21st
March
2008
This is an existential question: if I play a real guitar while the person beside me is playing Guitar Hero, are Wii both playing guitars? Or are we both heroes? Or none of the above. The juxtaposition of real life and simulation, while listening to songs from Boston or Slayer is enough to make my head spin, round and round, like a record.
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posted in computing |
20th
March
2008
I don’t have any appropriate arms for this job, but it’s time to check out on the legal status; what happens if you try to “blow away” a snowbank that won’t stop growning? Not in the leafmover sense but rather in the shock and awe sense. We’re into another two or three days of steadily accumulating snow; what seems charming back four months ago is getting to be drudgery.
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posted in computing |
19th
March
2008
In our ever-faster virtual world, even the back alleys get traffic. I had that principle of basic security brought to my attention this afternoon by a quick email from someone I haven’t seen in years. You see, secrecy through obfuscation may sound great when you’re reading a cheap spy novel, but there are spiders and robots in the equation now.
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posted in computing |
18th
March
2008
One of the first “real” (meaning hardcover) books I received as child involved a multi-national group of astronauts, stuck on an asteroid while they mined for thorium. One of them was a Filipino. Just words, when you are seven years old, but a fine introduction to the world of science fiction. The world which we grow into, much like a pair of pants that are bought on sale by a parent, waiting for the inevitable; that we would grow into them. I’ve read hundreds of title since then. Only one has inspired iconic images.
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posted in technology |
17th
March
2008
Finally, just as we get a whiff of spring air, the roof-cleaning mania is in full swing. None too late for some, but it still leaves me wondering at what point a building administrator stops waiting for a sign from a neighbour and just goes and does the job. Do we need a record to be broken for the common sense gene to kick in?
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posted in environment |
16th
March
2008
Certain world powers go out of their way to prove how little moral ground they have, despite their wealth and real estate. Choose the moment that might make “the other guy” lose face and then play it for the cameras. There’s no sense of fair play, however.
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posted in politics |
15th
March
2008
Strangest thing… I just hung up the phone, after a long distance call from a pollster, wanting to know if I supported the current prime minister. The only reply is “Of course. I support them all. I pay taxes”. Without getting lost in the maze of twisty little passages (complete with a thief that steals all your belongings), I now wonder if an election is closer than it appears in the mirror. It would be silly to go out on the hustings at a time when most voters can’t find their own houses due to the snowfall.
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posted in history |
14th
March
2008
It’s a given that I’m a creature of habit. I ride the same bus, go to the same office, purchase coffee grains at the same wonderful little shop in the middle of the old city. In fact, when I can go in and the girl on the counter remembers what variety of grain I prefer, it’s clear that I’m at home. Or maybe she doesn’t sell such particular orders to people that look like me; either way, when I went in today between two of my (regular) buses, the sense of belonging was enough to make me think spring had arrived.
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posted in environment |
13th
March
2008
People like to take the familiar road home. We all know the jokes about “being on autopilot”; today I learned that it extends to our response in an emergency. The fire alarm sounds in your office building and people head for their usual exit, even if it means choosing to be in harm’s way.
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posted in education |
12th
March
2008
Because I’m surrounded by “technology” at work, and my role is to support others as they bump against the fence that keeps them in their respective cages (with regard to the wily computer) there’s the risk of forgetting how far we’ve all come at the office over the last two decades. To put things in perspective; twenty years ago the machine of choice was an Apple IIe or an IBM 5150.
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posted in computing |
