Blog updates for rants
7.17.06
For those of you that use ALL CAPS
I'd like to submit a motion to sit all of you down and skin the tips of your finger. Next, I'd soak a keyboard with the caps lock key disabled in a vat of Sea Breeze and for them to type out Psalm 119 (because, you know, since you're use to seeing big letters, you'll hold down that shift key). Oh, and while they're sitting there, I'd stick their feet in a bucket of driver ants.
Torture? Depends on perspective. Which is worse, having your skinned finger tips splash in Sea Breeze while your ankles eaten from the inside by the most carnivourous insect on Earth...or being forced to read a technical spec that's written in all caps, with no line breaks?
In my opinion, there's no reason for either. Turn off the caps, mkay?
10:42 am in 7.22.05
I killed my mouse...
...'s thumb button. I hate that. I really really do.
I have one of those MS IntelliMouse Optical mice. Nice sized fit and has 5 buttons. One on each side, right and left click, and a clickable scroll wheel. Unfortunately, MS doesn't sell them anymore. The only options are either their huge, Seinfeld "man-hands" sized mice or Mini Me notebook mice. Neither one of those, though, have the buttons set up like this mouse does.
Anyone have a suggestion on a similiar mouse type?
EDIT - I've been seriously mistaken. They do still sell it:
Best Buy has it...online at least.
3.14.05
Another annual gas hike
Well, we're two months early for last year's high, but regular unleaded fuel costs jumped this evening to $2.15/gallon...from $1.85.
Guess I'm just writting this as a reality check of what to look forward to.
10.25.04
Catera reminder
Just a reminder that I'm not the only one that thinks Cadillac Cateras are the worst cars in the world.
10.18.04
So, Chryslers are easy to steal
Just found that out this weekend after waking up Saturday morning to get my day started and found my mother's Plymouth Voyager stolen. Right from in front of my house. Two months to the day of when she got it.
Almost don't even know what to say about it. Oh, I have "plenty" of ideas of who could have took it, but no proof. Only thing, they were stupid enough to use the gas card in the van to fill up 4 times at the same gas station....that has surveillance camera....and stores images on DVD. Aside from that, we're at the mercy of time and insurance to get this immediatly resolved.
So, of course, this brings up the question of what can I do to help prevent this in the future? I've thought about video surveillance myself. My wife has given me the "ok" to do so, but that almost seems a little over the top. Moving? Heh, not right now.
I might go the surveillance route. It'll give me the opportunity put together a beast of a server...
8.15.04
No more CompUSA for me!
Last night, I stopped in at the local CompUSA in Bridgeton, MO. I bought a CompUSA branded parallel print server. Price was great, only $30.
Now, nothing on the package mentioned any incompatibility issues I would run into. I had Windows, a printer with a parallel port, and a fully functional network. Well, after following the instructions provided (which I must admit were quite detailed), I still couldn't get a test page to print. Win2K kept throwing up an error:
"The document Test Page owned by Danne failed to print. Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 3003 (0xbbb). "
After another hour of troubleshooting effort, I decided to look through the product manual...that was on the supplied driver cd...which was in PDF format. Low and behold I see a list of compatible printers and my HP Officejet K60 isn't among them. No problem, I'll just take it back for a refund. I check the receipt and notice a 15% restock charge for opened items.
Well, today I called CompUSA and explained in a pleasent way that my printer was not compatible with the print server, and that there was no way for me to see the incompatibility until the package was opened. The service rep's response was (essentially), "and?"
While I understand why places, especially computer places, charge a restock fee on opened items, it seems a little ironic that the only way to find any information to show an incompatibility, was after opening the item. If that isn't a loophole, I don't know what is!
EDIT - And of course I do a little more searching and find this related D-Link FAQ about my issue:
Why won´t my HP Printer work with my D-Link Print Server or Router?
