Case A:
Be a winner!
In order to celebrate [ocassion], [companyName] is offering free [product or service] to a lucky winner! If you want your chance at winning, like the [companyName] page on facebook so that we will be able to spam the crap out of you, then send a [catchy slogan/picture of yourself with your mate/picture of yourself doing Action] for a chance to win the [product or service]. Since this competition will be based on the amount of votes you get, and not on merit, originality or other useful metrics, be sure to spam the living crap out of your friends' pages too !
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Case B:
"Hey! Vote for my [catchy slogan/picture of yourself with your mate/picture of yourself doing Action] on this page. You'll have to like [company] first, so they can spam the crap out of things and get free advertising! Make sure you vote for me, because this competition is simply a cheap way of getting free information out to potential customers!"
-
How many of you are tired of seeing these things? So I'll just say it so you won't have to.
The Llama
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Achievements
To be honest, I'm not sure whether this blog is a great idea, social commentary, or a personal realisation.
Was talking to a friend the other day, and we came to the realisation that we were both around 20 years old. Given the average lifespan of 80 years, that means 1/4th of our lives is gone. Forever.
So that got me thinking once again, what have I done with my life? What major Achievements of sort have I completed? I wasn't able to list much to be honest - aside from learning how to walk, write and use the potty... I could only think of "Having found a permanent mate", "University Degree (In Progress)", "P&P Game (In Progress)". Not very much.
Also reminded me of those games which have achievements in them (some clear - "Killed 500 dodos medal", some integrated into gameplay (like collecting this nifty armour to show off)). And how people spend hours slaving away to get some rare item which will prove how awesome they are.
And that made me reach a particular conclusion:
We are creatures of Achievement. We are ready to waste hours or days of our lives just to have something that others will respect us for. In fact, going through all the trouble to do that - makes us feel happier - as long as we get somethign to show for it - as long as someone gets to look upon our acheivement with respect.
Therefore I came to these conclusions:
1. If we wrote a RL achievement system, people would actually use it.
2. We shouldn't laugh at people who play games for 18 hours a day, because they are driven by the same mindset we have
3. That if we all list and appreciate each other's achievements, we'd all be happier
4. That I should be studying instead.
The Llama
Was talking to a friend the other day, and we came to the realisation that we were both around 20 years old. Given the average lifespan of 80 years, that means 1/4th of our lives is gone. Forever.
So that got me thinking once again, what have I done with my life? What major Achievements of sort have I completed? I wasn't able to list much to be honest - aside from learning how to walk, write and use the potty... I could only think of "Having found a permanent mate", "University Degree (In Progress)", "P&P Game (In Progress)". Not very much.
Also reminded me of those games which have achievements in them (some clear - "Killed 500 dodos medal", some integrated into gameplay (like collecting this nifty armour to show off)). And how people spend hours slaving away to get some rare item which will prove how awesome they are.
And that made me reach a particular conclusion:
We are creatures of Achievement. We are ready to waste hours or days of our lives just to have something that others will respect us for. In fact, going through all the trouble to do that - makes us feel happier - as long as we get somethign to show for it - as long as someone gets to look upon our acheivement with respect.
Therefore I came to these conclusions:
1. If we wrote a RL achievement system, people would actually use it.
2. We shouldn't laugh at people who play games for 18 hours a day, because they are driven by the same mindset we have
3. That if we all list and appreciate each other's achievements, we'd all be happier
4. That I should be studying instead.
The Llama
Sunday, January 23, 2011
A student's lament
So, exam season is here. And as we study, get stressed, rip our hair out and try to study again, I wonder.. is it all worth it?
Exams make no sense. Lets face it.
If the purpose of an exam is to judge the student's knowledge of the material, then its pretty incorrect - not to mention very unrealistic in certain/most cases. I will be referring quite a bit to ICT - since its the course I am in at the moment.
