Spacehamster’s Blog

Well, it certainly was an interesting Christmas this year. We went for our annual barbecue with the Yong family, and as usual we all had a bit too much food to eat than was good for us. My mother came down with food poisoning the next day.

As for me, I visited a friends place for a few LAN games - more specifically, Warcraft 3. I was pretty nervous, as it was my first time playing against other human players. Much to my surprise, I actually did rather well. I didn’t win any games, but I did acquit myself rather admirably against everyone else. I did even better while playing Flat Out, and came third in most races, and first in one demolition derby.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of bringing along my desktop PC instead of using my father’s laptop (a very fast Pentium IV). After I brought the PC home, a stray wire stopped the CPU fan from rotating - and the CPU overheated and burned out.

The end result? My computer blew up.

On a negative note, it’s bad because I no longer have my PC.

On a positive note, it means that I’ll be able to upgrade my PC to an even faster model.

I’m going to visit two computer shops over the next few days. We’ll see whether I can build the PC of my dreams. Interesting times.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 70% Hulk 60% Batman 50% Spider-Man 45% Superman 45% Robin 40% Supergirl 40% The Flash 30% Iron Man 25% Catwoman 10% Wonder Woman 5%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

I used to read GL when I was a kid, and I always liked the power ring - but geeeeeez that green jumpsuit was camp!

And contrary to what my co-workers might insist, I definitely don’t have anything in common with the Punisher. And besides, Batman kicked his butt in JLA vs. Avengers anyway.

This is certainly one of the more off-putting news articles
that I’ve read in quite some time. I know from my own experiences that
Asians can be quite lazy regarding matters of hygeine. Some of my Asian
friends and relatives will refuse to fully flush the toilet because they
says its a waste of water. I’ll leave the rather disgusting results to your
own imagination.

So it comes as no surprise to find that mainland Chinese tourists visiting
Hong Kong Disneyland are making rather a mess whenever they visit. I’ve
also noticed the same behaviour in Asians when I was living in Melbourne.
Being brought up by my parents and believing that good manners were
important, this kind of behaviour used to infuriate me. I couldn’t
understand why they couldn’t just patiently wait in line. Whoever
promulgated the stereotype that Asians were polite had seriously better
think again.

I’m not too sure what to say about these riots in Sydney, other than to say that this was inevitable. It’s unbelievable to look at how much worse things have become since the 2000 Olympic games. Back then, we were showing the world what a diverse culture we actually have - and how easily we were able to accept other cultures within our own without sacrificing our own values or way of life.

And now look at us.

About seven years ago, I was offered a job in Sydney - so I travelled there to attend the interview. Quite frankly, I didn’t enjoy my stay there at all. The streets were too narrow, the buildings were too tall. It was too much culture shock to take in at one time. In a previous posting, I remarked on how isolated Melburnians were from one another - the same is true in Sydney as well, as these riots prove so graphically.

How did we get to this point? Race riots? Here? In Australia? If anybody thought that voting for a particular political party meant a safer Australia, they were sorely mistaken. The truth is, a safer better Australia starts with the actions of every single Australian. There was an old Buddhist saying that I will always remember - “Change yourself, then change your family, your family changes the village, your village changes the country, and your country changes the world” (sic).

Perhaps its time we all started heeding this philosophy.

I suppose it was inevitable this would happen. A software company that produces spyware has sued ZoneAlarm for calling its software harmful to users and advising that it should be uninstalled from their computers. In other words - ZoneAlarm is being held legally liable for telling it like it is.

So the real point of this lawsuit is not that ZoneAlarm is saying misleading things about 180, but that it’s being too clear and accurate. The complaint focuses on the fact that the ZoneAlarm persists in warning its users that the suspect application’s behavior means it could be monitoring them, “despite Zone Labs having been advised by 180 to the contrary.” Along with not being willing to take 180’s word for what it does with the information its programs could be collecting, Zone Labs also is accused, rightfully so, of assigning a high risk status to 180’s apps and stating that it “is recommended that you delete this application immediately because it constitutes a privacy risk, and has no known usefulness.”

Well, that sounds like a pretty accurate description of 180Search Assistant and Zango to me. Contrast it with the way 180 describes its business practices in the complaint: “Much like other innovative Internet content companies such as Google and Microsoft, 180 has helped develop an advertising-based business model that allows it to generate revenue from original content, while continuing to allow that content to be made freely available to users,” it reads. And then this: “Similar to network television, 180 provides its users with unlimited free access to its entertainment content (game and software applications) in exchange for the user’s agreement to view a limited number of advertisements per day from 180’s sponsors.”

Oh, please. Which company is it that’s being misleading and deceptive? ZoneAlarm has every right to sound the alarm whenever it detects an application that’s doing something that could be dangerous - that’s why customers bought it. That its alerts result in removal of 180’s programs is the proof that they aren’t really the “consent-based applications” 180Solutions claims. If they were, after all, users would be unconcerned by even the most strident warnings of an anti-spyware scanner because they would presumably know what 180search Assistant or Zango is doing on their computers.

