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The Aussie government’s dilemma is to avoid having to build their own services to fill a US tech gap. Politicians have stated they would prefer not to build the

The Aussie government’s dilemma is to avoid having to build their own services to fill a US tech gap. Politicians have stated they would prefer not to build their own services from the ground up. I think there’s an element of Australian politics that would push for homegrown stuff over google/fb.

joncrane 7y ago
No one HAS to build those services. The services Google and FB provide are 100% nonessential to successful society. Correct me if I'm wrong, but alternatives already exist for both.
- Bnshsysjab 7y ago
  most Australian news outlets are 100% non essential click bait trash, too.
  - 0xy 7y ago
    I'd say all of them, particularly the state media which have journalistic policies that allow them to skirt the issuing of retractions for months (ABC) or not at all (SBS). At least the private sector media will retract and correct in a reasonable period of time, in my experience both Fairfax and News Corp, although they're also generally rags at this point.
    - Bnshsysjab 6y ago
      Interesting point, do you have any examples? I’m generally left swinging but find the general style used by sbs and abc are generally less click baity and manipulative but are at times pretty left swinging themselves. Context: left = progressive, right = conservative. I think those terms switch in some countries so figured id mention.
      - 0xy 6y ago
        After requesting a retraction for some false news on SBS' website, I was informed after a very lengthy delay that they did not issue retractions to articles unless there is a complaint received within an arbitrary period of time. There's that, then there's the fact ACMA has zero oversight over SBS' online operations because they can only regulate their television content. For the ABC, on two separate occasions I reported some pretty egregious incorrect reporting and both times retractions occurred over a month later. Contrast this to the retractions I've gotten from the private sector. A reporter on a News Corp website replied to my email in under 10 minutes (!!) and issued a retraction. A reported for Fairfax similarly retracted a point in an article the following day after a complaint. So, the contrast is stark and revealing. ABC and SBS will lie to you with impunity and zero oversight, while the private sector at least has the decency to correct themselves in a reasonable period of time.
- chillacy 7y ago
  China has home-grown tech for both certainly, but I don't know if the fact that everyone uses a flavor of search engine and social media proves that they're nonessential. I guess you could say search engines are nonessential like music and entertainment are nonessential. Somehow people end up wanting both anyways.
Bnshsysjab 7y ago
They’re simply not capable of such things. The government fails to grasp technology entirely, passes technically impossible bills and destroys even the good things it creates (ftth is now fttn). While there’s some precedents with piracy website DNS entries removed from ISP dns, I doubt the gov would want to pick a fight with a multi billion (trillion?) dollar company who would actually fight back.
- hnick 7y ago
  > piracy website DNS entries removed I admit I hardly visit pirate sites, but I didn't even notice that happen. I just checked and the Pirate Bay is still available so I don't know what they're even blocking.
  - Bnshsysjab 6y ago
    Tpb is definitely blocked, I didn’t notice for ages but turns out I was always overriding my ISP DNS and using google dns which for some reason doesn’t block it, I’ve since moved to cloudflare who are in the same boat.
  - yesenadam 6y ago
    e.g. 1337x.to, limetorrents.cc and torrentking.eu bring up an "access blocked" page. "Access to this site has been blocked by an order of the Federal Court of Australia" etc. https://thepiratebay.org https://thepiratebay.org is working fine for me today, although I'm sure that address hadn't worked for a while until very recently, and it wasn't the same sort of blocking as those above. I have a new computer. On my old one I changed to Google DNS when a lot of torrent sites were being blocked a few years ago, and suddenly they all worked again. Kind of silly saying access is blocked when changing one number on the computer unblocks them all.
    - hnick 6y ago
      Those 3 all work for me (well the 3rd one gives a Cloudflare error at https://torrentrex.com/ https://torrentrex.com/, not a DNS black hole). I am based in Sydney with my ISP's own DNS (Aussie BB).

joncrane 7y ago

No one HAS to build those services. The services Google and FB provide are 100% nonessential to successful society. Correct me if I'm wrong, but alternatives already exist for both.

Bnshsysjab 7y ago
most Australian news outlets are 100% non essential click bait trash, too.
- 0xy 7y ago
  I'd say all of them, particularly the state media which have journalistic policies that allow them to skirt the issuing of retractions for months (ABC) or not at all (SBS). At least the private sector media will retract and correct in a reasonable period of time, in my experience both Fairfax and News Corp, although they're also generally rags at this point.
  - Bnshsysjab 6y ago
    Interesting point, do you have any examples? I’m generally left swinging but find the general style used by sbs and abc are generally less click baity and manipulative but are at times pretty left swinging themselves. Context: left = progressive, right = conservative. I think those terms switch in some countries so figured id mention.
    - 0xy 6y ago
      After requesting a retraction for some false news on SBS' website, I was informed after a very lengthy delay that they did not issue retractions to articles unless there is a complaint received within an arbitrary period of time. There's that, then there's the fact ACMA has zero oversight over SBS' online operations because they can only regulate their television content. For the ABC, on two separate occasions I reported some pretty egregious incorrect reporting and both times retractions occurred over a month later. Contrast this to the retractions I've gotten from the private sector. A reporter on a News Corp website replied to my email in under 10 minutes (!!) and issued a retraction. A reported for Fairfax similarly retracted a point in an article the following day after a complaint. So, the contrast is stark and revealing. ABC and SBS will lie to you with impunity and zero oversight, while the private sector at least has the decency to correct themselves in a reasonable period of time.
chillacy 7y ago
China has home-grown tech for both certainly, but I don't know if the fact that everyone uses a flavor of search engine and social media proves that they're nonessential. I guess you could say search engines are nonessential like music and entertainment are nonessential. Somehow people end up wanting both anyways.

Bnshsysjab 7y ago

They’re simply not capable of such things. The government fails to grasp technology entirely, passes technically impossible bills and destroys even the good things it creates (ftth is now fttn). While there’s some precedents with piracy website DNS entries removed from ISP dns, I doubt the gov would want to pick a fight with a multi billion (trillion?) dollar company who would actually fight back.

hnick 7y ago
> piracy website DNS entries removed I admit I hardly visit pirate sites, but I didn't even notice that happen. I just checked and the Pirate Bay is still available so I don't know what they're even blocking.
- Bnshsysjab 6y ago
  Tpb is definitely blocked, I didn’t notice for ages but turns out I was always overriding my ISP DNS and using google dns which for some reason doesn’t block it, I’ve since moved to cloudflare who are in the same boat.
- yesenadam 6y ago
  e.g. 1337x.to, limetorrents.cc and torrentking.eu bring up an "access blocked" page. "Access to this site has been blocked by an order of the Federal Court of Australia" etc. https://thepiratebay.org https://thepiratebay.org is working fine for me today, although I'm sure that address hadn't worked for a while until very recently, and it wasn't the same sort of blocking as those above. I have a new computer. On my old one I changed to Google DNS when a lot of torrent sites were being blocked a few years ago, and suddenly they all worked again. Kind of silly saying access is blocked when changing one number on the computer unblocks them all.
  - hnick 6y ago
    Those 3 all work for me (well the 3rd one gives a Cloudflare error at https://torrentrex.com/ https://torrentrex.com/, not a DNS black hole). I am based in Sydney with my ISP's own DNS (Aussie BB).