Archive for category internet
Firefox in Fijian: Field Test 1
Strange Pants brought to my attention the Firefox Fijian language addon made available by AvonSys, and it’s proving to be an interesting development in the field of native language interactive media. As it stands, most fijian language websites are usually about the study of the actual language itself. Television already has a few shows in fijian, but compared to the internet, tv has been around for abit longer.
Since software releases of any kind must be vigorously tested before, during and after its release to the wild, I’m going to be doing my part in giving the Fijian language addon a lap or two around the barracks ground. Because my fijian isn’t in any shape to give a run through with anything thats fijian and written, I’ve arranged to have some of my other friends and family who are in a better vernacular shape then me to have a go at the language pack.
First up, my trusty but sly workmate, Marika. Technically, Marika doesn’t know that he is been used as a lab rat to test run the new firefox language pack, but I promise to show him the post and give him his 2 minutes of fame when this trial run is published. Here’s an apology in advance to you mate >< Bullet points of interest to follow:
- Before we could even start the review process, Marika had to update his Firefox. “What? Why?” He shrugs. “Everytime thing pop up to update, I just quise it and close it.” A short break while we wait for the updated version to download and install, with much impaitent foot tapping and furvative glances at the progress bar.
- Set. With Firefox now up to date, we eagerly download the language pack, run the installation process – and immediately run into a wall of complex instructions. Ok, to be honest, as a person who likes to think of himself as sorta web savy, it wasn’t that complex. Just…well note for any interested parties: Save time and reading concentration energy. Use Locale Switcher to switch between English and Fijian.
- /Cheer! Behold Firefox in all its majastic, somewhat jarring mix of english and fijian, menu localised glory! First disappointment – websites weren’t rendered in Fijian. Awwww. Of course, Marika was expecting his whole operating system to be in Fijian, so in comparison my disappointment wasn’t that bad.
- Oookaaayyy, lets see now. The first item on the menu bar…Nomu File. Sounds about right. Though to be honest, Fiji needs to come up with more fijian versions of english words, since nomu ‘file’ just won’t cut it. Of course, that’s another topic for another Professor Local Language Convention meeting. For now, the mix of fijian and english in written form was strangely…jarring. We ended up playing a minigame of figuring out which menu was what in its new (disguised) Fijian form, by reading it out aloud and relating it to what we knew as the english version. For example, “Na veisau”, translated literally, means “Change”. What’s there to change? Or maybe…to edit! Yep, we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves =_=
- My favourite fijian switcheroo is “Na MakaniVola”, which lends itself quite well in terms of literal translation: the mark in the book, or Bookmark.
- After stumbling around the menu items, there was a pause then, “Ok…set.” I raised my eyebrows in confusion. “Huh?” “I…gonna switch back to english.” Shock! Horror! “Boy…I’m not used to working in fijian, let alone reading fijian. I dunno boy, thing will uhh take some getting used to.” Hmm. Fair enough point. “Set. But – like how do you like this?” “Woo boy thing set boy. Heavy that they got a Firefox in fijian. Like, from here, us gang can start making more computer stuff with fijian in it.” He slowly and deliberately switched the language from Fijian back to English. “Its good. I will use come back later and try using it again. Thing will take some time to get used to, because first time to have a fijian program, and to use it for work. It’ll take some time. But set.”
Sounds good enough for me.
Next up, the more challenging field test Part 2. My sorta computer literate uncle.
Taadaa! Welcome to Failed Paradise 2.0
A New paint job. With less wheels.
If you’re reading this after you’ve been redirected from the ol’ .blogspot.com addy, then welcome! We’ve transfered over from blogspot to a brand spanking new domain (only $20FJ a year! Bonus!), a new wordpress blog hosting machine, all with the fresh smell of brand new paint 
Over the next few days there’ll be a few hiccups, curious new themes and all round strangeness happenings here. Stay with us. We’re getting the hang of things as we settle down in our new home, and will soon be churning out the same silly, strange, funny posts that you’ve all come to associate with the monster that is Failed Paradise. So update your bookmarks, re-subscribe your RSS Feeders, and enjoy the new layer of paint. Just don’t watch it dry.
