Posts by GrumpyOldBloke

The slow strangulation of telework in Australia

Under Ziggy Telstra was investigating fibre to the home, later downgraded to fibre to the node under Sol. The stumbling block was the ACCC not entertaining a request by Telstra for preferential treatment on regulated access. Telstra took it's bat and ball and headed to the mobile space where Telstra's Next-G was born to enduring applause from shareholders. The NBN was a dummy spit by Kevin to Sol's intransigence. That clash of egos has crippled the fixed line telecommunications space for the last decade and probably for the next.

The regulatory environment seems a bit poxy: this is the crux of the problem. While our feral wing nuts are running around trying to scare their voting base with tales of terrorists under the beds and the intelligence community bans branches of mathematics in order to stay one step ahead of the enemy the country goes to hell in a handbasket with no reform anywhere it is needed. For the next 10 or 20 years the demographics will work against any real progress in Australia. Sit back, enjoy the sunshine and marvel at how a country - even one led by the best of British talent - can get it so wrong.

Feds count Cryptowall cost: $18 million says FBI

Re: So, where are the Boys?

The scuzz-buckets behind cryptowall might just be the government and law enforcement agencies. Given the millions killed by the good old USA and its allies protecting their corporate interests around the world over the last few decades, encrypting someone's PC seems fairly tame. Proxy armies rampaging through Northern Europe, the Middle East and Africa don't fund themselves and what better way to raise money for off-the-books operations than tapping the vast number of saps on the internet.

MOUNTAIN of unsold retail PCs piling up in Blighty: Situation 'serious'

Sanctions?

Inventory may also be stock that was bound for Russia but has been diverted due to US sanctions.

Australian Govt to launch cyber sec sharing strategy

I hope their cyber security strategy is better than any of their economic strategies that have emerged over the last couple of decades or the quality of their intelligence services that involved us in at least 3 wars of aggression of dubious legality. Hopefully better than their national infrastructure strategies or their tax reform initiatives or their aged care plans or the lets all be rich by loading up on debt and buying expensive houses strategy.

I will assume they are operating in good faith and help them out. Let's reduce the cyber attack surface by not storing everyone’s telecommunications data for an indeterminate period of time in various bespoke solutions around the world. Minimising the damage of a leak by embracing anonymity in our day to day and online lives. Withdrawing from the extremely damaging 5-eyes +1 industrial espionage alliance to help protect our people and industries from actors unknown in foreign jurisdictions. Implementing an if you don't need it don't store it requirement for businesses. Investing in the development of local IT talent and encouraging best practice security standards - resources available at cost. Encourage research and collaboration in mathematics and engineering at all levels so that best practice supportable local products can replace key foreign products of unknown integrity. Requiring all SOHO routers / modems sold here be supported with timely updates for (say) a 5 year period as a fit for purpose test. Revisiting the case for half baked solutions like smart electricity meters. Banning foreign donations to Australian political parties so that they are not tempted to weaken Australia's security and integrity at the behest of foreign miscreants. Not an exhaustive list but it might be a start.

Trans-Pacific Partnership stalled says Australian trade minister

Re: "The need for secrecy tells us all we need to know about its intent."

1% - luxury! I used to dream of having trans fat labelling at 1%.

From the Australian abc news 2015-02-27...

[Health experts have criticised Australia's decision not to label food products containing trans fats, after health ministers recently accepted the recommendation by Australia's food safety regulator to reject compulsory labelling.]

From news-medical.net, last updated 2015-06-14

[In 2007, the federal assistant health minister at that time, Chistopher Pyne...if the industry did not make the necessary changes of their own accord, mandatory labeling and other regulative methods would be introduced ... However, consumption of trans fat in Australia is lower than of other countries and is within the standards set by the World Health Organization.]

The lower consumption referred to in the reference above was based upon some traditional average diet and is not indicative of consumptions in poor diets, or poor peoples' diets, that are higher in fast or processed foods.

Re: Why?

Enabling legislation has already been passed by both the left and right wings of Team Australia including increased police powers, data retention, internet censorship, mandatory vaccinations - for poor people's kids and from the previous bending over - extension of IP protections. Our food labelling laws are already a joke so there should be no issue there. The Korean trade agreement had IP and ISD provisions and the Japanese agreement may also have had them so we will have to construct these in law. By the time TPP gets here the captain will stand proudly on the poop deck and tell us, as his predecessor did, that the treaty will require no changes to Australian law.

