February 2008

Things I'm Supposed to Care About (but don't)
Submitted Friday, February 29, 2008 - 1:39:35 PM by Klaitu

I dunno if this happens to you guys, but this happens to me all the time. I'm not talking about that one friend that you have that is obsessed with Elvis. Everyone has their own little "zone" they call home, I'm talking about things that "everybody" insists are important. There's a lot of these things.

- Britney Spears

I don't care what Britney Spears is doing. I never thought she was talented to begin with, but nowadays people track Britney not because of her so called "music" but because she's a complete nutcase. Why do I care? Well, I don't.

- Politics

"Politics are important, they decide who runs the country!" Well, you know I have an opinion on politics, and I do vote.. but beyond that, I don't care. Do I really need to listen to a year's worth of debates and arguing rich people? Do I care about the health plan that any political candidate supports? Not really.

- Voting

Now, this sort of goes with the above, but I really don't care about voting, either. Everyone says "your vote counts", but it really doesn't. Even in my own community, my vote is one vote in 700,000. That's not a very big piece of the pie.. and if you're talking a national election, like for president for instance, my vote counts even less. All delegates in my state will vote for McCain regardless of how I vote.. and really, regardless of McCain's stance on anything whatsoever. Sure, I'll vote, but I have no illusions that I actually did something productive.

- American Idol, America's Next Top Model, and Reality TV

I watch zero reality programming. the closest I get is American Chopper, and I don't really watch that very much. I don't care about who wins American Idol, primarily because I will never hear this person's music because I don't listen to the radio. America's Next Top Model? I can't even name America's current Top Model. It's like having "America's Next Expert Butter Inspector". Can you even name a model that has only modeled, and not been in a TV show or movie? I can't.

- Health Culture

Don't eat Bacon, it's bad for you! Eat Seeds, they're good for you! Ooh, these potato chips are better because they contain "47% less fat" let's buy those! People are obsessed with finding things that they don't feel guilty eating. It's almost like "I don't want to eat, but I have to, so I guess I should". How many calories are in a twix bar? I don't know, and I don't care. If I want one, I'll eat one. Diet Soda? Artificial Sweeteners? I'm sorry, you're nasty. No human person should ever consume you.. ever, except perhaps diabetics.

- internet "freedom"

The man is keeping those poor internet people down! They can't put up their kiddie porn without the man sweeping in and puttin on the cuffs! Remember to get full AES encryption for your laptop hard drive, because you don't want the government to come and steal your files and look at them and stuff! You know, I just don't care about internet freedom. I don't want to look at kiddie porn, and I don't care if the government wants my files, there's nothing in there!

- Windows "sucking"

Dude, you should totally switch to Mac/Linux. These operating systems are clearly superior! Well, you know what? no! I'm not saying that Windows is better, but it's what the whole world uses. What to Mac users do? They run a program that simulates Windows to use windows programs on their mac. What do Linux users do? They run a windows emulator when they need a program that only windows can do. Why would I switch from Windows, only to install a Windows emulator on a different OS?

- Internet Explorer "sucking"

Similar case. I don't use firefox or opera. I don't care that IE "sucks" and is "security vulnerable". I've never had a problem with it, and probably never will. Then again, I'm not surfing the back alleys of the internet looking for a crack for some game.

- Console Wars

Whoops, I own all of them. I win.

- Money

Don't get me wrong, I like money. I have to have money to survive. It lets me buy things that I enjoy, but I live in a community that is obsessed with money. "Gotta make more money so I can buy a better house/car/toy". People spend their lives chasing after more money, thinking that if they just have a little bit more of it, THEN things would be great. That never happens, though. Why can't you just be happy with what you have, and then if you happen to get more, it's a pleasant suprise?

