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Egypt Shuts Off All Internet Access
h00manist writes "Several sources are reporting Egypt has shut off all Internet access. There is still no official confirmation. Blackberry, twitter and SMS seem confirmed off. So, if you were there, what would you do to get communications for everyone? Do you still have a POTS modem?"
you wouldn't be reading Slashdot, and thus wouldn't be able to answer the question of "what would you do if you were there"...
Seems like this is the moment the HAM radio folks always shine. I don't know what kind of following they've got in Egypt but I imagine it'd be pretty useful. That and texting.
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
Amateur Radio?
This works until the soldiers come for you.
I've always considered Egypt to be on of the more progressive muslim states
Apparently I was mistaken.
^^vv<><>BA
We still had revolutions before the internet. What do they really think this will accomplish? If anything depriving these good people of essential services will just be like throwing petrol on a fire...
Old tech, but useful under these circumstances. Morse code anyone?
Even if you have a dial-up modem, what are you going to connect to? Call the US and connect to AOL?
It happened immediately after this was posted: http://video.ap.org/?f=None&pid=oT7qj_wiVHTbYae3scwok4_irYjJ2R8Z (warning: disturbing)
Doesn't this make you want to have an internet kill switch in the US?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
According to the LA Times, they've blocked the Blackberries, too.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/01/blackberry-internet-blocked-in-egypt.html
When Obama or the next fascist President wants an "Internet Kill Switch".
I'm sure that nobody will be angry or suspicious about the internet going dark. I expect nothing but butterflies and rainbows from this.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Satellite ISPs may be expansive, but they are the only solution in extreme cases such as this one.
Is they are planning a massacre in the country, and don't want any information in or out...
Note: Disturbing video of sniper shooting demonstrator
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XnhHzs91MY
Before jumping to conclusions, double check these things. If it's backbone connections being shut down, it's entirely possible that Vodafone in Egypt don't directly peer to anyone outside the country and thus aren't responsible.
More 9/11 hijackers were from Egypt than from Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
(but of course one shouldn't extrapolate too much from a sample of 1 data point)
why is this story on the front page like 4 times?
I wrote the following back in 2006. At the time, I was mostly writing about the invasion of Iraq, and the saber-rattling with Iran, but it turns out to say a lot about other places too.
==================
Suppose, for the moment, that spreading American values — by which I mean democracy, freedom of expression, and social mobility — throughout the globe is a good idea. How do we achieve that?
Let’s take a look at our enemies, and see what they fear about the U.S. Yes, our military might is kinda scary, but we’ve shown again and again that as a nation we lack the commitment (by which I mean “tyrannical jack-booted disregard for human life”) to use it effectively. What else have we got? A giant market economy focusing mostly on communication, entertainment, personal expression, and self-improvement, which the world’s dictators, religious fanatics, and thugs see as hedonistic, socially disruptive, and downright insidious.
Damn right it’s insidious. And we ought to be insidiating like crazy. The requirements for democracy and social mobility are communication, a sense of personal self-worth, and an active free-market economy. Our pop culture, and the stuff we sell, are our best tools for sneaking these values into societies, under the noses of the dictators and the zealots.
What better tools for personal expression than the cell phone and the Internet blog? What better way to get uncensored information about the world than the satellite dish? What better tools for demonstrating the joy of self-determination than the hit TV show and the Hollywood blockbuster? What better role model for oppressed women than the stars of CSI and ER? Hell, what better role model for what a police force should be than CSI? And what better motivation for starting your own business (black-market or legit), for getting a leg up, than the need to pay for all this crap?
Maybe the Cold War wasn’t won by geopolitics. Maybe it was won by black-market Levi’s blue jeans and bootleg copies of “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen. Maybe our best hope for eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat isn’t B-2s dropping bombs, but FedEx cargo planes dropping cell phones and laptops. Actually, the world is doing a pretty good job in bombing Iran’s youth with pop culture; maybe all we need to do is sit back, sell more phones, and wait for their oppressive government to be swept aside, or simply ignored and rendered obsolete, by the new Coke generation.
*That’s* what they fear about us. Not that we’ll bomb them into oblivion, but that their own kids, raised on our pop culture, will vote them off the island.
================
I want to emphasize that this is about spreading American *values*, not American hegemony. The Egyptian riots are a problem for America as an empire, but if we play it right it can be a huge win for American ideals.
The telco may not be directly responsible. Vodafone would most likely purchase a link from one of the main telcos over there. If their provider cuts the connection then there is nothing they can do. Their network will function but traffic won't leave the network.
(\(\
(^.^)
(")")
*This is the cute bunny virus, please copy this into your sig so it can spread
Tether a satellite phone?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I seriously doubt they could shut down a satellite based ISP or satphone based network. They could still RDF you and send the goon squad after you though. Sneakerneting microSD cards across the Sahara would be the safest route.
Ah well, the foreign supported thugocracy couldn't last forever......or can it.
I suppose Mr. Obama wants an "internet kill switch" so that he can do the same?
Or in today's language: the revolution will not be tweeted.
Does anyone think it is still a good idea to give the President an "Internet Kill Switch"?
Really, those in power tend to cling to it even if their forms are outmoded for the population they rule. I think our democracies only grow stronger through a little unrest and political replacement every once in a while. What do you think?
Shh.
See what happens when you download too many copies of "The Mummy" ?
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
There's a couple options here. POTS modem is a decent choice for data, until it gets blocked. Satellite internet should work also, but could be subject to jamming. Shortwave radio to listen to international broadcasts (BBC World Service, VOA, Deutsche Welle, etc.) is a good option for receiving information and news. They could still jam broadcasters that they don't like (but hard to get all of them).
Ham radio would be the best option, as it doesn't depend on anyone else's infrastructure, and equipment can be run from 12V batteries. Many frequency bands to choose from to avoid interference or jamming. Many digital modes can be used to relay articles, some with forward error correction. Voice modes are available for those without digital interfaces. Can be short range to arrange local protests if needed (VHF/UHF), possibly with a handheld transceiver. It can be long range on the HF bands (shortwave), potentially communicating over thousands of miles and across borders.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Parent poster is handing out two, that's TWO generalizations for the price of one.
If you comment now, he'll throw in FIIIIIVE unfounded accusations of your choice - PLUS "the works". Where else are you gonna get a deal like that?
Coming up next - all Catholics are secretly pedophiles, Jews are stingy, blacks are lazy and women can't drive.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
they don't cover Egypt.
There. Is no such thing as a progressive muslim state. They are all horrendous in one form or another. Human rights, crime, despotism, corruption, justice, the works.
The reality of Egypt is that the choices are grim and grimmer; support Mubarek, and you support an oppressive regime. It may be an iron fist in a velvet glove, but the fist is still made of iron. However, if you support real democratic elections in Egypt, then you're almost certainly going to get an Iranian-style theocracy that'll never have real elections again. And that's the way the vast majority of Egyptians want it. Take away the secular despot, and you're almost guaranteed to get a country run by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Looks like EVERYTHING is out. If you try to look at sites in Egypt, you get nothing. They don't even ping. I have to admit I enjoyed the irony of being cut off from Orascom's site, since they have built systems around the world for authoritatrian states, including North Korea.
