EDIT: This story has been accepted!

Online gaming fans are going to have to look past the PS3 to get their fix - Sony has announced that they are not doing a cental service for PS3 online gaming. Instead, it will be done in the same manner as the PS2, where each company decides what effort to put into it. Considering how weak the online support has been for the PS2, this may not bode well for Sony, especially with more and more rumours that they won't be launching until at least the 2006 holidays.

I have to admit that I'm only partially disappointed about this. The gamer part of me wants the PS3 to be a great console, and online gaming has become very important in what I look for since I started playing on Xbox Live. Knowing that there's not going to be any complete service that lets me track friends between games and such is a let-down.

However, the part of me that is a Microsoft employee and Xbox 360 fan is celebrating, because it means that the Xbox is going to slaughter the PS3 among people looking for online play. The online features of the 360 really have blown me away from the demos I've seen and the information I know.

Recently, a "rave" was busted in Utah. No big deal, right? This happens all the time, right?

Not like this.

"Around 11:30pm or so i noticed a helicopter flying above the main stage of the event. At this point i am confused. The chopper began to come in closer to the stage with a search light focused on the crowd. I got nervous and still very confused and walked over to find my two friends I had arrived with earlier. Just as soon as i did that I looked over at my friend and asked "whats going on". That is when I was greeted by a man in full army attire, gas mask and all. He said to leave. I said what whats going on, at which point i was brutally attacked. Thrown to the ground and in the scuffle punched in the face by swat. That was not it either. I suppose i posed some a threat as another swat member rushed over to subdue me to the ground puting his knee in my back and arresting me. At that point I am screaming to a patron "whats going on?" He is just as confused as I am. At that point another swat member came over and kicked me in the leg. Let me tell you that I also only weigh 130 pounds. I had three grown men attack and beat me and throw me to ground for absolutely no reason at all. Not to mention being dragged to a van and violently being tossed in and taken to jail. Fined for resisting arrest and another outrageous charge. I do need to mention also that while this is all happening to me at the same time my two friends, a boy and girl were trying to reach out and stop them, at that point they were attacked and arrested as well."

Read about it at Metafilter and Everything2.

I don't do those dance parties - not only have I never been to one, I've never even had the chance. But with the disgusting police-state actions the Utah Police have taken, I have to help spread the word about the horrid mistreatment they've perpetrated, and the lies they're telling about the whole thing.

Looks like I have a troll following me around now...

Apparently he has an issue with me commenting about the Xbox 360.

So I made this joke (which you should NOT READ if you dislike SPOILERS of any kind and are really good at codebreaking. And haven't read the 6th Harry Potter book. And intend to. And somehow managed to get this far without the ending getting spoiled anyway by the various internet trolls who take sick pleasure in the dismay of strangers): and yea, it did please me as excessively nerdy and pleasantly obscure.

Little throwaway crap.

But it does have another purpose: I intend it to be the last pointless comment I make on the internet. Go ahead and scoff. No, seriously, it's scoffworthy. But no: certainly I've little doubt that it will not be the last piece of text detritus I leave cluttering up the infosphere that will be found to be without point to many who read it. Rather, this:

Well, it started a long time ago. I'm a text addict and so the internet to me is like a cocaine powdered donut with a little television stuffed in the hole. So the other day I happened across this guy...

Now the guy himself is a little bit boringly controversial I guess, which I wouldn't expect to last. But anyway, I did think his tagline was good:

"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet."

I dunno if I am or will ever be a good writer. About, oh, 4 years ago I gave up on the (handwritten print) journal I'd kept for about 15 years, almost daily for nearly a decade of that, thousands upon thousands of virtually illegible pages, one day as I was getting towards the last pages of a book I thought (not for the first time) "why am I writing this?" and having no compelling answer, stopped.

My experience in the years that followed convinced me that I'd never stop being a writer, in the sense of being a person who regularly generated text, whether I liked it or not. And generally I do like it, although like (I imagine - or perhaps just selfishly hope -) probably everybody who has spilled a lot of text on thee olde internette, I've embarassed myself, one way or another, more times that I'd probably like by posting with haste and repenting at leisure. I've started this, started that, quit this, quit that, but I keep on writing, and generally, yeah, I like doing it and even like what I do.