This is what they tell me at work about the Mandatory Overtime I'm forced to do. "well, we pay you time and a half!" which is true. But I already make enough money to pursue my own interests. I am content with what I have, and so "more money" is not any motivation to me at all. This seems to blow people's minds, they can't understand why the prospect of "time and a half" wouldn't override "working 12 hours a day for 5 months". And really, who ever says on their deathbed "If only I had done more hours of overtime!"

- Social Networking

There's all sorts of Social Network sites out there.. Utterz is one of them that you might have noticed here. Myspace is another, Facebook, that kinda thing. It's true, I do use some of them.. why just the act of blogging is Social Networking.

but I also don't keep up on the latest and greatest. There are people who can't "tear themselves away" from their e-mail. They become obsessed with their blackberries, their mobile devices, etc. They even have sites that interface with your mobile devices.

Perhaps the most pressing example that I don't get is twitter. It essentially lets you text message a website and post a mini blog. I don't understand the appeal of this at all. If I were to use twitter it would just be a string of "Okay, I woke up" "now I'm in my car" "now I'm at work" "now I'm at lunch" "I'm going home now" "Okay, it's bed time!" Who wants to read that? I wouldn't even read my own twitter, if I had one.

Not to say that there's anything wrong with twitter, I just don't "get it". I also "don't get" facebook and myspace, but I have accounts on both of them for communicating with friends who do.

So, why Utterz? It lets me add a feature I couldn't ordinarily do: voice. If I had some other means of putting voice on the site, I probably wouldn't use it either.

- Horse and Carrot treadmill

This is the obsession of people to do the same thing over and over and over the same way to gain a reward that is nowhere near as valuable as the effort expended.

The easiest to describe example is in World of Warcraft. In WoW, there is only one set of best equipment. It's best, and it's also rare. How do you get it? You go to a really hard dungeon, and fight some really hard monsters. It takes hours, and when you're done, you have a *chance* of getting the item that you're looking for.

People have run through these dungeons hundreds, maybe thousands of times trying to collect all of the armor pieces they feel they absolutely must have. They absolutely love to do the same thing over and over and over without variety. They love it so much that WoW is one of the most popular games around.

What happens when they get all the armor pieces? You've got me on that one. I suppose they stand in populated areas and show off their armor.

WoW is just an example, people do this sort of thing in all sorts of games.. and in real life too.

- Conclusion

Anyways, that's just some things I don't care about, but other people seem to want me to care about. It's just my opinions on things, so if yours differs, more power to ya. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.

Colombian bunrunners
Submitted Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 1:33:30 PM by Klaitu

Awesome!

Blu-Ray won.
Submitted Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 1:06:26 AM by Klaitu

If you haven't heard by now, Blu-Ray won the next-gen format war. Toshiba announced today that they're throwing in the towel.

I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I really don't see how they thought they could win to begin with. Their format was not only technically inferior, but they didn't promote it hardcore like sony did the blu-ray. The thing that made the difference (as I have mentioned before) was the PS3 having the Blu-Ray.

When the Playstation 2 came out, there was a big clamor for it here in the US, but over in Japan, the best selling software for the Playstation 2 was The Matrix on DVD. During that time, DVD players were not common in Japan, and the Playstation 2 nearly singlehandedly cornered the DVD player market by being the cheapest one around.

Sony just did the same thing again by putting the Blu-Ray in the PS3. While here in america, the X-box 360 is a competitor, in Japan it barely exists.. but in Japan, if you want video games what are you going to buy? You're going to buy a Wii or a PS3.

The reason that blu-ray is so expensive is it requires a special laser that is difficult to get components before because nobody makes them. Nobody makes them because there was little demand for them.

So, Sony makes the PS3 that uses this laser (blu-ray players use the same laser). Tons of Japanese guys buy the PS3 and more are interested. The demand for the PS3 goes up, and the market demand for the new lasers goes up. More lasers are made, more factories retool to make the lasers, and the price per unit of the lasers goes down.

