The Marlon Experience

A letter to firefox

2011-03-26T18:41:00.000-04:00

Dear Firefox,

The last six years have been great, do you remember that time you took 25% of the Global web browser market share for the first time? or when you first made tabbed browsing all the rage? If not for you, IE6 may have set the standard for the next generation of browsers and HTML5 would be a pipe dream. ActiveX might still seem like a reasonable technology!

You've been so good to me too, the mixture of flexibility, raw performance and consistency across windows and linux were refreshing and while I must admit to you now I've tried everything from Midori to IE9 behind your back, normally, I've always come back to you. How could I get away from your plug-ins? I loved how well ad-block worked and how I could redirect my downloads. It all was so unique and wrapped in a customizable UI.

Around the 3rd time you'd changed things up I noticed you'd put on some weight and much hadn't really improved about you, but you were still awesome compared to everything else I'd tried...then...then I tried Chrome. It grew on me and when I discovered its syncing abilities...I started to pack my things.

I lingered at the door in hopes that Firefox 4, the new you based on a new version of Gecko, would win me back but your sync falls short. Your ability to move around tabs just isn't slick enough and its really just the old you with things Chrome was giving me months before.

I'm sorry to say it but Firefox, its over between us and I hope we can still be friends. I've heard that you are looking at a more aggressive release schedule for your updates and if you do become all that you can be, then maybe we can try this again.

-A long time firefox user

Joomla/Eclipse Development setup

2010-06-06T13:33:00.002-04:00

So, what I thought would be a simple case of setting up a sftp mount through the gui for Eclipse to have access to a remote file system turned out to be not so simple. To get eclipse access to the webserver's directories I had to :

Install sshfs (through the software center for Ubuntu)
Add myself to the fuse group (though I believe this was useless in the end)
Create a dir to mount the sshfs
Backup /etc/fuse.conf (I used bk_fuse.conf)
Remove the # from allow_other_user in fuse.conf
Run: sshfs user@hostname:remote_dir local_dir -o allow_other
e.g. # sshfs root@192.168.1.100:/ /media/rm_mount_point -o allow_other
Profit

A bit more freedom

2010-05-23T19:22:00.002-04:00

Changed my Keyboard back to my Logitech cordless internet pro and put the v470 Bluetooth mouse on the desktop.
The keyboard worked flawlessly, the mouse not so much. The mouse was randomly laggy and at times unresponsive; tried some 3rd party apps but no good, in the end the solution was the drop the nice values on all bluetooth processes to -10.
The v470 as a scroll wheel that can rock left or right to give an additional 2 buttons, never tried before but getting them to work was fairly easy. Installed btnx and the btnx gui and followed the guide for setting up the extra buttons :-).

Ubuntu 9.10 -> Ubuntu 10.04

2010-05-05T00:38:00.002-04:00

Upgraded to 10.04 yesterday, had a little time to mess around today, I like it so far and even moving the windows controls doesn't seem bad. Just the issue of it being on the left in Ubuntu and on the right with Windows. I'm sure it will be annoying soon but I'll still try.

Only problem so far was skype not working, just needed to reinstall:

For 32-bit
$ wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-32
For 64-bit
$ wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-64
You will need to install the following libraries.
$ sudo apt-get install libqt4-dbus libqt4-network libqt4-xml
Now install skype(the file u just downloaded, may be named intrepid-ibex)
$ sudo dpkg -i skype-XXXXXXXXXXXX.deb

Taken from here.

Active Directory Group Poilcy

2010-02-23T11:30:00.003-04:00

The world of windows administration is an expansive one and weekly I come across pet peeves, my newest? GPO exceptions! or the lack there of.

To disable the screen saver for one user I had to either create a loopback GPO or manually edit the registry settings on the PC. Clearly there was only one real option:

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\
Desktop]
Value Name: ScreenSaveActive, SCRNSAVE.EXE
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable screen savers, 1 = default)

Kernel Updates...

2009-12-06T10:42:00.003-04:00

Break functionality. This really needs to stop I hate having to re-install things after a Kernel update, its ridiculous. Granted the only things that typically break are things that aren't supported but its annoying. Then one has to hold back because 1 update usually leads to 3 *sigh*.

Libraries? Whatever

2009-12-03T01:07:00.002-04:00

I was impressed by 'Libraries' in Windows 7 and then I started playing with them and realized the same could be accomplished with links in Ubuntu (well any unix/linux based system really), particularly since you can hard link to data to give you the option of whether you make a reference to the pointer or make a new pointer all together.

IE8

2009-11-22T21:06:00.002-04:00

Nice try Microsoft but I refuse to give in to your ridiculously confusing post-install wizard which tries to get me to just hit cancel as you asking me about a set of items which no ordinary user would have the remotest clue about. No I will not just hit cancel and use the 'express' settings.

Skype Video

2009-11-12T00:20:00.002-04:00

It lives!! Had video in cheese and not skype but now both!

Using this thread I found that I simply had to remove the .deb install and use a medibuntu version of skype. Of course you have to have the medibuntu repository.

# sudo aptitude remove skype
# sudo apt-get install skype-common

I tried install skype but no juice, worked all the same though.

P.S. adding medibuntu repository from here.

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ karmic free non-free
Download the repository key to a folder.

Example: The Medibuntu key can be downloaded from

http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg

Then add the key from:

System -> Administration -> Synaptic Manager -> Settings -> Repositories -> Authentication -> Import Key File...

(Alternatively, you can manually add the key from the command line Terminal. See Add Repository keys.)

Refresh the package list from the new repository:

Synaptic -> Reload

VX-1000 Web Cam

2009-11-11T01:10:00.004-04:00

Got my camera working in cheese by following the instruction in this post.

# wget http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb/archive/tip.tar.bz2
# bunzip2 tip.tar.bz2
# tar xf tip.tar
# cd v4l-dvb-19c0469c02c3

# make

# vi v4l/.config
Change CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV=m to CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV=n.

# sudo make install

Then reboot.

This got it working in Cheese but I still haven't been able to get it working in skype, got my google wave invite tnite :-) and the test in Project Implementation went well so today was a good day.

VirtualBox Seamless Mode

2009-11-09T00:40:00.005-04:00

Seamless mode on Virtualbox, brilliant.

.3gp Video playing in Ubuntu 9.1 (Karmic Koala)

2009-11-08T16:35:00.003-04:00

So the issue really is that the medibuntu repository no longer carries the mplayer capable of handling 3gp using AMR (from here). The guy who pointed it out then posted a wonderful but long guide here. This is conforting as I'd hate to have to boot to windows just to check the files recorded on my G1.

Following that I got a "Gnome Mplayer" which handles .3gp quite nicely. I'll have to see if I broke anything along the way!

The battle to get 3gp working

2009-11-08T14:48:00.003-04:00

Some things are easy and some things are hard.

Adding my wireless printer was an absolute breeze on Ubuntu 9.10 but playing 3gp video? Total nightmare! Took some videos recorded on the G1 and haven't gotten the audio on them no matter what I have tried.

I've installed Realplayer 11, Mplayer, w32codecs, ubuntu-restricted-extras etc. and VLC player and none work and at first I couldn't even get mplayer to show video on ANY video I tried to play. Finally got video working on mplayer by

opening mplayer
right clicking the video screen
going into preferences
video and using xv as opposed to the default xmga

Still no audio on the 3gp though.

ubuntu-restricted-extras

2009-11-05T09:46:00.004-04:00

I ran:
:~: sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

"ubuntu-restricted-extras not found"

eh? what do you mean not found? This is how I was greeted when I tried to install the restricted packages onto Ubuntu 9.10 on a laptop.

*sigh* to fix?

:~$ marlon@hyperion:~$ sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.bk.list
:~$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

I uncommented the canonical entries and got the following

:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release i386 (20091028.5)]/ karmic main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic universe
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic universe
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates universe
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic multiverse
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security multiverse

Specifically removing the comments from:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner

deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

Followed by:

:~$ sudo apt-get update

Then I could get my restricted extras.

32bit or 64bit

2009-11-05T02:09:00.003-04:00

Sure I downloaded the 32bit version of Ubuntu but doubt crept in so be sure I wanted to check, but how do you determine the longest bit length your Ubuntu 9.10 OS can handle?

# getconf LONG_BIT
32

Ubuntu 9.1 The first transgression

2009-11-05T00:30:00.003-04:00

Ok so using Ubuntu 9.1 and it was going pretty smoothy til I tried to auto hide one of the panels, after which the OS froze. This was pretty annoying but not as annoying as what happened next:

I rebooted and logged in only to get stuck at the Ubuntu splash screen! I figured that something had gone awry with the gnome settings so I searched for how to reset the Gnome settings from the command line as no GUI was available. Found the following:

# rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity

source

Used the recovery kernel mode from grub to get to the console and entered the command, rebooted and voila. However that is a pretty harsh penalty for trying to auto hide one panel!

All in the Name

2009-04-04T12:32:00.002-04:00

Gonna be short, saw a boutique today and the name stood out "Illusion Boutique" which is quite possibly the most appropriate name ever attached to a business. It's like the owner said we aint messing around we want people to know exactly what our business does and that is help people to lie about they look, lol.

delusion (n): the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas

Shocking Music

2009-03-31T23:47:00.002-04:00

So I've been having an issue where my new in ear buds shock me at home but only on my laptop. It wasn't happening at work and it certainly wasn't happening when I was using my zen.So as it turned out tonight I had on my rubber slippers and it seemed ok it was a little uncomfortable but barely noticable. Then I put my foot directly onto the floor, instant shock.

Seems current is leaking from the speaker in the earbud into you know who.Rubbish ain't it? I guess this is just another reason to upgrade to some shure earbuds.

AIG - 170Bn in Bail Outs 165M in Bonuses

2009-03-15T02:31:00.003-04:00

Going to be very brief, just read this article and this one too, which points out the dollar amount of the bonuses. All I have to saw is wow, legal obligations? The company would be bankrupt and most of those people would be looking for jobs. This has no direct impact on me but there is something about the level of insanity expressed here that makes me quiver.

The company just posted 60 billion dollars in losses for one QUARTER and are surviving on tax payer cash but believe people are still entitled to bonuses? They want to keep the best and the brightest? The company is lucky to be in business, if/when it returns to profitability then quality of employees could be a major consideration but you've made your bed you must lay in it.

7-Day Cruise

2009-02-19T02:37:00.002-04:00

Got back today from a 7-Day Caribbean Cruise and that was the best vacation of my life. The food, the service, the food...lol.

May or may not write something extended tomorrow, regardless 10pts to Carnival Victory and "Karl with a K" the Cruise Director.

DropBox etc.

2009-01-30T15:32:00.004-04:00

For once I find myself only somewhat excited for anther big google announcement. The 'GDrive' Project is imminent and what it is supposed to mean is data accessible from anywhere the net is available.

Now I love the idea of Cloud Computing, that no matter where I am or what computer I'm on my bookmarks, email, photos and documents are online.

For years the two I've most wanted have eluded me, music and files. Not that there aren't plenty of sites, like www.filefront.com, that you can upload your files too or even registering for website to access my files and perhaps stream my music from. What I wanted though was a bit more cultured, I wanted to be able to stream my music straight through the music player on my comp or phone and for files I wanted them available not just online but offline on whatever computer I use.

So the impending GDrive annoucement should tickle my fancy but I've gotten my wish there with DropBox, which allows file syncing across multiple platforms, so when I create a document on my work laptop it is automatically uploaded to the net and when my desktop is turned on it is automatically downloaded. If I make further changes on my desktop to that file the updated file automatically goes out to the web and then automatically gets updated on my laptop.

What is more useful is that if I am away from a designated PC I can log into the web interface and perfrom a one-time download of the file in question and then manually upload. I can even share this folder with other dropbox users. Simple, practical and brilliant. My only compliant is that it is 2GB free or 50GB for $100US a year. I could go for 10GB for 30 or 4oUS but I just don't need 50GB.

With services like iMeem and last.fm already available and the Zune music store being an all you can download buffet for $15US a month, its not long before a GPRS/EDGE/3G & Wifi enabled phone/mp3 player gets a service where you pay $X a month can play w/e the service has available on demand completely eliminating the need for exesive storoage on the phone.

Did I mention this thing runs on windows, linux and mac? MADNESS

Anyway, shameless plug www.getdropbox.com

The Ligher Side..

2009-01-20T14:55:00.003-04:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Movies/popup?id=6384064

Couldn't help myself, some of those are just down right hilarious. It is simply amazing how much stupidity can be condensed into one sentence!

Text Messaging is 20x the cost of email (at least in Barbados)

2009-01-18T00:58:00.001-04:00

This was brought to my attention by a friend.So a character (or one letter) is about 8 bits. 8 bits make 1 byte and 1024 bytes make 1 kilobyte. So 1 character is 1 byte.A text, message is 160 characters of body. There must be 22 characters (+12345678910) for the number sending and the number receiving (probably in a header of some kind) so thats 182 characters, at least in Barbados. Call it 190 to be safe.190 characters or 190 bytes is 20c bds (whether you use 25 or all 190). That's about $1 a kilobyte vs 1c per 1kb for data.Therefore an email that contains 200 characters (including the header) costs 1c since thats not one whole kilobyte but a text message which is of comparable size is 20c so text messaging is about 20 times as expensive as sending an email AND the charge is flat not per kb.wtf!

Quickoffice for Android?

2009-01-14T16:12:00.005-04:00

Jeez, every time I tap market its like Christmas. Today I go pop on, the market can be viewed online at http://www.cyrket.com, and there is a new app "QO Test". It had less than 50 downloads and no comments so I said I'd try it later.

I go back on later and see its been rated and has some comments when I glance up that there it is, the devs name is "Quickoffice". For some fairly odd reason they have up an app which doesn't do anything, perhaps they are testing the market functionality in general? I'm not screwing with my phone to find out but if this is legit QO could becoming soon Which is downright awesome, their free version is on my old E-series Nokia and its works really well.

My fingers are firmly crossed, also read a blog today that said the Cupcake update could come as early as this Friday. I doubt it but I can cross my fingers a bit tighter.

Oh I'm loving this

2009-01-13T21:40:00.001-04:00

New app on the android market today "a-Blogger" now I can blog straight from my phone anywhere there is wifi. :-)

Palm 'Wireless' Charger

2009-01-09T12:08:00.003-04:00

CES announcments are pretty underwhelming, this seemed like big news till I took a step back...its a magnetic dock. The phone doesn't charge from a foot away and the touch stone doesn't draw power from subspace (awful SG:A reference) its just a magnetic charger *sigh*.

Skype Lite (Beta) on Android

2009-01-09T11:16:00.003-04:00

Skype on Android? WOW call the dogs and we the fire this hunt is over! This is part of the reason I invested in the Android platform, particularly the G1.

Wait...what's that you say? Doesn't use VOIP directy? Doesn't use data (wifi or gprs/edge/3G) to make calls? Wait, WHAT???? When people skype-to-skype call me it uses MY skype credit?

That is essentially the coversation that went on in my head after downloading and subsequently being very underwhelmed by Skype lite.

How it works? There is a ton of explanations on the web but Skype's is fairly comprehensive and easy to understand (see the "how much does it cost" diagram). Hmm I can't resist the urge to summarize:

Calling is done like iSkoot or Pennytalk, a number is dialed (automatically unlike pennytalk) and then from that number your skype account is used to complete the call. The number is local to one of the regions skype lists, receiving skype-to-skype eats your skype cred and chatting is over data.

Don't get me wrong, if you live in one of the regions that is supported ( United States, United Kingdom, Poland, Brazil (Rio and Sao Paolo), Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Australia and New Zealand) and have alot of bundled minutes (or unlimited local calling) then it is a great service. It even lets you register numbers outside of those regions so skype buddies can use up your credit!

I don't get the feeling they plan on doing this right either otherwise they would've made some attempt in this beta to work out the kinks.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that Fring comes along and does a good job or maybe I'll regret going Android sell my G1 and get a E71 or N97 *shrug*.

Mozilla Songbird

2009-01-03T12:43:00.005-04:00

As there are Browser and OS wars so too are there Media Player wars. In the video arena is VLC Player, Windows Media Player and Quicktime that pretty much rule my roost. Qt and MP for their respective formats and VLC for every thing else but it isn't really necessary to manage video because I don't particularly need them organized. Music is a different kettle of fish, I want genre's and if I ever find the time tempo information in the tracks I want to sort by artists, year and album so I can find them easily once I get that done I want simple ways to get them onto something portable.

So its kinda obvious to me managing music media matters to me and Media Monkey is my app of choice the free version great and there is a paid version with alot of great features but most pretty unnecessary if you have some extra time. On linux there is no media monkey though and in comes Amarok which is better than Media Monkey's free version and still free.

These are all great apps but something new has caught my eye by the name of Songbird, its made by Mozilla the same people that brought us Firefox (and Thunderbird and Sunbird). It is still very rough around the edges and missing a lot of the polished features in MM and Amarok such as monitoring folders (well MM Gold), can't rip CDs, can't normalize tracks etc. but these are all in the roadmap.
The two things that make me think this is one for the future are:

Cross-Platform Operation
Browser Integration

Media Monkey is windows only and while there is an Amarok version for Windows it isn't officially supported at the time of writing this. Songbird however is build to bridge across Mac OS, Linux and Windows. I like changing my OS and being able to expect the same functionality (or there about) and a similar interface. I hate having to not get feature X on Windows and then go to Linux and not get feature Y, I'd just prefer to say ok I can live without X and not get it on either but get Y.

The other point is browser integration, no no it doesn't try assimilate your existing browser, it is a browser. Now at first this seemed kinda ludicrous but the truth is sometimes having to switch to a browser where your media controls disappear kinda breaks the experience. Its like tabbed browsing, sometimes I don't want person stuff in the same window as work stuff as it is a distraction so I keep two separate browsers one with tabs related to a topic.
With this all the music related stuff stays put and it has built in support to get you to an artists wiki or Myspace page. Toss in the fact that is essentially Firefox under there and you get the same plug-in extensibility and can add plugins that let you find concert tickets (I pray for the day this will be useful in the Caribbean).

