For those in the know, this amounts to shutting down DNS. And I probably don't need to tell anyone of sufficient experience in these technologies just how easy that turns out to be.
For those not in the know, it's pretty simple, and pretty clever. The internet, and, in particular, 'the web' (pretty much everything your web-browser deals with) has come to rely on something that was, decades ago, more luxury than necessity, and that is the on-line, automatic 'phone-number' lookup system we call the Domain Name System.
This system works very much like our old phone books once did. No one could remember all those numbers, but you could remember names, so, when you wanted to call someone, you looked them up in 'the book', found their number, and dialed it. The web, and, in fact, the entire internet works very similarly. In fact, they work much as an operator used to. In the early days (of the internet), you maintained your own, personal, local list of 'hosts', a little, black book, so to speak, of numbers of servers like your mail server or file server, so you could just refer to them by name.
But, especially with the advent of 'the web', outside sites that one could also access multiplied ad infinitum, and, not only did one no longer even knew what more one might find out there on the internet, no one knew what their names might be, so (what would come to be called) ICANN was born.
Icann's job was to serve as a referee, allowing people to think up their own names, ensuring those names weren't already in use, and then assigning ip-addresses to those names. That's when things like Google, Yahoo, and others (remember Alta Vista?) became the place to go to find out just what might be out there. All these 'web-crawlers' had to do was dial-up every ip-address, see what the response was, cross-reference that with ICANN (see: whois), and list it all for you very neatly. And these not only converted names like usps.com to the United States' Post Office's web-server's version of a 'phone number' (56.0.134.100) for you, it even connected you, too. As I said, just like the telephone operators of yore.
Soon, people didn't even know usps.com anymore; all they knew was, "Just google usps!"
And so this, compounded by the certainty of vulnerabilities still lurking in the firmware, has become 'the internet's Achille's heel, making it the logical focus of the robbers' efforts to shut out those they feel are abusing their generosity, using their own toys against them.
(Remember, Satan thinks this world is his. And he doesn't want us using ANY of it, not the oil, not the air, not the water, not the trees, nothing. He sees us as squatters, stealing his property. That's why he's so big on abortion and other population reduction/replacement tactics.)
Why would they do this?
Quite simply because they're pathological control-freaks who just can't bear to 'hear' us talking (and they do listen) amongst ourselves, sharing, yes, often wild, unsubstantiated rumors, but also often more accurate, and more timely information than their party propaganda outlets (MSNBC, CNN, PBS, etc.) disseminate.
Now, you may be wondering whether this is just more conspiracy theory. But remember, not that we really need anything more than what the Book of Mormon tells us, but I grew up in this military intelligence milieu. I served in it myself. I'm even related to the larger conspiracy by blood. And, yes, there is a larger conspiracy. Entire volumes have been written about it, and not just by armchair historians, but by eminently qualified chroniclers, including a university professor. And not just any university professor; THIS university professor.
So, when I tell you that these groups exist, you can count on it. And when I tell you that they're about to pull some lever, you'd better be ready for it. Especially be ready for the comouflage, the slight of hand that so distracts you, you know, something like some buildings falling down, that you comletely forget what it is you were watching for.
Ok. So, what happens when DNS stops working? How can the government cut off its nose to spite its face?
Well, first, it's not the government anymore. It probably should be, but it isn't. It was handed over to private (spelled: P I R A T E) interests by someone hoping to disguise that move under the cover of shrinking government. How could we objecte to that, right? Except that all it really was, though, was a setup for the spike, kind of like turning all the gold in Fort Knox over to Lehman Brothers or Chase Bank. Christian bakers get sued for not baking gay wedding cakes, but PayPal, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and others 'disenfranchise' people whose views they dislike with impunity. It's been happening with alarming, and increasing frequency. Hence this article.
Add to that the fact that any properly configured (aka government) site will not rely on DNS, so shutting down DNS, or confounding or restricting it, will have no deleterious effect on them. This is one of the things we pay them for after all: Keep mission-critical systems operational. This, is also, by the way, one of the foundational principles of the internet: Resiliency. How resilient would it be if some malware that only affected DNS routers or servers brought the entire system to its knees?
And that right there is our springboard into the solution. They aim to stop the conversation, or, as they would tell it, put an end to hate speech. But we can beat them at their own game.
All we have to do, for now, is the same thing they do: Update our own, local, little black book, our 'hosts' file, with all the names and addresses of all the sites we'll need to have access to.
And, by that, I mean, of course, my sites, too, assuming you wish to remain in contact.
I'll even be adding a means of writing your own comments, just as soon as I can, so that we can have two-way communication.
For now, here's what you need to do:
Just use notepad (it's in your menu under accessories) to open ...
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Add the following lines to the bottom:
68.54.125.248 www.thinqware.com
68.54.125.248 www.theunknowngod.info
68.54.125.248 www.evolutionmv.com
When done, it should look something like this:
If these are the only lines in your hosts file, you really should add any others you rely on, such as your bank, the ward, weather, police, etc. If you need any help with this, just ask. I'll add further instructions.
Once you've added all the addresses you'll be needing, just save and exit. Your system will always check here first before attempting to get an address from ICANN.
Now, this is not to say that the pirates won't get even tougher in keeping us apart. They'll think of something to stop anyone but approved parties from using the internet at all, hosts file or not, but we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.
11:02 EST
And honesty is, after all, essential.
10:53 EST
Q: What makes an Airbus A340 climb?
A: The curvature of the earth!
(Because its engines are so anemic.)
I was still on my airplane kick when the mighty Boeing 747 was introduced. It was 1970, and we had just recently moved to Fort Ord, California. And that was just months after we got to practically participate in the the first landing of men on our moon.
Naturally, I just HAD to at least see one (747), so I got my hands on every Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, every magazine at all that had so much as a picture of our latest, greatest symbol of the mighty United States of America anywhere in it. But I wouldn't actually see one for another decade, when I actually got to fly business class (not in the hump, but under it) on my way back from Germany to visit my family. (Or was it on my way back to Germany?) Anyway, I was impressed. I was amazed. America was on a wave, and I was riding it. What other countries were doing, or how they saw themselves relative to us, never really entered into my head because, living in Germany as an American, people tended to avoid the subject. After all, they had lost a couple of wars. We had put a dozen men on the moon, and were now regularly flying shuttle-service to low orbit. What were they doing except acting like they'd rather be friends with Russia than with us?
Imagine my surprise when, one day, while headed home from an all-nighter at work on Barksdale Air Force Base, I should happen to look up and behold the amazing shuttle carrier, with shuttle, arcing slowly, gracefully around me to line up with our runway. I forgot all about my much-needed sleep. My clearance would allow me to get close to this wonder-machine, and I did just that.
I've suffered my share of disappointments with my 'fellow countrymen', and our public 'servants'. My national pride has taken a lot of hits, especially throughout most of the past three decades. But I still remember an America that put men on the moon (which no one has duplicated since), built the 747 (still the mightiest passenger plane in the air), and even ran a shuttle-service to space.
You can imagine how I've felt about the previous Whitehouse occupant's near destruction of NASA, our military, and our national pride.
But things are finally looking up again.
For now.