I have been hindered by some reasons for sometime and couldn’t give much attention to many projects, let alone writing blog posts. Good news is that I resumed working on them again, and have been fixing bugs and adding new features to ExMan.

ExMan is now tagged with version 0.3 which includes the following bug fixes and enhancements:

• ExMan is now available as source tar ball, RPM, and DEB for Ubuntu. Ubuntu packages were requested by many, so tonight I went ahead and downloaded Ubuntu 9.10, installed it in VirtualBox on Fedora 12, then installed the qt-dev-tools packages and built ExMan, learned creating DEB packaging in an hour (it was much simpler compared to learning how to prepare RPMs), and created .deb for Ubuntu.
• Drag-n-Drop capability: You have added an entry, now you just drag-n-drop it down, ExMan will automatically create a new row. If you dropped it into an existing row, the contents of the dragged columns are copied.


Drag an existing row and drop into empty area



Dropping into empty area created a new row



Drag and Drop contents into existing entry copies them

• Cut-Copy-Paste: Now you can do those fancy ‘cut-copy-paste’ with familiar keystrokes – Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. [This was the toughest to implement, as QTableWidget or QTableWidgetItem do not implement them by default]
• Proper Unicode storage support: Write entries in your native language. ExMan will store them and display them back properly now. There was a bug which prevents Unicode characters not being displayed back properly, which is fixed now.
• ExMan used to crash while deleting some rows with the Delete (“X“) button. Fixed in this version.
• There was a bug which didn’t modify the amount when it changed multiple times. Fixed in this version.

Go ahead and try it. If you find any bug, or want to add a cool new feature, do let me know. For developers, the git repository is available at git://exman.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/exman/exman

“Hungry Man”

November 22nd, 2009

There is no question that I have been highly critical of Dexter this season, which isn’t to suggest that I wasn’t also critical of season two (where the conclusion fizzled) or season three (where things felt as if they wrapped up too neatly): this is a show that I have always felt struggled in the balance between the parts and the whole, and this has been especially clear this season. While I’ve enjoyed the majority of the story surrounding the Trinity Killer, and Michael C. Hall is delivering as compelling a performance as ever, I’ve found myself watching episodes out of obligation more than interest, and fastforwarding through anything not involving Trinity, Dexter, or Deb.

If we follow that strategy, “Hungry Man” contains perhaps the best connection yet between Dexter and Trinity, offering glimpses of two theoretically similar Thanksgiving dinners that in reality tell two very different story or, more problematically for Dexter, two very different stages of the same tale. The problem is that this isn’t actually a new theme, having effectively been the purpose of the Trinity story since we meant “Arthur,” and despite some really fantastic execution throughout it (like seasons before it) feels a bit too on the nose, thematically.

However, when you have a show that likes to meander about as it does and (in my opinion) waste our time with storylines that are irrelevant until the show decides to deliver a bombshell like at the end of this episode, I’ll take compelling contrivance over mundane mind games any day.

What bugs me about showing the dangerous side of the Mitchell family is that it was so inevitable. The storyline has always been an extravagant excuse to investigate Dexter’s family more carefully, a conveniently Miami-based serial killer who happens to also have a family. Over the past number of episodes, the show has created excuses for Dexter to see what Arthur is made of, discovering last week that he’s not even close to stable and discovering this week that his family has consequently suffered. And in those scenes the show has created a lot of legitimate dramatic tension, as Arthur/Trinity is unpredictable in a way that Dexter simply isn’t. We know how Dexter responds to situations, and we’re so far inside his head that the show has felt the need to more consistently use Harry as a second voice in order to diversify his inner monologues. To have a new character who is similarly complex to be able to investigate is both useful for Dexter (who loves self-inflicting psychoanalysis) and for the show, and Lithgow has been a great addition as a result.

