The Video Game Diaries

Just some thoughts I have during my video gaming sessions.

[patrickhawes-defrias]

The Dichotomy of Tone in Metal Gear Solid V

The Metal Gear series is weird. I don’t think anyone can really argue that, not even longtime fans. It’s been that way since the original, which was full of strange translation issues (an iconic moment of the game happens where Snake sneaks onto a truck, says “I FEEL ASLEEP!” and is transported to another area). 

Later games were strange as well, but for reasons of tone. Of course, there’s the base premise- the games take place in a (mostly) normal representation of the political and social state of the world, in whatever time-frame each game is supposed to take place in. But, at the same time, each game is centered around the eponymous Metal Gears, which are essentially giant war mechs outfitted with nuclear payloads. Cloning, mind control, and the occasional supernatural element are huge parts of the Metal Gear mythos, and it’s all just as crazy as it is compelling.

 It doesn’t end there either- the gameplay also has some serious goofiness within it, and it’s often vital to the gameplay. The most obvious example is the iconic cardboard box, which is vital to getting around open areas unseen despite being completely silly. It became so prevalent in the series, that in MGS3, the box became a running joke, with Snake becoming obsessed with it to an extent. 

Even that, however, isn’t what got me thinking- it’s the story, which most of the time is stone-cold serious, despite all the joking. Here’s a little snippet from my playthrough of Phantom Pain so far:

The Wildlife Conservation Organization has tasked me with capturing any animals I come across during my travels. After all, they want to keep all the innocent critters out of the crossfire in the various war-zones I end up going through. This is especially true for farm animals, who have all been abandoned due to the various hostile takeovers going on, and are now out in the wilds. There’s one in particular that they’ve asked me to capture- a sheep that was being held in the heart of a small town that’s been converted into a Soviet outpost. They’ve offered a rather significant reward for this sheep, considering that it’s right in the middle of enemy territory. After landing in the dropzone, I get on my horse and start traveling to the town, and start scoping the place out from a nearby hill. There’s four soldiers, which I take out by carefully sneaking, hiding in a box, and using CQC and tranquilizers to silently take them all out. After a few minutes, they’re all out of the picture, and I see the sheep alone in the pen. I attach a Fulton balloon to it, see it rocket into the sky at mach 1 comically, and head back to base. On the way back, a cutscene plays that focuses on Snake’s face for a while, and I notice the giant shard of metal that was lodged in his head during the previous game. “Oh” I think to myself, “that’s right, I’m supposed to be building up and get my revenge, aren’t I?”

This is the kind of thing that fascinates me about Metal Gear. This duality of tone is incredibly stark, and in anything else would probably just be ludicrous... But for Metal Gear, it just works. It has the perfect blend of serious and silly, and it knows when to tone down either side. Anybody else have examples of a game, movie, or anything else that is on par?

[patrickhawes-defrias]

The Purpose of Community in GTA Online

One may not immediately think about community when discussing the GTA Online experience. And, to be fair, in most situations tend to lead to the exact opposite of helpful. Trolling is abound, people go after other players with tanks and fighter jets that other players (especially newer players, without good gear) honestly have no way of defending themselves from. 

And then, you go into a mission. Here, people start to act a bit differently. There are a few jerkwads in the missions as well, to be sure- there’ve been plenty of times where a player would go along with a mission just long enough to blow up the target vehicle, or otherwise sabotage the mission in some way. But, these have been relatively few (at least in my experience).

In essence, when you’re in freemode, traveling Los Santos, some players go nuts killing, trolling, and in general doing (let’s face it) very GTA things. But, the community has built up enough that everyone knows to chill out when it’s business time. It’s fascinating, especially in the level of communication. Almost nobody in the game, as far as I can tell, usually use microphones. The reason, I would assume, is that those who do seem to have no idea how to use them. I’ve had no short supply of chatty children, fools who keep their music way too high, morons who have their TV volume so loud that I can hear them going into menus through the microphone, and the dreaded parent who doesn’t have the common sense to mute the microphone when their baby starts crying. So, what this leads to is a sea of mutes in a very action-packed, hectic environment.

And everyone still knows what’s going on.

When someone wants you to get into their super-fast getaway car, they pull up to you and honk the horn a few times.

When they want to point something out, there’s now a “pointing” mechanic, but before that players made their own by just aiming their guns in a direction. 

When someone wants to say “good job”, they use a corresponding emote.

It’s all very organized, simple, close-knit, and friendly. As soon as everyone goes to the open world, it’s back to carpet-bombing each other with supersonic jets, but not a moment before that.

