There, I said it. I'm not watching the Super Bowl. Period.

Let's talk about the Japanese animation industry for a moment. It's... really, really not what it used to be. There's a big misconception outside of Japan that they somehow have a completely accepted "nerd culture" (insamuch as a "nerd culture" exists), because up until today they were very much a huge driving force in the creation of videogames and cartoons.

One of the more frustrating facts about the game industry is it's core conceit of being a fundamentally elitist, hierarchial space where the voices of people not actively participating in "serious" game development are marginalized or dismissed. The word serious is in scarequotes particularly because it's a meaningless distinction based on social class rather than on any form of merit.

Fantranslation.org now has a games section. This is because I'm doing stuff for 1GAM, and my January submission is nearly complete. Said January submission is "Asplodiblox", an uninspired Lumines clone. It's not necessarily finished (no game truely is), but it is playable. Albeit very crude. I didn't say I was a good games developer, now did I?

Account registration now works. It turns out the default Drupal configuration is to disable newly registered accounts and restrict all permissions to administrators. I've changed the registration requirement to e-mail registration, added comment and vote permissions for all users, and closed all accounts created under the old policy. This will give you the opportunity to re-register with your desired username and fulfill the e-mail registration requirement.

Something ticked over the last few days. It could have been some [TW] Maddox videos which hit /r/anticonsumption. Or it could have been long-term memories of the "Mathematically Annoying Advertising" xkcd strip surfacing from my subconcious.

In a UN Bioterror Security Assessment Alliance report, Umbrella Corporation RLLEC, has been found responsible for the outbreak of the "H-Virus", or Holiday Virus. The official 210-page report details "staggeringly obvious" evidence and official terrorism charges against the already scandal-laden corporation. The evidence, collected by senior UN BSAA agent Chris Redfield over the span of several months, details the long and treacherous development period of what many Umbrella employees openly referred to as "Yueltide Flu".

The title of the article pretty much says it point-blank. SEGA is using DMCA takedowns to censor videos relating to Shining Force III, a Sega Saturn JRPG which was only translated in incomplete form and is only now getting a fan translation patch due to the system's extremely obtuse hardware. I'm going to just assume it had something to do with the translation patch, but the videos being taken down are fairly scattershot - even people talking about the game into a webcam with no uncleared music or video or what have you in the video are getting DMCA'd.

For the purpose of this article a "Device Lockout Method" will refer to any means a consumer electronics manufacturer uses to prevent unauthorized use of it's hardware. Manufacturers use device lockout to protect and enhance their business models by ensuring that third parties cannot produce compatible add-on hardware or software without a licensing agreement, and ensuring that end users cannot alter the functionality of the hardware beyond what it is specified to do.

If I am ever put into a management position at a large corporation or institution, I am going to demand the proper title to go alongside it. And I don't mean pithy titles like "Vice President" or "Manager", or even some of that weird "Team Leader" whitewashing that Target loves to do. I demand titles like "Lord", "Duke", or "Baron"; as they are the only titles majestic enough to fit the supreme power and control that a feudal office possesses.