2010: End of year thoughts.

Here we are, together again.

Another year. Another decade.

Okay, I'll drop all the philosophical bullshit.

2010 had its ups and downs.

There were some ups.

I moved away from a sucky location. I hated where we lived. Okay, I loved our bedroom in our house. But I wasn't moving on anything I really wanted to do. Apart from family, I was living somewhere surrounded by people I largely didn't care about. Mostly they were my family's friends, but the truth was, I didn't really feel connected to any of them. Some people I had legitimate issues with. Admittedly most of them were fairly nice. Perhaps it's just my nature, but I don't really respond when people I know try to pick my friends for me. I'm instantly tuned out. Never mind that our politics may be similar, some of them might even like the same things I like - I didn't really seek them out, so as far as I was concerned, I never really dropped my guard, and resolved to maintain basic politeness, and nothing else.

At my job, things weren't much better.

Despite all the apparent 'success' at shipping a product and getting it certified by essentially a competitor, and working with very difficult (but gifted) people, it seemed I was unable to cash in on said 'success'. Now I don't claim to have been the driving force behind everything that went on to make things successful, but I did provide some direction and guidance in the areas I was responsible for. And of course, I was there to do the 'pick up the shit' others didn't want to do. And although my boss was a good guy, he wasn't really in any position to do much of anything when another manager at a higher level stepped in and began being abusive to me and others. He didn't stand up to the head of our organization and challenge him to to put a stop to this.

I did. At least I tried.

And when it was clear nothing was going to change, I simply spent my 'success' by getting a job and moving back to an area I'm a lot happier with.

Still that hasn't happened without some problems.

Some in the family weren't too happy with having their lives uprooted.

And yes we left a house behind that's now financially underwater,  that we're still paying for. Joy me.

And we brought an untrustworthy useless excuse of an animal with us. What a mistake that's been.

If it weren't for those last two, I'd almost be happy.

Anyways, I work in a pretty nice place. It's a much different environment in a famous company. And I get some free stuff every week that we get to enjoy. I have a really good boss - who really gets what I do, and really values my input and thought.

Despite the world being much shittier due to -

Costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Economic decline of the working and middle class
Loss of Internet freedom
No improvement in efforts to solving global warming

And lots more ... in my own life ...

... I never forget that could be a lot worse. Indeed it's a lot worse for many people.

But I still have my ideas. I still have my friends. I still have my goals and dreams. I still have my wits and the will to improve life for myself, my family, my friends.

So here's hoping 2011 is the year I take more steps to moving in that direction.

Definitive link between the US economic debacles of the last 50 years and the right-wing.

Read and weep -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/in-money-changers-we-trus_b_802174.html

This comment from 'MyTake' got my attention -

The President does not choose his key advisors and they have not done so since Carter.
Those key advisors are supplied by and drawn from the 4000 membership base of elites that comprise the NY Council on Foreign Relations.

Everything described in this article is, while accurate, just the symptom of the problem where the Corporate State has taken control of the U.S. Government­.

There is no use in flogging these individual names such as Rubin etc.. They are the symptom of the problem and you have to identify the core of the problem and spend you time drawing this single organizati­on out into public view.

Both Bush and Obama economic teams were supplied by the Council on Foreign Relations, David Rockefelle­r, Chairman Emeritus. That 4000 membership­, including the heads of Wall Street Corporatio­ns and heads of Corporate Media, if funded, organized and controlled by the Rockefelle­r Syndicate and their myriad of tax exempt Foundation­s.

Robert Rubin is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors at CFR and it is that Board that has supplied each incoming President with over 300 names for appointmen­t to their respective Administra­tions.
And when you examine the CFR interlocks with the two other organizati­ons known as the Trilateral Commission and the internatio­nal Bilderberg Group, you will see David Rockefelle­r as being the cornerston­e member of each of these groups.

Those three groups are the CORE of the problem. Get to them, expose them and protest them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateral_Commission

The common name among all of them is David Rockefeller, a 'A lifelong Republican and party contributor'.

