Author: Grievous

Moral Degenerates on the Internet

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I was going through the feeds on my RSS reader and was speechless after reading the comment quoted here.

“I wonder why the lady slept without locking her door at night? She was renting a room, so she should have been wise to lock the door.

Just curious about such a suspicious circumstance. She was like inviting trouble. No doubt the landlord should not have opened her door, but why she took such a risk to ruin a man and his family?”

It is not wrong to say that the lady was careless and that she had no threat awareness, but the above comment goes even further. It actually puts the blame on the victim for what has been done.

I won’t go further to give examples on just how absurdly wrong the above comment was. Alice has given several examples already. What the hell makes anyone think that for women who has no threat awareness or those who are simply being careless deserved what is coming for them?

Anyway, I would not not quite agree with Alice when she said ‘this exactly shows how the moral of the society has deteriorated’. But I can understand where she is coming from (even when I am no paragon of virtue), after I read the posts from Jean on my RSS reader, and went through some of the the comments and a link to Sammyboy’s forum in one of Jean’s post here.

All I want to say is, being a strong believer of retribution (or poetic justice), my opinion is that the only way people like these can be shown just how wrong they are, is to have some crime or wrong done (or some mishaps happening) to them as a result of their own carelessness. Then, some other person should come around and made a similarly insensitive remark.

I sincerely do hope they are made up of sterner stuff and won’t go about whining like a wimp at hust how insensitive those comments are when it happens to them.


A fine example of retribution (or poetic justice) would be having made prank calls, one gets a series of nuisance calls in return…

Storm in a Teacup – Over Endoh’s Post

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I was rather amused when I got the link to this post. Obviously, the blogger needs to have his final say after failing to force his opinion down the throat of everyone else in the comment section of Endoh’s blog post here.

I find this part of the post the most amusing:

Especially since he keeps contradicting himself with statements like, for example, on one page that says “the taxation of petrol in Singapore was never designed as a measure to counter traffic congestion”, and on another page that says “I do not deny petrol taxation is one of the various methods on top of ERP and higher road-tax charges etc. [to control traffic growth]”.)

Erm… there is actually a contradiction here?!

For example, it is my considered opinion that a 10-cent coin was never designed specifically for the purpose of prying the cover off a tin of Milo. Yet at the same time, I also do not deny it can be used for that purpose, on top of a screwdriver, or a spoon.

Am I being contradictory, when all I was doing was simply making my stand clear? Is the blogger trying very hard to prove to everyone with his example of a ‘contradiction’ that he is challenged in the department of logic?

Anyway, it was within this blogger’s right to comment on Endoh’s post, but if all he wanted to do was to point this out, no one would really object to that!

Unfortunately, the blogger obviously believe strongly enough that his perceived reality is the way the rest of the world is looking at the matter (or perhaps how the rest of the world should look at it). This is alarming because the question here is no longer whether the blogger’s comprehension capabilities is impaired, but also if there’s a more serious and fundamental problem with his mental state – something like that of Adolf Hitler in its infancy – whereby he should seek immediate and professional psychiatric assistance…

I would hope it’s not something that serious, but rather that the blogger had obviously over-estimated his rather limited mental capabilities. Apart from failing to recognise how mistaken he was, the concept of ‘agreeing to disagree’ must have been beyond his capability to grasp. In fact, when confronted with that option, it must have triggered yet another hitherto unknown mental deficiency, which caused the blogger to ‘pitch tent’ in the comment section of Endoh’s blog post for some time trying to force his opinion down the throats of anyone who dares to oppose him!

Nothing insightful or valuable was really offered in that period, though the blogger would dispute that as he repeat the same old shit in an impressive number of ways. On top of that, a blog-less wonder which staunchly defended the blogger has caused me to wonder if that wasn’t a sign of a bout of schizophrenia. * shudders *

Even so, the blogger’s lack in debating skills is far less glaring than his obsession with making people see things in one way – the way he sees it. That’s clearly a mild form of mental sickness.

However, I am a little puzzled why he has finally written this piece, when he has been content with ‘defecating’ on the comment section of Endoh’s blog for the better part of two days. But let me hazard a guess on what drove him over the edge:

The Akismet plugin in Endoh’s WordPress setup got so ‘upset’ with this blogger’s comments that even the bot has marked those comments as spam and deleted them automatically.

