Protecting the Chinese

The Chinese government seems to have a love-hate relationship with the net. On the one hand they've embraced the internet, making it widely available in universities etc, and implementing a country-wide program of high speed data links. And on the other hand, they constantly worry what their citizens get up to.

So now they've just had a big crackdown on net cafes, and closed 16,000. And launched a web site where people can report 'unlawful content'. The public reason is protecting the young from naughty pictures and violence:

"However, many observers believe that the regime is just as worried about the disruptive effects of exposure to alternative sources of news and views about sensitive political subjects. "

We're a broadband backwater

"Australia is lagging behind the rest of the developed world as far as the spread of broadband goes, with only 13 percent penetration expected by the end of 2008, the technology research firm IDC says in a study. "

Well Telstra is trying to do something about that, with it's new pricing plans starting at $29.95 for broadband. Except, as with everything to do with Telstra, there's always a catch. $29.95 only gets you 256k/64k speeds - which barely qualifies as broadband, and a cap of 200 meg of data a month - which is nothing. I'd go through that in a few days. Telstra almost owns up, they describe it as 'Light use, or exploring ADSL'.

Mobile Nightclubs

First we had 'flash-mobbing', now the British have invented 'mobile nightclub'. So if you are in London, waiting at an underground station, and see a bunch of people simultaneaously start to bop and jive, you'll know what's happened.

"The latest craze, devised by a pair of London artists, sees people directed to busy rail stations so they can simultaneously don personal stereo headphones and begin dancing to their own soundtrack. "

Spam over the top

It's official, a survey has found 3 out of 4 emails are spam.

"MessageLabs said of some 909 million e-mails scanned at its customers, 691.5 million were intercepted as spam, or 76 percent. "

"That report found the average employee receives nearly 7,500 spam messages per year, up from 3,500 in 2003. "

Gee, all the anti-spam legislation is working a treat!