Gatti Gets Licked

Peep It!!

Makinola web page

As some of you may or may not know I was recently laid off from my job at the illustrious Eastman Kodak Company.  Some may have seen this coming, I would like to say I have no regrets about my time there as it allowed me 3.5 years of valuable experience and income.  But now that I have some free time on my hands I find myself in the middle of an awesome vacation.  I haven't been contributing to this blog as regualarly as I wanted to, so I have decided to just build a website where I will post the blog to. This will take up some of my free time, and it will allow me to dabble in my hobbies of information and web design.  I will post updates on where I am on the site to the blog for those that care and until I eventually host the blog on the site.  All the same, step one: get dreamweaver since its easy enough and my roommate approves. 

The Rocketeer Club

How do I get in on this shit?

A.K.A "The British Are Retarded"

In a story proclaiming that 57% of Brits polled don't know that IM stands for Instant Messaging, we now understand why they were our biggest supporter in the war in Iraq.  And they vote!

Freaky Video

Check out this video

The Story is here, they are robotic whiskers that sense texture and shape as they stroke a surface.  I think the model that they used in the video could have been a little less "House of Wax" like...

Get Outta Town

This is a pretty cool little monitor from Sharp.  Reminds me of those black and white vignettes you can make using two different photos. 

In a stunningly retarded move, Microsoft plans to start a social networking site that is pretty much the same as the myriad of Soc-Net sites around, only Microsoft will make you pay for the content that you put on your page.

Wallop says the plan to charge users for the decorations will supplant the advertising that supports many such free sites. The add-ons will initially cost somewhere between 99 cents and $4, said Karl Jacob, the San Francisco company's chief executive. The company will offer some elements for free.

Why would I want to join a site where I have to pay for content that goes on my page just to avoid ads? I don't remember ads being such a problem that I would be willing to pay for my page layout to avoid them. Oh yeah, you can only join if someone else invites you, a practice sure to keep their site membership nice and low. This kind of ignorance of the market place does not belong in today's society. Also the name Wallop sounds ridiculous and forced.

You Write the Caption

I forget what other website does this (village voice maybe?), provides a picture and then lets you decide what the caption should say.  This thing just looks totally ridiculous, but still pretty cool (damn you Toyota). 



I am going to have to go with "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Technology makes
it to Reality".  This references the ATHF episode known as "e-Dork"
where Master Shake and Carl after adorning cell phone helmets (the
e-helmet) with numerous attachments (the e-iano, e-piano!) gets the
Head (brain of a 4 year old) and leg upgrades to their e-helmet, which
then promptly jump into the pool killing Carl.

Adult Swim To Release Yet Another Record

And as their usual standard of quality must be upheld, it's gonna be fuckin' hot.  They have collaborated with Stones Throw Records in the past for Danger Doom (Danger Mouse and MF Doom).  They also produced Chocolate Swim which actually was pretty sweet as well.  Now they have taken the partnership with Stones Throw further than a Stones Throw (sorry =P)  to produce Chrome Children which showcases each artist on the Stones Throw Label (who knew all these hot hip hop artists were under one label?).  Please check it when it comes out, I might have to buy this one because of the free DVD documentary.  Peep the website here .  While you are there you might as well check out the rest of the Adult Swim website since there is mad media there, including a crap load of shows on the "fix" video hosting section. 

Sorry for You Suckers That Don't Have A DVR

Now you will not only be forced to watch the commercials because you don't have a D/PVR, but the commercials themsleves will become agonizing for you as you watch the same image displayed for the length of the commercial.  That's what you get for not upgrading your tech, bitches.

FX channel tries commercial to combat ad-skipping | Tech&Sci | Technology | Reuters.com

No Way...

That's a lot of embezelling.

The New Ways of War

If by some ridiculous reason I had to go to Iraq, I can easily say this would be me.  Although my PSP would also be there to give me hours of fun and I use Jin to beat the everliving crap out of Bryan the cyborg in Tekken: Dark Ressurection.

You write the Caption For This...

I'm moving to China for the cool robots. Who wouldn't want to live in a society that has seens like that pictured above...

What Kind of Gamer are You??

I probably am somewhere in the social or power gamer category. I have recently gotten back to my gamer roots and it feel so good.

Parks Associates - SURVEY REVEALS U.S. GAMER MARKET IS DIVERSIFYING

I Find Myself Conflicted on This

New changes in the format of facebook have prompted an unexpected backlash at the sites controllers.  I am not really sure how I feel about this.  I am big proponent of privacy, and being a member of a social networking site myself I can see how this could be annoying.  I can't really understand getting all worked up over it.  Maybe this is a sign that I am actually getting older and leaving the younger ways of thought behind.  How can you be on what is a essentially a public forum and then be pissed when the publicity gets to be a little to much.

"Deitch was careful to note that the new features don’t reveal anything
new. Rather, they just make the information easier to find. “I think
what it raises the awareness of for users is that, in the past I think
they’ve felt like even though [some information] was public, that it
wasn’t for some reason,” she said."

Somehow despite all the stories that people see about employees getting fired and people getting into trouble for posting things on their profiles, these idiots don't seem to get it.  If "Hope that my boss does not see my facebook profile" on your profile, your boss can see it whether it's aggragated or not.

Get Thee Back Ye' Old Folks

This story is just ridiculous...and the Brits consider themselves of a higher class than we.

Letter to Alice K. or "Sure I Like You but I am Not A Freak"

So my Mom and Dad are moving and selling the family house :^( As part of this effort my Dad has been going through old papers and throwing things out. He says to me when I go home that he has some papers from college he wants me to go through and throw out if I don't need them. I said to him that it was all probably junk and that we should just throw it all out. He says to me "Well here is one piece of paper that will be worth a lot on eBay" and hands me a letter. I'm like "What's this?" As I begin to read it I realize it's a letter I typed up one summer while working for my Dad in his office to this chick Alice in HS that I had a huge crush on. Actually, if your reading this Alice I still think your the bomb, if I lived around you I would certainly try to take you out or something, but alas I am Rochester and you are who knows where. Anyway, it's a funny letter that's not bad for a 16 year old, but I though I would post it (or re-type) it here for your enjoyment. As usuall all spelling and grammar mistakes have been preserved for authenticity.

