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Mind Of UPSLynx: June 14th

The events and happenings for the week of June 14th.  In this episode: iPhone: ready for gaming?, Iran elections, and Expo Icrontic 2009.

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33 Comments:

  1. rolleggroll
    Love by the TSA

    The light is pretty now.

  2. rolleggroll
    Love by the TSA

    OH WTF WHY IS MY FAILURE AT THE END.

    Meh its not that bad. I am overreacting.

  3. I didn't know about the anonymous thing. Who knew that they could actually do something good?

    And when did Eggie rap at last year's lan? I totally missed it.

  4. Myrmidon
    Who loves you, baby?

    ^^ninja'd on the anonymous thing. I thought anonymous only had love for cats, child porn, and mudkipz. Well hot damn.

  5. Winfrey
    kaishakunin

    You said "paradiggum" which is cool.

  6. Bandrik
    I love golllllld!

    Nice to see Anonymous do something positive for the world. It's like the chaotic anti-hero that saves a little girl or what-not.

    I loved the little things sprinkled in, like the ^.^ G1, ahaha.

    Overall, nice stuff, Lynx, you're getting better and better! All we need now are some Austrian Arrowz!!

  7. Cliff_Forster
    Keepin it real

    Well done again. I think your on to something, keep up with posting, and I like the opening credits, and the transition at the end, looking good.

  8. primesuspect
    The Icrontic Guy

    I love you so much, Bobby

  9. Komete
    DIY Haxx0r

    Woa, way to raise the bar. Nice job man!

  10. TiberiusLazarus
    I Miss Keebler

    I love how when you talk about twitter and the iranian election, the distinct sound of tweetdeck can be heard in the background.

    Another fine addition to your icrontic video gallery. ^5

  11. DrLiam
    FoxtoN

    Can't wait for the Expo coverage! ^_^

  12. jokerz4fun
    Guest

    F'en love it! i cant wait to deep fry some more white castle.

  13. Bobby Miller
    The Dean of Computer Graphics
    I love you so much, Bobby

    You sure it wasn't Jokke's crazy Akevitt talking?

    Eggy - I think you're the only one that doesn't love the eggstyle man! It's my favorite video from last year's LAN.

    Thanks for the positive response everyone, still working on the formula for this. I think Thursdays will be the future air date for MOUPS (pronounced mowps?) Though with the insanity of next week, I wouldn't expect to make that deadline, especially since the good stuff won't technically start until Thursday.

    I'm always up for suggestions. What would you guys like to see me cover? Anything specific, or keep on keepin' on?

    Tiberius - I prompt myself from my MacBook, which I position behind my camera so I can see quick show rundown notes while looking at the camera. I figured tweetdeck would be nice ambience

  14. Bobby Miller
    The Dean of Computer Graphics

    Also, regarding Anon. As terrible and disgusting and stupid as anonymous can be, they do have one positive thing about them - and that's a general disregard for people and groups that they view as evil, or more accurately in their eyes, wrong. It's a massive double standard they have, but it does go to show that there are 'normal' people within anonymous that do care about things.

    I hope their attempts haven't been in jest, or any other corrosive nature. I wouldn't doubt them, though, if they did want to help Iran. Anonymous exists because of free speech, and when that very freedom is encroached upon for other people, they should rise up to defend it.

  15. Gargoyle
    We can't stop here...

    Great job Lynx!

  16. Thrax
    Cad

    EPIC's video is going to be so amazing. SO. AMAZING.

    Great job, Bobby. Great job.

  17. Bobby Miller
    The Dean of Computer Graphics

    EPIC's MOUPS is going to cover nothing but EPIC. I can't wait to start shooting it. It'll air late in the week, probably weekend, so I can get as much footage of lord knows what through the event.

    Expect to see my camera a lot that week.

  18. chrisWhite
    Polygons

    Yep, another step forward Lynx! Good stuff as always.

