Attack of the Blog!

Just now about 40 protesters invaded the Google campus, wearing purple union shirts and handing out flyers explaining that the janitors of Silicon Valley feel that they are compensated insufficiently for services such as wiping down counters and moving trash from small receptacles to larger ones. They made a couple of mistakes in planning. First, Google has, like, security. And video cameras. Blocking the main stairwell wasn’t smart, because the cops showed up pretty quick to herd them onto the streets and away from innocent workers just trying to get to lunch. The big mistake, though, was that they showed up on Family Day. It wasn’t enough to show up and chant loudly, angrily, and aggresively. They had to scare a bunch of visiting children who were just hoping to see how nice mommy and daddy’s office was. Way to go, geniuses. After all, the best way to win new supporters is to freak people’s kids out.

It’s not that I don’t have sympathy for the lower classes. Unskilled laborers should have cause for concern. They still have the highest birth rate, the lowest per capita income, and don’t frequently take advantage of opportunities to gain education or marketable skills. This is usually due to lack of awareness and understanding than outright laziness, but the effect is the same either way. Although I do have to wonder sometimes why someone would look at their paycheck, realize “hey, I don’t make very much money” and think that the answer is to demand more money for scrubbing toilets rather than look at options for training for a better position.

The trouble for people like the noisy protesters on the streets of Mountain View today is that unskilled laborers will only become increasingly irrelevant as time goes on, making their economic and social position ever more precarious. The Industrial Revolution made massive numbers of farm workers and cottage industry laborers obsolete. Since that time, technology has accelerated exponentially. Cooks and maids have been replaced with microwaves and vacuum cleaners. For now, humans are still required to operate modern machinery of convenience. But very soon this will no longer be the case. We already have simple robots that clean floors. They’re still pretty stupid when it comes to being able to clean the floor thoroughly and make it back to their base, but a time will come when a robot will be able to hunt down a microspore of pet dander on the carpet as easily as humans can see a red wine stain on a white tablecloth.

The world of automatons envisioned in 1950’s science fiction is now only a hair from reality. While the possibility of true AI is still questionable, mindless manual labor will vanish from the human skill set in just a few more years. What will we do with the uneducated when they become unusable within the larger economic machinery of our culture? One day there will be toilets that do not require cleaning because they’re made of a material that nothing– not even bacteria– can stick to. One day robot drones will keep floors sparkling clean with no human error, and trash will be automatically disposed of, without the need for humans to contaminate themselves by touching it.

It sounds like a Malthusian nightmare, but without an acceleration of the already existing trend for lower birth rates among the poor or some kind of educational revolution among the economically uncompetitive ranks, we may very well end up with an underclass of outcasts who are not only unskilled– they will be irrelevant.

I’m a little irked that you don’t offer your t-shirts in chick sizes. Wearing a men’s small isn’t comfortable and never looks right. I consider this especially bigoted on the part of Bungie, as I would assume that you would want to support me in my dream to one day have Master Chief’s head between my boobs. Please turn one or both of these shirts into chick shirts:

Duo Tone Master Chief Tee

Master Chief Visor Tee

The oppressive patriarchs running the store need to realize that equality means allowing women to wear the sex symbol of their choice plastered across their hooters. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

Best Wishes,

QUIN

The Mozilla Project has grown to the point where it is now inspiring developers to use Mozilla technology to create something new. The “Powered by Mozilla” mark was created to recognize technology that shares Mozilla code and values. This term, though, presents some hurdles to clear. It’s important to maintain high quality as creative new projects emerge, and encourage the creation of safe and useful software. As more products start to use this mark, it’s time to define what it means to be “Powered by Mozilla” and set some guidelines for who gets to use the term.

As this discussion gets started, it’s very important to include the community in the discussion process, establishing broad guidelines as a basis for discussion. We need to begin with basic criteria, and in brainstorming, we’ve started with three basic conditions technology should meet in order to say that it is “Powered by Mozilla.”

• Lineage: Enough code or concept came from a Mozilla product or platform that the lineage can be clearly seen.
• Spirit: The product is in harmony with Mozilla’s vision of a broad, open Internet. It’s not exploitative, deceptive, illegal, hateful, or malicious.
• Quality: It doesn’t tarnish the Mozilla brand name and meets our high standards of quality.

Of course, this just sparks many more questions. How do we decide who should get to use the term “Powered by Mozilla”? Who gets to be involved in that decision-making process? Will there be blanket criteria, or will this be judged on a case-by-case basis? How do we keep from stifling creativity or becoming snobbish about labels?

Mozilla’s goal is offering high quality products that enhance the end user experience, and encouraging others to do the same. “Powered by Mozilla” should actually mean something so we can protect the integrity and value of our name, but not violate our core value of openness and protecting the right to fork. We want to be permissive, but not taken advantage of, maintaining high standards for the sake of the community. Which sparked the idea for the solution: if standards are for the sake of the community, then the community should have ownership of those standards.

The Mozilla Community is overwhelmingly benevolent and full of people looking out for the common good. We already benefit from Community scrutiny of code, and have an existing framework for public review and discussion. Why not involve the Community in self-policing and keeping an eye out for malicious or substandard code bearing the “Powered by Mozilla” logo? At the very core of the project is a push for distributed authority, and the less centralized, closed-door decision making that needs to be done, the better.

