(I think about this poem early in the morning before I've had any coffee, or turned on my computer to begin annoying the world. I just sit at my desk curling my toes into the fur of my Shih Tzu who sleeps at my feet.)
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
Yet Another Interview
Jesus Christ! I had to do a face to face interview in Redwood City today, and let me tell you that driving to Redwood City from Folsom is much less enjoyable than having a root canal done!
Anyway it was the usual footsie blah blah chatter about what they need, how retarded they are, how vague they are and what an unbelieveable God-like SharePoint expert I am. Yawn.
The highlight of the day was going off of my diet to In-N-Out for a #1 Double-Double.
There's a great new post by Johnny Truant over on Naomi's site: http://www.ittybiz.com/ You should be over there reading it NOW instead of loitering here. I mean what if someone saw you actually looking at this site? Are you retarded? Get out of here!
Anyway it was the usual footsie blah blah chatter about what they need, how retarded they are, how vague they are and what an unbelieveable God-like SharePoint expert I am. Yawn.
The highlight of the day was going off of my diet to In-N-Out for a #1 Double-Double.
There's a great new post by Johnny Truant over on Naomi's site: http://www.ittybiz.com/ You should be over there reading it NOW instead of loitering here. I mean what if someone saw you actually looking at this site? Are you retarded? Get out of here!
Do You Own The Complete Set?
Do you have the complete package of books, bloggers and social media?
Escape From Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields
Me 2.0 by Dan Schawbel
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Built to Last by Jim Collins
Dream It. List It. Do It! By 43Things.com
This Year I Will by M. J. Ryan
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Life Coaching Handbook by Cindy Martin
The Obvious Expert by Elsom and Mark Eldridge
Critical Thinking by Paul & Elder
When Organizing Isn’t Enough Shed by Julie Morgenstern
How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything
Jeffery Gitomer’s books
Seth Godin’s books
I have all of these books. Some are inspirational, some are useful and some are a total waste of tree pulp.
Have any of your books moved you forward today?
Let us not forget the blogs; I “know” Pam Slim, Tara Hunt, Robert Scoble, Naomi Dunford, Johnny Truant and many others through both email and/or real life meetings.
Have any of your blogger contacts or websites moved you forward today?
Have you tweeted today or visited LinkedIn or updated your Facebook/Squidoo/MySpace pages?
Has any of your social media moved you forward today?
All of the above are great mental comfort foods that make you feel good.
In the end though, not a single one of them will be a magic bullet that gives you money effortlessly.
Today is one of those days when I turn off the computer, leave the books unopened, and find a quiet place to mentally paint upon the canvas of silence.
Maybe that will move me forward, maybe not.
I’ll take the chance.
Escape From Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields
Me 2.0 by Dan Schawbel
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Built to Last by Jim Collins
Dream It. List It. Do It! By 43Things.com
This Year I Will by M. J. Ryan
Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher
Life Coaching Handbook by Cindy Martin
The Obvious Expert by Elsom and Mark Eldridge
Critical Thinking by Paul & Elder
When Organizing Isn’t Enough Shed by Julie Morgenstern
How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything
Jeffery Gitomer’s books
Seth Godin’s books
I have all of these books. Some are inspirational, some are useful and some are a total waste of tree pulp.
Have any of your books moved you forward today?
Let us not forget the blogs; I “know” Pam Slim, Tara Hunt, Robert Scoble, Naomi Dunford, Johnny Truant and many others through both email and/or real life meetings.
Have any of your blogger contacts or websites moved you forward today?
Have you tweeted today or visited LinkedIn or updated your Facebook/Squidoo/MySpace pages?
Has any of your social media moved you forward today?
All of the above are great mental comfort foods that make you feel good.
In the end though, not a single one of them will be a magic bullet that gives you money effortlessly.
Today is one of those days when I turn off the computer, leave the books unopened, and find a quiet place to mentally paint upon the canvas of silence.
Maybe that will move me forward, maybe not.
I’ll take the chance.
Brazen Blogger BS
So having see a few Brazen Blogger logos on sites, I headed over to http://www.brazencareerist.com/ and signed up, figuring that at some point I too could be a "Brazen Blogger".
Nope!
To quote: "Become a Brazen Blogger: If you are in the age range of 18-35 or blog for your company, submit your feed through the Syndication tab."
So if you are the advanced age of 36 or even older, evidently your blogging and input is worthless.
Nice!
Nope!
To quote: "Become a Brazen Blogger: If you are in the age range of 18-35 or blog for your company, submit your feed through the Syndication tab."
So if you are the advanced age of 36 or even older, evidently your blogging and input is worthless.
Nice!
Angels and Demons vs Star Trek
OK, I just got home from Angels and Demons and in a nutshell, it sucked. 15 minutes into the film, I was wishing I had decided to go see Wolverine instead of this loser, and I say that as a big Tom Hanks fan.
On another note I caught a really late showing of Star Trek at the local IMAX and it was great! Practically non-stop action through the entire film and all of the charactizations were spot on.
On a side note, I had to explain to my 22 year daughter (who saw it with me) who Leonard Nimoy is...
On another note I caught a really late showing of Star Trek at the local IMAX and it was great! Practically non-stop action through the entire film and all of the charactizations were spot on.
On a side note, I had to explain to my 22 year daughter (who saw it with me) who Leonard Nimoy is...
Worst freebie for bloggers yet!
OK, is it just me or does this seem pretty retarded? This is off of Twitter, and perfectly displays the true shallowness of the blogosphere and some of its noted bloggers:
pamslim getting excited for wild journey on aircraft carrier with @guykawasaki @penelopetrunk @charleneli @techcrunch @scobelizer and others.Thu, May 14 18:02:06 from TweetDeck
What next? A ride in a Humvee in Iraq? A free Ferris Wheel ride to promote a carnival?
This "Gosh! We're going to spend the night on an aircraft carrier!" is pretty lame for adults.
Maybe their next invitation will be to do some waterboarding of prisoners in Gitmo.
I am only concerned that pamslim is "off message" by attending this farce. The other bloggers IMHO have been "off message" for a long time, and I really could care less about them.
pamslim getting excited for wild journey on aircraft carrier with @guykawasaki @penelopetrunk @charleneli @techcrunch @scobelizer and others.Thu, May 14 18:02:06 from TweetDeck
What next? A ride in a Humvee in Iraq? A free Ferris Wheel ride to promote a carnival?
This "Gosh! We're going to spend the night on an aircraft carrier!" is pretty lame for adults.
Maybe their next invitation will be to do some waterboarding of prisoners in Gitmo.
I am only concerned that pamslim is "off message" by attending this farce. The other bloggers IMHO have been "off message" for a long time, and I really could care less about them.
#SacTweetup May 12, 2009 - Now the truth can be told!
Well I got to the Aura Restaurant (http://www.auramidtown.com/) early to check it out and have a multiple event (daughter's 22nd birthday, belated Mother's Day, boyfriend about to graduate, and me picking up the tab).
So we had a few drinks and some excellent appetizers at the bar while awaiting the arrival of the boyfriend. Prior to eating dinner, I asked the owner if they could bring out something for my daughter's birthday. Now normally every single restaurant on Earth does not charge you for the cupcake or whatever they haul out for a birthday. In this case, at the end of the meal, the waiter delivered HALF a slice of Tiramisu with a candle on it and said "The owner told me to bring this over, but we have to charge you for it as we need to account for it." They charged me $8 which is what I would have paid for a FULL slice of Tiramisu. Anyway, with drinks the whole bill came to $130, but based on their cheap ass deal with the $8 charge for the Tiramisu, I will never return for any meal, business or personal.
In the midst of the dinner, I went upstairs to check out the SacTweetup. I spoke with a few Tweeple I knew, and headed back down to my meal. This morning several of the people I spoke with asked if I had been there, which means that a) They were more drunk than I realized or b) I must have had on my cloaking device or used The Shadow's power to "cloud men's minds".
There are several items of good news from the SacTweetup though: 1) I didn't have to post bail bond money for anyone; 2) I did not wake up in a foreign country married to someone that I did not share a language, politicial or religious view with. After the third time that I had happened to me I stopped drinking hard liquor at social events. OK, I stop at the third or fourth drink, but beyond that lies dangerous territory. 3) My daughter met an interesting Twitter person in the ladies room although I can't recall her name. 4) It appears that a good time was had by all, although in following up the names of Tweeple there, there is a split. Either one Twitters daily or practically not at all. Sigh.
That's it. Trying to finish my Twitter book for publication today.
So we had a few drinks and some excellent appetizers at the bar while awaiting the arrival of the boyfriend. Prior to eating dinner, I asked the owner if they could bring out something for my daughter's birthday. Now normally every single restaurant on Earth does not charge you for the cupcake or whatever they haul out for a birthday. In this case, at the end of the meal, the waiter delivered HALF a slice of Tiramisu with a candle on it and said "The owner told me to bring this over, but we have to charge you for it as we need to account for it." They charged me $8 which is what I would have paid for a FULL slice of Tiramisu. Anyway, with drinks the whole bill came to $130, but based on their cheap ass deal with the $8 charge for the Tiramisu, I will never return for any meal, business or personal.
In the midst of the dinner, I went upstairs to check out the SacTweetup. I spoke with a few Tweeple I knew, and headed back down to my meal. This morning several of the people I spoke with asked if I had been there, which means that a) They were more drunk than I realized or b) I must have had on my cloaking device or used The Shadow's power to "cloud men's minds".
There are several items of good news from the SacTweetup though: 1) I didn't have to post bail bond money for anyone; 2) I did not wake up in a foreign country married to someone that I did not share a language, politicial or religious view with. After the third time that I had happened to me I stopped drinking hard liquor at social events. OK, I stop at the third or fourth drink, but beyond that lies dangerous territory. 3) My daughter met an interesting Twitter person in the ladies room although I can't recall her name. 4) It appears that a good time was had by all, although in following up the names of Tweeple there, there is a split. Either one Twitters daily or practically not at all. Sigh.
That's it. Trying to finish my Twitter book for publication today.
Support Johnny Truant!!
Please visit this poor fu*ker's site and send him some kind of support cash.
Financing a guy this funny is worth the payback in karma.
Things Amazon has done to piss me off this week
(I already posted some of this previously, but I am irritated and haven't had ANY COFFEE yet so just be aware that I could reach out through your computer screen and take your coffee!)
First they came out with the Kindle DX for $489. It's cool, I would like one, but once again they were too cheap to really think through the total technical specifications or hire a designer to make it look cool.
I think Jeff Bezos designed all the Kindles on his Etch-A-Sketch. Seriously.
I own a Kindle one, which is dying with a line right up the middle of the screen and the occasional lockup where it just stops responding. Amazon's solution to an out of warranty Kindle one? Send them $180 and they will send you a refurbished Kindle one with a 3 month warranty.
Totally unacceptable. They should offer us early Kindle adopters/loyal customers (I spend THOUSANDS on Amazon yearly) a discount on the DX, whether you own a Kindle one or a Kindle two. Yeah no one else in the technical business does that but so what?
The other thing they did, and I kick myself for going through this because I have fallen for this before, is ship a book I ordered on Thursday to arrive on Monday. Fine, except that I paid the extra $3.99 for one day shipping so that it would arrive on Friday. This always happens, no matter how early in the day I order. It is such a standard occurrence that I feel like it is a scam.
OK, that's it for my Amazon rant. My good Amazon news is that I have been reading the Assassin series by Robin Hobb on my Kindle because Amazon offered a slew of FREE Kindle titles recently. Of course they were all the first book in a series, so if you got hooked with volume one, you were probably going to get the rest of the series. That's how it worked for me and the Assassin books; the first one was free and I bought the second and third ones. In fact, I have grown to enjoy the writer enough to consider other titles by him/her (Robin Hobb? Are you female or male?).
First they came out with the Kindle DX for $489. It's cool, I would like one, but once again they were too cheap to really think through the total technical specifications or hire a designer to make it look cool.
I think Jeff Bezos designed all the Kindles on his Etch-A-Sketch. Seriously.
I own a Kindle one, which is dying with a line right up the middle of the screen and the occasional lockup where it just stops responding. Amazon's solution to an out of warranty Kindle one? Send them $180 and they will send you a refurbished Kindle one with a 3 month warranty.
Totally unacceptable. They should offer us early Kindle adopters/loyal customers (I spend THOUSANDS on Amazon yearly) a discount on the DX, whether you own a Kindle one or a Kindle two. Yeah no one else in the technical business does that but so what?
The other thing they did, and I kick myself for going through this because I have fallen for this before, is ship a book I ordered on Thursday to arrive on Monday. Fine, except that I paid the extra $3.99 for one day shipping so that it would arrive on Friday. This always happens, no matter how early in the day I order. It is such a standard occurrence that I feel like it is a scam.
OK, that's it for my Amazon rant. My good Amazon news is that I have been reading the Assassin series by Robin Hobb on my Kindle because Amazon offered a slew of FREE Kindle titles recently. Of course they were all the first book in a series, so if you got hooked with volume one, you were probably going to get the rest of the series. That's how it worked for me and the Assassin books; the first one was free and I bought the second and third ones. In fact, I have grown to enjoy the writer enough to consider other titles by him/her (Robin Hobb? Are you female or male?).
Kindle DX and Amazon customer loyalty
I own a Kindle one. This is immaterial but I spent thousands a year on Amazon. Yet Amazon has no concept of rewarding customer loyalty.
For Kindle one owners, there was no offer to buy a Kindle two at a reduced price.
For Kindle one and two owners there are no incentives or discounts to buy the Kindle DX.
I don't know what Amazon's thinking is unless they figure they are the only game in town and that once you have bought any Kindle you are commited. Well if Congress passes the internet tax, which is one incentive to purchase from Amazon, customer loyalty might change.
I have a year and a half old Kindle one that is rapidly failing. It has a vertical line up the center of the screen and often cannot move to the next page in a book. Yet the only offer one can get from Amazon regarding this type of issue is to sell me a refurbished Kindle one for $180!I'll stick with my failing Kindle one until it dies. At the moment though, there is no reason to consider an "upgrade" to either the Kindle two or the DX.
I think Amazon needs more customer awareness no matter how much one spends annually at Amazon.
For Kindle one owners, there was no offer to buy a Kindle two at a reduced price.
For Kindle one and two owners there are no incentives or discounts to buy the Kindle DX.
I don't know what Amazon's thinking is unless they figure they are the only game in town and that once you have bought any Kindle you are commited. Well if Congress passes the internet tax, which is one incentive to purchase from Amazon, customer loyalty might change.
I have a year and a half old Kindle one that is rapidly failing. It has a vertical line up the center of the screen and often cannot move to the next page in a book. Yet the only offer one can get from Amazon regarding this type of issue is to sell me a refurbished Kindle one for $180!I'll stick with my failing Kindle one until it dies. At the moment though, there is no reason to consider an "upgrade" to either the Kindle two or the DX.
I think Amazon needs more customer awareness no matter how much one spends annually at Amazon.
Think Again before buying Think Big
(I've posted this review on Amazon, but I doubt that it will see the light of day.)
Think Big! There! I just gave you the ENTIRE book for free. I’m not kidding.
The author Michael Port promotes thinking “big” as a way to create a worldwide revolution that will make everything politically correct. You will also benefit from this revolution by being blissfully happy and possibly even create some wealth along the way.
