This story is hilarious. It has everything - porn, a government made to look stupid, a kid that beats the system, computer hackery... more porn.
After all the government's huffing and puffing - both on matters of local employment and on protecting kids from the evils of an interweb built solely for the purpose of stealing their innocence - it's a big fail for Communications Minister (and part-time fencepost) Helen Coonan.
Money spent on an imported product has been wasted when a local one (even according to the 16-year old who cracked it in under half an hour) would have been more effective and saved millions. It's a bit surprising that Coonan got it so wrong.
She is just one of the many Howard stooges who have been caught by the wildly wonderful WikiScanner this week, and as such her staff should have enough experience manipulating information online that you'd think they could spot an unreliable porn filter at twenty paces. The most Coonan-related article is here.
While the 'poo bum dicky wee wee' edit is one of my personal favourites, the most insightful story would probably be this one - detailing how the Department of Defense made up to 5000 Wiki edits, and how the offices of the Prime Minister and Cabinet seem to have been responsible for the rewriting of recent history on major government lies - like children overboard.
While this excerpt is informative:
WikiScanner removes much of the anonymity Wikipedia contributors have long enjoyed by tracing the unique digital fingerprint left by everybody who uses Wikipedia. It has helped uncover self-serving contributions from hundreds of sources, including the CIA, the Vatican, the Republican Party, the UN, the US Senate and the US Democratic Party's Congressional Campaign Committee.
I think that this quote from WikiScanner's creator is absolutely brilliant:
"My intention was to create a massive fireworks display of public relations disasters for all the world to sit back and enjoy."
- WikiScanner's creator, Virgil Griffith
It is hoped that Peter Costello's nickname, 'Captain Smirk', shall be reWiki-ed shortly.
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