Wednesday, August 31, 2005

maybe its the kind of food you are eating; carbs make you sleepy, as does too much sugar (after your sugar high)

sleeping resets the cycle. my body doesn't recognise dinner after sleeping 5+ hours. it becomes breakfast.

have your dinner when you wake up, breakfast around midday, and then have lunch just before bedtime... that way you'll be alert and not sleepy when you need to be.

This is freaky. The first time I eat at anytime after lunchtime I feel sleepy. If I don't eat anything for lunch and I go straight to dinner I feel sleepy after dinner. I feel sleepy whenever food fills up the lunch slot, even if its at 9pm. Weird coz I don't feel sleepy after dinner or brekkie, whenever I may take them

If its like normal photo paper used when processing film then thats fine by me. I printed from this place 2 years ago and the prints were just as sturdy as normal photos. I mean it wasn't like a thin postcard or anything.

I haven't tried many places so I wouldn't know what dodgy paper is like.

Prices only tell part of the story. A 33c print is cheaper than a 50c print but they are not the same thing. The cheaper it is, the flimsier the paper. The better labs also have better colour calibration. Some of those 'mini' labs with those desktop size machines can produce some pretty underwhelming prints. I's suggest go to the places that develop your digital photos using the same machines that they use to produce film. That way you get the same quality.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

I just went to CCC on George St and they said 33c/print (6" x 4")was standard. But if we did bulk like say 100 prints then he could lower it to 30c. Variable but we can bargain it down further if we do more.

Monday, August 29, 2005

yeah also note there are parents who come to uni, mothers and fathers who aren't teens.
Prime example - my mum, getting her degree at age 30 (and I was in the works, and my bro was 6 and coming to lectures with her)

And of course lectures/staff who have lil ones

haha nice job darren/chu

Childcare is a union subsidised service. The House at Pooh Corner is the childcare centre on campus nearer to Maccas, and whenever I walk by it during the day, it is usually teeming with ankle biters.

A very small minority of uni students will actually make use of these services, yet we all pay for this paticular subsidy, or so i am lead to believe. Another reason to let us choose what we use at uni?

And now to break the monotony..

Chu and I's graphics++ assignment

Sunday, August 28, 2005

the smh is citing childcare as a union subsidised service. wtf? how many of us have children?

scrap that, i completely forgot about teenage pregnancy

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Know of any cheap places?

Friday, August 26, 2005

Yup sounds good by me
I have a good number of shots i'd like to print off.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Hey I was wanting to get prints of digital photos and seeing as we all need some prints every now and then we should group together and print out to save costs.

Howzabout we collect everything we want on a CD every month or so (whenever we get enough) and print them out for lower costs?

hahahah I CAN"T WAITTTT!!!! YAY FOR MORE TRAFFIC!

This is why they need to increase the speed limit to 80 in the city, and 120 along anzac parade. Although Anzac Pde has nothing to do with the jam hours.

I'm really going to move out to the country one of these days.

For the moment all I need is my trusty feet and perhaps my bike.

Or jamming your head against the steering wheel. I hate traffic when I'm behind the wheel. Its like standing in a queue - max time wastage with minimal returns.

When someone else is driving I can at least sleep.

Edit: Oh yeah, not to mention the complete wastage of fuel too.

Oxymoron time:
Rush hour
get it? because your not really going fast.. if moving at all... yeah

it should be called jam time.. as you're stuck in a jam, and because of that you are probably jamming out to your radio on your steering wheel

ok back to compiling..

Noooooooooooooooooo!

Hopefully it won't be as bad as the traffic in the West and South. The M5 sux so bad. What is up with peak hour from 4-7pm?

Hey crew,

Skydiving, October 15 (end Week 11).

We're tandem jumping from 14 000 ft (4.2 km) which gives 65 seconds of freefall (yes, over a minute).

$250 if we get 14 people, we currently have 8. Max cost currently $297.

http://www.unswoc.org/trips/viewTrip.htm?trip_id=994

This is really cheap for the height we're jumping at (pretty much max height).

