Why capitalism will kill us all:

The economy is based on continued growth. Continued growth can only be achieved with increasing number of consumers. Increasing number of consumers can only be achieved by increasing the population and/or by bringing more people into the consumer stream. Both lead to depletion of resources, and/or over-population and eventually disaster. (Not to mention pollution. While I am typing this my outside view is severely impaired by smog).

Alien vs. Preditor 4:45PM. George St. Movie starts
officially at 4:45. If you end up late anyway, find
us near the mid-front. See you there!

Preliminary Plans for 21st.

This is to be separate from anything Scott/James is doing himself. I am still waiting to plan something with them.



Venue: Jones Bay Wharf aka Star City (pez's office hehe)
Date: 14th October 9th October (Election Day)
Time: Say...16:00 onwards?
Type: Catered. I have one of those BBQs so we can have catered with BBQ on the side. (coz our bbq is like one of those UFO ones)
After: Dunno, but I won't be medina-ing this time fellas, sorry. People have been known to fish around the wharf so if you are enthusiastic then bring your rod.
Park: Pending. But the complex has quite a lot of free parking spaces late at night. Just need permission first.
Speeches: Generously performed by Benny



I'll have more info later, but just keep the date and time on record. The medina people as usual and respective bf/gf's :)

Please RSVP asap so I can finalise the date if 14th or 9th would be better. I figured people would be really busy with assignments so a Sat would be good?

What is a 64MB GF3Ti200 video card equivalent to nowadays?

Yeah Charlie, I find that interesting. Most of the research areas come from Engineering; would have thought psychology research would be eminent too.

Have a good vacation James.
:)

Thanks Jono. Too bad there's no research involving human conditioning or the like.

James, I'm working on Friday, finishing at around 9.30-10pm. So I can meet up with you guys for dinner/karaoke if you guys are still in the city.

Thanks Jono, I'm looking at those. Probably apply once I come back.

Fellas,

I'm heading for Perisher Blue now, will come back on Wednesday night.
Epping friends (JJ bunch) has me booked for paintball on Thursday.

I've got a positive response from most people for the Friday 1st of Oct
AvP Movie outing. (Kk, Scott, Darren, Irene etc.)

Please check your schedule and post a reply if interested.
Dinner and K are optional followups.

Until then, have a great holiday!
-James.

Hey guys, just a couple of things

I don't know if you guys have heard about this:
http://www.eng.unsw.edu.au/news/events/2005/0625.htm

It's a 3-week summer (northern hemisphere) International Summer School in Germany.
You learn about the culture of Germany and lots of other stuff from June 25 - July 16th. Finals? Well, it's advertised on UNSW's Engineering site so it shouldn't conflict with finals or anything; if it does, it'll handle itself.

Anyone can apply; it will cost a bit of money for the program; you can read the details yourself. If financially viable and interested, definitely encourage an application. I'm definitely thinking about it. (Amesss? ^^)

Early bird applications due Nov 30, for 900 Euros (about 1600-1700 AUD)
otherwise Jan 15 for 1000 Euros. Pays for all the excursions like the trip to France and stuff. Doesn't include airfares.

Something to consider if even one of you guys are interested.

----------

Another topic of interest are these Taste of Research Summer Scholarships
Doesn't matter which university you go to, if you're interested in research you get paid for 10 weeks ($400 p/w)
Applications close Sept. 30 so be quick (e.g. Yi, Hash, Charlie if you're interested)

Sample topics from the school of mech eng include:
- DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTONOMOUS INDOOR BLIMP
- DESIGN OF A FLYING INSECT ROBOT FOR URBAN SEARCH-AND-RESCUE
- HUMAN-LIKE MOTION PLANNING FOR BIPED ROBOTS

Most faculties have a wide range of topics to select from, especially CSE.

you'll get a culture shock john.

what would happen if one does some or all of those things?

# In France, the only foods you may eat with your fingers are frites, asparagus, raw shellfish and frogs' legs. Never ask that leftovers from your meal be packed to go. Eat it or leave it.
# In Hungary, never clink glasses for a toast. Back when Austrian troops occupied Budapest, they'd do that just before shooting another Hungarian.
# In Arab countries never use your left hand to pick up food.
# Never tip in a British pub.
# In England during teatime you should not pour your own, but ask instead for the waiter to do so.
# In China, use chopsticks to take food from the serving plate, then place the food atop your rice-never carry the food from serving plate to mouth. Do not lean your chopsticks on the food plates or bowls. Place them on chopstick rests, if provided, or the table.
# Don't ask for chopsticks in Thailand; Thais use cutlery.
# In Italy, don't wait for everyone to be served their pasta before eating yours. "Amici e maccheroni, se non sono caldi, non sono buoni"-If friends and macaroni are not warm, they are not good. And don't ask for a tablespoon to help you twirl spaghetti onto your fork.

