freshbytes

Short and sweet tonight, fellas. The way it should be, in my opinion!

So the story goes something like this:

I was at church today, helping out with sunday school as I’ve been doing (rather inconsistently, I must admit) for the past couple of years.

We were talking about King Solomon, who asked for wisdom when God asked him what he wanted. Great man, King Solomon.

Anyways, out of the blue, a little girl suddenly comes out of nowhere, and says:

“I was at a thing the other night… a-a-nd there were lots of drunk people fooling about… a-a-nd shirts were being ripped and…”

Of course, us leaders are stunned for a fraction of a second. The guy that’s taking the sunday school class recovers promptly, however, and manages to state: “Well, that’s not very nice, is it?” A rather generic response, but kudos to him for deflating the situation.

It got me thinking, though. Obviously the girl (who would only be in grade 4, mind you) had witnessed some sort of drunken party where the adults were acting in a far-from-responsible manner. I mean, seriously – a child shouldn’t have to see things like that.

Hence, Impressionable Young Children. Today’s title was inspired by how little children, who, like the girl at the drinking party, can be influenced by those around them. Their parents influence them. People older than them influence them. Which is why we need to be careful about what we say (and do) around young kids.

A guy named Dean (former leader of Radi8 youth) once told me that he had to tell bogans on the bus to tone down their language as he had his kids with him – which was perfectly acceptable. Had I been in his shoes, I probably would have done the same thing.

It’s those kinds of things that make impressions on the children of our generation. The swearing, the drunken behaviour, the bad behaviour exhibited by adults and those older than the childern. I’m not trying to be sarcastic when I say “Won’t someone think of the children?”

There’s no reason we should swear, or be drunk around our children. Absolutely no reason at all – and to be frank, it’s downright unacceptable. I for one don’t want my kids to be exposed to that sort of behaviour, at the very least not until they’re old enough to understand it properly. There’s no way that girl would have known that what was going on at that party was just something that adults do from time to time, and no way to know that alcohol can make smart people do stupid things.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that we should show a good example to our kids. Don’t swear around them and don’t expose them to bad influences. Understand this – I’m certainly not saying that you should mamby-pamby your children – far from it. Let them learn from their own mistakes (see how hot fire is?), but don’t expose them to things that they ordinarily wouldn’t be exposed to, like random drunken behaviour.

Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: bad, behaviour, children, example, good, impressionable, influence, kids, young

Another week, another blog post…

I guess we’ll do some news first, eh?

First up for the news this week is the addition of FeedBurner feeds. FeedBurner is basically a service that provides RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication, like news delivered to your door) for your blog or podcast.

The difference with FeedBurner is that is provides statistics tracking for your RSS feed – something that isn’t included as a part of Google Analytics (at least as far as I can see).
Stats tracking is super important to any blog, and with the addition of FeedBurner, I’ll know how many people subscribe to my blog (not that many, I can assure you).

So, what do you have to do? Well, you’ve got two choices – either subscribe to freshbytes via RSS, or just keep reading the blog like you have been doing – whenever you get time. Either way, I don’t really mind.

Right, so the second piece of news has something to do with youth, Radi8. Continuing the naming scheme of Dean (we’ll miss you!!), it’s going to stay Radi8, but under the leadership of Dave and Rach. That’s all well and good, but what about the website? You see, dear reader, that’s where I come in.

Apparently people really liked how the website would update to reflect the week’s Radi8 events, and I totally agree – if nothing else, websites are there to provide information to people, free of charge. They’ve got a couple of people handy with computers at the church, but it’d be awesome if I could manage the Radi8 website… I’m already thinking “WordPress-as-CMS”, ‘cos the Pages and blog-syle updates would be perfect for updating events, as well as archiving events, and posting up pics, etc… Sorta like how this site is managed now. You like? :p Now all I need to do is find a good theme…

As part of the revamped Radi8, I’ve also volunteered myself to do some of the media-related stuff. You know, like the movies, pics, and so on. Should be easy enough, cos I’ve got a Mac! :p

On that note, I volunteered to put together a clip from Relay For Life 2009, and how the Radi8 team helped out. Unfortunately, the camera seems to have had it (will not play back videos, only get the dreaded blue-screen of death, quick google reveals heads have ), and I’ve still got one tape to go to get into the computer! ARGH! Currently working on a solution to this problem, I’ll be sure to put up the full vid on the new-look Radi8 website when it’s done.

