Monday, October 31, 2005

do your self a Favour....


They say a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes a song or music is worth the same amount. I am not one for buying hardly any music, but a blue moon comes along, and I hear something totally amazing, soothing, and soul filling. Mike oldfield is one of those composers. Every 10 years or so he makes a truly amazing album, his last I really got into was in 1994 (songs of distant earth). This one easily matches it, if not surpasses it. It also incorporates a thing call u-mix ..U-MYX is an interactive music format which enables music fans to make their own, personalised mixes of artists recordings without needing any specialised knowledge or equipment. So get the tracks and mix your own.

I go with what mike says, you cant categorise his music... its everything from soothing piano melodies, with modern contemporary guitar, to more upbeat numbers. But mostly this is stuff to sooth the soul with, and let your mind drift. This is the guy who at 16 composed on the best numbers (tubular bells), now being in his late 40's he is like a bottle of wine, getting better every year :) Well done mike.. .and do what Molly says.. do your self a favour and rejuvenate your soul with this wonderful 2 disc set, and mix up a few variations of your own... chill out with this, and I do mean CHILL.........

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Time to change the Signal....


Control your information life…

This stems from the other article I wrote about don’t worry be happy, its time people took control of the way they receive their information, be it news, information, the state of the world .. whatever, and stop being just a passive individual willing to eat the feeds of the negative so called “news” coming from commercial TV networks, magazines , radio and newspapers. Lets face it, TV news is just a platform to feed lots of horror stories on the latest flu epidemic, latest terrorist bomb, or murders etc, nothing about scientific discovery, or things that really inertest you. Radio has become totally irrelevant, with FM shock jocks talking about where they found their dirty undies last night, or what come out of their kids nose this morning. Newspapers are nothing more than advertisements disguised as news or information, or paid political announcements. Magazines are an amalgam all the above. Time to take control.

How to take control.

Well stop watching TV news, and listening to Radio, and read what you want. Use google, use the net, and read really what’s interests you, and you will find that suddenly the world isn’t this big terrorist camp, war ridden, plague ridden world. Not to deny these things are going on, but these things have been going on for 1000’s of years, we just didn’t have some media moguls feeding us lots of negative crap about how many car smashes happened today, or how many people died in some natural disaster. Get into podcasting, listen to what you want, not what packer wants you to hear with the occasional cute puppy story thrown in to try and balance all the terror. Get into RSS feeds on particular scientific, medical, SCI FI stories or whatever things interest you.

INFORMAATION, should be selective about your interests, what drives you and your passions. Maybe if more of got our view on the world this way, everyone might stop thinking how bad everything is for a change, and lighten up, and stop being so crewel and mean and selfish for each other. The current media feeds on everything negative, people in turn become negative, because its so much easier to be negative about everything than positive. You can start being more positive by controlling what you see and hear by taking these steps:

• Get a PVR (personal Video recorder, a hard drive unit that records TV). We all complain that there is nothing on TV, then control it, select what you want to watch, there are so many DVD’s and Box sets of good TV shows, watch them instead. Get a PVR and programme it to only record the shows, and doco’s you want, so what if they are on 2am in the morning.. get your PVCR to do all the work.
• Get and Ipod , and control what you hear be it music, podcasts etc. Hear info and science shows, debates, sci fi discussions whatever, and stop listening to the 90% of dribble coming from your FM radio or the 90% advertisements.
• Use the Net to get the rest of your once printed material, besides saving trees, you will have full control of the topics that interest you, and you will avoid the negative linear feeds of news papers and magazines.

For a long time now I have done most of these things to keep myself update on things that interest me, and its amazing on what a brighter world it seems when you are not fed the totally negative self serving rubbish of 90% of media outlets, epically the nightly so called “news”. Try it for a month and see how well your outlook on life becomes. As Captain Mal would say “CHANGE THE SIGNAL.”

Friday, October 28, 2005

STOP BUYING WINDOWS PC'S


Stop making Bill gates rich, and supporting his evil empire... dont belive me .. read on....

Imagine this scenario.. Here is your brand new car, sir. Drive it off the lot. Yahooo new car you say to yourself. Suddenly, new car shuts off. New car barely starts again and then only goes about 6 miles per hour and it belches smoke and every warning light on the dashboard is blinking on and off and the tires are screaming and the heater is blasting your feet and something smells like burned hair. You hobble back to the dealer, who only says, gosh, sorry, we thought you knew -- that's the way they all run. Enjoy!"... You just wouldn't accept this would you? Well it seems Many PC users do. I am continuality confronted with people who wont look at Macs' buy a new PC then ring me within 2-3 days and say, my computers acting up, it has a virus.. and blargh blargh blargh! People its time to wise up.. Windows was designed in 1995 and it belongs there!

So why does Windows Still Suck?

Because it is a fundamentally flawed defective architecture and foundation. Windows was never designed to work in the computing environment of today: The Internet. It was merely repackaged to be sold for that use.

Windows was never designed to be secure. It was designed for a closed network, where the appearance of security was adequate. Think of Windows like a safe that has a lock on it. Microsoft keeps improving the lock with every published exploit of their "safe." The only problem is that the lock is not the problem, because the safe itself is made of painted paper. It looks good from a distance but is easy to breach from almost any angle even accidentally by simply leaning on it.

Now a paper safe left in a locked office is pretty secure, because the office is secure. But a paper safe left outside in a crowded area is likely to be tested. And if a bunch of identical paper safes appear in the same crowded area are tested, found to be easy pickings and contain goodies.... Well you can see what is happening when Windows systems are placed in the crowded area called the Internet.

