Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

We’re back from vacation.
It was great and relaxing (except from the smores making incident).
Thanks to all that posted a comment below, I’m eager to read them. But for now, it’s time for some sleep since I have work tomorrow.

Currently, I’m on vacation with my family on the island of Kauai. I am sitting in a car on a laptop with an EVDO card since there is no internet or phone service in the bed & breakfast we are staying. As a result my blogging will be light.
Since I cannot make much good content, I’m asking you to do it.
Many of you are ‘blurkers’, lurkers at my blog that read but don’t comment. That’s fine with me, but here’s a chance to you to post who you are and maybe even plug your own weblog. So please use the comments here to introduce yourself to the rest of the Loyal Cruft Reader community.
Mahalo.

Here is video of me drinking a Warp Core Breach at Quark’s Bar in Vegas. I’m saying ‘Take the picture’ since I didn’t realize a movie was being filmed. Thanks to Cyril for the video.

Brad says “Don’t eat a half pound of meat and then go to bed.”

I’m about to drive to Las Vegas for the NAB Conference. While I’m away, here is a short video to keep you entertained.

If I was a billionaire, I could win this auction for a samurai helmet with antlers. (via Boing Boing)
For a long time, when playing MMORPGs, I have liked to wear deer antlers.
Here’s a few images from Ultima Online of me:

Now take a look at what’s for sale on ebay:

A few other things I have been remiss in not posting:
Mister P. writes about a Doonesberry comic that involves my alma mater, RPI
My cousin Richard is now blogging at Otigoji.com
If you want a visual display of what’s on your hard drive, try SequoiaView Windows software (via dl.tv)
Strenghting my geek cred, I had a story I submitted to Slashdot approved.
I am now a writer for the Metroblogging Azeroth site, focused on World of Warcraft news and issues.
A good article on HDTV standards, focusing on 1080p in next gen DVD and gaming displays. (via digg)
Sean “Internet Mogul” Bonner doesn’t get Second Life either.
And finally, 30+ years into my readership, Legion of Superheroes is coming to television in 2007 on the WB.
Sidenote: I really do need to get around to making a linkblog thingie for this site…

Here in California, we have process where the citizens can put a law or constitutional amendment on the ballot without the involvement of the politicians. This capability was designed as a power reserved to the people to counter a possibly corrupt state government.
This is what was used to recall Gov. Davis and put Arnold in place. The problem is that it is legal for someone to pay someone to collect the needed signatures. Currently, you need just under 400,000 signatures to get a law on the ballot. So if you pay $1 per signature, for around half a million dollars, you can get your law on the ballot. In California, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries regulary pay to have bills put on the ballot, simply because they can and hope they can convince the public to vote yes.
To me, this is bullshit. The initiative process is abused by this kind of think. As a result, I don’t sign any petitions that are run by paid circulators. They are required to tell you if they are paid, that’s the law.
Today I was stopped by a circulator on the way into the supermarket and she asked me to sign some petition to save the children from [fill in the blank] and I asked if she was a paid circulator. She went nuts. She started asking if I got paid for what I did. I simply said, “I don’t sign with paid circulators.” At this point, I thought her eyes would pop out of her head as she began spotting off about minimum wage and other topics. I went into the store and bought some milk.
When I walked out she was at the other entrance talking to other people and not there to yell at me more. As I walked ot my car, I reflected on my stance. Was I being too harsh?
Hell no. Fuck her and the rest of the people fucking up my state by selling our laws to the highest bidder. Damn blood-sucking leeches. Next time I get a spare million bucks, I’m buying a vote on getting rid of paid circulators.

I’ve been a reader of PC Gamer magazine for years, ever since the death of my beloved PC Accelerator magazine. Recently, they started a podcast about PC game news and discussion and I’ve been listening.

Several shows ago, the initial host of the show Dan Morris left and was abruptly replaced by Greg ‘theVede’ Vederman to lead the discussion. I wondered what had happened, but didn’t think much more about it. After three or four shows, the issue was finally addressed.

What happened was the Dan became Associate Publisher of PC Gamer, formally moving to the business side of the magazine. In the world of journalism, the wall between the business side and the editorial side is significant. There is a real concern about the influence of ad sales money and business relationships with the journalists to not taint the news with concern over the business impact.

Taking over the podcast reins was Greg Vederman, new Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer, who felt that ethically it would be wrong to have Dan on the podcast, on the journalism side, now that he worked on the business side. So in the most recent podcast, they openly discuss the issue. Talking about both sides and weighing the impact. Even if you aren’t a gamer, give it a listen, it’s the first thing they talk about, so you don’t have to sit through the gaming chat. Although if you are a PC gamer, listen to the whole thing.

I called my father-in-law Tony, an editor at a major midwestern newspaper, to get his take. He felt that the ‘firewall’ between the business side and the journalism side had eroded over the last several decades. He said that as the internet and new technologies enable things like weblogs and podcasts, the guidelines are unclear on how to deal with them. He mentioned that as newspapers embrace weblogs and citzen journalism, it’s not easy. He said it’s demonstrated in the recent controversy over a “Grandma In Iraq” weblog that the paper was running.

Back at PC Gamer, they have take an interesting approach on how to resolve the issue of whether Dan Morris will contribute to the podcast or not. They are leaving it up to the readers and listeners. On the front page of the PC Gamer Podcast site is a poll to let Dan’s fate be decided.

I’ve read a number of discussions about these kind of ethics regarding weblogs, but not much in the realm of podcasts. With many podcasts vying for the almighty dollar of advertising these days there are bound to be issues raised since podcast advertising is not as firewalled as placing Google or Yahoo ads on a web page. With podcast advertising, there is a direct relationship between the performer/journalist and the buyer of advertising. Who knows what the future holds in this area, controversy is for sure…

Make no mistake, X is the greatest punk band ever.
Black Flag and the Pistols are good, but X is superior.