AtomicBaboon!?!

This is The President. I hereby decree that 4PM shall henceforth be 5PM. You may now go home from work.

Here's the list of games I have so far:

1. Pac-man
2. Combat
3. Defender
4. Space Invaders
5. Asteroids
6. Berserk
7. Haunted House
8. Baseball
9. Pele's Soccer
10. Night Driver
11. Pole Position
12. Donkey Kong
13. River Raid
14. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
15. Dodge 'Em
16. Swordquest
17. Mountain King
18. Towering Inferno
19. Galaxian
20. Missile Command
21. Slot Racers
22. Joust
23. ...and probably some others I can't remember right now...

Here's my wanted list:

1. Frogger
2. Mario Bros.
3. Ms. Pac-man
4. Adventure
5. Codebreaker
6. Vanguard
7. Breakout
8. Pitfall
9. Pitfall II
10. Dig Dug
11. Pooyan
12. ... and some others I can't remember at the moment

I'll update the list later when I have the games and the list in front of me.

I checked out Vintage Stock here in Springfield last night, and they have 2 Pac-man carts, a Combat... and one other... I think it was Defender. They don't have much of a selection. My sister and brother-in-law went to the Vintage Stock in Joplin and found well over a dozen games, so I may have to make a trip there to see what they have left. If all else fails, Atari2600.com has a huge selection of games on their web site, and Atari Garage has a small selection as well. If any of you have any Atari cartridges sitting around, collecting dust, and they are on my wanted list, let me know if you would be interested in selling them. Most games on-line only sell for 3 to 4 dollars, but if they are in good condition, with the box and everything they sell for more.

I just fixed my feeds. So, now instead of having the title of an entry as the title and description in the feed, you get the title as the title and the body of the entry as the description of the feed. Hooray for permissions.

Christmas was pretty cool this year. I received a working, 6 switch Atari 2600 and a dozen or so games from my family. It is pretty sweet, and it works on my new television. There's nothing like Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Combat, or Joust on one of those. Good times.

My mom found the system and ordered it from Atari Garage. She said they were nice people when she spoke with them on the phone and were great to work with. So, since I have another Atari at home that isn't working right now I may end up contacting them about getting some pointers on how I might go about fixing it... or I might just send it to them. Either way, I may end up with a couple working Atari's before all is said and done.

I mentioned my new Television last week, and I picked that up this weekend (thanks for your help Zac) along with a TiVo. TiVo is pretty cool. I am pretty bummed that I missed most of Battlestar Gallactica last season, but that shouldn't be a problem with next season now that I have the TiVo. I need to tell it to stop trying to guess what I like though. It keeps recording Mythbuster re-runs, Daily show, and Colbert Report. It was recording something when I left for work this morning, and I have no idea what it was. I'm sure it thinks it is being very clever.

I apologize for not having everyone's links back up here yet. There are so many that with the way I have my site designed it would look a little funny so I have been hesitant to put them all on here just yet. I am pondering taking an Ajax approach to displaying my links to remedy the sitch. So, if you don't see your blog linked here, please don't be offended, I am just procrastinating.

The recent entry on 27b Stroke 6 "If You Get Reliable Phone Service, Then Al Quaeda Does Too" they pointed out that the FCC has data on major outages for all the different phone service providers. It would be great if, as the citizens and consumers that pay for this information to be gathered, we could see it and determine which service provider has the fewest outages. That would make it easier to make a wise and informed decision when choosing a cell phone provider, and would probably encourage more competition between providers which would benefit us all in the end. However, when MSNBC requested that information under the Freedom of Information Act, the FCC denied the request stating "Release of the information could help terrorists plan attacks against The United States, and it would harm the companies involved." How is telling me what company provides the best service going to help Terrorists plan attacks against us? "Oh, Ahmad! Sprint has the best service! When we plan our next attack we will use them to coordinate our operations!"

I think what is probably going on is the companies just don't want their customers to see the data because it will force them to be accountable for providing the service they say they are, and the FCC rather than just saying that plays the Terrorist card so people won't question when they don't share the information. "The War On Terror" has lost it's meaning, if it ever had one. It's just turned into the latest over-used excuse that the "elected" give to justify their abuse of power. To keep us in the dark... for our own safety and the safety of our children of course. Yes, the FCC has just saved us from a terrorist attack since the terrorists won't know who provides the best phone service. GO FCC!! YAY!!

Too Many Secrets.

A couple nights ago I ordered a Samsung 40" LCD HDTV from Best Buy. I get to go pick it up Saturday. They are running a deal right now where if you put it on one of their cards you don't pay any interest for 18 months. So, I figured I would take advantage and purchase a nifty new TV. I am excited. I am going to hook it up to my PC and see how my games look on it. I have also downloaded some movies while trying out Vongo, so we'll see how those look too.

I had an idea today for a new office supply store called "Office Despot". It would sell things like CCTV systems with cameras that could be easily hidden in cubicles so that a manager can watch their employees. A timing system with optical sensors that keep track of when a person enters and leaves their cube so a manager can know for sure when their employees come into work and sit down at their desk. Office supplies with GPS tracking devices in them so a manager can keep track of whether or not their employees are stealing office supplies. For the compassionate despot nice, comfortable, ergonomic office chairs... with built in shackles so that when you need to force your employees to work on weekends they won't be uncomfortable. Custom propaganda posters praising your unsurpassed management skills to remind your subj... errr... employees how great you are and how lucky they are to serv... errr work for you. The possibilities are endless and I think there may be a huge, untapped market for these products. I have ideas for office decorations such as concertina wire, sniper nests, etc. for the Despot that has a taste for the finer things in life and appreciates things that make his life as a tyrant easier.