Microsoft will have to re-write Windows almost from scratch (like Apple did MacOS) to fix it but that will break most of the applications that people buy Windows for in the first place. Microsoft can't do that!!! So instead they lie about how the problem is everywhere else except in their products. Microsoft tells you to "buy this and buy that addon....then you'll be safe... Oh you got infected or owned???? You dear customer (who sends us $$$) are an idiot. You did not buy enough useless protection." Have you figured out Microsoft's game yet?

Microsoft and their co-dependents the large PC hardware makers/sellers are like an auto maker and dealer network that tells you that its your fault that the paint melted off the car you purchased from them after a single hour of rain. After all you did not buy the clearcoat paint that was offered after market somewhere else for extra $$$. So it's your fault. We got your money. Tough.

As far as Microsoft is concerned *you* the customer cannot expect that a product they sold you will operate in the environment they told you it would work in: The Internet.

If you don't believe us, we challenge you to remove all the anti whatever addons you have on an MS Windows system and then use MS products for web browsing and email. But please do not use a system you care about (or that has your personal info and tax records on it) to do this....

MS Windows defects create an entire add-on market for bandaid anti-virus, anti-worm, anti-whatever software and hardware that really does not work. Have you noticed that only Microsoft systems require Anti-Whatever software! Why? Because Microsoft Windows is a completely flawed defective product.

Anti-Whatever products only cover the problem like paint over dry rot. The Microsoft code in Windows is the dry rot.

Can Windows be used safely on the internet?

Yes.... but you need to be both somewhat vigilant and not follow Microsoft's recommendations OR your PC makers recommendations either for that matter. PC makers to get the best prices are in bed with Microsoft by definition.

The basic steps for safe Microsoft Windows internet access are:

1. Do not connect a new Windows XP/2000/NT system to the Internet until after you have completely updated all security patches. Nothing that comes out of the box is secure and then you have to remain vigilant for all the new patches that will be needed in the future.

2. Windows ME is more problematic than Windows 9x, but can be made to work.

3. If you have Windows XP you must install Service Pack 2 at the minimum even if it breaks your applications.

4. Install Mozilla Firefox

5. Never use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express on the internet.

6. Do not use SBC/Yahoo! bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer

7. Do not use Comcast bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

8. Do not use AOL. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

9. Do not use MSN. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

10. Do not use Microsoft Windows Media Player WMV files. They can execute programs on your system without telling you.

11. Avoid online banking. Banks are not responsible for your losses as some have learned the hard way.

12. Do not install Kazaa or swap *free* music online.

13. Do not watch *free* videos from offshore pornography sites. This is the Windows Video file issue.

14. Do not install Norton or McAfee antivirus software. Crackers love these products. So easy to disable and the computer owner can't tell.

This list continues on for many pages, so.....to make this easier just BUY A BLOODY MAC!!! GEEEZ!

Why would you want to compromise your use of the internet and its many wonders cause you decide to use a fundamentally flawed operating system? So you think costs is hold you back from buying a Mac, what cost is it to you to reformat your hard drive 3 times a year or more, every time your system crashes, gets a virus or whatever other random error happens, and how much time PC owners spend doing patches, updates, scans etc just to keep nasties out? Let alone trying to get things to work!

Besides games I can not find a compelling reason why anyone would want a PC, and you really want to play games, get a game box (like Xbox, gamecube whatever). All applications that are on PC are on Mac, many good ones are on Mac only!

Someone recently asked: "How will we know when Windows is a safe product?" Answer: When no anti-whatever software is bundled or required to use Windows safely on the Internet. Until then you know it is defective.

It is getting harder to tell when a Windows systems is compromised. And no Anti-whatever software will detect and remove these core exploits, because they control the entire system and tell the cobbled on antiwhatever software that everything is fine while they report home to their real master on the internet in some foreign jurisdiction outside of any US laws reach. These exploits have been around for years, but Microsoft has just recently acknowledged them.

So what I am trying to say.. get a MAC!

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

....and it's about BLOODY TIME


Finally, it's here. Australia's iTunes Music Store, without doubt the most anticipated music event of the decade, launched officially at 6 am today and the first download began within a second of the electronic doors opening. Finally the Government come to its senses and made amendments to the copyright laws to allow people to copy music they own to their ipods, and CD's etc, paving the way for this store to open. As Apple revealed it was our draconian copyright laws that were holding up the store for the past 12 months. It has taken Parliament that long to amend our laws to get this store up and running. When other countries amended their laws within weeks (most didn’t need to, as they already had a fair use law) , Australia takes 12 months.. good to see the old Australian Government working hard and fast for the Australian people, as it does always for all the things it does for its citizens!

Since the opening of the itunes store, the big servers maintained in the main Australian cities by US internet caching company, Akamai have been busy feeding what looks like a music feeding frenzy.

Some fans began trying to log into the store from about midnight sitting beside their computers hitting the refresh button every minute or so and drinking black coffee to keep themselves awake. It made queuing for the first Grand Final tickets look dated.

The music store is launching with 1 million songs, tailored for the Australian market, including what Apple's chief of iTunes, Eddy Cue, calls the biggest and best selection of local independent music yet assembled for an iTMS opening.

HOORAY!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Surprise hit and miss movies of 2005.. so far


Continuing reviews of movies I have decided to do one on movies for the year (so far), this is short little list of outstanding movies for the year, be it bad or good!

1. The Island – A Wonderful surprise hit of the year done by the same person who did Armageddon (MR Michael Bay) ( AMRGENDDON being a totally woeful flick that embarrasses Bruce Willis these days, and who could blame him). Great performances from Ewan McGregor AND Ethan Phillips (Aka Nelix from Star Trek Voyager fame). A good mix of SCI Fi and action, with some moral dilemma mixed in, a bit of cross between Blade Runner and Irobot to me. It was a total surprise, with very little hype around it, worth a few views and one to be sure that will be in my DVD collection.

