Fake Professor Sirlin Teaches Law

Here's a long article about my adventures as a guest lecturer at a law school.

I'm always telling my lawyer friends that I'm sort of a civil rights lawyer, just without the piece of paper saying so. There was a moot court in San Francisco where law students argued a free speech case a while ago. I really loved that case because it was a real test of who actually believed in free speech and who just paid lip-service too it. The free speech involved was unpopular and took place at a public school, which is government property. The (fake) authority at the school was trying to supersede the actual authority of the US Constitution, but it took some fire in your gut to really believe in the free speech side. I believe that side had the stronger case, if you looked closely.

I knew some of the judges involved in the moot court and asked if I could be a judge or a lawyer. They said no, that only real lawyers or law students are allowed. I said I'd challenge any one of then to a "debate-off" and that we should choose it by actual merit rather than who has a piece of paper. I was mostly kidding because of course they would say no, and they did say no. The judges later told me the students on the pro-free speech side didn't have arguments as good as mine, so they had to find for the other side.

But then later, another opportunity came up, this time about the 4th Amendment, or what's left of it. That's the one saying that the government can't do unreasonable search and seizures, and that there is some concept of privacy. You might be unaware that the 4th Amendment is a hollow shell of its former self. The government currently has unlimited power to search any and all of your possessions (including everything other than the human body) with no suspicion or reason whatsoever if you are at an airport or a border. Yeah, I really mean that.

And if unlimited search power at borders (and airports) was not enough, this now--somehow--extends to searches taking place with in 100 miles from a border. I would think that crossing a border is a trajectory, not a position. For example, I life near San Francisco, so as I type this, I am 100 miles from a border and I qualify for the no-rights search even though my activities have nothing to do with border crossing. In fact, almost 2/3rds of the entire US population lives in this "constitution-free zone," as the ACLU (rightly) calls it. This is not the kind of "protection" I'm looking for from a government. Quite the contrary--the kind of protection I'm looking for comes from the US Constitution.

This issue hinges on a case called United States vs. Arnold, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation thinks the finding of that case is a crazy as I do.

If you want this to feel a little more personal, here's an actual US citizen who can tell you about it.

Anyway, my goal was to help the law students think critically enough about these issues that they'd be prepared to question the validity of questionable searches. Maybe one of them will grow up to be a judge someday and defend our rights. Here's that really long article again.

--Sirlin

I'm No Longer With Backbone Entertainment

I'm no longer with Backbone Entertainment.

If you're wondering whether I'm available to work on a patch or update that Street Fighter HD Remix might need, the answer is YES I'm available. No matter what project or company I am working with next, I will be available for anything Street Fighter needs, if Capcom asks (and pays). We all want Street Fighter to be as good as it can be and last as long as possible.

This would usually be a time for biting criticism, but I'll try taking the high road for a change. Let's see what new flowers bloom, and what new articles will show up here.

If you'd like my help with design or balance and you have a lot of money and you don't make me use an alarm clock, I might be available, but I'm honestly pretty busy. Contact me and see though!

I'll leave you with this wikipedia description of Backbone. No I didn't write it, but it's interesting that I'm the only person prominent enough in the entire company to be mentioned:

Backbone Entertainment is an independent video game development company with offices in Emeryville, California, Vancouver, British Columbia, and formerly Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Backbone Entertainment is the result of a merger between Digital Eclipse Software (which specializes in arcade game emulation), and ImaginEngine (which specializes in children's software). One of Backbone's prominent key members is David Sirlin, an arcade game enthusiast known for his involvement in fighting game tournaments, mostly the Super Street Fighter II titles.

--Sirlin

World of Warcraft Mouse (and multiboxer highlights)

This is the new World of Warcraft mouse developed by SteelSeries. I like idea of it a lot, and I would buy one instantly if it had Mac OS X support. Yeah I know you can use USB Overdrive to get things like this to work, but native drivers would be much better and they are supposedly coming out in a couple months.

I like mice with a lot of buttons. You, the person reading this who is about to post an annoying comment, do not like mice with a lot of buttons. But you, the other kind of reader who likes to submit my articles to social bookmarking sites--you know what I mean. In fact, when I look for a mouse, the number of buttons is the first thing I look at. If it doesn't have enough, I won't consider the mouse at all. Even Apple's Mighty Mouse--that lozenge-looking thing with apparently only one button--has 4 buttons: left, right, middle, and a 4th side button when you squeeze the sides.

But Seriously, How Many Buttons?

Does this World of Warcraft mouse have enough buttons though? It says it has 15, but let's look more closely.

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Smash Bros. Brawl Tutorial Videos

Updated on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 11:39AM by Sirlin

Updated on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 8:02PM by Sirlin

Updated on Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 8:53PM by Sirlin

Updated on Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 11:22AM by Sirlin

I made this series of ten short tutorial videos for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. They appear on the official Nintendo Channel accessible through your Wii, on Nintendo's website, and below from YouTube. Nintendo asked me to explain the game to new players in a way that shows them there is more going on than they might think. Remember, these videos are for new players, not for tournament champions and they're intended to help the Smash scene grow.

Smash Bros. sells well in the US and in Japan, but struggles more in Europe. It sells more in both the US and Japan, while the perception in Eurpose is that it's "that kids game with the Mario Kart characters." A strange and ironic statement considering that the "Mario Kart characters" aren't even originally from Mario Kart, but that game sells well in Europe so it's a point of reference for many. Maybe my videos and the reputation of my name will help increase the scene in Europe. (Note to anrgy commenters: this information is from Nintendo, not from me. The idea that my name as an expert on competitive games might help in this situation is from Nintendo, not from me, and that's why they contacted me.)

Special thanks to David "Scamp" Cantrell and Cedric "Ceirnian" Qualls for gameplay advice, Rich "FMJaguar" DeLauder for editing and secretly keeping sirlin.net working, and Mike "Bocci" Boccieri for his technical wizardry with video capture.

As more of the videos become available on youtube, I'll post them all below. If you're interested in these videos, you might try that new "share article" link below, for digg or one of those new-fangled link-swapping sites.

--Sirlin

Part 1: The Two Games

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