Inside Cam

Day 2: Assembling a List of Goals

2008-05-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

This is a rough list of the goals I would like to accomplish (just from the top of my head). I think this is a great place to start, and I'll do my best to regularly evaluate my progress, revise as is necessary and even add new goals as I progress on this journey to do more for myself and become a better person.

-Hold myself accountable with my finances. Stop borrowing money from parents all the time, and pay them back when you say you are going to.

Design a budget worksheet. Include consideration for bills, entertainment, transportation, etc,. Keep in mind that it would be in my best interest to include some sort of way to keep track of whether or not I spent my money like I planned I would.

File your taxes already. The money is waiting for me. I just have to make sure I don’t get it and immediately go blow it on shoes or an HDTV.

Repair your credit. Continue to make payments on time to Macy’s. Keep in mind that, eventually, I'll have to start paying off the rest of my debt, too.

[Oh, and for anyone who wants a great resource for managing your credit, checking your credit score and whatnot, check out freecreditreport.com. It's been very helpful for me so far, and I doubt there are many for whom it wouldn't help out. -Cam]

-Get more involved in music. Look up the cost of lessons at Ethos and learn to play the piano. Find studio recording classes at PCC Cascade.

-Apply for the radio job at K-HITS 106.7

-Go see an advisor at PCC. Get an Associate of Arts in Web Development and work towards fulfilling AAOTD (Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer Degree) requirements in order to transfer and pursue a Bachelor’s degree in something more general and less technical.

-Achieve balance at all costs. I don’t feel like a very balanced person at the moment. I feel like I put to much effort into the girlfriend aspect of my life and not enough for myself, my friends and my family.

-Read more. I don’t read much, but I enjoy books a lot. What’s stopping me?

It might be easier to read more often if I didn’t owe the library $85. Just a thought.

Authors to keep in mind: Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk [Any other suggestions?]

-Write more. I don’t think I’m going to get anywhere if I don’t take the time to write down my thoughts, evaluate my goal progress, etc,.

Going good so far.

Plans for Today:
-Stop by Ethos for music lesson pamphlet.
-Talk to an adviser at PCC concerning the direction I wish to take for my studies.
-Compose initial draft of e-mail seeking job at K-HITS 106.7.

Paradigm Shift - Part One

2008-05-07T19:22:00.001-07:00

Currently, I am struggling. I have many areas in my personal life that I wish to improve upon. I hope to be a successful and productive person; I hope I am able to use this blog and potentially the support of others who wish to be successful themselves in order to set and reach reasonable goals that will--over time--help me reach a point where I can say I've given it my all.

I'd also like to recognize that I have the potential to do great things. I have a lot of interests, but I haven't found a way to maximize that potential in order to accomplish things that are important to me. I have so many passions, yet I haven't been able to find a set of behaviors to follow that aids me in reaching my goals.

In a sense, this blog is an experiment. I continue to tell myself that this isn't just a desperate attempt at getting attention--a question that could be asked for almost all blogs--but that instead I can use this environment (with which I am very comfortable) as a way of keeping myself accountable, perhaps get some advice from complete strangers who have similar struggles, or whatever else I can get out of it that can be deemed useful, really.

I will make revisions to posts. My writing process is still developing, and the laziness in me never seems to want to do more than one draft before posting to the internet. Maybe I'd be able to illustrate my ideas with more clarity and focus if I'd actually take the time to do so... but I believe my "write it and post it"-strategy will be sufficient for now. If I decide a post warrants a revision, I will do so.

I understand that, at the moment, my purpose for this blog may not be entirely clear. This is fine. Once I get more of an idea of exactly what I want to use this for, I will take proper action. I could easily apply a vague label like "I want to be more productive" to the blog, but the impersonal feelings generated by recycled ideas just isn't going to cut it. Another one of the themes of this blog is original thought; something I'd like to encourage to everyone out there.

More later.

The Downfall of Mainstream Media

2008-01-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of my time on Digg, a website in which you submit news and other online articles and then vote them to the front page by “digging” them if you feel they are worthy of it, or conversely “burying” them if you feel like they are a complete waste of electronic space. It’s an interesting, democratic style of viewing online articles. If a story makes it to the front page, it will be because a lot of people found it to be interesting.

More often than not, a video from Fox News Channel – or as Digg members refer to it, “Faux News Channel” – shows up. Countless other members, myself included, often treat anything coming from Fox News as an “entertainment” piece, because we all commonly accept that Fox News Channel offers little to no journalistic integrity in the “news” that they report despite their laughable “Fair and Balanced” moniker. This shared (dis)interest in Fox News Channel is part of the demographic that makes up Digg.

And that’s absolutely fine with me. I enjoy reading news from a website whose user base reflects my interests. However, at the same time I am conscious of the fact that what I read may include a stance or bias of some sort. Being a regular visitor of Digg, I can tell you exactly what kind of political leanings the overall user base holds dearest: anti-Fox News, pro-Ron Paul, anti-Hilary Clinton, pro-marijuana legalization – I could go on and on with these examples.

The important part is to realize that for any given organization that delivers news, the possibility of a bias or stance governing their delivery of news to the public is very real. With the mainstream media controlled by only a handful of large media conglomerates, who’s to say that they aren’t applying their own subtle, political leanings in the news that they report?

As a result, I’ve come to accept this not-so-simple fact: “As a news platform, media conglomerates do not uphold the values of journalistic integrity for the benefit of the public nearly as well as the internet as a news platform does.” Comprehending this in its entirety may be quite overwhelming, especially if you aren’t familiar with the subject. For this reason, I’d like to start with a little thing called…

Journalistic Integrity, or What News Should Be

News is the single most powerful factor in everyone’s life, bar none. For one, news gives you something to talk about. And let’s be honest, if you didn’t have those little tidbits of information regarding current affairs or the status on Paris Hilton’s latest temper tantrum, you wouldn’t have a damn thing to talk about (Editor’s note: Before going any further, the author, Cameron Hermens, would like to let everyone know that he doesn’t actually consider Paris Hilton newsworthy).

Secondly and hopefully more importantly, news keeps us up-to-date on politics. Here’s a fun analogy: if news is the means in which the public is kept knowledgeable on political affairs, and politics quite literally governs the way in which we live, then news is our primary means of keeping ourselves informed and being capable of having an impact on how we live. If that isn’t considered to be a significant factor in everyone’s life, then I must have my priorities out of wack.

So now we’ve gotten to a point where we can all agree that news is indeed important. In effect, it allows us to make choices that govern how we live. As a result of this phenomenal importance, there should be clear guidelines as to how journalists should go about giving us this information. This is called journalistic integrity: the notion that those in the position to deliver news will do so in a way that is both free of political influence or bias and verifiably so.

You wouldn’t want someone who you think hates you to perform open-heart surgery on you, so why would you entrust someone with the responsibility of maintaining a neutral position when you suspect otherwise? Well, you wouldn’t. Unfortunately in keeping ourselves informed, we have to entrust someone with that responsibility.

But wait, I have an idea! Let us assume that at least some of what is presented in the news reflects the truth. Even if a news outlet decides to cast a negative light on a particular story in order to complement its own political agenda, they still have to report the main issue. Now if you were to read about the same issue from multiple sources – and presumably multiple perspectives – one could come to a better, more informed position on their own. Voilà!

The funny thing is that I must not have been the only one who realized this. Believe it or not, every writing class I’ve taken has stressed the importance of gathering information from multiple viewpoints in order to form a more informed opinion. If this practice encourages good composing in Writing 122, I'd sure as hell bet it'd be the same in writing for journalism purposes.

The second piece of this grandiose notion of better writing is the practice of citing your sources. Any intelligible and well thought-out piece of writing usually borrows and expands upon the writing of others and this practice allows you to credit those sources. There are situations in which some random writer will come out with some “you-just-blew-my-mind” philosophical writing that redefines how we think, but for the most part what you write has been written before and will be written again. In addition, citing your sources discourages plagiarism, which is good for everybody (except those who desire to fail Writing 122).

These two components - journalistic impartiality and citing your sources - are the foundation for not only journalism and journalistic integrity, but writing as a whole. With the regular implementation of these components and practices in the news that we view, we can ensure that news remains what it is supposed to be: information free of political influence or bias and verifiably so. Unfortunately, the media as a whole has undergone serious and dramatic changes over the last twenty-five years, which I fear discourages the ability of the public to ensure that these values of journalistic integrity are being protected.

