The Ammazza blog killer is an attack of freedom

IN Italy, plans are afoot to curtail free speech on the internet. The idea is that anyone libelled online can get instant satisfaction. The so-called “Ammazza blog” (blog killer”) proposal is outlined by Marco:

In order to protect people from online defamation, this law states that each webmaster of whatever website must rectify within 48 hours (even if you’re a private blogger who just left for the weekend!) any page on the website itself, if somebody just tells him or her (how?) that they consider themselves wronged by that page. No discussion or reply allowed, no judge needed, and the fine for not “rectifying” within 2 days is 12K Euros.

Anorak

Posted: 19th, April 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

Digital TV for Ulster Scots in ‘Northren Ireland’: Whit Is The Deegital Cheenge-Ower?

THE Digital Changeover is coming. “Digital UK is the not-for-profit company leading the UK’s switchover to digital television”. It’s got advice for TV viewers in all regions of the British Isles. And that includes the “Ulster Scots”:

Anorak

Posted: 15th, April 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

Time-lapse video of the skies over Chile’s Atacama Desert

MEANWHILE… in Chile’s Atacama Desert Babak Tafreshi is watching the skies and recording it in a time-lapse video:

Walking on the desert near Paranal between the scattered stones and boulders on the pale red dust feels like being on Mars, but under the Earth sky. One of the most astonishing experiences under such a starry sky is the view of the Milky Way. In several scenes of the film, the setting arc of the Milky Way is captured over the cloud-covered Pacific coastline.

Anorak

Posted: 9th, April 2012 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

The 10 biggest idiots on Facebook

THE 10 biggest idiots on Facebook include: the thief who logged into his Facebook profile in his victim’s home and forgot to log off; the woman who pinged her dad’s death room; the plane masturbator; and the consummated affair…

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Anorak

Posted: 6th, April 2012 | In: Technology | Comments (2)

Car advert says Mitsubishi Magna is great for storing hookers in the boot

HOW do they sell cars in Australia? Why, by advertising the capacity to transport hookers and sprout chest hair in the Geraldton Guardian…

Click to make bigger.

Spotter: Rent The Roo, via Tim Blair

Anorak

Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

Ministers save Royal Mail with GCHQ powers to snoop on your emails and web porn

THE end of the free internet is nigh. The Government is to monitor all emails, phone calls, text and websites you view. Of course, GCHQ already does just that. But soon it will be legal.

GCHQ will have the right to see your online activity without a warrant. They can spy on you in what the wonks call “real time”.

The way to avoid detection is to sign up to some dark recess of the internet, like Friends Reunited, AOL or LibDem Online. Or do as Al Qaeda did last year and restart your fax machines.

Anorak

Posted: 1st, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment

Apple’s Foxconn interns paid better than Lib Dem interns

SO there was this great big campaign, with petitions and plays and online sign ups and the usual ignorant outrage displayed on Twitter and Facebook about how appalling the working conditions and pay were at Foxconn. You know, the giant seris of factories in China that make everything for Apple and HP and Microsoft and all.

We’ve now got the results from an in depth investigation into those working conditions and pay.

The general finding is that poor people work long hours for not much money. Well, yes, that’s true, that’s what being poor means, working long hours for not much money. Shrug, that’s what poor people in poor countires do, that’s why we describe them as poor and that’s why we’d like them to carry on having an industrial revolution so they can become rich like us.

Tim Worstall

Posted: 30th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Money, Politicians, Technology | Comment

The Amazon Kiva robot in action – video

WHEN Amazon bought robot-making company Kiva for $775m  we wanted to see how the things worked. It’s brilliant. If the robots could read the books and then implant the knowledge straight into the human brian, more time would be saved…

Spotter: interesting

Anorak

Posted: 30th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

The AKAI ‘portable’ VTR 1/4″ video tape recorder – the birth of home-made porn

WHEN was user-generated pornography born? Before the camera phone it was 1972 and amateur filmmakers were getting to grips with the AKAI “portable” VTR 1/4″ video tape recorder. The tapes required no processing, so negating any need for trips to that special shop at the back of the precinct. It had a “hands-off  operation”.

Anorak

Posted: 30th, March 2012 | In: Flashback, Technology, The Consumer | Comment (1)

Liam Stacey’s sentence is an attack on free speech

HAVING seen Liam Stacey, 21, sent to prison for his racist tweets aimed at footballer Fabrice Muamba and twitter users, what has happened since? Well, the righteous have been congratulating themselves on their successful twitter hunt.

