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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?"
It happened immediately after this was posted: http://video.ap.org/?f=None&pid=oT7qj_wiVHTbYae3scwok4_irYjJ2R8Z (warning: disturbing)
They do have sham elections, torture people for the USA even and have secret prisons.
Nice try though.
video news guidance
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
we also had decade+ long war without cause, open "legalized" torture of prisoners of war, corporate malfeasance robbing millions of their retirements and life savings, etc. etc. etc. qatar had none of that.
Here's to finally giving Bush his exit strategy in November
From what I've gathered, the Muslim Brotherhood is a shadow of their former selves; they were really big in the 80s and 90s, but they've lost direction and momentum. I think that they're currently just a specter straw-man that Mubarak and the Egyptian government likes to throw up to help keep the opposition in check.
In other words, they're Egypt's Al-Qaeda, a great excuse for a dictator to keep clenching his iron fist.
I went back there last December to see my cousin get married. Most Egyptians I spoke about politics -- there are elections coming up soon and it's a topic everyone wants to talk about -- seem to want very little to do with the Brotherhood; they blame them for a good number of terrorist and don't want them anywhere near positions of power.
I don't deny that there's a risk in open elections -- certainly, you run the risk of electing kooks and crazies in every election. I just don't think the Brotherhood is as terrifying a specter as we think they are. At least, not any more. Have a little faith in the Egyptian people.
Ne Cede Malis.
It currently looks like people are switching to more old fashioned means and using leaflets and word of mouth. Hold in mind that though Cairo, and many other Arab capitals are gigantic, they are often much more similar to a huge collection of small towns where everyone knows everyone (and everyone's business). Taking out the internet seems like a particularly desperate act, especially since the protests are expected to begin following Friday prayer (which the government can't forbid completely without REALLY losing legitimacy) when people will be gathered together already (and thus able to communicate.)
Back in the old, old days there was this software called "SLIP" that was developed by Hams around the world. It stood for "Serial Line Internet Protocol" and was one of the first packages that let people connect to the Internet via their home modems. This was before PPP. SLIP was developed so Hams could transmit IP packets wirelessly around the world. Hm, wireless IP, I wonder where I've heard that before...
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
I will give you the vote part. We do have voting in Egypt, but the elections are predetermined, with a combination of ballot stuffing, intimidation and exclusion.
Decent life is what we are after. So on that I agree too.
Now regarding women and education, you are wrong. Orders of magnitudes wrong. My mother, who is in her late 70s now got a higher degree back in the 50s. Two of my maternal aunts got masters degrees and then PhDs (one from the USA, the other from Japan). Two of my aunts from my paternal sides got bachelors degrees and worked too. My wife is a computer engineer.
Should I go on?
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
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.
You might be too young to know, but modems are good for more than connecting to ISPs. You can create data connections to other persons, forming a shadow network.
Something like Fidonet with its node/point structure could be made pretty much unkillable even in such a situation unless the state would kill ALL communications.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?