Blackmoor Vituperative

I love Lara Croft. I think she’s one of the best role-models that popular entertainment has to offer: she’s strong, smart, independent, adventurous, she knows how to fire a pistol, and her clothing is always practical (sexy, yes, but practical sexy, rather than Bloodrayne sexy). Well, there’s a new Tomb Raider on the horizon: Tomb Raider: Legend. Here’s a blurb I got in my email today:

Head on over to the Official Site and check out the massive update we’ve just posted!

It’s been a bit quiet on the Tomb Raider front lately but with this new update the site is busting at the seams with new downloads and information on Lara’s upcoming adventure!

We’ve got some hot new game info for you to check out — storyline, character bios, location information and much more! There are tons of new screenshots for all console versions — including the recently announced PSP version! We also have art from the game, early concept art, AIM icons & wallpapers and finally more ORIGINAL fan art from you — the Tomb Raider fans!

We’re also pleased to release DESKTOP LARA!

What is DESKTOP LARA you ask? Go to www.tombraider.com right now and find out!

Also, Lara needs your help! We are very excited to announce that Lara has been nominated as one of the greatest British Design Icons on the BBC’s Design Quest!

This is another great opportunity for Lara, so let’s all go show our support and cast your vote here now!

“Desktop Lara” is really cute, although I am suspicious of anything that downloads its parts from the Internet without telling me what it’s doing.

When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We’d hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We’d ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five

But now the days grow short
I’m in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
And it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year

(from It was a very good year, by Frank Sinatra)

This is a really neat keyboard.

There was a time when SpamCop’s bl.spamcop.net was a useful blocklist. I say “was” because bl.spamcop.net is getting so many false positives now (several a day, from a variety of unrelated and non-spamming servers) that it has become more of a liability than a service, and I have removed it from my list of blocklists. I now strongly recommend others do the same.

I reported this problem to deputies@spamcop.net, including a sample of a dozen or so of the false positives, a week or so ago. I have received no reply. For reference, here are just a few of the erroneously blocked servers:

• synigent.com
• iconma.com
• ebay.com
• clicknfax.com
• intuit.com
• cardmemberservices.com
• dice.com

SpamCop as a service is a still useful, because it allows me to selectively filter using a variety of blocklists. So I will definitely be keeping my accounts. But I will no longer be using the unreliable bl.spamcop.net blocklist, and therefore there is no reason to take the trouble to “report” spam to SpamCop anymore.

MarsCon just keeps getting better and better. The dealer’s room and the gaming rooms are just spectacular now. The dealer’s room this year wasn’t the largest I’ve seen, but it was certainly one of the best: the sheer depth and breadth of the stuff available is just amazing. And the gaming room was very large, and just packed with people.

I remember the first year Susan and I went to MarsCon: there were three tables in the dealer’s room, and we had one of them! I think the other two were a used book seller, and an artist. And the programming was pretty much nonexistent, back then. It’s sure changed a lot. MarsCon has wall-to-wall programming now.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the excellent con suite. MarsCon always has the best con suite. This year’s theme was “Hogwarts”. I thought the floating candles were an especially nice touch.

I didn’t wind up running anything at this con, neither a LARP nor a Champions game. I enjoyed the break, but I also felt like I was missing something by not running a game. Next year I’ll definitely run something.

So much for the good feeling engendered by the company’s refusal to give search data to the U.S. Department of Justice. Google’s headed for a Congressional showdown because it chose to censor its new China portal.

Rep. Chris Smith (R – N.J.), chairman of the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee will convene hearings on the activities of U.S. Internet companies in China on February 13. Smith said in a press release announcing he intends to call representatives of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, among others, said “Many Chinese have suffered imprisonment and torture in the service of truth – and now Google is collaborating with their persecutors.”

Smith comes from the right wing of the Republican party, having first won office with Ronald Reagan in 1980. He has worked since then to curb abortion and spread religious and democratic freedoms. [...]

But he does stand on his principles, voting againt both abortion and, unlike many conservatives, the death penalty as a consistent expression of his pro-life opinions. So this is a guy who knows a solid symbolic campaign when he sees one. Having fought to protect free expression and practice by Christians in China, it’s clear he sees the Google self-censorship case is a solid foundation for making a point that American companies should not sell out human rights for a profit.

(from ZDNet, Google will face Congressional hearings over China)

Does Google deserve to be criticized for making a deal with the devil in order to gain access to 100 million Internet-using Chinese people? Yes.

Does the U.S. Congress have the authority to interrogate American citizens? No.

BB&T, the nation’s ninth largest financial holdings company with $109.2 billion in assets, announced today that it “will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.”

In a press release issued today by the bank, BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison, said, “The idea that a citizen’s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it’s just plain wrong. One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won’t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.”

(from Institute For Justice, BB&T Respects Property Rights, Won’t Fund Eminent Domain Abuse)

Way to go, BB&T.

The Castle Coalition (a nationwide grassroots network of citizens determined to stop the abuse of eminent domain in their communities) today launched the most comprehensive website on the issue. The fully redesigned site (www.CastleCoalition.org) provides information and assistance to journalists, legislators, homeowners, students and scholars. CastleCoalition.org features an interactive map (powered by Google Maps) tracking condemnations for private development nationwide, an up-to-date catalog of eminent domain reform legislation at all levels of government, and a new online publication (CastleWatch) frequently updated with original content. [...]

CastleWatch, a new online publication of the Castle Coalition, will provide readers with news and information about eminent domain abuse in communities nationwide. The regular feature “Reality Check” debunks the myths proffered by defenders of eminent domain abuse. Other regular features include profiles of ordinary citizens battling to save their homes and small businesses from the government wrecking ball, eminent domain survival tips, and an ongoing photographic exposé of beautiful homes that have been declared “blighted” on bogus grounds so the government can seize them.

