maloki

Is it rape if you used the Force? Even if you used Force Persuasion to do it? It is consensual after all….

In the wiki entry, Force Persuasion (aka the Jedi Mind Trick) influences the actions of the “weak-minded” so that means that you’re bending them rather than forcing them. In the end, they become willing.

Rape? I think not.

Real? Yup!…in the fictional universe of Star Wars.

Too bad. But in consolation, there’s this.

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I’ve never heard of taking the offensive against spam bots until I bumped into the site: This link kills spam

Interesting! If you find this link quite obtrusive to your site, you could just hide it through some CSS or whatnot.

For the defensive approach, here’s a short list from the top of my head.

To prevent spam bots from “harvesting” your e-mail address, I’ve heard of:

• using images to display e-mail addresses instead of text (ex. Facebook profiles) – though it may be difficult for normal people to add you to their address book since you can’t “copy + paste”
• encoding the e-mail address into it’s ASCII code counterpart (so a@a.com becomes a@a.com ) – it makes the addy more difficult for the bots to read but not totally impossible…
• using alternative ways of displaying your e-mail addy (ex. myemail [at] thedomain [dot] com ) – anything will do as long as it remains readable )
• protecting the address through JavaScript – search query: javascript email

In addition to that, there’s also the common tips:

• Be careful when opening e-mail (even though it looks like it’s coming from your friend – they may have been a victim of a phishing site or may have gotten their account hacked)
• Turn off images by default. (I’m pretty sure Yahoo!Mail and GMail has this feature.) Some e-mail may contain a web beacon (aka web bug, single pixel gif, etc. See this for more info) that is never (if not rarely) visible and sends a signal back to the sender*. These beacons tell spammers: “Hey! The mail was opened! You can send more e-mail to me since my address is active and I open spam!” Aside from that, they can collect other information such as your IP address and track usage.

These are just a few tips I found useful in the past. If you want more tips, querying your favorite search engine will yield a multitude of results.

–
NOTE: Some End User License Agreements (aka EULA) explicitly state that they use web beacons. No need to be too alarmed about this since they use this mainly for monitoring purposes. In the Unreal Tournament III EULA (page 40 of the user manual, 4th paragraph from the top), they state that web beacons are used to deliver & access cookies, deliver co-branded services (more “spam”?), determine whether messages have been opened, compile aggregated statistics, etc.

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Allen showed me a video last night regarding the Mass Effect feature the Fox Network made. They said Mass Effect featured graphic sex and full frontal nudity. Here’s an article with this YouTube video of the Fox Network report.

Okay, I admit that I haven’t played the game that much but listening to their round-table discussion, it’s like they could have done more research. It’s good that they acknowledged the presence of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) ratings.

Hmm…Kids playing their dad’s video games? Well, “in this day and age where kids aren’t always supervised,” adults can restrict what gets played in their consoles through parental controls. It was mentioned in the statement Microsoft gave! The Wii and PS3 have them too (I’ve heard the PS3 parental controls are a bit unintuitive but it’s still there). Heck, even the PSP have them! Of all the gaming devices out there, I think it’s only the DS that doesn’t have them, just the overly protective and annoying Friend Code system to prevent kids from accidentally playing with child molesters.

In consolation, some of them in the report have what the others lacked: common sense. I think the problem mainly lies with the uninformed adults that don’t know about the parental controls.

In conclusion…

• Do more research about what you talk about. “Have you ever played Mass Effect?” “No.” ? Why target Mass Effect in the first place? Just because it has sex? There are other games out there with even more explicit sex with women with boobs bigger than melons! Who would play a 30+ hour game just to see a sex scene worth about two minutes?
• To the Adults (especially those with younger siblings or those with kids under their care): Look at the ratings and learn to use the parental controls.
• To the Kids: You’re better than your parents at these things but they’re your parents. Keep them informed and don’t manipulate them. If they don’t think you’re ready to play certain games, then you’re not ready.
• To the Much Younger Kids: Stay cute and don’t grow up so fast. Cherish your childhood. Play with your Fisher-Price see-saws and cars or LEGO bricks. Let your imagination go wild and dream.

Thank you!

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