Dad's video of run-down barracks sparks military response

Article



I look at this image , and I think...

"The army didn't do a dang thing about this until *AFTER* it hit the news. It just told it's soldiers to shut up and suffer."

That is criminal. And heads need to roll.
But they won't.
Just like every other scandel in america. "Mistakes were , made, now they're being fixed. No...those responsible get off scott free, they will not be punished." And so they go on to do it again elsewhere.

2 minutes in the penalty box, thats all. Then back out again to do it all over. Just like hockey.

World Bank: Israeli Restrictions Main Factor in Sluggish Palestinian Economy

Article


The World Bank says the Palestinian economy will likely remain stagnant in 2008, largely due to Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement and trade.


This article verges on propaganda and hate mongering. In it , the Israelie's are blamed for everything but the dogs bad breath. It might as well be an endless repetition of the usual hate mongering chant "it's all the jews fault ! it's all the jews fault !"

Not once , anywhere in this article , does it mention that the Israeli restrictions are caused because the Palistinians WONT STOP SHOOTING AT THE ISRAELI'S !!!!

It's not the Jews fault.
The Palistinians brought this disaster upon themselves. And they are the only ones who can fix it. They are the only ones who can simply ... stop shooting.

But they wont. And we all know it.

The Kangaroo Bites Back !

Letters Give C.I.A. Tactics a Legal Rationale


The humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners is prohibited by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
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At the same time, the official said, “there are certainly things that can be insulting that would not raise to the level of an outrage on personal dignity.”


So we're allowed to insult them ? But not torture, humilate, or degrade our prisoners ? Umm...when did these wacky rules come to be ?

Well son, I'll tell you. *lights a pipe*
A long time ago there was a string of dictators , starting with hitler , but moving along to various tin pot dictators all over the world. Sadam Hussain is a good example of a recent one. And so we set up these geneva conventions with a bunch of rules that if they broke , we could convict them on.

Umm... I don't think a dictator cares about what the outside world things of his mass murdering ways.

Well , we take down and capture a few, like Sadam Hussain, and we put them on trial.

Umm.. you can't put him on trial. Thats like putting the government of a nation on trail. He didn't break his own laws, he's the law maker. Thats a Kangaroo court.

Yep, Son. It is a kangaroo court. But the public eats it up and loves it.

Umm... But then you're stuck with a bunch of stupid rules left over from these Kangaroo courts that only interfere in your actions, since your the ones running the courts. The dicators still ignore them and openly torture and murder not only their onw people but yours as well.

Yep, they do.

So , these Kangaroo courts are all coming back to haunt us.

Yep.

Can we skip the Kangaroo court next time ? And just line that next dictator up against the wall and shoot him ? This is getting annoying.

Bell's internet traffic shaping 'defies all logic,' ISPs say

Article


"The notion that the five per cent who are allegedly the cause of the problem are chewing up ever-increasing shares of the total capacity of Bell’s fibre-based … backbone network, its fibre-based transport networks, its fibre-fed remotes, or individual copper lines is not only improbable, it defies all logic and reason," CAIP said.


The only way your accusations might be true would be if Bell had a huge excess capacity that wasn't being eaten into by bit torrent users, and they were somehow hiding it.

But that's not what you suggest. Instead you go on to suggest that you are somehow placed at a disadvantage by Bell imposing the same rules on you as it has imposed upon itself. That somehow operating on a level playing field harms your business.

Meaningless babble by a business man trying to confuse the issue for his own financial gain. And rightly ignored.

I don't much like Bell's throttling policy, especially if they're applying it to online gamers (I keep hearing such rumours but I don't use bell internet). But false and out right dishonest arguments arnt' doing anything but helping Bell, not stopping those nitwits.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Stop being on my side !" ?

As for my argument against bell ...

I have a great business plan ! Lets only service customers that are light or very light internet users. Everyone else we'll throttle down to frustratingly slow speed and convince them to bugger off onto rogers ! Yeah , that way rogers will have all the high band width users, and we'll have all the low ones, and we'll make a tonne of money without having to hardly do anything while they have to work their butts off !
What a great idea !

I believe this is thier plan.
I also believe it's a stupid plan , since people who are light users of the internet are just trying it out , and they'll either turn into heavy users (get hooked on youtube.com for example) or they'll just quit. That leaves you with a bunch of newbies who either quit on you because they decide they don't need the internet , or they quit because they really get into it and become heavy users and have to move over to rogers where the bandwidth limits are handled differently , and loosely enough to let them continue their youtube addiction.

I also wonder about their cell phone division. Doesn't the fact that I'm a disgruntled customer and I will never ever buy another cell phone from them again , and certainly never sign a three year contract , doesn't that fit into their grand scheme somewhere ? Doesn't the fact that I'm not the only one , I"ve heard a couple of people at work , expressng the very same sentiments, doesn't that figure somewhere ?

In a management world where you only worry about the next three months, and three years is an eternity away ... probably not , no. Probably there is no place in their calculations for such notions.

Seller of gun used in massacre speaks at Va. Tech

Article


"Guns kill, they certainly do, but so do cars and all sorts of other things," Thompson said. "What we need to do is focus on the person that's doing the killing."


