***ORIGINALLY POSTED 13JUL08***
So the family and I went out for dinner at the OG the other night for Piggy's birthday dinner. We went in and told them we needed a table with two high chairs. The girl just kinda stood there dumbfounded for a bit. So I explained to her that we had a two year old that needed to be restrained and a 9 month old. She started to understand and then the wife said "Or you could just put us at a booth with one high chair instead." I shit you not the girl fuckin' blue screened. For those of you not familiar with a blue screen (read: someone living in a technological black hole for the last 13 years... or someone that uses Macs exclusively) it's when Windows craps out on you. You get the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" or BSOD which is an error that is unrecoverable. The only thing you can do is shut down and reboot. Apparently people can do this as well, since that's what happened to the poor thing. As she was trying to reboot one of her coworkers happened to come up. I explained the same thing to her and she said no problem and we got a table in short order.
This got me thinking. How many times have you been dealing with someone and seen them do this? Or had it happen to you? As we get older, our brains fill up with more shit and we don't really have an adequate Temp file cleaner. Sure you can get amnesia, but this generally isn't advisable because it doesn't usually delete the files you want. This is why older people have slower reactions, their processors are older, not as much RAM as the younger models, and then they fill up with spyware and viruses and it starts taking a toll on their system performance. Microsoft recommends wiping your harddrive annually and reinstalling. You can back up your data first so you don't really lose anything, but this gives you an opportunity to get rid of programs you aren't really using anymore and to get rid of any malicious software that you may have picked up from limewire and what not. Why can't we do that to our brains? You know, back up the pertinent info like name, family, decent memories, and then reformat and reinstall. This also helps get rid of potentially unwanted memories (I mean who really wants to remember walking in on their parents trying to make them a sibling when they were three years old?) and allows for reorganization of pertinent data. We at least need a defrag option. This would help those "absent-minded professor" types, neh?
Although this brings to mind other operating systems. Clearly Windows is the OS of choice and if you look at the masses, the large majority of them blue screen or GPF (general protection fault, a lesser error) on a regular basis and need to reboot quite often. However, since it is the most common OS, more users are compatible with it and you can install and run more software on them. Then some people are running OS X. These are usually your tree-huggers and the like. Usually more intelligent, eloquent and generally more aesthetically pleasing. But they clearly are not for all users. Then you have Linux, these are your young, techie types. They generally still live at home, but some have split off from their Parent Tree and are successfully creating their own tree directories. They go against the status quo, like tinkering with shit, and generally muck about where they shouldn't. They can be greatly successful if they are ever motivated beyond playing their WoW or other MMORPGs and get off their asses and do something. Then you have your UNIX users. These are the older folks who just don't understand all that new-fangled technology. Powerful in their own time, now they just can't keep up and resent the younger crowd that can.
I could go on for days on this, but I will leave it at this for now since I get bitched at about my "novellas".
16 January 2011
Repost - A New Church
***ORIGINALLY POSTED 04SEP08***
So I've decided to start a new church. Yup, you heard right. It's called the Goat of the Heathens Church. Or the GotH Church. Hehe. So here are some laws for my church. The Satanists have 9, the Xians have 10, I have 8. More efficiency I say.
The Eight Laws
1. Think for yourself.
This should be obvious, but as is evidenced by the billion Abrahamists out there - Christians, Jews and Muslims - it isn't practiced.
2. Treat others correctly.
Everybody always says to treat others as you want to be treated. This is crap. Treat others as THEY should be treated. If they have no regard for themselves or those around them, you need not have regard for them. If they go out of their way to disturb you, destroy them. Likewise, if they treat you with respect, return the gesture unequivocally.
3. Keep Silent.
Nobody wants to hear about your bad day. Or that your dog died on Tuesday. Cold? Sure. True? Absolutely. Unless someone specifically ASKS you to give them details, keep it to yourself. Along the same vein, you do not need to give all your qualifications to everyone you encounter.
4. Treat children with reverence.
Again, should be obvious. But too many fucktards out there make this law necessary. If they cannot defend themselves then you are worse than a monster if you prey on them.
5. Respect the land.
Until we move to Mars this is all we got. Respect it and take care of it. This doesn't mean you have to buy into all the Global Warming horseshit (see Law 1) but it does mean you need to stop trashing it.
