Aaron Poeze

My impressions on this post and the one above come across the waves. That being from Australia. In some ways I’ll be more astute as a hands off observer. In other ways I lack inside information and will be off base.

So is this Tea Party Movement a ‘Grassroots’ one?

Does it really matter what you label it as? Grassroots or Astroturf, it exists and takes action, and that’s what really matters. I think given FOXnews and various funding means it is not grassroots in origination and indeed the rapid growth suggests professional coordination. However, it has moved past that into such a large group and is essentially grassroots in it’s current operation. It simply isn’t fully under the control of central directorship. That is backed up by the cohesion and unity issues of the groups.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand the group grew out of anti-government sentiment of which the stimulus package contributes quite a bit. If regular people didn’t resonate with the ideas of the Tea Party Movement it’d just have been yet another protest group of no real importance.

There’s plenty to resonate with too, especially the rather high levels of debt and the failure to slow it down.

So the Tea Party Movement grew into a rather powerful lobby. Some have commented that they are dangerous. Indeed it is, but that is the whole point, so that changes might be initiated. In many ways it represents insurgency in US society and their anger at the way things stand. As such it also represents a degree of instability.

Though the Tea Party is powerful it also has its risks. Some in the Movement consider the Dems and MSM a risk but that’s mostly paranoia based on nominally being opponents;

1) GOP gets too much a hold of the group which will polarise it, kill its broad appeal and its independence. There’s already some element of this and that’s to be expected from the conservative impetus. The Movement doesn’t really acknowledge the huge deficits run up by GOP President George W. Bush, for example. But at this time it’s not enough to weaken the group, the control level would need to be much higher.

2) The group looses cohesion on side issues besides the central small government , anti-tax, debt responsibility issues. It would be very easy to get sidetracked on non core conservative issues outside these. I suspect this will be a running problem for them.

3) The hidden trap. When one joins the idea of protesting the compulsion to externalise blame is extreme which leads to weakened self responsibility and blaming the “government” for things they do not really hold the cards on. Many protests groups end up like this.

4) The group can’t find a way to coordinate their activities to bring about desired results. I guess this is a leadership issue.

The Future

As long as the Democrats remain in power the Tea Party Movement’s conservative ideals will give it strength but it will indeed be a test to see the group survive the return of the GOP to power. Of course there’s always non federal politics to fuel the fire and as long as government is wasteful the Movement could continue to draw strength. Which could be a very long time huh?

I think the Movement will die down in time and may never return to the numbers they originally had protesting but probably hang on for many years. In the immediate future though, they are likely to burn brightly. If the debt issues really do blow up on government expect this movement to go into Supernova.

H/t Bloodspite for the link

H/t Patriot Room for the image

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astroturf, conservatives, grassroots, stimulus, Tea Party, Tea Party Movement

John of Argghhh! has again published a lot of useful information for US veterans.  Check it out if that applies to you

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military, USA, veteran

Google Buzz, like it’s failure before it Orkut (except in selected nations) and Myspace and indeed many other worthwhile social apps, all SUCK.  It has nothing to do with their technical wonders or lack of them.  It has everything to do with the fact that hardly anyone uses them.

Facebook and Twitter are dominant.  I have yet to decide if I like that.

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So I was in JB-HiFi the other day. It is, rather sadly, the last local place one can see a wide selection of PC games. Naturally they sell other junk, their main gig being music. However, I was looking at the Macs and while I know oh so little about the actual use of them, I do appreciate their attractive external look.

Several friends of mine are excited about the iPad and I am curious myself. The iPhone so small and with my bad hearing was never going to be a go for me but the iPad may be. So I found myself looking at the keynote speech on the device and I must warn you. It is horribly long.

Apparently the main speaker Steve Jobs (the CEO/face of Apple) has had a liver transplant. I hope to look so good if I have my parts replaced one day.

No blog post on the iPad is complete without mentioning the iTampon thing. Really shows us how childish we are collectively ’sophisticating’ and poo and pee style jokes. “Teabagging” is another one. Still the name is a marketing gaffe.

But let’s head into the actual device. Once you get past their self congratulations, they launch into the “third category” sandwiched between the small but ultra mobile devices like smartphones and the all growed up Laptops.

