Circus/Free Software

The circus is in town yet again(not in my town though), providing much fodder for both professional and amateur political pundits everywhere in the country. It will be yet another show of threats, warnings and political doublespeak directed at "the enemy". We all know who this "enemy" is so I'm not going to elaborate.

I'm talking about the UMNO general assembly of course. To make things very interesting, this year's assembly will be shown live on TV.

Good idea. That way all can see and hear for themselves what some UMNO delegates are really about. Provided the live telecast gets through untampered of course.

I won't be watching though. I might get a little too upset. I'd rather sit in my room and play Football Manager or Neverwinter 2.

Anway, UMNO. I can't stand their belligerent, arrogant, racist swaggering. Of course they say they're not any of those things, but people have eyes and ears and brains to do the math.

The scary part is most of these people are playing to a gallery of hardcore supporters. I'm more scared of these supporters. Their existence proves that there are some Malays in the peninsular who are just as racist and bigoted as the people they elect to represent them.

Anyway, I'm not going to discuss UMNO further. I'm extremely grateful that I am from here, where there is NO UMNO and not from over there. There were rumours awhile back about some "interested individuals" (most likely ex-PERMAS people and disgruntled PBB members) who were trying to bring UMNO to Sarawak.

Not if I and a few hundred thousand other Sarawakians (at the very least)can help it.

Things aren't perfect here. We have our share of messed up politicians and our own political circuses. Politics aren't rosy here in the Land of the Headhunter, but it's not nearly as screwed up as in other places. So if anyone asks if we need to bring UMNO here, I will reply with a resounding No Thanks. We have enough of our own (stinky but still manageable) shit to fuss about.

In other news, my house is being made over. This is a good thing except that I work at night this week and when I get home the workmen are banging away with power tools and the air reeks of new paint fumes.

It's not an ideal situation when you're trying to get some sleep after a night's work.

I downloaded Open Office 2.04 just now and installed it. I've trying to get it down for the last few days. Connection at the house has been very slow lately. It looks quite alright but I haven't really tested it properly yet. I do know that it the Writer app can create pdf files and that's really cool.

I'm in a middle of a freeware kick at the moment. A few days ago I was thinking it would be nice if I could substitute as many of my cracked pirated software with legal freeware as possible.

I'm already using AVG Free Edition. I use Firefox 2.0. I got Open Office. I also downloaded Flashget. I also use Irfanview.

I need to get a freeware CD/DVD burner next.

So the only pirated apps I have now are my Nero Burning ROM (but my Nero Express is licensed though), my games (except Need For Speed Carbon and World of Warcraft) and my WinXP Pro SP2. Damn Windows XP so goddamn expensive. Honestly, if it cost 200 bucks I would buy original. If only...

I'm not trying to be morally vain or anything. Not a chance, I'm really just making a sport of this. I think it all started when I read an article somewhere that says that it is possible to have a freeware loaded PC that is as competitive and useful as one loaded with payware. I got curious and here I am hunting for freeware.

If anyone else has any suggestions please do tell. More cool free stuff is.... well, cool.

I'm off work tomorrow so I'm going to take it slow this evening. And I will be picking up a used 17" monitor tomorrow for my old PC dad's PC. I bet my two brothers will be really happy about that.