The Great Firewall of China

Two steps forward, one step back...
At least China's citizens now have access to the Internet, just not the entire Internet. Any website, message, or packet that contain as little as one word from a list of black-listed terms (compiled by the PRC's Ministry of Public Security) will not be fully processed. Instead, the packets are reset and not allowed to continue to the next router. The user is usually left with a "broken link" message. This is cleverly dubbed the Great Firewall of China, but how fool-proof is it? Read Jacqui Cheng's article "Great Firewall of China more like chain-link fence", which discusses the new research from UC Davis and University of New Mexico CS Departments.

You can't help but root for the Chinese citizens. It's the classic Man vs. Establishment conflict but with a digital twist. The Internet is truly a force to be reckoned with. Not even a communist government can cage the global beast that is the Internet.

Nuking Ramen Noodles in the Digital Age

Key features of Microsoft's Kitchen of the Future:

• Family Information console, replacing the cluttered fridge door, synchronizes with personal devices to display schedules, contact lists, memo's, chores list, weather forecasts, e-mail alerts, etc.
• Hands Free telephoning with caller ID and voice-dialing/answering. Sync'ed with contact lists.
• Phone sends directions, recipes, and other information to the caller, all by voice commands.
• Microwave's UPC scanner collects "cooking time" information from each food product (Ramen noodles made easy...easier) and also updates its own database after every use.
• Microwave alerts the user, wherever in the house, that microwaving is done.
• Microwave updates the user's "inventory" (a pantry or cupboard for the layperson) after every consumption.
• Kitchen computer constructs feesible recipes based on ingredient availability.

...Very Jetson's-esque.

List of ISP's

Tier 1 ISP's:
-AT&T
-Global Crossing
-SAVVIS
-AOL Transit Data Network
-Level 3

Tier 2 ISP's:
-Cogent Communications (buys from Verio)
-Tiscali International (buys from Sprint)
-Telecom Italia Sparkle (Buys from Verizon Business and Sprint)

Tier 3 ISP's:
-
-WideWorld.net

Traceroute from the Netherland's UUnet NL

traceroute to mead.csdomain.millersville.edu (166.66.64.41): 1-30 hops, 38 byte packets
1  vlan10.ge-0-2-0.ams9eusoesr1.ams.ops.eu.uu.net (195.129.70.2)  0.817 ms (ttl=254!)  0.389 ms (ttl=254!)  0.366 ms (ttl=254!)
2  ge-1-1-0.GW7.AMS9.ALTER.NET (212.136.185.117)  0.448 ms (ttl=253!)  0.401 ms (ttl=253!)  0.381 ms (ttl=253!)
3  so-2-0-0.CR2.AMS9.ALTER.NET (212.136.185.109)  0.436 ms (ttl=252!)  0.484 ms (ttl=252!)  0.413 ms (ttl=252!)
4  so-4-0-0.XR2.AMS6.ALTER.NET (212.136.176.54)  0.505 ms (ttl=251!)  0.482 ms (ttl=251!)  0.588 ms (ttl=251!)
5  so-3-0-0.TL2.AMS2.ALTER.NET (146.188.8.90)  0.498 ms (ttl=250!)  0.498 ms (ttl=250!)  0.466 ms (ttl=250!)
6  so-4-0-0.IR1.DCA4.ALTER.NET (146.188.5.197)  82.2 ms (ttl=249!)  82.2 ms (ttl=249!)  82.2 ms (ttl=249!)
7  0.so-1-0-0.IL1.DCA6.ALTER.NET (146.188.13.37)  82.2 ms (ttl=248!)  82.2 ms (ttl=248!)  82.2 ms (ttl=248!)
8  0.so-1-2-0.XL1.PHL1.ALTER.NET (152.63.38.214)  84.7 ms (ttl=247!)  84.7 ms (ttl=247!)  84.7 ms (ttl=247!)
9  POS6-0.GW7.PHL1.ALTER.NET (152.63.39.121)  84.7 ms  84.5 ms  84.6 ms
10  internapPHL1-gw.customer.alter.net (157.130.59.246)  84.6 ms (ttl=243!)  84.7 ms (ttl=243!)  84.6 ms (ttl=243!)
11  border6.ge3-0-bbnet2.phi.pnap.net (216.52.64.74)  84.6 ms (ttl=243!)  border6.ge2-0-bbnet1.phi.pnap.net (216.52.64.10)  84.4 ms (ttl=243!)  border6.ge3-0-bbnet2.phi.pnap.net (216.52.64.74)  84.8 ms (ttl=243!)
12  compen-4.border3.phi.pnap.net (216.52.66.234)  85.6 ms (ttl=241!)  compen-3.border6.phi.pnap.net (216.52.66.42)  85.8 ms (ttl=241!)  compen-4.border3.phi.pnap.net (216.52.66.234)  85.7 ms (ttl=241!)
13  *  *  *
14  fgt-external.net.millersville.edu (192.206.29.254)  91.6 ms (ttl=240!)  90.3 ms (ttl=240!)  90.3 ms (ttl=240!)
15  166.66.251.23 (166.66.251.23)  90.9 ms (ttl=239!)  91.3 ms (ttl=239!)  91.7 ms (ttl=239!)
16  mead.csdomain.millersville.edu (166.66.64.41)  94.0 ms (ttl=111!)  92.3 ms (ttl=111!)  90.4 ms (ttl=111!)