This “third category” most people know as netbooks. And right away he says no no this is not a netbook. In a way he’s right. It’s both far better and far worse than a netbook. But it will compete with netbooks, oh yes!

So onto the pros and the Apple team have obviously set certain minimum standards fairly high and stretched to reach them. The question is how much is broken on the way?

The sleek device is 9.7in and only ½ an inch thick. That’s ideal. It’s not as portable as a phone but still very readily moved around. A homewide/homeroam, bigpocket or knapsack device. The display looks “gorgeous” as they say. Crisp, clear, responsive. And it has the multitouch screen as well as the flip to landscape or portrait concept the iPhone uses. So far so good.

One of the most obvious touchy points is the ‘keyboard’. Really part of the screen space. They say it’s nearly as big as a netbook. One wonders what it’s like to type on.

It browses, it does movies and pictures and Google maps and email and ‘apps’ and books oh my! And it sells apps and music and videos and books oh yes! And they claim 10 hours battery life while on and a month while off. You can even run your iPhone apps on it.

And then we start hitting the snags. Far far too much of the speech was taken up by “gorgeous” and “great”, “terrific”, “exciting”, “amazing”, “tremendous” and “thrilled”. It doesn’t take Einstein to see quite quickly that they have more to offer in words than in product.

Apple is obviously a closed source type company and the dependence (can one run other apps etc?) and prominence I see in their selling portals makes this device look like a sales con. How difficult too, to share with friends and family? Will that be stifled?

Then there’s the technical problems. The first of which is no multitasking. So no music while you iWork. No browsing this while flipping to that. It’s a fairly serious weakness which may be solvable later depending on that A4 chip and the software side of things.

It doesn’t have a cam. So no photos, no videos, no Skype etc. Not quite a deal breaker but corner cost cutting taken too far in my opinion.

It doesn’t play any media you throw at it. It has too many quality and format limits which are too strict and worst of all it won’t do Adobe Flash. This is going to degrade it’s value especially in browsing.

And a few minor missing bits

• no USB/Memory card reader etc. Solved with adaptors. Thus too many clunky adapters.
• no GPS. Not exactly demanded but it would be more useful than mobile tower tracking.
• local issues for Aussies and maybe other internationals. Such as no iBooks here and the device’s heat tolerance is crappy.
• questions about using carriers besides AT&T

One more trouble might be that tech-addicts have less need for the device if they already have similar devices such as the iPhone or Kindle. Newer users have to face the learning curve of how to use the touch interface.

Now we come to price. It’s $US499 for the basic 16GB WiFi only version. Up to $US829 for the 64MB WiFi & 3G. I think this is very competitive. In a way this allows a badly delivered iTampon joke about just how messy this is going to get. Very bloody messy. Every corporate in the mobile devices market from Microsoft to Google to HP etc as well as suppliers to them such as ASUS are going to get busy offering this and that. I rather suspect it’s going to be good for consumers of regular netbooks once we find our way through the trash that will invariably be offered.

Overall I think the iPad will do well enough despite the issues but be whinged about fairly heavily. It may also widen Apple’s market.

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Apple, computers, iBooks, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Steve Jobs, technology

We must not forget good people of the nations of Iraq, Afghanistan,Iran and others similar struggling for their freedom so that they can be happy, healthy and wealthy. We must do what we can to help them lift themselves up.

We must not forget that those that choose religion as a conduit for murder, fear and control are not the friends of good people and must be opposed without cease or uncertainty.

We must not forget to protect and nurture our own; ourselves, our family, friends, neighbours, countrymen, and allies. The key to our survival, happiness and strength is our thriving no matter which way the winds blow.

We must not forget the good people, like those in the military forces, who chose difficult paths to safeguard our future, some of whom pay in health, or happiness or even life to bring about this result.

Let us appreciate what we have and yearn to do even better.

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lest we forget, remember

I have finally landed a job. In case you are new I haven’t had a job in years as in around 10 now. Oh granted I care for kids and keep the house up (haha 0 guesses on which is easier) but it’s not the same as being paid you know. My harder job for much of that time was related to self improvement.

I’m thrilled. It’s only 2 days a week but I actually prefer that at this point the shock will be extreme enough as it is and it leaves me time to do other things I like and need to do. I got it via work experience. Which means I worked for 2 weeks free to get experience, show my worth to not only them but myself and to rub off the severe rust that forms from not working so long.

