Not using any location services won’t do much to protect you from being robbed?  Really?  Are you that stupid?  Just as dumb as those two iGeniuss who got married in an Apple Store?  Lets take a lookey at the following scenarios for a quick minute why don’t we…

I leave my lights off because maybe I’m getting ready to go to bead, and then I may not bother answering the phone for the same reason, or don’t want to be pestered by YAMS (Yet Another Marketing Schmuck).  So here we go.

Joe Robber – Robbing My House

1. He calls my home phone number (how he got it is pointless, that part is easy) and says “ohhh, no answer, he’s not home”
2. He then drives up to my house and says “lights off, hes not home, yessss”
3. He then proceeds to sneak around back and do some hacking 1.0 to get into my house
4. I hear him from my bed upstairs, stomp my 6′4″ body down the stairs wondering WTF is going on
5. Joe runs away, scared before he even sees me because, he DID NOT KNOW I was home.

Joe Robber – Using PleaseRobMe.com or other methods

1. He sees in real-time that I have just left my home and KNOWS that I’m not at home.
2. He then robs my home

As Homer Simpson would say, “DOH!”  That simple, that simple to NOT USE any location service to PROTECT me from being robbed.  It’s that simple to NOT post personal information online, don’t be a Homer.

In the context of the internet, personal information is not “what you like” as other people don’t truly care about that data (companies yes, people no).  Personal is “who you are, what you do, and where you do it”, never ever forget that and think twice about publishing it.

So, how about you, thinking twice about sharing your coordinates?

Wake up, you are not a gadget! You have proven you have zero creativity, zero passion, zero romance.  I sense an iDivorce coming soon!

Often throughout my career many have said “bah, its too slow, it takes too long to setup, does it really have to be secure?”.  If you are asking that, you shouldnt be in the job your in.  Cmon DOD, wake the fuck up!

So, here’s a business case for you… “The ability to collect data in real time from an airplane in flight, essentially collecting all the info a black box would collect and then some can save hundreds of lives and billions of dollars”.  What if the malfunction that causes a plane to crash can never be identified because its 20,000 ft under the sea, then one month later another plane crashes as a result of the same defects?  Hmm, yes, hundreds of lives can be saved as well as the cost for the search and rescue of said plane and its replacement.

The real question is, what dollar amount do the airlines actually factor into the life of a human being?  They do risk analysis, and that number must exist.  

It is something you would expect coming from the CEO of Sony Entertainment and something you would expect coming from an old school capitalist.

If what you create for a living can be turned into 1’s and 0’s or it starts off as 1’s and 0’s then you had better stand out from the rest if you are to make it.  Keyword being “you” and not some bloated middle man like what Micahel Lynton represents.

The Internet killed the middle man. With that said, everyone is on an even playing field and the competition is HUGE and the choice for the consumer is 100 fold better.

What does that mean?
Climb above the crap and add something of value, something PHYSICAL and or something that cant be turned into 1’s and 0’s.   In the context of Music (since Michael refers to that) look what NIN did with their limited edition CD boxed set in the age of digital downloads, making $700K  sales from a physical product without a middle man, without a Sony Entertainment.

Where does that leave you?
If you are the creative type, there is plenty of re-inventing the wheel left in the physical world.  In the context of face to face interaction provide added value in what/how you interact with others.   Everyone should read up on Daniel Pink, Why Right Brainers will Rule The Future. Another option, do as I have, learn how to write software.  You can create the new middle man (web server and related tech), just don’t expect a bloated multi million enterprise as a result, sorry Michael Lynton, your days are over.

While watching this video it became clear very quickly that this guy was a poet at one time, and it turns out I was right.  He took that and mixed it in with motivational speaking and whamo, a niche that one can make a living off of.

The audio quality could be better, but this is a great video of a motivational speaker who has done many big name keynotes and has some poetry accolades as well.  Kirk Nugent.

FYI – Sure the last two posts have been off topic, a clear sign I have no idea what direction this blog is going.  ;-)

You can watch the video below for an overview of the game.  If you have the XNA Framework installed I encourage you to give it a shot.

What did I enjoy the most?

I enjoyed figuring out how to manage the update and drawing of what was on the screen.  Im familar with developing for http requests, however, developing for something that updates 60 times a second is something else.  The problems I encountered were managing the music and game event timing.  In the end I got lucky with the song I choose as not only is it a great song, but, the timing of it worked out perfectly.

What I would do differently?

For starters I would not be lazy with how it was programmed.  It’s as if I’m a farmer who knows very well how to grow apples and maintain an apple orchard, and then all of a sudden I’m thrown into a tropical environment naked and forced to grow avocados.  All good programming practices went out the window, especially ones specific to C#.  No worries, the next game wont be like that.

How to download/install?

You have a couple of options here.

Option 1: If you have the XNA Framework already installed (only likely if you have developed a game with it) then you can simply download the Visual Studio 2008 Source Code and hit F5.

Options 2: Otherwise, you will need to download all of the following and the .exe Installer as well.

• .NET Framerwork 3.5
• XNA Framework 3.0
• DirectX 9.0c
• XNA Quicks .exe Installer

Shame On The Media

It’s a shame how much the media has sensationalized the $165 million dollars in bonus’s to AIG employees.  Sure that’s a lot of money and can be put to better use, but how about putting focus on the astronomical number that is $170 billion!

Companies need to fail, industries need to die and evolve into something new.  Everyone including the white house has been sold on the idea that “X is to big to fail”, and everyone is hearing that from the exact same people that put the economy in the place it is today.   Hmm, that’s like being in a courtroom and hearing the testimony from the murderer saying “I’m too important to be locked up, so give me some more knifes so I can continue doing what I do best”.  OK, a bit of an extreme analogy there, but a needed one to shock some life back into the populace and the media.

Capitalism Thrives On Industry Evolution

Capitalism thrives on competition and in turn being forced to innovate.  I wont go into details here on how it’s current model is flawed and leave that up to Umair Haque who is much smarter than me and gave me the idea for the new category on my blog “Looting 2.0″.

I’ve been meaning to write this post since the day this news broke last week.  I’ve also been meaning to write many other posts as well but just haven’t had the time.  The fact of the matter is “everyone can fail, and should if driven to”.  If AIG is too big to fail, that’s synonymous with saying the United States of America is 100% dependant on a single non government entity, a publicly traded company.  What an absolute shitty situation to be in, and if that’s the case, Democracy and Capitalism in it’s current form is a TOTAL SHAM!

So, next time you hear BIG NUMBERS……demand PERCENTAGES instead, that math will tell a much better story.