The Cost of Keeping Sanity (on teh Internets)

To be honest, there are to many social circles.

I have Myspace, Livejournal, Blogger (rarely used), stumbleupon (seriously thought that was just a random button on the internet), uh...oh yeah Facebook (cleaner then myspace, can't do as much with it), digg (best news tracking site), and the least of which World of Warcraft forums (sorry, I play WoW). Crap, almost forgot pownce and twitter.

My attention span is divided enough as it is, I just can't keep up with it anymore. And to make matters worse, I've increased my load. I have a *new website called Stormcrow Accident that is a comic using the screenshots of World of Warcraft as my easel. I could draw the comics, but my wit would not show through as well, seeing as I am too much of a perfectionist to put slop like that up there. So I bend the rules and used Blizzard's intellectual property with a program that draws really well with comic bubbles and try to get a few laughs out of the masses. It was intended to create content by making me keep to a schedule because I have a problem with following through on projects.

Needless to say its easier to talk about the internet then make a webcomic, so I should be able to do both more often.

Sources and the Internet

There are few people in the internet that is worth it to read. Mark Cuban and his blog over at blogmaverick just talked about how blogs can form truth in a media that's turning away from journalism. If one blog reports it, then another reports on what that blog reports it, it must be true then, right? Well, unfortunately, there is a lot of that out there. Take a read over on his blog to get his take and the whole story.

Kinda makes me worried about reading print, just check your sources I guess.

Echo On the Internet

Washington Post's Peter Baker got robbed. He did the time and research for a well written article to all but have his by-line cut and a link at the bottom of the page that all but gives the Washington Post writer his due. The linking site, rawstory.com didn't deserve the 1200+ diggs. "This according to the Washington Post" and the link at the bottom doesn't absolve the fact that someone else's original research was being rebroadcasted.

I realize that a blog's purpose is to regurgitate the web for its own purpose, but at least give your constituency some level of opinion on the article instead of truncating it and posting. And grats on the Digg user for not having the brains to link the original article as it says in plain text on Digg's site when you submit an article (second bullet down).

I guess in the end what bugs me most is the lack of authorship on the web and seeing it get rewarded. You have people who blog under a company, people who do it like a pseudo job-hobby and seem to be doing well from it, and people who do it just to throw words out on the internet. Don't be the third category and just mince quotes into a new article. That is borderline disrespectful.

I'm all for voice on the internet, but if all you are is just a faint echo then what's the point?

Woman Arrested for WoW Love Affair

"She was a 31 mage, he was a 17 warrior. Unfortunately, we're talking about their ages."The synompsis is short, a 17 year old American NC boy meets 31 (admittedly kinda cute) Aussie from World of Warcraft and agree to meet in the States. In fact the 17 year old boy (or as the Aussie's family suggest, the parents of the 17 year old) fund the ticket for her to come and visit and immediately gets picked up by police. Unfortunately for her, a year is all that seperates prison and freedom. Now the big question, if it was an Aussie man visiting an NC girl, there would be an outrage. It'd be on the news everywhere and Hannity and Colmes would be interviewing everyone and their brother, touting justice has been served. Since I was 17 years old once, I feel like I could say how I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with the situation. If this was a 27 year old and a 41 year old, this wouldn't even be a blip in interest, so the difference? The law, apparently, and the fact that I wouldn't trust the love judgements from a 17 male WoW player. If I was a judge, I'd probably just extradite her and give her a year in prison or serveral years of probation. Yeah, 18 is the law but its not some magical number. In the end, I don't get the 'sicko' feeling and more like 'the law pwned you hardcore'. Life lesson learned kids: Wait another year IMO.

read more | digg story

ESRB vs NIMF vs MILFs

Ok, that last part was made up. No one is against MILFs, at least not yet. Doesn't it seem weird though that everything has an orginization against it? Drunk driving has MADD, Google has privacy advocate groups, RIAA and MPAA have the entire world, ACLU has reason.... it never seems to end does it? Well lucky for us, for all you parents that don't have the common sense to figure out how the ESRB works, we have an advocacy group for you. Its called The National Institute on Media and the Family, and its sole purpose is to make sure you're kids aren't being marketed things like Halo or Grand Theft Auto for your little young ones so they don't trick you into buying said games without doing any research at all. Cause God forbid there is an easy-to-use system on all of the boxes that clearly tell you what age groups should be playing said games.

