And I just read that GTA3 just hit the stores for the PC! KEWL! I'll have to find out if it supports networking! That would be KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Take-Two Says 'Grand Theft Auto' Sequel Coming
Vanilla Sky comes out on DVD tomorrow, cool!!!
AOTC puts EVERYTHING into perspective. After seeing it, it totally makes up for the clear void that was TPM. In fact, AOTC makes it clear that TPM was simply setting the scene for the entire saga. TPM really shouldn't be judged by itself, in my opinion.
As for AOTC itself, it was simply stunning. I saw it on the largest screen in Toledo. I was able to get tickets off the Internet for Sunday night, and I was very happy. We showed up about 25 minutes early, and had to wait in a short line (because they hadn't let people into that screen yet, once the floodgates were open, we went right in).
After TPM, I was hoping for much, but not expecting it. But AOTC delivered in ways that I could never have even hoped for!!! The pure grandness of everything from city/planet of Coruscant (sp?) to the majestic mountain settings of Naboo was just stunning.
One of the things that I did not like about TPM was how everything was bright and sunny. Even the space scenes seemed bright, to me. However, AOTC came through and things were much darker, just like the original trilogy. But it wasn't until I left the theater that TPM's brightness could have been meant to show how the Republic was so full of hope, at it's peak. And then in AOTC, the decline was forshadowed. I think it turned out WONDERFULLY.
On the romantic theme, I was quite suprised. Usually when romantic themes are introduced into movies, they are taken to extreme's, and, in my opinion, most movies suffer from this. However, Lucas pulled off the romantic elements in such an epic manner, and wove them skillfully into the fabric that turned out to be AOTC. I think it added to the movie for once, not subtraced from it.
On the saga itself, I was amazed at how the characters were displayed, and things just made sense when taken in the grand view of things. You saw the family lines start to clearly emerge, and I can not wait to see what happens in Episode III!
I'm sure I will be seeing this movie once or twice more while it's in theaters :). In fact, I'm going to make the trek to a pure digital theater sometime here (I'm told there is one in Cleveland). For those of you that don't know, AOTC was the first major film done entirely using digital technology. There was no film used to make this movie. However, in order for 99% of all theaters to show the film, it had to be transferred to film. Only a small handful of theaters exist in which they have a digial projector.
OK, I think I've said way too much... All in all, if you're wavering on whether to see this movie or not, I would whole-heartedly suggest getting off of your ass and going to see it!!!
I was reading a discussion on PocketPCThoughts in which one of the guys there posted a thought about how they feel sad when their children learn that a parent gets laid off.
The dicussion turned to big companies and profits. And then I read this:
A company's most important social responsibility is to make money. If they don't, then I and the other stockholders will be in the same position as those whose retirement accounts were invested in Enron. Are you suggesting that I should be willing to forfeit my savings in order to drag along workers who aren't needed in a corporation?
I got so mad after reading this. It makes me ashamed to call myself an American. This was my response (a bit long winded):
Please excuse my idealism here.
I think the above statement reflects the extreme lower level (especially in this country (America), and the world in general) to which we've dropped.
I mean, you're placing "stockholder value" ABOVE employees AND product!
Am I the only one who is red-faced here after reading this statement?
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to forfeit your savings just because I wanted to keep MY job. Sorry buddy! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
"Workers who aren't needed in a corporation?" How many different things can I point out about that statement? If they weren't needed, why were they there in first place (mismanagement... but yet the management isn't getting canned). It's the workers who keep the product going... which in turn keeps the busniess running, which in turns returns your "shareholder-value".
A company's job is to make a product, make a profit, and then pay your EMPLOYEES who helped you achieve the first two goals. I just can't stand the fact that we live in this "get rich quick" atmosphere, and when we shoot money into a company, we expect high returns, or we complain. When we complain, people get canned, just to "improve the bottom line".. But yet, does the product get better?
Does anyone out there care more about product and employees than "shareholder-value"?
I *REALLY* suggest reading this artcle:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/all_wire_stories/101386428029222529.xml
It talks about Microsoft and what their doing to some NorthWest schools. They have 40 billion dollars in the bank. And they're wanting $500,000 dollars from a SCHOOL. A SCHOOL. The article said that would translate into 10 teachers salaries.
Our children our not going to mean much in the working world if they don't have the education to make it. If the children grow up learning about how life through overcrowded classrooms, and having to have explained the dynamics of how the school can't afford more teachers because they have to do an intensive audit regarding the SOFTWARE on their COMPUTERS (make no mistake, it is possible to audit a company to death... ANY non-profit company can tell you this, just the fact that you're non-profit means you're going to be audited, but if you spend more time completing audits then your primary function (in this case, EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN)), then they're going to be given the idea that it's OK to be greedy, and it's OK to piss on other people, as long as you're the one doing the pissing. As long as you're making as much money as possible, then it's OK. That's what they're being taught. They're not learning that if you have an idea, and turn it into a product or service that people want/need, then you'll make money, and at the same time advance the human race. They're learning that the way to happiness is to make as much money for yourself as possible, and screw everyone else.
WHAT? Are we so de-sensitized to this that we don't understand this is going on?
Microsoft (and I'm using them as an example here, there are many other companies just like them) has $40 BILLION DOLLARS in the BANK. Not stock value or anything, just MONEY. And do you think they're going to re-distribute this to the actual EMPLOYEES who make the company run in the first place? WHAT REAL PURPOSE IS THERE FOR HOLDING THIS MUCH MONEY IN THE BANK? My idealism may be showing here, but the last time I looked, it makes good sense that when the company is doing well, then the employee should be doing well. Instead, they have money in the bank, and they're laying off people. I just don't understand at all.
This includes upper management. "Options" and things should be given when things are going well. And they should be reduced when things are not going well. They shouldn't have their base pay upped to make up for lost options when things aren't going well. If things aren't going well, then you need to work even harder (just like the little guy is doing, often working longer hours just to make up for it), not beg "shareholders" for more pay.
You're worried about kids thinking about their parents getting laid off. I'm more worried about when a kid asks how come there aren't enough teachers, and they're told that they can't afford more teachers, because they're spending the money on over-priced software.
(Don't lecture me on the price of software. In every other type of computer product the price of things go DOWN due to mass production. Even while they're getting more features. Why is software so special, mass production certainly does not cost more for software!!!!)
You can read the entire message thread here: Here.
And this REALLY sucks because I'm leaving tonight to go out of town, and I will not be back until Monday, and I will not have 'Net access the whole weekend. I won't be able to read any further comments until I get back. Most likely, I just going to sit here and steam about this, and that REALLY sucks.
Maybe it's me. Maybe I just wasn't taught right. Are morals and ethics just fads?
However, the past year (maybe two), I've not had one single problem with them. They've run non-stop for that long, without error.
At my agency we're about to open up yet another new location, and it's my job to get them connected. This place is WAY OUT THERE in BFE. No cablemodems, no DSL, PERIOD. However, they had a T1 put in at great expense. So I called around trying to get bids for it. I got a couple, and, quite surprising to me, Ameritech came in lowest for a fractional 384K connection straight to the Internet. However, at first, I had to call Ameritech direct from the phone book, and did not get a good price. But on that same day I was working on bids, a guy from SBC showed up (SBC owns Ameritech, I guess they're one in the same) at my office. He said he was just checking in, and saw that on our account we've got some data services, but no phone. This is true, at my agency all of our phones are through another service.
I got to talking to him, and telling him *exactly* why I dislike Ameritech and why we switched to Buckeye Telesystems. He wasn't a dick about it, he frankly told me that before SBC came in, he knows that Ameritech was a mess. I told him about my DS0 56K lines, and he said that when they started working 100% is probably about the same time SBC came in and re-vamped things. This made sense to me...
So anyway, to make a long story shorter, I ended up choosing SBC/Ameritech due to their having the lowest cost (to be completely fair, Buckeye came back with a lower price for a point-to-point full-speed T1, but we wanted this location to go straight to the Internet to act as an emergency data center in times of crisis). They said that typically it takes 6-8 weeks to get a T1 up and running. But due to my circumstances, we're rushing to get it running in 4. It's really been good, so far (of course, this is only a few days into it). I've had someone stop by my office a few times, and he had me sign the documents and he delivered them (had them overnighted to the Cleveland office) as to expedite the process. I hope things have really changed over at SBC/Ameritech. If the T1 runs as well as my DS0/56K lines have (even though I just replaced 2/3 of them with cablemodems, due to lower cost and higher speed), I'll be quite pleased.
On the flip side of this, today Buckeye Telesystems is having Internet problems. It was quite strange because I logged into work to check my mail before I headed out from home, and was able to get in. I didn't notice anything strange at all. But when I got in, nothing worked, Internet-wise. Ugh. I came in early to get things done, and here I am. Ugh!
In any case, I called Buckeye, and the person I spoke with said they had a router problem, and had been down since 6:30AM. Very strange, because I had a cablemodem user (other than myself) able to get in, also. I guess it's because this other person was also a Buckeye cablemodem user, and being in the same Buckeye network, maybe their routing was OK. However, how I got in is very strange, because I don't have Buckeye cable at home.
What I don't like is the fact that this isn't the first time this has happened. Granted, it's been several months since it last happened, and I believe it happened a few months before that, too. But that time was an all-day event. I certainly hope this does not happen all day today!!!
The last time it happened, they said they would be getting better support from the router vendors to ensure it does not happen again. But here we are again! I know a little about routing and things (very simple routing for my agency), and I know there is redundancy, if it's built right. I just figure out why Buckeye doesn't have this redundant capability. I'm sure there is a reason for it, I just don't know what it is!
In any case, that's the start to my day. Of course, I'm not sure when I'll be able to upload this, since my Net connection is down :).
Microsoft puts the squeeze on NW schools.
For more uplifting stories about Microsoft, also check out AAXNet.