However, my problem is that this episode goes too far to vilify Arthur, to take him so far away from Dexter’s current position that he becomes simply a cautionary tale rather than a complex individual to be dissected by Dexter and by the audience. It’s one thing to shatter his image of the perfect family by suggesting that his son resents him for the emergence of his violent tendencies, or to suggest that he is over-protective of his daughter to the point where he locks her in her room and has effectively turned her into both a creepily sexual 15-year old and a replacement for his dead sister. I think those cracks in the perfect family were both really interesting (especially with the daughter, who until this episode seemed a waste of the acting talents Vanessa Marano showed on Six Feet Under or Gilmore Girls), and they created consequences that wouldn’t be visible from behind a tree in his front yard, Dexter’s first vantage point into this family.

And yet, when Jonah went off during Thanksgiving dinner and Arthur went on a murderous rampage choking out his son and throwing his daughter across the room, the scene went too far. Yes, the scene was an enormously compelling piece of drama, and we’re conditioned to gasp when Dexter reveals the Dark Passenger to Arthur in that moment, but it makes things far too easy, which is the same thing that has happened in every past season. In Season Two, Lyla was a lifeline for Dexter, someone that he was able to talk to about his problem (albeit veiled in the context of Narcotics Anonymous), and killing someone who offers him solace would have been an intriguing moral dilemma; of course, she turned into a kidnapping arsonist psychopath, so all questions of morality disappeared. The same happened in Season Three when Dexter found Miguel Prado, someone who could be a friend and confidante who knew about his problems but understood and even assisted with it; however, he was revealed to be a corrupt attorney who was using Dexter to kill innocent victims, which made Dexter’s decision to kill him less morally complicated and more “satisfying.” It was a “Hell yeah” moment on a show that, late in each season, loves shifting into that mode.

For once, I’d like to see one of Dexter’s foils actually remain complicated to the point where Dexter doesn’t know if he should kill them. I’m aware that Trinity doesn’t make a great candidate for this considering the fact that he has murdered nearly 100 people in his lifetime, but having Dexter witness it first hand in such vivid detail creates too simple a trajectory. Dexter is at its best when it is investigating moral complexities, in particular within Dexter, and that ship has officially sailed: from now on, we’ve switched from being compelled by the intricacies of this friendship to a sort of bloodlust, hopeful that Dexter “gets another kill” (a common complaint amongst some fans is that they aren’t satisfied unless Dexter draws blood). The scene was enormously compelling, don’t get me wrong, but it also signals that the compelling series of episodes more carefully investigating Arthur have passed, and a serial killer is effectively all that’s left.

I thought that this hour was one of the best so far this season in terms of connecting Trinity and Dexter’s experiences, and Harry’s observation that Rita was, at one point, also just a cover for his true identity is spot on. Dexter has been holding onto hope that Arthur somehow figured it out, but in this episode any sense that Arthur has anything under control was eliminated as soon as his family was revealed as so tragically flawed. While it involved one of the subplots I fastforwarded through (Elliot and Rita’s transgression), it was interesting to see how Dexter returns to his family and sees what he believes to be happiness (Cody volunteering thanks for Dexter, the same thanks that had to be coerced out of the Millers) when in reality Elliot has whispered in Rita’s ear that Dexter isn’t around as much as a real father should be. It allows Dexter to believe his family is different when, based on what we know (and what Dexter should know, considering Rita’s less than stable past) there is every chance that ten years down the line they could be just the same.

But, unfortunately for the season as a whole, this is as far as this investigation is really going to get, if we follow the traditional patterns of the season structures (which, as noted, to this point have been almost slavishly adhered to). While we learn that Christine is Trinity’s daughter, and Deb puts together that she was likely the person who shot her and killed Lundy, we’re entering into the part of the season that completely demystifies the villains in an effort to allow Dexter to be a hero. Now, killing Trinity is avenging the thirty years of murders, protecting against future murders, protecting the Miller family, and protecting himself (now that Arthur knows his inner demon); there’s nothing complex about that, an inevitability tied as much to Lithgow’s guest star status as it is to the show’s ongoing pattern.

