Saturday, September 30, 2006

I need a lift from Central... in Santa Clara.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Well in all fairness Scott nor I did anything.

On Alexis/Marc/Scott's birthday tomorrow:

Soccer is located on Dickens Dr, between Parkes Dr and Loch Ave, closer to the Parkes Dr intersection. It is on the south side of the road. Look at Whereis Maps and search the suburb for Centennial Park to know what I'm talking about.

I should also be driving, and will arrive by 11:30am.

We're all flat-chat with theses, assignments, exams etc for the next 1-2 months so Alexis is right, this is a great chance to unwind a bit and meet up with friends for a great day of soccer, food and even wine (whatever that bottle of thingy Alexis was talking about in his email). And dessert. Brilliant.

I hope you've all checked your email!

At least come for soccer, or dinner, if you can't make both. There are three birthdays going on tomorrow.

Let me know if anyone needs a lift (0402 876 434), since I may not necessarily come by Central Stn if no one needs a lift.

James, Darren, Yi, Hash - I love you guys forever.

Almost to the point of saying, "I want to have your babies", except I honestly don't think that will do it justice. You are super uber helpful.

Thanks heaps James for knocking back the options which are simply not realistic in this time frame. Just so you know, I do not need to render/operate in real time. I can pre-render as much as I like (this is what Smokeview does, the existing visualisation software for FDS. FDS is the actual software processor, which chunks on the physics/equations to simulate the fire accurately using fluid flow equations, ie numerically. FDS then spits out data which Smokeview reads in to display graphically, as shown here.)

So basically, pre-rendering is also more than fine.

As for your question, "are you trying to get the 'graphics' right or the 'physics' right?", FDS and Smokeview get the physics right (you can assume so). The graphics look okay, you can check out videos of how the Smokeview graphics look on that website under the visualisation section. So ideally, we'd get it looking absolutely superb, and physically accurate as well. Obviously, if this was easy, it would already have been done. So for now, we'll aim for "graphics right" if we can only prioritise on one area, since Smokeview has "physics right".

And thankyou so much for the Stanford paper, background info is fabulous.

In that light, Maya seems to have a Personal Learning Edition here. Will give this a shot, assuming it has what I need.

Darren, if I may be so rude, I shall probably have a quick chat with you tomorrow after soccer at dinner or something :)

Thanks so very much again guys, incredible help. This thesis is really like no other long-term challenge I've ever had.

Marc,
Torque is a generic game engine unsuited for the purpose of realistic smoke simulation.

Charlie, singularity is not insubstantial at all. It is the logical result of technological progress. And don't think it's just some crackpot spreading it. The concept has the backing of some of the most prominent men in the world. See this article by the former chief scientist of the former company Yi worked for.

Singularity is big. Ask Alexis.

For game engines, the Torque engine was probably suggested because it is free. Free stuff normally sux (look at Linux). You don't want the linux of smoke. Don't go there.

Ooooooooooh nice shoes! Such a scathing attack. Sounds like someone needs a free hug.

I don't know anything about graphics, but I do know that he has 2 weeks and beggars cannot be choosers. At this point in time, he'd probably want to take the engine with the lowest learning curve.

Thats disappointing Charlie.

As much as I enjoyed Daniel Craig in Layer Cake and my opinion of him making an excellent Bond, its just failed by the screen/scriptwriters. The character of Bond at one time was supposed to be subtle, refined and sophisticated. But that somehow died in the Pierce Brosnan/Tim Dalton era and gave way to the new "Vin Diesel" Bond. You can see it in the ad images, he's just walking around with a piece trying to look cool. Bond isn't supposed to be walking around like that, he's supposed to be fronting. Craig would have made a good "old-template" Bond.

Jam: I never made any claims about the future. Note 'traditionally' implies in the past.

As for singularity, the word 'asserts' appeared 5 times in that short article. Interesting as it may be, the concept is a mere assertion based on assumptions about the future. One may equally assume that civilisation would destroy itself before singularity can take place. In fact, to make such prediction is as ludicrous as prophets predicting the Second Coming.

I find it intriguing how you choose to embrace a concept so insubstantial (singularity), yet reject one that is so tangible (sex). Wait, you're an INTP!

This discussion has digressed so far from the orginal debate I'm beginning to feel disoriented. Perhaps we should just agree to disagree.

Happy birthday guys, don't think I'll be able to join you tomorrow.

Hash -- you are wrong. Buddism for one is a religion trying to get rid of the whole death-rebirth cycle. Sex is a subset. Q.E.D.

Charlie -- you are wrong. Sex is the preproductive method of the pre-singularity era. Post-singularity, sex will be an anachronism like vinyl records.

Jono,
What Yi said.

But are you trying to get the 'graphics' right or the 'physics' right? Because current smoke/fog in graphics doesn't follow the kind of physics you do in thermo/fluid. I don't think there's much proper detection with smoke against walls and simulating behaviour etc. It just 'looks' smokey but doesn't behave correctly (ie. it just diffuses, it doesn't impact and flow against the walls etc.)

But Source engine should be the most direct way you can get your hands dirty.

If you want more background info on 'correct smoke' Here's a Stanford paper. But I don't think you can implement that. And it's not real-time either; each frame takes 30minutes to render.

Edit: I had a look at Yi's link. That particle system tutorial is definitely a no go. It was written in 2000. It's outdated and unrealistic.

Stay away from OpenGL. OpenGL doesn't support smoke beyond simple fog tables etc. You need custom stuff. Custum stuff means shaders. It means implementing physics in HLSL. You don't want to go there either.

The best way is to take an existing toolkit that supports good smoke and learn that toolkit. You can use a game engine or graphics package.

For game engines, the Torque engine was probably suggested because it is free. Free stuff normally sux (look at Linux). You don't want the linux of smoke. Don't go there.

And most 'expensive' engines are free for mucking around purposes anyway. So go there. Source, Unreal, etc.

For graphics packages, look into Maya, Softimage and 3DMax. Tim Lambert won't be of much help here. Talk to Darren. Get him to show you what these things can do for smoke. They should have some built in options with parameters to play around.

Yeah, I think this is your best bet: learn how to use the smoke function in a graphics package. Learn the basics so you can draw a box. That's your shipping container. Then learn to use the fire effects in the package. Then the smoke. Hopefully you'll get the fire to cause smoke and the package will be sophisticated enough to track the motion of smoke in the container. You won't be able to demo this to your guys in real time so you'll have to render to a series of pictures of movie. That's supported by all the 3D packages so should be no problem. The real meat is learning how to use the smoke effect in the package. But it shouldn't be too hard. It's completely doable versus implementing smoke physics with a photon map renderer, which is a PhD disseration.

So get a copy of Maya first. Then search for smoke tutorials. There're a few good ones here, though not on smoke directly.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

It's ppl like you John that make me wish we had a mandatory germline acqiusition law.

You may say you don't want kids John, but that will change. Logic and Reasoning will never win out against instinct.

Sorry I can't be of help Jono, I have not ventured much into the graphics field. My suggestion would be ask Darren XD.

Alexis, you have ruined my weekend plans. Completely obliterated them. We had better win at soccer! btw is it ar or ap?

Fire in the hole.

How wonderfully fantastic that Nike condones his behaviour.

Jono, I wouldn't try to do the graphics in a low level language such as OpenGL. It'll be too much to learn in too little time.

I'd try the Source engine, that powers Half-Life 2. From the looks of these screenshots, it seems like a good candidate for you to look into.

Otherwise if you really want to suffer a lot, you can try and build your own particle engine using DirectX with a little help from here.

And yeah, Darren's suggestion of talking to Tim Lambert is good. Advanced Graphics students should have learnt about fog/smoke so maybe ask them a bit too.

HTH

please don't hold it against me, it might be misinterpreted as a sexual act =P

Assuming you are not castrated, I will hold that against you, john.

Are you sure they aren't just applying for another candidate?

Alexis: replace uni life with yi lee.

Materazzi got AU$70 000 for this..

Jono, have you talked to Tim Lambert about what you could use? He's the head lecturer and resident graphics guy of Comp Sci.

Or.. you could always import some fireworks in containers and detonate them, recording the results..

Free hugs Brilliant clip and music composition (showing the way life should be?)
Life's simple pleasures.

James, Yi, Hash or anyone - would you know the best way for me to simulate a metal shipping container (12m x 2.4m x 2.4m) with a smallish fire and smoke on the inside?? I want to make it look as realistic as possible, and I've got about 2 weeks to work on it before Thesis Conference.

Ideally I'd be able to give the smoke different colours or tones, depending on the temperature of the fire, say. I had a meeting with a senior lecturer of computer (VR Lab) at Macquarie uni yesterday and she was suggesting OpenGL or even OpenSceneGraph, perhaps using Torque game engine or even Unreal Tournament, even though these engines are better for the outside environment.

I know Fortran fairly well (it'll come back quickly), but not C or C++ very well.

Thanks guys

My apologies for the lack of news guys. I have been buried with work. Uni life is finally taking a toll on me. Well the venue for dinner has changed. Soccer will be on at Centennial Park. To be more specific it will be at where we played last time. I dont know the specific location, so ask Benny and Adrian for directions. I will be there from 11, and I am willing to pick people up from Central Station. I will email more details later tonight, this time for real... right now I wish I was dead...

This is great. My probation isn't over yet and they're advertising my job already. And they're increasing the salary to level 6 to attract better applicants. Three months on a job is as good as no job on the CV.

Genesis 1:28 Marc.
:)

don't tell me what my purpose is, i'm not here to reproduce. i don't want any kids.

No doubt, Hash. Even Christianity would be a farce if it subscribed to strict and nonsensical abstinence. Afterall it was a command of God at some stage in the old testament to go forth and multiply. I can't remember where that was from. Its the conditions attached to sex that people can't accept.