The Monopolization of Information

In 1983, there were about fifty major media companies in control of mainstream media. Thirteen years later, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was poised to become "the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years" (Wikipedia). Many critics were concerned that the Act would further increase the trend of media consolidation that had begun during the Reagan era, but I doubt they suspected the enormous impact it would have in less than 10 years after being enacted.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law on February 8, 1996 by President Bill Clinton. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) later examined the impacts of the Telecom Act on commercial radio stations across the entire United States from March 1996 - right after the Act was passed - to March 2003. The study showed that although the number of commercial radio stations increased by 5.9 percent, "the number of radio [station] owners declined...by 35 percent." Additionally, in 1996 the largest holders of radio stations "consisted of fewer than 65 radio stations each." By March 2003, Clear Channel held on to more than 1,200 radio stations.

The Act was initially claimed to "foster competition," but the result was quite the opposite: it continued a trend of media consolidation and in 1996, the number of major media companies had dwindled by 500% from 1983, leaving only 10 companies in control of the vast majority of our media. In 2005, only six major media companies remained. Today, we refer to these large companies that quite literally control all media in the public eye as media conglomerates.

Most people I know would consider competition a good thing - it often fosters innovation and leads to a better end product for the consumer. But what role does diminished competition play in the acquisition of information? When there are only six major companies - Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, GE, and Bertelsmann of Germany - that control the vast majority of media - television and radio, newspapers, magazines, books, music and movies - the potential for a media bias is very real.

Furthermore, I believe the existence of such a system promotes a false sense of diversity. Going back to those values of journalistic integrity, I would like to propose this question: what good is deriving news from a variety of sources when in the end, they are all part of the same company?

Of course, the possibility of a media bias is certainly leagues different from the actual practice of a media bias. And I'll be completely honest, I don't have the means to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these conglomerates are enforcing an agenda, but I do believe the simple fact that they have the ability to do so should be enough to get the public to at least reconsider where they are getting their media from. Furthermore, I believe many recent political events involving some of the television networks that are apart of these media conglomerates suggest that a hidden agenda may not be such a radical suggestion after all - but I'll let you decide that for yourself.

Suspicion of Contemporary News Outlets

The first example of what I see as a clear indication of media bias involves the unfair treatment of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. On December 27, 2007, Fox News Channel made a decision to exclude Paul from the January 6, 2008 Republican presidential debate in Milford, New Hampshire. Phil Maymin provides interesting insight regarding the subsequent fall of Fox parent company News Corporation's stock prices, in which they "fell every day, losing a cumulative 10 percent, or about $6 billion."

It is entirely possible that the decline in stock price could be attributed to something other than the rumblings of online boycotts of News Corp across online forums and social news websites. However, when Fox News Channel decided to invite Ron Paul to the South Carolina debates on January 8, 2008, News Corp. stock prices rose back up "nearly 4 percent in just two days" to where they were before the initial announcement.

As debatably significant as an online presence may be in reflecting a potential public backlash, those on the internet weren't the only ones who responded. Fergus Cullen - who is a Republican chair for the New Hampshire GOP - acknowledges the importance of New Hampshire's "first-in-the nation" primary in announcing the decision by the New Hampshire GOP to drop its affiliation with the Fox News debate. Republic presidential candidate Ron Paul was polling higher than Fred Thompson - who was invited - at the time of his exclusion.

The second example involves similar action by a media outlet in choosing which candidates are exposed to the masses. Initially MSNBC revealed publicly that the criteria for taking part in the Las Vegas debate being held on January 18, 2008, would be limited to the top four Democratic candidates based on national polls. When Bill Richardson dropped out of the race, Rep. Dennis Kucinich was bumped up to the number four spot. MSNBC proceeded to change the criteria to the top three Democratic candidates after they had already invited Kucinich to participate.

In response to the news that he was no longer welcome, Kucinich responded with: "When 'big media' exert their unbridled control over what Americans can see, hear, and read, then the Constitutional power and right of the citizens to vote is being vetoed by multi-billion corporations that want the votes to go their way."

Apparently Dennis feels about the same as I do, in that the media conglomerates level of control is especially concerning in the realm of politics. But even if you can't accept that the media is enforcing their own agenda based on simply having the capability to influence millions of people supplemented by clear examples of limiting multiple candidate's exposure, you can at least take a look at how they conduct their own writing practices with values of journalistic integrity in mind.

By design and implementation, media conglomerates don't really go out of their way to reinforce good journalism practices. For one, sources are hardly ever cited in television and newspapers - arguably the two most popular sources of news. The rare instances in which these two mediums do provide sources are usually when citing a statistic or showing where a graph originated from.

This practice that has been established across writing as a whole isn't being integrated, for whatever reason, in the news that they provide for us day in and day out. It almost makes it seem like they're intentionally being vague and skimp on the finer details of their reporting in order to prevent us from being truly informed. And that, my friends, is where the internet comes into play.

Freedom of Knowledge

Something undeniably interesting has started to occur to me. If you were to draw up a graph showing the amount of time I've spent watching television versus the amount of time I've spent on the internet over the last several years, you would see a sharp decrease in television viewing trumped by a large increase in time spent on the internet. This may be the result of the natural inclination of a generation to embrace new technology, but perhaps there is a more interesting explanation behind this supposed phenomenon.

I take a look at what I spend most of my time doing on the internet: reading news articles from a variety of sources, occasionally watching a video or two on YouTube and sometimes losing hours upon end looking up whatever I don't know about on Wikipedia. It's quite evident that the internet is an informational behemoth, but the same thing could be said for conventional media. The difference between the two lies in the inherent ability of the internet to be dynamic.

The internet is yours to manipulate as you see fit. The nice thing about this is that it becomes incredibly useful when you apply it to news, research, or if you're just trying to learn something new. Google's own "Google News" searching utility allows you to search by keyword or subject - say, a particular political rally or event - and get stories from dozens of different sources compiled into a single page. Never before has the acquisition of information been so simple. The power of searching allows you to more easily evaluate multiple perspectives in order to form a more informed opinion.

If you were to compare the process of searching for an issue - whether you want it delivered to you via video, audio, or text - between searching for it over the internet and resorting to conventional means - watching a news report on the issue, reading a magazine article, checking out a blurb in the newspaper - there would simply be no contest. The internet is revolutionizing our ability to form objective opinions on the issues we're concerned with, without having to rely on mainstream media to do so.

One of the things I've gathered from assertions the media has made concerning the internet is that they aren't too fond of this proliferation of free information themselves. They are almost forced to embrace the technology because of its suddenly integral use in popular society - and they do so in companion sites for their newspapers and television networks, often covering the same stories - but they have also made insinuations regarding the relative ease in being able to create an internet website. They seek to attack the credibility of the internet as a whole by saying that any old Joe can take five minutes and create themselves a web page.

Naturally, this potential problem has already been attended to. Search engines like Google contain highly-specialized algorithms that place priorities upon websites that are most commonly viewed in response to the input of millions of searches done by millions of people since Google has been a website. This allows Google to suggest websites that are more prominent in the public's eye and therefore more likely to be authoritative sources rather than a website that was created five minutes ago.

Regardless of how the media conglomerates attempt to portray the internet, the actions of the public are surely the most authoritative indicators of where the people are getting their news. Perhaps we should take a look at something that could be considered important in the public's mind: politics, perhaps?

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press recently unveiled findings suggesting that the internet has a far greater role in where the public is getting news related to the presidential campaign. During the 2000 presidential election, 9 percent of the public reported regularly using the internet as a source for news. This year a reported 24 percent relied on the internet as a source for news.

Also significant is the diminished role of TV news networks - both local and cable. Local TV news programs have fallen from 48 percent in 2000 to 40 percent currently. Cable news programs haven't moved at all since 2004, still with 38 percent of the public relying on it for news.

I'd like to think that the public is slowly starting to become more weary of the both the influential power of media conglomerates and their continued practice of disregard towards better writing practices. I know that the internet is a new technology, which is why television and the newspapers are still the primary sources of news for the public. But I believe the internet as a news platform will only continue to pick up stream as a valuable resource from here on, no matter how anyone tries to discredit it.

