700 Billion dollars divided by 140 million taxpayers equals $5,000 per taxpayer.

Labels: rant

I'm getting fed up with Blogger's constant technical failures when it comes to FTP blogs, and their complete inaction on fixing the reoccurring problems.

FTP blogs are blogs that are hosted on any website other than Blogger's blogspot.com domain. I'm an FTP blogger because my blog is hosted on my own personal servers (at mikesussman.com). Blogger (owned by Google) is constantly having problems with FTP blogs and they're snail-like in responding to issues that affect thousands of their most dedicated bloggers. Last week I was unable to post to my blog for several days, and yesterday I was unable to upload any images, which is a common problem. And the part that bugs me most is hundreds of bloggers posting about these problems on the official blogger help group and being completely ignored by Blogger with no responses for days.

I've been loyal to Blogger since January 2001 but I'm tired of these reoccurring problems. I need to look into other alternatives. One is to move my blog to blogspot.com and either recreate my navigation to mimic the look of my website (it wil be difficult to get those pulldown menus to work on Google's servers) or to embed my blog within the rest of my website via a cheesy iframe (yuck). Another option is to completely ditch Blogger all together and install WordPress on my server. It would be a piece of cake to set up (auto-install) and they have a feature to import Blogger blogs. The downsides of that option would be learning a new system, re-customizing the look again, and being responsible for technical maintenance and upkeep - but maybe that last part is worth the extra effort.

Labels: blogging, rant

All of my websites went down for an unbearable 100 hours a month ago. Even when they finally came back online I've continued to have tons problems with things missing or not working, and my host's tech support has been absolutely horrible.

Well you may have noticed that all of my websites were down again today. After last time, I actually feel good about a (still unacceptable) 20 hour outage. But again my host's tech support is proving to be more enemy than help. Except for this domain only, all of my other websites were reverted back to states from 2006! Huh? My PSTValumni.com website in particular is currentlyexactly how it was on July 7th 2006! This is just maddening!!!

Labels: rant, webmaster

I saw this unbelievable story on Digg and it happens to be in Charlotte.

Time Warner Charges You $0.23 For The Coupons Included In Your Bill
I'm a Time Warner customer in Charlotte, NC and recently got my August bill. Looking over it as usual, there is a new fee "ADHSN Fee" of 23 cents. I know FCC and taxes, but ADHSN I didn't comprehend. After calling customer service the agent was perplexed and finally realized that they were charging me for the Home Shopping Network ad/coupon they included in my bill.

Can you believe that? Time Warner charges HSN to advertise to its cable customers, and then they also charge their customers to be advertised to. Aside from the gall of charging customers to be advertised to, Time Warner is being payed twice for the same ads. Unbelievable.

Labels: rant

Happy Independence Day, 2007. Once again, not "Happy 4th of July". I have off from work today and right before I wrote this post I walked out into the street in front of my house and counted how many American flags I could see around the neighborhood. I could see 21 houses and only one besides mine was displaying an American flag. WTF? (I have four flags out, one main flag on the house and three small ones.)

I'll also take this opportunity to blog about something I wanted to mention a few weeks ago but never got around to it. Without going into much detail, I think the number one problem with politics is... politics itself. The two party system forces politicians to represent their party more often then their own constituents. If a candidate has an opinion on one single issue that differs from the party line, that candidate is shunned by the establishment. But more importantly, their party must always take the opposite view point of the other party because the right viewpoint is whatever is the polar opposite from their opponents' views. Middle ground and compromise is seen as weak, if not traitorous.

This all brings me to the announcement a few weeks ago that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg denounced his Rebublican party membership and has become an Independent. The media has been speculating that Mr. Bloomberg is setting himself up for a run for President in 2008 as an Independent, despite the fact that Bloomberg has adamantly denied those intentions. This is all very interesting but could he possibly have any chance at all of winning? The last 3rd party candidate to win even one state's electoral votes was Strom Thurman in 1948 (running on a pro-segregation platform). In 1992, Ross Perot managed to make it on to the ballot in all 50 states and managed an impressive 18.9% of the popular vote, but still garnered zero electoral votes. Again, would Bloomberg stand any chance of becoming President if he decided to run as an Independent? Chances are microscopic at best, but I read this fascinating article a month ago, "Michael Bloomberg vs. the 12th Amendment". Of course it's extremely improbable but author Jay Cost explains in painfully bureaucratic detail how it is indeed possible, so long as Bloomberg can win just one single state and neither of the other two candidates get the 50% needed to win. Very interesting reading.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution accounts for such a situation, all I could think about while reading this article was how the media would paint it as a chaotic anarchy and that the court system would most likely intercede unnecessarily and partisan politics would end up supercede the Constitution in the end anyway. Well on that down note, Happy Independence Day anyway.