We need to stop focusing on the product I'm selling to make a living and start focussing on something else ! How about the poor smuck who used them ? He's a criminal right ? Why punish me for the actions of a criminal ?
- umm... he has no criminal record ?
He murdered wack of people right here at virginia Tech where I'm speaking right now ! Thats downright criminal !
- so is selling him the guns.
He's a criminal it's not my fault !
He's a boy. He has hormones raging. You don't hand such people guns. And what are you doing here trying to peddle more guns to the very same crowd in the first place ?



The murder rate in canada is a quarter that of the USA. And the gun lobby does everything in their power to blame it on anything and everything except easy access to guns and people with short tempers. They need to run around wearing signs painted in blood saying "money first ! shoot anyone you like its good for my business ! (except me !)"

People get pissed, That's human nature. You don't tell people to change human nature, you take dangerous objects away from them.

But every gun freak in america will come up with a dozen reasons why they can't do that, and most of those reasons will be simply changing the subject or a simple out right "not my fault, blame someone else".

Canadian debut may be set for Apple's iPhone

Article


There have been no official confirmations, but industry sources say that Rogers Communications Inc., the only Canadian carrier with a compatible GSM network, was hoping to include the iPhone as part of a campaign that focuses on "touch screen" phones, to be rolled out between May and July.


May Be , Might , Possibly, but nothing is certain yet. Stay Tuned. What is the point of this article ? The iPhone might come to canada, but then again it might not ? And if it takes too long the competition will make phones better than it and leave it in the dirt ? A real threat by the way since the iPhone is now about a year old in the USA.

And it isn't the be all to end all. It can't send picture messages (it expects you to surf to your email provider and use that...no it doesn't provide email it expects you to go to google or hotmail or some other webmail page). It doesn't play video, except apple quicktime format (can you say Vender Lock ?) you need to download iTunes to activate the phone (thats a nightmare in itself if you've been avoiding bill gates patches, since it will force you to upgraded IE and take every single one of those patches you've been avoiding for years).


"We're not fans of unlimited plans," Rob Bruce, president of Rogers' wireless division, told analysts during a February conference call.

Apple, by contrast, emphasizes the consumer experience of its products and is said to be adamant that the iPhone be offered with unlimited data plans. That way, subscribers don't have to worry their mobile Web browsing habits will put a crater in their wallets.


We're not fans of unlimited plans...yeah ... the iPhone is going to either be a nightmare financially or it's going to be a waste of time if you block the internet on it. (Assuming Rogers lets you block the internet , bell outright refuses, by the way, but iPhones won't run on Bell's ancient network)

Don't get an iPhone.
Get a cheap cell phone. And then get a PDA if a pocket computer is what turns your crank, or an MP3 player , or whatever. Trust me, the all in one device ? It's a rip off. It's called bundling and they make you pay , and pay , and pay.

This I have discovered all ready. 120$ for head phones for my music phone ? or 60$ for an mp3 player that does a better job. The all in one device was supposed to save me money , not triple the price of everything !

Israel downplays Hamas truce offer

Article


Hamas called for a six-month truce in Gaza, stressing that the move must be "reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive" and that Israel must end its crippling blockade of the impoverished territory.

Israel responded by saying it would only stop military raids on Gaza after Hamas gives up "terrorism" and after militants in the territory stop attacking the Jewish state and smuggling in weapons from Egypt.


Translation : We'd be happy to form a Truce with you, Mr Jew hating Hamas, but you kind of have to STOP SHOOTING AT US FIRST !!!!!

Umm..no ? Not acceptable ? Oh well. No truce then.

Ubuntu's 'Hardy' Gets Cozy With Windows

Article


The Ubuntu 8.04 release also aims to make it easier in the first place of users to try out Linux.
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"This greatly reduces the perceived risks of adding Ubuntu to an existing Windows computer," Shuttleworth said. "It allows you to remove Ubuntu using Windows add/remove feature."


Bill Gates : Hey , guys. Someone get a copy of Ubuntu so we can mess that up and make sure it doesn't operate with windows ? We don't want people trying it out and deciding they like it better than windows now , do we ?

Yeah right. You're not building anything that operates well with windows any longer than it takes them to issue an "emergancy patch" to break it. And then they'll just sit back laughing and claim "It wasn't windows compatable software. Not our problem !"

Indictment: Strip club trip among bribes to sell faulty grenades

Article


ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia military contractor tricked law enforcement agencies into buying faulty stun grenades, ultimately leaving three FBI agents injured, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
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The company also mixed defective grenades with others that had been fixed "to camouflage the defective devices from receiving personnel" at the FBI, the indictment says.

Last week's indictment alleges that company officials bribed a federal official and paid for a visit to a strip club. The officials are accused of conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and defrauding the government.

The company, known as PSI, did not immediately respond to calls for comment.



That is so american. Money first ,the heck with everything else. If you're rich, you're a hero. If you're poor, you're a lazy oaf worthis white (or black) trash welfare bum.

An opinion that has worked it's way into canada , thanks to having no native film or tv industry and getting "dumped" american shows at below cost. Something that would be illegal in any other industry.

Looking at articles like this, dangerous wares, but there's money on the table ? Lets just bribe a few people and keep going !