We are jumping with http://www.sydneyskydivers.com.au

Let me know if you're interested. Sorry for blunt ish notice, short on time

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

A message from Annie, regarding a Birthday Dinner of hers:

Date: Sunday 28th August
Venue: Gourmet Pizza Kitchen (GPK)
333 Anzac Pde
Kingsford NSW 2032 (near UNSW)
Time: 7pm
Costs: approximately $20 per person max.
Dress: Smart Casual
How to get there: (A) drive (B) catch 391,393 or 395 from Eddy Ave Central and get off before the large roundabout.

This is an invite as well =)

And now back to the program(ming)..

If anyone has the time, you should watch Temptation (Sale of the Century) tomorrow. This dude is probably gonna win the gold. He's buried everyone so far.

oh.. an argument eh?

time to apply GENT0604 knowledge..

your attempt to refute my argument with your analogy shall be proven fruitless..

...
...
...

stay tuned until i read up this stuff..

As much as it is to stab your neighbour to send them to heaven.

Reciprocity hey? Does that mean if I want someone to kill me, I should kill them first?

Monday, August 22, 2005

knowledge is useless without application

application leads to better understanding and appreciation of the concept..

Advanced networks classes are so cool.
Lec 1 - How to get the best of p2p
Lec 2 - How to analyze and optimize BT

these topics - they are orsome enough to make me almost think that there may be a divine plan

Go Bill and Ted, Go!

That statement was quite excellent

masochist

1985: Defining moment in ethics

I think it belongs to Bennie, Darren brought it over last time, I was supposed to take it. Confusing, I know.

Dun knock Scientology - it will allow u to control MEST!

You can discard your lesser genetic identity (threrby rendering my job description null) and travel thru the universe for all space and time.

by the way, who left their bottle of frangelico at my place

it tastes really good.

You know it!

Sunday, August 21, 2005

haha I don't work at Paddy Pallin, I work across the intersection at Activ8.

And I'm new, so no, not just yet...because I'm sure there are heaaaaps of things you're looking to buy, right Marc?
:)

Can u give us mates rates?

Also, there is a big up to 50% off sale at Paddy Pallin in Town hall just started friday for two weeks
includes hiking packs, so that's an incredibly good deal
just fyi
http://www.paddypallin.com.au

So the Xenu's have gotten to you too...

the article was quite bias though. you could tell the author was restraining himself as he was writing.

you're quoting wikipedia as "concrete evidence"?

its global warming hash!

I'm just being ignorant because as dubya says, theres no concrete evidence of it happening.

But I can tell you something that does have concrete evidence

it's wind powered Marc!

unless we invent ZPM's this could be our main energy source for the future!

Oh i was wondering where it was

Why will it be useless in 50 years?

Anyway, there still is 50 years, just as the space shuttle has served us all these 25 years.
50 years is a long time to build something useful.
:)

Hey thats right next to my old school :)

Nice to celebrate the achievements they've made in the past, but whats the point of IceBird? It will be redundant in about 50 years time.

Hey everyone,

A lecture with the Australian Museum Society on Thursday 1st September, and it looks to be really interesting.

http://www.amonline.net.au/tams/events.cfm#Lectures

Here is a blurb from the link:


Exceptional Antarctic adventurers
Tim Jarvis and Ben Deacon

Thursday 1 September, 2005, 6.30pm for 7pm


Tim Jarvis is an adventurer who truly embodies the term 'mind over matter'. From his 2800km march across Antarctica to his North Pole attempt, Tim has redefined the physical and mental limits of exploration. Hear of Tim's adventures and the psychology behind his remarkable focus, courage and motivation.

Ben Deacon will speak about the 'IceBird Project'. Yacht-like craft that sail across frozen oceans, Ben's wind-powered IceBirds are revolutionising polar exploration. Ben will speak about their development, his amazing journey across Greenland and the future of wind-powered travel in Antarctica.

Members @ $12.00 ea
Non-members @ $18.00 ea

Australian Museum theatrette, please enter via William Street


I spoke to a guy, Patrick (super-charismatic), today, who is a friend of Ben Deacon, and as far as I'm aware, if we book early enough I can contact him to get the $12 tickets.