Firstly, how well a person does in exams depends on tons of factors - some of them very time dependent. To list a few:
1. Amount of Exams in period
2. Amount of Material to Study
3. Studying Ability
4. Exam distribution - Having 2 exams per day vs having them spread out in a week
5. Personal Problems
6. Actual Familiarity with the topic
7. Quality of notes
8. Quality of lecturer
9. Exam time constraints
10. The ability of the student to convert what he knows to text
11. The random choice of topics questioned.
Now, you ideally want to test 6. Because that's what the exam is supposed to be doing. So why leave those others in there?
I personally had assignments up to friday, and an exam on Monday. Some had an exam on Saturday. Do you think that their performance will accurately represent their familiarity with the topic? Nope.
Also, its unrealistic. At no professional portion of my life do I expect to sit down in a room in silence, and write about the 7 layers of networking without being able to consult any notes. Discussing them with an equal - I can understand perhaps. Or explaining to a job-superior the finer points. But not in a snap, without any notes or whatever.
Secondly, because of the high stress, large volumes of concentrated studying, chances are you'll forget them soon after. Good going. I barely consciously remember anything from 2nd year which I haven't used. What I remember is the stuff I found useful, and the stuff I actually worked on. I still remember suffix tries perfectly, and can write one without needing to look at the notes - only because I had a project on that, and because I needed to use it.
Also, who is the genius who decided to collect all exams into one period? That sure helps get a perfect view of things. If I have two exams one day after another, I will do less well in both. Why not stagger them? Why not have smaller tests throughout the year? That way we can study properly.
Also, why is memory and recall so important? Why do you have to ask me stuff which is on my notes? Can't you read the notes? Do you think professionals keep EVERYTHING in their head? If I don't know how to open a database connection I will Google it. It'll take me all of 15 seconds to find it. I don't need to remember the syntax.
So my ideal examination? None of those. Instead you partition into 4 people groups at random- tell them that they have a week to write an algorithm to solve a particular problem , using the knowledge they have so far. That will give THE best impression of knowledge, and will ensure that the students will actually remember it a week later.
The Llama
Exams make no sense. Lets face it.
If the purpose of an exam is to judge the student's knowledge of the material, then its pretty incorrect - not to mention very unrealistic in certain/most cases. I will be referring quite a bit to ICT - since its the course I am in at the moment.
Firstly, how well a person does in exams depends on tons of factors - some of them very time dependent. To list a few:
1. Amount of Exams in period
2. Amount of Material to Study
3. Studying Ability
4. Exam distribution - Having 2 exams per day vs having them spread out in a week
5. Personal Problems
6. Actual Familiarity with the topic
7. Quality of notes
8. Quality of lecturer
9. Exam time constraints
10. The ability of the student to convert what he knows to text
11. The random choice of topics questioned.
Now, you ideally want to test 6. Because that's what the exam is supposed to be doing. So why leave those others in there?
I personally had assignments up to friday, and an exam on Monday. Some had an exam on Saturday. Do you think that their performance will accurately represent their familiarity with the topic? Nope.
Also, its unrealistic. At no professional portion of my life do I expect to sit down in a room in silence, and write about the 7 layers of networking without being able to consult any notes. Discussing them with an equal - I can understand perhaps. Or explaining to a job-superior the finer points. But not in a snap, without any notes or whatever.
Secondly, because of the high stress, large volumes of concentrated studying, chances are you'll forget them soon after. Good going. I barely consciously remember anything from 2nd year which I haven't used. What I remember is the stuff I found useful, and the stuff I actually worked on. I still remember suffix tries perfectly, and can write one without needing to look at the notes - only because I had a project on that, and because I needed to use it.
Also, who is the genius who decided to collect all exams into one period? That sure helps get a perfect view of things. If I have two exams one day after another, I will do less well in both. Why not stagger them? Why not have smaller tests throughout the year? That way we can study properly.
Also, why is memory and recall so important? Why do you have to ask me stuff which is on my notes? Can't you read the notes? Do you think professionals keep EVERYTHING in their head? If I don't know how to open a database connection I will Google it. It'll take me all of 15 seconds to find it. I don't need to remember the syntax.
