javabird

OK, when they said "badge" I should have visualized something small. I guess I didn't realize how small. Too tired and too much sore throat to fix tonight...

view my portfolio:
coroflot.com/LynnLeitte

goldings695 and I spent two days (June 3 &4) at the rally. The Lake George area is gorgeous and has some tremendously fun roads to ride. The rally itself was OK. I'm a bit on the fence about whether I would attend again, but tipping towards "I'd go to that locale again, but not for the rally."

Roads are free (well, except for taxes) so it was an odd experience to sign-up for a rally and pay for rides. The justification being 1) it's an aggregate of other riding enthusiasts 2) it is guided and 3) most of the day rides provided lunch or dinner and perhaps 4) paid off local gov't fees for the event space and traffic control? It was still odd for me. The other oddity was the need to purchase a parking sticker in order to park on the main drag, where the bike show off and cruise activities were. I'm willing to walk and look, but never feel the need to put my bike on the pedestal.

The crowd was undeniably older and emphatically cruiser and Gold Wing type tour bike centric. I would hazard that those bikes outnumbered sport bikes, standards, and dual-sport bikes 200:1. I wouldn't say that the rally is "for" old people, but the attendance made it feel that way. Granted, we went mid-week rather than weekend, so the majority of people who can come at that time are retired. Even later, by Thursday, when we returned, there were only a small handful of 20-somethings and a larger dash of 30-ish.

Most of the activities, other than the rides, are things I don't care much about: author guest speakers, riding coaches, fireworks, boat cruises. There was a huge vendor area, which was worth the $10 to get in. The quality of the vendors was much higher than at Daytona Bike Week or Sturgis. Goldings695 got some braided steel brake lines for his Ninja.

We finally bought the bike-to-bike communication set, which we've been talking about buying for years. We bought Cardo Scala brand ones. Awesome! The noise cancelling works! The voice-activated works! Sound quality was pretty good. We are quite pleased. The last system we tried was the Chatterbox, a radio frequency-based system. It sucked, in spike of being $100 per rider 7 years ago. A couple years ago we'd heard about Bluetooth based ones, but hadn't found anyone who owned one or seen any in the cycle shops. At Daytona last year we saw a different brand on display -- but pamphlets and empty display boxes only -- none for purchase or to touch and feel and it required your Bluetooth phone to have signal. The Scala will work with your phone but doesn't require it.

Tomorrow we leave for a short trip up to the Lake George area of NY state for the Americade motorcycle rally. It's going to be gorgeous riding. Last summer we passed reasonably close to there on our way to Lake Ontario. It's all an excuse to ride...ride up there and then go on more rides when you get there. I'm not sure how I will like the rally, but I may as well give it a try. It's only 3 1/2 hours away, so even if the rally isn't worth going back to, the roads might for other weekends.

It features guided rides, poker runs, treasure-hunt rides, hours of time with nothing to do but ride, etc. With evenings that have music (not particularly interesting music), boat cruises (a lot like the ones in the Lakes District around Keswick, UK), and the like. Unlike Daytona Bike week, there aren't any races to see. That's a bit of a disappointment for me because I love to see the races live. Unlike Sturgis, there aren't hill climbs, which is OK cause those are only interesting for a short while. Both those events have vendor areas and plenty of bike-eye-candy to browse. This rally will have the vendors; I suspect the park-ramble-look will happen no matter where bike people gather together. There will be demo rides, but not many of the European marquees will be presenting demos.

One thing that will be a curious fact to fulfill or deny is that this rally is for old people. That's one of the rumors about it. We shall find out.

We're staying in a bed and breakfast, a mere 7 miles away from the rally, for a really good price. The Holiday Inn was $20-70 more per night than any of the 5 B&Bs we called. Huh? Well, I'll take the B&B.

And, to those inquiring minds, I'm not riding a new bike up there. Haven't bought one yet. It's me and Sweet Child.

