Jumping into Solaris 10

In November last year I signed up for the Sun microsystems media kit program; Free Solaris Software DVD Kit. It arrived today, and as I am sick of Ubuntu, I am currently backing up all my files and I am going to give Solaris 10 a go for a while.

I have used Solaris as a server, but this will be my first real Desktop experience. I will let you know how I go.
It should be fun :)

Why blame technology? again!

I was reading Regina Lynn post today: Breath of Fresh Air: Internet Not Evil, which linked to the following article: It’s the people - stupid.
I thought it was an interesting continuation on my post the other day:
Why blame technology for bad behavior?

Why blame technology for bad behavior?

I would like to congratulate the Victorian government once again on their fear based, knee-jerk reaction to the Internet and computers. Victoria is an Australian state, and it has decided to ban YouTube in government run schools. Supposedly in a bid to stamp out bullying.
Why on earth are people still so scared of computers?
Why do they blame technology for other problems?
Why do they think by banning a web site they can stop anything?
Plus what on earth does bulling have to do with YouTube in the first place?
Wont students just go and look this stuff up at home if they are banned at school?
Doesn't this type of behavior just cause a Streisand effect?

There was no YouTube when I was at school, and I had the same 4-5 girls bully me as apart of my everyday high school experience. I don't think technology had anything to do with that, actually I'm sure of it!

Why aren't we teaching children how to use the Internet? and what to do if they come across inappropriate material. Teaching them to filter themselves, to know what is right and wrong for them. Banning things from people only causes a Streisand effect, and covetous behavior.
Why aren't we finding out why kids are bullying and put a stop to it? (Or at least effort.)
Why do we censor children instead of teaching them?
How can you teach a child to grow and become their own person if they are being banned from things, having their freedom taken from them?
How can you show trust in children when you haven't shown them how to take care of themselves?

Haven't educators/parents realized that "I am what ever you say I am"! If you treat people a certain way then they are eventually going to act that way. It is simple human psychology.

The ONLY thing school teaches you is; your place, it teaches you to follow. Any original thought is squashed, and individuality heavily discouraged. When I entered school, I could read at a 6 grade level, I was quite smart. Smart enough that I scared the teachers into ringing my parents, and threatening them for what I knew. Then I was in trouble from both teachers and parents over and over again, until finally in grade 3 I gave up. I didn't do the work, I stopped learning, and I became a quiet kid that no one knew, and they all left me alone (well until high school). I'm still catching up for all that time lost. I still consider myself to be stupid, after all; "I am what ever you say I am".

Schools are only damaging our children, turning them into sheeple, that follow, and can't make decisions for themselves. Sheeple that you can't trust to do anything without holding their hand, "trained monkeys" (as I have heard a school teacher describe his students). What educators, and governments are failing to realize is that children are way better at computers, and technology than most adults.
Personally I am not at all amazed to watch a child use a computer, show me a person in there 80's or 90's using it, then I will be impressed.

We should be helping teach our children, not sending them off to some strange place and having others squash their potential, and worse! Imagine all of the brilliant minds lost in formal education. Adults that are now to scared (or to well trained) to use any individual thought.

Congratulations again to the Victorian government, for showing us that fear of technology, lack of understanding and knowledge, has once again lead to censoring our children, instead of teaching them. After all isn't the student also the teacher?

The following links are on similar topics, if you get a chance some of them are very interesting: Protect the Children From Porn , THE PSYCHOPATHIC SCHOOL , Bullying in schools.

IT companies with no web presence

I'm currently looking for work in every place that I can find it. Today I decided to pro-actively write a resume for each of the IT companies around my local area, to advertise my skills, and let people know that I am available. I approached the project with excitement and eagerness. I really want a job badly, even if it only gives me some experience and lead into the IT industry.

I thought that after a couple of web searches and some hunting through the phone book I would be able to find many companies, view their websites and then work from there. Finding out what they are all about and weather or not they would be interested in someone with my skills.
However I was to find something very different...