Is it possible to develop a segment of the Mozilla community that scrutinizes and reviews developers wishing to use the term “Powered by Mozilla”? This presents a huge advantage, as it prevents Mozilla from having to police developers or stifle creativity by shutting out public involvement. This also could give the Community a sense of ownership in preserving the integrity of the Mozilla Project.

A possible solution would involve the development of terms for the “Powered by Mozilla” program. These terms would be made available online, including usage guidelines and examples of approved work. Requests to use this trademark could be submitted on a wiki, with samples of the goods. A community group can review the application and make a recommendation to Mozilla’s marketing team, which grants final approval. Licensees of the “Powered by Mozilla” mark would be subject to periodic review to make sure that they’re continuing to provide a product worthy of the Mozilla name.

It’s important to get some conversation started about this issue so that the public can be involved from the very beginning. John Slater has blogged about this topic, and I hope others will too. Those who are interested in participating in the dialogue or contributing as a community reviewer should speak up and get some discussion going! Perhaps a wiki page can be set up in the future, once this moves beyond early discussion in blogs and boards.

It’s been a real privilege to be involved in the beta testing for Mythos, the forthcoming free-to-play MMO from Flagship Studios. This game has just as much love that went into it as Hellgate: London, and is a ridiculously addictive and fun update of the model that made Diablo II so successful. As the commercialization date approaches for the game, I’m getting wistful about the process of beta testing this fun, beautiful handcrafted game.

When you’ve watched something grow up and mature, you get kind of attached, so I was worried that some of the haters would bash Mythos. But luckily my fears were unfounded. Beta testers can’t stop talking about how much fun it is to play, and the game is getting glowing reviews from IGN, GameSpy and 1UP.

What I’ll really miss are the characters I’ve built up and led through this world as the graphics matured, the loot got better, the colors got more vibrant, and the armor got more and more badass. I know, I know. When the full version goes live, I’ll be able to make all new characters and get even more amazing loot. But still . . . I’ve had a lot of good times running around slaughtering evil monsters with my characters, and I’ll do everything I can to re-create them when the game goes live to the public.

I can’t wait for the launch, and I think the business model Flagship’s decided to go with is a smart move. Pay-as-you-go is a lot more fair than flat rate subscription, which is really only worth it for heavy users. This flexible model has worked great in Asia, and could really do a lot to revitalize the sagging PC gaming market in the West. So good job, Mythos. You’re the little game that could.

Lots of things go in cycles. Classic-Romantic. Bear-Bull. Orthodox-Rebel. Technological-Natural. Lohan-Duff. One of the most stark patterns of cyclical behavior is that of the operating systems released by Microsoft. The Functional-Fubar cycle, unfortunately, has gone unbroken from the beginning. When Windows first came out, it was astonishing. Even Microsoft haters have to admit that. But it seems there’s been this flip-flop of fantastic and demonic incarnations.

For example, Windows 98 was so bad that Trey Parker and Matt Stone went completely out of the plot’s way in South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut to shoot Bill Gates in the head for it. It’s a shame the movie didn’t come out during the release of Windows ME or Vista, because something tells me the second and third offenses would have warranted a more horrible form of death when the general cries out “You told us it would be faster!” and all Gates responds with is a mealy-mouthed “It is faster!”

Thank goodness XP came around. When this OS arrived, people’s criticism went off the technology as a whole and tended to focus more on issues of software or ethics — the insecurity and inefficiency of Internet Explorer, monopolistic business practices, and so on. It proved a stable OS that is user friendly and more or less idiot proof. With everyone switching to Firefox and governments finally cracking down and slapping some fines on the big bad msft, the pecadillioes were overlooked by the general public.

But then . . . looming on the horizon . . . there it was. Vista. With a distracting color scheme, more annoying autofeatures than MS Word, and a crash magnitude that puts Bruckheimer to shame, the disasters that were Windows ME and Windows 98 were swept aside like mosquitoes in a hurricane. Gamers in particular hate it, as it’s more bloated than a sorority house with PMS and just as much fun to play with.

XP was like a hot girlfriend who liked sports and didn’t care if you wanted to go drinking with your buddies once in a while. Agile, flexible, and adaptable, it’s still relevant and serviceable after seven years, something few guys can say about most of their girlfriends. But now Microsoft wants to force us to break up with XP when they stop selling it in June. Instead they want us to start going out with Vista, XP’s fatter, uglier, bitchier sister.

Why couldn’t have you remembered that if it ain’t broke, you don’t need to fix it, Microsoft? Vista sucks rocks so hard that users are begging Microsoft not to retire it before the next version of the Windows OS appears sometime in 2010. We were passed a note in class from Vista that said “Will you go out with me? Check Yes or Yes.” I crumpled mine up and threw it in the trash, holding tight to XP. I love you, baby. I won’t dump you until you really deserve it.

My thought? If you’re in the market for a PC, buy or build a serviceable machine with the minimal level of horsepower that you’ll need for the next two years. Then pick up a copy of XP, install it, and avoid Vista until something else arrives. Because whatever it is, it has to be better.