I just read this interesting short article over at Geek Sugar about airport security being able to possibly search your electronic devices for illegally downloaded media.  You can read the entire article at a site called Telegraph.

Basically, an act may be ratified later this month allowing airport security to search your ipod, zune, laptop, and even your cell phone! That seems like a lot of music to go through, and seeing that pretty much half of the music on most teens ipods IS illegal… Well, that sounds like a lot of lawsuits!

I think the idea is very wrong.  There are hundreds of sites on the internet allowing you to download LEGAL music as an MP3, and some of those are DRM free.  Amazon, Itunes, Last.fm, and many other sites have cheap MP3’s that you can buy for less than $1.  Also, copying music onto your computer from CD’s that you have bought legally are turned into MP3’s.  So how does security know that your music is illegal?  When they look at your iPod, how to they know a song is illegal or legal?

What do you think?

Identi.ca….?  I mean, I know twitter is pretty sad and never works… but Identi.ca is almost a copy of it!

The page looks different, yes, but there are a LOT of comparisons I can make.  Wait, let me start over. Identi.ca is another microblogging concept for your online use.  You can update identi.ca from the web, or from an IM account, but I haven’t found anyway to update it from your phone or other portable device. All updates you make can be 140 characters or less, just like Twitter. One cool thing about identi.ca is you can update it from Ping.fm.  But ARGH!!!  I can’t make my own profile customizable?!  Why not?

Identi.ca is still in the early stages of creation. Many things will be added “soon”, according to the Identi.ca FAQ.  But, as with all new beta websites, soon could be next week or next year.  Maybe Identi.ca will grow on me, I guess time will tell.

While using Stumble Upon during one of my boring moments, I ran across a really cool site called Musicovery.  It’s basically another radio site, with a twist.  You have a cute little dashboard embedded in the page.  On this dashboard you can choose the genre, decade, and mood of the music you want to listen to.  To try musicovery out, you don’t have to sign up or anything!  You can just start clicking around your browser for a different song.

If you do decide to sign up for an account, you can ban crappy songs and favorite the best songs..  Musicovery is full of eye candy and incredibly easy to use.

I just joined a few new social networks and whatnot, and this is what I thought of them.

You can now find me at Pownce.com.  Pownce is a lot like twitter… as in you basically update your status throughout the day and people can follow you.  You can follow these people back or leave them as a friend.  I like that in pownce you can add embedded pictures or even video to your post.  You don’t have to click a link to see a video someone wants you to watch.  I also like the layout of the page.  Pownce is easy to understand and easy to sign up for.  You can choose a theme for your page, but you cannot customize it.

Here’s the drawback.  If you want a customizable page, you have to pay $20 a year for the customizable theme and 250 Mb file size you can embed on a status update.  Regular gets 100 Mb upload.  Another thing that irks me is it’s damn slow.  The page is slow.  Updates take a long time to load on the page.

Ping.fm is brilliant!  As far as I know, there isn’t a profile page or friends to be added.  You simply use it to update your social networks.  Ping.fm lets you update to the following:

• Bebo
• Blogger
• Brightkite
• Facebook
• FriendFeed
• hi5
• Identi.ca
• Jaiku
• LinkedIn
• LiveJournal
• Mashable
• MySpace
• Plaxo Pulse
• Plurk
• Pownce
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• Xanga

It’s great!  That’s all there is to it.  You sign up, tell it what networks you use, and start posting.

The other network I joined was Stumble Upon.  You click a Stumble button in your toolbar and you are redirected to a site within your interests.  When you sign up for StumbleUpon, you get the choice to customize your profile to a different color, and you can pick tons and tons of interests.  Everytime you stumble, you can choose whether you like or dislike a site by pressing the thumbs up or thumbs down icons.

Last, but not least is Social Browse.   After you download the add-on in firefox for social browse, you browse the internet like you usually do.  Anytime you run across a site you’d like to share with friends, you click the social browse button on your toolbar.  Now, that link is available on your profile page.  The nifty thing is, any time you run across a page one of your friends linked to, their icon appears right next to that link, showing you that someone wanted to let their friends know about that page.  Darren gives an in depth discription about social browse here.

I just received this email from someone in my distant family, and it’s pretty obvious they don’t support Barack Obama like I do.  My suspisions lead me to beleive they don’t support him because he’s black… but that’s just my suspision.  I’d like to share this with you, because whether they like it or not, it actually had some positives in there for a democrat like me. :)  Read on if you wish, but if you don’t agree, please don’t flame.  I’m making an opinion here.

