My view of the world

I just read an article over at the Pioneer Loan blog. It’s just a partial conversation that we’ve all had.
Someone has a problem with their computer at work, they don’t identify themselves, and they aren’t even in the same room with the machine in question.
Been there, done that, and it’s a good thing you can’t strangle someone over the phone.

Back in the late nineties , I used to read the Bastard Operator From Hell, at the time I thought it was funny, now I read it for pointers.

I have a job that doesn’t pay, it’s a favor for a friend.
There’s a shortage of people I like, and even a greater shortage of people I trust, so when someone I trust called and explained the problem, I decided it was a good idea to help remedy the situation.
The problem is someone screwed up, blamed someone else, and has been modifying and deleting log files.
This overpaid putz, is well connected at high levels in the company and is using that as leverage to keep anyone from looking too closely at his activities.
It’s a shame he’s too dumb to check to see if there are duplicate log files.
He seems to be under the impression that in a clustered environment, if you delete one file, you delete them all, this is not always true. (insert evil laugh and mustache twirl here)

IOGEAR announced today its Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse, which “is able to inhibit a wide range of antibodies, viruses and algae” and is perfect for libraries, schools, offices, or any other places where computer mice are frequently used.
The outer shell of this mouse is covered in “nanocoating, consisting of titanium oxide and silver nanoparticles that can prevent or deactivate bacteria with 99% efficiency.” It operates from 6 feet away, uses 2 AAA batteries, and measures 3.74 by 1.97 by 1.18 inches. And it’s both PC and Mac compatible.
Algae? If your mouse is growing algae, perhaps it’s time to move to a drier climate.
Bad news for the company, germ freaks already carry anti-bacterial wipes, and just what is this so called science based on, and what scientifc lab verified their data?
Is it just me or does anyone else here the television at 2 in the morning? “Now, for a limited time only, if you buy one of these amazing germ free mice, you’ll get a second amazing germ free mouse at no additional charge……”
When you read claims like this, remember decaf coffee, claims to be something on the order of 97% caffine free, but regular coffee is something on the order of 96% caffine free to start with. (BTW: A couple of recent studies suggested that decaf may cause an increase your LDL cholesterol.)
The numbers are always misleading, it’s all about marketing.

John Dvorak has declared radio dead, he says it will be replaced by podcasting. I noticed, he never said exactly when the great demise was coming, this is like predicting the end of the world without an exact date.
While I don’t doubt that radio as we understand it will go by the wayside, I’m not so certain about it’s replacement, in fact, I don’t even own an Ipod, and I have a standard am-fm in my car, instead of a satellite radio. I think, that, like most changes, the change will be more of an evolution than the sudden demise of an established media.
This prediction came from the guy who designed a keyboard that only a couple of people in the known universe ever used.

M$, still hasn’t managed to create a patch for IE’s vml exploit, although another group has released an unapproved patch, and M$ says simply unregister the dll file that handles that type of graphic.
See, even M$, says you should turn their shit off.
Sunbelt Software announced the bug, but hackers had already taken advantage of a cpanel flaw, and had taken over a number of servers at Hostgator, these hackers then sat in wait, until the exploit was announced and then launched their attack.
The flaw is being exploited by a number of porn related sites, imagine that.
Oh, shock of shocks, M$, is still behind the curve, a third party released a patch days and days ahead of them, and porn sites are exploiting their customers.

In summation:
We’re being besieged, by yucky, algae covered, germ laden mice, the radio in my car is about to suddenly quit, like they do in one of those made for tv, nuclear disaster movies, and M$ is exposing us all, yet again, to every hacker that ever even thought about going online.

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood……….

In a radical departure from earlier statements, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said that requiring Internet service providers to save records of their customers’ online activities is necessary in the fight against terrorism. This is from cnet.
Gonzales’ earlier position had only emphasized how mandatory data retention would help thwart child exploitation.

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, turned over millions of call detail records to the NSA, without any form of court order.

If you think you’re safe, Lexus /Nexus just sent me an ad wanting to sell me their service for locating hard to find, meaning unlisted and cell, phone numbers.

There are online services that will tell someone if you’ve ever had a bankruptcy, and where you’ve lived in recent years, this will also tell if someone else is using your social security number or if you’re using someone else’s.

If you use Windows, it issues a guid, that can be used to keep track of everything you do on a site, including where you came from, and if you think you’re safe without windows, your nic has a mac address that’s critical to network communications and is therefore unique, this too, can be aquired.

A couple of years back, a friend showed me that even if you use a proxy, often times it’s possible to find out your original IP.

Advice: Don’t write it down, this includes email, and don’t use the telephone for anything you don’t want big brother to hear.

PGP is our friend.

I also recommend a voice changer for your phone, and a scrambler for those people you talk to regularly.
I doubt that these will save you from the powers that be, in fact they will probably attract even more attention, but these two devices will just, flat, bug the shit out of the Feds, should they happen to be listening.