By the way. This isn't in response to anything specific that has happened to me or anyone I know. I just saw Office Depot today and for some reason this all popped in my head.

From Gamespot:

[Joel] Zumaya, who tops the 100mph mark on his fastball, was benched in the ALCS against the Oakland Athletics because of forearm inflammation. However, the Tigers training staff was confused because his injury seemed to be caused by the same motion of playing guitar--not from an overhand pitching motion.

Apparently, Zumaya is a Guitar Hero addict and was playing it so much that he was injuring his throwing arm. His trainers told him to stop playing and he was able to pitch in the World Series. Guitar Hero is fun, but to play it so much you hurt your arm? Yeah... I can understand that :)

I got to try out a Nintendo Wii last weekend. It was a blast! I play video games alot. It's sort of one of my professions. So, it takes a lot to get me excited about games any more. The Wii is great. Being able to play Golf or Tennis and go through similar motions to what you would do in reality. The interaction makes it more enjoyable, you aren't just sitting there, and people who don't usually play games will find it easier to participate. I played Wii Sports, which comes with the Wii. It has Bowling, Tennis, Golf, Baseball, and Boxing. All of them are simple to play and actually provide the opportunity for enough movement that I broke a little bit of a sweat while boxing.

I also played Rayman: Raving Rabbids. It consists of several mini-games that range from something similar to Whack-a-mole (or rabbit in this case) to a first person shooter where you are firing plungers at attacking rabbits, to a game where 4 rabbits are sitting in port-a-potties and you have to keep the doors from opening while they are doing their business or they get angry and shoot you with plungers. The sound effects and antics from the rabbits provide some great slapstick comedy. It kept me moving and laughing for at least an hour. It was great fun.

I played a little bit of the new Zelda and some other game of mini-games that utilize the motion control capabilities that involved monkeys.

All in all it is a great system. Good graphics and a fun interface. I am now convinced I am going to buy a Wii just as soon as I can find one. Apparently the various retailers here in Springfield will be getting new Wii shipments this Sunday. I won't camp out, but I might show up early and see if I can grab one.

I am still reading this, and thinking it all through, but it is making me a little nervous. I am not sure how it applies to my blog just yet. What sort of information am I going to have to ask for when people want to post comments? What information do I need to start logging about posters? If someone starts spamming my blog comments with links to child porn this could become a serious problem for me. What are the civil liberties concerns with this bill? If I don't pay attention to what is posted to my comments for a couple days and someone posts something potentially dangerous, am I guilty of negligence and subject to a $50,000 fine?

I understand what they want us to think they are trying to accomplish, but I have a feeling they are creating another system and another excuse to monitor what we do and say. Read it and tell me what you think. Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act of 2006 (pdf).

Turns out that the move to the underground doesn't take place until next weekend. In case you care.

AtomicBaboon.net/DanFeather.net/Vapor.org will be down for a bit towards the end of the week... I guess starting tomorrow or something. Ed, who runs Interlix and has been kind enough to give me a Xen on his system, is moving his servers to the Springfield Underground. So, that means my website will be hosted from an ultra-secure, uber-cool location. Yes... it will be more safe from harm than I ever will be. So, even if Springfield is wiped out do to some act of God or whatever, there is a good chance this website will still be here.

I wish I had my own underground.

I broke the RSS and Atom feeds some how while trying to fix them... cause they were broken already. But now they are REALLY broken. For anyone who cares. I will get around to completely unbreaking them **"when the spirit moves me."

**Translation: later.

I wasn't thinking clearly. I understand now what Ron is getting at. Thanks to jj who posted a response to my comment on Ron's blog for kindly pointing out my stupidity. It is blindingly clear (???) what Ron is getting at. I just get touchy about the subject of Vietnam Veterans and automatically got defensive in this case, when it obviously isn't necessary. Sorry Mr. Ron Davis.

I just read an entry on Mr. Ron Davis' blog entitled Vietnam Veterans. He quotes an article which discusses how the national commander of the American Legion, Paul Morin, says he is a Vietnam Veteran because he served in the Army during the Vietnam War. He was not stationed overseas however. He was stationed at Fort Dix, NJ. Ron ends his entry with the statement "New Jersey's a long way from Saigon."

Although possibly not considered as heroic a duty, we do need people to run things here while we fight wars there, where ever "there" may be. New soldiers need to be trained and fed, supply chains maintained, etc. Paul may not have been in anywhere near as much danger, but his job was important. Without guys like Paul here doing their job the guys that do get sent overseas can't do their job. Paul did the job the Army needed and ordered him to do at the time. I may be taking Ron's last comment wrong, but to belittle Mr. Morin because his duties did not carry him into battle is in my opinion extraordinarily rude. I would have posted a comment along these lines on Ron's blog, but the CAPTCHA image wasn't displaying so I couldn't at the time. I may try again later.