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Libya turns off its internet: this time it's a flatline
- bigohms 16y agoFYI chart doesn't display fully on iPhone
- jwr 16y agoWhere are the nameservers for .ly? Will bit.ly be affected?
- aeden 16y agoSee: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2237865 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2237865
- joebananas 16y agoIt'd be sort of nice if they did go down. Then maybe people would think twice before doing business with brutal dictatorships in the future.
- parfe 16y agoDoes your IPhone Made in China count?
- joebananas 16y agoSure it does. Why wouldn't it?
- parfe 16y agoIt's a full on delusional platitude to discount dealings with brutal or dictatorial countries. You seem to imply there should be consideration in who we deal with based on the political conditions which is actually not even feasible at this point. Libya just happens to be the topic of the day so it's easy to look at the .ly and say "Well that's what you get." I type this on a keyboard made in Thailand, My monitors are made in China, as is my Cisco desk phone and Droid X. So is my coffee mug. Surprisingly, my coffee cup by International Paper is Made in the USA. That's the only thing on my desk
- danenania 16y agoDifficult != impossible. I'm certainly not one of them, but there are people out there who actually do carefully consider where and how the things they use are made. It's pretty lame to call someone who actually tries to take responsibility for him/herself as a consumer delusional.
- nowarninglabel 16y agoThe weak point in your assertion is that you ignore the fungibility of those items. Keyboards, monitors, desk phones, etc. are all fungible to a certain degree. Domains ending in .ly are not fungible. You can only buy a .ly domain an organization managing them for Libya. Furthermore, this isn't $10/year like many domains, but rather $75/year.
- parfe 16y agoDomains are easy for you to harp on because you have nothing invested in it and any claims you make do not actually apply to you. You'll happily fund places like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and China because it's hard to avoid, but then come and post an effort-free comment about how someone else should act differently. I don't believe it's a weak point at all. I think you're creating a demarcation to eliminate the cognitive dissonance in asking someone else to expend effort while expending none yourself. Yes, cell phones are fungible, but my Droid X is not. Yes, keyboard are fungible but I can't get Dell to ship a differently branded keyboard.
- nowarninglabel 16y agoUh, no. Don't even think about getting into a "you don't do this" argument with me, because I have a list of exactly where most my spending goes, and I spent a year living in the desert on sustainable goods, don't own a smart phone, have bought everything I own at Goodwill, don't own a car, and work at Kiva. I know that might blow away your preconceptions, but think twice before harping on people that you don't know anything about. You are not a special piece of sunshine. The difference is I'm not going around like you trying to pretend like I am better than someone else, rather explaining the objective facts of the situation.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- parfe 16y agoEach "brutal dictatorship" is going to have their own nuances and idiosyncrasies but throwing down a blanket "don't deal with them" is flat out pointless. We deal with nasty governments on a daily basis. From the gas we put in our cars to our phones to the clothes on our backs to our coffee mugs (but not coffee cups!) on our desks. Then maybe people would think twice before doing business with brutal dictatorships in the future. I think sentiments like the above are just dull feel good platitudes that don't address reality. It's a statement that is easy for others to agree with yet doesn't really confer a coherent idea or commitment.
- joebananas 16y agoMy position is that one injustice does not excuse another. You seem to disagree.
- lsb 16y agoAdditionally, all sorts of phones use tantalum capacitors, which are mostly made from coltan, mined in the Congo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan#Use_and_demand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan#Use_and_demand
- tedunangst 16y agoThat link says 13% of the world's tantalum comes from the Congo, meaning a lot of it doesn't come from there ("Congolese coltan is globally speaking only a minor source of tantalum"). 100% of the world's .ly domain supply comes from Libya. WP also mentions that Sony, for instance, stopped sourcing tantalum from the Congo. On the other hand, WP says Sony's claim is "inconceivable", citing a web page that no longer exists.
- parfe 16y ago2008 - U.S. aims to boost Libya trade, trim deficit http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/10/06/us-libya-usa-idUSTRE4956TX20081006 http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/10/06/us-libya-usa-idUST... Libya are the bad guys this week. We were dealing with Libya in the Billions based on that article. Suddenly $75.00 for a domain name has become a moral hazard.
- Qz 16y agoThe billions in trade were a moral hazard too, just not one you so on the news quite so often.
- olalonde 16y agoObviously you haven't asked many Chinese whether they think their government is a "brutal dictatorship".
- parfe 16y agoAnd I've never spoken with a Libyan, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan or Belorussian. I'm also not chastising someone else for dealing with any of those countries. In fact, I'm saying the opposite. Even if I view another country in a negative light I don't see a way I can rationalize telling bit.ly they've made a bad decision, or Boeing they made a mistake with the Dreamliner, or my neighbor he's wrong for buying fuel from a Citgo station. Throwaway comments about taking a moral high ground are just that. And as bit.ly has not gone down, I don't see how there is a practical issue either.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- sdizdar 16y agoI have to answer to this comment since this is the same argument governments had back in social and communist countries in Eastern Europe. It is not about whether majority of people approve government or think their government is a "brutal dictatorship". It is about what that government does with people who doesn't approve the government.