I for one and truly enthralled at the prospect of a public that can form objective and more informed opinions as the result of utilizing a new, more effective system over one filled with constraints meant to limit our ability to be informed.

And the best part about it? The internet is an unstoppable machine allowing free thought without regulation - and that fact probably scares them the most.

Digg Revolt 2007

2007-05-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

I've never before witnessed the Digg community at large behave so passionately. Although the HD-DVD AACS processing key may only seem like a number, we're really fighting for our freedom of speech in a way.

UPDATE: This is insane. Literally every story on the front page is a story related to this HD DVD fiasco. How will the Digg administrators react? Surely they won't go so far as to go on a mass banning spree.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe this has EVER happened before.

Digg user aywwts4 sums it up nicely:

"Now we know for a fact that digg is not about the people run by the people. Digg admins feel no shame in bringing down the admin hammer against anyone who even speaks out against digg, Many users were banned just for talking about the censorship, many stories were removed before they even had a chance to start, just because they spoke ill of digg. and even more, numerous stories got suspiciously buried despite the fact that they would currently be some of the most popular on digg's front page. (all not mentioning the number, just talking about the take down of the second most popular story on digg."

I can't wait to see the response from Kevin and Alex on Diggnation.

The Dark Side of Oz

2007-03-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

This video is the Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" used as a score. It synchronizes and complements the movie pretty well.

Tech Hindsight - 18 February 2007

2007-02-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

Tech Hindsight is my little experiment of seeing how much of the tech news I've been wasting time reading over the past week I can actually remember. This first edition is somewhat special because I had my wisdom teeth taken out Thursday morning, and the initial period after waking up involved me hugging a security guard and a few other things I don't really remember due to the drugs required to put me asleep. Moving on...

Today the "always accurate" Inquirer dispelled a rumor surrounding a "drunk Nintendo employee" revealing the Wii does in fact have the capability of displaying HD graphics. Apparently, the PS2 could also display HD graphics, although the 1-frame/second result wouldn't be as astonishing as most people would like it to be. Let's just understand one thing before we move on: the Wii cannot display HD graphics. Get over it.

Although I feel jipped having already bought it at least once - and I'm sure there are others out there who feel the same - the Orange edition of Half-Life 2 is looking good, even if the release date continually gets pushed back. I'm also really diggin' the graphical style of Team Fortress 2. I have the feeling graphics will mean less as we begin to really get close to "life-like" and style will play a much more important role, and this game has lots of it.

I also feel jipped having bought an Xbox 360 only to find out a new black edition with HDMI and a 120GB hard drive is coming out. I guess I should have expected it. Although the rumor has been shot down before, it's coming up once again due to retailers listing it in their upcoming inventory, with the price set at $479.99 for it's supposed May 1st release date. If this is indeed true, expect to see action taken by Sony with regard to price cuts even sooner than expected. Sony can't afford not to do so.

Speaking of HDMI, don't buy expensive cables. It seems the only difference between cheap cables and expensive ones is the insane mark-up and profitability that owns you when you buy Monster Cables at Best Buy. Remember, just because it's gold-plated doesn't mean it offers better quality, at least when it comes to digital cables.

Finally, Chris Cornell has left Audioslave. I've heard tons of talk about Rage Against the Machine getting back together, especially with their upcoming Coachella semi-reunion. I'll hope for the best. To be completely honest though, I enjoyed both Rage's and Audioslave's music even with their radically different styles. They were both great bands and if one of the two doesn't get back together, I don't know what I'll do.

Probably just move on, or somethin'.

For Those Who Were Wondering...

2007-02-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Getting your wisdom teeth extracted through surgery does in fact hurt. A lot. Right now I feel as bright as a trampled daisy, and I currently have hydrocodone, acetaminophen and ibuprofen running through my system. They don't seem to be doing their job the best they could.

It was weird going into that office this morning, as I'd never actually had any sort of surgery performed before. I don't really remember falling asleep, which was weird, and the rest of the events surrounding the actual surgery really are a bit murky.

Anyway, I just felt this was a necessary update. I know I've lost touch with what was supposed so be a more narrowly-focused blog in order to attract traffic and attention (that's what all bloggers are really doing anyway, right?). Oh well.

A (Late) MySpace Rant

2007-02-13T02:06:00.000-08:00

At this very moment, there are probably hundreds of new start-ups based completely around offering shitty MySpace layouts and animated falling hearts for your page, coded with the worst barely-legitimate, copy-and-pasted examples of CSS I've ever seen. The sad part is that this "demon-spawn offspring" website dedicated to our MySpace-obsessed society isn't even direct from the belly of the beast itself.

I hate MySpace. It's a useful tool for when it's absolutely necessary to contact some high school idiot, but I try to avoid it as much as possible. In fact I just used some run-of-the-mill CSS from those very "MySpace Layouts... OMG!!!1" websites I've grown to despise in order to redirect people to my blog, play some music I've been listening to in the hopes of converting the "commercially obsessed"-crowd, and absolutely nothing else. No more pointless messages. No more friend requests from amateur porn stars. No more fighting over who is on whose Top 8 or 420 or whatever. No more time wasted (the little that still existed, mind you) on MySpace, which shall henceforth be referred to as "The Horrible Space Thing."

For one, these "Horrible Space Thing"-layout sites provide the most horribly-assembled and illogical CSS/HTML I've ever seen. They are essentially butchering the language as if forcibly inserting it into something it will never fit into, neglecting the poor children who will spend hours randomly rearranging the code they've taken in the hopes of fixing their precious broken "Horrible Space Thing" page.

It doesn't help that Horrible Space Thing is designed horribly to begin with, with the adminitrators sure to mess around with the layout in a few weeks and adding new "features" which are sure to keep the target audience's attention span for a few more minutes. It also doesn't help that many of these layout sites steal images from an unexpecting administrator's server, causing them to resort to horrible tactics for those unfortunate enough to continue hotlinking the image in their layouts.

At my high school, half the population focused half their day to finding a new proxy server to browse the Horrible Space Thing, which the school system kept blocking by any means possible, only to play catch up to the handful of new proxies showing up every week. It was a stupidly impossible game of catch up with no intentions of announcing a victor. Ever.

I believe I've taken enough time to drive the point into your head by now. MySpace is teh suxx0rs, or however your particular niche says it. I don't like it. Make it go away.

That is all.

Oregon Medical Marijuana Registrants Not Protected

2007-02-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

So let's say you qualify for Oregon's medical-marijuana program due to back pain or nausea or glaucoma or something similar. You have a legitimate reason to be using it, but your work still holds mandatory drug tests. You would expect to be pardoned as one of the 12,000 Oregon residents with a medical marijuana card, right?

A proposed Senate bill under consideration last Wednesday would allow medical-marijuana users to be fired for failing a drug test. It's a tough issue to tackle. On one hand, there are certain industries where a zero-tolerance drug policy is absolutely necessary due to dangerous work environments such as those in construction. On the other hand, the bill "unfairly punishes medical-marijuana users working in Oregon."

I think it's more than likely that we can trust those within the bounds of the program to use responsibly if they do work in a potentially dangerous environment. Lorenzo Gonzalez uses marijuana for chronic back pain due to a history of multiple motorcycle crashes. He was fired from Merix last month despite being a registered medical-marijuana user. Gonzalez' work "was extremely complex, and there's no way I could use my medication and think straight," choosing instead to only use at night. The action taken by Merix is a controversial one, as it isn't defined whether they had the authority to do so or not.

The debate between federal and state forces continues as medical-marijuana dispensaries are still being raided by the Feds despite state laws allowing the programs to exist. Now this bill threatens the thousands of card-carrying individuals and their right to work and manage their medication responsibly.

What do you think? Does this bill alienate registrants of the medical-marijuana program or is it necessary in maintaining a safe working environment? The outcome will definitely have an impact on all medical marijuana users and may have an even larger influence on the original law itself. There isn't much sense in getting a marijuana card if it doesn't protect you from the Feds or your own workplace, now is there?

[Via NORML]

It's About Time...

2007-02-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

Remember this? It appears Digg has finally managed to notice that the new Blogger exists, so I can finally blog interesting Digg entries after several weeks of going without the feature.

