Wazzapedia.

I assume virtually everyone in the Australian IT industry has found themselves in some kind of discussion about the Australian government’s proposed mandatory internet filter. And most of us are opposed to it. But we have a little problem…

Why the government wants to filter the internet.

We don’t let kids play with explosives, we don’t want people giving drugs to our kids, we make people get a driver’s licence before letting people out on the road, we get cranky with people for breaking into our houses and stealing stuff, and we get very upset with people who make other people dead.

If you give explosives to children, illegal drugs to anybody, drive without a licence, steal stuff, or deadify other people, and you get caught, you get into lots of trouble and possibly go to jail. No $200 for you. We have people to do this job: the police.

We also have rules about what we let into the country. You’re not allowed to bring in illegal porn, drugs, objects that might contain bugs that will destroy our crops and trees. We have people to do this: Australian Customs.

Out there on the internet, it’s a big free-for-all. If you want it, you can find it; or to invoke Rule 34 - “If it exists, there is porn of it”. But the policing the internet isn’t quite as simple as policing the physical world, or stopping illegal stuff from coming across our physical borders.

So the government has decided that we need to be stopped from seeing the illegal stuff. And that’s one of the things we elected them to do. No, really.

See, most people want the government to make sure that there are systems in place to stop drug dealers, smugglers, thieves and murderers (and other “bad people”). We want laws that say “this is wrong, and if we catch you doing it (and we will try), these are the consequences”. Now, the government has said “Well, there’s all this stuff on the internet that’s illegal, and it’s our job to stop it. We said we would stop it, and now we will. Because we need to protect the children.”

The government’s proposed solution is a two-tiered filtering system. There’s an opt-out “Clean-feed” filter that blacklists adult material from your internet connection, stuff you don’t want your kids seeing. You don’t want to be filtered, you can opt out.

It’s the other mandatory tier that’s considered to be “the problem”.

Why We Don’t Want the Government to Filter the Internet.

There are several problems with the proposed filtering solution from the government.

• It will slow down your internet connection.
• It will incorrectly block websites that aren’t illegal.
• It will only block web traffic, and not all the other different ways of getting illegal material from one person to another.
• It will be reasonably easy for anyone vaguely technical to circumvent - like your teenager, or his technically savvy friend.
• It’s a technical boondoggle that will consume millions of dollars better spent elsewhere.
• It’s a technical solution to what is arguably a social problem
• The blacklist will get out - and into the hands of the people you don’t want having a list of paedophilia websites.

Since this post isn’t about rehashing other people’s work, NoCleanFeed.com has one of the best resources for explaining these downsides of the filter, and other informative links.

I do want to draw your attention to that last point. One of the points that the opponents to the filter have focused on is that the blacklist will not be open to public scrutiny. Now, it should be obvious why that is - you don’t want certain people getting a hold of a list of pedophilia websites.

But what’s to stop the government from adding website addresses for sites that AREN’T illegal?

On the 18th of March, 2009 a supposed copy of the current ACMA blacklist was released to wikileaks.org. Senator Conroy’s press release blasted the irresponsibility of the individual(s) responsible for leaking the list, denied that it IS the ACMA blacklist, but admitted that there were sites in common between the two lists.

The blacklist contained links to “satanic”/”fringe” religious websites, euthanasia websites and hardcore porn websites. However, it ALSO had links to Christian websites, an anti-abortion website, a travel operator, and a dentist! Sucks if you’re the dentist who spent thousands of dollars on a website which no-one can see, and you have no idea why.

So what’s the problem?

There are whole bunch of good reasons why the filter is a “Bad Thing”. Unfortunately, many of those reasons range from technical to REALLY technical. And Senator Conroy is on the warpath, supposedly accusing opponents of the mandatory filter of being “supporters of child pornography” and spreading hysteria. There are people like Clive Hamilton (Professor of Public Ethics at the Australian National University) and Jim Wallace (Australian Christian Lobby) and numerous others who are backing up Senator Conroy and attacking the anti-filter opponents.

Unfortunately, the leaking of the blacklist plays right into their hands.

After being out most of the day, I jumped on Twitter this afternoon to find multiple people linking to copies of the blacklist. From wikileaks.org, copies were re-posted in multiple locations. I have no doubt that many anti-filter opponents have a copy that they can put up if the list disappears.

