Blag

The box is locked, it is dangerous.

I have to live with it overnight

And I can’t keep away from it.

There are no windows, so I can’t see what is in there.

There is only a little grid, no exit.

Excerpt from “The Arrival of the Bee Box” – Sylvia Plath

It is the end…

…welcome to the dark side, so 5 people told me, all within a few minutes of signing away my life to Facebook.

I have caved in after 17.5 years. 17.5 years of hard work – staying anonymous to the rest of the world, keeping all my personal details out of address books, social networking websites, forums, SPAM and mailing lists – all to be undone in a few clicks of a mouse.

Welcome to Facebook, your account has been created — now it will be easier than ever to share and connect with your friends.

…the e-mail said. I personally think it should read:

Thank you for signing your life away – your business, is our business.

Facebook is such a ginormic waste of time, but a necessary evil to keep in touch with others and for Uni. I’m shocked at how long and how often people spend their free time on Facebook, and the amount of personally identifiable information floating around on there. Good thing profiles are set to private by default too, or I’d be in ICU by now on life support.

…it IS very addictive.

And yes my dear Bergamin, there is finally a picture of me on the internet. I am so not paying you the challenge money. Hmpf.

NB: Facebook is the ONLY social networking website that I will sign up to this year. Or the next. And the year after that. Ok, perhaps Youtube, but otherwise no more social networking! :@

Some moron with a jackhammer managed to cut through 400mm of concrete, straight through fibre optics and copper cables, knocking out internet, telephones, and mobile connectivity for thousands in the CBD. The repair bill is estimated to be $1,000,000 + probable compensation for homeowners and businesses. It will take over a week to pull and re-splice new fibre, and then longer to re-patch 10, 000 copper pairs.

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/318725/thousands_lose_phone_internet_services_sydney_cbd

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/cables-cut-cbd-phone-and-internet-services-lost-20090916-fq4h.html

But that got me thinking – all the western countries are all hyped up over the threat of terrorism. We have extra tight security at airports (or none, in some cases -.- ), anti-terrorism laws, warning speakers installed in the city, ASIO/FBI/M1X bla bla bla.

But what’s to stop a terrorist wreaking havoc just by taking an axe to a few telecommunications and power cables? Last time I checked, the telecomms ducts could be accessed relatively easily by a single person with a screw driver, nor are any of the vital cables physically shielded or hardened in any way.

I could cut internet and phone access to the (North Ryde) Business Park down the road from my house, just from being over-enthusiastic with a backhoe and digging a 50cm hole in my front yard.

Poof! There goes the 10G metro fibre rings. Goodbye, thousands of copper pairs. *Throws rope across street* Sayonara Telstra, Optus and Foxtel HFC networks. There’s so much fibre/hfc/copper running through my street it’s not funny.

If I remember correctly a similar case happened in the US to AT&Ts network. A disgruntled employee came along one night, lifted the hatch to a fibre duct, and went snippety-snip. Half the city lost internet access, phones stopped working and 911 calls disappeared into a black hole.

Sure, I’d get screwed by the AFP because willfully tampering with telecommunications is a federal offense but hey, I get my share of the limelight in the media! Now what was the number for Kennard’s Hire again…

GG to these asstards for making everyone’s lives better: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/155993,parking-rangers-add-to-telstra-outage-woes.aspx

Everyone whinges about it, but I feel like I’m missing out.

SPAM!

I have 13 e-mail accounts, and I get on average a grand total of 1 spam e-mail a month across all of them. So like, what’s up with this??? I want my fair share of penis enlarger, Viagra and Nigerian 419 scam e-mails!

This blog used to get spam comments – 552 of them, gained over a period of 10 months – but even they have dried up.

Perhaps my digital identity paranoia is keeping me from the oh-so-desired offers for $20, 000, 000 USD dollars from Mrs. Doraty Sithole from Zimbabwe, whose husband was brutally murdered Robert Mugabe’s lackeys for supporting white farmers.

*scans passport and e-mails to xxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com*