July 10,1996

Dear Alice,
How is your summer vacation so far. Mine is okay except for the fact that I have to go to summer school and Arabic school everyday. Enough with the formalities. I bet you are thinking about a couple of questions right now. Let me answer the ones that I think that you would be thinking of. Where did I get your address. Do not worry, I am not some kind of stalker who looked up your address in the phone book, somebody mentioned that they had your address and I asked them for it and I though that it might come in handy some time so that I could write you a letter which is what I am doing right now. What is the Purpose of this letter? Weel except for the obvious reasons that I just wanted to say what is up, I never had an actual chance to say something to you. This is really an apology letter in disguise. Apology for what? You may ask yourself, well this is an apology for making Nick (last name left out to protect the innocent) (I am sure you know him) ask you all those questions about if you were single, and if you could go out with a certain person that likes you. It was me that liked you and I just did not have the guts to tell you myself. I heard that for a little while you that I was obssesed with you which is not the truth. Sure I like you but I am not a freak. Maybe it is because I called you so much that you thought I was, but in actuality I just like to talk to you not for any particular reason just because. I have had this on my mind for a long time and I thouight that this letter might not be the appropriate way to say this but I least I am saying it. Sort of. I hope you read this letter in good faith and don't think any less of me for writing it, I realize know that i am just a good or maybenot so good friend but whatever you take me for I can accept it. I you feel like calling me ever my number is at the bottom of this letter. Have fun the rest of your vacation.

Sincerly Yours,

______________________
Mojeed Adeola Akinola

Home # (xxx) xxx-xxxx


Nice huh?! Yep the raging emotions of a 16 year old right there. She was hot though obviously since it has been almost 10 years and I still sometimes think about her. All the same, this was like a form letter and it had all this personal crap in it, very funny divergence. Hope you enjoyed my embarassment. Oh, and since my Dad had this I can only assume I never sent this letter, or re-wrote it and sent a better copy (either one would be ok). But I wonder if I ever did mail them.

Snakes On A Motherf#$%!n Plane!

That's right, I bought into it*. I went to see SoaP (as it is being referred to on the Interweb these days). And as you will most likely here from anyone else who also sat through it, it actually was not that bad. It was enjoyable (it was like a really long version of "When pets attack" Snake Edition). You might hear a lot of things about this movie. That it really did not do that well despite all the internet hype surrounding it (Opening Weekend gross was $13.8m). That the movie delivers only what it says and nothing else. This is pretty true, the movie ONLY delivers Snakes on a plane which I think was actually the refreshing part, for many action thrillers try to be a lot grander than they really are. Action movies are for action, dramatic movies are for drama. There can be combinations of course, but too many films find themselves trying to be that crossover and really just making fools out of themselves.

This movie does not do that. They give you a basic plot that takes all of 5 minutes to explain. Then they set up the relationships which is about another 10-15 mins, then straight to the Snakes which are freaking ferocious thanks to CGI (If you ever see a snake with horns you are done for is one of the lessons I took from this movie). I liked the lack of complex characters here. You want a simple movie where characters are only supposed to be there for fodder, make them all uninteresting archetypes. The classic yet non-existent buxsome horny beauties that are flight attendants (with the obligatory gay man as one). The music star, the rich bitch, the rude man, woman with baby and horny as fuck couple. Everyone was at the party and it was so perfect. Relationships were built quickly so the movie could really get to the point which were the snakes on the plane. I guess that is why I enjoyed it so much, I went to see snakes and I got snakes. Has Hollywood figured out that instead of window dressing crappy movies, they should just tell you what your going to see and let people make their own decisions? Very doubtful, what's possible was that this movie was so utterly ridiculous that it lent itself to nothing other than the obvious. It is well known that the group behind the movie at one point tried to change the name to "Pacific Air 101" which would have had the movie netting maybe 2 million opening weekend. I wouldn't go see that movie, but snakes on a plane? I would actually watch it again, were it not for all those blood curdling snakes. Also adding to the experience was the lack of people in the theater. Apparently me and this chic and 4 of her friends were the only ones that wanted to see the movie, much less cared that it was there.

*I actually did not pay for the movie. I had some movie coupons that expired after this month that I had to use, but I would have probably seen it anyway.

9/11: A Graphic Adaptation

When the 9/11 report was released not many people really sat down and read it.  By this time many conclusions had already been brought about by scattered evidence.  It was mostly a formality so that events that took place could be set against a reasonable timeline.  Undoubtedly there was some information in there that people did not know, but we felt that we needed to know all we wanted to know.  Well it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, when descriptive phrases are added to those words we get something that is not only palatable but clear and concise.  This graphical adaptation of the 9/11 report is just that.  Slate will be posting a chapter a day until the 7th.  Peep it, it's quite good.

Finally Someone's Made an Easy to Read List

This much "inaccuracy" and this man is still in office.

Isn't Imitation The Highest Form of Flattery??

Apple Chases Pod for iPod's Sake

How Many Geeks Does It Take To Make A Crop Circle?

Apparently 12. As much as I make fun this is pretty cool, but I could think of other things that I would spend 24hrs on other than making a Firefox Crop circle. Then again they are in Oregon.

Jack Thompson Is A Moron

Does anyone else think this guy needs to get a new hobby??  He's going after Rockstar...again.

Bush's Mastery Of The English Language

"America is safer than it has been, yet it is not yet safe,"

Aliens: Take Me To Your Leader

After meeting Bush...

Aliens: Can we see someone else? How about a White House Janitor? Perhaps a groundskeeper?  Anything has got to be better than this guy....

Countdown Until Some Legislation Is Passed Against MySpace, 3, 2,1...

NBC5.com - News - Girl Accuses Myspace Acquaintences Of Rape

"It reminds you that you're really not safe anywhere and you have to be careful," said Dana Connelly, who lives near where the alleged assault happened.

It also reminds you of how you should not get horrendously wasted at some random guys house with three other guys. Also how if you wake up and find someone having sex with you forcibly you should probably go into some type of crazy frenzy no matter how drunk you are instead of passing out again, and again. Don't get me wrong, rape is rape and I feel sorry for this poor girl. But let's be honest here and place blame everywhere it should go instead of neglecting certain parties.

A Muslim Only Line, Really?!

The stupidity continues...

Ralph Nader's In The House!!

Nader.org

Open Letter to Georgey Boy.

Great, Now Everyone Knows We're Morons...

Read this and then tell me how advanced of a society we are...

The Muddle

This commercial really is great. I liked it so much I had to download the song that goes with it. If I ever go into a club and people are actually doing the mojito I would think I'd died and gone to heaven...mojitos, mo' problems.

The Dream of The Rocketeer

Skywalker jet packs in development - Engadget

It will never die, not as long as the possibility of individual flight exists or as long as Jennifer Connelly stays beautiful.

In other news apparently it has become illegal (or at least detrimental to your freedom loving health) to take pictures of cops doing their worst (literally).  Beware you camera phone lovers, make sure you don't catch any cops in the background of your shots lest your camera be grabbed and smashed.

