April 2005 Archives

People at work call me Captain Beta because I'm always willing to download beta software and give it a run. So when I heard that AOL had started a public beta of their new version of AIM, now named Triton, I thought I'd give it a try.

To put it succinctly, it's about as pretty or useful as a cat's ass. I understand it's only a beta, but lately, the beta software I've used has been really rock solid. This is flakey, the UI sucks, and nothing's where you'd expect to be.

You start your computer and it sits in your tray. Right click on the tray icon and say "Connect to AOL Network" and it does....something...but you never see your buddy window. So I double-clicked on it, which did...nothing. So I find the icon for the software on my desktop and double-click it. Hey look, I have to log in again. WTF? I log in again, and the buddy list (I hate that phrase) extends from top to bottom. It looks horrible, and it's still got those ugly ads at top. MAKE THOSE GO AWAY PLEASE!

I try to get the buddy list to hide in the tray now, but uhm, it won't. Minimize just minimizes it, and when I click close it disconnects. That's frustrating, because it doesn't feel like they've got someone who's really using the app building the use cases.

Also, trying to turn off sounds doesn't seem to work. I turned them off and restarted AIM and I'm still hearing the open door/shut door crap, etc.

I do like how the new chat window looks (quasi-Mac OS X), and it looks like they're supporting ClearType fonts now, so that's cool, but the window layout and widgets still bad. They need help with UI design, they need a usability expert, and they need both bad.

I haven't had a chance to use any of the other features yet, like reporting AIM spam, or voice chat, so I can't speak to the quality of those services. I have no need for AIM spam since I only let people on my buddy list contact me, precisely because of AIM bots offering to suck the chrome off my knob every few minutes. I viewed it as a big annoyance with AIM that it was so easy for someone to build those spamming chatbots, so I am happy to see that they've provided a service for people to register formal complaints.

I guess my anger is more related to the fact that most common tasks and windows everyone uses seem so broken. They really should focus on making the essentials as solid as possible before trying to add all this other window-dressing. You know the old saying "You can't polish a turd"? That's what these extra features feel like. Or more appropriately, you can't really dress up a cat's ass. No matter how much makeup you put on it.

So the buzz is that kids in England will run up to strangers and assault them while catching it on film and camera phones. They call it "Happy Slapping". Yeah. You know, a 14 year old boy runs up and punches me in the head, it's on. He'd better hope he runs fast and that I don't break his arms.

Seriously...WTF? Of course, I see some lesson in this that this is happening in England where you're not allowed to own a gun, but not in America. Some kid tries to mug someone here and gets a 9mm in his face, suddenly he's not so happy.

I know some will say that people like Bam and his friends on Jackass do this kind of stuff, but no they don't. They're crude, and they destroy property, which is a different kind of evil, but they only usually assault themselves. And I'm okay with that.

Showtime, in celebration of it's rediscovery of marijuana is running the original 1938 propaganda movie "Reefer Madness". You know, the movie that called marijuana a "violent narcotic" and "the real public enemy number one".

It reminds parents that the Dept of Narcotics in Washington, DC that marijuana is the most important priority of the government.

Now, I have never ever partaken of the whacky weed (I don't like to give over my rational facilities to a drug), but I do support other people's right to use whatever recreational drugs they so choose, provided it doesn't harm anyone else. I had friends in college down the hall from my dorm room that would smoke up every Friday night. The most dangerous thing they did was stack boxes upon boxes of cereal and ramen noodles in the hallway as they tried to satisfy their munchies. Oh, and they had their hot pot running, so I guess they could have scalded the carpet or something. Who knows. Maybe their incessant giggling would drive us MMMMMMAAAAADDDDDDD...

They're not the only ones I've known that have smoked pot. None of them turned into raving lunatics. But back to my soapbox:

I also support an end to the war on drugs and all of the problems that go along with it. If you'd like to know what I mean by that, I suggest you look here.

Anyway, watch the original if you get a chance. It's a hoot. It will make you laugh a lot more than any bowl full of reefer.

So home cosmetic surgery...not so good. I found a skin tag under my arm that was huge so I decided that I was going to cut it off. It HURT and I bled forever. Seriously, I thought it didn't have any nerve endings in it since I could poke it with a knife and it didn't hurt.

WRONG.

It took about 35 minutes to stop bleeding, but I think I'm all done now, and it feels better to not have it under my arm. Maybe I'll take some pictures and put them up on the site.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is sueing the federal government demanding that they mandate the maximum amount of salt allowed in foods. They want to remove the ability of individuals to determine their own salt intake and make it a federal matter.

Since when is it the responsibility of the federal government to tell me how much of whatever I eat? I know I'm overweight. I take responsibility for that. I'm trying to do something about that and I accept that. Other people need to do that too, and groups like the CSPI need to accept that we are all responsible for our own choices. Better yet, they need to accept that it's not the government's purview to manage my health choices.

I know it's a really unreliable way to prevent people from posting their spam on my website (all that garbage they try and use to advertise their site and get a higher google ranking, jerks). I checked this evening. I've got 1600 IP addresses on the ban list.

Almost every single one is in Asia.

I just wish MT gave me the ability to ban whole IP blocks.

I wanted to let everyone know that the Bucks County Libertarian Party is having another meeting in May. We're currently planning on having it at the Applebees in Doylestown.

If you're interested, and found this because you're looking to join the party, please move over to http://libertarian.meetup.com/252 to register and RSVP.

Hey Mr. and Mrs. Lefevre! I see you guys search for Brian every few weeks! I just wanted to say howdy. :) We miss you guys.

btw, Brian, you need to update your site.

You're also mentioned here.

There's also some link out there with a picture of you and Kevin Preston but I can't find it.

This is also Brian Lefevre, but it's not you.

Ditto for this guy. And him.

Charlotte, I haven't forgotten you. Apparently there's a woman running around Seattle trying to find UFOs and cloning people with your name. She's apparently been down to Brazil to investigate abduction hoaxes too. And Argentina. Apparently she's very busy.

Apparently I'm not, as I took the time to find all that.

So does anyone else find it ironic that Hollywood would be all agog over "The Motorcycle Diaries", which lionizes communist revolutionary Che Guevara, but complain heavily when someone shares one of their movies on the internet?

Sharing on the internet like everyone owns the material is very communistic. So they're saying "We like communists as long as they're not actively engaged in sharing our materials."

I spent the weekend helping a family member with their computer. It was dying under the weight of a ton of spyware, and it run the gamut of publishers. There were several trojans installed as well. Claria did seem to be the primary culprit.

After running the Microsoft Anti-Spyware, I downloaded and installed Avast Anti-Virus, which was very good at finding the spyware and the trojans. The best thing about Avast, is the first time after you install it it runs a boot-time scan, which means before anything else is running, it finds more spyware and kills it good. Best thing about Avast is that it's free for personal use. Check that out.

So the computer's clean, and I am convinced that the power tools of fighting spyware are the Microsoft Anti-Spyware and Avast anti-virus.

The Microsoft Anti-Spyware can be found here.

Avast Anti-Virus can be found here.

Get them, and kill spyware/adware good.

Anyone care to postulate on why the two professions that seem to have the highest concentration of libertarians are comedians and computer programmers?