Mr Altruistic

Well, this year just keeps kicking onskies at breakneck pace, and I am finding it hard to keep up. The cash is exiting my wallet faster than I can earn it, even though I seem to be going out less and less these days. Why is it also, that work days just take forever to end, and the weekend just flies by in an instant? I was thinking about that on Saturday, then it was Sunday, and I thought, hang on what happened to yesterday… Then it was Monday…. and then Monday… and then MONDAY!… we’ll you know what I mean it’s like getting a dog up ya sideways - it’s not fun.

I’m fresh from a geek’s impression session with Brad and Dave and I’m mightily impressed with airport. The way it recognised the wireless router in the vicinity of the laptop has sealed the deal and im ready to sign to the Apple for a full season. The rockers and myself dined on take-out *tommy. I revisited the Ruby Foo’s experience in Times Square, New York, where my mate Filthy nearly died on the Kung Pow Chicken (thats the Kung Pow on the left above the soy sauce in the image above) whilst we were holidaying there last year. Unbeknownst to Filthy, the big bits of chicken he was stuffing into his mouth were actually chilis, and not even the several schooners of Stellas he downed could douse the fiery flames hehehe. So I thought I would give the dish a bash, and it came up trumps. A lot milder in Australia it would seem, the chilis were sectioned not whole like in New York, but it still has that zing, and I can highly recommend it.

*Tommy - many theories probably abound as to the origins of the word “tommy” when used in relation to asian food. There is in fact only one. Tommy comes from Tommy Nomchong, an asian chap a year ahead of me at high school. The phrase was coined when a good mate Moysie and myself were sitting in the infamous Wah Kee restaurant chowing down on lemon chicken and mongolian lamb after a session at the gym. It was an off-hand comment that stuck and is used to this day (over a decade later). This also gave rise to the infamous Tommy Knocker extension of the phrase, which I will leave to your imagination hehehe. So next time you’re thinking to yourself “Geez I could go for some Tommy right now” or “Man that Tommy is knocking already” spare a thought for the vilesilencer

After getting a trim on Saturday, I was sitting on the station reading the newspaper when I stumbled across a story about this bird in the UK that sold her virginity for $20,000 Australian (8000 pounds) on ebay. Her girlfriend (yes I re-read that too), apparently was in the next room whilst the “transaction” was completed… Even funnier is that the girl thought the first time was a bit of a dud, and she wanted to remember it as something special, so the gent that purchased her cherry, got a second bite at it, for no extra cost hehehe. For that kind of money I’d gladly become a born again virgin and let the highest bidding lady re-de-flower me

The Danny Williams King Hit on Mark O’Neill has been the talk of the NRL footy world for the last week. It’s occupied the back few pages of the sports section of my local rag paper. Danny, the Melbourne Storm forward, is claiming he suffered amnesia from an O’Neill tackle that concussed him prior to king-hitting O’Neill into hospital. If he suffered amnesia, how is it that he was able to wander across the play and locate O’Neill and deliver the knockout blow? What I also find interesting is that in round 13, Danny Williams broke O’Neill’s nose in a vicious tackle. There is clearly some history between the 2, why doesn’t the coward just own up to taking a cheap-shot on his rival and cop the ban squarely on his chin. After all he deserves it.

Looks like Telstra is back in the news again, and for once it’s not for one of Ziggy’s monumental fuck ups. Telstra is launching the Sensis search engine, which in their words is set to shake Google to its very core. Combining the power of the yellow and white pages, http://www.whereis.com.au/ and a few other databases it claims to have the wood on Google and it’s many rivals… Only time will tell, but my prediction is that this is another case of Telstra offering a Porsche and delivering a Daewoo… no offence to Daewoo.

Recently on the now defunct WPW forum, many mac users were extolling the virtues of the Mozilla Firebird Browser. I’ve heard people literally creaming their daks over using it. So it was with a very high expectation that I downloaded and launched what I thought was going to be the latest in browser technology. After using it I’ve got one word for all those WPW mac users - shithouse. The browser looks and feels like a beta of a bad Camino. Ok I won’t go so far as to say it’s as bad as Mac IE, but it’s down there in the toilet with it. So what do I use? Give me the freedom, speed and simplicity of Safari, which ships as the default with OS X. No fancy garbage, and no frills pretending to be something they aren’t. It’s no wonder to me now why WPW has gone down the drain. The majority of people that frequented that place have no idea about computers or the web. The so-called experts and moderators on the site were nothing more than glorified beginners spouting something they’ve heard or think they know.

