The Fighting Swine

For anybody who might still be checking/following me:

John's MCOM 225 Blog is officially retired - but don't worry. My blogging interests have been transferred to a new location: thefightingswine.blogspot.com. Check it out!

The electric car: its about time.

Just like every American, I hate filling up my car. It's painful, especially yesterday when I spent over $60 to top off my 14 mpg Ford Explorer.

My car runs just fine, but my wallet doesn't.

I want to take you back to 1995. I'm sitting restlessly in my wooden desk chair in the third grade, and my teacher hands me a science newsletter for 8-year-olds.

The headline article outlined the introduction of the electric car, which would be unveiled in California in 1997. It sounded cool, but I didn't think much of it, and I probably stuffed the newsletter in my Ninja Turtles backpack before I went home to spend my daily two hours with my Legos.

My question is - What the heck happened? Its 2008!

This article on CNET gives me another empty promise for an electric car unveiling by Audi within 10 years.

Seriously?

I haven't watched "Who Killed the Electric Car?" but I would assume that there are some good points in its script.

The point here is that the U.S. is like the college student of the international society. We haven't done our homework until it needs to be done. We procrastinate important things until we actually have no choice. I feel that the need for the electric car will come sooner than we expect, and we shouldn't be listening to the oil companies when we should be innovating and overcoming our oil-thirsty habits.

I'm not a green person. I'm not saying I shouldn't be, but I think that we need to stop being so naive about global warming and stuff. Let's do our homework and fix this damn thing.

Thanks for reading.

One step towards organizing the online photo mess

Here's my view: the online organization of photos is a mess. I didn't say it was bad, I just think it is disorganized with no standards or structure, and it confuses me.

A long time ago, I stopped uploading photos to Facebook because I feel that it's cumbersome, and it reduces the quality of my photos.

Now, there are zillions of websites in which you can store your favorite photos, but finding the right one is a headache for me, because I like easy-to-use quality standards, and I like knowing that what I'm using is the best for me.

Somebody needs to write a short and easy-to-read book on photo sites, and how people should design and use them.

One thing that makes me feel better about this issue is new innovations in online photo organization, such as geotagging, which is helping Microsoft keep its head above the water.

Google Earth is really cool because its a big map, and it's easy to use. Many online photo services are not easy to use. Solution? Put photos on a map. This is geotagging.

Hopefully someday I can get my own photography in the right place on the web. I am confident that soon this will be easier to do.

Thanks for reading.

My second video project

Personalities of The Collegian
by Johnathon R. Nelson

A guilty pleasure.

In a typical day as a freshman in college, I would spend about 4 hours in class, 1 hour studying, 1 hour eating, and around 5 hours playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

It was (and still is) nothing to brag about to mom or the girlfriend.

What intrigues me about the "GTA" game series is the wide contrast of reviews that it gets. People hate it and people love it. Its controversial, yes, I'll admit that my pastor would probably disapprove of my playing it.

I both love and hate it.

I've been video-game-free for about 2 years now. I went cold-turkey when I moved out of the dorms. Nowadays, my PS2 gets to play the Deadwood series from HBO.

Farhaad Manjoo's article about the new "GTA IV" illustrates the point very well. The GTA games are very well designed and produced, and therefore people will play them without a guilty conscience. They don't play them because they are violent or controversial, they play them because they look cool, and because they are simply fun to play. If somebody made a really cool video game about anything that looked cool and was really fun to play, I would probably play it.

Rockstar pushes the limits with these games for attention, not to simply be obnoxious and offensive. It is up to the gamers to decide what is right and what is wrong in the real world, where it really matters.

Thanks for reading.

A beer finder for NYC, what about BRKGS?

I found this interesting article on CNET about a new web service that finds your favorite beer on tap. For beer lovers, this is heaven on the internet. The catch: it's only for New York City. Don't get me wrong - I think this is a very cool thing. It looks simple to use, and I can see it expanding very quickly beyond NYC's city limits.

I want this for Brookings, S.D., not only for myself but for my good friend, The College Connoisseur, who bases his weekly column on beer reviews. This service would facilitate the progressive enjoyment of all things brewy in Brookings, and it would also make The College Connoisseur's job much easier, as the list of specialty beers in Brookings is quite abbreviated in comparison with larger urban areas.

I'll admit, I am no expert on beer - I simply drink what tastes good. If you want to learn about beer, visit The College Connoisseur.

All in all, I think that websites like this are among the most useful for internet users. They are simple, easy to use, and provide a good purposeful service.

Drink responsibly. Don't drink and drive.

Thanks for reading.

The internet is too big.

Back in the post-Cold War days, the internet was created for national security. Now, as any newborn can tell you, it is something way beyond nukes from Russia.

I read this interesting article from TechCrunch about the way we should be searching the web in the future. The growth of the internet obviously has big implications, but instead of waiting for more idiots to take up space with terabytes of porn, why don't we do something? We, as a united world of web users (I know, scary, huh?) need to (prepare for preachyness) decide what we really need on the internet so that it doesn't get too expansive for our own purposes.

I'll be honest. I really don't know that much about the urgency of this subject, but I, like everybody else, do not want to see the lights go out on the internet someday. I like watching videos of a random dude's cat on a ping pong table.