There you have it - you know why the country is in an economic shambles? It's because of the people chosen from these organizations to run government (into the ground, apparently).

America’s Political Class Struggle - by Jeffrey D. Sachs.

An excellent article that summerizes succinctly where the economic and political future of the US is going if things currently unfolding, are allowed to continue.

Can you believe - the richest 1% of American households now has a higher net worth than the bottom 90%?

It's funny but the right-wing (as housed politically in this country by the Republican Party) is almost by design thinking like a corporation for their patrons. They cannot or do not see the long-term damage they are doing to their own interests by creating and encouraging an economic situation that will eventually collapse. This is no surprise - though perhaps the shocking part is the lack of more public discussion of this topic in the media.

Oh wait - that's not shocking either, since most of the media in this country is largely controlled by 5-6 large multi-national media conglomerates.

Still, it's nice to know I'm not the only person who thinks this way -

If this continues, a third party will emerge, committed to cleaning up American politics and restoring a measure of decency and fairness. This, too, will take time. The political system is deeply skewed against challenges to the two incumbent parties. Yet the time for change will come.

Real change will not come from within the system that society has set forth and created the very real problems we now face. Real change comes from society itself and specifically from those who can think, who can observe, who can learn, and who have the will and the courage to act to make it happen.

While I don't wish to disparage those of a conservative nature, I see the biggest obstacle in front of real positive progress for all is the American Right-Wing.

The real question for me is - will such change come in time to save us all from our own inevitable demise? How can people really effect real positive change on a global and person level, and all points in between?

Vantucky Nazis

I used to live in the Portland, OR area, specifically in the WA state area just north. The city is Vancouver, WA.


Its residents refer to is sometimes as 'The Couv'. Others called it 'Vantucky'.

Here's a strong reason for the latter ... (edit is mine)

http://rosecityantifa.weebly.com/1/post/2010/11/nazi-propaganda-on-vancouver-campus-administration-assists-spread.html

Nearly two weeks after the NSM flier distribution, Clark devoted its regularly scheduled "open dialogue" to the topic, on Monday, October 18.

Nathan Goncalves, NSM member and resident of Stevenson, Washington, claimed responsibility for distributing the fliers. He was given the first opportunity to speak to the room of 250 students, faculty, and community members. For three minutes he stood in front of the crowd in a full NSM uniform, boots, and a swastika armband, delivering a fascist recruiting message on behalf of the National Socialist Movement.

Earlier this month, Clark’s attorney general approved of a second round of neo-Nazi fliers to be posted on official college bulletin boards. These fliers delivered a message suggesting people of color are inferior to white people. (Clark College president) Knight defended the choice to grant space to the racist fliers.

I'm not sure which is worse - that the flier was distributed, or that the College allowed this Nazi group a forum to speak later.

Of course, if you search on the story, you'll find links where the right-wingers are out in full force defending this group's 'free speech', and the college's conduct. I don't think this is a free speech issue. Defaming (i.e. slandering or libeling) a person or persons of a specfic skin color I don't think is protected by the First Amendment.

It's pretty fucked up. A family friend's neighborhood in Vancouver was recently covered in swastikas.

How does one defend oneself or one's community against this? As best as I can figure, the only way to counter this is with fact-based free speech by society-at-large.

In response, over 100 students rallied on the campus on November 9 to promote diversity and oppose the actions of the College and the NSM.

College students appear to get this - will everyone else?

12-21-2010 - Red Letter Day in American History: The day the Internet became another corporate service; and the loss of political credibility of the Obama Adminstration.

Today in America, the Internet will become another corporate service, just like network television. Americans are in effect watching choice, and freedom of speech be handed over to large corporations.

Net Neutrality is dead. Happy Winter Solstice everyone! On the planet's darkest day come pretty dark news for the future.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/obama-fcc-caves-on-net-ne_b_799435.html

"For the first time in history of telecommunications law the FCC has given its stamp of approval to online discrimination.

Instead of a rule to protect Internet users' freedom to choose, the Commission has opened the door for broadband payola - letting phone and cable companies charge steep tolls to favor the content and services of a select group of corporate partners, relegating everyone else to the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.

