A stumble through the left-side of the web

Lions. It's all about food.

2009-11-07T23:00:00.016+11:00

Concepts:

lions (real)
death (real)
food (real)

Lions cause death, because to them, it's all about food.

Concepts, about real things, linked together with plausible explanations to make a statement that has some correspondence to reality.

Compare and contrast

son of god (imaginary)
eternal life (imaginary)

Two imaginary concepts linked together haphazardly in an attempt to make a nonsensical statement about an imaginary state of reality.

Found: MP3 player

2009-11-07T14:56:00.006+11:00

I found an MP3 player which I believe belongs to a woman called Claire who was travelling from McMahon's Point ferry wharf at around 11:30am today (Saturday 7th November, 2009).

Contact me to arrange return of the player.

Save The Hopetoun - my 2 cents

2009-09-29T01:02:00.010+10:00

Inspired by Save The Hopetoun Hotel, this is my 2 cents, a letter to Clover Moore...

The Hopetoun Hotel is quite simply a magnificent insitution, quite unlike any other pub in Sydney. It is a large part of my social life. This is true, because the people are friendly, the pool table solid and the music entertaining.

This pub doesn't need security, most of the time, because the crowd is so good natured. The only time it does need security is when large, drunk crowds walk back from the SCG or SFS. In these circumstances, the owners provide security, even though it is rarely, if ever, called upon.

To let this venue fall victim to licensing laws is literally a cultural crime of the highest order - the 1500 facebook fans it gathered in less than 6 hours is strong testament to that.

I have gladly voted for you in the past, however, I will not hesitate to reconsider my future voting intentions if Sydney Council does not do everything in its power to assist the Hoey survive in something like its current form.

A response from Clover Moore - here.

Another year, another grand final...

2009-09-26T20:35:00.005+10:00

So another year has passed - 13, now, since the singularity.

All in all, it has been a relatively pleasant year, almost 2 years since the unexpected encounter with her in Sydney. With the benefit of hindsight I can see it was a good thing to be confronted directly with her ice cold attitude towards me - it has left no room for doubt.

I am actually starting to forget. The best example of this was the other day when I realised that I could not remember for sure if she suffers asthma and needs to use ventolin. I *think* she does, but I really can't decide if that is actual fact or mere confabulation.

Ah well, I guess I'll never know. Not that it matters, anyhow.

jon.

vodafone au prepaid mobile broadband on linux

2009-08-09T13:13:00.005+10:00

I recently purchased a Vodafone Prepaid Mobile Broadband USB stick but had some trouble getting it to work with Ubuntu 9.0.4

The secret sauce is to download the latest packages from here, configure the Vodafone Australia Pre-paid Mobile Broadband profile, then edit the profile and change the APN from vfinternet.au to vfprepaymbb

The rationale for the change is that this APN is what the Mac OSX build on the USB stick itself chooses to use - as revealed by appropriate logs.

I have raised a bug report on the VMC site to have this rolled into a future release of the Linux build.

BTW: with Ubuntu 9.0.4, it isn't strictly necessary to install VMC. You do, however, have to configure the APN in the connections manager per the discovery above (e.g. vfprepaymbb). The advantage of doing it this way, is that the connection plays nice with the Network Manager application and other applications which are integrated with it (like Firefox). The disadvantage is that you don't automatically get an SMS send receive + usage monitor application which is what VMC provides.

The impossible conversation

2009-02-12T08:07:00.003+11:00

Even now, my morning routine involves stepping into the shower and saying "Oh, <her name>!". I used to remind myself that I will never see her again and then get on with the rest of the day.

Of course, the ritual had to change when one day, quite unexpectedly, I did see her again.

Now, I remind myself that even if I ever do see her again I shall never again have a pleasurable conversation with her.

That was certainly true on our last chance meeting in 2007 and has, in fact, been true since she hung up on my life for good in January 1999.

Although that phone call ended amicably, I knew that it would likely be the last for a while. It took me a long time to realise, and then accept, that it would be our last phone call ever.

Thinking about the impossible conversation is not very rewarding, because I am brutally realistic about what it would be like. I'd be on my guard about expressing any sadness or resentment about the long alienation and she would simply be on her guard about expressing anything at all. I'd be afraid of asking questions that might impinge on her sense of privacy and security. In the unlikely event that she told me anything about her life I would again feel sad about being excluded from it.