I noticed that opinion polls indicate an even split between those who support and oppose Nguyen’s execution. I remember several years ago, when Hansonism was at the height of its popularity, a phone poll was performed by A Current Affair. The question was “Would you prefer less Asian Immigration?”. The result was 85% Yes and 15% No. I took that rather personally and thought that families like ours weren’t very welcome in Australia. That sentiment, no matter how unfounded, has been with me ever since.

At that time, my father had some words of advice that I’ll never forget -

“Just because a majority of people agree doesn’t make them right”.

If you were to believe the polls, 85% of Australians hate Asians and don’t want them here. But if you look at what’s happening on the ground the truth is very different. I think people are starting to learn that cultural differences are more important than skin colour.

I hated Hansonism, and I hated having to endure the wave of racial prejudice that swept over the country in its wake. But I think that the Australian community has learned a lot from this experience - let’s hope we can pass those lessons on.

Wil Wheaton’s blog has always been one of my favourite websites. It was from him that I learnt about the existence of Fark.com as well as rediscovering the goodness of Linux - not to mention blogging in general.

So when I found out that one of his friends had lost a bet, and had started their own blog - I was intrigued. And what I found was the funniest pisstake of a friend that I’ve ever read on the internet. Behold the wit of Jesus Favourite:

Wil: “and that Shane, is the metaphysical breakdown of internet poker blah blah boo boo nerd talk nerd talk check out my blog, I’m awesome, yada yada yada.”
Shane: “Oh Wil, you’re so smart.”
BEAT
Shane: “And hot.”
BEAT
Wil: “What?”
Shane: “What?”
Wil: “What?”

Annie: “Hey Wil. What’s your middle name?”
GIRL TALKING. NERDS BEGIN SWEATING.
Wil: “I’m not telling.”
Annie: “I’ll buy you a beer.”
Wil: “No, I have to drive. And I already had my limit.”
Annie: “You had one sip of Shane’s.”
Wil: “That’s my limit.”
Shane: (caressing bottle) “?and I’m saving this bottle forever.”
BEAT
Wil: “What?”
Shane: “What?”
Wil: “What?”

And there’s more where that came from.

I take no great joy in Thong Nguyen’s hanging today - this is a sad time for both his family and his friends, and my sympathy goes out to them. At such a delicate time, it’s probably innapropriate to point out that Nguyen, regrettably, bought this fate upon himself by choosing to pass through Singapore on the way to delivering drugs elsewhere.

I’ve always been of the belief that as responsible adults we make our own choices, and we should be aware of the affects on our loved ones of the choices we make. I have no sympathy for Nguyen or for his brother - both are reaping the consequences of a criminally stupid and reckless decision. I do, however, have a great deal of sympathy for his mother and his loved ones. And I wish that Nguyen had thought things through more carefully before making such a reckless and criminal decision - I can think of at least three other ways of generating $20,000 within a few short years, that doesn’t require you to break the law.

What has disturbed me, however, is the sadistic pleasure that certain people seem to be taking in Nguyen’s upcoming execution - especially in The Age’s Your Say website. Although I believe that Nguyen is reaping the consequences of his criminal actions, I take no great pleasure in hearing about his execution. What’s that saying again? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone? I’ve always tried to be tolerant of other people’s opinions, but the sense I get from the majority of commentators is that they will gain a great deal of sadistic self-righteous moral pleasure from Nguyen’s execution -

His a drug trafficer, why is everyone supporting a DRUG
TRAFFICKER? He knew what he was getting himself into if he was caught. No
sympathy here!

I stopped reading the Your Say website a while back, as the level of uneducated narrow-minded bile in regards to certain issues - especially immigration - absolutely appalled me. I regard the general tone of the comments in ‘Your Say’ as a symptom of a much wider malaise.

One of the reasons why I moved back to Tasmania (apart from the fact that my job was offshored) was because I felt incredibly isolated in Melbourne. I found it incredibly difficult to make new friends there. It seemed to me that people had a lack of empathy, even a sense of disconnection, with the world around them. From that experience, I’ve learned that if people have less of a sense of belonging within their community, they’ll have less compassion and generosity towards others.

In Tasmania, that sense of community and generosity of spirit is still there - I can feel it everytime I walk into work in the morning. I think it’s one thing that the big city slickers can learn from us smalltown country bumpkins - that it’s okay to care about your fellow human beings, and to give them a helping hand whenever they’re in trouble. Of course, in big cities like Melbourne and Sydney, this is regarded as a sign of vulnerability and weakness.

That being the case, I’d much rather live in Tasmania. I may not make as much money, but at least my intrinsic humanity and sense of compassion towards others who deserve it is still intact.