Avian Gamers Network

All,

For a while now, I've been considering the CNN slogan: "More Americans get their news from CNN than from any other source"

There are a number of issues that I have with that statement. After working in the bowells of the Pentagon, I'm amazed at how blatantly incorrect much of what is shown on CNN is. That, however, is a completely seperate conversation than the one I'm trying to start.

Where do you get your news?

About a year ago, Cyrus mentioned offhandedly that he uses a Instant Messaging Program called Trillian from Cerrulean Studios. As I generally trust his opinion, I downloaded and installed it. I feel that it is now the #1 program I use to communicate with the world (beating out the close contenders of Outlook and Internet Explorer).

I love it so much that I purchased the pro version. With it, I have plugins to see my stocks, weather reports for all my contacts, disk free space, gmail interface, email account watchers, and many other pieces of information. I have 10 Instant Messenger (some for business, some personal) accounts, and can have them all logged in concurrently.

Best of all, I use the RSS (news syndicator) plugin to download stores constantly. The ones I use are:

Slashdot: slashdot.org / slashdot.rdf
Wired News: www.wired.com / news_drop/netcenter/netcenter.rdf
ShackNews: www.shacknews.com / shackfeed.xml
TerraNova: terranova.blogs.com / terra_nova/index.rdf
Collision Detection: www.collisiondetection.net / index.xml
Physics Coolstuff: www.physorg.com / physorg.xml

and a few other programming ones and stock market reviews.


I consider myself a student of computer-game/virtual world design, and find Terra Nova to be an excellent source (though a bit wordy at times). Raph Coster (head SWG developer) posts there frequently.

- Are there any other great sites you all can recommend?
- Anyone know of a good way to convert phpBB posts to RSS?
- Anyone else wetting their pants for the new Trillian 3.0?
- If someone else saw every story that I did, would they be as good as a Yak?

_________________
--The Hermit

If I want to see what the big news of the day is, I go to Yahoo.com and check the sidebar, its updated often.

If I want smaller scale news, I try Fark.com

_________________
*Teras Kasi Watcher
*Pistoleer
*Scout
*Medic

Being British, I tend to go for the BBC.

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

I still use Trillian Pro, bought a new copy a few months ago. Some love it, others do not, but for me there is nothing better than being able to group, rename, and organize all your friends various IM handles. Back in the day I had sections for the BoD, and each SD was renamed to reflect his position in the PA. Now I don’t have it set up as fancy… but that may change now that I am back in the BoD

I think RSS is very cool. In the past I often wondered if a group could use RSS to publish game news. Specifically when I was thinking about it, I envisioned SWG factions using it to inform their followers. I guess the whole aspect of using it to meat the needs of a gamer is what fascinates me.

I like RSS for RL news, but many times if I have too many sources on, I am not able to follow them all. I am a student now, TV on when at the PC, no money to invest… but when I enter the workforce I think I will use Trillian’s many plug-ins much more. I was telling a few guys the other night how I am starting to look at employers, and one of the criteria I am using to judge employers is how accessible will the Avian forums be and whether I will be free to IM my friends.

On the subject of cool communication tools, I have been loving our TeamSpeak server. It is getting to where a handful of us login and chat just about every night. Voice communication can be so nice at times, and if you can get over the hurdle of others knowing what you should like, it can be very fun. We started using TeamSpeak in WoW, and it makes things so much easier. But beyond the game, TeamSpeak is great for productive teamwork communications, and just fun times chatting with friends across the world. Personally I have unlimited flat rate long-distance phone service, but many do not, so TeamSpeak is like a free phone call for them.

I walk down the street !
Internet and TV are controlled by capitalists pigs !

_________________
Flyoc,
Farm with attitude.

Cnn.com

It's reliable, in my opinion.

My brother uses Trillian, but I still use icq.

I dislike CNN, and was upset when my cable service swapped BBC world for CNN
I found that BBC news service was more objective when it came to reporting on news from eg Irak. and for a news service being objective is the most important thing,

My browser start page news.google.com
Brilliant
I use Trillian also, great program, and also Firefox which handles RSS.

