EARWORM GARDEN // FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS — INNER CITY PRESSURE

1. Finally, some music that speaks of the real problems in life!
2. Flight of the Conchords are an actual band that existed before the series did! I never knew!
3. Have you actually watched the series? It’s just the most brilliantly funny show I’ve watched this side of Spaced.
4. Nice cover art.
5. It just came back to me: I recall driving back from… Nafplio, wasn’t it, with Daphne. We had En Lefko on (right?) and suddenly this started playing. We had watched the episode mere days before. Quite a moment of joy, there. Actually, in retrospect, I should have figured out then and there that they were an actual band…

REVIEW: FINDING THE FOX

Finding the Fox (The Shapeshifter, #1)Finding the Fox by Ali Sparkes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yet another special-boy/girl-gets-picked-up-by-special-school story in the vain of Harry Potter. With Lexicon and Idlewild, I feel like I’ve been reading loads of these lately, yet I have strangely forgotten to grow tired of them. However, it has to be said that Finding the Fox was different from these books: it was simple. Easy to follow, easy to visualize, but beautiful nonetheless. I have a soft spot for beautiful simplicity as a concept, what can I do. And I also have a soft spot for people turning into animals and very detailed descriptions of what it feels like it to be a fox.

I don’t even have to tell you the story: Finding the Fox is almost exactly like Harry Potter, the protagonist himself even more so (quasi-orphan, living with his step-parents and calling a glorified cupboard his room, special powers suddenly emerging, special school comes a-looking, special school is awesome, best part of book is exploring wonders of special school and its students). It doesn’t matter that it’s a book for preteens or early teens, I enjoyed it just the same, similarly, I expect, to how I would’ve enjoyed Harry Potter if I read it for the first time at 26.

Did I mention it’s all just so English, in the same way Harry Potter is just so sine qua non English? It couldn’t be any other way, either, similarly to when Spaced tried to be American and it realised it couldn’t bring itself to ever passably drive on the right, or say “like, like, like…” nearly annoyingly enough.

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“Nobody’s listening…”

Ole Julian is at it again. It’s amazing how he’s managed to preserve his integrity this long.

iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users are all screwed privacy-wise, says Julian Assange. It looks like our privacy doesn’t really exist in today’s world of modern technology with the recent Carrier IQ logging scandal and the one with the iPhone 4 tracking every movement you make a while back. Scary, indeed. And to make matters worse, in a recent press conference Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has made a statement about iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users saying they are simply “screwed”.

~

O ιδρυτής των Wikileaks, Julien Assange αποκάλυψε σε δηλώσεις του πως οι κυβερνήσεις σε  όλο τον κόσμο χρησιμοποιούν ηλεκτρονικές συσκευές, όπως τα smart-phones και υπολογιστές για να παρακολουθούν τι λένε οι άνθρωποι, πού πηγαίνουν και τι γράφουν.

“Ποιος από εσάς εδώ έχει BlackBerry; Ποιος χρησιμοποιεί το Gmail; Λοιπόν, τη γ@#!$@τε!» είπε ο Assange. «Η αλήθεια είναι πως υπηρεσίες πληροφοριών πωλούν σε χώρες ανά τον κόσμο συστήματα μαζικής παρακολούθησης για όλα αυτά τα προϊόντα»

Ο Julien Assange μίλησε στο City University στο Λονδίνο, οπου εγκαινιάστηκε το νέο project των  Wikileaks: τα Spyfiles. Tα spyfiles παρέχουν πληροφορίες σχετικά με τις συμφωνίες που γίνονται ανάμεσα σε ιδιωτικές εταιρείες παρακολούθησης και κυβερνήσεις από όλο τον κόσμο για τον σχεδιασμό λογισμικού παρακολούθησης . Οι συμφωνίες έχουν σκοπό την  παρακολούθηση  των δραστηριοτήτων οποιουδήποτε θέλει η κάθε κυβέρνηση.

Οι συγκεκριμένες εταιρείες, σύμφωνα με τον Assange έχουν την  έδρα τους σε τεχνολογικά εξελιγμένες χώρες αλλά πωλούν τα συστήματα παρακολούθησης και σε χώρες που περιφρονούνται από τη Δύση για τα απολυταρχικά καθεστώτα τους. Μία από αυτές είναι η Λιβύη καθώς η γαλλική εταιρεία Αmesys πούλησε στον Καντάφι εξοπλισμό ώστε να παρακολουθεί τους διαφωνούντες του καθεστώτος στο εξωτερικό.

Η βρετανική υπηρεσία πληροφοριών ΜΙ5 χρησιμοποιεί ειδικό λογισμικό ηχητικής αναγνώρισης ώστε να καταλαβαίνει ποιος μιλάει με ποιον.  Άλλες παρόμοιες υπηρεσίες  ξέρουν πως είναι ο κάθε χρήστης εμφανισιακά, τι πληκτρολογεί και που ακριβώς βρίσκεται. Ένα ειδικό πρόγραμμα επιτρέπει στις υπηρεσίες να φωτογραφίζουν ανυποψίαστα θύματα με κρυφά τοποθετημένες κάμερες στα κινητά. Υπάρχει επίσης πρόγραμμα που επιτρέπει στην υπηρεσία να γνωρίζει που ακριβώς βρίσκεται ο ιδιοκτήτης του κινητού ακόμα και όταν αυτό είναι κλειστό.

