Nothing

I got nothing.

So its going to be one of those posts. My Ipod just played me two Ash gem's in a row. You may be an angel interceptor but its when you've got more, that's when it counts. I suspect only Levi will get that. Or Dave Where. Is it safe? Only in 1977.

I've got the stuff anyway. It is safe.

Dearly Beloved. I don't care. These are just tales of another broken home in the suberb of Jesus. Superb.

I didn't win an Oscar. I am slutted.

I did win a free movie hire in a tombola raffle. That sluts me more.

I got ID, three chords and the Truth Newspaper.

Actually I don't have that. I haven't bought one since they stopped putting WWF posters in them. And just in case you were wondering whatever happened to Brutus the Beefcake Barber, he found god.

Are you secure?

Last week His Royal Blogness posed a question about the use of using someone else’s bandwidth should they leave their internet wireless unsecured. Doing so in effect means one can take one’s laptop and use the other persons account to download the latest Paris Hilton sex video or, if you are total eunuch, Battle Star Galactica reruns.

HRB wondered whether people would choose to use someone else’s unsecured network or not. The most common response was that of the like a recent White Stripes’ song, “Take, Take, Take!”

I was curious as to the questioning of his dear loyal readers but this comment on the post inspired this Little Ghost to investigate further.

“Some portion of people with unsecured networks have them that way deliberately so that they can plausibly deny that they have any knowledge of what packets might have passed through their routers”.

As it turns out that in Uncles Sam’s Town some luckless lady was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for downloading music illegally. The defence turned out to be that someone else had used the person’s account via a unsecured connection.

In response the RIAA has appealed and asked the judge to rule “that the owner of an ISP account is responsible for all activity on that account”. Which would be good for RIAA and Lars Ulrich (he’s so nappy) but not for the unsuspecting folk out there. My mum has never downloaded a song in her life – if someone used her ISP account without her knowledge to steal music or commit any other cyberspace crime it would be contrary to natural justice for her to be held accountable. Heh, I said accountable.

If Luke Skywalker steals your unlocked car for a bank heist getaway are you held accountable for the robbery? No and the same reasoning should apply to persons who deliberately or unknowingly have unsecured wireless connections.

There endeth the geeky commentary.

Feeling Supersonic, gimme gin and tonic pt III

So like OMG I just had my very own “scuse me while I kiss this guy” moment.

I am a huge Oasis fan to the point where I am actively trying to get my hands on a copy of every single they have ever released (5 odd to go). I was listening to “Take me away” which a b-side to the single I snapped up from Trademe recently, Supersonic. Curious about the song I wikied it and accordingly found that the lyrics to Supersonic go:

“She done it with a doctor/On a helicopter/she sniffin' in a tissue/Sellin' the Big Issue.”

Whereas for years I’ve thought the line finished with “Sally let me kiss you” and have always wondered if this was the same Sally that waits and waits in Don’t Look Back in Anger... I guess not!

So I re listened and its as freaking clear as mud he’s sing about the Big Issue. Which turns out to be a paper sold by homeless people in Britain.

18 and life

So like does any one else realise that Daniel Vettori has the record for the fast test century by a K1W1 batsmen? 82 balls. The force is strong with that one.

You know what else cracks me up? When one is playing Halo 2 'Oddball' and the game keeps announcing "ball taken!" It sounds like a director's commentary for a porno. Actually, do they do those?

This ginga appears to be having a goodtime. Lets hope he
doesn't end up shaving his hair and going into rehab for Nirvana Loving Wannabees. His wouldn't get much for it on Trademe anyway.

Shout out to the other ginger too! What's Up Si!? I heard through the kumara vine you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete. Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen.

Hey cool, Skid Row's I remember you just came on.

3 from 3, bitches!!

These men deserve a DB:

Peter Fulton
The Gladiator*
Brendon McCullum*
Mark Gillespie*

* - highest scores ever..

and all without Vettorri, Bond and Oram AND from 44/4.

