Unnecessary Update Hell

 

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-04-05/

I've discovered a new law of nature. Let me tell you about it:

When a computer program reaches a level of development where it works "just the way you like it" it's only a matter of months before it's makers will bring in updates to mess it up.

I'm still using an older version of firefox, 3.6. I've seen the trouble my friends have had with the bloated newer versions and I'm not eager to change. It's not the resource-pig that the latest version is, and I've got the plug-ins and add-ons working the way I like. Starting two weeks ago, every time I open it I have to put up with bullshit demands from Mozilla that I upgrade and add more layers of goo to my browser.
This is a pet peeve of mine that goes back to Microsoft Works, Word, and Office. The original version of MS Works that came with my first Windows95 system was easy to figure out, and easy to use. Office 97 was like a fancy dressed up version of Works, and the changes to the menus intuitive and logical. Office 2003 seemed like an unnecessary expense that just repackaged the Office 97 suite in a new box.
But it was MS Office 2007, which completely changed the menus, expanded, regrouped, and seemingly redistributed the commands at random, which proved that they must do this shit to justify keeping their jobs. 

 We hates them.

Signs of Spring (...and honesty at Costco)

It's March 20th, the time of the Spring Equinox, and the signs of a new season are around us.  The first migrating geese of the year, the first glimpse of snow mold on last year's lawn,  the unique smell of the first of the thawing dog doo emerging from under last winter's blanket of snow...

...and since Christmas, my first honest gasoline pump. Yup.  It's March 20th, and this is the first honest gas pump I've seen in nearly three months. I was so excited I took a picture of it.

See the sticker? There's a Federal Regulation that requires all Service Stations and Gas Bars to have their gasoline pumps certified according to a set schedule. Since I gas up at least twice a week that's at last 27 other times I could have been gouged at the pump.

Seeing as how the oil companies have already been manipulating the cost of oil to gouge us honestly at the pump this little bit of extra larceny on the part of the retailer just pisses me off.  One time last month, at a highway gas station between Fort Saskatchewan and Lamont, Alberta, the pumps didn't even have the old, outdated certification stickers that showed they'd at least been certified once in the past. I went into the store and complained to the elderly lady ( I thought she was the owner/manager) behind the till about her pumps not being certified. Even though I had heard her speak to a customer ahead of me, she pretended she couldn't speak or understand english well enough to answer me.

I'll be gassing up at the Costco again in the future. 

Saving Local Television

The actual issue is an attempt to make viewers pay for something that they've never had to pay for before. Local TV signals.

As broadcasters catch up with digital and high-definition technologies, the old style analog television transmissions will disappear.

The current campaign by Canadian television broadcasters asking viewers to demand the CRTC force Satellite and Cable Companies to pay for local stations' content is pure misdirection. The Broadcasters would have you believe that the issue is fairness; a need to make the cable companies pay for the use of the local stations they carry.

Bullshit. That's just a strawman.

1. First off, Despite their protestations to the contrary, if the broadcasters succeed in forcing the cable and Satellite providers to pay for the use of local stations, the costs will be passed directly to the consumers.
2. Secondly, the Parent companies of the local tv stations, companies like like Canwest Global and Quebecor, own a significant portion of the Cable and Satellite Providers own part of or in some cases all of the specialty channels that consumers are paying the cable companies to access. Asking consumers to pay again is almost like asking them to pay twice for the same damn thing.
3. Third, the cable and satellite companies include the local tv stations in the basic access packages they force every customer to buy before we can get access to the specialty channels we REALLY want to watch. I suspect that were some of the local stations to go under, the basic packages would remain largely unchanged, just carrying more of the alphabet networks' different regional feeds.
   
4. It's a changing marketplace. If local tv stations and their parent companies can't keep up and adjust to the new technologies, it's not fair to have the government (in the guise of new CRTC regulation) force consumers to keep the dinosaurs alive.
   

As a consumer, I gave up on local TV over a decade ago. There are perhaps twelve specialty channels I wanted when I ordered my satellite TV system. But I am forced to pay for hundreds of signals I NEVER WATCH in order the get the few I am interested in. Were the satellite and Cable companies serious about providing content choice they'd let us order the specific specialty channels we want to see.

The last thing I need is another bullshit charge added to my bill.

Debt and Stimulation - or destruction?

