The book thief

Quite recently (as in a few hours ago) a good friend of mine experienced the ugly side of the Internet. With her permission I am sharing her story with you.

Jemma Grey, whom I have mentioned before, is a budding author. Her themes are usually gothic, with vampire romance being her go-to topic. She has even produced full-fledged novels, one of which she first self-published in 2011 - My Vampire Love. Mind you, it is a rough draft that wasn't really proofread before the upload (this was admittedly from her pre-ScottyPedia era). Nevertheless it is an enjoyable read, with the revised version promising to be even more riveting.

This is the cover design Jemma chose back in 2011

Early this morning, Jemma received a message from one of her faithful Wattpad readers, who alerted her via comment that someone was selling copies of her work on Amazon, claiming it as his own. When she checked on Amazon, to her surprise Jemma found that this was in fact the case. A "Vishal Mondkar" had copied the early 2011 draft wholesale and was trying to pass it off as his November 2014- published work.

Not only that, but this Mondkar was selling Kindle version copies of the book at US $5.99 a copy. And the book had four customer reviews unanimously praising the story, while decrying its unpolished finish - spelling errors, clumsy phrasing, grammatical imbalances and other uncorrected errors. Having access to the initial draft only, Mondkar lifted the text verbatim, never bothering to proofread the work or make any alterations, including character and local place names with which Mondkar would be very unfamiliar.

As you can imagine, Jemma was horrified at this discovery! I'd love to say that she immediately enlisted my assistance but truth be told she had already contacted Amazon concerning the copyright infringement. She also decided the befriend the fraudster via Facebook in a bid to directly contact him. I urged her to start a dialogue with him in a bid to get him to say something incriminating. In the meanwhile, as an active Amazon client, I did what I could to help her cause (you can see my post here).

While that was going on, Mondkar 'befriended' Jemma on Facebook and they had quite an interesting chat. After some preliminary bluster Mondkar not only freely admitted to the plagiarism but sought to defend and justify his actions while issuing an extortion demand as well. Can you believe this guy's nerve? The following are screenshots of the exchange between them; you can see for yourself how brazen this person.

I must commend Jemma for keeping a cool head and resisting the urge to hurl some obscenity-laden invective behind Mondkar. So now she is awaiting a response from Amazon concerning the infringement, as well as forwarding the above to them for perusal. Initially she was seeking an immediate cease and desist from Mondkar and an apology to all of the duped buyers. However, I wondered aloud about how many purchases he may have already processed. If a mere 10% of buyers were moved enough to comment, that means he may have already made $239.60 from his self-confessed nefarious deeds! That represents a considerable sum that should really belong to the real author, don't you think?

I'll try to update you on the situation as it develops. Please let us know what you think about the situation via the comments below.

Mayweather-Pacquiao

Mayweather-Pacquiao is finally happening! How come I'm not so excited?

Do you remember what your Christmas wish list was when you were around seven years old? Most likely it would have been item that were extremely fashionable at the time. Can you imagine how you felt when you didn’t get it? As time passed on, you yearned still for it although you didn’t get it and during that time other things would have piqued your interest. Now imagine  Santa Claus remembering your wish list when you became a teenager and only then granting you what you wished for. The item(s) may still be appealing in themselves but your yearning has diminished so greatly that you have little appreciation for the item(s) any more.

Promotional poster for the fight.

This is how I felt when the long-mooted-but-never-materialising dream matchup between USA's Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. and The Philippines' Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao finally became a concrete reality. Their bout, which is scheduled to be held on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, has been touted since late 2009. It will pit the two best fighters of their generation against each other, if not the two best pound-for-pound boxing machines ever. In Mayweather, you have an undefeated (47-0-0, 26 KOs) five-division world champion (super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, super welterweight). In Pacquiao, you have a world record-holding eight-division world champion (flyweight, super bantamweight, featherweight, super featherweight/junior lightweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and super welterweight) with a 57-5-2 record (38 KOs).

Floyd "Money" Mayweather, Jr. - The Ring No. 1 ranked pound for pound fighter

 There are several reasons this fight should appeal to boxing fans. The winner of this fight will unify the WBA, WBC and The Ring welterweight titles, currently held by Mayweather, and the WBO welterweight title currently held by Pacquiao. Both boxers have blazed trails in multiple weight divisions, often dominating the same opponents yet somehow managing to evade each other, prompting observers to speculate for years who truly is the best. As a result they became boxing superstars, with the world literally begging for a best-versus-the-best superfight.

Emmanuel "Manny" "Pacman" Pacquiao - Pride of the Philippines! Singer, senator and pro basketball player/coach too!

