Rantings of a Nerd

The woman who went missing from Duluth, GA a few days ago has turned up. It was a case of cold feet. It seems that her family and the grooms family are a kind of local royalty. As one can imagine the pressure would be intense in this kind of wedding.

I have already seen people dejected and angry that she lied. I have only this to ask: Would you be happier if there were people in vans kidnapping our young women off the street?

The heart of why this news story mattered to so many is that she was a young woman who seemingly disappeared while in plain site. Society can survive young men shooting each other, but we would collaspe into anarchy if someone was taking our women.

I prayed yesterday about this case. It is something I do on rare occasions.
However, I was motivated to do what I could. In this case it was prayer, they didn't need any more searchers and I had no evidence.

I just prayed that the God would provide the best possible outcome for this. It looks like he did. The young woman is safe and there are no criminals preying on our females in the Atlanta Area. All in all the best outcome that we could have.

I have some interesting tastes when it comes to humor. For some reason I like these guys. They are very good at what they do, but they are not for everyone. Actually they are only for very few, but as with any market slice there is money to be made.

These guys are best described as juvenile male humor with the restrictor plates removed. Since they are on XM the can say anything. At times it seems like there is no line they won't cross, but if you listen long enough you will find they are are professionals and while being offenseive they are not setting out to offend.

It is interesting to see what radio professionals can do when the FCC isn't hanging over them and they have to watch their words or get fired.

XM has taken a chance and since they opened them up to anyone who has paide for XM these guys are gaining momentum.

So do you want to listen to them? They are famous for WOW, Whip em Out Wednesday. It is something they do to encourage women to flash strangers on Wednesdays. They are the guys who got thrown off the air in New York because they had a phone call with someone claiming to be watching a couple having sex in a famous New York church.

Yea, those idiots.

Like most things I like they are the best of their class. They are also the sworn enemies of Howard Stern, which amuses me to no end.

If you were looking for a reason to get XM, but NASCAR radio was not enough, I am kidding, perhaps supporting free speech in this nation will be the motivating factor.

Give these guys a listen if you are not easily offened and have a sense of humor. If you don't have both, then just keep on walking. You will not enjoy this.

I have said to most who will listen about the latest and perhaps last incarnation of Star Trek that it would be neat to end the series with Archer growing a goatee standing on the bridge with the Terran Empire shield being put up. As if the whole series had been in the "mirror universe."

Alas, they didn't choose an ending that nifty... But they did make 2 great "mirror" episodes. After 4 years at least there will be something good to remember from 4 years of Enterprise. The 2 mirror episodes were the best.

I do have to wonder if the executive producers had something against the character of Archer. His main strength appears to be his ability to take a beating. Even in the mirror universe the doctor remarks at Archers ability to stay in the torture device for something like 12 hours.

I remember Picard for his leadership, Kirk as the ladies man, Janeway for her unfailing ruthless dedication to science, and Sisko as the ultimate warrior. Archer will forever be remembered as being able to take a punch.

I will say goodbye to this series with no regrets, but I will remember the "mirror" episodes with some fondness.

You know that noise you get on your computer speakers before your cellphone rings? Well they knew it was going to be a problem years ago, and like most giant companies decided we didn't need to know about it.

But there are ways to deal with it. Shielding cables and moving your phone further away. The problem I see is how much else is this interfering with? Hard drive controllers? Wireless Bridges? I am just a computer scientist. I am not an engineer, but I was a Radio operator in the Army. I know how much fun you can have with a transmitter... The damage is done before most ever notice.

Reuters AlertNet - Trouble in paradise: Belize hit by political crisis

Has anyone noticed this? I didn't until I heard it on XM this morning. This is big news for a lot of web hosters... Especially gambling sites. Due to the legal system in Belize a large number of on-line gambling sites are hosted and operated out of this little chunk of paradise. I am willing to bet that today some of those sites that are supposed to be in Belize are really running off servers in the US?

Wonder if the feds who monitor such activities know how to do a Trace Route?

My Way News

I have said this to anyone who asked... and many who didn't. Don't assume anthing with soldiers. A scared 19 year old with an automatic weapon and good reason to fear for his life is a dangerous thing. You back that up with clear standing orders and you damn well better slow down at check points.

If you never served in the military and you think this whole incident is horrible and shows that our soldiers are monsters then you are a uneducated and perhaps need to learn how military operations work. Go forth and educate yourself by any means you choose.

Soldiers when placed in a hostile environment and issued clear orders on how to operate are extremely dangerous to anything that violates the norm.

A car speeding to a check point is outside the norm. From pictures I have seen that purport to be the car, a hail of bullets were not fired. It appears that on a few shots were made at that car, and the damage was minimal. I have no way of knowing if those were real pictures. I reply on the news media to show us those.

The fact is, the Italian agents violated the standard operating procedure at a check point and one of them paid for it with their life. Sorry to be rough here but you go speeding toward a check point in Iraq after telling someone miles away you are coming and see what happens?

I am willing to bet you won't make it though the checkpoint.

Are the Italians mad? Yes. Do they have a right to be? Why not. If you want to be mad, be mad at the person who made the mistake, not the soldier who was protecting himself and his fellow soldiers.

Do we know the whole story here? Probably not. Did something horribly wrong happen. Yep, a good guy died. Who is responsible? As in any friendly fire incident probably more than one person. Let's figure out how to reduce the chance it happens again.