The only thing I'm worried about is the tendency for the Digg community to look down on those who take advantage of Digg's "Blog This" feature. Most of those who use it get slammed for greedy self-promotion and the obvious SEO advantages of having your blog linked from a prominent site like Digg.

I have mixed feelings towards it. If you are exploiting the system by blogging every semi-interesting news article you find, and you aren't really adding any original content to your posts, then I'd agree with the majority of the Digg users who blasphemize that sort of practice. On the other hand, if you're contributing a valid opinion or stance or adding really anything of your own to the article, then go ahead and take advantage of it. I'll probably end up using it a bit more on the conservative side, just to make sure I don't piss off too many people on the internets.

J-Clip Album Concepts

2007-02-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've been working on an album cover for a buddy of mine; he goes by the name of J-Clip and he raps. I just thought I'd share a few concept images I'm working on for his name logo. Comments, suggestions, dead babies: all appreciated.

Concept 1: Here I started fleshing out the concept. I'd say this is an example of me messing around and trying to find something I like more than anything. I like the 'J', but both the 'J' and the 'L' didn't really go with the rest of the letters.

Concept 2: I'm getting closer to the final product. Please take note that the 'j' is more of a filler now than anything; I'm still having trouble finding out exactly what I want to do with it. I took a piece out of the 'i' and made the 'L' go into it in order to give the logo a little more personality. At this point I'd best describe the logo as "goofy." I also took a similar piece out of the dot above the 'i' to further emphasize the pattern. A web designer just came into the Subway where I work and said the L looks like an arm flexing. I thought that was neat.

Those are the two closest to complete concepts I have. I'll update when I'm completely finished of course. I can't wait to quit Subway so I can focus strictly on school, graphic design, and learning new shit. I think I'm gonna get more into programming, but first I really need to freshen up my CSS/HTML skills. We will see if I can stay motivated.

Love Challenges Industry

2007-02-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

Generally, most people look at Courtney Love as an emotionally and psychologically unstable piece of work. Over the years she has been through rehab, been referred to as "the most controversial woman in rock" by Rolling Stone magazine and the general consensus seems to reflect just that.

In my mind, Courtney Love has always been a wack job with a lot of personal problems. Genius hides in mysterious places. Although her math isn't entirely accurate, nor is it intended to be, she wrote a great article on the state of the music industry and the exploitation of artists by the record labels. I support a lot of what she has to say in this essay, which is actually pretty old and severely long, but its absolutely worth it to read the entire thing. Believe me, or just check it out for yourself.

For those of you with attention deficiencies:

The article basically goes into some hypothetical math behind the amount the average music artist or band gets paid, including advances and royalties. She goes on to argue that the labels are horribly exploiting artists with recoupable fees (read: fees they hold the artist responsible for) taken out of their royalties from music video production costs, tour support, independent promotion for radio airplay, and anything else the record label justifies. According to her math, in the end the artist gets around $45,000 and she concludes "the band may as well be working at 7-Eleven."

The real meat of the article is her solution that follows. Keep in mind that this article was written several years ago when Napster and Gnutella were at the top of their game. She embraces the online distribution model, claiming it will liberate the artists from the labels that screw them over. Her viewpoint is that the only reason artists have really needed the labels up until this point is because there was no other way to reach the people. Online changes that and enables the artist to reach the fan directly without the need of labels.

Why do you think the RIAA is being so sue-happy currently? The money received from lawsuit settlements isn't for the artist. The RIAA wants more money.

While I agree that for mainstream artists, labels are a very important part in promoting and distributing the artist's work, the option of independently distributing has been around for years, and the underground scene has thrived on it. Maybe not thrived financially, but if you really are just doing it for the way you feel about music, it shouldn't matter.

That being said, she does acknowledge that she expects proper compensation for creating something that millions of people buy and enjoy, which I agree with. It's evident that all mainstream artists get into recording contracts for the money. The important part is not sabotaging your artistic vision in doing so; in essence, "selling out."

Courtney discusses the various laws silently enacted by the RIAA in order to keep the artists from reclaiming their copyrighted material for 35 years, which has caused many huge artists now in their 60s and 70s to be completely broke. They didn't make enough money off their previous hits because the record labels own their material and end up shafting the artist in the end. Other laws prevent artists from declaring bankruptcy, which is the only way to get out of a horrible recording contract for many artists.

Although the article has questionable math and tax calculations, Courtney does a great job of exposing the larger issue at hand here. Are artists finally able to liberate themselves from the selfish labels they've depended on for all these years? I hope so. It's time for more people like Courtney Love to stand up and challenge the system for what it really is: labels aren't working for the artists; they're working for themselves and that may not be the only solution for much longer.

How Much is My Blog Worth?

2007-01-31T12:57:00.000-08:00

I found a cool utility that calculates how much your blog is worth based on "using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal." I was curious how much by blog was worth, especially with the large fluctuation in traffic that occurred recently. Here's what I ended up getting:

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

That being said, if anyone is interested in giving me $500 for my blog, I'd be more than happy to oblige.

Jack Thompson - Sword Killing Expert?

2007-01-31T11:04:00.000-08:00

Last week a teenager from South Dakota killed his mother, injured three others and was killed by police officers responding to the call. Apparently the teenager was an avid sword collector, which he used to assault his mother and the police officers.

Jack Thompson responded immediately, urging the police officers to check the home for violent videogames and claiming he was an expert on such matters. Jack Thompson has a history of stretching the limits of logic in order to connect violence to videogames, but this a new low.

Thompson wrote a letter to the police chief citing previously unknown "credentials" in regards to swords. Here is an excerpt:

"Re: Sword Killings

Dear Chief Schmitt:

I am an expert in the above type of attack, as I appeared on 60 Minutes and roughly 80 other national television programs as to such incidents."

It appears that Jack Thompson not only studies law, but he is also a sword killing expert. Add that to an already impressive resume and you have yet another factor in the degradation of his credibility and another reason to laugh.

[Via GameSpot]

NES Auction Rockets Back Down

2007-01-30T17:55:00.000-08:00

It appears the NES auction featuring 670 licensed Nintendo games has slid down from an earlier high bid of $240,300 to a mere $25,350. The auction includes 670 licensed Nintendo games in addition to an NES in its original casing and a dozen or so accessories including notables such as the Power Glove and ROB the robot.

In the description of the item, the seller mentions the possibility of retracting false bids, which is a great reassurance for those looking to place legitimate bids. However, I didn't expect the amount to fluctuate so quickly. This might end up being an unusually exciting auction after all.

I'll be keeping an eye an on this auction, as it still has four days left and the potential to garner some serious cash flow. The seller describes the games to be in "Good-to-mint condition" with no abnormalities included on the games themselves. It will be interesting to see, four days from now, how high the auction ends up getting. I'd especially be wary of fake bidding to throw the price around quite a bit. More as it comes.

My Personal Rise to the Top of the Music Industry

2007-01-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

When it comes to music, I find myself constantly amazed at the reason people like or dislike certain artists or type of music. Don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking personal preference. Everyone has their own reasons for liking a particular artist, whether the music they listen to invokes feelings of nostalgia and wonderful memories, whether it just makes them want to dance, or usually in my case, if the music has a conscious message behind it or features a well told story.

I guess this is the part where I go into a little episode of personal history. Please be patient, as this is relevant and important to the discussion I will eventually present. I went to Benson Polytechnical high school in Portland, Ore., where we had the opportunity to experience both technical and health-based programs. I chose to focus on the technical side of the curriculum, almost certain I was going to become a graphic designer much like my step father and uncle. I had been exposed to the art since I was about 11 years old, so I had been doing it awhile and I rather enjoyed it.

One of the cool things about the technical division of Benson was the sheer diversity of the programs offered. On the most basic level there was construction, manufacturing, transportation, communications, electronics and more available, with our freshman and sophomore years spent going through the rotations in order to get a feel for each of the different areas of study in order to spend the remaining two years of high school majoring in a chosen field of study. Additionally, each division further branched out into all sorts of cool classes like microcomputers, plastics and molding, photography and video, and radio broadcasting.

Sometime before actually designating my major at Benson, I ended up meeting a few members of the street team and even one of the on-air personalities from the local hip-hop station in Portland - Jammin' 95.5 - at a promotional event at the mall. I told them about some of the programs we had at our school, including radio broadcasting and my small but growing interest in it. From there I ended up shadowing Bootz, the on-air DJ I met at the mall. I asked lots of questions and tried to understand the seemingly complex equipment employed at the commercial radio station. At that point, something seemed to click inside of me which would help reveal what I wanted to do with my life, but I wouldn't actually become aware of it for almost two years.