I think the greater debate lies in the question of polygamy before monogamy which we have been through 1000x and should not go through again.

I'm sorry, Busu? Is there something I missed out on? Or are the names in brackets not examples?

It doesn't matter what ne1 says. The ultimate purpose of an individual in a population is to reproduce. Whether they seek to do it after establishing a 'nest' for their offspring (John) or they try to do it every day to see how many venereal diseases they collect (Busu) is up to the individual.

No matter what 'religion' or 'philosophy' you subscribe to your ultimate underlying purpose on this world is to have sex and pass on your genetic traits (and to a lesser extent your knowledge and wisdom) to your offspring.

It need not be written in stone, nor analaysed in depth (though it has been) - it is the will of the only god that matters - Evolution.

Lol James: are you at work?

So we're debating on technicalities now?
A suggestion is nothing as arrogant as a statement. A suggestion implies the possibility of being wrong. The rest of my post attempts to show that his suggestion about Polymorphous perversity is shown to be true, after half a century of denial.

If you take a cross section in time and remove one's sexual organs, perhaps they can still enjoy life independent of sex. But no reproduction can occur (traditionally) therefore everything will perish because we have perished. So in the grand scheme of things, nothing is orthogonal to sex. Of course you can't take this and interpret it to the other extreme and say every action is motivated by sex.

And yep, sex is my religion =)

I thought this is bleedingly obvious: sucking -> oral sex. Ring any bells?

It's as obvious to you as God is obvious to religious people.

Why is it contradictory? We're not talking about religion here. What would be contradictory is if i quote a Freudian.

I thought this is bleedingly obvious: sucking -> oral sex. Ring any bells?

Again, I thought I made this clear: Freud is not a religion and this is not a legal case. I certainly don't carry any burden to convince anyone to believe in him.

Haven't read Kinsey but I would imagine he described sexual behaviour as it is, not as we wished it to be.

Lol Marc your kids are safe so long as you don't consent =)

Read how you started your post Charlie: "Freud suggested that..."

Stylistically it's no different from: "Jesus said that..."

It's in the form of a unexamined premise!

I don't need to argue with you regarding Freud's chief tenet that sex is the sole motivator behind all human actions because it's wrong. And it can be proved via a simple experiment. Suppose we are to remote the sexual reproductive organs of a person, male or female, would that person continue to have the will to carry on living? Yes. Would he or she continue to enjoy sunsets, now that the sun is truely and utterly unrootable? Yes.

Is it so unreasonable to assume that out of the various 'blobs' of 'stuff' in our brain, some are actually unrelated to sex?

And as for 'Platonic beauty', indeed there is no such thing. And I said no such thing; I specifically said: the Platonic form of beauty, referring to Plato's forms. That is, a universal, an idea, the perfect embodiment thereof. See Plato's forms here.

Oh John, your commentary is brilliant, bugger Linda I want your babies dammit!

Although I have to say, you should believe me and John, cuz we haven't generalised sections of the populace as pervs or killed billions for our cause! Vote#1 Adrian and John's sexually healthy PC crew and have some fun!!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

it's from a christian source and therefore it's not biased? i find that rather contradictory.

how can you make the jump from sucking on the thumb to deriving sexual pleasure from it? hey i just opened a book and started reading from it, what do you make of that?

james isn't rejecting freud from the outset; you're the one that is throwing freud at us, so you carry the burden of convincing why we should believe him like the bible.

personally, i think you've read too much kinsey.

What happens after hibernation? Its Spring and all the animals are in heat.

Charlie, stay away from my [future]children...I be like: thats sook sook Charlie. He is harm sup gwai.

Boston Legal is out btw.

mang talk about retarded conversation getting out of hand....

people's mindsets are sooo.... different.... yet at the same time we are all identical in ideas.....


things change when you come out of hibernation....

That's a hell of alot of words for "damn, lets get laid guys".

And I don't think many people understood my post; I specifically said, we should be admiring a great set, and we are weird to be repressing ourselves in a wholly male (nowadays) group. At least give me a good chorus of:

GILLEHHHHHHHH

Jono likes ICBMs

i'm bringing sexy back.

Haha James: You and I are equally stubborn.

Freud suggested that every kid begins his or her life polymorphously perverse. That is, they have the ability to find erotic pleasure in any part of the body. My nephew is currently at the stage of sucking his thumb incessantly and if we were to remove it, he would cry. So yes by nature we can potentially find anything that interacts with our body, sexual. Through education and cultural convention, we are forced to centralise our pleasures to the reproductive organs, because if this was not the case, civilisation would perish. Society requires that our polymorphous desires to be repressed.

Now of course there are exceptions to the rule, which is no surprise we see alternative manifestations of sexual desires which we term fetishes. What is surprising is that the exception is gradually becoming the rule (I've referenced a christian source so you know I'm not biased). But when you look at the facts, it ain't surprising after all. People have realised that reproductive sex and entertainment sex aren't mutually exclusive! That is civilisation can prolong without having to repress polymorphous desires.

The reason why this has not occurred earlier is due to convention. But convention has shifted and sexual expression has become more liberal. Of course, if there were no convention, then we are no different to bonobos, which by the way is the closest evolutionary partner with homo sapiens. So if sunsets were rootable, there's bound to be someone out there who would do it.

Now you said I subscribe to Freud like a religion. Not necessarily. But if sex was a religion, why the hell not?

You've rejected Freud from the onset. Such notion is even more ludicrous so as to defy further explanation.

I rest my case.

P.S: Platonic beauty? No such thing.

Due to time differences I am very late but -- leave Jennifer Connelly (arghaghhhHHHH) out of this.

Jennifer Connelly is the closest earthly representation of the Platonic form of beauty.

And LOL marc -- let's go root a sunset!!

Char, you subscribe to Freud like a religion. The notion that all actions have some sexual motivation is so ludicrous as to defy discussion.

- Jono must like rockets because aluminium boosters are long, big and shiny
- Einstein found equations horny
- I like 3D graphics because it has deep pipelines

And finally, yes,

Let's go root a sunset!!

Lolz, this blog never ceases to amaze me. From what I remember, this blog has arguments ranging from macro-economic policies to technologies, and now to sex. Being stereotypical here, but, when do we start talking about cars, and money too?

>D

wow, ain't these a group of ackward posts.

"I see your swartchz is as big as mine"

From an evolutionary point of view, the driving force for a species will the be rate at which they reproduce and generate new potentially better offspring.

Soooo, there should be an instinctual desire to mate. Also, all other functions and activities in life should go towards increasing the likelyhood of such an event occurring.

Any activity that does not eventually heighten the above probability is therefore a waste. Hence, as human we like to delude ourselves into thinking that everything we do heightens this probability.

It underlines every decision you make. To not do so is to advocate and actively contribute towards the extinction of the human race. Of course, those that think this way are the ones that are removed from the population first - thus increasing the overall fitness of the population.

blah blah blah ... got to do my thesis

Sexual in gender, not Sexual in intercourse. I believe them to be different. I would dare say that boys in puberty would be motivated by intercourse only putting me in a different category altogether, excuse me!

Neither did I remark on physical characteristics of other women when I had my balls in a vice grip (not saying that yours are). Whereas previously I would snuff out the candle, seeing as I'm unoccupied I let it burn for a bit - nothing else to do on the bus. But I do agree with you john, sometimes I wonder what sets apart what I do vs stupid college frat boys hi-fiving each other and acting obnoxiously when they see a great pair of "ass and tits" to put it eloquently.

and...
IF YOU WANT TO ACCUSE ME OF SOMETHING THEN ACCUSE ME! But, yes I have marvelled, though somewhat disproportionately, at male specimens but they haven't left me breathless as such. No sorry guys, I haven't marvelled at any of you. (Soon to descend into Kitchen Confidential)

do you admire marvelous specimens in males? do they leave you breathless? if not motivated sexually, why does the fact that they're the opposite sex matter?

note that i didn't say you were motivated by intercourse; because if you were, then your actions would have been quite different.

in that post, i did not suggest that everything charlie comments on is related to sex (although i did that in an earlier one). my point was that charlie's choice of words to represent himself speaks volumes in itself. no need to infer any further consequential hypothesis.

when was the last time i remarked on the physical characteristics of a female that you can remember? include times before i became "occupied" with linda =P

on another note, it's nice to be regarded as an active member of this group, considering i haven't seen some of you for months.

on yet another note, i think i'm overly procrastinating on this blog, evidenced by the frequency of which i am posting. i remember the days when i spent all night making random posts in reply to kwong's even more random ones.

Yes Marc. Only one with such disposition would choose such a name. And for the record, I condone all forms of intimacy between all types of organisms, so long as it is consensual. That leaves beastiality and paedophilia in the grey area. Oh well, life ain't simple.

You've hit the nail on the head Spain. At least there's few of us out there who's not pretentious when in fact there's no shame in admitting that sex is desirable, necessary, and fun. We should all be doing it, all the time =)

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Well John I had you in mind when i typed up that post. Because you were the only one in our group who i thought didn't fit in the stereotype. Mostly I say because Linda and you are much more open about your feelings and can express yourselves in a much less "weird" way.

But you aren't a manly man if you can't agree the rest of these nubs need to unwind ^^.

You leave the gileeh's out of this!

But I must protest. My gileeh encounters were not motivated by intercourse urges. As a member of the opposite sex, I was admiring what a marvelous specimen they were. Must like an awesome sunset or a glorious day like yesterday.

You don't see me trying to root a sunset or beautiful day? Nor do you see me hi-fiving my male counterparts while oogling subject.

