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I am very happy to have my second ever guest article. This one comes from a good friend of mine, TJ O’Neill. TJ is a self-proclaimed music geek from suburban Philadelphia. He is a high school senior with interests ranging from theatre to music to sports. You can contact TJ at this email address. His article details 10 artists/bands that should are screwing up the Music World. Here is his article, a Taking the First Exclusive.

10. Scott Stapp
Ok, I admit; I was a Creed fan in their heyday. I even stuck by them long after most of their fans grew tired of their theatrics. And while I was sad to see them break up in 2004, I knew it was their time. Now Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips have regrouped as Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy at the helm. Scott Stapp, on the other hand, appears to have missed the memo once again. After public statements suggesting an acting career went the way of late-night TV fodder, Stapp has returned to his drunken Jesus Christ fantasies, as though his former source of income never left. His 2005 solo effort The Great Divide sounded like a Creed tribute band. Suffice it to say he’s used up his own 15 minutes, and is now on Alter Bridge’s clock, and is effectively wasting that time. Performers like Scott Stapp don’t know when to quit, and as a result ruin the music world for everyone.

9. Fall Out Boy
These guys are an enigma to me. I have both of FOB’s major LPs (Take This to Your Grave and the major-label debut From Under the Cork Tree), and for the most part enjoy both albums. It’s the artistic “growth” from Grave to Cork Tree that gets at me. Now, I’m not saying FOB sold their souls to MTV, the music-world equivalent to Satan; they haven’t even sold out yet. But any group that goes from cult (read: Warped Tour side stage) following to MTV constant rotation in the space of 3 years can do incalculable damage, not to mention the fact that since From Under the Cork Tree took off Fall Out Boy’s heads have enlarged to roughly the size of a small island. They haven’t done anything grossly criminal yet, but I fear for their future, more so than I did Dashboard Confessional after “Vindicated” got popular.

(By the way, convert From Under the Cork Tree into an acronym and you’ll see why I didn’t abbreviate the album name in this section)

8. The White Stripes
This one will undoubtedly earn me some hate mail. They are quite simply over-rated. I realize and accept that they have taken a “less is more” stance with their music in an age where bands like Linkin Park and KoRn are utilizing expensive electronic devices. But to say that Jack White is heading up a revolution in music is plain old grandstanding, pompous bullshit. I’ll even go so far as to say that Jack White is an innovative musician. But Meg White will never earn any respect in my book, and their grandiose attitude toward what they do does not fly in my world either. An attitude like that was first seen in a guy by the name of Fred Durst. We don’t need a repeat of that nonsense in music.

7. Gwen Stefani
Eminem once rapped “I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley/To do black music so selfishly/And use it to get myself wealthy”. Step aside Marshall. Gwen Stefani proved that she could do worse than most of what she did with No Doubt by teaming up with Eve for “If I Were A Rich Girl”, a complete bastardization of a song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. If that didn’t make you want to throw up in your mouth, she followed it up with “Hollaback Girl”, a gross attempt at white-female rap, something that shouldn’t happen in the first place (See: “Milkshake”). Go ahead, TRY to tell me you didn’t want to throw something at the radio when you heard “This shit’s bananas/B-A-N-A-N-A-S” for the gazillionth time. I dare you. The only thing that keeps Gwen from being higher on this list is the small portion of listenable rock she put out with No Doubt, ie “Underneath it All” and ‘Don’t Speak”…

…That and the fact that the next group is equivalent to seven Gwen Stefani’s, minus the talent.

6. Pussycat Dolls
Remember when showgirl groups were good only for being glorified in crappy movies, and even THAT was only in Las Vegas? I want those days back. PCD embodies most of the crappy things about MTV pop. My friend Ashley Yezuita pointed out the hypocrisy in their two hit singles; we have “Don’tcha”, whose lyrics basically translate to “Forget your girlfriend. Screw Me!”, and “Stickwitu”, which conveys the opposite. While I’m on the subject, notice how neither of the titles of PCD’s hits are actual words. And yet both still sell. The lesson here? Showgirl groups shouldn’t be allowed to sing outside of strip clubs, and MTV viewers probably can’t read.