12 or 18 bucks, it should be a really good talk and well worth it, if this is what you're interested in.

Take a look, and let me know if you're up for it.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

on request from marc
you should register with these guys.
After all they completed this research to help you choose the nation to work in.

*sigh*...damn spoiler tags don't work...

Assignment Schedule for week starting 3rd Oct:

I should be free, and if you care to look at the following...

[SPOILER]Accg323 Case Study Due 6pm at ERIC
Accg310 Written Report with TBA due date.
Accg353 Major Assignment Due 8pm at ERIC
Accg353 Tut Presentation Due 11am
Accg353 Online MC Test on SATURDAY 10am. [/SPOILER]

Friday, August 19, 2005

Worth of mention:

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

It would be good if you anticipated workload and adjusted your time. It wouldn't be a good sight if I hired an apartment and no one stayed over

Possible scenarios for Yi:

Scenario 1:
Oct 2: Copious alcohol intake at Medina
Oct 3: Hangover at work
Oct 4: Terminated from Sun Microsystems Internship

Scenario 2:
Oct 2: Copious alcohol intake at Medina
Oct 3: Strategic utilisation of sickies
Oct 4: Hangover aftereffect sustain claims of sickness, boss relieved

Oh yeah, I should be free then.
Last weekend of midsession break right?

Sorry I mean thanks Yi

Mis read
it was very late for me. 4:41am.

Oct 1-2: Free.
Oct 3: Can be made free.

Thank me for what?

Classic example yesterday on a small scale. The Law Revue was advertising their new production: The Bitch, The Liar and the Xenophobe. They could have printed out B&W pamphlets or even if they were feeling luxurious they could have made colour paper handouts like those in the poster sale.

But no. They decided to make postcards and hand them to every student entering campus. These were damn fine ones too, unlike regular postcards. Super-nice gloss on the front and kinda pearly on the back like the cover on boxes (eg my Sony MD box). Instead of prudently saving their money, they decide to go all out on postcards, most of which people will throw away immediately, à la moi, let alone go and post it to someone or hang it on the wall.

Individually it might not make a difference but think about how many they hand out a day and start multiplying the costs. They just had to waste union subsidies given to them because a) it was not their money b) it was pretty much free for the taking. Because the money has already been budgeted to them they feel obligated to spend it all.

Like I said this was on a small scale, but it happens everyday if you go looking.

Damn, hardly any of my previous post was intelligible. It was late.

haha thanks marc

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

it's a big ad.

For your eyes only, Jono.
http://damarisbsarria.blogspot.com/

Sunday, August 14, 2005

No. I didn't mean textbooks = fees. I was saying, textbooks are necessities for uni and you just have to buy them at the beginning of the semester, while union fees are something that must be paid for at the beginning of the semester. Although some might argue a student can gain access to the necessary texts through the library, but everytime I want to borrow a supplementary text, it's either on loan or "missing" 99% of the time. *sigh* That's just a supp text, not even the core texts. Imagine looking for a copy of that... Anyway, I am just saying most students pay the union fees AND buy their textbooks at around the same time. It's just a hefty amount for some that's all.

And i don't pay my fees upfront. I am on pure HECS. I figured I have to pay it back through my future salary, might as well do it then. Parents have paid enough for primary and high school. It's about time for me to start paying for stuff myself. It's also good for tax purposes.

Personally, I really don't care if I have to pay the union fees or not. Of course, money is money, and paying/spending less is better. I just want to know how the union "invest" with our money. Library books? Security? Shuttle buses? New buildings? I really have no idea. If it's for a good cause, I really don't mind paying that 187.

SIDE NOTE:

I just realised there's a WOMEN's ROOM with special facitiles just for women in our uni. Quote:

"This unique women-only space is available to all women on campus. It offers an opp. for women to rest, reflect...within the room you will find up-to-date info on resources for women, a fantasitc library, couches, tea..."

So if some of the guys' union fees go to that.... ~.- Where's the Men's Room? And don't tell me it's the Bar and the Games room!

