It has been many years since I did not spend Valentine’s Day alone. I am looking forward to being with Kelly tomorrow, though I do not, as of yet, have a plan in place as to what we will be doing, I know that it will be a good time. It has been so good to re-connect with her after all these years. The ease at which our conversation seems to come is rare to say the least. There have only been a couple times in my life that it has been like that. I am looking forward to seeing just where this path takes me, the view, so far, is great!
I will likely post another blog late tonight or early tomorrow morning, but, I must leave you with this short one for now. I have much to complete here at home in order to be free of responsibility tomorrow. Please everyone, just take a moment, when you step outside next, just stop and look up. I find, most people don’t look up anymore. It is amazing the beauty that is right in front of us, and above, that we just take for granted…
Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support.
As always, take care and remember…
Acum cîteva zile Google a lansat produsul Google Buzz. Am aflat din mass-media (adică de pe internet, în cazul ăsta), dar, mai ales, am aflat atunci cînd am accesat contul de gmail. Nu m-am grăbit nici să-l activez şi nici să scriu despre el. Acum nu am nici cea mai mică intenţie să-l mai activez. Nu mă arunc niciodată cu capul înainte… aştept mai întîi criticile negative. De cele mai multe dăţi primele versiuni ale programelor au erori (asta mi-o spune experienţa ca programator şi de problemele pe care le-am avut cu diverse programe făcute sau începute de alţii). Din ce-am citit pe pagina lui Zoso (aici) cineva a dat deja peste o asemenea eroare.
Google Buzz nu reprezintă decît unul dintre aspectele “coliziunilor” dintre tehnologiilor folosite de cîţiva dintre jucătorii cunoscuţi de pe piaţă (internetul este, prin definiţie, o imensă piaţă de desfacere de produse). Facebook va intra în domeniul serviciilor de mesagerie electronică (email), sau cel puţin aşa am auzit, iar Google intră în sfera reţelelor de socializare (gen Facebook, hi5, MySpace, etc). Adică prin Buzz-ul ăsta. Ce vrea Google să facă este să agrege programele şi serviciile deja realizate de ei, astfel că Buzz este integrat deja în Gmail, utilizatorii pot să facă schimb de mesaje, imagini şi filmuleţe sau să le pună pe Picasa, Flickr sau Youtube. Se poate conecta şi cu Twitter. Serviciul Buzz va dispune şi de o variantă pentru telefoanele cu sistemul Android realizat tot de le Google iar mesajele vor fi localizate cu ajutorul lui Google Maps.
Bun, şi cu securitatea cum rămîne? Adică securitatea datelor personale, a vieţii private. Nu am reuşit să aflu foarte bune despre asta căutînd informaţiile pe internet, cel puţin în legătură cu Google Buzz. Doar eroarea menţionată mai devreme. De apărut e sigur că vor apărea şi alte probleme. Din punctul meu de vedere probleme de securitate sînt cele mai importante şi de aceea, cel puţin pe moment, nu pot susţine că Google Buzz este un succes.
“What are the rules regarding free speech for GIs on Facebook? Two are being brought up on charges for saying that Navy sucks.”
This from a GI Rights Hotline list I’m on. That threat both seems to belie and kind of explains why Facebook is permitted but MySpace banned on bases, at least according to this NYRB piece:
One of the most notable examples of class distinction…came from the US military, which permitted soldiers to use Facebook but banned MySpace in 2007:
Facebook is extremely popular in the military, but it’s not the [social network] of choice for 18-year-old soldiers, a group that is primarily from poorer, less educated communities. They are using MySpace. The officers, many of whom have already received college training, are using Facebook.
MySpace remains banned within the military to this day, while Facebook, despite security concerns, is still available to American troops.
My theory? The officers are on already on Facebook, chatting with their college buddies and juggling its news feeds; and they can use it to check on their soldiers. Whereas braving MySpace, with its relentless music and layout worthy of Kandinsky, takes effort.
