Facebook Banned in Schools by large Companies - Old News?

I find it interesting that, just a little while ago, there was a giant cry of outrage from many people I know, saying that the ban in certain schools across the province, heck, the continent, against Facebook.com is a bad idea.
Now, I understand both sides of the argument; the schools that say that Facebook isn't schoolwork, and that it's a distraction that can lead to cyber-bullying. Yes, this can be true, but there's also the student's side, which says that that Facebook is an innocent networking tool, and that taking students off the site by blocking it will inhibit them somehow. Either with communicating with people in different continents, or to work on the newest science project with your partner.
It's funny, because it's not usually the schools that control which sites are allowed and which aren't: there are companies hired with the specific purpose of finding the sites that may be "hazardous" to students. So, if one company blocks Facebook, then the entire censor network they run will block it.
Recently, in the Ontario Provincial government, the minister of Government Services, condoned the blocking of Facebook, and it joined the ranks of sites such as YouTube, and many online gambling games.
"[...]"The Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business purposes," the warning reads.
Facebook joins YouTube, online poker gambling websites and hardcore sex sites as verboten in any provincial government office across Ontario, said Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips.
But similar rival MySpace is still accessible to provincial government employees at work.
Facebook is prohibited from being used on computers in some – but not all – federal departments in Ottawa but the provincial ban affects every Ontario ministry. [...]"

Excerpt, The Toronto Star, May 03, 2007, "Facebook banned for Ontario staffers" by Robert Benzie.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/210014

Then, I ask this question; I heard a lot about this issue a while ago, then, well, it basically dissipated. I haven't heard anything really about this as of late. So, is the issue getting old? Maybe. But I still think that, if students really think Facebook helps at school, then we should push to have it allowed again.

TV series Review: Firerfly

Please note that this is the first one of these I'm doing, so please tell me what I've done wrong.

Firefly. Before I saw the series, this name meant nothing to me. Ok, it was a bug, and I'd heard about a television series that had a huge following a while back, ets... Taking advice from the Escape Pod forum, I bought the series on DVD. I found out why "wow" does this series an injustice.
A combination of everything on earth - China, America, Western, Sci-fi, Wit, Serious moments, Comedy, Drama, Love, and everything else a succesful series needs. There was only two things missing then; money, and the huge fan base there is now. Since the days that Firefly was taken off the tube, not even finishing a concrete season, a gigantic fan base has developped. So much so, a movie was made two years ago.
Not bad, for a series that didn't last a year. Anyway, there's a sort of charm about television series that don't live very long... Something that allows them to live in the hearts of people in every continent, everywhere.
On a very interesting note, all the swearing in Firefly is in Cantanese: a direct translation in english of some of the words, and the network ( I think, NBC), would have thrown the show out by it's hair. Nevertheless, it's intersting to hear the languages mixed together in a way that goes to say that every normal, streetworthy person can speak Cantanese and English in the show's world. Heck, the show's universe.

I strongly recommend this show to anyone 16+, who likes Sci-Fi and/or westerns.

9/10

Theory: Absence Makes the Heart grow fonder / Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Some people say that this is true. Personally, I think that once someone is out of sight, one of two things happens (saying that 1 is one person, and 2 is the other):

• 1 begins to think about 2, and thinks of all the good times, making their memory in essence, "grow", becoming greater than life. The heart grow fonder in this way.
  
• 1 doesn't really think of the person much, but from time to time, they do see something that triggers the memory of the person in question, still making them remember, though they don't dwell on it. This doesn't really make the person more important to 1. 2 is just same old 2, no different than he/she was X years ago...
• Going back to the first of the three theories presented that I believe in on this subject, I believe the following is the most interesting. After some time, 1 forgets the little things about 2, and, being the person who does dwell on these things, 1 begins to worry about, let's say, 2's eye colour. Then, because he thinks of 2 so much, the first theory comes into place, and 2 becomes more larger-than-life.

I think that's, kinda interesting, all the same. Also, it seems obvious that I believe the opposite for "Out of Sight, out of Mind".

I'll try to post more frequently in the future.

Jumping 20 Feet, into nothing.

This summer, I went with my Ukranian Scouts Group to Algonquin park for the 49th anniversary. Point is, on the fifth day of the two-week camp, we went on a three day canoe trip away from our "base camp".
Where I'm going with all of this is the following; when we got to a first end of a lake, and were about to enter an interesting canal, we stopped for awhile to wait for the girls to catch up to our group.
There, we found a bridge [overlooking water] that we all jumped off of. Twenty feet. Into water, off a bridge. About one story high. Not bad, I think.
At first, when we jumped, we thought, "I'mgonnadie, I'mgonnadie! wahoo!!". I don't recommend jumping, but it is a once in a lifetime experience. I mean, I hope I do it again, and that I survive, but all the same.
For a final note, at the end, when we left, after the girls had already began their jumps, a guy and girl got chased out of the water by a snapping turtle, and we stopped.

