tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-315750952011-08-06T06:11:36.711+12:00digital knowledge. digital culture. digital memory.thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.comBlogger801100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-73771548067791202672008-09-07T19:25:00.005+12:002008-09-07T19:52:30.219+12:00

I thought that I would post this piece that formed part of my half-day workshop on information security at PacINET 2008 in the Cook Islands. My slides were almost the same set that I used last year in Honiara. Historically speaking, information security is not new. There is evidence of people protecting and of course attacking information in all cultures as far back as there is a historical

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-15898162549125133372008-07-08T06:32:00.003+12:002008-07-08T06:40:28.597+12:00

A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people's heads.The device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) – exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-79190400764269982762008-05-09T09:54:00.011+12:002008-05-09T23:09:23.220+12:00

IntroLet's be honest, Fiji's ISPs have room for improvement. The problem with residential broadband in Fiji is value for money. Value in this case means a combination of 1.) actual, as opposed to promised, speed, 2.) reliability of service, and 3.) monthly data volume. Why is this value lacking?WholesaleLast week there was a session on the Southern Cross Cables Network (SCCN) presented by George

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-12135148588546707492008-03-13T10:22:00.003+12:002008-03-13T10:27:51.308+12:00

There has been much said this week about the recent American report on human rights in Fiji. From the perspective of a Fiji blogger, it is interesting to see that blogs are explicitly mentioned several times in the report. Here are the relevant sections:Internet FreedomThere were no government restrictions on general public access to the Internet. However, the military attempted to censor or shut

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1085885626868533232008-03-10T00:06:00.002+12:002008-03-10T00:12:21.872+12:00

Fijilive has run a story on email security based on interviews with Franck Martin of PICISOC and myself. Here is an excerpt.While email is an extremely useful technology, it is not very secure, warns Chris Hammond-Thrasher, the author of the Digital Fiji Blog, dfiji.blogspot.com . And he suggested that the best advice to follow is "to always assume that all of your emails are being read by others

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-71178697110169833242008-02-27T07:15:00.013+12:002008-02-28T09:49:18.674+12:00

Note to RFMF readers: I would be very interested in hearing your comments on this post.The Royal Fiji Military Force (RFMF) recently posted a document entitled Commander's Intent 2008 on the their website. This statement of intent forms sort of a strategic plan for the RFMF for 2008 and beyond. It is broken up into three main sections:One section dealing with "Good Governance in the RFMF",

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-48981316643439786162008-02-25T08:54:00.003+12:002008-02-25T09:32:10.913+12:00

2007 and now 2008 have not been easy years for the small Pacific nation of Fiji. Between a coup and ensuing political turmoil, an economic down turn driven by a drop in tourism visits, a couple of cyclones, occasional flooding, corrupt officials, home invasions, drownings, road deaths, typhoid, and water and power cuts; things have been challenging. And now, I sit down in front of my computer,

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-10660269829037055932008-02-19T13:37:00.002+12:002008-02-19T13:43:46.180+12:00

Since the 2006 coup, I have tried to chronicle the rapidly changing world of blogs in Fiji as they start up, shut down, climb to great heights, and then fall out of the spotlight. My comments even garnered some unwanted attention from the Human Rights Commission Director who, paradoxically for a human rights officer, seemed to be arguing against freedom of speech. While the interim government

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-38896208463903175822008-02-12T14:27:00.001+12:002008-02-12T14:56:16.131+12:00

UNESCO has formally announced the installation of the Koha open source library management system in the Nelson Memorial Library in Apia, Samoa. I was honoured to be involved in this project.Dear Pacific Library colleagues, The Communication & Information (CI) Sector of UNESCO, the University of the South Pacific (USP) Library, and the Samoa Nelson Memorial Library are very proud to announce

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-43437960398558967242008-01-27T13:20:00.000+12:002008-01-27T13:48:49.817+12:00

Complaining about your ISP is one of the most popular topics in ICT circles in Fiji. So I wanted to put the question publicly, does your ISP deliver what they promise?How often do you achieve the maximum throughput that you pay for?How often are one or more of your ISP's services offline?What is your experience calling customer support?Have you used more than one ISP? If so, was one better than

