Unhelpful

RIAA is trying to legalize hacking and destruction of data for themselves.

According to this Wired.com story (courtesy of Slashdot), RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is trying to get an amendment to the current USA Act (which is of concern in and of itself) that allows them and other copyright holders to gain unauthorized access to your computer and delete all of your illegal MP3s. This is an absolute trampling of Americans’ rights granted by the Fourth Amendment.

There are a few major issues that I would like to address here. Read more »

It’s becoming a regular thing to disable access to the rest of one’s computer system when playing a game. EverQuest is the prime example, and reportedly Dark Ages of Camelot was shipped with alt-tab disabling. Some people don’t like this. I’m one of them.

(disclaimer: I play neither EQ nor DAOC, nor do I use ICQ or AIM).

Here are my opinions for not screwing with alt-tab.

First, I come from a unix background. Applications aren’t supposed to be disabling system functionality in the first place, and flat out aren’t allowed to. This protects the system and other applications.

Second, it’s my computer, not Sony’s, not Mythic’s. I decide what runs on it and what doesn’t. I decide how it operates, and I decide how the operating system is supposed to behave. Your program and your license agreement have absolutely no place in telling me what I can and cannot do with my property. I expect to be able to use my computer and my software the way I want, when I want. I should not, and will not cede my property rights.

I understand that some companies want to have some sort of “immersive experience”. Shutting off the rest of one’s capabilities is not “immersing” one into an “experience”, doing so is more akin to cutting off hearing, touch, taste, smell, then taping one’s eyelids open. While the player has no perception of anything besides what you’re forcing him to watch, it’s not very fun, and certainly not a “complete” experience.

Instead, integrate that functionality that people want and use into the game client. Yes, I do mean add something along the lines of an ICQ or AIM client to the game. I don’t mean the pathetic chat system that Origin implemented with the Second Age expansion. EverQuest does moderately well with its fairly diverse chat capability, but it’s still limited to itself. Don’t limit me. Appeal to all of my senses.

The always-thrown answer is “disabling alt-tab prevents cheating” is a complete misdirection. Making changes to a client machine’s operating system doesn’t have anything to do with whether cheating is possible. If cheating is possible in your game, it’s because your code is defective, either as a direct coding bug, or as a design flaw. Hobbling the functionality of a computer I spent hundreds of dollars on because your code is defective is unacceptable and incredibly laughable. Fix your software and your hardware, don’t cripple mine.

It’s 2001, and the clock is still ticking. Soon it’ll be 2002.

Looking back at fiction, it’s fairly interesting how far we’ve come, and how far we haven’t. Most people have access to cellphones smaller and more functional than the original “Star Trek” communicators, on the other hand, as the IBM commercial with Avery Brooks from last year asks, “Where are the flying cars?” Read more »

According to ABCNews.com by way of Yahoo, Albanian girls are being sold into the sex trade.

Unfortunately, they’re not on ebay yet so I won’t be able to provide a review of how this arrangement is turning out.

There’s been a lot of controversy recently surrounding the use of cellphones while driving. I’m against doing so. I’m also against other distractions while driving, such as eating extremely messy food, and rowdy children (for god’s sake, pull over to the side and spank them).

I’ve recently been issued a company cellphone, and decided to be fair, and try it myself to see if it’s such a distraction. Traffic was light as it always was (I leave work before rush hour starts), so I busted the thing out, and went at it.

Now, I can’t speak for all models of cellphones, but the model I have has buttons so small that it’s rather difficult to push them accurately without paying close attention to the phone, instead of the road. I was lane-drifting already and hadn’t even made a single call yet. Based on that, I’ve decided that doing so again is probably a bad idea. I’m not going to speak for everyone either, I’m sure there are people who have gotten quite adept at dialing their cellphone by touch. I’m also sure there are people who have just been damned lucky so far.

Laws against using cellphones shouldn’t be necessary. I personally am capable of determining whether or not doing so makes me an unsafe driver - it does, so I’m not going to do it. Unfortunately, I live in a world where just about everyone else thinks driving is a right, not a privilege, and following some basic safety practices is infringing on that “right” to drive.

I do have the right to put pictures of Hitler at the top of my page. I do not have the right to put others’ lives at risk.

Well, worth watching, and worth the effort I spent to go see it seeing as how only one goddamn theater in D/FW saw fit to carry it. The setting is 1969 Australia, in particular the radio telescope that was key to the video of the first moonwalk. There is a very good review on IMDB that captures everything perfectly. I’m actually glad finally to see a comedy that has genuine humor, as opposed to movies that are comedies simply because one of the actors used to be a comedian.

The plot is simple, there aren’t any “hidden” parts, no surprise twists. The comedy doesn’t lie in the typical “sit-com” vein of putting people into an odd situation and watch them make fools of themselves, it’s done in a far subtler way, innocent dialogue that you don’t see coming ’til it’s said.

Simple movie, simple characters, simple plot, simple rating: 1 star.

(Rating system: Movies I like get a star. Movies I don’t, don’t)

It occurred to me as I was scrubbing a cookie sheet vigorously in a vain attempt to make it clean that I do not have to expend such effort to make it clean, I can replace it for probably under a dollar or two. I then think back to the last time I used this cookie sheet, which was about 4 months ago. Throwing it away seems to be a good plan, as judging by my roll of aluminum foil, I need a cookie sheet about once per annum. And then I was enlightened.

This is a personal message to the driver of the silver Mercedes that was turned over on I-30 earlier this evening.

Your “accident” (really now, we both know you were being stupid, but I’m trying to be nice) backed up traffic for 20 minutes. That 20 minutes put me 10 minutes past the closing of the local drive-through for some food.

As I sit here, hungry, I hope you feel guilty for your inconsiderate way of life.

I just tried Napster out for the first time a little while ago. I don’t see why RIAA is having such a conniption fit.

So far, every Napster user I’ve seen lies about their connection speed - funny how a nine meg file comes down over a 14.4 in 3 minutes. That’s assuming though, that anyone actually lets you download anything. A good 95% of my attempts to download anything resulted in errors, disconnections, or cancels by the remote user.

For the record, I wasn’t trying to acquire any material that RIAA is trying to get removed.