When it’s a FUCKING CHUNK OF MY LAPTOP SCREEN.
I mean, seirously, how did I ever do something quite so goddamn stupid?
So Furby got an Airsoft Deagle. I was fucking around with it, and a ricochet caught my laptop screen. Sometimes I wonder why I am still alive, I do such goddamn stupid shit like play with a pellet gun around a $1500 piece of gear. Now I’m gonna have to pay (read: charge on my fucking credit card) a new screen. The tab? Around $300, if I install it myself. Now it’s not that I have a problem doing this, I have no aversion to the guts of computers. Nor am I really upset that I broke a computer - not the first time I did that either. It’s just that…
WHEN IS THIS ALL GONNA STOP?
When am I going to stop doing astronomically stupid shit that ends up costing me large wads of cash? Why can’t I ever think before I do dumb shit? MOTHERFUCKING JESUS DONKEY-FUCKING CHRIST ON A POGO STICK, WHY CAN’T I JUST QUIT FUCKING THINGS UP?
I try real hard not to hate myself but it’s really goddamn hard when I keep doing things like this.
So I just got through watching ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt.’ For whatever weird reason, I decided to just go buy it. It was a wonderful film and I’m definitely not sad that I bought it. Anyway, it started me thinking and now I can’t stop, so I’m writing, as per usual.
In the film, Larry hits a point where he’s just not willing to deal with the fact that he can’t print whatever he wants to print (basically.) He says that he has a 1st Amendment right to say whatever he feels like saying, period. He takes this to its most absurd extreme, but even though his tactics are most unorthodox, he’s absolutely right. The right to say what needs to be said is absolute, and if nothing else, is the first and most obvious reason that our country is noticeably different from many others.
The thing that really bugs is that none of these copyright assholes seems to figure this out, and I mean both sides. Very few people have figured out that this whole copyright issue is all about right to free speech. It’s just turned on its side; they don’t want to prohibit the speech itself, but rather limit the manner in which the speech is conducted.
You knew this was going to come back to this issue, didn’t you. Admit it.
Continue reading “The problem is, people never really pay attention to what’s going on.”
One of the things I got asked a lot when I was a computer guy was how to make Windows (9x) more secure. This topic has come up very briefly in recent conversation, so I’d like to share this with you.
Trying to secure Windows 9x is kinda like living in a house that is physically incapable of having any locks placed on its doors or windows.
Oh, and the only defense allowed by the landlord (because remember, you’re only renting this property) is one of the following:
1. Putting up a sign that sais ‘Please don’t rob me.” Well, that’s what you’d start with anyway, pretty soon you’d be putting up signs liek “Motherfucker stay out of my house” and the ever-ppopular “Don’t come in here asshole, I’ve got a gun” (even though you don’t actually have a gun.)
2. Putting a huge locked box around the entire house, and requiring anyone who wants to enter or exit the house to present keys. The only big downside is that once the house is unlocked once, it is once again freely available to everyone until everybody leaves, at which point it’s all locked up again.
In short, securing Win9x is only slightly less futile than trying to pound a round piece of steel flat with only a towel. Only one thing can be said for those who succeed: they cheated.
So I’m sitting here channel-surfing, and I hit the Cosby Show. And Cliff’s dad is on, and all of a sudden I think “Hey, that voice sounds really really familar!” So I go look it up on IMDB, the best damn site ever.
The guy who played Cliff’s dad Russell was Earle Hyman, and he really hasn’t acted in a lot of things. That made my search a lot simpler, because the entry I was looking was right above the Cosby Show.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Earle Hyman a.k.a. Russell Huxtable was also the voice of Panthro on Thundercats.
So that led me to the Thundercats record. None of the main voice actors from that show were really prolific, except for one guy, and I am really looking forward to telling you his name. Why? Because…
His Name is Robert Paulsen.
No, not kidding. On top of that, Mr. Paulsen did tons of voices (and is still doing more.) Among the highlights are the 2nd Arthur from The Tick and Raphael from the Ninja Turtles cartoon.
Creepy.
So the theft stories have been requested, and I’m going to comply because I just got my new wireless router and I’m enjoying playing with a router that might not die in fifteen minutes. Plus, I’m bored. Here we go uh-gain folks.
First off, let’s set the record straight. I owned a computer shop for 8 years. I made some shady deals, I sold some things at outrageous markup, I sold more than a few OS-less computers (not that I can’t legally do that, but it really pisses off Bill & crew.) But I never stole from the State Tax Commisson, and I never stole from a customer. I’ve known many shops around here that did, but I never ever did. Ever.
I have been formally accused of theft twice in my life. Reading the note above, had better be able to fucking deduce whether I was guilty or not, because if you do then you’d better go to another fucking website.
Continue reading “Lies, allegations, and things left unsaid”
In the last few weeks, Linksys has: provided me with information on how to rip open a case (just rip the front off, rather violently) and helped me fix a bad firmware flash on an old BEFSR11 (at least three years old.) They have responded quickly (within 24 hours) and told me precisely what I needed to know.
Netgear, on the other hand, did not respond to two of my electronic requests for help, finally replied to the third (after a four-day wait) but their reply was just a generic cookie-cutter e-mail that didn’t even begin to answer my questions.
So in short, what I’ve accomplished with networking this week is:
- took back my gorgeous-looking but shit-running Netgear to Costco (I love their return policy)
- purchased a Linksys Wireless-G router
- Fixed my Linksys old-school broadband router with precisely zero glitches
I’d just like to suggest again that Netgear is a bunch of fucking douchebags. I don’t know what in the hell happened to them, they used to be the premier supplier of home and small-office networking gear. Now they’re not worth the effort it would take to piss on ‘em. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Since I’m busy feeling arrogant and/or superior today (far be that from the truth, but hey) I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite computer-shop-owner stories about Xtian fundies. The real upshod is that their closed-minded thinking and complete resistance to anything and everything modern and/or scientific gives me a great excuse to quote Tyler Durden - “I will bring us through this. As always, I will carry you - kicking and screaming, and in the end, you will thank me.” For obvious reasons I won’t be using any names.
Continue reading “Stupid stories for the arrogant and superior”
When it’s a FUCKING CHUNK OF MY LAPTOP SCREEN.