And if this was all surrounded by a more compelling set of ancillary storylines, I’d probably be less likely to complain about it, but forgive me if Batista/LaGuerta and Quinn/Reporter aren’t doing it for me.

Cultural Observations

• I do think that Jennifer Carpenter deserves a lot of credit this season. She was really solid in her scenes with Cody/Astor tonight, and more importantly did a good job of various revelatory moments that wouldn’t have worked without a good performance (as she’s basically acting with herself).
• However, I thought Masuka at Thanksgiving dinner was a huge disappointment: instead of letting him loose comically, they tied him up in Rita and Elliot’s drama, which could potentially lead to long-term hilarity but actually makes me less likely to care about the character moving forward. Did Masuka really need to be connected to that storyline?
• I’m going to presume that the title is as much a reference to the TV Dinners (which defined Deb and Dexter’s post-Mrs. Morgan Thanksgiving traditions) as it does to Dexter/Arthur’s hunger to kill.
• I thought Deb’s realization that the killer is working on a school pattern makes sense, but wouldn’t the bludgeoning have taken place during the school year, thus making Deb realize that he’s Miami-based? I know that she was at Thanksgiving Dinner and not in front of the board, but it was just something that she didn’t get to follow through on.

I recently experienced a minor run-in with dpkg-deb. My system tells me, that

$ uname -a
Linux hoazin 2.6.28-16-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 20 19:48:24 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

which seems to indicate that the Architecture field of the DEBIAN/control file should read ‘i686‘. Doing this results in the error:

deb Error: Wrong architecture 'i686'

Dismembering official packages reveals ‘i386‘ as the correct value.

John Perkins a.k.a Economic Hitman

Pada tahun 2004 John Perkins telah menulis Confession of an Economic Hit Man – Pengakuan Tukang Pukul Ekonomi. Buku ini melakar bagaimana Perkins direkrut oleh National Security Agency (NSA) untuk menjaga kepentingan kaum pemodal antarabangsa.

Untuk menghalalkan tugas – Perkins – telah dimasukkan bekerja disebuah syarikat konsultan ekonomi. Ini hanyalah baju yang dipakai oleh Perkins kerana syarikat ini memiliki hubungan rapat dengan NSA. Sebagai penasehat ekonomi Perkins merayau-rayau ke Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran dan negara yang dianggap memiliki potensi ekonomi.

Tugas Perkins cukup enteng : dia akan menasehatkan pemimpin negara-negara ini untuk membuat projek-projek mega ( seperti projek Bakun). Perkins tidak memiliki masaalah untuk bertemu dengan pemimpin politik negara-negara Dunia Ketiga. Ini kerana Perkins sedar bahawa pemimpin negara-negara ini apabila mendengar ada Mat Saleh ingin bertemu mereka maka mulut dan buntut mereka ternganga luas.

Perkins akan dijemput untuk menghadiri pelbagai seminar dan mesyuarat ( seperti Invest Malaysia 2009) dan dijemput dalam perbincangan percambahan pendapat. Akhirnya Perkins akan membuat dan mengajukan kertas-kerja dan cadangan untuk memunculkan projek mega. Dalam masa yang sama melalui Perkins – Bank Dunia atau IMF atau bank-bank lain akan bersiap sedia mengeluarkan dana.

Projek mega ini adalah cara ‘merasuah’ para pemimpin dan kroni para politikus Dunia Ketiga. Projek-projek ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan kepentingan ekonomi warga negara itu walau pun dengan lunak Perkins akan menggambarkan bagaimana projek mega ini akan memberi manafaat untuk rakyat. Ini hanya kelentong.

Kontrektor-kontrektor projek, pekakas pembuatan – semuanya didatangkan dari nasehat Perkins. Projek ini akan menggunakan pakar-pakar ‘Mat Saleh ‘ yang dibayar dengan lumayan berbanding dengan pakar tempatan. Perkins melahirkan pekerjaan untuk para Mat Saleh yang di panggil ‘expert’.