I am reminded of the american airline industry, terribly upset about having their planes grounded for failing safty inspections, inspections they weasled their way out of having to do for years, and then when the weasling failed and it all came due at once we find out most every single plane they have has problems. And they blame the inspectors. YOU DID IT TO YOURSELF FOOLS !!!! No , thats not an acceptable response for them.

I am reminded of Taser corp and their non lethal stun gun that keeps killing people. So far they tested it on some cows or pigs or something and found it causes heart murmurs even after even only one shot. Heart murmurs. So much for "leaves no bad after effect" Mr Taser Corp president. But you're still weasling your way out of that one and we have to wait for your fall a bit longer it seems.

I am reminded of the current morgage scandel in america, where there were complaints that they kept swapping documents and making them sign and sign and sign until they just stopped reading , and then they got the shaft. And now that they're stuck with a huge morgage on a tiny house thats worth less than themorgae, they're all declaring bankruptcy , so these companies are running to the government for help. And getting it. And the little guy just gets the shaft and not much else.

I am reminded of record industries that don't actually sell records. They just wait for a new medium to come along , because hey , lets face it , once you already have all the songs you want on LP (and later tape cassettes , and then CD's) you're not buying them twice , right? So they just wait , and a new medium comes out. And they wait for people to cheat. And they wait until there's a good supply of cheaters. Then they sue everyone in sight for damages, because hey , you can't sell them the same songs over and over. They dn't make money on sales. Only on law suits.
And then they complain that other countries don't follow american rules. Hah !

I am definately reminded of Microsofts preditory tactics and deliberate campaigns to wipe out the competition and impose a monopoly, but lets not get into another microsoft rant. Suffice to say their operating system has vender locked itself to the point where it is no longer useful to me , it doesn't do the job anymore, and so I'm just waiting for the warrenty to run out on this piece of junk before throwing Linux on it. I only kept it to run my online games, and now those games will run on Linux under wine, and you can't sue me because this box has a windows license *grins and sticks tongue out at bill gates*

I am reminded of how insulted I was on 9/11 when all those planes were crashing out of the sky. And beside every such news article was an ad to fly, there are deep discounts now there's no better time to fly than now ! There are terrorists blowing up your planes and crashing them and you're running these ads the very same day ? My god you have no scruples at all do you ? You are completely amoral arn't you ?

Well...I should have expected that. I read so many linux articles, mostly bashing microsoft I admit , and right beside or above them is some ad trying to sell microsoft junk. I'm still laughing at that. This article is bashing microsoft and you're running microsoft ads on it ? Completely amoral.

How many american companies taking the consumer for a ride ? I've lost count over the years. That false gold company that bought gold ore off another to act as proof. Those phone solicitation guys that got told to cease and desist by a court , but ignored it and phoned up the very same people all over again to "help them" get their money back from those criminals, but you had to pay up front for that , in effect robbing them a second time. I lost count of how many completely fraudulent business deals come from america.

It's pointless to be a scientist or computer manufacturer in canada , because we buy all our science from america , cheap , and computers. Why produce locally ?

Money first. Swamp and destroy the locals. Defraud john doe. Mail order and phone scams. False businesses. "Made in America" is a warning lable, not a boast, if you ask me.

Facebook fines for Oxford students

Article



Oxford University has used Facebook to gather information on graduating students behaviour, and then fined them £10,000.


What a wonderful idea ! I think I'll get stinking drunk , trash the place, take pictures of it all ,and put it all up on my facebook page ! Wow...you don't think the campus authorities will actually read those entries and charge me for clean up, will you ?

*laughing*

Why don't you just rob a bank and take pictures of it all and put it up while you're at it ? Some people just have no brains. I can't believe it.

Psychics see big trouble over new laws

Article


Organizers say that replacing the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 with new consumer protection rules will remove key legal protection for "genuine" mediums.

They think skeptics might bring malicious prosecutions to force spiritualists to prove in court that they can heal people, see into the future or talk to the dead.


Wow...you mean like you'll have to operate under the same rules the doctors and manufacturers of medical drugs do ? You'll actually have to prove your stuff does something ?

That is so shocking ! That is a total violation of your religious right to just make crud up and take peoples money after doing nothing but tell a few lies ! They can't do that to you !

Can they ?

Why , next thing you know, you'll have to hire advertising agencies and peddle your fraudulent goods just the way those pseudo science drug companies peddle their products that keep getting recalled because it turns out they're killing people, which they knew all along !

This does nothing but make work for more and more advertisers !
We need to protest this !

Comments send wrong message: Rae

Article

It's the third section of this news article.


Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said Friday that Anders's remarks send the wrong message and will damage already-strained relations with China.

"This government's gaffes keep growing by the hour," said Rae.

"The Conservatives seem determined to not only diminish Canada's reputation in the eyes of the world but also to do serious damage to some of our key international relationships."


Yep. There is good old Bob Rae, friend of the peolpe and a common man. Defending China and acting more interested in getting along with this human rights nightmare body snatching and black market organ selling thing known as China than listening to the regular Canadian folk.

You think anyone in canada (other than a few misguided politicitians) gives a rats behind about a few bucks we're making selling stuff to China ? Or are they panicking because soon we won't be able to buy junk fm radios for a dollar anymore , the kind that come pre-broken right out of the box and never do actually work ?

