Archive for July, 2006

31
Jul

On Conservatism and Freedom

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Politics and Uncategorized

JeffG of Common Sense (Ain’t So Common Anymore) has written a good piece on conservatism and imposing one’s will on others.

People who call themselves Social Conservatives often try and use the coercive power of the state to impose morality upon their fellow citizens. This has manifested itself in many forms over history: The Inquisition, Puritans in England, the “Religious Right” to name just a few.
…
There are many ways to emphasise (sic) the different aspects of what it is to be a Conservative, and this post is my attempt to define my opinion on the subject. I would never seek to impose my opinions on others. We conservatives are not a monolithic group, which has gotten us in trouble in the past, with some “wingnuts” being blown out of proportion by the media.

I don’t have a blogger account so I’ll add my $0.02 here …

A question came up about morality and how it applies to left-wing and right-wing politics. Technically, morality is a doctrine or system of conduct, meaning virtually everyone has “morals”. Hence politics –a subjective discipline- is moral at its core and no branch of political thought is 100% free from wanting to impose some form of morality.

With that in mind, the morality of various conservative and progressive groups can be differentiated in terms of adherence to freedom:

  • Progressives and moderates from the 1960’s and earlier (many of whom are center-right conservatives today) tended to support positive freedom – the freedom to control one’s own destiny.
  • Present-day leftists/progressives tend to support negative freedom – the freedom from obstacles and impediments
  • The religious right does not support any specific freedoms but rather clamps down on certain freedoms to ensure a moral order compatible with spiritual teachings. (this definition applies to all religions, not just Christianity)

Positive freedom represents a threat to the controlling group benefiting from the inequity. Women’s suffrage and the original Civil Rights movement were about empowering disadvantaged groups via enabling political participation and synchronizing legal rights with those afforded to white males.

Negative freedom can represent a threat to both the controlling group and, occasionally, the underlying systems created in accordance with positive freedom. For example, affirmative action is based on the moral decision that people from all backgrounds should be free from hiring discrimination, measurable by proportional representation in public and private sector employment. This morality is enforced with the establishment of hiring quotas, which can ignore free market realities (eg group X is underrepresented in education pertaining to the job; there are few job openings in the field) or at worst promote unqualified people from the “right” minority group.

Religious morality is a threat to anyone who doesn’t happen to share the same religious convictions. In the case of abortion, religious fundamentalists and other social conservatives already have the freedom to not partake and to speak out against the practice. However, the religious right attempts to force everyone to become de facto Christians by legally banning the practice for all citizens.

With that in mind, I’ve observed that political groups are only accused of “forcing morality” on others when that morality infringes on the positive freedoms of a large group. When people complain about the “left”, they usually refer to policies that subvert the idea of a free market; complaints against the “right” are often against social conservatives who try to limit the positive freedoms of any lifestyle contrary to their own (e.g. homosexuals and marriage).

To that effect, social conservatives could be called “conservatives” in that they are attempting to preserve the social order of days gone by; however their methods and some of the principles SoCons uphold run counter to the ideas of individuality and freedom often identified with the conservative movement.

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29
Jul

Antisemitic Crimes – Put up or Shut up Time

By Cynapse 10 Comments
Categories: Politics, Uncategorized and World Politics

The latest outbreak of war in the Middle East has finally resulted in an unprovoked hate crime against Jewish citizens:

Authorities said a man walked into the Jewish agency on Friday and opened fire, killing one woman and injuring at least five others in what they call a hate crime. Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of homicide and attempted homicide, police said.
The gunman, who employees said claimed to be a Muslim angry at Israel, forced his way through the center’s security door after an employee had punched in her security code, said Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a co-worker who was not at the building at the time.

While the US killings can be attributed to radical Islamacists, the stateside pro-war brigade, whose hawkish tendencies in order support their own geopolitical and theological goals surpass that of even Israelis, must share some blame for these types of attacks. In column after blog after interview, pundits recklessly advocate death against “Muslims” (which inevitably encompasses a large number of people from non-Muslim middle easterners to unrelated cults), presumably in the name of Israel and the Jewish people, without any regard for repercussions. There have also been suggestions for the government to restrict the movement and freedoms of all stateside Muslims, and some citizens aren’t waiting for the law to catch up with their whims – a colleague of mine reported that here in Toronto a man was recently kicked off the TTC for yelling “I will not stand next to this terrorist!!” at a rider who entered the bus wearing a hijab.

