After sitting through reading one of the most denial ridden, vitriolic and incoherent rants on the subject of the evils of gaming I've ever seen, I felt a need to respond to it. Not only as a technology website journalist, but also as a parent.
The journalist in question, Janice Turner
, writes a weekly column for The Times Online , a british publication which unfortunately gets a lot more traffic than we do. I say it is unfortunate because someone dispensing little gems like this is the last person a parent searching for real solutions to managing their childrens time and behavior should consult.
Titled "Xbox is crack for kids - It's an impossible task to police our children's multimedia addiction" , the article is largely an incoherent rant about the problems with managing "screen time" for our kids in the digital age. Reading through the piece, and I strongly suggest everyone who reads this do so, it just seethes with frustration, anger, naivety, and denial. Hardly the sorts of behaviors I'd recommend emulating when parenting. Considering it's a piece about game consoles, iPods, cellphones and digital tv and the apparent evils of said mediums, such a reaction has to be taken as little more than denial and technophobia. Not to mention a healthy dose of fear mongering.
After co-founding one of the oldest and largest online tech publications TheRegister
in 1994, then moving on to greener pastures full of "voles", "chipzilla's" and "everywhere girls" when he founded TheInquirer
in 2001, Mike Magee is calling it quits . Just this morning TheInquirer posted news that "Mageek" would be leaving the publication at the end of February, and that Paul Hales will take his place as Editor.
Mageek said: “I really do owe the readers of the INQUIRER and those who supported me when I started it an apology, sorry really big vote of thanks. I’ve enjoyed every day I’ve worked on the INQUIRER apart from the day I had a triple bypass op.
"I also want to thank the loyal bunch of hacks who’ve helped turn the mag into the success story it became.”
Mike Magee and TheInquirer changed the landscape of tech news reporting by doing things their own way and refusing to bow to industry pressure to gloss over the news. It is a publication both feared and respected by the industry at large, and one that we hope continues to cut it's own path without Mageek at the helm.
Even if Mike rarely posted our news and reviews [no we're not bitter... ED.] we wish him well in whatever future endeavors strike his fancy. Whatever they are, they probably won't be tame.
Although not a card anyone would consider a gamers paradise, Zotac's new G98 derived low profile 8400GS cards are quite interesting for the thin client or media center PC builder. Why you say? The cards feature a unique changable backplate allowing them to customize their offering for given scenarios. Need HDMI? Or S-Video? How about DVI and HDMI? Or VGA and S-Video? It's as simple as changing backplates.
It's a win-win scenario for Zotac and it's customers. They can offer the OEM and retail markets a specific set of outputs without having to manufacture a specific card. Things are finally heating up in the digital convergence space despite years of false starts and consumer apathy, and products like this one will go a long way towards placing that PC or thin client in your livingroom.
