Be Smart on the Internet!

Most people these days do not understand the true power of the internet. This is becoming more apparent with the proliferation of Facebook. We all need to understand this one statement: whatever goes on the internet, stays on the internet… FOREVER! It will be there till the end of time. Every photo, every status update, every Tweet, every video, every rant, every complaint is stored in servers and will never ever be erased. Did you accidently upload a photo of you drunk at a party? Well you can go ahead and delete it off of Facebook but guess what, its still on their servers.

The moment you upload anything, you are making it public record. That’s right. The second that piece of media hits the internet, it is no longer yours and is viewable by the world. And just because you delete the picture today, doesn’t mean I can’t find a logged version of your profile from a couple of days ago and recover that picture.

Recently, there has been a fad on Facebook for women to post where they keep their purses at home. But they simply state “I like it on the kitchen table” instead of “I like to keep my purse on the kitchen table”. They believe its cute and funny to see their male friends all confused and having crazy images in their heads. What these women don’t seem to realize is that, you just told the entire world where you keep your purse. The millions of thieves who troll Facebook thank you. Now they know exactly where you keep your valuables instead of ransacking the house.

When you upload a status bashing your manager at work or your professor on campus, it isn’t private. Your boss can see how you really feel about him. This is why business have been viewing your profile when you apply for a job. The “real” you is represented there. Not the sanitized version you present to them. They are able to see every hateful comment you made about your ex or every drunken tirade you made. You don’t have privacy on the internet.

I bet you didn’t know this fact. Your phone number is now public on Facebook. Yup its true. You can change it via the privacy settings in your profile, but until then, we can all see it. Wouldn’t you just love for the creepy guy in your class to have your cell number? I didn’t think so. But the fact that you uploaded your number in the first place, shows your lack of education regarding privacy.

The internet has proven the power of the masses. If someone wants to find out where you live, they can go into the code of the photo you just uploaded, find the IP address of the computer you used to upload it or if you have a smartphone the GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken, find the city you live in, use your last name to find out where you live and guess what, the stalker on the internet now knows where you live, where you go to school, who you live with and where you work, all because you didn’t take precautions with your privacy when you uploaded that photo. And I didn’t make up the above scenario. I’ve seen it happen and lives are ruined because of it.

Be smart fellow readers. Always check the privacy of any online site you go to and always make sure that what you post online, is ok for the rest of the world to know.



Civilization 5 is for All

Civilization 5 is the newest foray into the fantastic franchise. I’ve been a big Civilization fan and I’m so glad that this series is continuing. The main problem with this generation of games is that they lack thought. Halo, Call of Duty, Killzone, all these games are simply twitch shooters. All you do is point and shoot. You don’t need to think, there is no strategy except kill all the badguys in the room and move onto the next badguy infested room.

Civilization on the other hand slows things down and forces you to think. Its much like chess because you need to think three moves ahead in order to stay alive. As the title states , Civilization is the game of progressing your civilization through generations of time; from club and spears to robots and spaceships. During this process you explore the surrounding areas, gather materials such as gold and lumber, slowly progress your civilization through science, math, invention and the create the great wonders such as the pyramids.

Before the game begins you pick your ruler, and there are a ton to choose pick. Every major leader is in the game from Washington to Bismarck. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses so depending on your strategy (global domination, the most cultivated, or diplomatic victory) should influence your choice of leader.

If there is anything I’ve learned from Civilization is that you need to clear you schedule before you start playing. I’ve been a gamer since the age of 3 and there has never been a game that made time fly by as fast as Civilization has. You sit down at 10pm and next thing you know its 2am. But this just goes to prove the brilliance of the game. You get so immersed in the world that you don’t realize what is happening in real life.

Civilization 5 takes everything that we loved about the series and makes it better. Better graphics, more streamlined interface, beautiful moving orchestral scores and yes, the addictive gameplay. I already claimed that StarCraft 2 is game of the year, and I stand by that statement, but if there was any game that could make a run for GotY it is definitely Civilization. It is something that can only be experience and my words do not do it justice. I highly recommend this game to all gamers, thinkers and twitch alike. I believe FPS fans will like it for the vast about of military units you can use, and of course the thinkers will love deciding wither to ally themselves with Ramses of Egypt or to undermine his alliances with Otto von Bismarck in an attempt to wipe both of them out. Of course you can be the peaceful warrior and attempt to be the first to reach the stars, but be warned, as with real life, not all civilizations want peace. So now it is your turn to write history and lead your civilization to glory.



Reformat the Planet

If you were born in the 90’s chances are you played a videogame once in your life, weither it be in the arcades, PC or home console. Thats why I highly recommend my fellow gamers out there to watch a documentary called “Reformat the Planet”. I just came across it a couple of months ago but it has introduced me to something I never knew existed: Chip tunes.

What is “chip tunes”? Essentially chip tunes is very elaborate 8-bit music. Much like how hip-hop took old records and made their own music or how punk took rock and shoved it back in its face, chip tunes asks the question, is 8-bit music relegated to only videogames? The answer is a direct, no.

These new musicians are expressing their musical talents in a new way by using old GameBoys, NES’ or even Atari’s. For the GameBoy there is a cartrage called “LSDJ” that enables the user to take every noise a GameBoy can make and allows them to arrange those sounds into actual music. It is very cool and for some very nostalgic.