Dalam masa yang sama Perkins cukup sedar banyak dana ini akan masuk ke dalam poket para pemimpin negara ini. Ini adalah sebahagian dari strateji Perkins. Ini perangkap yang sengaja dipasang.

Sedikit demi sedikit negara ini akan terhutang dengan lembaga-lembaga bank antarabanga – IMF, World Bank, European Bank dan pelbagai lembaga dana yang bekerja erat dengan Perkins. Bunga dan hutang ini akan meningkat. Ini menambahkan lagi beban negara. Perkins akan mengusulkan cara terbaik untuk mencari dana agar dapat membayar hutang dan bunga.

Cadangan Perkins : subsidi dihapuskan. Barangan kawalan makanan dilupuskan. Impot dibesarkan. Barangan ekspot dimurahkan. Nilai ringgit dikurangkan dengan alasan akan menarik orang luar membeli barangan ekspot.

Akhirnya – akan sampai satu masa – dimana hutang bagitu menjerut untuk negara ini. Maka Perkins akan ‘ menasehatkan’ para politikus agar Pertamina memberikan hak untuk Exxon cari gali di Ambalat –misalnya yang terjadi di Indonesia. Ini perangkap awal.

Jika pemimpin politik ini memiliki perasaan nasionalisma dan enggan tunduk atau berdegil maka akan di hantar apa yang di panggil ‘ The Jackals’. Mosaddeq di Iran menjadi mangsa pada thun 1953. Presiden Guatemala pada tahun 1954 menjadi mangsa agar bumi negaranya selamat untuk dijadikan ladang pisang United Fruits Company. Sukarno pada thun 1965. Ecuador pada thun 1981.

Mari kita melihat kes klasik sejarah Terusan Panama yang telah dimilik negarakan oleh Omar Torrijos pada thun 1977. Kemudian pada July 31, 1981 kapalterbang yang dinaikinya meletup di udara. Sesudah Torrijos mati Amerika kembali mendapat hak untuk meletakkan tenteranya di Terusan Panama. Khalas.

Di negara kita sendiri perkara yang sama pasti berlaku. Dasar Ekonomi Baru yang dilakar oleh Razak Hussein telah mengenepikan kepentingan pemodal antarabangsa. Kaum pemodal ini merasa kurang senang dengan dasar ini. Melalui media dunia mereka terus mempertikaikan dasar ini.

Dasar ini juga di kritik oleh kapitalis nasional dan kapitalis komprador yang suaranya diwakili oleh MCA. Ketika itu air, api, talikom, universiti, jalan raya, hospital, tanah Felda, Felcra, SEDC – semuanya adalah milik orang ramai i.e milik negara.

Kritikan dasar ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan kepentingan Mak Jah peniaga warong di Gombak atau Pak Huseing pembuat budu di Pengkalan Chepa. Kritikan ini datang dari kaum kapitalis yang tidak dapat membuat keuntungan maksima.

Apabila Mahathir naik semua ini diubah. Untuk mendapat sokongan kapitalis komprador dan kapitalis nasional: baca pemodal Cina – Mahathir telah menswastakan harta rakyat ini. Maka gembiralah dan berkundurilah kaum kapitalis ini. Harta kekayaan mereka bertimbun tambah. Laporan terbaru membuktikan bagaimana 58 bilion ringgit harta negara di sawastakan hanya 2 bilion ringgit sahaja yang menjadi milik Melayu.

Mahathir naik tocang apabila dinobatkan oleh kaum pemodal ( kaum pemodal Cina) sebagai penjana pembangunan. ( Ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan Mak Cik Limah di Felda Chomomoi atau Haji Timah tuan punya warong di Senawang.)

Dasar Ekonomi Baru ini hakikatnya adalah dasar ekonomi kapitalis yang penuh dengan percanggahan. Dasar ini bercita-cita untuk memunculkan ‘zaibatsu’ Melayu/Bumiputera. Ini hanyalah mimpi tegang yang tidak pancut-pancut. Cita-cita ini tidak mungkin tercapai hingga bumi meletup. Kalau tupai beranakkan gajah pun dasar ini tidak akan tercapai.