Long and short Songbird has alot of promise and I'm excited about what it could do in the future.

FC Barcelona

2009-01-03T12:32:00.002-04:00

Its Saturday and my irregular sleep pattern has me up late and feeling quite out of it. Checked the calendar and look at that, Barca vs Mallorca today at 3pm.

The season for Barca has been going really well and I am fully enjoying it for various reasons. The most important is the new coach, who's attitude seems to have permeated through the team "one game at a time". The attitude is one that finds it way onto the pitch, game after game there is entertainment from back to front and Goals goals and more goals I love it.

Hopefully this entertaining complete brand of football can find its way to the Champions League finals.

The Future of Logins

2009-01-02T16:25:00.004-04:00

So I often say "wow, how did people survive before *insert modern amenity*".

Today I re-discovered openid and then facebook connect, two services which seek to give you one online presence but access to multiple sites. In theory this sounds fantastic but immediately a problem arises: I already have a login for most of the major sites I use. Then after checking the list of sites compatible with both services I let out a sigh and gave up on the idea.

Essentially these services are useless, for all the google services I use I have one login and that works well xxx@gmail.com gets me into blogger, gmail, docs etc. and connects the majority of these services to my G1. If the whole web worked like that would a place it would be; rather than signing up for a drop box account I simply add dropbox to my list of services and off I go.

In 5yrs I hope I can look back and ask how I lived with having to remember 20 passwords!

I came out of hibernation just to say this and Happy New Year.

In-transit

2008-07-16T17:36:00.002-04:00

I've left Anguilla heading back to Barbados and find myself in a familiar departure lounge. Antigua but so far so good, they say my flight is still going to be on time unlike another connecting flight from the one I came in on which is going to be delayed overnight! Now that is some rubbish, its 5:41pm and they are leaving 6am tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm going to try to enjoy the lil stop over and relax until my flight comes, back to school fete tonight.

Blow-Air?

2008-06-27T14:51:00.004-04:00

On another impromtu hiatus but i HAD to post this link. Totally not safe for work, its an article about special favours being provided to business class passengers.

If only he was being serious.

2008-06-20T17:27:00.002-04:00

WOW,

after 119 minutes there were no goals in the Turkey Croatia match and then it was 1-0 for Croatia. 3 mins later in the ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SECOND MINUTE Turkey equalize. COME BACK KINGS!!

Then they rinsed off Croatia in the penalty shoot out. Croatia missed the first, scored the second, missed the third and then had the fourth saved.

Turkey? all 3 shots in the back of the net.

Turkey has now come back to win 3 games; I was impressed by Fenerbache but after this I am definitely a Turkey fan this year. The level of commitment and reserve the Turkish team has shown was just amazing.

Germany, watch ou.

Clip: John Stewart on Crossfire

2008-06-20T12:39:00.003-04:00

Alot of times I wonder if Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert were able to confront the people they criticize if they would really go after them.

Question answered.

Firefox 3.0

2008-06-17T14:25:00.002-04:00

Mozilla is trying to break the record for the most software downloads in 24hrs with its new version of firefox. Surely enough it is a hit and that hit broke their servers long before any records.

At the time of typing this the mozilla site has crashed but there are mirrors up such as this one for windows.

Update:

That mirror is also swamped so best of luck in getting a download.

Fight the Smears

2008-06-13T11:16:00.005-04:00

Barack Obama is at the center of a lot of things and rumours most certainly are not what he wants to be remembered by and as such has taken to the offense. Its 'common' knowledge that fighting rumours gives them credence and further spreads them but in the information age covering your ears and shouting isn't going to stop rumours from spreading.

In an campaign where uncertainty could cost him votes he needs to be able to reassure at least a portion of the voting block that he isn't a elitist muslim who hates America and try to secure their votes.

For what its worth here I go:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/
or
https://fightthesmears.com

My Siblings go 'Up and On'

2008-06-13T10:04:00.002-04:00

Life is filled with moments of unparalleled pain and joy, ironically the two go hand in hand. If my father were still alive its arguable whether or not when I found out my sisters passed for The Combermere School I would have been as emotional as I was.

Plenty of statements starting with "if he were here" and "he would have been" floated around and in the end I'm just so pleased that the hard work that I saw my siblings put in at lessons and in their homework payed off.

All sentimentality aside I am very happy with the result my sisters acheived!

EURO 2008: Group of Death

2008-06-10T12:52:00.003-04:00

So I watched both games yesterday and the France v Romania game was horrid, as the commentators like to say, as a spectacle it just didn't come off. The ball would be 3 or 4 yards off the Romanian penalty box and there were 8 or 9 players, excluding the keeper, between it and the net. The French just weren't inventive enough and poor Ribery was made to run around for nothing.

Good, that is out of the way.

Italy vs Netherlands is an almost comical clash of 2 complementary colours the blues indeed took on the oranges. After the first goal I was excited because the Dutch scoring first meant the Italians had to open up a bit more than they like to and with Cannavaro out it seemed like the back line might not hold as well as it normally does making for some spill and thrills.

What I didn't anticipate was Wesley Sneijder growing eyes on the back of his head and poping the ball over his shoulder to make it 2-0. At the half I felt for the Italians as the same sluggish midfield that I saw let Milan slip to the UEFA Cup was struggling again. In the end though, the game wasn't lost for a lack of opportunity it was for a lack of finishing. Luca Toni spurned a few chances that could've made the difference.

In the end though the better team on the day won and it was, for the most part, good football. I enjoyed it.

Quick note: Went to St. Maarten

2008-06-09T11:58:00.002-04:00

Went back to St. Maarten over the weekend and got 95% of the stuff I wanted but was so tired I didn't get to play tourist properly, photo compliments Cami.

Did get new sneaks, work clothes, socks etc. oh and Wiimote/nunchuck so when I get back to Barbados I'll be able to whoop my sisters in Wii Sports tennis. :-)

Phantom Hourglass Completed

2008-06-09T11:34:00.002-04:00

I beat the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and my general impression was that it wasn't difficult and the overall game was enjoyable but they didn't do the best job with the back tracking, item switching was a pain, the combat system wasn't fully fleshed out and some parts of the game felt like filler. Filler I don't mind as long as it is side quest filler.

In the main temple where you spend like 30% of the game when you backtrack with new items its easier to get past certain floors or you can practically skip floors all together but in most cases, for me, because of the save system the risk of burning up your time in the temple to find an easier route didn't feel worth it. I'd spend 5mins in real life or 2mins on the clock in the game figuring out how to save 1min on the game clock and like 3 or 4 mins in real life and if I wasted too much time and reset the game I had to start from outside the temple which was just a pain.
When things did go right though it felt good.

The touch screen combat could've tended toward Ninja Gaiden type combat moving from enemy to enemy swiftly. Instead you mostly had to clumsily switch items and then have a fit on the touch screen to kill enemies and bosses alike. Speaking of the boss fights, they were brilliant. All of them were different, made good use of 1 item (which was essential to not going mad trying to switch) and had a big feel to them even if they were pretty easy after you figured out what was the trick.

The last boss fight however felt a lil disconnected; partially because you had little to no idea what really motivated this thing to be evil. I mean "it was born evil!" is all well and good but unless you are talking survival horror the creature coming from nowhere and having no logical weakness isn't really acceptable. That and having zero personality, the story of the true enemy could've been told through out the game but instead it was a few cut scenes. Still, finishing it it off was pretty satisfying. You can knock FF games but you can't help but something when you whack the person that has been tormenting you from the first time you selected attack.

As I said overall it was a good experience but they couldn't done alot better, you don't really expect good when you play a Zelda game you expect excellent.

Oil Prices aren't going down

2008-06-09T11:14:00.005-04:00

I really hope that it sinks into people, and soon, gas prices are going nowhere anytime soon. Too many factors contribute to the price for us out in the West. Fighting in Nigeria, Increasing Demand from China and India, a weak US dollar, Iran doesn't like us over here, an increasing human population, there is still war in Iraq, Hurricane Season and trade speculation.

I'll accept now more than I did before, that the supply-demand relationship is playing a role but only to some extent. For oil prices to fall there would need to be a dramatic increase in production along with serious alternatives being injected into the mix and a friendlier international political climate.

The political climate is going to stay high as long as there is war in Iraq and Israel and Iran are at it. That isn't going to change within the next 9 months, the US is going through an election and policy changes need to be made to achieve some of this. That isn't even assured, the policy changes could make it worse.

Fighting in countries with Oil isn't likely to come to a halt any time soon either and with hurricane season coming, at least for this year, that is another factor to cause the speculators to stay nervous.

Alternatives to fossil fuels are not going to drop out of the sky. We are not going to wake up tomorrow or next week or next month and all have Solar Panels on our roofs and be driving cars that run on e85 or some variant. Actually if we did wake up tomorrow to e85 cars that would mean all the worlds corn or sugar cane went into it and the food crisis would be made worse in some countries. It will take time to sensibly build up a system of alternative fuel that wont cause an equal amount of harm. There will have to be wind farms built, hydro-electric plants, solar panels will have to go on hundreds of roofs and cars will have to become extremely fuel efficient.