So because Charlie has the name "bonobo" we should expect comments of sexual nature to come out of his mouth? What if I rename myself to asshole? Then I can start insulting people (or talk about asses) because they should expect it?

Despite all this, it is interesting for you to say that john as you are the only active member of this group currently occupied :)

(I doubt Kwong will have even read this entire section)

do we pretend we don't have sexual urges? not the last time i checked.

all this jennifer connelly, "gilleh", christianity vs promiscuousness talk sometimes makes me wonder whether if we're still going through puberty.

charlie's nickname of bonobo was chosen because of their unusual sexual behaviour; if that doesn't exemplify the discourse of our bulging sexual urges then i don't know what does.

and yes, i use the word "we" loosely here.

Sex only matters if you aren't getting enough..

I don't remember saying the word "special" but I may have said something to that effect. I can't remember.

That sounds good, we hardly do anything except play dota and soccer but will there be feeding of the chickens?

silly spain.... I'm only catching up on all the "work" that i missed out cos i played too much
lol

Oh yes, and I have something for you all to chew on. Either Marc or Yi once asked me if we're special, either in a bad way or good because we don't have more casual relationships. If you look around all our relationships are none or way intense pseudo married ones.

I reply because we spend so damn much time pretending we don't have sexual urges. We should go out some night soon, have some fun and *hopefully* get some pelt.

GILLEHHHHHHHHHH!

Personal observation. As of late you've been gearing your speech moreso. You look/sound like a huge dam thats about to burst.

Its like you did a Grave Chill on Jono's sexual impetus

Why is that Marc?

Ah! That explains why he is super Judging

Actually, if anything, you should be the last person accusing someone of being sexually frustrated Charlie :p

Spain's right. Its a celebration bitches! Enjoy yourself

Lol I apologise, let me reprogram my stubborn head:

You're not sexually frustrated.
You don't want to get laid.
Body building has nothing to do with sex.
Body building allows you to perform better/longer at various activites, just not sex.
Christianity has nothing to do with sex, even though Christian couples purports to have better sex than non Christian couples.

Have I missed anything?

Beginning to sound like a description of a saint. Gosh I should have known all along. Jono is an angel from heaven!

Kj you fucking emo kid! You gotta learn to enjoy yourself in moderation; I hope i'm wrong but i don't think shutting yourself up will sort your life out.

seems like people are having fun....

enjoy your break guys ...

alexis unfortunately i can't make it to the party..

happy birthday to all those involved (i know who you all are ^^)

I believe going to the gym has a few benefits. True, it might increase your chances of getting some, but for some, they just wanna live longer....damn cholestoral. Plus it makes you feel better about yourself, and means you can perform better/longer is various activities. (=p)

haha thanks James, succinctly and very well put.

And thanks Marc, for stating clearly to Char/john what I again thought was clear :D
And I do find it very easy to believe that Christian couples enjoy sex a lot more. Which Charlie, is not the reason I am Christian. Thought I may make this clear

And Char, "Now you're just sexually frustrated and hoping a well-defined body can get you laid =)" Me understanding that I am not "sexually frustrated" (in the worldy-view of the phrase, even though you think I am) is one thing; but then again I am thinking that your view of my own sexual frustration is starting to be a reflection of one's own struggles. :)

(yours)

And *surely* you know me better than that; not only to think I'm wanting to get laid, but to think my best way around that is to get a 'well-defined body'?? It is my fear you have been away from me far too long...Yi I'm sure knows me well better than that. :) But that's because we talk to each other 2-3 times a week.....in the gym :D

James, your travels are looking pretty funky. Hope all is well at work!

Oh that's why I posted. Ansari's space blog (the first female space tourist, I think?)
On her blog, she uses flickr as her photoblog. Check out those flickr photos. :D

Lunchtime at 4:30pm. Healthy living.

Yeuk Shamesh! My name-a-Borat

For Charlie everything is sex.

During one of our sermons the pastor was talking about the benefits of living a Christian life. One of the points he said was that couples who prayed before doing the dirty enjoyed it a lot more.

Don't ask me where or how he got the info.

Sex is why we exist, therefore, nothing can be orthogonal to sex.

for charlie, everything is deduced from sex.

I may be a Pacific Ocean away but I do think Jono's fondness of soccer and gym is fairly orthogonal to any desire of getting laid.

Oooooooooh, nice shoes!

Hash, I'm fine with that if you bury the spammers as well

lol @ Charlie and his analysis of the "dichotomy of Jono"

the same idea is in Buddhism. The Lord Buddha lived the first 29 years of his life in luxury - it didn't make him happy when he saw all the suffering. He spent the next 5 years under the tutelage of various cakers who pretty much had the idea that you achieve enlightenment when by punishing your body. So he left em and spent the next year meditating by himself on the "Middle Path" - no excess, but enuf food/excersize to keep your healthy. Thus he reached enlightnment at the age of 35.

Counterpoint to Marc's God's Wrath - I spend 2 white mana and 2 mana of any color to cast Wrath of God - Bury all critters (and cakers and everyone)

Jono: knowing someone is hard, especially with an anomaly such as yourself. Six years ago, you would choose Star over sex. Five years ago, you would shun Christianity on the basis of one inconvenient clause: no premarital sex. Now you're just sexually frustrated and hoping a well-defined body can get you laid =).

Monday, September 25, 2006

From Jono's post probably very little. Enjoying exercising is much the same as enjoying a good game of dota, just that exercising has health benefits.

Charlie's connection of Christian value of faith over body, which brought jono to his bicep curls, was somewhat misdirected. I think Charlie was more suggesting Jono's preference for leisure over faith.

Typically the issue of "faith over body" is interpreted as faith over the needs of your body including most commonly food but in this case its exercise.

So therefore Christians should all be fat and ugly. They shouldn't shower, eat, exercise or care about how they look because that time spent would be at the expense of "faith".

what do bicep curls have to do with the fruits of your labour?

I will also bring God's Wrath (Adds 150% damage) to advertising spammers (literally - I just cleaned up some) who are abusing my wiki.

Is that directed at me, Charlie?

If it is, unfortunately after 7 years of knowing me, you still don't seem to understand this complex concept - that I really enjoy exercise.
:)
Simultaneously, it also has benefits. *shock horror*

Oh, you are also not clearly versed in the Bible (nor am I). While Ecclesiastes talks of the meaningless toil of life, Proverbs, I believe, talks of this basic concept - you don't work, you don't eat.

Obviously, that means the fruit of labour will clearly come not only of works, nor only of faith, but of both.

Bah, procrastinating again.

What happened to the Christian value of faith over body?

Yi you're not online, so just so you know, I went to the gym tonight after dinner with marc, dinner and some church friends near uni.

Was awesome; record timing efficiency. Under 30 mins all up, including:
- getting changed
- taking a leak (including hand washing of course)
- 1 warmup + 3 on benchpress (going up to 16.25 kg on each side now)
- 3 on shoulder press
- 3 on pec deck and 3 sets on deltoids
- 2 of wrist curls
- 1 bicep curl
- stretches

efficiency baby! incccccccredible! I don't know how I did it. mmm exercise, fun times

Will probably go this Wednesday next time round.

Back to the never ending storing of the Big T. For thesis, that is.

RAAF Base Richmond Air Show, 21-22 October 2006

Hmmm, bored at home...so anyone up for a poker night somewhere? I'll ask my mum to see if my place is open, if not, anyone wanna volunteer to host? =D

Lol @ James.

Looks like the busy old fool really left his mark on you.
His tale of platonic love will now shape your future relationships forever XD.

Maybe your relationship with Jennifer is already like that - You do not know what it is, and she does not know at all. =P

I have put up the first peice of 'decoration' in my cubicle. It's John Donne's A Validation Forbidding Mourning.

Favourite line: "But we by a love so much refined, that ourselves know not what it is"

Along with Marc and Scott, my birthday is coming up to. Ahh, the trinity of October.

What do you mean "Latin" cuisine Alexis? Surely you don't mean Roman food. If it's from Latin America, which country?

Take plenty of pictures. Looks like we'll be eating a Pacific Ocean apart this time. Happy birthday fine Scott and Butters!

lol, dessert is 1/3 of the meal. Makes you realise how exorbitant Riviera can be. They must be raking.

I'm gonna open an ice cream shop with pokie machines inside.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Hey guys, with Marc's, Scott's and my birthday coming up, and with their inability to organize something due to uni and work commitments, I have taken the liberty of booking dinner at 'La Cita' this coming Saturday, a Latin restaurant in Darling Harbour offering fine Latin cuisine. Now I was thinking of booking 'La Casa Asturiana', but Spanish food is limited to only a couple of exquisite dishes and the rest are modestly mediocre to downright horrendous. We tried Peruvian last year, and courtesy of James' farewell we were treated to some fine Italian gourmet.

The cost per person is 45 dollars with dessert and 30 without it.

Some mech and aero friend will be there as well. Beforehand, I was thinking of having our usual Saturday soccer outing, but this time it will be the PC crew against the mech crew. As they are superior to us, Jono will be included in our team, lets hope he does not dissapoint. Location for the game will most probably be Centennial Park, and it will be held in the afternoon after lunch. Keep your upcoming schedules free for Saturday. I know most of yous have thesis and assignments to attend to, so this will probably be the last time we get together at least till end of exams, and even then some of yous are planning on extended overseas trips. So please make an effort to come this Saturday and have a blast.

lol, Clarkson writes exactly how he talks. Very charming.

Great to hear he is doing better than hoped for :)

Anyone catch idol? That country chick (the youngest one) should not be there. I reckon its rigged, they decided they wanted to keep her in. I didn't see the episode before but the (good) feedback they gave her was completely false. They grilled all these guys who did crap, but she did so much worse.

