NEVER Talk to the Cops.

This goes along with my post a day or so ago.


Found At:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/02/15yearold-girl-beate.html

Notice the loving way he throws her down by her hair, punches her in the head and then picks her up by the hair? Aren't cops lovable?

"Aww, wook at da' wittle po-po. Who's the cutest wittle coppie woppie in all the land? It's you! Oh yes it is!"

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So You Say You Want a Revolution?

I've had an idea kicking around my cranial-meat for a while.

SYSYWAR ("Sissy War") will be an irregular introduction to gadgets. The point being as much to discuss new technological innovation you can hold in your hand and throw at bastards; as to discuss the meaning behind the technologies and how it works. (For long time readers, think "Culture for the Masstards" for techies.)

Today's installment, Radio Free Radio!


The idea was first massively advertised by the satellite radio stations. Essentially, it's "take everything you love about radio, subtract everything you hate, and CRANK IT UP TO 11!" The really nice thing? If you're willing to spend some initial time at it, it works (and your time spent tends to decrease the longer you participate).

The sites, and there are others; but these are the type I'd send my mom to- because I wouldn't be worried about her getting spyware and viruses from just going there:
(In no particular order)
Pandora
Jango
Slacker Radio

To give you an easy example, we'll take Jango. At the main page, I put "Nine Inch Nails". The program assumes I want to listen to NIN and similar bands. So, skipping ahead I get "Cherub Rock" from the Smashing Pumpkins, "Intermission" from Tool, "Opus Dei" from Laibach, and "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden. Additionally, it recommends other bands I might want to add to my new "station". Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle, and Nirvana are its suggestions. Not bad, right? Confused on why? Essentially, the station is only playing tracks similar to NIN, I can add other bands to refine the sound I'm looking for- General 90s: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins; Industrial: KMFDM, Gothic: Marilyn Manson, A Perfect Circle; Metal(ish): Tool, KMFDM.

Pandora, as it loads, tells you that it's a means of placing the Music Genome Project into users' hands. The idea is the same for all of them. Add Groups you like, rate individual songs/groups and an algorithm sorts all listed tracks on the server sending you ones that are similar. It's radio, if radio didn't suck, and wasn't actually being pumped out of Durham, NC instead of down the block.

The real difference between the services is how customizable they are, and the extra features. Jango focuses on social networking, almost, and allows a general choice of "Popular Tracks, Happy Medium, or Wide Variety" for how obscure the track list should go. Pandora has more information about the bands and songs, will tell you WHY a song/band was selected, and a detailed list of what choices you've made for your station. Slacker allows more general customization- like obscurity, and era, for instance- and Slacker also has the slab of tech we're about to discuss. All have links to lyrics or artist info or to buy tracks. And all have the ability to create a station and share it with friends. Wil Wheaton has shared a station on Slacker Radio he created based on Bauhaus and similar bands, take a look/listen.

SLAB'O'TECH

The gadget to bring this technology out of your computer- should you be so inclined is the new Slacker G2 Personal Radio Player. Basically, it connects with Slacker radio when it finds a WiFi source and gets new music based on your previous tinkerings; but otherwise operates exactly like the website. So, going for a run/walk/jog/ride? Don't want to take along a laptop with an air card? Problem solved. (Wil Wheaton's review, which inspired this post.)

WHY THIS IS GOOD
I love radio because it exposes me to music I wouldn't normally hear if I was stuck with my playlist in [Preferred Mediaplayer] on Shuffle and Repeat All. Yet, I hate listening to radio- except for NPR News- because they play CRAP with a capital "UTTER-FUCKING-BULLSHIT-ASS-DRIPPINGS-RECTAL-PROLAPSE"! I can't stand 99% of what's on the radio stations available in my area. I want punk and metal stations, for instance, which we don't have at all. Now I can create them; and all of these services are free, or have very good free versions.

WHY THIS IS NEW
Technically, it's not; and I'm not concerned with that, too much. SYSYWAR, like CftM, is also about collating information and putting it into a place you can easily reference or send your friends. Now you have a post you can send your friends to, when they ask you what bands they should look into when they only like Echo and the Bunnymen, Leadbelly, and Snoop Dog. (Hint: Send them Here)

The G2, however, is fairly recent, so there's that.
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Angel of Death?

Remember Zoe Bell? Yeah, that Zoe Bell.

Ed Brubaker has created a TV series for the net, starring Zoe Bell as the assassin Eve.

Go watch it.


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Has Capitalism REALLY Hit the Fan?

