I FUCKING HATE HP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back some time ago, HP built a pretty solid printer that was pretty common, and was built to last.  This, of course, was a huge mistake, since companies don't want to fucking support anything beyond 2 weeks after they've designed it, let alone some years later.  But, they built it, it lasts, and it's out there in many office buildings across the country.  If HP wants to keep their customers happy, they should at least take a few minutes to answer questions on basic things.

Instead, HP would like to practice their methods of torture on their end users.

So, at some point, something went wrong over in customer service.  I get calls one day about one of our printers getting all these weird error messages, or printing blank pages, or pages with gibberish.  Just fucking great.  And, of course, there's always like 20 fucking print jobs in the queue when I go over there, most duplicate entries of something someone is waiting for when the error happened, making it fucking impossible to track down what in the fuck is causing these issues.

Mind you, we've had these printers set up for years without problems.  Which means, some jackass has done something that is causing something to come through my print queues that my printers aren't happy with.  And, since the shit flows downhill, this becomes my fucking problem.

So, first, I google the error message, thinking it's a problem with an individual printer, since no one in the department can give me an accurate description of things, or fill in details.  This was before anyone bothered to tell me that it was happening on 2 printers, and sometimes it was the blank pages or gibberish that was coming out, the only symptom I had was one error message on one printer that was frequently coming up.

So, I google it, and I get some vague information that is of no help, and the only suggestion I find is to upgrade the firmware.

One careful firmware upgrade later, after reading and re-reading the instructions to make sure I don't mess it up, I bricked the printer.  Way to go, HP, your firmwares fucking suck!

Mind you, I tested this on the spare printer first, and it went through fine there, so I know I was doing it right.

Ok....so....I give them the spare printer, and say "here you go, upgraded firmware, enjoy!"

And then while I'm there, other people are like, oh great, while you're here, this printer is also having issues.

Ok, what's the issue.

Well, it's not doing it now...

Call me when you actually have a problem that you can show me then.


Right, so later it comes out that they are still getting these errors on both their printers, and if I try to redirect print jobs so that I can work on one of the printers in peace, they then call me frantic about the other printer, so I can't get any peace and quiet to do any troubleshooting.

So, of course, at this point, it becomes clear to me, it isn't the printers, it's the print jobs....

...ok...what....in....the....FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I decided, well.....gibberish and blank pages are usually driver related, lets update the drivers.

So, I go to HP's website to find the most recent driver for a LaserJet 5Si, and LaserJet 4250.

Well, I can't find a fucking thing on the site for a 5Si.

So, I call their support, and a guy was nice enough to recommend the universal pcl6 driver.

Great....one download and install later, I now have 5Si printers that don't print anything, and 4250 printers that ask for envelopes in the manual feed tray.

Oh, that's just fucking lovely.  Way to go, HP.

Plus, when I go to click on the properties of the printers, I get a message advising me that the Universal PCL6 driver is not installed, and asks if I want to install it.  Well, this makes no fucking sense, since I did install it, but fine, go ahead and redo the install if you must.  I click next a few times, it thinks, install complete. 

Except that it does this EVERY FUCKING TIME I TRY TO LOOK AT THE PRINTER PROPERTIES!!!!!!

So, with this driver, I get some printers not printing at all, some printers asking for envelopes even though I'm sending normal print jobs, and indications that the driver that is installed isn't installed when viewing properties.  Clearly, something is wrong with this printer or how it's installed.

Well, being that I followed the instructions properly, I decided, lets go back to the place that I got this driver from, HP.

So, I call HP, and suddenly overnight they've been given marching orders to tell anyone that calls about a 5Si to kindly go play hide and go fuck yourself.

Real nice, HP, real nice, give me a driver that breaks everything, and then stop taking my calls.

Well, you know what, HP?


FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, at this point, I've set the printers back on the drivers they've been on for years without issue, and have thrown my hands up in the air and basically said....I don't fucking know.


Thank you, HP, for building shitty printers that can't print anything right, programming shitty drivers that won't install properly, and then refusing to take my calls.

I think we will need to reconsider what brand to go with on future printer purchases, because I refuse to allow another HP printer enter this building.

FUCK YOU, SYMANTEC!!!!!

Before I start this rant, let me say, I understand the benefits and advantages of staying current with software.  I understand the need for upgrades.  Anytime I hear about how old a certain piece of technology is, you're preaching to the choir.  Yes, I have an odd fascination with old and outdated technology, but when I sit down to my computer, I'm not running my stuff with windows 3.1.  When it comes to my music hobbies, I'm looking to get as much stuff onto high resolution flac files as possible.  I'm not storing my ripped CDs onto optical platters in an HP juke box.

