Defense Department Blocks Internet Sites to Protect Grid

Defense Department Blocks Internet Sites to Protect Grid, By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2007 – The Defense Department is blocking access to many popular Internet sites from department-owned computers due to bandwidth issues, U.S. Strategic Command officials said today.

Joint Task Force Global Network Operations, which directs the operation and defense of the Defense Department’s global information grid to assure timely and secure capabilities in support of the department’s warfighting, intelligence, and business missions, blocked 12 popular sites on government computers today.

The sites are: youtube.com, pandora.com, photobucket.com, myspace.com, live365.com, hi5.com, metacafe.com, mtv.com, ifilm.com, blackplanet.com, stupidvideos.com and filecabi.com.

The popularity of the sites has not affected operations yet, but blocking them prevents them from causing such a problem, officials said . “It is a proactive measure: we do not want a problem with demand for these sites clogging the networks,” a U.S. Strategic Command official said.

The blocks affect only Defense Department computers and local area networks that are part of the department’s global information grid. The department has more than 15,000 local and regional networks and more than 5 million computers in the grid.

Department officials stress they are not making a judgment about the sites. Blocking the sites “is in no way a comment on the content, purpose or uses of the Web sites themselves,” the official said. “It is solely a bandwidth/network management issue.”

Offices with a need to access these sites from government computers can request exceptions to the policy. Global network operations officials will continue to assess the stresses and strains on the global information grid, and may add or subtract sites as needed, officials said.

Related Sites:

• U.S. Strategic Command
• Joint Task Force Global Network Operations Fact Sheet

Technorati Tags: Defense Department and blocking access Internet sites or youtube and myspace

Technorati wacks Blogrolling, the rest of us are just Collateral Damage

Chapter 1 Technorati wacks Blogrolling, the rest of us are just Collateral Damage
Chapter 2 Hey Technorati My Authority is not getting updated! Blogroll
Chapter 3 String Theory and Technorati Forum Edicate

UPDATE: Vote WTF, Technorati WTFs are short blurbs that explain the buzz around people, things or events. Tell them how you feel.

It started like any other early spring day,

"On Fri. May 4th, we updated Technorati.com to include the Technorati Authority for blogs listed on the Blog page and in search results. This update changed the earlier references of "N blogs link here" and "X links from Y blogs" with the single Technorati Authority number. On the blog page, we also show the Technorati Rank."

"include" as in addition to, this is completely misleading, read replace, not include, replace.

"Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

It is important to note that we measure the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So, if a blog links to your blog many times, it still only count as +1 toward your authority. Of course, new links mean the +1 will last another 180 days." Technorati Authority and Rank

The "update" received moderate press coverage and very little comment the words didn't seem TO ominous, a slight variation on a tried and true method, these winds of change produced only a minor shiver and then the storm broke.

"If the link was in a blogroll, you may want to check to see if the hyperlink to your blog is located in the blog source of the blogroll. Blogroll links that are generated via a tool or script are not seen. The blogroll must reside in the blog home page as well. If the blogroll is in a subsection or directory of the site, it is not seen or picked up."

But all blogrolls, blogrolling and bloglines etc. are generated by tool or script very few bloggers hand code a collection of static links that don't update and are hard to manage and add to. (A few lucky bloggers who's host permit php script may generate raw html rolls.)

At the stroke of a pen in a smoke fill backroom Tecnorati had erased the work that many bloggers had worked for years and spent thousands of hours to create. blogrolls that updated 24/7/365 to connect us to others with similar interests are now "not seen"

"If the link was in a post, you may want to check to see if posts from the blog are displayed in full content in the blog feed or home page. Technorati currently indexes a blog via it's feed and blog home page. If both display summary information and the link to you is only seen in the permalink, the link is not picked up. Technorati respects blog owner wishes to only index displayed content." Links from other blogs not showing up in search?

so another long time tool for (self)promotion, commenting is likewise devalued.

Since the lifespan of the existing links is 180 day and most links were generated by blogrolls and they were updated every time a blog was updated the exparation rate has been slow and small so far. But it's only a matter of time until they start to expire by the hundreds and thousands. You had 5 blogrolls with 50 to a hundred links each that last updated in late April early May, come October - November say bye-bye.

Did i mention that many advertisers use Tecnorati rank (now authority) to set rates that you are paid for ads on your blog, it just keeps getting better huh.

i've checked on a few blogs, mine and others and i've found that even static html hand written links in the sidebar of blogspot.com blogs are ignored, the only links that i have found that are reliably counted are in the body of posts on the current front page.

The uproar from this "update" is not very loud at this point in the Tecnorati Foruns but as the links begin to expire by the hundreds and thousands in their due time... stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Technorati Authority and Rank and Technorati Authority number or Blogroll Link and Indexing