Yup, hate them with a passion.  Too bad UVerse is better than that piece of shit TWCable.

Still, I think I’m going to dump them in favor of a good book.  Bastards.

If passed into law, the legislation would deal very harshly with any form of file sharing, be it video or audio. Alleged offenders will first receive an e-mailed warning, followed by a registered letter, and lastly with a 3-12 month suspension of internet service. The law will also prevent users from switching ISP’s to avoid punishment, and even public hotspots will contain filters. Additionally, home users will be required to lock down home networks, and will be legally responsible for its security.

In return the French will start receiving DVD’s in a more timely fashion, and music DRM will be drastically scaled back.

Now, I haven’t downloaded copywrited stuff in quite some time – not since I had a DVR installed, found Hulu and got a Live account with my new XBOX.  But, in the past, I did a fair amount of downloading of “catch up” episodes for TV shows that I missed – something that I still consider a “gray” area of use.  Of course, by the book, it isn’t “gray” at all – its illegal.  In fact, I’m actually glad I don’t have to do it anymore.  Truthfully, for a show that I really enjoy, I’d much rather pay $2 an episode than wait 3 days for a crappy quality download only to find out that it is dubbed in German.

Still, this bill scares the crap out of me.  I can’t believe people would be willing to give up their freedom for early access to entertainment.  Still, in socialist France, maybe the people actually aren’t, but the politicians are… One of the few things that I like about Obama is how tech savvy he seems to be.  You almost have to have personally bought content and been frustrated with trying to actually use it where you want to really understand this stuff.  Out of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin, I would have definitely picked the O-Man as the one most likely to have done so.  Still, given his politics, I’m not sure that this will help us any.

One day, people will have the ability to have their own networks and crap like this won’t happen.  You already see it in big companies – very large WAN infrastructure that never actually touches the internet.  Some day that will spread to people, and you’ll have co-op networks that are completely private.  Its the only answer to crap like this and only technology keeps it from happening today.  I’ve personally knows folks who all live in the same apartment building that have wired their apartments together – not for the purpose of circumventing copyright law, but simply for the ability to share information and infrastructure more easily.  Why have four home servers when one shared one does the job for 1/4 the price?

Of course, in the current State-of-the-Tech-Union, you could only do that with people you implicitly trust.  One day technology will make that unnecessary – just as our current internet security technologies make it relatively safe to surf the net.  I think even the telecom companies would like that, as it removes them from having any liability whatsoever.  You’d still pay a monthly fee for your “line” – but it would likely be a simple direct link to the next person up the line, or something similar.  You may have private line aggregators that take a monthly fee from a number of people to allow for more bandwidth, etc.   Don’t get me wrong – this would likely be in addition to an Internet connection, but I think there is a pretty good chance of it happening at some point in the future.  It would take a ton of cash, a lot of technology and a critical mass of people, but its is indeed possible.  I’d call it a Private Public Network or PPN.

For those of you saying “impossible” – just remember that one dude, Linus Torvalds, started the unstoppable wave that became Linux.  Its amazing what can happen when fed-up people buck the status quo and go off and do something on their own.  Linus didn’t try to start a revolution, but his idea was so good that it happened anyway.  It may take years or even a decade or two (work on what became the Linux began in 1991), but it CAN happen.

Mark my words.

Not willingly mind you, but I’m bound to them through the shackles of a corporate contract that is completely out of my control, so what can I do?

Surprisingly enough, even though my email to AT&T bounced back to me, apparently someone was listening.  I was contacted via email by a Premiere Customer Support agent who apologized profusely for my inconvenience and mentioned that they would forward my complaint on to their management (who, I’m sure, will take it very seriously… yeah, right!).

Anyway, glad that someone had heard my whining, I happily replied thanking them for contacting me, explained to them about the email bounce and then asked if they could contact me to help me upgrade my phone to the BlackBerry Bold.  I figured they had kept me on hold so long, someone could call me this time.

Well, wishful thinking.  They said “No, you have to call us…”

OK, fine… Remembering my golden handcuffs, I tried again.

This time, calling the service number put me immediately in touch with a representative who, while not very chipper, ended up actually being helpful.  They quickly understood my problem, explained it to me and then tried to get me off the phone.  When I protested and asked if they could simply take the order over the phone, they offered to walk me through the ordering process online.  I figured that was fine – I just wanted to order the darn thing.  Well, the Fates of Online Apps had something else in mind.  When trying to log in to the Premiere Site, it just wasn’t responding.

