When the eponymous vampire slayer is trying to be secret-identity girl and not let on that she's a slayer, she tries to avoid any suggestion that she knows how to fight.
Why didn't she just tell people that she used to train a lot and has a black belt?
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Thursday, 14 February 2008
Not quite a hard drive with damning information, but...
Now this is interesting:
We have just bought a brand new, shrink-wrapped-in-the-box, Uniden cordless phone. The old cordless was experiencing a gradual loss of line quality, and we could not longer hear the built-in answering machine.
What's so interesting?
The phonebook in the handset already had numbers in it. There was one for "Adam", one for "Coast", and one for "Farm". All Queensland numbers in the south-east corner.
WTF? I'm guessing that it was a handset returned under warranty, serviced, and put back in a new box. That does not make me confident.
We have just bought a brand new, shrink-wrapped-in-the-box, Uniden cordless phone. The old cordless was experiencing a gradual loss of line quality, and we could not longer hear the built-in answering machine.
What's so interesting?
The phonebook in the handset already had numbers in it. There was one for "Adam", one for "Coast", and one for "Farm". All Queensland numbers in the south-east corner.
WTF? I'm guessing that it was a handset returned under warranty, serviced, and put back in a new box. That does not make me confident.
"Just give them the summary..."
Firefox, while long being a poster-child for mainstream open-source software, along with OpenOffice (and my opinions on that have already been posted here), has also long been a telling reminder that the much-vaunted "many-eyes" bug-finding and fault-fixing of open source is not perfect.
The number of long-standing bugs in the various Mozilla code-bases is tiresomly large, and some of them really, really, suck.
Have you tried to print a multi-page document in Firefox lately, only to have a mere one page emerge from the printer? Have you scratched your head in bafflement, and tried again, and looked at all the settings, and found no way of getting the rest of it? No? Well, aren't you a lucky bastard then.
This, it seems, is a looooooooooong standing bug in Mozilla. Something about not being able to correctly interpret the contents of frames. Or absolutely positioned page elements. Or something. Whatever it is, it's fucking annoying.
The number of long-standing bugs in the various Mozilla code-bases is tiresomly large, and some of them really, really, suck.
Have you tried to print a multi-page document in Firefox lately, only to have a mere one page emerge from the printer? Have you scratched your head in bafflement, and tried again, and looked at all the settings, and found no way of getting the rest of it? No? Well, aren't you a lucky bastard then.
This, it seems, is a looooooooooong standing bug in Mozilla. Something about not being able to correctly interpret the contents of frames. Or absolutely positioned page elements. Or something. Whatever it is, it's fucking annoying.
Monday, 11 February 2008
The day in comics
I really, really wish this would work:
UserFriendly.
And this explains many problems with the world as it stands:
Lio.
UserFriendly.
And this explains many problems with the world as it stands:
Lio.
Friday, 8 February 2008
Telstra, you bunch of cock-suckers.
GOD FUCKING DAMN IT.
I have, recently, gone through the highs of realising that ADSL2+ was available, and the lows of realising that no, it wasn't, in my area and that it was only being offered through non-Telstra. WTF? Had they... On second thoughts, just go here to read my thoughts about it.
Well, today news came through that Telstra was considering activating ADSL2+ on their exchanges because the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, or whatever the fuck ACCC stands for, wasn't planning on regulating it, which means that they were holding back. You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Put your hands up if you still think that making Telstra a private company was a good idea for Australians. Anybody? You? Wrong! Stay behind after class and I shall attach the electrodes personally.
Now this: Helen Coonan, who is ex minister for telecommunications, because her government got fucked in the ass by the electorate a few months ago, has weighed in to bitch about this, classic behaviour for an ex-Howard minister, and say... Oh fuck it, I can't be bothered. Go here and read it for yourself, courtesy of Australia's most arrogantly named newspaper, The Australian, if you care.
Jesus fucking Christ, are they serious? They were denying a service to customers because the ACCC might make it difficult for them to compete as a business? I'm going to ask that question about do-you-think-it-was-a-good-idea again, and this time if you insist that privatising the main provider of telecommunications services in this country was good I am going to shoot you. But I warn you, I will start with the kneecaps and work my way up.
I have, recently, gone through the highs of realising that ADSL2+ was available, and the lows of realising that no, it wasn't, in my area and that it was only being offered through non-Telstra. WTF? Had they... On second thoughts, just go here to read my thoughts about it.