But one thing that REALLY sucks is that the Yahoo! page makes it hard to figure out which movies are playing on which screen. I had thought that they were playing John Q and Scorpion King on the same screen. I thought that was killer. However, when I got there, I saw that K-PAX was playing along with Scorpion King, and that John Q was playing along with Blade II. But K-PAX is already on tape! I hadn't seen it yet, so I went ahead and went with it. The drive-in wasn't that packed (even 10 minutes to showtime) due to the fact that the temperature here in Toledo dropped quite a bit this weekend. However, it wasn't that bad. In any case, it seemed to me like the quality of the sound was better. In past years, it really sucked. During K-PAX, I thought the quality was excellent. I also thought K-PAX was a pretty good flick, BTW.
So then The Scorpion King came on, and the sound went to shit. It was at that point that I realized that naturally loud action movies just aren't suited for FM transmission!!! K-PAX was a more quiet movie. The Scorpion King, of course, was very loud. Not that I'm complaining :). I also thought The Scorpion King was pretty cool, too :). Not as good as The Mummy, but pretty good.
My thoughts for the day!
Well, the great movie streak has finally hit a double pothole :). I saw Bandits on tape the other night, and couldn't even make it through it! The other night we saw Frailty in the theater. My god did that suck even worse. It nearly ruined my day!!! We were going to see Changing Lanes after that... but we weren't in ANY mood to see another movie after that crap ;).
Lots of other good things to look forward to, though... Scorpion King, Spider Man, and Star Wars coming up here, to name a few. Cool!
I've been extremely busy lately. Got two major side project going on. Between them, my job, and trying to find time to enjoy this weather, I'm busy! :) I know, I should quit bitching. Everyone is busy at this time of year!
I've been extremely busy at work getting ready for our implementation of my Freemed-YiRC software at work. Pretty neat.
Other than that, we got SACKED with a snow storm at the end of March, and I've been watching tons of movies. Rented The Heist (I like a good twist, but this thing was like a tree in a hurricane) and Training Day (surprised me... more like shocked, which is amazing). Spent 8 hours out of the last 3 days off watching the recently released season one of OZ on DVD! It's awesome! It was great to re-watch the season that started the entire saga back-to-back.
Went and saw Blade II and Panic Room, both pretty good. Blade II was very impulsive and LOUD, but quite enjoyable... especially if you're in a hack-and-slash mood :). Panic Room was good, some very intense scenes, and some very cool camera tricks.
I didn't realize Bones was out already.. rented it the other week... will have to pick that up. Also, 13 Ghosts comes out on DVD tomorrow... cool!
Aside from that, it's FINALLY starting to look like spring out there! I just hope that this summer doesn't turn out like last year... a total high-humidity meltdown... that really sucked. Probably will, due to our good friend El Nino, who is definately in the house...
Retreating to my Cyborg front, check this out! They're using lasers to directly draw images on the retina of your eye. Wow! It doesn't obstruct your field of view, either. Very cool!
I found both of these links on Slashdot.
For the past year and some months, I've been fascinated with the PocketPC. A little computer that can store information like contacts/calendar/notes... but it can also do SO much more. Things like GPS and music.
Now this is a great little unit, but you have to constantly keep track of it. My old one had a belt clip, and it was always at my site, but I'm waiting for a new case for my new one, and I'm constantly reminded that I have to think about where it is. Have to make sure to bring it with me when I leave where I'm currently at.
This made me think. What is stopping us from just implanting this dumb thing into the body? Think about it. When you come right down to it, a computer has three parts. Input methods (buttons/touch screen), processing power, and output methods (screen, speaker).
So let's work on those for another moment, but let's do it backwards. First off, output. Well, we already have the technology to have glasses with LCD displays built-into them! We also have very small ear implants that act like speakers. So now we can accept the output from the processor.
Second, the processor itself. These things are becoming so small it's amazing. It's to the point where we could easily implant a computer processor in the body with minimal effort. The biggest problem would be power. You'd either have to have an external battery (i.e., something that would attach to your belt), or have a way to power it using heat from your body. So now with the processor giving us output, we need a way to control it...
Third... input. This is by far the most complicated aspect. Some people would argue that you can wear a glove, or have a trackball or something. To me, personally, that's unacceptable. The rest of this unit is nearly out of site, the input should be as well.
I'd like to have a way to intercept the brains signals to the arm or something. I know the Army does it. I know scientists have come up with a way to do it. A way for a computer to intercept signals that, say, control your index finger. Signals like up, down, left, right, and push. This would almost cover the functions needed. I'd like to somehow have two more functions... menu and escape. Kind of like a modern cell phone. Either an implant in your arm, or a tap into your nervous system. I know they can do it.
So let's say they can do that in a cost-effective way...
You've got input, processing, and output! Everything a PocketPC does. How exactly can this benefit a typical human being?
It could benefit you in the same way that a PocketPC could, but much much quicker, and without any external hardware. A typical human being is forgetful, and can get lost easy. I know I fit this scenario... that's why I bought the PocketPC!
With this type of functionality binded into you.. the following things become possible...
I just can't stop thinking about it. I know we've got the technology to do this... and the only hard (or expensive, rather) part would really be the implant from the arm.
I know there are MANY MANY MANY people out there who would think a computer implant is just ridiculous, even bordering sacreligous. Well, you also have the option of keeping the computer external. You could wear it on your belt (like you would with a PocketPC). You'd just plug your input and outputs into it (your screen glasses and arm implant). The only thing you'd need done to your body would be the arm implant.
Of course, if they're offended by the idea totally, then this probably would not comfort them one bit :).
But to me, and I'm sure many other people (geeks, on-the-go/information-hungry people), this whole concept is just too good to resist. I can't stop thinking about it!
Saw the movie O on DVD. Man, that was crazy. I think it's a modernization of Shakespeare's Othello, but I'm not sure. Shakespeare really knows how to pull a body count!
New South Park! Woo-hoo!
Saw a freaky movie last night... Joy Ride... it was crazy!
I'm soooo glad I got my PocketPC back. Now I've got all these movies and TV shows marked on the calendar, so I can keep track of them. So much more easier.
I need help :)
I had a bunch of problems with e-mail last night. Isn't that ironic? I'm a conspiracy theorist on some level, so you know what I'm thinking...
Tried to call my web hosting support last night, but got no answer. Tried again this morning, and was greeted by a message stating they were working on the problem. Hmm...
But you know what? That's what I love about the Internet. Ever heard of Mozilla? It's a web browser. It's made by Netscape (Netscape funds the project, and Netscape is owned by the AOL/Time Warner conglomerate). Mozilla is basically Netscape 5. That's why Netscape went from 4.x to 6.
What's my point? Well, Mozilla has some great features. First off, it gives you the option to STOP POP-UP ADVERTISING. That's right! I'm not sure when it started, but when I downloaded Mozilla 0.9.8 (Mozilla 0.9.9 was just released the other day, I haven't tried it yet), I was going through the options in the preference tab ('Edit' -> 'Preferences') and I noticed that under 'Advanced' -> 'Scripts & Windows', it had an option to disable 'Open unrequested windows'. Wow! That's awesome! Now, it does interfere every now and then. For instance, on the CNN website, when I want to view a RealPlayer video, and I click to view it, it does not open until I re-enable this feature (because when you view a video from CNN, it uses JavaScript to open a separate window, and using JavaScript to open a new window is how pop-up advertisements work... so disabling that feature does also disable some legitimate features). But, for me at least, having the pop-ups GONE every time I go to Yahoo! and other websites is AWESOME. No more dumb X-10 ads (it would be OK if X-10 ads were funny... but all they show is women sitting by the pool or in the living room... if they're gonna bombard me with women, why can't they be naked like in all the spam e-mails? What's the difference??? Just kidding :) ).
Also, Mozilla has a nice Cookie setting where you can enable cookies ONLY for the current session. I like this. Currently, when using Netscape or an older version of Mozilla, I have to make the cookie file READ-ONLY (or in Linux, I create directories for 'cookies' and 'cookies.txt', and make them chmod 000). That way, those freaks can't turn me into a profile to sell to other freaks, who will send me Ching Chong Wing Wang e-mails. You know, if these people really pay money for these profiles, you'd think they'd actually LOOK at the profile. I'm sure mine says AMERICAN, COCKY, ARROGANT, APATHETIC, SELF-ABSORBED, ENGLISH-SPEAKING. Well, aren't they smart enough to know that cocky, arrogant, ENGLISH-SPEAKING Americans don't read Ching Chong Wing Wang e-mails? Gimme a break!
I read these articles about how China and other countries are bitching because western countries are blocking all e-mail from them due to their high spam rate. As far as I'm concerned, I can't read their language anyway! Block it all! China has a firewall against THE ENTIRE INTERNET anyway! That's kinda hypocritical, don't you think??? A country that doesn't allow it's own citizens free and uncensored access to the Internet that bitches when the rest of the world doesn't allow free and uncensored access to it's outgoing e-mail. China is nothing but a spam-cannon!
As far as I'm concerned, the intelligent and english-speaking (not saying those two are intertwined, I'm just stating that if they don't speak english, I can't understand a fucking word they say) Oriental person who wants to talk to me (yeah, like someone actually wants to talk to ME!) will have a western e-mail account from Yahoo!, AOL, or MSN/Hotmail. Those wouldn't get firewalled because they're coming from outside of those countries.
In any case, that's my rant for today. I hope you enjoyed it! </RANT>
Here is the link!
Also, my agency is starting to use my Freemed-YiRC software in a more widespread fashion!
Tons of fun. The weather is looking better tomorrow. I hope it holds well, cause I wanna go GeoCaching!!!
So for the past couple of days I've been looking at the weather (don't get me started), and on Friday it was supposed to have been 60 and cloudy. I can take that. Decent GeoCaching weather! But today I get in and the forcast has changed a bit. Friday it'll be 60 & rain. But Saturday it'll be 68 & T-Storms. Then on Sunday, it'll be 27 & flurries. WTF? So much for taking Friday off. Damn it!
Welp, watched Artificial Intelligence last night. Man that's a great movie. I'm seriously going to have to re-vamp my favorite movie list... Now you're going to hear me complain about waiting for Vanilla Sky ;).
