Of all all these rich liberals who support Obama and his ilk, why is it none of them ever offers additional money to the government, and I would suspect, tend to engage in every tactic possible to avoid, at least legally, paying taxes?
Many of these liberals support charitable causes and are generous with their money, often doing many admirable things to help others. However, they are never more generous to the government they vocally adore, or the President whom they treat, sometimes literally, as a deity, than they need to be. We can be sure of this because no self-respecting liberal in the public eye would contribute in such a way without using it as an example, or even as a means of self-aggrandizement, especially if the person is a politician.
And yet, in a time when the President and Congress are growing our government at a rate faster than any time except perhaps World War II, why are none of the supporters of these overreaching statists setting a good example and demonstrating their obvious faith in the government by making contributions to it? Why don't they put their money where there mouths are? If it's good enough for Joe the Plumber, why isn't it good enough for Barbra Streisand? Can't you imagine the fanfare of some great would-be philoanthropist personally handing a giant check for, say, one million dollars to a Senator or Congressman, or (gasp!) even the President himself, to be deposited into the general treasury? What a photo op that would be!
Is it because, they, like every good American, know that it's largely a waste? Is it possible that even in their minds, sodden as they are with visions of the Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent State, they acknowledge the universal truth that the Federal government is largely incompetent, wasteful and even corrupt?
I respect the idea of people of any political mien sharing their money with any cause they deem appropriate, because that is their right, even duty. Many liberals support causes such as the environment, education, and eliminating poverty, causes that transcend politics and support of which does much good. But none of them, so far as I've ever heard, are willing to turn over their largesse to the coffers of government. Why do these folks get to pick how their money is spent, but want everyone else, especially the rich, to have no say? Sure, they might contribute to building a playground, or a clinic, or a nature preserve, all admirable causes, but isn't the government also an admirable cause? And if not, why not?
Of course, charity is not always prevalent among these kinds of people. Why are people like the Obamas and the Bidens, who, though rich, contributing almost nothing to charity, while constantly lecturing us, even preaching to us, about how we must sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, for the good of others?
Hasn't anyone in Washington ever learned one of the most basic lessons of life that you sway more people by actions than words? I mean even if the likes of President George W. Bush, who contributes far more than any recent Democrat president, are giving charity solely for appearance's sake, they're still doing it. Appearance is everything in politics, we are led to believe, so wouldn't even the appearance of caring for others be worth enough to contribute generously, regardless of the actual effect or intent?
Are these politicians really that dense? Do they really not care? Are they truly the hypocrites they appear to be? Is there any other conceivable explanation?
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Republicans in the Era of Obama
So it seems the Republicans are now beating the Democrats in one of those generic (i.e., meaningless) Rasmussen polls. Huh. How about that? The Bible the President was sworn in on isn't even cool yet, and things are already trending to the Other Guys. The President has the lowest approval rating of any President in the last 40 years, except Clinton, at the proverbial "100 Days" mark and people are starting to look back to the opposition party they just got through tossing out of office. Wow. Short attention span much?
My first reaction is, "The Republicans? Are they even still around?" How many times are we going to play this stupid game? The Democrats spent decades running up spending and bloating the government, so we kick them out and vote in the Republicans, who will save us from the incompetent Democrats. The Republicans proceed to, er, run up spending and bloat the government, so we kick _them_ out and vote the Democrats back in, to save us from the corrupt Republicans. Oh, yeah, now we remember why we hated the Democrats. They're incompetent. Say... those Republicans are looking pretty good right now.
Does anyone else see a pattern here? It's the Battered Wife Syndrome. Conservatives keep going back to the Republicans based on the promise, true decades ago, but no longer, that they will help reform government and possibly rescue it from teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Then we get kicked in the nadgers. But we keep coming back, because, gosh!, where else are we going to go?
When will this country get a proper conservative, small-government, individual freedom/responsibility party, because I watched the Republicans from 2000 to 2006 and they certainly weren't that party? They essentially took a dive in 2008 by running yet another candidate whose heart wasn't in the race (shades of Bush 1 and Dole), and elected a total enabler for the worst Congress in the history of the Republic. Remind me again why they deserve anyone's support? Because they oppose the President's seemingly deliberate economic sabotage and surrender-monkey foreign policy? Sorry, that's not enough. Not nearly enough.
Right now, the Republicans track record is abysmal on almost every issue except National Security. There is no one at the national level that inspires any kind of confidence and support from the beleaguered true conservatives, who keep hanging in there, doing their jobs, obeying the law, raising moral families and being productive citizens. The few that were there have sold themselves out so thoroughly even True Believers have given up hope, seemingly being less capable of doublethink and more immune to self-deception than the Obama worshippers.
There are some good possibilities for the future from the state level, Governors Palin, Jindal, Perry and Sanford, but since the Chairman of the RNC apparently, like our President, was picked for his skin color as opposed to having anything to offer to the job, the Republican Party at the national level is, as far as I'm concerned, moribund. The Zombie Party won't save us from the Cult of Personality and its army of Useful Idiots. "Night of the Living Dead" didn't have so much aimless shambling around.
It's going to take a lot more than agreeing that Obama is bad for this country in order to save it.
My first reaction is, "The Republicans? Are they even still around?" How many times are we going to play this stupid game? The Democrats spent decades running up spending and bloating the government, so we kick them out and vote in the Republicans, who will save us from the incompetent Democrats. The Republicans proceed to, er, run up spending and bloat the government, so we kick _them_ out and vote the Democrats back in, to save us from the corrupt Republicans. Oh, yeah, now we remember why we hated the Democrats. They're incompetent. Say... those Republicans are looking pretty good right now.