How can we help the people of Egypt? What can we do to help them overthrow this tyranny? I usually post about what I'm doing to try help, but am coming up blank here.
video news guidance
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
A better question would be, how can other countries be prevented from doing this? Let's assume the Egyptian government succeeds (my opinion atm). What could people in Yemen or Iran, for instance, do now to get around future blocks?
The question will be; what is the ratio of: ...)) vs all the rest...
(people who didn't have/want access to the internet + people who had and probably still have priviledge access to internet (state/corp satelite, like you need in iran and saudi arabia to download some serious porn
If the children of the cops and miltary start to violently yell at their parents because they cannot keep contact with their crew, the government is in bad shape...
It will be an interesting experiment, it shows the governement is deperate, in iran they just slow down the internet to make it boring when there are politicaly sensitive situation, but do not completely cut it...
hopefully de pharaon will be expulsed..
but do not hope too much between 85 and 97 % of the women in Egypt are still wictim of Female Genital Mutilation, it is illegal since 2007, but almost any egyptian woman who is older than 10..12 years and not member of a intelectual educated minority had probably been mutilated this way.
and do not expect the internet to "treat censorship as an error and route around" this died with operator consolidation and commercialisation of the internet...
I hope no one in currently in Egypt is from France or Finland, otherwise they are guilty of violating human rights: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525993,00.html , http://articles.cnn.com/2009-10-15/tech/finland.internet.rights_1_internet-access-fast-internet-megabit?_s=PM:TECH
They could patch into a Gibson, use that uplink to tunnel into the global GPS satellite network and then beam the (enhanced) signal down into the internet and thus successfully hack the plant.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
The United States likes dictators if they serve it's interests.
Yeah, that's the ticket !! We will roam the desert to find the promised land !! What ?? Jews already there ?? OK, do overs !!
Would the government be able to triangulate position of the send/receive devices?
If not, or at least not easily, we could try to get some tech into the right hands over there...
coding is life
I lived in Egypt for a year back in 2003. Used TEData as an ISP. Can't get to their webpage presently, and all DNS inquiries go unresolved.
And I wondered why my email's been down. (I terminated my contract w/ TEData back in summer '04 before I left the country, and the admins have yet to delete my POP account. I haven't sent them a check in seven years, but Egyptians are not so well known for being on top of things.)
There is clearly a generational shift happening in the Arab world. The "old style" corrupt dictators, supported in large by a religious elite that is composed predominantly of old power-hungry zealots are facing the new (formerly) silent majority of a youth that is increasingly well educated, informed of world events and sceptical of the relgious indoctrination they are being subjected to. It was only ever a matter of time before the new generations in Tunesia, Lebanon, Iran etc., reached the tipping point where comformism is turned to resistance. And since most soldiers and police in those countries also belong to the younger generation, they are likely to also join in rather than turn their weapons on their friends and family.
As a side remark: If only this means that a change in Egypt's government also gets rid of that annoying Zahi Hawass who always want to get his face into every darn documentary on Egypt, then I'll think the uprising was a HUGE success.
Meus subcriptio est nocens Latin quoniam bardus populus reputo is sanus callidus
We got a great big convoy rockin' through the night
Check out my great big chariot, ain't she a beautiful sight!!
CONVOY!
I KNEW it would finally prove useful!
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html
I love hearing this. In fact, I hope more countries undergoing political unrest opt to shut off 'net access. Specifically I'm hoping for similar occurrences in places like Syria, Pakistan. Go ahead and try getting your internet kill switch bill passed then ya jackasses. Every political talking head will blaze up a nice firestorm while the chickenshits dive for cover.
I just wish there was a way to help.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Perhaps it is time that everyone goes out and buys a device capable of mesh networking, and runs cable around their suburb (there is not much they can do when the pipe and cable goes under the fence).
The world learnt a lesson from Germany: When a government goes off the rails and tries to dominate its citizens.. the next step is the domination of the world.
Will a government really hunt down *everyone* with a *prescribed device* and shoot them? How many? A million? Two?
What happens if on the 18th of March 2011 every girl in a muslim country walks around all day with no head scarf and in western clothes - jeans and a tshirt?
Are they going to kill all of their young women? If so, where do they expect the next generation for their country to come from?
Not so long ago, women burned their bras in protest. How long until this happens in the rest of the world?
The question is: Is this the start of the next Nazi Regime?
You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
Just verifying that the reverse is true too. From some simple googling, a lot of egyptian sites are indeed down.
http://www.cairo.gov.eg/
http://www.egregistry.eg/
http://www.internetegypt.com/
http://www.cu.edu.eg/
What happens to all those arms deals? This could send our economy into a tailspin.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
We should find out which companies bowed before the dictators. Looks like Vodaphoe is one of them.
When a truckload of soldiers show up at your NOC with automatic weapons and politely ask you to pull the plug, you do
You can't blame the ISPs for this. In cases like this the soldiers usually have orders to turn their weapons on the racks if the ISP refuses to cooperate. One way or another, you will cooperate.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
According to a commentator on the CBC radio, the Egyptians are using wifi to create ad hoc networks. They can use these with their smart phones.
Maybe this is what they're talking about: http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wireless/ht/setupadhocwifi.htm
Do any of the satellite providers cover Egypt?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
The most common elections often have poor choices and people who aren't educated or organized voting. It would be a rather common election. Still, it's an election.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
All Americans are fat and stupid. There. Can I please have my post modded up again now?
Or do I have to make a stupid generalization about someone else? Like Chinese? Brits? Zie Germans?
COME ON!
I too want to be modded +5 Insightful for being a generalizing asshole who pigeonholes millions of people and their cultures into degrading *caricatures of themselves.
*caricatures are like an exaggerated cartoon of someone, where he looks funny... and then we laugh at him cause he is funny looking.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
There are major outages, but the entire country of Egypt is not off line. Cairo is hard to reach, but Alexandria seems to be up via some routes. Delay on the last link to the Alexandria gateway is about 70ms.
I always thought the solution to world peace would be to air drop generators, flat screens and xboxes so that bored would be terrorists had something to do for fun. I think pulling the plug is not going to help at all, unless you are a corrupt politician.
I'm not well versed in Malaysian law, but I found Malaysia to be pretty forgiving to non-Malaysians in regards to Sharia law. IIRC they judge their muslim citizens by Sharia law, but expats are allowed more freedoms. I personally loved Malaysia and felt no oppression when I was there, and was amazed to find that it was so Islamic when my plane landed.
Malaysia is over 60% muslim, which is coincidental because 60% of the world's muslim population lives in Asia, whereas only 20% is in the middle east. http://pewforum.org/Muslim/Mapping-the-Global-Muslim-Population.aspx
Sorry... an 'e' got away from me.
You don't need all that to hack a plant. You can hack a plant simply by hitting it repeatedly with an axe.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
its just that anyone who was born from a muslim parent (either) was registered as muslim, regardless of what their parents had said. hence, 99% of the population ended up as muslim even if they were atheists or didnt care for anything. 20% of population goes from there. a majority of population doesnt care for religion much, it is only remembered when someone dies or born, and there goes another 30%. a 30-40% of the population follow islam, but not as radical as arabs. rest 10-20% are probably worse than arabs radicalism.
had islam been as strong here as arab countries, there would be no difference. even in this case there are a lot of backward practices. and attempts to islamicize the country.