Mr. Port, born in 1970, missed the “worldwide revolution” of the late 60s and early 70s that promoted most of the same philosophy. He acknowledges the cubicle workplace, the cookie cutter suburban homes and the watch TV/go shopping lifestyle of America, but his sole recommendation for breaking out of that scenario is to “think big”.
The way he writes, I presume that at the end of this worldwide revolution that we will all be sitting around a campfire, singing Kum-ba-ya and making smores.
He uses the phrase “think big” over and over on every single page, which gets to be very tiresome in attempting to find any worthwhile content in this book. Occasionally he writes something along the lines of “Oh my! Did I just say that out loud?” Evidently as a former actor (you can look him up on www.imdb.com) he is still carrying around a lot of excess ego.
Mr. Port was born into wealth and he has wealth. So there’s no risk on his part in advocating that you change YOUR life by quitting your job, risking your money on starting a new business, or leaving your relationship. This is basically just another slick, well promoted happy talk book that does not move you forward with your life.
I received numerous blog recommendations for this book from Seth Godin and many others, which is usually a warning sign when the blogosphere promote one of their own as the next important person/book. So, against my better judgment, I bought the book.
I suppose that writing a negative review of this non-book is “thinking small”.
Think Big! There! I just gave you the ENTIRE book for free. I’m not kidding.
The author Michael Port promotes thinking “big” as a way to create a worldwide revolution that will make everything politically correct. You will also benefit from this revolution by being blissfully happy and possibly even create some wealth along the way.
Mr. Port, born in 1970, missed the “worldwide revolution” of the late 60s and early 70s that promoted most of the same philosophy. He acknowledges the cubicle workplace, the cookie cutter suburban homes and the watch TV/go shopping lifestyle of America, but his sole recommendation for breaking out of that scenario is to “think big”.
The way he writes, I presume that at the end of this worldwide revolution that we will all be sitting around a campfire, singing Kum-ba-ya and making smores.
He uses the phrase “think big” over and over on every single page, which gets to be very tiresome in attempting to find any worthwhile content in this book. Occasionally he writes something along the lines of “Oh my! Did I just say that out loud?” Evidently as a former actor (you can look him up on www.imdb.com) he is still carrying around a lot of excess ego.
Mr. Port was born into wealth and he has wealth. So there’s no risk on his part in advocating that you change YOUR life by quitting your job, risking your money on starting a new business, or leaving your relationship. This is basically just another slick, well promoted happy talk book that does not move you forward with your life.
I received numerous blog recommendations for this book from Seth Godin and many others, which is usually a warning sign when the blogosphere promote one of their own as the next important person/book. So, against my better judgment, I bought the book.
I suppose that writing a negative review of this non-book is “thinking small”.
More gibberish
I earn my living as a consultant specialising in Microsoft technologies, mainly SharePoint, with an occasional foray into BizTalk.However I don't love or worship Microsoft, nor do I have any desire to be "certified" or become an MVP.I'm not a Microsoft fanboy. I'm a critical cynic that's often just outspoken.I got a call today from a recruiter saying I wasn't getting a job with one particular company because the guy I interviewed with felt that "I wasn't RESPECTFUL enough towards Microsoft!"
Sounds like an ass kissing company anyway so I probably wouldn't have fit in. Ha!
Sounds like an ass kissing company anyway so I probably wouldn't have fit in. Ha!
Redesign and the end of "Blah Blah"
I've given a lot of thought to the state of blogging and imho, it pretty much sucks.
We lack a deep knowledge about those whose blogs that we follow, with possibly a few rare exceptions.
So with that thought in mind, I plan to redesign my blog site and possibly even move it to a hosted scenario.
We'll see.
Stay tuned.
We lack a deep knowledge about those whose blogs that we follow, with possibly a few rare exceptions.
So with that thought in mind, I plan to redesign my blog site and possibly even move it to a hosted scenario.
We'll see.
Stay tuned.
Susan Boyle - AMAZING!!
My God! It was so worth finding out and repeatedly viewing this video. There are multiple versions on YouTube, but this one is available for viewing in HQ. There is another one though that has the lyrics posted with it.
Please go view the entire clip if you haven't seen it. It is inspirational and totally amazing!
Makes me cry everytime I view it. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luRmM1J1sfg&feature=related
Please go view the entire clip if you haven't seen it. It is inspirational and totally amazing!
Makes me cry everytime I view it. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luRmM1J1sfg&feature=related
Magpie - viral marketing for Twitter
Here's a viral marketing service for Twitter that is very transparent if one follows thousands of other Tweeple: http://be-a-magpie.com/
Seesmic Desktop versus TweetDeck
Apologies to Loic Le Meur, but the current beta of Seesmic Desktop doesn't hold a candle to TweetDeck!
I had just heard a podcast raving about Seesmic while at the same time, the podcasters indicated that they based their rave review on other media sources! Hmm.. sounds a bit like PR BS to me.
I had just heard a podcast raving about Seesmic while at the same time, the podcasters indicated that they based their rave review on other media sources! Hmm.. sounds a bit like PR BS to me.
No Twitter for Hitler - This video will make you laugh out loud.
OMG! This is the funniest video that only Twitter users can truly appreciate!!
http://www.twooting.com/members/twooting/videos/VIEW/00000008/No-Twitter-for-Hitler.html
http://www.twooting.com/members/twooting/videos/VIEW/00000008/No-Twitter-for-Hitler.html
Twitter performance
Obviously Twitter is on to a good thing, but they certainly need to build up their infrastructure as their performance is inconsistent and just plain sucks!
BumpTop - A new Windows UI
BumpTop is a new and at the moment free UI for Windows. Still requires a strong graphics card to take advantage of its interface though. They plan to charge $29 for a premium version of this UI one day, but for now it's free.
TwtrCon - A Twitter Mash Up
TwtrCon: http://twtrcon.com/
Twitter for Business Hotel Nikko, San Francisco May 31, 2009
You can attend for free if you get 10 other people to buy a ticket.
As I am about as social as the Unibomber, that isn't going to work for me.
Twitter for Business Hotel Nikko, San Francisco May 31, 2009
You can attend for free if you get 10 other people to buy a ticket.
As I am about as social as the Unibomber, that isn't going to work for me.
Twitter and Marketing
Having way too much fun with Twitter, which comes as a surprise as I thought I would never use or find any value with the service.
My Twitter profile is at: http://twitpwr.com/profile/mdrips/
I also found this great free book on self marketing by Dan Schawbel:
http://danschawbel.com/bloggingyourbrand.pdf
My Twitter profile is at: http://twitpwr.com/profile/mdrips/
I also found this great free book on self marketing by Dan Schawbel:
http://danschawbel.com/bloggingyourbrand.pdf
If Fallout 3 doesn't start, try this
Turn off Skype. It will not start up if Skype is running.
Even so, be ready for random, patternless crashes. I can spend an entire evening on Fallout 3 without a crash or I can get a crash every 5 minutes. Weird.
Also if you decide to purchase and download the add-ons for Fallout 3, be prepared to continually download them and delete them until a copy actually arrives on your desk from Games For Windows Live. THEN once you actually have the files, you have to move them to the Data folder under Fallout 3. It's a real mess, trust me.
The add-ons are interesting and do give you some new weapons and armor.
Even so, be ready for random, patternless crashes. I can spend an entire evening on Fallout 3 without a crash or I can get a crash every 5 minutes. Weird.
Also if you decide to purchase and download the add-ons for Fallout 3, be prepared to continually download them and delete them until a copy actually arrives on your desk from Games For Windows Live. THEN once you actually have the files, you have to move them to the Data folder under Fallout 3. It's a real mess, trust me.
The add-ons are interesting and do give you some new weapons and armor.
Leslie Gelbman isn't much of an editor
Leslie Gelbman is the head of the Penguin Group's Jove imprint. The recent title "The Ghost War" has this quote on the inside cover:
"Only the dead have seen the end of war" -- Plato
Totally incorrect! Have the people at Penguin even HEARD of the Internet?
'Yet the poor fellows think they are safe! They think that the war is over! Only the dead have seen the end of war.' -- written by George Santayana, Soliloquies in England, Soliloquy #25, Tipperary - as an answer to Woodrow Wilson's 'war to end all wars' speech. Often attributed to Plato (as in the epigram of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down), following a mistake in General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address to cadets at West Point, as well as numerous other historic errors relative to this quote.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war" -- Plato
Totally incorrect! Have the people at Penguin even HEARD of the Internet?
'Yet the poor fellows think they are safe! They think that the war is over! Only the dead have seen the end of war.' -- written by George Santayana, Soliloquies in England, Soliloquy #25, Tipperary - as an answer to Woodrow Wilson's 'war to end all wars' speech. Often attributed to Plato (as in the epigram of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down), following a mistake in General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address to cadets at West Point, as well as numerous other historic errors relative to this quote.
Zune 30 gig players locked up worldwide!
On December 31, 2008 I joined the universal club of people who own 30 gig Zune players and found that their Zunes are completely locked up!
Microsoft is in almost total denial about this problem. Their site at www.zune.net states:
"Customers using the Zune 30 might experience problems starting their players. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. The Zune Social might be slow or inaccessible. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!"
Every non-Microsoft forum discusses the fact that there is no problem "starting" your player. They all are FROZEN!!
Nice quality control and software testing there Microsoft! Maybe you could bring over some more H1B idiots to work for low wages, take away jobs from Americans and in general do the shoddy work that they are famous for.
Just as a P.S. (Feb. 3, 2009) I think Microsoft will NEVER fix this issue of the last day of leap year locking up Zunes, as they figure most of these older Zunes won't be in service at the end of the next leap year in 2012.
In addition, they lost over $50 million on the Zune in 2008, due to their poor marketing and product support.
Microsoft is in almost total denial about this problem. Their site at www.zune.net states:
"Customers using the Zune 30 might experience problems starting their players. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. The Zune Social might be slow or inaccessible. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!"
Every non-Microsoft forum discusses the fact that there is no problem "starting" your player. They all are FROZEN!!
Nice quality control and software testing there Microsoft! Maybe you could bring over some more H1B idiots to work for low wages, take away jobs from Americans and in general do the shoddy work that they are famous for.
Just as a P.S. (Feb. 3, 2009) I think Microsoft will NEVER fix this issue of the last day of leap year locking up Zunes, as they figure most of these older Zunes won't be in service at the end of the next leap year in 2012.
In addition, they lost over $50 million on the Zune in 2008, due to their poor marketing and product support.
Vista Ultimate x64 with 8 gigs of RAM
Due to a failing Samsung hard drive that shipped with my system, I decided to do a full upgrade on my system. I went to a 10000 RPM Western Digital (WD3000GLFS) drive for starters, then upgraded my system RAM from 3 Gigs (all that is really useful under 32x Windows) to 8 Gigs.
Even though I got the fastest RAM available (upgraded from 667 to 800), the Windows Experience program only boosted my RAM rating from 5.3 to 5.5 (everything else is 5.9).
Since there is a dearth of 64x applications, I have yet to see the system utilizing more than 3 Gigs of RAM at any time. So basically I have 5 Gigs of RAM sitting around being bored and wishing they were in a server.
I can say though that overall performance is much faster and crisper. Then again perhaps I am just imagining that to compensate for the $500 ($300 for the drive and $200 for the RAM) upgrade price.
Even though I got the fastest RAM available (upgraded from 667 to 800), the Windows Experience program only boosted my RAM rating from 5.3 to 5.5 (everything else is 5.9).
Since there is a dearth of 64x applications, I have yet to see the system utilizing more than 3 Gigs of RAM at any time. So basically I have 5 Gigs of RAM sitting around being bored and wishing they were in a server.
I can say though that overall performance is much faster and crisper. Then again perhaps I am just imagining that to compensate for the $500 ($300 for the drive and $200 for the RAM) upgrade price.
Let Nader Debate
Ralph Nader is on the ballot in almost every state. He is intelligent, articulate and concerned about America.
He should be in the Presidential debates, even for nothing more than raising issues that need to be discussed.
Unfortunately the debate process is controlled by the two major parties so that isn't going to happen.
That's too bad as we all lose out when our two party candidates gloss over the issues.
Thermaltake cools the XFX 8800GT
I haven't posted in 5 months but wanted to mention that I did research cooling the nVidia 8800GT that I bought from XFX. To cut to the chase, I purchased the Thermaltake DuOrb which sports a lot of copper and two fans. It only cost $50 and was well worth it. It keeps the 8800 cool and runs silently.
Thermaltake no longer sells this model as they are always improving their product line, but I highly recommend them for cooling your video board.
Thermaltake no longer sells this model as they are always improving their product line, but I highly recommend them for cooling your video board.
Sony BDP - S300 Blu-ray player
Yeah, I broke down and bought a Blu-ray player after Toshiba threw in the towel on the format war.
A few things to note:
1. The Blu-ray player takes much longer to start up than the HD player which I thought was pretty slow. This is like a couple of minutes, I swear, even with the latest firmware.
2. The upscaling of SD DVDs is not anywhere near as good a quality as the Toshiba HD player.
3. Blu-ray DVD prices (which were already high) have actually gone UP since the end of the format war. $40 as a retail price for many Blu-ray titles is ridiculous.
Well, my price point is first any Blu-ray DVD under $15, then $20 and on rare occasions, $25. $15 to $20 being the sweet spot.
A few things to note:
1. The Blu-ray player takes much longer to start up than the HD player which I thought was pretty slow. This is like a couple of minutes, I swear, even with the latest firmware.
2. The upscaling of SD DVDs is not anywhere near as good a quality as the Toshiba HD player.
3. Blu-ray DVD prices (which were already high) have actually gone UP since the end of the format war. $40 as a retail price for many Blu-ray titles is ridiculous.
Well, my price point is first any Blu-ray DVD under $15, then $20 and on rare occasions, $25. $15 to $20 being the sweet spot.
XFX GeForce 8800GT review
The XFX GeForce 8800GT video board is just so over the top in value! This is one of those purchases where you say to yourself “why didn’t I buy this sooner?”.
My previous video board was an EVGA GeForce 8600. The difference between these two boards, for example, in viewing and playing a game such as Hellgate: London is like comparing a drawing done with a crayon to a high resolution photograph. Without any performance tweaking other than installing the 8800GT, the frame rate in that game went from 7 frames per second to 42 frames per second. So not only was there a massive visual improvement, the speed of game play was also greatly enhanced.
The Alpha Dog graphic theme of the board, rendered on the box and the board itself looks very professional. In the box there is also an “I’m Gaming Do Not Disturb” card to hang on your door.
Although it is not documented on the XFX web site, you do need to have a 400 watt or higher power supply unit (PSU) with a PCI-Express power cord to plug into this board. I have an HP Pavilion with a quad core cpu and 3G of RAM that only had a 300w PSU. I purchased a Raidmax 650w modular PSU just to install this board. Uninstalling your present PSU is very straight forward. Simply unplug all the PSU connections in your PC, take out the four screws holding your PSU to the case and remove it. Reverse that procedure to install your new PSU. When you are shopping for a new PSU, get a modular one so that you only use the cables you need inside of your PC, which will help keep it cooler.
While the XFX GeForce 8800GT video board does have its own cooling fan, with the large fan on my new PSU as well as the case fan on my PC, I have not had any overheating issues and I tend to run my PC 16 hours a day.
This is a great board, and I highly recommend it.
