Rant

Ah, so, Google Reader. It’s going away in July 2013. Yes, this is another rant decrying the shutdown of Google Reader. However, it’s my process for working through losing the app I’ve used every day since it was announced. I mean that. Every. Day. I’ve used Google Reader so long, I don’t remember what I used before it to read RSS feeds; I vaguely recall using NetNewsWire or some other installed application, but those never felt right. Just as with email, the concept of sync’ing internet content to my PC never felt right. ...

I hear this today as a planted sales question: “Why shouldn’t I just use an Open Source solution instead of [my company’s dooflotchy]?” So help me, this is what I recall as being what the speaker wanted the salesperson to respond. Well, first of all, you get what you pay for. Would you really want to trust your sensitive data to a piece of Open Source? We will support and stand behind our solution, and you have every opportunity to influence the product roadmap if you go with us. ...

The other day, I found myself wallowing a tad, and I cried out to God, simply: “God, please help me.” At the time, I was writing in my journal, some pretty negative, emotionally-charged stuff, like: I feel like a failure as a husband. I feel like a failure as a father. My career isn’t working out the way I really would like. I’m certainly duller than I was in 2010, and I feel overwhelmed all the time. I’m not coding regularly anymore. Writing the above, I literally stopped in mid sentence and immediately wrote these words: ...

Few things in this world make me fighting mad. But then, there’s this. http://www.kentucky.com/2012/12/07/2435663/rare-state-takeover-of-school.html This is my hometown. This where my formative years were spent. And, because of idiotic graft, nepotism, and malfeasance, this is where my blood relations remain trapped in a cycle of hopelessness compounded by cronyism, intent on keeping power (what pathetic excuse for power it is!) for themselves. Were I Dante, there’d be some Terza Rima regarding Arch Turner and his ilk’s future in Hell, but words fail me. ...

http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/ff_stevejobs I work in technology. I’m writing this on a second generation Macbook Air. My family owns or has owned: 2 ipod classics, 3 ipod nano’s, 1 Intel iMac, 3 iPhones (1 3G, 1 iphone 4, 1 4s). I’m not a fanboi, but I’m in the neighborhood. That disclosed, let me be very clear in my position: Fuck Steve Jobs. Not because of what he did–he did great things (Apple, NeXT, Pixar, Apple…again), nor for his tyrannical management. I raise the cyber middle finger to Jobs because people conflate the two. They conclude that to do great things, you must be a tyrant, and that’s just wrong. In fact, the collateral damage of Jobs may take more than a decade to undo, just because people misunderstand who he was. ...

I can’t be honest. Not anymore…not since 2008, basically. My honest, analytical opinion would hurt too many feelings and likely get me fired, or sued, or jailed. Suffice it to say, there are things I’d like to get off my chest and express that I just can’t. That’s hard, because my blog has always been the place where I did that, consequences be damned. Well, these days, “consequences” includes four other people. ...

I’m 31, and I have arthritis in my lower back. THIRTY ONE YEARS OLD. Mom’s prophesy has come true: “You need to get up and move, or you’ll have arthritis by the time you’re 30.” You were off by one, mom. Can’t really lay blame on anyone but myself here. I’m the one who decided sitting around like Jabba the Hut for the last decade was the way to go. Twenty six percent body fat, zero flexibility, and no core strength. ...

Yes, the blogging fad is over. When it was invented, blogging was a giant leap beyond “creating your own website” by hand-coding HTML or using a program to ‘publish’ your site. Suddenly, you could type out your thoughts, embed images and let some other program handle all the layouts, storage, archiving, and hosting. Blogging exploded. However, blogging is lonely, hierarchical. Comments made it better, allowing you to engage with other people. Still, it’s not a *conversation*. It’s like standing in a room with one person yelling statements and thoughts, then yelling ‘Whatta ya think of that?’ ...

In the beginning, man created paper, and it was good. It was permanent, stateful, and could be used for warmth if the auditor got too close. Man could transfer the paper to another man, certain his message would get across. Man could doodle and mark-up the paper. For a backup solution, there was carbon paper. And, there was much rejoicing. And, lo, God saw Man enjoying paper, and said, ““If as one people they use the paper, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” And so, God invented e-mail and the Blackberry. And suddenly, man’s communication was much faster, yet intent and meaning was lost. Yet, there was much rejoicing. (?) ...

