Thursday, October 30, 2008

Microsoft Spam

Microsoft to unveil test version of Windows 7


"The real hurdle is to get Vista's reputation behind them," he said.

Windows 7 keeps some of the significant design changes that debuted in Vista, but tosses out others.


But you said Vista was the greatest operating system since sliced bread ! You said it broke all sales records ! You said it was the stabelist operating system ever since all the changes you made under the hood (then it crashed crashed crashed ...)

Now you have a different story.

Told by the same people.

For the same reasons. To sell something and make money.

Why should we believe you now ? You already foisted a dud off on the world, and vender locked the hell out of it to force people to use what turns out to not actually be usable.

This is a monopoly, and this is how they work. They FORCE you into their junk by putting up walls everywhere. The free market system is SHUT DOWN and competiters are kicked out. This was not the plan I heard of when they told me about the free market system when I was young.

But it is the microsoft way.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Microsoft to battle in the clouds

Article

Cloud computing.
In the beginning there were these big huge "Servers" , and these little tiny "Terminals". The terminals contacted the servers , which ran all the applications and the terminal just displayed the results.

This was called standard Client-Server architecture.

Later we moved to cheap powerful computers and have everything run on the "terminal" which had more processing power than the old servers.

And now we have cloud computing , which isn't a new thing, it's the old Client-Server thing given new cloths.


Microsoft has unveiled a cloud computing service, in which data and applications will not be stored on individuals' computers.


Cloud computing is such a bad idea. The reason you moved your data and programs offline to your private computer was to keep your stuff private. In this day and age of beg/borrow/steal customer information and use it to spam spam spam, the idea is worse and worse.

You no longer keep your privacy because you're an evil do-er. You're keeping it because you don't want your in box stuffed with viagra ad's.

You're doing it because you don't want to change your email address every thirty days because you keep getting spammed to death.

You're doing it because you don't want criminals opening five credit cards in your name , racking up the balance's , and vanishing, leaving you with a trashed credit rating and creditors barking at your heels for stuff you didn't even buy.

They already have programs that sift through the old user groups looking for email addresses to add to their lists so they can spam the heck out of anyone who dares post on them. I can imagine them doing the same with every single document you store on their servers. Now not only do you get spammed, but all your friends and family and customers (if you're running a business) get spammed too. And it all starts when they sent that letter to you ... are you selling my email address ? Is that how your business makes a living , you sell all your customers email addresses and spam them ? I can see the accusations now.

We wont even discuss the idiocy of using microsoft products to compete with microsoft itself (why do you think google search engines run on an array of Linux machines ?).

Keep your data on your own machines. There's enough free word processors and spread sheets out there (abi word , and Gnumeric) that you don't need cloud computing for nothing, they're just not widely advertised. An old clunker, a free copy of Linux and a free copy of a mail server program (apache come to mind) and your company has cheap internal mail , and you don't even need virus protection (Linux box..immune) especially if you decline to connect to the outside world and use the box for "internal only , no internet support" use. Why does a lowly clerk need internet access anyways ? That should be limited to a small handful of people and not everyone and the dog for most companies anyways (computer tech support companies where the techies are constantly getting drivers and googling new problems in new hardware come to mind as the obvious exception)

Listeria fear prompts food recalls in Ontario, Maritimes

Article


The recalled products include:

* Brown and white roast beef sandwiches, best before Oct. 24.
* Roast beef on a Kaiser with any of hot peppers, cheese, gravy, bacinator, or bacon and cheese, best before Oct. 30
* Eight-inch subs, assorted, beef and cheese or hoagie, best before Oct. 30.



wow, thats kind of a lot to remember. maybe I just won't buy any deli sandwiches at all from now on ? Or any packaged maple leaf meats of any kind. Thats much easier to remember.