But I guess I don't like the fact that I do it all for free and then dwell on how I would like to be paid to do it and whether I ever might be and what I might need to do to find out if I might ever be and whether I've got it in me to work that hard and with that much intent and dedication and what my actual chances might be if I did those things and how dissapointed I would be if I did everything I possibly could and worked that hard for that long and then failed anyway, and whether I should just focus on some wretched boring practical thing like I've been doing the last decade for money and take it for as much money as I could manage. Or try to find some less wretched but more practical thing I could work up to, get a graduate degree or something.

You get the point. Typical post collegiate pre-middle age angst for the chronic underacheiver.

Things changed, though, when my son was born ten weeks early and after a fifty day stay in the hospital my wife and I decided that we wanted someone to stay at home with him for at least the first two or three years - and since she made more than 30% more than me the choice was fairly obvious.

Now, being a stay-at-home father and homemaker is not a ticket to unlimited free time (so very much not a ticket to unlimited free time) but it does offer a certain amount of flexibility as well as being distinctly more soul-affirming than any of my past day-jobs in a way that makes it easier to work in my free time.

So I decided: for this time I will try to figure out if I can make a living writing. I'm not a kid and I'm not too much of an egoist so I know this is a dream a lot of people have and very few people attain. Pure text (books, short stories, essays and journalism) is a small small market with a huge amount of competition.

But I have this time when I don't have to struggle as much with the idea that I'm being self-indulgent for not having a regular job (I struggle with whether I should be pursuing more practical work-at-home options - going from D.I.N.K. to S.I.O.K. sucks, not to put too fine a point on it) and so okay, I'm working on it. It isn't easy. I haven't had to really work for a specific level of quality in writing since college. Ten years of email the internet have turned me into a lazy writer, ten years of business writing in office jobs have taken their toll on my access to spontaneity, imagination and boldness.

And then there's the fucking internet.

Suddenly all this nattering in forums and such has taken on a different character. If I'm going to be spending time sitting on my ass typing I can't afford to be doing it throwing my putative pearls before all y'all swine, with due apologies.

And if I'm going to be appearing on the internet, I better be doing everything I can to make every appearance an opportunity for shameless self-promotion.

That's all. So while I figure out what I'm doing and how I might promote myself, it seemed that it was time to put a moratorium on posting everywhere but my own spots. So that dumb throwaway joke was the last post on thees thee phree inphospheere and when I come back I'm going to have some serious ulterior motives. It's all about me, now, goddamnit.

This being said: let's review that last post now. This is some serious shit, last post and everything, a turgid drama of one man determined to chase his dream, run it to the ground, and beat the living shit out of it.

After I conceived and wrote the joke I wondered:

1. Will this be moderated
a. funny
b. off-topic
c. troll

I could see a case for all three.

2. Will it be moderated out of relative existence, never to be seen again?

3. If not, will some dumbass take me to task for the pseudospoiler? Okay, sort of a longshot, but man, after ten years on the internets you never know. If it happens, I have to remember, MUST NOT RESPOND.

'Cause of the last post thing. Thing.

4. Will ANYONE see it and make the appropriate response?

It's okay, you don't have to guess, I think it's been long enough now, so here's the assessment. The last post thing assessment. Jesus I'm a dumbass sometimes. But hey. I gotta be me.

1. b.
2. Pretty Much.
3. No. I should have more faith in you people. 4. No, damnit. The appropriate response is:

Subject: Nooooo!

Comment: You bitch!

It mighta happened if you bastards had moderated it Funny.

I thought it was funny.