So I asked the question “Do people actually want to be providing a list of sites that almost definitely contain URLs linking to child porn?” Mark Pesce pointed out that attempting to stop it from happening is subject to the Streisand Effect - “attempting to censor a piece of information causes the information to be widely publicised”.

So, here we have a group of people on Twitter linking to, re-posting and discussing the blacklist. It doesn’t make Twitter bad, doesn’t make those people bad, doesn’t make the discussion wrong. However, it does give the pro-filter ammunition to “prove” their arguments about those opposed to the filter.

Expect to hear something like this from the pro-filter lobby in the next few days. “See, we were right! As soon as they got their hands on it, they spread it around! They couldn’t help but talk about it! They reposted it everywhere making it easy for the pedophiles and perverts to find! They’re pro-child pornography! They can’t be trusted!”

And how will we deny it? We can’t deny the actions. We did talk about. Some people did re-post it. And although we can state our motives were not those we’re accused of, how do we prove it?

I think the one of the biggest problems is that most of the push in the anti-filter opposition is technical. Mark Newton has written a great amount of excellent information as to what’s wrong with the filter, and has met with government representatives. People like Stilgherrian and Mark Pesce have demolished the arguments of Clive Hamilton, on more than one occasion. Mark Newton went head-to-head with Jim Wallis on ABC Radio National debating the filter. There are lots of very intelligent, thoughtful people repeatedly explaining why the filter won’t work.

Thousands of #nocleanfeed tagged Tweets have scrolled up people’s screens explaining why the filter is a very bad thing, and picking apart every piece of information related to the filter.

The fundamental problem is that we’re treating this like a debate, and the anti-filter opponents are playing the role of the negative team. In debating, the only job of the negative team is to demolish the argument of the affirmative team.

This is not a debate. This is not a referendum. The government is going ahead with trials, and are rumoured to be planning to institute the filter however they can. Those of us opposing the filter need to stop focusing on just demolishing the government’s arguments - we need to present a better solution than the one proposed.

There’s no good reason why the are thousands of highly intelligent individuals sitting behind computers screens shouldn’t be able to work together to create a detailed, workable alternative to the government’s so-called “solution”.

What do we do now?

A large part of the answer is education. But it’s NOT ENOUGH to just respond with “education” when asked what the answer is.

“We” understand this stuff. We understand why the filter won’t work. We understand that there are better ways of doing things.

But “they” don’t. The great “unwashed masses” who bought a computer from Harvey Norman on Flexirent, or saw a TV ad and called Dell so that their kids don’t get left behind. The parents who are literally scared of their PC. The users who can’t understand why the machine they bought a couple of months ago is completely clagged because it’s now riddled with spyware “…and what the hell IS spyware anyway?”

We can explain that the filter will slow down their internet - a lot of them won’t notice. We’ll tell them that some websites will get blocked incorrectly - they won’t care, as long as they can’t get to the websites they want, and after all, 1 in 10,000 isn’t that much of a worry.

Parents want to protect their kids, and that’s the line the government is pushing. The government is telling them “the filter will protect your kids. The people against it support child porn.” We know the government is twisting the facts, and lying outright where necessary.

What positive alternative solution are WE offering??

“Education.” How? Who? What? Are we just going to throw that one-word answer back, and leave it in the lap of the government? They don’t care! The Great Australian Child-proof Fence is WHAT WE GOT when we left it to the government to provide a solution.

“We” need to work out how we can educate the non-tech savvy. And it MUST be part of our anti-censorship strategy going forwards. We need to be able to say to the parents that are worried about what their kids are looking at “This is how you can monitor it. This is why you don’t need to be afraid of the computer.”

(And stop snickering at the “computer illiterate”, and snarking about how if they could afford to buy a computer, they should learn how to use it. There’s a long distance between the way we wish things were and the way they are. It doesn’t get any shorter by standing back and waxing lyrical over the fact that it’s there. Get out there and talk to some non-technical people. In the echo chamber of Twitter, it’s easy for us to all reinforce our arguments, but what are the non IT people thinking? How do they feel about it? Are they even aware of the proposal?? Odds on, they’re not.)