This timelapse video is amazing! It's graffiti art on "Watchmen"

Aliens Powerloader Halloween Costume

Seriously freakin' awesome! Who wouldn't want to be the most kick ass heroine in Sci-Fi!?

The video on Instructables (above link) is a bit too dark but the still shots are terrific. The video, watched directly on YouTube is slightly better, but still dark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfYoUt14G58

BMW Motorrad GPS Drawing looks like a clever little site and app to coax people into more exploratory riding. Makes me smile.

 Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Yammer, Twitter, Tagged, and on and on plus Social Influence Marketing for companies trying to advertise "where we are." Do you think there will be a point (for Facebook in particular) where the marketing saturation will cause people to abandon the social network?

Ohhhh! September 2009 is so far away. Do I have to wait?

The Last Experiment

Note from the film maker:

"As you may already know, I have been involved since the beginning of 2007 in a documentary project about climate change called The Last Experiment. What started out as a modest short film for Earth Day ’07 has turned into a feature-length project that explores the science behind the crisis, how people locally are responding to it, and the preconditions that need to exist for people to be willing to make life changes.
I’m collaborating with two other Rochester filmmakers—Kate Kressmann-Kehoe and Sean Donnelly—and we are determined to make a film that is relevant to people everywhere today. We are not remaking Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. What has started out as (and yet remains) a film about climate change, has become a bigger film about change itself—why we change, why we don’t, and what’s standing in our way now.
2009 promises to be a turning point in this country’s history, and we are thrilled to be releasing a film next year that is so relevant to the choices we face as individuals and as a nation. We are in the final stages of production (i.e., shooting) and are embarking upon the post-production (i.e., editing) stage. This film is not being funded by any organization or third-party. We have been financing it ourselves. In order to complete the film next year, we need finishing funds. If you are willing to help out with a tax-free donation (we are fiscally sponsored by NY Women in Film and Television), it would go a long way towards allowing us to reach our goal. Even $25 could help us pay for tape stock, transcription services or a film festival submission.
Please visit the website and watch our trailer. If you are inclined and able, make a donation to the project. If you would like to get involved, let me know or contact us formally through the website.

Thanks for your attention. I appreciate your support as always.

Kind regards,
Dave"

 Conniving Clinton and pinheaded Palin both want to be women who make history as the first woman to be on the presidential ticket. While each may be a player and of note in the history of her party...they'e certainly not firsts. In my own time and memory are Geraldine Ferraro, VP candidate on the Democratic ticket in 1984 and Lenora Fulani, a Presidential candidate on the ballot in both 1988 and 1992. There were others, as wikipedia knows:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_United_States_presidential_and_vice-presidential_candidates 

In this 2008 Campaign the Green, Socialism/Libertarian, and Socialist parties all have women candidates on their ticket. http://www.politics1.com/p2008.htm No news airtime for their "barrier-breaking" women leaders.

Or, at least that's what the papers are saying.

 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/obama-mccain-ca.html

For me, the freakiest part of the commentary threads on the above article aren't the ones about the candidates. The freakiest ones are the comments about the two parties...specifically the "leading" (aka 'controlling') the party to reign in the vote. It appears that most people forget that the two parties (regretfully, we only have two and it's part of the problem in our system) are made up of individuals representing groups of people (aka constituents). They are mandated to represent their constituents and "vote their conscience". The latter is their weasle out of not doing what their consitutents want, but I digress.

In any case, if these inviduduals were always supposed to vote their party line and platform "oh, bill A is presented by a democrat. I'm a democract. I vote "yes" the whole system would be a joke. There would not need to be Congress or Senate. Really, if a "good leader" is able to control the party absolutely, why bother with the rest of the members. We'd only need a single Republican and a single Democrat because that's the only voice anyway. Who'd be the tie-breaker? Good question, it's not like any President is truly bi-partisan.