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-43533625633947971412007-12-24T23:05:00.001+12:002007-12-24T23:05:29.473+12:00

That's right, NORAD tracked Father Christmas by RADAR leaving the North Pole, then servicing Eastern Siberia, followed by the Marshal Islands, and then over our island home at around 9:30 pm Fiji Time. This year, NORAD is providing two interfaces to their Santa tracking. The one depicted below using Google Maps and... This one using a Google Earth KMZ file constructed by NORAD (get their KMZ

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-82562718274186424532007-12-17T16:03:00.000+12:002007-12-18T23:42:23.205+12:00

The history of secrecy is as old as the history of ideas. Whether for reasons of war, religion, power, jealousy, or, of course, love, people of every culture have always found reasons to keep secrets. Of course, keeping a secret is not difficult until you try to communicate it to someone else. What if someone overhears you whispering the secret? Or worse, what if the secret message is intercepted

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-45069104858918978342007-12-04T16:43:00.001+12:002007-12-04T16:43:53.961+12:00

The Google Online Security Blog posted an update to the monsterous corporation's ongoing battle against malware and made the following plea to well-meaning web surfers:Currently, we know of hundreds of thousands of websites that attempt to infect people's computers with malware. Unfortunately, we also know that there are more malware sites out there. This is where we need your help in filling in

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-70842403647042118682007-12-03T23:29:00.001+12:002007-12-04T20:39:53.959+12:00

UPDATE: The opening with the refreshments has moved to December 6th at 5:30pm.Art exhibit that is open to all - and note the free refreshments. I'll be there and would love to meet some more of the Fiji blogging community.Blogged with Flock

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-34155206383397511882007-11-28T15:22:00.000+12:002007-11-28T16:28:05.966+12:00

I was surprised to see Everyone's guide to by-passing Internet censorship for citizens worldwide as the first item under Information Management on UNESCO's Open Training Platform - an online repository of open license training materials.To quote from the source:This guide is meant to introduce non-technical users to Internet censorship circumvention technologies, and help them choose which of

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-62049532140650784182007-11-21T18:27:00.001+12:002007-11-21T18:27:52.568+12:00

Another notorious anti-interim government blog goes offline. Hyde and Seek, which went live in May of 2007, seems to have taken itself offline within the last several hours after around 400 posts and thousands of comments. As with the death of WFC, rumors abound about whether or not the bloggers took the site down willingly or unwillingly. If you want to see how the site looked in June and July

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-30010227128185130512007-11-20T12:50:00.001+12:002007-11-20T12:53:28.279+12:00

Let's be honest, it is difficult to spend $5 to rent a DVD for a day when you can own it for $1. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Fijians chose the $1 option. A FAVIA press release (with no supporting evidence whatsoever) claims that, "Fiji's piracy rate is about 98%." These numbers were rolling around in my head as I read a recent article by Nate Anderson on ars technica about a country that

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-16222110875608027792007-11-20T00:42:00.001+12:002007-11-20T00:47:02.509+12:00

Do you read your server logs? I admit that I only read them rarely. Let's face it, they are pretty dull and repetitive. Most sensible administrators - those who do not find reading syslogs eight times a day to be rewarding - will use some sort of log monitoring tool to let them know if anything interesting is going on. My favorite would be logwatch and I have also used swatch in the past. However

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-18669803368428299492007-11-07T20:46:00.000+12:002007-11-07T23:40:47.018+12:00

While I have not had time to write a great deal in recent weeks, I have tried to keep you on top of interesting ICT stories from Fiji and around the world with the dfiji Quick Links which you can see on the right hand side of this blog or via the RSS feed.A few interesting recent Quick Links include:The Oceanic blog comments on gross financial mismanagement at USP in response to a lengthy article

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-22010564368620000342007-10-25T22:32:00.000+12:002007-10-25T23:12:33.265+12:00

Lately, I have been thinking about library technology in the South Pacific region. This is mainly due to the fact that I was supposed to have submitted a paper on the subject to the new CODE4LIB journal about a week ago (don't worry editors, I'm still writing!). I though it might help to think aloud and to give anyone out there a chance to correct my facts or put me onto new ones. Feedback is

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-75678669463594466312007-10-12T15:03:00.000+12:002007-10-12T16:38:12.448+12:00

