Charlie Page - Politics, Current Events, Games, Technology

New site days away!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:06:07 EDT

Although it seems like nothing has been done, in reality there's been numerous new posts - but all on the new site. It's up and running almost fully, just a few small things left to do and a few articles to be written and charliepage88.com will be launched!

The new site features 2 important aspects - articles and news. At the top is a switchable top news feature and then the same as this website - articles. More, articles will be created more often and of course a new, better look.

Stay tuned this week, as launch could happen as soon as tomorrow!

Pakistan building more nukes? Yes.

Mon, 18 May 2009 01:24:06 EDT

Ask anyone following current events and everyone is worried about Pakistan and Taliban. When this latest war between the two started I was very cautious, waiting for some good signs or bad ones before saying too much. Unfortunately there have been some signs and they aren't good.

Starting out is the latest news and it's very bad. When Admiral Mullen (Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman) was asked if he had seen evidence of Pakistan increasing the size of there nuke arsenal he said simply "Yes". This is quite shocking to a lot of outsiders trying to follow the events in Pakistan. This along with the recent announcement by Pakistan that they do not need any more troops (therefore not removing any troops from the Pak-India border) is just terrible news.

Those two together paint quite an obvious picture - despite the movements by the Taliban, India is Pakistan's foremost enemy and top concern. Besides an International promise that India won't attack pakistan if pakistan moves troops from the border, it's astonishing with the Taliban in actual control of part of Pakistan and 60 miles away from the capital, India is still a much more important concern.

Worse, with the recent aid to Pakistan and proposed more of it - this story of increased nuke production has to make many people wary that this aid has/is going towards there nuclear programme instead of more important areas.

Unfortunately it doesn't sound like the war for Pakistan is going great. Despite there claims of 1,000 (out of 5000-7000 taliban fighters) taliban dead, US intelligence claims it's wildly exaggerated and just yesterday the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint, capturing four policemen.

Stay tuned here and The Long War Journal for updates.

New site coming!

Thu, 14 May 2009 04:19:55 EDT

Although I recently renewed charliepage.net, this site will be moving quite soon! In the works right now is a new design and a plan to re-launch my blog at charliepage88.com.

Other than a better look, running on a newer version of AdaptCMS and more frequent updates - it will likely also integrate in a way with some of my other sites and you could see things like an actual portfolio, twitter/facebook and more.

Actual features wise the site will remain the same - a blog. It will also be the first site of the big re-launch that I've been planning. I'm not sure when the new site will launch, but the design should be finished by the weekend so the new site could be up in a few weeks.

Stay tuned!

Pakistan - Time is almost up

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:39:53 EDT

After all that's happened with Pakistan, especially the past week, it was alarming but more so - the urgency expressed by General Petraeus. If you haven't heard about it, he essentially says that the next two weeks are key to Pakistan's survival and the US is looking for serious action by Pakistan on the Taliban by then.

One of the military leaders that I always listen to when they speak is Petraeus, so it's even more worrying coming from who I think of as a "realist". We've been looking out for this situation to blow up and it looks like it very well could quite soon.

While Pakistan is fighting the Taliban, it's nothing large scale and is only in a small amount of areas, Swat not included. The other problem is the troops used. According to the Long War Journal, it's the "Frontier Troops" instead of the Army, a large gap in training quality/quantity. It had been warned that if Pakistan used Army troops, ethnic problems could cause the Army to literally "choose sides" and split apart. That pretty much says it all.

Good luck to Pakistan!

Science Fiction making a comeback?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:01:16 EDT

With the Star Trek series being brought back from death and a recent article (with a lot of interesting comments to read) at i09 it could be a possibility. In the i09 article as well as the comments, there is a lot of possible reasons listed for the low success of Sci Fi TV shows.

After watching all of Battlestar Galactica, there seems like there are a few key ways for the genre as a whole to return to it's former glory. The major one problem is the quality of acting and writing. Unfortunately a lot of the mediocre science fiction shows are plagued with decent actors and un-original writing. New shows such as Stargate Universe are smart by getting a few big-named actors, that's what hurt Atlantis, but in the end quality actors all around matter more.

The way the stories are told also need overhauling. What BSG, LOST and other newer shows are doing is focusing on the characters and minimizing the sci-fi aspect. LOST is an incredibly popular show with a wide variety of fans and this season, we've been delving into time travel. Yet both shows are absolute sci-fi shows but they have fantastic acting, great writing and focus on characters, making the sci-fi aspects not as important.

