Tag: Anti complaint

Norton Antivirus kills my processor

I hate my laptop.  It’s a Dell, and I have a Dell desktop that I’ve had since 1998 that I love.  Once it got too old to do much with, I installed Ubuntu Linux on it, and that’s been pretty cool.  But this laptop has been a piece of crap ever since I bought it.  And now I’ve found that maybe I’ve put too much blame on Dell, and not nearly enough on Norton.  My antivirus that came with the computer expired long ago, and I refuse to pay for virus protection.  I’ve never had a virus in my life.  Never.  And I don’t trust Norton to work, anyway.

So, the computer has been running slowly for a while.  Finally I decided to uninstall all the extra junk I’ve gathered along the way.  Soon enough, I got to Norton.  I can’t believe how much faster the computer is running now that Norton is gone.  It’s not just Norton, but that was the only thing I uninstalled where I saw an immediate change in how the computer was running.

I would suggest to all of you that you get rid of Norton, but I don’t know what you should replace it with.  So I won’t recommend that you do that just yet.  It’s one thing for me to go without virus protection, but I’m not going to recommend that you do it.

But I have to say that I’m thrilled with my uninstalling exploits.  I’ll keep you all posted on how it works from here on out.

Good news – we really are married

So, there was some confusion as to whether or not the state of Maryland was going to accept our marriage license after we missed the deadline (five days after the wedding) by almost exactly a month.  Oops.  I called the license department this morning, and they said they didn’t have the license, which was sort of troubling.  After a quick consultation with the wife, who obtained a tracking number from her dad (the wedding officiant), I called back.  This time they found it, and everything is official.  So we don’t have to get our wedding bands re-engraved with a new date.  That’s a plus.

National Novel Writing Month is nearly upon us

National Novel Writing Month

So, signups for Nano opened sometime late last night.  For those who don’t know, Nano was started by a group of friends in San Fransisco who thought it would be cool to each write a 50,000 word novel in a month.  To put that in perspective, the average novel is about 120,000 words.  The point has been made that it might be better to call it Novella Writing Month (And it’s international, as well), but those people have been made to sit in a corner in shame and think about what they’ve done.

The first year, I think about 20 people did it.  This year, they expect 75,000.  It’s all on the honor system.  I’m sure people cheat, but since you don’t really win anything, it’s like cheating at solitaire.  I’ve never cheated.  I finished in 2002, 2003, failed in 2004, and finished in 2005.  It’s really amazing the first time you win (And pretty cool the other times).  In 2002, I finished the 50,000th word of “The Dance of the Ducks” at about 10PM on November 29th.  I rushed to Kinkos to print it out, but they were CLOSED.  Lights on, doors locked.  Oh, was I salty.  I’ve harbored a bit of a grudge towards Kinkos ever since.

In 2003, I finished “Love in Black and White” on the 27th.  I’m still working on LIBW.  It’s up to maybe 75,000 words now (I write a bit every 6-8 months, it seems).  It’s my favorite of the three, and the best prospect to be published should I ever finish it.

In 2004, I wrote about 450 words and didn’t get any further.

“The Dance of the Ducks” was a story about a man tormented by personal demons that manifest themselves as almost-real ducks.  Then he becomes the hero and saves the girl and banishes the ducks.  In 2005, I wrote “The Dance of the Ducks II – In the Land of the Ducks”.  It’s something of a continuation of DotD I, except from the perspective of the ducks.  It was the least serious (by far) of the three.

Anyway, it’s a lot of fun.  As it gets more popular, it gets harder to find the people who are really into it because they tend to be obscured on the forums by forum-junkies who have 4000 posts in the Off-Topic forums in November, and only 3000 words in their novel.  I’m not bitter, though.

So, you should all try it.  It’s really a rush, the first time you hit the word count button and it says “50,000”.  And I had never written 50,000 words before my first Nano.  My longest story was about 20,000 words prior to DotD.  I expect I will be doing something here to track my progress so you all can yell at me if I fall behind.

Dude clearly needs to get his priorities straight

Uni Watch » White Glove Treatment

Uni Watch is a weirdly fascinating daily blog that obsesses over quirks in professional and college sports uniforms.  I don’t know why, but after Mo pointed it out to me, I read it almost every day.  Today’s was particularly funny.