[Note to readers: Robert Martin and I have been having a blog2blog discussion about what he terms digital existence. You can see the start of the conversation here.]You raised one point in your last post that fascinates me - audited Internet services. Before I get to that let me dispense with a couple other discussion points in no particular order.Regarding Hushmail you wrote, Since I am paranoid

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-72088549284114225392007-10-05T10:26:00.000+12:002007-10-05T10:49:32.645+12:00

The October issue of Islands Business carries a very good cover story on Internet safety in the Pacific. There are some excellent comments from Rajnesh Singh, president of PICISOC:"What is required in the Pacific is a structured user-education and awareness programme," said Rajnesh Singh, parent, IT specialist and chairman of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC), a

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-8028140764374447642007-10-04T12:28:00.000+12:002007-10-04T12:59:10.242+12:00

Big news in the Fiji blogoshere, notorious anti-government blog Why Fiji's Crying is offline. The Wordpress notice claims that the site was taken down by the authors. According to the metablog site technorati, the last post on WFC was approximately 48 days ago. There are no signs that this is an act of Internet censorship, although conspiracy theories abound.If you are feeling nostalgic or just

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-38196729213262097062007-09-25T12:46:00.000+12:002007-09-27T20:56:03.218+12:00

In my last blog2blog post to Robert W Martin, I asked him to explain why he wants to live his life online without needing his own equipment - something he calls digital existence.You gave a pretty decent answer, Rob. For me, one of the most powerful motives for seeking digital existence is that it is now technically conceivable to overcome the security concerns inherent in hardware independence.

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-80722846199547825512007-09-20T17:37:00.001+12:002007-09-23T10:33:01.667+12:00

My buddy Robert W Martin (not the guy in the picture) wants to live his life online. But he wants to do it without owning any of his own hardware. To readers in Fiji, this may sound like a yaqona induced fantasy, but Rob lives in a large city in Canada. For about CDN$40 (FJ$60) per month, he gets a connection at home at a speed of about 512kb/s, up and down, with no practical usage limit. At work

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-21889938483216960122007-09-19T13:06:00.000+12:002007-09-19T13:16:40.095+12:00

My blogging has been interrupted recently by some development work in Samoa. Here is an announcement of the fruit of my labours. I hope to write up my experiences over the next few days into a story of a high tech development project in the South Pacific - a roller-coaster ride that almost goes off the rails!September 18, 2007Dear UNESCO Apia colleagues, Pacific Libraries, and UNESCO National

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-3762288192453934622007-09-07T10:07:00.000+12:002007-09-07T10:57:28.273+12:00

I have had a lot of fun blogging about blogging in Fiji. (You can relive all dfiji blog blogging here!) It is fascinating for me to see the interplay of blogs, Fiji's military, and the anti-interim-government movement. Now that we have returned to martial law for the second time this year, I am wondering if blogs will re-emerge as a major political issue?Will any "big name" renegade bloggers get

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-76910706797740971362007-09-01T05:58:00.000+12:002007-09-01T06:26:52.757+12:00

Other than being he home to the Banded Iguana, one of the facts about Fiji is relative digital isolation. If you work on the USP Laucala campus, you've got a pretty fast connection but at the cost of serious usage limits - proxied web connections, blocked ports, content filtering, etc. If you are a wealthy individual or organization, you can procure enough bandwidth in Fiji to make your cousins

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-80133372835328692102007-08-27T22:41:00.000+12:002007-08-28T21:11:04.762+12:00

Every geek subculture needs its own iconic gear - and Fiji's geeks should not be left out. Below are Digital Fiji's ideas for our new age of ICT attire. If you like these, we'll figure out a way to get them made locally.Fans of the classic American "got milk?" advertising campaign followed by the thinkgeek "got root" t-shirt will appreciate the localized version below.But if alliteration is more

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-53554636262506525152007-08-22T14:08:00.000+12:002007-08-22T14:50:32.843+12:00

The following is derived from my workshop on Information Security at PacINET 2007. My slides are available on SlideShare. Historically speaking, information security is not new. There is evidence of people protecting and, of course, attacking information, information systems, and the flow of information in all cultures as far back as there is a written record. If we take early missionary accounts

