Will they ever learn?

Pizza boxes carry deadbeat mug shots - Yahoo! News

Well, at least you can give this to the Cincinatti Department that Can't Steal Enough: at least they got permission first.

Of course, the fact that they're humiliating fathers (and the occasional token female: I wonder if you get a discount if you turn in a pizza box with a female on it.) for not paying an arbitrary number a judge decided on.  There's a good way to build strong, healthy families.

And if any of you are in the Cincinatti area, I urge you to call Karen's Pizzarea and any other joints that engage in this humiliation campaign and tell them exactly where they can shove their pies.  And as for the kiddies: you can't get your dads back, but you can get an extra slice of pepperoni.  Enjoy.

 

Got my little dlink G122 dongle a-working!

Here's the steps, in case I ever get hit on the head with a giant rock and forget, or for any of you.

This pertains to the DWL-G122 h/w A1 version.

1. Make sure you have ndiswrapper
2. Go to http://www.dtech.com and download the appropriate driver
3. load the PRISMA02.inf file with ndiswrapper
4. modprobe ndiswrapper
5. on the NetworkManager, click on default (not altnet)
6. Let the good times roll!

Yeah, because Democracy in DC is best as a theoretical

White House opposes DC vote in the House - Yahoo! News

This is one of those times where I will go off the boards for something that has nothing to do with anything, but I felt compelled to say something about this.

There are going to be arguments about representatives and "amongst the people of the states", but here's what it comes down to for me.  We fought a bunch of British bastards over "taxation without representation".  Here's the deal: DC residents pay federal taxes, they should vote.  I don't care how you do it, if you have to give an extra vote to Utah to seal the deal, if you have to do it via a Constitutional Amendment, you give residents of DC a vote, or you give them back their tax money.

 

Keep thinking about the origins of Redd and the Godsbane

Where my stories are going about Redd ultimately involves the Godsbane, so I guess I should flesh out its meaning. The concept first came to me when playing a video game, The Summoner. In one of the adventures, they end up descending down what could only be described as the tomb of a God. It struck me as odd that somebody, would make their home on top of that. If such a place existed, I could only think of it as a very sad place.
Why is it sad? Well, as I read somewhere, God really is just an abbreviation of Good. So you could take the death of a God as being the death of all that is good in people, or rather all that is perceived as good. How would you survive knowing that all your hopes of a better life turned out to be a lie, or dead? How would you go on?
But ultimately, we have to go on. People die, good people that have meant so much in our lives, but our obligation to live continues. So when that happens, you must cut out a goodness of your own creation. You must be good not because you hope for reward or fear punishment, but because it is good and that is the right path. And that is eventually the key to maturing and growing up.

To Catch a Predator: what's wrong with it?

To Catch a Predator, one of the highest rated shows on television. You got a clear cut good guy, a clear cut bad guy, a confrontation, and somebody goes to jail. In other words there is no thinking required, which makes it perfect for most American households. Here's what I got a problem with in terms of this program, and no I'm not for pedophiles.

• Journalists working with the police How could this be wrong? Doesn't Cops work the same way? One big difference; in Cops, the journalists that are riding along don't take an active role. They are merely along for the ride. Dateline sets up the people, and then the police swoop on in. It's the difference between passive observer and active decoy. To put it in terms that are less sickening than pederasts, imagine this: let us suppose NBC decided to do a special called "To Catch a John", wherein they lure men to a hotel room, Chris Hansen interviews them and then the cops swoop in for the kill. Would any of you want to see that? But old Chris seems to enjoy being the investigator and getting a confession out of these people. I suppose next we'll see Deputy Chris Hansen with a badge and a gun swooping in with the rest of them.


• Two: the cops drawing guns on the pedophile. Maybe this isn't abuse of power, but it seems a little overblown. Some of you may say it's a felony, requires a felony take down. There are a lot of felony cases where cops do not go into a neighborhood with guns drawn. Did US Marshals rush the White House with guns drawn to arrest Lewis Libby? Did they slam Martha Stewart to the ground with more firepower drawn than the entire Canadian army?


• The lack of context. I've been searching the archives for where they actually solicit these people. While I have heard some are on kid-friendly chats like Myspace and Yahoo, I have heard that others are actually solicited on IRC (Internet Relay Chat). If they do solicit off IRC it's kinda like trolling in the red light district with a Catholic school girl. IRC has a much smaller base than the rest of the Web, and a lot of people that are slimy in the first place. Not all IRC chatters are like this, but you get a much more specialized audience. Yet the general population thinks that the entire web is no more safe than IRC. And when the common man gets bad ideas, politicians often push them into law.
  


• Dateline. And lest we not forget, Dateline has not had quite a stellar record in regards to ethical journalism. Before "To Catch a Predator", their infamous GM truck piece and "Cataract Cowboys" both skirted ethics.


• It gives excuses for idiots like McCain and that one senator from Illinois excuses for regulating the internet. Since we are not afforded any context as described above, McCain and others can seek to put onerous requirements on all web sites, not just the chat rooms where they pick these people up. They can treat sites that are perfectly legitimate just the same as the "Lolita" room on EFnet.


• The potential tainting of a jury pool. Yeah, yeah, you may say; and that person COPS just taped breaking into that house is "innocent until proven guilty". But not everything is so clear cut. Chris Hansen has admitted that some of the men who show up are talking about things that are improper but not legal. Yet he only leaves us the assurance that "probably" those people are not shown? Probably? How about until you find out what the district attorney has filed or will file, you probably don't show them.

• Dateline paying anti-pedophile watchdog group Perverted Justice a consulting fee. Does anybody here know the phrase "checkbook journalism"? A quick web search and you'll find out why it is so reviled in the world of reporting.
• We get the point already. I think the first fifty times you showed it drove home the point that the internet is not a safe place. Turn the page already. Or is that one too many tricks for you to learn, Chris?
  

And last but not least, if you think that I'm alone in these concerns and a nut for them, google "Chris Hansen" and "ethics" and see what you are finding.

For instance
http://www.digitalduke.duq.edu/article.asp?id=1253
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15592444/ (note the comments at the end. The mayor doesn't seem like the type to embrace pedophiles, but I guess he's not so down with the idea of his town being used as the honeypot for sexual predators).
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_diane_ma_070220_no_more_tabloid_jour.htm
http://www.ethicsscoreboard.com/list/dateline.html

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Just goes to show what a Gimp and some patience can accomplish

So I'm out using my new "digital camera" (and here's a tip for all of you: any time you see a digital camera doing a tie in with the IDG Dummies guys, run.), and experimenting with my new camera. It's not all that bad for what I paid for it, which was zero. I won the thing as part of a Convergys perfect attendance contest, and am slowly starting my way up to being a digital shutterbug.
Okay, so I get the pictures home, and most of them, they're okay I guess. So, I bring them into Gimp and start trying to do some things with them and lo and behold, I come up with what is in the corner. By the way, if any of you want to try for that, you use the sorbel function when you attempt to enhance the edges. Wow! Gets me psychadelic just looking at the thing. I'll be posting up occasional photos here just so you can get some views of Pueblo.

Crit for crit: do we need a set ratio?

I am writing this in response to a e-mail I received about "crit for crit", where I suggested that while points were nice, people need to return the favor and critique the other person's e-mail. The editor pointed out a couple of things, I feel the need to respond in a forum a little bit larger than 1,000 characters.
Besides being writers, we are also humans that have bills to pay and lives to be actively involved with. And sometimes, yes, sometimes, you even have to put aside writing to finish them. That may mean that even though you receive critiques of a piece that you put out there, you may not have time to return the favor.
And there are places out there, such as critters, which have a strict ratio to encourage critiques. I am not suggesting writing.com use that. Just because you have gotten bogged down is no reason to clip somebody's privileges.
I would rather it be an unwritten rule that if somebody critiques your work, you at least return the favor somewhat, even if your critique is incomplete. Nothing that penalizes people, just a quick reminder that if you are not getting criticisms, maybe it's because you are not out there that much. How long does it take to say, "I don't think this story is going in the right direction,"? You do not need to take the piece apart, just give your overall impressions of the work.
The "point system" that writing.com uses is nice, but sometimes people use that and forget why it is in there in the first place: to encourage critiques. We're not here to rack up points like a game of pinball; we're here to improve our writing. And the only way you can improve is if you see what is wrong with your own work.
Besides, what is criticism anyway but another form of writing, and practice makes perfect.