The Mandrake [Published Private Life]

Have you ever wondered why Bill Gates is named the richest man on earth? Wait, wait. You don’t know Bill Gates? You are probably using his software now, and you don’t know about him? Check out this web site first before going on reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates.

Okay, so now you know who he is. Now, the story began last night when I tried to patch my cracked WinXP with this Service Pack 1 (SP1) (okay, so I’m talking technical here, but don’t get discouraged. It’s not my point here). The process took about a few minutes before my box popped up a message saying that the product key is invalid bla bla bla…

Alas, I said. I have copied the SP1 from the server at my office but it didn’t work on my PC at home. So, today I tried to find sources on how to resolve the problem. I ran into this forum for geeks discussing about Window$ (nope, it’s not typo, I intendedly put $ there). Check this out: http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002Sep/gee20020903016151.htm.

There are pros and cons on, not only WinXP, but also Microsoft as a company. I couldn’t help agreeing with those who despise the company octopus. If you are among those who are bedazzled by the glittering gimmick and visual art of Window$ XP and other Micro$oft products, you might as well be not geek as those guys in the forum who are pros with WinXP.

Before you decide to comment on my article, see this in my point of view. Imagine there’s a person who thought he’s smart. He’s name was Bill Gates. He could write computer programs. Then, he decided to make a computer program (Operating System, to be technical speaking) by copying visual arts like what Mac has (don’t believe me? Read the history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows). Anyway, as you can see nowadays he makes money more than any one in this world.

How? It’s like this. First, he wrote computer programs (I will use the term OS hereafter). Then he opened market for his product under the flag of Microsoft Corporation. He charged people who used his software as expensive as possible. Then, afterwards, he plants bugs and everything in it: security hole, bugs, glicthes, and whatever so that people will have to download SP1 to patch the poor OS. Then, while installing the SP1, it checks for the validity of the product key which is required for the SP1 to be installed. Bill Gates thought he’s smart and that no one will ever hack into the program. Welp, it’s Bill Gates against hackers. And hackers just done it well. There is another way round to the problem.

So, if you actually DO buy Microsoft software, I should salute you. You just made Bill Gates even richer. You might want to notice the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Micro$oft is actually very expensive. Start from buying the OS (approx. USD 1k), the M$ Office (approx. another USD 1k), then the time you must spend on downloading Service Packs, then the time and cost you must spend on calling the technical support, and other b******t. But, hey, that’s what happens only if you buy the software.

Get the warez/ cracked one? You are prone to crime action. But hey, people use it anyway. In our country, it’s like heaven here. People can go to specific area and buy pirated software. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we are all criminal here. I see foreigners (westerners, white people) also buy pirated software. Who wouldn’t want to? For USD5 you can get a copy of the latest WinXP! And the business continues.

I’m amazed at those people who are like the soldiers of Bill Gates. I’m really not surprised if they are actually employee of the company. I mean, why would people defend the bug-infested software?

I’ve always been wondering about this. I bet the same question is also in other fellow citizen of our country. Ask them (and me, of course), are we poor country or rich country? Let me rephrase that. Are we rich poor country or poor rich country?

Since I we were children, we’ve always been told that our country has many natural resources. You can mine minerals (coals, gold, etc), drill oils, plants any kind of vegetables. Would that make our country rich? The fact is NOPE. We owe some millions of dollars to some countries. How can that happen, I wonder. Our country has been listed as the most corrupted one in the world. I should be proud of that. At least, people will know about our country, despite for its notorious.

Sometimes, I just wish our government is being run by Chinese. That way, corruptors will be shot to death. Crime rates will be decreased. No more porn movies or slightly porn TV shows. In China, government controls everything. Sure, they’re communists. But, the longer I live in this country, the more right China I see.

Now, what makes this country more tragic is that I’ve seen Jaguars, Ferrari, Porsche on the street (it is said that we have more Mercedes than the country who makes it). But, in another area, in the same country, people are starving to death! (Kompas news (not in English))

And when the media reports about it, the wise guy at the top level said that it’s just exaggerating things. What do you need more, huh? What is worse than dead people? The death of your precious one? I want to see you live in that kind of area.