Apparently , Bob Rae's gaff's keep growing by the hour.
*MONEY FIRST ! HUMAN RIGHTS SOME TIME LATER ON AFTER ALL THE PROTESTERS ARE DEAD AND SOLD FOR BODY PARTS !!!!*

That seems to be The Honorable MP for Toronto Center Bob Rae...


please contact our riding office

365 Bloor Street East, Suite 1805
Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4
Phone: 416 954-2222
Fax: 416 954-9640
RaeB1@parl.gc.ca


...'s new battle cry.

I think someone should send him a nasty email protesting this.

In fact. I think I'll do that myself !

Give us more Canuck TV, Trailer Park Boy tells CRTC

Article


"We need more Canada on TV," Trailer Park Boys star Robb Wells told the federal broadcast regulator on Friday as hearings continued into Canada's broadcasting environment.


Yes. We need some canadian content. Some being more than what we have right now , which is basically nothing but american reruns and a couple of newscasters commenting on some video they bought of an american company and trying to rack up a minute or two of canadian content by babbling about the obvious for a moment or two.

Sheesh , I know more about the american election than I do about my own countries political parties. Whats up with that ?


Monique Lafontaine, director of regulatory affairs at the Directors Guild, said the guild believes the cable and satellite distributors will drop Canadian services under a deregulated regime, resulting in fewer channels to buy Canadian programming.


Yes, when you make a show for a set price , and then sell it to 300 million people , you can charge less for a show made for only 30 million people. And now that you got your money already from those 300 million , you can export it for below what it would cost even americans to produce and pick up a few more pennies at the price of swamping and exterminating any film industry in your target country (canada , in this case, but they do it to other countries as well)

This is called "dumping" , and if it were for any other product , it would be illegal. But some how for TV it is not.


Hours devoted Canadian drama has fallen sharply since 1999, when the CRTC relaxed rules that forced broadcasters to create new drama.


Yes, buying shows from america at below the cost to produce is cheaper than making your own. Thats a no brainer.


That deregulation led to the cancellation of Cold Squad, a Canadian crime drama, because broadcaster CTV was able to buy a copycat U.S. show, Cold Case, much cheaper, said actress Julie Stewart.


Steal our own idea and sell it back to us , cheap. After they made their money from the american market. Brilliant.


A big problem for us is shorter episode orders," he said, pointing out that stations are ordering shorter seasons, which makes it more expensive for producers and harder to market their program.

Then when episodes run out, channels will bend the rules on Canadian content, as when History Channel ran CSI New York as its Canadian content, he said.


*Laughing* You ran a show called CSI New York as Canadian content and they let you get away with it? Are there actually any canadian content rules ? Or is it all volintary and you get to break the rules any time you like ?


The CRTC sees content rules as difficult to enforce, but that is no reason to get rid of the rules, he said.

"If the CRTC had the ability to fine broadcasters or punish them when they break the rules, then it might be easier."


So what you're saying is that the CRTC is a toothless tiger. Break their rules ... and don't sweat it. Nothing they can do about it.


The cable and satellite industries have opposed both fee-for-carriage and increases to the CTF, saying what they need is less and more simple regulation.


What regulation ? You do as you please and there is nothing anyone can do to stop you. What regulation are you panicking over ?

Phones and MP3 players

Article = none , personal experiance.

How to take a ticked off customer and tick him off even more...

I had today off , so I went down to St. Laurent Shopping Center , to ....

St. Laurent Centre
Ottawa
K1K 3B8
Phone: 613-748-9283
Fax: 613-748-3784

... with my old clunker of a phone , a nokia bar phone (shaped like a bar of soap , no flip hinge or anything) that simply will not die despite the peanut butter in the jack for the head set that I never did buy, or the slight crack in the screen where my wife stomped on it once.
Can you put this phone on my account ? My regular phone is in the shop and I bought the regular with you and it has insurance that covers a loaner phone and everything.
No. It's a Virgin Mobile phone. Bell only puts bell phones on it's system , no one elses.
Probably I shouldn't mention that I (later on) called 611 on this virgin mobile phone and got a recorded message telling me to call Bell Mobility at such and such a number.
Well, can I have that loaner phone then ,the one that my insurance pays for ?
No you didn't send you phone back with us (because you refused ! You want me to wait while you special order some headphones and thats already been almost two weeks !) but if you give us a work order from Bell , then we'll do it anyways.
What a nice way to tell you to plick off, seeing as they know bell didn't give me a work order, just a courier receipt to say the courier had picked up my phone on such and such a day.
Well..you know my phone number and my account number, can't you just call Bell and get confirmation I"m not funning you ?
No. (No explanation why they can't call.)
All right , catch you later. Walk out of store.

