OBSERVATION: Why “we” fail? Hidden memes.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

THINKING ABOUT WALL STREET’S “PACE”

I can see the diff.

The day doesn’t seem to start until after 9 and seems to end promptly at 4ish. Official hours are 845 to 1715.

I caused a stir when someone was bemoaning the lack of time to meet and I said: “there’s always Saturday morning”.

They all laughed, thinking I was making one of my characteristic jokes.

I just smiled and filed that away for future use in a future blog post. (This is it!)

I wonder how committed I ever was to any work task?

Probably, just the same.

“[Luke:] I can’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.” — Yoda (Fictional character from George Lucas’s “Star Wars” movie)

There’s a Zen adage for this. Hope it comes to me soon. That, in and of itself, is not “being in the moment”! LOL?

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FUN: Understanding Engineers

Monday, April 23, 2012

Understanding Engineers
Is it possible to understand Engineers.  They are strange, you know!

(Joke #1)

Understanding Engineers #1

Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, “Where did you get such a great bike?” The second engineer replied, “Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX and said, “Take what you want.” The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, “Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit you anyway.”

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Anyone NOT heard this one?

From a lawyer, trying to get back at me some of my Lawyer jokes. Fat old white guy injineer don’t get the derision as lawyers do.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-23 @ 21:38

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SERVICE: GARMIN — caution warranted

Monday, April 23, 2012

Funny – peculiar.

I’ve reported to the SURVIVAL BLOG http://survivalblog.com, as have many others, of “death by GPS”. Some are funny, like the truck driver in England who followed the GPS into a river when there was no physical bridge where the GPS said there was one. Others are tragic — the German tourists who drove into Death Valley unprepared, unaware they were on a trail, and suffering a mechanical (breakdown). Or the tech fellow who followed the GPS onto a seasonal logging road in California – Oregon area and was trapped by snow.

I picked up Garmin to deal with confusing Virginia roads and poor signage. So far, I have been:

(1) trapped twice in a loop — once in VA and once in NJ;

(2) annoyed at least five times when it for example insists I get off a perfect good (and free) 295 to jump onto the Turnpike and pay to get to exactly the same place (i.e., the DE bridge).

(3) it insists on annoying me when I stop for gas or the WC.

(4) It’s sent me to a non-existent WalMart.

(5) Twice it couldn’t find an American Legion despite being given an address.

(6) And, numerous other little challenges. Like give it an address and, no matter how you enter it, it can find it.

(7) Finally, there’s not way to pick a spot and say take me there. (At least, that I could find.)

So, as self defense, I, if I’m going somewhere “new”, will Google map it and mapquest it BEFORE venturing out. (Prematurely opened my new VA printer, just so I can print those in case GARMIN develops a stubborn streak.

Sometimes it’s wonderful. Like when the corporate apartment’s dryer didn’t. Garmin with the word “laundromat” found me a 24/7 big one two towns over with the most interest Latino Customers. (Several of the Mexican ladies smiled at me as I loaded my wet tidy whiteys into a huge dryer. Not wanting to be in some Country Western tune where the big boyfriend takes exception to me with my high school Spanish saying “leave me alone, señorita”, I just focused on playing with my IPAD.

So, it’s like an idiot friend, who at random, dispenses both good (i.e., don’t drive home) and bad (i.e., buy us all a round) advice.

Caveat emptor applies to its directions.

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MACBOOKAIR: Didn’t resume for hibernate

Sunday, April 22, 2012

One of the many petty annoyances.

* The Ghost of Hard Disk Space Past, when all the free space disappears and needs a reboot to recover the 4 or 5 gig.

* Fails to resume from hibernate

* Firefox fails to close

* Random app crashes

* The screen has a finger goo straight line of grease on it corresponding to, I guess, the CVBNM keys. Argh!

* The Apple App Store, Mobile Me, and ICLOUD can “lose their memory of you” when Aplle decides to “improve” stuff. Double Argh!

So I’m coming to the decision that Apple is as bad as Windoze.