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.” Daniel Webster

In the last week or so, Amazon was down for a couple of hours, back in August, and according to Keynotes Logs the response time dropped to as little as 60% on several occasions, this month.
Amazon.com’s director of corporate communications, Patty Smith, said she had “not heard of any problems with our servers.”
Sounds like your typical suit to me, when in doubt lie. Trouble, what trouble?
Amazon host parts of Borders and Target, the holiday rush hasn’t started yet and already they’re having problems.

Target is being sued, by National Federation for the Blind, under the American with Disabilities Act, because their website is not designed to be easily accessible to blind users.
Since the ADA doesn’t specifically mention websites, the folks at Target figured it didn’t apply to them.
Now Target is making a really bad marketing move, they’re fighting the case, which, win or lose, will give them a reputation for being disability, hostile.
I’m sure that the vision impaired make up less than 10% of their customer base. But, in a market, where Walmart is stomping the competition, I certainly wouldn’t want to lose between 7% and 10% of my customers.
I read that it would take between $800k and $2 million to fix the website. Target can afford to take this one time hit, but what happens when they get sued because someone can’t read english, or something equally as silly.
I’m sure Target was chosen, to set a precedent, and thereby force other major players to conform.

The California pear crop started out looking like a record, now a lot of the fruit has rotted, because of a shortage of illegal aliens. The border is only slightly tougher to cross than it was. But, the number of pickers has declined, this is because many of the illegals seem to be staying in this country instead of returning to Mexico, so they have taken more stable, full time jobs.
The lack of pickers doesn’t bother me, the price of fruit and vegetables, in the store, is too high, the quality is too low, and most of it seems to come from outside of this country. What does bother me are the number of mainstream jobs that have gone to illegals. In the past, the braceros came here for the season and then returned to Mexico, now they come here, stay and have turned much of Las Vegas into “Little T.J.”

Obviously, not all illegals are criminals, in fact most of them are hard working people who didn’t have a way to make a living back home.
However, the culture is one of conspiracy, they bring friends and relatives into this country illegally and hide and feed them when they get here.
They see nothing wrong with breaking the law, and when the INS raided a local club that was a known hang out, for illegals, the Hispanic community, staged marches, claimed they were being discriminated against, and were making loud noises about filing a class action suit.

The basic problem isn’t the pear crop, or the jobs they take from hard working, tax paying Americans, it’s Mexico.
El Presidente objects to closing the border, because a great many of the workers who come here, send money home, and this means that the Mexican economy can survive a while longer without changing the laws there, and forcing the major companys to pay a living wage.

From what I’ve seen and read of Mexico, if a man was to run for political office and shook hands with each and every member of the middle class, he’d still have his afternoons free.
They may have broken up the giant land grants, but the “patron” attitude remains.
It’s just like this country, but on a much grander scale, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class, gets squeezed, so the rich, including the major oil companys, don’t have to pay their share of the taxes, and the “Old Boy” network rules supreme.

Canada, uses a temporary worker system that seems to work, why can’t we.
And to President Vicente Fox Quesada, your economy is broken, you try to fix it by sending your problems to us.
Why don’t you tax the rich, never mind, that’s you and your friends.
Well, Mr President, please remember, when I say Kiss My Ass, it’s an insult, not an attempt to make friends.

Here in the good ol’ USA, home to a truely amazing amount of freedom, in some of the Muslim communities, what was good enough for my great, great, great grandaddy is good enough for me.
They hold a Muslim conferences, with what we would call speed dating, they however avoid the word dating, instead the have a “matrimonial banquet.”
About 10 men and women sit around a table, with the men changing table every 7 minutes or so.
It sounds like speed dating with a group discount.
They also hold seminars with titles like this one: “Dating,” with advice for “Muslim families struggling to save their children from it.”

The problem I have, is that, it looks to me, like this only works in a totally male dominated society. If one person isn’t absolutely submissive, and they don’t even know each other, the lives of both would be miserable.
I’m certain it works once in a while, but this isn’t upcountry Pakistan, and the women have seen and heard enough so it would be hard for them to stay submissive, and the men have been exposed to western attitudes and western women.
One interview I read, told of a guy who was almost thirty, and still saving himself for marriage, while I commend his determination, I think he’s out of his friggin’ mind.
This is not an attack on the religion, it’s a commentary on what I see as an archaic, and doomed, tradition.
Can you imagine marrying someone you don’t really know?

A final thought.
Why don’t Baptists have sex standing up?….It could lead to dancing.

Nina Miles of Shrewsbury, Pa. came up with t-shirts, that had sayings about polygamy, right after Warren S. Jeffs was arrested.

