Is The Justice Department Serious??

The U.S. Justice department is seeking to halt a merger between Anheuser-Busch InBev, brewer of Budweiser and Mexico's Grupo Modelo, brewer of Corona beer. They've stated that they fear this 20.1 billion dollar merger will put too many brands of beer in the hands of one company. Namely Anheuser-Busch.

Really? Is this something that is so important? With the huge banking and pharmaceutical conglomerates in this country, the Justice department wants to go after a beer company to make sure and keep the price of beer competetive? Give me a break Justice department, and grow a pair of balls!

Ouya Development In Full Swing

To the left is a screenshot of a game in development for the Ouya, by Australian Indie game developer Kactus Games. The game goes under the current name, Sea States, in which players will be able to build their own "micro-nations" in international waters. A sort of  "SimCity" on the high seas!

My son, Alex Wells, has been helping the Indie team as a freelance artist. It's his yacht in the screenshot that you see. The game certainly sounds like it could be a lot of fun. It's part of the CREATE game jam, sponsored by Killscreen and Ouya, an online contest challenging developers to make playable prototypes for the Ouya in just 10 days. Many world-class games have been developed in previous game jams, maybe this will be the next one!

Link to the original story on Killscreendaily.

Sticks And Stones...And Other Hard Things

     Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

     That's a saying I grew up hearing all the time. It's a saying I took to heart and feel I'm a better person for it. I learned to develop a "thick skin" and not let what people might say to me have any real meaning. My parents taught me this. I can remember coming home and telling my mom that someone at school had been calling me names and taunting me. She told me that saying and that was the end of it. My parents didn't fly out to the school in an hysterical rage demanding that children be expelled from school, or that new rules be implemented to "reduce bullying".
     There weren't congressional hearings to determine if bullying is a national problem or not. Classmates who got picked on didn't commit suicide or go home and get a gun and shoot people in the school randomly. If you got teased, you taunted back, you got in a shoving match on the playground, or you just let it go and went on with your life.

     It seems like today kids have just gotten too "thin skinned". Anytime they get teased or bullied it's a horrifying crime that needs to be trumpeted on the evening news. The next time your child comes home and says they've been bullied at school...tell them sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you, and if they get beaten with sticks and stones, tell them to fight back for GOD's sake!

Sluggish Windows 8 Raising It's Price...Really!?

Windows 8 upgrade price is set to go up starting February 1st. Really? Does Microsoft think that that it's, "slow to move off the shelves new operating system", is going to move any faster at $119 than it has been at $39.99? I don't think so. If anything, I think Microsoft will let it's upgrade price go up so that they can blame the slow adoption rate of Windows 8 on price, rather than quality.

By now, even Microsoft surely has to admit that with their Windows 8 user interface they've left desktop users behind. I've had the RC build of windows 8 on an old PC since it came out. It was a horrible experience which is why I've never even considered purchasing it. Now the RC build has entered it's phase where it shuts the PC down every hour and re-starts it, to basically make you upgrade or remove it from the PC. I'll be removing it and putting a Linux build back on it, thank you very much Microsoft! I have no interest in keeping a "touchscreen dependent" operating system on a desktop computer that has no touchscreen capabilities. All that Microsoft has to do to salvage Windows 8 is to make it a hybrid OS that will cater to both touchscreen devices and non-touchscreen devices. It would surely not be too hard to have the OS detect whether or not a touchscreen is available or not, and tailor the interface to match the capabilities of the machine it's installed on.

Beneath the hood, Windows 8 is little more than Windows 7 with a few new dressings. Unfortunately, it's those very "dressings" that make it such a horrible experience on a traditional desktop. The next iteration of Windows is going to have to address this problem, or there will be a very big reason for computer users to start adopting Linux. One of the main reasons keeping Linux from being adopted widely by computer users is the fact that gamers have needed a windows operating system to enjoy playing games. That may be changing soon though since Steam, a game store/service, provided by Valve is pushing it's service now on Linux. They are also actively encouraging game developers to port their existing games to Linux and to begin developing new games exclusively for the Linux operating system.