The Chip tune scene has slowly been growing over the years and now there is a home for it in a club called “The Tank” in New York. The Tank brings chip tune musicians from all across the America to play at their stage. It allows unknown musicians to get exposure and for veterans to drop their new albums. Once a year The Tank holds their own version of Woodstock called “The Blip Festival” where for 3-4 days straight musicians come and show off new techniques and songs. These musicians come from every corner of the planet ranging from Sweden to Japan.

There is something very unique about chip tunes. It is definitely an acquired taste but as stated before, I think if you have ever played a videogame in your life you need to check out this scene.  You can watch the entire film “Reformat the Planet” free at penny-arcade.com/patv/reformat-the-planet.

Watch it, and welcome to the chip tunes community.

Google: Do No Evil

You rarely see big corporations that stick to their ethic codes anymore. Its never about whats best for the people but the company, and how much more money we can get. But you know there is a bit of light that shines through these dark clouds of corruption: Google. Yes the search engine.

If you didn't know, as a search engine Google holds more power than any government. Think about it, when we read history what did governments to do their people to sway their opinions? Censor the media and generate propaganda. Google contains the power to do such that. It can choose what sites you can visit, what photos you can see and what news you can read. Thankfully, it hasn't implemented these powers in the US. But for Google to operate in China, it had to. If you searched for Tienanmen Square, you would get "zero results found". It blocked Facebook, Twitter and any other social media site that connects to countries outside of China. But as I reported on earlier this year, Google and many other companies were hacked by the Chinese government (allegedly, but all signs point to yes). So what did Google do? Threatened to pull out of China if there wasn't a given excuse. No excuse came and as of last week, all of Google's searches are now routed through Google Hong Kong instead of Google China. Meaning an uncensored internet for Chinese citizens who search through Google.

I'm very proud to say that I'm an avid Google user. I use their e-mail client, calendar, reader, documents and I plan on getting the Nexus One (Google's phone) as soon as it hits the Verizon Network in the coming weeks. Its great to see a company stand up for whats right and not what makes the most money. Because you have to remember, there are more internet users in China then there are people in the US. It was a big market for Google. So they stuck to their guns. Props for you Google. Now the entire country isn't uncensored. You have to remember that Yahoo and Microsoft are still operating there under China's laws of censorship. The internet isn't 100% liberated, yet. So will those two companies follow Google's lead and free the internet? Or will their wallets be screaming too much.

And continuing on their mantra of "Do No Evil" Google is threatening to pull out of Australia. The Communications Minister of Australia, Stephen Conroy, has demanded heavy censorship of the Internet there by proposing to blacklist many websites. He says its to protect its citizens from child porn. But he isn't going after child porn sites. No he has banned all pornography that contains flat chested women. He is doing so because he claims that pedophiles apparently use that instead of kiddie porn. But Google has recently discovered that Conroy's list of blacklisted sites also includes politically sensitive and innocuous material, such as sexual health discussions and discussions on euthanasia. Conroy has run many campaigns on the platform of euthanasia. Google has stated that this is about freedom of access to information for all of Australia's citizens and if threatened will discontinue service there.

Censorship of any kind is not right. As long as it isn't illegal, everybody should be able to read whatever they wish, whenever they want.

Is Kevin Smith too Fat for the Sky?

That’s the question I asked myself when I heard what had happened to him over the weekend. Kevin Smith, director of such classics as Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma and Clerks 2, was ejected from his Southwest flight in California because he was a “hazard”. He wished to know why he was considered a hazard and the flight attendant skirted around the answer giving such excuses as “The pilot requested it”. After a few minutes of asking it became obvious it was because of his weight.

After being escorted off his plane he started to tell his ordeal though Twitter. While he was slamming Southwest for their “customer service” he was giving a ticket for another flight and a $100 voucher. Meanwhile the “twitter-sphere” exploded with anger over Kevin’s situation. Many told their own horror stories, while some promised never to fly on that airline.

It was at this time that someone with Southwest found out about his twittering and the manager of the Southwest airline in that airport came running over to him apologizing like crazy. “We’re so sorry. They shouldn’t have treated you like that on the flight. We’ll allow you to board first.” Because unbeknownst to Southwest, Kevin Smith has over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, quite a soapbox.

Kevin Smith now was on this second flight when to his left a large woman set across from him in the isle. Before the plane took off, one of the flight attendants came over to her and asks to speak to her in private. After their discussion Kevin asked what they told her. Her response was “She told me to buy a second seat next to mine for future flights.” Again because of her weight.

Kevin just about exploded and continued to tweet his story. Because of his devoted followers, Southwest’s blog, nutsaboutsouthwest.com, was overwhelmed with complaints and the site eventually crashed.

To hear the entire story, I highly recommend you listen to Kevin Smith’s most recent podcast at www.smodcast.com. It is here that he delves into all the details and his feeling and opinions on the situation. This is NSFW so only listen in your homes or with earphones.

"Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!"

(Credit: Twitter/@thatkevinsmith)

This just goes to show that there is much power with the Internet. I believe that this is just an example of what we are headed towards. Not just a single voice against a company but an entire legion of people united under one banner. Now granted, if this wasn’t Kevin Smith complaining, no one would listen. But as we progress to a more unified and connected civilization, moments like this will be exposed more frequently and with similar results.