Phil Elmore's Blog, page 32
October 24, 2012
Duke Manfist is back for Halloween!
Duke Manfist is back for Halloween!
Releasing in seven parts, each one live at midnight, the League Entertainment Halloween Special, “Duke Manfist and the Ghert Permkern,” has debuted at the Duke Manfist website. Tune in at midnight every day until Halloween to read the entire adventure.
Read Part One
(Goes live 00:01 25 October 2013)
Read Part Two
(Goes live 00:01 26 October 2013)
Read Part Three
(Goes live 00:01 27 October 2013)
Read Part Four
(Goes live 00:01 28 October 2013)
Read Part Five
(Goes live 00:01 29 October 2013)
Read Part Six
(Goes live 00:01 30 October 2013)
Read Part Seven
(Goes live 00:01 31 October 2013)
Technocracy: Telling the truth…for a price
My WND Technocracy column this week is about a site we’ve probably all seen in search results: “Ripoff Report.”
Ripoff report is just one example among many of websites that publish “third party content” impugning others’ character or conduct while disclaiming any legal responsibility for it.
Sites like these are a joke because anyone can add a “report” and no attempt is made to corroborate the statements made. What’s worse, the website refuses to remove anything, although it claims it will “redact” specific claims (but not entire reports) if you are willing to pay $2,000 USD for “V.I.P. abitration.”
There are worse sites, such as Jerk.com, which essentially extort users for money in exchange for having derogatory (and stolen) pictures of those users removed from the site.
Read the full column here at WND.
October 17, 2012
“Street Sword” Now Available on Kindle
My second Paladin Press book, Street Sword, is back in print — virtually, anyway — as a Kindle ebook. The book explains the mechanics of the long blade without all the traditional nonsense and trappings that usually accompany the use of the sword.
As you can imagine, traditional swordsmen (such as exponents of Iaido and Kenjutsu) had a grand mal freakout when the book was originally published. Its content easily withstands scrutiny, however. This is the book that I searched for myself and could not find, when I wanted something on the basics of using large blades… so I wrote it.
Street Sword was profiled in Tactical Knives magazine. The instructional content was acknowledged as solid — though of course the controversy surrounding thebook was the real story.
October 15, 2012
Professional Boundaries
I am very busy. That’s probably obvious; I’m a workaholic, when you come right down to it. I try to conduct myself in a professional manner regardless. Proper conduct in business relationships is very important to me.
I do, however, have certain boundaries, after which point I will refuse to deal with someone. Specifically, if we are to do business together, you will have to treat me with respect (and you have every right to expect me to do the same). I have refunded clients’ money before when they were unnecessarily insulting. I am not paid enough to absorb unwarranted abuse.
A couple of months ago, a fellow who styles himself as a ninja historian (a historian of all things ninja — not a ninja who is also a historian) asked me to review his latest book. The book is a lengthy one and I have been working very hard to meet various obligations, but I agreed to do the review. I told him, very explicitly, that it would take me some time to go through the book thoroughly. As I am not an expert on ninjitsu, I also lined up the assistance of the most knowledgeable Bujinkan member I know. What I intend to do is run several points by him for his feedback once I’ve had a chance to go through the book itself and compile my list.
Today the would-be historian in question asked about his review and said that I was “not upholding our agreement.” I told him that I would get to it as soon as I possibly could — but that accusing me of lying was a good way to guarantee that I did not do it. I had made it clear that the review would take time to complete. We did not set a date for completion.
The author has never been one of my fans, but he knows that my review at The Martialist would provide good exposure for his book, even if critical. When I explained that accusing me of lying is not acceptable, he demanded I ship the book back to him in the United Kingdom.
I don’t tolerate attitude like this. People submit products to me all the time, and it can take me months if not more to get to all of them. I do, however, write all reviews eventually. I try very hard to make those reviews objective, even if the author or creator of the product has been less than friendly to me. I will review absolutely anything that you wish to submit, but please don’t expect to set the terms of the review after the fact.
Those are the boundaries. That is where the lines are drawn.
October 11, 2012
Technocracy: E-Books Even Win Over Bibliophiles
My WND Technocracy column this week is about the rising popularity of e-books, even among paper purists.
“…[I]f the website and customer service are not comparable, the improvements are wasted.”
I was reluctant to make the switch to e-readers myself until I realized that any books “lost” could be resent through my Amazon account (I use the Kindle platform). These days, I buy almost no new paper books, although to be fair I write so much that I don’t read as much as I used to.
Read the full column here in WND.
October 10, 2012
Bitcoin: Virtual World Cashing In On Currency
The virtual world now is cashing in, to the tune of up to $500,000 daily, on online transactions, even though there remains a “legal gray area” about Bitcoin.
But the growing popularity of the anonymous, decentralized, digital currency is prompting concern among users and law enforcement agencies that it may be misused.
Since its inception in 2009, the online payment system (the term “Bitcoin” refers both to the system and to the virtual units of currency users transfer through that system) now accounts for between $100,000-$500,000 worth of online transactions per day, despite the fact that Bitcoin exists in what Timothy B. Lee calls “a legal gray area.”
Lee, writing for Ars Technica, reports that New York Sen. Charles Schumer has denounced Bitcoin as a means of money laundering on the Web. The Secret Service is now well aware of the “untraceable online currency popular in the criminal underworld,” too, but Lee cites a legal paper by Temple University’s Nikolei Kaplanov in pointing out that current law simply does not adequately govern this new form of digital money.