As long as the base of Linux users keeps growing, developing games for Linux could actually be a boon to game developers as there would be fewer licensing fees involved. The open source operating system may yet prove to be the underdog that swoops in and claims the huge desktop market that Microsoft seems so ready to drop like a hot potato!

To Lip-Sync, Or Not To Lip-Sync...

Has anyone been following the controversy over whether or not Beyonce Knowles lip-synced during the President's Inauguration? Does anyone out there really care one way or the other? I don't. There could be many reasons a singer may lip-sync at a live performance of their own music. Maybe she was having health issues, maybe there were equipment problems, or possibly the venue simply afforded poor quality for a live performance. The fact is, you're still seeing the performer making all their moves, (and who would complain about getting to see Beyonce's moves!), and you're still hearing the music your supposed to hear.

Last year I got the chance to go see Elton John perform live. Did he lip-sync during his performance? I'd have no way of knowing, I was so far up in the nose-bleed section that he looked like a tiny little doll. The performance was wonderful and the music beautiful to listen to. It wouldn't have mattered to me one iota if I'd found out later that he was lip-syncing to prerecorded tracks. People are going to need to get over this idea of what a "live" performance is, after all, It was just last year that Tu-Pac made his famous holographic appearance posthumously. The day is coming when all performances may be of that sort.

Ninth Anniversary Of The Mars Rover Opportunity, Still Going Strong

     Before Curiosity, there were two little droids that could...and no, I'm not talking about C-3PO and R2-D2. Back on January 25th, 2004, the rover Opportunity landed on Mars to begin a three month long mission. Nine years later and more than 22 miles traveled, Opportunity is still hard at work, making new discoveries. While Spirit succumbed in 2010 to loose Martian sand that trapped it, it's counter-part, the plucky Opportunity continues to trundle on, albeit backwards after suffering from a stuck front wheel that refuses to turn.

     Apparently Opportunity now suffers from an arthritic robotic arm as well, but it hasn't stopped the little rover from continuing on and doing more good science work. Both rovers have sent back thousands of images of the planet Mars that have amazed and dazzled us. For instance, on March 10th, 2005, Spirit caught the first ever video of a dust devil racing across the surface of Mars. See that historic footage HERE on Wikipedia.

Space Miners Wanted...Someday...Soon!

     The hype for the industrialization of space seems to be picking up speed lately. I've been seeing more than the usual amount of plans to make near-Earth and beyond-Earth space a profitable business, and the neat thing is there seems to be some actual meat on the bone now!

     Elon Musk and his company, Space-X, have successfully delivered cargo to the International Space Station, and are on schedule for more deliveries. Virgin Galactic is rounding the corner on actually starting their space tourism business and there are literally dozens of new companies springing up that have viable plans to begin business ventures beyond Earth orbit.

     Two of those new start-up companies are DSI, and Planetary Resources. Both companies have plans in the next couple of years to send out robotic probes that will survey and eventually collect asteroids to mine for resources. Here's a LINK to an article on POPSCI that goes into more details about what they plan to do. I'm excited to finally see Industry begin to move into the realm of space. A government initiative can only do so much, jump-starting space exploration. It's private industry that will really be what moves humanity beyond the confines of Earth.

Diversity, The Spice Of Life

     I'm often mystified when I see headlines like I did at ScienceDaily, "Photovoltaics beat biofuels at converting sun's energy to miles driven." Why does everyone on this planet seem to think that everything has to be about competition, and that there always has to be a winner and a loser? If you were going to invest money in the stock market, (would you really be silly enough to do that these days?), would you want to pour all of your money into one company? No, you'd "diversify", by buying stocks in many different companies to help you absorb losses when they happen. Or as I learned as a young child, never put all your eggs into one basket!

     When it comes to energy production, why does it always have to be Solar vs. Wind, Biofuels vs. Oil, Coal vs. Nuclear. Why can't we accept that having a diverse energy production scheme would be the best for everyone? Every type of energy production has it's advantages, and disadvantages. There's no reason that just because one type of energy production beats out another by a couple of percent that the "loser" should be left behind and forgotten about. No one wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard, and you wouldn't want to build a hydro-electric damn in the middle of the desert. Solar energy wouldn't make much sense in someplace like Washington state which sees so much cloud cover, and what's the point of a coal plant someplace where you'd have to transport the coal hundreds of miles to it?