Read radical news here
Yeah, that'll help.
an ill wind that blows no good
The People's Republic of China has lots of blogs, cell phones, and bogus brand blue jeans (I don't know about the Bruce Springsteen part). Does the PROC symbolize a win for American ideals?
Maybe you should qualify your enthusiasm for consumerist democracy. Here's a little thought experiment. Imagine a state where all your creature comforts are taken care of: from food to housing to health care to porn. Would you bother protesting you don't have the right to select the Great Leader?
There may be exceptions to rules, but they are rules, generalizations and cliche for a reason. Observational evidence is the best we can go by, and evidence says...
Before, you would have had SOME young Egyptians quietly staying at home and wanking off... now you're going to have ALL of them out in the streets!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Wait a second. So, you're telling me that when your government keeps pushing for some sort of kill switch on the entire internet, they might activate it to prevent people from dissenting? Who ever would have thought?! Boy, I'm glad we're getting one here, too! I'm sure it'll never be misused!
There is a quick look BGP level analysis available from BGPMon. Except for Noor Data Networks, the number of announced address blocks is way down. This means that most Egyptian IP addresses are now not reachable from the rest of the world.
Here is BGPMon on the dating of the outage :
At this point egypt.gov.eg is offline. This network, 81.21.104.0/24 was withdrawn at January 27th at 22:28 UTC . Another example is www.ahram.org.eg an Egyptian news paper. This network 196.219.246.0/24, became unreachable at the exact same time, January 27th at 22:28 UTC.
I think that it is safe to assume that this outage is related to the big protests planned for tomorrow.
What percentage of the MEN are victims of Male genital mutilation, as practiced by Jews, Muslims, and many Christians? When will they get around to making that illegal?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Yeah, and my government treated my foreskin as damage and routed around it... causing damage to me. MGM Bill FTW!
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
BBC is reporting that Egypt is on alert for mass protests. Maybe they are trying to cut the protestors comunications.
We turfed out our Prime Minister and no one really cared. Egypt tries the same thing and they get grounded. No SMS! no internet! and you're not leaving the house until your chores are done!
It's the other way around. Here's a hint - you can vote without paying money for that privilege.
You are also confusing democracy with capitalism and (among others) missing the prerequisites of "liberty" and "freedom" (slaves were almost always free to communicate with each other).
Also, you seem to be confusing "education" to Tee-Vee shows.
And are you seriously suggesting Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer and David Caruso as cultural ambassadors of USA and democracy in general?
*That’s* what they fear about us. Not that we’ll bomb them into oblivion, but that their own kids, raised on our pop culture, will vote them off the island.
Seriously.
Read a book sometimes (one without pictures) and watch a foreign movie (one with subtitles, in non-English language) now and then.
Or go to Wikipedia and look up words like despotims and dictatorship.
Also, oligarchy, plutocracy and tyranny.
Here's a teaser. In most of those regimes - PEOPLE DON'T GET TO VOTE AT ALL! Really! Look it up.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
There are at least a couple of satphone networks (irridium and inmarsat) offering "worldwide" coverage and both of them offer (very expensive) data services. I believe they have been pressured to shut off service in some countries though.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
The zombies have broken out. Grab your shotguns.
Depends if you want that 'on'.
When it came to a satellite phone kill (Chechen leader Dzokhar Dudayev), Russia had to ask the NSA for help in 1996.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzhokhar_Dudayev#Death_and_legacy
Who knows what export quality tracking systems can be bought via the EU, China, Israel ect. ?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"Mr. President! There's riots in the streets! It's chaos!"
"Shut. Down. Everything."
Sent from my CR-48
Iridium covers the planet. They may decline to sell service in some areas for regulatory issues, but there's pretty much nowhere they won't work from. Many satellites cover Egypt. However the number selling Internet service directly to people in Egypt may be zero, but that wouldn't stop anyone from buying from outside the country and taking it in, as long as they let you in with the gear.
Learn to love Alaska
So instead of knowing exactly where they're rallying and deploying sufficient forces to play with, the cops now knows nothing and will deal with disorganized protests. 1up ftw you noobs. I don't think the angry peeps are going to stfu just cause they ran out of internet.
Iridium claims to cover the entire Earth.
Well a rather large number, and it is promoted by the US as an anti AIDS measure, for measure the study that "proved" this showed that there was 60% less AIDS carried in the circumcised men group after some period of time, it kind of forgot that the quantity of affected people was very close to statistic uncertainty...
So I disaprouve...
But this said, assuming that both mutilation would be made under ideal medical circumstance (ha!) you would still have a large group of women unable to attain orgasm (except apparently a very small "lucky" group) vs a very small minority of men similarly affected (well only the unlucky one that god a bad complication)
So comparing the two is misleading, like AIDS vs Influensa well both can be survived and both can kill I know wich I'd choose..
Don't forget fax, it is still a more difficult to censor mode of communication.
If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
Rachel Maddow is doing regular reports about the situation in Egypt.
The media isn't as bad as most naysayers would have you believe.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
until we bombed them into the stone age. Other than that I think he's pretty much spot on. Saudi Arabia's a hell hole for everyone except the super wealthy. Iran's not a nice place to be either. Afghanistan & Pakistan have rampant poverty & drug violence. I guess there's Israel. I know damn little about them so they could be progressive, probably are.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
...And?
Do tell, I pray thee, what the difference between a Monarchy and dynastic control of a purported Republic is? Or do you not consider two Bushes - with a third undoubtedly on the way eventually, and nearly two Clintons, to be a problem?
The only difference between a Monarchy and a Republic is there are less bullshit political ads on television.
If I was there, and the government decided to turn off all internet. I'd probably not mess around with POTS modems and crap to try to fight them. If they have that much drive to keep information from getting in out they're likely to come shoot me for trying. Slashdot and Facebook probably aren't worth battling the government for.
One where there are many Muslims?
Well, is a Germany a Muslim state? Plenty of Turkish Muslims there? How 'bout France with all them Algerians?
Or all those Muslims don't really count, cause they are not TRUE Muslims?
Or are you talking about countries run by sharia law?
Egypt is a "semi-presidential republic" where religious parties are illegal.
Or let's turn that around... Which western countries (excluding Vatican) are Christian? And please, specify which denomination.
Or how about simply - is America Catholic, Protestant or Mormon? Come on... we all know that all that secular bullshit is just for show.
Come on... Who's their Cloud Daddy?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
To some degree, the term "Muslim state" is a misnomer.
In fact, it is silly to label any country that claims to have a democratic electoral system according to religious choices of its people.
Freedom of choice is a cornerstone of every democracy. Having a "state religion" kinda limits that choice and that freedom.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Not in my life time, I hope.
Unless you're a "victim" yourself, please stop preaching against my right of having a cleaner penis for me and my descendants.
http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
We're running out of IPs http://penrose.uk6x.com/ can we have yours if you're not going to use them?
"A communications disruption can mean only one thing - invasion"
Ironically, I have seen a sudden increase in the tourism commercials on TV encouraging visiting Egypt.
South America's rampant corruption, America's warmongering...
I'm actually *Bosnian - which means that I'm at least partially Muslim (even if I'm an atheist and regardless whether I feel like one or not - just because I'm not a Serb or Croat) and most definitely - stupid.
That's our main national trait.
*Funny thing is, our constitution is perhaps the most racist one since Germans decided to pack all European Jews into concentration camps.
