Like any (relatively) normal person, there are commercials I like and commercials I don't like. In general, I prefer funny, clever and/or weird commercials and I fucking hate annoyingly stupid commercials. Right now, there's this commercial on - I can't remember whose commercial it is because I'm so annoyed by the content - that's been running frequently. It features this cloying family of helicopter parents cooing about their kids "activities" - talking about being mathletes and how "ballet season" is soon to start.
It makes me want to punch the actors and writers of the commercial in the head. Basically, I think that any person/actor/character that utters the term "mathlete" needs a punch through the skull.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Freakish Weather
I've been complaining, a lot, this year about our lack of a meaningful winter. It's been, for the most part, freakishly warm and utterly bereft of snow. It's not that I want my February cold, it's that I fear what August will be like when it's frequently warmer than 60° in February.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
DoNotCall? How about "DoNotBother"?
When the feds first came out with the Do Not Call registry, a few years ago, I signed up immediately. And, for the most part, all seemed good. The only tele-spam I got was the stuff that's allowed (political canvasing, charity, and businesses that I already have a direct association with). And, because I don't generally give out my phone number to anyone, I pretty much never got calles.
For the last several months, however, I've been getting tele-spam from some company down in Florida. They seem to go by variations on the name/initials, "WCA". Whenever I punch their numbers into a Google search, it invariably points to various tele-spam complaint forums.
Their calls fall squarely into the rules defined as "not allowed" and "not excepted" (and, no, I don't mean "accepted" - I mean that the nature of their calls isn't in the list of rule-exceptions). So, each time they call, I immediately browse on over to DoNotCall.Gov and file a complaint.
I'm on my fourth complaint, at this point. Yet, the calls keep coming. So, I have to ask, "does filing a complaint with donotcall.gov actually accomplish anything?" I'm tired of WCA's bullshit robo-calls. If the Do Not Call registry actually means something, these guys should be getting sanctioned. What's more, they should be getting sanctioned at a rate that is high enough to make their activities unprofitable, not just at a rate that can be accepted as "the cost of doing business".
Oh well, I guess the whole Do Not Call thing was yet another one of those "do something for votes, just don't do anything meaningful" types of things.
For the last several months, however, I've been getting tele-spam from some company down in Florida. They seem to go by variations on the name/initials, "WCA". Whenever I punch their numbers into a Google search, it invariably points to various tele-spam complaint forums.
Their calls fall squarely into the rules defined as "not allowed" and "not excepted" (and, no, I don't mean "accepted" - I mean that the nature of their calls isn't in the list of rule-exceptions). So, each time they call, I immediately browse on over to DoNotCall.Gov and file a complaint.
I'm on my fourth complaint, at this point. Yet, the calls keep coming. So, I have to ask, "does filing a complaint with donotcall.gov actually accomplish anything?" I'm tired of WCA's bullshit robo-calls. If the Do Not Call registry actually means something, these guys should be getting sanctioned. What's more, they should be getting sanctioned at a rate that is high enough to make their activities unprofitable, not just at a rate that can be accepted as "the cost of doing business".
Oh well, I guess the whole Do Not Call thing was yet another one of those "do something for votes, just don't do anything meaningful" types of things.
My Friend, "Too Fat"
A friend was lamenting his weight gain of recent years. And was saying he thought it was time to do something about it. To justify the "do something", he started rattling off a bunch of "you know it's time, when...".
I was amused by some of the items on his list, so, I decided to add some of my own. I'm not sure he was amused when I added, "when your belly button has an event-horizon, it's time to go on a diet."
I was amused by some of the items on his list, so, I decided to add some of my own. I'm not sure he was amused when I added, "when your belly button has an event-horizon, it's time to go on a diet."
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Joys of Interoperability
Like many large-scale and collaborative operations, we have need of replicated common file-stores. The method we'd been using was fine from a collaborative standpoint, but not so good from a replication standpoint. So, the onwer of the repository opted to move the repository to a new server so that a replication solution could be used.