Any thoughts on this?

[patrickhawes-defrias]

PRESS START

World 1-1

When I first started this Tumblr account, I did so for a college course about the growing need to speak better, and with more rhetoric, in online media. You can see this in my older posts, which I’ve decided to leave up since I feel that while all of it was done for a class, it really helped to shape what I feel internet writing should be. Plus, I have alot of respect for my professor and classmates from that course, and feel that they should be remembered in this blog in some way.

World 1-2

So what am I doing, anyway? Well, that’s simple- I’m going to, for every time I do some gaming, just write about whatever comes to mind. Perhaps it’ll be setting, maybe it’ll be rhetoric, or even just my thoughts about the game in general. Just a way to put to writing something that I love.

World 1-3

Why am I doing this? Well, I’d been tossing the idea around for a bit, but it culminated with the recent death of Mr. Satoru Iwata, the former, now departed CEO of Nintendo. A full article on it can be found here: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_28475447/nintendos-iwata-who-led-through-successes-woes-dies

The man left a legacy, alot of memories, and there’s alot of history to him. One of the most noteworthy things I’ve heard people say was that he “wasn’t done”. He clearly had plenty of plans, things to say, that were cut short. It got me thinking- I love video games. So did Iwata, but for him you only really heard what he had to say during press releases, conventions, and so forth. If he had the freedom to talk whenever he wanted, which I don’t think he could as the head of a major company, he’d have had so much more to say. I don’t have that limitation, and there are plenty of things I’d like to say on the subject of video games.

World 1-4

So how is this going to work? Well, I obviously won’t necessarily be talking about every game I play. I’m not going to talk, for example, about a 5 minute session of solitaire I played while waiting in line. On the other hand, If I find something worthwhile, or just really fun, I’ll probably write about it.

And that’s about it. Perhaps you’ll see me soon, perhaps you didn’t read past the first sentence. Either way, I’ll be writing soon, and I hope you’ll be there reading!

Works Cited: "Nintendo's Iwata Who Led through Successes, Woes Dies at 55." - The Denver Post. Web. 26 

[oliviavgauvin]

Google Glass sounds like something out of a dream. But it is not as “available” as it might seem to be, and is out of the question for most people. Most people, that is, who could use technology to create civic value. Google glass is cool, but we need technology that is more affordable and...

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Google Glass: Dare to Dream

  $1,500 is an extremely steep hurdle in Glass’ detriment. This can’t be avoided. However, as the technology catches on, I believe that:

a.   The technology will become more affordable (after all, Glass isn’t doing Google any good if nobody can buy it)

b.   People will see the value that Glass can bring to the world

  Glass Price Drop

  Google Glass has a very specific, alienating design, and the price tag is ridiculous. This, I think just about anyone would agree with. There is something very important to consider, though: there was a time where a computer was about the size of a large living room, and only colleges and labs could get ahold of one (as in one, for the whole building).

Today, things have changed. Computers are sleek, small, inexpensive depending on what you want, and many people have several in their homes. Glass’ main issue is that it’s the “new thing”, and will likely go through several makes before one design, that the average person can actually afford, will come- but it will come, just as it  did for computers, just as it did for cellular phones, and just as it does for countless devices every day.

  Civic Value: What we make of it

  McChesney explains that the way we can fight against the constant onslaught of advertising and politics is through journalism. In his eyes, journalism is “the key institution that would keep people informed of what was taking place and give citizens the capacity to resist tyranny and protect their freedoms” (McChesney).

In today’s world, the term “media” is a foggy one at best, due in large part to the internet. Everyone’s a journalist now, and everyone has a voice. One of the main issues with sharing your voice, however, is getting people to actually hear it.

But what if they could hear it just by walking down the street?

Google Glass gives us a variety of tools to do just that- the ability to write location-based text. Now, many people will simply use this tool to recommend restaurants or something similar, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

You could look at the billboard for a politician’s campaign and immediately write your criticisms about them. Anyone looking at the ad with glass would see this and be able to comment on it, adding in their two cents. You could turn an ad for someone who’d be harmful to the country into a message board rallying against them.

  Glass clarifies instead of Hides

  It is true that Google “blinds us to what companies might be doing differently” (MacKinnon) and tries to keep us in a state of imperceptive trust. They’re one of the business Titans, after all, and are infamous for it. However, let’s face it, Google is a business. All companies do that, to get as much profit as they can.