We have THREE presidents (plus one more for Republika Srpska) - but they MUST be one from each major ethnic group.
So... Unless you are Serb, Croat or Bosniak - you can't be a president.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
useful information
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is.
We should go back to the good ol days! No, I'm not talking messenger pigeon. I'm talking messenger fish! Honestly, who in the world would see messenger fish coming. Nobody that's who. And that is why it is ingenious.
i have texted with some one from my family that is in egypt right now.. thay say its pretty calm at the town there in. got an answer pretty fast too.. but thay dont use egyptian cellphones, thay have ones from our country..
If this is true, then even a modem won't help. Maybe they mean they shut off all broadband>
If I say I'm "pro-left" do I at least get a token "you deserve what you should get"?
Granted... I'm not a Democrat Congresswoman OR an nine-year-old girl but still... show me some proper hate.
Falsely accusing one side of violence, as the above mentioned did throughout 2010 election campaign, despite most of the actual incidents of violence coming from the left, is a 'veiled' invitation to respond in kind. How do you expect more extreme elements on the left to respond when they are constantly being told that about violent fascist and racist right-wingers are taking over in the form of Tea Party (which in reality is a peaceful and law-abiding movement if there ever was one). That is the impression one gets when listening to them and it is a form of incitement to violence.
I keep a copy of this post you made for whenever you come trolling by. It never gets old.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Here is what I wrote earlier today Views from an Egyptian.
Mod it up if you think it is informative.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
What kind of generalization are those? Way too specific.
Next you're gonna say only SOME Irish are drunks.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"Free market is not the prerequisite for democracy. "
Who said it was? Where in my post did I even utter the words "free market"?
But the ability to communicate with peers, and belief in freedom of speech and association, upward class mobility, fundamental human rights, and a desire to oppose corruption rather than join it, *are* prerequisites for democracy. And America's communications devices and pop culture *do* embody those beliefs. Yes, even the ones directed by Michael Bay.
"Read a book sometimes"
I read lots of books. Right now I'm reading "Being Wrong" by Kathryn Schultz, which you might benefit from. But to believe that nothing can be learned or gained from mass media and pop culture is pompous, arrogant, and short-sighted. If I should "read a book sometime", you should listen to Bob Dylan.
"The last link to the Alexandria gateway is about 70ms"
That sounds downright epic out of context, like something Han Solo would say...
Resist the impulse to assume the riots in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen are all about the USA. I guarantee you, the people on the streets of these countries by and large don't want to live in America or a make their country more like the US in general. They have their own values and desires that you might find surprising.
These angry people are feeling their power as a mob. What we know right now is that these rioters oppose autocratic and corrupt government. Let's say they share those values with Hamas, the Peasants and Workers Party of India, the government of Somaliland, Wikileaks, the US State Department, and the Tea Party. It's much more important, however, what they're for. Whether that means they support -- to take ideas from the parent post -- democracy, free markets, pop-culture, and free expression more than do the leaders they oppose, remains to be seen.
(reposed after logging in)
This is a practical guide for the Egyptians to set up a new independent network. For the instructions, skip to below the story.
I live on a Island, Newfoundland, on which the first transatlantic wireless telegraph was communicated to Cornwall, England.
I grew up driving all around the Island on the weekends with my Dad installing and servicing satellite up-links. It is his own business so he worked six or seven days a week when Newfoundland's economy was in the pits. His company has since become successful, even though wired communication companies always criticize the strength of satellite signals (which is bullshit, I always get very clean signals in a city with a huge amount of snow). He also does work in other electrical systems (power meters, wireless wide area networks, etc.). He has also always kept the same raggedy tag crew for his employees, who are a great group of people. Instead of reducing the salaries of his employees during the recession, he instead made up for the loss out of his paycheck. I am proud of my dad. I am sure my mother is proud of him as well in heaven. When I was younger, I liked to look at my Dad as a futuristic Marconi. I have since become a seasoned software developer myself.
Instructions:
The first thing I would do to establish a truly independent internet in Egypt is to set up a wide area network all around Cairo. Wireless towers throughout the city. Redundancy here is key, since if the government destroys some towers, others will still be online. The antennae only have to be separated by about 30 meters. The towers can easily be crafted since the antennae are lightweight.
The hardware that is needed are a two WiLan radios for a point to point network. Omni directional antennae are needed for short range hub regions for the end user connections, and more powerful directional antennae are needed for long range point to point connections, plus any relay stations require two directional antennae (incoming and outgoing) and a repeater. Two RF connectors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_connector) for each high grade coaxial cable. The towers are easily constructed out of steel. Cable cutters and proper crimping tools are a must (substitutes could be found). Wrenches: 9/16, and 3/4. A power meter is required to read the signal while peaking (positioning) and polarizing (rotating) the dish. You hook up the leads to the core of the cable and the outer shield.
Satellite up-links are required to connect this localized network to the outside world. Earth station hardware should not be that difficult to find. Here in Newfoundland, almost all gas stations use earth stations for their Interac communications. I set most of them up myself when I was working before I went to university. Any large and small commercial cable satellite dishes can be used as down-link stations to transmit incoming information.
The hardware needed are a RF Head (Telesat here in Canada make high quality transmission, I'd say Qualcomm make them as well) and a Hughes PES 5000 (I highly recommend this model, PES stands for personal earth station.). Two RF connectors are required to connect the coaxial cable between the RF Head and the PES. To peak the dish, a power meter is required. It is a similar process as for directional wireless antennae. An inclinometer is required to set the elevation, though this could be done by site. Down-links can be set up with only an LNB, which is a specialized/simplified type of RF Head that only allows for incoming signals (low noise block used with any commercial tv satellite). Down-links generally do not need to be polarized since they do not transmit and only receive. Always peak the dish with the transmit function off, then turn on the transmit function and polarize the RF Head, by rotating its body. Never stand in front of the dish when the transmit function is on. Its not necessarily that harmful, but it can disrupt the communications for other satellites if a transmit radio wave is bouncin
...like millions of citizens with no internet access to pacify themselves with.
Therein lies the rub. In order to make gun control work, the government must not only outlaw ALL guns for the unwashed masses, it must also confiscate ALL guns from those same unwashed masses. This is exactly the fear presented by anti-gun control activists. The GP's logic is quite sound. Gun control cannot work in the half assed manner that proponents seem to always encourage. It is an all or nothing proposition.
And as you pointed out, total control can only reduce the availability. It's a cultural thing. Despite the most well-intentioned rants by gun control activists, you cannot change culture by fiat.
Every Egyptian has been spared the possibility of reading that moronic post.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
4chan will deal with internet kill-switch, most police now side with the street
Yeah, I have to say that whenever I hear people talk about circumcision as some terrible, horrific mutilation to boys, it's usually women and occasionally guys who haven't had it done. I've never personally known, or even heard someone on the internet claiming to be, a guy who was circumcised and was upset by it. I am circumcised, and honestly find these people highly insulting to me -- telling me, who never gave my circumcision a second thought, that I'm horribly mutilated and we must prevent anyone else from having to end up like me.
The Egypt Government is in the initial stages of marshalling its federal troops for murder.
Likely, the US, UK, France and Germany have been briefed and have given approval.
Next will come raids on Radio and Television Stations, Banks will be Federalized and Closed.
Telephone service will be ended.
Borders will be secured, not to keep the curious out, rather to keep citizens in (to be murdered).
