I don't really like Star Trek. I mean, it's okay. But I don't go out of my way to watch it. Never have. But you wouldn't know that from walking into my house. I have an entire bookshelf full of Star Trek books (that I've never read) and tucked away are various Star Trek ornaments, toys, holograms, and other Star Trek junk. So if I don't like Star Trek, how come I have all this Star Trek stuff? Simple: People give them to me as gifts. Here's how it works - I'm a nerdy guy. I mean, my job i...

Before there were blogs there was Usenet and before Usenet there were BBSes. And from the very start, there have always been hyper-aggressive people who take out their own personal frustrations on the world at large. There aren't many of them, but there doesn't have to be. Just the few that are out there are enough to bring grief to other people. Being on-line as much as I am, using my real name, has made me a target of griefers over the years. When I ran BBSes 15 years ago, I occasionally ha...

In our upcoming game, The Political Machine, the candidates must occasionally do interviews with the press.  Coming up with questions is not that hard. Coming up with thoughtful answers is harder.  So we've decided to let users have a crack at it. Here is our first batch of 5 questions. If you were a Presidential candidate and had to answer in less than say 500 words (i.e. BRIEF answers) how would you answer these questions? Also, answers cannot reference the current President (or "...

In many ways, JoeUser is an experiement. It is the only blog site on the Internet that combines the strengths of all the individual bloggers together. When you make a post or comment on someone blog, it is distributed across the thousands of blogs here on this site. And, because JoeUser.com is so popular, your article is likely to get picked up on search engines. Which, needless to say, creates a temptation for abuse. People who intentionally try to humiliate others by taking advantage of the...

In The Political Machine we are creating a PC strategy game in which players run for President. But no game would be complete without your candidate having to go on TV and answer "tough" questions. Not only do these questions make the player have to answer real world questions, but they help make players understand why politicians "spin" the truth. We've put together two editors that we use internally to build these TV interviews. The first one is called the Issue Editor. In it, we create pol...

Over the months I've been playing WoW I've learned a lot of useful things that have greatly improved the game experience. Let me first say that WoW doesn't assume you've ever played a massive multiplayer game. There is jargon in the game at higher levels but by then you know it. And most of the jargon is really just slang.  For instance, "Tanks" refer to fighters who have no ranged weapons who are covered with armor. It makes sense because you start to feel like a tank as you go up in l...

When I first got into the alpha of World of Warcraft I quickly concluded that keyboard commands and hotkeys would not cut it when it came to on-line communication. My friend here at Stardock who is also on the alpha introduced me to Ventrillo: http://www.ventrilo.com Ventrillo is a voice chat system. It's like IRC but with voice. I assigned my Ctrl key as the hot key to let me talk. I just have a microphone on my desktop and talk to the other members of my guild. It's a great way of comm...

http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2004_03_14.PHP#001868 The hatred towards George Bush and Republicans in general has certainly increased since the 2000 election. I visit a lot of websites during the week and while I see a lot of idealogues on the right, there is no right-wing equivalent to Democratic-underground. Even here on JoeUser, the tolerenace for the right by those on the left seems to be problematic, at best. I have seen people argue that this site is right-wing. Why? I...

According to the US Department of Labor , about 55% of Americans are employed by small businesses. That is, companies with fewer than 50 employees total. And while I don't have the statistics handy, something like 70% of Americans are employed by companies with fewer than 1000 employees. This is important when one considers who to vote for in the next election. John Kerry has stated that he will raise the taxes on those who make more than $200,000 in income yearly. He is counting on people t...

One of my pet peeves is when people try to demonize others for lacking any sort of restraint or tolerance even as they count on their opponent's restraint and tolerance to be able to say what they say. For example, one of the cries I hear coming out of Europe these days, particularly from France, is that the "Bush's" United States is the greatest threat mankind has faced. There are many variations on this charge some equally melodramatic, others more specific. Another example is the...

So you want to customize Windows XP but you don't want to have to pay much, if any money to do it. This guide will help you figure out how to change your Windows set and how much it'll cost using Stardock's software. Functionality Program Cost Changing your Windows XP boot screen BootSkin Free Changing your Windows XP logon screen LogonStudio Free Changing your Windows XP mouse cursors CursorXP Free Add a dock to your...

After my dismal experience with Ultima On-line years ago, I never thought I would ever play another MMRPG, let alone get addicted to one. Especially one in alpha. But that's exactly what has happened since I got involved with World of Warcraft. It's very addictive. But at the same time, the game does make the parody of MMRPG's, known as Progress Quest  all that much truer. So what makes it so fun and addictive for me? The environment, the monsters, the graphics, and yes, the progres...

During the alpha of World of Warcraft one thing everyone noticed: Nearly all the players were nice people. I don't mean just friendly, but really nice. Will this be something that continues into the beta and beyond? I don't have my hopes up too high but I hope so. What are some of the rules of netiquette in the world of warcraft? Don't "kill steal". The first person to attack a creature gets that creature. Don't come in and start attacking it unless they ask for help OR if it looks lik...

For the past few months I've been part of Blizzard's World of Warcraft Alpha test. I haven't been able to talk about it since I was under NDA. But now the NDA has been lifted and I can now talk freely. So I've created this new blog here on JoeUser.com to talk about the game and my experiences with it.

I'm a snob. I admit it. I've always been a snob to a certain level. My snobbery, however, is specific. I enjoy debating with people. To debate with people, you have to have people who don't agree with your positions. So I definitely like people who disagree with me feeling free to disagree with me. But like I said, I'm also a snob. And that means I don't have much toleration for noise. Being a snob means I tend to be rude when confronted with people who waste my time. If, having written a len...