Kaplanov explains that, as of this writing, there are no cases that challenge the ability of parties in the U.S. to make transactions in bitcoins. In other words, the currency is legal only because no one has yet enacted policy asserting that it isn’t. But the Secret Service and policymakers like Schumer now have the Bitcoin system in their sights, which means legal action may be inevitable.
“This has led to the question of whether the federal government has the ability under current federal law to prohibit the use of bitcoins between willing parties,” writes Kaplanov, who believes that as the laws stand now, the federal government “has no basis to stop bitcoin users who engage in traditional consumer purchases and transfers.”
Read the full article here in WND News.
October 4, 2012
Technocracy: Should your teen expect Internet privacy?
My WND Technocracy column today was actually inspired by a phone call I got from a reader.
There is no more common impulse in the hormone-swamped, testosterone-addled, puberty-fevered minds of young men.
The reader, a mother of three, was worried her teenaged son might be accessing Internet material he ought not to be. I explained to his mother the various things she could do to slow him down… but also pointed out that there is no way she can stop a teenaged boy from looking at porn.
Read the full column here in WND.
October 1, 2012
Alarm Sounded Over Google ‘Stranglehold’
Google has been described as having a “stranglehold” on the search engine market, which theoretically could make or break anyone on the Web.
So does it?
“Google definitely ‘sandboxes’ websites,” asserts Jeff Ramos, a branding, social media, and public relations expert based in New York City.
To be “sandboxed” is to be excluded from organic search results because one uses Search Engine Optimization tactics of which Google disapproves.
But he says the real problem is that no one outside of Google can know for sure how the search engine is treating various companies, interests, and even viewpoints.
“How Google works will always be a mystery except for within the walls of Google itself,” he said. “The danger in understanding how their algorithms work is [that] if it’s understood, the affiliate marketers will have a field day and, in essence, alter ‘reality’ as a result. As so many people rely on Google to serve accurate results, anyone who can control those fully, controls what people know – and that’s dangerous.”
The ongoing changes to Google’s search algorithm lately have been prompting website owners across the Internet to wonder about the power Google exercises.
Read the full article here in WND News.
September 30, 2012
Buyer Beware: Jaroslav Barta (aka eCrater seller philmade)
At the beginning of September I made a purchase from the website eCRATER from one Jaroslav Barta. I was trying to purchase a collectible Weapons of Moroland plaque (actually, a set of two of them). I placed my order on 2 September 2012 and made immediate payment in the amount of $55.75 USD via PayPal.
On the eleventh, having still not heard from the seller, I requested the tracking number. I was given a tracking number that I was told “might not work” and further informed that no data for the tracking was “showing up yet.” On the 18th I inquired again, asking from which website, specifically, I could attempt to track the parcel. I was told to give the matter a couple of more days. Finally, on the 21st, with no delivery and no valid tracking information, I opened a PayPal dispute.
Mr. Barta immediately sent me a nasty e-mail but refused to respond to PayPal’s request for tracking information for ten days — coincidentally, the amount of time PayPal gives you to respond to its inquiry when you are the seller. On the tenth day, he gave PayPal a tracking number and claimed delivery had occurred.
Interestingly, the tracking number he gave PayPal was completely different from the one he gave eCRATER. I received an e-mail the same day from an eCRATER representative telling me that Mr. Barta was disputing my gently “neutral” rating of our transaction (I rated the transaction a few days before I made my PayPal claim and still held out hope I might receive my parcel).
Barta sent eCRATER a tracking number for a package evidently sent to France (?) starting in July — a full two months before our transaction occurred. I sent the eCRATER representative screen captures of the conflicting tracking number Barta submitted to PayPal, as well as the “no record found” result from that number.
This morning I phoned PayPal and spoke with a representative from their resolution center. When I prompted them to check the tracking number Barta sent them, they got the same null result and immediately closed the claim. My money was refunded to me in less time than it took to reload the web page and check my balance.
The lesson is obvious but always worthy of reminder: When you make a purchase, use extreme caution when buying across international borders. PayPal offers some pretty decent buyer protections, so I generally use it for such transactions without too much concern. Consider just what recourse you have if your merchandise simply never shows up. By submitting false tracking information for a different purchase entirely to eCRATER, Jaroslav Barta has exposed himself as a fraud — a ripoff artist who counts on the distance between nations to score his cons. He event went so far as to repeatedly reassure me that my merchandise was on its way to me — probably hoping that the time period in which I could dispute the purchase would expire.
Mr. Barta goes by handles that include “moroswords” and “arnis1″ at yahoo and rocketmail, respectively. As stated previously, his eCRATER account is “philmade.” Beware of purchasing anything from this individual. If you do, you do so at your own risk.
September 26, 2012
Technocracy: Why Carry A Pocket Pistol?
My WND Technocracy column this week is about the utility of the pocket pistol. Pocket pistols are something with which I’m intimately familiar. I’ve carried one on and off for the last twenty years. I’ve practiced with every single pistol I’ve carried. (You would be surprised how many people can’t say that about the guns they tote.)
If you’re not carrying a pocket pistol every day, but you could legally do so if you took the necessary steps, you are abdicating your responsibility for defending your family and protecting your own life.
The reality is that even a small-caliber bullet has measurable utility for self-defense.
Columns like these always bring the gun store “experts” out of the woodwork. I’m always amazed at the number of firearms owners whose heads are full of myth, misinformation, and two-dimensional square-range thinking. But there you have it.
Read the full column here at WND.
