Tag: complaint

Internet Explorer is the devil

I’ve been working on some Ajax hotness for you on the complaint submission form, and it looks pretty cool in Firefox.  However, not long ago, Windows XP insisted that I upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, where they added some features that other browsers have had for years and moved everything you’ve always used to strange places so you can’t find anything.

So, the cool Ajax, courtesy of Scriptaculous, doesn’t work at all in IE7.  I’m still working on it, though.

For any of you coming here using Internet Explorer, please do yourself and the rest of the world a favor and download a real browser.  I prefer Firefox, but anything is better than IE.

Someone agrees with me about Al Gore

EcoGeek – Technology for the Environment – Gore Officially Campaigning…Poorly

What he’s doing here is trying to seem more thoughtful about Iraq, a very divisive issue, while relying on climate change to be his main bedfellow. What he’s actually doing is looking like a total weenie again, which is exactly what lost him the election in 2000.

Would I like a President who’s willing to do something about the horrible things we’re doing to the environment?  Absolutely.  Do I think Al Gore has any chance of winning?  No.  Do I think Al Gore running will hurt the Democratic party?  Yes.

He already lost once because he was a robot who stood for nothing every time I ever heard him or read about him.  Recently, I hear that he speaks well, and passionately, about environmental issues.  But now he’s maybe looking at another Presidential bid, and returning to his 2000 form.

Stop it, Al Gore.  Don’t run.  Throw your weight behind another candidate, get your environmental message out there, but please don’t hand another election over to someone like George W. Bush.

That sound you hear is Walt spinning in his grave

‘Apocalypto’ wins weekend box office – CNN.com

But “Apocalypto” overcame the baggage of Gibson’s personal troubles as well as its difficult subject matter, which features a no-name cast in a hyper-violent tale that includes beheadings and images of hearts ripped from people’s chests.

This is a DISNEY movie.  What is wrong with the world where once-respected actor who has lost all touch with reality can make a “hyper-violent” movie in a language almost no one speaks, get a deal with the company that makes almost nothing but children’s entertainment, and then lead the weekend in ticket sales?  There is absolutely nothing right with this picture.

Where are the people screaming for an NC-17 rating?  Once again, horrific violence is just fine, as long as there’s no sex.  Or maybe there is sex, I don’t know. Our country is so messed up.

In any event, I don’t watch Mel Gibson movies anymore.  Old ones are okay, before he lost it.  But nothing new.

Metro doesnt understand economics

Metro Considers Increasing Rail Fares – washingtonpost.com

“Because of declining real estate values, we have holes to fill of our own, and now we’re being presented with holes in Metro,” said Kauffman, a member of Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors. “It’s not like we have a stockpile of green putty to fill the gaps.”

Wonderful. I was just talking to my friend and host in NYC yesterday about how much nicer the subway is in New York than Metro is in DC, and how Metro is expensive here.

I love how they want to combat a slower-than-expected increase in Metro riders by a fare increase. It’s like the pay phones, facing greatly increased competition from cell phones, doubling the cost of a call in a few years. And what happened there? The pay phone has become nearly obsolete. Not that they had much chance of competing, so maybe it’s not a good analogy.

But it’s Econ 101 – the way to fix slow growth is not to raise the price. In fact, they might want to consider lowering rates. And the article mentions discounts for SmartTrip riders (SmartTrip is the permanent card that replaces the paper cards, if you ride Metro more than once every six months it’s worth the SmartTrip). I had no idea there were discounts for SmartTrips. Maybe they should try publicizing this. You can discount all you want, but if people don’t realize it’s cheaper, it doesn’t do you much good.

Were just going to take our God and go over here

Episcopal Churches To Vote on Departure – washingtonpost.com

Many Episcopal churches are voting very soon on whether or not to leave the umbrella of the U.S. Episcopal church because the U.S. church has allowed a gay bishop in New Hampshire.  I’m a little torn.  First, I fully support the right of a church to decide that they want to leave the organization because the organization did something they don’t believe in.  But it’s sad that two churches in Fairfax County, VA, where I live, are so upset over a gay bishop that they want to ally themselves with an African Reverend, Peter Akinola, who thinks holding hands with your gay partner in public should be punishable by jail time.

I assume that most people voting to leave will say that it’s not just one gay bishop in a state most of them will never visit, but rather the direction the church is heading by allowing him to become a bishop, and that’s certainly valid.

I wish some positive stuff about religion would make the news.  I know there are religious groups doing good things out there.  But the only ones that make the news are the intolerant ones.

I’m going to stop here, because I’ve lost my train of thought.