I know, as an announcer, it must be hard to come up with interesting banter when nothing interesting is happening on the field.  But I think they can try harder than this.

Democrats are incompetent

Whatever: On Moral Cowardice

I simply cannot understand the sort of rank and pervasive incompetence Democrats have to have in order to allow themselves to be politically flummoxed time and again by the least popular and least competent president in modern political history.

Great rant against our current government from John Scalzi.  What I find truly amazing is that, out of two dozen or so comments so far, not a single person has disagreed with him.  I imagine the trolls will come out soon, and I’m sure many of his commenters are regulars who like him in part because of his mostly liberal outlook, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a political statement online written with such anger that didn’t have a bunch of equally angry comments in opposition.

Aha! I was right!

The DMV was a couple of hours late in answering my question, but I’m willing to let that slide because they completely vindicated me!  Emphasis mine on the relevant paragraph.

Per Code of Virginia, § 46.2-846:

A. Except where turning is prohibited, a driver intending to turn at an intersection or other location on any highway shall execute the turn as provided in this section.

  1. Right turns: Both the approach for a right turn and a right turn shall be made as close as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway.

  2. Left turns on two-way roadways: At any intersection where traffic is permitted to move in both directions on each roadway entering the intersection, an approach for a left turn shall be made from the right half of the roadway and as close as possible to the roadway’s center line, passing to the right of the center line where it enters the intersection. After entering the intersection, the left turn shall be made so as to leave the intersection to the right of the centerline of the roadway being entered. Whenever practicable, the left turn shall be made to the left of the center of the intersection.

  3. Left turns on other than two-way roadways: At any intersection where traffic is restricted to one direction on one or more of the roadways, and at any crossover from one roadway of a divided highway to another roadway thereof on which traffic moves in the opposite direction, the driver intending to turn left at any such intersection or crossover shall approach the intersection or crossover in the extreme left lane lawfully available to traffic moving in the direction of travel of such vehicle and after entering the intersection or crossover the left turn shall be made so as to leave the intersection or crossover, as nearly as practicable, in the left lane lawfully available to traffic moving in such direction upon the roadway being entered.

B. Local authorities having the power to regulate traffic in their respective jurisdictions may cause markers or signs to be placed within or adjacent to intersections and thereby direct that a different course from that specified in this section be traveled by vehicles turning at any intersection. When markers or signs are so placed, no driver shall turn a vehicle at an intersection other than as directed by such markers or signs.

So, if you are in the far left, you must turn into the left lane.  I’m willing to concede the second lane from the left as well, but NOT the third from the left.  So take that, high-beam-flasher-lady!  You’re wrong!  I’m right!

I still contend that the intersection is an abomination, but I feel quite vindicated.

A light bulb and a solar panel

EcoGeek – Technology for the Environment – Photovoltaic OLEDs: The Lightbulb Combines with the Solar Panel

So, some really smart people at Cornell have created organic LEDs that can both emit light, and create energy from light.  This makes a lot of sense – one doesn’t need nearly as many light-producing devices when it’s bright and sunny outside, but those lazy regular light bulbs just sit there during the day, mocking the environment.  Even the fancy CFLs don’t do anything useful when they’re not turned on.

I’ve always thought we should do more of this – collect energy that’s already there when we don’t need it so we don’t have to buy as much from the power company when we do.  Efficient appliances are great, but appliances that gather some or all of the energy they need to run are even better.

American Airlines gets their (its?) comeuppance

American Airlines to ‘Path to 9/11’ Producers: That Was US Airways, You Jackasses – Consumerist

So apparently the farce of a documentary called “Path to 9/11”, which seeks to politicize the tragedy even more than it is by spreading lies and deception, got some facts not related to Bill Clinton wrong.  You see, it wasn’t American Airlines who let Mohammed Atta through.  It was US Airways.

American Airlines are so pissed, they’re threatening to withdraw all advertising from the ABC network, and are also murmuring ominously about lawsuits.

I think this is merely karma for American Airlines.  If they hadn’t screwed up my bachelor party, or if they had been nice about fixing it, this never would have happened.