Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Why I hate Microsoft

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It’s not that their products are bad per se. Some of them are darn nice. I like their Office suite…

It’s that virtually everyone has Windows, and being a computer guy everyone expects me to be about to work with whatever Microsofts Flavor du Jour is.

It’s not uncommon to run across Windows XP, Vista, and Win 7 in the same office. Every one of these has a quirk or two and all of them are susceptible to various viruses.

Many folks turn off auto updating, the firewall,  and too many folks run without anti-virus protection.

There are those who think they’re running with their Virus protection turned on, but in fact at some point in the distant past they were compromised and the Anti-Virus is nothing but a dummy shell whose functions have all been subverted by a trojan or some kind of malware.

Then you have Microsoft who in it’s effort to hide? the problem will just show a meaningless dialog box that is all but useless except for an error code. 

Even I have to go look up the error codes and I’ve been doing this stuff for years.

I know I’m in deep when Auto Update, Firewall, and Windows Defender ALL fail to work. Something bad happened to the system I’m working on and that badness probably can’t be fixed by Microsofts happy crappy tools.

It would be so nice if Microsoft, instead of telling you something completely useless like “The application you’re trying to download is included in Windows version XYZ and doesn’t need to be downloaded”. Would do something like give you that message, and how to use the application. Then say something like If you still need to download ZYX application click here.

Then that link takes you to a page that explains if you’re seeing failures in the following programs, click here for an installer that will re-install all of them for you.

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The assumption being that the computer you’re working on has been compromised by some kind of malware.

 But no, Microsoft has you play ring around the KB articles until your head is spinning and you’re tired and you just want to get out of the office you’re in and move on with your day.

What do I find on Google?

A simple explanation of the cause of the problem and instructions, all written on one page with links to a repository where the damaged files can be easily obtained.

Come on… Microsoft wrote the software and should have figured out what the problem was. Why is it that some amateur on a forum can put a simple concise document out on the net that makes sense and the creators of the software can’t?

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Armstrong to be stripped of Titles?

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Lance Armstrong to be stripped of  titles retroactively?

Is it me? or is this complete and utter Bullshit?

Even if he was doping back in the day you couldn’t catch him. So he WON… The race and he beat your tests. So make better tests.

If you make better tests and you still didn’t catch him. Guess what? He WON again on both counts.

And with the exception of a couple of possibly false positives Mr. Armstrong consistently won the Tour de France, doing so even after a battle with cancer.

Mr Armstrong has always denied using performance enhancing drugs. I honestly don’t think he was getting away with anything. I think he’s just that good and trains that hard.

Sadly Mr. Armstrongs name has become synonymous with performance enhancing drugs or doping. 

I, as the average “Joe” on the street am sick of hearing about it.

Honestly, it’s always sounded like the French were being whiney assed bitches who somehow thought that the Tour de France was supposed to be won by a Frenchman, and when it wasn’t they cried foul.

I guess it really hurts their national pride such as it is, that they kept getting their asses kicked by an American!

What does this tell any other competitors?

“Be good but throw the occasional event so that you’re not TOO GOOD.” Mediocrity is preferred… After all you don’t  hurt someones feelings now do you?

I’m glad Mr Armstrong chose to say FUCK IT! After all it was obvious that he wasn’t going to be left alone no matter what. In a no win scenario you might as well not play. This is especially true when you have a decades long Witch Hunt leveled against you.

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Then you look at Michael Phelps… there was controversy about whether the IOC was going to pull his medals because he did a photo shoot that was going to be part of his endorsement contracts after his retirement.

Apparently the photos were taken before he retired but they weren’t published until after he retired. 

There’s no break of the rules here. 

But since Phelps was too good someone went looking for something to spank him with.

This is one of the concerns I personally have.

People have always sought to tear down those that they perceived as privileged, wealthy, good looking, stars, or top athletes. This is nothing new.

But now, there are so many ways to tear someone apart. If it’s not naughty pictures, (See Prince Harry) it’s via the rule of law, or simply questioning ones sexual habits. Hell even ones beliefs or religious affiliations can be enough to trail blood in the water.

Once the trickle of metaphorical blood appears in the news (or tabloids, they’re interchangeable these days) the rest of the world attacks like ravenous sharks in a feeding frenzy.

I have to ask why?

These people are human, just like the rest of us. They’ll make poor choices and mistakes just like all the rest of us. Why then are we so quick to rip them apart and not give them the benefit of the doubt?

When did we become so unforgiving and judgmental?

Lance… Great Job! Thanks for representing the US so well

Michael… Fanfuckingtastic! You deserve every single bit of success and I hope your retirement is everything you planned for.

Harry… Dude… I hope you can get back to Vegas or Monaco soon, get naked, party hardy and live your life. Next time… just make sure there are no cell phones or cameras. Have your security confiscate them at the door. (BTW Nice Bum!)

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Paraprosdokian Of the Week

A Friend sent me a list of these. I thought it would be fun to share them

Paraprosdokians are phrases or sentences that lead us down the garden path to an unexpected ending.

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

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Something that completely Blows my mind

I had no idea that there were still separatist movements in the US.

Yeah I’ve joked about it, but I figured that ship had sailed a long time ago. I know that Kentucky still calls itself a commonwealth and that potentially could lead to Kentucky being part of a succession from the US. 

But who’d have thought of an instant that anyone would consider this with any seriousness?

And yet… Here is a list of states that have parties in support of breaking away from the US. (Thanks to Wikipedia)

Main article: Secession in the United States
See also: List of U.S. state partition proposals
Secessionist movements
Autonomist movements

Who would have thought?

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Conoleezza Rice hit a home run at the RNC

I’ve always liked her even when I didn’t understand her. She’s smart as a whip and I respect the hImagesell out of her.

I noted that she’s said she wouldn’t accept a position in Romneys government if he’s elected. I think she could do the country a lot of good, but she says she’s happy in academia.

What a great speech! She wasn’t bashing Obama, she expressed concern that we as a country have taken the wrong path.

I think she was on point and made sense. 

Gee Wolf Blitzer is getting old and stupid. The lady sitting next tom him was trying to make a point about Ms. Rices speech. Poor Wolf missed it completely and in the process shot her down too.

Her point was that Ms. Rice was deviating from her prepared speech. Ms. Rice was sticking to the themes in her prepared speech but she’d embellished and deviated a little bit.

Wolf just didn’t get it.