A friend of mine received her passport in the mail the other day. Pretty standard practice. Only, she didn’t pick it up herself or sign for it - the landlady did. All based on the landlady mentioning she knows my friend well and could deliver the passport to her - to save everybody some hassle. Neighbours helping neighbours and shit. My friend will not complain - because she’s happy she didn’t have to drive to the post office and make the pick up herself.

Sure, my friend trusts her landlady. The postman, I would assume, knows the landlady too. But the postman does not know what situation my friend could be in. His job is to deliver the package to a destination - and with something as high profile as this, he’d better be making sure the right person gets it. I could see situations where a parent would take away a child’s passport for whatever intra-familial issues they may be having. Most of all, with RFID being put into every piece of crap out there, how long before someone starts wising up and hijacking all the personal information that’s just lying on the passport? It could have been a credit card, fragile and expensive materials etcetera.

But my friend will not make a complaint - she’s happy she doesn’t have to drive and pick it up from the post-office herself.

Now, it’s very easy for me to comment on how stupid some people are. How easily they get offended about things that shouldn’t even be an issue in the first place - because they misunderstand the message, because they think it’s addressed to them, because they see it as such a huge deal when it’s not.

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but some are more equal than others. Please explain to me for what reason would anyone consider Paris Hilton’s fuck-ups as a reason to rally, protest or petition. This isn’t even about using those resources for something more constructive. It’s simply about guilt.

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So I worked 10 hours today, like many other days. Big deal. I had something to finish so why go when the magic 8 was up?

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I was recently debating with someone on the topic of freedoms and how - obviously, at my age - I am very idealistic and somewhat foolish. I was told that running after certain freedoms is a fool’s errand and I am better off just getting into the system and along with the program.

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…for me:

What are you supposed to say when somebody near by sneezes? Is there a more suited thing than ‘bless you’ - not just because I would be a hypocrite saying it but because the person I’m saying it to might be offended, too? [the OED  lists the origin of 'bless you' as 'may God bless you' - I'm sure you knew that, though]

Anybody got a smart idea?

One must wonder for how long large software companies are aware of certain issues with their wares before they actually release security fixes for them. It seems as though more than once have we seen Microsoft [but they are not the only ones, I suspect Apple has done the same and probably ISVs too] rolling out patches which they have subsequently admitted were for issues known in-house for some time. But, without an incentive from the marketplace [i.e. the exploit is now in the wild and everybody's running it] these companies seem unwilling to dedicate resources to the Q&A needed for testing their fixes. They just wait until the public finds out about them to start the process.

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Looking back on a few posts of mine, I come to realize I’ve given too many ideas to the MPAA. Since HD-DVD only came with one encryption/security system [while Blu-ray sports 3] and that one got hacked, there may be a strong advantage that the latter system now has - in terms of what platform HD movies will be released on. So if HD-DVD tanks, the MPAA will have already found their criminals.

“Those evil, evil guys! Sitting in their dark rooms, without girlfriends, those fat bastards!” Yeah, it’s easier to think about it that way, right?

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Whenever the media or the police reports on arrests, criminal acts or apprehended terrorists they always use the word ‘alleged’ - and for good measure. I am sure most of us are aware of why this is done - but I do not think it is relevant anymore.

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