Instead of protecting openness on wireless Internet devices like the iPhone and Droid, the Commission has exempted the mobile Internet from Net Neutrality protections. This move enshrines Verizon and AT&T as gatekeepers to the expanding world of mobile Internet access, allowing them to favor their own applications while blocking, degrading or de-prioritizing others.

Instead of re-establishing the FCC's authority to act as a consumer watchdog over the Internet, it places the agency's authority on a shaky and indefensible legal footing -- giving ultimate control over the Internet to a small handful of carriers. "

Backseat to no one my ass.

How much would you like to bet that some of the members of the FCC after their terms are done, will find employment with some of the very large telecom companies they were supposed to watch over?

P.S.

Here's an interesting comment from called Birdman372537

Let Verizon and AT&T control the internet. Just tax their profits at 95%. Then



Tax capital gains as ordinary income


Tax yearly incomes over 250K progressiv­ely up to 90% over 2M;


Tax yearly church receipts in excess of 1M;


Eliminate the “carried interest compensati­on” tax code provision;


Increase SS benefits by 10%


Eliminate the ceiling on SS earnings;


Progressiv­ely eliminate SS benefits for those earning over 100K yearly in other income;


Tax stock transactio­ns over 1M in yearly aggregate;


Increase the estate tax on estates valued over 5M;


Tax luxury purchases on homes over 5M, cars over 50K, boats over 100K;


Eliminate the mortgage tax deduction on home mortgage debt over $250K


Double corporate income taxes and eliminate their offshoring tax and job loopholes;


Bring back a windfall profits tax up to 90%;


Legalize and tax illegal drugs;


Increase medicare/m­edicaid fraud detection budgets five-fold;


Decriminal­ize, regulate and tax most victimless crimes;


Eliminate farm and oil subsidies;


Tax all political contributi­ons over $3K from any source at 100%;


Bring the Iraq, AfPak troops home;


Subsidize university educations for worthy students;


Expand drug treatment availabili­ty;


Give medical and dental coverage to all those who need it;


Focus law enforcemen­t and incarcerat­ion on violent crime;






Time for the monied and monopolist­s to pay up. Put our wonderful country back on track.


Other than setting eliminating the mortgage tax deduction up to $500K instead of $250K, I'd say it's all on track.

Dogs in grocery stores

If I ever put together a list of people in the world who by and large constitute morons, pet owners would come somewhere near the top.

And really in America, we're talking mostly about dog-owners (followed closely behind by cat owners).

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying ALL pet owners are morons. And it's true that if one goes to a dog park, most of the owners of dogs are generally friendly, responsible, and have a genuine love of the animal. (Though it should be noted while I find some overlap and correlation,  that there is a difference between loving/appreciating animals, and being an owner. The latter requires responsibility.).

But I'm not ranting about those people.

• I'm talking about those people who let their dog bark for hours on end.
• I'm talking about people who cannot pick up their dog's shit, or worse, let them shit anywhere they like (like on other people's property).
• I'm talking about cat owners who let them scratch up their house or piss all over things.
• I'm talking about owners who let their animals dictate every action when they are at home.
• I'm talking about people who carry a small dog everywhere they go, including a place where food is available, like a restaurant, a grocery store or supermarket.

It's that last one I find very intolerable.

These people act so idiotically. I find most of them smug, and usually very self-absorbed. There is almost this sense of entitlement, as if their pet is their child.

Here's a dose of reality: Pets (i.e. animals) are not children. They do not equate.

Calling your little poodle a 'baby' is moronic.

So why is it on an almost regular basis, when I go to a grocery store, I find there is always someone carrying a dog? Why is this allowed?

Why can't society get a grip and pass laws that actually prevent this? I mean laws where a business' employees are trained to know whether an animal is helping someone with disability (instead of meekly asking and being forced to accept a fake 'yes').

It's not like that little dog being carried is actually aiding the person to do stuff (except perhaps be moronic) in the store.

Okay people with disabilities - that's different.

