School Shootings: The Blood Is On Your Hands, America

One of the gifts of Asperger’s syndrome is that I’m not beholden to social regulations. I break them regularly and without any effort. When it comes to America’s growing past time of school shootings, this gift may come in use.

When I was a little kid, I was forced to transfer from View Ridge Elementary in Seattle to Meany Middle School, then a school located in the heart of Seattle and home to the historically second largest group of Black Panthers in the country. The bullying was so intense that I simply stopped going to school. I started going back, to a different school, the next year but in retrospect I should have just stayed at home. I would have been much happier then being placed in another taxpayer funded hellhole where children are regularly abused and then treated like psychopaths when they lash back.

If you wonder why so many children who have been bullied end up going loco, don’t blame guns. Those are just tools. They could be using knives, hammers, fists, chairs or bricks and the anger would be the same. Blame yourself for not listening. Blame yourself for only thinking about bullying now, after a wave of gay suicides, when the Columbine School Massacre happened eleven years ago.

How many more shootings in how many more American towns and cities do you need until people start to think, “Wow, maybe there is something about our schools that makes people lose their minds.”

Why do you think the rapper Eminem is so popular? Check out his latest video, “No Love.” In it, a child lashes out at his tormentors just as many others have, only using his fists and feet instead of guns:

Believe me, Marshall Mathers is speaking for alot of people in that video, yours truly including. That video is meant for you to cheer on as the bullied child beats the hell out of his tormentors and best believe I cheered him on when I watched it.

My upcoming autism book will detail in full the bullying I experienced. I’m not against collectively funded education (like taxpayer funded online courses for homeschoolers) but, if I ever have children, there is no way in a frozen hell that I am sending my children to a brick and mortar school, public or private (the latter of which my children could very well end up under the abusive guidance of a Catholic priest). You see, unlike the rest of this sick society, I care too much about the well-being of children to do that.

Big 3 console makers offer slew of extras for broadband users web site best web browser

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) January 1, 2009 | Hiawatha Bray Tech Lab It’s one week later, and by now the initial buzz of your Christmas gifts has begun to fade. Even the thrill of that new video game console has lost its edge.

Perhaps you should spend less time blasting bad guys and more time hanging out online. The three top video game consoles – Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Co.’s Wii – each offer a variety of extras for users who plug them into a broadband Internet connection.

The Nintendo Wii doesn’t even need plugging in. Unlike the PS 3 and Xbox 360, the Wii includes built-in Wi-Fi networking, compatible with standard wireless Internet routers. You can play games against online rivals free of charge. But while more than 100 PS 3 games offer online play, as do more than 350 Xbox games, only about three dozen Wii games allow for Internet competition.

Still, you’ll also get built-in news and weather channels, so you can get caught up on current events in just a few minutes. Old- school Nintendo buffs can visit the Wii Shop Channel and purchase classic games from the past, like Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. You pay with a “points” system. Using a credit card, you buy a bundle of points, priced at $10 per 1,000 points. Games are generally priced at 500 to 1,500 points.

The Wii features by far the best Web browser yet developed for use with a living room TV. Nintendo hooked up with the Norwegian firm Opera Software ASA to build the browser, but saddled it with a confusing name: the Internet Channel. Besides, at a time when Web browsers are usually free, Nintendo charges 500 points, or $5, for this one.

Spend the money. You’ll get a Web browser that’s easily managed through the Wii’s elegant wireless game controller. And unlike earlier living room browsers – do you remember Microsoft’s ill- fated WebTV service? – you can read Web pages fairly well, even when seated on a sofa 15 feet away.

By contrast, Microsoft hasn’t bothered with a browser for its Xbox 360 console, and you’ll find no news or weather feeds, either. Still, Microsoft’s Xbox Live is rightly considered the classiest online gaming service of them all. It had better be – Microsoft charges $50 a year for full access; with Nintendo and Sony, hooking up is free.

So what are Xbox Live subscribers getting for their money? A whole lot of movies, for one thing. Until recently, members had to pay $4 to download and watch a movie, but Microsoft’s recent upgrade of Xbox Live includes a partnership with the movies-by-mail rental company Netflix.

Last year, Netflix began selling a little black box that let subscribers stream movies directly over the Internet. Now the same capability has been added to the Xbox 360. Xbox Live subscribers who also subscribe to Netflix can fire up the game console and start watching full-length movies on demand – as many as they want, whenever they want. Only about 12,000 movies are presently available, many of them ancient or awful, and only about 300 are in high definition, but Netflix vows to expand its library in the months ahead. If that happens, it’ll be one of the best bargains in home entertainment and a major reason to buy an Xbox 360.

Another recent upgrade to Xbox Live is also a work in progress. Members can now create their own avatars – animated online characters that can be given customized faces, physiques, and costumes. Your new avatar becomes your digital representative in the online world. It’s a cute idea, but not particularly useful; at least, not yet. Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live, told me that upcoming games will let players insert their personal avatars into the action. Imagine playing an online sports game in which your own avatar dunks the basketball or gets sacked for a 10-yard loss. here best web browser

Sony’s PlayStation Network is taking the concept even further. Owners of a PS 3 console can log on to PlayStation Home, a small but growing virtual world inhabited by the avatars of PS 3 gamers. Every Home member gets a beautiful, but rather underfurnished, waterfront apartment. From there they can travel to a virtual city featuring a movie theater, bowling alley, and shopping mall. The theater features videos about current and upcoming PS 3 games, while the bowling alley includes a variety of simple arcade-type games. At the mall, you can use real money to buy clothes for your avatar and furniture for your apartment.

It’s all very Second Life-like, to those familiar with that well- known virtual world. Indeed, Sony began working on Home in 2005, when Second Life was being touted as the next big thing. But since then, the popularity of Second Life and other virtual hangouts has faded considerably. PlayStation Home reminds you of the reason why. After the initial wow wears off, there’s not much reason to hang out there.

Sony officials concede the point, but note Home’s only been up and running a few weeks. They say game developers are working on ways to integrate it into their upcoming software. Already, Home features gathering places for two popular PS 3 games: Uncharted and Far Cry 2. Gamers will visit these areas to chat, pick up game tips and cheat codes, and set up multiplayer online matches.

It’s too early to tell whether these virtual game rooms will catch on. But Sony has sold about 17 million PS 3s so far. That’s enough to support a very lively online community, if PlayStation gamers cut back on annihilating aliens and spend more time at Home.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.

Hiawatha Bray