We are witnessing a political phenomenon with Barack Obamaof rare magnitude. His speeches have inspired millions and yet most of his followers have no idea of what he stands for except platitudes of ‘Change’ or that he says he will be a ‘Uniter’. The power of speech from a charismatic person truly can be a powerful thing. Certainly Billy Graham had charisma and both his manner of speech and particularly the content changed millions. On the extreme other hand, the charisma of Adolph Hitler inspired millions and the results were catastrophic. Barack Obama certainly is no Hitler or a Billy Graham, but for many Americans out there feeling just like a surfer who might be ecstatic and euphoric while riding a tidal wave, the real story is what happens when it hits shore.
Just Some of What Defines Barack Obama:

* He voted against banning partial birth abortion.
* He voted no on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
* Supports affirmative action in Colleges and Government.
* In 2001 he questioned harsh penalties for drug dealing.
* Says he will deal with street level drug dealing as minimum wage affair.
* Admitted marijuana and cocaine use in high school and in college.
* His religious convictions are very murky.
* He is willing to meet with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jung Il and Mahmoud Ahmad inejad.
* Has said that one of his first goals after being elected would be to have a conference with all  Muslim  nations.
* Opposed the Patriot Act.
* First bill he signed that was passed was campaign finance reform.
* Voted No on prohibiting law suits against gun manufacturers.
* Supports universal health-care.
* Voted yes on providing habeas corpus for  Guantanamo detainees.
* Supports granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
* Supports extending welfare to illegal immigrants.
* Voted yes on comprehensive immigration reform.
* Voted yes on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.
* Wants to make the minimum wage a ‘living wage’.
* Voted with Democratic Party 96 percent of 251 votes.
* Is a big believer in the separation of church and state.
* Opposed to any efforts to Priva tize Social Security and instead supports increasing the amount of tax paid.
* He voted No on repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax
* He voted No on repealing the ‘Death’ Tax
* He wants to raise the Capital Gains Tax.
* Has repeatedly said the surge in Iraq has not succeeded.
* He is ranked as the most liberal Senator in the Senate today and that takes some doing.
If your political choices are consistent with Barack Obama’s and you think that his positions will bring America together or make it a better place, then you will probably enjoy the ride and not forward this Email. If you are like most Americans that after examining what he stands for, are truly not in line with his record, it would be prudent to get off the wave or better yet, never get on, before it comes on shore and undermines the very foundations of this great Country. We have limited time to save America or the Supreme Court as we know it. Inaction is action.If you agree this is important, pass it on.

WOW!  Obama did maryjane in college?  Who knew?!  But my big question is, WHO DIDNT?!  Honestly, everyone I know has tried it and didn’t keep using.  Big freakin deal.
And I really appreciate a President saying he beleives chuch and state should be separate… Um.. Isn’t that written somewhere?
I dunno… and about this war thing. What are we doing over there? No wonder our economy is in the shit hole right now, we’re spending all our tax dollars on the big offices in dc and this crappy war. C’mon guys, come back home, there’s no reason for ya’ll to be over there anymore… I know a lot of guys over there who are sick of it
Maybe some of my readers dissagree, and thats great!! Comment! I’d love to hear a few words on the matter
But this is just how I feel. A guy who’s completely opposite of Bush might take the office, and I’d be happy to vote for him. Sure, a lot of people aren’t happy that he did some weed or went to a crappy chuch. Big deal. Don’t define a person by the chuch he does or doesn’t go to… Don’t define a person by whether or not they did drugs in college and high school… isn’t that the time you are finding yourself?
Ya know, America, maybe we can make this place a better place.  I’d like to see a minimum wage that can be lived off of.  I’d like to see a girl being able to make her own choices about pregnancy. I’d like to see a president try to bring peace by talkin’ about it.
But, obviously, that’s just my opinion.

I just got back from my annual family beach trip to North Carolina, where we go to deep sea fish, surf, tan, drink, and swim.  It’s always a blast, and I love it there.  Topsail Island has never been a huge tourist spot, so it’s usually just locals and a bunch of families from around North Carolina.  The beaches are beautiful, the sand dunes sport hidden sand dollars and conc shells, and the beach houses are always decorated incredibly cute. <3

I went searching online for the history of this island, because I once found something similar to an arrowhead, and there are these strange lookout towers all around the island.  I also wondered, where did Topsail Island get it’s name?

Well, I found the answers:

Lying on the eastern coastline of North Carolina, perfectly set within thirty minutes in either direction to Jacksonville and Wilmington, it’s been said that Topsail achieved it’s name from a rather unique source, pirates. Blackbeard himself was rumored to roam the island, making his way to Ocracoke. As ships would pass offshore, the tall pirate ship’s masts could be seen in the distance, thus the name of Top-sail, (pronounced Top-sul by most). Of course, this is part of the mysterious legend of the island.

When the high sails could be seen waving in the distance, oncoming ships quickly turned around to flee from a possible confrontation. Not many wanted to come face-to-face with savage pirates, especially if they thought it was Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

…

Another significant piece of history for Topsail Island was the Tucscarora Indians. The evidence of prehistoric Indian villages and artifacts date back thousands of years. In the 1700s, they were known to have made hunting trips to Topsail Island. You can still find arrowheads made by the Tucscarora Indians all over the island.