I suscribe to the CNN.com e-mail alerts sent to my pager. Sometimes it sucks because I get paged at night. But lately, the only thing I've been getting are Isreal/Palestine pages. Like twice a day. Like that's the only thing going on in the world right now! So much other stuff, more crap in Afghan., Bush and the steel tariffs (not sure how I stand on that), and even the announcement that scientists MAY have even done nuclear fusion (on a SMALL level). I even read an article the other day that stated nuclear fall-out from our testing era(s) had settled into pockets in certain states. Holy shit! And none of THAT made it's way to my pager. CNN: Shape up!
The following links may contain profane and crude humor! Bring it on! Dack.com
MNFTIU.CC
And I thought I was seriously deranged...
I did see some great movies last night. Both were great! I'm not much into Vampire stuff, but 'Queen of the Damned' ROCKED. Had some great effects, too (Fire! Fire! Fire!). :). 'Rollerball' had a great message, too. The critics said it sucked, but like I always try to impress upon you... fuck the critics! The media, of course, doesn't like anything that portrays the media to be a puppet. They don't want to be puppets, they want to be puppet masters :). In any case, the whole 'revolution' message greatly appealed to me!
I keep saying here that I'm extremely impressed with what Hollywood is pumping out these days. And, while watching the previews before Queen of the Damned', I had an epiphany... Am I in control of my movie experiences (my likes or dislikes?), or is Hollywood in control of me??? The thing is, I liked EVERY SINGLE preview I saw... and I've never had that experience. NEVER. I actually enjoyed the previews.. and I look forward to more great movies!!! Is that weird? Am I a freakin' Hollywood cash-dropping zombie??? I don't know.
But I truely do like the movies. I'm going to try and see Hart's War and Collateral Damage soon, too. Sometime my girlfriend is going to drag me to see Dragonfly, I'm sure. And sometime I'd like to get to see John Q and Super Troopers. I'll probably wait for The Count of Monte Cristo and The Mothman Prophecies to come out on tape. This is nuts!!!
Last Tuesday Don't Say A Word came out on DVD. Haven't had a chance to rent it, but am going to. And next Tuesday is FAT TUESDAY in terms of video... A.I., The One, and The Last Castle all come out on the same day! Holy shit!
Next Friday The Time Machine comes out. Can't wait to see that. The Friday after that, Showtime, and the Friday after THAT Blade II!
Not sure about April (Scorpian King?), but May is shaping up... Star Wars: Episode II and Spiderman!
I must be a freak or something. I'm gonna have to work some crazy overtime to afford all these damned movies!!!
Check this baby out!
The website says they're sold out, but I just called and got 3, so maybe they have more they're not telling you about :). I've only ordered a couple of things from them before, but they called me today with this great deal, and I thought they were gonna say something like $1K, but then he said $579, with a monitor for $119. Holy crap! I need three computers here at work, so I ordered three PCs + Monitors. Total price with shipping was $2245.80. Killer!
We went home and looked on the Internet. Where was it going to be semi-warm within' a 20 hour drive of Toledo? Nicki said something about Myrtle Beach. I printed up a map, we packed our bags (in like 30 minutes, seriously), I checked the car, and we were on the road at 5PM. Took I-77 South. Very hellish. Between the rain and the fog and the winding road, it was nuts. We made it though, a 13 hours straight drive! We drove up to the beach right around 6AM. Man it was nice. I was a walking zombie, I had been up since 10AM the previous day. Wow.
So we went to a couple of hotels. But it was 6AM, and they didn't have any rooms that we could get immediately for 3 nights. Eventually we did find one, the Carolina Winds. I asked for an ocean-front (not ocean-view... there is a difference) room. The lady said she had one, and it would be $140 total. I was shocked. I was expecting to pay nearly $100 A NIGHT ($300 total). So we went up to the room. Wow! Two queen beds, a full kitchen (stove, full fridge, microwave, can opener, dishes...!), a third room with a pull-out bed, couch, TV, table, and finally a balcony. However, this room was an ocean-view (had a nice view, but wasn't on the very front of the ocean). I called the front desk and they said that's all they had. Well, for $140, I put up with it :). We were on the 5th floor, very nice view! The hotel had 2 pools and 2 spas (one in and one outdoor each, with the indoor ones heated). And we could just walk right out of the hotel onto the beach.
The first day was great, like 65 degrees and SUN. Man that was nice. The second day was cloudy, and a little more chilly. The last day was very chilly. However, it was very relaxing, and I'm very happy to have gone. I was planning a Vegas trip (more work-related, a conference), but things weren't falling into place. This trip happened at just the right time, and I'm very happy!
I would recommend the Carolina Winds, and Myrtle Beach in general, to all, especially this time of year! Things are just opening up there for the warm season, and it was pretty nice! The prices were great, too!
My new HP 318 digital camera paid for itself on this vacation. No worrying about film processing (bad pictures, film, film prices, film processing prices)! Was wonderful. Could instantly see what the picture looked like. I took A LOT of pictures, and I took nearly two of everything (one low resolution (for the computer/web) and one high resolution (for printing)). I'm going to see if I can get the hi-res ones developed, and how much that will cost. It will be great to just pay for the onces I want developed!!! And not having a $50 developing bill is nice, too! I'm just so pleased with it. I took the camera to work and let them browse through the pics... right there on the camera. It was great. The same thing with my mom. Instantly. Then I can take the CompactFlash card out and pop it in my laptop and download them all. Awesome. No need to spend hours scanning pictures! I love it! I think I'm addicted to digital photography now. I don't think I'll ever go back to film!
I've posted some of the pics (chopped and compressed) to my Picture Archive!
Check this out!... it's awesome!
I saw this great piece of artwork that showed a scene of a bunch of people jumping into a firepit, and it had a sign above it that said "Best Buy"... I can't figure out where I saw it, and I'm dying to post it :). It brought a smile to my face...
I don't care about the Olympics. Why? The time-honored program has just about been killed by corporatism. And this article on Yahoo! this article does a pretty good job of explaining why. I'm not even going to mention the scandel. ;(
There's big talk about "campaign finance". Guess what? The proposed FIX already has holes in it. God I hate our country's government. Hit them fuckers in their wallets, and see how THEY FEEL. I bet you $300 those assholes didn't have to take their $300 check off their tax refund!!!
I did my state return through the Ohio TeleFile system. I got my money back in like 8 business days! That was also in my bank account. Just amazing.
So here I am, two months away from the deadline, and I'm already done. I love it! Of course, I can't spend it... saving $$$ to build a house :).
I've watched Steven King's "The Stand" and various other movies where this is the topic... 12 Monkeys, Outbreak, and even This Quiet Earth to some extent...
OK, time to stop freakin' out... time for OZ!
On roughly the same topic, I've finally gotten around to checking out XML. In the few days that I've been playing with it (since Monday night), I love it! It's already fixed a problem of mine, and the same fix might blow up into a couple of features that have been on my TODO list for my Freemed-YiRC project. The PHP programming language has some EXCELLENT XML facilities, and it's making learning basic XML VERY easy. I love it! (PHP currently has two XML methods... Expat and DOM... I'm using DOM). In any case, I'm learning something new, and I think it's very powerful.
Gonna cut this week short (in days, but not hours)... tomorrow and Saturday look like 50s and more sun than not. Woo hoo! Time to go out and so some more GeoCaching baby!
Then I turn off American Pie 2, and I'm cruising through DirecTV looking for some late night stuff. Guess what I see??? The Discovery Wings channel. Never saw that before. Discovery Wings? Why? Get a life Joe! Sorry... I love those channels... in any case... I get a little message at the bottom of screen saying the new channel has to be ordered...
Is it me, or is it really illegal to INCREASE VALUE in a consumer product WITHOUT RAISING THE PRICE? Capitalism... what a freakin' mess. Is it that bad? Is it a corporate SIN to do this? Priorities are just massively screwed in this country, in my opinion...
I'm trying to think of something witty to say here... but I feel like I've just spent it all. What else can I say? I'm angry with corporate America. Period. I think values are screwed. Period. Maybe it's just me at 2 in the morning.
How do YOU feel???
And don't make me bring up the GroundHog... time to get the Assassin rifle out.
Now all the creeks in my neighborhood are overflowing, and water is seeping through the walls in my room in the basement. Driving me nuts. Sump pump is OK, but water is coming right through the walls. Sucks bad. Had to pull up the carpet and clean. Won't be done until tomorrow. Ugh. Will have to DISASSEMBLE my entertainment center and move the center itself to clean underneath it.
Take a look at my webcam pic!
Instead, we get blasted with rain, and very little ice. What a crock!
We're supposed to get hit with some ice tonight/tomorrow. We'll see. When I came in it was raining/sleeting. Now it's snowing.
Last week my laptop crashed. Just stopped working. Had to bring it in. Arg.
Weekend was great, went GeoCaching. However, now my lower back is VERY sore and is killing me (although not as bad as yesterday). Did A LOT of climbing and such over the weekend (probably walked 3-4 miles on Sunday, too). Woo hoo!
Last night tried to do an update on my PocketPC and I think it fried my ROM. Arg.
Picked up my Laptop today, seems to have been a loose connection... total cost $30. Woo hoo!
Trying to contact Casio. I missed the tech call, and now can't get him back. Arg.
And then on top of that, let's fill their heads with religion while we're at it. Let's teach them we're better than everyone else. Let's teach them that our God is the true God. Don't bother trying to explain to them that we believe that our God is responsible for both good AND evil. Let's just tell them to have faith, and expect them to cope with that, too.
Then on top of all that, let's make them go to another school for four or more years. Let's tax the fuck out of 'em at the same time. We'll pay for the schools out of the government budget, but why not allow the schools to extort money from them at the same time? What a great idea! It'll put TONS of money into the CEOs pocket! He'll be so happy that maybe I'll get two extra hours of vacation time two years from now. Oh happy day!
And then when that kid gets out of school, let's jack up the interest rate on the money we gave him that he thought we gave him. But actually it was just a loan. Jack it up and send Tony and Vinny after his smart ass.
So now this kid gets out of education. Lots of good stuff, crammed with TONS of shit he'll never need to know, or has been changed or re-written.