And what a superfight it will be, especially from a financial standpoint. Because of their respective exclusive deals with Showtime and HBO cable networks, Mayweather-Pacquiao promises to be the highest grossing fight in history, with figures of over US $200 million being bandied about. Fight purses have not yet been finalised but Mayweather is expected to be guaranteed a purse - win or lose - in excess of US $50 million for a maximum of 36 minutes work. Pacquiao is expected to earn about two thirds of whatever Mayweather receives, thanks to a 60/40 split.

How does this jibe with the sentiments I opened with? Well, for me and many boxing fans this is a matchup that is happening about 5-6 years too late. The caps-gun I wanted at 7 means relatively precious little to me when I get it at 13, when tastes have evolved to make Nintendo the current object of desire. (These toy references may belie my age!) In late 2009, when the super-bout was first conceptualised, 32-year-old Mayweather was 40-0, having come out of an almost 2-year, self-imposed retirement to defeat Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao, a month shy of 32, had also just dispatched Miguel Cotto to win the WBO welterweight title he still holds and improving to 50-3-2. As you may guess, the prospect of those titans colliding was mouth-watering. The fact that it took so long to actually happen is probably what makes this so anticlimactic.

When we still thought this was a fight we weren't going to ever see ... but the picture tells a story!

Both fighters will now be five and a half years older now. Their records from 2010 onward have not been that impressive in comparison to their previous efforts. Mayweather has fought seven times since then - seven wins featuring only one knockout victory. With those victories, he regained his welterweight and light middleweight titles (he no longer competes in the super featherweight and lightweight divisions). Dominant force though he may still be, Mayweather is no longer the unstoppable force he was once considered to be.

Mayweather before he regained the WBC welterweight belt from Ortiz in 2011.

Pacquiao has fared the worse of the two in the intervening years. Fighting 9 times, he also won seven but suffered two successive losses, one of those costing him the WBO welterweight title to Timothy Bradley in 2012 via a highly controversial split-decision - a belt subsequently regained from Bradley in their 2014 rematch. Pacquiao has not added to his knockout tally since the Cotto bout and in fact has been knocked out himself in the other loss (to Marquez, also in 2012).

Pacquaio jubilant despite his loss to Erik Morales in 2005

With their respective recent boxing histories, it can be expected that their bout may just go the full 12 rounds. Also, as the twilight of their careers beckons, both have no reason to risk it all for the win. This apparent lack of motivation (outside of the financial windfall) makes this fight hollow in comparison to the initial 2009 proposal. Whoever wins this bout can legitimately claim to be the best fighter, pound for pound, while unifying the welterweight division titles but it will be when being considered the best has lost its real significance or relevance. The fans, promised a lobster dinner for so long, now have to settle for a foot-long Subway seafood and lobster sandwich instead. Definitely not the lobster we wanted.

See ScottyPedia's bold predictions below!

ScottyPedia's predictions? I see this going the full 12, with Mayweather winning by either majority or split-decision. Even though Pacquiao is 20 months younger, he has had 17 more professional fights and may be too battle-worn to outfox and out-box the wily Mayweather.

Reading

Looks like a book may actually be a relic ..

I came across the above picture roughly three years ago and used it for comedic effect in a mass communication project I was completing. Recently, however, I have had cause to revisit the picture's theme with a more critical outlook.

I have realised, with daily increasing alarm, that we are a society that simply does not like to read. I am not saying that we are not a literate society, just that we simply are not a collectively literary one. Part of the reasoning behind my ScottyPedia persona is that I am a voracious reader - a habit that was encouraged and indulged in my youth by both of my parents and has remained with me to this day. As a direct result, my knowledge base is considerably wider than the average person's, which allows me to appreciate concepts and participate in diverse discussions without seeming out of my depth.

Yes, this was and continues to be me!

Not everyone has the tenacity to be a true bookworm but I must encourage you all to read. Reading for leisure broadens your horizons, exposing you to worlds you sometimes never knew you never knew. Other advantages include an expanded vocabulary, better usage of words, less problems with troublesome pronunciations and an improvement in the dimensions and vividity of your imagination. And this is not limited to books; magazines, periodicals and even comic books can be a surprising treasure trove of information and entertainment!

Seems a quaint proposition!

This advice may sound slightly ironic coming from an acknowledged techie like myself but I am a techie with strong linguistic roots. Those roots are strong enough that I am seriously contemplating imparting language-based pearls of wisdom to young adults on a professional basis after I graduate (much to the delight of one Earl Best, who assures me in advance those pearls will be cast before a crowd decidedly porcine in composition). Like my dear friend and mass communication colleague Jemma Grey, I tend to straddle both worlds without effort and find that this straddling complements both sides rather than causing conflict between them. And that does not make us weird at all, just different.