…

The U.S. Navy picked Topsail, particularly the Topsail Beach area, as their site for Operation Bumblebee. The Holly Ridge area housed Camp Davis, which literally led to a somewhat short-lived boomtown scenario. During Operation Bumblebee, nearly 200 experimental missiles were launched down the island resulting in the ramjet engine, which eventually allowed aircraft to push past the speed of sound.

Incidentally, Operation Bumblebee got it’s name from just that, the flight of the bumblebee. According to the aerodynamic experts, because of it’s structure, the bumblebee should not be able to fly. Of course, the bumblebee doesn’t know this and flies anyway. Such was the case of the experimental missiles.

There are many observation towers, which were used to track the missiles during flight. These are the small, three story block structures you see found scattered around the island. Some have been refurbished and one has even been added to a home in the Topsail Beach area. That one in particular was kept authentic with little remodeling in order to keep the integrity of the past.

I find all this rather interesting, specially since I’ve spent around 20 weeks throughout the years at this awesome place.

I played a really fun game the other night that I’d like to share because it’s a little addicting in that fun team player way

Synergy co-op Mode gives us an amazingly fun mod called Synergy.  You can use this mod for Half-Life 2, ep. 1, and ep. 2. To install it, you basically have to have the Half-Life games, with the SDK Source installed.  You then run the synergy installation and it’s all set!  Synergy mod even shows up as an independent game in X-fire.  It’s pretty cool

There’s a few kinks I found while playing the game with 2 other people.  There are a few places where the game skips (just a few puzzles, the end of a level, etc..). Another thing is the Half-Life games were obviously made for one player mode, and when you have multiplayer- it gets a little easy.

But it’s frackin TOTALLY RAD to run into a level with a team and take it out in minutes~!! omg!  Play it!!  It’s really fun to go through the Half-Life games on multiplayer!!!

Firefox 3 finally came out of Beta and into everyone’s home computers a few days ago.  Mozilla wanted to make a Guiness World Record of over a million downloads of their program. I was one of the many who helped Mozilla make that goal by downloading on Firefox Download Day!

What I like:  Firefox 3 is pretty. The toolbars are pretty much the same, with minor changes. If you start to type in a link that is close to one of your bookmarks, firefox will pull up that bookmark and you can easily jump to that page without having to type in the entire link address.

Also, there is a simple bookmark star inside the address bar so you can click and save in as few as one click!

I havent seen many other differences between FF2 and FF3, so it’s still just as easy to use. :)  And if you downloaded on download day, you get this cute little certificate of thanks!  Teehee!  Check out mine!

As you all know, I recently moved in with my liek, rad bf. We had to sacrafice a few things already, just so two people could comfortably live in the same room together. We bought this little desk, and modified it to our needs. With that said, I now have dual monitors instead of just the one, and I also have a new Radeon X1900 video card.

I have to say having dual monitors is a really REALLY nice thing. It’s much easier to organize and multitask. I can watch a  movie on fullscreen and browse the web at the same time, or play a video game and chat in IRC side by side. The only downfall- video’s run best on the primary monitor than the secondary, and if you want to go dual- get the same kind of monitors. One of mine isn’t as bright as the other. It’s also a bit blurred which is a little bothersome…

After reformatting my computer, deleting a bunch of crap, and upgrading to this new hardware plus some new software… My computer is FINALLY running like new. I’ve been able to install all my games at the highest resolution and they run beautifully, without any rips or tears in the maps. I can’t wait to get my pwnage on!

Yay!  Another game review!  So I’ve been playing a really cute game called Pokemon Ranger on DS.  For all of you that are going lol n00b, I pwn you on UT…  well, I play fps too, but at the moment, my computer doesn’t have a video card inside it.  So I’m going down the line of hundreds of DS games I have and playin them all.

Pokemon Ranger DS is about your quest to become a great pokemon ranger.  You travel from village to village and are given missions from the senior rangers to help citizens and get to a higher level.  These bad guys called the Go-Rock Squad end up stealing special equipment from the good guy pokemon rangers team, and they use this to capture pokemon for their evil deeds.

The world you play PR in is pretty small.  You get to choose between a male or female character and name them as you want.  My characters name was Snubs (go figure).  Capturing pokemon is fun.  Now, you don’t throw them in a Pokeball and battle other characters.  You capture wild pokemon, they follow you around as you travel, then you use them once and they are freed.  Of course, you can capture them again if you want.  You can talk to all the characters in the game, and their conversations give me the idea this game is made for children and teens.

Leveling up is probably the main reason I’m still playing this.  I was able to get through the game in about 3-4 days, and every time I leveled up, I wanted to get to the next level.  :P  You also can get up to a Rank 10 in the game as a pokemone ranger.

My least favorite part about the game is the cut scenes.  The chat bubbles are slow (even on the fastest speed), and if something is happening that requires a part of the plot, you dont have the choice to skip.  This is annoying if you fail a mission and have to restart.  You have to sit through all the information again…

I’d give this game a 7 / 10.  All around a fun, cute game.  It’s easy to pass the time with Pokemon Ranger DS, and it’s a bit different from other pokemon games.  I wish I could skip cut scenes and I wish the game was longer.