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Napster Service Charges   -- Primis     1-29-01,  2:50PM
Everyone in the world in reporting this, I know.  But this is one of those things that bears repeating and even a bit of clarification.  BBC is reporting Napster will soon be charging users a subscription membership fee  in order to get music companies off their back and be able to pay them royalties.  The report says though that they're not expected to institute it until this June at the soonest.  The big question is, can someone come up with an open-source client that doesn't use a centralized server like Napster that is actually usable?  Gnutella, hailed as the next big thing, has failed miserably in that regard.  Let's hope someone gets it right soon...

2001 Dove Nominees   -- Primis     1-27-01,  11:30PM
The nominees for the 2001 Dove Music Awards are in.

In what is admittedly somewhat of a surprise, P.O.D. is up for like, every award they could feasibly fit them into.  I'm pleased to see everyone recognizing just what they're really doing out there.  If they take in a boatload of awards, they deserve every one of them.

Another nice surprise was to see Project 86's "One Armed Man" nominated for Hard Music song of the year, as well as Travail "And So I Was Thinking".  Pillar, Disciple, Project 86, Stavesacre, and pleasantly-enough Spoken are all up for Hard Music Album of the Year.  Spoken's appearance is nice to see when you consider they were niminated last year, and their newest album is quite a bit different from their last.

For one last final tidbit on the nominees, check out how many nominees Steve Taylor had a hand in either performing or producing (and in a variety of categories), and in the Hard Music categories check out what all Travis Wyrick produced.

And no, there's no VeggieTales anywhere on the list.  Sorry.  I'm bummed too.

In other semi-related-but-in-a-vague-way news, the band PFR seems to be getting back together to work on a new album.  It should be intereting to see how everyone's side projects affect their new music.

Globalized Stupidity   -- Primis     1-21-01,  2:50AM
Refrigerators with IP addresses?  Excuse me?  The Playstation 3 (mere conjecture at this point and time) is going to meld everything into one box?  Email on my wireless phone?  I'm missing something here with the globalization of everything...

More...

FYI.   -- Primis     1-17-01,  4:30PM
The site is going to be updated in spurts and bursts here over the next couple weeks.  I have other things going on and won't necessarily always be around to toss stuff up to it.  Not that it's exactly been updated steadily anyhow.  Some of you maybe won't even notice the difference in updating, come to think of it.  

The New Poll.   -- Primis     1-14-01,  2:45AM
I'd really like to seriously know what you, the reader, want out of this site.  More full, original articles/columns/rants by me?  More Prìomh Picks?  Widgets, lots and lots of widgets?  A camel boxing Teddy Roosevelt?  Feel free to stuff the ballot as you see fit.  This is America after all.  

And I Thought Tickets to the Palace Were Expensive.   -- Primis     1-12-01,  3:25PM
This just in from ESPN.COM.  Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been fined $100,000 by the NBA for, of all things, sitting in the wrong seat during Wednesday night's game.

That's right, for sitting in the wrong seat.  You read that correctly.

I don't care much for Mark Cuban and some of the things he's done, but this is STUPID on the part of the NBA and just goes to show what kind of people are running the league.  The league can manage to watch Cuban's every move and criticize it, and yet not realize their league and game sucks, and that it's dominated now mostly by a bunch of young thugs who do much worse things than Cuban whenever they go out to 7-11 (Allen Iverson THIS MEANS YOU!).  Cuban may be a lot to take, and he may push the envelope, but at least I don't see any Latrell Sprewells or Allen Iversons on his team.

Just another reason the NBA sucks.

Owwwwwww....   -- Primis     1-12-01,  3:25PM
Ever wonder what radio people think of sales people?  *laugh*  *points at link*  Everyone just, go here, now...!

Just What The NFL Needs -- Another Loudmouth Executive   -- Primis     1-5-01,  3:50PM
Another NFL offseason for the Detroit Lions, another rumor that they're going to hire John-Madden-Wannabe Matt Millen as a member of the front office.  Twice I've written columns dead set against this, and I'll say it again:  Millen is an idiot, and shouldn't even be allowed on TV, let alone running an NFL team as President and GM (if you believe ESPN's Chris Mortenson).  First the Lions make Gary Moeller head coach (a man fired from U. of Michigan for public drunkeness), and now they want to add the idiot that is Matt Millen to the mix.  Nice to see we're building an organization on strength of character and strong values.

The irony of all this is that if Millen gets hired, his first order of business reportedly will be to replace Moeller.  I hope I eat crow for downing him.  I badly want to see the Lions not suck.  Unfortunately, I truly believe he'll prove to the world that he's the fraud I claim.

Changing Everything As We Know It?   -- Primis     1-3-01,  5:10PM
The gamer in me keeps leaking out.  One of the things I've always wanted to see was a true Massive Multiplayer Online War Game, with players controlling everything from foot soldiers, to fighter and bomber pilots, to naval guns.  This just has seemed to be the most natural of things a Massive Multiplayer Online game could be -- an actual war that pitches back and forth between thousands of real players who log on and log off as they please, and are replaced by others.

Alas, companies have been promising this since the days of Falcon 3.0, when Spectrum Holobyte attempted to merge their flight and tank sims to be compatible with one another.  It never happened and has never happened since.  The closest thing that has managed to come along the line is Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2.  But that isn't real war, it's futuristic and a bit silly in some respects.

Enter Cornered Rat Software, and their not-coincidentally-titled World War II Online.  Cornered Rat is promising players the opportunity to enlist in any of 9 countries, and become a footsoldier, pilot, seaman, or what-have-you, and work your way up in rank into command if you so wish.  Join the war as you wish, do your part for your country, and then log off.  It's probably the most ambitious concept of the last several years from any game out there.  The game is currently in closed beta with 5,000 people testing (which could mean they could be gunning for around 10,000 to actually be on at once, possibly more).  Cornered Rat obviously has to be concerned about 10,000 gamers all playing in the EXACT SAME GAME (in different theaters) all at once, and I doubt they will cater to dialup connections (probably only those with DSL/Cable and above will be able to have it be playable) but still... this is a concept that many people have been waiting around a decade for to actually materialize.

Consider this.  Cornered Rat is expecting the scope of the entire war to last around 2 years... that's not 2 simulated years.  That's 2 years of gamers actually playing, before something is resolved in the online war.  At which point the fun restarts all over again!

I'm anxious to see how this turns out.  There's so much promise involved and it could completely raise the bar, and even make all those other "fantasy" online RPG's (*cough* Everquest, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call *cough*) pretty much irrelevant for a large section of gamers.  WWII Online is expected to be publicly released in the Second Quarter of 2001.

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