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-42797906070792726552007-08-13T08:35:00.000+12:002007-08-13T08:44:09.991+12:00

PacINET 2007 is underway in Honiara. I will be conducting a full-day workshop on Information Security on August 21st. The following press release makes it sound exciting - I am looking forward to it! (Due to unfortunate funding realities, I will only be attending the second half of the conference.)PacINET 2007 NEWS Sunday, 13 August 2007 Hundreds gather in Honiara for leading Pacific ICT meet

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-9946472839143276042007-08-10T05:40:00.000+12:002007-08-10T06:55:17.706+12:00

In January of this year I wrote about the Fiji Audio Visual Industry Association's (VAVIA) DVD piracy media campaign. One reporter likened it to Bainamarama's "clean up" campaign,The Fiji Audio Visual Industry Association [FAVIA] has followed the military in its clean-up campaign by tracking down illegal suppliers of Digital Video Disc's (DVD) in its fight to curb piracy in the country.["Audio

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-39202255222866754402007-08-01T15:14:00.000+12:002007-08-01T18:23:26.170+12:00

In addition to OLPC, community wireless has been a topic of discussion in "development ICT" on the Pacific Internet Society (PICISOC) mailing list recently. I was interested to read an announcement pointed out on the list that reported the success of a free wireless Internet project in Niue.Thanks to International Communication Technology (ICT) small and remote nations are not so remote anymore.

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-81485395686956288452007-07-27T13:13:00.000+12:002007-07-27T14:30:56.437+12:00

PRESS RELEASE/INVITATION TO ALL EDITORSEditors may be interested in sending their reporters to attend a two-hour workshop/crash course to learn about Internet and Internet-related issues.Why?Internet has no doubt become the way of communication in modern day civilisation. According to one source of global statistics, ( www.internetworldstats.com ), Internet usage in Oceania (including Australia)

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-88199679079724263182007-07-25T09:00:00.000+12:002007-07-25T10:28:47.599+12:00

For the second time this month (see here for the first), a Fiji blog has hit one of the top 100 lists of the blogging giant Wordpress. On July 14, 2007, the Fiji Rugby Blog, brainchild of columnist Rusiate Mataika, appeared in the 35th position in the Growing Blogs list.They are wedged between a Swedish blog and a blog advocating the abolition of wealth. The Fiji Times had this to say:This is a

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-61753962219654840332007-07-21T07:50:00.000+12:002007-07-23T13:31:21.542+12:00

The reality3 Steps to a Safe HomeA simple three step program for parents to create a safe online environment at home.Step 1: Choose a location for the family computer where you spend a lot of time such as the kitchen or the TV room. Face the computer screen so that you can keep an eye on what is going on.Step 2: Spend time online with your child. Find a few minutes every day to sit down with your

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-67752140871310509142007-07-12T12:08:00.000+12:002007-07-21T06:47:57.676+12:00

Nobody likes to loose something that costs two or three thousand dollars, which is the typical cost of a laptop these days. However, when a laptop goes missing from an important government office, the replacement cost should be the least of anyone's worries. Technology can be replaced but the damage done by stolen information can be irrevocable.Sometime during the afternoon or evening of Friday,

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-63625642208723953112007-07-10T12:32:00.000+12:002007-07-21T06:48:21.170+12:00

Most of the world's bloggers are typing away in relative obscurity having very few readers beyond a few family and friends. Most of Fiji's bloggers are no different drawing only single digit readerships daily. I have been grinding away at Digital Fiji for roughly a year now and I can only boast of a daily readership of around 40 unique readers daily with occasional spikes to over 100 whenever I

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-20796430737815990012007-07-09T14:17:00.000+12:002007-07-09T16:42:16.217+12:00

Like this blog? Why not subscribe to its feed or sign up for free email updates?Way back in September 2006, I was writing here about website syndication, ATOM feeds, and everything RSS. The Fiji blogosphere has radically changed since then making my aggregated Fiji blog feed next to useless. It would be an interesting exercise to put together an new Fiji blog aggregator - which is something that

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-25867677220858338902007-07-07T15:21:00.000+12:002007-07-07T16:07:03.216+12:00