Unfortunately, the default security settings on the new server made it so the share wasn't usable from Linux clients or from Windows clients not joined to the same domain as the share server. I found the fix and wrote up a page on the subject. But still: I really shouldn't have to bust out regedit (and reboot) just to mount a CIFS export.
Unfortunately, the default security settings on the new server made it so the share wasn't usable from Linux clients or from Windows clients not joined to the same domain as the share server. I found the fix and wrote up a page on the subject. But still: I really shouldn't have to bust out regedit (and reboot) just to mount a CIFS export.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Cheese Don't Fail Me Now
Tonight, Donna made a wonderful dinner of cassoulet. We had a guest over to help us eat it. Even pared-down, cassoulet recipes make for a lot of food. Besides: it meant that someone else could bring wine.
After killing the dinner, we opted to hang out for a bit and watch movies. Having an XBox and FiOS, we have a lot of movie options without having to leave the house. I decided to look through our Zune options, first. As I scanned through the "New Releases" menu, I found Nude Nuns with Big Guns ...How do you NOT watch that??
Well, in hindsight, you just go right the hell ahead and skip it. It was rather sucktastic. I'd assumed it'd be in a similar category to Machete: so bad it's good. Nope. It was just bad - awful, actually. I'd embraced the cheese and the cheese utterly failed me.
After killing the dinner, we opted to hang out for a bit and watch movies. Having an XBox and FiOS, we have a lot of movie options without having to leave the house. I decided to look through our Zune options, first. As I scanned through the "New Releases" menu, I found Nude Nuns with Big Guns ...How do you NOT watch that??
Well, in hindsight, you just go right the hell ahead and skip it. It was rather sucktastic. I'd assumed it'd be in a similar category to Machete: so bad it's good. Nope. It was just bad - awful, actually. I'd embraced the cheese and the cheese utterly failed me.
I Like Mountain Dew...
I like Mountain Dew, especially the "Throwback" stuff. I guess because there's so many cocktails that feature any given softdrink I figured I'd look to see what might be out there for Mountain Dew. So, I put "Mountain Dew cocktail" into Google and I found a page on the subject. Most seem like fairly predictable variations on other common, citrus-based cocktails. That said, I think I'd be hard-pressed to like even a few of these...
Laptop Cleanup Day
My work laptop has a 250GB hard drive in it. Years ago, I would have assumed that was more than plenty of space. Nowadays... "not so much". Even though I keep a lot of stuff offloaded onto my (once ginormous 1.5TB) NAS, crap still manages to build up and eat all the space on my laptop's hard drive. Every so often, I dig through the crap to delete the stuff I don't need and offload the stuff that I want to keep.
I only ever have my laptop connected via WiFi and the network my old NAS is connected to only runs at 100Mbps. So, it's a slow process. The NAS, itself, is fairly old and, by reasonable standards, rather under-powered. Factor in the flaky wireless on this laptop and the crappy AP that Verizon provides with their FiOS service (I'd tired running a couple network configurations that allowed me to not use their AP, but none of them really played that well), and it's rather a slog to move things from the laptop to the NAS. I'd identified one particular set of files I wanted to offload. I did the click-n-drag to start the move and the dialogue box came up with the estimated time to do the work: 9 hours to move 36.4GB worth of files to my NAS? Seems reasonable (!), I guess.
Obviously, I canceled the job and re-evaluated whether I really needed to keep those files. I looked at them, again, and decided that I did. However, I wanted to organize their storage a bit differently than I'd originally set the transfer up for. I re-started the transfer - this time as three, smaller moves. Same number of files. Same amount of data. All in all, only actually took a little less than an hour and a half to do. Still butt-slow, but much more bearable than nine-plus hours would have been
I only ever have my laptop connected via WiFi and the network my old NAS is connected to only runs at 100Mbps. So, it's a slow process. The NAS, itself, is fairly old and, by reasonable standards, rather under-powered. Factor in the flaky wireless on this laptop and the crappy AP that Verizon provides with their FiOS service (I'd tired running a couple network configurations that allowed me to not use their AP, but none of them really played that well), and it's rather a slog to move things from the laptop to the NAS. I'd identified one particular set of files I wanted to offload. I did the click-n-drag to start the move and the dialogue box came up with the estimated time to do the work: 9 hours to move 36.4GB worth of files to my NAS? Seems reasonable (!), I guess.
