How Geeky Are You?

thommo moved in yesterday - welcome thommo. And so there are now three people in the house. I am sure we will settle in fast, but it is strange to have an extra person in the place.

=)

And the answer is YES. I am sitting in the backyard [yikes it is WINDY today] as far away from the where the card is as possible and the signal is stronger than in my room - less building in the way - and the link is about the same speed. Now, what about out the front?

Actually I just tested the link rate and it wasn't too shabby. So I am pretty pleased. The test is to see if it will work in the backyard :) But I am pretty confident about that. Thanks Preator. Hey, why not click that green logo over there and set his counter spinning.

Wireless:) I am writing this from in my bedroom, thanks to the card that Preator brought over and put in the PC out the back room. When we first put it in we could barely get a connection in the same room as the card. But today is was in the loungeroom and though "wonder if any networks are around" fired up the ariport card in the laptop and opened MacStumber and POW a network appeared - quite strong too. I got very excited thinking I had found a local wlan when I realised it was the one out the back.

I then did some more thinking and wondered if it would work in my room. So I changed the router software to use the wireless card and went into my room - where I am now enjoying [slower than ethernet but still usable] interent access via a wireless network :) Yeah!

Whirlpool comments on Wireless Networking Xone gets a mention as does Optus - hmmm. Oh and WiFi - I hate it. Airport is a much cooler name. Although it can be confusing.

Special HSC Shouts to The Blue Haired Noble One, Leanne "RollerCoaster" C, Mikey "Bastard" K and Hayden [Video Virtuoso's], Dumpster. I think that's all I know this year.

Supervising a Year 11 Yearly which is being done on computers - I helped set some of it up and it seems to have all worked :) - some people may think that the end of term is a bludge cos all the kids stay at home - well it could be except that what it means is that I can get a lot of work done I couldn't before and so I usually find myself working harder near the end of the term rather than easier.

May I just send a shout out to all those Year 12 students who no longer have to go to school :) Congratulations - don't forget though that the Big Quiz is still ahead, so don't party too hard - yet. And take care, not just in what you do, but in what the people around you are doing. And maybe even shine a bit of Jesus difference into the world around you.

And to those 100 or so doofus HSC students who trashed Bondi last night - what a bunch of self-centred waterbuffalo wallowing in the mud of thoughtfulness - if they are the future, things aint gonna get any better.

Looking for Good News? Try This :)


I dunno, just thought it was a good idea - thanks to the new Google News Service.

our very first warpost - after a long night in the WarRenault we finally hit pay dirt on Parramatta Rd at SIlverwater of all places :) - it was fun and well worth it.

Been a week which was like 5 days of work :) One down and one to go before holidays. Feeling a bit better today than during the week - it's been a big term. Tonight I went out for dinner with Kylie and Geoff and we survived the Blacktown Texas Fryer Tradegy of 2002 :)

I was going to make up a wardriving site this afternoon but dreamweaver on the iBook decided to murder my home page [which you might have noticed I have widened the space for the blogg] and so by the time I realised it was time to give up and use the iMac I only had time to tweak this page and do a first run on the icon I will use. I also have some more thoughts about MP3, and an ironic story from Praetor [that Green logo over there] who bought his first ever CD today :) joining us non music stealers - well done Rob - but I can't be bothered - and Hi Mum will call you over the week - probably Sunday - promise ... no really, I will .. honest.

Oh yeah and due to work getting a copy of 10.2 they aint using I have upgraded the iBook and am now enjoying the niceness and quickerness which is Mac OS X 10.2 - thanks Westfields. I might even buy my own copy for the iMac - great stuff so far - looks nicer, starts quicker, IE is quicker, mounting Windows Shares in the finder is cool and running FTP connections from the Finder is even cooler.

The New War Against Terror By Noam Chomsky, (Transcribed from audio recorded during Chomsky's talk at The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT 24th Oct 2001 - don't read this if your world is black and white, US Good and US enemies Bad. Cos in it you find out that the US is one of the biggest Terror organisations in the world. Sometimes hard to follow as it is a transcript - worth reading and thinking and praying about.

On a lighter note Pravda.RU notes that Israel Occupied by Aliens - strange but true, well I think it is strange and I have been assured it's true :)

I'm watching a Q&A on BBC World, discussing issues relating to the US declaration about the UN and Iraq. The issues are very complicated and interwoven, but the thing that just hit me was that what we have here is humans trying to deal with the evil that is within all of us. And what we see is that it is very very hard to deal with evil - especially when we too are evil [that is, that the US has done evil things, and supported evil people [including Sadaam Hussain and the precursors to and the Taliban]]. Does it mean we don't try - no I think we should try. And maybe the US is actually trying to do that, one of the problems though is that they don't seem to be dealing, or admitting to, the evil that they have carried out.

As for the whole issue of pre-emptive strikes, I just don't think that our society is mature enough or technologically advanced enough to be sure that we have the truth. And even if the government has the bomb and plans to use it, does it give us the right to invade the country creating a war situation in which over 80% of the casulaties will be innocent civilians and not the military.

The only country to ever use nuclear weapons against other human beings is the United States of America - and they did it twice. But you know, I rekon now, that that is irrelevant - cos I don't think that the US would ever use them again - sure they say they would, but I think they know only too well the cost of doing so, and I think that the country has worked hard to be in a position where by they do not have to resort to Nuclear Weapons by ensuring that their conventional forces are so powerful no one can stand against them - a situation that Iraq is not in and so maybe for them the cost of using will be less than not using.

