I'm back

I've reactivated my blog and it's been awhile.
So Myself is still in Las Vegas. Still working at the same Post Secondary College but have gone through a few position changes and liking my current position very much. 

...in which myself tries to get a life

So its been a year and 3 months since any post. Things have changed a bit. myself no longer takes phone calls for DirecTV®, which is a very good thing, and now teaches at a post-secondaye college. That's the kind of school you see advertising if you are home watching TV at 2:00 in the afternoon or up at 2:00 in the morning. It's an Ok gig for the most part, wish it paid a bit more but then that goes for any job myself would suppose. The past year has gone by and life is still pretty dull. Still trying to scrape by, worrying about the crushing debt that seems to keep mounting, knowing that at my age myself doesn't nearly have enough money put away for a decent retirement. Realizing by my own standards that myself is a brokeass. But myself is going to try to make 2006 be a prosperous and productive year, and be optimistic about it. myself will make a resolution to post weekly, at a minimum. sometimes personal stuff sometimes not.

I'm back

OK so myself is back to his blog. its been quite a while so quick update. Life in Las Vegas is starting to get into routine. Working for tech support for DirecTV®. The BF is going to school and blah blah blah; but enough of that. Now that Myself is in an official swing state, the up coming election is a big thing here. Not having experienced it before is a bit of a shock. The political commercials are something to behold. Actually saw the swift boat vet thing and a weeping mother asking why we rushed to war. Very emotional stuff all around. even the local races are getting ugly. Politics here are hardball compared to Hawaii.

Myself apologizes for the delay but the new life in Vegas makes for little time blogging. What a long strange trip its been... Still no job, and life goes on acclimation to the new environs is taking its toll, but Myself is not yet desperate. so its seems almost like a vacation. after toiling fourteen years at the same job its almost a welcome break. almost. its kind of boring, not having anywhere to go to when you wake up , whenever that is, in the morning, but myself does have to get on the stick and get some kind of job soon, got maybe two months of cash left so we are not desperate yet, yet being the operative word here. but overall its good so far... so in recent events... Ronald Regan has died. So here's my take.. never dump on the dead, but don't beautify him either. depending on your political leaning it was either good riddance or a tearful loss, whatever your view he was the president of our country and he did make his mark. more later after beebop

Quick update #2:
Myself is here in fabulous Las Vegas!, arrived early saturday morning, and went to our new apartment. blogging from a friends house as my comp is being FedEx'ed and will arrive tomorrow. said friend has been a real help in getting D and Myself set up here, took us to brunch at the Palms, and has been our guide. myself is very grateful for his help. So now comes the task of looking for a new job. with what money we have saved it won't last more that a month, so myself has got to get on the stick. Hopefully my vacation pay from my old job will arrive and give us some cushion but, it won't be a big cushion.
also: blogging will be personal for the time being as myself has no comp access and has not been keeping up w/ current events. moving and all, so bear with.

whew, moving is such a huge pain, and expensive. especially when moving from hawaii to the mainland. but just a quick update: staying at my brothers house for the last two days, old apartment packed up & cleaned out, car shipped out. Leaving on a night flight out. looks like this is it. set up utilities at new place. using my brothers comp for now, since my PC was packed up on Monday. sent the PC Fed Ex to new place, since the rest of our stuff will take three weeks to get to new place, can't be without my PC for that long, of course.excited? yes, scared? yes. NEw city, new job new life. myself is thinking things could be worse...

livin just enough for the city

Movers coming next tuesday, packing up, and getting rid of stuff. still had the OLD APTIVA lying around. myself had bought a new PC, what, last december, and still had the old girl getting in the way on the spare room floor for the last 4+ months. (cough..packrat). After six years it lasted longer that my last two boyfriends. Anyways, myself wanted to get rid of it, thought of taking a sledge hammer to it but decided the better of it, yanked the hard drives, and chucked it in ther dumpster. later that night I go to dump the garbage and I see some one had went into that stinking, smelly ass, makes you want to vomit its so bad, and you can still smell it five minutes later stink, and retrieved the tower. It dosen't work. myself lives in the ghetto.