Later on, I type in www.virginmobile.com , and it redirects me to some vigin mobile website with a rediculously long url and I type in my phone number. Doesn't exist. (I didn't remember the number by the way , I actually entered it into the phones contact list under my name so I'd never lose it unless I lost the phone, clever me).
No luck.
This is the part where I phone 611 on the phone, the universal number for technical support on all phones everywhere. (keep that in mind, 611 ...that comes in later on in this article). And instead of Virgin Mobile answering it's Bell Mobility. I start swearing at Bell and my hatred for them grows stronger.
Find a contact number on the virgin mobile page, and phone them up. Get their automatic system trying to get me to start up a new phone I just bought. Press 0 to get a live operater (yeah , keep in mind I pressed 0 ....there's a lot of not so secret codes in our society , arn't there ?) and I found out if you don't use your phone for 4 months they deactivate it. But thats ok , they'll reactivate it free of charge (you get a different number, and yes ! I did update my contact list with MY entery to reflect the new number the moment I stopped talking with them ! Arn't I so clever ? ) and even gave me 10$ credit for being such a good customer.
No one likes a deadbeat , and my difficulties with bell mobility were definately not virgin mobiles fault, so I whipped out my credit card and put 15$ on the account anyways , even though I know that at 30 cents a minute thats 75 min that only lasts 45 days , and I'm just not a talkative guy , most of that time is gonna expire before I use it. Call it a sign of support for virgin.
Side note. Did virgin deactivate the internet for me like bell refused ? No. Did virgin deactivate text messaging like bell refused ? No. Did virgin deactivate the xms radio like bell refused ? Irrelevatn , this phone doesn't have that. Does all this matter ? No ! It's a pay as you go phone. It's not gonna rack up my bill to some outragous amount. It's just gonna spend the 15$ (plus 10$ credit they gave me) and then stop. No weird bills !
Point one: I now have my own temporary phone , and at 10$ cheaper than the 25$ bell wanted to charge me for a loaner.
Point two: the losers trying to rip me off (bell and wirelesswave) didn't get a dime out of me. I hate when people rip me off. And I certainly hate giving them more money, that just encourages them to keep on ripping !

I had earlier checked out the price of a set of blue tooth headphones for playing music. If I could find a set at a reasonable price, it would completely bypass the non functioning jack that was only playing my songs in mono. Found one, 120$ plus tax. Yech.
Went into The Source, an electronics store. 60$ for an mp3 player, Zen Stone , and 20$ for some decent head phones.
Interestingly... they first suggested an iPod for 50$. But you have to download iTunes to use it. And iTunes is just a shell around your internet explorer. So the first thing it's gonna do is demand you get the latest and greatest internet explorer. And the internet explorer is going to insist on you getting all the security patches. The ones that usually break your system and cause any program that bill gates has decided he hates to mysteriously stop working.
Even worse, when xp first came out , a patch came out for win98. A patch that basically slowed down win98 and made it suck and stopped it from doing many of the things it usually did. And if you phoned Microsoft, you just got told to upgrade to winxp , they no longer suppoert win98. Deliberate , but perfectly legal , sabatage.
What do you want to bet that now that Microsoft is Vista happy , the lastest Xp patches sabatage it , and all they do is demand you upgrade to vista ?
Plus iPods had a bad reputation for giving you problems with copy right , and only buying from the itune store, and other insane vender lock "Only buy from us , not allowed to buy from anyone else" nonsense.
"No , I don't like iTunes." I told the clerk.
So he shifted from the iPod to the Zen Stone , for ten extra dollars. Ten dollars to avoid that nightmare was cheap, if you ask me.
Take my Zen Stone home, plug it into my linux machine (Ubunto 7.10) and it shows up like an extra hard drive on the desk top. Open it up and start putting music files into it.

'Droid Speak

In the first movie starwars, Luke Skywalker could speak directly to R2D2 without any translation. He apparently read the lights on the droid / robot and listened to the chirping noises it made, and he knew what it all meant. Totally cool ! What a neat science fiction concept. Give the robots a special langauge.

Umm.... maybe not so science fiction.

My Zen Stone has one (count it , ONE ) light on it. If it flashes red once , and then a pause, it means it's at 25% or less charge. Two red flashes its 50% , three it's 75%, and solid red it's fully charged. I know this because I read the instrution manual. Is there a display to tell you this ? Nope. Just that one little light. Oh yes, and it also flashes green to indicate something or other else, I didn't bother with that because I wasn't interested. Something about data transfer , but hey , I can see on my computer screen the progress of the data transfer so thats redundant.

Rember those first cell phones that flip open , and how every techie declared them to be star trek communicators come true ?

I think we're working on Droid Speak now.

Interperting that light is part of droid speak , isn't it ? You know the codes , but non technical people don't. They're not a secret , really , you just have to dig for them. And you know , getting caught in a computer system trying to solve your problem without letting you talking to a live human , and knowing that you can just press 0 and you 'll get one anyways ? Thats a little secret code that isn't obvious to everyone too , isn't it ? Isn't that also kind of like droid speak ?

And what about Emily ? Bell Canada's Artificial Not-So-Intelligent program that answers the phone and can actually understand the spoken word. Knowing that if you say "Agent" , or just start swearing into the phone, you'll get a live operator, that's another secret code too isn't it ? Along with 611 (technical assistance any phone) , and 411 ( directory assistance any phone ) and 0 for the operator.. these codes may be well known , but they're not written down on the handset , are they ? Unless you crack open a manual (telephone book) and look around, (or somone tells you ) they're not at all obvious.

Droid Speak. It's not that far away. Some might say we actualy have a simple version of it right now , it simply hasn't been formally recognized as such.

My New FM Radio

Article = None , Personal Experience

I lost my mp3 player. I havn't seen it in days.
So I go to the dollar store and pick up a radio, that will get me by.

What kind of radio was it , you ask ? "FM Radio"
Oh , brand name ...brand name ..brand name...nope ! Don't see a brand name on the box. Just Says FM Radio. With auto scan. Takes 2 AAA batteries.

