“Broadband” in Sri Lanka – Where the gremlins reside

That’s a photo of where I get my SLT ADSL from. It chokes. It splutters. It dies.

But just when I was about to write this post and in the background decided to download a Top Gear episode, it magically just sprang to life.

219Kb/s sustained for 20 minutes. Phew.

It’s not the first time my ADSL connection, of its own accord, decided to live up to what it is advertised as. Or at least something closer to it than the pissant data rate I usually get on it.

It was partly because my ADSL connection was so bad (and I’m on a business package) that I spent a small fortune and bought a HSPA 3G modem with Mobitel. Average speeds on it are much better than ADSL. And when ADSL simply gives up and dies during peak times, the 3G connection just keeps going.

What’s not so great is the measly 1.5Gb combined upload plus download package I’m on. Honestly, I usually go through that kind of data a day using my ADSL when I’m doing some multimedia work on the web.

The fact is, I pay a ridiculous amount of money a month for broadband packages that simply don’t work as advertised.  And that, whichever way you cut it, is just bull shit. The same bull shit one encounters on SLT’s broadband helpline, which asks to download an old Eudora programme from www.sltnet.lk and then says that if the speeds are ok from there, everything else is ok. Anything international, and apparently the copper in my Japanese junction box becomes the problem. Or some virus.

When I tell them I am on a Mac, the fun starts:

“Yes yes. Apple very good. But must be something running on background no? You have virus? No? Ah, no virus on Apple. Yes yes. Not like XP no? Ha ha. Did you try opening Eudora.exe? No, must work no? No? Not work? Did you click? Mac no – yes. Very good Apple. No exe. Yes. Ha ha. I forgot. Sorry. Must be with system then. Drivers? Did you restart? Ah. Ok. Did you restart? Ah. Ok. [Pause] Where you buy? Go ask? SLT ADSL no problem. Thank you.”

As for Dialog, the less said the better, though one does notice that they’ve changed their marketing spiel to describe Wimax speeds that now go as “up to {whatever speed}” in their recent ads.

Hopefully Lirneasia’s got some more answers to these issues.  Can’t wait.

Mobile phones against terrorism

So while Sri Lanka clamps down on the use of mobile phones to prevent terrorism, researchers at Purdue University are working with the state of Indiana to develop a system that would use a network of mobile phones to detect and track radiation in order to help prevent terrorist attacks with radiological “dirty bombs” and nuclear weapons.

Such a system could eventually blanket the nation with millions of mobile phones equipped with radiation sensors able to detect even slight residues of radioactive material. Because mobile phones already contain global positioning locators, the phone-based network would serve as a tracking system, says physics professor Ephraim Fischbach.

Great.

Every single hospital’s X-Ray room just became an Al Qaeda hideout. One other problem of course – I doubt any deranged folks who actually went into the trouble of assembling and transporting dirty bomb or nuclear device, caught driving around say New York city are actually going to clamber out and hold up their hands when dozens of cell phone totting citizens point accusingly at them with their iPhones.

Mobile phones can actually combat terrorism by helping communities communicate, reconcile differences and transform conflict.

But I guess a radiation fighting, hazmat detecting, mobile phone sounds far more sexy.

UNESCO chickens out of Online Free Expression Day

No sooner had I written about RSF’s Online Free Expression Day came news that UNESCO had pulled out, at the last minute, from supporting the event. As reported on the RSF website:

“We are not fooled,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Several governments on today’s updated list of 15 ‘Internet Enemies’ put direct pressure on the office of the UNESCO director general, and deputy director general Marcio Barbosa caved in. UNESCO’s reputation has not been enhanced by this episode. It has behaved with great cowardice at a time when the governments that got it to stage a U-turn continue to imprison dozens of Internet users.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Unfortunately, it seems we have gone back 20 years, to the time when authoritarian regimes called the shots at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. UNESCO’s grovelling shows the importance of Online Free Expression Day and the need to protest against governments that censor.”

In other news, Ars Technica’s report on the RSF initiative matches my own critique of it:

The protests are a bit underwhelming, though the site design is quite nice. Users who want to participate enter their name and location, pick a slogan from a list (“Free speech before the Olympic games!”), and are then dropped into a sea of protesters arrayed before a background representing the location in question. The Chinese protest alone had more than 3,000 people involved when I checked in on it, though there’s not much to do except mouse over the onscreen placards to see where other protesters hail from. 

Also read:

The limits of online freedom and activism?
Revisiting Public Service Television – Some thoughts on a UNESCO ICT@PSB production
Podcasts for peace