I feel incredibly alienated at work. Really.
As for my job, I do IT support for a local business where I live in Michigan. I rarely leave my office anymore, even for lunch. I go to the kitchen, make my lunch, go back to my office. I do this while wearing my headphones the entire time.
This incident happened yesterday, Wednesday the 21st of October. Have any of you seen that Sony Ericsson chain letter including an image of a fake Sony Ericsson campaign that tells you to send this email to 20 people CCing the fake Sony address for a free laptop?
Snopes - Sony Ericsson Laptop Giveaway Hoax
Yeah, that one. Well, it was circulating at the office yesterday and was starting to spread like wildfire. There were many people that were sending it to at least 20 people, including non-employees, which is a big no-no already.
I didn't want people to continue spamming this JPEG (another no-no) for free laptops in this economy right before the holidays. Not only that, but what if someone got in trouble for sending this around? This would definitely fall under company email abuse. I felt it was my duty as the IT guy, I guess.
I figured I'd just send out an email with Sony's official statement straight from Snopes. I figured the worst that would happen would be a few people going, "Oh, well. I knew it was fake, but whatever, right? Just another chain letter."
I was wrong.
Moments after sending my reply, I had one employee call my extension and started complaining about how I sent it to everyone listed in the forward. That I did, yes. I sent it to everyone listed in the chain, not just the employees. She apparently thought I was trying to make her look silly to her friends, family, and coworkers.
She eventually hung up after a few kind words. I don't want to be stubborn, but I thought I was trying to help. It's a desperate time and those that could really use an awesome gift, such as a laptop, would send this to everyone they know.
Second response from another coworker, except this time, she actually came into my office. She tried to explain that I had no business telling everyone that this campaign was false and I should have let them go on with their bliss. That is almost verbatim.
About 30 minutes went by and I have this email sitting in my inbox...
Hey……………..you are being mean, I don’t think it hurts to try and get something for free. Did it cost anything to forward it? The answer to that should be ‘NO’ but you yelled at me!!!!!!!!!!! I was being a friend and thought MAYBE you could use one for a Xmas gift.
*Her Name,* the PRESIDENT and CO-FOUNDER of the he’s being mean club
Here is my email in full.
This is a hoax. Please do not spam this chain letter around.
Please go to http://www.snopes.com and check it for yourself. Sony Ericsson has made no such offer. This is a really old chain letter.
“Sony Ericsson has been made aware of an online email campaign claiming that Ericsson will give away a free laptop computer to users who forward the promotional information. The same campaign includes a photograph of the Sony Ericsson logo and mentions an Ericsson contact name and email number.
Sony Ericsson confirms that this email campaign is a hoax. In addition, Sony Ericsson confirms that the Ericsson contact name does not exist.
All competitions and promotions involving Sony Ericsson are run through official channels such as Sony Ericsson's website or Sony Ericsson's partners' websites. Please be wary of any competition or promotion that appears to come from outside of Sony Ericsson or Sony Ericsson's partners official channels. Examples of these include via spam emails or SMS.
Please do not reply to or forward the email if you receive it.”
I started having doubts about sending that email later, but the email was the last of the responses of the 30-40 people as of today. Maybe the people that appreciated the input remained silent?
Do you, dear reader, think I was wrong for sending that response?
Dear Science: Isn’t being lactose tolerant after a certain age great supporting evidence of recent evolution in human beings?
To start, I became lactose intolerant many years ago and it was a very difficult transition as I live in a society where dairy products are primarily all the popular foods that I like to eat. Like ice cream. Imagine being at a birthday party faced with delicious looking ice cream cake while young with no magical lactase pills.
As I got older, I found out that a great deal of the world population is lactose intolerant after a certain age. I learned that most cultures that have very low dairy consumption are predominately lactose intolerant while those that, even recently, consume more dairy products become lactose tolerant.
The science of this is that there is a mutation on chromosome 2 gene which eliminates the shutdown in lactase production after the suckling years. While I found this out years ago to help me accept my inferior ability to handle that spicy milk, I always wondered about actual statistics regarding people by region. I found this on Wikipedia to be of interest.
An anecdote here involves my Native American friend mocking me for becoming lactose intolerant only for him to become lactose intolerant after several months of joking about my condition.
