Month: June 2012

Punditry so simple, even a teenager can do it…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

I’ll be honest: I don’t care for most political talk shows, be they radio-based or otherwise.

I do watch The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, but that’s mostly due to the fact they’re pretty funny as well as informative. The fact that they’re only a half-hour long each helps as well; I can’t imagine sitting down and listening to someone pontificate for an hour or more every day about their opinion. I’d prefer to be informed, which is why I prefer to simply browse the net through various news sources rather than sit and listen to one single person go on telling me what they think.

I suppose it doesn’t help, either, when the majority of political talk pundits out there are conservative. I definitely lean towards liberal ways of thinking, especially when it comes to social issues. It’s not that I don’t want to hear what the other side believes, mind. It’s that the arguments sometimes come off as so wrong that it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Besides which, the opinions of these people frequently hit the news, so it’s not as if I don’t hear it anyway. :-)

However, I was content to just let all that be, until I saw a blog post on the Houston Chronicle talking about Bill Maher and his reaction to teenaged conservatives who already have radio shows and books. That in itself surprised me; I remember myself at 14, and still cringe to this day about how I would say whatever I thought and believed… and find out later how wrong I was shortly after. The article posted an example of one such teen conservative, Caiden Cowger, talking about homosexuality.

(Warning: this video is rage-inducing.)

To be blunt, I almost wanted to pull a Kevin Spacey Lex Luthor only 15 seconds in, and scream, “WRONG!!!!!!”

His entire attitude is that homosexuality is a choice (I don’t know many gay friends who would have chosen the hell they got from people), that he is being discriminated against because he cannot tell gays they’re abominations and going to Hell (gay people have freedom of religion too), and that President Obama is making people gay (more like making it safer for gays to come out). I actually felt embarrassed for this kid as he spouted off, clearly not knowing what he was talking about, instead letting his disgust of homosexuals guide what he was saying.

However, the problem as illustrated by Bill Maher is a bit more severe. I was watching Cowger talk, and it occurred to me that the way he was speaking, the arguments he was using, and such reminded me very much of when I would hear Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly. At that point, I became less embarrassed for the kid (who is too young to know better) and more for the adults, simply because I realized they sounded like young trolls.

As Maher succinctly put it in the clip above, “When fourteen year old boys sound exactly like you do, and can produce radio shows and books and speeches that sound exactly like yours, maybe you should rethink the shit that’s coming out of your mouth.”

To be brutally honest, if I want to see arguments and discussions like those of teenagers, I’d spend more time reading Mortal Kombat forums, as the fanbase tends to have an average age of 16 or so. I didn’t take much part in the forums when I ran Mortal Kombat Online, so I don’t see things changing anytime soon.

Ah, well. I’ll stick to what I have been doing. If other people like to listen to pundits go on for hours on end, that’s their prerogative; I’m more interested in the facts and developing my own opinions from that than listening to other people’s opinions.

SCOTUS strikes down much of SB1070; Romney’s response is telling…

D'Arque Bishop

Earlier today, the United States Supreme Court released its decision regarding SB 1070, Arizona’s controversial law regarding illegal immigration. In a 6-3 decision with Justice Kagan not participating (she had argued for the Federal government’s side before she was appointed to the Supreme Court), much of the law was struck down, except for the provision where local and state law enforcement officials were required to ask a suspect who had been stopped for another violation if he or she is in the country legally. To be honest, as long as said law is applied fairly, then I have no problem with that.

What blew me away was Mitt Romney’s response to the ruling.

Today’s decision underscores the need for a president who will lead on this critical issue and work in a bipartisan fashion to pursue a national immigration strategy. President Obama has failed to provide any leadership on immigration. This represents yet another broken promise by this president. I believe that each state has the duty — and the right — to secure our borders and preserve the rule of law, particularly when the federal government has failed to meet its responsibilities. As candidate Obama, he promised to present an immigration plan during his first year in office. But four years later, we are still waiting.