So my ideal examination? None of those. Instead you partition into 4 people groups at random- tell them that they have a week to write an algorithm to solve a particular problem , using the knowledge they have so far. That will give THE best impression of knowledge, and will ensure that the students will actually remember it a week later.
The Llama
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Pentalobular Screws anyone?
Since this rant is about a particular company, I will refrain from using its real name, in order to protect its privacy. I will instead refer to the company as "Pear" and its range of products "weProducts".
Now this particular instance of company decided to add a new feature to its line of products - Pentalobular Screws. Awesome name right?
What they basically are, are screws which can only be opened with a particular screwdriver. Oh and its patented. So yeah, you can get a screwdriver off the internet, but it'll be illegal. And you're not meant to get that screwdriver anyway - because if anything happens to 'your' weProducts, you should take them to an official Pear Repair Center, so you can give more money to the company.
So, what's the big deal? The entire system is now brilliantly closed off - to give consumers no choice whatsoever. So lets go through the process! Then I'll tell you why you should care.
Step 1: You purchase the weProduct. If its a wePhone, and you're not lucky enough to live in Europe - its probably locked down to one (but coming soon to another) phone company. Tough luck. You also pay a premium because - lets face it - its a Pear. And it'll increase your trendiness by 6x10^23%.
Step 2: You can only use Pear-approved connectors to stick it to your computer. Once you do , you need Pear-approved software to communicate with it. They take a cut out of everything.
Step 3: If you want to install additional software on your Pear-device, you need to download it from the crAppstore. Which is also Pear-owned. With Pear's rules. You can't install anything else (see Note1). They take a cut out of everything.
Step 4: If something bad happens to your weProduct, you need to take it to their own Pear-repairShop. They take a cut out of that as well. If its something tiny like you dropping it and needing a screen moved a bit, you now need a PENTALOBULAR screwdriver. (I love pronouncing that word)
So since you purchase this amazing pear-product, the Pear company is maximising the money it gets from you - by reducing your freedoms.
But why should you care? You can (Note 1:) Jailbreak it! Unfortunately this voids the warranty. So if you have any problems, you can't take it to an authorised Pear-repairShop. Congrats on having bricked an expensive device. You could try opening it if you have one of those fancy-shmancy pentalobular screwdrivers.
Also, if you do take the risk of Jailbreaking it - you still filled their coffers by 600 euros or so - and increased the usercount by 1. So you are basically telling them that you agree with their approach - and encouraging them to keep going.
Good luck with that.
The Llama
Now this particular instance of company decided to add a new feature to its line of products - Pentalobular Screws. Awesome name right?
 |
| Source |
What they basically are, are screws which can only be opened with a particular screwdriver. Oh and its patented. So yeah, you can get a screwdriver off the internet, but it'll be illegal. And you're not meant to get that screwdriver anyway - because if anything happens to 'your' weProducts, you should take them to an official Pear Repair Center, so you can give more money to the company.
So, what's the big deal? The entire system is now brilliantly closed off - to give consumers no choice whatsoever. So lets go through the process! Then I'll tell you why you should care.
Step 1: You purchase the weProduct. If its a wePhone, and you're not lucky enough to live in Europe - its probably locked down to one (but coming soon to another) phone company. Tough luck. You also pay a premium because - lets face it - its a Pear. And it'll increase your trendiness by 6x10^23%.
Step 2: You can only use Pear-approved connectors to stick it to your computer. Once you do , you need Pear-approved software to communicate with it. They take a cut out of everything.
Step 3: If you want to install additional software on your Pear-device, you need to download it from the crAppstore. Which is also Pear-owned. With Pear's rules. You can't install anything else (see Note1). They take a cut out of everything.
Step 4: If something bad happens to your weProduct, you need to take it to their own Pear-repairShop. They take a cut out of that as well. If its something tiny like you dropping it and needing a screen moved a bit, you now need a PENTALOBULAR screwdriver. (I love pronouncing that word)
So since you purchase this amazing pear-product, the Pear company is maximising the money it gets from you - by reducing your freedoms.