Does anyone else see a pattern here? It's the Battered Wife Syndrome. Conservatives keep going back to the Republicans based on the promise, true decades ago, but no longer, that they will help reform government and possibly rescue it from teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Then we get kicked in the nadgers. But we keep coming back, because, gosh!, where else are we going to go?
When will this country get a proper conservative, small-government, individual freedom/responsibility party, because I watched the Republicans from 2000 to 2006 and they certainly weren't that party? They essentially took a dive in 2008 by running yet another candidate whose heart wasn't in the race (shades of Bush 1 and Dole), and elected a total enabler for the worst Congress in the history of the Republic. Remind me again why they deserve anyone's support? Because they oppose the President's seemingly deliberate economic sabotage and surrender-monkey foreign policy? Sorry, that's not enough. Not nearly enough.
Right now, the Republicans track record is abysmal on almost every issue except National Security. There is no one at the national level that inspires any kind of confidence and support from the beleaguered true conservatives, who keep hanging in there, doing their jobs, obeying the law, raising moral families and being productive citizens. The few that were there have sold themselves out so thoroughly even True Believers have given up hope, seemingly being less capable of doublethink and more immune to self-deception than the Obama worshippers.
There are some good possibilities for the future from the state level, Governors Palin, Jindal, Perry and Sanford, but since the Chairman of the RNC apparently, like our President, was picked for his skin color as opposed to having anything to offer to the job, the Republican Party at the national level is, as far as I'm concerned, moribund. The Zombie Party won't save us from the Cult of Personality and its army of Useful Idiots. "Night of the Living Dead" didn't have so much aimless shambling around.
It's going to take a lot more than agreeing that Obama is bad for this country in order to save it.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
The Perfect Rock Ballad
And now for something completely different... I wrote this back in September 2003, but wanted to post it (with a little editing) for some friends to read. It regards a song from Spock's Beard's "Feel Euphoria" release from that summer.
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Rick's Top Ten Reasons Why "Shining Star" is the Perfect Rock Ballad
First off, I'm generally not a big fan of rock ballads. I think the form was generally perfected by Justin Hayward's and John Lodge's laments of unrequited love in the mid 70's and has generally been beat to an undignified death in the intervening years. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't numerous good examples still being produced, usually in non-obvious places.
Here's my list of 10 reasons why this is, in my opinion the perfect rock love song, in no particular order.
1. Nick's vocals are clean, clear and emotive. He doesn't have that raspy, limited range singing that plagues most rock balladeers, nor does he beat us senseless with brutal and shrill vocal gymnastics like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey, etc. He just sings the song, does it well, and does a superb job of displaying the affection he feels for Tiffany.
2. This is no wimpy song even if it is mellow. It is definitely crankable, thanks to excellent production, Nick's tasty, groovy, understated drums, Al's great guitar, and especially Dave's smoov, sexy bass playing. The song has real mass behind it. Plus, it would be great to dance to.
3. Tambourine. 'Nuff said.
4. The refrain takes a different direction. Just like "Carie", the song takes a few unpredictable turns, which keep it from being a just a boring, old MoR radio staple, but a really cool piece of music. The ending is even better because being rather abrupt it leaves you wanting just a bit more.
5. The lyrics. First we know it's a real song about real people, which is a big plus, because we have all heard Tiffany talk about Nick and see that they seem to have that story book romance. The tactile references in the beginning are very evocative ("wind flows over me", "blood rush to my skin") and contrast neatly with the spiritual overtones ("You're there to open a door", "Shine your light on me" "the love that lights my way") highlighting the emotional/intellectual aspect with the physical/sensual aspect of deep, abiding romantic love. Very powerful, when you really start to think about it.
6. Like any good love song, there is an element of longing... we know the particulars: Nick is on the road for weeks at a time, and that absence is a hardship even as it paradoxically contributes to the strength of a relationship.
7. How could I not mention Al's guitar... dreamy, expressive yet subtle, the solo is short, sweet, and perfect for the moment. The steel guitar-style sound in the beginning complements the fretless bass in an awesome way to create a warm, fuzzy safe feeling that perfectly echoes the mood of the words... and the little volume-control bits remind me of another perfect rock ballad "Walking on Air" from King Crimson's "Thrak", a song that has a lot of similar elements.
8. The first few notes at the beginning of the song, when the guitar kicks in, reminds me very strongly of the beginning of the old Tempations' classic "My Girl". I don't know if that's on purpose, an accident or a product of my weird brain wiring, but it's cool nonetheless.
9. This was originally a personal reference to one of the members of the mailing list that would be utterly out of context and pointless here. Instead I will add the Ryo's very understated keyboards, especially his organ playing, don't stand out and grab you, but the song would be much diminished if they weren't there. This is the mark of a good artist and a superb ensemble performance.
10. The production, like that of all of Spock's Beard music, is excellent. The beginning is very clean and simple, but the refrain is lush, without sounding mushy or muffled. Just perfect. Rich Mouser's work should be required studying for anyone in the music production business, many of whom seem to have completely forgotten how to make a record sound good.
Along with "Walking On Air" and a list of other songs I will perhaps one day compile, this is something I would have liked to have been able to play at my wedding.
----
Rick's Top Ten Reasons Why "Shining Star" is the Perfect Rock Ballad
First off, I'm generally not a big fan of rock ballads. I think the form was generally perfected by Justin Hayward's and John Lodge's laments of unrequited love in the mid 70's and has generally been beat to an undignified death in the intervening years. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't numerous good examples still being produced, usually in non-obvious places.
Here's my list of 10 reasons why this is, in my opinion the perfect rock love song, in no particular order.
1. Nick's vocals are clean, clear and emotive. He doesn't have that raspy, limited range singing that plagues most rock balladeers, nor does he beat us senseless with brutal and shrill vocal gymnastics like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey, etc. He just sings the song, does it well, and does a superb job of displaying the affection he feels for Tiffany.