So it's the last official day of work. We found an apartment on our trip, quite a nice place, for what myself consider's the cost, but being from Hawaii where $700 a month buys you a 600sq ft hovel, a 1025 sq foot apt with alarm, central air, coomunity pool, basketball workout room, and security comes as quite a deal. Myself was able to stay away from the blackjack tables for the most part, even won a couple hundred to boot. All in all it was a successful trip. but a few things myself has noticed are markedly different. such as:
every other car is an SUV of some sort.
every other woman seems to have fake tits
people honk their horns with a quickness myself has never seen before
rain appears to be a major meteorological event, and while myself is aware that this is the dessert, devoting ten minutes of local news broadcast time to the mere chance that it will rain in the next day or two seems a bit much.
there seems to be a lack of sole ownership restaurants, and a glut of chain/franchise eateries.
finding good pho is going to be tough as well as good sushi.

myself knew about lunch, but myself also got a card and $140 bucks, and my sup bought me a polo shirt, nautica heather gray. guess now I gotta send something. I felt a tad guilty for not bringing back omiyage from the Vegas trip, but i was thinking of just disappearing from work. I never interacted much with the other workers, and pretty much kept to myself, but a few came to chat, throughout out the day, make small talk and wish me luck, so I was pleaseantly surprised. Now I gotta send something for sure. I'm thinking cookie baskets, two of em.

a day in the life

6:30AM - Alarm goes off - hit snooze bar
6:39 - alarm goes off - hit snooze bar
6:48 - alarm goes off - hit snooze bar
6:57 - alarm goes off - drag mild to fiercly hungover ass out of bed and get ready for work.
8:00 - arrive at work. check which phone messages i can ignore (looks like my mom already called), check email, delete 60 spams about viagra, penile enlargement, breast enhancement, financial sucess etc.. read Get Fuzzy Dilbert, Doonesbury.
8:30 - check last night's jobrun
9:00 - read blogs/netsurf/check stocks/pay bills
9:30 - do actual work
10:00 - remember to call mom back
10:32 - gotta go mom, answer call from departmental user saying her new printer can't print her encumberance vouchers, tell user to call systems
10:33 - smoke break
10:40 - continue work
11:05 - answer call from user, says he got locked out after trying to log on, tell him to call systems
11:30 - talk to boyfriend on the phone
12:00 - lunch
1:02 - back to work
1:20 - make fun of officemate's 80 minute lunch
1:21 - continue work
2:00 - success! program finally works
2:01 - go on YW
2:20 - hit alt-tab when sup walk into office
2:22 - hit alt-tab after he leaves
2:45 - wonder what Chotto Matte does that allows him to post so much throughout the day
3:00 - smoke break
3:10 - read more blogs/netsurf. look for something to post to my blog.
3:45 - continue work
5:00 - leave office
5:30 - If not working second job, go jogging at Ala Moana park, along the beach while the sun sets, or go home and jog down the ala wai, or go to gym and oggle guys while working out.
else arrive at second job, sell Crazy Shirts(TM) to tourists
7:30 - buy way overpriced, mediocre dinner at mall food court
8:45 - inform tourist that I can bring you another pair of shorts, so you really don't have to come out in your underwear
8:46 - be thankful i have a REAL job, and don't do this for a living
10:00 - leave work,
10:15 - arrive home, shower, complain to boyfriend that he drank all the beer
10:30 - beer run
10:45 - drink beer, watch TV and/or play NetHack, or some suce other time waster on computer
11:30 - try to get boyfriend to have sex, if successful have sex, else
12:30 - finish beer
go to bed

