Looks like a huge, broadly targeted DDoS attack is taking out a lot of social media sites today; my Twitter & Disqus accounts are unreachable and I can't get Mother Jones or MSNBC to load. (Er, looks like the latter's loading now.) So far LJ is safe, but given history I suspect it's vulnerable too ( Read more... )

Posting briefly here to a) remind myself I still have this thing, and b) to let folks know that Twitter is taking a brief nap right now so it's not just your connection or anything.

-- Steve may or may not update this later; such is the way of modern social media.

Clay Shirky's TED talk on why SOPA & PIPA are bad laws ( Read more... )

Ars Technica staff to trolls: we don't serve your kind in here. And that's a good thing ( Read more... )

LJ isn't the only web site having trouble these days... I just discovered that ontario.ca, the web hub for Ontario provincial government services, is down. (Down for everyone, not just me, according to the eponymous site ( Read more... )

Google Maps labels US Highway 30 as "Quebec Route 366" for almost its entire length, from Oregon to New Jersey.

-- Steve thinks you'll find us benificent masters... lay down your arms and you will not be harmed.

spotted via jaylake

... which I (and others) mean in the Cool Hand Luke sense, because the leader of Ontario's provincial Progressive Conservative party is proposing as part of an election platform that Ontario should use convict labour.

This is a terrible idea. It's a poor use of resources, it costs far more in terms of security than it will save (or earn) in "free ( Read more... )

The number one "hashtag" on Twitter tonight, worldwide, is #tweettheresults... an Internet-based protest against Election Canada's restriction on publication of election results before polling is closed. To put this in perspective, the number two hashtag worldwide is "#osama ( Read more... )

Looks like my Sympatico (or perhaps Bell Internet, now, with the rebranding) account just got a service upgrade; I've gone from 5Mb/s (4.25 down, .75 up) to 7Mb/s (6.25 down, .75 up) this morning. And things are notably spritlier on the Internet front.

-- Steve's just hoping that this doesn't mean a fare increase is coming along with it.