The reason I desire the impossible conversation is not for the communication; I have expressed almost all I have to say in these pages and she has nothing to say.

No, the reason I desire the conversation is exactly the reason it is impossible. Such a conversation would represent a new beginning; a new chance to build a relationship of some kind with her. And that, quite simply, is why it is impossible.

A proposal to make the JJJ hottest 100 more inclusive

2009-01-26T21:35:00.007+11:00

The rules used for calculating the triple J hottest 100 directly lead to results which are not as inclusive as they could be and don't actually reflect what people are doing when they vote for best song. In particular, I would contend that voters in the JJJ hottest 100 vote for artists, rather than particular songs.

This is why the 2009 hottest 100 had a top 10 song list which only included 7 artists. That was a good result for big fans of MGMT, The PreSets and The Kings Of Leon but was very anti-climatic for the rest of the population - especially for those fans of the 3 bands that just missed the top 10 (Ladyhawke, PNAU and The Herd).

Given that people actually do seem to block vote for their favourite artist, rather than favourite songs, I think a much better system would be one that did the following:

allowed people to register votes for their top 10 artists
for each artist, allow a small number of songs to be voted for.

To produce a ranking, the top 100+N songs would used to select the top 100 artists, but each artist would appear at most once in the list in the order of their most popular song.

This will improve the diversity of the list and make the top-10 countdown genuinely entertaining, rather than the anti-climax it is now.

On The Definition of Atheism

2009-01-07T02:00:00.004+11:00

A couple of Cameron Reilly's recent blog posts have argued that critics of atheists have it all wrong when they claim that atheism implies a belief in the non-existence of gods. He makes the distinction between the position of being against the belief in the existence of gods and the position of believing that gods do not exist.

As a self-described atheist myself, I don't really see the point in making this distinction. The main reason is that I don't believe that any useful argument that an atheist can advance in support of a philosophical or political position depends on the distinction being valid. Furthermore, if there was such an argument, then it is vulnerable to any demonstration that there really isn't any practical distinction between the two positions.

Reilly argues that a-theism means either not or against theism but excludes the other common interpretation of the prefix, that is to mean "without". The a- in a-sexual or a-political is certainly used in this way. The position described as against theism would more correctly be described as anti-theism, rather than a-theism.

If we do assume that a-theism means without theism then, in a strict technical sense, Reilly is correct to note that "without a belief in the existence of gods" is not technically the same as "with a belief in the non-existence of gods".

Reilly argues that this distinction is crucial. I claim that it is irrelevant or, more precisely, that the definition he would have us use for atheist doesn't allow us to clearly distinguish the atheist from the agnostic.

First, let's dispose of the trivial case: a person who has no concept of gods. This person is trivially an atheist in Reilly's sense because if one can't even conceive of the concept of gods, one can hardly hold a belief in their existence.

Let's now consider the more interesting case of two people, Peter and Paul for whom the following statements are true.

Peter does not believe in the existence of gods
Peter does believe in the non-existence of gods
Paul does not believe in the existence of gods
Paul does not believe in the non-existence of gods

Peter and Paul are clearly different: Peter believes something that Paul does not. Furthermore, I think most people would agree that Peter is an atheist, whereas Paul is an agnostic, at least according to what I take to be the common uses of the terms.

In other words, I believe that being an atheist does actually entail a belief in the non-existence of gods and this is what distinguishes an atheist from an agnostic.

However, I don't share Reilly's fear that this is something to be concerned about. It really doesn't matter that atheists hold negative beliefs. This doesn't legitimise belief in gods anymore than believing in the non-existence of teapots on Mars legitimises a belief in the existence of teapots on Mars (to use Dawkin's example).

To be worried about that, confuses believing with knowing, a point that Stephen Pinker made in a different context in his book: "The Stuff Of Thought". To state that someone believes something doesn't make a statement about the world outside - it is simply a statement about the believer. The state of the world outside is unaffected by how many people hold deluded beliefs about the nature of reality. So, it really doesn't matter that an atheist's convictions are just beliefs - nothing significant can be derived from that admission.

Assertions of knowing something are quite different. Such statements are claims, not only about the knower's beliefs about the world outside, but also that the world outside conforms to those beliefs.

