Article
North Korea says it is seizing assets at a tourist site jointly operated with South Korea.
It has given South Koreans 72 hours to leave the resort at Mount Kumgang, which lies just inside North Korea.
The resort used to be a symbol of co-operation between the two Koreas and a key source of hard currency for Pyongyang.
But joint operations were suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier
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North Korea has been threatening action over Mt Kumgang for months, warning Seoul to restart the lucrative tours or lose its assets.
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It blamed the move on the South Korean government, saying it had ignored efforts to settle the issue through negotiations.
Sometimes , when you read a news article, you have to wonder whats going on in the head of certain people. They seem to have a wildly different point of view on human rights , for example.
You have a tourist resort, and you shoot one of the tourists. Of course the rest are going to leave and spread the word. What did you expect ?
Apparently , the North Korean Government expected them to come back and ignore the shooting. Apparently , they expected the south to herd them like chattel , into dangerous situations , and they simply don't understand why that isn't possible in a democracy.
It would seem the North literally doesn't care about the lives of ordinary humans. It sounds so trite and trivial , like a bad fairy tale. Like a plot line in a TV show thats been so over used you find it boring at not credible anymore.
But apparently , in the real world , the dictators of the planet arn't bored or finished with that plot line yet. It's still a favorite among them.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
The Increadable Journey to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
So , I have this lap top (Gateway model NCL20 , 4gig ram , 2x 1.3 GHz cpu's, 285g hard drive)
And I watch movies on it (mp4 files) sometimes at work late at night when things are quiet. And those movies stutter, and I mean a lot. And it's really annoying.
So I think to myself. This lap top has Windows 7 on it. The latest operating system from microsoft. And look at all the special effects. It's got to be a beast on the computer. If I were to put Linux on it , say Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (LTS = Long Term Stable ... they promise to keep supporting it for 3 years ) I could at least turn off stuff and it wouldn't stutter as much.
Now , before I go trashing my lap top , I did a couple of things first. One was to make sure I could find the windows back up disks I made. I aint toasting the thing if I can't put it back.
the second was a rather impromptu case study. What could I run on Ubuntu that wouldn't run on Windows ? What could I run on Windows that wouldn't .
In this case, my high priority applicatinos were games. Yeah I know , why games ? the answer is I'm a computer Tech. I get computers running. And now that we have a couple of computers running what are you going to do with them ? Yep. Play games. Someone else would load up accounting , or office stuff, but me ... my job is finished when you press the off / on switch and the thing turns on , so games it is.
and what games was I running on my lap top ?
Not a dang thing. The thing's graphics card didn't support very much at all. I just played video's when I was bored and listenned to music, and I already knew Ubuntu would do that.
And what could I run on Ubuntu ? There was a ton of free software that would cost hundreds of dollars , or more, to buy for windows. video Editing (just got a new video cam ..price is less than 100$ ) music editing (ok... gonna have to brush up on the guitar playing and the keayboard again ) all sorts of stuff .
Advantage : Ubuntu. At least for my lap top. For my desk top, Advantage : Windows. I'd lose my games and I aint doing that.
So I download the iso (disk image) for ubuntu 11.04 , which is in beta , and stick it in the disk drive, and reboot, select the dvd to be the boot device .... and nothing. Black screen. Give it 10 minutes. Not a dang thing.
Take the disk out , reboot , and up comes windows.
Ok, no damage done yet. Check windows ... figures. The lap top uses a 64 bit operating system and I'd tried to install a 32 bit operating system. *sigh*
The next day ... with the 64 bit version of 11.04 ... try it again !
Nothing. black screen.
Ok, there's an option to install ubuntu as an application , try that.
Permission denied.
I restrained the urge to throttle my computer.
So I have this old copy of ubuntu 9 kicking around , and I try that. And it installs and works beautifully. Wow.
except that ubuntu 9 is not supported, so it won't patch , it won't install additional programs , and by the way it doesn't recongize the network card so you can't get online.
Wonderful.
So I slip the windows seven restore disk in and away we go.
Restore failed. Didn't recognize the way the disk formatted.
*sigh*. I had a copy of XP at home, I could install that , let it reformat the disk , and then kill the install before it even finished, but I hadn't quite given up on Ubuntu yet.
Ubuntu 9 worked. so that meant ubuntu 11 beta was REALLY beta, as in buggy as all heck and probably the source of all my problems. And looking on the ubuntu web page I see that the last stable version , the one with all the bugs worked out , is 10.04 LTS .
Down load the iso. download a special program that will install the iso on a memory stick (it's about 700 megabytes by the way, and it wipes any data on the memory stick ) and now I have a bootable memory stick.
Install that. Finally , the thing actually shows me more than a blank screen. I see it install , the network card works, it's a beautiful thing.
Now for the final part. The thing that started this journey.
I read on the ubuntu forums that the wind data stick I had would be automatically recognized and installed by 10.04 , even though it was normally a windows only device. Cool , I thought. (Huawei E181 Data Stick, proprietory to wind mobile)
Tried it out. Kicked it , tried a few things.
Finally. If you already are connected to the internet (through the regular network card) and stick the data stick in , It will search the internet automatically and find drivers , and the thing is up and running right away.
Except it has the wrong settings.
apn = broadband.windmobile.ca
pin = 0000
And leave any other fields blank.
And it works like a charm. And I'm online and everything.
And my movies still stutter.
Probably the dang cheap graphics card, the Intel one built into the motherboard. *sigh*. but I like Ubuntu , I like being immune to virii and stupid tool bars trying to auto install themselves , and every piece of mal ware in the world deciding your computer is their personal property. It's gotten so bad they now install stuff for firefox as well as internet explorer.
Well... my journey is done, and this old lap top is working once more.
Though no better than before.
Dang movies still stutter.
And I watch movies on it (mp4 files) sometimes at work late at night when things are quiet. And those movies stutter, and I mean a lot. And it's really annoying.
So I think to myself. This lap top has Windows 7 on it. The latest operating system from microsoft. And look at all the special effects. It's got to be a beast on the computer. If I were to put Linux on it , say Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (LTS = Long Term Stable ... they promise to keep supporting it for 3 years ) I could at least turn off stuff and it wouldn't stutter as much.
Now , before I go trashing my lap top , I did a couple of things first. One was to make sure I could find the windows back up disks I made. I aint toasting the thing if I can't put it back.
the second was a rather impromptu case study. What could I run on Ubuntu that wouldn't run on Windows ? What could I run on Windows that wouldn't .
In this case, my high priority applicatinos were games. Yeah I know , why games ? the answer is I'm a computer Tech. I get computers running. And now that we have a couple of computers running what are you going to do with them ? Yep. Play games. Someone else would load up accounting , or office stuff, but me ... my job is finished when you press the off / on switch and the thing turns on , so games it is.
and what games was I running on my lap top ?
Not a dang thing. The thing's graphics card didn't support very much at all. I just played video's when I was bored and listenned to music, and I already knew Ubuntu would do that.
And what could I run on Ubuntu ? There was a ton of free software that would cost hundreds of dollars , or more, to buy for windows. video Editing (just got a new video cam ..price is less than 100$ ) music editing (ok... gonna have to brush up on the guitar playing and the keayboard again ) all sorts of stuff .
Advantage : Ubuntu. At least for my lap top. For my desk top, Advantage : Windows. I'd lose my games and I aint doing that.
So I download the iso (disk image) for ubuntu 11.04 , which is in beta , and stick it in the disk drive, and reboot, select the dvd to be the boot device .... and nothing. Black screen. Give it 10 minutes. Not a dang thing.
Take the disk out , reboot , and up comes windows.
Ok, no damage done yet. Check windows ... figures. The lap top uses a 64 bit operating system and I'd tried to install a 32 bit operating system. *sigh*
The next day ... with the 64 bit version of 11.04 ... try it again !
Nothing. black screen.
Ok, there's an option to install ubuntu as an application , try that.
Permission denied.
I restrained the urge to throttle my computer.
So I have this old copy of ubuntu 9 kicking around , and I try that. And it installs and works beautifully. Wow.
except that ubuntu 9 is not supported, so it won't patch , it won't install additional programs , and by the way it doesn't recongize the network card so you can't get online.
Wonderful.
So I slip the windows seven restore disk in and away we go.
Restore failed. Didn't recognize the way the disk formatted.
*sigh*. I had a copy of XP at home, I could install that , let it reformat the disk , and then kill the install before it even finished, but I hadn't quite given up on Ubuntu yet.
Ubuntu 9 worked. so that meant ubuntu 11 beta was REALLY beta, as in buggy as all heck and probably the source of all my problems. And looking on the ubuntu web page I see that the last stable version , the one with all the bugs worked out , is 10.04 LTS .
Down load the iso. download a special program that will install the iso on a memory stick (it's about 700 megabytes by the way, and it wipes any data on the memory stick ) and now I have a bootable memory stick.
Install that. Finally , the thing actually shows me more than a blank screen. I see it install , the network card works, it's a beautiful thing.
Now for the final part. The thing that started this journey.
I read on the ubuntu forums that the wind data stick I had would be automatically recognized and installed by 10.04 , even though it was normally a windows only device. Cool , I thought. (Huawei E181 Data Stick, proprietory to wind mobile)
Tried it out. Kicked it , tried a few things.
Finally. If you already are connected to the internet (through the regular network card) and stick the data stick in , It will search the internet automatically and find drivers , and the thing is up and running right away.
Except it has the wrong settings.
apn = broadband.windmobile.ca
pin = 0000
And leave any other fields blank.
And it works like a charm. And I'm online and everything.
And my movies still stutter.
Probably the dang cheap graphics card, the Intel one built into the motherboard. *sigh*. but I like Ubuntu , I like being immune to virii and stupid tool bars trying to auto install themselves , and every piece of mal ware in the world deciding your computer is their personal property. It's gotten so bad they now install stuff for firefox as well as internet explorer.
Well... my journey is done, and this old lap top is working once more.
Though no better than before.
Dang movies still stutter.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
How Startrek should have ended
http://youtu.be/WbJ-y6BWfUc
I cracked up laughjing at the ending
And the starwars one. http://youtu.be/zzoeEdW-EDQ
I cracked up laughjing at the ending
And the starwars one. http://youtu.be/zzoeEdW-EDQ
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Riots in Democracy
England riots: Weekend opening for riot courts
Courts in London and Manchester have opened over the weekend as the number of people charged for riot-related offences reaches more than 1,000.
Riddle me this , if you can.
Why do people riot in a democracy ? They have the vote, they have the right to peaceful assembly, these rights are protected , why the rioting ? And I'm not talking My Team Lost The Hockey Finals lets go riot for 4 hrs and then sneak out when everyone's sobre. Booze fueled sports fans are not the kind of riot we're looking at here. We're looking at stuff going on for over a week now.
The answer is ... wait for it...
They don't live in a democracy.
Think about it. Why are british sports fans banned so frequently from their "football" games (soccer to the rest of us) when they go international ? Because they riot. Why do they riot ? Because they live in a system where a dead end minimum wage job is all they can hope for. They are Peasants to the royalty, and no matter what trappings of democracy the country picks up, peasants they remain.
Alan Moore in his movie the Mindscape of Alan Moore talked extensively about his background growing up in england and the sense of absolute hopelessness , how one principle sent a letter around to all the schools and next thing you know he couldn't get a job anywhere decent, and he spent years in horrible jobs before he became a comic book artist and writer. He'd actually been a good student , but the school he'd gone to had been inferior and when he transfere3d to a real school he sank like a stone, unprepared for the higher standards.
why would anyone put their kids in a school designed to cripple them educationally ?
And now I see newspaper articles calling the rioters thugs and saying they should all be locked up , they're evil , etc etc etc.
You're going to lock up a large portion of the electorate ? In a democracy ?
Yeah. Um...hate to tell you this , that doesn't happen in a real democracy. That only happens in banana republics that make pretentions of democracy while oppressing their "electorate" in the most brutal fashion possible.
I think Jolly Olde England is back sliding into a Kingdom , and abandonning the few democratic ways it's picked up in the past century or two.
Off with the heads of those ruddy peasants ! We've had just about enough out of this lot !
Courts in London and Manchester have opened over the weekend as the number of people charged for riot-related offences reaches more than 1,000.
Riddle me this , if you can.
Why do people riot in a democracy ? They have the vote, they have the right to peaceful assembly, these rights are protected , why the rioting ? And I'm not talking My Team Lost The Hockey Finals lets go riot for 4 hrs and then sneak out when everyone's sobre. Booze fueled sports fans are not the kind of riot we're looking at here. We're looking at stuff going on for over a week now.
The answer is ... wait for it...
They don't live in a democracy.
Think about it. Why are british sports fans banned so frequently from their "football" games (soccer to the rest of us) when they go international ? Because they riot. Why do they riot ? Because they live in a system where a dead end minimum wage job is all they can hope for. They are Peasants to the royalty, and no matter what trappings of democracy the country picks up, peasants they remain.
Alan Moore in his movie the Mindscape of Alan Moore talked extensively about his background growing up in england and the sense of absolute hopelessness , how one principle sent a letter around to all the schools and next thing you know he couldn't get a job anywhere decent, and he spent years in horrible jobs before he became a comic book artist and writer. He'd actually been a good student , but the school he'd gone to had been inferior and when he transfere3d to a real school he sank like a stone, unprepared for the higher standards.
why would anyone put their kids in a school designed to cripple them educationally ?
And now I see newspaper articles calling the rioters thugs and saying they should all be locked up , they're evil , etc etc etc.
You're going to lock up a large portion of the electorate ? In a democracy ?
Yeah. Um...hate to tell you this , that doesn't happen in a real democracy. That only happens in banana republics that make pretentions of democracy while oppressing their "electorate" in the most brutal fashion possible.
I think Jolly Olde England is back sliding into a Kingdom , and abandonning the few democratic ways it's picked up in the past century or two.
Off with the heads of those ruddy peasants ! We've had just about enough out of this lot !
Saturday, July 30, 2011
USA Shed debt
U.S. debt vote highlights bitter divide
Now let me see if I understand the situation here.
Everyone and the dog bought up usa debt , and they're holding various treasury bonds that have a specific number of usa dollars on them. Say , 100$ bonds , as an example.
so , the USA decides it's spending too much money. More than it has. And it tries to cut back , but the two political houses fight and that doesn't happen, so they print more money.
And when they print more money , the value of the US dollar goes down.
so the 100$ treasurey bond you bought , is suddenly worth only 90% of what it was yesterday , even though it is still worth 100$ , those dollars are now smaller dollars so to speak.
And where did the 10% go ? The value that the bonds lost ?
Why , it's in the USA. The new money they printed has that 10%.
So , by printing more money , they have effectively "Shed" debt. Not payed it off, just dropped it in the trash like last weeks refuse.
And everyone in the world is holding those bonds , or at least their nations are.
so by printing more money, the USA has effectively reached into every bank account in the world and taken a little bit out, without bothering to ask anyone for permission. Because part of the value of *YOUR* currency is based on how many assets your nation has, and holding us debt is considered an asset. An asset that just shrank when the usa printed more money.