5. Courtney Love
No crappy music list is truly complete without mentioning Courtney Love. The allegations that she killed Kurt Cobain notwithstanding, she is holding hostage the rights to Nirvana’s music, effectively botching any hopes of a Foo Fighters cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. And I need not mention the waste of recording space that was America’s Sweetheart, which sold approximately 7 copies worldwide, surpassing William Hung’s Inspiration on the list of Gloriously Failed Career Attempts.

Oh yeah, and she’s a crack whore.

4. Avril Lavigne
When I first announced that I was working on this list, I had a surprising number of people call for Avril to be on this list. Personally I didn’t find her that offensive; Let Go may not have been great, but it was fresh. It was a teenage girl taking a stand in a genre dominated by questionably effeminate guys. However, the case my friends made was overpowering, to say the least. Claming to be punk rock and not knowing about Duran Duran isn’t exactly helping anyone’s case. Then there’s the feud she had with Britney Spears when Let Go got big, where Lavigne said uncomplimentary, albeit truthful, things about Spears, only to then dodge the recoil from it by hiding behind clichéd punk philosophy (“Oh, she does her own thing…”). Also Lavigne falls into the grouping of artists mis-categorized as punk when in reality they fall into the vein of pop music (See also Simple Plan and Yellowcard). So as much as I can make a case in her defense, Avril Lavigne has indeed committed some unforgivable acts against the sacred altar of present-day music.

3. Lars Ulrich (Metallica)
The word “Napster” should be sufficient evidence to justify their place on this list. But just saying that neglects the past six years of depressingly bad music overshadowing two decades as a staple in heavy metal. Garage, Inc. and St. Anger were bad CDs; don’t give me that “they were changing their sound” crap. If that were the case, don’t you think they’d play their music on tour? Not so much. And then there’s the corporate crap that has alienated millions of fans. The whole “We want fans to REALLY support us by buying our CDs, not just paying for downloads” is a tasteless, greedy maneuver. Maybe if they started putting out music worth listening to people would buy their music again. Till then Ulrich and Metallica shall remain among the wastelands of those that are destroying something formerly beautiful.

2. Ashlee Simpson
Rule of thumb: Being the younger sibling of one of the Pop Princess Trio (Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson), let alone any late ’90s popstar DOES NOT justify a record deal. The Saturday Night Live fiasco would be noteworthy, except for the fact that she has no business appearing on SNL! Ashlee Simpson is a measly nuisance falling into the same category of ‘talent-less yet recognizable TV personalities signed to the Disney record label to generate sales without actually trying’ (See Also Aaron Carter, Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, and the cast of the abominable High School Musical). I would gladly burn the evidence of the SNL incident if it meant I never heard from her again.

Let me take this time to note that I am aware of the fact that 5 of the 10 artists on this list are female. DO NOT take this to mean that I bash any woman in music on principle. There are plenty of good female acts out there (See: Evanescence, Kelly Clarkson). Unfortunately the talented artists are overlooked in favor of the ones you see on this list. Let this be another commentary on the unfortunate state of the music industry today that favors sex appeal in female artists over actual talent.

1. Hawthorne Heights
These guys just might be the Anti-Christ of music. In the beginning, there was emo. Emo was glorified by the works of such greats as Chris Carabba and Adam Lazzara. And for a time it was good. Then other bands entered the realm, and with them came ‘hardcore’ and ‘scene’. And suddenly everything became muddled. Fans of these styles of music started becoming one in the same, to the point where no one could tell the difference. Now people hate the entire concept and blame MySpace for the whole collapse of punk music. As far as I’m concerned, it all started when Hawthorne Heights got big off that lame-ass “Ohio is for Lovers”. See, contrary to popular belief made so by Hawthorne Heights, emo music isn’t about severe depression, self-mutilation, and feeling sorry for yourself (OK, maybe the last one…). It’s about feeling the pain of loss, and remembering with a bittersweet twinge in your heart all the beautiful times with that certain someone who doesn’t see you the same way anymore. When Hawthorne heights started whining “Cut my wrists and black my eyes”, they got lumped into emo, a kick in the teeth to all the principles of emo music. So began the fall of Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, and other true emo bands. Now all those great bands are blurred by what’s ‘scene’, ’hardcore’, ’emo’, and so on. Hawthorne Heights took a wonderful, cathartic style of music, and single-handedly destroyed it so that I’m almost ashamed to align myself with it. For this, I say that they have done the most damage to the music world in recent memory.