So now I should have a little more money to do things I’ve been unable to do like visit people, go out and get the damn car door handle fixed. Can you imagine it actually fell off today. That violates the physics rules of my patience. Some clothes, maybe a bit of gym even a holiday with the kids. Haven’t done that for some 10 years either. Ahh I suppose the main thing is it’s nice to feel a bit empowered and free to dream.

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SecondLife is one of the most remarkable Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games I’ve ever played. I’ve played quite a few too. In many ways it’s like what the Sims Online should have been only better.

Better because it’s more freedom oriented and not nearly so slow and also better because anyone can contribute to creation in the game world. Therefore it has a plethora of objects, clothes, houses etc and if you’re not happy with it you can make your own.

To some people calling it a game is unwarranted and they take the idea of it being a true second life quite seriously but most people are more casual participants. To those that desire this rebirth into a new digital life there’s an escapism experience that is relatively rich compared to anything I’ve seen before, the closest being Project Entropia. In a sense this is a bit like the Matrix and in many ways even more insane. For the severe escapism naturally attracts people with issues who want to leave them behind to be happy.

There are actually quite a few things to do in SecondLife (SL) and I’ve given a few of them a whirl myself. Anybody who is at least slightly aware of this MMO knows that the optional sexual element is very strong in it. Let’s face it, it’s a risk-free way to explore any fantasy you like, even ones which are simply not physically possible on this planet. But you know once you pass 18 or so sex can’t really fill the whole day any more, can it?

To alarmists it would seem sex is all there is on SecondLife but actually the main activity is social networking. It’s like a 3d Facebook really letting you connect and chat and share with other people online either anonymously or matching the real you.

Another thing many do is shopping. Both sides of the coin. Which means buying the stuff other people make as well as selling the stuff you make and actually creating it and the shops you flog it off in. In case you didn’t know already everything bought in game is done so with ‘Lindens’ which are currency exchange matched with real US dollars. The shopping is truly extensive. In some ways even more than the real deal on Planet Earth. The marketing ideas I’ve seen are really rather advanced.

There’s also exploring which I enjoy thoroughly because I like to see the clever, flashy or beautiful things people can create in such a medium. And I have indeed seen some wonders. Holodecks, theme parks, a model of a computer, hypnotism balls and a remarkable project showing you how a schizophrenic experiences life. These are just a few.

There’s a strong presence of education here and even some real employment. I haven’t delved into that such. So far it seems to me the education aspect is too quiet and they are building it up in the hope of bigger things to come. A kind of online classes experience where you can become educated anytime anywhere.

During my time I’ve also delved into religion which has long been of interest to me. Many are represented. Universal Unitarianism, Paganism, Wicca, Christianity in various forms, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism for example. These are seriously spiritual places where people attend services, pray, preach, meditate and connect to others of their religion, especially where the religion is not locally popular enough for real life interaction. Some of the places of worship are spectacular.

There’s also quite a strong presence of dances and DJs. The dancing is naturally clever animations, no sweat broken but the DJ activity is real, streamed live via the internet.

However for me it’s true like the Sims there’s a point where it gets too shallow and boring and real life beckons. I have no idea where things will go for me in SecondLife but I can say without doubt that it’s been one of my most fascinating experiences.

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games, mmo, MMOG, mmorpg, online gaming, SecondLife, virtual reality

Previously I wrote about the visible and obvious part of imagination, combined with engineering to create the shiny and the new. I also described how it is seen and known to the observant.

Understand that our consciousness is split into roles, where one is an Observer who watches everything with a detachment from emotions like fear and your Observer has no desire to judge your actions.

When you peel and eat a banana it is you who does the pealing as well as eating it. However, it is also you who watches the peeling and eating of the banana. We can understand the Observer is always watching what we do, including our imagination. However, this watchfulness sees only the fully formed or near fully formed. Our Observing self is blinded to that which is below completion, below the consciousness.

For now I will walk the path which is far less well known, with the possibility of disagreement. These disagreements lead to conflict, cruelty and suffering. I may fear your reaction but I will tread on.

Underlying our Observer or full consciousness, we have the sub-conscious and unconscious. So too underneath the imagination we visualise using the Observer part of our selves is the sub-imagination. Yet deeper within is the under-imagination.