It's fucking unhygenic. That and the animals too.

What's the solution?

Happy Meals - the fucking bullshit we've always known them to be.‏

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/12/15/con-mcdonalds-suit.html

While I agree with the comments by some that the responsibility of children's health lies with parents, kids are relentless in demanding something they really want. You only need to give in once and it'll be etched in their minds, because that's how their marketing works. It's designed to rope children in and it's fucking manipulative.


I think it's completely appropriate to have laws in place to prevent corporations from using manipulative marketing practices to induce people to buy their products.

And if the plaintaiffs can show that the toys exist specifically to induce kids to get their parents to take them there (which I know has always been the singular reason they offer toys), then I'd love to see them take them to the cleaners, because there's apparently a law in the county where they are suing that appears to forbid this.

And on that note, I'd rather take our kids to an Applebees before ever stepping into a McDonalds dump again.

How fucking awesome if this turns out to be true!

AIDS BREAKTHROUGH: First HIV-Positive Man Cured



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/hiv-cure-berlin-patient_n_796521.html

Here's the kicker -

"Brown's case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells. "

I wonder who all those religious folks who opposed stem-cell research feel about it now?

Home

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/citizens-awake-and-cast-ye-off-the-chains-of-home-ownership-20101212-18tvj.html


This comment got my attention –

Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves.

While the article above really talks about the security of having some place to call home, there’s something the article really misses.

It confuses buying a home with owning a home. They are not the same thing.

Owning a home really means you don’t owe anyone any debt (yes I know, governments really own the land, hence the concept of property tax, but work with me here)

The concept of paying mortgage to some financial institution is really spending 30-40 years buying a house. Oh sure they give you a deed, and on paper it looks like you ‘own’ the property (at least that’s the way the government sees it, since they come to you for the aforementioned property tax).

For the longest time, the concept of equity (which is what the mortgage payment really represents) has been a nice way to placate the middle class into thinking they are moving up in society. And for the longest time it was true.

But the fact is, over the last 20 years, if one has missed payment or two, they are usually not that far away from getting kicked out and losing it all. And truthfully, most people in this day and age are so early into their mortgage that none of their payments are really giving them any real equity at this point. Payments are mostly to cover off the interest in the loan (the ability to negotiate anything beyond that either is not available or not readily apparent).

Removing the concepts of equity and security out of it, then it’s all really no different than renting a house, isn’t it? It’s a dream sold to most people into believing that if they stick it out long enough, they’ll have something to hold onto and call their own at the end of it all. Indeed it’s a dream I’ve bought into.

For most people now, that dream is turning into a nightmare. Many are finding out that absent the equity and security, the ownership and investment in a house is no longer there, but the responsibility and obligation(s) still are. Add to that declining incomes, rising prices and more bills to cover and you have a recipe of financial collapse.

The housing crisis represents a clear case of the eradication of the middle class.

It’s not wonder today that society is slowly moving to extremes. Many people today are awash in debt.


I've always felt that the major strengths of the United States rested in two places, both of which are derived from generally one source: the middle class, and small busineses. I believe there are strong connections from the latter to the former. One can see the future when one looks at how both are treated. We don't need to look elsewhere because we know what each extreme represents.
 
We are slowly moving towards those extremes. Today and tomorrow, there are and will only be really two kinds of people who live in homes: Those who own them, and those who don’t. While I believe myself to be an optimist-at-heart, without knowing what possible solutions there are to address this future problem, I'm at a loss to stay positive.

How to Fix Fake Net Neutrality - if you live in the US, please read and take action

How to Fix Fake Net Neutrality (courtesy Craig Aaron)
Five Steps:

Wireless. Even though Genachowski has said it's "essential that the Internet itself remain open, however users reach it," his proposal would leave wireless networks unprotected. It would enshrine Verizon and AT&T as gatekeepers to the rapidly expanding world of mobile Internet access, allowing them to favor their own applications while blocking, degrading or de-prioritizing others.