Welcome to world economics . Lesson 1: It's great to be the bench mark currency of the entire world.
Now let me see if I understand the situation here.
Everyone and the dog bought up usa debt , and they're holding various treasury bonds that have a specific number of usa dollars on them. Say , 100$ bonds , as an example.
so , the USA decides it's spending too much money. More than it has. And it tries to cut back , but the two political houses fight and that doesn't happen, so they print more money.
And when they print more money , the value of the US dollar goes down.
so the 100$ treasurey bond you bought , is suddenly worth only 90% of what it was yesterday , even though it is still worth 100$ , those dollars are now smaller dollars so to speak.
And where did the 10% go ? The value that the bonds lost ?
Why , it's in the USA. The new money they printed has that 10%.
So , by printing more money , they have effectively "Shed" debt. Not payed it off, just dropped it in the trash like last weeks refuse.
And everyone in the world is holding those bonds , or at least their nations are.
so by printing more money, the USA has effectively reached into every bank account in the world and taken a little bit out, without bothering to ask anyone for permission. Because part of the value of *YOUR* currency is based on how many assets your nation has, and holding us debt is considered an asset. An asset that just shrank when the usa printed more money.
Welcome to world economics . Lesson 1: It's great to be the bench mark currency of the entire world.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Lets Start A Crusade Against Idiots
Norway attacks boost political parties' membership
All of Norway's main parties say they have seen a jump in membership since Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik killed 76 people last Friday in a bombing and shooting attack he saw as a "crusade" against Islam and multiculturalism.
He got 76 people ? And most of them I'm willing to bet are white caucasians ,not muslims , and he's on an anti-islam crusade ? Way to go , bozo. Shooting your own people because you're mad at someone else. (he shot up the Labour party for it's Treason, so he wasn't aiming specifically at middle eastern immigrants he shot anyone in the compound on the assumption they belonged to the labour party)
For Tunisian-born Norwegian Izzeddine al-Saweih, 57, change will not come soon enough.
"There has to be a debate on the right principles, an open debate, and Muslims must take part," he shouted at an outdoor gathering of Labor Party politicians in Oslo Thursday.
"The media writes a lot negative things about us, big and small. They put us under suspicion, and now we don't know our identity, despite us belonging to this land and its laws. Why?"
Could it be because you are part of a religion that has people shouting from the highest rafters that they want to kill all Infidels everywhere in the whole world ? I believe their exact words are "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday" (Saturday people = Jews, Sunday people = Christians)
(from the Quaran )
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme. (different translation: ) Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is God's entirely. - Sura 2:193 and 8:39
Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. - 2:216
(different translation: ) Prescribed for you is fighting, though it is hateful to you.
..... martyrs.... Enter heaven - Surah 3:140-43
You seriously need to disassociate yourself from these people if you want to avoid getting painted as just like them. The Catholic Church didn't get far with "Silent Consent" either.
You know what ? We need to start a crusade against idiots. Anders Behring Breivik is an obvious candidate , shooting up his own people because he disagrees with their policies. Hello ? Democracy ? Anyone ever hear about that thing ? People are allowed to hold different opinions than you , it's not supposed to be a death penalty.
As for Izzeddine al-Saweih, sorry buddy , but your religion openly has verses in it's holy book stating you got to go to war with the non believers whether you like it or not , and you're openly saying you believe in this religion. You're an idiot for thinking there are no consequences for that action.
And to all the other anti-muslim crazies out there , I have news for you. Not everyone in the world is a fanatic. If you read even the christian bible you'll see some rather outrages stuff (stoning people for working on the sabbath comes to mind ... so the cops can't stop a mugging on sundays? Sundays are a muggers delight ? I don't think so !)
Most people just want to get along with their lives with out any unnecessary drama , and they sign up for a religion just to avoid trouble , not because they actually believe. The world census states that there are several billion Muslims in this world, but really ? Are there ? How many signed up because someone held a gun to their head, or told them only Muslims are allowed to work at this job , or denied them services or payment until they converted ?
I think you're going to find that population wise, the number of true believing muslims is as few as the number of true believing christians.
And that means no going on a shooting spree. You want to beat this Islam threat thing, democracy and fair treatment of the population is the way to go. And thats what democracies are good for. And thats why Idiots like Izzeddine al-Saweih , despite his religious beliefs, should be treated fairly. Because odds are he's not interested in shooting anyone , he's just trying to hold down a job and feed his family. And such people are a benifit to most any society.
All of Norway's main parties say they have seen a jump in membership since Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik killed 76 people last Friday in a bombing and shooting attack he saw as a "crusade" against Islam and multiculturalism.
He got 76 people ? And most of them I'm willing to bet are white caucasians ,not muslims , and he's on an anti-islam crusade ? Way to go , bozo. Shooting your own people because you're mad at someone else. (he shot up the Labour party for it's Treason, so he wasn't aiming specifically at middle eastern immigrants he shot anyone in the compound on the assumption they belonged to the labour party)
For Tunisian-born Norwegian Izzeddine al-Saweih, 57, change will not come soon enough.
"There has to be a debate on the right principles, an open debate, and Muslims must take part," he shouted at an outdoor gathering of Labor Party politicians in Oslo Thursday.
"The media writes a lot negative things about us, big and small. They put us under suspicion, and now we don't know our identity, despite us belonging to this land and its laws. Why?"
Could it be because you are part of a religion that has people shouting from the highest rafters that they want to kill all Infidels everywhere in the whole world ? I believe their exact words are "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday" (Saturday people = Jews, Sunday people = Christians)
(from the Quaran )
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme. (different translation: ) Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is God's entirely. - Sura 2:193 and 8:39
Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. - 2:216
(different translation: ) Prescribed for you is fighting, though it is hateful to you.
..... martyrs.... Enter heaven - Surah 3:140-43
You seriously need to disassociate yourself from these people if you want to avoid getting painted as just like them. The Catholic Church didn't get far with "Silent Consent" either.
You know what ? We need to start a crusade against idiots. Anders Behring Breivik is an obvious candidate , shooting up his own people because he disagrees with their policies. Hello ? Democracy ? Anyone ever hear about that thing ? People are allowed to hold different opinions than you , it's not supposed to be a death penalty.
As for Izzeddine al-Saweih, sorry buddy , but your religion openly has verses in it's holy book stating you got to go to war with the non believers whether you like it or not , and you're openly saying you believe in this religion. You're an idiot for thinking there are no consequences for that action.
And to all the other anti-muslim crazies out there , I have news for you. Not everyone in the world is a fanatic. If you read even the christian bible you'll see some rather outrages stuff (stoning people for working on the sabbath comes to mind ... so the cops can't stop a mugging on sundays? Sundays are a muggers delight ? I don't think so !)
Most people just want to get along with their lives with out any unnecessary drama , and they sign up for a religion just to avoid trouble , not because they actually believe. The world census states that there are several billion Muslims in this world, but really ? Are there ? How many signed up because someone held a gun to their head, or told them only Muslims are allowed to work at this job , or denied them services or payment until they converted ?
I think you're going to find that population wise, the number of true believing muslims is as few as the number of true believing christians.
And that means no going on a shooting spree. You want to beat this Islam threat thing, democracy and fair treatment of the population is the way to go. And thats what democracies are good for. And thats why Idiots like Izzeddine al-Saweih , despite his religious beliefs, should be treated fairly. Because odds are he's not interested in shooting anyone , he's just trying to hold down a job and feed his family. And such people are a benifit to most any society.
Cloud Computing
Microsoft: Cloud need only be open surface, not open source
Microsoft is more open — at least on the surface — and that’s all that matters in the cloud era, one company exec maintains.
At Oscon 2011, Gianugo Rabellino, Senior Director for Open Source Communities at Microsoft, said as long as the APIs, protocols and standards for the cloud are open, that is, open surface, customers don’t care about the underlying platform.
Being a huge computer nerd, and former computer programmer before all the programming jobs left town for china or other dollar a day countries, I have my opinions on Cloud Computing.
It's worthless.
Where to begin. What is Cloud Computing ?
Cloud Computing is a marketing term to take a very old idea , shine it up , and make it new and exciting. The idea itself is that all your data and computation goes on in some unspecified server on the other side of the world so you don't have to have big computers on site.
The problems are two fold.
First, you're no longer in charge of your data. It's now under the laws of some foriegn country that has a vested interest in letting it's home countries violate your privacy on a regular basis (Yes, I'm talking about the united states).
Second, computers are dirt cheap. So is storage space.
At christmas this past year I went and I bought a two tera byte (thats two THOUSAND gigabytes) drive that just plugs into my usb port on my computer. No special drivers or anything it just looks like a really REALLY big usb memory stick. It was about 120$ . Brand new.
I have a new lap top. Nothing special , it was 600$ brand new.
These prices may cause problems for a private individual , but we're talking shoe string budget for a start up business. A lap top and a back up drive and a desk in your basement and you're on your way here , no cloud computing required.
What exactly are you saving on , precisely , anyways ? Where's the benifit for you for going cloud ?
You can get free copies of office products ? Ever hear of open source ? They give away a copy of "Open Office" free these days. Word processer, spread sheet , the works. You wanna pay microsoft huge sums of money or you want the same thing for free ?
At most you'll need one computer with microsoft office on it for translation purposes for those die hard customers that demand you have everything they have (I've been on that treadmill before ...they upgrade, they scream at you for incompetence because you didn't upgrade ... then you wind up spending a fortune upgrading to get something that does no more than what you already had ... all so you can read stupid internal memo's ...bleh !)
Tech support ! They do your tech support for you !
Not these days. Every worker in your office still needs a desk and a computer , right ? You still got a lot of computers on site and they aint doing tech support for that. You're still hireing techies out of college or university or whatever to keep the place running. Exact numbers vary depending on whether people are just running word processers or doing something strange and weird on their computers. (I saw one place where there was one desk with a dozen computers and monitors, and one guy running the show ... lot of tech support needed for that one station ... lot of tech support)
Cloud computer is the old client server architecture and it died long ago for a very good reason. The price of computers dropped through the floor. It died, and it should stay dead.
Microsoft is more open — at least on the surface — and that’s all that matters in the cloud era, one company exec maintains.
At Oscon 2011, Gianugo Rabellino, Senior Director for Open Source Communities at Microsoft, said as long as the APIs, protocols and standards for the cloud are open, that is, open surface, customers don’t care about the underlying platform.
Being a huge computer nerd, and former computer programmer before all the programming jobs left town for china or other dollar a day countries, I have my opinions on Cloud Computing.
It's worthless.
Where to begin. What is Cloud Computing ?
Cloud Computing is a marketing term to take a very old idea , shine it up , and make it new and exciting. The idea itself is that all your data and computation goes on in some unspecified server on the other side of the world so you don't have to have big computers on site.
The problems are two fold.
First, you're no longer in charge of your data. It's now under the laws of some foriegn country that has a vested interest in letting it's home countries violate your privacy on a regular basis (Yes, I'm talking about the united states).
Second, computers are dirt cheap. So is storage space.
At christmas this past year I went and I bought a two tera byte (thats two THOUSAND gigabytes) drive that just plugs into my usb port on my computer. No special drivers or anything it just looks like a really REALLY big usb memory stick. It was about 120$ . Brand new.
I have a new lap top. Nothing special , it was 600$ brand new.
These prices may cause problems for a private individual , but we're talking shoe string budget for a start up business. A lap top and a back up drive and a desk in your basement and you're on your way here , no cloud computing required.
What exactly are you saving on , precisely , anyways ? Where's the benifit for you for going cloud ?
You can get free copies of office products ? Ever hear of open source ? They give away a copy of "Open Office" free these days. Word processer, spread sheet , the works. You wanna pay microsoft huge sums of money or you want the same thing for free ?
At most you'll need one computer with microsoft office on it for translation purposes for those die hard customers that demand you have everything they have (I've been on that treadmill before ...they upgrade, they scream at you for incompetence because you didn't upgrade ... then you wind up spending a fortune upgrading to get something that does no more than what you already had ... all so you can read stupid internal memo's ...bleh !)
Tech support ! They do your tech support for you !
Not these days. Every worker in your office still needs a desk and a computer , right ? You still got a lot of computers on site and they aint doing tech support for that. You're still hireing techies out of college or university or whatever to keep the place running. Exact numbers vary depending on whether people are just running word processers or doing something strange and weird on their computers. (I saw one place where there was one desk with a dozen computers and monitors, and one guy running the show ... lot of tech support needed for that one station ... lot of tech support)
Cloud computer is the old client server architecture and it died long ago for a very good reason. The price of computers dropped through the floor. It died, and it should stay dead.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Understanding the Honesty and Integridy of the Police Organizations
Stain From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard
LONDON — For nearly four years they lay piled in a Scotland Yard evidence room, six overstuffed plastic bags gathering dust and little else.
Yeah , it's too much effort to actually look at evidence.
Inside was a treasure-trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked by The News of the World, a now defunct British tabloid newspaper.
Defunct this very week , as the owner shut it down and tried to run and hide in an act of damage control.
During that same time, senior Scotland Yard officials assured Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid. They steadfastly maintained that their original inquiry, which led to the conviction of one reporter and one private investigator, had put an end to what they called an isolated incident.
"They steadfastly maintained..." has anyone ever dealt with the military ? Ever spent a summer in the militia ? One of the things the officers learn is leadership , which means speaking confidently to lead your troops and inspire them. Civilians , by the way , call this "lying through your teeth" .
It has been my experience most police organizations are built on military grounds. The problem is , unlike the military , when you lie to a private you can tell him to shut his mouth or he'll be horribly punished. When you lie to a civilian ... he generally makes a big stink about it.
These police have the wrong training , plain and simple. They're an organization tasked with finding the truth , and trained to lie.
After the past week, that assertion has been reduced to tatters, torn apart by a spectacular avalanche of contradictory evidence, admissions by News International executives that hacking was more widespread, and a reversal by police officials who now admit to mishandling the case.
Yep. Thats what generally happens.
why is this relevant ? Because police officers receive more or less the same training all across western society. And certain jail block video cams in ottawa , along with a dead polish guy at the vancouver air port , are giving impressive proof that it seems to be the same problem everywhere.
Assistant Commissioner John Yates of the Metropolitan Police Service publicly acknowledged that he had not actually gone through the evidence. “I’m not going to go down and look at bin bags,” Mr. Yates said, using the British term for trash bags.
After saying you were doing every thing possible you are now desgusted at the suggestion that you might have to do your job and go through some evidence, likening the process to rooting through the trash.
If you don't want to do your job , why are you still employed at it ?
At best, former Scotland Yard senior officers acknowledged in interviews, the police have been lazy, incompetent and too cozy with the people they should have regarded as suspects. At worst, they said, some officers might be guilty of crimes themselves.
“It’s embarrassing, and it’s tragic,” said a retired Scotland Yard veteran. “This has badly damaged the reputation of a really good investigative organization. And there is a major crisis now in the leadership of the Yard.”
There we go with that "leadership" term again. He means military leader ship , which civilians call "lying through your teeth". And he's suggesting that they return to their roots and show more leadership.
ha ha ha. It's so funny it's sad.
