ugachaka :: Jacob was here

I posted something about this car when it was being developed. Engadget now says it has finally been revealed.

It is pretty hi-tech. The car monitors alcohol level through your sweaty palms and also tracks consciousness by following your eyes. Tricky little devil.

Can we make all two or three time DWI offenders required to install some similar system in their vehicle now?

A recent study exposed by Destructoid points out that gamers do less homework than other kids.

Now that doesn’t make us look too good. My alma mater participated in the study showing gamers as the slackface of society.

I disagree that all gamers fit into this mold, but I guess it is rather inevitable that with escalation in the amount of commitment to schoolwork required by educational institutions, gamers have to make sacrifices to keep playing.

(See, I tried to use big words there for you, but I didn’t want gamers to get confused.)

Facebook is the next big thing in social networking. Scratch that. That is what you could have said more than a year ago. Now, Facebook is becoming a force to be reckoned with in social networking and in all online space.

If you know nothing about Facebook, check out the Zolved piece that follows the hype from the .edu days to the current state of things as Facebook is now opening up to software apps or widgets that users can add to profiles.

Facebook is no longer just for the kids. Small business gurus and marketers are getting in on the buzz recommending both LinkedIn and Facebook be part of a small business arsenal. Now there is even an application that allows you to integrate both–within the confines of Facebook of course. Widgets open the door to third-party enhancements and advertising…genius move on the part of Facebook to expand and maintain their booming growth.

Industry experts see the platform as the next theater for public relations. Maybe in several years, our press releases will all pop up in jouranlists’ mini-feeds, and we will poke the interviewer of our CEO a few weeks after to see when the story is going to hit print. E-mail might soon be replaced by Facebook messages and wall posts.

Google fears Facebook–if not, they should. Facebook has a huge user base to pull from in whatever their next direction may be, and these followers will be willing to try out anything Facebook offers for at least a week until a friend calls it dumb.

While some have speculated that Google might enter the OS space, Facebook has recently acquired Parakey and is working with SixApart.

Now with the fame, Facebook gets the drama. ConnectU is hitting up Facebook claiming that the entire concept was stolen and that Mark Zuckerberg, the man behind the book of faces, failed to fulfill his duties in completing their project and being a part of their team.

Sound familiar to anyone else? Microsoft came about through a similar controversy and buzz explosion back in the day.

For starting a company with such potential, Zuckerberg is still a pretty young member of the block, but entrepreneurs are getting younger and younger these days.

The Facebook train doesn’t seem to be stopping. They haven’t been acquired by Google or Murdoch, and all signs point to them emerging as a public company soon and becoming a MAJOR player in the online space.

It is some sort of guarantee that Facebook might be a contender to unseat Google or take on Microsoft in some sort of partnership or acquisition with Google. Whatever happens, marketers and business moguls alike should keep their eye on Facebook and study up on its business model because they are likely to be th next powerhouse in 2.0 evolution. The online OS (operating system) space could be theirs if they play their cards right.

A car that won’t let you drive if you have had too much? I am surprised it has taken this long for anyone to even test the idea.

It seems like a self-enforcement by the auto industry to add this feature to their vehicles would eventually lead to a complete cut down of all DWI accidents.

Way to go Nissan for finally getting down to business.

Contrary to popular belief, a new scientific study shows that alcohol doesn’t kill your brain cells.

In addition, the study went on to prove that making new brain cells is a necessary part of life. See, Paris Hilton is just waiting to go on a brain cell forming binge.

Credit digg for popularizing the discovery.

A collection of recent posts and articles points to the potential of blogging as a career choice. More and more employers, according to the latest “Fresh Starts” column in The New York Times by Barbara Whitaker, are looking for employees to have a knowledge of the blogosphere and blogs inner workings but not necessarily paying them to blog.

Blog salaries can be as low as $100 to $500 a month, but some lucrative positions exist that are discussed in the article.

Having a knowledge of new media can certainly turn a company around though. After Dell came to realize the impact of new media with Jeff Jarvis and “Dell Hell”, they have turned over a new leaf in the Web 2.0 world and become one of the innovators. Matthew Creamer’s article in Advertising Age today talks about the success Dell has had with using customer input on IdeaStorm to drive their products and next steps.

So there is hope for me to become employed as a blogger or at least working with blogs at some point. Steve Rubel just posted on his blog “Micro Persuasion” Saturday about the changing world of the Internet.

Much of the discussion during the day revolved around what kinds of skills PR and journalism students (today and tomorrow) require in this new environment.

Funny. That is exactly what I am, a PR and journalism student. I also already have a pretty good blogging skill building my own and publishing it somewhat regularly while trying to promote it by whatever free means available.

I think blogging is definitely a necessary skill that all students coming out of college should have–especially in the PR and journalism sector. My ideal job would be working somehow in this media because it is something I am passionate about, but I do know for certain that having the skills to write and blog well will come in handy down the road of employment.

I stumbled upon a second post on why to hate video games in the MediaPost blog updates.

I’ve heard many of the complaints here before. As a serious gamer, I can sometimes get distracted and play for a few hours, but I also have the discipline to stop myself. The blog post argues that:

- Unlike other hobbies, gaming takes over most of one’s time and most of one’s paycheck.

