1 India's struggle with the internet (Dawn) India’s attempt to block online material that it blames for fuelling ethnic tensions was described by Internet experts as "monumentally incompetent" and "completely illegal". The government over the past week has ordered Internet service providers to block 309 webpages, images and links on sites including Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, news channel ABC of Australia and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera. The orders were an effort to halt the spread of inflammatory material and rumours that Muslims were planning to attack students and workers who have migrated from the northeast region to live in Bangalore and other southern cities.
But Twitter users, legal experts and analysts criticised the government’s approach."The officials who are trusted with this don’t know the law or modern technology well enough," Pranesh Prakash, programme manager at the Centre for Internet and Society research group, told AFP. "It is counter-productive. I accuse them of monumental incompetence, given that the main problem is that they are getting really bad advice.
ABC issued a statement saying it was "surprised by the action and we stand by the reporting" after one of its stories about ethnic unrest between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar was included on the blocking list. Vivek Sood, senior Supreme Court lawyer and an author on Internet legalisation, said he believed the government was acting unlawfully. "It’s completely illegal under the Indian IT Act," he told the Economic Times. "It’s a gross abuse of power by the government."
2 In tech tussle, Apple crushes Samsung (Dan Gillmor in The Guardian) A home-town jury has given Apple the world, or at least the US, in its campaign to control the smart phone and tablet markets. Samsung, which decisively lost the highest-profile case to date in Apple's sue-everywhere strategy against the Android operating system, will surely appeal the verdict handed down the San Jose, California, federal court on Friday afternoon. And even if Samsung ultimately has to pay the $1bn judgement, the company can afford it.
But we're likely to see a ban on many mobile devices from Samsung and other manufacturers in the wake of this case, as an emboldened Apple tries to create an unprecedented monopoly. If so, the ultimate loser will be competition in the technology marketplace, with even more power accruing to a company that already has too much.
Now, I'm not a fan of Samsung. Like so many others in the technology world, it has has behaved in ethically questionable ways. But in recent years, I have become even less a fan of Apple. It is now the uber-bully of the technology industry, and is using its surging authority – and vast amounts of cash – in ways that are designed to lock down our future computing and communications in the newest frontier of smart phones and tablets. In the end, Apple will settle for nothing less than outright capitulation by Samsung – and, by extension, other Android device makers – in what Jobs called a "thermonuclear war", which he planned, before his death, to wage on Android.
3 The boomerang generation (Sally Koslow and Hannah Booth in The Guardian) The number of adultescents living in their parents' homes looks like nothing less than a stampede of chicks coming home to roost, victims of a flatlined economy. According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly three million British adults aged 20-34 lived with their parents in 2011, up 20% since 1997. More than one million under-25s are now unemployed, and with the introduction of higher tuition fees, future students should expect to finish their degree with debts approaching Pounds 60,000 according to a survey.
These experiences may result in a severe hit to self-esteem; returning home to loving parents can sometimes soothe that wound. Many young adults, however, exist in a cloud of overconfidence, with an illusion of endless time. "This is a more entitled generation than their parents' and grandparents'," says William J Doherty, professor of family social science. "We're seeing young adults tethered to family in the sense that they live at home, but with no major responsibility to work as contributing members."
Today's parents are likelier to treat young adults like pampered teens, reinvesting in dormant parenting roles, especially if their kids are floundering. "The subliminal message that comes with all the giving and doing is, 'We don't think you can do it on your own,'" says Marie Hartwell-Walker, psychologist and mother of four adult children, two of whom came home to live with her and her husband.
No comments:
Post a Comment