Month: July 2006

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This is, at least, a start. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is and will be a blight on this nation’s honor, but at the very least we are now acknowledging that certain rights are due the prisoners there. The Administration spins this, of course, as no change; whatever. Listening to US Senators dismiss our obligations under the Geneva Conventions last weekend on Meet The Press sickened me; I’m sure now they’ll be happy to stand up and trumpet this. Again…whatever.

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Wow! I have only seen the New World News post and the linked YouTube video, but Neil Protagonist’s anime-inspired sim is a) AWESOME, and b) a genius foray into “immersive commerce” (Hamlet Au’s term, not mine. Clever, though).

First off, I love good, high-quality anime/animation, and this sim appears to be a true homage to the genre. Hats off! I think even more important, though, is the commerce setup…everything is for sale with a click! It’s sad to see the prefab mall concept mindlessly replicated into SecondLife, and it’s always irked me in the back of my head. Neil’s build clarifies the issue perfectly…there’s no NEED for a mall-like setup for storage of inventory, organization of product (sometimes on virtual shelves, even!), and mindless separation into boxes of shops. Instead, wander through a sim where everything is for sale with a right-click and “Buy”, where items can be shown as they’ll be used. It looks like a great idea; I can’t wait to login (let me go see if the Linux client has been recently updated…).

See ya in Nakama!

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Good news…Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon (D) has placed a hold (an informal notification of intent to filibuster) on the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S.2686) that just came out of the Senate Commerce Committe. While in committee, a Net Neutrality amendment was defeated 11-11. After reading the committe remarks from Sen. Stevens (the sponsor of the bill), I’m VERY afraid…this guy has sponsored legislation that would impose major legislative changes on our telecommunications infrastructure (not to mention My Damn InterWeb!) without…um…the slightest idea what he’s talking about:
…I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially. …

Oh yes, that’s just a taste. there’s more to the transcript, if you’re brave. If we’re going to be monkeying around with this stuff, let’s try to at least understand what we’re trying to regulate, eh?

Lots more info at Save The Internet, if you’re interested. Full disclosure; being of a strongly libertarian bent, I’m certainly not a fan of regulation in general. I’m reviewing both sides closely; but this appears to be one of those places where we’ve already effectively granted a virtual monopoly via legislation…which causes some market solutions to be ineffective. We’ll have to see; it is CERTAINLY worth talking about.