This is an important announcement (see the full text below). The advent of VoIP in Fiji is a major event in the history of ICT in Fiji. What is VoIP? It stands for "voice over Internet protocol" which is a collection of technical standards for allowing voice communications, such as telephone calls, to take place across the Internet. Typically, once all the problems have been worked through, this

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-23258948082350378002007-06-22T11:35:00.000+12:002007-06-22T23:08:19.864+12:00

The New Zealand pressIn my June 19, 2007 post, I quietly mentioned the unreported story of an alarming change in the rhetoric of Fiji's anti-military blogs from defamatory to violent. As of today, the New Zealand press is starting to pick up on this. Michael Field, who was recently ejected from Fiji, penned a story appearing on Stuff this morning. Here is an excerpt:A Fiji internet blog has

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-47430944582850291572007-06-19T09:23:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:34:40.226+12:00

There have been three significant significant ICT stories reported in the Fiji press in the last week.The first is the announcement of a 30 machine computer lab opening at Sangam College in Labasa. This lab, which was donated by a former student, Ragge Mudaliar, is certainly now one of the finest in Vanua Levu.The second story is the continuing slow march towards hearing the fate of public

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-49508826191008038022007-06-11T11:09:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:33:59.864+12:00

Following onto my previous post about Fiji rugby (or lack thereof) on the web, there is an exciting new Fiji blog on the block; heading into its second week of operation: The Fiji Rugby Blog. One notable feature of this blog is that roughly half of the posts to date are in Fijian.I found the two thoughtful post-mortems of the Flying Fijians' recent lacklustre performances against the Junior All

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-57769365039017279782007-06-06T16:02:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:33:32.413+12:00

A strange fact came to my attention recently. In this rugby-obsessed country, there is only one rugby club with a web presence - the famous Nabua Rugby Club. This site has been up and running for a number of years, yet it has no competition. Great work NRC! But what about the rest of you guys?What does it mean that Fiji rugby clubs have not jumped onto the web? Is it an issue of funding? Perhaps

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-37430144295250543372007-06-04T09:00:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:33:08.061+12:00

I often cannot find the time to blog as much as I would like about all of the interesting things going on in digital side of Fiji. As a kind of weak substitute, I have been collecting interesting ICT news, policy, and other links on an almost daily basis. You can see them in the sidebar to the right, you can go directly to dfiji.tumblr.com, or you can subscribe to the quick links feed.Here are

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-23863960866373114122007-05-27T22:38:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:31:16.110+12:00

After making a strategic error in the opening followed by solid play from Reino Kartunen (3 kyu) of Finland, I was forced to throw in the towel. That brings my record to 1 win and 1 loss. Looking forward to round three.The Iwamoto tournament is an online go/weiqi/baduk tournament involving over 600 amateur go players. All games are played on the KGS go server.Related posts: Round 1

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-65702586014820192662007-05-23T20:27:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:30:57.283+12:00

Update (25/5/2007): My round two opponent has just been announced - Reino Karttunen (3 kyu) of Finland who defeated Darryl Mallick (4 kyu) of the USA in round one. The game is still to be scheduled.Fiji's sole representative scores an upset in round oneI love to play the game go. What is go, you ask? Go is the Japanese name for an ancient Chinese board game which is more popular than chess in

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-92157766653878488482007-05-22T06:22:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:30:17.032+12:00

Today we have links to five news items on blog censorship for your reading pleasure and one on the up-hill battle for copyright enforcement in Fiji."It is believed to be using India-based computer hackers to identify the critics." - May 22, 2007"The director of the FHRC, Dr Shaista Shameem, had requested the University of the South Pacific to..." - May 21, 2007"''In support of the right to

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-58797138575413556242007-05-19T07:42:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:29:38.188+12:00

Today's Fiji Times has an interesting feature story on blogs. In this story there are some comments from a certain unnamed "former information security consultant". It will come as no surprise to anyone who has read my recent post advising against blog censorship, that the "consultant who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation" is me. My part of the story reads as follows,A former

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-45848470850621729632007-05-18T21:02:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:28:45.547+12:00

A stunt faking the censoring of a notorious anti-military blog in Fiji has fooled the international and Fijian press. Sometime on May 16, 2007, the no-holds-barred blog opposing Fiji's interim government, resistfrankscoup, went blank. This prompted a flurry of activity in newsrooms and anti-government blogs as most observers assumed that the interim government, likely in collusion with FINTEL,