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FUN: Early morning wakeup

Saturday, April 21, 2012

“Thanks, construction workers, for the <Expletive Deleted> 0530 wakeup call!”, thought Grumpy on Saturday morning.

(How kool is that referring to myself in the Third Person. Makes me feel more of like a writer than a mere blogger.)

After I was up from ~0200 to ~0400 with “the baby”, who couldn’t sleep.

(That’s me again in the third person. That’s how I think on myself when I can go back to sleep after a bad dream, on of any innumerable WC visits thanks to the Rx diuretic, or when I get the “next great idea” like online backup.)

It was really OK. Really.

See the Verizon phone doesn’t know the diff between workday weekday and weekends. Probably the kids in China who build and programmed the phone don’t have weekends off.

So the 0530 call was followed by Verizon’s 0600, 0615, and 0630 alarms.

(The 0600 is the worst. Reveille! For a minute, I think I’m back in basic. And I couldn’t find the phone so I had to hear it twice. How did it get under the bed? Hiding from the “dancing girls” that were in last night. In my dreams.)

Followed the corporate Berry’s at 0730. (I know where that was hanging from it’s charger in the kitchen. If it does get it’s full charge, it dies during the day and then the battery needs to be replaced. (Great engineering guys in China!) Which means I have to walk it two buildings over to “support”. (Boy, do I miss Wall Street. “Yes, Mister Reinke, sorry you’re having a problem. I send someone to replace it immediately. Is he there yet?”)

So, I’ll just say my “child like” prayer for all the people I’ve just maligned.

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INTERESTING: Re-release just repeats the lie

Saturday, April 21, 2012

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/04/15/titanic-anniversary

Remembering James Cameron’s Titanic Inaccuracy 
by Rev. Austin Miles

*** begin quote ***

To kill a man’s good name, to deliberately slander and libel a fine gentleman officer, a heroic one at that, who saved others at the cost of his own life is unthinkable.

Cameron is too talented a filmmaker to resort this this kind of sensationalism at the expense of good people and their families. He does not need this kind of exploitation to put punch in his films.

So how did Cameron and the studio make amends for slaughtering the reputation of a beloved family member? Why they donated 5,000 pounds to the Lt. Murdoch Memorial Fund which of course, made everything right.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

At least they could have led with a disclaimer.

But, Hollywood has no morals or ethics. It’s whatever sells tickets.

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RANT: ZAGGS disappoints me

Friday, April 20, 2012

On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 2:15 PM, The ZAGG Team – Darren S. wrote:

Hello Keith,

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, where we are Zealous About Great Gadgets! My name is Darren S. and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

I apologize for any confusion you may have experienced regarding your order. I see that order IC5629043 was placed on April 2nd, 2012. Orders placed through ZAGG.com orders typically take 1-2 business days to process and ship. This may vary depending on product demand, however. In order to assist you with determining the current availability of a given product, the expected shipping date for an item has been included on the product page itself.

Having said that, I see that the expected ship date for this order was is April 23rd, 2012. The ZAGGfolio on this order is currently experiencing inventory issues which has caused a delay in the shipping of this order. Our processing facility is working as quickly as possible to fulfill each affected order, and we expect inventory for this item to become available around April 25th, 2012. Nevertheless, we regret any inconvenience to you and acknowledge the difficulty this has caused.

Once an order leaves our facility we will send a shipping confirmation email. You can also check the status of your orders on demand via ZAGG.com. Log in to your User Account Manager to check the status of your most recent orders and view a snapshot of your order history. You can also update your account information. Take advantage of this service by visiting our website at http://www.zagg.com/support/account    .

We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate your interest in ZAGG. However, please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or comments. If you prefer assistance via a live customer service representative, our phone number is (801) 263-0699 or toll free at (800) 700-ZAGG(9244). Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5:30 PM, Mountain Time.

Thank you for choosing ZAGG! We appreciate your business.

All the best,

Darren S.
Customer Service Representative    ZAGG Inc.    3855 S 500 W STE C
SLC, UT 84115
800.700.ZAGG(9244) (toll free)    801.263.0699 (o)    Nasdaq Symbol: ZAGG    ZAGG.com

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Who’s Keith?

