Cue X-Files Music...

First, I missed my usually Thursday update because I was spending the day at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. Someday I'll write about my love for roller coasters...In the mean time, check out my buddy Mike's excellent site about my local Six Flags.

Anyways, I recently started reading Nick Cook's somewhat odd book The Hunt For Zero Point, where Cook, a former writer for Jane's Defense Weekly tracks a thin trail of evidence that the U.S. government has been developing anti-gravity technology since the 1950s. Needless to say, I am not reading this book for it's factual value. Much like George Cloony's recent movie Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, the fun is in not knowing what, if any of the book is true. It's almost like watching one of those wacky cartoons on Cartoon Network; the farce is entertaining.

In between the odd first-person "poor detective novel" writing, unverifable claims, wacky suppositions, and bad science, Cook does have a few interesting points. For example, Lockheed's Skunk Works, the secretive division responsible for such exotic birds as the U-2, the SR-71, and the F-117 Stealth Fighter has been remarkably silent on it's activities for the last 20 years. What exactly have they been up to? Four thousand people work for the Skunk Works, which recieves something near to billion a year for government work. What have they been doing? One guess is the "Aurora", a hypersonic spy plane. Whatever it is, I'm guessing the coolness factor is off the charts.

Woe is Gamerweb

Late in 1999, about when Dreamcast was coming out, I saw a Saturn at a local used games place and bought it and Daytona USA for . I couldn't afford a Dreamcast, so this was the next best thing. I really enjoyed my Saturn, so being a connected fellow I looked for a place on the Internet to discuss Sega stuff. SegaWeb seemed like the logical place. I lurked for a few months and finally registered in February 2000. The forums then were excellent, with great discussions and tons of interesting personalites. I've been posting there ever since.

Eventually SegaWeb, which was just a fansite originally (and a great one at that), caught the hillarious Internet business investment craze and sometime in 2000 converted to GamerWeb, which was supposed to compete with industry giants IGN, Gamespot, and DailyRadar. I had a bad feeling about it from the beginning. A lot of good forum-goers left after that change. The close-nit community had been shattered. Slowly, the first generation (1998-1999) forum members left. The downward spiral had started. After the first-gen member who had been serving as moderator went nuts, she was replaced by people who supposedly worked for the site, though we had never heard of them before. Things started seriously sucking then, but there was a certain status quo...While the gaming discussion had become very boring after Dreamcast died, the unique politcal discussion that kept me posting was sustained by a few intelligent members.

The demise of GamerWeb is the result of whatever business stupidity was going on behind the scenes. I never got the full story, but this is how I understand it. The details may not all be true, but that doesn't matter. THis is how we, the oh-so-little people saw it happen: The original owner/founder, Adam, wanted to cash in on SegaWeb, so he converted the site to GamerWeb, a multiplatform site, which in my opinion overstreched what little resources he had. GamerWeb never really grew. They added a paid video service about the same time IGN added Insider, which distracted even more from the site's original intent. At some point, the whole operation got bought by Hi2, who apparently never gave a damn. A few months ago, Adam got fed up with Hi2, and left to make a new site. Seemingly, he also took many of the videos that GamerWeb was offering as well as the forum member list. I never quite understood if that was legal or not, and it may in fact have been completely legit, but it seemed odd to me.

The most obvious problem that GamerWeb had was that no one wanted to pay the staffers, so little if any content was produced on a regular basis. This was fine way to run a fan site, but not a big commercial site. recently, one of the few staffers that cared decided that he wanted to get paid. He refused to update the site until he got paid, so the backers apparently just took down the whole site. They replaced it (nearly a month later) with a shoddy looking forum and no content. This new site supposedly exists to promote the "GamerWebTV" show that their making in Europe. Yet another distration from the original intent of the site. It seems that everyone wants to cash in without actually caring about the site itself.

The big losers in all of this are the members of the GamerWeb forum community. We stuck with GamerWeb, hoping for a good outcome. No one ever gave a damn. With the hillariously poor content, the site's best, and only real asset is the forum community. We were and still are treated like some ancilary component. They forget that a site is nothing without a faithful community. Now, with this most recent forum migration, even we are beginning to give up, scattering to other places.

Earth to whoever runs GamerWeb now: Just give a damn for once!

