RIAA gets their teeth filed down

Okay, so i'm behind in news items. Still think this is a great article that Sony has been found guilty and must refund consumers money for purchasing CD's that installed rootkit software on computers without user knowledge.

Here's the article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9000687&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

I'm glad to see the courts finally standing up to the big business's and telling them they can't do whatever they want to us consumers. At the same time, the only way to stop any of this is for the end buyer and user to stay aware of what is happening and to say "no, this is not acceptable" and doing something about it.

So to everyone that made their voices heard, joined the class action lawsuit or made sure CORRECT / VALID information was passed along to inform others, BRAVO! And to the big business that thinks they can do whatever they want with no repurcussions? Pay attention, we are not children to be patted on the head and say "it's for your own good".

Grandma Doesn't Know Everything

Grandfather sent me this joke in email and I had to laugh...thus if I laugh, it must be shared..........

Little Tony was staying with his grandmother for a few days.

He'd been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked her, "Grandma, what is that called when 2 people are sleeping in the same room and one is on top of the other?"

She was a little taken aback, but decided to tell him the truth. "It's called sexual intercourse, darling."

Little Tony just said, "Oh, OK" and went back outside to talk and play with the other kids.

A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily, "Grandma, it is not called sexual intercourse! It's called Bunk Beds! .. and Jimmy's Mom wants to talk to you"!!

How TV and Movies get their sound effects

It is official! I now understand where some of the sci fi sound effects come from. The new version of Dr. Who on sci fi has dahlinks (phonetic spelling works wonders) in it and they all have mechanical voices. Okay, they sound interesting, nothing a synthesizer can't easily do. But what made someone think to use that?

Answer: Person had allergies and it plugged up their ear drums!

One ear is plugged at about 80% currently, other ear at about 40%. Everything I listen to sounds like the dahlinks and it DEFINITELY makes you pay attention to the TV show more as you go "what in blue blazes is THAT sound????"

The things you find out when allergy season arrives :)

Technology and the Average User

I found this article today: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/06/one_year_ago_ha.html#posts?GT1=8211

Everyone is up in arms because this gentleman had his hard drive sold that was supposed to be destroyed. Does the gentleman in question have a right to be upset? UNQUESTIONABLY! He even was technologically saavy enough to KNOW he had personal information on it and that it was a potential issue.

The bigger question is this: We are giving technology to everyone to use in all aspects of our lives now and we are not educating the people in how to keep themselves safe. Recommendations now when sending in computers for warranty work? take your hard drive out and make them use one of their own. Once the computer is out of your hands, you have no control over it. If it is the hard drive that is the issue? BACKUP your data and use one of the 400 million programs to clean that hard drive (and no, cleaning it once is not an option...it takes 7 - 10 times of 0's and 1's writing to clean the disk and THAT isn't even foolproof).

The issue here, is that as a consumer and a person that uses technology, you must understand how the technology works, how it can be used and essentially be paranoid. If that means you have to get nasty or you have to get things in writing to make a person legally responsible, then so be it. Understand what you are using and what the consequences are. Be polite, be firm and YOU are the one that must decide when the risk is acceptable or not.

Allergies and Jokes

Since allergies decided to kick in this year....made it through the last 3 years with it being mild, guess i'm due..........okay, so trying to make yourself feel better about it doesn't really work, i'll pass on the jokes instead.

EVERYTHING HAS A GENDER

You may not know this but many nonliving things have a gender.

1. Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2. Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3. A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4. A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
5. Sponges are Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6. A Web Page is Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7. A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8. An Hourglass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9. A Hammer is Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10. A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it'd be male , didn't you? But consider this - it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!