See , this is the way it works. People arn't impressed by stories of how hard you're working to clean up your factories and how we should trust you. We don't trust you. We think you're two faced liars , and we're ticked that there are what , 20 or more bodies lying on the ground and no one going to court over this ? You're getting away with murder. And we might not be able to do much about it, except make sure we aint the next victem.
You just created a boycott of your own industry. Not because of any environmental protests or anything like that. But because ordinary folk just living out their lives ...would like to continue living out their lives instead of eating your poisoned junk and then dying and no one getting the blame for it.
And the Liberals trying to reward you with money for "retraining", as opposed to punishing the wicked.
The backlash is as predictable as it is inevitable. Any products with the Maple Leaf brand name on it are toast. And now that they're giving out dozens of brand names instead of just one , all Deli Meats are toast too. No one is going to remember a list of company names as long as their arm. They're just going to stop buying them all.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Saturday Paper

Article = none, personal experience

Ah , the Liberal press, so predictable.
(Liberal party is pro-big business here in canada)

I turn to the editorials in todays Ottawa Sun and what do I see ? One article detailing how evil our conservative Prime Minister is for actually LOWERING TAXES ! And he should raise taxes again immediately or terrible things will happen ! For which it goes into great detail. (He knocked 2% of the GST)

Another article details how Fee's of some kind should be introduced so that the infrastructure can be fixed up so more and more people can live downtown . And give construction companies work to fix up that infrastructure. And contribute to the traffic jams and breath the car exhaust fumes , well, maybe they didn't mention that part but I feel it's an important consideration. This is called "Tax and Spend" by the way. And of course, it's businesses (constrution companies who do the work) who benifit by this , not the general population. Only an idiot wants to breath exhaust fumes 24 hrs a day 7 days a week for years without end.

A third praises Bob Rae, now that he's defected from the NDP and joined the pro-business Liberals, and proffers tactical advice on how the liberals can win the next election. Notions such as "Do good to the general public" and "Quit taxing the heck out of people you're already taking more than half of every dollar they make" are not part of the discussion. The notion that there might be something wrong with giving money strictly to businesses and taxing the heck out of the common man is given no credence.

I remember when I was young, there would be two articles in the editorial page. One in favor of whatever issue was hot this week, and one against. People would read them both and make up their own minds. A nice, balanced approach.

Thats all gone now.

It's all Liberal pro-business the public is an idiot if you disagree with us Horrible Things Will Happen If You Don't Do As We Say !! Nonsense ! Neutrality is gone. The press has stopped reporting the news and has firmly allied itself with one political group. The one representing big business, because, lets face it , the press *IS* big business. They're all newspaper chains now there are no independant papers.

I don't buy newspapers anymore I get my news online. Let them go fish , I have no use for people who demand money for me , in exchange for which they will give me unwanted advice and scare mongering and insinuations that I'm an idiot if I don't believe their every word.

Thats just arrogance.

And thats ... not news.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

My Old Dell

Article = none , personal experiance


I suppose I should put in something about my old clunker from dell.

Hmm.... it runs well.
Well... I stripped out , sabataged ,and disabled the pre-installed anti-virus anti spam software (which wanted lots of money) and installed the free windows defender anti virus , and I use the built in windows fire wall (again , free of charge)

I pretty much never (very rarely) use Internet Explorer, its either Firefox or Opera (I have both).

Dell sold my personal info to Sympatico who kindly signed me up for their internet service and then told me about it after the fact, thanks Dell. Two hours on the phone to cancel a service I never wanted and never asked for in the first place. But ... thats not the machine, thats the people behind the machine.

My one and only call to tech support left them floundering thinking there was a problem with the speakers, and generally totally clueless (turned out the usb mouse was in the middle of dying, 10$ replacement fixed it right up , but that was *ME* figuring it out , not them). But it did keep some people in India employed. I even got to speak to a supervisor and everything. Why I got transfered to a super I have no idea , I can't remember asking for it , and in the middle of her telling me everything was hunky dory now when it turned out it was not she transfered me right back to the techie to keep on trying, but hey , I kept two people on the other side of the world employed. (Notice I didn't use the word "gainfully" there ... )

I voided the warrenty by upgrading the video card so it could play my games. Plays them well.

It's never caught a virus. Or a Trojen. But I stay off the Internet Explorer. And I don't download files , screen savers , cool not so "free free free ! how can you go wrong it's free !!!" programs, things like that.

