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Kazakhstan Disables the Internet , Telecomix Restores

Posted by timothy on from the for-make-benefit-glorious-nation dept.

bs0d3 writes "In the face of oil protests on their 20th independence day, Kazakhstan has blocked the internet and disabled cellphone towers in the city of Zhanaozen. As with previous internet blackouts, hactivist group telecomix is putting together free dial-up servers for people blacked out in this region."

12 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Couldn't Resist... by broginator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Very nice!

    --
    s/[stupid comments]/[intelligent discourse]/gi
  2. Hard to do w/o a Hayes compatible modem.... by LVSlushdat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who still has a modem thats capable of dial-up????

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    THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
    1. Re:Hard to do w/o a Hayes compatible modem.... by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Lots of recent laptops still come with them - it's cheaper to include it than it is to remove it by changing the motherboard design.

      Also, the government action is self-defeating. Trying t get back at oil workers on a sit-down strike doesn't get those oil workers back to work - and oil workers are a specialized trade. Firing and blacklisting one group "en masse" just means you now have a smaller pool to hire from. Reagan could do it during the air traffic controllers' strike because there were others available to hire and you can use new technology to fill some of the gap - this isn't the case in an industry where technology has already taken up all the slack it can, and there's a world-wide shortage of oil workers.

  3. Hey by Galestar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least in the Land of the Free we don't kill protesters. We just pepper spray them, beat them senseless, and arrest them only to let them go 24 hours later without charges.

    America's dead. Long live America.

    --
    AccountKiller
    1. Re:Hey by a_kibitzer · · Score: 4, Informative

      The kids at Kent State and Jackson State may disagree with you.

    2. Re:Hey by Grygus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Have not been repeated yet. People have been hurt. It's only a matter of time before some Occupy kids decide they've had enough and actually fight back; if some of the cops are willing to assault completely peaceful protesters, what will they do given a reason to be afraid? It seems very unlikely to me that they will suddenly become professionals with a modicum of restraint. It doesn't take a corrupt police force; just one coward with a gun. We've already seen that those are being deployed to these events. I think it is inevitable unless the protests die out fairly quickly.

  4. Re:Internet loss = BAD by icebraining · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would just curl

    Not without Internet, you wouldn't!

    --
    Dilbert RSS feed
  5. Re:Internet loss = BAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    He still doesn't wget it....

  6. Particularly since they are almost nothing by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    More or less all a modem is in a laptop these days is the hardware to convert the impedance and voltage to work with the 48v balanced phone system. There is no logic, it is all handled in software. Computers are so powerful it isn't hard to do anymore and there's no real performance issue. As such adding one to a system is dirt cheap.

    Also there are some geeks, like me, that still have a modem laying around. I have an old USR Courier in my closet. Should I need it for any reason, like when I move to a new place and am waiting on cable to get hooked up (though they are much faster now) I have it. I haven't used it in years, particularly what with having a smartphone, but I still keep it because why not?

  7. Re:First Post by tqk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It adds more to the conversation that using buzzwords like "hacktivist".

    I happen to like that word. What's wrong with it?

    English is a bastard language, stealing from wherever and then mangling what it stole into whatever form it pleases. What's your problem?

    --
    "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  8. Re:nbd by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of all Asian Soviet republics, Kazakhstan was the most well developed. Among other things, it's where Baikonur is.

  9. Re:First Post by tqk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes the English language had diverse roots but came to a standardised form MANY moons ago ...

    Hogwash! As recently as Churchill ("... up with which, I will not put!"), it's been a lively language. Hell, all you need to do is put an Englishman in a room with a Scot, an Irish, an Aussie/Zealander, a Canuck, and a North and a South US-ian, and you'll be hard pressed to understand what anyone's saying. Extra points if the Englishman is Cockney.

    The French have been trying to set their language in stone for quite a while by law, and look how that's turned out.

    --
    "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.