6. Put no other gods above yourself.
YOU are your god. Regardless of whether you worship another form, that god is you and is a part of you. If you want something done, do it. If you want something done for someone else, do it. Do not sit back and say "it's God's will" or "God has a plan". If there IS a real God, then he/she stopped giving a shit a long time ago, now there is no Fate but what we make.
7. Conform to no one.
Maintain your own beliefs. If you like Pentacles, wear them. If you want to have sex while hanging upside down from the rafters, feel free. Do not let religionists dictate what you can and cannot believe and do.
8. Zealots need not apply.
Let the nuts stay in their Houses of the Holy. We don't need them here. Simple enough?
I think these are a good start. Some are similar to ones I've seen elsewhere, I just agree with them enough to include them here.
More to come.
So I've decided to start a new church. Yup, you heard right. It's called the Goat of the Heathens Church. Or the GotH Church. Hehe. So here are some laws for my church. The Satanists have 9, the Xians have 10, I have 8. More efficiency I say.
The Eight Laws
1. Think for yourself.
This should be obvious, but as is evidenced by the billion Abrahamists out there - Christians, Jews and Muslims - it isn't practiced.
2. Treat others correctly.
Everybody always says to treat others as you want to be treated. This is crap. Treat others as THEY should be treated. If they have no regard for themselves or those around them, you need not have regard for them. If they go out of their way to disturb you, destroy them. Likewise, if they treat you with respect, return the gesture unequivocally.
3. Keep Silent.
Nobody wants to hear about your bad day. Or that your dog died on Tuesday. Cold? Sure. True? Absolutely. Unless someone specifically ASKS you to give them details, keep it to yourself. Along the same vein, you do not need to give all your qualifications to everyone you encounter.
4. Treat children with reverence.
Again, should be obvious. But too many fucktards out there make this law necessary. If they cannot defend themselves then you are worse than a monster if you prey on them.
5. Respect the land.
Until we move to Mars this is all we got. Respect it and take care of it. This doesn't mean you have to buy into all the Global Warming horseshit (see Law 1) but it does mean you need to stop trashing it.
6. Put no other gods above yourself.
YOU are your god. Regardless of whether you worship another form, that god is you and is a part of you. If you want something done, do it. If you want something done for someone else, do it. Do not sit back and say "it's God's will" or "God has a plan". If there IS a real God, then he/she stopped giving a shit a long time ago, now there is no Fate but what we make.
7. Conform to no one.
Maintain your own beliefs. If you like Pentacles, wear them. If you want to have sex while hanging upside down from the rafters, feel free. Do not let religionists dictate what you can and cannot believe and do.
8. Zealots need not apply.
Let the nuts stay in their Houses of the Holy. We don't need them here. Simple enough?
I think these are a good start. Some are similar to ones I've seen elsewhere, I just agree with them enough to include them here.
More to come.
Repost - How does one foster genius?
***ORIGINALLY POSTED 30NOV08***
So my son, the one who is in speech therapy because he doesn't speak English, the one who will probably have to be put into a special preschool so that he can start kindergarten on time, shocked the crap out of me today. He was running around playing in the living room and looked up and noticed that my desktop was being used. I was remoted in from my laptop so I could manage some files and he could see what I was doing on the screen. He immediately ran over to me and looked at my laptop screen and could see that I was controlling the desktop. He looked at my monitor then pointed at the desktop and said something. It sounded important, but I don't speak his language. He then ran off doing whatever he had been doing before the interruption.
What stunned me was that he recognized that something was going on on the computer and that someone had to be controlling it. How does he have any frame of reference for this? How does he know that it's not just another "TC"? (His word for TV. Since he can't seem to close his mouth to form words, he alters them to sound close enough to the actual word but so he doesn't have to close his mouth.) How did he know that because something was happening on the desktop and his Mommy wasn't sitting there doing it that someone else had to be doing it?
