What This Country’s Coming To…

“The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to collect and retain records about Internet users’ activity,”  (thanks, rawstory.com).

The lovely ass holes (go to their websites and send them anonymous hate-mail while you still can) responsible for this bill are calling it, “The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011.”  They claim that they just want to keep our children safe from those nasty internet kiddie-pornographers.  Which is a fat, steaming load of bullshit.

Gizmo Angst – In Search of the Least Evil Cellphone (UPDATED)

I love gadgets with the kind of sweaty passion only men who own cell phone holsters or carbon fiber wallets can understand.

I don’t own either of those things, because I’m not insane.  But my point stands.

But when it comes to plonking down my precious cash, I do have some standards.

Back to the Meat Cube

Jason Pargin wrote a great article from E3 this year, in which he laments that the gaming industry has traded real innovation for a flood of gimmicks and sequels.  This year, for example, sees the introduction of Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Move, both of which are being launched with a lot of knockoff Wii-shovelware titles.

Wii Sports, meet Kinect Sports.  Wii Fit, meet Your Shape.  Etcetera, etc.

From my point of view, the biggest woe is that every time a new gaming “advance” is introduced, storytelling tends to take a back seat.  The move to HD and “next gen” gaming made graphics the most important part of the game.  As Mr. Pargin pointed out, gamers posted more than 2,000 complaints on Remedy’s forum about Alan Wake not running in full 720p.

Net Neutrality Is A Big Fucking Deal (Updated)

Seriously (warning, that’s a PDF, but a good read). For real, we need this.  Tell Genachowski not to be a damn lackey.  If the FCC backs down on this, the internet absolutely ends its life as a public space and becomes 100% corporate domain.

It’s like what happened to Facebook, only it’s the whole internet.

(psst…I totally ripped off all my links from this guy, you should just read his thing.)

(Update: Win!)

Depth Perception – An Unnecessary Evil

I can’t for the life of me see how 3D can be made a necessary part of a movie.

I understand special effects – allowing a film maker to make manifest impossible things is important.  From the models of Blade Runner and puppetry of Alien to the CG of Jurassic Park or The Matrix, the special effects are part of the storytelling process.  Without special effects would be no future city, no fearsome alien, no pissed of dinosaurs, and no…well, no Matrix.

But 3D, so far, doesn’t impact the ability to tell a story at all.  Does it matter if that one plant really seems closer to you than that other plant?  Or that shrapnel looks like it just flew over your head?  The mere fact that the recent spate of 3D movies have all also been shown in 2D clearly indicates that the 3D is a bonus, an extra – the characters, the story, plot, themes, tension, and emotion, none of these things are created by a special camera and a pair of funny glasses.

Would you have cared more about Guido in Life is Beautiful if he’d ridden that bike right at you before crashing into Dora?  Would the opening scene of Inglorius Basterds have been any more tense had that glass of milk been popping out of the screen?

My Body, My Choice!

So I know this is old news, but bear with me.  I have to catch up to myself on this blog, and I think this is worth a visit to 2006.

In 2006, you see, this article came out in Wired magazine talking about the practice of implanting a small magnet in a human fingertip.  The result of the implant isn’t just that a person can pick up small metal objects, the subject can actually feel magnetic fields in their environment.  The gain a new sense, one that seems both useful and beautiful in the electronic age.  Quinn describes it thus, “In time, bits of my laptop became familiar as tingles and buzzes. Every so often I would pass near something and get an unexpected vibration. Live phone pairs on the sides of houses sometimes startled me.”

Unfortunately, Quinn’s body rejected the magnet.