So today was Myself's second to last day at work. D and Myself are taking a week to go to LV, find a place to live, put in an application or three, open a bank account, that kind of stuff, scouting trip/vacation. Hopefully mostly preperation for the move than gambling at blackjack and all the other diversions there, like gambling at blackjack. The last day of work, after 5 years at this desk, 9 years after the transfer from another desk. 14 years in the same system. Myself can't say it seems like yesterday because it doesn't, it feels like a fucking long time. Myself was getting lazy, and will admit it, inertia was what kept me going for the last two years, that day to day sameness, when the weekend and holidays are your only distant solace, on those terminal mondays and tuesdays. Trudging through the work week just to make it to friday, holidays were an much welcome bonus day off, (shit that's depressing). But its all over. In 14 days Myself goes back to work for one last day, (thereby getting paid for the month's first pay period), and that's it. Myself then has 15 days to pack up his life and move to Fabulous Las Vegas.

Being that tomorrow, April 1st, is April Fools Day, myself issuing a warning about internet hoaxes. Firstly, myself will not be posting any kind of prank, hoax, joke, etc.. but, other blogs and sites will have various pranks. ThinkGeek.com has sold thing like a USB George Foreman Grill, caffeinated meatloaf, and an infinite power generator. It just goes to show how you really don't have to all that bright to use a computer.

Music Wars Scene 28:
in which the Empire says: I'm Gonna getcha (yet again)

Here's comes the next round of RIAA Lawsuits

The Recording Industry Association of America stepped up the pace of its lawsuits against music swappers again, with a renewed focus on university students.
The trade association said Tuesday that it sued an additional 532 anonymous individuals, including 89 people at 21 separate universities. This is the third round of suits since the RIAA was forced by the courts to file suits without first using subpoenas to learn the alleged file swappers' true identities.
"It's important for everyone to understand that no one is immune from the consequences of illegally 'sharing' music files on (peer to peer) networks," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "Lawsuits are an important part of the larger strategy to educate file sharers about the law, protect the rights of copyright owners, and encourage music fans to turn to these legitimate services."

So now the message is to turn to "legitimate" services, which is an improvement from the "you people are all breaking the law, and should go to jail" strategy.

so Myself joined another discussion board, at The Honolulu Advertiser I started posting in the remember when thread, which was fun then decided to try a post or two in some os the current events threads, and it seems to lack a bit of, well decorum? no thats not it, restraint, is more like it, maybe civility to some degree, I guess I was thinking that it would be more like YellowWorld but I guess not, so myself might have get a bit less civil on the 'tiser board.

why is it..

that myself can get a round trip ticket from Honolulu to Las Vegas for $350 but a one way ticket costs $500? what the hell is up with that, and its all the airlines, every single on of them. Of course the obvious solution is to book the round trip and not use the return flight, but that seems wrong. I suppose forcing customers to book round trips makes scheduling easier, knowing in advance what seats are taken and if everyone booked by making one way trips it could get confusing, but why charge such a heavy premium? Is it really that necessary to have round trips, the majority of bookings, I suspect are roud trip anyway. I guess it's the bird in the hand thingee..

yet another reason NOT to use Microsoft Outlook®

link

Microsoft says people who use its Outlook program for e-mail and calendar functions need to download a patch to fix a critical problem.
The issue affects systems that are running Outlook 2002 -- part of the Office suite of applications -- along with Windows XP.
The update is available on Microsoft's Web site.
In unpatched systems, the way the program handles URLs in e-mail could allow someone without permission to run code.
Specifically, the problem deals with how the program reads "mailto" tags in HTML-format e-mail.

This is but one of the reasons myself does not use Outlook. Every hacker and wannabe hacker will write exploits for Outlook because so many people use it.