2. This is no wimpy song even if it is mellow. It is definitely crankable, thanks to excellent production, Nick's tasty, groovy, understated drums, Al's great guitar, and especially Dave's smoov, sexy bass playing. The song has real mass behind it. Plus, it would be great to dance to.
3. Tambourine. 'Nuff said.
4. The refrain takes a different direction. Just like "Carie", the song takes a few unpredictable turns, which keep it from being a just a boring, old MoR radio staple, but a really cool piece of music. The ending is even better because being rather abrupt it leaves you wanting just a bit more.
5. The lyrics. First we know it's a real song about real people, which is a big plus, because we have all heard Tiffany talk about Nick and see that they seem to have that story book romance. The tactile references in the beginning are very evocative ("wind flows over me", "blood rush to my skin") and contrast neatly with the spiritual overtones ("You're there to open a door", "Shine your light on me" "the love that lights my way") highlighting the emotional/intellectual aspect with the physical/sensual aspect of deep, abiding romantic love. Very powerful, when you really start to think about it.
6. Like any good love song, there is an element of longing... we know the particulars: Nick is on the road for weeks at a time, and that absence is a hardship even as it paradoxically contributes to the strength of a relationship.
7. How could I not mention Al's guitar... dreamy, expressive yet subtle, the solo is short, sweet, and perfect for the moment. The steel guitar-style sound in the beginning complements the fretless bass in an awesome way to create a warm, fuzzy safe feeling that perfectly echoes the mood of the words... and the little volume-control bits remind me of another perfect rock ballad "Walking on Air" from King Crimson's "Thrak", a song that has a lot of similar elements.
8. The first few notes at the beginning of the song, when the guitar kicks in, reminds me very strongly of the beginning of the old Tempations' classic "My Girl". I don't know if that's on purpose, an accident or a product of my weird brain wiring, but it's cool nonetheless.
9. This was originally a personal reference to one of the members of the mailing list that would be utterly out of context and pointless here. Instead I will add the Ryo's very understated keyboards, especially his organ playing, don't stand out and grab you, but the song would be much diminished if they weren't there. This is the mark of a good artist and a superb ensemble performance.
10. The production, like that of all of Spock's Beard music, is excellent. The beginning is very clean and simple, but the refrain is lush, without sounding mushy or muffled. Just perfect. Rich Mouser's work should be required studying for anyone in the music production business, many of whom seem to have completely forgotten how to make a record sound good.
Along with "Walking On Air" and a list of other songs I will perhaps one day compile, this is something I would have liked to have been able to play at my wedding.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The End of America?
We are living in strange times. As the most successful, most free, most productive country in the world, you would think the citizens and government of the United States of America would cherish and protect and nurture such a treasure, but we are steadily, systematically, and irrevocably dismantling this country, and everything upon which it was founded at an alarming rate.
We have turned immigration from wellspring of creativity and drive, spurring the greatest successes experienced in American history to a program of importing an overwhelmingly large population that is disinterested, if not wholly contemptuous of everything that sets America apart from, and above, every other nation in history.
There's nothing special about the newest immigrants. The vast majority of them are like all immigrants to our great Republic, just looking for a better lives for themselves and their families, but our country is being run by people who simply hate themselves and hate America. The people running our country are completely ignorant, or worse, completely disregarding of what it takes to properly nurture the "Grand Experiment" created by a group of men, each more wise than every single person in the entire Federal Government. The people running our government are happy (or oblivious) to squandering the greatest natural resource in history, the American people, by allowing their dilution and corruption, through abandonment of the rule of law, a complete abdication of proper education and abandonment of the wisdom of the likes of Moses, Aristotle, and Washington for the mores of Croesus, Bacchus and Eros.
Our officials don't want to "force" our values on immigrants (values that made the United States singular in the history of the world as the greatest political expression of liberty and the dignity of man, values that nurtured the greatest source of technological and economic innovations in history) and are doing everything they can to accommodate these immigrants and require nothing of them. And of course, if you simply give something to someone without requiring anything of them, it is human nature will that they usually hold it, and the giver in contempt. After all, what kind of chump country would do something so stupid as let itself be overrun and dismantled from within? Of course, this translates eventually into arrogance and open hatred, and that is what the immigrants are learning: The United States government is a complete sucker, and suckers deserve to be taken for everything you can beg, borrow or steal. After all, these immigrants are only valued as a new underclass to be exploited for cheap labor and easily swayed votes, not as enriching and contributing members of the traditional American "melting pot".
The darkest days of our country, and perhaps its end as something unique in history, are coming closer and closer. Our elections are becoming pointless choices between increasingly indistinguishably dismal and pandering shysters. Our latest Presidential election hinged on a bizarre and obscene cult of personality demonstrating a total lack of reflection, of critical thinking in a blind rush to elect someone different (how wasn't important) from our previous leader, who in many ways earned his historically low approval rating. Corporations are running riot over our laws and rights. Congress is nothing but the proverbial "parliament of whores" and officially has only single-digit approval ratings, despite being elected in to fix the rampant (but hardly unprecedented) corruption of recent years. The irony is that there are 10%-15% of the population that are simply too stupid and ignorant to realize Congress could possibly do something wrong and even a lot of those idiots realize Congress is nothing but a great big ripe slice of FAIL. Our populace is grotesquely ignorant of our history, and indeed the history of Western civilization, and are becoming increasingly misinformed and illiterate thanks to an education system designed by socialists to produce mindless factory workers suitable for the 19th century not the 21st. Campaigning by our national candidates is nothing but naked bribery and appeals to our most base emotions. People are more and more buying into the false promises of socialism and even Marxism, due in large part to collective amnesia of ravages of humanity these utterly failed philosophies have wrought in the past 150 years.