OK, so there you have it. Disagree with something? Please, cut me open on this one. I’m starving for a good discussion on music these days. There’s enough of a scarcity of truly great artists that bashing the bad ones is the best way to get people talking. So yeah, have at it people!

TJ’s sites:
Xanga
MySpace

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2005 was a good year, but now it’s over, and here’s a list of things that we can do to make this year better.

Get George Bush kicked out of office
It’s very possible. We can get him for this wiretap thing. Democrats, this is your call, listen to John Conyers, he speaks the truth, he will lead you to the right decision. Get him out of office! To help support this cause, I have created new stickers for you to buy and put everywhere. Here’s a link:
Stickers

Bring about the end of short video games
I am tired of buying games, seeing 6 freaking installation CDs and thinking, “Alright, this is gonna be a good long game.” And then, 3 days later, I’m done with them. What the hell? Game companies, do something! Either cut down on the technological instensity, so that there is more game in the same space, or take up more space on my computer, or something, but please! Do Something! And don’t just make multiplayer better, because you know that’s a cheap and stupid way out.

Have Less Spyware all over
This is a note to all you spyware-writing nerd losers out there: You’re not funny, and you’re not cool. Do you get off knowing that you caused popups to show up on some people’s computers? Here’s an idea, get a real job. Go work for some computer security company now, instead of waiting until you get out of jail. Losers.

See to the end of political correctness
Link

Make no more reality TV Shows
I think I gave up on TV when washed-up celebrities started eating worms on Fear Factor. Reality TV Shows are horrible, stupid, boring, and they suck. And you know what the worst part is? The worst part is that in reality, nobody eats bugs or gets buried alive, no one competes in contests with 24 girls just as shallow in order to marry one guy. It doesn’t happen in real life, and it shouldn’t on TV. So pull them all.

There you have it, my desires for 2006. Want to share your deisres? Want to tell me I’m full of shit? Want the meaning of Life? Email me at mparks@theonegreatx.com.

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In an opinion column, it is customary to write about one topic per issue. However, right now, There are a lot of things that have started to annoy me. So, I’m going to write about more than one issue, because I can.

Let’s start with being Politically Correct. Since when is it wrong to wish someone a Merry Christmas? Now, all people say is, “Happy Holidays.” Yeah, Happy Holidays to you too, you insecure freak. It’s like everyone suddenly decided that they were either too insecure to and scared to let anyone know their religion, or lack thereof; or they decided it makes them seem like an accepting person to wish everyone a generally good time. Jackie Mason, comedian, is quoted as saying, “Rappers are singing songs about killing everybody in the streets, and it’s protected. But if, God forbid, you say “Merry Christmas,” “Ho, ho, ho,” a whole fight breaks out.” How true. He goes on to say, “anybody who sees it and decides you must call it a holiday tree should be put in a sanitarium.” Get over it, there are people who celebrate Christmas, people who celebrate Hanukkah, people who celebrate Kwanza, people who honor Ramadan, and people who observe the Winter Solstice. So wish them their holidays accordingly, but cut out this Happy Holidays crap. Stay Home

Speaking of people staying home, what’s up with them not doing it? I can’t go anywhere anymore without having to push through a huge croud of people. Haven’t people ever heard of shopping online? You don’t even have to stand up. I went to CompUSA to get my new G15, and the trains were crouded, the store was crouded, and the only G15 they had was in the Hard Drive section. All the movies are sold out, I have to wait for the next bus, and I can’t get pictures of trees. Shop online, people.

