Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Draginol's Articles » Page 11
August 17, 2012 by Draginol
Real-time game streaming service, OnLive was a phenomenon when it debuted a couple years ago.  I think my precise opinion of it was “It’s doomed”.  More nuanced comments can be found here: http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/03/25/stardock-ceo-speaks-about-onlive/ My opinion hasn’t changed on it even though it is a marvelous technology. I was hoping they’d got bought out or something to be incorporated as part of a larger solution. See more here: http://mashable.com/2012...
August 17, 2012 by Draginol
The more well known you are, the less control one has over the narrative. That’s why those who try to “leak” things to the media or try to manipulate the media narrative are playing with fire.  Most situations situations are fairly boring. Boring doesn’t generate page views. As a result, there is a tendency to spice those headlines up. Brad: The Narrative To use myself as an example, here are some facts vs. narratives I’ve read. Issue Narrative ...
August 17, 2012 by Draginol
If I knew then what I know now… Recently on my favorite non-Stardock site, Quarter to Three we celebrated its 10 year anniversary.  10 years ago was before Galactic Civilizations (for Windows), Sins of a Solar Empire, ObjectDock, Fences, Tiles, Demigod, etc. So what was my biggest internet activity 10 years ago and before? Moderating our forums.  I also was a moderator of Neowin.net’s forums when it started out. And let me tell you, nothing creates long-term animosity ...
August 16, 2012 by Draginol
  Freshly installed over my Windows 7 system.  Normally I would do a full rebuild but most people who are upgrading aren’t going to do that. Remembering the experience formerly known as Metro: First Impressions A lot of tools are now very difficult to find.  I can’t find the event viewer. Typing it in the search area brings up nothing.  In fact, uninstalling things is actually quite a pain because now you have to first go to control panel...
August 16, 2012 by Draginol
I used to have more time to blog. Then I had kids.  Here’s a random stream of consciousness. Wish I had something handy to clean my keyboard. I love these old Dell keyboards but it might be time to get a new one. Seen a lot of articles about lawsuits lately. It’s a shame people don’t read the actual filings and instead focus on the sensational, misleading, headline. Speaking of lawsuits, if you operate an IP-based company, lawsuits are daily life unfortunately. IP lawsui...
August 15, 2012 by Draginol
For those of you who have an MSDN subscription, Windows 8 (the RTM build) is now available.  Have you tried it? If so, what’s the verdict? I’ll have my thoughts later this week.
August 7, 2012 by Draginol
Sometimes the local politics of Higgins Lake Michigan can be very frustrating.  The latest example has to be the "save the dam" advocates. Briefly, MSU in cooperation with the DNR are conducting a study of the effect the dam has on Higgins Lake. The dam is used to help control the lake water level. Many decades ago, a dam was put on the lake to keep the water level high enough to use the lake effectively for for boats. As more people bought cottages on the lake, the demand to raise th...
August 5, 2012 by Draginol
Just curious, how serious would you take the views of someone who made their money by winning the lottery when it comes to economics and business? So picture this, 40 some year old couple with a yearly household income of around $200k suddenly has a windfall of over a million dollars in one year. Not from their job. Not from a business. Not from meeting some life long goal. The money just suddenly showed up. What do you think their attitude would be towards other people who were rich? ...
August 5, 2012 by Draginol
I see a lot of people in politics support the concept of "local control".  But as a dogma, it falls apart at a certain point. Let me present you the example of Higgins Lake, Michigan. Higgins Lake is a beautiful lake in the northern part of the lower peninsula. It has two large state parks, a couple first class marinas and several public boat launches.  The lake itself is beautiful. Shallow and sandy by the shore and very deep (over 100 feet deep) in the middle. So what problems ...
July 27, 2012 by Draginol
Around a campfire tonight my 5 year old daughter started singing to the moon. It went something like this: I love you moon I wish you were part of my family I love you moon If I could breath in space I would run out and hug you I love you moon If you were a human I would kiss you on the cheek I love you moon I wish you could live with us or at least near the sun But I wouldn't look directly at you if you were too close to it  Because it would make me go...
July 27, 2012 by Draginol
So why do people demonize companies that outsource to China but it's perfectly acceptable for individuals to go and buy things made in China? Next time someone wants to rant about company X outsourcing, they should, at least, start trying to buy American if they feel that way.
July 27, 2012 by Draginol
As some of you know, I'm politically conservative.  This is fairly meaningless since my interest in politics is much like my interest in professional Starcraft. I'm kinda interested and follow it probably more than is healthy but I don't get particularly fired up about it. But I do like to debate. I will debate anything, no matter how mind numbing.  I am thinking that this is why I tend to have mostly liberal friends. I enjoy talking to people who disagree with my views ...
July 17, 2012 by Draginol
I'm told that my interview with Wired magazine regarding the death of Steve Jobs is scheduled to show up in the August issue of Wired.  Keep an eye out! 
July 17, 2012 by Draginol
In a recent speech Obama made the statement that implied business owners didn't build their businesses -- "someone else made that happen" I'm going to put the full text and context of what was said because I've seen left-wing writers trying to diminish what Obama said by claiming it was taken out of context. So here's the full context: I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It...
June 28, 2012 by Draginol
No promises…but I am lobbying for an in-game quest editor to make it relatively easy to create quests and events.