Thanks to FSJ for this article: Microsoft, the largest bastion of evil outside of Yormark’s office, hosted a conference on Windows Mobile technology called Mobius 2009. There were 25 people in attendance. Picture one [Link] shows the presentation being done. On a Mac. Maybe it’s because of the 25 people they invited — see picture two — 13 of them were using Macintoshes. Way to go Microsoft. This is a blog of a very pro-Windows person of all things. It’s fantastically amusing to me. I am not sure he appreciates the irony of his post.
Thanks to Sue for this bit. It’s the complete history of the internet in a nutshell. For this article, it’ not true. It’s pretty interesting, very informative, and entirely geeky. And that’s all good. (There is a saying that anything that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. It’s often called Whitney’s Postulate and is listed as a corollary to Murphy’s Law. This quote was stolen by Sydney Harris and is used all over the internet in various forms.)
As you may or may not be aware every SMS (text message) you have ever sent in your life has been stored by your mobile phone company. Theoretically the archives are reserved for law enforcement and national security purposes. Many, many SMS were sent in the immediate aftermath of 9-11. Those SMS were posted in their entirety by WikiLeaks on the web. Here’s the NY Post article. The article has the link if you care to follow it. I won’t put the direct link here because (a) I read a few and some will crush your soul and spirit (b) they violate every personal privacy ethic ever written as they include UNEDITED full names, phone numbers, and more. If you were in New York on 9-11 and sent an SMS it is posted here. If you sent someone your phone, your address, or anything else. It’s here. That is completely unacceptable. There are tons of them and unless you like reading both the mundane of unaware people and the misery of people finding out things nobody should ever have to hear, just read the article and skip the link. (The article has more than enough to give you an idea) Nobody should ever have their privacy invaded like this. This isn’t journalism, the public’s right to know, or anything else. It’s fucking disgusting and those at WikiLeaks should die slow, painful deaths.
Special thanks to my season ticket representative Mario Durant of the Florida Panthers for his efforts in securing us nine ducats for a special event. If you ever want season tickets for the NHL’s Florida Panthers, call him and tell him I sent you. He’ll hook you up. This guy comes through and he’s awesome. I’d tell you more about the special event, but you’ll have to wait until next year.
=A special frown to people who think nearly a decade and a half of friendship should be discarded without at least saying something and providing a reason or even discussing it. Cowardly. And enough on that subject. So, yesterday was quite the challenge. I left work early to visit the attorney as I do from time to time. Part of my job is making sure things that need to be signed are signed, and everything is in order. If you checked yesterday’s weather report, you will know we got damn near 5 inches of rain in some areas and had floods and flood warnings all over the area. I left the attorney’s office around 430 to meet everyone for dinner at 515 at Lucille’s. The idiot light on my car came on and said my tire was low on pressure. I figured because it was cooler, the pressure had probably caused it to get low (this stupid BMW is sensitive like that), so I stopped in the light drizzle, added air, reset the sensor, and made it almost a quarter mile before it came on again. I stopped, the rain a bit harder, and checked the tire again. Indeed, it was leaking because it was low on air again. I inched the car forward and found a very large screw in the front passenger tire. I filled it up again, knowing there happened to be a BMW dealer about four miles from where I was. The car has run-flat tires. While it’s good because you’re never stranded, there are some downsides. First, you get about 20 to 30 miles of driving if you keep your speed under 30. Second, BMW doesn’t give you a spare since you don’t need one (as if). The deluge started as I got on I-75 to go one exit (hazards on in the right lane) to the dealer — Lauderdale BMW of Pembroke Pines. I made it there at 448pm. I walked in and it was damn near deserted in the service department. I explained my situation (and that I was 35 miles from home) but they said most of their mechanics were already gone as they were closing at 5 due to the holiday. (The special tires for the X5 are not readily available at most tire outlets and have to be ordered — with Thanksgiving looming tomorrow, that was a Bad Thing.) They guy was nice and called every mechanic that was still in the shop seeing if anyone there would do the tire, but they all said no as it was quitting time. I was resigned to limping home and missing dinner, the game and everything else. I thanked the guy (Cal), who was way more helpful than anyone at South Motors would have ever been. My service guy, Donny Rizzo of South Motors, doesn’t even return phone calls or emails reliably. How that dealership is in business, I will never know. And of course, BMW doesn’t care about their customers as my previous interactions indicated (see previous blog posts.)
As I was getting ready to walk out the door, a mechanic, Josh, who was sitting in the office (not in the garage) came over and said he’d do it. What a nice guy doing this on his own time to help me out. Sadly, for me, the tire warranty company was already closed so I had to pay for the tire at the dealer’s rate. (If you worked where I did, you’d have a warranty too for tires that cannot be patched and must be replaced at $300 each.) I paid for it on the company credit card, and I’ll file for reimbursement Monday. I give this dealer an A, and will return here for scheduled service even though it’s farther from my house than South Motors. To hell with South Motors. BMW will get a nice letter about Cal and Josh, though they probably don’t care about that either judging by their previous replies (or lack thereof). I left the dealer at 550pm, called Karen and found out they were all running a bit late due to weather and were just ordering so I gave them my order over the phone. Got there 615ish, and we ate. About 90 minutes later neither Karen nor myself were feeling very good. So much for dinner. And the Panthers lost in OT. Came home, returned dinner from whence it came and felt much better. So, all in all, today (yesterday now) sucked.