Headlines:

• Google is getting sued….again…for maps…again…by…??????
• Kodak had a nuke.  Kinda.
• And there goes the rest of Yahoo’s executive board.
• Facebook becomes a tad more obvious in their advertising intentions.
• I thought all those Facebook founders were such nice boys!
• Google Goggle’s video was really more of a theory and not an actual concept.
• Castle loses its producer/writer to go . . . work on the CW?!
• Google doesn’t like it when you frequently change ROMsThat was a fast backpedal
• Verizon doesn’t want to keep their customers
• The Pirate Bay is under attack… literally
• Diablo III revolutionizes… the error screen
• Siri is a liar

Fastlane:

• Apple has invited Kaspersky labs to tour their Cupertino facilities and help them address their security concerns.  Kaspersky has taken a full assessment and deemed OSX as “incredibly vulnerable”.  Also, they say to expect malware on your iPad and iPhone within a year.
• A recent evaluation of the Navy’s new high-tech cruisers has come back as “no-go”.  The evaluation reports that the mine hunter can’t see or withstand mines, the hull dissolves in water, and the construction team has completely failed every test given them.  Total cost to taxpayers? $680M so far.
• A research team has not only found a way to restore sight to the blind, but a way to externally power the implants without wires.  The implants would be powered by an infrared light from special glasses.  The future is here, and it’s brought LASER POWERED EYES!
• Mtn Dew is partnering up with WB to promote The Dark Knight Rises with a new limited edition flavor inspired by the upcoming Batman film called Mountain Dew Dark Berry.  Beware of drinking too much though as it can lead to wearing tights and staying up all night trying to avenge the murder of your parents.
• ABC wants the Hulk to smash…..on TV.  The possible TV series could break through the walls in time for the 2013-14 TV season.
• Japan has just successfully broadcast an 8K video signal over the air.  Good thing you just paid off that 1080p TV, cause it’s about to get outclassed REAL fast!
• Avengers may have made more than a billion in theaters so far but it’d be a drop in the bucket to the $160B in estimated damages to the island of Manhattan in the movie.  That’s more than 9/11, hurricane Katrina, or the Japanese tsunami.
• Netflix clocks 42 Billion API requests per month.  Nothing funny about that; just impressive.  Move along…

Talking Point:  Why can’t DC make a good movie franchise?

Zuke’s Tentative Favorite: Fiat decides to photobomb Volkswagon
Stark’s Favorite: TRON Uprising pilot now online
Zohner’s Favorite: ComicRack: For all your comic book needs… on your phone or PC
Schmidty’s Favorite: 121 MP of planet earth

I'll bet this kid just can't wait till mom shows all potential dates his "childhood pics".

The article itself wasn’t so much a hard hitting editorial on the benefits of breast feeding as it was how some people go to extremes over “attachment parenting”.  I guess someone in the Time newsroom decided it was a slow issue, so why not make it the cover story.  Best way to do that? Well, let’s make it shocking!  Sure, why not?  It’s not like they haven’t done that before.

But what does any of that have to with President Obama?

In a recent interview, President Obama came out in support of gay marriage and overall equality.  Well, good for him.  He’s said as much before in other interviews but this was the first time he ever said the words “gay”, “marriage”, and “support” all in the same sentence so it kind of brought things to a new level.  Not surprisingly all the hardliners on the right immediately started running with the story that the POTUS was launching all out war on traditional marriage.

All politics aside, the media decided to immediately jump all over this new story and see if they could spin it in any way that suited their targeted demographic.  Pro-republican outlets bashed POTUS any way they could.  Pro-democrat outlets said he’s standing up for civil liberties.  Pro-LBGT outlets expressed that they felt vindicated.  And Anti-LBGT always seem to be protesting 24/7 anyway so I’m not sure they even heard the announcement (seriously, have you noticed that seems to be their only job?).

Newsweek decided to take things one step further; let’s make Obama a gay man on our cover!

The piece is titled “The First Gay President” with a subtitle explaining that his “life as a biracial man has deep ties to the gay experience”. You can read the whole article here.

First off, it’s obvious what they’re doing here.  In an effort to try and steal attention from Time’s cover above, they’re going a different route to try and shock you into buying their magazine.  If you actually read the piece itself, the author (Andrew Sullivan) does a decent job of explaining how Obama’s public opinion on gay marriage has evolved over time.  However, it also become increasingly clear with each paragraph that the author has always wanted it this way.  The story is more about about the author’s journey to understand Obama’s position and less about the position itself.   None of that is so bad and it’s a well written piece.

Except it’s not news.  Nor does it state our POTUS is gay.  And the argument that his life as a biracial man makes one with the gay movement is only hinted at by the end of page 3 (in a 4 page article).

