The giant has fallen

The goliath has finally fallen. Yes, you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the overly rated and superbly hyped-up Google Inc. For the first time, Google reported a miss in its earning streak since it went IPO on August 2004. Its shares have already fallen as much as $51USD (11.92%) in the after hours trading.

The shareholders have finally realised the goliath is not omni-potent after all and its profit rides the same rollercoaster as any other high-tech company. Google is only better because of its popularity and wide acceptance by the public domains. However, that is about to change as its popularity is at a decline thanks to its stance on the censorship in China, particularly the search engine. This act not only breaks its official motto, "Don't Be Evil", but also creates skepticism amongst long-time Google fans. Is Google a bit better than the evil Microsoft empire? Or, it is just another blood-thirsty vampire aiming all for bottom line and profiteering?

Now, with its profits fall for the first time we'll finally witness the true dark-side of Google, as it tries frantically to please the investors and tap into the gigantic market of China. Only time will tell how accurately Google follows the "Don't Be Evil" slogan!

Is videogame addiction decimating our next generation? (Part 2)

Ok, this piece is taking way too long. Here it is:

This is a continuation of my previous post, aiming to alert parents, relatives and the loved ones on the inherent danger of gaming addiction.

Addiction, in simple term, is defined as

1. A disease process characterized by the continued use of a specific psychoactive substance despite physical, psychological or social harm (www.uphs.upenn.edu/addiction/berman/glossary/)
2. Dependence on a substance or an activity, to the point that stopping is very difficult and causes severe physical and mental reactions (www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed/alcohol/glossary.htm)

You may think how could a few rounds of endless fun cause physical, psychological or social harm? Well, videogame, like many abusive substances or activities do cause harm if one becomes careless. Of course, it doesn't alter the pheromones or brain chemistry like many other substances (i.e. cigarettes, drugs, etc.) and is harmless to try for the first time, but the addiction do kick in. The addiction spawns from the instant gratification and excitement while playing and it usually grows with prolonged, uninterrupted exposure. The side-effects of which aren't always acute but is cumulative and has a long inhibition period. I may not have the credential and solid proof of this but my first-hand experience and that of countless others speak more than the research results.

Videogame is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is a highly competitive business where there're numerous companies, titles and genres. In order to attract potential customers, each company must have a unique way of presenting itself and differentiate apart from others. The videogames they produce must also have a theme and be an eye catcher to gamers. With the technological revolution, many of them uses eye catching graphics and complicated storylines to lure customers. The unaware customers are the most vulnerable and they easily fall into the trap of game producers. To build a royal customer many game producers exploit many of the dominating human characteristics, including curiosity, fascination and satisfaction.

There's no doubt that we're curious beings. From the moment we learned how to crawl, walk or run, we would venture to nearby places and explore the vast unknowns. We have the urge to explore. From medieval sea seafairers like Colombus to Mallory and Irvine on the first ascent up Mt. Everest to Ballard's deep sea dive to the Titanic, humans are constantly seeking out to explore every inch that is within our capable grasp. We also have the fascination to imagine being someone more capable, more desirable, more attractive and more popular. We imagine ourselves driving fast cars, dating Mr. Right, achieving the impossible and honourable goals, and being prosperous in every way. By being curious, we explore the unknowns and become more fascinated with every discovery, we then direct all our attention and effort to fulfill further curiosity and fascinated arousal. The fulfillment gives us the sense of satisfaction and belonging. With every discovery we feel more acceptance and the entire cycle repeats.

And videogame makers know all these human traits and they exploit them in every possible way, especially with the ever popular and growing online RPG games. Taking a popular fantasy RPG game for example (i.e. World of Warcarft or Everquest). First of all, it allows the player to freely choose which race and occupation the character would be in. Then, like a barbie doll, the player is freely to dress, equip and ride whatever accessory the game provides. The character under your control could also be trained in many different abilities, magical spells and passive skills. Usually, a character don't achieve its full potential until the character's level reaches a certain point. Not only you're allow to choose, suit and train your character, you can also freely interact in the vast realm of online world. The online world usually comprises of fantasy land and scenarios, allowing one to explore, conquer and befriend with other players or beings. You can also taunt, fight against other players or computer controlled players.

RPG game is nothing new, but it has been transformed online by the tremendous growth and popularity thanks to the most dedicated of all hardcore gamers. Technologies like high-quality graphics and the Internet also played a main role. With the superb graphics nowadays (such as on XBOX 360 and PS 2) almost all of the RPG games have moved online. This trend is not only alarming but is particular worrisome to the parents. Internet capability has long surpassed the firewall and watchful eyes set to protect our next generation. With the evergrowing technology, it is only a matter of when, not if, would a gaming addiction become real.