8.12.04
Dry Pair ADSL, pointless
Let's face it. DSL is a poor man's T1. ADSL is an even poorer man's fractional T1. DSL has been advertised for years as the alternative to dial-up since it can be used over analog phone lines and not interfere with phone calls. Due to this, most ADSL providers require you to have, at the minimum, dial tone service on your line to even order telco provided DSL.
Well, lately there has been a strong push to have ADSL provided without it being bundled to dial tone service. What's the point? I don't know. If anything, I think it's fairly stupid to go this route. Why? You still have to pay for the physical copper line each month!
Prior reasons people had this desire is so they can keep their present ADSL service with one provider, then bundle local and long distance with another provider at a cheaper rate. Uh, if you can't afford all of the options you will likely NEVER use enough to justify the need of having them, then you don't need DSL.
The "new" push to unbundle ADSL service is due to the growth of Voice over IP service. This is getting all of your phone service over your broadband connection, usually under $30 a month. Riiiiight. Seems kind of like working for the "Department of Redundancy Department." You end up paying for the physical line, the VoIP service, AND the ADSL service. Hmmm, that adds up to around $65 a month. Where is the savings?
As in the previous example, are you really going to use all of those features? Call waiting I can see. Even long distance can be cheaper if you make a lot of LD calls. What if there's an Internet outage? Are those savings worth not having dial tone? Not really. I've even heard the "well I have a cell phone if I ever lost my phone service" argument. There's another added cost. Where's the savings?
8.11.04
Bob Jamerson leaving?!?
Oh my, I can't believe this! While writing my previous entry, I was reading through my logs and seen quite a few search referrals for my Spider-Bob post.
So, being the detective I am, I queried that post as also. Well, one result turned up an article from 8.8.04 about Bob leaving for Atlanta next month! His reason, "Our city is too narrow-minded..."
Bob, if you ever read this, keep it twirling. StL is going to miss ya!
5.17.04
$27 for 13.4 gallons?!?
There is something just plain wrong about spending over $27 dollars for less than 13 and a half gallons of gas. Sure, you might ask where have I been lately. Well I've been here, just not in my car paying for gas with my money.
The company I work for has fleet cars and a fleet Shell account. When I need gas while out on service, I get gas. I don't stop and think to myself, "gee this sure is expensive." What about my personal car? My wife drives it and she is the one that fills it up usually...that is until I did today.
I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched what $2.99/gallon looked like going into my tank. Hoping that my fill up would finish at 20 bucks, desperation turned to horror as the price crossed the unimaginable $25 point. Once the price settled at just over $27, I was furious. I just spent $27 on a tank of regular, unleaded gas for a Ford Tempo! Back when I started driving (I'm 26 now), gas was $.87 here.
That sad part is that this is only the beginning. It's going to get even more expensive before summer's end. Sickening....
8.27.03
Beginning of the end
Well, the Catera is officially on it's last leg. After getting the radiator replaced ($820), I noticed that the coolant in the overflow tank wasn't being filled back up after the car ran. Well, took it back to the repair shop (notice, not the dealer shop) for them to take a look. Turns out, after they noticed the puffs of white smoke from the tail pipe, the head gaskets are blown. That would explain why my oil light, coolant light, check engine light, and rough idle have been happening recently. This would also explain why my oil cooler exploded the way it did. This would likewise explain why my radiator suddenly had a 3 inch hole all of the sudden. Extreme pressure build up.
Blah, blah, blah....to get this all repaired will cost $2000. I can't drive the car without getting this repaired either since more and more damage will be caused.
Say it with me for the last time, "I HATE THIS CAR!!!!"
7.14.03
WWW
I hate web sites that force you to use that prefix to get there. There is no reason I can accept as to why some web hosts require those three little W's. I hate typing them. Nowadays it is redundant to use them.
First off, I know I'm on the "World Wide Web". Secondly, hopefully the server I'm connecting to knows it is open to the "World Wide Web". Third, since the "dot-com" days are over, there arn't too many company names of "www.what-ever.com" so the name integrity deal is not there. So why am I still forced to type those redundant letters!?!?!
