Really going to try this time......AND TECH MONDAY!!!!~!~!!1!!!

So I want to write this blog, I really do. My outlet for all of my ramblings used to be a group of nerds who sat near me and read nerd news all day. It was a magical time, a simpler time, blah blah blah.

Lets get started, I want to eventually work out a format and then get into the weeks top tech and nerd news. For this week I want to throw out some predictions for what I am calling "Tech Monday". On 11June13 the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) will kick off with the traditional Day 1 or Day 0 press conferences. The same day kicks off Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). The Keynote for WWDC is when Apple presents it's new software for the year, and in some cases new Hardware (usually Macs, but hey anything can happen with Apple). So on Tech Monday all of this will be happening at the same time. Below is a time table of the stuff I will be paying attention to.

(all PST)
E3:

• 0930 - Microsofts Press Conference
• 1300 - EA's Press Conference
• 1500 - Ubisofts Press Conference
• 1800 - Sony's Press Conference

WWDC:

• 1000 - Keynote

As you can see there will be some overlap between the two events, and the tech and gaming sites will be just vomiting out news, I expect Reddit to fail at some point. All of these events will be important for the tech/gaming/nerd /hipster crowd in some way. Microsoft, Apple, and Sony are at the top of my list.

Microsoft already debuted it's XBOX One system at an event in May. Their power house machine was sold as a device to run you living room. More of an all-in-one entertainment box than a video game machine, at least that is the perception after the event. Microsoft has promised a focus on games at E3, and I should hope so, as the hard core game audience is what sells these systems. Casual gamers and people who don't play games aren't gonna be camping out at gamestop and best buy on launch day, but gamers will. Microsoft will likely show off some new IPs and exclusives to lure in that audience. Expect a new Halo and some sort of Call of Duty news. For the FPS crowd XBOX is the center of the universe and Microsoft has to play to this crowd in order to win in the upcoming console war.

Sony has everything to gain at this event, and so much to lose. To look back a consoles throughout their existence there has always been a third Generation curse. The Sega Saturn, The Nintendo 64, Atari Jaguar, and the Playstation 3. All of these companies had hugely successful 2nd generation  systems, but failed in their 3rd. Two of those companies (Atari and Sega) never recovered as hardware producers. Nintendo floundered with the Gamecube, and then had a surprise hit with the Wii. But Sony is in uncharted territory (pun intended). The PS3 wasn't a failure, it was actually quite successful, it just failed to defeat Nintendo and Microsoft this generation. The PS3 did produce some of the best exclusives of the last generation with games like Uncharted, infamous, Little Big Planet, Killzone, God of War, Grand Turismo , etc. This will be their strongest hand moving forward.

Sony announced the PS4 back in February. The event was received well by critics and fans. Sony has yet to show off the console itself, and can be expected to be front and center at their E3 event. Also pricing will likely be announced, which may be the most critical announcement for Sony. When the PS3 was announced it came with a $599 price point, and Sony took a loss on every unit at that price. If Sony can price the system at around $399 they will be in good shape, anything higher and Sony loyalist will stick with their PS3s until the inevitable price drop. Like Microsoft their machine must take multiple roles in the living room, but the focuses should be on quality titles that players love. I want Sony to come out swinging, show us the games we are going to get a launch, shows us the games in real time being played.

During the Microsoft XBOX conference, the Apple WWDC Keynote will happen. All eyes will be on CEO Tim Cook and designer Jonny Ive as they unveil iOS 7, MacOS 10.9, some new MACs, and possibly one more thing.

Lots of rumors surrounding iOS 7, the most prevalent is the "flat" design. Flat and Minimalist designs are all the rage, and Apple's industrial design (the hardware itself) has been minimalist for years. I would say not to expect iOS7 to shift to a total flat design ala Windows 8 Metro, but to simplify and unify a lot of their stock apps. Apple tends to make small changes incrementally to their products, as to not alienate their current customers and let users adapt slowly to change. There will likely be some functional changes to iOS 7 but it's hard to say what. Some rumors suggest that widgets, similar to those on the Android OS may finally come to Apple's mobile devices, but again this is all rumor. Personally I would just love to see better multitasking support, and an easier way to access my setting, especially things like WiFi and Bluetooth.  One persestant rumor is air drop file sharing. Essentially this would allow easy sharing of files between all Apple devices over WiFi.