Dasar DEB ini tidak akan berjaya kerana dalam hukum ekonomi kapitalis – apa boleh jual akan di jual – apa yang boleh di beli akan dibeli. Dalam ekonomi kapitalis tidak ada agama atau bangsa. Setiap kali modal dilabor untuk Melayu ianya pasti akan bertalian dengan ekonomi Cina yang telah lama kukuh. Ini belum diambil kira rasuah.

Tidak mungkin semua orang Melayu/Bumiputera akan dapat di kayakan. Pemodal memerlukan buruh yang boleh diupah murah. Pemodal memerlukan pengguna untuk membeli. Kalau Melayu semua kaya siapa pula yang akan menjadi buruh di ladang sawit, penanam padi, penangkap ikan dan Minah Karan dan Mat Spana?

Dasar Ekonomi Baru ini hanyalah satu kelentongan/tipu helah dimana para politikus Melayu berkumpul membuat dasar atas nama Melayu. Dengan bersandarkan keMelayuan maka para politikus Melayu ini dapat ‘merembat’ harta negara.

Pada ketika DEB dimulakan pergaduhan Melayu/Bukan Melayu baru selesai. Kapitalis nasional dan kapitalis komprador tidak berani menyuarakan tentangan pada ketika itu. Mereka melihat dari jangka panjang kepentingan mereka lebih terjaga dengan dasar ini. Anggapan mereka cukup tepat. Siapa dia Lim Goh Tong, siapa dia Ananda Krishnan, siapa dia Vincent Tan ?

Dasar untuk menjadikan 30% harta kekayaan negara ini dimiliki oleh Melayu/Bumiputera adalah mimpi kosong dan dasar yang salah. Tidak perlu membuat kajian ilmiah – pergi sahaja keluar dari Kuala Lumpur dan lihat sendiri kehidupan orang-orang di kampong. Memang betul ada perubahan. Kalau dulu pada tahun 1974 di Kampong Chenor ( kampong saya ) tidak ada leterik dan air – hari ini telah ada.

Tetapi air dan leterik kini dimiliki oleh pemodal tuan empunya saham.. Hospital dimiliki oleh pemodal tuan empunya saham.. Sekolah dan univeristi dimiliki oleh pemodal tuan empunya saham.. Jalan raya dimiliki oleh pemodal tuan empunya saham. Talipon dimiliki oleh pemodal tuan empunya saham. Ini bezanya. Ini hakikat.

Dua minggu dahulu Najib telah membuat dasar liberalisasi. Perkataan LIBERALISASI ini perkataan hampeh. Ini perkataan putar alam bertujuan untuk mengelirukan kefahaman yang tuntas kepada orang ramai terutama kepada Mak Cik dan Pak Cik Felda. Liberalisasi bermakna : Syarikat antarabangsa dibenarkan berniaga bebas dalam negara ini.

Dua hari dahulu Najib Razak telah mengubah satu jalur DEB. Kaum pemodal pasti akan mengalu-alukan dasar ini. Ertinya pasaran Malaysia terkangkang luas untuk di entot. Ertinya tidak ada lagi halangan untuk sesiapa sahaja memiliki harta kekayaan negara ini. ( Kalau saya kapitalis saya akan terpancut siang dan malam dan meleleh air liur melihat harta negara ini boleh dimiliki ).

Kenapa Najib membuat dasar baru ini ?

Cukup senang untuk memahaminya. Najib memiliki masaalah peribadi yang berat. Jangan silap baca ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan berat badan isteri Najib. Berat di sini bermakna berat dari segi politik. Contohnya : Parti yang dipimpin oleh Najib tidak lagi mendapat sokongan rakyat. Retak retak kelihatan dalam gabungan Barisan Nasional. Dan paling menakutkan Najib apabila kaum kapitalis komprador dan kapitalis nasional: baca – pemodal Cina – telah menjauhkan diri dari Najib.

