Guam might tip over

Oh, if only this were an April Fool's Day joke. As near as I can tell, it's serious. I really hope it IS a joke. Yikes.

VOTE

A reminder for me and for you...get out and VOTE! Many people I know have taken advantage of "early voting locations" and have already voted. The procrastinator in me (and the memory that there has never been a significant line for me at my polling location in the past) has left me to do my voting on Election Day. But I will be getting out and voting. I'll be swinging by the polling location tomorrow morning on my way to class...leaving a little early just in case (if there truly is a crazy line, I'll just do it after class).

I don't care what your views are or who you want to win...you NEED to get out and exercise this one small right of yours.

VOTE!

Presidential "Match-o-Matic"

Unsure who to vote for? This quiz takes some of the standard "issues" and presents some quotes from each candidate. Pick your favorite 'sound bites' and see which candidate you best align with.

Let me preempt the rest of this post with the note that I hate talking about politics and it took a lot of self-fighting to decide to post this at all. I've grown far to cynical about American politics. At the same time, I'd rather live here than anywhere else (politically, at least...there are plenty of locations that hold aesthetic appeal)

The quiz results were fairly close for me, but tipped slightly in a couple of issues.

The big problem with this quiz for me is the selection of the quotes. All of the candidates have flip-flopped their opinions again and again to the point that I honestly have no true idea where any candidate stands for certain on any issue. Which is sort of the way American politics has become...politicians sway their opinions frequently. That could be good if they were swaying to meet the changing views of the citizens under their jurisdictions. But unfortunately, they are swaying opinions based solely on their selfish desires for more money or more power or both. McCain and Obama are both flip-flopping depending on their audience and their desire to get to the White House regardless of what they say. Once there, I have no doubt that they'll flip-flop the way other politicians do, following the path most lucrative for their own pockets.

I'm so sick of the ridiculous amount of pork barreling that goes on with every bit of legislation. I'm fed up with bills passing or failing based on the amount of pork hiding under the covers. I'm sick of the poor tragic millionaires both in politics and in business being the ones who make the decisions when in fact they couldn't care less about the 80%+ of the American population who will have to suffer the most adverse affects of their choices.

What happened to government "by the people" and "for the people." Instead, we have a "more for me" attitude with a little "American populus be damned" on the side.

I think I'll be writing in my votes this fall, since neither party has presented a viable option I can bank on. Not that it matters much anyway since I'm casting my ballot from Utah, home of the blanket Republican voters.

Shouldn't a freedom award recipient fight for freedom rather than censorship?

Well...Jack Thompson is coming to Utah to receive an award for his efforts in promoting “freedom”?

While I agree with him sometimes...that “mature” media content shouldn’t be allowed to get in the hands of kids....most of the time, I find him too alarmist and off-the-handle. And I definitely don’t view his bevy of lawsuits as fighting for freedom.

Is file sharing illegal? People seem divided

This site has the results from a recent poll. The question was whether Internet File Sharers should be held to the same scrutiny and punishment as Shoplifters.

The results are interesting. The poll shows a nearly 50-50 split (leaning slightly to the "no, they shouldn't" side) between respondents.

Granted, the poll likely took place online in a tech-savvy group, which could skew the group somewhat. I'm not terribly familiar with the community of this site, but I suspect a large proportion of browsers may be doing 'illegal file sharing' themselves.

The main problem with 'illegal file sharing' to me is that too often the definition of what is illegal is not properly defined. There is definitely the need to curb/end piracy of software/movies/music/etc. At the same time, there is almost a push by some people to use the file sharing method as a legitimate form of distribution. People use file sharing networks to share their created movies/music/software and get it into the viral network almost as a marketing schema.

There's also the argument about things that have partially entered the public domain such as things that are shown on TV or are downloadable elsewhere on the Internet. What's the difference in downloading the latest episode of your favorite TV show and calling up your obsessive neighbor who videotaped it?

The "taping" argument escalates to movies (somebody taping a show broadcast on cable) and music. In the days of cassette tapes, people swapped dubs and mix tapes like candy. The industry went so far as to create high speed tape-to-tape dubbing decks. CD burning software (and even DVD movie burning software) has continued this practice today. If the industry is so utterly against sharing movies and music with others, then why not attack the manufacturers of the hardware and software that makes such illegal activities legitimate? Why not attack the manufacturers of the DVD player that includes a DVD burner built in to make a duplicate copy of your latest new release rental from Netflix? How is that behavior different from ripping a copy of the movie to your hard drive? In each case, you've created a duplicate and in each case, it is only a matter of time before the movie is shared with friends and family.