THe Big Move

So I guess the time has come to talk about some personal stuff. It seems Myself will be moving from Hawaii to Las Vegas. It's been a long time heming and hawing over it but its gonna happen. Going take a week off work in April, go up there w/ the bf, find a place to live, take an interview, put in some applications, and try and get a feel for living there. I've visited quite a few times, Las Vegas being the #1 place that people from Hawaii go to for vacation, (Myself can speculate why but that's for another post). Already gave notice at my job here, booked the plane tickets, having the movers come to check my current place out for an estimate, the works. It's a rather frightening aspect, never having lived anywhere else, leaving my very comfy gov't job of 12 years, leaving friends, family, and everything familiar, going from someplace where I know where everything is to somewhere completely new, thankfully I do have one friend in LV, Knew him when he was stationed here in the Air Force, so we will have some local knowledge to draw from. it's also exciting too, and myself is looking at this as an adventure, discovering new places meeting new people, new experiences. I realize this is going to cause a lot of stress on our relationship, but i think it can stand up to it. we've had a few rough patches over the last four years and made it through. So I will be posting progress on the BigMove and events occur, at least its an excuse for posting, which has been slacking lately, I know, I know.

So to that end. Myself gives you:

In Other News

Link

A 27-year-old lady presented with persistent cough, sputum and fever for the preceding six months. Inspite of trials with antibiotics and anti-tuberculosis treatment for the preceeding four months, her symptoms did not improve. A subsequent chest radiograph showed non-homogeneous collapse-consolidation of right upper lobe. Videobronchoscopy revealed an inverted bag like structure in right upper lobe bronchus and rigid bronchoscopic removal with biopsy forceps confirmed the presence of a condom. Detailed retrospective history also confirmed accidental inhalation of the condom during fellatio.

Sources indicate the patient was heard to say "So that's why everyone was calling me latex breath"

culling the herd

Seems like Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ may have some unexpected consequences:

link
NEW BRITAIN -- Police say that a woman drove her car into the water at A.W. Stanley Quarter Park in an apparent attempt to re-enact a scene from the movie, "The Passion of the Christ."
An anonymous New Britain police received an anonymous call early Saturday morning that a woman had driven a Chevrolet Lumina into the brook at A.W. Stanley Quarter Park. Police said the driver, whose name has not been released, is in her 40s, married, and has children.
"She drove her vehicle partly off the bank. Just the front of the car was in the water," said Sgt. Darren Pearson. "According to the officers on the scene, she told them she was attempting to reenact a scene from the movie, ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ which she said she had recently seen."
The woman was taken to the hospital for evaluation, but apparently escaped injury, police said.
Pearson said no charges will be filed.
Although police could not say which specific scene motivated the woman, they believe she was attempting to be baptized.

also this:

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- A woman died of an apparent heart attack Wednesday while watching the climactic crucifixion scene in "The Passion of the Christ" at a morning showing in Wichita, Kansas, a television station reported.

The film was stopped and a nurse in attendance went to the woman's side, KAKE-TV in Wichita reported.

"It was the highest emotional part of the movie," a spokeswoman for the station said. A crew from the station was at the special showing, which was sponsored by the ClearChannel Radio chain.

in other news:

A 27-year-old lady presented with persistent cough, sputum and fever for the preceding six months. Inspite of trials with antibiotics and anti-tuberculosis treatment for the preceeding four months, her symptoms did not improve. A subsequent chest radiograph showed non-homogeneous collapse-consolidation of right upper lobe. Videobronchoscopy revealed an inverted bag like structure in right upper lobe bronchus and rigid bronchoscopic removal with biopsy forceps confirmed the presence of a condom. Detailed retrospective history also confirmed accidental inhalation of the condom during fellatio.
via Tbogg

what started out as a bit of civil disobedience, is beginning to spread into a nationwide issue. First San Francisco on Valentine's Day, no yet, then it continued, for a week! Why can't you get an activist judge when you need em? grumble grumble, oh yeah, because they're all for it! Vermont, Hawaii, New Mexico, New York, Mass. Its on all the network news, the talk shows, President endorses the FMA. Myself says, I just want to go about with my daily stuff, have a good job, be with the one you fall in love with, and have one or, three really good friends, and live happily ever after. you know, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

approaching weekend

also is bringing a heavy storm, rain, 40+mph winds, maybe clearing sunday, and unfortunately, my bf's friend is visiting from San Diego this weekend, where she also just left a pretty bad storm. bad timing fo her visit.

do it once do it twice

it appears that the University of Hawaii professors may be going on strike...again:

HONOLULU -- University of Hawaii students are worried about the possibility of a walkout by professors as the union announced it will deliver a strike notice to the state Monday.

...snip

UH professors went out on strike three years ago for two weeks and students remember that. Now, UH faculty members have reportedly voted 92 percent to turn down the university's salary offer.

"We have pretty much come to the conclusion that zero (percent increase in the first year) and two (percent increase in the second year) will not make it," said Lynn Yankowski professor at Maui Community College.

Now the notice to strike is a procedural formality, saying we reserve the right to strike if negotiations break down. That being said Myself finds it a sorry state of affairs that University professors have to resort to this is order to get a fair wage, the state is, of course, saying that there is no money to be had for raises, and the union, of course, deosn't believe that. Now this may be premature as a settlement can still be reached, but does the state want to be the laughing stalk of the nation again? There is also the bigger question of wether univsity professors should be unionized in the first place, which myself thinks is an uncommon thing among state run colleges, but nevertheless that's the situation.

I'm sure you've heard of what's been happening in SanFrancisco over the valentines day weekend. So being that Myself has a personal interest in all of this, here's my 2¢ worth. Firstly I'm all for it, Marriage, civil union, call it whatever you want it's just a word. I am going to go around and say: Hi this my civil-union-partner. Cmon it going to be husband.nor will anyone, for that matter say: "hey didja hear Jon and Bob got a civil-union?" And I further don't care of any church recognizes it, Myself is more concerned what the civil/legal/financial benefits are. Words change before the 70's the word "party" was a noun and only a noun. Cocktail party, political party, party of five. What began as slang usage of the word party as a verb as in "let's party" eventually became so mainstream that it was incorprated as a regular definition. Think the word "byte" was in the dictionary in 1970? A computer science dictionary maybe, but Websters? no way. Dictionaries change to accomodate societal usage not the other way around. Marriage is just a word. Slippery slope? When there is a big enough advocacy for polygamy, incest, man on dog, as there is for gay marriage, then sure why not, but don't hold your breath. The only thing Myself is not so keen on is making this a key issue right here, right now, because equal rights is an inevitability the way things have progressed, in 10-15 years this would have been a non-issue, but today there is going to be a backlash that might not turn out so good. polls show that people under 30 overwhelmingly support gay marriage but those 50+ overwhelmingly oppose it. If we just wait it out we will eventually get there. But there are those who see this as an opportunity, don't want to wait or can't wait for whatever reason so the struggle is on. We have had to fight and struggle for every little bit of equality, tolerance and acceptance we have gained, this one is going to be the toughest.

aWol

As the coverage continues to grow over the president's National Guard service record grows, what is particularly disturbing is the fact that the administration is not releasing all the records, despite the fact that the president himself, in the Russert interview, said he would release all the records. The information is coming out, it seems like, one document at a time. first the payroll recs. WhiteHouse press spokesman Scott McClellan, then says see he was paid, so he served. when thats not enough, (and it isn't nearly), next come the dental records showing he had a dental examination in Jan '73 in Alabama, so therfore he served, which still leaves unanswered questions, about a failed physical, and some pre-enlistment arrest reports, among others. this peicemeal releasing of records is what makes people go hmmmm.. why not just release everything? Every other prez candidate who served has done it, so why not this one? It's the appearance of a cover-up the, reluctance to release only bits at a time that looks bad. Myself doesn't care if he was AWOL or not just tell the truth.
Oh, and by the way just because one get an honorable discharge does not necessarily mean said person was never AWOL.

John Allen Muhammad, convicted last November for his participation in the D.C. sniper shootings, served in the Louisiana National Guard from 1978-1985, where he faced two summary courts-martial. In 1983, he was charged with striking an officer, stealing a tape measure, and going AWOL. Sentenced to seven days in the brig, he received an honorable discharge in 1985.

article via August

politics

So it looks like John Kerry's going to be the dem nominee. Personally myself was hoping for Wes Clark to gain some ground, but he seemd to un-political, his base message was one I shared namely that I don't like the direction the country is going. Kerry while not especially charismatic, is a good choice, and although its still very early I think the dem base will gather around and support him. Maybe Clark or even Edwards would make a good running mate.

Myself also wathced the interview with Russert and I have to say that it was not all that great. While Russert did a decent job of not throwing too many softballs he could have followed up a bit more, like when he used the 9-11/war on terrorism defense for why the deficit is so big, I mean yes, war is costly but its not the only thing that is making this deficit. Myself found his responses on the economy disapointing, it seemd like he was trying to make excuses rather than respond, When called on how his tax cuts have not produced the promised jobs, his response, "It's happening. And there is good momentum when it comes to the creation of new jobs." but its not, at least not anywhere near the levels you told us it would, why well there a war on and all that ya know. This interview will do nothing to turn people one way or the other, IMO. Although the one revelation myself is looking forward to will be the release of W's entire military service records, but somehow, I think it won't be released, or will be heavily redacted.

not politics

new virus maybe a variant of Mydoom DoomJuice get your update people. Now Myself knows that viruses and worms are bad but the fact that they target Micrisoft and SCO Group kind of gives me mixed feelings...

Just a few thoughts

First, sorry for the Badger post, 'twas a very obscure-geeky reference. Next Myself is a amazed by the amount of publicity generated by the Janet Jackson (ahem) wardrobe malfunction Superbowl thing. Seems the unintended consequences of "video killed the radio star".

And in their newly found zeal to protect us from real life, the NFL has revamped the Pro Bowl

The original halftime show was to be headlined by JC Chasez, whose fellow ’N Sync bandmember Justin Timberlake ripped open Jackson’s clothing during the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
The stunt gave television viewers more of Jackson than they counted on seeing.
"We felt that what JC wanted to perform was probably not in our best interests," McCarthy said. "He was to perform 'Blowing Me Away With Your Love.’ It was a little too suggestive for our tastes."

Now Myself would pick Wilie K over JC anyhow, It kind of gives 'ol JC the short, dirty end of the stick. As much as I don't care for manufactured, bubble gum pop, even Myself doesn't think he's going to do anything remotely like the Super Bowl incident. Sucks for him.

In other stuff the Governor of Mass. plans to introduce a bill to codify marriage:

Aides to Governor Mitt Romney and House lawmakers are working out the details of a bill that defines marriage as a heterosexual institution based on child-raising and procreation, hoping that it will lead to a reversal of the Supreme Judicial Court's ruling that declared same sex marriages constitutional.

This argument was already tried, here in Hawaii, and it failed. What opponents of gay marriage want to say is that this is a moral issue, well many already say that, but they all know that you can't put that into words to justify any law, lest that pesky first amendment get in the way. So they are left with making arguments like procreation. So let's go with that: marriage is for procreation so therefore if you are or want to marry you muse be capable of procreation, infertile and post-menopausal need not apply, moreover you must prove your fertility before the state allows it. i.e. fertility tests required. What Myself fails to see is how 1/10th, (the number of gays/lesbians who would opt for marriage) of 1/10th (the estimated munber of gays) of the population is such a HUGE threat to everything you hold dear.

badger badger badger, badger,badger
badger badger badger

SuperBowl flash

link

The chief federal regulator of broadcasting said Monday he was outraged by the Super Bowl halftime show in which Justin Timberlake (news) tore off part of Janet Jackson (news)'s costume, exposing her breast, and said he was ordering an immediate investigation.

Timberlake blamed a "wardrobe malfunction," but Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) chief Michael Powell (news) called it "a classless, crass and deplorable stunt."

MTV, which produced the show, and CBS, which broadcast it, both said they had no idea that their halftime show Sunday night would include such a display.

Yeah Powell was outraged, wardrobe malfunction? whatever, Myself saw this, and it was like, whoa, did you see that, the flash was very brief only one second, tops. The camera directors were quick to change veiws on that one. There was no nipple showing, but I guess seeing on television, what can be seen at the beach on an everyday basis in real life is a no-no. Go figure. That's what happens when you let those scamps at MTV have their way, pushing the envelope is standard procedure for them..