To everyone on the buses and trains, here’s a bit of advice: Don’t scroll through every ring tone you have in public places. It is the most annoying thing you could do. What amazes me is that not only do people do it, but they are completely oblivious that anyone else is pissed off. Because you can’t be bothered to shut off the sound and notice what’s around you, I’ve compiled a list of the Top 5 places not to go through your ring tones.

5. In a waiting room.
Seriously. We’re all trying to sit quietly, pretending no one else exists, and here you are, making all this noise. Shut up. Can’t you read a magazine like everyone else?
4. In a public bathroom
I don’t care how loud your taking a dump is, don’t block it out with your ring tones. No one wants to hear it, so turn it off. I prefer to piss in peace, thank you very much.
3. On a bus.
A bus seats what, 40, 50 people? subract 1 from that, and that’s how many people you’re pissing off. Then add one because the bus driver counts too. And you wonder why old ladies hate cell phones? It’s because you keep listening to your stupid ring tones when they’re trying to sit.
2. On a train.
At least on a bus, there are windows to look out and see something nice in an attempt to block your cacaphony out. But not on a train, no, here there is nothing to see.
1. In a theater
I have no words for people who do it in the theater.

While I’m on the topic of being pissed off, I have to mention that letter-writing campaigns don’t work. President Bush doesn’t read your postcards, he doesn’t know how. And the government of Darfur doesn’t speak english, so those postcards won’t work either. Give your money to real charities, or find a homeless person and give him twenty bucks, he’ll be happy, I promise.

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NOTE: Before commenting this article, read this.

There is a new fad taking over children’s lives. Following the example of various MMORPG’s before it, Runescape, produced by Jagex Ltd., is a game where players take control of a character they create. They can customize how their character looks; they can battle other players; and they can complete quests. But Runescape is slightly different than other MMORPG’s before it. It has a surprisingly large number of younger children taking time out of their days to play the game. The reason for this may be one or more of a few things.

First, the game does not have very high system requirements, and can even be played within a web browser. This makes it easy for people to play while in school, at home, at a friend’s house, or anywhere they can connect to the internet. Secondly, there is a free version of the game. This free version offers fewer quests, and not as high levels that can be achieved. Rob, the former Runescape-player who has provided a testimonial and information for this article, says that he played this free version for about 3 months before moving on to the paid service.

When players join this paid version, the real problems begin. First, they (or their parents) are paying for this game. At $13.95 every two months, they are now paying about 84 dollars per year to play this game. Also, because they are paying, players feel more obligation to play the game, and they want to reach higher levels for their characters. Moreover, they become addicted to it, and cannot stop playing it. Rob tells us of his addiction in his testimonial:

“When I first started, around October of 2004, I hardly had any idea of what I was getting myself into. It started off innocently enough; just a few minutes a day, but then its addictive energy soon took control of my life. I found I was playing in English, Spanish, Physics and even Algebra class if I had the time. I attend a private high school, and have a massive school load. With getting home around 5, and 3 hours of homework I was going directly to my laptop and playing 4-5 hours a day. My school is a laptop school, and I have numerous frees during the day. Always, any free time I had went to Runescape. My other friend played Runescape, and we used to talk about it. I went to online forums and chatted with about 2,000 other people like myself. I found that my successes and failures in the game and forums dictated my actual life, I was angry when I died, and even when I would go to my grandparent’s beach house, the laptop came, and on to the neighbors wireless I went. After my one year anniversary, I had bought things on EBay for a total of about 700 dollars, just to make myself better in the game, so not only did the game take away my life, but a lot of my money. I never used to hang out with my friends, I play the trumpet 5 years running now, and I had stopped practicing, essentially, it had consumed my life.”