Unaffirmative

Since everyone seems to be weighing in on the Affirmative Action ruling, I figure I should too...

On the one hand, I certainly recognize the view that many liberals and minorities have that because of the inequalities of the past, we need Affirmative Action to give their decendants equal opportunties. There is a certain logic there. I do not deny that this view has merit.

However, I have a number of serious reservations about Affirmative Action.

First, how do you explain to Johnny Majority that Johnny Minority gets preferential treatment because of actions that occured before either Johnny was a twinkle in their parrents eyes? How is this fair? Should not both Johnny's be judged on the "content of their characters and not the color of their skin"? This is a question that Affirmative Action supporters have never really been able to answer.

Secondly, the logic of Affirmative Action says that minority groups are given preferential treatment not because they are minorities, but because these minority groups were oppressed in the past. In other words, Affirmative Action seeks to give formally oppressed peoples greater opportunities. However, why aren't "formally oppressed peoples" duch as Jews, Irish-Americans, and Chinese-Americans also given preferential treatment? They too were oppressed...The logic breaks down.

Finally, as I read a discussion of this issue on an Internet forum, minority members were constantly bringing up stories of how their ancestors were oppressed in the past. I feel this misses the point. Affirmative Action should not be driven by guilt. That is not the point. No one is denying that oppression took place. The point is that if Affirmative Action really works then at some point in the future the current generation of these oppressed minority groups should have the same economic and social advantrages as the non-oppressed groups. Now, here is the problem with this...What mechanism exists to stop Affirmative Action when it has achieved it's goal? In general, the idea of a grand plans (think "Five Year Plans") to equalize society without clearly defined limits gives me goosebumps. In that vein, I applaud the Supreme Court for coming up with the brilliant idea of placing a 25 year "time to live" for Affirmative Action. Perhaps this is the proper mechanism.

Living in the Past

If it hasn't become obvious by now, I have a particular afinity for technology. I love technology, not just the new, bleeding edge stuff, but older technology too, like those 70s amplifiers I mentioned last week. If you ever find a good thrift store, walk around and look at there sheer amount of stuff laying around. When I look at this old junk, say and old computer or an old radio it strikes me that these objects are portals into another time. I mean, you can't look at a Zenith Transoceanic without imagining some child huddled around that tube-driven reciever listening to a now classic baseball game in the 1950s. Similarly, it's one thing to read Insanely Great and read about the original Macintosh, and it's another thing to actually use one.

Ever since the industrial revolution, technology has increasingly shaped people's lives. In Salmon of Doubt Douglas Adams speaks of pressing his ear against his hi-fi set, secretly listening to The Beatles at bording school. This is a memory that is completely defined by technology. Speaking of The Beatles, can you imagine how Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band would sound different if they hadn't been forced to use now primitve 4-Track recorders? Did the limits of that technology inspire their creativity?

The popularity of "retrogaming" is evidence of the pull of old technology. A whole generation who grew up with videogames suddenly wants to revisit the 8-bit past. Atari, a company long drawn and quartered is now a pop-culture status symbol. Old NES's are now popular items.

Which brings me back to thrift stores...Unlike the fashion and fad obsessed retail world, these merchants embrace the past. What's more, you never quite know what you'll find at these places. Walking into a thrift store is like pulling the arm on a One-Armed-Bandit, you never know what piece of history will pop up.

A Sound Mind

I'm a big fan of 70s and early 80s amplifiers. This may sound odd, considering all the new features that home audio equipment offers today, but I have my reasons...

A. You can find some kick-ass old amps at thrift stores that are still in great condition. I mean stuff from Yamaha, Harman/Kardon, and Marantz. These things are all 20-30 years old, but they were built like tanks, and now they can be had for under .

B. The "dirty little secret" of today's receivers is that they are more computer then amplifier. Do you ever wonder how that Pioneer can be 0 and have all of that stuff on there? Dolby Digital, DTS, DSP modes? How does it do all of that?

Essentially there's a single, programable processor in there that does all of the decoding and DSP tricks. Want DTS? It loads the DTS program. Dolby Digital? It loads the Dolby Digital program. All of the DSP settings are also programs.