There are a few principled politicians, but they are far outweighed by those whose principles have been sold out to money, to power, to perversion, to literally every moral, intellectual and philosophical bankruptcy in these modern times. Our elected representatives exhibit every kind of corruption and depravity known to man. They themselves are largely ignorant, incompetent and capable only of gaming the system to their own gain or the gain of their moneyed benefactors, and pay only lip service to any proper notions of governance or even civilization.
It has been said that democracy will only work until it occurs to the electorate to simply vote themselves the largess of the state, and indeed we are in that time. The current bailouts elicit equal reactions of incredulousness and disgust as our leaders preach, against all logic, that the only way to get ourselves out of the hole we have dug ourselves into is to keep digging down.
So it's not the immigrants who have really changed. It's the country. America is rapidly heading in a direction and towards a point where it will no longer merit its unique distinction as the greatest country in history.
We have turned immigration from wellspring of creativity and drive, spurring the greatest successes experienced in American history to a program of importing an overwhelmingly large population that is disinterested, if not wholly contemptuous of everything that sets America apart from, and above, every other nation in history.
There's nothing special about the newest immigrants. The vast majority of them are like all immigrants to our great Republic, just looking for a better lives for themselves and their families, but our country is being run by people who simply hate themselves and hate America. The people running our country are completely ignorant, or worse, completely disregarding of what it takes to properly nurture the "Grand Experiment" created by a group of men, each more wise than every single person in the entire Federal Government. The people running our government are happy (or oblivious) to squandering the greatest natural resource in history, the American people, by allowing their dilution and corruption, through abandonment of the rule of law, a complete abdication of proper education and abandonment of the wisdom of the likes of Moses, Aristotle, and Washington for the mores of Croesus, Bacchus and Eros.
Our officials don't want to "force" our values on immigrants (values that made the United States singular in the history of the world as the greatest political expression of liberty and the dignity of man, values that nurtured the greatest source of technological and economic innovations in history) and are doing everything they can to accommodate these immigrants and require nothing of them. And of course, if you simply give something to someone without requiring anything of them, it is human nature will that they usually hold it, and the giver in contempt. After all, what kind of chump country would do something so stupid as let itself be overrun and dismantled from within? Of course, this translates eventually into arrogance and open hatred, and that is what the immigrants are learning: The United States government is a complete sucker, and suckers deserve to be taken for everything you can beg, borrow or steal. After all, these immigrants are only valued as a new underclass to be exploited for cheap labor and easily swayed votes, not as enriching and contributing members of the traditional American "melting pot".
The darkest days of our country, and perhaps its end as something unique in history, are coming closer and closer. Our elections are becoming pointless choices between increasingly indistinguishably dismal and pandering shysters. Our latest Presidential election hinged on a bizarre and obscene cult of personality demonstrating a total lack of reflection, of critical thinking in a blind rush to elect someone different (how wasn't important) from our previous leader, who in many ways earned his historically low approval rating. Corporations are running riot over our laws and rights. Congress is nothing but the proverbial "parliament of whores" and officially has only single-digit approval ratings, despite being elected in to fix the rampant (but hardly unprecedented) corruption of recent years. The irony is that there are 10%-15% of the population that are simply too stupid and ignorant to realize Congress could possibly do something wrong and even a lot of those idiots realize Congress is nothing but a great big ripe slice of FAIL. Our populace is grotesquely ignorant of our history, and indeed the history of Western civilization, and are becoming increasingly misinformed and illiterate thanks to an education system designed by socialists to produce mindless factory workers suitable for the 19th century not the 21st. Campaigning by our national candidates is nothing but naked bribery and appeals to our most base emotions. People are more and more buying into the false promises of socialism and even Marxism, due in large part to collective amnesia of ravages of humanity these utterly failed philosophies have wrought in the past 150 years.
There are a few principled politicians, but they are far outweighed by those whose principles have been sold out to money, to power, to perversion, to literally every moral, intellectual and philosophical bankruptcy in these modern times. Our elected representatives exhibit every kind of corruption and depravity known to man. They themselves are largely ignorant, incompetent and capable only of gaming the system to their own gain or the gain of their moneyed benefactors, and pay only lip service to any proper notions of governance or even civilization.
It has been said that democracy will only work until it occurs to the electorate to simply vote themselves the largess of the state, and indeed we are in that time. The current bailouts elicit equal reactions of incredulousness and disgust as our leaders preach, against all logic, that the only way to get ourselves out of the hole we have dug ourselves into is to keep digging down.
So it's not the immigrants who have really changed. It's the country. America is rapidly heading in a direction and towards a point where it will no longer merit its unique distinction as the greatest country in history.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Liberal Judges, So Stupid They're Smart
So it seems that Supreme Court, or the liberal half of it, has ruled that you can't execute someone for raping a child, based on some goofy notion that most people don't think that crime rises to the punishment. Frankly, even though I'm opposed to capital punishment, for a number of reasons, one of which is not that there's no moral justification for it, abusing a child this way would put someone at the top of the list of people needing a one-way trip to Slabville. From everything I've heard and read, and the story of Jeffrey Dahmer is a perfect example, even convicts have a special contempt for people who hurt children this way.
So the end result is that the Supreme Court has ruled that clean, painless execution is too good for these people. Rather they would lock them up for life (presumably that long, although who knows these days) where the rest of the prisoners will simply mete out more appropriate justice with a shank in the back, saving all the millions of dollars and decades usually wasted on appeals.
Thanks, Supreme Court, for reminding us that hardened killers have a stronger moral center than liberal judges.
