Learning to Drive

I’ve been starting to teach my son to drive, even though he doesn’t have the grades to get a license just yet.  He’s at my in-laws this summer, working and adventuring … and driving, if only the utility vehicle around my in-laws property.  I’m proud of him.

driving "Ketchup" the Kubota

Catastrophically Stupid

What I’m really interested in is the thought process that lead to this decision.  Is this what success and growth have done to you, Blizzard?  Are you EA now, out to screw your customers because you want to attack people who don’t buy your games?  Are you really that blind, that foolish, that arrogant?

I’ve lost track of how many copies of Starcraft and Brood Wars I’ve bought, specifically so I could play on a LAN with my friends.  I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on WoW, and I have been anticipating Starcraft 2 since before it was announced.  I have provided you with years of revenue, and a lot of that was because you have almost always put your customers first.  What you just did was lose a sale.  I’m thinking right now that you don’t care.  If that’s true, then you’ve lost more than a sale, you’ve lost a customer.  See ya.

Hat … Meet Ring.

This is my hat.

Hat

I’ve had it for several years.  I believe I bought it at the San Diego Zoo, but my memory is somewhat hazy.  It is one of the few impulse buys that I’ve made in my life that I am completely happy with.  I sunburn easily, and this hat has protected my head faithfully through many travels.  As you can see, it’s a bit … well used.  The word “crumpled” would not be misused in this context.

Things are about to get a lot worse for my hat, but I think it is up to it.  I’ve decided to run for the non-partisan Ward 2 City Council seat in Durham, North Carolina in the municipal election this year.

The Soothsayers

I’ve been watching Wrong Tomorrow for a while now.  They are slow (investigating the claims by hand?), and the number of predictions is small.  This doesn’t matter.  They, as far as I know, are one of the first attempts to really add a searchable, reliable time dimension to public discourse.  Web sites are, of course, ephemeral – but once information is out there, it’s hard to take back.

For thousands of years we’ve had a record of one form or another.  It was always incomplete, and rarely objective.  We’ve relied on hearsay, rumors, journalists, authors, television shows, databases, court records, and a thousand other methods to keep track of what people did and said in the past.  What we’re keeping track of now is also incomplete, but since we have a lot of storage, we’re tracking a much larger scope of … reality.

This brings up an interesting question.  In the past, there have been people who claimed to be able to see the future.  Their predictions were often vague, and easily interpreted to mean one thing or another.  Those who really could predict the future through analysis or guessing were often ignored until it was too late.  Now, we have a nascent but growing ability for people to establish their historical record of soothsaying.

Think a bit about what that means.  If we choose, we can track literally anyone’s skill at predicting the future.  Those who are consistently correct can prove it, or at least give better evidence than hearsay or testimonials.  Those who are consistently wrong … well, why are we listening to them?  We should expect our public officials and pundits to be correct in their predictions.  Every book, every speech, every statistic, research claim needs to be recorded, tracked and scored.

When that happens, these sites are going to come under a lot of fire.  I hope they are ready for it. :)

The Moral High Ground

If you want a perfect example of how to conduct a protest, watch and learn.  Personally, I think those police are crazy to ride motorcycles into a crowd like that.  The crowd is angry, and surges forward, knocking the police off their motorcycles and start to beat them.  Then, members of the crowd quickly pull the riot police out of the fight and into a building where they are protected.

Protests are not places to take out your vengeance on authority.  This is the right way to do it.  I’ve seen several videos like this, and despite the fires and fighting, the protestors are doing an admirable job of keeping the lid on while still getting their point across.  Every day the authorities shoot people and beat people, their cause and moral standing go down, and more people join the protests.  Every day the protestors behave like this, protecting even the cops that are trying to beat them with sticks, their cause is strengthened and they rise in standing with the rest of the population.  If this goes on long enough and the protestors can keep it together and keep gaining ground, they might have a chance.

In any case, to those who pulled that cop out of the crowd: keep it up, you’re doing it right.  I’m not going to tell you to be careful, because this isn’t the time for that.  Be strong, be tough, be persistent, and keep the big picture in mind.  The world is watching.

EDIT:  Glenn Greenwald has an insightful column reminding us of what could have happened: how many of these protestors would be dead or in hiding if we had bombed Iran like many people in our government wanted?

Twenty Bucks: Europe at War

Based on a two-year-old stellar review from Bill Trotter over at The Wargamer, I’ve decided to blow my remaining $30 and $10 from June on a copy of Commander: Europe at War.  It’s closed source, has no DRM (just a serial number) and runs perfectly in Wine, so I guess it scores a 1 (1.2?).  Sold!  Purchasing was smooth and the download quick. Thank you Slitherine!