To quote a particular internet meme, “What is this I don’t even…”

There are a lot of things wrong with this statement. First off, I have to agree with Steve Benen when he says, “The irony is almost jaw-dropping. Romney is certain we need a president ‘who will lead’ on immigration policy, while at the exact same time, Romney refuses to lead on immigration policy. Put it this way: refusing to take a stand because one constituency or another might get angry isn’t leadership; it’s cowardice…” In my own mind, though, it’s also rather hypocritical to demand leadership from Obama on one hand, while on the other refusing to commit on what he would do in the same position (which he wants). It’s not enough to point out the incumbent’s flaw when running for office; we need to know what you plan to do to fix the problem.

Unfortunately for Romney, though, the problem is even more fundamental than that. The truth of the matter is that Obama has led in immigration reform. If one needs evidence, one needs only look back ten days ago, when Obama announced he would give relief to young illegal immigrants brought here at a young age by their parents, providing they meet certain conditions. Obama has been working towards this as far back as 2008 with his support of the DREAM Act. To say that Obama has not provided any leadership at all is dishonest posturing.

Speaking of the DREAM Act, it was introduced in 2009, and considered throughout 2010. However, a Republican filibuster caused the bill to die on the Senate floor. I’m sorry, but in my opinion, one loses the moral high ground to request bipartisanship when the party’s reaction to legislation it doesn’t like is not to work with the other side to make the necessary changes, but to stamp its feet and cry, “NO!” To quote a friend, that is also not leadership. It is a temper tantrum.

In fact, it reminds me of a novel I once read. The protagonist and his fiancee were arguing about some necessary business travel he was doing. He told his fiancee to please be reasonable. She angrily replied, “No, YOU be reasonable.” In his mind, he thought, “Translation: do it my way.” It’s hardly a spirit of bipartisanship if one side is unwilling to compromise.

Finally, what he believes and what is true are not anywhere the same thing. Despite what Romney might think is the states’ rights, the Supreme Court has held since 1875 that immigration is the exclusive purview of the Federal government. More, to say that the Federal government has not been meeting its responsibilities is false, as double the number of illegal immigrants have been deported in Obama’s term so far than in George W. Bush’s first term. In fact, it’s been suggested that Obama’s move last week was designed to head off anger from Hispanic voters concerning the increased number of deportations. As the old saying goes, “If you’re not making someone mad, you’re not doing your job…”

All in all, Romney’s response comes off to me as mealy-mouthed, dishonest, and out-of-touch. The last is the least surprising part, as we’re talking about someone who asked Alabama’s lead singer to sing “his” song “Sweet Home Alabama” (warning: video autostarts) and praised Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman’s approach to job creation the same day it was revealed planned on eliminating 27,000 jobs. I may not be happy with everything Obama has done as President, but so far, Romney shows me he is not the leader we need.

(As a post-script, I know Democrats in Texas and Wisconsin both pulled stunts to make sure legislation did not get passed that they didn’t like. In retrospect, I disagree that their actions were the right way to go, even as I heartily disagreed with Scott Walker’s bait-and-switch tactics. It isn’t right when either party pulls underhanded tactics.)

Reaffirming my fansite semi-retirement…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

So, most people who know me obviously know I was the senior editor and webmaster for Mortal Kombat Online. I worked for the site from December of 2001 (right about when Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was announced) to October 2010 (during the run-up for Mortal Kombat), acting as the system administrator, live chat administrator, on-site reporter, webmaster, and news editor. It was a wild ride; I got to go to five E3 trade shows, several Midway Gamers Day media events, and ran live chats with the Mortal Kombat development team on several occasions. I truly enjoyed the time I spent serving the community.

However, near the end of my run, I admittedly was getting pretty tired of running the site, and doing work on it was becoming more and more of a chore. I told myself that a good chunk of it was due to my paying job and because I was getting tired of MKO’s primitive news editor system. The truth of the matter, though, was that I just felt I was getting older and having less to show for all I was doing. After all, it wasn’t a paid job, so it was a hobby done during my free time. As much as I enjoyed talking to my friends in the staff and was willing to provide a guiding hand for ~Crow~ (who was picking up my actual work slack), I simply was burning out. So, I finally decided to semi-retire. I still handle sysadmin duties for MKO (as there really isn’t anyone else who can do it) and stay in the chatroom, but I handed off my remaining job responsibilities to others, both new and old. (Admittedly, some of my replacement choices weren’t the best. C’est la vie…)

Recently I’d been having minor thoughts about coming back and doing reporting. They were only some urges, especially when I saw no one online in the morning to cover new Mortal Kombat-related stories. However, those slight urges were put to one side.

