JetFable’s Gamer Writer’s Block

Someone asked me to explain what Web 2.0 was to her a while ago, and those of you who still live in the stone ages, go look up the definition (I hope you know how), it got me wanting to write about where the web is going. I wrote Pillars of Memory almost 6 years ago, a novel that touches upon the future of the web, but that was years ago, and I used virtual reality as a device to tell my story, and it was by no means a visionary view of the future. So where is the Internet going next? I guess I will make some predictions here. I think we are very close to Web 3.0, whether we will call it that officially, well it isn’t up to me. 3.0 to me is the location web, which means the web will always know where I am. I log in at the office, I log in at home, the IPs are different. A search engine should be able to know instantly where I am and feed me locations that are in my vincinity. We should no longer need to input our address in a map search. We are very close to getting this done, maybe 2 years away at most. The next step of evolution, 4.0 is the semantic web, which I mentioned on the last article, where I carry all my personal data around with me at all times, we are probably about 5 years away from a world-wide implementation, maybe less, or maybe 3.0 and 4.0 will happen at the same time, because they are both necessary step to go to the early stages of the forseen Metaverse, as written by many Sci-Fi authors even from the 80s.

My vision of Metaverse 1.0 doesn’t necessary take place in a 3D engine like a MMORPG but I am sure that will happen, and it may happen concurrently. Metaverse 1.0 is simply a world-wide web where people are citizens with 1 identity. This will probably happen 6 to 7 years from now as we move towards an ubiquitous wi-fi environment (probably will happen first in Asia), this is when cell-phones are going away because we can rely only on wi-fi. Everyone will have a palm-device with them which I called E-pad in my novel, but currently the Iphone comes pretty close. I forsee a unique identity/username where each person must use to sign on the net, they may even eventually use this as identification in the real world. We no longer need to remember usernames and passwords because we will use our thumb print (probably also possibly a 2nd fingerprint or voice identification for more secure authentication) on our palm device to access anything. We no longer carry our credit cards because its tied into our universal username, we no longer carry identification. We have 1 single login to all different websites and we may no longer remain anonymous. Sure we can no longer post under false names in people’s blogs, we can’t post profanity under message boards or cheat people on the Ebay because we will be remembered of what we have done. This is the beginning of the Metaverse 1.0, where I go to buy a book in Amazon.com, and instantly I can look at who else is in the store, who is close to my location, and I can chat with the shoppers about the book I am going to buy, and I can sort out people who bought similar books I did, its almost like going to shop in the real world, except better, and I can buy my product with just a click, I no longer have to sign on to every different website and put in my information and remember my different usernames. Metaverse 1.0 is not yet a interconnecting world, where you can walk from the google homepage to amazon.com, but it interconnects the users, only if the choose to, of course when this is happening, we also realized how changed our society is. Because of the ubiquitous connectivity that we have and the palm device that we carry as our means of access, we are constantly carrying our information with us, our diaries, our music, our books, our games, our contacts, our memories, and essentially the entire human history. I called Google mankind’s Overmind (a hive brain like being that lives on the net), since we can instantly look up anything, our brain power, is freed up to do other things. That comes to Metaverse 2.0, as everyone envisioned, is where we are going 3D, where our browser become something like a 2nd Life or World of Warcraft Engine (by the time probably something else), but we will still want to be using 1.0 on our handheld device. Metaverse 3.0…, perhaps it will be like in Dennou Coil, where a part of the net is interposed upon the real world, and we can access it with special glasses, and we can get info on real-world locations and walk our virtual pets around. All this will happen before the total virtual reality immersion which jacks into our consciousness which a lot of Sci-Fi authors wrote about. How long do we have? 20 years? Maybe even less. The future, is Now.

