TurboFool.com - Now with more awards!

I just read an article on Guardian Unlimited on how easily the author, as well as another more recent "software developer," was able to win a "prestigious" award for his software... software which doesn't actually exist.

I recommend you follow the link for the full details, but he merely submitted information about his software, DBXV, to the site, claiming an absurd amount of sales, they asked him to verify his statement, he essentially verified it by writing back the equivalent of "yep, it's true," and paid the cash for the plaque he was awarded. There was a big awards dinner which he declined to attend, and he was listed as a Million Dollar Guy. All with imaginary software.

The more recent case was someone else who won no less than 16 awards for a utility that consisted of nothing more than a TXT file renamed with a .exe extension. That's it. It didn't do a damn thing. But all the sites cared about was the publicity, and the hope that a link would be placed on their site to help generate ad revenue. The author of the page also noted that as with restaurant awards, they hope to get the winner to pay to advertise with the award-giver, not to mention get a few bucks out of them for a table at the award ceremony.

This got me thinking about some of my past experiences. Several of my old web sites won numerous awards through no effort of my own. It was almost every other week I was getting contacted regarding a new award my site had won. Wow, did I think my site must have been good in those days. I look back now and laugh at how naive I was, especially when I look at my poor design work. All those rewards always REQUIRED that I post the award link on my site. I never thought anything of it. It all seems so obvious now, though.

But it goes further. Back in 1999 I was nominated for a Young Artist Award for my guest role in an episode of Boy Meets World. At the time even I knew that seemed odd, but I was excited nonetheless. I had been nominated for an award; how cool is that? I had to rent a tux, and I had to pay for seats at the award ceremony. The voting was actually handled by, of all people, the nominees, themselves, as well as their agents. Huh? And no effort was made to differentiate who we were or what we were nominated for. Most of the work was guest roles or other parts that were hard to recognize, and no episode or even character names were given. Who the heck knew what I did in a single random episode of Boy Meets World? How could I possibly win? I did my best to figure out who the other nominees were and vote based on the ones I could honestly attest to, but for the most part I had to leave them blank. I doubt most voters made that much effort.

Anyway, the night of the award ceremony came, it was a semi-big to-do, my category was called, the nominees were listed, I pretended to think I had a shot, and guess what happened? I won! Yup, that's right, I was voted the best male guest lead in a television sit-com for 1999... right alongside the other four nominees. A five-way tie. Who would have thought that in an awards ceremony voted on by ourselves and our agents that we would all tie? It was pathetic, it was a waste of time, and it never did a damn thing for me. But looking back, they sure made a mint off of all those tickets to the ceremony, now didn't they?

I hate awards shows, and now I'm realizing more and more what a pointless waste they are, entirely designed for the benefit of the promoters of the awards. What a sad waste of all of our time.

btw, if you liked this post, as well as all of the other fine work on my site, please feel free to submit me to any of the fine web site awards sites on the 'net. I'd be happy to display their worthless beautiful logos across the bottom of my page.

With internet like this, who needs TV?

MySpace linkWhen I stumble upon things like this on the internet, I can't help but continually wonder why we have television shows like America's Got Talent, which are simply littered with people who clearly have NO talent in comparison to people like this. These kids are amazing. Where's the TV show that scours the 'net for people like this and gives them the credit they deserve? Why do we perpetually reward talentless hacks on television (and the radio, and, and nearly everywhere else) when there are people who truly deserve to be heralded out there?The whole thing leads me back to the realization that in a very real way, television's days are numbered. No, I'm not saying TVs are going away, or that networks are in any immediate danger. But the internet is absorbing more and more of the average person's entertainment time, and for now, at least, the democracy that social sites, voting, digging, stumbling, and so on has created on the 'net makes it easier and easier for us to find the truly GOOD content as opposed to wading through the garbage the networks think we want. And for some people, that's more enticing than the TV craps shoot.