I’ll also announce the new-look Radi8 website (if) I get to do it. Stay tuned!

Thanks about it. Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: analytics, feedburner, radi8, relay for life, rss, subscribe, youth

In recent times, I’ve noticed that things are changing.

Now I notice that this might be the most obvious statement in the history of man, but it’s true.

You’d do well to note that these changes aren’t necessarily good – increasingly, I’ve found that these changes are usually for the worse.

I think it’s indicative of our current society that we’re always focussed on the bad – rarely do we come together and focus on the good in our lives.

To provide a real-world example, at youth group this sunday afternoon we went around and said some positive things about the sunday school ministry that I’m (just/somewhat) involved in. I think what prompted this was the fact that we were finding ourselves (for want of a better word) bitching about what goes wrong, and what the negatives are of this thing they call sunday school on an increasing basis.

I’ve thought long and hard about saying something personal here, but I know that I’ll probably regret it in the future. If I feel that something personal needs to be said, I’ll say it on my personal blog.

So the question is, why don’t people have a grip on reality? Why don’t they realise that what they’re thinking/doing isn’t necessarily indicative of their environment? Why do people become increasingly bitter about mundane things, and turn into pedantic, obnoxious fools?
Well?
Don’t look at me for the answer – I don’t have one for you.
Maybe it’s because they’ve lost that loving feeling. Maybe it’s because they are having problems at home, or at school/Uni.
Maybe they realise that their friends are just there to have arguments with, or to antagonise them in their efforts for world supremacy. (Just kidding).
Seriously, though – if you’ve lost your grip on reality, how do you get it back? I’ve got a couple of suggestions:
Get back to basics. Do the things you enjoy. Turn off the computer, and go outside and read a book. Take those earphones out, and speak to real people, face to face.
Discuss things, get heated, but have a beer together afterwards. (Please note that freshbytes does not condone underage drinking, and believes that adults should drink in moderation).
At the end of the day, it’s up to you to get your grip on reality. Take a break, and take it easy.
Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: Blog, easy, grip, Misc, negative, personal, positive, reality

Short message today, folks. Devoid of inspiration, and this was written while I was away on holidays. Enjoy, and I hope that there’ll be more interesting stuff next time.

I know people that don’t exactly do the right thing. We all do.

They’re the kind of people who seem to be really good – on the outside, they’re caring, supportive, and all of those qualities that we take for granted.

But it’s all a facade to the deception that lies below.

Beneath the surface, they’re not nice people. Deception and dishonesty are the names of the game, and here, with lots of fakes (I personally own no less than three Rolex’s ), I’m not surprised.

However, when you’re flogging off fakes as the genuine article – because you can charge a premium for genuine – that’s when I start to get a little worried.

Sure, market the products as “aftermarket”, or “third party”. There’s nothing wrong with that. Heck, if people ask you, don’t tell them that they’re the genuine thing – tell them that they’re fakes, and adjust the price accordingly.

What you shouldn’t be doing is packaging up fakes as the real deal, sticking “fake” genuine stickers on it, and selling it at a premium over fakes, because that’s just bad.

In this day and age, ethics are of the utmost importance. Even if you’re not a Christian, there are some things that you just won’t do – more serious things like murder come to mind. Everyone seems to have their own “moral code”, things that they feel like are off limits to do.

In any case, if you’ve decided what kind of a person you want to be in life, then you should already know what your moral code is.