Paid Prioritization. Genachowski's proposal reportedly fails to explicitly prohibit deals that would allow ISPs to charge steep tolls to favor the content and services of a select group of corporate partners, relegating everyone else to the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road. (See the video above.)

Key Definitions. The devil is always in the details at the FCC. So it's important how the agency defines terms such as "Broadband Internet Access Service" and "reasonable network management" so giant loopholes aren't created that could undermine the purpose of these rules.

Specialized Services. Last summer's Verizon-Google pact was widely lambasted because the deal would have allowed ISPs to split the Internet into two pipes: the public one we have now and a separate private lane reserved for "specialized services." The FCC needs to be sure there are safeguards so we don't lose today's level playing field where anyone with a good idea has the chance to be the next Google or Facebook.

Legal Footing. Genachowski reportedly is grounding these new rules in the same kind of legal arguments that were rejected by the courts last spring. This strategy presents an unnecessary risk in a short-sighted attempt to avoid "reclassifying" broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. Such a move doesn't just put Net Neutrality on shaky ground, it places the FCC's entire broadband agenda in jeopardy.

Read all about it here - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/the-fccs-guide-to-losing_b_795061.html

And if you live in the US, act now - http://act2.freepress.net/sign/real_net_neutrality/?source=STNhomepage

Secular humanism

I was looking at this link and wondering if this describes my view of life -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism

Seems pretty close.

Driving and parking in the wrong lane.

I don't know what it is about this part of the United States (or whether this is something prevalent) but I find it odd that people park their cars on the wrong side of the road, pointed in the opposite direction of traffic.

In order to do that, one has to cross the street into oncoming traffic and pull up their car so that the headlights are facing .... yes ... oncoming traffic.

Why?

Maybe it's a Pacific Northwest thing?

Word Warriors in DC and Wikileaks

It is a "scandal" when the Government conceals things it is doing without any legitimate basis for that secrecy. Each and every document that is revealed by WikiLeaks which has been improperly classified -- whether because it's innocuous or because it is designed to hide wrongdoing -- is itself an improper act, a serious abuse of government secrecy powers. Because we're supposed to have an open government -- a democracy -- everything the Government does is presumptively public, and can be legitimately concealed only with compelling justifications. That's not just some lofty, abstract theory; it's central to having anything resembling "consent of the governed."



But we have completely abandoned that principle; we've reversed it. Now, everything the Government does is presumptively secret; only the most ceremonial and empty gestures are made public. That abuse of secrecy powers is vast, deliberate, pervasive, dangerous and destructive. That's the abuse that WikiLeaks is devoted to destroying, and which its harshest critics -- whether intended or not -- are helping to preserve. There are people who eagerly want that secrecy regime to continue: namely, (a) Washington politicians, Permanent State functionaries, and media figures whose status, power and sense of self-importance are established by their access and devotion to that world of secrecy, and (b) those who actually believe that -- despite (or because of) all the above acts -- the U.S. Government somehow uses this extreme secrecy for the Good. Having surveyed the vast suffering and violence they have wreaked behind that wall, those are exactly the people whom WikiLeaks is devoted to undermining.

Thank you Mr. Greenward for putting things in perspective when it comes to the impotnent idiots who call themselves the 'media' in the US.

Read it all here.

"Localism" and Columbia River Crossing debate.

In the area where I used to live, there exists a debate over a proposal to replace the Interstate Bridge that goes over the Columbia River, as it's reaching its end-of-life.

This bridge currently is the main surface transportation route and contains the following significant points -

• Interstate 5 - which connects three nations - Canada, the United States , and Mexico
• The states of Oregeon and Washington (and by extention, California)
• Clark County and Multnomah County
• Portand, OR and Vancouver, WA

Lot of traffic goes through this bridge, both commercial, military, and otherwise.

Unfortunately, a lot of the debate is being clouded by various groups with interests that don't take any consideration into resolving the issue from all perspectives.

1. Bicylists - Bikers advocating for a reduced bridge (or no bridge) are out to lunch in their thinking because they don't take into account the impact of the bridge to the regions around them.

