December 2007 Archives

For whatever reason at this time of the year people start putting together top ten lists to remember everything that happened in the prior year to trivial to be committed to long term memory by the majority of the population. I figured that I would create my own worthless top ten list to try and latch onto the trendiness of the idea, because as I have stated in the past; I am very trendy. So without further sarcasm or fanfare I present my top ten list of 2007.

This top ten list really has no specific goal in mind so do not expect it to follow the logic train.

10. Top Ten Lists - Thats right! I did it! Number Ten on the top ten list of 2007 is top ten lists. Let me tell you a little bit about why top ten lists made number ten; I hate them. I cannot stop myself from reading someones worthless top ten list when I see one. I am compelled to read it.

9. The Internet - I personally believe that modern communications mediums such as the internet really will be the downfall of civilized society. The internet gives everyone a perceived amount of anonymity that allows them to act like total assholes with no regard for the rest of the population at large. The horrid part of all of this is it carries over into the persons real life. Some people have a hard time understanding that cutting someone off in traffic, or pushing in front of a crowd of people is not nice after they have spent so much time online anonymously destroying someones deep held personal beliefs or reading the latest fair and balanced commentary on a 'news' network named after a animal. This level of detachment from having to look someone in the eye as you ridicule them has let people believe that they can do it in real life as well. Good job.

8. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD - What a pain. Why do we have TWO HD 'standards'? This is not even reasonable and I will skip putting any effort into expressing my deep seated frustration with the media distribution industry. Thats how trendy I am.

7. Speeding in a residential area - This is my number one pet peeve. Just because you squeezed out a few pups and bought the largest SUV you could find to house your spawn while driving them between cheerleading, soccer, and poll dancing class does not give you the right to SPEED down a residential street. It really does not give you the right if you LIVE on that street. How would you feel if you killed your neighbors kid because you thought you needed that extra FIVE SECONDS you picked up by going 50 miles an hour for a half a block? You are not special, your life is not more urgent then mine. If you are speeding down my street you had better be bleeding out and going to the hospital because any other reason is not worth it.

6. Evangelical Christians - When did you guys become the 'morally repressed'? At what point in the last 20 years of American politics have your views not been represented even at the expense of others? Why do you feel the need to tell everyone how morally wrong we are because we want to listen to Manson?


Viral Video has got to be the the number

I sat and watched the new Discovery Channel show 'Smash Lab' today. I would assume this show is aimed at the Mythbusters fan base, but unlike Mythbusters this show sucks. After watching the first episode I feel that this series is shaping up to be nothing but a hour long advertisement for whatever company forks over the money. Very little science involved. This is the description from here:

The next generation in destruction instruction, Smash Lab features a team of maverick engineers as they take on everyday technology and apply it in revolutionary new ways. First they break down the technology to see how it works and then use their know-how to see how it could be used in a different, supersized way. Could bulletproof Kevlar protect an airliner from bombs? Could a car airbag be reinvented to stop a helicopter from sinking after ditching at sea? The Smash Lab team aims to find out.

I guess they confused the definition of 'maverick' with that of 'corporate shill'. As far as 'breaking down the technology' if the first episode is any indication they break down only what the corporate sponsor for for the episode allows. This week they talked about rhino liner, the all important liner for truck beds that no redneck should be without. Anyhow, watch the stupid show yourself if you really want to see what I am talking about I cant think about it anymore I am becoming physically ill.

The last time I went out trail riding I broke a number of things, some of the broken parts I fixed others had to be replaced. The last item to get replaced was my front derailleur. I have had good luck with SRAM X-9 parts so I thought I would pick up a X-9 front derailleur but as luck would have it the bike shop did not have any SRAM front derailleurs other then the crappy entry level things you find on wal-mart bikes. The shop did however have a Shimano XTR for the bargain price of $110 bucks.

So the nice people over at the Washington post are reporting that the FBI would like to create what amounts to the worlds largest biometric database. I say lets do it; and while we are at it lets start entering homes and searching them without warrants.. wait.. never mind the police can already do that. Well as people that know me will tell you that I am not a big fan of personal privacy and doing away with things like the right to a speedy trial, the ability to move about without having to present papers has been long over due. I think that the government having everyones eyes, fingerprints, and face on record will really help fight the evil terrorists and weapons of mass destruction; I am sure that the FBI would never abuse power.

From Wikipedia:

According to documents declassified in 2007^[9], Hoover maintained a list of 12,000 Americans suspected of disloyalty with the intention of detaining them and to do so by suspending the writ of habeus corpus. Hoover submitted his plan to President Harry Truman at the outbreak of the Korean War, but there is no evidence that Truman accepted the plan.