I have a word processor and a spread sheet program. They're both from the free software foundation (Abi Word , and Gnumeric) which kindly put out windows versions
of the things and gave them away free of charge.

Sometimes I run the netstat command in a dos window and monitor it for a while while I'm doing other things, just to see whats on my machine that's reaching out to the net. Usually all I see are the Local Host entries , meaning my machine is chatting with itself and no one else. (the 1394 network connection you see is for internal use, not for connecting to the internet) So I know there's nothing sneaking around behind my back. (dos prompt , netstat 30 , will run it every 30 seconds automatically and let you watch ..hopefully , a lot of quietness. If it's a hot bed of activity on your machine , you're probably in trouble)

So what do I think of my dell ? Well... It can be coaxed into being a good machine. If you spend time , and effort , and you have technical knowledge.

Dell Dimension DE051
Celeron CPU 2.53 GHz
1GB Ram
NVidia GeForce FX5500
(256mb video card)

My Sister's Vista Laptop Nightmare

Article = none, personal experiance

My sister bought a laptop with Vista on it.
Price tag, 600$ , not including recovery disk. Did she want a recovery disk ? She passed on it. Typically they start at 400$ for the disk, though I understand the price has recently been dropping.

Running a lap top, or any computer , without a recovery cd is a bad idea. They aways crash. So the true price of her computer is 1000$, so far.

Guess what ?

Vista crashes. A lot. And it wont run her old office 2003 , it wants her to upgrade to the latest and greatest office suite. Saw a copy for sale for 500$ , but it was used, but what the hey , we'll take that as a "brand new" price just for arguments sake.

Thats 1500$ so far for the lap top.

She wasn't running Vista though , because it wouldn't run her office software. She'd fallen back to WinXP. And needed drivers for the video card to watch DVD's , and the two network cards (one ethernet , one wireless)

Using a memory stick , the new modern Sneaker Net , I downloaded files and we transfered them over. Only to discover Operating System Not Supported or No Compatible Hardware Found , depending on which drivers we tried. And we tried a bunch.

It would seem Microsoft has perfected the art of Vender Lock In , we now have a simple trivial network card that only has drivers in Vista , you load any other operating system on it , you lose that card. And the other two devices as well.

She ghosted her copy of Vista before removing it (nice try) but when she tried to put it back it didn't work out (didn't have a copy of the ghost image to try restoring it, but she complained bitterly about it so I thought I'd include that too)

I've learned a lot about all those lap tops you see advertised from my sister. I've learned that the real price is double what they're quoting , or more. I've learned you're stuck with Vista whether you like it or not. I've learned Vista is a nightmare of vender lock in and crashity crash crash crashedness.

Get a Linux machine. Run your old software under Wine. All the old stuff works fine under wine it's only the new stuff and the games that have problems. And don't even think about a "lap top gaming machine" , thats a 2000$ toy (who's price tag will read $1000, but its double just the same) that will spend more time broken than functional.

If you really want a Vista machine, get one from Dell ,or Compaq , or whoever, with the warrenty and the tech support and the three year financial plan where they fix everything at their expense and you just pay your 20$ / month. This 600$ up front for a machine that comes both brand new and pre-broken is just insane.

don't throw away your old computer. It may be the only thing that runs your old software :)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Europe and US wrestle for control of global markets

Article


President Bush will host an emergency summit of leaders from the major economies to chart a new course for world finance amid signs that Europe and America appear intent on heading in different directions.


Oh my goodness they didn't like us screwing the whole world economy and they want to run off in their own direction ! We can't allow that !!!


Mr Bush said: “As we make the regulatory institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis, it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism - commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade.


We solemnly promise not to do it again , and we plan on staying in charge.


“We must resist the dangerous temptation of economic isolationism and continue the policies of open markets that have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people escape poverty around the world.”


You need to keep buying our trash that we mass produce to the point were we drown out any local competition, thus stealing your jobs.