And this is why it is crucial to put believing in its place and distinguish it from knowing. Many theistic believers claim to know things because they have faith in the truth of their beliefs. Atheists claim to know things because they have the scientific method and reason. And this is precisely why atheism is superior to theism in its various forms - it provides objective methods for deciding the truth of claims of knowledge which are independent of the beliefs themselves, whereas theism is trapped inside circular definitions of belief and faith that never usefully connect with the real world.

The dangers of GPS-enabled social networking apps

2009-01-03T17:57:00.004+11:00

I recently purchased an iPhone 3G and have been enjoying using it immensely - it is definitely my kind of device. I love the e-mail and twitter integration, the zoom-able web browsing and the ability to read PDFs on a small form factor device. The playback video quality is excellent and the speaker means I don't have to risk strangulation with the earphone cord if I go to sleep with them in my ears. The integrated GPS and Google maps with street view is fantastic.

The GPS-aware dating apps sounded like a fun idea, so I downloaded "Who's Here". It seems like quite a fun, if slightly dangerous, way to meet strangers who might be nearby and interested in meeting up. "Who's Here" only gives an approximate distance to people in the neighbourhood, rather than an absolute position and so one might think that one is relatively unlocatable and hence safe. However, this assumes too much as will be explained later.

However, today, I came across BrightKite. BrightKite is an application that allows one to post one's current location to Twitter as well as to BrightKite's own tracking database. I signed up and installed the app to see what it was about and was astonished at how much information it keeps. Not only does it display your current absolute location (if you volunteer it via a check-in process), it records a history of all previous check-ins.

Using this information, I was able to discover who else had been near to my location in the previous few months. One of these people was a woman and by displaying her profile I could see where she had been over the previous few months.

The mind boggles at the safety risk this presents. A determined rapist would no doubt find such information very useful for finding vulnerable targets to attack, yielding as it does a detailed sketch of people's patterns of movement over an extended period of time.

Perhaps BrightKite can safely be used by travelers who never retrace their own steps, but it seems like anyone else is unnecessarily exposing themselves to stalking risk, particularly if they are in someway attractive to would be stalkers.

A note about the "safety" of "Who's Here".

On first glance, "Who's Here" appears to be safer than BrightKite because it only reveals a fuzzy distance between the current location of the observer and the observed. However, this isn't really fantastic protection because using triangulation techniques and observations taken from 3 different locations, an observer can pretty quickly locate with great accuracy a stationary observed person. The observed distances are themselves meant to be fuzzified to prevent triangulation working, however, it would be extremely surprising if the law of averages didn't ultimately work in the observer's favour.

The best way to eliminate the stalking risk such apps present would be to avoid using apps that reveal location data to unauthorised users. If you choose to use such apps, it would be best to minimize the time windows in which you make that information available to strangers (that is: make use of Who's Here's "sign-off" function) and avoid using it in places where you are commonly found.

Anyone who has questions about the issues documented here may direct them to me via e-mail to jon.seymour at gmail.com

A good lost thing story

2008-11-20T00:18:00.005+11:00

At around lunchtime today I realised I had lost my keys!

Bollocks!

I rang the bus company, I visited the City Rail lost property website, I visited the front desk and facilities management. Nothing.

Then I remembered that REMO had given me a key tag with a unique number on it. So, I gave them a call. Sure enough, Mel from R-eh-mo (I always thought it was R-ee-mo) said that a guy called Shane from Mount Druitt had called to report that he had found my keys on a train.

So I gave Shane's wife a call, got Shane's number, had a chat and we worked out that he could leave them at the station master's office at Granville. I took an early mark from work, caught a taxi to Granville, and retrieved my keys.

Is that not totally excellent? Thank you, Shane! Thank you, REMO!

A certain chronological symmetry

2008-09-27T18:20:00.005+10:00

On paper there is nothing special about this particular AFL grand final Saturday. It was a delightful spring day in Sydney, but we are fortunate to be blessed with many of those.

Today is special in my mind because this weekend resonates with a certain symmetry, and I can't help noticing the symmetrical.

12 years ago, I spent the most blissful weekend of my life with the one who should be forgotten. 6 years ago, I spent a rather miserable weekend contemplating the news I learned the day before that she had married 6 months previously.

Today I am as far away in time from the nadir of my emotional life as the nadir was from the zenith. Emotionally, I am roughly half way between both places.

Misplaced phone

2008-06-04T20:43:00.002+10:00

I recently "lost" my mobile phone.

The phone was a Nokia 6300, IMEI number 354189025044697.

Anyone who finds this phone may wish to contact me.

jon.

Born Negotiator

2008-01-15T19:57:00.000+11:00

This is a delightful true story, told to me at lunch by a colleague, about his child. I have transcribed it without his permission in the hope that this will inspire him to write up his own version which will inevitably be much, much better. Jireh, consider the gauntlet thrown...

His little girl found a small chocolate bar in the car and asked her dad if she could eat it.

He replied, that no, she couldn't eat it now but she could have half of it after dinner.

But only if she ate all her dinner and sat at table when asked.

Dad: Do you understand?

Little Girl: Yes.

Dad: You understand that you can have half the chocolate bar after you eat dinner, but only if you eat all your dinner and sit at the table when asked?

LG: Yes

Dad: Are you sure understand that you can have half the chocolate bar after you eat dinner, but only if you eat all your dinner and sit at the table when asked?

LG: Yes.

Dad: Ok. That's settled.

LG: Daddy?

Dad: Yes?

LG: Can I have the other half now?

Return from Melbourne

2008-01-11T18:35:00.000+11:00

I sat in the taxi with the afternoon sun in my eyes. As it moved slowly down Collins St on the way to the freeway and thence the airport, I looked across at the passing pedestrians. I certainly didn't expect to see her visage again and nor did I. Just another one of those minuscule disappointments that I manage to inflict upon myself now and then. Such is life.

Wrong way, go back: Conroy takes poor approach to filtering porn

2008-01-01T01:42:00.000+11:00

I am deeply concerned about the proposal of the Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, to impose mandatory filtering responsibilities on internet service providers in an attempt to restrict children's access to pornography. I write as one with some technical literacy in these matters and no financial interest in the ISP industry.

In his announcement Senator Conroy stated that under the proposed laws all residential and school internet feeds would be clean by default and anyone wishing to have unrestricted access would have to negotiate an opt-out with their service provider. Presumably this will be achieved by ticking the box requesting a smutty feed.

Senator Conroy claimed that "if people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor Government is going to disagree". In doing so, Senator Conroy has attempted to smear any opponent of his plan as an advocate of free access to child pornography. This is deeply offensive and he should withdraw or clarify his statement immediately.

While I understand the Government's desire to support parents in their struggle to shield children from unsavoury web content, the proposed solution is a very poor way of going about it. Filtering at the ISP level will be utterly ineffective at preventing curious young minds from seeking access to pornography, and it will necessarily wind back some of the so-called speed advantages of the promised broadband revolution. What the Government gives with one hand it takes away with another. The unusual aspect of this decision is that both hands belong to the same minister.

Incidental users of the internet are highly unlikely to be confronted by extremely graphic pornography, especially child pornography, unless they actively go looking for it. But filtering at the ISP level will not stop determined consumers of pornography from obtaining it because of the numerous ways of subverting filters. It is not just a joke that it was once said "the internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it". It is a simple fact of the technology that cannot be avoided.

By advocating such a policy, an immature Government that promised a broadband revolution makes itself look foolish. It betrays a profound lack of understanding of the technology it seeks to promote.

SMH Letters/2008/01/01

Jon's Christmas...

2007-12-23T11:45:00.000+11:00

Season's Greetings to The Local Malcontent who asked me to do this...

1. Wrapping or gift bags?

Wrapping.

2. Real or artificial tree?

Tree? What tree?

3. When do you put up the tree?

I don't.

4. When do you take the tree down?

I don't.

5. Do you like eggnog?

Not sure I have ever been offered it, but I suspect not.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

Can't remember. Was always happy with whatever I received.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?

No.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

Packet of Coco Pops from my Dad when I had just moved into a share house [ oh so cool! ] He got such a good reaction from me, that I got it next year as well.

9. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?

E-mail, if at all.

10. Favorite Christmas movie?

The one without the Christmas theme.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

Not long before I finish.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Plum pudding.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?

If I had a tree, coloured.

14. Favorite Christmas song?

Silent night.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Visit relatives, locally.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

Not without Google.

17. Angel on the tree top or a star?

If I had a tree, a star.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

Morning. Well, afternoon. Having just read this never on Christmas Evening!

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?

That it starts in early November.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?

Are there black Christmas decorations?

21. What do you leave for Santa?

Nothing.

22. Least favorite holiday song?

Anything played in a shopping mall.