Obviously, I canceled the job and re-evaluated whether I really needed to keep those files. I looked at them, again, and decided that I did. However, I wanted to organize their storage a bit differently than I'd originally set the transfer up for. I re-started the transfer - this time as three, smaller moves. Same number of files. Same amount of data. All in all, only actually took a little less than an hour and a half to do. Still butt-slow, but much more bearable than nine-plus hours would have been
Friday, February 17, 2012
Not a "LOL", But Definitely a "Snerk"
I think I found this site via StumbleUpon. It may have been directly sent to me or I may have just clicked on a link on another page I'd Stumbled.
Food On My Dog is definitely a silly and amusing site. Now, there wasn't anything on it that actually evoked a LOL from me, but it did manage to evoke a snerk. Good stuff. Very patient bully.
Food On My Dog is definitely a silly and amusing site. Now, there wasn't anything on it that actually evoked a LOL from me, but it did manage to evoke a snerk. Good stuff. Very patient bully.
People of Walmart
I'll admit that, from time to time, I'll go check out People of Walmart to see what displays of human heinousness is to be found. That said, please tell me I'll never see this guy's picture [note: no actual picture, it's just a news story, so you shouldn't have any problems keeping your lunch down] on there!
On a related note, if you're ever feeling like you need to do something towards appetite-control, just watch this video:
On a related note, if you're ever feeling like you need to do something towards appetite-control, just watch this video:
Linux 10.0?
In reading this summary of Linux 3.0, one wonders if we'll ever see a Linux 10.0? I mean, it's interesting that the OS that Linux is spawned off from is, itself, is over forty years old. I guess it's conceivable that Linux - particularly if you'd count it's direct descendants (such as Android) - might create a century-long chain. It wouldn't be any less mind-numbing a thought, when you consider the overall pace of change in technology and how many technological deadends there've been just in my lifetime. I do gotta wonder, if a centennial edition of Linux ever sees the light of day, whether it will even slightly resemble its progenitors.
Inspired Advertising
I've said it before, I'm sure I'll say it again: if more advertising were well-conceived, fewer people, myself included, would have problems being advertised to. Yes, I get that we all have different tastes and that few attempts to sell will work universally well - but then, that's what the various targeted-advertising engines (like Google and FaceBook) are supposed to help advertisers do. The advertisers just gotta keep up their end of the deal by actually making an effort to reach us beyond just shoveling any old steaming pile of shit in front of us and saying, "eat."
At any rate, found this one Australian college's commercial online, recently. It's wicked funny, if a bit gross:
While I'm happy with the school I went to, I don't think I'll ever see my alma mater advertising itself like this.
At any rate, found this one Australian college's commercial online, recently. It's wicked funny, if a bit gross:
While I'm happy with the school I went to, I don't think I'll ever see my alma mater advertising itself like this.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
It's Not About Religion
So, part of me is a bit squicked by the feds' attempts to force church-funded employers to offer counter-faith services as part of their employment benefits. I think it mostly comes from the standpoint of "keep da gummint outta things" feelings I generally hold to.
I think we've kind of moved (or at least those who have money to lose on the deal) from a country where you're "free to worship how you please" is being replaced with the supposition that "if I claim religion, I should feel free to act however I please, so long as I can site religious beliefs as my rationale."
When I look at the specific issues, it strikes me that the potential for conflict wouldn't exist if the potentially-effected organizations stuck to their operational cores. If they wanted to offer public services and chose to only people those service providers with people who were strictly volunteers rather than employees, there'd be no problems. In the capacity of a volunteer organization, indeed, the government would have no place to dictate acceptable compensation and benefits arrangements.
