Buy out AOL dialup? A sinking ship?

Explain to me if this actually makes some sense: Would you buy a sinking boat from someone because you collect/user these kinds of boats yourself? From what I can guess that's Liberty Media's plan here. Buy AOL dialup from Time Warner,  and reduce it down to just that: Dialup. I would think this great if it wasn't my feeling that the only reason dialup still exists is because there are persons out there sitting on their hands, delaying the penetration of broadband. This shit should have been up and running at the turn of last century (how weird it is to be able to make this statement, time wise). Now, nearing a decade in, we still of people in Podunk, PA and Toadlick, AR that have little to no access to even rudimentary DSL. Sad when you think about it.

After the Debates, did it really matter?

I'm going to go out on a small limb here about the first debate on Friday: It didn't make a dent on either candidate. No, I did listen the the entire debate. Even set aside some time (before thinking about Friday Night Karaoke ^_^) to make sure I watched it.

For all the barbs, I didn't see a clear winner. Not Obama, not McCain... NO ONE. I felt Obama could have traded more barbs, and not lie down on some.

Obama to raise taxes, for example? Bullshit, he's lapsing Bush's tax cuts! How's that distortion field working for ya John?

Current Credit Crisis Explained

I was going to use this piece from Investopedia/Forbes as a basis for a post explaining the current credit crisis. Then I ran into this, the explanation in stick figures (NSFW verbiage at the end) . It does it soooooooooooo much better than I can ever do.

Demand The Debate!

Yesterday McSame called to have the debates postponed. This can only turn out one way: If they are postponed one or more will be canceled. This will not be good, for either candidate.

Please sign this petition to send a message to them both (McCain more than Obama) to keep them focused and on task. Thank you.

Frail old man runs from African American asking for change

Ok, so I stole the title from the same on Fark.com, but I laughed too much at the title. For those trying to get it I'll say it a bit plainer: McCain is trying to suspend his campaign to help get the $700b bailout out the door. He wants to postpone (and likely then cancel) the first presidential debate, coming up tomorrow.

Now, that's not likely to happen (Debate council said no), but I find it a little funny that Obama, it seems, actually asked McCain back to DC to vote on this. He didn't' ask him to suspend the campaign, or for that matter snub a Letterman appearance. All he asked was to come back for a little bit of legislative duty.

My question: Just what in the holy fucking hell is John thinking? Has this asshole ever heard of multitasking? Still waiting for more polls, but 538's early ones are showing I'm not alone here. He's not doing us a service by trying to dodge other responsibilities while trying to look like he gives a shit.

Job Posting: WEBMASTER

Caps lock, cruise control for cool. Found this posting on Craigslist:

WEBMASTER

PHP, HTML, MYSQL, PHOTOSHOP, YOUNG PROGRAMMING STAR INTO ENERGY DRINKS, MUSIC, EXTREME SPORTS, SOCIAL NETWORKS TO CLONE VIDEO UPLOAD, MSQL VOTING AND COMMUNITY CONTEST PAGES WITH SIMPLE CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND FUTURE PROMOTION AND MAINTAINENCE RESPONSIBITIES... ON SITE, OFF SITE. Much prefer individual rather than company.

Now here's what I wonder: Why did they even bother going normal in the last sentence? Reverse psychology or something? Also, spellcheck much?

I think I'm going to be sick

Warning, if you get easily sick to your stomach, DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK

I especially like all the Whataburger cups and cigarette butts. For bonus points, find the Fabreeze (hint: Ironing Board).

Woot-Off

Yeah I'm a sucker for deal-a-day sites.

Woot is going on a Woot-Off. Who knows what deal there will be!

Wanted: Decoy

Uhhh... the fuck?

Possibly the weirdest Craigslist listing I've ever seen:

Looking for Male Model to provide decoy for a PI case.
Must be between 5-10 to 6-2 tall. Dark hair, dark eyes, dark complexion
Must be between the ages of 35 to 45.
Must have friendly attitude and be talkative.

Ok... I've seen everything now XD

We now own AIG

You... me... any American that pays taxes (there are some of you freaks out there that think you shouldn't. You guys need to lay off the ganja). WE NOW OWN THE MAJORITY OF THE COMPANY

We're bailing out things left and right. Soon, we won't have the money to do so. Actually, I'm pretty sure 'revolving credit' means we don't.