As the price per laser goes down, sony loses less money per PS3 sold. Eventually, Sony will make money off PS3 sales. The PS3 will drop in price, and still sony will make money off of them. (at present, sony makes up its PS3 losses with PS2 sales)

Sony was in their format for the long-haul and marketed it worldwide.

Toshiba in making the HD-DVD had a strong partner in microsoft. Microsoft could have pushed HD-DVD more by including it in their 360. Doing so would insure that Toshiba would have at least some market share for the entire life of the 360 (about 5 years). MS also has leverage over large manufacturers like Dell, and could have put pressure on them to hock more HD-DVD units.

They didn't, however.

Now that the format war is over, Paramount and Universal (the only two holdouts on HD-DVD) will pretty much be forced to switch to blu-ray. This is very good news because now we'll finally be able to watch Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and Indiana Jones in High-definition! hoot!

More Hertz
Submitted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 11:07:46 PM by Klaitu

Alright, so I've run into a lot of Hertz questions recently from people outside the workplace, so I figured I'd share all this stuff for other people to see. If you travel a lot, you might find this information useful, particularly if you deal with rental cars.

1. Can you get me a rental car for cheap?

Nope. I can get a rental car at about 50% off for myself. There is a program that I can give you a discounted rate, but you can get a better rate on your own, especially if you're a member of AAA.

2. How does smoking and non-smoking cars work?

All Hertz cars are non-smoking, until some yokel smokes in them. The more people who have rented a particular car, the higher a probability that someone has smoked in it. So, if you are a smoker, and you want a smoking car, you will get an older car.

3. Whats the High mileage on a rental car?

Hertz won't keep a car past 35,000 miles. That's when the warranty runs out, and Hertz is miserly, they don't like to pay for anything.

4. If something happens to the car, do I have to pay for it?

It depends! The general rule is that if there's something spontaneously wrong with the car (a belt breaks, a fuse blows, the ignition gets jammed, the air conditioner doesn't work, etc) you won't have to pay for it.

If you caused your own condition.. (locked your keys in your car, left the lights on and ran down the battery, got yourself stuck in a ditch) you can expect to pay for service. You may get lucky if you are driving a GM car though, because GM covers these things for free, and if you can get free service, Hertz won't charge you.

If you abandon a driveable car, are arrested by the police, or have a suspended license, you'll be charged for everything Hertz can hit you with.

If you entirely lose the keys, you'll be charged for the key replacement, as well as any other charges, like towing or locksmith charges. However, the Loss-damage waiver covers these charges.

If you ran over something and blew a tire, crashed into a tree, or someone broke out your window and stole your stuff the claim will be submitted to insurance, and they will decide if you pay or not.

5. Do I have to go back to the Hertz location to exchange my car?

If the car is driveable, yes.
If the car is not driveable, and due to an accident, yes.
If the car is not driveable because a mechanical problem, no.

6. How does #1 club service, gold service, president's circle, or platinum service affect roadside service?

The level of service determines in what manner you rent cars and what cars you get when you rent. Insofar as roadside assistance, all Hertz members get the same service, regardless of their membership status.

If you end up exchanging your vehicle, the exchange location is only obligated to give you the class of car on your rental rate, so if you were "gold upgraded" (youre paying for a mid-size, but driving a full size) the exchange location can choose to give you a mid-size, and doesn't have to give you a full-size car.

Yeah, I know it sucks, but I can't change it.. and neither can you.

7. I reserved a specific class of car, but when I arrived, Hertz didn't have it.

This likely happened because Hertz books more reservations than it has cars. It sounds silly, but nearly half the people who book a reservation never show up for the car. If you didn't get the car you wanted, it's because more people showed up than Hertz expected to.

In other words, they guess. Sometimes they guess poorly, particularly during travel seasons and holidays.

8. I'm angry at Hertz because something bad happened!

You need to talk to a manager at the place that you rented from, or the place that you returned the car to. That manager can make adjustments and attempt to compensate you. If you have an old rental, the Customer Service department might be able to get you discounts off future rentals.