We need to propose and provide a solution that counters the government’s claims about what they’re trying to achieve, but also works in layman’s terms. We need to work together to not only say “education is the key” but “here is how you educate someone who’s afraid of their computer”.

Mark Pesce uses the term “Digital Citizenship”.

Even if we manage to stop the Great Australian Child-proof Fence this time, if we don’t find a way to put our knowledge into layman’s terms, draw the non-computer savvy up to meet in the middle, and teach “digital citizenship”, then a solution will be imposed on us.

In summary: The pro-filter lobby are offering a solution to the “problem”. It’s not enough for the anti-censorship campaign to demolish their argument - if we don’t start offering an alternative workable solution as part of our strategy, we will ultimately fail.

Postscript: I got poked about not having an obvious link to my Twitter account.

No seriously.

I was fooling around with a “copyright” search engine today.

Punched in my URL, and up popped several websites which copied the entire content of my depression post - and linked back to me. I’m totally cool with that - in fact, I’m absolutely stoked that something I wrote would touch you that much that you want to copy it and link it. I really appreciate that. And to you, the only thing I have to say is “thank you”.

This blog post is NOT addressed to you.

Then there were the two sites who grabbed the post, and quoted it in full, without attribution. That’s just rude, guys. I’ve emailed one, and considering my options on the other.

This blog post is addressed to you.

Then there’s the people who have taken the post and reposted it as their own work.

I don’t write here as much as I’d like to. Partially for the reasons mentioned in previous posts, and partly because I’m not disciplined enough.

So when I do post something, I normally put a lot of work into it.

Please don’t take my writing, change a few words, and then post it as your own work.

That’s just low.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently. I’ve got two books on the go (The Reason for God and 11), and I’ve subscribed to a few different blogs.

Most of the blogs I added to my feed reader are “emergent”-ish. Honestly, I tried to find a few evangelical/reformed-ish blogs, because I like to have my thinking challenged. Unfortunately, almost all the ones I saw seemed to have become spruikers for the Republican party and/or determined to convince the reader that a vote for Barack Obama was a vote for Satan himself. Admittedly, most of the blogs I’ve started following also touched on the election to some degree or another (how could they ignore it), but the difference in tone between the two sides was… scary.

The thing is, the difference in tone doesn’t seem to be restricted to Election 2008.

I’m both fascinated and repulsed by Christian bloggers whose mission in writing seems to be to tear down other Christians for “wrong doctrine”. At the extreme edge, you find the “Online Discernment Ministries” whose SOLE meaning in life seems to be found in tearing at the ministries and beliefs of other Christians. Did I mention that invariably they appear to be self-appointed “watchmen”.

This post is an expansion on my response to a post on the Internet Monk’s blog.

I have an extremely mixed church background - far less mixed over the past few years than when I was growing up, but there’s been one constant. I never felt like I belong. I’ve always had questions, and when I’ve gotten up the gumption to ask pastors and leaders, it almost invariably doesn’t seem to go well. I’ve been accused of being “too intellectual”, “thinking too much” and “overly cynical” (actually, that last one’s probably right).

My spiritual life seems to have been a combination of bitter disappointments and constant questions. Thus, I seem to find myself most at home with the “emergents”. Although wary of labels, I’m leaning towards “post-charismatic”.

Unfortunately, this leaves me in somewhat of a predicament.

I’ve been involved in three churches since we moved to Melbourne. I grew up in a series of Pentecostal/charismatic churches and groups; the first church we went to when we got to Melbourne was a Toronto-style/associated church.

The church family showed us a lot of love and care, but I eventually found it too much of a struggle to deal with the “experience-chasers” who seemed to move from church to church looking for a “Holy Spirit buzz”. They talk some really big talk, but their entire walk seems to revolve around getting their fix. I also had difficulties with some of the guest speakers who would visit and who seemed to be living examples of some of the worst things I experienced growing up.  Over time, I eventually stopped going.

The second is Cafe Church, a self-described “emerging church”. It’s a wonderful group of people, who I really enjoy spending time with. I think many of the questions the “emerging” church are asking and are willing to struggle with are important. Some of them are exactly the same questions that I’ve been asking for much of my life. I’m tired of hearing glib “easy” answers to difficult questions that only satisfy the one answering, and not the one asking. I feel at home asking difficult questions, and discussing the answers, and how it all ties into living my faith practically. 