Now this kid is going to have revenge on his mind. Gee whiz, since everybody wants a piece of me, maybe I'll show 'em all. I'll start a company with a great product, then as time goes on, I'll replace the product with monthly payments until I've got all the fuckers who fucked me paying me! Bitches!
That's the product of our system as it stands now. There is no winning scenario. These kids will become the future Uncle MoneyBags of the world. And why not? They've been trained from the beginning.
Yeah, let's start with education. Good idea.
Three day weekend here. Hope you all get out and enjoy. About to go find two GeoCaches in the Toledo area. See ya!
Of course, ask me in three months and we'll see what I say then...
WHY MICROSOFT SUCKS... WITH REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES...
OK. So I'm digging their PocketPCs. I loved my Casio E-125, and I'm loving my new Casio E-200. However, somethings that worked perfectly on the E-125 no longer work on the E-200. This is no fault of Casio's, as they only make the hardware. This is a pure Operating System problem here... and that is Microsoft's domain.
First off, they took the repeating reminder away. So let's say you're a South Park junkie, and you want to be reminded that South Park is on at 9:45 every Wednesday. OK? On the Casio E-125 (using the PocketPC2000 OS) you could set this reminder. At 9:45PM, religously, every Wed. the PocketPC would start beeping havoc. You'd have to manually turn the PocketPC on and dismiss the reminder. On the E-200 (using the PocketPC2002 OS), it beeps once, and that's it. So what if you leave the PocketPC somewhere, then say, go to the bathroom, and the reminder goes off while you're gone, and come back and don't look at the PocketPC, you'd never know something happened. It doesn't beep again until you turn the PocketPC on. It's just not that helpful! I used to use my E-125 as an alarm clock. Was loud enough, and after continually beeping, it would certainly wake me up. Now it doesn't (but I've found my cell phone sure has a loud alarm).
That's an example of REMOVING FUNCTIONALITY FROM A DEVICE. And it's a bad habit. What excuse do they have for doing this? "Well, people were complaining that they'd leave their PocketPC in their car, and the battery would wear down because the device would keep beeping all night long". What a load of shit! If you're dumb enough to set reminders, and not keep the PocketPC around, then you've totally missed the point. ALSO, there was an option to TURN OFF repeating reminders on the E-125. In fact, they could have just shipped the device with repeating reminders, and asswipes like me who actually want that functionality could just turn it on. Why couldn't they do that? On the PocketPC it has another option for alarms, but there are only five of them. Guess what? They have the option to repeat! Why one and not the other? I don't know! Microsoft... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?
OK, that's Part 1. Here's Part 2:
So I'm writing this program called Freemed-YiRC, and I got this client for it that works on PocketPCs. The program I wrote worked GREAT on my trusty E-125. On the E-200, it's broken. Why? BECAUSE MICROSOFT REMOVED THE FTP FUNCTIONALITY. FTP hasn't changed much in, say, 20 years?
I just found this out today while trying to get my program to work on the E-200 (finally having time at work to do that). So I went to dEVBuzz. Guess what? I'm not alone. But no one has a functional answer. They only workarounds involve external things like C++ calls or something. Holy crap, what's up with that? WHY DID THEY REMOVE SOMETHING THAT WORKED, AND NOT EVEN PROVIDE A BACKWARDS-COMPATIBILITY MODE FOR IT? I don't understand that! It's not like they're charging for a fix, either.... they don't even offer a fix! What's the logic behind that? Why did this happen?!?! I'm so mad I can't even explain it. The reason behind Operating System upgrades is that they're SUPPOSED TO FIX BUGS and OFFER NEW FEATURES.
THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO CREATE MORE BUGS and REMOVE WORKING FEATURES!
I think Microsoft is going backwards. In fact, I know it. And I've been talking about it for some time now. But this is just ONE TINY EXAMPLE of what MICROSOFT SUCKS.
I'm out.
I didn't want to see this movie. I saw the ads, and it looked to me like a crazy chick flick. Woopee. Not really my bag. Had my share of psycho chicks... don't need to see a movie about them :).
But my girlfriend insisted, and off we went. And I tell you, nearly three hours after walking into that theater, I'm soooooo glad she dragged me there!
The film is twisted psychologically. And I REALLY dig that stuff. Some years ago my friend and I had a conversation about 3 dimentional thinking, about how it was catching on, things were getting deeper, mind-wise. We wondered about when movies would start adapting. We didn't have to wait too long.
Vanilla Sky is another creation in a line of these types of movies. It's a movie that was cleverly advertised. You don't know it's twisted. When you walk in the theater, you're thinking that this crazy chick drives off a bridge, and the guy she's with gets arrested for murder.
But after that things get weird, and I was totally knocked off guard by what would happen next... things I won't talk about.
I'd liken it to the movie A.I. from earlier in the year. Damn that was a good movie. Very deep. The first 90% of the movie could stand-alone well by itself, but the last 90% throw it into a category by itself. This is where these two movies shine, IN MY OPINION. I'm the kind of person that thinks I know everything... and when I see a movie that tricks me to the point where I'm looking in the wrong direction when the truth smashes you with a hammer, I love it. Dark City is another example, along with Contact. Along the same lines The Truman Show, Bicentennial Man, and Unbreakable are also very well done. They tell you straight out what is happening, but the movies are so well engineered (IMHO) and the endings so dramatic that they fit in perfectly. I love these movies!!!!
Of course I love the standard shoot-em-up/action movies... but there is something about a movie that's deep to the point where it makes you do a bit of soul-searching after leaving the movie. These directors want you to do this, and they're certainly doing a wonderful job lately! I'm looking forward to a new crop of winter/spring movies as well.... Hart's War, Star Wars Episode II, Austin Powers III, etc... these movies are going to bankrupt me :).
The Fast and the Furious is out on DVD baby! Our local Meijer began selling it at 12:01AM last night :). Was up until 2:30PM watching it. Gotta love it. Gotta have it. Don't have it? GET IT.
On the same level, I rented a PlayStation 2 this weekend. Wow. What a piece of machinery it is. I rented the game 'Grand Theft Auto 3' along with it. Again... wow. I am a big fan of the GTA series. It's a VERY fun, and VERY addictive, game. Some might complain about it's morals, but after a stressful day of troubleshooting and problem solving, all I want to do is go home and blow some shit up!
The pure rendering ability of the PS2 is AMAZING. From the way the cars run in GTA3 to the reflective puddles in the street, it's just absolutely crazy. I don't want to give it back :). But at $299, even after a full year on the market, It's too expensive a toy. I love the fact that I can play my old PS1 games on it, but still. GTA3 is like $50 itself, and another controller would be $30, and a memory card another $30, and a DVD controller if I wanted to play DVDs with it would be another $30... it adds up. If Sony would drop the price to $200 on these things, they'd KILL the XBox, in my opinion. Of course, I understand that this thing COSTS more than $299 to make!
I tell you what though, it's an industrially well-built machine. We didn't get a memory card with it, and we didn't want to loose our game. So the other night we just turned the TV off, and left the PS2 running. We played it forever yesterday. Then last night I debated on leaving it on again. I checked to see if it was hot, and it was NOT. It was stone cold. Wow. 48+ hours plus up-time, and the thing is not hot. That's impressive. I've heard stories about the XBox getting EXTREMELY HOT. But those are unverified rumors on my part.
Welp, after a month of shopping madness and crazy schedules, it's time to get back to normal! Time for diet, exercise, and no more cigars :).
I wish everyone well in 2002!
Welp, I hope all out there had good times and family to share it with. But the best holiday is yet to come... New Years :).
OK... lemme see if I got this straight... Driving a new car will make me ill so I'll have to start riding my Three-Wheeler to work. But the cops will chase me, so I had to driver faster. But it's cold out, and I'll catch a cold, then have to take Asprin, but that'll make me piss on myself. The piss will freeze, and I'll get pneumonia, and they'll give me Ibuprofen, and I'll feel horrible again. Then I'll go home and drink some Red Wine to make my heart stronger. I get drunk off the wine and end up pissing all over myself some more. After a while I feel much better, so I'll chow down on some Meat. Then I'll get cancer when I get Elderly, but no one will give me any Asprin or Ibuprofen. But since I'm old I'll end up pissing all over myself anyway. On my final day I will be Killed By Son's Car.
Did I forget anything?
Oh... did I mention I was the Argentine Economy Chief???
MERRY CHRISTMAS! And if I don't see ya again... Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Good Night!
Please don't take this as an indication of WEAKENING SUPPORT for my country and its efforts. It's not! I recognize that, even with current events, this effort is FAR FROM OVER.
But my point has been made, and like the government infomercials say, it's time to get back to business :).
I do hope we find that Osama fucker before Christmas. What a wonderful gift that would be!
A friend of the site, Nick "NLS" Sardelianos, sent me the following story the other day, after I posted my rant on Monday. I thought it was a refreshing story...
So you want to be a hermit. :-> Let me tell you a little story. When I was working for Bull (once a big name in computers) I got in a taxi. The driver was 50+, rather calm and clean (for a Greek taxi driver). We were talking about irrelevant things, when he asked: "are you in IT?"...(!!!) I couldn't believe what he said. Most taxi drivers (in Greece) are not the most educated people on Earth, and somehow he asked if I was in IT business, although I don't think I had anything to "tag" me. I said yes. He said "Man I was 18 years in IT... I was one of the first to have a cell phone by the company I worked, so they could find me in my vacations, which they did. Now I am a taxi driver and I feel relaxed" (!!!!!!) ... Remember, traffic in Athens is like traffic in N.Y. (no shit). AND HE WAS RELAXED IN COMPARISON WITH HIM BEING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY...
Sounds crazy, eh? Not to me, thought. I can *completely* understand where he's coming from. Except I don't think I could drive a cab. When I'm on the road it's ROAD RAGE for me. Every day I tell myself that I'm going to slow down and be more courteous... but the first person that pisses me off usually screws that up REALLY quick.
In any case, a nice tale :)... thanks Nick!
All weekend it rained. The ground is totally saturated. Know what that means? The sump pump is working overtime. So guess what happens this morning? The power goes out. What happens when the power goes out? The sump pump stops working. What happens then?