Even without duplicating, friends will loan the original CD or DVD to each other so they can view or listen without having to purchase. Software has a "terms of use" agreement that often makes this sharing illegal, but not many people pay attention to that either and as a result, many people will loan copies of software to each other.


The main worry to consumers is that prices will increase as a result of file sharing. It's a threat that the major corporations continue to hold over our heads. In some instances, they have even acted on these threats. The problem is that these threats are a double edged sword. If the industry drives the price up too high, the file sharing could get more rampant as more and more people decide they'd rather download the file and risk a fine (which they don't see too many people getting) than pay double the cost for mediocre media (which is a whole other problem...too much of the media out there is just plain garbage and not even worth the bandwidth to share it).

The companies who try to do something about the file sharing issue often create too bold a cure. Comcast monitors bandwidth usage and will turn off (without notice) somebody they believe may be conducting illegal file sharing...which bandwidth usage may actually NOT be due to illegal file sharing. A coworker recently went over Comcast's invisible boundary (they wouldn't tell him what the red flag limit was, only that he'd passed it). He explained to them that he had been doing some major upload/download work from home to transfer large files for completely legitimate purposes. In the end, the only solution they gave was for him to stay below the limit (which they wouldn't identify) or for him to purchase a business account with a higher, set, bandwidth limit. Granted, most people in their day to day activites won't be having issues like this. At least I hope not. Still...I wonder about some of the major YouTube contributors uploading tons of videos a month...who may also be downloading/streaming tons of other videos each month...or downloading updates to their favorite online games...or legitimately downloading lots of music and movies from iTunes. Many schools will sniff your computer and boot you off the network if you even have a sharing client installed. Others are more kind and only flag you if they catch you running the client.

I agree that there is a problem. I agree that illegal file sharing is something that needs to be addressed and discussed. I think that the definition of illegal needs to be better defined and I think that the discussion needs to move from "illegal FILE sharing" to just "illegal sharing." If it's wrong for me to share my new music CD with somebody across the country, it should be just as wrong for me to share the CD with my friends and neighbors...or to pull songs off and create my own 'mix CD.'

One thing which I believe can help stem the tide of 'illegal file sharing', at least in the movie and music arena, are more 'legitimate' services like iTunes where you can download music and movies. I personally still think the price point on these services is a little too high for what they offer. If I want to purchase a movie or a complete CD, and the price point between download and physical is only a buck or two (as it usually is), I much prefer to buy the physical album or DVD so that I have the full package....art, special features, professional disk, etc. However, if I only want one or two songs from the album or am looking for something especially obscure, the Internet is the place to go.

And now I've rambled on and on.

Let me know your thoughts on file sharing. Good, bad or otherwise.

Toddlers can no longer marry in Arkansas

In case you have a youngster you hoped to marry off in Arkansas, you just missed your window. Lawmakers have revised the malformed bill passed last year that basically removed the minimum age for marriage as long as parental permission was given. So if you were hoping to marry off your newborn, you'll have to look elsewhere.

DS Pirates?

With the DS version of Assssin's looming near and with the recent excitement from the preview...I wanted to pose a question.

According to a new study/report the claim is that:

"In America it’s thought 90 per cent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s."

Maybe I'm just dealing with overly honest or non-technical friends but...I personally have a DS and know 10 other people directly who have a DS. And NONE of us us R4s (or even know what it is really). When I explained what it is, a couple of people sounded interested in how it worked...but then said they probably wouldn't even bother looking into it more because they were content to buy their games.

So, here's a quick poll...of those of you who own a DS, how many are running pirated games? I guess we could extend this question to additional modding/pirating as well. I DO have a few friends with modded Xboxes who have tons of games ripped onto their hard drives. So I know that pirating does exist with at least a few of my friends. I'm just curious how rampant it really is.

I have a hard time believing that it's truly the 90% that they're claiming.

Who to vote for? Play the game...

Well, a week or two ago, Josh sent this to me then tonight I hit up Kevin's blog and found it there. I figured it was time to post it along with my results.

Click HERE to play the Candidate match game and see who you should vote for in the next presidential election.

