tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-122072932024-03-14T00:47:05.241+11:00Conversation With My Evil TwinAlbert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-70004661183557850502009-01-01T12:00:00.002+11:002009-01-01T12:09:03.361+11:00Top George Bush momentsLetterman's selections:<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rToKEnySb7s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rToKEnySb7s&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b7em-Vtipp4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b7em-Vtipp4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OaDtbO9BimM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OaDtbO9BimM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-32666527006214532212008-07-09T15:35:00.000+10:002008-07-09T15:50:19.112+10:00Should Bush be tried for war crimes?<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />From <a href="http://www.nysun.com/opinion/eroding-the-constitution/81018/">the Sun</a>; Lawrence Velvel, the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, will host a conference in September aimed at preparing war crimes prosecutions against the president and members of his administration. Mr. Velvel hopes that the meeting will lay the groundwork "to pursue the guilty as long as necessary".<br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Should Bush be tried for war crimes?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Absolutely</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Would Bush be tried for war crimes?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Never.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Should Bush be tried for torture, extraordinary rendition and other grotesque constitutional abuses?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Absolutely</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Would Bush be tried for torture, extraordinary rendition and other grotesque constitutional abuses?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Unlikely.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Should Bush be tried for murdering American citizens by sending them to Iraq?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Absolutely</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Would Bush be tried for for murdering American citizens by sending them to Iraq?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Depends on whether the Democrats have any backbone.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Let me ask these questions in a different order by assuming that the Democrats do have the gut to do something right for the American people.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: That's a big assumption! But I'll go along with you.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: After Bush has been tried for for murdering American citizens by sending them to Iraq, would Bush be tried for torture, extraordinary rendition and other grotesque constitutional abuses?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Likely</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: After Bush has been tried for torture, extraordinary rendition and other grotesque constitutional abuses, would Bush be tried for war crimes?</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Depends on whether the American citizens have the courage and moral stance to right the wrong.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Let's hope American can get this right.</span>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-34505375533968386602008-07-08T21:02:00.001+10:002008-07-08T21:10:52.909+10:00Priest telling lies, as usual<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />[abc <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/08/2297699.htm">news</a> from Australia]The Catholic Church's most senior figure in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, has conceded a letter he wrote to a man who had been sexually assaulted by a priest was a mistake.<br /><br /><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2648755193_02802ff5c3.jpg?v=0" style="width: 90%;"><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: "a mistake" = Bull sh*t!</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: Yes, according to ABC, Two allegations of abuse by the same priest were involved. AND more importantly, .Cardinal Pell signed a letter accepting the former altar boy's complaint on the same day he wrote to Mr Jones. How could it be a mistake. It is a cover-up!</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Most media are still seeking church representatives for comments whenever there is a moral issue. That's is totally wrong.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:Agree. Priests at high position are totally unqualified to speak on any issue on moral.</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert: Being at high position implies that they are really smart. Otherwise they won't be able to reach that position. Being smart, they should know that the Bible is just a friction. They know that god does not exist. But they continue to peach the wrong idea to the public meaning that they are only acting on their own interest, everyday continuously. They have no moral!</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla: If they really believe in the existence of god, then they are disqualified because of their stupidity. </span>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-58895330241435333332008-06-21T09:19:00.006+10:002008-06-21T09:44:54.330+10:00Who Own Your Child?<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />This is another beautiful day. The twins are in an argument again.<br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><img src=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/2596659424_8916441d78.jpg style=width:90%><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Do you own you child?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> That is a wrong question? We don't own anybody. We have well passed the slave era.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> You are wrong. Someone own all our children.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Who?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Definitely not you and me!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Please explain.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Although you couple gave birth to your children, can you take their life away?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Of course not!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> That's right. By the concept of ownership, you can destory the thing you own if you so desire - even may not be morally right to do so.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> So, we don't own our children. What is your point?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Someone own our children!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Please explain.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Someone can legally destory our children, Does that mean that that someone own our children?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> But that someone does not exist!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Wrong, that is the government who send our children to war knowing that there is a high possibility of dying.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> But that's bcause we need to protect our country!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> In history, how wars were started? All wars are started because of someone's aggression and ambition. If there is no such evil person, there is no need to protect our country because there will be no people attacking us to start with.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> But, we are talk about today!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Yes, it is happening today. The US president sends his citizens to fight an unnecessary war. Does that demonstrate that the US president owns all the children of American people?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Aha!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-83929270779618912312008-06-15T12:21:00.002+10:002008-06-15T12:36:26.281+10:00This is not how to reward a hero!<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />via <a href="http://www.neatorama.com/2008/06/14/nurse-pulled-cops-out-of-burning-car-got-10-months-in-jail-for-it/">Neatorama</a>:<br /><blockquote>rachelle jackson, a trained nurse, pulled two policemen out of their burning squad car and rather than being thanked for her heroic effort, she was arrested on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer and jailed for 10 months!