Julien McArdle
My inane life… in glorious details!
Tuition Fees Hike
Feb 11th
As compared to general inflation, tuition fees have skyrocketed. We all know this. Meanwhile, while wages have increased, they haven’t reached anywhere near the levels necessary to match the same kind of lifestyle one could maintain back in the early nineties. Being a university student has never been harder.
People say we’re being gouged. Ask them by whoom, and they can’t answer. However, what is overlooked is that while tuition has increased, it has matched the inflating cost of running such institutions. It costs more to run universities these days. Why? Now that’s the million dollar question.
What I can tell you is that I’m frustrated at the lack of productivity that arises from oversimplifications of “students vs. big bad ________.” There are economic dynamics at play here that are far more complex, and that are not properly exposed to the general populace. It is these that we must understand, in order to enact the small shifts necessary to better the situation. Or at least understand how good the situation already is.
But no. People will instead focus on the path of least resistance, which is to banter and banter until the powers that be themselves react to the situation. That said, given the recent hikes in tuition, there’s not much promise there. It’s deceptive really, because the idea of making small changes to a complex dynamic is much more implementable than trying to influence the entire dynamic alltogether.
Seeing how Quebec manages to maintain their low tuitions seems like a good start.
Comment Spam
Feb 4th
Well, believe it or not, comment spam is a huge problem for this blog. At one point, I installed a small catchpa script (you know, those annoying boxes where you have to re-type an obfuscated mix of numbers and letters.) It worked – up until last month.
You see, spammers hire individuals to fill out these forms for them. It’s an automated process, and those that fill out the forms get fractions of a cent per completed form. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s viable in third world regions where there is access to cyber cafes.
These are the terms that are on my blacklist. If you type any of these words, your post will automatically be deleted. No moderation, just straight-out deleted. If anyone else has a new way of defeating these spammers, I’m all ears.
Blacklisted words:
emistry.com
forex
phentermine
casino
xanax
syntrax
71.104.7.176
59.92.39.221
72.197.80.212
206.222.30.2
69.93.240.143
207.226.172.18
66.98.134.34
analsex
195.225.176.84
69.61.29.218
38.96.1.97
68.87.64.106
http://www.axo.ho.com.ua
tramadol
phpbbx.de
freepowerboards
blogspot.com
.info
University Tuition Fees Mini-Documentary
Jan 28th
Keep in mind the source when watching this. It’s pretty well known that tuition fees have increased far beyond inflation. Was post-secondary education simply just too cheap in the eighties? Is there more to this? Or is it a question of the Ontarian government going the wrong direction? In any case, it has some pretty damning footage of Dalton McGuinty.
Sloan Concert & Aftermath…
Jan 27th
‘Twas fun. After seeing four bands perform, we headed to the Honest Lawyer. You can see all the photos here.
 
TWAT Episode on GIS & Remote Sensing
Jan 26th
So it’s 3PM, and I have a massive University report due the day after. What do I do? Well anything but, of course! This is specifically the period when I’m most productive in all my other projects – when I’m procrastinating about doing homework.
My victim this last Wednesday was recording a TWAT Episode on GIS & Remote Sensing. It’s basically a quick fifteen minute introduction to the world of Geographic Information Systems and satellite data. You can preview the show here. It should officially be released over the next month or so.
TWAT is, according to the website:
T.W.A.T. is a hardcore tech daily internet radio show that has multiple hosts, guest, and topics. There are 1000′s of internet radio shows that talk about what the hosts had for breakfast. This one is going to be HARDCORE TECH. The mortals wont understand it, but then again, it isn’t for them, its for us. The shows only have to be five minutes long, but the hosts are welcome and encouraged to go over that limit.
2600 Website Complete
Jan 26th
After a year’s worth of promises, I’ve finally completed the *new* *dynamic* Ottawa 2600 website. This beats the old website (here), which was static. You had to edit the HTML pages manually to update news and meeting info on the website. While that manual-labour aspect could of been handled by a Bash script, this new PHP-based system is just easier. Editors can write new entries, which are updated throughout the menus of the site automatically.