As Homer would say “Woo Hoo!!!”. After a rather dull day at work, I was surprised when a customer brought in a CD to be printed containing a poster of (drumroll) The Periodic Table Of Beer Styles. I’d love to see a full screen image of this. I only managed to spend a short time reading over the poster when it was printed, but it is very detailed with information on every style of beer known to man.

While we are on the subject of the periodic table… Scientists have classified an element that has been perplexing man for centuries..

Element Name: WOMANIUM

Symbol: WO

Atomic Weight: (don’t even go there)

Physical properties: Generally soft and round in form. Boils at nothing and may freeze any time. Melts when treated properly. Very bitter if not used well.

Chemical properties: Very active. Highly unstable. Possesses strong affinity with gold, silver, platinum, and precious stones. Violent when left alone. Able to absorb great amounts of exotic food. Turns slightly green when placed next to a better specimen.

Usage: Highly ornamental. An extremely good catalyst for dispersion of wealth. Probably the most powerful income-reducing agent known.

Caution: Highly explosive in inexperienced hands!

2 months in oblivion, but I’m back and busting to update The Silencer. So what have been my thoughts over the last couple of missing-in-action months:

(i) I was appalled at the beheadings carried out by the fundamentalist/extremist/terrorist groups in recent weeks, though I have watched several of the videos, including the one involving Nick Berg (be warned the video is extremely graphic). No one deserves to die that way. Whilst I can understand the killers motives behind taking and killing hostages, their method of execution is barbaric and will only prolong the conflict and create greater tension. I can see no end in sight anytime soon for this. We will also have to put up with hoax videos.

(ii) I think the Tahitian Temptress from Barker College in Sydney, Francesca Willis, is a total babe, and I wish the girls were more like that when I was at High School (Barker College was in close proximity to where I went to school hehehe). The school uniform photos were done in an artistic and professional way, and whilst sexy, I don’t think brought the school into disrepute. I’d be more worried, if I was the Headmaster, about Barker students drinking under age. Hey, I’m not preaching, I know it happens I’m not suggesting that 16 and 17 year olds don’t get on the piss… BUT, Francesca was suspended for portraying the school in a bad light. Surely, teenagers photographed having alcohol is far more damaging to the school and its faculty than a couple of sexy photos - My $2 worth hehehe.

(iii) I think Australia Big Brother 4 has outplayed itself, and is no longer a viable show (though you can still view my comments at the BB forum under the pseudonym RaGe). The Hot Tip? I think Paul or Trevor will take out the Million Bucks on offer.

(iv) The Day After Tommorow (2004)? saw it, and found it to be (like Independence Day (1996) before it) wallowing in self-praising American patriotism, that quite frankly detracts from what otherwise would’ve been a very good film… The plus out of the film is that it is arguably Dennis Quaid’s best performance and showcases his transition from ordinary to established actor.

Well, It looks like I’m back peeps. Woo hoo! and with a vengeance. Whilst Andrew Johns was too wrapped up in his comfort zone to switch from Rugby league to Rugby Union, I’ve taken the giant leap and moved from PC to Mac. However whilst Joey Johns had to make an all-or-nothing decision, I have the luxury of switching back and forth as it suits me. At this stage I’m looking at purchasing perhaps a low cost PC desktop to complement this laptop. That isn’t something that will happen in the near future though, as I want to really get to know this OS and machine back-to-front, and know I won’t whilst jumping back and forth between the 2. So you never know I may put the hot box (the Lian Li customised PC desktop I was building) back on the construction list… who knows? anything is possible at this stage.

So what incarnation of mactology did I get? Well if you know me, then you know I don’t do things by halves so I went out and got the 17″ G4 Powerbook, so that I had the combination of portability and power.