I took the quiz a handful of times to try and eliminate my fencepost votes. Out of the five times I took it tonight, my results were as you see in the image below:
1- Mitt Romney
2- Hillary Clinton
3- Bill Richardson



The other times I took it tonight as well as when I took it back when Josh showed it to me, Hillary took the number 1 spot, Romney dropped off and some random third showed up.

So, I guess my pairing needs Hillary and Mitt to team up as pres/vice-pres and just agree to do what I tell them to do. It's actually kind of interesting to me to read the comments from each candidate on the questions asked...funny to see where I still disagree with my top 3.

How about you? How did your list stack up?

The Video Game Scapegoat Strikes Again

Well, video games have once again become a scapegoat. Nobody shot up a school or stole from an old lady (yet), but instead...the report claims that folks are hanging out at home playing Halo 3 instead of hitting the movie theaters to see such 'blockbusters' as The Heartbreak Kid.

I haven't played Halo 3 yet (though my copy is in the mail and I have a gaming session set up for the end of the month) but from the clips I've seen and the hype I've heard, it definitely was pushed into the limelight to compete on a large scale. Provided it has staying power to keep people playing, there's no reason to doubt the influence it would have on other consumer activities (movies, books, eating, drinking...did you see that CSI where the kid played his game for 3 days straight without even getting up to go to the bathroom - he just peed in bottles by his chair).

However, if the draw truly was there, people would gladly set down Halo 3 to see a great new movie. I think the movie-going public is actually finally starting to be a little more finicky in their viewing preferences. We've put up with years of 'flash in the pan' movies being pushed out one after another, stuck in the rut of overdone sequels with no originality or excitement. If it takes a video game (even a sequel with little new to bring to the table) to help shake up the movie studios...I say 'so be it.'

If we can get back to the day when there are movies worth going to see, I would be grateful. It's pretty sad when my wife and I get a sitter and talk about going to a movie (even in the middle of movie mania...summer or Christmas) and have to stretch our brains to justify going to see any of the crap out there.

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE movies and there have been plenty of shows that have entertained me over the past few years. But the hype and the amount of money poured into the movies (which then turns into larger ticket prices to consumers) just isn't justified in my opinion for most of the films that are out there. I just want to get back to the point where movies compel discussions after the movie for more than the five minute walk to your car.

What is WRONG with the world?!?!? - Another shooting...

Why is it that people think the way to deal with their stressful situations is to go on a shooting rampage? In case you haven't read the news yet, a 20-something guy went on a rampage at Virginia Tech this morning in dorms and classrooms killing ~30 and injuring more before finally killing himself.

I was discussing this sort of thing last night with my family. About two months ago, we had a similar mindless shooting 'locally' at the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake (I used to work ~5 blocks north of Trolley and I drive past there a couple of times a week on my way to/from school).

What possesses these people to think that their actions will make anything better? If they are trying to make a statement, they generally fail because most of the time, the event will be looked at only as a psychotic episode and any social statement they intend to make is displaced by the senseless violence of the action.

A favorite author of mine, Terry Brooks, has a series of novels in which demons working for "the Void" whisper into people's minds and get them to undertake such senseless acts of destruction. In these cases, the human is not physically aware of the demon...just the whisperings of this evil spirit. As humans, we can hear such whispers...but we need to be strong enough to withstand their suggestions. That's the way life goes. I suppose these gunmen may have heard these suggestions but they didn't have the upbringing or strong enough beliefs in social injustice to withstand the crazy suggestions and do the right thing.

How do we as a society ensure that people know the difference between right and wrong ways of resolving a problem?

Understaffed air traffic control towers - plane waits for potty break

How is it that with such a high unemployment rate that I keep hearing about, we hear reports like this where there is an obvious need for more employees in the tower. In this article, an air traffic controller went on a bathroom break...leaving the tower unmanned and thus leaving an airplane to circle for 18 minutes until the controller came back on duty.

Companies are too worried about saving a few bucks and they cut essential jobs and risk lives. I would suspect that this tower used to have more than one controller on duty at all times...but then some corporate big wig decided he could save money by transitioning to only one person on duty (maybe not at all times, but during key 'off hours' of the day or something). I'm sure he saved a few thousand dollars...but now he's facing bad press. Unfortunately, it seems the FAA is leaning in favor of continuing this bad trend as they defend the staffing plan and the bad situation.

Truly, it was only an 18 minute lapse this time. But what if something more substantial than a bathroom break had occurred?

Oi vey. Gotta love corporate America.

