Randomness

What a strange week.

I'd like to start off by thanking all the people who went out to vote. In Colorado, 90% of registered voters made it out to make their opinions heard, and that is just amazing.

In other news... Rumor has it that there is going to be a movie made based on the board game Monopoly. Yes, you read that correctly. Not sure what kind of storyline you attach to a board game about greed, but hey, why not? Hollywood's out of ideas anyway, right?

On second thought, perhaps you could make the movie a metaphor for our current floundering economy because of greed. But nobody watches those things.

Obama toured the White House on Monday with Bush. They played at being civil while, in the back of his head, Bush laughed like a drunken orangutan over the fact that he was handing off one of the worst economic situations in the country's history.

Anyway, I just started reading Watchmen, the supposedly brilliant graphic novel by Alan Moore. After seeing previews for the movie that made me drool in anticipation, I figured I'd give the novel a whirl before seeing the film. I'm not terribly far into it, but I am thusfar impressed.

I recently finished reading The Killing Joke, also by Alan Moore, because I have a fascination with The Joker. Putting aside the silly things that the Joker does in other, more cartoon-y comics and movies, there are very few works - novel, comic, movie, or otherwise - that take the time to really explore the psyche of this villain, and I think that's a damn shame. Too often, people just resort to senseless violence and stupid humor when writing about Joker, and that seems wasteful to me. Here is one of the more intriguing bad guys in modern literature, and his character is so often wasted on piddly contrivances and shallow characterizations. The Dark Knight was the first work I saw that truly explored the nuances of Joker's character and what it is that makes him tick. After doing some research into the matter, I stumbled across The Killing Joke, which, upon reading reviews, was attempting to do exactly what I was looking for: delve into that twisted mind. And it did an admirable job. Another graphic novel, The Joker, just came out. I'm eagerly anticipating reading that, as it too is supposed to cast off the cheery, hollow facade so many other authors use to portray Joker and show us a truly dark side. I can't wait.

One of the most developed bad guy characters in literature is Hannibal Lecter. I saw Silence of the Lambs on VHS (whoa, what's that?) when I was about 7. It took me weeks to get the image of the skins hanging off the cage, backlit by the white light that made them look angelic out of my head. That one scene started a deep fascination with the character Hannibal Lecter. Through the course of 4 well-crafted and meticulously researched books (and 4 movies which were not, generally, up to the same standard), Thomas Harris brought the character to life, gave him flesh and bones, twitches and peeves, but most importantly, he showed readers the true psyche of the man. For those of you that have only seen the movies, you have done yourself a great disservice. As great as Silence of the Lambs was, and as horrible as the rest of the movies were, they just do not go into the depth that the books do. Without the depth, many of the actions taken by Hannibal do not make any sense. They seem random an unplanned. Say what you will about the depraved and viscerally horrifying things that Hannibal did, but there would be no denying the sheer brialliance of the execution.

Some of you may read that and label me prime serial killer material, but I assure you I have no intentions, deisres, needs or otherwise to kill people. I am merely fascinated by the things that push the mind (particularly the brilliant mind) into territory that dark.

I Voted, and a Spore Update (Long Overdue)

I voted. Drove right on down to the church where they conducted the voting for my precinct, and filled in little bubbles with a black marker. My state, Colorado, did not have a write-in for the Presidential race, so I was not able to write in Ron Paul. I did, however, vote for Chuck Baldwin, a member of the American Constitution party, whose views are, generally, aligned with Dr. Paul's. I voted for my Congress-people and Senators, and I didn't vote for a single person who voted for the bailout plan. They should all be publicly ridiculed for what they have done.

I meant to, a couple of months ago, write a follow-up to the post I did on Spore back in September. I've been following that one as it's developed across the Net. Currently, the Spore review sits at 1.5 stars on amazon, with most of those being 1 star. There are a few more people now who are giving it a bad review because of its simplistic gameplay mechanics. But most of the 3,124 people who have reviewed it are complaining DRM.

EA, at first, responded in typical corporate fashion... "We're trying to keep people from ripping us off" was the approximate jist of it. Not too long after, however, they made a big stinking deal about "listening to our custmers and responding to their feedback." How did they respond, you might ask. Well, they increased the number of installs from 3 to 5. From everything I can find, it seems that they were working on a way to let the system recognize when you've uninstalled it from a computer so you can get one of your installs back, but I haven't been able to find an update on that. If anybody has an insight, let me know.

One of the other big complaints regarding the SecuROM DRM was that EA did not, anywhere on the box or in the paperwork, tell customers that a third-party application would be installed along with the game. EA's explanation for this is simply that they currently use one form of a ToS (terms of service). If they were to include information about their DRM methods, they would have to have multiple ToS documents (one for each product, since they apparently handle DRM differently for each one - Read more here)..... Really?! What kind of excuse is that for a multi-billion dollar corporation to make. You can't handle the stress of having multiple ToS docs? Why not consolidate your DRM policies instead?

