Saturday, December 29, 2007

AUSSIES SAY, "NO WAY"

I came across this in my wanderings today. Seems the Aussies don't always say "she'll be right , mate". I have no idea who "Anonymous Coward" is. The header tells you about an American group that seems to be fighting the Real ID card. <----I believe that might be Dubya's reply. Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26, @04:45PM The proposed Australian "Access Card", a universal ID that would be required for any Australian wishing to use Medicare, Centrelink, the Child Support Agency, or Veterans' Affairs, has been scrapped by the incoming Rudd Labor Government. The card would have contained an RFID tag with the person's name, date of birth, gender, address, signature, card number, card expiration date, and Medicare number, but there were also provisions to add more personal data later on. It seems that Rudd Labor is not eager to copy the American REAL ID Act.http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071224-australias-controversial-national-id-program-hits-the-dumpster.html . That's not enough. We all know about the crapola that the music industry is foisting on Americans. Although we don't download music from the internet, many people do. Especially if they have teenagers in the house. If you do download and/or have others who do, you might find this informative: http://www.cdt.org/copyright/warninglist/ . As you know, New Mexico has its share of real life cowboys. I overheard two of them talking about a situation. The conversation went like this: Two cowboys are talking about their favorite sex position. One says, "I think I enjoy the rodeo position the best." "I haven't ever heard of that one", says the other cowboy, "What is it?" "Well, its where you get your girlfriend down on all fours, you mount her from behind, you reach around and cup each one of her breasts in your hands, and then you whisper in her ear, 'Boy, these feel just like your sister's' ... and then you try to hold on for 8 seconds." . I'm sorry. That just slipped in. . Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post. Here's a link that might help protect you: http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/ . And it seems to be happening in Japan now. Censorship is rearing its super ugly head: Japanese Government to Regulate Online Communication Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 28, @03:42AMfrom the best-of-luck-with-that dept. Chris Salzberg writes "The Japanese government made major moves this month toward legislating extensive regulation over online communication. In a series of little-publicized meetings, two distinct government ministries pushed ahead with regulation in three major areas of online communication: web content, mobile phone access, and file sharing. Content regulation will cover anything on the web, including personal blogs and web pages. Upcoming mandatory filtering of mobile phone access is targeted at users under age 18, and will cover chat rooms, forums, bulletin boards and social networking services. File sharing legislation will initially target illegal downloads, but, according to critics, may ultimately broaden to include streaming media from sites such as YouTube." Although I can understand why they want to censor some web things, I don't think they fully understand what they are creating. When any government wants to control what people see, read and think, (especially in a prosperous state) vthere can only be discontent and eventually violence. "Little publicized meetings" can lead to things no one wants to see. I wish Japanese bloggers and media luck in fighting this idiocy. Here's a more detailed story about it: http://gyaku.jp/en/index.php?cmd=contentview&pid=000320 . Now, have fun. Eat too much. Drink a little too much. Don't get caught by the blue noses.

18 comments:

Lin said...

Sigh ... it's getting more and more like 1984 and nobody seems to notice or care. I feel sorrow for the ones who do.

YesBut said...

The fight against the Governments proposed introduction of an ID card scheme is central in the British political scene.

Given the incidents of the Government loosing computer data containing personal data, the scheme looks dead in the water.

alphonsedamoose said...

Great Post Cat. The new thing that scares me is the tracking devices being(proposed) to track cel phones so advertisers can call you with messages about restaurants or banks or rental car agents near your position. GPS at its finest.For police to put a tracking device on you they need a court order, but for cel phone companies and advertisers it is free rein.

Buck said...

Thanks for that EFF link, Cat. I bookmarked it for future reference.

We Americans often lose sight of just how good we have it here, compared to other societies that regulate at the drop of a hat.

Catmoves said...

Lin, I think you're feeling for you and me and a number of other readers here. I also feel frustration and outrage.

Catmoves said...

Yesbut, I'm glad to hear these individuals who want to censor everything they don't like are losing in GB.
We've got companies and government bodies losing our data, too.

Catmoves said...

Moose, for a while companies could send you ads over the fax machine. When businesses complained it cost them too much money a law against it was instituted.
We may all need a law against using up our cell phone time with such crap.
Big businesses (and small) seem to think we are just dying to see their ad.

Catmoves said...

You're welcome Buck. There's a lot of information there.
As for us losing sight of censorship, I wonder what is being taught in High School Civics and Modern History classes now?

Catmoves said...

Hello friends. I've received a comment written in a foreign language (the site given seems safe) but I wonder if any one can translate Spanish to English? I'll only publish this rude missive if someone will translate it. (I was taught, while a small child, never to speak German in front of anyone who could not understand it. Mom said that would be discourteous.)

The Atavist said...

Go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/ -- you can paste the Spanish in there and it will translate for you.

Have a Happy New Year!!

Lin said...

Cat, it's just SPAM in Portuguese ... delete it. It's making the rounds like the Portuguese flu is all. You will also get the one "I'm at the airport but wanted to send you the link about a money-making idea that we talked about". Again, hit delete and deny the opportunistic scum their cheesy moment.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Catman. Catman is like Batman wearing a fluffy suit.

If you google "translator" or "translation" you should find a free site to translate your Spanish comment.

YesBut said...

Happy New Year to you and your family

Catmoves said...

Thanks Atavist. Turned out to be Portugese and the translation wasn't much help. (See Lin's comment.)

Catmoves said...

Thank you Lin. I'm a spam target, eh? MY gmail box gets a lot of that but very little shows up in the site comments section.
So, you rats, no cheese! Remember cats eat rats, too. Grrrrrr.

Catmoves said...

Thank you Babzy, from the fluffy cat? I rarely fluff, but when I do the whole room knows it.

Anonymous said...

And you probably blame it on the cat. HA

Catmoves said...

Why, Babzy, I'm shocked.
On the other hand, cats have been known to make, um, aromas of less than fragrant odor. (I wouldn't dare blame it on Schotzy, though.)