More importantly how do I foster this? It's apparent that my kids are above average smart. Aurora sees patterns in things almost as fast as I do, and I see them faster than anybody I know. I'm not trying to be a braggart, I am genuinely concerned. My parents did a pretty decent job raising me. When I was younger they both worked with me to learn reading and math. Interestingly my Mom taught me to do things quite a bit differently than they taught in school, and it worked better. I got in trouble for doing math the way my Dad taught because I could shortcut out the work. My teachers would get pissed because I didn't show them HOW I got the right answer. It didn't matter that the answer was right, they wanted to see me get there. But when I was older, ten or eleven on up, they really couldn't spend time working on that kind of stuff. My brother was in the picture and they were getting divorced. Hell, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done them any good even if they HAD the time. I did some stupid shit when I was younger and it saddens me to realize that I am just now beginning to realize the potential I once had. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. It's too bad foresight isn't at least 20/30. I see parents who stay at home and do nothing but push their kids, constantly teaching them new things, constantly testing them. And their kids are smart. But my kids are almost as smart (actually smarter in some areas) as they are and they don't have the benefit of the wife and I staying home and pandering to their every desire. Although you look at those kids as they grow up and you see that they may have book smarts, but not much else. What is the right mixture of teaching them intellectually and then teaching them about life? I saw a comic where the character said "Hold on a second... my common sense is tingling." The caption underneath - "Common sense: so rare it's a god damned super power." And it's really quite true. I've got a lot of common sense, but my wife makes me look like a dunce in that department. However, I've got her beat hands down in the intellectual stuff, generally speaking. I think that our kids will have the perfect mix of the two. Although Aurora sure has some problems with the common sense stuff sometimes. But then again, what six year old doesn't?
Another interesting thing to take from this. I talked to my Mom about what happened and she said something that gave me pause. "Kids are way more perceptive and intuitive than we give them credit for. Unfortunately we dumb it out of them." It's really true. When I was but a young lad one of my favorite games was Trivial Pursuit. I just barely met the minimum age required and I didn't really do great when we played, but I loved playing it. I learned so many things from those questions. I could beat the pants off anyone my age or even a few years older, but my parents generally won. I also became a walking encyclopedia of useless trivia. (Although I am learning that trivia isn't nearly as useless as I once thought. But I digress.) The point of this little side note is that I was watching "TC" the other night and saw a commercial for the "All new" Trivial Pursuit.... with Easy, Medium, and Hard questions. From a marketing aspect I guess it makes sense for them to do that. Nobody is smart anymore, in fact you are hated and feared if you are smarter than the status quo. But it just goes to show how we are dumbing this country down more and more. Have you watched that show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader"? It's truly sad how stupid some of the contestants are. Now some of the questions are a bit unfair (how many of us need to know the capitals of every state in the U.S. anymore?) but in general they go to show what a sad state of affairs we are in. What is causing this? On the outside it appears that our schools are getting better. My daughter comes home with homework in first grade that I don't remember doing until third or fourth grade. Yet she is missing some of the most basic steps in learning. Our kids are being bombarded with learning so much so fast that they are missing the foundational blocks needed to truly *understand* what it is that they are learning. They are taught to recognize words by sight instead of learning things like phonics so that they can learn HOW to pronounce the word. While this is fantastic at first, you realize later that when confronted with words they haven't seen before, they have no idea even where to begin trying to figure out the word. But they can program their DVRs to make sure not to miss a single episode of Spongebob Squareshorts. How do we get back to the fundamentals yet keep them abreast of the changing times?
I sure don't know the answer, but I am going to find out. Let me know if you've got it figured out.
So my son, the one who is in speech therapy because he doesn't speak English, the one who will probably have to be put into a special preschool so that he can start kindergarten on time, shocked the crap out of me today. He was running around playing in the living room and looked up and noticed that my desktop was being used. I was remoted in from my laptop so I could manage some files and he could see what I was doing on the screen. He immediately ran over to me and looked at my laptop screen and could see that I was controlling the desktop. He looked at my monitor then pointed at the desktop and said something. It sounded important, but I don't speak his language. He then ran off doing whatever he had been doing before the interruption.
What stunned me was that he recognized that something was going on on the computer and that someone had to be controlling it. How does he have any frame of reference for this? How does he know that it's not just another "TC"? (His word for TV. Since he can't seem to close his mouth to form words, he alters them to sound close enough to the actual word but so he doesn't have to close his mouth.) How did he know that because something was happening on the desktop and his Mommy wasn't sitting there doing it that someone else had to be doing it?
