Rubenerd

With all the pessimism around the world in regards to the United States' mess in Iraq, terrorism, unstable commodity prices and other lighthearted topics it's good to know we're still soldiering on.

According to a news report from Bloomberg (I love the design of their website), Asian markets with the exception of China posted their biggest weekly gains since November last year fueled largely by corporate profit results and forecasts that beat analyst's expectations.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 percent to 17,547.11, South Korea's Kospi had its best week since June, the Australian All Ordinaries posed a new record number and Singapore's Straits Times Index really impressed by posting its biggest gain in three years.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index added 1.4 percent this week to 142.71, extending a two-week, 1.4 percent rally.

Statistics coursety of Bloomberg Asia-Pacific and CNBC.

As you no doubt have already read on thousands of other blog sites, Windows Vista (Microsoft's latest attempt to hack together a true operating system) was released worldwide today. Apparently given the timezone difference people in New Zealand and Australia were the first to get their hands on the shrink wrapped boxes, all ready to enjoy the gaping security holes, unreliable operation and DRM that actually makes using your media harder than XP and is in violation of your free use rights and common decency. No "wow" from me here, just "yawn".

Seriously if you still need to run Windows for any reason, do yourself and your sanity a favour, go on eBay and buy a secondhand copy of Windows 2000 Professional.

Around the same time as this trainwreck though there's something else that has been released which will no doubt be getting less press coverage: the latest version of the lightweight, user friendly Xfce Desktop Environment for *NIX machines! If you run FreeBSD it is also now also available in Ports.

Amonst some of the changes is the addition of the new file manager Thunar which bears a striking resemblence to the Mac OS X Finder with it's addition of a favourites bar on the side of the window, which I am a real fan of.

I really like KDE, but at the same time I've always been a fan of the clean design of Xfce and this is the first version I've seen that actually is making me seriously considering moving over. I'll probably run both on my FreeBSD partition for now and see. I'm just absolutely blown away by the speed; on my MacBook Pro it's a matter of seconds when I type startx to when it's fully loaded, it really is something.

It's good to know that while companies in our world like Microsoft are going out of their way to make things more complicated for people, there are still people out there actually working on making lives easier.

Stay posted for my infamous screenshots ;).

Picture is of Ruth (right) and I (left) in the AIS high school common room, 2004. My facial expression was a result of having a nasty cold. My hair… I can't explain.

Got an email today from a Singapore high school friend of mine, Ruthie Mazengarb! Munt! Ruth came to our school in year 11 I think, was one of the nicest, funniest, nicest (I think I said that already) people I ever met, and let's just say I had a but of crush on her too. Ahem.

She's doing great down there in New Zealand, just about to start her 3rd year of a Social Work degree, a real thrill to hear. She's exactly the kind of person you would want working with people. That didn't come out right, but you get the jist.

But possibly the second best thing of all after the fact I heard from her? I've got her to ditch Windows!

You will be pleased to know I have a Mac (ibook) the baby/smallest one…..I remember your comments at school that always put Macs above Microsoft and PC, now, i do actually understand what you where on about, and think Macs rock too!

Is good lah, bagus!

It's amazing that I have several slow weeks in my email inbox (I don't count work on university correspondence!), but just in the last week I've met three new people and caught up with four others!

I'm sitting at my desk,
It's almost 1 AM;
My pillow is wondering,
Where I am.

The room lights are off,
As dark as an attic;
I'm wearing headphones,
Listening to static.

I could push off to bed,
And the computer off switch;
Have to get up early tomorrow,
But insomnia is a bitch.

So for now I'll sit,
And wait till I doze;
Counting syllables is too boring,
When you're writing such crappy prose.

I could try to enjoy life,
Relax and be gay;
But really what's the point,
Anyway?

As if the original Blues Brothers wasn't the best movie of all time, and as if Aretha Franklin doesn't rock!