Luckily, the system hasn't quite gotten that useless, though it often comes close. If you can't tow the party line, you don't advance. If you don't tow the party line, you don't get the support, campagin dollars, and your bills get blocked in closed door sessions. Government employees have to play the game, too. Don't support the party, you don't get re-appointed as state Soil and Water Conservation Officer even if you're qualified. Don't support the party, you're going to get a a competitor in the Attorney Genral's Office the next time there's an appointment open.

Sorry, I digressed again.  Back to the commentary... it disturbed me greatly that regular people commenting on the bailout bill actually make remarks that imply they belive that the party should heel and control its memebers and that a good leader controls the party absolutely. Thus the great amount of ranting about which party is at fault for not getting this crap-tasitc bailout bill passed. That individual Senators and Representatives controlled their own votes - purportedly voting their constiuents' position - only appeared in a handful of comments.

I need to find a comfy spot inside this hand-baset; it's going to be a rough road to hell.

http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/author/jared/

Jared Spool is a well known figure in the Information Architecture and User Experience world. I have read some of is blog posts and papers, but I had not had the opportunity to hear him present in person.

He gave a talk last night at the Usability Professional Association (UPA) monthly meeting, which was hosted by my office. I was very impressed. It was a very good talk, he is a very good presenter, and his points about using tenets of illusion, perception, and delight in web design/ interaction design were well placed.

Near the end of his talk he made a remark that I whole-heartedly agree with and has rolled around in my mind, but find that many in IA & UxD don't agree with or angers them: that we as a discipline need to recognize the need for provenance...where ideas, practices, and techniques came from...so we stop reinventing the wheel and start moving the discipline forward.

The internet brings new problems that need fresh thinking, yes. We've come from a variety of backgrounds which allows us to think about and solve problems in new ways, yes. Our discipline is young, yes. However, there is a profound lack retrospect...the discipline looks for people who are looking forward. Many times, a well read IA has read papers and studies dating back 15 years, to the beginnings of the WWW. But we (myself included) have large gaps about what had been done in user research, sociology, human machine interaction, library sciences, etc from 20, 30, 60 years ago. Some of us are silos of information in an area that interests us -- library practices for me. some of us are more well rounded than others, because they have chosen to make themselves so.

I am frequently amazed, annoyed, and frustrated as the IA & UxD practitioners throw out library science as outmoded, dead, and not serving user models...they throw it out and spend inordinate amounts of time solving how to organize information around books, movies, historical figures, disambiguation of names, geographic locations. These puzzles have been solved, to good effect in that the data is manipulable and transportable. Why not use it and spend that energy and creativity on interfaces, functionality, and user needs?

Take Freebase (http://www.freebase.com/), for instance, which people are raving about because it (supposedly) combines semantic technologies with user generated content. It's designers spent a lot of energy re-structuring and naming data points for movies and media. I can map most of their fields to concepts in MARC yet they haven't reconciled their concepts it as well as MARC standard. Libraries are dead? Library science and practice is worthless?

I'm super excited to find Babylon 5 on Hulu.com. This is one of my favorite television programs!
http://www.hulu.com/babylon-5

Now, if they'd only put up the rest of the series.

So it's that time of year where HR stuff is being presented and open enrollment coming up. I'm looking at the "commuter benefits" section right now and feeling puzzled. In addition to puzzled, I'm feeling the odd combination of irritated and resigned that I often feel when noticing that "going green" here in the US is all talk and no action.

I can buy my NJ Rail monthly pass pre-tax and the maximum allowed pre-tax amount is $115 per month, regardless of the price of the pass (mine happens to be $235). The annual savings gained by this pre-tax deduction at its maxiumum allowed amount is $552. Where the benefit structure goes awry is that the pre-tax savings, if you deduct the maximum amount, for the parking pass is $912. We're putting strong incentive behind the wrong activities.

Quite a bit about the Guiness Red. Another style out of the Guiness Brewery OK by me; changes to Guiness stout not OK.

