Whittlings

Seriously, Maths>Sleep ∀ maths that has to be in by the next morning. That’s a fact.

A pointer also towards Microsoft Dreamspark for being the most awesome student deal since The Ultimate Steal - perhaps better! Free VS2008 was too good a deal for me to pass up, even though I’ve been advocating the amazingness of Eclipse and Vim recently.

Finally, I was nearly lynched earlier for the following “joke” (a variation on the old “I wish I were sin²? and you were cos²? so that together we could be one”):

“If only you could be one over the determinate times of my transposed matrix of covectors, then together we could be one.”

It’s not that bad, is it?

Trawling through my feeds today, I came across a link to an article on the website of an American political commentator/economist by the name of Lyndon LaRouche (and there’s a name to strike fear in your heart). To cut it short, he’s about the craziest crazy person whose works I’ve ever seen. His site isn’t particularly cohesive and it can be hard to determine his explicit views; but he seems to unequivocally hate the British. Recurring themes throughout seem to include how the British are attempting to undermine American culture and government either through assassination of cultural assimilation (err, yeh). As flattering as it is that the author seems to be under the impression that we’re Illuminati-like rulers of the entire planet; it just isn’t true. Some prize quotes:

The British kill American presidents, LaRouche recounted, and it could be McCain, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton or Obama who could be the target to get the Michael Bloomberg option through.

The British-promoted genocide scheme known as global warming is taking a human toll in Tajikistan, the former Soviet republic which borders China and eastern Afghanistan. [this is a story which "disproves" global warming]

Is Sgt. Pepper Controlling NASA?

As the British Empire assault on the institution of the sovereign nation state continues, creating the imminent danger of a repeat of the 1923 Germany Weimar hyperinflation of the U.S. dollar, followed, or accompanied, by an intended Felix Rohatyn and George Shultz inspired, Michael Bloomberg fascist dictatorship in the United States, [...] The link, if you will, situated in the context of our world political crisis, is the British digital networking site Bebo, the British version of MySpace and Facebook. These sites, such as Bebo, today act as digital suicide clubs for youth of the ages 14-25, where once you �log in,� you�re already dead. And, these internet tombs, a capital element in the British Empire�s warfare against human civilization, are frequented by today�s youth in the privacy and security of their own bedrooms, with mummy and daddy, oftentimes, right downstairs.

International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler

Because Pivot was just made of fail. At least, something was, because it required that I manually rebuilt the entry database every few minutes in order that it would notice that I’d written most of my entries.
Besides, the original justification for using Pivot was that it used flat files rather than a database: a problem that I’ve (long since) overcome. A few of the more recent posts from my website are going to be migrated over as there’s no real easy way to move the posts wholesale, and then I’ll look at theme. Sure, the Wordpress default is lovely and wholesome, functional and practical; but it’s also really really boring and generic.

At the LAN this weekend. My brain is turning to mush, because it’s the height of sleep deprivation methods. I’m sure there’s some work around here somewhere that I need to do…

There’s been a recent furore about this conservative american’s comments on Mass Effect on one of his recent blog postings.
He posted a rebuttal to his blog earlier.
There’s not much to say that hasn’t been said, but whereas the first post I just found funny, if a little saddening, that someone of Kevin’s apparent esteemed worth could be so wrong, the second just made me angry that he could continue to misrepresent the game so grossly.
He also did a radio show tonight in which he invited phone-ins. I attempted to keep a transcript but kept forgetting: as mesmerised as I was by his words.

�I�m not owning an xbox, it�s not something I�m concerned with. I have real things to do with my life, I have a family to feed and provide for.�
�Sincerely apologise� for breast comment.
�Beyond that, the substance was all correct�.
�For me personally [it�s the most sexually explicit game] I�ve ever seen�. Say�s the non-gamer.
�You can create, to some degree, custom bodies�.
�If the game is getting into the hands of 15 year olds then is are the regulations working?�
Explicit or implicit? �It depends on your definition of explicit.� �There was a little view of the [arse] and a flash of the breast… a hand through the crotch of the girl: female stimulation, if you will�.
�Yes. First of all I think it is always the parent�s responsibility first and foremost [...] the fact that we have this society in which we�re pushed more towards the more explicit, the pushing of the envelope in every regard when it comes to every type of material on the globe. Europe is more liberal [...] I don�t want to become Europe [!...] I don�t know that that�s where we want to set the bar for the whole of society. There are a great number of people across the country who share my values. Parents who say �I want to be the one who introduces my child to the idea of sex� [...] It appears to me that we are quickly evaporating the ability of the parent to limit and control what their children have access to.�
�Am I saying we set a federal guideline in place? Probably not. Can parents have a hand in this? Absolutely. Can regional communities put pressure on this issue [such that this sort of material can only be sold in a small shop down the end of the lot? I hope so!]�.
�It seems to me that we have an epidemic of non [...] enforcement of obscenity.�
�I lot of libertarians do not like the views of moderate viewpoint conservatives.�
�You can�t have legitimate freedom, you cannot have a legitimate moral free society [...] without standards and moral values. [...] Is this what happened with Mass Effect? No.�
�Libertarians really do want the influx of morally reprehensive material to be available! Do right minded people want that? No!�
�Our founders [...] understood from a very pure perception that democracy in a vacuum void of God would not work. This is why is cited thousands of times amongst the Founder�s early writings.�
�If you have to drive to the edge of town to buy a smutty game, then why not for a smutty video game?�

Edit: As this posting seems to have received a little attention, I can only update this to say that Kevin has apologised for his mis-interpretation of the game (a good thing), though he still disagrees with the nudity that is present in the game. Which given his consistent stance on TV and movie content, is fair enough; even if I entirely disagree, it’s an entirely valid opinion.

I’d suggest turning your ire towards Fox News’s rather embarrassing coverage of this issue a few days after; but that’s already blown over. Even the silly woman apologised (after she was Amazon bombed…)