This story didn’t make the paper, but you can bet that woman shared the story with her friends and colleagues. Guess what happens when regular citizens of a group are under siege? Local extremists, sensing the righteous indignation among moderate Muslims, take their revenge on Jews – all Jews. Like stateside Zionists and Diaspora waging the war on terror from the safety of their ergonomic keyboards, local Islamic radicals fail to recognize that Jews and Israel aren’t synonymous –

  • A portion of Orthodox Jews do not agree with Israel in its present form, arguing that Israel can only be given to the Jewish people directly from God. The very human attempt to maintain the state is dismissed as “playing God”
  • There are many secular and Jews who disagree with Israel’s policies and alleged human rights abuses. Frequently cited by detractors include the suppression of Palestinian civilians, illegal torture of prisoners and the state’s facilitation of South Africa’s apartheid government. This is not to say these Jews oppose the central concept of Zionism, but rather that they are dissatisfied with the sometimes brutal manner in which it has been implemented
  • … And of course there are many Jews who don’t have any strong feelings in favor of or against Israel, but remain faithful to Judaism and attend the same synagogues being attacked

As a Sephardic friend once told me, put 100 Jewish people in a room and you will hear 100 opinions on what Israel’s doing right and wrong. A look at the week’s editorials at the Jerusalem post confirms this diversity in opinion, which is all but drowned out in the uniform war cry of stateside Neo-Cons, Evangelicals and post-9/11 Crusaders for Israel’s unmitigated bombing of its neighbors. It’s very easy to declare war with someone else’s army (and economy), just as it is easy to go Christmas shopping with someone else’s credit card.

I’d like to know whether these same people are willing to help protect my family members, friends and work colleagues whose recent history and warrior class are being used in the front lines of this war. You may feel justified in supporting Israel’s front-line military action because you want to avoid another 9/11 or because you believe this is the last stage in your inheritance of the holy land, but would you be willing show real support for the Jewish people by patrolling a synagogue or donate money to facilitate such protection? Please consider it.

There is a higher purpose for this post and I’ll get to that later.

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28
Jul

Just a Wee bit Creepy …

By Cynapse 2 Comments
Categories: Toronto

The following student rental listing was posted at the University of Toronto (Mississauga Campus):

-master bedroom available, walk in closet, master bathroom, hardwood, ceiling fan 36″ sony wega tv
-family room with 36″ sony wega tv
-digital cable with movies and sports, phone and high speed internet free
-ravine backyard
-easy going landlord 35 years old, self employed Chartered Accountant
-upscale neighbourhood
-5 minutes bus/car to University of Toronto Erindale Campus
-female & non-smoker preferred
-parks nearby
-local transportation provided when possible
-located at Mississauga Rd and Eglinton area
-8 to 12 month committment reqd
-large kitchen with all ameneties, freezer, dishwasher, stove, fridge and bar b q
-parking free
-credit check or prepayment for year
-supermarket, go station, erin mills town center (shopping mall), parks, fast food and hospital nearby
-5000 square foot house, a lot of space

I’d love to give the man benefit of the doubt, but this just seems suspect. I advised my kin against it.

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26
Jul

I’ll Take Narcissism for $0, Alex

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: Entertainment

Having gone to a school rife with purported and self-purported “geniuses”, it shouldn’t have surprised me that Ken Jennings was less than intelligent in managing his personna. Jennings, who won a record 74 straight victories in Jeopardy, chose to bite the hand that feeds him on his blog, as described in an AP news article. The original blog post is written in the form of a letter to Jeopardy itself, and offers disdain for both the show and the general public in equal doses:

You’ve got a good twenty years on you now, and that’s Trebek-era alone. Times have changed since your debut, but when I watch you, it’s the same-old same-old: the same format, the same patter[n], the same fonts, the same everything as when I first crushed out on you in fourth grade. You’re like the Dorian Gray of syndication. You seem to think “change” means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so.

Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like “Opera,” or, um, “U.S. History” or whatever? I mean, wake me up when you come up with something that middle America actually cares about. I think it would rule if, just one time, Alex had to read off a board like:
-PlayStation
-The Arby’s 5-for-$5.95 Value Menu
-Reality TV
-Men’s Magazines
-Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men’s Magazines
-Potpourri

Granted, the satire would have been a non-issue if it were written by the average blogger. Coming from the man whose fame is owed entirely to the show, however, it smacks of ungratefulness. Jennings did stress the humor intent in a subsequent post but still came off looking somewhat haughty.