EA missed the point on this whole DRM thing. Yes, people are upset about the number of installs, and they're upset that EA is installing software on their computers without permission. The true point, however, is that DRM is just plain stupid. EA claims that it prevents people from pirating and installing on an infinite number of computers. My arguments against this remain from my last article, but wait, I have more.

To start with pirating, it's plainly obvious that DRM does nothing to affect pirates. Spore was released to the pirating community weeks before it was released to the public. Consider that, according to Torrent Freak, within one month of its torrent release (the game first appeared on 9/2, and the article was written on 10/1), the pirated copy of Spore had been downloaded about 1 million times. That's an estimate, but considering how long Spre remained in the top 15 most downloaded list, it's likely not that far off. So, obviously, DRM does nothing to prevent pirating - rather, it encourages it according to commentors on Pirate Bay.

EA's other argument is that it prevents people from installing it on umpteen computers. I hadn't realized this was that big of a problem, but consider this (straight from the mouth of EA via Ars Technica... and keep in mind that the numbers are "these numbers are a sample and shouldn't be taken as indicative of total sales"):

• Total activations: 437,138
• Users activating on only 1 machine: 86 percent
  
• Users activating on more than 1 machine: 14 percent
  
• User trying to activate on more than 3 machines: 0.4 percent

... so, straight from EA's own data, how is multiple installs a problem again?????

Like I said before, EA is missing the point. Stop treating paying customers like criminals, and they will still pay for your product. It's just that simple.

Sad Days

Well, it's been kind of a while since I've updated this, but today feels like a day that I need to write.

Tom, one of the supervisors that works with me, died this morning due to complications that arose from a surgery to remove his spleen. We were not close, but he was this kind of goofy guy that I interacted with several times a week. He never failed to make me smile, even when I hated the world. Though we weren't close personal friends, I will miss our meetings and his odd and joyous sense of humor. My condolences go out to his wife and kids. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Today has been a blur. Not a fast one, per se, but my mind stopped working after the news. Everything going on around me seems so inconsequential. There was so much that I wanted to write about in this blog post, but today has seemed to make it matter not at all. The atmosphere is glum, the people around me numb. It's hard to grasp that Tom will never poke his head into my cube and make the ok/asshole sign with his hand. Hard to imagine not being able to hear his quirky pirate jokes any more. 

RIP, Tom.

Ron Paul's Statement Regarding the Bailout Passing and Being Signed Into Law

United States House of Representatives 
Statement on HR 1424 
October 3, 2008 

Madame Speaker, only in Washington could a bill demonstrably worse than its predecessor be brought back for another vote and actually expect to gain votes.  That this bailout was initially defeated was a welcome surprise, but the power-brokers in Washington and on Wall Street could not allow that defeat to be permanent.  It was most unfortunate that this monstrosity of a bill, loaded up with even more pork, was able to pass.  

The Federal Reserve has already injected hundreds of billions of dollars into US and world credit markets.  The adjusted monetary base is up sharply, bank reserves have exploded, and the national debt is up almost half a trillion dollars over the past two weeks.  Yet, we are still told that after all this intervention, all this inflation, that we still need an additional $700 billion bailout, otherwise the credit markets will seize and the economy will collapse.  This is the same excuse that preceded previous bailouts, and undoubtedly we will hear it again in the future after this bailout fails.  

One of the most dangerous effects of this bailout is the incredibly elevated risk of moral hazard in the future.  The worst performing financial services firms, even those who have been taken over by the government or have filed for bankruptcy, will find all of their poor decision-making rewarded.  What incentive do Wall Street firms or any other large concerns have to make sound financial decisions, now that they see the federal government bailing out private companies to the tune of trillions of dollars?  As Congress did with the legislation authorizing the Fannie and Freddie bailout, it proposes a solution that exacerbates and encourages the problematic behavior that led to this crisis in the first place.   

With deposit insurance increasing to $250,000 and banks able to set their reserves to zero, we will undoubtedly see future increases in unsound lending.  No one in our society seems to understand that wealth is not created by government fiat, is not created by banks, and is not created through the manipulation of interest rates and provision of easy credit.  A debt-based society cannot prosper and is doomed to fail, as debts must either be defaulted on or repaid, neither resolution of which presents this country with a pleasant view of the future.  True wealth can only come about through savings, the deferral of present consumption in order to provide for a higher level of future consumption.  Instead, our government through its own behavior and through its policies encourages us to live beyond our means, reducing existing capital and mortgaging our future to pay for present consumption.    

The money for this bailout does not just materialize out of thin air.  The entire burden will be borne by the taxpayers, not now, because that is politically unacceptable, but in the future.  This bailout will be paid for through the issuance of debt which we can only hope will be purchased by foreign creditors.  The interest payments on that debt, which already take up a sizeable portion of federal expenditures, will rise, and our children and grandchildren will be burdened with increased taxes in order to pay that increased debt. 