2. Liberalish morons - People who write at the Portland Mercury are also clueless in that not building a bridge doesn't reduce carbon emissions. That would only move the problem somewhere else, not solve it.

And even if that were to actually work, it would still not solve the larger problem. Anyone who's ever crossed that bridge would be able to tell you why. Within a few miles is PDX. Airplanes take off and land all day. They use a higher concentrated gasoline, and because they are closer to the atmosphere, can release their emissions into the air much easier. Note that the writier is (conveniently) of Portland Mercury article is now a member of the Sam Adams team. Criticizing Vancouver, WA as 'urban sprawl' is hypocritical when one looks at North Portland. What does one see when entering the state of Oregon through the Interstate Bridge? Target, Hooters, McDonalds, Denny's. Frankly NoPo is urban sprawl, compared to the Vancouver, WA side of the Columbia River. And what about all the concrete snakes being built everywhere in Delta Park (i.e. all the entrance/exits being added to Interstate-5).

This overall inability to see beyond one's path and not be aware of the impacts around them is what I call localism. People who advocate without any regards for the impacts (or even bothering to think about it) are the essence of localism.

(This may differ with the Wikipedia definition of localism - which states: "It is primarily a rural movement." This would seem to imply that only rural folks are primarily about localism)



I don't claim to have all the answers to solving the problem. But doing nothing, or replacing the bridge with nothing are not answers.

USA-212

Know what it is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-212

USA-212[5][6] was the first flight of the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (X-37B OTV-1), an American unmanned robotic spacecraft. It was launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on 22 April 2010, and operated in low Earth orbit. Its designation is part of the USA series.

The spacecraft is operated by the United States Air Force, which has not revealed the specific identity of the spaceship's payload. The Air Force has stated only that the spacecraft will "demonstrate various experiments and allow satellite sensors, subsystems, components, and associated technology to be transported into space and back."[7]

...

William Scott, coauthor of the techno-novel Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III and former Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine believes that with X-37B, the Air Force might test weapon delivery from a space plane in low Earth orbit. He mentions Rods from God as a possible scenario.[31] This hypothesis aligns with speculation that the launch of USA-212 marks the beginning of military operations in space.[32]

Read more here, and here.

To quote Yoda, "Begun the Clone War has."

Daniel Ellsberg's opinion of Amazon's dumping of Wikileaks

I understand that many other regular customers feel as I do and are responding the same way. Good: the broader and more immediate the boycott, the better. I hope that these others encourage their contact lists to do likewise and to let Amazon know exactly why they’re shifting their business. I’ve asked friends today to suggest alternatives. I’ve removed all links to Amazon from my site, and I’ll be exploring service from Powell’s Books, IndieBound, Biblio and others.

I could not have said it better. This coming from the man who disclosed The Pentagon Papers.

Read more of Mr. Ellsberg's open letter to Amazon here - http://www.zcommunications.org/open-letter-to-amazon-com-by-daniel-ellsberg.

It's good to know there are still smart people in this world who conduct themselves honestly and are brave enough to fight for what they believe in.

That public destruction of society's right to the facts on their governments.

It's rather disturbing watching American government officials turn into Nixonian stormtroopers.

I suspect all the attempts to incarcerate or discredit Assange is nothing more than a blatant attempt to stop the flow of information on government activities to the American public.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/12/the-shameful-attacks-on-julian-assange/67440/

There are many implications behind what's currently going, but this is perhaps the most important one - probably the one that most governments find the most threatening -

Wikileaks is a powerful new way for reporters and human rights advocates to leverage global information technology systems to break the heavy veil of government and corporate secrecy that is slowly suffocating the American press. The likely arrest of Assange in Britain on dubious Swedish sex crimes charges has nothing to do with the importance of the system he has built, and which the US government seems intent on destroying with tactics more appropriate to the Communist Party of China -- pressuring Amazon to throw the site off their servers, and, one imagines by launching the powerful DDOS attacks that threatened to stop visitors from reading the pilfered cables.

Uh-huh - rude service.

I used to think observing behavior changes in society was just me aging and all that.