Going back to the opening sentence, I’ve had a lot of time to observe the behavior of geniuses, and came to the conclusion that quite often the difference between a genius and someone who is autistic is the value society places on his/her forte. Several schoolmates came to class having invented their own math theories or were able to calculate complex math equations in their heads faster than the average person could do so with a computer … but ask them to do anything remotely social and they either do something completely awkward or petrify in a wave of near-retardation. Ever the self-promoter and salesman, Ken Jennings does not fall into the genius category; rather he comes across as a self-purported genius – usually discernable by the fact that he directly and indirectly states how much smarter he is than you at every possible opportunity. Think Donald Trump, rather than Bill Gates.

kenjennings.jpgThe website of Ken Jennings – modesty and all

At the end of the day, Ken Jennings must remember that Jeopardy’s ability to survive without changing format for over 20 years is an ode to the show’s staying power. Individual Jeopardy winners, on the other hand, are forgotten rather quickly. Good luck with that merchandising.

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25
Jul

Technorati: New Face, Old Challenges

By Cynapse 0 Comments
Categories: The Art of Blogging

Famed weblog ping service Technorati recently revealed a new and cleaner interface. Most noteworthy is the emphasis on categorization and [what appears to be] hand-picked content, making Technorati look more like a traditional news portal. Perhaps these changes were in response to the constant grumbling among some bloggers about the aggregator’s declining usefulness.

Dave Lucas at Capital Region people described the immediate problem in a recent post:

I associated this weblog with Technorati VERY EARLY in the game and there was a time when hundreds of hits a day came my way from blogders searching Technorati, but those days are gone. The most hits I got recently came within 15 minutes of the posting of an artcile on the World Cup. After 15 minutes my entry was lost way down on page 5 of T’rati. In my webstats for the last two days, I have NO TRAFFIC incoming via Technorati, and I believe users of the service, like myself, are now taking advantage of OTHER services and tools Technorati provides.

As Lucas stated, Technorati was originally an invaluable source of web traffic to weblogs – both new and established. However, the primary aggregator service has become less effective for two reasons:

1. Too Much Content

Technorati is tracking just short of 50 million weblogs. To join the service all you have to do is sign up and add some javascript code to your web page. It is also possible to be tracked simply by pinging the RPC service (no signup required). As a general purpose aggregator, Technorati originally sorted its content into categories (Business, Tech, Sports, etc) but even within those categories there hundreds of thousands of weblogs postings. New weblogs or weblogs without previously established reputations can easily get lost in the shuffle.

The recent addition of MySpace weblogs also presents a quality issue. As a realtime news tracker, Technorati uses a combination of keywords and age to index posts – if, for example, you put the word “rhombicosidodecahedron” in your weblog then it will be placed at the top of the search results so long as it was the most recent weblog containing that term. Observations so far suggest that MySpace users rarely write focused or meaningful material – after all it is a social networking site more famous for underage voyeurism than thoughtful commentary. The meaningless content that often emanates from MySpace blogs can quickly put a well-reasoned post on page 5 of Technorati’s search engine.

2. Gaming the System

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the trick to getting maximum traffic from Technorati is getting to the top of the search results for the most popular terms. The website solves ½ of the problem for you by giving you the top search items and tags at any given moment, naturally encouraging some bloggers to check the Technorati front page when deciding on a topic. However, as implied in the previous section, one’s post only needs to contain the popular keyword to get chronologically listed. Thus, gong back to our example, your thoughtful 500 word post on Archimedean solids (which includes rhombicosidodecahedrons) could be quickly bumped by a nonsensical post containing the phrase “I really like the word rhombicosidodecahedron. It makes me laugh”. More often than not, the blogger generating nonsensical posts is gaming the system in hopes of getting more webtraffic.

Subtler forms of gaming include auto-posting newswire feeds, frequently commenting on technorati’s top search keywords or participating in the New York Times Op-Ed reprinting ritual (the latter seems to be a self-feeding game that puts the full title of the column within the top 10 search items every Sunday).

rhombi.jpg
In case you were wondering, this is what a rhombicosidodecahedron looks like. Don’t waste your time “gaming” on this term.

The aforementioned factors contribute heavily to the 15 minute decline Lucas and many other veteran bloggers now lament. Technorati is still far from useless – a trackback from the right reader can generate a lot of traffic and perhaps a few new industry friends. However, the window of exposure is now considerably smaller and bloggers can no longer rely solely on Technorati for marketing.