All the other people at Hertz can't do anything. The Hertz employee structure is designed so that each department can only do one thing. A counter representative can't change your tire, because Hertz has people for tire changing, and he's not one of them.

This is also the reason why a counter agent can't bring you a car. He's not allowed to drive the cars because Hertz has guys that do that.

If you don't know who to talk to, generally all the Hertz people know who does what job, so they should be able to connect you with the right person for the job.

9. I am trying to call the local Hertz and they won't answer.

Yeah. They do that. They do that a lot. They don't even answer their "top secret" employee only lines. If you're wanting to do something that requires you to get ahold of a Hertz counter, expect to devote at least 20 minutes to dialling time. you might get through on the first try, and if so, you're lucky.

Yeah, I know it sucks. In 2006 Hertz fired about 60% of its employees and hasn't hired many people back. For instance, in Atlanta they fired all the car washing guys. This meant that the managers had to go and wash the cars, and that nobody was doing their managing duties.

So, It's bad customer service, but the guy that eventually answers the phone probably has worked over 50 hours that week for pay slightly better than the cart pusher guy at wal-mart. He'd love to answer those calls more often, but there just aren't enough people to go around.

10. I want to buy a car accessory and be reimbursed!

This can happen, and it's probably the only Hertz policy that doesn't fit their miserly criteria.. probably because nobody knows it exists.

Do you need an Ice scraper? a map? some oil? Do you need a tire plugged, windshield wipers replaced, or fuses fixed? Hertz will reimburse you for all those repairs and more, but you have to call them first and get approval. If you don't call them, you won't get reimbursed.

This can be helpful when you blow a tire in bumville Kentucky, or happen to be anywhere in the states of Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming.

11. I don't like Hertz policy on X!

No hertz employee you will ever meet has anything to do with Hertz policy. In fact, most Hertz employees feel the same way you do, and are just as powerless as you to change the policies.

The powers on-high define what each employee can or cannot do. The people you'll talk to are paid hourly, and more than likely do not have a college degree. Actually, the low-level customer service employees you will interact with often can't afford the very same cars they rent out.

In other words, there is a limit to how much they can bend over backward for you, and after that point they're stuck.

12. Can I rent a car and then go jump it in a motocross and completely thrash it?

If you feel like buying the car, then sure. Hertz has an entire department of people who investigate that. When in doubt, they'll charge you. Hertz loves money, and if it can get ahold of your money, it will.

Not the battle you'd think of..
Submitted Monday, February 18, 2008 - 2:14:21 AM by Klaitu

I recently was speaking to a friend of mine at work, and this fellow is, I believe from Morocco (though I'm not 100% on that). He's from one of the Arab states, and he now lives in America. He'a an American citizen, in fact, and he and I were talking about the somewhat odd situation with the Democratic candidates. Hillary vs Obama, that sort of thing.

Now, I evade politics at work, as there really is no good answer to any question, everyone has an answer to everything, most of which are just in their own head and have no factual basis whatsoever. (I'm not saying my friend is this way, just in general) I do, however, find it interesting to see how other people view the world, particularly people with a different upbringing than my own.

Turns out that my friend is a big Obama fan. Obama vs Hillary, Obama vs Republicans.. its Obama all the way. I asked him about the Republican race and what he thought about that, and it was interesting his response.

He said that he didn't like republicans much because they put the Japanese in Internment camps during world War 2. He equated putting Japanese in these camps with what the Nazis did to the Jews during the same period. This struck me as odd.

Firstly, the internment camps were instituted by FDR, a democrat.. but that part I didn't really find interesting. It was the link between the Holocaust and the Japanese Internment Camps. After several minutes of my questioning, it was clear that he considered them both equally heinous.

I hadn't really thought about it before. Were these events of equal barbarity? It got me to thinking, and that happens rarely at work.

In the end, I have to conclude that they are not equal, not even close.