Here are a couple of stories on net neutrality.  This honestly has to be one of the most muddled and faux confusing debates in the technological landscape today.  Mostly debates on this type of tech are left up to the people that don't describe the internet as a series of tubes.  Such dumbing down of the topic should tell you that those involved in the discussion shouldn't be.  This is obviously the work of large teleco's trying to confuse the common masses with rhetoric from congressman and lobbyists that have either been fed talking points about nn or are just saying what the money is telling them to say.  It actually is a little infuriating, especially since I believe the likes of Verizon and Time Warner are robber barons out to make extra money now that we are becoming more dependent on their services.  Come to think of it, maybe they are just following the American way of business.

The Friend Zone

Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a nice guy to everyone I meet.  Guys, girls, aliens, republicans, anyone.  I have many friends,  a lot of them hot chicks.  Let me say right now that I would have sex with 98% of them, readily.  This article on the Friend Zone is my life in a nutshell.  The friend zone doesn't bother me much.  Maybe I have just gotten used to it (which is awful, you don't have to tell me).  A lot of girls might read this and say "I have a lot of guy friends, a girl needs them.  More guys should be like that."  This is total bull.  Girls need friends like that. Guys don't.  I have guy friends to talk about my problems with.  When a dude ends up with 5 girls that are friends and no girlfriends he is bound to snap and you don't want to be around when it happens.  Seriously this is a huge lesson I wish someone would have told me a LONG time ago.  Pass it along to an unsuspecting guy hoping that one day, one beautiful day he just might be able to tap that ass.  Tell him it's only going to happen in his dreams.

Ahh Yes, There Is Finally A Word For It...

Apparently I am a neopliliac, I like that it has the word Neo in it.  Makes me feel closer to the matrix...

Traceurs Unite!

Sweet Village Voice article on how Parkour is hitting the streets of NYC and America in general.  Those of you who are loyal readers will remember that I too am part of a Parkour group named the Rainbow Traceurs.  I haven't been practicing the art as much as I should, my last experience being when I tried some Parkour moves in my house and ended up breaking my staircase banister.  At least I was yelling out Parkour! while doing it which is good for something. 

BTW, Does anyone know how to blur out someone's face in a digital video (format is .mov).  Not that I want to or need to blur out someone's face, but just in case I ever do I would like to know how to do it.

What we already knew...

Taking mushrooms will mess you up and may be one of the most significant experiences of your life?!  And here I thought they were just fun on a sunny day...

WSJ.com - Go Ask Alice: Mushroom Drug Is Studied Anew

Week long hiatus in Massachusetts and NYC was awesome.  I realize that I really do like a slightly slower life.  Then again maybe is was the never at home feeling I had as I stayed at a different place almost every night I was there.  For the first time I wanted to go back to Rochester sooner than I had planned.  After I had a horrendous back pull/spasm (not sure what it was) I was pretty down for not doing anything at all. I recovered thanks to the awesome powers of Excedrin (that isht is awesome) and felt pretty good for the next few days. I spent sometime with my parents. Oddly, I felt like it wasn't enough after I left.  It was really strange, most of the time I stay there I feel like I want out, when I only spent a little time there I felt like I got jipped.  Weird.  Also once the high speed internet was working I was pretty fine with not going anywhere. I did and had some pretty cool times with old old friends and some new friends.  I was back in Rocha Friday where my weekend was filled with exhaustion, fustration, and a little depression to complete the trifecta.  All in all it wasn't bad.  I returned to work in a generally relaxed state (which is the point of any vacation) which will probably wear off by weeks end.  More stories to come, and maybe some pictures after I develope this film (you read right, develope film).

A Rape In Cyberspace...from 1993.

I encountered the reference to this Village Voice piece in an article on Slate's website during their 10 year anniversary.  It's a fairly long tale of a virtual rape which intrigued me enough to read to the end.  Reading this now in 2006, I can only think of the type of reaction that it had at the time versus the type of reaction it will receive today as you read it from the future of computing and social networking sites.  I implore you to read it as any significant technophile will find it a decent read if not extremely more pertinant in our now decidely information age.  Check it.  If the link does not work type in the seach string "a rape in cyberspace"  (sans quotes) and you should be able to find it.  Tell me what you think.

A few bits of Social Phenomena

Two little bits here that seem unrelated although some abstract thought in my head that is pretty hard to put my finger on tells me somehow they are.

In this piece about the loss of close inter-personal relationships as a by product of the internet, I think the last paragraph states the problem with this type of study correctly.  The study used was done from 1985-2004.  Much has changed in this 20 year span, not least of which are our popular and understood definitions of roles in society.  What was then considered to  be close friends may no longer have a place in our modern society, this does not mean that the role of the close friend has been erased from our society.  The safety net described by a network of close personal friends may simply have morphed past the understanding of this survey.  Topics that used to be discussed between a person and their peers that were considered by the affected party as "a serious personal matter" may now be handed off to a web of friends on a favorite social networking site (composed argueably of close personal peers) or on a site that caters to that particular area of personal concern.  A problem that used to seem so dire to a high school student (sexual/physical initiation with a partner, a family problem, or a matter affecting peformance in school) now seem to find their ways onto chat forums with hundreds if not thousands of people willing to give mostly honest opinions as to the best roads to take for a resolution.  The right question here is which method is better.  A few close social friends act as a good group to talk to because they know you and you trust their opinion, hence close friend.  Now we live past the time when Arkanoid was the bomb and our social net was not even imagined to be as large as many people's are today.  Maybe the closeness and feelings we used to use to solve these problems has been moved to a different domain and a time when sharing problems with perfect strangers doesn't seem so far fetched. 

This article about Adult Immaturity really does help explain the socio-political climate that exists in our world today.  It's hard to explain the kinds of news stories and arguements we here between today's supposedly enlightened and advanced minds another way.  I hate to turn this into a administration bashing piece, but the way the American system of Government runs today does seem to mimic what a government would look like if it were run by children trying to give the appearance of logic and order.  Some of the time it would look like the left did not know what the right was doing nor did it care, and the rest of the time it would seem like idiotic bickering and unwilligness to yield/compromise were the norms, both things that adolescents are well known for.

Yes Yes It's True!

Futurama Returns!!

Someone Get These People A Dateline DVD

In the first of what is sure to be many lawsuits against social netowrking sites, a 14 year old girl and her Mother (I guarantee mostly her mother) is suing myspace.com, their parent company and a 19 year old of sexual assault (the crime itself was perpetrated by the 19 year old, myspace did not sexually assault this girl).  This absurd.  I read a bunch of the comments on this site, and I agree with most of them.  Since when is it the total responsibility of a website or ISP to protect minors who willingly go out on dates with perfect strangers?  Seriously, when are people going to stop treating the internet and WWW like some magic black box that you can't understand.  Chat rooms have been around for like 15 years now.  15 years of warnings about sexual predators and people who lie to childrent to prey on them.  Numerous parodies have been created about the classic conversation between some fat balding man and some cracked out whorish looking women where each one describes themselves and totally opposite from what they look like.  Those were the days of just straight text, now we have websites where you can post pictures and video and people can see all these little blurbs about you and we are still singing the same song, "Internet, Won't you protect me and my ilk from those that would hurt us?".  The answer is no, you take the good, you take the bad.  You take them both and then you have the internet.