WOW it looks like someone is in love with the MYUUUUUSIKKK

I'd go next friday if time allows it....

eheh

"In this house, we OBEY the LAWS of THERMODYNAMICS" -- Homer Simpson

I guess you and Homer Simpson have something in common James.

Alien vs. Preditor Gathering.

Me, Marc, Scott, KJ, etc.(all those who went beserk talking about
Alien during the road trip).

It comes out on the Thursday of the mid-session break.
Let's make an outing for the Friday afternoon session. (1st October)

Then Karaoke afterwards - Zombie, Zommbie, Zommmbie, yeahhhhheehhhEggeyyeahhereee.

well i guess miniaturisation could help save the Sri Lankan economy.

How about it ppl

Brain Storm some idea's

The new PS2, $149USD:

How about a trip to help save a third world country?

like Sri Lanka?

sounds good rite?
u guys love it rite?

(btw - you guys missed out on a truly wonderous, mystical and magical experience last saturday - shame on youz for not turning up)

sounds good fellas, except one notch; it appears I'm returning around Feb 13/14 because of Chinese new year, my parents want me there.
which makes for tight timing, about 2 weeks back in syd before classes start.

so indeed it may be a question; will needa see

otherwise have fun with skiing!

Dear Sir Charlie,
I am going skiing with my dad then paintball with old friends.
That means I'm out of commission from Saturday until Thursday.
With assignments due almost immediately after, I think I'm out
of action for this break.

I think now is the time to think for Janurary, when Jono comes
back. It's not a matter of road trip or not, but rather where
the road trip takes us.

I propose we look into the possibility of Alice Springs.

Lol, no butters, it wasn't our car, nor was it me who was driving.
I was going to say that I'm a safe driver now, but John's last post just precluded that.
So let me take the opposite.
John, you haven't seen nothing yet. Wait till exam times and you may find me
cramming my way while driving to uni for the exam.

Anyways, our break is here and October is near and I can't help but think it's that time of the year again. So Butters, James, Scott. What are your plans for this year?

lol i am just slightly arachnephobic, so pictures of spiders, no matter how beautiful, will freak me out =)

i saw you on lane cove road driving while eating a burger on tuesday charlie.

unfortunately james
due that same mentality applied to many days a week
i have managed to work my way up to a HD avg required for my remaining 3 sessions (inclusive of the current one)

as such i choose to study as many days a week as possible after all other commitments

and i had bought tickets for CSE Revue for friday about 2 weeks ago
i also mentioned that i had bought these tickets to Yi about 1 week ago

he didn't mention nething about ppl already getting tickets for monday
thas why i gave the date change suggestion

blah blah blah . . .
etc etc . . .

-=[The End]=-

Did the accident happen after a stop sign and was the CRV tan/gold colour? Coincidentally did the driver have a VB in his right hand while driving?

Unfortunately, we've got two tickets booked already.
Come on hash, as if you'll study on a Monday. That's absurd.

hows about changing the day to Fri 25th Sep
Last day b4 mid-session break

that would be much cooler

Event notice: CSE Revue
We'll be going to CSE Revue the comming Monday at 8PM, FigTree Theatre.
So far:
Yi
Darren
Kim
Benny
Nancy (my cousin)
Me

Get tickets outside EE or library. If Monday night is "sold out", rock up on the night at the door and from what I gather, they should be vacancies. I can testify that CSE Revue is probably the best revue on campus - much better than med and law. See you there!

I HATE clicking on a "enlarge picture" and getting a popup
image that's about 2% larger. Braindeadmaxfactorial.

hah at first I thought that was a bad thing James.

hmm What fortune Charlie.

The people who succeed the most have failed their way to success.
-Anonymous

A major car accident occured yesterday in Lidcombe, on Vaughan street,
causing major road blockage and traffic congestion.
A Honda CRV got crumbled to about 2/3 of its original length.
It occurred right outside my house, with my dad's car minutes away from collateral damage.
Maybe we should think again about parking on the roadside.

