Dave Kellam

Alright, so I’m bored and don’t really have cable. Apparently, the Marlins won the world series. That’s alright, too bad Boston or Chicago didn’t make it though, it might have been interesting. Anyway, databases and online news-sources are fun: lookie here.

Or something like that, think Daft Punk. Uh, so I have some midterms and stuff coming up this week, it’s going to be fun. Not that every week isn’t tons and tons of fun. I have the newspaper to run tomorrow. And I discovered that I have an extra hour tonight, thanks to daylight savings time. Isn’t that great. Oh, I got my final CISC499 project this week (I’ll probably related my 497 project to it as well), I’m going to co-develop Go-Moku for PocketPC and Palm. I haven’t done any game AI or much game programming in general, so it should be interesting. I enjoy puzzle games though, so it’s an interesting project. Right now, I’m studying some networks. Yeah, on Saturday night I’m reading. Whee. I’ll probably go watch a movie with Alanah soon, I can only take so much of this.

I present you with two articles on internet porn, the first is Not Tonight honey, I’m logging on and The Porn Myth. They’re both essentially the same article, taking a look at internet porn and how it effects real-life relationships. This bit in the porn myth article made me laugh:

By the new millennium, a vagina—which, by the way, used to have a pretty high “exchange value,” as Marxist economists would say—wasn’t enough; it barely registered on the thrill scale.

I think the laughter was mainly due to some bizarre mental image of stock brokers actively trading them on an open market. Think: crazy pit full of traders with their little vests on, screaming about vaginas.

As far as Internet porn goes, I can see how it could become a problem for someone. Internet porn is fast and easy to get ahold of, but I have trouble seeing how it could replace another living, breathing and warm human bean. Then again, I’ve borne witness to geeky compsci classes full of reclusive nerds.

However, I don’t think porn is entirely responsible for the changing cultural attitudes towards women. It isn’t so much that porn is everywhere now, it’s that sex is everywhere. Magazines, movies, whatever — it’s not just porn that’s promoting having giant tits and flawless ass, all of the models and stars we see ooze sex. I think the porn star image and being unable to get off without it is a product of media as whole rather than just internet porn.

There’s a Panther up at the New York Times. My favourite part of the article is the starting:

Hackers and academics have uncovered one Windows security hole after another, turning Microsoft into a frantic little Dutch boy at the dike without enough fingers. If the computer industry were a celebrity, it would hire an image consultant.

That and there’s a comment around the end that basically says when you’re using Apple’s os, it feels like you own the computer and what you’re doing, rather than feeling like you’re borrowing someone elses computer with Mrs. Microsoft leaning over your shoulder telling you what you can and can’t do.