You Tube Copyright Filtering

Google owned YouTube, a popular online video site, is rolling out copyright protection to protect against uploading copyrighted material. However, it wont block the upload, it will make it easier to report and remove offenders.

Its understandable they don't want to host pirated movies, but how will it affect AMV's or trailers. What will constitute a violation? Somebody who video blogs word for word another persons work? Or somebody who creates a music video using clips from popular movies?

Is this the end of self expression on the web? Or will this be the beginning of other video sharing website opening up.

YouTube has long been a great source of entertainment for America. Millions of people enjoy linking and posting popular and funny videos for their friends. Hopefully this wont be as drastic a change as it seems.

Wonder if this has to do with the Republicans trying to back out of the YouTube debate.

Wow Goes to Northrend

Is it true? Is the secret to World of Warcraft's next expansion hidden in a song?

The orchestra scheduled to play in the final day of Blizzcon received their music, and lo and behold there is a piece titled Northrend. This musical track doesn't appear in any of the current game files, and may very well be the sneak peak WoW fans have been waiting for.

Of course by the end of Blizzcon, we expect to completely know what is the expansion.

Northrend is the northen part of Azeroth, and home to the Lich King, or as he was known Arthas. Speculated to be one of the most powerful beings in Azeroth, he stays in the icy realm of Northrend, a piece of Kalimdor that was broken apart during the Sundering. Not much has been heard from this place of the world, just rumors of evil.

If Northrend is the expansion, and Arthas is in it, there may be seen an increase in subsriptions.

Parenting through a divorce

Being a parent is not easy, but can easily be one of the most fulfilling things one does. In an ideal world, there are two parents, living together, with the child. In the real world, it is rarely like that. Due to whatever reasons, divorces, separations can and do occur. It is during this that sometimes one or both the parents become a selfish entity caring only for themselves, and for revenge on the other. They lose the focus on what is important, and instead become fixated on demeaning the other parent, insulting, withholding visitation, and treating them as less then a person, and definitely not the other parent.

As a divorced parent myself, I understand all too well the feelings one goes through. Not getting to be there for every step and word the child makes, all the spare time with them, feelings of resentment towards the mother, feelings of betrayal, and even failure. One thing that we were able to do, was work through our differences, and put our daughter first. And a lot of times, this is the case. But not all parents are able to be adults. Sure there are the cases where the divorce is due to abuse (physical, emotional, or mental) reckless behavior (drinking and driving, drug use) and in these cases the child should be kept away for their own safety. Allow supervised visitation if they wish it, but these are usually the cases where they are so self-centered that they think of nobody but themselves anyway. I am discussing cases where it is due to two people unable to be together for other reasons.

Tip1: Act your age. The time for petty grudges and revenge is way past. Put the child first. You do not have to like the other person for whatever differences you have, but it is not a reason to deny them to see their child if they wish it. At a young age especially, the child doesn’t care what happened, all they want to know is why daddy/mommy does not want to see them. And parents, if your ex wants to see the child, never ever let the child think different. Children need that love from their parents. Remember, the child is more important then your hurt feelings.

Tip 2: The child is your child, not a bargaining tool, not an object to lord over the other parent. Do not use visitation as a means to get your way. It sickens me to see this happen. Put the child first.

Tip 3: Get a mediator. If you are unable to come to terms on your own, get a mediator to help work out something that is fair for both sides. Sometimes when emotions are high, things are said and done that make it harder and worse. Mediators come in and look at both sides and help compromise.

Above all else, please, remember the child is first. Their safety, their happiness, their well being depends on our ability to be adults and provide for them, and put them first.

Plug in hybrids

Plug-in Hybrids are making news. What is a plug-in hybrid? Why should we care? Are our cars not sufficient?

Hybrids have long been around, using a variety of schemes to try and stretch gas, break dependency from gas, and to be more efficient. Reasons for this include environmental protection, independence from foreign oil, and cheaper transportation. The combustion engine has been around for over 100 years, and during that time, the principal still remains the same. Gas has long been the most efficient of these means, but the affects on the environment, price of oil, long term forecast that we are running out of oil have brought about a change in the way the automotive industry thinks.

Hybrid electric vehicles or HEV’s achieve their high gas mileage through an electric engine, smart electronics, and gas. Some achieve over 60mpg, compared to their counterpart non HEV’s of 25mpg. There are tax incentives to purchase these as well, making them an attractive option. They are never required to plug into the wall and for all intents and purpose behave the same as non-HEV’s. They incorporate new technology to save fuel, use battery when applicable.

Now the push is on for Plug in hybrids (PHEV). These differ from HEV’s in the fact that they are required to plug into a wall for re-charging. Currently they can get around 8 miles before requiring a charge, which takes around 2 hours. Not very efficient, not even practical, but it is a step in the right direction.