Capitalism Hits the Fan: A Marxian View from UVC-TV 19 on Vimeo.

Analysis follows:


In short, the first 15-22min are instructive, the last bits are interesting; but fundamentally flawed.

In the comments- at vimeo- on this video, you can see a number of ideas discussed. Some (most? I didn't read more than the first handful) are marxist/socialist, some are capitalist (including the linked PDF from the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank's Letter from March 1997), some are anti-corporate, yadda yadda yadda. The thing that unites them is they each represent a fascinating singular viewpoint, and none of them do more than superficially present a straw man of any other views. But that's the comments (which we'll come back to), now for the video...

Are his facts accurate? Yes. He never claims they are more than generalizations- which they appear to be on closer inspection. For 150 years productivity, profit and wages rose each year. Was it always at the same rate? Probably not. Was it 1975 when wages started their stagnate/downward trend? Looking at the PDF linked above, it was 1972 when real hourly wages peaked. They explain the numbers they use:

"It is obtained by deflating the average hour earnings figure that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) obtains every month from its Current Employment Survey (CES) of establishments by the BLS’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPIU)."

That seems a reasonable way of deriving the numbers; and the Newsletter continues with an analysis of why it's not if you care for that. (I'll dig deeper into that PDF in a moment).

Generally, Professor Rick Wolff's facts and analysis of the 150 years from 1820-1970 is correct- as you'd probably expect from someone at the Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. His assertion that this isn't a financial crisis is emotionally/politically motivated. This crisis may have resulted from many things- in fact, I think it's safe to say that it did- but to compare it to the body isn't very valid. Everything in life, today, is far more entwined than it was 100 years ago. 100 years ago a mechanics wasn't expected to understand basic nutrition, basic finance, basic law (and basic copyright law), basic electronics, and various other basics essential to navigating life in the modern era. That's not to say such understanding wouldn't help a mechanic 100 years ago, it's to say that they weren't expected by their society to know those things.

Today, the RIAA will crucify your grandmother if her granddaughter doesn't understand that torrenting music is illegal (basic copyright law). The MPAA will attempt to crucify anyone who doesn't adhere to the warnings they put on all VHS tapes and DVDs- on the DVDs you can't even skip their warning (even the one written in a language you don't understand). No more pensions, IRAs, 401(k)s, etc etc (basic- maybe even moderate- finance). A mechanic can get sued if he allows a customer to drive a car out of his shop- even if he fixed the one piece he was asked to fix (basic law). Undernourish your kids and see what DHS says (basic nutrition). Setup the router so you can safely navigate the internet for entertainment, education, and porn (technically entertainment; but SO much more, really); set up the flat screen 1080i television, the MP3 streaming wifi enabled home stereo and entertainment system, the cable box DVR, the DVD/Blu-ray player, etc (basic electronics).

Just because we're that entwined, doesn't mean this didn't start in the Financial sector. If we had done things differently, we MIGHT not have seen this crash happen, or spread as far as it did. That's a maybe; not a definite. If we had done things differently- say a dictatorial political system with a communist market- we may have been Russia in the early 1990s.

His fact that the American working class was the only one that could have been leveraged was new to me; and fit many things I had heard and read. For many years I wanted to move to the UK and live there awhile. I knew most people there rented- though I still don't know why exactly, tax law seems to have some effect on it. I knew that is the commonly accepted de facto living arrangement in Europe and Developed Asia: renting over buying.

His facts are solid, if general, and his ideas are fairly valid. Despite the fact that this started in the Financial sector, it's spread to many- if not all- sectors and is resulting in massive job losses. It's a world disaster/crisis/whatever.

His plan is interesting. Read the comments to see where it falls short from the marxist/socialist mindset. He's detailed cooperatives, not communists; but ignoring jargon and revolutions, it's an interesting idea. I doubt, as one commentor said, that workers already have the power. How can you "refuse low wages" when you're too broke to provide yourself food, water, and shelter? How can you refuse "higher prices" when it's milk, eggs, flour, rice, water, and shelter whose prices are increasing?

A digression on worker's power...

