The other side of the Tsunami slur story

After reading a couple of articles from US media about a New York radio station (WQHT) being condemned for a show that made fun of the tsunami victims with lyrics like "You can hear God laughing, 'Swim you bitches swim," I was thinking that was mean and poor taste but wasn't supposed to be such a big deal, was it?

Well, I've changed my mind completely after reading more from "alternative media" like Hong Kong newspaper. Here is the full text (mind you it's full of racial slur)

What puzzled me the most now is why the mainstream media didn't mention the rest of the lyric. That would fully justify the outrage against that show. The only reason I could think of is this is an act of mainstream media covering each other up. After all they are in the same business. Who cares about what Chinese wants to know in US?

(More ironically, "We're the World" is the song Hong Kong showbiz group chosen to cover as its theme song for the tsunami fund raising concert. I criticized them for not writing their own song way back. )

Update: here is a comment about mainstream media's initial refusal to even air the story at all.

Now they have sided with the devil

Looks like the conservatives are getting a bit lost. Christian groups have called for the Supreme Court to crack down on file sharing, basically taking the same side as their archenemy -- Hollywood.

Well, let me be generous by helping them here: Christian groups should have supported the file sharers instead. Simply let file sharers bring down Hollywood, the ultimate source of evil content! When you fight organized crimes, you always need to shut down the source. Then you won't have any porn, any violent video available.

Wait a minute, shutting down Hollywood is probably not enough. They need to ask their beloved president to bring back US troops so there won't be violent footages from the news on war anymore. And finally, ban Ms. Hilton from filming herself.

The conservatives lost, again?

They wanna outlaw all interesting TV programs like those episodes from Friends and Simpsons but failed! Can you believe conservative groups lost another fight (see this for details of the previous round) in the States?

CP/M: Nostalgia strikes!

Writing about the early days of Apple computer in the previous article certainly brought back a lot of good old memory: playing with Z80 card, 80 Col card, and CP/M!

So I did a search on CP/M and found this really interesting article: Windows-NT vs. CP/M

Back to 1976: Bring your own display and keyboard

That's a familiar slogan, right?

Yes, that's the "punch line" for the new 2005 Mac Mini.

Oh wait a minute! Doesn't that also applicable to the Apple's very first computer: Apple I?

I always believe the brightest people keep reinventing themselves. Well, maybe sometimes they simply need to copy themselves.

Round 1: Evil (a.k.a. Liberals) 1 - Jesusland 0

Bad news for the religious folks in Atlanta: they can't re-emphasize that evolution is a theory, not a fact.

I thought we all knew that already, don't we?

BTW, I don't recall we evil liberals ever requesting a "Christian is a religion, not a fact" sticker on all Bibles.

They could tell so much from a name

Please check out this notice sent by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) alleging a company of copyright infringement because of having a file called X-Files1.21b, which is open-source TCL code! (Not X-Files Season 1-7 as those morons were thinking!)

This is so ridiculous to a point that it's actually kinda funny. Beware of how you name your files otherwise MPAA will come knocking on your doors.

(Basically this is similar to what RIAA did to Professor Usher's now famous mp3 file)

Too sensitive?

Just watched "The Da Vinci Code Deception" on PBS. This program is backed by Christian organization aiming at separating facts from fiction in this vastly popular book. They claimed this book is no challenge to the religion since it's a fiction and people are not suppose to learn religious fact out of a fiction.

My question is: if that's the case, why bother making a program to dispute it?

iDiot or simply having too much money?

This article is not about what I don't like about the new iPod shuffle, namely, it's nothing innovative but a "re-colored" design of screen-less MP3 players from a couple of years ago. (I bought one such player for $60 in 2002. And yes, I did wish it had a display when I want to know the name of the song I was listening to. Anyway, I'll leave criticism to their competitors.)

This article is about the comments I read about this player: several people mentioned US$99 (or $149 for the 1Gb version) as "impulse buy." I used to think only $2 candy bar or bag of chips near supermarket cashiers qualify as impulse buy. Man, people in the States are rich! Or too brainwashed by consumerism?

(Can't believe I am writing 2 Apple related articles in a row!
Disclosure statement: I'm neither an Apple lover or basher. I own an iBook and an iPod, bought at heavily discounted price. It does pretty much what I expected for the price I paid, but that's pretty much the only good thing I'd say about them.)

From ass kicking to ass kissing

U2 claimed Apple has "single-handedly saved the music industry."

Considered they have partnered with Apple for the U2 edition of iPod, I don't see how I could view the above endorsement as unbiased.

I'd give some credits to Apple's effort in coming up with a simple method/interface to sell music online. (Well, they were not the first company that sell music online. And the way they restrict how the music sold could be played, i.e., DRM-ed and support iPod only, do deserve some blame) In any case, if they have indeed "saved" the music industry, the major record companies won't be crying and whining everyday about sales going downhill.

(Disclosure statement: I'm neither a U2 lover or hater. I do agree "New Years Day" and "With or Without You" are great songs but that's pretty much all I care about them.)

For those who think a name is just a name

The baseball team formerly known as Anaheim Angels have offically been renamed to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Doesn't it sound too desperate for them to lure fans from LA?

Well, I have been wondering why the football teams who play in New Jersey name themselves New York Giants and New York Jets for a long time.

However, the most ridiculous name of all gotta be Golden State Warriors. Where the heck is Golden State anyway?