Mexican Governor Protests GRAW 2

In a bit of news, it appears that the release of Ghost Recon Advance Warfare 2 (GRAW 2) has upset the governor of Chihuahua. (the article is in Spanish, but you should be able to babelfish it or Google Translate it)

Essentially, part of the concept of GRAW 2 is that in 2014, Mexican rebels uprise and the nation is caught in civil war that threatens to encroach on the US borders (I haven't played the game, so somebody correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, the US Soldiers, the Ghosts, head to Chihuahua and start attacking the rebels. I haven't played the Tom Clancy titles for some time, but if memory serves, there is an emphasis on stealth and the tactical nature of missions...so the game isn't glorifying the concept of destroying the city or killing civilians or anything like that.

In any case, the governor of Chihuahua caught wind of the nature of the game and promptly pulled it (and continues to pull it) from every store he can find that sells the title.

I'm torn on this argument (and similar arguments I've heard in recent years about the "enemies" in warfare games portraying a culture or group in a negative light). To one extent, it can be seen as an affront against a culture or a group of people. However, the game is portraying the 'villains' as being the rebels who are uprising against the government. While there are always people who will support rebels over their own government, it seems that the government should be glad to see the game portray the US as coming in to help put down the rebels and save the government.

I'm not a huge player of "shooters" anyway, so I might not be the best person to try to argue for or against the situation. However, I see the dilemma of wargames such as this. You have to have an enemy in the game to make it compelling. You can take the sci-fi/fantasy route and create an alien/non-human force to battle against. Or you can choose some country/group and set them as the enemy for the duration of the game.

The conflict is how to portray that human group such that reality can be distanced enough that they don't take offense and feel that the attack in the game is paralleled to a desire to attack or drag down in the real world (which seems to be the Governor's nature for offense...he is concerned that US groups are rejoicing in the idea of US soldiers attacking Mexicans).

Even historical wargames run into the problem of portraying the enemy because on the front lines of war, everyone is essentially the same. Which I guess implies we should focus on the "human race" as ally aspect and push for titles with alien/non-human enemies.

Or better yet, push for fewer violent titles...and more puzzle/strategy/family-friendly games. ;)

Mayans of Guatemala hate Pres. Bush

As President George W. Bush makes his way around Central America as part of a political tour, he's been meeting many protests from people who don't really like him.

Interestingly, with his visit to a historic Mayan capital, present day Mayan priests will "spiritually cleanse" the land to remove any bad spirits that may be left by Bush.

Please don't take this as me poking fun at the Mayan people and rituals. I actually served a mission to Guatemala many years ago and truly love the Kaqchiquel people and their customs/traditions. What I am laughing at is just how bad Bush's reputation is...that people feel like they are 'unclean' after he's passed through. Talk about leaving a lasting impression.

Real life vampire slaying

Well...sort of anyway.

According to this, it seems that some of the Serbian people were so upset with their recently (2006) deceased dictator that they decided to drive a 3 foot stake through his heart in case he decided to try and rise vampirically from the grave and destroy their lives again.

US DOT bans Vista, IE7, Office 2007

Well, it seems the US Department of Transportation isn't eager to jump on the bandwagon and upgrade to Microsoft's latest products. Apparently the FAA has a similar ban going on.

Primary reasons cited include:
1) No compelling reason to upgrade
2) Possible compatibility issues (with existing software and with other gov't agencies)
3) Potential security risks.

I tend to agree with all of those reasons and honestly as I read through the feature list for Vista, I didn't see any compelling reason to upgrade either. Sure, it can be nice to be cutting edge and all...but when you do a major OS upgrade, you always have to deal with the delay in getting all your software fully compatible with the upgrade and the problems with security holes and bug fixes (I didn't jump on XP fully until well after SP1).

I don't know the market stats or anything, but if I had to guess, I would say that of all the Vista users currently, 89% are people who just bought a new PC and had no choice with another 10% being people in the computer industry who have to be cutting edge for their job and are just using it to provide for software/hardware upgrades, etc. I leave 1% for the people who are fish and figure they have to upgrade to keep their computer current.

Ex-Take Two CEO guilty of stock option backdating

Here's an article about how T2's old CEO adjusted stock option dates illegally for financial gain.

I've largely gotten over my angst about T2 shutting us down because we "weren't profitable enough" or some such nonsense. But seeing this sort of money grubbing going on at the top makes me shake my head in wonder and feel like a scapegoat. Grrr.

A UK version of No Child Left Behind?