The developing countries won't stop growing either so that is another issue where they will have to hit walls with respect to fuels costs and try to build their industry around a less oil dependent model.

The rest of us will have to buy cars that are more fuel efficient, spend less money on luxury items, be more mindful of energy use in the home, turn on a fan rather than the A/C or open a window rather than turn on the fan. Generally, much like the rest of the factors involved with gas being affordable, I think we have to try harder to level the wealth playing field. Work hard, continue to study maybe say goodbye to the stay at home parent but things have got to change.

Hilary Drops Out

2008-06-09T10:16:00.002-04:00

So Hilary R. Clinton has finally admitted defeat and anyone who doesn't think that is amazing needs to see the footage of Terry McAullife on the Daily Show on June 3rd when he was ranting about Hilary winning when the Super Delegates were really coming out for Obama.

Regardless, she did it and now lots of people that wanted her to win want her to be the VP.

This is my take, alot of the people that voted for Hilary, particularly the ones that said the will vote McCain over Obama, are silly. Hilary and Obama were nearly identical on issues so for them to bypass that and go to voting McCain shows a clear lack of judgment. Adding Hilary to the ticket will just add those that don't want to vote for her for and will just not vote come November, and it will also give the McCain more targets to aim at.

I just think her as VP is too distracting for the guy and her + Bill will be a headache even if he does manage to win in November.

At least she bowed out though, this could've been alot uglier.

Deal, or No Deal?

2008-06-09T10:00:00.002-04:00

I LOVE Deal or No Deal and this comes from someone who generally things game shows are stupid and wishes reality TV would go back where it came from and Scifi could have like 3 or 4 channels just so I could swap between episodes of Stargate.

Deal or no deal is fun to watch for one simple reason, its the closest thing you will ever get to "Ha Ha your poor!" a game show envisioned by a comedian on Comedy Central where the Contestants bet their own money and no one leaves until someone is poor! The thing is that they choose the most animated people that act so excited about everything that when they eliminate the million dollar briefcase I can't help but fall off my chair lauging as they (a) meltdown and continue choosing cases in hopes of winning big still while destroying their chances or (b) TRY to act excited when they win $40K when they had $200k on the board the round before.

The last episode I watched had a guy who came from humble beginnings and his wife to be and best friend as supporters. The best friend, on every round, is like "GO For it bro" meanwhile the chica is like "Deal, we can buy a house and get married". When the dude says no deal to $212K his lady is ready to eat him for lunch, and believe me she probably could, and then when he opens the case and the prize money drops to 189K his girlfriend is visibly pissed but his best friend is still like GO FOR IT MAN. Me? I'm on the floor splitting my side that he is even considering opening another case.

At this point I'm dying laughing but they add something to the deal and he comes to his senses and says deal. Turns out he was holding the $300 case...lucky him eh? Was still funny to watch, but not as funny as the guy that won $10 then got a second chance and won $400.

A New Hope for me and Linux

2008-06-02T11:34:00.005-04:00

Well this year is shaping up like I could fully return to the Fedora, maybe Ubuntu, on my home PC. I had switched back after software incompatibilities and all the issues with Java on open source plat forms. Additionally OpenOffice still didn't meet the grade and the net is still an IE friendly place which meant not having IE available, short of a VM, was also a problem. The final problem is a real alternative to outlook because at work we use an exchange server and when in Rome, it is wise to do as the Romans.

Now this year IE8 and Firefox3 are on the way and IE8 promises to adhere to web standards so essentially IE and FF are taking their next step together which means I won't be missing out when using FF3.

OpenOffice 3.0 seems to go a long way in terms of bridging the gap between itself and office, added to the fact I don't like Office 2007 where as with 2003 it was fine but I just wanted an alternative.

The OpenJDK solution that Sun is putting forward and is now integrated into the release of Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 means the Java headaches (while not completely gone) are practically a bad a memory.

Finally the Thunderbird email client now supports a calendar plug-in and the office email supports IMAP4 now. I still prefer Outlook since it is a more tightly integrated and functional email client/organizer however there are still things like Scalix and HP Openmail that have promise to them.

So basically by year end I could have a satisfactory Office, Browser and Email combination on an open platform for me to make a switch.

Viva la Vida

2008-05-31T00:26:00.002-04:00

Studying has been gobbling up my time in front of the computer and I haven't been getting here to blog even though there were things I wanted to sound off on. Such as more of the DNC Primary Election, "Deal or no Deal" (which I enjoy watching for ALL the wrong reasons), video games etc.

Even thought the motivation was there I still wasn't getting on to blog but today is different, its different because I've discovered that Coldplay has two singles off their new Album released. 'Viva la Vida or Death and his friends' is the album title and Viva la Vida (translation: Long live Life) and Violet Hill are the 2 releases.

Lately I've been listening to Parachutes, particularly track 1 'Don't panic', the phrase "We live in a beautiful world" have been resonating with me recently. Now comes along Viva la Vida and I love it, really puts me in that place where you are remembering an event or situation when you were in control but then you lost it and you realise you are reminiscing about something past and the phrase 'but that was when I ruled the world' really sums up how you feel. Its a bittersweet feeling because from the disappointment you gain an opportunity (if you can find it) but the song just captures that sorta exaggerated feel those situations have.

Dido's next album comes out later this year and possible another Keane album so I'm excited about music again as should any right minded person who enjoys music in this vein. Why is it so many words have e before i if its i before e except after c? meh!

Viva la Vida

Week 8

2008-05-23T16:41:00.002-04:00

Its the 8th Friday I've spent here working and its 5 or 6 left depending on my return date.

The time hasn't passed the way I thought it would and it sure could've been more productive but thus far its been a good experience. Before I arrived here cooking was really a pseudonym for frying or microwaving. The only spices I added to my food were black pepper and salt, usually after the fact. I'm not chef material and there is still quite a bit for me to come to terms with in the kitchen but I know I've got various forms of Pasta down, rice to some extent since the pot I have is too thin and tends to burn the rice at the bottom before it dries out.

Its also changed the way I view my diet, so now I think starch, protein and veg/vitamins. I don't snatch what is necessary the tastiest thing off the shelf but I take my time and look at what I'm going to be shoving down. So by and large its been a positive experience in that respect.

With regards to house keeping I now have a full appreciation and confidence in my ability to keep a house from smelling like hell while living in it. Of course it all comes down to getting certain things into a routine and maneuvering to keep the routine in tact. Laundry day, garbage Days, cleaning days. Of course the place still looks like crap but who's perfect?

I'm alot more mellow, the lack of things to do afforded me time to catch up on my gaming abit and do some studying I needed to do, but not enough of it. The 12 day visit from the other half was also a good experience kinda got to know the things I like/don't like about the living arrangement which presents things that can be worked on and improved.

So 8 Weeks in I know the only things I need to work on are keeping the house looking decent, keeping up my routine and doing more reading.

Congrats to Manchester United

2008-05-23T11:37:00.002-04:00

Manchester United won the 2008 UEFA Champions League Trophy in nail biting down to the wire fashion. The game wasn't the best mainly due to the field condition, which was wet, slippery and a bit unstable but it was a tremendous game with regards to effort. Hargreaves did his usual work horse routine Lampard was quiet in the first half and then scored a classy equalizer. C. Ronaldo did his bit using his height and pace to get in his goal and it went all the way down to penalties.

Of course there was the Drogba red card that kinda put a dramatic spin on the proceedings and while I agree a red card was deserved I don't understand why Tevez was only given a yellow when he clearly shoved another player, on dead ball and with full intention. He brought the game to stop and allow for the escalation and while I think Vidic was cutting it a bit close as well if your going to be dishing out red cards you can't give the one red and share out yellows.

In the end a penalty shootout always has a cruel end where 1 or 2 players will feel they were directly responsible, in this case it was Terry and to a lesser extent Anelka; very nearly C. Ronaldo.

Man U did play great football all season and the squad has the depth and strength as well as the potential to be a force next year without any major restructuring so I congratulate them.

Phantom Hourglass

2008-05-19T09:59:00.003-04:00

So I had half written off The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I had cleared the third temple and already I was sick of back tracking to the main temple and how just very tedious sailing around from island to island had become. To be honest though its still handled far better than Wind Waker, thinking back it seems like just yesterday I wanted to throw the game through the window for making me change the direction of the wind just so I could sail for 5mins to another location.

The scenic route is fun sometimes and to be honest there was something very enjoyable about galloping across the plains in Ocarina of Time. This feeling of enjoyment, however, is lost with sailing and now that you set a route and then shoot anything that moves it feels like a routine chore between objectives.

So basically the boat and the back tracking were about to turn me off a Zelda game but then I forged on a bit farther and they made up for it by giving me a halfway point in the re-occuring dungeon and with some genuinely clever gameplay aspects. I've been won back over and I think I shall make it to the end.

Water Proof Cell Phone

2008-05-17T13:12:00.003-04:00

I LOVE technology, there is something so satisfying about going "I wonder if they have a..." and finding it online, for sale and in different colours!

For me today that was going "I wonder if there are water proof cell phones?"

To my pleasure I found two, a Sony and an LG, but they only are sold in Asia so then I found this watch phone with bluetooth and a touch screen that comes in Black and Red.

