/dev/null/kevin

Gamers are fighting mad about the termination of a game reviewer who gave a low score to a game promoted heavily on his site.

Gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann gave a score or 6/10 to Kane and Lynch.  Publisher Eidos, who paid big ad bucks on Gamestop, wasn't happy, and Gerstmann was fired.  Read all about it here: 1 2 3

But gamers are getting the last laugh.  Upset at such blatant interference, they are giving the game scores of 1/10 and writing their own bad reviews using Gamespot's own user feedback section.  As such, the game's average user score is at 2.8/10.  Web 2.0 is a two-edged sword.

So, let this be a lesson to other companies.  You do more harm than good throwing your weight around.  Perhaps all of this negative attention will also boost sales, but I sure hope not.

Update: There are also reports that he left after his written review was edited.  CNET's daily news podcast, Buzz Out Loud, was told not to comment today (CNET own's Gamespot) so perhaps they will have something to say on Monday.

They say that fashion is cyclical and everything comes back into style.

They were wrong.

Very wrong. 

Thanks to Gordon for the tip.  Give him a job.

Perhaps you've heard that the One Laptop Per Child group is being sued by a "Nigerian entrepreneur" because he claims they stole a keyboard design he invented.

What, is the 419 scam business slowing down?

Here's what he claims:

Is he saying he invented the AltGraph key?  This key rarely found on US keyboards...

Except for every Sun Microsystems keyboard!!

Here is the Nigerian layout of the OLPC laptop:

And here is (part) of a Sun Type 5 keyboard (Photo courtesy Wikimedia.com):

So, if he really is claiming adding two shift keys is his invention, I submit this as evidence that he's full of it.

More evidence that he's full of it?  Here's a link to what the "stolen" keyboard looks like.  Compare it to the OLPC keyboard and you'll see that's they're not even similar.

Here's another take on the story.
 

Yahoo announced a new Facebook module for users.  I tried it and it's not quite for prime time.

I see two problems.

1. Fixed-width - C'mon guys.  Did you only test with one word updates?  That's a lot of wasted screen space.
   
2. Double "is" - Facebook users hated the is so much that Facebook caved and made it optional.  Now Yahoo adds an extra one?  Way to go, Skippy!

I'm sure these will may get fixed, but someone skimped on the QA.

Update: It's a little better now, but not much.  Plus, why do I need to know what I am doing?

"Newbies" have long incurred the wrath of more advanced computer users due to their lack of experience and naive views.  But what if computers and the internet really were as n00bs think it is?  What would the world be like? 

• Unplugging your computer would be the safest way to shutdown your computer
• Little elves would scan all email lists for subscription and removal requests - 24 hours a day.
• Likewise, if you just reply (to all) with "me too" you'll automatically be included.
• AOL/MySpace/Facebook is the internet.
• Making a real friend is as easy as clicking on a button.
• Don't like something?  An internet petition will change it!
  
• Cancer would be cured with chain letters.
• We'd all be rich, thanks to that nice Nigerian fellow.
• Except Bill Gates, since he gave all of his money away to people who tested his email tracking program.
• We'd be even richer because we'd won dozens of European lotteries that we didn't even enter.
  
• Oxford and Merriam-Webster change the proper spelling of "the" to "teh."
• LOLCAT would become the official language of the United States and Great Britain.  kthxbai.
• THE SHIFT KEY WOULD BE MANDATORY.
• or outlawed and removed from the keyboard.
• The "ANY KEY" key replaces the BACKSPACE key.
• All keyboards would be Dorito-proof.
• OK, that's just for me.  I really just dropped a handful of Doritos on my keyboard.  Now it crunches when I type.
  
• It's completely safe to give your PayPal password to the helpful employees who ask for it.
• Same for your credit card info.
  
• We would all know if we were "hot" or "not."
• "abc" is the most secure password to use.
• Windows Vista?  The best OS in the world.
• Everyone's penis would be longer and constantly erect.

If you want to be punctual, and have arms like Popeye, this is the watch for you!

via my sister.  Thanks, Lisa!

I tried to warn people last year, but apparently, no one listened.  Cyber Monday is fake.  It's not real.  It's just a made up event to try to promote sales.

The term Cyber Monday is only two years old.  It's supposed to be the biggest online shopping day of the year, but in those two years it hasn't been.  The media, once again, perpetuates a story without verifying it.  More lazy reporters.

For the record, Black Friday is also not the biggest shopping day of the year either, but at least it is an real big with (theoretically) big sales.  Much of it is "bait and switch" but there are some savings, if you don't find your own time valuable and don't mind getting trampled or waiting in ridiculously long checkout lines.