</blockquote><br /><br />from <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-federal_jury_verdictjun13,0,4630555.story">Chicago Tribune</a><br /><blockquote>Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found against the city and several Chicago police officers, awarding Jackson $7.7 million for false arrest, malicious prosecution, coercive questioning and intentional infliction of emotional distress.<br /><br />...<br />Defense attorney Andrew Hale said the amount the jury awarded Jackson was "excessive" and that he would file post-trial motions to have the amount reduced.</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> In US, you should just stand and watch a burning police car killed the cops inside. Otherwise you end up in jail - because you helped!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> That's extreme, brother! Jackson was accused of stealing a weapon and hence spent time in jail!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Come on. Common Sense! If one is busy helping people, one won't have time to steal weapon! To a nurse, why would she even want to have a weapon?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> To protect herself, may be/<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> Rather, is that because she is black?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> Don't start that!<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> It is even worse that the defense attorney want to appeal.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> OK, I am with you. There is no justice in US.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> I believe there is only one thing in these people's mind.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> What is that?<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> <font size="+5">$$$</font><br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Trebla:</span> I don't understand. Jackson was not expecting to be falsely prosecuted and then won the law suit for a compensation. She would not have been able to see the $$$ when she rescued the police officers.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetSpeaker">Albert:</span> I meant the defense attorney. Law suit and appeals make money for the lawyers!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-77773983679807729652008-06-02T21:38:00.002+10:002008-06-03T10:35:18.780+10:00Petrol Prices<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />The last week of Australian Parliment was spent on arguing whether Opposition's proposal of a 5cents reduction in the fuel tax will help the Australian families on top of the embrassing leaks of cabinet meeting information on the lack of evidence of "fuel watch" scheme to help to lower the fuel price.<br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span> Frankly, 5 cents out of $1.50 a litre of fuel is nothing. My average of 60L a tank only save me $3. It is a just a cuppa!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span> Same for the "fuel watch". Asking the fuel stations to pre-advertise their price 24 hours before change is just an additional cost to the fuel stations. It won't reduce any price!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span> Shouldn't our elected representative really be able to sort out the real problem? It is supply and demand, stupid!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span> Yea, the real solution is provide alternate solution so that we don't have to drive as much. For example improve the horrible public transport system!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span> Or invest in producing renewable fuel - not from food source, like algae growing in salt water!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span> Is there anything wrong with the political system? Common people like you and me have more and better solution to the highly paid politicians!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-89407163664140924622008-05-26T09:40:00.001+10:002008-05-26T09:51:30.384+10:00The Value of a Human Life: $129,000 or $500,000<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />From <a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1808049,00.html?xid=rss-topstories">Times</a>, Stanford economists have demonstrated that the average value of a year of quality human life is actually closer to about $129,000, from the Medical Insurance's value of $50,000. However, the US Government pays $500,000 death benefit to a dead sodier's family.<br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span>Is there a value to a human life?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span>Yes.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span>How much do you worth?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span>Couple of Billions, may be<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span>How much do I worth?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span>A few hundred, at most!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span>What? Explain!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span>I am a beautiful lady. If I marry a rich guy, he may be willing to spend billions to save my life. You are just an ordinary man. Nobody really cares about you. You are worthless.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span>Hey, remember, we are twins. You carry the same gene as me!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span>But value is subjective.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span>Aha, that's why *I* worth Billions and *you* only worth hundreds.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span>The question is *should a third party judge the value of one's life*?Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-28951794863661819322008-05-22T12:48:00.001+10:002008-05-22T13:10:01.925+10:00Which is more dangerous, Religion or Neglect of People's will?<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />At an <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s2252026.htm">interview</a> [<a href="rtsp://media1.abc.net.au/reallibrary/lateline/200805/20080521-late-andrew_16_9_bband.rm">video</a>], Andrew Bacevich, a Professor of International Relations at Boston University.who is a Vietnam War veteran with more than twenty years in the US army before joining academia in the early '90s said, 'what is the meaning of a democratic system if when the people speak their voices don't translate into any politically meaningful effects? And when somebody like the Vice-President, as you quoted, can get away with basically saying, "The people - what do we care? What do they know?"'. McCain, a US president hopeful seekd the endorsement of John Hagee, a controversial evangelical leader argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God's behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God's will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel. [<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/21/mccain-backer-hagee-said_n_102892.html">reference here</a>].<br />What the future will be when the politics of mightiest military nation in the world is dominated by this neglect of people's will and the over-whelming influence from religion.<br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert:</span> What is the difference between USA and an Islamic country run by extremist?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla:</span> USA has a large military and the Islamic country does not!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-32391610834314027702007-07-18T21:56:00.000+10:002007-07-18T22:22:04.260+10:00Australia goes Gitmo<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />An Indian doctor working in Queensland, Australia who was accused of lenting his prepaid SIM card to his cousin who was involved in the failed bombing plot in UK was released on bail but was arrested again after federal minister of Immigration interfered by canceling his working visa.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: I agree with John S. Wilkins that this is interference of nature justice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Are you kidding? That's a golden opportunity to gain political points. Don't you remember the "children overboard" and US-led invasion of Iraqi?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: I don't understand why Australians are happy to elect a liar!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Don't say that. You may be arrested for misleading and libel.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Sorry, I apologize and retract my last comment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: But frankly, I cannot understand why US citizens have elected George W. Bush and why Australians have elected John Howard!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Oh, there are a lot of things we don't know.Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1166574234458815782006-12-20T11:19:00.000+11:002006-12-20T11:23:54.486+11:00How not to lose a USB drive<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />Flash drives are getting smaller and smaller, and at the same time their capacity keeps getting bigger and bigger. All of this means the chances of losing your flash drive, and of that loss being disastrous, keeps rising. [from <a href="http://www.spurgeonworld.com/blog/archives/2006/11/no_more_misplac.html">http://www.spurgeonworld.com/blog/archives/2006/11/no_more_misplac.html</a>]<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.spurgeonworld.com/blog/images/bowling_ball_1.jpg" align="left"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: For boys - embedd the flash drive into a regulation sixteen pound bowling ball.<br /><br /><img src="http://boingboing.net/images/usbdiamond.jpg" align="left"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: For girls - USB drive in solid platinum and loaded with 350 white diamonds.Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1140741767817463722006-02-24T11:04:00.000+11:002006-02-24T12:23:42.810+11:00Burnoff: Part 2 - The Good Guys Win<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br />Tarmle described another scenario when "<span style="font-style:italic;">No one has to pay for numbers anymore.</span>"<br /><blockquote>Copyright is your right to copy... anything. You are permitted to duplicate, to alter, to republish any piece of information, any text, sound, image or source code, even any object, anything that does not impinge on the privacy of another individual. It even protects your right to make money out of such duplication, if you can.</blockquote><br /><blockquote>Increasingly companies rely on getting information about their products integrated into the media, making them inseparable. You won't find a new album online that doesn't contain at least two tracks named after brands of sneakers or snack foods. The rewards for a rapper willing to name a financial services company somewhere in their lyrics are awe-inspiring - a once-off commercial concession like that can fund a popular artist for long time. Your favourite comedy sketch vlog regularly uses humour based on commercial products and services - a few years ago such a thing might have appalled you, yet you still see collections of old TV ads in the media libraries prominently tagged as humour. The Grand Theft Auto MMOG doesn't charge it's players for software or access, instead it sells in-game billboard space for fifty times the price of billboards in the real world, and the virtual cars the players are boosting will often be the latest models, performance and polygon counts boosted by higher paying sponsors, of course. Armed with suitable Creative Commons Contracts, protecting them from restrictive and exploitative deals, artists have little to fear from their sponsors.</blockquote><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: In the spirit of copycat, here is Treble again, describing yet another scenario based on Tarmle's <a href="http://tarmle.livejournal.com/82819.html">Burnoff: Part 2 - The Good Guys Win</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Here it goes:<br /><br />The world is now overloaded with informercial (a blend of information, entertainment and commercial). People is now crying for legislation to put tags around the commercial segments of the informercial so that their personal entertaining device can filter out the commericals. There are several legal cases in the court at the moment between CFM (Commerical Free Movement) and AAAA (American Advertising Agencies Associations).<br /><br /><blockquote><br /><b>Side bar here</b><br />The fundamental technical issues is:<br />The interpretation of any bit stream depends on the header to indicate the boundary of meaningful blocks of bits and the header will indicate to the software how to play the blcok of bits in a meaningful sense.<br /><br />Previously, the commercial segment is in a block and hence it is quite easy for the personal intelligent player agent to filter off the unwanted commercials. AAAA is now pushing a coding scheme so that the media data is distributed over several blocks. In today's terminology, the commercial is like the static frames in a movie on which the real information is based. Several highly commercially successful artists have adopted such coding scheme.<br /><br /><b>Side bar End</b><br /></blockquote><br /><br />CFM, formerly <a href="http://www.eff.org">EFF</a>, argues that it is the right of anyone to remix any segment of a string of numbers (digitalised media). Those artists, who insisted that commercial part embedded their work should not be removed from any remix is illegal.<br /><br />AAAA wants to protect the integrity of the embedded commercial segments in the informercial and argues that it is the right of the artists to ensure the work is presented as a whole - as originally intended, otherwise the interpretation of the work may be misled. Any remix is a violation of the creative right of the artists. People who worked for AIAA previously are now working for AAAA. Anyone can still use, duplicated or distribute the work, except it must be as a complete whole.<br /><br />There are also several cases in the court involving the improper or lack of attribution to the original work. One of the case is like this.<br /><br />John Duo Smith Junior IV has written a software which generated all the combination of notes in all scales and all tempos for a four-beat bar of music. He released the result as a library with a license requiring attribution to him. It was initially a great welcome by most hobbyist musician and millions of songs were created based on John Duo Smith Junior IV's library of 4-beat music bars. Later he also released libraries for all other number of beats. As his citation index sky-rocketed, he has many high value endorsement from the advertising agencies.<br /><br />These days, the music creation software automatically manage the attribution. The creator of a piece of music owns the aggregation attribution. Although the some bars are attributed to John Duo Smith Junior IV, the sequencing of the bars is attributed to the creator. As the remix continues, the attribution list becomes longer and longer every iteration and is a nightmare to maintain. A 30-second sound track may have an attribution list 10 times longer than the actual media. Although the bandwidth and storage is cheap, they have never kept up with the demand. People started to separate out the attribution list from the media. As a result, many users who are just consumer of the media and have no intention to remix or reuse, opted to download the media without the attribution. Recently, John Duo Smith Junior IV found out that his citation index has dropped. As a result of his investigation, he is now suing several major peer to peer networks for violation of attribution requirements by separating the attribution from the distribution.<br /><br />John Duo Smith Junior IV is backed by MSLIA (Musical Segment Libraries Industry Associations).<br /><br />People who worked for Music Industry Associations in the early 2000 found themselves have more job than ever. The law department is the most difficult department to get in for any university.Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1139180605440394712006-02-06T09:44:00.000+11:002006-02-06T10:03:25.473+11:00Trebla's two predictions of the future becoming true<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br /><a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk">TimesOnline</a> has an article <a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2023600,00.html">Rumours mount over Google's internet plan</a> which makes Trebla look like working for Google.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Hi, since when did you start working for Google?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: What?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: All your predictions about an alternate Internet and personal storage being distributed online at location other than your own hard disk is now being worked at at Google. They must be buying dark fibre in bulk otherwise they don't need to advertisements for hiring negotiators.<br /><blockquote>Google placed job advertisements in America and the British national press for "Strategic Negotiator candidates with experience in...identification, selection, and negotiation of dark fibre contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global backbone network".</blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Well, I heard about this long time ago from Robert Cringely.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Google has been offering large storage capacity for their gmail users (up to 2.6G).<br /><blockquote>Google has long been rumoured to be planning to launch a PC to retail for less than $100. The Google computers are likely to be low-grade machines that require a connection to Google to be able to perform functions such as word processing and spreadsheet manipulations.