When I lived in Birmingham, I stayed at an Apartment for two years. When I got in, the price for that place was $675 a month (2 bed room, 1 bath, with water, sewer, and garbage included). When I left it was $725. When I left, the rented that apartment- to whoever moved in after me- for $750 + $30 for the included. The apartment wasn't in a bad neighborhood- though a prostitute did try to pick me up in the parking lot once, and many of the immigrants had their apartments invaded. (I was walking the dog one morning, barely awake, when I brushed through a piece of fishing line. It tripped a very loud, and annoying, alarm; designed to wake the families before thieves could make off with their kids' bikes or break down their doors). It was in Homewood, on Valley Ave, right off Green Springs. And the only place cheaper- on that road- was about $50-$60 cheaper a month, but about three-four times less safe. Imagine trying to walk to work from further away. I originally moved there from a place near Cahaba Heights that was 2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, for $715 (garbage and sewer included). They arbitrarily raised rent rates every year- the longer the buildings stand the less is actually needed for the owners to turn a profit, until they're so old they should be torn down. Moving further away might have resulted in less rent; but more travel time to work, more gas in general travel, and basically less net gain.

Workers at the lowest end of the spectrum don't have much power. Look at who pays the most in taxes. Don't you think it's highly likely they're the same people spending the money on most non-essential (i.e. non-grocery, non-gas) supplies? They have the power, and they're not the middle class, they're the upper middle class and higher. This is where the ideals of a consumerist, materialistic, greed based value system fucks us. Plus advertising. In America, Taco Bell during the early to mid 1990s had a 59c, 79c, 99c menu. Wonder why they don't now? Because if you price something too low it's perceived value is always lower than it's price. Take the same item, price it at $1.09- instead of 79c- and its value seems greater, though the only thing that has changed is the price point. This works ont he psyche of people invested int he rat race, and who have won. People struggling to get by don't give a shit if it tastes a little funny and is half broken, if it's cheap and plentiful (and won't give them cancer today) it's gonna have to be good enough.

Back to his models...

Look at those silicon valley start-ups. As one commentator noted, venture capitalists supplied many of them with enough money to actually get the product out there. Then the VC's would, usually, own the largest portion of the company (compared to any other single investor, at least). Even if the VC's were bought out- control reverting to the workers- how did those companies end up? Oracle. Compaq. Google. Go look up which ones are publicly traded, and which ones make their Board of Directors public. Go see who is on those boards. Who is the CEO- and where did that person come from? It's not a pretty picture for the idea of cooperatives. Which might be a fault of the capitalist market, and the fallible human's need to indulge their greed; but if it is, we'd have to change the entire system before the cooperatives we were changing the system for could actually work in the long-term.

Lastly, the commentors. As I have said, I didn't read many of them. Comments can be useful; but they can also be rather useless. Most don't fully consider the ideas purported by others- even when they directly address those others. I did, however, go look at the Fed of Chicago's newsletter.

Let's be clear, I thought it would be the pro-capitalism view, and it is. It is also 12 years dated- which is significant in light of the last six months to a year. I didn't manage to make it through more than the first page.

There are, however, major methodological problems with using the average hourly earnings series to gauge long-term trends in wage rates. First, they cover only wage and salary compensation. Fringe benefits and contributions for social insurance programs, important parts of workers’ total compensation, are left out.

Because these components of compensation have been increasing more rapidly than wages and salaries over most of the period covered by figure 1, average hourly earnings understate compensation growth. The earnings data are also limited to production and nonsupervisory workers. The nearly 20% of workers excluded from the average are more likely to be highly skilled and highly paid. Because such workers have experienced more rapid wage growth since the early 1970s, their exclusion imparts another downward bias to the measured rate of average wage growth. Finally, though it covers a large fraction of employment, the CES is subject to substantial biases in sample selection; for example, it excludes workers at newly opened establishments.

In other words, because CEOs don't get covered- and their wages and benefits have grown vastly- the figure is inaccurate. My general refutation is: FUCK YOU!

Also, it doesn't cover NEW companies. Yet, it will soon; but more importantly: where do you think the new companies get their data for salaries from? Cause I'm betting established companies.

Fringe benefits are good; but they're also a crock of shit. In the 1950s you got a pension. Today, you get far less money, devoted to matching your 401(k) or IRA contributions. They have their benefits over the old style pensions- but mostly for upper middle class and above. Many people feel the "choices" and "freedom" of IRAs and 401(k)s are worth it; but I contest those "freedoms" and "choices" blow when compared to a pension for 90% of people. Health insurance could be worse if employers didn't help; but it's still ridiculous- even for Hospital employees. Why? Because of businesses we like to call the Insurance Companies (who are highly unregulated, and about the worst of the worst when it comes to greedy corporate fucks). Go look at what some sites that show median salary, and see how much higher they rate things like retirement packages and health care.

