Spacehamster’s Blog

Despite our best efforts, we all have our prejudices - unfortunate as that may be. Mine is definitely Indonesia and the often confusing and (if you’ll pardon the term) bipolar approach the Indonesian Government and the Indonesian people have regarding our country. One minute, they’re grateful for Australian assistance during the dreadful Tsunami disaster. The next minute, they’re screaming for the deaths of all Australians over the admission of West Papuan asylum seekers.

And here we are again, once more providing assistance to an Indonesian City desperately in need of assistance. Up to 5000 people dead in a terrible earthquake, and once again our rescue services rush to their aid. I doubt that Indonesian Nationalists (which often seem to be 90% of the country) will be particularly grateful to receive our help. Hopefully, the people of that distant city will be.

This article, written by Madhab al-Irfy, was quite surprising to me. It reveals a very different side of Indonesia that we never see reported in Australian newspapers. A side that isn’t often revealed to outsiders. I strongly recommend reading it, as it provides a very different perspective to the Indonesian national character that we so often see exhibited on our televisions every day -

If you wish to discover the real spirit of Indonesia, you need to look beyond the beaches and nightclubs of Bali. You also have to look beyond the traffic jams of Jakarta or the art deco conference halls of Bandung. Indonesia’s real cultural and spiritual heart is Jogja.

Like their Aussie neighbours in the global village, Indonesians love to abbreviate names. “Jogja” is the shortened name for Yogyakarta, the historical capital of an old Javanese Sultanate and the hub of ancient and modern Indonesian culture.

But as a result of the recent earthquake, large parts of Jogja and surrounding villages have been transformed into hills of rubble. At the time of writing, the death toll has climbed well over 5,000.

It shows once again, that regardless of the mutual hatred both our countries feel for one another, there really are human beings on the other sides of the irreconcilable divide. And they are just as deserving of help as any other people that are in distress.

Will the Indonesian people or the Government ever be grateful for our assistance? I doubt that they ever will - their near xenophobic hatred of Australia is overwhelming. But that shouldn’t stop us from doing the decent and honourable thing, and providing relief for those people desperately in need. We do ourselves a dishonour to our own morals and ethics if we do otherwise.

I’m having a rather busy time at work lately. In addition to meeting a two-week deadline for a software application I’m working on, I’ve also been moved to a less scenic location in the office. I rather liked my private little office corner, with a beautiful view of Mt. Wellington. Unfortunately, I’ve been moved to an office on the opposite corner of the building. And a rather nice view of the River Derwent is blocked by a row of buildings. Oh well.

I’ve also been taking Insulin injections for the past 3 months. My Endocrinologist (Blood Specialist) suggested it as part of treating my Type II Diabetes. Much to my amazement, it has worked extremely well. My blood sugars have dropped by almost forty percent, which is pretty damned amazing. I’ve also cut fast foods and most carbohydrates out of my diet.

Although the changes were quite radical, they haven’t been all that hard to cope with. I think it’s mostly because I wanted to do it, and also because I’ve subsitituted the foods I liked with others. So instead of eating a packet of chips when I’m hungry, I’ll have a handful of almonds instead. In addition to being much more filling, they’re also much healthier for you.

Apart from that, it’s still business as usual. I have to keep on reminding myself that my current job is nowhere near as my last job at IBM/Telstra. It’s important to keep perspective when things get stressful.

It’s unfortunate to see that Microsoft has to use such high pressure tactics in order to drum up sales -

…here’s what happens if you’re a big Microsoft customer: Your customer history and purchase cycles are reviewed on a monthly basis by an engagement manager like Lawless. (That’s right — your Microsoft purchasing history is handed off to the consulting side for making sales pitches.)

Then the engagement manager makes the initial pitch — that’s the “preliminary review indicates your company may not be licensed properly” letter Frantz got. Deshaies says most customers take up the opportunity at that point. And if, like Frantz, the customer says no? Then the pressure is ratcheted up with a higher-level effort to make the sale, Deshaies says.

If there’s still no sale, if the engagement manager still believes there’s a problem with the customer’s licenses, the final decision is whether or not to pursue it, Deshaies says — presumably by kicking the issue over to the software sales side. Incidentally, engagement managers like Lawless are working from a “designed process.” Frantz wasn’t facing some loose cannon. Lawless was following the script.

And this can happen to any medium- to large- business that uses Microsoft software. I wonder if Linux companies do the same thing? And what’s to stop any software-licensing company from pursuing the same tactics?

I doubt this story would get a sympathetic hearing from the message boards I frequent - particularly from Americans. Just keep in mind that these are two young people who are determined to acheive something in their lives - that should be encouraged, not made fun of.

For weeks, Lionel Kelly studied the shy girl sitting a row ahead of him instead of his earth science lessons. As any 14-year-old boy would, he first noticed how cute she was. Her smooth skin, pink as seashells. Black hair dyed the color of applesauce, curls sprayed stiff, twisted into a long ponytail.

It did not matter that he was black and she was a Latina, even on this Jefferson High School campus scarred by last year’s violent student clashes that cut through black and brown like barbed wire. It did not matter to him, even as stories of racial brawls leaked out of other schools, jails, and juvenile halls.

This story touched a chord with me, mawkish although it may seem to others. I only hope both Beatriz and Lionel can forge the futures they deserve. And let’s be grateful that we live in Australia, and all do our best to make sure this doesn’t happen in our schools.

I’ve been waiting for awhile for this network card to arrive in Australia. SRX is a proprietary network standard used by Linksys, and is halfway between Wireless-G and the new future standard that is yet to be released. I’d read some good user reviews, but was still a bit wary as I’d had a bad installation experience with a WMP54G PCI card that I bought a year ago.

This time, I had no problems. The only concerns I have are the 5-minute delay before the NIC can establish a connection with the network. Apart from that installation was straightforward and painless. I’m about 15-20 metres away from the router, and the signal has to penetrate three plaster walls, and I get 100% signal strength at 100MBps.

I’d definitely recommend this SRX network setup to anyone who has wireless deadspots in their house or building. It’s an excellent standover until hardware based on the new Wireless standard begins to be produced.