April 19, 2008 - P.S. The board is too hot for me to run with my PC case cover closed. Unfortunately my PC is an HP Pavilion and the space inside is too tight for me to add a cooler to the video board.
My previous video board was an EVGA GeForce 8600. The difference between these two boards, for example, in viewing and playing a game such as Hellgate: London is like comparing a drawing done with a crayon to a high resolution photograph. Without any performance tweaking other than installing the 8800GT, the frame rate in that game went from 7 frames per second to 42 frames per second. So not only was there a massive visual improvement, the speed of game play was also greatly enhanced.
The Alpha Dog graphic theme of the board, rendered on the box and the board itself looks very professional. In the box there is also an “I’m Gaming Do Not Disturb” card to hang on your door.
Although it is not documented on the XFX web site, you do need to have a 400 watt or higher power supply unit (PSU) with a PCI-Express power cord to plug into this board. I have an HP Pavilion with a quad core cpu and 3G of RAM that only had a 300w PSU. I purchased a Raidmax 650w modular PSU just to install this board. Uninstalling your present PSU is very straight forward. Simply unplug all the PSU connections in your PC, take out the four screws holding your PSU to the case and remove it. Reverse that procedure to install your new PSU. When you are shopping for a new PSU, get a modular one so that you only use the cables you need inside of your PC, which will help keep it cooler.
While the XFX GeForce 8800GT video board does have its own cooling fan, with the large fan on my new PSU as well as the case fan on my PC, I have not had any overheating issues and I tend to run my PC 16 hours a day.
This is a great board, and I highly recommend it.
April 19, 2008 - P.S. The board is too hot for me to run with my PC case cover closed. Unfortunately my PC is an HP Pavilion and the space inside is too tight for me to add a cooler to the video board.
Margot At The Wedding
Almost unwatchable. A serious waste of time for any viewer. Nicole Kidmann, Jack Black and the rest of the cast mumble their lines, allude to characters that aren't in the film and generally laze about doing nothing of any interest or meaning. Don't rent this film on DVD. It is terrible.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
A film about a back alley abortion in Communist Romania. I'm not anti-abortion, but this was possibly one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. It was boring and pointless to say the least. The acting was dreadful as was the dialogue. Avoid this one at all costs, even on DVD. Amazingly, metacritic.com gave this a rating of 97, which pretty much reinforces my belief that most media film critics are uneducated and totally lacking in taste or any amount of artistic experience.
Hillary for President and Bill for First Lady
Vote for Hillary!
Plus, as an added bonus we get Bill back! Woot!
Microsoft Zune 30 gig
Well Microsoft missed reading a study from the 70s that indicated that BROWN and GREEN were the two most negative colors for consumers.
So, as Microsoft evidently has a lot of unsold BROWN Zunes, they were on sale on Black Friday for as low as $79, which you have to admit is a pretty good deal. In their infinite wisdom, Microsoft is going to replace the BROWN Zunes with GREEN ones. Doh!
Like when you are working out or whatever, who cares what color your Zune, iPod or any other MP3 player is? Really! Although we have every single model of iPod here at home, I bought one of the brown Zunes to see how it compared to the iPod.
Well the Zune software is different to say the least. In some areas it's easier to use in others it's not. It is definitely flashier than the iTunes software, but it also offers fewer songs in its marketplace.
The Zune is ok if it is your first MP3 player or if like me you have used others over the years and just want to check it out from a technical standpoint.
January 2008: After owning the Zune for a while, I think one of its most outstanding features is the built-in FM radio for those of us who lack massive MP3 collections of music. The worst feature is the PC software for the Zune. Apple's iTunes software simply is superior to the Zune software and I don't find iTunes that intuitive to begin with....
So, as Microsoft evidently has a lot of unsold BROWN Zunes, they were on sale on Black Friday for as low as $79, which you have to admit is a pretty good deal. In their infinite wisdom, Microsoft is going to replace the BROWN Zunes with GREEN ones. Doh!
Like when you are working out or whatever, who cares what color your Zune, iPod or any other MP3 player is? Really! Although we have every single model of iPod here at home, I bought one of the brown Zunes to see how it compared to the iPod.
Well the Zune software is different to say the least. In some areas it's easier to use in others it's not. It is definitely flashier than the iTunes software, but it also offers fewer songs in its marketplace.
The Zune is ok if it is your first MP3 player or if like me you have used others over the years and just want to check it out from a technical standpoint.
January 2008: After owning the Zune for a while, I think one of its most outstanding features is the built-in FM radio for those of us who lack massive MP3 collections of music. The worst feature is the PC software for the Zune. Apple's iTunes software simply is superior to the Zune software and I don't find iTunes that intuitive to begin with....
Toshiba HD-A3 DVD player
As one of the bits of Black Friday swag, my daughter got a Toshiba HD-A3 DVD player from Amazon.com for $175. While we don't have actual HD programming via satellite or cable yet, playing an HD DVD was STUNNING to say the least! In the box was 300 and The Bourne Identity. If you purchase an HD DVD player, go to www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com where you can print a page that entitles you to five free HDs.
Even watching non-HD DVDs was a whole new experience as "up-verting" by the Toshiba was absolutely amazing!
Hey! I'm not anti-Blu-Ray, but Blu-Ray DVD players are still much higher in price than the HD players. I could see ending up with both formats until the high definition DVD war has a winner.
In the meantime, if you find a reasonably priced HD DVD player, buy one!
By the way, use HDMI cables to connect your HD player to your HD TV, and buy the cables off of the Internet for $5 or more instead of purchasing HDMI cables at Best Buy, Fry's or Circuit City for outrageous amounts like $50 or higher. There's only two states with an HDMI cable: It works or it doesn't work. End of story!
Even watching non-HD DVDs was a whole new experience as "up-verting" by the Toshiba was absolutely amazing!
Hey! I'm not anti-Blu-Ray, but Blu-Ray DVD players are still much higher in price than the HD players. I could see ending up with both formats until the high definition DVD war has a winner.
In the meantime, if you find a reasonably priced HD DVD player, buy one!
By the way, use HDMI cables to connect your HD player to your HD TV, and buy the cables off of the Internet for $5 or more instead of purchasing HDMI cables at Best Buy, Fry's or Circuit City for outrageous amounts like $50 or higher. There's only two states with an HDMI cable: It works or it doesn't work. End of story!
Don't give to the Salvation Army this holiday season
This religious organization spends more than $300 MILLION on "Administrative Costs" in the US alone. Kind of makes one wonder what high level quality of life is being financed for the leaders of this organization by your donations.
No need to discuss their dogma of being anti-homosexual or encouraging the breeding of large families. Maybe they can out breed the Mormons and Catholics.
I'd rather hand my charitible donations directly to a homeless person or to a locally managed shelter or hospice.
Avoid charities and religious groups this holiday season that have massive administration overheads or that just don't actually move their cause forward.
No need to discuss their dogma of being anti-homosexual or encouraging the breeding of large families. Maybe they can out breed the Mormons and Catholics.
I'd rather hand my charitible donations directly to a homeless person or to a locally managed shelter or hospice.
Avoid charities and religious groups this holiday season that have massive administration overheads or that just don't actually move their cause forward.
Vista Service Pack Release Candidate 1 is OK
The ONE thing that makes the first of what I expect will be many, service packs for Windows Vista is that for us unfortunate users (retail beta testers?) of Vista Ultimate is that now one's Internet connection is established immediately instead of five minutes after Vista Ultimate has booted up.
Performance? HA! My startup time is SLOWER now, but I'm confident that Microsoft will label that as being "more secure" by using some new mystery code that we don't see while the PC boots up.
Performance? HA! My startup time is SLOWER now, but I'm confident that Microsoft will label that as being "more secure" by using some new mystery code that we don't see while the PC boots up.
Windows Live OneCare failure
Well, Windows Live OneCare is finally off of the last system in my home. My wife had been using it under Windows XP. Recently OneCare downloaded an "update" that made it totally unuseable. Using Microsoft's OneCare repair tools (kind of says something about the product when they have repair tools, eh?) and doing a total uninstall and reinstall could not get OneCare back in operation.
So, I installed Symantec's Norton 360, which offers everything that OneCare does. Norton 360 also has many additional features over and above OneCare, such as regularly tuning up your PC.
I use Norton 360 on three of my PCs and find it to be an excellent for securing and protecting your PC, especially if you are a heavy Internet user.
So, I installed Symantec's Norton 360, which offers everything that OneCare does. Norton 360 also has many additional features over and above OneCare, such as regularly tuning up your PC.
I use Norton 360 on three of my PCs and find it to be an excellent for securing and protecting your PC, especially if you are a heavy Internet user.
Windows Live Messenger is risky to use
I logged in to Windows Live Messenger this morning to find that all of the people on my Coworkers group (a group that is built into Windows Live Messenger) had disappeared!
At first I thought possibly that I had been fired, but fortunately that is not the case.
Microsoft simply lost all of my data. This shouldn't surprise me because as I contractor I had to reconstruct all of the MSN internal InfoPath help desk forms from screen shots because they somehow managed to lose that data.
The lesson learned here is to keep a seperate copy of all your IM contacts on your local PC. You will need that list if Microsoft loses your IM data, as Microsoft obviously has lost for me.
At first I thought possibly that I had been fired, but fortunately that is not the case.
Microsoft simply lost all of my data. This shouldn't surprise me because as I contractor I had to reconstruct all of the MSN internal InfoPath help desk forms from screen shots because they somehow managed to lose that data.
The lesson learned here is to keep a seperate copy of all your IM contacts on your local PC. You will need that list if Microsoft loses your IM data, as Microsoft obviously has lost for me.
Best HD TVs as of October 2007
The Panasonic 42” Plasma HDTV (Model number is TH-42PX75U) is currently the best 720p on the market.
The best 1080p HDTV out there is the Westinghouse LVM-42w2. This is a true 1080p that has beaten out Sony and JVC in testing.
The best 1080p HDTV out there is the Westinghouse LVM-42w2. This is a true 1080p that has beaten out Sony and JVC in testing.
HP Pavilion a6152n
Currently the best priced desktop with a Quad Core processor. Amazon, Fry's, Circuit City and many other retailers sell this PC for $800-$1000. It uses an ASUS IPIBL-LA motherboard. Comes with 3GB of RAM (2 1GB and 2 512MB. 32 bit OS like Windows XP and Vista don't recognize RAM beyond 3 GB so this is optimal unless you "upgrade" to a 64 bit version of Windows, and if you do that, all I can say is good luck finding device drivers!)
I got one awhile back, and while the LightScribe/Roxio software won't burn a LightScribe label, everything else works fine and it's good PC. I did stick an EVGA DX10 compatible PCI-E board and a wireless-n board in it as well.
It also has an HP Pocket Media Drive bay, but as I already carry around a pocket USB drive, I haven't used that feature yet. No need to buy another drive at this time point anyway.
I got one awhile back, and while the LightScribe/Roxio software won't burn a LightScribe label, everything else works fine and it's good PC. I did stick an EVGA DX10 compatible PCI-E board and a wireless-n board in it as well.
It also has an HP Pocket Media Drive bay, but as I already carry around a pocket USB drive, I haven't used that feature yet. No need to buy another drive at this time point anyway.
Vista Ultimate versus Vista Business versus Vista Home Premium
OK, go for the weirdest situation created by Microsoft to date.
Vista Business (installed on one of my notebooks) works fairly normal. I installed it for the scanning and fax capability that comes with Vista Business. The Microsoft scanning software won't work with my older scanner, but that's OK, as the old scanner software will allow me to scan documents onto my notebook. The only good news here is that the Microsoft Fax software does function. God only knows what scanners will work with the Microsoft Scan software.
I recently bought an HP (made by Asus!) Pavilion with a Quad Core processor. The PC came with Vista Home Premium installed. This version of Vista worked pretty well. I had also recently "upgraded" my daughter's PC from Vista Home Basic to Vista Home Premium. Basically Home Premium seems to work much better than Home Basic.
Now I recently had to "upgrade" my new PC to Vista Ultimate in order to run Virtual PC 2007 for my work. Talk about a step backwards! As opposed to Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate takes several minutes after booting up the PC to connect to the Internet. Very annoying. In addition, Ultimate forced me to create a static IP address for this PC as it couldn't seem to handle accepting or working with an automatic IP address from the router. Oddly enough, Vista Home Premium had no problem connecting to the Internet instantly and receiving an automatic IP address.
As one wag put it, "Windows Vista users are the largest beta testing group in the world."
Vista Business (installed on one of my notebooks) works fairly normal. I installed it for the scanning and fax capability that comes with Vista Business. The Microsoft scanning software won't work with my older scanner, but that's OK, as the old scanner software will allow me to scan documents onto my notebook. The only good news here is that the Microsoft Fax software does function. God only knows what scanners will work with the Microsoft Scan software.
I recently bought an HP (made by Asus!) Pavilion with a Quad Core processor. The PC came with Vista Home Premium installed. This version of Vista worked pretty well. I had also recently "upgraded" my daughter's PC from Vista Home Basic to Vista Home Premium. Basically Home Premium seems to work much better than Home Basic.
Now I recently had to "upgrade" my new PC to Vista Ultimate in order to run Virtual PC 2007 for my work. Talk about a step backwards! As opposed to Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate takes several minutes after booting up the PC to connect to the Internet. Very annoying. In addition, Ultimate forced me to create a static IP address for this PC as it couldn't seem to handle accepting or working with an automatic IP address from the router. Oddly enough, Vista Home Premium had no problem connecting to the Internet instantly and receiving an automatic IP address.
As one wag put it, "Windows Vista users are the largest beta testing group in the world."
Windows Live OneCare is the spawn of Satan!
One has to wonder if the people behind Windows Live OneCare even have any computer programming experience!
Amongst the many stupid things committed by Windows Live OneCare are:
1. Automatically downloading Internet Explorer 7 onto a notebook that already had IE 7 on it, thus corrupting the registry and knocking the browser back to IE 6! This cannot be undone, believe me!
2. Randomly shutting down Windows Vista to install updates without any warning.
3. After practically any update, Windows Mobile Center is knocked out, thus requiring that one totally reinstall the Windows Mobile Center configuration with the Windows Firewall.
Well, there's more but those are just the high points of this crappy program.
Amongst the many stupid things committed by Windows Live OneCare are:
1. Automatically downloading Internet Explorer 7 onto a notebook that already had IE 7 on it, thus corrupting the registry and knocking the browser back to IE 6! This cannot be undone, believe me!
2. Randomly shutting down Windows Vista to install updates without any warning.
3. After practically any update, Windows Mobile Center is knocked out, thus requiring that one totally reinstall the Windows Mobile Center configuration with the Windows Firewall.
Well, there's more but those are just the high points of this crappy program.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie
Absolutely the worst Harry Potter film to date!
Yes it is as true to the book as filming time could allow
(Running time is 2 hours and 15 minutes)
but it is Very S-L-O-W and BORING!
Wait for it to come out on DVD.
Yes it is as true to the book as filming time could allow
(Running time is 2 hours and 15 minutes)
but it is Very S-L-O-W and BORING!
Wait for it to come out on DVD.
Sicko
Michael Moore's new film, Sicko is his best work to date.
It is an incredible film and every American should see it.
Now I want to move to France, Canada or the UK! (You'll understand after you see the film.)
It is an incredible film and every American should see it.
Now I want to move to France, Canada or the UK! (You'll understand after you see the film.)