And that’s just the way it is. Well today I was told by a friend that she was upset about reading what I wrote about my Thailand trip. This is what I said, not in the exact words, to understand my stance as a writer, that is to understand that I learn to compartmentalize myself, same thing as people who have schizophrenia, except that I know how to distinquish illusion from reality, and I know when the different parts of me struggle to be the real me. I think we all act differently towards different people, same thing when I am here writing, its a different me than the real me, well its still me, except sometimes it may only be a small part of me. Here I am a god of my world, who literally is a pimp of words, cleanser of minds, speaker of truth, entertainer of souls, I hardly give a damn about what anyone thinks, here I am narcissistic and brilliantly funny and I am always right and I am the authority of all things, and sometimes sound like an asshole (which may or may not be true in real life), and thats the persona I take on as a writer. In any case, my friend claimed that I spoke mainly of negative things in the Thailand trip, but thats not what I was writing about. I did not write about my trip, I wrote about the difference of human lifestyles, I wrote about how dependent I was on technology, and my inability to adapt to a less technologically advanced situation. Of course all she read about was how bad the bathroom was and how hot and humid it was and how hard the bed was, but she was missing the point. It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful for the hospitality, its just I wasn’t used to it. But I believe in trying everything out in life, so if I could turn back time I’d still do it again, but I wouldn’t want to live there in the future. I like my comfort — I like my 42inch plasma screen, my wi-fi internet and my ice coffee and my winter-like air condition. In, any case, I’m not sorry about writing crap (about actual crap that I couldnt bring myself to unload, pardon the pun), I am just sorry that she had to read it. Oh well, I know, if I was her, I’d be angry at me too. She asked me why I focused on negative things, but thats what we read about in life. I remember I also wrote about an old woman mumbling to herself like talking to a ghost in the restuarant in HK, a couple who treated others like strangers, and well I never talked about how good the food was or how great a time I was having reading the damn book I had in my hands, but I wrote about loneliness of the human condition. Same thing we only read about plane crash and never the happy passengers, we don’t blog about the happy 3-year relationship we had until we broke up with someone, we don’t write about how happy we are until we are lost and miserable and depressed. I think people who commit suicide is probably 80% happy but he chooses to dwell on the bad things because that’s what he remember. After having said all that, those you know me personally, I think you should know whether what my stance is on what I write about. I believe I wrote that I was the center of the universe, this page don’t exist until you click here (I think I also imply that you don’t exist until I thought about you, but that may have been lost in the midst of things), I wrote that there was no God, if there was it was created by the human mind (no offense to Christians out there), I don’t believe in freewill. The list goes on… the writer me takes those topics serioiusly, but the writer me is also at times hidden inside the real me. If someone chose to take offense at the real me for what I write, well its your choice, in any case I hope my other articles of intellect and humor makes up for it. I have gotten long-winded again (like many of you who knows the real me also claim that I am), until next time.

Here’s the bookcover outline of my novel “Pillars” (Thank you Lau). Well my original sketch was more japanese manga style, but in his hands it became something more American, it seems. Regardless I am not the designer so it’s up to him to put his own style into it.

 What else is new? I still haven’t finished the last walkthru of my manuscript. You know what takes more energy than writing? Reading your own story over and over again and still not finding all the mistakes even though numerous so-called editors also went through it. I don’t want to read it anymore, it’s kick-ass and all but I already know what is going to happen next. It’s like sitting through my favorite movie for the eight-hundred and seventy-sixth time, I am sick of it and it’s pure torture.

 

Chinese people are known to many things, not just software. I have heard them making soy sauce from human hair, diluting milk to increase their profit margin, gold farming on MMO which I’ve often talked about… now they put cardboard in their buns (The exact compostion of cardboard and fatty meat is 60/40). After I read that, well it got me to research about how to pirate an egg, which was a rumor I heard from before. Here’s the exact step to create a counterfeit egg. I was pretty amazed. Inhumane, yes of course, but also ingenious. I am not sure if I should be proud to be Chinese or not, but to think that if we used some of that brain power to not gyp others (well usually ourselves — there’s a saying: Your brothers are usually the first to swindle you), we could create more useful inventions in the history of mankind.

I like to tell others I am always right. Well it’s mostly true. But others always like to argue with me, and they always lose because they have no basis for arguments, they simply cannot recall when I was wrong. not that I am never wrong, I usually admit my wrongness right away and only argue when I am right. I pick my battles so only the ones that I can win. In any case, a little more than 1 week has traversed since my last blog entry, but it seems that all my predicions are correct. I compared the iphone to the wii, and viola, today Nintendo’s CEO compared the Iphone to the Wii and say it has Wii-like staying power. I gave some stock predictions on my last blog, and I am just about 99% correct (it is in fact 100% but I don’t want to sound too conceited). NYX did bottom and then rose about 10 points, AKAM got into S&P 500 and rose about 3 pts, GOOG and AAPL made new highs yet again. Best yet, my solar picks all gave mind-boggling returns, FSLR reached 117 from 90s (looking like to be the next Google) when I recommended, STP broke 30s, TSL hit 70s from 50s. Anyway, I sound like a prophet of sorts but not really, if you study technology enough you should know which technology is here to stay and which will lead our future.

While Microsoft Windows maybe going away soon enough, the web is here to stay and its still at its beginning stages. Here’s an article where Tim Berners-Lee (the father of the internet) Discusses the Future of the Web, he talks about semantic web where we carry the data with us and share it across different web applications, and that is what we may call web 3.0 or eventually 4.0. The metaverse will also be an eventual point of the evolution of the web. I predict Google buying a company like Linden Lab (the makers of Second Life), but I think we are still at least 10 years away from that, so the semantic web will be here first. Now let anyone challenge me whether I will be right or wrong.

This is one of those times when I can’t think of a good title for my post, and the result is just a conglomeration of incoherent ramblings, and I hate that. I am a title person, I think titles should mean something, but I guess that should not distract me from writing the real stuff. In any case, does anyone not believe in Roswell? Does anyone not believe in aliens? Well if you don’t, you are an idiot. This article here says that one of the pilots’ document is now released (after his death) that he has witnessed an alien aircraft and their bodies. Believe it at your own peril. Like I said, all conspiracy theories come from somewhere. Have you seen the move Shooter? Not at all a bad movie. Have you played Metal Gear Solid? Do you still believe 911 is not orchestrated?