If the TPP stalls it will be about timing not overreach. The political classes in the target Western countries are already sold. The Asians may put up a bit more of a fight but they can be told stories of big bad China, have their aircraft hijacked or industry destroyed to ensure they fall in to line. Shortly after the US puppet show on 8/11 we will get back to signing over our sovereignty to the corporations and the global banking cabals. By then the TPP will be yesterdays news, the stuff of conspiracy theorists.

Australia needs MOAR L33T WHITE HATZ, says Federal Police

It is amazing to see the quality of thought available in Canberra and the obvious dead-ends that are being engineered. In their zeal for total state supremacy they have forgotten or are too important to remember that it is the free exchange of ideas that underpins economies not jacked up public servants and their dreams of nirvana. No free exchange of ideas - well just keeping digging up those rocks boys. Perhaps ASIO, the AFP and the AG's office could have their own come to Jesus moment and realise that they are the problem not the solution and that the current government of neo-nuts and their foreign donors and handlers represent a far greater threat to Australia's future security and prosperity than Whitlam ever was. Another decade of non-investment in science and non-interest in maths and lets see how the information capabilities out of Canberra are looking. Perhaps they could outsource defence to India or China or employ 457's like everyone else. Alternately they could pray that someone with some common sense unwinds the dogs breakfast which is the feral government and gets the bureaucracy pointing forwards again.

Cortana threatens to blow away ESC key

Fn key where the ctrl key should be - wasn't that Lenovo?

Toshiba were reported as dumbasses that supported SOPA

ISIS command post obliterated after 'moron' jihadi snaps a selfie, says US Air Force

At last a win

Important strike against proxy army USA created, funded and continues to support by turning small piece of desert into desert at a strike cost of $M's. Claims bearded dudes were the foolish ones in this charade. No proof of event but world cheers the good guys. In other news, reports that the USA has been at war for 222 out of its 239 years means world hates freedoms. Western governments doing their best to respond.

'I thought we were pals!' Belgium, Netherlands demand answers from Germany in spy bust-up

Re: Even the 1% are no longer immune

That is why the conversation has shifted to the 0.1%. With the decimation of the middle class and most of the *free* world dangerously close to recession or stagflation the rich have started eating their own. Privately issued debt based fiat money won't repay itself - but that was always the plan.

NSA eggheads tried to bork Nork nukes with Stuxnet. It failed – report

Re: Let me see

Spook nirvana North Korea, secure and controlled access to everything. It appears to be the model the Australian grubyment is leaning towards. Unfortunately the parasitical public sector rarely seem to see the link between funding for their paranoia and delusions, a successful private sector and the free exchange of ideas. North Korea, no USB keys and nothing to eat. Australia, total mandatory surveillance and coal is the future - yum.

'The Google execs, the journalists, plus Brit and US spybosses in a cosy mansion confab'

Re: apple and google...

Ironically in that meeting it is only the Apple and Google execs with their shareholders who can publicly disclose who they are actually working for.

Pandora ordered to pay up extra royalties in BMI row

Re: 20 years later

The value in the music business is created by the distribution industry not the studios'. The studio's job is to churn out endless product in various flavours by anyone willing to be an indentured servant. Have a dream, sign the contract, hire the facilities and maybe we can both make a dollar. It is the distribution industry that filters the dross and markets a select few titles at a time to their end user segments as culture, something desirable to be part of and to own. The moment the studio's start their own web site and bypass the distribution networks is the moment our highly paid stars go back to an honest days pay for an honest days work. The problem with all you can eat services like Pandora with little overt promotion and custom playlists is that they are no longer fulfilling the traditional role of the distribution network. They are therefore being asked to pay more to the studios' to offset this value being lost.

Mad Max: Fury Road – two hours of nonstop, utterly insane fantasy action

Re: Sounds like mindless drivel

Ah but mindless drivel with a serious message. Each dollar collected from the punters will be a dollar the studios and distributors have to lobby for TPP / TIPP type abominations, internet censorship / site blocking, perpetual copyright and mass surveillance in order to protect their *art*. Subscribe to the Mad Max dystopian future today and the corporates will do their very best to bring it about tomorrow.