    I like Anonymous, I don't take them seriously but I do think that they're fun. It's also cool to see a real stand alone complex for better or for worse.

  19. Snarkasm
    The Photographer.

    News came out about Iran that more votes were cast than there existed eligible voters in 50 different counties. They're actually saying, though, that it wouldn't have affected the outcome.

    Fuck that, that's blatant evidence of general election tampering. Do the whole goddamn thing over again.

  20. chrisWhite
    Polygons
  21. ardichoke
    King Banana Spanner

    Hear, hear!

    Although the outcome of the election really doesn't matter much given that the supreme leader is the one really in charge, not the president. Also, it's generally accepted that both candidates aren't really that different... then again, maybe this will inflame the Iranian people to the point where they demand a real Democracy?

  22. Snarkasm
    The Photographer.

    And Khamenei's backing Ahmedinnersalad.

    They should do it over so they really get a fire for democracy - then maybe next election, a guy runs on real change and really questions the Supreme Leader. Maybe the people like it. Maybe they start getting what they really want, whatever that ends up being.

  23. chrisWhite
    Polygons

    It's a step in the right direction anyway, if they're going to push for democracy they should at least do it right.

  24. Gargoyle
    We can't stop here...
    [...] then maybe next election, a guy runs on real change and really questions the Supreme Leader. Maybe the people like it. Maybe they start getting what they really want, whatever that ends up being.

    Candidates are vetted before they're allowed to run, so under the current system, I'd be surprised if anyone questioning the establishment would be allowed to run.

  25. Cliff_Forster
    Keepin it real

    I don't want to get too engrossed in a political discussion about what is going on in Iran right now, but I honestly have trouble trusting twitter, or anything else in the US press as a valid point of view pertaining any happenings in the middle east. Don't get me wrong, I think twitter as a way to communicate, and pass on news is interesting, but at the same time, my BS radar is on high alert, and what we have to realize as American's is that we have a very specific interest in that region, and its not all about keeping the peace (though it certainly is in part).

    Say what you want about Ahmadinajab. The man does not like Israel, feels that they have been the aggressors against Palestine, okay, so do many middle eastern Muslims, its a difference in viewpoint, and a battle that have been raging for generations. He is homophobic, okay, many people are, but don't admit it out loud. For the record, I am not condoning that at all, but point being, is that he is honest and candid about his positions, something we can't say about many US politicians that say one thing, and do something else.

    Amadinajab came across the ocean to Columbia University to state his positions, his point of view about the conflict in the middle east, and to express some disgust with US policy, he did also say, "I am not your enemy". We had a golden opportunity to have our leadership sit across from him, discuss the problems in the region, our concerns about how hot things were becoming, and start opening the diplomatic dialouge. Did we? No, instead he visited the college, and when he gave an unpopular answer to a loaded question he got laughed at by a bunch of ignorant college kids too stupid to recognize the opportunity that was right in front of them.

    I'm not saying the election was not rigged, but what I am saying is don't believe every bit of news you get about Iran. Its pretty clear that the US interest is to not see Ahmadinajab in power, and I have a hard time understanding, because despite what his record is, what he has said, what he has done, he at bare minimum had the stones to come to US soil, answer questions and try to make a connection, and we spit on him and sent him back home.

    (searches for flame retardant suit).

  26. Bandrik
    I love golllllld!

    Cliff_Forester, some very good points. I hadn't really thought of it from that aspect. While I'm happy that the Iranians are voicing the opinions and all, I see where you're coming from. I hope it's not too late to go back to the discussion table with Iran...

  27. chrisWhite
    Polygons

    Cliff, excellent points indeed, I hadn't thought about the Twitter bit from that angle. Well said, sir.

  28. Bobby Miller
    The Dean of Computer Graphics

    Cliff, you raise good discussions points.

    My whole problem with this situation isn't so much a question of who Ahmadinajabbie really is, but rather the fact that the Iranian people's voice was squelched, regardless of what their true outcome would have been.