Sharp-shooting squads are likely in place now.
Troops with tank and heavy artillery will close off Cario.
Water and sewage utilities will be shutdown at least 1 hour prior to the military operations.
Troops will move in along the main arteries, killing indiscriminately to herd citizens to parks and the central city area.
Mechanized artillery will then begin a barage of nerve gas and other toxins on the citizenery.
While the military operations are ongoing, leaders of US, UK, France and Germany will make public boradcasts to their citizens of their solitadarity for the Mubarak Government in the face of Terrorist attacks and condem the protesters as terrorists.
In 24 hours after the military operations commenced, up to 3 million civilians will be dead with mininal military losses.
And just think, if by June 2012 Obama's pole numbers are at 15% approval, he will do exactly the same thing to Washington, D.C. in order to remain the last elected President of the United States of America.
-308
It depends on what you want to do. If you want to communicate with other people nearby in the city, then peer-to-peer networking is the way to do it. Set up mobile hotspots with open access. With VoIP you can even use your mobile handsets. Vulnerable to jamming, snooping and RDF. If you want to reconnect with the global network, then a satellite link is one way, or packet data over ham freq, maybe bounced off the ionosphere.
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about. -- John von Neumann
The telco may not be directly responsible. Vodafone would most likely purchase a link from one of the main telcos over there. If their provider cuts the connection then there is nothing they can do. Their network will function but traffic won't leave the network.
I had no idea a common, monosyllabic word like "all" could be so difficult to understand.
The story is "Egypt Shuts Off ALL Internet Access", not "Egypt Separates Its Functional Not-Shut-Off Network From Rest of Internet." You see, what you propose wouldn't shut off anything, nor would it encompass ALL access to heterogeneous interconnected packet-switched networks that use IP and related protocols.
Reading comprehension: use it! If you were using it, fix it and use it again.
Even if you have a dial-up modem, what are you going to connect to?
One of my modems is set up for dialup backup to the broadband connection - which wouldn't be particularly useful in this crisis. But I have others.
I also have a UUCP connection to another old networking curmudgeon who keeps old-style mail and netnews running. (I hear these are useful for people in countries where some people don't have broadband, always-on, or even fast dialup, Internet connections.)
At the moment I have my MX records pointed to send incoming mail to his servers, where much of the spam is filtered out and the rest is stored until my own MTA machine polls for it, which it does twice an hour.
My UUCP daemon can hit him over the Internet, which it does by preference. But when something is wrong with that (like my ISPs servers being hosed) UUCP falls back on dialup. One of my modems (dedicated mostly to this) grabs the FAX line and does things the old fashioned way.
I have in the past set up my portable computers to also exchange mail with my home mail server this way - though these days I usually bring up a dialup or WiFi Internet connection and SSH to the desktop, reading the mail there.
At the moment I don't have any Netnews groups set up. But I could arrange for a feed of a small one, or set, perhaps an alt. group that had been quickly set up specifically to handle news on whatever government blockage was in progress. Netnews runs on a flooding protocol and includes big name networking sites that have open web hosting, which (when located in a "safe for net" place) can bridge it to the rest of the world.
Periodically polled UUCP didn't stop working, or even get fully retired, when most of the traffic moved over to the big-I Internet, with its direct server/client connections and one- or two-hop email handoffs. If the government in the affected area didn't manage to totally cut off ordinary phone calls, UUCP carrying netnews and email could be set up quickly. Netnews' flooding protocool would insure that the news made it out within a few hours if there was a way for it to get out. Email might need explicit route addressing (like the bang-ist system) at first, due to the security and technical issues of setting up automated routing. And you can forget about video - you'd be lucky to be able to squeeze an occasional still picture through the bandwidth bottlenecks.
But it's not something where we need to invent a new wheel. The old ones just need to be remounted and regreased.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Is it possible to write a mobile phone app that sends audio modem on the phone carrier?
I doubt it for IPhone bur how about Android?
Of course the mobile phones may be cut off soon too.
If I had the resources I'd be investing into high altitude long endurance aircraft systems that can act as communication relays. The best example for this would the Zephyr UAV http://www.qinetiq.com/home_farnborough_airshow/unmanned_air_systems/zephyr.html
Much cheaper than satellite technology, mobile, and flexible. Fly one of these at 90000 feet above Egypt and it is unlikely that they will be shooting it down.
Yup, not many hams there at all. Also we do not have a third part traffic agreement with Egypt so cannot pass third party info from and too Egypt.
Egypt drew the short straw in a secret international lottery to decide who looses all their IPV4 address blocks back into the pool...
I though we wanted to "impose" democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. Did we aim wrong and shoot our democracy bombs in a different direction? Are Tunisian and Egyptians being proactive or reactive?
The Government attempts to stop the flow of information to the Egyptian people and end the riots by shutting off internet access backfires when thousands of angry young Egyptian males find their Starcraft 2 access cut off and leave their parents basements to join the riots.
The Egyptian authorities have the ability to shut down free speech in 2011, but turning off the Internet is not enough - they must completely halt modern commerce.
Since they are not, as far as I can imagine, performing mass jamming of the 2.4ghz spectrum, anyone with a laptop and "wi-fi" connectivity has everything they need to conduct insurrection. This concept is known as "Free Speech or Stone Age":
http://blog.kozubik.com/john_kozubik/2009/06/free-speech-or-stone-age.html
Unless you remove the general purpose tools of modern commerce, filtering (or even disabling) the Internet will not stop speech.
I'm gonna blow a bowl and watch. WTF?
Just imagine how much protection they're offering the children by turning off the internet. No more porn, no more luring children away through evil chat rooms. It's gotta be wonderful.
If faced with serious anti .gov rebellion, do you really think any of the western 'progressive' governments would behave any better? Any time there's been serious problems in a democratic country, individual rights are always the first thing on the legislative altar to be burnt in the name of fixing the problem.
OK.....leave out David Caruso.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Hell make a small FM transmitter and tune for a unused freq on the radio and distribute them as repeaters or other mass dissemination use. Like clandestine radios for the French resistance. These days the design could be the size of a cell phone and transmit a fair distance.
I'd use Amateur Radio to get information out. The only thing that shuts down Amateur Radio in the U.S. is if POTUS (President of the United States) issues a War Powers Declaration.
Wayno/KA5FVE
I'm sorry to inform you, you are completely mistaken here.
"Old style" Egypt was among the Arab world most enlightened countries. When I visited (while I was living in Israel, ~1995), I was reallly surprised to see how many older (then, ~50yr and older) people spoke in perfect English and were very well cultured. No, it's not (not just?) that they lived the last years of strong British influence, but that the Egyptian society was heavily open, westernized.
From what I talked there, what I understood, what I saw... The younger generation strongly leans more to a more traditional way of life. Probably, if they manage to overthrow Mubarak's regime, they will choose (and you cannot say that's not a democratic process!) a more Islam-friendly, maybe Islam-abiding regime.
The internet was originally designed as an unbreakable communications platform in the event of a nuclear attack. An internet kill switch would pretty much defeat that purpose?
Obama: Looks like I'm getting too much bad press on the internet. Time to hit the internet kill switch.
Kim Jong Il: Ah, the Americans turned off the internet!!! PRESS THE BUTTON!!!