Well, today news came through that Telstra was considering activating ADSL2+ on their exchanges because the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, or whatever the fuck ACCC stands for, wasn't planning on regulating it, which means that they were holding back. You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Put your hands up if you still think that making Telstra a private company was a good idea for Australians. Anybody? You? Wrong! Stay behind after class and I shall attach the electrodes personally.
Now this: Helen Coonan, who is ex minister for telecommunications, because her government got fucked in the ass by the electorate a few months ago, has weighed in to bitch about this, classic behaviour for an ex-Howard minister, and say... Oh fuck it, I can't be bothered. Go here and read it for yourself, courtesy of Australia's most arrogantly named newspaper, The Australian, if you care.
Jesus fucking Christ, are they serious? They were denying a service to customers because the ACCC might make it difficult for them to compete as a business? I'm going to ask that question about do-you-think-it-was-a-good-idea again, and this time if you insist that privatising the main provider of telecommunications services in this country was good I am going to shoot you. But I warn you, I will start with the kneecaps and work my way up.
"His touch was electric..."
Biomechanical power generation! Harness the power of the human body! Get fit with a resistance workout, be good for the environment and never have your PDA go flat away from a powerpoint ever again! All at the same time!
Scientists make knee-brace power generator (ABC News Online).
Given my knees, I could probably get one of these on private health cover. "Really, my physiotherapist told me I needed to maintain the exercise to stabilise the joints!"
I'm wondering about the "generates enough power to charge up to 10 mobile phones at once", though. What sort of ding-bat unit of power is that? Enough power to charge one laptop is useful. But even if you have one mobile phone for work, one for personal and a PDA, plus a bluetooth headset, you're still 6 devices short of making it worthwhile. Although maybe you could also be carrying a high-capacity battery pack for when you stop moving.
Of course, if you don't want to stop moving, I suggest you fit up a treadmill, stair-climber or exercise bike to a generator and plug your computer into that, so that if you don't keep exercising your computer crashes, you lose all your work and the IT officer swears at you. Or, alternatively, takest he pre-emptive approach of prowling the office with a whip.
*CRACK* "Keep moving! Your amperage is dropping!"
Maybe this is why Hiro Protagonist kept himself so fit: He needed to be to power all the hardware he ended up carrying!
Scientists make knee-brace power generator (ABC News Online).
Given my knees, I could probably get one of these on private health cover. "Really, my physiotherapist told me I needed to maintain the exercise to stabilise the joints!"
I'm wondering about the "generates enough power to charge up to 10 mobile phones at once", though. What sort of ding-bat unit of power is that? Enough power to charge one laptop is useful. But even if you have one mobile phone for work, one for personal and a PDA, plus a bluetooth headset, you're still 6 devices short of making it worthwhile. Although maybe you could also be carrying a high-capacity battery pack for when you stop moving.
Of course, if you don't want to stop moving, I suggest you fit up a treadmill, stair-climber or exercise bike to a generator and plug your computer into that, so that if you don't keep exercising your computer crashes, you lose all your work and the IT officer swears at you. Or, alternatively, takest he pre-emptive approach of prowling the office with a whip.
*CRACK* "Keep moving! Your amperage is dropping!"
Maybe this is why Hiro Protagonist kept himself so fit: He needed to be to power all the hardware he ended up carrying!
The Archbishop of Canterbury is a loon. (Updated)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, despite lacking a title with quite the same self-assured arrogant sense of authority, is the Anglican equivalent of the pope.
I seem to recall that he's been in the news a fair bit lately, but I can't recall why. So I can't really pass judgment on the basis of accumulated evidence. I am, however, quite prepared to pass judgment based upon this:
Sharia law 'unavoidable' in UK: Archbishop (ABC News Online)
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
What the hell is happening to the UK? I don't mean terrorist activities, I mean daily life. I have mentioned in these pages before the lunacy of allowing islamic medical students to not touch female bodies. Now the nation's top religious authority is saying that another religion should be allowed to introduce their own legal system?
I'm not convinced (to put it nicely) that allowing separated enclaves of aboriginal Australians to maintain tribal law is a good idea or even working, but this is lunacy. Which bits of sharia law, and who gets to decide? If imams argued that a Muslim man in Britain should be allowed to marry multiple 13 year old girls because the prophet did that, which legal system would you involve? Complaining about that would mean meddling in that culture's legal system, and you have allowed them to maintain aspects of their legal system because that's their culture!
