Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Wide-awake and stimulant-free, my oh my
It's 20 minutes past 2 in the freaking morning and I have *beep*ing school in about 5 hours' time...
what in the world am I doing? Strangely enough, I'm not suffering from my usual lethargy, though I suppose I'd pay dearly later today. Ah well.
Still no purple-themed side-box decoration, I'm afraid, and this one is overwhelmingly yellow. But yellow is a cheerful colour and in these times of desperate need, some joy and cheer will do all of us good. /beams hopefully/
Speaking of hard and trying times, actually, my original intention was to put up something dark, preferably with lashings of blood, y'know, that sort of thing. But that plan had to be abandoned due to lack of suitable source graphics. It helped that my mood had improved after watching the 'S'pore's Brainiest Kid' finals. It was pure entertainment.
Yesterday wasn't a terribly good day. Seeing that it's entirely likely I'd be sleeping through school today... /sigh/. What the hell.
words were spilled on Tuesday, September 23, 2003
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003
This will be quick, I promise myself
Urgh. RIAS is working with the ISPs here to take action against illegal file-sharing, though it hasn't done anything too
drastic yet, i.e. filing lawsuits. But the ISPs send out warning letters to identified users, and Singnet 'declined' to give figures. Being a paranoid SingNet broadband subscriber, I don't feel all too comfortable with that.
Is it normal for only 24% of system resources to be free even when you are just running Windows Explorer? I can never bring myself to trust this stupid computer of mine. Till yesterday, the CPU kept prematurely clocking out. It's stopped, thank goodness, but the blue screen keeps popping up to annoy me now.
For all those who know and love 'Lord of the Flies' (Darkness of Man's Heart
TM - yes, you),
this should be of interest to you: the Stanford Prison Experiment, supposedly to study the 'psychology of imprisonment'. It's disturbing. Chilling, I could say. The similarities are uncanny and what's worse, it isn't a novel.
Back to hit the books...
words were spilled on Tuesday, September 16, 2003
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Sunday, September 14, 2003
Fiddling around again
Announcing a couple of additions:
1. My Photo Album under 'Brenda's Links'. Basically I got myself a Yahoo photo account and got my dad to scan in some of my photos. The scanning quality wasn't all that great though, and I had to... erm... touch up a bit using Adobe. But no, I haven't sacrificed my integrity. :)
2. See the side box image? (If you don't, due to some browser quirk, ignore this) See me happily grinning away? Why have I put up an image? (apart from being bored, that is)
Why, it's
14 Sept! One year ago, on this very day, I watched my first episode of Card Captor Sakura on Kids' Central (go ahead,
laugh), and that started off a chain of events that permanently altered my spending habits and leisure time consumption pattern. =) In other words, I got a little obsessed and deliriously happy.
Therefore, in celebration of my Anime Anniversary, I did
that /points to the left/. Anyway, I've decided that it's fun. I've decided to do more.
/laughs manically amidst the dead, embarrassed silence/
Ahem. MAF yesterday was fun. The light-up was nice, I congratulate the Student Council for a job well-done. Even better, for once I had a legitimate reason not to do the dances. (*cough*photography duties*cough*) Thought I went overboard on the photo snapping, though.
words were spilled on Sunday, September 14, 2003
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003
On rumours, litigation and online music piracy
While searching for XivD codecs and getting myself hopelessly baffled by techtalk on various geek sites, I found some outraged references to recent RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) legal action against individual file-sharers. So it's true that the RIAA is targeting Kazaa users (among others) for copyright infringement. The Straits Times has an article on it too (which I found... kind of... interesting):
P2P: Peer-to-peer or Piracy-to-Pornography? And I've also accessed CNA for
this.
Basically what the RIAA has been doing is to send subpoenas to ISPs to obtain the identities of suspected file-sharers. Once they get the names, they sue unless it's settled out of court. And as far as I can make of it, it's at the moment still confined to the US, because, get this once and for all:
The RIAA cannot take action against people outside the US.
That's according to the RIAA’s UK equivalent, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), though action against UK downloaders may be possible in the near future because they're revising European law.
Of course, this means we in Singapore are quite safe. =D For now, until the RIAS (Recording Industry of Singapore) decides to do an RIAA and start clamping down on users. Which is
quite possible in the light of the US-Singapore FTA. But we haven't heard anything on the news yet.