23. Favorite ornament?

Those round glass things.

The next thing?

2007-12-08T17:32:00.000+11:00

Possibly. Enough said.

The turbulence subsides...

2007-12-01T21:52:00.000+11:00

It has been an unexpectedly turbulent year.

First, there was the discovery of a thread on the web that lead eventually and haphazardly to the news that she is now a mum. Then, there was her surprise appearance on the other side of an invisible wall in Sydney, 6 weeks ago. Both things caused more than a few ripples in my world.

However, as the distance from those events has increased, the turbulence has subsided and life has returned to normal once more.

I suspect the story isn't quite over yet and I'll stumble into another emotional storm. Who knows how? Who knows when?

Time now, however, to enjoy other things.

Permanence

2007-11-28T20:54:00.000+11:00

Part of the reason I have nothing, is that I needed permanence, I needed security. She couldn't offer me that.

The ironic thing is - I actually have attained a state of permanence.

My "relationship" with her is eternal, immortal.

It's fucked.

But, it'll never change.

Computer says....

2007-11-24T21:33:00.000+11:00

YES!!!!

Control

2007-11-22T01:12:00.001+11:00

My past is my future
And my present is out of control.

I saw this film today. Brilliant film. Tragic story, but a brilliant, beautiful film. The weaving of the songs with the narrative is masterful.

Wandering the plains...

2007-11-10T19:57:00.000+11:00

In a previous post, I wrote that I believed that she held a key which could unlock a state of permanent bliss, a key forever beyond my reach.

Musing about this since, I have come to the conclusion that's not an authentic statement of what I believe - it's too absolute, too universal, too eternal.

I do believe that she could unlock a state of temporary bliss. I know that. She did it before and she could, at least in principle, do it again. But it wouldn't be a permanent state.

I've come down from that high once. One descent was definitely enough. I am still in awe of that mountain, but I won't be climbing it again.

A brief flicker of rage...

2007-11-09T17:58:00.000+11:00

Her appearance in my dream last night was very brief.

She was leaning on her hands, on the bed, next to me. Not a completely unwelcome image to savour, but my joy was tempered by her state - she was shaking with rage. It seems she had just read my blog and was pissed off by what she had read.

She was about to explain her thoughts when the illusion was shattered.

The fundamental delusion

2007-11-05T17:06:00.000+11:00

If I didn't believe it, it wouldn't be a delusion.

The fundamental delusion, I think, is this: the unshakeable belief that she holds a magic key that would unlock a state of permanent bliss.

I know that the key is forever beyond my reach.

What I can't shake is the belief that the key exists and that, if I could grasp it, I would be in nirvana.

The ghastly thing is that my alienation from her serves only to reinforce the delusion. The invisible wall feels so real. If there is nothing to desire, why does the wall exist? Its very existence seems proof that I am being denied access to something real.

I sometimes flirt with the idea that we could somehow have a normal friendship. It'd be nice to be able to remove her from the pedestal upon which I have placed her and see her as a normal person with all her charms and flaws, to deal with the reality of her husband and their child.

But I just can't imagine how that could ever happen. She'd have to want to offer it to me, and that would take a gigantic and unjustified leap of faith in me for her to do that. Why would she risk getting entangled with me again?

No reason.

Of course, I could not help but fall in love with the generosity of spirit that would be required to take that risk, thereby justifying the fears that would prevent it from being taken in the first place.

And so the tragic wheel continues to spin - proving that, in the universe of emotion, there is no second law of thermodynamics.

Burying the relationship

2007-10-30T06:39:00.000+11:00

I think part of the reason I devalued the importance of the relationship itself is that, on most objective terms, it always was a stinker. There were so many things wrong with it.

It began while we were working on the same project in Melbourne. Of course, this meant that it was conducted in secret. Worse, it occurred while she was still living with her soon to be ex-boyfriend and I was still dealing with my feelings for my previous entanglement. It heated up quickly then cooled off again almost as quickly when I returned to Sydney at the end of the project.

Intense? Yes. Robust? No. Tempestuous? Yes. Doomed to failure? Almost certainly.

I ignored all these things. I was fascinated by her - addicted to her as surely as to any drug.

I don't regret what happened next. The prize on offer was so glittering, I had to take the chance. What I didn't realize was how thoroughly hooked I would become.

Only too late did I realise I had no exit strategy.