Vista reboots without warning
At least once a month on my PC, Vista will reboot without warning!
No dialog box, no warning box, just all of a sudden everything begins to shut down and then Vista reboots. A search on Google and Microsoft's site has turned up nothing that discusses or addresses this behavior.
I could attribute this behavior to Windows Update which as a rule updates on Tuesdays, but today is Saturday, it is 8 in the morning and once again Vista did an auto reboot.
Even stranger is that I had been working on the PC for at least 30 minutes.
Well once again this just serves as an example of the lack of thoughtful design and professional programming practices that should have been in Vista, especially after 7 years of development.
No dialog box, no warning box, just all of a sudden everything begins to shut down and then Vista reboots. A search on Google and Microsoft's site has turned up nothing that discusses or addresses this behavior.
I could attribute this behavior to Windows Update which as a rule updates on Tuesdays, but today is Saturday, it is 8 in the morning and once again Vista did an auto reboot.
Even stranger is that I had been working on the PC for at least 30 minutes.
Well once again this just serves as an example of the lack of thoughtful design and professional programming practices that should have been in Vista, especially after 7 years of development.
BlogHer 2007
COST:
$205.93 for two days of networking with other women bloggers, etc.
LOCATION:
End of the Navy Pier, Chicago.
I may be attending, difficult to predict at this point.
$205.93 for two days of networking with other women bloggers, etc.
LOCATION:
End of the Navy Pier, Chicago.
I may be attending, difficult to predict at this point.
Window Vista and Bluetooth
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
As of this writing, there are NO (as in ZERO) Windows Vista certified Bluetooth products on the market.
I recently spent the day with a new USB Bluetooth adapter vainly attempting to get it to work with Vista. Hours later after much research it appears that Vista isn't very well behaved with Bluetooth.
I plugged the same USB Bluetooth adapter into an XP PC. Wham! Worked flawlessly!
So what else is broken in this shoddy OS? Did Microsoft outsource the entire Windows Vista project to a bunch of losers from India or what?
As of this writing, there are NO (as in ZERO) Windows Vista certified Bluetooth products on the market.
I recently spent the day with a new USB Bluetooth adapter vainly attempting to get it to work with Vista. Hours later after much research it appears that Vista isn't very well behaved with Bluetooth.
I plugged the same USB Bluetooth adapter into an XP PC. Wham! Worked flawlessly!
So what else is broken in this shoddy OS? Did Microsoft outsource the entire Windows Vista project to a bunch of losers from India or what?
Windows Vista - Wireless Issues
My daughter's Vista PC has a new Linksys adapter in it.
Recently her PC stopped connecting to the Internet!
It shows her as connected, but in reality (as opposed to the fantasy world of Windows Vista) she isn't connected.
We removed and reinstalled the drivers.
Ran a diagnostic on the network card.
Dropped the firewall and anti-virus on the off chance they impeded connectivity.
All the other PCs in the household connect without problem including the other PC that runs Vista.
The daughter wants me to remove Vista and install XP as she needs to be on the Internet.
Seems like a reasonable request to me as it becomes more and more obvious that Vista is the worst OS ever released by Microsoft.
Recently her PC stopped connecting to the Internet!
It shows her as connected, but in reality (as opposed to the fantasy world of Windows Vista) she isn't connected.
We removed and reinstalled the drivers.
Ran a diagnostic on the network card.
Dropped the firewall and anti-virus on the off chance they impeded connectivity.
All the other PCs in the household connect without problem including the other PC that runs Vista.
The daughter wants me to remove Vista and install XP as she needs to be on the Internet.
Seems like a reasonable request to me as it becomes more and more obvious that Vista is the worst OS ever released by Microsoft.
Hotel Internet issues
Man, it seems like every hotel in the US seems to be too cheap to upgrade their routers beyond the "b" standard to supporting "g" or even the "n" specification.
I recently stayed at a Microtel in Tampa which as usual had "b" and amazingly had a T1 line! This is a very small hotel with even fewer guests using the Internet. I gave the hotel manager who was quite interested a mini-speech on the advantage of upgrading to at least "g" and preferably "n". Come on, at least for small hotels, routers are cheap!
The nice thing at the Microtel was that you had wireless in your room, which unfortunately doesn't seem to work well in other hotels.
Currently I am in Chicago and while my hotel offers free wireless internet in the lobby, it is $10 a night in the room and to top it off it's wired in the room, not wireless. No biggie, as I always carry a network wire just for those odd occasions, but I can see if you weren't traveling alone where there could be an issue, as there is only the single Internet port in the room. Maybe people traveling as a couple might be wise to pack along a router just in case.
I sure wish more hotels would upgrade to at least "g" if not "n"!
I recently stayed at a Microtel in Tampa which as usual had "b" and amazingly had a T1 line! This is a very small hotel with even fewer guests using the Internet. I gave the hotel manager who was quite interested a mini-speech on the advantage of upgrading to at least "g" and preferably "n". Come on, at least for small hotels, routers are cheap!
The nice thing at the Microtel was that you had wireless in your room, which unfortunately doesn't seem to work well in other hotels.
Currently I am in Chicago and while my hotel offers free wireless internet in the lobby, it is $10 a night in the room and to top it off it's wired in the room, not wireless. No biggie, as I always carry a network wire just for those odd occasions, but I can see if you weren't traveling alone where there could be an issue, as there is only the single Internet port in the room. Maybe people traveling as a couple might be wise to pack along a router just in case.
I sure wish more hotels would upgrade to at least "g" if not "n"!
Windows Vista - Microphone
I foolishly attempted to try to use my microphone under Vista for the first time.
My microphone worked fine in the past with Windows XP.
No such luck with Vista. Checking the Creative site to see if there were new drivers for my SoundBlaster Live! sound card brought me the news that Creative would not be writing any Vista drivers for this older card.
So, I did a bit of research and bought a Creative Xtremegamer sound card.
The sound is much improved, but attempting to use the microphone (which took a lot of research and fooling around with to enable) is still a no go. At least I can see some movement on the audio bar while attempting to "train" the microphone, but it still isn't usable for gaming, Windows Speech Recognition, navigation or any other function.
Looks like my new research project is to find a decent microphone with some kind of a volume boost.
As usual there is NO HELP on the Microsoft site. Vista still sucks and it is not a product that Microsoft should be proud of.
My microphone worked fine in the past with Windows XP.
No such luck with Vista. Checking the Creative site to see if there were new drivers for my SoundBlaster Live! sound card brought me the news that Creative would not be writing any Vista drivers for this older card.
So, I did a bit of research and bought a Creative Xtremegamer sound card.
The sound is much improved, but attempting to use the microphone (which took a lot of research and fooling around with to enable) is still a no go. At least I can see some movement on the audio bar while attempting to "train" the microphone, but it still isn't usable for gaming, Windows Speech Recognition, navigation or any other function.
Looks like my new research project is to find a decent microphone with some kind of a volume boost.
As usual there is NO HELP on the Microsoft site. Vista still sucks and it is not a product that Microsoft should be proud of.
Smug Microsoft Interviewers
As a computer consultant since the 70's, I have done more interviewing than God.
OK, maybe not that many but average a minimum of 2 a week for 30 years and it comes out to roughly 3000 interviews or so.
I'm pretty good at it and those skills come in handy for public speaking or starting a conversation in a bar.
Anyway in the last six months I have had interviews with at least four different groups at Microsoft. They usually call me every six months or so.
The disturbing trend is that now I get interviewers whose main interest seems to be in letting me know how smart they are.
What got me going on this is that I had yet another one of those interviews with a smug interviewer who started off by asking me what the difference is between BizTalk 2002 and BizTalk 2004. Seeing how I only use the current version which 2006, my unspoken mental reaction was "Who gives a s--t?"
Anyway this interview went on endlessly forcing me to re-evaluate my occupation and wonder exactly how much money one could make driving an ice cream truck.
OK, maybe not that many but average a minimum of 2 a week for 30 years and it comes out to roughly 3000 interviews or so.
I'm pretty good at it and those skills come in handy for public speaking or starting a conversation in a bar.
Anyway in the last six months I have had interviews with at least four different groups at Microsoft. They usually call me every six months or so.
The disturbing trend is that now I get interviewers whose main interest seems to be in letting me know how smart they are.
What got me going on this is that I had yet another one of those interviews with a smug interviewer who started off by asking me what the difference is between BizTalk 2002 and BizTalk 2004. Seeing how I only use the current version which 2006, my unspoken mental reaction was "Who gives a s--t?"
Anyway this interview went on endlessly forcing me to re-evaluate my occupation and wonder exactly how much money one could make driving an ice cream truck.
The Dip by Seth Godin
I'm not a follower or regular reader of Seth Godin, but I saw his new book, The Dip for $12.95 at Borders or for $5 on CD (with Seth himself actually reading which answered my question of how he pronounces his last name).
Seth has a good speaking voice, the material was fairly well organized and for $5, I think I got my money's worth.
It's an interesting piece on knowing when to quit or when to stick with it.
Seth has a good speaking voice, the material was fairly well organized and for $5, I think I got my money's worth.
It's an interesting piece on knowing when to quit or when to stick with it.
Sicko by Michael Moore
Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, about the health insurance industry opens June 29th.
Go see it!
Go see it!
Windows Vista - May 2007
I have spoken with dozens of people who either upgraded to Windows Vista or got it pre-installed on a new PC, since its launch on Jaunuary 29th of this year.
So far everyone I have talked with HATES Windows Vista.
So far everyone I have talked with HATES Windows Vista.
MSN stiffed me for $10,000
Yeah I got a contract to recreate three InfoPath forms for MSN. Seems that MSN blew off their SharePoint servers and had no backups for their InfoPath forms. Considering that these forms are used on a world wide basis as a trouble ticket system, this probably was embarrassing. So rather than admit to anyone within Microsoft as to what had happened, MSN contracted me through a third party to recreate these forms.
Well I finished reconstructing and unit testing the forms yesterday and then received an email from the third party company that I was no longer on the project.
Part of the issue was that MSN would have to let me install the forms on their network (due to a variety of complex issues) and they hadn't figured that into their scope of work.
So, MSN still owes me $10,000 for the forms.
P.S. If anyone out there would like a nice InfoPath-based trouble ticket system, I can develop one for you for a pretty inexpensive amount!
P.P.S. Got $2500 out of them. Better than nothing and cheaper than a lawsuit.
Well I finished reconstructing and unit testing the forms yesterday and then received an email from the third party company that I was no longer on the project.
Part of the issue was that MSN would have to let me install the forms on their network (due to a variety of complex issues) and they hadn't figured that into their scope of work.
So, MSN still owes me $10,000 for the forms.
P.S. If anyone out there would like a nice InfoPath-based trouble ticket system, I can develop one for you for a pretty inexpensive amount!
P.P.S. Got $2500 out of them. Better than nothing and cheaper than a lawsuit.
America is Humpty Dumpty
America is falling down.
I'm writing this post not from a state of depression, but from a point of observation. This is just a knee-jerk rant/reaction to the overwhelming glut of "news" and information. Our borders are no more secure today than they were before 9/11. We have 12 million illegal immigrants who think they should be rewarded with citizenship and all the other privileges of our society because they snuck into our country like a thief in the night. Bill Gates (and other CEOs) wants the H1B visa program to have no limits because "there aren't enough qualified Americans willing to work for $100,000 at year at Microsoft". Faceless corporate America is now the enemy of the people. Pharmaceutical companies want to have vitamins and other supplements removed from over the counter sales to be only available via presciption. The federal government under pressure from companies like Wal-Mart has now bastardized the term "organic" to be practically meaningless relative to the source of food. Monsanto wants the milk labels banned to refer to milk coming from cows that haven't been ingesting Monsanto-modified grains. We have wasted thousands of lives and billions of dollars in Iraq for no meaningful purpose. The country appears to be headed into a third world structure of rich and poor with no middle class. A country of extemes: haves versus have-nots.
Yes, like Humpty Dumpty, America is falling down and all the King's horsemen cannot put it back together again.
It makes one wonder what we can all do together in the present to salvage the future of our lives.
I'm writing this post not from a state of depression, but from a point of observation. This is just a knee-jerk rant/reaction to the overwhelming glut of "news" and information. Our borders are no more secure today than they were before 9/11. We have 12 million illegal immigrants who think they should be rewarded with citizenship and all the other privileges of our society because they snuck into our country like a thief in the night. Bill Gates (and other CEOs) wants the H1B visa program to have no limits because "there aren't enough qualified Americans willing to work for $100,000 at year at Microsoft". Faceless corporate America is now the enemy of the people. Pharmaceutical companies want to have vitamins and other supplements removed from over the counter sales to be only available via presciption. The federal government under pressure from companies like Wal-Mart has now bastardized the term "organic" to be practically meaningless relative to the source of food. Monsanto wants the milk labels banned to refer to milk coming from cows that haven't been ingesting Monsanto-modified grains. We have wasted thousands of lives and billions of dollars in Iraq for no meaningful purpose. The country appears to be headed into a third world structure of rich and poor with no middle class. A country of extemes: haves versus have-nots.
Yes, like Humpty Dumpty, America is falling down and all the King's horsemen cannot put it back together again.
It makes one wonder what we can all do together in the present to salvage the future of our lives.
eMachines (Gateway) rebate programs SUCK!
My daughter bought a new eMachines PC at the start of February. Before the end of February we mailed in her rebate to eMachines. Even though the rebate envelope weighed less than an ounce the dimwits at the U. S. Post Office returned it two weeks later with a sticker on it that read "requires special handling".
So without even opening the envelope so that the retards that handle the eMachines rebates could see the postmark, we put it in a larger envelope along with a letter explaining the rebate was mailed on time but that the Post Office had returned it.
Today almost a month later, we receive an notice from eMachines that the rebate will not be honored since it "wasn't mailed in time". This, despite the fact that they can clearly see that it was mailed "on time".
Our advice? Given a choice between eMachines/Gateway or another manufacturer, go with the other manufacturer.
It is quite obvious that eMachines/Gateway doesn't give a ding dong damn about their customers.
So without even opening the envelope so that the retards that handle the eMachines rebates could see the postmark, we put it in a larger envelope along with a letter explaining the rebate was mailed on time but that the Post Office had returned it.
Today almost a month later, we receive an notice from eMachines that the rebate will not be honored since it "wasn't mailed in time". This, despite the fact that they can clearly see that it was mailed "on time".
Our advice? Given a choice between eMachines/Gateway or another manufacturer, go with the other manufacturer.
It is quite obvious that eMachines/Gateway doesn't give a ding dong damn about their customers.
JetBlue JFK February 14 2007
Yes, I got caught in the JetBlue fiasco at JFK on 2/14/07. JetBlue kept everyone on the hook by continuing to show flights as delayed and rescheduled, until midnight when they announced that all flights were cancelled. They then proceeded to dump all the luggage from all of their aircraft into the luggage area, causing one to search an area the size of a football field through literally thousands of bags to locate their personal luggage.
Here are three photos I took with my phone camera of the mess. The time stamps in the corner of the pictures show military time, so I indeed was looking for my bag at 3:15 in the morning!
JetBlue only offered to let people be on standby (with hundreds of other people) for their already sold out flights, or get a refund or buy a ticket to fly out MONDAY (keep in mind this was on Wednesday night/early Thursday morning). Needless to say, I bought a ticket on Northwest, flew to Minneapolis, then flew Continental to Houston, laid over there a few hours and finally flew Continental to Sacramento arriving in the wee hours on Friday morning.
Then I fell ill and had to be rushed to the emergency room on Saturday, but that's another story.
Windows Vista - Video and missing RAM
Ok, anyone with half a brain knows by now that Windows Vista irregardless of version needs 2 Gigs of RAM to perform at an acceptable level.
I have 2 Gigs in my PC. My daughter bought a new PC with Vista Home Basic pre-installed on it the Sunday after Windows Vista was launched.
Of course it came with only 512M of RAM and the hard disk drive thrashed constantly.
Being Dad, I ordered 2 Gigs of RAM and installed it. Performance was now fine, but unlike my PC with Vista Ultimate which shows that I have 2 Gigs, hers only showed 187.5 Gigs.
Weird? Where did that 128m of RAM go? Ah, I have a video board with 512M of VRAM and her low end PC has an ATI 200 in it which shares system RAM.
Guess what? The video minimum for the Aero look and feel under Windows Vista requires 128m of VRAM. So, even though Windows Vista Home Basic DOES NOT SUPPORT AERO, Vista grabs 128m of system RAM anyway!
Too bad Microsoft can't manage to explain this to consumers.
Or hire some decent programmers.
I have 2 Gigs in my PC. My daughter bought a new PC with Vista Home Basic pre-installed on it the Sunday after Windows Vista was launched.
Of course it came with only 512M of RAM and the hard disk drive thrashed constantly.
Being Dad, I ordered 2 Gigs of RAM and installed it. Performance was now fine, but unlike my PC with Vista Ultimate which shows that I have 2 Gigs, hers only showed 187.5 Gigs.
Weird? Where did that 128m of RAM go? Ah, I have a video board with 512M of VRAM and her low end PC has an ATI 200 in it which shares system RAM.
Guess what? The video minimum for the Aero look and feel under Windows Vista requires 128m of VRAM. So, even though Windows Vista Home Basic DOES NOT SUPPORT AERO, Vista grabs 128m of system RAM anyway!
Too bad Microsoft can't manage to explain this to consumers.
Or hire some decent programmers.
Windows Vista - Performance Issues
The phone rings at Drips Central, a branch of the Goliath Corporation.
Me (answering the phone): Hello? If you're calling to tell me my weekly beer delivery is gonna be late, I am gonna be pissed.
Victim (an actual famous editor of a computer publication: Hello Mike. (Sniff!) I fell off the wagon!
Me: You started drinking again?
Victim: No, I installed Windows Vista.
Me: Man, you would have been a lot better off if you had started drinking again, or even become a drug addict. Of course once Windows Vista hits the street, 12 step Windows Vista programs will probably spring up all over the world.
Victim: It's too late for that! (Sob!) I've already installed it on my home and office PCs (Wail!).
Me: Didn't I already warn you about this? Vista is the spawn of Satan.
Victim: I know, I know, I should have listened!
Me: Well what do you me to do?
Victim: Just tell me the secret to Windows Vista performance. Please! I'm desperate! My entire computing world has turned into total slow motion! I feel like I am swimming in a pool of honey!
Me: Well Windows Vista won't install if your CPU is too slow, so, um, how much RAM do you have in your system?
Victim: (Choke!) One gig.
Me: Man, no wonder Windows Vista is kicking sand in the face of your PC! That's only enough RAM to boot up, not to actually do anything with Vista!
Victim: Well, uh how much more RAM do I need?
Me: For you to get acceptable performance out of Windows Vista, you have to have a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM.
Victim: But, but, that's not what Microsoft says!
Me: If you have to choose between believing what Microsoft says and smoking crack, then smoke crack. At least you will experience a lot more pleasure.
Victim: Well, thanks for the info. Now can I talk to you about Aero?
Me: Nah, it's too early in the day for me to start that gimpy piece of crap. It'll just force me to start drinking immediately. Call back later.
Me (answering the phone): Hello? If you're calling to tell me my weekly beer delivery is gonna be late, I am gonna be pissed.
Victim (an actual famous editor of a computer publication: Hello Mike. (Sniff!) I fell off the wagon!
Me: You started drinking again?
Victim: No, I installed Windows Vista.
Me: Man, you would have been a lot better off if you had started drinking again, or even become a drug addict. Of course once Windows Vista hits the street, 12 step Windows Vista programs will probably spring up all over the world.
Victim: It's too late for that! (Sob!) I've already installed it on my home and office PCs (Wail!).
Me: Didn't I already warn you about this? Vista is the spawn of Satan.
Victim: I know, I know, I should have listened!
Me: Well what do you me to do?
Victim: Just tell me the secret to Windows Vista performance. Please! I'm desperate! My entire computing world has turned into total slow motion! I feel like I am swimming in a pool of honey!
Me: Well Windows Vista won't install if your CPU is too slow, so, um, how much RAM do you have in your system?
Victim: (Choke!) One gig.
Me: Man, no wonder Windows Vista is kicking sand in the face of your PC! That's only enough RAM to boot up, not to actually do anything with Vista!
Victim: Well, uh how much more RAM do I need?
Me: For you to get acceptable performance out of Windows Vista, you have to have a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM.
Victim: But, but, that's not what Microsoft says!
Me: If you have to choose between believing what Microsoft says and smoking crack, then smoke crack. At least you will experience a lot more pleasure.
Victim: Well, thanks for the info. Now can I talk to you about Aero?
Me: Nah, it's too early in the day for me to start that gimpy piece of crap. It'll just force me to start drinking immediately. Call back later.
Windows Vista - No Sound
Yes, after installing Windows Vista Ultimate, you might notice how quiet it is.
That's because if you (like myself) own a Creative Labs SoundBlaster card, you have to go the Internet (see my posting below on that) and go to Windows Update for your SoundBlaster card to be "discovered" by Windows. Windows Update will then install the driver and you will once again have sound.
I asked one of my Microsoft pals why they didn't just fire the idiot that made the decision to leave those drivers off of the Windows Vista installation DVD, and I got the usual moronic apology:
"Microsoft did that to distance themselves from the hardware manufacturers."
Huh? Distance themselves? Microsoft is the biggest $2 whore in the world! They will hop into bed with anybody!
Hell, even at the Windows Vista/Office 2007 launch lunch with Steve Ballmer that I will be attending on Monday, guess who else will be speaking at that lunch?
HARDWARE MANUFACTURERS!
That's because if you (like myself) own a Creative Labs SoundBlaster card, you have to go the Internet (see my posting below on that) and go to Windows Update for your SoundBlaster card to be "discovered" by Windows. Windows Update will then install the driver and you will once again have sound.
I asked one of my Microsoft pals why they didn't just fire the idiot that made the decision to leave those drivers off of the Windows Vista installation DVD, and I got the usual moronic apology:
"Microsoft did that to distance themselves from the hardware manufacturers."
Huh? Distance themselves? Microsoft is the biggest $2 whore in the world! They will hop into bed with anybody!
Hell, even at the Windows Vista/Office 2007 launch lunch with Steve Ballmer that I will be attending on Monday, guess who else will be speaking at that lunch?
HARDWARE MANUFACTURERS!
Windows Vista - No Internet
Yeah, I am running the actual retail version of Windows Ultimate on my main PC. It makes me wonder if I am just a masochistic computer consultant or what.
Anyway! Yes, I managed to install Windows Vista Ultimate in only one hour on my PC which is a Windows record compared to installing XP, 2000, Millenium, 98, 95 and Windows for Warehouses, er, Workgroups.
Of course it then took TWO HOURS for Windows Vista Ultimate to recognize my LinkSys wireless card, my wireless network and finally connect to the Internet.
Anyway! Yes, I managed to install Windows Vista Ultimate in only one hour on my PC which is a Windows record compared to installing XP, 2000, Millenium, 98, 95 and Windows for Warehouses, er, Workgroups.
Of course it then took TWO HOURS for Windows Vista Ultimate to recognize my LinkSys wireless card, my wireless network and finally connect to the Internet.
Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000
Well I had some extra money which is a rare event for me, and decided to foolishly squander it on this new Microsoft web cam. I'd been looking at newer generation web cams for months, and was interested in this one even though Microsoft took a while to actually sell the darned thing.
Immediate caveat: This camera has a non-adjustable clip on the back of it that BARELY fits onto the top of a Dell notebook. There is no way to affix it to the top of an LCD or analog monitor without using Velcro or some other method to jury rig it. Also it has a short USB cable if you want to use it on your desktop. It's like 5' or so.
The good news is that the picture is awesome! The built-in microphone works great and it actually worked extremely well at the JetBlue hotspot at JFK, which is darned noisy.
It does work with the latest version of Microsoft Live Messenger. It claims to work with Yahoo's IM, but I have had zero success with it trying to interact with Yahoo IM users.
It also works fine with Comcast's video mail system.
Immediate caveat: This camera has a non-adjustable clip on the back of it that BARELY fits onto the top of a Dell notebook. There is no way to affix it to the top of an LCD or analog monitor without using Velcro or some other method to jury rig it. Also it has a short USB cable if you want to use it on your desktop. It's like 5' or so.
The good news is that the picture is awesome! The built-in microphone works great and it actually worked extremely well at the JetBlue hotspot at JFK, which is darned noisy.
It does work with the latest version of Microsoft Live Messenger. It claims to work with Yahoo's IM, but I have had zero success with it trying to interact with Yahoo IM users.
It also works fine with Comcast's video mail system.
House of Leaves
I am still struggling to read my way through this large experimental tome.
I was lead to the book by a WoW poster using this quote from it in their signature:
"this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves
moments before the wind"
I was lead to the book by a WoW poster using this quote from it in their signature:
"this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves
moments before the wind"
A Dr. Seuss quote that I've always liked
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss
One of my favorite authors from my childhood and even through today.
This is a quotation that most bloggers should take to heart.
One of my favorite authors from my childhood and even through today.
This is a quotation that most bloggers should take to heart.
Windows Vista crash cost me $100
BLEH! Yesterday Vista out of the blue began plaguing me with messages that a system device needed to be checked or blessed or some other damned thing. Anyway, to stop the stupid dialog box from constantly popping up, I renamed the rogue file that was the source of all this irritation.
Now keep in mind that the poorly designed, poorly programmed Windows Vista won't even let me change or delete a fucking ICON ON MY DESKTOP! OK?
But it allowed me to rename this file within the Windows/System32 directory, which after much research as I could do seemed to be acceptable.
Nope. After the rename, Windows Vista would not reboot normally, to safe mode or even to the command prompt.
So, I went out and bought a new Western Digital 250 gig drive at Best Buy for $89 ($96 and change with the tax). Yeah I could have spent an hour and $10 worth of gas to drive to Fry's and buy a 300 gig drive for ten dollars less, but it didn't seem worth the trouble and time. I can't stand Fry's 90 per cent of the time anyway, as they have the usual non-English speaking employees who wouldn't help you even if you were on fire.
I put Windows XP on the new drive, made it the master (DUH!), made the ass-wipe Vista drive the slave and now I can get most of my old data. I was too frazzled to think to do this one drive at a time, so now my primary drive with XP is drive E, the old drive with Vista is C and my DVD burner is D. Go figure. Makes for some interesting software installation scenarios, trust me.
All I can say is that Windows Vista has always been problematic and I advise that everyone and every company out there, to avoid it like the plague. Tell Microsoft to just keep slowly improving Windows XP. Sigh.
Now keep in mind that the poorly designed, poorly programmed Windows Vista won't even let me change or delete a fucking ICON ON MY DESKTOP! OK?
But it allowed me to rename this file within the Windows/System32 directory, which after much research as I could do seemed to be acceptable.
Nope. After the rename, Windows Vista would not reboot normally, to safe mode or even to the command prompt.
So, I went out and bought a new Western Digital 250 gig drive at Best Buy for $89 ($96 and change with the tax). Yeah I could have spent an hour and $10 worth of gas to drive to Fry's and buy a 300 gig drive for ten dollars less, but it didn't seem worth the trouble and time. I can't stand Fry's 90 per cent of the time anyway, as they have the usual non-English speaking employees who wouldn't help you even if you were on fire.
I put Windows XP on the new drive, made it the master (DUH!), made the ass-wipe Vista drive the slave and now I can get most of my old data. I was too frazzled to think to do this one drive at a time, so now my primary drive with XP is drive E, the old drive with Vista is C and my DVD burner is D. Go figure. Makes for some interesting software installation scenarios, trust me.
All I can say is that Windows Vista has always been problematic and I advise that everyone and every company out there, to avoid it like the plague. Tell Microsoft to just keep slowly improving Windows XP. Sigh.
Snakes on a Plane - The Movie Redux
The movie met and exceeded my expectations. If Samuel Jackson (or any other star) wasn't in it I probably would have skipped the film.
Oddly when I bought my ticket on opening day (August 18) the ticket seller mumbled something about this film already being a cult movie. I replied that had I known that I would have dressed up in a snake costume. Or should that be dressed down into a snake costume? I guess it depends on how you are dressed.
Anyway the start of the film had me a tad concerned that it was going to be an extremely cheesy "B" movie. Once Samuel Jackson appeared on the scene, all that changed and the film took off to be a well made suspenseful thriller.
So what are you waiting for? Go see it!
Oddly when I bought my ticket on opening day (August 18) the ticket seller mumbled something about this film already being a cult movie. I replied that had I known that I would have dressed up in a snake costume. Or should that be dressed down into a snake costume? I guess it depends on how you are dressed.
Anyway the start of the film had me a tad concerned that it was going to be an extremely cheesy "B" movie. Once Samuel Jackson appeared on the scene, all that changed and the film took off to be a well made suspenseful thriller.
So what are you waiting for? Go see it!
Inspector Montalbano mysteries
Just finished Voice of the Violin, the fourth book in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. This series has been a best seller in Europe but isn't very widely known here in the US.
Anyway, the whole series revolves around a police detective in Sicily, his eating, his girl friend, his co-workers and life in Sicily in general. It's light reading but interesting and complex at the same time.
Highly recommended, although I am going to have to research to figure out which book in the series is number five. I hate reading books like this out of order as sometimes the story refers back to incidents in previous books.
Anyway, the whole series revolves around a police detective in Sicily, his eating, his girl friend, his co-workers and life in Sicily in general. It's light reading but interesting and complex at the same time.
Highly recommended, although I am going to have to research to figure out which book in the series is number five. I hate reading books like this out of order as sometimes the story refers back to incidents in previous books.
The World's First Blogger Doll
There are rumors that a doll modeled after Tara Hunt, the world’s most famous female blogger and creator of the HorseCowPig blog is in the works!
Naturally there are a lot of design decisions (Natural blond? Dark roots?) to be made and it isn’t certain whether or not the Tara doll will be available for the 2006 holiday season. Certainly the demand to own one of the Tara dolls from what is expected be a limited edition production run will be great.
However as rumors and details are forthcoming, we will keep you posted.
Naturally there are a lot of design decisions (Natural blond? Dark roots?) to be made and it isn’t certain whether or not the Tara doll will be available for the 2006 holiday season. Certainly the demand to own one of the Tara dolls from what is expected be a limited edition production run will be great.
However as rumors and details are forthcoming, we will keep you posted.
Snakes On A Plane – The Movie
Of course I haven’t seen it because the movie isn’t out yet, but whoever created the marketing buzz for this film should have a statue erected in their honor. I am envisioning something from the Soviet school with a figure holding a torch aloft surrounded by Nietzsche inspired Aryan children, kneeling at the figure's feet.
Snakes On A Plane is everywhere! Well, there isn’t a breakfast cereal yet, but don’t be surprised to see one. Even this week’s Best Buy Sunday ads have pictures from the film imposed on the screens for their TVs.
I’ll be seeing it I hope shortly after it comes out. Some places are sneaking it this Thursday night, but I’m not THAT eager to see it.
Snakes On A Plane is everywhere! Well, there isn’t a breakfast cereal yet, but don’t be surprised to see one. Even this week’s Best Buy Sunday ads have pictures from the film imposed on the screens for their TVs.
I’ll be seeing it I hope shortly after it comes out. Some places are sneaking it this Thursday night, but I’m not THAT eager to see it.
A Scanner Darkly – The Movie
This has always been my favorite Phillip K. Dick story, written during the drug holocaust days of the 70s. I too knew people that died or were damaged by drug usage. Heck even I am still damaged: “Sorry honey, didn’t mean to call you a bitch last night. I was having an acid flashback.” Right.
My problem is that I know this story very well and the film was largely faithful to it. So I can’t say how it plays for someone who has not read the book (or been involved with drugs). It’s a great story of unintentional heroism and tragedy. Whether or not the audience picks up on that I can’t say. I do know that I don’t care for the animation overlaid on the live action.
More disturbing is that director Richard Linklater’s next film is another book that I enjoyed, Jennifer Government. Sigh.
Anyway I enjoyed A Scanner Darkly and hope that some people that see it will actually read the book.
My problem is that I know this story very well and the film was largely faithful to it. So I can’t say how it plays for someone who has not read the book (or been involved with drugs). It’s a great story of unintentional heroism and tragedy. Whether or not the audience picks up on that I can’t say. I do know that I don’t care for the animation overlaid on the live action.
More disturbing is that director Richard Linklater’s next film is another book that I enjoyed, Jennifer Government. Sigh.
Anyway I enjoyed A Scanner Darkly and hope that some people that see it will actually read the book.
My New England Trip
It was the usual joy of traveling with my wife and daughter who evidently think I just walk around during the day and spear 100 dollar bills with a trash collecting stick. The two of them managed to do their usual routine which is to pack along more luggage than went down on the Titanic. Anything they don't have room for, they ask me to put in my luggage which in their world is probably full of useless crap like my clothing.
Well, the trip was quite educational. We discovered that Sprint has absolutely no cell phone coverage north of Manchester in NH and sporadic service (if any) in ME. Boston of course was no problem. The Internet? Ha! Not in northern NH! What is New Hampshire anyway? A forest with a government and a few towns?
And what's with the moose? NH has signs about every 50 feet indicating that you may be on the verge of hitting a moose while there are no signs in Maine about moose or any other animal.
There is an eating pattern that we did observe taking highway 25 from Conway NH to Portland ME. The pattern is you pass a pizza parlor then an ice cream store then a pizza parlor then an ice cream store over and over. It was weird. I presume that Maine residents have just tossed in the towel regarding obesity issues in the US.
So we did the Freedom Trail walk around Boston last Wednesday in the 103 degree heat with the 112 degree heat index. Did you know that the Freedom Trail walks ends in Filene's basement? Neither did I.
The highlight of Thursday was touring the Albacore sub in Portsmouth, followed by more binge shopping by the wife and daughter. I spent a whole dollar that day on an Albacore magnet which I think I probably have lost already.
Wed, Thurs and Friday were spent at the Best Western in Manchester which had FREE and excellent (except that it was B) Internet service plus a great continental breakfast which included waffles.
Friday we had to check out and move to Chocorua NH for the wedding welcome dinner. We stayed at Samantha's Inn which is slightly better than sleeping in your car but not by much. That evening we attended the wedding welcome dinner where we met what I can only presume were the immediate drinking buddies of the groom and my wife's brother's family which included his daughter the bride. As far as I could tell most of the people there were either overly inbred or else dropped on their head a lot when they were babies. Well, the food was good, and more importantly the booze was free.
Saturday we went shopping (Surprised?) before going to the wedding that night. The post wedding dinner consisted of the usual inedible rubber chicken. At least the booze was free. My 19 year old worked her deep cleavage dress on the bartender and drank about 5 rum and cokes. The good news there is that she has my high alcohol tolerance.
Sunday we went to the post wedding breakfast, which totally lacked mimosas or bloody Marys. Sigh. Well we said our goodbyes and loaded the luggage in the van and drove through ME to Boston. We stopped at the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse where the presumed heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune did more shopping even though the gift shop couldn't have been more that 20' x 20' square.
We checked into the Marriott Wharf hotel next to the Boston aquarium. No I didn't pay their minimum $450 a night fee for a room. The bride who is quitting her job at Harvard got the Harvard discount for the room of $99 and paid for it. The ransom to park the car was $40 a night, the Internet connection was $10, etc. I was somewhat surprised that they didn't have a coin slot to charge you for using the elevator inside the hotel. Was it worth $450 a night? Not unless Meg Ryan was going to drop by to tuck me in. Um, or a word that rhymes with tuck.
Monday morning the Women With Bottomless Pocketbooks managed to spend $50 on souvenir T-shirts and baseball caps at the booth in front of the hotel. It was amazing. They hadn't gotten 50 feet from the hotel before shopping. Then they walked to Filene's to resume their shopping while I stopped near there at Borders (if you fall asleep in a chair there, they rudely wake you up, trust me on this one).
Finally we got to Logan, dropped off the rental car, lounged around the airport which has no free wireless service and boarded JetBlue to connect in NYC at JFK. So, we barely managed to make our NYC connection only to be caught up in the FAA computer glitch that occurred that evening. We sat on the runway in that jet for FOUR HOURS before taking off for our five hour flight to Sacramento.
Despite all this "fun" we just fell in love with the northeast (well except for the useless people in NH) and are ready to move there if anyone will offer me a job that pays real money.
Well, the trip was quite educational. We discovered that Sprint has absolutely no cell phone coverage north of Manchester in NH and sporadic service (if any) in ME. Boston of course was no problem. The Internet? Ha! Not in northern NH! What is New Hampshire anyway? A forest with a government and a few towns?
And what's with the moose? NH has signs about every 50 feet indicating that you may be on the verge of hitting a moose while there are no signs in Maine about moose or any other animal.
There is an eating pattern that we did observe taking highway 25 from Conway NH to Portland ME. The pattern is you pass a pizza parlor then an ice cream store then a pizza parlor then an ice cream store over and over. It was weird. I presume that Maine residents have just tossed in the towel regarding obesity issues in the US.
So we did the Freedom Trail walk around Boston last Wednesday in the 103 degree heat with the 112 degree heat index. Did you know that the Freedom Trail walks ends in Filene's basement? Neither did I.
The highlight of Thursday was touring the Albacore sub in Portsmouth, followed by more binge shopping by the wife and daughter. I spent a whole dollar that day on an Albacore magnet which I think I probably have lost already.
Wed, Thurs and Friday were spent at the Best Western in Manchester which had FREE and excellent (except that it was B) Internet service plus a great continental breakfast which included waffles.
Friday we had to check out and move to Chocorua NH for the wedding welcome dinner. We stayed at Samantha's Inn which is slightly better than sleeping in your car but not by much. That evening we attended the wedding welcome dinner where we met what I can only presume were the immediate drinking buddies of the groom and my wife's brother's family which included his daughter the bride. As far as I could tell most of the people there were either overly inbred or else dropped on their head a lot when they were babies. Well, the food was good, and more importantly the booze was free.
Saturday we went shopping (Surprised?) before going to the wedding that night. The post wedding dinner consisted of the usual inedible rubber chicken. At least the booze was free. My 19 year old worked her deep cleavage dress on the bartender and drank about 5 rum and cokes. The good news there is that she has my high alcohol tolerance.
Sunday we went to the post wedding breakfast, which totally lacked mimosas or bloody Marys. Sigh. Well we said our goodbyes and loaded the luggage in the van and drove through ME to Boston. We stopped at the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse where the presumed heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune did more shopping even though the gift shop couldn't have been more that 20' x 20' square.
We checked into the Marriott Wharf hotel next to the Boston aquarium. No I didn't pay their minimum $450 a night fee for a room. The bride who is quitting her job at Harvard got the Harvard discount for the room of $99 and paid for it. The ransom to park the car was $40 a night, the Internet connection was $10, etc. I was somewhat surprised that they didn't have a coin slot to charge you for using the elevator inside the hotel. Was it worth $450 a night? Not unless Meg Ryan was going to drop by to tuck me in. Um, or a word that rhymes with tuck.
Monday morning the Women With Bottomless Pocketbooks managed to spend $50 on souvenir T-shirts and baseball caps at the booth in front of the hotel. It was amazing. They hadn't gotten 50 feet from the hotel before shopping. Then they walked to Filene's to resume their shopping while I stopped near there at Borders (if you fall asleep in a chair there, they rudely wake you up, trust me on this one).
Finally we got to Logan, dropped off the rental car, lounged around the airport which has no free wireless service and boarded JetBlue to connect in NYC at JFK. So, we barely managed to make our NYC connection only to be caught up in the FAA computer glitch that occurred that evening. We sat on the runway in that jet for FOUR HOURS before taking off for our five hour flight to Sacramento.
Despite all this "fun" we just fell in love with the northeast (well except for the useless people in NH) and are ready to move there if anyone will offer me a job that pays real money.
World Trade Center - The Movie
It sucked.
Bad if not almost non-existent acting, absolutely no emotional bond to any of the characters (in other words you won't be shedding any tears) and as hard to believe as it may seem, BORING.
This might as well have been a movie about two guys stuck in the bottom of a mining cave-in.
If you HAVE to see this loser of a film, save your money and rent it on DVD in a few months.
Bad if not almost non-existent acting, absolutely no emotional bond to any of the characters (in other words you won't be shedding any tears) and as hard to believe as it may seem, BORING.
This might as well have been a movie about two guys stuck in the bottom of a mining cave-in.
If you HAVE to see this loser of a film, save your money and rent it on DVD in a few months.
iPods lock up Windows Vista
Talk about PANIC! Yesterday I turned off my PC that I am testing Windows Vista on, and when I came back to it hours later, it would not boot up. This particular PC has an Intel motherboard, Intel Pentium 4, 2 gigs of RAM, an ATI video board with 128M of RAM and the other usual suspect hardware.
When I would turn on the PC, it would show the Intel screen from the Intel BIOS, but it would not start up the hard drive. I figured that my hard drive had finally been killed by the poorly programmed Windows Vista. Odd things you can observe on your Windows Vista PC are watching the CPU peg at 100% utilization when you have no programs running, having your monitors turn off and turn on randomly, having to wait 15 minutes after booting up for Windows Vista to “stabilize”; if you attempt to do anything during this stabilization phase of booting up, Windows Explorer will crash and you will have to reboot your PC for it to function.
Anyway, I had foolishly plugged my iPod into a USB port to recharge it. Windows Vista not only now supports booting from a USB port, it looks to the USB ports FIRST for booting up! Doh!
Well, once I unplugged my iPod and rebooted my PC, all was well. By the way besides the fact the having an iPod plugged in prevents Windows Vista from booting up your PC, the iTunes software doesn’t work under Windows Vista either, even in “compatibility” mode!
Sadly I still have Windows Vista on my PC. Windows Vista is just a dog of an operating system that smells as rank as a pile of skunk droppings.
When I would turn on the PC, it would show the Intel screen from the Intel BIOS, but it would not start up the hard drive. I figured that my hard drive had finally been killed by the poorly programmed Windows Vista. Odd things you can observe on your Windows Vista PC are watching the CPU peg at 100% utilization when you have no programs running, having your monitors turn off and turn on randomly, having to wait 15 minutes after booting up for Windows Vista to “stabilize”; if you attempt to do anything during this stabilization phase of booting up, Windows Explorer will crash and you will have to reboot your PC for it to function.
Anyway, I had foolishly plugged my iPod into a USB port to recharge it. Windows Vista not only now supports booting from a USB port, it looks to the USB ports FIRST for booting up! Doh!
Well, once I unplugged my iPod and rebooted my PC, all was well. By the way besides the fact the having an iPod plugged in prevents Windows Vista from booting up your PC, the iTunes software doesn’t work under Windows Vista either, even in “compatibility” mode!
Sadly I still have Windows Vista on my PC. Windows Vista is just a dog of an operating system that smells as rank as a pile of skunk droppings.
30 Seconds to Mars uses DRM
Yep. My daughter attempted to download the songs off of her 30 Seconds to Mars CD, to her iPod, only to be stymied by the EVIL DRM (Digital Rights Management). The iTunes software simply would not recognize that she had a legitimate copy of the music! To add insult to injury 30 Seconds to Mars put a survey on their CD asking if users were unhappy that they couldn't download their songs to an iPod!
So, after attending 2 of their concerts and buying their CDs, my daughter is no longer going to be a consumer of 30 Seconds to Mars.
She just wanted to listen to their music while she worked out. The combined corporate greed of 30 Seconds to Mars and their publisher Virgin Records just cost them another customer.
So, after attending 2 of their concerts and buying their CDs, my daughter is no longer going to be a consumer of 30 Seconds to Mars.
She just wanted to listen to their music while she worked out. The combined corporate greed of 30 Seconds to Mars and their publisher Virgin Records just cost them another customer.
An Inconvenient Truth
Go see the movie and read the book.
This is very real and quite scary. Things need to change or we will all die in an unexpectedly short amount of time.
Although their website is still a work in progress, Nature's Future is probably the best environmental group in the world for contributing your time and money to in an effort to fight global warming and to support and repair bio-diversity.
They do real work and they don't screw around with your donations.
This is very real and quite scary. Things need to change or we will all die in an unexpectedly short amount of time.
Although their website is still a work in progress, Nature's Future is probably the best environmental group in the world for contributing your time and money to in an effort to fight global warming and to support and repair bio-diversity.
They do real work and they don't screw around with your donations.
Dell XPS 2010 FINALLY ships!
Woo hoo! Yes at $3500 and 18 pounds (well from earlier reports; Dell NEVER DOES say how much this thing actually weights) the Dell 2010 is the Godzilla of both notebooks and uber geek status.
Just go to Dell's web site and check it out. While I might have techno lust for such a beast I lack the money. A more practical solution for my impoverished tastes would be the new G35-AV650 model of Toshiba's Qosimo which has HDTV built into it.
Just go to Dell's web site and check it out. While I might have techno lust for such a beast I lack the money. A more practical solution for my impoverished tastes would be the new G35-AV650 model of Toshiba's Qosimo which has HDTV built into it.
Allen Ginsberg's Howl turns 50
The 50th Anniversary of the publication of Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg took place on June 4th. I always found Howl to be inspirational. For more details, visit the City Lights site.
The 25th Anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS
June 5, 2006, marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of June 5, 1981, describing the first reported cases of an “unexplained illness among five previously healthy homosexual men in Los Angeles.” The report signified the beginning of what would later become known as the AIDS pandemic.
Through the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS (CDHS/OA), the State provides funding and resources for HIV and AIDS prevention, care, and treatment, including HIV rapid tests, (now available in over 30 local health departments), and services to 29,000 HIV-positive citizens of California who benefit from the largest and most comprehensive AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) in the United States.
