At home, once I've finished up "productive computer time" on tasks such as homework, the obligatory check in with social sites, and a few minutes in the "Free" section of Craigslist looking for cool stuff to make my girlfriend roll her eyes, it's time for Aimless Surfing. For me, this usually starts at www.cracked.com, though be warned some of the content is Not Safe For Work.
Hosting a range of lists, forums, and other assorted online tomfoolery, what keeps me returning is the articles. These can be on anything from new movies, disturbing internet trends, behavior trends, or news in the scientific community. Not every article is a winner, but it definitely bats over .500.
In what found to be an excellent piece of writing, one of the regular contributors posted an article titled "The 4 Types of People on Welfare Nobody Talks About". In it, the author uses a number of personal experiences and external statistics to describe how while the discussion around the role government should play in providing a safety net is in full swing, there are a number of people that are affected by this that often get lost in the rhetoric. These groups aren't making the headlines, but they are a large part of what will drive opinions on the subject...publicly or not.
After the Cracked overview is done, it's on to technology. Though it's part of my day job, keeping up to speed on new equipment is a great way for me to kill a few hours. A hot topic of conversation in the gaming world these days is the recently-unveiled Xbox One, Microsoft's next generation game/entertainment console. While a new console is big news by itself, what's been released about its usability is generating even more conversation.
A recent Forbes article gathered a number of the complaints into a single location, but the list seems pretty draconian. You need to be online on a regular basis. Games will be registered to your account. The used games market will likely be greatly curtailed for Xbox One games, if it even exists at all. While these may not be deal breakers for the majority of gamers who just "have to have" the next cool toy, there are a lot of people who can't afford paying new prices, in addition to being linked to a hgh-speed connection on a regular basis.
It's starting to sound a lot like the welfare debate.
Both the federal government and Microsoft are theoretically beholden to the people they work for; be the constituents or customers. However, with these situations (and in many others, it seems), both groups seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that a large number of the people they purport to represent have fallen by the wayside of their current strategy...and that seems okay.
Ignoring the social stigma of children on welfare, or the potential impacts to the $2 billion used game industry might seem like the costs of doing business. However, these seemingly ancillary groups have a much broader, long-term impact on their respective debates than the debate moderators seem to realize. As frustration or outrage over these slights (real or perceived) continues to mount, time will tell whether those moderators will find their current practices sustainable for the long term.
Blog Topic #2
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