Sorry John, did they kinda freak you out?
Okay, warning's up.
:)

It was really quite a pretty spider, though a little big, a little fast, and somewhat hungry.

argh. you really should put spider warnings on your blog jono.

and yi, don't you remember locus from yr 12 maths?

haha by Amazing times we live in, I meant we as in the human population, I think.

And why all of a sudden the comment about travelling the world and me being lucky?
Just interested to know what sparked that :)

Yeah updating my blog a bit more now, will have pictures up (maybe within an hour) of outdoor rock climbing in Bloomington, southern Indiana.

Few scratches and some seriously pumped muscles but it was definitely good

locus of control makes sense.
:)

Concept identified by Rotter and related to concept of learner autonomy. "A locus of control orientation is a belief about whether the outcomes of our actions are contingent on what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation)." (Zimbardo (1985) p. 275)

From Google "define:locus of control"

Yi: Its called latin baby!

actually, the installation fees aren't too bad.
i guess you don't know the pleasure of paying both Telstra then Optus around $400 for their cable installations.
o.O
but i guess comparing them to ADSL, they might be like $200 over priced..

now lets be honest. who here went straight to dictionary.com for the word "locus"??

but strange charlie should say that. but "locus of control." hmm.. even after searching dictionary.com i still don't quite totally understand the meaning of that...

Butters, the set-up fee is horrendous.

Judging from the last two transmissions, one can conservatively conclude that Yi has an external locus of control, while James has an internal locus of control.

There's nothing *lucky* about Jono.
The man worked hard and got there -- there is no element of chance.
And you can travel the world today!

/me longs for the day when he can travel the world...
lucky bastard jono!!
:)

Cheaper than ADSL?

why don't humans have a core dump function???

it would be really usedul at this point in time

maybe roughing up some junkies to get some drugs in order to make the shoot more believable

LOL true hash. Where was he for the druggie shoot?

Amazing times [Jono] live in hey.

lol@james

maybe you can get an audition for the local triads based on that pic

Very masculine pic of u, James.

Very feminine pic of Scott.

hah James, yeah I didn't make the video, Joel did, I just contributed ideas.
So yeah it's a lil big for the duration.

The quietish enya-ish song during the monuments is by Vanessa Mae, called Scottish Fantasy.

One movie I do highly recommend downloading is a 120 MB, 6 minute video by our Purdue Outing Club on Whitewater kayaking.
It's pretty extraordinarily well put together, I was impressed by the whole thing in general.
Music rocks too, naturally.
:)

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~pedela/california/california.html

There is also a low-res version at 28MB.
Recommend high res if you can, pump up the volume and full screen it.

Jono

Nicely produced video. I love the music!
The music for the washington memorials - where's it from?
Other than that - 200MB for 5min?! You got to be joking me!

Photos from Irene's Birthday dinner and Karaoke afterwards.

Not much blogging action..

What is everyone doing these days?

i think hurricane and typhoon's are just different coz they spin different ways?

coz they r in different hemispheres?

neways - main reason for this post ::

ur all invited to Sydney Bowler's Club (on York St nr C.World, Town Hall)
18th Sep 2004 for a special event
drop by anytime for a peek!

If you guys have some spare space to download 188MB of video, here is a movie of our trip to Washington, DC.

There's a Genesis space probe/satellite launched in 2001 to study solar flares in Earth orbit, and our professor for orbital mechanics developed the space dynamics used in Genesis' orbit.
She's incredibly intelligent, and one of the greatest teachers I think I could have had for engineering (recently dropped the subject because of overloading -> threat of death).
So Genesis was due to re-enter the atmosphere and land today, at 11:05am central time.
We have class for orbital mechanics with the professor from 10:30 - 11:30am; so what timing, the class is watching the landing live on television.

And the parachute fails to open.

Amazing times we live in hey.

A cyclone is the general term for such storms.

A hurricane is 'a severe tropical cyclone originating in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea or eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean, traveling north, northwest, or northeast from its point of origin, and usually involving heavy rains.' according to our friend dictionary.com

A typhoon is 'A tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans.'

So basically, northern hemisphere = hurricane and southern hemisphere = typhoon..

A tornado is a hurricane with one of those funnel thingys in it..

I'm not sure if they dont know how they're formed, for one they know where they tend to form..

hurricane and typhoon are the same thing, just different names. they're just big storms.
same deal with tornado and twister. these are the tall twirly whirly winds that no one knows how they're formed.

What's the difference between hurricane/tornado/twister/typhoon and gazillion other names anyway?

you are disrupting the temporal integrity of the blog darren!!!

(pretty stupid of blogger.com to give access to such a powerful and misleading function..)

