Fairly obvious observations!

I'm always bothered by expressions like "35% of the packaged software installed on personal computers (PC) worldwide in 2005 was illegal, amounting to $34 bln in global losses due to software piracy." [Over here! No, over here!]

I can think of two things about it that get my goat. The first is the obvious fact that it's not the case that, if it weren't for this piracy, anyone in particular would be $34 billion dollars richer. If it weren't for this piracy, and so if the computers in question were more expensive, there would most definitely be quite a few less people buying them, and so to say that the piracy has caused $34 billion in losses is a bit odd.

The other objection is the way they say "in global losses." By not saying exactly who has taken those losses, it suggests that everyone in worse off, like if there was $34 billion in losses from an earthquake or something (Though, of course, that would be reported as $34 billion in damage.) And that's just obviously not true, the recipients of the pirated software have got something for free. To them collectively, there were $34 billion in gains. To the world as a whole, which is what I'd naturally take the words "Global Losses" to refer to, there has been roughly a $0 net loss, and that's assuming the not-universally-accepted idea that a company actually loses something when its intellectual property is violated.

It seems kinda like me saying "I gave some cash to a beggar today, resulting in $5 of loss." I mean, sure, if I added the words "to me," that'd be better, but as is it seems really weird.

Anyway... Just a peeve.

Tempo-Dudes!

I just thought up a great idea for a movie. It's about 2 buddies who used to work as security guards in a super-high-tech lab which was developing... A time machine!

Then, 10 years in the future they are given a time machine from future versions of themselves, but on the condition that they use it to go back in time, to when they worked in the lab, and steal the time machine... FROM THEMSELVES!!!

Thus an Ocean's Eleven/Mission Impossible style crime caper ensues, in which these cop/crims try to outwit themselves with fancy gadgets and whatnot. And maybe there could be a twist at the end, like the two past versions of themselves are actually revealed to be from even further in the future, sent back to prevent the theft of the time machine to stop some terrible paradox from screwing the world up.


Needless to say, it would feature explosions.

HOLLYWOOD HERE I COME!

Room if you want to! Room around the world!

I just moved room!

I mean, I kinda moved room ages ago, in terms of where I've been sleeping, but now my computer is in here! So it's official! Wee!

Room Room Room Room Room.
Rooooooooooooom.
Roooooooooom.
When in room.
Room as room roomens room.


Room is a funny word.

Badgers couldn’t compensate (at twice the price)

I think Editions Of You would be better if the line "Too much cheesecake too soon" was replaced with "Too much cheese to consume."


This message brought to you by the Royal Association for the Editing of Roxy Music Songs.
Authorised by J. Della Bosca Wooloomooloo, Sydney.

Plagiarism.

I finally decided to buy Hello Young Lovers, expensive import price and all, and damn if that wasn't the best carefully considered, drawn out purchasing decision of my life! The album is frickin' brilliant!

To go into a little more detail: Hello Young Lovers suffers from no flaws. There's plenty to listen to, and I'd suggest (to myself in the past, considering I'm, like, the only person in Australia liable to buy this album) when you first get the album, not starting it when you have something to do in the next hour. Otherwise you might just find it, as I did, hard to not go on and listen to the whole thing (I was totally going to read more Philosophical Investigations today!)

The songs sound the same as absolutely nothing Sparks have ever done before, with a few possible exceptions (Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls springs to mind). However, once you get a few listens under your (metaphorical) belt, then, if you are familiar with their material, you might see it as a progression from their classically tinged Lil' Beethoven album, with the addition of some heavy rock instrumentalism, similar (especially in the first track, Dick Around,) to that heard in their collaboration with Faith No More. Yet another thing: don't expect another Kimono My House, because that's one thing that this album most certainly is not. I'm not sure that I can come to a conclusion yet about whether it's actually better than that classic, but... that would be a pretty odd comparison to try and make as they are musically and temporally miles apart (temporal miles.)

Hello Young Lovers is the first album since Aerial to make me write a blog post. Hell, it's the first once since Aerial that I've bought. This fact in itself is a little worrying, because it means I'm probably unconventionally acquiring too much music, but I digress. Hello Young Lovers is awesome in its intricacy and its power. Russell's vocals really shine throughout, and the title of (Baby, Baby) Can I Invade Your Country is nothing short of hilarious. Put it this way; I listened to this album about an hour ago. You should've done the same.


And apologies to Mirza.

The rest sell shoes to all the other.

Paul Simon made an album with Brian Eno! As if that isn't the coolest thing ever!

Conceptually, I mean. I haven't heard much of it yet.

3 words! Well, 14 including these ones. Unless numerals aren't words.

This is hilarious.

Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book

"Cardinal Pell says in the past, pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate the gods but today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions."

Man, that line's got it all! Anti-scientism, Bathos, and some kind of bizarre tenuous... What is that? It's not even a metaphor!

Apologies to any Pell-liking catholics that might be reading this blog, but I can't stand that guy.

That said, he's not as bad as Jensen(s).

The less I say the more my work gets done.

Well, that's that load of assignments done with (to various degrees of satisfaction.)

Time for a well earned break! One not featuring freecell!

Condemned to life as an ashtray.

I just broke a 165 games Freecell Winning Streak.


I've been working hard!