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Orkut
Anton sent me an Orkut invitation today. At the very least it's an entertaining toy to click around with. It will be interesting to see if it has any real value other than occupying time and offering the occasional bit of humour. Certainly there were a few chuckles when I stumbled accross profiles "belonging to" James Brown and Gollum, not to mention the obligatory Kevin Bacon.
Oh, and I almost forgot the "Anatomically Correct Pink Angora Nude Suits Appreciation Community".
Letter
To: jnews@triplej.abc.net.auSubject: Hack 29/1/2004
Hi there,
Firstly, I realise this isn't necessarily the correct place to send stuff for Steve Cannane's "Hack" program but I cannot find a better one on the website. If you could forward this on or send me a better address then I'd appreciate it.
Secondly, I've thoroughly enjoyed "Hack" since it's arrival. It's certainly good to have something engaging and sometimes challenging to listen to as I begin my trip home from work.
However, in this afternoon's edition you squarely ("absolutely" was the term used if I recall correctly) placed the blame for the recent MyDoom internet worm at the feet of the "Open Source Community".
a) There is, as far as I know, absolutely no evidence supporting this claim. SCO is certainly a high profile company at the moment because of it's lawsuits against some members of the Open Source community. It does not necessarily follow that a member of the community must be responsible for the attack. SCO may simply be a target because they are an attractive one publicity-wise. No doubt some of the people responsible for writing worms need no more reason that.
b) Other aspects of the worm such as the fact it installs a backdoor point to the usual suspects for most worms, spammers who seek to us other peoples computers to make money for themselves by sending spam. http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/0104/28worm.html
c) The Open Source community is a positive, productive one. They are responsible, for example. for the software underpinning the ABC website and no doubt countless other things that make the ease of communication you and I enjoy every day possible. This email will reach you with their help. Destructive behaviour such as attacking the SCO website or anti-user behaviour such as installing a backdoor or trojan on a users machine runs counter to the fundamental values underlying the Open Source community.
As such I think some sort of apology or clarification may be due. Without wishing to appear melodramatic you can surely imagine the outrage that would occur if you tarred wholesale many other community groups with being responsible such a crime. The Open Source Community should not be subject to such slurs merely because they are just a bunch of faceless geeks and nerds dealing with things that the media may have no great grasp of nor particularly care about.
For any future IT related stories I would certainly consider doing a little bit more than simply ringing up someone in the ABC IT department for what appears to have been unsubstantiated opinion and a few choice quotes, as appears to have been the case here.
Thanks for your time,
Paul
Alcohol Season
Various photos from various events during the Alcohol Season have now been put up.GoogleNack?
I'm beginning to wonder if I have some sort of magical powers over Google.A search for Melbourne grand prix brings my picture page up in 4th place.
A search for rugby rules and instructions brings up the rules from last years RWC tipping comp I hosted up in 4th place.
Search for Pittwater Park. Me again in position 3.
All manner of searches end up here which must be somewhat disappointing for the people doing the searches unless they are just after a track list.
The real question is why? None of these pages are linked to from outside to any extent. I think google is stalking me.