So the end result is that the Supreme Court has ruled that clean, painless execution is too good for these people. Rather they would lock them up for life (presumably that long, although who knows these days) where the rest of the prisoners will simply mete out more appropriate justice with a shank in the back, saving all the millions of dollars and decades usually wasted on appeals.
Thanks, Supreme Court, for reminding us that hardened killers have a stronger moral center than liberal judges.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Becoming Microsoft free...
Well, having run Linux on and off on my main machine (which has been a laptop since about 2003) and having run Linux on my desktop machines for several years, I've decided to switch back to Ubuntu on my primary machine, Pigmeyer, an HP Pavilion dv2000 which shipped with Vista, that unlike Gertrude, the low-end, but decent Gateway I bought Provazolezec, could actually run it at a usable, if not snappy, speed. However, after a couple months of utter annoyance and frustration at having to change so many ways of doing things to accomodate Vista's arbitrary and caprious restrictions I finally broke down and bought another XP license (Microsoft wins again by selling two licenses for one computer). Migrating from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 was never that kind of hassle. Migrating to NT 3.51 a couple months later when I realized how worthless 95 was wasn't a hassle. Nor was migrating to NT 4, 2000 or XP, but Vista was just an unending stream of little annoyances, frustrations and plain old pains-in-the-butt. The camel-breaking straw came when I needed to reboot after a single update and it took 7 minutes for Vista to start up. 7 minutes while I had to sit there like a moron, waiting to log on to an online session with friends. I don't think I've ever seen a computer take so long to start up.
I'd run Ubuntu before on this machine, but having a 64-bit AMD processor, I'd installed the 64-bit version of the OS. Unfortunately, certain pieces of software don't work too well on the 64-bit version (yes, I'm talking to you, Adobe). Wireless, which has always been a bit of an issue with Linux was also a real problem for me, thanks in large part to the manufacturers who insist on keeping their drivers closed-source for reasons that benefit no one, especially them. I also had a lot of trouble with Java, but I don't know if that's because of using the 64-bit version of the OS, or because everything having to do with Java is like working with a Soviet-style bureaucracy. I can't imagine why anyone would want to develop under such a grotesquely byzantine platform. At the AOL developer's conference I attended while working there, I attended a presentation on some of the allegedly neat Java stuff they were doing, and why it's so easy and fun to get things done with Java. I went into the presentation rather optimistically only to be totally and utterly turned off by anything to do with Java (except ant... which seems like a really cool make tool). Most of the presentation consisted of the insane amount of hoops they needed to jump through just to get everything configured correctly, and we're not talking configuration scripts here. We're talking using some kind of hideous-looking IDE (including the long and tedious story of finding just the right version of the IDE that was actually compatible with the libraries and tools they wanted to use), with an utterly ridiculous string of cookbook "drag-and-drop" procedures needed to get everything set up correctly. "Write-once-run-everywhere" is clearly a joke from all my experience with Java. I've seen Java software that won't even run unless you had the exact same version of the JRE that it's expecting. Who knows what you're supposed to do if you're already running something newer, which at the time I was? And of course, after 10 years, it would be nice to see a Java program (besides Azureus) that doesn't look like XWindows circa 1994 (i.e., butt-ugly and primitive).
Ironically, I've found that one of the things Microsoft used to excel at is something almost everyone now does better than they: playing videos. The Windows Media Player, which spent about 6 years getting nothing but bigger, uglier and harder to use now utterly fails at so many video formats that it's not even worth having any more. On Windows, using Media Player Classic is the only way to watch movies without getting that useless "Codec not found" error (that doesn't tell you which one it needs), and a message asking if WMP should look for a codec. Has that ever actually worked? I've been using Windows Media Player since it first came out and I've never seen it actually find a codec it was missing. I suspect it only looks for Microsoft stuff, which is almost certainly already installed on any Windows system. The fact that it can't play MPEG-2 out of the box is beyond ridiculous. Or at least it wouldn't for me, and there's no point in trying to "fix" WMP since it's confusing and frustrating (and seldom worth the effort) to do and MPC "just works" right out of the box... including QuickTime and Real with the "Alternative" packages. (Why, oh, why does Real still exist? They are possibly the only company that hates their customers more than Microsoft and are far more incompetent.)
Anyhow, I noticed recently that Windows XP is showing little thumbnails of videos in Explorer, a very nice new feature (that KDE has had forever under Linux) which seems to have been part of SP3, because it only showed up recently. However, shortly afterwards, I started finding that Explorer (possibly the buggiest mainstream application in the history of software for 13 years running, no wait, that would be Word on the Mac, or possibly IE5, or IE6...) started crashing every time it would try to show a thumbnail of H.264-encoded movies. I only found this out by loading it into the debugger because all you would see is a crash dialog for "Explorer" and clicking on anything would restart Explorer, even though Explorer itself would continue working just fine, except you had this System Modal dialog box you couldn't get rid of. It turns out what was crashing was an ActiveX control that had something to do with H.264, according to its name. Smooth move, Microsoft. I wonder if that could even be fixed without reinstalling the OS.
Anyhow, I knew that the only way to eliminate this ridiculous problem would be to either use an Explorer replacement (practically anything is better) or just give up saddling myself with the stink of Microsoft's hatred and failure and just move over to Linux again, now knowing that sticking to a 32-bit distro would make life a lot easier.
Now of course, lots of people will point out correctly that Linux has its own shares of hassles, and I'm not going to deny it. There are plenty of pains, problems and utter stupidities in the Linux world, too. But given that most open-source software is developed not by one of the largest, richest and most powerful companies in the world with ten figures of capital and tens of thousands of employees to throw at any problem, but rather by small groups of dedicated people who are interested in making software that works and is useful, as opposed to locking users in a software prison. Also, when you have a weird problem under Linux, you can almost always find the exact solution you need with Google. The software discussion forums and documentation for various Open Source software are almost always 10 times more useful and informative than anything Microsoft provides.