Her performance was "okay" but that was the problem. No range so she wasn't showing the audience her aces (if she had any).

the hamster is recovering well =)

Saturday, September 23, 2006

This album art stuff is addictive. I'm spending so much time perfecting my itunes. Ima be so screwed if it stuffs up

well that was a great game guys, we must have more i felt much unfitness due to inactivity! Anyway Dota tomorrow at CFN from 10 onwards, there will be Russians, Gnomes, Generals and I hear tell there will be a Blik! Cya soon

Just a clarification, DON'T COME TO ASHFIELD, noone will be there, its Centennial park at 10:30. Come everyone :)

zOMG - A toast to female beauty!

Friday, September 22, 2006

After all the bad stuff that has happened lately to me on the bus:
  • stupid youth tapping me on the shoulder for no reason but to see if I was sleeping - was gonna pull a bus uncle on him
  • digusting pair talking about mutilation of the human body including genitals
  • unbearable try-hard yuppies
I've been given me a new lease on life. My iPod probably saved me from many a firing line.

But more importantly, I just saw a most blinding GILEEEEH on the bus. Man were her eyes like spanners! She was Spigelman-esque.

Wait, let me catch my breath...I don't think I can play soccer, I need tomorrow to recover.

It sure made up for all the bad stuff.

Oh I forgot one more thing: zomg

hamster! :'C

Its interesting how the media use the word "woman/man" and "teenager" interchangeably. They could have said she was an 19 year old woman like when they describe car crash victims: "18 year old man".

The signed consent form might not be valid if she was drunk?

lol, all they did was watch Boston Legal 250 times.

I am down for u guys having soccer in CT. If me n KJ get bored of magic we'll come join u.

btw - If for some RANDOM reason, my parents call u. DO NOT SAY I AM AT MAGIC. SAY "I THOUGHT HE WENT TO UNI TODAY TO DO THESIS"

plz, really, plz
otherwise they'll hammer the blik out of me with their incessesant yelling

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Marc and John....no comments to your...oh god...WHAT DID THEY TEACH YOU IN LAW SCHOOL?!

It's spring time, he's in heat =)

Marc,
Have you just lost your SENSING?

Push me, and then just touch me...

lets all become pokie machines!

give me 20c and i'll let you pull my lever.

I just went thru the CSE revue booklet and read the lyrics to the songs.

omg so bad. they so bad. so unbelievably bad.

If I heard the lyrics over the loud music at the time I would have been stabbing myself.

Thats word because you know,
Can't text this


Regarding the article of gambling on SMH: Each of the nation's nearly 200,000 poker or gaming machines took an average of $46,300, even after winnings were deducted.

Thats like a graduate salary per pokie machine. I'm in the wrong business.

Kj that list of warcraft/starcraft/red alert comparisons is BS. I am an avid fan of the star, but sometimes they are really a bunch of wankers.

Anyway, why Ashfield on Saturday for soccer? To be honest I'm gonna be too tired to carpool at my place, how about back to Central Park? If we do we'll also get Kirill.

The General's man, the Generals!

You can use tactics and strats!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

I read the first line of that post and, without seeing who wrote it, I said to myself: Abstinence sure has taken its toll on KJ.

The iPod of this generation (I'm assuming its still 5G despite the software changes) looks so pretty. My cousin has a 2G iPod or so and I expected it to be a bit bulky like that but its not! Its closer to being an iPod mini than the 2G.

James, I'm not gonna go asian and leave the plastics on, ok? First thing I did was smear it with my fingerprints so I don't have to lament it being dirty.

You can practice warcraft for two months and learn all the skills
You can practice starcraft for two years and still haven’t mastered the basics
You can practice red alert for two decays and be as good as when you begin playing

When you can beat two computers in warcraft, you can start winning in multi-player
When you can beat seven computers in starcraft, you still can't win against humans
When you beat a computer for the eight millionth times you realize you never played humans

Play warcraft for two hours and you can loose to the same strategy 8 times in a row, suffering a crushing defeat
Play starcraft for two hours and you can loose to 16 different strategies 8 times in a rows, suffering a crushing defeat
Play red alert for two years and you loose to the exact same thing forever, suffering a crushing defeat

Play warcraft you only have to practice one race to learn all the match ups of that race
Play starcraft and you will realize, 3 years later, a Zerg exterminator used to be good with the zerg
Play red alert and you only need to practice on nation to learn every single nations.

Learn a few strategies from warcraft and you can start winning
Master fifty strategies from starcraft and you still can't start winning
Learn a few strategies from red alert and they’re all useless. Just stick to the one everyone uses--forever

A noob's day in warcraft: You cornered your enemy but they still managed to get out in one piece
A noob's day in starcraft: You realize apart from gorilla warfare there is also ground pushes, ambushes, harass, seiging, nuking, faking, etc.
A noob’s day in red alert: You realize strategies are pointless—mass mass mass!

In warcraft no matter how far you're from your base you can still return and save it in ten seconds(teleport)
In starcraft your army can be in the east side of your base and yet your west portion still gets wiped out.
In red alert, pay attention to your ore miners

In warcraft you scout once every 5 minutes and know what your opponent's army consists of.
In starcraft you scout 5 times every minute and still get false intelligence.
In red alert you scout for the first 5 minutes and there’ll be no need to do so anymore

In warcraft you can still guess what your opponent's army is made out of even if you don't scout for 5 minutes.
In starcraft your opponent's army will be made out stuff that completely counter yours if you don't scout for 3 minutes.
In red alert you don’t scout.

In warcraft you can relax if you win a big battle
In starcraft you won a big battle and got caught by a drop, loosing your base completely
In red alert you won a big battle and you feel good—it’s just normal routine.

In warcraft big battles are often one sided in body count.
In starcraft big battles are often two sided in body count.
In red alert dead people disappear.

In warcraft your army gets wiped out and you’re basically dead meat
In starcraft your army gets wiped out 10 times and the victor is still uncertain.
In red alert your army gets wiped out and it’s just everyday life—come back in 10 seconds

In warcraft you can watch half the replay and tell who's going to win
In starcraft you realize your prediction on the victor is wrong towards the last minute
In red alert you don’t know what a replay is, nor do you know about live games

In warcraft if your main base gets wiped out you're dead meat
In starcraft your main base, your expo gets wiped out and yet you and your opponent have already traded base, or you have your Command Centers floating everywhere.
In red alert you base can be blown up, as well as captured, stolen, sabotaged, and even packed up to leave the spot

In warcraft the game is set when all the resources are drained
In starcraft you drain every last drop of resource and still get a draw

In warcraft you can hold back, turtle and wait for your chance to come.
In starcraft if you hold back, turtle and then find out that every expansion are taken by your opponent with their workers working in it.
In red alert you only fight for resource, that’s the way it is

In warcraft you build a shit load of defense at your front door and your opponent tell you off for being cheap
In starcraft you build a shit load of defense at your front door and your opponent either drop you or nuke you
In red alert you build a shit load of defense at your front door, the back door and the interior of your base, and then you tell off your opponent for copying your base pattern.

In warcraft you can use bully lower level units with higher level ones
In starcraft you can use marines to counter carriers...

In warcraft you'll have to run when you see air units of opponent if you have no anti-air
In starcraft you attack with a muta rush and your base get wiped out by 3 groups of zerglings.

In warcraft you sometimes doubt that quantity makes up for quality
In starcraft you never doubt that quantity makes up for quality

In warcraft your heart break every time you loose a unit
In starcraft you'll know what’s a horde is like
In red alert a unit is made to die

In warcraft you don't separate your troops
In starcraft small scale battles are all over the map
In red alert the battle fields are all mutually agreed—where ore miners meet!

In warcraft you fight changes
In starcraft you change to fight
In red alerts there’s no such thing as ‘change’

In warcraft you're proud of your hero that's one level higher than your opponent's
In starcraft you're proud of your zealot that blew up 10 siege tanks by sacrificing itself to the spider mine field and tank fire.
In red alert you’re proud of your air unit that secured the resource node

In warcraft when your APM is over 150 you'll get bored that you start setting rally points
In starcraft when your APM is over 150 you'll be able to execute the most basic commands
In red alert when your APM is over 150 you’re out of your mind. APM does not exist in red alert

In warcraft you're excited when you micro 12 individual units
In starcraft carpet bombardment with 12 dropships on 12 different screens is still basic(maybe not...)
In red alert placing a building is micro

In warcraft even meteors can recognize friends and foes
In starcraft a careless psi storm will be more catastrophic to you than your opponent
In red alert your units kill each other

In warcraft you always say ‘that’s logical'
In starcraft you always say ‘that's possible’
In red alert you always say ‘that’s impossible’

In warcraft you'll learn what's efficiency
In starcraft you'll learn what's quantity
In red alert you’ll learn what’s ranking

In warcraft you'll learn the importance of level ups
In starcraft you'll learn the importance of economy
In red alert you’ll learn the importance of a huge army

In warcraft you learn how to battle
In starcraft you learn how to wage war
In red alert you learn how to follow the instruction booklet

In warcraft all maps are land based up till now
In starcraft there're island maps ever since WCG2001
In red alert you realize the map never changes

In warcraft you'll find out that there're a couple completely useless units in the game
In starcraft you'll find out that every unit pose an importance in certain strategies
In red alert you’ll find out that every unit are completely useless apart from the few exceptions

Warcraft is a test of your micro skill
Starcraft is a test of your brain and hand
Red alert is a test of your patience

Strategies in warcraft changes according to the latest patch
Strategies in starcraft changes according to the pros
Strategies in red alert are ambushes

Warcraft plays you around
You play Starcraft
Westwood plays you and red alert around

In warcraft you say the word imbalance and everyone start debating on race, hero and units
In starcraft you say the word imbalance and everyone disagree in general
In red alert you say the word imbalance and you’re in the wrong discussion—every nation is the same.