Thus, using your real name and posting NAVY SUCKS does sound like you’re testing something. I’ll try to keep you posted about what happens next, unless it would violate confidentiality in some way. In the meantime, I suggest a new Facebook ID, with an upside-down flag in case of a photo.
It’s not exactly a new concept for game companies to raise money for charities, but it seems that now more than ever with the attention social games and MMOs, some game companies are pushing to get donation and charity drives on the front burner. They are realizing that the gaming community is larger than ever and using social networking to get as many people involved as possible is working.
There is a passionate and networked community out there of “grownup gamers.” In truth, we’re still gaming and never did give it up as our parents suggested. Obviously, not all of us are your “typical gamer.” We’re parents, teachers, engineers, and college students. We are young and old, male and female. One thing is for sure: we’re showing the world that gamers care about people, animals, and the environment with out donation dollars.
There are many ways games can be used to raise money for charities. One way is from offering in-game items with special abilities (cuteness being one of those abilities).
Some companies don’t actually make games or sell virtual items, but raise awareness about a charity through gaming conventions and comics about games.
Penny Arcade is doing just that with their charity, Child’s Play. They were able to raise almost 2 million dollars last year for stocking children’s hospitals with video games and toys. Nothing is worse than being sick and having nothing fun to do. You can learn more about this charity and donate by visiting their site here: http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
CCP, creators of the popular sci-fi themed MMO Eve, is offering a virtual item that adds 30 days of game time to your paid subscription. This item will be available until February 15th. Once you purchase this item, all of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross disaster relief efforts in Haiti. More on that here: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=726
Social games developer Zynga raised a stunning 1.5 million in 5 days for the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti by selling virtual goods in 4 of their most successful games: FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars, and Zynga Poker. This is a huge accomplishment and it shows that their tagline “Transforming the world through games” might be becoming more of a reality. Zynga also helps animals in need by donating to the San Francisco SPCA to the tune of over $90,000 by selling virtual tabby cats and bull dogs in Yoville. You can find out more here: http://zynga.org/
Merscom has plans in the works to offer special virtual items in their social games which will help raise money for non-profits and charity organizations. Keep an eye on http://www.mercom.com for upcoming information on what you can expect to see soon!
For brevity’s sake, here is a list of some other game companies and publishers who are generously sharing their space: Sony Online Entertainment, Free-to-play MMO publisher Outspark, London-based developer Tall Trees, Runes of Magic publisher Frogster, Xbox and Activision.
With the number of large game companies following this trend, it’s safe to say if you play online games there is a good chance that you’ll be seeing a charity tie in soon.
If I missed a great charity or cause, which is related in some way to gaming, I’d like to hear about it.
Also, would you buy one virtual item over another if you knew it was for a good cause? Have you donated to charities through games before? What was your experience like?
In 2003, the site myspace.com made history. With it’s astounding idiology that social networking on the web could be possible, it was one of the pioneering sites to offer custom profiles, open source development, record deals to many artists and much, much more. However, was it always this way? Is it still this way? Many theories are uncertain, but we know for certain that MySpace has been experiencing some lag in the past two years. From a murder and mutalation of a woman back in 2008 in Baltimore, to competition from rivals such as twitter and facebook, to the increased amount of spam mail, to ads popping up everywhere, and of course, lastly, viruses. Of course, this isn’t the fault entirely of MySpace. After all, they were trying to make it open for anyone. However, MySpace claims to be a secure web site. Tell me then, why everytime somjeone enters the realm of MySpace do they start to see spyware ad-ons trying to take hold of their computers. Why does Norton, Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast and other virus programs detect viruses contaminating the wonderful world of MySpace? I ask this same question myself, and therefore I have made a vow to no longer use MySpace. So, naturally, you won’t find the blog on MySpace. However, you can easily find it on facebook or wordpress.
If you’re a MySpace user, and you are reading this and have experienced none of the above with the MySpace interface, then the best of congrats to ya! However, Gary will be retreating from the MySpace world for now.
At the enclosure of this blog is list of viral infections I have discovered while browsing the MySpace site, including editing my profile, customization, sending instant messages, email messages and adding profile songs.