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-64801751369662973182007-05-14T21:42:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:28:01.805+12:00

There have been numerous reports in both the Fijian and international press over the past few of days about the interim government working with FINTEL to censor troublesome blogs. I think that this would be a mistake. In fact, blocking these blogs may actually harm the interim government.Here are four reasons why Fiji's interim government should reconsider asking FINTEL to block access to

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-39435379884231816762007-05-11T11:36:00.000+12:002007-05-11T11:50:20.833+12:00

Some quick links from my computer to yours."THE military says it is hot on the heels of a number of suspects behind three internet blogs in an..." - May 11, 2007 - "A coalition of consumer groups and corporations that includes everyone from IP Justice to AT&T has..." - May 10, 2007 - Michael Geist - Facing Up To Facebook Fears - May 8, 2007 - "Dear God, I would like to file a bug report." xkcd -

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-8357302877938105242007-05-02T20:37:00.000+12:002007-05-03T09:08:53.660+12:00

This was NOT the scene in Suva on May Day 2007May Day has come to pass and there was little or no sign of widespread participation in the Freedom Bloggers' "stay at home" strike campaign. The official government report with respect to public sector staff was as unqualified.The Permanent Secretary for the Public Service Taina Tagicakibau said the civil service was not affected at all today. She

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-7954867232435361502007-04-25T19:21:00.000+12:002007-04-25T19:43:47.665+12:00

The "Fiji Freedom Bloggers" enjoy a bowl of grog while listening to Bula FM ;-)Those anonymous bloggers that snubbed us at the bloggers' meet are at it again. Their plan to have individuals who are opposed to the Interim Government stay home on May 1st has netted international press attention and has had the military both hunting Fijian Black and then not hunting him in the very same day.It will

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-24139134221387508382007-04-20T09:27:00.000+12:002007-04-20T09:38:29.465+12:00

Last night at the ROC on Victoria Parade and Loftus in Suva, I attended the first ever bloggers' meet in Fiji. Ok, only two other bloggers showed up, but that still justifies our historic claim! The two other attendees were the brains behind the Paradise Failed: Abort, retry, Fail? blog. We had a great talk about everything from politics to family history to taxi drivers to Hi5 - oh, and blogging

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-17326243767668052412007-04-18T18:53:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:22:20.698+12:00

It is now roughly 24 hours until history will be made. At 7pm tomorrow (Thursday) night, at the Republic of Cappuccino on Victora Parade and Loftus Street in Suva, the first ever bloggers' meet will be held. If you are a blogger living in the Suva area, or even just thinking about maybe blogging, please come out and meet your fellow blog-heads in person. Drink some coffee, make some friends, and

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-50249687950695212342007-04-05T09:44:00.000+12:002007-04-11T21:48:47.981+12:00

Updated 11/4/2007Calling all Fiji bloggers to meet up at the Republic of Cappuccino on Victoria Parade and Loftus Street at 7:00 pm, Thursday, April 19, 2007. Drink coffee, be merry, and put a human face on your favourite Fiji blogs. Leave a comment to let me know that you are coming or email me at thrashor(at)gmail(dot)com.Help to spread the word: post an invitation on your blog or link to this

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-90671795674829872862007-03-15T16:24:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:25:39.404+12:00

I will be delivering a seminar for the USP School of Geography later this month. All are welcome. Here are the particulars:Title: Popular GIS: expressing identity through spatial informationDate & Time: Friday 30 March 2007, 1:00-2:00pmVenue: M10 (Media Centre), Laucala CampusWith the advent of Google Maps, and other similar services, GIS became part of main stream digital culture. Now

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-83648897357088968242007-03-07T15:36:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:23:45.001+12:00

Attetion all Fiji bloggers or wannabe bloggers! How about a face-to-face meet-up in Suva in the next few weeks? If there is enough interest, we could try to have another event somewhere in the West. What do you think? I know I am interested in meeting all of you.photo by yandle

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-44219541997967908052007-02-13T10:18:00.000+12:002007-06-22T11:23:25.971+12:00

Have you ever wondered where Fiji's true location is (click map to enlarge)?[Map is curtesy of xkcd.com. Check it out, it's quite funny.]

