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Chinese Schools Ax Green Dam Censorship Software
eldavojohn writes "China's controversial Green Dam Internet Filter died on new PCs a month ago, but it wasn't until recently that Chinese schools silently removed it. Claims that the software inhibited work in schools was cited as the reason by Reuters. 'We will remove all Green Dam software from computers in the school as it has strong conflicts with teaching software we need for normal work,' said one school, while another claimed, 'It had seriously influenced our normal work.'"
So Green Dam was an influence and not a hindrance?
We had a SonicWall filter and it blocked pretty much everything. Not saying it was SonicWall's fault as we had a highly incompetent system administrator, but it was very detrimental to doing even the simplest of tasks. So I know how these students and teachers feel.
A technology director, surnamed Wang, confirmed Tuesday that the software had been taken off most computers.
A fine example of great journalism... lemme guess, first name Suki-Ma?
Ok, I'm curious now. Exactly what was the controversy about it? Whether it sucks or it blows? :P
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Ok, I'm curious now. Exactly what was the controversy about it? Whether it sucks or it blows? :P
You only list two but I was fairly impressed with the number of dimensions of controversy this effort managed to accrue. You have (and this is by no means a complete list) accusations of copyright infringement and stealing code, unencrypted transmission from every machine to the server and accusations that said vulnerabilities make way for a possible government botnet tool. And that's aside from obvious controversy of the citizen privacy violations and the Chinese government manipulating PC manufacturers.
Really, if you were to tell me that a government was pushing this I could not, in my wildest dreams, have guessed all of those controversies springing up. Hats off to the Chinese government. Sometimes I think nothing can else surprise me and then, well, there it is.
My work here is dung.
So Green Dam was an influence and not a hindrance?
Perhaps in countries where you can be prosecuted and/or silently punished for criticizing your government the above ambiguity is a must for public statements made to newspapers. I would surmise that the translation was all too accurate. So that those who know what you mean know they are not alone and those who do not agree cannot hold it against you. Just speculation but I would wager these were carefully chosen words.
My work here is dung.
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5429
Anonymity exposed, part deux: Google, ISPs ordered to expose academic dissidents
No charges laid.
Done to suppress legitimate criticism.
Never mind China. This is happening in our own back yard.
Except that's not what controversy means. Controversy means basically an unsettled and ongoing debate as to whether something is good or bad, black or white, etc, and usually neither side really has more than opinion to support their version. But anyway, the jury is still out on which of them is right.
Exactly which of those aspects you've correctly linked to is still a controversy? Is the jury still out on whether vulnerabilities that could get your machine pwned are good or bad? Do we still have compelling arguments for both sides of the issue of whether private and sensitive user information should be encrypted when sent over the internet? Or what?
It seems to me like nowadays "controversial" has become the euphemism for, basically, "I think it's bad, but I want to pretend to be nice and balanced, so I must find another word."
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
"We will remove all Green Dam software from computers in the school as it has strong conflicts with teaching software we need for normal work," said one school while another claimed 'It had seriously influenced our normal work.'"
Really means:
"We (the teachers and staff) were no longer able to watch porn during recess and testing periods."
-Oz
screw with the school system. Mama chang will mess you up.
An increase in Chinese school teaching and administrative position availability. They are also on short supply for medical examiners.
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Scuba Diving
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
The Chinese internet censors are trying to censor political thought, but encourage Chinese access to scientific and technical information-- basically, they want to steal our technology, but not get any of our thinking along with it.
If you'd like to frustrate this, in all of the web pages under your control that have any scientific or engineering information, embed some political information-- words like "Falun Gong" and Tiananmen Square Massacre-- in invisible form (say, white text on white, or even as meta key words)
Wikipedia Great firewall of China or Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China for idea on what to embed.
dam you has been deemed to be influential in the wrong direction. help you understand this
Local authority ignores mandates from central government, pretty routine in China, I'd say (despite what you might think about a strong central government): environmental regulation, land use/ownership/compensation guideline, anti-corruption laws, earthquake compensation, labor law etc. China actually have quite a few progressive law on the book, but are usually rendered unenforceable when the very people who are in charge of enforcing them stands to profit (read: kick-back from industry) by ignoring them and no independent judiciary system to hear petition of ordinary people whom these laws helps.
The only difference here is that it have a "positive" outcome.
The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't