The server formerly known as www-douzzer.ai.mit.edu is now known as www.mega.nu, and links containing the old name no longer work.
According to my records, the following pages point to my server:
http://www.olypen.com/harmon/np217.htm
http://www.olypen.com/harmon/np218.htm
A text replace operation that swaps www.mega.nu for www-douzzer.ai.mit.edu will do the trick nicely. In particular, http://www-douzzer.ai.mit.edu:8080/conspiracy.html is now
http://www.mega.nu:8080/conspiracy.html
Please reply when they're fixed up, so that I know you've received this email and can check off your site.
I have corresponded with some of you personally, but this is a large automated mail merge to cope with this emergency outage.
You may be wondering what has prompted the change. In September of last year, the new system administrator of the AI lab (Jack Costanza, jackc@ai.mit.edu) informed me that, pursuant to new lab policy, I was required to remove my web server from the AI Lab machine room. I did this in October, as he and I agreed I would, moving it into my apartment where it continues to act as a web server.
In November of last year, I bought the domain mega.nu in order to gradually move the web site's public persona away from its legacy ai.mit.edu name and toward a dedicated, unaffiliated name. At that time, I changed all my redirectors to point to www.mega.nu rather than www-douzzer.ai.mit.edu, and changed all internal URLs to point to www.mega.nu.
The MIT AI lab cannot reasonably claim that my web site, under its legacy name or otherwise, is advertised as an instrument of MIT, or otherwise officially endorsed. My username (which is derived obviously from my real name) has always been a component of the server's hostname. My real name has long been prominently displayed at the top of the front page. The keystone compilation of the site has long borne the prominent announcement "The views expressed on this web site do not necessarily reflect the views of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, its faculty, or its students." No one can reasonably conclude that I intended to suggest otherwise.
On Sunday (2000-Feb-6), without any warning or notice, and acting under specific orders from AI Lab administration, the system administrator of the AI Lab (Jack Costanza, jackc@ai.mit.edu) removed the records that forward www-douzzer.ai.mit.edu queries to my off-site web server, in what technically constitutes a denial of service attack. The MIT AI Lab administration is effectively censoring me. Until the denial of service attack was implemented, my server saw 5000-10000 hits a day. It now sees a small fraction of that.
This is purely political. They claim to be impartially implementing a new policy (specifically, that no AI Lab resources can be used for any purpose other than the activities of formally affiliated students and researchers), but I have confirmed in an interview with the system administrator, and observed from his actions and those of his colleagues, that I have been singled out, to set an example. The claim that my site used AI Lab resources is quite specious, since the sum total of the lab's involvement was name service forwarding outside the lab to my resources (the theoretical minimum level). This has a logistically negligible impact; the administrators' motivations are purely political.
Adding insult to injury, after an apparently amicable meeting with the lab system administrator (Jack Costanza, jackc@ai.mit.edu), the AI lab's router was reconfigured to shut down all communication between the lab and my web site and development machine. Not only is it now impossible for anyone at the AI lab to send me email at my usual address (douzzer@mega.nu), it is also impossible for anyone there to access my web site. This action was not taken in response to any action on my part (as I took none), but instead appears to also be politically motivated.
I should add that I am an alumnus of the MIT AI lab and of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science - that is, I was once a student researcher formally affiliated with these entities. The legacy name of my web site is a result of that earlier formal affiliation. Five years ago, the AI Lab system administrator was the very generous and helpful Bruce Walton, and the director of the lab was the generous and thoughtful Patrick Winston (who a few years earlier was my undergraduate advisor, in fact). Times have changed. Bruce has been replaced by an authoritarian committee, and Patrick has been replaced by the arrogant and political Rodney Brooks. The atmosphere of the lab has been transformed from unusually open to downright stifling.
I encourage you to voice your opinion on this matter to the administration of the MIT AI lab, if for no other reason than to encourage them to restore the pointer to my web site and excoriate them for removing it. All of them are responsible for the policy and actions that led to the denial of service attack. Feel free to forward this message to them, along with your own.
Rodney Brooks
Director, MIT AI Lab
brooks@AI.MIT.EDU
(617) 253-5223
Howard E Shrobe
Associate Director, MIT AI Lab
hes@AI.MIT.EDU
(617) 253-7877
Randall Davis
Associate Director, MIT AI Lab
davis@AI.MIT.EDU
(617) 253-5879
-Daniel Pouzzner