BunkBlog

Ah, the most surprising news from Microsoft since removing PC Sync or removing EFI support came today. WinFS is dead. Really, this time. Previously, they removed WinFS from the Vista release, but promised it would be available separately soon after Vista was released in 2005.  Since the 2005 date for Vista has slipped to 2007, you’d think they’d have enough time to get WinFS working, but apparently not.

Windows Vista had three major innovations as of its original release announcement: WinFS, Avalon graphics engine, and a technology for communication between devices and applications. Since everyone realizes that the prettier graphics are just eye candy, we can throw that one out and say there were two innovations announced. One was thrown out years ago, so then we have the Indigo system as the sole remaining innovation in Vista, and it still is three years later than originally announced. At least we’ll have integrated DRM and Trusted Computing so that Hollywood can control our computers. yay

From the comedian Jimmy Dore:

Tattoos that go across the top of the butt…The female ass needs no dressing up. If I’m back there, I’m happy. You don’t put bumper stickers on a Rolls Royce.

I am amused. Sure, I’m easily amused, but still.

I got 10 of the 14 quotes correct. I actually assumed that some of the more archaic language had to be Hitler, when it was Coulter trying to sound erudite and just sounding like Hitler.

Yet another attempt to get broadcast flags enshrined in law is coming up this week. Take action to stop them, please.

What is the problem with the broadcast flag and audio flag, you ask?  Simple – they don’t do anything worthwhile and are an obstruction to technological progress. If you’re a Republican, do you believe in more governmental regulation or do you believe in letting the market decide?  Well, broadcast flag legislation protects one business model to the exlusion of letting the market decide.  If you’re a Democrat, do you believe in the government bowing to the orders of large corporations?  Well, the broadcast flag legislation exists only because of the efforts of the entertainment industry, not due to any grassroots campaign from actual individual citizens.

All these flags and the PERFORM Act do is stop innovation. They make it so that the United States will remain the technology ghetto of the world.  We keep our recording devices at the same technological level as analog cassette tape in the 21st Century.  What the hell?  Read Engadget sometime – every day there is some new piece of audio or video gadgetry that will never arrive in the United States, because the Asians don’t have retarded laws protecting the RIAA and MPAA from competition.  It’s like we went back in time and killed the Ford automobile because buggy whip makers were pissed off.  Absurd now, isn’t it? Yet you know that the buggy whip makers were campaigning for just such a thing at the time. Why let the RIAA and MPAA tell you that you can’t record what you want on your stereo or television? Why let the recording industry control your electronics? Do your elected representatives represent you or Hollywood?

Is it strange that my random playlist generator created a list with “Crazy Bitch” and “You Can’t Fool Me” and “American Witch” in one hour?

Buckcherry’s Crazy Bitch rocks, by the way.

I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies

According to today’s Parade magazine, men have a 50% decreased rate of heart attacks when they have sex at least three times per week.

Happy Father’s Day.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new approach to consumer activism: The Corruptibles. The cartoon is pretty cool, and gives a reasonably simple overview of what the entertainment industry would like to have Congress give them. So far, the congresscritters have given them pretty much everything the industry has paid for wanted, so there’s a great deal of confidence that they’ll get everything else they’ve bought asked for as well.

I’m sure some people don’t care that their iPod only works with music they buy from Apple, and that Sony enjoys building virus-like rootkit hacking tools into music CDs, and the industry wanting to halt all technology at the level of analog cassette tapes, but maybe some of you realize that giving one business model special protection is a bad thing.

Only we can stop…The Corruptibles!

The Festival on the Concho has replaced the five years gone Fiesta del Concho, and it is a good replacement. For some reason, it was scheduled on the same weekend as the Fort Concho Frontier Day (formerly Days – go figure). Even with sharing crowds with the fort, though, the Festival was very well attended; I predict a return next year.

Alex and I went Friday night and Saturday. He got to spend a lot of time playing with squirt guns, bouncing in the infaltable houses, and we even hit the paddle boats for a while. Sausages in tortillas, fresh lemonade, all the usual carnival fare.

Now, a few days to recover.  Well, and work, but get real.

If you don’t read Joe Rogan’s blog, you should. He’s got some entertaining experiences to share. The latest is a porn movie viewing. While this large group of people are watching a porno in a parking lot (only in L.A., folks), the star of the film arrives.

A car pulls into the parking lot, and the princess steps out and says hi to all her friends.

People applaud.

With her in the car, is a young guy. He looks like he’s in his early 20’s, and he doesn’t really seem like the type to be hanging around with a chick like her. Then I see his face when he looks up at the screen and sees the girl that he arrived with, and she’s got her legs behind her head like a contortionist while this rather rude gentleman is alternating shoving his cock in her ass, and then her mouth, over and over again.

Ass, mouth, ass, mouth, ass, mouth.

The guy is grunting like a gorilla, and every time he shoves it in her mouth, she’s making the otter noise.

The kid’s eyes are locked on the screen. He’s got this look in his eyes is like he really believes that his brain must be malfunctioning. Like he just can’t comprehend what he’s watching. Like as if he didn’t even know she was a porn star. His jaw drops.

After about 30 seconds of this kid standing in front of the screen, frozen in the hypnotic spell of ass, mouth, ass, mouth, ass, mouth… he turns to her asks her a question, and I hear her say, “I was gonna tell you.”

NO FUCKING WAY.

I was gonna tell you?

Suddenly, the party just exceeded my wildest expectations.