Currently battery technology is holding this back. Toyota is once again leading the charge for this by introducing a new version of the Prius. The Prius has extra nickel-metal hydride battery packs, to increase the distance it can travel on a charge. Nickel-metal hydride batteries are large, heavy, yet reliable. They are rather antiquated, compared to lithium ion batteries. Lithium Ion batteries are the next generation of batteries to be tested and used in these new vehicles. The problem with Li batteries is during testing, several have caught fire.

With Ford, GM and Chrysler jumping on the HEV/PHEV technology, it shouldn’t be too much longer until they start making their ways into more homes, reducing our dependency on oil, and helping the environment as much as possible.

Aquafina

Aquafina, one of the leading bottled water brands, is coming clean on their less then savory practices. It appears, as was reported today, that PepsiCo will begin printing on the label of the popular bottle, what it really is. Tap water. Yep. Tap water. I have a bottle in front of me right now, and it clearly states on the bottle, "Pure Water, Perfect taste, Purified drinking water". It appears, it is not pure, nor purified. Also appears that when enough bottles are emptied together, a stench begins to appear that rivals that of any compost pile.

And by no means is Coke and its popular Dasani let off the hook. They gather their water from public reservoirs as well. they report that they will post the quality process online in a month or so.

I see several lawsuits coming from this. It will be amazing if they survive this. I know I for one will not buy their water again. Nor am I likely to purchase any Pepsi products as my means of protest.

World of Warcraft: Warriors

The warrior class brings to mind plate armor, big weapons, fierce fighters, and damaging blows. In the World of Warcraft, this holds true. The warrior class is designed to soak up damage, or to deal incredible amounts of damage.

As it stands, the warrior class has many things going for it, and many things against it. Currently, the biggest concerns are Mortal strike warriors, fury warrior agro/gear, and protection warrior solo/PvP play.

1. Speced in protection, they are the best single target tank in the game, and the type of tank raids want as their main tank.
2. They get to wear plate armor, and have a large amount of health.
3. They work off the rage system. Meaning the more they get hit, or the more they hit, the more they can hit, and use more damaging abilities.

Some down sides to the warrior

1. Easily Kited and crowd controlled. Warriors have means to break crowd control, or sap, or fear, but they are on cool downs. It can be overcome with skill, and some masterful use of trinkets and talents
2. Can be kited easy. A warrior can close the gap on an enemy with 3 means. Charge( 15 second cool down, must be out of combat, requires battle stance), intercept 30 second, 20 second with talents, must be in berserker stance) and intervene ( 30 second cool down, requires defensive stance). Intervene is more of a PvE skill, and invaluable at that. A frost mage or hunter, or warlock, or shaman can usually quite effectively kite a warrior to death.
3. Magic damage: Without a shield, or resist gear, has no defense against casters, except to get in their face and pummel, shield bash, and fear them.

So, what is the deal with warriors? Three things, PvP, PvE, and solo as protection.

PVP

Warriors excel in group PvP, are rough in solo PvP. However, the biggest complaint about them is Mortal Strike. This devastating attack (which is a 31 point talent, not every warrior has it) not only deals a large amount of damage, but applies a 50% healing debuff on the target. This appears to be the sticking point for PvP. But really let’s look at it. Healing gear allows some healers to heal large amounts for a long time. Mortal strike helps turn a fight that could drag on forever due to heals, shorten by a bit. People complain it makes a warrior needed, or it shouldn’t deal damage, or the debuff shouldn’t be as hard. If there was no debuff, then it would just be a gimped attack. If there was no damage, it would eliminate the arms warrior instant attack. It does make warriors needed, gives them a reason to be there.

PVE

Warriors who go the route of dps, with gear can put up some impressive numbers. However they have nothing to bring another pure dps class brings, nor do they have an agro reduction. This limits the space for dps warriors in a group. All other dps classes bring something to the table in forms of crowd control, major buffs, and agro reduction.

Protection

Protection warrior is the best raid tank, and single target tank. They have plate, 2^nd highest health pool, and the most damage mitigation/stay alive abilities of any class. Where they could use some help is threat scaling, and solo play. It takes a long time to farm/level as a protection warrior, and in PvP they are a novelty. Some moves need to have the threat looked at, including ways to generate more threat, and possibly give a buff to Devastate, the warrior 41 point talent.

All in all the warrior class is fairly balanced, in need of some minor tweaks, but overall pretty good.

Dave Landeo Band

Got the opportunity to see the Dave Landeo band live at Rookies sports bar the other night. They are an amazing band, great vocals, entertaining to watch, and just all around great music.

Dave has been performing for several years, and has won many local awards. They perform for bars, restraunts, and are available for weddings and other gathering functions. He has appeared nationally on several shows, and is a pretty well known artist in the knoxville area.

The show started out with a little conversation, then right into the music. Deep clear voice, strong instruments make this a rewarding experience. His schedule is on his website, be sure and catch them if you can, it will be a rewarding experience.