“We must reform capitalism so that the most efficient system ever created doesn’t destroy its own foundations,” he said. Although agreeing with Mr Bush that it would be “wrong – catastrophic – to challenge the foundations of market economics”, he added: “We cannot continue along the same lines, because the same problems will trigger the same disasters.”


yeah , you guys royally screwed the pooch on this one and we aint gonna let you do it again. That's *OUR* backside that's sore thanks to you and we're gonna make sure it stops whether you like it or not.

Sarkozy's Quebec comments being twisted, French diplomat says

Article


There was no doubt in former Parti Québécois premier Jacques Parizeau mind as to what Mr. Sarkozy truly meant. Mr. Parizeau slammed the French President's comments, saying it was “an outrageous remark” and a clear expression of “anti-Quebec sovereignty”


The reality is that a foreign leader does not ferment revolt in an allied nation.
The reality is that Quebecers had their chance to vote for independance, and despite a heck of a lot of cheating (and law suits, they sued people who voted against it for petes sake !) they lost. Quebecer's voted to stay canadian and not become independant.

The reality is , sovereignty is an unpopular cause in a small province of a democratic nation , and despite all your whining and caterwauling about it , the majority don't want it.

The reality is the only reason why the Bloc Quebequois party holds even a few seats is because they put sovereignty on the back burner and started dealing with real world problems instead.

The reality is , you sir , are an ass , if you think some foreign government is going to start a diplomatic conflict with canada just to please your private , unpopular agenda.

Friday, October 17, 2008

More sabotage feared after 2nd pipeline bombed in northern B.C.

Article


"There is getting to be growing frustration and growing concern among the agricultural community about the number of pipelines that are criss-crossing the area, the ability that the oil and gas companies have ... accessing their property, the kinds of claims or compensation that the farmers and ranchers are getting," Przybylski said.


This is actually the crux of the issue.
In the western provinces of Canada the oil companies can move into your land , dig anywhere , and make a gawd awful mess, and then just walk away. And it seems from this report they can run pipelines everywhere on anyones property and the farmers get diddly for them doing it.

My land is not my land ? Some rich company just comes in and does as he pleases and messes the place up and walks away to leave me with the mess ? If I'm lucky he doesn't find oil. If he does I don't get a nickle, just a big oil rig on my property rendering it useless and I'm locked out of my own place.

This is what happens when you step on the little people, and the government is bought off and does nothing to stop it.

It's gonna be some rancher starving to death because you took away his prime grazing ground because you found oil on it and didn't give him a dime. You watch and see.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Worm Turns

Liberals: Dion ready to support Harper on economy


"We Liberals will do our part, responsibly to ensure that this parliament works," Mr. Dion said. "As the Official Opposition we will make sure that we protect Canadians from the economic storm that the world is facing."


wow... you flip flopped from Harper having no vision of the economy and having his head burried in the sand to We Can Work With This Guy. So all that stuff you said about him before ... you were just lying ? Just electorial campagning ?

Politicians. Hmph ! They don't even care if they get caught showing their forked tongues.

Run this bum out of town.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Thank you for your involintairy donation

Bush calls for confidence in 'anxious time'

"Here's what the American people need to know: that the United States government is acting; we will continue to act to resolve this crisis and restore stability to our markets," he said. "Anxiety can feed anxiety, and that can make it hard to see all that is being done to solve the problem."


Here's what the American people need to know: Thank you for your 23 000$ , each, the rich millionaire bankers that robbed you of your homes deeply appreciate it , and no you're not getting your homes back. sorry you have to live in your cars, but we're losing money on a stock market that poor people like you can't even afford to play on, so we're going to make your little tiny lives just a bit more miserable so we can afford that fourth car we always wanted to by and park it on the drive way of the house I bought for my mistress, since my wife won't let me keep her in the same house as her.
Beyond that , if you get sick , we're gonna let you die. No healthcare for you. If you get mugged and it's too expensive to prosecute the mugger , we're going to drop the case because we're poor. And don't even think of squatting in all those empty houses now , the government is going to buy them and sell them TO YOU !! again , and see if they can sucker you into paying twice for the same house.
Thank you for your time, you stupid idiots.
Capitalism Rules.

