The Independence day

Bad movie. This post is not about the movie. It’s also not about 4th of July. It’s about a Slovenian national holiday we celebrated this weekend. With some nice parading, some celebrations and about 5000 people invited to the main party. If you were left out, you are most likely an enemy of the state.
We’re celebrating our declaration of Independence from the former Yugoslavia and we’re rightfully proud of what our little country has done. Things could have been better, but they’re not that bad, either. Only thing that is celebrated as much as our Independence is, ironically enough, our integration into European integrations, namely the EU, the coming integration in the Euro zone, the Schengen zone and all other “common policies” that we have in the great state (yes state) that is the European Union. Very few people realize that our independence in the EU is probably of a lesser degree in the EU than it ever was in Yugoslavia. Main difference is of course in the fields where federal government (yes, federal government) in the EU can take action and where the one in Yugoslavia could. For example, while they can regulate the size of cucumbers we eat today (and subsidiarity principle be damned), they cannot regulate the community board that gives out the better looking garden than your neighbor’s award (which would be woefully un-socialistic).
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the principle of European integration as such. It’s important to know that we give a lot of our independence, that we so cherish, away for a better common future, though. We give that part of independence away, not because we like to be bound by more rules, but because we want to leave freely in all European countries, where borders are a thing of the past. For the constitution project to be successful, the key is to write a much shorter, much simpler constitution, which has a purpose of guaranteeing those basic rights, and has much less to do with rights of EU high ranking politicians and employees. People like independence.

The quest for the holy grail, episode 35

For those of you wondering, where Harm Principle has gone for the past few days, the answer is simple. Author was pretty busy. For those keeping score with me, 35 done, 3 to go. That means I’m done for the summer and will continue on in the fall, all according to plans so far. The last one was pretty hectic, since I had to learn a lot very fast.
That’s what I’ve been doing for the past 4 years at our faculty. I’m pretty good now at learning insane amounts of data, by hearth in a very short amount of time. I forget most of that in a few days after the exam anyway. I’m resigned to that by now and I do what is required of me, learn instead of think.
And yet, there’s a nagging feeling in the back of my head, the last independent brain cell, which refuses to accept the uselessness of most of what we learn. Is it really necessary? Is there nothing that can be done? I don’t think the Bologne reform will have any practical influence whatsoever on the quality of education at our faculty. There is no will to change the substance of what we learn and therefore, therefore a change of the form won’t matter. It’s a system designed to allow professors to get through lectures with minimal amount of effort involved, and on the other hand it’s a system designed to allow students an easy way out. You learn it by heart.
There are exceptions of course. I’ve had courses by brilliant professors, courses where I had fun, courses that were actually practically oriented. Professors don’t get paid extra for that, they do it, simply because some of them actually like to do their work well. But sadly, there are also a lot of students who don’t like such exams. Those are exams where you can’t learn a single book by heart and know you’re going to be all right. The logic behind the system is quite scary, though. Despite the impressive speeches our dean gives every year, it’s a system designed to make everyone average. If someone did too well, it might become too obvious there are people out there, who would be better professors than those we have. Unfortunately, those will teach quite a few years longer as I’ve never heard of a professor loosign a job before retirement due to bad quality of his work.

Micro$oft Windows Vista

For those of you wondering where I've been all this time, I'm learning. Well, trying too at least. It's a good faith effort, at the very least. In those short intervals that I'm not learning (yeah right), I took the time to install a new Microsoft operating system that's in Beta2 stage, Windows Vista. I would install Ubuntu Linux, but then I would have software compatibility issues and besides, my family would kill me due to slight changes in user interface...So here I am, stuck with Microsoft software running on my desktop. There are worse things in life, of course, but not many cost as much.
So how's Vista? Well it's beta 2. It works, but it definitely has backwards compatibility issues, especially due to DirectX upgrade. I can't get non-Microsoft programs to be stable. I can't get Thunderbird installed, I'm also having trouble with Firefox. I am sure you begin to see the pattern. Microsoft is implementing an operating system that does not »fully support« non Microsoft software once again. They even went so far to earn a law suit and a request for injunction from Symantec (company that among others produces Norton Antivirus), which is their long time partner, trying to prohibit them from publishing Vista. It is fun to see Microsoft slapped in the face by their own intellectual property activism for once. However, I think they have a solution in mind already. They'll just buy Symantec. There's more, however. Have you ever tried using the nice search function in Mozilla Firefox, that lets you do searches of popular sites? The new Explorer, of course, doesn't support Google.
It's one of those cases in law where prevalent market position is bloody obvious. It's also obvious to a 6yearold that Microsoft is trying to get the competition off Market, by abusing his prevalent position. You’d be surprised how clear the law is on that one and how bloody illegal it all is. Nothing much happens of course. I’m very sure nothing will happen in the USA. I remain hopeful we’ll see another round of Commission vs. Microsoft. But even if Commission was successful, I wonder what would happen. It’s not like the court can ban Microsoft from marketing it’s products in EU effectively anyway. They’d have to hit uninstall the moment they pass the judgment. We’ll know more in about 5 years when legal procedures in Europe will be about to end. Microsoft will be marketing a whole new operating system in 5 years, though.