And that, would be classic example of a level of idiocy that really takes the cake!

Holland 3 : 0 Shitaly

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There’s no greater news to wake up to than this!

Now all it needs is for Italy Shitaly to ‘keep this up’ . Yes. Keep losing until they crash out of the first round ignominiously – preferably with ZERO (0) points and a large goal deficit. There’s nothing more satisfying than that!

But before that, Fabio Grosso must trip someone in the defending area near the end of the match and a penalty rewarded to the opposing team, whereby the opposing team will score and send Shitaly crashing out. And in the best case scenario, Materazzi must lose his cool and headbutt someone and get himself a red card too.

There will be nothing more deserving than this as a well deserved retribution to the thieves of the World Cup!

An Uneducated View on PDA / Smartphone Reviews (II)

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This is a typical PDA / Smartphone product review found on Cnet.

But before I begin, let me first emphasize that this is not an attack on the quality of Cnet’s review because it has always been my opinion that Cnet’s editors do some of the most balanced and objective, if not the best, technical reviews that can be found on the Internet. Very often I recommend that my friends read them up, and I also read up a Cnet review before making my decision to purchase a particular electronic product – be it a digital camera, PDA, laptop or even a mobile phone.

Take a look at the example of the HTC Touch review given above. As with all Cnet reviews, it gives you an overview of the specifications of the product, the features available, the good and the bad and even showing you the quality of the pictures taken with the built-in camera. I have come across a review of the iPhone which even some of the known gripes and criticisms from those already using a product is mentioned. For e.g., I quote: “CNET users have also reported volume problems, and a few people we called said they heard a slight background hiss.”

Unfortunately, this is where my praises for Cnet’s reviews end, and with all due respect to the Cnet editors, this is no fault of yours.

I am quite sure many of us has bought a product after comparing the features and taking the one with the most features usable for us, and also on performance, but ultimately found the product unwieldy and hardly of use for the purpose we intended it for after purchase. (That is also why I have completely sworn myself off PDA smartphones, with the exception of the Blackberry. The reason was that this is the one product that best suit my uses in the corporate environment, given to me free by the company because I am one of the Blackberry Enterprise Server administrators.)

Anyway, what good is a review telling you how good the sound or the quality of the picture taken is, the range the WIFI built in etc when there are so many similar products out there with comparable features? When our decision making is solely based on comparing features and specifications, is that not the very reason we found ourselves in want – not in need – of an upgrade, or desiring a better phone in the near future? In the end we end up trying to chase the technology and because our current gadget was only the best – a has been – until the next one comes along.

So what is the point I am trying to make here? What I am doing here is presenting my uneducated view here on how a product review can be further improved. For e.g. it might help us if the review tells us how the HTC Touch can integrate with the work of users of a certain profile, and there’s a short video or a presentation featuring a real user showing us what he has done with it etc. And I don’t mean looking for fan boys to sing the praises of a product and try to convince us just why a pile of stinking iDung or the iFart from Steve Job’s ass maybe fragrant.

I mean, don’t we all at times discovered we wanted something because our friends flashes us their gadgets and tell us just what he can do with it and how cool that might be because that’s something we are looking for all along? And wouldn’t that save also help save us a lot of money because this will be one product that will serve our purpose and last us for a long time to come?

I thank Endoh for giving me the inspiration to this article. And to Chaosdingo: ‘this is the article I told you I wanted to write sometime back on WLM. It is finally here.’

Movies watched recently…

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Rambo


Vantage Point


Indiana Jones:
Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull.


Horton Hears A Who?

Rambo:
I thought Fatal Move [夺帅] was bloody, and I was wrong. This is even worse, and even Saving Private Ryan pales in comparison. But where Saving Private Ryan is realistic, Rambo is definitely exaggerating. If you loved mindless violence, and seeing people getting ripped apart in 101 means, this is definitely the show for you. In fact, the last 10 minutes has endless scenes of mutilation: flying body parts, many heads and limps getting blown off et al. Definitely a movie you want to avoid after a meal if you have a weak stomach.

Anyway, this time round the mission takes Rambo to Burma (Myanmar), where he (on the trail of a group of mercenaries) rush to the rescue a group of missionaries who has run into some ‘domestic trouble’ with the Myanmese military in the Karen tribal areas. I wondered whether it was watching this (and Stealth), that caused the junta to be have such an irrational fear of Americans.