What is with little kids thinking they must be missing out on something amazing when they go to bed but the adults (or in my case, adult) stay up?  The Boy used every delaying tactic in his arsenal tonight, after a really full day. He had to poop, he had to call mom, he had just five more minutes of the “Ed Edd and Eddy” episode to watch, he was starving and would perish in mere moments without more sustenance… Finally get him to bed 90 minutes past bed time, and he says, “I’m not even a little bit sleepy you know.”  Three minutes later – zzzzzzzzz.  Yeah, right, not even a little bit sleepy.

It’s been a couple months since Microsoft announced it was removing EFI boot capability from Windows Vista. Now, they’ve announced they’re removing a feature called PC Sync, which was meant to keep documents consistent between two or more computers. Yet another feature (dubious though it may be) that has been sacrificed to the almighty “Ship It By January” gods. At this rate, they’ll release Vista as XP Service Pack 3.

Congress just passed a bill to increase the maximum indecency fine by an order of magnitude. This is the same day they voted on the completely symbolic “we hate gays” amendment. Could the legislature possibly have actual work to do that could somehow assist the citizenry in any way? If not, maybe they should stay out of DC for a while, because they’re just wasting our tax dollars and causing more stupidity than we need.

Just finished watching the bootleg Doctor Who episode “Impossible Planet” (bootleg because it’s not available on this side of the Pond but I’ve already seen the episodes on SciFi Channel).  I find it peculiar that nobody on the Wikipedia site or elsewhere finds the appearance of the Ood to be at all Chthulhu-like. Seriously, how can you look at these guys and not say, “H.P. Lovecraft, your table is ready?”

As you can see from the latest listings from Google, we have (as of this writing) eight total movies playing in the city of San Angelo. The closest city, Abilene, is approximately 20 percent larger than San Angelo, and has two dozen movies playing today, in five theaters, including a drive-in (!). We, on the other hand, have one theater, consisting of 14 screens. On those 14 screens, 8 movies. Way to maximize the available resources. There are eighteen showings of X-Men, eleven of the Da Vinci Code, and ten of Over the Hedge. Shaggy Dog? Nope. Benchwarmers? Nope. Curious George? Been and gone.
Akeelah and the Bee? You must be joking. Hoot? They don’t give one. Thank You For Smoking? Not a chance.

In the past two years, we’ve lost two theatres, which combined had eleven screens. We’ve also lost any semblance of competition for cinema. Think the lack of competition has affected the attitude of our sole remaining movie house?

The local Circuit City, like all other “big box” stores in this town, is more of a “not so big box” store. They’ve been here for about a year now, but seem to be in a constant state of stocking the shelves as if for the first time. Today, I went to the store to try to touch a Sansa e200, which I will probably end up buying as a replacement for my broken Karma. I went to the part of the store marked “Portable Audio” – that was where I’d seen MP3 players in the past, and the name seems to be apropos. The aisles were filled with telephones and CD cases. OK, so where might the portable audio be? After several attempts, I finally found a salesperson who pointed out the sign hanging above the computer section, “iPods and MP3.” A new sign, it is literally a section carved out of the middle of the computer section. There are hard drives on the left and laptops on the right. What the hell?

And that Sansa e200? Not on display. Best Buy has one on display, but it’s broken. I hate this town some days.

I have this cool folding hammock, which Alex insisted I set up in the den for him to lay on.  He never did.  But, the cat is now trying to figure out what manner of monster this is. She’s batting at it, making it swing, and then trying to determine whether she should jump on it or not.

Eventually, she determines that she’s better off on the bean bag.

Gloom, despair and repeats on me. Deep dark reruns, excessive reality (shows). If it weren’t for Stargate, I’d have no shows at all. Gloom, despair and repeats on me.

Alex gets a billion new shows on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon showing up on the DVR, while I get…a few episodes of That 70s Show that I missed years ago, and some old Stargate episodes. Hell, I can’t even count on Battlestar Galactica to make the summer “oh hell it’s hot” TV schedule better – it’s supposed to return in October. Thankfully the Dead Zone and 4400 are coming back soon, but what are they running, 10 or 12 episodes? *sigh*

We have a municipal pool here in beautiful San Angelo Texas, which opens tomorrow for the season. The hours are 11am-6pm on Saturdays, 1-6pm on Sundays, and 1-7pm the rest of the week (for open swim, which is all I’d care about for Alex). The pool closes for the season on the 13th of August.  So, it’s open 10 weeks of the year.  In west Texas.  Where it got to 100 degrees in April.  Where we use the air conditioning well into October most years. WTF?

What do you expect for 3 bucks per day, right?  So, what about the local swim & racquet club? It costs over 500 bucks for membership the first year (400 the following years – what a bargain for you). Their pool opened today (a day earlier!), and stays open until the 4th of September (three more weeks!). For five hundred bucks, I want to be able to swim on Christmas freakin’ Day, folks. At least the swim club pool is open 10-9 five days a week, and 1-9 on Sunday (like many things in West Texas, it’s inexplicably closed on Mondays).

The only way to use a pool here for the period when someone would reasonably want a pool to beat the heat is to own your own.  I live in bizarro-world.

Check this out.  The middle-school kids from Wall beat the Army for the first year ever.  They not only ran a total of nearly 104 miles over the course of the night, they also got faster as the relay progressed. Of course, at the end of the event, those 7th grade students were walking like I do when I’m feeling extra old.  hehe