For additional information about AIDS or to locate HIV testing services, contact your local health department or the California AIDS Hotline at (800) 367-AIDS (2437) or visit www.AIDShotline.org. For information on CDHS/OA mission, programs and other helpful resources, see OA’s Web site http://www.dhs.ca.gov/AIDS.
Through the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS (CDHS/OA), the State provides funding and resources for HIV and AIDS prevention, care, and treatment, including HIV rapid tests, (now available in over 30 local health departments), and services to 29,000 HIV-positive citizens of California who benefit from the largest and most comprehensive AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) in the United States.
For additional information about AIDS or to locate HIV testing services, contact your local health department or the California AIDS Hotline at (800) 367-AIDS (2437) or visit www.AIDShotline.org. For information on CDHS/OA mission, programs and other helpful resources, see OA’s Web site http://www.dhs.ca.gov/AIDS.
Art School Confidential
I love to find quirky offbeat films otherwise known to some as "art house films". Films I've seen in "art houses" that fall into that distribution channel have been works such as Donny Darko, Amelie, Rabbit-proof Fence and Life Is Beautiful.
Art School Confidential attempts to make the cut as an art film but falls flat as sort of an occasionally funny bit of satire. With a cast that includes John Malkovich (who also was one of the film's producers), Jim Broadbent and Anjelica Huston one would have hoped for a better production, but this one really fell short of the mark. Granted it had many funny moments and to be frank, I think it is an enjoyable alternative to shallow thrillers like Mission Impossible III and The DaVinci Code.
My recommednation is to do something different and go see this film.
Art School Confidential attempts to make the cut as an art film but falls flat as sort of an occasionally funny bit of satire. With a cast that includes John Malkovich (who also was one of the film's producers), Jim Broadbent and Anjelica Huston one would have hoped for a better production, but this one really fell short of the mark. Granted it had many funny moments and to be frank, I think it is an enjoyable alternative to shallow thrillers like Mission Impossible III and The DaVinci Code.
My recommednation is to do something different and go see this film.
Apple iPod, Nano and Shuffle review
We now own all three Apple iPod models through a series of unrelated events.
First, the daughter hit 19 this month and her Dell DJ 15 MP3 player which cost $200 two years ago died. I took it to a shop where for no charge they showed me where the danged thing had shorted out internally. Sigh.
So for her birthday, we bought a 30 gig iPod, which as it turns out is really cool. I think we can appreciate the integration between the iPod and iTunes because we spent so much time struggling with the Dell which used the ever-so-crappy MusicMatch for its software. That was a constant battle and things just did not work well. It was pretty frustrating. Having said that we are so far beyond pleased with the iPod.
So! For Mother's Day, Mrs. Drips received an iPod Shuffle, based on the mistaken assumption that she wouldn't need anything more technical than that. Mrs. Drips sent me on a course correction to Best Buy yesterday to buy her an iPod Nano. Cough. She is now content for the moment and has already done a workout at her gym with the iPod which she loves as it is so much cooler than toting a CD player with her.
I am now the unintentional recipient of the iPod Shuffle. I'm not the big music consumer in this household, but I am stunned about how clear the sound is with the Shuffle. The only album I own is Joan Osborne's Relish, which despite being several years old is still a favorite of mine. It just sounds so great on the Shuffle, and I can actually hear sounds that I never heard before through normal stereo speakers. I also have an hour of the sounds of a rainfall loaded on the Shuffle which is supposed to make me more focused, but tends to put me to sleep. Ok, so I have The Jets and Hoobastank tunes on there too, as well as Beethoven.
First, the daughter hit 19 this month and her Dell DJ 15 MP3 player which cost $200 two years ago died. I took it to a shop where for no charge they showed me where the danged thing had shorted out internally. Sigh.
So for her birthday, we bought a 30 gig iPod, which as it turns out is really cool. I think we can appreciate the integration between the iPod and iTunes because we spent so much time struggling with the Dell which used the ever-so-crappy MusicMatch for its software. That was a constant battle and things just did not work well. It was pretty frustrating. Having said that we are so far beyond pleased with the iPod.
So! For Mother's Day, Mrs. Drips received an iPod Shuffle, based on the mistaken assumption that she wouldn't need anything more technical than that. Mrs. Drips sent me on a course correction to Best Buy yesterday to buy her an iPod Nano. Cough. She is now content for the moment and has already done a workout at her gym with the iPod which she loves as it is so much cooler than toting a CD player with her.
I am now the unintentional recipient of the iPod Shuffle. I'm not the big music consumer in this household, but I am stunned about how clear the sound is with the Shuffle. The only album I own is Joan Osborne's Relish, which despite being several years old is still a favorite of mine. It just sounds so great on the Shuffle, and I can actually hear sounds that I never heard before through normal stereo speakers. I also have an hour of the sounds of a rainfall loaded on the Shuffle which is supposed to make me more focused, but tends to put me to sleep. Ok, so I have The Jets and Hoobastank tunes on there too, as well as Beethoven.
San Francisco Zoo, Beach Chalet Restaurant and other places
My daughter turned 19 recently so we took a trip into San Francisco yesterday to celebrate. First we stopped at the Beach Chalet restaurant for a (with tip) $103 lunch for four of us. It was pricey, but excellent.
Then we visited (for the first time) the San Francisco Zoo. It is the WORST zoo I have ever seen. It is an eyesore and the citizens of San Francisco should be ashamed of it. I hope to post some photos of it on here to display what a despicable condition that zoo is in. By the way if you do go there, they do not feed the lions on Mondays, and the staff starts closing up the Children's Zoo and the carousel at 4 even though the zoo stays open until 5. At $11 per adult for admission this zoo is not worth it. Don't expect to see elephants, camels, seals or orangutans there as they don't have any of those animals to display.
After the zoo, we hit Forever 21 for a couple hours of intensive shopping. Fortunately they had an extremely uncomfortable chair I could sit in while waiting for the shopping spree to end.
Finally we grabbed at bite at Lori's Diner ($50 with tip) and called it a day. My daughter and I always eat at Lori's prior to seeing concerts (Usually Marilyn Manson) at the Warfield, which is just around the corner more or less.
Then we visited (for the first time) the San Francisco Zoo. It is the WORST zoo I have ever seen. It is an eyesore and the citizens of San Francisco should be ashamed of it. I hope to post some photos of it on here to display what a despicable condition that zoo is in. By the way if you do go there, they do not feed the lions on Mondays, and the staff starts closing up the Children's Zoo and the carousel at 4 even though the zoo stays open until 5. At $11 per adult for admission this zoo is not worth it. Don't expect to see elephants, camels, seals or orangutans there as they don't have any of those animals to display.
After the zoo, we hit Forever 21 for a couple hours of intensive shopping. Fortunately they had an extremely uncomfortable chair I could sit in while waiting for the shopping spree to end.
Finally we grabbed at bite at Lori's Diner ($50 with tip) and called it a day. My daughter and I always eat at Lori's prior to seeing concerts (Usually Marilyn Manson) at the Warfield, which is just around the corner more or less.
Linksys WMP54GX4 PCI Wireless-G Adapter with SRX400
OMG! The Linksys WMP54GX4 is better than sex, drugs and alcohol! Well, its
better than most alcohol except beer which is a sacred drink.
I was reading the Sunday Sacramento Bee yesterday and came across a Best
Buy ad for the Linksys WMP54GX4. To be honest I don't actually read the
Sacramento Bee as I think it is only good for wrapping fish or training
puppies, but I do buy their Sunday edition to read the ads from Best Buy,
Fry's, Staples, Circuit City and all the other outlets of electronic toys.
I already use the Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 as well as the
Wireless-G Notebook Adapter with SRX400. Linksys had not announced or
shipped a PCI version for Wireless-G with SRX400 at the time (less than 2
months ago) that I acquired those two products. I wanted an adapter for my
main desktop but Linksys didn't offer one with SRX400 capability.
Weirdly enough the Linksys WMP54GX4 PCI Adapter with SRX400 is not listed on the Linksys site. It's possible that they are ramping up for their 802.11n products and are going to quit selling their SRX400 gear soon, but I would think they would at least list this product to help clear out their inventory.
Anyway, although the installation knocked out my USB mouse for some
unknown reason that I will check into at a later date, I eventually got
the adapter up and running. Although Linksys advertises SRX400 as being
able to increase your networking speed by 10x, my speed went from 54Mps to
240Mps. I'm not complaining as that is almost 5x faster but my wireless
router is only about 30 feet away in another room, so I wonder how one
ever gets up to a 10x performance increase in speed.
I can't link to any picture of it, but the adapter has a four foot cable
that is attached to an antenna that looks like something out of either
Star Trek or Star Wars, thus thrilling one's inner geek. This antenna
really pulls in network signals! Doh! I have a Canary Wireless gizmo just
for finding WiFi and while it finds 2 or 3 networks from my neighbors, the
Linksys finds 6 and gives you breakdown of their SSID, signal strength,
and encryption. Woot! This totally owns! Now you can send death threats to
the President and watch in glee as the Secret Service hauls away your
neighbors. JUST KIDDING!
If you have an SRX400 router and need a PCI adapter go get one of these
while they are still available.
better than most alcohol except beer which is a sacred drink.
I was reading the Sunday Sacramento Bee yesterday and came across a Best
Buy ad for the Linksys WMP54GX4. To be honest I don't actually read the
Sacramento Bee as I think it is only good for wrapping fish or training
puppies, but I do buy their Sunday edition to read the ads from Best Buy,
Fry's, Staples, Circuit City and all the other outlets of electronic toys.
I already use the Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 as well as the
Wireless-G Notebook Adapter with SRX400. Linksys had not announced or
shipped a PCI version for Wireless-G with SRX400 at the time (less than 2
months ago) that I acquired those two products. I wanted an adapter for my
main desktop but Linksys didn't offer one with SRX400 capability.
Weirdly enough the Linksys WMP54GX4 PCI Adapter with SRX400 is not listed on the Linksys site. It's possible that they are ramping up for their 802.11n products and are going to quit selling their SRX400 gear soon, but I would think they would at least list this product to help clear out their inventory.
Anyway, although the installation knocked out my USB mouse for some
unknown reason that I will check into at a later date, I eventually got
the adapter up and running. Although Linksys advertises SRX400 as being
able to increase your networking speed by 10x, my speed went from 54Mps to
240Mps. I'm not complaining as that is almost 5x faster but my wireless
router is only about 30 feet away in another room, so I wonder how one
ever gets up to a 10x performance increase in speed.
I can't link to any picture of it, but the adapter has a four foot cable
that is attached to an antenna that looks like something out of either
Star Trek or Star Wars, thus thrilling one's inner geek. This antenna
really pulls in network signals! Doh! I have a Canary Wireless gizmo just
for finding WiFi and while it finds 2 or 3 networks from my neighbors, the
Linksys finds 6 and gives you breakdown of their SSID, signal strength,
and encryption. Woot! This totally owns! Now you can send death threats to
the President and watch in glee as the Secret Service hauls away your
neighbors. JUST KIDDING!
If you have an SRX400 router and need a PCI adapter go get one of these
while they are still available.
United 93 movie
Well I saw the movie United 93 last night. You can read about the fictionalized chunks of the movie here (MSNBC) and here (Washington Post). The Washington Post has some interesting quotes from 9/11 that show that government order had been passed to "take lives in the air to preserve lives on the ground".
Like the recent A&E film, Flight 93, the movie was very emotional and engaging. I felt distanced though because I was aware that there is no indication on the transcript of Flight 93's cockpit voice recorder that the passengers ever managed to enter let alone seize control of Flight 93's cockpit.
In fact there are many sites and books promoting the scenario that our own Air Force shot down Flight 93. The plane was only 7 minutes from entering the Washington DC airspace, the shoot down orders had been authorized, and ...well it could have happened that way. There's some compelling evidence that supports that scenario, but it's best if one searches the web for those sites to draw your own conclusions.
People want to believe that the passengers of Flight 93 brought the plane down that day because they want the empowerment of having heroes that stood up against the hijackers.
Whether passengers or a missile from an F-16 brought down Fight 93 will probably never be known.
At the end of the movie before the credits began to roll, some woman in our audience stood up and started screaming about Bush covering up 9/11, a fifth plane and Iraq. Then other audience members stood up and screamed back at her (I live in a part of California filled with Nazis and die-hard Republicans). Finally my wife stood up and screamed for everyone to shut up. We left then, as it is always a good policy to move towards the nearest exit when my wife starts yelling.
If you just can't get your fill of 9/11 movies, World Trade Center directed by Oliver Stone will be coming out on August 9th. Nicolas Cage and Maggie Gyllenhaal are the main stars for that film.
Should you wish to while away the hours reading a fringe viewpoint of 9/11, I highly recommend Crossing The Rubicon. The book is a perplexing mix of truth, fantasy and conspiracy theory.
Stay tuned.
Like the recent A&E film, Flight 93, the movie was very emotional and engaging. I felt distanced though because I was aware that there is no indication on the transcript of Flight 93's cockpit voice recorder that the passengers ever managed to enter let alone seize control of Flight 93's cockpit.
In fact there are many sites and books promoting the scenario that our own Air Force shot down Flight 93. The plane was only 7 minutes from entering the Washington DC airspace, the shoot down orders had been authorized, and ...well it could have happened that way. There's some compelling evidence that supports that scenario, but it's best if one searches the web for those sites to draw your own conclusions.
People want to believe that the passengers of Flight 93 brought the plane down that day because they want the empowerment of having heroes that stood up against the hijackers.
Whether passengers or a missile from an F-16 brought down Fight 93 will probably never be known.
At the end of the movie before the credits began to roll, some woman in our audience stood up and started screaming about Bush covering up 9/11, a fifth plane and Iraq. Then other audience members stood up and screamed back at her (I live in a part of California filled with Nazis and die-hard Republicans). Finally my wife stood up and screamed for everyone to shut up. We left then, as it is always a good policy to move towards the nearest exit when my wife starts yelling.
If you just can't get your fill of 9/11 movies, World Trade Center directed by Oliver Stone will be coming out on August 9th. Nicolas Cage and Maggie Gyllenhaal are the main stars for that film.
Should you wish to while away the hours reading a fringe viewpoint of 9/11, I highly recommend Crossing The Rubicon. The book is a perplexing mix of truth, fantasy and conspiracy theory.
Stay tuned.
Robert Scoble supports censorship
Robert Scoble, Microsoft's most well known blogger has decided to censor the comments on his blog.
Ooh! Denouncing free speech? I guess that's why Microsoft's kowtowing to the censorship policies of the Chinese government don't appear to bother Robert. So now his blog will be in line with the usual toadying, mutual ass-kissing and self promotion of his "A-list" clique of "friends". We will be subjected to more promotions of Microsoft's dull products as well as the endless dropping of names like Doc, Dave, Seth and all the other stooges.
So how do those shiny new hob-nailed boots feel Robert? Are they comfy and snug? Robert, have you given any thought about what we can do about all those pesky Jews, and people of color and gays and well, everyone that doesn't think just like you?
Wait! I see clearly now! A conversation is when you totally agree with the other person. So anyone who dares to disagree with you is not part of the conversation?
So much for credibility. It appears that Mr. Scoble's expertise is not in the area of blogs but in the area of suppression of free speech and the censorship of differing ideas and opinions.
You know a "little bit of censorship" is a step on the road towards "let's just put a few people in concentration camps".
"Yes, I am now approving every comment here. And I will delete any that don't add value to either my life or the lives of my readers.
This is a huge change for me. I wanted a free speech area, but after having a week off I realize that I need to make a change. That, I'm sure, will lead to attacks of "censorship" and all that hooey. Too bad."
Ooh! Denouncing free speech? I guess that's why Microsoft's kowtowing to the censorship policies of the Chinese government don't appear to bother Robert. So now his blog will be in line with the usual toadying, mutual ass-kissing and self promotion of his "A-list" clique of "friends". We will be subjected to more promotions of Microsoft's dull products as well as the endless dropping of names like Doc, Dave, Seth and all the other stooges.
So how do those shiny new hob-nailed boots feel Robert? Are they comfy and snug? Robert, have you given any thought about what we can do about all those pesky Jews, and people of color and gays and well, everyone that doesn't think just like you?
Wait! I see clearly now! A conversation is when you totally agree with the other person. So anyone who dares to disagree with you is not part of the conversation?
So much for credibility. It appears that Mr. Scoble's expertise is not in the area of blogs but in the area of suppression of free speech and the censorship of differing ideas and opinions.
You know a "little bit of censorship" is a step on the road towards "let's just put a few people in concentration camps".
Seagate Momentus 160 Gig notebook drive
Woot! I just upgraded my antique Toshiba Tecra 8100 from its original factory 10 gig (that’s right TEN gig) drive to the new Seagate Momentus 160 gig drive. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with the massive added storage. Come to think of it my desktop PC only has a 120 gig drive in it. Oh well, I guess I shall always be a technology poster child.
The gory details of how I accomplished the upgrade are in my posting about ez upgrade.
The gory details of how I accomplished the upgrade are in my posting about ez upgrade.
Apricorn’s ez upgrade kit
Even though I build my own PCs, the thought of upgrading my notebook’s hard disk drive has been intimidating. I figured there were two possible outcomes: either I succeeded or I turned my notebook into an expensive paperweight. Well, the ez upgrade kit from Apricorn was SO EASY to use that I was impressed. While older notebook kits use a PCMCIA slot card, the ez upgrade kit uses the notebook’s USB port. Here’s the steps:
1. Put your new notebook drive in the external drive box that comes with the kit. Plug the drive into your notebook’s USB port.
2. Boot from the Apricorn CD or just install the software. Booting transfers data faster.
3. Run the Apricorn software which basically bit copies your existing data to your new notebook drive.
4. Unplug your notebook (you need to use direct power during the transfer as it can take quite a while; two hours in the case of my mere ten gigs).
5. Remove your notebook’s battery.
6. Remove your notebooks’ hard drive. HA! I read that instruction and thought: WTF? I have never seen a notebook arrive with instructions on how to remove the hard drive. Fortunately CMS Products web site has instructions on how to remove the hard disk drive from a wide variety of notebooks.
7. In my particular case there was a complication. The drive sits in a casing held in by four screws. In their infinite wisdom, Toshiba put glue in the screw holes to keep things truly secure. Three of the screws with a bit of extra effort unscrewed easily. The fourth screw would not unscrew so I had to cut away that part of the casing in order to remove the drive. It was pretty frustrating, but in the end I managed to get the drive out without totally ruining the case.
8. Put the new drive in your notebook, replace the battery and power it up.
With the exception of the unruly screw, this whole process worked perfectly. An added bonus is that you can put your old drive in the external case and use it for additional storage.
1. Put your new notebook drive in the external drive box that comes with the kit. Plug the drive into your notebook’s USB port.
2. Boot from the Apricorn CD or just install the software. Booting transfers data faster.
3. Run the Apricorn software which basically bit copies your existing data to your new notebook drive.
4. Unplug your notebook (you need to use direct power during the transfer as it can take quite a while; two hours in the case of my mere ten gigs).
5. Remove your notebook’s battery.
6. Remove your notebooks’ hard drive. HA! I read that instruction and thought: WTF? I have never seen a notebook arrive with instructions on how to remove the hard drive. Fortunately CMS Products web site has instructions on how to remove the hard disk drive from a wide variety of notebooks.
7. In my particular case there was a complication. The drive sits in a casing held in by four screws. In their infinite wisdom, Toshiba put glue in the screw holes to keep things truly secure. Three of the screws with a bit of extra effort unscrewed easily. The fourth screw would not unscrew so I had to cut away that part of the casing in order to remove the drive. It was pretty frustrating, but in the end I managed to get the drive out without totally ruining the case.
8. Put the new drive in your notebook, replace the battery and power it up.
With the exception of the unruly screw, this whole process worked perfectly. An added bonus is that you can put your old drive in the external case and use it for additional storage.
Coke Blak is finally here!
Coke introduced Coke Blak in France last August. I was interested because it was described as a mix of Coke and coffee. I hoped it would taste better than icky old Jolt Cola or even my random attempts to blend Coke and coffee. Hell, I was planning a trip to France just to taste Coke Blak!
Well last Friday I found it at the local 76 gas station for $1.39 with a stack of 40 cents off coupons stuck on the freezer door. Naturally I HAD to buy two of them! I can only describe the taste of this drink as smoky and sweet.
Coke describes Coke Blak as "a fusion drink". Well, whatever, I just want it available at a lower price, in cans and in cases. You have to like the bottle design though.
Well last Friday I found it at the local 76 gas station for $1.39 with a stack of 40 cents off coupons stuck on the freezer door. Naturally I HAD to buy two of them! I can only describe the taste of this drink as smoky and sweet.
Coke describes Coke Blak as "a fusion drink". Well, whatever, I just want it available at a lower price, in cans and in cases. You have to like the bottle design though.
Quilmes beer from Argentina
Trader Joe's has a limited selection of beer. I was being lazy and cheap this week, but knew I needed beer, so I bought a six pack of Quilmes beer. I guess I simply don't understand economics or profit and loss because there is a Budweiser plant less than an hour away from where I live, yet a six pack of Quilmes imported from Argentina at the bottom of the southern hemispere is less expensive. Does that make any sense to anyone? I can only presume that the profit margin on Budweiser must be huge.
Well Quilmes is a pretty decent beer and it certainly tastes better than Budweiser.
Well Quilmes is a pretty decent beer and it certainly tastes better than Budweiser.
Apple to Boot Windows
Apple has announced their intentions to allow the new Intel based Mac to dual boot into either the Mac OS or Windows.
This looks like a win-win situation for Apple and might spark developers into looking at the Mac platform again.
This looks like a win-win situation for Apple and might spark developers into looking at the Mac platform again.
How I Work: Bill Gates
This is an interesting article where Bill Gates discusses how he works. What I most enjoy is that he still gives out the impression that SharePoint can be productive right out of the box. This type of misinformation is what keeps me employed as a SharePoint consultant.
It appears in the picture of him in the article that he has a Tablet PC next to him with Post-It notes on it. Then again maybe its just a keyboard with his log-on passwords written on the Post-It notes. Poor Bill! He has to wait until next year to get a digital whiteboard? Doesn't he have any influence at Microsoft?
It appears in the picture of him in the article that he has a Tablet PC next to him with Post-It notes on it. Then again maybe its just a keyboard with his log-on passwords written on the Post-It notes. Poor Bill! He has to wait until next year to get a digital whiteboard? Doesn't he have any influence at Microsoft?
Naked Conversations Review
This book claims on the dust cover to discuss “how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers”. The authors however start off with two premises from The Cluetrain Manifesto (possibly one of the most bullshit filled, vapid books ever written) that:
1. Markets are conversations.
2. Conversations are where intellectual capital gets generated.
What the authors of both books fail to take into consideration is the definition of what a conversation is:
“An oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas”
First of all blogs are not oral, except for podcasts which are only one way therefore podcasts do not have an exchange of information. Blogs (ignoring that they are not oral) have the potential of having an exchange of information but only if someone posts a comment.
So the entire premise of blogs somehow being conversations is false.
Another false premise is that businesses have a need to blog. I have no interest in a blog from Wal-Mart, my grocery store, Sears, CompUSA and many other businesses that I can think of. Granted a web site might well be of use, but I see no reason to get engaged with my grocery store’s blogsphere evangelist. That seems totally pointless. What would we blog about? Carrot prices? There has to be a limit on how much knowledge one needs to take in.
I think of the blogsphere as a giant room filled with a thousand dogs, each one sniffing another dog’s butt. It may not be butt sniffing but butt kissing in the way of name dropping is almost the main content of this book. It sounds like a couple of little kids crying out “Look who we know!” and “Isn’t it cool that we all point and refer to each other’s blogs endlessly?”
Amazingly there is nothing in this book that tells you how to get started with a blog. Perhaps for some of us that is just intuitive.
If you want to read a book that intelligently discusses blogging I suggest Who Let The Blogs Out? By Biz Stone.
I do not recommend Naked Conversations unless you just love the blah blah blah of endless and repetitive name dropping. It's truly not worth wasting your money or time on.
1. Markets are conversations.
2. Conversations are where intellectual capital gets generated.
What the authors of both books fail to take into consideration is the definition of what a conversation is:
“An oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas”
First of all blogs are not oral, except for podcasts which are only one way therefore podcasts do not have an exchange of information. Blogs (ignoring that they are not oral) have the potential of having an exchange of information but only if someone posts a comment.
So the entire premise of blogs somehow being conversations is false.
Another false premise is that businesses have a need to blog. I have no interest in a blog from Wal-Mart, my grocery store, Sears, CompUSA and many other businesses that I can think of. Granted a web site might well be of use, but I see no reason to get engaged with my grocery store’s blogsphere evangelist. That seems totally pointless. What would we blog about? Carrot prices? There has to be a limit on how much knowledge one needs to take in.
I think of the blogsphere as a giant room filled with a thousand dogs, each one sniffing another dog’s butt. It may not be butt sniffing but butt kissing in the way of name dropping is almost the main content of this book. It sounds like a couple of little kids crying out “Look who we know!” and “Isn’t it cool that we all point and refer to each other’s blogs endlessly?”
Amazingly there is nothing in this book that tells you how to get started with a blog. Perhaps for some of us that is just intuitive.
If you want to read a book that intelligently discusses blogging I suggest Who Let The Blogs Out? By Biz Stone.
I do not recommend Naked Conversations unless you just love the blah blah blah of endless and repetitive name dropping. It's truly not worth wasting your money or time on.
Serious Flaw in Web 2
Google’s Gmail has been down most of the day. It was sporadic last night. Now I can’t get through to Blogger (although if you are reading this I obviously got through eventually). I don’t know if the Blogger problem is Google’s or the degradation of service I have been experiencing with Comcast, but it all points to a serious gap in Web 2. Namely the failure of the service provider’s application (Gmail) or your Internet connection via your ISP (Comcast).
The situation is that a friend of mine is in San Francisco from Australia and the only means of contact we have been using is Gmail. So now with Gmail down we can’t hook up during his visit.
So if you are imagining that you can live with all your data in various areas around the Internet, think again. This is just one example of where you are going to want to have some data stored off line.
The situation is that a friend of mine is in San Francisco from Australia and the only means of contact we have been using is Gmail. So now with Gmail down we can’t hook up during his visit.
So if you are imagining that you can live with all your data in various areas around the Internet, think again. This is just one example of where you are going to want to have some data stored off line.
Download Movies or buy the DVD?
You can now download movies the same day that they become available for sale on DVD through Movielink or Cinemanow. Looks the prices are normally around $19.95 while (even though I hate them) Wal-Mart offers titles as low as $14.99 the first week that they are released.
I would be concerned about backing up the downloads in case of a hard disk crash as well as whether or not there is an DRM/oddball extra copy protection on the downloads. Personally I will stick to the cheaper route of buying the DVD at the store. With freeware programs on the market that can break DVD copy protection, one could upload from the DVD to a laptop or other PC and still have the original in a secure location.
I would be concerned about backing up the downloads in case of a hard disk crash as well as whether or not there is an DRM/oddball extra copy protection on the downloads. Personally I will stick to the cheaper route of buying the DVD at the store. With freeware programs on the market that can break DVD copy protection, one could upload from the DVD to a laptop or other PC and still have the original in a secure location.
Subversive Cross Stitching
I came across this site from reading about it on dooce.com.
Every home should have some of these hanging on their walls.
DirectTV arrives Comcast leaves
It must be the year of the satellite here. I got Sirius satellite for the wife and daughter at Christmas and now we just left Comcast for DirectTV.
Part of the reason for the switch is my intention to totally drop Comcast because their "High Speed Internet" often drops below dial up speed. Yep, that's right, Comcast has over sold their Internet offering and some of us (like moi) are running at extremely slow speeds now. Downloads take insane amounts of time and internet gaming (my personal gripe) is impossible when you have pings of 300+ms!
So the first step was to drop the cable TV (the DSL option is going to take a bit of home rewiring for me). No biggie there as we went from about 60 cable channels to like 155 satellite channels. More choices and excellent video/sound quality. My wife was so brainwashed by Comcast's anti-satellite commercials that she was concerned that we wouldn't receive local TV stations (we do), that satellite TV wouldn't work when it rained or the wind blew (no issues there, and we have had a storm since installation), etc. All is well.
The other incentive was that the satellite/DSL pricing is lower than Comcast's by a considerable amount. We choose DirectTV after reviewing the TV channel packages and selections offered by both DirectTV and Dish. No bias, it just worked out that DirectTV's offering was more in line with what we wanted to watch. As an aside, we also get XM satellite through DirectTV, so now we have both satellite radio carriers! Doh! That's a bit of an information overload.
Part of the reason for the switch is my intention to totally drop Comcast because their "High Speed Internet" often drops below dial up speed. Yep, that's right, Comcast has over sold their Internet offering and some of us (like moi) are running at extremely slow speeds now. Downloads take insane amounts of time and internet gaming (my personal gripe) is impossible when you have pings of 300+ms!
So the first step was to drop the cable TV (the DSL option is going to take a bit of home rewiring for me). No biggie there as we went from about 60 cable channels to like 155 satellite channels. More choices and excellent video/sound quality. My wife was so brainwashed by Comcast's anti-satellite commercials that she was concerned that we wouldn't receive local TV stations (we do), that satellite TV wouldn't work when it rained or the wind blew (no issues there, and we have had a storm since installation), etc. All is well.
The other incentive was that the satellite/DSL pricing is lower than Comcast's by a considerable amount. We choose DirectTV after reviewing the TV channel packages and selections offered by both DirectTV and Dish. No bias, it just worked out that DirectTV's offering was more in line with what we wanted to watch. As an aside, we also get XM satellite through DirectTV, so now we have both satellite radio carriers! Doh! That's a bit of an information overload.
April Fools Day
I found my PC mouse no longer worked this morning. I rebooted the PC. Nope. Still not working. Dusted off and reset all the USB cables. Nope. Still not working.
I turned the mouse over to look at the bottom. Covering the mouse's LED was a small bit of Post-It note with the words “April Fool!” written on it in what appeared to be my wife’s handwriting.
Sigh. I always get fooled on April Fools Day.
Elsewhere on the web you can read April Fools Day news such as China purchasing Google and other phony news for geeks.
I turned the mouse over to look at the bottom. Covering the mouse's LED was a small bit of Post-It note with the words “April Fool!” written on it in what appeared to be my wife’s handwriting.
Sigh. I always get fooled on April Fools Day.
Elsewhere on the web you can read April Fools Day news such as China purchasing Google and other phony news for geeks.
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