But why should you care? You can (Note 1:) Jailbreak it! Unfortunately this voids the warranty. So if you have any problems, you can't take it to an authorised Pear-repairShop. Congrats on having bricked an expensive device. You could try opening it if you have one of those fancy-shmancy pentalobular screwdrivers.
Also, if you do take the risk of Jailbreaking it - you still filled their coffers by 600 euros or so - and increased the usercount by 1. So you are basically telling them that you agree with their approach - and encouraging them to keep going.
Good luck with that.
The Llama
Friday, January 21, 2011
Racism
Racism is one of the most hotly debated things in Malta, with all the illegal immigrants and all that. Nobody wants to be called a racist because as earlier stated we are all equals.
So, first I would like to change the name. I don't like the name Racism - because for a start its too specific, and it makes no sense. We're all humans. We all belong to the same race. Secondly, even if you take ethnicity into account, most of Europe is ethnically similar. If I think Italians are inferior to Maltese people - that's called Racism - even though we are ethnically equal and I am more than probably genetically similar to Italians. Thirdly, if I don't like you because you don't believe in the same God as I do, then again, that has nothing to do with your race.
So instead I shall be using the term "Cultural Partitioning". I'm sure there are other terms, and note that I'm not a sociologist by any definition of the term.
Now, lets face a simple fact. People enjoy being with people who are similar in some way to them. I prefer the company of people who like to discuss, share my interest in computers, or share my other beliefs. If you force me into the company of people who aren't similar to me, we probably won't get along.
When you have a large amount of people living together - you need to ensure that they will get along. So you implement some culture, some way of ensuring that people will always get along. Like religion. It also implements in the culture some basic knowledge which is required to communicate with other people. Such as language.
The problems arise when you have totally different cultures.
When you try to shove different cultures together and force them to live together. When this happens, a culture has to change, or the culture segregates itself automatically.
A good example of this are the Chinatowns which can be found throughout the world. Not all of them are due to segregation - people enjoy being with others which are similar.
When a culture attempts to integrate totally, one group needs to change. Either the new culture loses its identity - speaks the new language and acts like the natives.
Or the old culture suffers as the culture is nullified and replaced. A good example is this case:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lautsi_v._Italy
So yeah, I didn't speak about 'racism' as , for example, not allowing black people to work in offices - because we all know that system is incredibly stupid, and anyway, the capitalist model doesn't support it.
I am simply stating that for groups of people to live together in peace and harmony, everyone needs to lose their cultural identities. So its very stupid when in order to fight for their integration into Maltese society, they form their own lobbying group. When you create visible partitions - OF ANY KIND - you are increasing cultural partitioning.
That said, are we all eager to lose our cultural identities? To have global laws and remove local ones? Hell, we won't even need countries anymore. I can think of one social class who would just love for that to happen.
The Llama
So, first I would like to change the name. I don't like the name Racism - because for a start its too specific, and it makes no sense. We're all humans. We all belong to the same race. Secondly, even if you take ethnicity into account, most of Europe is ethnically similar. If I think Italians are inferior to Maltese people - that's called Racism - even though we are ethnically equal and I am more than probably genetically similar to Italians. Thirdly, if I don't like you because you don't believe in the same God as I do, then again, that has nothing to do with your race.
So instead I shall be using the term "Cultural Partitioning". I'm sure there are other terms, and note that I'm not a sociologist by any definition of the term.
Now, lets face a simple fact. People enjoy being with people who are similar in some way to them. I prefer the company of people who like to discuss, share my interest in computers, or share my other beliefs. If you force me into the company of people who aren't similar to me, we probably won't get along.
When you have a large amount of people living together - you need to ensure that they will get along. So you implement some culture, some way of ensuring that people will always get along. Like religion. It also implements in the culture some basic knowledge which is required to communicate with other people. Such as language.
