Parallel Divergence Parallel Divergence Parallel Divergence is all about highlighting change and the differences in what we think are the same. There are discussions on life on this planet, religion, technology, political correctness and more. As well, there is a cartoon series that grows Articles
Children of Men
2006-11-05 04:09:02 I hadn’t been to the movies for quite some time. I didn’t even really know much about this movie called Child ren of Men , but something was telling me to go watch it. OK, I probably shouldn’t call my wife “something”, not when she has such great taste when it comes to movies (and husbands). Anyway, last weekend, off we went. It took about two minutes for the film to grab me, shake me and glue me to the seat. All across the news broadcasts was tragedy. The world’s youngest person had been killed. “Baby” Diego was only 18 years old. Even though the story is set in London, Diego’s death in South America was a worldwide catastrophe for a dying human civilization. It was 2027 and there had been no babies born on the planet since Diego in 2009. War had raged for years. New York was destroyed by a nuclear blast. England was the last nation to survive and was the chosen destination for the world’s refugees. So the setting unfolded... More About: Children of Men
Will P.C. Destroy the World?
2006-11-05 04:09:02 No, I’m not referring to Microsoft’s undeserving world dominance at the expense of Apple, I’m talking about Political Correctness. To most people, P.C. is viewed as little more than a joke, but this perception has given it the ability to insidiously erode the foundations and values that make up a democratic society. Like a termite colony, P.C. has been munching on logic, commonsense, discussion and free speech. Our society depicts a strong, healthy and modern facade, but a tiny scratch to the surface reveals an unsure, hesitant, cautious, insecure and frightened population. A joke once fondly shared among workers is now left unsaid because of fears of reprisal. Sure, it may have been “offensive”, but the point is, it was a JOKE. Many believe we’ve lost our senses of humour as a result. The P.C. brigade will tell us it hasn’t been lost, it has just “matured”. If there is the possibility that someone “may” get offended... More About: World , Troy , The World , Will
Making GMail Better
2006-11-05 04:09:02 I’ve been using GMail as my most used email address for over 15 months now. There’s 220MB worth of mail conversations in there from a couple of listservs, but I still have plenty of space in the remaining 2.5GB they’ve allowed me. The automatic threading of converstations in GMail is by far its best feature (apart from the price ), but Google still wants to know how they can make it better. If you’re a GMail user, make sure you contribute your ideas: https://services.google.com/inquiry/gmail _suggest/ They offer some basic ideas that you can just tick off if you agree, but you can also be completely original in what you’d like to see. As for me, I’d like an ability to directly import from my old YahooMail account so I don’t lose a lot of useful messages since 1997. They are both free web-based email services, but there’s that parallel divergence again. Thanks Yahoo, but GMail’s better. More About: Gmail , King , Better , Bett
Mac vs Windows: Yet another Parallel Divergence
2006-11-05 04:09:02 We’ve all seen the ads. “Hello, I’m a Mac ”, “And I’m a PC”. If not, go here. I can’t think of any other TV advertising campaign that has a running series spanning fifteen different ads over such a short period of time. Sure, we did have the old Pepsi vs Coke Taste Test ads - the ‘Pepsi Challenge’, and this very clever one, but they don’t go anywhere near highlighting so many differences between two directly competing products as the Apple campaign does. One thing the Mac vs PC and Pepsi vs Coke ads have in common is that in both cases, it’s the underdog taking up the challenge to their respective runaway market leader. In the case of Apple, worldwide we have the less than 4% market share company against the 94% share held by Microsoft. The other 2% are held by the various flavours of Linux. These updated daily figures come from the respected W3Counter site and are based on, at last count, 4.3 million distinct v... More About: Windows , Other , Wind , Para
Things change?
2006-11-05 04:09:02 While I’ve been writing software and making websites for many years, one thing I’ve never had is a blog. It’s obvious that I’m jumping into this scene relatively late, but for me it’s just another reinforcement that things change… This is particularly so if technology has any sizable part of your life. Just when you think you’ve got it all together. Just when you think things are going well. Just when you think you know exactly where you are heading. Suddenly there’s a curve. Suddenly there’s a hill. Suddenly your clear vision’s obscured. That’s change. Problem is, we all need to have a role in change. Some people drive change - like the YouTube co-founders that just converted their 20-month old website into a US$1.65B windfall. Some people are early-adopters of change and end up leading a huge band of followers of change. Some people only change as a very last resort - when they absolutely have to. Then unfor... More About: Change , Things , Thing , Chang , Chan
Brad & Phil: Parallel Divergence
More articles from this author:2006-11-05 04:09:02 Since my son inspired me to start a blog and helped me with the layout, I decided to give him a little job. A blog that’s just full of text can be pretty boring in spite of the best creative writing efforts that may have gone into constructing it. A good blog needs a hook. Now I know it’s been done before, but I think if I include a (hopefully) witty and original cartoon with most of my posts, then that may just be the hook I need. But that’s where I step aside. I have no idea about creating cartoons and while I can draw a curtain, I certainly can’t draw anything else. However, my son, despite his carefree and vital youth, has cartooning and comicing down pat. For almost a year he’s been mastering the art of making comics using G-Mod - an add-on to the amazing Half-Life 2 PC game. Using a PC, he poses the Half-Life 2 and other custom characters in varied environments with all kinds of props then captures each image that he needs for his idea. Then... More About: Brad , Para , Phil , Aral , Diver 1, 2, 3 |
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