Will’s View

From: Optus MSG
To get a free ringtone, call 966 and select 9 after the greeting. Call costs 30c/30secs, download charges apply, expires 31/05/07. Call 1300720084 to un-sub.

Hmmm.

Well it’s not really ‘free’ is it? There are several things I object to here:

Getting the message in the first place

I never signed up for these messages. I didn’t check a box (I’m always paranoid about that since my hotmail account got so bogged down in spam it just wasn’t feasible to maintain); I didn’t send of a text message saying “I’m a sap, please send me lots of junk mail with the word ‘free’ in it”; and I sure as hell didn’t send off a text message asking for this junk mail.

It ain’t free!

Okay, sure the actual ringtone probably doesn’t cost anything, but how much does the whole process cost?! I reckon about 1 minute (at the least) going through all the options and hearing the alternatives; and a ringtone weighs in at about 200KB (or thereabouts). This adds up to about $3.30. Now is that really ‘free’?! Not to mention they probably lock you into a subscription or something so that they deliver one to your inbox every week and just charge you for it. That’ll learn you for not reading the Terms and Conditions!

Wastage

As a prolific texter (a habit from my younger days) I appreciate a person who can write a good text message. Using all 160 characters to full effect, conveying the maximum amount of information in the smallest space possible. Isn’t that the point of text messaging? There are several guidelines for this, but my service provider has strayed here. They used a space after a full-stop; they ended the message with a full-stop; and the only word they have bothered to shorten is subscribe!

Hmmm

--> From: Optus MSG To get a free ringtone, call 966 and select 9 after the greeting. Call costs 30c/30secs, download charges apply, expires 31/05/07. Call 1300720084 to un-sub. Hmmm. Well it’s not really ‘free’ is it? There are several things I object to here: Getting the message in the first place I never signed up for these messages. I didn’t check a box (I’m always paranoid about that since my hotmail account got so bogged down in spam (More...)

I recently visited a quality establishment in the depths of Ascot Vale for a Parma of gargantuan proportions. I think it was actually larger than my face, with chips and salads to boot!

I ate the whole thing, and almost killed myself in the process, but I was damned if I was going to be beaten by a parma, of all things. Admittedly I felt a little ill after consuming this huge volume of food, but nothing more than I’ve felt after some of the large meals I cook myself (yes mum, I’m looking after myself).

Anyway, fast forward to the alarm going off this morning. I woke up with that seedy taste in my mouth - like the whole thing was covered in grease - feeling dehydrated, and with the onset of a slight headache. In between falling out of bed and hitting the floor I had time to muse that this felt rather like a hangover (not that I’ve ever had one of course, I’m not into that whole binge drinking culture). But sitting at the breakfast table nursing a Berocca and some early-morning Weet-Bix I did reflect that perhaps overeating is very similar to overindulging in alcohol (from a purely hypothetical standpoint of course).

There’s the peer pressure to eat everything on the plate in a small time period. The under-abundance of water to re-hydrate with. The inability to walk straight afterward. The sinking feeling as you realise that you’ve done it again even though you told yourself you wouldn’t. And, most importantly, the hangover the next morning, when you tell yourself that you won’t do it again. Ever.

--> I recently visited a quality establishment in the depths of Ascot Vale for a Parma of gargantuan proportions. I think it was actually larger than my face, with chips and salads to boot! I ate the whole thing, and almost killed myself in the process, but I was damned if I was going to be beaten by a parma, of all things. Admittedly I felt a little ill after consuming this huge volume of food, but nothing more (More...)

I’m not sure if this happens to everyone, but I seem to completely dissociate lecturers, teachers, lab demonstrators and tutors from the real world. They seem to me to be completely cut off from reality, people created just to taunt you with their superior knowledge (and assignments) and things without a social life or any place in the day-to-day running of society. I realise this is a somewhat solipsistic view of the world, but it gets me through the day okay.

Anyway, I digress, today I finally managed to see that one of my project supervisors has a life outside of UofM, and this shocked me. Not only does this person have a wife (God forbid!) but also two (not one, but two) children. Riding in my supervisor’s car, among the baby seats and the general family-car-sensible-ness (I think it was a Toyota Corolla or something similar), it finally hit home that academic staff do have a life outside of university. They don’t all have IQs over 190 and have a reaction to kryptonite. Some of them are vaguely normal and, ultimately, human! Of course there are the special breed that really do have no social life and live to torment students, but I think perhaps they are in the minority.