The blog wordspread
From Wordle via Meg’s blog (thanks Meg!) comes a picture/word overview of the most used words in this blog. As usual, the major, most over used word comes as a surprise; One. There’s a few points to draw from the above experiment:
1) I really need to start using the word Fiji alot more in my sentences. The “she sells sea shells by the sea shore” quantity type. Fiji.
2) I just noticed that the word ‘sex’ and ‘go’ were placed next to each other. Bonus!
3) One? How? And I don’t even like that song by U2 =_= I mean granted, U2 is a premier rock band that outlasted the 80s but still…trying to figure out why ‘One’ is the most used word in the blog is mighty confusing. And of course I think I may have just helped the word count for ‘One’ go up a little with this paragraph. Good one. Damnit! /facepalm
So for those of you who have a blog, go ahead and try the Wordle experiment. It’s certainly worth a look to see what’s your current word trend is. And the word arrangement is quite pretty
…Fiji.
Us Gang: What Lunch In Suva is all about
Welcome to a new monthly (or longer – Fiji time and all) section of the blog where we’ll be having a chit chat with our local bloggers, and getting to know them a tad bit more then what you read on their profile page. With Fiji as their common denominator, these bloggers are part and parcel of our local blogsphere, helping to shape what we are to the world online.
[Fancy words end]
Probably the only food review website for local restaurants in Fiji, Lunch in Suva is all about the thumbs up/down. Godsent for people who are cautious about good food in Suva, these brave souls check to see whether eatery XXX deserves your hard earned dollars. With Suva as their playground, they’ve covered all corners of the restaurant spectrum, from the standard fish & chips fare to more cultured coffee offerings.
We’ve recently had the chance to have a little talanoa session with the gang behind Lunch In Suva, and find that rosters are unavailable, reviewing is a thankless job, and Tom Cruise is so not gay. Like…totally not.
How did it all start?
Kania Tiko (KT): I was drunk and said things I now regret, made promises I no longer want to keep, life commitments that make me want to end my life. Sorry what was this question about again?
Picky Eater (PE): We had just discovered Dan’s Fish & Chips. Someone said “How come we never heard of this place before? There should be a blog where you can find out about places to eat in Suva.” Everyone nodded sagely, agreed this was a good idea, and did nothing about it for 2 whole years. [This may explain why I awarded Dan's a 'thumbs-up' it no longer deserves]
Who’s on the duty roster?
KT: WTF is a duty roster? Should we have one?
PE: KT & PE are the only published reviewers on the team. At various times, other people have said “Great idea! I eat lunch almost every day … perhaps I could write reviews for Lunch in Suva too.” The mere utterance of this statement invariably opens up a wormhole in the time-space continuum which thereafter swallows all their motivation until we strike them off the list of contributors. Both KT and PE have facial hair; everyone else who has tried to write for Lunch in Suva (and failed) did not … There is no roster.
How do you choose your restaurants?
KT: With loving diligent care. Basically I let Picky Eater do all the work.
PE: We say things like “I heard that place is okay,” or “We’ve haven’t written up that place yet” … and I take these gems of truth and distill them in a draft post that remains eternally unpublished. Every so often (around once a year) KT will say “What’s next on the list?” … and then we refer to the list. It’s divided into several categories: places we love and should have written about last year before they closed, places we hate but don’t have the guts to go back to, places other people have recommended, and finally, places that require joint expeditions and wisdom from Mrs KT and Mrs PE.
Whats your review process like? A checklist? Mental notes for later? Audio recorder Private Investigator style?
KT: Process? we don’t need no stinking process! I sneer at process.I fart in the general direction of process. Process is for poofters, and Lunch in Suva is just like Tom Cruise: definitely not gay!
PE: We generally try to avoid scaring the proprietors … for instance, we try to avoid the appearance of being health inspectors. Notes are taken (usually mental so as to avoid aforesaid appearance of health inspectors), the menu is canvassed (and photographed if possible). If doing a joint review, there is a short deliberation to avoid ordering the same dish. Photographs are taken. Food is consumed. Pulse is checked; antibiotics administered liberally. Notes are compared; the writing assignment is made. The assigned writer then retreats to strive against inertia, writer’s block and general laziness until the post is done.
Up until now, are there any restaurants out there that are aware of your website, and have contacted you either to agree or disagree with your review?
KT: If they aren’t offering bribes to sex up the review, I ignore them and leave them for Picky Eater. Since no one has offered a bribe yet that means I pretty much ignore all feedback.
PE: None claiming to represent any restaurant … but I am suspicious of a couple of glowingly positive ‘Anonymous’ comments on the review of The Joli Fryer
What’s the general feedback via email and comments been like over time?
KT: Totally fuck all. As mentioned above, not a single damn bribe has been offered.
PE: Mostly positive … after all, it is food we’re talking about. I generally blacklist restaurant proprietors who email asking for us to review their eateries (you know who you are). General comments are as they should be: focused on the food and service of the restaurants we review. KT occasionally tries to start flame wars.
Any death threats from thumbs down restaurants? 
KT: See answer above, if you’re not offering cashmonay, I ain’t reading it. If you do a death threat with alternative offer of a bribe, then you will have my full attention.
PE: Death threats are hollow. If you killed us, we would take our Blogger auths to our graves and your negative rating would be immortalised. Re-read KT’s comments above … they’re a bit subtle, but you should find clues as to more effective ways of correcting a negative perception. Either that, or just fix your damn food and service!
Have you ever disagreed amongst yourselves over a review of a restaurant? If so, how’d you settle?
KT: Usually with pistols at dawn, but sometimes I just leave a dissenting view in the comments.
As a food connoisseur, do you consider it your job, nay, your duty, to review restaurants and their foods, or is it more of a hobby?
KT: The premise of this question is moronic, we are neither connoisseurs, nor is it a duty or a job. Hobbies are for poofters, and Lunch in Suva is just like Tom Cruise: definitely not gay! You fullahs at FP though definitely give off the air of boys who like it up the arse. What were we talking about again? (Ed: Thats it – this interview is cancelled )
)PE: We eat food. We either like it, or we don’t. The reviewing is neither job nor duty, and certainly not consistent enough to earn the status of ‘hobby’. We occasionally goad each other to do foolish things (like eat lamb curry from Singh’s) in the name of citizen journalism. We’re opinionated … our opinions are correct; we feel other people should be informed of them (when we have the motivation)
Whats the favourite type of food for the Lunch in Suva crew?
KT: There are only two types of food – good food and bad food. We prefer good food.
Worst experience in a restaurant?
KT: Any time I get sick – for instance Central Cuisine and that fucked up butter chicken in FNPF plaza. With bad service you forget about it in less than a week, you get sick and the memory stays with you for years.
PE: I still have a chip on my shoulder about being the only customer at the counter in the Joli Fryer one lunch time and being forced to go elsewhere after 20 minutes of failing to attract any one’s attention. But KT is right, I will return to places that have bad service if I think their food is worthwhile, or if I think the experience will be character-building, or if there is the remote possibility that this form of self-flagellation will result in an entertaining blog post. As for the butter chicken at the Boulevard … that was completely our fault. Any one who orders curry with a dairy component from a food warmer deserves what they get. See the requirement for character-building exercises above.
Quick no thinking question (though the fact that this interview is done via email kind of defeats the whole purpose of not thinking): If you were to eat only 2 types of dishes for 10 years, what would they be?
KT: Miss March and Miss July. (Ed – a guy after my own heart)
PE: I think I’d have to go with the ancient Egyptian chunky beer that kept the slaves quiet & energised for daily pyramid building, and fish in lolo with ota as the second.
Where do you plan to go on from here? Is a sister site “Lunch in Nadi” on the planned horizon?
KT: There would be, if I didn’t think Nadi was a shit hole that can only improved by the use of tactical nuclear weapons. As for future plans, I want to be the most powerful man in the Suva restaurant scene, with restaurateurs plying me with money, women, and drugs just so I don’t destroy them.
PE: There is a redesign in the pipe with better reader participation (agree or disagree with our reviews, give each eatery your own ranking, etc) and a move to a proper domain name. To the cybersquatter parked on http://lunch.in : you have messed with my destiny and karma is coming to get you.
Several people have suggested an expansion to Nadi, so we’ve reserved http://lunchinnadi.blogspot.com just in case. If you eat regularly in Nadi, have a vast reserve of motivation, and agree with everything KT has said so far … place $3,000 (with non-consecutive serial numbers) in an unmarked envelope and get in touch to talk about joining the team.
In the long term, there’s some talk of opening a restaurant in Suva, completely and utterly dedicated to the humble long loaf. Would you buy lunch from a place called “The Land of the Long White Loaf”? If that falls through, we’ll form a political party, get elected and suck happily at the teat of public funds
Thanks for agreeing to this interview. As a last, curious question, what do you all have for breakfast?
KT: This morning it was whole meal long loaf with sliced banana. I did weet-bix in draught beer a couple of years ago though and if FP wants to sponsor the draught beer and the weet-bix I’ll happily do a live guest blog for you on the experience.
PE: Caffeine … then more caffeine … then beef sausages, fried eggs, toast … followed by more caffeine.
Tribe Un-wanted
I was browsing through the papers during the week when I came across this full page advert.
Nothin much in the way of ‘noteworthy’ you might say. Large picture of movie’s heroes (or in this case, heroine) – check. “Grand Opening Today in Village 6″ title at the top – check. Top movie critics giving the movie their undivided love – chec – wait. What’s this?
Ok lets back up abit here. LA Times as a revered movie critic. That I can understand. Yahoo.com? They’ve certainly got the web space, as well as the reviews to show for it. But what is this ‘tribe.com.fj’? Judging by its .fj address, I warranted a local website, possibly trying to cash in on the movie’s hype by dropping in its own seat blowing thumbs up one liner.
The commendation for the movie from the website made me grimace. “A 3D Animation”? To call a 3d film a ’3d animation’ is to miss out on the opportunity to use the word “MOVIE”. Also, the seat blowing action reference is, well, to put it in a more polite term, lame. I was determined to get behind this movie review, or find out who reviewed the movie with such a great grip on catchy word usage.
Investigatory skills in tow, I headed over to www.tribe.com.fj, expecting, well, not really knowing what to expect.
“Welcome to the TRIBE”. I certainly felt like I was in tribe land, with totems and flashy graphics aplenty. Ignoring everything else, I headed straight for the movie section, where clicking on the “Monsters vs Aliens” link gave me this:
Visions of long, flowery essays glorifying the spaztastic eye candy and chair blowing action that was Monsters vs Aliens quickly faded from my head when all I was greeted with was a copy paste movie synopsis straight from the movie’s IMDB page:
“When a meteorite from outer space hits a young girl and turns her into a giant monster, she is taken to a secret government compound where she meets a ragtag group of monsters also rounded up over the years.”
Needless to say, I was most disappointed. I wanted my action quote! I wanted my ‘blow you out of your freaken goddamn chair’ line! I wanted a local movie reviewer who resorts to downsizing animated movies to a mere ’3D animation’ because quite frankly, thats what all 3d animated movies are! I wanted something that at least required a tad bit more effort then Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V! I want an actual movie review from an actual person, and not some lie drawn up on the Fiji Times page!
Granted, the tribe one liner was a mere ploy to get people to the tribes website. I mean, sure, I can understand, it’s as they say, strictly business. But please, if you’re going to lead the flock astray to your website, make it worth their (and not forgetting my) while and have some content thats at least original.
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