See the category that this piece is in?  In case you can’t find it, I’ll just tell you; Editorial.  That means that this post is my opinion.  It is based upon my feeling on a particular subject and therefore cannot be considered news any more than an angsty 14 year old’s LiveJournal (do kids even have LiveJournals anymore?).  The big differentiation here is that this is a blog run by semi-literate geeks and THAT’S FRAKKING NEWSWEEK!  Somehow I just expected a respected, long running magazine with the word “News” in the name to actually be more . . . prestigious.  Instead we learn the truth; print writers are just like any other writers.  The only difference is that they have editors who are trying to make a buck.

Yes, I am blaming this on the editor.

In 1998, a writer for The New Yorker named Toni Morrison wrote an article about then-President Clinton.  That article, edited by Tina Brown famously called Clinton “the first black President”.  Tina Brown later left The New Yorker to work at . . . Newsweek.  Even the subtitle to Newsweek’s article shows the editor might have only skimmed the article before slapping it on the front over.  The line?

The president’s bold support shifted the mainstream. Andrew Sullivan on why it shouldn’t be surprising—Obama’s life as a biracial man has deep ties to the gay experience.

The reason this doesn’t jive with the article is many-fold.  For starters, as I pointed out earlier, this line of reasoning wasn’t brought up until nearly the end of the article and may have been the weakest point in the whole thing.  It’s overall statement implies that all biracial men are inherently more connected to “The Gay Experience” (as best I can tell, I’ve been a biracial man for 30 years and have had no gay experiences, deep or otherwise).  On top of that, POTUS’s statement has not shifted one thing in the slightest.  People for him are still for him, people against him now just have another reason to be against him, people undecided now just have another variable to consider.  Let’s face it here, if you have any sort of opinion on the argument of gay marriage then you already know exactly where you stand and who you support.

The funny thing is that this piece COULD have been so much better if they actually had explored the path of how being biracial might give someone a little more insight into the challenges faced by the LBGT community in finding equality.  I can completely relate to such an argument, as I feel it also has affected how I look at the matter.  Instead it turned into an author writing “I’m gay, and I’m happy I finally understand the President” and an editor saying “Man, I’m going to troll everyone so hard. chu-ching!”

Ms. Brown is not the only one guilty of such trolling behavior.  As Eric Randall of The Atlantic Wire is quick to point out, Obama has also been called the first female President (also by Newsweek), the first Jewish President (New York Magazine), first Asian-American President (AFP), and first Hispanic President (but no one really takes Geraldo Rivera seriously).  As previously mentioned, Clinton was already named the first black President.  And rounding up our list is President George W. Bush, who was named the first Muslim President by Foreign Policy . . . no, really.  Don’t believe me that they really are just trolling?

How about now?

It used to be that I read Time and Newsweek magazine for information on what was happening in the world.  Looking back, I now realize that I only read them because I was 13 and the internet didn’t really exist as it does now.  With technology being what it is, where is the journalists’ place in the world now?  It’s already been shown that traditional publications are quick to plagiarize some online works while others are quick to point out that “bloggers don’t count”.  But what’s becoming more and more evident is that the level of “professional journalism” in many of these print magazines is quickly approaching that of a blogger looking to quickly get as many page views as possible.

I don’t know if that makes me proud as a blogger that my posts may be on par with that of a Newsweek writer, or horribly depressed that these publications are nothing but money-hungry trolls.
 

We’re back to a normal recording situation, and boy does it show!  To commemorate the show we’re talking about kiddie pr0n and how screwed up New York is!  Also, Schmidty still doesn’t understand what “Fast Lane” means.  Oh well.

Headlines:

• Apple’s new boot sound; the sad trombone. (an editorial)
• Senator Franken calls out FCC on the Comcast debacle.
• Xbox for $99?! BRILLIANT! (first subsidized game console?)
• New York proves that laws need to catch up with technology
• The Avengers are saving John Carter, gave %1000 increase in sales.
• Mircosoft’s reverse reality distortion field will be the death of it.
• Paying customers now being treated even more like criminals.

Fast Lane:

• Marvel’s The Avengers smashed all sorts of records over the weekend like the Hulk smashes anything that gets in his way. Does this come as any surprise to anyone?
• Minecraft for Xbox 360 Arcade broke the digital download record in a 24 hour period. The creepers just got creepier now that they’re in your living room, and your Xbox can now show off the 1990’s style graphics in full 1080p.
• Google Maps for Android gets updated with indoor directions.  You never need to fear getting lost in the mall again.
• Angry Birds developer Rovio has plans to open amusement parks in China.  Because who doesn’t want to get launched out of a giant slingshot into a construction site?
• Dish Network announced that their latest DVR will automatically skip commercials for you . . . well, most of the commercials.  This is all at once awesome for us, and extortion for all other commercial agencies.
• Sources say Apple will be dropping Google Maps from iOS 6 at the upcoming WWDC.  That’s not surprising; what’s surprising is I guess we’re getting iOS 6 at WWDC!
• NBC has renewed Community for a 13-episode fourth season.  And there was much rejoicing.
• Director James Cameron says he’s now in “the Avatar business” and will not work on anything that is not Avatar related.  I bet Avatar 23: Return of the Avatars will be a completely original story too.