The testimony and evidence that emerged last week, as well as interviews with current and former officials, indicate that the police agency and News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the publisher of The News of the World, became so intertwined that they wound up sharing the goal of containing the investigation.
The police got cooped by the business men. Who weild substantial political power in the form of donations made to politicians. And the politico's , of course, yank the polices chains and get them to cooperate ... fascinating how the political angle of all of this gets ignored. Or are the British Bobbies that easy to bribe ?
Scotland Yard’s new inquiry, dubbed Operation Weeting, has led to the arrests of a total of nine reporters and editors, with more expected. And the police have opened another inquiry into allegations that some officers were paid for confidential information by reporters at The News of the World and elsewhere.
Apparently they are. I'm impressed by the display of "Leadership" these people are displaying.
The Metropolitan Police itself is now the subject of a judicial inquiry into what went wrong with their initial case, as well as into the ties between the department’s top officers and executives and reporters for News International.
I'll tell you what went wrong. They were trained to be soldiers , who routinely lie to their troops , tasked with the job of finding truth , and then set loose among a civilian population where getting caught lying isn't something you can bury with a few threats.
Wrong training. Wrong structure. Wrong organization.
It was not until last autumn that the police were forced to confront their own mistakes. By then, they were facing an escalating stream of requests by people who suspected that their phones might have been hacked. Two dozen people had also brought civil cases against News International, and that compelled the police to release information from Mr. Mulcaire’s files.
And this is the crux of the matter. Only when they couldn't hide it any more, only when it became blindingly obvious that their lies were no longer being believed, did the police decide to come clean.
Make no mistake about this. They don't believe they did anything wrong , leadership wise. They fully beleive that lying their behinds off is part of their job, and they are completely ruthless about it. And they have no intention of stopping.
The western nations have deliberately trained up and created a set of organizations that are trained to lie , and trained to fight, and then set them loose among the civilians they are supposed to protect.
This is the nature of all police forces, and indeed any organization with military training , any organization that uses the word "leadership" in a military fashion.
And when you understand this , then you will understand the Honesty and Integrity of all police organizations.
In the same fashion as a polish imigrant in the vancouver airport did.
In the same fashion as a woman in ottawa who was falsely accused of public drunkenness (they never found the bottle) thrown in the cell block , and then sexually assaulted in front of the cameras. Not by a single rogue officer, but by a gang of them that honestly believed it was their right to do this , they don't believe they did anything wrong.
This is their Honor, and their legacy.
LONDON — For nearly four years they lay piled in a Scotland Yard evidence room, six overstuffed plastic bags gathering dust and little else.
Yeah , it's too much effort to actually look at evidence.
Inside was a treasure-trove of evidence: 11,000 pages of handwritten notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked by The News of the World, a now defunct British tabloid newspaper.
Defunct this very week , as the owner shut it down and tried to run and hide in an act of damage control.
During that same time, senior Scotland Yard officials assured Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid. They steadfastly maintained that their original inquiry, which led to the conviction of one reporter and one private investigator, had put an end to what they called an isolated incident.
"They steadfastly maintained..." has anyone ever dealt with the military ? Ever spent a summer in the militia ? One of the things the officers learn is leadership , which means speaking confidently to lead your troops and inspire them. Civilians , by the way , call this "lying through your teeth" .
It has been my experience most police organizations are built on military grounds. The problem is , unlike the military , when you lie to a private you can tell him to shut his mouth or he'll be horribly punished. When you lie to a civilian ... he generally makes a big stink about it.
These police have the wrong training , plain and simple. They're an organization tasked with finding the truth , and trained to lie.
After the past week, that assertion has been reduced to tatters, torn apart by a spectacular avalanche of contradictory evidence, admissions by News International executives that hacking was more widespread, and a reversal by police officials who now admit to mishandling the case.
Yep. Thats what generally happens.
why is this relevant ? Because police officers receive more or less the same training all across western society. And certain jail block video cams in ottawa , along with a dead polish guy at the vancouver air port , are giving impressive proof that it seems to be the same problem everywhere.
Assistant Commissioner John Yates of the Metropolitan Police Service publicly acknowledged that he had not actually gone through the evidence. “I’m not going to go down and look at bin bags,” Mr. Yates said, using the British term for trash bags.
After saying you were doing every thing possible you are now desgusted at the suggestion that you might have to do your job and go through some evidence, likening the process to rooting through the trash.
If you don't want to do your job , why are you still employed at it ?
At best, former Scotland Yard senior officers acknowledged in interviews, the police have been lazy, incompetent and too cozy with the people they should have regarded as suspects. At worst, they said, some officers might be guilty of crimes themselves.
“It’s embarrassing, and it’s tragic,” said a retired Scotland Yard veteran. “This has badly damaged the reputation of a really good investigative organization. And there is a major crisis now in the leadership of the Yard.”
There we go with that "leadership" term again. He means military leader ship , which civilians call "lying through your teeth". And he's suggesting that they return to their roots and show more leadership.
ha ha ha. It's so funny it's sad.
The testimony and evidence that emerged last week, as well as interviews with current and former officials, indicate that the police agency and News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the publisher of The News of the World, became so intertwined that they wound up sharing the goal of containing the investigation.
The police got cooped by the business men. Who weild substantial political power in the form of donations made to politicians. And the politico's , of course, yank the polices chains and get them to cooperate ... fascinating how the political angle of all of this gets ignored. Or are the British Bobbies that easy to bribe ?
Scotland Yard’s new inquiry, dubbed Operation Weeting, has led to the arrests of a total of nine reporters and editors, with more expected. And the police have opened another inquiry into allegations that some officers were paid for confidential information by reporters at The News of the World and elsewhere.
Apparently they are. I'm impressed by the display of "Leadership" these people are displaying.
The Metropolitan Police itself is now the subject of a judicial inquiry into what went wrong with their initial case, as well as into the ties between the department’s top officers and executives and reporters for News International.
I'll tell you what went wrong. They were trained to be soldiers , who routinely lie to their troops , tasked with the job of finding truth , and then set loose among a civilian population where getting caught lying isn't something you can bury with a few threats.
Wrong training. Wrong structure. Wrong organization.
It was not until last autumn that the police were forced to confront their own mistakes. By then, they were facing an escalating stream of requests by people who suspected that their phones might have been hacked. Two dozen people had also brought civil cases against News International, and that compelled the police to release information from Mr. Mulcaire’s files.
And this is the crux of the matter. Only when they couldn't hide it any more, only when it became blindingly obvious that their lies were no longer being believed, did the police decide to come clean.
Make no mistake about this. They don't believe they did anything wrong , leadership wise. They fully beleive that lying their behinds off is part of their job, and they are completely ruthless about it. And they have no intention of stopping.
The western nations have deliberately trained up and created a set of organizations that are trained to lie , and trained to fight, and then set them loose among the civilians they are supposed to protect.
This is the nature of all police forces, and indeed any organization with military training , any organization that uses the word "leadership" in a military fashion.
And when you understand this , then you will understand the Honesty and Integrity of all police organizations.
In the same fashion as a polish imigrant in the vancouver airport did.
In the same fashion as a woman in ottawa who was falsely accused of public drunkenness (they never found the bottle) thrown in the cell block , and then sexually assaulted in front of the cameras. Not by a single rogue officer, but by a gang of them that honestly believed it was their right to do this , they don't believe they did anything wrong.
This is their Honor, and their legacy.
Obama, lawmakers press ahead for elusive debt deal
article
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama and congressional leaders pressed ahead with private talks on deficit reduction on Saturday, seeking an as-yet-elusive way to lift the debt ceiling and avoid a U.S. default next month.
Ah , good old America, my most favorite country that I've never set foot in. Only in America do you elect a leader , and then black mail him with bankrupting the country so that he has to do what the opposition wants.
I'm sorry , was it Obama who got elected ? , or the republics that want to cut social spending but the people of privilege lose nothing ?
Anyways, ignoring the internal politics, it is obvious the Americans will not be able to get a hold of their current ballooning economic crisis , and they will in a little while be de-listed as the bench mark currency that the world pegs it's other currencies against.
Time to batten down the hatches and start investing in things people have to have no matter what. Shoes, grocery stores, people always have to eat , right ? Even in hard times ? Yeah. Time to attach yourself to some industry that isn't going to sink.
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama and congressional leaders pressed ahead with private talks on deficit reduction on Saturday, seeking an as-yet-elusive way to lift the debt ceiling and avoid a U.S. default next month.
Ah , good old America, my most favorite country that I've never set foot in. Only in America do you elect a leader , and then black mail him with bankrupting the country so that he has to do what the opposition wants.
I'm sorry , was it Obama who got elected ? , or the republics that want to cut social spending but the people of privilege lose nothing ?
Anyways, ignoring the internal politics, it is obvious the Americans will not be able to get a hold of their current ballooning economic crisis , and they will in a little while be de-listed as the bench mark currency that the world pegs it's other currencies against.
Time to batten down the hatches and start investing in things people have to have no matter what. Shoes, grocery stores, people always have to eat , right ? Even in hard times ? Yeah. Time to attach yourself to some industry that isn't going to sink.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Bell Canada pays $10M over misleading ads
Article
In one example provided by the Bureau, Bell's website advertised a bundle for home phone, internet and TV services starting as low as $69.90 per month. The lowest possible price, after the mandatory fees, was $80.27, or 15 per cent higher.
Customers purchasing any of the services individually were also faced with the same misleading information, as additional fees were excluded from those advertised prices as well, the bureau said.
I found out all about extra fee's on Rogers as well. Did you know if your balance doesn't reach zero for a few months they tack on an extra 25$ a month ? I thought I was paying my bill off and then some, but because of this extra fee I was actually slipping farther and farther behind...
Bell wouldn't turn off the internet , so I had to buy a stupid 7$ / month internet fee for a connection that was totally worthless and not actually useable. If you had a data phone you were forced to take a data plan you could't turn it off.
Their cheap phone broke , and I still had to pay the monthly fee for four months while they took three tries to repair it.
They cut a hundred bucks off the price of the phone. In exchagne for making me sign a three year contract.
Yeah ... I've dealt with Bell before. And Rogers.
Never again.
edit : forgot to mention the oldest trickin the book used by both bell and rogers. You have 30 days to change your mind and cancel their services without being bound by their contracts. But it's usually closer to 60 days before you receive the first bill and find out about the extra charges that cannot be avoided.
Plus they make you stand in line to sigh up and shove a six page contract thats all fine print and demand you sign immediately while there's 10 people behind you impatiently waiting ...
How do these people get repeat business ? I can understand you were tricked the first time , but why do people go back ?
In one example provided by the Bureau, Bell's website advertised a bundle for home phone, internet and TV services starting as low as $69.90 per month. The lowest possible price, after the mandatory fees, was $80.27, or 15 per cent higher.
Customers purchasing any of the services individually were also faced with the same misleading information, as additional fees were excluded from those advertised prices as well, the bureau said.
I found out all about extra fee's on Rogers as well. Did you know if your balance doesn't reach zero for a few months they tack on an extra 25$ a month ? I thought I was paying my bill off and then some, but because of this extra fee I was actually slipping farther and farther behind...
Bell wouldn't turn off the internet , so I had to buy a stupid 7$ / month internet fee for a connection that was totally worthless and not actually useable. If you had a data phone you were forced to take a data plan you could't turn it off.
Their cheap phone broke , and I still had to pay the monthly fee for four months while they took three tries to repair it.
They cut a hundred bucks off the price of the phone. In exchagne for making me sign a three year contract.
Yeah ... I've dealt with Bell before. And Rogers.
Never again.
edit : forgot to mention the oldest trickin the book used by both bell and rogers. You have 30 days to change your mind and cancel their services without being bound by their contracts. But it's usually closer to 60 days before you receive the first bill and find out about the extra charges that cannot be avoided.
Plus they make you stand in line to sigh up and shove a six page contract thats all fine print and demand you sign immediately while there's 10 people behind you impatiently waiting ...
How do these people get repeat business ? I can understand you were tricked the first time , but why do people go back ?
Friday, June 24, 2011
EA must die! Several reasons why EA is bad for gamers and the art of gaming.
One of the most amusing things you can do with a blog is find some artical that you totally disagree with , and tear it apart paragraph by paragraph. The blog in question where the artical was posted won't let you post on them , of course, but still , you can do it on your own and then just drop links everywhere.
http://www.gamespot.com/users/Lucavix/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25672615
Have you ever heard of the series Dungeon Keeper? Dungeon Keeper was a Bullfrog Studio's creation that was a cult hit in 1995-97. In 1999 Dungeon Keeper 2 made the game entirely 3D, and it still looks acceptably good by today's standards. The game was known for it's wickedly dark humor, it's interesting cast of creatures and heroes, it's humorous parodies, and it's dark yet fun atmosphere.
I played dungeon Keeper. Even in it's heyday it was a mediocre at best game. The reversal of playing the dungeon full of evil monsters instead of the hero's trying to fight their way in was interesting at first , but it didn't translate well into a game. And you can only slap chickens so many times before you become bored of it.
Dungeon Keeper 2 ended with a teaser for Dungeon Keeper 3, but Dungeon Keeper 3 was canceled. Because EA had limited sales of Dungeon Keeper 2 after their hostile acquisition of Bullfrog Studios, Dungeon Keeper 2 never generated enough revenue and most people obtained it through piracy. Dungeon Keeper 3 was considered too risky, and it was literally cancelled to free up the studio and funding for Harry Potter - Quidditch. This is but one reason EA is bad for the industry, but oh there are more. So many more.
I'm not following your logic. The game lost money , they stopped producing the series. Thats not "bad for the industry" , thats good. People vote with their pocket books, and they voted that game out.
I have no doubt the piracy issue could be fixed (most games require you to log on and registure before you can play them , thus getting rid of piracy and explaining why mmo's are so popular) but if the game was losing money , no one really wanted it anyways. I know I don't miss it.
I have no doubt the piracy issue could be fixed (most games require you to log on and registure before you can play them , thus getting rid of piracy and explaining why mmo's are so popular) but if the game was losing money , no one really wanted it anyways. I know I don't miss it.
Westwood Studios, responsible for such games as Command and Conquer: Renegade (believe it or not that game did very well online) fell into EA's clutches with it's ambitious Space MMO Earth and Beyond. Having the server power to host such a game, EA used Earth and Beyond to ensnare Westwood Studios. EA then moved on to lock Westwood out of making decisions effecting the game, and slowly destroyed it. All plans for PvP introduction, extended career paths, and so on were canceled, and then EA moved to cancel the game and abolish Westwood Studios. Earth and Beyond players had their accounts deleted, and critics often allege that the entire purpose of EA's acquisition of Earth and Beyond was to eliminate Westwood Studios as competition. But wait, trust me, there's much much more.
A nice conspiracy theory. Maybe even a few hints of truth. But Command and Conquer was a StarCraft rip off from the get go , and inferior in every respect (I've played both). The only thing that game ever did for me was convince me to go back to starcraft.