--> I’m not sure if this happens to everyone, but I seem to completely dissociate lecturers, teachers, lab demonstrators and tutors from the real world. They seem to me to be completely cut off from reality, people created just to taunt you with their superior knowledge (and assignments) and things without a social life or any place in the day-to-day running of society. I realise this is a somewhat solipsistic view of the world, but it gets me through (More...)

Talking with a couple of my friends today about the new “SmartGate” that both Australia and New Zealand are intending on implementing in the near future I recalled an incident I recently had with a self-service checkout at KMart.

It was a bright summer’s day and I had just popped into KMart to buy a couple of things for the upcoming semester. Nothing too challenging, just a couple of books, and a new bike helmet. After perusing the shop (let’s face it, one could lose days in KMart just ‘browsing’) I headed to the checkout. On my relaxed stroll to the checkout I suddenly saw a self-service checkout. Being in the relaxed and open-minded state that I was, I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to give it a go. It wasn’t as if there were too many people at the checkout, I just felt like giving a new-fangled piece of technology a try.

Off I wander to the amazingly interactive and welcoming user interface. Following the user prompts I scan my first item, an exercise book (exciting stuff I know). And then I decide to try a fancy trick I always see at the supermarket, when you’re buying say three of something the checkout-chick/dude just scans one of the items three times, then bags them all. Well I thought it was a good idea anyway! But unfortunately Mr. Self-Checkout had different plans. After battling with the darn thing for a couple of minutes a supervisor comes over to give me a hand (apparently she’s needed there to supervise the self-checkout…). It turns out that it has a weight sensor and it has to sense an increase in weight after each item scanned. Hmmm.

So after having my attempt at being tricky foiled by the self-checkout, I went on to try and pay for my purchases (now stacked up on the weighing device, and with the supervisor looking over my shoulder). Being a poor student with appalling control over my finances I had decided to pay with my credit card. Mistake Number 2. As we all know, the little swipey-thing that you swipe cards through hardly ever works when you want it to (say when you’re using a self-checkout and someone’s looking over your shoulder) and true to form, it didn’t. It must have taken me at least three or four tries to get it to work, and then I had to sign a little digital pad (which I think was pretty cool). But then it had to be verified by the supervisor-lady.

With my supervisor-approved receipt in hand, I finally thought the ordeal was over and I could safely leave the store. Not so! Being a student I was of course wearing a backpack (shameless plug for Macpac), and as such it just had to be inspected before I left the store. So finally I was able to leave, with my wits a little frayed, and my faith in technology almost crushed. Suffice to say I’ll be sticking with the checkout-chick option for a while longer.

[Editor’s Note: This person seems to think they are a great idea. each to their own I guess. Even if they’re wrong.]

--> Talking with a couple of my friends today about the new “SmartGate” that both Australia and New Zealand are intending on implementing in the near future I recalled an incident I recently had with a self-service checkout at KMart. It was a bright summer’s day and I had just popped into KMart to buy a couple of things for the upcoming semester. Nothing too challenging, just a couple of books, and a new bike helmet. After perusing the (More...)

I recently purchased a piece of software.

That’s right, I didn’t ‘borrow’ it, or use someone else’s ‘backup’. I actually bought it. It just so happens that this piece of software is central to my entire degree, and also my final year project, but nonetheless I bought it. Have the corporations won? Have they really made it that hard to pirate software that we actually have to buy it?

Imagine how much money the already overpaid software developers would get paid if everyone actually paid for their software? They would probably get paid weekly in large gold bars, and all drive Bentleys to work. No doubt the wealth of the world, and therefore a large proportion of the world’s power base, would be owned by software writers. What is this world coming to?

For those of you that care, it’s called MATLAB and is a nerdy wee program that does lots of hard calculations.

--> I recently purchased a piece of software. That’s right, I didn’t ‘borrow’ it, or use someone else’s ‘backup’. I actually bought it. It just so happens that this piece of software is central to my entire degree, and also my final year project, but nonetheless I bought it. Have the corporations won? Have they really made it that hard to pirate software that we actually have to buy it? Imagine how much money the already overpaid software developers would get paid if everyone actually paid for their software? They would probably get paid weekly in large gold bars, and all drive Bentleys to work. No doubt the wealth of the world, and therefore a large proportion of the world’s power base, would be owned by software writers. What is this world coming to? For those of you that care, it’s called MATLAB and is a nerdy wee program that does lots of hard calculations.