Movie Review: The Sixth Sense

I figured that this was way overdue to see, so I got the movie rented on DVD, and saw it. Personally, I expected it to be a horror flick, and was delighted by what I saw.
The sixth sense is a very interesting and intelligent film, about a phyciatrist. Or so it seems, at the beginning.
With a completely unexpected twist at the end, I belive this movie to be one of the greats - a classic, with no doubt.

9/10

Movie Review: The Last Mimzy

Okay. First off, I just want to say, I actually wanted to see this movie.

Which was a big mistake.

This movie, is childish. It takes a few too many punch lines, instead of interesting happenings. Sometimes, when something interesting starts to happen, all the adults suddenly go brain-dead, as they often do in children's movies, and just say that a girl saying that she de-materialised her hand is just a thing of her imagination.

The scene I hated most, was when the kids escape from a government facility, which has posted no guards anywhere and find a truck with it's keys in the ignition. Then, after a little argument, and some more poor acting, the "older" (9-year old) brother drives the van, to a deserted little corner where they run out of gas.

They then get saved by their teacher, who's eccentric wife forces to drive over there because he had a dream about the place.

1/10

Best since ET? Maybe for most 5-year olds who want to see a "kids rule!" movie. But other than that, there isn't much for the average 10+ viewer to see.

Movie Review: The Usual Suspects

I believe that, of all the cops and robbers flicks I've seen, this is one of the best. In fact, I suppose that this isn't really a robber's film, but that's for you to figure out.

The story has a lot of good twists, that and good acting makes this movie a classic.

Trying not to give anything away, I have to say that Soze is a classic and otherwise beautifully crafted character.

9/10

Theory: Seeding

I've heard a theory that's been floating around for a long time now, and I'd just like to write it
down here. [If you know who came up with this theory, leave a comment and I'll add their name here].
It goes something like this:

How did life start? Why? It is possible that, when a certain meteor fell from the sky to the earth, it had come from another solar system, and had some form of life on it. Chances are, that it was bacterial life, since that's what we think that life here started as... If not, what started us off?

The last question is, I find a very interesting one... I wonder if we'll ever find the origin of life.

Theory: Theories and Ideas

Theories are essentially ideas that need yet to be proven, or at least, they are proven when enough evidence is shown to make them look true. Very rarely, a theory is entirely correct, unless it's very simple.
So then, if that's true, then I say this: no idea is entirely true. Somewhere, there's a untruth. Even in what I am saying now, someone can show me why it's wrong. My point is, maybe, whenever we talk, we invent new theories, or put new spins on ones that were presented to us just before.

Basically, when I say "David just left quickly to the supermarket.", this is what I believe. There is a slight possibility that I was hallucinating, that David did not in fact leave. Therefore, it's a theory. Then, when someone else says "He also took my twenty dollars strait out of my pocket!", this can be argued against with the very fact that David may not have taken the twenty, it's possible it wasn't a twenty, that he took it out of the person's hand, instead.
Even if David were to uphold these claims, then there would be the problem that he too could have been hallucinating... The possibilities are endless to this argument.

Toolbar

One may notice the new link on the sidebar of my blog, ( ). This is but a toolbar that I've made for my site, Startrekwiki.wetpaint.com. It's actually really cool, and free. Made by Conduit.com, this free toolbar actually has a news reel that has the STW RSS feed on it, a link to the site, it's forum, the log in page, ets.. In other words, Conduit.com allows you to do a lot more than just make a toolbar: it helps you generally. So, I recommend that you click on the link that says "Add to". Then, go to conduit.com and make your blog a toolbar!

Tell me.

Please tell me I'm dreaming. This is halerious! Read the text on this translated web-site:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.thueringen.info/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTh%25C3%25BCringen%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLJ

They need to improve this feature. On the sidebar it says: "Meals, and drinking." That mixed with "Use Conditions" on the bottom, well...

Theory: In the beginning

Ok. Here I have another musing of mine, just something to pass the time.

What if, when we were a young species, Male and Female were actually completely different? What if, one was a dog-like creature, with fearsome fangs, and the other, a plant eater, or some combination of different species. Then, one day, somehow, these two entirely different species "came together", and, by survival of the fittest, the early human outlived both these species?

