The face of Google is changing for the worse in my opinion. Rather than viewing the user of Google technology and services “as a customer”, Google is increasingly exposing the technology or service to the customer and profiting from them. Take a look at the example below (click on the thumbnail below to enlarge):

Good news regarding the beleaguered Kinect for the Xbox 360 system. Rumors are starting to leak out about the cancellation of the ill fabled pedophile simulator Milo. Thank goodness for the rest of the world for sparing us the next Microsoft based disaster. After reviewing the TED talk for Milo, it was a creepy game/simulator wherein the user of the kinect gets to command a pre pubescent virtual boy around a 3D landscape.

The supposed plot for Milo? A pre teen boy moves with his family from the UK to New England and hes not happy about it. From smashing snails by a river (WTF?) to looking generally pissed off, he eventually gets into an argument with his parents off screen and runs to his room. The Kinect player then encourages the boy to clean up his room (that sounds FUN!).

What gives? No siblings? I would love to command Milo go into his virtual little brother’s room (lets call him Otis) and beat the living shit out of the younger boy and then at a later date, have Milo construct a go kart only to shove poor little Otis in it (wearing a paper burger king crown as a magic helmet that will protect him from all head injuries) and send him careening down a steep hill in a campaign of virtual terror. Eventually, Otis grows up to brutally slaughter the rest of the family with a meat clever and an ice pick because he “just snapped”. That’s my idea of entertainment…

You never know, Microsoft may get smart and refocus to other target audiences like N.A.M.B.L.A or the Vatican.  It may outsell Halo Reach if thats the case. If this rumor is true, it may very well have just saved Peter Molyneux’s career. Let’s bow our heads in silence for the snail smashing digital abuse victim that almost was…

My good friend Linear B of Geekaustin fame recently started a nifty program called Linux against poverty. The program accepts donated PCs and Linux is installed on them and distributed to kids in lower income areas where computer access is more limited.  Right now the program could still use some volunteers as well as more machines.

The first Austin Install Fest is taking place on August 1st. Details below:

Date: 1PM, Saturday, August 1st
Location: Union Park
612 W 6th St, Austin, 78701 (map)

LAP is getting a resounding response and is on the verge of going global. So please anyone reading this, if you’ve got some spare time or an old laptop sitting in the back of a closet, feel free to donate.

As reported by Wired.com, in a shocking declaration by the Federal Communications Commission, according to the Communications Act of 1934. If you own any wireless RF device, this includes a baby monitor, wireless router, cell phone or cordless phones, the FCC has a right to enter the property and inspect the item in question:

You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.

That’s the upshot of the rules the agency has followed for years to monitor licensed television and radio stations, and to crack down on pirate radio broadcasters. And the commission maintains the same policy applies to any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device.

I imagine that this will be challenged in court but according to the Wired.com article, the FCC is trying to shut down “Pirate” radio stations. I understand the need to monitor radio stations to make sure that there isn’t some complete wacko giving out advice on how to commit crimes or something but it seems like that information can be ascertained by actually listening to the station!

Repeat after me!  You will not listen to anything over the airwaves that the government and corporations do not control or cannot monitor. Failure to comply will result in financial ruin.

I tell you now, if I am ever striken down and must roll in a chair, I’m going to don a shiny chrome gargoyle head helmet and  I’m getting one of these steeds and heading down the road waving a golden battle axe! I swear to you!

For those of us who have watched the Pirate bay trial followed by the stunning verdicts, some breaking news has come out of Swedish National Radio. According to the Wired article:

One of the four men convicted in The Pirate Bay trial is seeking to have his guilty verdict thrown out after learning that the judge in the trial is a member of two pro-copyright groups, including one whose membership includes entertainment industry representatives who argued in the case.

Stockholm district court judge, Tomas Norström told a Swedish newspaper that his previously-undisclosed entanglements with the copyright groups did not constitute a conflict of interest.

The groups include the Swedish Association of Copyright, a discussion forum. Henrik Pontén of the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau, Monique Wadsted, a motion picture industry lawyer, and Peter Danowsky from the recording industry’s IFPI are members of the organizations, and were largely responsible for pressing the case against The Pirate Bay before the judge.

Looks like justice is not blind in Sweden either. Lets hope the Pirate bay guys escape the noose and sail off into the sunset. Go pirates, go!

I ran into this interesting article on the Computerworld blogs and the upcoming trend is that the IT workers in the U.S. will eventually have to equalize with workers in other parts of the world in order to stay competitive.

IBM is increasingly outsourcing the IT work to India while keeping the high paid executives here in the U.S. (sound familiar?) to manage offshore teams. I guess its sort of like Walmart buying cheap chinese goods and selling back to the consumers here in the U.S but instead its technology being developed in places like India and China and being resold back to the U.S. corporations.

From the article:

Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America, says this chart represents a departure point for IBM.

“I think this moment was so important because it was when Big Blue made the fateful decision to compete by substituting low cost workers in India and elsewhere for high-cost American workers,” said Hira. “Instead of choosing to compete by investing in better tools, technologies, and training for their American workforce, they chose to compete their American workers head to head with workers in other countries who can afford to be paid less. And they gave those workers in low-cost countries the same, or better, tools, technologies and training, as their American workforce,” he said.

Is IT the next domino to fall?

The United States Naval Institute is reporting that the Chinese military has an operational anti ship ballistic missile (ABSM) system that can sink a U.S. aircraft carrier with one strike. It supposedly has a 2000 kilometer range and flies at speeds of Mach 10!

From the article:

The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.

Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.

Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.

What is even more troubling is that according to the article there is no reliable defense systems on ships that deter ballistic missiles.

I can’t help but to wonder that while China stresses engineering and mathematics in their school systems while the U.S. wallows in beer bong fraternities and M TV spring break. Was this disconcerting news ever in doubt?