Wednesday, December 01, 2004
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On The Road
Rain Storm will be on the road for the next few days. As weird as Blogger has been lately, I probably wouldn't have been posting much anyway.
Make lots of trouble while I'm gone. The government won't have time to inact more really stupid policies if they're too busy cracking down on the 48% of Americans who are insurgents.
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On The Road
Rain Storm will be on the road for the next few days. As weird as Blogger has been lately, I probably wouldn't have been posting much anyway.
Make lots of trouble while I'm gone. The government won't have time to inact more really stupid policies if they're too busy cracking down on the 48% of Americans who are insurgents.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
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The Death of Dell
This is a personal rant, not especially political. Though I suppose it may have broader economic implications.
I've been using Dell computers for most of the past decade. I don't think I'll buy another one. And it's not just because they are now made in China, though that is probably part of the equation.
I've purchased 2 new Dell PCs during the past year -- one for the day job office where I have some control over such purchases, and another for the home office where, ironically, I have less control.
Yesterday at the office I got a phone call from some young sweetheart at Dell, reminding me that the warranty on my (allmost) new PC was about to expire. Did I want to renew the warranty for only $99? If I didn't I would have to pay for repairs, and would be charged $40 for Dell technical consults.
This must be how they sell them cheap: They make them in China, then make their money selling warranties.
So I told the young sweetheart at Dell that I didn't want to pay $99 to extend the warranty, and if the sumbitch broke down I would make sure to buy my next computer from somebody else.
Last night, the D Drive on my home PC stopped working. I had just burned a CD on the E Drive, then stuck it in the D Drive to make sure I had a good copy (it's the manuscript for a book I've been writing for the past several years, now it's time to find a publisher). But when I stuck it in the D Drive, nobody was home.
Just to make sure I hadn't burned a bad copy, I took the CD down to the old Dell that my young kids now use to play Blue's Clues. I stuck the CD into the D Drive. And in seconds, there was my book. The D Drive on my new Dell is hosed.
So . . . it's doubtful that I'll ever buy another Dell product. Susie says to go Linux. She may be right.
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The Death of Dell
This is a personal rant, not especially political. Though I suppose it may have broader economic implications.
I've been using Dell computers for most of the past decade. I don't think I'll buy another one. And it's not just because they are now made in China, though that is probably part of the equation.
I've purchased 2 new Dell PCs during the past year -- one for the day job office where I have some control over such purchases, and another for the home office where, ironically, I have less control.
Yesterday at the office I got a phone call from some young sweetheart at Dell, reminding me that the warranty on my (allmost) new PC was about to expire. Did I want to renew the warranty for only $99? If I didn't I would have to pay for repairs, and would be charged $40 for Dell technical consults.
This must be how they sell them cheap: They make them in China, then make their money selling warranties.
So I told the young sweetheart at Dell that I didn't want to pay $99 to extend the warranty, and if the sumbitch broke down I would make sure to buy my next computer from somebody else.
Last night, the D Drive on my home PC stopped working. I had just burned a CD on the E Drive, then stuck it in the D Drive to make sure I had a good copy (it's the manuscript for a book I've been writing for the past several years, now it's time to find a publisher). But when I stuck it in the D Drive, nobody was home.
Just to make sure I hadn't burned a bad copy, I took the CD down to the old Dell that my young kids now use to play Blue's Clues. I stuck the CD into the D Drive. And in seconds, there was my book. The D Drive on my new Dell is hosed.
So . . . it's doubtful that I'll ever buy another Dell product. Susie says to go Linux. She may be right.
Monday, November 29, 2004
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Target Sells the Killer Weed
I always knew Tar-zhey was a French word
Check out the on-line ad here.
If they've taken it down, you can still see it at United Left. Thanks to the vigilance of The General.
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Target Sells the Killer Weed
I always knew Tar-zhey was a French word
Check out the on-line ad here.
If they've taken it down, you can still see it at United Left. Thanks to the vigilance of The General.
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In Your Heart
You know they're abusers
Must Read from Mathew Gross: The Politics of Victimization:
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In Your Heart
You know they're abusers
Must Read from Mathew Gross: The Politics of Victimization:
Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: stop responding to the abuser. Don’t let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he’ll win, not because he’s right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it failproof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, “loose”, irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.Read it all. Thanks to Hecate at Atrios for the link.
Even if you do everything right, they’ll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education. And they don’t even know they are being hit.
