To all my avid readers... I've been busy developing my business site.. and it hasn't left much time for rants on this that and the other.
This: I have been wondering for some time where the voice of moderate (mainly Western) muslims has been? Where are the voices of those that are devout followers of Islam... those that believe and practice teachings that encourage peace, love and kindness towards their fellow man... those that wish to see an end to senseless violence...
You would think that you would hear more stories about muslims from around the world attempting to appeal to radicals in the middle east (and elsewhere) to stop violence against innocent people.
I am sure that there are countless muslim groups doing just this sort of thing, but sadly there is little media coverage of it. Then again I suppose media editors find a decapitation story to be sexier than a story about people attempting to stop decapitations (unless of course they are successful - as in this case).
I don't mean to make light of this story - nor do I wish to paint all media with the same brush - but there are certainly many voices being heard more strongly, via the media, than others.
That: I never bothered to make the move to Internet Explorer for my day to day browsing. The only time IE would open on my desktop was if there were sites that were broken in Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox (Through no fault of the web browser - rather because some site developers didn't bother to write standards compliant sites). It looks as though the time has come for others to abandon IE for something better. Firefox is certainly leading the way.
Mind you I'm not too thrilled that Firefox opted to take some user interface cues from IE (such as where the browser settings are changed) - but I can understand that if you are to woo the IE user to make a switch you might want to keep things where they (95% of current users) are used to finding them.
But, the speediness, the ability to customize the browser and the standards compliance (to name a few) far outweigh any reservations I have in calling firefox the greatest thing since Netscape 2.0.
Other: Apparently Canadians are just as goo-goo for their Idols as their dopey american counterparts. I don't understand this entire American/Canadian/World Idol fascination.
You would think that people would automatically tune out of something that is so staged and so LAME. This story about fans of the winner of Canadian Idol being upset that a third place contestant's version of a song is being played on the radio absolutely blows my mind. While the fans are upset that the "loser's" version of the song got played on the radio, none of them seemed to be upset to find out that all three contestant finalists recorded the same single prior to the show finale. They aren't upset to discover that regardless of who they (the fans) chose as a winner - they (the fans) were going to be subjected to the same initial single.
Nobody seems to be bothered by the fact that the outcome of the Idol shows has absolutely nothing to do with fan participation. The outcome is always going to be the same - a) some shmoe will be voted fan favorite - b) a single will be released - c) and people will buy it. With b) and c) having little to do with a) besides the name and picture on the sleeve.
I don't know who the winner was - nor do I have the slightest idea of who didn't win. But I know who the losers are: every idiot that has been sucked into this program and has become an active participant in their own manipulation by the show producers.
Get a clue people - its not your Canadian Idol... its the producer's Idol... and your only role is to consume whatever they feed you.
*sigh*
Finally - I find it sad that This That and the Other all share headlines on the same day... Well, not so much that they share the headlines on the same day, but rather that many people are more interested in That and the Other as opposed to This. Especially when you consider how trivial That and the Other are when compared to This.
andre
Posted by andre at September 27, 2004 02:55 AM