A loud sigh later, the agent offered to take my order over the phone.  Hmm – isn’t that what I asked for in the first place?  Oh well, as least they were going to do it!  After about 15 minutes of listening to the person mutter and yawn (yes YAWN), my order was placed.

When will it show up?  I have no idea.  She / he (I couldn’t tell, and they had an androdgenous name) didn’t know either, so I guess I wait.  They gave me an order number and the charge showed up right away on my card, so it should be official.

Yay.  I’m so happy.

I received an email from AT&T Premier services today (the branch of AT&T that handles corporate accounts) with an advertisement pimping a new sale on the Blackberry Bold.

“Great!” I thought, as I’ve been wanting one of them for quite some time, but have been put off by the $399 price tag they slapped down on us corporate types.  The new price?  $199 – exactly what I expected it to be when it launched back in October.

So, I figured that going in to the Premier website to do the upgrade would be easy.  I logged in, saw the upgrade offer – it showed my price at $199 and I was good to go.  Well, adding it to my cart gave a $399 price tag.  WTF?

Well, no big problem – I’ll just call them and talk to someone on the phone about it.  Finding the number to call was pretty easy, but I then sat on hold with them for 59 minutes before I gave up.  The horrible 3 minute muzak loop was boring into my poor abused brain.  The stupid voice over platitudes about how important I am to them was really wearing thin.  It was official, I was pissed of at being kept on hold for just under an hour with no option to leave my name and number, no option to be told how LONG I would be oh hold, etc.

Well, I hung up, and that’s when the real fun began.  On the contact page (that I used to find the phone number) – there was a link for providing feedback on “How they can make Premier better”.  Hmm.  That’s about what I need right now, a little venting on how they can 1) make their website work properly in the first place and 2) not keep me on hold for an hour with 3 minutes of brain numbing acoustic diarrhea.  Here’s my letter to them:

Subject: Phone Support
Comments: Your site asked for feedback on how to make premier better. Well, NOT keeping me on hold for 56 minutes (and counting) listening to the same horrible muzak the entire time would be a good start. Your phone queue also doesn’t say how long I might have to wait until someone can take my call. Knowing that would be very helpful. This treatment from a phone company? Very ironic and quite annoying. Well, 59 minutes into it, I’ve hung up. You’ve lost my $400 upgrade business. I’d much rather keep my old phone that put up with this. Sorry, but you asked. -A

Well, I felt better. For about 5 seconds.

UNTIL, I received the email in my inbox stating that my message to AT&T was bounced back.  WTF?  My Site Experience Feedback is Undeliverable!??

Your message did not reach some or all of
the intended recipients.

Subject: Site Experience Feedback
Sent: 3/2/2009 5:46 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:
icare@cingular.comon 3/2/2009 5:46 PM

The e-mail account does not exist at the
organization this message was sent to.
Check the e-mail address, or contact
the recipient directly to find out the
correct address.

< bspmx01.cingular.com #5.1.1 SMTP;
550 Invalid recipient <icare@cingular.com> (#5.1.1)>

Does anyone else find it the least bit funny that the email address icare doesn’t exist at AT&T?  I must admit that did make me laugh.  But, my jokularity was soon replaced by a seething anger and a fueled hatred.

• Treat me wrong once (mess up your website).  OK.
• Treat me wrong twice (not answer the darn phone).  SIGH. OK.
• Treat me wrong THREE TIMES IN RAPID SUCCESSION (ignore my feedback!)?  Well, you can just go #$#@ yourself.

Yup.  AT&T is officially on my crap list until further notice.

Disclaimer.  I’m going to swear a few times in this article, so if you don’t want to hear that, ya’ll can SHOO.

Go read this article at the LA Times. Yes, I’m serious.

Ok.  Did you notice how now that we have the budget passed, everyone is talking about how we can stop this from happening again?  There are a lot of ideas out there:  Maybe we can dock lawmaker’s pay, maybe we can change it so that only 55% of lawmakers have to approve a budget, maybe we can lower the amount of votes required for new taxes, etc. just to name a few.

But, what’s the ONE thing they AREN’T talking about doing?



The ONE thing they AREN’T talking about is:

STOP FUCKING SPENDING!

Ahem.

Sorry.