But… it’s 40kms from home, on a Tuesday night. It makes it difficult to be a part of the community when there’s no simple or economical ways to be involved in the other events that are part of the life of the community. I’m still on the mailing list, and the Facebook group, and go along when I can.

When petrol got really expensive, and I was tired of not attending church anywhere, I tried CityLife. It’s not far from home, most of the theology seems pretty straight down the line, and I got a lot out of the sermons.

Eventually though, I came to an impasse. CityLife was working for me, wasn’t working for “us”.

See, my wife had stayed in our old church. She’s happy there. However, this created tension at home - I was looking for a home church we could all attend, and she didn’t want to leave our old church. She wanted me to attend with her.

I’m also friends with one of the members of the church leadership team. In him, I’ve seen a Christlikeness that inspires me to want to be more like Christ. He knows what I’m like better than most people. He knows how much I struggle with just attending. He’s seen me roll my eyes when something really tweaks me. He knows the questions I ask, and how I feel most comfortable with the “emergent” conversation, rather than the “charismatic” one.

So… I’ve gone back to a church that, in all honesty, I want to run away from. Again.

See, I don’t even know if it’s possible to have the “emergent” conversation in the midst of a group of people who seem to value mystical/spiritual experience far above practical faith.

However, maybe there is stuff I’m meant to learn. Like how to persevere. Maybe there’s something to be learned about how to worship God in a situation that I’d really rather not be in. Maybe I need to be asking my questions in the middle of this group out in the suburbs, instead of with a group of people who are asking the same questions. Perhaps God wants me to learn, as much as I need to ask questions. Perhaps it’s time I stopped running away, and confront my issues with my theological past. 

But I’m not sure how I’ll take the next person who walks up to me and wants to give me “a word from God”.

Perhaps a headlock.

I was going to write another post about depression for Blue Day, but in the end I seemed to be rehashing my post from last month, and I have no intention of turning this into a “depression” blog.

However, October is Anxiety and Depression Awareness Month, and today, October 10th is World Mental Health Day.

Blue Day 2008 is a site put together by a number of people in the Australian social media and tech communities in support of World Mental Health day. Some of us have experienced it, and most have known someone who has. According to Beyond Blue, one in five people will experience depression at some stage of their lives.

A group of Twitterers (including myself) have turned our twitter icons blue in support, and have tagged our related posts with #blueday2008.

The reality is depression will touch you or someone in your life. Most of us who experience it don’t want to stay there, living in it - no matter how it seems from the outside.

Sometimes we just need someone to listen and point us in the right direction, sometimes we need more help. Like any other illness, healing takes time, and some of us will never be “100%”. Some will require medication permanently, just like a diabetic. For others, it will be like a broken leg, and the medication and counselling are the cast and crutch to get back on our feet.

There is still a stigma around mental illness, but with knowledge and understanding, together we can make that a thing of the past.

If you want to get involved in Blue Day 2008, I suggest the following:

• If you don’t have a blog or a podcast, register on this site and submit a post that will appear on the Submitted Posts page.
• Change your avatars on your favourite social networking site Twitter/Facebook/FriendFeed/etc to something blue, download one of our pre-built ones
• Follow us on Twitter
• Modify your blog theme to be mainly blue
• Run a Second Life event, or attend the jokaydia event
• Wear blue for the day
• Organising a meet ups on the day, currently organised:
  • Melbourne - Oct 10 from 5.30pm at Fad Gallery (more details - http://tinyurl.com/blueday)
  • Sydney - Oct 10 from around 5pm, will be a STUB event and part of Official Friday Drinks at Grace77Bar on the Mezzanine level, cnr King and York
  • Adelaide - details TBD
  • Brisbane - details TBD
  • Perth - Oct 10 from 7pm at Queens Hotel - 520 Beaufort Street, Highgate
  • Canberra - details TBD
• Tag your photos/posts/tweets with BlueDay2008
• Become a fan on FaceBook

Wow. I didn’t expect anything like the responses I had to my last post. I want to explain some things.