Don't get me wrong, Health coverage is even more expensive- a lot of the time- if the employer doesn't help with it; but it's not exactly like a benefit when a large chunk of salary gets pulled out of each check. What's the term for something that's not a benefit, but not a disadvantage, either? That's how I see health care compensation at most companies.

Do I have a solution?
Nope. But I'm not a professional economist, either. I think Professor Wolff makes some interesting points; but I also think he can (literally) afford to view things the way he does. I also think he knows quite a bit about what he's glossing over. All in all, it's definitely a must see lecture, because it illustrates an alternative viewpoint and sparks discussions. His solutions are maybe a little better- because of who they benefit- than most of the ones I hear currently; but they're also less likely. We're a hierarchical society, trying to disrupt the hierarchy isn't a small thing- and despite the benefit 99% of people will resist that change.

Of course, it'd be easier to substantially change if we could get those 99% to actually think about what/how/why the system is/does/causes the things/ways/beliefs it is/does/causes.
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NEVER EVER EVER Talk to the Cops.

I have a lot of friends who get into trouble. I get into trouble, too. Being as close to 7' as 6', and loud, and an asshole (read: blunt and intentionally tactless) I'm easily visible, and likely to be remembered. Unfortunately- as so many people have told me- I remind everyone of someone.

Enter the police. I remember one go-getter putting me in the back of a hot patrol car, while he tried to be super cop and get me to confess. The only problem: neither of us knew what the fuck I was supposed to be confessing. He had caught me buying smokes- I was 17- but there was an APB (maybe a "warrant", maybe just an "Action Alert", who knows what they really call 'em) for me for questioning.

Fortunately, for me, I liked to read these old hacker journals. Kult of the Dead Kow- still around, in a way, but they dropped the K's- 2400, etc etc. One of the issues I had discussed the case of a hacker. It was written, in a very compelling way, as a first-person account of his arrest, and how that later helped convict him of a lesser crime. The article was intended as advice for how to deal with the cops. Essentially, it said "Don't EVER EVER talk to cops. There is no 'off the record;' they can lie to you. Cops DO NOT have the authority to make a 'deal'."

Turns out, those 'zines I was reading 3-4 years after they had first been published, were right.

(After the cut, 2 videos- each about 22 minutes- the first being a criminal defense attorney and law school professor. The second being a cop, who affirms everything the professor says, and gives the cop's-eye version of why.)



Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law:


Officer George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department


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l2 RPG, nubz0r.

So, a friend asked me "How do these 'RPGs' work, exactly?"

Of course, I over did it:


Here's an example of how a Tabletop, or Paper and Dice, Roleplaying Game works. This example is geared towards people who have never played a Paper and Dice RPG before, and the "VERY IMPORTANT" examples afterward are geared towards the White Wolf gaming systems. Feel free to link back to this page.

Tom, the utterly awesome and badass and generally great person that he is, has invited Dick and Harry, the near mongoloid simpletons that they are, to participate in a roleplaying game. A date, time, and place is agreed to; and they meet. Tired of playing futuristic space marines fighting aliens, and tolkeen-esque elves trying to save their world from Hitler-esque douchebaggery, they've decided to play a detective/mystery game set in Huntsville Alabama in the modern day.

Tom, Dick, and Harry sit around a dining room table, gaming books- and computers- assorted around them for easy reference. After all, it's easy to remember where the rules are, than the rules themselves. The game has started. Tom is the Game Master (GM).

Dick and Harry have previously made characters according to the rules- which differ from game system to game system. Dick is playing a Hard-nosed private investigator named Dick Tracy. Harry is playing Dick's long-time best friend, and professional magician, Harry Who. If the game was a play, these characters would be the parts played by the actors Dick and Harry.

Tom: "Dick, you've gotten a frantic voice message from a contact who has frequently helped you on cases in the past. He sounds anxious. The message says, 'Dick? Dick? Shit! Voicemail. Look, Dick, remember how I did you that solid a bit ago? I need a favor, and I need it now-like. Meet me at midnight in the rear of the alley behind McLeary's.'"

Dick: "What does my character know about this contact that I don't?"

Tom: "The incident he's referring to was a case you worked about six months back. It had hit a dead end and you were worried that it was going to languish and end up unsolved. Fortunately, this contact- we'll call him Bill- pulled some strings and got you the information that solved the case. It was a clutch rescue, and netted you some much needed cash. Generally, the guy's an excellent source of information, and he's never lied to you- a rarity in itself, among contacts. In other words, he's good people. If you want to know more, you're going to have to make some rolls."

