Right & Wrong & Legal

In the recent months, those who bothered to look noticed that there is a growing chasm between what is legal, and what people perceive as „right“.

„Normal“ people are more and more clashing with brand and intellectual property laws. The european community passes laws and regulations that are hard to understand to non-politicians, the way money is traded on public markets is highly arcane to those who aren’t part of that market (ie: Most of the people without large amounts of money). 

The growing fiscal problems of the governments often forces them to do unpopular things, which get even more unpopular when they don’t work immediately. 

And then there’s always the thing that governments like to please „key groups“, which aren’t necessarily the majority of the population, nor are their measures in any way making sense to the average citizen (ie: Me). 

Weeks like this one make me think if I’m still living in the right place.

Home sweet Home

By random chance I found this picture on a NASA webpage. According to the explanation this is not a bit of filth, but the earth, as seen from Mars. 

Somehow, this picture gives me an eerie feeling. It is a bit like seeing a years old family picture that falls out of a book. It gives an entirely different perspective. Until then, most pictures from Mars just were reddish dust, but now things fall in place.

Coffee of the Dead

Some people seem to complain about the "Zombie Effect": People sitting in a coffee shop with WiFi, staring at their notebook, instead of being social. From a coffee-shop owners perspective, I can see what the issue is. These people hog a table, don’t order anything, or very little stuff, and probably also scare away other customers. 

On the other hand, I find the thought of spending my whole day working in a cozy café, getting my cup replaced regularly, a friendly waitress bringing me food and beverages, very intriguing. Would I be some sort of freelance consultant, I’d probably go that route. 

Actually, I find that more social than sitting in an office.

Screen Real Estate

AAAaaaRGH! How I hate wasted real estate on my screen. Microsoft Messenger prompted a needed update for security reasons. Thinking that would be a safe thing, I agreed to the update. No idea if this is any more secure, but it certainly got a whole new look. Not nicer. Bigger! More than half of the window is now wasted by 

  • advertising
  • stupid buttons I don’t need
  • fancy“ stuff I don’t want 

Gah! And the worst thing is, I probably can’t even easily revert, as I bet that the link to the previous, un-annoying version is gone. 

I think I’ll revert to Miranda for my MSNM needs. I’d switched to MSN Messenger as some features like file transfer weren’t working flawlessly. But you know what ? This is too much of a price to pay.