Why I Prefer to Watch Movies on my Own/Decision Making Inability

Not that I don't enjoy watching some movies with friends. But there are some movies where you just want to watch them alone. Partly because you don't want to annoy anyone else by talking but also party because you don't want anyone else to talk during the movie. Plus if you have a large number of people who would like to watch a movie, deciding what movie it is gets even harder. Some don't like the content, some find it boring, others don't want to watch it because other viewers and critics gave it a poor rating or they don't think it'll be appropriate to the group.

At times not being able to watch a certain movie for one of the above reasons is irritating. Especially irritating is when you find out that you are the only one who hasn't seen it because when you do get together with others it is the only time you can watch a movie. So you end up watching a movie you didn't really have your heart set on because the collective wanted to watch a movie that conflicted with your idea and in order to even get a movie you'd have to choose a movie that remotely satisfied everyone's preferences.

This probably stems from the fact that sometimes a group of friends gather together to do something but have nothing planned. When someone suggests that they do something after they have all gathered, they are asked what they'd like to do (in other words suggest something to do and break the boredom). If and when they do suggest something it has to be considered for the entire group so the suggestor won't seem selfish in his suggestion.
In such a way progress is seldomly made when trying to satisfy the collective and compounded even moreso by each additional group member; the larger the collective, the harder the decision.
When in a group of one, it is much more easier to handle. Only one to satisfy and only one to blame if there is a faulty decision. Unity is hardly an issue and politics cannot and will not play with one. In fact, the pendulum can swing even further to the other side; one may end up making even more than one decision successively, helping to correct bad decisions or possibly making more worse decisions. In either case, one seems favourable for some individual activities. As for group activities with more than one required, it only seemse best if those involved are actually interested in the activity. Otherwise you've got a foot of toes that don't want to wear the same sock, or the same shoe, or even cut their nails at the same time. How's that for a poor metaphor?

Just a short update on the first situation mentioned below. Surprisingly enough a few days after the incident happened the computer was tested in the tech shop and found to be in perfect working order. Even the monitor was fine. One of the lab technicians checked the process again to make sure there were no more screws loose; he found quite a few were rather loose.
In either case the computer is fine, hard drive and all.
Now if I could just convince one of my friends to switch out of Windows ME.

My War with Computers

Part 1: The Catalyst

What a week. Two weeks ago my main supervisor at work went on a 2 week vacation (yes he'll be back tomorrow). During that time any problems we had would be dealt with by the supervisor in the other (Tech wing) department. The time was fairly laid back and uneventful until about the middle of the second week. I was working with a 3rd year teacher on creating a program in Visual Basic 6.0 to monitor on of the processes.

Just so you know the processes that we work with are large contraptions mounted on walls that are best described as a tubing system. There are pipes, valves, control switches, and orifice plates all connected to allow water to flow through them. If you want more info just email me. Or you can view what I'm talking about by looking here. On the far right side of the picture you will see a vertical pipe. Follow it down until you see it turn 90 degrees and start going left. Note that there is a computer just to the right of that turn. Normally, water flows in the opposite direction, to the right and UP the vertical pipe, requiring considerable pressure. Now, the 90 degree junction has a left end and a top end to it. It came loose at the top end and water poured out the top of the bottom of the junction if you know what i mean. In either case it meant a wet computer.

Anyways, the process was running fine and we were working on ideas when all of a sudden one of the pipes came lose. Since the process was running, water was in motion and it went flowing everywhere. Bad enough as this was, the now open pipe was about a foot away from the computer we were working on. Needless to say, when we looked at it, the monitor was black and there was water flowing out of the computer's disk drive. We hurriedly turned the process off as well as the breakers that provided power to the system so as not to get electrocuted. I dumped water off of the keyboard and wiped it off of the monitor and computer box. We're still waiting for results on whether or not the monitor/computer is fried; my guess is that it is. Just in case we took the computer to the tech shop and the computer tech on hand decided to just let it stand and dry for about a day or two (at least 48 hrs) before trying to turn it on. Luckily all the work we had done was stored on the network in a safe, dry place.