Last.FM

Yo,
Most that know me know that I like the whole social networking thing.  Heck, I met a chick on one of those sites (facebook, myspace, friendster, etc...) and it actually seems to be working out.  Last.fm is like a social network for music, its actually pretty nice if not a little dense.  Check it out and look through it.  It's free to join but some of the better features you need to pay for, like everything else.  If you end up joining, look me up so you can become my friend, or even my musical neighbor.  My username is makinola (if you couldn't have guessed that).

Nausicca Of The Valley Of Wind, For Real...

The Japanese are at it again attempting to make a Sweet Little Flyer based on the Anime Movie mentioned in the subject header.  The movie was actually pretty cool, if not just a little old.

Fight the Power, Beat the Corruptibles!!

Finally an easy way to understand why some forms of DRM suck.  Here's a nice link to an EFF cartoon.


EFF: The Corruptibles

BTW, this is a test of the PERFORMANCING extension for firefox.  Check it out.  Also for those that are not down with Googlesync, try out Foxmarks, seems to be a little less of a hog than google sync and you can log onto the website for your bookmarks to follow you.

Seriously, This Is Pretty Hot.

Peep is here . Batwings man, batwings.

REPENT!!!

While I was at a Highland Games Festival (Mad Anthony Rugby Tournament) a few weeks ago my friend received this as some random hand-out. It was a million dollar bill on the front and there was text on the back. We read it and found it quite humorous, take a look. I wrote the text down just in case you can't zoom in close enough to read the back of the bill. I don't want to screw anyone out of God's love lest I be sent to Hell. Although according to this thing and the lust I have felt in my heart when looking at women, I am doomed anyway.










Text on Back of Bill, my comments in bold:

The million dollar question (get it?): Will you go to Heaven? Here's a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? (See you guys there!) Jesus Said, "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (What?! OK so its not allowed to be attracted to women? Procreation as a joyless exercise, this must be the work of the protestants). Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgement Day? If you have done those things, God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart (Man, God really doesn't have any leeway at all). The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That's not God's will (It surely isn't mine). He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus took your punishment upon Himself: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life". Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it. www.livingwaters.com

When your done with that, read this little fictitious transcript from World O' Crap. Jesus as the whipping boy liberal, funny stuff.

Someone is Actually Reading the Things I Write...

Hello everyone. It has finally happened. I read an article, posted a response and actually got a response back from the author. This confirms that someone is actually sometimes reading the crap that I spout. Yay for me, thanks Mr.McAllister for taking me seriously enough to write back to, slow news day or do you actually do this often? All the same, here is the original article, with my and Mr. McAllisters responses posted below. What do the imaginary people I envision reading this blog post think? Has the FSF gone to far, is Mr. McAllister right in defending the corporations right to make money (simplistic version of his arguement I know) or do the RIAA and MPAA need to seriously review what they are doing and begin giving us, the end user, what we really need and want?

Emails back and Forth:

To: Neil McAllister; InfoWorld Letters

Subject: RE: Free Software Foundation: Free as in "do what I say"

Hello Mr. Mcallister,

The article you wrote in infoworld was very interesting. I agree that is it wrong to turn the FSF into some kind of radical group espousing the ideas of every person that has a bone to pick with Apple or Microsoft, using the example of DRM is not quite the place to prove your point however. Radical or not, DRM directly effects the freedom of people to use various types of software as they see fit. I agree that illegal copying and pirating are a problem for the recording and movie industries and that right now DRM is a way for them to control it, this does not make DRM inherently right though. Just because people buy something doesn't make it the only solution that can be used. The RIAA and MPAA among other companies buy into this scheme because right now they have no other clue of what to do to satisfy both customers and their shareholders/business model at the same time. So while the end user sits with a crippled song and limited options of what they can do with the property they are supposed to have some type of control over, the larger corporations are satisfied and have no incentive to really find a better solution.

This is where a group such as the FSF comes in and begins to speak for the end user that singularly has no real voice against the Goliath of major corporations. You think the success of one on-line music store and few very minor successes of digital content e-tailers is the market speaking and saying "Yes, DRM is good and we are happy with it"? That point is one sided. I'll tell your right now that people trading music and downloading illegal songs are not all eastern European hackers, they are people that just don't want to deal with the crippling nature of online music right now. And yes, sometimes the public is too stupid to know what's good for them (this includes me sometimes, I don't propose to be some type of super informed individual who always knows right from wrong). We are guided by shallow marketing campaigns and laziness, which is most of the time easier than trying to define what we want and bringing that unified front to an industry run by and for big business and excessive profit.

In your article you quote Peter Brown comparing DRM laden files with a car that couldn't steer. I wouldn't really agree with that (I wouldn't call it patently absurd either), but I would compare DRM'ed files to a car that takes only one kind of fuel grade. Not just unleaded, but one specific type of fuel grade. Imagine if there were 10-15 different fuel grades used for all cars? You think every gas station would stock every one? Right now we have 3-4 and still not all gas stations can keep up. Customers wouldn't be too happy with the situation, I guarantee it. If you bring the level down to something simpler and smaller like music files it's easier to see why people gloss over the difference but the idea is still the same, I agree that certain parts of your argument were valid. Organizations should be careful not to stray into areas that are not part of their logical work, but the FSF I believe is in bounds with their unilateral resistance to DRM. I don't know if big demonstrations where people where hazmat suits are the best idea, but at least they are trying.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Hi Adeola (do I have that name right)?

My view on the subject is this: The FSF purports to be about free software. And yet, it apparently wants to dictate to the people who create software the kind of software they're allowed to create. Does that seem consistent to you? Doesn't to me.

Make no mistake, I'm not actually for DRM for the entertainment industry. I think this is a mistaken assumption that most of those people who are inevitably going to send me hate mail are going to make. I'm no sucker. I would never pay for a DRM-encoded song, movie, what have you. But I wouldn't listen to Britney Spears either; that doesn't mean I'm in favor of preventing record companies from putting out her albums.

I believe in free speech and the free market. Mind you, I'm no libertarian. I believe there are some situations in which society needs to step in and limit, restrict or control the means and procedures of production of goods and services, for the greater good of society. What I definitely DON'T believe, however, is that society has a right to arbitrarily limit, restrict or control the WILL, RIGHT, or LIBERTY of any single organization to attempt to engage in the production of goods and services, through coercion or any other means. To my mind this is what the FSF now seeks to do with its stance on this one technology, which we know colloquially as DRM.

