Thursday, March 23, 2006

Windows And Macintosh Sitting In A Tree

Good news about the Mac + Windows marriage. Someone figured out how to run XP on the new Intel Macs (for a grand prize of about $13k). Within a week of that happening, someone has written a very rough video driver for the Mac hardware to even start playing games... Windows games on a Mac! It just sounds weird but it's long overdue. Mac machines with Windows software is a very good thing. Giving consumers more options is always good for everyone but this also means PC makers will feel the heat of making PC's better looking. No more ugly, clunky beige boxes. Time to get sleek guys or you're out of business!

And kudos to Apple and Microsoft for not stepping in to stop the Mac + Win modding. Of course Microsoft is ok with it. They're happy to have their software on every device in the universe as part of their world domination plans, but Apple being ok with it might be worrying them a bit. Fear not. It really and ultimately is good for them. Support it! Sony continues to clamp down on PSP hacking, they don't want Mario on their device and they are going to pay with losing sales for doing that.

WinMacs. Good times.

Monday, March 20, 2006

MYOB

I'm not interested in people who tell me what I can't do. Mainly, because they're wrong and not just from a logistics point of view, I mean their reasons for why I shouldn't are completely baseless.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Government vs. Business: Who Should Be Our Keeper?

Here's the difference between government running our lives versus big business and why Libertarians are mostly pro market and if we had to choose a jailer, we would let companies rule our lives over politicians.

When it was discovered that Sony was spying on our activities via their rootkit software that came on their music CDs and installed itself on your computer if you tried playing the CD on the computer, they were very apologetic about it, immediately removed the spy software from their products and offered to exchange the infected discs with clean ones. Despite this sympathetic response, it is a reputation strike they are still suffering from.

When it was discovered that the U.S. government was spying on American citizens via their phone taps, their reply was, (paraphrasing) 'Well we need to do this. What are you going to do about it?'

See the difference?

If Sony has a bad reputation, they can try to fire their CEO or president or whomever but the bad rep sticks with the company name. It's not good enough to let the leader go in a company. It might help a little, but the bad stigma sticks with the name because the business was responsible for the action. What do you think of when I say Exxon, Firestone, Phillip Morris (changed their name for this very reason), Kathy Lee Gifford, Haliburton, Worldcom. Imagine if Enron were still open for business?

So if the American people are this harsh on companies for messing around with us, why aren't we very critical about our government? Why do we think we can replace our leader, our ceo, our president with a new one and somehow the evil will go away? People - our government is the beast, not the leader. This beast has a nature and regardless of who's leading it, it has the wrong intentions and it will execute those intentions with no regard to the individual.

It's not enough to just overthrow the leader. We need to hold the whole "company" responsible, make it want our attention, our money, our support like a lapdog that it should be; that it used to be. The American government doesn't have to answer to us because we don't hold anything over it. It already takes our money without our permission. It takes our money before we even see it! And if it wants something else; property, kids, job, freedom, life, it will take that too and has taken those things from others.

Is this how it should be? Who is serving whom here?

Friday, March 03, 2006

Baby Lock In Daycare

Baby Lock starts daycare today for the first time. She's never really been anywhere around a group of kids other than the store or mall and certainly not anywhere without our presence since she was born.

It's tough for any parent to willingly do something to make their kid more independent. And I hate to recap the parental cliche 'You'll understand when you have kids' but it's true. As a kid, I couldn't wait to be free of my family and didn't understand their meddling. Now, as a parent, I have an instinct to not let my kid be independent. Everything she should need she can get from us. Fortunately, my sensibility and my want for her to be well adjusted in a society that she needs to learn to deal with is much stronger than that instinct. But I am aware of it.

So Mrs. Lock dropped Baby Lock off at the daycare this morning. When she got home, here was our IM conversation.