After a little thought, isn't lactose tolerance a simple explanation for people regarding recent evolutionary proof in human beings? Why is it that this is never brought up in debates or arguments with those that choose to fail to grasp the idea or ignore evolution? Is this not a stopper in support for evolution during those ridiculous debates?
Moving JBlend to My Storage from Storage Folder
I read on several forums that users had issues with JBlend failing to installing on the storage card. Here's a guide on how to move JBlend to storage.
This should take you between five to ten minutes and is almost risk free if you know how to copy and paste and know your way around the registry. To make things even faster, use My Mobiler.
I recommend using the same CABs as I did. The links are located at the bottom of this post.
Note: Editing the registry can be a breeze if you know what you're doing. I recommend using FDCSoft Task Manager 3.1. The attached file is the cab for WM5&6. It's a very powerful utility with a very awesome regedit feature with an excellent search and a favorites features. If you're uncomfortable doing this, please ask around before making any changes. I do not and no one here will be held liable for damages to the system.
First, when we install Jblend, it will create a folder called Storage Card in the root of our system memory. This is really annoying, because JBlend is over 4MB. Not only that, but all Midlets will be installed in /Storage Card/Program Files/JBlend/InstalledMidlets. This can easily hurt your internal storage space very quickly. I'm sure everyone is like me and wants to save as much as space as possible.
Now we navigate to the directory of /Storage Card/Program Files with File Explorer, Total Commander or any other explorer program. You only need to see the JBlend folder, you do not need to be in the JBlend directory. If you installed it successfully, everything should be in order. Simply highlight the JBlend directory, find the Cut or Move option. Step one is done.
Next, we navigate to /My Storage/Program Files and Paste it or Move it there. I recommend dumping this program directory in your /My Storage/Program Files so we have to edit as little as possible when it comes to registry. Next step we'll go and edit the proper registry values.
Note: Do not try to run JBlend yet. It should not run.
Where you should be now: HKCU\Software\JBlend. All you have to do is find the values that show "\Storage Card\Program Files\Jblend" and change Storage Card to My Storage. This is going to be the most time consuming, but with MyMobiler, you can simply copy and paste it over and over. Do not forget the "\" before My Storage in the value. I mistyped and spelled My Storage wrong on purpose and the worst thing that happened was JBlend did not start when opened.
There should be 10 values to edit. I highlighted them in the attached pictures with the \My Storage changes.
The final step is probably the easiest. We will navigate to the root of \HKCR and will create a new KEY named ".jar". Exactly that. There might be a REG_NONE type value in the key of .jar, so we will double click that and select REG_SZ. If there is not a REG_NONE blank value, just create a new value in the .jar key. We will give it the Value Data of "jblendfile".
You're done. Navigate to your JBlend folder or shortcut (you will have to create new ones), and fire up JBlend. This is not necessary to install the midlets, but we want to know it's working. It should open right up. Second, use your explorer window to find a jar file to test the changes. If you downloaded the Zombie Infection game, you should see the file with a JBlend icon now. Open it up and JBlend will take care of the rest.
That's it. We successfully moved JBlend to My Storage. All installed Midlets will be installed to /My Storage/Program Files/JBlend/InstalledMidlets as well. This saved me at least 9MB immediately, which then allowed me to go nuts with more JAR files
Statistics for the Worker Bee
I was curious about what percentages of our life are spent doing what over long periods of time, such as a career that we might have for most of our life. That and I'm bored.
Read More of "Statistics for the Worker Bee"...
Blasphemy in Ireland Now Punishable Under Law
Holy shit.
I thought this was a joke or someone taking a recent The Onion article seriously again. Sadly, it's not. There are far more details about the blasphemy law than I could get into right because that would involve a lot of copying and pasting. Plus it's 2:00AM.
Blasphemy law is silly, dangerous and unjust
It really does seem dangerous and overwhelming. Punishable by a fine up to 25,000-Euros? That's about $35,000 USD. Imagine being hit with a fine like that because someone either had completely different religious convictions and beliefs or simply does not believe in a supernatural being.