More importantly how do I foster this? It's apparent that my kids are above average smart. Aurora sees patterns in things almost as fast as I do, and I see them faster than anybody I know. I'm not trying to be a braggart, I am genuinely concerned. My parents did a pretty decent job raising me. When I was younger they both worked with me to learn reading and math. Interestingly my Mom taught me to do things quite a bit differently than they taught in school, and it worked better. I got in trouble for doing math the way my Dad taught because I could shortcut out the work. My teachers would get pissed because I didn't show them HOW I got the right answer. It didn't matter that the answer was right, they wanted to see me get there. But when I was older, ten or eleven on up, they really couldn't spend time working on that kind of stuff. My brother was in the picture and they were getting divorced. Hell, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done them any good even if they HAD the time. I did some stupid shit when I was younger and it saddens me to realize that I am just now beginning to realize the potential I once had. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. It's too bad foresight isn't at least 20/30. I see parents who stay at home and do nothing but push their kids, constantly teaching them new things, constantly testing them. And their kids are smart. But my kids are almost as smart (actually smarter in some areas) as they are and they don't have the benefit of the wife and I staying home and pandering to their every desire. Although you look at those kids as they grow up and you see that they may have book smarts, but not much else. What is the right mixture of teaching them intellectually and then teaching them about life? I saw a comic where the character said "Hold on a second... my common sense is tingling." The caption underneath - "Common sense: so rare it's a god damned super power." And it's really quite true. I've got a lot of common sense, but my wife makes me look like a dunce in that department. However, I've got her beat hands down in the intellectual stuff, generally speaking. I think that our kids will have the perfect mix of the two. Although Aurora sure has some problems with the common sense stuff sometimes. But then again, what six year old doesn't?
Another interesting thing to take from this. I talked to my Mom about what happened and she said something that gave me pause. "Kids are way more perceptive and intuitive than we give them credit for. Unfortunately we dumb it out of them." It's really true. When I was but a young lad one of my favorite games was Trivial Pursuit. I just barely met the minimum age required and I didn't really do great when we played, but I loved playing it. I learned so many things from those questions. I could beat the pants off anyone my age or even a few years older, but my parents generally won. I also became a walking encyclopedia of useless trivia. (Although I am learning that trivia isn't nearly as useless as I once thought. But I digress.) The point of this little side note is that I was watching "TC" the other night and saw a commercial for the "All new" Trivial Pursuit.... with Easy, Medium, and Hard questions. From a marketing aspect I guess it makes sense for them to do that. Nobody is smart anymore, in fact you are hated and feared if you are smarter than the status quo. But it just goes to show how we are dumbing this country down more and more. Have you watched that show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader"? It's truly sad how stupid some of the contestants are. Now some of the questions are a bit unfair (how many of us need to know the capitals of every state in the U.S. anymore?) but in general they go to show what a sad state of affairs we are in. What is causing this? On the outside it appears that our schools are getting better. My daughter comes home with homework in first grade that I don't remember doing until third or fourth grade. Yet she is missing some of the most basic steps in learning. Our kids are being bombarded with learning so much so fast that they are missing the foundational blocks needed to truly *understand* what it is that they are learning. They are taught to recognize words by sight instead of learning things like phonics so that they can learn HOW to pronounce the word. While this is fantastic at first, you realize later that when confronted with words they haven't seen before, they have no idea even where to begin trying to figure out the word. But they can program their DVRs to make sure not to miss a single episode of Spongebob Squareshorts. How do we get back to the fundamentals yet keep them abreast of the changing times?
I sure don't know the answer, but I am going to find out. Let me know if you've got it figured out.
Repost - Obama's Inaugural Speech Pisses of the Xians
***ORIGINALLY POSTED 23JAN09***
So during Obama's inaugural speech, he actually said something that gave me a modicum of respect for him.
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."
Holy rusted metal, Batman! This sent the Xians (specifically African-American ones, interestingly enough) into a fucking tizzy. They are repeating that our country was founded on Christianity alone. Last I checked (which was right now) the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence says nothing about the Christian religion. The Declaration refers to a Creator and Nature's God. Neither of those are specifically Judeo-Christian, lots of religions - in fact almost all of them - have a creator of some sort. The words God or Christ(ian) do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Oh, and the Pledge of Allegiance? Yeah, the words "under God" weren't added until 22 April 1951 and it wasn't done by the gov't, it was done by the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternity of wannabe Masons). It wasn't made law until 14 June 1954. LONG after the founding of our country.