MacOS 10.9 is an even harder one to call, there has been very little in regards to rumors for this one, and even the most accurate tech sites are in the dark. One rumor suggested that most of the changes would be for power users, and very little would change for the everyday consumer. If history can teach us anything, it's we will probably see continued MAC/iOS integration. Missing from MacOS 10.8 Mountain Lion, was Apple's troubled Maps service and the continued lack of digital assistant Siri, both could reasonably be expected to make an appearance.

As for hardware, a refresh of the MacBook Air, possible with Retina display, can fully be expected. A new MacPro may finally make an appearance as well, but don't hold your breath. Apple has made deals with all of the major recording artist labels, which will likely lead to a streaming music service similar to Pandora or Spotify. What will be interesting is how the service works, as Apple makes a lot profit from their iTunes store as the #1 source of digital downloads. The wild card may be wearable computing. Tim Cook's appeared at D11 and made several comments on wearable computing. He made comments in regards to Google Glass and a Nike Fuel Band that he was wearing. Cook seems to believe that glass will be a niche market, but also said he didn't believe young people would wear a watch. All of this is interesting, and probably later we will see all of the clues, all we can say for sure is that apple is thinking about wearable computing and wants to enter that market. How and when is a different story.

Well enough of that, cause I'm not even paying attention.

Violence, VideoGames, and Puppies

So let's start out with a scenario. Not too long ago my wife tells me it would be worth an award to place a hogged tied woman on rail road tracks and wait for the train to run her over. No problem, well almost, my first attempt at this feat ended with the woman escaping her restraints and running away, luckily I'm a crack shot with my Winchester rifle. I shot the woman in the back and left her body in the desert. I then went to a nearby village where I was able to tie up another woman and successfully watch her get ran over by a train. I was granted the award.

Now this sounds very bad, but I was of course playing a video game, a western. This very violent action was not required by the game in order to complete it, now I was awarded a digital "trophy", but the game also took away honor points for my action. Why do I bring any of this up? Well it's because of a little game called "Medal of Honor". The Medal of Honor series is responsible for the WWII first person shooter sub-genre that until very recently, was the de-facto setting for all FPS games. I am a big fan of the series, one of my favorite video game experiences was in "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" I played as an American Soldier storming the beaches of Normandy. It was almost directly out of the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan". During this scene, American Soldiers around me died as German Gun Fire and Artillery rained down on them. Eventually my squad finds a path to get passed the beach head and kill the Germans holding positions at the beach.

The current Medal of Honor game is creating some controversy because in the multi player mode, you have two choices to play, US Army or Taliban. Some find this incredibly disturbing that a gamer can choose to play as the bad guy, and I understand their concerns, however, this is not the first game to do this. Any game that has multi player generally separates the opposing sides based on the single player protagonist and antagonist. So back to the original Medal of Honor, when I played the online multi player I had to choose between the US Army and Nazi Germany. Is there a difference? Maybe, troops are still fighting in Iraq (despite the lies of the US Government and mass media) and Afghanistan, where as the Nazi's where defeated over 60 years ago.

I look at this and think of how kids play games. When I was a little tike, all of the children in the neighborhood got together and played "Cops and Robbers". The rules were simple; the "Cops" job was to chase the robbers and capture them, the "Robbers" job was to elude capture. Now when playing the robber, you didn't actual rob anyone, it was just a title. The same goes for any multi player experience in a FPS. Each side has an objective that the must complete, usually its "kill everyone not on your side", but this can vary based on the game. The only difference in the two sides is the available weapons, and what your character looks like. It's not like if you play as the Taliban you have to observe Islamic prayers and become indoctrinated into the extremist cause. The same if you pick the US Army, your not given a safety briefings and have to go through the great experience of pre-mission prep before you role out.

So why is this such a controversy? Well with all things in America ignorance is the #1 culprit. Most people speaking out about this game don't play FPS or any video games for that matter. So they lack a basic understanding of multi player mechanics. There is also a huge sensitivity to violence in games that goes back to the Columbine massacre. Violent games are often criticized unfairly (in my opinion) by people who have no issue with movies with similar levels of violence. Lastly, we are still at war in Afghanistan, and the thought of anyone playing as a Taliban fighter and shooting at other players represented as US Soldiers really hits home. This last point may be the games downfall. Similar games like "Modern Warfare" have skated around this issues by using unnamed generic middle eastern fighters as the bad guys. Sometimes making movies or games about a current event are just to emotional for some to except. For example there was a push to make FPS games taking place during Vietnam, they were only mildly successful. This is because those wounds haven't quite healed.