Microsoft's utter arrogance and contempt for users by releasing Vista, after 5 years of development, long before it should have seen the light of day, and then prematurely killing XP, even though there is still a huge demand for it is a primary reason why I don't want to do business with them. Microsoft's biggest competitor for XP for years was Windows 2000, and the biggest competitor for Vista has always been XP. Being true to their monopolistic nature, since they can't, or won't, compete with XP (or anything else) on quality and performance, they will simply kill the competition. Fortunately for them, they don't even need to break the law to do it this time (for a change). Of course, customer demand and satisfaction never enter the equation. Watcha gonna do? Buy a MAC?! HAW HAW HAW! (I would recommend it. Macs are quite good.)
Meanwhile, Windows 7 is being hyped (albeit a lot less hyperbolically than Longhorn-cum-Vista was) and is now set to be released in 2010. Since every advanced feature Vista was supposed to contain was removed before it was released, and the only improvements were more ham-fisted security improvements (basically either disabling things, or making the user responsible for every tiny security decision, not so much to put more control in his hands, but to shift the blame), Vista offers nothing over XP except perhaps minor usability improvements and a bunch of meaningless (and ugly, IMO) eye candy. All this at a massive performance hit. I think the biggest reason for Vista's whole existence is to set the stage for ever more arbitrary and capricious control over what the users can and cannot do with their computers. Microsoft knew Vista was a total boat anchor, but since they have completely given up on competing on features, performance and usability, they have to devote all their energies into locking users in to their vicious cycle of upgrades and further restrict their ability to consider alternatives by their heinous refusal to open their document standards (ironically by releasing said standards which are so hideously and deliberately complex and equivocal that Microsoft themselves cannot implement them correctly or consistently) and interoperating with other systems by rarely implementing any standards without compatibility-breaking "extensions".
Regardless of the quality of Microsoft software, and I've consistently said that XP was overall a decent product, it's getting harder and harder to justify dealing with a company, however tangentially, that has never played fair, and is increasingly being forced, by sheer inertia, to rely exclusively on unfair practices to maintain its very existence.
And besides, Linux is really cool.
I'd run Ubuntu before on this machine, but having a 64-bit AMD processor, I'd installed the 64-bit version of the OS. Unfortunately, certain pieces of software don't work too well on the 64-bit version (yes, I'm talking to you, Adobe). Wireless, which has always been a bit of an issue with Linux was also a real problem for me, thanks in large part to the manufacturers who insist on keeping their drivers closed-source for reasons that benefit no one, especially them. I also had a lot of trouble with Java, but I don't know if that's because of using the 64-bit version of the OS, or because everything having to do with Java is like working with a Soviet-style bureaucracy. I can't imagine why anyone would want to develop under such a grotesquely byzantine platform. At the AOL developer's conference I attended while working there, I attended a presentation on some of the allegedly neat Java stuff they were doing, and why it's so easy and fun to get things done with Java. I went into the presentation rather optimistically only to be totally and utterly turned off by anything to do with Java (except ant... which seems like a really cool make tool). Most of the presentation consisted of the insane amount of hoops they needed to jump through just to get everything configured correctly, and we're not talking configuration scripts here. We're talking using some kind of hideous-looking IDE (including the long and tedious story of finding just the right version of the IDE that was actually compatible with the libraries and tools they wanted to use), with an utterly ridiculous string of cookbook "drag-and-drop" procedures needed to get everything set up correctly. "Write-once-run-everywhere" is clearly a joke from all my experience with Java. I've seen Java software that won't even run unless you had the exact same version of the JRE that it's expecting. Who knows what you're supposed to do if you're already running something newer, which at the time I was? And of course, after 10 years, it would be nice to see a Java program (besides Azureus) that doesn't look like XWindows circa 1994 (i.e., butt-ugly and primitive).
Ironically, I've found that one of the things Microsoft used to excel at is something almost everyone now does better than they: playing videos. The Windows Media Player, which spent about 6 years getting nothing but bigger, uglier and harder to use now utterly fails at so many video formats that it's not even worth having any more. On Windows, using Media Player Classic is the only way to watch movies without getting that useless "Codec not found" error (that doesn't tell you which one it needs), and a message asking if WMP should look for a codec. Has that ever actually worked? I've been using Windows Media Player since it first came out and I've never seen it actually find a codec it was missing. I suspect it only looks for Microsoft stuff, which is almost certainly already installed on any Windows system. The fact that it can't play MPEG-2 out of the box is beyond ridiculous. Or at least it wouldn't for me, and there's no point in trying to "fix" WMP since it's confusing and frustrating (and seldom worth the effort) to do and MPC "just works" right out of the box... including QuickTime and Real with the "Alternative" packages. (Why, oh, why does Real still exist? They are possibly the only company that hates their customers more than Microsoft and are far more incompetent.)
Anyhow, I noticed recently that Windows XP is showing little thumbnails of videos in Explorer, a very nice new feature (that KDE has had forever under Linux) which seems to have been part of SP3, because it only showed up recently. However, shortly afterwards, I started finding that Explorer (possibly the buggiest mainstream application in the history of software for 13 years running, no wait, that would be Word on the Mac, or possibly IE5, or IE6...) started crashing every time it would try to show a thumbnail of H.264-encoded movies. I only found this out by loading it into the debugger because all you would see is a crash dialog for "Explorer" and clicking on anything would restart Explorer, even though Explorer itself would continue working just fine, except you had this System Modal dialog box you couldn't get rid of. It turns out what was crashing was an ActiveX control that had something to do with H.264, according to its name. Smooth move, Microsoft. I wonder if that could even be fixed without reinstalling the OS.
