Breaking the Green Dam

Crossposted at http://MobilitySite.com.

Real World politics are usually something I try to avoid on the internet. Lord knows we all have enough reasons for sleepless nights and high blood pressure (parenting for instance) without adding the endless partisan demonizing that goes on over the internet due to politics.

However, there are some things that go beyond politics and enter the realm of ethics and basic human rights. As I am sure all of you know, the current government of China decided that the agreement by such former champions of free speech as Google and Yahoo to censor information going into China and to turn over the details of those bloggers who the government branded as seditious was not enough. Information was still getting through, and coming out, through a thousand little blogs and independent web sites, to say nothing of twitter and other social networking sites.

Therefore, the Chinese government decreed that any PC sold in China must have their Green Dam censorship software built in to block any content that the Chinese government felt their citizens should not see. Of course they explain that this is to block pornography, which some people see as a reasonable thing to do. Personally, to me that is an inexcusable example of censorship and big-brother paternalism, but no matter. Once that software is provided with any PC sold in China you are already halfway down the slippery slope. Once the hubbub dies down, the Chinese Government will be able to use the same software to block any information they feel is too disgusting for people to see, such as free and open debate of their government’s policies.

Thankfully a good number of people saw things as I do and there was far more of an outcry then the Chinese Government had been expecting (did they learn NOTHING from the Olympics?) and they opted to postpone enforcing the requirement.

End of the matter, hurrah for democracy?

Not yet.

For one thing, the Chinese Government has stated they will still quietly go ahead with the plan, but they will just wait until the eye of the world is drawn to the next sensation. Beyond, they don;t even need to enforce it. It seems that most PC makers, fully aware of the vast profits to be made by appeasing the Chinese bureaucrats, are shipping PCs with the Green Dam in place ANYWAY.

The AP is reporting the following…

Taiwan’s Acer Inc. — the world’s No. 3 PC maker — Sony Corp. and China’s Haier Group said they were shipping Green Dam on disks with computers for sale in China. China’s Lenovo Group, the No. 4 producer, said it would offer the software pre-installed or on disk. Taiwan’s Asus Inc. said it was preparing to supply Green Dam disks with PCs. Taiwanese laptop maker BenQ Inc. said the system was on the hard drives of its computers.

Acer was supplying Green Dam because disks were already packed with PCs before the government postponed the plan, that had been due to take effect Wednesday, said a company spokeswoman, Meng Lei. Lenovo said it also was going ahead with plans made before the Green Dam order was postponed.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s top PC manufacturer, said it was working with the U.S. government to get more information and declined to comment further. No. 2 Dell Inc. said it was not including Green Dam with its PCs.

Well, if China can use economic clout to make PC makers willing and eager accessories to censorship and the denial of free speech, then we can at least use the same tools to make our own voices heard.

Choose not to purchase technology by Acer, Sony, Haier, Lenovo, Asus or BenQ. BOYCOTT THEM until they change their policy, or at least until China gives them no choice but to comply. Obeying an unjust law is bad enough, but to do so when that law is not even being enforced is far worse. Support HP and Dell for their willingness to at least put the breaks on this infantilization and infringement of the basic human rights of adult Chinese citizens and think things through. Before you buy a PC or other device try to find out where their manufacturer stands on this issue. Samsung? LG? Apple? What are YOU going to do?

I for one put my money where my mouth (and heart) is just this morning. I was a hair away from purchasing a Lenovo or Acer netbook when I opted for a Compaq (HP) model instead. A drop in the bucket? Of course…but I will NOT let my money be used to bolster the bottom line of companies that give into Chinese pressure and threats concerning human rights. I simply can’t do so in good conscience, even if it has no effect at all.

I urge you to do the same.

(Source – Simple Thoughts)

Alice in Burtonland

Images and visions are beginning to leak out about a film I am already looking forward to, even though we won’t see it released until March of 2010. namely, Alice in Wonderland as envisioned and directed by Tim Burton.

Burton is back working with Disney for this production, but his trippy, crunchy dark subversiveness is already on display in the character images and designs that have been finding their way onto the web. If you thought the Dahl purists kicked when he made Willy Wonka, just wait until the Alice fanatics get a hold of this.

Look for some incredible concepts after the jump.

Grading the Visionary

It is quite amazing to me that it is already a quarter century since William Gibson changed the way we picture the future with Neuromancer, published on July 1,1984. I still remember that first rush I felt when I read this book, the realization that this was the first SF book I had read in ages that just felt RIGHT…not a fantasy, but a blueprint. This wasn’t a dream of a possible future, but a foreshadowing of what was likely to come.

And has it? Twenty-five years down the line, are we living in Gibson’s world? In some ways, we are…as I sit here surrounded by different devices logged into different parts of the internet, sending messages and information hither and yon while getting the same back. That doesnt even count the fact that my smartphone is constantly connected to a terrifyingly vast network of semi-intelligent devices. Forget Skynet, worry more about Telecom Roaming.’

So where was Gibson right, and where was he wrong? The following article quite ably breaks down his key points, and keeps score. Enjoy, while I go look for a second-hand Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 on eBay.

Then Again, Maybe the Fugu Would be Safer….

Want more proof that Japan is either heaven or hell but nothing in between? Behold the preview for the upcoming film RoboGeisha…and despair.

So many truly bizarre moments, I don’t know where to begin…fully automatic breasts, Geishas who transform into half woman/half go-cart monstrosities, mouth-mounted buzzsaws, deadly shrimp panko darts, the “stabbed in the ass with katana through white cotton panties and bleeding profusely” scene…or maybe just the revelation that when giant pagoda shaped robots destroy office buildings in Japan, the office buildings spray blood. Really.

Go ahead…watch it…you know you have to now…just to see the panties.

 

Burning Books

If you were told of an upcoming law that required the destruction of millions of children’s book, many of which would be lost forever, due to a negligible safety risk you would doubt such a thing was possible, and if you believed it you would likely wish to stop it. Unfortunately, it has already been enacted.

Due to the fact that some older inks were made with trace elements of lead, any children’s book published before 1985 must be destroyed. To sell or even give away such a book would result in a $100,000 fine. Keep in mind that lead, while indeed harmful, needs to be ingested in order to be dangerous, and the amounts found in ink would mean that your average child would need to eat several dozen whole books in order to be harmed, not just chew on the odd page or two.

Sadly, this law was already passed in 2008, and the effect is being felt in libraries, schools and bookstores around the United States. Read beyond the jump to find out more…

The Other Elvis

Just in a mood to post the wonderful video to one of my favorite recent songs from Elvis Costello (a personal hero of mine), Monkey to Man.

Girls doing the Swim and the Frug in silly bikinis, people in gorilla suits, and bits of the unexplained wandering through. Who is that glowering kid supposed to be, and what is up with the security guard.

Ah Declan, we hardly know ye.

 

Life on a Pole

Memoirs seem to go through fads. There was the recent fad of memoirs about horrifically and quite creatively abused children grown to adulthood against all odds (many of which were fabricated, doing a disserve to all true abuse victims). Then there was the fad of memoirs by previously silent holocaust victims whose stories included poetic or unusual twists (many of which were fabricated, doing a disservice to all true holocaust victims).

Now it seems that memoirs of strippers, or more exactly, writers, journalists or housewives trying out the roles of strippers for a little while to gain some kind of insight into something or other, are in vogue. In my time I have had occasion to converse and spend time with a fair number of strippers, erotic dancers and/or prostitutes (and not in SL, though I have known a number there too), so the stereotypes found in these books and listed in the following excellent article make me laugh a good deal.

The one thing I learned in some very seamy dives, beyond the fact that a pro who busies herself with her lipstick while refusing to look at you does NOT want to sleep with you and will be worse than normal and that a smile defuses almost any situation that doesn’t include the misuse of sporting equipment, is that in the end, you do what you need to do to get by…which apparently can include writing memoirs of your week as a stripper. Live and learn.

Writers Writing About Writers Writing

It has always amused me that just a few years ago so many people were quite certain that the internet and computers would destroy writing skills. Admittedly, it HAS destroyed the intricate rituals that I used to go through when writing letters. I no longer need to look for parchment stationary, or black sealing wax, or pressed roses and lilies to include in the envelopes. I no longer have to carefully select postage stamps that were in some way appropriate or carried meanings, or carefully write intricate, coded patterns of information along the outside of the envelope. Those, to be honest, were the affectations of a much younger man and I have neither the time or inclination to them now.

However, I do simply WRITE far more due to computers then I ever used to, in many different veins and registers, using many different tools. I have this blog and its blend of commentary and poetry, my technology writing at www.mobilitysite.com, my daily twitters of Haiku and lyrics, and any numbers of emails and IM conversations every day…and this doesn’t even include the writing that people actually pay me for.