     Like so many other things in life, it's time to dial back the competition and start thinking more about cooperation.

Photo courtesy of Daniel X O'Neil

Martin Luther King Jr Would Roll Over In His Grave...

     January 18th was, "Internet Freedom Day", something I didn't even know existed until 24 hours later. A celebration of the defeat of SOPA and PIPA. Propositions which would have regulated free speech on the internet. While this is a great thing that these initiatives were defeated, we're a long way from a truly free internet. As part of the celebration a website had posted Martin Luther King Jr's iconic "I have a dream" speech. Within hours though, that speech was taken down from the website Vimeo, presumably due to a "copyright" request from Mr. King's estate, (i.e. his family).

     Apparently it is very hard to find a full length version of his speech anywhere, unless you want to pay his estate $20 for it on DVD. It's my belief that Martin Luther King Jr. is rolling over in his grave right now, because of the way his descendants are prostituting his heritage. That speech was a milestone in civil rights in this country and should be available freely on something like the internet, which didn't even exist when that speech was made. Because of the greed of his family though, it is only available to those who want to pay for it. I've been a staunch advocate for rewriting the copyright laws in this country. They've been hi-jacked by corporations to "protect their intellectual property" and are now stifling true education and freedom of expression. Greed has become the over-riding factor in copyright law, and it needs to be rewritten so that important cultural landmarks don't disappear from the landscape.

Worker's Income Shrinking

     It's sad, as worker's paychecks in this country just got substantially smaller, none of the major news outlets thinks this is something that should be discussed. Looking over the major media outlets this morning showed a crop of stories about Lance Armstrong admitting to drug use, problems in foreign countries like England's Algeria hostage crisis and Serena Williams hitting herself in the face...yes, these and other stories are so much more important to the American public than why they are getting paid less now to do the same job they were doing last month...that is if they're lucky enough to have a job!

     The corporate controlled media are in full swing to keep America's attention on anything other than the fact that they're already small paychecks are getting even smaller. Not to mention the fact that gas prices spiked up twenty-nine cents per gallon this morning to boot. It's Republicans that have engineered the situation that we're in right now, and the thing is, most businesses are supposedly owned by Republicans. How do they expect to make any money when the average American no longer has any discretionary spending money?

A Long Way To Go And No Way To Get There

     NASA has announced that the Kepler telescope has found what may be the best candidate for an extra-solar planet that could contain life. The planet which has been designated KOI 172.02, is just slightly larger than the Earth, and sits inside the habitable zone deemed most likely to harbor a planet with liquid water on it's surface, if water is present.
     I have to wonder why scientists and the media get so excited over these finds like this, after all, how are ever going to confirm whether or not these planets are habitable, or if they actually have life on them? It's not like we're going to slap a nuclear engine on one of the mothballed space shuttles and fly over there and check it out! We can't put together a decent proposition to put men back on the moon, or to travel to Mars, so what good is it going to be even if we found an alien planet outside our solar system that could harbor life, it's not like we're going to get there anytime soon.

Time To Leave Broken Java Behind

     Why does any website still use Java in it's coding? With all the trouble that Java has been in and caused over the last couple of years, really, you'd think by now that websites would just eschew using it altogether. Maybe they do, I've had Java disabled in all our browsers for several months now, and frankly I can't say what it is that I'm missing. Every once in awhile I'll come across a website that tells me I'm, "not enjoying the full experience of their website because I have Java disabled". It's usually just some applet for playing some dumb game, or taking an online quiz. I can't say that I feel like I'm missing all that much. Surely there are better alternatives for these sorts of things, like HTML5. I think it's time for Java to be put out to pasture. I mean, Oracle themselves seem to make it difficult. The other day, I spent an hour trying to update my Java with the most recent patch. It was a laborious, frustrating process and I'm still not confident that I have the updated version on my computer without any of the older, compromised versions still on my hard-drive.

