Adobe Flash

Today I hate flash because it captures my !@#$^&%#$*% mousewheel as I am scrolling down a page. Please, please, please let it at least bubble that event back to the browser (if the flash object isn't yet "active"). There are few precious things that piss me off more than cursor stealing apps.

Time Travel

I am sorry - but all this recent time travel crap on TV has got to go. It is the biggest writers hack and really provides nothing interesting to the story as they try to ties up some loose ends by playing the time travel card.

If I were part of the time travel gambling commission I would revoke all time travel cards. I can't think of a single time that it has really proven to be a good plot element in making a great show. This has got to go.

eBay, and several of it's users

eBay. It's a great idea in many ways. First, it allows you to get rid of all that junk you have. Second, it allows you to get away with it. Buyer protection my A$$. I just spent a good chunk of money on some used laptop drives that were not the same pictured (even though the auction said they were) and that had a written return policy included.

Thsi weenie dumped a bunch of drives all at once on eBay so it "appeared" at that time he had a good rating. So I bid and won several of them. EVERY ONE of them was bad. I could understand one or two, but ALL?

Now, eBay has no easy way of shutting this guy down (after all, he IS making them money) and the PayPal process is slow, clunky and not guaranteed. You also do not get the FULL story of the PayPal buyer guarantee until you start a claim. Did you know that you can only file for buyer protection TWICE a year? Power buyers on eBay are going to get screwed more than that in a month.

So there it is. Do NOT buy from the eBay name "anyglobal". By the time you read this his rating should be negative - he is receiving a TON of bad feedback. 13 negatives in less than 2 weeks.

eBay - WHERE ARE YOU? Push away the piles of cash that hide your view of the real world and step up to the plate.

'Nuff said. (pb)

(I'll leave comments turned on for this post, so ignore the spam.....)

Tivo

Tivo and it's screwing of it's loyal customers. I don't own a Tivo, but I want one or something like it. But I don't dare, because everyime I turn around I hear about Tivo adding Ads or adding a "feature" to auto-delete shows after 7 days. Strange, my VCR doesn't do that.

Chain of Responsibility for Hurricane Katrina

This was passed to me from a friend of mine who is finally getting to return to his house in the Biloxi area. His house was nearly destroyed, but he was still in good spirits because he is alive. Here are his comments after returning from helping those still stuck in New Orleans:

In case you aren’t familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work: The chain of responsiblity for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The mayor failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them.

5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it. (BEFORE the storm hit)

Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt (democrat) government going all the way back to Huey Long. Funds for disaster protection and relief have been flowing into this city for decades, and where has it gone, but into the pockets of the politicians and their friends.

Decades of socialist government in New Orleans has sapped all self reliance from the community, and made them dependent upon government for every little thing. Political correctness and a lack of will to fight crime have created the single most corrupt police force in the country, and has permitted gang violence to flourish.

Those who stayed and looted in New Orleans should be ashamed of themselves. I watched a newsman interview a man floatinng away a few garbage cans full of items. When asked what he needed them for, he said: SURVIVAL, WHAT DO YOU THINK? Then the newsman asked how he was going to cook his food in his new microwave oven with no electricity.

The sad thing is that there are many poor folks who have suffered and died needlessly because those types of people and REALLY because of whom they voted into office that failed them.

For those who missed item 5 (where the President’s level of accountability is discussed), it is made more clear in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article dated August 28:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin. Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome. The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin’s court to carry out the evacuation order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his administration missed the boat. Mayor Nagin and his emergency sidekick Terry Ebbert have displayed lethal, mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina.

As for Mayor Nagin, he and his profile in pathetic leadership police chief should resign as well. That city’s government is incompetent from one end to the other. The people of New Orleans deserve SO MUCH BETTER than this crowd of idiots is capable of giving them.

If you’re keeping track, these boobs let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans–in one trip–get ruined in the floods. Whatever plan these guys had, it was a dud. Or it probably would have been if they’d bothered to follow it.

As for all the race-baiting rhetoric and Bush-bashing coming from prominent blacks on the left, don’t expect Ray Nagin to be called out on the carpet for falling short. You want to know why? Here’s why: It’s more convenient to blame a white president for what went wrong than to hold a black mayor and his administration accountable for gross negligence and failing to fully carry out an established emergency preparedness plan that THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR.

To hold Nagin and his administration accountable for dropping the ball amounts to letting loose the shouts and cries of “Racism!”. Oh my! There's that word! We're blaming someone for something they clearly did wrong. Oh wait, they are African-American so it just MUST be a racist remark! It just HAS to be!

It’s sad, it’s wrong, but it’s standard operating procedure for the media and left-wing black leadership. Mark my words: you will not hear a word of criticism from Jesse Jackson Sr., Randall Robinson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or Kanye West being directed toward Clarence Ray Nagin Jr. (I dare you to even google for it now)

It's time to grow up America. Quit playing the race card on EVERYTHING that doesn't go your way.

So, WHERE is the blame my friends? WHERE? Certainly not with the president. Let's start with the list above and work our way down, shall we?

569 buses sure would have saved a LOT of lives.

'Nuff said. (pb)

(Sorry, had to turn off comments due to SPAM.....)

Scope Creep

Sux0r. 'nuff said. -pb

people....

it really sux0r when people dump their crappy problems on you at the last minute, and expect you to stay forever to complete them.

It also really sux0r when your cylindars are done at the machine shop but you have to go to a six sigma meeting instead of picking them up.

Reboots...

Ya know, the thing that really burns my butt about this is that fact that even after i reboot, sometimes i have to reboot again. The patching around here sux0r.

Ohh yeah, and it really sux0r when you come in to test some software, and the test box is down because someone didnt hold its hand during a reboot. So i had to sit here for an hour waiting for someone to go push a button to allow the server to continue booting.

And one more thing, i hate it when your using someone else's code, and it works in dev, but when the test server reboots server.cfc.stat is no longer valid.....

ok, i have now ranted, i feel better...

no postalness for me....
wg

sux0r: Slippery Dates

Whilst surfing the interweb today, I read a post from the inquirer (no not that enquirer where mindless fools want to know) - that the newest installment in the venerable Legend of Zelda series would be delayed into 2006. Slippery dates seem to be what the company is doing with their hardware and now software titles. I am amazed how, like hollywood, the gaming industry continues to chip away at the nostalgia and joy from my youth. I am not sure exactly when or why, but I just don't enjoy playing games like I used to - and the experience lessens with every passing day. So today, I blame you Nintendo. Or maybe I should thank you, instead of turning out crap like everyone else, you will hopefully turn out yet another quality product. -G

Welcome, sux0r

There are many things that suck in life. These are only a few. Maintained by 2 geeks and a dude - these are our rants.