Google isn’t going to try and solve world hunger anytime soon, unless they think they can make money off of it. What they will do, however, is make a device meant to pacify us, but that we can use for the opposite. People do this all the time with blogs, cell phones, and so forth.

We can take the technology and turn it on its head- use it not to turn ourselves into commodities, or hoard likes, but to show the world what’s really going on.

  Works Cited

MacKinnon, Rebecca. Consent of the Networked: The World-wide Struggle for Internet Freedom. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.

McChesney, Robert W. Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet against Democracy. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Google Glass- Seeing the Future

Google Glass is a stepping stone in the world of technology. It will change the way we see the world (literally) and what we do in it. It is coming- there’s no stopping that. We will be able to use this technology in many ways, and better the world in the process.

  Imaginative Networked

  Pamela Lund thinks very highly of our boom in technological advances. She states that it is creating a “massively networked ecosystem [where] you as an individual have more power than ever before to change the world” (Lund). In her eyes, our collection of knowledge and ability to share instantly gives us the ability to dream and create anything our imaginations could conceive.

Google Glass will do wonders for this. It promises to give users the ability to share anything they see to the world, and comment on the world around us (for example, being to write an analysis of an art piece and display it for anyone who sees the piece in question). This leads to a dynamic world which changes as we see fit and gains consistent feedback from those around us.

  Persistent Journalism

  Robert McChesney, on the other hand, believes that the digital boom has made capitalism the predominant force on the internet. It controls what we see, how we see, and where we see it.

He has some hope, however- in journalism, saying that it is “the key institution that would keep people informed of what was taking place and give citizens the capacity to resist tyranny and protect their freedoms” (McChesney).

With the Internet, everyone is a writer. And with Google Glass, your writing can be done anywhere and can be read anytime. Once the technology advances, we will be able to give deep criticism on any advertising or political messaging we see, avoid lies, and see what needs our support.

  Open World

  By using Glass, we will have access to a wide variety of options. We will have access to a variety of ways to expand our collective conscious through creative production.

However, we live in a world dominated by capitalism. But Glass gives us an excellent way to counteract this, to look at something we disagree with and immediately let anyone who looks at it know the truth.

The dream that comes with Google Glass is a world open to everyone, where we as a society can help and support each other in a way that’s easy as point, and click.

  Works Cited

Lund, Pamela. Massively Networked: How the Convergence of Social Media and Technology Is Changing Your Life. San Francisco: PLI Media, 2012. Print.

  McChesney, Robert W. Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet against Democracy. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Media Infiltration on our Lives

Every day. That’s how often companies find new ways to invade our lives.

David Lazarus of the Sydney Morning Herald explains that “Verizon will monitor not just mobile activities but also what customers do on wired or Wi-Fi-connected computers, then share that data with marketers”.

That’s the kind of world we live in today. If you are connected to anything via a wireless network, soon companies will have full access to anything you’ve ever done. And of course, said wireless networks are now virtually everywhere on the planet. With satellites, drones, and all manner of devices to keep us connected, there will soon be a time where the “dead zone” is a thing of the past.

  Keeping Connected how we want to

  Here’s the real issue: “The reality is that the corporations and governments that build, operate, and govern cyberspace are not being held sufficiently accountable for their exercise of power… They are sovereigns operating without the consent of the networked” (MacKinnon). I should be able to decide for myself if I want to allow corporations to see into my life, but as it stands that becomes increasingly hard to do.

There’s something we can do, though. Allison Hanna, fellow blogger, states that we need to start “Changing the world with digital media means creating public and civic value online… When we care, we can all make a difference in the digital media revolution”.

  Internet Eternal- it Never Leaves

  We can’t take ourselves off the network in today’s world, not really. There are projects I’ve been a part of from years ago that you can find if you Google my name, and I’d wager it’s the same for you. But we can use the tools we’ve been given for something different. Use them to promote causes we support, expose important issues, be a community- things beyond making yourself into a product.

We can use the network against itself, write about and promote the problems it has. And much like the projects I worked on from back in the day, it’ll never go away.

  Works Cited

“Digital Media Revolution.” N. p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2014.

“Verizon Wireless to Expose Customers’ Browsing to Advertisers.” The Sydney Morning Herald. N. p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2014.

MacKinnon, Rebecca. Consent of the Networked: The World-wide Struggle for Internet Freedom. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.

[mattdacosta]

A fake Twitter account under the name of Peoria, Illinois mayor Jim Ardis caused a two to three week investigation, leading to a home raid.