The problems arise when you have totally different cultures.
When you try to shove different cultures together and force them to live together. When this happens, a culture has to change, or the culture segregates itself automatically.
A good example of this are the Chinatowns which can be found throughout the world. Not all of them are due to segregation - people enjoy being with others which are similar.
When a culture attempts to integrate totally, one group needs to change. Either the new culture loses its identity - speaks the new language and acts like the natives.
Or the old culture suffers as the culture is nullified and replaced. A good example is this case:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lautsi_v._Italy
So yeah, I didn't speak about 'racism' as , for example, not allowing black people to work in offices - because we all know that system is incredibly stupid, and anyway, the capitalist model doesn't support it.
I am simply stating that for groups of people to live together in peace and harmony, everyone needs to lose their cultural identities. So its very stupid when in order to fight for their integration into Maltese society, they form their own lobbying group. When you create visible partitions - OF ANY KIND - you are increasing cultural partitioning.
That said, are we all eager to lose our cultural identities? To have global laws and remove local ones? Hell, we won't even need countries anymore. I can think of one social class who would just love for that to happen.
The Llama
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Life is unfair 1: Technologies marches on
Once upon a time, building anything would have required a large amount of time.
Lets take cars for example. Once upon a time everything was done mostly by hand. You had people who hammered the body, people who stuck the engine in et cetera.
Building a car required days or weeks.
Nowadays is mostly automated - you have conveyer belts, robots which perform most actions, and require very little human supervision.
Building a car now requires minutes (if you average it out, it'll probably take less). Same thing across other products, mass production has made the actual human interaction much less, and the amount of products produced much more.
So the question is - why do we still have 5 day weeks? Since we can produce most products in a fraction of the time - making them cheap and requiring less humans - why do we need to work that frequently?
Why can't the workers, who are actually doing the work, get a slice of that? You are literally multiplying the power of a single worker by a large amount - and yet the worker themselves still has to work from 8 to 4 or whatever. The higher ups work less and earn more pay. In fact, the higher you go, the less you work and the more pay you get.
So as earlier stated - life is pretty unfair. Hooray.
The Llama
Lets take cars for example. Once upon a time everything was done mostly by hand. You had people who hammered the body, people who stuck the engine in et cetera.
Building a car required days or weeks.
Nowadays is mostly automated - you have conveyer belts, robots which perform most actions, and require very little human supervision.
Building a car now requires minutes (if you average it out, it'll probably take less). Same thing across other products, mass production has made the actual human interaction much less, and the amount of products produced much more.
So the question is - why do we still have 5 day weeks? Since we can produce most products in a fraction of the time - making them cheap and requiring less humans - why do we need to work that frequently?
Why can't the workers, who are actually doing the work, get a slice of that? You are literally multiplying the power of a single worker by a large amount - and yet the worker themselves still has to work from 8 to 4 or whatever. The higher ups work less and earn more pay. In fact, the higher you go, the less you work and the more pay you get.
So as earlier stated - life is pretty unfair. Hooray.
The Llama
Monday, January 17, 2011
The divorce debate
For those of you who aren't lucky enough to be maltese (condolences), Malta is one of the few countries where you can't get a divorce. Now lately there has been a few debates about it, they want to make it legal et cetera. So now we will probably have a referendum and all that.
So as usual we divide ourselves into two camps, and make unions. The "Pro-divorce" group unvieled their logo today - and its quite horrible.
So as usual we divide ourselves into two camps, and make unions. The "Pro-divorce" group unvieled their logo today - and its quite horrible.
For those of you who don't speak maltese, its "YES" For Divorce - For Marriage.
In my opinion this logo is a shot in the leg. The kid in the middle looks as if he's being fought over by the two families - and/or only going to see his mother/father from now on. Meh. Could have gone for something better. "Think of the children" doesn't work here.
Now my take on the divorce debate is quite simple. I am anti-divorce. And I'm not going to bother arguing about emotions, on a religious basis. I'm simply going to state this:
Divorce is useless. Marriage is becoming useless.