Alright, enough sarcasm. Do I care about Manhunt 2 getting pulled from distrobution or Rockstar getting this black eye? No. There is a line called taste, and Rockstar may have crossed it. But, because of the naysayers track records on past games like Bully, I actually gave Rockstar the benifit of a doubt. No, I've never played or seen footage of Manhunt 2. I agree that making an innocent civillian shooter is a terrible thing, including those created in completely bad taste, but is it protected under free speech? Personally I think ESRB did this soley because it wasn't a popular game to begin with, it was developed by Rockstar, and it was violent. Rockstar didn't lose terribly over missing the ship date of this game, and the ESRB can look good by showing NIMF that it can prevent violent games from entering the market, which I guess looks good to NIMF because it keeps the truth from their supporters that they don't have a constitutional leg to stand on.

Enough ranting and raving. I'm done. I got a different viewpoint from a mother and still feel like I made some good points on my own. We don't need a lettered orginization telling people what to buy. Take some responsibility for your own actions.

Why I'm Not Getting an iPhone

You didn't misread the title. I'm not purchasing an iPhone. Some people have their reasons, to me it comes down to asking myself what I'm buying and whether it's worth it. I should preface this post with this. By all accounts I should be lining up first day to buy one. Reason number one, my Cingular servitude is running up this August. I'm familiar with their network, I'm a valued customer, and probably a shoe-in for a renewal. Reason number two, I recently purchased a Macbook Pro. Mac users have been waiting eons for the ability to sync a PDA with iCal with Apple-like serendipity. If I want a good PDA that will truly be effortless in setup, another Apple product is the way to go. This is because there is not a snowballs chance in hell a Blackjack running Windows Mobile whatever is gonna sync with iCal. I haven't personally looked into it and maybe I'm wrong but this seems pretty obvious that I shouldn't keep my hopes up. Reason number three, my demographic. A 23 year old male with a decent job and very tech knowledgeable shouldn't have any qualms over getting a hip iPhone.

With all of those great reasons, why am I not getting out my camping gear? For starters, I seriously don't have the spare 500 dollars to justify getting something that will litter ally have to replace many electronic devices I already own. I have a 60 gig iPod for music and movies, a black Razr for phone calls, rudimentary web surfing, and texting, and a black DS Lite for gaming (and maybe web surfing, more on that later). Replacing all of these things would be great, but its not like its a heavy burden to carry them. Also, having an all in one device just means that when it gets stolen you lose all functionality.

Would I buy a cool Apple phone/PDA with no iPod built in? Sure, especially if the user input wasn't a touch screen (seriously I have big fingers, hard to pinpoint), but for right now for me, it looks like I'm going to have to experience the iPhone through someone else. Which is fine for me, because right now I don't really think I need it.

What to do About Diggspam

This Gizmodo article talks about a policy thats been badly in need for some time now.

A new Digg policy here, out of respect for the Digg community.

-No big yellow Digg badges for articles unless they have original content, new reporting, treatment, or photos.

It's not fair when we get the Digg for someone else's work. Let's keep the signal-to-noise ratio high, dudes.

And btw, Digg user "Iwanttodiggthis," I appreciate you reading Gizmodo so closely, as you're clearly a supporter, but can you stop submitting almost every story we have? – Brian Lam

Whats good about this is that, unfortunately, it forces people into voting articles on Gizmodo that Gizmodo creates. Everyone wants eyeballs out there on the web and I'm a big proponent of self-policing, but diggers should stop posting to digg the aggregaters of content and do what the submission site says itself, post directly to the content. Granted, these smaller sites would more likely succumb to the diggeffect but they would also reap more benefit from the advertising dollars. Maybe, just maybe this idea will spread and keep blogspam off Digg.

A Blog by Any Other Name

I would call myself a general connoisseur of what the web has to offer, and more often then not its one giant talk radio station. One thing that gets me is what is and is not a blog. Most people don't care, and that's fine. They read op-ed pieces on the internet, in the paper, a blog is just the format for said op-ed. Sometimes its the author's (or author group's) personal opinion about something current on the web, usually technology. Sometimes its just writing for the sake of detox. And I don't have a problem with any of that. What I do have a problem with is when people create a blog with their namesake, and not the only writer. Anderson Cooper and John C. Dvorak are the best examples of this. I love both of their work, great writers and have a lot to say. But when you have other op-ed writers making posts just for the sake of being current, when do you lose your identity?