2. Serenity. Well not really a surprise hit, as I knew this was going to be good, as the series totally rocked! Joss has shown us a great fresh new look into the world of SCI FI, between a western and the grit of Blade Runner comes this great new gene of SCI FI that has great acting, story telling, best dialogue and a totally non Hollywood ending. Look forward to more of these...

3. Batman Begins. At first I though.. “Oh no.. not another batman movie.." but then after I saw this it made every other Batman movie suck! This is a truly Adult treatment of Batman, with great acting, effects, and even a compelling story, based a little more in reality than the silly kids fantasy stuff we had in other Batman movies. Morgan Freeman really shines in this one, another for the DVD collection!



Stinker of the year

1. Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Well there are MANY other crap movies I could mention (like Sin City, which only should be viewed by sick sadistic morons), but this stood out, as it had such great potential.. so much hype should have given it away as a stinker..., and couldn’t even be saved by Johnny Deps great acting, and the kid from finding Neverland. It just never hit the mark, the humor was totally lost, and YET COULD HAVE been such a great re-make, stick the original 1970’s version with Gene Wilder people!

Got any to add... disagree... add comments.....

Sunday, October 16, 2005

The best Star Trek Movies



Since Paramount have now officially said " no more Star Trek for a long long time... in a Galaxy Far Far away."... oh wait wrong movie series... well anyways I think it was time to rank all 10 movies in order of Preference..

It wasn't an easy list to compile. Sure, it was easy to figure out what movie I disliked the most. The films in the number six and number seven slot are pretty much interchangeable for me - I like them both about the same. Likewise, the top four are all very close together in just how much I love them. However I still prefer Next Gen (seasons 3-7). For the 1990's it was the best SCI Fi television there was, and has been for some time, all though some truly innovative and inspiring SCI FI has been made since (Firefly and latest BSG seasons)

Other things came to light as I went back through my reviews. One movie I thought held up better on repeated viewing than another I had previously rated higher. I also began to revise some of those older reviews, only to find that I really need to rewatch the movies to do so. At the time I wrote these reviews, I was just finding my footing here in the movies section of opinions, and trying a variety of styles to my reviews. I will go back and work on those old reviews when I get the opportunity, especially with so many new DVD releases coming out.


10 - Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Okay, this was a no-brainer. Possibly the worst piece of media ever to have the Star Trek name attached to it. (And I only say "possibly" because I haven't read all of the books). Shatner should not have been given the amount of unrestricted control over the script and directing that he was given here. Instead of a coherent story about the entire crew of the original Star Trek series, we are treated to Kirk-as-a-superhero. You see, no one but Kirk can defeat the evil Sybok, Spock's brother.

The writing is totally inconsistent with everything we've learned about the Star Trek universe prior to this. Neither Kirk nor Spock act in a manner consistent with how they have been depicted throughout the years. The effects are even awful - something that Star Trek films usually stand out for. This is also the ONLY DVD I do not, and will NEVER own! Its totally crap and never ever should have been made!

9 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture

To really appreciate this film, you have to understand the circumstances with which it was released. Star Trek fans had been lobbying for years to have the series brought back. Just when it looked like some of their wishes might come true and we'd see a whole new crew for the starship Enterprise, Star Wars came out. Paramount head Michael Eisner (yes, that Michael Eisner) decided a movie with the original crew would be better and this is the result. It's a hybrid of new and old crews, that doesn't seem to work.

A mysterious entity is headed to Earth, destroying or disabling everything in its path. What does it want? This is the question the crew of the Enterprise must answer before it makes it to Earth and does damage there.

Another headache here is that the director seems to be fascinated with the state-of-the-art (for its time) special effects and spends a lot of time showing off the effects rather than focusing on the story. That's a shame because the story could have been a really great one.

8 - Star Trek: Generations

This was the first film to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, although it begins in the time period still occupied by the original Star Trek cast.

There is a mysterious space anomaly known as "The Nexus" which draws Kirk in during the rescue of a group of El-Aurian refugees. Among that group are Guinan and a strange we learn is Soran. Soran spends the rest of his life trying to get back into "The Nexus" which is a paradise close to heaven. He doesn't care whom he hurts or kills in this quest. To stop him, Picard must team up with Kirk after he is also drawn into "The Nexus".

The biggest fault with the film is that there is some background from the series needed to really appreciate it. However, I think that's one of the things that makes it great for fans. There are some great character-building moments with both Data and Captain Picard. There's some wonderfully humorous moments, especially with Data when he finally implants his emotion chip. It's got plenty of action and suspense, and the effects are terrific with the exception of one scene that was lifted from Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.


7 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

This is primarily a character piece as various characters reach turning points in their lives. Spock dies at the end of the previous film. However, his death is short-lived and that's something I do have a problem with.

In science fiction and soap operas, you're never really dead.

If you're going to kill off a character, I'd like that person to stay dead.

However, if you're going to resurrect a character, I do have to admit that this film does it in a most believable way (for science fiction).

At the end of the last film, we saw Spock press his fingers to Dr. McCoy's forehead and say "remember". Then we saw his lifeless body jettisoned into space only to land on the newly formed Genesis (life from death) planet... and the opened, empty container.

This movie has lots of action as there is a face-off between Kirk and the Klingons. To save Spock, Kirk must sacrifice his precious Enterprise. Also in the mix is Kirk's son David whom we only met in the last film. I thought it would have been interesting to see further interaction between the two, but the writers saw fit to kill him off as he saves a young Spock from certain death at the hands of the Klingons.

