Gubernatorial Spam!

I actually got spammed today pitching “Arnold for Governor” t-shirts.
Jesus H, not like I was going to vote for him anyway, but now a line has been crossed.
I reported it through SpamCop, some offshore dealy naturally, but I’ve been thinking about ditching SpamCop after Julian Haight’s mob theory. What a nutter!

Rootin’-Tootin’ Round Up

Several other rousin’ bits or things pissing me off today (mostly the latter):

• Amazing Hubble photos of Mars [kickapoo.stsci.edu]
• They can’t go home again [Salon.com]
  Poisonous politics in Texas. And seriously, if you’ve ever voted for Tom DeLay, send me an email. I want to meet you. You’ve danced with the devil.
• EPA Eases Pollution Rule at Power Plants [yahoo.com]
  “Jane, Tommy, Mommy’s only 29 but she’s dying of cancer so the CEO of FirstEnergy can buy another S600. Send my regards to George W. Bush.”
• We’re loosing the war in Afghanistan, too [Salon.com]
• The Aladdin on the Vegas strip will be turned into a Planet Hollywood themed resort [yahoo.com]
  Ugh. This SOOO won’t work.

Suffering at the Gym

One of the last perks here at work is a gym on campus. A decent facility, with shiny new equipment and a wide variety of machines and weights. Clean, relatively uncrowded, and free to boot.
Like most gyms, there’s the ubiquitous low-volume radio and a wall of TVs in front of the cardio machines. Lately, it’s been some crap techno radio station with “high NRG” remixes of Madonna songs, with the TVs tuned to MSNBC and the Food Network. Slightly ironic, that last one.
Anyway, last night, the benign became the contemptible. The techno had been replaced with easy listening, and the TVs has been tuned to the Christian Broadcasting Network. By the time I realized this, I was several minutes into the cardio routine and didn’t want to start over. I was trapped. A CBN vignette actually featured some college-bound chicky taking her Bible shopping at Target. Lordy.
Furthermore, my “complimentary” workout towel suffered from some strange unnatural funk, there were no water cups, and the girl next to me on the elliptical had a wee problem with “gas.”
Well, you know what the Bible says: Pain is temporary, vanity is forever.
(Wait, maybe that’s just my bible.)

Any more bright ideas, George?

U.S. deaths in Iraq surpass ‘end of major combat’ total [CNN.com]
But all in the name of stamping out terror… *cough* *cough*
Find out the truth: Who’s tougher on terror? [Salon.com] A real eye-opener from Joe Conason’s new book Big Lies.

The real leaders of the “free” world…

A presidential election is around the corner, and the circus has come to California. The American public has apathetically learned the names of those who may boldly lead us into tomorrow: Arnold, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and a fat bald guy named Cruz. And of course our current “leader of the free world,” George W. Bush. Howard Dean graced the cover of both Time and Newsweek simultaneously — and it’s not even primary season.
But I got to thinking: do you know the real leaders of the free world?
How about the CEO of Phillip Morris, a company which spends $50M a year on lobbying Washington to brush those 400,000 dead Americans under the carpet?
Or perhaps the board of Verizon, a company which gleefully spends $40M a year insuring they’ll be the next pre-breakup AT&T by stifling local competition while simultaneously demanding access to sell long distance service?
What about the CEO of ExxonMobile, who’s $35M a year makes sure your next vehicle relies on already scare fossil fuels? (Side-note: the price of gas went up 30 cents in just the last week here in California.)
Then there’s Halliburton, which now benefits from a avalanche of no-bid government contracts thanks to a $33.7M investment (er, retirement package) in former CEO Dick Cheney. (Dick hasn’t let down, awarding contracts before we even dropped the first bomb in Iraq. Wasn’t that convenient!)
Well, every one deserves a fair chance to be heard in Washington, no? I mean, I’m sure that all the hard-working Americans in Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s constituency get the same voice as his wife, Linda, a highly paid lobbyist working for the likes of American Airlines and Northwest Airlines, right?
Let’s not forget Chet Lott, son of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, who went from pizza-franchise owner to powerful lobbyist on behalf of Verizon. No conflict of interest there!
Well, perhaps now you know… or at least have a better idea.

Old habits are hard to break

9.0 is barely out the door, and what more sure-fire way to show the Street you’re behind your efforts than through a massive layoff! Rumors abound, and although the numbers seem high, sometime before Labor Day is the generally accepted belief. Why? We were all promised 4 extra days of vacation during said week, so it’s a rush to avoid paying out for those extra days, natch.
Memo to CEOs: Do your research — these slash-n-burn tactics have never proved successful, despite their current popularity. In fact, during an down a economy, those companies which have faired best are those which re-invest in themselves to take most of advantage of the upswing.
I can guarantee you one thing: if there is a layoff, not 1 will be a Washington lobbyist. The greedy corporation and our elected piggies are wallowing in their own filthy corruption like never before, now re-invigorated after the monumental collapse of Enron, Adelphia, and WorldCom proved that voters couldn’t care less and a carefully worded soundbite was worth twice that evaporated pension fund! Ain’t America grand?