- jquery 16y agoSay what you want about the Chinese form of government, it's a lot more functional than most Western democracies.
- keiferski 16y agoI hope it goes down too, but for a different reason: so startups will stop using "ly" at the end of their name.
- lancewiggs 16y agoActually no - the RIGHT kind of business is good - as it means a middle class is created in those countries - and well, we can see the results. The right kind of business is in consumer goods - it's hard to have low aspirations when you are making iPhones or part of a call center helping solve first world problems. North Korea has no trade to speak of - and no hope that its population will assert itself.
- iyerrag 16y agoMost probably not : http://www.quora.com/Can-http-bit-ly-and-others-using-Libya-CCTLD-be-knocked-offline http://www.quora.com/Can-http-bit-ly-and-others-using-Libya-...
- derobert 16y agoFairly easy to answer: $ host -t NS ly. ly name server phloem.uoregon.edu. ly name server ns-ly.ripe.net. ly name server dns1.lttnet.net. ly name server dns.lttnet.net. ly name server auth02.ns.uu.net.
- RoyceFullerton 16y agoWow, that's flat! But, perhaps they haven't turned it off: "Data after this point are still being finalized. Interpret them with caution." We will have to wait and see.
- motters 16y agoLooks like the patient is dead. Maybe someone cut some cables, or perhaps some critical infrastructure was destroyed in the fighting.
- templaedhel 16y agoInteresting, there is still some very low level gmail activity. I wonder why?
- JonnieCache 16y agoRenesys' always excellent coverage throws some more light. They say the routers are all still up, there haven't been any routes withdrawn, but packets are just stopping somewhere on the way into libya. Firewalled I'm guessing, so privileged parties can still communicate. http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/02/libyan-disconnect-1.shtml#latest http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/02/libyan-disconnect-1.shtm... http://www.renesys.com/blog/assets_c/2011/03/latencies_Libya2_AllSources_c-275.shtml http://www.renesys.com/blog/assets_c/2011/03/latencies_Libya... The second one is a plot of traceroutes into libya over 24 hours.
- mahmud 16y agoThere is a way around it. Libyan activists, specially those in Tripoli are able to get the word out even if he powers down the whole country. Fret not, all Gaddafi is doing is signal to those in areas under his control that he is losing control. Nothing could damage him now more than a mismanaged public image; that's why you see the cleaning crew sweeping streets and taking out garbage, to send strong signals of normalcy by attending to mundane chores. It's all poker bluffs; if a handful of generals understood he is out, and accepted it, he will be out.
- adamcharnock 16y ago"Libya Traffic Divided by Worldwide Traffic and Normalized" Maybe Google search volume just skyrocketed elsewhere on the planet? ;)
- mryall 16y agoMaybe they just cut off access to Google.
- pg 16y agoI wonder if turning off the Internet will start to be treated as a reliable predictor that the government is going to fall. So far it's a pretty good one.
- DanielBMarkham 16y agoI've been wondering the converse: if having an open internet will be an indicator that true reform has taken place. Whatever the case, we live in interesting times.
- iron_ball 16y agoAmerica has an open internet, and we're pretty awful at reform. Apples and oranges, though. We're replacing rotten floorboards and broken balcony rails; they're building a house up from rubble.
- lsb 16y agoSo far, North Korea hasn't fallen. All governments eventually fall; what timeline were you thinking of?
- PostOnce 16y agoThe Japanese monarchy has supposedly been around since 660 BC.
- ck2 16y agoThanks to certain senators, the US will have a similar killswitch soon too (they resurrected the bill and snuck it back in).
- canadaduane 16y agoWhere it's status now?
- Sargis 16y agoImagine the increase in development speed of projects that aim to create a true decentralized internet, if the bill passes. The killswitch might not be so bad after all.
- ck2 16y agoUnless they are going to put FIDOnet back online (or is it still around?) you need a backbone for the internet, which means governments can always control and close it at will. The mere fact the US is pursuing such an option is a demonstration of bad government that threatens and controls it's people with FUD.
- mryall 16y agoWhat does "true decentralized internet" mean to you? Surely if you want to communicate with people around the world, you need to rely on someone to transport the data for you across the country and the oceans. If not government, then who? Why would you trust them more?
- demetris 16y agoGrim.
- EGreg 16y agoDoes that mean we can't place job ads for the Amazonian Guard?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- known 16y agohttp://www.middle-east-info.org/gateway.html http://www.middle-east-info.org/gateway.html