The China syndrome
- Published: 3/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Database
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton managed to put down China for big-hack attacks on Google and ruthless censorship, without once mentioning the word "China"; countries restrict the free flow of information, she sang to the choir at the Newseum in Washington, and "co-opted the Internet" to repress religion; a certain country should conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions against Google, and that certain country should make a public report; nut quote: "New technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress, but the United States does."
Min Dahong, online media chairman of all of China, was the very modern model of today's Chinese diplomacy, picking his words carefully and displaying tact about what he politely referred to as "Hillary's speech"; "On the Internet question, China doesn't need any lessons from the United States on what to do or how," he explained tactfully; obviously, he articulated, anyone who even insinuates that China has censorship or lacks freedom of information is simply disrespectful to the great Middle Kingdom of China; all of this raised an obvious question: China has an online media chairman?
At least five activist groups handing Chinese human rights cases suffered cyberattacks in a week; the attackers tried to break into the email accounts at the sites; it was reported the attacks emanated from a large, extremely populous country west of Japan, whose capital city begins with "B".
A day later than Mrs Clinton, President Barack Obama weighed in; he continued to be troubled by the China cyberattack, and he asked... no he urged Beijing to investigate. China, unlike Queen Victoria, was amused; the foreign ministry asked... no "urge[d] the United States to stop using the so-called Internet freedom issue to criticise China unreasonably."
As noted, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put the US directly on the side of promoting unrestricted access to the Internet worldwide; she said 30 percent of people live in countries that aggressively censor the Net, although she did not actually mention "Thailand" by name; she called for punishment of countries that censor (many), suddenly cut off social networks (Vietnam) use the Net against religious freedom (Egypt, Saudi Arabia); she also called for naming, shaming and economically punishing companies that aid censorship, although she did not name Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems as the top four foreign censors in Thailand, which she did not name.
The New York Times, which ended its TimesSelect service because no one would pay for it, announced it will begin charging for pretty well all content beginning on New Year's Day, 2011; charges will be "metered", meaning readers will get a few articles for free, and then pay for the rest; subscribers to the print edition will read the online edition free.
How is Hopenchange working out on the technology side? Like this: The Obama administration lawyers are following the Bush administration lawyers exactly in backing up the 10-percent agents and lawyers of the "music industry" who are sueing consumers who illegally downloaded a 33-baht MP3 for between $750 and $150,000 or damages - 25,000 to 5 million baht in real money; blogger John Newton of p2pnt.net claims there are "an eye-popping number of people" working for the Obama justice department who used to work for, or with, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music. US District Court Michael Davis said the fine of $80,000 per song on a woman for illegal downloads - 2.65 million baht in real money was monstrous, shocking and gross injustice; the music industry did not apologise; he ordered her fine reduced to $54,000 - "significant and harsh" but she can appeal that, too.
The Italian government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi proposed a new law that would require that anyone planning to upload "moving pictures" to the Internet first obtain a government licence; a spokesman claimed unbelievably that the new EU rules on product placement require this; after all, why shouldn't the country that gave us fascism control the media?
The people who invented the Internet mourned the diminishing number of geeks; the research arm of the US Pentagon, Darpa, wants to start up new initiatives to attract teenagers to careers in technology; figures show that computer science enrolment has dropped by 43 percent in the past five years and Darpa says America's ability to compete depend on "college graduates with the ability to understand and innovate cutting edge technologies," aka geeks.
People who aren't too foreign to buy Apple iPhone apps can buy iTrust for 33 baht in real money; it alerts the owner if anyone such as her spouse tries to read her email, and records what keys he tried unsuccessfully to press; ha-ha, the joke's on them, although the app should actually be called iNotTrust.
Arthur Firstenberg of Santa Fe, New Mexico finally discovered the secret of the Apple iPhone - that the one owned by his neighbour emits electromagnetic rays that are destroying his health; he asked the neighbour politely to stop leaving her iPhone and laptop computer charging overnight, and now he has sued the woman for $530,000 including $100,000 for all the pain and damages she has caused because she refused - 17.5 million baht in real money.
source : bangkokpost.com
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