The internet also further fragments the entertainment into smaller, more niche markets that fit specific interests better than the everything-to-everyone approach network television constantly tries and fails with. It also gives us more freedom to enjoy uncensored, unedited, material that connects with our interests that the average network would be afraid to or barred from airing due to nudity, sexuality, coarse language, or strong political stances. This is both a plus and a minus, though, as it also makes it harder to make truly good money off of it, since a smaller slice of the market will be interested in it, and therefore production values are forced to be much lower, and advertisers may stay away completely from supporting some entertainment that pushes the limits of what they feel their main customer base could handle.

It also runs a noticeable risks of dividing us EVEN MORE. Watered-down, politically-correct, corporate/FCC-controlled television is almost inarguably damaging to culture, but is a world of entertainment divided into niche groups in which people can say safely tucked away from anything that doesn't interest them really foster any personal growth or respect for others? I know since picking my topics on StumbleUpon my knowledge of atheism has increased drastically, while simultaneously my exposure to religion has dropped off quite a bit. Does the fact that I think I chose the right side mean it's really okay for me to lose that connection to what the rest of the world is thinking?

In the end, I don't see us replacing our hour-long dramas, or even our half-hour sit-coms with internet equivalents, but the internet is becoming tighter and tighter competition, and is providing us with forms of entertainment people could barely dream of before. And how long before the networks DO shift to seeing this as a much heavier source of revenue? As it is, most television shows are available for download via iTunes (yeech) or other less restrictive services, and now even for free in many cases on the network's web site. If done right, might we eventually see the networks using this as more and more of a primary revenue stream for these shows, as standard television slowly becomes the secondary target for the outdated, technophobic generations?

I think one thing that's going to be absolutely necessary to this transition is better integration of television and internet for the typical user. Yes, HTPCs (home theater PCs) are slowly penetrating the market and let you use your computer on your television with relative ease, but they're still far too intimidating to the mass market, who like to sit down in front of a television that doesn't crash, doesn't slow down, doesn't require use of a mouse or multiple programs to do one thing. But the current efforts like AppleTV or even the Xbox 360 have a way to go before you can pull it all off. Services like Orb are getting closer, making all of your media as well as many Flash video sites available from nearly anywhere, including game consoles. But we need to reach the point where we can, with ease, access any of these internet video services from any television with the simplicity people are used to getting from normal television, while simultaneously gaining all of the benefits of network television on the computer.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this? Is television in danger? Are we on our way to a world where the internet and TV are interchangeable? Is the whole entertainment industry behind the times and at risk of being overshot by forms of entertainment they never saw coming? Is the freedom and democracy of the internet about to be ruined as the big corporations take notice and overrun it the same way they did television and radio? Will the average joe be able to soon feel comfortable accessing their entertainment from anywhere in ways only us geeks previously could? Where are we going? What is that strange mark on my hand?

Is there anything the iPhone can't do? (psst... the answer is yes)

This was too clever not to post. The idea of having the full-resolution, full-detail version of anything on a portable device sounds so nice... until you actually have to use it.

Bad abbreviation!

There's certain words that are commonly abbreviated in URLs to simplify matters. Images, in particular, have abbreviations for words like small (s, or sm), medium (m, or md, or med), large (l, or lg), thumbnail (th, or thumb, etc.), and other common attributes. One word in particular, though, is in desperate need of a change of abbreviation: standard. It's very unnerving to stumble upon a photo of a beautiful woman in some pose (whether classy or anything but), and see "STD" in the URL at the top of the page.

Think before you abbreviate, people.

YouTube in the creationists' pockets?

Apparently the followers of a group known as the "Creation Science [sic] Evangelism Ministries," led by currently imprisoned tax evasionist Kent Hovind, have been sending false DMCA copyright takedown requests to YouTube on any and all videos that dare to suggest that creationism is anything but non-scientific garbage. Due to a loophole in the system, YouTube essentially just automatically deletes these videos with little or no effort to verify the claims.

Brian Sapient, of Rational Response Squad fame (I forgot to add them to my links section sooner, which I'll do now), posted a video on YouTube about this issue and his account and video were promptly suspended by YouTube.