The basement floods.
Did that happen to me today? No. Why? I got lucky. My girlfriend noticed that the VCR was blinking 12:00 last night. So I hopped out of bed and ran down to the sump pump. No problems. Seem the power only must have been out for a little while. Went back to bed.
My pager and Casio E-200 went off and woke me up at 7:45AM (I know, I get up late...). The power was off again. Ran downstairs. The sump was getting high, but it had not yet overflowed. WHEW.
Got out the trusty marine bilge pump that I bought after my LAST BASEMENT FLOOD DISASTER. Hooked it up to a spare 12V auto battery that I actually juiced up a weekend or so ago. And away the water went. WHEW.
Had to do it twice before the power came back on. Seemed to work fine though. Payed for itself yet again! Woo hoo!
Things were looking OK. So I headed out to the other side of town to pick up some brand new Pentium 4 1.5Ghz computers for work. They were to fix all of my current computer headaches (two computers not acting very nicely).
Picked them up and I was off. Back to work. Lugged them damned things up to the second floor (2.5 sets of steps). Hate them steps.
Had to deal with some problems first before setting up the new PCs. OK, dealt with them. Seemed to be going well. I'm on a roll.
Went to set up the new PC. Turned on the current PC that was going to be replaced. Was doing something, then went to the bathroom. When I came back, the thing was black, and was making a clicking sound.
Can you believe that shit? Of all the bad luck in the world... the monitor fried. Right when I was going to fix the computer problem. Can you belive that shit?
It's a 17" Future Power monitor. Only a few months old. Man I can't believe this stuff. I'm so pissed off right now it's not funny. I wanted to come in today and fix all my problems on my current list. And now I'm screwed. Damn it! I just want to do my job, and fix our current set of problems before Christmas. Shit! Shit! Shit!
Now I know I can just throw another monitor on there temorarily, but it's the fact that this had to happen now. Just when I was going to fix everything. It just doesn't work out.
I need to get out of this business and become a hermit.
So on Tuesday I was working at home on my lovely Time Warner Road Runner Internet service. All of the sudden, it dies. I look at my cablemodem, and it's blinking. Bad news. Eventually I went outside, and there was a Time Warner truck sitting in the driveway. So I go up to the guy and ask what's going on. He said he was cutting my cable. I asked "WHY????". He said because I cancelled my cable. I told him I still had Road Runner. He looked at the work order and said "Oh". He then had to reconnect it. Why are the people in sales & billing so fucking incompetent? Can't they do anything right? I'm serious, it's like I might as well join their company. It's a full time job keeping my service connected! Fucking shit!
So a few weeks ago I get this page on my alphaneric pager. It says my paging company is going through some changes, and e-mail to my pager is changing. I finally called them yesterday. They said the change was simple, and they did it. I just had a different e-mail addy for my pager. OK.
But now my pager won't receive numeric pages correctly. It displays them as garbage. Fuck man! I've called them four times today. They told me I have to go get a new one. Why? It was working FINE up until now!!! DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!!! I just can't figure it out. They're going to replace it for free, but its still such a pain in the ass. It makes me want to SCREAM. I just called them following their instructions, and now I'm a fucking victim.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So last night I checked the UPS tracking number for my new Casio E-200. It said it was in Toledo. So I called UPS last night, and asked if the package could be held at the warehouse. I wanted to pick it up in the morning before I went off to work. I called the local number, and the lady said she'd leave a note.
So I called this morning, and sure enough, the note was ignored, and the package was loaded, and out for delivery. So I asked the lady if for some reason the package wasn't delivered today, if they could PLEASE HOLD THE PACKAGE so I could pick it up in the evening.
So I waited until 4:45PM. The package never came. I checked the UPS website, and it listed the package as an 'EXCEPTION'. What's up with that??? I called, and the lady said that the package was at the warehouse, and I had until 5:30PM to pick it up.
So I took off for the UPS warehouse on the other side of town. I got there around 5:20PM. I stood in line and was finally the next one up. Then a guy looks at me from behind the counter and asked if I was picking up or dropping off. I said picking up. So then he directs me to yet another line. So I wait in that line. One guy would show up and ask for an address, then he'd go around back for five minutes. Finally my turn came up. He asked my address and I gave it to him. A few minutes later he came back and said that the package was not there.
I said, "Look man. I called here just before I came. I did not call the national 800 number, I called HERE. I spoke with someone HERE. They said the package was HERE NOW, and I had until 5:30PM to pick it up."
Welp, apparently the driver wasn't back yet, and the package was still on the truck. I was so pissed. Apparently this guy got the order to save the pacakge and not deliver it. Even though I carefully instructed the lady on the phone in the morning to ONLY hold the package IF it could not be delivered today. If the driver would have delivered the package, I would not have had to stand there line and talk to these idiots and totally ruin my evening.
So I said "Look man. I don't know if your communications are screwed up or what, but I want my package!". And it must have been a miracle, because someone called and notified the front desk that the driver had arrived, and the pacakge was ready.
So he scurries into the back room. I waited no less than 10 mintes for him to come back. The people behind me must have been pissed. I didn't even want to look at them because I knew they'd probably glare at me.
He comes back and hands me my package. I sign it and leave.
God what a total mess. What a total joke. I think shipping is the reason that Internet shopping is failing. I know that because of many previous shipping experiences like this that I tend to go to the store to get something, unless I can get it for REAL CHEAP on the Internet. When movies come out, I go to the local Media Play. They have it the day it comes out, and they have it in stock!
So, if I get a choice between UPS and USPS or FedEx, I'm going with one of the other two. FedEx has a warehouse which is much closer to my house, and the USPS is probably much more reliable...
In any case, I've got my new Casio E-200 and I'll be very happy as long as it doesn't break!!!
If it breaks again, I'm going to be so pissed, I'm gonna drop a megaton bomb rant on this bitch the likes of the world have NEVER seen...
So I took a short trip this weekend. It was very relaxing. Then I came home...
I expected that my new Casio would have come in on Friday. But it didn't! Damn it! Then I looked at my mail. Sprint, Time Warner, and CoreCOMM.
Not one, but ALL OF THEM were FUCKED UP. I can't believe it.
First off, my SprintPCS bill. I recently bought a new cell phone. But apparently when I changed it, someone screwed up and they instead of renewing my 1 year agreement, they cancelled it. So I got this lovely $150 termination fee on my bill. My cell phone bill was $190+. Holy shit dude!
Thankfully, we live in a 24/7 economy. I was able to call Sprint PCS on a Sunday night at 8PM. But what I encountered shook me. I ended up talking to a 'virtual assistant'. Now, it wasn't like I was pushing buttons or anything, I was actually 'speaking' to a computer. I forgot it's name. In any case, it asked me what I wanted. The only thing I could think of was 'uuhh... I want to talk to a human being???'. Then it asked for my phone number. After I gave it that, I was eventually transferred to a human being, in the billing section, like I asked for. Holy shit! It was very impressive. Next time, I will make an effort to actually talk to it, and see if it can't solve my problems!
So anyway, the person I spoke with in billing at SprintPCS was able to fix my problem, and give me a new balance. One down, many to go.
So next I called Time Warner. I recently got a CableModem, and have also tried their cable service. But I was so UN-impressed with their digital cable, I told the installer to take it away in less than 15 minutes. So I get my first Time Warner bill. Woa, only $88! My Road Runner Internet service is only supposed to be $20/month for the first three months.
So I called them. The 800 number was busy, and the local number didn't exist, according to the operator. Oops! 10 minutes later I called again, and was able to get through on the 800 number. I eventually made my way through to a human being in billing (again, at around 9PM on a Sunday night). They looked at my bill, and asked me a bunch of questions. This was one fucked up bill man. So many things were the same charge on it that it wasn't even funny. In any case, she spent nearly 7-8 minutes just trying to rearrange the bill. Eventually she told me that they'd have to dispatch a technician to my house to make sure we're still not receiving cable service. Fucking idiots! Why didn't the technician do that when he installed/removed it? This is what I've come to hate about big business. They use sub-contractors to do everything on the last mile. And two times out of two they've fucked up! So anyway, they won't be able to tell me my account balance until maybe Friday. Now, Friday is the 14th, I think. And the bill is due on the 24th. On the bill it says that all checks must be mailed 7 days prior in order to be received and credited properly. But, with the speed of mail in the holiday season, I won't have enough time. And you can bet they won't extend the deadline easily. So I know I'm going to spend hours on the phone trying to explain to them how time works. And then after they reluctantly agree to extend my deadline, I'm going to pay for it with a credit card over the phone... just to be an asshole, and return the favor.
Then, I've got the CoreCOMM bill for a couple of new domain names. Now, I know from experience that these people in billing work from M-F 9-5, and that's it. So I put that off.
Then, I found that my webserver at work went on the fritz. I had to go to work and fix that. On a Sunday night. Thank god all I had to do was reboot it and do a filesystems check. Otherwise I'd of been there all night long.
What a total mess. I nearly lost it last night. All the relaxing I tried to do was totally overthrown. Oh freakin' well. Nervous breakdown, here I come!
So this morning I called CoreCOMM. I originally told them to bill the new domains I signed up for on the credit card. I guess they couldn't figure that out, because I got two paper invoices. But I called them today and was able to get them to bill that on the credit card, so that's 2/3 done (hopefully). I just have to wait until Friday to see about the Time Warner situation. But it makes me wonder, what else does this week have instore for me!!!
So now I'm working at home, and awaiting the UPS guy to deliver my goddamned Casio E-200!!!
Welp, I'm gonna be gone for the weekend, and it's not likely I'll have access to my e-mail and such. If you don't hear back from me soon, I will get back to you on Monday!
I watched the movie Pearl Harbor last night on DVD. Cripes... I can say that 45% of this movie was GREAT. The other 65% just totally ruined the whole of it. I liken it to Armageddon. If you cut the love and romance crap out of it, or at least cut down on it, you'd have an AWESOME movie. I just can't stand mixing war and love in one movie. What the hell is that??? I apologize if this offends any women, or any womenly-men out there :).
