Monday, December 29, 2014

Things That Just Kill Ya: Social Posers

Things That Just Kill Ya: Social Posers: Are you a social poser?  Do you jump on the band wagon when you see lot's of tweets or posts of some kind?   Did you buy an "I Can&...

Social Posers

Are you a social poser?  Do you jump on the band wagon when you see lot's of tweets or posts of some kind?   Did you buy an "I Can't Breath"  T-shirt without knowing where the money is going?  did you march for something that you saw others marching in because you thought it would be cool??   Did you bother to listen to both sides of the story before picking a side?

Did you really feel the need to join?  You think you have to do something so you finally took a stand but it's based on crap you've read online or in the news?  You just needed to join a cause but you really didn't check what the cause was about? 

It's cool to fight the system, but it's important to know how the system works.   It's great to be active in fixing the system but how can you fix something you don't know what it is about?
Don't follow blindly.  Many of these so called protests and activists are nothing but a bunch of rabble rousing brew ha ha's that don't understand the very cause they are organizing for. 
The so called leaders are self absorbed individual's that like as many followers as possible.  It's like being Justin Beeper and having a million followers.  They don't know why they follow you but they do.  Maybe they just want to know about the next time he humiliates himself with underage girls.

Are the police guilty of abuse? or are the criminals innocent of committing a crime?  
I have a really great T-shirt that says "Friends don't let Friends drink Starbucks"  and that's my mission to save people from drinking burnt coffee.  Once I've done that I know the world will be a better place.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Cloud computing good? or Bad?

Do you know what the latest buzz called "Cloud Computing" is really all about?  Let me simplify it,  Your computer is connected to the internet on the internet is your email and all the programs you use like word processing and spread sheets.  Nothing is on your computer anymore except maybe some loose operating system.  Just enough for you to get connected.
Every month you pay a subscription fee to use your stuff,  to read your documents,  to view your bank account and confidential documents.  Nothing is on your computer it's all on some computer someplace else.  If you don't pay the fee your stuff will be deleted after a certain amount of time.  No amount of begging will get it back.  No they won't give it to you unless you pay the ransom a/k/a subscription fee.  If they loose your data they are not responsible,  it says so in the contract.  While your lawyer tries to sort this your going out of business because you can't access your accounts, vendor files, and customer database.

But you have the savvy sales rep sitting in your office ready to take you out to a nice steak diner.  He/She is going to convince you that the "Cloud" is the only way to go, it's going to save you tons of money.  How could you not be using the latest and greatest invention since sliced bread. 
Are you ready to outsource your IT department to the Philippines?   

As for Hacking?  the cloud is one stop shopping for hackers.  Once they are on a system with cloud services they have full run of all the companies.  Even your competitors.  Yes don't forget your competitors data and business could end up on the same servers as you. 

IT clouds are NOT nice fluffy things,  they are cold hard servers that someone else owns and charges you a monthly fee to access your own data.  Don't pay and your data goes away.  What's it good for?  Online backups!  and only if encrypted.  Treat your nerds with respect, they can save your business or treat them like chattel and they could let it burn to the ground and just say -
 "Oops sorry about that dude the cloud blew away!" 

Scuba.com no great deals

Scuba.com is a website for scuba divers to buy gear at supposedly reduced prices.  This would be great if the gear was actually worth the reduced price.  It's more like cheaper gear in a good looking photo.
I bought from them once before and received junk, had to send it back twice at my own expense.  Buying a 50 dollar item ended up costing me 50 dollars in shipping charges to return it with the blame being placed on the manufacturer.

You might have thought I learned my lesson,  wrong I'm a glutton for punishment.  I got an email for a t-shirt with a very nice design on it.  That's where the nice part ends.  The shirt was 14.95 and then when I got to the shipping part it was about $7.45 for shipping.  The order was placed on 10/21/14 by 10/31/14 I still had not gotten the shirt.  The shirt finally showed up a couple of days later.
I think the postal service walked it across the country.

So I finally get this shirt in my hands and the fabric is so thin you can practically see through it.  Light weight yes.  So far the only thing going for this shirt is the design which if I had bought a newer T-shirt would look like this one after a few washes.   It now cost $22.40 for a T-shirt.

Will I continue to shop online yes, will it be with Scuba.com?  Nope.   I would recommend Divers Direct they have better quality and better service.  Is it mean to write this story?  not really it's my experience with this company I gave them a second shot and they dropped the ball again.  It was a simple T-shirt this time. 
  

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Worlds Best Coffee Pot ever

Did you ever find something you thought was the greatest?  I have a Farberware Superfast 2-4 cup percolator for nearly 20 years.  It makes the best cup of coffee you've ever had in like 2 minutes.  Piping hot makes the house smell so good.   But like me it's getting old.  Now mind you this is the worlds best coffee pot bar none.  Mr. Farber the inventor passed away in 2013 at age 88.  He sold the license to some company that is now making a crappy version of his great coffee pot in China.
It's like having a Rolls Royce made by Ford.  It looks good for a short time then the warranty expires and it falls apart.
I'm looking for a replacement for my precious coffee pot, if you should know of any that can hold a candle to the Farberware Superfast drop me a line.  Please don't tell me about your Mr. throwup or that silly Kurig thingy.  This was a true dyed in the wool percolator.  It makes at most 2 mugs worth of coffee does it really fast and really good and hot like coffee should be.