Humans would like to believe we are orderly, but we utilise chaos quite extensively. When we are on the verge of sleep and the dreaming process begins, many of us experience fragments of information. Most seem to make no sense. Yet these fragments are a rare insight we have into working below consciousness. These are fragments of images, sounds, thoughts, emotions and ideas, incomplete and without context.

I put it out there to you, that the sub-imagination (another core part of the creative process and one of which we may or may not be clearly aware of), is absorbing and sorting fragments of information for relevancy within our daily reality. It is looking for context. Our imaginations are constructed from these building blocks, like Lego bricks, and are sourced from a chaotic stream. So we combine these image, sound, thought, emotion and idea fragments together with our context to create something.

This chaotic stream is where things begin to get interesting, for example: where does it come from? An even more important question to think about is: what is driving the stream need? We know this last part as desire. Desire to create.. something. Why? And this question will become more important later.

Deep down inside lies the under-imagination. The wellspring of our creative steam. Our source of life and wealth, like imagination. From here you get your stream to fulfil desires which lacks the order, because it is freely given in love. Free of context which you may apply, sort and create with. Here lies the heart of creation which is the Creator.

The stream comes to you in freedom and love but you are the processor you decide what to accept and reject. To create more completely you could open your mind to accept outside your comfort zone. For example, if you must be different then experience sameness. If you must protest then submit. If you must submit then protest. If you must be real then abstract. Break the bonds and be free.

So we co-create with the Creator who is all that will be as long as you desire it. So then one could say there is no freewill for we are will-bound upon by the Creator. But so too is the Creator a part of us as we are of the Creator. In this way we are the Creator’s will. As free as we have always feared we are not. Remember the key is Love.

Anything can be created, with others who are open, then amazing things can bloom that are beyond ourselves.

If art is your desire then whyfor do you wait for a fleeting moment, when all moments are momentary? Do you fear your art is not resonant enough, not glamorous, too mundane? Art is the creative process, not the object. It is dead once created, move therefore to the next art and many will know the beauty of creation in action.

And so here I complete one half of what I want to say, for there is the Mirror. The other half which instead of being an internal mechanism, is all about being external.

Introspection is my strength from youth but extrospection was my education. For the question asked is why do we want to create? The answer is often very simple. It may be to make a better living, to feed the family, to entertain, or to share. It may be for nothing more than a few dollars in the pocket. Yet creation doesn’t stop there. Once something is made and observed by others it is like a virus. It spreads. Like the ideas of a stirrup, bronze and iron spread right across the world. Like the spread of religions and art, like the internet has spread. Central authorities be damned, it will seep even into the dark corners of China.

Your creation becomes a creation shared by the world. Copyright be damned. Copyright may slow the process, but the ideas will spread, legally, illegally and most often sub-legally. Microsoft coping the Xerox copying. Doom clones anyone? Who copies who? They all do, and if they didn’t, many products we use today would be dreadful because the majority of features on them were created by someone else. Without the spread all these features would be absent.

How many things do we use which are not comprised of many other creations? Even back to such basic things as bronze? Engineering study lets one see this as a tiny glimpse into the splendour and power of millions of ideas, that all come to work in harmony. They make one item into another all driven by people with the same basic reasons you made your creation for. To feed the family and make a living etc. To make a single computer requires so many steps and complex associations starting with raw materials like oil, ore, sand, trees, seawater, freshwater and plants and animals of various types.

Who can follow it all? I cannot follow even a single computer. It would take me years to try to, and by then it would have changed, improved, become obsolete. In the end I am only looking at selective parts of the process. I might look at how the silicon is processed and purified to make a CPU, only to neglect the purifier and all the steps it took to create that. Who can follow it all? The Observer. The other one. The “Big Guy in the Sky”.

Each of us have our petty needs and desires prompting us to complete our small step in the creative process. Summed up across the world, we have the ultimate result of many needs and desires cared for, with the bonus of amazing creations, like the computer which serve us in many capacities. One of those capacities is to create yet further wonderful things.

And so we come to the end of creation’s cycle which is the same as the beginning.

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imagination, imagineering, the Observer

2009 is ending and so I’m reflecting on the year as well as thinking about the year ahead.

