More Election Brilliance

As a lot of you know, I live in Texas and March 4 was our big day.  Of course, that means that there's going to be a lot of stuff about the elections that are from here on the local level.  I was reading one of the local papers here yesterday, and they were interviewing some people after they had voted.  One of the things that they were honing in on was the way that females were voting.  They were talking about how ladies had a difficult choice to make between voting for Hillary, because she's a woman, or voting for Obama, because they agree with him on things.  Here's one of the good quotes, talking about women that like Obama.

"...and some of Obama's biggest fans were unable to vote for him, fearing a vote against Clinton would be a vote against their gender."

Hmm, so that's a good idea.  Let's not vote for who we think will be the better president, and instead vote for someone just because they're the same sex as us.  The reasons that some people have for voting astound me.  If the reason that you are voting for someone is just because they are black, or a girl, or an old rich white guy, then you really don't need to be voting.  Vote based on character, on where they stand on issues, and on how well you think they'd do the job.  People need to vote for someone that they want to be president because they think they would be the best president, not because they want them to be the first black, first woman, or oldest. 

On a somewhat related note, if you actually did want to vote for Hillary, check out what Lawrence Lessig has to say about it, it's very interesting.

Cop Gives Kids Porn...Sorta

I came across this story via Doc Searls' blog.  Some school cop at a middle school in Florida set up a MySpace page as a way to better communicate with the kids.  The page was done with the support of the school and police.  Apparently, one of the people on his friends list had a link to an adult web site.  Now, I know what you're thinking, and the city's police are thinking the exact same thing: Investigate the cop for providing porn to minors.  Duh, it's so obvious that this guy was up to no good.  I mean, as was pointed out, kids could get to the porn from his page in just three click. My goodness, that's practically a direct link to the porn.  Personally, I'm a little worried for myself.  After all, I have linked to Google before, and we all know you can get to porn from there in just two clicks.  Coming from my site, that puts you at the same three clicks.  If some kid visits my site, I'm doomed.   About the only good part of this story is that they're not blaming MySpace for it too.

Danger! Warning!

There is a lady that I work with that has been sick for a while.  She kept going to the doctor, and found out that she has CMV, which is similar to mono.  Even though she wasn't contagious, I thought it'd funny to stick a biohazard sign on her cube.  I didn't print one off that had any text, it was just the symbol.  Well, on that same day, I was having a rather long, hard day, and thought it'd be amusing to stick a radioactive symbol on my window, signifying a potential nuclear blowup.  What happened for the rest of the day was rather disturbing.  There were at least five people that walked up and asked what her symbol meant, and then would turn around and ask what mine was.  Five might be an understatement.  It might have been more.  Not a single person recognized both of them, and only one or two recognized one but not the other.  This really concerned me.  How do people not know, right off the bat, what these symbols mean?  I would think that these should be some internationally recognizable, and well known symbols.  I really think that there needs to be some sort of educational thing in place that would make sure everyone knew what these things were.  Although, I guess that this is a bit like the saying, "I'm not saying we should kill people for being stupid, but let's just take the warning labels off everything and let it work itself out."

So, for the good of everyone, here you go.

Biohazard:

 

Radioactive:

An Idea I Support

I found this story via Techdirt, and thought I'd pass it along because I thought it was great.  A student at a high school in Georgia wrote an article for the school paper called "Another Modest Proposal" paying tribute to Jonathan Swift.  His proposal was to limit the spread of stupidity by executing the bottom 25% of people based on an IQ test.  The reasoning being that the less intelligent are continually breeding at an increasing rate, while the more intelligent on breeding at a slower rate.  If you're ever seen Mike Judge's movie Idiocracy, you'll have a humorous memory of the opening that explains this concept.  While I am in full support of this idea being proposed, the principal of the school didn't see the wisdom.  Instead of realizing that the article was a tribute to Swift, he confiscated papers, and told the newspaper that they needed to write more positive, uplifting stories instead.  Needless to say, his actions prompted an outrage, and a large online uprising.  A Facebook group was created, and word quickly spread.  A newspaper in Atlanta picked up the story and ran it, spreading it even further.  You can also find the student's original article here. 