Time wasters

here
here
here

gratuitous plug

Norbizness is running a Name that caption contest Myself is hoping the prize is not a Kraftwerk CD.

new virus beagle/bagle going around, on the decline as of today, but update your security and virus patches at Microsoft.com/protect. and turn off HTML in your email.

Music Wars Scene 27
in which the RIAA says (yet again): I'm gonna getcha

Here comes another set of lawsuits filed by the RIAA, 532 lawsuits this time, a new personal best. However, since they have only IP addresses and not individual names, due to the fact that ISP's have told the RIAA to bugger off, and stop abusing the DMCA, and file your lawsuits like everyone else, it may be more difficult to actually get the individuals names, yet Cary Sherman, is undeterred

The resumed legal campaign was intended to discourage music fans emboldened by last month's federal appeals court decision, which dramatically increased the cost and effort to track computer users swapping songs online and sue them.
"Our campaign against illegal file sharers is not missing a beat," said Cary Sherman, president of the recording association. "The message to illegal file sharers should be as clear as ever."
All 532 lawsuits were filed in Washington and New York — home to Verizon Internet Services Inc. and Time Warner Inc. and a few other prominent Internet providers — although the recording association said it expects to discover through traditional subpoenas that these defendants live across the United States.

It also expects some of the IP's are not readily traceable, and so that's why they filed such a large number of lawsuits. 532 down only 49,999,468 to go guys.

In other related news:
Memo to MPAA (the RIAA of motion pictures)

Online file-trading is going to get worse, too. Finally, on the wide-open Internet, the Napster for movies has been born. It's called BitTorrent, and because it can pull a single film from dozens of computers simultaneously (reassembling the pieces on a user's PC), it's incredibly fast. More important, it turns the economics of file-trading on its head. The most popular files download the fastest and make the lowest demands on the host servers (because there are more computers to download from, and the load is balanced among them). The usual barrier to sharing, say, a prerelease of Return of the King - the fear that greedy downloaders will swamp your PC - is greatly diminished. Huge hard drives are getting so cheap that digital video libraries will soon be commonplace.

The bottom line: The widespread assumption that Hollywood has plenty of time to avoid a music industry-style train wreck may be wrong. What once seemed like a five- or ten-year buffer now looks more like two or three years. Consider yourself warned.

So what should you do? Start by accepting that new technology means a new way of doing business. People will trade more movies, and new releases will leak out. It may never get as bad as music, yet it will certainly get worse than it is today. But look at it another way: The same forces are spontaneously building the best distribution network you can imagine.

Myself predicts the MPAA will act pretty much like the RIAA, but will be pleaseantly surprised if they prove me wrong.

RFID

Ever heard of it? It stands for Radio Frequency IDentification. If you never heard of it, fear not, you will. What it is is a method for tracking goods of all kinds, from entire shipments, right down to individual items. You know that UPC code, that bar code thingy on almost every item you buy that gets scanned. RFID goes one better, no scanner is needed, now each item will broadcast what it is to the world. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response. The possibe applications are staggering. Mail/postal/parcel tracking, tracking shipments, individual tracking of most any item. How about going to the supermarket checkout, with a cart full of stuff, pointing a handheld radio dish and zap every non-perishable item is rung up. Even some casinos are looking into the technology as a way to not only deter counterfit chips but to track the entire flow of chips in, out, and around the casino, potentially any tagged item can be traced to it's exact location anywhere in the world. The potential for mischief, abuse and even criminal activity is also staggering. And that's the scary part, opponents are using invasion of privacy as their main argument. Myself agrees. No one but Myself should have to know that on Tuesday, March 21 2005 at 5:32 PM, at the Beretania St. Longs Drugs store, Myself purchased a can of Gillette Shaving Gel w/ aloe and vitaman E, on sale at for $2.59, where he proceeded to take it to 2**8 K****a St. where it then stayed for three months and 7 days before being transported to the Waimanalo Landfill where transmission was terminated two days later. Screw that shit. Now myself realizes this kind of info is a marketing wet dream to the 12th power, and they get all hard/moist just thinking about this, but there are somethings about Myself that he doesn't want to let anyone know about. Ain't technology grand?