Who would've thought that playing one or two hours of videogame would have harmful side-effects? Who would've thought by immersing ourselves in the realm of virtual entertainment would be detrimental to our well-being?

Ridiculous online degree comes to life in PEI

This is just ridiculous and worth a mention.

Some students at University of Prince Edward Island has recently been offered a B-minus grade to skip classes. They neither have to come to class nor do the assignments and exams. The only catch is they are still required to pay the tuition.

The lecturer of history in Christianity is a popular instructor who had advised student not to show up for class due to an overcrowded condition.

Has the Canadian post-secondary educational system really degraded down to this point where we're allowed to get a degree without the work? This is no different than the countless online spam I received everyday on online degrees, where you just have to pay.

Man, this educational system is seriously screwed up!

Is this deja vu or am I in wonderland?

The Liberal Party of Canada has just axed a candidate, accusing him of offering a job to the opponent. Is this deja vu or am I in a wonderland?

Didn't the Liberal Party, headed by Mr. Paul Martin, also offer the same lucrative deal to Ms. Belinda Stronach after she switched to the Liberal caucus right before the federal budget confidence vote of May 19, 2005? Ms. Stronach became the human resources minister after she switched caucus and, because of this switch, the Canadian didn't get the chance to bring down this corrupted government. It is only until the Gomery report do we get a chance now to have our say.

This is just another desperate attempt and dirty tactic of the Liberals to win back votes. They announce this exactly the day after Mr. Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservatives, announced he is scraping a Tory candidate over smuggling charges. Liberals are now in turmoil, especially after the "accidental" leakage of the controversial 'soldiers' ad.

The time has come for a different government. One that is sincere, apologetic, ethical and wise, irrespective of their stance on governing, economics, budget and social, national well-being. A world would be so much better without those liberal bureaucracy crap!

In your face, Vancouver 2010!

For those of you who don't live in Vancouver. The city of Vancouver is renowned for its misery raining condition during Fall and Winter seasons.

Now, it is forecasted that we could break the all-time record for consecutive rainy days with 29 days on Monday, January 16. Read it here. I wonder how this is going to play out, especially with our successful bidding of 2010 Winter Olympic? With the weather conditions so unpredictable and flurries so infrequent, I wonder how are we going to host a memorable and successful Winter Olympics?

As you can probably deduce from my tone, I'm not much of a wintersports fan myself and I truly believe this whole Winter Olympic will just turn into a big nightmare and fiasco for Vancouvrites. First of all, due to an inflow of population to the city, both the property tax and values of goods and services will go up astronomically. Then, an increase in crime and call for essential services will soon follow. And, for those of you who commute daily by bus, car and bicycle, you think the traffic now is horrendous? Wait until it gets near and beyond 2010.

Vancouverites who support 2010 have never thought the costs of building a 2010 community and related Olympic facilities and securities will eventually come out of their pocket. If they would've realize that they wouldn't support it as much in the first place. I know it represents the pride of my city, but it's all good as long as I don't pay for it!

The supporter of 2010 may argue because we're living at the hosting city it'll be a lot cheaper and convenient for us, the permanent residence of Vancouver, to attend the Olympic and we may benefit from residential discounts. Dead wrong! Not only will the ticket prices skyrock, the Olympic officials would also be unwilling to provide differential pricing between the residents and foreigners. There's just no way of telling them apart and to the IOC, bottom line is everything!

The sudden burst of developmental projects also increases the risk of over-development. We've already witnessed one such event when a section of the road collapsed in downtown Vancouver. Incidents like this happens when the authority grant construction permit too fast without a proper review of the construction methodology. If the city grows too fast without proper planning we'll definitely see an increase in road congestion, overpopulated public facilities and an increase in accidents and crime. These are all some of the intrinsic negative side effects of an Olympic hosting city.

Unlike other Olympic cities, Vancouver doesn't have a very strong economy. The British Columbia economy is mainly based on tourism, fishery and lumber (with technology and manufacturing being minorities). With the high tariffs choking these industries, I wonder who will end up paying the bill? Together, with the lousy weather, we can't grind profits out of 2010 and we'll end up paying it ourselves.

Wake up, Vancouverites! No more Alice in Wonderland scenarios!

More on record-breaking rain

BC's leading industries

Snow conditions at Lower Mainland sky hills:
Cypress Mountain
Mount Seymour
Grouse Mountain

Dirty tactics and how politicians attract voters

This is an extension of the second half of my previous post. In this post I'll elaborate and attempt to dissect the recent election campaigns in Canada and how politicians use dirty tactics to attract undecided voters.

