After another full week away, I have returned to address the masses. Well alright, there is nothing massive about this blog's following but those who are following are important people indeed.

Before I rant about my topic of choice, I'd like to offer high-fives to a few fellow bloggers for a week of excellent reading. The first goes to Lina for putting a piece of herself out there for the world to see. The second is to Heidi for a series of truly entertaining posts from the Land of Chocolate. The third goes to the always excellent Bryan for his fierce political chutzpah over the last few weeks. That's dangerous thinking dude, you might accidentally get something changed. Also, B has a new format that looks positively dashing.

And now for something completely different...

Apparently Microsoft is going back to court. Again. This time, they get to visit the Nebraska Supreme Court and defend themselves against a lawsuit that alleges that the IT giant used its amazing powers of monopolization to overcharge customers for Windows. My reaction is frankly: WTF?!

Does this make sense to anyone else out there? Why on Earth are the Americans always making themselves look like dumbasses? I just don't get it. Off the top of my head, I'd like to talk about a few of the reasons why this is just totally absurd.

Firstly, where does this Monopoly business come from? The last time I checked, Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on anything. There are competitors out there, and most are quite readily available. You can pick up any flavour of Linux for your PC for absolutely no charge and use their freeoffice suite. Also, there are Windows emulators that run on top of Linux and Unix that allow users to run Windows programs. Did I mention that it's all free? If you're into paying for stuff, there's always the Mac option which is not such a bad option for certain uses. It's not really office material, but it's a fine choice for anyone that is pursuing graphic design and related fields. So if the consumer has a clear choice of which product to invest in, how exactly does Microsoft have a monopoly?

Secondly, even if M$ did have a monopoly (see above) it would clearly be the doing of the people. That's right, I said M$ (read em-cha-ching). If Joe Q. Nerd is concerned with the big, bad company having too much market share he shouldn't have bought those copies of Windows, Office, and Age of Empires II. Oh wait, he wanted to use quality software that he knew would provide him with what he needed. So Mr. Nerd went out and bought the software he desired from Microsoft then turned around, punched Bill Gates in the stomach, and bit the hand that fed him.

I, for one think the M$ nickname pinpoints exactly what the problem is here. Microsoft is a massive, progressive, and incredibly profitable company. In fact, Microsoft might just be too profitable for the collective American comfort zone. Yes, I think Microsoft has hit the point in the public eye that causes American hypocrisy to rear his ugly head. That is to say that the one nation that relies on capitalism the most is afraid that their own system might somehow enslave them to Bill Gates.

Microsoft must have enough money to buy out every IT company in America save for IBM. Actually, they probably have enough money to outright purchase the souls of every American citizen and still have enough for Mr. Gates to grab a bite at Subway. However, they haven't gone out and done either of those things yet. My guess is that they probably won't ever do either although the latter would be pretty entertaining to observe.

So why the hubbub? It's because they could if they wanted to. It's because they are the ultimate capitalists. More than anything though, it's because it's public knowledge. Wal-Mart is a hojillion times more profitable than Microsoft, but nobody is clamoring for their heads on a pole. I mean, Wal-Mart's fortune is public knowledge as well, but America is obviously either ignorant to that information or too focused on bringing down the pinnacle of everything they stand for.

I say screw the whales, let's save Microsoft.

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)

After a full week of housesitting, I have returned for a night. I don't really have to be up early tomorrow so I figured that I'd come and spend a night here and shoot you all an update. Of course, I'm back to the grandparent's tomorrow and for the remainder of the week.

As promised, today I have a special piece of fan mail to share. Let's get right to it!

> Hey King Koop,
>
> Wow, two of your blogs have been dedicated to fan mail. And of the TONS of fan mail you
> probably receive, BOTH times you answer MY fan mail. How cool is that? Am I your favorite
> fan, or do all of the other fan-mail e-mails suck? I suppose that all of the fan mail you
> receive is top-notch, but my fan-mail is just one step above the rest. I must sned you the
> bestest written, most grammitacally kerrect e-mails to be given such an honour. Thanks King.
>
> You're bestest fan,
>
> Burtonium

I always love to hear from my devoted fan, especially from one so articulate and gramatically awesome. Very clever, riddling that last sentance with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors to emphasize the flawlessness of the preceding verbiage. Well played, Burtonium. Well played indeed.

To answer your question though, most of my fan mail does suck. In fact, it's so sucky that it's almost as if it doesn't exist. If you think about it that way, my fan mail is kind of like Ricky Martin. Somehow he also found a way to be so utterly crappy that he simply ceased to be. I'm sure Ricky Martin and my fan mail are all hanging out in limbo with the likes of Pauley Shore and Lionel Richie. Sources report that they're all drinking Yop, too.

