Blrg

I've got a tough few months ahead of myself.
I keep looking at various things and wishing I'd done something similar. I have to concentrate on one thing and stop spreading myself thin... which is really hard, considering I have immense trouble with concentrating on any single thing for long periods of time.
That, and I have to move out. I've located an apartment and have to start packing, assuming nobody else takes it (haven't signed yet: I want to see it before I sign, damnit!). It's a really good spot, too... I may just throw caution to the wind and grab it, since the other apartments I've seen so far were absolute crap (and what we saw of another apartment in the same building was pretty damned nice).
Grr.
On the upside, I've gotten my laptop back and it appears to be working just fine.

Vito Pilieci from The Ottawa Citizen states in a Canada.com article titled "Copyright board OKs levy on iPods, MP3 players":

The Copyright Board of Canada is again backing a tax on Apple Inc.'s iPod and other MP3 music players that could boost the price of the devices by almost 30 per cent.

This is truly unfortunate and ridiculous. It's becoming into some odd fight against the innocent consumer, the computer-illiterate consumer that has no way to do anything about this. Those who're pirating aren't going to care about this (and computer-literate users are going to see this "tax" as an encouragement that says "Oh, don't buy it from the store - buy it from Ebay.ca") since they likely already have portable audio players or they don't have nor want one and only use their computer for music anyway.

Despite all that, it doesn't surprise me in the least: Big Suit types never want to research anything, they just want a quick fix and they want it now. Anything they can do to justify their salaries and make it seem like they're actually doing something productive. The sad part is, it'll injure them in the long run.

And since when are recording devices taxed, anyway? Were tape decks ever taxed this way? Ghetto-blasters? Stereos? And what's next - CD/DVD recorders get taxed since they're "recording mediums"? Copyright is an outdated system for outdated governments (and don't get me started on patents) - I realised the futility of it as a child, and I realised the ridiculousness of it when a teacher at college copyrighted a code skeleton file, and I now realise the obsolescence of it as it lacks any real structure or system.

Continue reading "Conclusionless meandering"

I've been fairly quiet recently, and I'm not sure why; But don't expect me to apologise for it. It's... ridiculous. Nobody's been asking for any updates anyway.

Thanks to the database loss, I'm not entirely sure what I last posted about, though by the looks of what's on a crossposted site, I didn't say much about what was happening anyway. Thus, I'll start with whatever comes to mind, and go from there.

I've gotten a job. I'm waiting for the security check to clear, but there isn't really any reason why that shouldn't go, so I'll be starting on the second of October. Go me?
The job is with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and I'll be doing some database / web development for them for a few months; It's only a contract job, but it's something for now, and the job itself sounds like it's going to be just what I've been looking for -- at least I've got that much positive to say about recent events.

Going down the hill only a tad, it looks like the only effort required to restore the gallery (at this point) is to re-title everything. I've already re-installed G2 and re-added the galleries and pictures. I expect to be done the work on it by the end of this week.

Continue reading "Meh this, meh that, time for an update."

I mean, it took me a while to grasp how to be a good friend...

... I keep thinking how I shouldn't be in a relationship. Each time I try, it's always the same thing.

It doesn't help that I have a piss-poor memory.