Building on from what was said, screw the union and have clubs and societies each going out on their own. They do massive recruitment drives relying solely on their own resources. That way they won't be so careless with the money too. Sport and the arts probably enjoy a different status altogether though. The uni should take up subsidising those clubs and societies seeing as they hand out scholarships for those catagories anyway seeing as they think they're so important. Then have the students pay the guild fee.

Failing that, then you should encourage students to join the union. Convince them that its worthwhile rather than forcing them to. The union has had it too good for too long never having to worry about sources of income. Now instead of being questioned about where the money went...they just won't get nearly as much. It will be interesting to observe how the union will reform itself.

John: I concede on your behalf that as a concession user, you are letting nsw taxpayers subsidise your travel expenses. Same with all the school brats on my bus.

Eric: Textbooks are not fees. If you can pay your tuition in one go, then chances are you'll be able to pay that sum in one go also :p

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Umm...I am running an entire gear store right now...on my own...
tum ti tum tum...

well, that's it from me...
back to the music...

Anyone wanna visit me?? :D

Ahahah,

It's true that there will always be something that we will pay for, yet never use. So similiarly, there are things that we never use, yet we still pay! However, on my list of union fees, there are 3 items.

Union CS Semester Rate
Stud Council CS Semester Rate
Sports Ass CS Semester Rate

I don't use the sports facilities at uni. Yes, true that we have to pay taxes in the real world, even for something that we never use. However, we don't pay, eg, stamp duty if we don't
buy a house. Therefore, I think sports association fees should be a membership fee where only members who pay can use it. Have a membership card system.

I agree with you that yes we should be paying for something that we take for granted, ie, the security and the shuttle, something we can use. We just chose not to. So the Union CS fee and MAYBE the stud council fee can be justified. But in Macquarie, I really would like to see a lot more transparency of what the student council do first.

Union fee is fine sometimes. :) I mean, Mac ppls only pay 187! But it's just that to the non-working uni students, 187 + textbooks is a little to much to bear. I remember one of the semester, I had to pay over 800 bucks worth of fees in one day. Parking fees, textbooks and union fees. (parking fees taken out of the equation, still 700!) Just don't make me pay all that in ONE go!


SUMMARY:

Jono's POV - There's never a free lunch! (Alan McHarg? 2002 Econ111 and Prof Juttner 2003 Econ360)

Eric's POV - tite-arse AZN trying to pay less "taxes" hehehehehe

Hash's POV - free work exp for Commerce, Arts, Engineering, Law students!

"engineering/science students will suffer the most... we do not know how to make money"

hash, if you do not know how to make money, then why do you spend money?
the rest of your post goes on to say how you can make money with shares. all of a sudden this is possible, even if no responsible budgets were foreseeable even with union funding?

lets leave aside my believes about responsible government and public funding for now.

the main contention against vsu is that funds are going to dry up, and all services provided by the union will disappear.
yes i care about people who need the shuttle service. the same way i care about being able to ride a bus or train when i need to get somewhere. but i don't expect nsw tax payers to fund my travel expenses.

doesn't it make a lot more sense if the people who use the services are the ones who pays for them, especially if the union funds are so poorly managed? rather than having to pay $232 a semester to the union, jill can use that money to pay for the security shuttle service whenever she requires the service. if jack wishes to form a bobsled club, and requires the construction of a bobsled track that requires $20,000, why should 87 members of the life saving club contribute? if the worship-john club happens to want to construct a shrine, then its members are free to contribute however much the club deems necessary to pay for it.

isn't it a lot more encouraging to know that if i wish to be a part of the worship-john club, then all of the money that i contribute to the club goes directly to worshipping john? rather than having to give the union a fixed amount, and then have the union decide whether worshipping john is worthy of union funding.

did you know about the student guild when you were entering the codes for university preferences?

and i thought the university provides the grass.

haha nice VSU debate
well not really debate, since you all support it.

Anyway, got few minutes free at work (working in the gear store Aktiv8 in Town Hall)

Apologies in advance, but I feel sorry you don't see the fault in VSU.