I can't believe the number of IT businesses in my area, which do not have an on-line presence at all, nothing. Some of them don't even have an e-mail address. Others have a contact hotmail or bigpond address, and that's it. It seems amazing to me it really does. I don't understand why as a "IT/computer" company you wouldn't have a web presence.
I am still in shock this may take me some getting over.

Of the companies which do have an on-line presence, I was amazed at the quality of some of the web sites. Don't get me wrong some of them are at a Very high standard! Others I could teach a monkey to write. Worse still some of the bad ones are actually web design companies.

I think I need a break...

Happenings

The past weeks happenings have certainly been interesting ones. My partner and I have been fixing up our car, getting new tires, and doing general maintenance. As well as fixing a couple of problems; including a massive crack in the radiator. I learned how to solder big things. I have only ever done electronic soldering before, so this was really interesting.

I have also been having next door neighbor problems! I forgot that helping people is a crime. My partner and I helped the 86 year old lady next door, and ever since we have had one drama after another with her husband, and daughter. It went to the extent of having to call the police last week. I don't understand why some people are like this. I think respect has gone out the window.

Speaking of lack of respect; My partners eldest boy turned up at our place on Friday night, on his motorcycle, with learners plates, and proceeded to pull a beer from is jacket and drink it.
I couldn't believe it! Not only didn't he have any respect for his father, but he had no respect for the fact that we don't drink. Nor the fact that it is illegal for a sixteen year old to drink, or to ride a motorcycle on "L's" with any alcohol in his/her system. He had no comprehension of how he could kill someone or himself doing this.
He's normally a good boy, and I certainly don't want to put him down in anyway. I just don't understand where the lack of respect comes from. It seems that this type of behavior is common place among so many people these days.
What has happened to having respect for yourself and others? Has the school system crushed this from our kids as well now?

Self Corruption

So much for the last couple of days. I got caught out in the rain and since then I have been really unwell. I am feeling a little better today so I thought I should come and write down some of the things in my head.

My Writing
I often get disappointed about my writing. I always think it could be so much more; that I could put things in a more accurate, descriptive and or thoughtful way. Often I don't feel like I have said what I `wanted to say'. I have been thinking about this problem, and I believe that there are two things that cause me to feel this way. These two problems certainly effect other areas of my life and not just my writing, yet today I just want to look at my writing.

Firstly I'm a perfectionist, and everything I do is not perfect, in fact nothing I do lives up to the expectation I place upon it. This is such a flaw in my thinking. I don't treat anyone else this way. I don't expect anything from anyone. Yet of myself I expect unreasonable and often impossible things.
I need to start treating everything I do as a learning experience! and stop trying to reach unreachable ideals. As this attitude only leads to disappointment, due to either not completing the task at all, or not being happy with it, and feeling as though it is never completed.

Secondly I believe the other problem is that I don't want to get personal. I'm a very private person and I don't like to give to much away about myself. Yet this leads to a number of problems;

• It totally corrupts the creative process and leads to opinions and ideas being stifled and filtered.
• Also no one knows who I am. I don't have a online nor a professional identity that is known.
• In not wanting praise for my work no one even knows who completed it, and I don't get more work from it.

Therefore I have no work, no money and no one knows me, Purely because I am not putting myself out there. This is a problem!!!
I need to say hey world this is me and this is what I can do. Otherwise I'll never get anywhere.

Navel Gazing

Have you missed me?
I have taken the last couple of weeks off to do some thinking. I have even had a few days away from the computer. I felt I needed this time. I needed to figure lots of things out. I still need to figure out heaps more, yet I think I am nearly on the right path now.
I will be discussing some of the things that I have been thinking about and some of the decisions that I have made over the next couple of days.

Geeky Bits³
Today I want to touch on the topic of my blog: Geekybits. One of the things that I wanted to figure out was exactly what my blog is for. At the moment I feel as though it's is all over the place, even I'm not sure what it is about.
This is not good!
It makes things hard on me and you! So from now on I am going to keep my blog for the purpose of expressing my opinion to my readers. Although I think that I will still do the occasional review, I want to keep things on topic. I want this to be a place to express myself, especially my geeky bits :)
I don't think this will be a very huge change, and it should make life easier on everyone concerned.
I hope you continue reading ... Cheers Kris