Australian opposition floats startups-and-STEM stimulus plan

Fortunately we know Bill's not serious. The ALP opened the door to widespread use of 457's. The NLP found that the door could not be opened any wider so they knocked down the wall. Two parties of petty tyrants whose only worry is there might not be enough people to rent their investment properties and pay their parliamentary super. Neither party can answer the question of why you would start a high tech business in Oz with its high input costs, unfavourable tax regime, woeful internet services, craven 5-eyes membership, mass surveillance and mandatory airport strip searches. Any intellectual property the business developed would be stolen by one of our 4 eyed friends before the first code review.

A key problem for Australia and much of the free world is that STEM is being transformed from a driver of innovation and wealth to an overhead needed for surveillance, data mining and revenue protection. Under Bill's plan we will spend a lot of money to try and protect the boomers' legacy rather than moving forward and burying the bastards.

Metadata scope creep sees Border Force ask for access

Re: Scope Creep

> some of them realise how much they have betrayed their own people

Not a chance. They are public servants that have been given supra legal powers and exist without oversight - that is not the realm of conscience but of nirvana. Like the oxymoron which is police culture, you have to be crazy or they wouldn't let you in.

A note to the other's about generating noise. The Oz plan is surveillance 2.0, the telco's pay for the data retention and pass the costs onto the end users allowing the government to keep the true cost of this treason off the books. An increase in noise represents an increase in end user costs with very little pain to the grubyment. The US is now looking at this model in order to shift the costs of NSA surveillance off the federal books while claiming a Chinese wall protects privacy. The only ways to fight this are going dark, community routing / tunnelling, encryption or the ballot box.

Putin's lapdog? Zuckerberg questioned over quisling claims

Re: Ukrainian speeker here

The first casualty of war is facebook.

Get paid (airline) peanuts with United's new bug bounty program

Re: Its a good job all the bad guys live in America

The land of the free home of the braid will place you on the no-fly list for looking foreign, for not looking foreign enough or for having some un'merican consonants in your name. Owning up to hacking airline web sites in order to win air miles appears to be an oxymoron.

Canada passes controversial spook-powers law

You can't really be surprised about Harper! He has been progressing down his little totalitarian path for a long time. You would think one of the world's top financial families calling Harper a slave would have given the game way, but no. An aging and enfeebled population who cannot distinguish between reality and government propaganda is the real threat to a nation. The old, the prejudiced and the dementia ridden are the fuel which burns for fascism and with the demographics in most Western nations, it is a fuel that burns bright. Make sure the young people take their anti-depressants and we can be awash with violent events and the subsequent demands for a government response. If there aren't any real terrorists then we can just make some up and pretend there was explosives in their shoes or their underpants or something equally as ridiculous. Harper knows that he doesn't have to care about a campaigning public as long as he can keep the old folks awake at night.

Oz media belatedly realises 'spook's charter' is bad (for) news

Make a fuss? Lose the advertising payback for towing the government line? Mea culpa much. With subscription numbers trending down and profitability in the official story business a distant memory it is only the government playing favourites that is keeping these great houses of *quality journalism* alive. A few recent examples of scratch my back...

SMH 22 Jan 15. The Abbott government plans to spend almost $15 million on its taxpayer-funded higher education advertising campaign

ABC 17 Apr 15 [domestic violence] support for the co-funded $30 million awareness campaign

SMH 28 Apr 15. [$1.75M campaign for] Intergenerational Report escaped independent vetting

This is not just an Abbott government issue, the last mob were just as bad and the states do it as well. We do not expect the media chiefs to act independently when the government is their best customer. The alternative news sites - including this one - had no problems identifying problems in the legislation.

The big boys made us do it: US used German spooks to snoop on EU defence industry

Re: In Germany, we have this thing called "treason"

New Zealand might have this thing called treason as well. Their spooks and the NSA have recently been outed as trying to spy on the Chinese embassy. China is one of the countries largest trading partners and responsible for its continued good fortune despite the quality of New Zealand's political and management classes. The US of course contributes very little to New Zealand except costs. It is no longer clear that the spooks anywhere in the Western half of the free world are working in the best interests of their respective countries or even who exactly they are working for. Colour me shocked that you take a group of people, exempt them from oversight and the rule of law and they start going off the rails.

Microsoft to offer special Surface 3 for schools

My kid lugged a laptop to high school for a couple years under the schools new and exciting BYOD policy. Smart phones were bad, laptops were good. The school issued requirements and arranged special deals but had not stated what the educational outcomes might be. Laptops are now banned in most classes because the teachers, being on the wrong side of the screens, could not monitor their use (mostly game playing). Kids now use their smart phones to do research in class and sanity has prevailed. I do wonder how more Microsoft based ewaste might empower kids in schools - what are the educational outcomes that could not be achieved more cost effectively by other means? Is there an advantage in giving kids a god awful office suite so that they can cut and paste nicely formatted crap immediately or would it be better to give them non linear tools like pencil and paper and give them time and techniques to complete a task?

