More photos and facebook

Heh I see facebook appears to pick these posts up now. Rather useful!

Any way a couple more photos because I'm bored, and am interested to see if facebook picks them up as well!

Christmas 08

Rather early but might as well mention it. I'll be back in Chch the 19th of December for the afternoon/evening then back again from the 26th December through to the 4th of Jan most likely (Christmas/Boxing Day and New Years fall excellently to maximize my holiday!). Might end up being there around a bit longer depending on what my company decides on with regards to shutting down over Christmas, seems unlikely but if they were kind enough to shut down for two weeks over Christmas I could be around till the 10th Jan.

Any way hopefully some of the Chch gang will be around in Christchurch for that period. Any one got any plans for New Years (Ok admittedly 3months before hand is probably a little too early to plan things but hey not got a lot else to do apart from work do I? ;-).

A few Photos - September

A few photos recently taken.

A Good Weekend in Hamilton

Well another weekend gone quite a good one all up, first it was good to see J&J for a number of hours on Friday evening, hope the rest of your trip and the flight home went well.
Then Saturday dawned perfectly leading me to head into town to pick up an item the courier was having problems delivering (which makes it about the 4th item item I've had problems with now, why can't they deliver things after 4:30?). Any way thinking it wasn't too far from the city center I walked out to the courier depo (not really that far ~5km, took a lot longer than I was expecting though, damned hill) and then headed back past the Hamilton Lake.
With perfect weather and camera this resulted in me spending about 2 hours wandering around half the lake taking photos and trying to get a feel for using the camera to photograph a mix of birds, water and vegetation (expect a number of photos as I convert them from RAW format to something people can actually view, as usual plenty more images on my Flickr and Zooomr pages). Then Sunday (weather warm but overcast) after church headed along with A&R to see WALL E, which turned out quite awesome as you may have noticed from my previous post.

Any way here's my favorite photo (at least so far) from Saturday, more to come in a bit.

Watch it!

Wall E that is, a brilliant movie. I can't think of any of you who wouldn't like it. Unless you are concealing a hidden hatred for all movies or animated movies make you physical sick!
Well worth the wait for it to show up over here. Must say I kind of want to watch it again as I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of background info and a number of jokes hidden in the trash at the beginning. Also the ending sketches/animation and bit versions of the characters during the final credits are awesome!

Oh and don't mess with EVE!

Anonymous - A RL Stand Alone Complex?

If you've been following the goings on on the interweb over the last few years you may have noticed the odd thing attributed to "Anonymous" an apparent online group. Which has supposedly been involved in such things as, online raids against websites, hacking peoples Myspace pages, tacking Internet Predators, Protests against Scientology, Assaulting Epilepsy forums with images that cause attacks (though some claim that it was Scientology trying to ruin the Anonymous Rep, certainly possible), defacing hiphop sites and now hacking Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account (yes the current VP on the Us Republican ticket).( for more info see links at bottom)

What is interesting about this so called group is whether or not it actually exists and what we would commonly consider to be a group or whether it is an example of a "emergent" social behavior such as the one Theorized about in the Ghost in the Shell anime serie, Stand alone complex.

The Standalone complex is a phenomenon where unrelated individuals act in a similar manner which creates an appearance of a concerted effort. As in someone mentions something or does something that attracts the attention of others. With out communicating specifically with each other, they each act in a manner consistent with that of the original suggestion or action. This creates the appearance of a concerted effort even though the individuals are unrelated, there is no leader as such and no overall plan. A better explanation can be found here Wikipedia on The Standalone Complex.


Looking at this so called group "Anonymous" with the standalone complex in mind one would seriously wonder if it is actually a group as it has been described. To a certain degree, it seems to have originated (according to wikipedia at least) in a number of online forums, imageboards and websites, where "Anonymous" is the default name assigned to any post, by a person not using a login for that website or messageboard. Thus "Anonymous" is effectively anyone and every one who can't be bothered with a login or does not use one for some reason, yet is interested enough in what ever topic that they want to contribute.
So at it's very beginning Anonymous is a "group" of completely unrelated people who share common interests, yet for the most part never meet and do not communicate on a personal level. Is this even a group as such?
So any way you eventually end up with a "group" of people who utilise "Anonymous" as an identify, and some people do some stuff and then leave a message stating that they the group "Anonymous" were responsible.

So effectively we have a defined group with no specific "membership", no real leaders (though sub groups with in the so called "Anonymous" metagroup may), and no particular plan, managing to do stuff and having other stuff attributed to them. The stuff they've done is quite varied though it can kind of be split up into a couple of areas, Hacking and Protest/vigilante stuff.

What is kind of cool I guess is we have an apparent group that does stuff, and has stuff attributed to it when for all intents and purposes it doesn't exist, and is likely to be a simply a variety of people acting with common goals, with out a leader and with out specific plans.
Yet it is capable, or at least people are willing to assign it blame or responsibility for a range of impressive actions, some with potentially far reaching effects. A group which may or may not exist yet has/is being investigated by TV journalists, by the FBI and Secret Service...

The protests that were affiliated with it against Scientology were it's most interesting action so far and were rather impressive, have a look at the links to images at the bottom of the post, and have a read of there statement (bottom of the page) or watch the video of it. The most recent accredited action hacking the emails of the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin (Wired on Anoynmous hacking Sarah Palins emails.) is very interesting and has potentially far reaching consequences, considering the election is soonish and it appears that she may have been using her personal email for government business. Some people seem to think this may have been an attempt to aviod the US information discolsure laws with regards to email, if so and should there be much of interest in the hacked data it could have a significant effect on the election.

Any way I'm rambling somewhat so here is a question:
What do you think of the "group" such as it is and it's apparent actions, and do you think it's an example of a standalone complex/emergent behavior?




Links

• Anonymous Video declaring war on Scientology
• Photos from Anoymous Scientology Protests
• Wikipedia page on Anoynmous
• Wikipedia on The Standalone Complex
• Wired on Anoynmous hacking Sarah Palins emails.
• Wikileaks on the Sarah Palin emails
  

Anoynmous Declaration against Scientology

Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind--for the laughs--we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.

You cannot hide; we are everywhere.

We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day--and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.

Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs.

Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No--they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

Congrats if you made sense of this post...