A few key points:

• Doing things like making it EASIER for them to pass a budget ISN’T whats needed!  The budget didn’t pass because they were spending too damn much.  Take away the power of a few to demand a balanced budget, and we’ll just be worse off.
• Docking their pay if they are late – screw that, its only a band-aid. How about making their pay performance based instead?  If the State is doing well, taxes are below a certain point and there is a surplus, they get paid out of the surplus.  If it isn’t, they don’t get paid that year.  THAT would balance the fucking budget in a week.
• Lowering the amount of votes for new taxes.  Um, excuse me, how about you STOP FUCKING SPENDING INSTEAD!?  They have clearly done SO well with the money we’ve already given them – should we really make it easier for them to get more of our money?  Like hell!

All of the “fixes” floating around in Sacramento are focused on one thing: making it easier for the lawmakers to pass a budget.   How easy or hard it is to pass the budget is NOT the problem.  The problem is that our damn legislators spend TOO MUCH MONEY.  The ideas should be focusing on how to spend LESS and balance our budget, not on making it easier for the legislators to screw us up even further.

Hey, HERE’S a thought – how about ALL government programs outside of law enforcement, transportation, utilities and schooling are now canceled and have to be reenacted?

“Well, you just couldn’t DO that!”  How can you NOT?!  The only reason the State can continue to operate today is because they simply reach deeper and deeper into our pockets with impunity.   If I can’t afford my Cable bill, I can’t have Cable anymore.  If I can’t afford to eat out, I can’t eat out.  If I can’t afford to buy new clothes, I wear what I already have.

Not the government though – they just send us further into debt, pass tax hikes, take more of our money and then piss it away.

There is no long term accountability – no one is held responsible for what they do today that screws us in the future.  That needs to change.

Eventually, those of use with the pockets have to smack the hand that we feed and demand OUR money back.  Remember, the government doesn’t have a single dollar that doesn’t come out of OUR pockets.

They should hang that sign on the front of every building in Sacramento.

If I hear anything more about “pressure mounting on Israel to halt the offensive,” I’m really going to scream!  How long would you tolerate non-action from our President if Mexico started randomly bombing San Diego, El Paso or Tuscon?

Hamas is like that short annoying guy in High School who talked smack all day long and then acted surprised when someone twice his size kicked his loud-mouth ass.

I mostly feel sorry for the poor civilians in Gaza.   BUT, on the other hand, that’s kinda what you get when you vote for assholes who fire mortars from your child’s preschool.

Its true that many of them are squeezed on both sides and you can’t put it beyond Hamas to bully people into supporting them. I suppose its sort of akin to Democrats and Republicans each having their own set of armed thugs and there being very little to stop them from getting up close and personal with you on the way to the polling station.  Amazing.

Iranians Hate Obama ... Already.

What’s equally amazing is that the World loved us for approximately a month and a half before everything started being Obama’s fault.  The poor guy isn’t even in office yet, and already things are his fault.

There really is no pleasing these bastards. But, damn, that was fast…

And, expected.

A friend of mine was moving an older program from one PC to another and didn’t have the disk any longer and asked me if I still had a copy. No luck there – so, I figured I’d search the net to see if you could buy old copies of the program on the cheap. A few Google searches later had me browsing a couple of link-trawler sites that didn’t provide much useful information.

One site – I believe it was oldapps.com, I really can’t be certain – left me with a little present that I won’t soon forget: a brand spanking new copy of Virtumonde (aka Trojan.Vundo.H).

Unfortunately, that present was left with nary a blip on my screen.  Minding my own business, I suddenly got an authentic Windows message stating that my Windows Firewall was no longer active. You know that sinking feeling you get in your gut when something horrible has just happened and you start to slowly comprehend the far reaching ramifications of what you have just witnessed? Yeah…  I wish I could say that I felt that way and immediately disconnected my PC from the net, but no luck. I was a real Noob, and actually thought, “Dang Microsoft, when are you going to straighten out your crapware once and for all?”.

Seriously, I thought Windows Update had pooped the bed or something…  I simply re-enabled the firewall, and everything was fine. No harm done, right? Ahem…

I kept browsing around, and then got another Windows Security Center message saying that my Virus protection was no longer active…

WTF?

NOW you can queue the sinking feeling…

I dashed under my desk and pulled my Ethernet cord and sat back with a stunned look on my face. I had just been infected.

No email’s with attachments that I executed in noobish haste; no foolishly downloaded software that I simply had to test out;  not even a pop-up stupidly clicked by a mouse-o.

Nada.

All I did was visit the web page for a bit, saw that there was no good information there and then I closed the tab.

30 seconds tops.

INFECTED.

What is the world coming to? I’m a highly trained technical professional, yet my precious system and all its fancy protection was forcibly raped and pillaged in under 30 seconds with a simple web page visit – a page that was visited DIRECTLY from a Google search result…

How is Joe Public’s Grandmother supposed to deal with these bastards?  Good question!