For this tweeter it was an “I was there” moment:

Saska Shepherd ‏ @saskashepherd  – I’mgladLiamStaceyhasbeenjailed. I’msureI’moneof100’swhoreportedhisracisttweetstothepolice. #prayformuamba

This tweeter thought of Liam Stacey’s death:

Milan Enslin ‏– I wouldn’t really care if Liam Stacey died.. He’s a sick man, fromthe scum of the earth… #moreracistthanjohnterry

Anorak

Posted: 29th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (33)

Faces of the day: Richard Lee Norris’ full face transplant – photos

THIS is Richard Lee Norris, the recipient of an extensive full face transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. In 1997, Mr Norris accidentally shot himself in the face. For 15 years he hid his face from the gawping world. Then he was given a new face, teeth, tongue and jaw.

Says Dr Eduardo Rodriguez, the lead surgeon:

“It’s a surreal experience to look at him. It’s hard not to stare. Before, people used to stare at Richard because he wore a mask and they wanted to see the deformity. Now, they have another reason to stare at him, and it’s really amazing.”

Anorak

Posted: 27th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

Liam Stacey gets 56 days prison for racist Fabrice Muamba tweets

LIAM Stacey has been jailed for 56 days for posting offensive tweets about Bolton Wanderers’ player Fabrice Muamba. Liam Stacey, 21, was a third-year biology student at Swansea University when he made tweets defined as racially aggravated harassment. At Swansea Magistrates Court, District Judge John Charles told him:

“It was racist abuse via a social networking site instigated as a result of a vile and abhorrent comment about a young footballer who was fighting for his life. At the moment not just the footballer’s family, not just the footballing world but the whole world were literally praying for his life, your comments aggravated this situation. I have no choice but to impose an immediate custodial sentence to reflect the public outrage at what you have done.”

Stacey cried.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comments (19)

Using Ashleigh Hall to create a Facebook paedo panic

IN “I posed as a girl of 14 online. What followed will sicken you” Mark Williams-Thomas told Daily Mail readers that he was “shocked by what I encountered when I spent just five minutes on a social networking site posing as a 14-year-old girl”.

Adding:

“Within 90 seconds, a middle-aged man wanted to perform a sex act in front of me.”

How do we know it was middle-aged man? Middle-aged men on Facebook have been known to pose as 14-year-old girls.

…I wasn’t surprised that a vulnerable teenager, Ashleigh Hall, was groomed on Facebook before being brutally raped and killed.

Anorak

Posted: 26th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment

Giles Walker’s ‘Last Supper’ – photos of a scrap yard Jesus

THIS is an art installation by Giles Walker entitled ‘Last Supper’ – a fully animated sculpture consisting of thirteen mechanical figures who interact around a table – at the Black Rat Projects gallery in Shoreditch, east London. What can it mean to replay the Last Supper from man-made scrap?

Anorak

Posted: 22nd, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

Jon Ronson takes on @Jon_Ronson over wasabi dumplings

JON Ronson takes on @Jon_Ronson over wasabi dumplings. Jon Ronson has arranged to meet the creators of  twitter’s @Jon_Ronson. It’s a great discussion in which Ronson appears to be sat in a dock before a panel of magistrates who have a different agenda to his.

Anorak

Posted: 22nd, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

How Google Plus works – and other visons of hell

YOU e-card of the day will explain how social media works on Google Plus:

Anorak

Posted: 21st, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

We are all Azhar Ahmed now – State control online will hurt us all

AZHAR Ahmed, 19, was in the dock at Dewsbury magistrates’ court today. Azhar Ahmed was there because he posted an odious badly written Facebook comment that allegedly breached the rules of the Communications Act 2003. He had been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence. That was ridiculous.

Mr Ahmed, from Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, denied the new charge.

He will stand trial at Huddersfield magistrates’ court on July 3.

Outside court, an estimated 50 far-right protesters staged noisy demonstrations when he arrived and left.

On the same day, Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, Private Anthony Frampton, 20, Private Christopher Kershaw, 19, Private Daniel Wade, 20, and Private Daniel Wilford, 21, all of 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire were being repatriated.

Anorak

Posted: 20th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (4)

Fabrice Muamba tweeter Liam Stacey might go to prison

WHEN Liam Stacey wrote odious tweets about Fabrice Muamba, he was hounded on twitter. Stacey’s name was forwarded to the police. Stacey offered excuses and apologised on twitter. But that was not enough. Liam Stacey was arrested.