Now, this isn't a bad thing at all. Hell, I think it's kind of cool. My main problem with this is that when you are paying for the receiver, you're paying for a bunch of computers as well as the amplification circuitry (which for now, is all analog). In the old days, you payed for an amp. That's all it was. And they built them well, which brings me to my next fanboyish point...

C. Today, you talk about a "500-Watt" receiver. That means that it has at maximum of 500 watts of total of power spread across five channels. However, the rear channels need less then the front, so it's probably something like three 120s (fronts) and two 60s for the rears...

However, those power ratings are for the maximum posible power that the amp could put out for a very short period of time (like a fraction of a second). The constant maximum is far lower then that, though the specs don't say that.

I have a Marantz Model 2235 which is speced at 35 watts per channel...Must be not be as loud, right? Nope. Back in the 70s, 35 watt/channel meant that the amp could keep that level up for an hour, from both channels.

Another issue is that the power supply must be able to supply power to the amps...Check to see if the power consumption rating of that 500-watt amp is anywhere near 500 watts...My guess is that it's somewhere around 320 watts...How are 300 odd watts supposed to come in from the wall and 500 watts are supposed to come out of the speakers? Obviously, today's spec sheets are loads of bull.

That brings me to my next point...

D. Sound quality...Now, in 1976 that Marantz amp sold for 0...According to this inflation calculator, that's a staggering 00 in today's money! For that 0 (in 1976 money), you got a power supply, two amps, some switches, some lights, an RIAA preamp (which is used for records), and an AM/FM tuner. Today, for 0 you are getting five amps, all of that computer circuitry, probably some kind of nice LCD screen, and all kinds of other stuff. In that Marantz, the focus of that 0 was on the amps; the sound quality...Now, the amps are mere fraction of the cost of that Pioneer.

It just strikes me as something to think about...

What's In A Name?

I am an atheist. I’ve been that way all of my life. My mother came from a Jewish background and my father came from a Christian background. When they married, they decided to become non-religious and I was raised in this non-religious environment. However, outside of the house, religion was something that I avoided talking about (living on a street with a church at the end of the block may have contributed to this). It was almost as if I was ashamed of my views. That’s not to say that I wished my family was religious (I have never had any religious ambitions), but I just didn’t want the inevitable questions to come up. Such things can be a source of torment when one is in elementary and middle school.

However, when I came to the high school, I went into Ms. Faulkner’s Enriched World History class. It was the best history class that I had ever taken. One of the things the class did was a comparative religion unit. I had definitely heard of the world’s other religions, but never had I learned about them in detail. I soon came to the conclusion that western religions were just plain silly. Conversely, eastern religions made far more sense to me. A religion such as Buddhism is an exploration of one’s self. I found this concept very refreshing.

In that class we also read works by several philosophers from the Age of Reason. It was here that I found the works of Voltaire. Micromegas astonished me. Here was a man from the 18th century who was ridiculing organized religion! Here was a man who disagreed with the mainstream and used satire to express himself! This was a watershed event for me. I became proud of my (dis)beliefs.

Ms. Faulkner would give the class journal assignments. This was basically my first chance to sort out and write down my worldview. I united my science knowledge (little of which had been gleaned from school…I’ll probably have gray hair before super-string theory is even mentioned in high schools) with my philosophical views in a comprehensive format. I finally had a view of my own. It didn’t have a church and thick text to go with it, but it was mine.

In essence, my belief is that I am a collection of accidents and matters of chance that began with the Big Bang. Consciousness is simply a matter of some of these parts working together in a complex way. I reject the supernatural and the mystical, since the fact that I am a collection of exploded star-stuff in itself holds a mystical (but not divinely inspired) quality. There are religions that indoctrinate people to believe that they should reject science as cold and insensitive. They still want to be the center of the universe. I embrace the fact that I, and the rest of the human race are not the center of the universe. We are mere collections of atoms (which are in themselves collections of other objects) in a collection of stars in a collection of galaxies in a collection of superclusters. Our insignificance is a result of the great number of accidents and matters of chance that formed us. In science, this is expressed in the Weak Anthropic Principle, which states that, “in order for conditions in the universe to be observed, conditions must allow a observer to exist”. In an atheistic view, this means that we shouldn’t be surprised (in a theological sense) that we’re here, since if our universe didn’t support life, we wouldn’t be here. This became the core of my beliefs*.