Divorce is useless. Marriage is becoming useless.
You got married. Congrats. You broke up. Sad for you. You found someone else. You can go live with him/her. You can perform sexual acts upon him/her. If you're of different genders, you can make kiddies with him/her. Did you need to be remarried? Nooooo.
Do you need to be married to perform these acts? Noooo.
Do I agree with this turn of events? No. Do I adapt? Yes.
What's the difference between cohabitating and remarrying? The tax break? Is that it? Its a bit silly to argue for marriage being more 'special' than cohabitation when you've just come out of one isn't it.
I know you don't agree with me. So please argue away.
The Llama
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Dolphin Friendly Tuna
I picked the title partially because it actually related to this, and partially because it sounds cool.
Today I opened the cupboard to collect interesting things to read while I'm eating (yes I do that. I know, something's wrong with me). I found 3 cans of different branded tuna and set to reading them.
Two of them had "Dolphin Friendly" on the can, the third one didn't. So I wondered. Does this third company hate dolphins? Is it spearing dolphins and adding them to my Hobz Biz-Zejt? Is it netting off large amounts of the sea? Or did it simply not bother to put it on the can?
And that got me thinking. Not just about dolphins, but rather that - "When companies do good things, they put it on the packet, when they don't, they stay silent". You know like "No artificial colour or flavouring", "No preservatives"...
Maybe they should be forced by law to put icons when the do negative things.
Think about it, you're shopping for a packet of crisps and one of them has prominently - "Uses GM potatoes", or you're buying a packet of shoes and it has on it - "Produced in a sweatshop in India", or you're buying some shampoo with - "Has been tested on animals". So far, products with "Not tested on animals" on them are rare, should I assume everything has been tested on animals? Has my bottle of tabasco sauce been rubbed into a rabbit's eye? Probably not. What about my shaving cream? Probably.
So yeah, I'm sure many of these negative things would be greatly reduced if they were by law forced to be on the container. So if you happen to know anyone in politics, do pass the idea over.
Llama
Today I opened the cupboard to collect interesting things to read while I'm eating (yes I do that. I know, something's wrong with me). I found 3 cans of different branded tuna and set to reading them.
Two of them had "Dolphin Friendly" on the can, the third one didn't. So I wondered. Does this third company hate dolphins? Is it spearing dolphins and adding them to my Hobz Biz-Zejt? Is it netting off large amounts of the sea? Or did it simply not bother to put it on the can?
And that got me thinking. Not just about dolphins, but rather that - "When companies do good things, they put it on the packet, when they don't, they stay silent". You know like "No artificial colour or flavouring", "No preservatives"...
Maybe they should be forced by law to put icons when the do negative things.
Think about it, you're shopping for a packet of crisps and one of them has prominently - "Uses GM potatoes", or you're buying a packet of shoes and it has on it - "Produced in a sweatshop in India", or you're buying some shampoo with - "Has been tested on animals". So far, products with "Not tested on animals" on them are rare, should I assume everything has been tested on animals? Has my bottle of tabasco sauce been rubbed into a rabbit's eye? Probably not. What about my shaving cream? Probably.
So yeah, I'm sure many of these negative things would be greatly reduced if they were by law forced to be on the container. So if you happen to know anyone in politics, do pass the idea over.
Llama
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Video Games
Today I was playing around with my mobile device, and I found this company which sells mobile games for 3 euros or so. Not the small simple arcade games, but proper games you can spend hours playing (not that you can't do that with the arcade games).
Now this made me think a while. Most games for PC or other console cost around 60 euros. This is for games which 'just came out' - it then drops to 40-something or so, then slowly goes down. But even if I pick an ages-old game to download from my favourite online game store - such as the brilliant X-COM which came out in 1993 and requires 4MB of RAM - it still costs 5 euros.
Apparently, video games also suffer from Zipfian distribution - there are some games which bring in tons of cash - and many other games which bring in very little. So is there a reason for this large cost? 60 euros for a game?