One phrase in the movie struck me... when they said that 3000 people died there in a matter of hours. I guess I never knew that. It just struck me that the number was so close to that of 9/11. Crazy.
It goes without saying that we will never forget!!!
It's like 60+ degrees here in Toledo today. Gas is around $0.95/gallon. What the hell is going on here??? It's like something out of a fairy tale ;).
Oh, and a new South Park is on tonight... oh happy days!
And I forgot to post this... since the Time Warner cable TV fiasco, I've called DirecTV to cut my bill. You know what I did? I threatened to leave DirecTV, and asked if they could beat the price I would have paid for cable. After continually saying "Well, that's nice, but I think cable can do better...". I eventually chopped my monthly $95 bill to $47/month! Holy shit! Now, I did drop some channels, but I'm getting the $49.99 package for $30 for 12 months. Plus two more receivers and the family pack, and my bill is going to be roughly $50. Holy crap! So I'm *VERY* happy with that. Now, I'm not recommending you try to scam your TV provider or anything, but hey, maybe it's nice to have them on the other end of the stick for once.
I also must say, I'm very pleased with the family pack. The three channels I'm most interested in are Discovery Science, Discovery Civilization, and History International. They complement Discovery, TLC, and the History Channel pretty well. It's like all I've been watching lately. Shows on robots, aliens, etc... ;)
In any case, and all around good couple of days... SO FAR..
http://www.joethielen.com/casio_e200
It uses the award winning format of the E-125 page (HA HA HA! Yeah Right... he said 'award'..HA!) :)
PART1:
OK. Today was the day that I was to replace my DirecTV satellite with Time Warner cable TV. The time frame given to me when I ordered it was between 10AM-12PM. OK. Welp, they showed up at 12:15PM. Well, OK. I guess it's close enough. Now, I already had everything wired. All they had to do was to plug in the new digital receiver box, and my whole house'd be set... right?
WRONG. So he plugs it in and we turn it on. Shitty quality. I'm talking grainy man. Looked like static to me (you've got to realize by now that I'm one picky bastard when it comes to my media... I want the HIGH QUALITY SHIT MAN). Digital Cable == High Quality... right?
WRONG. So I turned on HBO on the new cable system. Made me want to scream. Then I turned on HBO on the satellite. There were light years of difference between the two. Now, one of the other reasons I signed up for cable was so I could get cable throughout the house, and not have to pay for more receivers, like I do with DirecTV. Sounds good... right?
WRONG. Even though I'd be paying for the digital package, I'd only get the 200+ channels on the TVs equipped with receivers... Receivers which cost $5-$10 a month extra. Ooops. Someone forgot to mention THAT one to me. I asked specifically when I ordered Time Warner Cable if I would get the digital package on every TV in the house, with just one receiever... "Of course!". Fuckers. So, between those two concepts, I've decided to ditch Time Warner cable... 45 minutes after the guy stepped into the door. Now, mind you, we tried everything to get the signal to look better. At first we thought it might just be my wonderful wiring. Nope. We even took the cablemodem off-line, and ran the cable straight into the back of the receiver. Still shitty. So with a good signal and no other sources trying to steal a signal, you'd think that it'd look good... right?
WRONG. Couldn't do it. Finally I just had to cancel it. And I was *really* looking forward to it, too. Local channels (for my family) and then I was looking at the extra channels that I'd have to pay extra for with DirecTV (like History International, Discovery Interactive, etc...). Welp, I'm screwed. Gonna have to call DirecTV and see what they can offer me.
PART2:
So I'm dying for the new Casio E-200, right? I heard a rumor that they were finally shipping, so I called up my friends at Casio. They had it ready to ship out yesterday via UPS. So today I'm waiting for the cable man, and at the same time I'm waiting for my package. No show. When I finally went to work at 2PM, it still hadn't arrived. So I called up Casio, and they called UPS. UPS said it was delivered. Oops. Not to my freakin' house man! So Casio gave me the UPS tracking number. Now I have to deal with this! How many times does this have to happen??? Are shipping companies just totally inept, or what? Are they like so pressed for time that the drivers get totally out of whack, and can't read a freakin' address? My address is posted in BIG FAT NUMBERS on the front of my house! Damn I'm pissed off! I payed money so they could OVERNIGHT it. It said it was delivered at 9:45AM. Do you know how happy I'd be right now if I had my lil' Casio E-200 in my hands right now??? Happy... right?
MAYBE. :). Ya, I know... I bitch about stupid stuff.
WELCOME TO MY LIFE.
I also finally got myself a new cell phone. And so far, it's been a good experience. My biggest fear is that Sprint PCS was gonna bend me over and charge me a $35 activation fee for replacing an existing phone on my account. They did it to my brother twice, after they sold him not one, but TWO defective phones. No way I was gonna do that. So in any case, I was in Radio Shack, and a friend of mine said he got a new phone a little wile ago from Radio Shack, and he didn't have to pay the fee. So I asked the guy about that, and he must of been hard up for his quota or something, because he light up like a christmas tree when it looked like I was interested in a cell phone.
To make a long story short, I walked out of there with a $150 Sanyo SCP-4700 dual-band phone, a $30 leather case w/belt clip (not a pouch piece of crap, a real case), and a $30 car charger all for $130 (including tax). Woo-hoo! I don't know if it was just this guy working the margins or Radio Shack being hard up, but I think I actually got a good deal for once from Sprint PCS. There was an instant rebate, an additional 15% percent off the total order, and I still have a mail-in rebate ($30... would bring total price down to ~$100). In any case, I was elated. I did not have to pay the activation fee, and I also got a new plan which further reduces my monthly costs... I also removed the Wireless Web and RoadSide Rescue from my account, so I should be saving $15 off my monthly Sprint PCS bill. Woo-hoo! The Wireless Web just isn't what it's cracked up to be, and even when I did use it, it was only maybe once a month. Connecting it to my Casio E-125 was painful because it was only running at 14.4K, and I was loading full web pages (not the WAP pages... the full blown ones). And even the slimmed down pages (still not WAP, just PDA optimized) took quite a while. As far as I'm concerned, I've got 802.11b wireless at home and work, so I'm happy.
The phone is quite impressive, new ones always are. Seems to pick up a signal much better here in my basement. And they quoted me a lifespan of 4 hours of PCS talk time, and a FREAKIN' CRAZY 12 DAYS OF STAND-BY TIME... yeah... we'll see ;). It's got some cool ringers on it though and a speakerphone. The games on it SUCK though... but that's what the Casio is for *grin*.
Welp, I spent most of today swimming in insulation while running new coax cable preparing for my new digital cable TV. I'm switching from DirecTV because I'm sick and tired of the bill, and having to have a receiver for each room (I know that I still need a receiver for each TV for digial cable if I want the digital benefits... but I'm the only one in the house that NEEDS it ;) ). I pay nearly $100 a month for DirecTV with a bunch of channels and 3 receivers. With Time Warner digital cable, I'll be paying around $65 for a bunch of channels (not all the premiere channels, but I can live without them (except HBO!)). So after I scrap the DirecTV & DirecPC, I should save around $25 a month... plus I'll be able to get basic cable on every TV in the house! That'll make my family happy. But I'm gonna have some excess DirecTV/PC equipment here pretty soon.. TWO dishes (one standard TV, one DirecDUO) and THREE receivers (two basic stereo (RCA & SONY), and one with fiber 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio (RCA)). I'm probably gonna get rid of this stuff after I'm happy with the performance of the cable.
DirecTV and DirecPC have served me well over the past few years. There has been no real choice, but at least I had access (digital TV and broadband Internet). But now that competition is making it's way into the surrounding areas of some major cities, choice is becoming a GREAT thing! And thanks to Time Warner, I'm getting the hook-up! Woo hoo!
Welp, we'll see if I'm still happy tomorrow after I get to work ;).
So I look at the multitude of Microsoft anti-trust cases going on. I think to myself, with this much shit going on, you'd think that there is a problem, right? Obviously not. Microsoft is settling 'most' of it's anti-trust cases (not the big DOJ government case) by donating tons of PCs & software to our nations schools. God what a total joke. This is how they punished? By punishing our nations children? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?
Let's examine this situation. So a bunch of schools are going to get free PCs loaded with Windows. Hmmmmmm....... so instead of punishing Microsoft where it hurts (the wallet), we're going to give them a license to put these schools into lucrative on-going license contracts? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?
So lemme get this straight. These schools are gonna get copies of bug-laced software that will need to upgraded every few years. They will have to be fixed by people Authorized Microsoft Resellers, simply because they're schools, and probably don't have in-house IT people. These resellers kick back to Microsoft, by means of yearly training and licensing fees. So it might appear that Microsoft is taking a hit now, but the people who are pursuing these anti-trust cases are simply helping to extend their dominance in the industry. What a WONDERFUL legacy to leave our children. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?
OK, enough about this. Let's move on to our countries favorite pastime, bombing a country, and starting a monster. So we're helping the Northern Alliance to get rid of the Taliban, right? Of course, that's not our main function, which is to find and eliminate Al Qaeda. But what the hell. We created all those super strong caves we're bombing. Why not fuck up again? The Northern Alliance looks like it's gonna try and perform a coup. They're not even willing to meet with us on their own soil. The same soil they wouldn't have a freakin' chance of standing and claiming on their own if we weren't carpet bombing the shit out of the Taliban. What's next? Might as well call it Taliban 2.0 in my book. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?
On the same note, our government is contacting libraries all around the country asking them to destory all kinds of public information about water treatment plants and nuclear facilities. It's amazing how George Orwell's 1984 is so coming true. Just a few years late, I guess. Between our government and Microsoft, I'm wondering when we'll start officially removing words from the dictionary. Oh wait, we already did. Remember 'Carpet Bombing'? It's now 'The Long Stick'. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???
It's coming up on Thanksgiving, and I sure have a lot to be thankful for, don't get me wrong on that... but I just don't understand some of the things going on here.
But hey, let's eat lots of turkey! And don't forget to be a good consumer and trot on out early Friday morning (Thursday afternoon?) and SPEND SPEND SPEND... can't wait for them long ass lines...