A lot of religious folk might cheer at this law, but this really could, and will, be used against them as well as the atheist of the land. It's not a double edged sword as there will be no real "winners" as a result of this new law except those delicious coffers receiving the cash for these hefty fines.
∙ Atheists can be prosecuted for saying that God is imaginary. That causes outrage.
∙ Pagans can be prosecuted for saying they left Christianity because God is violent and bloodthirsty, promotes genocide, and permits slavery.
∙ Christians can be prosecuted for saying that Allah is a moon god, or for drawing a picture of Mohammed, or for saying that Islam is a violent religion which breeds terrorists.
∙ Jews can be prosecuted for saying Jesus isn’t the Messiah.
Ireland Makes Blasphemy Illegal - Above bullet list lifted from here.
It does a good job condensing the crafty language for everyone to understand. This is both dangerous and ridiculous for everyone. This goes beyond insulting any freedom of speech people might have. This goes against freedom of religion and many other rights we thought we had at one point or took for granted.
I, for one, will be ten times as blasphemous as usual in support for all those atheist boys and girls panicking in Ireland because they own a book that is undoubtedly illegal to possess now. If the government looked over a curious reader's recent books checked out from the library, would they find anything worth fining? If someone checked out the popular book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, a warrant and a fine could be waiting for them at their front door.
I'm curious if this also means if a young man or woman is watching a blasphemous episode of South Park a little too loud with the windows open and offends their neighbors. Could the neighbors call the cops and have this person fined for watching a television show in which they have no creative attachment? This supposed hypothetical scenario does seem like a reality, sadly.
I will talk out loud to whatever imaginary supernatural being that only exists within our own collective imagination any reader might worship that this kind of law doesn't spread.
I hope Jim Jeffries had no plans for touring Ireland any time soon with his I Swear to God material.
One to Dig To Your Heart
The Armadillo
A lot of people seem to have misconceptions of the armadillo. While I am one person that gleefully welcomes them to migrate further north to my fair state, other people seem to think of them as more of a pest. They have been found as far as Illinois, so it’s only a matter of time until I can adopt one from the wild myself.
Speaking of the wild, they are only native to the Americas. There is a lot of folklore about these cute little fellas, but stories like those do not interest me. I could rattle on for pages about the false tales of misunderstood animals, one especially that of the armadillo. As far as science goes, these guys are quite the handful.
The nine-banded armadillo is the one species out of the many that might be the most interesting to refer specifically. Not only are armadillos the one of few non-human animals that can be infected with leprosy, but the nine-banded armadillo gives birth to four genetically identical quadruplets in each litter. There are very, very few species in the world that are known to possess this unique reproductive ability.
Speaking of ability, the armadillo doesn’t fall short of impressing would be skeptics of how lazy they may perceive the beast. A motorist may drive across a road and see a dead armadillo lying on the side. The immediate conclusion would be to think that it was hit by a car by darting into traffic, but how exactly was it struck? Typically by the fender.
Armadillos can jump rather high for looking so stubby and heavy. There are other animals in the world that give very odd instinctual reactions to being startled such as the genetically engineered fainting goats who go into temporary paralysis if given a good scare. It is thought that the fainting goat experiences no pain, but other animals are not as fortunate.
The armadillo will leap up in the air from a non-moving standing position high enough to be struck by the fender of an automobile. Imagine a car on the road driving and there is an animal in the way. The immediate horn blast scares the poor creature into a leap that places it directly in front of the car. It may be sad, but it is an impressive jumping feat nonetheless.
Other amazing abilities that other species of armadillo possess is the ability to inflate itself with air enough to swim across bodies of water and, quite the opposite, remain underwater for up to six minutes. There is one type that actually rolls up into a ball for defense like the common woodlouse. Though, I would imagine the armadillo has the clear advantage over which has the best defense capability.
Indeed, they are only known to be in the Americas, but what about fossil records? Well, one fossil record found in South America compares the size of the ancient armadillo to that of a car. Ridiculous to think about if it could roll itself into a ball and travel like when all the aliens in Critters 2 combined to form a ball of flesh eating terror. Well, except this guy would crush full sized sedans.
There exist so many species of armadillo, from cute and little to big and hairy. While I will not get into specifics about each and every one, just know that I would enjoy very much so to have one as a pet roaming my home. Of course, one that would not have the instinct to burrow around the basement. I can only imagine what linoleum would do to a set of claws.