What started off as emails regarding arabican caffinated beverages (none of that robusta Nescafe junk) has now progressed to the point where I was asked:

Speaking of humor, I read that funny woman turn off men – women want a man who is a humor “generator,” while men seek a humor “appreciator.”

Based on experience, I say COMPLETELY True. Men are so threatened by sarcasm from women (Thanks, great professors of behavioral studies for only coming up with this now). What do you think?

I think there is some level of truth in your observations; it is true there is a feeling generated when you get someone to laugh that just feels darned good, and if it's a member of the opposite sex, more power to you ;).

From where I stand, I think it takes a certain level of intelligence to be able to pull off randomness and sarcasm; I guess to some men random sarcastic women are scary because they don't feel as smart and feel threatened intellectually.

To use computer networking terminology though (you speak what you know!): to me great humour isn't a simplex connection, it's duplex. In real world langauge, there isn't any point to humour if it's only one way. I want someone who I've just zinged to zing me back! To me telling a joke to someone and just getting laughter in response is boring because there's no challenge. I might as well talk to a table with a canned laughter button (obligatory Monty Python reference).

I guess you could say that I'm the exact opposite; I really like girls who can make me laugh! That's the reason why I am particularly drawn to the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime over most others: the protagonist is so ridiculous and preposterous in her actions and so completely random!

I'd be interested to hear what other peoples have to say about it. Do sarcastic women turn you off? Do you prefer women that will just laugh at anything you say and not threaten you intellectually? Do you wear matching socks?

Little game of word association going on at the Podcast Pickle web forum:

Hero Sandwich

Superman on Rye

reuben

Rubenerd Show – Never listened to it, but searched ruben in pickle and it came up.

revenge of the nerds

Hey, at least he spelt Ruben without an e ;).

Well after three days of relaxation my family and I are finally back from our mini holiday in Fraser's Hill. "I" in this case meaning myself and not the visual aids of which we have two in our heads collectilvely known as "eyes". Hope that cleared up the apparent confusion.

The main reason we went on this trip was to give my mum a break from her always fun chemo regeme. She literally lives her life in her bedroom and commuting from that aformentioned place to the Gleneagles Intan hospital, or medical centre, or hospital medical centre or whatever they're calling it now. Really not a fun thing in the slightest, so just a change of scenery does her the world of good.

Fraser's hill really is a beautiful place. From what I understand (and given its not computers or coffee, that phrase is even more pertenent) the town is a 1920s era mountain station built by the British as a cool place to escape to when the tropical heat of Kuala Lumpur got to their poor little temperate-climatised heads. The architecture is very European and it certainly has very cool – some would even say chilly* – weather.

* I never understood why you call cold weather "chilly". Aren't "chillis" really quite hot? No I'm not hitting on a chilli by saying it looks attractive, I'm referring to the intensity of it's flavour. Seriously.

From the obviously inpartial Tourism Pahang website:

Rising 1,500 meters above sea-level on the Titiwangsa mountain range of Peninsular Malaysia is Fraser's Hill. Named after a solitary Scottish pioneer, James Fraser, who set up a tin-ore trading post in the 1890s, it actually consists of seven hills. Fraser's Hill is truly an idyllic place for one to rest and to escape from not only the heat and humidity but also the hustle and bustle of city life. It is perhaps the prettiest of the Malaysian Hill resorts.

The other reason I'm sure my mum likes it is she gets breakfast in bed and it's extremely quiet and peaceful. Of course while she was enjoying the breakfast and the peacefullness (is that a word?) my dad and I managed to do some nature hiking and exploring around the waterfalls and rock formations through the forest. I'll try and post some pictures when I'm not sitting at my Mac at 01am typing and rudely waking up when my head hits the table after dozing off.

Anyway we're all back, so stay tuned for more posts and more Rubenerd Shows if not tomorrow then Thursday.