Ok, here's an idea: what if those two species were actually intelligent, explaining our intelligence?

Clock

Since I'm nowadays ranting about all the widgets I can find on the net, here's a couple:

The Time in Toronto:




5.5/10

The Weather Here

I know that I'm near obsessive about the weather, so I'm going to switch the current "CO2 Emissions" Gaget for a "Current Weather" one. Just for now. If I get a riot on my Mailbox about the change, I'll switch it. Here's a preview:

Little Pig Adventure

I think I'll do this for now. Make a review, then add the EMBEDed game in a later post.

Little Pig Adventure Guide the cute little pig towards the exit point in every stage by dodging various moving security cameras.

Play this free game now!!

Little Pig Adventure Review

Okay, so this is a game that I found on a site recently, and I followed a link, to an EMBED code. This game is a little different from TD Tower defense and Desktop Tower defense because it's:

1. In a foreign language, (okay, not in English)
   
2. A click-move game
3. Seems Easier
4. In later levels, it isn't.

So, I decided to do a review:
This game is basically about a pig in a "jail" trying to eat the most... Things to move faster, without hitting the walls, and without getting caught. To play, you click to move to the area that you clicked. Simple, right?
Well, as with any game, it can get harder. More sentinels, less speed, (sometimes too much? not sure. If so, I haven't made it to that level yet), and smaller "doors", can always thwart a pig's attempts to evade a so-called "jail". Plus, It's in French.

5.5/10

Could be better. You'll see why.

Out with the Old, in with the New. Good advice?

I'm not one to give advice, but I find that this is a flawed statement. "Out with the old, in with the new", is a little bit of a paradox in certain ways; if you go "Out with the old" to the extreme, that would literally mean getting rid of everything old, including memories. Technically, a statement, such as "Out with the old, in with the new", is a thought, and after that thought has occured, it becomes a memory.
Therefore, you forget the concept of "Out with the old, in with the new" because of itself. Then, in theory, you could fall into a vicious circle, a constant pattern of thought. You think of "out with the old, in with the new", so you discard the memory of that thought, either keeping you from doing so again, or, you think of it again, and again you force yourself to forget it.

That's only in extreme cases.

But, in certain cases, "out with the old, in with the new" can be helpful, to a degree. Objects, technology needs to be updated, serviced so that it keeps working. Sometimes, it needs to be replaced with the new.

Obsessions with technology

Is our society too technology obsessed? I mean, we have YouTube, iPod, Blackberry, the Internet... The list of different technologies that people are addicted to is endless. So, where do we draw the line? Where do we say, "stop!" to the money making dealers of technology that subliminally tries to convince us that we need it really badly, eventually making us dependant on these technologies. This brings up memories of the Reaserch in Motion crash a few weeks ago - it led to thousands of different blackberries not being able to e-mail, resulting in money loss.

Where do we draw the line on this?

Nobody temperatures

I'm not sure why I'm writing this one down, but there you go... In any case, my story is this:

I have a temperature monitor in my house, with an exterior sensor. Everyday, I add a two new temperatures: that of the morning inside, and out, and that of the evening, inside and out. Every so-often, I write them into an Excel document. Every time there is at least one mini meter of rainfall, I write it down. I haven't for the last few months written down either of these measurements into Excel, so I'll have to during the summer break.
In any case, my point is that there are certain temperatures that I refer to as "no-body temperatures". These are mild temperatures during the winter, and also mild ones during the summer. Their range is 2ºC to 15ºC, arguably. Your mom phones you to wear a jacket when these temperatures are present during the summer, while during the winter, she calls you up to tell you to remember to wear a lighter jacket.

The New Tower Defence

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/ is, as you can imagine, another TD game. In this game, there are a few differences from Flash Element TD, which I will outline here.

Good points: Bigger board, more money, you can build your own maze, there are more types of towers, and you can decide weather to use a so-called "fun mode". In essence, there are more choices. Plus, there is no advertising during the loading period.

Bad points: No EMBED code provided, flying creeps do not follow your maze (for better, or for worse) and you run out of money faster. Plus, the towers are basically the same concepts as for Flash Element TD, just tweaked a little. The timer (yes, there is one) runs out slowly, and one usually ends up pushing the "next level" button a lot. Also, after awhile, little creeps can go through cracks in your maze, which is really annoying.