The most obvious comparison is a university version of taxes - So you also believe you should pay no taxes?
Because you don't use the park down the road, but I do? But you do use the road? And the police services, since without them, there would be anarchy, I suppose?

Hmm...so I should pay for road maintenance taxes, but not taxes that build the park, and I never really directly use the police...so...
Anyway enough of that; it should be bleedingly obvious that we all pay "taxes" for something whether we use it or not. But you say we should only pay for what we use.
And in an ideal world...

Yeah I agree we'd absolutely get by without the crappy union food service (sweet thing about VSU). And since none of us ever use the UNSW Security shuttle van, or that random dude on the first aid buggy driving around campus doing nothing, then we shouldn't pay for it. I mean, who cares about the people who actually uses the security shuttle at 9pm.

You see, the main issue isn't typically that you can't shell out $232 a semester (32 Guild, 39 Sports Association, 122 union, 39 "miscellaneous"(??)). The clear issue is that the *management* of those funds sucks bigtime. big time

One of the fundamental presumptions of coming to a place like UNSW, USYD or UMAQ is for the community environment, not to solely get a degree. If you don't want a community, go to UTS. (Sorry UTS people, I'm sure there is a community there, and I'm sure you do pay union fees too). But the point should be clear.

After all, I love our really green grass.

One other point which you probably already know is the fees are (attemptedly) used to create activities to *encourage* you to get more involved; whether you actually become involved or not is another matter. But the opportunity is there.
(Why on earth am I running the biggest Sports Association club at UNSW, for free?)

You know it's funny, in year 12, when they started building the new hall at our school and we had to pay these horrendous fees (like $100 or something) at North Sydney boys high, I was pretty annoyed. Why should I pay for something I will never use?

Crap gotta get back to work

Edit: I think some of the main points are maybe we can reduce the level of union fees, which forces efficiency into the structure. I think completely abolishing ($=0) union fees and thus unionism is pretty horrendous, but a reduced level is best, perhaps.

Work.

Wow, its like the union will actually be run by uni students..

Friday, August 12, 2005

Yes: let Commerce students manage the portfolios while the Lawyers manage the funds in trusts. Then the engineers will have a really good time >:)

Ahahahaha! Interesting idea Hash. Correct me if I am wrong but, if you make the Union a company, even if it's a "non-profit" company, you will have to create Financial reports, as well as Audits ($$$!). Although a "non-profit" company can avoid the taxes because, hey, non-profit, so anything they gain will be counted as a "donation". With that in mind, non-profit companies/organisiations will not be entitled to tax claims and must satisfy a few requirements. OTHER TAXATION PPLS CAN FILL IN THERE. I forgot... :þ

However, assuming each society is to provide capital for the Union/company, then that means

Now, if Hash's idea is to go ahead, then I'll make a few assumptions first before the analysis.

i) 30 to 50 Societies
ii) Each society is willing to pay up to 1,000 to purchase the shares of the union

First of all, I personally would not allow my society to buy shares from the union because
a) their way of generating more income with our investment is through further share buying and their "portfolios" are managed by COMMERCE STUDENTS!
b) assuming they raise 50,000 of capital in shares, how are they going to ensure the investors that they will be paying a dividend at the end of the year. Remember, buying shares is like gambling and there's always a level of risk involved. If the union fails, and goes bankrupt, I'd say 80% of the societies will go down with them!

Secondly, it seems to me that the societies themselves have cash. If they had that kind of cash, they might as well use it on themselves! (No risks involved, although the level of return will equal to their initial "outlay".

Lastly, are you going to entrust that money to a bunch of Commerce students with close to zero experience in the finance world?

Now with all that aside, Universities are very strict on rules. According to the new rules, ASX is now governed by the Corp Acts, which means it's enforced by law. And within the ASX, there are codes or rules at which only public companies listed on the stock exchange is allowed to issue shares. And before you can list a "company" can be listed, you'll have to make an IPO (Initial Public Offering), so let's just leave the details at that.

