Waiting to the the last of the major game reviewers to release their reviews, and all for what? A poorly written review and BS posturing. Seriously GS, give it up, you're no longer considered the main course. Gamespot throughout its illustrious history has never known just what to make of the RPG genre. Let us harken back to the days of their infamous Chrono Cross review shall we? The grossly unprofessional nature of the review speaks for itself.

What does this have to do with Lark Anderson and his review of Persona? Not much save for illustrating that not a whole lot has changed in the quality of reviews of RPG titles in the years since. His review of Persona is...well, to put it bluntly, wrong.

Where oh where do I begin in deconstructing this hack job? Well for starters, I thought it was interesting that ol' Lark was the same guy who reviewed Chrono Trigger for the DS. Curious and curiouser.:| So I guess one game's new levels and expansive soundtrack is a plus in one review while minimized in the other game, eh?

Oh and get this, "innovative, engaging combat system.":lol: Seriously? Really? Look Lark, CT was amusing back in the day, but to shower such lavish praise on a combat system that is as deep as a coloring book in 2009 is unintentional comedy. While in Persona, being able to engage the enemy in conversation, the development of the Personae, the use of firearms, or plain old physical combat doesn't qualify as a "innovative, engaging combat system?" Wow, just wow.:roll:

New levels and multiple endings are oh so wonderful in one game, but register as little more than an afterthought in the other game, yeah, got it. Oh, and CT's 14 endings? Most of them were utter nonsense, as in being there just for being there.

I'm really beginning to think that Lark didn't spend more than a half-hour with this game, seriously. I think he was struggling to meet a deadline from falling behind on his assignment. Lark, nothing personal, but next time you review a game, try to aim for some objectivity and consistency.

A three-strikes law for file-sharing.:|

And in other news, VPN subsciption services go up 1000%. Honestly, WTF is this crap:

......so far restricted to only a few categories of simple litigation such as traffic regulation—fails to guarantee the right to a fair trial. It does not include any contradictory debate or public hearing; the ruling is made without any prior judicial investigation."

Thank goodness we in the U.S. have Fourth Amendment protection.:o

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/ftc-forces-sears-kmart-out-of-the-spyware-business.ars

So.....anyone else want access to my personal data? WTF Sears, allow you to completely track what I do online for $10?! Damn, I missed out on this deal! I wanted to be apart of the SHC Community so much! Damn the FTC for getting in the way of this hot deal.

Now THIS is government interference I can deal with.

From Politico:

CNN had some explaining to do on the air Friday morning, following its earlier report that the Coast Guard "tried to prevent a boat from entering a security zone on the Potomac River" nearby where President Obama commemorated the attacks on Sept. 11.

It turns out the Coast Guard was involved in a training exercise.

CNN had based its initial story on reports from police scanners that shots had been fired, but had no independent confirmation.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told POLITICO that CNN should attend the Coast Guard's noon press conference to explain the exercise

"My only caution would be that before we report things like this, checking would be good," Gibbs said.

CBS News Radio White House correspondent Mark Knoller, on Twitter, said that "some networks have a lot of explaining to do--misinterpreting police scanner messages as shots firect [sp?] by the coast guard. He added: "As Walter Cronkite used to say, get it first, but first, get it right."

Matt Drudge singled out the network, with a blaring headline: "CNN PANIC IN DC ON 911 ANNI."

A CNN spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Um......yeah. Media hysteria, just the way you want to start off a 9/11 memorial, eh?:?

There's some cruel elitism behind this site, but here is where you can at least get a visual for the lowest common denominators of society and the stereotypical Wal-Mart shopper, enjoy.

http://peopleofwalmart.com

There was so much so wrong right out of the gate with this program from the get go. Things like hurting used car dealers, the $4,500 rebates being taxable, the program being under-funded leaving dealers stiffed to the point that clunker credits may have to be written off, and oh yeah, Cash for Clunkers looks like it stimulated Japan and Korea more than the U.S.

Ouch. This is change we can believe in. Next up, Healthcare!

As far as returning to Gamespot, I've already said my peace in Ring of Fire, I'm not blabbering away about it here as well.:P

Well, to recap. As some of you know, my girlfriend and I relocated to Hawaii to get away for awhile almost two years ago. It wasn't all Aloha, but it was different nonetheless. While in Hawaii, I was trying to go the self-study route towards earning my CCNA. Unfortunately that didn't quite work out. As it's never too late to go back to school, I enrolled in some courses to help get me untracked and focused.

I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the Cisco Certified Network Associate certification, but it requires more than a pulse to obtain. So for a semester I was burning the candle at both ends working and going to school full-time while trying to balance my relationship. It was very difficult on both of us and frankly, I don't know how the hell I pulled it off. Since we've moved back to the mainland, we've been working on relationship maintenance, we needed it.

In the middle of my semester, a laboratory internship (can't say much more than this) was pitched to us during class which I decided to apply for. It was my ticket back to the Bay Area (CA). So here I am, doing my thing at a government lab learning all I can. In another few weeks, I'm finally going to take my shot at the big exam.

