Something rotten at Dunder Mifflin Infinity

So I logged on to Dunder Mifflin Infinity this morning to see what the new task was, and while the new task isn't up yet, I saw this news item which was posted last night:

Nov. 29, 10:00 PM ET
BRANCH MERCHANDISE NOW AVAILABLE!

Attention all DMI Employees:

T-shirts, mugs, posters, cards and mousepads featuring all of the official branch logos can now be purchased exclusively at the NBC Universal Store! Show your DMI pride, click here!

Dunder Mifflin Infinity, for those that don't know, is an online game where people form virtual branches and participate in various tasks each week to earn SchruteBucks which can be spent on virtual items to decorate a virtual desk. Creating a branch logo was the very first task that was assigned, about 2 months ago. For completing the task we were each paid $50 SchruteBucks for completing the task, which is a meager sum, even in SchruteBucks, which have no monetary value outside of the game. Then we voted on our favorite logo in our branch, and the logo that got the most votes became the branch's official logo. While most of the logos are OK, there are a few that are awesome (e.g. Racine, Topeka, Spokane).

The big issue here, though, is whether or not the people that designed the logos on this new merchandise that's being sold are going to be compensated with a percentage of profits from the sale of items featuring the logos they designed, or will receive some other fair form of compensation.

Shortly after seeing that items featuring the logos we created were now being sold, I emailed the NBC Universal Store with the following question:

With the new Dunder Mifflin Infinity Custom Gear being sold in the NBC Universal Store, what percentage of profits or other compensation will the creators of the branch logos that are being put on the various items being sold receive in return for their designs being used?

I have not yet received a response, but I will post as soon as I do.

If it turns out that the logo designers will be getting a % of profits or other fair compensation from the sale of items featuring their work, then that's great!

But If it turns out that the logo designers will not be getting a % of profits or any other fair compensation from the sale of items featuring their work, then this is an outrage that must be responded to.

This is the same bullshit (on a much smaller scale, obviously) that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) tried to pull on the Writers Guild of America (WGA) regarding online use of programs without compensating the writers.

If the logo designers are not going to be fairly compensated, then I think we all must do the following:

1. Boycott the NBC Universal Store for as long as these items are being sold without fair compensation going to those who designed the logos.

2. Express our dissatisfaction with this at Dunder Mifflin Infinity, by either quitting the game until those who designed the logos get fair compensation for their work, or continue to play the game, but express our dissatisfaction with this in every way that we can (e.g. every new task, message board posts, emails to DMI) until this is resolved.

Would Hillary lose to each of the major Republican candidates?

Today on Digg an article was posted with a new poll by Zogby suggesting that Hillary Clinton would lose to all the major Republican candidates if the election were held today.

From the article:

In the new survey, Clinton trailed Senator John McCain 42 percent to 38 percent, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani by 43 percent to 40 percent and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by 43 percent to 40 percent.

She also lagged behind former Arkansas Republican governor Mike Huckabee by 44 to 39 percent, and former Senator Fred Thompson by 44 to 40 percent in hypothetical general election matchups.

So Hillary trails in each of the match-ups among those with an opinion, with the percentage she trails in each match-up ranging from 3 to 5 percent.

But I think the key number here is the percentage of undecideds for the various match-ups, which ranged from 16 to 20 percent.

With the anti-Bush, anti-Republican mood of the country as strong as it is, I would guess that the undecideds, if forced to choose (as they would have to if the election were actually held today), would overwhelmingly break for Hillary, giving her the election easily.

The article also states that Obama and Edward both have leads over every major Republican candidate among those with an opinion, but if does not state how big the margins are, or what percentage of respondents were undecided.

Bill Callahan Fired

This morning Bill Callahan was fired from his job as the football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He joins athletic director Steve Pederson, who was fired last month. Even though they were fired, they both stand to make several million dollars over the next few years, as they're both under contract until 2012.

I personally believe that they shouldn't get millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing, so I've come up with an alternative idea that would benefit both individuals and the university. I first got the idea after seeing this awesome cartoon by Neal Obermeyer after Pederson was fired:



That cartoon reminded me of the scene in Fun Run, the Season 4 premiere episode of The Office, where Eizabeth the stripper accepts the Big Check that cost $200 made out for $340 to Science. Which in turn reminded me of what happened to Elizabeth the stripper on her first appearance on the show, in the Season 3 episode Ben Franklin, where she's hired to dance at Bob Vance's bachelor party, but the party is cut short after Elizabeth dances on Michael and he has a sudden twinge of conscience, cutting the party short. Then Dwight, in his genius, takes Elizabeth up to the office and sits her down in Oscar's seat in accounting and this priceless exchange occurs:

Dwight: Elizabeth, I want you to sit here. When the phone rings, answer it.
Elizabeth: You want me to answer phones with my clothes on.
Dwight: We hired you for three hours work and we're going to get it.

Like Elizabeth the stripper, even though Steve Pederson and now Bill Callahan have been removed from the jobs they were originally hired for, that doesn't mean they should get the money from their contracts for doing nothing.

My modest proposal, then, which I guess is just Dwight's idea in a different situation, is that Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan should have to do some other job for the university until their contracts expire. While they both failed spectacularly at the high-profile jobs they were originally hired for, Pederson and Callahan would probably make acceptable janitors. Their job would be to clean up Memorial Stadium after each home game. I think that would be the least they could do to clean up the huge mess left in their wake.

FAIL

Well, yesterday I managed to go 22 hours without buying anything. And then, with less than 2 hours until midnight, I went to Joystiq to answer the day's question for their contest for a $5K gaming computer from Falcon Northwest. Before I could do so, however, I saw a post that Best Buy stores were selling the PC versions of BioShock and The Orange box for $25 each instead of the usual $50. While the nearest Best Buy is over 2 hours away, I checked bestbuy.com and found that the offer applied there, too, with free shipping no less, and I bought them both.

The sick thing is that I can't run either on my current PC, which is 6 1/2 years old, and if I can keep it running until Intel's Nehalem processor is released late next year, it'll be a year or so until I get to play either game.

A few weeks ago GoGamer.com had a sale on BioShock for $30, and I almost bought it then, but I figured that by the time I get a computer that could actually play it next year, the price would probably drop to less than $30 anyway, and maybe $20 or so during a sale.

Now that I've bought both games I'm in a little quandary: Do I root for my computer to fail so I can get a new computer and be able to play them, or do I keep hoping my computer continues working until Nehalem is released, knowing that I won't be able to play my new games until I get a new one?

Buy Nothing Day