I'm also pretty sure that this nation was specifically founded so that it's people could be free to practice religion they way they saw fit, which includes not at all. Not just Christianity. If that was the case, Catholics wouldn't be allowed either (seeing as how it was the Catholic church they were running from). Although it's funny that they make comments like this:
The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president's reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. "It's important to understand the heritage of our country, and it's a Judeo-Christian tradition,"’ period.
The heritage of our country was actually non-Judeo-Christian. About as far from J-C as you can be, as a matter of fact. Apparently it's easy to forget that our "founding fathers" were actually immigrants to begin with. The original heritage of our country is Native American and they worshiped their ancestors and animal spirits. Some worshiped a "Great Spirit" but it sure as fuck wasn't the Judeo-Christian "God". It was probably a lot friendlier and less narcissistic. So before we start spouting off about the "heritage of our country" lets try to remember the truth of the matter. It was your God in whose name the conquistadors and the puritans enslaved and destroyed indigenous peoples from Canada to Argentina and back again.
Oh, and that was just this continent. Let's not forget St. Patrick. Or the Inquisitions, any one of 'em. What about the holocaust? Yeah, Hitler tried to eradicate the Jews in God's name, too. Actually, pretty much every atrocity and major war since the origin of your religion has been done in God's name. So before you get all sanctimonious about this country having a Judeo-Christian heritage, why don't you think about what that has wrought. Hell, maybe we need some non-believers running things for a while, we might actually get something worthwhile accomplished. Look what happened the last time we had an Evangelical in office. Oh yeah, that was Bush and we've been at war pretty much his entire tenure... interesting.
So during Obama's inaugural speech, he actually said something that gave me a modicum of respect for him.
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."
Holy rusted metal, Batman! This sent the Xians (specifically African-American ones, interestingly enough) into a fucking tizzy. They are repeating that our country was founded on Christianity alone. Last I checked (which was right now) the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence says nothing about the Christian religion. The Declaration refers to a Creator and Nature's God. Neither of those are specifically Judeo-Christian, lots of religions - in fact almost all of them - have a creator of some sort. The words God or Christ(ian) do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Oh, and the Pledge of Allegiance? Yeah, the words "under God" weren't added until 22 April 1951 and it wasn't done by the gov't, it was done by the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternity of wannabe Masons). It wasn't made law until 14 June 1954. LONG after the founding of our country.
I'm also pretty sure that this nation was specifically founded so that it's people could be free to practice religion they way they saw fit, which includes not at all. Not just Christianity. If that was the case, Catholics wouldn't be allowed either (seeing as how it was the Catholic church they were running from). Although it's funny that they make comments like this:
The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president's reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. "It's important to understand the heritage of our country, and it's a Judeo-Christian tradition,"’ period.
The heritage of our country was actually non-Judeo-Christian. About as far from J-C as you can be, as a matter of fact. Apparently it's easy to forget that our "founding fathers" were actually immigrants to begin with. The original heritage of our country is Native American and they worshiped their ancestors and animal spirits. Some worshiped a "Great Spirit" but it sure as fuck wasn't the Judeo-Christian "God". It was probably a lot friendlier and less narcissistic. So before we start spouting off about the "heritage of our country" lets try to remember the truth of the matter. It was your God in whose name the conquistadors and the puritans enslaved and destroyed indigenous peoples from Canada to Argentina and back again.
Oh, and that was just this continent. Let's not forget St. Patrick. Or the Inquisitions, any one of 'em. What about the holocaust? Yeah, Hitler tried to eradicate the Jews in God's name, too. Actually, pretty much every atrocity and major war since the origin of your religion has been done in God's name. So before you get all sanctimonious about this country having a Judeo-Christian heritage, why don't you think about what that has wrought. Hell, maybe we need some non-believers running things for a while, we might actually get something worthwhile accomplished. Look what happened the last time we had an Evangelical in office. Oh yeah, that was Bush and we've been at war pretty much his entire tenure... interesting.