Birthdays

I’ve been at two birthday parties this weekend. My father is now a few years above 50, while my grandmother hit 80. Apart from probably gaining a few pounds from two consecutive days of eating a lot of meat and then some extra cake, not much has changed, though. They’re a year older, I’m getting older, but that’s pretty much it. No one is any different than the day before that. What’s the big deal about birthdays anyway then?
Some explanation is probably found in the Birthday article in Wikipedia. The article has less than a dozen lines on history and 2 pages on festivities. That’s how I understand birthdays, too. If you’re young, you get special treatment for that day and make a party with friends. If you’re older, it’s also an amazing excuse for a family get together. When you have a reasonably normal family (well, as normal as families get), it’s a good party, where you get to see all your aunts slightly tipsy. When you go out with friends you get to see them more than slightly tipsy, as a bonus.
That’s what birthdays really are, a great excuse for a great party. You’re not celebrating that a person is one year older, you don’t throw a party just to get gifts, either (well most people don’t, at least), you don’t really enjoy paying the bill at the bar if it was your birthday, you simply get out of the house and party. It’s a shame really, that there has to be an excuse for a particular person to be a year older in order to throw a party. Or maybe I'm missing some deeper meaning?

Cats and Dogs

People who read the blog know by now that I have a cat. Those who know me also know I hate getting up early in the morning. So how are these two connected? I woke up at 6 AM today, because my cat needed to be taken to a clinic for a dentist appointment. As perverse as the idea of a cat dentist is, it’s pretty real and the poor bastard really needed it, too.
Apart from the really funny part of seeing a cat wake up, still intoxicated, after the operation, you can imagine I was pretty annoyed by the whole thing. What is amazing, though, is that cats and dogs can be treated for pretty much every other illness humans can be. I’ve seen commercials for healthy food, food for cats with allergies, antibiotics for dogs with liver problems and I was informed a friend of ours had his cat through hip surgery, replacement (No, this is not a joke). I don’t have a problem with people paying for it really, it’s their money.
It’s interesting though from a purely ethical perspective. Isn’t euthanasia more justified in cases of incurable illness and pain for animals? I can understand the argument that it is worth to prolong human life, but is our desire to be with the pet a justification to cause it live in continuous pain? I can see why it’s good to take it to a dentist, you help it get better, that’s for sure. But chemotherapy for liver cancer on cats? Give me a break! That’s selfish torture plain and simple!

Boys will be boys

I had an intellectual property exam today, another one done, one less to go. It was a good exam, from a field I like, therefore not a big deal. Still, I didn’t sleep much tonight, so I’ll spend the night at home today and probably go to bed early. Now before I go to sleep, I might play some EVE Online. It’s a game I play to relax sometimes in the evenings. I admit it, I’m 22 and I still play computer games. Boys will be boys. Men always play games, but the toys get more expensive with age. I’ve heard it all before, so spare me, please.
In my own defense, I am one of the youngest actually playing this game in the “corporation” or the group of people I play with. Most people that plays are either people who work normally or are in some cases retired. Most of them are, admittedly, male. But what is EVE, then, to have such allure to old men? Well, one is, you get to fly a spaceship. Everyone wanted to do that since kindergarten. But it’s also a MMORPG, which stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Essentially, it’s a game, where many people at the same time get to play their role in a virtual world. There are quite a few of such games available on the market, but they all, in different manner, allow people to enter a world that is essentially different from reality.
What is it that drives us to enter a world where our virtual life is so much different than that in our society? One, for sure, is the fact that there, we’re all essentially equal and free, within the world’s design parameters. A bum in real life can be a king in a virtual world. Furthermore, it’s also a way of getting away from one’s problems, to forget, for a second, that there are real worries out there, more exams, a crazy boss, maybe a wife or a husband you’d prefer not to be with at that moment. It doesn’t solve problems that’s for sure. It can be addictive, that’s also true. It does bring you pleasure and a feeling of achievement, even if it’s virtual. Yes, it’s essentially a drug. Level of market penetration in some Asian markets is close to 20%. It does have negative side effects. But when you feel really unproductive and tired, like I do right now, after an exam I did well, it sure feels good to relax.

Hell is other people

I’ve read a disturbing article on BBC news. To make the long story short, the government in the USA plans to put cameras on the border with Mexico. Then it plans to stream the output of those cameras to the web. It gets better. Then you can watch illegal immigrants, call a toll free number, the government will be alerted, troops will be sent, and you will save the day, kicking yet another Mexican back to his state.
I’ve stated my opinion about the wall in a previous blog, but this takes the idea to a whole new level. It learns from the methods of the secret police of either the ex-Yugoslav, Soviet, or if you prefer, Nazi regime and combines them with modern day technology. What this regulation does is employ people to spy on other people. What makes it “right” is the fact that you’re actually spying on “others” and not on “us” and therefore it’s legitimate.
What’s the entire fret about anyway? What’s wrong with watching and reporting criminals and by that lowering the crime rate? There’s a really small step between watching illegal immigrants and illegal regular criminals, like thieves, bullies and drug addicts. I don’t worry about the criminals, much. When someone crosses the line and bullies someone in the street, he deserves to be prosecuted. The real problem, however, is that you cannot separate the streets used by the criminals (“them” in the above example) and regular citizens (“us” in the above example). It means that everyone can spy on everyone and infringe on everyone’s privacy, wherever they want, whenever. Just because you kiss a girl you like near the Mexican border, or maybe at some later stage in the middle of your home town, is it really your neighbor’s business to watch that? Would you be willing to make all life that’s not happening behind the close shutters of your basement totally public, just to have a higher chance to lower crime rates? Would you really feel safer? I know I wouldn’t. It’s none of your business who I kiss. It’s none of your business who my friends are. And it’s definitely not the government’s job to make it your business.