[Tom and Dick look at Dick's character sheet. They decide that Dick's character isn't just trying to remember his dealings with Bill; but trying to figure out some things that might not have been obvious. Now that they have decided on some rolls Dick can make, Dick picks up the appropriate dice and makes the rolls. Tom interprets the rolls into actual information.]

Tom: "Well, you've known the guy for a few years, and he's always reliable- the type that won't jerk you around for a handout if he doesn't actually have information- which is unlike most of your other contacts. The only real problem is, he has a thing for cloak and dagger stuff- preferring to meet in alleys and use dead drops, instead of just calling you when he's alone. He really hates phones and voicemail. But he's never steered you wrong in all the time you've known him."

Dick: "Alright, well this sounds serious, and the guy's 'on the level' so I'll give Harry a call and go meet him."

Tom: "Gotcha. Harry, your ol' buddy Dick, the Dick, Tracy gives you a ring."

Harry: "Hello?"
Dick: "Yo, Hair, how's the magic business?"
Harry: "Good. What's up?"
Dick: [Explains the situation] "So, you wanna come along? Might lead to some fun."
Harry: "Sure, sure; I'll meet you there- I got a gig I'm about to do. Will I need anything?"
Dick: "Just your sparkling personality."
Harry: "Cool, see ya there."
Dick: "Oh, and Harry?"
Harry: "Yeah?"
Dick: "You might wanna ACTUALLY get a sparkling personality..."
Harry: "Dick."

Tom: "Nice. So, your show it great, as always, Harry, and you both arrive at McLeary's a few minutes before midnight. Though your characters have known each other since childhood, this is the first time we've played these characters. Go ahead and describe yourselves to each other."

Dick: "Remember Warren Beatty in the Dick Tracey movie? I'm him, but more Same Spade- no yellow, all browns, with a voice like Humphrey Bogart."
Harry: "I look like Harry Houdini."

Tom: "Right, so you're at McLeary's and you walk around back. The Alley buts up against an apartment building. McLeary's is a popular greasy spoon, run by a crotchety old bastard- but the food is good, and you've been going there since you were kids.
"The Alley is disgusting. Rubbish lines both sides, and the dumpsters- halfway down- are overflowing with week old trash. It smells putrid, and the humid air of the southern summer doesn't help. You're not surprised that it's dark- the old man who owns McLeary's is cheap. Whatever lights might be down there are either off or burned out. You hear the distinct sound of rats and other vermin crawling through garbage, and the thought of actually seeing what's there is slightly less appealing that traversing the dark, dank, corridor. What do you do?"

Harry: "I turn to Dick. 'Do we have to meet this bag of fuck down there?'"
Dick: "'Fraid so. What's the matter, scared of the dark?"
Harry: "No, it's just..."
Dick: "What?"
Harry: "These shoes are expensive!"
Dick: [laughing]"Oh, get to steppin' you prissy bitch!"
Harry: "Alright, alright! But if my shoes get stained, you're buying me new ones!"
Dick: "Fine, whatever, let's just go meet Bill."

Tom: "Oh, ho! We're gonna let the fates decide this. Dick, grab a ten-sided dice. Harry, grab one, too. Dick, your dice is the tens place; Harry your dice is the ones. If it's low, Harry needs new shoes, if it's high, Dick is off the hook. Roll 'em!"

[Dick's roll places them in the: singles, teens, twenties, thirties, all the way up to nineties. Harry's roll puts the polish on the number. If Dick rolls a 4, they're going to roll between 40 and 49- depending on Harry's rolls. The Dick rolls a 10 on a ten-sided dice (also called a "d10"). If Harry rolls a ten as well, that would mean they have rolled a 100 (00). Otherwise they have rolled a 01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08, or 09. Harry rolls a 5.]

Tom: "Uh-oh, Dick- looks like you've just bought little Miss Priss some new dancin' shoes!"

Dick: "Stupid metrosexuals..."
Harry: "Don't hate the playa, hate how you rolled!"

Tom: "Now I need you both to roll your Perception!"

[In the system they are playing, Perception is a roll that players make to see what, if anything their characters might notice beyond the general description of the scene the GM has given. A Perception roll is based on some of the stats recorded on the character sheets, and both Dick and Harry tally up how many dice they need to roll. In some systems, only one die might be rolled for a Perception roll. Usually, in those systems, the character sheet will record what type of dice (six-sided (d6), eight-sided (d8), ten-sided (d10), twelve-sided (d12), twenty-sided (d20), etc) needs to be rolled. Sometimes, there might even be a bonus- either to how many dice should be rolled, or to the number(s) rolled. All of that information is found on the character sheet, and GMs will help players who don't know where such things are located- a very frequent occurrence, even with experienced players.]

