Responsibility Key To Filter-free Internet

The hornets’ nest is definitely stirred up over inappropriate content being posted on the Internet, content that is potentially in breach of the law. I love the freedom of the Internet to post and publish content about any topic you like, but with this privilege comes responsibility. The community is sick of it, and i see change coming.

No longer is it OK for big business sites like Facebook and YouTube to hide behind the cloak of ‘we have so many members/contributions, it is too difficult to monitor everything. Tough! You earn revenue from it, you obey the law or, you could end up in a court room in Italy defending yourself or worse!

The reason for the success of Facebook and YouTube, and other social content sites is that they provide value to a large group of people. The problem they now face is a very small group of people are abusing the privilege and a solution needs to be found.

I am sure there will action taken, there has to be. With billions invested in social sites and the plan for billions in profits to be earned in the years ahead, the clever people who design these services will come up with a solution or find themselves looking for a job.

2UE – Internet Filter Plus More

Spoke with Tracey and Stuart about a couple of things today, including Senator’s Conroy’s Internet filter. Tracey put me on the spot, but I thought it was a good question – is the Internet filter a good thing. In a nutshell, no.

I think Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s intentions are good. I don’t buy into the argument that it will lead to a Big Brother type situation, because that is not his intent. The government wants to protect children from pornographic, or disturbing content. And being a parent, I agree in principle. What I don’t agree on is the way they are going to roll it out. Without going into specifics, most kids know of ways to use proxy servers so they can go around the filter (which would be mandatory), so it would be pointless. Things are heating up with this subject and will only get more contentious.

Had some good calls this morning, too. Adam wanted to know why with some programmes on the television he gets black lines above and below the picture with mostly American series. This is due to the aspect ratios. Most programmes are now in the 16:9 format, but the older ones are 4:3. In Australia, we have used 16:9.

Paul said he has two Samsung DVD players and that sometimes they play certain disks, but not others. There are probably two reasons for this – one is that DVDs come in different formats, and two, is that they are sometimes region specific. It sounds like there is a compatibility problem with the disk or region. He also said that one of his fishing DVDs used to work, but doesn’t any more. As long as other DVDs he is using work, I would suggest that maybe the disk itself has degraded over time, which can happen.

Mark was wondering if his plasma television has a built-in receiver. Some of the older models don’t, but there is one way to find out. Look on the back of the television and there should be an aerial plug at the back. If you have the plug you have the ability to receive. If not, you will have to buy a set-top box. An standard definition box is about $50 while a high-definition is about $150.

Brian was wondering why his television has different sound volumes when he changes channel. I don’t have much to do with the pay channels, but I do know that free-to-air channels try and keep the sound constant (except for that old bugbear of ads being at a higher volume). There are even televisions being produced whereby an inbuilt device keeps sound at a constant level.

Finally, we also looked at the Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700, which is a cooling device that you sit you laptop on, and there are also speakers at the side, which are better than you laptop speakers. This is suitable for when you are watching YouTube videos or movies on your portable PC. As Tracey pointed out, one reason for men to embrace this kind of tech is to protect certain parts of their anatomy from being damaged by heat.

ChatRoulette – Eye Drops Essential

It’s a funny thing the Internet sometimes. I first visited chatroulette.com at the beginning of the year and it was harmless. People were on the site saying ‘Hi’, ‘Where are you?’ and other introductory questions.

Today, the site, in my opinion, is full of people trying to shock others by their actions, voyeurs and attention seekers, and all i want to say is: “Don’t go there!”

No doubt some of you will – you’ll connect your webcam, dial in chatroulette.com to your browser and hit f9 to connect. That is the only orderly features of this site. Where you go from there and what you see, not even Nostradamus could predict.

The creator of the site has used flash version 10 to stream the video. The main feature of version 10 is that the video coming from your PC can go directly to the other PC and vice versa, creating a reduced lag foot print on the host websites network resources.

After you hit connect, the website instantly connects you to someone else sitting at their computer, looking into their webcam and you are meant to start chatting about, well, whatever.

If you see some kind of bad behaviour from a user and want to report it, bad luck. There is no sign up process or user authentication, not that it would do any good anyway. Oh, sure, they tell you on the site that you can report abuses, but how are they going to trace the person doing the abuse? Some people are on the site for seconds.

I will leave you now, And please don’t visit chatroulette.com or at least remember that when you do, you have been warned.