Whats the brand name of the batteries ?

Sunbeam. The Power Generator. MightyCell. Mercury free. Super Heavy Duty.
And on the back it gives a warrenty , not completely satisfied return to some place in quebec for complete refund.

On the back of the radio it says ....never immerse in water. And some operating instructions. Way way down at the bottom of this radio with no manufacturer and no guarentee is a little tiny thing that says "Made in China".

The batteries work fine.
The radio barely functioned for about three minutes, and then lost it's lock on the channel I was listening to. After much fiddling , I got it back. Three minutes later , it lost lock again. Lousy sound quality , and it couldn't hold channel lock. The thing functioned just long enough to pass a quality inspection if you were in a hurry , but was not actually useful.

And this is what china is selling us ? This is what our trade with China consists of ? Junky electronics that can't actually be used ? For this we endure their lies and human rights violations ?

I regret that I forgot to salvage the two batteries when I tossed the thing in the trash thirty minutes after first purchasing it. And that is my only real regret.

How to Abuse a Monopolistic Position

Vista SP1 won't install on dual-boot systems: Microsoft


If you’re dualbooting Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate alongside a Linux distro, and have installed the Linux bootloader into the MBR, then you’re guaranteed to run into problems when installing Vista Service Pack 1, Microsoft has admitted.


Step one : Who is the competition ? (Linux)

Step Two : Make Darn Sure the customer must make a choice, they cannot have both. You don't want them to slowly easy onto Linux , you want that to be as hard a road as possible.


Microsoft Technology Advisor Michael Kleef explained to APC that “…BitLocker isn’t just about encryption and system validation, but rather data integrity. When you enter your PIN, BitLocker checks it every step of the way from the TPM chip through the bootloader, and if it finds something that doesn’t match what it’s expecting, access is denied. Installing LILO or GRUB effectively breaks the chain of trust as these bootloaders take over the MBR, so on an encrypted boot partition, this means that the system won’t boot.


Step three : Make up some excuse why you *HAVE* to backstab the competition. In this case , they decided all by themselves that Linux was insecure, and even though the tech's on the ground doing the job may have got it up and running and are very happy with that , you don't care about their opinion. You don't even know what job they're trying to do. "Data Security" and "Chain of Trust" are good catch phrases.


Easy Bypass :

This whole issue affects a lot of duel booters , people who boot from Windows or Linux on the same machine, but it really has no effect on me at all. Why ? I put Linux on my old clunker (which now runs better than my new windows machine) and my new machine still has the factory installed Windows Xp on it. When it gets to the end of that silly four year contract I signed (Note to self : never do that again ! No long contracts ! Pay cash up front or do without !) It will become my linux clunker and I'll get whatever discount machine I can afford at the time for a brand new machine.

Don't give away your old machine. Put Linux on it. And that cuts microsoft all the way out of the loop. Besides, since the machine technically has a Windows License, even though you're not using windows on it anymore , you can Legally run Wine on it , and run your old windows programs anyways.

Summary :

I simply love how the Least secure operating system in the world (windows) has decided it will not allow you to use the Most secure operating system in the world (Linux) because it doesn't trust it. I chuckle every time I think about it.

:)

Free and Unfettered by Simple Honesty

China steps up campaign against Dalai Lama


The Chinese government news agency denounced the Dalai Lama and his supporters as "anti-human rights" Sunday, stepping up a campaign against the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the day after Beijing announced the arrest of nine monks for allegedly bombing a government building in Tibet last month.


It's amazing the stories that come out of places where Honesty is considered a foriegn concept.


Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported late Saturday that the monks, from the Tongxia monastery in eastern Tibet, had fled after a homemade bomb exploded at the building in Gyanbe township on March 23. The report said the monks later confessed to planting the bomb. A local official confirmed the monks had been detained.


Aha. Some peace loving monks set a bomb somewhere. In a place where there's already hundrds, if not thousands , of chinese troops already sent in to arrest them.

"The monks later confessed ..." After you put them in jail and beat them unmercifully and told them what you wanted them to confess to. Or did you even bother with that ? Did you just print whatever propaganda you felt like and not even bother with the details of getting names and a fake investigation ?


"It is indeed the anti-human rights nature of the Dalai clique that impels the 'pro-Tibet independence' separatists to undermine China's stability and unity, disgrace China worldwide, and even sabotage the Olympic torch relay by all sorts of violent means," an English-language Xinhua commentary said Sunday.


Anti-human rights. This from a nation that denies Tiamin square ever existed , despite murdering hundreds of it's own people , and who routinely sells organs of "doners" (Fal long Gong gang and now no doubt these monks) on the international black market.


"No responsible government will sit idle for such crimes, which gravely encroach human rights, gravely disrupt social order and gravely jeopardize the life and property security of the masses," Hu was quoted as saying.


No responsible government exists in Bejing. All that exists is a bunch of terrorizing old men who tell any lie and commit any atrocity against their own "people" who really arn't people at all. They're just fire wood for the old men to torture and amuse themselves with. They're not actually obligated to protect them or in any way care for them or anything. They're not "responsible" for them.

Boycott China. Period. This is now insane.

Alright, who's the clown ?

Article


"We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and the law of Britain and France," China spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world."