In Apple We Antitrust
An apparent leak has been revealed that Microsoft will be shipping Windows 7 without Internet Explorer already bundled. While it is not the first time we've seen Microsoft hit with anti-trust lawsuits recently, many can only imagine why no one complains about Apple bundling all of their applications by default without alternatives out of the box.
One announcement from WWDC 2009 is that Snow Leopard is only $29 to upgrade from Leopard. That's good news, but remember that the initial Mac OS X public beta was $29.95 and only lasted a little over half a year. As for Microsoft, we can download Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate, based on the NT 7.0 kernel, and the Windows Server 2008 trial is good for 60 days. Also, Windows 7 has been out for several months now, with official and unofficial releases, for a long haul beta.
The $30 beta for Mac OS X did apply a discount for Cheetah, but was lacking in almost all features, and was rather unstable. Things did not improve for some time after the initial launch of OS X. Not only did the community pay for a beta, but they also paid for a very unfinished, featureless, and buggy operating system for the first retail release of OS X 10.0. They paid to stare at the Aqua UI. The Apple community can say what they want about Windows not being the best out of the box, but it took a couple of years for OS X to achieve usability.
Plenty of people would have became rabid if they could have only used the new Windows 7 toolbar with Jump Lists for 6 months without any real applications, DVD support, or much of any productivity software available, let alone that they received the beta for free. What would happen to Windows 7s sales if it took two years to become useful? Also, people were upset about backwards compatibility with Vista, but what of OS X Leopard/Snow Leopard and Classic? No more native OS 9 support.
I remember when Windows XP first came out. I remember the criticism about exploits, revolving door infections, and shoddy performance. After Service Pack 2 was released, everything then seemed stable enough. The same goes for Vista SP1, but what about Windows 7? There are several reports about glitches and other problems, but this is a public beta from Microsoft for a brand new operating system. No one will see a public beta, or free if "available" in beta, for Snow Leopard because everyone is already using Snow Leopard as Leopard or Tiger. It's still OS X.
I have and still do give OS X a chance. I have had Mac OS X Tiger for the longest time and doubt I will ever upgrade to further service packs released by Apple. I cannot justify paying for a service pack for an operating system older then Windows XP that has had 5 retail service packs and a sixth on the way! WinXP had 3 SPs and was pretty solid by the second. While Microsoft didn't focus heavily on themes, the end user can tweak their Windows desktop environment to make it unique.
It bothers me when I see blind iSheep flocking to the next "big" announcement in hopes it matches the rumors, but no keynote ever does. What is really bothersome is how the slightly positive announcements are given the most attention instead of the elephant in the room, such as a new line of expensive MacBook Pros without a removable battery. Apple can be just as greedy, if not more, as Microsoft and guilty of using guerrilla tactics equal to those committed by Microsoft.
I'd rather not wake up in the morning to see Safari secretly installed and automatically assigned as my default browser again. I uninstalled Apple software on my Windows PC, especially the disappointing Safari 4 release for Windows missing the delightful tab-process feature to kill tabs, which is featured in Chrome. Also, Chrome 2 appears has already "stolen the crown" that Apple gave itself, but was more of a pat on the back.
Mac OS X is a decent proprietary operating system with limited hardware configuration and software support, but Apple is the real culprit here with the misdirection, exaggerations, unnecessary mudslinging, and leaving loyal fans wondering if they are ever thought of in think tanks. I would imagine only true Apple fans can wait out the storm of bad ideas and implementations, but what would be considered the limit? Vista drew a great deal of fire, but when Snow Leopard drops, few will complain that they are paying for only a feature-lite service pack for OS X.
Digitus Medius to Consumerist Masochist
It's official: Apple and AT&T gave the middle finger to their loyal existing customers this week. There isn't much to say in regards to the reason why it's a big middle finger, but it's more of a question as to why should everyone care so much. No one really expects AT&T and Apple to give loyal customers deep discounts over new customers, that's the way of the business world.
