Why is it that people are often judged by their monetary successes, and not who they actually are? What's annoying is that people love to tell you about their new job, and how much they earn, when, to be frank, we at #mercury couldn't care less. If you're defined by your salary, it's you who has the problem. People who earn lots of money are somehow seen as better, and more valuable, people than the poorer amongst us. People with better-paid jobs are seen as better people, when all they do is pay more taxes. Does that really mean that they're better people? Even the word "success" is often associated with money - can't people be successful without money? Come on... Are we really so blind?

It seems that Google Earth has become the favoured tool of either perverse stalker types, or stupid boyfriends who like to give their girlfriend's address out on the internet. What better way to share your love with the World than tell its population where she lives? I'm sure they'll all get a piece of the love now, or several.

I got my Ceramic White PSP, you can read the review here.

I am now browsing semantically. What's that? Well, from what I've learnt so far, the "Semantic Web" is a vision of Tim Berners-Lee (a man instrumental in the invention of the World Wide Web) and seems to be an attempt at bringing together data on the interweb machine. It's a way to bring together and order data from a variety of sources, so it can be accessed and viewed within context. For example, I could use it to index this site and relevant news from other sites, bringing them together in a helpful way. It's hard to explain, and I don't know much about it... I can see it will be a useful tool for me to keep track of various different sites within one "virtual space". I'll post screenshots on the forum when I fully understand what it is I'm actually doing.

Happy New Year everyone.

Merry Christmas everyone. In the spirit of Christmas, here's a picture of a short woman trying to decorate a tall tree:

So, Warner/Chappell Music are sending out threats of class action lawsuits against song lyric and song lyric software sites (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/81101/music-giants-bear-down-on-lyric-search-apps.html), and now I find out that the MPA are using similar tactics against sheet music and tablature sites (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm). The irony is that I often use lyric sites after I hear a good song on the radio, so I can buy the album. I can't see how this will help the music industry one bit, as it effectively (for me, anyway) makes it harder to buy the music we hear on the radio, as a lot of the time the DJ doesn't tell you what the song is. There are song lyric quotes on this site, and people often use them to promote any music they enjoy - like I do. A similar sort of promotion happens with sheet music and tablature - people will learn to play a band's songs because they like the music, and I'm sure the band love this sort of thing. Things like tablature sites are hubs for sharing musical information, indirectly promoting bands and artists. They're also a legitimate learning resource for many budding musicians, and taking them away could actually damage musical creativity. So, I'd ask any company who partakes in these sort of tactics to take a good hard look at the revenue they've gained from sheet music sales and compare it with the money they've lost in music sales, and the damage they've done to "their" industry.

I foresee some sort of Sony operating system in the not-too-distant future, most likely based on the Linux kernel. Sony and Microsoft have disagreed on a lot of things recently - Microsoft strongly disapproving of Sony's shady rootkit tactics for protecting copyright on their C.D.s (Digital Rights Management), Sony backing the Blu-Ray storage format while Microsoft back the rival HD-DVD format and, of course, the forthcoming console war (PS3 vs. X-Box 360). Sony's P.C.s are still sold with the Microsoft Windows operating system, because it's popular, but, with all of the rivalry, Sony are probably keener than ever to break the Microsoft domination of desktop operating systems. Sony have also made moves to team up with some other big Japanese players in the market, to apparently compete with the likes of Intel, but who says they can't do the same with operating systems? I'm not saying that this rivalry is in any way a new thing, but things seem to be hotting up recently...

Eylin, a few strange things have been happening with #mercury. I think they might be updating the server software. I think we should just leave it a few days and see. Love ya.

OMG! I can't check my e-mails... the server is... down?

A fatal error has occurred
Could not connect to database for SQL SessionHandler.
Details have been logged for the administrator.

"Sex sells" - indeed it does, but why? Why do people fall for this sort of manipulation? I'm sure we're all guilty of it at some point, including myself. A good modern example would be the increasing use of scantily clad ladies in dance music videos - it works, and the marketing people know it. As long as you keep buying it, they'll keep selling it. These people are just doing their job - if something works, use it. However, this isn't purely a technique of the commercial domain, it is also common in a social domain - girls will wear short skirts, men will show more than is necessary, etc. All of this for some sort of gain. I fear men are most gullible to this form of manipulation - men will be easily led by a short skirt and too much cleavage. It's a sad state of affairs when a person's mind can be changed by a showing of skin.