What gives, YouTube? Your entire business exists because of your community, and lately this debate has been a heavy part of it. You've now drawn lines and taken sides by accepting the false claims of the creationist movement that these videos somehow violate copyrights of their founder (the people in the videos in question refer to quotes of Ken Hovind's, but quoting a person's opinions has never been a violation of copyright). And you're owned by Google, whose motto, I thought, was "Don't be evil." Are we meant to take this as a sign of who you do or not think is evil now?

Below I've posted a video, which clearly states it's perfectly legal to do so, and which is NOT hosted on YouTube, which details the RRS's issues and request. They are considering suing Creation Science [sic] Evangelism Ministries, and they have my full support. The Atheist community (as scattered as it is) has never tried to forcefully remove any of their claims for the internet via spurious methods such as these. We've merely used the tried and true methods of proving their claims are bullshit. It's worked well throughout history, and although it's a touch slower than other less honest methods, it generally has a longer-lasting effect.

Soldier sues over right to non-religion

Today I came across this article on newsday.com which talks about a soldier suing the military over their unfair treatment of his Atheist views.

According to the article, and the suit, this soldier tried to hold a meeting for fellow Atheists and other non-Christians, presumably as a way of garnering a similar level of support and community that the prayer and religious groups have. Despite having his fliers approved, the soldier's actual meeting was barred by his superior, and he was threatened with military charges and the blocking of his re-enlistment.

Spec. Jeremy Hall is now suing the military over this and other encroachment on his rights to free speech and freedom of (and from) religion. He has cited other incidents, including being forced to submit to religious tests as qualification for his post.

This situation is a perfect example for me of why my Atheism has become so important to me in recent years. As I've noted in my About Me page, the lack of a belief in something really shouldn't be an issue that I care so much about. I have no belief in Godzilla, either, but you don't see me dedicating sections of my site to proving there's no Godzilla. This is, I think, true of the vast majority of Atheists. Why waste effort on something we don't believe exists? But Christians (I point out only Christians because I rarely come across members of any other religion who give a crap) continually go on about how they're being persecuted (oh how hard it is to be in the majority and in control of the government) by Atheists, and how it seems like we're at war with them, trying to take away their faith.

Bullshit.

I don't give a crap what you believe. Believe in God, Allah, Buddha, a giant tortoise, Zeus, Karma, Ra, or any God, Goddess, spirit, universal "truth," or other mindset you may please. Seriously. I don't care. But get it out of my face. And no, by saying that, I don't mean hide your beliefs; I just mean not to try to force your beliefs onto me, whether by constantly reminding me I'm going to Hell for not believing, or by making your religion's rules into LAWS (and I'm sorry, but if people are to have free will to choose whether or not to sin, and this is one of God's tests for them, aren't you fucking up God's process by outlawing sins?). Your religion is yours, not mine. You think you know better, so live smugly in that knowledge while I live smugly in mine. But you are not making the world a better place by forcing all the infidels and heathens to live by your religion's rules. You're just creating a bunch of angry, oppressed people, and history shows that those groups may get over that anger eventually, but usually after they've licked that oppression issue... at least until their founding principles are far enough in the past that the rulers can start convincing people they don't matter anymore.

And that's where we stand now. We're sick of watching you erode our rights because your several-thousand-year-old holy book of choice tells you you can't do certain fun things that the rest of us enjoy. We're sick of seeing your interests get preferential treatment over ours because your people are in power, when those interests benefit ONLY you and hurt the rest of us. And less and less of us are willing to take it. We're not at war with you, but we are beginning to fight, and we didn't start it.

AlterNet, from whom I found this article (via StumbleUpon), noted the irony of how so many religious people, usually in an effort to prove some sort of point (I never do get quite what point they're trying to prove), try to claim that Atheism is actually a religion (which, of course, it's not, just like the big blank screen in a theater at 4:00 in the morning isn't a movie), yet are completely unwilling to provide it the same rights as one. Make a choice, people. Call it (incorrectly) a religion, and give Atheist groups the same tax breaks and other benefits of churches, or shut up.