… that is, until NetherRealm announced Injustice: Gods Among Us, a new fighting game based on DC Comics characters.

I have to admit that I was tempted to come out of retirement for that, but not necessarily to MKO. There was some uncertainty as to whether Mortal Kombat-based sites should cover the game, so I figured it would be a new niche. The fact that it was based on DC interested me as well, as it was different from what I had done before and I am an admitted DC fanboy. What I had planned on doing was to create a brand new site, even going as far as to base it on WordPress (for the content and news system) and bbPress (for the forums). I was even considering hosting it on my own servers as opposed to the MKO one. As it was a new site covering a new game, it would have been a nice new step.

However, I was still very hesitant, and rightly so. While Injustice was a brand-new game, DC Comics-based sites are a dime a dozen. On the flip side of that coin, with it being a new property, there was no guarantee a series would come out of it. If there weren’t going to be any sequels, then the site would end up being abandoned after the game’s first few months after release. I would also be causing conflict with MKO, as they are covering the game, and some would wonder why I wasn’t covering the game for MKO instead.

Most of all, I saw problems with myself. I don’t have the drive that I once did for such projects. It’s one thing to do something for yourself, but when all you’re doing is covering someone else’s work with little payoff coming out of it, that’s something else entirely. I enjoyed doing it in the past, but now I want to do things that are mine. That leads to another problem: I don’t even spend the time I would like to on my own site. I’ve gotten better about it, moving longer posts off of Twitter/Facebook/Google+ to here, but it still isn’t as active as it used to be a few years back. I also haven’t done any of the writing I wanted to do, other than a Mortal Kombat fan fiction piece I posted a year ago.

In the end, I decided not to go ahead with it, and keep to my semi-retirement.

To be honest, stepping back from MKO and dedicated game reporting as a whole has taken a whole lot of pressure off me, and I feel more relaxed about being part of the MK community as a result. I still keep in contact with several in the community and on the development team, but mainly as a friend or acquaintance as opposed to a fansite reporter. :-) Overall, I’m happy, and what urges I have to jump in and try to help with MKO outside of sysadmin stuff or advice are easily quashed.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get to any of my writing projects. I know my site will never have the readership that MKO enjoys. I’m okay with that, because in the end, they’re mine, borne of a desire to write what I want to write, not an obligation to cover everything someone else does. I’m definitely looking forward to Injustice, though, and look forward to seeing what the younger crowd has to say about it without me. :-)

Sorry, Windows Phone 7 users. No WP8 upgrade for you.

D'Arque Bishop

Right about the same time I was writing my last blog post, Microsoft officially announced Windows Phone 8, the new version of their phone-only operating system. I kept half an eye on Engadget’s coverage of the announcement via their Twitter feed, and there was one announcement that caught my eye: Windows Phone 8 will not be available for current Windows Phone 7 devices. Instead, people with those devices will get Windows Phone 7.8. Windows Phone 7.8 will support a number of the new features from Windows Phone 8 like the new Start screen, but it will not run apps written for Windows Phone 8.

Again, this makes me wonder about whether they’re really learning the right lessons from Apple. Recently there has been a glut of commercials for the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone, stating that “the smartphone beta test is over”. The premise is that the Lumia 900 is the ultimate in smartphones. However, those who bought a Nokia Lumia 900 now get to learn that they won’t even be allowed to run the most recent version of Windows Phone. By comparison, the iPhone 3GS was released in 2009, and can still comfortably run the most recent version of iOS (5.1.1). More, the 3GS is a supported platform for iOS 6. If a nearly three year old iPhone can run the latest and greatest iOS version, why can’t a Windows Phone-based handset that was released two months ago get the latest and greatest version of Windows Phone?

Sorry, Nokia and Microsoft. It seems to me that you’ve still got quite a bit of beta testing to go.