How do you categorize good tactics from the bad ones, especially when an election is looming? More precisely, how do you, a voter who can cast the fate of a government, differentiate the dirty tactics which politicians play from the legitmate tactics? In the case of the upcoming Canadian federal election of January 23rd, it is downright open and obvious.

There're many parties in Canada. Out of all these, only 4 official parties have ever held an office at the federal level. Of course, there is the independent and the "always-high" Green Party, but for the sake of our discussion we'll exclude them. The 4 official parties of Canada are: the Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives (a.k.a. the Tories), the Bloc Québécois and the NDP (New Democratic Parties). All these parties have very similar platforms in terms of the governance but what's really different are their beliefs, moral values and ethics.

The Liberals, as the name indicates, strive for equality issues like the gay rights, stem cell research, and secularism. On the opposite extreme, we have the right-wing Conservatives that opposes same-sex marriage, stem cell research and the exclusion of religion from lawmaking. For the NDP, if the liberals and conservatives were husband and wife, NDP is like the discipline lacking firstborn who, due to tiresome of witnessing the everlasting quarrel between both parents, dispises the family and would do anything to distinguish himself from the madness at home. Bloc, on the other hand, under the same analogy would be the attention craving younger brother that always whines, cries and complains and would do anything to get out of the house.

Canadian politics has never been dirtier. With oppositions hurl accusations and allegations of government corruptions and unethical practices, the Liberals are now in a defensive position. The only way out is to attract undecided voters with lucrative promises, such as reimbursing tuition fee for university students, abolishing the immigration process fee, banning handguns and extending jail terms for illegal gun owners.

Just when did Liberals realise the importance of these issues? In the last decade of their corrupted governance, they've paid minimum attention to the handgun related crime and approve the use of "house arrests" to persecute criminals. They're also the first to increase the immigration "processing" fees to now a ridiculus amount and be the first to thaw the tuition freeze and allow it to skyrocket through the roof. Now the Liberals realized their wrongdoings, they tried fervently to correct them as if nothing happens and, meanwhile, using this publicity to polish themselves as the only capable party to lead the Canadians.

Like what I mentioned in the previous post. With the federal election in Canada looming, this is their golden ticket to victory, courtesy of the sympathetic voters and many other undecided voters. This really shows how downright cheap and dirty the politicians would do. The Liberal Party of Canada has being the dominant party for over 11 years. If they haven't realize and properly handle the outcries and concerns of Canadian citizens they DO NOT deserve our sympathy to be re-elected.

Mr. Paul Martin, the Prime Minister of Canada, is in a very dirty hand. He has forseen the outcome of his defeat and that's why he resorts to the dirtiest tactics, yet. Would you want to have a bipolar disorder person making a decision for you? I don't think so. Neither do I. Just imagine how quick he would reinstate the immigration fees, retract the handgun ban and the tuition fee reimbursement.

Mr. Paul Martin is a greedy businessman who will always do the best to impress his business partners. If it is not because of the recent Sponsorship Scandal, the public would have never discover the true evil behind the Prime Minister's Office.

For all you Canadian readers, it is the duty of us, regardless of age, sex, title, religion and job to bring down Mr. Paul Martin and let us show that Canadians can once again be heard worldwide without the Liberals ruling. LET'S TAKE BACK THE CANADA THAT ONCE WERE!

For you foreign readers, be mindful of the dirty tricks politicians play.

For more information please refer to CBC - Canada Votes 2006.

Escalating gun violence in Canada

For those of you non-Canadians (i.e. our blogging neighbors and readers down south and from around the world), every time you thought of Canada the first thing pops up in mind is probably our friendliness, the happy beavers, the loonies, and the great Canadian Rockies and the Prairies. But what you don't know is what has happened recently.

Recently, there has been several violent gun related deaths all over Canada. From the more recent shooting death of a teenage girl in Toronto at Boxing Day, to several gun-related incidents and a night club patron getting shot in Vancouver. With these incidents, Toronto has its highest share of gun-related fatalities, with 50 deaths out of the total 78 homicides in 2005 are gun related. Vancouver has also seen a higher share of gun related violence in recent years. This trend of ongoing slaughters has many parents, bar patrons, and politicians wondering if guns are out of control in Canada. Some politicians even blames lax U.S. border patrols and gun laws as the ultimate culprit. They theorized that because of the lack of gun control laws in the U.S. and an outflow of cheap guns towards Canada, major Canadian cities could eventually succumb and model other U.S. cities in term of gun fatalities and the related gang violence (i.e. L.A., Detroit, etc.).

