I apologise to everyone who received that e-mail.

According to gmail’s activity information register, someone at the IP address 123.11.243.131 accessed my account using a browser. That IP address is located in China. It would appear that the spammer somehow guessed the password to my gmail account, logged on, and sent the e-mail. I have since changed the password and implemented other security measures.

This is the first time something like this has happened to my e-mail account, and it’s creepy.

Whitehall officials will train pro-West Islamic groups to manipulate their Google search ranking in an attempt to drown out extremist voices online, The Register has learned.

The policy is being developed despite recent warnings from a group of international experts on radicalisation that such strategies are likely to be “largely ineffectual”.

But when has lack of effectiveness ever stopped a government programme?

The Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to “flood the internet” with “positive” interpretations of Islam. It plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimisation techniques, which it’s hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalisation.

A recent study found that young Muslims looking for extremist information online are unlikely to resort to conventional search engines.  Such materials are usually discovered via web forums and online associates.

h/t: Faith Central

Fans of Twitter say its beauty is that it allows users to upload their thoughts as and when they think of them. This can be a serious disadvantage for those of a belligerent disposition. Ms Love’s angry “tweets” against her former fashion designer, Dawn Simorangkir, have landed her in court.

This seems an appropriate place to post Monty Python’s Upper Class Tweet Twit of the Year.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqkdcT25ss[/youtube]

Earlier this week, ACMA banned a graphic but legal anti-abortion website. With this latest, entirely predictable, fiasco, the whole censorship scheme is looking more foolish with each passing day.

A BUNGLED list of “banned websites” is not official, the Communications Minister says – but the matter might be referred to the Australian Federal Police.

“ACMA is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take including referral to the Australian Federal Police,” Senator Stephen Conroy said.

A dentist’s practice, a tuckshop convener and a kennel operator in Queensland have all been wrongly included on the list of websites to be censored.

The owners of the websites are furious their small businesses have been implicated on the list, which includes links to child pornography, rape, incest and bestiality websites.

ACMA insists that Australians caught linking to or otherwise distributing the ”secret” list could face criminal charges and up to ten years in prison.

h/t: Australian Politics

On March 10, ACMA issued Sydney web hosting company Bulletproof Networks with an “interim link-deletion notice” for allowing its customer, the Whirlpool internet community website, to post the link to an anti-abortion web page blacklisted by the regulator.
[...]
The interim notice, obtained by The Australian, stated that on February 19, ACMA received information that a Whirlpool forums page “may contain links to other websites that may contain ‘prohibited content’ or ‘potentially prohibited content’”.

According to the notice, ACMA determined that end-users in Australia could access the content on the blacklisted web page.

ACMA gave Bulletproof around 24 hours to act.

And act Bulletproof did. Whirlpool removed the prohibited link in very short order.

ACMA sent the notice after it received a “complaint” about “offensive content” from an anonymous internet user.

h/t: Australian Politics

Now, however, Blogger.com has blocked his blog, so no one in the world can view it. Anyone trying to surf to Saudi Masihi sees only this.

Saudi Masihi was available two weeks ago when I first viewed it. Google, which owns Blogger.com, provides no information as to what has happened since then to cause the blog to be in violation of Blogger’s Terms of Service. Has Saudi Arabia pressured Google to shut it down?

If you’re concerned about this, a discussion has been initiated at the Blogger Help Group where you can add your (civil) comments.

Compass Direct has a story with a summary of the reasons Mr Bin Saleh gave for believing in Christ.

On his web site, which Saudi authorities have blocked, Bin Saleh wrote that his journey to Christ began after witnessing the public beheading of three Pakistanis convicted of drug charges. Shaken, he began an extensive study of Islamic history and law, as well as Saudi justice. He became disillusioned with sharia (Islamic law) and dismayed that kingdom authorities only prosecuted poor Saudis and foreigners.
[…]
After reading how Jesus forgave – rather than stoned – a woman condemned for adultery, Bin Saleh eventually received Christ as savior.

“Jesus . . . took us beyond physical salvation as he offered us forgiveness that is the salvation of eternal life and compassion,” he wrote. “Just look and ask for the light of God; there might be no available books to help you make a comparative study between the teachings of Muhammad (which are in my opinion a series of political, social, economical and human disasters) and the teaching of Jesus in Saudi Arabia, but there are many resources on the Web by which you might get to the bosom/arms of the Father of salvation. Seek salvation and you will reach it; may the Lord keep you from the devil’s pitfalls.”

In August 2008, Fatima Al-Mutairi was brutally murdered by her father, a Saudi religious cop, for writing online about her conversion to Christianity.

h/t: Glenn Penner at Persecuted Church Weblog

UPDATE (7 Feb.): The blog is available again.  No explanation has been given as to why Blogger/Google blocked it.