I for one will be playing this game, the single player puts you in the role of a fictional special forces unit called Tier 1. Basically your an uber-bad-ass. Because I don't generally play multi player the whole Taliban issues doesn't really effect me. Now I started off this blog talking about my experience playing "Red Dead Redemption" (RDR), I did this to illustrate that we except a lot of violence in games, and don't think about it, especially in a game like RDR that takes place in a time we can't really relate to. Because "Medal of Honor" occurs in a time we are all too familiar with, it seems more real. So every gamer will have to make a choice, does this game hit too close to home. Parents also need to be informed and ensure their children are not playing games intended for adults. Like I said, as a Veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom I look forward to this game, and hope to kick some Taliban ass. But I'm not even paying attention.

Ground Zero and the nightmare for conservatives

My look at the mosque/community center sorta near ground zero (two blocks) and the fire storm/mindless bickering that we will have to endure because of it.

1. So some people want to build a Mosque/Community center in New York- No Problem
2. The Mosque/Community center is two blocks from ground zero - Not really a problem, but probably not a good image
3. Conservatives are protesting - Yay First Amendment!
4. Liberals are counter-protesting - Yay First Amendment!
5. The Imam proposing this build has ties to Terrorist organizations - A problem
6. This site might have been chosen because of it's proximity to Ground Zero - A big problem
7. Funding has for the site has not been fully disclosed - A problem
8. Some are calling for Government intervention to either stop or assist in the building - A big problem
9. An alternative site is being negotiated - Yay diplomacy

Ok, so this issues has really stirred up everyone and the usual mud flinging is in full force. I look at this first at the two major constitutional issues that are at the for front. #1 there is no problem with a mosque being built, this country was founded on the Freedom of religion, and that doesn't mean freedom to practice your flavor of Christianity, it means whatever; Wicca, Jedi, goat worship, WHATEVER! Now some on my political side want some kind of government intervention to stop this build, NO! The government should not be taking a side in this, so if your one of those, stop. The Government should and must remain totally secular, as much as we hate a nativity scene not being allowed on public land, it's the right thing to do.

Now I want to make this clear, I don't like Muslims. I feel they are heretic worshipers of a false prophet who have taken the Abrahamic tradition and turned it into something evil and vile. I do believe that unless they accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior and turn away from the false teachings of Mohammad, they will all be condemned to an eternity in hell. But that is why God gave us free will, so we can choose our fate. I also don't believe President Obama is a Muslim, I believe he is an atheist.

I make this point because I don't want to be perceived as a friend of Islam. I simply want everyone to be allowed to worship whatever the want as long as it doesn't infringe on my fundamental rights. This mosque doesn't infringe on anyone's rights. Now do I think this mosque is a good idea, no.

The simple fact is this mosque could be built at another site further away from ground zero, and I believe everyone could be happy. It makes sense for a number of reasons. First if I was building a religious building, and because of it's location the safety of worshipers could be threatened, I would look for a better location. As much as we try to act like we aren't mad at the Muslim world for 9/11, we as Americans are pissed. Yes I know, not all Muslims condoned the attacks, it doesn't matter. The fact is an organization founded as a Muslim holy army, conducted these attacks. A mosque this close to the site of those attacks makes it inherently offensive to the families of the victims and all of us affected by these attacks. This mosque should be built somewhere else. With that we (Christians and Jews) may have to concede a religious free zone around ground zero.That means no Temple or Church either, fair is fair assholes!

So bottom line, I'm against this mosque being built, but I want this to be a voluntary move without government intervention. But I'm not even paying attention anyway

Office Space

So I've been really busy at work recently. We have a tech demo this week for a bunch of high level dudes. This has required me to be in the office before 7am almost every morning. But here is the thing, I'm not doing anything when I come in so early. Right now it's 7:28 am and I'm typing on my blog, not the most productive thing in the world. Once I'm done typing I totally intend to do some work on my virtual farm, again not really a great use of the tax payer money used to my for my PC and the two 30" Monitors sitting on my desk. Anyway, what got me thinking was the normal traditions and rituals exercised on any Monday in an office environment. It usually starts with the typical small talk that arises on any given Monday; "how was your weekend". Now this weekend was special, because the UFC had a pay-per-view, and while only a fraction of the office actually witnessed the fight, the rest of us are all too willing to hear of someone getting their @ss kicked. So instantly the person who A: Paid an ungodly price for the pleasure of viewing or B: Braved the crowded sports bar to watch becomes the most popular guy in school. Everyone else comes to his desk and listens to the somewhat scewed view of the main event. The rest of us smile and slightly pretend to be interested in it, knowing damn well we don't really care about the participants or the details, we just want to know if someone got beat up. After all humans take great pleasure in the viewing of other peoples misery, just look to Rome, they built a stadium out of stone just so they could pack in as many people possible to watch possibly hundreds of people die in combat. Moving on, we slowly move on to other peoples weekends, while I have nothing to add seeing how I remained in bed for most of the weekend either plotting my plan for world domination, or harvesting crops on my virtual farm, I remain silent and smile and nod to other peoples stories, even though I likely had a much more fulfilling weekend. After all this is over, everyone returns to their desk an acts like they are doing work, but in reality they are stalking their friends on their social network of choice, or by the sounds of the mouse clicks, working on their virtuals farms, but hey, I'm not even paying attention.

