And society became salt…..

Hello again readers!

 

It’s been a bit of time between posts, mainly because I’ve been writing them and hen not actually posting them.  A lot of them felt incomplete, but what the heck, I’m not being paid to do this so I’ll be posting them in their ineloquent form. That’s the update there, so without further ado, today’s posting.

 

I was perusing the internet, looking at various sundry articles about 3D this, that, and the other.  Seems a lot of pundits and professional prognosticators seem to think 3D is a gimmick and is destined to fail.  I’m an ardent believer in 3D, ever since I learned of the premise and saw my first Star wars movie I’ve believed 3D is the way to go.  I actually remember my first 3D experience, I was about 8 or 10, I’d say and was living in P.G. County Maryland. On tv, channel 20 WDCA (I was a big fan of television and it guided my day then) announced a special event. They we’re going to broadcast a 3D movie, The Creature From the Black Lagoon!  Let me tell you as a kid nothing made me more excited then the idea of seeing this legendary movie monster coming out of the screen at me.  The advertisements were very much a draw when you were a little kid and the big gimmick was you needed the free 3D glasses from the 7-11 (marketing tie in!), on top of that going to the 7-11 for a kid is like going to freakin’ Toys R Us, they have the knock-off cheapy toys Trans-Changers, G.I. Jeneric, those balsa wood flyers, green army guy parachute dude, you name it and they had candy, some other stuff chips, and the Coup de grace, the tie-in Slurpee!  If I recall it was Creature Lemon-Lime (get it? it’s green) and you could get the glasses at the register, the old red/blue ones  

and let me tell you it was fantastic!  Sure it was in Black & White (and Red & Blue), but when that arm came towards me I was hooked.  I remember I even kept moving the glasses up and down to see the difference in the blurry multicolored picture and my sorta blurry 3D picture.  I generally try to see movies in 3D whenever possible, I saw the Nightmare On Elm Street 3D movie, now in blurry color!!! And it was good (I mean relatively speaking, it was Nightmare on elm Street).  I saw Avatar back in January of last year when it came out.  That movie was technologically life changing.  It also kicked off the current arms race to see who will be the premiere  consumer 3D sales company.  In Best Buy I’ve fallen in love with   I visit it every time we go.

You know how you can tell though, that it’s both the End of the World as we know it AND totally awesome?  It’s when lingerie goes 3D!  It’s already happened you know… I ran across this little doozy online, totally randomly Feel free to click the link for a bigger pic and also if you have any of the aforementioned glasses, well, go for it. And this my friends is how society ends distracted consumers crashing their hover cars and hover boards into buildings and each other! Sparks and flaming debris reigning down on hapless drivers and pedestrians!! But, at least it’ll be entertaining… well, after they install the gender filter, I don’t wanna see some dudes junk ‘comin’ at me in 3 Dimensions… not cool. Not Cool At All.

R.I.P. Microsoft Office

Via Article: r-i-p-microsoft-office

My Unabridged Rant~~

The "Cloud" has been around for like, 30 years, it's not new or anything interesting, in fact in the beginning, most corporations used the "cloud"; at the time, it was called a Workstation. I'm sure all the technarati love this "new" concept. "You mean, I can carry a client like a Macbook Air? I don't have to have a harddrive? All my apps can be run from the 'internet'?" Yeah, in theory that all sounds amazing, people love Gmail and google apps but I'm just not a fan, here's why.

In my computer history class, we looked up the prehistoric days of computing, I got to see old harddrive platters (As big as a car tire!) and we evn had to do some reading and research. According to one of the interesting textbooks and site my Professor offered there was this nugget in 1974 "Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center came up with Alto, which was the first workstation with an inbuilt mouse. It had a fair amount of storage capacity and offered menus and icons. It could also connect to a network." Via computer-history... Let me tell you, back then I was like 'Wow, seriously? People had to 'purchase' time to use a mainframe? That's so archaic!' Archaic? Yes. Profitable? Hell Yeah!! Funny thing is, they didnt realize how long term profitable it was. You could sell desktops for more money upfront and be done with the consumer, then flash forward like 30 years and suddenly... Subscriptions are the way to go! As a consumer I hate a subscription, I like a product in my hands, not to mention if you dont control your data, it can be altered, encryption or not. I've been on sites where a news story was 'corrected' or 'pulled' and all trace of the old version was erased, without notice, imagine a world where there are no hard copies, no thanks, I like my quaint, antiquated, slightly cryptic desktop, it's mine, the data's mine, the records are mine, and as long as it's not hacked or formatted the truth/facts/data, whether accurate or my interpretation is mine. Citing security is just whining by lazy people, the same people that would whine if the government were to put in place laws to "make" you be responsible, rather outsource their responsibility, it's pretty sad and kinda pathetic.