[Dick rolls his dice, Harry rolls his. Tom interprets the rolls into actual information.]

Tom: "Harry, you rolled bad and don't see anything, still too focused on whatever it was you just stepped in. You can feel some wetness in your shoe- which means Dick is buying you new ones!"

Harry: "Aw, motherfucker! I just stepped in something! Fuck! I hope you have good credit, asshole, we're going shopping tomorrow!"

Tom: "Dick, you notice a glinting on the ground, and a familiar smell. You follow the glint of moonlight, and sure enough it's as you expected. Bill's dead, and the glint is his pooling blood. His body lies on the rubbish against the apartment building. Before you can say anything, you hear Harry step in the blood, and start cursing."

Dick: "Watch out, there's...! Nevermind."
Harry: "There's what? What were you gonna say? And where's this Bill dude?"
Dick: "Bill's right there. (I point to the partially concealed body) And that's his blood you're wearing on your high-heels."
Harry: "Aw, fuck!"

------------------------------------------------------
End of Example.

Some notes you should be aware of: (Ignore any of it, if it doesn't make sense)
* Not everyone says "I" when referring to their character. Some people say "My character goes and looks at Bill's body." Some might say their character's name: "Amy goes and looks at Bill's body." Some people use combination of any of those approaches. It's just however the player feels comfortable.
* There's a concept of "Player Knowledge vs Character Knowledge". Player knowledge is what the Player knows. Character knowledge is what the character knows. As the player, you might know calculus; but if your character is a medieval knight, it probably has no idea about anything beyond basic mathematics. If your character is that knight, it knows things about chivalry, and the rules, rights, etiquette, expectations, and constraints of being a medieval knight. Things the player might not know. The GM is there to help fill in the gaps from a Character's Knowledge to yours, while it's your job to have fun you should refrain from having your medieval knight glibly go drive the automobile that just appeared from the future. in fact, your knight shouldn't have any concept of what he's seeing. This is a fact that crops up in almost every game; and something to keep in mind, but not something to be overly concerned with (that's the GM's job).
* Different systems use different mechanics. Let's take something similar: Throwing a stone at someone, to hurt them. In two different systems, you might roll based on your Athletics skill level. In the first, that might be 1d20 (one twenty-sided dice [Yes it can be either "dice" or "die" in this context]) plus some bonus based on how many levels of the skill Athletics you have. In the other, that might be a number of dice based on the combination of your dexterity and athletics- both attributes recorded on your character sheet. Additionally, determining if that roll has hit your opponent is different depending on the system. These rules can get rather arcane and complex. It's not the job of the players to know how to do any of this- though that tends to help speed up game play- it's the job of the GM. And the GM may be called somethign different in different systems. In RIFTS and GURPS, the GM is called a GM. In D&D the GM is a "DM" for Dungeon Master. In the World of Darkness games, the GM is an ST, or Story Teller. These mechanics are different because they are copyrighted- like software code- by the company that made them.


VERY IMPORTANT:
It may sound complex, but it's very very very easy to actually play, under the right circumstances.
For Instance: I might show you a White Wolf character sheet that has the following look:
STRENGTH * * *
DEXTERITY * * * * *
ATHLETICS * * * * *
You don't necessarily know what "Dexterity" means- in the context of the game, or what those asterisks represent. If you've been sat down and helped to make a character, you should have been told what each thing meant; but let's assume you've forgotten because of the sheer amount of information thrown at you (a very common occurrence with new players). So, I might say "Roll to hit with your rocks" and other players might grab some dice, roll them, and say "I got 6 successes!"

That sounds insane. How can you succeed at one task multiple times? Were they throwing multiple rocks? How did they know what to roll? And generally, "WTF?".

This is where knowing the rules speeds up the game. In White Wolf, the game is setup in such a way that to do something, you usually take an Attribute and an Ability, add them together, apply any bonuses or penalties to that number, and roll that many ten-sided dice. Each dice is a Failure, a Botch, or a Success, as determined by a difficulty set by the ST (ST, or Story Teller, is what White Wolf calls their Game Masters). But all of that is something that may still sound arcane.

Think about it this way: You have a certain chance to hit someone with a rock. They have a certain chance to dodge a potential hit, or even dodge into what would have been a miss. You make one roll to see if you CAN hit them. They make a different roll to see if they CAN dodge it. If you have more dice that say you CAN hit them, than they have dice that say they CAN dodge, you hit. If they beat you, they dodge.