It seems odd to say that, about a show like Battlestar Galactica when it took place on, essentially, an aircraft carrier in space with robots, angels and the like - yet it was the characters (+amazing acting) and stories that got it's big following. Yeah it had some of the best space shooting scenes, but it wasn't the focus and that's a big problem with todays shows. Related to that and the writing is realism and predictability.

People expect a certain bending of reality or exaggeration, with sci-fi shows, but there's also a limit. I always thought part of Stargate SG-1's success was some of that realism. Taking place in modern time with real places made you wonder if it could happen in real life. Now a sci-fi show doesn't have to be like that, but decently realistic sci-fi shows seem to be part of the future. At the same time, shows like Stargate Atlantis had annoying exaggerations. It seemed like the Atlantis team was invincible, they got out of tight spots every time - avoiding death so many times. There's only so many times someone or a group of people can have unlikely escapes from death, before it makes it predictable.

One of the themes in sci-fi shows also seems to be "darker". This has to partially do with realism and predictable plots, as a happier up-beat show where the "good guys" beat the odds a lot of times versus a darker sci-fi show where they have losses - it feels real. Comic book movies have already taken this turn (see - Batman: Dark Night) and with BSG and SGU, darker shows. (that's what's claimed for SGU, we'll find out later this year)

That about wraps it up. I just hope the upcoming Star Trek movie can get the genre it's "mojo" back, as the genre at it's peak can be so great to see.

NY Times Op-Ed - Eliminate Air Force?

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:25:30 EDT

One of the more ridiculous opinion articles I've read in some time, especially surprising since the NY Times often has good articles. The basic idea is getting rid of the Air Force.

Yeah, even the basic premise is ridiculous. Worst, as it goes on the writer - Paul Kane, argues for something which is essentially the draft. Before I get started, read over the article:

NY Times Op-Ed - Up, Up and Out

Right off the bat, this offensive statement:

"At the moment, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps are at war, but the Air Force is not."

Forgetting the fact that it is, the worst part is 40 have died in two wars that they apparently don't have a part in.

"Yes, air power is a critical component of America’s arsenal. But the Army, Navy and Marines already maintain air wings within their expeditionary units. The Air Force is increasingly a redundancy in structure and spending."

So Kane proposes dissolving the Air Force into the other branches - okay. But apparently that saves money how?

"War is no longer made up of set-piece battles between huge armies confronting each other with tanks and airplanes."

Oh how naive this man is. I'm not expecting World War III tommorow, but at the same time War changes over time and as well - each war is different. Also, if we apparently are done with huge armies conforonting each other - why not get rid of tanks? Since we don't need planes, why do we need tanks?

"...introduce national service at age 18 for all Americans. Under such a system, young people from all classes and backgrounds would either serve in the military or do other essential work like intelligence assessment, conservation, antipoverty projects, educational tutoring, firefighting, policing, border security, disaster relief or care for the elderly. The best qualified would be assigned to the military."

This sounds so familiar. I think we should think of a name though, rather than this long explanation - maybe "draft"? That might work. Yeah it's different from the traditional draft, but it still sounds mandatory - the reason why the draft is so incredibly unpopular. I like the basic premise of making todays youth more productive, but forcing in this way is one of those things of the past that we've kind of moved on from.

While the article has a few good points such as the physical requirements lacking compared to other services and the "up or out" policy, but the main points are just plain ridiculous.

What some people refuse to accept or understand is that the United States is the sole super power in the world. Reducing the amount of nuclear weapons we and others have is admirable - eliminating them is a pipe dream. Not needing an air force would be nice, as well as no chance of being involved in any major war - but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Get with reality. Though the unfortunate thing other than this article coming from a usually good and informative source, is the fact that the author is not only a Marine (maybe it explains some things) Veteran, but "a former fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government". I don't want to insult his intelligence, but some of this is just doesn't make sense in real life.

Update - 4/20

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:38:04 EDT

Nothing too much to talk about in this blog. I've done nearly nothing on any of my web stuff, mostly because I've been working over 40 hour weeks at UDF. Though I have all day shifts this week, so I'm hoping to get the ball rolling and at least get a little done.