As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center, Los Angeles.
[…]
Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said.
[…]
“By using more visual media, students will process information better,” she said. “However, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis or imagination — those do not get developed by real-time media such as television or video games. Technology is not a panacea in education, because of the skills that are being lost.

“Studies show that reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary,” Greenfield said. “Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades.”

Dr Greenfield found that students who accessed the internet during lectures did not learn as much as did students without internet access, leading her to conclude that multi-tasking “prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information.”

Speaking at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, the Manx inward investment minister explained that the island has achieved 100% broadband penetration and now seeks that its citizens be able to download music with impunity – under an island-wide blanket licence.
[…]
The Isle of Man’s proposed scheme follows a similar model to legislation that was rejected by French parliament in 2006. Internet subscribers would pay an extra monthly fee to their ISPs, who would in turn purchase a blanket music licence from rights holders. Users would then be permitted to download whatever music they pleased, from whatever source – rogue P2P networks, shady BitTorrent trackers – without any legal repercussions.

The music industry has supported similar proposals elsewhere, but internet service providers wouldn’t appreciate being forced to raise their monthly fees and hand the proceeds over to music rights holders. Also, requiring non-downloading internet users to pay the fee is manifestly unfair. Nevertheless, the plan sounds like it’s almost a done deal.

The level of the fee is as yet unknown.  Manx investment manager Ron Berry thinks it could be as low as €1 per month, but the plan nixed by the French parliament suggested a monthly fee of €8-€12.

h/t: AllMusic Blog

I took my husband’s i-phone and found a raunchy picture of him attached to an e-mail to a woman in his sent e-mail file (a Yahoo account). When I approached him about this (I think that he is cheating on me) he admitted that he took the picture but says that he never sent it to anyone. He claims that he went to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store and they told him that it is an i-phone glitch: that photos sometimes automatically attach themselves to an e-mail address and appear in the sent folder, even though no e-mail was ever sent. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? The future of my marriage depends on this answer!

Her question attracted 22 replies, almost all of which pooh-poohed her husband’s story. It’s impossible for images to attach themselves to e-mails, and equally impossible for unsent e-mails to appear in the “sent” folder.

Some respondents were hopeful that her marriage could be patched up, but most were not:

Your husband is lying to you. […] Not only is your husband cheating on you, he LIED. TO. YOU. AS. WELL.
[…]
The iPhone does not have this bug. Ditch the creep.
[…]
[T]his aint a glitch, your marriage has a glitch and its him, get rid of it, you are better off alone!
[…]
Your husband is cheating on you. You have the evidence. Now take him for everything he has.

Inevitably, two posters (or one poster using two different names) claimed the glitch had happened to them more than once. They were quickly dismissed as phonies—and perhaps her husband.

h/t: Macworld UK

The key shortcoming is ISP filtering will slow down the web to all Australians by as much as 60 per cent, depending on the sophistication of the filtering program that your ISP has in place.

Australia has one of the slowest broadband delivery systems in the OECD and if Conroy has his way, it’s going to get a lot slower.

There is also solid evidence that the system will be ineffective and unnecessary.

[I]n the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) 2005 report, Kids Online at Home, 50 per cent of parents trusted their children not to head off to the web’s dark corners and 67 per cent of parents reported supervising their children’s internet use to some degree.

The overall view of the report is that there are filters currently in place and that these filters are of the safer, saner type, stemming directly from parental authority.
[…]
The rock spiders who download this [child pornography] material do not Google search their way onto a web site. For the most part, paedophiles operate in sophisticated and complex networks and rely heavily on peer to peer (P2P) technology which ISP filtering cannot prevent.

This is shaping up as another costly and pointless government boondoggle that will have negligible effect on the alleged problem but will impose huge costs on citizens who have done nothing wrong.  Kinda like Canada’s gun registry.

h/t: Andrew Bolt

THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians and could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.

Australia’s level of net censorship will put it in the same league as countries including China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, and the Government will not let users opt out of the proposed national internet filter when it is introduced.

The government admits the censorship scheme will not stem the flow of child pornography and other illegal material because it will not cover peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

This is shaping up like Canada’s gun registry: A complete waste of taxpayer money and government resources. I hope the CRTC doesn’t get any stupid ideas from Australia’s pointless political charade.

h/t: Australian Politics

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2q9Znp8U0U[/youtube]

The four-pages of “quick start” instructions look great—printed on heavy glossy paper, English on one side, French on the other.

I noticed an error at the bottom of each French page, however. Here’s a scan of the first page. (Click on image for enlargement.)

What’s that at the bottom?

Wait till the Quebec language police see that.