I for one welcome our new identity overlords.

I don't get it. Why is it that when everyone figures out that it is less then 72 hours from when they have to have the bottom of the tree loaded up with gifts for the little spawns they have squeezed out and because they are such bang up parents they have not shopped for anything it some how gives them to right to be ultra-aggressive angry shopper people? I went to the store today to get some tape, I knew when I left the house that this was going to be a bad idea because I was almost run down pulling out of my driveway, but I rallied all my strength to deal with the mob and drove on. I arrived at the store after almost rear-ending some lady that figured out she did not need to be in the far right lane but rather the far left lane. She charged across traffic, I locked up my breaks and made the same turn-in as her 20 feet later. At this point psycho lady assumes that I am falling her and stops her little Lexus and takes the opportunity to scream at me as I get out of my car after parking. Calls me a 'freak for fallowing her' I ask the lady as calmly as possible if it is reasonable that people other then her may have business at Target? She did not like that and flipped me the bird and started walking into the store, I collected my daughter from the car and walked into the store. I can already tell that this is going to be a GREAT trip. So the hordes of people have taken over target, I have one task get a roll of tape. I walk past the electronics section where another soccer mom is yelling at the poor kid behind the counter because he does not have a Nintendo Wii in stock, he is trying to explain to this psychotic woman that the wii has been in heavy demand this year and they sold out the morning the shipment came in. But she figures that she is special and demanded to speak with a manager, I moved on. My little girl wanted to goto the toy section, so I walk back with her. We are looking at the board games (not the trendy little games based on the latest marketing ploy by Disney), I am cool with this part of the toy isle because nobody is in it, after all what self respecting kid would WANT to play chess and what modern busy parent would want to take the time to teach little Susie Polldancer or Johnny MIddlemanager how  to play a game that will add value to the life of the child, plop the kid in front of the big electronic babysitter and pump them full of medication thats what I always say.   

While that may not be true, I still really like the sony eReader. Now some people think it sucks I personally love it. I have read 6 books on it at this point and really enjoy it. I like the fact that it is small; wait stop before you say 'well so is a book' keep in mind that a book it over a inch think if you are reading something a little more involved the curious George becomes President, so the fact that the device is small means that I can drop it in my very trendy cargo pocket and take it with me all the time. The device being small means that I can throw it in my laptop backpack on business trips and have more then one book in very little space.
Now tell me that that does not make you want to run out and buy one? Some people will say 'It does not have wireless! It does not take out my trash and store 500 gigs of music and play video and answer my phone and help old people cross the street!' While all of that is true it does do something really well that I feel that a reader should do really well; display text! Thats right I picked this little gadget up to READ books on not listen to music, play video, or display photos. Other people are upset about the DRM aspect of the books sold by Sony's Connect store and I can understand that to an extent. Also some people dislike the lack of a search feature and I wish a search feature existed it was not a deciding factor for me when I picked the PRS-505 over the amazon kindle.

If you have not seen a eInk screen yet go down to your local best buy and check out the PRS-505 it really is everything it is cracked up to be. The screen is like reading paper, it is really amazing after so many years spent reading text on a CRT or LCD. Odds are if you are worried about the $300 bucks this device will set you back you are flipping burgers at a McDonalds for a living claiming that you are 'still exploring your options in life'. That is not to say that McDonalds burger flippers do not play a important role in society or to say that McDonalds burger flippers are stupid. I am sure they are very smart and highly motivated people and they really are just exploring options. After all 40 is the new 20 right? I digress, back to the eReader. Go buy one or at least look at one if you enjoy reading I think you will enjoy it.

So you may have stumbled onto my page expecting something else, you may be a member of my family, a friend, or a coworker. Whatever your reason for visiting my site, I thank you for burning a little bit of your bandwidth looking at the lack of recent, accurate, or meaningful content I do not have on my site. See, I had nothing better to do tonight and I figured I would install a blog application on my site; mind you not because I think I will do something crazy like UPDATE it but just because I can. I feel all empty inside if I do not change my site once a year or so. Who knows maybe this one post will make me all famous like this person. I doubt it as I do not have the body or the lack of dignity that that person has, not to say she is not a good person; I am sure she is a winner and will grow up to be a influential member of society like this person. After all who has not made some little mistakes in life?

So if you for some reason have come to this site and do not know who I am; and you have managed to keep reading this far I am thoroughly impressed with your commitment to reading even the most worthless drab. Now, I will tell you a little about me: