I was waiting for this response from FEMA. They had a bogus press conference with no press. That did not stop FEMA from pretending that their staffers were reporters. George Orwell would be so impressed.
Category: Just Stupid (page 9 of 12)
When I read that newspaper executives were arrested in Arizona and that they earlier were sent a subpoena for “the names and Internet addresses of all people who have viewed the site since Jan. 1, 2004” I was not surprised.
That’s just the type of country we live in these days.
We see our government move political dissent outside of view.
We see the use of tasers when it’s just not called for, when tasers are supposed to be used as a non-lethal substitute for guns. They are not really meant to torment some drunk woman or college smart mouth who pisses people off makes the police angry.
We see irrationality in debates with candidates trying to out Jack Bauer each other.
We have a Democratic party in charge of congress but lack the resolve to do anything other than be the President’s punching bag. Harry Reid will just fold on FISA, telecom immunity, anything the President wants. The Democrats are the Lame Ducks after all.
We see that we don’t torture as long as our government can define what torture is.
Authority has become the theme for our time and disagreeing with authority gets you in trouble. The courts don’t help people, they also defer to authority. Just ask this guy.
So this morning I read that in Arizona the County Attorney did the right thing and I found that to be really outrageous. I’m more shocked that the investigation and charges are dismissed rather than they are there in the first place.
I don’t know why the County Attorney dismissed the whole thing. He could have gone after anything he wants and would have gotten away with it. After all, that is the type of country we live in.
Enjoy the irony. I’m sure that Putin could get the Secretary of State to issue a retraction provided he employs these power grabs using a euphemism such as calling it the Patriot Act.
Actually that should be “you need to understand how an application works before you can use it”. I think that Jammie Thomas would be better off today if she understood what could happen in the real world with using an application.
When I get Opensuse (this weekend I’ll get OpenSUSE 10.3) I’ll leave it running for a while to benefit others. Once I’ve done that long enough I’ll take it down. Contributing to the Opensuse torrent is a deliberate action on my part, it’s not automatic and does not share files on my hard drive. I’m not sure that I can use µTorrent to just share folders; never wanted to so I just don’t know.
Kazaa is a P2P file sharing app. IMHO It’s different from Bit Torrent because in Bit Torrent you need to leave the download running in order to share it. Apparently with Kazaa it’s trivial to share out your whole music library and this has gotten Kazaa into deep poo with the music industry.
This lady was sued by the RIAA and rather than settling for the extortion she went to trial. The RIAA behaves like a shake down organization and claims that if you rip the CD’s you paid for to your iPod then you are a thief. I did it with my CDs (can you get Basia on iTunes?), apparently so did the POTUS when he had the Beatles on his ipod. Soon I am sure they will insist on a pay-per-play model.
Oddly enough she lost. Her defense was basically “I don’t know how this happened, but it was not me. Maybe gremlins did it”. If she had used a different Kazaa account name than the one she uses for other services, then maybe. But her lawyer tried the dumbest defense possible by just claiming ignorance of the file sharing of those 24 music tracks.
I don’t like the RIAA. I think they should be shut down and let consumers alone instead of trying to scare them with “the sky will fall on you if you don’t contact our settlement extortion centers” tactics. I think that they are hurting their industry more than they are protecting it. But if you are caught doing something that is illegal, whether it should be illegal or not is moot, then you just might want to be able to demonstrate that it was not you instead of just saying it.
I had considered getting an iPhone in the past but the EDGE only cell network irked me so I figured I’d get one when a) they support 3G cell phone networks, and b) when the iPhone becomes 16 GB.
Now even if that happens, unless Apple shows they are changing, I won’t buy one. The latest 1.1.1 firmware upgrade is end user hostile. Having the phone re-locking itself is one thing. Punishing the user with a phone that can’t activate on the network is way over the top. Apparently installing third party apps will get you a dead phone too.