Android mobe biz OnePlus goes to the dogs - or maybe cats

The invitation strategy worked so well for their 1+1 product, sold a handful of phones with a commodity operating system, I can't see why it wouldn't work just as well for the 1+2. This time 2017 they might be up to 1400 people supporting 2 million phones. A problem for manufacturers selling high end products, even the ones that don't play silly games, is that the development of the android operating system has all but stagnated. Google is struggling to get a simple lollipop makeover out the door and working properly let alone Ubuntu-edge type use cases that would justify higher end hardware. Might be time for a new mobile OS.

White House cyber-general says US must be able to cyber-nuke the worst of the cyber-worst

Michael Daniel is the unintended consequence. A general concern for the well being of the nation devolves into a catchall for every nut job who likes pulling the legs off frogs and sharing other peoples nuddie picks. Michael has not even constrained himself to national security or the law but uses the suitably oblique - America's interests. Anyone who demands more power based upon the worst-of-the-worst argument should also be barred from office as we all know where that foot in the door strategy leads - and there it is; "the goal is to create 'norms of behavior'".

On the plus side his analogy with Underwriters Laboratories and pooling resources to improve products is sound. I would like to see the tech world pool resources to help improve government. Perhaps by employing strong encryption in all communications products and storage assemblies, fixing vulnerable hardware interfaces like USB and having OS's report on unexpected changes in hardware and software configuration. Ethics and a reluctance to support projects which are clearly unconstitutional or not in America's interests would also be a positive step.

US Navy's LOCUST DRONE CANNON is like death SWARMED up

Anyone fortunate enough to live in areas slated to be part of the new infidel century might start investigating low cost directed energy welcomers. Maybe wide beam x-ray or gamma ray welcomers pointing towards your liberators and their technology. Can't be much room on a micro drone for hardening and any shielding on larger objects detracts from payload - so win win.

Oz energy company AGL promises to decarbonise by 2050

Re: carbon capture

Sounds like corporate speak to position AGL at the head of the queue for the feral governments $2.55B direct action reverse auction which started on the 15th of April. If AGL can use CO2 absorbing invisible pink unicorns at a lower price per tonne than other suppliers then it stands a good chance of receiving unto itself tax payer largesse. See also...

theconversation.com/explainer-how-does-todays-direct-action-reverse-auction-work-40152

Given AGL's attempt to get rid of CSG waste water by using it to irrigate farmland (how did that ever get approved) and the surprise result that salts and heavy metals built up in the soil, I shudder to think what their approach to CO2 management might be. If it is invisible pink unicorns then we will have gotten off lightly.

US govt bans Intel from selling chips to China's supercomputer boffins

Control over the world's banking system

> The rest of the world needs to pull their head out of their ass and fix that.

Already in play: BRICS New Development Bank. Islam also has an alternative banking model, one that does not levy compounding interest on loans. What in the West is often framed as a clash of cultures is really a war about the right to create money and levy a never ending burden of compounding interest on its use. We send our young men off with patriotic fervour to fight for our enslavement and the enslavement of future generations to a handful of wealthy banking families in Europe and the US. The US is as much a victim of privately issued debt based fiat money as the rest of us and its schizophrenic actions are not only those of a global thug but also the desperate flailing about of a drowning person attempting to find anything they can to pay off one more days debt and avoid foreclosure.

Netflix fail proves copper NBN leaves Australia utterly 4Ked

The difference in focus is easily explained. I heard from someone - can't remember the name, might have been some mentally challenged homeless guy selling big issue - that coal is the future! That is where we are headed and I can't wait to reach our future of dark satanic mills powered by the latest coal and infra red on water technology staffed by servants indentured to the banks for millions just to cover the cost of basic housing, gruel and transport.

There was another quote from a much more learned chap many decades ago explaining the curse of being an oil rich country but it holds true for minerals and any other rent seeking economy. The business of the country is government.

Welcome to Oz, can we take you coat and check your phone!

Liberal MP threatens journo with metadata probe

Confirms that these idiots have no idea what they have done and how serious the breach of trust has been. Lets hope that by their metadata we shall come to know them.