Some of the messages offered on T-shirts, aprons and even underwear at CafePress.com:
“Monogamy is for Ugly People”
“Polygamy Saved My Marriage”
“Team Nicki” (reference to the character Nicki, played by Chloe Sevigny on HBO’s “Big Love”)
“Jeffs is Jailed/We Got Our Man”
“Polygamy - not just for the Mormons anymore”
“I’ve been in Purgatory”
“Utah! But you can’t have just one!”
“1 + 1 + 1 . . . Polygamath”
“Honk if you’re living the Principle”
“Saturday at the Wal-Mart (shows a cutout man with three women)
“Utah - Three times the wives means three times the fun”

Guys, if you think polygamy sounds like fun, just picture trying to figure out what the hell you did to get not just one wife, but, several wives pissed at you, and how you’re going to get back on their good sides.

The Las Vegas Vegas Blog has started a separate blog devoted to business and politics.
It has potential, after all, the two are intertwined, and the players are interchangeable.

So far they’ve slammed SportsBet.com. They are those folks that put one hundred grand, in one dollar bills, on display up on a billboard and the money lasted until the guards 3am break. Their boss also got busted, when he came to the U.S., because Louisiana issued warrants, based on that states laws about internet gaming.

They also had some interesting things to say about crime in general, and the Police Protective Association, in particular, with their hiring surveillance, to collect six weeks of videotape, purportedly showing Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald lives in a home which is not in the district she represents.

Rich, who writes for the Pioneer Loan Center blog, has just put up a number of very nice watches on their Pawnshop website.
Aside from the fact, that he needs to quit being lazy, and set up that Nikon D70, properly, so the pictures are more consistant, the site looks a little better, everytime he works on it.
The watches are nice, used watches, with some exceptional values, assuming of course, you have the six large, for the Piaget, he’s whining about.
The funny part is, if he had that much loose change, he’d buy the watch and never wear it, he’s strictly a blue jeans kind of guy.
In fact, he’s firmly convinced, that neckties, were invented by some woman, who was pissed at her husband. I agree.

On the subject of watches, if you hang out at poker tournaments, or in the fancy casinos, about all you see, are Rolex Presidents, including some in the $100k range. Which begs the question, why would you pay that kind of money, for a watch?
If it’s ego, take a look around, it seems like everybody has one, so you’re no longer special, and if theirs is fake, unless it’s a really bad fake, you’ll never know.

A $100k watch, is like having a 200mph Lamborgini, and being stuck in the 2mph traffic going back to L.A., it may be pretty, but it’s not very practical.

I’m trying this new versionof OOO, and have run into a small glitch. When you’re doing the Mage’s guild quests and you have to go to Vahtacen, there’s a chest with the necessary scrolls. The problem arose, when it told me, I couldn’t lock-pick during combat.
Just an odd glitch, I got enough gold and bought “open average lock,” then I cheated by going into god mode, to give me enough magica, casting the spell to open the chest, then returning to normal mode to finish the quest. My advice is to save just before each quest and at least two time during each phase of the quest.

In Nornalhorst, there are lots of vampires, I went in as a level 3 and they chewed me up, spit me out and pissed on the pieces.
In Smoke Hole Cave, I got to see my first Spectral warriors, Ghostly warriors and spectral wolves, DO NOT TOUCH any of the warriors or their weapons, you will get frost damage, the wolves just give you ectoplasm. Lightning seems to work best on these warriors, because fire seems to be resisted.
The UESPWiki discribes this dungeon as having lots of jewels and gold and undead. Understatement, I guess they haven’t seen the new improved version.
,As to the end result of my entering the cave, see my Nornalhorst comment.

Out near Gwenden Farm, near Anvil, there are two Ayleid ruins, that are inhabited by seriously hostle folks, who wear braided armor and use braided weapons.
One of the ruins is pitch black, fortunately, if you’ve done the mages guild quest, where you have to get the wood for your staff, you’ve picked up a number of staffs that cast light and have zero weight, you still don’t see very much, but they sure help, this way you get to see who just killed you.
I entered one of these in god-mode, killed everything that moved, looted everything I could find, sold it all, and wound up with more than 50k in gold, so they are worth exploring.

The thing I ran into, was the number of friendly’s out in the boonies, you can no longer assume that anyone out in the bush is hostile, so I can no longer use one of my favorite tactics, which is to throw a fireball from way out and even the odds.
What do they mean, kill ‘em all, let god sort ‘em out, is no longer a valid approach to the game?

There’s a bunch of new weapons, armor and critters. The Elvin night armor is about the same as glass armor, but it’s black. There are protectors, in light or heavey armor, which are staves, for use in place of shields.
There are three sizes of wolves, at least two sizes of boars and deer, and the crabs and rats come in at least two sizes.
You’ll also find a large number of chests that you need to open with magic, including some with, very hard locks, that I haven’t been able to find a spell, to open. Not that I have enough magica, I just want to find out, where I can buy the spell.

So far the game is fun, but, my motto has become. “Run away, run away.” Bravely run away.