637: Today, Google Says...

Google today features a .png file which I cannot download or save to show you; anyhow, it wishes me a "Happy International Women's Day."

I managed a screen-dump; clever Google:

Philip Marlowe once observed: "women make me sick."

Something for me on which to reflect; for two years and nearly two months I have been sick .

Until the next time

Wikileaks

Given that Julian Assange's latest Wikileaks releases have occupied the headlines for the past few days, I felt obliged to scribble a few lines on the subject. These may not be original, but they are after all, my lines!

I am in a bit of a quandary on this one; I recently wrote a piece saying that Politics can be confusing and I am little muddled over Wikileaks. On the face of it, the idea of nasty dealings by governments and politicians being released is most attractive; after all why should these bastards get away with it, I thought to myself.

Today's news (Daily Telegraph) about the list of locations which are vital to the interests of the USA, made me pause for further thought.

Given that Amazon and Paypal have allegedly given in to US Government pressure to cease assisting Wikileaks, I am concerned that provocations such as those provided by Wikileaks could perhaps lead to Internet restrictions, which of course none of us wants.

After all, would you bloggers out there like to operate under the Chinese Government's censorious régime? Remember Google's experience last year... Of course we like to console ourselves with the classic thought "It couldn't happen here," but a few minutes' reflection on the already terrifying extent of the curtailment of our personal freedoms in Western Europe should be enough to tell that indeed it could!

The Telegraph article linked to above includes the following paragraph:

WikiLeaks has already been forced to change its domain name and hop-scotch to servers around the globe after successive companies and countries have responded to American pressure attacking its disclosures over the past week as illegal.

It has also come under repeated cyber-attack, through a tactic known as distributed denial of service in which thousands of computers connect to its servers in a concerted attempt to knock them off-line.

“What we are seeing here are dangerous moves towards a digital McCarthyism,” wrote the group’s founder Julian Assange in a statement on its website.

UPDATE:

The pressure seems to be increasing.

P.S. Normally I would add updates in a different colour, but once again HTM 'Ell refuses to let me do so...

Until the next time.

Chinese Cyber Attacks

Yesterday I mentioned that Google had reported a "massive cyber attack" that took place last December and which originated in China.

More has been reported today on this subject. The report from The Daily Telegraph, includes the following:

[Advised not to go to a Human Rights Conference] He added that in two other cases he had innocently asked public security officials: “How did you know that? I have not told anyone” and was told: “Who do you think we are?”

And:

However, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry said that “Chinese laws prohibit any form of cyber attacks including hacking.”

Once again in the words of the immortal Mandy Rice-Davies "They would say that wouldn't they?"

I am absolutely convinced of the honesty of the last statement, but I do not see what that has to do with the issue under discussion!

Until the next time.

Google News

The first "news" is that the rash of post on this blog is the outcome of a log-jam caused by recurrent problems with Google's "Blogger" which of course hosts this blog and millions of others.

Meanwhile, the French, who have great difficulty in digesting the fact that the Internet, although invented by an Englishman (Tim Berners-Lea) is largely dominated by the USA. The latest crackpot idea from France is a "Google Tax". The report in the Daily Telegraph includes the following:

"Besides Google, the tax would target other large [non-French!]operators in Europe such as Microsoft and Yahoo! whether or not their offices are in France. Google's European headquarters are in Ireland, but under the proposal, the operator would pay a levy every time a French internet user clicks on an advertising banner or sponsored link on its sites."

The article adds:

"Guillaume Cerutti, one of the authors of the report said the tax would put an end to "enrichment without any limit or compensation"."

One always thinks of the old saying "Not invented here" when reading about such French initiatives.

Google is so vast, powerful and influential, that inevitably certain people are apt to spot some sort of global conspiracy. As a result the concept of the "Google Toilet has been born:



Well, a little exaggeration is always good for a smile isn't it?


Finally, following a massive cyber attack which apparently originated in China, Google after demonstrating for over three years great patience with the very proscriptive Chinese Republic, has announced that it will no longer censor its output. This of course means that its presence in China will shortly come to an end - at least on the face of it although I read somewhere today of a very low-key response from China. Perhaps, just perhaps, Google is big enough to influence even the vast Republic of China itself?

We shall of course see.

Until the next time

Apologies

Sorry for the recent lack of activity. I am posting this from a friend's computer ,as at present I have no Internet connection. Those of you who have experienced this disaster will know that it is rather like losing a limb.

The reasons are twofold: first I was foolish enough to depend on somebody, which was a mistake I shall probably not repeat and second the inefficiency of my French Internet provider, laughingly called "Free" which has not yet restored my connection after over a week.

This is akin to banks taking days to transfer money - for which there is absolutely no excuse; we all know that all it takes is a couple of clicks on a keyboard.

This last point is superbly illustrated by events at Google yesterday, where a slip of the finger of one of its staff resulted in chaos worldwide for an hour or two. - a Google googly! Of course with no connection thanks to the useless "Free" I missed it, but you can read all about it in French on CM's excellent blog, Jour apres jour.

Until the next time, which I hope will be soonish.

Sub-Atomic News

Driving past CERN this morning about four minutes before the big event, I had half hoped to see a bunch of demonstrators from PETH (People for Ethical Treatment of Hadrons) but sadly I saw them not.  I did see a lot of news agency types with cameras and vans with satellite dishes on the top.  There was a bunch of them outside Entrance A on the Route de Meyrin.  They were busy capturing images of people arriving at work in their cars.  Should make for rivetting TV.  

I reflected that as the real action is below ground, there was little to catch "upstairs" so to speak; I suppose they were waiting for a statement from Dr A. Spokesman.

On my journey home, the numbers appeared to have increased slightly...

The BBC reports a successful start-up which I think is good news - I wish the team at CERN all the best with this exciting project.

And Google has joined in the fun too!

Image Source: Wikipedia

Finally for those of you who feel that we are all about to be sucked into a black hole or vapourised etc., there is an entertaining little piece on Wired. 

Until the next time

And there's more:

A pitcure from CERN's control room following the first tests:

Image source: Here