a virtual world on the hard drive of your own computer, linking to other compatible ones, such as Second Life.
Sculpture in SL using Blender
July 20, 2009 by Cath · Leave a Comment
Chris has been experimenting with Blender again this weekend. He has produced some really nice modern sculptures. You can view the sculptures here in Second Life, or take a look at flickr. You can download Blender here. Blender is a 3D graphics application released as free software under the GNU General Public License. Blender is available for a number of operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. You can look at a vast array of Blender tutorials here.
Australian Government Targets Gamers
June 28, 2009 by Cath · 3 Comments
Stephen Conroy the Australian Communications Minister, has been nominated by the British ISP industry for its annual “internet villain” award. Senator Conroy was nominated for the annual internet villain award “for continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition”.
He is really living up to this title as this week it has become apparent that the Government has now set its sights on gamers, promising to use its internet censorship regime to block websites hosting and selling video games that are not suitable for 15 year olds. Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ classification for games, meaning any titles that do not meet the MA15+ standard – such as those with excessive violence or sexual content – are simply banned from sale by the Classification Board, unless they are modified to remove the offending content. This is incredibly backward in my opinion, Austalia should be ploughing on and making steps to remedy this problem rather than embracing some fascist censorship regime.
The average age of gamers is 30 in Australia, according to research commissioned by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, this means that even Australians who are aged above 15 and want to obtain the adult-level games online will be unable to do so.
Mark Newton, an ISP engineer and internet filtering critic, said the move to extend the filtering to computer games would place a cloud over online-only games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which aren’t classified in Australia due to their online nature www.smh.com.au
I am pretty disgusted with Conroy and his warped policies, makes me glad to be living in the uk for once!
Digital Britain
June 7, 2009 by Cath · Leave a Comment
The UK culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said today that the government intends to acquire powers to apply “technical measures” to crack down on persistent illegal filesharers on the internet. The Digital Britain report is due to be released later this month, according to Burnham any solution is likely to involve a requirement that internet service providers (ISPs) notify users caught stealing digital content.
Speaking at a Music Week conference about monetising digital music, Burnham said any new legislation would be overseen by Ofcom. Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, has welcomed the promise of legislation, but said it must go further than forcing ISPs to send educational letters and should be backed up by measures to steer persistent illegal filesharers towards legitimate online services.
Unlawful downloading still accounts for 95% of online purchases, the Pirate Bay website is used by 25 million people around the world – including millions of Britons. It argues that it does not break the law because no copyright content is hosted on its servers; instead, it hosts “torrent” links to TV, film and music files held on users’ computers. Record companies, which claim that illegal file-sharing has cost them billions of pounds in lost revenue, argue that new music will suffer if people continue to download without paying.
Some artists release their music under creative commons licences, take a look at Jamendo. You probably won’t have heard of them, but there might be something you like.
Microsoft’s deal with New Zealand comes to an end
Microsoft’s nine-year software licencing deal with the New Zealand government has apparently collapsed according to the Inquirer today.
In a statement, the State Services Commission (SSC) said that negotiations for another three-year extension of the agreement failed when it “became apparent during discussions that a formal agreement with Microsoft is no longer appropriate.”
SSC spokesperson Marian Mortensen said the government looked for value for money, fitness for purpose along with strategic benefit in its negotiations. “We didn’t feel we got the appropriate levels of benefit from the negotiations,” she said. Don Christie, chair of the New Zealand Open Source Society, said that failure of the SSC’s negotiations with Microsoft could provide new opportunities for more use of open source software in government.
Don Christie, chair of the New Zealand Open Source Society criticised the goverment IT managers for not having explored open source software alternatives previously.
New Zealand’s SSC has pioneered the use of open standards and open source software within Kiwi government, winning an open source award last year. The organisation said it will be “supporting agencies to explore how they can maximise their ICT investment and achieve greater value for money.”
UK ISPs fight back over licensing of legal content
May 17, 2009 by Cath · Leave a Comment
The UK creative industries have demanded that ISPs start disconnecting users accused of repeated online copyright infringement. Ars Technica spoke to the ISPA earlier this week:
the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) said that it agreed with creative industry calls for “the safe and secure delivery of legal content.” Getting access to this content remains difficult, though, and ISPA notes that “Internet companies remain extremely frustrated by the ongoing difficulties in securing licensing that is needed to offer consumers legal alternatives through new models of online content distribution. It is our view that legislation on enforcement should only be introduced on the condition that the rights holder industry commits to significant licensing reform.”
The ISPA sends a clear message that the rights holders should do a better job of licensing legal content, instead of expecting them to act as police for the music and film industry.
Linux Educational Comicbooks
April 25, 2009 by Cath · Leave a Comment
Hackett and Bankwell is an educational comic/cartoon manual designed to teach readers how to get started with Linux-based operating systems. You can download copies of the ebooks here.
New users often feel overwhelmed by all of the new information they need to digest in order to confidently use Linux, and Hackett and Bankwell provides them a quicker way to get familiar with using Linux-based operating systems and master the material.
The publication is available to purchase here or you can make a donation which will help them to publish futher material, the comic is also available with Ubuntu on cd. This comic is suitable for all ages and has real educational value so by all means download the pdf and pass it on to younger readers, the illustrations are really fun.
Hackett and Bankwell can be instrumental in helping new users understand the various elements that comprise the operating system and how they work together.
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