Played that horrible World of Warcraft clone Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning yet? It didn't start off the horrible unoriginal mess it is, it was initially an incredibly ambitious project and a full PvP experience that was supposed to cut out grinding all together. Electronic Arts thought the project was too ambitious, and forced Mythic Entertainment to go a different rout, copying World of Warcraft. EA then began cutting funding and putting increased pressure on Mythic Entertainment, eventually forcing Mythic to release Warhammer Online unfinished, with several playable classes removed. EA then moved to sell back the cut and unfinished content in an expansion pack. But wait, there's more.
Except that the "full pvp" experience generally alienates 90% of your paying customers , as they found out the hard way when Ultima Online first came out. After which you're desperately trying to salvage something by making an imitation game ... yeah it needed to die. Full pvp games have been tried, and have died for good and proper reasons.
Played the Sims lately? How about The Sims 2? Did you find it suspicious that after fleecing you on expansion packs for the Sims, they reset it all with the Sims 2 and began the cycle again? Now they're doing it with The Sims 3, which is actually a good game (that one out of ten EA games worth playing) but they're already going expansion crazy. This time with Micro Transactions but rest assured a full fledged Expansion pack in already in the works and will also come with a swath of "Pay to Access" content. Unfortunately for EA this financial model encourages piracy, and many gamers including legitimate customers who actually purchased The Sims 3 have already downloaded all of the Pay to Access content via third party sites.
Everyone is experimenting with pay to play (except TOR) in various forms.
And having seen wow with half the guild members at max level , maybe resetting it all when starting a new game is the way to go. Certainly the lower levels wouldn't be so completely empty any more.
And the phrase "financial model encourages piracy" is just blaming the rape victem for getting raped. It's a complete non starter. Pay these people to make games, or they will stop making them. It's just that simple.
And having seen wow with half the guild members at max level , maybe resetting it all when starting a new game is the way to go. Certainly the lower levels wouldn't be so completely empty any more.
And the phrase "financial model encourages piracy" is just blaming the rape victem for getting raped. It's a complete non starter. Pay these people to make games, or they will stop making them. It's just that simple.
Moral Outrage is not the only reason Spore is the most pirated and boycotted game ...
Due to moral outrage ,you will now commit immoral acts , like theft. Oh thats a good argument.
Moral Outrage is not the only reason Spore is the most pirated and boycotted game of all time though. With Spore EA decided to introduce invasive DRM policies, that limited Spore to three installations. This punishes legit gamers but it doesn't punish Pirates, who never have to suffer the effects of DRM. With no warning, EA also slips SecuROM onto people's computers, and while this doesn't cause problems most of the time it is known to make CD/DvD Drives, particularly writable drives, to stop reading properly. In fact, it's known to disable drives all together sometimes, though this is rare. My only experience with SecuROM causing me problems was when I tried to play the old game Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. For some reason SecuROM seemed convinced I was using a virtual mount even after I had installed the game, and I was forced to download the version of the 1.3 patch that disabled the need for a CD check. Others have reported similar issues with other games, but the problem isn't so much with SecuROM, it's that EA installs SecuROM without warning or permission, which brings up a whole lot of legal issues. Since SecuROM has been stripped from most pirated copies of Spore, it also encourages Piracy. But wait, there's more.
This I will grant you. Loading up my computer with buggy software to crash it is now stepping into the territory of the virus writer. I don't care what you put in your end user agreement, I want that piece of crap off my computer and I don't want your games under any circumstances.
That being said, there must be a dozen different ways of securing a program from piracy , in this internet age, without having to load anything even remotely like malware on your computer. MMO's do it all the time. And new games typically are written with some kind of link to the internet so you have to have an account so you can't steal it. Think pokemon, essentially a single player game , but if you want to trade pokemon with other players ...
That being said, there must be a dozen different ways of securing a program from piracy , in this internet age, without having to load anything even remotely like malware on your computer. MMO's do it all the time. And new games typically are written with some kind of link to the internet so you have to have an account so you can't steal it. Think pokemon, essentially a single player game , but if you want to trade pokemon with other players ...
EA bought up exclusive rights to the NFL, no other gaming company can make an NFL game now. Without competition, EA released the same game over and over again with very minor alterations, often quite literally keeping all the same gameplay bugs with each season. Most gamers aren't football fans, I know, but this is an example of what EA does to the industry. It monopolized the NFL license and has since driven it into the ground.
A better explanation would be they bought up the rights to a game no one wants to play. Lets face it. Gamers want to kill dragons ,not toss around a pig skin. And most people who do like foot ball would rather watch reruns of the game and drink beer than fiddle with a joy stick. Or better yet, go play flag foot ball. Who really plays sports games anyways ? The used game shelves are full of them , meaning whoever actually buys one dumps it fairly quickly . How about the game flopped because it had no market ?
I'm not saying EA is a saint.
But I'm not saying it's a monster either.
EA is a business. It makes games. And if you want those games, they have to stay in business. And that means you have to pay up. This crap about "I'm committing piracy because I'm morally outraged .." is crap of the worst sort. Don't buy their games is your option. Maybe even protest their games. But don't steal them. That's you making up excuses for your crimes. That isn't moral anything.
It's just crap.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Real G20 Criminals
Toronto police and their partner police forces during the G20 summit were sometimes overwhelmed and caught flat-footed by the "scope and intensity" of the "sustained, serious, and widespread criminality and public disorder" they faced, an internal force after-action review admits.
Postmedia News obtained an advance copy of the 70-page document, which was posted late Thursday afternoon on the police website.
The report, written by unidentified senior Toronto officers and civilians who reviewed extensive video footage and police files, paints a terrifying, almost minute-by-minute portrait of the modern mob in full throttle.
"Last June, we saw levels of violence we had never seen before in Toronto," Bill Blair, the city's police chief, says in a brief forward. "This report takes a hard look at what happened. Many things we did very well.
"Some things we did not."
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Police+overwhelmed+intensity+violence+Report/4995817/story.html#ixzz1Q8lP5s6d
Ok. So , what were these people rioting against ? Communists ? Dictators ? Who ? Who is this nefarious G20 that has incurred so much anger ?
http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx
The Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999 to bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. The inaugural meeting of the G-20 took place in Berlin, on December 15-16, 1999, hosted by German and Canadian finance ministers.
So the g20 are a bunch of elected ministors of democratic governments. And you are protesting against them ... why ?
You don't have a why. I have seen the reports on the way up to the summit , and after. Some organization for the poor wants money. Two idiots who think they're terrorists bombed a bank machine (bank machine , banker , finance minister ...you're destroying private property to protest a governments actions, and you don't even say which actions) in ottawa before the summit.
This riot had nothing to do with banking. It has to do with people trying to steal the stage for their own causes. Any stage. And these things always turn violent.
I give a little blame to Harper for deciding to hold an event with a history of violence in the down town core of any major city. I love the conservatives, but that was a real bone head move.
I give a little more blame to the police for acting under trying circumstances. It seems when the stress is on , we get to see their true colors, and that color is pretty ugly looking, and someone needs to start thinking about fixing that problem up before comments about Canada's police state stop being an exaggeration and start being truthful. Forbidding them to confiscate cameras and recorders would be a good beginning.
But mostly I blame the wacked out anarchists who live to start a riot over anything. The idiots who showed up to protest ...what ? Bankers are evil ? Do you have any specifics ? Or did you just sort of hear that somewhere and decided it sounded good ? Do you even know what you are protesting ? No. You're just stealing someone elses spot light for your own needs.
I blamed the wacko's for this fiasco. Couple of other groups helped , and should be taught not to help, but mostly , I blame the wacko's. Those are the real G20 criminals.
Anti- Islam Lawmaker Aquitted
Dutch far-right member of parliament Geert Wilders was acquitted of all charges in his hate speech trial in Amsterdam. Judges found the populist politician’s comments against Islam may be offensive to many, but that they fall within the scope of protected free speech.
Wasnt there a captured training manual from the terrorists that said they were to assassinate any politicians that are against their cause ?
And they already killed that cartoonist.
While I do not agree with Wilders crude style and certainly not all that he says, I cannot help but think he's about to get "taken out".
Which will only make a martyr out of him.
An Anti-Islamic Martyr.
And so the world goes on in it's insanity...
Monday, April 25, 2011
iPhones spy on their users
Phone Data Used to Fill Digital Map
SAN FRANCISCO — You may not know it, but if you carry a smartphone in your pocket, you are probably doing unpaid work for Apple or Google — and helping them eventually aim more advertising directly at you.
As those two companies battle for dominance in mobile computing, they have increasingly been using their customers’ phones as sensors to collect data about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots.
A program that you dont want doing stuff to help someone else , running on your equipment , is considered mal-ware. (virus or trojen) and should be removed.
So when exactly did Apple gain the right to put mal-ware on the devices it's selling to you ?
Google and Apple use this data to improve the accuracy of everything on the phone that uses location. That includes maps and navigation services, but also advertising aimed at people in a particular spot — a potentially huge business that is just getting off the ground. In fact, the information has become so valuable that the companies have been willing to push the envelope on privacy to collect it.
Loosely translated : We can make money at this , so to heck with the customers were actually selling equipment to.
The use of this data by the companies has been under scrutiny since last week, when two technology researchers reported that a file stored on many iPhones and iPads keeps track of all the locations visited by a user. The file is unencrypted and is copied to people’s personal computers when they sync their devices.
Ever get the feeling you're being watched ? Do you mind that the next time the super attendant changes the light bulb in your bathroom he puts in one that tracks everyone's movement in there ? Really , it only uses a little extra electricity but it's worth so much money to people with certain ... tastes....
Ok, maybe a tasteless comparison , some would say. But certain things are indisputable. Advertising works. Otherwise they wouldn't be spending so much money on it. And Advertising makes you buy stuff you really shouldn't buy , so you can consider it a hostile activity.
And helping to construct an advertising system that's going to be aimed directly at you , using your equipment , and not telling you about it ... thats hostile. We have enough junk mail in our in boxes (and in our real mail boxes) We don't need to add to the load we need to subtract from it.
But they have decided there's money to be made , so they're gonna sneak this in and hope no one notices.
Just like a virus writer does.
And for exactly the same reasons too.
SAN FRANCISCO — You may not know it, but if you carry a smartphone in your pocket, you are probably doing unpaid work for Apple or Google — and helping them eventually aim more advertising directly at you.
As those two companies battle for dominance in mobile computing, they have increasingly been using their customers’ phones as sensors to collect data about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots.
A program that you dont want doing stuff to help someone else , running on your equipment , is considered mal-ware. (virus or trojen) and should be removed.
So when exactly did Apple gain the right to put mal-ware on the devices it's selling to you ?
Google and Apple use this data to improve the accuracy of everything on the phone that uses location. That includes maps and navigation services, but also advertising aimed at people in a particular spot — a potentially huge business that is just getting off the ground. In fact, the information has become so valuable that the companies have been willing to push the envelope on privacy to collect it.
Loosely translated : We can make money at this , so to heck with the customers were actually selling equipment to.
The use of this data by the companies has been under scrutiny since last week, when two technology researchers reported that a file stored on many iPhones and iPads keeps track of all the locations visited by a user. The file is unencrypted and is copied to people’s personal computers when they sync their devices.
Ever get the feeling you're being watched ? Do you mind that the next time the super attendant changes the light bulb in your bathroom he puts in one that tracks everyone's movement in there ? Really , it only uses a little extra electricity but it's worth so much money to people with certain ... tastes....
Ok, maybe a tasteless comparison , some would say. But certain things are indisputable. Advertising works. Otherwise they wouldn't be spending so much money on it. And Advertising makes you buy stuff you really shouldn't buy , so you can consider it a hostile activity.
And helping to construct an advertising system that's going to be aimed directly at you , using your equipment , and not telling you about it ... thats hostile. We have enough junk mail in our in boxes (and in our real mail boxes) We don't need to add to the load we need to subtract from it.
But they have decided there's money to be made , so they're gonna sneak this in and hope no one notices.
Just like a virus writer does.
And for exactly the same reasons too.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
News or Propaganda ?
Liberal health care ads may be working
Liberal attack ads warning that the Conservatives harbour a secret agenda to cut health care funding appear to be having their intended affect.
A new poll that looks at how Canadians view the leadership abilities of those running for prime minister suggests that voters’ assessments of Stephen Harper have dropped since the Liberals went negative in their television advertising this weekend.
The survey of 400 voters conducted Saturday for Nanos Research, indicates that the Conservative Leader’s numbers on the leadership index score fell to 91.6 from 105.4.
In the globe and mail they ran a "news" article. And I question the news part significantly. The article basically picked a poll of 400 voters (a thousand is considered the requirement for reasonably accuracy) and trumpeted the results as if it were indisputable and inevitable victory for the Liberals.
What they should have done is lamented that dirty tricks like spinning baseless conspiracy theories have no place in an election.
What they should have done was point out the sample size of the poll was too small.
what they should have done was at least point out the poll is considered accurate to + or minus X % 19 times out of 20 , but they skipped that.
What they did was trumpet it as an inevitable victory for the Liberals , and made no attempt to paint the Conservatives as anything but villians secretly trying to destroy canada.
The Globe and Mail is not a neutril bystander. They have quite obviously picked a side.
And that is the true tragedy here.
This newspaper isn't selling us news anymore. It's now preaching and propagandizing to us , and expecting us to pay for it.
Liberal attack ads warning that the Conservatives harbour a secret agenda to cut health care funding appear to be having their intended affect.
A new poll that looks at how Canadians view the leadership abilities of those running for prime minister suggests that voters’ assessments of Stephen Harper have dropped since the Liberals went negative in their television advertising this weekend.
The survey of 400 voters conducted Saturday for Nanos Research, indicates that the Conservative Leader’s numbers on the leadership index score fell to 91.6 from 105.4.
In the globe and mail they ran a "news" article. And I question the news part significantly. The article basically picked a poll of 400 voters (a thousand is considered the requirement for reasonably accuracy) and trumpeted the results as if it were indisputable and inevitable victory for the Liberals.
What they should have done is lamented that dirty tricks like spinning baseless conspiracy theories have no place in an election.
What they should have done was point out the sample size of the poll was too small.
what they should have done was at least point out the poll is considered accurate to + or minus X % 19 times out of 20 , but they skipped that.
What they did was trumpet it as an inevitable victory for the Liberals , and made no attempt to paint the Conservatives as anything but villians secretly trying to destroy canada.
The Globe and Mail is not a neutril bystander. They have quite obviously picked a side.
And that is the true tragedy here.
This newspaper isn't selling us news anymore. It's now preaching and propagandizing to us , and expecting us to pay for it.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Draft motion says Tories in contempt of Parliament
Draft motion says Tories in contempt of Parliament
Opposition MPs on a Commons committee have declared the Harper government in contempt of Parliament in a historic draft motion.
Wow, he sounds like a really nasty guy. What did he do ?
...Insert 4 paragraphs discussing strategy and tactics about politicians maneuvering to back stab each other...
Umm...ok. So what did he do ? Or are you just going to make really nasty accusations and then suddenly move on to something else ?
The opposition motion specifies the government's refusal to produce full cost estimates for its crime legislation and corporate tax cuts, impeding the work of Parliament. The motion is a directive to committee staff, who will produce the formal document Monday.
So ... you don't like their estimate, which is just a guess, you like your own better. Which is still just a guess.