My parents and I are currently at a retreat in Pahang in eastern Malaysia to help my mum recover from her latest painful cycle of chemotherapy. The next Rubenerd Show will be available next week. There is limited internet access there so emails and posts probably won’t get replied to till then either. Thank you everyone – Ruben

- Rubenerd Show site as of yesterday, placed here for no reason other than to make the post appear longer than it actually is, that way I type less but it looks to the unsuspecting eye that I’ve typed more. Very clever technique if you ask me; feel free to implement this on your own blog. Don’t ask me for technical support when you need help implementing this though, I’m busy enough as it is.

So I was looking for some Creative Commons licenced photos of Fraser's Hill using Google Image search this morning when I noticed something a bit different about it. From what I can tell they've adopted their SearchMash testing project's minimalist image search layout by removing all traces of information about images other than their filename. To get the image details you need to hover over each image.

Here's a screenshot taken a few minutes ago in Shiira on my MacBook Pro:

This is no good lah! I use Google Image search all the time and have come to appreciate the fact I can quickly glance at the page of thumbnails and only click on the ones that are in the resolution I need.

Fortunately Konqueror on KDE still seems unaffected by the change… so far! Probably an AJAX reason or something:

So I was at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA to people in the know) for a long drawn out reason which I won't attempt to explain here, and I found myself trying their free WiFi access. Given my experience with TMNet's WiFi at the Starbucks coffee shops here I was a bit sceptical about how good it was going to be. As it turns out it was faster than out DSL at home in Gita Bayu!

As you would know if you read this site in any manner resembling regularity I love screenshots, so here are some from my WiFi adventures :D.

Here's the initial welcome screen when I logged on for free on my MacBook Pro:

Here's the welcome screen when I booted into Haruhi KDE FreeBSD ;):

And what better thing to do on free WiFi network in a Malaysian airport but listen to Whole Wheat Radio?

Another example of why people like Rebecca Hagelin shouldn't try their hand at economics!

In her latest typo filled article entitled THe Coming Entitlement SPending Tsunami?, Ms Hagelin goes into great detail explaining why the newly appointed Democratic majority in the United States is going to be causing a spending tsunami:

This tsunami is a financial one that threatens to bankrupt our children. The “perfect storm” has been created by the convergence of the promises our government has made through the Big Three entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

If policymakers in Washington do nothing — and let’s face, inaction is a specialty of theirs – and the deficit keeps rising, then by 2027 the Big Three (plus the resulting interest on the debt) will consume the entire U.S. budget.

Sorry to rain on your party Ms Hagelin, but your argument that the Democrats are going to bankrupt the country is entirely backwards.

On Bill Clinton's watch (a Democrat), the United States government had a record government surplus. Under the fiscal mismanagement, wastage and corruption of George W. Bush's administration, the government has had the biggest deficit in history.

The reckless spending "tsunami" you describe isn't coming Ms Hagelin, it has already come through. The Republicans and George W. Bush caused it, eclipsing even Reagan's wasteful spending and damaging tax cuts (see my previous article). It doesn't take a bachelor's degree with minors in Keynesian theory and Microeconomics, (which I'm currently undertaking by the way) to see this.

Now granted the "Big Three" which you describe do cost large amounts of money, and it is true that it can put a strain on a government's budget; however your argument that they are the sole reason for possible bankruptcy is, to put it as politely as possible, absurd. Just because the government in power manages to blow incomprehensibly large amounts of money on pointless and irrelevant pet projects doesn't mean that social security spending becomes any more of a money drain. Quite the opposite, the relative percentage actually drops.

You don't solve a problem by patching up the symptoms, you solve a problem by attacking the root cause. In this case, you don't cut the "Big Three" because you have less money to spend (a symptom), you investigate the administration's ridiculous fiscal management and find out why you have less money to spend (the cause) and take steps to address it.

But as my wise and devilishly sarcastic granddad on my mother's side of the family always says: "very interesting article [Rebecca Hagelin], but please, don't let the facts get in the way of your argument!"