The print newspaper (being read by the woman opposite me on the train) had an article with the headline and subhead about Guiness looking for stronger appeal with women so they were "watering down" Guiness. How horrid!

http://dethroner.com/2007/03/02/beer-friday-guinness-seeing-red/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-412707/Guinness-sees-red-new-coloured-brew.html

Have I ranted lately about how much I hate the airline industry? Well, if I haven't, here goes. If I have...here's more (skip at your own volition).

There is nothing right and good in any of of the airline industry and if I could avoid air travel, I would.

Flights are consistently delayed; gate agents consistently unhelpful and outright liars; flight attendants consistently indifferent, inattentive, or outright rude; and carriers are consistenly doing their best to avoid responsibility for anything (beaten only by the insurance industry in their efforts to get out of what they have promised). TSA is the oddest combination of bumbling indifference and puerile expressions of power.

Last Thursday my flight from Charlotte to Newark was delayed. This was hardly a shock since 11 out of 12 weeks the flight has been delayed. By this time a delay is enough a part of the routine for me to not be angry or overly agitated. I didn't have a connecting flight or any client to meet in Newark. As much as I'd like to be home on time, it's no longer part of my expectation. However, I do still demand some base level of competency and help from the gate attendant. The flight was listed on the board as delayed...but it didn't say by how long. Earlier in the afternoon it was delayed by a meager 17 minutes. A few hours had passed since, and other sources indicated delays of over an hour instigated by ground control at EWR, LGA, & JFK airports. So I waited in line to ask the agent how long the delay is going to be. Other people in front of me want to change flights or have other pressing issues with connecting flights.

I'm not mad or impatient. I asked how long the delay will be. She gave me flat, slightly annoyed look and picks up the microphone to make a general announcement to the waiting room at large about the delay of the flight. Evidentially, I was the lucky person who tipped her annoyance threshold. I could hear the announcement; she was standing in front of me and I could hear the overhead speaker as well. She announced the time our *incoming* plane is supposed to land (5:35pm -- 25 min. from the current time). Then announces that the plane will need to be disembarked and cleaned before boarding. That's fine. When she was done on the loudspeaker, I asked how long after it arrives before they board passengers. I get a whiny and snippy answer that she doesn't know. All I wanted was an estimate of how long it will take so I know whether I can go get a drink and some food, which is what I told her. She says "you can do whatever you want." The gate the flight was assigned to is at the end of concourse A. It's a solid 5 minute hike to the concourse junction area where anything other than a magazine stand and Burger King are; I loose 10 min. in the walk back and forth, not counting time to order, be served, and eat.

Now I *am* cross and annoyed because if the plane is small and they're fast or get extra crew it might only take 20 min. Then I won't have time for anything decent and I may as well just sit in the gate area. If it's going to be 40 min. (which I have experienced) then I can wander to a real restaurant and eat. I snipe back with a "why are you being so unhelpful, I just need to know how long after the arrival before they board." She then tells me she doesn't know and why can't I understand that. She also said that because the delay due to weather she needs to talk to the crew when they get here. This has me truly pissed because it's lie.

There is no weather going on here in Charlotte. If there was weather where the plane was coming from it matters not at all in the calculation of how long it will take to disembark and clean before Charlotte passengers board. Moreover, I know from past experience when we ask about delays that come from Newark ground control I am always told that they don't know, they're not in control of it, and the crew can do nothing about it except wait for word from ground control. The other reason that I am pretty sure she is lying is that Continental must put the flight back in the que in the computer system for a new take-off time slot on the runway and that must show up on the gate agent's console.

Gate agents deal every day with late planes. It is not uncommon that planes get disembarked and cleaned while gate agents watch and wait for the call from the crew that they plane is ready for boarding. It defies logic that a gate agent would have no idea how long it will take. They ought be able to make an estimate. Damn! If someone asked me a question about how long a situation I encountered every day or a task I had to do every day took and I said "I don't know" I would be fired, laughed at, or called a liar.