Three people were brought to the police station from the home and two people were taken from their workplace.

What About the First Amendment?

"The raid...

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Search Warrants Justified by Twitter Posts

  Never fully trust the internet. That’s what I’ve always been told, and it’s worked out fairly well so far. It’s helped me avoid scams, keep from getting over-hyped, and in general kept me safe. So when Illinois police start using Twitter as a justifiable reason to go arrest people, that gets me worried.

  Internet Jokes are Dangerous

  Now, to be fair, “Only later did it explicitly state it was a parody account, something Twitter requires under its terms of service” (Al Jazeera). One could argue that police felt the change in the account was a response to the inquiries. However, this sets a very dangerous and scary precedent. Does this now mean that anyone who parodies someone on the internet could face investigation for identity theft?

Do you have any idea how huge that demographic is?

If you go onto Twitter, right now, you’ll find parody accounts for everyone from Albert Einstein to Jesus Christ. Are these people liable to being arrested because they make jokes?

  The Police are on their way now

  While I hope this is the last we hear of these kinds of investigations, I have a sneaking feeling that it isn’t. Now that it’s been shown to work, more precincts may try to do this more often.

We can only hope this ends with Twitter arrests being discredited forever, and not some unfortunate soul getting thrown in jail because he made fun of Kevin Bacon.

  Works Cited

Al Jazeera and Wire Services. “Parody Twitter Account of Peoria, Ill., Mayor Leads to Police Raid.” America.AlJazeera.com. Al Jazeera America, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Internet Explorer Danger: If you’re reading this in IE, turn it off!

Microsoft announced something terrible this weekend- a flaw in Internet Explorer may put your privacy and more in danger if Flash is installed.

  Ben Manning of WTAJ news states that “If you're using internet explorer and you have Flash enabled and you click on a bad link it will take you to a website that automatically installs a program… That malware will give people access to everything on your computer.”

  What to do?

  The obvious answer is to use a different browser. Of course, if you don’t have another browser available you’ll still need the internet to get a replacement. Disabling Flash temporarily will allow for safe viewing, that way you can get a new browser easily.

  The Future of Browsing

  The fact that such an issue is present in Internet Explorer is terrifying. “Local experts say about half of computer users use Internet Explorer to go online” (Manning), so if one of the leading web browsers in the world can be used in such a way, does this mean more will be cracked eventually?

  It’s hard to say one way or the other for now, but I do know this: never become totally dependent on one thing, just in case.

Works Cited

Manning, Ben. “Internet Explorer Threat.” We Are Central PA. News. N. p., 4–28 2014.

[tgoyette]

World’s Apart

Look familiar?

This is New Orleans, or, what a recent “Mega Engineering” project is setting  out to transform the historic city into. 

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, worry over a similar incident has been at the forefront of the victims minds.

New ideas on how to protect the city are spreading.

[ see video] http://goo.gl/Klq4ZT

A new plan aims to link hundreds of floating islands together in order to create one, giant, supercity in the ocean. These sections would be detachable, and able to form side clusters off of the city/islands main formation.

Pros

A city at sea must be sustainable, being cut off from most major resources, and the idea could create a cultural boom of self-sustaining mentality.

The cities will be forced to find their energy from the ocean, while creating a food source that can be easily made within the cluster. 

I think this is a step further, and in the right direction- we will be moving off of land, which will give our earth an opportunity to grow and recover from out relentless abuse. 

We have the chance now to make up for the damage we have caused, and create a mode of life that will be better for not only ourselves, but the environment as well.

Cons.

My fear is that the  cities would become traveling hotspots where the only easy source of food would come from fishing. This could lead to overfishing, and the further endangerment of previously untouched species. 

Furthermore, there is already a real problem regarding pollution in our oceans, and I feel as though a city would only add to that problem.

From what I understand the sections of the city will be able to be moved from one place to the other, forming interchangeable blocks that can fit into the puzzle as needed. 

Already, on land, there is enough trouble with gangs and criminal activity. I feel as though if a land mass is able to isolate itself in this way, that it could potentially fall under its own government, or become a lawless state with the means to become a Mecca for illegal activity.

However,

With proper laws, and the right mind set, this has the potential to be the city of the future and a city where the situation at hand will force innovations in self sustainment, and better living habits.

The city will also provide a solution to the ever growing problem of population overgrowth, and allow for land based cities to thin out in population as more and more floating cities are built. 

