Kitase: FFVII Remake Only Possible If It Can Be Done In A Year [Final Fantasy VII]

Final Fantasy XIII comes out March 9th but all I really want is a real remake of VII. Yoshinori Kitase seems to think that they could only do it if it could be finished in a year. Seems like square has the means to make this happen. Honestly the game holds up pretty well to time. The character models in the overworld are still awful but the backgrounds and battle models still look pretty good considering the game is over ten years old...
Final Fantasy XIII 's Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Kitase - Interview [via Kotaku via TechDigest via Connected Consoles]

What you can do about your privacy.

One word two parts; opt-out.  My last post was about privacy (specifically Facebook) but it seemed a little whiney to me so I thought I'd write a follow up.  Privacy is not entirely out of our hands it just takes a little effort.  One of my main concerns was tracking cookies. Lots of advertising sites put cookies that monitor your online behavior and report back whenever you stumble onto another site that uses the same advertising company.  What can you do about it? Well you could disable cookies alltogether.  That would prevent you from using a lot of sites that you like though. Any site with login is generally broken when you don't accept cookies. You could try disabling third party cookies (cookies from sites that provide services to the site you're on like ads and video hosting) but this breaks many webmail and media rich sites.  The final solution, and the best in my opinion, because it doesn't degrade the internet experience in the slightest is to opt out of the advertisers programs. This link will opt you out from a number of data collection "services".  This puts an anonymous cookie on your machine that tells advertisers not to follow you around. It's won't protect you from full on malicious sites and you'll still see ads though they won't have creepy voyeuristic tendencies...  You have to keep the cookie on your machine for it to work but there's a handy plugin for firefox users that will restore the special opt-out cookies if they get deleted by accident.  Why would advertisers do this you ask? Isn't userdata their lifeblood?  Simple, if they don't the FTC may decide to intervene.  Right now the advertisers have to play by the rules or uncle sam is going to put the squeeze on them.  So take advantage of this moment of weakness in corporate control and make a habit of looking for opt-out options on every site you visit so we all can take back our data.

pdaNet will make Verizon put it's money where it's mouth is..

I just got my brand new Motorola Droid. Beyond all of the cool barcode goodness I am using it as a tool to keep me connected to the Internet. Too bad tethering doesn't come out until 2010. Right? Even then it's going to cost an arm and a leg. Right? Maybe not, (I say maybe because I'm sure that there's an all new firmware update vs hacker war brewing on the Verizon.. er um horizon. I'm getting a little ahead of myself though.)
This is a wonderful 30 dollar (single fee) application that allows usb and blutooth tethering to a new Droid. So you might not have to wait for Verizon to get in gear but you also risk the software being locked out or disabled by a future firmware update. That is the glass half empty view though. In my opinion Verizon has been the most honorable of the major cellphone companies. They have been on the right side of net neutrality issues (as far as I've seen recently) and made some really good decisions regarding app support too. In fact when the issue of Google Voice came up (a program that also could cut into Verizon's bottom line the CEO stepped in and said they would not interfere with it. pdaNet was available it download from the marketplace on the Droid. This doesn't seem to be a mistake as google removed all tethering apps from T-mobil's maketplace per their request (or tantrum whatever works for you). Google could certainly do the same for Verizon. Hopefully, Verizon's CEO is to be believed when he said “A device is open or it is not. This is an open device,” but we'll have to see if he sticks to those guns. If he does he will earn the respect and (non-contractually bound) loyalty of at least one guy if not he will prove that Verizon is all talk and no show.

Jack Thompson is a Douchebag. or Pixelantes Unite!

So I was surfing Slashdot when I came across this thompsonfoolery. What a jackass. For those too lazy to click a link he's suing Facebook for all of the angry comments from people he's libeled, slandered, and even created new words to harass with. (Though he accidentally made it too cool so we took it) I say anyone who identifies themselves as a gamer should sign onto a class action lawsuit to sue his ass for libel and slander. Maybe when he's poor and broken (or at least more broken considering he's already been disbarred in two states) he'll shut up...

Domain games

So I originally tried to start this blog on Webstarts. What a mistake. my page was throwing a 404 for like a month without anyone doing anything about it. I called and e-mailed to no avail. So I switched to GoDaddy. Now Webstarts is taking their sweet time with the domain transfer. I can't wait not to deal with these people anymore.