FOX threatens to delay movie releases in Canada…
Jan 25th
Apparently FOX sent a letter to Cineplex’ top levels of management, warning them that if they can’t get the camcording issue under control, that they may delay movie releases in Canada. Sort of like they already do to all non-North-American markets.
Multiple figures within the article complained that the laws, which require a substantial evidence base, were without teeth. A case was alluded to whereby a man in the United-States was given an 8 year sentence and a $250,000 fine. (He might as well have “accidentally” run over those that witnessed his criminal act – he would of probably received less jail time.)
The article then goes on about the stereotypical talk of Canada being on a “watch list”, that the rate of piracy in the US fell dramatically when new more tough laws were enacted, implying links of this kind of piracy with the mafia, and making claims that we are a cesspool for pirated imports of DVDs from China/Pakistan/Russia.
These are tough words, and I can’t help but to bear an extreme sense of cynicism of the whole matter. FOX would not actually go through with this; the sheer hypocrisies and questionable lack of effectiveness of such measures ensures it so. No, these are words to scare people into action.
Either way, I hope that FOX does actually go beyond the “pressure tactic” level, and implement such a delay. Perhaps then, they’ll have one less thing to blame Canada for. And perhaps then as well, seeing how we’re second rate to Americans, Canadians will ponder the previously unfathomable idea of investing in their own film industry.
Current Projects…
Jan 23rd
GIS:
- 3D Urban Visualization & Streamlining, Ottawa City Core, UofO Campus, Ottawa Neighbourhood. Using data to recreate the city of Ottawa in 3D, with aims for multiple business applications.
Movies:
- “On Piracy v.1.5″ – Finalize cuts, make DVD. Expected Release: February, some time.
- “H4CK3R5″ – Complete script, make arrangements to be in production come May. Shoot in late March for one particular scene. Expected Release: In time for Defcon 15 (August 2007.)
- “The Impact of Man” – Write, shoot, release. Expected Release: Beginning of March.
- [Codenamed: Montreal] – Pre-production. Expected Reelase: September 2007.
Web-Design:
- Make anti-bullying website for school board.
- Make o2600 website.
Moi? Busy? Never. And that’s on top of both full-time school and work. And I’m not being paid a single cent for any of these. If anything, esp. as it pertains to the movies, I’m loosing money. I’m a fool for doing all of this now. A complete fool. I can’t afford it, yet I’m doing it. H4CK3R5 is the only project of these that has the potential to not be a complete financial loss, except for the film that is codenamed Montreal. Why, oh why am I doing this?
Do you know? Because at this point, I certainly don’t.
The de-evolution of the Internet.
Jan 19th
The Internet is based upon an expansion of possibilities, thanks to ever increasing computational power and bandwidths to match. Right, so you go from putting text on a very spartan website in the mid-nineties, to publishing your video creations online while listening to an Internet radio station.
But along that way, there’s always been the unwitting de-evolutionists known as copyright protectors. I don’t call them creators, because often they’re not. And these guys are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, their content is being reproduced without their consent. On the other, they’re killing innovation. They’ve rendered services that allow for the free, unfettered, exchange of files illegal. They sued the Google search engine. Search engines – the absence of which would render the Internet unnavigable. They’ve sued sites that allowed kids to share videos. Essentially, they want to de-evolve the Internet, or at least make it regulated in their favour. That’s what they’re doing by not going after those who cause infractions, but the technologies that permit it. They might not mean to, but that’s what they’re doing.
These are interesting times we live in. It’ll be interesting to see how things evolve (or not) in the future. Is the Zune, with all it’s restrictions to reverse the new possibilities granted by this technological evolution, an accurate representation of the ethos we expect to deal with in the future of the Internet?
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