You are reading something written for the sake of being written by me to write about writing a blog post. I don’t have a topic, so watch this video and respond in the comments with three words to describe how it makes you feel:
In closing, here is a giraffe’s face:
Minecraft is a game that cannot easily be described. Any attempts I’ve heard failed to do the game justice, not necessarily because the game is amazing, but because the descriptions make it sound pretty lame. I’ve been putting many hours of free time into the game since I bought it last week, so there is definitely substance to this game.
I’ll attempt to give a basic summary of the gameplay. The game revolves around blocks that represent different materials such as stone, wood, and minerals. The whole infinitely generating world is made of these blocks. You can build and use various tools to help manipulate the blocks and collect the materials. You can also attach blocks to other blocks to build things, which is where most of the fun lies. For an added twist, there are monsters that appear at night or in dark tunnels.
Enough about the game. Here’s how my experience with this game went. First I created a single-player game and started randomly digging around, then built a failure of a shelter. After that, I joined some friends in a multiplayer game and never went back. After breaking some stuff, I borrowed some supplies and started mining for materials. Then I leveled an island and built a cabin on it. At this point I thought “Now what?”
The answer is build stuff! You can build pretty much anything you can imagine, limited only by your creativity and amount of effort you’re willing to put in. So far I’ve built a maze and a roller coaster, which is pretty fun. Other players on the server are building way more impressive structures.
At the time of this writing, the game is in the alpha stage of development so there are bugs as expected, especially in multiplayer mode. These don’t do much to get in the way, though. The game is moving to beta on Dec. 20th, which also means the price will double. So if you’re thinking of getting the game, buy it before then!
Today, the United States celebrates Thanksgiving. Many people visit family and eat the traditional turkey, but does anyone know the origins of the holiday? We’ll here is (my version of) the story of Thanksgiving…
It all started a long time ago when these pilgrim dudes with funny hats crashed their boat into a rock. They were like, “Oh man, that wasn’t insured.” So they were sitting on this rock when these Indians appeared and said, “Want some pie, eh?” (They learned to speak English from the Canadians).
The pilgrims, being hungry, shot all the Indians and took the pie. It was delicious. While eating the pie, one of them spotted a weird looking bird walking around. He said, “Hey look, something to shoot!” and they shot it. It was called a turkey.
They were still pretty hungry, so they cooked the bird and began eating it. While they were eating, another Indian appeared and exclaimed, “What have you done? This is all wrong!” The pilgrims agreed and vowed to always eat the turkey before the pie. Then they shot him.
After many years of exploring and shooting stuff, the pilgrims ran out of ammo. The Indians, being very generous or stupid, offered them their weapons. The pilgrims said, “Thank you.” Since they didn’t know how to use these weapons, the pilgrims and Indians finally lived in peace for a while. The end.
So that’s the story I made up for Thanksgiving.
Don’t taze my junk, bro?
What’s with this sudden uproar about airport security recently? Every day I see multiple articles and stories about the terrible things the TSA is doing to travelers in the name of security. Take away all the weighted words and claims of constitutional rights being violated, and these stories simply come down to whining.
People are referring to the pat-down searches as “groping,” “fondling,” or “sexual assault” when none of these terms are accurate. There’s nothing sexual about these searches. There may be incidental touching of the genital region, but they are only interested in any foreign objects that may exist. If contact with gloves and several layers of fabric between you is considered sexual assault, I don’t want to know what you think of a standard physical exam.
Then there’s the claims that these searches somehow violate the Constitution. If you can point out the part that grants you the right to unconditionally board commercial aircraft, then you might have a case. The only real right you have here is the option to not fly.
The good news for people who prefer not to be touched by strangers is that there’s new technology that can see through your clothes without any contact required. But wait, it turns out people have a problem with this as well. I guess the main issue is that these images are too revealing. However, from what I read, it turns out that the people seeing these images are far away and can’t see the subject’s face. So I don’t see that as an issue. Another argument is the health risks from radiation exposure, but you’re already exposed to more radiation in a few minutes of a flight. What’s a little extra going to do?
The truth is that some people will do bad things given the opportunity. History shows us that commercial flights are a target, so now we have these new rules to go by when we choose to travel by air. One person can threaten the lives of every other passenger and potentially others. So in order to board a flight, you have to prove that you don’t have any dangerous objects. Deal with it.
However, maybe there are arguably better alternatives to the current strategy, as I’ve read in this interesting article about Israel’s airports.
And I’ll close with this link to a humorous anecdote.
Internet piracy has been a huge problem ever since residential connections were fast enough to make it practical. Now it is trivial to download practically any commercial content for free, whether it’s music, movies, or software. Whether or not someone pirates now comes down to a moral issue.
One of the most common rationalizations for piracy I hear is that everyone does it. It seems that most pirates are in this mindset, especially in the younger demographic. While it may be true that piracy is very popular, that is in no way a valid justification. If everyone does it, then everyone is guilty just the same.
Another rationalization is that downloading a digital copy of something does not actually cost anyone anything. However, the fact is that when you buy a hard copy of something, you’re actually paying for the production costs of the content, not the physical medium. This rationalization does not hold up to any amount of scrutiny; I don’t even know why I addressed it.
