So it seems China is really serious about censoring internet traffic. The New York Times reports that the government will require all PCs sold in the country must have filtering software pre-installed. With a implementation deadline of July 1, the system will allow the Chinese government to remotely update a banned list of websites stored on the computers.

I’m sure this will piss off a lot of Chinese. I can only imagine the reaction of online gamers who find access to their MMORPG cut at their local net cafe. But I’m pretty sure some savvy users will find ways around the block. Some enterprising programmer must be working on software to fool the government’s watchdog.

Now, I’m not familiar with computing realities in China. But if retailers like Dell or HP sell computers with bloatware, that’s something the Chinese government should definitely ban. Bloatware has long plagued new computer users, who’ve suffered from decreased performance and slowdowns caused by marketing-oriented pre-installed apps, and who’ve most likely struggled through a complete OS reinstall to clean up their brand new toys.

Which leads me to another question: what will stop users from reformatting their new computers, preinstalled with the government software, and starting from scratch? Has China actually reconfigured its gateways to allow access only to those running the software?

Foreign manufacturers retailing in China are definitely confused. Manufacturers have complained about the directive’s vagueness. They do know what the end result should be, but unsure about its implementation. “The wording may be intentionally vague, but the message is clear: we have no choice in the matter,” complained one anonymous computer executive.

In any case, some people see the required proliferation of this filtering software as a step back. I for one see the total, absolute end of computer bloatware as progress. I’d be willing to actually pay a bit more to free manufacturers from marketing deals which “force” them to pre-install bloatware. What about you?

Indeed! A world where even the most simplest tasks needed multiple screens to accomplish, and mom and dad each had a room to themselves for their internet-related stuff:

The misses? Well, one shared laptop is capable of doing everything outlined in the video, even the kid-monitoring stuff. And we definitely don’t need a “monitor” watching over our connections; that’s what all those software and communication protocols do on their own. The only hit I can think of is that virtual writing pad, very similar to today’s USB tablets. But it’s still doesn’t feel like writing on paper!

Also, consider how mom is totally dependent on her husband to pay for everything and manage the checkbook—just before the whole women’s lib thing, I think. Nowadays, women can pay for themselves, a reality that’s been very kind on my wallet.

Yesterday, Comcast increased its rates by 4.6 percent across the board, covering at the very least it’s digital cable and internet services:

The price hikes include $5.70 per month for the Digital Classic package, and $3.70 for standard cable service.

The increases are necessary because Comcast is hurt by the economy, too, spokesman Jeff Alexander said.

He cited gas prices, health care costs, increased programming costs, and improvements in the company’s technology and service.

As reader Carl noted when passing the news along, Comcast may have set a bad precedent for other service providers to follow. Can we expect companies to start charging higher monthly fees, and point the finger at the poorly performing economy?

A couple hackers… hacked their brethren in the recent DefCon 16, a yearly convention for, what else? Hackers. They won cheers from their fellow hackers, and are probably the buzz driving the grapevine right now. Here’s what you need to know:

The beauty of the technique presented by Alex Pilosov and Kapela is that hackers don’t need to break into websites or plant malicious computer code to control and tamper with data travelling the Internet, the presentation showed.

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As a three-year-old veteran of the Internet, I’m pretty young by online standards. Still, it’s been long enough that I simply can’t imagine living without connectivity.

What am I Blabbing About?

As I wait for the damn restaurant staff to fix their WiFi connection—the very reason why I decided to patronize their establishment in the first place—I can’t help but try and remember what I did before I had constant access to the internets.

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