Score: 61

Word Count429

[patrickhawes-defrias]

New Orleans is Becoming an RTS Video Game

So engineers want to make New Orleans into a floating city. This will allow it to exist independently. And look like the grids of a real-time strategy game for some reason. Interesting. However, with the benefits this could provide, it makes for some strange problems as well.

  You Must Construct Additional Pylons

  Now, the video had some holes in it. The one that caught my eye was when it was said that “the entire city will be able to change location at will” (Mega Engineering) despite its massive size for a free-floating object. If it will be able to move, that will require either a fleet of ships or some very powerful engines. Either way, not sure how feasible that is.

  Who’s Player One?

  Another complication- let’s say that New Orleans (“New New” Orleans?) is able to move about the ocean- who controls that? The mayor? City council? Suppose there’s a decision to move the town somewhere else- for convenience let’s say, around Texas. What if you don’t want your family to leave the Louisiana area? Are you going to have to move because you got outvoted, and your hometown is now straight-up migrating?

I feel that as this plan comes to fruition, many more questions will be asked before we get answers. However, in an ever-changing world, this could be just what we need.

  Works Cited

  “Mega Engineering- Floating City.” youtube.com. N. p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Nike Cuts Tech Experts: A Sad Time in Business

Nuke reportedly cut up to 80% of their FuelBand team. It’s always a sad time when so many people lose their jobs at once, but what does this mean for Nike?

  FuelBand: What is it?

  The Nike BuelBand was, essentially, an arm-mounted exercise monitor. It was designed as a supplement for users’ workout routines- to monitor calories burned, time spent, and so forth to optimize the fitness training experience.

  Why Cut Specialists?

  According to Harrison Weber, writer for Venture Beat, Nike did this because they think “ [their] future lies in software — not hardware, like the FuelBand fitness tracking device” (Weber).

  Nike’s Folly- Why Cutting Hardware was a Terrible Idea

  This, in my opinion, was not a good decision on Nike’s part. In a situation like this it’s easy to jump to ethics, since such a large amount of people lost jobs. However, even taking that out of the equation, this was still terrible. Nike sees its exercise add-on market having a focus on software in the future.

How?

Without hardware, where’s the market? Users need peripherals in order to monitor themselves, and how will that work with no physical devices? The only way I can see this making sense is if Nike believes in going into the cellular app market. However, with no add-ons, how can a phone do any real monitoring? Even if they decide to only do something basic, like a step-counter for example, there WILL be other apps available to do the same thing, and probably for free.

Works Cited

  “Nike Reportedly Fired Dozens of Its Wearables Experts (Update).” VentureBeat. N. p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

[shannonenl368]

Tons of web devices are being used to get students actively engaged in scholarly pursuits. Whether it’s online talks or smart blogging, high schools and colleges alike are latching onto these methods to get students involved.

But what effect does this process have on schooling and the web as a...

[allisonhanna8]

With smartphones in hand, we are always plugged into the digital media network. Our actions shape the future. We can engage as helpless individuals, or as powerful participants who create civic value.

Escape marketing media’s domination

Sometimes it feels like the media dominates our lives....

[oliviavgauvin]

Unbiased journalism gives access to news we need to make informed decisions. “Journalism” by special-interest humanitarian groups is biased and may not count as journalism. It is advocacy. Advocacy creates public and civic value by promoting human rights issues of the internet age. The ability to...

[katyiskelly]

Brisk growth of technology creates a narrow and fearful view of the world we live in because of personal outlooks. Shifting that view from isolation to communal allows for a more beneficial and hopeful view of the world through the Internet.

Optimism Begins Communally

One of my last blogs...

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Cognitive Surplus on Societal Control

  We are being oppressed. Companies seek to infiltrate every part of our lives, making us complacent. In many ways, this can't be avoided.

But we have the tools to fight it. Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus explains that by using the power of the Internet, we can create and innovate as a community.

  Dangerous Company Control

  Companies attack us from every angle with ads. One such example of this was covered by fellow blogger Jenny Lee Paiva. In her post, she stated that “Industries exploit children for profit.  They taunt parents to buy what their kids see in ads. It’s child marketing  dressed as your child’s favorite cartoon character” (Paiva).

This is simply one form of control. We’re all affected by this every day- when you check your email, watch the news, even when you post something on Twitter, you are bombarded by dozens and dozens of different kinds of advertising including, but not limited to:

Typical sidebar, block, header, etc. ads

“Hidden” ads (ones that appear when you hover over something interesting)

Ads disguised as blog posts (“sponsored Tweets” for example)

Games that serve almost solely as a platform to show ads from

And the list goes on. Not to mention, these companies own all the sites you use for everything, and as such, keeps us from truly owning that which we make. All of this serve only one purpose- to numb our minds, make us complacent, that way we keep consuming.

