Employment, Gaming, Meetings

[tcpip]

My contract at IVT is over; nothing to complain about, it was only supposed to be for one month and went on for four or so. One of sites being developed by said people is Choisir, who are selling Le Faguays bronze "tireuse a l'arc", which I have a reproduction of. I dread to think of the price of the original.

Somewhere along the line I've been converted into a computer game; check the copy for CoA-Prologue. "A fantasy roleplaying game (RPG): join Lev on his travels through secret passages and an old mine that’s not as empty as it appears... Solve riddles; survive battles and help the goblins as they try to rid themselves of a colony of Cave Spiders." OK, so I'm not the only Lev on the planet by any means but still, sounds just like the thing I'd get up to.

On related news, I've had an article published in the Rolemaster zine The Guild Companion which takes up the nature/nurture argument in simulation gaming. Recently reviewed Mythweaver, a likeable 80s style dungeon crawler. Played the classic Hacker on Friday night and finished the Rogue Mistress campaign on Sunday.

Last Tueday I gave a presentation at IVT on routing and netmasks, which was diverted to some basic material during the discussion (classful addressing and OSI layering). The Tuesday prior presented at the Existentialist Society on the topic Towards an Existentialist Political Economy, which had a good turnout and was well received. The following week attended the Atheist Society to hear Russell Blackford of Monash University speak on "Religious Vilification and Freedom of Speech". Pleasingly, his comments vindicated remarks I have been making on the subject.

Oh, I have a Facebook. Not sure what it's good for (apart from the fact there's a lot of people there who aren't here). Apparently it's a waste of time. Please stop the stupid; man jailed for two years for possession of drugs which he had a prescription for. From crankynick

Comments

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

A literary journal for which I volunteer has decided to run some of its editing operations out of a restricted-membership Facebook community for the time being. It's all fine and good except for when the server is down for maintenance.

Bwahaha facebook.

[amazinggoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. Facebook gets more retarded by the day. That said, I'm facebooking you.

Facebook was originally for facilitating the college age party lifestyle, as originally, you couldn't join without a .edu email address. As in, 'Oh shit, the electric bill! Let's have a $5 cup party.. how can we invite absolutely everyone we know really really fast?' and 'Dude, who was that hot chick who was out with Schmitty last night? I didn't get her name.. how will I find out who she is without having to grow a pair? Aha! She's in a pic with Schmitty! Score.'
Then it kind of cultivated a whole trend of people sitting around getting wasted and taking pictures of themselves. This is especially fun when your boss is on facebook and participates in said trend.
Since colleges all over heard that facebook facilitates underage drinking, they started giving the campus police .edu email addresses, which kind of screwed over its original purpose. Then it opened up to everybody, and well...
Now they're adding all of these stupid applications to try and make it like myspace. 'Popularity level?!' Yay.
Still, it's indispensable in a college atmosphere. 'Round these here parts, if you're not on facebook, ya kinda don't exist. It has become the main way to get invited to anything.. parties, student org events, etc. People don't really say, "I'll call you," or even "I'll email you," anymore; it's "I'll facebook you." I successfully resisted its pull for about a year and a half, but obviously have finally caved.

And yes, it is now designed to waste time as well as manage social connections.

[anthanum.livejournal.com]

To a certain Village people tune...

You can't stop the stupid,
nobody can stop the stupid...

[ser-pounce.livejournal.com]

howdy. Did you get my e-mail? Up for a catch-up soon?

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

I disagree with this article on many points but I would be very interested to hear your critique on it.
http://www.robnewman.com/grasping.html

[zey.livejournal.com]

I've got to say, I've never been tempted by MySpace or Facebook.

LJ works for me because it allows for discussion threads and has a good-enough set of filters for message postings (All/Friends/Custom Groups) and I'm not forced to look at horrible 1996-style animated backgrounds and ghastly/blinking font choices.

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

> One fear is that Facebook users can make company systems vulnerable to hackers.

> "It's only a matter of time before a security loophole is discovered and exploited." Dr Cullen said.

That's odd ... it seems to be employing the same basic technology as smh.com.au ... argh quick STOP READING! YOU WILL BE HACKED JUST BY READING SMH.COM.AU!!! Of course there are those of us that have been saying that ppl get hacked by reading shit like this for years ...

Mythweaver Review

[mtdesing.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to drop by and thank you for taking the time to review Mythweaver. I appreciate the time and energy you put into it.

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

I know you and I both saw this coming at least 30 clicks off.

When will the Conservatives learn... oh wait I keep forgetting, Conservatives never learn. That's why they remain conservative.