Reposting
Hey, so I'm going to be reposting some of my favorite blogs from my MySpace... er My[____]. I'm closing that account and I'd like to have them around, so if you've already read these, my apologies. And if you haven't, well, they're new to you, so enjoy! ^_^
14 November 2009
Windows 7 vs OS X
I keep reading articles about how a Microsoft employee said "What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - whether it's traditional format or in a touch format—is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance." Then Microsoft came back and debunked this statement saying that the employee was not at all linked to the GUI development and wasn't equipped with the knowledge to make that statement.
First off, allow me to wipe my eyes, they were tearing up from laughing so hard. "Vista... is far more stable than the current Mac platform..." You're joking, right? I think the last time I had a kernel panic was when I had tweaked something I shouldn't have in a place I shouldn't have been tweaking things. That was my fault. And OS X asked me if I was really sure I wanted to do that. In comparison, my Windows machine was borking on a daily basis due to a Microsoft-installed driver for my video card. Still not sure how the hell that got installed.
But, see, here's the thing: 90% of all problems on Windows come from their (they being Microsoft) inability to keep the operating system secure. The other 10% come from effed up drivers. (EDIT: Statistics created off the cuff, but with some decent guesstimations based on experience.)
Let's address the 90% first. I run my Mac in Admin mode (which is naughty, I know), but every time anything wants to install on my machine, I still have to give it permission by typing in my Admin password. EVERY. TIME. Is that a pain? Not really. Does Windows do this? Sporadically at best, it seems. And it didn't start until Vista.
Here's another thing I hear all the time: "Well the reason there are no virii or spyware for the Mac is because nobody uses them and/or nobody cares enough to take the time to create a virus for them." Is that really the case? Or is it that the OS is locked down tight enough to where malicious software can't get into the system folder and start mucking about? I'm pretty sure most virus making toolkits are *nix based. Which means they aren't even created on Windows machines. But it only makes sense to deploy them on Windows machines because they have the majority of the market share. It's simple business. Are you going to advertise your product on TV in an Amish community? Prolly not. Or, better yet, open up an electronics store there?
Yes, Windows does continue to have the majority of the market share. And that will continue until someone else can put out an office suite that rivals MS Office. OpenOffice is good, but too many people worry because it's free that it won't be as good as the software you have to drop $150-$350 for. I still don't get that.
Now on to the 10%: drivers. The other great thing about a Mac is that I don't have to worry about my video card not being compatible with the rest of my system. For any of you that have custom-built a machine you know what I am talking about. If you don't do your homework you could end up with all kinds of incompatibilities that you'll tear your hair out trying to resolve. And that happens sometimes even when you DO do your homework. With a Mac, it all comes pre-packaged. If I do end up having a problem with the OS or the hardware, I can call one place: Apple. I don't have to call Microsoft first only to have them refer me to the video card manufacturer, only to have them refer me to the motherboard manufacturer, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Unless of course it's some bizarre third party app that I am having problems with, then I usually end up calling them first anyways.
Yes, Windows 7 does look a lot like OS X. But not really any more so than Vista did. In fact I remember writing a blog back when Vista came out calling it Windows OS X. They took a LOT of tips from Apple that time. Now they're just building on what they already stole *choke* borrowed and trying to make it unique. I'm still wondering when they are going to implement a decent version of Spaces or Expose. Yeah, they're getting there, but what they have still isn't remotely as simple to use. And at least if I buy a new Mac I can transfer all my data, my preference, AND my apps without having to reinstall every blasted one of them. Do you think I remember where the hell my Office disk is?
Oh and if ONE person mentions that stupid "Mac Tax", I'm going to charge you the "Windows Tax" by infecting the hell out of your system to where you have to go pay Geek Squad $249 to have them clean your shit. Do that once and then buy all the extra security crap they charge you for annually and by the time your PC dies, you've more than DOUBLED my "Mac Tax". Even if you could get this bitchin' a Windows system for the same price. Seriously go get the specs on a basic Macbook Pro and then try to find a comparable Windows machine for less with the SAME specs. I dare you. Plus almost all of my apps are free or close to it. Yay for OSS.
First off, allow me to wipe my eyes, they were tearing up from laughing so hard. "Vista... is far more stable than the current Mac platform..." You're joking, right? I think the last time I had a kernel panic was when I had tweaked something I shouldn't have in a place I shouldn't have been tweaking things. That was my fault. And OS X asked me if I was really sure I wanted to do that. In comparison, my Windows machine was borking on a daily basis due to a Microsoft-installed driver for my video card. Still not sure how the hell that got installed.