As usual, Congress has show itself to be reactive rather than proactive.  For years, many people have been warning about the housing bubble and the inevitable bust.  Congress ignored the impending storm, and responded to this crisis with a poorly thought-out piece of legislation that will only further harm the economy.  We ought to be ashamed.

Thanks to Campaign for Liberty for the transcript.

VERY IMPORTANT

Register to vote!

A Turn For the Better

So, on semi-stern email later, another Microsoft CCR fixed my issue. After apologizing for all the inconveniences of course. Happy endings.

An Update from Microsoft (still hate 'em)

As an update to my previous post, here is the email I sent to Microsoft yesterday:

Be specific when describing your problem. The details that you include enable us to promptly send you the most likely solution to your issue.

   This is my third attempt to get assistance with this problem. I've sent emails once a week for the past 2 weeks (9/15 and 9/24) and never received a response. The ticket number I was given was [redacted].

When I attempt to use my Live ID to sign in to MSN from anywhere (MSN Homepage, XBox Live, Messenger, Trillian, Hotmail) from any browser (IE 8/7/6, Firefox 3.0.1, Chrome) on any computer at work or at home, I receive the following error: 

Provide account information 

We're unable to retrieve information for this page at this time. We're sorry for the inconvenience, please try again later. 

There is a button that says Sign in to Windows Live, which takes me back to the sign in screen. After attempting to sign in again, the error message is displayed again. This has been happening for the past 2 weeks, and it happens every time I try to sign in. 

I have recently upgraded to Firefox 3.0.1 and IE 8 on both computers - which is the only new software I've installed recently; however, a test on a computer running IE 7 without Firefox yielded the same results, and the same thing happened with IE 6. 

If it helps, the URL for the error message is as follows: [redacted]  

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer.

So today, a Microsoft CCR replied with the following email:

Thank you for contacting the Windows Live Technical Support; my name is Max, and I will be assisting you with your issue (based on what you selected on our support page), you are experiencing issues with signing in or you are seeing an invalid password error. This automated response will provide you the information needed to optimize your browser settings that has been known to resolve sign in issues.  If this response does not resolve your issue or you have already tried to optimize your browser, reply to this message.

 

First, we want to make sure that the account name (E-mail Address) that you are using is spelled correctly on the sign in page. Then you will want to ensure that the password is the correct password for the account you are attempting to sign in to. We have found that this is a resolution step that many have overlooked. Your email address might be correct, but a simple misspelled domain name can cause additional headaches. 
Ie: yourname@htomail.com or yourname@hotmial.com. In these examples, the name hotmail was mistyped and has caused some of the issues you might be seeing.

 

Next, we have a site that can walk you through to optimize your Internet Explorer browser: Windows Live ID Space. If the link does not work, you can use the direct web page: http://liveidsupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4D45F3F81F297BB6!110.entry.

 

If you have forgotten your password, then you can reset a forgotten password online by selecting the link under the password box on any log in page that states "Forgot your password?" or by going directly to this link: Forgot your password?, then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the password reset instructions.

 

The information for changing your  password can also be found on our online help: Click Here or go to the following link: http://help.live.com/Help.aspx?&project=LiveIDv1&querytype=topic&query=Accountv1_PROC_ChangePassword.htm

 

Verify that these steps either resolves, or does not resolve the sign in problems you are seeing. If the information in this email does not resolve your questions or if you are writing about a different problem or question, reply to this message with additional details and error messages you are seeing. Thank you for contacting the Windows Live Technical Support.

 

Sincerely,

Max : Windows Live Technical Support SR

...

...

...

Did he even read the bloody email I sent?! It confuses me why their form explicitly tells you to include as many details as possible, yet the rep who receives the email DOES NOT READ IT. Check out the language in the first paragraph. "This automated response [...]" That means that Max (assuming his/her real name is Max), simply clicked a button that ran a macro for a general sign in issue without actually reading the letter. I mean, come on, my email says absolutely nothing about my username and/or password being incorrect, so why include that BS? And, "optimizing" my Internet Explorer obviously isn't going to do anything considering it happens in Firefox, Trillian, and on my freaking XBox 360!!! Oh wait, it's an automated response.

So, I wrote Max back.

Max,

I am glad to have received a reply, however, your automated response did me no good. Your online form asked me to provide as many details as possible so you could help me resolve my issue, but it is apparent that you failed to read the details I provided. This issue is not on my end. I am spelling my email address correctly, and I did not forget my password. The error that I provided you with is not an "incorrect user name or password" error. Also, the error has nothing to do with whether or not my IE browser is "optimized", because it happens on all browsers as well as instant messaging programs and through my XBox 360.

I am copying and pasting my original email here for your convenience. Please read it, and do not send me another automated response. 

Thank you.

Hopefully, this time, I get some results.