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Anything that entertains me on a day like today must be pretty good.

Have you heard the one about the president who’s an idiot? It’s a laugh riot.

What are you doing this Fourth of July? Will you be listening to Toby Keith’s “The Angry American”? How about saluting the O’Reilley factor? Or maybe you’ll just be playing good ol’, patriotic videogames (warning: obnoxious Flash).

The Army has been developing a top secret, covert videogame to use as a recruiting tool for the next generation of twitch gamers. Running on the latest version of the Unreal engine, the first incarnation of this game will be released on the Fourth of July, free to all who want to fight virtual terrorism. In fact, every version of this game is free. Has taxpayer money been used to make videogames? I can’t tell yet, but I wouldn’t be suprised. Oddly enough, despite its obviously controversial premise, it seems like it may turn out to be a good game.

It should be noted that us videogame freaks had no idea that anything like this was brewing until E3 which was a little over a month ago. Leave it to the Army to pull a fast one on us. Anyway, the game is comprised of two sections, “Operations” and “Soldiers.” “Soldiers” is an RPG-esque game which follows the player from new recruit to Sergeant. “Operations,” which will debut in its “Recon” form on Thursday, is the online multiplayer version. The twist is that before you hop online, players must complete Basic Training, which servers will track the progress of. In fact, to use the sniper rifle and other weapons, the player must complete Sniper School and whatnot. In multiplayer, both sides will believe that they are on the US side. Later this summer, the Sniper, Paratrooper, and Ranger modules will be released. At end of summer, a two CD set of the finished game will be available at recruiting stations and whatnot. The game is reportedly rather Counterstrike-like, with a ridiculous emphasis on realism.

As a former Rogue Spear junkie, I await the opportunity to serve my country in the best way I know how. Look at it this way, the Army is just getting back at an industry that embraces anti-American icons. Mario was an Italian. Ever heard of Mussolini? Ryu from Street Fighter? Damn Japanese. Don’t even get them started on the Prince of Persia…

I’m seriously not the type of person that should have a booted car.

TwoThingsAtOnce:

Besides driving out the Mom and Pop local video stores, here’s another reason not to do business with Blockbuster: “I emailed Blockbuster regarding the rewinding of DVDs, they told me that “Most DVD players have a “Rewind” button on it, what it does is spins the DVD the opposite direction from the direction the DVD spins during the play mode, so by spinning the DVD the opposite direction rewinds the DVD, it’s similar to the rewind feature on a VCR.” Frickin’ hilarious!

Yeah. When you want to search backwards, that’s what it does. Same idea as rewind. Why is that so funny?

Now, in the original context:“I asked the manager of my local Blockbuster why that label would be on DVD cases, he told me, “DVDs can be rewinded like VHSes, so please rewind it, if we get a message from the central headquarters of Blockbuster stating otherwise, we will keep those labels on the DVD cases”, the comment makes sense because rewinding a DVD before return is ridiculous. But in the post quoted at top, it sounds like Blockbuster is simply describing the ‘search’ feature, when in fact the poster was commenting on a ‘Be kind – rewind’ sticker on DVD cases. Another example of weblogs turning into an elaborate game of telephone.

Rant via ‘gma’


When the top execs of Corporate America take 99% of the profit?



http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/special_packages/salary_survey/3428784.htm



Nobody “earns” 700 million. Larry Ellison may have done 7 time or even 70 times more work than I, but not 700, and definitely not 7000. Same goes for Gates, Ballmer, Eisner and yes, Steve.



Any system in which there is too much inbalance will break down. The same thing that happened to feudal monarchy will happen to Corporate America.



I believe the conditions are ripe for a revolution within the next five to ten years. What holds the current system in place is everyone’s hope of making it big themselves. We all think we have a stake in the status quo. But the internet stock market boom and the subsequent bust has shown there are really only a handful of people who make money, and they will always make money whether the economy is good or not.



Why are we working hard for a system which rewards us so little? Both in terms of how we are valued and how we get paid. The wage slaves of the 20th century will look very similar to future generations as peasants of the 17th century.



guillotine time!

Someone check the temperature in hell, because there’s a new contagent.com.

Oh, it’s still there. But search for something. Anything. Sigh.

That’s one thing about the web. It makes it easy to copy someone else’s hard work in the blink of an eye. And the most insulting is that all that’s original about it is frames, a flash nav and dropshadows.

To those of you that are interested, there are new screenshots up of the project management system I’m developing.