(I hope it's all correct...hehehe...didn't consult textbook)

But hey, I agree with John. Why are we paying for "tax" to the Unions when i don't remember receiving any benefits from them personally? However, speaking from ex-AIESECer's POV, the union does require a certain amount of cash. So...pros and cons, but if the union can provide us with more benefits, then at least our union fees can be justified, but WHERE ARE MY BENEFITS?!

My only problem with VSU is this - we need money to run our various groups and societies
- engineering/science students will suffer the most
- has anyone actually been to a committee meeting for an Engineering/science organisation ? if so - you would know that these r a veritable black hole for funds
- Even with Union subsidy - there is always a negative number on the budget - we do not know how to make money
- However - other groups (such as the Taiwanese society) always have a profit from their events - even before the Union subsidy
- So I propose that instead of a Union - we have a company - we can invest in 'shares' of the company, give it to commerce students who are learning to make money.
- so the Union or Company body acts as a bank giving out zero or min. interest loans each year - at the end of the year, the invested money is returned to the Union/Company and any excess is split up according to how shares have been acquired -this will help reduce membership rates for the next year for that particula society
- We dispense contracts to the other societies for events, eg. Arts society for decorations, Civil Eng. societies for construction, Media societies for promotion etc.
- As payment options for these contracts you are allocated 'shares' - the more work you do, the more 'shares' you get to spend on BBQs, pizza nights, Beer nights etc.
- Alternatively, you can buy 'shares' at a standard fee, i.e the membership fee for a society.

See Capitalism will work - may take a few years to get it running, but it should work out. Those who 'invest' the most time, effort or capital get the most out of union and since the less you care, the less you get - everyone will only recieve as much as the actively seek to recieve.

yay!

Lol john. So true. I was in a class for Company law and we were talking about collapse of Ansett and how during the weeks/months following the collapse, passengers were hit with an extra levy to cover the financial damage. A girl in the class was talked down on the levy basically implying how unfair it was. The irony was that she was wearing one of those STOP VSU! t-shirts.

Alexis, you've managed to force a square into a circle. You've managed to cram in your readings of Mao, no matter how obtuse, into the topic of VSU.

un·ion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ynyn)
n.

The act of uniting or the state of being united.
A combination so formed, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities for mutual interest or benefit.

- dictionary.com

i'm not clear about the situation at unsw, but has the student union ever been a union?
can the student union ever be a true union if membership is compulsory?

the union to me, is another level of government, which levy their own tax, with which subsidies are made to various instruments.
i am for the abolition of any such tax, and i have a feeling that a good portion of the supporters of compulsory unionship are the same people who would rally against the ever expanding reach of either the state or federal governments.

wouldn't this fabled sense of community be more apparent when the union is made up of a group of students, voluntarily joining to work together?

A Union must at all times satisfy the needs of those it claims to represent. Whenever we are hungry, our loyalty is to our stomachs and we will support whomever we think will fill them. But we won't just tolerate anything. It must be quality made and served.

Therefore I advocate a Communist-controlled union. We need someone authoritarian enough with the drive to terrorize the representatives whenever they slack off, to get them off their collective bums and coerce them to comply to our needs (if it means issuing inflexible and often insane orders then so be it). A special task force must be set up that only answers directly to our oppressive friend, keeping the representatives in line, and punishing all dissidents. Membership for this unit is free, and of course seeing how most of us loathe the Union, lack of applications won't be a concern. In fact we can all take turns at punishing those rats. The student body can serve as the Comintern, whenever one of the three bodies that makes up the Student's Union is beyond all reform, we can dismantle the entire structure and start again.

Joking aside, it has reached a situation where our institutions of higher tertiary education are nothing more than degree factories. The community is being gradually but visibly disassembled.

"Communism is non expansionist as long as the whole world is communist."

Regarding the Union, VSU and Pizza
Badabagan once had the best pizza I've eaten. $5, wood fired, thin and soft with a mouth watering pepperoni and oregano seasoning.

That has changed. Under the glorious leadership of the union, they have decided to remove the woodfire oven (which costed god knows how much to install in the first place) and in its place, a tall 'pie heater'-esque oven.