Crowning moment of annoyance and proof she's a liar came 5 minutes later. I got an automated phone call from Continental's flight alerts service telling me that the flight is delayed by 60 minutes (so helpful that I get it at the time when we normally would be boarding). Right, I believe she doesn't know how long the delay is when the automated computer system knows? Damn! why can't they put the delay on the board! All I needed was to know how long.

This along with a myriad of other small and not-so-small bad experiences have caused a deeply ingrained -- I would say laced to my bones -- hate of the whole airline industry. My apologies, KittyFaboo, you're terrific, just working in a crappy industry.

For all you anime geeks out there, it seesm like we might be one step toward Rojin Z

Tokyo Fire Department rescue robot (the DNA of which looks like it started life as a Bobcat digger).

The author mulls over potential and likely changes in thinking, cognition, expectation, and behavior due to how the internet delivers information. Good article.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Thanks, Onion

I am ready to jump up and down on the *&%$#%^&* T-Mobile Wing (even though it was $500) and all MicroSoft ActiveSync software developers until there are little bits of plastic and bio goo everywhere. My problem will not be solved but I will probably feel better.

Anyway, I am in the midst of yet another mysterious complete failure of my smart phone to sync with Outlook. Says it can't connect with the server (even though Outlook says its connected with the exchange server) and won't work by direct USB connection no matter what I do.

This problem perks up periodically and has never been instigated by the same thing. I can't figure what's causing it. Suspecting it was my recent travel to Charlotte. There isn't T-Mobile service there. My colleagues warned me that it wouldn't sync when you're roaming. That didn't concern me too much because I've found the USB sync to be sufficient in that situation. It didn't Sync the two days I was there AND wouldn't sync once I was back home.

No syncing in NY no syncing here in CA. The laptop won't even recognize the (I&%$%@*)*$& mobile device is connected. I've deleted the partnerships and am trying to start from scratch. It doesn't recognize the device enough to instigate the partnership wizard. If there is a forum out there where they tell you how to manually initiate a partnership, I can't find it. The jerks who answer on those forums post things like "If I were wearing my help desk hat now I'd ask 'You said you deleted the existing partnership. So that means that it had a partnership previously. Use the same procedure.' " Those of you who've manned help desks in your work life, do you practice being unhelpful and condescending? I mean, really, if I am saying that I have succeeded in the past, but now I can't get it to work then it means the "previous procedure" isn't working!

Dear SaveNetRadio supporter,
It has been a year since an increase in royalty fees for webcasters put the future of Internet radio at risk. Since then, more than 2 million people have called on Congress to save Internet radio, the Internet Radio Equality Act has been cosponsored by 150 Members of Congress, and a hearing was held in the House Small Business Committee. In spite of all this - nothing has changed. We need your help.
On Thursday May 15, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas will introduce the Internet Radio Equality Act (IREA) as an amendment to the Orphan Works Bill (S. 2913) while it is being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee . As you know, the IREA would level the playing field for Internet radio webcasters and promote greater parity within the radio industry, while doing away with the discrimination that now forces webcasters to pay fees more than twice as high as their closest competition, cable and satellite radio.
You can help. At least one of your Senators is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and we need their support. Call them today and ask them to support independent artists, small businesses, and the future of Internet radio. You can find their phone number and talking points here: http://www.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/alert_9738601.html. Ask your Senator to support the Brownback Amendment to S. 2913.
We need your help to remind Congress that though Internet radio is still on the air and artists are still being paid for their work by webcasters, nothing has been resolved and we need them to act.
On behalf of webcasters, artists and fellow Internet radio listeners everywhere, thank you. Let's finish what we started a year ago.

This is just so fabulous and I think this kid is brilliant. I love being a geek.
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/04/14-year-old-cre.html

My nephew is only 2 years younger and we can't even get him to follow the rules in "Go Fish" or consistently remember the charger for his NDS.

Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. I am a tremendous fan of his work, and often in my mind his name is synonomous with science fiction.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_en_ot/sri_lanka_clarke

"When life gives you lemons, kick him in the nuts and tell him 'I wanted a beer, bitch'!"