Now if you are completely devoted to video games and ignore other forms of entertainment, I could see this being a problem, but other than the couple of games that I have purchased this year–I am a college student for crying out loud–I haven’t spent much money at all on gaming.

Yes, there are those individuals in life who spend all of their days in dim rooms with the HD display blaring their conquests in Elder Scrolls or Halo 2. With their devotion their are also those of us who only reach Sergeant ranks in the Halo 3 Beta because of time spent on other hobbies and more productive activities.

The difference between the two, I think, is whether video games fills your social occupation or just another hobby.

Some people socialize online and through games because they are either uncomfortable in more traditional, public settings, or they feel a sense of empowerment when they are a walking around as a Level 60 Dark Elf. These people may devote many hours of time and money into gaming and their gaming machines, but it is because it is their social persuasion.

Others of us gamers may just spend a few hours a week playing with the coolest new game as a release from our daily lives or just a challenge to solve. When the time comes to socialize such as taking a girlfriend out or meeting up with some friends in a bar, we seize it and leave the game saved where it is.

t is not like the game won’t be there when you get home. I think Amanda, the writer of this blog post, may just be fighting her boyfriend on whether he is socially committed to games or the outside world that she enjoys. If he is more of a hardcore gamer, he may be slowly going through withdrawals as he moves on to the real world of social life.

But that is just my analysis, and I don’t claim to be a video game shrink…yet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Vista has been out for about 4 months now and in beta testing by some of my friends for longer, but here I am still waiting to purchase it. You see, my college has an agreement with Microsoft to sell software to its students at discount rates–XP for under $20 and such.

Now, it makes sense that Microsoft would not want to just throw the OS out to the masses of college students as soon as it releases so that early adopters will have to run out to buy it at full price, but making us wait over 4 months just seems silly. Don’t you want your customers to get a hold of the Vista OS and fall in love with it as soon as possible so that they demand to have it on their next computer for whatever company they get hired to work for after school or in purchasing their next system?

The more I sit around and wait to see what Vista can do, the more tempted I am to go check out Red Hat or buy a Mac. I have been waiting so long with my system hoping to upgrade to Vista and maintaining a close watch over which files I will need to archive so that I can make a fresh install on my hard drive. Now I just want to make a fresh install of something already. Come on Microsoft, get your act together.

When I read this post on Joystiq, it brought me back to my freshman year of college. When I first came in, I wanted to get into something with game design without the coding. I ended up journalism/computer science until I discovered computer science was far too technical and creatively destroying for my tastes (at least at my university). Upon majoring in multimedia journalism and now public relations, I have still maintained my interest in game design and checked into some graduate programs like MIME at Indiana, but this program at SMU, dubbed The Guildhall, is new to me.

In the industry right now, it has been impossible for so long to get degrees in game design officially besides going to specific universities like DigiPen, so I wonder what mainstream university graduates with degrees in game design will do to the current selection. It should be interesting to see whether more independent games start to launch out of these programs from student groups who invested their class time to make them. I am not a huge fan of indie games myself, but it should be a welcome change to stimulate more creativity and less sequel factories.

Originally written April 18, 2006

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is encouraging alcoholism.

No, I don’t think it’s in their mission statement, and I doubt they train officers to be so good at it. The TABC wants you to drink alone.

Cracking down on public intoxication in order to cut down on the number of driving while intoxicated offenses, the TABC has been monitoring patrons and bar owners with undercover officers. When Frank the Tank starts getting rowdy, the TABC officers conduct a sobriety test that will either land Frankie charges and a night in jail or prove once and for all that sucking on a penny works.

The problem with this system is how the officers determine who to test and when someone has actually become intoxicated enough to warrant charges. The law only defines a person as intoxicated when the individual is a danger to either himself or to others. Obviously, this leaves some room for interpretation. In some cases, the TABC has been accused of being too strict and cracking down unnecessarily.

What option does a law-abiding citizen have anymore to delve into the sauce?

Bars are out. Since most families would look down upon drunkards frequenting the local restaurants, we are left with house parties. Of course, since we can’t drive home intoxicated, by house parties, I am referring to alcoholic sleepovers.

Barring these slumber parties, unless your friends all live within walking distance, drinking at home usually means drinking alone. Through this rough syllogism then, the TABC is forcing us all to drink at home alone when we want to indulge. I don’t know if this sets off any bells and whistles for anyone else, but drinking alone is a fireworks show of a sign that alcohol is doing you dirty.

There are better ways to protect people on the road than random screenings at bars. The TABC tests people that already have designated drivers or those patrons that are planning to call a taxi all the same. Texas will become the only state that doesn’t allow people to drink in bars. If a guy wakes up from his stupor on the bar and tries to walk out to his car, I understand the TABC intervening to test him, but there is no reason to pull people out of the actual establishment and ruin their night. The person questioned by the TABC could have a perfectly responsible arrangement made for the night before drinking.

For now, TABC has ceased undercover operations until pressure from legislature and public sources has been settled. In the meantime, we can all enjoy the bars. If they do get the go ahead to continue in the future, I guess we should all look into 12-step programs unless MySpace starts serving alcohol.