There’s a habit of denying things with these top people. Hey, did I say “top”? I mean government. They run the government with no specific goals/ objective. Where do they lead this country to?

I think we should have cold-hearted leader like China does. We should have easy going and outspoken leader like Iran has. We should have kind-hearted and caring-for-its-people leader like the Philippines has.

So, are we rich poor country? Poor, may be. Rich, may be not. Are we poor rich country? Argh, I don’t know. Even if I do know, things wil just stay the same. All I know is that I have to survive in this country. “I wanna immigrate from here” -> this one is quoted from PS2 game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

WARNING: This specific article contains adult contents. If you think you object this kind of thing, please do not read. You might want to read news instead: Google News. I take no responsibility upon your feeling having read this one.

A while ago, I watched this TV serial on my cable. It’s not usual for me to watch this “Desperate Housewives”. But, when I changed channels to see what’s on, I caught this scene. The set was there’s this old chick with red hair (I don’t remember and don’t care about the cast’s names) and a guy with her. They were playing mini golf in a public place.

The guy just bent his body mimicking his posture as if he was about to hit the ball with the club. But he just didn’t do it. The chick just kept pushing him to do what he’s supposed to do. But the guy just bent still. It turned out that he was having an erection (pardon the language, but it’s important to point out here). It was because, according to the dialog, the chick blew in his ear. With everybody’s watching he has to do something about it very quickly.

Interested with this scene, I kept watching. Aftermath, they walk out of the field and the chick said more or less like this, “I can’t believe you have feeling for me. I am married.”.

That really surprised me. How can a man who is having an erection be in love with a chick to whom he’s having erection? I don’t see any relationship between the two. I mean, I am this old and has seen and heard of just about anything. I’ve seen guys on porn movies having that to some chicks. I’ve heard guys who have been served by prostitutes. Are they in love? I don’t think so.

I’m amazed by the way the serial writer thinking. Someone should thell him/ her that there’s hardly relationship between sex and love. The way I figure it out is that there can be love without sex (you listen to this, you free-sex minded), on the other hand, there can be sex without love.

A few days ago, some guy wrote a letter to the board of editorial about job vacancies in our country. He complained that most of the vacancies advertised require work experience. How could that be, he/ she asked. If one is just graduated from his/ her college, how can he/ she gain some experience if there’s no company would hire a non-experienced personnel?

I guess that makes sense. A few while ago, I was interviewed for a very high position. Yet, I was not hired because I have no experience in that position. Despite of the effort I made to go to the office which is like, 50km from my house, the company’s HR Department decided to contact me for an interview. And, I came just to get rejected.

Now, where can I have a chance to prove my ability when the door is open only to those who have the ability to talk bullshit? Am I going to be stuck in the low level forever? Like the guy in the newspaper said, all there is in those companies are only professionals recyclable: one professional moves to another company and so on .. and so on..

So, ever experienced this kind of thing? It just wants to make you scream in desperation. Should I just move outside this country? Explore opportunities abroad? Nah, the standards are just too high for me out there. Maybe they’re even worse. I don’t know.

Oh, well…

Now, this is what you don’t see everyday. When I checked the news to see what’s on, I saw these two headlines that seemed in one topic. One was “Man has last meal before becoming 1,000th execution in US (AFP)” and the other was “Singapore Hangs Australian Drug Smuggler (AP)“.

In the case of Singapore, Australia seemed not wanting to be inferior to the small country. The wise guy prime minister told off Singapore that if they were to hang Australian’s citizen, their relationship would be affected. Well, my my.. ain’t Australia is cool or what: willing to risk it all for some drug dealer? I wish my country would take Singapore as an example. Every nation must respect other nation’s law. It is said that in Singapore, every drug dealer is subject to death penalty. What’s to question on that?

Now, in the case of US’ death execution, it seemed that the news lists all the villains that have gone through the execution. Pointing out “human rights”? I don’t know. But if it is, I might wonder. I wonder where the people are –the people who stand outright screaming about Human Rights to these villains– when those villains slashing, mutilating, beheading, shooting, or whatever? Or, are these so-called Human Rights defender villains also? Or, are we to call them villains?

Maybe when their own family members got slashed will they see that defending Human Rights for villains proved to be in vain?