Well, after going through all the technical class rotations I ended up deciding I wanted to further investigate the field of radio broadcasting (big surprise). I even went so far as to take the entry level class twice, even after getting an A- the first time, just so I could improve my grade and ensure my entry into the major. The radio broadcasting major at Benson was one of the most competitive majors to get into, allowing a maximum of 25 applicants the privilege of actually majoring in it, and I did my best to make sure I got accepted.

Thanks to my large amount of dedication (for once in my life), I got into the radio broadcasting program. Over the next two years, I developed a passion for radio and spent all my time absorbing as much information as I possibly could and spending countless hours running the boards and developing my own on-air show. At that point in my life it was very possible in my mind that I could focus on developing a career in radio with possible graphic design freelance work thrown in for good measure.

In the end, my hard work and networking skills paid off when I turned 18, the minimum age required to intern at a radio station. I applied to Jammin', utilized my relationship with Bootz and quickly got an interview. I guess I did alright, because they ended up hiring me on at the radio station. At the time it was merely a position running boards for syndicated shows and music over the weekend at unsightly hours of the night, but I was hoping to eventually land either an on-air gig or get involved with the production side of the radio station in time and this was my foot in the door.

Even though the position I had was closer to an internship than anything, everything was going great, especially since the work I was doing entitled me to actually get paid. I participated in any extra activities available in order to show my motivation and learn as much as I could as quickly as possible about the radio business. Bootz only helped by encouraging me, giving me advice and always being patient with the endless onslaught of questions I directed at him regularly.

For the first time in my life, I was actually able to apply myself in a way I had failed to do so throughout high school. I struggled throughout my entire high school career with having enough motivation to get my homework done, studying for tests and applying myself to my fullest potential. The problem was obvious enough that it actually caused my parents to force me into taking a "Study Skills" class.

In my mind, the problem is still with me to this day, and I'm still fighting with it, but knowing that I could really do something if I focused on for the first time was the biggest affirmation for success for which I could have asked. At this point, my confidence soared and all signs were pointing towards a good future in radio if I kept up at the pace I was going.

To be continued...

Why Am I Still Playing Excite Truck?

2007-01-29T02:23:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm sitting in my friend's apartment watching him school the computer in Excite Truck. My friend hasn't been a gamer since the days of the Sega Genesis, citing motion sickness caused through the newer onslaught of 3D games as his reason for eventually giving up gaming. I also get the feeling the overwhelming complexity of today's games aren't exactly extending him a warm welcome back either.

Most of my friends would describe me as a hardcore gamer (or a nerd), but I'm not bold enough to declare it about myself. I enjoy games a lot and probably always will, but I've noticed something peculiar after having my Wii for about two months. Normally by now, I'd get tired of most games and let them sit in a box somewhere, unbeaten for several months with the likelihood of regaining interest almost nonexistent. So it surprises me that I'm still playing Excite Truck - your average racing game - after having it for so long.

I thought about how the control elements play a part in truly immersing the gamer into the gaming experience. I've never been a fan of arcade racers with the wheel and pedals, but maybe it's because I don't spend a quality amount of time with them because of my general indifference to most arcades and an even smaller desire to spend tons of quarters just to play a game. Although the game experience for racers in arcades are truer to life than most regularly-controlled racers, the majority of people I know won't spend the amount of time needed to fully grasp the immersive potential of the arcade racer.

What I'm getting at is - in a sense - Nintendo has brought home gameplay either previously unreachable by any means or simply not as accessible as home console gaming. How many people do you know who have arcade-style coin-op machines at home? I know maybe one or two, but it's definitely not as common as finding a Playstation 2 in someone's living room.

The reason I can't stop playing Excite Truck is that it really is a gameplay experience unlike anything I've managed to feel at home before. And that is something I never could've seen while the hype for the Wii was being built up. Sure, developers and publishers talk about immersive gameplay, but you don't realize how important it is until you feel it.

Google = The New Internet

2007-01-28T14:05:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile you read something online that strikes you in a way similar to having an epiphany. The realization of something that seems completely obvious under normal circumstances hits you, and then you laugh about it.

This just happened to me after considering my own personal necessity in using Google as an address bar. Why type in "digg.com" when I can simply perform a Google search for it to get me where I want to go? It's not that I don't mind typing the extra few characters, but I've grown used to the availability of Google everywhere. It's the most common home page I see pop up when using other people's computers, whose popularity is further fueled since both Firefox 2.0 and the new IE 7 include convenient integrated search fields.

Of course I'm going to use Google over the address bar field. URLs are ugly pieces of information that I'd prefer not to utilize based on the syntax alone. I guess that's just too much work for me. Google is slowly taking over the internet, and I've fallen prey to its dominion.

Dear Nintendo

2007-01-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

It looks like you're getting popular again. The direction you took with the Nintendo Wii was a good one and I commend you on it, but some people feel you're alienating the Nintendo fans that have stuck with you in good times and in bad in order to attract a new sort of fan base. "Why won't you give us Mother 3?" demands the big N community. As a matter of fact, I've got a few questions and suggestions myself:

1. The friend codes are not user-friendly. How has your online strategy evolved and is online gaming any more important to you?

Microsoft and Xbox Live have clearly demonstrated that online is what the people want. I am thankful that you decided to include online, even though early reports indicate we'll be in 12-digit friend code hell pretty soon here. Pokemon Battle Revolution - the first online Wii game - features game-specific friend codes independent of my Wii's friend code. I've heard people suggest this may have something to do with connectivity between Battle Revolution and the new DS versions of the Pokemon series. I sure hope this is simply an isolated example.

Please Nintendo, try to focus more on the online component this round. Xbox Live has shown me that I don't have to worry about child predators, but only those with a longing for gratuitous use of the N word. The community-driven experience is something beautiful in itself (AKA "I like making new friends... online") and I would consider even a partial emulation of what Xbox Live has accomplished a success on your part. It also wouldn't hurt if you were able to work in voice chat.

2. The bait is in place. Now watch the third parties flock like geese.

Last time around third party developers for the GameCube wound up being the guy who showed up who wasn't actually invited to the party. C'mon, let's show them some love. Now more than ever, ease of development is more important than any other factor in a console's potential for success and you hit the nail on the head. It also appears Nintendo is at the very least considering indie game development for the Wii with simple development tools a huge reason behind it.

To me at least, it seems like the creative part of many developers brains have been desiring a new type of outlet (and I'm not talking about Brain Age either). It turns out gamers aren't the only ones clamoring for something new. The Wii is the place to be for developers wanting to create entirely new game experiences. As soon as I heard Kojima was interested in Wii, I knew we had something special.

3. What's next for the Wii's interface?

A few people who just couldn't wait stumbled upon the fact that Nintendo launched the News Channel earlier than anticipated. One of the things I like about being an early adopter is seeing the firmware advances and the console growing up. Soon it'll be in kindergarten with all these new skills and abilities and you'll wonder where all the time went.

On a slightly more serious note, I'm eagerly anticipating new additions to the firmware. Now is your time to unleash the potential of firmware revisions and integrating new features. If Nintendo can utilize customer feedback and keep the ball rolling with new features to overjustify my $250 steal of an investment, I'm going to be one happy Nintendo customer. Once again Xbox Live has set a great standard for you to meet or exceed. Now it's just up to you to show us what you're capable of, especially with that nifty motion control gizmo.

4. Refined control, plzkthx.

This falls on both Nintendo's first party offerings and the third party offerings we've had the chance to partake in thus far. I know it's hard to believe, but control is a pretty important part of a Wii game. I feel like we've had a mixed bag and that it isn't just the result of a new learning curve for a completely different way of controlling your games.

Case in point: the bounding box. I am a first person shooter freak, so my control needs to be spot on. With my 360 launch purchase, two-thirds of the games I bought were first person shooters, but for this exact reason I decided to refrain from purchasing any first person shooters for Wii. As of right now I feel like the bounding box is a slap in the face for FPS fans; a poorly thought out alternative to the fast and tight control I'm used to. Until they find a way to tighten it up, I may have to wait or possibly keep my FPS' action on my 360. I'm hoping Metroid Prime 3: Corruption helps to rectify the current situation.

