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Saturday, Oct 24, 2015 - 22:13 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Out Of His Hands

Discovered that the supposedly-dead hard drives were completely alright once I plugged them into my office system, which has me completely boggled. I suppose I'll be bringing my enclosure along to transfer data after hours.

Also more or less completed ripping all of my discs to the archival hard drive, which come to think of it, is the exact opposite of the situation a decade ago when I was using rewritable CDs to back up my drives. Then again, those days, typical drives were maybe 50GB in capacity (which would barely hold a couple of modern games), i.e. 70 CD-ROMs. Nowadays, that would be 4TB to 850 DVDs, or 5700 CDs.

Which brings me to a couple of discoveries I made while going through my long-unopened chest of discs. First, three Multimedia Products Corporation CDs still in their original cling wrap, and as the jewel box manual states, requires Windows 3.1! Not only that, you had to have at least 2MB of RAM! Completely outrageous! Interestingly, they were exactly 250000, 275000 and 400000KB when ripped, in a time (circa 1994) when hard drives were perhaps 5GB? Cheap read-only removable storage ain't what it used to be...

But, that's not all - there was also this floppy:


What a deal!


For the low, low price of five dollars (discounted from $12.65, from the tag on the reverse side), you got fifteen full screen images at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels using 16 million colours, which you can run as a "slide show" [sic], with optional descriptive text! And, and, you can visit a hidden WebPage [sic] and download another screensaver from the series, absolutely free! Just so you know, I ordered a USB floppy drive just to partake of the treasures within.

As for Windows 10, I'm getting the hang of it.


More Spot-on Predictions

"People should be doubted. Many people misunderstand this concept. Doubting people is just a part of getting to know them. What many people call 'trust' is really just giving up on trying to understand others, and that very act is far worse than doubting. It is actually 'apathy'."

- Shinichi Akiyama


I didn't want to have to shout it from the rooftops, but Dr. Chang insisted I point out that our end-August forecast of China proclaiming a 6.9% growth rate (it's there when you mouseover the photo) has, once more, been exactly accurate.

Doubtless Dr. Chang would love to claim credit, but the whole feat becomes markedly less impressive when one realises the trick, akin to peeking up a magician's sleeve - as far as can be told, official GDP figures have not had anything to do with the "real world" for some years. The most plausible alternative explanation that I know of is that the reported figures are simply what's politically expedient at the moment (as Herr Ahm has triumphantly applied in the local context)

Dr. Chang has kindly allowed me to release his top-secret and 100% reliable guide to interpreting China's GDP figures, for the edification of my faithful readers:

Description
GDP Growth Rate
What the glorious People's Republic of China, eternal and superior Middle Kingdom, socialist suzerain of All That Lies Under Heaven, would undoubtedly achieve in perpetuity under the unwavering leadership of successive Great Helmsmen of the beloved Communist Party, were it not for the imperialistic ambitions of agents of foreign Western and Japanese devils
10+%
Business as usual, despite the interference of said foreign devils
8%
Minor issues with overcapacity and malinvestment, something every honest developing country endures eventually
7%
Most relevent production and consumption indices fall over the past year. This could be known as "recession" to uncultured barbarian outsiders, but 5000 years of Han identity inform us otherwise
6.9%
Wholesale stock and banking collapse, analogous to the Great Depression of the early 1930s
6.5%
Prolonged global climate disaster, resulting in the death of half of the world's population and the rise to prominence of Fallout players
6.0%
A mega-asteroid smashes into Earth, as humanity contemplates their impending doom helplessly; the impact splits the planet apart into a bazillion irregular chunks that tear into the cold, sterile void of space at incredible velocities, mute mementos to a short-lived species that once gazed upon the numberless stars, and are now returned to dust
5.0%


Now, it has to be emphasized, this isn't to imply that they are bad people or anything like that, and more of understanding how it is what it is. I mean, if all the other provincial chiefs are claiming 8-plus percent, are you really gonna be the one to hand in 3% - which is actually fairly respectable in most places, mind - comrade?

Moreover, this has gone on for long enough that one can just imagine the shit that would go down if China up and declared anything less than about 6%, which if you think about it objectively, is a crazy rate to maintain for much longer. Heck, the US and EU would likely be frantically ringing Beijing and demanding to know what game they think they're playing.

Anyway, the current remedy, alongside further slashing of interest rates, is... a golf ban for CCP members. This will definitely restore trust in the party and save the economy, yes.


If nothing else, it could make cadres healthier?


