Well this ought to be of some use to our Chinese readers. And by that I mean people who are actually in China who visit, for whatever reason, crunch gear dot com. There’s some sort of software called Green Dam that will be required on all Chinese PCs soon that blocks all sorts of fun content from being downloaded and/or viewed. Salty political talk? Banned. Pornography? Banned. (Well that’s 90 percent of the Internet right there, silly political arguments (NOBAMA, REVERSE RACISM, etc.) and porn.) Tips on how to grow marijuana? Banned. Violent video games? Banned. Fun all around!
Now, what’s the issue today? Well, it seems that the software that will filter all that unwanted content, Green Dam, is a terribly coded piece of garbage. In fact, it’s so bad that someone could, if he were so inclined, code it so that any PC running Green Dam can be remotely taken over, thrown into a giant botnet. And even if only a fraction of China’s population uses a PC, that’s still an awful lot of potential zombie PCs gunking up the Internet.
What to do about this? Well, ideally you wouldn’t install Green Damn, thus eliminating the potential for future problems. Other than that? Just be really careful when you use the Internet.
Or, better yet, don’t even bother going online. It’s mostly rubbish. I know: I produce a lot of it on a daily basis.