Parting Words

If it helps you at all, I think you can handle this. I know you weren't the most popular kid on the block last year, but it's all changed thanks to your good attitude and hard work. Don't let 'em forget who was on top all those years back and you'll be fine.

Sincerely,

Cameron Hermens

Ready to Rock on 360

2007-01-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

I was expecting a minor graphical overhaul for the 360 version of Guitar Hero II. I was not expecting this:

He has no nipples...?

Harmonix put a lot into improving the graphics rather than just rushing the 360 version and bumping up the resolution. Prepare to shred graciously in the comfort of HD Guitar Hero gaming with improved lighting techniques. Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 is going to shine brightly and show off the extra work Harmonix put into it.

March 2007 can't come quickly enough. I was already looking forward to being able to download new songs off Xbox Live marketplace. I hadn't considered the tremendous increase of replay value through achievements, the sheer amount of time I'll spend just to increase my rank on the leaderboards and the dead sexy design of the new X-Plorer controller.

We will also be seeing additional included tracks, which I for one give both RedOctane and Harmonix an ovation for. A lot of publishers are using microtransactions available through the Marketplace to charge for trivial additions (coughEAcough) and even more infuriating, content that was included as an in-game unlockable years before. The Marketplace is supposed to influence creation of new content, not be an additional revenue plug for content that should be included with the game as it is.

I'm thankful the rumors I heard many months ago about a 360 version of the cult-classic Guitar Hero series was in the works. Harmonix has done a great job of making this the best version of Guitar Hero II to own with additional songs available through the Marketplace, graphics that completely blew away my expectations and a refined controller with a smaller neck for additional comfort, as well as a few new ports that suggest possible foot pedal accessories for your guitar down the road. I just hope Guitar Hero III will offer a wireless guitar (damn you, Microsoft!) and the addition of multiplayer gameplay over Live. I'll end this post with the inclusion of the new tracks made available for this version.

Billion Dollar Babies (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
Hush (as made famous by Deep Purple)
Dead! (by My Chemical Romance) - Master Track
Life Wasted (as made famous by Pearl Jam)
Rock N Roll Hoochie Koo (as made famous by Rick Derringer)
The Trooper (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
Salvation (as made famous by Rancid)
Possum Kingdom (by Toadies) - Master Track
Drink Up (as made famous by Ounce of Self)
Kicked to the Curb (as made famous by Noble Rot)

Japan Finally Gives 360 Some Love

2007-01-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

This is one of the very few times I've seen good news come out of Japan for the Xbox 360. After glowing reviews from Famitsu, Gears of War has sold out across the entire country. Microsoft is scrambling to restock the store shelves. Reports from Japan indicate the game has received lots of attention, with flocks of people gathering around the demo.

I find this funny because the tradition is that western-developed games in particular never score high with the gaming public in Japan. First-person shooting games especially are almost nonexistent as it is so commonly the cause of motion sickness and Japanese gamers just usually aren't interested. Gears is a third-person shooter but it has the familiar swinging camera associated with most FPS'.

I wonder if the noise surrounding the game coming from the US had any influence on the unexpected success of Gears. To date it has already sold 3 million copies. Microsoft has had a hard time with both the 360 and the original Xbox in Japan, but Gears of War has received countless Game of the Year awards already.

I'll place my bet on the graphics. I can't name many other games that best the graphics of Gears of War, especially on a console level. Epic did a fine job with this game, and it looks like it's the first example of a typical western game with not-so-typical market penetration.

Lionhead Teases with Fable 2 Goodies

2007-01-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

A post from an administrator on the Lionhead Studios message board includes a nice piece of concept art for the upcoming Fable 2, as well as some small hints to go along with it:

... and we would like to add the following 3 points, for you to speculate:

This is a castle
"Own all the world's property"
Located in a city

Fable2-Team

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe this is a castle located in a city. In addition, I'm hearing things about being able to own all the world's property. I'm looking forward to hearing more speculation on this as it comes.

Halo 3 Beta, Round One.

2007-01-22T17:01:00.000-08:00

I received an e-mail in my inbox informing me that the first round of Halo 3 beta testers would be e-mailed within the next two days (1/22 - 1/24). The registration process for phase one of the beta testing is officially closed and now all I have to do is wait, and hope.

If you haven't yet registered to participate in the beta testing, which will cover the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3 over Xbox Live and is scheduled to launch in Spring 2007, there are still two ways for you to get in:

Rule of Three Program
The "Rule of Three" program is currently planned for gamers (17 years and older) in the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) and Canada who have access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive, a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and the Halo 2 game.

It is a two-step process:
1. Participate in at least three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer sessions on your Xbox 360 console via Xbox Live during the three (3) day period beginning February 1st at 12:01 am EST and ending February 3rd at 11:59 pm EST.
2. After the three day window is over, head back over to www.halo3.com on February 5th and register.

If you are one of the FIRST 13,333 to do this (and meet the above requirements) you will receive an invite notification in February to participate in the Halo 3 Beta.

Please note that if you registered to participate in the Halo 3 Beta during Phase One and were not selected, that does not preclude you from registering again for during Phase 2.

Crackdown
When Crackdown hits store shelves (Feb 20 - North America, Feb 22 - Asian territories, Feb 24 - European markets), and you still haven't secured a place in the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta you can still get in via specially marked boxes of Crackdown. These boxes of Crackdown include an invite to participate in the coveted Halo 3 multiplayer beta program when it becomes available. When the Halo 3 multiplayer beta surfaces in spring 2007, those owners of Crackdown that have access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive and a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription simply need to load their copy of Crackdown into Xbox 360 and use the disc as a key to download the beta from Xbox Live Marketplace and join the battle in Halo 3 multiplayer.

I expect sales of Crackdown to get an enormous boost in sales because of this sneaky marketing scheme. Just make sure you look at the box before you buy it to make sure you have the "specially marked packaging."

Input Strikes a Nerve

2007-01-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

What started out as a comment on Maunderlust's blog turned into a full-fledged entry. That's what these things are for I suppose, right? I've seen a few articles on how FPS' utilize the motion control capabilities of the Wii today and it seems like it's struck a chord through the blogosphere. Everybody is writing about it now.

I believe this is because as soon as gamers laid their eyes on Nintendo's new controller, they almost immediately made the "perfect for first person games" connection. I'll admit the Wiimote has the potential to best mouse and keyboard gaming in first person games. The level of precision I'm already seeing is something I can be extremely comfortable with and these first gen games are nothing compared to what we'll be seeing a year or so down the road, and hopefully sooner.

Now we're getting into some of the ideas that expanded my "comment-into-a-blog." I'll just paste what I wrote already because I'm lazy and tired and cranky...

"The article I read suggested creating a system on the Wii that detected whenever you put your hands down, and rather then the camera going all wonky on you it would revert to the center of the screen after a predetermined amount of time. I think the main problem is that although most gamers are used to focusing their eyes, we're not quite at the same point with keeping our controllers steadily pointed at the screen.

"I still understand the first generation of Wii titles disappoints somewhat because developers are still learning how it's best to integrate controls. I still can't figure out Elebits controls at times - at one point it seems spot on and the next its out of control and I'm actually keeping my hand still [while this is happening].

"I like to look at it like this. Just as this new console possesses a learning curve for development (like all others, and even more so for the PS3), there is also a learning curve for this new method of input. I'm sure we'll see many different solutions for controlling different types of games. The beauty of it is that the Wiimote offers far more versatility in how the developers can set up their controls, so you never really know what to expect. There is no assuming in knowing exactly what it will feel like to control a game until you've played it. Does it work for you?"

Me personally, I don't believe this 'bounding box' method of input is the best solution for gamers. To me it's a clunky system that will never offer a true level of precision that's required in almost all first person shooters. What happens when the Wii goes online and you're ready to frag your friends? Are we gonna be left fighting with the controls half the time? I sure hope Metroid gets it right and the rest of developers either take notice of a system that works or find something bigger and better.

I've Got a Lot of Homework for Tomorrow...

