Archive for November, 2005
11.29.05
Posted in General at 7:16 pm by jw
My wife got tired of having her adventure games (like Myst etc.) ruined by me playing some FPS or other noisy thing in the background so has been making me wear a set of headphones when I play the PC lately. Well, the crappy headphones I had just don’t cut it after a while because they were giving me headaches and sore ears so I went out and got a new pair from Best Buy. I decided to go wireless mainly because I was tired of getting tangled up in the cords.
Overall the headphones worked out ok – great sound, almost no interference (though an extreme audiophile wouldn’t be happy) and they definitely don’t hurt or give me headaches any more – even with my stupidly big oversized head. The real star though in my opinion was the AAA batteries I got from Radio Shack the next day – 15 minutes of charge time for over 7 hours of headphone operation is just insanely good. Those batteries really make the whole thing worthwhile!
It was good to have a wireless device work properly for once – I was really disappointed in the Saitek wireless controller I got because it just doesn’t seem to work properly or the batteries run down incredibly fast. Definitely have to get rid of that one on eBay to someone who needs a wireless controller more than I do. Now to convince the wife that I really need their new X52 joystick…
Lastly, I’m still amused by Sony’s troubles over their DRM software. Maybe the execs will finally figure out that pissing off your customers isn’t good business?
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11.18.05
Posted in Opinion at 3:20 am by jw
While it was kicked off by Murtha, both sides on the “pull out of Iraq” debate continue to annoy me. This was probably spawned by some talkback radio idiocy on KDKA this afternoon, but it’s been bouncing around in the back of my mind for a while.
On the right, we have the dumbasses who can’t tell the difference between a withdrawal and surrender. Surrender implies meeting some sort of terms and actually being defeated – neither of which is the case. Withdrawal is a slow and staged process of removing yourself in a calm and coordinated manner. After all, we managed to withdraw after Desert Storm and I’ve yet to see anyone suggest that we surrendered to Saddam in ’91.
On the left, we have dipshits who still persist in the “Bush lied, people died” bullshit. That’s been done to death so many times it’s just stupid to hear it over again. While I happen to disagree with his reaction to the intel, the fact is the intel was flawed. Seriously flawed.
Then we have the retards on the right who claim that criticism of a President is anti-American. Sorry – but that’s plain wrong. Exercising freedom of speech is absolutely American and should be cherished, even if they are being idiots in their suggestions. Questioning someone’s patriotism when they simply have alternate political views is about as anti-American as you can get.
And lastly we have the numbnuts on the left who think “withdrawal” means “get the hell out tomorrow”. Sorry – but that really is a stupid idea. Power vacuums lead to bad governments. You *have* to pull out in an organized and gradual fashion.
Yes, it’s time to leave. Yes, Iraqis don’t want Americans there any more. No, we can’t and shouldn’t do it quickly.
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11.09.05
Posted in General at 5:16 am by jw
Comment spam started to get me down after receiving 20 notifications of comments to moderate all in the space of an hour, so now there’s two choices – either create an account and log in or read the twisted images it puts up!
Hopefully this will cut down on my maintenance time, and no thanks to tor which is effectively removing my ability to block the spammers with IP based filters. (Yeah, I understand the point of tor, it’s just frustrating to have it used against you).
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11.04.05
Posted in General at 4:54 am by jw
Looks like Sony has turned to rootkits (an advanced technique used in virus writing) to infect people’s computers when you play some of their CDs. The full story is over on the Sysinternals blog but to summarize, Sony secretly installs code on your computer then hacks the kernel to prevent you detecting that they’ve actually done anything. If you try to remove the problem by deleting the files (no uninstall is provided) then your CD drive vanishes!
You have to love DRM, don’t you?
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