Here's my rejected slashdot submission:

2005-08-03 06:16:55 CVS Disposable Camcorder USB-Only Hack (Hardware,Hardware Hacking) (rejected)

The CVS Disposable Camcorder (mentioned about a month ago) has now been usably hacked so that videos can be downloaded over USB - no need to desolder the flash memory. Finally, some healthy free-market competition to CVS's expensive development service, just like in the analog world. Last week, dakotamod and mconsidine were able to coax mystery responses back from the camera. I found what looked like a set of challenge & response packets stored in memory, and then traced the firmware until I found where they was accessed. I thought I had found a locking mechanism, but wasn't sure until I realized that it only allowed the commands dakotamod & mconsidine had found were accessible... we were on to something! I figured out what the commands did and how to use them to how to unlock the camera. The community took it from there... daBass figured out the USB command to download the most recent video, and Corscaria and BillW quickly released tools. When unlocked, it seems that many standard windows drivers can be used with slight tweaks, including enabling full VGA resolution recording @ reduced frame rate (as opposed to the 1/4 VGA default).

There are now a lot more sample videos. And, lastly, this removable memory hack is awesome.
--------
I sent the same text (plus more) to Makezine, where it was published, and then boing boing picked it up.

(I posted this over at My 1UP also.)

It's all about networking. :)

Yesterday, a friend of mine here at work IM'ed me - he was heading over to play some Halo 2 with a friend of his, a friend who happens to actually work on the Xbox itself. Did I want to go along? Well, duh! Hell yeah!

So I got to spend an hour and a half playing Halo 2 with a bunch of Xbox and Xbox Live guys. We actually played over Live, though since I don't have a memory card with my Live acct on it, I was under someone else. That time playing was on a nice large widescreen hi-def TV - which was in the guy's office! Seriously! There are a LOT of people there with them in their office, there are lounge areas with multiple widescreen TVs and beanbags, and all sorts of stuff. Heck, the lights in the wall sconces were Xbox green! There were also signs up all over the place talking about "Xenon", which was the code name for the 360. It was a VERY geeky environment - I loved it!

Even better, I got to see an Xbox 360 in someone's office. I think it was a pre-production case, as it looked to all be white plastic, none of the details. But I can say after seeing it in person that the size and shape is really nice, much much better than the current Xbox. I also got to hold an Xbox 360 controller. It's a bit smaller than the Controller S, and I found that I liked the size of the S better. The thumbsticks feel just as good, and I think the shoulder buttons are going to be much easier to use than those damn black/white buttons that are too hard to get to. They're also wider and have a better feel than the PS2 shoulder buttons.

I was hoping to have a chance to play the 5 upcoming Halo 2 maps, but no go - at least not this time. Perhaps next time.

Yes, there's likely to be a next time. And this next time, I hope to get advance warning. Because I really want to wear my clan shirt over there, and make sure to get a picture taken with the big Master Chief they have in the building lobby!

People there are definitely major gamers - wow, I just loved hanging over there!

OK, this weekend, I finally got around to getting a PS2 (I had borrowed a friend's in the past, but she took it back). Along with that, there was a game I had heard so much about and had to buy.

Katamari Damacy.

Yeah, it's old news to a lot of people. Been there, done that, so on. Well, I never even had a chance to see it before, and since it was only $20, it was worth the money to check it out - if I didn't like it, well, not a problem at that price.

OMFG I love it! This is easily one of the strangest, most amusing games I've ever played. While we're at it, it's also insanely fun! I'm already certain I'm buying the sequel when it comes out, just for more Katamari fun - and I've got plenty more to do on this one.

I don't know which I found the most fun - the first time I rolled up a cat (*meow*), when I started rolling up people, or the latest levels where I've actually gotten big enough to start collecting the buildings from an entire town! I've already heard about building the moon, and I can't wait to see just how big I can get and what all I can roll up!

If you have a PS2, and haven't played this game, go get it. Now. Really.

In case you haven't seen it yet, and the story submission isn't accepted (which is the way it usually is), I thought I'd post this here.

A Gamers' Manifesto.

(Oh, and totally irrelevant, but since I still felt like pointing it out, here's my 1UP page)

YAYAYAYAYAY! I made it! As of Saturday night, I recieved my Halo 2 clan invite to join PMS Bravo - the second tier clan of PMS! They didn't need to ask me twice. :)

See me in the list!

Now it's time to get to know some of the other gals, and become a full part of one of the best known all-female gaming clans.

(And, as with all the other PMS gals, I now have a 1up profile if anyone wants to check it out)

Update: I'm now in the list on the website!!