Ohio, Vomit, and Taxes.

So I wake up this morning and begin my normal routine when I arrive at work at 6:30am, I read the news. One of the sites I check periodically is the Sidney Daily News, my home town newspaper. I try not to read news from back home that often, usually because of how boring and depressing the Buckeye State can be. But this morning I noticed a Facebook post from my cousin which seemed to indicate some sort of bad news back home, his message was vague but I had a suspicion their was a school levy that was just defeated, and I was right. Sidney City Schools, where I received my public education, has been trying to pass a School Levy for several years now. The town has been deeply divided because of this issue. I have maintained a neutral view of the situation, my parents are against it, Aunts and Uncles are for it, but because I pay nothing to the City of Sidney, I really don't care. I try to forget my time as a student in the School district, not saying it's a bad school district, it's just not outstanding and generally mediocre. I was intrigued because this levy was just a renewal of an existing levy, meaning there would be no tax increase to the voters. So why did this fail? Why are the citizens of Sidney taking their time to ensure this levy is defeated? Well I did my research, and may have discovered why.

First a little background for those of you whom have never eaten at "the Spot" (local eatery), Sidney sprang up as a result of the Miami and Erie Canal, later the railroad and eventually in the 1950s one of the largest stretches of interstate highway crossed right through the town. Sidney is mainly an industrial/agricultural town, and is home to one some beautiful landmarks to include "the Big Four Bridge" (Large Concrete Railroad Arch Bridge), The Shelbly County Courthouse (Second Empire Architecture), and a main street right out of a 50s Hollywood movie. Now we all know we are still in a recession, and like any town with a large industrial workforce Sidney was hit hard, how hard, well I have some stats.

- The State of Ohio currently has an unemployment rate of about 10.4 percent, about 0.8 percent above the national rate of 9.6 percent, Shelby County tops them both with a 11.9 percent unemployment rate.

- On top of this Ohio ranks 47th in the nation for its tax climate, meaning  that for potential new businesses Ohio offers little incentive for a new Company to start up. Ohio's income tax rate is 5.5%, Shelby county and the City of Sidney add 1.5 percent to bringing the total tax burden to & percent on top of the federal income tax rate.

- 11.5 percent of the population is under the poverty line, accounting for about 9.4 percent of the families of Sidney.

Now, my first conclusion was the people of Sidney have fallen under hard times and don't want to have their taxes raised, but this levy would not have raised taxes. Because of the failure of this levy, the residents of Sidney will get a tax cut, on a $100,000 property there would be about a $140 dollar per year cut in taxes, or $12 dollars per month. So the question remains, Why did this levy fail? As an analyst it's easy to use statistics to form assessments, it gives you a solid amount of data to back you conclusions up, but leaves out an important factor, emotion. As I discussed earlier the town is divided on this issue, why? because both sides feel they are right, and both sides are right. On one hand education is one of the most important parts of our society, it's was separates us from cave dwellers of Afghanistan and inbreds of Canada. But on the other hand, public Schools like any government entity are inefficient money pits, that are slow to change. So during the worst part of this recession the school system asked for a levy, it failed, and failed again. Websites were produced, people talked at the football games, and lines were drawn in the sand. This isn't about money anymore, its about being right, it's about winning, and it's not about the kids attending these schools. For example here are a few links on both sides of the issue.

http://www.schoollevyfacts.org/
http://forum.sidneydailynews.com/index.php?topic=394.2595
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sidney-City-School-Levy/119720171387310
http://sidneyindependent.blog.com/2009/12/12/recap-of-the-scs-levy-saga/
http://www2.sidney.k12.oh.us/
http://www.sidneydailynews.com/main.asp?SectionID=97&SubSectionID=243&ArticleID=214000


So my conclusion is this, people have planted their feet they and aren't going anywhere. A cut in taxes sounds like an awesome idea during a recession. But again I have nothing in this fight. And I'm not even paying attention.