Cyber-terrorism at its finest – The nation of Pakistan has broken YouTube.

Huh? They broke YouTube? Oh, right. This is about the current YouTube ban in Pakistan, right?

Right.

So You mean the national ISPs have blocked access to YouTube from within Pakistan.

Wrong. They broke YouTube. Oh, sure, you can get to it now. But last night, any and all traffic worldwide destined for YouTube servers was redirected towards Pakistan and… nothing. Ars has a great article explaining the ins and outs, but here’s the skinny. Think of internet routing like an open-source Google Maps. Now, any and everyone can add directions willy nilly, Wikipedia style. They just have to know how to do it. And sometimes, even when people are trying to do good things and comply with silly nonsense like a nationwide YouTube ban, they can screw it up for the rest of us.

So, let’s say I know how to get to Wichita, Kansas from anywhere in the USA. I add all of those directions to our theoretical Google Maps Wiki thing. Well, the nation of Pakistan doesn’t want its people going to Wichita, Kansas. So it adds a bogus set of directions for its people, telling them that Wichita is, like, in a guy’s garage somewhere in Pakistan. It’s a bum way of keeping people from visiting Wichita, but under the current system, it works. However, they fat finger the directions and instead of bogus addys for Wichita, they list it as the ENTIRE STATE OF KANSAS. I know, silly right? Bigger problem. Our mappy-wiki woohoo says that larger-scale directions trump smaller ones. And since the wrong locale is listed for the entire state, it trumps my directions to Wichita and gets served up to anyone, anywhere, wanting to go to Wichita. So all these people trying to get to Wichita end up in some guy’s garage in Pakistan, which is, like, sooo not where they thought they were going.

And now that I’ve written Wichita, Kansas more times that I ever thought I would in my entire life, I’ll leave you with this: This is a core problem with internet routing I experience on a daily basis. Because any ISP can inject routes to internet locations and can (and often do) add that information inaccurately (Seriously, take a class. Buy a book. It’s not that hard.), network administrators are forced to play constant catch-up wasting time hard-coding in static internet routes to bypass bum ones as they appear. Even worse, these static routes, our fix for the problem, limit the internet’s inherent ability to route around network congestion and outages, further limiting the safeguards of the internet.

I guess my gripe is with all of the slacker sysadmins out there. Here’s a tip: If you’re making changes to network equipment that could possibly have global, devastating changes on the internet as a whole, have somebody else check your work first. Use the buddy system for Pete’s sake. Then I won’t have to come in behind you and fix your mess.

Oh yeah, and read the Ars article. It does a much better job of explaining this particular issue. [link]

Start with 1 part Morgan Freeman. Stir in a healthy dose of Angelina Jolie. Mix in a generous portion of bullets bending around obstacles. Bake all at 450 until the whole concoction explodes into a blockbuster assassin-ninja-racecar-shoot-em-up woohoo good time! Check your brain at the door and enjoy the preview for this spring’s WANTED!

I don’t often wax politico around here. I save that for my watercooler diatribes. But I have to acknowledge the passing of Cuba’s helm from El Capitan Fidel Castro to his slightly less evil brother… Raul.

Raul?

Raul.

Wow, that smacks of hugs and kisses. Or razors and pointy sticks. Time will tell how Raul runs things in the land of wicked stogies. [USA Today]

Speaking of wicked awesome: I just tried out the multiplayer demo for Frontlines: Fuel of War on Xbox 360. It’s a near-future war game that pits North America and the EU against Russia and Communist China in an all-out battle for what amounts to the last of the world’s oil supply. The great thing is that it’s got a gameplay format similar to EA’s Battlefield saga, adapted really well to a console. I play Battlefield: 2142 on PC with some guys from work. Although I’m not a PC gamer, per se, I really enjoy the squad-based tactical nature of 2142. If the shipping version of Frontlines is anything close to the potential I’ve seen from the demo, I’ll definitely be picking it up. I mean, any game that lets you run in guns blazing, issuing orders to a squad to back you up, then drop a remote-controlled airborne drone to hover into sniper perches for a nice BOOM, only to hop into a fighter plane for a strafing run, then haul your team out to an LZ in an armored transport vehicle, dodging EMP mines set by the opposing team’s engineers… Whew! I’m exhausted just thinking about it and I’m not even halfway through the list. Download the free demo. Join me online. WiFiGuru on Xbox Live.

Now this is cool. Special thanks to Molly Wood of CNET for pointing out this nugget. Word 2007 supports blog posting to all the major blog engines. Tres wicked. I’m writing this post offline on my lappy in word. I can add pictures, text, even assign categories. Once I’m done I click Publish, and boom! Instant blog update. I may update this way from now on.