While A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is always a good watch, the best Thanksgiving special is its companion feature on the DVD, The Mayflower Voyagers.  It's part of the This is America, Charlie Brown series and it's quite good.  If you want to get back to the roots of the holiday and away from the shopping give it a watch.  It's only 24 minutes long but you'll likely learn something.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

My wife showed me this Precious Moments Snow White figurine that rates a 10 on the cute scale.

But my daughter goes to 11.

San Francisco's ban on plastic bags starts today.  The news interviewed a shopper who supported the ban and she had this to say:

Thank goodness there are no more plastic bags in my shopping cart!

Yes.  Too bad those plastic bags were forced on you all those years.

And, for the record, I support the ban, just not people too stupid to realize any of the following:

1. You've always had the choice to pick paper.
   
2. Both plastic and paper bags are easily recycled.
3. Reusable bags are cheap and easy and sometimes save you money.
   

Right now being green is fashionable.  While that's a good thing, it shouldn't be a fad.  Also, legislation will not fix everything.  You must take personal responsibility.  That shouldn't be a fad either.

tinyurl.com is down today and it's wreaking havoc on services like Twitter and other's who leverage it.

Here's good article from Steve Rubel that I found while searching for the cause the outage.  Not surprisingly, he also used the term "single point of failure" to describe the situation.
 

My product, xVM, is getting some press.  Give my boss some love and read his blog.

A hot topic of the day (and yesterday) was this article entitled The Death of Email.  Likewise, this follow-up story.

Summary: Teens and tweens don't use email, so it will die.

I think they said the same thing about regular snail mail when email became popular.  It's still here, and so will email be.

That's not to say email's usage won't decline.  It will.  Just like postage mail usage has declined.  But there is a still a need for postage mail and there will always be a need for email.

The reason kids don't use email is because they don't need it.  They also don't need a filing cabinet to hold their tax returns, house deeds and insurance policies.  But they will.

Kids also don't need (although they do want) a drivers license.  What do filing cabinets and drivers licenses have to do with email?  They provide what email does online:

• Identity
• Archiving

These two features are what email provides and what kids don't need, yet.  What the kids don't need from email is communication.  They've got that covered.  But when they start to need a confirmed identity and safe storage of important information they are going to find that SMS and IM don't cut it.

Now, it's just as likely that something new will come along to replace email in terms of identity and storage.  There are already things like openID and numerous online file storage systems, but none yet that combine them like email does.  Something like Facebook, or one of the coming Open Social sites, could probably write something like this.  But Facebook still requires an email address to sign up! 

I looked into replacing email as the primary means of communicating with my hockey team, but we're either all too old, or it's just too soon.  Probably both.

So, email won't die.  It will just become the "right tool for the right job" as other communication tools become more mainstream.  If humans ever colonize space (hey, we're talking about the future!) then "what's old is new again" will occur and email (space email!) will likely be used to send messages across the long distances where instant communication isn't possible.  And future historians will look back at this blog and recognize me as the genius that I am.

Should you "Stay the Course" or "Know When to Fold 'Em"? 

I recently read an article on parenting that claimed telling kids "good effort" is better than telling them "good job" or "you're smart."  The concept of "too much praise is bad" has been around for a while.  Countries that don't focus on the students' self-esteem score better on tests than countries than heap on the praise (link).

So, the new thinking is to teach kids to try hard and not to give up.   New research (and I can't find the link here's a new one) shows that kids who are told "good effort" do better the next time they try a task, regardless of how well they did the first time.  Kids who are told "good job" do the same, or worse, the next time they try.  The assumption is that the "good job" kid likes the praise and is fearful of losing it if they can't do the task again.  Whereas, the "good effort" kid know he will get the same praise as long as he tries hard again.  Thus, rewarding the effort and not the result.

This is a reasonable, and I've been doing it with my daughter.  She's smart but she can also be lazy.  She figures out most things right away, and thus can get lots of "good girl" and "you're smart" praise.  But if she can't figure something out right away she gives up quickly.  I don't want her to do that because I know she can figure it out. 

Switching to "good effort" praise, and some Disney Princess videos with "never give up" themes, have had some positive impact.  She has learned no to give up.

But perhaps she has learned it too well.

She recently broke a rubber toy by stretching it too much.  I am The Fixer of the house.  I have repaired many things using my arsenal of glue, sewing kit and clear packing tape (duct tape is old school).  But this rubber toy was beyond my help.

"But Daddy, never give up!  You'll get it."

"Every rule has an exception" is also a good life lesson to teach. 

Wife: How was your sandwich?

Me: OK.

Wife: Was it tuna or chicken?

Me: I'm not sure.