The larger picture here is that DRM technology is just that, technology. My argument is the "guns don't kill people" argument. I agree with Sun Microsystems, which is in the process of developing an open source DRM stack, that there are wider applications for DRM than just keeping people from copying MP3s. If we are not so shortsighted as to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, DRM could be beneficial to all of us in a time when privacy is increasingly threatened and the need to restrict the free flow of information has never been greater.

In that light, I see the FSF's current stance as being shortsighted, parochial, paternalistic, and counterproductive.

Thanks for writing.

Best,

--

Neil McAllister, Senior Editor

InfoWorld Media Group

neil_mcallister@infoworld.com 415.978.3287

From: adeola.akinola@kodak.com [mailto:adeola.akinola@kodak.com]

Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 5:17 AM

To: Neil McAllister

Subject: RE: Free Software Foundation: Free as in "do what I say"

Thanks Mr. McAllister,

For the response, I think I understand your point a little bit better than I had previously had. Also I never intended this to be some sort of hate mail and if it sounded like that I apologize. I like open discourse, thanks for providing it.

Adeola

Adeola,

Not at all, I appreciate all my mail.

Best,

--

Neil McAllister, Senior Editor

InfoWorld Media Group

neil_mcallister@infoworld.com 415.978.3287

Pat Roberston Watch...What did He Do This Time??

This man truly sickens me. He also has a special place in my science fiction loving heart because I truly believe he is an alien living in a human husk, there is no other explanation for the things he says or does. His latest claim to fame is...wait for it...that he can leg press 2,000 lbs. This is in response to Madeleine "The Hulktress" Albright claiming she can leg press 400 lbs. Listen, I don't know what's going on here but can we leave the weightlift posturing to people who are actually weight lifting for a profession, or at least a huge part of their lives? I don't remember Ronny Coleman recently talking up his skill as a Tele-evangelical religious leader or world known political negotiator. I don't care how much Pat Robertson can leg press, I would still drop him in a fight. Yes Pat that is an open challenge.

And a quick blurb about these freshman MIT students who have totally automated their dorm room. I thought of a lot of jokes about this, but came to the conclusion that I was just hating and pissed that I did not have this when I was a freshman. Question is where did these kids get all this crap? I also want to know the percentage increase of girls they were speaking to before the modification and then after. Chances are no change (from an assumed start of maybe 5 girls total) which would suggest that their party button might be for late night LAN gaming sessions of UT and Civilization. Ahh yes, there was the joke. I feel better now.

Happy Slapping...I know, it Sounds Funny

I guess we all kind of know what the practice of happy slapping entails, maybe we have never given it a name. Or maybe what we know as happy slapping has taken to new heights with all the video recording and sending to other people. My friends and I used to have a similar practice to this called "The Clap" (no, not the venerial disease although that connection just made itself apparent in my mind). In high school we would sneak up behind each other keeping a distance of about 7 feet. Then when the time was right (which is where half of the real artistry came in) we would sprint up to the person in front of us and jump in the air, clap loudly (its like the rattle of a snake before it strikes), and come crashing down on the intended target (this part of the stunt is where the second half of the freestyle came in. Jump height and angle were totally left up to you as well as the loudness of the clap). Obviously the target would either go flying foward and fall, or go straight to the ground with us on top of them. It was truly a hysterical thing to watch and to do, terrible to be on the receiving end of one. Unlike these fools we didn't videotape it and send it to all our friends (probably cause we couldn't), we didn't laugh if someone was truly hurt, and we certainly only kept it to certain groups of our friends, not strangers. The critics in this article call this glorified bullying and I tend to agree. Instead of bitching though I might get some of my friends together and find the crew that happy slapped me and beat the everliving crap out of them. Sure, two wrongs don't make a right but it is sure to make you feel better. Retaliation is a danger with this method, but what's life without a little bit of danger. When we clapped on people (the clapper) we always feared becoming the clappee (the one who received the clap). It was a fact that if you were around you would eventually get clapped on and clap on someone else. It was mostly fun until an unfortunate day in the upper west side where an awful clap occurred. There were tears, yelling and red faced asians. I think that was the beginning of the end for the clap because we could see where this was going. Thank God we were intelligent, or we could have ended up in an article like this one.

Here's something totally off of the above topic. I am not a big conspiracy nut. I believe that there are things that authority figures do not want us to know, and that there might be some coverups sometimes. Alien abductions? Maybe but probably not. Gov't caused 9-11 and no plane crashed into the pentagon? Could be true, never really know. A conspiracy I have rarely ever given thought to however is starting to get me to believe in it, with the help of a few articles I have read recently. The first has some info on the difficulties associated with sending a return flight to the moon, for man to walk on the moon once again. The second talks of a spacecraft that crashed into a satellite it was supposed to dock with. Considering our current ineptness when it comes to space travel, how probable is it that we launched a successful journey to the moon and back in 1969, almost 40 years ago? I am not saying it's impossible, but it is highly unlikely. If you sat someone down that did not take the moon landing as fact, and was presented the information we have today about space travel and it's many difficulties then was told that we landed there in 1969, the person would call bullshit. I don't know, just food for thought I guess.

Do you think that's the moon your standing on? Do you really think that's air your breathing?

RIAA and MPAA Foolishness

These petty thieves will never stop will they? The RIAA has just opened suit against XM radio for releasing a product that time shifts what they are listening to. Can we please have some sort of federal mandate that can disband this organization as well as the MPAA? These two organizations make themselves look more frightened and confused every time I hear about another suit that they are passing. I mean they lost the fight back in the 80's against VCR's yet they are still trying. This is not even a matter of copyright infringement or stolen music. They simply want more money if any company expects to innovate on the current movie and music business models. I call shenanigans on both organizations.

Congress Tries to Enact more Stupid Restrictions

In this article is described a bill that would prohibit the viewing of social networking sites in school and public libraries and other places that children may connect with the interweb that happens to be federally funded. I am not saying that this is a totally bad idea, but I also think this is another example of people taking less and less responsibility for themselves and loved ones. People need to be more aware of what their kids are doing on the big bad nasty internet, it' as simple as that. Well maybe not, but that doesn't mean we need to invite the government to act as our keeper. You worried about your children meeting creepy and weird people on MySPace? Why don't you check out their myspace account all the time to make sure that everything on there is ok. Look at their messages, the types of pictures they put in their profile...etc. The more you know about this stuff and pay attention to your kid, the less they are likely to go meet 45 year old Steve in the park for some afternoon delight.

DVD Sniffing Dogs??

This is one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard of. If it works, fine but that doesn't make it intelligent. The problems inherent in this system are obvious. Unless the dogs can also sniff out Copyright there are going to be a crap load of false positives, which leads to nothing more than wasted time for the dogs and the humans in charge of them. The MPAA wonders why they are not able to stop pirating, maybe it's because some of the ideas they implement involve DVD sniffing dogs, that just my $0.02 though.