«Δημοσιεύουμε πάνω από 287 αρχεία που τεκμηριώνουν την αλήθεια σχετικά με τη βιομηχανία μαζικής παρακολούθησης. Μία βιομηχανία που πωλεί λογισμικά σε δικτάτορες και δημοκρατίες για να υποκλέψει  ολόκληρους πληθυσμούς», λέει ο Julien Assange.

link: theinsider.gr

Tim and Daisy nail it again:

Quotes ~ Αποφθέγματα ΙΙI

Brian: Twist’s in a mood.
Tim: Ooh, what a surprise. An unreliable girlfriend.
Mike: What’s the matter with her ?
Brian: I don’t know. She didn’t really specify.
Tim: That’s right. You’ve got to guess.
Brian: Must be strange being a woman. All that power.
Tim: You what ?
Brian: They are the true creators, because all men do is destroy things.
Mike: Yeah…
Brian: They are the true children of nature. Gaia’s foot soldiers. They look like us…
Tim: Speak for yourself.
Brian: Two arms, two legs.
Tim: Two faces.

Tim, Brian, Mike

Spaced, Season 2 Episode 5: Help

Written by: Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P7dileY9sY

Plus*2/Minus*2

I’m reading a book written by a spectacularly honest frenchman titled “How to talk about books you haven’t read”. In this book, among many other things, he says that a lot of authors refer to books they might have skimmed through or even not read at all. He uses a system within his own book that puts a certain tag next to each book he refers to, ranging from. He also uses a rating system from ++ to — to express his opinion on the particular book.

In detail, ++ is extremely positive opinion, + is positive opinion. – and — are negative and extremely negative opinions respectively. I think this system is perfect for sharing your disposition to something without having to use a 1-10 or 1-100 system. I hate it when people ask me to rate a girl, game, movie, or just about anything from 1 to 10. What’s a 1? Even more importantly, what’s a 10? Can you rate anything with a 10 without having any doubts about whether anything will surpass it, ever? Everything in life is experiences, including all the above, and experiences are rating-proof! By the way, before any of you say it: Yes, since the YRS (Yummers Rating System) is a 1-10 deal, I have concluded that it too is incomplete and needs revision.

I like the ++ to – – so much that I’ll use just it to describe what’s going on in my life at the moment by how much I like it!

++

Paradox Interactive. These guys are one of the best studio/publisher around. I’m seriously hooked with Europa Universalis III and Victoria. Hearts of Iron looks like a thing to check out soon (what am I saying, I already own two copies! I’m not going into detail with that, I want to forget…)

CouchSurfing. I just hosted an Italian guy, his name is Duan. 2 nights it was. I had almost forgot how nice and cozy hosting makes you feel, especially when it’s people you’d easily make friends with but will probably never appearin your life again.

SPACED!! After Hot Fuzz and Dawn of the Dead (I mean, um, a couple of years before those), comes Spaced. It’s awesome, pure awesome, and I recommend it to anyone who has a thing for cleverly stupid humour. Anger, Pain, Fear, Aggression…

Jose Saramago. This guy is quickly, and I mean quickly, becoming my favourite writer. Period. I couldn’t resist and gave ~100 euros to get 5 of his books together (along with the book I mentioned first and 1984). Which brings me to…

1984, by George Orwell. It shocked me. A masterpiece of 20th century literature. I may write something on it one day…

+

Soon I’ll be translating and subbing eco films, and not for free! I am excited for what may be my first paid job.

The Balkans, by Mark Mazower. An excellent read on the real side of “European Turkey”.

I’m entering a Guitar Hero contest. Yay?!

I’m learning Japanese… And want to learn Turkish. I want to communicate with the world! Is it normal that I’m only learning the languages of the… “bad guys” (plus german)?

We dressed up as vampires with Alex. It had been so long since I had done something like that…

In January we made a little cut-out animation for uni. It’s not completely ready yet so don’t expect to have a look if you haven’t already! 😛 It did turn out well though…

My money is running low much faster than would be desirable, even if we eat everyday at the Uni with Mario!

I still think I have no certain purpose or goals. That I’m not really good at anything but only mediocre in lots of things. Same applies to everything. Is this good or bad in the end?

Nationalistic idiots annoy me.

Pop songs that use Beethoven’s 9th also annoy me.

Waking up early to catch those pesky morning lectures is always a problem… So it is now!

No time for everyone that I would like to have more of in my life… You know who you are.

– –

Keeping my house clean is a nightmare.

Rain and cold. Cold and rain. And no central heating This pretty much sums up 2009’s weather up till now. And for the past week, it’s extreme rain and cold. Where’s summer? Where’s the sun?! I seriously don’t believe I’m uttering these words…

Every time it rains, my second room gets flooded. Argh! How can people be so stupid they mess up a balcony this much?

I hate the announcements in the ships. All of them. Lissos, Mytilini especially. I want to kick the (taped) announcers to death. Yes, that’s how much I hate them.