The Holocaust was a concentrated and planned attempt by a majority to eradicate an entire race. Jews weren't just put in internment camps and starved, they were killed, tortured, gassed, burned alive.. and only heaven knows what else the Nazis came up with.

The Japanese interment camps were, no doubt about it, a horrible policy. They happened because the war with Japan made Americans xenophobic of all things asian. So, they created the internment camps supposedly as a "means of security" against largely non-existant spies.

The Japanese internment camps weren't built to kill people, and Japanese people weren't thrown into gas chambers. America was at war with Japan, was paranoid, and shouldnt have put them in there, but also wasn't attempting to wipe the Japanese people from the face of the earth.

For lack of a better word, I'd desrcibe the Internment camps as horrible, atrocious, and an affront to civil liberties.

I'd describe the Holocaust as a work of pure, unadulterated evil.

My friend remains unconvinced, and he will act and vote accordingly, I am sure.

BUT

Here's the kicker.. I didn't antagonize my friend over our conversation, it wouldn't serve any purpose. In my own mind, I am convinced of my position in the argument 100%. It seems illogical to me that someone would blatantly ignore the facts staring right at them.

My friend believes as strongly as I do in the opposite. I'm sure from his perspective, he doesn't understand how I couldn't believe the same way that he does.

Who is right, and who is wrong? Does it even really matter? If it does, what should we do about it? Is there a positive result from impressing the "right answer" on someone?

I still think I'm right, but I'm willing to listen to further evidence.

Super Pursuit Mode!
Submitted Monday, February 18, 2008 - 1:37:19 AM by Klaitu

*beeep*

*gunshot*

*speed up film*

And that's why it's so awesome.

Knight Rider 2008
Submitted Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 10:55:12 PM by Klaitu

I am a huge fan of the original Knight Rider. Why? Two words: Talking car. You can't go wrong with a talking car, and KITT was the coolest. I watched the show when I was a kid, never missed an episode. In fact, I can tell you most of the plot details about any episode.

Knight Rider 2008 was pretty good, but it had serious problems unrelated to the show. I'll start with the bad, and then move to the good.

Problem 1: 5 minutes of story, 7 minutes of commercial, 5 minutes of story.

This was an hour long show put into a 2 hour timeslot, the result is about an hour and 15 minutes of commercials.. most of them Ford commercials.

Problem 2: Action, Action, Action, Action, Action.

Did we forget about the story here? There is little plot to the movie, it's mainly just action scenes back to back. I like action as much as the next guy, but come on.. you have to have down time in the middle, otherwise it's just a big blur of car stunts.

Problem 3: CGI.

I understand that CGI is cool, and its a good way to get some effects done. My problem here is the use of CGI to do things like.. show a car driving. Couldn't you just drive the car and film that? Heck, the original did. How hard could it be?

Props 1: Not ignoring the original

Other Knight Rider franchises tried to pretend the original didnt exist, but this one embraces the original. There's even an appearance by The Hoff himself.

Props 2: Val Kilmer as KITT

Val Klimer might be fat now, but his voice makes an excellent KITT. Nobody can top Mr. Feeny, but Val Klimer doesn't do a bad job, not at all.

Props 3: Pursuit mode.

Nobody remembers what Pursuit mode is. In the original series, KITT had pursuit mode which had him spout some extra fins and go extra super fast. The new KITT has this as well. However, the original KITT's main maneuver, the Turbo Boost was entirely absent.

So, there you have it. It's certified Knight Rider, albeit with a little too many commercials. Pilot for a series? I'd watch it.

Overall Score: 6 of 10.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
Submitted Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 10:42:14 PM by Klaitu

In continuing the trend of trying MMO's that I once tried before, I looked up Vanguard.

I remember when Vanguard was first planned by Sigil Games. It had a lot of ideas that I could really get behind.. a huge world, an emphasis on roleplay, player-owned housing. Crafting, combat.. everything was planned, and the plan was awesome. I was sold on the plan.