Alright, who's the clown ?
Not the Chinese spokeswoman speaking lies out of both sides of her face, thats obvious. No, I want to know who's the clown crushing these protests and actually letting the olympics continue.

Ya gotta know lots of people aint gonna watch it. I certainly want nothing to do with it. And what is any business doing buying advertising in this public relations nightmare anyways ? Do they want to tarnish their name with the blood of the innocent ?

Yes I know we now sell junk to china and some trade minister is afraid to upset that apple cart. But I'm not ! I don't think we should have anything to do with "their despicable activites" and we should be moving towards a total boycott of all things china.

And I know people out there are already advocating this , but somehow , it's suddenly just not making the news.

Who's the clown running this show ? Certainly not the will of the people, that much is obvious.

Trafficking in Death

Kidney transplant policy needs to change


If you are saying to yourself that a person would have to be Bugs Bunny's knuckleheaded maroon not to buy the longer-lasting car, you are beginning to appreciate the sub-text of purchasing a kidney from a live donor in places like China and India and Pakistan. They are not just any kidney, they are much, much better kidneys than what is otherwise often available to people who require a transplant.


Get your kidneys here ! Red hot ! Fresh from Tibetian Donars ! Yes sir ! Everyone a genuine volinteer, just ask the Chinese Government , they'll be happy to confirm this !


In all ways, the living donor is not just better but what one might call betterissimo. More than half the living donor recipients are out of the hospital in five days, compared to 30 per cent of the standard criteria donors and 22 per cent of those who got kidneys from older, sicker donors.


Yes sir ! Get your live donar transplants ! Trust us ! No tibetian monks were harmed in the making of this donation ! Except for the ones who volinteered ! Yes sir ! Genuine volinteers each and everyone !

So the best thing you can do, the smartest thing to do, Zaltzman suggested to me, is accept the inevitable disconnect between willing givers and needy recipients and legalize payment for kidneys in this country.


yes ! Let ohip pay for my chinese tibetian volinteer kidney ! That sounds like a great plan ! We should start immediately !

Wall apologizes for ‘intolerant’ comments

Article


Mr. Lukiwski said: “There's A's and there's B's. The A's are guys like me. The B's are homosexual faggots with dirt on their fingernails that transmit diseases.”


Now thats just nasty !

The Regina MP stood in the House of Commons on Friday to apologize formally for the comments, saying he will spend the rest of his political career and life trying to live down the shame.

Oh that won't be too long at all ! Hardly more than another week or two !

Yes , interesting. Well...these are the people that get themselves elected to the public trough, and the average tax payer does have a right to know who they're voting for.

The sad thing is , there's a lot of people who believe just as he does, so they'll forgive him on this count, and he may even stay elected. More of a commentary of the beliefs of the canadian public than this nitwit's personal prejudices, I'm afraid.

This is the land that we live in.

Oh Canada , Eh ?

Al Qaeda No. 2: We don't kill innocents

Article

The second-in-command of al Qaeda has said the terrorist group does not kill innocents... ...while standing in a pool of blood, and busy strapping on an explosive vest to a 10 year old child he's about to send off to blow someone up.

"We're also totally honest and you should listen to us and ignore the western media !" he added. "There now , child. Now run over to the soldiers over there and press this button when you get there. But not before , understand ? Don't worry , nothing bad will happen."

some things just speak for themselves.

This Phone Really Sucks !

Article = None , Personal Experiance

Finally , after about a month I got my phone back from the repair shop (it wouldn't charge). Charges now, made a test call, ready to go. So I put my head phones in , crank up the tunes , walk away.

I get maybe twenty steps before I realize the music isn't playing properly. I'm not hearing the lead singer I'm only hearing the back up.

They fixed the charging problem (calling it "Major Repairs") and broke the head phone jack in the process !

Walk back to the store. Demonstrate this problem to the clerk.

Well , it's probably the headset. We don't have any in stock , we'll let you know when you get some , and then we'll try it out. If it doesn't work , we'll send it back in for repairs.

So how long am I waiting for this shipment of head sets ? Don't know. They'll phone me.

Phone bell Canada. I want to terminate my service.
They talk me into letting them fix it again. They'll send me a box and I'll mail it back to them. And I'm without a phone for 2 - 6 weeks while it's being fixed. If you want a loaner phone it's 25$. (I decide no loaner).

Go over my contract. It says they're going to bilk me for 20$ a month for every month I don't do on the contract to a maxium of 400$. Hmmm...where is that clause for just paying for the rest of the phone ? (250$) Not there. But there is a small blurb that reads "Other Termination Fee's may apply ..." They're gonna bilk me for 650$.

Just read a news article of some couple being scammed by the phone company and having to pay 1700+$ in termination fee's. (Presumably for two lines.) Divide by two ... and thats about right.

In other words, once you sign that three year contract, you pay for it. You pay full price for the phone, and you pay close to full price for the three years of service. Whether you actually use that , or you pay it off in termination fee's, you pay.

I've decided to get the full entertainment value out of my 650$. I'm gonna send it back to warrenty anytime I find anything wrong with it. I'm going to make maximum use of the insurance. The works.

If you're gonna sell crap , then you're gonna pay the repair bills. And I'm gonna be posting it here for all to read.