The iphone is out. I wasn’t too excited about it, it does cost an arm and a leg, and it doesn’t even have sim cards. It does look nice though. Many people compare Apple products to BMW. I think there’s some truth in it. They look great and don’t always work, but people will buy them anyways. After all, looks are everything, right? This person here has taken it apart and you can read what’s inside the iphone. Congratulations, he had just broken the most expensive toy in history (well, other than that robotic doll thingie under your bed). Did you know the mayor of Philidelphia went to line up for the iphone at 11 am, and then a few hours later, affronted by a journalist which asked him why he was wasting his time instead of solving the city’s problem, read the article here. Citizens of Phili, I feel sorry for you, not for the 200+ murders you have anually, but the idiot you have as a mayor. First of all, do mayors not have secretaries who do their chores for them (+ other stuff I bet)? I don’t think Arnold had to line up for an iphone. And then, well, at 9 pm the iphone was available everywhere, with no line. Yes, you are an idiot as well if you bought one on Ebay for two thosand dollars.

Blackberry maker, Research in Motion (RIMM) went crazy over the last few days on earnings and split news (I do not own any, though I wish I had a machine that could turn back time). Many people were bearish on it because they thought Apple would defeat them with the iphone. I think I have said it many times, they are not even in the same market. Corporate environments will continue to use the blackberry, while the younger hip generations who owns ipods and such may look towards the iphone. They may have one or the other, or both. I like to draw the parallel between the Wii and PS3/Xbox 360, those who buy the wii are causal players, not hardcore gamers. And I personally do not think Sony/Microsoft is competing directly with Nintendo. People may own both a 360 and a Wii, but they are not likley going to own both a PS3 and an Xbox 360. That says the same about Palm and the Blackberry, versus the iphone.

I really don’t like to talk about stocks at that much, just like I don’t like to talk about work. I think its boring, but then who knows, some people think I talk about games too much on my blog, but I think games are interesting, games reflect the real society. Stocks, they are just people’s empty speculations of the future. But I do belive in investment, even gambling a little, when you are young, you got to take risk. That, or you’d be like my dad, and you’d have no more risk to take. Here’s an interesting article about how the number #8 influences the chinese stock market. Its true, chinese people can be very superstitious. And you know what, stock prices are moved by people, its somewhat like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Speaking of which, the Freaknomics blog is a very interesting place to visit (other than here, that is), if you haven’t already read the book, you should make that your first priority (do that before passing on your genes).

Some people think I have very good stock picks, but it isn’t always true. I don’t really recommend people to buy anything, I just recommend people to buy in general, if you lost money, it ain’t my fault. I’ve had good picks and bad picks but I just tend to talk about the better picks, but if you really need stock advice, you can continue reading. Otheriwse you can reread this 6 months later to see if I am right. I think alternative energy will lead the next bull market. They have been running up nonstop for months and I have invested in some, like I said before, I wish I had invested more, or I figured out how to quantum travel back in time. If you want to buy alternative energy stocks, I’d go with the biggest solar, those include FSLR, SPWR, TSL, STP, JASO. Some of they are in china, some in the US, walmart has recently gone solar and SPWR owns part of the contract, do your own research. WWAT.OB is a good one to own because they do everything, penny stocks are not good otherwise, except this one (I have a little from 50 cents). Some of these stocks had run over 300% in the last 6 months, well, either you believe solar will take over or you don’t, but you can always wait for a pull-back before entry. I think all the other industries are played out if you want mind-boggling returns. I am still in GOOG and AAPL, and I believe they have more room to run. Google will eventually take over the internet space. You don’t need anything else, don’t buy those small startups and search engines, nothing else except maybe Akamai (AKAM) who speeds up the internet, or Divx, who plays high quality video over the internet. Well of all the stocks I picked from before, Divx performed the worst, but I believe all bad news had been accounted for. Riverbed (rvbd) is a pretty good performer (reseach if you want to know what they do), and of course Amazon.com (amzn), which surprised me with their increase (again, I don’t own any). Eventually, I believe 10 years from now, Amazon and Ebay will be one entity, that takes over every shopping and auction stuff on the net. Korean auction house Gmarket (GMKT) is also a good choice. Amzn has more room to run whether you believe it or not, but I personally will rather put my money in Solar power (as long as oil stays expensive). I am pretty much an all-tech person, in the financial side I own mastercard (MA) which is an excellent stock, ICE which is a future exchange which I think may have potential, and the NYSE exchange platform (NYX) which keeps bottoming and bottoming, this was once Crammer’s stock pick of the year and he basically screwed everyone (Yes, even me, but I do believe this has been manipulated down enough and has bottomed, truly). He also told everyone that solar is played out and he has been wrong for 2 months now. Do you believe in Ted Turner or do you believe in Crammer? Or do you believe in me? Let’s see what happens in 6 months.