Cow’s Life - Thinking Outside Of The Barn

If you’ve played any games, I mean ANY, the chances of finding some small chest female characters is probably next to zero. Most of the time, you have to deal with those girls showing up with little cloth wrapped around their triple F digital assets, like this Ivy girl on the left. It got so bad that it started hurting my eyes… When I was playing Soul Calibur II, I started with Takki, a real fast Ninja girl who can jump sky high. But check out her size… Daaaamn! I knew it didn’t matter since the programs are set and done behind the scene. But psychologically, I was really afraid those bouncing “watermelons” would drag her ass down. And you know how important speed is when it comes to fighting game. So I gave up on her and switched to Cassandra. At least this Roman warrior is somewhat normal.

I am a gal gamer, so I can’t really speak for the male gamers out there. But if I had a spot to express my wishes to the game makers, fixing boob size is definitely one of them. So finally the gals and boys can concentrate on the game plays….

For the console gamers out there, check out this AWESOME “Gamer’s Manifesto” . The guy really nailed a few “wants” and “bullshits” in the current game industry.

Just a few more wishes on my list:

• Need motion capture sensors so we can finally play the real snowboarding games at home! Don’t tell me it’s not possible, I have seen it in SigGraph two years ago! Why hiding the technology?!
• Give me Virtual Reality!!! if VR can be here, imagine how fun that is to play the first person shooter games!!!
• Random fiends in RPG games MUST DIE
• Oh, and don’t forget to shrink a couple of watermelons for me, will ya?

Thanks to Heavywinter for the manifesto link.

I have been in the super nerdy mood for a few days… OK, here is a fun one..

Earlier last month, I wrote a Brew-Ha-Ha list with the best fund raising ideas I have collected. Here is another one:

Jer, a VCU grad launched a “I Hate Dimes” campaign. If you don’t like dimes, send them to Jer and he will “destroy” those dimes for you…. Haha., not a bad idea kiddo!

It is even funnier when I read his confession about how he started the campaign as a way to make some money on the Internet and how dead the site was until Fark.com, one of the biggest boys in the blogo town picked it up. Overnight, he was getting hundreds of thousands of hits from all over the Web Galaxy.

On the nerdy side, he was pissed that none of his sites that he actually put work into got him famous. A retarded and worst designed “Dime Must Die” made him a name on the Web AND got him evicted from his apartment. So, did anyone actually send him some dimes? Read his story and find out…

This is my contribution #4 to the “Better Blog in 31 days” project. But for anybody who is interested in knowing exactly what Copyright law says, read on.

Scott posted a comment in Problogger’s Day 17 chapter that someone is scraping contents from Darren’s site. That led me thinking as exactly what the legal term is when it comes to “borrowing contents” from the fellow bloggers. As we all know, every blogger nowadays is “scraping” contents in some kind of form from other people’s sites.

So I did a little digging to find out some information on this subject. Thanks to Peter Kent’s book “SEO for Dummies”, he wrote an entire chapter about this topic. So let me pick a few key items from his book:

• As soon as someone creates a work – writes an article, writes a song, composes a tune, or whatever – copyright is automatic. There is no need to register copyright;… (otherwise), the Library of Congress, which houses the copyright Office and stores copyright registrations would be the size of Alabama.
• If you don’t see a copyright notice attached, it doesn’t mean the work’s copyright isn’t owned by someone. Current copyright law does not require such notices.
• You can’t take an article you find in a newspaper, magazine, or Web site and use it without permission. However, there are exceptions, see later explanations
• If you don’t know whether you have the right to use something, assume that you don’t
• You can’t just take something and rewrite it. Derivative works are also protected. If the result is clearly derived from the original, you could be in trouble.
• Copyright has to be expressly assigned. If you hire me to write an article for your Web Site and don’t get a contract saying that you own all rights, or that the work as a work for hire, you only have the right to place it on your Website. I still have the right to use the article elsewhere

Excpetions:

• if it’s really old, you can use it. Copyright eventually expires. Anything created before 1921, for instance, is free for the taking
• If the government created, you can use it. The US government spends millions of dollars creating content. This content is usally not copyright protected.
• If it is donated, you can use it. If the author gave public permission to use it, you can take it
• If it is for “Fair Use” – Copyright law has a fair use exception that allows you to use small portion of the work, without permission, under particular conditons.

The fair use exception is a very tough call since there is no hard line drawn as exactly what the fair use is. So, I am going to insert the direct text from our Copyright Law here:

“Under the fair use doctrine of the US Copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See FL 102. fair use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians”

So, here I am, by obeying the Copyright Law and applying the “Fair Use” exception, I used Peter Kent’s contents by quoting his work. End of story.