If they were cheaper I would try to sell some this Crop Over!

Iron Man...For Real

2008-05-16T16:28:00.003-04:00

Cute in terms of timing...real cute this video (sucky buffering you may just be better downloading it) shows an exoskeleton capable of enhancing strength etc. I don't have much to say but the second comment on this website made me at least smile.

2008-05-16T10:41:00.004-04:00

I had come across this blog which I think spewed enough hatred toward Macs and the ridiculous television advertisements that I would never have to say anything about it. I was sorely mistaken because new ads keep coming out and they just get more and more annoying.

Seriously, somebody needs to just stop this.

Dear Nationnews.com

2008-05-15T12:17:00.004-04:00

It occurs to me that this website has been up for sometime and like a monument to the 'old' ways of infantile website design it stands as a testament to commercial commitment and rigidity in the face of a new dynamic information age.

Long story short it look old and stink.

More ads than content, content placed haphazardly around the web page. Its a down right shame and someone needs to catch a clue and rebuild that website from scratch. Implement a content management system of some kind, migrate it to a blog engine; do whatever is necessary but do something please.

Regards,

Person with a headache from your cruddy site

Net Neutrality

2008-05-15T10:54:00.003-04:00

Net Neutrality doesn't really, in my opinion, get the press it deserves. Here in Anguilla I use Caribcable and I've had a host of problems with my internet when I've done things other than surf the internet. When I called the first person I spoke to said, quite adamantly, no we do not restrict connections etc. but I'm not an idiot (most of the time) so I asked to speak to an engineer who then said well yeah we 'manage' peer-to-peer traffic. He said this was in an effort to curb illegal file sharing.

So I said to him, well I want to download things using Utorrent that don't infringe copyrights and more importantly I purchased 2 gaming consoles both of which use P2P connections for online gaming. Neither of which work because of your restrictions, the gentleman said he would monitor my connection and see what could be done. One week later nothing had been done, so I called back and got another lady, one who seemed aware of the restrictions but seemed fine with BSing me. She tried then to explain to me, which I find rather amusing, that people can hack my files using P2P and give me viruses and to protect me they need to restrict my P2P connections and bandwidth. She informed me that this protection is relaxed between 11pm and 6am.

RUBBISH, this is where net neutrality comes in, they should just provide the connection they advertise and I pay for. No one is paying to surf the internet, if all I wanted to do was browse web pages I would expect I'd pay a lower rate to have my connection severely gimped. The simple fact that these restrictions are removed off peak tells me that its a bandwidth conservation method more than anything else. I mean if it was to stop piracy and protect me from viruses as they seem to think I'd believe then why remove the restrictions at all?

If it was my home that I lived at that connection would be gone in a hurry but I have no choice in the matter so I'll call them back again and try to reach that engineer, to see if I can have something done.

Update:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/charter-will-monitor-customers-web-surfing-to-target-ads/index.html?ref=technology

This is the type of Garbage that just needs to STOP.

Racist? They aren't racist...just...confused?

2008-05-15T09:58:00.005-04:00

How I DO love Television interviews. Its just something about that camera light shining in the face of the interviewee and the stupid things they say in public that makes me break out laughing.

Take the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was watching it last night and lo and behold they show some interviews with voters from West Virginia. Now I know that a few interviews don't constitute the entire state but this is a place where I saw the reports on CNN, on FOX (yes I do watch it for a good laugh) and ABC talk about how race is somewhat of an issue. 22% of Voters in the CNN exit pole said race was an issue but the comments I saw last night were golden

Edit: Here is that video, the embed wasn't working so I had to link off site.

One Lady said, referring to Obama's middle name Hussien, "I've had enough of Hussien". Another said "He's Muslim and that has alot to do with it" (hint: he isn't) and the other lady said "He's from the other race and I'm scared of the other race because we have so much conflict with them"...Conflict? What conflict? I thought you had stopped beating African Americans and hosing them down in the streets. Anyway you can go here to the daily show's web site and look for "Indecision 08 - West Virigina".

Ridiculous.

Democratics (You need to a be a lil Bush Fan to get that)

2008-05-13T02:46:00.004-04:00

A long 3 day weekend and a cockroach have deeply disturbed my sleep cycle, *note to self* if i'm sleeping, stay asleep.

I've said on a few occasions I thought the American process for electing a leader was a good one; since it separated the election of a leader from the ruling party. At home I felt (why can't these people read a fricken promtper?...re: the horrible penis enlargement ad currently eroding my brain through the television) as though choosing the representative for your constituency and by extension determining the ruling party was a conflict of interest. I mean, your constituent could be an idiot but represent the party you want to vote for.

I realise now, however, anything to simplify the process of voting is a good thing. I've been following this American election very closely and it makes very little sense. I just get annoyed at how stupid the coverage/opinions are.

Intro one of my new favorite quotes:

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill

Oh and Comedy Central is it.

You? Me? Wii?

2008-05-10T14:50:00.005-04:00

Yeah, so I got Nintendo Wii. Long time coming, I've been trying to get one for a while and now I have one and I'm really pleased. I'm not one that is just trying to hop on the train I'm a conservative buyer when it comes to games and until the games I want to play are out I don't move.

So the first, and until I rinse it out, game I got was Super Smash Bros Brawl. This game immediately underscores everything I love and hate about the console.

The online is so horribly botched that it makes me slightly sick every time I sign into the online service. So here goes, instead of a unique name that identifies my console I get a long friend code. Ok fine so I add other Wiis and they get notified...hold it there..no? You mean we each have to know each other's code before hand? *sigh* OK fine, so we've added each other now we can play online right?

Nope, all that does is allow the Wii's to trade messages and some other data. FINE so how do I get to play? WHAT?!?! I didn't have to trade wii codes because there is ANOTHER code for EACH game? So...can I see, from my Wii, what games my friends are playing? No..

So at least I can play random matches online right? Like some 7 Stock now item brawls? NO!?!?!? All I can play is 2 minute 2v2 or 1x4 matches? *SIGH* Ok FINE I'll play. What do you mean its regional and I'm not in the US? You know what? I'll just stay offline thanks.

And to wrap up, Brawl is a dumbed down version of Melee with a GREAT roster.

I'm not ecstatic but I'm happy, now I've got my bearings there should be no more unpleasant surprises. Wii sports is MAD fun tho :D.

I'm Back

2008-05-09T10:14:00.004-04:00

Was a little break taken, impromptu albeit, but I'm back now. My lovely girlfriend is back in BIM and I am still here in AXA. I've settled back into a rhythm and I'm ready to resume spewing my own personal propaganda for no particular reason *cue evil and insidious laughter*.

I'm more pissed than ever bout the outcome of our local election, not because I think the worse party won but because we were handicapped for choices to begin with. I'm furious about the US election but thats because I'm bitter and I'm willing to admit it. I'm sick of the current theme at the Camp Nou and I got myself a Wii. Its like the return of the Jedi, but I've still got my own two hands!

So yeah, I have alot to piss and moan about, yippee.

Well Played Barcelona

2008-04-29T16:47:00.004-04:00

Manchester United 1 : 0 Barcelona - Aggregate Score.

No complaints, both matches were a joy to watch Messi and Ronaldo never got off and Scholes in the end did what was necessary. Barca made a mistake and they capitalized, it was still a brave showing but Rijkaard must learn his lesson from this. Eto'o up front seemed to have been given a mandate, he took so few shots and played more a centre attacking player than a striker, which is when I feel he plays his best football.

Now AC Milan are fighting for a qualifying position in the Champions League. Maybe a year in the Cup wouldn't be the worse thing for them while the rebuild. I back them 100% in the derby against Inter but if they draw or even loose they have come back well.

I've seen enough english football and while I think Man Unt are the best squad in that league, their style of play just isn't something I can say I'm a fan of, I'd have to say that I think Arsenal are the team in the league I can follow and enjoy watching. So next season I hope they continue with their style as I'll be following them.

Milan look to make some changes and this season they weren't their style wasn't all there with the team aging but with Pato, Kaka, Gourcuff (if he stays) and maybe a 2 or 3 new faces they could be back to normal. Or at least be able to maintain the form they have had recently.

Two big big derbies approaching and summer transfer season, I think Rijkaard is going to be going but I hope they let him stay as I think he has learned alot. Still, with the team he had this season Barca shouldn't be a second season without silverware. Maybe he does need to go? I don't know but if Mourinho is his replacement, then I can be happy with that as long as there is a composite of his controlled still and Barca's passing and movement. Maybe they will play with more width, who knows.

Well Played Barcelona, I enjoyed every minute of the game even if I wore a frown from the time Scholes put that beauty into the net.

Operating Systems

2008-04-28T22:02:00.005-04:00

Been on a wee bit of a break, Shari's here so I've been otherwise pre-occupied. Of course however,when I find something sufficiently infuriating I do need to vent onto the mighty internets. WHAT was Microsoft thinking when they stiched Vista together. Now I was fairly pissed when I saw Fedora 7 I was kinda disappointed. They dropped the 'core' name I really expected the package management system to be tightly integrated and more user friendly. Alas, it wasn't to be and I think for my next home distro of linux I'll be joining the Ubuntu faithful.