Anyhow, I knew that the only way to eliminate this ridiculous problem would be to either use an Explorer replacement (practically anything is better) or just give up saddling myself with the stink of Microsoft's hatred and failure and just move over to Linux again, now knowing that sticking to a 32-bit distro would make life a lot easier.
Now of course, lots of people will point out correctly that Linux has its own shares of hassles, and I'm not going to deny it. There are plenty of pains, problems and utter stupidities in the Linux world, too. But given that most open-source software is developed not by one of the largest, richest and most powerful companies in the world with ten figures of capital and tens of thousands of employees to throw at any problem, but rather by small groups of dedicated people who are interested in making software that works and is useful, as opposed to locking users in a software prison. Also, when you have a weird problem under Linux, you can almost always find the exact solution you need with Google. The software discussion forums and documentation for various Open Source software are almost always 10 times more useful and informative than anything Microsoft provides.
Microsoft's utter arrogance and contempt for users by releasing Vista, after 5 years of development, long before it should have seen the light of day, and then prematurely killing XP, even though there is still a huge demand for it is a primary reason why I don't want to do business with them. Microsoft's biggest competitor for XP for years was Windows 2000, and the biggest competitor for Vista has always been XP. Being true to their monopolistic nature, since they can't, or won't, compete with XP (or anything else) on quality and performance, they will simply kill the competition. Fortunately for them, they don't even need to break the law to do it this time (for a change). Of course, customer demand and satisfaction never enter the equation. Watcha gonna do? Buy a MAC?! HAW HAW HAW! (I would recommend it. Macs are quite good.)
Meanwhile, Windows 7 is being hyped (albeit a lot less hyperbolically than Longhorn-cum-Vista was) and is now set to be released in 2010. Since every advanced feature Vista was supposed to contain was removed before it was released, and the only improvements were more ham-fisted security improvements (basically either disabling things, or making the user responsible for every tiny security decision, not so much to put more control in his hands, but to shift the blame), Vista offers nothing over XP except perhaps minor usability improvements and a bunch of meaningless (and ugly, IMO) eye candy. All this at a massive performance hit. I think the biggest reason for Vista's whole existence is to set the stage for ever more arbitrary and capricious control over what the users can and cannot do with their computers. Microsoft knew Vista was a total boat anchor, but since they have completely given up on competing on features, performance and usability, they have to devote all their energies into locking users in to their vicious cycle of upgrades and further restrict their ability to consider alternatives by their heinous refusal to open their document standards (ironically by releasing said standards which are so hideously and deliberately complex and equivocal that Microsoft themselves cannot implement them correctly or consistently) and interoperating with other systems by rarely implementing any standards without compatibility-breaking "extensions".
Regardless of the quality of Microsoft software, and I've consistently said that XP was overall a decent product, it's getting harder and harder to justify dealing with a company, however tangentially, that has never played fair, and is increasingly being forced, by sheer inertia, to rely exclusively on unfair practices to maintain its very existence.
And besides, Linux is really cool.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Microsoft Just Needs to Die
No, I am not going to write another piece describing the train wreck that is Vista. This is about an experience I had with Internet Explorer. The current pre-release version of Firefox I'm using was giving me trouble on ebay.com, and I had launched Internet Explorer 7 so I could make some adjustments to some bids I've been watching.
Some time later, I wanted to look up codes for my RCA programmable remote because at some point it "forgot" its settings and I needed to program it. I have a PDF copy of the instruction manual, but I needed the list of codes to use with it, so I went to an open browser window, not realizing (or caring) that it was IE rather than Firefox.
I typed "rca rcr860 instructions" into the search query box, and picked the third link on the MSN search results which said "RCA UNIVERSAL REMOTE CODES". The next thing I know, my browser was pointed at "pornotube20008.com" trying (unsuccessfully, thank God) to play videos, and I couldn't even close the window because I was being deluged with message boxes telling me my computer was infected and that "Microsoft" suggests I install some kind of virus protection and that I needed to click to install the software, etc, etc. This was probably all Javascript code trying to get me to let it install botnet software. I literally couldn't make the message boxes go away so I could close the tab. I had to kill the whole browser to get rid of that stuff, and I was half afraid my computer had been compromised. A subsequent virus check showed everything was clean, no thanks to Microsoft.
So this is the vaunted IE7 that I've been hearing so much about. I've been using Firefox since it was called Phoenix, around version 0.4, which was about 4 or 5 years ago. I spend a lot of time browsing and I explore all kinds of interesting stuff, and in all those years I have never seen anything like what I saw doing a simple search and clicking one link on Internet Explorer. I never got hijacked to a porn site, and I never had to kill the browser because some website was abusing it so badly. This is what Microsoft has to show for the last 6 years or so of browser development? I was utterly astonished that anything like that was even possible with IE any more. I would have given Microsoft far more credit than that until reality showed me that in Microsoft-land, it's still 1998. Between Firefox, AdBlock Plus, NoScript and FlashBlock, I had literally forgotten that that kind of garbage could even happen any more.
It is my honest opinion that Microsoft literally has nothing to contribute to the software industry and the Internet as a whole. They are hopelessly behind the curve in software development, and falling further behind daily. They are drowning in their own corruption, far more beholden to maintaining their illicit monopoly through deceit, extortion and any other means, illegal or not, to avoid having to fairly compete in a market they can no longer dominate through quality and superior product... if they ever could.