The cleanup wasn’t pretty, but fortunately there IS a happy ending (as far as I can tell…)

First off, AVG Free didn’t mind the ass pounding my machine was being forcibly subjected to – it seemed to just pour itself a neat single-malt and pull up a chair to watch the fun. Normally AVG is a very good virus scanner.  I trusted it.

Secondly, Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware did find the problem, but “Fixing” the issue was a different matter. Reboot, rescan – same results.  The bugger was still there. At least it put a name to my foe – Virtumonde.

Supposedly the removal tool for Virtumonde has been built in to Ad-Aware, but it did nothing at all to resolve the issue. Rather, it erroneously reported that the threat was safely removed, when in fact it really wasn’t. Very helpful.

Thirdly, my hardware firewall and the Windows firewall both did absolutely nothing to stop the attack.

Fourthly, Hijack-This reported nothing out of the ordinary, as Virtumonde apparently uses Explorer hooks – meaning Explorer itself is the bad guy. You just sit there watching Explorer crap all over itself, helpless…

Nothing in the Registry Run section, nothing in Services, no batch files. Nada to grab on to… This bugger even randomly crashes things like Ad-Aware and AVG when you try to scan your machine with them in an attempt to fix the problem. It even pops up a DCOM error message and then gives you 30 seconds before it reboots the machine. Apparently, it really likes its new home.  Nice touch.

Oh, did I mention the 4 or 5 “Virus Scanners” that Virtumonde tries to install over and over again? Yeah, I don’t think I mentioned those yet…

So, exactly how are you supposed to fix something like this? Virtumonde actually blocks access to sites like Trend-Micro and Symantec, so your options are fairly limited. Even booting into Safe Mode didn’t stop the system from getting screwed with. In fact, it was in safe mode that all of the Gay Fetish Porn links started showing up on my desktop. GREAT – that was clearly a step in the right direction.

The ultimate cure? I used a separate PC and a USB Key to download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware installer from Malwarebytes.org. This program really IS like bringing an HK-UMP to a stick fight.

Yet, even this awesome tool took several tries to remove Virtumonde completely.  Malwarebytes did keep reporting different infection issues  after each reboot.  Oddly enough this was strangely comforting, for at least I knew that I was getting somewhere.  Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t an oncoming train. 

Four scans with Malwarebytes later, everything was being reported as clean by several different malware scanners.

Oh, speaking of oddly enough – AVG finally DID decide to register a threat and throw up a flag. What did it catch? The Malwarebytes executable!! No, I’m not kidding. Very helpful AVG. After at least 5 separate Trojans were maliciously installed on my machine one after another with nary a peep from you, suddenly you decide to flag the tool that is actually doing the job that you should have been doing all along!  WTF?

Wow, time to look for a new Virus Scanner… Hey, don’t get me wrong: AVG Free has been great. Powerful stuff, and the price is right. But this last escapade sure has left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe the Pay-For version would have detected the original infection, but I’m guessing probably not.

The moral of the story?  Apparently, drive-by digital system rape is a “GO”.  Be careful out there, OK?

Why have my insane ramblings been banned?  I know not why.

I first noticed something was up when I logged in to Technorati to update a few items in my profile.  For some reason my blog claim was gone!?  I looked around to see if I could spot a reason why, but there was nothing there indicating the reason why my little patch of cyberspace had disappeared.

Oh well, no problem, I figured I’d just reclaim my blog, as I’m not one of those evil “Authority” wranglers who does things to specifically increase their ranking, and frankly didn’t care if I had to start afresh with my ranking.  Truly, I don’t care much about my ranking on Technorati, but I do like being listed.

You can imagine my surprise when I was greeted by the above message!   I’VE been flagged!?  Good heavens, why?

Surfing on over the the Blog Quality Guidelines yields a fairly benign list of DO’s and DON’Ts that I believe I am absolutely in compliance with.  My use of WordPress covers most of the technical requirements, so the easily drawn conclusion is that they somehow dislike my content, style or topics?

I don’t over-tag, post spam or over-link.   I don’t post with commercial intent.  I don’t belong to even a single affiliate system.  In short, I don’t do ANYTHING to try to game their damn system.   Yet, I’m banned.

So, I figured it was a simple case of misunderstanding.  As their “Troubleshooting” section advises, I filled out their support contact form and have waited for a response.  A month has gone by and I haven’t heard a thing.  Google can respond within a day to issues, despite being used by 10 bazillion times the number of people.  In fact, they sometimes respond within minutes.  Technorati?  Not within a month.