Other good sites :
www.betanews.com
www.theregister.co.uk
www.economist.com

_________________
Meriander, Paladin
Rentin, Warlock
(Emerald Dawn, WoW EU server)

I also like/watch Fox News.

Indeed!!

I get my information from as many different sources as possible, from different countries. Most of the mainstream press is biased in one way or another so I like to hear both sides of the story. e.g. Regarding the situation in Iraq I will get my information from BBC for the UK take on it, CNN for the US and Arab News for the Iraqi version.

How else can you get a balanced view on what is going on?

_________________
Exponential Expansion of Consciousness, Coming Soon to a Planet Near You!

Enter MoonWorld

BBC

All American news is excessively biased (either way) and based on scarring the living crap out of you.

_________________
- Wiegraf Terrik
SWG: Human Commando/Pistoleer
WoW: Dwarvish Rogue (Herbalism/Alchemy)
EQII: Alazin, High Elf Wizard

Former Section 4 Director

"Please, if anyone were to play Obi-Wan it would be me, with the 'Luke, Luke save me' and the lightsabers going 'Vvvwiinnngg, vvwinggg, vvvWING!' -- Professor Frink

Wow, I didn't realise you could get BBC in other countries!

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

stupidnakedpeople.com

_________________
"Chatfield, I think there's something wrong with our bloody ships." Admiral David Beatty, upon watching the battlecruiser Queen Mary explode at the battle of Jutland.

My name is Tobias Smith and I approved this post.

Remember, that's an opinion.

I've heard that the BBC is excessively biased. Who's right?

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"Chatfield, I think there's something wrong with our bloody ships." Admiral David Beatty, upon watching the battlecruiser Queen Mary explode at the battle of Jutland.

My name is Tobias Smith and I approved this post.

In my experience, all news stations are more or less biased some way or another, the only way to get somewhat accurate news is to read several sources and combine that info yourself.

Doing this will of course give you your own biased opinion and there we go again, that's why I seldom discuss politics with others than very close friends.

_________________
"It's sort of a philosophical question...if a tissue fails to modify a skill that doesn't exist, and no one is around, will any devs hear you screaming?"

I get some news from my home country at www.delo.si and www.mladina.com. I visit www.cruel.com and the people on that discussion board often provide interesting viewpoints unburdened with the PC language that is clogging so much of the news these days.

Lately I have found that financial newspapers can offer very good factual news without much "spin", so I try to follow the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, as well as the Slovenian http://www.finance-on.net/

As some guy once told me: "The rich people run the world and they might just tell each other the truth in their own newspapers."

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Retired Weaponsmith

I think it's safe to say that all news sources are bias. You just need to listen/read many sources to get all the opinions and then using all the gathered information form your own opinion.

From stupidnakedpeople.com:


Interesting. I'll have to add that one!

_________________
--The Hermit

I use RSS feeds for both Slashdot Games and IdleThumbs.net - good honest (and brutal) news and editorials there.

_________________
:: Orbital :: Section Three ::

Official Avian Mascot - Sock Puppet
Board of Directors - Ex-Chairman

I only reason I go to bbc.co.uk is for Tardis Tennis. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/tardis_tennis/default.stm)

_________________
"There is no such thing as a free lunch."

IdleThumbs looks cool. What's the RSS feed loc for it? Couldn't find it on the website

_________________
--The Hermit

Server: www.idlethumbs.net
Feed: /rss.php

_________________
:: Orbital :: Section Three ::

Official Avian Mascot - Sock Puppet
Board of Directors - Ex-Chairman

Two other great sites:

http://darktips.typepad.com/

and

http://www.hackaday.com

These detail cool and interesting ways to apply technology/computer/engineering skills to imrpove upon commercial designs. I particularly enjoy the idea of modifying an RC car to be Bluetooth-phone controllable, or wiring an etch-a-sketch directly into a mouse for drawing control.

_________________
--The Hermit