HARDWARE: SLINGBOX not recommended

Monday, October 24, 2011

SLINGBOX sucks.

I bought it with the intention that Our Girl would be able to watch her soap in the hospital.

Couldn’t get it to connect to the (at the time) Comcast router.

(At the time, I was working for Comcast and their official supprt reaction was “good”. No surprise there.)

SO, needless to say that was a waste and “Non returnable” to the Sling folks.

(Isn’t the first time I’ve gotten stuck with a “whte elephant” by a vendor. But like the elephant, I never forget. I have alist of “folk I’ll never buy from”. Hardware, software, carpet, windows, home improvement, cars, etc. etc. I get screwed a lot.)

Down the shore, I have a cable router that I can’t cancel for another year. So, let me see if I can get it working down there. Now it connects to the net, but when I go to register the website won’t give me anything other than “invalid password”. (How can any password be invalid?)

Go over to support, can’t get support on anything unless it’s within 90 days of purchase.

Argh!

(Maybe it’s time to annoy some Gooferment bureaucrats?)

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: What is the real rate of unemployment?

Monday, October 24, 2011

http://lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts329.html

The End of History by Paul Craig Roberts

*** begin quote ***

As statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) has shown, the official inflation measures are rigged in order to hold down cost of living adjustments to Social Security recipients, thus saving money for Washington’s wars. When measured correctly, the current rate of inflation in the US is 11.5%.

*** end quote ***

Wonder what the real rate of unemployment is?

Not just new filings!

Bet it’s a lot more than 9%. I’d guess that a smidgen less than the Great Depression rate. What’s your guess?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The secret of longer life?

Monday, October 24, 2011

http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/10/16/0215224/dna-sequenced-of-woman-who-lived-to-115

DNA Sequenced of Woman Who Lived To 115
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 16, @02:20AM

*** begin quote ***

chrb writes

“The DNA of W115 — an anonymous woman who lived to the age of 115 years and left her body to science — has been sequenced. Despite her old age, W115 showed no signs of dementia or heart disease, and tests at the age of 113 showed she had the mental abilities of a woman aged 60-75 years. Dr. Henne Holstege of the Department of Clinical Genetics at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam has suggested W115 had rare genetic changes in her DNA which protected against Alzheimer’s and other late-life diseases.”

*** end quote ***

Is this the secret of longer life?

I remember a Heinlein SciFi novel that postulated the premise that long life was genes. You wither had them or you didn’t.

Hmm?

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Posted by reinkefj