On the psychology of Mega Man

On July 1, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

While making some Mega Man wallpaper* I found over at Destructoid.com an article from last year discussing the psychological effects of combat on Mega Man. It’s an interesting concept, despite the impression I get that it’s not meant altogether seriously. And that’s where the analysis fails: it only looks at the first game and the then-last game, Mega Man 9. A look at the rest of the series would make the situation clearer.

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Tech Update

On July 1, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

I keep harping endlessly on the fact that Free Press wants centralized, nationalized media in America, and one logical consequence of their Internet plans is to have single payer Internet. Well, this isn’t a theoretical problem. Finland just implemented it. Quoth Boy Genius Report:

Thanks to a new law that comes into effect today, every single citizen of Finland now has a legal right to a wired broadband connection with a minimum speed of 1Mbps.

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Fiorina calls out Boxer and Obama on border security

On July 1, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

In the past some have questioned Carly Fiorina’s commitment to securing the border from the invasion of illegal aliens, but she’s issued a strong statement challenging Babs Boxer and Barry Obama on their “cynical” disregard for our nation’s security. A key highlight:

“The President talked about accountability in his speech. It is true – more accountability is needed, and that starts with the federal government’s being accountable for fulfilling its most basic responsibility to secure our border. It takes the commitment and the political will to get it done. Instead, with a call for comprehensive immigration reform in exchange for securing the border, the President is using the safety of this nation as a political bartering chip. It is cynical politics at its worst.

I know that certain people in the Republican party oppose all immigration, and that fringe is going to fly into a fit because Fiorina favors having a “functional guest worker program” with or without a path to citizenship in combination with securing the boarder and “enforcement of laws prohibiting the employment of illegal immigrants.” But I believe that green left-isolationist right Numbers USA coalition is a fringe we need to ignore in order to solve what the problems are. Immigration isn’t the problem. Rampant breaking of the law is a problem. The insecurity of our border is a problem.

But to me she’s clearly and strongly calling for things to be done right. Securing the border is an imperative. Enforcement of the previous immigration compromise is an imperative. Only when those happen can we talk about “guest workers.”

Carly Fiorina is right. Barbara Boxer is wrong. Fiorina must win in November.

Internet Roundup

On June 30, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

Here a few updates in the intersection of Internet, the law, and politics:

Free Press is still being hypocritical: They took out a full page ad denouncing (in true Communist style) FCC Chairman Genachowski for having one closed door meeting with the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Free Press has had over 30. By their own standard, the FCC has sold out to the neo-Marxist Free Press itself, not to ISPs.

FCC plans threaten the recovery: The Hill warns that 500,000 good jobs in the industry could be lost if the FCC proceeds as Free Press demands. Net Neutrality and Title 2 “Third Way” Deem and Pass reclassification must be stopped.

No, really, Free Press is two faced about the FCC, and is holding themselves and ISPs to a double standard. Communists get to do what they want, but people who create good jobs in America have to sit in silence as the industry is attacked with crushing regulation, if they get their way.

Remember the Andrew McLaughlin Emails? Timothy Carney points out that they reveal the White House to be violating the pledge to attack special interest lobbying.

California’s going to have a busy ballot in November. In addition to voting for Governor, Senator, and more statewide offices than you can shake a stick at, we’re going to have a long list of initiative statutes and constitutional amendments to deal with.

One of the more interesting ones is numbered 19. Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, if passed will legalize small time use, cultivation, and possession of cannabis for all Californians, instead of just those with doctor’s notes.

The first thing many critics of the initiative point out is that 19 can’t change federal law. That is true, but what it will do is turn California authorities into non-combatants on that front of the federal Drug War. That’s important, because according to Ballotpedia 99% of all cannabis arrests in America are by state officials, not federals. Without state cooperation, the federal cannabis prohibition will be, for all but the most high profile distributors, de facto repealed.

California is a sovereign state, and if we want to leave enforcement of federal law to the federals, we have every right to do that. If the FBI wants to start rounding up every idiot 16 year old who messes around with dope after school, instead of going after terrorists and international gangs, let them. But if Proposition 19 passes, that’s not our state government’s problem anymore.

The only factor in my mind that determines whether Proposition 19 should pass or fail is whether the policy is the right thing to implement. I personally don’t favor a sweeping new set of taxes combined with the legalization of a socially corrosive drug, and so I will vote against it. But standing up for expanded DC power at the expense of the states will be the last thing on my mind when I vote no.

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On the Obama cybersecurity bill

On June 28, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

So, the Cybersecurity bill is back, fully formed as the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA). When I first highlighted the bill in August of 2009, I summarized it like so:

S. 773, a bill by West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Democrat, would create new “emergency” powers for the President, a ‘cybersecurity’ Enabling Act of sorts, that would give the President the authority broad powers over any “non-governmental” computer networks, whether public or private, that are declared by the President to be “critical.”

These powers extend beyond declared emergencies, however. Rockefeller’s bill would immediately grant the ability of the government to control hiring and firing of jobs related to these so-called critical networks, because the President could unilaterally declare that jobs related to those networks would be required to be filled by people certified to the task by the government. And much like with the car dealerships, the Obama administration is fully expected to use its power to favor political allies for these jobs by granting or denying certification depending on your level of donations to Obama for America or the Democratic National Committee.

Yeah, so it’s back. Some parts of it may seem harmless, or even beneficial, such as the part highlighted by the good people at Bayshore Networks that seems to amount to an online Real ID act. But such things, if we want them, can and should be achieved without all the baggage associated with them.

Because you see: the emergency powers sought by the Democrats and the White House not only amount to a huge power grab over private computers that is unprecedented online, but the purported goal still won’t be achieved. The bill is as overbearing in its means as it is impractical in its ends.

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Free Press, the Communist organization founded with the goal of “media reform,” which should be read as the nationalization of mass media in America, is still shouting about the great injustice at the FCC. That injustice is, of course, the shocking revelation that the FCC is meeting behind closed doors with industry stakeholders before making any firm decisions about the Internet, and in particular the Title II Deem and Pass reclassification plans to regulate the entire Internet in America.

Free Press wants you to think there’s something corrupt about this, though as Politico points out, Free Press itself is still taking part in the meetings. Some animals are more equal than others, I suppose.

Free Press: Too radical even for Obama officials

On June 23, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

Some were skeptical when the idea was raised of a split between FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the Communist organization known as Free Press. We’re so used to the President being the furthest left holder of his office since the Carter years at the earliest, that we forget sometimes there are real unabashed hammer and sickle wavers out there.

Just look at what Robert McChesney wants. He co-founded Free Press and he wants nothing less than the gradual nationalization of the mass media in America. He calls it “media reform” and it’s as statist and wrong for America as “health care reform” turned out to be.

Genachowski sure isn’t going to forget how much the radical neo-Marxists hate his guts, though, not when Free Press buys a large add calling him a “$ellout” in a move reminiscent of MoveOn’s disgusting and libelous attack on General Petraeus.

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Cut Man Perfect Run

On June 21, 2010, in General, by Neil Stevens

Yes, inspired by Youtube’s own RoahmMythril, I’ve tried a no damage, Buster only run of Cut Man. And somehow, I succeeded, though I had to learn actually HOW to beat (without getting hit) the nearly patternless Cut Man along the way.

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It doesn’t matter that nearly all House Republicans are against it, and a good number of Democrats besides. It doesn’t matter that ATR is against it, CNBC warns it could “kill the Internet,” or that we just don’t need it.

The FCC has gone ahead and put out a Notice of Inquiry to go ahead with Deem and Pass reclassification of ISPs away from being “information services” under the law, which was the plainly obvious intent of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. You see, in Comcast v. FCC, the courts have strictly limited how much regulation the FCC can do of information services. So, the FCC is going to declare that ISPs are now phone companies, and regulate accordingly.

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Nima Jooyandeh facts.