But, let's go back to the cost issue. A common misconception is that if everything moves to the web, things will be cheaper, because there wont be exploits or service packs or any other chaff you wanna throw into the air. This is a flawed concept. Regardless of where the actual software is stored, there's going to be R&D and security concerns, there's going to be people paid, the same number of people no doubt, who will troubleshoot, research, and patch flaws, holes, and bad code. These people will still be paid, the only difference... the ONLY difference is the company as a whole will make a hell of a lot more. Now instead of you paying anywhere from $20-$500 for a program they make a continuous stream of revenue from you. Sure they dress it up in s shiny suit and say we're not reaming, but newsflash, if a person gives you a cute card saying they're not reaming you and you feel like your being reamed and they're the only one there.... they're reaming you.

You paying more doesn't even translate to you getting more anyway. An example: I play World of Warcraft, I paid for a retail box, installed the game and I pay a monthly subscription. While paying the subscription and getting minor tweaks of the game, I still have to buy expansions with even more tweaks then before and new zones, places, races, bells and whistles, and it all sounds really awesome. So I buy the next expansion, never mind the fact alot of times it breaks my game and I have to reinstall and alot of the time although I dont get a prorate the system may go offline for "maintenance" for an indeterminate amount of time, I still keep spending my fee to play. Then the new expansion comes out, it promises a ton of new crap to do and see and

Dances

A dance studio is being worked on to allow players to add and change dance animations. This was not featured on release; however, it will most likely be introduced in one of the future content patches for WotLK.

Date published November 13, 2008 and still... no new dances. Sure there were alot of other things added, but I bought it and was excited for new dances. But what incentive is there to provide the feature now? I bought the software, I still pay my subsription and even if I quit I still paid for something I won't get. But see, thats the magic of subscriptions, you can say whatever wacky thing you want, promise it and never have to make good on it. So what if the customer was lied to, they have your money, they even have your subscription from the months you pitifully waited for them to make good and if you give up, well... so?

Conversely, money talks with a retail box. If a reviewer or someone you knows gets a product and it doesnt do what it says, well, noone buys it. There's accountability. You'd better damn well make good on what you say or you wont be around long. That's really what it comes down too, noone likes being accountable anymore, from companies, to politicians, to parents, to children people don't like to have to follow through on what they say. It must be nice to run your business or industry on a quote from a musical.

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

~ Annie

Talking about Detroit police halt pillow fight - Weird news- msnbc.com

So did you see this last week?  A giant nationwide pillow fight.  It’s good to see people coming back to their senses. It’s my belief that if you don’t have pillow fights, the terrorists win.  Oh, sure your laughing, your thinking, wow, he sounds crazy.  Not really, think about it, the minute you give in to a bully, the bully wins.  We all remember having a bully at some time in our lives.  The key is to keep doing things your way and not to be curtailed from doing what you want or enjoy.  But that’s just my thoughts on freedom in general.  The real news is the fear mongering.  The fear…. of pillows…  yes, that’s right, the fluffy menace is upon you, you’d better watch your back.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30070062/?GT1=43001

 

What’s truly insane is the blatant about the permit… a permit… really?  See it’s baby steps people, I’m telling you, if you don’t defend your rights to proper sleeping accessories it’s all down hill from there.

Anti-Americanism (or “why’s it ok to hate freedom?”)