I almost hate reading their column not because I don't like reading whats written, but sometimes I read a full article only to discover in the by-line its not even them! This is probably is something in the realm of stuff-only-Justin-cares-about but it's frustrating all the same. Don't sacrifice identity to keep your page fresh.

Do No Evil (Again)

It appears that Google is once again creating controversy over something seemingly benign. Many web sources are saying how Google's new Street View is really just another way for the conglomerate to invade our privacy. And more annoyingly, link it to their now infamous phrase "Don't Be Evil". I've already written about what I think of the flak they get but it seems now that operating in China and gathering cookie data about searches isn't bad enough, there is this new-fangled Street View to worry about!

Please. If you're doing something illegal, inappropriate, or something in completely bad taste in plain sight of the road then who are you to complain. Did you know that when TV crews are filming in public places, they could immortalize you picking your nose in the background of the 6 o'clock news?

A comment on a random blog (this link, comment by "Dr.Zoinkelstein")

"It isn't shocking, but I challenge you to find a better solution for taking live photos of cities that can balance interests of consideration against those of practicality. Tell a neighborhood you are showing up to immortalize it (for a few months) and the advertising, slander, inappropriate nudity, etc... comes out of the wood works. In truth, they probably should exhibit some better manners in notifying sensitive places (abortions centers) about such things, but no one said that digitizing images was going to be antiseptic.

In any case, at the end of the day, Google is still providing pioneering free and useful services and is in my opinion, the most outrageously ethical corporation that has ever been in the fortune 500. It isn't a perfect corporation, and I will be curious to see if it can maintain its culture and ethics as it expands past 15, 20 and 30 thousand employees, but it is a cultural experiment in corporate and profit structure that usually meets with more condemnation than it deserves."

Should you not go to an abortion clinic because they have protesters (most of them do by the way) or the porno theatre because your likeness might be captured by a passing Google Street View cam (once every three months estimated)? I don't know, but living life like there is no surveillance or nosy people is a happier life then constantly being worried.

And at least you can request to remove an unflattering picture right on the page. Giving you a way out, even through they have legal ground to keep it up without your permission? Sounds very not-evil to me.

So Google Images will now employ face recognition technology for its images. This, I feel, is a mixed blessing. It is another cool little thing Google did to enhance searches but I'm wondering when people will start drawing faces on phallus-es to make it in a search.

Technology Woes

I've never had a problem using technology as a means to an end to get what I need done. Web based email to check and keep up with friends and family, a modded Xbox for movie and music storage and server capability. A music player to listen to music and podcasts, keeping me sane at work. But there are a few advancements that I think we as a society could do without, and Twitter is a great example. Thankfully, only the technocrats know exactly what its for and use it often, but what it basically does is lets you give live up-to-the-minute updates about your thoughts to people who are subscribed to your twitter. You post to twitter by just sending a text message, or on their website, and it then texts everyone who has subscribed to you. But what practical application is there, really?

If my friends want to do something, they either text or call my cell. They all have cell phones. And while there is some voyeristic leanings with this service that makes it interesting, its not interesting enough to anyone what I think or feel any given minute. Myspace was useful only because it lets the luddites create a webpage and others easily find and link their webpage to yours. This is not new, just look at Geocities back in the day. In fact, the only difference between Geocities and Myspace, is that Geocities didn't have the foresight to make it easy for people to link to one another and post comments, show who is your friend, in house email system, free easy to use blog software. To their credit, they did their best to be a free website host, but imagine what if. Now, it seems, that the masses attracted to Myspace may leave it for the same reason they joined. Facebook, with their recent inclusion of people not neccessarily in college may be the 'next new thing', who knows.

All I know for a fact is my circle of friends doesn't really need to know what I'm doing at any given moment, its too impractical.

The Church of Halo

America has been an interesting hotbed of convenience inventions including but not limited to all-you-can-eat pizza places, wireless internet, and the Roomba® have come up with another idea for worship. Converting a big box store into an 111,000 sq ft mega church won't be an easy task but the most interesting addition is the arcade for kids/teens which will have a Halo running Xbox. Halo, of course, is rated by the ESRB as M for Mature so it begs the question why in the world a church would sponsor the addition.