    That bugs me more than anything. Don't claim freedom of voice and democracy and deliver otherwise.

  29. Cliff_Forster
    Keepin it real

    Bandrik, Chris and Bobby,

    You guys are a sincere testament to why Icrontic.com is the best community on the internet. If I go with that comment anywhere else, I get blasted with flame so hot, the Pyro in TF2 would run for cover.

    Like I said, its a seriously interesting development in media, and everyone here knows how much I love twitter, at the same time though, I have to has my BS alert raised to a high level, how much of that "news" can I actually trust? Is it better than the actual press, how many of the posting Iranians are real people, its hard for me to qualify.

    Which raises another question. If twitter is to become a valued source in news, and flow of information, should the company be doing more to verify accounts are genuine, and if they are who they say they are. I see they started this for celebrity accounts, is twitter an extension of the anonymous web? Perhaps that's okay if your just talking about the Jon and Kate split, but if what your doing is forwarding information considered newsworthy, perhaps we all have a right to know where that is coming from, or, the other argument could be made that only serves to squelch their voice even further by not allowing anonymous report.

    Either way, it truly is fascinating, I just am a little skeptical on how accurate the news is on twitter at this point.

  30. chrisWhite
    Polygons

    If I can go off on a little tangent here I read an article this morning about video on internet enabled cell phones and how this is literally "a game changer" and I had some of those exact same arguments as you did Cliff as I considered responding.

    Ignore that the article is iPhone specific, it shouldn't be it doesn't matter what platform as long as it can shoot video, fit in your pocket and be internet enabled, but what's your take on how video will be the next step in a world news centered in laymen journalists who happen to be at the right place in the right time?

    What makes both Twitter and social video increasingly difficult is that there isn't a way of knowing what's total BS, as you said Cliff. In fact, it's easy to spread disinformation strategically too and there's few ways of catching it. Even video's can be faked so easily. How difficult is it to show what looks like a US soldier raping a young women in an Iraq prison with low light and crappy cell phone video to draw international outrage when it was completely faked. Kind of scares me.

    On the other hand, Twitter has some protection built into the system because it is such a socially selective system. Besides Icrontic Twitter seems to be the most troll-free web community I've ever been apart of because Trolls just don't last long and it's easy to spot those trolls and spammers a mile away with dozens of indications, someone reporting bad information will probably loose followers relatively quickly as soon as someone catches on. Now look at YouTube and notice that it breads the exact opposite. If Twitter is okay at recycling the BS then YouTube is the social span of all of these concerns.

    Whowser, that got long, hmm, sorry.

    I agree Cliff, Icrontic is so cool about this stuff. It's so awesome that we can discuss such politically charged topic with everyone being open and respectful here.

  31. ardichoke
    King Banana Spanner

    My only thought on the whole topic of how credible is "news" from Twitter line of discussion is this. What makes the news on TV credible? Any time you're getting news from anywhere you should be attempting to verify that it's the real story, be it from a newspaper, magazine, TV or Twitter. People don't, of course, which is what leads us to discussions like this. If you're not taking the time to try and verify the information you're getting, you're always opening yourself up to being influenced by the sources bias or by the source outright making things up. A key example of that was in the 2000 US presidential campaign when one news outlet ran the "I invented the internet" quote which was a misquote and completely out of context.... everyone ran with it and it helped ruin Al Gore's campaign. What no one covered, of course, was that the newspaper printed a retraction the next day because of the fact that the quote was butchered and taken out of context. If people had actually done some verification and fact-checking, they would have seen that the way the media was covering it was complete BS.... but they didn't, they just accepted it as true because the Mainstream Media said it was true.

  32. Canti
    I totally look like this.

    Bonus points for using Dream Theater.

  33. Bobby Miller
    The Dean of Computer Graphics

    ^5

    That riff is too sick to pass up

Hey, be nice. Icrontic is full of good people, we promise.

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