A Tree Falling in the Forest

Today I was invited by 5 people to connect on Naymz. . . I was also invited to connect to another dozen on Plaxo . . .10 on Linkedin and a myriad of others on a myriad of other services. I also found out that about 400 people whose card I once touched at a conference or in a meeting have updated their profile, blog or some other aspect of their life. Do I really need to know all this? There is no established etiquette yet. If there were, people I hardly know would not keep sending invitations. It doesn't upset me, it takes virtually no time to ignore the invitation and sometimes it is even fun to try to figure out who the person is. I just always feel like I am offending someone. On the other hand, by accepting the invitation I am either joining a whole new service or in the case of the one service in which I participate, inviting them to ask for introductions to everyone I selected to connect with. Many believe that every person on the planet is only six degrees away. If...

I am an Apple fan boy. My first computer was an Apple ][, upgraded to a ][ + and ][ e. I did stray for a while when NEC released the first lap tops. But came back to Apple when Mr. Jobs returned. I had the 20th Anniversary Mac, Wallstreet Powerbook, The Cube, the Mine and others. Warts and all. I read the rumor sites too much and on a cold late night in New York found myself wandering into the flagship store. So it is no surprise that this fan boy with the sadly misdirected life purchased the Macbook Air as soon as the store re opened after the Macworld announcement. I excitedly loaded and reloaded the home page until the buy button was available . . . and I got in. It made me happy as a consumer, but as a shareholder? The computer has yet to arrive, but I am sure it will be everything I hoped for. Part of the reality distortion field is the ability to cause us mortals to ignore the flaws and reconfigure our usage patterns to the dictates of Mr. Jobs. One USB port, no ether...

On my usual morning visit to Gametab the headline "Lukeskywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas caught my eye. I clicked through and saw the very disturbing video I posted up above. It is game journalist and tv host Geoff Keighly being served up on television like a stuffed Christmas goose in mid 18th century England. He was blind sided, set up and denigrated by Fox News over Rock and Roll. Well, not really Rock and Roll. It was over games, they are our generation's Rock and Roll. In the fifties adults hated Rock and Roll. It was Satan's work. Records were burned in the streets, sponsors pulled ads from radio stations, studies were created and cited to "prove" harmful effects and kids listened even more. Over the years the age of the listeners increased and the listeners moved into the societal roles of the attackers. They stopped attacking because they were listening. All of a sudden the heat died down. Not really, the heat was simply redirected to other thi...

A little while ago N'Gai Croal was kind enough to publish a rant of mine which compared Halo 3 sales numbers to film . I received a lot of feedback regarding my position that Halo should not be made into a film. Unfortunately, that was not my premise. If anything, I said that Halo should not be made into a shitty movie. My point was simply, games sales alone do not say the film should be made. A film can be made about anything, look at Pirates of the Caribbean. However, like Pirates, the film will live or die on its story. Unless a great script with a great director and a great producer come together, the film won't be made. Sometimes this happens right away, sometimes it takes years, sometimes it never does. The evolution from game to great script is a harder one than a comic book, a novel or a life story. In the case of Sin City and 300, brilliant directors figured out how to shoot the films directly from the pages. Novels have strong stories and a number of writers ...

I don’t like to discuss politics with acquaintances. My views result from years of experience and exposure, but most importantly, are very personal. They are not necessarily right they are simply mine. I am not arrogant enough to think anyone else cares. It is not my job to evangelize, and I don’t want anyone to “save” me. The good news is, I don’t have to raise the issues with anyone, living on the Westside of Los Angeles I already know what the neighbors think. In case they think I don’t know their views, they happily share them. Blue State people love to share. I find this out every time I walk my son to school. They know their view is the only right one. They also know their enlightened view is so obvious, everyone must agree with them. Bush’s most recent deficiency is no less obvious than the color of the sky. No one could possibly disagree. Now that we have people like Arianna Huffington providing talking points, my neighbors can support their arguments with facts. Each morning t...

Jack Thompson built a name for himself attacking video game companies. In his mind, video games cause violent behavior. I was first aware of this mindset when Eidos was sued on behalf of families of Columbine victims. Some attorney brought a class action based on our publishing and distribution of Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII PC. I felt the attorneys responsible for bringing in the action were preying on the victims of tragedy to satisfy their own personal agendas. Since then Jack Thompson has created somewhat of a name for himself pursuing these types of actions. However, now, as the victim of a mindless act, replicating the actions taken in the most popular video game in the world, I believe Jack. My wife’s car was the object of a hit and run accident. The car was parked on the street in front of our house, and a car drove into the door, caused thousands of dollars in damage, and drove away without leaving a note or any other way to find them. This is exactly the type of action,...

I am the first to acknowledge my issues with authority. It started at a very early age when I could not understand why my elementary school teachers did not feel the compelling need to hear my perspective. For the most part, I can identify my urges toward inappropriate behaviors and suppress them before they come out. Most significantly, I listen to and respect the TSA Agents at airport screening sites. Part of the respect is naturally driven by their authority to take me in the back room and inspect places which better remain hidden to even my doctor, but mostly I view their job as important. I make a point of arriving early and the added time for inspection makes me feel a bit safer. This all ended last week. I checked in and started to go through security. I emptied my pockets, took off my shoes and walked through the metal detector. The detector went off because I walked too quickly. I went back, as instructed, and walked through again. This time the detector did not go off. I was ...