If you don’t – I suggest you get one quick smart. Everything will be so much easier when you do.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: code, deception, ethics, moral

So, UTAS, huh?

… A year ago, the mere mention of the name would elicit a muffled giggle from me. Not because I thought the name was funny, or because of the way it was spelt, or anything like that. Nope – it was because it wasn’t one of those Uni’s that struck fear into the hearts of all that entered it hallowed halls, you know? They say that it’s in the top 10 Uni’s of Australia. Then they go on to tell you that it’s number nine. Out. Of. Ten.

In other words, it isn’t one of those respected/well-known Uni’s, like Monash, or Swinburne, (RMIT, etc – the list goes on) – certainly not by me, in any case.

You see, the “master plan” for a while now has been to go to the University of Adelaide and study Dentistry – Adelaide because they produce the best dentists, and dentistry because medicine is overrated, or something to that effect.

If you’ve been reading freshbytes lately, though – you would have seen that I just wasn’t good enough. With a TER of 88.9, and some embarrassingly awful UMAT results, I fell well short of what I needed to achieve. Even UTAS didn’t want me to do medicine!

I’m kind of over that now – the UMAT results hurt more than the TER (missing out by 1.1 points still sucks a lot, though). So for now, it’s the “time to do something random for a year and then apply again for next year” time.

My idea of something random is something I would enjoy, but also be able to do decently in – for higher education entry, I need a credit average or higher, with a solid UMAT score.

Something random would also need to be able to be turned into a career later on down the track.

Naturally, the only thing that fits both of these criteria would be a Bachelor of Computing. Sure, some general science degree would have worked as well, but some people I know are already doing Computing. Being one to follow the crowd, I am now doing Computing as well.

Orientation day for us Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology guys was on Thursday last week, and it wasn’t too bad. A tour of the facilities, lunch, sitting down in lecture theatres, and all that kind of stuff that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

You learn a little – but, just like high school, the most informative sessions is always a chat with mates, or with past and/or present students. They’re the ones that can tell you what you can and can’t do, what to do and when to do it, and more!

Final word?

UTAS seems okay. I’ll still miss Calvin, though*.

Comments below.

* Actually, I might have to go back on that. Stay tuned.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: adelaide, calvin, computing, dentistry, education, higher, results, School, TER, umat, uni, utas

Thankfully, this isn’t a post about the abomination of a movie, All Quiet On The Western Front. I will gladly tip my hat to it for the title, though, and offer this advice: unless you’re a war-movie/history fanatic, stay away!

Phew. Now that that’s out of the way, we can get into some real business…

Right, so Calvin has, in the past, had some pretty wacky forums. For those of you that don’t know, forums are a place for people to share thoughts and ideas via posts, in things called threads, under headings of topics. (I’m using MacTalk Forums as my primary linkage for this post – they certainly don’t mind the extra attention, and it’s the only active forum I participate in these days… Whirlpool is better known for their alternate name, “Whingepool”, and OverClockers AUstralia have a funny registration system, and I just haven’t bothered. *sigh*)

Firstly, the one that started it all was the one and only, Calvin Spam. Started as somewhat of a joke by some geeky year 8’s at the time, (If you graduated Calvin in 2008, you would have been in year 7), it spread quickly due to the nature of the content that was on there. No porn or anything bad like that, just slightly dubious polls like “Do you prefer legs or breasts? And I’m not talking about chicken.” For some year 7s, it was all too much and the IT crowd from our grade were quickly sucked in…
Calvin Spam was open for all at Calvin to join – no exceptions. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the best option considering the material that was posted there – but hey, I wasn’t the administrator of that particular forum.
From there, it was all downhill. Calvin Spam used to exist at calvinspam.tk – the island of tukelau is renowned for their free domain name service. Efforts to find this forum by our most experienced Google-users have proved unfruitful – for all we know, it could have been a website hosted at home…
Calvin Spam came and went, however. Due to the aforementioned nature of the content, it was quickly shut down.

