Good news is that at least you get free leech with a few torrent sites. Yay. That is about as festive as it’s going to get.

Basically, AVS verifies the cardholder’s billing address upon placing an order. So in effect, the shipping address and the cardholder billing address have to match. Sounds like a great idea. But as I soon found out, this relatively new security measure didn’t work – at least not from Sweden. The only sure way of getting AVS to work is if you live in the US or Canada. Banks elsewhere are probably not party to this system and so the cardholder address can’t be fetched. In fact it may even be purposely blocked.

Now of course this mostly applies when using smaller retailers (so far) and a debit / credit card like VISA, Mastercard etc. You can get around this by either picking bigger retailers (that may rely on insurance to cover financial loss due to fraud I guess) or use an intermediary like Paypal or Google Checkout whenever possible. But obviously, this security nonsense takes away many of the reasons for having a debit card of any sort. And the question is if it really curbs dedicated fraudsters.

I find it typical of the world we live in that we can be wiretapped and have our financial life data mined, but when we would like to consent to sharing personal info electronically, someone instantly slams the brakes.

See also: Fraudsters exploit card protection system

Time flies, eh? I wish I could report on progress of some sort but alas there has been very little. I’m pretty much where I was a year ago. A little wiser and a little more bitter, sure. But that is the way of the world, is it not?

So I’ll try a more laid-back approach this time around and try to harness the best of both worlds, offering a more selective and sparse commentary.

To some degree I suppose I also missed the meticulous tinkering of graphic design and web programming.

As far as the personal journal is concerned I’ll be starting by filling in the gaps of last year, retroactively posting some of the highlights.

As far as the site goes I have moved all the WordPress blogs to the same server, running several blogs off of the same directory using distinct database table prefixes. Also known as a virtual multiblog. Far superior to the normal multi-user versions of WordPress and with the added benefits that you still have your databases intact and free of any hacks and fixes. Other than that I have finally gotten accounts with some of the more obvious web 2.0 sites, like twitter, picasa etc and I am currently evaluating how to best integrate that functionality.

So it’s ta-ta for now I suppose. Perhaps I will muster the rage to fight another day, as we draw closer to the abyss and good men are called upon.

Ageism and specifically jeunism (the preference for young people over older people) is a form of discrimination that is on the rise these days. And it could very well be the stupidest form of discrimination known to exist, as it not only promotes ignorant yobs but also worships a state of existence that is as flimsy as the mayfly. At least with adultism you had something to look forward to and the experience that comes with age is always an added bonus that no one can take from you. So contrary to most other forms of discrimination, this behavior is nonsensical from a practical perspective as it is sure to backfire. After all we can’t stop ageing and so we will inevitably reap the whirlwind.

Watching Swedish television and listening to the radio, I am constantly reminded of this phenomenon. They start to talk of focus groups and the media channels that once stood for quality and seriousness are reduced to whimpering shadows of their former selves. Suddenly sensitive to any change in the meteorological patterns of cultural and social structures they start to chase target audiences instead of letting the audience come to them. This obviously only compounds the problem, adding fuel to the jeunistic fire. Sure, there are always going to be a few token old folks around, but the televised media in particular is increasingly becoming a skimpy act, coupled with skimpy clothing and skimpy intellects. Nowadays we have a Eurovision program for children, just to name one among many such examples, not to mention childrens’ game shows. And then there are the adults who at least to some degree dress up as lolitas (and whatever the male equivalent of a lolita is). Not content with looking the part, the also have to resort to a seriously annoying childish demeanour.

So why is this phenomenon happening in the first place? Well, part of explanation is of course simply human nature. We’re social and designed to categorize the world around us, form groups and contend for scarce resources. Any form of discrimination or racism are dark sides to those very natural processes. Is is perhaps likely that this is a “normal” reaction against adultism that reigned for the better part of the last century? A pendulum effect as it were. Maybe, but I believe there the explanation is to be found in commercial and sex-driven culture where the youth cult plays an important part. Not just in terms of sexual attractiveness but also because of the gigantic new target audience that just opened up for marketeers. A target audience that not are consumers in their own right but also influence parents and will one day grow up to become consumer adults. Though in this case they’re likely to remains children for their entire lives and this splendidly serves the purpose of market forces as the child mind lacks the ability to make rational choices and, lets be frank, hold on to money. So if your purpose is to get people to buy a new iPod or cell phone every year, this trend couldn’t be more convenient.

With all these forces building in the same direction, sometimes unwittingly, we are probably going to be stuck here for a while and the side effects could be dire. After all, an adolescent culture almost certainly guarantees unthoughtful decisions. We need only look at the United States to see a society mired in the problems that come with jeunism. Here we can observe the more insidious side of jeunism, as behavior and mentality are affected but physical age of the politico for instance would suggest that jeunism isn’t at all present. But again, if you can’t look the part, you can still act the part. Combined with the negative effects of media reach and media globalization, standardization, we are in for a rough ride and it is going to get a lot worse before things improve.

Elsewhere I was bogged down by a political science essay on United Nations reform. As if things weren’t bad enough. I’ve never been good at writing, at least not when the desired result is synchronized mass of consistent ideas. And I’ve never taken kindly to the academic paper chase.

Hopefully I can reboot my life this spring, get back to some sort of normality and not gaze deeper into the abyss. At the very least turn all this rage and bile inside out and serve it to those who have it coming. It’s one way to cope I suppose. But right now, and for the first time in a long while, I lack plans for the future.

Yeah — people — what are they good for. Walking Petri dishes the lot of them. All in all I feel tired. Tired of the academic hamster wheel, of not being able to spend more time in the woods. And then there is the usual onslaught of Seasonal Affective Disorder or at least SAD-like symptoms.

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