A New Haven for Journalists

I'd always imagined that change in human society is conservative by default. That radical change can only happen under radical circumstances. Unfortunately, I've also seen that one should never underestimate human idiocy (see republican senators in the US).

In the middle of enormously counter-productive responses to the Financial Crisis that overwhelmed economies all over the world, we have Iceland. Iceland was probably the worst-hit in the chaos. Bankruptcy for the citizens, rioting in the streets; a little better than the worst that can happen.

These extreme circumstances, along with the role WikiLeaks played in uncovering the reasons for the hard fall the Iceland economy took have now led to the government proposing legislation which will make it a safe haven for free speech and journalism. Go ahead and read the articles linked in this blog post.

I'm no journalist, but I know the importance of keeping whistle-blowers safe.

EDIT: Pointed out by sid0; FAQ about the legislation. A must-read.

"Free Speech"

No, it does not mean you can say whatever you want, whenever you want, to whoever you want. Nor does it mean that everyone has to allow you to do any of that.

Free speech means that your (democratic, republic, or whatever) government should not restrict your right to criticize them, organisations, people, practices, or society in general.

Things not covered in Free Speech (open for debate):

• Slander
• What rules you impose in your house
• What companies impose on employees
• What comments you allow on your blog
• etc.

So, the next time someone posts something about Free Speech on their blog, but has moderation and/or deletes posts; think twice before calling them a hypocrite.

No, I'm not going to link to the place where I saw this happen; I don't have an axe to grind.

EDIT: I just noticed I had comments which I hadn't moderated yet (moderation for posts older than X days); sorry about that folks. I seem to not get mail for that thing. Relevant Lesson: Don't attribute to malice which can be attributed to stupidity.

Breaking the monotony

Oh, HAI

I has other interests too !!!



And now, for the complimentary my life is as screwed up (if not more) than yours link!



This post brought to you by the people complaining of extreme geekiness in this blog
Yes, I know I cheated, but I'm in a hurry here :p

A Few of Today's Webcomics...

...made me laugh unusually hard =)


UserFriendly


xkcd: Convincing Pickup Line


Wondermark




PS:

if (understood ${UserFriendly_joke} || understood ${xkcd_tooltip}) \
&& is_girl; then
    sendmail ${blog_author}
fi


rohitj and #fosskriti

So it all started sometime ago when rohitj said that someone should kick him from #fosskriti because the channel was distracting him too much

<rohitj> kick me from this channel. else I am seeing it again and again
<hippieindamakin8> :)))
* ChanServ gives channel operator status to devilsadvocate
* devilsadvocate has kicked rohitj from #fosskriti (User terminated!)
* devilsadvocate removes channel operator status from devilsadvocate
* devilsadvocate grins

So, it was all started by devilsadvocate, and now rohitj can't spend too long on the channel without getting repeatedly kicked :D

* rohitj (n=rohitj@203.200.95.130) has joined #fosskriti
<hippieindamakin8> hey rohitj welcome back
<rohitj> thank you thank you
>ChanServ< op #fosskriti
* ChanServ gives channel operator status to bheekling
* bheekling has kicked rohitj from #fosskriti (bye bye! :P)
* bheekling removes channel operator status from bheekling
<bheekling> This is fun :>
* rohitj (n=rohitj@203.200.95.130) has joined #fosskriti
<rohitj> thank you bheekling
<rohitj> now stop it
>ChanServ< op #fosskriti
<rohitj> :P
* ChanServ gives channel operator status to bheekling
* bheekling has kicked rohitj from #fosskriti (again! wheee)
* bheekling removes channel operator status from bheekling

This is phun >:->

Exams and a Questionnaire

Right. So the exams are over, and now I'm too tired to even move. So I'm just sitting here listening to Schubert (I love my speakers, and I love Nodame Cantabile), waiting for tomorrow so I can go home for a week of vacations.


About the questionnaire, I originally found it on Naresh's blog, and thought I'd give it a spin. Here are the results:


Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 38%
Visual : 61%
Left : 52%
Right : 47%

Nirbheek, you exhibit an even balance between left- and right- hemisphere dominance and a slight preference for visual over auditory processing. With a score this balanced, it is likely that you would have slightly different results each time you complete this self-assessment quiz.

You are a well-rounded person, distinctly individualistic and artistic, an active and multidimensional learner. At the same time, you are logical and disciplined, can operate well within an organization, and are sensitive towards others without losing objectivity. You are organized and goal-directed. Although a "thinking" individual, you "take in" entire situations readily and can act on intuition.

You sometimes tend to vacillate in your learning styles. Learning might take you longer than someone of equal intellect, but you will tend to be more thorough and retain the material longer than those other individuals. You will alternate between logic and impulse. This vacillation will not normally be intentional or deliberate, so you may experience anxiety in situations where you are not certain which aspect of yourself will be called on.

With a slight preference for visual processing, you tend to be encompassing in your perceptions, process along multidimensional paths and be active in your attacking of situations or learning.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself -- and of others -- while maintaining an "openness" which tempers that tendency. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity may not be in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, obvious and the more functional

So, they claim to have deduced the above  4 5 paragraphs from 20 questions. Though they sound very 'true-ish', I generally take these kind of things with a fistful of salt.

Hence, IMHO, an utter load of crap.

Webbeagle, TheOneBackend, PackageKit, and God

1. Read about Webbeagle.


2. Read about TheOneBackend


3. Read about PackageKit


4. Read about God.

1. => dBera's illegitimate child, and something I have been hacking on for the past 2 weeks.


2. => Necoro's illegitimate child, and something that will be hacked on in the future


3. => Hughsie's illegitimate child, and something I will be writing a portage backend for.


4. => A very interesting way of looking at everything.

The river Arun

Arun is a river in Nepal.

And thats all I know about it. And apparently so does wikipedia. Now, since I know as much as wikipedia on this topic, I will surely get at least a B in tomorrow's CE242 (Geosciences) exam.
I mean, if wikipedia can't get a B, I don't know who can. The wisdom of the crowds has to count for something... Right? Right?

<bonecrunchingdryness>Yeah, right.</bonecrunchingdryness>

xkcd junkie reporting live...

THE ALGORITHM CONSTANTLY FINDS JESUS
THE ALGORITHM KILLED JEEVES
THE ALGORITHM IS BANNED IN CHINA
THE ALGORITHM IS FROM JERSEY

Intrigued?

:)