A Slice of Life http://www.liamalexander.com/blog commentary on issues in politics, culture, environment and technology Tue, 17 Apr 2012 05:59:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 A Slice of Lifehttp://www.liamalexander.com/images/lime_logo.pnghttp://www.liamalexander.com/blog5050A Slice of Life - http://www.liamalexander.com/blog Dawkins vs Pell on #QandA: Dopey Questions from a Dopey Audience http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/dawkins-vs-pell-on-qanda-dopey-questions-from-a-dopey-audience/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/dawkins-vs-pell-on-qanda-dopey-questions-from-a-dopey-audience/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:39:20 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2172

Richard Dawkins has commented since this debate that he was disappointed in his performance, blaming partly his jet lag, but also “… the astonishing bias of the audience and, second, the interfering chairman.”

During the debate, Dawkins repeatedly asked some members of the audience with credulity: why is that funny?  He really ought to have been able to answer his own question without thinking about it too much.

Right from the start when we were introduced, it was clear that the studio audience was dominated by a Catholic cheer squad. They cheered whenever the Cardinal said anything, however stupid and ignorant.

 

Richard Dawkins giving a lecture based on his ...

Richard Dawkins giving a lecture based on his book, The God Delusion, in Reykjavik (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source: Why Evolution is True

Read the full transcript here

It is true that Tony Jones repeatedly ‘interferred’ in the debate.

Such an extreme audience bias was a little off-putting, but it wouldn’t have mattered so much if the chairman had allowed us to have a proper debate instead of continually racing ahead to get in another dopey question.

Perhaps Dawkins didn’t really understand the nature of the Q and A program when he accepted the invitation to participate.  Q and A is primarily about questions and answers and audience participation, however dopey.  In limiting the debate and focussing on audience questions, Tony Jones was really only doing his job.  This did however, prevent any serious debate getting underway.

This was frustrating as Cardinal Pell made a number of astounding assertions, such as stating that atheists can gain admittance to heaven, evolution is ‘probably’ true, that modern humans are descended from Neanderthals, and that gay people have an inherent flaws, like those intentionally included in an oriental carpet.  It was odd that Pell, the foremost Catholic churchman in Australia, was unable to adequately explain transubstantiation of the host and resurrection of the body.  Had Dawkins been able to take Pell to task on these points, it could have been a very interesting debate, but then Q and A is not intended to be a debate.  If that is the case, it is hard to understand why the ABC included only two panelists.  Why not include some panelists with some different perspectives? Some religious or atheist female or gay panelists could have made the exchanges more balanced and stimulating.

But back to the dopey audience.  What the ‘dopey’ audience in this Q and A highlight is the ultimate futility of Dawkins’ cause.  It was distinctly noticeable that all the ‘dopey’ comments and questions came from religious members of the audience, or from Cardinal Pell himself.  What Richard Dawkins doesn’t seem to realise despite all his erudition is that religious people don’t really want anything to do with the truth.

You can present the religious with all manner of well reasoned, persuasive and intelligent arguments and they will hold up a hand and stop listening.  Religion gives stupid people a blueprint for living and comfortable answers to all the difficult questions.  The last thing they want to do is think about such things.

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/dawkins-vs-pell-on-qanda-dopey-questions-from-a-dopey-audience/feed/ 3 Time to rethink the Steve Jobs iShrines? http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/time-to-rethink-the-steve-jobs-ishrines/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/time-to-rethink-the-steve-jobs-ishrines/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:42:21 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2162 steve jobs ishrineIsn’t the recent outpouring of emotion over the passing of Steve Jobs taking things just a little too far?  Midnight vigils at Apple stores?  Shrines? Millions of tweets, blogs, articles conferring almost saint like status on the ex Apple CEO?  Steve jobs certainly was a visionary.  Yes, he had some wonderful ideas but contrary to popular belief products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, while they may have transformed the consumer electronics market are not likely to solve world hunger, the energy crisis, the GFC, climate change or terrorism and wars.

Steve Jobs the man was apparently arrogant, selfish and inconsiderate.   While these attributes may well have helped him to find his path to success they would have been hardly likely to be endearing  to those that knew Jobs personally.  Apparently Jobs approached working relationships with a similar attitude, setting very high standards and regularly reducing to tears those who fell short of his vision.