Where I'm moving to next after this? Who knows. All this moving around has been wonderful and all, but I'm wanting to stay put for awhile. Even my wanderlust has limits. At least I'd like to get my X360 back out of storage. Not having a chance to play RE5 is killing me.

What I want to do with this blog entry is enter into a serious discussion of piracy and what I believe to be a poorly conceived copyright law. What I am not doing here is teaching anyone how to use p2p applications securely to maxmixe annonimity (don't even PM me about this), where to find files, or advocating out right theft.

But what gets me going on this topic are the further encroachments on our Fair Use rights. You see, it shouldn't be considered theft, let alone a federal crime when I want to make a legal backup copy of my legally purchased software, but unfortunately most copyrighted media today is copy protected and it is illegal to circumvent such protections. According to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, I would be found in violation of federal law just for making such attempts utilizing many different tools to make this happen. I do find it humorous that such tools (I'm not sure I could even mention the names here) are available for purchase. Imagine that, legally purchasing software to perform my "illegal" act.

I completely respect property rights, but the trade associations are really pushing things into absurdity. It should not be illegal for me to make backup copies of my legally purchased software. Ripping a CD onto a mp3 player shouldn't be regarding as an act of piracy. Hell, even downloading a TV program over a p2p app shouldn't be illegal. Now explain this to me, for some reason recording something over Tivo, DVR, or Slingbox is perfectly OK, but over an internet connection it suddenly becomes sleazy, wrong, and illegal......um...yeah, got it. :| Why is it so benign to record something off the radio from a stereo, but if you rip streamed music off internet radio it becomes piracy? Damn, I had no idea when I was just a child that I was such a criminal when I recorded a song off the radio on my old tape deck.............and I recorded a Metallica song:o Yeah, **** you Lars, come sue me, *****.

With such abominations to our freedoms on the horizon such as the Pro-IP Act and the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (being negotiated in secret) it doesn't look like things are getting any better.

Am I saying that I've been so holy? Not really. I've engaged in "piracy", I'll tell you that right now. Yes, I did have to download my backup copy that I couldn't burn because of SafeDisc and SecuRom. But don't you dare tell me that I infringed on the game developer's copyright, it is they who infringed upon my Fair Use rights with their anti-consumer practices. The rights of the copyright holder end where mine begin. Why should I have to risk damage to my original disc or to my optical drive just to exercise what is my right in the first place?

I would urge everyone to get educated on the issue. I recommend Electronic Frontier Foundation.

I consider myself a reasonable man and I do appreciate those with a do-it-yourself-attitude, but there are limits to this people. If you have no idea what exactly it is you're doing, why wouldn't you accept, let alone expect assistance? Especially with something you've just spent over $1000 on?:|

Cars, medicine, financial advisement, but somehow few think that a computer is even worth getting any assistance with. For the life of me, I've no idea why, especially with some of the tech-stress/ignorance I've witnessed. "Hey could you back up my data for me?" Sure, uh.....um.....(sees hard drive being carried in a plastic bag). Well, actually not now. :?

I can't tell you all enough how amused I am with customers who don't even know what RAM is or what it's for and then insist on figuring out how to set up their own wireless network and configuring and installing their security software. This definitely gets filed in my, "You can't make this **** up" file. When you see new accounts on your credit report that you didn't open or receive a prelitigation letter from the RIAA because people were intercepting your personal data or performing illegal activities on your wireless signal, don't complain to me. Holy ****.:roll: And we wonder why identity theft is so rampant.

Giggles ensue when I think back to a couple days ago when someone only had a access to a handful of websites that he visited and was blocked from Craigslist. I looked over his browser settings, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, then I looked into his security software settings and the parental controls were active and set for "child.":lol:

"Oh, well I have a tech friend who can do all this tech stuff for me, they know a little about computers." Really, now? Is your friend insured, licensed, bonded, and professionally certified for the work? Because if your friend ends up screwing up your computer while its within warranty and it starts to malfunction and the problem turns out to be software related, that's not covered under warranty. Oops. Will your friend be reinstalling your operating system for you as well?

"Oh, that box looks like it has a dent in it, could you get me another one, I'm really superstitious about that stuff." Wait, aren't you the one who just declined to go with extended warranty coverage? "Well Consumer Reports says those things are a rip off." O'rly? So when your laptop's system board flames out outside of warranty, will Consumer Reports cover the cost of repairs with the manufacturer? Does Consumer Reports guarantee that no power surge will ever fry your computer? Look, I don't give a damn how technically proficient anyone is, a LCD screen that goes out, is still a faulty piece of hardware that needs to be replaced no matter how you slice it. And why the hell wouldn't you purchase an extra measure of protection for your "sick" new gaming rig, or that $1800 Mac you just purchased? Whether its a service plan or adding the item into coverage under your home/renter's insurance policy, get something, don't be a moron. I guess the American economy isn't on such a downturn after all, apparently people just have all sorts of money to throw around.

Napster goes DRM free

I'm a few weeks late with this, but this is huge for those of us resisting the P2P/newsgroup temptation for illegal downloading. Napster is now the largest DRM-free music seller on the internet.

This should serve as a big **** you to iTunes. ($1.29 for DRM free tracks :roll: ) I think the only people who still shop at iTunes are people who just don't know any better.