One of my major pet peeves is rude customer service. Or people who work in a service area and cannot user professional language.

Case in point yesterday morning. We drove to an IHOP restaurant for breakfast, just south of Seattle.

We ordered our food. A couple sat nearby a server took their order. Their food arrived before ours did, but that's another issue.

Anyways our server was an middle-aged woman, and instead of saying 'You're welcome' to my thank you, she said the now-standard 'Uh-huh'.

Here's a piece of advice - 'Uh-huh' is not the response to 'Thank you.'. "You're welcome' is. Going forward I think I'm going to start posting a zero tip when I hear people utter that term in restaurants.

Classic Dallas clip

Wanna see high-drama at it's over-the-top best?




"No body gives you power. Real power is something you take!" - as spat out with venom by Jock Ewing.

In case you're wondering ...

Some of you may have noticed that the number of posts on this site has increased rather dramatically. For some strange reason, I'm trying to either tie or ecllipse my number of posts from last year, which was 62.

I wonder what it is in human nature that drives us to always improve or go higher with something, anything than the time before. Even more, I wonder why I'm so concerned with wanting to have more posts this year.

Maybe I'm trying to prove something to myself. Maybe it's way of saying I accomplished something over last year.

I started blogging about five years ago. It's odd how back then, I didn't really post that many messages, but somehow it felt easier. Perhaps there's a lost innocence to it all (I'm no longer a blogging virgin ~ la!)

So anyways, bear with me. What with all that's going on, I'm sure I can find a bunch of posts to beat my 2009 record.

Yay me. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Think I was kidding about calling Amazon a bunch of censors?

Guess again screamer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/wikileaks-amazon-servers-_n_790652.html

Wikileaks' twitter response, said it best -

"If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books."


Seriously, people should take their business elsewhere this holiday season, and going forward.

Product or feature doesn't make it out of testing because is doesn't work?

Don't blame the development team for writing code that doesn't work.

Don't blame the 'engineering' team for failing to meet a committment.

No, instead, tell the customer that the feature is no longer needed -

Microsoft announced its decision to discontinue development of one of the core features of Windows Home Server, a technology called Drive Extender.

And ... here's the rub -

"The reason they are outraged is because everyone knows the real reason why this feature was dropped. The Drive Extender architecture had a troubled past involving a particularly nasty data-destroying bug that was finally fixed in late 2008. For the next release of Windows Home Server, someone made the engineering decision to completely redesign the Drive Extender code base. I’ll let Peter Bright explain what happened next:

With Vail, Drive Extender was completely rewritten in a manner that should make it both more flexible and more reliable. Instead of using regular NTFS disks, Vail inserts a layer underneath the filesystem. This layer was responsible for distributing blocks of data between disks, replicating them to ensure fault tolerance, and de-duplicating them to make the system more efficient…

Unfortunately, the new block layer in Vail doesn’t quite work right. Just like Drive Extender in Windows Home Server, there have been bugs. Different bugs, but bugs all the same. Microsoft hasn’t gone into explicit detail about what these problems are, but there were some issues with its ability to correct errors, and some Small Business Server testers reported application compatibility problems.

So instead of fixing the flaws, and potentially delaying the three products dependent on Drive Extender, Microsoft is killing the feature altogether.

Everyone in the Windows Home Server community knows this is absolutely true. And yet Leworthy did not mention a word of those bugs and engineering issues in his bland and incomplete blog posts. Let’s call it a lie of omission, because that’s what it is."


Read the article for the rest. It's one thing to admit something doesn't work. It's another to lie about it to customers you've previously committed to that something will be there.
 
I have a similar issue in my own life. I refuse to do business with Amazon because they are all a bunch of right-wingers, and they believe in censorship. But the Mrs. ordered something recently from them. Their delivery vendor had been saying up till yesterday that the order would arrive ... yesterday.
 
Well it didn't. And now, the vendor says it's arriving at a later date.
 
I understand things happen. I understand that often times, these things happen beyond one's control.
 
But don't lie about it. Don't lie to a paying customer.
 
Why can't businesses understand this?