Obama snowballs a kitty

I saw this picture somewhere on the Internet (sorry, can't remember where) and it really made
me laugh. I'm pretty sure it's fake though (well, the kitty part anyway).

Chickpea curry

We've both been a bit worried about our crap diet recently (too much pizza) so we agreed that we were going to try and eat a bit healthier. Since I enjoy cooking I thought I'd get the ball rolling with something tasty and spicy.

I've found a really cool site that has loads of recipes to try so I thought I'd try a chickpea curry. I deviated slightly from the recipe on the site though (I can't help trying new things when I'm cooking). It was really nice to be cooking something healthy again and I have to say - it was really really tasty! I think there's a big difference in taste between something cooked from scratch and a jar of sauce.

The photo here is the finished product (that's a sprig of coriander on the top by the way).

Ingredients :

• Olive oil
• two small red onions (finely chopped)
  
• half a garlic bulb (I love garlic)
• an inch of ginger root (half grated, the other half finely diced)
  
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin (I ground cumin seed as I didn't have the powdered form)
  
• a handful of finely chopped fresh coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 tin (400g) of chick peas (including the liquid)
• 1 tin (400g) of good chopped tomatoes (blended to a smooth paste)
  

Facebook wants to own your data

Right now I'm seriously considering cancelling my Facebook account. I've already removed much of my personal information from my profile and got rid of all the applications.

My reason for this is that Facebook recently (4th Feb 2009) changed its terms and conditions to allow it to... well, pretty much do what it likes with your data.

You might think that this isn't a problem - after all, everyone can see your data but many of you (myself included) have limited the visibility of your profiles to friends only. If Facebook were to sell your data to anyone that pays the right amount, you can almost guarantee that all of your friends, email addresses, blog comments and messages will be available to any number of agencies.

If you think spam is bad now, can you imagine the joy of a spammer that has access to your email address, your friends' email addresses and the comments you've made to them.

In Britain we are protected by the Data Protection Act to some degree - but Facebook is not a British organisation and is not bound by the DPA's rules. I don't really know anything about US data protection laws but from what little I have seen, I am not reassured about my personal data being held by any American company that has shown an indication to sell that data.

The fact that Facebook has already tried to sneakily change its Terms & Conditions without publicly telling its members what was doing shows that Facebook cannot be trusted.

I can't say that I like the idea of a spammer (or some of the government agencies for that matter) to have the full personal details of my life. I have nothing to hide but the Labour government in the UK has already shown a propensity to manipulate electronic data to suit its own agenda - take the under-handed attempt at raising council taxes, for example.

Here's some articles about this topic:

PC Pro : Has Facebook really backed down in privacy row?

Datonomy Blog : Writings on the wall for Facebook data

Computer Weekly : About face for data ownership

BBC : Privacy law call in Facebook row

The true price of cheap computers

I was shocked to read this article in Computer Weekly about the conditions that Chinese workers have to endure so that we can buy cheaper computing equipment. The article is actually about a report from an organisation called The National Labour Committee that investigated the factory recently.
The image above is from their site (used with permission via email).

The article reveals that in one factory in China that makes equipment for Microsoft, Dell, HP, IBM and Lenovo the workers are only paid $0.61 an hour (that's 42p an hour).

As if that wasn't bad enough, the workers live in the factory compound and only get a half hour off for dinner and a half hour off for lunch in their 12 hour shifts. I can't say that I'd enjoy working the 75 hour week that they routinely endure.

I think we've all heard the comment that factory workers in China only get paid "a bowl of rice a day" but in real terms these poor people are getting paid £5.04 a day. And they get £1.68 of that taken from them for food and board leaving £3.36 a day. They are often not paid for the work they have done - robbing them of between 14% and 19% of their rightful earnings.

I am deeply troubled that in these current times when China's government is making moves to join the world community and advance as a nation, it is still allowing its factory owners to commit deplorable acts of inhumane suffering.

The home of today?

I came across this video on another site that I found interesting.
It's a film from 1967 that predicts what the home of the future (circa 1999) will be like.
Although the technology looks dire compared to what we use today, the way in which the family uses it is scarily accurate.

Of course there's also the 1960s sexist flavouring (everything is paid for by the man...) but it's still worth watching for a laugh. :)



If you'd rather watch it on YouTube then click this link.

A Merry Christmas (but not for all)

I can't believe that Christmas has been and gone so quickly. It's Saturday already and it's worrying how fast the holiday is whizzing by.

My partner and I went to Woolworths today to see if there was anything left worth buying on their last day of opening. As far as I'm aware, everything was reduced by 70 to 80%. It was really sad - the shelves practically empty and hordes of people milling in the aisles seeking any remaining bargains. The way many of them were pushing and jostling other people reminded me of vultures squabbling over a carcass. It was worrying that we passed another store closing down too - Field and trek or something like that. I wonder how many other stores will fail in the current economic downturn.

After the heaving mass of people in town it's nice to get home and relax with a nice coffee.

Caligari Truespace 7.6 for free

Being a fan of 3D graphics, I've been aware of Caligari Truespace for quite a long time - since they released version 3 in fact. It's always looked interesting and it's been given away at times on magazine cover disks but I've never really investigated it because I was using another application that offered the tools that interested me at the time.

Recently Microsoft acquired Caligari. This was a total surprise to me as I only found out about it when I was reading this month's 3D World. Anyway - the interesting thing about the acquisition is that Microsoft want Caligari to continue developing Truespace so that people can create content for their Virtual Earth application - MS's direct competitor to Google Earth. Oh, and I forgot the important bit - they're giving the application away for free. The full, latest, unrestricted version for nothing.

Needless to say, this seemed too good to be true so I toddled off to Caligari's website to grab the software before Microsoft changed their mind. Something else I noticed while I was there was that they've also made all of their training courses free as well. The only downside that I could see was that you have to register to download the software and they do ask you for your address. They don't ask for any payment details though. :)

I'm going to give it a go (much as I love Blender3D) and I'll comment here about how I get on. Will I abandon Blender for a new 3D application? Only time will tell... :)