Then the screenshots came out, and they weren't bad. And videos came out, and they were pretty good too.

Then, Sigil tanked and sony bought the game, and released it before it was ready.

So many good plans, down the drain. They had a lot of the right ideas, but they never finished them. Most importantly, they forgot the polish. Your game isn't going anywhere when your walking animation doesn't even look right.

Such is the story with Vanguard. I tried it again, but it was pretty much like it was in beta. Poor graphics engine, poor gameplay. In fact, Vanguard started with 13 servers, which were merged onto 4 servers because nobody would play it. Not even Ultima Online has had to do that.

It's a shame too, so much potential wasted.

Overall Score: 2 of 10

I'll go see it.
Submitted Thursday, February 14, 2008 - 2:23:36 PM by Klaitu

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Submitted Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 3:26:21 PM by Klaitu

Did you ever want to blow up the Earth because Lando Calrissian told you to?

You CAN in Command and Conquer 3!

CNC3 brings the series back to its oldschool roots. Awesome cheesy cutscenes, cool army units.. impossibly hard gameplay. It's all here!

If you liked the first Command and Conquer, you'll like this one. It's essentially the same game.

And it's got 2 people from BSG, Lando, Michael Ironsides, and some people from Lost.

Overall Score: 5 of 10

EVE Online: 3 years later
Submitted Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 3:11:51 PM by Klaitu

I have to admit how I came around to EVE again. It may be the second time I have ever clicked a banner ad in my life. In this instance, Penny Arcade had banner ads up for the new expansion: EVE Online Trinity.

EVE has always had awesome banner ads, and awesome trailers, so I figured I would go and check out their latest videos. I found something that I didn't expect.. perhaps one of the most awesome video game trailers ever made:

CCNA
Submitted Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 2:31:42 PM by Klaitu

CCNA stands for Cisco Certified Network Associate. It's a corporate certification that says "Hey, I knows how to make that network go!" and it costs $1,600 to obtain it.

It just so happens that I have $1,600 lying around, so I've more or less decided to go for it. It's got a year long course and everything that's supposed to teach you what you need to know to get the certification.

Trouble is, Hertz wants me to work 12 hour days. They want me to work them until October. I did that last year, and the year before that. I was told they were supposed to get this thing under control. They haven't.

In the very near future, I won't be working for Hertz anymore, which is a shame. I really like the people that work there, I just can't stand the company and the customers. Who knows, maybe I'll get this certification and then *I* will be the guy who breaks the network just when everyone needs it most!

I'll keep all.. 2 of you readers updated!

Masi Oka in His finest Role
Submitted Monday, February 11, 2008 - 12:15:41 PM by Klaitu

Awesome!

Why Humans Hate Microsoft
Submitted Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 2:44:32 AM by Klaitu

This is the sort of thing you see less of these days, but back in the day, Microsoft used to be all about this sort of thing.

I was toying around with my Windows Services, when I came across something called "Interactive Services Detection".

Is this something Windows needs to run? Well, it was running, so I decided to look it up. Here'e the official Microsoft description:

Enables user notification of user input for interactive services, which enables access to dialogs created by interactive services when they appear. If this service is stopped, notifications of new interactive service dialogs will no longer function and there may no longer be access to interactive service dialogs. If this service is disabled, both notifications of and access to new interactive service dialogs will no longer function.

Approaching Burnout
Submitted Monday, February 4, 2008 - 1:48:55 PM by Klaitu

It's getting to the point with my job that I just can't take it anymore. It's not that the public is stupid, which a lot of them are.. I can deal with stupid, it's the constant influx of calls.

I mean, when someone calls me, it's because something is broken. I can't fix it, they have to fix it.. I just tell them how. I tell them about 40 times a day. No matter how many calls I take, there are still more people out there that are calling, there is no victory, there is only more of the same: calls.

Now is the time to search for a new job before I completely burn out on this one. It's going to happen soon, I feel it coming, and I don't know of any way to stop it.