Is the same in Latin America. The second easiest way to be a popular politician here is to be anti-american, since almost every brutal dictatorship here with the exception of Castro's Cuba was supported by the american government. In Mexico, my country, we had the choice between a very moderate leftist and a supposed christian democrat in the 2006 elections. The US National Endowment for Democracy bought the leadership of the tree mayor parties to keep the status quo, the mass media and the Church illegally supported the campaign of our current president, and now we have the most dangerous city in the world, the economy in the gutters and vast swats of the country under the rule of mafia bosses, meanwhile our christian fundamentalist in several state's legislatures have forbade by law any abortion, even miscarriages -good luck with that- or abortions necessary to save the pregnant woman's life; the US got the devil they know, but got a war in their southern frontier and an even worst problem with illegal immigrants that will get absolutely out of control if the mexican state collapses, that is the most likely scenario. Blowback all over again.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
that's all.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
Egypt has been run for nearly three decades by the same guy backed by the same military leaders. Doesn't that tell you something? It has had large scale terrorist attacks and violently represses its Christian minority. A lot of the 9/11 attackers were from Egypt.
Oh yes, a woman who dares to walk without her head covered won't be killed, at least not on the street. If that is your measure of progressive then well, pretty much most of the world is progressive.
Oh, progressive for a muslim state. Bit of bigotted statement isn't it? If all men (and women) are to be equal then we should all judge them equally. The freedom in a nation should therefor be measured against ALL other nations, not just against other nations with a religion X as the national religion. A European or even an American would NOT find living in Egypt to be progressive. All though to be fair, considering recent election results, there are plenty of Europeans who seem to like the idea of a repressive regime.
Mind you, you could also simply have your head in the sand like this guy below who claims the Christian minority does alright... clearly not been following the news recently.
Is Egypt that bad? Yes, compared to north european, Canada and most of the USA, yes. That they shut of all internet access over some protests should be a bloody big clue. Is it as bad as some other nations? No. But what kind of standard is that? Pretty much any place on eartth is better then Somalia and North Korea so that is all right then? If you don't have massive death camps and a total break down of all law and order you are doing okay? Low standards indeed.
The real problem in Egypt and Tunesia is not so much a direct nazi style abuse of power but the total grid lock that the system has become. Nothing moves, nothing happens in Egypt. It ain't even just pure corruption. That can work, that can make things happen just for money. But in Egypt corrupt officials STILL only take money from you if you are from the side of town. You got to know people to be able to buy people.
Meanwhile, as said, nations should be judged by the best of other nations not the worsed because THAT is what the people on the street are doing. They SEE more and more the rest of world and see that a society can function differently. That there are places on earth where merit at least counts for something, where jobs can be had even if your dad is not connected. That there is such huge un-employment should tell you something. The country isn't doing anything. It exists and so does its population but where are its achievements? Where can its ever better educated youth push themselves and their nation forward?
No where and they are getting very upset about this. Idle hands are the devils etc etc. Meanwhile, the religious right is seeing the youth turning away from the old certainties (It is Allah's will) and at the same time some youth flee to the same. Leaders seeking legitimacy seek out the religious and then find them going out of control (see Reagan courting the religous right to victory, then Bush does the same and gets the tea party... OOPS).
Egypt is an old fashioned military style dictatorship that survived for a long time because it managed to keep things running without to much repression and out right poverty. But that doesn't mean people will be satisfied they aren't being killed or starving till eternity. They want jobs, a future, more freedom, and basically they want something to happen so tomorrow won't be the same as today. That is the problem with poor people, when they got nothing to loose, they are willing to fight for anything. Why do you THINK China is so hot on economic growth? They got 1 billion people controlled by a peoples army.
Egypt has an "elite" (as in not a peoples army) army controlling a population that isn't going anywhere that has tripled in size. They have seen change is possible. And anything is better then another day unemployed living below the poverty level for the 3rd generation.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Like most military units, snipers act mostly on other snipers on the field of combat. Archers first job is the other sides archers. Cavalery first checks the other sides cavalery. Fighter planes first got to control the other sides fighter planes (see the nice move by the Nazi's to tether their fighters to their bombers during the battle of Britain that nicely lost them the battle) etc etc.
Only if the sniper is sure that there are no other snipers around can he hunt other units. Else the first regular soldier he kills will be the end of him as the other sides sniper counters.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Brought down the Soviet Union.
Who said it was? Where in my post did I even utter the words "free market"?
Whoops, okay I did. Mea culpa. But the focus of my post was on communications systems that allow free speech, and cultural products that emphasize liberty, equality, and self-determination. I do think a free market helps with the self-determination thing.
If they turn off the internet, then you can safely assume things are soo bad that it's time for people to form militias and shoot politicians, corporate execs, police, etc. on sight. Sorry guys, but if you shut down civilized society that society should burn you to a crisp.
Do any of the satellite providers cover Egypt?
You must not have read the GP's post properly - he already mentioned that they are expansive!
<G>
"Take down post, telephone, telegraph." -Lenin
over bluetooth and wifi .
Add mail and usenet style apps with signing and encryption and you have a tool which can be used securely by anyone with line of site and which maximises the chance of getting info out of a blackout zone . Plus for kids it would bypass phone charges .
I hope they do not cut off the international calls to 'completely' cut off any outflow of news/events/information. Hate these 'dictator' governments.
A message to all during evil govt times.
Take down the names or remember the names of the evil police forces, then when govts change and times are good and safe, sue the crap out of them, or steal their cars and/or ruin their lives using legal methods via new the legal authorities.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I sometimes in the game BF2 shoot other snipers at a distance that are a direct threat.
But shooting civilians, come on Mr Sniper, get a real job you useless sod of shit, no people skills to work in an office? no skills to work at a pizza place? Hope your karma is good enough.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
had something to say about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGTBBP09uPo
it's being reported the phones are down too. No POTS modems.
...and routes around it.
Oh!
Ah, soft power.
I'll agree with the +5 Insightful here. One of my favorite Slashdot posts in awhile.
I [i]had[/i] previously heard of a desire for Western consumer goods as a nail in the coffin of Soviet-style communism.
I too have wondered about the power pop culture has. As someone who thinks positively of its better components (it’s easy evne if you don’t have an agenda to attack something via its worst prominent aspects), this was a very uplifting read.
I have wondered why social conservatives of various stripes, domestic or foreign, are so afraid of it. I do notice that they seem to mask their real concerns when railing against it (and what bare their real concerns?)
Most everyone recognizes that the children are the future, and it’s a future they all want to shape. Some of them seem to be trying to talk us in to tying ourselves down, and less and less of us are buying that. I’ve intermittently fallen into that trap myself.
I'd add the following example, which has been my focal point for considering the issue: various pop stars displaying a highly positive attitude towards the gays.
P.S.
Brilliant job delineating between American ideals and the reality of some of our behavior.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
...And?
Do tell, I pray thee, what the difference between a Monarchy and dynastic control of a purported Republic is? Or do you not consider two Bushes - with a third undoubtedly on the way eventually, and nearly two Clintons, to be a problem?
The only difference between a Monarchy and a Republic is there are less bullshit political ads on television.
Agreed it's basically a formal democracy, or meritocracy, or something like that - and not a real democracy. The government is bad. The press doesn't inform well. Corporations run a mindgame on the public and representatives play theater. People also have their share in the problem, they don't inform themselves, participate, complain and organize enough.