Microsoft finally announced it’s newest console platform pricing today at the German Games Conference in Leipzig, Germany.

What’s confusing is that you have two models to pick and choose from. The $299 version that only has a regular controller and the $399 system that comes with 20GB hard drive and a wireless controller.

I personally will go with the $400 model. If you compare XBOX 360’s specs with the PCs on the market, the processing power is actually greater than most of the PCs close to that price range. Hardware to hardware, $400 isn’t a bad price at all. Microsoft also plans to ship more $400 models this Nov. So get your wallet ready or start making a Christmas wish list NOW!

I visit Steve Pavlina’s personal growth site a lot. He recent ran an article about how to decide when to end a long term relationship with your partner. The article specifically addresses the dilemma when someone is “too good to leave and too bad to stay”.

I too, have the same problem and that “someone’ is my employer. I have been struggling with the decision for the last 4 years. Whenever I try to put a sheet together to list the pros and cons, they are perfectly in balance. It’s one of the largest companies in the world. They offer one of the best compensation packages and benefits. And they give their consultants great deal of freedom to arrange their time as long as the clients are happy. But in the same time, they work me to death and expect me to alter my lifestyle to accommodate the business needs. “We pay you well but we own your life.” That’s pretty much what the deal is. Whenever I thought about leaving, I was afraid that I would lose a great deal of money and amount of freedom I am currently enjoying.

Steve’s article pointed out that whenever we are running the “Scale Method”, that is, doing the pros and cons stuff, we end of beating our heads against the wall because the answer is rarely obvious to us. Instead, he suggests using an alternative thinking structure to help us to decide. That is, forget about the current losses and gains, and focus on the future. Although he is addressing relationship issues, I think the same principle can be applied to the job category as well. So I come up with a list of questions to help me to determine if an employer is worth staying based on the future outlook:

1. Ten years from now, will your company still be around based on the current data available to you?
   Yes. I don’t think this company will ever go down, at least not in the next 10 years.
2. Do you see yourself gaining a lot of experiences by working in your current position for another 5 years? If you had to leave 5 years from now, do you think you would be a competitive candidate on the market?
   My answer: Yes. I am learning everyday.
3. If you have altered your life style to accommodate your business needs, do you see yourself living like this 5 years from now?
   My answer: I have to be a business traveler flying every week for this job and I work 60 – 80 hours a week. If I have a family 5 years from now, this won’t work.
4. Five years from now, which position would you like to take in your current company? Or, should I ask, are there any positions you are interested in?
   My answer: Maybe I can be a regional sales Architect. There is not much else I am interested in.
5. Is this “dream” position achievable in 5 years?
   My answer: I can be a sales solution Architect today. There is not much difference. I don’t want to be a manager, so I don’t have many choices here.
6. Be honest, will you be happy with this “dream” position you just picked?
   My answer: Probably not.

I honestly think that if I answered one “NO” from this list, I should leave. So, I got my answer. No banging my head against the wall anymore.

BECAUSE, I, Microsoft BIT IT!!!! You Moron!!!!

That little pretty apple thinks he can take off with an iPod without me? Not so easy Pal! Forgot to take care of the patent, didn’t you? And I snuck one in before you did. Now, every iPod on the market owns me 10 bucks! Because I am sneaky!!! Hehehe…

Let’s see who else I screwed in the past? Hmm…Many many years ago, a big blue elephant named IBM asked me to work on the future operating system together. A child named OS/2, the first graphical PC operating system was born. But I seized the opportunity and took the core technology to nurture my own baby named “Windows”. Who cares about IBM’s kid OS/2! My baby has to grow big and strong so I starved OS/2 to death by pulling the plug.

Oh, and that little kid called Netscape invented the cool browser. Everybody was cheering and worshiping that kid. How can I, the greatest Microsoft get beaten by a kid on the block?!!! No way! Revenge, Monopoly, whatever works to take over the browser world! Yeah, that kid got crushed pretty badly. Actually, I killed him. Hehehe…

Who is next?!! Who is next?!!!

I am telling you, nobody shall survive without me! I mean NOBODY!!! Because, I am the GREATEST Microsoft!!!

I went to P.F.Chang with a couple of co-workers for lunch today. As usual, we played the fortune cookie game by adding “in bed” at the end of our fortunes. It just cracks me up that no matter what fortune you get, it always makes perfect sense with “in bed” at the end…

Wayne got “Your life will be peaceful and fulfilling… in bed” . He wasn’t too happy about the “peaceful” part.

When Kamla, a conservative vegetarian Indian guy got “Stop procrastinating - starting tomorrow… in bed“, we just couldn’t stop laughing…

Mine was bad: “Your talents will capture you the highest status and prestige… in bed“. I got a lot of “Woos” and “Wows” … great..