Regardless of which rationalization(s) one subscribes to, most don’t seem to recognize digital piracy as theft. Most offenders are otherwise honest, law abiding citizens. So it is interesting to me how these same people can have no moral objections to piracy, which simply comes down to taking commercial property without paying for it. I guess it’s a moral blind spot.
In response to rampant piracy, publishers have responded to the problem by attempting to stop it directly. This has resulted in often misguided attempts at controlling the flow of data in the form of DRM (digital rights management) schemes.
The problem with DRM is that it puts unnecessary restrictions on honest consumers, such as how many times data can be transferred between devices. Worse yet, it hardly makes a dent in preventing piracy. All it takes is one smart pirate to bypass the protection, and it is now available to the rest. DRM is ineffective.
Unfortunately, piracy cannot be stopped. As long as the opportunity exists, people will steal. Digital piracy is easy for anyone to do and it’s a very low-risk crime, so it is here to stay.
So what is the solution? There are many more clever things that artists and publishers are doing that I recognize as effective solutions.
The first step is acceptance. Publishers need to accept that piracy will happen, and incorporate this assumption into their plans.
It is important to make it as easy and accessible as possible for consumers to purchase content. For music we have individual track downloads via services like iTunes and Amazon. For movies we have Netflix, which allows unlimited instant streaming with a subscription.
In the case of music, artist are turning to alternative income sources and relying less on record sales. This includes live performances and merchandise sales.
Something else that helps offset the damage is to make use of online social media for viral advertising. Not only does this save on advertising costs, in the case of music it can also make consumers feel closer to the artist, which probably helps deter piracy (people might feel more guilty).
Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done about software piracy. Possibly moving commercial software into the “cloud” might work. Commercial software has bigger problems anyway, since free and open source software is surpassing the quality of commercial products.
The best solution to piracy is for the individuals to stop doing it. The less piracy that exists, the more profitable the business is. Not only will this increase the quality of content, it will allow more variety in the content. In terms of music, this can translate to lesser known artists getting more exposure.
If you are guilty of piracy yourself (even I was at one point), I urge you to stop now. If you can’t afford all the music you’d like to have, there are alternatives such as Internet radio (Pandora, Last.fm) and subscription based plans. There’s just no excuse for piracy.
I am subscribed to the official Valve mailing lists for HLDS, which is the server software for their games. Everyone once in a while, a user will pop in asking why their cracked server isn’t working. When they’re are told that they won’t get support from official channels, they usually act all surprised. They’re usually from another country where it seems piracy is an expected behavior.
I just find it funny when someone expects to get official support for their pirated software. That’s like stealing a car and then asking the owner why the stereo doesn’t work.
Soundgarden has resurfaced to perform at Lollapalooza and to announce Telephantasm, a retrospective due on September 28th. This will include many alternative versions of songs as well as several unreleased videos on DVD. It also includes “Black Rain,” a previously unreleased track recorded during the Badmotorfinger sessions. It sounds great!
You can listen to it right here:
The artwork for Telephantasm is also incredible, I might add! You can see full-sized images by clicking on either banner in this post. It’s also my new desktop background.
Soundgarden’s appearance at Lollapalooza marks their third performance since their return, including the one at the Showbox which I talked about in a previous post. They have exceeded my expectations with each performance. Chris can still sing, Kim can still make his crazy sounds, Ben can still manage to reach the floor, and Matt is perfect. 
I’ve already pre-ordered the Super Ultra Deluxe edition of Telephantasm. Now I wait…
So lately I’ve been making random videos out of in-game footage I have and uploading them to my channel on YouTube. Most of them are pointless, but I use them as opportunities to try new things. Anyway, here are some examples.
Just pointless (cool effect at the end though)…
Playing with time remapping…
Telling a story (I guess)…
Just cool stuff that happens…
If you want to see more, consider subscribing to me on YouTube. 
Natural selection is the process by which individuals of a species that are best suited to the environment survive to reproduce and pass on their beneficial traits. It is believed to be the primary mechanism that drives evolution. With the human species, one of the results of this is the increased intelligence required to develop technology.
Some of this technology has, for a long time, been able to compensate for undesirable traits to allow more individuals to survive, and the effect of this technology is constantly increasing. So individuals who would otherwise not survive the environment, are able to live long enough to reproduce. It would appear that this is working against natural selection.
I see two ways to look at this. One is that modern technology is nullifying natural selection, and preventing evolution from continuing. The other is that technology is a direct result of our intelligence gained through the process of natural selection, and therefore is part of evolution. I think both of these are valid.
There is also a potentially devastating long-term effect of modern medicine. As we develop more and more potent antibiotics and disinfectants, we kill off the majority of bacteria species. This leaves the most resistant species and removes their competition. This effectively accelerates natural selection and creates stronger and stronger bacteria at an unnatural rate. This is evident in the existence of “super bugs” in sterile environments like hospitals.
The only real conclusion I can come up with is that technology plays a large part in the survivability of individuals. I’d say it’s the same exact effect of a less hostile environment. The question is, are the long-term effects of this good or bad for us as a species?