Again, the effects here are amazing, especially the destruction of the Genesis planet. This film is much more palatable than the others, and if you're a fan you should see it if for nothing other than understanding why the Spock present in the Star Trek universe following this film seems so different than Spock before this film.

6 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

There's not much action or adventure here; this movie is just pure, unadulterated fun! After rescuing Spock and bringing him to the planet Vulcan, his crewmates decide to return to Starfleet - and Earth - to face the music for their actions. However, before they can get there, a mysterious probe has entered Earth's orbit and is churning up the seas and creating storms.

Kirk and Co. figure out that the this is a probe trying to communicate with the now-extinct humpback wales. The crew takes their dilapidated Klingon battle cruiser back in time to the mid-1980's to bring back a pair of humpback whales to talk to the probe.

Seeing the crew in the 1980's silly, and felt more like bill and teds stupid adventures, than a Star Trek movie. We were still in the middle of the Cold War at the time of this film, so Chekov (a Russian) being aboard a nuclear submarine of the U.S. Navy would most definitely be a big deal. Watching Spock try to understand the colourful metaphors of our conversations is really funny, as is his dealing with an obnoxious passenger on a city bus. Too much “greenpeace” involvement for me, it actually felt like a big plug to save wales. Good on a re-watch if you feeling like a wale hugging mode. This movie has dated too much these days to be that enjoyable.

5 - Star Trek: Insurrection

I really liked this film, its a good to see the old Federation isn’t the white glowing symbol of freedom and peace its always made out to be, and there are many elements of corruption in it. It was also a good to see the morals of the crew tested in this movie. Who watchers to watchers ( a great TNG episode, which this movie expanded upon)

Good use of the Baku as the modern day Amish, rejecting technology to live the simple life (for 300 years)

The special effects are magnificent. The humour was hit or miss as some scenes worked and others didn't. Although this features the renewing of the relationship between Riker and Troi.

4- Star Trek: Nemesis

The movie attempted to recapture some of the aspects that made wraith of Khan so good.

Picard learns that the Romulans attempted to clone him, then abandoned the project, leaving Shinzon to grow up with the Remans. Here he becomes bitter and manages to cunningly work his way up through the Romulan empire to take control.

There were many scenes originally filmed that were cut, and I think thy would have added greatly to the film. Had most of the Romulan characters been ones fans of the series were familiar with, I would have felt the film more believable. The humor here is good, and instead of it constantly being at Worf's expense, Riker seems to get his fair share.

There is also an awesome special effect here of the Enterprise ramming an enemy ship. That effect alone was worth the price of admission. I'll have to buy a wide-screen HDTV to give this fair viewing in my home.


3 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Filmed after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Russia's end to the Cold War, this film deals with all that happens after the enemy has been defeated.

Due to a severe environmental crisis, the Klingons must forge a peace with the Federation. However, there are forces both within the Klingon Empire and the Federation itself working against this peace. Who better to use as a scapegoat than Captain Kirk, who's hatred for Klingons is well-known.

There is amazing suspense as the culprits in the plot to frame Kirk and assassinate the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire are slowly revealed. Since many of the actors being targeted for assassination aren't series regulars, it would be easy to believe that the plots succeed.

The effects are marvellous; from the Klingon moon Praxis spectacularly exploding to the Iman character who is a shape-shifter, this movie makes the most of the special-effects technology.

The story is terrific. I felt that for many of the actors - but for William Shatner in particular - this was the best performance I've seen them give. Perhaps the familiarity of the story to them during this time was the reason; it made everything easier to relate to. Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall highlight an excellent guest-cast.

This is a movie for everyone. The events of our own time (well, those of us over 30 anyway) make it relate to our own experiences. Even now it has a deeper meaning as we all fear "The Undiscovered Country" - the future.



2 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I know there are some people pulling their hair out right now. For many fans, this is regarded as their favourite film. I can't say that I blame them. It is an awesome science-fiction film.

A ghost from Kirk's past comes back to haunt him as Khan, from the episode Space Seed manages to gain control of a Starfleet vessel and comes gunning for him. The story is an excellent game of cat-and-mouse as the two men face off really trying to outsmart the other as they are similarly armed. Khan gets the early edge with surprise, but Kirk has more experience with space vessels.

The guest-cast here is wonderful. Kirstie Alley is in her first role as a half-Vulcan, half-Romulan Starfleet Academy graduate testing her first command. Indeed, the entire ship is supposed to be filled with cadets when they intercept Khan and that makes it all the more poignant. Likewise, we are introduced to Kirk's son David (the late Merritt Butrick). For anyone who grew up in the 80's, seeing "Johnny Slash" as Kirk's son was so cool!

There is plenty of action, adventure and suspense. The film also tries to kill off Spock, but the fact that he was brought back in the next film really takes away from that moment.


1 - Star Trek: First Contact

Easily the best of the films featuring the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast, this film is really an analogy for the reverence with which the fans have held up Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry throughout the years.

After a battle with the Borg (which we only get to see a few snippets of), the Enterprise follows a Borg escape vessel back in time to prevent them from assimilating Earth in the 21st Century; a time when humans were fairly defenceless having just fought World War III.

The time is just before "First Contact" - an important turning point for human history. There is a battle going on between the crew of the Enterprise and the Borg; both to prevent their entire ship from being assimilated and to make sure Zefrem Cochrane launches the first warp-capable vessel.

The humor is pretty good here, although parts of it seem to miss the mark. The cast is wonderful in some very different roles. Picard really gets to act as an action hero while Riker gets to babysit Cochrane who is very different from the man portrayed in history books. There are some important moments for both Picard and Data that to understand the true impact viewers have to have seen various episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it's accessible to others at the same time. The effects are magnificent, and I loved the depiction of the Enterprise as it was being assimilated.