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-20341314264244367622007-01-30T15:24:00.000+12:002007-02-16T08:39:28.449+12:00

As we teeter at the threshold of Microsoft's release of Windows Vista, I ask, what does this mean for Fiji and other South Pacific nations?The biggest question is, what is the total cost of Vista? Aside from its list price (does anyone know if Microsoft offers preferential pricing for developing nations?) and the obvious requirement for newer more powerful hardware, what will Vista cost us and

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-5121000853294496672007-01-17T14:29:00.000+12:002007-08-10T06:43:27.691+12:00

Here is an interesting issue to start off the new Digital Fiji blogging year. I hope you find it stimulating. -chtCopyright, especially copyright of digital materials, is a complicated legal issue where the discourse is highly polarized. One side of the argument emphasizes the rights of the owners of intellectual materials, ranging from movies and music to photographs and software, to control and

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1165257548000815292006-12-05T06:26:00.000+12:002006-12-05T06:46:12.646+12:00

Here is an interesting announcement for all Fijians who love their bandwidth. There is no word on when FinTel will make this technology available although they plan to cover Suva first and then eventually over 300 islands. Dec 4 - Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ:ALVR), the world's leading provider of wireless broadband solutions and specialized mobile networks, today announced that Fiji International

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1164879890160655512006-11-30T21:08:00.000+12:002006-11-30T21:44:50.646+12:00

As an avid follower of recent turmoil in Fiji one element is striking. For the first time in the history of Fiji, a major national event can be followed in detail online. Between the outstanding Fiji bloggers and the quality of Fijian news websites, supplemented by the websites of foreign media, I have been able to follow developments far better than television, radio, and newspapers combined. I

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1163996503984440032006-11-20T15:54:00.000+12:002006-11-20T16:21:44.690+12:00

At a recent PacINET meeting, Jasmine Ali distributed a short documentary exploring Rotumans' attitudes towards the Internet entitled, "A Buscuit View of the Internet". Thank you to Franck Martin of PICISOC fame for converting the video to DivX and making it available for download. Warning, this is still a 278 Mb download.I hope that Jasmine and others can continue to explore both the positive and

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1162690290947020342006-11-05T12:56:00.000+12:002006-11-05T13:35:08.776+12:00

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is rapping up in Athens right now. One topic on the IGF agenda that should be on the minds of Pacific Islanders who value their freedom of speech and ability to express their embattled cultures online is the trend away from freedom of expression on the Internet.This threat comes primarily in two forms, one is passive and systemic and the other is the result of

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1162095428335232342006-10-29T15:56:00.000+12:002006-10-29T16:21:03.856+12:00

Fijian language support is now availble for the popular free alternative to Microsoft Office. Fijian was added to the suite of languages supported by OpenOffice by a team of USP staff and studenets including, Dr. William Blanke, Dr. Paul Geraghty, Mere Bavoro, Aloesi Cagica, and Rajneel Totaram. OpenOffice is available for download directly from USP's Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) site.You

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1161648030274257212006-10-24T12:00:00.000+12:002006-10-24T13:23:42.226+12:00

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post about the importance of preserving semi-formal Pacific scholarship [Gaps in the collection of Pacific scholarship]. This is the so called lost literature that is ripe for harvesting by institutional repository programs. And I singled out the University of Hawaii and the University of the South Pacific as logical homes for such repositories.In the light of this I

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1160602767549913732006-10-12T09:37:00.000+12:002006-10-12T10:19:20.963+12:00

Congratulations to local boy Save Vocea on his appointment to the US dominated Internet naming regulator ICANN. By this and similar appointments ICANN hopes to cast itself as a truly international organization.ICANN is pleased to announce the following new staff appointment joining the Global Partnership's regional liaison network. This appointment demonstrates ICANN's continued commitment to

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1159314678154764132006-10-05T04:25:00.000+12:002006-10-11T05:08:30.730+12:00

Just is it is crucial to take rumors heard through Fiji's coconut wireless with a grain of salt, it is crucial that Fijians critically evaluate information found via the Internet. Recognize the Internet for what it is - the largest self publishing and communications medium in human history, plus much more. When else in history could I publish my own ideas for pennies and have them be read around