But, see, here's the thing: 90% of all problems on Windows come from their (they being Microsoft) inability to keep the operating system secure. The other 10% come from effed up drivers. (EDIT: Statistics created off the cuff, but with some decent guesstimations based on experience.)
Let's address the 90% first. I run my Mac in Admin mode (which is naughty, I know), but every time anything wants to install on my machine, I still have to give it permission by typing in my Admin password. EVERY. TIME. Is that a pain? Not really. Does Windows do this? Sporadically at best, it seems. And it didn't start until Vista.
Here's another thing I hear all the time: "Well the reason there are no virii or spyware for the Mac is because nobody uses them and/or nobody cares enough to take the time to create a virus for them." Is that really the case? Or is it that the OS is locked down tight enough to where malicious software can't get into the system folder and start mucking about? I'm pretty sure most virus making toolkits are *nix based. Which means they aren't even created on Windows machines. But it only makes sense to deploy them on Windows machines because they have the majority of the market share. It's simple business. Are you going to advertise your product on TV in an Amish community? Prolly not. Or, better yet, open up an electronics store there?
Yes, Windows does continue to have the majority of the market share. And that will continue until someone else can put out an office suite that rivals MS Office. OpenOffice is good, but too many people worry because it's free that it won't be as good as the software you have to drop $150-$350 for. I still don't get that.
Now on to the 10%: drivers. The other great thing about a Mac is that I don't have to worry about my video card not being compatible with the rest of my system. For any of you that have custom-built a machine you know what I am talking about. If you don't do your homework you could end up with all kinds of incompatibilities that you'll tear your hair out trying to resolve. And that happens sometimes even when you DO do your homework. With a Mac, it all comes pre-packaged. If I do end up having a problem with the OS or the hardware, I can call one place: Apple. I don't have to call Microsoft first only to have them refer me to the video card manufacturer, only to have them refer me to the motherboard manufacturer, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Unless of course it's some bizarre third party app that I am having problems with, then I usually end up calling them first anyways.
Yes, Windows 7 does look a lot like OS X. But not really any more so than Vista did. In fact I remember writing a blog back when Vista came out calling it Windows OS X. They took a LOT of tips from Apple that time. Now they're just building on what they already stole *choke* borrowed and trying to make it unique. I'm still wondering when they are going to implement a decent version of Spaces or Expose. Yeah, they're getting there, but what they have still isn't remotely as simple to use. And at least if I buy a new Mac I can transfer all my data, my preference, AND my apps without having to reinstall every blasted one of them. Do you think I remember where the hell my Office disk is?
Oh and if ONE person mentions that stupid "Mac Tax", I'm going to charge you the "Windows Tax" by infecting the hell out of your system to where you have to go pay Geek Squad $249 to have them clean your shit. Do that once and then buy all the extra security crap they charge you for annually and by the time your PC dies, you've more than DOUBLED my "Mac Tax". Even if you could get this bitchin' a Windows system for the same price. Seriously go get the specs on a basic Macbook Pro and then try to find a comparable Windows machine for less with the SAME specs. I dare you. Plus almost all of my apps are free or close to it. Yay for OSS.
20 September 2009
No such thing as "Secure"
I logged onto FB this morning to a note from a friend asking me if I had received the email from myself asking money to be wired to London. Apparently I had been attacked and mugged by "street orchids". Those damned British flowers are pretty aggressive from what I understand. So with a deep sigh I attempt to get my gmail account back. First problem I run into is that in order to get your account back they send an email to your backup email address. Well that's funny because I didn't set one up at hotmail which is where they sent it. Which means whomever got my account was savvy enough to change that. Makes sense. The next step? Wait over 24 hours and try to reset using the account security question. Yeah, cause I'm sure they didn't change THAT. So then I fill out a form to try to get my account back. Shit, they want some esoteric information. Like 5 email addresses I frequently email. Problem is I only use that for _receiving_ things like bank statements, credit card statements, TEP bills, etc. I don't actually email anyone from it. So that question is tough. Then they want to know the month and year I created the account. It was 5 years ago. I could tell you for certainty if I could log the fuck in. Then they want four labels. I am pretty sure I only have two, so I list them. I also gave them my most recent password. Which they may not have BECAUSE SOMEONE FUCKING CHANGED IT!!!! Oh, and most recent successful login. Well MY last successful login was Friday, but I'm pretty sure whomever has my account has successfully logged in more recently since they are sending emails to people asking for money.