Bush is now gone for two years, there is someone else there now. Full real and open democracy it's not, but there is much more openness than there was before. Much of the establishment however continues as before. Without public participation, the best government in the world would become detached and cut off from reality. Life is like that, it's hard everywhere, there are only two ways -- either participation or apathy and cynicism. Each person is always free to choose which. Participation is tough, dirty, tricky and 99% pitfalls, and apathy and cynicism are easy, comfortable and pathetic. There is only one other choice - death.
So it's generally best to pick a flag to fly and watch that's it's not a pitfall, and when it becomes obvious that it is, change your flag.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Mubarak.. all pigs have their slaughter day.. :), while you shut off the net.. egiptians sharpen their knives ;P
A leaderless movement has no head to chop off. http://bit.ly/gFtTwr
Seems like the protesters need to shift their attention from the government offices to the ISPs. They're most likely less guarded by the military and the people there a lot less used to a raging mob... Should take just a few minutes to have those prefixes re-announced and then it's just a matter of defending the buildings against the military to prevent them from regaining control.
Should also teach those ISPs to stop complying with stupid orders and stand their ground. Businesses affected by the disruptions should also look into the possibility of suing the ISPs for the disruption in connectivity as it was a controlled disruption, not an accident. If it can be done it'll teach them again to not give in to pressure and stupid orders.
The ISPs should also look into the option of a well-armed private security force to prevent armed incursions, both from terrorists and government controlled armed forces acting as terrorists (wanted to cause serious service disruptions). Seems like they more or less have to...
Both german-controlled france and russia took the same novel approach trying to find spies transmitting in WW2... they'd cut power to parts of the city a chunk at a time until the signal went off the air, then tear apart that area
Nope, you've been watching too many old spy movies. That approach would never be used due to two reasons:
1) There are better ways to find a transmitter.
2) Batteries. What's the point in cutting power to the neighborhood if the signal keeps transmitting?
Nowadays though with dopplars and haddock arrays they don't have to shut down the grids, but finding the actual transmitter remains very difficult.
I've 30+ years of experience as an Electronic Engineer and don't have the remotest idea of what you mean as a "haddock array". And neither Google knows.
Well, anyhow kudos to you, you seem to have convinced a few Slashdot moderators that you know something.
For everybody flippin' out, do remember, that the eastern block country revolutions and subsequent sweep into oblivion of their governments happened largely without any use of technology. Most people on the streets had no computer, no internet, no sms, no cell phones, no landlines etc.. All they had was themselves and the determination to no longer tolerate the bullshit.
Does technology help? Well, it can help the protesters cause. Organizing themselves, getting info out etc.. BUT, I'd wager to say, with the given possibilities over surveillance electronic communication probably hurts people more than does them good, as it provides the government forces with absolutely detailed intelligence in real-time. So turning off all that stuff might actually benefit the protesters more and be a shot in their own foot for the government.
there was this software called "SLIP" that was developed by Hams around the world
Wait, what? Citation needed. AFAIK, SLIP was developed by 3Com. See RFC-1055. Whenever I have seen, heard or read of packet radio by hams, it's all based on X.25. Indeed, according to the Jargon file, hams did not originally like TCP/IP, calling it "That Crap Phil Is Pushing".
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Used it to amuse myself on a weekend evening each of the last two summers when storms blew out the electricity.
The problem would be finding a BBS.
Renesys reports that the big four ISPs in Egypt have withdrawn approximately 3,500 individual BGP routes, leaving no valid paths by which to reach the rest of the world. One of the very few exceptions to this block has been Noor Group.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml
The timestamp on the original video by AP:
means 1am Cairo time.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Maybe the poster is confused because of KA9Q's package?
Or is he the Phil you're referring to?
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Well, I never went to 3Com to get SLIP, and all the documentation I got at the time I downloaded it in the late 80s mentioned the ham radio tie-in. If no Hams ever used it because of their dislike for it, I guess that makes the documents I read lies, and me a liar for repeating them. Sorry.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
Apparently according to him, there was no KA9Q package (that's the one I remember downloading) since Hams all hated SLIP.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
Is there such a thing as a virtual Darwin award? If so I'd like to nominate the parent post.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It is worth noting that the guy who told us ahead of time that there were no WMD in Iraq, Mohammad ElBaradei, is getting hit with water cannons now. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/world/middleeast/29unrest.html Wonder if he is right again?
Those'd be Western values, not American values.
Is it just me, or is the article linked to in the summary ( http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/1/28/urgent-egypt-has-shut-off-the-internet.html ) no longer online?
That's not what he said. He said that KA9Q was not the inventor.
What's with the polarizing dialogue? Are your Karl Rove in disguise?
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Well, I never went to 3Com to get SLIP, and all the documentation I got at the time I downloaded it in the late 80s mentioned the ham radio tie-in. If no Hams ever used it because of their dislike for it, I guess that makes the documents I read lies, and me a liar for repeating them. Sorry.
No, that doesn't make you a liar. But deliberately misrepresenting my statements and turning it into a straw man false dichotomy does make you an asshole.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
I still have a POTS modem. Unfortunately I got rid of my land line. I no longer have a POTS to PPP in.
Proverbs 21:19
It may not be a prerequisite, but the correlation is 1.
Rethinking email
If someone has a satellite phone, would it be possible to send data with it?
didnt our own country just pass an action that allows OUR elected president to do the same thing during times of crisis?
Joe Investor
I think it's fairly safe to say there's growing international battle for Internet control and censorship. Egypt, Wikileaks, numerous countries openly censoring, copyrights, patents, copyrights, defamation, anononymous sources, all kinds of things basically translate into censorship.
I've read TCP/IP was however planned exactly for being unbreakable and uncensorable. Well, what gives? Not enough reduntant links? No decentralized, third-party linkage? Proposals?
Since it's a healthy practice, hopefully never.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
1) Ever heard of satire?
2) All studies I have seen concluded that it doesn't really matter one way or the other, healthwise. Men with foreskins just need to be consistent in pulling the foreskin back when washing.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Granted it is not standard procedure, but your above descriptions cover Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib very well. Soon we might even get an internet kill switch. And just like Egypt we have the specter of religious terrorist strawmen to keep the populace in fear. Lovely.
From the photos I'm seeing of the protests, it looks like some folks are resorting to smoke signals.
Am I the only one that sees a parallel with what Lincoln had to do with America during the Civil War? Stopped free press, etc., etc.? Any history experts out there?
But that doesn't mean that babies have a rich sexual life.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Well... glad you re-read your post there.
I do think a free market helps with the self-determination thing.
Then, I hope that you are a teenager using someone else's ID cause that is a highly faulty notion for a grown up to have.
I mean... there are many, MANY monks and other people delving with philosophy of "being human", "being at all" etc. who would disagree with that.
The ability to buy or sell possessions doesn't determine a man more than the ability to eat. And no... they are not equally vital to one's existence either.
You can't "buy" self. Or bottle it and sell it. Nor would it be possible to be regulated through taxation.
Or, as I'm about to go on about the pop-culture "You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis."
As for pop-culture... I'm actually a great fan of pop-culture - and not just American.
Thing is... while I am a fan... as I accumulate knowledge and experience over the years I am noticing more and more the gaping holes and triviality in the most of it. Or just plain lies and wrongness.