Well Technorati, you can take your haughty attitude and stick it up your ass, right next to your head.

Consider yourselves BANNED TOO!  Never will a Technorati tag be used on this site again.  HA!  Take that you arrogant bastards!

And, if YOU have a complaint, you can use MY complaint form below.

BlackBerry Storm

According to David Pogue of the New York Times (who gave the Storm an abysmal rating), Mac users are no longer the bitchiest, most attack prone fanboys on the planet.  Apparently that cruel-tongued title has now been usurped by zealot BlackBerry users.  Surprise, Surprise!

To be honest, at this point, I’m an avid BlackBerry user myself and a proud BB Curve owner for the past 2 years.  It wasn’t always that way though – I was an unwilling Palm convert who was cruelly subjected to a forced RIM job.  Ahem.  Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.  I’ve been dying to say that ever since I had to make the switch…

Anyway, back to my point.  I love my BB, though it certainly has its share of shortcomings.  The screen is gorgeous, the email support is fantastic and the phone sound quality and overall volume are both excellent.  That said though, I have been salivating at the idea of upgrading to the Bold due to its faster processor, WiFi capabilities and new OS.  A cold bucket of ice was thrown on that dream when I saw the $400 corporate contract price.  It stopped me dead in my tracks.  At $200, it would have been a done deal.

SIGH.  But, I digress again.  My REAL point here is that I found myself wondering how many of the folks that wrote in agreeing with Pogue and who hated the BB Storm were actually normal BB users.  The tone of his article kinda makes it seem like all of the people who have had problems with the Storm were unwitting, helpless victims in the whole process – untold masses being deceived by the evil Waterloo temptress who they simply had no chance of resisting.  And, that all of the REAL BB fanboys were attacking him with great hostility for no apparent reason.

I’m sure that’s not quite the case…  Look, most companies allow you 15-30 days to exchange the phone if you don’t like it.  RIM has touted the clickable touch screen for quite some time, and my first thought was, “oh, that is either going to be REALLY awesome, or REALLY suck – I don’t think there will be an in between…”  I gotta believe that others were thinking that too.  Long story short – people can try this stuff before they are stuck with it.  Experiment away folks!  No, some of the disenchanted were certainly part of the BB faithful that Pogue is deriding.  Ain’t no doubt about it.

My real feeling is that while all groups of people have assholes in it (and zealot BB users are certainly no exception) that there is probably a deeper story going on here.  Many zealot product groups tend to back up their fervent ardor with representative stock purchases.  RIM’s current $39.49 price is a far way off from its high of $144.56 this past June.  Ouch.  Anyone who has lost nearly 75% of their investment value can’t help but be a little bitchy.  The last thing they need is a bunch of bad press on one of RIM’s big bets getting in the way of their sorely sought recovery.

My final few thoughts (thank goodness, I know!!) are these:

• I’m glad that the Storm was released on Verizon, thereby removing all temptation for yours truly.
• I formally repeal any ill will that I had towards AT&T for continually delaying the Bold release on their network.  It was apparently time well spent, as that launch went off without much of an issue and no big surprises.
• I now take my formerly repealed ill will towards AT&T and send it back in their direction two-fold for the ludicrous $400 corporate contract price that they have shackled the Bold with.

A pox upon those stinking bastards!  I hope they die!

YIKES!??  Did I just say that?  Hmm… Maybe Mr. Pogue was right after all!?? 

I was cruising around Facebook, when a small add appeared on the side that said “Canadians Vote Obama”.  I thought – “Figures…”  Then I more fully digested what it actually said.  CANADIANS vote Obama???  WTF?

So, I cruised on over to Canada Votes Obama, to see what it was all about.  Yup, its exactly as it sounds.

They describe themselves as “passionate and lively Obama supporters,” and say “sadly, we live in Canada [SIC] but cannot vote”.   Thank goodness!

One of the people giving them feedback, says

I think that what you are doing is WICKED. I tip my hat off to you. I am presently studying in NYC and have been able to attend different political speaking engagements and watch everything unfold. It is very interesting to say the least. I think that people have to look at this on a grand scale. It is not just America voting for a president, but their decision will reverberate throughout the world

Hmmm…  This commentary speaks quite loudly about the rank and file that are voting or would vote for Obama.  WICKED.

And lastly, this group actually has a forum entitled Why is Obama the right candidate for Canada? Yes, really.  Fortunately, as of this writing, no one has even posted there.