Someone says Warcraft is crap and you will get pissed and start fighting
Someone says Starcraft is crap and you will cast a sideward glance and ignore them
Someone says red alert is crap and you will get pissed but still agree

Play warcraft long enough and you'll find out that it's a great game.
Play starcraft long enough and you'll realize that starcraft is more than just a game.
Play red alert long enough and you’ll think a good company is more important than a good game.

Play warcraft long enough and you’re thinking about what a fun game warcraft is.
Play starcraft long enough and your daily actions are enhanced by starcraft.
Play red alert long enough and your get more and more single minded.

Play warcraft long enough and you know more and more.
Play starcraft long enough and you’re asking more and more.
Play red alert long enough and you learn more and more rubbish.

Signed up now. Seeya guys there!

Benny, go sign up.

Oh boy! 5 Year Reunion, I can't wait to see the ol' crew!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

15 October sounds good. Right after my thesis conference, brilliant.

Glad you enjoyed CSE Revue hash. Told ya it was brilliant :) Pretty cool how they incorporated star hey?

Big News!

Clear the calendar date October 15th!

There is to be a North Sydney Boys High School Class of 2001 5 Year Reunion!

Details are pending. Contact Stephen Leong for details
his email :: scyleong@gmail.com
his contact :: 0414 324 403

can some1 plz pass the word to Busu as well as other ppl from NSBHS u know

Another one with Ben Stiller

Lol. Willy Wonka? Johnny Wanker!

CSE Revue is soo funny.
Still they have their fair share of lame jokes ... and Star!

Monday, September 18, 2006

Lolz Yi. That's song is great for times when you are playing dota...actually, i've managed to find (and download) the song. If anyone wants it, just msn me or something. Lolz

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Yi...god...dammit. I expected nothing less from you.

Orlando Bloom on Extas. rofl (It was cut and pasted to include the parts from the episode only with Orlando Bloom so it looks a bit weird in terms of continuity) oooo I've got scissors for hands

Yi - will probably go to gym at 10am Monday morning (tomorrow). Have thesis meeting 9:30-10am (can't go past 10), then have snowgum work from 12-4. So will probably go gym 10-11:30am. Let me know if you want to join

Jono

Darren, you are the only person who would spot the mirroring!

Yi - O M G.

that u found something like that is truly a cry for help from your subconcious mind. A cry that sounds a lot like .. Dotaaaa!

So get back in cto@pvpgn.boredaussie.com

You know you play too much Starcraft when you alt-tabbed out of Starcraft to find a list about playing too much Starcraft..

'You go by your Battle.net alias'.. lol at Hash

Nice pic James.. you mirrored that image, didnt you? or does that shirt you are wearing have its writing printed mirrored..

Apologies for those who don't know what dota is. Skip to the next post please.

I like Apple. Mum is going to get a MacBook once they are updated with the Core 2 Duo.

Santa Cruz Wharf

Went to Santa Cruz today. Nice little town by the aqua.

This one I think applys to alot of our group...
"When someones mentions "boxer", you don't think about guys in a ring."

What's happening this year with Marc, Scott, Alexis' birthday?

Lolz, KJ.

"· You're sleeping with your girl and accidently scream "Kerrigan" instead of her name." That's really bad...that's definitely too much Star!!

If only our version of Deal or No Deal is this good

And James, I think the tools that named and tagged the mp3s must've used some Jap/Chinese writing software, cos they showed up as symbols. iTunes can display OTHER unicode text though.

You know you play too much StarCraft when...

· You call your house your "Nexus."
· You play basketball and ask your friends if thegame is melee or UMS.
· You are poor and you tell your dad to harvest more minerals.
· You realize that you're broke and ask your parents to borrow some minerals.
· You decide to blow yourself up as a suicide bomber and shout "here's for the Swarm!"
· You inject steroids into your arm on the way home to get there faster.
· You pretend that a box is an SCV and you sit in it and pick your nose.
· You send siblings out to scout neighbors' yards.
· Your solution for Iraq is "Battlecruisers. Mass Battlecruisers."
· Your only fear when massing Battlecruisers against Iraq is that they may have cloaked Wraiths waiting.
· You sit in a traffic jam and wonder if your car has a Siege mode.
· Laser pointers are now weapons of mass destruction - avoid them at all costs.
· The Bunsen burner in chemistry looks deliciously inviting as a splash damage weapon.
· You poke people repeatedly. Maybe they'll say something funny.
· You complain about the inefficiency of our military. Even on slow days, it only took you half an hour to amass a fleet and annihilate your opponent.
· You don't believe in the concept of overpopulation. Why not just build more supply depots?
· Missile turrets are a crucial part to any home security system. Bunkers too. Hell, a few Siege Tanks here and there wouldn't hurt.
· You call your school bully a Dragoon.
· You start calling rich people "n00bs" and tell them to play on real maps.
· You walk by a construction site and wonder why they just don't warp everything in.
· You think strategically placing Arbiters around your town/city so they can recall people wherever they want is a really good idea.
· You mistake your grandmother for an Infested Kerrigan.
· You mistake Democrats for UED leaders.
· You think babies come from Gateways.
· Your friend is a Hydralisk. No matter what anyone else says, he's a Hydralisk.
· You tell people to go somewhere and you start repeatedly "clicking" your finger.
· You try to Optical Flare your dog.
· You answer the phone with "You want a piece of me boy?!"
· You know everyone on Battle.net. Everyone on Battle.net knows you.
· You give people your Battle.net username instead of your phone number.
· You go by your Battle.net alias.
· You know, by heart, how many hits it will take a marine to destroy a Battlecrusier.
· You can beat every Terran campaign mission with 4 marines and an SCV.
· You went as a Zealot for Halloween.
· You use the wall in your room as a board for designing new strategies.
· You can draw any custom map someone tells you to draw.
· You have been to every single StarCraft site searching for the best possible strategy.
· You have a small shrine dedicated to your SC CD case.
· You change religions. You are now part of the Khalai.
· You name your son Fenix.
· You have a meeting every week with your friends so you can come up with new strategies.
· The doctor injects the flu shot into you, you sigh relaxingly and say "ah, that's the stuff."
· You force your mom to call the school bus a "Shuttle"
· You see your friend in a fight and you shout "We must join our bretheren in battle!"
· You worry about walking through narrow places because there might be burrowed lurkers.
· You're sleeping with your girl and accidently scream "Kerrigan" instead of her name.
· You cry yourself to sleep because your SC CD is missing.
· When someones mentions "boxer", you don't think about guys in a ring.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

James: Yea thats one of the things I had in mind when I was talking about the barrier to modifying settings. If Windows really wanted to stop you [to verify that you do know what you are doing], they would have made a much more difficult barrier to access C: as opposed to just a simple click.

Apple's market share is so small that there is only room for increase. That is a very good point though regarding trying to make Windows look like Mac and not the other way around.

Zune does sound crap. The only thing that comes close is inserting the word Mac into a whole line of products eg MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, MacMac.

Why call it "iShit" when it can be called "iTheShit"?

RE one button mouse/trackpad: the iMac may come standard with a 2 button mouse, but trackpads are still single. It feels like Apple is just being stubborn and trying to commit themselves to a redundant standard by clinging onto the single button mouse. They support external two button mice so why can't they just add an extra button? Reducing to the single mouse button may have justifications like: its simple, the way its supposed to be - the user shouldn't have to deal with too many buttons but that just isn't a relevant consideration anymore.

RE Apple pricing: Upon first release, Apple products are quite competitive, (but not the cheapest by far). The thing is Apple does not do price reviews very often which is why I was quite surprised at the 30GB iPod price drop. The thing is they probably feel they don't need to because they are not in direct competition with PC whereas Dell/HP/Toshiba/Asus/Acer and so forth are in direct competition with each other so they constantly need to review prices. So what starts out as a competitive price eventually ends up as a "ripoff" a few months down the track because absolutely no price drop has taken place as opposed to the PC counterparts. I'm looking at the price of the MBPro and its still the same since Apr/May of this year. The only change is the addition of +0.17GHz on the processor speed which took place in June.

Apologies for the long posts.

You see Eric, most of the complaints about Apple are just no longer true.

Your mouse complaint for example, yes, it was true for the longest time. But Apple has released a two button (three button + wheel actually) for over a year. It comes standard with new iMacs:




And as for iTunes, I find that really odd. Apple has the world's best multi-lingual support. My Chinese songs (very few admitted) display beautifully in iTunes.

And recently, the notion that Apple computers are somehow more expensive has been thoroughly demolished. See Washington Post article about Mac Pro Beats Dell on Price.

So much have changed in Apple land in the last three years. OS X has matured. Apple is using Intel processors. And the Mac even runs Windows. I feel obligated to communicate these points.

Lolz, James. Zune sounds shit...but hey, as long as the thing has all the functions i want, names will not be important. FOr all I care, that thing can be called Microsoft "iShit". Though this whole Windows/Apple thing is getting old. Seriously, they have its advantages and disadvantages. It's just a matter of preference and the needs of the user. My sister loves Apple. I don't like it because the software is expensive. Other than that, Apple's GUI is really nice. In fact, I am trying to get an Apple theme for my desktop. I am not a software, nor a comp student so I can't say, but the useability of both systems are quite good. I am sure a non-IT person can get used to the system in a matter of a few days. Just don't keep changing between OSX and Windows XP.

Yes, MS WinXP is so fucking stupid. Everytime I see that dog, I feel like killing it. However, everytime I use Apple, I wanna rip the one button mouse in half so I have 2 buttons.