Traceroute from San Diego Super Computer Center

traceroute: Warning: Multiple interfaces found; using 132.249.21.59 @ bge0:1
traceroute to 166.66.64.41 (166.66.64.41), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  lightning.sdsc.edu (132.249.20.6)  0.470 ms  0.361 ms  0.355 ms
2  dolphin.sdsc.edu (132.249.30.17)  0.344 ms  0.839 ms  0.361 ms
3  hpr-lax-hpr--sdsc-10ge.cenic.net (137.164.27.168)  6.598 ms  6.859 ms  6.609 ms
4  abilene-LA--hpr-lax-gsr1-10ge.cenic.net (137.164.25.3)  6.604 ms  6.559 ms  6.574 ms
5  hstnng-losang.abilene.ucaid.edu (198.32.8.22)  38.078 ms  38.275 ms  38.129 ms
6  atlang-hstnng.abilene.ucaid.edu (198.32.8.34)  59.666 ms  59.629 ms  59.751 ms
7  ge-0-1-0.10.nycmng.abilene.ucaid.edu (64.57.28.7)  73.037 ms  83.046 ms  72.993 ms
8  204.238.76.5 (204.238.76.5)  77.970 ms  78.731 ms  78.617 ms
9  204.238.76.14 (204.238.76.14)  80.349 ms  80.693 ms  80.606 ms
10  172.27.52.1 (172.27.52.1)  85.587 ms  86.955 ms  91.200 ms
11  fgt-external.net.millersville.edu (192.206.29.254)  87.217 ms  87.840 ms  93.772 ms
12  166.66.251.23 (166.66.251.23)  87.457 ms  88.575 ms  86.958 ms
13  mead.csdomain.millersville.edu (166.66.64.41)  85.145 ms  106.335 ms  84.910 ms

Traceroute from Croatian Academic and Research Network

1 gw1.infra.CARNet.hr (161.53.160.253) 0.497 ms 0.422 ms 0.364 ms
2 gw.CARNet-SRCE-1.CARNet.hr (161.53.10.237) 0.454 ms 0.427 ms 0.411 ms
3 CN-Srce-01-RO.zg.core.CARNet.hr (193.198.228.5) 0.396 ms 0.365 ms 0.424 ms
4 carnet.rt1.vie.at.geant2.net (62.40.124.9) 9.169 ms 9.186 ms 9.252 ms
5 so-7-0-0.rt1.pra.cz.geant2.net (62.40.112.6) 15.893 ms 15.911 ms 15.854 ms
6 so-6-3-0.rt1.fra.de.geant2.net (62.40.112.38) 23.665 ms 23.651 ms 23.683 ms
7 abilene-wash-gw.rt1.fra.de.geant2.net (62.40.125.18) 116.300 ms 125.758 ms 116.500 ms
8 204.238.76.5 (204.238.76.5) 122.055 ms 122.546 ms 122.047 ms
9 204.238.76.14 (204.238.76.14) 130.812 ms 126.908 ms 127.076 ms
10 * * *
11 fgt-external.net.millersville.edu (192.206.29.254) 129.587 ms 128.737 ms 129.273 ms
12 166.66.251.23 (166.66.251.23) 129.989 ms 131.744 ms 132.464 ms
13 mead.csdomain.millersville.edu (166.66.64.41) 131.130 ms 133.512 ms 128.718 ms