Yahoo! News - The Eight Biggest Tech Flops Ever
I've owned a disturbing number of these (PCjr, Audrey), but scoffed at most of them.
Some of my early adoptions turned out well, though (I had an Atari VCS - yeah, the six button one) before anyone knew what the hell a cartridge was. I've also owned, at various times, an Apple Newton (defined 'pda'), minidisc player, TRS-80 Model 100 (first laptop? dunno), a 4 color printer-plotter, an Amiga, a VGA card (256 colors! all at once!), a Gameblaster (precursor to the original Soundblaster), a Voodoo (very first real 3d accelerator), a GRDV1 (second consumer DV cam ever made), a Casio QV-10 (one of the first digicams ever made), Nikon CP900 (legitimized digital cameras), a laserdisc player (back when people thought 'surround sound' meant you hooked up 4 speakers to your 2 channel stereo), a subwoofer (back when you had to explain what it was), a first generation DVD player ($500 and there were only about 4 movies out), a personal homepage (heh), a blog (before 'blog' was a word)... the list goes on and on, but who can remember it all?
And, amongst my current (substantial) pile of early adopter tripe, what'll be crap and what won't, in the years to come?
LA Weekly: Columns: Open City: Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs?
"What she didn’t know was that her assignment and travel plans, along with the chicken soup and stroll through Central Park, had been terminated the moment she confirmed she was a journalist."
I can only say... this is OUR fault. This wasn't done to us, WE let it happen to ourselves. This isn't what I was taught the U.S. was all about.
My wife just gave me one of these puppies, so I guess my morning rants will be ever so much more ranty :)
Woohoo!
Yahoo! News - Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Crisis
A lot has been said regarding the exhorbitant California VLF. It is exhorbitant. I'd pay about $1400/yr for both my cars without the Arnie Chop. Now a bunch a local governments are complaining (and suing) about the resulting fund shortfall.
Last night, I saw a report that San Jose will lose about $3m due to the fee reduction. That is, it used to be $4.5m, and now we're only gonna get $1.5m. My first thought was my typical knee jerk 'fvcking republicans...'.
But... wait a minute. San Jose has about 1m people. The shortfall works out to about $3 per person. That'd be what, $12 for my household?
How the heck did I wind up paying $1000 for $12 of benefits!?! Now wait a goddam minute. I'm all for helping the downtrodden, I'm an ultra-progressive-bleeding-heart-stinking-liberal, after all, but gimme a break.
I'm getting screwed, pure and simple, so fvck it. I'm thinking I'll drive down to City Hall, give 'em $12, and tell 'em to quit whining.
Jeesh.
t r u t h o u t - 9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable
As I read this, I find myself wondering how much coverage I'll see regarding this tonight. Wall to wall, Monica-Lewinsky-style coverage, or a blurb on the crawl at the bottom of the screen?
I'm betting it'll be somewhere nearer to the latter.
UPDATE: I watched news for about 2 hours last night (local news, CNN, Headline News and MSNBC), and guess what? Not even a crawl-blurb. Zilch. Jackson, Kobe, Malvo, the Green River Guy, and even a nice revisit of the Monica Lewinsky thing (coincidence or what?), but nothing regarding this gem. And he took it back, anyway.
IDIOT SON OF AN ASSHOLE-AND HE'S OUR PRESIDENT!!!
"He's not smart, a C student,
and thats after he bought his way into school,
Beady eyes, kinda dyslexic,
can he read? no one's really quite sure"
Here's more of the unbridled, wild fearmongering that went on in the lead up to the unilateral, illegal, ill concieved, invasion of Iraq.
Not that it matters. 51% of Americans are, at this very moment, holding their hands over their ears and yelling "LALALALALALA... I can't HEAR YOU!".
genex's In-N-Out Burger Secret Menu - brought to you by Orange Exposure
Ah HA!
The alleged president has been ignoring science since his days back in Texas, so what are the odds he'll listen to the FDA's panel of advisors regarding the morning after pill?
Yeah. Zero.
In the process of making fun of a friend who is buying a $400 toaster (!), I found this:
I'd like to quote something from it here, but I can't decide what, it's all wonderful.
How's this verse, though?
"If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself."
I personally don't think Sadam deserves anything like a 'fair trial', but if you're going to say he's gonna get one, don't follow it up with 'but, he's evil'.
Yahoo! News - Bush Vows Fair, Public Trial for Saddam
In all fairness, I don't think Bushy could say anything but what he said.
Things my girlfriend and I have argued about
Another moronic idea from the Average President goes down in flames:
But, will anyone care? OF COURSE NOT. We are SHEEP. We believe what makes us FEEL GOOD. If it sounds like I'm a bit irate, well, I AM, GODDAMIT.
And, by the way, does that mean America will put the brakes on this insane idea? Uh, duh. No, we'll just make it more widespread, damn the Constitution...
Sigh.
Why weren't college courses like this one around when I was a kid? Udub rocks.
(don't click if you're squeamish, or if you're a kid)
OBJECTIVE: Creation Education: Evolutionism Propaganda
Is this site serious? Hard to tell. Hilarious, though.
UPDATE: after reading a lot more off the site (instead of working, sigh) I still can't tell whether they're serious or not. I say again: I can't tell whether this wacked-out, clearly absurd site is serious or not. That says a lot about the current sad state of affairs.
I'm willing to extend the benefit of doubt to the World - I suspect this is an offshoot of Landover Baptist, crafted precisely to make this point. Anything else would just depress me too much.
Long ago, I used to work with the quiet, soft-spoken and dangerously sarcastic Texan who responded to every new management fvckover with a 'Carlos! Yay! We're Winning!'.
Indeed we are, buddy, indeed we are...
Just a few of these . . .:
"Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools."
and
"A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy"
That's Magnatune's byline, and they mean it. They're a really decent shareware music service. You listen to what they have, buy it if you like it. 50% of all proceeds goes to the musicians.
Try their Classical stuff. It is really really good.
This one rocks too, though not as much.
The whole 'plastic turkey' fiasco happened while I was on the road, so luckily I was able to keep my appetite intact through our excellent turkey dinner. Later that night, catching up on the news, is when I found out what our resident Monarch had been up to.
This morning MSNBC was still ranting about it, waxing breathless about Shruby's wit. It's nauseating.
Then I run across this NPR story about how they were fooled into thinking the Prez was in Crawford, and how the media was abused to create this photo op.
"Exactly what the media was told may have gone relatively unnoticed in the United States, but a number of overseas journalists contacted me to ask how the American media could allow this to happen without a more vigorous protest."
We, as a nation, have become nothing more than sheep. This isn't new. What is new is that news agencies, which have traditionally been our protectors (sheepdogs?) have gone over the the side of the wolves, and we haven't so much as pause munching on the yummy grass (or cars, or flat panels TVs, or digicams, or Gucci purses, or whatever).
A munching sheep is a happy sheep.
elgooG - some people just have too much time on their hands, I figure...
""General Clark has depth, but he also has those surface qualities. He appeals to people who don't have time to think about the depth part."
Jesus, I thought. They're just coming right out and saying it. "