Nice pictures; seems you've really fixed up your front lawn Marc!

Speaking of natural disaster we're getting our fair share here in the US too.
Hurricane season definitely in play; Charley first, now Frances is still ripping through Florida; 3 million people without power.
Hurricane Ivan possibly following suit through the Atlantic.

In our state, we only get tornadoes and thunderstorms.
Fun times :)

Back post!

(because nobody posted on this day.)

Yeah I caught a glimpse of the hailstorm, from behind the steering wheel while i was driving..

From start to finish, it was a rather shaky experience. When the worst of it started, I had to pull over into the shoulder lane of Silverwater Rd (I was on Silverwater Rd when the worst of it started) and wait for it to subside before i continued driving. Dozens of other cars did likewise..

There was so much hail, that the windscreen started fogging up because it was so covered in ice. The stones were the size of marbles.. big white lumpy marbles.. I couldnt hear my radio..

The roads were also white, like in the pictures below, only the road was bigger.

Thats the first time I have driven on silverwater rd at 40km/h..

you're right on both counts marc.
my electorate is also strongly liberal, in part due to myself.
and today's hail was pretty good, it built up to about 5cm high on my backyard. then i broke my broom sweeping them away from my drains.

Anyone catch a glimpse of that mad hailstorm? People in the Ryde area might know. John? James?

Took some photos, it was crazy:





You might want to note that in the first photo, the road is not white because of water reflection...

I took a whole lot more than those two (2.8MB), if you want to check them out:

For those download cap conscious you can view them at CSE labs without inhibition seeing as I uploaded them there :)

The Start of the hailstorm
The End of the hailstorm

Edit: Wow, blogger now has a simple html compile checker :)

Greetings from the future present!

Edit: stupid darren...kwong has been there done that already

Edit edit: well, I didnt know he did that before, and I thought of it independently of him. Plus it was 4 in the morning.. It seemed like an awesome idea then

Let the sense of urgency overwhelm you and your productivity shall skyrocket.

algorithms is tougher than I thought, either that or I am losing whatever 'knack' i posessed in the earlier years of uni.. or maybe courses are getting tougher..

its interesting to note that staying up to around this time and into the early hours of the morning (a time i like to call 'creative time') you can see your uni work or whatever you are doing from a slightly different perspective. this can benifit or inhibit your abilities, depending on the type of work. for essay writing and similar, its a good time to do it. not sure for maths and similar (probably bad) and for programming, it seems to be a mix.

3 days ive been up like this trying to finish this stupid... omg its only worth 5%.. (just checked now) thats it, i dont care if i get 1% out of that 5 (most likely scenario) i need sleep..

i need to get out of the house..

I sleep early, early in the morning.

What one cannot do, the mass can.
Just because Liberal is doing a good job doesn't mean another party can't do better.

Tragedy in Russia

Yea my electorate, and I think John should be part of it too, has good ol' Jonnie Howard in it, so its gotto be a liberal safe seat

It doesnt matter who I vote for, the electorate I'm in is one of the top 5 Liberal seats. And they've been doing a good job so far.. right?

actually, the CPC is voted into office every few years by the people's representatives.

however, all the parties (there are a few) on the voting ballot is pretty much the same, which is the CPC in one form or another. :)

and O.M.G, either you guys wake up really early or sleep really late...

Yi when did you get deported =)? And when did China became a democracy?

I'm going to vote for Pauline Ugly.

James, I don't think there is such a thing as a natural born killer, except those infants whose birth directly rendered the death of their mothers, in which case they probably didn't intend to. For centuries, people have debated the forces that determine what one will become. Some believe we are born a 'blank slate', some believe nature determine our course of development, while others believe it's the environment that determines what we'll become. The answer will always be a bit of nature and nurture. In response to your question, yes they are comparable, because they are parts of the same thing that determines human nature.

China's communist party members are the biggest bunch of hypocrites in the world, no need to go into the details, I am sure most of you know why...

Go the Greens!!

There is an innate component to instinct, shaped by our experiences.

Is instinct based on experience comparable with 'natural' instinct?
eg. Natural born killer vs. someone who has killed plenty and grew 'instinctive'

I want Natasha StarDestroyer back on the ballot!

Communist Party of China

how is everyone going to vote in the upcoming federal elections?

Quote:

"He is a political imbecile bereft of even elementary morality as a human being....
Bush is a tyrant that puts Hitler into the shade."

-North Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, in a statement attacking Bush, who
branded North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a "tyrant" in a recent speech.