Scheduled outage at 4PM PDT on Blogger

The "Scheduled outage at 4PM PDT on Blogger" didn't seem to happen to Brain Radiation for unknown reasons. What is known, though, is that it has yet to be explained, and that nothing new seems to have happened.
Maybe it's just a background software update, or maybe, it's something more sinister... :)

How the Market Works Dot Com

I most recently found a very interesting web-based, free program [please note that this is the usual combination for useless, annoying and stupid] that is actually quite good. howthemarketworks.com is a top-notch free stock-market simulation, which is very cool for using real stats, with 15-20 minutes delay. Here, you can chose how much "money" you can have available to you to "buy" "stocks".

It also has a forum.

Theory: Life in a bubble

I'm sure this theory is old, but, here you go, anyway:

"What if, the entire universe was made-up of different chambers. What if, in the center of a galaxy, there was the center of the chamber, made up of very dense stars that, together, create enough gravity to keep the galaxy together.
Now, imagine that each galaxy was encircled with some kind of glass; something to keep beings of that galaxy from contact, and to keep from losing gases and/or other planetary material. That would be a waste [to lose those]."

Now, imagine the first extra-galactic space-ships unknowingly piercing that "glass", and the even bigger suction of whatever the stuff around the galaxies is, pulling everything in our galaxy into the void, tearing every single thing in our galactic home apart.

Ouch? We'd probably not feel, or see it, depending on how fast the sucking goes.

I have idea for a story: what if, a space-faring civilization unwittingly already punched that hole, but the suction is so slow, that so far, it's only the outer "glass" that's come off.

Maybe that's why we can see other galaxies... But this is probably just sci-fi thinking on my part.

May Day

Today is the first day of May, also known as May Day. During May, spring is officially sprung, and High school students get all their final exams and the teachers are writing the report cards.

Today is known in high schools sometimes as "mayday".

Theory: Dimension Crossing

Once, when I was little, I came up with this theory from reading too much Star Trek:

"What if, every time you entered a room through a doorway, you were entering a different dimension? There are obvious problems with that. But then, if we were to make, let's say, a building where every room was a different dimension through the use of "inter-dimensional devices". Then, you could ransack one room, then enter another. After, let's say ten minutes, you re-enter the room, and re-ransack the room because every time you re-enter the room after some time, the "inter-dimensional device" inside has changed things to a different dimension."

The problem with that is, if the "dimensional device" fails for one reason or another, then you're stuck in that dimension. There is also the problem that, you could be stuck trying to find your dimension through infinite ones. A problem in itself.

If the reader finds other faults with this theory, leave a comment, and I'll add that problem to the list.

Flash Element TD - The game

I'm putting this in a separate post, because otherwise, I fear that there may be too much on one post. Yesterday, I found Flash Element TD. Today, I found the EMBED for it on it's site. Check it out:

Flash Element TD

This web-based click-see-what-happens is really mostly a small, one-time, flash game. I got bored during the first ten minutes.

The objective: Figure out the right amount of the right type of defensive building to use, then see what happens.

The good: This game is good, if you have only a very few minutes of free time on the net.

The bad: Flash Element TD isn't a name you would think of when you go for "Warcraft meets Starcraft". You have to know what to look for... In any case, this is not the best game I have ever seen, thought it is pretty fun for a short while, it gets annoying.

5/10

Time for dogs

I've heard that because the life of a dog is so much shorter than our time, that it means that it's perception of time is different.
Maybe this is because it's memory is far better, and therefore, at least short-term, it's memory records everything in perfect detail, taking longer for the dog to see/feel/smell the sensory information.

Desktop Manager

Desktop Manager, is a very good program that allows you to have more than one desktop, as many as you want. It's available for Mac and Windows, but [unfortunately] the Mac version is better. I know this, because I have the Windows on my parent's, and the Mac version on my computers.

MMORPG

The best MMORPG that I've found to date, is one a friend of mine was looking at. It's called Tank Ball. Being a massive Shockwave web-based game, it's VERY hard to run on a Mac. Installing Sockwave itself is a pain on it's own on a Mac.

In any case, I think you should check out this game. It's the best. If you see someone called Webmaster20, it's me.

Tell me baby

This is one of my favorite Red Hot Chile Peppers songs. I have here the video and song:





I recommend the video first.

Crazy

This is a very popular song by Gnarls Barkley. Video:

Courage, bravery

Courage and bravery's stereotypes are such that are "Someone who can ignore fear, and go on without it." I believe that courage is living with that fear, accepting it as your own. Not exactly embracing it, but not shunning it, either. Accepting the fact that it will be there, and that there's not much you can do to stop it.

In any case, I suppose it depends on what kind of person you are. Personally, this works for me.