The only thing I hate about Apple, is its ITUNES! But that's because it screwed up my mp3s once.

LOL marc. Microsoft Fried Zune 2 Home edition. That's probably the entry model.

As for Spain, what you said about Apple dumbing down their OS really got to me -- I thought, "hum... I have felt that way too. When was it?"

Then it hit me -- it wasn't even Apple, it was Windows. Windows has the most stupid way of dumbing things down. Do a fresh install of WinXP and just look at how they do things.

Open C drive. "Oh, the contents of C drive is hidden to prevent you from doing damage to your system. Are you sure you want to unhide the contents?" Talk about treating you like a moron.

And don't get me started on the friggen 'new' control panel whose only useful feature is the 'revert to classic button'.

And that stupid dog that appears, wiggling its tail when you try to search for files. Microsoft respects your intelligence so much it put a dog in place of a search engine.

The Windows 'eXPerience' is best exemplified by the routine of disabling every single feature until it looks like Win2k.

And while I'm on my Friday afternoon anti-vile spasm, let me just say one more thing. A year before I was born, Ronald Reagan gave a great speech before the British parliment on the state of the world. In comparing the free and the communist world he said: one of the simple but overwhelming facts of our time is this: Of all the millions of refugees we’ve seen in the modern world, their flight is always away from, not toward the Communist world. This is exactly what is happening in the PC world. There is only interest in moving from PC to Mac. Not the otherway around. There are only people trying to fit OS X skins on Windows. No one is trying to make OS X look like Windows XP. So this constant retoric of mine has nothing to do with justifying my two year old slow-ass mac. It's about defending good design in the face of a vile onslaught.

lol, the Apple "iCleave" press release ::

In collaboration with Henckel, Apple would like to announce its new addition to its 'friend in the kitchen' series - the iCleave.

Like all previous FitK products, the iCleave has 802.11 wireless connectivity with your iTunes playing PC or Mac. The provided Sennheiser stereo earplugs work on 2.4G BlueTooth technology so as not the impair the chef in their domain.

In addition to standard features, the iCleave has a new feature which Apple calls 'Stab and Thrust shuffle'. The new feature allows you to change tracks with a simple Stab or Thrust motion.

Apple takes pride in understanding its users and knows that a busy chef has no time to recharge his iCleave. Hence, we have adapted Draco-cell technology to allow your iCleave to run off blood. Battery low? Just chop some meat.

The Apple iCleave in stores near you for a low price of $249, $349 and $449 for 2GB/4GB/8GB versions.

Thats true, James, but Apple doesn't make cleavers...yet. They must make: the iCleave, now 60% sharper.

Hash [to James]: Ooooooooh, nice shoes!

Zune sounds like Zulu + Tune. The successor to the Zune: The Microsoft Gileeeh

Well, i think MS can get a break from bad naming after the Nintendo Wii.

And why are you dismissing a product just because of its brandname. I mean you used to do the same thing to nVidia cards, now u work there.

Who knows, maybe u might throw away ur iPod in favour of the Zune XD.

Marc, for a good bus ride, you need an iPod and a cleaver.

Eric,
I can not believe you are even *considering* the *Zune*.

I mean just the name - 'zune'; Microsoft's tastelessness is self evidient.

To Yi or anyone else interested in a consulting IT style career (even though Yi has accenture now):

http://www.avanade.com/au/careers/

This came from
http://www.careers.unsw.edu.au/student/jobsonline/details.asp?ID=15575&page=6&type=all
You need to login and find job ID 15575 as in the URL; it doesn't take you straight there.

It says Avanade is a alliance between Microsoft and Accenture. Company and their website looks pretty slick. Hope that helps!

Friday, September 15, 2006

How about I sell you my P2-300 for $750, Hash? For an extra $250 you could have bought the Pintara!

The beauty of iTunes is that you don't need to deal with file structures. Its all about the tags. But given your history with iTunes I guess I don't blame you.

Such interesting methods employed by women... to stop their husbands/boyfriends from killing more.

No charlie. The ipod 30gb is 380, and the 80gb is 499. However, the Zune (courtesy of Microsoft) is coming out. I might delay my purchase until Zune has officially arrived in Australia. I need to install a thing called the Rockbox into the Ipod to browse files using a file tree system.

Who is down for some orsome tennis tomorrow

West Ryde place as usual.
near intersection of Maxim St and Gaza St(rip).

It is about a 5 min walk from West Ryde station.

Time :: 10am to 1pm
Day :: Saturday, 16th Sep, 2006

Well you can get a new 8GB sleek nano or an 80Gb fat iPod for $380 AU.

Alternatively u can get a Laptop for $750

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY 100% CORRECT, JOHN! AMEN TO THAT!

I didn't tell you guys this before. I was riding the bus home late on a Friday night. Some people sitting right behind me (I always luck out) were speaking very loudly and obnoxiously. Anyways I was trying to sleep but kept getting woken up. They then had the audacity to poke me on the shoulder and back of my head only to then comment: "hey he's sleeping, I could never do that on a bus".

For those who don't know me well enough, I get very very very irritated if someone wakes me up for no good reason (as Spain and Benny saw on the bus ride back from the snow) and I see this as my weakest point in snapping. I find it very difficult to even hold back right now. I was all so very tempted to pull a bus uncle.

My hating of my neighbours is consistent with my theological view point (or the lack thereof). =P

i have a feeling that marc will be having less of those torurous bus rides once he gets his ipod =P

$380 for a 80gb ipod? why wouldn't anyone want to be apple's bitch? Eric could you order one for me too? I'll pay you.

If your neighbour smells and you find it repulsive, then does that mean you hate your neighbour? If you were to love your neighbour but their actions make you sick (whether intentional or not), what would you do?

Yes Eric, I called and they said there is currently no student price offered for the new iPod. It was previously $403 student price, but now is available at $380 for all. It does suck a bit, but I'm getting it at a lower price than expected, so I'm not complaining just because other non-students can get it at that price too.

The 30GB and 80GB are both new additions, that is, its not just the former 30GB iPod at a lower price. On that basis, the 80GB one should be available now just as is the 30GB one that I'm getting. I think they may be swamped right now because everyone wants one now. I ordered it even before the announcement and its gonna take 1.5 - 2 weeks just to get to me.

I just thought you guys might like the opportunity to have webspace (to do scripting, experiment, host photos and [legal] files) seeing as everyone's account will expire once they graduate. Assuming all you CSE are entering the IT field, I also thought that a webspace will most likely make your life a bit easier/convenient. I'm happy to drop the idea of a webspace seeing as I already have one at my disposal on my cousin's site (hosting the rabbit blog there - I won't host Der Wasserfall there seeing as it has a larger traffic and I'm not paying for the account).

But that aside, having it on a free blogspot will suffice.

as far as a bloggin account goes - won't blogger host it for free on their own site?

You can also sign up for a Google Adsense account to cover expenses if their will be any

Hey Marc, I am probably ordering an pod too. But there's no student discount anymore...?? I've tried "logging in" through the Education section, but the prices are exactly the same. It's also stupid how the retailers are still selling them at their old prices. Is the 80gb even out yet?

Marc, love your neighbour!

I just had the most tortuous bus ride ever from city to uni. Worse than the tetsuya one.

You know those bubbly/energetic people who laugh at everything? There were not one, but two sitting behind me - one boy and one girl. They were talking about the most random stuff. But it wasn't like deooowwwww...oh no.

Highlights included (but not limited to):

They were talking about crime and punishment, Grey's Anatomy, about people getting "their dicks", "their hands" and "their heads" cut off (all on separate occasions in the conversation), about rape, about vigilante justice, about arson, about setting people on fire for sexual assault.

By the end, I was pleading mercy. It honestly was horrible. As I mentioned before, these were the "laugh at everything" type of people and the girl was quite cute (at first). You wouldn't have seen it coming.

btw, Alexis, they were Malaysian.

CSE Revue is a brilliant show this year. Gosh they have some genius video guys/tech crew, as well as scripts. Some are just plain unforgettable. I don't even like the X-Files that much, but there's nothing horror or scary in it. (FYI it's called, "The teXt files: close encounters of the nerd kind")

Very well done.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

i wonder how it will do against the atom. the ferrari and porsche are fast cars, but have additional weight like doors and a windscreen; they are not the lightweight track-specials that the x1 or atom are.

The X1 is like the atom - quick acceleration. Lets see what happens in a 1-2km drag race, huh?

"Have you actually used a mac?" the question I'd love to ask contestants, but dare not :)

Yes the shuffle does look zomg, hash! But somewhat impractical at holding 1GB and no visual interface.

Awww, Apple just sent me an email saying that I'm applicable for the new iPod as well as the discounted price even though I ordered it the day before the presentation at the higher price <3

OK just saw the new iPod shuffle that James referred to a while bak.

It.
Looks.
So.
*******.
AWESOME!

i want one, but i already have a portable mp3 player (albeit, mine is about 2500x the size)

The features u describe are added functionality and not core level features of the OS. Mac OS X uses a reworked BSD kernel. Any extensions provided on Mac OS X ,such as the ones you described, can ALL be traced back to some program provided by the dev groups for the main GNU *nix implementations.

Installed programs are installed programs ....

*nis runs many more useful apps than Mac OS X, In fact, I have yet to see a server (of any type, be it Application server, DB files etc ..) adverstised as Mac OS X Server apart from the Apple site.

The only server that seems to be used much on Mac OS X is the samba server and that is usually for SOHO lans at most.

Spain,
What exactly are you trying to do that OS X won't let you?

Hash -- have you actually used a Mac? Does BSD have Spotlight search? Can BSD read any text in the OS in plain English? Does it have have 'expose'? Wait a minute, does it actually run any useful applications like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and iTunes?

Oh.. it doesn't.

OMFGWTFBBQ to the X1 beating a Ferrari 360 and the Carrerra GT. I blame the drivers for NOT launching probably! :p.

Marc,
NO! I AM NOT DELETING MY ASIANESS OFF MY HDD!! AND THEY ARE NOT FAGGY!! >P

And the new Pods will cost onnly 380? I am thinking of getting one, than hack it so i can view mps by file tree.

Essentially, Mac OS X is BSD Linux with a pretty overlay.

Since Vista *apparently* will be more supportive to the dev community in terms of features we take for granted in *nix, it may be comparable to OS X and the huge varieties of *nix.

btw - Mac OS X does not have a single *new* feature.
Everything it does has been rorted from Linux features, then refined somewhat to suit normal consumers.

Windows is in the same boat. It's only exclusive feature that i know of is the BSOD.

I'm not justifying my purchase. I'll admit I spend most of my time on windows. Thats because

a) the stranglehold windows has on the gaming industry (or the gaming industry's attachment to windows)
b) lack of PVPGN for mac
c) un-rewritten software for intel macs

The un-rewritten software is because they are lazy and rely solely on rosetta to carry forward their existing programs on the previous PowerPC architecture onto the new Intel macs. The impact for me is laggy MS Word on files over 500KB and a war3 that is unbearable.

Until they improve rosetta or rewrite the MS office packages for intel mac (yes MS says that there is no problem and therefore won't be making another office for a while), mac will remain a minority on my computer.

That aside, I will not criticise microsoft here but I will say that the design of the Mac OS X is something else and I'm not just talking aesthetically. Anyone with a background in IT and is vaguely familiar with general design principles can appreciate what the OS X has over Windows in terms of how it is built. This is not a justification, its just simple truth.

why does every comment about apple or the mac by a mac owner always include a criticism of microsoft and/or other companies?

it seems to me that they spend an inordinate amount of time justifying their own purchase(s) to themselves.

Like I said, you would have to actually know what you're doing in order to make intermediate/advanced changes. That way novices don't screw things up and performing actions which they do not fully understand the consequences to.

If you wanted to find out how, then google is your friend.

Too much in one hit, James, too much.

I'd have to agree with one point of Hash. Apple was not inhibited by the scare of DRM because they don't own a recording label. Sony on the otherhand seemed indecisive: should I, should I not invent an MP3 player that will most likely be used against me [via piracy].

I agree that Apple's work in the recent years reeks of genious marketing and foresight. I just can't take it when an OS won't let me change things because it thinks i don't understand why i'm doing it. If there is a barrier to mac OS, how do i take it down and make it do what i ask?

Apple's iPod marketing and development strategy was leaps and bounds ahead of previous companies. They pretty much ignored the scare being produced by DRM and went head with a tech that is most probably used to play unlicensed copyrighted material.

The key aspect of the iPod series h/w is Apple was more than open to sharing the whole pie as long as they got a sizable piece. They got heaps of ppl onboard ::

Portable Player CPU by Portable Player
Audio chip by Wolfson Microelectrics
Firewire by Texas Instruments
USB by Cyprus Semiconductor
Memory/cache by Samsung
Touchpad and Display card by Synaptics Inc.
HDD by Toshiba

and the most troublesome component, the Battery by ....
Sony

now the thing is, the Creative Zen Micro has similar components by almost the same companies.
Apart from organising the collaboration on the iPod hardware, the only real work Apple put into the iPod h/w was the design.
Which they promptly registered as a Trademark, thereby providing themselves with an infinitely renewable piece of IP.

That is where they scored the most in terms of design.
The fact that they had the balls and foresight to organise something like the iTunes-mediated shop is the key reason they managed to get such a large market share.
While Sony and other labels were going on about DRM and no MP3, anyone with a brain could see that after Napster and its celebrity, there would be no going bak. A legalised version of that product model where users can acquire only the content that they want was the next logical progression from all that publicity.

Angry rant stage I ::
To watch this presentation, I apparently had to download the latest Quicktime+I-Tunes. It just wouldn't work with version 7 apparently ...

Talk about pushing a product onto ppl.

Angry rant stage II ::
Once downloaded Quicktime and I-Tunes took more time to install than starcraft+broodwar put together.

Impressive for a 120 Mb install ...

Angry rant stage III ::
After all that it had the fkn audacity to demand that i have to restart my comp for installing just a media viewer and a media organiser.

Seeeeef

Char,
I love that track too. As well as the Thelma and Louise and Rainman themes. Along with Beyond Rangoon and Black Rain, these tracks represents the early, gentler Zimmer. Now it's just "boom boom" priates tunes. I haven't bought a Zimmer CD in years..

Marc,
You're paranoid. iTunes doesn't know if your MP3s are legally ripped from a CD or illegally downloaded from the internet. Besides, I don't think it's done by checking a monolithic database, it's probably done by analysing the wave form at the end and beginning of adjacent tracks.

And as for feeling dirty about 'consumerism'. It is ironic that one would never feel dirty about using cruddy products (MS, Creative) since it is such a pain to begin with. So what will it be butters -- Microsoft acseticism or Apple indulgence? =D

Spain,
Without Apple's assuming you're a moron, you'll probably be launching Starcraft from Microsoft DOS XP Home Premium edition from the command line with:
starcraft.exe -w 640 -h 480

Of the presentation, I have made the following notes:

Gapless Playback: no way. With all the illegal MP3's and TV shows I own I would not let iTunes access the internet under any circumstance. It doesn't need it, I won't let it.

Instant letter searching on iPod: about time (I hope this is the model I get. I'm getting it for the new "lowered" price)

The movie thing I can envision they either collaborate or compete with IMDB.

The thing I like the most about the presentation is that all the products are ready for shipping as soon as the presentation is over.

This is hilarious, I'm looking on eBay and people are still spending over $400 for the 5th G iPod when you can get it for $380 for the new generation.

On a separate note, I really like the idea of Front Row. The remote that came with my laptop is usaeable on almost all of those products he produced.

But after watching over an hour of that I feel so dirty. It is purely consumer driven but the way he pushes and entices you to go out and buy/value all this pointless shit (as tempting as they are) is way too rich for my blood, like stuffing your face with chocolate except worse...my soul feels unhealthy after watching that. I feel like I need to purge my body...Oh! But we have one more thing...

I don't think I'll be watching any more presentations.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Laptop thief gets owned

Electric car vs Ferrari and Porsche

Because I was so used to having organised my MP3s by myself using winamp (eg putting them in folders myself) I found it a bit difficult to adjust to iTunes where it does it for me on the basis of ID tags. I had to do a lot of changing, but after a short while I see that this is the way to go - that is why ID tags were invented. James, that does look gorgeous.

Eric, that is truly unfortunate. As my aural diet is only English, I therefore have not experienced your problem. Maybe you should consider throwing away faggy HK/Jap pop.

"Most Apple products I've seen make the assumption you are a moron and incompetent so they think for you."

That is the general point. Its a bit of an irony but my supervisor (from an IT background) was explaining this idea to me. The interface should assume you're a complete moron and it should allow the user only to change settings when they know what they're doing.

There is a sort of invisible barrier there which will prevent morons from doing stupid things and allow only experienced individuals who do know what they are doing to change the backend settings.

He points out that MS is very ad hoc in its approach. It allows you to customise settings and has a very low barrier. (Like: don't push the red button) In the end, you have people who don't know what they are doing performing hack n slash on the OS and the result is an ad hoc OS as opposed to a robust. Before Hash jumps in guns ablazing, I am not stating that Mac is a super robust OS. My comments extend only to Windows.

So James, have you already applied to work at Apple or are you waiting for them to headhunt you through blog promos?
:D

Apple's plan of attack looks pretty awesome.

And we all know the consequences of having machines think for you: they become self aware.

James, that Driving Miss Daisy tune is awesome. Must be one of Zimmer's earlier works that propelled him into fame.

Most Apple products I've seen make the assumption you are a moron and incompetent so they think for you. I like Windows in so far as it will tell you your IP, the drivers you have installed, and what you can do with it, instead of "hi, you aren't connected. Would you like to cry to Apple about it? Because thats all we'll let you do, MORON!"

But itunes is good once you tell it not to think for you.

I've had a bad run in with iTunes not too long ago. Being an asian, I have a lot of chinese and japanese mp3s. Of course, they are tagged to the extent that i can see the name of the file and the artist. Everything else was in gibberish. Then one day, i decided to install itunes and all of a sudden, it reorganised my bloody mp3s using tags. My mp3 collection was pretty much thrown into disarray and unrecgonisable. It was only...say 30gbs worth of mp3s?! So until I have redownloaded all my lost mp3s AND have tagged them probably (and backed up on DVDs), iTunes can smd!

However, I have to admit that iTunes is very sexy. But they should have asked me whether I wanted to re-organise my mp3s before they go do things on their own.

iTunes 7


iTunes 7
Originally uploaded by Der Wasserfall.
Enjoying Zimmer with the best music player in the world. Just look at it. B0000tiful.

When was the last time Microsoft (or anyone for that matter) released a piece of software that automatically downloaded all the album art for your MP3s then analysed them to see which tracks should be played back without any gaps?

That's iTunes 7. Free. Windows or Mac.

OMG, handling out flyers infront of town hall steps for *software freedom*?

The organisation and search of iTunes/iPod is far superior to your ordinary run-in-the-mill Winamp where I was the one having to sort the music. Before purchasing, all the reviews I have read online about MP3 players indicate that iPod was clearly superior for primarily this reason.