And if you want real irony, one of the best quotes I have ever heard that supports books and reading came from, of all places, an episode of the Gargoyles cartoon. Although the episode dealt more with literacy than with literature, I will reproduce it here, hoping that it will resonate within and encourage you to read more.

"The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors, we are cast adrift, neither teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present, and prisms reflecting all possible futures. Books are lighthouses erected in the dark sea of time."

Logo ideas

Greetings readers!

In an effort to make my blog more visually appealing, I worked with a graphic designer/coworker of mine to come up with some ideas for my logo. The following is what we came up with.

What do you think of this as the ScottyPedia logo?

Why the bull's head motif? Although I will admit that I am a fan of the Chicago Bulls, that isn't quite it. I was born under the astrological sign Taurus, so I am partial to the bull. I even have a bull's head tattoo on my shoulder since 2010 (but that's another quite entertaining story for another time). Perhaps one of these days I'll show the tattoo off here.

Anyway, I have some smaller graphics derived from the original logo. Let me know what you think of them.

Graphic #1

Graphic #2

Graphic #3

Graphic #4

ScottyPedia on free anti-virus

Having been involved in IT for well over 25 years, I have been frequently asked many questions regarding computers and computer-related topics. One of the most frequent I am asked has to do with anti-virus software.

Not too long ago, any PC system you purchased did not come with one, leaving the choice in your hands. The less savvy buyer went about blissfully unaware that there was no protection at all, often to their future detriment. More recently, new PCs were shipped with 30-day trial copies of either McAfee or Norton/Symantec - which I admit is much better than nothing at all - but when they expired it left you almost as unprotected as before. Not to mention the multiple notifications per day that your product was about to expire and that you "should" opt for a paid package that will cure all your woes.

Then came the free revolution. Realising that people were no longer willing to pay for anti-virus-only software when there were other threats around, companies began to develop free-to-use versions of their products. Of course, there were compromises on getting these things free, as they were often stripped-down versions with basic functionality and and limited technical support. But the important thing is that they did the job respectably. And as time wore on the improved tremendously.

Just this morning a colleague who had just received a laptop asked me what anti-virus she should use. The laptop came with a trial of Norton (Internet) Security 2015 and she was actively considering paying for a license to continue using it. Not that I am against that idea but I consider Symantec's products to be notorious resource hogs.

Norton by Symantec - ScottyPedia doesn't love you at all.

So, what free solution did I recommend for her? What could possibly satisfy my discerning taste?

I told her to go with BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition. It is one of the most lightweight software around in terms of actual system resource usage and packs a powerful punch. It is in fact the best rated of the free anti-virus solutions available (and it goes without saying that I am an avid user of it). It even has an Android version for your smartphones and tablets. Like most of the free services it does require that you create a user account with them (supplying your e-mail address), which allows you to keep track of all of your BitDefender-protected devices via the Internet.

Bitdefender is definitely ScottyPedia approved!

The installation process is a breeze, requiring few interactions from the user. Once installed, there are no annoying settings and options to configure and it is maintenance-free too, working silently and reliably! Also, BitDefender's free version has never once asked, prodded, hinted or otherwise tried to encouraged me to opt for one its paid-for cousins (as some of the others do frequently and annoyingly).

The one drawback is that it is a Windows-only solution; there are no free Mac or iOS versions.

Honourable mention must go to the alliterative trio of AVG, avast! and Avira for their free solutions. They aren't bad at all but BitDefender really rocks!

I hope that I've given you some helpful free advice on free anti-virus solutions. Feel free to send me your questions or comments.

Education In The New Millennium

I originally wrote this piece roughly four months ago. I think it is entirely applicable. So do enjoy my reproduction of ...

Education In The New Millennium

I have been meaning to post this one for about two weeks now. Finally getting around to it, hoping that it will give you all some food for thought.

The incident that inspired this piece happened all the way back on September 10th, when the semester was still fairly young. It resonated within me so much that early the next morning I felt compelled to write about it. Since some of the details contained below could identify the persons mentioned, I sought their respective permissions before putting this piece out for public scrutiny. I hope that it does not fall on deaf ears, including those of my fellows students (and lecturers) at COSTAATT.

  

One of my close friends and fellow student at COSTAATT seems to have a problem. She is nearing her time to graduate and, as most graduating students are, she has some concern about her GPA and the class of degree she will shortly obtain. The particular reason for her concern is one of the final courses that she now has to complete; a course that she must pass to graduate.

The course is one that I happen to have already completed. I did not find it a difficult prospect but I have been told that my knowledge and life experience disqualifies me from being representative of the average student. What I can say is that the lecturer for the course uses a marking system that has little room for flexibility, in that your assigned grade tends to unfailingly show your true proficiency (or lack thereof) in the rules, comprehension and use of the English language.