It's that these organizations have crossed from being volunteer-efforts to being employers that introduces the problems. Realistically speaking, as an _employer_, they should be subject to the same standards, expectations and legal obligations that any other employer is subject to. Even if the money for that employment comes from purely church-derived sources, it's still an employment construct rather than a volunteer construct. These organizations are already subject to other regulatory processes because of the industries they play in (just cuz it's "God's hospital" doesn't mean you get to ignore health regulations such as HIPAA) - so why should they be exempt from regulations surrounding terms of employment?
But, that's just my view on things. I don't really have any skin in the game, one way or the other (I'm not religious and I don't work for church-funded organizations - I'm just a tax-paying citizen).
Fucking *OUCH*!
Before going to the dentist, my mouth was aching, but at an ignorable level. AFTER the dentist, I'm wishing I had some topical anesthetic (hopefully, the Bookers bourbon will make a worthy substitute).
Now, I get that they wanted to figure out which tooth to X-ray, first. But I think the tooth-pinging thing may have utterly pissed off the faulty tooth. This is gonna be a long-assed wait for the periodontist and endodontist consults - and an even longer wait to actually getting this shit taken care of.No wonder there's people out there that think that going to doctors is what makes you sick.Wednesday, February 15, 2012
You Sunk My (Electronic) Battleship!
Did toy manufacturers learn the wrong lessons from Electronic Battleship??
When I was a kid, toy manufacturers tried to make old games and toys more "relevant" by "modernizing" them. Apparently, games like Battleship were much more likely to be desired by ADHD-addled kids if they made it "electronic".
Yeah, "not so much".
Judging by the new story that was just on Fox5DC, it looks like toy manufacturers are gone once more into the toy-modernization breech. Parents that don't like the mess of crayons are being offered Crayola electronic crayons (basically, a very limited use iPad like toy that replaces real crayons with a touch-sensitive coloring app). Classic board games are either being re-created as Android/iPhone apps or having links to online components added to the games.
Freaking awesome.
When I was a kid, toy manufacturers tried to make old games and toys more "relevant" by "modernizing" them. Apparently, games like Battleship were much more likely to be desired by ADHD-addled kids if they made it "electronic".
Yeah, "not so much".
Judging by the new story that was just on Fox5DC, it looks like toy manufacturers are gone once more into the toy-modernization breech. Parents that don't like the mess of crayons are being offered Crayola electronic crayons (basically, a very limited use iPad like toy that replaces real crayons with a touch-sensitive coloring app). Classic board games are either being re-created as Android/iPhone apps or having links to online components added to the games.
Freaking awesome.
Funny How That Works
Every so often, I receive emails, like the following, from Verizon:
I guess I can expect to see even more "VOD" channels showing up in my channel guide. Verizon FiOS has been absolutely awesome about winnowing down our included channels ...and replacing them with their Video On Demand channels (and, how "on demand" is it when you have to wait for a show's start time??).
Fuck you, Verizon.
Dear Customer,I have yet to receive an email such as this telling me that they are increasing the number of free/included channels I have.
On, or after, March 15 2012, Funimation (channel 262) and Bridges TV (channel 278) will be removed from the FiOS TV® lineup and you will no longer be able to view this content.
This programming has been discontinued due to very low viewership and the continued effort of Verizon to offer our customers the most popular channels while keeping our rates reasonable.
We appreciate your loyalty to Verizon FiOS TV and apologize for any inconvenience.
Remember that you can access the most current local TV line-up 24 hours a day/7 days a week at verizon.com/fiostvchannels.
Thank you for choosing Verizon.
Sincerely,
Verizon
I guess I can expect to see even more "VOD" channels showing up in my channel guide. Verizon FiOS has been absolutely awesome about winnowing down our included channels ...and replacing them with their Video On Demand channels (and, how "on demand" is it when you have to wait for a show's start time??).
Fuck you, Verizon.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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