Year: 2004

Weblog Ethics

Here are some of the basic weblog ethics:

1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
6. Note questionable and biased sources.

I totally agree that all bloggers should try to stick to these ethics when blogging.

[More Detail: Rebecca’s Pocket]

Conservative Liberal

Yesterday, I was chatting to Jordan on chatango (in my blog’s right column), and as one subject led to another, I joked about how I was somewhat of a conservative liberal.

Now, it may seem funny, weird and contradictory as the way those two words are defined politically makes them opposites.

Some of the definitions of Liberal are:

1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
3. One who favors greater freedom in political or religious matters; an opponent of the established systems; a reformer.

And some of the definitions of Conservative are:

1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
2. One who desires to maintain existing institutions and customs; also, one who holds moderate opinions in politics; — opposed to revolutionary or radical.
3. Resistant to change, opposed to liberal reforms.

So, they are pretty much very opposite to each other.

But, when I try to classify myself, I can only say that I’m a liberal with a moderately conservative edge.

Continue reading Conservative Liberal

JFK Reloaded

On the 41st anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Glasgow video game company Traffic has released JFK Reloaded. A reconstruction of the scene and events around the Texas School Book Depository that tragic day, the game puts Oswald’s rifle in the hands of players.

From a Boston Herald article and Traffic‘s press release:
“We’ve created the game with the belief that Oswald was the only person that fired the shots on that day, although this recreation proves how immensely difficult his task was,” (Traffic’s Kirk) Ewing said.

This is so insensitive and disrespectful!
I can’t believe some people have gone this far and this low.

[Via: Boing Boing]

R.I.P VHS

In a move that marks the beginning of the end for a hugely successful chapter in technology history, Britain’s biggest high street electronics retailer Dixons has announced that it’s taking VCRs off its shelves for good.

All over the world, the revolutionary VHS (video home system)–which let people record and watch television programs when they wanted rather than at the whim of broadcasters–is in headlong retreat as the DVD (digital versatile disc) takes over.

To add insult to injury, police grudgingly admit that in Britain at least, home burglars don’t even bother to take VHS players because new ones now cost so little that no one wants a second-hand model.

Rest in peace VHS.
You were a wonderful chapter in the history of technology and behind so many fun and beautiful moments.
In your support, I’ll try to always keep a place for a VHS in my home 🙂
Until I migrate my wedding video to DVD that is 😛

Maroon 5: Songs About Jane

One of the albums I’ve been pretty much addicted to recently is Songs About Jane by Maroon 5. It’s a great and fun album from the opening note to the very end.

It’s hard to choose any song or two as the highlights of the album because each song is beautiful in it’s own right from “This Love” to “She Will Be Loved” to “Sunday Morning” to “Sweetest Goodbye”, this album simply rocks!

Maroon 5 are certainly the best pop/rock band out there in the music scene today and their debut album is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.

I also watched them perform Live on MTV at the European Music Awards, and they were great, they rocked the place with a cool rendition of “This Love”.

I’m quite sure that if they go on like this and stick to the great music-making talent they’ve displayed on this album, they’ll become a really big international act soon enough.

My advice, get the album Songs About Jane right now. You won’t regret it, I’m sure.

Body Advertising

So, what do you know. After infesting our tvs, radios, magazines, streets, websites, pringles chips, skies and even space, advertisers might start advertising on the human body too.

For example, for only $20 anyone can rent Chris Pirillo’s chest for their brand or blog advertising.

Or you could be paid a lot of money for getting a tatoo of some company’s logo on your body through TatAD.

I can’t believe advertising has actually gone this far.
You can’t help but ask, what next? or to be more precise, where next?

[Via: Loic Le Meur]

Chatango

While surfing through some new blogs, I came across this new service called Chatango.

It’s some sort of a chat thingie that bloggers can integrate into their blogs so that visitors can directly and privately have a live chat with them.

So, I’m trying it out. It’s on the right bar under the Quote.

So, if you’re on here, see that I’m online and you’re interested in a little chat, that’s the way to go 🙂

Toy Story 3

Walt Disney Studios is actively proceeding with a second sequel to Pixar’s “Toy Story” franchise on their own.

Disney is in the process of setting up a digital animation facility in Glendale — not far from their bitter rivals DreamWorks Animation — that will be used for the production of “Toy Story 3.”

While Disney has the rights to do sequels to “Toy Story,” it has held off from doing so in the past because the guys at Pixar haven’t wanted to lose control of the characters.

But with Pixar announcing earlier this year that it would end its distribution relationship with Disney following the 2005 release of “Cars,” Disney have signaled their determination to bring Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the gang back to the big screen.

This totally sucks.
I already wrote about this before when it was just speculation and before the plans got under way and I still maintain my same position.

I just feel that without Pixar behind the wheel, this will be a miserable failure.
No one can produce that Pixar magic, not even Disney.
Plus Disney suck at sequels, their storywriters suck, and their 3D animations aren’t that good.

I think it’s a shame Disney are foolishly going to screw up something as great as Toy Story.

Google Scholar

Google have launched a new service called Google Scholar.

Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.

Using it you’ll be able to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.

Just as with Google Web Search, Google Scholar orders search results by how relevant they are to your query.

In short, Google simply rules search!

Jad Choueiri, Aaaarrrggghhh!

Anyone checking out the plethora of Arabic music channels, that keep popping up on every satellite frequency possible, and having the courage to go through the experience of watching some of the videos they play will most probably catch the name Jad Choueiri on their screen quite often.

Jad Choueiri is a Lebanese singer, producer and video director.
He and the people he’s working with are riding the wave of sexually crazed music and videos that are playing on Arabic music channels.
From Tina to Maria to his own material and others, this guy is the driving force behind the lowest music ever released in the Arab world.

Being a music fan who stops by Arabic music channels on his daily trip through the Vh1s, MTVs, Rotanas, Mazzikas and other satellite music channels, I have come to know his style very well.

In short, if the video has the singer looking at the camera like a cat in heat, showing their tongues a lot, breathing heavily, baring more skin than you’d usually expect and singing already bad lyrics like shit, then it’s most probably something Jad is associated to.

But, giving credit where credit is due, his style of directing is quite good if we forget about the sex obsession.
I think that if he focuses more on that and starts thinking more with his brain instead of some other part of his body, he could really produce some pretty nice music videos. Maybe.

As for singing, he should totally forget about it. His voice sucks like hell, and his lyrics are even worse.
I get ear cramps, if such a thing exists, whenever I catch a song of his on 😛