Criticism of 'What the BLEEP'

I previously wrote about a movie called 'What the BLEEP do we know?'. I later had my attention drawn to some criticism about the movie. I didn't want to write about that criticism until I had watched all of the 5 DVD set including the interviews at the end.

My original reaction to the criticism was also one of criticism. Without getting too dramatic, there are thoughts in the movie which resonated deeply for me and I guess the attack on those same thoughts invoked a knee jerk reaction of sorts. But after contemplation I still believe that the author of that criticism is simply a simple creature. To be fair, the whole theme of that blog is 'enlightening' people by being sceptical of everything. Because of the sea of grey we live in, that is only a good thing sometimes.

The main theme of the criticism is that the movie is promoting some kind of cult and is masquerading as science when it is propaganda. I can see how you would come to this conclusion, if you are a simpleton. Yeah ok, and?

That warrants explanation. I don't want to explain the movie or summarise it (because you should see it yourself), but the underlying theme of the movie for me is that quantum physics is presenting us a view of the world in which deeper realities than what we currently know and live in exist, and that they unite everything in the universe. Its a big step. I imagine that a lot of people purely wouldn't entertain such an idea because it seems so different, kind of like the world not being flat. So the power in the spiritual equation shifts from being a guy with a white beard in the sky to being something more fundamental in existence that we have direct responsibility for. By no means a new idea, but for probably the first time presented in a way palatable to the western mainstream.

So to the point, how can you criticise something that motivates people to see them selves as connected to every other person? How can you not see the value in making people strive for deeper insight than what you can obtain by watching Big Brother or any of the Idol series? How can that not be a good thing? I am probably not seeing something here, but wouldn't we live in a better place if we all felt empowered by default without the need to empower our egos?

This is what I don't understand. You could criticise the movie on cinematography or structure (I couldn't, because I am not expert on such things) and that would be one thing. But to deny the message is different. You could disagree with it, sure. But to dismiss it as kooky science is shallow and simplistic. Again, you could disagree with the conclusions drawn from the science if you wanted to, but to do so without first really thinking about it is not criticism, in my opinion it is fear.

I would encourage any one, from any walk of life, to watch it and make their own opinions. I know for me at least, I now see the world in a different way which brings more meaning to my life.

False activism

In clearing my backlog of downloaded podcasts, I came across a particularly interesting interview with author Michael Newman (spelling?) on triple j's Sunday Night Safran show.

Interestingly, I couldn't find any information about this guy Newman or his book via Google after the show which is disappointing as it is really something I would like to know more about.

Basically, this guy has written a book criticising the 'left' of the political spectrum for basically begin inefficient. And I think this is easy to see. How many people marched in Australia to protest the war? To my knowledge several hundred thousand. The result, nothing. One example for sure but it isn't hard to agree with what he is talking about.

I think for most people who actually care about such matters, it is something intrinsically known about these classical styles of 'protest' and 'dissent' while not being particularly vivid. For me at least, when I read or see news of such protests I want to approve or rally behind it, but for some reason can't fully align myself with that kind of thinking in an unequivocal way. After hearing this interview, I now think that this is because of the obvious futility and self righteousness of such actions.

Lets be honest, does anyone believe that marching into a capital city is going to change anything? It just can't. It doesn't put forward any real argument. And as came out in the interview, it relies on some fairy tale ideal that 'good will prevail'. During the interview Professor Newman debunks several world triumphs for moral and humane policy, explaining how they were won by deliberate political action rather than the mystical force of goodness. Thats a huge realisation to make. Progress doesn't just happen, it is created.

Does that making protesting lefties bad people? Of course not. Just misguided in my view (disclaimer: my severely-under-educated-about-this-topic-but-the-internet-lets-me-say-whatever-I-like view). This is something that isn't really touched on in the interview. I don't see it as being the 'fault' of the left that this translucent apathy exists. In true conspiracy theory style, I believe that we were made this way by the already powerful.