Rob sums it up quite nicely. The “addictive energy” that consumed him and “took control” of his life is the very energy that is unhealthy for players. At the time I write this, there are 156377 people playing Runescape. That is 156377 people who are currently getting no physical activity, 156377 people who are probably currently having no real human contact. These people are just like Rob; they are addicted to this game and are being consumed by it. Rob himself writes of going to his grandparents’ beach house, probably very beautiful, and with very nice surroundings, and the he says that when he arrived, “on to the neighbor’s wireless I went.” The time consumption this game causes is one of the smaller problems. Probably the most major problem is the spending of money. On top of the $84 per year, players buy items and upgrades on EBay. In one year, Rob says he had bought $700 worth of “things” so that he could “make myself better in the game.”

This game had taken over Rob’s life. His “successes and failures in the game and forums dictated my actual life.” He was addicted. After spending over $750 and countless hours on this game, Rob decided it was time to quit. He writes that, “Once I decided to quit, I had to find out how to do it, I tried half ass quitting, just leaving Runescape for a while, and staying on the forums, but it didn’t work. To keep it short, I started playing less, seeing my friends more, and began to tell people on the forums and stuff that I was leaving.” He says “it was one of the hardest things I had ever done in my life.” He had his mom change the password, but that didn’t work. In the end, Rob deleted all shortcuts, bookmarks, and links to anything Runescape-related. But one task remained. “Then came the hardest part, I cancelled my membership, and gave all my items to my friend.” He had done it, he had cured himself of the epidemic, the disease that is Runescape.

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Today’s article will focus on the recent story involving Sony and their act of putting rootkits on any PC that loads the software. True, this topic has been a major source of discussion everywhere, and has almost been exhausted, but before it is, I have a few things to say.

What is a rootkit exactly? Well, Wikipedia explains it quite nicely:

“A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third-party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. These tools are intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, which helps an intruder maintain access to a system for purposes unbeknownst to the user.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit)

So, this software, usually obtained by downloading some piece of questionable software that will show everything that you are doing on your computer to the anyone who can access it. They often travel in groups with keyloggers and worms. Most anti-virus programs classify rootkits in the same category as Trojans, programs designed for similar purposes.

The rootkits were first discovered by Mark Russinovich on October 31, and quickly spread from there. Stories were posted on Digg, Slashdot, and forums everywhere. People were outraged. And rightfully so; their computers were being exploited and left vulnerable to attack. And on top of it all, when they tried to uninstall the rootkit, they would lose use of their CD/DVD Drives, and the only way to recover use was a fresh install of Windows. Next came Sony’s line of responses. First, they released a tool that would remove the rootkits. Thanks, but just because you glued the vase back together doesn’t mean it wasn’t broken in the first place. When people weren’t satisfied, Sony decided to be stubborn and say that they still did the right thing by putting the rootkits on. Then someone had a great idea: “Let’s sue Sony!” As of now Sony is being sued by the State of California, and a group of users.
The ironic part of the users suing Sony is that technically it was not legal for them to remove the rootkit. So now Sony is breaking the law by putting the software on the discs, while the users and Anti-virus companies are
breaking the law because they want to get rid of it. The only people who aren’t breaking a law are people who don’t have a computer, an extremely small percent of people in this Country.

So, what could Sony want with these rootkits? Well, with piracy being what it is, they wanted to make sure that they could make sure that no one was pirating their music. Fair enough, except for one thing: they didn’t realize that what they were doing was illegal and wrong. Not only did they not mention in the EULA (End User License Agreement) that using the software would install this rootkit, but they violated the California law that prevents “a person or entity who is not an authorized user from inducing an authorized user to install a software component by intentionally misrepresenting that it is necessary for security or privacy or in order to open, view, or play a particular type of content.” Surely, Sony must have known that what they were doing was illegal. If not, then they need a new branch: Common Sense. Let me lay it out nicely for them, get this new branch started off:

A. People do not like spyware.

B. Installing spyware with consent of the user is illegal.

It follows then that to put spyware on a CD and install it without mentioning it is not only annoying (see statement A), but illegal (see statement B).

Did Sony seriously think they would get away with this? Obviously they underestimate the users, which doesn’t surprise me, seeing as they don’t respect us much either.

Original Article: http://www.sysinternals.com/bl…digital-rights.html
California Spyware Bill: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/0…chaptered.html

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