--Gabriel in Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1022757_cool_cash_card_confusion

I don't consider myself strong in mathematics yet even to me this demonstrated ignorance to the point of ludicracy!

For a few years we got Discover magazine. We received the magazine for about 2 years and concluded that the magazine sucks. It was full of "30 second sound bites" about science presented at a level appropriate for the science-ignorant. It also seemed to be about 2 years behind, if you'd read any other science journal or magazine you'd already seen another article about it. If it wasn't behind, it was just plain old reporting things as "new" that had long been a part of the discipline.

During our transition to NYC goldings695 stayed with his mom for a while. Some of our magazines and such went with him because all our books went on the moving truck. When his folks visited they brought along a stray copy with some of our un-forwarded mail.

Wow! I'm reconfirmed in my belief that the magazine sucks. It's the quality of it's journalism that really bothers me.

For example: in a short article about about bats, the researcher is observing that something generally common to manmmals is true of bats: that the testicals are almost always bigger in animal species in where females mate with multiple partners.

Where the language in the article makes me screamingly annoyed (OK, muttering aloud while reading on the train, which makes the lady next to me move to a different seat) is stuff like this:

"When females are promiscuous..." and "In species with unfaithful females..." and "The testicales in the most cuckolded bats..." was worked into an article about 230 words.

Talk about laying innapropriate moral values on animals. This crap was written by a woman, too (Jessica Ruvinsky). Good god!

As usual, The Onion has the humor spot on.

On the train Wednesday morning I was reading the most recent issue of Game Informer. As with many industries, game design is embracing social networking functionality. Sony’s vision of the future of gaming is “The connected [gaming] device with dynamic content and active connected communities [and] open standards.”[1]

Finding the popularity of SecondLife hard to resist Sony has created a social networking space called Home. However, it wasn’t Home that caught my interest. What really fascinated me is a game due for release in early 2008 called LittleBigPlanet by Sony and Media Molecule. This is a multi-person (4-player) PS3 game in which players work together to solve physics-based puzzles and compete to collect items. This type of play is squarely placed in the console game arena. Where the game spans new territory is what else a player can do inside the game in addition to the traditional “play.” A player can modify terrain, create the levels, and and there are several intriguing sharing features. Here’s what the game review says:

	“Players can make stickers out of any image file on the PS3 hard drive and slap them on any surface [in the game level]…”
	“Players can publish created levels…and keep track of comments left by other users, play counts, and rankings. If you’d like to check out what other people are making, you’ll be able to search content by user rankings, tag words, and length of time the level had been posted. Users who like each other’s work can also team up on created stages if they choose.”[2]

What makes this application different than other social networking and media sites? I think there are two things working in concert. First, the game is the destination rather than a function being the destination (e.g. sharing photos, keeping a journal, gathering contacts). Second, and most importantly, the online interaction is now focused on shared experience.

Most of the robust social networking sites were developed around a function for sharing a medium or fulfilling a defined task without common focus other than medium (photos, journal entries, video). Topic-specific chat forums I don’t consider to be robust, though they are social networks. More recently robust sites have been created with no specific purpose other than as an online “hang out spot,” such as SecondLife. These imitate some characteristics of games and certainly leverage the 3-D modeling programs developed in the game industry.

Largely, these social networking sites presumed that a first time visitor would come into a social networking situation with little or no online shared experience or that “word of mouth” would bring new users with knowledge of the space but not shared experience. Features or functions were seem to have been built on the presumption that no one has or needs any common ground. The new user figuratively dives into a social space not knowing whether there is anyone out there with a common interest or whether anyone might have an interest in what they want to say or post. This was more true when sites such as MySpace were fledgling than it is now. Currently, most users in the primary social networking demographic already have offline connections that infiltrate online social networks; often they join knowing that they can find offline friends there. However, this doesn’t change the fact that such sites weren’t designed around starting the interaction with a shared experience.

