rants @ davidgagne.net

Dealing June 13th, 2012 @ 9:31 am PDT

In which I want to scream

Federal Student Loan Repayment Change March 21st, 2012 @ 10:08 am PDT

Since 1996 — that’s 16 years! — I have been paying $182.26/mo on my federal student loans. The money is directly debited from my checking account each month. A few years ago the amount changed from $182.26/mo to $182.25/mo, and the Department of Education sent me a letter which I had to sign and return […]

One Week after September 11 September 4th, 2011 @ 5:59 am PDT

Originally posted September 18, 2001 It’s been one week. So this is the first anniversary of sorts. And next week it will be two weeks. And then it will be a month since. And then it will be six months. And then a year. And then five years. And then ten years. When all the […]

The 2010 Census May 2nd, 2010 @ 12:09 am PDT

Okay, riddle me this, kids: The local NBC affiliate’s nightly news keeps running items about how Los Angeles residents are not returning their census forms. The anchorman reports hyper-specific percentages each evening of how many of us have not responded. On Thursday night he said that less than 72% of the city had completed the […]

Adventures with Microsoft Support January 27th, 2010 @ 7:30 am PDT

In which Microsoft has me running around in circles

You Could NOT Care Less January 26th, 2010 @ 6:51 am PDT

I can’t stand when people say, “I could care less.” “I could care less,” is one of those little things that drives me absolutely batshit crazy. If you could care less, it means you care. That’s not what you mean when you say that, is it? What you mean is that you don’t care. Someone […]

Dangerous Mistakes January 11th, 2010 @ 8:00 am PDT

I was blessed — or cursed, I suppose, depending on your point of view — to have my first “real” programming job in the medical field. I wrote software which managed the processing of human tissue (knees, fascia lata, femurs, etc.) for implantation into human patients. I was very young and very stupid at the […]