Check out this article on Ars Technica. What a surprise. Music sales are breaking records (no pun intended) around the world, but the industry itself continues to spout on about peer-to-peer file sharing killing their business.
We’ll get to killing your business eventually, and let the artists make their money without you, you scamming corporate pirates.
I’m pretty excited about the upcoming City of Heroes MMORPG (that’s Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game). I’ve always been a fan of the superhero genre, both as a reader of comics and later as a player of pen-and-paper RPGs including Villains & Vigilantes, Marvel Superheroes, DC Heroes, Champions and lately Mutants and Masterminds. The openness of the genre to do pretty much any store combined with the focus on “the hero’s tale” has always been a big draw for me.
I have been playing Star Wars Galaxies, which was great fun simply because of the GOONs I was playing with, but now that I’ve done pretty much everything in the game paying money every month just to be able to chat in a pretty environment is bothering me. The game has amazing potential, but at every turn the developers seem to make the wrong choice, or only go halfway, or worse, show that they simply don’t understand what balance or good gameplay really is.
And then along comes a few people mentioning the CoH beta and how they’re in and it’s fun. And my interest is piqued.
And now I’m excitedly trying to think of what hero I’d make. Comedic Canadian were-tree “Douglas Fir”? 40-ton mallet wielding Sledgehammer? Or go for my namesake Puck and make an agile prankster.
So many possibilities…
The BBC News is reporting Christopher Eccleston will be the new Doctor Who! If you saw 28 Days Later, you saw Chris as Major Henry West. I think he’s a superb choice, and I’m looking forward to The Doctor’s return!
Seems there was a big peace march yesterday, calling for the removal of US Troops in Iraq, and to protest the war.
The problem is, the war is over. The policing of an unstable region has begun, so what these people are calling for is removal of the only thing stopping all-out anarchy in Iraq.
Yes, it’s pretty bad over there, with car bombs and attacks. But if the US Army pulls out, there is nothing to stop the differing factions from starting their own civil war, overthrowing the government the US has placed (which, while it was appointed by them at the time, is working towards democratic elections).
So, if someone in power actually listened to these protestors and said “Golly gee, we’d better pull our troops out!” the end result would be hundreds of thousands of dead.
I’m all for peace. War is bad (except, as some point out, for business) and it should be avoided. But arguing that it’s never right to go to war is hopeful at best and dangerously naive at worst.
These protests smack of narcississtic ego-masturbation by people living in a fantasy world where all problems are solved by being nice to each other. Granted, the world would be a great place if it worked that way, but it simply doesn’t. There are bad people in the world who do incredibly horrible things to other people and won’t stop without someone else forcing them to stop.
Addendum: And if anyone is wondering “Well, what should we have been protesting, then?” I came to a realization while talking with my wife about this.
Protest the Haliburton contract.
Haliburton, whose CEO three years ago was Dick Cheney, Vice President of the US got the SOLE contract to rebuild Iraq after the war.
If you want to protest something, protest the despecible reasons the US government went to Iraq, and the profit that GWBush and his cronies are making from it.
Protesting the overthrow of a ruthless genocidal dictator and his serial-rapist sons, and then protesting the peacekeeping occupation of the country afterwards gets no sympathy from me.
Protesting corporate corruption? I’ll come march with you.
For those of you who didn’t attend my Poker game last weekend, I guess I should provide an update.
I got hosed.
What, you want more? Well, we played Texas Holdum with a 20c/40c bet limit.
The great thing about Texas Holdum is that even if you fold early you can look at the final cards and figure out if you would have won. This is because all player cards are dealt out to start everything after your chance to fold are community cards.
Gored took an early few pots. I couldn’t buy a winning hand, though at the start I stayed in at least for the flop because I wasn’t all that familiar with this type of game.
Total winning hands I had after about an hour: Zero.
Total winning hands I would have had, had I stayed in instead of folding: Zero.
We continued to play and I kept track of the hands I would’ve won had I stayed in. It was pretty easy because the number was 1, and that was a pair of 9s: One 9 in my hand and one being the “river” card (the final community card) which beat Dave’s high-card of a Queen.
Out of probably thirty hands (there were five of us and I think we each dealt about 6 times) I had the possibility of winning one, had I stayed in with a 2-9 in my hand and crap in the flop.
Needless to say, I lost my shirt (about $10 in dimes). Our big winner was Jim, but he’s got a baby to feed, so that’s all good.
A good time was had by all though, and I think we’ll have to do this more regularly.
After all, I need to make back my money.
If marriage is a “holy institution” and has no basis in a civil union aside from religion…
And the government (of the USA, anyway) is separate from religion…
..why then is marriage made legal/illegal by government rulings? Shouldn’t governments only set up laws about civil unions and let each individual church make their own rules about who can and can’t get married in that church?
Honestly, you fundamentalist homo-hating Christians should just shut the hell up before we figure out more about you.
Hey, how about this one? Isn’t a greater threat to marriage (pft, as if homosexual marriage even is one) the happily-together long-term non-married homosexual relationships out there? If “they” don’t need to get married to be happy, why should Bobby & Sally?
Just a warning. I received an email supposedly from “support@icq.com” telling me to “reactivate my ICQ account” by entering my ICQ number and password in an HTML form in the email.
It looks just like ICQ’s crappy web site. Until I saw that it wanted by # and password, I thought it was official.
Of course, as soon as I realized it wanted private information, I checked the headers, and sure enough it was sent from uchicago.edu. Some little hacker is trying to get as many ICQ passwords as he can.
Don’t give him yours. Nobody should EVER email you for your password. Or phone. Or ICQ…
Don’t be stupid.
Well, at least the EU has.
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3545839.stm
The directive allows companies to raid homes, seize property and ask courts to freeze bank accounts to protect trademarks or intellectual property they believe are being abused or stolen.
Read that again. THE DIRECTIVE ALLOWS COMPANIES TO RAID HOMES. Someone who is not law-enforcment can raid your home because they’re a company that believes (or, here’s the funny part, SAYS THEY BELIEVE) you’re infringing on their rights.
Holy fucking shit.
GG, European Union. We’re one step closer to a true Cyberpunk future where governments are replaced by megacorporations and freedom is just “freedom to buy stuff”.
Or at least, mine does. There’s no way it’ll pass aircare without a new motor, which will cost me more than the car did.
Anyone selling some decent transportation?
Also, Sunday is Steak & BJ Day. Mark your calendars!
They’ve give him a suspension for the rest of the season, and the rest of his salary (nearly 502k USD) will be paid to the NHL Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
I think this is fair based on what happened, and how the tragic outcome (Moore’s fractured neck) was really just bad luck and not the initial intent. Also, Bertuzzi punched him, he didn’t hit him with his stick.
That said, I would have also liked to have seen the league encourage Bertuzzi to seek professional help with his anger problems. I see it in most games. Canucks GM Burke defended Bertuzzi, calling him an “excellent human being”. Which, when you don’t piss him off, I see as probably being true.
But he’s cost the Canucks more power plays in retaliation than anyone that I can think of. Any time he’d be sent to the penalty box, he’d be complaining the whole way there, even if his penalty was deliberate and obvious. Class acts like Trevor Linden, on the other hand, shrug and do their time when it’s obvious that they did wrong. I honestly think referees respect that more, and might actually listen when Trev complains about a call because they know he’s not just set on auto-whine like Bertuzzi.
I hope Todd takes this time to recognize that his anger can be focussed on playing the game rather than lashing out, physically or verbally. Big hits are great, and I truly believe and appreciate the physicality and occasional violence of hockey.
But that sucker punch was wrong, and the sign of a bigger problem.
Get help, Todd.
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