Labels: holidays, politics, rant

So Boston was nearly shut down yesterday with perceived threat of a city-wide terrorist bomb scare. Bridges, tunnels, and subways were shut down, homeland security was put on alert, and the media went wall-to-wall with non-stop coverage. As it turns out, the suspicious objects turned out to be harmless electronic advertising displays for a show on The Cartoon Network called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". This was part of an urban-roots guerrilla-marketing campaign in Boston and ten other major cities.

As unfortunate as the chaos caused by the misunderstood signs was, I find it outrageous that the city if Boston is now blaming Turner Broadcasting, owners of The Cartoon Network, for what amounts to domestic terrorism. Governor Deval Patrick is calling it a prank and a hoax, which insinuates that Turner planted these ads with the specific preconceived intention of fooling the public and generating publicity from a bomb scare. That's ridiculous. Turner was simply trying to promote their television show and their campaign was mistaken for something it wasn't. I'm glad that Boston officials take public safety so seriously but it was just a misunderstanding - a misunderstanding on their behalf. They freaked out and look like fools for causing all this trouble and now they want to save face by blaming Turner Broadcasting for "a hoax". In fact, they've just arrested the individuals responsible for planting the "suspicious devices" and city officials are vowing full prosecution for the culprits, and for Turner to repay the city's response costs.

Give me a break. It was just an innocent misunderstanding. The advertising campaign was a bad idea, made worse by the poor construction of the signage, but I think jail time and a half-million dollar fine is a bit excessive for hanging signs on public property without a permit.

Video of the signs being put up.

Labels: news, rant

This is just sickening. A video game was recently released in which the objective of the game is to convert or kill non-Christians. All characters in "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" are divided into two sides, Christians (the good guys) and non-Christians (the evil forces who must be eliminated). The game plays like a religious warfare training manual, clearly stating on the box to "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare". After you kill a non-believer, all you need to do is pray and God will forgive you for the murder. The message to its audience of teenage children is that anybody who is not a follower of Jesus is the enemy. Would it be acceptable to have a video game aimed at children where the objective is to kill infidel non-Muslims and fly airplanes into skyscrapers in devotion to Allah? This piece of garbage is currently being sold at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.

P.S. In another aspect of the game, male players may take on any of a wide variety of "career roles", but female players are only allowed to be nurses or musicians and nothing else. Another nice message for our impressionable youth.

Labels: rant

Nobody can deny that the Simpsons have been going downhill for years but I refused to believe that it had actually jumped the shark. The shark has been jumped.

First of all, last night's episode was just not funny at all. Secondly, the premise of this episode was that Homer joined the Army, a rip-off of a previous episode in which Homer joined the Navy. But the final straw for me is that for the second week in a row the show ended with blatant propaganda against the war in Iraq.

In last week's episode Kang & Kodos invaded Springfield at the end of the annual Halloween episode. The anti-Iraq message was short, subtle, and most importantly delivered in a cleverly humorous parody. However last night's episode was outright beat-you-over-the-head preaching. The moral of the entire episode was spelled out by Lisa Simpson, after the town of Springfield forces the U.S. Army to surrender, stating that an occupying force will never defeat the resistance of a determined people. Listen, I'm strongly against the war in Iraq too but I don't need political morals force-fed to me by my cartoon entertainment.

Labels: politics, rant, television

Good for Joe! I'm happy that Joe Lieberman was re-elected to the U.S. Senate last night - even though he's one of my least favorite Democrats. I've always strongly disagreed with most of Lieberman's beliefs, from his overly-conservative agenda, to his push for media censorship, to his support of the Iraqi war. But it is his pro-war belief that I am actually supporting right now because to support Joe Lieberman right now is to support democracy.

