IBM LIED, My Credit Card Fried.

Ok, it didn't fry. But they billed my card for a computer I didn't buy.
Last month we ordered a computer, and then changed our minds. I have an email from IBM confirming the cancelation, but the next month they billed me anyway.

When I called them to complain, I was given a different number to call. I called it, and got the EXACT SAME PERSON I had just spoken to. The bitch had actually tried to ditch me onto another call-centre worker. I'm fricken livid. She then tells me I had got her by mistake (yeah, no kidding) because I'd selected the wrong telephone menu choice. (I hadn't) She then said I had to call back, and choose the LAST menu option.
I did so, and got technical support. WTF?
I checked my cancelation email, and saw a Third number and extension to call. I did so. Turns out if you phone that extension the IBM phone system hangs up on you. I tried again in order to repeat the experience of being hung up on by a computer. I had yet another phone number on the email to try, and that one had too many digits.

Is IBM doing this as a matter of policy?

I'm calling the better business bureau.

+++++++++++UPDATE++++++++++++
January 25th: IBM admitted their mistake just before Christmas, and are going to refund my credit card. So they say. Just wait 4-6 weeks for processing. They had my money for nearly 2 months. I will be checking my statement to see if they included any interest.

Wrong is right. Up is down.

California voted last night in favour of the death penalty for unborn babies. Voters chose to defeat a proposition intended to help Parents prevent the abortion industry from taking advantage of their MINOR daughters. Their school teachers can't lay a finger on them without a lawsuit, but they won't be prevented from taking your daughter for an abortion without your knowledge. No death penalty in California... unless you're mom's pregnant.

France Discovers Appeasement Sucks - Maybe they'll learn this time...

(Image from Cox & Forkum)


There's a hoary old joke that goes:
Question: "How many Soldiers does it take to defend Paris?"
Answer: "Nobody knows, it's never been tried before."

By some accounts, the French are trying now. One person is now known to be dead, and the Islamic riots have spread across France and, according to some reports, Germany and the Netherlands. The foolishness of the post WWII politically correct ideals that allowed millions of 3rd world temporary workers to effectively immigrate to Europe without assimilating is now obvious.

I've wondered if France had, in part, opposed the second Gulf war in an attempt to appease their sizable Muslim minorities. Some news services are carrying stories calling the riots an Intifada, and I heard one radio interview last night that claimed the U.S. has communications intercepts proving this unrest is part of a movement to convert Europe to Islam through violence and intimidation. Nearly 10% of France's population is Muslim, and although many are 2nd generation, there's been little effort to assimilate.

Looking over the past century, there was one continent which managed to absorb a mass of immigration without rioting and widespread disorder. Canada and the United States each had huge territories that begged for settlers. And both nations managed to absorb millions of foreign immigrants without huge changes to their cultural norms.

The reason was Assimilation. As the newcomers arrived they, in many cases enthusiastically, adopted the ways and identities of their adopted nations. It's only in the last 30 years that the 'melting pot' concept of assimilation was discarded in favour of 'multicultural preservation.' Or rather, what began as multiculturalism has turned into an inadverdant but outright attempt to transplant damn near all the 3rd world animosities and conflicts into the 1st world, right alongside the people fleeing them.

You want to emmigrate to France? Become French. You want to live in America? Be American. I've seen reports of immigrant ghettos in Canada and the United States where after TWO GENERATIONS the ethnic newcomers still can't speak english. There are towns in France where Muslims are 70% of the population, and can't speak French.

France is paying the price. We're only a little farther down the timetable.

Sony Liable for Damages

OK, so they haven't been found liable yet. But they should be.

You may or may not have heard the news that Sony BMG has succumbed to the bean-counter's disease. It's that ever eternal quest of the accountant to promote penny-wise and pound-foolish solutions to insignificant problems. Invariably they make things worse.

Take the news this week that Sony BMG has been putting self-installing rootkits in their music CDs as a part of their content protection scheme XCP. It hides Sony's hidden monitoring program from the computer's owner, and is so poorly implemented that hackers are now freely using it to hide their own malware.

The first example I've read about is how losers are using it to hide their cheats from Blizzard's servers when playing World of Warcraft online. I've been vocally in favour of public beatings for these online cheaters for years now, but it's not that big of an issue for the rest of the world. It should be.

Rootkits have been around for a while. But thanks to Sony, there are potentially millions of computer users out there with their root kit in their computers. Every one of them will hide files with "$sys$" in their prefix. It won't be more than a few days before the less capable hackers out there are integrating Sony's root kit into their own small minded schemes.

Now we hear that Sony's patch to remove their rootkit is instead causing user's Windows OS to crash. Lovely. Incompetent f***s.

I hate lawyers, lawsuits, and people who use them. In most instances they've become an impediment to liberty and the pusuit of happiness. But in this case, I hope someone sues Sony's ass into oblivion.

The most evil man in America

(illustration from User Friendly)

Some asshat has figured out a way to end literature in Western civilization. This butthead has decided to patent storylines. Here's a bit from their webpage:

"Knight and Associates is the first patent prosecution firm to attempt to obtain utility patent protection on fictional plots. Knight and Associates consists of Andrew Knight and a team of independent contractors comprising skilled writers and experienced patent attorneys, ready to turn valuable new fictional plots or storylines into U.S. utility patent applications. "

Sure as hell there'll be a wave of bullshit lawsuits against bestselling authors as soon as someone can claim they had an story idea first.

In Dante's inferno wasn't there a pit in hell, where the damned were forced to wade chest deep in shit? Their mouths had been replaced with an anus, and when they sp0ke the shit got deeper.
Perfect place for this guy.

F******g lawyers.