This article went live and had at least 34 comments before being deleted. Doesn't look like a dupe...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Posted by Hemos on Monday May 09, @12:02PM
from the the-end-of-the-road-for dept.
MrToast writes "It looks like Arben Kryeziu has finally given up on Cherry OS. All I can say is "good riddance"."

( Read More... | 29 of 34 comments | apple.slashdot.org )

Earlier, I wrote an entry in my other blog about blogs in business. Tell me what you think.

Perhaps you guys remember the story about MS changing their position on a state gay rights bill. Especially since it's been big news in a lot of places - much bigger than I would have expected.

Well, we've just received a company-wide email from Steve Ballmer. The email states that the company has thought about the situation, and decided that their commitment toward diversity in the workplace will be greatly aided by laws helping to protect people from discrimination. The company has realized that it'll be hard to attract employees if those employees face discrimination in the communities they'll be living in while working in Microsoft.

So, while it's too late for this year, they've affirmed a commitment to support such bills in the future, both at state and national levels.

This is great news! It's hurt a lot of us to see them pull support from the bill this year, and I know it's been a big PR hit for the company, and cost them employees and prospective employees. This isn't going to fix the PR hit, but it should help in the future.

It also makes me feel like the company is still committed to their diversity policy and supporting their GLBT employees.

UPDATE: They've made the email public. Here it is.

last night, i had a wonderful reminder of just how much i suck at halo 2. i'm attempting to join the pms clan - the most well-known all female clan (which i've found out is not actually related to the original quake pms clan, just continuing on in the same spirit)

well, part of getting in is spending time playing in clan practices, getting to know the other girls and such. sounded great, but the actual games aren't quite as fun as expected - i found out really quickly that they're all considerably better than me. out of 13 games played while i was on team with some of the other gals, i think i managed to avoid being in last place on the team a total of 3 times - and one of those was a tie for last.

i found that even a huge win over another team isn't much fun if you only contribute 5 of the 50 kills, and have more deaths than anyone else on the team.

i had to go play with another group of people for a bit to remind myself that i can actually win some games against other people, as i was so discouraged from how things went.

i'm not certain if i'm going to even bother trying to get involved with the clan at this point, maybe i'll wait, see if i get any better at the damn game first, and try again when i might not embarass myself as much.

(oh yeah i'm feeling discouraged... can you tell?)

Well, it finally happened. It was just a matter of time. Inevitable, really.

I bought an iPod. Actually, techincally, we bought iPods. My other half and I each picked up a 30-gig iPod (photo). We had been talking about it for a while, and just suddenly had the urge to go do it. Sort of early anniversary presents for each of us.

I have hardly ever messed with them in the past. I've seen people with them occasionally, and briefly played with both another color iPod, and an iPod mini in the last couple weeks. So I can't say I was totally familiar with them, just enough to know that it was the portable music player of choice for us. We wanted space, so a flash drive wasn't going to work. And every review I've seen has pretty much stated that the iPod has the best interface and controls out there - besides the cleanest look.

So yesterday was spent playing around with them. Installing iTunes on the PC, getting some file tags cleaned up, and loading music onto iPods. Unfortunately, we don't have any USB 2.0 ports on the computer, so the transfers were nice and obnoxiously slow. But we still got all the mp3s that were on the computer transferred over (I did some at work today, since I have a large library here after bring in music to rip), most of the time spent now will be ripping CDs to mp3, and copying to the iPods won't take nearly as long in comparison.

Anyway, I already love the little thing, and now it's time to start picking up accessories. The big things to get at first are covers to protect them, and armbands so they can be taken to the gym. I've already browsed the iPodLounge a bit, and will be spending more time there to look for the useful things to get. But I'm open for suggestions!

I would have taken some time to make some guesses, but I just kinda avoided the whole thing cause I was upset at the way I just gave myself away while trying to have a little anonymous fun. I don't know what's more embarassing - the inability to handle a simple checkbox, or what I said when I gave it all away.

So nobody even guessed me as anyone else, which was totally unsurprising.

Well, I've relinked to my Flickr stream, so those who want to see the NEW hair color can just hop over there and view it. You'll have to go back a couple pages, or just tag search for "hair".