So, the new iPhone hardware will be hundreds of dollars more for existing customers to upgrade their phone. That's fine. There are dozens of examples where this kind of new-customer-first policy takes place. One that comes to mind is a video store. Everyone has seen the big bold letters advertising 50% off rentals for 30 days to all new customers, but what about the veteran who has rented over 2,000 titles at New Release wall 5-day rental prices?
I could give more examples, but I'm sure everyone will immediately relate this behavior to many other companies. It's nothing new, it's just business. Big Tabacco doesn't care about the black lunged, existing smokers, they want the new and healthy. The difference between other companies and AT&T/Apple is that there is a fine contract between the consumer and a fancy new gadget that will be a quarter of the price after ten weeks.
The biggest insult is that AT&T could give their iPhone customers MMS, and should have before 3.0, but they refused all this time and will possibly push it out over the summer. They'll charge for tethering, possibly adding it onto the unlimited data plan, causing the already pricey data plan to become quite a monthly monster.
The WWDC 2009 keynote announcements have stuffed my RSS feeds with enough rehashed news of rabid fanboyism and upset elitists in regards to the same three announcements for me to care. I noticed Apple fans are different. Apparently, no one can be a true Apple fan without appreciating the fact that they will get shat on often.
At least with Microsoft, there is no mystery. We knew Vista wasn't great, but people bought it anyway. There went all our "ancient" 2005 software and printers that have been in the family for generations. We knew all of this before upgrading to Vista and many have regretted it ever since, but the fact remains that consumers did not have to buy into Vista and even the techie novice knew about many flaws beforehand.
While it may not be quality on release, what operating system is without a few updates to harden? Windows XP wasn't quite ready until Service Pack 2, but Microsoft didn't charge each end user to apply the update. Should Microsoft follow Apple in their footsteps and put a price on Windows 7 Service Pack 1? Chaos would erupt. Satan himself would rise from the depths of hell to congratulate Ballmer on a job well done.
Speaking of which, Apple loves to take cheap shots stating that Windows 7 is nothing but a polished Windows Vista, but how can a company that charges for service packs for the same exact operating system over a period of eight years have any room to talk about a rival company charging for a completely new operating system? What a double standard!
Windows 7 is not Vista 2.0. I've been using Windows 7 since January and I've been thoroughly impressed by it. Microsoft giving Windows 7 Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 for Vista owners is also a great incentive. While Snow Leopard upgrades are to be sold for only $29.99, I still cannot justify a service pack update going retail for just a few system enhancements.
Should we really have to pay any money to be able to give our desktop more of a brushed metal theme or to take it away in a future update with something more unified? What about a smaller footprint for the operating system? Ridiculous.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to blast Mac OS X. Sure, OS X has come a long way, but I'd rather use another open source Unix-like environment that allows Wine, which is fantastic software. Wine is rather experimental with OS X currently, but Apple could really help out the community, and possibly themselves, by embracing the Windows emulation software.
Why buy a completely different Office version specifically for the Mac when everyone already has pirated Office 2003 for Windows? Imagine the Switch commercials!
Speaking of switching, Apple is beginning to look like a pack of goons without some puppet CEO to hold up shiny new products. How will Apple be without Jobs? That's easy, look at what they were before Jobs. A history of messy hardware choices and poor customer support. Without Jobs on the job, they have already made some potential costly mistakes at WWDC 2009.
The new MacBook line will be cheaper, powerful, but without a removable battery. That's pretty bad, so much for executive professionals. Just keep it charging the entire time the MacBook Pro is in use! It's healthy for the battery.* Also, the little bit about ExpressCard being removed seems a mystery to some, but not to me. Apple has always tried to adopt different technologies, switch it up, and, at times, tackle completely new connections that become unique to their systems.
While it is nice to attempt to be revolutionary and take a different road at certain forks in difficult technological decisions, I think Apple, right now, said silently, "I've made a huge mistake."
Another slap in the face is, of course, the "new" iPhones looking exactly like the "classic" 3G model. I can see the fanboys getting frustrated now! "It's not iPhone3G! It's iPhone3GS! Gawd!" Everyone else can imagine that, I'm sure. Though, the only real difference is video recording and that's too little, too late for the cost of the 3GS.