My only guess would be lazy or ignorant admins.
7.7.03
Tipping yourself
I went to lunch today with some co-workers to this bar and grill down the street. I never been there, but heard the food was great. Well, it was. I had this Blackend Grilled Chicken platter and a soda.
Well, all was fine until it was time to pay. The check was broken for each person to pay. My total came to $9.74. I handed the waitress a $20. My change returned to me was $10 bucks. What the !@#$? where is my 26 cent at?
Now, while I don't think 26 cents to be a pocket breaker, she obviously assumed that since it was only 26 cents, it was negligible. And noticed that she did this with everyone at the table!
She seemed new to whole serving industry, considering she gave me my change in two 5 dollar bills...as opposed to a 5 and five 1's, making it easier to leave a tip out of the change you received. Well, my tipping was so easy, I left it in the cash register for you! Thanks for the service.
4.9.03
More Catera Drama
Well, once again I find myself at the dealer for further car repairs. While it wasn't unexpected, I was at least hoping to get a few more months between repairs. It turns out that the previous $1500 repair of the coolant system "somehow" seemed to cause the sensor in the overflow tank, which detects low coolant levels, to need replacing. Now, of course this is never a simple fix. I was told that the whole tank will need to be replaced. Sixty bucks right there! Also, since the coolant isn't the only thing that seems to keep the engine cool, 3 fan relays will also need to be replaced also. See, when the car's air was turned on the temp would increase to the red. "They" said that it was because the fans were not turning on, causing the car to begin to over heat. Three relays = $75! Cha Ching!!!
The good news out of all of this, amazing how any could be found, is that I won't be paying the labor charge for the repairs. Actually, that really is good news because if I was, I the repair cost would literally be doubled. Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick!
Please people, don't ever get a 97-99 Cadillac Catera!
Related Catera posts (here)
3.28.03
I HATE MY CAR!!!!!
I have a 98 Cadillac Catera. This car is absolutely the WORST car anyone could ever have the displeasure of buying. I got the car for what I thought was a good deal. Turns out, this car was been a total nightmare. It is literally an engineering catastrophy.
First off, it is a total gas guzzler. On top of that are the repairs...oh the repairs. This car goes through front brakes like they are butter. But, when you go to get them replaced, you need the sensor replaces also, so that is extra money on top of extra money. Now, those are what I call "the normal repairs".
On to the real problems. This car seems to have problems with parts of a car that should not be an issue. Like the timing chain issue recall. Oh yeah, the timing chain would strip and cause the cam shaft to slam into the valves. This little issue caused my car to not even move when pressing on the gas pedal and in drive. Oh, and let's not forget the oil sensor that went out. Now you would think that a sensor would report oil issues to the gauge on the dash...NO, NO, NO! This sensor controls oil flow to the engine. You guessed it, CHA-CHING!!!
Now, today's issue. Oh course there is the yearly expensive brake job, but now it is coupled with a coolant leak from the hot water valve and oil cooler. I can't take it anymore. I have absolutely no money to give these people. I need the brakes to be safe, but that is all I can do. I HATE THIS CAR, I HATE THIS CAR, I HATE THIS CAR!!!
2.21.03
Star Search Sucks!
I never watched this show until this evening...and I now know why. Not only are judges nowadays "Simon" rips, but celebrity judges are too baised. Why not have someone with no spotlight intent give a fair score.
But...that is only if the people performing are worth the better score. That brings me to point number 2. They suck too. The first person singing in the junior catagory really was great. Little 10 year old with a strong voice was worth the high score she got. But I thought people that came on to perform for a show like this should all be good. Not so.
