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video game laws (Friday, September 16, 2005 - 7:07:15 AM)
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I came across an interesting article on Slashdot Games this morning. It's particularly relevant to me recently. I'll quote it here:
A news release at Warcry writes that the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) plans on filing suit in Michigan to overturn the recent Violent Games Act. From the article: "The ESA argues that this bill is an effort to substitute the government's judgment for parental supervision and turn retailers into surrogate parents. Lowenstein said that the industry's products were being unreasonably and unfairly singled out. He contends that while there is no question that a few games have content that some audiences will find offensive, the same can be said for some content in TV, films, music, and books. Since the government does not regulate the sales of those entertainment industries, it should follow suit for the sale of video games. Ultimately, he concluded, parents, not government or industry, must be the gatekeepers of what comes in the home."
In the comments below it, someone posted this VERY apt quote:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."
-C.S. Lewis
All these so-called Christians should listen to a "hero" of theirs.
Now, I'm not oppossed to such a law in principle. Who in their right mind would want to sell alcohol or cigarettes to children? But, most of the violent video game laws being passed in a lot of states specify HUGE fines (anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000) on retailers or the underpaid, overworked clerks. You usually don't see any kind of law like this that applies to violent or porno books, movies or television. Even if there are such laws in some states that apply to other media, I can almost guarantee that they don't have such ridiculously stiff fines.
In the end, it's ultimately the responsibility of parents to monitor what their kids buy and read/watch/play. The problem is the ignorant, stupid or "trailer-trash" parents who don't care what their kids say or do and they become rude snots or even criminals at an early age. For that reason alone, I don't mind such laws in principle; they just need to be written up in context of all other media.
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lots happening (Sunday, September 11, 2005 - 8:09:20 AM)
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Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this. A lot has gone on since I last posted, so please forgive me in advance if this post is really long.
A week ago, we were just finishing up a week-long vacation. Carolaina and I went down to Mountain Harbor Resort on Lake Ouachita for a few days. It's a wonderful place, and I really wish we could have gotten photos that I could show here. The camera's battery died soon after we got there and, of course, I had forgotten the camera's battery charger. The room and area we stayed in was really nice, but the restaurant's food was greasy--just like nearly everything you get down here in the "Saouth". I had to be really careful eating there since I'm still on the most extreme part of the low-carb diet. I was really worried that I might get too many unknown carbs, but when we got home and I weighed the next morning--I had neither gained nor lost any weight. They also had these neat LED flashlights as part of our room keys, and I am just enamored with them. Thankfully, they had plenty for sale at $2.95 each--we bought 6! After we left, I took one apart to see how it works and got it back together again successfully. :)
On the last day of my vacation (Labor Day, was it?) I finally finished a project for Carolaina. I sucessfully converted her little battery-powered, toy Crayola lightbox to use LEDs! I also began to learn how to solder and got valuable experience before I do my LED lamp project. It used a little traditional bulb that was extremely dim even when powered by 4 C-size batteries. The finished lightbox now uses 5 LEDs running off of 2 9-volt batteries and is MUCH brighter than before. It's so bright now that I used it one evening as a general ambient room light while playing the Dungeon Siege 2 demo. It puts out the same amount of light as one of those adjustable touch lamps set on low. I can take pictures of it, show them here, and explain exactly what I did if anyone is intersted.
I continue to fight with my two old desktop computers, trying to get the Pentium III machine functional. Windows 98 won't install on it, and my old Pentium computer refuses to burn a Linux CD for it. Luckily, though, I'll be getting together with Erastos this afternoon to see if we can beat some sense into that stubborn computer.
I've gotten in the mood recently to get back into some of my old games. It's because I'm hoping to get them running on the P3 computer (if I can get it working)--older games like Half-Life, Descent 3, Hexen, and an obscure RPG called Septerra Core. I've also really gotten into the Dungeon Siege 2 demo that came out relatively recently. I wish I could buy the full game, but it requires $50 and 4 Gb of hard drive space--I have neither available. My laptop is also starting to show it's age. It can just barely run the DS2 demo at 30 fps (in a good area) in 1024x768 resolution. Ever since I discovered how crisp and bright games look in this resolution, I can't go back to the muddled colors and look of 800x600. Unfortunately, this means my laptop instantly became less valuable to me. I plan to get my next laptop from WidowPC.
Carolaina continues, as usual, to get sick from one thing after another and she's getting really tired of it. Your throughts or prayers for her would be greatly appreciated.
My weight is down to just under 200 pounds. The last ten pounds took me a whole month to loose, and I can't seem to knock it down any further. So, this past week, I started walking religiously on the treadmill again every morning. This time, I started going through the new Doctor Who series again while walking. Next up is the incredible Dalek episode! When I weighed this morning, I was actually down a pound, which hasn't happened for at least two weeks now. The excersize must finally be starting to work.
One last thought before I wrap up this ultra-long post. I read a posting on Roger Ebert's website that really fired off thoughts in my head. Keep in mind that the webguy who posted this considers himself an atheist, but his comments from September 10th are spot on.
Indeed, the fundamental illogic espoused by the [Islamic] fundamentalist windbags we see in this film is virtually identical to that of their Christian counterparts in the West. It goes something like this:
1) The Word of God is the only Truth. (The word "Truth" is often capitalized in the movie's subtitles.)