Particularly of almost everything that is allowed on TV and theater screens in the USA.
Well... at least anything aimed at anyone older that 12.
Meanwhile, adults (starting with teens) are literally indoctrinated into "us vs them", "hunter or prey", "consuming is happiness" and the above mentioned "might makes right".
Rules are there to be broken and as long as you don't get caught it is A-OK, greed is celebrated continuously, fame is the highest possible thing you can achieve in life, ends justify the means and promiscuity and consumerism are main (if not ONLY) components of freedom and happiness.
THOSE are the lessons embodied in modern American pop-culture.
You want actual moral lessons without the taint of consumerism you must dig down to Superhero cartoons.
You want actual critique of consumerism and "might makes right" - you must dig to Sponge Bob levels.
Last two adults on American TV shows with actual moral values were Jean-Luc Picard and to some extent Jed Bartlet.
Today if you go looking for moral guidance on TV your choice of role model lies between a criminal, super-scifi-cop who is never wrong, goofball man-child and someone who's life revolves around fucking.
Go look up favorite TV show lists at imdb if you don't believe me.
And that is WITHOUT taking in account all those "reality" shows that are frankly a cultural equivalent of a toxic spill.
Best America can hope for from all its current cultural export is to turn the rest of the world into Tucker Max clones.
Which didn't even work for the "original", or so I hear.
Oh, and "upward class mobility" - another one that is not a prerequisite for democracy.
In fact, existence of classes opposes democracy as it again introduces the element of economy into what is essentially continuous fight for human freedoms. Whether to maintain them or to win them back.
If anything it is a necessary evil of an imperfect world - but sadly it is mostly a lie waved in front of the eyes of "lower classes".
And most certainly you don't get to move up by sticking to moral rules.
And if you actually (against the odds) do accomplish that quantum leap while holding on to some modicum of moral values - you will most likely find that "those are not the higher classes you were looking for".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
...democracies look really silly as well, and not really all that secular.
Or democratic, if you find that religious freedoms (including freedom of and from religion) essential to democracy.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
According to the 1980 amendment of the Constitution, Islamic Law (Sharia) became the principal source of legislative rules.[1] Such wording simply implies that any new law that is being enacted or considered for enactment should not be in contravention of any prevailing principles of Islamic Law (Sharia). Nevertheless, whilst all statutes regulating personal status issues (such as inheritance, marriage, divorce, alimony etc) are derived from Islamic norms, penal law rules as codified in the Penal Code are entirely western non-religious oriented rules. It is argued that the 1980 amendment operates with respect to post 1980 legislations and does not have a retroactive effect. Accordingly, any legal rules, which are inconsistent with general principles of Islamic Law (Sharia), that have been enacted prior to 1980 remain in full force and effect (such as penal law rules), unless abolished or replaced by new laws.
It is worth noting that Egypt has enacted a number of new statutes to respond to contemporary standards of global economic and business reform including: Investment Law, Anti-Money Laundering Law, Intellectual Property Rights Law, Competition Law, Consumer Protection Law, Electronic Signatures Law, Banking Law, Taxation Law etc.[2]
And even the worst aspects of such a definition of "Islamic", like blasphemy laws, can't be just generalized into being the same thing all across the board.
Cause there is a pretty fucking big difference between what you may expect for such "crimes" in say... Egypt and say... Afghanistan.
Not to mention the level of labeling that implies on the entire culture.
Should all "Christian" countries be labeled the same way? With crusades, inquisition, modern religious fundamentalists...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
You want to judge someone as different, you draw a circle around your own group.
Then, you find reasons and logic for why those outside of your circle are not like you.
Lastly, you draw another circle that includes everyone in your circle and everyone who is "close enough".
Ta-da! You have your own elite based on something that is completely unquantifiable.
But mostly, you don't even need that much.
It's not like your aim is to protect someone's rights to be a part of some group - you aim to keep everyone but the people like you from yours.
So, you go with names first. Culturally relevant names are usually the first criteria.
Milan and Slobodan is pretty certainly a Serb, while Tomislav and Franjo are pretty certainly Croats and Alija and Samir are pretty certainly Bosniaks.
But what to do with all those names where you can't really decide? Like Ivan, Igor, Denis etc.
Well... you look up their last names according to the rule above.
Cause, while Scots have their Mc- and Irish their O'- in front of the name of their pater familias, most Slavic people have some form of -ich or -icz after the same thing.
So, you will have your Milanovich Serbs, Tomich Croats and Alijagich Bosniaks.
Add to that information that Croats are understood (read: generalized) to be Catholic, Serbs are Eastern Orthodox Christians and Bosniaks are Muslims - and you are pretty sure who to exclude from your group.
The real fun starts when you have mixed marriages and children raised in such marriages.
And there were plenty of those couple of decades back as it was all one bigger country.
A bit less now cause.. well.. Ethnic cleansing DOES work. And there are seven countries now where there used to be one.
Naming rules will still apply in most cases, but at times it gets to be real fun.
Like an army buddy of mine who was at one time considered unfit for an office job due to being a security risk.
He had a very Slavic first name (which would probably make him a Serb) and a very Muslim last name. MP captain doing the deciding was a very strict Muslim.
But, some strings were pulled and he served in an office instead of pulling guard duty. Never did ask him about his religious believes but I suspect that like the rest of us "office rats" he was an atheist.
And if you think that is funny...
I mentioned earlier that Bosnia has three presidents, or three members of the presidency to be exact, one from each of its three main ethnic groups.
"From" being the operative word here. Each of them is elected at the same elections, by all citizens of the country - not just by the votes of their own ethnic group.
Now, Bosnia is a country where most political parties are formed around representing a certain ethnic group.
So, when local social democrats (who actually have SOME kind of a political program other than "he is one of us") nominated a Croat as their representative, and he won - Croatian nationalist parties cried out saying that he was not a real Croat, demanding his resignation.
Also, their reasoning is that he was not chosen by Croats, but by Bosniaks.
Forget Obama "not being American" - this is akin to if Republicans complained that only blacks voted for him.
Or to be more correct, should the Republicans nominate a black candidate to face Obama for the next presidential elections, and should the Republican candidate win - someone from black community crying out that he does not represent black people because whites voted for him.
Come next elections, do those nationalist parties create a coalition and put up their own strong candidate?
Nope. Each party nominates their own candidate and again they complain along the same points when social democrats win again.
Granted, Croats ARE a minority among the majorities, and all Croatian nationalist parties together have less members than social democrats so it may seem that social democrats are exploiting a faulty system at the expense of an ethnic minority.
And that would be true
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
That if we make the label "Islamic" based primarily on blasphemy laws, that such a level of generalization would make many western democracies appear almost as bad.
You know...
Just as the OP way above generalized that "they are horrendous in one form or another" - saying that "Islamic" means "run by Sharia laws" is basically the same thing.
You know... taking a word that describes the whole culture and making it about single (and probably the most unfavorable) possible aspect of SOME of the elements of that culture.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
IMHOTEP...IMHOTEP...IMHOTEP
And if you are running a democratic country and you put such a thing to a vote (as you would need to in a democracy) - you are almost certainly going to be voted/vetoed out.
Plus, you are mixing economic system with nationalistic ideology, with a mock-religion and a one is a product of a religious belief.
You could have just as well used blue, car driving, cheese eating and farming. Makes almost as much sense.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens