Not with software.  With software once purchased you’re stuck with it.   There is typically a very strict “no return” policy, and this sucks.  It’s to the point now where most stores wont even take back unopened software.  Once the transaction is done, its done.

So if you get that software home and it just plain doesn’t work, you’re hosed.  You’re just out that money, and you have absolutely zero recourse other than to not purchase that companies software any more.  That’s where I’m at with Ubisoft.

The reasoning for having zero recourse, and the reasoning you can’t return software is very simple;  Software piracy.   If you buy a TV at Walmart you can’t take it home and clone it.   But you can with software, so the industry as a whole assumes that everyone is out to clone their software because we are all dishonest, thus this ‘no-return’ shenanigans goes on in the name of loss prevention.

I mean seriously, this is a whole industry that thinks and treats their customers as crooks..   What other industry blatantly dislikes and mistrusts their own customers this much?

The problem is that major software companies like Ubisoft bank on the fact that you can’t return their shit, so they are more than happy to churn out crappy product after crappy product.   More over, since they know you have no recourse they don’t bother to provide any form of support for those crappy products.    So this is yet another example of the software industry screwing the honest consumer.

I purchased Silent Hunter 5 in the hopes of being able to play it, and it doesn’t work.  It crashes every time I run it.  I have installed/reinstalled it a number of times and have followed all the instructions I can find.  I have updated all drivers on my system to include bios and mobo drivers and still have the exact same issue.  No other game has this issue except this one.

It still doesn’t work.

I have posted on the Ubisoft support forums and have gotten zero responses.  I submitted a ticket to Ubisoft about the issue only to have a canned response telling me that my drivers were out of date… which they aren’t.

I honestly and in good faith purchased this product to play it, and for whatever reason it doesn’t work.  As a customer I believe I have a reasonable expectation of getting support for this product, but apparently that’s not the case as zero support has been forthcoming.

So, I should be allowed to return it.   But I can’t and they know it, and this pisses me off.   I’m just stuck with this dead piece of software.

So now my only recourse is to simply never buy anything Ubisoft again.  First you call me a crook by forcing me to use your shitty DRM, and now you call me a crook by refusing to let me return a product that is clearly broken all because you think I’m a pirate.

See.. the irony is, you guys hate your customers so much and fear software piracy so much that you have gone to such extraordinary lengths to stop it only to have succeeded in creating the very environment in which it’s acceptable by even the most honest person..

You obviously hate your honest consumers, well I hate you back.  Fuck you Ubisoft, your dead to me.

I will never buy another Ubisoft product.  You shouldn’t either.

Black-Ops

I really do enjoy the Call of Duty franchise..  It started out as a PC shooter back in 2003 and was pretty much heralded as the game to be or beat..  They continued with expansion after expansion and broadened their horizons to other machines.   At this point the franchise spans something like 15 to 20 titles on 5 or 6 different platforms earning more than $3 billion dollars world wide, and even includes it’s own line of action figures..    However their latest offering is down right bad and they should hang their head a little..

More over, for a game that started on the PC one would think they would give it more love than they do.. At this point the PC version of the latest game is completely unplayable by a large portion of the market, myself included and some how that seems okay to them.

It really seems the zero day patch system that just about all software manufacturers use is starting to get out of hand..  Whats that you ask?   Well it goes something like this;  Marketing and business have the game release date firmly set because that’s what they have promised share holders.    This is a firm date and it can’t move.   Period.

Product architects and management continue to shoe-horn in last minute features that they think would be cool or because users want them or because they fit some “vision”, and expect that date they set above to not slip at all..    So it’s up to the developers to squeeze out the product in a completely unreasonable amount of time..

Prior to that magical date, there is another magical date when the product goes gold.. At gold (or dcut or whatever they call it) they cut a copy of the program and send it to test.  If it passes the most basic of verification tests they go on and send it to print where it gets put to disks and / or packaged up to be shipped to the user.

Test continues to file defects and report problems to the developers and the developers are still working to fix those bugs..  But everyone knows that the software is full of bugs when it first goes gold and gets shipped to the customer..  Management and Marketing accepts this as “how it is”, and usually fails to tell the shareholders it works this way..  So they are fully aware of how broken the product is, in order to meet that magical ship date..

They are just hoping like hell that once the game is installed it will automatically download the latest patch (the zero day patch) which will fix all the bugs that the game shipped with..

But that begs the question;  What happens when you willingly and knowingly ship a broken product hoping for that zero day patch, but that zero day patch isn’t ready in time?  Or the zero day patch doesn’t do anything to address the issues people are seeing?

This is whats going on with black ops..  There was a zero day patch (shocker) and it didn’t do anything that I can tell, or at the very best brought it from a completely broken state to now just an unreasonably broken state for a game we paid $60 in order to play..

The real pisser is that companies know that we have zero recourse..  We have no way to get that money back..  I paid for a game, and it doesn’t work.. and I have no recourse..   Imagine if you purchased a toaster from walmart and it just didn’t do anything.. you could take it back, and have a reasonable expectation of getting your money back.   Not here;  And they know it..  They bank on it..

Bottom line is the game is broken for a large number of folks and they don’t care.. One of the devs via his twitter account stated as much..  Instead talking about the 85k people playing right at that moment..

As of Nov 2009 the call of duty franchise sold more than 55 million units, and they think just because a paltry 85k can play the game it’s okay?   Plus they have no idea how well those 85k are able to play.. I can play the game for a few minutes here and there, but it crashes or lags to a stop..etc.. Sure I was playing it but it wasn’t playable.. Am I one of those 85k they are so proud of?

Single player gets laggy and stuttery while playing it but usually it’s still somewhat playable, frustrating as hell, but playable.. where as multiplayer is so bad it’s completely not worth trying to play..

I was able to get the game to play once I turned all graphics to the minimum settings, lowered the screen resolution to something ridiculously low, and played it in a window..  THEN it’s “playable” (I use the term loosely)..  My CPU is still hammered though..  My GPU is bored when I do this.. It almost acts like they aren’t using GPU acceleration maybe?   I really don’t know..

The game is unreasonably broken..  It’s 100% CPU bound in that they did virtually zero optimization on the code or left the debug code going or aren’t using GPU acceleration or something..  My quad core pegs all 4 cores to 100% while playing and my machine while older is no slouch..

It often loses save games just out of the blue.. I got half way through the game, went to get something to eat.. came back to continue after having continued before only to have a “New Campaign” option.. My resume game options were all gone..  So great.. I got half way through to have to go half way through again?!  Fuck that..  This is the point when I started to fight with multiplayer..

The servers list is completely broken in multiplayer in that it often doesn’t update.. or refuses to stop updating once it starts.. or you can’t connect to a server at all.. or it doesn’t even try to connect..

Once connected it stutters to a stop constantly.. Not network lag either this is an internal lockup of some sort.. My ping usually doesn’t go above 50..  DirectX crashes, random crashes to desktop, jerky stuttery video.. etc..  It’s just unplayable and not fun..

It’s also pretty clear to me that even though they list a minimum spec computer that can run the game, they never actually tried that themselves as a lot of folks on the forums who don’t have the latest Intel i7 QuadCore Super Rig simply can’t play it..

Ultimately, I’m severely disappointed..  I really expected a hell of a lot more out of them..

I can play COD:World at War on max graphics using my one graphics card to span 3 monitors and it works fine.. Yet this game wont work at all on the same PC?   It’s not my machine..

And by their responses, I guess COD is no longer the franchise for me..  I can’t recommend this game at all.. It gets zero stars and isn’t worth your money, your time, or your frustration..

EDIT:  Okay so on a whim I completely reinstalled windows from the ground up the same day that they released a new patch for the game..  Now the game is playable..  I can’t actually say if it was due to the windows reinstall, the patch or both..

I have been playing a lot of multiplayer and I can say its not bad but still has a lot of issues which makes me think the original issue was the game not my machine..  I still get a lot of stuttering with the game as well as the crashes..  The server list is still completely borked, and server hangups/crashes seem constant too which tells me the game still needs more patching before it’s good to go..

I’d still recommend waiting..

Voting Process

So as a general rule, I don’t vote.  I don’t vote, and it’s my right to do so.  Leave me alone.  Stop harassing me with mindless slogans and social pressure.  I don’t want to be bothered by it, I don’t have to be bothered by it, I won’t be bothered by it.

The common sense rhetoric that often follows my making that statement is that if I don’t vote, then I shouldn’t complain or that “bad officials are sent to govern where good people don’t vote”.. etc..

I disagree.  I maintain that voting in ignorance of the issues or the people and their policies is worse that voting at all..

I don’t vote because I know myself to not be educated as to the various parties, stances, issues..etc.  And that you by voting, have in fact gone out of your way to educate yourself, as opposed to voting from a stance of ignorance..  So if you vote badly, then I can complain about your poor choice.. =)  I say this facetiously but there’s a hint of truth to it..

Either way I am very tired of the often attempted guilt inducing slogans and verbiage that voters feel is their right to spout at those who choose to abstain..  The very notion that those who refrain from voting are often the ones to blame, or that some how by not acting as an agent for one party or another makes you an agent for the other side is pure shenanigans..

Some might wonder why I don’t go out of my way to educate myself as to the issues and the people so that I can offset the ignorant..etc..    I don’t vote for a number of reasons but the primary one is because I’m completely disillusioned with the system and because I am tired of trying to sift through the reams and volumes of lies and bullshit to get to the nugget of truth that an individual should use to cast their ballot..

I really believe the system is broken.  It’s not because I’m lazy or that I simply don’t care.  If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be writing this.  I just don’t like how things are working right now and am voicing my right to not “pick the lesser of two evils” and I don’t feel in the least bit guilty about this..  I have made a choice to not make a choice, and that’s okay.

See the whole voting process is based on the notion that we are all equal and that we all get to turn in one ballot, and those votes should all be treated equally with no exception because we are all educated on the issues and policies.  Sounds great!  But its completely unrealistic.  Gone are the days were it was even possible to know all the candidates, or the issues.  It’s simply not possible.

This very system means that someone who is so stupid as to not know the Earth revolves around the Sun, or that evolution actually happened has the power to negate your carefully considered opinion just because some bumper sticker or social pressure guilted him into going out and voting.

So with one swift stroke, or a flip of a switch this uneducated person (who has no idea what or who they are voting for) has the power to enact through their vote legislation that will now affect you.

I agree that individuals should have the right to vote, and that they should do so with an educated view of the outcome, but the masses are so far from being “in the know” that it breaks the system down, and that’s exactly where the government wants you.   The government wants you to believe that by choosing one or the other bad candidate you’re in charge and making a difference!  Crock of shit.

Politics any more is about who can out lie the other, who can put on the best face and look good on TV.  How many TV ads start with one political jack monkey bashing another one in order to prove he’s the best.  That’s broken.  If the only way one candidate can differentiate himself from another is to bash and badmouth, then he has nothing worth having and he’s already lost.  What happens though when they all do it?  Who do you vote for when they all suck?

More over,  I really believe one vote doesn’t matter, doesn’t make a difference..  If Candidate A had 23.012345% of the vote before I voted, and 23.012346% of the vote after I voted it makes no difference.  No news outlet reports that many decimal points.. The simply truth is that one vote has no value and I can prove it to you;

If my vote is such a big deal I’ll tell ya what, I’ll sell you my vote.   I’m pretty sure I can get a mail ballot and send it to you so that you can vote as me..  You can vote for anything you want..  That’s pretty cool right?  Suddenly you could double your voting potential!

How much is my vote worth to you?  How much money are you willing to send to me in order to get this “precious commodity”?   yeah I thought so..

Ultimately though, it’s my right.  I served in the US Army and after words as a Police Officer to ensure your freedoms and mine.  I choose, to not choose.

I have always tried to keep a balance off of it, but there have been a couple  years where just due to the times I couldn’t help but carry a small balance..

Well the other day I went to pay off my card and I noticed that they bumped my APR to 29.998%…   Are you fucking kidding me?  30% APR is highway robbery..

I called them up and asked them to lower my rate and they refused..  The operator I got ahold of (once I navigated their automated system) told me that “.. they were unable to lower my rate at this time. Thanks for calling.. *click*”

I immediately called them back and told the new operator (that I got after navigating their automated system.. again) that I wanted to cancel my account and that it was due to their recent rate hike.. I have zero intention of paying 30% and that’s ludicrous..   He said, “but wait.. what if we lowered your APR would that make you stay?”

I explained that the previous operator told me there was no way to lower my rate.. So I want to cancel the account.. (2)..  He came back explaining that he could lower my rate to 26% for 6 months.. (after which it would spring back to 30%)..  I said that this was a bunch of crap, that if this was such a deal why didn’t the last guy offer it and that 26% is still robbery..  No thank you, I’d like to cancel my account.. (3)..

“But wouldn’t you like to lower your rate?” ..   I explained that if he could lower my rate to 0% I’d stick around, otherwise, I’d like to cancel my account.. (4)..  “No you want to lower your rate, so that the remaining balance doesn’t take that 30% rate, but instead gets this much lower rate… “  (26% is “much lower”)..  I told him that I just paid the account off, online.. that there is no remaining balance and that I’d like to cancel my account.. (5)..

But.. blah blah.. and blahdiddy blah..   I’d like to cancel my account.. (6).. if you keep pestering me to lower my rate I will ask to speak to your manager..

“Id be more than happy to let you speak to my manager..  but golly we need to lower this rate.. blah blah bullshit bullshit I’m a douche blah blah blah”..   I’d like to cancel my fucking account please.. (7).. and now I want to speak to your manager..

I honestly was getting really pissed.. this asshat wouldn’t let me just cancel the damn account..  I don’t want it any more.. you’re trying to screw me, and I refuse to do business with you..  Take your “amazing low rate of 26%” and shove it up your ass..  cancel my account.. I shouldn’t have to ask for this 7+ times.. (I’m sure it was more than 7.. this is very much the short version.. )

Eventually he asks me to hold (I fully expected him to just hang up the phone..)  A minute or so later someone got on the line claiming to be his manager and I told him that I wanted to cancel the account and that I shouldn’t have to ask so many times, and that I shouldn’t be pressured to do something I don’t want to do.. I want to cancel the account.. Period.. I’m done working with you..

He said, “Fine it’s canceled, do you want confirmation of the cancelation?”  — “You’re damn skippy.. “  –  “It will be sent to your billing address.. *click*”

The manager was rude as hell..  I should never have had to deal with him.. The initial call taker should be fired to be honest.. Or retrained at best..

As to Citibank..  I’m done with you..  Jack my rate to 30% which should be criminal, and then as of April 1st 2010, charge a $60 annual fee just to have the card?!   That’s $60 a year, just to have that card empty in your wallet.  Are you kidding me?  This is some kind of joke right?

It’s clear to me that Citibank doesn’t give a rats ass about their members if this is the way they plan to treat us..   So fine.. Bye.. I’m done with Citibank forever.. I wont do business with you ever again.. period.

More over I plan to tell as many people as possible not to do business with Citibank as they are clearly a bunch of crooks..

Stop the DRM

When will companies learn that their draconian efforts to prevent piracy only serves to hurt their paying customers which directly affects their bottom line!!

Companies, you must stop counting pirated copies of your software as “lost revenue” — it’s not! Someone who is willing to pirate software isn’t willing to pay for it.. EVER! So you never had their money in the first place..

You’re trying so hard to capture that imagined lost revenue that it’s blinding you to how badly you’re screwing yourselves and your real customers..

Equating the number of pirated copies of your software directly to dollars is retarded.. More over, implementing these harsh DRM models only serves to prevent the honest players from playing your games, which effectively assures that you’re going to lose real money in the form of people who actually DO buy your games going else where..

Let take the new Silent Hunter 5 game as an example.. SH5 (a game with a lot of bugs and other issues that already pisses paying customers off) comes with the new DRM which forces you to be connected to the internet 100% of the time. The new system which the Ubisoft exec’s spin as being a positive thing for the customer is constantly phoning home to make sure you’re still allowed to play the game.. The game you purchased.

If at any time during your play period the connection to the mother ship fails, you stop playing the game. You can’t save your game.. You can’t do anything.. Effectively the game you purchased goes into cripple ware mode.. This is bullshit.

The hacker community took one good look at that and said “F’to you Ubi” and hacked it within the first 24 hours of release.. These people had no intention of buying the game in the first place so who does it actually hurt?

ME! If I’m playing the game that I purchased and I go on a road trip with my laptop, I can’t play it.. The hacker can.. he can play just fine..

If I am playing the game that I purchased at home and for whatever reason my internet goes out (it happens), I’m screwed.. Not the hacker.. He can keep playing..

So.. whats my recourse? Nothing.. I’m just shit out of luck.. I have to either accept their crappy DRM because apparently they think I’m the problem, or not buy the game in the first place.. The hacker doesn’t care, he isn’t troubled by these problems at all and in no way has the DRM affected him at all..

DRM only punishes the paying customer! Ubisoft is trying like hell to spin their new DRM in a positive light, but it’s not.. they claim that it’s “A platform of online services for PC titles offering gamers a more in-depth gaming experience as well as providing an innovative solution for reducing PC game piracy.” HUH?!

How did you do either of those things? It does absolutely NOTHING to offer me a more in-depth gaming experience and in fact does the opposite in that suddenly I have this invasive piece of software on my system that prevents me from playing at all from time to time.. I paid for the game, yet I’m punished.

And it doesn’t prevent or even reduce software piracy considering it was hacked out in the first 24 hours. The hackers never even notice the games DRM, it doesn’t bother them in the slightest..

At this point you’re actually encouraging people like me to hack the game because your own DRM is preventing the honest player from playing the game he paid for.. That’s right.. your DRM which is there to prevent piracy is actually encouraging piracy because otherwise we can’t play the game.. Good job genius..

You’re so busy counting the imaginary lost dollars you’re missing the fact that your real dollars are heading out the door.. The proof is in the pudding.. Your current sales for this year are down by over 20% and I have to think you only have yourselves to blame..

I realize fully that the “higher ups” are the ones making these decisions, but someone MUST stand up and tell them why DRM is not the right solution.. If you guys don’t stop the DRM shenanigans you guys are going to hemorrhage not money, but customers..

As of this writing the price of gold is at $1120 an ounce which is an all time high.  That alone should be your first indication that;  Now is not the time to buy gold!

The price of Gold is where it’s at right now because of the economy and because gold sellers are driving the cost up through fear.  They want you to go buy their gold so that they make money.  Period.  They don’t give a crap about the economy, your we being or future or any of the other BS they try to sling on the commercials.  Stated simply, they are in the business of making money and they are trying to do so at your expense.

The only “winner” when you buy gold at these prices are the companies selling the gold as they will make out like bandits having sold gold to you at over a thousand dollars an ounce. You wont be saving money, instead you’ll be giving your money to these unscrupulous companies who are doing their best through fear to drive the price as high as it can go before it crashes.  And it will crash.  Let me explain why;

See.. Gold is a commodity and a standard.  As such, it’s value never really changes.  What changes is the dollars value in relation to the gold.. So when you see golds value go up, what you’re actually seeing is the dollar go down.  When you have say 10 ounces of gold worth $3000, and suddenly that prices shoots to $10000 what you’re actually seeing is the value of the dollar shoot down.  10 ounces of gold is still just 10 ounces of gold.

When the dollar strengthens again (as it always does) you’ll see the price of gold go back down to something more reasonable.  This is why I say gold WILL crash..  that means that the folks who purchased gold at $1120 an ounce will take it on the chin..

I’m not saying that you should never buy gold.. Actually I think gold can be a good thing to buy, but only when the dollar is very strong (and thus the price of gold is lower).

Whack a Seal!

So, on Saturday the 11th of April, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) held an awareness gathering in World of Warcraft where they killed four quest NPC’s as a form of protest for the unethical killing of seals in real life.  Some how it got into their heads that by focusing on protecting the digital seals in a game and instead performing the far more ethical act of killing the would-be digital seal killers, it would bring awareness to the unethical killing of real world seals.

So.. let me sum up for those who can’t put this together — what they are saying is..   Kill the people who are killing the seals.

Are you fucking kidding me?!  How is that more ethical?  They honestly are saying that it’s more ethical to kill humans than it is to kill seals?  That’s their stance?  Really?

I’ve always heard PETA was a bunch of psycho douche bags but damn.. But to their point; Apparently a lot of seals (between 100k and 400k this year depending on which website you go to..) are killed annually by the Canadian government..  Or rather, their killing is sanctioned by the Canadian government..

PETA’s website goes on a very graphic tirade about how awful it is and how each seal “must look on as fellow pups are bludgeoned to death before meeting the same bloody fate.  The anguish that a mother seal feels as she watches her baby being beaten to death just a few feet away from her is horrifying and can be heard in her desperate cries…” Wow.. Nice spin.. Complete bullshit, but a good spin all the same..

In doing research for this, I have watched a lot of videos.. And in each video I have seen it has had some lone guy run up on an individual seemingly adult seal that was alone on an ice flow and repeatedly whack the seal in the head with a hammer on a pole.. Kinda gruesome true.. But PETA paints this as mass murder where all the baby seals are gathered up and executed Auschwitz style.. That simply isn’t true..

Firstly, I have no idea why the Canadian government has an annual seal season.  And from what I have read, no one else knows either..   There must be a reason, and despite what PETA thinks its not because they are all evil evil communists who hate children..  Thats how PETA paints it, but again.. not true..  That’s propaganda..  There must be a reason it’s legal — what is it?

Apparently I’m willing to look at it a bit more objectively than PETA is;  It could be just like the deer season here in the US.. I simply don’t know.  All the websites I have found on the issue are one manner of propaganda or another..  Finding hard facts is near impossible at this point because of all the inflammatory crap being flung back and forth..

The simple truth of it is;  If it’s legal, then it’s legal. You can be offended by it, but that doesn’t mean that its against the law.  You can delve all you want into the morality pool and every one of us will come up with a different opinion on the subject.. But from a legal stand point, you can’t say that killing seals is illegal.  It’s not illegal.

I personally think the primary difference is that seals are endearing..  It’s sort of the same difference between a rat and a squirrel.. Squirrels are cute, we love them!  Rats are ugly, we hate them!  When the simple fact is they are both rodents that carry diseases, only one has a fluffy tail and lives outside which people find endearing thus squirrels are thought of more positively..  Seals are cute and as such we are offended by their early demise..

I’m more than willing to concede that there are baby seals being killed out there on the ice flows.. Probably more than a few.. but to say that all the seals being killed are just cute cuddly wuddly baby seals is pure propaganda plain and simple.  Most folks that look at a picture of a seal have no idea how old that seal is..  Hell they all look like babies right?  I’m not 100% sure, but I thought seals out on the ice flow alone (as in the videos I saw) are adults, no baby seal would go out that far alone..

Here is one of the videos I saw of seals being clubbed to death, and yes — it’s pretty gruesome.   But I would say it’s no more gruesome than a deer getting shot during the annual hunting seasons here in the US..  How is that different?  It’s an animal being killed by a superior species..  Just like a lion that chases down and kills a gazelle for it’s meat..

I eat meat.. The steak, pork and chicken that I consume also was once alive.. and is now dead..  And according to PETA I’m a murderer for it?  Really?  It’s been going on for a long time.. And my maxillary permanent canine teeth sort of imply it was meant to go on.. So why does PETA think that this sort of activity is so bad?

They would answer that a lion wouldn’t kill for sport, or wouldn’t kill for just the skin.   To which I say; Sure they would and do all the time.   Dolphins are one of the more intelligent animals on the planet and they kill for sport..

Frankly, this is just propaganda by an organization that has no power.. You see,  PETA wants to bring your attention to what they call, an injustice.. Something they call unethical..

And since PETA has the word “Ethical” right in their name they must be good right?  The words right there, therefore they must be the ones doing the ethical and moral thing..  So if you disagree with them, then you’re unethical!!  You bastard.

The problem is, it doesn’t work that way.  Ethics are a system of moral principles governing an individual or group.  Those principles are discussed and agreed upon by that group.  No one individual or group can decide what those principles are for another individual or group.  Meaning, what’s ethical here.. may not apply there.  What’s moral and ethical for you may not apply to me..

In this situation you have PETA trying to tell another group what’s ethically right, and if you don’t do what they think is right you’re wrong.   PETA is trying to control you and your way of thinking..   And they think you should DIE for disagreeing.  That’s right..  Remember from above, they think the people killing the seals, should be killed…

Frankly, I find that PETA is nothing more than a terrorist group (or even religious cult) that is extremely vocal and is very good at crafting sensational, vivid, graphic and even horrific language and imagery in order to manipulate people.  They do it in such a way as to make you feel bad if you don’t side with them, and if that doesn’t work they will intimidate, harass and threaten you..

That alone to me seems unethical.

The issue here is, like so many other animals in the animal kingdom (and yes, WE are animals) we tend to think animals are good to eat.. Most PETA members are vegetarians and as such have a moral stance that killing an animal of any kind for any reason is wrong.  Oh and they’ll tell ya about it too.. We have differing ethical stances when it comes to the killing of animals.

I’m all for not killing critters if we can get around it.. but sometimes it’s necessary.. Like for food or for other products that we deem necessary.. Where as PETA paints this picture that we are torturing animals for our food.. Or that these seals are being tortured to death for their fur.  I haven’t seen that.  I have yet to see where they hook up the car battery to the seals teets just to cause pain.  Or where they derive some sick pleasure from slapping a seal around..

In every video I have seen, they kill the animal in very short order.. It may take two or three whacks but its over and done fairly quickly..  How is that torture?   Torture to me implies the repeated infliction of pain over a period of time from which you derive some sick sadistic pleasure..  Walking up to an animal and bludgeoning it to death with intent to use it for one purpose or another, isn’t torture..

I have seen horrific and evil video of animals being tortured.. (Just watch the PETA website..)  Yeah that shits awful.. But that stuff is illegal and there are laws in place to stop it.   The seal hunts are legal, and not in the same category despite what you think.

Look, I love animals.. I do.. I always have..  And I think the torture of animals is wrong and the people doing it should go away for ever.. But it’s pretty clear to me that PETA loves animals more than Humans..

PETA will try to tell you that animals are todays “slaves” and that what happens to a cow or a chicken today is morally identical to what happened to the Jewish people in the holocaust..  And that shit is fucking offensive as hell.. And I’m not Jewish!!  To actually trivialize the holocaust like that is just unimaginable and goes a very long way to prove that anyone who belongs to PETA has no basis in reality.

Hrmm.. maybe they belong in a game?

2009 Penny Front

So I wasn’t terribly shocked to find a brand new penny in my hand upon receiving change for the breakfast I purchased this morning..  I was however shocked to see that they have been completely redesigned!!

Apparently 2009 was the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and as such four new designs were commissioned and released to celebrate that as well as the 100th anniversary of the production of the Lincoln cent (penny).

I have to think that Lincoln would be embarrassed…

click to enlarge

The front design is the same as it was, but the reverse has 4 new designs apparently featuring four major aspects of President Lincoln’s life;  his birth and childhood in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois, and his Presidency in Washington, D.C as seen to the right.

I’m okay with the first two.. The log cabin and the rail-splitter designs are nice and seem appropriate to me.  The last two are also nice designs but I question how those images were more relevant to Lincolns life than say; the Emancipation Proclamation, or the Lincoln-Doublas Debates on the topic of Slavery. or something related to the Gettysburg Address maybe? etc..

I’m just not sure that a picture of the Capitol cluttered by scaffolding was a good salute to Lincoln’s life.

But most importantly;  Dear god, WHY?! … why do this?  Amid all the government bailouts, corporate bankruptcies, and an economic down turn to rival that of the great depression, how much money did the government blow to redesign those coins?

No one forges the penny so why redesign it?  Did the old designs some how fail?  Not only that but these 4 new designs during 2009 are mandated to be further redesigned again in 2010 to a permanent design.

Is this some effort to instill value in an almost valueless coin? I’m sure all the numismatists will appreciate it.. Or maybe it’s bizarro feel good tactic by the government to cheer us up?  I dunno..  But the amount of money that was bound to be put into this redesign process seems silly.  Especially in an age where the penny seems largely pointless.  Most people don’t stop to pick pennies up off the ground..

To be fair; No they aren’t worthless.. think how much everything would go up if you had to round up to the nearest nickel.. but still..

At one point (prior to 1982) all US pennies actually had a metal content that at market value was worth more than face value of the coin. Now however, all pennies are 97.5% zinc with only 2.5% being copper (coated over the zinc) and as such have an intrinsic value of $0.0028… So 0.28% of face value..

According to the US Mint the costs to producing and shipping already designed one-cent (penny) coins during the fiscal year 2007 was $0.0167 per penny.[ref]  That doesn’t count the cost of redesign..

$0.0167 to produce a coin worth $0.0028, with a face value of only $0.01..    Dear god no wonder we are in debt..

So, 5 billion pennies in circulation worth $50 million dollars, cost the government $70 million to make..  For those of you who are really bad at math, thats $20 million dollars wasted..

I have to think even Lincoln would be ashamed..

Dawn of War 2

I love Warhammer.  I have played Warhammer table top war game both fantasy and 40k pretty much since they came out.  I also have the Warhammer fantasy role playing game, the more recent Warhammer 40k role playing game and gave the Warhammer fantasy MMO a spin.

Games workshop has done a really good job at creating a compelling IP (too bad blizzard stole most of it.. but I digress).. So I was extremely excited about Dawn of War, though for whatever reason I didn’t get to play it much.

DoW looked very good and I wanted to make sure that I played DoW2!    I wasn’t about to let more Warhammer goodness slip by!

DoW2 made by Relic studios uses the same engine that Company of Heroes uses and looks fantastic.   More over, so long as you never actually try to play other people you’ll have a great time!    The game is designed to be very fast paced and they have removed the “build” element from the game entirely.

It’s pretty clear to me that they have geared this game towards the 16 to 20 year old Korean kids or people with a severe case of ADD as the game plays at a pretty much frantic pace.   Not my style, but I can see why it would be fun.

More over, I bet if I were actually able to play it multiplayer it would be a cool game..   Oh but I can’t.

Why you ask?

Simple really.. Relic uses the same craptacular network code that Company of Heroes used back in 2006, and as such a good 50% of the game owners out there, can’t play it online.  The game always complains of a “NAT ERROR”.

I can (and do) play other multiplayer games all the time.  I can play GRID, Call of Duty, Battlefield 2142, Left 4 Dead, TFC2..etc.. all multiplayer, all online over the internet and all work just fine.   Yet DoW2 (and Company of Heroes) all say my network is bad.   And I have tried everything right down to plugging my system directly into the modem which generally I think is a bad idea..

More over, the relic forums have a LOT of folks complaining about this issue.  Since this exact same error has been in effect since CoH was released in 2006.. It’s pretty apparent that Relic doesn’t give a crap..  And as such, I will not buy this game, and would further ask others to not buy this game.

If the game developers can refuse to fix a problem that has been plaguing their games for a while (and blame the users instead of their code or code decsisions for the problem), then why should I or any one else buy their game?     You don’t reward the dog and say “good boy” when he craps on the carpet..  Paying money for something we can’t use effectively rewards them for making something that doesn’t work.

I wont be buying this game.  The game play gets a 2 1/2 out of 5.. the speed RTS isn’t my style but I can see what some would like it, however the removal of the build element completely turns the game into a zerg fest designed to compete with star craft 2 which I don’t find fun at all..

The network thing drags the score down to a 1.  Fix your shit Relic.

Not Malygos, but cool

So we have been playing a LOT of World of Warcraft of late.  I must admit I’m very much enjoying it for the most part.  But we have gotten to the point where we are farming the end game content because by and large, it’s way too easy.

All that is except Malygos.   We have beaten Malygos before but for whatever reason our guild can’t seem to pull it’s collective head out 9 times out of 10.  Things just go wrong.

That’s fine and acceptable except they all seem to think we are going to one shot him and move on. Over confidence is our down fall, but not our only one.  The real issue isn’t our guild or our game play, but rather the fucking lag!

We have the same issue in 25man Nax killing Thadius..  The server always lags out on us at exactly the same time, every time.  It’s almost like this is blizzards cunning plan to make the content more difficult..

Pretty hard core burning hatred from me when we get in there and the game lags out.  Malygos is probably the easiest boss in the T7 content, but the lag during phase 2 screws us every time.. (Or just about — it took us like 8 tries tonight to kill him due to lag.)

Blizzard needs to fix this.  I can’t tell you how many times we have failed at Thaddius too for the exact same reason.. just lag.  It’s pretty darn hard to fight a boss when the timer keeps counting down but the game stops for everyone..