I would say that by sheer dint of volume alone, computers have improved my writing tremendously. Fanfic sites and forums honed my ability to turn a phrase or catch a nuance. MUDs and MUCKs taught me to describe scenes and people with drama and clarity. ICQ, then Yahoo, then gchat and twitter forced me to explore the beauty in being concise. Chatrooms in places like Nerve first showed me the emotional power in just a few lines of carefully rendered imagery. More and more people are writing more and more in the internet age, as the following article discusses so well. The internet is actually making ALL of us write better.

Now…penmenship…that is another thing COMPLETELY.

A Long Day’s Digression

Grave

Florescent light like gray sand filling in every little crack every little nick every imperfection in the sheen.

Featureless.

Can’t find that last position that I had shifting from side to side flexing one hand then the other eyes burning.

Relentless.

Adrift in what ifs and what nows and who wills and who won’ts and why would shes and when will Is.

Defenseless

 

Weary as the grave weary as the grave as the grave in December.

 

Ceaseless.

“But..I AM the Chosen One….kidding, sorry….”

There have been nearly as many trailers for the upcoming sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as there have been official teaser posts, and there have been kajillions of those.

However, as anticipation is running quite high around the house, I was moved to post one of my favorite of them, even though it was first shown internationally a month or so ago. Enjoy.

 

Mute Testimony

I do seem to drag controversy around behind me, like a little wooden duck on a string, now don’t I?

For those of you who are blissfully unaware of the strange little pocket of drama that formed in the recent Grand Tour in support of RFL, let me paraphrase our story thus far as neutrally as I can. At an event, I did what I have done on a number of occasions…I muted someone who was using a role play dialect (similar to a poorly parsed comic operetta German accent so broad as to be almost unintelligible) in open chat that I find unspeakably distracting and annoying (as do many others from the messages I have been getting). As is also my custom, I openly stated that I was muting anyone using that dialect, and that I hoped they understood…I then assumed the matter was closed, and departed the event about half an hour later to do other things.

Unbeknownst to me until a day or so later, it seems this most trivial of incidents loomed flatteringly large in a later event in Edison where I was not present as well as several group chat sessions in Steelhead and elsewhere. In fact, it loomed large enough to require a “Five Minute Hate” against yours truly, which started with a certain supposedly noble comic strip character saying “For how long has BardHaven been RACIST” and then descended from there. Descended quite a bit, actually, with many voices joining in as they enjoyed the emotional release of the mob. Of all the terms that were reportedly used, the one I truly take exception to is racist, but that is neither here nor there and more on that later.

The issue I feel the need to examine is not the slanderous way that near strangers (and some supposed friends) behaved towards me. As most of you may already know, I could care less what the majority of these people talking nonsense think of me. I don’t much care about THEIR actions since I long ago accepted the fact that there is no way to discipline someone else’s children and various other individuals…but rather my own. What is the best way to deal with a situation where someone is forcing you to listen to, and therefore passively participate in their personal role play in group chat or an open event?

Writing Life

For many years now, writing has been at the center of both my professional and private life. I write for profit, I write for pleasure, I write for peace of mind, I write because I have no other choice. I am not JUST a writer, but I have slowly come to fully realize that a considerable part of my life and love could be summed up under the title “writer”.  I wouldn’t say I am an Author, as I do not write novels or creative works of non-fiction and would not take on the dignity of the title, but Writer sums up what I do quite nicely, maybe with a slight tweak…Writer and sometime Poet.

That being said, what does a writer actually DO. Write? Sort of. It’s well..complex. The following article by Robert Lennon answers the question admirably, and also provides some insight into the creative process and the price it often demands from our time and the sanity of our loved ones.

Totally Eclipsed

I don’t normally like to put too many videos up, too close together….but this was just too good not to share and made me laugh out loud tonight.

Any other aficionados of the hyper dramatic power ballads of the 80s and 90s (the best always written by Jim “I may look like a dweeb but in my soul, I am riding a Harley and your girlfriend” Steinman) will take special joy in this literal rewriting of the classic Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Pump up your hair, turn on a few fans, and enjoy.

 

Boom

Again, just because.

Happy Monday.

 

A Film for Father’s Day

OK, I admit it, this is maudlin as hell…and I saw the payoff coming from several miles away…

It still made me cry like a moron…but then I am like that.

Happy Father’s Day to all you sons out there, young and old.