(from the Detroit News article )

"We want going to church to be an enjoyable and enriching experience for the whole family," said Senior Pastor Jerry Weinzierl, 50, of Warren. "Even if someone comes in for the wrong reason, I can maybe make an impact on them for that moment." "This will be a very peaceful place."

Using contemporary culture to be bait for fishers of men isn't necessarily a new concept. Crosswinds, a local university youth group, had every Wednesday a "Halo Night" that provided the space and projectors for 4 linked Xboxes to run Halo 2, and was by far the most popular event. I hope in this Wal-Mart style church these people won't have too many distractions.

Link via Detroit News

Fix that Drab Desktop

Psst.

Hey you. Yeah, I got a message for ya from your computer. Your desktop is lookin pretty stale. Lucky for you I've got some cool places for you to spuce your screen.

Desktopography.net

Not sure the purpose of this place, but in essence its some of the best desktop art one could hope to find. My only complaint is that in the end, the site design is not older comp friendly, being heavy flash. Yeah, its artistic and all but when it comes down to raw web design, there are other ways to replicate what they did with CSS with limited success. All of that aside, it has previous years and what not to download and enjoy.




Wikipedia - Featured Picture Archive

Wouldn't think of a free online encyclopedia to be a romping ground of great images but fortunately there are a listing of people who scour Wikipedia for great images and nominate them for the pic of the day. To be pic of the day, its stipulated that it has to be desktop sized, making life easy from the start.







[Adult Swim] Downloads

When filtered by background and some searching comes across all of [adult swim]'s bumps they put for their action shows. Its really cool of them cause there are some crazy ideas for backgrounds. I have the Fujiyama pic up now and since they have all sorts of file sizes and what not, its not hard to find a good fit for your computer.

Fix that Drab Desktop

Psst.

Hey you. Yeah, I got a message for ya from your computer. Your desktop is lookin pretty stale. Lucky for you I've got some cool places for you to spuce your screen.

Desktopography.net

Not sure the purpose of this place, but in essence its some of the best desktop art one could hope to find. My only complaint is that in the end, the site design is not older comp friendly, being heavy flash. Yeah, its artistic and all but when it comes down to raw web design, there are other ways to replicate what they did with CSS with limited success. All of that aside, it has previous years and what not to download and enjoy.



Wikipedia - Featured Picture Archive

Wouldn't think of a free online encyclopedia to be a romping ground of great images but fortunately there are a listing of people who scour Wikipedia for great images and nominate them for the pic of the day. To be pic of the day, its stipulated that it has to be desktop sized, making life easy from the start.





[Adult Swim] Downloads

When filtered by background and some searching comes across all of [adult swim]'s bumps they put for their action shows. Its really cool of them cause there are some crazy ideas for backgrounds. I have the Fujiyama pic up now and since they have all sorts of file sizes and what not, its not hard to find a good fit for your computer.


Socwall.com - Social Wallpaper

While there are a ton of pics on Digg, there isn't really a wallpaper section to vote up really good images on the web. Socwall solves this, in a similar way too...and hopefuly the site gets popular only to get more quality. Completely supported by ads, it invites people to vote up or down on images, filtering the spam and rising to the top quality images. Its only downside really would be the legality of being able to post someone elses pictures on their server. Maybe they should go to linking soon? Who knows. Its still a great site and a vote in my book.

The Failure of Common Courtesy (Followed by the Failure of Common Sense)

Gallivanting about on the intarwebs in my 2007 Google Reader, I came upon the Ars Technica RSS feed and something caught my eye. A story about Michigan man Sam Peterson leeching free wi-fi from the local coffee shop from the comfort of his car. (The local TV station story can be found here.) The problem here is this. The guy would use the free wi-fi access daily to check his mail without ever buying a cup of joe. If the story stopped here, then I would side with the coffee company. The guy is essentially stealing. Hes using something that someone else is paying for, that is given freely on good faith that he'd at least use the free wi-fi while drinking a cup of coffee. Sam Peterson was wrong here. He could have gotten out of his car, gone inside and for a 2 dollar cup of coffee, checked as much email as he wanted to.