After seeing a perfectly nice low-end Gateway laptop reduced to the slowest computer I've used in over 20 years (and that counts my floppy-based Amiga 500), because it was shipped with Vista installed, only to perform very reasonably when I "upgraded" it to XP, and seeing my own high end machine take 7 minutes to boot Vista after installing a single Microsoft update... read that again... seven minutes... I'm convinced that Microsoft simply has nothing constructive to offer the world. It was sad to see Explorer, after 13 years is still the buggiest piece of mainstream software on the planet. It was pathetic to get blue screens from a Microsoft OS installed by the OEM on hardware provided by the OEM, something I've never seen with XP. It was utterly insane having to navigate multiple security warnings just to rename an icon on the desktop! The sooner that horrible company and its belligerent, arrogant, chair-throwing President are removed from the world of software the better. I do still run XP on my laptop simply because of the Windows software I want to be able to run (PSP9, Multi-edit, which don't work in WINE, and a few games), but I run Ubuntu on my desktop machine and server, and will probably put Ubuntu back on my lappy as well just to be rid of the stench of failure on my hardware and in my life. Linux is not without its problems, but comparing Linux to Windows is like comparing Google, the company, with the old Soviet government.
I look forward to the day that the talent and skill of the engineers at Microsoft can be freed from the shackles of their destructively dysfunctional management and can begin to contribute to society again. Microsoft is falling further behind Open Source Software and Apple with every passing day, and the sooner we can shovel that corpulent, putrescent carcass off of the beach of the Ocean of Innovation, the better technology in our lives will be.
They say that you should never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence, and I had always exercised that maxim in my judgement of Microsoft, after all they have done some things pretty well over the years. However, I no longer find that incompetence adequately explains the state of Microsoft's software. What I see in 2008 can only be explained by malice.
p.s. That garbage link did not show up on the first several pages of a Google search for the exact same terms. It seems MSN search is as horrible and useless as Internet Explorer.
Some time later, I wanted to look up codes for my RCA programmable remote because at some point it "forgot" its settings and I needed to program it. I have a PDF copy of the instruction manual, but I needed the list of codes to use with it, so I went to an open browser window, not realizing (or caring) that it was IE rather than Firefox.
I typed "rca rcr860 instructions" into the search query box, and picked the third link on the MSN search results which said "RCA UNIVERSAL REMOTE CODES". The next thing I know, my browser was pointed at "pornotube20008.com" trying (unsuccessfully, thank God) to play videos, and I couldn't even close the window because I was being deluged with message boxes telling me my computer was infected and that "Microsoft" suggests I install some kind of virus protection and that I needed to click to install the software, etc, etc. This was probably all Javascript code trying to get me to let it install botnet software. I literally couldn't make the message boxes go away so I could close the tab. I had to kill the whole browser to get rid of that stuff, and I was half afraid my computer had been compromised. A subsequent virus check showed everything was clean, no thanks to Microsoft.
So this is the vaunted IE7 that I've been hearing so much about. I've been using Firefox since it was called Phoenix, around version 0.4, which was about 4 or 5 years ago. I spend a lot of time browsing and I explore all kinds of interesting stuff, and in all those years I have never seen anything like what I saw doing a simple search and clicking one link on Internet Explorer. I never got hijacked to a porn site, and I never had to kill the browser because some website was abusing it so badly. This is what Microsoft has to show for the last 6 years or so of browser development? I was utterly astonished that anything like that was even possible with IE any more. I would have given Microsoft far more credit than that until reality showed me that in Microsoft-land, it's still 1998. Between Firefox, AdBlock Plus, NoScript and FlashBlock, I had literally forgotten that that kind of garbage could even happen any more.
It is my honest opinion that Microsoft literally has nothing to contribute to the software industry and the Internet as a whole. They are hopelessly behind the curve in software development, and falling further behind daily. They are drowning in their own corruption, far more beholden to maintaining their illicit monopoly through deceit, extortion and any other means, illegal or not, to avoid having to fairly compete in a market they can no longer dominate through quality and superior product... if they ever could.
After seeing a perfectly nice low-end Gateway laptop reduced to the slowest computer I've used in over 20 years (and that counts my floppy-based Amiga 500), because it was shipped with Vista installed, only to perform very reasonably when I "upgraded" it to XP, and seeing my own high end machine take 7 minutes to boot Vista after installing a single Microsoft update... read that again... seven minutes... I'm convinced that Microsoft simply has nothing constructive to offer the world. It was sad to see Explorer, after 13 years is still the buggiest piece of mainstream software on the planet. It was pathetic to get blue screens from a Microsoft OS installed by the OEM on hardware provided by the OEM, something I've never seen with XP. It was utterly insane having to navigate multiple security warnings just to rename an icon on the desktop! The sooner that horrible company and its belligerent, arrogant, chair-throwing President are removed from the world of software the better. I do still run XP on my laptop simply because of the Windows software I want to be able to run (PSP9, Multi-edit, which don't work in WINE, and a few games), but I run Ubuntu on my desktop machine and server, and will probably put Ubuntu back on my lappy as well just to be rid of the stench of failure on my hardware and in my life. Linux is not without its problems, but comparing Linux to Windows is like comparing Google, the company, with the old Soviet government.
I look forward to the day that the talent and skill of the engineers at Microsoft can be freed from the shackles of their destructively dysfunctional management and can begin to contribute to society again. Microsoft is falling further behind Open Source Software and Apple with every passing day, and the sooner we can shovel that corpulent, putrescent carcass off of the beach of the Ocean of Innovation, the better technology in our lives will be.
They say that you should never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence, and I had always exercised that maxim in my judgement of Microsoft, after all they have done some things pretty well over the years. However, I no longer find that incompetence adequately explains the state of Microsoft's software. What I see in 2008 can only be explained by malice.
p.s. That garbage link did not show up on the first several pages of a Google search for the exact same terms. It seems MSN search is as horrible and useless as Internet Explorer.
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