Dalam masa yang sama media antarabangsa terus menghantui Najib dengan kes pembunuhan Altantuya gadis cun dari Mongolia. Media luar ini adalah alat pembesar suara untuk memastikan kepentingan kaum pemodal antarabangsa terjaga rapi. Kuam pemodal antarabangsa ini telah lama ingin merembat harta kekayaan negara ini.

Hantu dan polong-polong puaka ini perlu dijaga.

Najib wajib melakukan sesuatu. Seperti Mahathir menswastakan harta negara untuk kaum komprador dan kapitalis nasional maka Najib Razak menswastakan seluruh bumi Malaysia ini untuk kepentingan kelas kapitalis dalam dan luar negara. Inilah hakikat dari dasar ekonomi yang akan dijalankan oleh Najib Razak.

Dimana Perkins Kaki Pukul sedang bersemayam?

Jangan risau si Perkins ini masih wujud. Perkins telah menghatar budak suruhannya dari Singapura. Lupa projek mega – Jambatan Ketiga ?

Perkins-Perkins ini mungkin ada jaringan dalam EPU. Si Perkins ini mungkin masih bersarang di Tingkat Empat atau ingin pindah ke tempat yang lebih tinggi seperti di Menara Petronas. Si Perkins sedang berselerak menjalankan tugas untuk memastikan kepentingan kaum kapitalis akan didahulukan.

Dasar Ekonomi Baru atau Dasar Pedekatan Baru ini semuanya TIDAK akan memberi apa-apa manafaat kepada rakyat biasa. Dasar ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan kepentingan Gopal pemandu teksi dari Segambut. Dasar ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan Swee Heng peniaga nasi Itek di Jalan Petaling. Dasar ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan Hajah Limah pembekal kerepek ubi dari Sijangkang.

Rakyat biasa tidak berjudi di bursa saham. Rakyat biasa tidak tahu apa itu ‘pink form’. Rakyat biasa tidak memahami turun naiknya Nasdaq atau Index Heng Seng. Rakyat biasa mahu keselesaan dan bukan mahu di ikat dengan pelbagai gaya/cara – cukai/tol/bil hospital/bil air/bil api/ bil sewa rumah/cukai rumah – dimana mereka wajib dan dipaksa mengeluarkan duit yang tidak mereka miliki.

Dasar ekonomi terbuka dan terkangkang ini akan menjemput kapitalis antarabangsa – dengan alasan untuk melabor dan membawa modal. Ini betul-betul hujah dari kertas kerja John Perkins. Inilah cara yang digunakan oleh Perkins untuk memastikan sesebuah negara itu akhirnya akan dapat dijajah kembali.

Satu kerajaan yang baik adalah kerajaan yang berkiblatkan rakyat. Sebuah kerajaan yang adil tidak akan mempedulikan kepentingan kaum kapitalis kerana mereka menghisap darah warga negara. Dasar yang wajib dinobatkan ialah dasar dimana kepentingan ramai mendahului kepentingan pribadi. Kepentingan ramai menjadi nakhoda dan juragan.

Kerajaan yang adil ialah sebuah pentabiran yang telus dimana dasar ekonominya akan menobatkan kepentingan kaum buruh dan tani. Ini kerana dari tenaga kaum buruh dan kuam tani inilah munculnya modal. Modal muncul dari tenaga manusia. Modal bukan wang ringgit. Wang ringgit adalah tanda nilai tenaga dan fikrah manusia. Modal datang dari tenaga warga negara itu sendiri.

Modal bukan datang dari IMF atau Bank Dunia Bank. Duit dari IMF atau Bank Dunia itu adalah hasil rompakan dari tenaga buruh dan tani dari seluruh dunia.