Well there you have it Trek fans, looking back at them all, they still hold water, well all but the last few, Trek will always hold a special place for me in SCI FI, but it seems to be fading into submission these days, with the more gritty SCI FI shows taking their place, and I too am a fan of many of these (Battlestar and Firefly). And its easier to believe our future will be that more of Blade Runner than of Star Trek, but we must aspire to more than the world of Blade runner, if the Human race is ever to improve from where it is now. I am a little concerned there is nothing for the youth of today to inspire them into a positive future and mankind being greater than it currently is.

Porn POD ?


The adult-entertainment industry that kick-started the pre-recorded home-video market is likely to do the same with video podcasts.

Adam Curry, president of PodShow Inc., said this week's announcement of the new video iPod from Apple Computer sets the stage for more big changes in media.

"Porn is just going to be huge," he told listeners to his Daily Source Code podcast this week. "The porn guys are just going, 'holy moly,' " -- in gratitude for the new market that's opened up to them.

But adult material is only one facet of new commercial opportunities, that Curry foresees. As an example, he said that "video dating should happen. A video dating feed. That's also a form of podcasting."

Now, like porn is not big enough? its everywhere, well everywhere on the net anyways, and now we are going to put up with people on trains, bus's, aircraft watching it? I have already witnessed such an event a year ago on a aircraft when a man a few rows up decided watching a XXX movie on his laptop would be a good idea, gladly after a mother alerted an air hostess that her son should not be subject to such material in a public place, a hostess reminded the man that watching this material on a plane was actually an offence, and he promptly put it away (for the Hotel later obviously).

Porn has its place (besides the red light areas of any capital city and suburbs like Fyshwick in the ACT), but it should be viewed in private, or with significant other/s ;), not in the place of minors or people with certain moral beliefs. Really would you read a XXX magazine in full view on any person on public transport? Then why watch it in the same locations. Lets have some codes of ethics with this issue, that way we can all enjoy our porn in private setting, and not while eating MacDonald’s or travelling on our way to work on the bus... (I couldn’t enjoy Porn on the way to work on a Bus).. eeerk!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Death of TV (as we know it)


The technology itself is finally here now. As announced today by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computers) Itunes 6 now supports video . This means that your (HD quality) video file will automagically be downloaded and added to iTunes, just like your music and podcasts.

You can download your favorite TV shows (legally) to your ipod and away you go.. even that episode of LOST you missed last night, will be on the itunes store the next day, for you to watch on you Mac or on the go with your ipod, or with your ipod hooked into your TV! (IN HIGH DEFENTION!)

You can see where this is going when you can put your Favorite DVD's on your Ipod, movies etc, suddenly the whole way we get movies watch movies is no longer in the hands of broadcasters, and we get to watch what we want when we want. If I was a DVD shop I would be worried about now. Bring on the revolution!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Dont worry be Happy




BELIEF in the future is perhaps the most important value for a free society. It is what makes so many interested in getting an education, or investing in a project, or being nice to their neighbours. If we think nothing can improve or that the world is coming to an end, we don't work hard for a better and more civilised future. And we will all be miserable.

Enlightenment philosophers created the belief in the future in the 17th and 18th centuries by letting us know that our rational faculties can understand the world and that with freedom we can improve it. Economic liberalism proved them right. When Adam Smith explained that it's not from the benevolence of the butcher that we expect our meat but from his self-interest, it was much more than an economic statement; it was a world view. It was a way of saying that the butcher is not my enemy. By co-operating and exchanging voluntarily, we both gain and make the world a better place, step by step.

Since those days, mankind has made unprecedented progress. We are wealthier, healthier and happier than we have ever been. We live longer, we live more safely and we live more freely. For every successive generation, we have been able to build on the knowledge, technology and wealth of earlier generations, and add our own. We have reduced poverty, created more wealth and increased life expectancy more in the past 50 years than we did in the past 5000 years.

I am not just saying that the glass is half full rather than half empty. I am saying that it used to be empty. Just 200 years ago, slavery, feudalism and tyranny ruled the world. By our standards even the richest countries were extremely poor. The average chance of surviving your first year was less than the chance of surviving to retirement today.

The glass is at least half full and it is being filled as we speak. And if I had it here before me, I would propose a toast to the creativity and persistence of mankind. In other words: Don't

But although we are happy, we don't seem to notice, and we do worry. When we ask people about what has happened in the world, most say that things get worse, poverty is on the increase and nature is being destroyed. Last week I published a survey showing that Swedes think all the indicators of living standards and the environment that are improving rapidly are in fact deteriorating. When we read the papers, we see problems, poverty and disasters. Powerful international movements oppose globalisation and capitalism because they think they increase misery and hunger. And scholars write books saying that we are all sad and depressed.

American writer Gregg Easterbrook has pointed out that old problems, horrible as they were at the time, seem less threatening in retrospect because we know that we solved them. But the problems of today are uncertain and unsolved, so they stay in our mind.

A few weeks ago, the first story in the leading news shows on television was that there is a "growing environmental threat" in Europe. The problem was shipping, which is rapidly becoming the biggest emitter of sulphur dioxide in Europe.

However, if you listened closely to the report, you understood that this was not because of growth of emissions from shipping - which grew very modestly - but because of a rapid reduction in emissions from other sources. Total sulphur dioxide emissions in Europe (including shipping) have been reduced by about 60 per cent in 15 years. So the real story was one about a dramatic improvement in environmental conditions, but shipping was now the thing we have to deal with and so it was news.

I am an optimist. I happen to believe that this perceptual bias is a good thing. That's what keeps us alert, so that we solve problems and improve the world. But we have to understand that this also means that our minds are constantly occupied by problems. And therefore we think the world is worse than it is.