I realize that even calling attention to this site is potentially falling into the “any press is good press” pit, but I think that this is potentially one of the clearest examples of how this election has gone off track.  Why, you ask?  People who aren’t qualified to make the decision still have a vote.  Canadians aren’t qualified, yet they are actually advertising – PAYING – to get their message out.  Fortunately, in the case of this group and their website, the “vote” they have is more symbolic than real (again, thank goodness…).

You have to understand – I love Canada.  I’m part French Canadian.  I work for a Canadian company.  I’ve been there literally dozens of times.  If I had to pick a place outside of the US to live, Toronto would be in the top 3.  I LOVE Canada.  But…  Canadians vote Obama?  Really?  Big surprise there.  HELLO, you live in what is largely a socialist country!

Canadians Vote Obama. Has there ever been a better articulation of why Americans should vote McCain?  We are not socialists.  Most Americans, if asked the question, “Are you Socialist?” would emphatically answer, “No!”  Yet, their voting habits simply don’t reflect that.

While Canadians can’t vote in our election, this perfectly symbolizes the degree to which our elections have left the realm of being a serious issue and have instead entered the miasma of being a vocalized media circus.  People who can’t vote or even worse, aren’t qualified to vote are still partaking in the dialogue.  A media circus is a popularity contest.  Where are the facts?  Where is the UNDERSTANDING of the issues?

If I hear one more person say “Well, I just feel that, blah blah blah…”   You FEEL?  Hmm..  That’s an excellent basis for a decision, isn’t it?  Your feelings?  I FEEL like punching you, but fortunately, I’m conservative and don’t ACT on stupid, unfounded and destructive feelings.  I research, I understand, I debate and I decide.  That is how an important decision should be made.  Each time, and every time.

Lets just call this as it is.  If our election was anything BUT a simple popularity contest, Obama would never even have been a known candidate.  I mean absolutely no disrespect to the man by saying that.  At this point, he just hasn’t accomplished enough to warrant making him the most powerful man on earth.  Give it another decade or so Barack.  Get more experience.  I’ll still disagree with you politically, but at least I’ll know that you are qualified.  I won’t like it if you are elected, but I’ll be OK with that.  I don’t care if you are black, white, Christian or even Muslim.  You just aren’t qualified right now.

In this election Obama is being supported by a number of people who are just too caught up in the popularity contest to understand the ramifications of their vote.  In my book, that is an unqualified voter.  That leaves us with an unqualified candidate being supported by unqualified voters.  Can it get worse than that?

Yes, it can. You can have the Republicans doing the same thing!!

While I applaud Palin as a vice-presidential candidate choice in the face of the opposition, I don’t think she has enough experience to be president.  Fortunately, she’s the VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate.  Hello Libs, the VP has no power.  She doesn’t have enough experience to have the power.  She has more than Obama, but not enough.  Why the hell do the Dems seem to be making this election between Obama and Palin?  Yes, if McCain dies, she will be President.  But, the Dems bemoaning this point?  How stupid!  Last I checked, Palin has a LOT more experience actually running things than Obama.  Remember, the only thing that Obama can come up with to demonstrate his leadership potential is his own campaign!

The Dems’ argument seems to be: “To avoid the possibility of an unqualified person becoming President in the unlikely event that McCain dies, we are going to elect Obama, ignoring the fact that he is KNOWN to be untested, unproven and even MORE unqualified that Palin.  Not only that, we are going to make it a focal point of our campaign to spotlight how unqualified she is and how bad it would be for her to be President (even though our candidate has LESS experience).”

As is so often the case, I’m largely confused by the Democratic idea of logic.

There, I’ve said my piece.  Oh, wait…  Just one more thing.

<RANT>

One of their contributors said, “People have to look at this on a grand scale. . It is not just America voting for a president, but their decision will reverberate throughout the world.”

Um, no we don’t.  Excuse me, but fuck the world – I don’t vote in their elections, so hands off mine.  I’ll vote for the candidate that, after careful consideration, research and debate, I’ve concluded is right for MY family and MY country.  Everyone else can piss off.  I don’t see Canadians picking their PM based upon who Americans LIKE.  Nor does anyone else…

So, please.  In this one thing, you crazy Canadians, SHUT YOUR DAMN PIE HOLES!

</RANT>

There, NOW I’ve said my piece.

I started a comment that ballooned into a novel – I know, big surprise with me, right?  :)

Anyway, I wanted to post my comment here as it gets to a lot of things that I’ve been thinking about lately, and what else is a blog for other than that?