As for the mud slinging, it won't end. Without Microsoft and Apple feuding over marketshare, I shudder to think about an alternate universe where we would be right now in terms of home computers. Would they would even be as affordable or easily obtainable as they are now? To think that only certain organizations could afford, or donated, computers, such as libraries and schools. This is a terrible thought, but enough of future-speak and what-if scenarios.
Gadgetry like the iPhone3GS is not special, nothing to clamor over or freak out globally on every tech blog on the internet. There are few apps to truly want and the hardware upgrades just don't seem worth the cash to upgrade. Too expensive, but still want it? Wait a few weeks and buy three for the price it cost for one during the release weekend.
* - It's not.
Windows 7, Antitrust Lawsuits, and Linux
No one can ignore the fact that Microsoft is losing market share. Not to their Apple rival, but to a completely different beast. Microsoft may have a lot to fear now that Linux has become quite a force in a variety of different areas.
While Microsoft will not go under as a company, the prestige and respect that was associated with Windows over the last several years may have been tainted by negative media reports, Steve Ballmer, antitrust issues, and rising alternatives.
Read More of "Windows 7, Antitrust Lawsuits, and Linux"...
Showing Opera Love
I recently have fallen head over heels for Opera. This is not a joke. I used to be infatuated with the amount of customization and addons Firefox presented end users, but I grow tired of the memory leaks and other minor hiccups. I have had Opera installed for a great deal of time now, but I haven't used it nearly the amount of time over the years compared to Firefox. I've used Firefox more than I've used Internet Explorer over the course of my entire life. I can say that as a matter-of-fact. Though, there were several drawbacks, to me personally, when it came to making the switch permanently.
The first hurdle was in-line spell checking. I loved this in Firefox. You see, if I didn't know how to properly spell a word, I wouldn't have to Google it and have them keep a nice collection of how ridiculous I've attempted to get away with spelling words of my own native language properly. Thank you Google for keeping a massive dossier of my search inquiries.
Well, this handy JavaScript available here with the small tutorial is fantastic. It has worked brilliantly for me and this was definitely one of the major stepping stones that had to happen in Opera that allowed me to embrace Opera with no regrets. Not as if I clung that desperately to Firefox, it simply had several tools out of the box I found useful.
In-line Spell Checking with Opera.
Next up was the increase of size of the Speed Dial, or additional pages. I had the Speed Dial add-on for Firefox and it was enormously customizable with tabbed browsing, customization like auto refreshing to the chosen time you would specify for every individual dial or do a complete manual refresh. It was very handy, but always knew if Opera had a simple fix to increase the speed dial to whatever number I wish, I would be sold. While I feel I found this little INI edit a little late, it literally drove me over the edge of switching.
Manually adjust Opera's Speed Dial to what you want.
For more tips and tricks, I recommend Opera's very own tutorials for beginners as they will explain everything in good enough detail to give ideas on what to search for later on for further tweaks.
Did I mention I use Opera on my Omnia i910 a ridiculous amount? The tabbed browsing, the amazing options, and the ability to edit Opera Mobile options to customize it to my likings, such as creating a directory on the external space the cache location and so many more options. Just by navigating to "opera:config" opens up a wide variety of options, not to mention opera:plugins, opera:about, and opera:history. A wealth of knowledge about your tiny, but powerful mobile.
Opera's Settings File Explained
I'm currently running v9.64. A good simple tweak to boost surf speed is to go to Tools>Preferences>Advanced tab>Network and change the "Max connections to a server" from the default to 16 and "Max total connections" from default to 64. Those of you who used the Tweak Network addon in Firefox will be aware of the speed boost. Even though Opera is already fast enough out of the box, it can be tweaked even further for speed out of the box with no additional downloads.
Typing "opera:config" into your Opera browser gives an overwhelming amount of options, but far better detailed and explained than Firefox's config window. In Performance in config, uncheck "Reduce Max Persistent HTTP Connections" and change the "Network Buffer Size" from the default to 32. In 9.64, the default size is 128, but 32KB should be more than enough. Feel free to Google curious settings to find more about them in detail. There are more settings to manipulate to get Opera the way you want than I can put in one blog.
Opera Browser Wiki: Opera Performance Enhancements
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to spend more quality time with Opera. Yeah, it's like that.