Steve Jobs is commonly lauded as a visionary and innovator, but he is famously known for bragging about stealing others’ ideas. Possibly the most famous would be his visit to Xerox PARC in 1979. There he got his first glimpse of the mouse-driven GUI interface of the Xerox Alto, which was eventually to be implemented in the Apple Lisa and the Apple Mac.  Jobs has said that being forced out of Apple in 1985 was the best thing that ever happened to him, but it was as much his abrasive nature and his erratic and temperamental relationship with his team rather than his visionary nature that caused his downfall.  Source: Zednet

Considering this, it is rather strange that Steve Jobs will be remembered as a great visionary and innovator while Bill gates will almost certainly be remembered as the great borrower of ideas.  Steve Jobs did not write software or design chips and hardware; he employed others to do it for him.  The  highly restrictive model Jobs insisted on almost caused Apple to fade into irrelevance in the late 90s.  Apple computers are still expensive and very restricted in available software.  The limited nature of the new devices which have saved Apple from obscurity are in a way the key to their success.  An iPad is much more restricted in terms of software and user options than a windows PC but also less likely to crash.  Much less like a computer and much more like other consumer electronics.  iPhones and iPads may boast snazzy functions and elegant designs features but the restrictions mean they have been essentially dumbed down, making them more appealing to a mass market.  Your iPhone/iPad/iPod may be beautiful but it is essentially an intelligent fashion accessory.  Perhaps this is Steve Jobs’ true legacy.

So when you are holding your midnight vigil outside the Apple store or lighting candles in front of your iPhone shrine, just remember it is really your iPhone/iPad/iPod that you really love.  Had you known Steve Jobs personally  it’s unlikely you would have liked him very much at all.

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/time-to-rethink-the-steve-jobs-ishrines/feed/ 2 Andrew Bolt: more offensive than sex with a horse? http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/andrew-bolt-more-offensive-than-sex-with-a-horse/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/andrew-bolt-more-offensive-than-sex-with-a-horse/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:53:57 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2137 andrew boltRecently, the well known columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt was found to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act.  Justice Mordy Bromberg found Bolt and the Herald and Weekly Times contravened the Racial Discrimination Act by publishing two articles on racial identity which contained “errors in fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language”, reported the Herald Sun.

Ron Merkel, QC, for the complainants, said there was no attempt by  members of the group to shut down freedom of speech or debate about racial identity issues.  Mr Merkel said Bolt was free to express his views on the subject but should not have chosen to attack the nine individuals he named in his columns and blog.

Many of us, including myself, may not agree with Andrew Bolt’s views on this issue and many others.  Whatever happened to the famous saying, sometimes incorrectly attributed to Voltaire which many in the legal profession are fond of quoting: ” I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ”

Yes, there are a number of errors in Bolt’ articles on this topic.  Is Bolt being prosecuted for publishing errors?  It is true that had the facts been presented accurately Bolt’s arguments would not hold much water.  For example, he questioned indigenous lawyer Larissa Behrendt‘s Aboriginality, incorrectly stating that her father was German and that she is somehow claiming benefits that should be the right of indigenous people of ‘purer blood’. In the sometimes heated court exchanges, Bolt took exception to the prosecution’s comparison of the debate and Bolt’s views to Nazi race laws, the Holocaust and eugenics.  Bolt argued those who chose to identify with only one part of their background over another were contributing to racism and came at the cost of less focus on the important issues of education, housing, health and poverty.

It is interesting to note that earlier in the year, Larissa Berendt attracted criticism after using her Twitter account to describe watching bestiality on television as “less offensive than Bess Price“, an Aboriginal woman in favour of the radical Northern Territory intervention. “I watched a show where a guy had sex with a horse and I’m sure it was less offensive than Bess Price.”

Ms Price told The Australian she was appalled by the comment. She accused Professor Behrendt, an Australian of the Year finalist, of trying to silence her because of her different views.  “I’m going to seek legal advice,” she  said. “This is worse than what she is accusing Andrew Bolt of.” source: The Australian

Ms Berendt replied: “The tweet has been taken out of context. I did not mean any offence to Bess Price personally and I am on the record with views contrary to hers on the intervention and she knows that.”

