Fox News Channel and the White House

First I want to make it clear up front that I have watched CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News a great deal over the last 10 years so I have enough experience to weigh in on this dust up between the White House and Fox News.

Members of the Presidents staff have accused Fox News of "not being a real news organization". So if Fox News was not doing a good job of being the watch dog the press is suppose to be then why would institutions like the New York Times say this:
"Executives at other news organizations, including The New York Times, had publicly said that their newsrooms had not been fast enough in following stories Fox News had been heavily covering through the summer and fall — namely, the focus on past statements and affiliations of White House adviser Van Jones that ultimately led to his resignation and questions surrounding the community activist group ACORN"

I believe that the vast majority of Americans can distinguish between commentary shows (that tell you on almost every show that they are not journalist but are commentators) and news programs that call themselves that. If you watch Glenn Beck and Chris Wallace and you can not tell the difference then you are blinded by your own prejudices. Glenn Becks web site actually says the "fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" which pretty much tells you this is not news from a journalist. It does not appear that our current Presidents administration can tell the difference between commentators and journalists. .

Napoleon Bonaparte
“A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of
nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

Perhaps the White House has started their anti-FNC efforts because they fear the information presented. Perhaps we should all watch FNC, check the facts presented ourselves (easy enough with youtube and the Internet today) and then decide whether there is merit to what the White House is communicating or not.

Benjamin Franklin gives us another reason to look into this ourselves and decide:
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of
speech.”

The purpose of the free press and the job of journalist is to be a watchdog and inform the citizenry when wrongs are done and abuses occur. Watch CNN, MSNBC, FNC, etc, and then decide for youself who is truly being a watchdog and who perhaps is being a lap dog. While we all know the internet is full of wrong information we also know that many facts can be confirmed through the use of the internet.

Quotes are from this source

Duke Nukem Forever is Never - MIA not KIA

Well it seems that Joel Siegler (See his comment on my "Duke Nukem Forever is not happening" blog entry) was pretty close to dead wrong. As I stated in that post 3D Realms is, in my opinion, incompetent in its approach to delivering Duke Nukem Forever. And it seems news releases have now come very close to confirming that I was right and Joel was wrong about the potential for Duke Nukem Forever to ever see the light of day.

See this article

The really sad part here is that if 3D Realms had been only reasonably competent in their approach to delivering products to their customers it is likely they would still be in business. I suggested before and I still believe their best approach is to license the Duke Nukem property to a company that is actually competent in creating, testing, and delivering good video games to their customers. Perhaps Bungie or Infinity Ward?

Very sad that these guys, in my opinion, let arrogance destroy their company. The arrogance that said "when it's done". Think about how much customers were crying out to own this game, I would refer you to their forum but the 3D Realms website is already shut down, and it's pretty obvious the game would have been a significant money maker.

But perhaps playing World of Warcraft was just a higher priority for them.

I certainly hope someone picks up the Duke franchise.

Duke Nukem Forever wins #1 Vaporware Spot!

Well Duke Nukem Forever continues to earn top marks as Vaporware. Check out the latest at Wired Magazine. For 2008 DNF gets the #1 spot although it should be noted that Heroes Journey is only 2 years behind DNF so who knows if DNF actually releases then it might lose the #1 Vaporware spot of all time.

Mr Anonymous tells me it will be an AWESOME game whenever it releases. I am not sure how he/she knows this because so far the teaser trailer is extremely unimpressive. If you slow down the video you see some really crappy quality on both characters and the backgrounds. They flash the monsters by real fast but a little closer inspection shows some real boring coloring and cartoonish graphics in the background. The blood splatter on the bus looks flat, Dukes muscle shirt has little depth to it and looks like he painted his skin. Granted its a teaser so perhaps the final product will be awesome or perhaps with so much FPS competition out there it will be just another "whatever" moment for gamers.

On a happier note Dawn of War II the sequel to 2004 Dawn of War releases February 19th, imagine that a sequel that was produced in 4 years, what a concept.

Perhaps 3D realms should sell the Duke rights to a company that actually believes in producing products for their customers and retire with a boat load of cash to play WOW full time with hookers and cocaine as their guild partners. Hey it's a thought and I am not the first one to have it.

Podcasts are fun on the run

Podcasts have been around for a while now but never interested me until I had something portable to play the podcasts. I could play them at my PC but I have better things to do when working or playing on my PC. Now that I have a Zune I have really gotten into podcasts on everything from Buzz Out Loud to Ugly Betty (OK yes I like to watch Ugly Betty). The reason for this is because I can play them on the run with my Zune. I can listen at Starbucks while having coffee or play them in the car through the AUX port while driving, or play them while sitting in some waiting area for doctors, car repairs, etc.

The Zune software has made it real easy to access podcasts where ever I find them on the internet so now I look for podcasts as I do research on the web. Obviously other software can do this just as well but what is important to me is the software made it easy to do without having to be some podcast technical guru.

Thanks to PirateT7 for introducing me to podcasts all those years ago even if it did take a long time before I actually used them. :)

Gamestop is wrong to worry about Steam

Rumor is GameStop is refusing to sell or take orders for Dawn of War II because the game requires installation of the digital download capability STEAM. GameStop corporate is cutting their nose to spite their face on this one. I find it hard to believe that I am the only gamer out there that prefers physical media to digital download. I will be picking up Dawn of War II at another retailer now that GameStop has made this poor decision.

Check out this article

http://kotaku.com/5136323/why-is-gamestop-no-longer-selling-dawn-of-war-ii