In the last days they will be fierce...

I've heard people argue against this, but this is no surprise. Violent games makes people more violent, according to the University of Michigan.

Read more about that on Slashdot and its referenced article [HERE].

A great book on the subject is titled, "On Killing". I haven't finished reading it, but the author (whose name escapes me at the moment), a military guy, points to research that in the past people generally didn't like killing other people and tried to do their best to avoid it, even and sometimes especially in times of war. The basic premise is that the media is breaking that aversion down, but at a high psychological cost to the military personnel who kill more easily now. The aversion to killing is diminished, but not the deep psychological issues killing creates in those who commit it.

Genetic Engineering: The Mouse That CAN'T Get Cancer

A mouse that can't get cancer? Read onward [HERE].

Originally found on www.drudgereport.com

Pat Buckanan: Day of Reckoning.

I haven't read Pat Buchanan's new book "Day of Reckoning" yet, but it seems to be right on. I've talked politics with a lot of people, and may of the points he addresses as potential reasons why American will become unglued I've talked about before. In essence, unless there is a dramatic turn, America is screwed. Sounds like Pat nails it on the head.

Read more about Matt Drudge's initial comments on the book [HERE].

Birth-Pains before Jesus's Return: Natural Disasters up 4x in the last 20 Years

Another sign of the times is [HERE].

Russia Widthdrawing from Arms Treaty on December 12th

Putin went from ally to seeker of former imperial glory pretty quickly. This somehow slipped by me. I'm not suprised considering our News Media.

"He [Putin] issued his stark message as Russia confirmed that it would pull out of a landmark arms limitation treaty on December 12. The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty was fundamental to ending the Cold War."

Nice. The post cold war peace didn't last long.

Another Reason to Stop Buying Chinese Goods

Access denied for the Ronald Reagan Strike Group to use Hong Kong as a port of call. Access denied for Chinese Communist to my bank account.

Read more [HERE].

Visual Studio 2008: First Impression

Well, I downloaded the Visual Studio 2008 Express version and played around with it very briefly yesterday. So far I haven't played with too many of the new features yet, but hopefully I'll get a chance to over the weekend. Here are some initial comments of mine.

The Good: The install was a breeze compared to Visual Studio 2005 Pro.

The Bad: I still have to support classic ASP applications, and it looks like the intellisense for classic ASP has pretty much been removed. Bummer.

The OK: I like that the .Net framework 3.5 integrates the AJAX framework out of the box. It looks like most of the interface is pretty much the same as Visual Studio 2005, so I won't be hunting for things all the time, which is nice.

Overall I like how Microsoft is giving away Visual Studio and SQL Server Express versions away for free.

Download copies for yourself -

http://www.microsoft.com/express

Game Tap

My fiance just got me a subscription to Game Tap for my birthday. For the price of one video game and change, you get access to a library of over a thousand games for a year. In my opinion GameTap is a must have for gamers. I thought the games would be older, and there is a lot of older games there, but there are newer ones, like CIV IV and some newer FPS.

Don't take my word for it, check it out yourself. www.gametap.com

Image Onload Problems

I've written a few slide shows, and one of the things that bugs me is that the image.onload function seems to not be supported very well on numerous browsers. Here might be the culprit.

// evil:
var image = new Image();
image.src = 'image.jpg';
image.onload = function() {
    // sometimes called
    alert('image loaded');
};

// good:
var image = new Image();
image.onload = function() {
    // always called
    alert('image loaded');
};
image.src = 'image.jpg';

To be honest, I'm not sure if this works or not, especially in Safari 1.x and Opera, but I'll give it a shot. The only other work around I've seen is pretty complicated.

Thanks to http://www.thefutureoftheweb.com/blog/image-onload-isnt-being-called for posting this.

Desktop Tower Defense

Got a few hours, OK maybe a few days, to kill? Check out Desktop Tower Defense [HERE].

Basically you are defending two openings, and bad guys known as creeps slip through two other openings. You build various types of immobile gun walls to both channel and kill creeps. Pretty fun.

Chinese Communist Co-Opting US Websites

Check out this article [HERE] on slashdot about how Chinese are co-opting US websites. Another reason to start winding trade down with China. All we are doing is building up their economy which in turn is building up their military.

Why Mess with Photoshop: Rounded Corners Auto Generator

http://www.allcrunchy.com/ has a pretty cool auto generator for creating rounded corner divs. You have to download an image and paste some css and javascript on your page, but all and all this is pretty cool.

Check it out [HERE].

The Little Plane That Could: First Production T-38 Trainer Goes Into Retirement

This little plane, the T-38 supersonic trainer, has proven to be a very successful design that has been around for 45+ years. The first one ever to roll off the production line ended service recently after a career spanning from 1962 - 2007. You may have seen it flying close to an X-plane or monitoring a space shuttle as it landed. The humble plane probably trained hundred of pilots and numerous astronauts. Quiet a career.

Read more about the Talon [HERE].

Read more about the retirement ceremony for the first T-38 [HERE].

A Flaw in Moore's Law: Demand

Moore's Law is the observation that computer processing power tends to double every two years. This has seemed to hold true for the last 40 years or so, but I think that in the next couple of years, at least as far as home computers are concerned, Moore's Law will not hold true.

Here are 3 reasons why I think Moore's law will not hold up for Home Computers.

1) Home computers are becoming less and less the platform of choice for gaming. Consoles are now more popular then ever, and the PC gaming industry is feeling the punch. Does this mean PC games will go away? No, but it does mean that the bigger game developers will focus more and more on console game development, and PC gaming will become more of a niche thing (MMORPG, Indie developers). So, the need for PC's to have ever increasing processor and graphics power will not end, but it will slow.

2) Most home computer users use their computers to web surf, pirate music and movies, check email, instant message, and write a document every once in a while. We have approached a point now where operating systems and computer horsepower are more then enough to handle these tasks. Do consumers really need to update their computers every two or three years when their five year old machine is more then enough to handle these tasks? Probably not.

3) There are more and more internet enabled appliances that will compete with PC's for use for interent surfing, emailing, and instant messaging. These appliances are generally smaller and more connected through cellular networks then say a laptop, so these appliances are becoming more and more the communications medium of choice for younger people as opposed to PC's.

So these three factors, the slow down of the PC gaming industry, current PC's reaching the point where they can perform common task more then adequately fore the foreseeable future, and mobile devices competing with PC's as a communication device, all will create the perfect storm to slow down the home and to a lesser degree business demand for new personal computers. Thus we should see the investments in developing new processing power for PC's also slow somewhat, possibly making Moore's law no longer a law in the PC realm.

Apparently, the market slow down is already happening in Japan, which could be an indicator of a future global trend.

Read more about the PC market slow down in Japan [HERE].

Read more about Moore's law [HERE].

The Darling of the Left at it Again

Huego Chavez once again shows another reason to be admired by the left, this time by crushing protest.

Read more [HERE].

Monroe doctrine anyone?

Photo taken from www.drudgereport.com

Genetic Engineering: Super Mouse

Once again our scientist are toying with Pandora's genetic box. This story is about a genetically altered super mouse that lives longer, has more sex, runs faster, remains trim, and eats 60% more.

Read more [HERE].

Photo taken from http://www.drudgereport.com/

Once Again, Media is Reported Biased to the Left

Again and again the main stream media in the U.S. has been PROVEN to favor the left.


[HERE] is another article indicating such.


This makes me laugh because liberal love to pretend they live in a world where it is them, the tragic revolutionary underdogs, against the man. Often times liberals are the man but they are so blinded that they can't see it.

Photoshop: Rounded Corners

For some reason I always freaken forget this. I'm using an ancient version of Photoshop (7), though I'm eyeing CS 3 and I will probably break down and purchase it this year. I do a lot of simple image manipulation, but I always seem to forget how to make rounded corners. So for reference, hit the U key, set the feathering to about about 15 pix, and then draw your rounded rectangle. Then go back to the square select bool, set the feathering back to zero, and grab and crop your rounded corners. Simple, but I always forget, so here it is for reference.