Andrew Bolt may well have made factual errors.  He may also be motivated by less than noble motives but that alone does not disqualify him from putting his views forward.  We often take it for granted that we live in an enlightened society where rights like freedom of speech are taken for granted, yet how many people have lost their jobs because they chose to air views critical of their employers on social media sites?

We may not yet fear the midnight knock from the KGB and banishment to the gulags but these are only the means of repression.  Is our society so different from totalitarian regimes in purpose?  That said, Andrew Bolt seems to have scored himself his own TV show in the aftermath of his court case ‘The Bolt Report‘.  Perhaps any publicity is good publicity.

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/andrew-bolt-more-offensive-than-sex-with-a-horse/feed/ 1 Mac vs PC: are you as free-thinking as you think? http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/mac_vs_pc_are-you-as-free-thinking-as-you-think/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/mac_vs_pc_are-you-as-free-thinking-as-you-think/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:48:36 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2123
The two characters from the ads who personify ...

Image via Wikipedia

The image of ‘Mac’ and ‘PC’ have become one of the most recognisable dichotomies imaginable; PC is unfashionable, old fashioned, straight-laced etc. while Mac is of course creative , cool and free-thinking.  This advertising campaign has been so successful that many involved in creative fields think it impossible to edit images or audio on a PC.  This is of course garbage and has been debated ad nauseam for longer than most of us care to remember.  An operating system is an operating system and most software will work on most systems, regardless of the platform.  If you want to pay twice the price for your system, go for a Mac; it may actually be marginally more reliable and you will of course have the added bonus of thinking how creative , cool and free-thinking you are.  It is of course possible that you are a good less free-thinking than you imagine.

Long before the advent of the iconic Mac vs PC ads, over 90% of the world’s population took to wearing a uniform very similar to the guy on the right.  Running shoes, jeans and T-shirts have become  obligatory for almost everyone.  This kind of outfit makes an undeniably bold fashion statement; I’m not trying too hard, I’m relaxed, I’m being myself, I’m not conforming to outmoded fashion trends.

The problem is of course that most of us are conforming very closely to a fashion trend which may not be outmoded but is undeniably highly unimaginative, non creative and really very boring.

This in itself may not appear to be a problem, but it is evident that this kind of approach to style also tends to affect our thinking in general.  We are all too ready to go with the flow and follow the latest fad, consume the latest viral trend and formulate our opinions based on what the most influential shock jock advocates.  Hey, they’re on TV/radio and everyone else likes them, so they must be right, right?  Based on this way of thinking many can be influenced into politics which directly contravene their own best interests.

It is the guy on the left (PC) who is actually the non conformist.  It takes courage to make a fashion statement that says: I do care how I look, I refuse to wear what almost everyone else is wearing, I think daggy T-shirts and running shoes look incredibly boring and ugly.  He may also have retained the ability to formulate his own opinions and maintain the strength of his convictions.  He may not own the latest smart phone or tablet accessory but is much more likely to actually be able to effectively use whatever technology he does choose, even if this is something as uncool as an old fashioned personal computer.

 

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/mac_vs_pc_are-you-as-free-thinking-as-you-think/feed/ 0 OMG I’m a GPS: 6 degrees of separation http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/omg-im-a-gps-6-degrees-of-separation/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/omg-im-a-gps-6-degrees-of-separation/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:41:02 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2095 Gillard's stepdaughter poses for 'Zoo Weekly'Some time ago (26th December 2008 to be precise) I published an article entitled “OMG I’m a gay porn star” The article was about the unforeseen consequences of Googling oneself. My search discovered that I share my name with another ‘Liam Alexander’ who is a model on a site called ‘originaleuroboys’; a gay porn service. In the article I wondered if “this Liam is a real person…; quite likely he was dreamed up by two guys fantasizing on the phone”. However, I learned that this Liam is a real person after receiving this comment:

“Liam Alexander the porn star is for real. I was the photographer that did the originaleuroboys.com photoshoot with Liam that is now on originaleuroboys.com. To add the the interest in Liam take a look at our studio website http://www.7bluestudio.com because Liam features on the homepage larger than ever! Ben Willis, Director”

Another unforseen consequence of this post was the large amount of website traffic it generated. Here are some of the search key phrases that hit my site:

norwegian gay porn
gay služby
gay porn stars
life of a porn star
danish gay porn
finnish gay porn

I suppose I should have known that the title of this post was going to attract people searching for gay pornography but was unprepared for the volume.