When I got into IRC a few years ago, I needed a name. I already had a screen name, but to put it bluntly, it sucked...So, I picked up Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", and looked for something cool to name myself. I wanted something that sounded intellectual, but not in a blunt way. I wanted something that was uniquely me. What better way, I thought, to sum myself up then to choose the name Anthropic?

* If you do a search for "Anthropic Principle", you'll get results that favor both theistic and athestic views. I like this. There's a certain ambiguity there. I realize that not everyone has to agree with me. If my personal interpretation of the Anthropic Principle is the core of my spiritual beliefs, then Pluralism is the basis of my political beliefs.

The Transformation is Nearly Complete

Early this morning I decided to take the plunge...After using Internet Explorer for years on end, I decided to make Mozilla Firebird my default browser.

For years, I've been a die-hard IE user. I hated Netscape back in the days of the First Browser War with IE 3.0 and Netscape 3 doing battle. I just didn't like the way Netscape felt back then. It felt like it belonged on Mac or something...I don't know what it was, but I didn't like it.

IE 4.0 was, to say the least, a major event for me. What a great browser that was. It was so far ahead of Netscape that it wasn't funny.

However, since then IE really hasn't added much in the way of features. Tabs? Themes? The browser has stagnated. Microsoft says "wait for LOnghorn", but that's inexcusable (I have a feeling that we'll hear from IE again before Longhorn).

In any event, I didn't find Mozilla 1.0 very impressive. It was Netscape under a different name. It was bloated, it was slow, and I didn't need a new browser then.

When I first heard about Phoenix (aka Firebird), I was intrigued. A browser made for browsing, not an Internet suite made one hell of a lot of sense to me. So I tried it...I was impressed, but I didn't feel that it warranted replacing my beloved IE.

Now however, I feel that Firebird has reached the point where I no longer have any need for IE. It just makes so much sense. Tabs? Awesome. Themes? I can have a new look every day (Ken Lynch, you kick ass). Extensions? This just makes sense. Speed? Right up there with IE.

The open source aspect is also very cool I can download a new build every day. You can actually see progress. Bugs get fixed within days. Everyone is remarkably candid and open. If someone wants to make special builds, with extra extensions or optimizations, they can go right on ahead. What a breath of fresh air.

Speaking of fresh air, all you have to do to install Firebird is unzip a .zip file. No "install this and you'll never be able to uninstall". No "Do you also want to install RealBS Player?" This is pure no-bull browsing.

Loss of Legacy

I recently read Steven Levy's 1994 book, "Insanely Great", which chronicles the history and circumstances behind the creation of the original Macintosh. In almost reverant tones, Levy speaks of the revolutionary aspects of the Mac's GUI, the Mac's design, and the overall Macinthosh ethic.

Computer history sems to agree with Levy, though it does not do so with such religious devotion. Certainly Macintosh made the GUI mainstream, and it certainly changed the way that people think about computers...

However, I think something has been missed, or at least smoothed over by many historians. In order for Apple to reinvent their vision of personal computing as Macintosh, they had to abandon the Apple II. They had to abandon machine that was the first serious home computer, the machine that had a loyal fanbase, the machine that had made Apple. They had to start from scratch with Macintosh, which allowed IBM/Microsoft to sweep away the industry from under Apple's feet.

Had Apple created a machine that was a bloodline successor to Apple II, rather then a whole new royal house (so to speak), they could have gradually reinvented the personal computer without handing the market to IBM. In other words, Jobs's zeal to create a new machine damned Apple to the place it has today in the computer industry; a distant second. Sure, Macintosh was the computer of the future, but it will always be the computer of the future. It will never be the dominator of the present.

There's a lesson here...Microsoft's slower path to the GUI (which led it to an imperfect, yet presentable solution by 1990) let them bring in innovative technology without abandoning the past. At times, there is an almost hedonistic desire in the computer industry to create products that eliminate past legacies, as is seen in the design of the original Macintosh. However, as luscious as this may seem, it is not always the best path to success. The public does not necessarily want innovation and perfect design in the products it buys. Sometimes, it wants products with a sense of the past and the future.

"Save The Whales" Returns From the Dead

Just when you thought the utterly hillarious enviro-nazi craze from yesteryear was gone, it comes back from the dead...