One of things that has been bothering me lately is my deep political disagreement with people that I greatly respect on a day to day basis.  This post about 9/11 finally allowed me the mental and emotional process to begin to articulate my position and support it with something other than just political haranguing.

Anyway, here’s my thoughts.  They will probably make more sense if you’ve read my brother’s post first.

CLAP CLAP CLAP…

I remember that morning, and how three months earlier I had taken AA Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles as I had done MANY times before.

I remember having a meeting in the towers 8 months prior to that.

I remember thinking that what Israel has had to deal with on a daily basis has finally come here. The big question was – was it going to stay?

People can argue all they want about Iraq and what the Bush administration has done. His leadership, and the war that his Administration has waged seems to be a lot of what makes people NOT proud to be an American.

How unfair. The fact of the matter is that we haven’t been attacked here since. Why? Because they are focused on attacking us there, and have vowed to focus all resources on expelling us. Call me callous, but I’d rather have al qaeda focused on our military instead of our malls and restaurants. For that reason alone, I hope its a very long time before we are totally out of Iraq. People here are “sick of the war”. How the hell do they think the Iraqis feel? We are so damn pampered.

I’ll tell you – I’m proud to be an American, but I’m frustrated with how shallow we can be as a nation. The country is poised to choose a man who, if elected, will be the least qualified person to ever hold the office of President. I’m not talking race, religion or even politics – just strict proven capability. Why? Because he sounds good. To me, that’s shallow. I don’t care if a person is black, white, brown, yellow, male, female – I want a President that will strengthen our country and make sure that my family is protected. Why? Because I REMEMBER 9/11 and it still scares the crap out of me. Mr. Obama may one day have done enough to prove that he is up to the job, but I don’t think that day is here today.

Many in this country want CHANGE because they are unhappy with how things are today. Maybe they should look back to the year after 9/11 and realize how bad it COULD be. These are the same people who said we went to war in Iraq because of oil. I guess they somehow missed me when the free tank of gas was given out? Did you get yours?

How bad would our economy be with suicide bombers hitting our malls during the Christmas shopping season? How bad would our jobless rate be if companies were too afraid to innovate and bring new products to market because the population at large is scared out of its mind? Nobody buys anything at times like that… How bad would it be for Los Angeles if the entertainment industry was again paralyzed by rampant uncertainty? How bad would the dollar be world-wide if our country was in the throws of real economic chaos, not just a downturn in growth?

We whine for change, why? Because the foam on the latte of our American lives has somehow been deflated? We should be thankful a hole hasn’t been punched in the cup.

Change is good if its toward something better. Better is always different, but different isn’t always better.

How many attacks will it take to bring out in our people the backbone of iron that you can see in places like Tel Aviv? Honestly, I hope we never have to find out… America largely doesn’t “remember” 9/11. We recall it. We recall it as what is hopefully the worst attack we will ever witness – and that from afar, for most of us.

I can tell you one thing – I’m sure John McCain doesn’t recall it that way. No, it’s not the worst thing that he’s ever seen. Not by a mile. I’d much rather go with a man who has clearly proven the quality of HIS backbone, thank you very much. I’m not even fond of his politics much, but I’m confidant of who he is and what he can do.

I’m proud to be an American because of the heritage of people like that.

How is it that people can be this stupid?

Check out this advertisement for a web design job.

What the heck is his person thinking?  Hmm.  Let’s see.  I have to come to their office, train their sorry butt (because that’s really what they mean by “work with me on this”), and then I have to make 500 pages for their website.

OK.  Project understood.  Now, how much do they want to pay me for this?  UNDER $100!!!!!!!

UNDER $100.  Not even a hundred.  Under that.  Because, at $100, we’d be talking $0.20 a page, which is clearly too much to pay for my services.

Wow.

For anyone wondering, a half way decent website is going to cost you several thousand dollars.  Throw in e-commerce, and it is going to be more.  If you are flexible and willing to use open source stuff and are not a crazy design Nazi, you might be able to get it done for $5-7K.  If you want something that looks unique and professional, it will cost more.

If you want it based on a Content Management System so that you can update it yourself, it will cost even more.

If your site is worth having (financially), then its worth spending money on.  You don’t open a store and expect to do it with $500.  Why would anyone think that they can do it on the web?  ESPECIALLY if you are selling something!  At least with a store, people can come in and look at what you have, see who you are and make a decision to buy from you or not.  On the web, all they have to go by is your site.

Which site would you trust with your personal information? This one:

or this one:

Design matters.  Professionalism matters.  A look of legitimacy matters.  And, all of these are going to cost money.

