Another blogger posted an article this morning asking if we should be in Iraq, deleting all comments that were not a simple Yes/No answer, not allowing explanation or justification of the answer. I'm not linking the article here because I believe it to be a waste. It's a bad question that oversimplifies a complicated situation and an attempt to eliminate any reasoning and reduce it to a black and white issue where it's always been a dozen different shades of gray at best. Is the presense...

JoeUser... I come before you on a matter of grave import. I come to speak to an issue that threatens the very fabric of our little Universe, our sacred corner of the great Information Superhighway. This is a disease of the mind, one that is highly contagous and is slowly eating away at the moral and intellectual fiber of this great place. You know what I speak of, deep in your hearts you know exactly what this threat is.... Silliness. Yes, that's right, silliness! It comes disguis...

Today, the space shuttle Discovery was supposed to take off, marking the return to flight for NASA after nearly 2 and a half years following the Columbia disaster. It was scrubbed however due to a faulty fuel sensor. I can understand the desire to make sure everything is 100% a-ok, but this is a piece of a larger puzzle we've seen NASA put together over the past 20 or so years. A shift from exploration and experimentation to that of safety and reliability. It makes me wonder if we'll ...

Alright, judging by the little box on the sidebar of this site, I've finally reached the 100th article milestone! One year and 10 months ago, I created my blog here at JoeUser, and at first I didn't post a whole lot, I think it took me something like a year to break the 1k point mark alone. When I was first here I was a minor voice that most didn't pay much attention to, so many of my articles went unnoticed. Which was a shame in my (not so) humble opinion, since I thought I had some damn ...

So, a month ago I wrote about the website Geek 2 Geek , a personals sight targeted at geeks of all sorts. Well, it's been a month, I've spent some time fiddling around with the search and match systems and I've even tried to get ahold of the site operators directly with some questions. Here are my final thoughts on the site: Search Ok, the search just flat-out stinks. You can specify gender, age range and distance from your zip code. Unfortunately something is seriously broken...

I've always had fun creating worlds. I built up complex worlds in my mind for my lego men to adventure in, I drew out elaborate maps of cities and countries when I was little and daydreamed funny stories or adventures that could have taken places in these places. Later I built MUDs, made complex dungeons for other people to run around in. In recent years I would craft complex stories and histories in my mind to match with events in games like GalCiv 1, or Master of Orion 3 since they lacke...

Starting on June 17th, the Mainichi Daily News began reprinting an article dating back from World War II that was never printed, that never made it past US Army censors. It was the account of an American journalist who snuck past MacArthur's prohibition against journalists through luck, and a bit of lieing and became the first journalist to enter the remains of Nagasaki after the atomic bomb had been dropped. This reporter was in the fallout zone days before the American science teams first...

Today, Scott Kurtz, the author of PvP Online a very popular and successful webcomic posted a blog entry below the latest cartoon regarding the Ethics of Depublishing. A blurb from his article: "Depublishing is the practice of posting something to the web, often an inflammatory post to a weblog, then removing the inflammatory parts or deleting the content altogether. "... " People would frequently discover entries they linked to or commented on had suddenly disappeared, or been sub...

Perhaps you read my previous article about the need for Geek Personals sites. Maybe you’re a fellow geek that has had no luck with the likes of eHarmony or Match.com. Maybe you’re just a geek who has trouble finding a date, finding someone who understands and accepts your geekiness without ridicule. Until recently, there was nothing for you. The vast expanse of dating services out there were more about hooking up and going to bars and clubs, leaving the nerds dorks and geeks in the wo...

Welcome to JoeUser Mr./Ms. Liberal. You are about to embark on a wild and crazy journey through the little community on the web we’ve worked so hard to build. As a fellow Liberal-minded person, I feel it is my duty to both welcome you and warn you of what you’re about to get involved in. At first glance, it will look like this is a right-wing run site. It will look like the liberals here have been run off with torches and pitchforks. If you’re way way far out on the left, it will loo...

Yes, that's right... everyone's favorite Big Brother bill of recent memory is slated to be expanded, not cut back like it was supposed to be as time passed. What started out as a law designed to give law enforcement and intelligence agencies a greater amount of leeway in pursuing terrorist activities, and has faced criticism as overstepping basic liberties and freedoms we've come to expect of America is now set to have a fairly scary addition tacked onto it. Fun powers like the FBI being ...

I'm back from Pennsylvania. I took 5 days off work, edged by a long weekend and went home to Central PA. The purpose of my visit was for a wedding. Two of my High School friends (Heather & John) got married on Saturday, June 4th. While that was the reason to travel back, it wasn't all I ended up doing. Sunday: -Got up at an unholy hour and was on the road by 7:30am. Got to State College around 12:30. If I hadn't stopped for gas and gotten lunch I could have tied my travel record of ...

It seems that over the weekend there was a bit of Zoomba impersonating going on. Now, I'm not going to name anyone in this massive fraud that occured.. I'm better than that... I can pull myself above the fray of people competing to be crowned the next Zoomba. I am the alpha and the omega of Zoombas... I was Zoomba before many here had even heard of the Internet. I was the first. There have been others since me, but I *will* be the last. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE ZOOMBA!

It seems that over the weekend there was a bit of Zoomba impersonating going on. Now, I'm not going to name anyone in this massive fraud that occured.. I'm better than that... I can pull myself above the fray of people competing to be crowned the next Zoomba. I am the alpha and the omega of Zoombas... I was Zoomba before many here had even heard of the Internet. I was the first. There have been others since me, but I *will* be the last. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE ZOOMBA!

Here you go Doc I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. I will not disrespect my elders. ...