digital fiji quick links

From traditional hackers to PacCERT

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:13:22 +1200

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…

Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:28:46 +1200

Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise:

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…

A consumer view of residential Internet service in Fiji

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:09:10 +1200

A consumer view of residential Internet service in Fiji:

Intro
Let’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…

Human rights report critiques blog censorship

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:27:37 +1200

Human rights report critiques blog censorship:

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…

Franck Martin and myself interviewed on email security

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:42:29 +1200

Franck Martin and myself interviewed on email security:

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,…

ICT, information warfare, and the RFMF

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:13:36 +1200

ICT, information warfare, and the RFMF:

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…

On top of everything else, lan problems!

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:47:20 +1200

On top of everything else, lan problems!:

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,

Fiji political blogs: truth or slander?

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:32:18 +1200

Fiji political blogs: truth or slander?:

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

Koha hits Apia, Samoa

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:26:03 +1200

Koha hits Apia, Samoa:

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

Are Fiji's ISPs delivering what they promise?

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:20:00 +1200

Are Fiji's ISPs delivering what they promise?:

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

NORAD tracks Santa over Fiji

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 03:05:00 +1200

NORAD tracks Santa over Fiji:

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

Secret messages - thinking about cryptology

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:03:00 +1200

Secret messages - thinking about cryptology:

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

Google wants you to inform on evil websites

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:43:00 +1200

Google wants you to inform on evil websites:

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

USP art exhibit

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:29:00 +1200

USP art exhibit:

Art exhibit that is open to all - and note the free refreshments. I’ll be there and would love to meet some of the Fiji blogging community. Blogged with Flock

Online freedom baby, yeah!

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:22:00 +1200

Online freedom baby, yeah!:

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

RIP HnC: another renegade blog bites the dust

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:27:00 +1200

RIP HnC: another renegade blog bites the dust:

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

USA and Fiji are "nations of lawbreakers"

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:50:00 +1200

USA and Fiji are "nations of lawbreakers":

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

Do you read your server logs?

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:42:00 +1200

Do you read your server logs?:

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.

Wow! The Quick Links are great!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:46:00 +1200

Wow! The Quick Links are great!:

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

A brief history of library technology in the South Pacific

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:32:00 +1200

A brief history of library technology in the South Pacific:

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