The Internet’s potential for promoting expression and empowering citizens is under threat from corporate and government policies that clash with the medium’s long-standing culture of openness, some leading Internet thinkers warned.
You don’t say.
As if feeling my pain, the second of the 2 daily Simpsons episodes today was the fabled The City of New York vs Homer Simpson episode, wherein Homer’s car gets booted between the twin towers. Thinking I’d never see this one again broadcast I was presently surprised by its presence plus the timing regarding my own recently booted car. Which we just got back today. Yipty.
Wow, I never even knew about this brazilian Mac clone manufacturer.
And, just for kicks, here is the Daily Double. —– (I’m talking about a link, get it? — ahhh, fuck it.)
I need a job. Someone, anyone.
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.