Here is where I get a little disturbed. He was arrested then tried under a Michigan law that prohibits Fraudulent access to computers, computer systems, and computer networks and carries some pretty stiff penalties for the offense, but the judge was lenient and only sentences Peterson to pay a fine and do some community service. The Ars Technica article states that the arresting officer did so for basically because he wasn't sure what Peterson was doing, but knew it was wrong. This is what makes me furrow my brow. While Peterson was being rude and inconsiderate, I don't feel he was breaking a law. The coffee shop could have, at any time, restricted their wi-fi to prevent people not in the building from leeching bandwidth. But because its probably too much hassle for the company and the customer to figure WPA shared key security, they left their wireless network open to attack and frankly, illicit use.

I'm sure this person learned his life lesson that his convince costs the price of a cup of coffee, but in my opinion wasn't worth the price he paid.

Army Blocks Youtube, Myspace, Fun Times

First thing is first. I don't know why this is so much a big deal. Yes, it sucks that our soldiers can't talk to people on Myspace (which in some circles is the only method of communication) but I don't think its censorship. Basically, not only is it a security risk but streaming Youtube is heavy on bandwidth uses. Is it fair? Not really. But my work doesn't even let me access my blog competely. Its not out of malice but basically they don't want our workers destroying the network with traffic thats not legit traffic but rather traffic that makes money. Same problem but on a worldwide, closed network.

I don't understand how this is censorship. Pretty much I just feel that its not out of reach of speculation that all of that traffic would cause congestion. People put so many pictures and movies that its even worse then Youtube on a good day.

In the end I guess it looks bad on the military again, and especially while they deserve it more often then not. I guess in my humble opinion, this time its unwarrented.

Link

How Very Meta of You

Consumption of news is changing by the minute this seems, but what seems interesting is what it means. I am by no means normal, but what I notice is that people are aggregating news more often. For example I use Google Reader to read things that I frequent on the web, but the downside is that doesn't lead to content discovery. For that I use StumbleUpon or Digg to find new things that other people think are cool, and continue the consumption. But all of that is very digital. I don't mind sitting in front of a computer staring at a screen, but reading a newspaper on the loo is equally as nice. One thing I can't get enough of is the podcasting scene. Granted, now I'm a Mac convert (really I'm OS agnostic, but anyway) so podcasting has always been an easy endeavor. Something else though that's important for the podcasting formula is that you have to be free to listen to it for an hour or so daily, whether in the car or what have you, and to that end sometimes NPR is way better at keeping you up-to-date.

In the end, I'm just amazed at the level of opinion there is to be had on the web. The very fact there is a blogosphere mystifies me. People commenting on peoples comments who read from a Digg thread about a rumor from someone else who twittered it from a convention floor. Seriously people, that's enough. When you Digg something about a post on BoingBoing which got it from oddball section of Reuters...at what point do we just buy a newspaper.

Disclaimer: If you don't understand what in the world is being said, don't worry at all. To be honest, its only important to the people involved and is probably an adult version of the fervor Myspace creates. The only reason why it gets interesting at all is again an easier way to digitally stalk someone. That being said, if you want to find my digital footprint, just google my pseudonym DeathscytheH64, which I imagine is infinitely easier to find out what I'm doing then finding my address and driving in front of my house.

Gaming and Whatnot

Ever since 1up Yours people started harping on Puzzle Quest for the DS, I've been wanting to check it out. Unfortunately theres another unmentionable game that recently came out thats been lookin fun to play.

Its been every pokefan's dream to play wirelessly over great distances, even if they didn't know it yet.

My roommate and I made a 2v2 arena team called No Innocent Victim. Logging with a 14-7 win/loss and a 1600+ rating ain't bad. The sad thing is I've been wanting to level Shaman. Who knows.

Keri was talking up Gears of War and all I could think of was, "that'd be fun after WoW". Pretty much if it wasn't for that game I'd care more about others. Honestly though, I've been having plenty of fun just playing with my real life AND WoW friends. I know it doesn't last forever but I'm along for the ride.