Mrs.Lock: Well, she's there
Mrs.Lock: There is a big, chubby little girl in there that seems like a bit of a bully
Mr.Lock: I'm sure it's fine
Mr.Lock: So no probs dropping her off?
Mrs.Lock: Nope... she seemed Ok
Mrs.Lock: I was filling out a form and heard her start crying, and the daycare lady said "No, Merrick! Be nice to Baby Lock!"
Mr.Lock: uh oh
Mr.Lock: Probably took something
Mrs.Lock: Yeah, I let her take the little lamb, but I don't think I'll let her take toys with her in the future
Mr.Lock: She's growing up!
Mrs.Lock: The daycare lady has a speech impediment
Mrs.Lock: I didn't notice before
Mrs.Lock: She can't say her R's
Mr.Lock: You gonna get any work done?
Mrs.Lock: I don't know... I have to take a shower still
Mrs.Lock: And I'm sad, but I'm not crying
Mrs.Lock: It's so quiet in here
Mrs.Lock: And all these toys are on the floor, but no one is playing with them
Mr.Lock: She's got a whole new set to check out now. She'll be thrilled
Mrs.Lock: I'm going to pick her up at 11:30, that way she'll get to eat lunch there
Mr.Lock: ok
Mrs.Lock: I feel weird... I miss my baby
Mr.Lock: It's normal
Mr.Lock: For over a year you've always had her right there even if you weren't consciously thinking of her. That's why I was asking if you were going to get any work done.
Mr.Lock: It'll get easier and pretty quick
Mrs.Lock: Ok, I cried a little... I think I'm OK, but I have to pick up these toys
Mr.Lock: k
Mr.Lock: The right decision is usually the hardest one to make
Mr.Lock: She's developing into something I'm very much looking forward to and can't wait for her to get here
Mrs.Lock: Yeah, she is... she is an awesome kid
Mr.Lock: The best one we've got!
Mrs.Lock: Cute, sweet, and smart...
Mrs.Lock: With the right amount of sass

I should preface this event with a story that happened a couple of weeks ago and one we worry about now that she's in daycare. The family and I were out at a restaurant having dinner. Baby Lock was in the high chair at our table. In the restaurant there was a three year old girl running around being friendly with everyone. All smiles. She ran up to me as soon as we entered the restaurant and was asking me a bunch of questions, in Spanish. I didn't answer because I didn't understand. The combination of the foreign language and a toddler's underdeveloped pronunciations made it difficult. I just smiled and walked to the counter to order.

When the little girl and her family were leaving, she walked up to Baby Lock with big smiles. Put her face to my daughter's face, hands on her cheeks, nose to nose then something happened that put us into a state of shock. So much that we couldn't respond right away. Baby Lock pulled back her arm and took a swing at the three year old in her face. The first strike was a miss. WHIFF! When we witnessed that, we froze, desperately trying to calculate what we just saw.

The second attempt though connected and pretty solidly, smacking the girl across her cheek. We were still frozen at this point, in block of ice, jaws on the table. An incredible sight to see your offspring engaged in combat for the first time.

When we finally recovered our sense of speech I just started apologizing profusely. Over and over. The little girl victim started crying. The parents seemed very understandable and forgiving and bless them for not coming down on us in public about our child's actions. We were very embarrassed and had no idea how to react to this situation. It was our first embarrassing incident as a result of our child in a public place and I'm sure there are many more to come. Ugh.

A coworker of mine asked me what's better, having your kid be the bully or be the victim. I reluctantly agreed the bully is better but both are very very bad.

So now my bully kid is in a room with a dozen other kids. I'm looking forward to see how her day went.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Debit Card MIA

I lost my debit card this week. I think I left it at a Steak and Shake although a call to them revealed they don't have it.

So I'm calling my bank to report it lost. I get the automated voice response menu and one of the questions it asks me is to enter the number of the stolen or lost card. What victim has that information? Do people really memorize their debit card number? I just don't think this is a very popular option in the automated menu.

Thank God for 0.

--

I haven't done an monthly snapshot in awhile. Let's see what's up with me.

Market:
DJI 11004, NASDAQ 2306, SP5 1285

#1 Movie at the box office:
Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion

Last movie I saw at the theater:
King Kong

Last movie(s) I saw not at the theater:
Aristocrats (DVD)
Super Troopers (TV)

Books I'm currently reading:
Bourne Trilogy by Robert Ludlum. (On #2, Supremecy right now)
Healing Our World In An Age of Agression by Mary Ruwart

Albums (cd/mp3) I'm listening to:
Sountrack to Pirates of the Carribean (Black Pearl)
Various Rasputina albums

Video games I'm playing:
World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft and more World of Warcraft (56 Druid, 44 Warlock, 17 Priest)

Price I'm paying for gas:
$2.12/gallon

Last several Google searches:

audio hijack
penn radio
ave maria catholic town
"lazy sunday"
"Port Magic Application"
fedora
badelt "underwater march"
windows media player 10 download
maslow's hierarchy
online linux courses
jeep models
birthday paradox
cato institute