Part Two: Windows Strikes back (with hackers too)

This part of the battle is somewhat dryer but more exhausting. I decided to upgrade my computer to Windows 2000 after finally getting frustrated with windows 98se and its instability. So, after a full format and install, which was fine I started running some programs that I had had on the previous computer. Then I ran into some compatibility problems which were unique to Win2k (w2k). One of these happened with an old game that I had recently acquired and had been itching to play. Normally I'd be trying to find a solution on the internet yet the only one i could find was one telling me that w2k was, by nature, incompatible.
Then I started considering Windows XP (XP) pro, which I learned was good for such old games as it had a compatibility mode which could in essence trick the game into thinking it was running on the correct O/S. So after installing XP on my comp I decided to play it. After a couple of hours of tinkering I finally got it to work and it worked beautifully. So i happily played the game becoming ever so ignorant of the fact that I was running Windows XP Professional without any of the critical/security updates, antiviral software, or firewall technology. When i finally did get around to installing the updates (which numbered around 75) I had to deal with malware on my computer that Spybot and Adaware couldn't completely purge. Having had my fun with the old game I decided it was time to go back to w2k since it was more secure and used less resources than XP; I'd decided that the compatibility issue is one of the shortfalls i was willing to take.

So I did a complete format to try and remove all the malware and installed w2k. This time I was installing the updates/adaware/spybot/norton antivirus (which was incompatible was XP)/firewall first. What i discovered was that some of the malware had survived the format by hiding in my Master Boot Record. mbr. After installing the updates for w2k (which finished at about 2am this morning; I had started at 11pm the previous night and had to let the malware run while I did it because it used IE and I needed IE to install the updates grrrr.), I ran Adaware, and Spybot twice as well as Norton to make sure there was nothing left. Then I rebooted from win98 startup disk and purged the MBR of any anomalous materials by fdisking it, and rebooted.

So far I haven't seen anything weird yet but that can change fairly fast. For now I'm going to stay with the w2k installation and try to build a new computer system life on that. Anyways, that's my story about my battle with Microsoft windows.

I'm a lot more aware of it now.

Lately i"ve been posting about movies and other stuff but not really much about philosophical thoughts. More about what's been going on in my life and what movies i've seen. But lately a lot of the stuff I've seen recently has started me thinking about philosophy again.

I am currently about halfway through reading the Chronicles of Narnia. This is the book series written by C.S. Lewis. While it is a children's series it is still interesting to read because of its parallels to the Bible and the Christian faith. I think i read the first four books within 2 or 3 weeks.

Another movie that got me thinking was I, Robot, which was based on Isaac Asimov's short stories and ideas as well as the 3 laws of robotics. The most interesting idea I got out of it was the fact the robots have "evolved" to a level where they are compared on an intellectual plane with humans. What it all boils down to is this.

Robots are a combination of different materials driven to operate by a program written by people. This program is what governs the robot's actions. It doesn't think. It, like any computer, will receive input either visually (optical sensors - eyes) or physically (external sensors - ears, touch).
The movie also introduced the idea that some of the code in a robot can also migrate and form bundles with other bunches of code. This is why robots may tend to do other things not intended by the programmers. The problem with this is that code doesn't change nor migrate. It'd be kinda like throwing ketchup and mustard together and producing relish. Everything a robot does it is instructed to do so depending on the input it receives.
A human on the other hand has the choice. (cue matrix quote: The problem is choice") It has the ability to see the correct response for the answer, and even be compelled to make that choice. But it's an active choice and they have the ability to deny that choice and make a wrong one. A human also has a different thought process; one that is not governed by equations and true/false statements. Humans can think of things beyond what could very well be the right answer.

They can imagine. They can also think of answers to the problem that are not only right but also better. We generate dreams based on many events in our day or what we wish. Our dreams are a mix of those. Artificial intelligence may be advancing, but it will not compare to that of human intelligence. Computers can process information and spit out answers a billion times faster than humans can. But only when it is told to do so and designed to do so.

Probably more on this later...that's my rant for now.