Just my luck. Three days out from the Morocco stop on the Men From Sky World Tour and I discover that my trusty old digital camera has gone kaput. Oh, it still works, sure, but every photo is almost entirely white. It doesn’t seem to be a configuration or software problem, either. I imagine the CCD got damaged somewhere in the last few weeks of travel.

Sigh. I’ve not enough cash on hand to comfortably go out and buy a new one either, so I’ll be at the mercy of my traveling companions for photographic evidence of our misadventures.

At least I now have a better excuse for not doing any more photojournalism of Georgia.

This isn’t a debate I normally want to get deep into - I had enough of that shit when I was, oh, fifteen - but there’s an interview with Alex St. John (he made DirectX) up on ExtremeTech that’s worth reading, viz. Consoles as We Know Them are Gone. Also, Part the Second, Vista Blows.

The interesting bits here, aside from the obvious Nerdrage Against The Machine, are the comments that WoW is only successful because of community, that consoles attempting to provide community features will fail at the attempt, and that consoles are primarily Orwellian DRM Nightmares made Flesh PCB. There’s also some grist about onboard video chips.

Most of these are stances I don’t necessarily agree with, aside from the tautological first statement, but it’s an interesting take from a rather knowledgeable individual. That said, I think he’s missing a few things, especially the massive added value of Convenience that consoles serve up.

And boy, do we consumers love paying for convenience. Just ask the CEO of McDonald’s. That is, if he can hear your inquiry through four-foot walls of solid, engraved gold.

Via F13.