Battleangel

Source: 13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE

Believe it if you will. I’ve been using the software since the last version (Firebird) and I must say that it is the first browser in ages that challenges IE. What I don’t understand is why MS never releases any real updates for IE and instead just sits there waiting for Longhorn or whatever.
As for Mozilla Firefox, it seems like the oldest trick in the book. Do nothing for years until software company A falls asleep. Then release a competing product that has got essentially nothing new but the tiny fixes that competitor A wouldn’t bother with. All in all I would have been more impressed a year ago.

I must say I found the demo to be very sleek, very fluid and to the point. So much like the original Unreal Tournament, even down to the music. I’ll admit that the gameplay is hysteric though. Just a tad too fast for my liking.

There are many things to like about this game .. such as …

Vehicles - Also hysterically fast.

Large and varied maps - With geographical detail and depth that has been lacking in many FPS games. Reminds me a bit of Tribes actually. And since Tribes 3 is built on the very same engine it could give a hint of the future.

Voice Chat and Command - Voice chat is old news of course but having the ability to command bots using your voice is a nice although slightly redundant feature.

Optimzed code - So much better than UT2003 for example. Loads in no time at all. Runs like a dream, at least on my machine (which is not exactly high-end anymore).

Carl has done it again. It seems he keeps forgetting his place, or rather some people wish he’d keep a lower profile and not speak his mind, or be himself. Must be a pain in the ass to have someone like this around. Someone that doesn’t follow protocol and is impossible to get rid of. You can’t touch him and he is surprisingly immune to criticism and generally just an average guy with a down to earth view of things. Ironically, he’s the one person who didn’t have to step over any corpses to get to where he is today. Ill-suited as a leader perhaps but untainted by the blood of political intrigue.

Anyway, this time he went to Brunei. Good luck with finding that on the map. And he did the unspeakable by commending his host, the sultan of Brunei, amongst other things by saying he had a close relationship with his people. Apparently that was enough to tick off members of the Swedish parliament. No doubt those that weren’t happy with having a remnant monarchy around in the first place.

Oh, give the man a break will you. And stop beating your chest, trying to convince everyone else how great we are and how superior our so called democracy is. Just because Brunei doesn’t hold elections doesn’t mean it is bad place with bad people or a cruel leadership. The mature thing to do would be to mind your own business and realize that we have some serious flaws in our own system that we could work on before we go around criticizing others.
And besides, what good would it do to badmouth Brunei? Does anyone really believe that telling the sultan he’s an SOB will improve anything, even if you believe that things need improving? Have we started to import US diplomacy while I wasn’t looking or what?

Or not. I really did try to like Azureus but I have to say it’s the worst piece of crap that I have seen in a very long time. It eats a little less memory than ABC most of the time but it also spikes to intolerable values. And the CPU load is close to 100% after the program has been running a while. Opening the GUI from the tray really kills the computer every time. And even when running on minimal resouces it takes more CPU than ABC.
The official FAQ suggests removing Zone Alarm and downgrading to an old java distribution. But they also point out that it is no sure fix, just a stab in the dark. So it’s back to ABC …

I’m running out of titles for articles here. I wonder why I don’t begin my rants with a descriptive title at least. Oh well.

Here is the situation. I just walked by the TV and realized that the peculiar act that caught my interest was part of the annual “Gay Awards”. Yes really. There really is something by that name, and it IS being broadcasted by Swedish television (SVT2). I wonder if that is what they mean by public service. Don’t know if it is worse than the stuff they usually serve on a saturday night in Sweden though. SVT seems to be suffering from a Bergman impact still. So either it’s the Gay Awards or some cheerful film about suicide or a documentary on prostitution in Moldavia. Either way it’s not uplifting and maybe the alternative is even worse … so … anyway …
Before I begin let me just say this. In recent years I have greatly toned down the “homophobia” of youth. I guess you learn a thing or two as you grow older. My introduction to biology and evolutionary principles in particular also helped my deal with this in a rational a scientific way (strange as it may sound). So my take on this is different than what you could expect … at least I’m not going about it gay-bashing.

Lets get right to the point here. My beef with the “Gay Awards” is this. It is highly questionable to use up prime time for a minority group. Especially if it is a non-essential award ceremony. We’re not talking about starving kids in Ethiopia here.
It is also a well known fact that homosexual activists regularly have been trying to misinform the public about their true numbers. I.e. how much of a minority they really are. For the sake of simplicity we can look at the ratio of “homosexual men in the US” and conclude that the true figure is somewhere in between 2 % (Laumann, et al, The Social Organization of Sex: Sexual Practices in the United States (1994)) and 10 % (Kinsey, Alfred C. et al. (1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male). The latter was however biased.
As for women the ratio can be expected to register slightly lower overall. For more interesting figures I suggest you visit the Kinsey Institute.
So, questions are abundant. What kind of parenthetical sideshows can qualify for prime time on a public service network? How many percent of the population must be affected? How do you justify this award ceremony? (because everything else on television has to damn well justify its existence) And furthermore, this particular television network has pledged not to allow personal beliefs or interests to interfere with the common and unbiased platform.
By all definitions this is a small lobby organization that gets to monkey around. And it leaves the field open for other aggressive minorities to appear. Whats next? Latter-day Saints? Scientologists? People with chronic fungi feet infections?

A secondary beef is that homosexual individuals work pretty much like the average guy or gal. Ironically, events like these can help reinforce prejudice and stereotypical views. On the one hand they wish to be like everyone else and on the other they prance about like clowns. A psychological rift that is not particularly difficult to understand.
It’s not unlike the controversy whether Israel is or should be the voice of the world’s collective jewish population. And whether the collective is liking what that voice has to say. A minority in a minority in a minority in … you get the idea I am sure.

I wont deny that I am aversive towards many of the award ceremonies that are being broadcasted these days. So this is not a completely unique case. But it is one of the most trifling audiences and superficial ideas for an award ceremony around.

It’s not politically correct to question any of this of course.

So, in essence, this is much like the “cultural pendulum” that so often return to. People tend to exaggerate and accentuate whatever they are doing and thus instead of ending up in a state of equilibrium they go to extremes. Feeding frenzy. In the end it is bound to hurt their cause and make the pendulum swing back. God, I love corny metaphores.