Edit: the game is written in Java – so there’s at least a chance it’ll run native on Linux, and at one point it was able to do so.  Plus, the game is littered with free software/open source help – it uses PNG images and ogg vorbis audio files.  Woot!

Late to the Party – North Carolina Delaying Tax Refunds

I just had an extraordinarily irritating interaction with the North Carolina Department of Revenue.  I had gone to their website to find out what had happened to our refund.  The website could not help me, but instead directed me to a phone number and then gave incorrect instructions on which options to choose.  After about ten minutes of stumbling through their byzantine phone menus, I finally got to a person … who could not help me, since my tax return was over a certain size.  She forwarded me to another person, who also could not help me.  After yet another transfer, I finally got to someone who knew what was going on and could help.

It turns out that North Carolina has placed tax returns over a certain dollar amount into a “pending” category.  Since I called, the DOR employee removed the “pending” on my tax return so that it could be processed.  I asked her how long it would have taken if I hadn’t called: she said that they usually get to the “pending” returns in September.

This troubles me for a large number of reasons.  One is that the NCDOR is clearly trying to delay tax returns while mitigating public perception of the problem.  Otherwise, why would they release a large tax return simply because I called?  And apparently, this has been happening quite a bit – there are a large number of news stories from the March-April time frame talking about delays in North Carolina tax returns due to budget issues.  One article said that the legal deadline for the state to return tax refunds is June 30th.  June is obviously not September, though I’m sure there is some sort of loophole for the “pending” returns.

Another reason is this: the only reason my wife and I have a large return is because we can’t figure out how to stop the state from collecting too much in taxes in our situation.  The rules change every year, and we have to have an accountant to keep up with it.  This is not the first time that it has happened, and it won’t be the last – but there’s no way that we know of to stop it.  The tax code has essentially resulted in a large yearly interest-free loan from us to the North Carolina government – and now they are trying to extend the term of the loan.

Finally, why is this even a problem?  Is our state government so incompetent that they don’t account for tax refunds?  Why, exactly, are tax refunds, money that doesn’t legally belong to the state, a lower priority than anything else in the budget?

So I’m late to the party on getting screwed by the NCDOR, which is cold comfort.  I wonder how long it will take to get our refund now that it is not in “pending” status.

EDIT (July 1, 2009):  It took less than a week after I called to get our refund.  Which is great for the people who call … what about everyone else?

How to Respond to Idiocracy

As always, there’s someone who does it better than me.  Fantasy threats deserve fantasy solutions.

Idiocracy

No, not the movie.  The real thing.  It’s almost impossible to believe that our national discourse can sink this low.  Really?  Senators, Congressmen, you’re afraid of guys who are surrounded by concrete walls, bars, and armed guards twenty four hours a day?

Oh wait.

You might be afraid of someone you put in a tiny solitary cell.  For seven years.  Held without charge.  Held with little communication.  Oh, and there’s that torture thing too.  If they weren’t a jihadi before they went in, they sure are inclined to be one now, aren’t they?

Do you get it now?  Do you understand why we have a court system?  Do you understand why we have rules?  Do you understand why we require evidence, and testimony, and reasonable doubt?  Do you understand why we have disclosure?  Do you understand why we have a jury?

It’s not to punish them.  It’s to protect us.  From becoming them.  It’s to show everyone what they have done, so that everyone understands that they cannot live in society any more.  It is to bring the light of day to their actions.  It’s about avoiding the appearance of bias, the appearance of secrecy, the appearance of a court that resembles a certain marsupial with a pouch and big feet.  It is to show the world that yes, they do deserve to be in prison.  It’s about facing our fears.  Which you lot seem to be having a bit of trouble with.

Cowards.

Twenty Bucks – Caster

On Thursday, I bought Caster for Linux for $5.  $30 remaining.

The game has been excellent fun so far – it feels to me like a very fast paced, combat-oriented, high-explosive Mario64.  The deformable terrain is awesome; within a few minutes, I was considering ways to dig pits to slow down the annoying little chaser bugs so that I could kill them more easily with my green attack. The three attacks I have so far are quite unique and tactically distinct.  The basic blue laser attack and the heavy aoe green attack have been my mainstays, although I did use the shield attack to great effect in close-quarters combat with the little chaser bugs.

I have had a problem where the game starts running V-E-R-Y slowly (like 1 frame every five seconds).  After a few seconds or minutes, it will speed back up.  Since it usually happens in the most intense moments, it’s quite irritating, and it won’t go away until you reduce the amount of objects that are being dealt with – which is accomplished by either running away, or killing the mobs you are fighting.  I’m paying attention to when it happens and how to trigger the recovery so I can submit a bug report.

This game scores a 2/3 on my Twenty Bucks scale – there’s no DRM, and it is Linux native but not open-source.  Thanks Mike and Frank! You deserve my money, and I would have paid more – maybe I’ll buy another copy.