I’m not sure, but I don’t think that the date promised was 4/25. It was out of stock, then came back. I wouldn’t have ordered that far out. No sense cancelling now, but I’m not pleased.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-20 @ 18:50

 

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POLITICAL: Big Gooferment is even bigger than we think?

Friday, April 20, 2012

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-govt-may-be-bigger-than-you-think/

Business Report: Gov’t May Be Bigger Than You Think
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 6:45pm by Becket Adams

*** begin quote ***

But the tax break isn’t counted as spending. In fact, while the check for $2,100 is classified as “federal spending,” the tax break doesn’t even show up on the federal budget. So when you hear a policymaker talk about lowering the deficit or expanding/reducing the size of government, most of them don’t factor in tax breaks.

The CNN report goes on to argue that because tax breaks get the same results as government checks (e.g. giving homeowners deductions on mortgage interest, giving tax credits to “green” energy companies, etc), they’re practically interchangeable, right?

Not quite: the government check is directly funded by taxpayers while the tax break comes at a cost to no one.

But this is not to say that tax breaks should be disregarded from the deficit discussion. As taxes generate income, and fixing the deficit is all about balancing revenue with expenditures, then tax breaks should be included.

*** end quote ***

That makes me ill.

Bigger?

Seriously. Are you kidding me!

23.7%

Argh!

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Business Report: Gov’t May Be Bigger Than You Think
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 6:45pm by Becket Adams Becket Adams

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TECHNOLOGY: Windows 7 rollout at work

Thursday, April 19, 2012

I’ll get a first hand look at Windoze 7 in an enterprise environment 10 May. I can’t wait. Blog fodder galore. (I hope.)

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POLITICAL: Why do we even have a Department of Labor?

Thursday, April 19, 2012

DOL forcing media to use government computers | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/dol-forcing-media-use-government-computers/479421

April 13, 2012 4:39pm
DOL forcing media to use government computers
by Mark Tapscott Executive EditorShare

*** begin quote ***

Unrest is simmering in some quarters of the Washington news universe regarding changes in the way the Department of Labor (DOL) manages its pre-release media “lockups” on sensitive data like weekly jobless benefits and unemployment.

For years, journalists participating in the lockups have shown up at DOL at the appointed time, then entered a limited-access area to receive the new data and prepare news stories for release as soon as official embargoes end.

The system insures that major news organizations get the data as soon as possible and allows journalists covering the release get a jump on providing analyses and opinion about the data.

*** and ***

Fillichio reminded participants that there are only 20-30 seats available for the lockups and that priority will be given by DOL in selecting participants to those that “are primarily journalistic enterprises.”

He also offered a one-sentence assurance that “the department will not consider editorial or political viewpoints in making credentialing decisions.”

*** and ***

In other words, journalists will no longer be allowed to bring their laptops or other equipment to the lockups, they will have to use government-supplied equipment, described by Fillichio as including “a virtualized desktop running a Windows operation system, a web browser, word-processing software, an Adobe Reader application and secure file transfer capability. Equipment provided will not have wireless networking capability. Provisions will be in place for news organizations to transmit their stories over the Internet.”
The changes evidently are in response at least in part to worries that some of the non-traditional news organizations allowed in recent years to participate in the lockups may not be using their access simply for journalistic purposes.

Since the stock market can rise or fall by hundreds of points as a result of such a data release, making sure nobody gets an advance peek at the data is critical to insuring the integrity of the process.

*** end quote ***

Does anyone see the problems in this story?

(1) DOL won’t pick based on “political viewpoints”? TO even say that IMMEDIATELY raises a red flag an tells me that is EXACTLY what they are going to do.

(2) What’s a “primarily a journalistic enterprise”? So, as a blogger, I’m shut out. Sorry, excuse me. Put the DIKW (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) and release it to the Universe at the same time. The Press should get it at the same time as everyone else. Otherwise they are the “house organ”.

(3) Why am I the taxpayer paying for computers to benefit some segment of the business community? Are the costs of each seat in the “lockup” being paid by the organization renting them?

This whole concept STINKS!

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