I just heard a Columbian speaker at the UN saying that the same number of people die every month in his nation at the hand of Drug runners and terrorists as did on 9/11 - and appealed for help against evil. In the end this whole thing is about how we define and deal with evil - Jesus spoke about this problem of evil, pointed out that it comes from within a person, points out that grace and forgiveness is important, pointed out that turning away from evil is the right way to show true faith and sorrow, and stated very clearly that only by accepting his death in our place can we ever be forgiven by God for our evil and can we ever be set free from sin and death and begin the process of change.

Just heard an interesting statistic - Israel, Egypt and Columbia are [in order] the 3 largest recipiants of US Military aid.

This list of Key Historical Documents which relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, makes for very interesting and informative reading. From The Palestinian National Charter of 1968 [scary] through to the Beirut Declaration of March 28 2002 [which includes a statement from "the Arab countries [which] affirm the following: I-Consider the Arab-Isralei conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region."

Have a read and ask yourself, why is the US only so interested in attacking Iraq when the Israelis and Palestinians are also in violation of heaps of agreements and UN resolutions, which if the US had had the guts to make them support many years ago, may not have brought us to the point of having a ditactor like Sadaam having the bomb.

I am beginning to wonder whether the US, after [if there is an after] have gone after Sadaam, will then turn to whatever remains of Israel and Palestine and make then both stop fighting and finally sit down and make agreements which give the Palestinians security and a nation and Israel the safety within it's original 1948 borders that it craves - but I doubt it - I read elsewhere [can't remember where] that this Iraq thing is all about the US protecting Israel security and that the Israeli's are pushing the US into doing this cos of the Israeli's fear of Iraq, and the Iraqis support of the Palestinians.

sent from my mate petes pocket pc. it's cool to see a little tiny bjd website :)

:) Something Fun :) A game called pegball - nifty.

In memory of the innocent people who have died all over the world in the last year due to the terrorist activities of both nation states and non-national organisations.
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.
the heart of man is evil above all things
Jesus said - "I am the way, the truth and the light"

My source of revolutionary net nerdy stuff The Register has reported on a new chip announcement from Intel and the impact that it is hoped to have. I think that it is probably true and for sure there are very interesting times ahead in a very uncertain world.

Well my weekend is ending now with some of the young guns over after church. My weekend has been ok - cricket was fine, in fact I even found it exciting but then seeing 20 people get out in 56 overs can't be anything but - thanks cricketeers.

Today I went on a trip with some of the BB guys [SD and B2] down the south coast as they were in search of a suitable place for the end of year beach camp. Well I think they found it eventually - we left home about 840a and then finally left shoalhaven for home about 530p so a very long day - most of it spent perch v.uncomfortably on the edge of SD's bench seat.

It was a good day but I am a bit tired now. I think about 10p will see the visitors being kicked out of the house.

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed a case of the slightly shrinking logos and movement of the archive/current links and the praetor and other logos - yeah just a tweak to the old site tonight. I find it looks a bit nicer on my monitor at home [1024xwhatever resolution] giving a touch more white space [well #395F85 space really :) - what a nerd].

Well the sickness lasted until Wednesday so two days of work this week - still a bit sniffly - not sure what it was, just head aches and joint aches and feeling run down. A few things on my mind at the moment - although I am enjoying the break I am also thinking about what to do next, including my job.

Long service leave becomes available next year in July [July 9th I think is the exact date] and there is talk of a group from Church doing a short term mission to Africa for 3 weeks in August with a week or so after as maybe a holiday time somewhere. Nice timing in some ways. I am also thinking about whether I want to stay in teaching beyond the end of next year - the nice thing about the Department is that I can have a year LWOP and still be owed a spot back at Westfields [the website has nothing to do with me] - so I can have a year trying to set up something else and if it seems to be heading nowhere drop back into Westfields. Not sure where God wants me to go - not sure if he has any real plans other than trying to live like Jesus no matter where I am - sometimes it's easy, sometimes it is hard.

Tomorrow I am planning to attend the Tooney Cricket teams at play - now for those who know me, yes it is a stupid stupid game and watching it is even worse!!! However I will only go if they are batting, and it then becomes a great place to hang with me mates from church. So if the weather is fine and they are batting [or oneday] then I will head off.

Halo 2 Announcement Trailer - sweet :)

A list of mirrors for QT and WMP and MPEG/2 that will keep everyone happy :)

Praetor responded with a shareware music site - well it turned out to be the rollingstone.com website - which I would say isn't quite what I had in mind. But as I dug around a bit I followed link to unsigned artists which took me to mp3.com - which of course is the kagi of the music shareware world.

To me sharware music is about bands creating music and selling it directly to the people - bypassing the major labels and distribution channls - which is how I see sharware software working. MP3.com seems to offer a similar oppurtunity to bands. And I guess just as shareware software is a much smaller market [is it???] then shareware music will be the same, and I guess in the end if a shareware band does well it will be gobbled up by a major label - but I dunno - seems like there must be a few differences between musicans and software makin' geeks - oh yeah :)

Now you can find out how a website sounds. Interesting, though the sites all sound similar, but I like the idea that within all things ethereal, sonic realities lie. Have a listen.

:( Sick :( Started last night with headaches, joint pains the whole deal, had very broken sleep and called in sick this morning. Slept from 8am to 2pm. Feeling a bit better now, but still sore. I hate being sick.

:) Something Funny :) Here is an idea that I am sure Praetor will be trying out.

Well I think this sums up some of my feelings about p2p file sharing of copyright songs. A MacHall [MA15+] comic.

And as for bypassing the mainstream distributors - I have just had a thought, how come some people can make money out of shareware but there doesn't seem to be a similar thing happening with music - like where is the the music version of Ambrosia software?

But then a lot of shareware is niche stuff. I dunno. Actually if anyone has any intelligent comments then comment in the questbook or email me [that big E on the top right will help you, as will the word comment which follows shortly after this...] especially if you know of someone selling shareware type music on the net.