Feds ponder jamming journo comms in Australian Parliament

Mental Illness

What we are seeing in Canberra is evidence of a serious mental illness. It is not just the data retention and the intimidatory tactics of placing armed guards behind the journalists but also Abbott’s fence around the hill and now talk of fitting the place with bullet proof windows at great expense. What is the man so afraid of? Is it a rational, irrational or medication induced fear? Perhaps the journalists will grow a pair and start holding the federal aviary to account now that they have been dumped in with the general population as the enemy.

Encryption is the REAL threat – Head Europlod

Re: What did they do before the internet?

What they always do - play both sides to advantage themselves and their handlers.

Telstra to let customers access their own metadata for AU$25

Re: What call records?

This also goes back to the December PWC report that highlighted that the cost of data retention could be offset by the telco's offering new services with the data. Such offsets could reduce payments the government might be required to offer in order to reimburse telco's for the scheme. It suggests the governments proposed payments are on the miserly side. This is ideologically consistent with the LNP, the population should not be looking to government for handouts but should pay their own way to be surveilled.

Tony Abbott says food importers deserve help denied to telcos

Re: Playing to the voters?

If there's a modest increase in regulatory costs in one area, it's got to be more than compensated by a reduction in regulatory costs in another area

Translated from political gibberish to rational speak: we are going to use this crisis to further erode Australia's already lax food safety and labelling laws in anticipation of TPP and will over compensate to avoid any investor state dispute provisions contained in the 'free' trade agreements I have already foolishly signed into law.

There is no positive outcome for Australians' planned or unintended in any of our PM's ideals.

Australia to get spooks charter at cost of at least AU$188m

Australia's opposition doesn't oppose national security measures in order to avoid being made to look disinterested in the nation's defence.

No, Australia's opposition doesn't oppose national security measures because influential foreign governments have as much dirt on them as they do on the neo-nuts. No one has forgotten the lessons of the Whitlam government. Combine this obscene legislation with the data sharing legislation passed during the Rudd era all tied up with with warrantless access and we have high treason out of Canberra, again. Have to wonder if ASIO/AFP haven't completely lost the plot as they appear to be a far greater threat to Australia than the cartoon villains the US keeps creating. This trove of data will expose friend and foe alike.

Australian ISPs agree to three-strikes-plus-court-order anti-piracy plan

Re: Three strikes is a joke

Few societies have been as enthusiastic about eating their own young as Japan. Their rapidly declining population is evidence of the wisdom of their decisions. If the remaining otaku or emerging low waged underclass don't consume enough magical fighting school girl anime from Sony Entertainment and its ilk then the solution is obviously to lock em all up. As with much of Asia, nothing of consequence can ever be discussed because such topics are sensitive issues that go against the grain of social cohesion and conformity. Making people uncomfortable is impolite. Japan's hell bent desire for national seppuku rather than facing up to the failings of its elders is perhaps not the best model for anyone else to follow. Many studies have shown a relationship between piracy and paid for media consumption. If nothing else piracy demonstrates and area of demand that can be exploited - assuming your company is not so far up its own backside prattling on about business is war that it can see an opportunity. While it is not like Sony to completely fail to read a market these harsh laws against sharing have perhaps dealt it and other corporate sponsors of fascist stupidity a blow. Not that that is entirely a bad thing.

Re: If only....

The media companies are in this for the long game, total control of all content just like the old days. If ISP's wont host content that hasn't been sanctioned by big media then the only channel for artists is big media. We already have a view of this in youtube where you don't even need to own the rights to content to have it withdrawn under a DMCA notice. If all content is scanned for any infringing words or melody from the last 150 years - you aint singing unless you're signing. Unfortunately their push for control has coincided with a lull in societies acceptance of eugenics and the promotion to positions of power of some truly worthless individuals.

Hello Barbie: Hang on, this Wi-Fi doll records your child's voice?

What if the earth had legs?

How many legs?

Telstra copper at crisis point, endangers NBN, says union

Re: How did this happen?

Telstra has been outsourcing pit and pipe work for a very long time to companies like Transfield and Silcar. Each in turn bid low to get the contract and each then struggled to find subcontractors who would work for the rates they offered at the speed they required and at a quality that was good enough to avoid incurring penalties from Telstra. I understand that Telstra is now bringing some of it back in house as NBN has changed contractors to competitors.