Study: Nets Drown 1,000 Cetaceans Daily

This article can be summed up as "Save the Whales"...Let's see how credible this article is...

"Nearly 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises drown every day after becoming tangled in fishing nets and other equipment, scientists say in what appears to be the first global estimate of the problem.

Annually, the researchers said 308,000 of the marine mammals die unintentionally in fishermen's hauls."

I believe Mr. Mark Twain once had something to say about statistics...

By the way, ever notice how these reports always mention "scientists"? That word makes us think of distinguished scholars with beards...Trusted men, in effect. This careful usage of words blinds you to the fact that these people may just have agendas.

"The report was released by World Wildlife Fund, a Washington-based advocacy group, as governments gather in Berlin for the 55th annual International Whaling Commission (news - web sites) meeting that begins Monday."

Well, there certainly can't be any agenda at work here...I mean, WWF isn't known for being a left-wing, eco-nazi organization at all...Oh wait, they are...

I mean, they aren't releasing this alarmist report just to disrupt an perfectly legal international conference...Oh wait, they are.

What exactly could be the real agenda at work here?

"There is need to harvest seafood," said Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Massachusetts' Cape Cod. "We should be able to feed the planet without driving non-food species to extinction. But I'm not sure we can."

Gee, this guy doesn't have an agenda...Nooooo, not at all...

But how did these esteemed professionals arrive at these alarming numbers?

"To reach the worldwide estimates, the researchers resorted to multiplying the U.S. statistics. They acknowledged their results were "very crude," but said mortality figures in more remote countries were not available."

Yep, I want fishing policy to be determined by "very crude" measurements that have been colored by a hillariously apparent bias...

The Dangers of Obnoxiousness

I have a recording (We Shall Overcome) of Pete Seeger, the legendary folk singer, playing at Carnegie Hall in 1963. Seeger was widely known for his left wing views, and had been blacklisted in the 50s. For him to be playing Carnegie Hall was a triumph for him personally, and for the liberal movement in general. More then likely, everyone in that room held left-wing views, and Seeger even points out several left-wing activists in the crowd.

Pete Seeger had plenty of reason to be angry. He could have used the occasion to lash out at those who had tried to ruin his career (as a result of his political views. Instead he dedicated his performance to those working so hard in the civil rights movement.

"If you would like to get out of a pessimistic mood yourself, I got one sure remedy for you. Go help those people down in Birmingham and Mississippi and Alabama," he says before launching into an awe-inspiring rendition of "We Shall Overcome".

What struck me about the whole two disc set was how upbeat and positive it is...This is a snapshot of when the liberal movement knew what it wanted...It had a purpose, a direction...It was a positive movement that fought for positive change.

...And then I look at the liberal movement today. I see these punks lashing out against police because some leaders want to talk in peace. I see these people tying up traffic in major cities, just to piss people off. They spew this rhetoric that stings like acid. All I hear are these "minds that hate", the people that John Lennon tried to warn the movement about in "Revolution This is no longer a positive movement. The positive movement of 1963 has turned into a negative movement in 2003.

Where I grew up is a mere minutes drive from Kent, Ohio. My parents when to Kent State...Several relatives went to Kent State. I've had teachers then went to Kent State. So, needless to say, I hear a lot about May 4th, 1970.

What you had were Marxists and other extreme leftists that came to Kent State from the outside (they were not students) and incited a rather unrulely protest to the war in Vietnam. They burried a copy of the Bill of Rights. That was free speech. Then they burned down the ROTC building. That was not free speech. At that point, the governor called in the National Guard to enforce the peace. He went to his grave without entirely explaining that decision. On May 4th, another protest occured, and the protestors began screaming at, and throwing stones at the line of National Guard soldiers (most of whom were the same age as the protestors). Someone got spooked, as as I'm sure you know, the National Guard opened fire and killed four people, some of whom were merely watching the protest.

This is what happens with negative movements. Obnoxiousness turns to hate, and things snowball from there.

I Suppose this is Hello

Since Gamerweb is down, I need a place to express thoughts about the Universe. I'm not a fan of personal drivel, rather I just want a place to voice my opinion. So, lets see what thoughts and opinions I can dig up...