I don’t get it. On my BlackBerry Pearl I can use custom ring tones (MP3s) without having to pay more cash, I can install third party software, and the Pearl is lots cheaper than the iPhone. It’s as if Apple wants smart consumers to stay away from the iPhone. My main gripe with this is the attitude. If this was intentional then this is strictly a punitive move on Apple’s part and is completely unnecessary unless they want to send a message.
Gizmodo has a good up-to-date section on the iPhone here, it’s worth checking out. Unless 1.1.2 comes out with a “whoops, 1.1.1 was a brown bag release, sorry” then why get an iPhone?
On CNN’s web page it says “President Bush announces healthcare plan”. Does President Bush think that “healthcare plan” is a middle-east country needing a bombing and invasion…?
Idiots. There are ways to make a point reasonably. Instead these marketing geniuses get inflammatory and any message they wanted to convey gets lost in the outcry.
A few years ago I tried out Zinio as part of my free eWeek subscription. I stopped using it because it simply was not worth it (DRM files, needed a special reader, slow as all else) and I already received the print version.
I just got an unsolicited offer via email from Zinio and it had the link to update my email preferences. I figured I could opt out and never get email again.
Going to that link gets me a page that does not let me opt-out. In order to do that I have to pick up the phone (will do so tomorrow).
That’s nonsense. I did not opt-in and I do not enjoy receiving unsolicited offers via email (SPAM). The fact that I need to call them and waste my time makes me even more determine to not deal with them.
Update: I called 1-888-ZINIO-NOW (1-888-946-4666), pressed ‘0’ for operator and got someone who was said it was being resolved and I was being removed. The gentleman I spoke with was very polite and professional. Apparently they sent out that email to people who have not used their service for 3 years (like me) and were getting a lot of emails in response.
Our Mercedes experience is less than perfect. In fact, a lot less than perfect. It is not an experience one wants to have if one can avoid it.
We have the 2000 year model of ML320, the Mercedes SUV. Granted, it is a 7-year old car. But still, it is a Mercedes. It is supposed to be a premium luxury car, not a Honda.
We have issues with this SUV since day one. In the first year, we had trouble with the running board. Then not until when we had to replace the side mirrors did we realized that we did not get the auto dimming feature on the mirrors that we paid for as part of the premium package. Then, there was the recall on the steering wheel fuel connector. Early this year the muffler had a hole and was making such a loud noise that I was embarrassed to be driving in it. Then came the last incident on July 30th.
It was Jan’s first day at work and I volunteered to drive us to the train station. I forgot to turn off the light after I parked the car. The car did beep but I thought it was the seatbelt and ignored it. I thought about it after we got on the train and rationalized that the car will turn off automatically so didn’t bother to ask Jan. When we got back to the train station on the evening, the battery was dead and we needed to jump start the car. At first Jan called his dad but then I came up with a great idea. Why don’t we ask the taxi driver at the station and see if he can help us to jump start the car. Great idea….. only if we can open the hood! We got the taxi to come with us to our car only to find out that the hood of this POS (Piece of Sh*#) wouldn’t open. I called AAA and they promised to send a tow truck in an hour. We waited over an hour and finally the tow truck came. He couldn’t open the hood either so we had to have it put on a flatbed to our house.
The next day my father-in-law came up with an idea by using the cigarette lighter charger port to charge the batter. At least we didn’t have to flatbed the car to the dealer. Jan made an appointment with the dealer for Saturday morning at 7:30.
So we went to the dealer Saturday morning and guess what they told us! There is no secret way to open the hood other than to break the perfectly OK grill, open the hood, replace the mechanism and replace the grill! I have never ever heard of such an absurd way of opening the hood but we had no other option. It would take a couple of days to get the car back because they have to order the parts. Total cost, over $1,100 to open hood. What kind of car the hood won’t open! Well, a Mercedes!
We love the Mercedes experience so much (NOT) that we decided to get a BMW X3 or Lexus for our next car which we are hoping to get in a few months. I want the 2008 model and BMW’s 2008 model year is not out yet.
