Last friday Robert Steinhaeuser, a 19 year old student at high school, shot and killed 17 people, himself included, at a school. The event has been highly covered in media, among other places here.

What would make some kid of 19 to go around killing his teachers, two fellow students and a police officer? What on Earth?

Some of the theories which the media is developing is the link between this incident and the fact that this serial killer played "violent computer games", and that his favorite was "Counter-Strike".

Quoting from CNN:

"The killing has prompted Germany to question the wisdom of its gun laws under which 10 million weapons are legally held.

It has also led to calls for tighter rules on violent computer games.

In a sign that the massacre may feature in the campaign for national elections this year, Edmund Stoiber, conservative challenger to Schroeder, said violent games should be banned.

According to Der Spiegel news magazine, Steinhauser spent much of his time playing violent computer video games. His favourite was called "Counterstrike" in which anti-terror units wearing masks battle each other to death."

Now, this is a discussion gone on a sidetrack. In my point of view, one can not just point at violent movies, or filthy comic books, or bloodied computer games, as a source for insane behaviour in children or teenagers, or just people in general.

Actually, I am not just saying this cos I like playing violent computer games, and in particular think games like Counter-Strike are good entertainment. I think in general that what is happening now is just pointing at some scape-goat, (which is natural enough, who wouldnt want to do that in a time of crisis?).

In either case, what I think is this.

Some people get mentally ill in any social environment. This mental illness doesnt have to be chronical (sic) in the form of the bum who shouts to people, or the guy who beats his children for pleasure. Mental illness can also show suddenly. This bloke, 19 years old and seemingly without a future, was living in a social setting where he not only was expected to perform in this or that direction, but where he now had also been expelled from school due to different reasons.

I am not excusing him, I am not excusing any person who uses violence as a means for one's goals. But I am simply saying that the reasons for someone going whacko is NOT just some stupid computer games, or the amount of porn movies they watch. Society is built of more blocks than our entertainment media, or the language in which these media express themselves (blame the band Theatre of Tragedy for all those satanists who burn churches (we actually had some guys who burned churches here in Norway)). If something is wrong in a society, then one has to go try analyse those things instead. Go for the causes, not just the effects.

Personally, I am beginning to get really worried about our society sometimes. I am not talking about the economy, stupid (to paraphrase Clinton heehee) but about human relations.

Well, I don't know... I don't have any fancy ideas on what might have gone wrong here with this kid. Or what it "means".

But I am surely interested in any theories on these matters. Do you think "Face Off" and "Counter-Strike" is to blame for children or teenagers blowing up their teachers?

(silly question, the world is not that simple, but at least it is a question many people seem to ask themselves)

i never was the computer wizard. i did not own an Amiga at age 12, or a Commodore 64. My first computer was not of the kind where you have cassettes and have to wait for a loong time before a game loads. (even tho my cousin was definitely a comp wiz and did it all, he even worked for Opera Software some years back, developing some Java thingie for them?)

My first computer I got in 1996, it was an old '486 66Mhz 16 megs of RAM thing, and it had windows 3.11. It worked fine, I could do my school papers on it, and i could play tetris on it. Perfect. When I moved from Denmark in 1997 I gave it away tho, considering that it weighed a Lot, and I had planned to buy a new computer anyway.

I am still planning to buy a new computer, but never actually got to it. Perhaps it was my fear of having a new computer which 3 months later was outdated that got me to continuously postpone the buying.

for a time i was drooling over one of those nifty Dell notebooks, ultraslim and techy. But nah, i want to wait till after I have moved to Hong Kong, and then to get a laptop computer instead. Want to explore the world of computing with a regular 19 inch screen and a broadband connection. Wellwell.

Now I want to learn to program as well (gasp!). Starting by the less simple Perl language, and then later perhaps going to PHP. My goal is not to suddenly become the programming nerd with savvy skillz and knowledge of at least 4 languages. But I want to know more about the possibilities of the computer. At least i want to know more about the computer´s functions than how to use the "start"-button.


"interpolating into Patterns"
bleh

finished my work as president of Mosaic, FINALLY :)

After the General Meeting, which ended wednesday morning, we had written the following 'Future of Mosaic strategy paper', which I distributed to all the rectors and other university representatives at the General Assembly. Today, I then held a short presentation to the assembly. They seemed to accept our new proposals.

I have learned a lot as president of such an european student organisation. Learned a lot about the differences between noble motives and what you can Actually DO. Time limits is something one must always consider. Especially in dealing with students who often are quite the multitaskers (study, work, sleep, sports, volunteer work, etc).

i got this horrible cough, been sick for almost three weeks, almost sure that it is an airways infection i got. got some coughing medicine for it already, but it aint really working. oh well now I finally got time to actually Act sick (need sleep, need rest).

hmm, I did get nominated and elected as being chairperson of the webmaster taskforce of Mosaic tho. not sure if I will have that much time at disposal... In either case, I would like to learn more about how to build a homepage, and so on. This is a good chance of actually putting what I learn into practice.

One of the projects which i want to initiate is to build some sort of database with information about the different scholarship options which Mosaic students have. The information on that database will also be shared with TIG of course, unless TIG rejects this because one only wants info created solely for TIG purposes?.. anyway :)

i feel relieved being finished. tired of dealing with dull professors from Heidelberg or Cambridge. they might be great scholars, but I want to Meet them as scholars, not as bureaucrats.

it is friday night and here I am sitting updating some weblog :p

take care all, i am back in TIGland finally :)

I just read a homepage on techniques for searching for information online. It is a field I have often touched, but never really dwelled to: What methods do I use for my online searching for info, and how could I better my techniques? Surely it doesnt help to always just go to google.com and type "scholarships" if I am to search for information on scholarships. So, the question is how we can evolve personalised yet tested ways of searching the net? Hmmm.. I just tried a new search engine and well... I guess I must move to advanced settings soon.

What methods do you use?

I just read an interesting article at IHT.com about research being done in "brain-machine interfaces". For instance, that the cursor on the screen just follows your thought instead of your movements with the mouse..

I am deeply enthralled by the combined field of computer technology and psychology. (Isn't anyone who has read Neuromancer?) What if we really can control computers by our mind alone? .. What if we then go further, and find that indeed brain waves have some sort of power which we through equipment can make influences in the real world as well? Yeah, this is sci-fi I know, but so was walking on the moon in the days of Jules Verne ;)