Longhorn, and the rumour mill.

I've managed, by obscure and devious means, to get my hands on yet a more current beta of Windows Codename Longhorn (funny, I haven't been to the site in a while - they look like they're moving into "prelaunch" mode...). My previous look at this OS was happily impressive, and although the logon screen looks like you've just started up your Mac OS 10.3 computer, the new design features of the system are very nice and have a lot of potential as far as I'm concerned. I'll let you know how it looks once I've had a play.

So I got this email from a student this morning, and was really quite blown away by the claim made within. Check it out.
(The boldness was applied by me, to emphasise the bit that I'm wanting to point out, and a name was removed in the interests of protecting privacy.)

thanks sir for the advice on *****'s emails they work now for him, do you like counter strike? if so do you want to come to a lan game, i've heard rumors that your good and i like to take on experts as i'm good to.

Now, I have NEVER mentioned playing CounterStrike to any student. I've mentioned to one that I'm a gamer, but that I mostly like RPGs. And yet somehow, it is now common knowlege that I 0wnz at CS. What the...?! Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's nice to be held in awe and acclaim. And as long as I can avoid EVER having to meet a student in a game of CounterStrike (or any other FPS game for that matter), I can maintain this air of superiority that I'm now the focus of.

I like this... I like it a lot.

Bali fallout

Since my post on Schappelle Corby the other day, the media have gone into a frenzy of polls and exclusives, trying to catch every possible advertising dollar by luring people in with the promise of fresh information and new content. I think it's important to realise that the next lot of "fresh content" is going to be a long way away. Schappelle will be sitting in her Bali prison cell, while the extremely slow wheels of the Indonesian legal system turn. In the meantime, here's a response I wrote originally as a comment on this blog, that belongs to one of my friends. I decided it was too big for a comment, so here it is.

I know a lot of people are angry because they believe Schappelle Corby is innocent, but I think the issue is not whether she's innocent or guilty, but whether Indonesia's legal system was fair in making their decision - which I think they most definatley were not. Schappelle shouldn't be in prison, not necissarily because she's innocent, but because there is substantial evidence to bring into doubt her guilt. I think from a legal perspective, it's a case of she might be innocent, and therefore shouldn't be sentanced as guilty. You know, reasonable doubt and all that. Indonesia however, don't think so, and personally I really feel this is an "us vs. them" issue. I think one of the major reasons that she was handed such a tough sentance, and why Indonesians in the court room cheered at her sentancing is because she's Australian, and so they want her to be treated harshly. This might be a big call, but I really think it's true. I think they were trying to send Australia a message that they're not going to let us push them around. I think that the fact the court ignored the letter from the Australian government was part of this. The judge has commented on how unusual that was, and I think the more involved that Australia became, the more the Indonesians resolved to serve her a guilty verdict, and a harsh sentance. This isn't fair on poor Schapelle, who has ended up being the scapegoat for Indonesia's message to Australia.

The other thing I find interesting is that this Indonesian judge has now tried 501 cases, in all of which the defendants were found guilty. This is a logical improbability. It is entirely improbable that of 501 people tried, not one had reasonable grounds to be found innocent. What does this say about the judge trying this case? That he is fair? Just? Impartial? I would have to conclude that his record proves that it is logically improbable that he is any of these things.

OK, that's my last post on this topic. My wife has embarked on a possibly 20-year task of writing letters of encouragement to Schappelle in prison, and I think this is possibly the most meaningful thing we can do at this time. I imagine that if she doesn't get freed, people may forget in a few years that she is still living day-to-day in an environment no person should have to endure.

On a lighter note, at least all of this has benefited someone. The guy at the airport shrinkwrapping people's bags is making a fortune...

At the request of my wife...

At the request of my lovely wife, I'm using the global forum that is the internet to say the following:

She (and I) would encourage every Australian, and indeed every human, to boycott tourist travel to Indonesia in response to the sentencing of Schapelle Corby today. Obviously the Indonesian justice system does not work in a way that could be considered "fair" or "just", as it seems to me there is an abundance of evidence that doesn't necessarily assure her innocence completely, but definitely eliminates any possibility of definite guilt.
(Oh but that's right - they actually said that they took none of her evidence of innocence into account when making the verdict. So I guess once you ignore all the evidence to the contrary, guilt is the only option.)

A country that functions on this level shouldn't be supported by the input of money from Australia. I can't pretend to think that I could have any input into government process, but if I could, I would also suggest we make a statement of disapproval through the restriction or boycott of trade with the country until they agree to allow all Australian prisoners, future and past, to be tried and sentenced in Australia. We are a country who have decided we disapprove of the death penalty, but yet we will allow another country to serve that penalty to our people. Do you think the other Australian drug smugglers caught in Indonesia will get any less? I think not.

