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Wednesday, 10:41 pm, 07 April 2004 The Time Vacuum... Another long pause between log entries. The reason behind this delay has been the Noble Ape Simulation 0.665. I've written about the release in the Source Log. I don't need to write about it here too. The plan is to release 0.666 next Tuesday. Not looking at the download sites has been central to the productivity. I have too much to do in the next week to concern myself with download site comments. The amount of energy lost last year was disproportionate to the worth of the comments. So what is news? I have been listening to WeFunk quite a bit over the past couple of days. Good background sounds to work. According to Professor Groove, the Butta tracks will be recorded in the next week. To be honest, I am not holding my breath. But it will be nice to have the track eventually. Iraq I was reading an article on BBC News recently about the Iraq situation, and it made no sense. By chance, I cruised past the CNN site and saw exactly the same article with a couple of words changed. It was a White House press release that both BBC and CNN were running virtually verbatim. It made me angry actually. There is so much propaganda being generated currently about the Iraq situation it is difficult to get any sense of what is really going on. BBC News interviewed an actual Iraqi this morning from a 'neutral' Iraqi paper and an Iraqi surgeon was interviewed on ITV this evening. They both had the same message - Iraqis, every day Iraqis, support the uprising. Normal Iraqis are unemployed, poorer than under Saddam, and they want the occupiers to leave. Every point the BBC interviewer made this morning, every claim BBC had been running for days about the uprising, the Iraqi media person rebutted as false. Someone clearly closer to the reality butted the lies BBC has been running for days. When I reached University, I thought quite hard about my parents' opposition to Vietnam. How their opposition alienated them from the elites in the society and how it distanced them from every-day Australians. I thought, in an abstract sense that it might have been better to go to Vietnam to be a part of the majority. I could not go to Iraq. I find the occupation deeply disturbing and I realise now, no matter how much I intellectualised the damage the anti-Vietnam movement did to my parents, I am cut from the same cloth. Not as a spineless pacifist, but as someone who couldn't use their life as a pawn to fight poor and repressed people. Tonight I followed some links from Frosty Mug's site and I found myself reading a collection of 'kill 'em all' posts about how all Iraqis needed to pay in blood. Nothing has been learnt. For a clearer picture on the Middle East, not necessarily neutral but to counteract one propaganda with a milder version, I have found myself reading Aljazeera. It actually explains the Middle East news away from sound bytes and White House press releases. I thought a number of their flash cartoons were particularly apt - the Classroom Invasion one in particular but also the Terrorism in Iraq. Really, it's all about history and a lack of understanding of it. The history of Afghanistan from 1975 to today explains everything anyone needs to know about the War on Terror. I promised myself not to write political log entries. It is the easiest way to offend a majority. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. I must not write political log enteries. Good night. Saturday, 10:18 pm, 03 April 2004 Wired's Demographic I went to Borders' Books with my wife on Friday afternoon. There was a Borders' relatively local to me when I lived in the US. I haven't bought any US magazines for a long time and I thought it would be a good opportunity to familiarise myself with the magazines of America once more. I picked up a couple of new magazines and then I saw Wired. Wired, a magazine I never understood. I was told repeatedly by the news media that Wired was the magazine for me. But when I bought Wired, I always thought it was an angry middle-aged mens' magazine. I never felt like I was the right demographic. But like a lot of things, I forgot all of this for five minutes when in Borders and I bought a copy of Wired. For international readers, I should point out you can't get Wired in the UK. There are plenty of other angry middle-aged mens' magazines in the UK, so the market was covered. Peter Jackson was on the front cover. I flicked through the car and eBay motor advertising. Past the super over priced computers and I hit the first article that caught my eye. Airline rage about gadget removal is justified because the FAA has been lying to us about gadget emissions. It's okay to be angry, middle-aged men. Bad airlines for confiscating your gadgets. You know what I like to hear at 30,000 feet. The sound of a cell phone. Kept on flicking until I got to Steve Jobs. Visionary for 2004 for iTunes. iTunes, paying the people that sue kids. iTunes, forcing extra high-fructose corn-syrup down the throats of children both before and after they are sued. iTunes - we make 5-10 times what the artist makes with a single click. Flicked on to the smiling face of Amazon Jeff. Hello? Isn't this the same issue of Wired I owned in 1998? Haven't there been a few 747s of new technologists since Steve Jobs and Amazon Jeff. So I figure although I am not an angry middle aged man currently, if I keep reading Wired for the next twenty years, I will finally reach the demographic. Fred Reed is a Genius Although I haven't had a Fred Reed package since January, he does send me photos of my miniatures as he finishes painting them. This one came on Friday.  Good night! Thursday, 07:02 pm, 01 April 2004 The Fine Art of Email I got an email from my old friend, Alex 'Gurap' Brooks today. To paraphrase somewhat it read; Sorry I haven't been in contact for a while, My new non-work email address is XXX, How have you been. Bye. When I was a child I wrote a lot of letters. Into my University life I would write letter from six to twenty pages to a wide variety of people. I loved writing letters. I loved writing letters, because I liked to get letters. I wanted people to write to me, like I wrote to them. And I wrote hundreds and hundreds. People never did. The act of communicating through letters never existed in my time. I think people might have done it once. But not really my generation. With the advent of email, I continued to write in some respect. Email is really more a memo format. Most of the people I correspond with, I have never met. I am corresponding with them for a reason. And when the reason stops, the correspondence stops. The utility of life is not something I was prepared for. Getting Economics in Order I spoke to Butta Beats last weekend. He commented that he was getting his economics together. I have corresponded with Professor Groove quite a bit, and I got the feeling that Butta knew a bit about me. I try to maintain a good phone manner. I thought all this week about the idea of getting one's economics in order. I stopped having fun when I started to get my economics in order. Perhaps that is a little harsh. But I miss the honest hand to mouth days of living in the Shed. I don't like being middle class. It seems alien and evil. Like waking up one morning a Nazi or something like that. Economic security, or just surviving, is something I think about in relative terms. I guess at the time of living in the Shed, I wanted nothing more than to be successful doing the Noble Ape development. Now I have realised it is relatively easy to be relatively comfortable handling someone elses problems. But to emulate this security doing fun stuff? Is it possible? Good night. [ Previous Log ]
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