Progress also always creates some new challenge and problem solvers think more about the challenges than the progress. We live longer than ever. Isn't that fantastic? No, because it results in higher costs for pensions and health care. At last poor countries make economic progress. Isn't that wonderful? No, because we are afraid that Polish plumbers and Indian programmers will take our jobs. There is always something to be scared about. In the 1970s, when temperatures were declining, we worried about a new ice age. Now they are increasing and we worry about global warming. We used to worry about everybody who was depressed, now new antidepressant drugs have reduced suicide in rich countries by one-fifth. And so we worry about so many people taking pills.


The media exploits this interest in problems and disasters. We want to hear the latest horrible stories because our Stone Age brains think that this is important information on which we must act. At the turn of the millennium, a New York University survey made a list of Journalism's Greatest Hits. Would you expect news stories about new vaccines, fantastic inventions, the rise in living standards or the spread of democracy from 0 per cent of countries 100 years ago to 60 per cent today? You would have been disappointed. The greatest hits were all about war, natural disasters, dangerous chemicals and unsafe cars.


Risks, horrible acts and disasters are easily dramatised and cheap to produce. That is why crime is such a popular theme on the news. Studies from the US show that the more time people spend watching news on TV, the more they exaggerate the extent of crime in their cities. A fascinating study about Baltimore showed 84 per cent feared that criminals would harm them or their loved ones, but at the same time almost everybody - 92 per cent - said they felt safe in their neighbourhoods, of which they had first-hand knowledge. They all think there is a lot of crime in Baltimore, but they all think it takes place somewhere else in the city, in the places they know about only from the media.

These results appear again and again in surveys. People think that the environment is being destroyed, that the economy is going to bits and Germans think the reunification of Germany was bad for most people. But they also think that their local environment is good, that their personal finances are improving and that German reunification was good for their personal situation.

At the same time that extreme poverty has been cut in half in developing countries, many people think poverty is on the increase because they see the poverty for the first time on TV. Partly we care about it because poor Vietnamese and Chinese make the shirts we wear. If you don't understand the context, you think that it is the fact they make our shirts that has made them poor. Never mind that people who work for an American multinational in a low-income country earn eight times the average income in that country.

The long-run prospects for the world are amazing. Today we have more people living longer lives in freer societies and we have more scientists alive than lived in all previous periods combined, and they all get an education that is almost as long as a lifetime in earlier periods. Biotechnology, nanotechnology and robotics will create vast improvements. We will be richer, we will live longer and we will be healthier. Continents that we thought were doomed to misery will soon have the living standards we have today.

Words by Jason Norberg: Johan Norberg is head of political ideas at Timbro, a Swedish think tank. He is author of the best-selling book In Defence of Global Capitalism, which the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies republished this week. This is an edited extract from the 22nd annual John Bonython Lecture in Sydney.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Serenity can be a TV series (Firefly)

According to the The Signal, a podcast dedicated to everything Firefly/Serenity, reports of the rumor that Joss Whedon cannot make any future Firefly episodes for television for X number of years is simply not true. They have a sound clip of Joss Whedon at WonderCon 2005 indicating that no such restrictions have been placed on him by anyone. You can here the comments on The Signal's Episode 12 podcast (Click link above) . So then, we can put that rumor to rest and hopefully look forward to some Firefly down the road, after the successful movie runs.

Les and Kari, hosts of The Signal, also revealed who it was that started that awlful rumor --- naughty, naughty Nathan --- you should be ashamed of yourself.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

why do people still buy Windows based PC's?? (who knows!)

(you dont need anti virus software on your mac, anyone who tells you do, is telling bullshit!.. UNLESS YOU want stop any PC virus being spread to another PC.. but who cares about that when you are mac user :-) )



Imagine this scenario.. Here is your brand new car, sir. Drive it off the lot. Yahooo new car you say to yourself. Suddenly, new car shuts off. New car barely starts again and then only goes about 6 miles per hour and it belches smoke and every warning light on the dashboard is blinking on and off and the tires are screaming and the heater is blasting your feet and something smells like burned hair. You hobble back to the dealer, who only says, gosh, sorry, we thought you knew -- that's the way they all run. Enjoy!"... You just wouldn't accept this would you? Well it seems Many PC users do. I am continuality confronted with people who wont look at Macs' buy a new PC then ring me within 2-3 days and say, my computers acting up, it has a virus.. and blargh blargh blargh! People its time to wise up.. Windows was designed in 1995 and it belongs there!

So why does Windows Still Suck?

Because it is a fundamentally flawed defective architecture and foundation. Windows was never designed to work in the computing environment of today: The Internet. It was merely repackaged to be sold for that use.

Windows was never designed to be secure. It was designed for a closed network, where the appearance of security was adequate. Think of Windows like a safe that has a lock on it. Microsoft keeps improving the lock with every published exploit of their "safe." The only problem is that the lock is not the problem, because the safe itself is made of painted paper. It looks good from a distance but is easy to breach from almost any angle even accidentally by simply leaning on it.

Now a paper safe left in a locked office is pretty secure, because the office is secure. But a paper safe left outside in a crowded area is likely to be tested. And if a bunch of identical paper safes appear in the same crowded area are tested, found to be easy pickings and contain goodies.... Well you can see what is happening when Windows systems are placed in the crowded area called the Internet.

Microsoft will have to re-write Windows almost from scratch (like Apple did MacOS) to fix it but that will break most of the applications that people buy Windows for in the first place. Microsoft can't do that!!! So instead they lie about how the problem is everywhere else except in their products. Microsoft tells you to "buy this and buy that addon....then you'll be safe... Oh you got infected or owned???? You dear customer (who sends us $$$) are an idiot. You did not buy enough useless protection." Have you figured out Microsoft's game yet?