Yeech

Myself doesn't drink coffee, so he finds this particularly bad:

SEATTLE -- A Seattle restaurant is giving you an option when you order steak -- decaf or caffeinated.
Rippe's steak house is selling a steak coated with Starbucks Espresso grounds.
It's called the Seattle Signature Steak.
The caffeinated filet mignon sells for $30.
Chef Allison Jester and a waitress experimented with the idea one night when the manager wasn't around.
The steak also is seasoned with salt, garlic, onion and black pepper. Once grilled it has a black crust, smoky flavor and a moderate coffee taste.
The Espresso steak is now one of the most requested items on the menu.

But I suppose being Seattle and all, where coffe flows like rain there, and people have to ingest mass quantities of caffiene, in order to stave off depression to keep from killing themselves, it can happen.

Would you like some verbal abuse with that Whopper, you Lardass?

If only they would use their powers for good instead of evil:

TROY, Mich. -- Imagine ordering a burger in the drive-through lane, only to have a voice on the intercom say you're too fat for a Whopper.

Police in Troy, Mich., want the Federal Communications Commission to help find the person who hacked into a Burger King's wireless intercom system.
The hacker told some customers they were too fat. Other patrons were bombarded with obscenities and bizarre comments last week.
Store supervisor Jennifer Saccoia tells the Detroit Free Press the mysterious voice has been silent lately. Police have called in the FCC to investigate.

They say the feds have the radio direction-finding equipment needed to track down the person who has been transmitting on the Burger King frequency. That sort of radio hacking is a federal crime.

Support Call

"Welch Hall computer assistant; may I help you?"
"Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
"What sort of trouble?"
"Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."
"Went away?"
"They disappeared."
"Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
"Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?"
"How do I tell?"
[Uh-oh. Well, let's give it a try anyway.] "Can you see the C:\> prompt on the screen?"
"What's a sea-prompt?"
[Uh-huh, thought so. Let's try a different tack.] "Never mind. Can you move the cursor around on the screen?"
"There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."
[Ah--at least s/he knows what a cursor is. Sounds like a hardware problem. I wonder if s/he's kicked out his/her monitor's power plug.] "Does your monitor have a power indicator?"
"What's a monitor?"
"It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on?"
"I don't know."
"Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?"
[sound of rustling and jostling] [muffled] "Yes, I think so."
"Great! Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall."
[pause] "Yes, it is."
[Hmm. Well, that's interesting. I doubt s/he would have accidentally turned it off, and I don't want to send him/her hunting for the power switch because I don't know what kind of monitor s/he has and it's bound to have more than one switch on it. Maybe the video cable is loose or something.]
"When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"
"No."
"Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."
[muffled] "Okay, here it is."
"Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."
[still muffled] "I can't reach."
"Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"
[clear again] "No."
"Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"
"Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle--it's because it's dark."
"Dark?"
"Yes--the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window."
"Well, turn on the office light then."
"I can't."
"No? Why not?"
"Because there's a power outage."
"A power--!?!" ...[AAAAAAARGH!]
This person was good friends with my supervisor, so I couldn't deal with him/her the way I really wanted to, and was forced to explain sweetly and gently to him/her that computers needed power just like office lights, and if the office lights were out, then the computer was too, and that yes, if s/he hadn't saved her work s/he had probably lost everything s/he'd done so far in WordPerfect. But I could still fantasize:

"A power outage? Aha! Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?"
"Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."
"Good! Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."
"Really? Is it that bad?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it is."
"Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"
"Tell them you're TOO STUPID TO OWN A COMPUTER!" [slam]

but that wouldn't have been a very nice thing to do, now would it?