Justeru dasar Menjual Felda mungkin dilihat dapat mengumpulkan modal. Awas! Menjual Felda samalah seperti Lebai Sudin di Kuala Nerang yang hanya memiliki sebuah rumah dan 3 relong sawah. Satu hari untuk membaiki atap rumahnya Lebai Sudin telah menjualkan 3 relong tanah sawahnya kepada …….(TT)
( Tulisan ini boleh dicekup demi membuat kebaikan. Sila baca buku Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – jangan malas baca! Kalau malas kena jual nanti !)

“Road Kill”

November 15th, 2009

I spent part of last week finishing up the fifth season of Six Feet Under, which has long been half finished after a lengthy marathon session of the entire series just proved dire last summer, resulting in “Depressive Melodrama Burnout” (DMB, for short). Returning to that show was a reminder of just how amazing Michael C. Hall can be, and how in some ways I wish that Dexter could feel as…progressive as Six Feet Under often did. Say what you will about Alan Ball’s incessant refusal to allow his characters to be happy, but the sense of growth in David as a character (and, not to spoil anything, a late series regression) helped to provide a sense that the collective weight of the show was actually having an impact on his psyche.

Dexter, as a series, is like a masochistic, homicidal version of “Will it float?” where the writers throw various circumstances at Dexter to see whether it will mix with his existing psychotic personality. The argument the fourth season has been making thus far is that Dexter is not aware of how much his personality has actually changed, and the Trinity Killer is a sign that perhaps there is some secret switch that will help reconcile his new life in the suburbs with his murderous impulses (and actions). And, now into the show’s fourth season, the psychological experiment at the centre of the show is downright uninteresting to the point where last week’s violation of Harry’s code is about a season and a half behind the times: we’ve been waiting for Dexter to realize that the code is flawed, and develop his own, since the start of the third season, but the show is formulaic to the point where that would disrupt the flow of the story.

“Road Kill” works as an episode because it completely sidelines Dexter’s predictable responses in favour of the unpredictability of the Trinity Killer. To do so, of course, the show has to admit that the actual impact of killing a mostly innocent man is entirely counterproductive to the show’s intentions, instead heading to Tampa in order to delve into the psyche of a character that, in being new and interesting, the writers actually seem interested by. The rest of the episode isn’t nearly as interesting, but letting Hall and Lithgow go on a road trip together is a recipe for success, if limited by the show’s current focus.

I want to be clear that this episode didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t know about Trinity, factually speaking. What it did was explain why his sister’s death, his mother’s suicide and his father’s eventual end are tied up in his own past. As Dexter points out, they are both born in blood, Dexter as an innocent toddler (scarring him to the point of corrupting his world view) and Trinity as an innocent pre-teen (who inadvertently causes his sister’s death, and who kills his father after he holds him accountable for his mother’s suicide). It’s the sort of connection that’s hokey if the storyline is actually about Dexter, but since I’m largely uninterested in what the show does with his character I thought it was a nice touch in terms of contextualizing Trinity.

The entire Tampa trip had this really interesting sense that Dexter, despite attempting to complete an ill-advised road kill (the only one we’ve seen, I think, outside of Lyla), wasn’t in control. It made for some really intriguing scenes where John Lithgow got to play Arthur as legitimately crazy, someone who we as the audience feel could go off the rails at any moment. We know that Dexter intends to kill Trinity, but we also know that Trinity could just as easily make a move to kill Dexter, as both are vulnerable in this situation. When we eventually learn that Arthur is far too messed up to be orchestrating a murder, having been driven to madness by both his return to his childhood environment and his sense that Dexter and his hunting accident offers a crutch of sorts, it creates that sort of uncertainty that used to be present on the show with Dexter, but has now become drowned out by his internal monologue and reserved for those orbiting our anti-hero.

