Saturday December 9, 2006 at 6:33pm
They now provide malware warnings for links to certain sites from their search engine. Good for them.
Tuesday December 5, 2006 at 8:10am
NEW DELHI: Errant websites won't be able to escape this net. The Centre is putting in place an advance screening system at the bandwidth landing stations to block individual websites and blogs perceived as threats to national security.
The technology to be put in place at the eight landing stations - which bring international bandwidth into the country - will be capable of blocking websites at a sub-domain level, thus saving internet service providers (ISPs) from a sweeping shutdown. "GoI has realised that the most effective way to keep out such sites is through URL-based blocking solutions installed at international gateways," a highly-placed source told ET.
After the system is in place, the department of telecommunications (DoT) can direct international long distance (ILD) players who own the landing stations to block a particular URL at the sub-domain level.
This will come as a major relief for ISPs who were carrying the burden to block specific webpages till now. The issue of blocking individual websites had come into prominence following the Mumbai blasts in July, when DoT had directed ISPs to ban 18 blogs and websites.
However, as ISPs did not possess the technologies needed to execute the directive, the service providers implemented the ban at the domain level. This resulted in a public outcry and international criticism as users were unable to access hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs.
Sources also confirmed that DoT has circulated a draft report on Monday on 'technical measurers for blocking of websites' to key ministries, security agencies, leading ISPs and the three ILD players who own landing stations.
At present, there are eight landing stations in India. Of these, five are owned by VSNL, two by Reliance Communications and one by Bharti Airtel. Sources said these ILD operators would be mandated to install equipment specified by DoT.
Friday December 1, 2006 at 8:03am
It's hard to imagine, all that weight they must carry. How often they've been wrong, on practically everything, as they supported Bush and the Republican Congress the past 4 years. And all the evidence that piles up, from almost everything related to the long-term disaster we're in called Iraq, to Iran, to North Korea, to global warming, to national debt, to bad economic signs, to election results. The rest of the world says they're wrong. Many of them still say the rest of the world is wrong. How very heavy that must be.
They really need a vacation, a long vacation, from blogging. For their own good. It has to be so much harder to blog when you know so much that you've said in the past has been disproved or is in the process of being disproven. It must be heavy. It must be sad. It must be tiring.
So... it's time for America to recommend that many take a break. Instapundit, time to put away the blog for a few months. Althouse, time to write a book or something. Power Line... bon voyage. Take a break. Lift the weight.


