My Favorite Geek

Philip Rosedale, my favorite Chairman of the Board and computer geek, is seen here talking geek-talk and more with Kevin Rose. It´s a truly inspired and wonderful interview/conversation.

I understand all the words they utter but much of the technical dialog is totally wasted on me. I watch it because I love seeing the fascination in Philip´s face and for the non-tech talk of how it all started! Thats the creator of my dream-world!

This is reposted from Sven Idyll´s blog opensweden. I just had to have it myself!

(P.S. Did I ever tell y´all I love computer geeks? My Ars was one of them too!)

Conversion Under the Gallows

Rupert Murdoch, media mogul extraordinaire, tells us he is sorry for the wrongdoings of his companies that have been exposed recently. The allegations are that the tabloid authorized the hacking of cellphones belonging to celebrities, politicians and the families of slain schoolgirls and fallen soldiers in its relentless pursuit of scoops. Police say that up to 4,000 people may have been targeted.

Whom does Rupert Murdoch think he is kidding?

Sadly this story is only unusual by it´s enormity and the fact that this time the editors and journalists themselves are in the searchlights. It is not unusual for modern journalists to tamper with and interfere with police investigations or to disregard all human dignity.

I would like to emphasize that I do support investigative journalism wholeheartedly when it is directed towards the movers and shakers of the world, but not when it focuses on the victims, the innocent and  the meaningless bystanders. My problem with this occurs when journalists start to create or mould the stories instead of covering or exposing them.

Sweden - Closed Due to Summer

When I was at Elfay´s show this weekend I was chatting a bit with my friend Diana as usual. Somehow we got to the subject of vacations and I understood that she was puzzled by the fact that I - being a lawyer - could take a five week vacation.

The easiest way to explain this is to point to the fact that Sweden for a large part of it´s modern history (1936-1976, 1982-1991 and 1994-2006) has been ruled by the Social Democratic Party of Sweden.

One of the main pillars of the party´s ideology has been "the welfare of the people" in all aspects of life. They are thus rightfully considered the main designers of what once was "The Welfare State" where the citizens were always under the benevolent protection of the state, from the cradle to the grave.

This welfare state began crumbling in the 1990´s and is since then slowly being dismantled, piece by piece, to expose the surprised Swedes to the market forces.

However one of the benefits created that has not yet been removed is the Holidays Act. According to this law all employees are entitled to a holiday whether employed by the hour or the CEO of a company. (No employed person is excluded, even the Swedish Prime Minister takes a vacation.) Everyone who is employed is entitled to a minimum of five weeks vacation, four of these weeks they are entitled to receive continuously during the period June-August.

During a period of about six weeks (July - mid August) Sweden comes close to a complete standstill. Only the most essential services are maintained and the workforce of any given company is reduced to half - or less - it´s usual size, some companies even choose to shut down completely for a month.

I think one of the main reasons we Swedes accept these conditions is that we ourselves wouldn't want to lose our summer vacation.

Summer is important to us Swedes, just saying!

Bock Is Pissed

 A certain blogger is taunting me by naming my blog anything except "Bock in SecondLife", so I decided to take the same liberty.

 

Julian Is Back in Court

Julian Assange appeared in court again today for his appeal hearing against extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual assault.

Read the coverage at guardian.co.uk, because I cannot be bothered to write about him right now.

My Favicon - UPDATE

When I saw that Blogger today gave us the option to add a favicon to the blog I jumped on it!

I knew straight away what symbol I would choose for my blog.

The only option for me was the mathematical sign for infinity, eternity, forever.

For awhile I was considering choosing one in the rainbow colors, but I wil wait a while and try that later perhaps.

UPDATE due to Vanadis Falconer´s meddling with my brain I may choose another favicon  soon... damn, damn

I am now considering these three as well as the one I mention above.

Egyptian Invasion

Lately I have had a lot of traffic to this blog from Egypt.

 

I couldn't understand why and perhaps still don´t, but this post Nakna Avatarer i SL 102 is what they come here for. They find it when they do a search for "ناكني في كسي", which according to my Google Translator means "Nakny in Wuxi" in English and "Nakny i Wuxi" in Swedish. The problem is that both of the translations are totally meaningless to me.

The post shows my friend Kicki Springflower posing for my art and peace project last year called "Naked avatars in SL" (Well as I was still writing in Swedish then so it was "Nakna avatarer i SL".)

Kicki was pregnant with her first avtatar child at the time but still graciously agreed to participate in my project.