Ah. The comic that rejuvenated the previously short lived avatar comic phenomenon. I got the idea of ava-comics from another message board and decided to bring it over to Tendo City. I was surprised how well idea went over. But roughly a week later, September 11th came along. My mood and that of others quickly changed and the comics quietly died out...
Then one day a couple years later I thought it would be fun to edit the Mario sprite from Super Mario Bros. to look naked. No, I wasn't fulfilling some strange, erotic fantasy. I saw someone make a pitiful naked Mario sprite, and I knew I could do a much better job.
So that's how this comic (my first of a new series) came to be: (see bottom of post for attached comic)
I posted it at Tendo City and inadvertently relaunched the comic phenomenon. While most are taking the traditional avatar comic route, I'll be working on <i>The Adventures of Trailer Trash Mario</i>, featuring his goomba sidekick. Though I don't have many comics as of now, I do plan on continuing this series.
Quote:According to Nintendo Europe today, the company's successful console sales numbers are not privy to the US alone. Experiencing an incredible surge in hardware sales for both the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance during the holiday season, this news helped solidify Nintendo's position in the videogame industry. Claiming it to be the biggest Christmas yet for its home console, Nintendo stated an increase of 88% in sales of its GameCube hardware in Europe, compared to the same period the previous year. Nintendo is closing in on the 3 million marker for total GCN sales in Europe. As well, Nintendo's strong holiday line-up, which included games such as Mario Kart: Double Dash! and Mario Party 5, helped boost software sales by 45%.
As if Santa wasn't gracious enough, the GameBoy Advance also saw generous numbers across the board for the 2003 year in Europe. With GBA and GBA SP total sales topping at 33% higher than the previous year, Nintendo is giving the handheld competition a run for its money, and is strengthening its ground for when Sony's Playstation Portable hits the market. Handheld software sales saw the largest jump, eclipsing even the numbers Nintendo made with their GameCube. More than doubling the previous year's Christmas results, GBA software sales for this period shot up 104% with special recognition made due to Nintendo's perpetually popular Pokemon series of games.
There's probably nothing but smiles on the faces of the staff at Nintendo, particularly with the GCN. With stats that continually surprise Nintendo itself, and hardware numbers rising no less than 70%, Nintendo has become a force to be reckoned with in both the US and Europe. With incredible growth near the end of the 2003 season, 2004 is looking all that much brighter.
It's like people finally woke up and realized that there's another console out there besides PS2 and Xbox.
In what could easily be mistaken for an Onion story, Microsoft has unleashed the full fury of its lawyers on 17-year-old Canadian high-school student, Mike Rowe, demanding the handover of his Internet domain.
The domain? MikeRoweSoft.com. No, seriously.
Victoria-based Mike is currently studying maths and chemistry and plans to study computer science at Victoria University next year. He registered the domain in August because he thought it would be cool to have a site that sounded like the famous company to show his Web designing skills.
The Beast of Redmond however reckons that the phonetic domain infringes its copyright and insists Mike hand it over or face the consequences.
Mike told us that when an email from Microsoft’s Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar arrived on 19 November laying out its complaint, he was “amazed and appalled”. He replied saying he didn’t want to hand over the domain and didn’t feel there was any risk it would damage Microsoft’s name.
He then got another email. “They responded to this email by offering to give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses in return for the domain name. This came out to be $10; the amount I paid for the domain. This made me feel insulted. I had spent a lot of time building up my site and I had only been offered $10 for my work. I responded by asking for $10,000, which I regret doing now, for my work and domain name.”
As he now knows, Mike had unwittingly slipped into the classic trap set by companies in order to get hold of domain names - the creation of a “bad faith” use of the domain. By offering to sell the domain for profit (even if sparked by the offer of payment by the other party), according to the bent logic of domain dispute arbitrators, it shows the owner had no legitimate interest in the domain and so it should be handed over.
Microsoft, with its case bolstered, declined and Mike heard no more until 14 January when a 25-page letter and book were Fed-Ex’ed to his house explaining why he would have to hand over the domain, stating he had intended all along to sell the domain for profit and that his domain would confuse Microsoft customers.
“I decided to go to the press when I received the package from the lawyers’ office. I thought people would be interested in my story and I wanted to know what people had to say about the situation I am in. There is really nothing I can do to push or fight this except for telling people how things are going with the whole situation. The domain dispute is in the hands of the WIPO at the moment so I have no control over what happens to my domain name.”
Can Microsoft really be attempting to take a phonetic-sounding domain name? Well, Mike is reassuringly candid and although we have not seen Microsoft’s letter and the company has yet to confirm or deny its threats are real, it seems to hang together. Unless Mike is a first-rate hoaxer, it would appear that Microsoft really has lost the plot and is trying to extend the already flawed domain dispute rules into hitherto unexplored territory.
By making the situation public though, Mike tells us he has been bolstered. “After going to the press, I have realised that I should stick it out till the end. After the massive amount of support I have received from people across the globe I am motivated to stick with what I believe in.”
And so he should. It would seem Microsoft has no choice but to back down as, legally, it doesn’t have a hope in hell of winning and there are plenty of lawyers out there who would love to get a win against Microsoft under their belt.
Mike doesn’t quite know what to make of it all: “I can’t say I have ever been in a more surreal situation than this. It has all been quite overwhelming really. I don’t know what to say about it, I have just been going with the flow.” ®