Social networking tools in other sites enable user categorized content, add content, or use customization features and they can drive personalization. The existing site is the destination for some other reason outside of social networking(shopping, information/news). The experience is site-to-visitor with the anonymous traces of what other people have experienced and done.

With LittleBigPlanet the game is the destination and play is the impetus to visit. When the online components are engaged a sense of community will have been established through the shared experience of playing and building the game. How a player manipulates the game and what and how he or she uses the social media features has the potential for dynamic fluidity.

The serious adoption of social networking into the gaming space shouldn’t be a surprise. Some PC and console games have been widening their presence in online and offline mediums.
dot HACK// created by CyberConnect2 and distributed through Bandai is an ongoing series interwoven of PS2 games, anime for television, original animated videos (OAVs), manga, and trading cards. The anime episodes and OAVs hold clues to help you open levels in the game and the game filled in pieces of the story. You needed to engage with all of the delivery to follow the story and if you do so, the whole is much more engaging than just the PS2 game. http://www.dothack.com/game/index.html Outside the game there is a community http://www.blackwings.net/hack/ talking and sharing information about the game.

Sanctuary For All by Stage 3 Media, Inc. presents internet delivered Sci Fi “webisodes.” http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ The official site hosts and promotes the “social networking services” in the form blogs, forums, and journals. Early on there was discussion of a MMOG game tied into the webisodes content, though at the moment, it appears that the game did not come to fruition.

Eve-Online by CCP|White Wolf, World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment, and EverQuest by Sony have sanctioned announcement and forum spaces such as http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp Their players have a variety of grass-roots communities that range from meet-ups to blogs to LAN game days. The companies have also used their fan base and intellectual property to expand into the CCG and RPG market.

What makes LittleBigPlanet different from other console and online games? With the addition of truly interactive features (you can do more than change your character’s outfit or run to a different server) and social media tools, Media Molecule has transformed a situation that is often a-social or has limited social interaction into a game with potential for lots of social interaction. The communities that have grown around other games, Media Molecule has provided venue for in-game. Players don’t have to seek a community, but they will still build it.

Where LittleBigPlanet could lead opens a myriad of questions for me.

	Where will social networking take online expectations when people have a common interest and shared experience (beyond, “rate your shopping experience” and “look at my photos”)?
	Does the destination and shared experience make the social networking features more attractive and meaningful?
	Will the shared experience keep the network focused and narrow or will tangents grow in the network the way they do in friendly conversation with others who have a common interest.
	Will the game remain about playing through the puzzles and challenges, or will the game become about sharing what you’ve done? Will one dominate? Will there be balance?
	Will the in-game social networking have an impact outside the game world? I think it will. What do you think?

Internet delivered streaming audio broadcast is under financial attack by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC.

The board is proposing that the rates paid by providers of streaming audio triple in the next couple of years. The per-song-per-play fees are rising and the base fees are also being raised. Sadly, some terrific onlnie services will not be able to afford to stay in business.

This ruling does not apply to single instance downloads, such as iTunes. It also does not apply to traditional radio broadcasting or satellite radio. It does apply to internet delivered radio such as Pandora, Raw Egg Radio, KFAI's online broadcasts, and NPR's ability to stream copyrighted songs and programs, etc.

Be heard: Pandora radio started a microsite and petition urging Congressional representatives to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541
Contact the copyright board:http://www.loc.gov/crb/contact/
Blog about it:http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/archives/internet-radio-copyright-royalty-board-releases-decision-rates-are-going-up-significantly.html 

The ruling also sets a terrible precedence of bias against the internet as a means of broad public delivery that could impact other media such as streaming major label movies over the internet as NetFlix is exploring. The ruling is retroactive to January 1, 2006 which means that many webcasters will have to pay an entire year of back fees immediately. Can we spell "banckruptcy."

Yeah, the major players in the CRB are the record labels, not the artists.