You know what this reminds me of? The beginning of the Great Depression, when the banks started trying to stem off a sell out buy buying (loudly, I might add) shares of companies at higher than the asking rate. They did it to instill trust in stockholders, under the 'If we think everything is good then it must be' doctrine. 

I heard McCain last night saying that the fundamentals of the us economy were sound. Herbert Hoover anyone? Head in sand anyone else?

Train crash avoidance

So I'm getting my hair cut at the barbers yesterday and discussion turned to the recent tragedy of a LA commuter train ramming into a freight. Right now the investigation is focusing on the MetroLink conductor that may or may not have been texting on his phone at the time.

But I'm not really concerning myself with this. Something else tickled my brain. As I and the barbers started talking the question of how the two trains didn't realize the others location came up. "There must be some GPS in there, right?" "I think so, don't you?" "Yeah, I'd thinks so." That was the gist of the talk.

Come to find out, rooting around, that there actually is one on the table, already tested in a few locations, that could be rolled out in 5 years. Moreover, the system in question would also have a last ditch kill switch which would have stopped the tragedy now faced.

I'm not for more rules. I know they're talking about banning cell phones from train operators. That I can live with. But why on fucking earth will you sit on your hands and not get something like a simple GPS installed in the trains? Cost? Please tell me the Fight Club's little adage of "A times B times C equals X" applies all the way to the point you have your head in the sand AND up your ass.

Metallica -- Death Magnetic

Ok since the album has come out I feel ok in doing a mini review. I'll say I... acquired... the album via other means a week before release.

And you know what, I'm buying it right now on iTunes. The last good album they put out, IMHO, was the black album. I have a coworker (dealer of music, in this case) that felt the black album was when they were already in decline. Either way, we're both buying the album.

It's a return to what they are great at: Music that doesn't try to do anything else but rock. Load/Reload/Garage Inc are blemishes. St. Anger was a good start, but this is the full return. 

I'd sworn off buying their albums after the whole Napster hypocrisy (geeze, you guys like tape trading but not file sharing? What a crock of shit).

Go buy album now!

[Edit] Oh I had bought S&M, but since that's such and odd piece (as is Binge & Purge) I didn't include it initially.

Go To Hoopstick.com

Or at least go once the site is back up from being crashed. They have a deal right now that if you buy a sticker, they are throwing in a 500gb Sata 3.0gb drive for free. Bought my sticker for $1.25. Yes, buck and a quarter. 

Antispore.com, Rickroll or not?

So, after reading on Game Politics that the whole antispore site was a giant Rickroll I'm left wondering if the site was hacked or not. As it stands:

• The content that was a rickroll was there but now has been removed
• The site itself was registered via 'Domains by Proxy', a service that hides the registrar info from sites. Via proxy the site is on GoDaddy.
• There was a claim at the end of rickrolling of Poe's law, which I've never heard of up until this point. Have to agree with the statement.
• There are both persons in the world that are crazy enough to act like the mother who (supposedly) runs Antispore, and just as many who are really good at acting like it for parody (see Poe's law above).

If it was hacked, fine. If I've been punked, equally fine. I didn't put too much thought in it when I did post.

[Edit] The Rickroll went back up, I swear it wasn't in the top post ealier. I'm calling this one a greatly played hoax.

McCain Can't keep his shit straight

No, really, go watch the video. And pass it along.

Oh, and it gets better (Spore)

Normally I have an issues with Christians and Creationists. But now, not so much. Yeah, that be some Jesus-loving hate for a fucking video game right there.

Well, we're still here

So, the LHC hasn't killed us yet. We're not being sucked into a black hole. There are no head crabs, gelatinous blobs devouring everything, abnormally large breasted nymphomaniac aliens....

>.>

<.<

>.>

I've really got to stop watching hentai >_<

A funny thing happened at the computer store

So last night I ran over to MicroCenter needing to replace my flash drive that I use at work to run portable FireFox and Chrome (its 1GB and dying, now have an not dying 4GB for less than I paid 2 years ago for the 1GB).

 Well I get over to the section and one of the store workers was in talk to an older gentleman at the spot where all the flash drive are. It seems they had been talking for quite a while.