Further more…

I have been aware for some time that there is yet another Liam Alexander; a professional photographer based in New York. I sometimes get emails obviously intended for him with messages like “great photo shoot on the weekend Liam, hope to catch up soon”. Of course I always dutifully forward the emails to Liam the photographer. His web address http://www.liamalexanderphoto.com/ and mine are similar and people understandably sometimes land on my contact forms rather than his.

Liam the photographer left these comments on the same post:

“ummm… yeah… i’ve noticed this as well… Hahahahahahahahahahah. kudos Liam… you almost out google me when you google me. but not for long… i will soon have the ENTIRE 1st page of GOOOGLE!!”
“PS if your getting any mail for me bro, please fwd it along! cheers! also i am married to your prime ministers “wildchild” daughter in law. Haha”

I Googled this and found that Liam the photographer is in fact married to Staci Child, the heavily tattooed daughter of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard‘s partner Tim Mathieson. Staci Child posed in a series of provocative shots for Zoo Weekly in September 2010.
I think that Liam the photographer’s work has a great deal of artistic merit. His work is innovative and interesting and is quite famous in his own right. Being connected to Julia Gillard confers and even greater claim to fame, yet Liam Alexander the photographer is still to eclipse me. When ‘Liam Alexander’ is entered into Google, results referring to me still fill up the first and second pages of search results.

Compared to Liam the photographer (and Liam the porn star) I am a complete nobody. (I am in fact a complete nobody compared to practically anybody). I outrank other ‘Liams’ on Google etc. because I am relatively active on a range of social media sites and I have put quite a lot of effort into applying SEO principles to my own sites.

I would be the first to admit that Liam the photographer is much more notable than I am and that his content is far superior to mine. If you want to outrank me on Google Liam you really need to apply SEO principles to your site or perhaps hire a specialist.

I am currently available :wink:

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/omg-im-a-gps-6-degrees-of-separation/feed/ 2 Is Lord Monckton related to Marty Feldman? http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/is-lord-monckton-related-to-marty-feldman/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/is-lord-monckton-related-to-marty-feldman/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:13:07 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2084 marty feldman and lord moncktonIs Lord Monckton related to Marty Feldman? You could be forgiven for thinking that they are the same person; the similarity is positively uncanny. FYI, the gentleman on the left is Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, deputy leader of the UK Independence Party and famous climate sceptic.  Pictured on the right is Marty Feldman, English comedy writer, comedian and actor who starred in a series of British television comedy shows, including At Last the 1948 Show, and Marty.

Both Monckton and Feldman are distinguished by their bulging eyes, a condition caused by Graves’ disease; an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive, producing an excessive amount of thyroid hormones (a serious metabolic imbalance known as hyperthyroidism and thyrotoxicosis).

At a recent rally at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, Lord Monckton claimed that the carbon tax will destroy Australia.

“If this carbon tax goes through then it’s bye bye Australia, it’s been nice to know you,”

“You will become just another third world banana monarchy without even any bananas with the prices they’ve been charging for those at your supermarkets recently.”

“Julia darling, listen to the voice of Australian people gathered here in Sydney on this beautiful, sunny but rather cold day – we could do with some more global warming.”

The similarity between Monckton and Feldman goes beyond their looks; both are clowns.  Monckton’s irresponsible idiocy could hardly provide environmentalists with a better advocate.

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/is-lord-monckton-related-to-marty-feldman/feed/ 2 How To Fix an Overheating Laptop that Shuts Down Randomly http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/how-to-fix-an-overheating-laptop-that-shuts-down-randomly/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/how-to-fix-an-overheating-laptop-that-shuts-down-randomly/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2011 07:39:13 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2077 dusty laptop heatsink

image courtesy of Edmund Tse

My Dell Inspiron 1525 started to overheat and shut down randomly just after the warranty expired.  The machine starts feeling very hot to touch shortly after it starts up.  Applications run slowly or display the ‘not responding’ message, then, with absolutely no warning, the computer suddenly shuts down.  Any unsaved work will of course be lost.  I put up with this for a while; pressing Ctrl + S frequently I could manage to keep working and usually get over an hour of use in before the laptop shut down, but before long, the problem had become worse and I could only get the thing to run for 10-15 minutes.