Net Neutrality

Many people might not know what this is, or even why it's such a big deal. Well here is a simple unbiased explanation. Cable and telecom companies (these are the guys that provide you with a high speed connection) want to start charging companies like Google and Yahoo! for a priority spot in their sea of bandwith. They would charge these companies some unknown amount so that end users like you and me could enjoy their services in a more timely fashion then say a company who did not pay these fees and thus were not prioritized. This is the basic arguement, and though I have not put in every single detail I don't believe I have left anything out that changes it much. Many people are against this and have started a discussion on new neutrality. The reason this discussion is referred to net neutrality comes from the stance that these cable and telecom companies should be neutral in their offering of content and not make it a priority issue for services that are delivered today in a none prioritized manner. This is yet another example of an industry trying to take advantage of a situation that was not planned for in the business model AT THE EXPENSE of the end user. I have no problem with the telecoms wanting to make extra money off of some companies that use a good chunck of their bandwith. I don't think it's fair or right, but that is capitalism, if they can get the companies to pay so be it. But how is this newly added fee going to affect me and you, the end users? No one can say for sure, but I can't believe that we won't inccurr some added costs somewhere. You might be asking, "wait a minute, don't I already pay Timewarner (substitute name of your ISP here) for broadband access?" The answer is yes you do. You pay a cable or telecom company for broadband access so that you may access content, now they in turn want to charge the content providers that you are paying the ISP's to access to serve you that content at a favorable speed or transfer rate. The probelm lies in the analogy of biting the hand that feeds you. The broadband access would not support itself without the consumers to by it, and consumers wouldn't be so inclined to pay for access to this high speed web if their was no content to take advantage of a braodband connection. Yet in the wake of this partnership that has made everyone rich, cable and telecoms now call what they have been doing for these content providers "a free ride" saying that the investments they made to start and maintain these high speed connections need to be paid back somewhere and that companies who use it the most should be the one's to foot the bill. I guess I am glad that they did not push for the end users to pay for this, but appalled that they expect some type of restitution after we as end users already pay for their services. You can see why there is so much discussion, what do you think?

Interesting Article on Net Neutrality from the POV of the Cable companies.

Wii!

For those poor saps that don't know yet you better ask somebody. Nintendo's new system is the shiznite, and it's now called the "Wii" (as opposed to its pre-release name of the Revolution). Much discussion has been had over the quality of the name; is great or garbage and what it means to the system. The short story is "it doesn't matter!" (said like the Rock). Nintendo will make great games on a good cheaply priced system and people will snatch it up by the handfuls. With the next gen consoles priced between $400 and $600 dollars, a Wii priced at $250 will be what finds it's way into homes during the notoriously money tight christmas season. The fact that it plays old gamecube games is a huge factor seeing as how the gamecube still costs $100. And when you have games like Super Smash Brothers:Brawl coming out for it, there is no reason to doubt the system including the crappy name and all. Come on, Solid freakin' Snake is in it, with a Cardboard box! This is going to be hot.

Stephen Colbert on...

This is the hilarious transcript of Stephen Colbert (Formerly of the Daily Show, and now the host of the Colbert Report) speaking at the white house correspondents dinner. Man this is some funny isht. It takes some serious guts to stand up and insult the president all under the guise of being with him. He is basically backslapping the pres and Bush can't do anything back. If we find Colbert's dead body somewhere, we know why...

Hysterical

As seen on Break.com

Many Things...

I have a few stories to draw your attention to for today, but I want to lead off with one that I have a personal stake in, mostly because this guy could be me. I posted a story a little while ago about a NYC Board of Ed employee getting canned becuase he was caught playing solitaire by the esteemed Mayor of NYC. Today I like to say that madness has ended. A Judge ruled in favor of Toquir Choudri in his case of getting the boot for using the internet. Well he was not exhonorated, but he was only reprimanded instead of fired which is good. I thought I might have to cut back on my daily read of Slashdot and The Village voice for a sec but it turns out I am safe for the time being.

In a story that seems like it was written for every twenty something out there, here a nice piece of that new found art form of drunk dialing (which is now apparently moving on to drunk texting and drunk emailing). This is quite funny because a few weeks ago I got some random message from a girl on myspace who said that my profile was the first she had seen in a bit that did not want to make her vomit (she did not quite put it that way but you get the idea). SHe said in the message that she was a little tipsy or something to that effect, so that was a drunk myspacing I guess. SHe actually turned out to be pretty good looking, but as many relationships that start on myspace turn out, we don't really speak anymore.

In some tech news we have a study showing that the amount of people who actually care and keep up with the pace of technology being much higher than those that consider themselves geeks (most of the slashdot crowd). These people won't out themselves as geeks all the time but will sometimes switch conversation from politics to science or willfully jump into sciency (that's right, new word) conversations. I am an honest person, part geek, part athelete with enough knowledge to just get myself in trouble. The antithesis of this would be the Linux Snob who is now one of the latest reasons people wont jump into the linux crock pot. WHile I think this may be part of the reason there have been tech snobs since I can remember people being really into tech so there is really nothing new here.

More to post later, I just realized I actually haven't read some of the stories I wanted to talk about. Later chumps and chumpettes...

Sad Day

Today I found out that my immediate boss is resigning from the company. He was a really cool guy and it's not gonna be as fun at my job without him.

The other part of this is what it says to you in your career as one of your earliest bosses, most likely one of your first resigns from the company before you move to your next job. It's different when they just get a new position and they are no longer your direct supervisor or whatever, here they are actually leaving the company. I guess it depends on what the reasons for leaving are. I can only guess at what my boss left for, but let's assume that it was little faith in the company and not a greater family issue (which I think are the only reasons for a big career change later in your lifetime of working). It's always weird, I mean it definitely sends a message. What you do with the message I guess is what's important. I don't think I'm going anywhere, not now at least.

UnAmerican Apparel

I gotta give a shout to my boy Patt Minto for a creative and hilarious series of photos bearing the title of this post. Check them out here. If you really want one for yourself your going to have to offer up some seriously provocative shots.

If you wonder where these come from check out the actual American Apparel website.

Back from Break

After a nice easter weekend vacation to NYC I am back in the saddle. Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it has been over two weeks since my last post. But not to dissapoint I have some interesting stuff here for you to read. It's a lot to put into one post but it has been building up for quite sometime now and the amount of links should keep you busy while I think up a much more witty post to put up.

