 On
The Net - Computing News
with Chris Goh
The 8.20am from Campbelltown to the City is a special train. City Rail for at least the last three years has made it a 4-carriage train - half the
size of most normal peak hour trains (they consider this time just after peak - how wrong they are). After four stops, it's standing room only.
By the sixth or seventh stop, most people don't bother getting on.
Last week offered a different challenge. Local schoolchildren had the majority of the seats in our carriage (probably for an excursion).
The kids were chatting away and there were several elderly women standing up. The teachers yelled across the carriage to some noisy children, but they
sat there as the train filled up.
One Muslim woman sat by herself. No-one wanted the seat next to her. Some children pointed and giggled, but obviously this woman had heard it all before.
As the train continued, the Moslem woman stood up and gestured to two of the elderly ladies to sit down and take her place. At first, they did so with
trepidation. Then before long, they sat and chatted with each other without a thank you. That lady was the only one to relinquish her seat - the young
seated lads never moved, nor did any of the students or teachers, even though there was at least one elderly woman in distress who was supported by a passenger
when she nearly fell.
It's a dark irony that the only person to show decency, respect and a sense of duty to others was the woman most people regarded with suspicion
and disrespect.
If only the supposedly 'decent' people had shown the same compassion and care for others this Muslim woman did.
The world is full of generalisations of 'evil'. Let's be very careful to not make the mistake of tarring everyone with the same brush.
There is good in many people if you take the time to look. We should not be blinded by our prejudices.
HotNews
China's Internet censors are having a jolly old time. Even the ABC website was added to the banned list, after it reported on the protestors who
demonstrated for the freedom of Tibet during former political leader Li Pung's recent visit to Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian were
also banned. Oh China's Internet censorship policy, how great thou art (I wonder whether their filters pick up sarcasm).
Larry Ellison, the flamboyant and cocky CEO of Oracle has removed himself as a director of Apple Computers because of his bad attendance record. Besides
having to figure out why his own business, Oracle, is having problems he's got to get ready for the America's Cup in New Zealand shortly. Life
is tough in the US exec world. Apple shareholders are probably hoping that the next director gets the job for a better reason than simply because he's
mates with Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
With the number of Microsoft security problems being revealed at regular intervals, I could probably get away with cutting and pasting this paragraph
in to the column every couple of weeks, simply repeating that another critical security flaw was found in both Windows 2000 and XP. Long-suffering users
should download the latest service fixes from the Microsoft site. This time the problem was due to the application engine Microsoft uses to translate Java
applications.
Earlier this year at the CEBIT expo in Sydney, the light-projected keyboard made its debut. It allows mobile phones and PDA's with the integrated
light chip to beam a virtual keyboard on to any flat surface and read your hand movements to identify what keys you type. It will be integrated to various
PDAs and should be available early next year.
HotSites
This week, it's strange but true time:
- www.americanantigravity.com
- Suddenly, everyone's taking the idea of anti-gravity seriously. Once the realm of science fiction and flying saucers, even NASA is doing experiments
and has gone so far as to take out a patent. "Lifters" are a growing phenomenon, with thousands of teenagers around the globe abandoning their
rocket sets to create and play with anti-gravity devices. The jury is out on whether electrokinetic propulsion can cut it, and two methods of achieving
it - the BieFeld Brown and ion-wind technology are keeping hobbyists scratching their heads. This site gives you the lowdown on Lifter technology and
reasonably even-handed information about it.
- http://jnaudin.free.fr/html/liftbldr.htm
- Another site on lifters, with logs of experiments that have been conducted and plenty of pictures of strange little triangles that look like they're
covered in alfoil.
- www.boxofmonsters.com
- This is an excellent personal page dedicated of all things to monsters.
The Webmaster has a thing about monster masks and collecting them. This little site may find a few admirers. I'm thinking of sending in my face without
a mask to see how much it scares the kids. ;)
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