I was diagnosed with clinical depression in late 2000-early 2001. I didn’t go to the doctor looking for a diagnosis, the doctor just started asking questions. I’d had a breakdown a couple of years earlier, and never “dealt” with it. I was put on anti-depressants, and went off them six months later, against doctor’s orders.

I had another breakdown in the middle of 2006. I was in a high-stress job, and eventually came apart at the seams. I was put on anti-depressants again, which I ceased taking on Good Friday this year. While they helped me get sorted out again, for me the side effects were ultimately worse than the cure.

One of the comments claimed that depression is a ‘modern invention’. There’s an element of truth to what he’s saying, but it’s wrapped in a attitude that’s the kind of response (in my experience) that causes many mentally ill people keep their mouths shut and “deal with it” in silence. 

I don’t shirk my responsibilities. I’ve been employed since I left high school. I’m raising a family, mindful that my attitudes and response to this illness have had an effect, and will have an effect on my children. Mindful of a family history of depression.

My grandfather drank himself to death. My grandmother was on lithium for part of her life. My cousin blew his brains out. My paternal grandfather was an alcoholic who dried out in his seventies. I had a shrink once describe it to me as “you lost the genetic lotto”.

Please understand why I wrote that post. I’m don’t want your pity, and I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy, trying to live my life and raise my family. My younger brother is extremely visually impaired; to me he’s a hero for just living through what he’s had to live through, and still keeping a cheesy grin on his face.

I wrote that post because I was finally able to put into words what has been rolling around inside my head for ages, trying to come out. I wanted something to be able to point people to if they ask what it’s like to live with depression, to explain what it’s like from the inside.

I’m not sitting on my couch waiting to die, crying into my cornflakes “woe is me”. I’m trying to live. To appreciate my life, and the blessings I have. I have an illness that won’t go away through wishful thinking, or just “deciding to stop”. However, there are things I can do to deal with the blackest days and that is what I choose to do. Some days I succeed, some days I fail.

But please, please, PLEASE - don’t use my post as an excuse to sit on your couch, crying into YOUR cornflakes. If you’re in a situation to read these posts, you’re likely to be financially in the top 20% of the world population. You ARE blessed. Live life. Don’t let it just wash over you.

It’s hard; I understand just how hard it can be. Maybe you’re like me and “lost the genetic lotto”. Maybe you suffered through experiences that have caused your brain to break. Maybe you’ve been pushed (or pushed yourself) to the edge, and then went over.

In 2008, you don’t have an excuse to suffer in silence, or feel sorry for yourself over your illness. Get help. Talk to people. Look after yourself, and take responsibility for dealing with your illness. In my experience, people are a lot more likely to be willing to look out for you if you’re being proactive about dealing with it.

Be gentle with yourself, allow for the fact that you’ll have black days. But remember, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and however briefly you pass into that light, and you may enter a tunnel again, that light is unlikely to be an oncoming train.

pps. 23rd Sept.

One more thing. Get out there and start creating. Write, paint, sing, just start something. I can only speak from my experience, but of the people I’ve met who suffer depression, there seems to be a much higher percentage of them that have incredible creative talents. Almost like the other side of the coin. I don’t know, I only have circumstantial evidence, and it might even warrant another post.

It seems to me that creating stuff (particularly stuff that’s not focussed on depression) seems to provide an outlet for something buried inside. Maybe I do need to write another post

You can’t explain to someone who hasn’t been there what it’s like to wake up, and the black curtain of storm clouds have suddenly dropped around you. How do you face the people around you, silently mouthing to each other “again?”. How can you explain that the objectively irrational impulses seem subjectively rational? That you understand that you’re not OK, but there’s nothing you can do to change it, while the world goes on making demands as if you still felt “normal”.

Your partner still wants you to be able to be there for her. The kids still want to get hugs from you - and they still need to eat. The boss still wants you to output widgets. The bank still wants you to make payments on the credit cards you used to survive when things went pear-shaped last time. The landlord still wants his rent. 

There are two ways things can go from here. Sometimes with a good night’s sleep (or two, or more), and some looking after yourself, things will be OK again, and you’ll pick up your stuff, and keep moving forwards.

Sometimes, things don’t get better. The wiring isn’t just on the fritz, it’s burnt out. If you ask for help, they’ll insist on chemical assistance. They don’t really understand quite why or how the chemicals work, but “they should help”. They might (will) have side effects. The cure might end up being worse than the disease. If that one doesn’t work, they have others. Or a cocktail of medications, each one to deal with the side effects of another. That way lies its own unique madness.

