The latest news & views
So, now I’m using Word Press on my site – guess we’ll give it a whirl and see if this helps me keep up to date with posting :)
I’ll update this soon and include a feed from the apc.au blog where I’m posting all my APC related info. If I add in feeds from Fly Me Friendly, all I’ll have to keep track of here will be my personal entries :)
Meanwhile, we’re watching Cowboy Bebop episodes and chilling out – not a bad way to spend a Saturday night…
What the hell is it with the Vatican these days – it’s like they’re trying to undo all the great steps taken to bring catholics into modern reality. The latest is claiming that the Catholics are the most Christian of all churches. This is nuts! It’s not enough that we have major religions lining up to beat the crap out of each other (aka Christians vs Muslims) but now we’ve got Christians getting ready to once again beat up on each other over who is the closer to Christ?
As has been said many times, religion never ended any wars but it sure started a lot. To use another quote: “A war over religion is like fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.”
Can no one out there remember the one common bit of all these supposedly holy books that contain nothing but the truth?
Love thy neighbour
and
Do unto others as you would have done unto you
There are WAY too many people out there who take themselves FAR too seriously about their religion and get the stupid idea that they are right, the rest are wrong and it’s time to get rid of the rest.
Personally, I think it’s time that *ALL* religions took a major step back out of their collective arses and started doing something for the good of *ALL* humans, not just themselves. This “We’re better than you are” and “We’re saved, you’re not” and “We go to paradise/heaven if we kill the heathens/infidels” crap is pathetic, mindless bullshit.
Wake up dickheads – if there is a god, then it’s a god of ALL life in the universe, not your pathetic little interpretation of the deranged, heavily edited ravings of a bunch of lunatics. Start learning to appreciate that opinions other than your own may also be valid and we could all move a lot closer to global survival.
(Sent to the editor of The Age on April 8th, 2007)
An interesting article regarding tailgating (Tailgate and you may be
snapped) but it missed one point.
How about fining those who INSIST on driving below the speed limit in
the right hand lane of the expressway? Or those who refuse to pull left
when clearly there is traffic behind them that wants to pass, no matter
if they’re doing the limit?
Inconsiderate drivers who “hog” the fast lane are also a significant
cause of accidents. You don’t have to be a speed demon to get annoyed at
some one sitting in the right lane doing 90 in a 100 zone…
Way back in 2000, I purchased a DELL laptop over the web and, once it arrived, I was very happy with it. Given I was using it all the time for my work, I took out a 3 year “Next Business Day” onsite warranty. Perhaps the luckiest thing I’ve done in quite a while.
After about a year of operation, I started to experience problems with the keyboard. The 8, I, L and . keys would just stop working – nothing – all the other keys were OK but those would just not produce any characters. I cleaned it out, tried again, same problem. Eventually, things would work again. I called DELL support and they decided to send over a replacement keyboard. This seemed to help for a month or so, then the problem came back.
Over the next few months, DELL replaced the motherboard, keyboard, RAM, etc a number of times. Eventually, they told me that they would be giving me a free warranty replacement unit as they were giving up trying to repair it.
Not bad – I can put up with that…
About a year or so after getting the new replacement laptop, the mouse buttons near the bottom of the trackpad start to come loose. Out comes a DELL service tech to replace the wrist guard and touchpad.
Some time later (about 1.5 years after getting the new unit), I start experiencing new problems. Strange behaviour, etc. After a few calls to DELL, I’m able to catch the problems “in the act” and get concrete evidence for tech support. They send out a new motherboard and RAM.
All seems fine for a while, then the mouse buttons near the bottom track pad start to come loose again. Call DELL, explain the problem, out comes tech with new equipment.
At about the two year mark, the CD/DVD-player in the laptop just ain’t cutting it. I’m trying to rip my CD collection to MP3 for my home system but can’t read the majority of them (they work fine on other equipment). Call DELL, try a few things, out comes a tech with a replacement CD/DVD drive.
Now, a little over two years since I first received the laptop as a replacement, it looks like the hard disk has packed it in. I started getting Windows XP blue screens with spontaneous reboots. Call DELL and they advise it could be new software, convincing me to use System Restore to roll back the config to before these problems started.
I’ve done that, but it’s made no difference as I’ve had the blue-scren+reboot thing a few times. It’s also come up “No Boot Device” a few times. Now it just won’t boot at all :(
So, in short, DELL’s tech support service is really really good (especially when you’ve got a good warranty :) but their products are absolute shite! I’ve had more go wrong with these two units over about 4 years than I’ve had across *ALL* the other laptops and desktops I’ve ever owned.
As the Technology Manager for one medium sized organisation and the Technical Director of smaller one, I’m able to influence the buying decisions of a lot of people & systems (plus I’m always being asked by family & friends re: recomendations, etc). Suffice it to say that I’ll not in any way be recommending DELL equipment! At one location, we’ve ordered a total of 12 laptops in the past year or so – they’ve all been Toshiba – funny that.
We call it “Armistice Day” but it’s also known as “Rememberance Day” and also “Veterans’ Day.” Whatever it’s name, it serves as a time to honor those who have died in war, no matter where it was fought, whether it was a “real war” or which side they served.
The day started in memory of the end of World War 1 when the leaders of several countries signed an agreement to stop fighting. The signing took place at 11am on November 11th, 1918. The thought was that there would be no more wars because the horrors of WW1 would stop anyone thinking war was an answer.
Less than 21 years later, World War 2 broke out. Since its end, there have been very few days without some form of fighting occuring on the planet.
Now we’re in the middle of what could very well become known as Vietnam 2. Just as Vietnam turned into a disaster for the USA in the 60’s and 70’s, so too could the situation in Iraq.
