08.23.08
23/08/08 – Who actually does own the moon?
So I found this link earlier, and it brings up a good question, who really does own the mood?
Well no-one really right? the outer-space treaty makes sure that no celestial body can be owned by a single nation. Sure thats all good and well, but the treaty was setup in the 1960’s, over 40 years ago now. (41 to be right), How many countries do you think are gonna go “This is my piece of the moon!” and then annoy someone down here by doing that? *coughs* America for one I know will breech this treaty.
I mean, they’ll use the old “We had our flag there first” trick, frankly im quite looking forward to seeing in the next ten years weather or not American did actually land on the moon, only time will tell eh!
But anyway I digress, I dont know how this is going to be policed really, whos to say everyones gonna get on well up there? We cant even get our problems down here sorted, so taking religion and politics into space is going to be yet another battlefield of ideology and the foolish futility of it all really isnt it.
But I guess thats what really concerns me, as a man of science, I try to keep my mind in the most positive frame when thinking of ‘whats really out there?’ but when I think of who its going to be down to… (The US and its allies) I dont really want them to go further than we’ve already been, I dont want to see our race begin to infest and destroy the beauty that is our universe… but at the same time, im far to compelled to see how much really is out there, from quazars and faster than light travel, to new elements and molecules that could bridge huge technological gaps for the human race back here on Earth.
One thing is for certain, total human unification is needed before we send anything deep into space to help the good of mankind, no “Its an American find” or “Its a Russian find!” *war* it should be a “Its a great find, for the good of mankind”… and I hope everyone agrees, because up there… nationalism really does mean squat.
08.20.08
20/08/08 – Technology Addiction?
So recently the phrase technology addiction has been thrown around alot on the internet, and being a enthusiast I guessed along the lines of being addicted to technology and its gimiks, well needless to say I looked up this make-believe phenominia and low and behold there are several websites based souly about internet addicition.
So I decided to do some work myself, after all I’ve seen this ‘tech addiction’ happen to people before when I think about it. I mean if you take someones mobile phone off them for a week, they get very paranoid that they are ‘disconnected’ from their friends so to speak, take the internet or computer off someone and watch them squirm as they loose real track of whats going on with others on the net.
So I guess this is more of a short blog post really, especially seeing as it is 1:51am on a Wednesday morning, but I just needed to write something about it.
Nik
08.09.08
09/08/08 – Hand over your connection or the wire gets it!
Its often very difficult to remember just how much we rely on the internet for everyday things nowadays. For example the lonely little RJ45 cable (picture on the left) has so much infomation passed through it that you will probably forget it exists, but what if someone came into your home and took that cable away and therefor cut your internet connection, then accused you of something you havent done? You’d be as miffed as the next person right? Read on ladies and gents…
The BPI (or British Phonographic Industry) have been tasked with the almost unparlleled task of policing the internet for these horrible, disgusting, treasonous, money stealing people… that commit such blatent disregard for the law as murderers and burglars… yep you got me, they are after the pirates of the internet, those who download at will by the gigabye. However, long before BPI even got its sweaty hands into this business the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) decidied to dip its fingers into the pie and try and take down many of the large torrent sites (even to the point where they coerced the Sweedish Police to attempt to bring down THE PIRATE BAY, now I do not condone the usage of illegal downloading software remotly, however the rules and regulations that the BPI and other Media Industry’s are forcing down the cables of the internet via the ISP’s at the minute, is frankly disgusting!
Recently the BPI flat out attempted to do a RIAA and coerce the big 6 ISP giants of the UK into working together to tackle internet piracy, think of “if you dont do as we say, you’ll get big fines” the ISP’s told them politely where to shove it. However three months down the line and the big six have ‘bottled’ it, to coin a phrased used by my favorite magazine! The big 6? BSKYB, BT, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Tiscali, and good old Virgin Media. While most of those names dont come as a big suprise, I was amazed to see Carphone Warehouse the single ISP I thought would never give into such outragous demands! Speaking of demands… What does the BPI want the ISP’s to do? Well lets go into it shall we!
The BPI wants every ISP to monitor its networks fully (yeah thanks, thats around 500TB of infomation daily flickering into and out of computers easy) it then wants to watch specific IP address’s for high usage (probably more than looking at four webpages knowing this government) and then give the infomation of these users to the BPI, so that the BPI can then send out letters warning them of illegal mis-givings… Now theres a flat-out problem. I didnt realise heavy internet usage constituted piracy at all!! But according to the BPI this is in fact true!! So if your a journalist, computer edittor, website designer and your using a great deal of bandwidth for probably nine hours a day… then you are blatently breeching copyright law and as such your internet will be disconnected… WHOA did I just say disconnected?! Yes I really did… keep reading.
According the BPI’s demands, the UK would have a three strike system,
Strike 1) angry, stern and flatout pointless ‘educational’ letter.
Strike 2) Account suspension (Good idea, lets get the ISP’s to suspend hard earning customers account and still make them pay for it!)
Strike 3) Total account disconnection without appeal, and yes, Strike 3 really will happen if your with an ISP like Virgin Media…
Ahh good old Virgin Media, Now they are an absolutly amazing company with everything they do, but the simple and un-denyable fact that they are spearheading this campaign of flat out dishonesty, distrust and accustation against its own customers here in the UK signifies the fact that they are no longer a company, but just another agency of the governments nanny/control state!
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So this is how it stands, the six biggest Internet Service Providers in the United Kingdom are going to be signing a 4 month trial for this type of action. If it works, it’ll be employed full-time… However, Heres what im going to do should any of my friends get a letter like this through the post, write the ISP a letter.
“Dear (ISP),
Due to your blatently disregard for my service, your blatent disregard for my livelyhood, your blatent disregard for my situation (insert job here), I am hereby terminating my contract with no further payments to be delieved, this contract is hereby null and legally void, no second chance, no appeals.
(Friends Signature)”
If the ISP then came along and demanded money or royalties or whatever they demand these days… Then you could flat out say, ‘Im sorry, I wasnt aware that a company had more rights than a citizen’ in a court of law that would stand up.
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Needless to say that this scenario should be avoided at all costs, simply because the BPI has such a shoddy business model that it now requires the providers of a service to begin activly CENSORING certain parts of a persons life (the internet) However… take this into account, if the ISP’s are being used in this way, isnt it the responsibility of the mobile phone provider to make sure that the driver of a car doesnt use said mobile phone while driving? Think about that, then work out if your civili liberties are being breached…
