Mental Popcorn

I remember the days of youth, when all things were not so Politically Correct as they are in this day and age. Given that, I can only imagine what some reactions are likely to be to this clip…

Is it encouraging bad driving habits at a young age? Is he likely to grow up being a total hoon? Surely, his father should know better?

Well, whatever happened to childhood fun. You know, F U N, that three letter word that we all don’t like to use so much anymore.

There always seems to be someone somewhere bashing Scientologists, or Muslims, or Christians, or anyone else who believes in something.  In fact, those who don’t believe in anything, still believe in the fact that they don’t believe anything, don’t they?

The problem is that as a human you cannot unbelieve.  Without a point of view, you’d be dead.  Without the experiences that you’ve had in life, life wouldn’t have been lived.

So, don’t be scared of yourself, for it is you who must believe.

Take a look at these snippets… pay close attention you will be tested!

“Insp Richard Watkins, of the major collision investigation unit, said high speed was a factor in the crash.” - Adelaide Now

“Police believe speed was a factor in a crash near Auckland last night that killed two people…” - TV3 News, New Zealand

“Alcohol was a factor in the wreck, Trooper Jeramy Rice said.  It is not known if speed was a factor.” - Helena Independent Record

Now, let’s see… what is “speed”?  Well, according to Wikipedia, it is “the rate of motion, or equivalently the rate of change in position, often expressed as distance traveled per unit of time.” - okay, sounds reasonable I hear you think.

 So, what is a “collision” then?  Again, according to Wikipedia, it is “the action of bodies striking or coming together.  The magnitude of the velocity difference at impact is called the closing speed.”

 Now, I am no physicist, but I will suggest that I am smart enough to understand that:

SPEED IS A FACTOR IN EVERY COLLISION!

Please don’t believe the rubbish that law enforcement agencies have been peddling to support their revenue generating activities, it is about time that people understood that there is a great deal of deception occuring and journalists all over the world fall for it every day.

What people should be focussing on are the facts of whether the vehicle was exceeding the speed limit or not - rather than going for the easy shot and suggesting that “speed was a factor” -  DUH!  We already know that, there was a collision, therefore, there will always be speed!

Okay, this one is for the nerds.

A pretty big claim has been made by Microsoft in this Fortune article that many Open Source software applications (like virtually all of the technology being used by the Mental Popcorn site!) might be in breach of up to 235 patents owned by Microsoft.

This news has put the wind up the Open Source community with Linus Torvalds (creator of the Linux kernel) responding in this article suggesting that, if anything, Microsoft is possibly breaching many more patents from other people instead!

This got me to thinking about Patent Law in general and what restrictions it might potentially put on the betterment of mankind, and has it already been doing this?

For example, imagine (completely hypothetically) if Google had been successful in patenting the “entire” Search Engine concept as a patentable idea?  We all use search engines every day and they are invaluable for finding stuff on the Internet BUT what if they had decided to keep their idea secret - and vigorously litigate anyone else who tried to build a similar service?  At what point does the greater good prevail?

I leave you with this question.  At what point is Patent Law going to prevent human kind from progressing how it should; as an organic structure with the freedom to grow and evolve?

I don’t know about you, but I’m from Generation-X which according to Wikipedia is anyone born between 1961 and 1981. Okay, nothing unusual there, but why is it so god-damn hard for us Generation-X’ers to contribute content to the Internet? As usual, I’ve got some ideas.

I have a brother and sister who are both Generation-Y and it’s amazing how different their perspectives are when it comes to communications technologies; it’s as if their lives are connected via phone, e-mail, SMS and instant messaging all intertwined with each other.

As for me, instead I find myself communicating by more traditional means of telephone and e-mail with SMS fairly infrequently and instant messaging now and then. I even enjoy the now old fashioned art of letter writing, not so much for personal stuff, but certainly for business.

When it comes to contributing content to the Internet, it is Generation-Y that appears to be leaps and bounds in front of anyone else (except for maybe the Internet Generation, but these are still considered a subset of Generation-Y).

To prove that Generation-Y are the content creators, you only need to see MySpace or review the most popular videos on YouTube to really understand that this is the group that are most active in the content creation revolution at the moment.

So, why isn’t Generation-X motivated to blog? Well, this I can tell you from my personal experience, and I think it really comes down to a few points.

• Firstly, I believe that the “sweet spot” for developing life long lasting skills when it comes to communication with friends and colleagues is developed when we are in our teenage years; therefore Generation-X tends to rely primarily on Telephone with some use of SMS and other technologies; whereas Generation-Y has grown up developing relationships online as well as offline due to their high-exposure with multiple forms of communication. This one is pretty obvious.

• Secondly, Generation-X has witnessed the adoption of wide-scale, mass Telemarketing and Direct Marketing and as a result have a deep understanding of the loss of privacy that has occurred in the world; and I propose that this has impacted on Gen-X’s ability to contribute freely to the Internet for fear of one of your friends “Googling” you.

• Lastly, it has been largely the Generation-X skillsets that have built the latter part of the Internet, and as a result have been so busy “doing” that there is less time and/or willingness to create content; especially when you’re busy building technologies being consumed at lightning speed by Generation-Y!!

I really wonder if Generation-X will be the forgotten generation, as the amount of content left behind pales in quantity and significance to what Generation-Y are currently pumping out…

In summary, Generation-X have built what Generation-Y is using.