Back in the day there used to be this little group, let’s call them … The Nationalist Socialist German Worker's' Party, which was a political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945.  This group later became the Nazi party.  Nazi ideology stressed the failure of democracy, failure of Laissez-faire capitalism, "racial purity of the German people" and persecuted those it perceived either as race enemies or Lebensunwertes Leben, that is "life unworthy of living". This included Jews, Slavs, and Roma along with German homosexuals, the mentally disabled, communists, and others.*

We entered World War 2 and with he help of our allies defeated the spread of Nazi-ism and it’s ideals in May of 1945.  In the grand scheme of things that really wasn’t all that long ago.  So with that in mind and one of the main things you see on the news being the hatred of Nazi's and their oppressive mentality. why do people continue to fall for the smoke and mirrors of less rights in the cause of safety?  You probably think I’m delusional.  I assure you, I’m not.  Let me show you something interesting, let’s take the  Nazi parties ideals and swap some words out. Republican ideology stressed the failure of Liberalism within democracy , failure of Regulation, "Regulatory authorities are commonly set up to enforce standards and safety, to oversee use of public goods and regulate commerce." and the moral decay of society by those it perceived either as moral enemies or Anarchist, that “want nothing more then to destroy the moral fiber of America". This included homosexuals, liberals, communists, and those against the free market.  If you look at the two their really not all that different.  now that’s not to say Republicans as a whole are Nazi’s, that’d be ridiculous.  But the hardcore-far-right Conservatives are an extremist group, much like their polar opposite the far-left liberals.  Both of these groups seem to miss the entire point of America and they’re both radical fringe elements in my opinion.  The United States was initially setup by a group of people that were fleeing religious intolerance and dictatorial rule.  the entire history of our country is based on the throwing off of old ideas and coming up with an amalgam that takes most of the best of all sides and makes a livable environment for everyone.  These two groups however, don’t like America or the very premise of the country.  they prefer to instigate and inflame hatred for the other side, they also believe only their way is right.  For eight years our country was steered to the far right,  the far left was hoping that with the election of Obama they could steer us in the polar opposite direction.  Funny thing is,  President Obama is doing what he said he was going to do, he’s being a centrist, he’s trying to reach out to both sides and use the best ideas from both halves. 

It’s a sad state of affairs when people can’t see eye-to-eye, it’s disastrous when they decide to do everything in their power to oppose someone that’s trying to help on some vague principle.  It’s ok if you don’t believe in someone else’s ideals, that’s what the country was built on.  It’s another thing entirely to use the same principle’s as the Nazi’s, hate, fear, suspicion… to get your way, that’s not something that’s Country first (a popular slogan during the presidential campaigns) that’s Father Land first.  Hitler would be proud.

 

*wikipedia

More debate commentary

Pat Buccaneen is like "Palin won  because she's "authentic", she's charismatic..." WTF?? How about answering the questions?  How about saying something of substance.  She can't say anything about the Bailout? She can't say what's so different about the McCain/Palin ticket? She can just say she's not answering questions.  Huh?  Yeah, that's good stuff right there.  Not useful... but good. 

To someone.

Not me.

 

Wordpress Tags: debate, confused, amazed

Someone explain to me

Governor Palin is a victim of "Gotcha" journalism because she was overheard responding to a voter about what she's do about a foreign country.  So... in order to show she's competent, John McCain goes on the second half of Palin's interview with Katie Couric... a woman... and proceeds to talk over Palin and respond for her when Couric asks her anything.  And this is who the disenchanted Hillary voters would rather or should rather vote for?  Yeah, that doesn't show her as either incompetent, too stupid to answer, or unable to defend herself in the big leagues.  Hell, it was like watching a father protect his daughter, and this is what conservatives want for the next 4 years...?  Genius.

 

 

Wordpress Tags: Palin, McCain, Couric, Interview

Comedy.

But FoxNews is reporting he's your guy. So, yeah I'll keep you posted. I'm waiting to see if John Mccain picks a woman vice president. I also openly hope all the Hillary supporters that are for McCain go republican, hmmm... I feel a rant coming on.

day 2, the DNC

 

FoxNoise, the only channel that covers an event by... not covering an event.  Also, a clever trick, showing footage of no Hillary support by zooming in on little sections of anti-McCain and Pro Obama supporters... nice job Fox, but I watched the camera coverage on MSNBC and they did Panorama shots.  You may've heard of them, they're used to show The Big PICTURE.  Maybe you can try it some time.  Oh, and Megyn Kelly, your a great actress, for the longest time you had me convinced you were a correspondent with integrity, Bravo!!  You deserve an Oscar... F.Y.I.  I know your not too bright, so just so you know... that's sarcasm.  Hm, apparently Fox also saw a different video intro then the rest of us... maybe they really do live in a parallel world.