First let me give a shout out to the Rainbow Traceurs, the Parkour group I have been recently inducted into. What is Parkour you may ask? Simply put it's an elegant, efficient way to move about the worlds obstacles to your many destinations. You want to go upstairs in a park or building? Instead of taking the stairs maybe you can scale the banister and hop to a wall near by to get to the level/floor you originally intended to get to. If you go to google video and search for parkour you will see what I'm talking about. Or if you have seen that scion commecial where the guys are racing through a parking garage trying to catch their moving vehicles, that would be an example of Parkour. I actually had to do a small tryout for this group which involved me climbing out of the stairwell of a train station. Pretty simple until I got to the last bar and it had spikes on it. Suckin it up and fearing falling if I let go I made it with only a little injury to my hands that has been lessening over the last few days. All the same, if anyone is interested I would be down to start a Rochester division of the Rainbow Traceurs if I can get the license from Matt Pinto, it's founder. Anyway onto the links:

For Starters we have a self parking car, pretty novel. Personally I like the challenge of parallel parking but finding a nice spot then being able to phone your buddies to tell them you'll be right into the club while your car is parking itself is pretty much the shit.

Another one about cars, this is a nice article about how you should never blindy trust your GPS, lest you find yourself on the edge of the mountain with an all to scenic view. I once used mapquest to get to a football stadium and ended up at someone's house. No lie.

Finally, some tech from Star Trek:TNG is going to make it to us mere technologically undeveloped humanoids. A scientist is postulating the creation of synthehol and suggesting there really is no reason that it cannot be created. Can you imagine the boom in the bar and alcoholic industry if you could get wasted without a hangover? I fear what it would do to our health as the sale of street meat and hot dogs late at night would soar.

I have been reading a lot about the DMCA, DRM and patents in the last few weeks. A pretty good article here by Paul Graham asking "Are Software Patents Evil" ? You be the judge, pretty long but very good and interesting.

And for all my gamer friends out there (Lodzo, Nuggetor) here's a link to a humurous but very poignant piece about the situations found in modern games that we are all sick of. The Gamer's Manifesto is a rant on everything you have always hated about games that really did not have to be features of games, i.e. hitting an invisible ceiling while soaring through the air on any SSX game. I have read this thing twice and it really doesn't get very old. Also pretty long so block off some time for it.

More ST:TNG news here with an article about the blind regaining their sight. There are a few caviats, but overall once we get this thing looking aesthetically pleasing (read:Jordi's visor) we will truly be entering the bionic age of humans.

Lastly, an interesting concept for a cell phone that not only uses normal cell tower service but a wi-fi connection as well so that when you are at home your cell phone can act as a landline, sort of. Best thing about this, call does not drop when switching from wi-fi to normal cell network. A golden age of Tech has arrived!!

Damn Electricity Allergies

Three quick stories here. Usually when I read or decide to put something up here it because it's cool or a technoloigcal advance but these three stories just made me laugh for some reason. The first talks about the newest allergy to hit mankind, a hyper-sensitivity to electricity. While I was reading this article I thought to myself, this article could totally be in the onion. The phrasing they use to describe the problem can't come off sounding serious because the freakin problem is hyper sensitivity to electricity. I don't doubt that this is actually a problem because I recognize some of the symptoms in myself, it just sounds stupid.

The second article is really not that funny. But they do refer to Iran's weblog community as "Weblogistan". Totally worth reading the article for.

I won't even post the last article which is an interview with Steve Ballmer (The CEO of Microsoft). Only the last part is funny anyway when he said that his kids are not allowed to own iPods or use Google. Between this and this dude throwing chairs at people, I am tempted to name him Chief dictator of Microsoft...

Oh Debra!

Oh Debra, Debra! This kid is 14 years old and he got to hit that?! The fact that she is not going to jail means our justice sytem is not totally lost. I don’t know man, I know we should call it a crime but they are goiung to let her off just because that 14 year old must have received the proportional benefits to what she is losing. She’s losing her job and her ability to be around kids plus house arrest for 3 years. He gets to tell this story forever. All is well.

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Just heard about this game. I have downloaded the .pdf's and expect to keep all my civil liberties and not end up in GITMO, but apparently that happens to a lot of people who play. If you manage to win, please let me know that it's possible.

Real Life Game

I've seen movies and read books about real world adventure games. The running man with Arnold Swartznegger comes to mind. This however is some pretty cool isht. I can't wait till they build one in NYC, I am definitely going. Who's with me?

Wrist Tech, When Even a 3lb Laptop is too Big...

A European company know as Eurotech has introduced the WWPC (Wrist Worn PC). The device can run either linux or Windows CE. This is a pretty sleek looking device and probably the pre-cursor to a whole generartion of ultra powerful/ultra portable devices...that are actually worth using. There have been a few devices that have boasted high computing performance in your pocket. There was the OQO Pocket sized laptop that made a big splash but has not really taken off quite yet (IMO). Partially because of price I think, partially because people have not warmed up to the idea of having so much personal info and power in their pocket. People are just starting to get used to the idea of having mutltiple computers and storage devices, this all-in-one maybe was a little ahead of it's time, although it does look like the shiznite. The WWPC is a little more kitchy, for those of us that like to pretend that the future is now. Honestly, the real appeal of this thing is that it sits on your wrist like a watch (albeit a huge one) and you can just whip it out if someone asks you the time. No reaching into your pocket or your bag, its always handy and guaranteed to draw a lot of looks. Since it's still conceptual, don't plan on buying one yet. Maybe by release time they would have made it a lot smaller.

RFID, the Mark of the Beast?!?!

Here is an interesting article in Wired Magazine touting the explosion in RFID as a sign of nasty things to come. The article draws many reference to the book of revelations (which has come to be the butt of many jokes recently including the Simpson's episode about The Rapture) in which a mark of the beast (a demonic figure I can only assume) makes itself present on non-believers and basically signals the end of the world. I know you are probably thinking that this lady is totally off her rocker, but the article if taken at a more secular level does raise a few concerns about the new tracking technology. Take a look and don't be put off to much when she say's:

"If the VeriChip becomes a common payment device similar to the "contactless" payment system in the Exxon Mobil Speedpass, all who wish to buy and sell goods will be compelled "to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,"..."

When I see someone buying gas by putting their forehead against the pump station I just might believe that the end is near, Oh Save us Jebus!

Pharmaceutical Labels Don't Lie

You would think that people when taking drugs that are actually prescribed to them would adhere to the label and follow all directions with repect to how many you should take and what you can and cannot take it with. That makes sense to most rationale people, but in yet another example of the type of adults that live in this world and especially this country we find that not to be true. In an article I saw on AOL this morning (I think it actually is from the NY Times) a new drug is being blamed for driver impairedness. It's not some illegal substance though, it's Ambien which is the most popular sleep time drug in the US (not Lunesta although I like their commercials better). Now let me explain for various reasons I have taken Ambien and it has worked like a charm. I went to sleep and woke up feeling refreshed but a little weird the next day. All the same, I did not have hallucinations or sleep walking/driving as described in this article. I also was not drunk.