The following comedians were sad if not terrible. I couldn't remember if the first guy stole all of his jokes from an old Def Comedy Jam episode or if he hasn't made anything of himself in over 10 years. Either way....quit! His comp was even less stellar....won't waste the finger energy. Dancing is on now. I don't care for it it, but SOMEONE likes it ;-)
Oops, hold on...the second dancer is a contorcionist (sp?) [sarcasm]Sure that will make you famous [/sarcasm]. Oh well, time to vote. I won't bore you with my thoughts on the final act. I'm just glad Arsenio has a day job.
2.3.03
Getting a bit anxious
How long does it take to put a stupid computer in a box!?! I mean c'mon!
Now that I got that out my system...I checked the online order status on Dell's site to see where my order is, and it is "In Production" under the "Boxing" stage. Funny thing is, it's been like that since like Thursday or Friday of last week. Either way, it seems like it really shouldn't take like a week to find a card board carton to pack my notebook in.
When I called Dell's "customer support", they said that it is usually in the Boxing stage around 24 hours before it is shipped out. On top of that, I have an estimated ship date of Feb 6th with an estimated delivery date between Feb 11th and 13th. So... in reality, to get this thing, it will take roughly 2 weeks? C'mon! No matter what "steps" they go through, that is extremely slow and the answers on their web site offer no comfort.
The sad thing is, after ordering my notebook, I started to pay attention to all of the bad comments about their customer service.... and starting to get second thoughs....
12.13.02
Know when to give up!
Martin Lawrence has a new movie coming out called National Security. After watching this trailer, it further sounded in my mind that he needs to quit the movie biz. Every single one of his movies has the same type of charature. Goofy, ignorant dancing, and stupid faces. I call actors like him, including Eddie Murphy, "canned actors."
These type of actors can't go beyond their trademark humor. I really noticed this in Martin after watching Black Knight. There was no distinction between his charature on his old show Martin, his role in Blue Streak and there will be no change in this up coming flick. The sad thing is that he will continue to be exploited by some greedy agent, and he doesn't seem to care.
12.8.02
People are ignorant
I know what this world has come to. But today it hit me when I came home to find my dog's house missing. Yeah, you read that right. Someone stole Sparky's house. Ignorant I tell you.
Shouldn't suprise me. Someone stole my rake out of my backyard about two years ago. Thing that kills me is the selective theft that is going on. I have a lawn mower back there that is just as open as anything else, but no...they don't need that, they need the dog house! The sad thing is that if they really wanted it, not needed it, just wanted it I would have given it to them.
Oh well, at least I can still look forward to cutting my yards next spring.
12.3.02
Boring phone call!
I'm here sitting on the phone listening to someone trying to tell me "how great their product is!" Not only do I not care to hear about it, I've heard how great this product is 5 times, but in different ways.
10.25.02
The older you get...
Ever since Nick At Night start re-running episodes of The Cosby Show, I've been glued to the tv. Although I grew up watching this show, seeing it while being grown adds a new perspective on things. One notably is Vanessa. For the life of me, I can't stand her charature. I'm not sure if it was the intention of the show's producers to make her into the whiny, fast daughter she was on the show... but that's the impression I get.
Most of this comes from watching the final season episodes when she goes off to college and decides to get engaged to Dabnus. While this short lived romance might have been 4 shows long, her "I'm grown now" attitude quickly became annoying and really didn't add any more depth to the series.
...or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.
10.13.02
Ugh!
I'm helping a friend fix their internet connection right now...on their dial up connection :( Man, when you get use to life in the fast lane, going back to a ~33.3k connection is murder!
10.12.02
Beggin' road
There is a street where I live called Halls Ferry. It is split into two parts, Old Halls Ferry and New Halls Ferry. Well over the past several years, there has been an influx of people looking for money donations to support their cause. First it was junior sport teams, then came different charities. This stretch of road is so bad now a days, driving home today led me to cross the path of a H.S. chearleader carwash, two charities, recovering drug addicts, and a corner being shared by a church on one end and Black Muslims on the other.
This is getting ridiculous!