Liberal finance critic Scott Brison said the ministers were misleading the committee.
"He left out many of the costs of these bills," Brison said Thursday, saying the ministers left out of many of costs associated with the crime bills.
The new documents set the price tag at $631 million for 18 crime bills, but the opposition said they weren't buying that figure.
Hey I remember this. You think they're low balling the costs because their crime bills will , you know,keep criminals in jail longer. Which is where the real cost comes from. And you don't like that , you don't think criminals should stay in jail a little longer.
The government said a bill for stiffer penalties for prisoners will cost $2-billion over five years, but Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said the sentencing will cost more than double that, at $5 billion.
Yep. Stiffer penalties. More time in jail. More cost to the government.
This ... is like an analysis of a biased newspaper supporting a corrupt government. Everything about this news article paints the conservatives as evil doer's , but locking criminals up for longer periods is hardly an evil deed.
It's a sad , sad day when a newspaper becomes a propaganda tool for a political party. Really. CTV should be ashamed of themselves.
And it's a worse day when a political party can't read the prevailing winds. This is a manufactured issue you're squawking about. keeping people in jail longer is evil ? It is becoming increasingly obvious the liberals will tell any lie, make any distortion , in a quest to try and get elected.
They do not proffer any policies of their own , and they crap on other policies that are arguably good policies. And even policies that were their own , if someone else takes it over (the F35's for example) , then they start to crap on it too.
The whole "that guy is crap , we listen to you , but no , we probably woldnt do anythign differently , in fact we have a long history of not doing anything differently " , it's getting tiresome.
CTV is no longer a real news site it seems. Too bad.
Opposition MPs on a Commons committee have declared the Harper government in contempt of Parliament in a historic draft motion.
Wow, he sounds like a really nasty guy. What did he do ?
...Insert 4 paragraphs discussing strategy and tactics about politicians maneuvering to back stab each other...
Umm...ok. So what did he do ? Or are you just going to make really nasty accusations and then suddenly move on to something else ?
The opposition motion specifies the government's refusal to produce full cost estimates for its crime legislation and corporate tax cuts, impeding the work of Parliament. The motion is a directive to committee staff, who will produce the formal document Monday.
So ... you don't like their estimate, which is just a guess, you like your own better. Which is still just a guess.
Liberal finance critic Scott Brison said the ministers were misleading the committee.
"He left out many of the costs of these bills," Brison said Thursday, saying the ministers left out of many of costs associated with the crime bills.
The new documents set the price tag at $631 million for 18 crime bills, but the opposition said they weren't buying that figure.
Hey I remember this. You think they're low balling the costs because their crime bills will , you know,keep criminals in jail longer. Which is where the real cost comes from. And you don't like that , you don't think criminals should stay in jail a little longer.
The government said a bill for stiffer penalties for prisoners will cost $2-billion over five years, but Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said the sentencing will cost more than double that, at $5 billion.
Yep. Stiffer penalties. More time in jail. More cost to the government.
This ... is like an analysis of a biased newspaper supporting a corrupt government. Everything about this news article paints the conservatives as evil doer's , but locking criminals up for longer periods is hardly an evil deed.
It's a sad , sad day when a newspaper becomes a propaganda tool for a political party. Really. CTV should be ashamed of themselves.
And it's a worse day when a political party can't read the prevailing winds. This is a manufactured issue you're squawking about. keeping people in jail longer is evil ? It is becoming increasingly obvious the liberals will tell any lie, make any distortion , in a quest to try and get elected.
They do not proffer any policies of their own , and they crap on other policies that are arguably good policies. And even policies that were their own , if someone else takes it over (the F35's for example) , then they start to crap on it too.
The whole "that guy is crap , we listen to you , but no , we probably woldnt do anythign differently , in fact we have a long history of not doing anything differently " , it's getting tiresome.
CTV is no longer a real news site it seems. Too bad.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Bell and Internet Band width
I saw the basic plans for bell , $21.95 to 52.95$ , and I wondered how much band width , how many gigabytes per month do you get ?
And this neat chat window popped up, so I thought I'd ask.
Couple of interesting things.
Bell sells internet access to third party ISP's for $4.25 for 40 gigabytes.
They're selling you 2 gigabytes for 20$ (plus tax and a lot of add ons..notice that "in a bundle only" stuff ? )
And you wonder why people are outraged ?
Second, they definately wanted my full mailing address. I lied about the apartment number , so some poor smuck in 101 is going to be getting a ton of advertising from them.
Third. It was a simple inquirey , she obviously had the answer waiting to be copied and pasted , but she refused. She wanted to know everything and the dog about me , drag it out and make it last a long time, get marketting information to either tie to the account I don't have or start a new file on me (my apologies to every one living in apartment 101 in every aparetment building in canada) .
Just unbelievably annoying.
Fourth : Why didn't they put the bandwidth limits on the web page ? If you're not technically savy , you wouldn't even know such a thing existed. Thats like advertising a new TV and saying 20$ , instead of 20$ + lots of fee's if you actually turn it on and use it, lots and lots of fees actually. It's technically true , but out right misleading. They basically lied without lying.
I gotta ask
Do you really want to get into any kind of relationship with someone who doesn't hesitate to misrepresent themselves like this ?
Scroll up and look at her quotes again. They all end in "...for the first twelve months" , you're signing up for a multi-year contract if you go with these guys.
Take a look at their online service agreement.
Terms and Conditions
10. Changes; Amendments. To the extent permitted by applicable law, Your Service Provider may modify the Service, this Service Agreement, including any other document that forms part thereof, at any time and from time to time, with or without your consent or authorization, including but not limited to modification or amendment of Service Fees or modification, amendment or termination of any Service feature.
They reserve the right to change their mind anytime they like, and your authorization is not required, thanks for playing. Raise the rates, get into a dispute , anything they like. this is Bells automatic "Bell Wins , You Lose" button.
Do you really want to get into a multi-year contract with these guys ?
Oh ...rogers is just as bad.
:)
All this fuss... and they're selling 40 gigs to other companies for $4.25 a pop. Why can't they sell it to me for that ? I'd be happy to pay a year in advance so there won't be any collection issues.
And this neat chat window popped up, so I thought I'd ask.
A chat representative will be with you in about 0
minute(s). Thank you for waiting.
Chat representative Jennifer has joined the session and
is ready to help. To start, please provide your name and
home phone number.
Jennifer: Hello, thanks for visiting bell.ca. How can I
help you today?
You: how many gigabytes data are in your internet plans ?
your web site doesn't say
Jennifer: Sure, I can help you with that.
Jennifer: May I please know which services you currently
have with Bell?
You: none
Jennifer: Welcome to Bell family.
Jennifer: Have you checked the service availability for
your area.
You: I'm in ottawa , I"m sure it's available. Postal code
is xxxxxx if it matters
Jennifer: May I please have your complete address to
check the internet services available in your area?
You: 999 xxxxxx ottawa ont xxxxxx
Jennifer: Would you mind holding while I look that
information up for you?
You: k
Jennifer: May I please know you apartment number.
You: I don't want any junk mail
Jennifer: I am sorry there are lot of number showing in
our website so I am asking it just to check the exact
available service.
You: you are suggesting the guy in one apartment gets a
deal and the guy in the next does not ? ... put in 101
Jennifer: I have great news for you. Bell high-speed
Internet is available in your area.
You: since my next door neibour has it , I already knew.
How many gigabytes for "essential plus"
Jennifer: Let me send the details for "Essential Plus".
Jennifer: Essential Plus offers high-speed Internet with
a download speed of up to 2 Mbps. The bandwidth allotted
per month is 2 GB. The service also includes email
anti-virus, spam filtering, pop-up blocking and basic
parental controls for $21.95/month for the first 12
months, only in a bundle, plus a $3.95 modem rental.
You: and fibre 25 ?
Jennifer: Fibe 25 Internet is our new next-generation
fibre optic network. You'll receive download speeds of up
to 25 Mbps and uploads of up to 7 Mbps - the fastest on
the market. This service includes a bandwidth of 75 GB,
Bell Internet Security Advanced and a wireless home
networking N series modem for $52.95/month for the first
12 months, only in a bundle with a $6.95 modem rental.
Couple of interesting things.
Bell sells internet access to third party ISP's for $4.25 for 40 gigabytes.
They're selling you 2 gigabytes for 20$ (plus tax and a lot of add ons..notice that "in a bundle only" stuff ? )
And you wonder why people are outraged ?
Second, they definately wanted my full mailing address. I lied about the apartment number , so some poor smuck in 101 is going to be getting a ton of advertising from them.
Third. It was a simple inquirey , she obviously had the answer waiting to be copied and pasted , but she refused. She wanted to know everything and the dog about me , drag it out and make it last a long time, get marketting information to either tie to the account I don't have or start a new file on me (my apologies to every one living in apartment 101 in every aparetment building in canada) .
Just unbelievably annoying.
Fourth : Why didn't they put the bandwidth limits on the web page ? If you're not technically savy , you wouldn't even know such a thing existed. Thats like advertising a new TV and saying 20$ , instead of 20$ + lots of fee's if you actually turn it on and use it, lots and lots of fees actually. It's technically true , but out right misleading. They basically lied without lying.
I gotta ask
Do you really want to get into any kind of relationship with someone who doesn't hesitate to misrepresent themselves like this ?
Scroll up and look at her quotes again. They all end in "...for the first twelve months" , you're signing up for a multi-year contract if you go with these guys.
Take a look at their online service agreement.
Terms and Conditions
10. Changes; Amendments. To the extent permitted by applicable law, Your Service Provider may modify the Service, this Service Agreement, including any other document that forms part thereof, at any time and from time to time, with or without your consent or authorization, including but not limited to modification or amendment of Service Fees or modification, amendment or termination of any Service feature.
They reserve the right to change their mind anytime they like, and your authorization is not required, thanks for playing. Raise the rates, get into a dispute , anything they like. this is Bells automatic "Bell Wins , You Lose" button.
Do you really want to get into a multi-year contract with these guys ?
Oh ...rogers is just as bad.
:)
All this fuss... and they're selling 40 gigs to other companies for $4.25 a pop. Why can't they sell it to me for that ? I'd be happy to pay a year in advance so there won't be any collection issues.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Second Video Generation
Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles,...
It's an odd feeling. You look up this song you like, and you find out some girl sang it , and you've known that name all your life , you think.
Then you check the dates, and realized she died of old age while you were still in diapers.
It does things to your head when you start to realize...
You can look back in time, via this computer , this internet , this youtube site (who knows what it will be called next year) and see how people lived their lives long ago , see their entire lives from birth to death.
Oh they could do that a century ago with books. Except 90% of the population couldn't read and write.
Now. Bored . Nothing better to do , a single question comes to your mind.
How far back in time does this dang thing go ?
We are the second video generation. Looking back at the first , who lived their entire lives , and died of old age , in front of the camera. We are the first generation that has something to look back upon and observer their body language, the cloths they wore , what they thought was moral and right.
And we can't argue with them , we cannot debate, because their time is over , they are gone, they are not listenning.
We can only observe , and wonder.
Friday, January 21, 2011
New Liberal ads attack Harper over jets, tax cuts
New Liberal ads attack Harper over jets, tax cuts
After complaining bitterly about the conservatives using tax payer funds to make attack ads (which the liberals did all the time ) the liberals come out swinging with their own ads.
Since liberals get a certain amount per voter because they used to be in power, doesn't this mean that even if they paid for it out of their own fund s, it's still canadian tax payer dollars ?
The federal Liberals lashed out Friday with two new attack ads that take aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the sole-sourced purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets and planned corporate tax cuts.
They are a direct response to an ad campaign launched earlier this week by the Conservatives.
The election campaign-style television ads focus on two issues certain to be key planks in the Liberals' campaign when an election is called.
So your two key planks are....
1... WE thought the F35's were a great idea when it was our idea, but now that someone else is doing it we hate it.
And ...
2... giving money to corperations is bad. Unless we do it. Because we do it all the time, corperate donations are what made us the party we are today ...until those donations were declared illegal that is.
These are your issues ?
Help me out here. Are you trying to win the next election ? Or are you deliberately throwing it ?
After complaining bitterly about the conservatives using tax payer funds to make attack ads (which the liberals did all the time ) the liberals come out swinging with their own ads.
Since liberals get a certain amount per voter because they used to be in power, doesn't this mean that even if they paid for it out of their own fund s, it's still canadian tax payer dollars ?
The federal Liberals lashed out Friday with two new attack ads that take aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the sole-sourced purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets and planned corporate tax cuts.
They are a direct response to an ad campaign launched earlier this week by the Conservatives.
The election campaign-style television ads focus on two issues certain to be key planks in the Liberals' campaign when an election is called.
So your two key planks are....
1... WE thought the F35's were a great idea when it was our idea, but now that someone else is doing it we hate it.
And ...
2... giving money to corperations is bad. Unless we do it. Because we do it all the time, corperate donations are what made us the party we are today ...until those donations were declared illegal that is.
These are your issues ?
Help me out here. Are you trying to win the next election ? Or are you deliberately throwing it ?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Ottawa Police Create video protesting how they're being treated.
After it became public that they arrested a certain Stacy Bonds, for public drunkenness, because she apparently had a bottle of alcholol in her hands, which mysteriously vanished , and was never entered into evidence or found, and after the case was tossed because they got caught on video kneeing her in the back stripping her topless , and otherwise acting like a bunch of hoodlems mugging a victem instead of proper police officers ...
The ottawa police have been distributing this particular video among themselves as a response.
Note how the "charges" against the criminal are trumped up to the most atrocious things imaginable ? The fact that this is in response to a woman who was innocent (charges dropped this time and no previous charges) is probably the most aggravating thing of all.
When people just open their mouths and let fly the lies ... it serves them right they get caught.
The ottawa police have been distributing this particular video among themselves as a response.
Note how the "charges" against the criminal are trumped up to the most atrocious things imaginable ? The fact that this is in response to a woman who was innocent (charges dropped this time and no previous charges) is probably the most aggravating thing of all.
When people just open their mouths and let fly the lies ... it serves them right they get caught.
This is what we are fighting for
Soldiers stay cool after Canadian convoy shot at following fender-bender
The ANA crew refused the paperwork and demanded instead a cash payment on the spot, they said. The Canadians refused, walked away and drove off.
Not giving up, the ANA soldiers drove ahead, set up a roadblock and stopped the heavily armed and armoured convoy again. When the Canadians refused the demand for instant payment a second time, shots were fired first in the air and then at their vehicle.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Canada’s Task Force Kandahar confirmed there were no injuries and that the Canadians did not shoot back.
ANA is Afghanistan National Army.
Basically , they had a fender bender with some canadian troops. And then tried (twice) to shake the canadians down for cash. Even pointing guns at them and shooting their vehicals up.
So this is what we are fighting for in Afghanistan ? This is what we are building ? A whole army unit that openly shakes down anyone they feel like , and feel outraged that their right to do so has been violated ? They feel they deserve to shake down anyone ?
We should stick to simple 6 day wars. Go in. Shoot everything. Tear the place up. Leave.
because this nation building stuff. It's just not working.
