Gassing Gangsters (mp3)
Saturday afternoon special. Conceived: 11.30. Completed: 16.00. Grocery shopping and haircut included.
This Victor Xray track is called 'Gassing Gangsters', crudely named after the John Barry soundtrack it samples, 'Gassing The Gangsters' from the movie 'Goldfinger'. If you've seen the film you know the scene; some music updated for it.
Download Gassing Gangsters.
TO DOWNLOAD: As usual, click the "attachment" link(s) in this entry if you are viewing the HTML web page - or use a podcasting client RSS feed of the blog to get automated downloads of any new music placed on The Horse, He Sick. If you can't see a download link anywhere go to the original page url - usually linked from the title.
Answer Of The Void (mp3)
Now Zero track from Clan Analogue EP 3.
This track is a Now:Zero song "Answer Of The Void", from the Clan Analogue EP 3, circa 1993 or 1994 I think. Dan Rossi of Electroteque is working on a remix which I'll also put on the blog in the coming days.
Download Now:Zero "Answer Of The Void".
TO DOWNLOAD: As usual, click the "attachment" link(s) in this entry if you are viewing the HTML web page - or use a podcasting client RSS feed of the blog to get automated downloads of any new music placed on The Horse, He Sick. If you can't see a download link anywhere go to the original page url - usually linked from the title.
'War' On Terror
Pointless emotional terminology
What is called Terrorism has a long history in the 20th Century. From Serbian Anarchists assassinating Franz Ferdinand, Bolsheviks executing their democratic socialist rivals, fascist brown shirts running the streets and beating their enemies, the Klu Klux Klan, Weathermen, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - the Hindu extremists who assassinated Ghandi, the Tamil Tigers (the world's foremost exponents of the suicide bombing), the Red Army Fraction, Red Brigades, PLO, IRA, UDF, ETA, SWAPO, Umkhonto we Sizwe (the military wing of the ANC), violent Christian fundamentalist anti-abortionists blowing up nurses and doctors, right-wing gun-crazy militia members blowing up Government workers and children - the list of murderous opposition to peaceful democratic values from non-State actors just goes on and on throughout recent history, and there are even cases were Western governments have forgiven or at least forgotten such crimes (the ANC for example). However the point is that Islamic extremists have no monopoly on such violence, or are the only holders of anti-Western, anti-democratic values.
Therefore it is in my view a completely false characterisation to say there is a "war on Islamic extremism", "war on terror", etc. Democratic society ought to be vigilant against all extremism, that is sure. And we ought to especially oppose those who seek to do actual harm to our citizens. However it is scare-mongering at the very least to say it is a war of survival of the order of the Second World War, or even a war of the type fought against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It is not a war. There are no armies opposing each other in the field, outside of Afghanistan and arguably, Iraq. Terrorist cells must be found and neutralised, their leaders captured, their sources of funding destroyed, their ideology educated against and shown to be the hateful medieval superstition that it is. however to lose sight of the actual facts of the struggle by employing pointless, emotional terminology such as "War with Islam" or "Clash of Civilisations" can only serve to muddy the already murky waters and prevent us from holding the actual struggle - and the clear path to winning it - up to the cold, hard, clear light of reason.
First weeks with a Mac - general impressions so far
Three weeks with OS-X
Well I've had the Macbook Pro now for about three weeks. My first impressions are generally good, but its not an experience that has been without flaws. Overall the experience of switching has been very good however. The computer has generally performed well.
I have noted a tendancy on its part however to take a disliking to having a differing set of attached peripherals when woken from sleep than it had when it was put to sleep. E.g., when I leave work, I frequently close the lid, unplug the apple keyboard, turn off the bluetooth mouse and pack the computer in my bag. Then when I get home, I'll just open the lid without any of these items attached. The computer then gets a bit confused and flicks back to a grey screen for several extra moments before resuming correctly. I have to get used to detaching the peripherals before I close the lid.
I have had one solid crash since I bought the machine. It absolutely locked up on me when waking up from sleep and had to be turned off and restarted.
There are minor interface annoyances that I find with the operating system. Some of these are a matter of learning the new new keystrokes for the various opreations (and training muscle memory to not reflexively press Ctrl-C when I mean Apple-C). However a significant annoyance is the way the F11 key minimises all open windows, but restoring any other window instantly opens all the application windows as well. Another major annoyance is the way that Home and End keys (on the external keyboard) don't take me to the beginning and end of the current line. That is functionality I reflexively rely upon in both Windows and Linux.
Apart from that the general impression I have in using the operating system is that its definitely nicer than Windows XP or Linux. Quicksilver rocks most excellent and I am getting used to the Dock's behaviour now.
Policy, technology, education and economy
Workchoices not the answer to Australia's problems.
Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, in a blog entry he wrote about meeting Tony Blair:
So if you want to attract companies like Sun to your economy, focus on investing in education, in your students, and in your leaders. Focus on educating your policy makers as to why you're committed to education - not to build presitigious institutions, but to invest in progress, academic as well as economic. Focus on the value of broad based talent as a competitive weapon, don't be distracted by cost reducing labor.
I.e. policies like Workchoices, focussed entirely on driving wages and skillsets down, just don't help the economy. Value-add, don't value-subtract.
Remember this is the same Government that has massively disinvested the education sector in Australia.