Realizing all the financial data that I have attached to this account, I go to change my info on my bank. I change the username. What do they do? "Confirmation of your username change has been sent to your primary email address." Well fuck. So now the douchebag that has my account has my NEW username for my bank. Super. I then go to change my primary email account but I realized that given their response when I changed my username that they would probably send ANOTHER email to my compromised account informing them of my NEW email address. Bah. And double fuck.
I got an email back from Gmail, apparently I don't know enough to get my own account back. As a consolation prize they suggest I can make a new account. No thanks. I have four other ones. NONE OF WHICH HAVE MY FINANCIAL DATA!! I need THIS account back, god dammit. How many times can I fill out the form to get my own fucking account back?
***UPDATE***
Finally got my account back. I tracked down the email that had originally invited me to Gmail (thank you Corianin). With that information in hand I was able to successfully convince Google Account Services that it was, in fact, MY email address and they returned it to me. I logged in and saw the email that the douche had sent out as me. I also saw that he/she/it had read the email Well Fargo sent informing me that I had changed my username. Fortunately all it said was that I had changed it and needed to use the new one to login next time. No details about what it had been changed to. UNfortunately there was an email from the bank a few days prior that had copies of a deposit that I made so it's possible that the crackers have my checking account and routing numbers. And since I am in the middle of buying a home I can't just freeze my accounts and start over. Too much shit is linked to that account. So I will have to be extra vigilant for the next few weeks. Still not sure how all this happened. My password was of a decent strength and length and my Mac has no spyware on it. ::Sigh::
On a not unrelated note, I discovered something about Wells Fargo's alleged "security". The password to login to your account can only be between 6-14 characters, making it well within the limits to be easily brute forced. Oh, and case sensitivity is irrelevant. That shit is scary. Even AOL's antiquated shit was case-sensitive. It didn't read anything past the 8th character, but it at least respected case.
Realizing all the financial data that I have attached to this account, I go to change my info on my bank. I change the username. What do they do? "Confirmation of your username change has been sent to your primary email address." Well fuck. So now the douchebag that has my account has my NEW username for my bank. Super. I then go to change my primary email account but I realized that given their response when I changed my username that they would probably send ANOTHER email to my compromised account informing them of my NEW email address. Bah. And double fuck.
I got an email back from Gmail, apparently I don't know enough to get my own account back. As a consolation prize they suggest I can make a new account. No thanks. I have four other ones. NONE OF WHICH HAVE MY FINANCIAL DATA!! I need THIS account back, god dammit. How many times can I fill out the form to get my own fucking account back?
***UPDATE***
Finally got my account back. I tracked down the email that had originally invited me to Gmail (thank you Corianin). With that information in hand I was able to successfully convince Google Account Services that it was, in fact, MY email address and they returned it to me. I logged in and saw the email that the douche had sent out as me. I also saw that he/she/it had read the email Well Fargo sent informing me that I had changed my username. Fortunately all it said was that I had changed it and needed to use the new one to login next time. No details about what it had been changed to. UNfortunately there was an email from the bank a few days prior that had copies of a deposit that I made so it's possible that the crackers have my checking account and routing numbers. And since I am in the middle of buying a home I can't just freeze my accounts and start over. Too much shit is linked to that account. So I will have to be extra vigilant for the next few weeks. Still not sure how all this happened. My password was of a decent strength and length and my Mac has no spyware on it. ::Sigh::
On a not unrelated note, I discovered something about Wells Fargo's alleged "security". The password to login to your account can only be between 6-14 characters, making it well within the limits to be easily brute forced. Oh, and case sensitivity is irrelevant. That shit is scary. Even AOL's antiquated shit was case-sensitive. It didn't read anything past the 8th character, but it at least respected case.
17 September 2009
My apologies
So as you can see, I haven't been on here much lately. With the bazillion projects at work, my classes, the kids, buying a house, packing and moving I haven't had time to do shit else. Once things settle down a bit, I'll be back to writing a bit more. Well once the moving stuff is done. The classes, kids, and work ain't slowing down anytime soon.
TTFN.
TTFN.
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