2007-01-22T00:37:00.000-08:00

I'm never leaving my laptop home again. Last night I didn't want to bring it with me because I figured my buddies and I would be busy enough at it is. We headed to the Tech N9NE show at the Roseland, which was my first time seeing him live and being at the Roseland. It was a good show and I was impressed by the amount Tech was actually rapping up there and not just letting the record play on. Lip syncing seems to be a favorite of a lot of big rappers out there; it's pathetic.

I ended up working at Subway today. Yes, I work at Subway. I'm looking for a new job, preferably something that has to do with web or graphic design. Honestly however, I don't have quite enough experience yet. At least I'm en route to getting it currently, although I'm definitely interested in learning programming as well. On the positive side, I might have some graphic work coming up. More updates on that as it comes (Wish me luck!).

I've got Calculus II and Writing 122 in the morning. I'll update more tomorrow. I've been hearing some cool things around the internets - mainly stuff I picked up with digg - including a guy whose managed to figure out how to play Ocarina of Time with the Wiimote. He's using Project 64, a "homemade" sensor bar (can't wait to look into that), and a few other things. I may actually try this myself and report on how it works back. It'd sure be cool to find a way to use the Wiimote to control Mario in SM64 via Project 64, don't you think?

Family Sues Station After Wii Contest Fatality

2007-01-19T15:48:00.000-08:00

Well I figured it would happen at some point. The family of Jennifer Strange, the mother of three who died in a "Hold Your Wii for a Wii" contest at Sacramento's KDND-FM, announced they are suing the station responsible. The Entercom-owned station hasn't responded yet because their phone lines have been completely busy since the announcement.

"The station knew this was a dangerous and potentially deadly stunt, but flippantly dismissed the dangers," their lawyer, Roger Dreyer said in a statement. "Hearing the tape (of the radio show), it's very clear they knew of the dangers and could foresee that this could lead to Jennifer's death."

After Jennifer Strange was found dead in her home, where she was suspected to have consumed up to two gallons of water without urinating, the station responded by firing 10 people connected to the contest and canceling the "Morning Rave" show the contest was featured on. The hosts of the Morning Rave show were joking about the possibility of water intoxication.

"Can't you get water poisoning and, like, die?" asked one host.

"Your body is 98 percent water," a co-host replied. "Why can't you take in as much water as you want?"

The hosts clearly didn't pay enough attention to the possibility of water intoxication. I'm more or less on the fence about most lawsuits because today people sue for a lot of insignificant reasons. I wish the Strange family the best of luck. After all, it's not like they're suing a shoe company for falling down or anything.

Get a Wii for $209!

2007-01-19T09:59:00.000-08:00

It's rumored that this Sunday, Best Buys across the nation will have Wii's in stock. You can visit the Circuit City website by clicking the image above to print out your own $40 off total purchase of $199 or more coupon to get a shiny new Wii for the amazing price of $209, as if the price weren't attractive already. Make sure you arrive early for this one.

My only regret is already picking up my Wii. Then again, I've had enough fun to warrant the $249 price tag many times over. Good luck!

Nothing Rhymes with Orange

2007-01-19T09:33:00.002-08:00

For those who don't have the PC hardware to support it, now you can finally revel in the high definition goodness of the previously inaccessible piece of heaven known as Half-Life 2 . Not only that, but the new console release of the Half-Life 2: Orange (also known as the Orange Box) includes several extras that truly justify the not-so-heavy-on-your-wallet price of $59.99. The Orange Box will include the original Half-Life 2 as well as Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. The Orange Box will be released for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

In addition, the Black Box will be released exclusively on PC in Summer 2007. It includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Valve plans on releasing the Black Box for a price of $39.99.

Oh, the possibilities...

Many fans are simply anxious to try out Valve's new game Portal, which is similar in nature to Prey in it's use of portals to solve puzzles and fight enemies. You have complete control of how you place your portals. For instance, one could trap an enemy by placing a portal beneath him and the output portal right above the first portal, causing your enemy to fall in an endless loop. It has been reported but not confirmed that Portal will eventually be available for download by itself on Steam.

I'm personally looking forward to finally getting my hands on be Team Fortress, which will obviously be supported by Xbox Live. My only gripes are concerns that Valve is falling into an almost "forced bundle" stance on the new games. Why alienate PC gamers by forcing them to by games they might already have? Let's hope we get some more details on when Portal will be available independent of the package.

Additionally, people like me who bought the original version of Half-Life 2 for Xbox are kinda peeved for essentially paying for the same game twice. I guess it was to be expected that Valve would capitalize on both markets, but I still feel like a guinea pig of a successful marketing strategy. Damn you Valve!

Why We Love Gears of War

2007-01-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

Gears of War is a shallow game. It doesn't innovate. The story seems like it was thrown in almost as an afterthought. The multiplayer component includes three game types which are essentially the same when it comes down to it. And I can't stop playing it. I've spent many nights up 'til 3 in the morning on multiplayer, and at first I couldn't figure out why.

CliffyB and the rest of the Gears of War team at Epic did not set out to create a game that blew away all expectations with its innovative game mechanics. Bleszinski acknowledges this himself. "Sometimes, the more unique your game and universe design the more difficult it can be for millions of gamers … to latch onto your game mechanics and characters." He points towards Psychonauts as an example, a critically acclaimed and innovative game that fell short commercially. Many game designers today suggest that game publishers aren't interested in originality, sometimes provoking the symptom known as "sequelitis."

The reason why Gears has been so successful is because Gears did what other games did better. The most intuitive part of the game is its cover system. Certainly other games had invoked the use of a cover system before, but none placed as much emphasis on it as Gears of War. The multiplayer level design also shines. It's very necessary to communicate with your team and set up flanking positions.

Gears of War is as addictive as it is because Epic set out to create a great game, not a piece of gaming revolution.

Xbox Live for Free?

2007-01-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

It appears someone has found a way to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold without paying a single dime. The user 'thedalmeny' shows he is subscribed to Gold via the one month trial that ships with all new 360's, although exactly how he does it still remains a mystery.

'Thedalmeny' has reported the bug to Microsoft in order to minimize future exploiting of this hack. It also appears Microsoft threatened legal action had he gone public with the glitch. "As far as I know from developers this is the first time this has happened, especially as I can still play online with the Xbox 360 where it should be reseting my account to expired when i log into the Xbox Live services."

Many users on Digg report similar bugs, including adamnikyo. "I called to cancel my Live account so as not to be charged in the meantime. The guy on the phone was really confused. He said my account looked different from any account he'd seen before. He said my account had no expiration date, which was wrong. I told him it was probably because I was a beta tester. I wanted to tell him 'nevermind, don't cancel it', but I knew it was too late. The guy said if I hadn't drawn attention to it, I probably would've had Xbox live for free forever."

It appears this really is a widespread problem, although never has an exploit to this extent been shown. Hopefully Microsoft does a good job of cleaning up before the inevitable release of how this glitch is performed. Godspeed, Microsoft.

"Hold Your Wii for a Wii" Update

2007-01-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

As you may have already heard, a Sacramento woman died of water intoxication as a result of participating in the "Hold Your Wii for a Wii" contest held by 107.9 KDND. Jennifer Strange was found dead in her home and was believed to have drunk two gallons of water without urinating. The contest had listeners drinking increasingly large amount of water as time passed, with the winner declared by who could hold the water without peeing for the longest.

Already ten people connected to the contest have been fired from the Entercom-owned station and the Morning Rave show has been canceled. From KCRA.com:

“The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office are launching an investigation in the death of Jennifer Strange, who was found dead in her home after taking part in a radio station water-drinking contest.”

I wholeheartedly agree with the dismissal of the radio jockeys and all those involved with the contest. You can even hear them joking about the possibility of water intoxication here, even after they're warned by a listener who called in. I bet they feel like asses now.

Still Using a Mouse?

2007-01-18T02:31:00.000-08:00

Slightly less than a year ago, Jeff Han unveiled a new multitouch technology. Jeff Han is a researcher at the computer science department at New York University. In the video below, Han is working with a 36" by 27" multitouch display which he uses to manipulate a "lava lamp"-type screen saver program.

Traditional touch screens often used in tablet PCs and PDAs are limited in that they can only receive input from one source at a time. Both Han's multitouch display and the new iPhone sport technology allowing multiple inputs to be accurately interpreted, offering an intuitive new way to control computer applications. I find it interesting that although the two technologies are almost exactly similar in nature, the inner workings of the two differ dramatically.

