Chaotic Neutrality

A few weeks ago, the Spore creature creation software and sharing platform (by Electronic Arts) became all the rage. It allowed anyone to download the application, customize their monster, and upload and share the creation with the world.

Creative users came up with lots of funky little Pixar-esque creatures. Some were cute. Some were scary. And then… some were obscene.

The following two blog / article posts details some of the humorous side of the dirty Spore creatures:

1. NSFW: A Beginners Guide To Sporn at Rock, Paper, Shotgun
2. NSFW: Horny Gamers Upload ‘Sporn’ To YouTube at Wired

While incredibly amusing, things like this are definitely a concern when you release a campaign or program of this nature into the wild. User generated content can create some spectacular discussions and collections of knowledge, but it can also go places that were never anticipated.

As user generated content initiatives continue to grow, it will be interesting to see how much moderation and policing needs to continue to happen in order to foster the creator’s intended atmosphere… and what this type of UGC censorship leaves in its wake (whether it makes these UGC worlds better or stifles them).

Whatever happens… Spore porn is pretty funny.

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After much speculation and rumor build up for the last couple months, anal overlord of the world, Steve Jobs, finally broke the silence and announced the next version of the iPhone — the 3G version!

The news of the 3G iPhone is definitely cool. The EDGE network sucks for loading web pages… and that happens to be one of my primary uses for the phone (I actually ran the install for a wordpress blog through my iPhone — sure I had to upload it via normal means, but still!).

The cool stuff:

• Price: $199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB
• Color: Available in Black or White (only 16GB)
• Speed: USES 3G!!!!
• GPS: Has GPS… and integrates with Google Maps. Yes! Wheee!
• Headphone Jack: Non recessed! Apple learns from a very dumb mistake in V1.0.
• Business: Exchange and push email support. Move over RIM, here comes Apple trying to take your slice of the pie!

The bad stuff:

• Price: My old iPhone is now almost worthless with very little resale value. $399+ down the drain, but I guess it will make a nice gift for a non iPhone fanatic.
• Release Date: July 11th is too far away. I want to play with a new toy. Damn it.
• Other Details: Not many other details are available yet. I’m hoping for some other cool features being improved like MMS capabilities, better camera, video recording, etc.

Apple pushes the cell phone market one step closer to full on data capabilities and a real web browsing experience. This should help usher in an improved era of phone+web devices.

I’ll bet that RIM and Blackberry are pretty concerned right now.

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With only 9 days left in February, it seems as though the iPhone Software Developer Kit is imminent (Steve Jobs promised it in Feb. after all)!

It has been speculated that most/all of the following will be part of this release:

• Firmware 1.1.4 - Seems likely since 1.1.3 has already been “hacked” and psuedo jailbroken.
• Public SDK information release - This is what we’re all waiting for! When I originally purchased my iPhone 6 months ago, I immediately loved it… but I also longed to have the ability to install cool programs and applications on it.
• iTunes Application Management - I’m really curious to see how this works and how Apple tries to monetize this and extract as much as possible from their consumers.
• Adobe Flash - Yes! Now we can all watch porn internet videos on our iPhones and not just on YouTube!

Personally, I’m pretty excited to see how this pans out.

I’ve been using a jailbroken iPhone since day one and have come to enjoy applications such as MobileRSS, colloQ IRC, ApolloIM, and Flickr Integration with the built in camera. I’ve also come to love being able to customize the appearance (background, icons, sounds, etc) of my phone. I absolutely despise how Apple has tried to make it so every iPhone looks exactly the same.

With that being said, I’m actually torn between going legit and using the new firmware when it is released or waiting for the iPhone Dev Team to work their magic again.

Only time will tell… but either way, I’m still looking forward to it. Bring it on Apple! You bastards!

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My name is Greg Picarello. I live in good old New Jersey (no, we don’t say Joisey). I am an internet marketing professional that speaks fluent Business, Marketing, and Techie.

This blog will be the home of my deepest and inner most secrets… or maybe just stuff about marketing, business, tech, and entertainment. Hey, that’s what I like. So, if you plan on continuing to read, you should have some interest in that also. Otherwise… Peace!

By the way - if you were wondering what the name of this blog means:

• You’re obviously not a geek that used to play Dungeons & Dragons or other roleplaying games.
• You’ll have to go look it up yourself. Here’s a Wikipedia entry with a quick overview of D&D alignment achetypes such as Chaotic Neutral.

Anyhow. Content to come, now that I finally have this Wordpress theme (almost) modded to my liking!

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