Lest we forget? Too late – it would appear that we as a whole have forgotten entirely – our illustrious leaders certainly appear to have… :(
Oh, wonderful deflection by our illustrious PM, little Johnny boy. When asked about Iraq he deflects us off to the current tragedy in the Sudan. Perhaps not such a good idea when you think about it.
Yes, it’s terrible what’s happening in the Sudan. Yes, the UN hasn’t stepped in quickly to solve it. But then again, where’s the USA now when, as Howard has pointed out, a far worse situation is unfolding in the Sudan than in Iraq? Shouldn’t the US be faking evidence of WMD and Al Qaida so they can invade the Sudan?
Well, I guess there’s no easily snapped up oil production that the US can take over to prevent it being sold for Euros. I guess “Dubya” doesn’t get any major family kudos for stomping on them.
Bye bye Howard – you’re way beyond your use by date.
We’re coming up on the next Federal Election here in Australia. More than ever I’m leery of the two main parties (Liberal/National coalition and Labor). It’s almost always a case of Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum as they both do something stupid here and there, have questionable policies and, of course, the whole stigma of politics and the lack of trust, failed promises, etc etc etc.
This time though, one thing is standing out with magnificent clarity for myself and, it would appear, many others. I just cannot send my vote in any direction that may put John Howard back in power.
From the disgusting display of the Republic referendum where two questions were mangled into one through the “Truth Overboard” Tampa disaster and, finally, into the outright toadying to George “W” Bush and his lack of weapons/evidence/credibility, John Howard has done more to destroy my belief in politicians than any other Australian to date (yes, worse even than Pauline Hanson). There is no stronger message I can send to that little weasel than to put my vote elsewhere, and I am strongly advising my friends & family to do the same (many are already indicating they’ll do all they can to vote Howard out).
So it looks like I’ll be putting the Liberal candidate at the bottom of my vote card. Whether or not the Labour candidate is far above him is a whole separate issue to be reviewed closer to The Big Day. I can’t say I’m too happy with Labour either, although they’re light years ahead of Howard…
While I am no way a fan of John Howard, it’s a shame that we’re not getting a little more balance and/or research from our newspapers as they report on the current long range missile issue. So far, I have seen no obvious mention of the fact that Indonesia and many other of our neighbouring nations are in the process of purchasing the formidable Sukhoi Su-27/30 Flanker air superiority fighter. These aircraft already represent considerable danger to our F-18’s and F-111’s, especially when armed with the latest long range missiles on the market.
Combine the all too real threat of the Su-27/30 with doubts over the already delayed F-35’s capability and it is clear that if Australia wants to continue its current military arrangement, something must be found to maintain balance. A long range missile that allows accurate strikes on ground-based targets from beyond the range of the Su-27/30 is a possible solution.
Of course, the whole need for military posturing and escalations is left as a separate exercise.
Yahoo’s TechWeb are reporting that compliance with the new CAN-SPAM law has dropped from 3% in April to 0.54% according to MX Logic. The law required that SPAM have verifiable return addresses and valid opt-out capabilities. Indications are that either spammers are no longer complying or that the number of spammers has increased so that the percentage of complying mails is dropping.
The researchers are indicating that the main failure is that the law is not being enforced, which is unfair for multiple reasons, not least of which are:
1) There’s not much chance of getting already overworked law enforcement groups to try to track down spammers, especially when the spam is often bounced from overseas servers.
2) When the law came in, it effectively killed off some state-level laws that were starting to become effective at prosecuting spammers.
3) If you can get through all the confusing text, it appears that at no point does the law actually prevent spamming (many see this as proof that the Direct Marketing Association pulled a lot of influence to ensure that their members could spam).
When you consider that MX Logic found over 84% of all email being sent outside corporate networks is spam, it is clear that the “you CAN still SPAM” law has been good for spammers (business as usual without the risk of prosecution) and also good for the companies that supply email security and spam filtering. As to the rest of us, we’re drowning in it…
It’s hard to believe that English is becoming the “language of choice” for the business/technical world. It’s hard enough to learn as a first language, let alone as a second, third or even fourth language.
I’ve been helping my son Nykolai with his spelling home work. Each week the kids are given a list of words to learn and are tested on a Friday. Much fun and we work at it when driving in the car or at the end of the day for his homework.
At the worldly-wise age of six and a half (gotta have the half – that’s important you know :) he has discovered the joys of words that are spelt similarly but pronounced differently. He’s also discovering that some words are spelt differently but pronounced the same.
The classic today was that food and wood are different by one letter but the “oo” is either long (fewd) or short (wud) with no way of knowing except through experience. Hah! Wait until he gets to comb and tomb :)
Then, of course, he’s already meeting there, their and they’re – all pronounced the same bloody way. Hah again! I’m waiting for the moment I can run this line at him:
“As I sat with you under the yew a ewe strolled by.”
Officially, it’s about sitting with someone under a tree and watching a sheep but if you’re not up with your trees and animals, the mind boggles! :)
My second language is Spanish and I’ve really got to hand it to a language where you pronounce it how it’s written. No silly “i before e except after c” or plain old “you just have to know how it sounds” situations. Once you get the hang of the vowel sounds and accent marks, you’re away. Sure, it has irregular verbs (shudder) but don’t most languages?
Anyhow, I’m off to see if I can’t relearn my French and German (they got kicked out due to disuse when I learned Spanish – whoops :) and learn some more Thai. I figure the languages to watch though are Mandarin and Hindi, just by population numbers alone. Add in the fact that China/Asia and India (technically, also part of Asia :) are likely to be the “new barbarians” that take over after the fall of New-Rome (aka the USA), well, ni hao ma? :)
For now, here’s a few other pages with rather amusing comments on the perils of pronouncing the English language :)