Hello Screaming Weasel in Pittsburgh

April 12, 2009

What a surprise to see this blog listed in the blogroll for Screaming Weasel, a “partly cloudy Pittsburgh rant n stuff.” Check out the news from the Northeast with a funny and political viewpoint.

Thank you, Google Alerts. And, of course, Screaming Weasel.

I’m attracted to weasel names, and have the domain SlackerWeasel.com. My daughter was playing with it, but lost interest immediately. What should I do with SlackerWeasel?


Another “Linux Beats Vista” Story

March 8, 2009

Today the time changed. Powers That Be moved the dates that have been used for decades to make the time changes a couple of years ago, making the switch to and from Daylight Savings Time dicier than usual.

To my surprise, or maybe not, Microsoft Vista SP1 on a five month old HP computer did NOT handle the time change. Read the rest of this entry »


Yes, Bailout the Porn Industry

January 11, 2009

You have to admire someone with balls, especially when they’ll show them to you for $2.99 per minute. Larry Flynt, taking over the mantle of Old Porn Guy Spokesman from Hugh Hefner, made plenty of headlines recently when he said the government should bail out the porn business. I say yes. Read the rest of this entry »


Blagojevitch Screws Authorities, Senate Screwing Burris

January 7, 2009

This so belongs in the “Broken Process” category, even if it’s not directly technology. The entire mess, as Illinois authorities were too slow to push Governor “Gimme Mine” Blagojevitch out of office before he appointed Roland Burris to fill the rest of Obama’s Senate term, just gets funnier and funnier. Read the rest of this entry »


Microsoft Disses Vista Once Again by Extending XP

December 24, 2008

This is starting to look like one of the soap operas where a guy marries one girl but keeps dating his old girlfriend. Microsoft said Vista is their new true love, but they just can’t give up XP yet. Read the rest of this entry »


Can Your iPod Kill You?

November 10, 2008

According to the Reuters story “MP3 Player Headphones May Hinder Pacemakers” your iPod won’t kill you, but the headphones might. Why? The strong magnets in the headphones can, when held on your chest near your pacemaker or implantable defibrillator, interfere with your life-saving heart machine. Read the rest of this entry »


ATT Rebate Program to Customers: FU

November 2, 2008

I finally remembered to call ATT customer service (a misnomer if there ever was one) and requested my rebate card, with $38.30 still unused, be reactivated. Quick answer? No joy. Read the rest of this entry »


Stupid Credit Card Security Rules

October 28, 2008

I have no fear of buying products online. Part of the drill is to jump through a few hoops for authentication. I understand that.

However, I can’t understand why credit and debit card companies, Visa in this case, put tight limits on passwords. Read the rest of this entry »


ATT Rebate Program Sucks

September 28, 2008

I bought my daughter a new phone for her birthday in the spring, and the phone included a $100 rebate. Normally, I avoid every product with a rebate, but my hatred for rebates couldn’t bring me to reject the phone my daughter wanted. So I got the phone, and the rebate came in a decent amount of time.

Unfortunately, ATT sent the rebate on a gift credit card. Read the rest of this entry »


Microsoft Starts Freezing the Market with Windows 7 Promises

September 16, 2008

It’s political season, so we should expect dirty tricks. But I expected super spin on candidates, not operating systems. It appears, at least according to the story “Windows 7 Looking Like a June 2009 Delivery” that Microsoft’s dirty tricks division is already at full strength, just like we’d describe a hurricane. Since every hurricane and politician creates enormous hot air, Microsoft evidently decided to blow plenty of hot air itself.

Read the rest of this entry »