The ANA crew refused the paperwork and demanded instead a cash payment on the spot, they said. The Canadians refused, walked away and drove off.
Not giving up, the ANA soldiers drove ahead, set up a roadblock and stopped the heavily armed and armoured convoy again. When the Canadians refused the demand for instant payment a second time, shots were fired first in the air and then at their vehicle.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Canada’s Task Force Kandahar confirmed there were no injuries and that the Canadians did not shoot back.
ANA is Afghanistan National Army.
Basically , they had a fender bender with some canadian troops. And then tried (twice) to shake the canadians down for cash. Even pointing guns at them and shooting their vehicals up.
So this is what we are fighting for in Afghanistan ? This is what we are building ? A whole army unit that openly shakes down anyone they feel like , and feel outraged that their right to do so has been violated ? They feel they deserve to shake down anyone ?
We should stick to simple 6 day wars. Go in. Shoot everything. Tear the place up. Leave.
because this nation building stuff. It's just not working.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Tool Time Winner
An interesting news article that covers the matter rather nicely I think.
Julian Assange is being accused of being a terrorist , and wiki leaks a terrorist organization , but who did they kill ? Who did they demand die ? Who are they shouting "this guy must die ! Somebody go kill him here's his home address !!!"
Umm...nobody. They don't do that.
This would be why they're subtly hinting that congressman Peter King is a tool.
Worse. By speaking out and demanding this guy be assassinated , illegally if necessarily ( not in this video , I'm still looking for that one) then the USA is now the one agitating for someone to die , or commiting acts of terrorism if they run off and used their own internal staff to assassinate this guy.
Terrorism , you know , as in killing people so as to frighten other people into obeying you ? That kind of terrorism? Yep. That shoe fits really well on certain US Congressmen , and not so well on Julian Assange.
I hope these peoples tempers cool and this blows over, because lets face it. If the rule of law is tossed away , suddenly everyone in the world is a target for these idiots.
And that includes you and me , brother.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Stephen Harper brings new definition to the term 'Prime Ministerial'
you will not believe it until you see it.
Somebody doesn't spend all their time in front of the tele , this much is obvious.
Thanks for the Terrorism
Teen accused of hacking WikiLeaks pay sites
There is a certain inevitability in world events. Certain patterns that keep being repeated , certain people in authority with no sense of history , doomed to repeat the course , so to speak , only all of us will suffer because of their ignorance.
When the romans decided to make christianity illegal , they did not destroy it, they merely drove it underground where it could not be seen or dealt with. And they spread like wild fire, and eventually rose up and took over the western world for a few centuries.
When a group of scholars challenged the dictators of the day (yeah , the very same christians, who also had a problem with learning even their own history) and were all imprisoned or punished horribly , it did not wipe them out. It drove them underground, and turned them into a violent group who , technically I suppose now rule the world (atheism vs theology)
There are many examples where people were either just minding their own business or were merely pointing out that the authorities of the day were doing things they weren't supposed to be doing.
And the government surpressed them.
And they got driven underground. But their cause was popular.
And so they became violent. They fit the modern definition of todays terrorists.
Mr. Assange , god bless you , for you are about to be Martyr'd for your cause.
Mr. Barak Obama. Thanks a heap. You just brought a bunch of new age terrorists upon us. Only this time they're not ignorant goat herders on the other side of the world. They're high tech home grown westerners. And they're lack of religion isn't going to lessen their zeal.
Mark my words. This movement has legs, and we're all going to regret the decision to surpress it.
There is a certain inevitability in world events. Certain patterns that keep being repeated , certain people in authority with no sense of history , doomed to repeat the course , so to speak , only all of us will suffer because of their ignorance.
When the romans decided to make christianity illegal , they did not destroy it, they merely drove it underground where it could not be seen or dealt with. And they spread like wild fire, and eventually rose up and took over the western world for a few centuries.
When a group of scholars challenged the dictators of the day (yeah , the very same christians, who also had a problem with learning even their own history) and were all imprisoned or punished horribly , it did not wipe them out. It drove them underground, and turned them into a violent group who , technically I suppose now rule the world (atheism vs theology)
There are many examples where people were either just minding their own business or were merely pointing out that the authorities of the day were doing things they weren't supposed to be doing.
And the government surpressed them.
And they got driven underground. But their cause was popular.
And so they became violent. They fit the modern definition of todays terrorists.
Mr. Assange , god bless you , for you are about to be Martyr'd for your cause.
Mr. Barak Obama. Thanks a heap. You just brought a bunch of new age terrorists upon us. Only this time they're not ignorant goat herders on the other side of the world. They're high tech home grown westerners. And they're lack of religion isn't going to lessen their zeal.
Mark my words. This movement has legs, and we're all going to regret the decision to surpress it.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Wikileaks fiasco
Article
This whole Wikileaks fiasco, the one where some secret government documents got released to the general public, has been going on a while , and I suppose I should make a few comments on it, since it has to do with computers and all.
First point : what exactly was released ?
I see a few unkind comments made by low level flunkies .
We saw a grainy video of a guy carrying what sure looks like a big rifle to me , but the narrerator claims other wise, and then he and the other gun men (whom the narrorator does not dispute have guns) get all shot up by americans.
We see our (former )cheif of intelligence wants to turn canada into a police state to make his job easier , demonstrating he's forgotten that he's supposed to be protecting democracy ,not eradicating it. Perhaps this is why he's now "former" ?
A lot of people figured they knew what North Korea was going to do next. And then got caught with their pants down when North Korea decided to do something different.
There's nothing in these leaks. Nothing important, just bureaucrats covering their behinds and trying not to have their mistakes come to light |real or imagined mistakes).
And for this they are tracking the head of Wikileaks down , charging him with sexual assault and rape (with a prostitute, while they were doing it ...apparently she changed her mind half way throgh .. classic he said she said no witnesses present case) . And donating money to wikileaks has been shut down. Not declared officially illegal , but Visa and Master Card and Pay Pal suddenly decided not to process such transactions.
It is fascinating how undemocratic our democratic nations can act. I was reading an article on china about some chinese citizens getting a nobel peace prize for thwarting the government, and the terrble things the chinese were doing to him, and I kept thinking ,we're doing the exact same stuff to this guy. We're really not much different.
Which indicates maybe this Wikileaks guy is on to something. The Witch Hunt being engaged in itself affirms the very things the western democracies are trying to deny.
The second fascinating thing is the reaction to this. Private citizens are now rebelling against their "democratic" overlords by way of a volintairy program they run on their computers to form a bot net to attack the instruments of the governments. (Visa, master card, etc , who refuse to take payements.
And the news articles focus heavily on the sexual charges against this guy, but no one is biting, no one is fooled. All they're doing is identifying themselves , telling us who's a cats paw for the government and who isn't.
A new form of rebellion has arisen. In nations that formally enjoyed immunity to rebellion , because they were for the people, by the people, as the americans say. Except that that principle has been tossed aside.
And now we have a live example of why democracies were created in the first place. And what happens when they cease to function as democracies. And the controls they had on their populations slip and fall to the side, leaving nothing but an angry mob behind.
They put their hands on a live wire , these politicians, when they spent centuries preaching freedom of speach and then suddenly tossed it away. And now they will get their hands burned for doing that.
This whole Wikileaks fiasco, the one where some secret government documents got released to the general public, has been going on a while , and I suppose I should make a few comments on it, since it has to do with computers and all.
First point : what exactly was released ?
I see a few unkind comments made by low level flunkies .
We saw a grainy video of a guy carrying what sure looks like a big rifle to me , but the narrerator claims other wise, and then he and the other gun men (whom the narrorator does not dispute have guns) get all shot up by americans.
We see our (former )cheif of intelligence wants to turn canada into a police state to make his job easier , demonstrating he's forgotten that he's supposed to be protecting democracy ,not eradicating it. Perhaps this is why he's now "former" ?
A lot of people figured they knew what North Korea was going to do next. And then got caught with their pants down when North Korea decided to do something different.
There's nothing in these leaks. Nothing important, just bureaucrats covering their behinds and trying not to have their mistakes come to light |real or imagined mistakes).
And for this they are tracking the head of Wikileaks down , charging him with sexual assault and rape (with a prostitute, while they were doing it ...apparently she changed her mind half way throgh .. classic he said she said no witnesses present case) . And donating money to wikileaks has been shut down. Not declared officially illegal , but Visa and Master Card and Pay Pal suddenly decided not to process such transactions.
It is fascinating how undemocratic our democratic nations can act. I was reading an article on china about some chinese citizens getting a nobel peace prize for thwarting the government, and the terrble things the chinese were doing to him, and I kept thinking ,we're doing the exact same stuff to this guy. We're really not much different.
Which indicates maybe this Wikileaks guy is on to something. The Witch Hunt being engaged in itself affirms the very things the western democracies are trying to deny.
The second fascinating thing is the reaction to this. Private citizens are now rebelling against their "democratic" overlords by way of a volintairy program they run on their computers to form a bot net to attack the instruments of the governments. (Visa, master card, etc , who refuse to take payements.
And the news articles focus heavily on the sexual charges against this guy, but no one is biting, no one is fooled. All they're doing is identifying themselves , telling us who's a cats paw for the government and who isn't.
A new form of rebellion has arisen. In nations that formally enjoyed immunity to rebellion , because they were for the people, by the people, as the americans say. Except that that principle has been tossed aside.
And now we have a live example of why democracies were created in the first place. And what happens when they cease to function as democracies. And the controls they had on their populations slip and fall to the side, leaving nothing but an angry mob behind.
They put their hands on a live wire , these politicians, when they spent centuries preaching freedom of speach and then suddenly tossed it away. And now they will get their hands burned for doing that.
SIU to examine new Ottawa cellblock video
Article
The existence of the new cellblock videos was announced by Ottawa police Tuesday, after two other videos released publicly showed people being kneed or kicked at the Elgin Street cellblock.
One video from 2008 shows Stacy Bonds, a 27-year-old woman with no criminal history, being kneed and strip-searched in September 2008 after being arrested on Rideau Street for public intoxication. The charge was stayed by Justice Richard Lajoie of the Ontario Court of Justice in a verbal ruling Oct. 27.
We have a problem. Our police are out of control and are randomly mugging anyone who annoys them. And this isn't a stray incident. Two more vidoe's ? They've been doing this for a while and it's only now coming to light.
What does it take to charge a cop with a criminal offence ? They kill people with Tasers , firing five or more times when their taser manual says twice is the limit. They arrest and strip search random people picked up off the street.
My friend Wireless Toaster doesn't much like cops, never has.
I'm beginning to see why.
And our new mayor isn't helping matters. It's like he likes things the way they are.
"This is something that's happened and we're dealing with it," said Coun. Bob Monette (Orleans), who sits on the board.
"If the membership is concerned about it, they should be bringing it up to the attention of the board."
Which doesn't meet until dec 20th.
Stall , stall stall. Maybe it will all blow over if you give it enough time.
The existence of the new cellblock videos was announced by Ottawa police Tuesday, after two other videos released publicly showed people being kneed or kicked at the Elgin Street cellblock.
One video from 2008 shows Stacy Bonds, a 27-year-old woman with no criminal history, being kneed and strip-searched in September 2008 after being arrested on Rideau Street for public intoxication. The charge was stayed by Justice Richard Lajoie of the Ontario Court of Justice in a verbal ruling Oct. 27.
We have a problem. Our police are out of control and are randomly mugging anyone who annoys them. And this isn't a stray incident. Two more vidoe's ? They've been doing this for a while and it's only now coming to light.
What does it take to charge a cop with a criminal offence ? They kill people with Tasers , firing five or more times when their taser manual says twice is the limit. They arrest and strip search random people picked up off the street.
My friend Wireless Toaster doesn't much like cops, never has.
I'm beginning to see why.
And our new mayor isn't helping matters. It's like he likes things the way they are.
"This is something that's happened and we're dealing with it," said Coun. Bob Monette (Orleans), who sits on the board.
"If the membership is concerned about it, they should be bringing it up to the attention of the board."
Which doesn't meet until dec 20th.
Stall , stall stall. Maybe it will all blow over if you give it enough time.
Police Harassment The Wireless Toaster Way
So me and Wireless Toaster went In Drinking , in not out , meaning that we got some beer, we stayed home, and we cranked up skype and in the comfort of our own homes we got stinking drunk together.
Which is likely to replace going out to a bar , since it's a heck of a lot cheaper , far more comfortable, no line up for a filthy bathroom, etc etc etc ... but thats another topic for later on.
So wireless toaster is having problems with his wife, and he went to this rather unsavory motel (he's tracking down his wife, he things she has ... not so kind habits..it's a long story lets not get into it) and while he's there he see's these rather nasty looking individuals go into the motel ,have an admittedly heated conversationw with the clerk , and leaves.
And he got pictures.
And so he reports it to the police. And they never get back to him.
Wireless toaster is a technology freak , I have to mention. His current fetish is phones and phone systems. And he's a certified (computer) network engineer. A very technical person. And he had a nice computer network at home before he and his wife had problems and he had to leave, and now has a pretty awsome phone switchboard system where he lives.
Which is important to this story. because it records phone calls , incoming and out going.
And we're drinking , and he's talking about this , and he emails me three recordings for me to listen to. So , drinking back the beer, I give them a listen.
In the first recording he manages to track down the police officer that he talked to at the motel. A police officer who refused to give him his name, it should be noticed. As for the problem at the motel , it reveils nothing, but I found it fascinating that even if a cop refuses to give you his name and badge number , you can call the police station up and get it anyways. In this day and age of video's being released of cops doing nasty not very police like things, this is a fairly important point I think.
In the second recording the cop calls back , and of course, you can't give out information to a total stranger about a case thats under investigation . Even if the case is closed it's a violation of privacy to discuss it with a stranger. But Wireless toaster wants to get his say in , and the cop kept cutting him off and pointing this out... not much was accomplished.
I mentioned the phone system right ?
It seems that when you block your number when phoneing someone, it's just a courtesy that the receiving phone pays attention to that. Wireless's phone system wasn't programmed to be courteous , and ignored the signil indicating the number was blocked and gave him the number anyways.
Interesting that a blocked number could be over ridden and gotten anyways. Thats a second piece if information I found fascinating in our little drinking session.
He ran the number through google. He didn't get the cops personal details , of course, thats a serious violation of privacy. But he did get the name of the phone provider. It was a Fido Phone. Indicating that the cop had actually called on his private cell phone rather than his office phone.
Well...my wind phone has unlimited minutes, I've used it for work all the time. So I don't think there's much wrong with that , to be honest.
Third phone call recording was Wireless calling back.
Try to imagine, you called someone , you blocked the number ... and he calls you back on the phone who's number he's not supposed to have. And he goes on and on about this case . And the cop lies and says it's not his personal phone it's his work phone (yeah right) And to never call him on it. (ha ha ...don't call me at work ? To discuss work ? But it's ok to call me on this *OTHER* work number ? Thats your private phone buddy)
And Wireless went back to going on and on about having pictures and he want's to turn them in and help solve that case...