Scratching below the Surface of Microsoft’s apparent “Me Too” syndrome…

D'Arque Bishop3 Comments

Two days ago, Microsoft announced the Surface, their new in-house tablet. Running Windows 8 or Windows RT (depending on the architecture), it appears to be a standard tablet with an interesting unique feature. The screen cover is in fact a keyboard, supposedly capable of detecting the difference between typing and when an arm or hand is laying across it.

Microsoft posted the announcement trailer on YouTube for all to see.

Right off the bat, I noticed two problems. The first is that according to reports, the Surface will not be sold everywhere. It can only be purchased online and through the Microsoft Store’s retail locations, as opposed to the iPad’s wide availability. The second is that Surface is a quickly recycled name. Until recently “Surface” was the name given to what is now called PixelSense, which is a technology used for touchscreen displays in large environments such as furniture. Harrah’s and Microsoft, for example, made a big deal over the fact that Microsoft Surface/PixelSense displays were installed in the iBar at the Rio in Las Vegas.

Of course, cries from some started coming out that Microsoft was ripping off Apple once again. This prompted an image meme I saw on a friend’s Facebook page yesterday.

To be perfectly honest, there’s some truth in both sides of the argument.

I don’t think anyone can seriously argue that Microsoft isn’t the first to market in some areas of technology, like tablets and phones. The “rip off” (if one wishes to use such a loaded and inaccurate term) is quite a bit more subtle than that. What happens is that Microsoft is the first to market, but its implementation of the technology is clunky at best. Eventually, Apple brings its own version to market, which becomes very popular due to their attention to quality and usability. Microsoft then looks at what Apple did, and re-engineers its products to fix the problems that Apple’s implementation corrected.

For example, let’s look at cell phones. I’ve personally used three different cell phones that used Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system: the Cingular 8125, the Cingular 3125, and the AT&T Tilt. While I enjoyed using the phones because the available software was more varied than the Blackberry devices of the time, the interfaces themselves tended to be awkward, and stability was never a sure thing. Once the iPhone 3G came out (the first version with Exchange ActiveSync support), I switched over and marveled at how intuitive it was to use. After that, Windows Mobile devices seemed even more painful to use. Since then, Microsoft has abandoned Windows Mobile and released Windows Phone 7, which is a far more efficient phone operating system using the Metro UI planned for Windows 8.

Tablets are another example. I’ve seen tablets as far back as 2004, when we purchased a tablet PC for the COO of the company I was working for at the time. To say that the tablet was terrible is, in my opinion, an understatement. While the unit had a touchscreen, a special stylus was needed in order to be able to write on it. Also, the operating system on the tablet was Windows XP Professional. While Windows XP is a great desktop OS, it’s absolutely miserable to use on a touchscreen. I’m not sure how the COO tolerated using that machine outside of a docking station. Of course, once the iPad came out, Microsoft’s tablet ambitions started gearing towards Windows 8/RT with their Metro interface.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that Microsoft’s Surface tablet will be a success like the Xbox 360 or a failure like the Zune. I personally admit to some trepidation, if only because of Microsoft’s OS strategy. Unlike Apple, who has one OS line for its desktop/laptop machines (Mac OS X) and another for its phones and tablets (iOS), Microsoft is using Windows Phone for phones only, while Windows 8 will be used on tablets and desktops/laptops. I’m not sure how well that will work out for them; while Metro works great for a touchscreen interface, I’ve tried it in a desktop environment (VMware virtual machine running Windows 8 Consumer Preview) and it was absolutely terrible. Worse, Metro is the default UI and disabling it is not possible. With a keyboard and mouse, Metro is unintuitive and frustrating to figure out.

Of course, only time will tell whether Microsoft’s strategy will work out for them. Unfortunately, while they look to Apple to fix where they went wrong beforehand, I fear they didn’t learn the proper lessons or implement the proper corrections.

An unexpected weekend activity…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, this past weekend was more fun than we expected.

On Saturday, Jennifer and I had planned to see the play Noises Off! at the Alley Theatre, using tickets given to us as wedding shower presents given to us by our friend Julie’s parents. That in and of itself would have made for a wonderful evening, but I managed to find a nice surprise on Twitter. One of our favorite authors, John Scalzi, announced on his Twitter feed that he was going to be doing a reading, a Q&A, and a book signing at the Brazos Bookstore that day at 4 PM. His newest book, Redshirts, had just been released, and this was part of the publicity tour. Realizing we had plenty of time before the play to go to the book signing, we decided to go ahead and go. We briefly considered bringing one of our Old Man’s War books for him to sign, but decided that we would just buy a copy of Redshirts there and have him sign it.