So basically, Indonesia is the country where you can get 20 years for being suspected of smuggling drugs. If you are definitely guilty, then you get shot. Not a place I want to go, and I encourage anyone reading to publicly hold a similar stance. Maybe if enough people go "this simply isn't on", then someone important will take a bit of notice.

I'm considering making a site under some domain name like "visitbali.com" or something and trying to get some support for people boycotting travel to Indonesia by people who think that 20 years for someone who has shown pretty clearly there's a good chance they're completely innocent of smuggling drugs is just not on. Personally, I think killing people who are drug smugglers is not on either, and they're quite happy to do that too.

OK, enough politics. I've said my peace. Enjoy your weekend.

Bein' the Boss

The most difficult thing about my job is the fact that I'm not in charge. I like very much to make the decisions, as I tend to think I'm always right. As a result, if I was in charge, everything would rock. Not that I'd ever attempt to "organise" a speedy exit for my boss or anything, but if the chips could have fallen differently at the start, that wouldn't have been so bad.

My issue de jour is disk imaging. If I was in charge, all our machines would be set up to use Remote Installation Services out of Windows 2003. They could network boot, hook up to the server, ask a couple of questions, and then image themselves. Simple.
But I'm not in charge. And the decision belongs to one of my workmates. The system currently makes it basically impossible for anyone but him to reimage a computer. All the image files sit on his laptop which has GhostCast server installed on it, and he takes it to a lab of computers, and then boots them off floppy disks and points them to his laptop to retrieve the images. Not simple, not manageable, not fun.

So yeah, Justin comments again about need for new job. I'd like a mid-size site (500 seats?) who are completely unhappy with their current system and need someone to create a new one from scratch. They'll have substantial money allocated to this project, and will be able to create and test the new system in parallel to the existing one, perhaps with a parallel implimentation, but I'd prefer an end-of-year cutover with the staff comming back to some staff training (outsourced to appropriate friends...) to get their skills up to scratch. Ongoing sysadmin would be done by me, with a couple of offsiders handling helpdesk. The offsiders would be hardworking, but have an interest in computers outside of a work environment so that we'd all be getting excited about the latest piece of bleeding-edge graphics hardware, or better yet, the new Playstation3 that kicks the pants of that Xbox358.5 thing. :P

OK, enough dreaming for today. Back to my current job, that is gradually starting to have a rather boredom-relieving side-effect: Students think I'm awesome. I now have several students who write me emails about tech-related stuff, and ask my assistance on coding projects, etc. Hehehe... I am l33t. They are teachable... The next generation is k0mm1ng...

podcasting?

Forgive me Blogger, for I have SYN'd. It's been 5 days since my last blog entry.

I stumbled across a strange article via an RSS feed on this thing called podcasting. Apparently, the idea is that it works a bit like an RSS feed, but with an MP3 file attached that contains audio of someone talking, or music, or both. Basically, do-it-yourself radio, but not live. I heard of this concept for the first time today, but I must be a bit slow in my geekyness, as apparently it's already a phenomenon. A bit like the "I kiss you!!" guy, but with less foto-cameras, and hopefully more good taste. Mind you, you never can tell...
Anyways, the result of all of this is that having only just cottoned on to the idea of RSS feeds as a cool way to keep up-to-date on stuff that interests me, I'm now going to hook up to some podcasts and get them on my iPaq so I can listen to them on the way to and from work.

You watch - they'll outlaw them within a week now. That always happens to me.

So hey, on a completely unrelated point, my cousin is getting married in November, and he's asked me to be his groomsman. This mightn't seem like a big deal to some, but I'm really pumped. My cousin is a really great guy and he's marrying an awesome girl, and I'm just stoked that I can be part of their day. Heheheh... I'm such a softy.
Anyways, I sent him a link to my blog so I thought I'd put in a big "hello!!" in case he does in fact have a look.

Look, I know I've been a bit slack with actually ranting on this "man-with-rant" thing, but the problem is that I just never have time (although I'm not as bad as someone I know... SLACKER!! hee hee). Like right now - I set this time, the hour previous to this very moment - 8:41pm, aside for playing my PS2. My wife had gone out for the evening, so I figured I had the whole place to myself, and could just unwind in front of some Star Ocean 3. I haven't played this game in probably over a month, and I was seriously engrossed in it last time I played. With work, and then our baby boy (who is 1 year old in about 2 weeks!), and spending time with my wonderful wife, I really don't have a lot of free time. And yet there are SO MANY things I really want to do! Gaming is just one of a multitude - a multitude that includes writing in my blog.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to be patient. Some day soon I'll write about how I don't think reality is actually real at all, and that I think it must be "rendered" at the point at which it is viewed. Something along the lines of the "if a tree falls in a forest" argument. I've got reasons for this, but I think I'll save it all for another night. In the mean time, go do something fun. Life's too short for being bored or boring, so do something you enjoy even if you're tired for work tomorrow. I think that's what I'm going to do...