Ramblings, v.2

Representative Corrine Brown (D-FL) is God-damned disgusting.  She voted against cutting government funding to ACORN, the group that supports child sex slavery, tax evasion, human trafficking, mortgage fraud, and VOTING fraud.  Ms. Brown, you and the 74 other Demonrats who voted to continue funding this atrocious  “organization” need to be fired immediately.  To quote our dear leader, let me be clear: I do not wish physical or emotional harm to Ms. Brown, as I don’t want to see the inside of a federal penitentiary.  I damn sure know who I will be voting for when her term ends: anyone else.

ross rant-o-matic evil, hypocrite, jacksonville, jax, liberals, politics, rant

It’s 35% transmission tint. FL allows down to 28% front sides, 18% rear & rear sides, but I hate the stepped tint look. This is enough to cut down the interior temps a ton and look good doing it. Between this and my official Audi windshield reflector, I can actually breathe when I get into my car after work when it’s hit 100 in the afternoon.

In related news, I FINALLY have a windshield that doesn’t leak. I think the weather strips up the side aren’t quite on right, but I need to get back to the dealer to look at one on their lot for comparison. The Audi glass sheds rain water a ton better than that aftermarket POS too.

ross sweet action audi a4, car, tint

I get my car’s windows tinted today! Can’t wait. Appointment is at 1pm. Florida’s max is 28% front sides and 15% rear sides & rear window. I’ve been searching around to see what the various levels look like, and I think I’m going to get as close to 28% all over. I don’t like the stepped look that’s common on vehicles around here, and I don’t need to be pulled over for illegal tint, considering my employer.

In other news, I was one of the thousands of people who lined up in Titusville, FL to see Endeavor off last night. Fail. *sigh*

iPhone Push Notifications need fixing. I have 3 apps that receive push notifications – AIM, Star Defense, and Prowl. I got them in that order. After each one, I noticed that my battery seemed to drain just a bit faster. Now it’s to the point that my phone won’t even last a day with light actual usage. Example: 10% drop in a half hour. Fail. [For those playing the home game, that's 2 - count them - 2 fails for the price of one post!] Turned off Push, and I’m back to reasonable battery usage. Apple: please light a fire under your developers’ & testers’ asses and get 3.1 out (but only if it fixes battery usage with Push).

ross sweet action Apple, audi a4, car, fail, iPhone, nasa, tint, travel

Here’s my take on the right-to-lifers and, somewhat by extension, folks who rally against selecting egg/sperm pairs based on (a) genetic compatibility, (b) physical characteristics, and (c) penchant for disease.

The whole argument is that you’re denying life. Right-to-lifers say that life starts at conception. Anti-genetic filtering-ers essentially say that life starts before conception.

Ok, taking those two pieces of information and assuming them as truth for purposes of a thought experiment, riddle me this [batman]. How many counts of murder should we charge an assailant with who kills a person (man or woman)? If the victim is a man, how many sperm could be created by that man that, by Anti-genetic-filtering-ers standards, is already life? And if the victim is a woman, the same question for her eggs. Now, extend that one step further. If even a single sperm or egg matures and becomes a living, breathing, walking human, how many sperm/eggs will that human create? And so on. We quickly see that the assailant should be charged with essentially infinite counts of murder. (For those who are confused and believe that there is a finite number, look up the mathematical term “limit” in your nearest pre-calculus book.)

This is wholly ungainly. Sure, the assailant has committed murder either way, and will face the stiffest penalty of the jurisdiction.

I do agree that the view held by some segments of our population – that looks at abortions like going to the dentist – is horrifying, but I also see that, in certain cases (rape, terminal illness, etc.) the parent(s) should be allowed a choice – assuming they pass a proper psychological screening and such.

As for genetic filtering, I think that selecting out certain genes – cancer (if determined), chrons, etc – is valuable and necessary for the survival of humanity.

So there. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

ross rant-o-matic batman, hypocrite, politics, rant

As governor:

We cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions; we ushered in bi-partisan Ethics Reform.

We also slowed the rate of government growth, we worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for the future, and I made no lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes… but living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow.

We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands – where it should be.

We provided unprecedented support for education initiatives, and with the right leadership, finally filled long-vacant public safety positions. We built a sub-Cabinet on Climate Change and took heat from Outside special interests for our biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance.

We broke ground on the new prison.

And we made common sense conservative choices to eliminate personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, the junkets… the entourage.

And the Lt. Governor and I said “no” to our pay raises.

bolding added for emphasis

So? What would you think of this person? I’d think fairly highly of this person. Do you?

The whole article is here.

ross mindless prattling politics

Congresswoman Brown:

Would you vote for a bill that creates and regulates every building code in the country and will purposefully overrule any “city, county, parish, city and county authority, or city and parish authority having local authority to enforce building codes and regulations and to collect fees for building permits”?