President Xi did have the satisfaction of turning the tables on China's former colonial bullies, at least, perhaps a sign of how bad it is everywhere (Malaysia's rediscovered the CPF trick, by the way). After lecturing the British parliament on proper democracy, President Xi then swapped Her Majesty a couple of his wife's CDs for a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets, but given how he had been swindled out of a visit to Old Trafford, I'd say that his action was entirely justified.

In a total, honest-to-goodness coincidence, a Chinese firm has introduced a replica Nazi doll named "Bastian", modelled after "a typical German", and sworn that any resemblance to persons living or dead is unfortunate and unintended. I must say that their production values are exceptional.

It's unclear how much of the moral high ground the Anglos can claim, though, given that they've tended to be rather pliant on human rights, when supplied with cheap oil. At least the go-to penalty for teenagers (or relatives) shooting their mouths off is merely house arrest in China, which does paint our administration in a fair light, I guess.

Oh, and Wikileaks has just released the hacked emails of the Director of the CIA, in which he admits... that they made Iran a pawn by overthrowing Mossadegh and re-installing a puppet Shah. Gee, tell us something we don't know already?

And, returning to Singapore sensations...


Hardworking Self-Made Local Entrepreneurs Crushed By Obdurate Retrograde Government Machinery


Cartoonists' impression of the victims
(Source: imgur.com)


It was with great distaste that I learnt that a doyen of the domestic entertainment industry had been convicted on a technicality, involving the temporary redeployment of idle funds towards productive artistic endeavours. This is all the more as the organization involved is almost certainly the most successful startup venture by my home faculty's alumni; such unwarranted persecution will do little to persuade future graduates to abandon established dogma and strike out on their own, running counter to the official line of providing support for the homegrown SMC ecosystem.

And, as I have consistently maintained, it is uncertain if what happened should properly constitute fraud. Examples:
  • "I am raising this cash to build an orphanage" → money proven to go into own pocket → direct fraud
  • "I am raising this cash for a non-profit charity, whose charter is to provide medical help for needy third-world nations" → money proven to go into own pocket → indirect fraud
  • "I am raising this cash for your own good, because you reap what you sow, faith must be backed by giving, and if it is so willed, ye shalt receive back hundredfold" → money proven to go into own pocket → erm...

From what I can understand, the defendants basically guaranteed nothing, amply delivered on that promise, and were gracious enough to get their head to apologize. What more can you ask for? And, despite the government's unwarranted heavy-handed disruption curtailing expansion, customer satisfaction remains sky-high, which is more than can be said for certain state-owned companies and plans.

Even more dishearteningly, all indications are that fellow citizens are condemning our brave free-marketeers in typical crab basket sinkie-pwn-sinkie fashion. This is exactly why our best and brightest flock to the far more accomodating United States, leaving Asia and Europe in the dust - or, alternatively, become lawyers. With all these obstacles stacked in their way, we should well stand in awe of those who follow their passion!

As Francis Crick so colourfully gestured, it's a free world...


Hotpot Steamboat

As letters in support of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) continue to pour into The State's Times, support for alternative herbal medicine has concurrently gained traction elsewhere, with Canada and then Mexico signalling their willingness to consider legalizing marijuana, soon after Australia's move. In the States, the latest Gallup poll has 58% supporting legalization - up from 12% in 1969, for reference - very close to the 60% threshold that tends to signal impending change.

Lest CNB personnel come knocking, I should clarify that my interest in this is entirely academic. Of course, it doesn't really matter if every single other country legalizes pot - when you can ban chewing gum, you can ban anything. The overriding question here, as with TCM, should be an impartial evaluation on whether it does have actual medical merit, because, y'know, science. Between alcohol, cigarettes, cough syrup and the all-pervasive 461 PSI haze, it's tough to see how weed could be worse - hey, MIT and Stanford turned out just fine.

But, given that our authorities' newest innovation is to offer cash rewards for telling on your fellows, in the best traditions of your friendly neighbourhood CCP informant, I'm not holding my breath. That said, at least one of our Ministers isn't totally square, as recounted by a Malaysian official; though no names were named, we can at least figure out who it wasn't.

And one last comment on TCM. It may be a bit hypocritical to point this out, given that I am not a vegetarian, but certain animal-based remedies should really not be considered. Then again, humans are often assholes like that, which makes exceptions all the more uplifting... other than when they don't turn out as planned, sadly.


Unseen On Campus


Yeah, they're good.




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