Its a bit of a far stretch to follow me to that thinking I do appreciate. But history teaches us that oppressed people will eventually always revolt. You can't keep a good man down without him eventually complaining about it. So how do you keep people oppressed without fear of revolt? You let them think they are revolting. Corporate sponsored dissent.

There are many parts to this which would be much better suited to real intellectual discussion as opposed to me banging a keyboard. But I do feel there is some premise here. Regardless, the suggested courses of action by the Professor do make sense to me. Basically, you have to change the system from the inside out. Get within it and seek opportunities to effect change. Really, you can apply that mentality across the spectrum of life.

PHP date() overflow solution

I recently came across a problem in a project I am working regarding PHP and the Date PEAR package. Because there was interaction with Active Directory and the infamous accountexpires attribute, it took me a little longer then it should have for me to track down what was going on. Of course with 20-20 hindsight I can say I should have worked it out sooner.

In a nutshell Active Directory and my application were not agreeing on expiry date values. Then I noticed that they were all dates past around the year 2040. I then went digging through the internals of the Date package I was using and found that it was using the PHP function date(). The documentation on this page revealed the following insight:

The valid range of a timestamp is typically from Fri, 13 Dec 1901 20:45:54 GMT to Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:07 GMT. (These are the dates that correspond to the minimum and maximum values for a 32-bit signed integer)

Ding ding. We have a winner. Now we get to the reason for this post. I had a little trouble finding this so hopefully if you are reading this you may have googled your way here and be in need of a solution like I was.

If so, check out this drop in replacement for PHP's date funtions. It couldn't be easier. I dropped this in my project, patched the PEAR date package to use it and problem solved. Pure gold.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with ADOdb Date Library. Just merely linking to help anyone else out trying to find a solution.

TV? No More.

Its a big call, but I am officially off of TV. In fact .... FUCK TV.

I don't think television is fundamentally bad, but I do think on the whole that the content that is on it is more harmful to the human condition than beneficial. Television is just a sick place. For one thing, it is full of inappropriate sexual innuendo, not because it is risqué but because it is targeted at minors. I am also sick to fucking death of Big Brother, Australian Idol, Survivor and all of the shows in that vain and how the media pretends that they are valid and worthy of acknowledging their existence.

There are some things on TV that are genuinely entertaining and thought provoking, without question. And from time to time I may make a point of watching a particular something. What I am really giving up is TV as a default choice for entertainment. I hope to watch no more then about 1 - 2 hours of TV a week but will hopefully watch absolutely 0 TV most weeks.

If there was some way I could get others to do the same, I probably would. That sounds facetious no doubt, but its time to get off the couch. When I think of all the hours wasted flicking mindlessly through TV channels, barely conscious, being bombarded with advertising and mind numbing lowest common denominator entertainment it almost makes me sick.

Big talk, but how long will it last? I'll let you know.

Graduate Programmer Payscales

A friend of mine is employed as a 'Health & Safety Advisor (Graduate)' in Brisbane. While I could talk about how unhappy he is with the fact that last word in brackets is printed on his business card, I won't.

I recently decided to look at the programming job market in this country, particularly in Brisbane, to see what kind of skills employers are crying out for and just generally what is around. I was actually surprised at the low salaries that seem to be on offer for graduate type positions. Whether the amounts are fair or not I don't really know, but I do know that they are considerably less than what friends of mine in graduate positions of other disciplines earn.

Why is this?

My guess is that a graduate programmer without real world experience may as well be a toaster. I probably wouldn't employ a toaster to work as a programmer in any organisation I was recruiting for.

The other side of this is that my aforementioned friend probably landed a really good job in terms of pay, but I get the feeling this is a consistent thing. We just get payed less at the start. Could this also be because of the massive difference between a programmer and a 'talented programmer'?

Sometimes you just have to wonder if you made the right choice, but then you remember that you actually enjoy what you do and money is just money. Isn't it?