Collins’ Onovia

I’m sitting here watching Fox News and they are talking about GTA4. They are again pointing the finger at Rockstar and retail stores. They want to make sure that there’s no hidden content like the “Hot Coffee” mini game mod that there was in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and that the game isn’t sold to minors.

Let me say that most kids under 17 don’t have money trees. The money comes from the parents. If a parent gives their kid $50 to go buy a video game, they need to be more aware of what they are buying. It’s so damn annoying to hear that yet another parent is suing because their already fucked up kid happened to play a violent game and then shoots people up. I’ve played violent video games my entire life, along with all my friends. And here we all are, many years later. None of us are violent killers, drug addicts, or car thieves.

My whole point here is that there is no one to blame but the parent and child. Anyone that carries out the actions in a fictional game needs to imitate Mario, and smash their head into a brick.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working at setting up a video verification system in the central station for the alarm company I work for. The technology driving this system is amazing. This is the best (if not only) 100% wireless video alarm verification system on the market. The Videofied concept is that it will cut back (if not eliminate) false alarm dispatches from an alarm company, and provide video alarm response where never possible before.

The best part about this solution is that it’s a “Stick and Go” system. It can be preprogrammed and shipped from the monitoring company, installed in the site, and monitoring can begin. The Videofied system can support up to 24 devices, and works as a “hub and spoke” type configuration. The main control panel being the hub, and the devices being the spokes.

Videofied right now is focusing on copper theft. This is a crime that is exploding. Don Horne of Electricity Today, stated that copper theft increased 1,150 percent from 2005 to 2006. Those are some scary numbers.

Conventional CCTV systems are a horrible solution for copper theft because by the time someone sees the video, the copper is gone and the damage has been done. Electrical substations, cellphone towers, and rooftop air conditioners are among the hardest hit targets. These are also the hardest sites to alarm due to the fact that there may not be a conventional phone line or power source. With Videofied, there is no “hardest” part to the equation.

If you’re company is concerned about copper theft, but can’t afford to install a $30,000 CCTV video system that no one will watch anyways, Videofied is for you! Just send me an email

with your contact information and I or someone my company will return your call and answer any questions you might have!

This past Friday night I got an invitation from Hulu to start beta testing their service. Hulu, a venture shared by NBC Universal and News Corp, offers full feature sitcom episodes, clips, and other video content free of charge.

The layout of hulu is astoundingly easy to use. There’s no hunting down what you want to watch. Just look for the logo of the show or network, and click. A slick flash interface for the player blows away any other flash video player I’ve seen. Check out the screen shots below.

The quality of the flash videos is top notch. Here’s a shared video clip of The Simpsons.

Of course, not every one is happy with hulu. There are reports that people out of the United States are not able to use the service. This is probably due to some stupid export rule. Something like this is probably going to come back and bite hulu in the ass. For example, Udo Schroeter talks about how restricting access will only lead to people obtaining the videos illegally. Perhaps the team at hulu should rethink their blocking access?

Anyways, head on over to http://www.hulu.com/ and register for the beta access.

Here’s some old videos I made some time ago. They were creaed for the Krank Killers. The Krank Killers was a local FSX Team. The old domain, KrankKillers.com was a happening place back in it’s day. The people behind Krank Killers moved on to go pro, raise families, and do whatever else they did!