Slashdot Mirror
Internet Blackout in Myanmar Stalls Citizen Report
StonyandCher writes "The government in Myanmar has reportedly cut off Internet access in the troubled country.
The loss of Internet access in Myanmar has slowed the tide of photos and videos shared with the rest of the world but people outside of the troubled country continue to use new media sites and other technologies to protest military activity in the Southeast Asia country."
... is exactly why you don't want to destroy the utility of the HF radio spectrum to sell it to broadband-over-power-line Internet providers.
You don't want to put all of your communication eggs in one government-controlled basket.
The first thing an oppressive government usually does when unrest is rising is to make sure independent news and reports can't escape, so the only source for information is the official one. They actually took their time to do that, given that the civil war has started almost half a month ago.
Well, maybe their astrologer said they should wait 2 more weeks 'cause then the stars are aligned or something.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Would it be possible for the open source community to launch a project to essentially make it impossible for a government to cut off its own people from the outside world? Not simply to overcome the great firewall of China, but a type of watchdog system that can spring into action at a time like this.
In other words, is there anything we in the open source community can do to tangibly help the monks in Burma, or any monks the future may bring?
I have never used a satellite internet provider, but I know that they do exist. Could someone on slashdot explain what is required for such service? I assume a modem which would be registered with a satellite provider. What is the feasibility of smuggling such things into Burma?
Burma DOES have oil. Chevron (US) and Total (French) are two of the biggest benefactors. China, Russia and India all have billions invested as well. So long as the money keeps coming, no one seems to care who is in power or how they exercise it...
If they've cut off every single international phone line you can still radio data in and out. People tend to think that going high tech is the way to break out of these kinds of situations - e.g. satellites etc. - when often going back to flashing light semaphore or carrier pigeon is more likely to succeed.
Losing the connection to Burma slightly, the Romans employed four flags on poles to communicate messages up and down Hadrian's Wall. In ideal conditions they could get a 4-bit message from one end to the other (70-something miles) in a matter of seconds - that's a pretty good bitrate for something with no electricity behind it. Granted you can't get streaming video of monks being beaten up at that kind of bandwidth but radio's a different story.
And setting up mobile radio stations is probably easier than installing a massive communications line of wooden poles without the military noticing. Many brave individuals carefully concealed both receivers and transmitters throughout occupied Europe often at great personal risk, for example. Communications routed around damage even back then. I'm sure there are people within that country right now beaming data out. I wonder where messages in bottles cast out on their beaches would wash ashore. You could squeeze quite a bit of memory into a bottle.
Anyway, I think what I'm rambling about is that there's always a way. I just hope there are enough people with the balls out there taking these risks and, much more importantly, I hope that their messages do not fall on deaf ears. Sadly I feel some of the more powerful countries, who might otherwise be in a position to levy some immense pressure on the Burmese junta, are somewhat under-staffed at the moment. Although it's fair to say that some other countries - that are most definitely not under-staffed - remain on the outside of this affair for rather more cryptic and apparently self-serving reasons.
All said with humble and awkward apologies for commenting on the topic while enjoying a comfortable yet-to-be-oppressed privileged lifestyle.
Wikipedia says
.mm websites down
According to the OpenNet Initiative [6], FortiGuard is used by the dictatorship of Myanmar (Burma) to block communications critical of the regime carried over the internet, a system known as the Myanmar Wide Web [7].
Meanwhile, the Myanmar government features its adoption of the Fortinet firewall on its official website [9] with other photos showing a Fortinet sales director presenting a gift to the Myanmar Prime Minister during a ceremony [10].
Just giving him a gift, hmm ?
Take these f*ckers
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/09/29/hackers-unite-for-burmese-freedom
Bloggers and other cyber activists within Burma risk their lives by publishing any information counter to the government line, but they still do it because they believe that freedom of expression is worth that sacrifice.
You don't have to make such a sacrifice, but if you have computer skills, can breach firewalls, routers and web site security then you could greatly assist the people of Burma. By taking down official Burmese government propaganda and posting pictures, information about the protests, information about the lies of the Burmese junta, and news of the huge support being offered by the rest of the world - preferably in Burmese - then you could help free the people from this terrible regime.