Cyberwar
The idea of cyberwar alongside Gulf War 2 is flying excitably around the internet. Not, we think, because there actually is a cyberwar going on, at least as far as the Iraqis are concerned: unsurprisingly Iraq's internet resources are in a fairly crude state. According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2001 there were 12,500 people in Iraq using the internet.
While, hmm, in America there are 165 million. So far the main casualty of this not-cyberwar has been Al-Jazeera's new English website, a few US and British businesses which have had anti-war slogans hacked into them, and that's it. Some conspiracy theorists are suggesting it's all being done by the American government, but others (there are a lot around, this is the internet) point out the US government is clearly trying to keep the internet going as a means of communication for any Iraqis who want to turn ol' Saddam in. Meanwhile, one imagines that the Iraqis have got slightly more pressing things on their mind than launching a denial of service attack on the White House. So basically it's pro-war hackers against anti-war hackers, which we think actually makes it cybercivilwar. Which is fine, really, if it keeps them busy and off the streets.
english.aljazeera.net
www.uruklink.net
www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/03/21/iraq_online/index.html?x
Gary Hart
Proof that the blogging movement is spreading far and wide: the well-known Gary Hart, one of the democrat Presidential not-very-hopefuls for 2004, has started a blog. He obviously, as several commentators pointed out, really Gets It: he's using Moveable Type, (a very stylish free personal publishing system) and MeetUp to organise his supporters.
Funnily enough he doesn't refer to Donna Rice, the woman with whom he had an affair that helped bring an end to his 1988 presidential campaign, after he told journalists to "Follow me around, it will be boring".
www.garyhartnews.com/hart/blog
www.movabletype.org
www.meetup.com
Break warning
For other homeworkers there's now a dear little program that allows you to recreate those halcyon days in the office. Remember the way your computer used to flash up little messages caringly telling you to take a break, just after you'd got back from a sneaky fag in the stairwell? Well Workrave does the same thing. It's a package that tries to protect you from RSI by repeatedly telling you to get up and walk around. Of course, some of us don't need telling.
workrave.sourceforge.net
Misleading
Good to know the American government still has time to think about pornography: the House of Representatives last week voted to ban pornographic sites with misleading addresses and computer-generated child pornography. Which should create a big problem for Whitehouse.com, the porn site with a slightly misleading name. Vice-president Dick Cheney is also in conflict with Whitehouse.org, a parody site which, he insists, should not be carrying photographs and articles about his wife. Complete coincidence, of course.
www.whitehouse.gov
www.whitehouse.org
The Onion
Finally, just in case you'd forgotten it was out there, The Onion, the satirical American website (not an oxymoron, apparently) is outdoing itself at the moment. Pay it a quick visit to read gems like 'US forms own UN': "We gave the old UN a go for I don't know how many years, but it just wasn't working," said Dick Cheney, a US delegate to the USUN. I can't tell you how much easier it is to achieve consensus when you don't have to worry about dissent." Other great stories this week: 'Dead Iraqi would have loved democracy'. Thank you.
www.theonion.com
New & noted
· Collections of stories told by anyone who comes along: www.otherpeoplesstories.com
· A report by the US Lawyers Committee for Human Rights on the erosion of civil liberties since 9/11: www.lchr.org/us_law/loss/imbalance/powers.pdf
· Dedicated to Alice in all her forms: www.alice-in-wonderland.fsnet.co.uk
· New game on same model as Celebdaq, but with blogs. Hmm: www.blogshares.com