I looked at the pizza that came from that abomination. It looked like a cracker biscuit with dried cheese. For more than a year I refused to purchase a pizza from Badabagan.

One odd day, I thought, maybe I should try this 'new' pizza before passing judgement, and so I bought myself a slice. It was worse than I could possibly imagine. To further the irony, as I tried to swollow this new 'pizza', I was approached by a lovely anti-VSU girl telling me about all the evils of the Howard regime. We had a good conversation but I don't think she liked my views. After we said our goodbyes, she walked a bit, turned back, and simply asked: "by the way, are you a commerce student?"

Thursday, August 11, 2005

I need an expression of interest first coz last year was pretty crap -.- (ahem with the exception of the sentence game)

Better off getting an idea of numbers early to see if its worth it.

A neo classical economist would argue that the free market is the best solution and that price would be the best rationing device. With VSU, you pay for what you use, and if price is too high, less people pay and no one would supply. Simple, logical, laissez-faire.

OCT 1-3 is the end of the break/beginning of second half of the semester for Macquarie people.
Ideally any assessments (with the exception of exams) due in the subsequent days should have already been conquered during the break.
Do I sense another Medina?

VSU:

Our Union puts forward a good argument. Everyone sacrafices a bit for the common good. Without it we'd lose a sense of community and "buzz" that the uni has. I've heard it likened to the Police - a public service that not everyone uses, but essential to the workings of our society.

But even if we lose this community atmosphere, I still think freedom of association is more important. We've been so used to compulsory unionism for so long that everyone just considers it normal, but isn't there something inherently wrong about being forced to join an association? Police are an essential service, I don't think I would have a good night sleep knowing that I'd be completely vulnerable because theres no disincentive not to rape and pillage. On the otherhand if uni became a ghost town where we come just to study, I think I could sneak in one or two nights of good rest a week.

The most important thing is this: Instead of forcing students to join the union by repelling VSU legislation, how about they strategise a convincing argument encouraging students to join? They spend all this time/money/effort fighting the legislation when they could comply with it and spend that energy convincing students that the union is worth joining. Whether it is actually worth joining the union is another question altogether. But then again, they haven't had to do that in decades (if ever) and they're not about to start now.

Of course there are services such as the Roundhouse that non-unionists can take advantage by using eg the tables, cheaper arcade machines but what is the proportion of money thieved compared to their total budget? They could go all out and police these areas by allowing only union cardholders in but that would make divisions in the uni (which is a negative to VSU I concede). But the likelihood of that is nil because its too expensive to maintain and the union would have a lot less money to play with at first.

Its like deregulation, I guess. It stings first, but it will probably make the Union wake up and become more efficient out of necessity. When (or if) this happens, people will see and probably start joining the union. But then again, this is the hard way out - who would want to do that when you can just force them to join.

In the end, both sides have their valid points, but I think VSU should take the priority.

Most of my argument bases on the positive of VSU so if I missed something or got something totally wrong feel free to point it out. Please note my point of view does not include how shitty the general union services are run or the quality the customer service representatives or how little I use the union. ^^

My own note:

Much of what the union is doing lately is too little too late. Now that they face an immediate threat they're trying to throw anything at us. I don't remember people handing out those vouchers last year. All I remember is the fact that they had them in the blockhouse (one small building in our campus) and only spread through word of mouth. Now they are literally everywhere. Last year I had to walk all the way down to the blockhouse to get another copy that lost. This year all I had to do was go to the closest union foodhall. Funny, I don't even remember having a voucher booklet the year before last - nor do I remember hearing about VSU. The green voucher booklet we got at the beginning of the year was also unprecedented. Do you remember receiving anything like that before? The best freebies I've gotten from the uni was on Open Day from the faculties. And that has nothing to do with the Union. (Engineering Erasers!)

Sorry Jono.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

cheap cheap ^^

haha that's because someone *did* do that...I would presume

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

damn thats ugly. looks like someone sliced off its nose and put duplicates in its armpits

Boeing responds to Airbus A380:

It was a seminar style class and its supposed to be 2 hours so it would be worthwhile staying to make sure -.-

Google isn't the only place to get satellite images of the world. They've been on the net publicly available for a few years elsewhere. I remember my cousin showing me a picture of my house 3-4 years ago. What the article should say is that it poses no increase of risk.

