Technology Info

Blogging about the wrong topics in Iran won’t just get you censored; it could get you killed. Iran’s parliament voted last week to discuss a draft bill that would “toughen punishment” for a number of crimes that it believes to be detrimental to society by making them subject to the death penalty. This list already includes crimes like armed robbery, rape, and leaving the religion of Islam (apostasy), but running a blog or website that promotes corruption, prostitution, or apostasy may soon be added.

Citizens found guilty of these crimes “should be punished as mohareb (enemy of God) and ‘corrupt on the earth,’” according to the text of the bill seen by the AFP, which lays out a spectrum of punishments ranging from exile and amputation (the theory apparently being that it’s hard to post without hands) to hanging. The bill also has stipulations that say it cannot be suspended or changed in the future. (link)

No matter what you think of blogging, Internet-based citizen journalism is a real threat, not just to traditional media business models but to totalitarian governments. How do we know that bloggers are drawing blood? Because some governments are hitting back harder and harder; last year saw a tripling in the number of bloggers arrested around the world compared to 2006, according to a report from the University of Washington.

“Last year, 2007, was a record year for blogger arrests, with three times as many as in 2006. Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since blogging became big,” said Assistant Professor Phil Howard, lead author of the World Information Access Report. Howard also suggests that the real number of arrests may be much higher, as not every arrest makes it into the media. (link)

Music industry representatives have warned advertisers to stop supporting Baidu, China’s largest search engine, because they believe it is encouraging music piracy.

Baidu is the largest source of pirated music in China, according to the representatives, who describe the company as “incorrigible”.

The Chinese firm’s music search engine is accessed through what is described as a prominent link on the company’s home page.

Baidu provides links only to music files stored on third-party servers. No music is stored on computers owned or controlled by Baidu. (link)

China has launched an investigation into online mapping services by Internet giants including Google and Sohu in an effort to protect state secrets and territorial integrity, state press said.

According to Min Yiren, vice head of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, authorities hope to get rid of online maps that wrongly depict China’s borders or that reveal military secrets, the People’s Daily said Monday.

The government began the investigation into the problematic maps in April and will continue it until the end of the year, the report said.

Min cited five areas of concern, with the redrawing of China’s borders and placing disputed territory outside the nation the top priority, it said. (link)

China called on the international community Thursday to increase the flow of technology to developing countries to help them fight climate change.

Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said developed nations “need to establish a mechanism for technological transfer” of environmentally friendly technology so developing countries can afford them.

China - which rivals the United States as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases - has pledged to raise energy efficiency but has declined to sign up to internationally agreed emissions reductions.

Along with other developing countries such as India, China says their economies should not be penalized by binding cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases when their per capita emissions are much below those in developed countries. (link)

Chinese authorities appeared to have lifted a block on the English-language version of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, but politically sensitive topics such as Tibet and Tiananmen Square are still off limits.

Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai confirmed on Saturday that they could access the English-language version of one of the world’s most popular websites, but the Chinese language version was still restricted.

While searches of random topics such as “Johann Sebastian Bach” and “dim sum” brought up English-language articles, sensitive words such as Tibet were met with a message that the browser was unable to connect to the Internet.

The move comes after International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspectors told Beijing organisers that the Internet must be open for the duration of the 2008 Olympics and that blocking it “would reflect very poorly” on the host country. (link)

If video is going to be streamed in China, the state wants to know about it. China requires a streaming company to obtain a state license and then avoid airing clips that might inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security. That’s a huge burden for sites that feature user-generated content, especially when “endangering national security” includes showing video clips of Chinese unrest. This week, China mounted a crackdown on 62 separate web sites that in violated a new law against showing online audio and video without permits.

When the government first instituted the law back in January, Internet video sites had already become hugely popular in China, and it was widely suspected that the rules would not be strictly enforced. At first, these suspicions appeared justified, as nothing happened for two months, even to the many sites that never bothered to obtain the state license to broadcast. (link)

When I registered at my local gym (Cheetah Gym Bucktown represent!), the folks behind the counter took a photo of me that would show up every time I signed in. This, presumably, is to prevent me from letting my friends abuse my gym membership. Other places do it too, including discount membership stores like Costco and Sam’s Club. Businesses like Internet cafes, on the other hand, aren’t usually known for demanding ID—customers can waltz in and be almost as anonymous there as they are on the Internet. But if you’re an Internet café user in Beijing, China, you will soon be required to register with your real name and a photo before logging on.

53 Internet cafés in Beijing’s Xicheng District will be fitted with a new login system by the end of this month, according to the district’s Culture Administration Enforcement Team. Additionally, all eight urban districts of Beijing will require Internet cafés to adopt real-name registration by June of this year, and all eight suburban districts will need to install the new system before 2009. The new system will include new management and supervisory capabilities, which Xicheng’s District Culture Commission says will “provide a database for supervision decision-making.” (link)

On June 22, 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that the Pentagon’s network had been successfully attacked the previous Wednesday, and that this attack was responsible for a disruption in email service to some 1,500 Pentagon employees. At the time, Gates downplayed the attack, saying that it affected only the OSD’s (Office of the Secretary of Defense) non-classified e-mail service and that there was “no anticipated adverse impact on ongoing operations.” It seems that the adverse impact of the June attack may have been much greater than Gates’ early guidance implied. According to a top DoD technology official quoted at GovernmentExecutive.com, the thieves behind that attack seized an “amazing amount” of data.

New details on the attack itself have become available in the months since it occurred. According to Dennis Clem, CIO of the Pentagon and the OSD, the intrusion was first detected during an IT restructuring that was underway at the time. By the time it was detected, malicious code had been in the system for at least two months, and was propagating via a known Windows exploit. The bug spread itself by e-mailing malicious payloads from one system on the network to another. The messages themselves were spoofed and appeared to be legitimate missives from other employees. Once the recipient opened an infected e-mail, the worm sent that person’s password and other login credentials back to home base. (link)

Found this site with pictures of the CECT P168 iPhone clone. I’m certainly intrigued by getting one of these, especially if it offers the same functionality (or very close). Price is an issue too. If I can get one of these babies for $150 instead of $400 for an iPhone, it’s a done deal. I’m just wary of buying one off of eBay from a seller located in China. What the warranty like? Is reception going to suck? I’ll just wait until the iPhone comes to Canada.

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