The show looks like it could be heading in an exciting direction when we discover that Trinity is about to jump off a building to his death in his state of remorse, but of course that’s expecting too much. The episode played out almost like a short story of sorts, like an undercover cop spending time with a known serial killer and unknowingly appealing to the side of him that creates this sort of crazy adventure. Because of how good Lithgow is, and because Hall plays this role so well in this sort of supporting capacity, this storyline works as a standalone unit. However, because it does nothing to course correct a season that has me far more invested in a character who is doomed not to last the season, it’s not getting me any more excited about it being dragged out a bit longer.

As for the rest of the episode, I fast forwarded through all of the Batista/LaGuerta and Rita/Neighbour stuff – I presume that the two of them broke the table rekindling their forbidden romance, and that the latter flirted enough over wine to indicate that Rita has an escape strategy for her marriage with Dexter, but forgive me if I don’t care about any of it. I have similar feelings about Quinn’s reporter girlfriend, although I thought the Deb stuff was interesting in that it actually advanced the plot by informing us that Trinity did not, in fact, kill Lundy and Deb. This leaves a couple of theories circling around, which include Trinity’s son and Anton, theories which are about the only thing unpredictable about the season to this point. I think the show would be far more interesting, though, if it limited its number of terrible storylines and stuck to a combination of larger Dexter stories and linear secondary stories that could provide a sense of consistent achievement to make it feel as if they’re not just wasting time until something interesting happens.

Cultural Observations

• Dexter is currently at the point where I’m only watching episodes in their entirety when my Twitter followers indicate that it’s worth watching: I can’t take the boring placeholder episodes of the show right now, and if not for Lithgow/Hall I’m not sure I’d be watching at all. So, if I don’t review an episode here and there, don’t be shocked.
• Enjoyed the over-scientific explanation of the Meteorological Conference that got Dexter the excuse to go – Hall played the two scenes well, and I thought they had a nice levity to them.
• And I really don’t have anything left to say about this one.

Getdeb es un sitio donde se alojan muchisimos programas todos en su formato de paquete .deb. Se puede descargar el paquete por afuera o agregar en nuestra lista de repositorios el repositorio de Getdeb.

Para esto tenemos que editar el archivo /etc/apt/sources.list de la siguiente manera:

sudo /etc/apt/sources.list

Para agregar lo siguientelo siguiente:

deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu karmic-getdeb apps

Luego tenemos que descargar y agregar el GPG key que nos permitirá descargar los paquetes:

wget -q http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add getdeb-archive.key

Semarang, dotexe.wordpress.com

Debian adalah salah satu distro yang saya pakai walaupun tidak sehari-hari, namun cuma sebagai server saja. Kebetulan repository server Debian ini dulu mengacu pada http://debian.unnes.ac.id (saat ini down) sehingga saya harus memutarnya ke mirror lain. Dasar admin malas dan tak mau susah-susah ber-console ria mengedit /etc/apt/sources.list saya putuskan untuk menggunakan apt-spy

Tentang apt-spy
apt-spy sendiri adalah sebuah aplikasi 3rd party untuk apt-get yang bertujuan melakukan benchmark terhadap mirror-mirror repository Debian yang ada sesuai parameter yang diberikan, memilih yang paling cepat dan menuliskannya sebagai konfigurasi apt-get pada /etc/apt/sources.list.

Penggunaan apt-spy
1. Login sebagai root dan jalankan terminal, kemudian update koleksi mirror milik apt-spy terlebih dulu dengan perintah

apt-spy update

dengan perintah tersebut, apt-spy akan mengunduh berkas mirror Debian kemudian memilahnya.

2. menambahkan koleksi repo dari suatu area
untuk menambahkan repository tercepat dari suatu area, misalnya asia gunakan perintah

apt-spy -d stable -a asia

3. menambahkan koleksi repo dari suatu negara
untuk lebih spesifik, kita bisa mendapatkan repo tercepat dari suatu negara misalnya Indonesia dengan perintah

apt-spy -d stable -s id

dengan id adalah kode negara Indonesia.

Setelah menjalankan apt-spy silakan cek isi dari /etc/apt/sources.list anda, dengan vim /etc/apt/sources.list.

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