First Impressions? Well I have used Macs before so it’s not really first impressions lol. The first thing I notice is that I am heavily reliant on the mouse. The trackpad, whilst being nifty and clever, is still one of the most annoying things about a laptop. I am a little torn on the whole meese issue. I’ve never been a fan of the Apple one-button mouse. I know they think it’s ultra cool, but seriously, it’s perhaps the most backward thinking idea i have ever come across. They advertise it as “no scroll wheel”, like that is a good thing - umm I like the scroll wheel - its why im so reliant on the mouse. Getting rid of that is just plain dumb. Having said that I am conscious of the fact that Dave from Shintara will call me a dirty windows user if I stick with their mouse technology so I’m contemplating adopting the apple meese even though I don’t like it. I plugged in my mate Filthy’s optical USB PC mouse and it works superb on this, I nearly walked out of his place with the mouse still attached hehehe.

The whole comfort of having applications that you know everything about, plus being able to plug all the holes in windows, now all go out the window (along with that operating system hehehe), and I think that as much as anything is the challenge that I am looking forward to. PC’s for me are a bore and a chore. After using them for over 20 years in an expert capacity you get to the point where they are no longer a clever tool and become extremely tedious.

What’s creamed my daks me about this machine straight up? The screen… Its huge and it is exceptionally sharp - I’m sorry but unless you are using something like a 21″ SGI monitor on your PC then my screen absolutely and utterly shits all over yours. The other thing is the user friendly apps, like iTunes where you’re libraries are all sorted out by the application itself not the user. A lot of the tedium is taken out of the housekeeping tasks so that you just get to do what you are on the machine to do. The last thing is the speed. This thing flys, and I know in a previous article I haven’t noticed too much of a speed difference between say a 3Ghz P4 and a Dual-2Ghz but this is different. I think it is probably a little unfair as the machine is almost brand new and therefore devoid of garbage, but as far as straight out of the box goes, this thing is ultra fast - I was surprised - and that’s rare.

So what else has been happening? I’ve cracked the no-KFC ton, and I’m looking for a double century (and after that I guess Bradman’s 334 looms) and haven’t had Maccas or Burger King either in probably just as long a time… Take-away pizza and hot fish and chips still get a large workout though so I have to work on removing them from the diet.

I am about halfway through an ADSL application, so I will be a broadbander in the next few days, which will also be a welcome change. I’m looking at it for several reasons. First off, I find it ridiculous to have such a powerful machine and to have to sit and wait for shit to load on the net. Secondly, The deal that the geek put me onto looked too good to resist. 16 gig download a month, for a slight amount more than what I was paying for dialup - Un-fucken-beleiveable. Thirdly, I’m looking at getting back into the xBox scene, and thought what better way to do that than shift to xBox live in anticipation of the release of Halo 2, which is set to be the best multiplayer game ever released, bar none…

I’ve been back on the bass guitar a couple of times, care of the completion of the Time Signature Studios, in which I played a hand at building. I was a bit rusty, but it doesn’t take too long to get a few riffs and licks happening again. I’d love to get a fat Musicman Bass one of these days, but it’s not a high enough priority for me at the moment, given that they cost about as much as a new car. Oh By the way I have some dakcreaming before & after shots of the TSS studio which I will share once I get settled on this machine. Hopefully by next update so stay tuned on that one.

Vilesilencer Version 2.0 the second coming of the site is close to beginning construction. I have an idea for a brand-spanking new banner, and that usually prompts me to overhaul a site. Also in keeping with the new line on technology that I have taken, I want the site to reflect that. Previously I have dabbled with making the site available to as many browsers as possible. Now my thinking has changed. By making this site available to shit browsers like Netscape 4.7 (and just about every early version of IE), I have been one webmaster prolonging the use of those browsers - Time to cut the cord. Either download the latest versions of browsers or live in the past…

I hope fellow webmasters, who I know also contribute to the longevity of those dodgy old browsers, take the same steps to help remove them from the ‘net. I want the site to be super easy to build, maintain and render - so it will be a full CSS site in a very basic format. I still want to be friendly with search engines so I will cater to their whims for a little bit longer…

Until next time peeps. Maintain the rage!