Call for Help: Resurrected

Being a huge TechTV fan, when I read on Digg that Chris Pirillo had started a new pseudo call for help, I was instantly curious. Because really, every TechTV fan has at one point or another secretly wished that somehow all of those people could make a tech show and be paid as handsomely as any actor or actress who stars on the next CSI spin-off. Alas, however, this is not the case. But through following their expliots, I have come across some interesting tech for consuming the same content but in new and free options. My favorite examples are Diggnation, which is based on the social news website Kevin Rose created (by the way, my profile page is here) and This Week in Tech (or TWiT as its seen around the net), and now I've found another. Chris Pirillo Live, as its called, is vastly different then Diggnation's videocast or TWiT's podcast, but more akin to the word netcast then how Leo Laporte tried to coin the term (find out why podcast might be a hot term here). People open the page, and on it streams a live webcam with Chris Pirillo's happy mug on it as he answers questions from a chat room on the page. This chat room, when viewed as it was being dugg last night, quickly devolved into a melting pot of obscurity and internet slang. The good news though is that he promised that tomorrow would be different as there would be more serious people and not the entire Digg community, unmoderated.

That unmoderation and what Pirillo himself said was the most damning thing about Digg users in general. Their language and breadth of topics do not stray very far from the sort of racist and homophobic banter of Xbox Live on Halo 2. The majority of the questions were pretty much this:

Do you play Counter Strike: Source? No
Where did you go to school and what was your major? University of Iowa, Magna Cum Laude, English
Who is your hawt asian girlfriend? My wife Ponzi (Latthanapon Indharasophang), met on Match.com but use manyfishinthesea.com!
Do a barrel roll. (ytmnd reference)
Put a shoe on your head. (urban dictionary definition)
What car do you drive? (Didn't pay attention)
Do you play World of Warcraft? No
What do you do for a living? "This!" He exclaims.
Why are you acting like a tool? (laughter)

Welp, I'm holding Chris to his word and checking it out tonight whats in store. Not sure if I'll ask any questions but on thing is for sure...


...its gonna be entertaining.

To Explain Away a Phenomenon

Gamers.
For some, this is you. The people who choose to play digital entertainment for the sole reason of having fun, killing your friends, or the simple glory of the high score. For those of you who don't identify, this is not you. Those people are the nerdy, socially closed in people who need a good drink and get laid worse then any other social group out there (including Al Queda). Personally as someone single, and dating, this tag presents a huge problem. While it's simple enough to find someone who doesn't play and meet somehow halfway, that its problematic. Especially for MMO players, non-gamers rarely understand the motivation of playing, let alone be able to explain the expense.

Personally I believe that excessive gaming is a sign of a myraid of mental illness ranging from depression to anxiety problems, I still feel though that its a better outlet then some alternatives like drug use or drinking. If a gamer is willing to go halfway to say, "Hey maybe we do play excessively" isn't it equally important to acknowlegde that the non-gamer likewise does something all encompassing and possibly more destructive.

All of this talk came from a friend of mine's discussion of my playing World of Warcraft (Asad on the http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/ website). While I might play 2-3 hours a day, I'm usually with friends and even having fun doing it.

And in the end, that's what its all about.

Phone Foto

Sunday afternoon at Sarasota city park, overlooking the Sarasota Bay towards the island.

Melee Hunters and Being Epically Mounted

The Lone Melee Hunter

Gweryc Halfhand is a hunter with a mission. Forego any notions of being a ranged class and fight right there with your pet, melee style. Now you may ask why anyone would make such a seemingly unsound decision. After all, the game is pretty much drawn out all abilities, weapons, and gear for the hunter for its ranged aspect, its a little understatement to say this is swimming upstream. Stated on his blog, his reasoning:

"For me, World of Warcraft ceased being about pwnage and phat lewtz a very, very long time ago. My monthly subscription rents me a playground, not a bunch of pixellated e-peen enlargers, not a spot as somebody's slave in a raid guild. It's all about fun, and I get a major kick out of pushing the envelope. So I suppose it was really inevitable that I level a 100% pure melee hunter at some point."

On his blog are the various links that circle around what hes trying to do as well as another example, specifically talking about the Naked Troll Project as well as his armory links and forum posts on the official WoW forums.



Whats the Cost of That Mount Again?