 

On a more positive note, having watched a version that's not talked over on MSNBC, I can say, Hillary's speech was great, I may not trust her, but she can deliver a great speech and her supporters looked fired up and ready to go,  Contrary to Foxs' shady reporting.  Can someone tell me why Rudy "A noun, a verb, and 9/11" Guilliani is a main "goto" guy for Hannity and Colmes?  Didn't his bid end up as a punchline when he ran?

 

Wordpress Tags: democrat, observation, politics, DNC

Wow, i don't know if this is racist, an insult, or a racist backhanded insult...

I'm watching FoxNoise and Hannity and Colmes and Sean Hannity just said: "....Obama is articulate, bright... and clean..."

He's... clean... so... why wouldn't he be? I've never heard a person described like that, well i did, but it was in re-enactments of auction blocks from 400 years ago. I'm just... wow.

Civil court (Or more accurately Revenge Court!)

I'm not a fan of Scott Peterson and yes, I'm one of those people that don't care if O.J. did or didn't do it but... whatever happened to be exonerated?  doesn't winning your court case mean anything anymore?  Let's not get into the sticky situation of whether you agree or disagree with a verdict, if you are found not guilty the topic should be dropped.  I understand this is the American Idol generation, everyone wants to have a vote, everyone wants their say, but the law doesn't work like that, the rules, as I always say, are the rules.  Twelve people get a say in whether or not a person is guilty or not, thousands of dollars are spent on lawyers for the defense and for the prosecution, a judge, who is supposedly unbiased makes the ruling based on the heretofore mentioned twelve people and after all is said and done, a verdict is reached and that's that.  Well that's how it used to be, now there's the idiotic invention of civil (Revenge) court.  Here's a court that, were the law actually not being abused would be used for one purpose and one purpose only.  A Civil Court, last I heard anyway, is supposed to be for small claims, private settlements that don't necessarily need all the pomp and circumstance of a bigger court.  lately, though, it seems that civil courts have been getting used to re-try, which I didn't think was supposed to happen, a case where the verdict didn't come out the way the prosecution wanted.  So say in the case of O.J., the guy gets off, so then they sue him in civil and win, what the hell?!?  Personally I think double jeopardy should apply across the board and you should only be able to pick one place to have your case tried.  The courts aren't a slot machine, you don't just keep pulling the handle until you get the justice you want.

Wordpress Tags: court, slots, justice, jeopardy, civil

Nick Hogan (Bolea, or whatever...)

I'm a HUGE Hogan fan, but I personally can't stand his son.  I figure if I'm going to post I should point those two things out at the start.  Is it just me or  have people taken leave of their senses?  I'm not saying the guy was wrong for drag racing while drunk, but why is he being blamed for a 24 y/o marine choosing to get into a car with him?  I choose to do things all the time, getting in a vehicle with a drunk driver? Not one of them.  I'm just wondering, what the hell happened to personal responsibility?

Wordpress Tags: responsibility, drinking, driving, drunk, personal

Did you know that Yahoo! has a womens' section?