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1159741493183110822006-10-02T10:14:00.000+12:002006-10-02T11:33:17.516+12:00

Being a celeb is tough - fighting the never ending battle to sate the bottomless appetite of my fan-base with public appearances, etc... Ok, I am not famous (but I can dream) and my only true fans are my wife and kids, but I am making a public appearance this Wednesday night. I will be doing another presentation for the South Pacific Computer Society at USP in Suva on Wednesday night at 7pm.The

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1158566700260902462006-09-18T20:04:00.000+12:002006-09-20T13:11:29.433+12:00

One of the key partner technologies to blogs is syndication. Syndication, in this sense, refers to publishing your blog (or any other web resource) in one of several standardized formats that can be read and processed by other computers. Syndicating your blog is commonly referred to as publishing a feed.It would be fair to ask, why on earth would I want to do this? The argument is twofold,More

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1158035700444767382006-09-12T16:27:00.000+12:002006-09-12T22:22:21.956+12:00

One of the most popular ways for individuals to participate in digital culture and collaborate online is through weblogs (or just blogs) - and Fijians are no exception.The following is a list of active blogs about Fiji or by Fiji residents. Notice how diverse these blogs are in style and topic - they range from personal diaries, to blogs sharing photos with overseas relatives, to promotional

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1157507437670804462006-09-06T13:22:00.000+12:002006-09-06T20:20:20.353+12:00

The developing cultural and financial economies of the South Pacific, while lagging behind developed nations in terms of information infrastructure, are in a unique position to take advantage of many of the fruits of the information age. One can see this taking place in numerous forms - mobile phone adoption out paces copper telephony across the region, satellite television is common where cable

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1156729475945455092006-08-29T16:37:00.000+12:002006-08-30T08:49:44.096+12:00

To do my bit to rectify the low level of computer security awareness in Fiji I made a presentation to the South Pacific Computer Society entitled "How Hackers Do It". It was a live demonstration of the life cycle of a computer break-in using freely available and well documented tools such as:whoisnmapnessusthc-hydraIt was a fast paced presentation that was a lot of fun for the gathered audience -

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1156728490572453062006-08-28T13:03:00.000+12:002006-08-28T13:32:34.080+12:00

Here is a clever little tool that is marginally related to my earlier post about Amazon selling MARC records to libraries along with their book purchases. Charles Ledvina of the Outagamie Waupaca Library System in the US has put together a couple of tools that transform Amazon's XML bibliographic record into fairly decent MARC.The first, is a web application that takes Amazon's unique identifier,

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1155523940140688302006-08-21T13:44:00.000+12:002006-09-06T20:25:31.236+12:00

Institutional RepositoriesThe term institutional repository has been common in university circles for the past few years. I first heard the term at a conference in Canada in 2001 where Clifford Lynch, now the Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, was the keynote speaker. Lynch later published a manifesto for institutional repositories in an ARL report where he defined the

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1155773344749054132006-08-17T10:02:00.000+12:002006-09-06T20:31:18.123+12:00

In many ways the South Pacific is virgin territory for the global copyright war - for that is how the active participants describe it. A war that has been raging in many countries around the world. A war that has seen the rights of large media companies winning out over those of users of culture with very few exceptions. In Fiji, to give an illustration, there is fairly current copyright

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1155075525534542952006-08-09T10:18:00.000+12:002006-08-28T12:58:48.066+12:00

Amazon has announced that they are now selling MARC records and other services to their library customers. Andrew Pace has the following observation,"As if things weren’t strange enough, Amazon has announced that it will make MARC records available to libraries that purchase through its site. In collaboration with TLC, Marcive, and OCLC, Amazon has introduced Library Processing for Corporate

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31575095.post-1153818444052452042006-07-25T21:02:00.000+12:002006-08-09T07:29:28.353+12:00

The main library located at the Laucala Campus of the University of the South Pacific plays an important role in the region. It functions as the national library of Fiji and is the de facto national library for a number of the smaller nations in the region. It is also the home of the superb Pacific Collection covering print, audio, and video materials by and about Pacific Islanders. The library

thrashorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208535828055935183noreply@blogger.com0