Last year Joe Lieberman spoke out in favor of George Bush's war in Iraq, a sentiment out of step with his fellow Democrats. Because his views were against his party's lines the Senator lost his Democratic Party nomination for re-election, a turn virtually unheard of for an incumbent not caught in some sort of a scandal. So without the nomination or support of the Democrats Lieberman ran for re-election as an independent, and last night won his race for another term in office.

As much as I oppose Lieberman's support of the Iraqi war, I more than support his rights - no duty - to speak his opinion without reprisal from his party. What I hate most about politics is the notion that politicians can't have differing opinions from their official party viewpoints. This mentality prevent politicians from being able to serve their constituents honestly, instead of being forced to vote however their party tells them to. I may not like what Joe has to say but I fully support his right to say it.

In an unrelated political story, kudos to Keith Ellison who became the first Muslim ever elected to the US Congress. To be honest I know nothing at all about his political views but I am all for religious diversity in the post 9/11 government.

Labels: politics, rant

Happy Independence Day to everybody. Please note I'm wishing you a happy "Independence Day" and not a happy "4th of July". Despite what you've become accustomed to, the holiday is not officially called "The 4th of July". Sure it happens to falls on the 4th day of July but on New Years' Day do you wish everybody "Happy January 1st", or "Happy December 25th" on Christmas? Of course not. Unlike Memorial Day and Labor Day which have been dumbed down to the point where most American's don't even know why they have off from work, I do believe that most people understand that "The 4th of July" is to celebrate our independence from England and establishing a new country. It's just always bugged me how the most important holiday to our nation is better known by it's coincidental calendar marking than for the reason we celebrate it.

Trivia: Technically the 4th of July isn't even America's birthday anyway. The Declaration of Independence was written on July 3rd, approved on July 4th, but was not officially signed until August 2, 1776. All the more reason to celebrate the act and not the date on the calendar.

Labels: holidays, rant

This week the Charlotte Department of Transportation released compelling video of three collisions that occurred within one month's time at one particular intersection in Uptown Charlotte. They claim that there were zero collisions at this interection the previous eight months, during which time there were red-light cameras in operation. CDOT goes on to claim that this is strong evidence that the red-light cameras were effective in detering collisions at these intersections, suggesting we need to reinstate the red-light camera program for our own safely.

I've watched the video of these three crashes over and over again (sorry I don't have a link) and in each case I've noticed two things. One is that the violator didn't even slow down in any of the crashes. And two, that the traffic light was already red before any of the clips even begin. In the image above you'll notice at least three cars totally stopped for the red light, and at least one car that had already made it across the intersection (left to right), meaning that this crash must've had the light red for at least 10 seconds before the collision. Red-light cameras will snap your photo any time you proceed through a red light but their purpose is to deter people from intentionally trying to beat a changing or recently changed signal. That was obviously not the case in any of these three videos. Each of CDOT's examples clearly show an oblivious moron driver and not somebody intentionally trying to beat a light that just changed.

So why would CDOT release this great video and blame the collisions on the suspension of Charlotte's red-light camera program when it's so obviously not the cause? Because Charlotte makes money off of fines generated by the cameras - lots of money. Thanks for caring about our $afety, Charlotte.

Labels: Charlotte, politics, rant

A few months after dropping my business card in a contest bowl, I was sent an email coupon from Jersey Mike's. I like Jersey Mike's subs so I printed out the coupon and tried to use it. They told me that they do accept that coupon but not if it's a print out. What!? They sent me the coupon in an email. How in the world am I supposed to use it if I can't print it out? Am I supposed to bring my entire computer down to the restaurant, plug it in, and show them the coupon on the monitor? I know it was just a little coupon but that's ridiculous.

Labels: rant, stupid

Attention everyone in my neighborhood: Stop with the fireworks already! I like fireworks too, but ten straight days is way too much! Being that Independence Day fell on a Wednesday, people started on Friday June 29th and they are still keeping Maegan awake at 10pm on Sunday July 8th.

Labels: holidays, rant