The Internet is for Porn

Lately I've been wondering the pluses and minuses about the internets effect on us. More specifically the underage of us. I started to wonder if I had kids, what in the hell I would do to prevent them from seeing what is invariably a weird hyper-distortion of reality. In fact, you could say the Internet is like a Reality Show of us. We sign on, say or state our opinions anonymously or play internet anonymously and be who we want to be, while we're drunk. This isn't the place for kids.

So that brings us back to the original point. What to do with the kiddywinkles? To be honest, unless you create another internet, you can't do much. You have to assume that every screen name is a predator in waiting, every website something that has some of the most offensive material. The best thing I guess is to monitor, communicate, and most of all participate.

Amish Store

Justin Goff
jbgoff@gmail.com
(sent via blackberry)

Alex Albrecht Gets Ganked

Alex Albrecht of Diggnation and Totally Rad Show fame getting ganked on his warlock in Duskwood.





In case you're wondering, its Drazgoul on Executus.

Pic of the ganker in action:

Dear Apple

Fuck you. Seriously.

I want my Macbook Pro to run Leopard. I don't want to spend 70 dollars for the silly upgrade for "features" that may or may not be even worth it. I have someone in my household who owns a copy. I want to install it. It is not, in my opinion, illegal to use that persons copy to install the upgrade to mine. I understand that the license says one computer. Still.

You wanna know how Microsoft is better? You can install XP and Office on multiple (3) household computers.

Game, set, and match. I don't care if you think your operative system can turn water into wine, stop being stupid and at least let people in the same house share copies. Be happy you have enough customers to have this problem.

Without Love,
Captive Apple User

The Real News

In waiting for the Macworld 2008 keynote, I spent some time around the interwebs just seeing what was news, what wasn't and in general what was going on in the world.

While everyone was drooling over Steve Jobs' new bastard of technological bliss something interesting happened in the world.

President Bush got dissed by the Saudis.

Not only dissed, but politely laughed out of the Arabian Peninsula. Here is the reason why you should care. Paying nearly 30 dollars for my silly 10 gallon tank (i'm sure 60 dollars for some people) is serious business. And the Saudis don't care. In fact they're response to Bush's plea for increasing production was

"Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, appeared to rebuff the president’s appeal, though he did so gently. “We will raise production when the market justifies it,” he said at a press conference after Mr. Bush’s remarks."(source, NY Times)

Read in they're not raising prodction now because they are comfortable with 3 dollar a gallon gas.

From first hand knowledge I know that gas is 29 baht/litre which comes out to around $3.70 per gallon so we aren't even seeing the worst of it.

Why Facebook is Just as Bad as Myspace

So here's the problem. I'm not exactly anti-web social. In fact more often then not I'm trying to tell people why its a cool idea to get in and get involved. That's not the problem, the problem is it's too inundated with so much bullshit. From ads to notifications about things that are nonsense, these social black holes create nothing but stress and popularity contests with its users. I feel kinda blessed actually that Myspace didn't get huge until after I graduated high school. High school kids don't understand the dangers of character assassination. And with these social networks, its easier then ever.

I guess what I like Myspace/Facebook for is because people are too lazy (present company included) to create a proper cool website about me. Well, I guess its the blog but no one loves to email or give their email. People love comments though, probably for the narcissism or something but in the end, it creates too man social pockets.

Back to my main point. Myspace used to blow because of it being incredibly slow, and a ton of scammers and spammers trying to get their 5 min of your time. Also was a haven for pedophiles. My favorite living comedian Demetri Martin said it best on a "Trendspotter" segment on The Daily Show. The downside is, there are a lot of sexual predators on Myspace, but on the plus side there are a lot of sexual prey. Now with Facebook letting anyone create an account (sell outs) and starting the whole "lets create an app lawl and spam it" motion....rest is never assured for people just wanting a digital presence.

The funniest thing is how Facebook monetize peoples stupidity. For a dollar I believe you can buy a digital e-peen booster for your friends and give them to you as gifts. These digital badges of shame show how many people "care" about you to give you said gifts. When the hell will you people wake up and realize you're being sheep. /sigh

I close with the thought of how much a necessary evil social networks become. Not only will they not go away, but more and more people seem to be joining them, becoming great targets for companies to do scary espionage research on you. Just know anything you post online can and will be read by all.

EDIT: The joystick that closely resembeles a pedophiles dream.

Learning Online

I'm wondering if right now this is the best way to learn. Online learning wouldn't be so bad but there is really no telling where things are as far as whats expected and what needs to be done.

I want a list of shit I need to somewhere, including assignments and things clearly telling me what I need to participate. As it stands, I have three places where assignments can land on my head, and I don't appreciate having to babysit all of them. Plus its a programming class so it seems we would be better served if it was here. The worst of it all is that some classes aren't Mac compatible (only because the teacher wrote the stupid java) so, yeah no idea.

Heres to learning in the digital age.

EDIT: Scrap all that, I was able to listen to a lecture while taking a deuce. That is win in anyone's book.