In any case, my new e-mail address is:
Joe@JoeThielen.com
The service is Road Runner from Time Warner. And as of right now, I'm ELATED. After a tech came out (more on that a lil' later), I was able to plug it into my Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless AP/router/firewall, and BOOM! All the PCs/laptops/PDAs in the house can now get on the Internet without having to use the phone. I'm like one of the last people I know to get cable/DSL high-speed Internet. I'm so happy it's finally here.
OK, so here is the story. I already covered what happened after installation. So Friday night I went home from work and called the Road Runner help desk. At first, I got transferred to a guy in North Carolina. He couldn't figure out why I was calling him. He transferred me to another place. Finally, I got transferred to a 3rd person. This person came one, and apparently the 2nd guy told him what was up. He asked if I would like a technician dispatched to my house.
Now, this was Friday night at around 6PM. They're going to send someone to my house? COOL. They said someone should be out by 8:30PM. At about 8:15PM someone called and said they'd be here in 20 minutes. No problem, I was absolutely elated that someone was coming out to fix it.
So he shows up and brings in some testers. Cool stuff. He hooked up a tester to the cable that's supposed to go into my cablemodem. It showed no signal whatsoever. I was so pissed. The guy who came over my house the first time assured me that I was getting a signal, they were just doing a server upgrade. I specifically asked him "Are you sure I'm getting a signal to the cablemodem?"... and he said YES. Asshole.
So he goes outside to where the cable meets the house. No signal there. Shit! He grabs his ladder and goes up the pole across the street, where my cable comes from. He got a signal there.
So, at this point, this guy was prepared to run a totally new drop to my house. And he had all the tools and wire to do it.
Keep in mind here that it's Friday night at 8:45PM. This guy is totally willing to do this. I'm expecting him to tell me that someone would have to come back on Saturday, or even Monday. But he had one last trick. He replaced the connector at the top of the pole. He goes back to the house, and viola! Signal baby!
He plugs it into the cablemodem, and that little bastard green blinky light goes solid! I hook up my laptop, and the rest is history...
So it turns out the guy who initially installed my cablemodem was a sub-contractor. What a shithead! I tell you, never let the guy leave until it works. I should have known. But he doesn't work for Time Warner, so I can't say much on that.
What I CAN SAY is that I am extremely impressed with the fact that a technician was dispatched on a Friday night to come out and fix my residential Internet service! He had the right tools, and knew what he was going. Not only that, but he fixed the problem, and got my home on-line! And now, my two desktop PCs, my laptop, and my Casio are ALL on-line. Man is this NICE...
So OK. I'm happy. So my girlfriend wants to go to the 'Lights before Christmas' at the Toledo Zoo. Uhh.. OK. It's like 55 degrees outside. Why the hell not? It's foggy as hell, it should look kewl.
We make the trek to the Zoo. And we end up sitting in traffic for nearly an hour before we can even park. I tell you it was messed up. No cops or nothing. Made me totally sick. We finally get there.
We walk 1/4 mile to the ticket stand. I wait in line for a ticket... wasn't that bad. Maybe 5 minutes. So we've got our tickets, and we head to the zoo. NOPE. You have to wait in ANOTHER line to show them your receipt for your tickets before they'll let you in.
HEY. Let's think about this a little SMARTER. Why don't you post a sign in the line I was waiting in that said: 'HEY ASSWIPE. IF YOU SAND IN THIS LINE YOU ARE MORON BECAUSE YOU WILL WAIT IN ANOTHER LINE TO PROVE YOU BOUGHT THESE TICKETS FROM US'.
I think I blew a fuse.
In any case, I'm home, and playing on the Internet. I would say that it's good at this point!
So, with this switch in mind, I won't be needing my beloved ISP anymore. I've had few major problems with Access Toledo, so I'm sad to switch here. However, I won't need it anylonger, providing the cablemodem starts to work. Hence, my e-mail address will be changing. So instead of opting for the free e-mail that comes with my cable account, I decided to call my web host for JoeThielen.com, and see if I could get an e-mail through them. That way, if I switch from cable or something a few years down the road, I won't have to change it yet again...
So, I called my webhost.... CoreCOMM, was Voyager.Net, was Glasscity.Net. They were VERY helpful. They had the e-mail up and working within a few hours, so I can't complain about that. However, at the same time, I decided to get my girlfriend her own domain name which redirects to my site. I went ahead and registered 'www.NickiLortz.com' via CoreCOMM. They told me I had to wait a day, then call back to have the re-direct set up. So I called on Wed. morning (I had registered the domain name on Tue. morning at like 9AM). So we went through the process. I asked them to have the new domain name redirect to www.joethielen.com/nicki. No problem, they said. In fact, the redirect didn't even cost me anything! The only thing here that costed extra money was the registration of the new domain. They said everything was set up, and that it would take about 24 hours to take effect. So yesterday I try it, and it doesn't work. However, I pointed my DNS entry towards their DNS servers and viola! It worked. So I called in, and the tech I talked to said he's seen it take up to three days for a new DNS entry to propogate. I've never known that. In any case, I tried it today, and it still doesn't work. If it doesn't work tomorrow, I'll have to try and call again. But if it's in their DNS, hopefully it should filter down. I'm just VERY impatient ;). I've set up my computer at home so that my girlfriend can get to it. But she's not happy that she can't tell everyone about it yet ;).
So, I got a couple of things on the line here. I certainly hope I can get them all up and functioning before Monday! Otherwise, you know how much I like to bitch!
Well, in 18 hours I will either be VERY happy, or VERY sad... the cable company should be out to install my new cable modem...! Wish me luck!
Wow. Real digital cable is finally in my neighborhood! WOO HOO! Sometime this week I should be getting hooked up via a cablemodem. Damn that will be nice. Right now I have DirecPC satellite Internet access. While it's not bad, it's very expensive for a one-way medium (they have a new two-way system, but it requires even more hardware and money). It's very fast, but I've not been able to hook up it for more than one computer reliably (and easily). However, with this new cable, I should be able to plug it into my Linksys wireless router and BOOM... my laptop, two desktops, and wireless Casio should be able to get on the net at the same time. Damn. I'm shaking just thinking about it. ;). Sometime soon I should also be getting the digital cable. One of my biggest qualms with DirecTV is that you need a receiver for each TV, and you have to pay monthly for it. I'm so tired of my $90+ bill (got lots of channels). While I'm going to be loosing some of the optional channels with digial cable (still gonna get HBO so I can watch Oz and The Sopranos!) I'm gaining the local channels (which I don't really watch, but others in the house do... but I do finally want to get to see ENTERPRISE...which I can't pick up with rabbit ears). Now, with the digital cable, if you want the digital quality, you still have to have a receiver, like with DirecTV. However, if you only want one digital box in the house, but want all the other TVs still hooked up, then they can be hooked up with the standard cable (coax/RG-? (58U?)). They won't get surround sound (probably not even stereo, I don't think...), but they will get the channels. That means that my system will get the digital stuff, while the others in the house will at least get access (probably 6 TVs will be hooked up, by the time all is said and done... currently only 3 have it now due to DirecTV receivers). Damn I can't wait!
I recently helped a friend complete his home network with a cablemodem. He's the guy I keep talking about with the COMPLETE HOME AUTOMATION SYSTEM. We worked like 2 days straight hooking his Linux-based intranet web server into his various home automation systems (Applied Digital Leopard/CPU-XA system, and a video camera controller (which is viewable via any TV in the house). Both systems can be hooked into serially. So we plugged 'em into the Linux machine, and I wrote some CGI scripts so he can now control his lights/appliances, as well as ALL the functions of his camera controller, via the web interface. You know what that means? It means he can now use his new wireless Casio E-125 for controlling his home!!! Imaging waking up in the middle of the night and hearing a noise. Grab the Casio from the night stand, turn on all outside security lights, and turn the TV on (TV isn't controlled via the Casio, tho). Flip the TV to channel 75 or something (where the camera controller is broadcasting on). Then use the Casio to switch the camera view to the outside/perimeter cameras. Ahh. There it is. A cat just knocked over the garbage can.
At least you know. At least you'll be able to go back to sleep knowing you've got that much more security! Will a funky touch pad from Habitec provide you with THAT?
In any case, see you in the broadband...
Happy Halloween!
I see the monkey terrorists are looking for nuclear weapons. I suppose we should have expected this... but to read it on the front page of Yahoo is more than a little unsettling... I don't know.
The Microsoft case. Man what a fucking joke. Bush comes in and boom, this thing takes the EXTREME back-burner. Their settlement is claimed to be full of holes. Makes me sick. Makes me so sick, I didn't vote yesterday. Why bother. It's all about the Benjamin's anyhow. One thing that keeps going through my mind lately is a question that was spoken on a James Bond movie (the latest one, I think)... "What do you stand for? The preservation of Capital?". More and more, thinking about the entire situation makes me want to vomit. I don't know.
Well, I saw 13 Ghosts a few weeks ago, and it sure did kick ass. Last Tuesday Swordfish came out on DVD, woo hoo! Shrek came out on Friday. Couldn't even rent it, had to buy it on DVD. It's a pretty funny movie. Still looking forward to the Fast and the Furious on DVD (Jan 2?). And I think Star Wars Episode II comes out in theaters New Years Day. Man, SW & F&F back to back. Woo hoo! I hope they keep it up... I don't know.
I really wish we would just storm Afganistan and find the terrorist fuckers. Find all their little caves (I know, there are TONS of them), smoke 'em out, put a gun to their head, and pull the trigger. No human rights bullshit, no trial, just that. Is it really any different than carpet bombing? Oh wait... did I say that? I meant, "The Long Stick". Ya, that's what I meant. Fuck it, I don't know.
Major League Baseball is dropping two teams? What? Why? Because they can't figure out how to make money off of it. Oh, I see. What a mess. Then again, I haven't watched baseball since the whine that shut down a season. But what do I know? I don't know.
Enjoy: Telemarketers & the Taliban
Sunday night I went and saw The Last Castle starring James Gandolfini and Robert Redford. That was a good movie! Was very cool. Both the set and the action were great, in my opinion.