I took my laptop to the local computer repair shop.  The technician told me that the problem was most likely caused by a faulty hard drive or faulty RAM.  When I came back to collect it, he told me he had installed a new hard drive, new RAM including an extra Gb and had upgraded the OS to Windows 7 (the 1525 came with Vista Home installed).  None of these measures worked.  He said that he had tried everything he could think of and that he couldn’t fix it.  At least he didn’t charge me for the privilege.This of course left me feeling very frustrated.  Dell won’t repair machines not covered by warranty and I was feeling like I had been conned.  Judging by the number of posts around on this problem this is a very common problem.  Thread like this one are filled with various solutions to this problem, most of which don’t get you anywhere.  They are also filled with angry comments and suggestions that users with this problem should take out a class action against Dell.  This is understandable but in actual fact, the problem is quite simple to fix and not the manufacturer’s fault, although they could perhaps provide a little more information on problems like this.

How to fix this problem:

Dell does provide this documentation on ‘Removing the Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly‘. All you need is a phillips head screwdriver.

  1. Have a look at the diagrams and follow the instructions on removing the back cover
  2. Turn the computer over.
  3. Remove the eight captive screws securing the back cover and remove the module cover.
  4. Gently lift the heat sink (pictured above).  You don’t need to remove any screws to do this
  5. You are likely to find a great deal of dust trapped between the heat sink and the system board.  Remove the dust with a pipe cleaner or something similar.

That’s it.  I found a massive wad of dust under the heat sink.  Since I removed it my laptop feels cool to touch and has not had the shut down problem at all; I can leave it running all night and continue using it the next day.  It surprises me that an experienced and qualified computer technician didn’t try this first, or that Dell didn’t suggest this simple fix and maintain customer good will.

There are of course other issues which may cause problems such as this, but I would suggest that anyone experiencing this problem should try this very simple fix before doing anything else.

image courtesy of Edmund Tse

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/how-to-fix-an-overheating-laptop-that-shuts-down-randomly/feed/ 3 Have You Sold Your Soul to Facebook? http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/have-you-sold-your-soul-to-facebook/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/have-you-sold-your-soul-to-facebook/#comments Sat, 14 May 2011 01:51:24 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=2025
A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenomenon in i...

Image via Wikipedia

Some time ago Facebook changed it’s image viewing feature.  There was some discussion at the time around the social media traps, many commenting that they weren’t in love with the changes but eventually this died away and most seem to have accepted the changes without thinking too much about them.  The problem is, sooner or later you realise that the changed layout means you can now only view images, you can’t actually download them.  This may seem like no big deal but the implications are actually quite sinister.

There are of course, ways to bypass the problem.  To download facebook photos you could simply install a FireFox addon such as the Facebook Photo Album Downloader 0.2 by Nic Holliday.  This will easily download whole albums from Facebook.  Photos are downloaded to the default firefox download location.  To download, right click on a link to a facebook photo album and select “Download Photo Album”

Another way is to view the source code of any photo page, do a find for the tag img src=, copy the link into a browser and download the image as you normally would.

Either method is of course potentially in violation of facebook’s terms of service (TOS).

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License“). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.” http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Providing that the images you are downloading are your own you are not doing anything wrong, but what this really means is that Facebook effectively owns anything you upload.  Again, most people accept terms such as this perhaps because they don’t place much importance on their personal snapshots.  But what if you actually uploaded some intellectual property which was worth something.  In the very act of uploading to Facebook, or practically any other website which allows the upload feature you are giving away a large part of your ownership rights.

A great many are easily seduced by the plethora of so called ‘Web 2.0‘ sites offering a dazzling range of online services.  While many of these may well have great benefits, it is always worth remembering that TOS can be legally binding documents and that most organisations reserve the right to change their TOS at any time. You may one day log on to the seemingly friendly, free social site you belong to only to find that you no longer own your content and your identity has been sold to advertisers.