Barely two weeks into the new semester, my friend’s concern is that in her first of a dozen weekly assignments, of which the best five will be used to generate her coursework mark, she has received a grade that COSTAATT’s deems an F. Her immediate concern, as mentioned above, is that she is about to graduate and she does not want this course to pull down her GPA and next thing you know she doesn’t graduate with first class honours.

While I am not dismissive of her concern – who doesn’t want to graduate with the highest class of degree achievable – I am a bit disheartened by her approach to the course at hand because I sincerely doubt that the lecturer is at fault. During my time with the course, the instructions for the weekly assignments were made very clear by the lecturer, including the rubric that will be used to assess these weekly assignments. In addition to this, the lecturer prepares a sample response for each assignment, so that the students have a comparative example to gauge their progress towards an optimal level. As an aside, I will mention that I have been fortunate enough to have produced an effort that supplanted that lecturer’s as the ideal response to one of the assignments (hooray for me!).

My disheartenment lies with my friend’s attitude towards the assessment of her first assignment. I would think that, knowing that the lecturer is not known to be unfair or to have had some adverse history with her, she should view the grade she received as a clarion call to improve. Clearly, her work in this assignment was less than spectacular, so she should learn from whatever errors were made and seek to improve in the subsequent assignments. Isn’t that what she is here at COSTAATT to do? Isn’t learning the true purpose of education?

In my opinion, I fear that too many of the students at COSTAATT are in a predicament of their own making, like my friend. For them, "I" am here at COSTAATT to earn a degree; actually accepting and acquiring knowledge is an incidental but purely optional benefit. Their emphasis is on developing or using some formula through which they will sail through COSTAATT without having to learn anything or really apply themselves. This formula includes the careful selection of ‘soft’ lecturers with whom good grades with minimum effort (or real learning) are guaranteed. Even to the point of withdrawing from or deferring courses that the ‘hard’ lecturer is teaching until the ‘soft’ one becomes available.

As for me, I can say in COSTAATT that I have never used the hard/soft criterion in choosing the courses I have to do. I, for one, am fully aware of my capabilities and feel that I should do well in whatever class I am enrolled in. That’s right: whatever class with whoever happens to teach it. And that is not arrogance; that is confidence. A confidence that we all should have when facing our academic challenges. A confidence that we are going to apply ourselves to the best of our abilities. A confidence that, with every classroom session, we are going to learn something that we didn’t know before – even things we never knew we never knew. And the additional benefit of the feeling you get when you earn your good grade.

So, my fellow students, I encourage you to abandon this mercenary approach to education that too many of you have taken. Open yourself up to the business of actually learning instead, accepting that higher academia requires some self-improvement as well. When you truly learn, those good grades you crave will come too, with the benefit of understanding the world around you and how it really works. Otherwise, you’ll find that after all this ‘education’ you won’t ever be really ready to find your place and space in this world.

Let me know what you think!

Welcome to The ScottyPedia Blog

Greetings, fellow netizens. ScottyPedia (also known as Scotty Ranking©) here letting down my bucket into the blogosphere! I hope that what I have to say here, even if lengthy, will be worth the read.

Let me tell you all a bit about myself and why I created this blog. Despite being (fairly) satisfactorily employed through my IT/engineering skills since 1994, I felt a need to diversify my bonds, so to speak. Having had a penchant for language and writing, it was suggested that I pursue certification along that line. COSTAATT, having within it a school of journalism and communication studies, appealed to me and from 2012 I once again became a tertiary-level student, this time around pursuing a degree in Mass Communication.

However, the academic world that existed in my late teens and early 20s is definitely not the one that I encountered at age 36 (yes, I'm "old"!). For one, the majority of the students that I met could realistically be my offspring (I actually have two COSTAATT ‘daughters’ now). And some of the faculty members are actually close to my age or even younger than I am. The Internet was a fledgling entity two decades ago and social media was practically non-existent. Now, those two form an integral part of a student’s everyday existence, including mine now since I’m studying mass communication.

So far my experience has been a fantastic one, academically and socially. I’ve made many friends among my classmates and gained the respect of my lecturers. due to my age and wealth of experiential knowledge (I’ve really seen and read a whole lot in this life), some of my classmates started jokingly referring to me as ScottyPedia. As you can guess the name stuck, making me a trusted information resource for COSTAATT.

I know a lot but I don’t claim to know everything. What I do know is that I’ll try to be informative, entertaining and enjoyable! So join me on my blog journey as i deliver my unique perspectives on life, aging, education, entertainment and other popular and topical issues. Hope you all enjoy the ride.

You can also join me on:

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/ScottyPedia
Twitter - @Scotty_Ranking (just can’t abandon that handle, had it for far too long!)

Email - Scotty.Ranking@gmail.com

#ScottyPedia



Laters!