But....

I don't make the decisions on purchases and upgrades when it comes to my job.  I don't approve a budget, approve purchases and upgrades, order parts, and make the things happen.  I have a job to do, and that job is to make the stuff I am provided with work, and keep it working.

Meanwhile, the fine assholes at Symantec seem to also have a job to do, which involves making my life a fucking living hell!  I'm convinced at this point that the mission statement for Symantec is to try their hardest to prevent the customer from getting any actual help from them.

This all started earlier this week, when I got an email from someone in one of our other locations about a folder that mysteriously disappeared.  Well, no problem, that's what we have backups for.  So, I remoted into their file print server, took a look at the backup jobs, and saw lots of red X's.......uh.....uh......oh shit!

Yeah.....would've been nice if the people at that location that are responsible for monitoring these things would actually check if the backups are running and report any problems to me, instead of just changing tapes, and then going back to their sandbox they've had installed in their offices so they can go bury their heads in it.  So, now I've gotta sort out, what tapes they have, and what's on them.  And when I go to look at a tape, I can't seem to get anything to work right to show me the contents of the tapes properly.


Ok, whatever, time to call in Symantec support here, so we can take a look at what's going on here, what's on the tapes, and what can be restored.  So, I call up their support number, as I've done several times before, and go to open a ticket.


"What version are you calling on?"

"Veritas netbackup 6 MP 4"

"oooooh.....that went out of support....."

"Oh, ok then, I guess that means my end users don't need their data anymore, thanks for your help, asshole"

"Well, hold on now, let me see if I can open up a courtesy case for you"

hold music

"Oooooh.....sorry, you opened one a few weeks ago"


(which I was still working on, due to a backup of our windows NT 4 SP 6 box not working right, which after weeks and weeks and hours of going around in circles, the tech gave up on.  Before you start screaming about how outdated this all is, I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THE EQUIPMENT I AM REQUIRED TO KEEP WORKING, SO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET ME DO MY DAMN JOB, I NEED THIS PAYCHECK)


Well, I still need this data restored.  We have a support contract with you assholes.

The VSN number you gave me expired in November of 2011.

We renewed it.

That's not in our system, do you have another number perhaps?


So, I talk to my supervisor, who forwards me a quote from our 3rd party vendor we purchase the support contract from.  I pass this info along to the douche bag on the phone, who is unimpressed at this information since it still doesn't have a customer id that shows up in his system.  I ask him if he could look up the 3rd party vendor in his system, but the only thing he wants is a number.

So, after going around in circles, we call in the 3rd party vendor, who gives us a number.  I give them that number, and they inform us, nope, that id number only has support for the anti-virus, no netbackup support on it.

Mind you, we paid probably around $20,000 for support.  I find it highly offensive that after spending money like that, these douche bags would treat us this way instead of providing us with support for our money. 

So, after a few days of going around in circles and having the vendor research things, mind you this is a few days that one of our departments is sitting there without any of their data and work,  we figure out that apparently symantec failed to tell the vendor when we purchased our upgrade that they weren't allowing service contracts to be updated unless we updated our version of netbackup.  They took our money, but no one told us this, no one told the vendor this either.  So, yeah we paid, but we weren't given a contract or support.

Meanwhile, the vendor is trying to do their best to get us support since we paid for it.  The contact was like, open a paid case with them, and we'll take care of the charges.

Well, Symantec won't even open paid cases for our version of veritas.

Now, it's not like all of a sudden overnight all their techs lost the ability to work on this version.  As it is, I was still working on my other courtesy ticket.  They have the means and ability to help us.  We are paying customers of theirs.  We came to them, basically telling them, we need to use our backups, we lost data, we need it back, we have tapes, help us restore it.  Despite the fact we bought their product, bought their support, and were even willing to pay them for their time to get the problem solved, while we worked towards sorting this whole mess out, they turned their backs on us and left us out to dry.

Meanwhile, the vendor came back telling us that, with our support we are eligible for an upgrade, so if we call them back, and don't press any buttons until we get an operator, we can ask to have help upgrading from versioni 6 to 7 (yes, that's right, we're only 1 fucking version behind, and they act as if we're trying to use windows 3.1), and then we can get support with the upgrade, and THEN, and only THEN, finally, we can get our data back with the help from their support.

So, I do as instructed from the vendor, keeping in mind the vendor supposedly got this info from symantec on how to do this.  I get to an operator, explain the situation, and the operator is all like.....but, you haven't purchased the upgrade.

MIND YOU, WE'VE GIVEN THESE ASSHOLES $20,000 FOR SUPPORT AND UPGRADES!!!!!!


So, I'd just like to take a minute to say to all you fine people with Symantec...

FUCK YOU!!!!!!!

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU  FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

YOU ASSHOLES ARE WORTHLESS PIECES OF SHIT!!!!!!




At this point, there is nothing I'd love more than to never touch a piece of symantec software again as long as I live.  But, once again.....I don't make the decisions around here.....otherwise, I'd be working on installing arcserv instead of typing this rant.



P.S.
For the record, once I get a case open, the techs are quite helpful.  The tech that tried to help my NT backup issue was quite helpful and went above and beyond.  And once I did finally get in touch with a tech about upgrading and restoring, he didn't even care about the version issue or the upgrading, and helped me check out the contents of our tapes and sort things out.

But....god, it was a fucking pain in the ass to get to a tech, the people responsible for opening the tickets are just awful, and work very hard to prevent you from opening a ticket and getting help from the friendly helpful techs.

Come on, people, work with me here!

If you aren't going to answer my questions truthfully, how can you expect me to help you?

Luckily, this morning I came into the issue with some prior knowledge, so I could push for the right information.

Yesterday, my co-worker mentions that this caller, lets call her Jane, was having roaming profile issues in citrix, and that she'll need to have her profile reset to clear it up, and she should call during her break so we can clear the settings.

That call never came.

So, this morning, she calls in with a common error message which basically means "hey, dipshit, you just turned me on, give me 20 damn seconds to establish a network connection"

So, since it probably took her 20 seconds to place the call and explain the error, I told her to press the connect button.

"But that's the button that gives me the error message"

So now I have to explain, yes, that's because your box hadn't established a network connection yet, but by now it should have, so give it another try.

"Oh, ok....because I was having these problems yesterday, and I was supposed to call on my break, and I didn't because I was busy, but it looks like it's logging on now...."

Now, knowing that there were profile issues, I figure, I'd better check and see if she's getting any error messages.  Because, if she has a profile issue still, it will give an error message, usually something about it being unable to load the roaming profile and using the default instead.  So, I ask, are you getting any error messages?

"No, it looks like it's working now"



Not 5 minutes later, phone rings again.  Guess who?

"I opened up outlook, and it isn't working"

What is it doing?

"It's asking me to create a new profile"

Ok, did you get any error messages when you logged on.

"No."

No?

"No."

You didn't get any error messages about your profile not loading?

"Oh that.  Yes, I got that error message."


COME ON!!!!!

WHEN I ASK IF YOU GOT AN ERROR MESSAGE, IT'S NOT FOR MY HEALTH!!!!  IF I'M GOING TO RESOLVE AN ISSUE, I BASE MY DECISION ON WHAT ACTION TO TAKE AND WHERE TO LOOK BASED ON THIS INFORMATION!!!!!

HELP ME HELP YOU!!!!!

DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!!!!

Fuck the music industry!

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm big into surround sound for music.

It is a huge deal for me.  I buy recordings in surround and quadraphonic sound.  I convert quadraphonic materials to modern formats for easy playback.  I share some of my work with friends also into these things.  I tell everyone about surround sound and do anything and everything to try and spread awareness and interest in what to me is an awesome, cool, fun thing. 

You'd think I'd be a person that would naturally get along with others that are involved in music and audio.

And yet, time and time again, I find myself completely at odds with the music industry, and just about against anything and everything they do.

The suits running the industry have completely and totally lost touch with their customer base.

Oh, sure, they make money by tapping into the latest fads and trends, and manufacturing and mass producing catchy crap that the teens are into.  And hey, I have nothing against catchy crap, I have quite a large collection of bubblegum music, which is the same idea, manufactured music.  Some fun to listen to stuff can be manufactured.  There are so many different kinds and types of music, and different ways to create and make music.

But the industry has just about ignored all those other ways, and the manufactured music just gets worse and worse, in a system that doesn't award and doesn't care about creativity.

But, this rant isn't about the quality of the music the kids are listening to these days.  This is about the music industry fucking up in every way they can when it comes to surround sound.