To me, that's the most cheap way to blame someone when it is in fact our own incompetence in gun control and sentencing of criminals in gun-related crimes. Only then did Mr. Paul Martin (currently the tentative Prime Minister of Canada, would-be decided by January 23, 2006) announced he would steep up in penalty on gun related charges. He also made the commitment to ban all handguns earlier, but it came back with an outrage and mixed reviews from politicians and gun owners alike.

With the elections in Canada looming, of course this is his golden ticket to victory, courtesy of the sympathetic voters and of many other residents of gun-ravaged suburbs. This really shows how cheap a politician would be to tag himself so he could secure "a few" extra votes. The Liberal Party of Canada has being the dominant party for over 11 years. If they haven't realize and properly handle the issues of gun control they DO NOT deserve our sympathy to be re-elected again.

Seriously, is gun banning really the next thing we need? The Canadian government had already spent millions on the failing gun registry, is another gun ban really going to work? With understaffed policing in many cities, the gangsters could still conceal their guns under the overcoats and, with no border patrols at night, the criminals could still smuggle guns from an unmanned border entry point in the B.C. interior. They could still roam the street freely at night, with handguns concealed and ready for action if provoked.

Criminals will only be deterred from tight policing and heavy sentencing. What Mr. Paul Martin announced was right, but it was only done after the negative outcries of a handgun ban and for an obvious reason of voter attractions.

Curbing gun violence is not a simple task. It involves education, public participation, proper policing, beefed up border patrols, good social programs and extreme justice. It is pretty sad that Mr. Martin thought a simple handguns ban will do, which it in fact will not but only hurt the legitimate hunting and shooting industries!

If you're a Canadian reading my blog. Speak out your concerns on January 23rd, 2006!

Is videogaming addiction decimating our next generation? (Part 1)

This is a much more thoughtful post for 2006 New Year than the usual Happy New Year message. But Happy New Year, anyways!

I'm not in any way against the recreational aspect of videogaming. I believe recreational gaming can sometimes relieve stress and be fun for the participants; however, if it is not done properly, one can easily be overindulged. Sometimes the overindulgence can be cured, but over half of the overindulgence results in addiction. I must, therefore, voice out my concern for the well-being of our next generations.

Videogaming has become a world-wide phenomena, from the simple, childish gameplay and early learning tools to a more exhaustive handheld videogames (i.e. GameBoy, Nintendo DS, etc.), gaming console (i.e. XBOX 360, Sony Playstation 2, etc.), PC games and the ultimate God of gaming, the online videogames and the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (abbreviated MMORPG). Very electronics shops you went, very giant retailer chain stores you step on inevitably has a section of the store dedicated for videogames. We're constantly been bombarded by the videogaming phenomena.

From a very young age, we expose our children to the early learning tools, in the form of a videogame. When they grow older we buy gaming console for them, thinking it may bring joy and fun to their daily lives, and in return they may become more obedient to the already over-burdened parents. Only later on, do we realize what is happening and how videogame has altered much of their characteristics in a bad way. By the time we try to stop them, it may already be too late for some.

When they are at an adolescence age or approaching being an young adult, they become more independent and start buying things for themselves. We supply them with monthly allowances and, unknowingly, they buy videogames to play in an online realm of fantasy games, where they meet strangers and together they conquer the dungeons and dens of the unreal world. There they become unaware of what they've become and spend more time to achieve a false sense of belonging. Slowly and slowly they submerge deeper and deeper into the abyss. When they realize what they've become, they first deny what they've become and tried relentlessly to overcome the addiction. Without any progresses, they finally confess. But for some it may have already been too late and some physical and psychological treatments are a must.

This ongoing trend of online addiction doesn't just happen in an overly populated area, such as China, or a massive online culture, such as many of the Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan, etc. The online addiction also hits North America and many of the European countries.

With a world-wide online gaming audience ever increasing, this amazing growth nonetheless indirectly spawns many negative consequences, such as feud over online property, death from overplaying exhaustion, and a price inflation of the online virtual properties and the illegal farming and selling of online properties. Don't think that because you own a gaming console these don't apply to you and you're immuned to the gaming addiction. The next generation of gaming console will all have built-in online interactive features installed (such as XBOX 360), with many games online capable. It is then, together with the online PC games, that the gamers will truly submerge themselves into the lavish world online gaming.

This is something that every parents and individuals should be aware of so to prevent our next generation from falling into the same trap. So, is videogaming addiction decimating our next generation? There're more to come!