Many people have commented on the oh-so-ludicrous Barrack Obama "Ruin the Economy" spending bill. It's my own opinion that Barrack, a self-confessed Marxist, intends to use the impending fiscal crisis, which he helped create, to transform the greatest free market economy in the world into a marxist-style command economy. Yes, I know, every nation that has tried marxism has failed miserably, spreading misery, corruption, and destitution far and wide. Someone should tell Barry.



Please note that I also said 'impending crisis'. If you think we're already in the crisis, you ain't seen nuthin yet. The Obama must first discredit the current system, thus his plan to create an even bigger Fiscal Crisis than we're currently looking at. The biggist spending bill in American history, Obama's stimulus bill is 93% pork and only 7% stimulus. That's right, only seven percent. This is more money than any country has ever borrowed before, yet his worship the President says it's NECESSARY, and has been pushing for it's quick passage in order to prevent detailed critical review.

Sadly, Pork-barrel politics as usual reigns in Washington and the politicos don't see the landmine they're so happily stepping on.

The only hope for America is a taxpayers revolt, I think. Will it happen? CNN reports that the phone lines to the Capitol are jammed with voters calling in to complain.

Boy that Global Warming Sure Sucks, eh?

Today's photo entry:

Did Not Vote for Coalition Government

I never voted for this. Neither did you.

The last federal election campaign was run by all three major federal parties on their individual party platforms, none of which included forming a coalition of the losers to steal power from the winner. As I recall, The Conservatives and Liberals were both hoping to form the government, and the NDP wanted to become the official opposition.

No, we didn’t vote for this. Small wonder that so many Canadians are incensed by this undemocratic attempt to seize power.

Yesterday a radio station poll by talk-radio station 630 CHED showed virtually no support for the Liberal/NDP/Bloc Quebecois troika of usurpers. Small wonder, CHED broadcasts in the Conservative western province of Alberta; but the brand new Nationwide facebook group, “Canadians Against A Coalition Government" has gathered 50,000 members in only a few days.

Nope. No mention of a coalition, nor are such staggering ‘frankensteins’ a part of Canadian Parliamentary tradition. Nor does Canadian Parliamentary tradition include the seizure of power from a minority government without an election. In fact, past governments have been soundly punished by the electorate at the polls for ‘exceeding their mandates’ when they chose to sharply deviate from the campaign platforms which won them their elections.

Today I listened to an NDP MP claim his Liberal/NDP/Bloc troika has the support of over 60% of the voters. Lies! The voters they claim as theirs did not vote for a coalition.

Yes, a majority of voters did not vote for the Conservatives. But by that same logic, AN EVEN LARGER MAJORITY DID NOT VOTE LIBERAL, and a larger yet majority did not vote for the NDP or Bloc Quebecois. By comparison, the largest block of voters voted for the Conservatives to lead the country. If they are defeated in a non-confidence vote in Parliament there should be an election. That’s the Canadian way.

I sincerely hope our Liberal-appointed Governor General, Monique Jean, does the right thing when Prime Minister Stephen Harper asks her to dissolve parliament and announce a new election. Let the last election's loser run on platform of Coalition government. Then we voters can punish the Liberals and NDP for this attempt to bypass the democratic process, as they so obviously deserve.

What Obama really thinks...

...based on what he's written.

“

k From Dreams of My Father:'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.' From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.' From Dreams of My Father:'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.' From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.' From Dreams of My Father:'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.' From Audacity of Hope:'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'j

”

Thanks to Roger at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical for pointing out those passages.

China's Space/Time Warp News Agency

Hahhahahahahah!!!!

Aw man, this is rich.

Earlier this week, Communist China's official government news agency, Xinhua, published news reports about a manned orbital launch and spacewalk, including orbit-to-ground conversations, before the rocket took off.

FAIL!!!!!!

Xinhua's breathless account of the launch included fictional ground-to-orbit dialogue like:

“First-level measurement arrangement!

“After this order, signal lights were all switched on. Various data show up on rows of screens, hundreds of technicians staring at the screens, without missing any slightest changes . . .

“One minute to go! . . .

“The firm voice of the controller broke the silence of the whole ship. Now, the target is captured 12 seconds ahead of the predicted time . . .

Of course this is all in keeping with China's preoccupation with putting on a good false front for the world to see. Most recently, we remember some of the fast ones they tried to pull in the Olympics.

Somebody in Xinhua is going to be sent to the slave labor factory for this boner.

Btw, the actual mission was apparently a success, with the astronauts returning safely, earlier today.