Hegemony.

For a long time, I didn't know the Internet was controlled by the United States. If I knew, I probably would never have tried it. That last bit was a lie, and a huge one. So anyway. It seems that, since the Internet is so mainstream now, there should be some kind of world organization that manages it. But, 'lo and behold, Bush doesn't agree (and seriously, does he ever agree with something, except that "Resistance is futile. Terrorists will be assimilated."). On one hand, we can understand that the Internet was mainly developed and funded in the States. On the other hand, it'll be like saying "No one can make paper, except China". You can't control the Internet, simply because its users will not agree with it. Try protecting ICANN, and see how long it will last if the rest of the world makes another comittee?

Why are they so dumb though? What possible good can you obtain, if you go against everyone else's will? No matter how many soldiers you have, you still can't force your political views and system. Look, Bush can't even invade Irak properly. Now he's saying what, "I shall rule over the Internet with my mighty force"? Because, what will happen if everyone else decides to create their organization to manage their Internet? He will not succeed in excluding everyone else from the Internet. He'll manage to emprison his own country within their own big Intranet. There is this great game, called Go. Managers and decision makers should all learn it, it could make them more intelligent, or at least more thoughtful.

Talking about thoughtfulness, most people should know by now that music compagnies feel Steve Jobs is ripping them off. Because, seriously, 0.99$ for an mp3 song that doesn't even cost them the physical CD is clearly not enough. We should up it to the price people pay for cellphone rings, maybe? I find their claim to be ridiculous. But look, there is worse. Threatening to scalp iTunes? For fuck's sake. They should realize that no one, no one would pay 0.99$ per song, encoded in a lossy protocol, if it weren't for mp3 players such as the iPod. It would give me the choice between having a CD, being able to backup it and encode better quality mp3, or simply having an mp3 that I could lose if my HD dies. Good job. Give me your cash, because else, I'll shoot myself in the foot. A great argument, Jobs should tremble in his sleep.

Also, check this site -beware (chocolate-chip) cookies and russian scriptings. In the Holy name of the Bald Eagle, I bless you. Har. Because the national animal is also bald. Funny.

... A long time ago, in 2005, the First Space War begun.

I was about to talk about EA and how they have no sense of innovation whatsoever. Instead, I'll talk about how Space War is about to begin, and how no one fucking talks about it. I'll link you to this article, from the Washington Times. If you read it, and think about it, it is scary. Probably the third most scary thing, after "pre-emptive strikes" and Bush/American voters' stupidity. So now, unhappy with only sea, air and land warfare, they bring it to space. To boldly go where no man has gone before. No seriously, what kind of crap is that? They were talking about it this summer also, but eventually said that if they do it, others will do it. And now guess what they do? Go ahead and launch a space satellite jammer. Fucking morons. Why do we never know about that stuff? "Hey I've just placed a nuke in orbit, I mean, I won't use it but it's there. Did you really want to know?..." No fucking shit, yes I did.

Of course, Mr. General Lord affirms that they're not talking about weaponizing space. Of course not. Because really, that's just the first mission. "Two other missions are defending satellites and conducting offensive operations against enemy spacecraft or ground signals that threaten U.S. satellites." The third mission is probably sending hypervelocity rod bundles and kill people the U.S doesn't like. Why does no one know, really, tell me? Why bother about your stupid politician taking coke when the U.S. is launching a space weapons program? Continue watching American Idol and Desperate Housewives while the country that is melting your brain in a piece of goo, that brings you piracy-hunters more tenacious than the Inquisition and that defends itself by "pre-emptively" attacking another country void of weapons now makes Star Wars a thing of the present. Fucking fuckers. And it's not like these two articles are just random ones that a bored journalist shitted out. If you do some research, you can actually find many others. What's that, in 20 years the U.S. will be called The Empire, and at the head of it, the President will be called Sauron, the Dark Lord?

Also notice how most, if not all U.S. government/military officials put the blame on some other country. "Oh yea, China sent a man in orbit. Isn't that scary?" "Uhm... Russia had a space station... ... And uhm... Mir was able to er, send plasma ray of God from its decrepit hole..." So basically, even if the U.S. starts by putting an offensive satellite, it's still not their fault. It's all part of the pre-emptive bullshit strategy. When's the next World War due? If they continue like that, it'll be all vs U.S. maybe? Watch your odds, bitches.

For more info about the stupidity of those fuckers, read this.

"I believe space is the place we will fight in the next 20 years," said Haver. Rich Haver is the former special assistant for intelligence to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Video Games, raaaaah

A new study posted on /. today (actually the link points to a blog talking about it) revolutionized my world. It says that video games can deliver an emotional impact. OMFG NO REALLY? I won't talk about how silly "studies" are nowadays. Instead, I'll say that gaming is the next big thing. Of course, games can make you feel something. Heck, why would people play if they didn't feel anything? Games are interactive, they make you plunge into a virtual world that is probably far more interesting than real life. Look at all those WoWers. I hope some people manage to get a strain of the "disease" again, and infects them. But what does it matter? In MMORPGs, you first start for the RPG feeling. Your growing powers, the delight of exploring new areas... And then you get hooked. Because you're lv60 with super l33t eq? Nah. Because of the social interactions. In other words, feelings. It's the same for every RPG, and unsurprisingly -except maybe for Bowen Research- you are not attracted the same way to a flight sim.