Would you vote for a bill that reaches into every neighborhood by eradicating “any private covenant, contract provision, lease provision, homeowners’ association rule or bylaw, or similar restriction” to force localities to accept “green technologies” whether it fits in the neighborhood or not?

Would you vote for a bill that defines “energy-efficient mortgages” (with our favorite GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so what could possibly go wrong?) that artificially boosts the income of the borrower based upon how much “green technology” is employed? In other words, the socially engineering mortgage underwriting standards again? (This is just as the Democrats did in the nineties, which will lead to yet another financial disaster.)

Would you vote for a bill that moves billions in new expenses into programs that govern every aspect of human life including, but not limited to, farming; fertilizers; animal husbandry and animal diets; feedstock; soil; land use (forested, cleared, wetlands, etc); “manure management”; and creates gigantic new government bureaucracies (unionized, of course) to regulate, monitor and control American citizens?

YOU JUST DID. And that was only in the Waxman-Markey “Managers Amendment”!

Shame on you, Congresswoman Brown. You voted FOR a bill that will destroy this country. Did you actually READ HR2454? Or is abominable addition, delivered just 17 hours before you voted for it? If you didn’t read it, you’re nothing better than a lemming, following your Demonrat…sorry, forgot a “c”… colleagues off the cliff. The really terrible part is that you’re going to pull all of America over with you.

I will do everything in my power to see you NOT re-elected and have an intelligent, conscientious, worthy person put in your place who will actually READ the drivel put out by the current majority.

——————-
I did email this to her and will likely snail-mail it to her as well. I thank Doug Ross’ post for a wonderful summary of everything the Manager’s Amendment – 300 pages of filth delivered just 17 hours before HR2454 was passed – contained. Those of you who did vote Democrat in this last election, PLEASE go read the post and see what your side pushed through. Read past the obvious slams on your party (there are actually few for how much text is there), and see what they think you approve of – which boils down to removing any and all personal freedoms. If you don’t approve of this, and I sincerely hope you don’t, vote appropriately in 2010 for a new congress. More importantly, send your states’ senators this letter or one just like it, as they will be voting on it in the next few months.

ross rant-o-matic evil, fail, hypocrite, jacksonville, liberals, politics, rant

Here’s my take on the right-to-lifers and, somewhat by extension, folks who rally against selecting egg/sperm pairs based on (a) genetic compatibility, (b) physical characteristics, and (c) penchant for disease.

The whole argument is that you’re denying life. Right-to-lifers say that life starts at conception. Anti-genetic filtering-ers essentially say that life starts before conception.

Ok, taking those two pieces of information and assuming them as truth for purposes of a thought experiment, riddle me this [batman]. How many counts of murder should we charge an assailant with who kills a person (man or woman)? If the victim is a man, how many sperm could be created by that man that, by Anti-genetic-filtering-ers standards, is already life? And if the victim is a woman, the same question for her eggs. Now, extend that one step further. If even a single sperm or egg matures and becomes a living, breathing, walking human, how many sperm/eggs will that human create? And so on. We quickly see that the assailant should be charged with essentially infinite counts of murder. (For those who are confused and believe that there is a finite number, look up the mathematical term “limit” in your nearest pre-calculus book.)

This is wholly ungainly. Sure, the assailant has committed murder either way, and will face the stiffest penalty of the jurisdiction.

I do agree that the view held by some segments of our population that looks at abortions like going to the dentist is horrifying, but I also see that, in certain cases (rape, terminal illness, etc.) the parent(s) should be allowed a choice – assuming they pass a proper psychological screening and such.

As for genetic filtering, I think that selecting out certain genes – cancer (if a gene can be found), crohns, huntingtons, etc. – would be beneficial not only to the child, but to the populace at large. Going so far as to selecting hair color, eye color, height, scholastic aptitude, …that’s a bit too Hitlerish for me.

———–

I got a fountain pen. A Pilot Plumix. It’s plastic and has a 1mm wide calligraphy-style nib. I’ve been looking for a cheap one since I got down here, and I finally found this one at Target for $6. I find that I like using it, so I may pony up for a more expensive (and less plastic) model soon. Mainly, I just want to use up the rest of this damned blue ink. I HATE blue ink. No idea why.

———–

Ran my first Tech Talk here at work. Thanks to Shompy-Joe (or 3-way-Joe…or has he graduated to 4- or even 5-way?) for holding Tech Talks while I was employed at Trisept. It went as well as I would have expected.

———–

In home theater news, my former 12-foot screen has (by space constraints) been replaced with a 20-inch screen. Dammit. The room we’re living in is only 13′x17′, and the 20″ is on my Dell computer monitor. Hate to say it, but I’d kill for a 32″ or 37″ lcd. I at least have surround sound – I bitched my analog-only Klipsch 5.1 computer speakers into being driven by my HT receiver. Man, I need a house. Man, I need to sell my house. Any takers?

———–

Pre-ordered the iPhone 3GS. Gonna give Melinda my 1st gen iPhone.

———–

I’ve switched to Safari 4 as my main Windows browser. Lightyears quicker than Firefox 3.whatever. Still using Firefox on my Mac tho – for some reason, the Google Reader keyboard shortcuts don’t work in Safari on the Mac, but they do in Windows. The only thing I wish I could find for Safari/Win is a proper ad blocking plugin. Ah well.

ross mindless prattling Apple, google, home theater, iPhone, osx, plugin, videogame

Kinda wish I’d been posting more frequently, but I just haven’t had time. I’ll try to throw up a paragraph about each thing I remember.

• The move happened pretty much as I said it would a few posts back. I got a 16′ Penske truck with a car trailer. The truck was as close to full as I was comfortable with, and there were still a few things left out for the movers to take. Overall, I’d say the Benadryl we gave Kona worked like a charm. It didn’t knock her out, but it did mellow her a bit. She stayed on the floor, between the seats of the truck for the whole drive. Here’s a pic of her passed out on the floor. Awwww.
• I want to SEVERELY MAIM (not kill…then they wouldn’t suffer like I did) whoever decided that the rental truck shouldn’t have cruise control. My right leg kept cramping up, and I’d have to use my left foot on the gas.
• We’re staying in a small (13′x17′) 1-room apartment that was built into half of a small barn. We’ve got a bathroom, a “kitchenette” that can only be called that cause it’s got a mini-fridge and a sink, and a single closet. Oh yeah, and 15′x20′ and 5′x10′ storage units (1 each) about 20 minutes away with all the rest of our earthly belongings. Except the condo. Which we still own & didn’t move. Anyone wanna buy it? Please?
• We figured out early on that we’d have to do some rearranging and significant purchasing of press-board Walmart shelving. I’ve gotten two shelving units, one to make part of my makeshift desk, and one tall unit for the kitchenette. Once we clear out some more boxes, we’ll probably get some more.
• My job is pretty neat, but that’s about all I can say about it. The commute isn’t the greatest (45min-1hr), and the hours are early. I usually get here about 6:45 am so I can get a parking spot, and I don’t leave till 4 pm. Somehow that reminds me that I NEED to make a phonecall today.

That’s it for now. I’ve got my Xbox 360 set up and playable, but I’ve downgraded from 12 feet (projector) to 20 inches (Dell LCD monitor). I needs a new tv.

ross house, mindless prattling jacksonville, jax, kona, moving, travel, videogame, walmart

ross humor evil, fail, google

Kinda. Here’s the story.

The company I worked for was a registered iPhone Enterprise Developer. They wanted me to look into developing iPhone software to be deployed to sales pukes spread across the country. They were cheap, and I already had an iPhone, so they said to just put the beta stuff on my personal phone instead of buying me one specifically for dev purposes.

• March 17: Apple announces 3.0 beta 1
• March 18: Apple’s site is finally available for me to download 3.0 beta 1 from. I did, and I installed it on my phone.
• March 19: I got laid off.
• March 20: I checked developer.apple.com, and my former employer had removed my developer’s access to 3.0, effectively barring me from any future betas before the final release.
• April 12 (today): Fired up my phone after waking up to see the “connect me to iTunes or only make emergency calls” screen.

Plugged the phone into iTunes, and it told me that my phone’s software had expired and that I’d need a newer version to continue to use it. ‘Cept I don’t have access to download 3.0 beta 2. I could torrent it, but it probably wouldn’t activate with iTunes. So, now I’m stuck with a $400 brick.

I called Apple’s iPhone support number. After talking with a script-reader, she transferred me to a “Product Specialist”. I gave him my sob story, and he authorized a warranty replacement. Yay? I would have preferred access to beta 2, but oh well. Bye-bye copy/paste and notes syncing, wide-screen email and texting, and the bugs that cause half the apps I’ve bought to not work. He told me to just go to a local Apple Store and they’d take care of the replacement. Ok, cool. That was this morning. Well, today is Zombie Jesus day, which means ALL THE APPLE STORES ARE CLOSED!!

Kudos to Apple support. I’ve had issues with Apple products before, but their support staff always makes it right. Any problem I’ve had they’ve been able to fix. Apple and Nintendo are two great companies when it comes to supporting their loyal customers.

For today, I’m stuck with Melinda’s old Sony W580i and none of my phone numbers cause she can’t find the sync cable. I feel naked. (I’m not – I’m fully clothed at the moment.) I don’t have my calendar, no email, no games. How will I survive the next 20 hours?

Oh yeah, I’ll be packing my shit into boxes. So: surviving, painfully, and exhaustingly.

Of course this has to happen within a week of us moving to the other end of the country.

ross rant-o-matic Apple, iPhone, moving, Nintendo