Complaining through song

Treehugger: The Complaints Choirs of The World

Global Warming got you down? Wish your city had better recycling programs or more bike lanes? These are some of the issues that the Complaints Choir of Helsinki and the Complaints Choir of Birmingham are singing about.

If I could sing, I would totally want to do this.  These two groups sing about their complaints.  I’m sure my compatriot over at VentBox will be interested to see this, as well.

Score one point for those of us who call it complaining rather than venting.

Two different viewpoints

Washington Post’s take

Verizon Wireless is hoping to parlay YouTube’s reputation as the premiere Web site for posting and sharing homemade videos into success for its own mobile-video service by delivering YouTube clips to subscribers of its premium V Cast service starting next month.

Gizmodo’s take

The deal is expected to be officially announced later today and launch next month but it’s important to note that you won’t be paying $15 per month for the YouTube you know and love. Nope, the video service will be a part of V Cast, Verizon’s multimedia hub, and won’t be a replication of the content you get on the actual YouTube Web site.

There is no chance this is successful. YouTube is successful because you can do a quick search, and find whatever video you were looking for. Your friend mentions that he saw this great video clip of something, and you go to YouTube, and there it is. You watch, it’s funny, you tell your friend, “Hey, I saw that, it was funny.”

Now, with Verizon’s YouTube-branded substitute, your friend mentions a video, you search VerizonTube, and you get a one minute clip of “24” made specially for your cell phone. You go to your friend, telling him you couldn’t find it, and he stops returning your phone calls.

It doesn’t make any sense to me. YouTube had a hugely successful idea. Now, Verizon thinks they can come in and copy YouTube without the user community that made it popular, and be successful? That’s just stupid. What they’re really doing is more like making a mobile version of network television with the YouTube brand to generate interest.

I hope Verizon loses a ton of money on this, and it teaches them (and the idiots who will no doubt follow them) a lesson. And it’s annoying, because I need a new phone, and I currently have a Verizon phone. I know that if I go to the Verizon store, they’re going to push stupid VCast junk at me that I don’t want.

Michael Chertoff doesnt understand what better off means

Homeland Security to require passports for U.S. entry – CNN.com

“Each of these steps raises the bar to an attack. None of this is perfect. None of them is foolproof. But we’re always better off when we build higher levels of security,” [Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff] said.

It becomes increasingly clear that Chertoff seeks to lull the entire nation into a false sense of security.  Requiring everyone entering the country to show a single document so that security officers only have to worry about recognizing that one document does not make us safer.  In fact, it makes us less safe.  It’s like taking all the passwords you have for your bank, your credit card, your email, your whatever, and making them one long, random string of characters.  It’s really hard to break that string.  But if someone breaks it, or steals it, they know everything about you.

It doesn’t matter how hard it is to forge a passport.  It’s not necessary to forge one.  Just steal one.  All terrorists are Arab guys with beards and turbans, right?  And don’t they all look the same?  How do you know that the guy coming through your security checkpoint, most of his face concealed by a beard, is actually the guy pictured on the passport he hands you?  And do we honestly think that no one is capable of recruiting someone with a clean passport to blow up a plane or something?  We can’t possibly believe that we have a list of everyone who might ever wish to do the United States harm.

Someday, I hope people look back on this time in our history and realize how stupid we’re being.  And I hope it happens before we’ve done irreparable harm to the country.

OMG PHISHING!

This is the most ridiculous overreaction to hacking and phishing attempts I’ve ever seen.  I just had to read a 30 page PowerPoint highlighting the dangers of PHISHING, and, even more dangerous, SPEAR PHISHING.  Did they make that up?  That’s what they’re calling the more specifically targeted phishing attempts.

Anyway, they’ve disabled ALL webmail.  Which means there are now two computers in my entire office where I can check my email.  My WORK email.  All because some DoD employees can’t be bothered to learn basic web security, they’re going to, once again, make it harder for me to do my job.

Its not even Thanksgiving

I say this every year, but I didn’t think I could, in good conscience, let this complaint go by.  There is Christmas stuff everywhere.  I see Christmas commercials on TV.  My beloved Caribou Coffee has their employees decked out in red, and they have their yuletide napkins out.

It’s bad enough that the day after Thanksgiving is the official start of the holiday shopping season.  But by the time December 25th rolls around, I want to shoot anyone who mentions the word ‘Christmas’.

Do you think our new Senator, Jim Webb, would care?  As I promised, I’m going to write to him as soon as Nano is over.  He’s an old school Navy guy.  He probably is opposed to the excessive commercialization of Christmas, right?