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The caps in Australia aren't that onerous anymore. Add to that that ISPs have mirrors that don't count towards the quota (eg. most open-source stuff, game updates, video, Steam content servers, etc.), and it really isn't that big a deal.

The alternative would be to be limited by congestion, which at least in my experience is practically nonexistent. Similarly, there is no incentive for providers to try to reduce usage of streaming video and Bittorrent, since the heavy users are paying a premium and there is no desire for them to switch to cheaper plans.

How so? At least on OpenWrt, SSH and Webif aren't even exposed to the wan side without manually changing the iptables rules first.

I guess it's the same on DD-Wrt.

The devices that were targetted appear to have some serious flaws, here's a cite from an analysis of the malware:

"Several revisions of the NB5 modem shipped with a flaw which meant that the web configuration interface was visible from the WAN side, accepting connections and allowing users to administer the modem using the default username and password of 'admin' from outside the LAN. Furthermore, some of these modems suffered from another flaw, meaning that by default, authentication was not enabled for the web interface - meaning no username or password was required."

It really boils down to the usual find-weak-logins style of attacks, only the target platform has changed.

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5BX

"The 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) Plan is an exercise program developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) by Bill Orban in the late 1950s.

The RCAF asked Orban to develop a fitness program for their pilots, a third of whom were not considered fit to fly at the time. The plan was innovative in two respects. Firstly, it did not require access to specialized equipment. Many RCAF pilots were located in remote bases in northern Canada, with no access to gymnasium facilities, so it was important to offer a means of keeping fit without their use. Secondly, the plan only required 11 minutes per day to be spent on the exercises."

The program can be downloaded in PDF form from the following location:

http://www.adam.com.au/wedesign/5bx.zip

James Bray

Sell 20mbps for the first 50 Gbyte/month and make the limitation clear in your advertisments

And this is *exactly* how internet service is sold in Australia. For example, my ISP Adam Internet.

Australian ISP's did try to sell truely unlimited, or pay per Gb services. But the ACCC / TIO will not stand for fraudulent advertising.

Bandwidth caps are normally lifted at the same time billing is done for the next month. For example, the summary page provided by my ISP currently shows;

Account Information
Account Name: Adam Direct Average
Account Type: ADSL
Quota: 20,000 MB Per Month
Next Billing Due: 6th February 2008 [20 Days]
Usage Information
External Download Usage: 8094 / 20000 MB Used
Local Download Usage: 657 MB
Upload Usage: 5368 / 20000 MB Used

If you go to their plan page you can see that when you hit your limit on any of the 3 metered types of data they limit you're download and upload speed to 64kbps, nearly as slow as a modem.

I believe they run a script to update your stats from their routers every fifteen minutes.

Back in the dialup days it was common to pay for bandwidth by the MB, with plans that included a certain amount per month. With the move to broadband, the same types of plans were used initially. Until there were a couple of highly publicised cases of multiple thousand dollar bandwidth bills, because someone had left some p2p program or other minimised for the whole month. Then came the "unlimited" plans from telstra (with a bandwidth cap in the fine print as I've outlined above).

While exact terms and implementations vary between AU ISP's, there are no cheap truly unlimited connection plans. And there is no where near the amount of bandwidth overselling as occurs with US ISP's.

If I'm downloading something, and it isn't flooding my downstream capacity, the main bottle neck will either be outside of the country, or the machine at the other end of the connection doesn't have enough available bandwidth. It is extremely rare for any internet connection in AU to experience congestion in the backbone of the ISP's network.

Bandwidth caps are normally lifted at the same time billing is done for the next month. For example, the summary page provided by my ISP currently shows;

Account Information
Account Name: Adam Direct Average
Account Type: ADSL
Quota: 20,000 MB Per Month
Next Billing Due: 6th February 2008 [20 Days]
Usage Information
External Download Usage: 8094 / 20000 MB Used
Local Download Usage: 657 MB
Upload Usage: 5368 / 20000 MB Used

If you go to their plan page you can see that when you hit your limit on any of the 3 metered types of data they limit you're download and upload speed to 64kbps, nearly as slow as a modem.

I believe they run a script to update your stats from their routers every fifteen minutes.