I have been, over the years, steadily losing faith in the whole concept of multiculturalism, and no longer have any time for it. Australia has pockets of ethnicity where first- or second-generation Australians don't fit in with their anglo-saxon peers because their parents have maintained "tradition!" and wouldn't even fit in if they went back to "the motherland" because their little enclave of "culture" reactively froze itself, and the motherland did not. Recent Dutch moves requiring all prospective immigrants to view material that they might find offensive, in order to demonstrate that they can live in the culture to which they are moving, make more sense than ever.
There was an episode of the Indian-English sketch comedy show Goodness Gracious Me where a battered Indian wife went to a female refuge only to have the social worker exhort her to return to her cultural roots and accept her heritage, while the wife is standing there in disbelief saying "He's hitting me!" I laughed, sarcastically, at that sketch. Now I think I might just curl up behind the sofa.
There is "culture" which is specific to the nation and to individual units within that nation, including ethnic groups and religious groups, various combinations of both, and a bewildering array of classifications of mostly "youfs".
Then there is "law" which is decided by (if you're lucky) a representative parliament. There are already social responses open to people who believe that the law has failed them, and many of them are even legal. But there are many instances where the nation, if it is to not become a farce, has to make a moral, ethical and ultimately legal decision. Removing children from situations of sexual abuse is not racist. Enforcing local laws onto a cultural sub-group who emigrated to that locality is not racist or religiously intolerant. If customs fit within the law, so be it. If customs are allowed to become law because there are points of disagreement, why have the fucking law in the first place?
If the Archbishop of Canterbury comes out any time soon and declares that it should be illegal for Anglicans to divorce, don't say I didn't warn you.
Edit: The really, really sad part about this is that I find myself agreeing with that prat Brendan Nelson.
I seem to recall that he's been in the news a fair bit lately, but I can't recall why. So I can't really pass judgment on the basis of accumulated evidence. I am, however, quite prepared to pass judgment based upon this:
Sharia law 'unavoidable' in UK: Archbishop (ABC News Online)
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
What the hell is happening to the UK? I don't mean terrorist activities, I mean daily life. I have mentioned in these pages before the lunacy of allowing islamic medical students to not touch female bodies. Now the nation's top religious authority is saying that another religion should be allowed to introduce their own legal system?
I'm not convinced (to put it nicely) that allowing separated enclaves of aboriginal Australians to maintain tribal law is a good idea or even working, but this is lunacy. Which bits of sharia law, and who gets to decide? If imams argued that a Muslim man in Britain should be allowed to marry multiple 13 year old girls because the prophet did that, which legal system would you involve? Complaining about that would mean meddling in that culture's legal system, and you have allowed them to maintain aspects of their legal system because that's their culture!
I have been, over the years, steadily losing faith in the whole concept of multiculturalism, and no longer have any time for it. Australia has pockets of ethnicity where first- or second-generation Australians don't fit in with their anglo-saxon peers because their parents have maintained "tradition!" and wouldn't even fit in if they went back to "the motherland" because their little enclave of "culture" reactively froze itself, and the motherland did not. Recent Dutch moves requiring all prospective immigrants to view material that they might find offensive, in order to demonstrate that they can live in the culture to which they are moving, make more sense than ever.
There was an episode of the Indian-English sketch comedy show Goodness Gracious Me where a battered Indian wife went to a female refuge only to have the social worker exhort her to return to her cultural roots and accept her heritage, while the wife is standing there in disbelief saying "He's hitting me!" I laughed, sarcastically, at that sketch. Now I think I might just curl up behind the sofa.
There is "culture" which is specific to the nation and to individual units within that nation, including ethnic groups and religious groups, various combinations of both, and a bewildering array of classifications of mostly "youfs".
Then there is "law" which is decided by (if you're lucky) a representative parliament. There are already social responses open to people who believe that the law has failed them, and many of them are even legal. But there are many instances where the nation, if it is to not become a farce, has to make a moral, ethical and ultimately legal decision. Removing children from situations of sexual abuse is not racist. Enforcing local laws onto a cultural sub-group who emigrated to that locality is not racist or religiously intolerant. If customs fit within the law, so be it. If customs are allowed to become law because there are points of disagreement, why have the fucking law in the first place?
If the Archbishop of Canterbury comes out any time soon and declares that it should be illegal for Anglicans to divorce, don't say I didn't warn you.
Edit: The really, really sad part about this is that I find myself agreeing with that prat Brendan Nelson.
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