Wikipeidia

I've noticed that, whenever you write an article on Wikipeidia, someone will delete it if it's too short. I mean, if you were to write a short, precise article about, say, the blackberry death yesterday, and it will be "speedily deleted". My question to you is, why?

Blackberry Death

What happened? No-one knows. At about 8:00 last night, all blackberry data functions died (data functions = E-mail, the Net, IM ets.). RIM seems to have no explanation for this occurrence, other than that they're trying to get it fixed. Listening to the CBC on the way home today, I heard that the following could be the culprits, in some way or form:

- Insane amounts of Spam
- Backup Systems failing (this is a certainty)
- All data going through Waterloo, and a physical system crash there,
- Or, RIM wanted to shake it's customers into getting backup BBs.

Most BlackBerries were back up at 6 this morning.

Random Science Fact

"Every action has a reaction"

Newton's third law.

Random Science Fact

100% of questions is a question.

Thesis: Conversation Murder

There are many ways to kill a conversation. Tell a lie everyone knows is not true, make a bad/offensive joke, or simply let things trail off.

How does a conversation trail? Why does a conversation trail off? These are some of the questions this fake study will try to disassemble, figure out.

Google Reader

This is an awesome little program that I've actually taken a liking to. What it does is nothing new: it organizes RSS feeds. For free, which partially why I like it. I also like it because it has a Google homepage widget, and very good UI [User Interface]. I particularly like it because Firefox supports it, allowing me to automatically subscribe to feeds with Google Reader.

In other words, I like it because of it's ease of use. Which is surprising for someone like me.

Polls

This is something I'm experimenting with. Try it out:

Get Free Opinion Polls

The following was found at http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm

The End of the Internet

Congratulations! This is the last page.

Thank you for visiting the End of the Internet. There are no more links.

You must now turn off your computer and go do something productive.

Go read a book, for pete's sake.

I mean, who writes these kinds of things?

Hatred for updates

I hate it when people don't update. I mean, I was recently on a website, recommended by my friend, and it hadn't been updated in weeks. I like fresh sites, with the most recent information available.

I think many people agree.

YouTube

I have made some YouTube advertisements for my website, Star Trek Wiki. Check them out:

The last one malfunctions a bit.

Initiation

The countdown has started,
The time dies brokenhearted,
For life has from this person darted,
Into the night.

10 minutes to ETA,
Something has gone astray,
If I knew what is amiss,

I wouldn't be writing this.

Theory: Balance

I think that the entire world is based on balance: If you think about any problem long enough, then you'll find an easy answer. There is an easy and hard answer to everything.

But then, there is always an easier way to explain things, right? So: What if we sent out millions and thousands of scientists to research the reason for life, we would eventually find an easy answer. But, then, would the answer just keep getting simpler, and simpler?

According to this, you can make a child understand cold fusion.

Music

There are some pretty nice Blog music players around. I've added "Back to the future" onto my blog. I'll experiment more later.

Wireless

Life is better when you don't need to worry that someone is going to walk in front of your wireless connection and disrupt it.

I don't have that luxury.

Theory

I have a theory.

Millions of years ago, there may have been another, intelligent civilization. One made-up of non-humanoids. When they were dying out, they took the dinosaurs with them. That could potentially explain a lot. Anyway, now our civilization may die out because of global warming, nuclear war, or worse, and we may wipe out, say, the elephant. Then, millions of years in the future, the next type of intelligent life to spring into the forefront will wonder, "What wiped out the Elephants?"

Wouldn't it be cool to survive to see what animal will become (the next?) a form of intelligent life?

Creation

If I ever write such a story, this would be the opening paragraph:

Man has always wanted control over nature. Whenever he gets it, he makes a mistake, and people die. Then we learn not to do that mistake again, and we make others, instead.
So, as the creature rose from the pink waters of the containment area, the thoughts going through it's mind were ones of confusion, of interest. It had, after all, in a past life, been a scientist. Then, it's preditorial instincts took over, and no-one escaped the lab. No-one dared enter, and those who did, never returned. Some went in, none came out. Then, a few years after creation, the creature got bored of it's cavernous lab dwelling...

Funny Star Trek Parodies

The following are parodies of the classic sci-fi show, Star Trek:

Something

These are just some pics I compiled from different sources.

Sleep

Late at night,
I sit in general fright,
Waiting for the thing,
Thinking of it, makes my head ring,
For I will soon remember,
None that will soon transpire,
For it is ne like sitting by a nice,
warm fire,
Nay. It is more like
Ice eating through your skin like never before,
Like something quite opposite of herbivore,
But no memories will I keep,
For this is dreaming, and this is sleep.