We've made an update to MemeStreams that hopefully improves the look of the site. There are also some security fixes in here, as well as some new features which should help us fight spam more effectively going forward. In addition, Acidus contributed some improvements to the MemeBox to make it easier to sort and keep track of new messages. We'd also like to thank Eric White for some HTML input that helped us improve the look of the site and Terratogen for some graphics work.

As always, let us know if you discover anything that isn't working right...

(Safari users may find some color misalignment. We're going to address that in a future update. We wanted this out and we decided to optomize for FF and IE for the time being. Safair literally displays some colors differently in some contexts.)

MemeStreams Look and Feel update

When I woke up this morning none of my domains were resolving. My websites, including MemeStreams, and email, were down. Ironically, GoDaddy told IDG on Friday that they don't need to apply DST patches to their machines because they are located in Arizona. I'm not sure why lack of DST patches would cause such a total outage. Its possible that there is another explanation, but regardless, this outage adds to other concerns about the reliability of GoDaddy has an operator of critical infrastructure.

The above are Decius's comments.

I am now fed-up^2 with GoDaddy. What registrars are people currently switching to?

The time is now 1:16 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time (newly adjusted), on Sunday, March 11, 2007 - and it appears to me that none of my dozens of domain names registered and/or served at GoDaddy.com are working.I strongly suspect the problem is related to today's change to Daylight Savings Time. A recent story in PCWorld described some concerns that had been raised about GoDaddy.com's readiness for the time switch.

Slashdot coverage of the outage.

Update: It appears this was a DoS attack.. Not an outage related to the time switch.

GoDaddy outage impacts MemeStreams

My mailbox is being filled with IETF announcements for the upcoming meeting in Prague. I see internet draft after internet draft making proposals that are going to cause implementation errors, security holes, and ultimately service outages.

Take for example the prime candidate protocol for VOIP - SIP... SIP is far too complex.

Consider how long it has taken to deploy IPv6 - a technology that celebrated its 10th anniversary a few years ago. And IPv6 has the luxury of being an alternative to IPv4 rather than a transparently compatible upgrade. Consider how much longer it will take to deploy VOIP protocol redesigns when the old protocol is embedded in telephones around the world?

I have great concern that our approach to the internet resembles a high pillar of round stones piled on top of other round stones - we should not be surprised when it begins to wobble and then falls to the ground.

Are We Slowly Losing Control of the Internet?

I'm pleased to pass on the news that C-SPAN has announced "two major initiatives designed to greatly expand citizen access to its online video of federal government activities, such as congressional hearings, agency briefings, and White House events."

The first congressional hearing under this new policy is up live on the Internet Archive.

There has been real progress on this front in the past few weeks, mostly due to the efforts and advocacy of Carl Malamud. I'm glad that CSPAN has seen the light.

Boing Boing: CSPAN embraces freely copyable video

Acidus's Stripe Snoop was discussed by Mark Frauenfelder on the Colbert Report!

Mark Frauenfelder on the Colbert Report

This is what happens when you hire idiots that get their on-air graphics from a Google Search without even looking at the results.

Click the image to see the full graphic that WAGT broadcast to all its viewers. You will clearly see text in the image that says "So good, you'll suck dick."

Livin’ in Cowtown by Corey Spring » NBC Affiliate Gets Goo All Over Their Faces

If you like Henry Rollins, you'll enjoy this, er, marriage proposal?

YouTube - Letter to Ann Coulter

Front Line Assembly's hit track 'Mindphaser' from their 1992 release 'Tactical Neural Implant'

This is one of the great hacker anthems from this period of time. I must agree with Decius, this brings back memories for me too. This album got heavy rotation from me during the BBS days of old, as well as during the wild west years of the Internet. Amid the fast paced edits in this video, my brain is filling in snapshots of irc clients on efnet, dial-up bbs systems, and unix command line prompts..

YouTube - Front Line Assembly - Mindphaser

Rather than being a liability, however, social networks can be used to personalize and tailor information to individual users, and drive the development of new social search algorithms.... Digg can create personalized front pages for every user that are based on his or her friends’ readings. This will finally free individuals from “tyranny of the majority” which results from viewing a common global front page.

We've been doing that since 2001.

Social Networks and Social Information Filtering on Digg

Maybe the reason why apparently empty messages like these resonate with my generation is that we don't have any icons of our own.

When someone recently asked me why people my age (I'm 21) listen to bands from our parents' generation, I had to explain that, with a few exceptions, we don't have any real musicians any more. Without massive advertising campaigns, a lot of the "music" you can buy today, like Beyonce, wouldn't exist.

We're a voiceless generation. We have nothing we can point to and say: "This is us, this is where we stand." We're lost and silent and we don't know what to do about it. We're sold a parody of culture that we buy because, well, what choice do we have?

This is a Gold Star article. There is some real insight in here. This is in line with how I feel about where we are right not culturally.

We're All Borf In the End