Cricinfo guy appeared to wet his pants second last ball:

"Bracken to McCullum, SIX, would you believe it? Bracken you idiot! He bowls a knee-high full toss on the stumps and McCullum slams that superbly over deep fine leg for half a dozen! What a game this is!"

Sucks to be Hayden scoring 181 and .. losing.

Get a haircut and a real job!

Genipod: We hate DRM

Steve Jobs has written an essay "Thoughts on Music". It is actually a misnomer as its about digital rights management (DRM) rather than a critique of how overrated Bob Dylan's last few albums have been but nay bother, its still a good read.

Facing a European regulatory push to make him license Apples's DRM technology to other online music vendors and all the shite that would involve, he basically runs an argument that everyone should just give up with DRM software and online music stores should sell music sans DRM.

He bascially admits the 'puter pirates will win when he answers his own question of why music companies should allow their music to be sold DRM free "The simplest answer is because DRMs haven't worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy."
Says the former Pixar Prince "Today's most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM."

DRM is therefore pissing giant galstones in the wind. The point is that given most music in the world is sold without DRM - by way of normal CDs, using DRM for online sales DRM for music is like putting a heavy grill over the barn window but leaving the doors wide open.

Job's argument is clearly in his own interest as noted by by the Economist (Feb 10 2007) which pointed out that if the music download world was DRM free, consumers "would gravitate to the best player and best store, and at the moment that mean's Apples".

Of course the pirates will never totally win as it is not a zero sum game. There will allways be persons who seek to get their music via legitimate means. It is up to the music industry to target these groups as best they can.

Lets hope the pirates do not win and destroy artistic innovation - other wise we might end up playing old Bob Dylan records on viynl - the good news being he doesn't make them like he used to.

Note: Author's diclosure of interest "JJ ate an apple last summer and it was crunchy."

Untitled

Squash: Played a game with E last night. I thought I was gonna die but didn’t. What was funny was in the third set E realised that no one had stuffed up a serve. We thought that was pretty sweet. Late in the fourth set I mucked one and we cracked up. So Ian then fucked the very next. The 5th set was all killer, no filler.

Club 40: after the game we were driving down Vivian and we spied what appears to be a new gentlemen’s retreat called Club 40 and this conversation occurred:

JJ “Where’s the other 29?” I cried.

E You mean 39

J 29

E 39

J 29

E 39

J Dude 40 plus 29 = 69

E Oh, I thought you meant where were the other 39 clubs.

Its funny how minds think differently innit?

What matters more: what is true? or what you believe?

BCK asked this question as she ponders through what I’m suspecting is the post xmas backlash that is life.

I guess you gotta define ‘matters’. Lets define it as “things going well”. Does it matter if I miss Shortland Street? Will still things go well? Yes, that’s the truth. But if I did believe that it mattered that I missed out seeing the latest lesbian love child spawn that Chris Warner seduced, would that matter? Maybe. If I was Chris Warner.

But I could be in denial. I wouldn’t want to go around thinking Shortland Street was a useful dictionary of NZ culture would I? Like it hasn’t like even shown Emo s for like ever. Not that it matters when you can watch C4 instead. Ignorance of Shortland Street would actually be bliss.

The truth, that matters, is out there. You can read it in the Woman’s Weekly. Because it matters to me what Ridgey has been up(to). In this case it also matters what I believe. I believe Anna Nicole was taken back to planet Numbnuts by Zenu. The tabloids know all and see all. They are the truth, the way, the light. I am the Highway. It matters because what they say is gospel. Now I must order Sky TV cos I hear Fox is pretty switched on. The world is flat, therefore I am.

But what matters more? More FM will tell you the ratings season matters more. They might believe they are a good radio station but that’s just a belief.

Fuddy Duddy Fundies might say their faith matters to them e.g. no blood transfusions allowed a cause de some guy somewhere said it over the rainbow when he was high. Its what they believe. It matters they believe or they will be damned in Hell.