2009 has been a quick year. Aren’t they all? Not too long ago I was standing there celebrating the beginning of this year. My New Year’s resolution was to “take a chance”. “Take a chance” was just my way of defeating fears that hold me back. It’s been fairly useful over the year and I will continue to use that. This year I want something new though.

What to do? The last year was about gains of the internal kind but I think this year will be more external. Externally it’s damn hot actually. 42°C today. But I mean activities related to money, friends, family, possibly business, whatever is outside of me actually.

[intermission]So I went to get out the mail and a huntsman spider comes in with it. That was a delightful surprise when it crawled out between the bills to go up my arm. Almost as nice as bills themselves. The good news is the temperature has dropped like a stone to just 25°C.[/intermission]

So where was I? A resolution for the New Year. I think I shall go with something simple. “Don’t just think, act.”

BTW Happy New Year to you all. But don’t read this, go out and have some fun.

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2009, 2010, new year, resolution

Let us step back and learn to appreciate Imagination and it’s central role in Creation. Look around at how many objects we are using, including this computer which was created using the imagination of others in the past. Think about life without it. That’s life without imagination.

However it took more than imagination to create these things. For in imagination any form can exist and have meaning. Because these thoughts had to be worked into the far less flexible reality, which you and I live in. This was done with the tools and abilities we have, utilising our knowledge of reality to ‘create’ a physical representation of that imaginative thought. I loosely call this engineering.

In 1952, Walt Disney founded WED enterprises to create the Disneyland theme park. Drawing from his recent experience overseas, he wanted something grander and family friendly rather then the sorry excuses he had found in the US.

To make his concepts (his imagination) come to life he gathered some of the best and most diverse people from Disney Studios who were dubbed ‘imagineers’. These imagineers were to be the glue between Disney’s desires and the Disneyland theme park. ‘Imagineers’ who do ‘imagineering’ is of course a melding of the words ‘imagination’ and ‘engineer’. These imagineers were to use both their imagination and also engineering abilities to bring Disneyland to life.

It’s interesting to note that imagineering embodies the creation process of knowing what to create combined with bringing that creation into physical reality. Yes imagineers must find a way to bring their wondrous creations of the mind into a creation of reality. Reality has hard rules that the mind does not have to follow. Reality is the ultimate testing ground, as engineers know only too well.

The kind of people employed were incredibly diverse. Many skills and job kinds were needed including those that were not so formally recognised. So there were artists of various kinds, engineers of many flavours, those with experience in media and stage and so on, all adding their unique abilities into the greater project.

So Imagination is the starting process, followed by bringing that image into reality with our best available moulding skills. This sums up the awareness side of the creative process.

There’s an common perception that we have ‘Imagination on tap’. This is true in one sense but totally false in another.

Once upon a time a storyteller told his imaginative stories around the campfire and whose skill could elicit hope, wonder and even terror from listeners young and old.

Soon technology made the stories even better for the alphabet and printing presses soon spread the stories far and wide as books.

It wasn’t too long before the radio joined in so ‘one’ could again hear the story being told, wider than the local campfire! Television soon added images to the mix and truly made a story immersive. DVDs came then the internet which allows one to play the character in such stories and influence the outcomes. So now the stories are interactive deepening the immersion level, and therefore our attachment to them.

Truly we have been awash in imagination. All those books, TV shows, Movies, Music, Broadcasts, Podcasts and MMORPGs! But these are not of our own personal imagination. These are merely tools to convey another person’s imagination. An illusion that many have fallen for.

And it’s getting stale. Each new release is mostly a rehash of previously told stories. The Ménage à Trois, the Romeo and Juliet, these kinds of stories have been told so often their fresh brilliance has eroded to the nature of chewed cud. It’s parasitic solely feeding off another’s imagination and is it doing us much good?

What we need, is to use our own imaginations too.

But how do we do that? Well this is the sense where we do have imagination on tap. All of us have it we merely need to get in touch with it. Let’s face it, most of us are not accustomed to using it. We might ‘day dream’ but just plod along life without ever using the imagination we have. We’re too busy, too tired, too poor, too old, too inexperienced to do anything like that. Or are we?

Our children need to learn about the rules which govern reality, but also to explore and risk expressing their imagination (or ideas) is OK. It isn’t just children, we all need to wake up from other people’s dreams and nightmares to follow our own paths.