Oh, and please don’t take this rant as evidence that I think I’m the best web specialist in the world.  Clearly I’m not.  I can’t design worth crap.  Yet, even I’m $250 an hour at my rack rate.  Do I do a lot of web work?  Yup, going on 15 years now.  Why would anyone expect to spend less on their online “entity” than they did on legally setting up their business?  Many lawyers are way more expensive than $250 an hour.  Find a web specialist than can command the same rate, and you won’t be sorry.  If you don’t, your site may look like this:

Anyway, I’m off my soapbox.  Sorry for all the suds.

I like to play video games.  I specifically like Pirate games, because Sid Meier hooked me on his game Pirates! years ago when I was playing games on an Apple IIgs.  Now, even after a re-release and update of that awesome game, and many other ones in between, I’m still quite a sucker for launching a broadside of grape shot and grappling my way into some fancy swashbuckling.  I just can’t help it.  Some people have Gin or Poker, I have Pirate video games…  But, enough about me.

Have you heard of Pirates of the Burning Sea ?  It is an MORPG centered around privateering, piracy and naval battles during the height of caribbean mayhem.  I’d tell you to check it out, but hear out my story first.

It is a very cool game.  I spent some Christmas money ($50) on buying the game, and was ready to pony up my $15 a month after that to play this bad boy (I know, I’m nuts, but see paragraph 2 of this post) but there has been one major glitch.  Flying Studio makes Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS), and they are a pretty neat game studio.  Unfortunately, they have partnered up with Sony Station and Sony Online Entertainment (of Everquest infamy) to “distribute” the game and to do all the monthly billing.

Lets just say, that’s not going well.  The game went live, and I can’t log in.  I click on the Support link in PotBS and I’m taken to Flying Lab.  I submit a question and within an hour or so they tell me that they can’t help me, that it is a Sony issue.  Well, being the forward thinking person that I am , I had already submitted a question to Sony Station asking them the same question.  I’ve given them my CC, I’ve tried to subscribe, etc.  It tells me I have until February 25 to play, but yet says my subscription is closed.  Who knows, its a screw up, but they’ll fix it right?  Well, wrong so far…

I wait and wait and they never contact me.  2,4,6,8, 10 hours go by and still no contact.  Thinking that maybe because I classified it as a billing question that it wouldn’t get handled until Monday, I tried to log a different technical support question just to see if I could nudge some action.  Well, their system told me “Your question has NOT been submitted” and then continued to tell me that I’m not allowed to log a second issue until my first one is fixed.  Excuse me?  WTF is that?  Nothing like making me feel taken care of…

So, that pissed me off.  I then looked further into how to contact technical support and I found a page telling me that technical support is only available Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm so I was basically S.O.L until Monday.

Now, OK – maybe you are thinking “What’s the big deal?  Its a weekend and their support is closed, what’s so crazy about that?”  Well – think about it - these people host ONLINE GAMES!  When the hell do people play online games?!  At night and on weekends, yet these idiots are only open during the day on weekdays.  Typical Sony bullshit – totally focused on themselves, and not on their customers.  For a company that is supposedly focused on entertainment, they sure know how to ruin a good time. 

They’ve screwed up their PC hardware (just ask my brother about his laptop), they screwed up by abandoning the Clie, they still stubbornly insist on putting Memory Stick on everything they make, and they have pissed people off for years with their Station online gaming.  And yet they survive.

There was a “Rate our Answer” button on the page telling me that Technical Support wasn’t available on weekends, and I couldn’t resist, so I sent them the letter below.  Maybe I’m screwed in the head, but this crap pisses me off.   I only get so many free hours in a week, and lately whenever I try to spend a few of them blowing off some steam with a game, I end up in a tech support nightmare.  Anyway, drop me a line and let me know what you think… Am I over reacting, or is Sony as clueless as they appear?

This feedback is about:
http://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_faqid=10404.

What can we do to make the answer to this question better?

It could say that technical support is available on the weekend.

Let me spell it out.

When do people play games? In their free time. When do people have the most free time? During the weekend. So, when do people play the most? On the weekend. And, when is technical support needed the most? When people are playing the most, which as we already know, is on the weekend.

Yet, Sony Station technical support isn’t available on the weekend. That’s completely stupid. And, typical Sony. How your company prospers in spite of itself is an enigma for the ages.

Now, the real question is, am I actually enough of a pirate whore that I’ll still pay these people to play the game?

Well, and now you know how Sony is still afloat – idiots like me.