Whats funny though is thats not even the strangest WoW news to come from the internets. As reported by Kotaku as well as the Lengendary Thread podcast, a female WoW player offered on Craigslist to have sex for the gold to buy an epic flying mount. In real world value that comes out to $800 USD ($16 per 100g). In an update she had voiced her opinion that, contrary to Kotaku's post, she is not a whore, she and her benifactor both got what they wanted, and were going to see each other the following week. §

Gearing Up for the Mac Adventure

So I've been wanting to know what its like to roll wit da Apple Macintosh crew with their fancy shmancy computers and to be honest I'm not enitrely impressed with Microsoft's Vista offerings. Also to really get me to leave was the failing commitment on Microsoft's part for security and their over-the-top lockdowns on blue ray/hd-dvd, so I made the switch. Purchased through my school a 17" Macbook Pro with no enhancements and a glossy screen. Why else switch? Well, the one app other then Firefox I use on a daily basis, World of Warcraft, runs natively on Mac, I'm pretty much set. All you Office fans should be happy to know I haven't forgotten that I may need to update a word document or spreadsheet so I actively use Google's Docs and Spreadsheets. I'll also probably download NeoOffice and hopefully can't think of many other apps I use with any frequency.

Long story short, stay tuned on my road to switching when the stupid thing finally makes it in. §

Do No Evil

When Google was created (or popularized) they diverged from company mantra with a simple line in their creed: Do no evil. Now many of Google's critics point out certain instances where this has either been looked over or simply ignored, the biggest instance that sticks out in my mind is when Google negotiated with the Chinese Communist Government in helping censor the web from its Chinese citizens. While that in itself is terrible, what was the alternative? Pull out of a 6 billion person market to let Yahoo and MSN stay to take over Google's remaining market share to companies with even less scruples to an extent to let the Chinese government open email accounts of its patrons? (Hello Yahoo mail, feel guilty about helping China imprison a citizen yet?)

If you get angry about that, then here are some examples of companies who do evil and don't care:

RIAA/MPAA/Copyright Royalty Board

Normally putting this three-headed dragon's name in print causes me to go into convulsions, but soon something as simple as internet radio could go by the wayside and needs to be mentioned. Now I'm not going to go into the usual diatribe as to saying something as inflammatory as the RIAA, MPAA and the like were doing what they did to protect the artists they whore out represent, but now another business model they couldn't monetize to death could be legislated away. The Copyright Royalty Board, under pressure from the RIAA greatly increased the cost to play licensed music over the internet to an extent well beyond what could be feasible by internet radio stations, large and small alike, could sustain. (read more here) Surprisingly, a few contenders have come to fight the evil. Remember, these are the same people who tried to browbeat Steve Jobs into selling music for something more then $0.99 for more popular songs. (to which his reply was "LOL") So don't expect this to be the last media companies and the legislators they have in their pockets will continue to do YOU disservice.

Verizon

Apparently Verizon thought they were God's gift to teh interwebs because not only did they complain loudly enough to prevent Pennsylvania's free Wi-fi program to its knees (yeah I know Verizon, you couldn't stand a couple million poor people get free internet access but would rather them pay through the nose) but are now going after a company to protect its arcane technology. Now granted, if Vonage was a boxer, he would look bloodier then Rocky fighting Apollo but the premise is extremely interesting. Basically, using existing Internet technologies, bridges the gap between the Internet and the Telephone in a way that would make a tel-co sick to their stomach. Want an easy phone service where you have crystal-clear cheap phone calls and take your number wherever you go? Yeah, your phone line isn't doing that. What got me upset wasn't that Verizon is suing Vonage to protect their patent but that Verizon was suing Vonage to prevent that technology in the market and keeping their existing business model viable. Whether or not Verizon had the patent first is a moot point. The U.S. patent system is comparable to an injured bird that can't fly and flapping on the ground so any patent holding company could find patents they held and claim technology that was theirs just for the big payoff someday (Blackberry anyone?). If IF Verizon was to incorporate what Vonage has done completely into their broken land line and long distance model, then that's less evil enough for me to stomach. Maybe its a little too much to ask for companies to think how to make their products better for their consumers without thinking of ways to overcharge them in the process. GG Verizon, your inscrutable business practices might make you savvy in making money, but as a company, I'd rather spend my hard earn cash on someone who is a little less of a dick. Here's to one less customer.

Sony (and Sony BMI)

Anyone remember the spyware program known as Gator that infested your computer with adware and slowed it to a screeching halt, all the while calling it a "service"? In comes Sony Music. They hire a team of coders to do something similar to your computer so you can't do what the RIAA wishes could never be done: rip CDs. Long story short, removing the software did nothing short of damage your computer's CD drive and render it nonoperational.