Its also been well established that Apple has turned iPod into more than just technology - its now a fashion accessory, though I couldn't give a pig's fart about it being an accessory. It is a combination of this sleek/innovative design and very rigorous advertising that ensures iPod's complete domination. Personally I would rather not wear white headphones and advertise to the world that I am Apple's bitch.

Don't forget iPod, albeit a large part, is only one of their products. 75% on the iPod vs 3% of the computer. I will look at the presentation in more detail when I get the opportunity.

As for the cloning/imitations, have you seen eBay? Those are some damn fine clones right there. I almost made the mistake of assuming they were nanos. Obviously Microsoft cannot clone it because software is only a small part of the system of iTunes and iPod. As you mentioned before most of iPod is hardware and Microsoft don't do hardware.

Queue in: Hash

As my previous post was overshadowed, I will reiterate: Software Freedom Day. There will be talks and but of more interest, there will be workshops. Check it out and consider coming. I will be there :)

Oh I don't mean to say they've won, I'm saying they have a darn good chance at it. Just look at iPod. 75% market share. Even after three years of on-slaught from cheapo Chinese-Korean-Taiwanese imitations. Sony never managed to do this. After Walkman was released, it was swamped by imitators. Why? Because it did not possess unique IP. It was just a casette player.

iPod is linked to iTunes. No one can just 'clone' it. Not even Microsoft. I'm not sure if that came across right but for Microsoft to be _not_ able to clone a software, that is a _big_ deal. Yi can attest to that. :D

basically, you're praising apple for its ability to achieve the digital home concept - based on the one presentation yesterday. at the same time, you took the opportunity to dissect the actual performances of sony and microsoft before labelling them as failures.

i'm sure sony and microsoft had potential and clever presentations too before they supposedly failed.

in other words, lets not declare apple as the "winner" until we see actual results.

Well put James, I enjoyed reading your article (I can see all too familiar phrases and words) but lack the "culture" and knowledge to make well-formed input. I would say that I'm as insipid as my MacAsus Pro.

Next stop: Microsoft is a mediocrely degenerate company.

If you are interested in where the digital world is heading, I suggest you spare an hour, sit back and watch Apple's special presentation held yesterday at San Francisco.

For the longest time, the notion of the 'digital home' has been thrown around by media and electronics companies. Traditionally, the chief pursuers of this vision have been Microsoft and Sony. This is the reason for the creation of the Playstation and Microsoft's response with the Xbox. Both are attempts to dictate how content is purchased and played back in the living room. Both companies have made inroads but both, to a large extent, have failed. But now it seems, Apple may be the one who will win.

Sony is the only company in the world to simultaneously own first rate media content (by owning several music and movie studios) and produce first rate hardware on which content is played back. For over a decade, they have tried to create synergy by cross-promoting their content and hardware. For example, Sony Colombia pictures will attempt to use Sony Music artists in its movies and soundtracks. Sony products will also be ‘dropped in’ key scenes as product placement. Such awkward schemes have had little effect on sales. However, the co-ownership of content and hardware has had much worse consequences.

A key reason why Sony failed to produce a Walkman worthy of the digital era is due to the reluctance of its own music studio to allow digital content distribution. (Though I would say Sony lacks the software expertise to really succeed in this area even if they were given the chance.) This internal conflict between media and hardware has caused more losses than gains for Sony and to this day this problem is yet to be fully resolved.

Microsoft is also a uniquely positioned company. Its operating system has a near monopoly over personal computers. It is gaining market share in mobile devices and has made in-roads into the living room with its Media Centre PCs. But for the most part, Microsoft does not produce hardware and Microsoft does not own content. Microsoft has always been a software business and more than anything they want every device to be power by their proprietary software from which they can derive revenue.

The problem with Microsoft is that it lacks even the climate of good taste. Almost all its creations are insipid and tasteless. Its history is literally littered with such embarrassments. From the so-stupid-its-incredible Microsoft Bob to the universally hated Office clippie, Microsoft has set the standard in poor taste.

Microsoft may have a monopoly, but it stems from the lack of choice rather than the goodness of their products. This, to a large extent, is why Microsoft has failed to respond to the iPod and why its media PCs are but a niche product.

And then there’s Apple. No one imagined that Apple, having seen their PC market share eroded to less than 3%, could be a serious competitor in the living room. But Apple is now perhaps the most promising candidate to realize that goal.

Apple is unlike Microsoft or Sony. Apple is primarily a hardware company. They make their money from iPod and iMac. Unlike Sony, Apple owns no content. And unlike Microsoft, Apple does not have poor taste. In fact, Apple, more than any other technology company in the world, understands consumers. Their marketing is world class with no equals and the above presentation shows it. Much of this comes from good taste, which is so hard to define and pretty much unheard of in business literature. It is something that is unique to a handful of companies. Sony only has a bit of it left. Apple just keeps on growing.

Good taste in itself is insufficient to win business. You also need a core competency. With Apple, this comes in two forms, great software design and great hardware design.

Just look at how they designed the iTunes music store. The current version is simply amazing. Windows Media Player is worthless in comparison. It really is that bad.

The same applies to operating systems. Early next year, Microsoft will release their much delayed OS, Windows Vista (previously know as Longhorn). I have seen the beta. I have looked at the features. There are even promotion posters outside my cube. Is it an improvement over XP? Yes. How is it? Insipid.

At times like these, I can’t help but feel the company culture is the most valuable thing to an organization. The reason why Windows Media player is vile is no different from the reason why Office clippie is vile. And when the same people are put to work on the next Windows operating system, they will no doubt produce more vile; all this stems from people and culture. Were it to continue indefinitely, vile products will be produced indefinitely. And a vile monopoly will be prolonged indefinitely.

It has been raised many times before: why should we exchange one monopoly, Microsoft, for another, Apple? Well, for me the answer is simple: I prefer a monopoly whose products are not vile.

The new iPod Shuffle looks sexy as!

Showtime

The Cyberspace Law & Policy centre is involved in Software Freedom Day! Come and see and learn!

I am up in Melbourne this weekend, so I'll be out for soccer/tennis, next week im in.

I am up in Melbourne this weekend, so I'll be out for soccer/tennis, next week im in.

Hey guy,

Any soccer/tennis happening this week? I am seriously getting bored sitting at home, doing nothing. If possible, let's play some soccer/tennis somewhere? If it's raining, anyone down for some squash?

Seef u didn't figure that out Kwong.
it is so obvious that Jean Gray or Magneto was levitating him =P

Life goes on.

The new ipod shuffle.


Apple and Google are easily the world's two most innovative companies right now. I can't even think of a third company.

From an overlord's tentacle!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Took me a while to figure out how you managed to take that photo from such high altitude relative to the bridge... :S

ever since X3, i expect the rest of that bridge to be a All Mutatnt Connection straight to alcatraz

yes there is no law prohibiting the taking of photos of anyone or anything in public. of course there are exceptions, such as some local councils prohibit the taking of pictures on public beaches.

copyright doesn't exist until the photo's taken, and once taken, it belongs to the person who took it.

i am no patent attorney, but i seriously doubt the concept of putting yourself in a landscape is novel or part of a process of manufacture - requirements of patentability.

a trade mark has to be able to be represented graphically. it doesn't work when the landscape or yourself is constantly changing, for obvious reasons.

the issue isn't about intellectual property as spain suggested. the closest law that is applicable is the case of victoria park racing v taylor where it was found that there is no property in spectacle. yes, that is common law.

Golden Gate


Golden Gate
Originally uploaded by Der Wasserfall.
It's always fogged up..

So, its pretty much legally ok to take pictures of ppl in public?

What if u take out a copyright on all pictures urself?
or take out a patent on the concept of a photograh of urself in a landscape?
or put a trademark based on an established figure of yourself (eg. token black man ™ )

I love you James. Definately have to drop by San Jose and give you a man-hug. Then we'll have a Jennifer Connelly marathon. That face >.<

Spain,

You 0wned them.

In related news, girls are nice.

Monday, September 11, 2006

what kind of law student doesn't exalt at giving free smartass advice at every turn?

"You don't belong in the college of law, you belong in engineering, Mr. SOFTIE!"



btw - fucking poetry. It's something EVERYONE ON THIS BLOG SHOULD READ. Because I think you feel like i do sometimes:

a good lawyer doesn't provide legal advice for free =)

How about: I can't be arsed. I'll do research on GPL. You want to know about GPL?

How's that for substance? ^^

While this topic may have more merit than the "girls are nicer than boys" topic, I am astounded that a law student hasn't bothered applying a real legal definition or test to this situation. At least reference some pertinent criminal/civil law legislation and show us newbs where the law currently sits on this issue. This way we can do more than blowing smoke in our respective butts about copyright infringement and intellectual property ownership, if that is indeed what this situation would be best "covered" by.

Man, John, the point you raised "is common law a mere gap filler for the legislature?" just reminded me of Auditing, about the performance gaps and auditing standard gaps. Relying on law/standards to fill in those gaps is just a plain waste of time. It's a cat and mouse chase where the cat can never catch up to the mouse.

So if I look at the whole photography in public topic from a similar point of view, there is always a gap between what the public's perception of what someone can/should do as oppose to what the law/standards allows us to do. In other words, there is always a gap between what we can do and what we can do "lawfully". TBH, personally, i think the whole issue just boils down to whether the photographer has consent from the subject. If the subject doesn't like it, then just choose one that doesn't mind! Law is there to protect us to a certain extent, but I don't think the whole judiciary system is there to make sure everything in life is picture perfect (pun intended :p).

For example, you see a friend drowning, ethically, you would want to safe him/her. But if you go out there and try safe the friend, and somehow suffered damages, you or the friend can technically sue you.

(HOPE THAT IS STILL ON TOPIC...)