Back to the point, I've been disappointed by operating systems before, they are the pretty eyed women of the night who promise so much and then leave you with so little. Vista...I'm looking at you.

Firstly, I can't find anything, why was the window with network connections buried. I mean the links on the left are useful but they are in no means intuitive, I find too many things that are useful are tucked away out of sight. Generally I find the re-arrangement of sections hasn't been for the best.

Secondly, why does it use so much freaking resources...800mb of ram, no seriously. Ready boost is a nice touch though, I like it its very practical.

Thirdly, software support...Symantec whats the big Idea, people plunk down cash for symantec 10 and for vista you need endpoint 11. Talk about moving the goal post mid game! I know this is unfounded but I'd like some sort of evidence that symantec 10 coulnd't be patched up to work on Vista.

Finally, I'm being overly harsh and I know it but for the time it took, the money it costs and the emphasis being put on it I expect a little more than DX10 and easily scheduled disk defragging.

Blah! My wishlist for an OS:

Simple CUSTOMIZABLE interface - Easy for begginers but those who know can modify it to their needs. Look at what happened to office 07, the ribbon system is nice but its not for everyone so why force it?

An intuitive learning curve for the OS, not the user - No, do not enable every fraggin service at the start. Enabled the basics and as services are requested enabled to more harmless ones and give a brief basic explanation of why I should full time enable the services.

Open source - The code need not be community developed but give everybody a level playing field in terms of access to information and people build tightly integrated solutions. Then again that would be great for software in general so if one body produces their own custom service/dll for acheiving a goal multiple apps could use it rather than everybody launching their own assault on system resources.

Remove Facebook's People You May Already Know

2008-04-20T17:54:00.005-04:00

*UPDATE*

None of the below methods currently are working, for me at least, if/when I have some time to look at this again I'll try again and update.

*/UPDATE*

Yes so what is the point of complaining if you're not going to act?

Here are two methods for removing this module if you are a Firefox user.

The first, and the one that I used, is to run a small script on your page that blogs the content of the section.

Install the Greasemonkey Add-on.
Go to this page.
Hit "Install This Script", as you'll see it says it was written my majatt so need to fear.

Once its installed the header still appears but you don't have to see anyone you don't like.

The second method, which is simpler to execute but I'll be upfront and say I haven't bothered to test. Get Adblock Plus and add "*facebook.com*friend_sugge

ster.js" to the block list.

For a good laugh, go search "people you may know" in facebook and check the groups, its quite funny.

Hypothesis

2008-04-19T19:09:00.003-04:00

Here is a totally hypothetical scenario.

What if there was a country called The Combined States of Freedom (CSF) and they were a world super power. They had Oil, lots of land and a strong socio-political presence on the world stage. Now lets say there is another are called the Central Eastern Provinces...the Centre East. Anyway lets toss in one more group of countries lets call it them the Union.

Now if the CSF had attacked provinces in the Central East under the Banner of a pre-emtive strike seeing the CEP as a threat the freedom of the people of the CSF and as a result affected economies all over the world. And locally they were infringing on people's rights and passing law after law that stepped towards a totalitarian rule.

What would the CSF's defense, from a moral stand point, if the Union was to attack them saying their practices and actions have harmed their economy and are a threat to the freedom of their nations...

Facebook Saga

2008-04-19T01:33:00.004-04:00

What I loved about Facebook were all the options and control mechanisms in place, a control freak is happily part of my nature on the internet. Now I'm noticing (not saying it wasn't done before) they are easing in 'features' without the pre-amble or the control. Like "Social Ads" which is on be default and allows the use of your profile. I guess as a part of the whole "Fan Of" feature.

If you check the privacy page ever so often you notice these changes and and move accordingly. From the very beginning thats kinda how its been I joined liked how much it tied you to a group of people but along the way you add a few people you don't really talk to and you get a few too many alerts. I'll freely admit its easy to get sucked right in, especially in the early phase. So I disabled most of the alerts and removed people who I couldn't justify being on of my 'friends'. Here is an option I would love, adding people as acquaintances! So not only do they get your limited profile but your perception of your relationship with them is never misconceived.

Now comes along 'People you may know', if there is a way to disable it the instructions are probably sitting next the Holy Grail and written on the President's Book on page 34 (National Treasure 2 reference...wikipedia it....or watch the movie...like right now...I'll wait)
.
.
.
(How was it?...did you see the ending? SHAMELESS lead in for another Movie)
Point even though my activity in Facebook hasn't increased I'm on it more often, check the comments on pics and people's notes and the wall to walls cuz I'm not home. Since I'm not at any limes etc. to hear the cross talk I'm fairly out to sea and its a kinda refreshing. When I'm having my breakfast and every other morning or so I read it and I don't like seeing people who I don't recognize or don't even like during my morning meal.

Petty, yes I know, but I've been spoilt for choices so far and now they put something in my face which is a clear attempt to try to suck me in further with no way to say no thanks and no more?

At least it gave me something to rant about at 1am after some reading and a meal I wanted to let settle before bed.

*YAAAAAWN* yeah, and with that I'm gone.

Final Fantasy: Supermarket Crisis

2008-04-18T18:44:00.004-04:00

You can tell you've been playing too much Final Fantasy when you envisage your shopping list to be akin to an item list before a large dungeon (the next week). Pondering if is feasible to put +5 Vitamin A next to the low fat milk and using that as grounds to justify the price over the regular milk. Plotting carefully to avoid the deadly trap of buying too much and not leaving yourself a sufficient financial cushion should you need to back track and resupply, with different items, part way through the mission.

I'm going to go sleep for a bit, I think I need it.

Just a few pics

2008-04-18T12:47:00.003-04:00

The Office Parking lot at 5:30pm...

The main entrance

Me before a meeting.

Avram Grant: Once a Football Manager now a Comedian

2008-04-17T22:36:00.001-04:00

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=662580

Messi and Kaka? Riiiiight, keep dreaming buddy.

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=663403

Pure. Gold. The last bit was too funny, has to be the most uncomfortable interview ever and I hope it ends up on one of those new fangled video-on-demand services like youtoob.

Privacy just aint what it used to be

2008-04-17T14:46:00.004-04:00

This is taking a joke too far. Software that creeps into a p2p network and tries to find and locate people downloading content, in this case child pornography, they deem illegal.

Hang on a tick, did I just say "deem illegal" and mention child pornography in the same breath? This will give you an idea as to why, someone being prosecuted for child pornography for taking pictures of fully clothed teenagers.

With regards to tracking people my issues are just that IP addresses can be masked, hidden and re-directed. This software claims to be able to find the person's PC and identify the very computer itself rather than just some ID your Internet Service Provider gave you.

They make a reasonable argument but what happens if they decide that people who download certain kinds of music are inclined to be violent and start tracking your activity? Its one thing to try to protect people but once who can tag someone on the net via their IP correctly you follow them around. See what they bought on amazon that day, what websites they visited and what email provider they use.

Even worse is this statement

It's able to help investigators conduct undercover operations involving peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, chat rooms, Web sites, and mobile telephones.

What's next?

Night Note - Construction

2008-04-16T22:34:00.002-04:00

Construction on my apt, well fine. As long as the water doesn't go out more often and there is space to park my car, whatever. Construction work going on after 9PM? Now that is going a bit too far.

More Food

2008-04-16T13:21:00.004-04:00

Yes, I am pleased as punch with the fact I haven't poisoned myself (yet). Baked Chicken, Rice and a small tossed salad. Cooking is time consuming but I get what I want when its done, gotta love that.

Media Control - Kinda Follow up

2008-04-15T00:34:00.003-04:00

Not alot to say, just wanted to repost this video that was linked to in a comment. Its an hr long buts it is very interesting.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428

Side Note: Surprises

2008-04-14T22:30:00.002-04:00

How nice it was to come home for lunch and have no electricity and low water pressure as a result *sigh*. I love my lemon tea and honey is wonderful.

Media Control

2008-04-14T09:50:00.004-04:00

I saw a video on TV last night that really struck a cord, this guy on youtube was saying his biggest concern about the election is how much the mainstream media controls the process. The guy is spot on, I mean besides the fact that there only a few news distributors for global news (how many articles site Reuters, AFP or AP as the source of their pictures or stories?) the companies that distribute the news own the TV and Radio stations. They own the major websites and they effectively control the vast majority of what we see, hear and read.

His take was focused on the presidential race in the US and how the mass media can pretty much exclude a candidate and remove them from the race. They decide who is popular (who will generate more attention to the media) and push them. They feed off the issues and can blow anything out of proportion and focus on a negative story until a candidate looses momentum.

It goes alot further than that here is a classic example, the story by the BBC which clearly states that

temperatures have not risen globally since 1998

but here is the adjusted article that came out a few days after to replace the original. Now they both say the same thing but the adjusted one puts in a different light, and moves that statement way down near the bottom of the article. Most people will absorb the reasoning that temperatures are on the rise which is in line with all the media putting out. Its also interesting to note that the rise in global temperature in '98 was attributed to el nino. As the person that sent me that info said; that would mean weather systems have a far more adverse effect on temperature than any man made threat.