Until then I'll keep polishing my Farberware until the last drop.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Senate Releases CIA information

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying that "Three can keep a secret, if two are Dead"  Clearly the senate has never heard this expression as they release all the information that they should not have released.  Or to quote Forest Gump,  "Stupid is as Stupid Does

Friday, December 5, 2014

Things That Just Kill Ya: Is the media to blame?

Things That Just Kill Ya: Is the media to blame?: Isn't sensationalism in media wonderful?  Half truths to stir up the masses all for a good headline.  Al Sharpton the media face of a go...

How to not get killed by Police

I might put this into a book one day but until then you'll have to read my blog.

How to not get killed by Police and live to tell about it.

It's really not that hard to not get killed by the police.  The first and easiest thing you can do is not be a criminal committing a crime.  Don't hang around criminals and don't let them hang around your neighborhood.  Don't carry guns, and don't give guns that look real to children.   None of the things I have mentioned so far cost any money.  As a matter of fact not buying a gun could save you hundreds of dollars.  If you buy a gun your putting money into the pockets of rich old white dudes that laugh at you when the police shoot you.  So stop buying guns.

Now if for some crazy reason you find yourself in the situation where the Police yell "STOP" or "Freeze"  and then say "POLICE"  I would suggest you stop and freeze,   Then say "I Give Up!"  or  "I surrender Don't shoot!!!!"   Now at this point is the most important part,   do not lower your hands or try to reach for your pockets stand absolutely still.  Follow the instructions of the officer do exactly as told no matter how much you hate doing it.  Yes, yes I know your civil rights are being violated but if you stay alive you can file a complaint afterwards.  If you don't cooperate then you find yourself in a pine box.   I believe the term is "Live to fight another day" 

Keep the officer calm and remind you are happy to cooperate,  don't make any smart ass remarks.  Now ask "Please tell me am I being arrested? and Why"  at this point you are still alive and that is the goal.  After that say nothing and pay careful attention. This is really important,  Did he/she read you your rights?   if yes then when they get to the end and say did you understand your rights say "No, I do not understand can I have a lawyer"   You now become safe you've said the magic word.  "Lawyer"  police hate that word but respect it.   The rest of the process sucks if you've committed a crime they are probably going to print you send you down to central booking and all that other nasty stuff.   After you have been booked ask for your phone call.  Call someone that will help you not the girlfriend you've been cheating on.   At this point you are still alive.  If' you have not committed a crime should be out soon and get a lawyer and sue them.   It's pay day!!!!   If you did commit a crime you've got problems that my blog won't help you with other than to maybe keep you alive. 

Do the police kill and why?

Clearly we know the police kill people but I wonder if we bother to ask why?   and why do we always make it into a racial event.
Recently a Staten Island man was killed in what looked like he was choked to death incident.  I wanted to know what happened so I looked for a longer video of the event.  It appears the man was being arrested the police tried putting cuffs on him and he jerked his arm away.  That is considered to be resisting arrest.  That man is not new to getting arrested he has been arrested over 30 times, he knows better than to resist.  He's standing on a public street out side of tax paying businesses selling stolen cigarettes to minors.  Which part of committing another crime did I miss.
The man being arrested is almost 400lbs in poor health and is now going to attempt to take on half a dozen cops.   If anyone read the coroners report he did not die of asphyxiation he died of coronary failure.  The man was too fat, had diabetes and heart disease.  What should the police have done given him a physical before the arrest?

Then this became a racial incident and I don't understand why.  The supervising officer at the scene was a Black Female Sargent.  She was the one in charge at the scene.  So because the patrolman that carried out the arrest of petty criminal was white it's now a racial incident? 

I blame people like Al Sharpton,  I won't call him Reverend because a true man of the cloth would not be looking to instigate riots.  But that's how AL gets donations so he can parade around in thousand dollar suits and continue to mislead his followers.  Then there is the media,  they love it when people riot and burn things down it gets them on TV more.  If the march was peaceful or the truth comes out there is nothing for them to report.  "If it Bleeds it Leads" is the expression the media lives by.    

So my little criminals what crimes have you committed in attempt to make the front pages of media land?

Is the media to blame?

Isn't sensationalism in media wonderful?  Half truths to stir up the masses all for a good headline.  Al Sharpton the media face of a good riot at the lead.   Nobody really cares what the truth is anymore.  The fact the accidental death in NY was not a murder and not a racial incident does not matter.   The fact that there were other cops at the Staten Island incident never seems to be spoken of.  The supervisor being a black female Sargent is completely over looked.  The fact that he never put his hands up as noted by several African American witnesses seems to keep being left out of the papers.    Almost never mentioned was the fact that a criminal with over 30 priors was being arrested again and then resisted arrest when they went to put the cuffs on him has been totally ignored.
I ask you all to go back and look at the video again,  get a copy of the whole incident its out there.  You would see cops trying to calmly arrest the man, then he jerks his arm away when they try to cuff him.  Then you will see other officers enter the picture.  A well edited video from a cell phone making this look like a one cop assault.   The marches and protests should be in support of the NYPD not against them.  It's time to take a long hard look at why these incidents happen and stopping blaming the police only.  Certainly there are two sides to every story unless of course your looking to get more hits your news site.