By the way, I don’t even know if the movie has a point at all. Most of the missionaries who were doing some good with their humanitarian efforts to bring health care and some simple education to the Karen people all met with a terrible end. The only message I got was from the fact that most of the mercenaries died except for the one who came back for Rambo and ‘finished the mission’… perhaps a subtle reminder to the American people they should stay the course in Iraq or face a terrible end?

I definitely hope Stallone won’t make another Rambo because it is going to be quite a joke seeing how this man continually kick his enemies’ ass. In fact, Rocky Balboa was done way better than Rambo. At least it Rocky didn’t beat the young champion, and it showed that even older people can have a determination to do what they intend to do.

Vantage Point:
I got quite bored and annoyed with the start of the movie, where the scene of the American President getting shot was repeated three times from several different perspectives – vantage points. I was wondering if that is going to be the way in the whole show and if blogger Mr.Malique was kidding me when he said this is a good movie.

I was glad I didn’t write it off from there because the storyline began to unravel after that, and that’s where it tied in the three vantage points to reveal to the audience what was missing in one but present in the other to allow Agent Barnes (Dennis Quaid) to be hot on the trail on the conspirators to rescue the President. There wasn’t very much of Sigourney Weaver in the movie, as she was seen only in the earlier part of the movie. As for what is Forest Whitaker’s role in the movie, you have to find out for yourself. Of course it comes with the usual intrigue, car chases and gun fights though probably not as exciting or super-human as a James Bond or XXX movie.

All in all, I liked this movie, it was refrenshing to me simply because I don’t recall ever watching another movie made similarly. If you have missed it I do suggest you get the DVD.

Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:
It appears to me that it is the general sentiment that this movie was made a little to long (19 years!) after the last one, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). (It beats the record held by Star Wars, which was 16 years.)

Anyway, since it was such a long time after the last movie, the villians of the movie are no longer the Nazis, but the Soviets. (I wonder if another 20 years later whether it might be Communist China, since now they already have a Chinese Mummy – Jet Li.) The movie started with Dr. Jones (Harrison Ford) captured by a Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and is forced to assist her in recovering a crate in a Hangar 51. It ultimately led Jones on a competition against Spalko in a race to find the Crystal Skull and lost Akator – also know as El Dorado.

In my personal opinion it was a little disappointing, just like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I had a feeling I maybe watching ET Part II, actually. Retuurrrn…. ET Phone Home… You will get what I mean after watching the movie. However, unlike George Lucas, at least Steven Spielberg had the courtesy not to sell out the fans by making it into a kid’s movie so parents will be held hostage and turn up in droves. The storyline is not really captivating, and fortunately the action and a lot of army ants made up for that. In fact I had actually hoped that more emphasis was placed on the son after his identity was revealed, so at least the action can be carry on in that person in future Indiana Jones movies. (Personally I wondered if that wasn’t hinted at the end of this movie.)

Anyway, last I heard was that there are plans for another Indiana Jones movie. And Harrison Ford making another Indiana Jones movie is still alright, as long as they cut down more of the action and increase more of the archeology and riddle aspects. After all, Dr. Jones isn’t all action. He has brains too. But I can’t say the same for Rambo… because I can’t imagine him sitting in a control room directing all the action of maybe a section of mini-Rambos in his place.

Horton Hears a Who!:
Also known as Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! , this is animation based on the book of the same name. In this animation, Horton the Elephant (Jim Carrey) heard a yelp coming out of a dust speck when he was taking a dip in the pool. After placing it on top of a clover that he holds in his trunk, he finds out the speck harbors the city of Whoville and all its inhabitants, led by Mayor Ned McDodd (Steve Carell).

The story is about how Horton tries to defend his knowledge, and to help the people of Whoville by taking and placing the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. Of course Horton was ridiculed because the other animals in the jungle couldn’t hear the people within the speck. Led by Jane Kangaroo, a lynch mob roped and caged Horton, in their attempt to end Horton’s delusion and destroy the speck once and for all.

I believe I have already revealed enough about this story so I’ll leave the details for you to find out on your own. Though I won’t recommend you to give it a miss, there’s nothing so captivating on inspiring in it that you should watch it either.

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