And while we're there... in the old days... we used to have game demos. Cds full of em used to be stuck in the front of magazines. Nowadays we make our game-buying decisions based on a 5 minute video, generally containing very little In Game footage.
We also see the decay of single-player games. Its quite depressing really. I don't want to pay money just to log on and get headshotted every .142 minutes by a person who plays the game all the time.
Meh. At least its not as bad as the situation browser-based games are in... (yep, next blog)
The Llama
Now this made me think a while. Most games for PC or other console cost around 60 euros. This is for games which 'just came out' - it then drops to 40-something or so, then slowly goes down. But even if I pick an ages-old game to download from my favourite online game store - such as the brilliant X-COM which came out in 1993 and requires 4MB of RAM - it still costs 5 euros.
Apparently, video games also suffer from Zipfian distribution - there are some games which bring in tons of cash - and many other games which bring in very little. So is there a reason for this large cost? 60 euros for a game?
And while we're there... in the old days... we used to have game demos. Cds full of em used to be stuck in the front of magazines. Nowadays we make our game-buying decisions based on a 5 minute video, generally containing very little In Game footage.
We also see the decay of single-player games. Its quite depressing really. I don't want to pay money just to log on and get headshotted every .142 minutes by a person who plays the game all the time.
Meh. At least its not as bad as the situation browser-based games are in... (yep, next blog)
The Llama
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Browser Wars...
Last week, it was discovered that Firefox is now Europe's most popular browser.[1]
Also since a month or so, with all the new browser versions coming out - we get lots of very interesting articles such as: [Browser X is the fastest browser according to benchmarks made by CompanyX] and [Browser Y is the most secure browser against social engineering attacks]. I am not joking about the last one.
So, looking through this mess of claims against claims, what can be ascertain? For one, the javascript benchmarking is a pretty useless way of doing things. For most end users, the speed will make no visible difference. Each browser is optimised for different javascript uses - which is why every benchmark gives a different answer.
Secondly, most browsers now support the same features, with very tiny differences between them. Most browsers realised the importance of addons and all major ones support them. And appearance wise....
Kinda look exactly the same don't they? They is barely anything to choose between them.
So what's the point of fighting over which browser is best? At least this way we're all gaining. We're getting the better browsers. Any feature missing in one browser can be found quite easily as an addon in another.
So in conclusion - there is no difference which browser you use - as long as you use a modern one and not IE6 or something.
Out of interest, here is a pie chart which shows the browsers people use to view this blog.
The Llama
Also since a month or so, with all the new browser versions coming out - we get lots of very interesting articles such as: [Browser X is the fastest browser according to benchmarks made by CompanyX] and [Browser Y is the most secure browser against social engineering attacks]. I am not joking about the last one.
So, looking through this mess of claims against claims, what can be ascertain? For one, the javascript benchmarking is a pretty useless way of doing things. For most end users, the speed will make no visible difference. Each browser is optimised for different javascript uses - which is why every benchmark gives a different answer.
Secondly, most browsers now support the same features, with very tiny differences between them. Most browsers realised the importance of addons and all major ones support them. And appearance wise....
So what's the point of fighting over which browser is best? At least this way we're all gaining. We're getting the better browsers. Any feature missing in one browser can be found quite easily as an addon in another.So in conclusion - there is no difference which browser you use - as long as you use a modern one and not IE6 or something.
Out of interest, here is a pie chart which shows the browsers people use to view this blog.
The Llama
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
New Years Resolution
 | |
| My New Year's Resolution |
Probably not too many...
There is a reason for this. Firstly, 1st January is not a special day of some sort - won't give you magical powers of willpower. Secondly, the most common resolutions all require large lifestyle changes. The most common ones are quitting smoking, and losing weight. The first one is pretty difficult - not only because its addictive, but probably because your social circle also smokes, making it even harder. The second one requires lifestyle changes and planning - starving yourself 'works' for a day or two. Until your body starts complaining. (Note: I'm not suggesting that anyone starve themselves, its bad for you).