Here's how it would look:

"Roll to hit!"

You roll to hit by rolling a number of dice equal to your DEXTERITY plus your ATHLETICS, a total of10 ten-sided dice (10d10). The ST didn't call out a difficulty, so it's assumed you have a 40% chance to hit on each of your dice. This means, a roll of 7,8,9, or 10 on a d10 is a Success. A roll of 2,3,4,5, or 6 is a Failure, and a 1 is always a Botch. Each Botch negates a Success.

You roll your 10d10 and the dice show: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 2, 3, 10, 10.

That's 1 Botch, 4 Failures, and 5 Successes.

The Rules also say that any dice that rolls a 10 may be counted as a Success and rolled again, to try and garner more Successes. You rolled 2 10s, but you also rolled a Botch. Botches negate Successes, and they take away 10s before the take away other Successes. So, your Botch kills one 10, leaving you a 10 to "reroll".

You roll a 1. Normally, this would be a Botch; however, when re-rolling, Botches only count as Failures.

So, you rolled 1 Botch, 5 Failures and 5 Successes. The Failures don't mean anything, but the Botch kills one Success, so your total is "4 Successes".

Your target gets a chance to dodge, using different Attributes and Abilities, bonuses and penalties, etc etc. But the basics of this is: if your target gets more successes to dodge than you get to hit, they have successfully dodged your attack.

What would normally happen, with a player unfamiliar with how the system works, is the following:
Player:"I want to hit that bitch with a bottle!"
ST:"Okay, Roll to Hit!"
Player:"Uhm.... say what?"
ST:"What's your Dexterity?"
Player:"Uhm, a bunch of asterisks."
ST:"How many asterisks/dots/pips/slash marks/whatevers?"
Player:"5"
ST:"How many asterisks for Athletics?"
Player:"5"
ST:"Roll 10 dice"
[Player rolls]
Player:"Now what?"
ST:"How many dice are a 7 or higher?"
Player:"5"
ST:"How many are 10s?"
Player:"2"
ST:"Did you roll any ones?"
Player:"Yeah, one."
ST:"Okay, that cancels out on of your tens. I need you to roll one more die."
Player:"It's a one."
ST:"Doesn't matter, this time. So, that's 4 Successes. Cool, your target only rolled 3 Successes to dodge."

This stuff is only hard when no one has played it before. But playing with even one experienced person makes it very very simple. After you've gone through that same conversation four, or OVER 9000!, times people tend to grasp it, and by the fifth time they only ask to confirm things. By the millionth time, the ST says "roll to hit" and they do everything themselves, replying with their successes.


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RPGs

I've been playing Tabletop, or Paper and Dice, Roleplaying Games for something like 16 years now. I enjoy them, and I'll probably be one of those guys still playing into my fifties and later. Maybe.

A handful of years ago I stumbled upon the idea of Virtual Table Tops, a way of doing Paper and Dice games online. OPEN RPG was the program I had encountered, and the implementation was buggy, but workable. Recently, I've found something better.


Enter RPTOOLS, and their suite of programs, specifically MAPTOOLS*.

It's simple, except that it's built from the ground up. Essentially, it's a chat client, with a layerable drawing feature, some RPG specific add-ons, and it's free. But it's better than that.

You can set visibile distances, lighting, obstructions, etc etc etc. It's really bad ass how feature rich this thing is, especially since it's FREE! The only thing that sucks is the lack of in-suit voice/data.

Want to send the PDF scan of the map from your sourcebook, instead of meticulously copying it? Gonna have to hit up some email addys. Wanna talk, and save the typing for dice rolls? Better get something like Ventrillo, a program VERY familiar to online PC Gamers.

But, really, those are VERY VERY minor problems- Ventrillo is free and can handle a normal group inside the limits of it's free, local host, server.

Want some numbers?

Documentation: 95% - video tutorials, awesome macro documentation, and an active Forums. Would be 100% with a document accompanying; but still, almost perfect. The video tutorials are AMAZING!

Features: 85% - I discussed the reasons why above. Some adventures require long descriptions of events/speeches. Having to type that is bad; but since you're building the maps beforehand, take a minute and write it all out in NOTEPAD, for easy cut and paste blocking. I just wish there was some player status implementaion, a la MMORPGs. AFK, and ReadyCheck, would make this 87%-90%.