     Please Oracle, can you tell me why you can't make a simple updater that will install the latest version on my computer and "automatically" remove older versions from my computer? Why do I have to go in and manually remove the older versions of Java from my computer myself? Why do you STILL insist on trying to sneak the "Ask toolbar" onto my browsers whenever I try and update Java? I've still got Java disabled on all my browsers, and I suggest to everyone out there that you do it also. Java has become a playground littered with dirty needles and homeless pedophiles, it's time to find a new playground because this one has become a crime-ridden ghetto.

A Whole New Year!

     My blog has been looking pretty "political" lately, I know. I didn't mean for it to, but the world has been pretty political for the past few months, and my life has been somewhat embroiled in that so this blog has reflected that. Of course, I have no real direction that this blog goes in anyway.

     I'm now gearing up for my second semester in college. I'm getting into some more fun classes this semester...classes like "Intro to computer graphics" and "Fundamentals of design", also "digital imaging". I hope to keep up on this blog on a regular basis just the same, and maybe what I learn in class will be making it's way here as well. I've been using more of my own artwork on the blog lately, both to get more practice in and to become more confident in displaying what I create. With the added benefit being that if I create it myself, I know there's no question about my using it copyright-wise!

     

They're Here, So Let Them Pay Taxes Too!

     Although it seems like there are no clear lines when it comes to the debate over immigration, it does seem that Republicans are for the most part behind attempts to prevent immigrants from becoming United States citizens. You have to wonder why, when it's Republicans who want more revenue coming in from taxes and also want fewer illegal immigrants in this country. By making illegal immigrants legal U.S. citizens, they become a taxpayer, which helps to support the system.


     First off, let's define what an "illegal immigrant" is. Unfortunately, when many people in this country hear this term, their first impression is of an Hispanic that crosses the border in the middle of the night, most likely carrying drugs. That's not the case though, the majority of illegal immigrants in this country are people just like you and me that came into the United States legally and simply haven't left after their visa has expired. Usually because they've decided to make the U.S. their home, but unfortunately the laws and fees that are imposed on immigrants make it next to impossible for many to become U.S. citizens. For starters, it costs $675 to apply to become a U.S. citizen, imagine if you're a family of four, that's a total cost of $2700! Could you come up with $2700 today to pay for yourself and your three family members to become citizens if you had to? Probably not in today's economy, I know I wouldn't be able to.

     Before 1906, all it took for an immigrant to become a U.S. citizen was to take an oath. No fees or tests required. Why was this? Because the U.S. wanted immigrants to help build this nation. That's why our country is called the cultural melting pot. That's why the U.S. experienced such a boom in population and was able to carve a great nation out of the land. Today though, the rich, white elitists who benefited the most from the immigration wave of the late 1800's no longer want those immigrants in this country. They see them as a drain on their pocketbooks and their profit margins. What these people need to see also though is a dwindling population of taxpayers. Not wanting immigrants to become U.S. citizens doesn't keep them out of the country, it only keeps them out of the "system". Drop the fees and the tests required to become a U.S. citizen and you won't see any more rush to enter this country than you already do, you'll just see a growing tax base that will help fund this country into the next century!

Idiots Tweet And Vlog Their Way Into Court!

     How sick can some people of the younger generation be these days? Apparently sick enough and stupid enough to not only be aware of an under-age girl being gang-raped, and possibly being a participant of said tragedy, but to publish tweets and videos of yourself laughing about the event! LINK to the story on MailOnline. I'm so disgusted, I'm not going to go into any details of what goes on in this story out of Steubenville, OH. Suffice it to say that several young men, one in particular, Michael Nodianos, joke and laugh about a 16 year old girl who is "nearby" in an unconscious state being raped. Nodianos makes several jokes in an extract of a 12 minute long video, describing her as, "a dead girl", and comparing her to victims of famous crimes like Treyvon Martin and Caylee Anthony.

     It's not like things like this haven't been happening for decades, because unfortunately they have. I just find it mind-boggling that the young idiots in this story feel comfortable publishing their heinous comments on the internet. I hope that the young man in this video gets everything ten times over in jail that he seems to think is so funny happening to a 16 year old girl.