Last night I saw Bones starting Snoop Doggy Dogg and Pam Grier. Another great movie! I'd liken it to a black Freddy Krueger. I think it was awesome! Great movie for pre-Halloween, too.
Next on the list to see is 13 Ghosts. I hope it's different than House on Haunted Hill. It definately LOOKS cool, but we'll see!
Again, I don't know what happened, but this year they're certinaly cranking out more great movies than ever. The past few years, in my opinion, have really sucked. But this year seems to be a winner. I think Hollywood got tired of all of us criticizing their movies... maybe they finally took it to heart...
Maybe not :). We'll see!
XMMS-Control is the software that I use at home (and at work) to control my Linux/XMMS based MP3 server via a web browser. Hence, I can use my wireless E-125 to control which MP3s are playing, the volume, etc... It's great! And I'm glad I finally was able to get a rudimentary manual out for it.
For more information, check out the new XMMS-Control webpage: http://www.joethielen.com/xmms-control
OK, onto my weekend. On Saturday night I went to see the movie 'Training Day'. Holy shit what a mess that was. Started out great, action was cool. But just kept going on in this unbelievable tone. And I don't even want to talk about the ending. What a crock. Made my head spin, though. I expected *MUCH* more out of this one!
Then on Sunday came the bombings. It's about time. Swift reaction my ass. I know, I know... it takes time to get intel, and we're under LOTS of pressure to make the strikes 'surgical'. But this is gonna take quite a while. Sure, we bombed the shit out of their dozen or so antique MiGs, airports, radar sites, and training camps. But they're not totally stupid. The people we're REALLY after (the hard-core terrorists) weren't in those places. Probably haven't been there for a while. We just struck so we can get our foot in the door. Now is when we are going to be inserting ourselves into their country. Let's not fool around here, there are alot of TRAINED, PROFESSIONAL, terrorists over there. They are hiding like they do. And it will be hard to find them. Our aim is to get them one-by-one.
A Tomahawk Cruise Missile isn't gonna solve the problem (as reiterated by our government so many times). It's going to take people on the ground. But I do not think this will be like experiences. We're going in covertly. We've got soldiers over there with more computing power and intelligence data on their person than the entire Taliban "Government" does in it's entire state. We have snipers in there, and we will take them out one by one. I think a full blown 'Ground War' will not be necessary.
OK, enough about that. Last night I was watching the TLC special 'Hyperspace'. What a truly awesome experience. From beginning to end, I was glued to that show... absorbing every moment and piece of knowledge that I could. I love how TLC & Discovery continually produce new shows on the same topics. Every once in a while, they take all that we've learned recently, and piece it together to form one, free-flowing, encyclopedia of sorts. It's a truly amazing experience. I think watching these types of shows should be shown in our schools. While I think that a lot of this may be conjecture, they do an AMAZING job of putting together theories to present a possible explaination of a mystery. It's such a great piece of work, that I anxiously await the next installment!
That is, of course, while I watch the barrage of car chase shows... which I just can't seem to get enough of!!! I wish they had new footage though. All the shows look alike, and it's hard to tell which ones are new, and which are old, recycled, footage.
Another crazy thing that happend this weekend... if you're faint-of-heart, then you should stop reading here. I was on the can last night, playing Solitaire on my PocketPC (one of it's most useful functions *grin*). My girlfriend was on the computer, and she sent me an e-mail to my pager. Very funny. But I couldn't send one back... she was on the Internet (we're still using a dial-up (but with DirecPC Satellite service... unfortunately, I can't turn it into a reliable proxy... in any case...). But what I did do was to mess with her by playing with the lights in the room through my Phantom.Home Automation System... I can control it via my PocketPC with it's 802.11b wireless network connection and built-in web browser (My Linux server in the basement has a web server that is linked to Phantom.Home). Needless to say, it was a pretty crazy experience. Here I am, on the can, and I'm wrecking havoc by remote control. Crazy!
OK OK, you probably think it was lame. I thought it was funny as hell. Shows you my type of humor :).
What I would like to comment on is what they're going to do after the rubble has been cleared (which they said could take a year or more!). I read an article somewhere (can't find the link right now) where some artists wanted to use LIGHT to recreate the towers. Somehow it would mimic the two towers. I think this would be fucking awesome! It also would serve as a memorial. And a memorial is something we need. Obviosuly no one is going to forget this event anytime soon. But having that kind of memorial just seems right to me. Especially something unique like this. Having a cement/steel monument is so old now. They're everywhere. I'm not saying that they aren't great, they certainly are, but this is the 21st century. And this is a DEFINING moment of the first years of this century. Creating two towers of light would be a very amazing event. I cincerly hope this happens. It would remind us of why America is here, and what we work hard for (obviosuly I have my reservations about Corporate America but that's a tangent subject).
If they do not take to this idea, then I hope they don't just rebuild another tall building. I hope they make it standout BIG TIME (not saying the twin towers didn't stand out.. they practically defined the New York skyline). Previously I thought that building a 200-story tower with ACRES of space on each floor would be great, but now I'm rethinking that.
Given the view that we're in the 21st century, I think we need to build something as such. Like freakin' arcology or something. Something with a glass-dome (I know what you're thinking... OH GREAT, ANOTHER TARGET) or something you'd see in an Anime film. Just don't build another 20th century building. We need to MOVE FORWARD, and show just how resiliant we as a people are. Building a simple tower would be busniess as usual.
IN OTHER NEWS... I think technology is looking up. The new PocketPC 2002 PDAs are being announced today. Check out my E-125 page for more info. Also, I read an article on Slashdot about fuel cells yesterday. Apparently Motorola is experimenting with Methane gas (the title says 'gasoline', but I think it's a misprint) inside a VERY small belt-clip on fuel cell to give more power to power-hungry PDAs (which eventually will be a combined PDA/CellPhone/Pager/E-mail device). I know from experience that using my Casio E-125 with the Wireless 802.11b card SUCKS energy like crazy. Battery life DEFINATELY needs to improve here. One of the statements in the article states that "We are at the point where the technology has been proven"... this is definately good news, and means that maybe within 5 years we'll have mass-produced (i.e. CHEAP) long-life batteries. Between the improvements in chip design and this, I think there is a bright future, which doesn't include recharging your cell phone/PDA every 6 hours...
Most of the things I bitch about here in terms of technology seem to be falling into place. We're still years away, but now I fell better at least knowing that the research has been on-going, and will lead to consumer products!
However, I do have a lot of things I want to say in this space I call my own.
While the rage builds in our souls for the destruction of those who've caused this, we must keep in mind many things. We must first realize that we should not stereotype people at this time. I know this sounds weird coming from me, as I'm known for using stereotypes often. But we should not look at our fellow Americans, or those in the civilized world, and think of them as "The Evil" just because of their nationality. Obviously I'm speaking of the Arabs/Muslims here. I've seen stories on the news that people are breaking windows of Mosque's and such in this country. Those are not the people we're after. They're Americans, just like us. Please keep that in mind, and try to keep it at the top, while the rage boils.
Yes the people who took over the planes are of this culture, and yes they were in America. But they were a SMALL group of people, and we should not stereotype these people. Again, I know this sounds weird coming from me. I know I criticize these people in the Middle East because I have to pay more money to put gas in my car, but this is on a completely different level.
On another subject, I think airport/airplane security in this country is going to dramatically change. IT NEEDS TO DRAMATICALLY CHANGE. Airplanes are obviously dangerious weapons now. We must now make our nation's, and indeed the world's, airspace safer. How to do this? Well, I think the FAA's changes are far too small. Curbside check-in? Please. The knife restriction is a good place to start. Also, while I was watching Larry King Live on CNN the other night, one guy called in and asked why we don't just totally seal the pilots into the cabin, and not have ANY access to the plane from the cabin. I think this is a very good idea, and it would seem to me that this would have stopped what happened. Obviosuly, people are going to object. "What if they have guns and they start shooting everyone?" Well, to them I have one thing to say. On the planes that flew into the World Trade Center towers, there were less than 150 people. However, the amount of people feared dead may be between 5000 and 10,000 people. And we have no recourse... the hijackers are dead. We can't do anything to them. They're dead. I would feel very sad if this situation were to happen (hijackers killing all passengers while the cabin was sealed and the pilots are safe), it would still be safter to NOT have these planes flying into buildings, and destroying entire blocks of a major city.
I also think there should be a police official on-board all planes. We have multiple flight attendents on each flight, we can make room for one more staff. I do think this person should be from law enforcement, not from the airline. I hear they have this already in place in very limited numbers, they're called Sky Marshalls. In my opinion, we need one in each plane.
More off, I can't understand for the life of me why we couldn't track these planes better. I realize that these planes have transponders, and these were probably disabled once the hijackers took over. However, while watching CNN I see the flight path of one of the planes. It took a sharp turn, and travelled for hundreds of miles off course to hit it's target. Why was this plane not tracked via radar?
As sad and fucked up as my next comment may sound, I think that if we cannot contact a plane which is blatently off-course, then we may need to take action upon it. This means that it may need to be shot down. Yes it sounds fucked up. I may sound like a total demon. But look at the number of people that have died, and the amount of property that's been destroyed due to just two planes in New York.
I think planes should have a PANIC BUTTON. A simple button, which, when pushed, would alert the nearest airport that there is a problem on the plane.
Obviously, we're going to have much tighter security at airports themsevles now. I think this is good. Yes, it will piss me off when I get patted down and my luggage is torn apart looking for dangerous items. However, I will FELL MUCH SAFER. And I can't tell you how much the FEELING of safety means to me, and I'm sure, many other Americans.
I'm sure that in the coming days there is going to be a large controversy regarding privacy and personal security in this country. However, as much as I dislike the BIG BROTHER aspect of things, it's obvious that it's going to be much more necessary in the coming years.
For those of you thinking, "Joe, I read your last rant, and you obviously dislike the current Presidential administration (and the last one, too). How do you feel now?"
As Americans we need to stick together right now. My petty opinions about Corporate America are of far lower importance right now. This current situation rises above all other concerns. And in this situation, it is indeed solidarity that counts.
Joe Thielen
- www.JoeThielen.com