</blockquote><br />So, the next step will be storing users' personal data, which Google would be quite comfortable.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Luck guess, I suppose.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Are you working for Google?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: No comment!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: The news paper article asks<br /><blockquote>Should Google successfully launch an alternative network, it is is theoretically possible for them to block out competitor websites and only allow users to access websites that have paid Google to be shown to their users.</blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Google is smart enough not to do that. Network effect!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: You really sound like you are working for Google.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Nope!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1138953321862499672006-02-03T18:37:00.000+11:002006-02-03T19:37:36.593+11:00The End of the Internet?<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />USA big telcos are planning to change the public Internet into their private Gold mine. [via Boingboing.net]<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: In my fictionalised view when the USA network value falls (such as through restrictive copyright laws, see <a href="http://cwmet.blogspot.com/2006/01/burnoff-part-1-bad-guys-win.html"> Burnoff: Part 1 - The Bad Guys Win</a>), I predicted two technology changes: 1. an alternet Internet and 2. distributed encrypted storage for personal data. I think their telcos are helping to make this happens.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, I can agree that adding restrictive copyright laws will decrease the usefulness of the Internet. The current size of the Net will mean building a new network very difficult in order to compete with the value already stored in the current Internet.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: No. Do you remember how fast the Internet was growing just 10 years ago? We are currently at the beginning of the Information Era. You have not seen the real network yet. The tipping point needs two things to occur: 1. dirt cheap network infrastructure, such as those dark fibre after a techs bubble burst; 2. a common perceived loss in faith in the current network.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: How do you suggest the lock-in effect can be overcome?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: What lock-in? Never really work! You think VHS has a lock-in to the video recording media, right? Look, we are using DVD-R for the media! VHS is a lock-in when you compare two products in the same category. As new features are added, the network needs to reconfigure itself. The current IP address is already running out of stream. IPv6 has not been picked up significantly in USA. But look outside, Europe and Japan are the big players. I can see the possibility of an alternate network with bridges to the old Internet. In fact, like the IP-network replacing the voice telephone network, the new alternate network can happen without the current ISP noticing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, why you say USA Telcos' plan helps make your fiction true?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Look, while the rest of the world, e.g. Korean is lowering the cost of telecommunication, USA will result in higher fees if their Telcos get their way. This effectively will create incompatible business models between the USA connections to the rest of the world. So, the natural outcome is the split of the network especially when the rest of the world recognise that they already have sufficient value in their separated value.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: I don't think the Telcos' plan will succeed. The current generation of communication technology is based on the "last mile" connection to the telephone exchange. So, just like Australia, the monopoly which controls the last mile has the best run at the moment. But, there is not the only way people can connect. The other wire which connects all homes is the power. Technology is already developing to allow communication connection via power line. Other obvious connection is the cable. More importantly, wireless connection is getting faster and faster. See <a href="http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=12822006">Lamp-posts that let you surf net</a>. Such a stupid plan to protect their old business model and greediness is not likely to succeed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: You bet. US government spent $450 Billion dollars in war of terror to satisfy the greedy military industries. Their citizens have to constantly fight against law proposals sponsored by the content industries for all sort of restriction to enjoy their rightfully purchased goods, both content and the players.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: That would be the beginning of the collapse of this great country.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Unfortunately, Australia's current government follows without giving a second thought!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, I will leave your second technology change for the next occasion.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Fine with me.Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1138538059874172382006-01-29T23:03:00.000+11:002006-01-29T23:34:19.886+11:00Naked Truth<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />After the post <a href="http://cwmet.blogspot.com/2006/01/burnoff-part-1-bad-guys-win.html">Burnoff: Part 1 - The Bad Guys Win</a>, a commenter in digg.com said<br /><blockquote>What utter crap. Really. Beyond lame. We need a "Another idiot spamming his blog" problem category.</blockquote><br /><br />At about same time, <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/">How to Save the World</a> has a post on <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2006/01/26.html#a1419">BLOG Why Republicans Want a Huge National Debt</a> citing a much-admired, one of the world's richest people Warren Buffet's worry about US trade deficit.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Hey, Trebla, why you publish an article while I am busy?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Don't be so angry. I am just trying to help!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Someone is suggesting to spam us!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Then he should spam Warren Buffett too. If anyone doing an honest prediction and when the result does not align to your liking, and then you want to spam that person to shut him/her off, that's is NOT the way the web works. BTW, we are not Americans and we are not under their jurisdiction anyway. Don't worry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: BTW, Dave Pollard's analysis would not likely to sound right to that commenter too!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: But, neither of us is economist, do we claim that we understand what is being discussed here?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: That's exactly the point, no one is expert in every field. However, we are still free to base on our intuition to share opinions in the way we like.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Knowledge is built socially. That means that it is throught this discussion process that we learn.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: What my piece has done, when read objectively, is to acknowledge the risk of the current US policies (and government) starting the decline of this great nation. This is partly due to the short-term nature of the governance both in government and large companies.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: You mean the short-sightedness of the people leading the government and the large companies.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Yes, when the CEO or chief executive is driven by short term rewards, in many situation, they will not look for long term impact on the decisions they make. Like the "user-pay" policy for educating our next generation, it is totally selfish and against long term good of a nation, but a number of "developed" countries, like Australia, are promoting it as a national policy!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: True. If we come up with a scenario, based on this user-pay policy for education, it would look good right?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Definitely. You want me to try to do another piece?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: No, thank you. I think we better stick to the current discussion mode.Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1138195679286861622006-01-25T23:49:00.000+11:002006-01-26T00:37:21.620+11:00Burnoff: Part 1 - The Bad Guys Win<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />Tarmle described a very dark scenario when going to movie was a big deal because of the DRM saga in USA. (via BoingBoing)<br /><br /><blockquote>Going to the movies is not what it used to be. Security at the studio-owned theatres is heavy, it's not a trip to be taken lightly.</blockquote><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Albert is currently busy working. So I will do a solo today. Let me just describe to you what happens at the same time OUTSIDE USA.<br /><br />Now that the creative people in USA found it very difficult to live and be creative, many have moved to the resort-like islands in tax-heaven Pacific Islands. After all, the world is flat! They can live anywhere and still work for these international companies.<br /><br />Since the outsourcing starting in the late 1990s, China is now producing about 90% of all hardware. They don't really respect the copyright laws in USA. Although USA has been threatening to block free trade with China if they continue to ignore USA copyright laws, but the fact is that USA economy is now so weak and dependent on China that the threat is more like a joke. These Chinese manufacturers have mastered the production skill and anyone who can read Chinese will be able to flip a few switches behind their machine in order to turn off the DRM devices (just don't tell your next door neighbour). Of course, these machines are supposedly illegal in USA, but somehow, they are selling like hot cakes. After all, there is nothing not made in China anyway.<br /><br />Apart from USA, the world is now using an alternate Internet called altNet. It was built when the second tech bubble was bursted 2 years after the DRM laws sponsored by MPAA were passed. Chinese and Indians bought all these dark fibre outside USA and built the alt-Net. Alt-Net is expanding faster than ever. It now has 10 times the traffic of the old Internet.<br /><br />Besides USA, everyone is running their computers on Linux - actually, there is no more new software which does not run on Linux. These always on Linux machines formed the peer-to-peer backbone of altNet. People are sharing their storage media in their computers in return of storing their own files on other's computer. These days, no one is storing their own data on their machines. All files are stored multiple times (in small fragments) on many remote servers. They are assembled on demand through special 64K encryption so that they are always backed up at multiple locations. They are so secured that not even the big brother can look it. All inter-computer connections are made ad hoc with security keys created on demand and dropped between packages. These operating systems deliberately drops all trace of package passing through their machines.<br /><br />Those living outside USA enjoys free digital media thought alt-Net. All those DRMs put on the media was removed by hackers around the world. Somehow, these hackers even can release the content before it was released in USA - partly because the huge processing time required to encode the media with the DRM.<br /><br />Creativity everywhere else except USA has been blooming at ever faster rate. Good people are leaving USA. For the first time in history, USA has a brain-drain problem. Those left in USA are the poor, uneducated, welfare dependent. The economy is weak and the national debts is at all time high reaching 50 times GDP. The world bank is busy discussing how to rescue the USA economy. The UN is talking to move its headquarters from New York to Beijing or Bombay.<br /><br />People in USA is now asking why? How comes the greatest economy in the world can collapse like this? They still don't have a clue!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1128896253434689332005-10-10T08:09:00.000+10:002005-10-10T09:08:35.653+10:00English Language Test for New Australian Citizen<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />Recent news indicated that the debate of requiring all new Australian citizens to pass an official English language test.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Applicants for citizenship are assessed for their understanding of basic English already, see current <a href="http://www.citizenship.gov.au/faq.htm#faq15">regulation</a>. I don't understand why we need to change.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Well, "questioning the need to change" is not a good argument. To survive in the modern world, change is required. A better question should be what kind of change, which direction is the change.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: True! It seems to me that they want to increase the level of English for the new citizen.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: To what level? Secondary school graduates? University? Post Doctoral?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: ???<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Another more fundamental question: why English? Should it be the aboriginal languages? Shouldn't all Australian be required to speak the local aboriginal language?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: There are too many aboriginal languages and they are not used worldwide!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: So, your point?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: English IS the international language!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, the choice of language is political and economical. Once upon a time, England has been strong and have colonies all over the world. Now, US is economical strong and they speak a dialect of English. But if we are talking about change, we should look into the future and find out what would be good for our citizens or countries in the future.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: And your suggestion?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Find the most used language and support the population to learn that language.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: and it would be?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: I would suggest Mandarin Chinese, see <a href="http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm">here</a>. It is used by 1.12 billion, compared with the second, which is English 480 million.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: But looking at the same website, Weber compiled the world's ten most influential languages and English is at the top with a points of 37 whereas Chinese came 6 with points of 13.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: I don't know when that list was compiled. But is it almost universally agreed that China will be the biggest economy in the world in this century? This should at least shift the data somewhat.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, change is necessary. So the debate will be good for Australia?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: No, I can't agree. The problem is in the assumptions of the debate question. I am afraid it will give the wrong impression of Australia going back to a "white policy", and that English-speaking people has a supremacy over non-English speaking people. The world is now about multi-culture and cultural diversity. I suggest Australian should keep it that way.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Agree.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Good, brother. At least we can agree on ONE thing.<br /><br /><div class='tag_list'>Tags: <span style=font-size:70%;><a href=http://technorati.com/tag/language+of+choice rel=tag>language of choice</a> </span></div>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1123242765611409212005-08-05T21:46:00.000+10:002005-08-05T21:52:45.616+10:00Personal Memory Assistant - update<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />via Engadget - <a href="http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=9278487&src=rss/technologyNews">U.S. charges man in camcorder-piracy crackdown</a><br /><br />WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Missouri man is the first to be indicted under a new federal law that prohibits people from secretly videotaping movies when they are shown in theaters, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, what I have predicted <a href="http://cwmet.blogspot.com/2005/07/personal-memory-assistant.html">the other day</a> has already happened.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: What can I say! Very disappointed with the law makers!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: At the current form, it is not exactly personal memory assistant. But it laid a foundation for future case to establish the needed laws.