With the meds, they might prescribe talking. Lots of talking, in the vain hope that like the infinite monkeys with their infinite typewriters might turn out some Shakespeare, if you say enough words for long enough, everything might fall into place. Sometimes they’re good at listening, sometimes they’re not. With the right person, it helps.

Some sift your words carefully, picking out the little nuggets of truth that help you understand a little better who you are. Others nod, grunt, and write you another prescription. I’ve known both. And it’s expensive to sit in a little room and talk. When you’re in a situation where you need to sit in a little room and talk, there’s a good chance that you’re not in a position to be able to afford it.

Fortunately, for me, most days now resemble ordinary. I wake up. I stare at the face in the mirror worn with lines I don’t remember collecting, and stubble that feels like it belongs on someone older than me. I go to work, and try to fit into “normal” like a cheap suit that I bought in a hurry and can’t take back.

But occasionally, there are those days. Days where the mask is tissue-paper thin. Surviving the day is an act of will that leaves a lingering exhaustion that seeps into your bones. Like a drowning man in a flash flood, you wrap yourself around the hope that the waters will recede soon, and you’ll be safe and dry again.

At least until the next deluge.

Postscript, 21/09/08

“Try for a moment to imagine a personal world drained of emotion, a world where perspective disappears. Where strangers, friends, family, and lovers are all held in similar affection, where the events of the day have no obvious priority. There is no guide to deciding which task is most important, which dress to wear, what food to eat. Life is without meaning and with meaning has gone motivation. This colorless state of being—the very antithesis of the emotional outpouring experienced in grief—is exactly what happens to some victims of severe melancholic depression. Emotion drains away to be replaced by a visceral void.” — A Mood Apart — Peter C. Whybrow, MD

…actually, I’m still sorting through my feelings.

I’ve been playing MMORPGs for about five years, and the last three years of that was playing WoW. A few weeks ago, I cancelled my account, but missed the renewal date by three days, which left me with a month of playtime. It’s not the first time I’ve cancelled my account, but it’s going to be the last.

read all »

Massive storms swept through Melbourne this afternoon.

I work in Nunawading. Thought the roof was going to lift off. Could be worse though.
You could work for Origin Energy a few doors up from our office.

That’s my car. I tried to check it for damage, but was waved off from moving it because it was ‘unsafe’.

A friend of mine, Alister Cameron, got Dugg. This is something he appears to be very happy about, and in a couple of days I’ll ask him about the details to unpack the post-digg results.

The post in question was regarding Alister’s unintentional uncovering of a list of credit card numbers through Google. While I’m not terribly concerned about someone uncovering my credit card number (let’s face it, it’s hard to buy stuff on a card with no available credit), I did think about the advice he gave about searching Google for your own credit card number.

I think his suggestions are reasonable, if a little misguided. As several people have since commented (and I swear I thought of this before they left the comments!) punching your entire credit card number into Google might not be the wisest move. Apart from being transmitted in plain text, the search can be stored in your search history, and thus is stored in Google’s enormous database. Also, advising that the number is useless without a CVV2/CVC2 number is incorrect. You can still make a card-absent transaction without these numbers in many cases, but (as I understand it) it just means that if the card-holder disputes the transaction, there is a much better chance of the dispute going the card-holder’s way.

In addition, in my experience with dealing with client credit card information (I’ve had some interesting jobs), most credit cards have a two or three year expiry date. It brings the potential range of expiry dates down to 24-36 months at the outside. It’s just information I wouldn’t want to risk.

However, Alister’s advice is good, with some modifications. If you want to Google your credit card number, drop off the first four, and last four digits, enclosing the middle eight digits in quotation marks. The first four digits give away the card type (eg, 4564 is a Visa card). Removal of the last four digits renders the card number useless, even if some nefarious individual was able to guess your card type.

Thus, if your Visa card number was 4564 1234 5678 9012, you would search for “12345678″ and also “1234 5678″ (including the space). This logic would also hold for Alister’s advice about searching for your password - if it’s something unusual, but I don’t think I’ll be doing any password searches all the same.