2) All people should believe the Truth, which is religion (no matter which monotheistic variety), and behave in accordance with it, because God commands it.
3) We know God's Word and the Truth of God's commands because they are written in the (fill in name of holy text).
4) We know that (said holy text) is the Word of God because it says so in (said holy text) and the Word of God is the only Truth, therefore it must be True.
5) Repeat endlessly until armageddon.
What he says holds true to the Bible, but with one caveat: the Bible does say something very interesting in one verse.
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. -Romans 1:20 (NIV)
If I understand the context of this verse, it means that those without access to the Bible or any capable Christian teacher should be able to come to knowledge of God independently. So, knowing this, it should be possible to prove the validity of the Bible without using the Bible itself, right? Right now in my life, this thought interests me strongly.
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Carolaina's birthday was this weekend, and we had a little party as part of our weekly card game with friends Friday night. Last weekend, I made up a batch of wookie cookie dough and cooked up a few that evening for the event. I also gave her a CD of music she's been wanting: The Illusionary Movements of Geraldine & Nazu by J. Ralph. She particularly fell in love with the song "M". You can listen to the whole album on his site. I really like the song "One Million Miles Away". Also on Saturday, I got Carolaina some strawberry and chocolate Pocky and made up some salmon patties for her. I put the recipe for it into my Palm so I can make it again for her at any time easily. That salmon stinks!! Once it cooks, though, it takes on the more mellow smell of cooked fish. She'll enjoy the salmon all week--all she (or I) has to do is get another patty out of the fridge and bake it.
I had recently gotten an old Pentium III computer and have been trying to install the Knoppix "distro" (really meant as a LiveCD) of Linux on it. Come to find out, some of the RAM had gone bad in it and needs to be replaced. Even worse, the Knoppix CD I had ordered some time back started getting read errors--even on my laptop. So, I've downloaded the mini-distro DS Linux and am trying to figure out how to get it to boot off of my USB flash drive to fix another unrelated problem with my laptop.
Last night, I finally figured out the networking problem my laptop was having. It seems some of the network services weren't running. Once that was fixed, I was able to copy off some old files from my laptop and free up about 4.5 Gb. At one point, I was down to just over 200 Mb of free space. After that, the laptop got a much-needed defrag overnight.
Since I now have the necessary hardware, I'd like to set up a little wired ethernet network in our house. I can hook up the two computers in my den together with no problem, but I want to get the DSL internet access back to them. There's just no way to do that and also be able to hide the wires. The DSL modem and the the phone jack is in just the right place to make that impossible. Carolaina won't stand for me running a wire up a wall and through the ceiling, and I agree with her. It would just look bad. But, since Carolaina had the foresight to get a DSL modem that also acts as a wireless access point, we can buy a wireless bridge to put back in the den. Who knows when we'll be able to afford that, though.
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I came across an article on a site that gives a VERY good rebuttal to the media that belives all video games are evil and violent.
http://gr.bolt.com/articles/violence/violence.htm
It never ceases to amaze me that conservatives and media get all hot and bothered by video games when TV and movies can be much worse--yet you hear no outcry over those anymore, do you?
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fun with LEDs and Palm handheld computer (Sunday, August 7, 2005 - 7:30:59 PM)
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Earlier in the week, I got interested in playing with my LEDs again. I had this old 4-AA battery holder laying around that was origionally meant to be used as a computer's backup BIOS battery. Since I couldn't imagine it ever being used for such a purpose again, I had a little fun with it. Later, with 2 LED's and some tape, it becomes a flashlight! Keep in mind that this is an extremely quick and dirty hack job--not intended to be a permanent setup. To turn it on and off, I have to add and remove one of the middle two batteries.
As you can see, I didn't quite have enough AA batteries, but luckily a AAA will hang in there. It may not look like it, but the LEDs are shining in these photos. The overhead light and flash from the camera are overpowering it. Since 4 AAs adds up to 6 volts in this wiring configuration, the two 3.6 volt LEDs are underpowered, but it still puts out quite a bit of light. It gives as much ambient light as a small candle, but LEDs shine a very directed, bright light. Even underpowered, if you stare directly into these two LEDs, they will blind you before too long.
This weekend, Carolaina let me buy soldering tools and a few more parts for my LED lamp plan. I also picked up some enclosed battery holders for use in making some LED flashlights that will have a little more polished look to them.
On Friday, I got my hands on an old Palm VIIx handheld computer. It was in a pile of old computer equipment being given away (DON'T ASK). When Carolaina and I went to Midnight Oil that night for our weekly card game with friends, David gave me a lot of freeware apps and games for the system. Unfortunately, the PalmNet wireless internet service is no longer available, but it's just as well since we couldn't exactly afford their monthly charges.
I've since downloaded more neat freeware apps and games for it. The neatest are the eBooks. There's a nice Bible program called BibleR+ that has a lot of free Bible versions available for download. You can buy newer versions if you can't live without them, but I'm glad that they have the World English Bible available. David initially gave me the ASV version, but as I read it, I quickly got tired of "thou"s and "thusly" language still present in it. I also got Cory Doctorow's and Charles Stross' latest free eBooks. Now if I can just find and/or buy Lord of the Rings in Palm format...
It's soooo nice having a handheld computer that I can carry around everywhere. This Palm (and others like it in the future) will be a nice substitute until the day technology can give us brain-implanted computers with wireless internet access.
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