Julian2 Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 Anti-piracy protest triggers Wikipedia shutdown Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours tomorrow to protest against US piracy laws backed by the music and film industries but rigorously opposed by internet companies. The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act will force internet-service providers to block non-US websites that offer pirated content if served with a court order. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced the planned global block-out of the site's English pages on Twitter this morning, after first raising the idea on Monday. “This is going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!†he tweeted. Mr Wales said the block-out would run from midnight US Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday to midnight the next day (4pm – 4pm AEST ). “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!†he tweeted. Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/antipiracy-protest-triggers-wikipedia-shutdown-20120117-1q3wu.html#ixzz1jgNw9Uue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 Jimmy Wales created a monster in Wikipedia. The idea of anyone being able to contribute sounds nice, but you get a mixture of contributors with genuine knowledge and an assortment of wannabe wankers who couldn't pass a high school writing class. The entries on scientific subjects generally are quite good, but those on history, biographies etc can be pure unmitigated crap. Also, you get the "Wikipedia Nazis" who post their own garbage and then ban or attack anyone who tries to correct it factually or grammatically. I don't know how many times I've said I will never correct an entry on Wikipedia, only to backslide a few months later and do so. A fair number of times, a Wikipedia Nazis will promptly change it back and accuse me of "vandalism". Unfortunately, as a teacher of writing and a former editor, it is hard for me not to want to correct atrocious writing. A long time friend - who has several degrees in English, decades of teaching writing and a number of books to his credit - calls Wikipedia the playground of bad writers. No one would ever pay them for the piss poor writing they produce, but they can post it on Wikipedia and feel proud of themselves. Also, many people don't realise that Wikipedia publishes the better entries in hard form. There are Wikipedia books. Notice that contributors must surrender their rights to whatever they submit. Nice way to get people to work for you for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted January 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I'm a total Wikipedia junky.... I suspect that it would cut my internet time considerably if it disappeared. So it's YOU who keeps vandalising my Thaksin entries all the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 A Wiki tip: the old entries are kept. Click and you can read them. Look at the early ones about Takky's son. All sorts of interesting goodies are there that were sanitised from the current versions. p.s. I really got pissed off when I corrected information about Sukhothai, which I once lived near and visited any time a friend wanted to see the old city, and it all got deleted. But it seems backpackers know better than folks who lived there and don't read Joe Cummings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted January 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 A part entry on today's front page... I love this stuff! Once the bomb was located, Simó Orts appeared at the First District Federal Court in New York City with his lawyer, Herbert Brownell, formerly Attorney General of the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, claiming salvage rights on the recovered hydrogen bomb. "It is customary maritime law that the person who identifies the location of a ship to be salved has the right to a salvage award if that identification leads to a successful recovery. The amount is nominal, usually 1 or 2 percent, sometimes a bit more, of the intrinsic value to the owner of the thing salved. But the thing salved off Palomares was a hydrogen bomb, the same bomb valued by no less an authority than the Secretary of Defense at $2 billion—each percent of which is, of course, $20 million." The Air Force settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palatkik Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Also, you get the "Wikipedia Nazis" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjI69z-E-yk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 I don't know if it's got anything to do with the blackout, but Thai360 cannot be found by my server - has been "lost" for two days. Some other US based sites are unreachable too. Now WTF? p.s. True Internet again, what else... I'm at work right now. Not a good place to log onto the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCorinthian Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 Wikipedia is wondrous. It is hard to grow true, but go read copies of the 1911 Britannica and see how accurate that thing was. It is the future. And I would think Flash at the least would appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 30, 2012 Report Share Posted January 30, 2012 As I said, on some topics Wikipedia is great. On others it is not. It is a mixed bag. I use it for a quick look up of general information. I would be careful of it for more than that. p.s. I do have maybe half a dozen entries on Wikipedia that I wrote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.