“The Castle Coalition’s new website is part of the Institute for Justice’s $3-million Hands Off My Home campaign to fight eminent domain abuse at the grassroots,” said Chip Mellor, president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice. “Legislators from 40 states are now working on or have passed eminent domain reform. We hope this site informs them and inspires them to create genuine reform that will protect homeowners in every state.”

It’s not the most attractive web site, but it’s functional. Check it out: <http://www.castlecoalition.org/>.

(aka, “Why I am not editing Wikipedia anymore”, or “Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo“)

The problem with Wikipedia is that there is no editorial oversight: in other words, “anyone can edit”. What this means is that anyone who wants their personal opinion or political agenda given the veneer of authenticity has only to outlast anyone who disagrees, and it is a sad fact of human nature that fanatics are rarely the most mentally competent people. At some point it becomes an academic question whether an editor is merely incompetent or is editing in bad faith (see Derek_Smart for an example of this phenomenon). Besides, the vast majority of the human race should not be allowed near a computer, much less be allowed to use one to edit an encyclopedia.

Wikipedia has policies in place which ostensibly are to assure that information is neutral, verifiable, and the result of consensus, but these policies are much like “gun control”: they only limit the behavior of people who are not themselves the main problem. A user who edits the same article every few minutes, all day, every day, and reverts anyone else’s contributions without discussion has only to bide his time before more reasonable people give up in frustration (see coercive monopoly for an example of this in action). This isn’t productive, and currently it isn’t avoidable: it’s a direct result of Wikipedia’s policies. Wikipedia’s policies make it nigh impossible for the rest of us to get anything done when some individual decides to obstruct consensus and flout Wikipedia’s policies.

This is why reasonable people don’t participate in Wikpedia for very long, and why Wikipedia articles ultimately can’t be trusted to be factual: the inmates rule the asylum. In fact, the examples I cite above are extremely mild examples of what is wrong with Wikipedia. I selected these articles to show that it is not only serious and controversial subjects which suffer from bad information being added to Wikipedia: it is a systemic problem, affecting even trivial subjects. It’s a damned shame, too: Wikipedia could be one of the greatest achievements of mankind, if only there was competent editorial oversight.

And yet I have fought an uphill battle against the lunatic fringe, trying in vain to keep Wikipedia on track and operating according to its stated policies and goals. Why? I couldn’t tell you, but I have come to the conclusion that it’s a lost cause. I spent a full year fighting the lunatic fringe on the Open gaming article, for example, and although that battle was eventually won, to the benefit of Wikipedia and anyone who can read, the entire thing could have been prevented if Wikipedia only had a competent editorial review board — and there is nothing to prevent another loon from showing up tomorrow and starting it all over again. This is the crippling burden that every article struggles under, and it is an absurd waste of time and energy.

I hope that some day the Wikipedia administrators will come to their senses and institute a competent editorial review board, and Wikipedia can finally begin to live up to its potential. Until then, I have a wife, a job, and more hobbies than I can keep up with, and I don’t have the time for this nonsense.

Web search leader Google Inc. said Tuesday it was introducing a new service for China that seeks to avoid a confrontation with the government by restricting access to services to which users contribute such as e-mail, chat rooms and blogs.

The new Chinese service will offer a censored version of Google’s popular search system that could restrict access to thousands of terms and Web sites.

Hot topics might include issues like independence for Taiwan or Tibet or outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong.

In seeking to compete more aggressively in the world’s second biggest Internet market—where Google has lost ground to a more popular home-grown search company Baidu Inc.—the company is facing the toughest challenge yet to its corporate mantra of “Don’t do evil.”

In a compromise that trades off Google’s desire to provide universal access to information in order to exist within local laws, Google will not offer its Gmail e-mail service, Web log publishing services or chat rooms—tools of self-expression that could be used for political or social protest.

Instead, it said it would initially offer four of its core services—Web site and image search, Google News and local search—while working toward introducing additional services over time. [...]

“China is the most repressive censorship regime on the Internet,” said John Palfrey, one of the principal investigators on a joint university research project on global Internet censorship known as the OpenNet Initiative. [...]

Google has long offered a full-featured Chinese language version of its Google.com service available to users worldwide and run from computers in its California headquarters.

Company officials said they expect in the coming months to begin running the Google.cn service from facilities within China in order to ensure speedier search results for users in China and to meet local laws governing domestic Web services. [...]

In different political circumstances, Google also notifies users of its German, French and U.S. services when it blocks access to material such as banned Nazi sites in Europe.

“In order to operate from China, we have removed some content from the search results available on Google.cn, in response to local law, regulation or policy,” the company said.

Aware of the trade-offs it is making, Google executives said they believe the company can play a more positive role by participating in the Chinese market, despite restrictions, than by boycotting the country in order to avoid such compromises.

“While removing search results is inconsistent with Google’s mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission,” the company stated.

(Additional reporting by Scott Hillis in San Francisco)

(from eWeek, Google Agrees to Censor Service to Enter China)

Ah, the eternal question: how do you ethically operate an international business when half the known world is controlled by the Evil Empire? We do all know the Chinese government is evil, right? Every bit as evil as the Soviets were, and much more successful, besides? I hope we all know that. It amazes me that we boycott pathetic, impotent evil countries like Cuba, but we smile and suck up to the Evil Empire.

Don’t get me wrong: I do think that U.S. businesses should do business with China, when it’s profitable and ethical for them to do so. But I do not think that they should ever submit to the Chinese government’s demands to become accessories to their evil schemes.

On the other hand, there are probably lots of people who feel the same way about the U.S.A.