Microsoft and their co-dependents the large PC hardware makers/sellers are like an auto maker and dealer network that tells you that its your fault that the paint melted off the car you purchased from them after a single hour of rain. After all you did not buy the clearcoat paint that was offered after market somewhere else for extra $$$. So it's your fault. We got your money. Tough.

As far as Microsoft is concerned *you* the customer cannot expect that a product they sold you will operate in the environment they told you it would work in: The Internet.

If you don't believe us, we challenge you to remove all the anti whatever addons you have on an MS Windows system and then use MS products for web browsing and email. But please do not use a system you care about (or that has your personal info and tax records on it) to do this....

MS Windows defects create an entire add-on market for bandaid anti-virus, anti-worm, anti-whatever software and hardware that really does not work. Have you noticed that only Microsoft systems require Anti-Whatever software! Why? Because Microsoft Windows is a completely flawed defective product.

Anti-Whatever products only cover the problem like paint over dry rot. The Microsoft code in Windows is the dry rot.

Can Windows be used safely on the internet?

Yes.... but you need to be both somewhat vigilant and not follow Microsoft's recommendations OR your PC makers recommendations either for that matter. PC makers to get the best prices are in bed with Microsoft by definition.

The basic steps for safe Microsoft Windows internet access are:

1. Do not connect a new Windows XP/2000/NT system to the Internet until after you have completely updated all security patches. Nothing that comes out of the box is secure and then you have to remain vigilant for all the new patches that will be needed in the future.

2. Windows ME is more problematic than Windows 9x, but can be made to work.

3. If you have Windows XP you must install Service Pack 2 at the minimum even if it breaks your applications.

4. Install Mozilla Firefox

5. Never use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express on the internet.

6. Do not use SBC/Yahoo! bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer

7. Do not use Comcast bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

8. Do not use AOL. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

9. Do not use MSN. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

10. Do not use Microsoft Windows Media Player WMV files. They can execute programs on your system without telling you.

11. Avoid online banking. Banks are not responsible for your losses as some have learned the hard way.

12. Do not install Kazaa or swap *free* music online.

13. Do not watch *free* videos from offshore pornography sites. This is the Windows Video file issue.

14. Do not install Norton or McAfee antivirus software. Crackers love these products. So easy to disable and the computer owner can't tell.

This list continues on for many pages, so.....to make this easier just BUY A BLOODY MAC!!! GEEEZ!

Why would you want to compromise your use of the internet and its many wonders cause you decide to use a fundamentally flawed operating system? So you think costs is hold you back from buying a Mac, what cost is it to you to reformat your hard drive 3 times a year or more, every time your system crashes, gets a virus or whatever other random error happens, and how much time PC owners spend doing patches, updates, scans etc just to keep nasties out? Let alone trying to get things to work!

Besides games I can not find a compelling reason why anyone would want a PC, and you really want to play games, get a game box (like Xbox, gamecube whatever). All applications that are on PC are on Mac, many good ones are on Mac only!

Someone recently asked: "How will we know when Windows is a safe product?" Answer: When no anti-whatever software is bundled or required to use Windows safely on the Internet. Until then you know it is defective.

It is getting harder to tell when a Windows systems is compromised. And no Anti-whatever software will detect and remove these core exploits, because they control the entire system and tell the cobbled on antiwhatever software that everything is fine while they report home to their real master on the internet in some foreign jurisdiction outside of any US laws reach. These exploits have been around for years, but Microsoft has just recently acknowledged them.

So what I am trying to say.. get a MAC!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

The Best Video Games for the past 20 years!


(See Apple didnt get the 1st grab on white! a Commodore 64 from year 1986)












(HALO 2 .. best game in the universe)












Some gaming enthusiasts have done a large top 50 list, and I am disappointed to say that my long time favorite should be in there but is not! What game would this be.. well Raid on Bungling Bay of course! (http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/raid-on-bungeling-bay/cover-art/gameCoverId,35874/), I spent many an hour playing this on my C64 many moons ago, and still play it under emulation with my G5 Imac (just what a G5 was made for, emulating 20 year old chip sets ;-) ). Anyways a survey has been done and you can find the list at the above link. However for something different I have done my own short list. There are so many to think of.. so many hour wasted with them, it was hard to narrow it down to this short list!

1. Halo 2. (Xbox) I have never spend a year playing a game continuously, (thanks to xbox live), every game is different unique, and never gets tired. It will take a long time for this game to get old (till Halo 3). Brilliant Graphics, interactivity with other humans, great story line, what else can you want?

2. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64 and DS) A decade on, Super Mario 64 remains the finest platform game ever. Players feel giddy as they explore its varied, vibrant and magical worlds, which are filled with countless surprises and taxing challenges.

3. StarFox Adventures (Game cube). The last Rare game before they defected to Microsoft. This game had me addicted for many months, one of the best adventure games I have played in over a decade, graphics wonderful too.

4. The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) Shigeru Miyamoto's magnum opus is a spellbinding cocktail of wondrous exploration, ingenious puzzles and combat in a beautiful world. The convincing environment is populated by a raft of colorful characters, and there is a huge variety of tasks. An epic to be savored from the moment Link and his horse first gallop across the screen.

5. GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64) Provides a level of immersion few games can match, thanks to wonderful atmosphere, interactive environments and smart opponents. It was a precursor to all shootem ups, like Halo etc.

6. Marathon (Macintosh) Bungie pioneered the first person shootemup, when most PC users were going "look at this doom thing" Mac users were going so what Marathon allows much more freedom, looking up and down, jumping etc, was the pioneer to Bungie's Halo series.

