Australians will have to pay more for books:

Under current laws, retailers are not allowed to import and sell copies of a book if the local copyright holder has published the book here within 30 days of its overseas release. The Productivity Commission argues this restriction should be removed.

Federal cabinet was split on the push to reform the laws, with Competition Minister Craig Emerson, who was effectively rolled by the backbench, confirming today the government would not act on the Productivity Commission recommendations.

I read earlier about local authors putting pressure the government not to lift the restrictions. I find this puzzling. Authors create content. They (generally) do not actually physically publish the books themselves. It doesn’t matter where their content gets printed. The retort of “what about local jobs?”, well yes certain local book manufacturing jobs may be lost, but on the flipside, if books are cheaper, demand increases, thus creating an incentive for local authors and writers to seek publication.

The first time I heard about Libertarianism was from a NewsRadio piece around 6 or 7 years ago. A speaker (I can’t recall his name) was addressing a group of college students about what it means to be a Libertarian. One passage in his talk stuck with me, which I will paraphrase:

Every start of the college year, thousands of college freshman, pack up their belongings and move out of their home for the first time. In many cases students have now decided, via their own free will, to move away from a comfortable home with home-cooked meals to a life near the poverty line. Why do they do this? It is the lure of freedom. The lure of making your own choices, making mistakes, living your life without your parents’ overview, to better yourself. It is freedom that makes students do this and, on the whole, become stronger, smarter and wiser about themselves and the world.

Here is another quote from a reader to a newspaper publisher explaining the reason why so many in Eastern Europe celebrated the end of communism:

My daughter’s hamster (a pet white mouse) has food, water, shelter and even medical care, and a cage full of fun curly tubes. The hamster responds by constantly trying to chew his way to freedom. I think we all understand what freedom is, and it is not a gilded cage.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest We Forget.

I was living in Singapore at the time and remember the vision of the wall coming down. At the time I did not realise the importance of this event in freeing the lives of millions of people across Eastern Europe. May it’s fall forever be a beacon for the continual fight for freedom and prosperity for all mankind.

This is my blog about my thoughts on politics, technology, fatherhood and rockets.

I generally hate being “boxed” into a certain personality type, but I guess the best description I can come up with is “Libertarian Engineer.”

What is Libertarianism?

Libertarianism is the philosophy of individual liberty. Each individual should be as free as possible to make their own decision that affects their life. Individuals must be allowed to live their own lives as they see fit provided it does not impinge others from doing the same. With regards to politics, libertarianism can be characterised as being on the Right on economic matters (eg. free trade, low taxes, low-regulation, a reduced welfare state, labour market de-regulation) and to the Left on social issues (eg. civil liberties, drug de-criminalisation, pro-gay rights, freedom of religion, freedom of association).

Libertarians promote a limited government role in society. It should stand beside, not on top of, individuals in society. Examples of the limited government activities include, the enforcement of the rule of law, law and order, defence and decentralising power to states and local regions.

An Engineer

As an engineer, I tend to look at the world as problems and solutions. The reason why I relate to Libertarianism is that it works. It increases prosperity, peace, happiness and it reduces poverty. Countries with more individual freedom are more prosperous and wealthy.

For those who are interested, I have a Masters in Engineering (Microelectronics) and am now developing software for .NET platforms, PHP/MYSQL websites and embedded systems.

A Father

On28 April 2009, my darling first born, Ava, entered the world (”Hello World!”). I hope to share my insights and tips for new fathers out there.

Rockets

Oh, yeah, I fire model rockets. Nothing too big or serious but it’s great fun.

UPDATE: I have just included some articles from the last few years from my time with sharcmedia.com (now defunct).