So if you want to make drastic changes to your life - don't bother with 'special days' - if you've been procrastinating it this much - chances are you don't have the force of will to pull it through. So be serious about it instead - make plans - if you're going to do a drastic change - you need some pretty drastic planning.
Regards, and happy 2011
Llama
Sunday, January 2, 2011
We Are All Equals :)
A few weeks ago someone posted something along the lines that we're all equal on facebook. I replied in my usual cynical manner and put it out of my head. However today while in a semi-conscious state - this sentence popped into my mind again. Being half-asleep I gave it a few brain-cycles and spat out a result.
The surprising answer (to the naive at least) - No we're not equal. Not even if we remove the 'stuff you deserve' part of it (if I work hard, I deserve not to be equal to a person who lazes about all day). Not by any useful metric. Lets go through the circle of life shall we ?
Birth - If your family is rich, you were born safely in a hospital. Your mother may have gotten a C-section because she doesn't want to push you out in the normal manner. If you were born in a 3rd world country, you were probably born in the ruins of a home - and may have a few diseases as well
Gender - Congrats, you're either a boy or a girl. Genders are not equal. Women are better at some things (they're more emotional then men unless they're Vulcan), and men are better at some things. Also thanks to sterotypes - you're going to be in a 'male' or 'female' job.
Starting Wealth - When he was 4, the son of a [famous celebrity] had a real ferrari car. When I was 4, I had a peddle car with 'ferrari' written on it.
Potential - If my family is rich, I can leech of them while I get the best education. If I want an education. If I don't want to just take their wealth and use it instead. If I'm poor - and i'm unlucky enough to live in a country without free education - I will be a burger flipper :)
Comfort of Life - Are we even joking about this? See Potential Section.
Employment - If you're lucky enough to have your parents' contacts or the ability to use them to push you up a few ladder rungs, all the best for you. If of course your parents are rich enough to own their own company, you can just parasite off that.
Fame - Some people are famous because they worked for it. Some people are famous because their parents, or partners are famous. Hooray.
Death -This ranges from "Getting blown up by an apache by accident" to "Dying of cholera" to "Dying alone and sad" to "Clogging up google's searches because you were good at acting"
So there, we're not equal. Not by a long shot. You thought this was a fair and just system?
The Llama
The surprising answer (to the naive at least) - No we're not equal. Not even if we remove the 'stuff you deserve' part of it (if I work hard, I deserve not to be equal to a person who lazes about all day). Not by any useful metric. Lets go through the circle of life shall we ?
Birth - If your family is rich, you were born safely in a hospital. Your mother may have gotten a C-section because she doesn't want to push you out in the normal manner. If you were born in a 3rd world country, you were probably born in the ruins of a home - and may have a few diseases as well
Gender - Congrats, you're either a boy or a girl. Genders are not equal. Women are better at some things (they're more emotional then men unless they're Vulcan), and men are better at some things. Also thanks to sterotypes - you're going to be in a 'male' or 'female' job.
Starting Wealth - When he was 4, the son of a [famous celebrity] had a real ferrari car. When I was 4, I had a peddle car with 'ferrari' written on it.
Potential - If my family is rich, I can leech of them while I get the best education. If I want an education. If I don't want to just take their wealth and use it instead. If I'm poor - and i'm unlucky enough to live in a country without free education - I will be a burger flipper :)
Comfort of Life - Are we even joking about this? See Potential Section.
Employment - If you're lucky enough to have your parents' contacts or the ability to use them to push you up a few ladder rungs, all the best for you. If of course your parents are rich enough to own their own company, you can just parasite off that.
Fame - Some people are famous because they worked for it. Some people are famous because their parents, or partners are famous. Hooray.
Death -This ranges from "Getting blown up by an apache by accident" to "Dying of cholera" to "Dying alone and sad" to "Clogging up google's searches because you were good at acting"
So there, we're not equal. Not by a long shot. You thought this was a fair and just system?
The Llama
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