The Grand Dion Economic Plan

Dion hits back over tape flap



Dion has said that if elected he would launch an urgent national effort, with input from premiers, the Bank of Canada and federal regulators, to develop a strategy to deal with the economic crisis.


The position that "I'm gonna go ask those guys over there what I should do about this mess *AFTER* I get elected" is not a position at all. It's a dumb faced mug with a shrug of your shoulders while saying , in your stupidest immitation of the village idiot "Gee , I don't know what to do."

That degree in political science is really coming in handy I see. You get to transform a simple "I have no idea what to do about anything" into a really long nifty sounding plan , while complaining all the while that your competition , who has a degree in economics and is already on the job , is an idiot with no vision at all.

Clarification. It's a beautiful thing.

Lets help Dion to the door , since he's so lost.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Harper is offering ‘too little, too late': Dion

Article



SIDNEY, B.C. — Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion today accused Stephen Harper of being the only world leader who fails to see the urgency of government intervention in the growing economic credit crisis.

During a campaign stop in Sydney, B.C., Mr. Dion boasted that he was right to call last week for a short term plan to address the situation.

He noted that Mr. Harper and his Conservative Party accused Mr. Dion of panicking about the economy, yet Mr. Harper now appears poised to announce a new plan of his own.

“It's too little too late. For the last week we told him that he needs to wake up and say to Canadians that indeed we are in tough times and indeed the government will help you,” said Mr. Dion.


What a fascinating article.

No where in it does it mention that Stephen Harper in fact has a masters degree in economics (Stephan Harper) , while Mr Dion is a master of lies...urrr..political science. (Stephan Dion) Interestingly enough , it shows Dion as an avid seperatist in his early years , though he later claims to be a federalist. Judging by his TAX EVERYONE WHO AINT A QUEBECER attitude , I wonder if much has changed, despite his claims to be a "born again canadian".

So the master of politics is very effectively making the guy who knows what he's talking about look like an idiot.

Hmmm... who you gonna believe. The guy with the masters degree in lying ... oops ... politics... or the guy with the masters degree in economics ... in this time of economic crisis ?

Ding ! Times up ! Your answer please.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

A Dion Supporter Spews Hot Air

Article


The derogatory descriptions of Stéphane Dion are telling. He is "a geek." He is "professorial." He needs new glasses – better still, contact lenses.

This is teen talk. Shallow.


Can't remember anyone saying that about him. Do remember him saying that Harper was "Hoover in a blue sweater" , is that teen talk as well ? Or is it ok because THE MIGHTY DION said so ?


These are the obsessions of the age of slick marketing and the TV clip. Shouldn't we rather be asking if the leader of the Liberal party has integrity? Intelligence? Knowledge? Experience? Judgment? Courage? Vision?


All I saw from him was TAX TAX TAX ...give money to quebec corperations for killing 20 people with Listerosis...


Does he have anything useful to say about the economy? The environment? Medicare? Child care? Poverty? National unity? Urban Canada? Relations with the United States? Our Afghan quagmire?


In order, I believe his position is TAX , Tax the polluters, no comment , no comment , QUEBEC IS POOR GIVE US MORE MONEY , Break the Country apart, urban Canada aint quebec let them suffer, USA is to be emulated , and Let the Terrorists win - lets go home until they follow us here.


The real rap against Dion is that he does not inspire people. Harper inspires fear. Take your pick.


But it's Dion I fear , not Harper. You sure you're not getting that mixed up ?

Quebec cheese retailers get $8.4M in provincial aid

Article


The Quebec government will spend $8.4 million to revive its cheese industry, which has been hit hard by the recent listeriosis crisis.

The Liberal government's aid plan unveiled Friday includes interest-free loans for artisanal cheese producers in financial difficulty.


Yeah , we messed up. Whole wack of people got sick. Maybe one or two died. Bad for our bottom line. Give us money.

This is why people don't like the Liberals. This is why we accuse them of being in bed with big business. Some company can't be bothered to clean equipment properly and poisons a bunch of little guys ... give them money.

Some mom and pop store does the same thing with their home made ice cream ... you gotta know they aint getting 8 million dollars. They're going to jail and you know it.