  Fighting Back- Community versus Complacency

  Clay Shirky believes that we can defend ourselves against this encroachment. How? By using the internet, the very instrument of our oppression, as a means of communal creation.

Matt DaCosta recently Tweeted an article that Shirky would have plenty to say about. Mathew Ingram of Gigaom whites about Hi, a platform that allows users to become “full stack”.

 “The term “full stack” comes from the world of technology, where the stack usually refers to software and hardware layers or products that when combined create a single unit… Apple is often described as a “full stack” company because it controls both the hardware and the software, as well as the services associated with them” (Ingram). Essentially, this community/ platform promises to give users full control over everything they create- they are the writers, the editors, the hosts, everything.

Independence on the internet will likely always be an issue. However, people like the creators of Hi recognize this. By working together, and creating things that no company has sovereignty over, we might earn some victory despite our opponents.

Works Cited

Ingram, Mathew. “Designer Craig Mod Launches Hi, an Experiment in Iterative Writing and Networked Journalism.” Gigaom. News. N. p., 28 Mar. 2014.

Paiva, Jenny Lee. “Modern Marketing: Child Abuse.” Jenny Lee Paiva. Blog. N. p., 27 Mar. 2014.

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print.

[thenickmurrayblog]

Triggerstreet.com

Triggerstreet.com, is a creation of Kevin Spacey, which enables professional and amateur writers and film makers to help each other to get published, to get their films made, or just to engage with other artists.

The website offers a community that leads into the kind of...

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Triggerstreet Saves us from Complacency

  This is exactly what Shirky wanted- a means to produce something of creative value in our society using the internet.

  This reminds me of an article by Mathew Ingram, which talked about “Hi”. The concept is similar- a platform where writers can control their work as a community. It’s “a “full stack” writing and publishing platform” (Ingram) that allows users to submit various works which are then criticized by the community.

  Triggerstreet- Triggering New Changes?

  This seems great- that multiple people are having similar ideas about communal creation. On one hand, it could lead to the internet filling with a rush of creativity, and causing new creative minds to be recognized as a result

  But on the other hand, this means that a demand is quickly arising for sites such as this. This could lead to the internet titans such as Facebook and Google storming in to buy these ideas up, which will taint them with corporate interest.

  Writer’s Heaven on the Horizon

  Bottom line- these sites are coming out. No one will be able to stop that. The fate they will have can’t be determined yet, so for the time being all up-and-coming writers should utilize them to their hearts’ content.

  Will they be bought out? Possibly, but just by existing they have laid the groundwork. If they become owned by Facebook or whatever, the concept will be carried on, and hopefully lead to independent groups taking over. In the meantime, Triggerstreet- fire away!

  Works Cited

Ingram, Mathew. “Designer Craig Mod Launches Hi, an Experiment in Iterative Writing and Networked Journalism.” Gigaom. News. N. p., 28 Mar. 2014.

[patrickhawes-defrias]

Windows XP is Dying, and so is Security

On Tuesday, Windows XP finally lost support from Microsoft. Regardless of how you feel about the operating system, this will lead to problems in the coming future..

Why no change?

Juan Carlos Perez of IDG News states “Microsoft set the fateful date almost seven years ago… warning them that missing this deadline would put their PCs in serious danger.” So, why have people been so slow to change? A number of reasons- many simply don’t know about the OS ending support, or the issues that will result from it. Many others were scared away from Windows Vista and 8 at launch with various issues.

This explains why consumers haven’t switched, but what about businesses? As it turns out, many have been “struggling to move completely off of Windows XP because they need it to run custom applications built in-house for the OS or by software vendors no longer in business” (Perez).

What does this mean?

Hacking and viruses. Plain and simple. With no more patching available to XP, there is just going to be more security weakness for the hundreds of millions of XP systems in use. Furthermore, companies are going to stop creating programs for the OS which means third-party support for these issues is going to end as well. Considering many companies and public services still use XP, this does not bode well.

The bottom line is this: even if you don’t like Vista, or Linux, or whatever, the simple fact is everyone with the system has to change to something- anything- or risk putting your online security in danger.

 Works Cited

Perez, Juan Carlos. “Windows XP: Chronicle of a Death Foretold .” PC World. PC News. N. p., 7 Apr. 2014.