It seems like more and more stories are being brought to people's attention because someone tried to stifle it.  I don't understand why more people aren't aware of the fact that in this day and age, you are better off simply ignoring something than trying to hide it.  Had the principal done nothing about this story, I never would have heard about it, nor would you.  Bunch of idiots out there, maybe we should do something about that...

Women Are Stupid

Ok, so in fairness, people are stupid, not just women, but this clip is pretty specific. I saw the old thing again today about the petition asking people to ban dihydrogen monoxide, and that made me remember the video I saw years ago where the kid asks girls to sign a petition to ban women's suffrage. Now, I'm guessing that he edited out the girls that knew what he was talking about, but it is hilarious none the less. What's so funny is that the only person in the clip that voices what it really is is a guy. There is one girl that says no, so we can give her credit too. All in all, though, I think that this is nice evidence that maybe we should end women's suffrage, and while we're at it the dihydrogen monoxide example is fine proof that we should just deny those people water.

Kid Sues SMU for Saying He's a Rapist

Ah, my good ol' Alma Mater. SMU has been on the receiving end of a lot of issues lately, with this one being a student suing for them accusing him of rape. My completely biased opinion of the matter makes me assume that this kid probably did have sex with this girl when she wasn't in her right state of mind. It also makes me assume that this girl probably wasn't being responsible at the party, and shouldn't have left with this guy. Now, that's not to say that I am blaming her, I'm just saying she was probably careless. Personally, they should have just had the guy whacked and been done with it, but I suppose that's why I'm not allowed to make those types of decisions. The girl probably got drunk, he probably took advantage of that. My heart goes out to her, and my wrath goes out to him.

Brad Feld is an Idiot

Brad Feld, as well as many developers of Facebook apps, seem to misunderstand how reality works. They think that simply creating an app on Facebook and getting a bunch of users is magically going to give them money. The thing they're missing is that they have to actually have a business plan that works in order for them to get money. Going out and signing up hundreds of thousands of users is great and all, but if you haven't thought about how you're going to make money off of them, then that's your own dumb fault. All that Facebook provides is a platform. It's not their job to get you users or money. This is akin to a software developer getting mad at Microsoft because they made a Windows application but no one bought it. If your product has no value, of course you're not going to get any money from it. You have to be able to see how you can monetize the benefit that Facebook provides. Getting a huge user base really quickly on Facebook is, relatively speaking, a simple thing. Once you get them, you have to use them to either generate revenue through a service you have, or via targeting advertising. If you have 200k users, and haven't made a single penny then one of two things is true. Either you don't have any sort of plan, and your lack of revenue is your fault, or your plan sucks and your lack of revenue is your fault. Either way, you need to reevaluate your approach and stop thinking that your problems are Facebook's fault.

Addicted to Video Games? Then You're a Moron

I just read an article saying that the AMA wants to classify video game addiction as an official psychiatric disorder. This is a load of BS. Seriously, people, come on. Kids that spend all day playing video games, and forgoing other things don't suffer from a psychological problem. They suffer from a lack of self control, and parents that probably don't discipline them. If the kid learns that he or she can play games instead of doing homework, and the consequences aren't that bad, he's just going to keep doing it. The other thing is that these kids are getting some social interaction, just not in the traditional sense. Sure they aren't meeting up with people in real life, but if they're logging eight hours a day on WoW, then that's eight hours that they're talking and interacting with others. Don't get me wrong, they still need to have some real life socializing or else they'll be weirdos, but you can't claim that they're being reclusive if they're playing an MMO. Obviously, if they just play single player things it's a different story. Also, people need to understand the video game culture. A lot of people that spend a lot of time playing games are good people. Just because there are some that don't know the meaning of the word moderation doesn't mean that this is some sort of illness.
Parents these days are pansies when it comes to making their kids obey them. And kids these days are filled with the notion that adults aren't meant to be obeyed. There are quite a few clips out there of some 12 year old yelling at his mom and calling her all sorts of horrible things cause she's trying to get him to stop playing a game. And she does nothing! Instead of unplugging the computer and smacking the crap out of the kid as she should, she just takes it. It's no wonder kids are "addicted" to games.

Intarweb Making Us Stoopider?