If I came up to you and you were a person with a sleeping disorder (which I don't think some of these people even had, I think they just wanted to sleep a little bit better) and told you "Here, Down this bottle of wine and take these two pills of this pharmaceutical grade sleep agent" would you do it? I would not, most smart people wouldn't as that just sounds like a retarded idea. Yet the people in a lot of these cases while not downing a whole bottle of wine were having a glass of wine, or a couple of beers or whatever. Then they end up driving into polls or urinating in the middle of roads. My favorite is the story of the guy who "became like the incredible hulk" after having two single servings of wine and taking two Ambien on an airplane. How in the hell does taking a sleep aid make you freak out so much you rip off your shirt and start terrorizing an airplane, then not remember any of it? I don't believe that all these people are lying about the experinces they went through, just that they are stupid. "They really need to tell people what this stuff will do to you" remarked one user who apparently slept drove into a car then fled from that scene only to drive into a tree. I say you really need to stop not paying attention to the directions on a bottle of pills you get from your doctor. And what is the company supposed to say "The use of this product might turn you into a driving zombie and cause you to embarass and/or kill yourself and many others in your vicinity". This is not freakin resident evil people, take some responsibility for yourself.

Constant Connection is Not The Beginning of Solaria...

In one of Isaac Asimov's many novels "The Naked Sun", he describes a planet known as Solaria. This planet was settled by those that favored robotic assistance in most of lives ventures as opposed to the anti-robot movement (both schools of thought originate from earth, the original world of course). While these two groups clashed greatly when they're first created, they now slightly resembled each other with the non-robotisists using robots sparingly and the robot lovers, well, really loving to use their robots. On the planet of Solaria, robotic use as well as technology had evolved so much that people were living well past our present life expectancies and into their hundreds. This planet sounds awesome until you are told that real life human interaction was not only rare it was thought of as dirty and shameful. People would not even think of talking to each other face to face, much less going to each others compounds (which were spaced out far enough that you could roam your property for hours and not see another human being). Of course this lack of human interaction had it's obvious downsides and eventually but slowly began to crumble by the end of the story (which involved a murder of a scientist which no one could figure out because no human would ever get that close and robots were supposedly governed by three laws that kept them from committing such acts).

Solaria was an extreme case painted by the author for fictional purposes, but people have begun to see our advancements in technology (namely our high speed wireless connections and many devices that allow us to be reached and sent information everywhere) as the beginning of a lifestyle that loosely resembles Solaria. Critics foresee a time in the near future where this constant connectivity will intrude our personal lives so much that there will cease to be a personal life. Since we are always "on" we will be constantly expected to be available for anything that demands our attention. To me and for long as I can remember this has been one of the dumbest and short sighted views about technology that I have ever heard of. Finally after years and years of articles spelling the doom and gloom of a future where constant communication is a norm, here is an article that shows the other side of the constant connectivity coin, the bright future that always on really could be.

The article is fairly short so I won't quote from it, but the author brings up a good point which most people who see the future of wireless as bad rarely bring up. It's called the OFF switch or button or whatever you want it to be. People have told me the reason for not getting a cell phone is that they don't want to be able to be reached anywhere and everywhere, that they want some alone time. When I suggest in every conversation like this that I have that you don't always have to pick up the phone, or you can turn it off they seem to have been hit with some brick wall like argument that they can't possibly beat. "Why didn't they think of this themselves" I always ask myself. Sometimes they respond with "Yeah, but then I feel like I missed something" or "yeah but I feel like I have to pick it up". The key phrase here is "I feel..." Which to me seems like a personal problem. If you feel as though you have missed something when you don't answer your phone why would you just avoid a cell phone altogether which will no doubt lead to you missing countless things? And if you feel as though you need to pick it up that is a personal neurosis that needs to be handled in a private matter. Don't blame the tech for your own hang ups.

The Next and the Last...

Since it has been so long since my last post and since I really don't feel like writing anything about anything, I am going to continue my blog version of a cheesy clip show. Here is part 2 and 3 of the original "Beep Boppin' & Scattin' ". Enjoy.

Ok so some dissapointment here:
1) It turns out that I have lost an issue somewhere. So you are stuck with the lack luster and short 3rd issue.
2) It's about drug use, which I don't condone and don't take lightly. I was young, what can I say.

Beep Boppin' & Scattin'

An Essay On Life Issues

By Adeola Akinola

Well, I guess after years of not writing, it is time for another one of those essays. Much time has passed since the last issue, but many things have happened as well. We have all entered college successfully and are well on our way to being adults. Although we are quickly reaching this new stage in our life, it has occurred to me that some things never change. I see it when we meet during a vacation, and in the emails we write each other to stay in touch, the way we acted in Stuy towards each other, is still the same way we act now. It is actually something I look forward too when I come home. I figured that I might as well write a new issue to deal with some of the things we deal with in the days of our new lives. So here goes…

ADEOLA ON Drugs

Well, most who still keep in touch with me, know that this was going to be my first topic. What happened to “The Righteous Man” that you all knew of in high school? Well he is still around, for the most part. I am still the same Adeola that everyone knew. And I say this because most people look at me differently when I say some of the things I say regarding drugs. Well, let me just put it out there, I love drugs. How can you not like them? As with dribeez and fine asses (notice how I keep on going back to that), they are the things that make the world go round. Drugs can help you work through your toughest times, or they can be one of your toughest times. They can lead to hook ups, and as we all know that can be good or bad. They can bring people together, and they can divide an entire nation. Lets face it, China men fought wars over the shit, We lost Bruce Lee to it, and it has created a popular sub culture in today’s society. In general they are good for business. Lets not disregard all the interesting people you meet, while in the search for or on drugs. Of course everyone knows and loves the hippies. I mean they make cool shit, sell good drugs, and are among the most easy going people you will ever meet. In my mind they are a sought of clan, all hippies know all other hippies, and they are all in search for a world where they can do nothing but make cool looking bowls, listen to music, and do drugs. A place I would not mind living in. Then there are the dealers. “Aren’t these the same as the hippies?” NO!! The dealers are a sub culture of their own. They come in all shapes and size, with variety of personality completely irrelevant from what they are dealing. They sometimes deliver, sometimes you have to go hang out at their house, and sometimes, a meeting in a dark part of the city is needed to make the connection that is gonna make your nite worth while. Then of course, there’s your circle. Most of us have them, your friends that are directly related to you through drug use. The people will never rat you out, always give you the fat bag, and always, always share. Oddly enough

Honestly, this issue sucked. I remember writing it and thinking "Wow, this sucks". By this time I had only been on my own for a little over a year and was not really into anything that a lot of college kids were. I smoked dope and played rugby and watched anime. My old and I not being together didn't help either. Whereas in the first issue I had a wealth of common references to chosse from, here everything had to be explained and given context which is very time consuming and hard for someone who was most likely stoned at the time. Well that's it, I promise my next post will be better.