The thing is night in and night out I see more and more adverts saying that green house gases are raising the temperature but thats just what the mainstream media portrays. Why? I don't know maybe environmental lobbyists I don't really care who it is because I'm glad they are making companies operate cleaner but its being done in an almost brainwashing manner.

What is the scariest part is that the media is never accountable. Look at Barbados, 2 News Papers, 1 TV Station and 3 main Radio Broadcasters. If the Nation, CBC and 98.1 run a story it could as well be fact and if it isn't no one is held accountable. Good journalism requires sources and filters but no matter how factual the base of a story is, using a few words can completely change the context to whatever mandate an editor is given.

The sad thing is that the only solution I can see is for people to pay more attention and be more conscious of what the mainstream feeds them. If Mikey J allegedly touches another kid during a tense period of War in the Middle East and the media pays more attention to that than people dying in a War. People should be able to filter out the subterfuge and focus on whats really there. Vote on whats really there, money on whats relevant and time on what's important.

I guess we're as good as doomed then sigh.

Officially Settled In...I Think

2008-04-13T20:19:00.004-04:00

I think it's safe to say that I've officially settled in. I've got my washday, diet, daily and weekly routines down. I know where most things are and I've bout everything I need to be comfortable. For the first time since I arrived I had to put in gas and while I believe self serve is fairly inefficient clearly it has the cost saving merit, oh if I never mentioned it all the pumps here are self serve.

I've fully launched into my exercise routine and I'm inching towards being able to keep up with the people in the video...but we will see. Oh! today I went a lil extra with my meal.

Penne Pasta with baby shrimp, stir fried vegetables and a home made Alfredo sauce. Went down pretty good :-).

From here I should be able to rant on random things...as usual :-).

If I had private jet and 2 shotguns....

2008-04-10T19:40:00.005-04:00

I swear everytime I go to a new barber I have a new reason to hate satan's handymen. Why is that so few barbers can take simple instructions? HMM???

Furthermore I'd like all of machine wielding hell-born from JA to stay there! I never get my neck wring bout so much in my whole life! The man drag the machine cross my face like he was cutting cuss cuss grass wid de same hair cutting machine and REALLY wanted to get that grass off. He stick me in my eye no less than twice with the 'soft' brush, jook it in my mouth once and was more beating the hair off my face than brushing.

This man start cutting on my head going forward, he mad? This is not 1982, by now barbers should know if you cut hair forward to start the hair will go in the persons face and if its the first stroke that is no small amount of hair either. When done my man spray me wid in de FACE with the alcohol wid no warning I barely shut my eye in time and call me picky buy I would have preferred if he asked and if I could've had it done with a piece of cloth rather than having alcohol sprayed on my FACE as in, eyes, nose, mouth he ain't miss NUTTIN.

I mighta been a bit more calm, not really, if he hadn't asked me TWICE if to SHAVE my beard. To make it worse I replied TWICE NO do NOT shave my beard just TRIM it. The idiot still shave my beard, as Shari pointed out the last time my beard was cut into a goatee or anthing resembling was April of 2006!

To cap it ALL off, I ask de stupid man for directions to the Gym and he send me the WRONG DIRECTION.

I thank ye Lord for providing me the strength to give him the $8US and leave with some measure of calm before letting it boil over in the car ride home.

Oh, and on a side note, when I got to the Gym and asked the price of some resistance bands...the cashier didn't know. The price was not on the shelf nor could she find them in the 'system' i.e. a highlight spreadsheet.

White Rice and Shrimp

2008-04-08T14:54:00.003-04:00

Wow, been kinda busy trying to build this web server on Solaris, if nothing else it has been educational. So many tiny mistakes you can make that will have adverse effects, I guess my luck hasn't been the best either.

What else has been taking up my time? Well I've started back exercising and I've taken an interest in my nutrition. People have always bagged on me eating cereal nearly every morning but these new health cereals really do pack a punch in terms of your daily supplement.

Of course if you are reading this, as I will be someday...someday soon, you will be wondering why I have the title as it is, and its fairly simple. Its what I cooked this Sunday gone. It was a bit annoying since the shrimp I bought was not 'de-veined' as I thought it was. Not any more annoyed however than finding out a shrimp's vein is actually a euphemism for intestine. Large or small...thats nasty. Anyway I'm positing the recipe for good measure.

So I got a free lesson in removing shrimp 'veins', small slit on the concave side from head to tail and pull out the dark vein like string.

Required:

1 Cup of Rice
6-8oz of Shrimp (precooked & deveined)
1 Tomato
1 Sweet Pepper
1 Onion
Ketchup
2 Garlic Pods
5 Tsp of Butter
Limes
Seasoning
3 cups of Patience (very important)

Rice:

Wash the rice.
Bring 1 & 1/2 - 2 Cups of water to a boil in a small/medium pot with heat on high.
Add rice, lower heat to medium and cover leaving space for steam to escape.
Monitor the rice and when craters start to form (i.e. the water is drying out and the rice is pulling together leaving air spaces) turn the heat to low and cover tight.
Leave for 10-15 mins but monitor it.
Fluff, good to go.

Gravy:

Small frying pan on medium-low heat; add 2 tsp of butter and spread it around the pan.
Toss in 1 chopped pod of garlic, 2 onion rings and sweet pepper...half the amt of onions or if ya really like sweet pepper the same amt. Stir them around but not too vigorously and when they just starting to burn add about 2 tbl spoons of ketchup.
Stir.
Add in about 1/2 cup of water and stir, at this time you can add some black pepper or seasoned salt. Keep stirring occasionally and allow the water to boil out, once it starts to get thick taste it and see if it need more ketchup, pepper or w/e it is you like. If you taste it and its good, then take it off the heat and let it cool.

Shrimp:

Completely cover the shrimp in water.
Add lime (2-3 Squeezed Limes).

2-3 tsp of butter depending on the size of the pan and this size of the pan determined by the number of shrimp you'll be doing at once.
Add 1 chopped garlic pod.
While the butter melts wash off the shrimp.
Add the shrimp into the pan.
Add Seasoned salt, black pepper etc to taste.
Fry til the shrimp look cooked (start to shrink and change colour a bit) or for about 4mins.

Add it all together and You have what I ate Sunday!

(props to Shari and to Mums)

PumpHouse

2008-04-05T11:51:00.002-04:00

I went out in Anguilla! Yes, I did, what an experience and the only thing I regret was not having m camera, which means no pictures. The place was alot like Jumbies (formerly known as Jamrock) its wooden. The Bar and Bathroom are to one side and the live band is down in the back, which means there are a crap load of people between you and they bar pretending hey know how to dance.

I went with a work mate of some of their friends and the vibe was relaxed, the live band was doing reggae mixes to alot of Pop and R&B singles (Too Late, You're Beautiful etc.). All in all it wasn't a bad night out, however I feel I must point out that this place was purportedly one of the hot spots on the island and it was a luke warm reggae vibe. Not quite what I'm used to, I'm still kinda waiting to hear (8)Soca in me vein Soca in Bloooood and seeing some bashy tings in short pants doing dixie.
Thankfully I set my expectations very very low so I wasn't disappointed.

Hungry's!

2008-04-01T21:44:00.003-04:00

So some things are cheap in Anguilla and something aren't btw, those prices are inline with normal eating. Rice, Fish and Salad is $10-13US. Oh well.

Rice and FIsh

2008-03-31T12:18:00.004-04:00

The water stayed off for quite some time but that issue, thankfully, is now resolved. I did however try my hand at cooking rice and baking some pre-seasoned fish. Pics below as evidence.

Seems Microsoft isn't the only one making Windows no one can use

2008-03-29T15:41:00.004-04:00

Direct link here.

I ended up calling the previous Engineer about the window and he then warned me not to open the kitchen windows, thankfully (kinda) he had learned the hard way as well and told me how to get it shut. Bang it with a big bottle of water til it shuts, sound advice but he left out the part where the window has a spring and you have to hold it from re-opening after each hit. Easy thing to leave out but I wish he didn't as I spent a good minute before I realised the damn thing was opening back up by itself.

At least I got the chips fried and they were quite filling. Got the blank CDs from the computer store and made it to the supermarket. Now, I am gonna go nap and then study.

Funny how tings work out...

2008-03-29T15:34:00.001-04:00

Ok, the first time I posted this there were some problems, here is a direct link just incase this re-port doesn't work.

Umbrella

2008-03-29T10:31:00.002-04:00

I am now questioning those who call themselves 'friends' that allowed me to move to Anguilla and not bring an Umbrella. Damn all of you!

Anyway, I got the camera and the PC back on speaking terms so the apt album in the previous post has been updated.

Camera or Cable? Do I care?

2008-03-28T22:20:00.002-04:00

So I've moved upstairs into the new apartment and I feel alot more comfortable, it is just so much cleaner (props tot he previous tenant). So today was a fairly productive day, got some wacky calls which tested me but now that I've gotten through them I feel alot more comfortable and confident.

After moving up, I whipped out the old Olympus DigiCam and took some pics, I remember when I thought the flash was super fast, but now it feels like ages between photos. Whats more I plugged it into my PC and the PC refuses to see the mem card on it and I don't have a card reader for XD cards.

