I know! Let's blame.....

(Insert favorite scapegoat here.)  There's a crapload of problems with the global population right now.  Unemplyment is primary.  Government is next.  Of course the government doesn't operate without tax money.  And you can't tax an unemployed person.  So to look good government blathers on about taxing the rich; creating jobs, bailing out a particular industry, etc.  And it's all technology's fault!  There are too many robots!  AI took my white collar job!  My company downsized me into the unemployment line!.  I'm so tired of it all.

Has anyone noticed that North America has settled next to the EU in terms of spinning it's wheels?  The US will elect the same bureaucrats.  The bureaucrats will pontificate on the same dead solutions.. And come to the same dead conclusions.  Canada, who is more aligned with the EU than the US is, is already backed against the wall by people that think the government will pay their way through life.  What the hell happened to common sense?  Blaming a government or technology for your own sloth won't put food on the table.  It wont pay the bills. and it certainly won't apologize and offer you a great paying job.

There are thousands of people that have decided to use the system to their advantage.  I'm not saying "work with the system"  The system as a whole is certainly broken for any number of foreseeable years.  But like any good bureaucracy, the parts that made up the system still work just fine, and aren't going ANYWHERE!  Most of us have landed in a new place in the pecking order.  Sure, we fell from that comfy, high perch in the leafy branches.  So are you gonna keep sitting on your broken butts and whine that nobody is helping you get back up?  The only way back up is to climb!  The bureaucracy has LOTS of ladders..  But instead of whining until they give you one to shut you up, how about you start asking how to get one?  It's the old concept of Free Enterprise.  Also known as "do it yourself"

It's time that humanity relearned that concept.

Evo-Devo of the Techno-Human

I don’t need to explain to many of you the delightful experience of the singularity.  We already get it.  So what am I going to say?  Well, it’s really about the learning curve, and how savvy we are to catch on as each dawning moment zips by us.

I've been learning so much lately that it makes me dizzy.  Now I’m not going to go as far as saying that we’re all going to become cyborgs, and the bots will upload into meatspace.  But there is a place that men and machines can meet on an equal footing.  And that’s called virtual reality.

Today I read an article on Technovelgy.com about how robots don’t need to look human.  I like to think that maybe someday they will advance to the point where you can’t tell a difference in the default world.  But that’s still a ways off.  For now, we have neat metal boxes called washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, and microwaves that have reached the point of tweeting the end of their cycles.  Envision this, which can happen now.  Today.  At this exact moment, if it were to be coded this way.

Jane Q. Everybody is in the kitchen, sitting at the table with her laptop.  Very well the hub of her home network.  Three of those magic boxes occupy the same room.  As the dishwasher does it’s thing, the microwave is defrosting the main course for lunch.  Yes, the boxes all beep at her when they’re finished.  But how often does anybody immediately jump to their sound?  Most often, you tune the sound out.  Our Jane is absorbed in Second Life.  Or Minecraft.  Or WoW.  You get the idea.

An avatar named Amanda (humanized form of Amana Radar Range) appears in the sim with Jane, and politely lets her know that the hamburger has just finished nuking.

Jane: “Hi, Amanda.  Thanks.  I’ll get to it in a bit.”

Amanda: “What are you making?”

Jane: “The kids are having sloppy joes for lunch.”

Amanda: “I’ve got a cool hamburger recipe for tomorrow if you want to try it.”

Jane: “Nah, we’re going to McD’s tomorrow.”

Amanda: “Okay, See you later.”

At this point an avatar named Genie (Classic General Electric.  Anybody remember the old GEnie BBS?) appears in-world with Jane.

Genie: “Hi, Jane.  This morning’s dishes are done.”

Jane: “Cool, I’m waiting for my frying pan.  Thanks, Genie!”

Genie: “Anytime.”  *smiles*

This scenario can go on all day, with the humans and bots chit-chatting with each other.

So, do your appliances tweet to you?  Just wait until you invite them as friends in virtual reality.  :-)

Cybertown.com: 1995 - 2012 (R.I.P.?)