-Please excuse this interruption. Blogger is down for maintenance. Post deleted- Thanks Blogger.

Games do have the same power as books and movies. At least, if the story is well told -or well presented. When you play with a character for a while, you get attached to it. And yes, when Aeris died, it was freaking heartbreaking. Man, that was Aeris. You can't kill Aeris like that. You get emotionally involved with your character. Just like Pokemons. And 2 years later, if you see the pic or hear the music, it'll cast nostalgia on you. Let me tell you that feeling is stronger than remembrance for books or movies, because usually don't read/watch them 40 hours in a row. If you do, you are sick. But with games... games are so gripping, you might actually play one every hour of your weekend. You'd still be sick, but it might happen. Games just take you out of your reality. And when they'll be really immersive, then the world is gonna end. By the way, music compagnies... games are like drugs, they are addictive. Make games if you want to earn money.

It so happens that games are all-powerful. They can have uses, just like books and movies, but are much more time-consuming. The problem is you revel in them. If you are a hardcore gamer, you should realize that gaming is your God. Or Satan, if your name happens to be Jack Thompson. Games are going to dethrone movies as the best way to waste your time. If you ain't convinced, you should. Because even if some developers/publishers continue to produce crap games without innovation, they do it in conjunction with the Mighty Dollar. Power marketing -yea that's like power leveling, but it's marketing o_O- will make gaming mainstream. Soon.

The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people, Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does.
Islam promotes the killing of innocent people. The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. … That's a core essence of the religion. … Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels.

~Jack Thompson, with much <3

Joy, more love to all.

Today Slashdot seems to show a flurry of oh so interesting articles. The entire entertainment industry seems to be in a state of panic faced with P2P networks and omigosh piracy. So now we have the film studios, book publishers, and the music industry taking action against their own consumers. It's funny that suddenly, compagnies are aware that we can copy what we buy. I'm not saying it is justified to download a song, a movie or a textbook. However, it's not like this is something new. Please do not tell me that you've never taped the radio, copied a cassette from a friend, made photocopies or anything of the sort. So why the heck is it getting so much attention now? Because it's suddenly made easy, just one click away? Oh come on. It never was too hard. It was always possible to copy whatever I wanted, as long as I could find it. Renting a movie still costs me 2$. Although I can now rip it, I could copy it with two magnetoscopes before, and share it with friends. All that without leaving a trace. And if I can't find the thing I'm looking for, well it's unlikely I'd know about it anyway, so I wouldn't think about buying it. What's funny is that, unhappy to overprotect products that they "possess", the RIAA wants to control other aspects of your life over which they had no power before. Like, radio. The next logical step is probably the very air you breathe.

Now tell me, what happens to the money they get "back"? Does it go to the musicians and the artists, in one way or another? I don't think so. The money they recapture, they believe them to be lost profit that they are entitled to. So they can stop saying things like, "Record companies, artists, songwriters and music publishers will suffer from a decline in sales". That money goes directly into their pockets. Next time a record company tries to sue someone, people should defend themselves. See if they can sue every Internet user, and not lose money. And if they try to lobby for laws and remove your rights, please at least rant. On another note, if you are a musician, should you be afraid of being downloaded over and over? That only proves you are popular. And anyway, the same people that download your songs will probably go buy your CD. Artists should overthrow this economic model that is doomed to fail, and take their destiny into their own hands. Because, seriously, the present system is a piece of shit.

They came for the communists, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a communist.
They came for the socialists, and I did not speak up because I was not a socialist.
They came for the union leaders, and I did not speak up because I wasn't a union leader.
They came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.

~Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984

<3 Music compagnies

So one of the recent activities undertaken by big music compagnies is suing. Suing someone, for one reason or another, does seem like a national sport these days. On another note, they could also RIP OFF THEIR OWN SKIN AND PUT ON A ZOMBIE MASK. But making a shitload of cash on the back of other people does seem more attractive. So, the compagnies we all love are suing Baidu, a Chinese search engine. Because, obviously, if a search engine allows you to find illegal pieces of music, they are responsible. If Bittorrent allows you to download FF7: AC, it is clearly the maker of Bittorrent that is the bad guy. If you can kill a guy with a pencil in the eyes, the pencil-maker is an incarnation of Satan. Now excuse me. If you stopped selling CDs worth 0.25$ (add in a couple bucks for your profit, and the artist's profit) at 20$, maybe we wouldn't download illegal music. Or wait. Maybe we would. Why? Because we want to listen to them if we buy them. Look, if I BUY your stuff, it is now MINE. I traded 20$ for it, you got your money, I got your product. Stop fooling around and telling me I can't use it, rip it, or shove it up your ass if I want to. If your car manufacturer told you you can only use your car in the city you bought it, I think you'd say, "Screw you." Because it is downright unfair. So why can't we put the music we bought on a MP3 player? Because it reduces your profit? _DIE_. So, if we go down the corrupted spiral we are on right now, we'll be sure less and less people buy your product. So much for Britney. Music producers, copyright protectionists, US lawmakers, patent freaks, here's a message for you: the next time I'll want to waste good money and be left with an unsatisfactory product, I'll call your mom.

WTF is wrong with me

HI. I made a freaking blog, isn't that like, scary?... Yea it is. FEAR. As Kev put it,

Kev-o says:
yeah, you're like 2 years late on the fad.

Well, I KNOW. So, log here if you want baseless rants based on baseless nothing. Or just don't read me. See if I care.