Ubuntu smartphone to go on sale: It'll be harder to get than a new iPhone

SUDO: command not found

LICKED: Behold my TOAD-PROOF ERECTION, boasts Aussie boffin

Very few rabbits escape from Australia.

Untangling .NET Core: Open source for Windows, Mac, Linux

Re: You like MS Products

>Their Trojan Horse, Elop. MS is the reason we lost a decent, independent brand doing interesting things.

Nokia was on the way out before Elop. Nokia had Android before Android but borked it. Stuck on an obsolete platform, behind the innovation curve, chasing the low end of the market and led by people who were great in their own eyes. Microsoft did Nokia a favour by taking that basket case off its hands. Nokia did Microsoft a favour by allowing so much value to be destroyed under Elop before they settled on a price. Win-Win. Pity about the shareholders but theirs was never going to be a happy lot anyway.

SURPRISE: Oz gov gives itself room to NEVER finish the NBN

Re: I'd suggest selling off our Government.

I think our government has already been bought. The price it seems was remarkably low.

Feds dig up law from 1789 to demand Apple, Google decrypt smartphones, slabs

Go to judge, display probable cause, argue for judicial warrant to conduct search and seizure. I love a story with a happy ending.

The problem is that this will become set in precedent and will become a defacto blanket authorisation. A bit like the responses you see in Oz where the most corrupt, ignorant and inept politicians on the planet award their secret police forces blanket authorisation over the entire internet with a single warrant.

systemd row ends with Debian getting forked

By fast they were looking at cloud fast whereby virtual servers are stood up and torn down on demand. As you have discovered though the cost of parsing init scripts is not that high and certainly not enough of a problem to justify systemd as a solution. Most of your boot time (apart from the splash screen) will probably reflect the time it takes to detect and init hardware and get a few hundred MBs of stuff off the disk and into RAM.

The gender imbalance in IT is real, ongoing and ridiculous

Re: Gender Imbalance

Who cares? The war mongers and the bankers that's who! We can't send the men off to fight for some bankers profit or some politicians glory if industry immediately grinds to a halt because all the specialists were male. Similarly we can't just keep paying males to do stuff and not capitalise on the negative wage pressures that are possible from doubling the list of potential candidates. What do we do next? Despite the massive distortions that we have engineered through much of society to advantage females and discard the energy, risk taking and initiative of our young males we still cannot overcome psychology and biology for this glorious future of an xx slave labour force managed by right thought.

Mark Pesce - if you want to lead the charge go for it. Give up your employment on the understanding that your position will be given to a women. Spend the rest of your days in righteous poverty knowing that you did your bit for the new world order. Please keep writing for the Reg to let us know how you are getting on and be sure to record that moment when the warm fuzzy feeling wears off and you realise you have been had.

Microsoft .NET released from its Windows chains... but what ABOUT MONO?

Re: Giving away their competitive advantage?

why would I buy Windows et. al.?

For the same reason you buy windows to get the latest features in office even though Microsoft have a version for MAC's. I have no doubt that Microsoft will be happy to let you play in C# but will do everything it can to encourage you back to a windows server for the production build. Systemd and the loss of a securable linux might just be the icing on their cake.

Australia's going to need a standalone metadata retention bureau

Re: Not Amazon but ASIO

The sharing it with all and sundry legislation was passed in the 2nd term of the Rudd government (enthusiastically supported by the not so liberal national party) and thanks to Mr Snowden we now know why. Any central metadata retention bureau would really be about hiding how many surveillance requests were being made by the treasonous mob in canberra.

Damage control (noun): When Microsoft's CEO kickstarts diversity plan after women pay gaffe

Re: The unpopular viewpoint...

>some misguided diversity goal

The diversity goal is very guided. In a complex layered economy it is difficult to send the men off to war to die for some bankers bonus if the economy then immediately grinds to a halt. Part of gender equity and diversity is about ensuring that your value as a cog in the machine is not greater than your value as a member of the knights temporary for the new world order. Diversity encompasses population control - working women tend to have less children - and wage suppression. Diversity is also a mechanism for neutering whole societies and cultures by attacking the male role and the institution of the family thereby creating dependencies on the state.

FBI boss: We don't want a backdoor, we want the front door to phones

Re: Nope

These are the preliminary steps of the cross border copyright / IP enforcement regime under the guise of keeping us safe. Still, it wouldn't be Australia if we didn't bend over backwards in our efforts to bend over forwards.