Artists (including those who create the many books, TV shows etc) may be able to help. Artists of all kinds still use their own imagination and do at least partially bring it into reality through whatever media they favour. They may promote the idea that their art is so much better but many of them probably know better. Artists must have something to offer.

Companies are afraid of imagination, because of the expensive iterative steps of bringing the imagination into reality, and the risk of it being rejected. Most faced with a choice of uncertainly high profit or more certainly low profit will nearly always choose the safest road. Those that embrace imagination go a lot further. It’s hard to come up with an example besides Disney’s, however there would be many small medium enterprises (SME) which do just that. Even larger companies do it to a small degree. Microsoft imports it by corporate takeovers and deals with smaller more dynamic businesses and individuals. Google in-houses quite a lot of it on the cheap, from it’s customers and developing nations. The tiniest drop can go a long way. Look at Youtube.

These days some of the most necessarily creative, innovative and ultimately imaginative business’ are found in the entrepreneurial startups and venture projects. Many of whom resort to breaking all sorts of business norms, such as bootstrapping. These business people are trying their hardest to bring something imaginative into commercially viable reality, and thus also becoming imagineers in action. We could learn something from there as well.

I feel imagination and it’s role in creation is too centrally important for us to continue to neglect. We need to revitalise interest in it and that will help us all be imagineers.

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art, creativity, Disney, Disneyland, entertainment, imagination, imagineering, media

Obama finally spake to the snoozy masses.

It is all sadly predictable. 30,000 US troops will be sent but the military will withdraw in 18 months in July 2011. Yes, before the next election.

So the combined forces, including Australia’s, have just 18 months to turn it around and settle the country into complete stability before heading off. I do not have faith it will be done. Not just because of the huge effort required, but also because now the terrorists know they only have to wait it out 18 months.

Obama disappoints me. He sent all those troops there as General McChrystal requested and for what kind of song and dance? How many of those good men and women will die with no purpose?

George Bush the younger went on and on about US resolve and how they’ll stick it through to the bitter end. Bush was wrong. Bush himself had resolve he stuck it through for what 7 years until he was replaced. And that’s the key. The US, like any democracy, is mutable and what one leader believes is not what another may believe. The US itself does not have resolve. It cannot be relied upon past the next election.

Australia has to re-examine our relationship with the US. Perhaps people who know better than I do will be convinced it can all be done in 18 months. Perhaps the real mission is to provide allied support in the case we’ll need it one day. But does the US have the resolve to help us?

For myself, I don’t see why our serving men and women are there. I see nothing but disgrace in sending the military off to fight hard spending our wealth and getting injured and dying, then to be sent home in 18 months in enforced failure. It would tear my heart if it were me, or my son or daughter. I think the whole lot of our people should come home today.

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Afghanistan, July 2011, military, obama, surge, terrorism, war, withdrawal

When one uses Google Wave, like any communication form, there’s the competing elements of signal and noise.

Already the signal is quite strong.  Most technophiles already have access but we’re all trying to find out how best to use this medium.  It’s obviously strong in collaboration and seems to be a great balance of email and instant messaging at the social or community level.  It’s good for working up collaborative documents too for business and other development.

Public waves are out there, many of which are quite informative, from camping groups, the things to do in my local city and even how to use Google wave itself.  One public wave is even committed to a manhunt of the killer of the four police in Seattle.

But there is also noise.  Many gawking tourist-type comments, hihi-type comments, empty replies and so forth.  As Google Wave accepts more people into the fold we’ll have a more mainstream mix and with it will come the spam.  Already I’ve seen a few primitive spam efforts.  If Google doesn’t improve its strategy public waves will be inundated with spam chocking out their usefulness.

What do you use Google Wave for?

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communication, google, Google Wave, manhunt, spam

There is a windows nuisance which seems to be getting nearer crisis point.

These are overheads, or if you like computer maintenance, which comprises of several wasteful mechanisms which sap you computer productivity, speed, responsiveness and your personal time.

What I’m talking about is everything on your system that isn’t core to your service. There’s always been this in effect in various ways. For example, boot up, shutdown, time to launch an application etc.

But now we have a whole new layer. It all started with antivirus updates and Windows update which were at least loosely useful. They became automated, mostly because the majority of computer users would never update unless it was automated.