File sharing:
File sharing was first invented so that computers could share open source programs that were free for development. Utorrent and sites like this were great because they offered a place where files could be downloaded and obtained quickly and ifficiently. However, at around the early part of the millenium, someone got the idea that they could take albums and songs and illegally share them on torrents.
What is a torrent? A torrent file is a small file that points to the exact location of the file that you wish to download. Any files such as software, games, music and movies or any other content that has to be licenses, distributed or paid for is illegal to download. I no longer support torrents and MySpace for these reasons. Torrents are free and great to get ahold of, but there is a lot more that you may not want that comes along with that as well.
So, without further adue, a sample list of viruses that you may get by doing these things.
trojans
trojan downloaders
attempts to run spyware ad-ons as active exe controls
definitions:
trojan: A large file which contains a program that executes a command from an attacker on another PC, using a remote access method.
Basically, you use your PC and someone else controls your computer in the background, installing malicious software, and trojan downloaders.
Trojan downloaders: Files that download trojans and display deceptive product messages. For exampel, you may see:
10117.exe is requesting your permission to make changes to your computer. Do you wish to continue?
Click yes, and it’s easy for the hacker to obtain your information if you are not careful, such as email addresses, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.
That’s why it’s always good to do routine virus scans, clear cookies when exiting the net, and schedule system cleanups.
Note: I made this blog for all the other users that take advantage of these services. Viruses are dangerous and harmful to your computer. I had to do a whole system recovery and reformat my disc.
Is there another way to download legal music?
Yes. Try the amazon mp3 downloader at amazon.com, or ITunes.
If You’re Feeling Sinister is the album that made me really interested in Belle & Sebastian and twee. They are really cynical and sarcastic and good for if you want feel life is not worth living but to silly to end it. The music does not say anything like that but the soft and gentle touch of the vocals and the swishy guitar is polite and feminine but the lyrics are bitter and jaded like the winds of Scotland and England where these chaps are from. I did not like this album at first and did not understand the liking of Belle & Sebastian from the cools. It must have taken me many times of a suffering of a listen to get real intention of this music. I have to say if your not already jaded don’t even pick up this band because it’s like a schooling in the life of the misused and unappreciated. Real emo is this, and this hard to make any harder or brutal. Metal might be angry and violent but this twee is some of a different kind of monster. The characters are bookworms too afraid to speak or trendy pretty boys who use and lie for fun or women who are too pretty for their own good and others you might know. “When your legs are black and blue it’s time to take a holiday, it’s not as if they are paying you”
…considering that I view blogging as narcissistic? Sadly, all of the web is narcissistic to some extent. “LOOK AT ME! I’M IMPORTANT!”
To me, Twitter is the epitome of web narcissism. If the sky was falling, millions of chicken littles would simultaneouly tweet “The sky is falling! #skyfalling”. I find it annoying, yet I have a Twitter account. However, 140 characters are extremely limiting, as I often want to say much more.
Such was the case a few days ago. While researching something of interest, I came across numerous forum threads from years ago, which seems often the case. I wished to contribute, but knew the threads were long dead. Plus, forums tend to be more about opinion than information exchange. What does that leave me?
There’s always my website, www.djrcreative.com, but that’s a lot of work. Sure, I could use a web-authoring program, but I pride myself on hand-coding. Actually, I miss MySpace. I still have my account, but am embarrassed to use it, as it’s become passé within my demographic. To date, I have avoided Facebook, for reasons which will get their own post.
Indeed, I find myself with more and more on my mind lately, yet no way of sufficiently expressing these thoughts. In addition, during the course of a day, my curiosity results in a lot of “research”. Ultimately, I’d like to think that my efforts could benefit other people. If for no one else, this would at least be a record for myself. In the end, I suppose blogging fits my needs.
“What are the rules regarding free speech for GIs on Facebook? Two are being brought up on charges for saying that Navy sucks.”
MySpace remains banned within the military to this day, while Facebook, despite security concerns, is still available to American troops.