So there you have it. I'm not sure what exactly you have, but it's definately right out there on display. Look at that. It's all up in yo' face.

I'll be back in a few days with something random and probably very, very boring.

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)

It's been over a week since I've had the opportunity to address my dozens [Hurray for wishful thinking! -ed.] of fans out there. My apologies, but I'm sure that at least one good excuse follows.

The past week has been crazy with me on housesitting duty for my grandparents and trying to balance the rest of life out. Unfortunately, I have no computer at all while I'm staying there and that has made posting rather difficult. I do, however, have access to a vehicle now so I'm not as upset about the trade-off as I usually would be.

I am absolutely positive that there exists some sort of quantum space link between the two computers on my home network. It's as if they are trying to occupy the same physical space, because there has never been a moment where both machines are running at the same time. In the most recent entry to my ever-growing computer chronicle, I was able to fix the crappy machine in time to replace the good one when the motherboard shorted out the other day. Looks like I'll have to hold off playing City of Heroes, Total Club Manager 2004, WC3: Frozen Throne, and Unreal 2 until I can get a working mobo sent by Leadtek.

Soccer has also been taking up some time lately. The men's team still sits in dead last place although we are certainly playing better with each game. There's certainly no shortage of good soccer being played and the games are definately entertaining for those watching. On the other hand, the co-ed team affectionately named Yo' Mama is practically unstoppable as of late. We haven't lost in some time and are only one point out of first place, which we intend on making up in the next game against the leaders. We are certainly playing beyond anyone's expectations and are going into the most important match of the season on an incredible high. I myself have hit the form that I've been looking for, having scored six times in the last two matches (men's and co-ed).

So that's what's going on in my life right now. My next post shouldn't be more than a few days away as I have another piece of fan mail that I'd like to share.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)

I'd like to send a shout out to MacDaddy B, who somehow has stumbled his way back online. Feels like coming home, doesn't it?

Privacy has been running amok in the press as of late and everyone is getting in on this. B (as previously mentioned) just finished posting on the latest P2P filesharing issue. Apparently the Federal Court has released the usernames and IP addresses of 29 individuals who are sharing too many mp3s. This IP tracking is stirring the issue and causing people to throw their arms up in anger, sound alarms, and call it a blatant disregard for privacy.

I, for one, don't think this is a disregard for privacy at all. You sign on with an ISP voluntarily and agree to their terms. It's not like anyone holds a gun to your head and forces you to go online and sign these agreements. In fact, they will attest that they are not responsible for the action taken by their clients. This forces the responsibility on those who truly deserve it - the file sharers and the pirates. It's a smart and necessary legal action taken by ISPs if you ask me.

Legally, ISPs must track the actions going on within their network. A few have been nailed in the past for negligence and the industry has become a lot more strict because of it. To be able to reap all the rewards of the Internet and still remain anonymous in one's actions is a completely ludicrous thought. It would be like someone coming to my store, trading in some product, and refusing an ID check. It's happened before and we have a standard responses to this: "I'm sorry, but if you want our money we need to know who you are."

Keep in mind that when online, your IP address is your identity. If the government looks at records that indicate that someone's doing illegal things, I should hope they would pin them down for it. The same goes for online actions. If someone's IP address appears on a list of notorious file sharers and pirates, they should be nailed to the wall if the situation checks out. They shouldn't be arrested or investigated without a search warrant, but this information should be enough to get one.

I realize that it's not a perfect system for tracking. Routers and such will block true IPs from getting out and this causes a problem in determining exactly who has broken the law. Perhaps this calls for a change in protocol so that tracking is made easier and more accurate. Technology adapts to new problems, and I'm sure this one will be solved by a change in the way we identify ourselves online.

In the case of a drive up on a "hot spot" in a wireless network, the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the administrators. Certainly, the word is out that wireless is not very secure. Most of the time, wireless is not required and is simply out of convenience. Although it is convenient, it's a matter of risk versus reward. If you get into wireless networking, you need to be aware that these things can happen. It's simple common sense, really.

If you ask me, online privacy is overrated. If we had complete privacy, we wouldn't be able to track down software pirates. We wouldn't be able to search out pedophiles who trade child pornography. We wouldn't be able to search out sex offenders on the net. Anonymity is a dangerous concept, and there simply must be a governing body with methods to pinpoint criminal actions.