Talking Point:

Tech and politics
Has this Presidency been more about tech than anything else? More than any before?
Is “Tech Savy” a prerequisite now?
http://gizmodo.com/5907994/everyone-has-been-hacked-now-what

Zuke’s Favorite: Why a Death Star doesn’t make much economic or military sense
Zohner’s Favorite: The Walking Dead in the 1980′s
Stark’s Favorite: I’m Trekkie and I know it
Schmidty’s Favorite: Leaning Tower of Pisa Troll

Set in the year 2517, Firefly is a space western created by writer and director Joss Whedon.  (You may know him from such awesomeness as The Avengers and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.)  The show follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a “Firefly-class” spaceship and explores the lives of some people who fought on the losing side of a civil war and others who now make a living on the outskirts of society. In addition, it is a future where the only two surviving superpowers, the United States and China, fused to form the central federal government, called the Alliance, resulting in the fusion of the two cultures.  The series premiered in 2002 but received poor ratings which I attribute to Fox’s airing the episodes out of order and general mistreatment of the show.  The series was canceled after only 11 of the 14 episodes had aired which gave rise to the Browncoats, fans of the series who wanted to see the show continue.

Flash forward to today and we see that many of the stars of Firefly have gone on to have great careers.  However, their careers may have moved on, yet Firefly remains.  There has been talk of the show being resurrected by Netflix.  Nathan Fillion, who played Captain Malcolm Reynolds, has even talked about buying the rights to the show, making it on his own, and distributing it on the Internet.  YES PLEASE!

Anyways, to get to my point… It’s obvious that fans want this show to continue.  We got a movie that wrapped up the series, but the holes in our hearts were just too big for Serenity to fill.  What will it take to get our Firefly fix?  Who will step in and get this done in a manner that will please the fans?  Unfortunately, I don’t have those answers but I know how it can be done in a way that will work with the actors’ schedules and not put the studios at a ton of risk financially: animation.  (This idea actually came out during our most recent podcast.)  Seriously.  Why not do an animated Firefly television series?  How awesome would that be?  Answer: very.

While I’m not hopeful that something like this could ever happen because Hollywood is too stupid for something so smart, it makes perfect sense to me to make Firefly into an animated series.  Think about it.  You’ve already got a loyal fan base so you know that there will be viewers.  The cast could do voice-over work when it’s convenient with their schedules.  You  have a story with characters that could go on and on, unless Joss Whedon kills the rest of them.  And you have the ability to distribute the show via network TV, the Internet, or Netflix.  What’s not to love?  Why is this not being made now?

What are your thoughts?  Do you think that Firefly would work as an animated series?

[The artwork is courtesy of OtisFrampton's deviantART page.  You can check it out here.]

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This podcast is full of fail.

Somehow, we seriously managed to cut the last 2 minutes of the podcast and it ends up with the audio equivalent of a “Scene Missing”.  Sorry.  :-(

Headlines:

• Congress says “Hands Off Facebook” to employers
• Microsoft finds a “novel” way to settle a lawsuit; a monopoly.
• Also, Microsoft wants to finally get with it and live in the “home of the future”
• Moore’s Law is breaking down.
• Hulu may defeat the purpose of “cutting the cable”Slashdot’s take…
• You can sue for illegally downloading.  Can you be sued illegally?
• Terrorizing the world with pr0n
• Will Netflix save Jericho? Let’s hope so.
• Google attempts to break Google-owned sites

Fastlane:

• A recent leak in the military has lead to the release of the operator’s manual for the Predator Drone.  The manual includes operating costs and some screenshots of the controller software . . . which looks like it was made for Windows 98.  Seriously, can we get the Metro UI team on that?
• According to The Onion, NASA has announced an ambitious new plan to get a man to Columbus, OH by the end of 2013.  The planned bus mission is expected to cost upwards of $360 of taxpayer money and is the latest in an effort for NASA to recapture some of their former glory.
• Highlighting the vulnerabilities of digital film in theaters this week, a showing of The Avengers was delayed 143 minutes when it was discovered someone had deleted the movie and it had to be re-downloaded.  I’m sure the room full of rabid geeks and film critics barely even noticed . . .
• A month ago we reported that a major credit card payment system had been hacked and lost the information for nearly 1.5 million cards.  A recent announcement from the company reveals the security breach actually happened over the course of 10 months!  Check those credit card receipts!
• A recently discovered footage reel shows an Apple ad that never made it past its initial showing.  The film in question was made in 1984 and is made to look like a war film of 1944 with Steve Jobs playing FDR, rallying his Apple Soldiers against IBM.  Watchers beware, your day is about to get strange.
• Free Comic Book day is this weekend. Who doesn’t like free comics?  Nazi zombies, that’s who.