Tell that to little Joey when you’ve denied him medical treatment because of your faith. That’s a hard truth when things aint going so well when you’ve dropped a litre of blood and you’re like not even old enough to be an Emo. Cos like, you know, god works in mysterious ways. Hey baby, hey baby it’s alright, whatever gets you through the night. Until your belief in the face of truth gets you dead.

A the end of the day it gets down to this: It’s true that I believe the Black Caps will win the World Cup, things going well. But that could be a lie, a dammed lie or just another statistic. My ignorance to what it is, is bliss.

Chucky

Plays bass cos 6 strings are 2 two many....

Whoops!

The Rise (and Fall) of Optimus Prime

A guest post of robotic proportions by His Whoreness



Call me old school but the original Optimus Prime stands out as the best there ever was.

Maybe it was the clunky character design (where the fuck did that trailer keep appearing from?). Maybe it was the transition between Autobot and Decepticon scene (da-na-na-nah nah! - I can't believe I remember that! *sobs*). Maybe it was the sonorous voice from the tinny speaker on the small shitty TVs we had back then. Maybe it was that he had the biggest gun and it sounded so much cooler than everyone else's.

Whatever it was, Optimus Prime commanded the respect of every kid in the room and you weren't worth knowing if you weren't sitting there cross-legged with your Optimus Prime action figure (because they are action figures, NOT toys). I myself had to suffer the indignity of sitting there with Megatron. I don't care how many scope, barrel and stock attachments he came with, a plastic luger pistol just doesn't compare to a blue and red big rig with trailer unit. I really don't know what my parents were thinking at the time.

Most people might be wondering what parents were doing giving their children toy guns, but you have to remember I grew up in an age of innocence. An age where artificial colourings and preservatives made everything taaaaaaaaste soooooooo gooooooooood. An age where kids could buy double happies with their dollar mixture from the dairy. An age where cycle helmets were for the Kimiora crowd (for those who didn't grow up in Wellington, Kimiora is a school for those children today's sensibilities might describe as challenged or perhaps as differently-abled individuals). Good times. Good times.

But I digress.

Optimus Prime was a staple part of Saturday mornings. But then he was relegated to weekday afternoons. And then we entered the dark times.

First he's killed off. Then he's replaced by Hot Rod (two words people... no comparison). Then he comes back from the dead. Then it turns out he's gone mad. Then his friends kill him off. Then he goes CGI as a gorillabot. Then the gorillabot flies around on a hoverboard (What. The. Fuck.). Then the Japanese come out with blue and red Optimus on steroids carrying a gun that doesn't do diddly-squat and has a really lame firing sound. Now they're making a live action Transformers movie where Optimus has flames on his thighs (the film also has that annoying guy who hung around Keanu in Constantine before being killed off, but then that isn't entirely important right now).

Flames.

On.

His.

Thighs.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. I'll probably still end up seeing the movie when it comes out. It just sucks that future generations of kids won't know the Optimus Prime we knew as kids. The cool Optimus Prime. the true Optimus Prime.

-

JJ says if any one ever had to fight for his life, it would be OP. After all JJ did name his cat in honour of the 'bot ...

And also for the record, Kimi Ora is a school that does a wonderful job with its students.

What she said

Notice

If you notice this notice, you'll notice this notice is not worth noticing at all.

Infrared: There be rock

Infrared: a band of the electromagnetic spectrum between the visible and the microwave,

or

Infrared: A three piece Wellington band that understands what let there be rock actually means.

So we turn up to Subnine to hear Steve, Carl and Ben bash out some monster rock. No Emos in sight. Plenty of black tshirts and nail polish though.

Infrared are rockers from Nam. The drummer looks like Jono from the C4/The Rock, except he actually knows a thing about music as he proves when he knocked the shit out of the skins.

Kicking off with some nameless saintless rocker the gig was powered with full on stonkin rock. No soppy Snow Patrol bullshit here. Just punked up buzzcocked bass and a wall of sound that made my beer bottle vibrate as if it was about to commit hurri cari..

Full on pace, amps up to at least 11 made for a wicked set.