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)

Alright, it's time for a post since it's been over a week now since the last one. Somehow, I ran out of interesting thoughts last week and couldn't conjure up a decent topic. Of course, I'm not claiming that today's is wonderful either. Some of you will enjoy this, and others will probably think it's the most shallow and geeky thing you've ever heard.

There, I've warned you. Read on if you want to hear how geeky I can get.

For years now, fans of Marvel comics have been crying into their milk because the Avengers (the main superteam in the Marvel Universe) are vastly underpowered in comparison to the Justice League of America (their DC counterpart). There have been many discussions on how the Avengers could possibly scrape out a win over the JLA, but every one of them ends in the JLA beating the tar out of the Marvel guys.

I've been playing a little game lately called City of Heroes and ran into a neat poll on the forums. They proposed that the Marvel team upped the stakes by splicing two teams together to make a Marvel elite superteam, much like the JLA is already. We'll be joining the Avengers with the Defenders for this discussion and keeping to seven members a piece. For the record, these teams have joined forces before so this isn't just coming out of the blue.

So the rosters are...

JLA - Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman
Team Marvel - Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Silver Surfer, The Hulk, Dr. Strange, and Namor

The best way to go about this is with seven good matchups and see who comes out on top...

Match 1: Superman vs. Thor
Though they are probably matched equally in strength, Supes has a tendency to "cut loose" and deal out ass-kickings of magnificent proportions. Thor is a bit more conservative but he has an ace up his sleeve. There are only two things in the universe that can hurt Superman - kryptonite and magic. It just so happens that Thor is wields a big-ass magical hammer. A half dozen good whacks with Mjolnir would do the trick and leave the God of Thunder standing... but barely.
Team Marvel 1, JLA 0.

Match 2: Batman vs. Captain America
In a encounter of scrapping tacticians, both are pretty evenly matched in physical skill. Cap can probably outlast Batman but the Dark Knight is so damn smart. In a tough call, I pick Batman.
Team Marvel 1, JLA 1.

Match 3: Iron Man vs. Martian Manhunter
This is probably the toughest match to call because I'm trying to stay neutral in my opinions. Iron Man has speed, strength, flight, and energy blasts, but Martian Manhunter has some weird powers like the ability to become intangible and heat vision. In the end, I can't choose a winner and think they'd probably fight until the cows came home anyway. No points awarded here.
Team Marvel 1, JLA 1.

Match 4: Silver Surfer vs. Green Lantern
Indeed the Lantern wields one of the most powerful things in the DC Universe - his ring. However, the Silver Surfer is one of the most powerful things in the Marvel Universe and can pretty much do whatever he wants. When it comes down to it, the Surfer would have two choices: blast the hell out of everything the Lantern creates with the ring or rearrange the atoms in the Lantern's body to make him resemble a claw shrimp. Either way, the Surfer has it wrapped up.
Team Marvel 2, JLA 1.

Match 5: The Hulk vs. Wonder Woman
Erm, is this fair? Hulk smash puny woman. Oh wait, she's got an invisible jet plane and a lasso from the Gods. Let me rethink this... Hulk smash puny plane and use lasso as dental floss.
Team Marvel 3, JLA 1.

Match 6: Dr. Strange vs. The Flash
Back in the silver age, this would have been Dr. Strange all the way. Nowadays though, The Flash is crazy powerful and does really weird stuff on a regular basis. Strange could put up a challenge if he was allowed to cast some spells, but The Flash would probably put him out before he gets two syllables into an incantation. And if he didn't have the chance to stop him, Flash would probably just run backward through time or some shit and try all over again.
Team Marvel 3, JLA 2.

Match 7: Namor vs. Aquaman
So the whole things boils down to this obvious matchup. In one corner we have the oldest Marvel hero in Namor, King of Atlantis. In the other we have Aquaman, who talks to fish and has a harpoon on his hand. Aquaman would need to enlist the help of every shark on Earth to stop Namor from beating his ass all over the ocean and even then it would only delay the inevitable for five minutes. I would say that Namor could keep the harpoon as a trophy but he probably has a bunch of those anyway... since he lives in the ocean and all.
Team Marvel 4, JLA 2.

So there we have it! Finally, a respectable showing from Marvel to walk out 4-2 victors. The great thing is, you can't even add members to DC's list to make them more dangerous. Not Hawkman, not Red Tornado, and not even Robin could stop this train. Holy awesome.

I'll have a less shallow post up in a few days for those of you who are utterly terrified by today's discussion. Until then, strength.

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)