However time will be limited, but if I could just get a bit of work on AdaptCMS and/or AdaptBB, it'd be good just to get some activity. I've been wanting to get both scripts versions to release for some time now. (AdaptBB 1.0, AdaptCMS 1.5 Beta)

I may also be able to at least get the motions started on the big web re-launch earlyish May, by then I should have a little money (bills, rent, taxes ;) ) and could get a designer at least for the blog.

Anyways, that's about it for now. For the past few weeks I've basically been going to work, watching TV, a little video games and that's all - so some web work would help liven things up. :p Stay tuned.

The Big Re-Launch

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:02:24 EDT

Kept under wraps for quite a while, but it looks like my multiple site re-launching will finally come to reality in the near future. Saving up money, paying off bills and such with what I've made at UDF so far and I'm looking too, shortly, start this big re-launch.

This will finally see the nail in a few coffins of websites I have, major new versions of websites as well as launching of a few new ones. Compared to the past, this time I'll be bringing not just the usual but significant (compared to before) resources. I've messed up a few site launches because of going cheap, not getting enough staff - to name a few reasons.

The ideas are still being fleshed out, but so far a re-launch of this blog, a new major version of Insane Visions, a new News website are among of a few. For the existing sites this means a new design, likely new features altogether and just altogether new looks.

The beginning of this could be soon after the release of AdaptCMS 1.5, which (as long as I work less than 5 days) should have it's beta and AdaptBB 1.0 out next week. A few of the new websites or website re-launches could see itself out around the time of AdaptCMS 2.0. (taking advantage of the new features)

More details will be revealed when known.

Internet Back

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:59:48 EDT

While the last post I made here was about a new job, anyone wondering why it's been a month since I've done anything here would assume it's my new job, but infact it's not.

On numerous occassions I've had time to do web work and post on my blog, but I just got back the internet yesterday. It was a long 3 weeks or so and it sucked not having anything to do except watch TV after a long day at work, but luckily I have it back.

Even though I've been gone, I think maybe as soon as this upcoming weekend I may release AdaptBB 1.0 and AdaptCMS 1.5 Beta could see it's release in the next few weeks. I always hate gaps without any work done, especially when I couldn't do anything about it.

Nonetheless I hope to get AdaptBB 1.0 out very soon and the AdaptCMS Beta sometime this month. I've also had a little luck selling my sites, but still have a few left.

Anyways, that's all for now. I'll probably make a post in a few days.

New Job

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:36:10 EST

After applying at quite a few places, I was finally able to get a job somewhere - UDF. (United Dairy Farmers for those not familiar) Nothing fancy, store clerk at $7.50/hr but it's money. I'm working this week day shifts, but I'm guessing after this week I'll mostly be nights.

Luckily the time between will give me a chance to try and sell some of my sites. Especially if I am scheduled a lot of hours, I want to try and actually re-organize so I can flesh those sites out and move on to any new projects and to re-launch/re-focus the ones I'm keeping.

Kind of a catch twenty-two when it comes to working and my web work. Putting aside the fact that financially I had to, of course working may cause me to work on web stuff less. (although I could also focus attention more on it) But on the otherhand while I've been scrapping by, having to rely solely on my programming skills and not doing any new site versions (visually) for 1-2 years, with a job I will have a little bit that I'll have to save up and use for designs and such.

In the end, I'm looking forward to working at UDF. (well actually I started monday) Working part time I will have plenty of time to sell some sites, make some money from those and work, as well get the web stuff down enough so I'm not too worried about it when I get into college.

Oh and for those interested, I finally released the AdaptBB 1.0 Beta. After a few weeks of testing and a few things to do (another cms integration or two, maybe phpbb converter) it will release after many delays and it'll be a relief. In other web news I'm starting to brainstorm for AdaptCMS 1.5. The release is a long ways off, but with AdaptBB 1.0 being essentially finished I wouldn't mind getting a nice early start on AdaptCMS 1.5, maybe release earlier than expected, have a long beta and get plenty of time for the big one - AdaptCMS 2.0. (which I am here and there, slowly, brainstorming for)

Anyways I think that about covers it. Getting a job at UDF was a big relief as well, selling a few of my sites will be so I can minimize the amount I have and as I said, launch seriously any new ones and re-organize/re-focus/re-launch the ones I keep. While I do this stuff for fun, I also need to do more than have a few sites, post every few weeks and do nothing more, more like a business is what some will be going towards.

Until next time.