7. Raid on Bungling Bay (C64) was a great intelligent strategic aerial shootem up, and its basic design gave way to sim city series.

8. SimCity 2000 (PC, Mac) An infinitely engaging city simulator lets players design a huge metropolis from scratch. Later sequels added clutter, but 2000 offered a wealth of choices to explore without overwhelming users.

19. Super Mario Kart (N64) Hugely enjoyable, light-hearted racer with appealing characters, cleverly designed tracks and amusing weapons that ensure battles are tight and exciting.

20. Tetris (Game Boy) Simple yet addictive puzzle game, often imitated, never bettered.

21. SWIV (Amiga). The pioneer of vertical shootemups, with totally amazing digital sound, and stunning graphics (even today), took the best elements of 80's vertical shooters like xavious and made it better.

22. Mario Golf (Gamecube), took old boring golf sims, and made this silly and fun to play, amazing AI, and great cartoon graphics.

23. Burnout 3 (Xbox), great smashing car game, easy to learn, but hard to master, great matrix style crash scenes

24. Mario Tennis (N64), again taking boring old simulations on PC’s and other game consoles and made it silly, fun, and challenging.

25. Elite (BBC MICRO, C64). Was the grandfather to all space trading simulations. Might have been old vector style graphics, but has massive amounts of detail, and special missions, many many months playing this old game, and is still played today in the form of X2, and wing commander, Escape Velocity (on Mac on PC) I thing it now has 100’s of forms the latest being Vendetta Online. It is the basis to many space trading games, where you are some independent mercenary, trading goods, illegal or legal, powering up your ship, buying better weapons, crew, better ships, owning your own planets. This game started it all in 1985!

26. River Raid (every platform from Atari 2600 , Intellivsion to Amiga) The best scoller shootem up dogem game made in the 80's, it was best on the Atari 800 computer and Intellivision, but what ever platform you played it on it totally rocked. Slick sprite graphics for its day, and written solo by a female programmer (Carol Shaw). Still play it today under Atari 800 emulation.


Tuesday, October 04, 2005

The electronic generation gap, what a load of CRAP!


If it isn't enough that the mass media constantly promotes division between Generations X and Y and the Baby Boomers, now we've got IT writers bemoaning the fact that younger people tend to be much more enthusiastic users of technology than so-called "techno-geezers", suggesting that you know you're beyond it when:

*You're the only one in the supermarket checkout line not talking on a cell phone to pass the time while waiting for your turn to pay.
* When you walk down the street with your friends you're talking only to them instead of multitasking - talking or text messaging with someone else on your mobile phone while talking to them at the same time.
* You don't use IM to let all of your friends know where you are at all times.
* You don't download songs every night to load on your iPod.

As it happens, I know lots of geezers who spend their evenings downloading tunes to their iPods, and for that matter, downloading and in some cases recording podcasts. They use IM as a matter of course.
Conversely, I know some younger people who don't use IM and don't have iPods, possibly because they tend to be more strapped for cash than the average person of middle age or beyond.

While it's true that younger people as a rule tend to be more enthusiastic users of technology, I am convinced that older people would have been just as wild about it had it been available when they were kids or teenagers. They may not use it now simply because they're in a different phase of life, bringing up kids for instance, with all the demands it makes on time and funds, and opportunities.

Some social researchers suggest that younger generations use socialising technologies more because they're more sociable than previous generations. Frankly, I regard that as hogwash. They use it more because they're modern kids, and it's available. And so they should.

And older people should enjoy using the technology that's available and relevant to them. And remember that comparing yourself to others, as Max Ehrmann pointed out, can make you vain and bitter. And BTW I am not a Baby Boomer.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Australian Ipod owners are all criminals!?


An article in the Herald Sun, Australia's leading daily newspaper last week, suggests that Australian iPod owners are breaking the country's piracy laws if they load music onto their portable audio players.

According to the Herald Sun, "No legal method exists for Australian iPod owners to fill their player with music."

The iTunes music store is not yet available in Australia, and music files available from legal commercial music sites are not compatible with the iPod. The Herald Sun also reports that the common method of "ripping" tunes to an iPod from the user's own CD collection is illegal in Australia as a breach of copyright laws.

Source: Herald Sun


The sheer absurdity of this situation should be sufficient motivation for the Federal Government to change these laws before Xmas. Imagine what will happen if someone gets sued for listening to their CDs on an mp3 player?

Worse still, I've read elsewhere that it is illegal for me to 'broadcast' my iPod through my car radio using my iTrips.

The Australian music industry which wholeheartedly supports these antiquated laws really is a disgrace, and have their collective heads buried in the sand. What about Podcasting? Is it illegal to listen to that too?

Why not prosecute every PVR and DVD recorder owner and VHS tape player owner, hell even compact cassette owner too while we are at it. I think the puts all of Australia's 20 million population in Prison! Australia has got to have one of the most whacked out copyright laws on the planet! So if a law is unenforceable cause it is so stupidly out of date, isn't it a time to change it. The whole planet is laughing at our outdated copyright laws!

With the USFTA (Fair Trade agreement) now a reality, our copyright laws should, at least, be in step with those of the US and most other countries in the world. Maybe this is why there is no Itunes store in Australia, due to our stupid Draconian copyright laws?

Any case its time to change the law! Write to your local pollies, the commications minister, raise your flag and tell the idiots in Canberra we want change and we want it now !

Saturday, October 01, 2005

SERENITY MOVIE!


Anyone that knows me, knows I am large Firefly Fan, and I finally got to see this movie yesterday (called serenity) its got to be THE best and saddest movie this year! As Molly would say, do your self a favour.. and see this. best SCIFI movie you will see all year! so Fox CAN WE HAVE the TV series back now???