The liberals are literally rewarding people for poisoning and getting members of the general public sick ! How can you vote for such a thing ? I know I can't.


A publicity campaign is also in the works to promote Quebec cheeses.

The three-year plan will go a long way towards restoring public trust in cheese safety, Lessard said.


but finding out who's responsible for the sickness's and arresting them... thats not part of the plan is it ? 20 people died from that disease , but no one is being punished for CRIMINAL NEGLECT , no , we just give them millions of dollars instead.

20th death linked to listeriosis outbreak

Phtt ! Damb liberals.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

So am I gonna lose my job ?

So am I gonna lose my job if america goes all to pot ? I mean , I work in the cell phone industry for an american company right ?

Survey Says : I don't know.

so , ask an economist ?

Thats my biggest beef. An economist wont' tell you. They don't want to cause a panic. So they'll let you the little guy get screwed over big time and won't even warn you it's coming because that might cause a panic ! You might actually try to save yourself or something and make a big mess !

So I got to figure it out for myself, because these modern financial prophets ARE AS USELESS AS TEATS ON A BULL ! What good is knowing the truth if you always have to lie about it ? Doesn't help me a wit.

My guess is that everyone needs cell phones. Even guys living out of cars. People even abandon their home phones and have a cell phone only and nothing else.

My second guess is that if the american dollar goes to pot BY PRINTING 700 BILLION US DOLLARS then Canadian outsourcing may become too much for them to afford. Then again it may crap out our economy and drag our dollar down too.

My third guess is ... I don't know whats gonna happen. But the economists probably do. But they aint telling anything but comforting fairy tales right now in this time of crisis and you should ignore them.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Psi Wheel Fraud

How to make a psi wheel to demonstrate your psionic powers ..it reads.

Umm... this is the standard light sail demo. Nice light yellow post it sheet of paper , works when the hand isn't blocking the light, maybe a bit of heat coming off the hand to help it along.

Just because you're not touching it ... doesn't mean you're not touching it *grins*. There is still light , heat , and the ever favorite of all tricksters , gently blowing on it when no one is looking !

Enjoy this party trick , but don't take it seriously.


What will happen ?

What will happen if the bail out doesn't pass ?

that 23 THOUSAND dollars that they want to charge every man woman and child in the USA ? you get to keep it.

Your personal line of credit , your credit cards ? Dumped. Don't pay them off , just pay the minimum amount... if you pay them off now they'll just take them away from you. And there are better things to do than to dump your money down a credit card drain and watch them slurp it up and then say "thanks..but we don't have enough cash to cover this card for you , so we're cancelling it"

Pay your rent. If its possible. If it isn't one of those exploding mortgages that this month is only 750$ a month but next month it's 2000$ / month. If thats the case, pour money into getting your car fixed because you'll be living in it real soon.

Work. Drink some beer. Play some computer games. Wait. wait. Wait.

The houses are overpriced by a factor of five. That is to say 80% of the value of a house is phantom value , created by a huge demand powered by idiot politicians, and now the time has come to evapourate. They're saying 30% this year, 10% next ... So total of six years to bring it down to 20% of it's current mark , which is "normal" in an uninterfered market.

Dig in. Stock up. Food, not stocks. Examine your job critically. Is it likely to weather a storm ? Are you selling junk that isn't going to sell real soon ? It may be time to consider switching to one of the basic's. Food. Gas. Cell phones (no house no land line ..get a cell and live in a camper or car).

I predict campers are going to become big. For some reason. :)

Probably not a good time to be in the siding or window business. If you sell anything to home owners ... you're probably half way out the door. Sorry.

If you're in another country like I am (Canada) we didn't go insane ! We didn't give people with no credit check a hundred grand loan so they could buy a house ! Don't depend on anything that sells stuff to americans unless it's the bare necessities. Sorry , people living out of a car arn't interested in the finest quality canadian hockey skates.

But they are interested in cell phones. But not land lines.

Six years for the recovery. Twenty years for the people who got burned to quit telling the next kids in line to become adults soon how terrible and awful it all was don't even think about buying a house.

And then maybe they hit us again.

*sigh*