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: It is the death of human nature!Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1122508583737030902005-07-28T09:13:00.000+10:002005-07-28T10:00:45.326+10:00Personal Memory Assistant<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail375.html">Jamais Cascio</a> projected the always on scenario of the existence of a personal memory assistant where<br /><blockquote>what we see, what we hear, what we experience will be recorded wherever we go. </blockquote><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Have you read my comment of the Participatory Penopticon <a href="http://2020learning.blogspot.com/2005/07/personal-memory-assistant.html">impact on learning</a>?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Yes, but I don't agree that "<span style="font-style:italic;">those in intellectual property business</span>" are in trouble.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Why?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Do you notice that every now and then, people put up the idea of user-pay for education? building toll way instead of free way?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Yes, but what has those to do with the IP issue we are discussing now?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Do you think government will get elected by raising tax?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: No, but what's your point?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: How expensive is the election?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, very expensive, so...?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Who has money?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Big businesses. I have enough. If you are not interested in this topic, we will switch topic.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, the future depends on the politics. Free content is only wishful thinking by the little people.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Please explain.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: If I were the boss of the big company owning a lot of IP, I would start planning to collect IP fees via tax. Everyone who buy a PMA will have to pay a tax levy on the assumption that they are capturing IP. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, that will make the PMA more expensive. That may push back the introduction of such devices for a few years.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, remember that businesses are greedy. That won't satisfy they appetite! Then businesses will ask for charging content on per-use basis. Every time the PMA captures any content, the user has to pay for it. Every time the PMA replays the content, the user has to pay for it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: WHAT! Don't you think that kind of law can be passed?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: 100%. Big businesses have money. Money get people elected. The law will be made in the interest of the these businesses.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Trebla, you are so negative! There are a huge movement against digital right, e.g. <a href="http://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> and open source movement. If we don't want to see the scenario you describe, I need to act now to stop IP limitations on content today. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Albert, I hope my scenario will not happen too! But the odds are just not on your side.<br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Tags: <span style="font-size:70%;"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Participatory+Penopticon" rel="tag">Participatory Penopticon</a> , <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/future+scenario" rel="tag">future scenario</a> , </span></div>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1118274915305442232005-06-09T09:22:00.000+10:002005-06-09T09:59:49.356+10:00Apple's Colossal Disappointment<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />Linspire's Michael Robertson wrote about the implication of the <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html">Apple's announcement</a> to switch to Intel chips in the next two years.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a<br />sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet<br />green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument<br />AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Apple has a special place in our minds, brother. Do you remember the days when we built a local area network using the Apple ]['s game port? It was fun! But since then, we had not use follow with the Mac development.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Yea, Apple lost us because the closed architecture of the Mac. Apple ][ opened the whole new world of personal computing because its case can be open, and should be open. There were slots there we could plug wonderful cards in. There were lots of potential to do cool things. Mac reversed all its success factors. Then IBM PC came along. The case could be opened too and there were slots for plugging cool cards in as well. So we followed that trend. At the time, we thought IBM was choosing the wrong processor - the lame 8086 when compared to the 68000 by Motorola.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Well to be honest, we followed the trend because of the availability of clones. We were brought up with custom-made Apples. Remember that power point story? We used a regulated power support instead of the switched power supply. The main connected to the transformer was located at the same position of a factory Apple ][ and how many times we have stopped our friends to reach for the death of touch. :-)<br />We followed to the pc world because of the availability of clones!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: We were in Hongkong at the time. That's the cool thing to do then. Why do you bring this up?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Michael Robertson, being the CEO of Linspire was looking at Apple's move in order to see if his company still have a future.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Don't worry, brother. The world will be Linux based soon. With all the argument put forward by the M$ spinners, the world's computing platform will still become Linux based anyway.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Yea, most of under-developed countries are moving to develop their own Linux based computing platform. That's an obvious trend. When China equips her secondary school students with a computer, that would be Red flag Linux. That would immediately add several hundred millions installation to the Linux platform!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: What Linspire is doing looks to me very much taking a disruptive technology route too!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Yea, bottom up disruptive technologies typically start with an inferior technology and a young market where people are not too concerned about getting the best and the most expensive, like walkman or digital camera. As the technology supporting the innovation advances, it eventual takes over the majority of the market. But I don't see Linux being an inferior technology. It is being used at the top end of the computing platform - super-computer.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: I said Linspire is taking a disruptive routine as a way to displace Windows as desktop.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: I see.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Even if Linspire does not, some other Linux based desktop will. The economics is just on Linux side.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Linux is also like the Apple ][ and IBM PC, it's open and let people play around with it. But at this point, the development tools on Linux is still too geeky<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Well, someone will come up with something like Visual Basic for Linux platform someday and you will suddenly see an explosion of software as people experiment with it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: I would love to put my hand on some easily to use programming tool for the Linux environment. Most important for the tool, it must hide all the complexity behind it. Application programmers are not the same as hard core kernel developers!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: For once, we brothers agree.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Yea, ha ha.