Blackmoor Vituperative

World of Warcraft or otherwise known as simply, WoW is one of the most popular and successful computer games in history. It is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game that 6 million people pay $10 -15 per month to play. This type of popularity creates a sample size that is large enough to reflect the forces that control it. In Layman’s terms, with this many people playing this online game at any given time human nature tends to get a stronger representation.

The first “reality” check was a bug that caused a plague to outbreak and affect people’s characters in certain cases instantly killing any player below a certain level.

The second “reality” check was when this group of Warcraft players otherwise known as a guild interrupted a memorial service. Apparently, some dude dies in real life who is a popular WoW player. The people in the game think it would be nice to have a memorial for the player so they log into his account, take the character to a lake, and set it up for everyone to come pay their respects.

A bunch of dudes decide this would be a great time to ambush everyone so they run over a hill, kill the dead guy’s character, and then wipe out everyone who was there to show their respects. They filmed the whole thing and put it on the net for everyone to see.

http://spikedhumor.com/articles/22282/WoW_Funeral_Ambush_Video.html
The Google Video

Deadly WoW Plague
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4272418.stm
http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/09/plaguelands.html

Okay, when I first read this I was pretty disgusted. How low do you have to be to crash a funeral? But I couldn’t help laughing while watching the video. So I guess it’s horrible and funny at the same time.

Internet News has an interesting article about funding robotics in the war years.

The deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security was arrested last night on charges that he used the Internet to seduce an undercover Florida sheriff’s detective who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said. […]

Another Homeland Security official — Frank Figueroa, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tampa — faces trial this week on charges of exposing himself to a teenage girl last year at a mall. Figueroa, who has been suspended, pleaded not guilty.

(from The Washington Post, DHS Spokesman Is Accused of Soliciting Teen Online)

Mother Jones has an amusing compilation of “intellectual property” stupidity.

Between Lawyers has an amusing exchange about it.

It’s good to know that IP lawyers can get a chuckle while destroying our future.

Angry Alien features brief re-enactments of movies, portrayed by bunnies. It’s pretty funny. Check it out. The Highlander parody in particular really captures the essence of the movie (much better than most of the sequels did, at any rate). And Star Wars… don’t even get me started.

News from the world of The Destroyer:

Hi All!

It’s a deal that’s been a while in the making, but… I received the go ahead just moments ago to release this to you! We at WarrenMurphy.com are excited at the possibilities this will present in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future.

The full release follows:

***********
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Warren Murphy announced today that he had signed a Destroyer film production deal with Robert Evans independent production company in Hollywood. The deal covers film and television, as well as computer games and merchandising, and the old man says “after quite a few years in the Destroyer doldrums, we’ve got a chance here of seeing something good happen.”

For those who don’t know, Robert Evans is a one-time actor who took over the running of Paramount Studios when the company was down the drain and on the verge of bankruptcy. In just a handful of years, Evans produced The Odd Couple, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Love Story and The Godfather, and turned Paramount into the hottest studio in town.

*****************

More information on Robert Evans can be found at:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0263172/

So it look as if there may still be a movie in our future after all! Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks for being here!
Brian Murphy
Webmaster@WarrenMurphy.com

Discuss this topic and more at the forums on
http://www.warrenmurphy.com/forum

OMB chief architect Richard Burk told agency chief architects last week that the agency IT investment repository known as the Federal EA Management System will be replaced by the Component Organization and Registration Environment Web repository, at Core.gov.

“Based on the last year’s usage rates, and discussions about the costs and value of the online application, FEAMs.gov will be deactivated as of April 30, 2006,” Burk said in an e-mail to chief architects. “For information on government service components available for agencies to use, register at CORE.gov, the cross-agency forum for component development, registration and reuse.”

FEAMS will remain in operation until April 30, Burk said.

OMB had high hopes for FEAMS, based on a Housing and Urban Development Department system to track IT investments. It had gone through a last round of testing in September 2004, but agencies never found it useful or user friendly.

But Core.gov, which the CIO Council launched in March 2004, hasn’t caught on with agencies either. Just recently, the site offered free user training classes at the end of March, and the council published operational procedures for how to use the repository.

The CIO Council also has plans to retool Core.gov to make it more useful, Burk has said.

(from GCN, OMB closes FEAMS for Core.gov)

I really like the core.gov logo, but for some reason it seems really familiar, as though I’ve seen it before. It’s probably just my imagination.

Dell Home has the Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB Player (Black) for $290 – $20 off $150 code QGM7T0C1C2TVVD [Exp 4/30] – $10 off code X10DHMT?VL6NBS [Exp 4/21] = $260 with free shipping.

• Plays MP3, WMA, MPEG, WMV 9, DivX, Xvid, Moti, and displays pictures
• 2.5″ LCD (262,144 colors), FM Tuner, Voice Recorder, up to 14 hr battery (audio)

Creative makes the best media players. I have a Creative Zen Touch and it’s great. Here is a tutorial I wrote for people new to creating MP3s.

Wizards of the Coast has posted some information about their upcoming My Little Pony Roleplaying Game. I think it sounds like a great introduction to roleplaying for younger gamers. I particularly like the version of the beholder used in the concept art.

Some neat links Susan sent me.

The Top 15 Skylines In The World
These are just awesome, particularly Hong Kong. I wish I’d been able to visit Hong Kong before the Chinese took it over. I don’t seriously think I’d be in any danger if I went there now (not any more than I would have been before, anyway), but it’s just the principle of the thing. Still, it’s an amazing looking city. Who knows, maybe I will visit it someday.

The Movie Timeline
The premise of this site is brilliant: a timeline that includes any event that happens on any date in any movie. It’s a little Alien vs. Predator heavy, but still very cool. Susan and I were about halfway through it when Susan got the idea of going through the Highlander movies and adding dates from those, but they beat us to it! In the process, they reminded me what a terrible, terrible movie Highlander:Endgame was. Whoo-wee, what a stinker.