Functionality: 88% - There are still bugs/issues. Most of these are simply annoying. I put it below 90% as a caution to people expecting perfection.

Other Problems: I've discussed them above. The only other one is if you're running a significantly older/underpowered machine. Space for storing all the gigabytes of graphics you'd want can be a problem. And if you're not a texture/3d/etc graphics modeler, you're gonna have some trouble gathering all the modern models you might want. But a little imagination and effort can overcome most of that. (For instance, I wanted a BBQ grill for a back patio. No such luck, and I got tired trying to search for one. Instead, I used a dark 55gal barrel, added two small pipes for smoke chimneys, and voila! Similar problem with sinks; so I used an image for an old washbasin. Ever seen those modern sinks that look like big bowls on top of a counter? That's what these look like. Good enough for me.) Top-down view only; but remember, if you were drawing out your game maps by hand, that's how they'd be, too.

Overall - 95% (Averages to 89.3, so 5.7% was added because it's COMPLETELY FREE, and OPEN SOURCE!) This is truly amazing. If you've moved away, but wanna still game with the same ol' assholes; if you're too poor/busy to drive an hour for the weekly game night; or if you're just more comfortable using computers rather than ACTUALLY being face-to-face with other humans, this is exactly what you're looking for.

As Tabletop RPGS are orders of greatness above the old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, this is that far beyond Forum post games, or trying to run a real game in a chat room.

*(Launching will cause the program to be installed and then run, downloading isn't significantly different for getting to know the program).
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It was said when Richard Burris (D-Il) first accepted Blagojevich's nomination that he had nothing to lose. Turns out, that's not the case. He's being investigated by Illinois for perjury, and by the Senate Ethics Committee.

He lied about raising funds for Balgojevich. Flat out lied. Because he wanted his one, last, shot at being somebody in politics. How desperate do you have to be, to make a national fuss about getting your Senate seat, while lying about how you got the appointment?

Sad.
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What Can $1 Buy?

In this, the worst recession since the Great Depression, people's notions of what some arbitrary number of dollars can buy changes. When before it was $20,000 is that car, today it might be $20,000 is x amount of weeks groceries/rent/utilities.

Wanna know what $500 can buy you?

Look at this:

It was, supposedly, made for $500.


(found via Warren Ellis)


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Satellite Collisions COULD KILL US ALL!

We've all heard about the satellite wreck, the other day. Well, Dr. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer and President of the JREF, did some math. And failed. So he did some MOAR math and was full of win- deadly, megaton, kilo-rifle-shot, win:

Remember, I’m trying to be very rough here; I don’t care if I’m off in my numbers by a factor or two or not; I just want an approximation.

The kinetic energy of an object is equal to 1/2 x its mass x its velocity^2. Again, because I’m being really rough here, it doesn’t matter which satellite hits the other. We can assume they have about the same mass, so the kinetic energy (in ergs, which I’ll explain in a second) is

KE = 0.5 x 700,000 grams x (800,000 cm/sec)^2 =
2 x 10^17 ergs

An erg is a small unit of energy, but 200,000,000,000,000,000 is a lot of them. Blowing up a ton of TNT releases about 4 x 10^16 ergs, so this collision was roughly the equivalent of lobbing 5 tons of TNT at the satellites.

but that's not all...

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That’s why there’s a large cloud of expanding debris; each piece of shattered satellite carried away a piece of that violent energy release. The energy of collision changed the orbits of all those shards, so they are now orbiting the Earth on new paths that take them higher or lower over the surface, right into the traffic lanes of other satellites.

So eventually, some may once again find an object in their way. And because of the high velocity, the kinetic energy of impact even from a low-mass piece can be pretty fierce. A rifle bullet does a huge amount of damage when it hits something, and it has a mass of about 10 grams and moves at a paltry 1 km/sec. Now think of the damage inflicted by a small satellite chunk that masses about 1 kg (100 times as much as the bullet) and moving 8 times faster… the energy of impact is 6400 times that of the bullet. Imagine getting hit by six thousand rifle bullets, and you start to get an idea of why satellite collisions are not just catastrophic for the two birds involved, but also a danger to other objects in orbit as well.

So, maybe we all won't die- but the Earth just got a little bit more like RIFTS, in which we're all dead.

*Something stupid happened with the code I'm using to mash blogger into acting like a legitimate blog, and hiding the lengthy bits of my rambling posts. (Much like that sentence). So, I had to rig the rigged code into working, and the "Read More..." link is a permanent part of this post. Hopefully, this issue won't carry over into other posts.
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