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. §

Free Things You Should Know About

Ah the internet...
If there was any cool thing about the internet that wasn't being used enough it is podcasting (and videocasting). Imagine this. You are starting at your TV looking for things to watch. If you don't have TiVo (or your favorite digital TV recorder) you're stuck watching whatever comes by. Those of us blessed by having a TiVo-thingy know that you can watch your favorite shows anytime you want to, as long as it recorded it. What could be better then that? You can skip the commericals in recorded shows, rewind, save it forever. I'll tell you whats better. But first, some history.

Before there was any mention of I's or Pod's there was Red vs. Blue (RvB). RvB was a gamers kind of show, a Spy vs. Spy using the Halo universe as its stage and (mostly) without fail, would post a new webisode up for free, on the internet, with their own money for bandwidth. With iTunes leading the charge, there are venues where you could download these shows automatically for free. Let me tell you a day in the life for me.

I wake up, walk downstairs and immediately open iTunes. It starts downloading everything thats been updating for that day of things I listen to or watch on my video iPod. Podcasts, which are like blocks of audio shows that download like what I just described, and also whole shows on video. Most of whats from the old TechTv guys are now producing some of the best on the web. Dl.tv, Diggnation, Ctrl+Alt+Chicken, Meet the Press, etc are all shows that are available for free on download. And if you can make your way from the computer to TV, will be better then TiVo will ever be. §

Abbreviated Monday

I realized I never really talked about what this blog is about, but hopefully I'll just use the slow news day to kind of introduce myself and my blog.

First off, I'd like to say what this blog isn't, then what it strives to be and eventually some info about the creator and ideas for the blog itself.

Screaming in Rockets isn't a personal blog. While it may have things about me personally that would be interesting to me only or things that I personally think should recieve more attention, the story will never be about me. As alpha as this blog is, the direction doesn't seem obvious. Hopefully though, it will seem obvious later on with (somewhat consistant) updating and some cool free features available on the web (hello Digg tools), will bring something to the web. Or in the case of the "blogosphere" just my tiny voice amongst the other opinions.

Screaming in Rockets isn't an op-ed page. I'm not going to be doing any investigative reporting, but I'm not going to just be throwing links up with no reason or no take. I admit, trying to keep things from getting too derivative or opinionated will be hard to do, and to be quite honest I guess I'm kinda not sure on this statement, time will tell I suppose what voice I take.


Now to the more positive part of the one way discussion and thats what I want to be. Kotaku and Game Politics are great examples of journalism in blog format. I read those extensively but also Luke Smith's bantering on 1up isn't terrible either. I suppose I just want to shy away from being just another ranting crazyman. Wait, I mean this guy is the lunatic. No one cares what you say. Well, actually Mark Cuban has always been entertaintaining, Calacanis is just a dick. I think what I want to be the most is as close to a webzine as a blog can get. Something visually aesthetic and informative. Something to look forward to on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

So thats what Screaming in Rockets is about (Maybe?). I'll try to keep my deadlines and give you something to look forward to. All I ask is for some feedback to know if what I'm doing is right or wrong. §