Send on the flames if you wish. I have asbestos undergarments.

MidpSSH | SSH and Telnet client for MIDP / J2ME devices

I love the fact that you have to go 3 pages deep in google when you search for SSH and blackberry before you find the SSH client this is free as in beer and free as in speech.

The first 2 pages are taken up from a commerical product that cost $95 to do what this one will do.

Okay this one is blatant and very personal. Myself and some of my nerd friends who are addicted to caffeine started this blog to make a point. We plan to illustrate how much money Starbucks is about to lose because of a fickle business decision.

Yeah, I am whining. I know it. You will most likely think, so grow up. I don't want to. This is literally like taking candy from a baby... well maybe like forcing the baby to pay full price for candy you used to give at a discount after 2 years.

The district manager obviously thinks he will be better off without his regulars. Thus since we have a capitalist economic system he will find out if he makes more money with giving us coffee at a lower profit or not selling coffee to us at all.

I won't even mention the dozens of customers that talk to us every day who will now not be going to that starbucks. They can do if they like, I am just telling them that the district manager is a short sighted only motivated by profit individual.

Bitter? Maybe a little... but I am just more hurt. I went to starbucks to get away from stress at work. I don't want the trip to be stressful. Will they give me refill price or won't they? For now the answer is no. Even if they offer to return to the previous practice of giving regular customers refill price on later cups of coffee I am not sure I would return. They will just do this again when I least expect it.

So what is the new blog for? Just tracking the money I won't be spending. I hope I can keep it up for a month. Not sure I am mad enough.

213 Things You Can't Do in the Army

This is funny as hell. I found on on SF Alpha Geeks blog.

For the first time in a year I have decided to remove 2 posts. If you already read them you can figure out which ones they are. If not then you didn't miss anything. I decided that I did not make my point very well and it was easy to interpret what I said in the wrong way. In fact it was much easier to get the wrong impression rather than the one I intended. Therefore they are gone.

Indy.TV

This seems very interesting. I may have to experiment with this and see what I find.

MMOGCHART.COM

Finally someone who has taken the time to settle all those nerd arguments. And yes. Lineage is still number one.

Well it happened today. This morning I managed to hit the max level with my main character in World of Warcraft. Spending a good part of the day reveling in my sucess I then got myself involved in pushing back a raid by a huge group of horde players. I managed to get myself killed 4 times and do little to no damage.

This game is far from over. In fact I think it is just beginning.

I am almost to level 60. The top level one can achieve in the game at this point. I am forced to wonder how the game will change for me when the drive for big achievement goes away and I am just tweaking my inventory and fighting other players?

"Police have interrogated the dozen sex offenders that live in the vicinity of the trailer park."

WTF?

So apparently trailer parks in Florida are collection points for sex offenders. Even more of a reason to never live in or near one. As if you needed another reason.

This is not some intellectual argument or beginning of a discussion, just an observation that the newsreader was able to deliver this little gem of information without freaking out.

What was the news story about? A 13 year old girl that has gone missing.

The other jaw dropping statement was, "She has run away before, but never for this long." So if she has a history of leaving the safety of her home and not telling anyone where she is going, why are we being bothered about her current location and why are the police bothering the registered sex offenders in her area?

Of course I want to help find this child and return her safely to her home. Sometimes you have to ask these questions.

Tonight in comcast's live help this conversation occurred:

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.
We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.
Jonas > Thank you for contacting Comcast, my name is Jonas. How can I help you?
John> What is the deal with the second internet outage this week?
Jonas > I am sorry about that
Jonas > We are experiencing some intermittent server-based issues, which our engineers have identified and are working to resolve. While our engineers are working toward a resolution, you may have had difficulty reaching the Internet. We take great pride in the reliability of our service and apologize for any inconvenience.

John> do you have an eta on a return to service?
Jonas > Do you have any additional questions for me today?
John> why has this happened a 2nd time this week?
Jonas > Unfortunately we do not have an eta on when this will be resolved, sorry. I would expect to see this fixed soon though.
John> luckily I have DSL too...
John> thanks
John> have a good night
Jonas > You're welcome.
Jonas > Thank you again for contacting Comcast, have a good night.

2nd time this week, comcast goes out. It is at their connection to the backbone. From what I can tell their internal network is fine. Wonder if they paid their bill?

Mitch Hedberg's Official Website

I first heard that this comic genius had died on April 1st on XM's comedy channel. I assumed it was an april fools joke. The announcement of an all day memorial on april 2nd to a comedian announced on April Fools Day. What else can be expected.

I am saddened by the loss of this brilliant mind. I only heard his words, never saw him live, but appreciated his genius.

Mitch will be missed.

8 Bit Weapon : Official Headquarters

This is just plain weird... and cool... and weird again... then it just seems cool.

Never have I seen a C64 put to better use. I am buying the EP when it is released. The irony is that they will be selling a CD of music made from digital sounds...

Better graphics does not make this a better game. But here are some screen shots of the next in what is sure to be a decades long series of rolling adventures.

I am not giving up World of Warcraft for this howerver.... I will only play Katamari Damacy when the servers are down... or when I am flying from Theramore to Darnasus... 15 minute flight time... thank you.

Yahoo! News - List of Schiavo Donors To Be Sold

Not sure if this is an April Fools Joke.