Why IT doesn’t like Macs

Robert Cringley suggests that Macs aren’t more mainstream in business because of IT job security. A long known fact, Windows machines simply require more maintenance and support. It’s sure-fire job security, and apparently something that’s not overlooked by IT professionals in today’s difficult market. Along the way, he tackles the moving-IT-to-India issue and its associated problems as well as Linux as a “OS for everyone.”
I’m one of the few that has a Mac as my primary machine at work. I begged for a Mac within weeks of getting hired, after being given a Windows 98 laptop, and it was approved — with which I attribute much of my productivity to. I truly treasure it, and believe it’s been a huge advantage over those around me, especially with Mac OS X and it’s Unix underpinnings.
Last week, everyone — yes, EVERYONE — in my group, was struck by the MS Blaster worm. Except me.
I do need Windows sometimes. Well, only for one in-house application, otherwise never. I turned off networking, and booted up Virtual PC with Windows 2000. I installed the patch to protect myself against the the Blaster worm, having downloaded it with my Mac browser. I was never exposed to it.
The Power Mac G5 is here. It’s the fastest consumer/prosumer computer on the planet. Hyper-transport has approved as a standard. Am I expecting stellar sales for Apple? No, not really. They’re not really cheap (albeit reasonably priced), but they are the best. I’ll be buying one. And I’m okay with the masses avoiding Apple — it’s the same reason I avoid Wal-Mart. I know there’s something better, and I’m happy with others not knowing. 🙂

New Toys… no, not those kind

Picked up the Samsung A600, totally on impulse, and got an iSight this week. (That was really last week’s impulse that got delivered yesterday.) There’s a theme here — cameras — but I already have a shitload of digital video devices with which I do nothing. Perhaps if my life suddenly turned interesting, I’d be prepared to prove it to unbelieving friends. Hell if I know.
Anyway, this A600 is kinda whacky — flip-phone with a swivel screen and rotating barrel camera. I keep swearing I’ll swear off Sprint for good, but I’m locked into a contract until October 2004. (Granted, the termination penalty is $150 and the phone I just bought was $330.) It’s cool, and thankfully my car adapter and home charger from my A500 work with the A600.
The camera is “good” quality for being from a phone. Pics are 640×480 — that’s high resolution for a tiny pocket phone. It also has a CCD sensor rather than the cheaper CMOS ones found in most phones. All in all, not a bad phone. Reception, a notorious sore point with Samsung phone owners, is also much improved in this phone.
In addition to the A600, Sprint also launched the VGA 1000, a cheaper camera phone which Samsung labels the A620. Costco has a coupon this week good for $50 off select Sprint PCS phones, including the VGA 1000, but sadly not the A600.

The Arnold factor and our pending name change

So, I’ve discovered the silver-lining in Arnold: his liberal social politics are at direct odds with the Bush administration and much of the ultra right-wing GOP which Bush has aligned himself with. Arnie’s pro-choice, and believes gay couples should be allowed to adopt. When Bush was asked about homosexuality, he astutely replied: “I am mindful that we’re all sinners, and I caution those who may try to take the speck out of their neighbor’s eye when they got a log in their own.” Whatever the fuck that means you coke-snorting boozer. Point being this could cause some serious rifts in the GOP given that California is the world’s 5th largest economy and Arnold isn’t rank-and-file GOP.
I did enjoy Arianna’s display on Friday: every reporter within 500 miles showed up at the Santa Monica records office where Arnold was to file his papers to run. Arianna also showed up, butting her way in front of Arnold and knocking down a microphone stand to give herself some attention. Smart girl. It’s really sad — she gave a full 30 minutes of interviews while Arnold was inside with Skeletina filing his papers, and not one second of that made it on TV — and she actually answered the questions she was asked! It seems the outcome of this short race is inevitable, given the 1987 repeal of the “equal-time” law. Even though I think this recall is wrong, it would be nice if Arianna got some attention — sorta like My Big Fat Greek Election. She’s obnoxious enough to do whatever it takes, so don’t count her out…
Meanwhile, it looks like AOL Time Warner is going back to just being Time Warner, now that the “crown jewel” (I knew that title would come back to bite them in the ass) is not the shining star it was once. In all honesty, AOL could survive on it’s own, as it did from 1985 to 2000, but a spin-off or selling of the unit at this point would give the street too much of a “I told you so” satisfaction. I doubt this will do much to save things, as the idioticy that infects the company festers in full bloom on a daily basis, but who knows… point is, I could really care less.