TSA Scanners, regulations, and why they exist in the first place

First of all, I'm starting to lose hope in humanity. We're powerless against monopolies and big government unless we rise against them, and that doesn't look like it's gonna happen any time soon. But that's yet another post for yet another day (I have a lot of those).

People have been complaining about how TSA mandated searches and scans violate their rights to privacy. First off, privacy is technically a privilege, not a right, and when homeland security is concerned, it's a privilege that can be temporarily revoked when the need arises, such as at a security checkpoint at an airport. Second, a security checkpoint is like Vegas. No, you don't go there to gamble, but what happens there stays there (usually). Finally, if you don't want to go through a security checkpoint, that's fine - don't fly. You aren't flying until you are confirmed not to be a threat to homeland security.

I've also heard complaints about how packages over 1 lb are restricted to ground transport or subject to "oppressive" scans. I wouldn't want a bomb mailed to my door, and I'm sure you wouldn't either.

Ultimately, the whole TSA issue wouldn't arise if people actually had common sense.

Keep an open mind and please, please stick to common sense,

40KEndgame

Google does have the power to dictate who rises and who falls.

Well, I'm putting my account on the line once again to bash a large monopolistic company.
Remember when I said "Monopolies are just as bad as big government"? Well, Here's the proof you've been waiting for.

You see that chart? That's the 2009 fourth quarter market share for search advertising. What's wrong with it? Google is red, Yahoo is yellow, and the newcomer from Microsoft, Bing, is blue. Why is that bad? Most of the chart is red. That's 75% in the US alone.

And you thought Microsoft and Apple were bad...

Why does this matter to anyone besides investors? The fact that Google is the dominant search engine by far means that they basically control the internet. They chose what businesses do well and what businesses go out of business. If they wanted to, they could essentially kill the entire world economy by re-prioritizing their search engine's results to display random Blogger pages and Youtube videos first, burying relevant businesses.

It's a noose that Google has around the world economy's neck, and they can open the trap door any time they wish.

It's a threat that needs to be eliminated. No one group or individual should have that kind of power, whether in business or government.

Keep an open mind and stick to common sense,

40KEndgame

Pokemon Battle Revolution: The revolution of Pokemon or just n00b####?

First of all, I have to state a warning about this post. This post contain some uncharacteristically strong language and may not be suitable for all ages.

Now, back on topic. I was playing Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii a few hours ago, and I was at battle 2 of the master's battle set 2. The battle started off horribly, with my Gyrados being taken down with a boosted Double Hit second turn, and my Electivire not being able to attack due to the evasiveness boost on Tenticruel due to accupressure.

Accupressure... that's total n00bshit. Why would anyone spam that worthless piece of shit move? I know it raises stats, but you don't know which one. And on top of it, it's illegal under the Smogon ruleset, which my team is built on top of. No self respecting gamer of my caliber or better would ever use an evasiveness boosting move, so none of us are prepared to handle it.

If you think that was a bad start, wait until you hear what the finisher is.

Horn Drill.

The most n00bshit move in the game. 30% accuracy is bad, but it's an instant kill move that can hit any pokemon, no matter the type (except Ghost due to type immunity). There's got to be some sort of catch. Unfortunately, it still hit first time, OHKOing my usually unstoppable Umbreon (who usually lasts a few turns even with its back against a wall).

Nintendo, you never cease to amaze me with your n00bshit. Grow up and stop feeding the n00bs, or you'll be the one eating crow.

The ultimate horor of gaming - games no longer compatable with Windows machines

Ok. I know there are a lot of gamers who use Macs, and I know I will be spammed, flamed, and smeared by Mac fanboys, but I don't care, because I now have comment moderation and if you can't be reasonable, it's better not to comment at all.

Now... Back on topic.

What I'm about to say will both enrage and excite Mac fanboys and sadden traditional PC gamers. When I say PC, I'm referring to both Windows and Linux powered computers, more often called IBM compatible PCs. I'm including Linux in this because the only way I know that Linux users can gain access to non Linux games is through WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator).

I was playing Team Fortress 2 on my Windows 7 AND Ubuntu 10.04 powered Gateway PC when the server I was on, HKCentral TF2 Newbies Only #2, "crashed". I use crashed in quotes because in reality, the server was still online but most of the users clients crashed. I was lucky enough to disconnect before my computer was damaged, but others were not. Two members were still online. I can confirm that they were not bots. HKCentral doesn't use bots on empty servers. I logged back in. The two users left had the earbuds unlockable - the one thing that shows that a player is a Mac user. there were only two players on the server who had them before the server crashed.

Why would the PCs experience the effects of a server crash when the Macs didn't? I know TF2, CS:S, and other source based games are undergoing an experimental phase during which players are the captive beta testers, but if they weren't due to compatibility issues, wouldn't they be global and non-platform specific?

I have a theory. I know it sounds crazy, but it's just a theory and I can't prove it yet. I'm not saying it's fact.

These experimental updates might be designed to cause the game to crash on systems other than Mac OS X, in order to make the myth that Macs never crash seem true.

I know two Mac users, and they swear by their Macs blindly. I asked one of them to try Ubuntu, but she refused, saying that it would be too hard to learn how to use and that it would get viruses. I use Ubuntu myself as a backup OS, and I have had fewer issues with it than even the tried and true Windows XP, and it feels easier to navigate than even Windows 7.

I worry that Valve has been enthralled to the monopolistic entity known as Apple.

As I said before, is it really capitalism without competition? Can you call it a free market if there is only one supplier in an industry, whether if it is the government or not?

As I write this, I add yet another enemy to my "book of grudges", as it would be called in Warhammer.

I hope to resolve these grudges before the end of my life.

The DMCA VS physical property law.

Alright. I really didn't want to cover this topic due to the legal risk I am taking, but I must.

First, I would like to let you know that I understand that physical property =/= intellectual property, but that statement puzzles me. Does that mean intellectual property isn't really property? If so, then no one can own intellectual "property", since it isn't property at all. If it is property, then why can't I buy it, but yet huge mega-corporations can freely buy, sell, and trade it? Is it because I don't have a right to it? If that's the case, then why? Are the owners of huge mega-corporations the only true people and everyone else is inferior?

To understand why I am bringing basic human rights to a battlefield where everyone else is using copyrights and the DMCA as their weapon, one must first understand the point of view I am using.

I am the youngest son of the former president of a well known industrial contracting company and the brother of his successor. I have an inside viewpoint. I also have an outside viewpoint as a disgruntled consumer and a supporter of open source and customizable software. Note that I didn't say free software. Not all free programs are open source, and not all open source programs are free. I prefer Trackmania United Forever over Trackmania nations Forever. The first one is customizable, the second one is free.

Now, You may be wondering why I'm confused about this when the obvious answer is obvious. The answer isn't what you think. It isn't because it's an idea or self-expression, because that's governed by the 1st amendment of the US constitution and makes it even more open to being copied. It's because software is intangible. Software can't be held. Software can be copied, transmitted, given new form, and all this without destroying the original.

Companies don't get that software can be protected in the same way as patented inventions. The GNU General Public License basically does this. Let me put up a chart to compare patent law, the DMCA, and the GNU General Public License.

Feature	Patent Law	DMCA	GPL
Allows use of product	Yes	Yes, with limitations	Yes
Allows for access to blueprints/source code	Yes	No	Yes
Allows redistribution, both for free and for sale, provided that credit to the original creator is given	Yes	No	Yes
Allows public exhibition	Yes	No, except when covered by fair use	Yes
Allows changes to be made by third parties as long as the original product is kept intact	Yes	No	Yes
(The Big Shocker)Can be sold	Yes	Licensed	Yes

As you can see, the GNU General Public License is just like patent law, and it works. So really, why do companies use the DMCA and create their own proprietary instead of the GNU General Public License? They have power that they want to keep. They're afraid of losing that power.

Honorable, they are not.

Keep an open mind and open ears,
40KEndgame

P.S. I'm sorry if I went off on a tangent, but in a few weeks this will all be tied together. Check back often.

Windows 7 is to Windows Vista as Windows XP is to Windows 2000

Yes, you read that right - Windows 7 is an optimized and reskined version of Windows Vista.

I have just recently purchased a new Gateway FX Desktop, and when I brought up the Command Prompt I noticed the following version number.

6.1.7600

The six is the main version number, with the one being the version update number and the 7600 being the build version. A friend of mine had his laptop, running Windows Vista, on hand, and I asked him to bring up his command prompt.

6.0.20012

Compare these two numbers:

6.1.7600
6.0.20012

Remove the build number:

6.1
6.0

And remove the update number:

6
6

The same can be done with Windows XP and Windows 2000

5.2.x
5.1.x

Remove the build:

5.2
5.1

And the update:

5
5

Do you see what's wrong with this picture?

Windows 7: 6
Windows Vista: 6

Wouldn't Windows 7 be version 7.0?
This basically shows that Windows 7 is running the same Kernal as Windows Vista, just like Windows XP was with Windows 2000.

Bottom line is that they're the same system with different GUI's.

This isn't a bad thing, Windows XP was a decent improvement over Windows 2000, it just means that Windows 7 isn't an entirely new OS as Microsoft claims.

I'm not accusing Microsoft of false advertising, but I believe that the world should know this since it will help with avoiding a few headaches when they find that a certain program made for Windows Vista isn't listed as being compatible with Windows 7.

Go ahead and install that older program. It will work fine and you'll save money by not having to buy the new version.

More about hackers

I was playing Mario Kart Wii about three hours ago, and I ran into a hacker by the name of OMGITZMIKE with a VR of 37337. The several races we were in were some of the most fun I ever had on MKW, as I never knew what was going to happen. One of this guy's hacks caused him to always finish in last place, causing the VRs of everyone to skyrocket. There were a few other hackers online, but OMGITZMIKE is the one I'm focusing on.

Getting used to racing with "lulz hackers", as I refer to them as, is hard at first, but you eventually learn to laugh with them. Those who say that lulz hackers should be banned are either whiny noobs that should be playing Halo or Modern Warfare 2 (where they're actually tolerated), or are people with no sense of humor and would rather win a World Record (or thirty-two) than have fun. It's not fun when you are at the top because no one can give you a challenge. Trust me. I've been there many times.