The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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DMCA claim filed against graduate student
First up on today’s menu: more DMCA legal shenanigans, with a United States copy-protection software developer filing suit against a graduate student at Princeton University under s1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998. SunnComm Technology alleges that one J Halderman engaged in circumvention of a protection measure when publishing a research paper, which detailed… Read more →
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Visual Diary
What better time to begin an ambitious project than 3 weeks before end of semester exams? It is probably an indication of the extent of my procrastination to note the inverse correlation between amount of free time and quantity of posts. At any rate, astute readers will notice a new addition to the navigation bar… Read more →
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New Laptop Technology
Further to my previous post, there are some interesting new developments in the portable technology field which have caught the attention of many in the online tech community: Hard drive ‘airbags’: IBM has developed a way to cushion laptop hard drives against sudden shock or impact in an attempt to curb one of the most… Read more →
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Portable Computing
I’ve never seen the point of those desktop replacement laptops. They weigh at least several of your least favourite units of mass, are less capable than a similarly-priced desktop PC, and cost far, far more. If a portable computer is needed, it makes little sense to pay twice as much for a computer half as… Read more →
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A Fresh Take on Public Transportation
Owing to some minor disruptions at Melbourne’s equivalent of Grand Central Station, I alighted upon a different train to travel home from university this afternoon. Perhaps it’s just a measure of the banality of my everyday existence to say that I was utterly captivated by the novelty of this experience: new trackside sights, stations of… Read more →
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State Censorship and Cyber Autonomy
A recent report published by Privacy International suggests that internet censorship is at an all time high. In addition to extensive regulation by non-democratic states, the study points to the heightened sensitivity of many Western governments in response to a perceived terrorist threat. However, it is noted that an active censorship poses an even greater… Read more →
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News Snippets
Just some quick news bytes before I return to my riveting pursuits. The gallery has also been updated with a few new pictures of the Freehills debating final, Julian Burnside’s public lecture, and other university events. TCP/IP your days are numbered: this new bongo drum protocol looks set to revolutionise data transfer (not). For want… Read more →
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Federal Spam Bill Set to Achieve Nothing
On the local (Australian) front (pardon the anchor cliché), the recent tabling of a tough national Spam law has received industry accolade, and looks set to pass when it is read for a second time next month. Under the proposed legislation, entities engaging in electronic mass-mail practices face penalties of over $1 million a day.… Read more →
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Logocentrism and Legal Conceptions of the Subject
It’s that time of semester again! Time for another meaty analysis of that legal system so dear to our hearts. This time the unwitting critic is poststructural semiotics – what joy! Time to deconstruct me a gavel to wreak metaphysical havoc…Ahem. Word-play aside, the next two weeks will be marked by my wayward frolicking through… Read more →
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Galileo End of Mission
According to the NASA website, the Galileo spacecraft will shortly be manoeuvred into a descent path which will send it plunging into the Jovian atmosphere. This will mark the end of a 14 year long mission ranked among NASA’s greatest successes. On Sept. 21, NASA’s Galileo mission will come to an end when the hardy… Read more →