16 April 2003

Radio Baghdad back on Thursday? A report in Thursday's Sydney Morning Herald quotes the new US-backed mayor of Baghdad as saying broadcasts by Radio Baghdad were to resume 'this evening', which would permit the population to be informed of the new leadership and "give legitimacy" to the new administration. On Tuesday the same gentleman said that broadcasts would resume later that day, but he's new to the job so might have got a bit mixed up :-) I'll be glad when they do get back and we know the frequencies. A man can only take so much of monitoring unmodulated carriers. After a while you start hallucinating and imagine you can hear Arabic voices, only to discover when taking the headphones off that it was a couple of people chatting in the corridor. 11:20:06 PM     comment on this entry []

Tunneling through the great firewall of China ZDNet reports that the US International Broadcasting Bureau has commissioned software that lets Chinese Web users circumvent the Chinese government’s Internet censorship. The software enables PC users running Windows XP or 2000 to set up a simple version of what's known as a circumvention Web server. It uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to allow the person who installs it to set up a miniature Web site through which a firewall-restricted surfer can access the rest of the Web. The software also creates anonymity by covering the Web user's tracks and leaving no record of what sites he or she visited beyond the miniature Web site. The IBB hasn't yet figured out exactly how it will distribute the software, or how it will get the word out to people who are prevented from hearing the IBB's message in the first place. One possible solution is to tap dissident Chinese expatriate communities that maintain ties to China. The full story is at http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-997101.html. 8:29:39 PM     comment on this entry []

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