Back in the dialup days it was common to pay for bandwidth by the MB, with plans that included a certain amount per month. With the move to broadband, the same types of plans were used initially. Until there were a couple of highly publicised cases of multiple thousand dollar bandwidth bills, because someone had left some p2p program or other minimised for the whole month. Then came the "unlimited" plans from telstra (with a bandwidth cap in the fine print as I've outlined above).

While exact terms and implementations vary between AU ISP's, there are no cheap truly unlimited connection plans. And there is no where near the amount of bandwidth overselling as occurs with US ISP's.

If I'm downloading something, and it isn't flooding my downstream capacity, the main bottle neck will either be outside of the country, or the machine at the other end of the connection doesn't have enough available bandwidth. It is extremely rare for any internet connection in AU to experience congestion in the backbone of the ISP's network.

That's not true. Here in Adelaide we're on the basic $20/month line rental and we have ADSL on it. The ADSL is not through Telstra's equipment. It's on Adam Direct.

I've hunted around for some web resources that give good overviews of the events that took place. Some are biased, but contain good information nonetheless. As with many such things, a balanced overview can only really be obtained from "averaging" several sources.

A rather good (if biased) article with an extensive list of references can be found at http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/ReligGalileoMyth95.h tm

There is another good resource at http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/g alileo/galileo.html. Again, somewhat biased, but it includes some interesting translations of original trial documents, including the inquisition's verdict.

A link to a book review which nevertheless contains some key points such as the fact that Galileo had no actual proof for his heliocentric beliefs:
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookRevi ewTypeDetail/assetid/49581;jsessionid=baaesdBdzFeP Uj

A quick overview of the history of heliocentricism (including some good links) is here:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/reference/helioce ntrism.

Obviously biased (considering the source!) but nevertheless interesting is the entry for Galileo in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. One of many links to it is at:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06342b.htm

I hope you find these links both useful and interesting. If nothing else, the fact that some of them cite sources means that they can be used as "jump points" for further reading.

I see alot of talk of iiNet and Internode, a fair few people have not picked up on http://www.adam.com.au/ Adam Internet, sure it's South Australian only, but they have a good Mirror, which mirrors a fair few of the linux distro's etc. There prices are fairly competetive, even against Internode, and iiNet, and unlike iiNets average 40 minute wait, I get thru to their supprt within minutes. :)

Occam's Razor (...) Don't make things more difficult then they have to be. Black holes are the simplest explanation

With all due respect to the advantages that Occam's Razor has given to the advance of science, this was exactly the key factor that made the leading scientist of late XVIII century like Antoine Lavoisier to judge that stones cannot fall from the sky. In 1768, 1794 and 1795 there were substantial sightings of meteorite showers in France, Italy and England - yet according to the Occam's Razor, it was easier to explain them by assuming the witnesses just lie. Use Occam's Razor as any razor - with extreme caution.

OTOH, that's only Day One.

First photos (no, not just of the chix, settle down!) and a walkthrough going up on the site in the next 12 hours or so.

The Audio Miniconf has been a hoot, and ain't over yet. Also, educationaLinux has (sometimes) had the audience riveted, and even sessions as specialised as IPv6 are drawing an attentive crowd. Turn up to educationaLinux tomorrow and you not only get to see lil' ol' me present, but also Lindsay Holmwood's security talk has been pushed back into Tuesday.

But maybe the competition don't spend as much on marketing. I find that bigpond is taken up by people who don't do any research of their own about the best ISP for them.

On the other hand Telstra is still choking the broadband adsl market all by itself. It is getting more difficult for it to get away with that. Everyone has to go thru Telstra one way or another for ADSL, but nearly every other ISP still manages to offer a better deal and better service even though they have to purchase thru Telstra. Except the ISPs with worse management than Telstra.

When my friends ask me who to sign up with I won't let them sign up with Telstra. Or Optus.

Look for the geeks running ISPs, who have just enough sense to hire a business manager to make sure they cover their costs. These guys aren't solely profit motivated, they have a great understanding of the technology and always keep up. Stay clear of the corporate monsters, or entrepreneur types, who don't care about anything except separating customers from their money. Service? what is that?.

My current favourite is internode.com.au. I also like adam.com.au although they're adelaide based. I like Goldweb in Canberra. iinet.com.au and ihug.com.au seem to be ok but I'd need to check a bit more. ihug seems a little secretive but iinet have the right kind of history. And yes I've been burned by isp mergers like dynamite.com.au -> eisa -> austar, thats why you have to steer clear of the entrepreneurs.