The highs and lows right now.

This is gong to be a long update, get a cup of tea or something.

Surprising No One, Blockbuster Files for Chapter 11

This one picture tells the tale of a company that failed to adapt to a changing market. I actually have fond memories of Blockbuster as a child. Not many, but reting old NES games while SNES/Genesis were major players in the console market.

However, for all those memories, I also remember on very important thing about businesses, or just life in general: Adapt or Die. This is true in both a social context (Health Care Reform, DADT repeal, Racial Desegregation) as it is in business.

The above picture is a clear illustration of how NOT to do it. The moment Netfix or even RedBox came into being Blockbuster should have shit their collective pants. The RIAA certainly did when Napster came knocking at their doorsteps (and for what it's worth their reaction paved the way for much of the Bittorrent world of today).

But, back to Blockbuster now. This is a classic example of what happens when you fail to either anticipate or adapt to a change in the market. Netfix started in '99, plenty of time for Blockbuster to have changed their business to adapt. But in this case it wasn't aggressive enough, as they took a full 5 years to realize (2004) to bring a similar product, Blockbuster Online, to bear.

5 years, in this day in age, is an eternity. During that time Redbox came into being, meaning ol' Blocky had not a game of one-upmanship but a full fledged war (Two's company, three's competition). We've already seen the fall of Hollywood Video years ago. Slowly but surely the further fall of big name brick-and-motor video stores will follow. If there are any left.

---

There's a nice writeup at WSJ about the Blockbuster filing. Shows just how bad the company has gotten in the past few years.

The Bush Legacy

Ok so this post has been brewing in my head since the election. I wanted to wait and make

this as meaningful as possible and not have it be more normal ranting. But I know I will fail and I just deal with it.

---

I'll be the first to admit I've bashed Bush Jr. more than once. I was bashing him before it came into style. I never voted for him in either election, supported any of his policies or wars.

Let me also say that I have a bit of bias with thinking about a legacy for The Chimp in Charge. I never voted for him. Never like his policy.

So with that uttered I present to you my thoughts on his legacy:

• He helped Obama to get elected. I'm not saying Obama would not have been elected were it not for Bush, but the force behind him would not have been as loud and strong
• No Child Left Behind: More like "Lower standards and teach for tests" act. Seriously public school was shit when I was in it, and it's only gotten worse.
• Housing Market: Yeah, deregulation and lack of oversight works wonders.
• Social Security: See above, thankfully never passed.
• Tax Cuts: Would have worked if the money they saved were put into banks/under mattress. With neither, set us up for the bomb recession we have now (yes that is a Zero Wing Reference :P)
• Faith-Based Initiatives: Separation of Church and State, 'nuff said.
• Stem Cell Research: The more we find out about what stem cells can do, the more is yanking of the financial chain on this one infuriates me.
• Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol. Would have been nice to see it work nearly globally. Would have being the operative words.
• Hurricane Katrina/Rita: Watching the Earth heat up like an oven became so much fun he forgot to look when a hurricane done blowed up Nola good! Heck of a job Brownie (and Bushie for that matter).
• Habeas Corpus: Body of Law. Basically the ability to yell "Wait a fucking minutes I don't even know why I'm in prison" and be granted and answer.
  
• Torture Morality: He has none, apparently.
• Guantanamo: Death place of liberty, habeas corpus, and showcase of torture morality.
• Wiretaps: So, not happy with taking supposed terrorist rights away you decide to come in and listen to see how the rest of the nation thinks? Hope you got an ear full, bitch.
• War On Terror: Watch your methods and motives, lest you become the thing that you hate. 2 bullshit wars later, we have a strained military and a war weary populous. Read the above 3 items to see the results.
  
• September 11th: Started the shit that drove much of Bush's domestic and foreign policies, pretty much in that order.

So that's it... that is his Legacy. Yes yes yes I'll get complaints (maybe) for something good I've missed. But.... for what its worth (not much) history will not look kindly on Bush or cohorts in the war on terror. My only hope is that Obama, and his successors will be able to sort out the mess he's left after he has left.

Antispore.com, Rickroll or not?

So, after reading on Game Politics that the whole antispore site was a giant Rickroll I'm left wondering if the site was hacked or not. As it stands:

• The content that was a rickroll was there but now has been removed
• The site itself was registered via 'Domains by Proxy', a service that hides the registrar info from sites. Via proxy the site is on GoDaddy.
• There was a claim at the end of rickrolling of Poe's law, which I've never heard of up until this point. Have to agree with the statement.
• There are both persons in the world that are crazy enough to act like the mother who (supposedly) runs Antispore, and just as many who are really good at acting like it for parody (see Poe's law above).

If it was hacked, fine. If I've been punked, equally fine. I didn't put too much thought in it when I did post.

[Edit] The Rickroll went back up, I swear it wasn't in the top post ealier. I'm calling this one a greatly played hoax.

Oh, and it gets better (Spore)

Normally I have an issues with Christians and Creationists. But now, not so much. Yeah, that be some Jesus-loving hate for a fucking video game right there.

Topics

So this post will remain until I use at least one of the 'labels' *cough*tags*cough* below, mostly as these will be the main tags I use (all others will be secondary)

Guess I could fill this post up with what they mean:

• Technology: things that make the IT world go around
  
• Games: I play way too many, and have opinions on them
  
• Music: Releases, controversies, karaoke
  
• Politics: Decline To State liberal and how I see htings
  
• Life: Things happening to me, where I'll be, things I'll do, shit like that.
  
• News: General news items, or things that don't fit the next catagory (or the above ones)
  
• Oddball: Oddball his hosted by our good friend Sum Ting Wong. Things in the news, tech, life et. al. that are not quite what you would think they would be.
  
• Parting Shots: Kinda my 'followup' tag... I mean label. Used when I do a post, well, following up on a topic I've previously posted about.