Talking Point: It’s a Geek’s World.  No, it’s not.

Zuke’s Favorite: Sharks with FRICKEN LASERS!!!
Zohner’s Favorite: Awesome Twitter accounts – here and here
Schmidty’s Favorite: Educational game on the Solar System; done with Unreal rendering engine and/or Go Right: A tribute to side-scrollers
Stark’s Favorite: Epic music is epic for 10 hours

This one could go the trippy route too, if you let it.  Otherwise, it’s just a lot of fun to an awesome song.  Enjoy! (Thanks to Dave2 for bringing this video to my attention!)

Special thanks to Sergeant Chilcott of the 65th Fires Brigade, Riverton, Utah.  Additional thanks to all other men and women in our armed services, both active and reserve.

Since the advent of the UAV, for operational purposes (drones have been used for training for a long time),  I have wondered (and I think this goes for a lot of the guys I work with) why it took so long for the military to start using them.  So, in many respects, the technology doesn’t hold any particular mystique.  On the other hand, the benefits to the warfighter can hardly be taken for granted, and they’re benefits that we didn’t have, to the same extent, before.  So, there is definitely appreciation for what these new technologies bring to the table.

Flesh and blood troops definitely have a greater capacity for their PR value, but they also carry with them an inherent, equal potential to be a PR liability.  Drones are totally impersonal, so it’s easy to see them in a more negative light – a faceless intruder, etc.  But, UAV’s are also, in most cases unseen and unheard, in an operational environment, so that invasion into people’s lives is somewhat mitigated.  Of course, there are certainly exceptions to that, but the UAV, from a management perspective, is a more predictable factor, which further helps to mitigate the potential for negative impact on the public.  Additionally, the UAV is not a substitute for troops at all, but rather a tool for the enhancement of their mission capability.  Ideally, our boots on the ground are establishing good relationships with indigenous populations and making it clear that the intent for our “drones” is to provide greater situational awareness, so that our soldiers can do a better job of getting the bad guys and minimizing the disturbance to the average Joe on the street.

Of course not – as an IT professional, I would have to be either blissfully ignorant or criminally naive to believe that any network was immune to intrusion.  Network intrusion detection is a HUGE deal throughout every segment of the IT industry.  And nobody is 100% aware of every breech of their network’s security.  That having been said, the military sets matters of security at the very top of their priority list, and network security is no exception.  We also have very effective tools, policies and procedures in place to minimize exposure and limit the extent of any breeches that may occur.

We’re certainly not reliant on them.  No more so than on any other piece of hardware.  UAVs are another tool in the toolbox.  Definitely a valuable tool, but by no means a deal-breaker.

I have heard it said that the UAV makes warfighting more akin to playing a video game.  But I’ve never met a Service Member who didn’t treat his combat role with the utmost seriousness.  That said, the guy on the ground, who still has to square off against a determined enemy, doesn’t see anything game-like in the war he’s fighting, regardless of the assistance he gets from the “eye in the sky”, manned or unmanned.  And since the UAV operators are still FAR fewer than the ground forces, I’d say the war still feels awfully real.

I don’t know that a soldier and an unmanned vehicle can really be comparable to each other.  But, in terms of the fiscal cost of bringing one or the other to the battlefield, my guess would be that they are likely fairly similar.  The dollars and cents of either materiel or personnel are far from my area of expertise, but when I first enlisted, I heard an estimate of a little more than $100,000.00 just to get a single soldier through Basic Training.  Then, there are countless other schools and operational/maintenance costs that go along with keeping a soldier combat ready, so the expense is not insignificant.  How that ultimately compares to a UAV is a question I wouldn’t dare try to answer with level of understanding.

This goes back to the question about security breech awareness.  The military does a pretty darn good job of mitigating threat and securing its IT resources, especially considering the size of the bull’s-eye on us and our means of prosecuting our wars.  In the modern world, cyber space is, increasingly, the battlefield on which we fight.  And, as the military continues to get leaner and leaner, in terms of manpower, the need for cyber-superiority, as a means of extending our reach, becomes greater and greater.  Additionally, our inter-connectivity is used for a lot more than just operational concerns.  Morale, welfare and support are facilitated and enhanced by inter-connectivity, especially on the physical battlefield.  So, in this day and age, it’s hard to imagine a military that isn’t “connected”.  Again, connectivity is another tool in the toolbox, and definitely a valuable one to have.