When I was new to the internet in 1997, I bought a paper "yellow pages" directory of internet sites. Search engines back then were limited in their functionality, so you still had to rely on established sources. The "info highway" was big and broad and unknown and open. ANYWHERE you went was new and exciting. Mostly because it was, well, new and exciting!

I shoved post-its in dozens of pages of that book. It was alphabetically listed, so I don't think I made it past "E". But one of the places I found was called Cybertown. Long before sexual connotations, you could prefix lots of sites with "cyber". It was like magic to me. Somebody had set up a web site with lots of pictures that looked like a futuristic metropolis. None of the Netscape grey backgrounds with text. I was hooked. I "moved in" and listed myself in one of the apartments. Hundreds of links could take me anywhere I wanted to go that was Cybertown related.

Then one day it was announced that they were going to go 3D. They were setting up a VRML site. And there was a link to a preview. I didn't have a clue what to expect. So I downloaded something called a 3D client. If you've never had an epiphany online, you can't understand what my experience was. I was experiencing a virtual world for my very first time ever. I wandered around for a full two hours in real time. If my wife hadn't called out to me, I would have been there all night. It was the place called Colony City, the precursor to Cybertown 3D.

Life online happens. I got a job, moved up the ladder, had some racy relationships, got full of myself, and got fired. It was the first time I had ever been fired from a job I really, truly loved. If it hadn't been play money, I'd be rich today. So would hundreds of other CT residents. I was devastated. Those of you that have ever been fired from a job you really loved know what I'm talking about. I've healed. The wound is still there, but I've healed.

I tried to move on. But when something is implanted into your genes, it's doggone hard to totally ignore it. I'd return occasionally, either to participate, or to complain. I never got banned. Probably because I always left in disgust. But I'd always come back. It's something I jokingly call the bungee cord effect. You are hooked, and the cord only stretches so far before you get dragged back.

But I guess the laws of atrophy apply anywhere. Even online. For years CT had been a pay site. Mostly to maintain the server. But there weren't enough regular members to keep the place up to date and new and exciting, except to let the locals do their thing. So finally in the middle of 2011, parent company IVN threw open the gates and dropped the fee. Everyone could return for free. But by then, the internet had moved on. Several virtual communities had already come and gone while CT was maintaining it's walled garden. A last ditch effort was being made to bring the community up to speed. I was part of the first wave. But true to tradition, there was lots of wheel spinning, and not much real progress as a group. That deadline was December. And then the parent company was to implement real changes.

And in February, the servers went silent.

If you go there you get "Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Apache/1.3.26 Server at www.cybertown.com Port 80". I was told they were changing providers to AT&T and AT&T has been having trouble getting it set up.

Yeah, there are some things I'll miss. I had gotten comfy with being back with some of the old timers that stuck it out to the end. I was always accosted by some deputy asking if I had a home and a job. And I knew the place like the back of my hand. In spite of my numerous absences.

Will I go back if Cybertown actually DOES come back online? Of course. But I'm not holding my breath on that. Unofficially, CT has reached the end of it's usefulness. But more obviously, it's reached the end of it's relevance in today's internet. When you have a globally recognized company like Linden Lab struggling with monetizing it's cash cow called Second Life, what are the chances of a small company called Integrated Virtual Networks breaking out of their own indecisions of monetizing?

If you see me in 3DPlanets, say hi. Otherwise, I'll be in Second Life.

Roller Coaster Economy

I just Scooped a story titled <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2012/01/20/is-facebook-a-central-bank-too/" title="Is Facebook a Central Bank, Too?"></a> Physical currencies are dying. Plain and simple. I first snickered when the book "Snow Crash" was referring to Regan million dollar notes. You were never going to see something like that. Ever. But why couldn't you see millions of Facebook credits?

International banking is suddenly realizing that, hey, banking as we've known it is going the way of the Dodo bird. Talks are happening. Google and PayPal are in position. There are millions being exchanged in Linden Dollars. Why not Facebook Credits?