Could this be extended for security frameworks too… Shubhashish - Nov 0, 2009 Could this be extended for security frameworks too.

Someone gunned-down George Tiller in cold blood in his church Sunday. That he happened to be an abortion clinic doctor is immaterial. Vigilante justice, retribution, and demagoguery are not roads we need go down in this country–it’s been done before.

i don’t get ur reference to Marat….esp since tha… Whitney - Jun 2, 2009 i don’t get ur reference to Marat….esp since that wasn’t “in this country” (see entry)…….. ??? It’s a stretch, I admit. We haven’t been there in this country, but France has, and it’s a bitter lesson. That’s the parallel I was trying to draw. ...

Linky Simply put, this regulation will be the end of the automobile industry (and possibly the automobile itself). They want 42mpg fleet AVERAGE? Given current regulations, the 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid gets 42mpg average. Nearly EVERY OTHER CAR on the road will underperform. They want these regulations by 2016…understand, that’s ONE GENERATION in automotive terms, given the 5-year product lifecycles the carmakers deal with. The 2011 and 2012 cars are already done and in the pipeline at this point. ...

We have a socialist gov’t now. whatdya expect? Whitney - May 2, 2009 We have a socialist gov’t now. whatdya expect? I strip away the old debris That hides a shining car: A brilliant red Barchetta From a better vanished time. We fire up the willing engine Responding with a roar. Tires spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime. ...

Perhaps Cal’s a bargain at that price. However, when I look at the budget presentation here, I see a $2.2 Billion budget for the University of Kentucky (slide 5). Calipari’s $4,375,000 per year is right at 0.2% of the total budget. A pittance? Again, perhaps. However, when we flip over to slide 11, notice a budget slashed to meet declining revenue projections, with 188 positions eliminated. It makes me sick to my stomach to read the last slide, Dr. Todd’s valediction to those whose education become unaffordable, and those staff who lost their jobs: ...

I’ve been informed that these are not my tax dolla… HarryC - Apr 3, 2009 I’ve been informed that these are not my tax dollars, and that the athletics budget is completely separate from the rest of the university. Admittedly, both Football and Basketball are net revenue generation sports. I welcome being wrong, if someone can spell it out for me. i initially thought and felt the same as you, but was informed the same thing, that the athletics budget is separate, and that the profit from basketball and football is essentially needed to fund other sports and areas of the university. Here’s a link to an article someone sent me: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29992697/ ...

Too long for a tweet, to short for proper blog. Here goes: On Gillespie Yes, you woke up the next day, and Billy Clyde Gillespie is really gone. He’s trying to “win” the breakup, showing the world his smiling public face, but make no mistake–you hurt him. You took him right off the turnip truck, threw him in front of the most rabid fan base this side of Notre Dame football, and now he’ll be laughing all the way to the bank as he deposits $6 million. I’m no lawyer, but I think that’s what that “Memorandum of Understanding” implies. ...

For a brain-dead rube, Gillespie sure did make out… Organic Meatbag - Mar 1, 2009 For a brain-dead rube, Gillespie sure did make out like a bandit…

Ah, Revolution. Romantic thought, isn’t it? Taking an untenable social and political situation and hitting the big ‘Reset’ button on the old Nintendo. Start fresh. Start clean. Do it RIGHT this time. Certainly, it worked for our Founding Fathers. You see, I’ve been hearing the ‘R’ word bandied about quite a bit in the last few weeks. Casually, as if people were trying it on for size, or as a rhetorical caper: “Do __________, and you’ll have revolution in the streets, Mr. Chairman!” ...

Oligarchy This country is an oligarchy–a country ruled by a narrow, incestuous, elite class bent on maintaining their tenuous grip on power. Where once we had a broad spectrum of representative government and limited federal powers, we now have an all-encompassing federal government, controlled by two parties that look suspiciously like one another. Where’s the healthy disagreement? Where are the extremist whackos (Libertarians, Greenies, Communists, Socialists, and…heck…Whigs) that are the hallmark of a functioning democracy? They don’t exist in this country. What we have instead are two centrist parties bent on maintaining the status quo, keeping the constituents fat, dumb, and happy. ...