Rubénerd!

A day after we learned about the death of The Iron Lady, I read this piece by Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian:

News of Margaret Thatcher's death this morning instantly and predictably gave rise to righteous sermons on the evils of speaking ill of her.

I can relate. Twitter seemed to be a mix of people saying good riddance, and those espousing anger at those saying good riddance. I said I detested all she stood for, but RIP.

This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure's death is not just misguided but dangerous. That one should not speak ill of the dead is arguably appropriate when a private person dies, but it is wildly inappropriate for the death of a controversial public figure, particularly one who wielded significant influence and political power. "Respecting the grief" of Thatcher's family members is appropriate if one is friends with them or attends a wake they organize, but the protocols are fundamentally different when it comes to public discourse about the person's life and political acts.

I'm inclined to agree with this, on principle. I'm too young to remember Thatcher, but I was subsequently horrified to learn what she got up to, to put it at it's mildest. Her death, for better or worse, signals the final end of that rather sordid chapter in human history. For the sake of keeping this blog post under a billion words, and my blood pressure in check, I'll leave it at that.

On the other hand, I personally can't bring myself to hate upon someone like her immediately after their death. I despised Tony Snow, but when he died of cancer I still sent my best thoughts to his family. Having seen personally the horror and pain that disease that inflicts, I wouldn't want that put upon anyone.

I suppose it's easy for me to sit here in my comfortable home in Australia discussing the ettiquete of when someone dies. I wasn't affected by Margaret Thatcher's policies. If she'd affected me or someone I love, I'd probably have a different take.

I guess, as with a lot of things, it comes down to personal taste. I detested Margaret Thatcher, and my left-leaning side may even write a long diatribe about her at some point. Just not... today.

When we went through the latest family move, I wrote a ton of posts but didn't finish any of them. Here's one from March.

Michael Dell on Apple in 1997:

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.

Dell on HP's plan to stop manufacturing PCs, which they've since reversed:

Goodbye HP, Sorry you don't want to be in PCs anymore..But we do more than ever. How would you say goodbye to HP? ~ Michael Dell

Dell announcing they wouldn't be selling netbooks, ironically not shortly after that remark about HP:

Dell is [no] longer interested in selling Netbooks--that category of 10-inch class laptops that saw mild success for a couple of years but is now facing a serious existential crisis.

HP on Dell's decision to go private, rather than shutting the company down and giving the money back to the shareholders:

Dell has a very tough road ahead. The company faces an extended period of uncertainty and transition that will not be good for its customers. And with a significant debt load, Dell's ability to invest in new products and services will be extremely limited. Leveraged buyouts tend to leave existing customers and innovation at the curb. We believe Dell's customers will now be eager to explore alternatives, and HP plans to take full advantage of that opportunity.

And now we've come full circle.

Photo by Eustress on Wikimedia Commons.

A writing tip for some easily confused prose.

veracious:

Adjective; truthful

voracious:

Adjective; Wanting or devouring great quantities of food; Having a great appetite for anything

The way I've decided to remember:

1. Alphabetise the words in my head
2. Remind myself that "I'm truthfully hungry!"

Ah English, you and your gloriously bastardised European funicular. Wait, vernacular. That other one refers to those brilliant slanted railways. They're found mostly in Europe, so what I said wasn't entirely absurd.

Om Malik on the new Facebook Home thing:

And most importantly it is Facebook, a company that is known to have played loose-and-easy with consumer privacy and data since its very inception, asking for forgiveness whenever we caught them with its hand in the cookie jar. I don’t think we can be that forgiving or reactive with Facebook on mobile.

Robert Scoble in response:

The "privacy angst" folks like Om Malik are wrong

I just read Om Malik's post about why Facebook Home bugs him. Sorry, it's time that we stop listening to those who have "privacy angst."

"Privacy angst?" Class.

Personally, I am supremely thankful we have honest people like Om Malik thinking about these issues, and voicing them in a public space. The true enemy to privacy is complacency.

Don't trust those who tell you to stop thinking or listening.

Back in high school, I remember a teacher of mine telling us that Bill and Melinda Gates would often go to dinner together. While not out of the ordinary in and of itself, allegedly they performed this marital ritual while they both read books at the table.

Pass the hot chocolate, please?

I can still remember the mixed gasps of horror and derision of everyone in the class, and the other teacher who happened to be there. Even if the story were an urban legend, what a stupid idea, going out to a restaurant and reading! Bwahahaha! What a bunch of awkward, stupid nerds!

I'll admit, I was intrigued by the idea. Not necessarily with the reading, but the act of defying social norms and just doing what you want to do. If you love someone, and you enjoy their company in a cosy booth in a quiet restaurant while you both read, then fuck it, why not do it?

Whether it be avoiding loud concerts or alcohol by choice (rather than for cultural or medical reasons) or watching sport or constantly talking while hanging out, the Western world has its own unique number of social norms, all with their own justifications. Eating should be social, and "social" means talking, because you're together. You should want to get drunk and watch sport, because if you're not you're weird.

Which brings us to this afternoon

To use a term I otherwise despise, I was manfluing something fierce. I'd barely slept the night before; all the extremities on my head were red, swollen and blocked; I had a headache; the Bird wasn't The Word; and more.

To cheer me up and provide me much needed medicinal hugs, I met up with my wickedly smart, cute, talented girlfriend Clara at a local coffee shop. We sat on a squishy seat, leaned on each other, and started typing away on our iPads. We tweeted to each other, then looked at each other and laughed after the fact. Sometimes we'd share funny pictures we'd find, or interesting stories. Other than that, we enjoyed each other's company while performing the introverted tasks we both revel in.