The technology behind both products are quite impressive. An optical sensor technology is utilized in Han's display with an accuracy up to 2.5 mm. The technology behind Apple's iPhone is provided by a company called Fingerworks, which has been making multitouch technology pads. Fingerworks has recently ceased operations as a business.

The difference between Han's technology and Apple's is that Han's is meant to take advantage of bigger screens. "The only thing that the touchscreen is not particularly good for is typing text," says Yann LeCun, a professor overseeing Han's work at NYU. It remains to be seen how well Apple's iPhone will receive input, but if Apple's dedication to intuitive user interfaces as demonstrated by the iPod family is any indication, I don't believe we'll have anything to worry about.

The Mystery Behind iPhone's "OS X"

2007-01-17T23:50:00.000-08:00

Apple's iPhone runs OS X. It was announced at the keynote, but not a whole lot of information has actually been released on the finer points of the no doubt modified version of OS X running on the new phone. John Gruber goes into excellent detail regarding the misconceptions formed by referring to the UI present on the iPhone as "OS X."

Macworld's own report of the iPhone reveals the actual space taken up is a mere 500 MB. Clearly a full-fledged version of OS X isn't present, as most OS X installation system folders are in excess of 2 GB.

OS X has many features that aren't necessary for a mobile phone, from hardware drivers not necessary for the iPhone to all applications developed for the Mac UI. In contrast there are several features required for a cellphone that OS X does not offer, as well as the new multi-touch screen support.

In actuality the iPhone may not run a bit-for-bit translation of OS X, but at it's heart you can be assured you're getting something very similar in nature.

Dugg Down for Compatibility

2007-01-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

It sure would be nice if the folks over at Digg would take note of the new Blogger. As it stands, I still can't set up my blogging preferences in Digg because my account has been migrated from the standard Blogger account to the newer Google Account, which currently isn't supported by Digg. I figured the migration would make everything easier and that the ability to blog worthy articles from Digg would work with the new Blogger just as it did with the old Blogger.

I'm still receiving the error message "IXR_Error Object ( [code] => 0 [message] => com.google.blogger.api.UserMigratedException: The given Blogger account has been migrated to a Google Account on the new Blogger )." Who knows when they'll actually fix it. Has anyone found a work around for this problem yet? I'm anxious to start blogging my favorite Digg articles.

An Empty Promise

2006-11-27T20:12:00.000-08:00

Well... it snowed for what seemed like a grand total of five minutes yesterday in Oregon. I was pissed off because I love snow and I knew there was no way it was gonna stick or get any heavier. It was way too sunny out and there were only intermittent clouds scattered across the Portland Metro area.

We were supposed to have a snowstorm last night. It didn't happen. It's been awhile since Portland had a good amount of snow. I remember when the cold air currents from Canada somehow made it down into Oregon and it started snowing one day in January of 2004. We went back to school for one day before it hit us and we had the entire rest of the week off. Not only was there a huge snowstorm, but at one point it was so cold that we got hit with freezing rain and a two-inch thick insulating layer of frozen rain covered the snow everywhere. It was hard to even walk more than a few blocks on this stuff.

I can't imagine we'd actually have the fortune of experiencing a similar Winter this year, but one can always hope. In the meantime, it's still cold as fuck out and I still haven't picked up a good winter hat yet. Any suggestions?

A Startling Discovery

2006-11-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary on global warming featuring Al Gore. Although I was sleepy when I started the film, the bluntness of the information presented literally woke me back up.

For those of you who don't know, global warming occurs due to the presence of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Don't confuse this with holes in the ozone layer caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), although that is very much apart of global warming as well. Anyway, the C0-2 in our atmosphere causes the rays of the sun to get trapped. As a result, the overall temperature of the earth has been increasing, which is causing the ice caps at the North Pole, Greenland, and Antarctica to melt. I'm sure most of you are at least somewhat familiar with this concept if you've been in school in the last five or ten years.

Al Gore did a great job of using analogies and examples to illustrate the seriousness and severity of the reality of global warming. I especially like the use of the frog who jumps into a pot of boiling water and immediately jumps back out, but when he jumps in a pot of lukewarm water which is gradually heated up, he stays until he's rescued. This analogy reflects the action we've taken to combat global warming thus far. We don't realize how important something is unless it shows it immediately. I feel like this is reflected in my own life as well, such as when it's easier for me to do a short-term assignment than an essay due months after its assigned.

I really urge everyone who reads this to go see this movie, whether you know a lot about global warming or not. It's a real eye opener and it disappoints me to see that more action hasn't been taken despite the fact that this information has been available to us for more than thirty years. One of Gore's college professors saw a trend with the increase of carbon dioxide directly affecting the increase of the temperature, and that was in the 1970s.

What's wrong with an overall increase in temperature? So many different things. At the rate at which the ice caps are already melting, it's entirely plausible that an ice cap the size of Greenland could be nonexistent within the next fifty years. If this happened, the entire sea level across the world would increase 20 feet. The World Trade Center Memorial in Manhattan would be covered in water.

Our climate would change. Already, more species are animals are becoming extinct than ever before. The reason our planet stays at an overall constant temperature is because of the way wind and water currents cool warm air currents. We could very well be on our way to the next Ice Age, although this part of Gore's presentation seemed as if it were a bit stretched.

Overall, it was a very informative documentary. I'd check it out as soon as possible.

/Rant

Sony eats Nintendo's Dust

2006-11-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii were both released, each completely selling out. Of course, the initial shipment of PS3's was only 400,000 or so, whereas the Wii shipped with an impressive million plus units. And so the console war has finally started, with Microsoft having an impressive lead so far.

Naturally, Sony has already screwed up. It turns out there's a fatal flaw in the core processing unit which requires Sony to recall 650,000 machines. Way to go Sony; you topped the annoying "disk read error" problem with the Playstation 2. Nintendo did a much better job with their first batch of consoles, although there were reports of firmware updates for the Wii that cause the system to stop working completely. Nintendo generally ships working consoles when they launch a new system (amazing concept, I know), and fortunately this problem has only occurred with a handful of units so far.

Right now, I'm fine with my Xbox 360. Gears of War will keep me occupied for months to come with many more notable releases (Lost Planet, what?). I'm also enjoying the "Nail the Trick" feature of Tony Hawk's Project 8. At first, I thought they were completely overhauling the game to be more realistic, since that seemed to be their main direction a few months back. Now that I think about it, they would've alienated a lot of people had they ditched the classic Tony Hawk game play. And really, who would want that?

I plan on picking up a Wii as soon as possible. I really think Nintendo is on to something. I'll think about a PS3 when I'm confident it won't break out me, when some more games comes out, and when it doesn't cost half a grand just for the watered-down version.

A good blog for once

2006-10-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

The following is an assignment for my writing class. It's the first assignment we've gotten, and it's being used to basically find out where we (the students) are at in regards to writing level. It's an obituary. Enjoy!

Cameron Christian Hermens

A funeral will be at 1:30p.m. Saturday, January 14, 2011, at Cape Lookout campground, in honor of the annual family camping trip started back in 2002. Cameron was involved in a freak bicycle accident involving three totaled cars and a cement truck, dying at the untimely age of 24.

Cameron lived a life full of potential, aspiring to become good at many different things. Alas, he often started things without finishing them, quickly moving on to other interests. Despite the doubt of those around him, the possibility of obsessive compulsive disorder was ruled out after several tests found nothing. He founded his own comic book store when we was a young boy, then discovered Graphic Design when he was 11 years old. After that, he could regularly be seen drawing, painting, or glued to the computer screen.

Although Cameron struggled throughout high school – attributed to his lack of motivation rather than the lack of ability – he had a much different outlook while in college. He graduated from PSU after attending PCC for a year and doing quite well in all of his classes, majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Graphic Design. From this point on, Cameron was able to attain a level of organization and self-management that paid off greatly in the end, netting him a job as head of the Art Department at Adidas in Portland, Oregon, his hometown and birthplace.

From there, he explored several interests of his, including: graphic/web design, music production, and a constantly-evolving, community-driven website, all of which he was quite successful with, both theoretically and personally. Overall, he was quite content with his life, from all standpoints. It was what he aspired for from the very beginning.

So, what do you think? All comments appreciated...

Cam