And so I learned a third thing that session. It's possible to harrass a police officer in such a way that he cannot do anything about it.
all and all a very productive evening I think. Which was contrary to what I wanted to actually do , but ok, this worked too.
I can still imagine the expression of horror that cop probably had on his face when Wireless called back on that guys personal phone. "I swear I blocked the number ! Honest I did !" It makes me laugh.
Which is likely to replace going out to a bar , since it's a heck of a lot cheaper , far more comfortable, no line up for a filthy bathroom, etc etc etc ... but thats another topic for later on.
So wireless toaster is having problems with his wife, and he went to this rather unsavory motel (he's tracking down his wife, he things she has ... not so kind habits..it's a long story lets not get into it) and while he's there he see's these rather nasty looking individuals go into the motel ,have an admittedly heated conversationw with the clerk , and leaves.
And he got pictures.
And so he reports it to the police. And they never get back to him.
Wireless toaster is a technology freak , I have to mention. His current fetish is phones and phone systems. And he's a certified (computer) network engineer. A very technical person. And he had a nice computer network at home before he and his wife had problems and he had to leave, and now has a pretty awsome phone switchboard system where he lives.
Which is important to this story. because it records phone calls , incoming and out going.
And we're drinking , and he's talking about this , and he emails me three recordings for me to listen to. So , drinking back the beer, I give them a listen.
In the first recording he manages to track down the police officer that he talked to at the motel. A police officer who refused to give him his name, it should be noticed. As for the problem at the motel , it reveils nothing, but I found it fascinating that even if a cop refuses to give you his name and badge number , you can call the police station up and get it anyways. In this day and age of video's being released of cops doing nasty not very police like things, this is a fairly important point I think.
In the second recording the cop calls back , and of course, you can't give out information to a total stranger about a case thats under investigation . Even if the case is closed it's a violation of privacy to discuss it with a stranger. But Wireless toaster wants to get his say in , and the cop kept cutting him off and pointing this out... not much was accomplished.
I mentioned the phone system right ?
It seems that when you block your number when phoneing someone, it's just a courtesy that the receiving phone pays attention to that. Wireless's phone system wasn't programmed to be courteous , and ignored the signil indicating the number was blocked and gave him the number anyways.
Interesting that a blocked number could be over ridden and gotten anyways. Thats a second piece if information I found fascinating in our little drinking session.
He ran the number through google. He didn't get the cops personal details , of course, thats a serious violation of privacy. But he did get the name of the phone provider. It was a Fido Phone. Indicating that the cop had actually called on his private cell phone rather than his office phone.
Well...my wind phone has unlimited minutes, I've used it for work all the time. So I don't think there's much wrong with that , to be honest.
Third phone call recording was Wireless calling back.
Try to imagine, you called someone , you blocked the number ... and he calls you back on the phone who's number he's not supposed to have. And he goes on and on about this case . And the cop lies and says it's not his personal phone it's his work phone (yeah right) And to never call him on it. (ha ha ...don't call me at work ? To discuss work ? But it's ok to call me on this *OTHER* work number ? Thats your private phone buddy)
And Wireless went back to going on and on about having pictures and he want's to turn them in and help solve that case...
And so I learned a third thing that session. It's possible to harrass a police officer in such a way that he cannot do anything about it.
all and all a very productive evening I think. Which was contrary to what I wanted to actually do , but ok, this worked too.
I can still imagine the expression of horror that cop probably had on his face when Wireless called back on that guys personal phone. "I swear I blocked the number ! Honest I did !" It makes me laugh.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Ottawa police attack and strip search innocent woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFq66qIWajo
So these are the police I have to deal with in my city ?
I want them fired. All of them.
But I know they'll get off scott free without even a slap on a wrist.
Mayor Watson , are you going to do something about this ? Or are these thugs going to continue with their thuggary unabated ?
So these are the police I have to deal with in my city ?
I want them fired. All of them.
But I know they'll get off scott free without even a slap on a wrist.
Mayor Watson , are you going to do something about this ? Or are these thugs going to continue with their thuggary unabated ?
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Duckies House of Quackery
Ont. man dies after MS vein opening
An Ontario man with multiple sclerosis died of complications after a controversial treatment in Costa Rica to open up his neck veins, CBC News has learned.
Mahir Mostic, 35, of St. Catharines died on Oct. 19, one day after doctors in the Central American country tried to dissolve a blood-clot complication.
Skip all that. Down to the comments.
meowiekitty wrote:Posted 2010/11/19
at 1:27 PM ET
If I had fast developing MS, I'd try experimental procedures to increase my quality of life (it wasn't meant to cure him). I'd try experimental procedures for anything, and I'd probably try heroin too. What difference does it make if I'm going to die soon anyway?
This disease is terrible, especially the fast moving kind. I don't think people live much longer than 5 years after they are diagnosed.
Science can't move forward if we don't try new procedures. At one time, we thought the cure for STDs was mercury. We also used to bleed people to cure them!
This man was very brave to try something new and controversial, and he did so knowing that there is a high degree of risk.
We at Doctor Duck's House of Quackery have created a new cure for MS ! It involves stuffing cotton balls into the ears of the patients while praying to the secret VooDoo spirit of MS Cures who's name we are sworn never to reviel !
So have your 10 000$ ready and come on down ! Our Voodoo doctors only have limited beds available so hurry to get yours !
Remember ! You're dying of a horrible incurable disease so its time to try anything ! Does it really matter I got my degree off the back of a cracker jack box ?
You have nothing to lose but the contents of your wallets !
Remember Doctor Ducks motto ! "I'm not a duck , just a Quack !"
PS: Medical degree's in Quackery for sale cheap , exams optional , inquire within.
An Ontario man with multiple sclerosis died of complications after a controversial treatment in Costa Rica to open up his neck veins, CBC News has learned.
Mahir Mostic, 35, of St. Catharines died on Oct. 19, one day after doctors in the Central American country tried to dissolve a blood-clot complication.
Skip all that. Down to the comments.
meowiekitty wrote:Posted 2010/11/19
at 1:27 PM ET
If I had fast developing MS, I'd try experimental procedures to increase my quality of life (it wasn't meant to cure him). I'd try experimental procedures for anything, and I'd probably try heroin too. What difference does it make if I'm going to die soon anyway?
This disease is terrible, especially the fast moving kind. I don't think people live much longer than 5 years after they are diagnosed.
Science can't move forward if we don't try new procedures. At one time, we thought the cure for STDs was mercury. We also used to bleed people to cure them!
This man was very brave to try something new and controversial, and he did so knowing that there is a high degree of risk.
Meowkittie you're In luck !
We at Doctor Duck's House of Quackery have created a new cure for MS ! It involves stuffing cotton balls into the ears of the patients while praying to the secret VooDoo spirit of MS Cures who's name we are sworn never to reviel !
So have your 10 000$ ready and come on down ! Our Voodoo doctors only have limited beds available so hurry to get yours !
Remember ! You're dying of a horrible incurable disease so its time to try anything ! Does it really matter I got my degree off the back of a cracker jack box ?
You have nothing to lose but the contents of your wallets !
Remember Doctor Ducks motto ! "I'm not a duck , just a Quack !"
PS: Medical degree's in Quackery for sale cheap , exams optional , inquire within.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Return of the Wireless Toaster
My friend the paranoid schizophrenic called the other day, said he had some time off work next week if I wanted to have a coffee with him.
Hmm...time off work.
Last time I checked he didn't have a job , and swore up and down he'd never work again.
You know ... an unstable paranoid schizophrenic holding down a job ... umm... unstable people generally don't do that. They'd rather be out on the street freezing to death.
hmmm.....
Well ok ... I suppose I can risk a cup of coffee on the off chance he's cured, or maybe never was paranoid , or whatever weirdness might have happened.
So I meet up with him.
He actually went back to work some number of months ago. He didn't want to , he swore up and down he never would, but they made him , so he went. And he fired that lawyer who was leeching all his money and giving him nothing for it.
Hmm....paranoid schizophrenics wouldn't return to work , wouldn't deal with these issues, would just ignore them actually. That would be the "Schizophrenic" part of disease, the innability to deal with reality. Apparently being paranoid is ok , maybe even normal , it's only when it interfere's with your ability to deal with reality that the psychologists get all interested in it.
Hmm...he's still got his car. In fact, he tells me , the lease ran out on it and he bought it. Hmm... I would have bet long odds he would have lost it long ago.
Ok. Time for the big test. "Do you still think I work for a government agency thats out to kill you ? "
"I never said that ! You're paraphrasing ! Thats not what I meant ..." yadda yadda yadda...
Well..ok. Good enough for me. You don't throw a 20+ year friendship away if you really don't have to , they're kind of hard to replace , and it looks like I don't have to. So hey !
Welcome back , Wireless Toaster.
Hmm...time off work.
Last time I checked he didn't have a job , and swore up and down he'd never work again.
You know ... an unstable paranoid schizophrenic holding down a job ... umm... unstable people generally don't do that. They'd rather be out on the street freezing to death.
hmmm.....
Well ok ... I suppose I can risk a cup of coffee on the off chance he's cured, or maybe never was paranoid , or whatever weirdness might have happened.
So I meet up with him.
He actually went back to work some number of months ago. He didn't want to , he swore up and down he never would, but they made him , so he went. And he fired that lawyer who was leeching all his money and giving him nothing for it.
Hmm....paranoid schizophrenics wouldn't return to work , wouldn't deal with these issues, would just ignore them actually. That would be the "Schizophrenic" part of disease, the innability to deal with reality. Apparently being paranoid is ok , maybe even normal , it's only when it interfere's with your ability to deal with reality that the psychologists get all interested in it.
Hmm...he's still got his car. In fact, he tells me , the lease ran out on it and he bought it. Hmm... I would have bet long odds he would have lost it long ago.
Ok. Time for the big test. "Do you still think I work for a government agency thats out to kill you ? "
"I never said that ! You're paraphrasing ! Thats not what I meant ..." yadda yadda yadda...
Well..ok. Good enough for me. You don't throw a 20+ year friendship away if you really don't have to , they're kind of hard to replace , and it looks like I don't have to. So hey !
Welcome back , Wireless Toaster.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Khadr confirms he was al-Qaeda member, prepares for sentencing
Article
Canadian Omar Khadr, the self-confessed al-Qaeda murderer and terrorist, was back in the war crimes courtroom today for the sentencing phase of his trial.
In a long stipulation of facts, Mr. Khadr confirmed that he was an al-Qaeda member, wanted to kill Jews and Americans, and that the “happiest moment of his life” was when he built and planted roadside bombs aimed at killing Americans and other unbelievers then deployed in Afghanistan.
I do not like self confessions. They stink of rubber hoses and cigarette burns and beating the accused with out mercy until he'll confess to anything. And Eight years in prison , it's pretty obvious thats what happened.
But ...
He has no good reason to be on the other side of the world, in a terrorist training camp, learning how to build road side bombs. Put aside the accusations of him throwing a grenade and killing someone , put aside the "military trial" which is little more than a kangaroo court that puts to shame the very notion of justice.
Omar Khadr had no business being on that side of the world , let alone in that terrorist camp.
And so I have no sympathy for him at all.
I do have sympathy for what has befallen our justice system if this kind of nonsense is considered perfectly legal. That I am deeply concerned with. But Omar Khadr can rot in hell for all I care.
Canadian Omar Khadr, the self-confessed al-Qaeda murderer and terrorist, was back in the war crimes courtroom today for the sentencing phase of his trial.
In a long stipulation of facts, Mr. Khadr confirmed that he was an al-Qaeda member, wanted to kill Jews and Americans, and that the “happiest moment of his life” was when he built and planted roadside bombs aimed at killing Americans and other unbelievers then deployed in Afghanistan.
I do not like self confessions. They stink of rubber hoses and cigarette burns and beating the accused with out mercy until he'll confess to anything. And Eight years in prison , it's pretty obvious thats what happened.
But ...
He has no good reason to be on the other side of the world, in a terrorist training camp, learning how to build road side bombs. Put aside the accusations of him throwing a grenade and killing someone , put aside the "military trial" which is little more than a kangaroo court that puts to shame the very notion of justice.
Omar Khadr had no business being on that side of the world , let alone in that terrorist camp.
And so I have no sympathy for him at all.
I do have sympathy for what has befallen our justice system if this kind of nonsense is considered perfectly legal. That I am deeply concerned with. But Omar Khadr can rot in hell for all I care.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Lighting the Fire and then running.
Col. Russell Williams: Should the videos and photos be destroyed?
This story is now closed to commenting.
The end is new for news media when they pull stunts like this. They ask for your opinion , let you vote and everything , and then you see the story is closed for commenting and there are Zero comments , the story was never open for comments.
Why ?
Because it's too much work. Because they want the popularity of running a story thats in the public interest but they don't want to deal with the ten thousand comments such an interesting story will generate.
In other words, they don't want to be a newspaper, and they hate user comments, and anytime it looks like it's going to generate too many they cut you off at the knees.
My opinion was no , don't destroy the photos, lock it up in some archive for forensic experts and psychologists to look at and learn from.
But it seems no one at CBC wants to hear that.
This story is now closed to commenting.
The end is new for news media when they pull stunts like this. They ask for your opinion , let you vote and everything , and then you see the story is closed for commenting and there are Zero comments , the story was never open for comments.
Why ?
Because it's too much work. Because they want the popularity of running a story thats in the public interest but they don't want to deal with the ten thousand comments such an interesting story will generate.
In other words, they don't want to be a newspaper, and they hate user comments, and anytime it looks like it's going to generate too many they cut you off at the knees.
My opinion was no , don't destroy the photos, lock it up in some archive for forensic experts and psychologists to look at and learn from.
But it seems no one at CBC wants to hear that.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Moms' guilty pleas tossed after pathologist errors
article
The Ontario Court of Appeal has ordered new trials for two women who originally pleaded guilty after now disgraced forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Smith testified they had asphyxiated their babies.
A judicial inquiry into Dr. Charles Smith's work found the pathologist's testimony was responsible, in part, for several people being wrongfully convicted of killing children and being sentenced to prison.A judicial inquiry into Dr. Charles Smith's work found the pathologist's testimony was responsible, in part, for several people being wrongfully convicted of killing children and being sentenced to prison. (Canadian Press)
Smith's testimony has since been found to be responsible for a number of wrongful convictions.
On Wednesday, the Appeal Court set aside guilty pleas from the women, one of whom was convicted of manslaughter and the other of infanticide.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the canadian courts. These women were forced to confess in order to avoid jail , of a crime they didn't actually commit. What happened to our great lie detectors ? What happened to that crack team of RCMP specialists who can beat a confession out of anyone ?
It seems they realy can beat a confession out of anyone.
Even those who are completely innocent.
The Ontario Court of Appeal has ordered new trials for two women who originally pleaded guilty after now disgraced forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Smith testified they had asphyxiated their babies.
A judicial inquiry into Dr. Charles Smith's work found the pathologist's testimony was responsible, in part, for several people being wrongfully convicted of killing children and being sentenced to prison.A judicial inquiry into Dr. Charles Smith's work found the pathologist's testimony was responsible, in part, for several people being wrongfully convicted of killing children and being sentenced to prison. (Canadian Press)
Smith's testimony has since been found to be responsible for a number of wrongful convictions.