All right then. Lets see where this goes.

Wow...do people really think that way ?

Canadians come under fire near Gaza Strip
Article.

Not the article itself , one of the comments left by a visitor..5th one down when I was there.


cbc is under the influence of neo-con traitors ...

Um...whats a neo-con ? Neo Conservative ? New Conservative ?

And traiter. What are they betraying again ? Certainly not Canada.

...and is the mouth piece for the global agenda.

Global Agenda ? What Global Agenda ?

this is a promotional video to help us understand the 'difficulties' in this region. where's the united nations to step in and quit the slaughter of innocent civilians and bring justice and peace to this war torn region.

I believe they're having trouble right now with a bunch of arab states blocking any move to stop the violence , and constantly generating "Lets Kill All The Jews" motions for everyone to vote down.

elitism at its best. i believe nothing the cbc prints anymore because they are lapdogs to yankee imperialism.

Umm...I lifted this from a cbc site...they printed your blathering ,didn't they ?

your all traitors and this promo feed newstory should be left on pay per view for those brainwashed seniors that allowed this type of society to exist in the first place.

Brainwashed seniors...ahh...you blame your elders for the current situation ? Actually that kind of makes sense, much as the current crop of adults is making a mess in the name of just trying to hold down a job. Yeah , we should know better than to make the mess we are to the environment , but we gotta pay the bills right ?

canada had honor once. dion! i don't wanna die in a low income housing for seniors in parksville! save us dion from this conservative nightmare! bring on the vote before its too late!


Umm...I'm guessing you are a senior, and you disagree with your contemporaries. You old coot ! Lol ! I'm gonna guess the old coot is a die hard liberal.

Still wondering about that global agenda. The only one I see is the "lets not let them convert us all to Islam" agenda. Which is hard to disagree with.

Bell Canada takes heat from clients for limiting online speed

Article


"Most people are doing online banking, watching YouTube videos, the basic services. We want to offer them the best service possible," spokesperson Jacques Bouchard said.


Yeah , what he said !


Pat Hurley, an analyst at research firm TeleChoice, said five to 10 per cent of Internet users take up most of the bandwidth as they download high definition movies and play games online.


Yeah ..you see .... what was that he said ? Play games online ?

yer toast.

If I can't play my online games. Your service is *USELESS* to me.

Remind me never to go to bell.

Well... maybe that doesn't count. TeleChoice isn't bell is it ? But still...I aint switching until I hear from bell about online gaming.

Oh, got a nice letter from Rogers Cable Internet.
Apparently I have a 60GByte limit, and if I go over it it's like two bucks a gig there after. They also sent me a nice graph showing my usage for the last three months. The first two months my usage was barely a sliver on the left edge, just enough to say I turned the machine on every now and then. The third month it was 8 gigabytes.

Makes me a tad curious about what my wife has been doing when I'm not around since I set up that guest computer in the living room, but 8 gigs is so far below the limit I'm not gonna panic. I did let her know we have a 60 gig limit and she used 8 though ...just to keep her up to date and make sure this doesn't spin out of control.

But lets face it.8 gigs is quite a party. You'd have to go hog wild to do 60.

Now ...start blocking online gaming ... now I'm ticked.

Activate Mind Control Technology ! You *WILL* Buy Our Product !

Is the Ad a Success? The Brain Waves Tell All

The ardor of the ad business to adopt the technical tools of biometrics — measuring brain waves, galvanic skin response, eye movements, pulse rates and the like — is increasing...

And who hires these ad agencies ? I'll tell you who. Anyone with some piece of absolute junk that is worth pretty much nothing who wants to sell it anyways, thats who hires them. The more junkie and worthless the product ...the bigger the advertisement budget.


“Instead of hypotheses about what people think and feel, you actually see what they think and feel,” said Joel Kades, vice president for strategic planning and consumer insight at Virgin Mobile USA in Warren, N.J.

“I’m not such a huge fan of ad testing,” he added, but measuring biological responses is “absolutely useful.”


Yah know...that whole science thingy about try it out and measure the results, see what works and doesn't work ? I think we should apply that to fast talking people into buying our junk ! yeah ... I think thats a great idea.


“We measure attention, second by second; how emotionally engaged you are with what you’re watching, whether it’s a commercial, a movie or a TV show; and memory retention,” said A. K. Pradeep, chief executive at NeuroFocus in Berkeley, Calif.


Ah yes, memory retention. Let me just stuff the name of our product in your head so you can't possibly forget it ! Whether that product has any value or not is totally irrelevant. All that matters is ...the manufacturers advertising checks don't bounce. :)


“The role of neuromarketing is to understand how people feel and react,” Ms. Moses said. “It in no way sets out to meddle with normal, natural response mechanisms.”


Nope. You're not trying to alter those responses, that would be a mess ! You're just trying to make a map of them so you can navigate through them and accomplish your goals.


“We’re not trying to predict an individual’s thoughts and actions and we’re not trying to input messages,” Dr. Knight said.


Um...you just said you were. Memory retention , right ? Already mentioned as one of the goals earlier in the article. If you're gonna lie, at least try not to be blindingly stupid about it.

Oh my goodness, this product is completely worthless ! Activate Mind Control Technology on Maximum ! This is gonna be a tough one ! But the client is paying well so lets buckle down and get too it people !