Aaronius

Random Days
2004-03-14 06:14:09 (UTC)

March 13/2004

EVIL AMERICA ------

I always thought it was odd how the media left out details
of why the Iraqis (some) hated the American troops in Iraq,
and over the past couple days, I learned some of those
details.

One out of every ten "smart bombs" that were supposed to
hit "within an inch of their target" went off course and
struck iraqi civilian structures.

As well, from the issue of Time that I picked up today:

"Lieut. Colonel Russel says "these people respect
strength." His unit employed some of the most
controversial tactics the occupation has seen: mass
detentions, firing on suspected guerrilla positions amid
civilians, demolishing houses, even ringing a troublesome
village with barbed wire to make all residents pass through
a single military checkpoint when they came or went. "We
were trying to solve a problem," says Russell. "We didn't
really care what the reaction would be. They hate our
guts. There wasn't any support to erode." Those methods,
he says, "worked. We'll go home victors." [snip]"

Craziness. Now I really REALLY oppose the US occupation of
Iraq. It's one thing to lie and go in for the oil reserves
(money), but it's quite another to treat innocent people so
poorly. And the worst part is, the USA will never pay for
these reprehensible crimes against innocent civilians.

BUYING AFFECTION ------

I'm kind of making a point to address YOU in every entry,
since I know those are the juicy bits you hunger for.
Here's your piece of meat for today.

I don't want you to think I'm trying to buy your
affection. It actually didn't even occur to me at all
(when I was purchasing the Mug) that money was something
that could buy people's feelings.

To tell you the truth, I've never much liked the idea of
money and material goods. If someone that I care about
wants something, and I have the financial means to procure
it for them, hey, no problem. I don't care. It's not like
I need the money anyway. All I use it for is books, cds
and dvds, all things I can live without.

Yeah, I just want you to know that I was THINKING of you,
not BUYING you. Heh, I love how I add drama to every
comment you make. Isn't it great?

ALOHA FROM ONTARIO ------

Received a phone call from Paul today, he seems to be
enjoying himself. He had a role as an extra on QAF, and
has been partying every day. He's out of money now, so
he's looking for a part-time minimum-wage job. And uh...
That's all.

STUPID TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUES ------

Shaw Cable has become my new best friend. Though, I'm not
up for investigation in file-sharing (29 Canadians are
being sued by the CRIA), other people are. These people
are all on the five major Canadian ISPs (Shaw, Rogers,
Bell, Telus, Vidéotron Ltée), and the CRIA is demanding
that the ISPs hand over the names, addresses, phone-numbers
and email addresses of the people that they wish to sue.

As it stands right now, Vidéotron Ltée has agreed to co-
operate fully (bastards), Rogers, Bell and Telus are all
prepared to roll over (bastards) and Shaw (my ISP) is
fighting the issue tooth and nail (HOORAH!).

I'm not going to argue the morality of file-sharing,
however, I am going to argue the morality of information
gathering through a supposedly "private" service. Shaw, it
turns out, is the only service provider that actually keeps
NO RECORDS of their clients (me) logged. Since they
dynamically assign IP addresses to people (that can change
at any time), there is no way that an IP address of a
person who is guilty of sharing files is the same one day
to the next. What does this mean? It means that the CRIA
wants to invade some poor random user's house that
CURRENTLY has that IP address and confiscate/examine the
contents of their hard drive. This is OBVIOUSLY an
invasion of privacy (in my mind). On top of that, I don't
believe that an ISP should just roll over and hand out
information to an organization because they think there is
wrongdoing on the part of the user. In this case, there is
NO SOLID PROOF that anyone has done anything illegal
(copyright infringement), and they can't show reasonable
cause to investigate an IP address.

It's just all sillyness.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=10791336
09987&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

Besides, making examples of people (suing) is not the way
to revive a dying industry. The music industry (that
screws us regularly) needs to start coming up with some new
ideas on how to get us to buy their product. Perhaps a
poster, or limited edition signed copies (1 in 100) of cds
and such with the sale? Why does YOUR laziness and profit
margin come first? You should be coming up with new ways
of delivering content and encouraging the sale of cds.
Fuck people are stupid.

RANDOM TIDBITS OF THE DAY ------

Most recent song that I've fallen in love with:
Sulpher - Fear Me (LONG LIVE INDUSTRIAL!)

Most recent thought I've had:
Creating a Random Tidbit section for the end of journal
entries

Goals for Tomorrow:
Sleep in, Exercise and (hopefully) get the replacement mp3s
for the depresso CD.




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