Well, it’s finally happened. After over a decade of using the Internet for 10+ hours/day, someone has attempted to steal my identity. I went to my Washington Mutual online checking account to review my balance this morning and discovered a dozen charges that were most certainly not made by me (or my wife). Someone using… Read more »
Posts Categorized: rants
Cotner and Santa Monica
In keeping with Obama’s new “Era of Responsibility”, I’m going to start a new recurring feature here at davidgagne.net. I was thinking of naming it “Assholes Who Refuse to Pay Attention to Traffic Signs”, but I think instead I’ll just go with the name of the intersection. Since I am forced to take the same… Read more »
iTunes Plus
I like the idea of iTunes Plus. DRM is lame and so ’90s. So the fact that Apple is now allowing me to get DRM-free tracks is great. But why in the world do they insist I upgrade my entire library in one fell swoop? I’m not going to shell out $200 for music I’ve… Read more »
J.Crew Follies
I am astounded by how bad the J.Crew website is. The .jsp filenames indicate that the site is Java. It is tragically slow and the senseless implementation of AJAX makes it near impossible to use. It’s almost 2009! How can there be so many horrible shopping cart systems on the ‘net? And for such a… Read more »
Sexual Harassment Training
Alexander McPherson, a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at UC Irvine’s school of biological sciences, wrote a bitchin’ letter to the LA Times on the subject of sexual harassment training. This is a must-read for anyone that has a brain. As far as I can tell from my colleagues, it is worthless, a childish… Read more »
This Makes No Sense
That was the clock in 2007, now it needs another digit. (Note: Not a joke, now it needs another digit.) It took the United States 209 years, from the founding of the republic till 1998, to compile the first $5 trillion in national debt. In the decade since, $6 trillion in debt has been added…. Read more »
Hockey Moms and Pit Bulls
I was all fired up last night about “clean coal” after watching Palin’s speech at the RNC. Obama also talked about “clean coal” in his speech last week, and it seriously bothered me. There is no such thing as “clean coal”, kids. But nobody that listened to the two nominees is talking about that. What… Read more »
Not-So-Ancient Games
BMX? Men’s BMX and Women’s BMX? Water Polo? Volleyball? Beach Volleyball? Badminton? Table Tennis? Kayaking? Basketball? Field Hockey? Trampoline? Race Walking? Look. I know that Ping-Pong Table Tennis and Synchronized Swimming have been in the Olympics for a long time. That doesn’t mean they need to remain in the Olympics. Can’t we just all agree… Read more »
Whether or Not
The words or not never follow the word whether. That’s it. That’s the rule. Whether implies or not. You don’t ever need to say both of them. The words or not should never be spoken. (They should certainly never be written.) Whether implies “or not”. Get it?
Microsoft Money and a Mac
Update: March 20, 2012: It’s been four years and there is still not a viable replacement. Update: July 26, 2011: If you only are concerned with tracking bills and don’t care about investments or balancing your checkbook or importing statements or anything like that, I can highly recommend Chronicle. It’s a very well-done app that… Read more »
iPhone 3G Bluetooth
It takes four actions to enable Bluetooth on the new iPhone. Click “Settings”. Click “General”. Click “Bluetooth”. Click on/off slider. Leaving Bluetooth enabled all the time drains the battery much too quickly, so it makes sense to only enable it when you are using it, and to disable it when you are finished. (The same… Read more »
Natural American Spirit Cigarettes
In addition to one of the standard Surgeon General’s Warnings, packs of Natural American Spirit cigarettes are labeled: Made with 100% additive-free, whole leaf, natural tobacco. No reconstituted sheet tobacco. No processed stems. Up to 25% more tobacco than other king size cigarettes. All of that would, in some convoluted way, probably lead a smoker… Read more »