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Tags: <span style="font-size:70%;"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/disruptive" rel="tag">disruptive</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/linux" rel="tag">Linux</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/desktop" rel="tag">desktop</a> </span></div>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1116720053295178932005-05-22T09:26:00.000+10:002005-05-22T10:01:11.993+10:00Dissected lies of a Canadian recording industry shill<span class="cwnetInto">Background</span><br /><br />via <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/21/dissected_lies_of_a_.html">BoingBoing</a>:<br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.cria.ca/">Canadian Recording Industry Association</a> had its bid to indiscriminately force ISPs to reveal their subscribers' personal information on the mere say-so of a rightsholder. Seeking to contain the crushing defeat of justice, the President of the CRIA (Graham Henderson) gave a press interview where he attempted to spin this as some kind of victory for his side. <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/home.php#408">Michael Geist</a> has fact-checked his ass, revealing the lies and delusions that this shill told the press:<br /><br /> "The judge has determined that uploading, downloading, it's illegal."<br /><br /> Actually, the court did no such thing. Concluding its copyright discussion at paragraph 54, the court says:<br /><br /><br /> "I make no such findings here and wish to make it clear that if this case proceeds further, it should be done on the basis that no findings to date on the issue of infringement have been made." </blockquote><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto"> Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Well done, Graham!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: How can you still say well done to Graham? His argument is completely found to be deceptions and illusion by the law professor at the University of Ottawa where he also hold the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Listen to me, brother. To be able to decept other, you need to believe that "it" is true first. You need to blindly believe what you are going to say is true and factual, irrespective of the real fact. Graham does that! So he is a good representative of the CRIA<sup>1</sup>.<br /><sup>1</sup> <span style="font-style:italic;">The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) promotes the interests of Canadian record companies and artists. CRIA represents the producers, manufacturers and distributors of more than 95 per cent of all records produced and sold in Canada.</span> [<a href="http://www.cria.ca/news/190505_n.php">ref</a>, second last paragraph]<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: I have checked that CRIA claims to promote the interests of record companies and <span style="font-weight:bold;">artists</span>, but they do not present the artists!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Hey, brother, you are learning fast! Exactly, CRIA represents only the interests of the middle man. The mention of artists is part of the overall illusion they try to create.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: OK, Graham blindly believes in what he is saying, so what?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, if it were not picked up by popular media such as Boing Boing, how many people would have read Michael's post?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Well, may be as many as those reading our posts... ok may be slightly more!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: [smile] Brother, you are learning fast! So from the point of impact to the public opinion, what do you think? Who made a bigger impact? Graham or Michael?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: [thinking] Graham is a press meeting and Micheal is a blog posting... Graham has a larger audience and impact!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Exactly. In marketing, you know, by repeating sufficient times, a myth will become a truth.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: Will Graham be sue for misrepresentation of the Judge's finding?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: When did you last hear of a Judge sueing someone else in discussion about their finding?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: ....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, telling lies is part of the marketing and public opinion changing!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Albert</span>: sad....<br /><br /><font size="-1">Tagged as <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/corporate_tactics" rel="tag">corporate tactics</a></font>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1114912426182487912005-05-01T11:28:00.000+10:002005-05-05T16:41:21.296+10:00Work-for-Hire (Part 3)<span class="cwnetInto" >Background</span><br /><br />Not only Albert found out that his twin brother has earned 2 times the money from his effort, it was a term paper which a student has asked publicly.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Brother, you have lured me to commit a moral crime!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: What?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: I know that the paper which you paid me to write was a term paper ....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Did you know that when you wrote the paper?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: No, but ....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: So, you did not commit any moral crime. If anyone has, it is ME. So, relax. I am evil anyway!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: still ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: I asked you to introduce some grammatical, spelling mistakes and misconceptions. Did you do that?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: yeah ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: So, what do you worry about? That student won't get good grade anyway. That would make you easy a little bit, right?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla whispering to himself</span>: In fact, this is my anti-plagiarism tactics.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: What did you say?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Nothing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: The student would have corrected the grammatical and spellings etc. right? He will still get a good mark!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: No worries. He won't!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: How do you know?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: If he had care, he would have done the assignment himself. Since he has paid for it, he would just put his name on it and hand it in.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: The <a href="http://acolla.blogspot.com/2005/04/plagiarism.html">fundamental problem of plagiarism</a> is the assignment itself. If the teacher has set an assignment based on authentic task, there is no way to have pre-written paper for them to copy. The task of providing the background to freelance writer like you will be so much that it does not worth asking for external help.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: So you are even arguing <span style="font-weight:bold;">FOR</span> the student!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, do worry! If anyone has committed a moral crime, it would be ME. That's part of the price I pay to be the middle man. Oh, I sold my soul for $40.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: I am sorry for you, brother. I apologise being anger at you. Do you want the $20 back?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert handed Trebla a 20-dollar notes</span>:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Ha ha ... easy money .... ha ha ...<br /><br /><font size="-1">Tagged as <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/plagiarism" rel="tag">plagiarism</a></font>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1114745378389162562005-04-29T13:14:00.000+10:002005-04-29T13:29:38.390+10:00Work-for-Hire (Part 2)<span class="cwnetInto" >Background</span><br />Since the last episode, Albert has written the paper, given it to Trebla and collected $20. Albert was happy until he found out that Trebla made $40 out of his work.<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Give me back the $40.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Why?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: I wrote the paper. You collected $60 from the customer. So you should give that all to me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, you have no right to ask for that $40 I legally earned. I demand an apology!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: What!? It is totally unfair. I do all the hard work and you collected more money than I.