It was wonderful, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Well, except the manflu bit, that could have dived into a shark pool with a raw bratwurst strapped to each of its testicles. That was supposed to be "tentacles", but I'm leaving it as that.

My high school teacher and class would have laughed at us, and certainly a few people on Twitter mocked us. Even as recently as last year, that would have bothered me.

Today I realised: I don't care. All I needed was Clara to show me. Of all the gifts she's given me lately, this is one of them I'm most thankful for. You've helped me grow Clara, thank you. ♡

If you're introverted too, I encourage you to stop feeling bad. Believe me, I understand how extroverted societies can make you feel small and peculiar. It's not you, it's them. Read that book while other people get drunk. It's your life, there's no need to apologise for it!

How's that for a birthday age obfuscation? But I digress!

Forgive the ramblings of this ancient person

I've long since approached that age in my 20s where the idea of birthdays fills me more with dread than excitement. The fact my mum wasn't there to celebrate it still makes me choke up. Naturally, my birthday fell on my six-hours-of-class-without-breaks day. Our home has no internet, and is still filled with boxes. There's no World Peace, or jet packs.

By all accounts, it was shaping up to be a thoroughly depressing, awful birthday for a nerdy individual such as myself. As it turns out though, I had an amazing time!

Miku Miku Miku~

I met with my beautiful girlfriend Clara in the morning where I got lots of warm, tender hugs, some amazing ThinkGeek shirts, and a Good Smile Company Hatsune Miku fig! She'll be joining my Kyon and Yuki nendoroids and my Star Trek iPhone cover that she's given me over the last week. I don't deserve all this!

Before my six hours of classes, some of my closest friends from UTS met up and bought me Japanese Curry at Daruma in town, which I really appreciated. My friend Sebastian went out of his way and procured me some Coffee Alchemy beans! Marrickville is a LONG way from Hornsby, so it was thoughtful AND practical gift!

It turns out my networking and cloud computing tasks were relatively straight forward this week with summary routing and SaaS architecture. I'm sure the staff didn't do this on purpose for my birthday, but I'll pretend they did.

When classes had ended and it was 9pm, Clara and I hitched a ride on a comfy express train to Hornsby, eating some pollo quesadillas and guacamole. We talked, laughed, cuddled, made a huge mess of the Mexican food, and generally had a wonderful time. Did I say before I'm a lucky guy?

Arriving back in Hornsby, I met up with my epic sister Elke for some hot chocolate and family bonding at the late night Oliver Brown café, then headed to the 24 hour K-Mart to get a spiffy new kettle, as one does. It reminded me of our outings back when we were both studying in Adelaide, or our 7-11 runs we'd make in Singapore to stock up on supplies before we'd watch some LAO.

Satdee

Given we all had uni on the Wednesday, the following Saturday we all met at Starbucks in town, then headed to Hornsby for a Korean dinner. I was able to catch up with @fekete_rigo and @Valtism who I hadn't seen in a long while, as well as the @hanezawakirika, @@Sashin9000, @Sebasu_tan, @Adasifs, @maidforclass, and @JamieJakov gang.

While the presents were all fabulously thoughtful (Dennis Ritchie love from @Valtism, a hand drawn picture of The Hitch from @Sashin9000, cake from @Sebasu_tan and an amazing Homura fig from Madoka Magica!) the real thing I appreciated was the fact I was hanging out with friends who put up with my lame puns, bad jokes and whatnot. I've never had this many friends before... lesson learned, if you're awkward, join a club, seriously!

Tuesday

The last of the extended birthday celebrations occured yesterday, when my sister's and dad's present to me finally arrived! TNT tried their best to mess up the delivery, but after three attempts they finally delivered my new white cellular iPad mini this morning. It's white and shiny, and Elke even had the phrase "The Rubenerd iPad" engraved on the back!

Thanks everyone again for a wonderful week ^_^

Photo credits go to Clara. Check out her Flickr feed here.

Don't download the Windows Cisco Packet Tracer, then put it in your lowest spec VM to save precious SSD space, then let the installer run without problems, then try running it. It won't work.

This has been a public service announcement by me.

As someone who's counted himself a spiritual atheist for many years now, I read with much excitement this article in Time by Rabbi David Wolpe:

According to the latest Pew report almost one in five Americans identify themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”

There's hope yet!

In other words,

Oh boy, here it comes.

they have some feeling, some intuition of something greater, but feel allergic to institutions. Yet as we approach Passover and Easter, it’s important to remember that it is institutions and not abstract feelings that tie a community together and lead to meaningful change.

Yeah, doesn't it suck when people think for themselves?

Spirituality is an emotion. Religion is an obligation. Spirituality soothes. Religion mobilizes. Spirituality is satisfied with itself. Religion is dissatisfied with the world. Religions create aid organizations;

Absolutely, I can't effect change or help people because I'm not religious. Glad the Rabbi sorted that out for me!

Feedback

From @Yaakov on Twitter:

@Rubenerd while i’d take what a ‘conservative’ rabbi says with a sack of salt, I don’t see where his post conflicts with your one from ‘08

I thought it was pretty obvious, but for the sake of clarity: the Rabbi's argument is spiritual people can't institute change or help the needy, you need religious institutions. As evidenced by non-religious people doing good things, this premise is obviously absurd, hence this post!

A new product announcement from Google:

With Keep you can quickly jot ideas down when you think of them and even include checklists and photos to keep track of what’s important to you. Your notes are safely stored in Google Drive and synced to all your devices so you can always have them at hand.

Not sure what they mean by "safely stored". What's certain (and unsurprising) though: no mention of privacy.

Update: Great tweet from @warrenellis, in light of Google Reader's closure:

Dear Google: why launch Google Keep when you've just proven you'll shut off productivity services when you get bored with maintaining them?