April 29, 2008 by vortmax.

A friend has recommended I get Grand Theft Auto IV.  They pointed out the rave reviews it’s received, and how the gameplay blows away any other game out there.  I’ve heard about the other titles in the GTA series, so I was skeptical about bringing such a game into my home with a 13 year-old impressionable boy who has already started some disrespectful teen-age style behavior.

Sure enough, there are many great reviews about the game, with many saying it’s a “must-have” game.  But this is what stopped me:

ESRB Rating: Mature - Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Blood, Partial Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Alcohol

Call me a prude, but I’m not going to expose my son to this just yet.  To be honest, I don’t think I could play a game with all that crap in it, no matter how good the “game play” is.  It’s one thing to blow away fellow players in games like Halo and the Quake series (which I’ve played since the first Quake), but another to be in a modern setting using drugs, visiting strip clubs, stealing cars, and blowing away civilians and police.

Yes, I have some principles.

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April 29, 2008 by vortmax.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been a controversial figure and a lightning rod for attacks on Barack Obama.  I have only one question:

Why?

Why should one man’s views be interpreted as the beliefs of another?  Why should one man’s experiences be cast upon that of another?  Why must one assume that a man cannot form his own independent ideas and opinions, instead using those of another to guess and judge that person?

Barack Obama is not Jeremiah Wright no more than I am my minister.  We are all individuals with our own values and ideals.  To use the opinions of one to judge another is oversimplification and, in my opinion, pure stupidity.

Posted in News, Politics | 1 Comment »

April 22, 2008 by vortmax.

When I was a kid, I loved walking everywhere barefoot.  I’d wander my grandfather’s farm, go through the fields and the woods, all barefoot.  Now I find I need at least something on my feet even at home in order to avoid either having cold feet or having my heels hurt when I walk on the tile.

Turns out I should have kept my childhood habits.

The New Yorker Magazine has an article written by Adam Sternbergh titled “You Walk Wrong.”  He points out how we’ve evolved over 4 million years to walk everywhere barefoot, yet in the last few thousand we’ve wrecked it with the invention we call “shoes.”

Think I’ll kick off my shoes more often.

Posted in News, Home | 1 Comment »

April 18, 2008 by vortmax.

A friend of mine who I’ve known for almost 13 years recently purchased a Macbook in order to compose music with Logic Pro.  Before purchasing her Macbook, she had been quite enthusiastic about getting the top of the line PC just about every 3-4 years, mainly Dells.  This morning, I see the following on my iChat:

mac is so nice
i plug stuff in and it just works
i bought a preamp and audio interface to plug in xlr microphones and guitars into my mac
and a bunch of mics and stuff
and everything just worked right away
hell i didnt even read instructions
i just plugged stuff in and started recording
Mac >>>> Windows

She’s had the Macbook for about a month.  Her transition had a few bumps, like telling her simply closing an application’s last document window won’t quit the application (you have to actually select “Appname->Quit” from the menu bar), and installing Firefox is as simple as dragging from the installer virtual drive and dropping into the Applications folder (no big, long installer, imagine that).  However, after the basics were understood, she’s taken off.

She’s even asked me about a Mac Pro.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

April 15, 2008 by vortmax.

That’s the name of a website published by a 16 year-old high school honors student.  This young woman (she’s too smart to simply be called a “girl”) has taken on Global Warming with independent research, and she’s won me over.

Read (and listen) to the NPR Story about Kristen Byrnes, my new hero.  Then check out her website “Ponder the Maunder.”

I highly recommend her point-by-point refutation of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”   Perhaps it is this young woman who deserves a Nobel Prize.

Posted in Politics, Weather | No Comments »

April 11, 2008 by vortmax.

While reading my morning tech news, I stumbled across an article that gave me real enlightenment by providing a reason for the fanaticism I see not only among the Mac and Windows users, but among people in general.  It’s an excerpt from the book “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.”  Here’s a tidbit that should whet your appetite:

 On issues we’re passionate about, we all tend to think our own views are essentially reasonable, Ross explains. Thus when a reporter, editor, news network, or pundit mentions the other side’s arguments, it stings. 

“If I see the world as all black and you see the world as all white and some person comes along and says it’s partially black and partially white, we both are going to be unhappy,” Ross says. “You think there are more facts and better facts on your side than on the other side. The very act of giving them equal weight seems like bias. Like inappropriate evenhandedness.”

I highly encourage reading the whole excerpt in the article.  I plan on picking up the book. 

Posted in Computers, News, Politics, Blogroll | No Comments »

April 11, 2008 by vortmax.

Anyone who’s had to deal with the “bloatiness” of Microsoft Windows (especially Vista) knows that Windows is massive.  Now two Gartner Group analysts have pronounced the same thing, and that if Microsoft doesn’t change Windows, it will collapse under it’s own weight:

 “Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large, which makes application development, support and the user experience all more difficult.  Windows as we know it must be replaced.”   

Apple completely scrapped it’s former OS, MacOS 9, in favor of a derivative of the NeXTStep OS.  This became MacOS X.  It has become a rousing success. Perhaps it’s time for Microsoft to do something similar: Scrap the bloated Win32 kernel for something smaller and more flexible. 

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