This was our first visit to the Brazos Bookstore, and we rather enjoyed their product selection. Whenever possible, we like to shop and eat at local places instead of chain stores, so we resolved to start shopping there for new books we want. Unfortunately, when we got there, their entire stock of Redshirts was out. However, the people there were nice enough to take down people’s info so that when new copies came in, they’d send them to Scalzi for signing, and then sell them when they arrived back at the store. Jennifer and I both left our info (as we both wanted signed copies), and sat down to watch the talk.

The talk was very interesting and amusing. Apparently he had promised that if someone brought a ukelele, he would sing the theme song to Redshirts (originally written and performed by Jonathan Coulton), and someone obliged. He did a reading of some material, plus did a skit that explained the literary theme of Redshirts (namely, how screwed up the world of Star Trek was from a safety standpoint). When it came time to do the actual book signing, we obviously didn’t have a book to give him to sign, so we decided to browse around the store. Admittedly, I thought of asking him to sign a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, simply to see what his reaction would be…

In the end, Jennifer bought a gift for a friend, and I got a copy of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. We had a great time at the bookstore, and truly enjoyed being able to go out and see Scalzi talk about his craft. Afterwards, we went to Hillstone (formerly Houston’s) for dinner, and then we went to see Noises Off!, which was as hysterically funny as we expected.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, especially with the added treat of getting to see John Scalzi. I just wish every weekend had that kind of pleasant surprise. :-)

An uninformed meme at a coincidental time…

D'Arque Bishop

It’s no secret that Jennifer and I watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on a regular basis. He may be a comedian, but he tends to have some of the most insightful commentary on current news items. That said, we found his piece on Florida’s governor Rick Scott yesterday to be both hilarious and insightful. I’ll post the embed here so you can get caught up on the gist of what was said.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Purge Overkill
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

 

By sheer coincidence, one of my friends on Facebook shared the following photo this morning:

Of course, my first reaction was to think of what Jon Stewart said in the above clip. My friend Joseph also made the observation that it doesn’t help anyone, simply because there are not any alternatives for people who fail the drug testing other than losing public assistance, at which point they turn to crime to get their fix.

However, the problem with the system is a lot more fundamental. As reported in the news recently, only 2-3% of welfare applicants in Florida failed drug screenings, and less than half of those canceled their drug screening. Worse, as the state was required to reimburse applicants for the cost of the screening, the state actually ended up spending $46,000 more than it would have if it had simply given the people who failed the drug screening the welfare money in the first place. In other words, the state ended up spending more money on a program that did not have a significant effect.

In fact, the only winner in this situation is Rick Scott, who can claim to be tough on “welfare fraud”, even though this program has been proven ineffective. Supporters of the bill claim that it was never about saving money, but was to keep welfare from being used for drugs. Even if that is the case, isn’t a tenet of Tea Party dogma (Scott ran under a Tea Party platform) an abhorrence for wasteful government spending? Would this not be a perfect example of wasteful spending, if it’s doing nothing yet costs thousands of dollars?

Interestingly enough, Scott cofounded a company called Solantic, who does drug testing among other services it provides. While there is no link that I’ve found linking Solantic to the welfare drug testing, it is linked to drug testing state employees. According to reports, Rick Scott is legally in the clear because he moved his financial stake in the company to a trust his wife oversees, but I would argue that it does not ethically put him in the clear. That is mostly a point for another discussion, but it does strike me as more than a little coincidental that Scott is gung-ho for this policy when he has a financial stake in a drug testing firm.

In any event, the fact is that this policy ended up being a colossal failure when implemented in Florida. Moreover, a Federal court has granted a temporary injunction against the law while waiting for it to go to trial. The judge in that case even made the point that she would likely find it unconstitutional. My advice to those thinking of posting this meme to your Facebook walls is this: take a look at its effectiveness so far, take a look at our courts are looking at it, and ask yourself if it’s really worth the time and effort on something that appears to be an ineffective waste.