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Well, when you have heard about an author gets anything more than 15%? Most got much less. I am very generous in offering you 30%. [see for example, <a href="http://www.fonerbooks.com/contract.htm">here</a>]<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: You are operating a "sweat" shop!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, I am very generous already. You are paid immediately when I got the paper. I have not deducted my expenses before calculating your share.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: This is totally unfair.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, you are my brother, so I am this generous. In the real world, you will be lucky to get paid. Ha Ha....<br /><br /><font size="-1">Tagged as <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/copyright" rel="tag">copyright issue </a></font>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1114516261908593492005-04-26T21:39:00.000+10:002005-04-26T22:01:09.563+10:00Work-for-Hire (Part 1)<span class="cwnetInto" >Background</span><br /><blockquote>Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 13:40:21 -0000 From: "writinglance" Subject: NEW FREELANCE PROJECTS on Directfreelance.com 4/21/2005<br /><br />Dear Freelancers!<br /><br />Recent Projects:<br /><br />4/21/2005 - #21192 Foucault Philosophy Term Paper ...Article/News/Press Release Writing/Editing I need a writer to write a 25-page term paper (double-spaced) on Foucault''s philosophy. I have an article that contains all the ideas that are needed to write this paper. However, those ideas need to be re-written so this term-paper is original. Please provide quote me a flat-fee to for this service.</blockquote> <br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...<br /><br />Earlier that evening, Trebla answered the ad and get the job for 60 dollars.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, I have a job for you. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: OK, what's that? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: You like writing, right? You like to make some money from your writing, right? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: yeah... <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Here is your assignment. A 25-page paper (double-spaced) on Foucault''s philosophy. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Why? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: OK, to reduce my cost, you will be given a draft. Your task is to make the draft looks like written by a 12-year student. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: WHAT? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: By thw way, you may introduce some spelling and grammatical mistakes, and wrong concepts and misunderstandings as well.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: What kind of job is that? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Don't worry. You will get 20 dollars for your work. Ha Ha....<br /><br /><font size="-1">Tagged as <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/term_paper_mills" rel="tag">term paper mills</a></font>Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1114133355066502062005-04-22T11:18:00.000+10:002005-04-22T15:14:16.913+10:00India rejects software patents<span class="cwnetInto" >Background</span><br />via Boing Boing<br /><blockquote>Indian parliament deleted the section from the patents bill regrading the software patents as left parties prevailed over the Government on the issue. </blockquote><br />[from <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/20/2311255&tid=155&tid=219">Slashdot</a>]<br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Well done, India!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Well done, India! 30 years should be sufficient!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Trebla, what do you mean for <span style="font-style:italic;">30 years should be sufficient</span>?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Yeah, given today's speed of progress, 30 years of not respecting other's patent should be enough.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: What?!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: All countries started as pirate nation, including USA. This is a natural progression!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: NATURAL PROGESSION! Come on, brother. Your twisted mind is not working any more.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Brother, R & D stands for "Repeat and Duplicate". That's how one can learn from the past. Even the great Physicist Newton said his discovery stands on the shoulders of giants in the past. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: So, why you say 30 years is enough? Do you think that India will revert to enforcing software patent after 30 years.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Yes, of course. It is natural progression. In the agricultural era, people own land. These landlords do not have to work. They live off their properties. In the industrial era, people own money and live off from their investment. Again, they do need to work. What do you think people will live on and yet do not need to work in the information era?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Ideas?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Yes, ideas. The greedy nature of human will move to propose to protect "my property" - i.e. ideas. So, when India becomes an idea-exporting country, they will impose patents to protect their rich people. Just like USA, stupid!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: ...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: When are you going to learn to be smarter, brother?Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12207293.post-1114045605560216832005-04-21T10:00:00.000+10:002005-04-22T11:08:12.430+10:00Blocking VoIP Calls: Foreboding Harbinger or Benign Fluke?<span class="cwnetInto" >Background</span><br />via Stephen Downes' OLDaily.<br /><blockquote>The nation of Qatar has already started cracking down on what it calls "illegal VoIP" (Voice over IP) and there are signs that this trend is spreading as some U.S. carriers have already attempted to block voice traffic, citing it as unfair competition.</blockquote><br /><br /><span class="cwnetInto">Once upon a time, on a sunny evening with a distant rainbow in the east, sitting on the wet green lawn near the roses, Albert and Trebla went into an argument AGAIN...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Stupid move, Telco!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: I'm glad you finally side with me. As said by Stephen, I "<span style="font-style:italic;">don't see what's unfair about using technological innovation to provide the same service at a lower cost</span>".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Oh, brother, you missed my point. I am saying that Telco's strategy of protecting their business is wrong.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: What do you meant protecting their business. It is a clear case of "<span style="font-style:italic;">cartel, copyright, patent and trade legislation to support otherwise unprofitable business methods</span>". <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Any business has the right to survive. After all, shareholders invest in a business to make money. Nothing more and nothing less.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Well, the USA FCC has made a decision to fine Madison River Communications $15K for blocking Vonage's internet traffic. [as cited by <a href="http://blog.educause.edu/gsern/archive/2005/04/19/1124.aspx">Garret Sern's blog</a>] <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: That's why I said the Telcos have made a stupid move.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: What do you mean?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Hey, they should have copied the RIAA's strategy. First, they should create an image in the public that Voice over IP is an act of thief. Stealing their legal rights to provide telephone service. Then, lobby the government to introduce laws to prohibit anyone stealing their rights. Then they start blocking IP packages and take actions. Given the size of the Telco, I just think the CEO's are just dumb!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: How can you make sure that such laws can be passed?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Ha, Ha. There is a will, there is a way. Human are weak! These Telcos donate so such money to the political parties. Don't you think it is undoable!<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Albert</span>: Brother, you are thinking illegal tactics again.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Trebla</span>: Survival for the fittest! It is a free world, remember? Ha Ha...Albert Iphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14938101816494973123noreply@blogger.com0