Andrew Keen just put out a book trying to persuade people that this Web 2.0 thing is dumbing us down. His arguments include thing like, due to the inability for many amateur content producers to do proper research the content they create won't be as good as Big Media. Also, the funds that drive much of traditional media are required for really good work to be achieved. Then there's the thing with people watching clips of people getting kicked in the balls, or monkeys throwing their poo over and over again. I don't know if I agree with everything, but he does make some valid points. Personally, though, I'd have to say that the internet does just the opposite for me. I often times see something mentioned in the main media, and then use the internet for further research. True, you can't trust everything you read online, but there's a lot of it that does come from reliable sources. Reliable in that in the past they have been correct. I also think that the things offered from the Web 2.0 concept allows Big Media to become even better. If you consider something like PC Mag or the ilk to be part of Big Media (they are a print company, after all), then they have benefited greatly from blogs and the like. Instead of having to wait until the next issue goes out, they can break stories as the happen.
I think that the reason the internet might be making you dumber is if you take everything you read as fact, and don't acknowledge that blogs are a good supplement for professional things, and not necessarily a replacement. Relying solely on sites like mine is probably not a good idea. There are high caliber ones out there, though, such as TechCrunch or Ars Technica. These are basically professional journalists using an online format instead of a traditional one.
I'd also argue that the internet is a little bit late on making people stupid. People have been getting more and more dumb before the internet became popular.

Movie Piracy Killed My Brother and Raped My Mother

Apparently piracy is way more damaging than other, more pathetic crimes because it causes something like infinity billion dollars in damage. Ars reports that NBC/Universal's Rick Cotton claims that law enforcement wastes too much time on things like bank robberies when they should be focusing on piracy.

"Our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned," Cotton said. "If you
add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from
theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16
billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of
dollars] a year."

What Cotton seems to forget, as Ars points out, violence associated with things like burglary is pretty bad, whereas you don't really see anyone getting shot while downloading a movie. On top of this, the claim that intellectual property crime runs in the "hundreds of billions" is completely ludicrous. If that were true, it would mean that piracy costs the entertainment industry more than its total revenue for 2006. I wholly believe that there is some lost revenue by people downloading stuff instead of buying it, but the vast majority of pirated content would have never been purchased and can't really be counted as lost revenue. However, even if you did count it as lost revenue, I don't know if you would come up with hundreds of billions a year. This just goes to show that the industry is seriously out of touch with reality. Maybe we'll start breaking into their homes, but stop downloading movies. After all, based on their numbers they'd be doing better off if we did that.

Careful, Your Stuff Might Have Your Name on It

In case for some reason you haven’t heard yet, Apple is now offering iTunes Plus, which has the EMI music catalog DRM-free. This is definitely a good thing. The DRM-free part, that is. Granted, you’ve been able to get unprotected tracks from a variety of other sources for quite a while now. The difference is that iTunes has the following of the masses. I don’t want to talk about the fact that there are DRM-free tracks now, though, it is the reaction that people are having to them. More specifically, the reaction to what these tracks contain. Embedded in the music files are the name and email address of the person that bought them. This makes people uneasy, and they are all upset that this information is in there. Now, two things. First, this is not something that is unique to the iTunes Plus tracks; it is in every track you buy on iTunes. Second, this information can only be seen if you have access to the file. Now, in theory, shouldn’t the only person that has access to your music on your computer supposed to be you? Are you worried that you aren’t going to be able to share these files with everyone because they have your info in them? I could be wrong, but isn’t distributing music out to a bunch of strangers still a no-no? Don’t get me wrong here, I’m a firm believer that the idea that illegal music sharing creates horrible things is complete BS. I’m just saying that I don’t see why you should be upset that these tracks contain your info. Is this really different than the file properties on a Word doc you make that have your name in the created by item (assuming you’ve registered with your name)? It is just pretty stupid to be upset about having your personal information in something that is, for all intents and purposes, private.

The Google Van. Quick, Hide the Cat!