Years passed. The same Year 7s when the original Calvin Spam were around were now in year 8, and their 1337 (leet, or elite) skills had greatly increased. It was definitely time for another forum, and thus, BWSonline was born. Originally standing for Blair, Weed and Smarty, it was formed by the then-IT contingent of the class of 2008.
Sporting a custom phpBB theme, in terms of popularity, BWS was quite exclusive – only a small, select group of students even knew it existed, and then, only several students were active participants in the discussions that happened there – everything ranging from the geekiest of geek-speak, to computer recommendations, the multiple *-FESK saga, epic posts by yours truly, huge Mac/PC flame wars, and more.
In terms of longevity, though – BWS lasted for quite a while. It wasn’t until one of the original creators fled the country to go to Indonesia that it well and truly died.
It still exists on the internet to this day – at the original address – bwsonline.awardspace.com. The orignal creators are massively thankful for awardspace for their free hosting, I’m sure. One of these days, I’ll make a copy of bwsonline and stick it on freshbytes – when I get around to it. Procrastination for the win.

BWSonline was the precursor to a couple of things… one of which was calvinspamII. By this time, the class of 2008 was in year 10, and calvinspamII, designed as the second iteration of the great Calvin Spam, was created by yours truly in an attempt to revive the forum fever at Calvin. By this time, BWS was dying a slow death – the number of posts per day were slowly dwindling, as was the number of active users.
By all accounts, calvinspamII was seen as a competitor to the exclusive BWSonline – like the original Calvin Spam, calvinspamII was open to pretty much everyone, although only full privileges were granted to registered members. Guests could only read parts of the forum – and the more controversial sections were sealed from prying eyes.
Also like the original Calvin Spam, calvinspamII was based of the free phpBB forum software, and if memory serves me correctly, was served by whoever was the first result in Google after I searched “free phpbb hosting”… Oh, the shame! One click was all it took to take down the infamous BWSonline, and within weeks, usage soared – in terms of popularity, calvinspamII eclipsed both the original Calvin Spam and BWSonline in a matter of weeks, thanks largely in part to threads with such names as “BLING & KV”, “Pick Up Lines”, and “BAG OUT ALL GINGERS HERE” – as well as the diverse range of other topics – school, subjects, sports, movies, music – calvinspamII had it all.
Thanks once again to the island of toukelau – their free domain name service made calvinspamii.tk far easier to type than calvinspamii.s1.bizhat.com – which now does not exist.
Unfortunately, by the time we reached metric forum fever had died at Calvin again – it was clear that the users had had enough. Even more unfortunately was the fact that I didn’t get a backup of the calvinspamII database for posterity – I would have loved to read that epic “BLING & KV” thread again…

Finally, finally, finally, came the Freshbytes Forum. It has been more than quiet over there – due in part to a lack of plugging. I haven’t been telling people about it enough. It’s not entirely my fault, though – I think that general forums have had their day. Unless you have a very specific target audience that are the kind of people that like to discuss their interests online, then you’re so outta luck if you think you’re going to make it big with a forum. Sure, when I was at school calvinspamII worked because in Computing, I would plug calvinspamII away, and people would log on, post some random images of ginger kids, and when Computing was over, they would log off again. No one bothers to go online and actually discuss stuff on calvinspamII when they’re not at school, and yeah – that’s pretty much how it died…

So, where to from here? I’ll leave Freshbytes Forum open over at forums.freshbytes.com.au in case you have a burning desire to discuss something, but you have no idea where to say it? Make a thread over at Freshbytes Forum, and give the link out to everyone you know.

For now, though – the message is loud and clear:

All quiet on the forum front.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: Blog, BWSonline, calvin, Calvin Spam, calvinspam, calvinspamII, forum, forums, Freshbytes, freshbytes forum, mactalk, Misc, phpbb, School