I wish this soldier the best of luck with his lawsuit. I don't expect it to work out well in his favor, considering the might of our military and the backing they have in Washington, but I'll keep my fingers crossed, which is of course the Atheist equivalent of prayer.

Masturbation is funny. Accept it and move on.

This is one of my favorite videos on Funny or Die. It's simple, quick, and right to the point. Enjoy.

Spreading some joy in the midst of sadness

I'm not going to lie and say this video is brilliant. But it is fun, there's some genuine talent here, and it holds meaning to me.

The guy on left was Mike Nolasco. He was a member of the local Geek Squad and someone I considered a friend, although I hadn't gotten to know him as well as I would have liked. I played poker at his house a couple of weeks ago (he and I were the final two, but he beat me in the end), and he was someone I enjoyed hanging around with. I had hoped to become a regular at his poker games, as the whole group of people he hangs out with is a lot of fun.

Mike passed away on Monday of an aortic aneurism. I only found out on Thursday, and needless to say, it was a shock. I've not really had to deal with the passing of a friend or coworker like this before, and it's just kind of weird. His brother, Tim, works with me in the PC department, and I know him a lot better. I can't imagine how he's coping right now, which is why I feel bad even feeling bad. I barely knew the guy in comparison, so what right do I have to grieve?

So instead of wallowing or getting too far down, I've decided to spread some of this guy's joy. The above video is obviously a highlight for him, and it's just fun to watch. It's only right that the fun he had be spread well beyond his local circle of friends, and what better place than the internet to take care of that? He deserves that much. Watch it and spread it on in his memory.

While My Ukulele Gently Weeps...

I'm still getting the hang of this blog, so for now I have no better option than to link to the video I'm referencing in this post since it's an autoplaying MOV file and not the typical FLV, but trust me, it's worth watching.

The song this man, who I was previously unfamiliar with, plays on his ukulele is one of my all-time favorites due to its pure beauty. Unaccompanied guitar is a beautiful sound, and George Harrison knows that better than almost anyone. The Ukulele is an interesting instrument because it can easily be ignored or joked about for its oftentimes harsh, concentrated sounds, but in the hands of a master it's gorgeous. This musician is clearly a master, and I am sure George Harrison would have been more than happy to hear what he did with his work.

Please check it out here and pass it along. It's worth a few minutes of your time to appreciate true beauty.

EDIT: While the above-linked version of the file is the best quality version, and can be more-easily saved to your hard drive (right-click the above link and choose Save Link As), I did locate a decent-quality version of it on YouTube which I'm embedding here:

Metallica does Iron Man. Frickin' sweet.

A rock classic being done by one of the greatest bands known. Kickass.

The beginning of our demise

This is a video, circa 1993, about this new-fangled thing so many people are starting to take an interest in. What's interesting is how the comments from the users of this unusual new medium parallel things we hear, think, and feel on a daily basis now. Check it out:

Provided by Haftu

My obligatory first blog post

Today's the beginning of my real blog. I've had blogs spread out all over the 'net in some form or another, but they've all been attached to specific sites. This is my first real blog dedicated to me.

I've tried to pull this off before, but my heart was never in it. This time I'm hoping to do better. Right now, to be perfectly honest, my blog has no real focus. It's going to be all over the map, because that's me. My interests are pretty varied, and this blog will reflect that.

I think most of my content is going to be made up primarily of things I locate via StumbleUpon. My StumbleUpon blog will continue to contain the majority of these items, and I'm going to try to keep my X-rated content (photos and videos; opinions on matters of sex are going to be common here) there so this blog stays mostly safe for work. For that reason I do highly recommend checking out that blog, as there's a lot of fun stuff there. But the most interesting and most worthy stuff will end up here, as well as my rants on the subjects that interest me most.

In the off chance that anybody actually comes to this blog and returns in the near future, I'll warn you that the appearance of this blog is likely to change frequently for a while until I settle on something I like. And even then, that'll likely be temporary until I'm comfortable enough with my editing skills to design my own layout.

So that's it. Onward and upward. Enjoy.