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Search Recent Articles Recent CommentsPlease create a "reader account"! At present you can post comments anonymously but I may have to turn that feature off if comment spam gets out of control. I reserve the right to delete offensive comments or spam, and ban repeat offenders. Month Archive Yearly Archives Topics About the Author BADGES AND DOODADS Blogroll Interesting Articles I've Read |
Wednesday, August 19
by
Abacquer
on Wed 19 Aug 2009 03:42 PM EDT
Saturday, November 29
by
Abacquer
on Sat 29 Nov 2008 09:54 AM EST
I'd like to take this opportunity to express my utter disgust at the crowd of shoppers who mobbed the doors of a Wal*Mart in Long Island yesterday morning, broke through the doors, and trampled a 34-year old employee to death. There is NOTHING that can be found in Wal*Mart that is worth crushing a human being for--none of you were in desperate need of food or medicines that could only be had in that store and nowhere else on the planet. Believe it or not, your kids will survive if they don't get Guitar Hero for Christmas. Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death (The New York Times): I strongly urge the detective and the county DA to pursue criminal charges against these people. There is security video from the store, so there should be no problem identifying them and providing evidence of their guilt. Nobody "accidentally" breaks a door down and kills a man. The Damour family will have an empty seat at the dinner table for the rest of their lives because of a bunch of stupid assholes wanted to save a buck. It's 2008 folks, you don't get to be cattle anymore. Whoever went to that Wal*Mart yesterday morning and forgot to bring their humanity? I hope you rot in prison. Tuesday, November 4
by
Abacquer
on Tue 04 Nov 2008 06:57 PM EST
My dear friend Maggie of terrific blog Pandora's Tea Room has posted a thoughtful article about trying to communicate with her students about how historic this election is. She comes to the conclusion that we have moved so far from the days of institutionalized repression that many of her students don't see the idea of an African-American President as a very big deal... On campus this historic election day (Pandora's Tea Room): Monday, November 3
by
Abacquer
on Mon 03 Nov 2008 07:43 AM EST
Well, we knew it was coming. The Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania has seen fit to launch a last minute Reverend Wright ad to try and scare white people away from Barack Obama. Once again the naked desperation of the Republican party is evident and the depths to which they will sink boundless. I'm going to boil this down to quick bullet points:
There is more to Barack Obama than who his pastor was, and there is more to Reverend Wright than a few seconds of criticizing the USA. As far as I am concerned Barack addressed this issue admirably in his speech A More Perfect Union where he discussed how there is fear and distrust on both sides of the racial divide--a divide we need to reach across if we want to progress as a nation. ...The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American... Joe Biden, known for stumbling over his own words, aptly summed up my feelings on this particular issue of division while speaking at an event in Tallahassee, FL on Sunday: ...We've got to reach out, we've got to end this. Somebody's got to be big enough to stand up and end this... As far as I'm concerned, Barack Obama has shown he's big enough to stand up and end this. And this is why we hear about Reverend Wright, but not Pastor Hagee. It's why we hear about Bill Ayres, but not the Keating Five. The Obama campaign has been largely a positive one, and I think it is a prelude to a positive presidency--something we sorely need in these times. Sunday, November 2
by
Abacquer
on Sun 02 Nov 2008 02:08 AM EST
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised given what a wackaloon theist McCain's screwhead VP pick is, but just in case it wasn't obvious... Sarah Palin supports a federal Gay Marriage ban--because her religion frowns upon it, it should be illegal for people who don't share her religion. Basically, because she is arrogant. ...in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage. I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do, but I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage and that's casting my votes and speaking up for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage... Knuckledraggers love this witch. If McCain doesn't win, I expect we will be hearing from her again in 2012. Crooks and liars has the video and transcript of Palin's statement to CBN's David Brody. Monday, October 27
by
Abacquer
on Mon 27 Oct 2008 05:28 PM EDT
Reuters: Obama assassination plot thwarted Sick people in this world, man. Sick people. Tuesday, September 23
by
Abacquer
on Tue 23 Sep 2008 08:52 PM EDT
So, the creators of Spore, Electronic Arts, created an online discussion forum where people could talk about Spore. Unfortunately they made the mistake of offering a feedback forum where people could post feedback about the game, and the reviews are positively ghastly. So many people are irate about how shallow the game is and the various bugs in it that last week EA released a patch for the game, only a week after the game went to market. Anybody in software development knows what happens when you rush a patch out the door. And it happened big time... the patch made the game experience WORSE for a lot of users, fixing some bugs but creating a whole host of new ones. Interest in the game is visibly on the wane, online Spore traffic has been pretty much falling since day one and people are already clamoring for "expansion packs". It's generally not a good sign if you are looking for game expansions after owning the game for one week. By comparison I've owned Oblivion IV for over a year now and I only purchased one of the available expansions. I haven't needed to buy any more because there is plenty of content there to keep I (and my family) entertained. But I digress.. The interesting thing is (as you might expect) a number of EA's customers are not at all pleased that they are limited to 3 installs of their game before it won't install anymore, and some are unhappy with SecuRom being installed on their machines without their consent. So along with feedback about various other flaws in the game, EA gets plenty of feedback about DRM and the headaches it is causing their customers. Which they delete. Yeah, you heard that right. If you post feedback about the DRM in Spore, they simply delete your feedback. They don't want customers discussing DRM or complaining about DRM. And the reason is quite simply this: DRM does not stop pirates. It never did. The day Spore was released, there was already a DRM-free hacked version available for download from the various piracy sites. ANYBODY who did not have an ethical problem with stealing the game, could simply download a fully functional pirate version. Personally, I think game makers should be paid for their efforts, so this is not an option for me. Electronic Arts isn't staffed by morons--they have tech savvy engineers working there who know full well that DRM will not stop pirates. So why do they keep claiming they put it in there to prevent pirates from stealing their game? Why is it really there? My theory (and a lot of other people think so too) is they want to control (or basically kill) the resale market. If you want to play Spore and figure you'll buy a used copy in a year or so, think again. By putting the install limit on the game, EA prevents you from selling your property to a third party when you tire of it. Why would anyone buy Spore if it had only 1 install left, or less? So if someone wants Spore six months from now, they're going to have to buy it from EA--or they will get stiffed on reinstalls if one is ever needed. That's fairly evil and a number of people (including myself) have posted threads to that effect on EA's feedback forum only to have them quietly disappear. Which is also evil. |
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