Stacey, from Pontypridd and studying at Swansea University, has stood in the dock before Swansea magistrates to answer for his tweets. He had spent the previous night in custody.

Anorak

Posted: 20th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

Fabrice Muamba alleged troll: Liam Stacey caught by twitter’s police snitches

LIAM Stacey has been named as the 21-year-old Swansea University student arrested over allegedly “sick” comments about Bolton Wanderer’s football Fabrice Muamba. (You can read the comments by @LiamStacey9 here). Perhaps as part of the 2003 Extradition Act, the US can send Chet Walken over to the UK to answer for his allegedly racist tweets?

On the left you can see other tweets form that address in which the tweeter apologises and claims his account was hacked – Click to make bigger.

The Mail picks up internet news that Liam Stacey is a biology undergraduate, originally from Pontypridd, South Wales.

He “posted tweets saying the remarks were not his and insisting he was not a racist. He claimed his account had been hacked and he hadn’t had access to his phone at the time the remarks were made.”

Anorak

Posted: 19th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment (1)

UPDATE: Fabrice Muamba twitter hunt – Liam Stacey arrested?

FOLLOWING comments made about Fabrice Muamba on twitter, South Wales Police have arrested a 21-year-old man. When Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba stopped breathing during his side’s FA Cup tie against Spurs, nasty tweets were made on the blog @liamstacey9. That twitter page has been shut down. Apparently, so too has a Facebook pave belonging to a man billed as “Liam Stacey”.

Muamba, 23, is in a critical condition at the London Chest Hospital.

You can read the comments here.

Anorak

Posted: 18th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comments (21)

Fabrice Muamba and the twitter hunt for @LiamStacey9

FABRICE Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers player who collapsed during his side’s FA Cup match with Spurs, is stable. Muamba has a son named Joshua and is engaged to Shauna. Fabrice Muamba is 23.

On twitter the hashtag #prayformuamba is showing that people can come together.

Not everyone is generous and humane. @liamstacey9 – now shut down – went against the grain. Tweets from that address contained the hashtag #muambasdead, a “LOL” and the word “coon”.

A twitter hunt is underway for Liam Stacey. In the US a Chet Walken tweeting from @WalkenG4OP revels in his bigotry:

Anorak

Posted: 17th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (7)

New iPad not greeted by rioting mobs – is this the start of the end of apple?

SOMETHING really rather strange has happened over at Apple. They’ve released a new product and yet we have no reports of stampeding crowds or rioting mobs screaming into the stores to get their hands on one.

Indeed, it’s rather the opposite:

Braying hordes of fanbois hungry for new iPads failed to turn up outside Blighty’s Apple stores today despite months of rumour, hype and speculation. Although slab shoppers were nonchalant in London, they were positively wet in Scotland. A queue of hundreds swiftly ebbed away outside the fruity tech titan’s Regent Street outlet, allowing at least one punter who rocked up at 9am to grab the improved fondleslab five minutes later.

The line was much more muted than previous iPad launches during which unlucky fans were turned away empty-handed.

A queue that only lasts an hour after the doors have opened just isn’t what we’ve come to expect from an Apple launch.

Tim Worstall

Posted: 16th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

The iPad 3 is an ‘I Was There’ moment – the shoppers in photos

THE iPad 3 going on sale has become an I Was There Moment. To help you gadget and apple fans recall the glory of shopping for a computer, we’ve taken picures of you in queues outside apple stores, insides apple stores and emerging from apple stores grinning like a Cheshire Cat with a new litter tray…

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Lukas from Germany is the first to get the new iPad at the Apple store in a shopping mall in Oberhausen, western Germany, Friday, March 16, 2012. Apart from a few countries, there is an internationally coordinated simultaneous release of the iPad. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Anorak

Posted: 16th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

Murder gets its own twitter feed

TWITTER twatter of the day is New Orleans murder @NOLAMurderMap – the feed that tweets murders in New Orleans – possibly not yet in real time:

New Orleans murder @NOLAMurderMap

Created, managed by Ryan Smith (@rsmithtp) of The Times-Picayune. View every murder in 2012 on an interactive map:http://www.nola.com/crime/murders/

Anorak

Posted: 16th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comment

Face of The Day: Zohaib Ali and the iPad 3 landfill hunters

FACE of The Day:  The first person in the queue for the new iPad 3, is  Zohaib Ali, from Uxbridge, who has queued since 11am on Saturday March 10. He sits outside the Apple Store on Regent Street in London.

Anorak

Posted: 15th, March 2012 | In: Technology | Comments (4)