I can't say I always agree with Scoble, but I think he's on the right track with this one. People have been making a huge fuss about the privacy concerns due to Google's new Street View on their maps. If you aren't familiar with it, you should definitely check it out. Head to New York, NY for an example. The feature allows you to look around the streets with a pretty decent amount of detail. Anyhow, a lady raised a big ruckus because you can see her cat sitting in her window, and she felt like this was somehow a major breach in her privacy. What she, and all these fearmongers that are jumping on board with it, seem to forget is that it is perfectly legal to photograph things that are visible while just driving down the street. It is amazing how many times people rise up to defend photographers that get told they can't take pictures of people in public, yet fail to see how this is the same thing. Do a little research next time, OK?

On a side-note, Scoble talks about not wanting marketing firms to have all this info on him and what he buys. Personally, if an advertiser knows all about me and will start sending me coupons about things I need or like instead of just getting spam, I'd be all for it.

Drink Coke? Stop Saying There's Genocide in Dafur

When I first heard that Sudan had threatened to cut off the world's supply of Coca-Cola I thought it must be some kind of joke. Sadly, it doesn't look like that's the case. The ambassador, John Ukec Lueth Ukec, spent an hour denying the killing that is going on in Dafur. He claims that there is nothing wrong going on, and that his country is actually building the world's best democracy. Johnny said that the U.S. is the only country in the world that claims there is genocide happening, and that the sanctions imposed must stop. His threat if the U.S. doesn't back off? Sudan will stop the export of gum arabic, which is required in the production of Coca-Cola. His country accounts for 80% of the world's supply. I guess that they have us beat. How can we survive without our Coke?

This Girl Is Awesome

I have no idea who this girl is, or anything about her beyond this single post of hers, but she is awesome. She is a bartender in a NYC bar, and regularly confiscates fake IDs from underage people. After taking them, she frequently posts them on her blog. Well, this one girl had used her real name on her fake ID, and so she found a post after someone had searched for her name. She was pretty displeased by the post, needless to say. Trying to be courteous, the poster removed the last name in an effort to be nice. However, they filed a DMCA take down notice in order to get the image of the ID removed. She is basically claiming a copyright on her fake ID. It sounds to my like NYU students simply are not that bright.

Politics the MySpace Way

I think the best response to this article over at Reuters is, "Noooo!" Apparently, MySpace and Mark Burnett are teaming up to create a new reality show that focuses on creating a politician that represents the young people of America. This has got to be one of the worst idea ever. Lets be honest, the youth in America are a bunch of idiots. On top of this, the part of the article I found most frightening is this part.

The process begins with the close to 100 million unique users who flirt, discuss and attack each other on Rupert Murdoch's online social network MySpace. Those people decide the winner, the losers and their issues on the new show.

That is good thinking. Let the same morons that have five videos load on their page at once and post pictures of themselves in their underwear decide who a good candidate is. I take that back, they probably could pick a good candidate to represent them, but the thing that is bad is that they also get to pick the issues? Do we really need that? If you know me personally, you know that I hate MySpace with a passion. I've gone so far as to not just boycott the site, but actually have the myspace.com domain blocked on my hardware firewall. The thought that these same people are going to be picking someone to represent them is repulsive. Older people already see my generation as a bunch of degenerates (which most are, but that is true of the older generations too), do we really need to just reinforce this? I can hardly wait to see what kind of idiot they wind up picking. I could just be exposed to the wrong groups of young people, but I seem to just encounter a lot of complainers without anyone ever offering realistic alternatives. Even when they complain about things with which I agree I still think they look like idiots. Things will be nice once we finally install my friend into office. Doty in 2032, baby.

What a stand up guy

I don't know how many of you read Penny Arcade, but I usually enjoy them. Their comics can often be hilarious, and the news posts they make are pretty entertaining too. Today they have one about how Todd Goldman is lame. If you are unfamiliar with this particular person, let me give you a quick history. This Goldman guy ripped off another artist and then just blew it off when an issue was raised. Check out this thread over at Something Awful for better details, as mine is the condensed, abridged Readers Digest version. Well, as the Penny Arcade post mentions, he jokingly calls the guy from whom he stole a pedophile. That's not the kicker, though. The gold is that this guy has his lawyers suing the same forum where he called the other guy a pedo for slander against Goldman. How great is that? I mean, personally, I always make sure to slander other people in a place before I turn around and sue the same venue for slander against me.