I wanted a new camera but now I'm sure I'm getting one, its just when. The issue with the PC could be the cable since it also is used for my MP3 player and that too is having probs connecting to the PC but 3.2MP, slow ass flash, no optical zoom and XD picture cards...I want a new one.

If you haven't guessed no, no new pics.

Temp Apt Pics

2008-03-28T09:59:00.002-04:00

Link to the pics of the short stay apartment, pics of the perm one to follow later.

Ready for the final move

2008-03-27T22:14:00.002-04:00

The other guy leaves tomorrow which means as of about 2pm tomorrow I'm on my own in Anguilla and will be changing apartments. Not very exciting but at least I'll be able to settle right in since where I will be shall be my location for the next 3 months.

I feel alot better now, the medication works quite well if not leaving me a bit light headed. I've also discovered that Vodka is obscenely cheap here so I'll try to smuggle bottles back during my stay, lol.

Hopefully I'll be able to put up some pics tomorrow.

Day 4 - Finding a Rythym

2008-03-27T09:18:00.002-04:00

So I'm pretty much settled in for now; I'll be uprooted one more time when I move over to the other apartment but that is no big deal I should think. I've gotten my tour of the island and a tour of the office so things are a bit more familiar to me and I was planning on going over to St. Marteen today but I'll hold that off til next weekend to facilitate the move to the other apartment.

I've already found myself busy with a few things; blogging of course has come back to full force, some ideas I always wanted to flesh out and now I have some time and studying is picking back up but I'm not into the zone yet. I also want to start back with morning resistance training, maybe I'll join a job for a 2 month or maybe not. I would like to get back into running but we will see.

One thing about here though is you really appreciate the value of water. In BIM its kinda like whatever, oh I've got a leaking pipe I'll fix that in the morning. Here its like "my pipe is leaking I need to get this fixed now!". In Barbados I would have drink a glass of water and pour the rest down the drain but now I buy my drinking water so wasting a drop is out of the question. In this respect its been a bit of an eye opener.

Anyway back to work.

Hospital

2008-03-26T12:40:00.002-04:00

Ok, I'm done being negative in any form or fashion.

So yesterday I had a dull chest pain all day, I checked the net and the typical cause was heartburn and I knew my Father had that issue alot and he always talked about it so I figured it was just my turn.

I bared with it through the day and bought some anti-acid, got home had some dinner and took that anti-acid. The only problem was I still didn't feel any better. Then I tried to go to bed, all of a sudden the dull pain is far stronger and breathing is hurting like crazy. No time for games and I went to the Hospital. Which was ok ya know the nurse was nice enough and I was the only person in the waiting room then 1 other family joined me.

The doctor was cool enough and they gave me some medication to take that night and prescription to be filled the next day, which I did this morning. I'm just glad I'm ok, and I'm here to enjoy another day.

Overall however I'm pretty bummed about my health of recent, breathing problems and the super back spasm. The flu knocked me clean off my feet, things will get better soon thought I'm sure.

Subway!

2008-03-25T22:44:00.001-04:00

Had a crab meat sub, it was wonderful...simply wonderful. The warm toasted bread and sweet crab meat made my day.

Super Market

2008-03-25T12:10:00.002-04:00

Went to the Super Market today and got started on digging in for the next couple of months. I am fairly eager to try the Subway down here, I LOVED going to Subways when I was in T&T. I like subs in general I guess, why else would I trek to town from my office to get a sub from Cafe Blue?

Well that was before they took Pineapples off the menu and couldn't go in super centre and buy 2 blocks of damn cheese. I used to make super centre subbies snort when I was TeleBarbados.

So far so good though, seems like days in the office are long and quite, perfect for me to get some work one...well...outside of the damn drilling and hammering down the corridor.

Day 3

2008-03-25T07:31:00.001-04:00

It dawns on me, as morning breaks, that someone up there is just having a laugh. Woke up this morning sweating, which makes no sense I'm sleeping with the ceiling fan on...wait...its off? Odd...oh well I'll just turn on the bathroom light and get my morning started *flick*...no light. Wait, no Power? Surely you jest, I'm almost afraid to wake up tomorrow.

Anyway, power came back on a little while ago, good thing I ironed my clothes last night, so I'm going to stop complaining and finish getting ready.

I can't wait to get into the supermarket later today.

Photo Blog

2008-03-24T14:47:00.000-04:00

Just a little snip, this a shot from outside the house. I guess I'll be doing this now and again until I'm settled in or satisfied I've taken enough photos.

No Water? (Day 2)

2008-03-24T14:43:00.001-04:00

I woke to find the water in the house off and thought myself fortunate to have some bottles of water (of unknown age) that I could boil. What is this? I don't have any bottle gas left? How shocking, at least I can get on the Internet isn't working. I could chat on MSN but I couldn't surf, what the hell is going on? Tried to use the TBB DNS to see if that would resolve the issue, no dice now I can't get back onto Messenger.

All I've got to eat is that horrid Chinese food in the fridge and now I've got nothing to force it down my throat with.

After the stop over in Antigua, the delayed flight and the annoying child who kicked by chair from every angle up until his biscuit crumb riddle younger brother walked up to me like I was his long last father. I figured maybe, just maybe today would have been an ok day by contrast clearly someone has set out to prove me wrong.

I want to go back home.

Trip to Anguilla (Day 1)

2008-03-23T10:35:00.000-04:00

So the Liat Flight 754 was on time, it boarded quite quickly and the flight was bearable. Lots of turbulence but the landing was pretty smooth. I even had a human being sitting next to me on the flight with whom I could conduct an intelligent conversation.

All was well until I landed in Antigua. I was supposed to get on 314 to St. Kitts and then onto Anguilla on 128 but upon arriving in Antigua the gentleman told me I had been switched to a direct flight. "GREAT!" I thought, this is just getting better; until I arrived at the in-transit desk and found that the lady seemed perplexed by me getting a direct flight to Anguilla. "Oh!" she exclaimed, as she proceeded to explain the flight to Anguilla was in the evening and I wouldn't be arriving until 7pm tonight.

At least there is free wifi and I got a voucher for some free food.

Cause and Effect

2008-03-21T23:59:00.000-04:00

Choices are supposed to be a good thing. Inherently, however, there are consequences which very often contain a very large negative aspect if the choice was a poor one. Freedom to choose isn't always available and quite often people fight very very hard for that choice but upon receiving it they can no longer blame others for their restrictions and short comings but merely themselves.

This is seen on a larger scale with things like democracy or fighting for free speech etc. but really and truly almost every person goes through this as they shift from being under their parent's control to making their own decisions. Some are easy; like choosing your own diet or deciding what to do with your evenings but some aren't. Like what kind of car to buy or where to buy land or at what age should you start building your house. When your parents restrict your relationships then you can always say "I'm not committing til I can control *insert seemingly random variable here*" but when the commitment level is your own choice then its something different. When the pacing and direction of the relationship are dictated (in part) by your decisions regarding work, how you spend your money and even how you spend your time.

Then its really different.

Randomness and Ranting

2008-03-17T21:11:00.000-04:00

I still find myself with a propensity to dislike those who think they are cooler than the rest of the world and as a result can behave as they feel like. Yes that was a general statement without context but I feel it serves better this way.

Here trying to do some work on Shari's PC which is gasping for air and bleeding left right and center but holding on some how.

I really should just write the blog and then come up with the title as so often something comes to the fore in the middle of the blog not in the slightest related to the original title or first 2 or even 3 paragraphs.

Capitalism, I've written about it before and quite frankly that was a general overview and I feel to pick on the music industry. They have persecuted so called 'pirates' for months without denting the user base of 'illegally' downloaded music. I think the base issue is that people want to be very very rich for very little work. You want to produce 12 songs, record them to album and then live off it? Bull. Shit.

I can't even say that full fledged because the artists themselves don't make that much money off the album sales. They make it from performances so its the labels who try to profit from nothing, album distribution may have been a necessary and very profitable practice in the past but with the advent of the internet the true is that those big distributors and slower, less flexible and less sensible everyday. Just like the oil industry however a change is difficult, risky and unnecessary so long as they can keep the artists and consumers on short leashes.

I think two things need to happen:
1. The distributors need to go.
2. Albums need to go.

Albums are another constraint on the industry that, by nature, binds the artists in terms of timeline for releasing music and distribution. Selling an album is a task.

Now iTunes and all of its ugly step children are putting pressure on the industry but in the final analysis the cost of distribution can be very close to 0 and the value from passing this cost onto the consumer is a greater focus on quality and attracting listeners.

If music is free then I'm free to choose who I listen to and then I'm inclined to go out and see these people perform and I'll pay to see them perform. Even if I paid a fee of $20 a month for direct downloads of music that were easily searched and cross-referenced and got the songs for free that is fine because I'd be paying for the service but as long as the Monolithic corporations control things this change will almost never come to pass.

The transition from profit maximization and piss poor customer satisfaction to value oriented companies is happening everyday. Even today Cisco came and presented a new service which is more value focused than "how best can we all buy yachts while keeping the share holders happy". The people in suits just don't get it.

I love Shari but Lord the child is loopy.