Don’t laugh too soon, it may have already happened… :wink:

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/have-you-sold-your-soul-to-facebook/feed/ 2 Flash not working in Firefox? Solution: downgrade http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/flash-not-working-in-firefox-solution-downgrade/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/flash-not-working-in-firefox-solution-downgrade/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:33:52 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=1832
CHARLESTON, SC - NOVEMBER 29: Rev. Dick Reed ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I had noticed that for some time Flash had not been displaying properly in Firefox.  In fact, not displaying at all, yet behaving absolutely absolutely normally in Internet Explorer.  I had ignored this but when you have to design web pages that require some Flash content the problem becomes impossible to ignore.  I tried the usual Mozilla support forums and came across helpful pages such as ‘Flash not working properly after update to Firefox 3.6.7‘, but of course, the problem remained.  I tried numerous other trouble shooting fixes, some of which involved uninstalling then reinstalling the Flash plugin while others involved creating a new user profile within Firefox.  I’ve lost count of how many solutions I tried but none of them worked.  The problem seems to be quite widespread judging by the number of people reporting to Mozilla that they too have this problem.

The solution was incredibly simple as is usually the case…

To solve the problem, all I did was: download and install Firefox 3.5 Okay, Firefox 3.5.x will be maintained with security and stability updates until August 2010 so it’s only a temporary solution.  Presumably Mozilla will sooner or later release an official fix for this problem which undoubtedly stems from some incompatibility between Firefox and Windows (did I mention I’m running Windows Vista?) but until they do at least I can use Firefox and still view Flash content.

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]]> http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/flash-not-working-in-firefox-solution-downgrade/feed/ 2 Consume, Be Silent and Die: A Valediction Against Lurking http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/consume-be-silent-and-die-a-valediction-against-lurking/ http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/consume-be-silent-and-die-a-valediction-against-lurking/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:46:25 +0000 Liam http://www.liamalexander.com/blog/?p=1750
flock of sheep

Image via Wikipedia

The vast majority of internet users are lurkers; passive users who never generate any content, never participate in discussions, never post comments.  This to some degree explains the extraordinary success of Facebook.  The ubiquitous Facebook ‘like button’ allows passive users to interact with online content with a simple click; you don’t need to comment, you don’t need to exercise your brain at all.  Perhaps it also why social media platforms such as MySpace have been less successful.  You can customise MySpace profiles a great deal more than you can with a Facebook profile, especially if you’re comfortable using a little html, but you really need to post some content to get anything out of it.  The simple fact is, most people just aren’t interested in how their profile pages appear.  Posting the odd trivial message, clicking ‘likes’ and playing games like ‘Farmville‘ is a rewarding social media experience for many. Just what is wrong with that?! I hear you ask with a rising tone of indignation and outrage.

Perhaps nothing, especially as far as the marketers and advertisers who happily manipulate mindless consumers.  Many who cooperate with such strategies have no idea they are putting money in other people’s pockets with little benefit to themselves.  Personal information is secretly gathered and used in a variety of contexts without knowledge or permission.  But there is more to the passive state of mind than this.

Passive internet users are also likely to be passive parents.  Kids are allowed to grow up with little direction.  They derive their values from the TV shows and ads they are constantly exposed to, not to mention games and an ever growing array of online media.  Passive parents are happy to park kids in front of a TV, computer or game console because it keeps them quiet, and quiet kids demand much less of your attention and time.  Children of passive parents are less likely to aspire to higher education and are unlikely to enjoy fulfilling relationships or well paid, satisfying careers.  They are more likely to fall into drug and alcohol abuse and comprise the majority of the prison population.

Passive internet users are also much more likely to be passive, swinging voters.  In countries where voting is not compulsory they are highly unlikely to ever vote at all.  If they do have to vote, they often make decisions based on the personal appeal of a candidate or on which side seems to be offering quick dollars.  They are usually unaware or the issues behind election campaigns and are likely to be easily influenced and manipulated by media commentators and advertisers.  They are often influenced into supporting platforms which are directly opposed to their own interests.

If these objections don’t really seem to be a problem, perhaps you have read the above passively if you have read it at all.  It is a truism that you get as much out of life as you put in.  The same goes for using the internet.  Becoming politically and socially aware is empowering and can help you to improve your quality of life, not to mention that of those you have influence over such as children and family.  Actively participating in online forums is an excellent way of sharing views and becoming more aware.

The reason sheep allow themselves to exist as objects of convenience for humans is because they are not capable of critical thought; think about it…

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