What the heck is this guy on about? Having experienced something merely influence future actions but does not dictate intuition. There is an innate component to instinct, shaped by our experiences. The guy is comparing apples to oranges. A more valid comparison would be the extent to which nature and nurture shapes our instincts.

Is this guy right or wrong?


An enquiry into the difference of memory and experience
--------------------------------------------------------

Memory is something you remember. Experience is something you feel. One is stored information that you can recall, the other is an instinct that becomes intertwined in you.

I can remember if I didn’t do my work yesterday. But it doesn’t help me to do my work today. I know it’s bad but it doesn’t affect my action in any significant way.

Experience is totally different. If I failed three sessions, I gain more than a large collection of memory—I have the experience of having done so. If I decide, for whatever reason, to make a change and work hard, I have this experience to guide me.

The experience tells me intuitively what works and what doesn’t; which actions leads to failure and which leads to success. I don’t even have to recall events, I can just feel it. This is greatly different from mere memory.

I would argue that experience can enhance potential. Experience can increase one’s potential. Potential has that intuition as a major factor. Experience maps directly to intuition.

Whereas memory seems to be a reservoir of past events, experience is the actual instinct one has gained from them. It is attached to a part of the brain independent of memory. It becomes instinctive and every bit as real as natural potential.

I think the best place to see inconsiderate people is right on our very own...roads. This applies to people of any race.

Lots of pricks. I especially love it when you go out of your way to let someone in (especially if they cause a dangerous situation). its like "Thats fine, your highness. It was my duty to stop for you so we can avoid an accident. No thank you or acknowledgment needed."

Lesson to all. If you think someone had to slow down for you, just give them a hand wave that they can see. It makes them feel all the better and potentially stops road rage.

Hello..

switch(topic) {



    case Eric: interesting.. personal development and discovery happening right here on our very own blog..

        break;

    case Marc: its fun to knock others, as long as you can take being knocked yourself. And if you're gonna knock peole, put some effort into it.. creative insults are so much better..

        break;

    case Alexis: you took that poem from our readings in the creative writing gened.. These days anything goes for poetry, as long as you can expain your way out of it. There are alot of racist prejudiced-type people in the world, and if you take it as a fixed proportion of a poulation of a country, then China ends up being the worst offender.. but then of course there are more factors that influence people's behaviour..

        break;

    case me: i'm writing like this to try and get into the right frame of mind to do an algorithm's assignment due in 47 hours.. i wonder if its working..

    default:

}

damn pt is addictive.. i must get rid of it.. damn you benny for introducing it to me.. (was it you or was it hsin chu..)

The poem resides in a journal titled Moon Over Melbourne...

Believe it or not, the dude who wrote the poem is now one of the premier figures in Australian literature, most of his works have that harsh undertone and overt generalization of Australian society. At the beginning he wrote in that manner so he could lift the eyebrows of those in the literary community and take notice, but it seems to have stuck with him...

just posted it to see people's reactions to it...

haven't been able to post as there was some problem with my account. either that or i didn't know capslock was on whenever i typed my password.

i think i'm more guilty of knocking eric than most people on this blog. its all just mucking around and nothing personal - boys will be boys. well if you didn't know that before, you do now.

that poem didn't make any sense, and even if it did, it's just pointless whinging about what the author deserves.

Fuck, I had a nice well thought out post (something of a rarity) and there was an internal server error and lost all the data. When I pressed back, there was no writing in the box.

Good 1 Blogger,

Neways to sum it up:

1. BRING IT ON CHARLIE: I feel obliged to make it more equal...Eric's fat

2. Sometimes I feel ashamed of Chinese people (not you guys tho :) when I hear stories of how self-centered/selfish/conniving/backstabbing they can be. Most of these stories are from people who originate from one place in China...but thats not to say all of them are like that ;)

3. That poet (if you can call him that) was probably pissed off that Australians judged him on the basis of point 2. He must have had some very poor experiences. Plus why is saying "you thought i'd wanted to learn your english"? Not a very logical thing to say if he's communicating in that very medium. Also I don't find anything he says in the poem racist at all. He's just really pissed off at how he was probably treated. Did you title it by "A Racist Chinese Father, or is that the name the poet gave? Can you show me where I can see an "offensive" racist remark?

4. To conclude, I guess all races have their fair share of dickheads and assholes which make a bad name for them, so its not just Chinese. Racial equality in obnoxiousness/despicableness (is that a word?)

This time I copy before I post