As far as everybody’s concern, Netscape is long dead. So dead that only 0.05% of my readers are still holding on to the “N” logo. Fortune even ran an article “The Birth Of The Web” to remember one of the greatest inventions in human history.

I was all sobering and mourning for Netscape while I was reading this article. But a few weeks later, I came across a letter written by Jeremy Liew, the General Manager from Netscape.com:

Much as I appreciated the recognition of Netscape’s central role in shaping and driving the Internet’s growth, and the terrific details from the company’s founders, I was more than a little puzzled by the characterization of Netscape as a brilliant flash in the pan and by the suggestion that it now exists only in the ethereal plane.

Netscape (a division of AOL…) is quite alive and very much kicking, and continues to drive innovation in browsing and Internet technology. Some recent examples: Netscape created and continues to support the Mozilla Foundation, which produced the market-share-grabbing open-source Firefox browser. We just launched the revolutionary Netscape Browser 8 based on that Firefox browser, which can render pages using either Firefox or IE…

That’s not bad for a ghost!

23.7% of yunasville’s readers use Firefox browser and I am seeing this percentage going up on a weekly basis.

The logo of Netscape may become part of the collection in our memories, however, the spirits of its people who have gone before us have lived on.

Think Netscape is dead? Think again…

1. A report I read this morning said South Korea is the most wired country. They got total of 16 million bloggers in the country. I am scratching my head… As far as I know… this is a small country with only 25 million people. So, are they saying the babies and grannies are all bloggers? Got me…
2. What does a computer and an air conditioner share something in common?
   Hmm.. well.. let’s see.. They don’t work when you open the WINDOWS … goofy!
   (This is a joke from Denver 93.3 station I heard this morning)
3. Guess how long it took Yuna to get busted when she played this game?
   Well. .less than 5 seconds.. guilty as charged..
4. Have you ever wondered why they still call the highways in Hawaii as Interstate? I can’t figure it out.
5. Why do we drive on Parkways and park on driveways?

Just a few random thoughts of the day…

Admit it! We all like to take a peek at other people’s secrets. A nice thing about being a Webmaster is that I have a few sheets of statistics to show me some interesting blog readers’ “secret behaviors”.

Most searched words
In July, half of the Google and Yahoo hits had to do with Yuna’s body parts from her “hot ass” to “butt conversation”. I guess the words I used such as “working my ass off” and “hot shot consultant” along with my site’s title brought a lot of Yuna’s die hard fans here (Yuna is a character from a popular video game).

Half month into Aug, I still got a few hits from Yuna’s ass followers, but the fans from Acie (star from ABC’s reality show Hooking up) absolutely outweighed everybody else. Ever since I posted an article about my project manager Acie getting on ABC’s Hooking up, I got hits all over the places. I even got inquires via emails asking for “inside info” about Acie. Acie later sent me an email with my blog site URL and told me his old time buddy found him on my site. Oops, I tried to keep my managers off my personal cyber playground. Guess that didn’t work. What a powerful media world we live in!

Most viewed photos
In July, “What if Iraq had won” by far was the most popular album among all. The playboy picture had the highest hits. The post was even linked on another site and I got criticized for hosting it and being too general about my opinions. See, there is a reason why I don’t blog about politics.

In Aug, the crown has to go to Mudd Volleyball album. Other than some group shots, Anita’s bikini shot was the most popular one, but then got beaten by Jason’s shirt off pose. I guess Cosmopolitan has figured it out long time ago that “hot dude with his shirt off” does sell. Or, should I say.. sex sells even in the blogosphere.

Most viewed posts
In July, to my surprise, the most popular post is “Living Simple - $800 vs $20,000”. I talked about downsizing and having a simpler life. I didn’t expect people would show that much interests.

Aug is a different story. Since I started participating on other blogs, no doubt that my most popular posts are the three blog tips I wrote for Darren’s “31 days to better blog” project. Other than that, Acie’s post still drew a lot of attentions until the show wrapped up last week.

Pop Culture still rules
Every time I got into the deep talks about some serious topics such as “witnessing the Internet birth” or “Whether a grad school degree worth its cost?”, I was pretty much talking to myself. There is a reason why reality TV rules and PBS is struggling. We are all the bitches of Pop Culture, myself included.

Do people give a damn about who wrote the crap on the site?
The “About” page that talks about who I am and what Yuna’s Village is all about received some hard hits. To be honest, I was a little surprised to see that. I guess people do give a damn about who wrote the crap they are reading.

This is fun. I’d do it again a few months from now to reveal more “secrets”.