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24
Jul

Murder in Flemingdon Park

By Cynapse 16 Comments
Categories: Toronto

A few weeks ago, a pleasant evening of gaming was rudely interrupted by what sounded like a fight just outside my window. I looked outside to see 3 shadows involved in conflict. The two younger looking figures appeared to be picking a fight with an older gentleman and eventually did jump him a cowardly manner. I jumped out of my seat and headed down the stairs but another local resident beat me to it, chasing the young hooligans away. Within minutes, residents from several buildings were swarming the street, flagging down an ambulance (which was remarkably slow despite multiple 911 calls) and falling over each other to give statements to police. Though most of us only knew each other in passing, we were united by a profound disdain for lawlessness in our middle-class / working-class corner of the GTA.

In other words, our response was a far cry from the recent mayhem in the city’s east end.

Last week, the body of 17 year old Omar Wellington was found in a wooded area close to his Flemingdon Park home. Wellington was stripped to his underwear, severely beaten and later stabbed several times. Like the assault in my neighborhood, Wellington’s beating was also witnessed by many residents. However, instead of intervening or alerting authorities, residents simply went inside and looked the other way. The Toronto Star reported that some residents even came outside to alert mothers to bring their children inside to avoid becoming witnesses. Investigators believe the silence is out of fear of retribution from the assailants, who are rumored to live in the area.

As Wellington was laid to rest over the weekend, several mourners (including Omar’s mother) wondered aloud why neighbors didn’t have the courage or decency to contact police or call for help. According to the police, a significant amount of time –possibly 22 hours- elapsed between the time of the beating and the discovery of Wellington’s body.

omar.jpg

At first glance, Wellington’s death and the apparent apathy from local residents does appear to be symptomatic of Toronto’s cultural decline. The ‘hood mentality has taken over in many quarters – youths wear t-shirts embroidered with the phrase “Stop Snitchin” while adults live in fear of exercising the moral authority that would have been expected in previous generations.

However there are three aspects to this case that don’t quite fit the “bad neighborhood” cliché:

  1. Flemingdon Park has a checkered history but it is far from the worst neighborhood in Toronto. According to the Toronto Star, only 1 of last year’s 78 murders (Tate Best) occurred in the region.
  2. There was no gunplay involved in the attack. Groups of youths brawling can be found in virtually any neighborhood. Depending on the observers’ distance from the mêlée, a 6 on 1 fight could have looked like a 4 on 3 fight. In a rougher neighborhood, such a conflict would not have necessarily earned a call to police.
  3. Even in their beatified recollection after death, friends and relatives of Omar Wellington were forced to admit his checkered past. Most importantly, Wellington was fingered for a robbery that occurred shortly before the beating took place.

Hence neighborhood fear is but one possible explanation. It’s also possible that residents saw a fight in progress (which may be irregular in your neighborhood but not necessarily theirs) and didn’t want to get involved in case it escalated into something serious. It’s possible that Omar Wellington’s prior criminal activity won him enemies and some residents were happy to see him receive street justice.

Hopefully the media doesn’t let this story slide away. The outcome should be fairly interesting.

Update: Arrests Made in Killing of Omar Wellington

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23
Jul

Tutorial: Internet Gaming with Age of Empires 3 and Hamachi

By Blink 7 71 Comments
Categories: Technology and Tutorials

Update: If you are having trouble finding the AOE patch, visit blink 7 for info on a universal AOE/AOM game patch -
http://www.blink7.com/2007/11/12/hamachi-patch-for-aoe-3-all-versions-and-aom/

Summary

This tutorial will demonstrate how to use Hamachi and a special game patch to link two or more computers for multiplayer game play in Age of Empires 3. Since its release, AOE3 has caused many headaches for players due to the game only recognizing an internal IP address (ie 192.168.x.x). This flaw makes Internet gaming impossible, since only computers on an internal LAN can see an internal IP address. Ensemble have offered patches and suggestions to overcome this problem, but they have not worked for all gamers.

Enter Hamachi, a free network application that allows two or more users to organize a Virtual Private Network with Peer to Peer facilities. A special patch for AOE3 (this is NOT a pirate hack) allows the game to select network devices, enabling secure game play over a user’s Hamachi network.
Continue reading ‘Tutorial: Internet Gaming with Age of Empires 3 and Hamachi’

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