So what the heck is up with all those hearsay about people getting fined? Through email? If the recording industry is after you, I highly doubt they'd notify you by email. Your ISP has your address and phone number, doesn't it? If they are going to sue you, might as well do it properly and all official-like. So, please don't spread unnecessary panic.
Yes, MP3 downloading is piracy and piracy is illegal, but I shall skip the lengthy debate which I'm sure all of you know already. But I feel that online file-sharing offers a very tempting advantage: that of access. For some reason, I've got a weakness for hard-to-find music that is virtually non-existent in conventional record stores, but may be available on file-sharing networks. Also, I don't think I could have broadened my musical tastes without the help of Napster, Audiogalaxy, Kazaa, what-have-you. The urge to experiment with different types of music diminishes somewhat when one has to pay for every fresh foray. Especially when one is a poor student who has unlimited consumer wants and very limited financial resources. ;-;
Oh, and let me do my part as a Hwa Chongian: Come for MAF this Saturday at 6pm! There'd be lanterns and fireballs and goodies galore!! I'll reprise my Evil Photographer
TM role and terrorise everyone with my camera!!!
/cackles/ [Oh no, I think Respiration cooked my brain...]
words were spilled on Tuesday, September 09, 2003
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Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Mood: Pointlessly amused
Music: Various Chobits tracks
I've gone way too complacent and lazy. I told myself I was going to be productive tonight, but then I started falling asleep while trying to assimilate Respiration, so /shrugs/ here I am.
I found this amusing resignation letter, supposedly written by an IT employee to his boss at a US tech company. Just thought I should share the joy:
Dear Mr ____,
As an employee of an institution of higher education, I have a few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel. After your consistent and annoying harassment of my co-workers and myself during the commission of our duties, I can only surmise that you are one of the few true genetic wastes of our time. Asking me, a network administrator, to explain every little nuance of everything I do each time you happen to stroll into my office is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of precious oxygen.
I was hired because I know how to network computer systems, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to myself and other employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of "cut and paste" for the hundredth time. You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will.
You walk around the building all day, shiftlessly looking for fault in others. You have a sharp dressed useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle. Seeing as this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation, however I have a few parting thoughts.
1. When someone calls you in reference to employment, it is illegal to give me a bad recommendation. The most you can say to hurt me is "I prefer not to comment." I will have friends randomly call you over the next couple of years to keep you honest, because I know you would be unable to do it on your own.
2. I have all the passwords to every account on the system, and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I am going to publish your "favourites list", which I conveniently saved when you made me "back up" your useless files. I do believe that terms like "Lolita" are not usually viewed favourably by the administration.
3. When you borrowed the digital camera to "take pictures of your mothers b-day", you neglected to mention that you were going to take pictures of yourself in the mirror nude. Then you forgot to erase them like the techno-moron you really are. Suffice it to say I have never seen such odd acts with a ketchup bottle, but I assure you that those have been copied and kept in safe places pending the authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (Try to use a spell check please; I hate having to correct your mistakes.)
Thank you for your time, and I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow. One word of this to anybody, and all of your little twisted repugnant obsessions will be open to the public. Never f*** with your systems administrator. Why? Because they know what you do with all that free time!
Kazaa is being incredibly uncooperative. Making
no headway at
all on the vids I'm currently trying to download. Is it really true that Kazaa users are being targeted for
extortion punishing fines? If so, then I'm worried. I literally depend on file-sharing programs for psychological sustenance, and it's not as if I don't spend loads on original CDs, VCDs, DVDs... I do more than my fair share for the music and film industry as a consumer -- please don't prosecute me?
My sister and I have
finally finished up the whole of Fruits Basket. /phew/ It's a feel-good, wholesome, overwhelmingly
predictable anime. /ICK/ We still can't stand the lead female character, she's so nauseatingly optimistic and positive and... urgh, unreal. (Says a lot about us, doesn't it?)
I'm cutting down on the anime consumption. I have to convince myself that I am still capable of sticking to priorities, although at the moment it's all getting very doubtful.
Gah.
words were spilled on Tuesday, September 02, 2003
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