On Wednesday, the Appeal Court set aside guilty pleas from the women, one of whom was convicted of manslaughter and the other of infanticide.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the canadian courts. These women were forced to confess in order to avoid jail , of a crime they didn't actually commit. What happened to our great lie detectors ? What happened to that crack team of RCMP specialists who can beat a confession out of anyone ?
It seems they realy can beat a confession out of anyone.
Even those who are completely innocent.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Islam Passes Judgement on Harper's Foreign policy
Siddiqui: World passes judgment on Harper’s foreign policy
(Article in the toronto star web site) 14/10/2010
Canada’s failure to get elected to the Security Council has been described as “a shocking development,” “a disaster,” “a diplomatic fiasco,” “a colossal failure” and “a dark day for Canada” that brought us “humiliation” and “shame on the world stage.”
Those are apt descriptions of this development — the first time in the 64-year history of the United Nations that Canada has failed to win a council seat, unlike in our six earlier bids. Our next bid cannot be for another 10 years.
The Harperites are reacting with their usual dishonest double-talk.
It’s no big deal not to have won a seat in a dysfunctional organization, they say. If so, why did we run?
So ok , you've got a big "I hate harper" sign on your t-shirt
It’s not just his pro-Israeli stance that made Canada a pariah at the UN. He:
Ok, this editorial is written by an anti-semite. And his name is obviously Islamic in nature. "Haroon Siddiqui" (actually it's an Indian name , but he authored a book called "Being Muslim" so ... yeah . )
Or, it is the fault of the Europeans. They must have voted as a bloc. What else can explain the win by Portugal, not even a member of the G20, let alone the G8, and an economic basket case to boot? But Europe has less than 30 votes, whereas Arab and Muslim nations have 57 and Africa 51 votes, the two blocs with good reasons to oppose us.
Ok, so we helped invade afghanistan and lost 57 votes ..thats a good reason to lose. Hardly the "disaster" you claim it to be. Figure the aftrican votes were split among 5 other contenders (or more) and defeat is inevitable for anyone who has to face an election who went to afghan or iraq.
• Diverted Canadian funds from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to the Palestinian Authority, to boost Mahmoud Abbas against rival Hamas.
Oh dear. we supported a standing government working towards peace instead of some islamic terrorists who's only agenda is to kill all the jews in the world and you're mad at Harper for it.
Left Omar Khadr to rot in Guantanamo Bay, while defending the policy of indefinite detention as well as the American military’s kangaroo courts.
Caught red handed in a terrorist camp , and you want to bring him home and set him free.
It seems that the Toronto Star has become the Voice of Islam and the lastest Israeli Basher in this country. Kind of odd, but what they hey , newspapers have been sinking fast ever since the internet came out , I suppose it's only a matter of time before the wacko nut cases take them over as they enter their death throws.
You need more than slanted numbers and "If they love jews they must be bad" to convince most canadians, mister "Being Muslim". Because this crud only flies in the middle east , it has no place here.
(Article in the toronto star web site) 14/10/2010
Canada’s failure to get elected to the Security Council has been described as “a shocking development,” “a disaster,” “a diplomatic fiasco,” “a colossal failure” and “a dark day for Canada” that brought us “humiliation” and “shame on the world stage.”
Those are apt descriptions of this development — the first time in the 64-year history of the United Nations that Canada has failed to win a council seat, unlike in our six earlier bids. Our next bid cannot be for another 10 years.
The Harperites are reacting with their usual dishonest double-talk.
It’s no big deal not to have won a seat in a dysfunctional organization, they say. If so, why did we run?
So ok , you've got a big "I hate harper" sign on your t-shirt
It’s not just his pro-Israeli stance that made Canada a pariah at the UN. He:
Ok, this editorial is written by an anti-semite. And his name is obviously Islamic in nature. "Haroon Siddiqui" (actually it's an Indian name , but he authored a book called "Being Muslim" so ... yeah . )
Or, it is the fault of the Europeans. They must have voted as a bloc. What else can explain the win by Portugal, not even a member of the G20, let alone the G8, and an economic basket case to boot? But Europe has less than 30 votes, whereas Arab and Muslim nations have 57 and Africa 51 votes, the two blocs with good reasons to oppose us.
Ok, so we helped invade afghanistan and lost 57 votes ..thats a good reason to lose. Hardly the "disaster" you claim it to be. Figure the aftrican votes were split among 5 other contenders (or more) and defeat is inevitable for anyone who has to face an election who went to afghan or iraq.
• Diverted Canadian funds from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to the Palestinian Authority, to boost Mahmoud Abbas against rival Hamas.
Oh dear. we supported a standing government working towards peace instead of some islamic terrorists who's only agenda is to kill all the jews in the world and you're mad at Harper for it.
Left Omar Khadr to rot in Guantanamo Bay, while defending the policy of indefinite detention as well as the American military’s kangaroo courts.
Caught red handed in a terrorist camp , and you want to bring him home and set him free.
It seems that the Toronto Star has become the Voice of Islam and the lastest Israeli Basher in this country. Kind of odd, but what they hey , newspapers have been sinking fast ever since the internet came out , I suppose it's only a matter of time before the wacko nut cases take them over as they enter their death throws.
You need more than slanted numbers and "If they love jews they must be bad" to convince most canadians, mister "Being Muslim". Because this crud only flies in the middle east , it has no place here.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Legalized Prostitution
Article = none , personal opinion
(Some references to a commentary appearing in page 13 Ottawa Sun Oct 1 2010 by Brian Lilley)
So, prostitution is in the news again. A Judge has struck down the laws against it. Laws that were only against communicating or such for purposes of prostitution , the actual act of prostitution is not illegal in this country. And people are all up in arms about how can this be legal here ?
Well... first , when you're crafting a law, you have to make sure it doesn't come and bite you in the rear end , or you'll be forced to strike down your own creation. That's probably why prostitution itself is still legal , there wasn't any way to make it illegal without someone taking a hit somewhere from an over broad law.
And I'm looking at an Ottawa Sun article , a commentary , that goes on and on about how prostitution is "wrong" , and the only reasoning I can see is that he wouldn't want his daughter to do it.
There's a lot of reasons , lot of good arguments, why prostitution should be legalized. And there's a lot of good arguments why it should not be. But "I think it's wrong" isn't on either of those lists. Sorry buddy. Nor is "I wouldn't want my daughter to do it"
Much as I might agree with the sentiment , this is how bad laws are made. The kind that come back to haunt you and leave you saying "I didn't mean for that to happen !" and then you wind up voting to strike it down anyways and the whole thing becomes a decade of trouble and wasted effort.
Reviewing his other points we see ...
Netherland and Germany are cited as places of legal prostitution , that still have illegal prostitution , sex workers imported for the task are mentioned.
And so do we ! Yes, I have met a girl at a strip joint who reported she was here from another country and was doing this to send money home to her family. So, I personally know it's happening in Canada. Your argument implies by legalizing prostitution we will cause this to happen here, guess what ? It already is.
Our Wag also argues that while the court hesitates to inject any sort of morality into sexual matters , he thinks they should , arguing "morality underpins our legal system" and points to theft as being immoral.
Umm.... no. Imposing your morality on everyone else was discarded long ago. I don't know why you're bringing it up.
The Judge has decided the laws are bringing harm to the prostitutes by way of driving them underground where they become victems of organized crime , pimps, beatings, and murder because they dare not go to the police
This is the classic case of a law backfiring and doing the exact opposite of what was intended, and I believe she was right to strike it down. The purpose of the law was to protect people, not put them in harms way. It failed that purpose, get rid of it.
My Personal Opinion...
Whether it's legal or not , whether you like it or not , prostitution is going to happen. You have two choices only. Protect the prostitutes, or abandon them to the wolves, that's about it. And our current laws that have been struck down abandon them to the wolves.
Those are your choices, which will you choose ? I choose not to abandon anyone to the wolves.
(Some references to a commentary appearing in page 13 Ottawa Sun Oct 1 2010 by Brian Lilley)
So, prostitution is in the news again. A Judge has struck down the laws against it. Laws that were only against communicating or such for purposes of prostitution , the actual act of prostitution is not illegal in this country. And people are all up in arms about how can this be legal here ?
Well... first , when you're crafting a law, you have to make sure it doesn't come and bite you in the rear end , or you'll be forced to strike down your own creation. That's probably why prostitution itself is still legal , there wasn't any way to make it illegal without someone taking a hit somewhere from an over broad law.
And I'm looking at an Ottawa Sun article , a commentary , that goes on and on about how prostitution is "wrong" , and the only reasoning I can see is that he wouldn't want his daughter to do it.
There's a lot of reasons , lot of good arguments, why prostitution should be legalized. And there's a lot of good arguments why it should not be. But "I think it's wrong" isn't on either of those lists. Sorry buddy. Nor is "I wouldn't want my daughter to do it"
Much as I might agree with the sentiment , this is how bad laws are made. The kind that come back to haunt you and leave you saying "I didn't mean for that to happen !" and then you wind up voting to strike it down anyways and the whole thing becomes a decade of trouble and wasted effort.
Reviewing his other points we see ...
Netherland and Germany are cited as places of legal prostitution , that still have illegal prostitution , sex workers imported for the task are mentioned.
And so do we ! Yes, I have met a girl at a strip joint who reported she was here from another country and was doing this to send money home to her family. So, I personally know it's happening in Canada. Your argument implies by legalizing prostitution we will cause this to happen here, guess what ? It already is.
Our Wag also argues that while the court hesitates to inject any sort of morality into sexual matters , he thinks they should , arguing "morality underpins our legal system" and points to theft as being immoral.
Umm.... no. Imposing your morality on everyone else was discarded long ago. I don't know why you're bringing it up.
The Judge has decided the laws are bringing harm to the prostitutes by way of driving them underground where they become victems of organized crime , pimps, beatings, and murder because they dare not go to the police
This is the classic case of a law backfiring and doing the exact opposite of what was intended, and I believe she was right to strike it down. The purpose of the law was to protect people, not put them in harms way. It failed that purpose, get rid of it.
My Personal Opinion...
Whether it's legal or not , whether you like it or not , prostitution is going to happen. You have two choices only. Protect the prostitutes, or abandon them to the wolves, that's about it. And our current laws that have been struck down abandon them to the wolves.
Those are your choices, which will you choose ? I choose not to abandon anyone to the wolves.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Clash of the Titans @ 2010
Wings away Pegasus !
Sorry , but it was difficult not to start singing that annoying hercules song. Hero's name was Perseus though in this movie. And yes, like hercules , he was a half son of Zeus
Star was Sam WORTHINGDON, i Think.
Remember that annoying terinator movie where the hero was a deathrow inmate that go ressurecd and turned into a temintor ? Yeah , that guy. And it's the same personality her. He smiles once in a while , but you swear you're looking at that same terminator guy transplanted into this movie. I swear the guy is like arnold swartznegger in his early day he can only play one roll.
ok. So . Mankind, symbolized by one single anient greek city, no longer worships the gods and starts tearing down their temples. Since the gods need mans worship to survive , they cant have this , so man and gods go to war, with lots and lots of really cool modern special effects on the side of the gods , who are highly hamstrung by the fact that the more men they kill the weaker they become.
Philisophically , as an aspiring writer, I find the whole situation fascinating. How do you go to war with someone you don't want to hurt ? And the whole waring philosophies of man trying to do things their own way and forget about the gods, vs the gods trying to keep their worshippers, it's a theme the modern world is struggling with in real life, making this several thousand year old myth a lot more relevant than you would expect.
In the end, big battles, awesome special effects, and an interesting philosophy debate to think about long after the movie ends.
Oh yes, the good guys win in the end. But considering how old this tale is , you probably already figured that out.
Sorry , but it was difficult not to start singing that annoying hercules song. Hero's name was Perseus though in this movie. And yes, like hercules , he was a half son of Zeus
Star was Sam WORTHINGDON, i Think.
Remember that annoying terinator movie where the hero was a deathrow inmate that go ressurecd and turned into a temintor ? Yeah , that guy. And it's the same personality her. He smiles once in a while , but you swear you're looking at that same terminator guy transplanted into this movie. I swear the guy is like arnold swartznegger in his early day he can only play one roll.
ok. So . Mankind, symbolized by one single anient greek city, no longer worships the gods and starts tearing down their temples. Since the gods need mans worship to survive , they cant have this , so man and gods go to war, with lots and lots of really cool modern special effects on the side of the gods , who are highly hamstrung by the fact that the more men they kill the weaker they become.
Philisophically , as an aspiring writer, I find the whole situation fascinating. How do you go to war with someone you don't want to hurt ? And the whole waring philosophies of man trying to do things their own way and forget about the gods, vs the gods trying to keep their worshippers, it's a theme the modern world is struggling with in real life, making this several thousand year old myth a lot more relevant than you would expect.
In the end, big battles, awesome special effects, and an interesting philosophy debate to think about long after the movie ends.
Oh yes, the good guys win in the end. But considering how old this tale is , you probably already figured that out.
Data Stick - Wind
Bought myself a Data Stick from Wind.
what the heck is a data stick , you ask ?
You stick it in the usb slot of your lap top computer (or regular computer) and ...well , it's not quite a cell phone call , but it is using the cell phone network to connect to the internet. And it has a phone number and everything , but don't call me on that number, cause there's no handset , no way to answer, no way to even hear it ring.
World of Warcraft hates it.
The first time I tried out the game on it , well it is a different provider , and they are paranoid with all the account theft going around in that online game. They locked me out and sent me a nasty email to reset my password because of suspicious activity.
But it's all good now.
100$ for the stick
45$ for "unlmited" data.
By unlimited they mean 5 gigs a month and they slow you down if you go over it, but you never actually incur extra charges above the 45$ / month.
And the best part of all ?
No contract.
If you're feeling poor , you shut it down for a month or two , and then when you're feeling rich you start it up again.
It's not for everyone. Not everyone is in a position where internet on the go will do them any good or do them much use. But if you are one of those people , it sure as heck beats the 3 year contract nonsense bell and rogers will demand of you.
what the heck is a data stick , you ask ?
You stick it in the usb slot of your lap top computer (or regular computer) and ...well , it's not quite a cell phone call , but it is using the cell phone network to connect to the internet. And it has a phone number and everything , but don't call me on that number, cause there's no handset , no way to answer, no way to even hear it ring.
World of Warcraft hates it.
The first time I tried out the game on it , well it is a different provider , and they are paranoid with all the account theft going around in that online game. They locked me out and sent me a nasty email to reset my password because of suspicious activity.
But it's all good now.
100$ for the stick
45$ for "unlmited" data.
By unlimited they mean 5 gigs a month and they slow you down if you go over it, but you never actually incur extra charges above the 45$ / month.
And the best part of all ?
No contract.
If you're feeling poor , you shut it down for a month or two , and then when you're feeling rich you start it up again.
It's not for everyone. Not everyone is in a position where internet on the go will do them any good or do them much use. But if you are one of those people , it sure as heck beats the 3 year contract nonsense bell and rogers will demand of you.
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