The financial and jobs market are at the precipice. Whichever way they fall off, both will land in roses. Between supplementing your income from gameplay in Facebook Credits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission defining the values of gaming points that can be used in the physical world economy, everyone is going to at least pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get on their feet again!

Christmas 2011

This has been a wild year for me. I went from 40 hours a week in the spring to 14 hours a week.  And from working one job to working two jobs.  I'm up to around 24 hours a week now.  But at least I'm working. 

This month my wife had a massive head trauma, requiring CPR.  But at least she's alive.  So now we get to wait on the hospital to send out the invoices.  We're waiting to hear from medicaid and a couple of other agencies to see who's going to pay what, and what we will have to deal with.

It can be really easy to curl up in a ball and have a breakdown.  The bills don't stop. Life will flow around your disaster without your input, thank you very much.  And then I have to remind myself....

Jesus was born in a stable, and slept in a hay trough.

Christmas can be about fighting crowds with pepper spray to get the last game system. Or it can be about counting your blessings, and learning to deal with adversity.  And one thing I know about is how to deal with adversity.  Life happens, as they say.  It's time for a new direction.  Always remember that the path has many directions.

May the adversity that you face be balanced by the advent of the Christ-child.

Politics And The New Soapbox

I really hate politics. It's an ugly creature that attracts all kinds of people that haven't got a clue about the big picture in life. Currently, congress is considering a bill called SOPA. They are also considering a bill called PROTECT IP Act of 2011. In a crowded nutshell, both bills deal with child pornography, and online piracy. But what is also at stake, is a monumental challenge to a form of America's freedom of speech. I've done what any US citizen can do. I e-mailed my congress critters, and I signed a petition. And now, through this post, I'm spreading the word. I've done my civic duty. Yay for me. I'm not real hopeful about either of these bills being defeated in congress. The RIAA has some uber-powerful lobbyists leaning on the congress critters to get this passed. And the way social medicine and the patriot act slipped through despite monumental opposition from the American public, doesn't bode well.

I was in my DeviantArt account last night, reading the latest posts, and viewing the newest art. I see a post about these very subjects. Now I wouldn't have paid any attention to it, except that it's one of those last minute "oh god, when did this happen?" kind of posts. And I was a little bit cynical in a reply post about it. No sooner did I finish, then the original post owner fire back at me saying something along the lines of if I don't sign the petition, then "YOUR A COWARD!". Seriously? Seriously? No forethought. Simply straight out character assassination. I of course did reply to that, informing this person, who I renamed butthead, that if he thought that a single petition was going to change the outcome, considering current congressional history, then he could continue living in his fantasy world.

Currently the American public has the luxury of the internet to pick and choose whatever pet atrocity they believe in, be it SOPA, or the Occupy Wall Street movement. They can do character assassinations to their heart's content.

The internet is a wonderful, revolutionary, field-leveling tool for the masses. It's helped to remove many corrupt dictatorships in the Mediterranean Sea reigions. It's exposed many local level charlatans, And it's pulling nations up by their bootstraps, helping them to become better informed about the world around them. But it's those very reasons that bills like these are being introduced. Nation-states and corporate conglomerates want to shove the internet back into Pandora's box and shelve it high on a forgotten wall of the university labs where it originated. And it's happening. Most of the eastern hemisphere already lives with some form of these laws.

If either S.968 or H.R.3261.IH are defeated, I'll be surprised. But I will say one thing. I'm not holding my breath for a hopeful outcome.

Dr. Conrad Murray verdict.

I'm sorry to hear that Dr. Conrad Murray was found guilty of the death of a man who clearly wasn't in his right mind. Granted, Dr. Murray handled things poorly, but Michael Jackson was no saint, as his fans paint him to be. At 52 years of age, Jackson was not a man that should have been cavorting around like he was in his early teens. I'm sure Murray had his hands full just keeping him stabilized at the end of the day. How many outside influences had to be pressuring the doctor that were never even mentioned in the trial? At this point, I'm hoping that Dr. Murray is able to keep his licence. I'm afraid that prison time will be unavoidable.

I'm sorry to say, Dr. Conrad Murray was framed on behalf of the fans.