I don't know what drew me into the conversation, but it has been the oddest 20 mins of my life. The level of questions ranged from why I was choosing one company over another, size of drive, price... who I though would win out (no one, really). Just... rather inquisitive for a guy that honestly looked like the 'Buy for a Grandson/daughter' segment of the populous.

So, like I said, 20 mins go by and this guy finally lets out why he has all these questions: Apparently he's an inventor and was basically getting market research from us. Ya know, from person he thinks may buy his product.

He didn't really let on what his product was (I don't blame him really), but I think he did give a hint via a hypothetical question: If you some how had the ability to plug a flash drive into a HDTV and have it play movie/music/pictures (the last one he went into detail oddly with the story of having family that hadn't seen them yet yadd yadd yadd show them when you come over yadda yadda yadda), would you buy into it and use it? I think it was a hint, anyways. I could be done now with a Media Center PC, along with a lot more. But I guess for the Soccer Mom segment it would be nice.

Topics

So this post will remain until I use at least one of the 'labels' *cough*tags*cough* below, mostly as these will be the main tags I use (all others will be secondary)

Guess I could fill this post up with what they mean:

• Technology: things that make the IT world go around
  
• Games: I play way too many, and have opinions on them
  
• Music: Releases, controversies, karaoke
  
• Politics: Decline To State liberal and how I see htings
  
• Life: Things happening to me, where I'll be, things I'll do, shit like that.
  
• News: General news items, or things that don't fit the next catagory (or the above ones)
  
• Oddball: Oddball his hosted by our good friend Sum Ting Wong. Things in the news, tech, life et. al. that are not quite what you would think they would be.
  
• Parting Shots: Kinda my 'followup' tag... I mean label. Used when I do a post, well, following up on a topic I've previously posted about.

Spore DRM: How to buzzkill you're own product

So... I have a more or less hate/hate relationship with Spore right now.  I hate EA... have for year that I will enumerate later. So lets say off the bat that I know that I am biased.

But that doesn't even cover it. There are 3 sad letters that kill any WANT for this game: DRM. Digital Rights Management. And not just an odd bit of it like having to have the disk in the drive to play.

You get 3 installs... total. If you install and then uninstall, you still have burnt through one install. Not even iTunes is that fucked up. If 'deauthorize' your computer with iTunes, you get one of your 5 installs back. You can even (search it up) get iTunes to blast all authorized computers to start out fresh. Of course you can only use that once every 12 months. But you still get them back without being treated like a criminal.

From an Internet posting concerning Mass Effect, which has a similar scheme, if you go over with EA be prepared to be on the phone for a loooooong time. That and you have to send in a proof of purchase. Something that I don't even keep. Receipts and barcodes. How many of you diligently would keep them for a few years? I'm going to guess few. And you all have OCD :P

But seriously, I reformat my drive like twice a year to keep it fresh. That would mean I'd have a year and a half of gaming before begging. That still seems too short.

Oh, one last parting shot: This DRM was meant to keep the game from being pirated. As of 2 days before the game was to release a DRM-less version was already on The (Pirate) Bay. I can't help but laugh.

Goals

Ok so what are my ultimate goal with this blog?

Dunno, really. I want to get in the habit of writing more. So I'm going to kinda force myself to reread things and post my thoughts on them. Kinda grab items from the net, link here with my thoughts. That's what 90% of the blogs I do read end up doing anyways.

So I guess I'll start making some categories from what I read anyways, and go from there.

Sidenote: I spoke too soon about Deepest Sender. Does not like blogger. Loves LiveJournal, not Blogger. Crap...

Out of the gate

So what exactly am I doing here? Getting my mind out of my skull, sans drugs ^_^

28 living in Orange County, CA. Live alone, INFP if you know what that means. Introvert with a IT Helpdesk job (Introvert in customer service??? How the hell did that happen again? ^_^)

So why am I going out on a limb with a blog? Well, I really ain't.

• I've had a Livejournal since 2003. But that has been a little more private than this (in fact, I dare you to find it :P). 
• I have had a Myspace since only June. But blogging on this is like getting all 4 wisdom teeth out at once (which, from personally having that done 8 years ago, I can tell you hurts like hell). 

So I come here, looking for a better place where I can write out... well, whatever hits my brain. For those on FireFox, I suggest getting the Deepest Sender Addon since you can place it as a button for the sidebar. Great for keeping work pages open while posting (which I find I am increasingly doing, sadly)