But then everything else jumped on the bandwagon. MS Office updates. Silverlight! I didn’t even install Silverlight yet there it is pooped on my Windows system. Windows media updates, what a joke! Windows media has stunk for perhaps a decade now. And windows updates is excruciatingly slow.

And it isn’t just Microsoft, no. Quicken and Google and Abode and you name it have updates galore too. Even games do it. It’s not just updates, it’s the advertising, the known and unknown info passed back via the net, the forms and permissions and terms of agreement and read the privacy document first. How about discovering the hard way the program only runs in admin mode. ‘Error 412, Would you like Microsoft to try and find a solution to the problem?’ We all know how hard they try. It is indeed very trying. How about the User Account Control (UAC)? It ensures installing something takes much longer and locks up your system more than the installation process itself. And that’s not even including the never ending permission prompts.

Then there’s the need for antivirus, anti rootkit, anti trojan, link blockers and spam canners. Defragmentation which takes hours, cleanups for files and sloppy registry entries.

All in all there so much superfluous rubbish in Windows it’s no wonder Linux is so much faster. It’s not just the software it’s the focus on getting things done rather than making money from the masses.

Linux does have some of these issues too but on the whole it’s not near crisis and each problem is better managed. So what I want done gets done. On Windows the capacity to do what I want is hampered by amazing levels of inefficiency.

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efficiency, linux, maintenance, Microsoft, overhead, UAC, update, windows

A lot of time has passed since 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan. 8 years it is now. For far too long Iraq got the lion’s share of effort and attention. Perhaps that was necessary but it meant Afghanistan was neglected. When push comes to shove it was less important and also much harder.

One of the problems in Afghanistan seems to be supply. Modern armies consume vast amounts of resources and those have to be delivered. In a land with few good access points contractors will resort to bribery to get the goods through. The problem with this is some of that money ends up in enemy hands where each dollar has far more value and impact in the war. In some parts delivery is only feasible by air. So in some ways the military forces are feeding their own resistance.

Another problem is the political system. Kurzai is corrupt and the election is an embarrassment to everyone but he is just a symptom of the wider and deeper corruption in a place where this is the way things are expected to be done.

While we’re on the theme of the ways things are done, I am also less convinced about the idea of not disturbing the opium farming which is a major part of the economy there, for fear of getting farmers to support the terrorists. It may have been better to pay hard cash to farmers to grow the next best crop. The opium trade provides far too much money to the terrorists and probably also provides them with far too many contacts.

It may have also been a good idea to push for changes in the socio-religious system. To put it bluntly to favour moderate forms of Islam to the extreme. Which means pushing for all the changes moderate Islam embraces such as better female access to education and employment and an emphasis on the Islamic discouragement of extreme behaviour. Easier said than done, especially in the rural areas, but it would put enormous pressure on the terrorists who would at last be out of phase with the way things are done in Afghanistan. A good moderate Islam ally which can at least nominally get involved in Afghanistan would possibly be a huge help here.

Another problem is the international coherency and dedication. The NATO entity is not a united one and is pushed and pulled by the various involved powers into poor functionality. Not one nation involved in Afghanistan looks 100% politically dedicated. Not my own. Not even the US. We also need wider regional involvement.

The board game Chess has the situation of win or lose but it also has a draw where neither party wins or loses. I can tell you, without fail, if you play to draw you will lose. I think too many nations are doing that in Afghanistan. The effort of the militaries present is strong but the backup politically is limp.

So I come rather reluctantly to a nasty conclusion. Afghanistan stands on a knife edge and is more likely to fail than succeed if the status quo is maintained. I think very soon it will be clear which way the cards will fall and if it’s ugly we’ll see the bulk of military forces leave. Which is precisely what the enemy is hoping for. Afghanistan needs more than it gets. Does anyone with sufficient power have what it takes? So far the EU, NATO, UN, Obama, China and Kurzai aren’t sources of much hope.

General Stanley McChrystal who runs the US efforts in Afghanistan requested 30 -40K troops and made a case for needing them to win. He made it clear it was lost without them. He might not be getting them. President Obama has procrastinated any real decision on the matter of those troops although it appears he’s about to make that decision.

I hope President Obama, you make a good decision and follow it up with sufficient effort and skill, especially in the diplomatic arena where you have some goodwill.

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Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, obama, terrorism, war