Now I'm not saying avoid these companies or that my choices are any better. I'm sure Cingular/AT&T have done equally worse and that Verizon/Sony/RIAA are just rightfully protecting their interests, but that doesn't mean you have to actively participate with them. While none of us will ever have the money to be truly heard by any lawmaker, don't sit there like a stub and actively be unaware. Try within your power to do no evil. §

Politics, Elections, and Perception

Most of the time, we deal with media in a passive role. You don't know it yet, but you're being entertained by my words (albeit in a more informative role I'm sure). This shapes your beliefs in not so obvious ways, and more importantly, your perceptions. In reading the daily news something caught my eye, Presidential hopeful and political newbie Senator Barack Obama made front page news on CNN by just announcing a daring plan thats almost been a democratic standard. Universal Healthcare within six years. Something more interesting was said though not two paragraphs later: its being the 2008 Democratic Primary theme. What I mean is that every canidate believes and wants to implement this Universal Healthcare. Hilary has been a strong supporter and is also making it a central theme, and every single canidate suppports it while not making it front and center of their issues. But what gets me is that the only one with the picture on the website is Obama himself.

The entire article not only focuses on Obama and spends more print talking about his views, but speaks his plan like its something new. With good reason. while he stated its a Democratic main issue along with Universal Education and that Democrats "need to cling to the core values that make us Democrats, the belief in universal health care, the belief in universal education, and then we should be agnostic in terms of how to achieve those values."
By making it his central issue, other canidates have to follow suit and support it because they know what the media knows. And that is Obama is popular, and its growing quickly. Once Hilary's announcement loses its sensationalism, Obama will be continuing to get free publicity by just making these sort of little announcements, sort of how an incumbent President can get their name out weeks in and out before an election. The caption under this image says it all: "Sen. Barak Obama has staked a position in a field that has been dominated by a chief rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination -- health care."

No matter what happens, its a good cause to champion and more importantly even if Obama loses the primaries, those things will be implemented in office soley because its now become "an issue". While its not so interesting that the media is once again making sensational something unsensational, I'm interested in their choice and its impact on the other canidates. §

On the Eve of Burning Crusade...

Actually, technically, when you read this it will have "hit the streets" as they say. So as I sit here, I'm wondering what's causing this visceral reaction inside me about the game. Yes, the game itself is expensive, but I gotten value from playing my friends in it, no matter where I am, and get to have fun. True, its only one game....but the CDs in the box I have are NOTHING like the game it is today. In true value fashion, about 60% of the game content was added post-purchase of the initial game. For better or for worse, and a lot of testing, the game is relatively balanced where I can't use the same old excuse of "well damnit, I died cause of my character sucks to THAT guy who killed me" and is turning into more like "Uhh....F$%#in lag! Thats Bull$h!t~~"

Something you WoW players might have to realize, is that eventually all things go to the wayside. And this is the warning that starts the armagheddon for World of Warcraft.

I could explain that unless Blizzard Entertainment, and in effect Vivendi Universal, pay the creative people in yachts...the designers will leave. As a wannabe artist myself, I hate doing the same thing exactly the same way for extended periods. The talent, by nature, will change and thus the game won't be the same. But thats not what I'm most worried about. When this change happens, and people decide to move on, I will have realized for some instant how much time I've sunk into the game. Granted I've met people through WoW that I wouldn't've otherwise, and very grateful for that, but the actual characters are NOT forever. And thats kinda sad. I can remember when I came up the name for my first character, going to the show where Azariah's Prayer and In the Face of War were supposed to play. I wrote a lot of things down like Night Elf backwards or Warrior interchanged when I decided something more biblical. But nothing too obvious. Then I remembered the show that I went to way so long ago and the name came up. Azariah. Sure enough, it worked, and the rest as the say became history.

Unless something drastic happens, like the name Azariah frees up, I won't be able to recreate that. I've been thinking about names, and saved a few, but nothing will have as much meaning. It was a cool name too....versitile enough to be shortened to Az and have crazy characters. No, the only thing I can think of is Balhepsi, which is the name of my friends bellydancing troope. And already its been deemed 'ghey', so we'll have to see.

In closing, I'm going to be able to experiance the new content almost for the first time and play with friends in groups just like we've been planning.

And I can't wait. §