All posts by chefquix
As you may or may not be aware, Google has recently announced it’s entrance into the free email market, most likely a direct response to the increasing competition from Internet portal giant Yahoo and Software behemoth Microsoft. While Yahoo offers 10 megs with it’s free account and Microsoft’s Hotmail offers a measely 2 megs, Google has promised one Gig (1024 megs) of space to retain emails online. Along with what will probably be an inovative and intuitive user interface, Google will serve up advertisements based on keywords in your messages. This move, of course, has privacy advocates in an uproar. Accusations of Big Brother and 1984 have been bandied about the internet faster than links to Janet Jackson’s nipplegate.
What a load of bullshit.
RFC 2012
Well I’ve delayed and procrastinated, two of my best skills. I wield these tools with the razor accuracy of a sushi chef, I wittle away time and put off my internal deadlines with impressive accuracy. I wanted to do a big post about any one of numerous topics but I couldn’t settle on a particular thread, so I come to you, my faithful readers with my hat in my hand and ask this simple question:
What do you want to read here?
I’ve enjoyed talking about a wide variety of topics over the last six months, but is there any particular topic or subject that you guys have really appreciated, that you would like to see more of? Now’s your chance, this is a request for comments. I want feedback, negative or positive, a little progress report if you will. Do you want me to talk more about my philosophy, or dip into a more spiritual realm? (Eventually those two seem to merge…) Do you want me to talk about the environment and the damage we’re doing to it? Do you want me to add my voice to the political pundits and give my perception of the current events? Do you want me to throw out a few new ideas? (I’ve still got a few!) Future societies, possibly technologies? Thoughts on evolution and our eventual destiny? Predictions of doom and end-of-times? What do you guys want to read, because at the end of the day I am but your humble servant and I always have something to talk about. I guess I need a bit of direction, right now I seem to be blowing all over the place.
Let me know, and tell a friend! Hah, I am the biggest blog whore out there.
Confessions of a tired mind
As time draws on my thoughts become more scattered. I find myself more and more distracted with anything other than doing real work of any kind, whether that be so called work work, writing in this blog or even doing anything else that I am responsible for or a course of action I have wanted to pursue. It is very distressing yet I can’t help myself. It has taken a whole weekend and a slew of internal excuses for me to even update this blog. I’m sick. I hurt my back on Saturday. The world is getting more and more messed up. Apparently, the internet isn’t fostering democracy and freedom as many of us geeks had hoped. Perhaps all of these excuses are a smoke screen for the one thing I’m afraid to admit to myself: I’m a fraud who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.
BannedMusic.org
At the end of February I participated in some digital disobedience regarding Grey Tuesday, where an album remixing the Beatles White album with Jay-Zs Black album was illegally hosted for download despite the threats from EMI (the holder of the White album copyright). Well, the good people at downhillbattle.org (who organized the original protest) have launched a new service called BannedMusic.org which hosts other disputed ‘illegal’ material.
I for one applaud their digital dissobedience as the current system is in need of radical change and only radical actions will bring the inequities therein to light. What inequities? Music is constantly changing, remixing and sampling are the new expression of creativity. You might argue that remixing is in fact not creating something, just ‘stealing’ someone else’s material to make something else, but in fact the art of sampling creates a whole new form of music that in many ways surpasses the original. If nothing else you should download the Grey Album to hear what I’m talking about. It’s stunningly original and quite a piece of musical wonder.
So check it out, download some of the albums (they’ve integrated bitTorrent – schweet!) and protest our current laws! Change is a Good Thing.
Evolution, revisited
Courtesy of spurl, I found this link of 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. This is what I would consider a definitative list of the major arguments and subsequent refutations of creationists in their battle against logic and rationality. Bookmark this. Keep it handy every time you approach a creationist. This knowledge and our common usage of it are the only things that can beat the black beast that is creationism into submission and back into the primitive subconscious from which it arose. If there is one dividing line between people, this is it – the assertion that we are divinely created, that we are too complex to have evolved without some intelligent design. To me, if you don’t believe in evolution as a fact then you are a luddite. Your perception of the world is irrelevant because it is tainted with a colossal misunderstanding that is absolutely fundamental to the appreciation of the human experience that is our life. Understand it, appreciate it, welcome it or be damned in my eyes.
Value Choices in the pursuit of Quality
(This is a rehash of a comment I made in my lame lame lame rant. Wally felt it was post worthy.)
I think it’s a given at this point in time to believe that everyone has their own unique point of view in this world, and that they are going to try their hardest to align your perception with theirs, as that seems to be a trait that humanity shares in common. If everyone has a unique perception then that must mean that we all have relative perceptions to each other. The problem with being introduced to all of these relative perceptions is that there is never any Truth, it’s all variations of the Truth. Does that make our goals in life to piece together as many shards of true perception to complete oneself? Or is that a misnomer, oneself. One – the great divide between Eastern and Western Philosophy. Bhuddism teaches us that we are all one, that there is no self, that the Universe is an interconnected complete network. Christianity and Islam tell us that we are individuals who will burn in hell or bum around in heaven. There’s still the element of continuing consciousness, eternal perception.
Spurl
Sometimes I hate Kuro5hin.org, sometimes I love it. An article was about to get dumped from the edit queue (K5 is a user contributed news community) when I happened upon it. spurl.net/ has created a tool that is exactly what I’ve been looking for as a hardcore net junkie. You could say it’s an advanced bookmarking service, but in reality it will hopefully also be an archiver of the internet if it ever takes off. It’s really funny because I’ve been contemplating developing a tool that is spookily similar to what spurl is all about. I’m definately going to have to get in touch with this guy and see if any of my ideas would help his idea out. Anyways, go to the site, sign up and start spurling.
Yeah ok, I know nobody is going to go but hey, you never know. If his project takes off it’ll only boost my ego for having thought along the same lines. At the very least it would be very interesting to see what everyone else is reading.
Iran Revolts!
You won’t see this in the major media, but sections of Iran are revolting and throwing out the sham electoral candidates. Check it here:
Breaking News: Unrest and clashes continue in N. Iran
Let’s support these freedom fighters! Link to the board, show your praise!
Let the wild speculation commence…
Nasa has scheduled a news brief about an unusual Solar Object.
What could it be? I wonder if it has anything to do with the dark spots around Jupiter. Let the speculation commence!