Noel's Muses

Internet Relay Chat, or IRC as it is commonly known as, was the first and original open access public multi-user chat (excluding unix "talk"), yes kiddies, the Internet's old hands were publicly multi chatting long before ICQ, MSN, and well before privacy invading predatory sites like facebook were even dreamt of, in fact, back as early as 1988, and it's still a very active social outlet today, yet, rather unjustly, doesn't get the attention it deserves, perhaps this is a good thing, it's not like IRC is just for elitists these days, it hasn't been that way since the nineties, but it has its loyal fanbase, and contrary to popular belief, not everyone thinks facebook is the "in thing", nor will it ever be to many, if you want to make public comments, set up a blog, or share pictures for anyone to see that's archived for life, there's always your blog, or twitter.

Sure, there is a difference, facebook and the like record what you say, even if you do not save it, and shows it and your shared pictures to almost everyone at any time and kept indefinitely, refusing to actually delete anything, only hiding it, override your rights by claiming copyright ownership on everything you post, let people know when your away so criminals can break in and clean you out, let the world know all about you, so you can become a high risk target of identity theft - well there ya go, facebook does have its purposes afterall . IRC on the other hand, is a real time multi user chat service, you need to be there, there and then to see what's being said, your private messages go nowhere but to the recipient, your public messages for all in the channel, but not logged by the servers, and one other thing I really love about it, is there is no in your face constant server sponsored or paid spamming of advertisements occupying three quarters of your bandwith.

Continue reading "IRC - The online hangout before, during, and after, facebook"

UPDATE April 20 2012

The High Court of Australia has today dismissed AFACTS appeal with costs.

Today, the HCA declared that ISP iiNet did not authorise infringing users on its network. It re-enforces the decision by the Full bench of the Federal Court, and the decision of original Federal Court hearing with Justice Cowdroy.

Other important notes to come out is the recognition that terminating users wont stop them moving to another ISP and carrying on with their file sharing infringing actions.

As I've said before, MPAA et al need to change their ways by making the content available at same time as overseas, and digitally online and at reasonable prices.

TV Networks need to stop making us wait 4 to 8 months (or longer) for a series return, or a new hit series - after it has already aired in the U.S. and U.K. If they fixed this, TV pirating would be pointless, we know they can do it. FFS we have how many digital channels now? How about thrashing all these constant repeats and non popular shows and the like on one of the secondary digital channels. We should be able to watch the current airings of hit series at same time as U.S. and U.K. and by same time, I appreciate contracts declare it must air first in say, the U.S., but given the time differences, 24 hours would be acceptable, even 48 hours, but 4 to 8 plus months? Completely unacceptable, so the networks only have themselves to blame for this, no one else.

If these organisations changed their ways, there would be little to no need for piracy , ya know... EVERYONE, then wins!

Continue reading "Copyright Enforcement (Updated)"

In an era where people are dependant on Computers, Mobiles and Tablets, one needs to stop being complacent about access to it, and I'm not talking about physical access. Far too many people assume things are safe by default, or are of the mindset that It'll never happen to them, well, wake up and smell the coffee, because things are not always as well as you would want to believe, and often because of the simplest reasons, opening an email from a friend who has had their PC infected and sending out malware, getting a strange MMS or SMS ringtone, downloading torrents, using a trojaned program, phone or tablet app, forgetting to change a devices default password, or not applying security on that brand new, or just reset WiFi device, as you see, most of these are user faults, and yes, it gets worse for the user faults.

Then there are times I think there should be a licence to use The Internet, especially when you repeatedly here of the same horror stories of people constantly being scammed, really, you've won millions from a lotto in another country you never entered? Overnight millionare from some long lost relative being told by plain email yet they want you to supply your details? really? The groups committing these crimes have been doing this for over ten years, they are masters of the art, most are highly intelligent, discreet, well organised, and highly resourced, their capabilities may be the envy of many a spook.

It's not however, only scams where you send them money, all some of these scam artists want is as much information as possible about you, that all leads to an ever increasing identity theft database for the fraudsters, who don't have to be international crime gangs, they can be someone in your local area, mostly where free public access WiFi is available.

Continue reading "Security and The Net"

I'm sure you know where this is coming from, yes, the U.S. Governments targeting of Megaupload. But it's not just about Megaupload really is it, not when you think about it, it's about all data services within the U.S. and its Governments believed extended reach, be it Megaupload, Amazon, any Web Hosting company, Google Services including Apps and Gmail, or even Twitter and facebook.

Before I go any further, let me make it very clear from the outset that I have no, never had any, nor ever could see myself having any, data, dealings, association or interest in, or with, Megaupload or any of its associated companies. My interest is in the future of a free, neutral, uncensored, and UN-Govt-molested Internet.

We all know the Megaupload folks knew their services were used for allegedly illegal purposes, although registered in Hong Kong, and staff based in non U.S. countries, the U.S. Govt is claiming jurisdiction because the equipment used in providing that service was in full or in part, located on U.S. soil, this is in my opinion a fair call. However, some legal talk over this seems to suggest the U.S. Government thinks it can claim jurisdiction on anyone who uses, for example, Paypal (being located in the U.S.), or simply because they may have a .com or .net domain name, the latter being highly questionable and is really clutching at straws and reeks of pure desperation, one I'm sure any civilised and rational nation would refuse to extradite over, extradition treaties are very specific in nature as to what offences are allowed in order to meet the criteria. I have faith that the courts in my country for example, would quash based on the latter.

Continue reading "The Internet and Legal Jurisdictions"

Today, the 18th January UTC, my various web sites, including the surprisingly popular ITS site, joined thousands around the globe and went on strike, now, some of you may be wondering why, since I'm not in the U.S., and we only have two hosts, hosted there, the answer is rather simple.

True SOPA/PIPA will not directly affect anyone outside of the United States of America, however, when you take into account the likes of Youtube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Hotmail, Google and even that hopeless site that has total disregard and utter contempt for everyone's privacy - yes, facebook, are all registered entities in the U.S. and are mostly located in the U.S., therefor, SOPA/PIPA will indirectly affect all non Americans, at least in the interim, because if this does become law in the U.S. it likely wont take too long before the U.S. is bypassed for most things Internet based, remember how quickly Youtube and Google took off? It wont take long before they are replaced, so the only harm will be to themselves in the long run.

The EU has made its opinion on Internet censorship and filtering very clear in that it should never happen.

The European Court of Justice gave a preliminary opinion that will have far-reaching implications in the fight against overaggressive copyright monopoly abusers. It is not a final verdict, but the Advocate General’s position; the Court generally follows this. The Advocate General says that no ISP can be required to filter the Internet, and particularly not to enforce the copyright monopoly.

Continue reading "I'm on Strike! Stop SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/TPP"

This entry has been updated (Feb 20, 2014)

Cloud computing is nothing more than a marketing term for technologies that provide computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. (Source - Wikipedia)

Cloud computing is nothing new, it has been around for decades. Email or Web Hosting anyone? The term Cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents, but in recent times, some marketing hero decided to come up with a new hype, and like all techno weenies, the media picks up on it, these stormy cloud times are rather funny, but sad.

Richard Stallman of the Open Source Software Foundation summed it up nicely in an interview with The Guardian “It’s a trap… It’s worse than stupidity, it’s a marketing-hype campaign.”

Here at home in Australia, organisations investing in off-shore cloud services could find themselves on the pointy end of legal action should the privacy of Australians be breached as a result, Victoria's acting Privacy Commissioner has warned

Continue reading "Why One Should Avoid The Cloud Hype"