Google Earth

haha I am just surprised you were still there half an hour into an empty lecture

9am start today. Only class for today. Lecturer calls in 1/2 hour after start to say she has the flu.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Yoga mats? why would the insomniacs of the world want/need yoga mats? Unless they also did yoga..

Heres something I saw on ebay that reminded me a lot about the South Park walmart episode:

Will do

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Sorry james, I dun use MSN.

Gimme a few days to sort some things out and get an MSN account.

btw - i still use ICQ . . . 66738923

Nice display.

Sad about the Mac not running things faster than PC.
However - software piracy on a Mac is much easier - since all programs are self contained within a directory (unlike fun fun linux) and do not need special registry stuff (unlike fun fun windows) it just a matter of copy+paste of the directory.
- just another fact from Hash's, bag of theiving trix, brought to you by the happy people at MS.

btw Marc - if u see this b4 monday and u r goin to uni, can u bring Benny's networking book.

Thanx

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Giant cookie offer withdrawn -- *rewards self with cookie*.


ps. Photoshop being faster on Mac is a lie.

Anyone who can find me a source for a Mac veresion of Adobe Photoshop CS 2 gets a giant cookie.

Darren,
Isn't it nice to have a nice start on terms like mongolism?

Wait until you surprise the teachers with your in-depth treatise on fried zulus!

Friday, August 05, 2005

Did you know..

That down syndrome used to be called 'mongolism', and before it was called that, it was 'Mongolian idiocy'.

Geneds teach you the most useful of facts..

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Heh, I got that lamp too.

As I was saying, values are a relative thing, but I think you understand that what I'm trying to say is that this is a person who does not know when he should be happy with what he has.

Edit: BTW, I love your Mickey Mouse bedsheets james. I have Voltron myself.

link us john

I see you have a new side-table as well.. and that it came with that white shiny thing on your desk..

you have the same halogen lamp as me!

why is it okay to want something at $10 so much as to fight for your life for it, but so despicable and disgusting to want that same thing at $7?

in other news, did anyone catch me in yesterday's daily telegraph?

Can I have some pistachioes?

I acquired some sexyness recently.

I'm in heaven:

Marc -- that is incredible. I think the only fair thing to do is simply to roll him on the way out.

If anyone know Hash's MSN account, please post it.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Renee got in early for the UNSW Lost Property sale and everyone was crowding around the electronics table trying to get at everything. There were around 2 ipods on the table and Renee was fighting for her life to get one but alas failed.

The sale was conducted by geriatrics who had no idea of the value of electronics. Anyway, Renee came out with an electronic translator costing $10. She said it was scratched and old and bargained it down to $7.

Now, one of the guys behind Renee in the cash queue got the ipod, and the woman said the cost was $10, as it would be naturally on the market. Now I don't know how you would react to getting an ipod for $10, but I can tell you I'd be in a seizure of joy, but this guy? Nope. This guy copied Renee and tried bargaining with the old folks. And succeeded. As if an ipod (it was a mainstream one ie 20GB+) for $10 was not enough, this guy had to bargain it down to $7, because it was "scratched". Because the old people knew squat, they accepted. Apart from being insanely jealous, I have also never been in such disgust and awe at the same time. If I had to choose one word to describe: respect.

Benny, this guy is the epitome of Asianess. He whoops your sorry yellow ass. You all can learn much from him.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

If anyone needs flash card memory then go to this place: www.pacstarcomputer.com.au

they are selling flash cards for practically ebay prices here. I'm planning to pick up a 1gb mmc for nokia :D

Hey guys,

Need a bit of help about compatibility issues with a certain CPU and mobos.

I am looking at a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz D (D630/ 775 pins),
mobo : asus P5LD2 this uses intel 945P chip

wondering if they are compatible. Or any other suggestions for mobos? Thanx ppls!!