In case you don't know where I stand on the "No Child Left Behind" program...let me give a quick clarification. As it currently stands, I am against it. It handicaps good teachers, provides a scapegoat for bad teachers, holds back students that could excel and gives struggling students a false sense of confidence/security as they "pass" based on improper standards.

That said, it seems the UK is looking into their education crisis.

I am encouraged by their intent to require the teacher to perform class-personalized testing/assessments of their own students based on their needs so they can provide adequate feedback. There will still be standardized tests to give a general view of how the school is doing (I don't know the status of their tests...but hopefully they are more adequate than those in the states). But the standardized test is not THE sole method of measurement...which means the teacher will be required to teach more than just how to pass the test. Which is good.

I hope it works...and I hope their students excel...so that perhaps we can make similar changes in the states.

Lacking math skills making it hard for you to shop?

Apparently the British Government has recognized the need to educate adults in their country. It seems some people are having a hard time during these after Christmas sales as they try to determine exactly what kind of a deal "20% off" or "Buy one, get one half price" means to their pocket book.

Honestly, I would love to see this sort of government involvement in the US...

An article on a child's world

Kind of amusingly, shortly after I made my post about the rising youth/school violence in the world and blaming it on parents...I read this article.

It talks about the need to let kids be kids and to have actual play time rather than being forced to handle childhood on their own while adults live in their own world...I see this (adults being adults only rather than being parents to kids) going one of two directions....either the kids are ignored and go do their own things without adult supervision (usually getting into trouble...definitely not learning proper morals/boundaries)...OR...the kids try to grow up to fast and become mini-adults just so they can spend time with their adult role models (parents) and as a result lose out on childhood and/or fail to develop mental/physical skills they would learn through childhood activities.

I'd be interested to read more of this talk and to see how the public/country/parliament/etc. reacts to his talk and to the proposed legal changes.

School violence...My opinion?

OK, so I know this can't ALL be because of me...but friends and family keep hounding me every time a new report comes out with questions like "Are you sure you want to be a teacher?" or "Why do you want to work in a school?"

Last week we had two (or was it three) school attacks in the US (plus wasn't there one in Canada and one in the UK?) - first a murder/abuse/suicide in Colorado and later a principal being shot in Wisconsin.

This morning, there's a gun report at a school in Nevada that shuts things down for a search and then over in Pennsylvania there's a shooting at an Amish school with three girls dead.

I made a post a bit ago about a teacher (non-US, I forget the country) beating a student to a pulp and then throwing her out the window and there are constantly reports of physical (sexual) abuse in school. This is obviously a worldwide problem, but why is it becoming so bad?

My opinion (and I know this isn't a 100% answer) is that the majority of the fault lies with the parents. I constantly hear the argument that the media is to blame (be it movies, music, video games, magazines, books...whatever) or that society is to blame (by teaching poor morals and bad ideas). However, it is the PARENT'S responsibility to raise their kids and help them to understand what is right and what is wrong....it is their responsibility to protect and shield them from influences that will drag them into destructive behavior and to teach the children how they should handle situations where they are exposed to such influences.

I admit that it's impossible to raise a perfect kid...but I know WAY TOO MANY parent's who are letting society raise their kids and then blaming society for all the problems. If parents fail to properly parent their kids, they have no right blaming anyone else but themselves for the problems they encounter.

I am horrified for the day when my road (which has been under construction all summer but is generally a fairly busy road) is opened again. We have two neighbor girls (aged ~3 and ~6) who are 100% without supervision. They roam the neighborhood without any parental knowledge. I've seen them playing on construction equipment, digging in flower beds of neighbors across the street, riding their bikes in front of oncoming traffic (which is fortunately infrequent and slow...for now).

We had a birthday party over the weekend and invited one of the girls over. She knocked on our door every 20-30 minutes asking if it was time for the party...we told her to just ask her mom when it was 1:00...she said that her mom is always asleep during the day and gets mad if they wake her up. I've never had any conversation with the mother, so I don't know her work situation. I know she's a single mom trying to make it and I know that can be very difficult...but I'm terrified that her lack of supervision is going to result in one of these girls being hit by a car or kidnapped or worse...

That is probably the most extreme situation that I have personal experience with, but I know of many other situations that are similar enough....too many parents are not 'parents', but rather adults who have had kids and either don't know what to do with them, or just do nothing with them.

As a result, kids grow up without morals, without rules, without boundaries and as a result, their anger becomes irrational violence such as these school shootings.