Completely with spiffy pink border!!  don't get me wrong I like pink, especially on women and girls, it's a classic.  Speaking of classics, there's an article on a classic question Should you or Shouldn't you? The question all about the last name when married.  I don't wanna seem like some type of macho chauvinist but,  if I have to be branded with a ring (and yeah its like a branding, you've been marked fellas)  then what's the deal with a woman saying "I can't be bothered to change my name?"  Let's put things in perspective.  Most guys don't want to get married.  Say what you will but marriage is more a concession then something guys choose to do.  You do it for two reasons 1.)  Your girlfriend/fiance wants you to and 2.) It's a "symbol of your unity (like your wedding ring).  So, what's the difference?  A guy isn't trusted to just tell people "I'm married."  In fact your not even given the opportunity to say anything, most women automatically do the hand check.  I'm not against the tradition, it doesn't hurt anyone and it kinda serves a purpose.  The average guy gets used to his ring either loves it and cherishes it or forgets about it and in either case it just stays on.  Some of the arguments in the article are laughable. "It's just easier not too..", "Some people think I've left the company because my name changed....", etc.,etc.,etc.  This falls into my personal "What the frak?!" category.  Its an inconvenience?  Well, allow me to retort in the slang of the '30's "So's marriage toots!" I mean, I'm perfectly capable of regulating whether or not i sleep with someone and I'm perfectly capable of maintaining a relationship with an acquaintance without the artificial marking that's been in place for years.  If it's all about convenience then why don't we just get rid of marriages all together?  They're expensive, complicated, annoying at times, and impractical. Why don't we all just declare, I'm staying with you!! Wouldn't that be "easier?"  Seriously, the "People don't know I work here anymore" is lame.  IF you are that important a client  then maybe you should slip the married name change into an email or a conversation.  Shouldn't you be proud and excited about marrying the man you "love".  Here's an example,

"Hello, It's good to see you again!  I've been looking over those proposals you sent over... oh yes, speaking of proposals I just got married last week, I am now officially Mrs. Blah-Blah-Blah.....  Oh, thank you for the congratulations, I'm quite happy too.  Let me get back to that proposal though <insert polite chuckle>...."

or in an email/letter,

Greetings Big Important Client,

I am just following up to clarify my response to your last message.  I would be sincerely delighted to join you for lunch to discuss the plans for your new venture.  I look forward to new discourse and hope we can come to a beneficial planning strategy that will bolster your fiscal profits for the coming quarter. 

P.S.

I would like to inform you of my recent marriage and name change, I am now Mrs. Blah-Blah-Blah.  I will continue to provide you with the service you've become acquainted with but i wanted to inform you of the recent name change so there is no confusion locating me or my offices.  thank you for your continued business.

Mrs. Blah-Blah-Blah,

Director of Sales

Wow, that was surely the most complicated thing I've ever written, between writing that, making coffee, drinking a soda and watching MSNBC that took me all of 8 mins.  I would also like to say, arguing that it would be expensive to change all of your cards is a blatant fabrication.  If you are important enough or rich enough to have a card in the first place, trust me, you can afford to change them.  They probably needed a facelift and updating anyway.

My wife and I actually had a conversation about this topic.  Most couples do and should.  I was and still am firmly of the opinion that if your too lazy (yes, LAZY) to change your name, then why should I bother being married to you?  Why can't we just continue dating exclusively?  My wife is progressive, sometimes to her detriment in some areas, and I support her in everything she does, but even she changed her name.  Her way was actually rather clever, I personally believe the hyphenation thing is crap, either "do it or do not, there is no try" to paraphrase Yoda. She dropped her middle name, moved her last name to the middle and took my last name.  I'm quite pleased with the solution actually, so should most business women, you can go by your first and middle name or if you really are into the whole sanctity of marriage thing, you can use your husbands.  In all honesty, if marriage isn't important enough to uphold some of the most simpler tenants then maybe we should just do away with it altogether.  Insurance and property rights arent really legitimate reasons to join a person, laws can be changed, rights can be amended, but if your only going to pick and choose the parts of an event like marriage that you "like", then you cheapen the experience and the value you place on both you and your partners union

Wordpress Tags: marriage, observation, opinion, rights, tradition, union

The Infamous Blue balled Ad....

I'm not going to say I'm a die hard Democrat but, since there only ever seems to be two parties at any given time, this election I'm firmly behind Barack Obama.  This story isn't about Barack (shock and awe) although the media would like to link him to the ad.  No this particular rant is about the hilariously clever "blue Balled Ad".  Not only is the ad clever, it has very calculated lighting, look at the light the girls under and her clothes.  Look at the guy and his house and his sheets.  Ah, subliminal and blunt.  Remember kids, Democrats are trendy, hip, cool and Republicans--not so much.

 

Enjoy.

 

Sure, there's the point that the girl is slutty but thats besides the point so if you comment, know it's duly noted ahead of time.