It all started with a composer by the name of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who made a brilliant observation that sound doesn't come at us all from one point, but it surrounds us.  And so when he was composing music, to him the spacial aspect of where the sound you hear comes from was something he wanted to take into consideration with his compositions.  And so one of the earliest major works of electronic music was composed and performed in surround sound.  "Gesang der Junglinge" was originally created to play on 5 groups of loudspeakers, two in the front, two in the back, and one from above.  After the first performance, he determined the 5 channel format was problematic, and reduced it to 4, which is how it has continued to exist to this day.  There have been recordings released, first in mono, later in stereo of this work.  But, to really hear this work as intended, one must attend a performance in a concert hall with properly setup and calibrated loudspeakers arranged around the hall.

This was in the 50s that Stockhausen made what should've been a major breakthrough in music.  But, it wasn't until the 70s that any real attempts at releasing music in a surround format were made.  And, they were an unfortunate flop.  For two major reasons:

1.  The technology wasn't quite ready for it.
2. The industry couldn't get it's shit together and agree on a standard.

There have been many times where the industry has fought over standards and formats, with each company trying to copyright their own idea and reap the benefits of royalties by establishing their format as the standard.  But, a format has only succeeded once everyone got on board with it.  Beta failed, and due to porn being a huge influence, VHS gained popularity, everyone got on board with the standard, and it took off, with everyone, even Sony, profiting from the sale of playback devices.  Sure, Sony could've gained much more if betamax took off.  But, they kept charging everyone a license, allowing VHS to swoop in there and offer a cheaper alternative.  Sony fucked up, which was a shame, as they had the superior product.  And they learned nothing, and history would continue repeating itself for them.

So, when it came time to establish a new standard in audio delivery of recordings beyond 2 channels, it was easy to establish a tape standard.  Although, behind the scenes in the studios, that was even fucked up.  Consumer tapes all met a standard,  Reels of tapes in the studio, however, didn't.  I've come across 3 different standards of track assignment layout on reel to reel tapes, all of which make sense for one reason or another.  But, that doesn't matter, there needs to be standards.  The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center CD-4 LP is a perfect example of what can happen when people won't agree on a standard.  Just about every piece on that record has an incorrect channel layout, and no one seems to have noticed until I came along and managed to talk to the composers and take some notes and do some comparisons.  This is primarily because the standard track layout for masters in the studio and consumer reels is this:

1 -front left
2 - rear left
3 - front right
4 - rear right

This is primarily because when making a reel to reel deck that will playback stereo and quad tapes, the front stereo pair are on the same tracks as a plain stereo pair.

In the world of electronic composing, the standard that was developed was this:

1 - rear left
2 - front left
3 - front right
4. - rear right

This makes sense because they're looking at a widened stereo field, that goes around the room from rear left to rear right.  Also, this allows them to have their tracks layed out with both lefts together and both rights together, which helped when running sound at a concert.

Ok, this discrepancy in standards is understandable, due to 2 different industries and 2 different backgrounds coming to 2 different standards that make sense for each of them.  But is something that one needs to take into consideration when dealing with tapes, and be observant of.

However, when we get different standards, or no standard in one industry, things become a mess.

As it is, there is no real standard that exists today in the music industry for 5.1 surround playback of music.  None.  Nada.  No one has come to any agreement or consensus of a standard.  And I believe this has been a problem that has contributed towards surround not catching on.

Right now, the growing and becoming the primary method of music distribution has been digital files.  Discs still exist, and will continue to be with us for some years.  But, it is easy to see that the direction the industry is moving is more and more towards digital files, and less and less physical medium. 

And when it comes to digital files, what is the standard?  The mp3 currently.

Show of hands, how many people have ever heard of, heard, or played back a surround mp3?

Ok, I'll put my hand down and continue explaining, since you're all looking a bit confused.

Yes, mp3 does do surround.  But, if I sent you a surround mp3 file, would you know what to do with it? 

(I hear you all grumbling "yes, delete it, and stop reading your stupid blog entries")

Also, I'm completely against mp3 being the standard of audio distribution, as it is inferior to CD in all ways except one, convenience.  With today's technology, there is no reason mp3s should even continue to exist.  We now have a format, and have for quite some time, called flac, free lossless audio code.  Flac files are bigger, but they don't throw away the majority of the data that you will never get back, like mp3 does.

Sure, for most people mp3 is good enough.  But, a good industry shouldn't cater strictly to the lowest common denominator.  Us audiophiles have supported the industry with our many purchases, and shouldn't be ignored.  If you want to take us along with you into the new era of less physical media, then you are going to need to make flac a standard, not an exception.

Of course, flac does allow for 5.1 surround playback.  And I do know how to create 5.1 surround flac files, and I know how to play them back.  But do you?

If I were to stop making dvds, and release all my hobby conversions via flac files, I can just hear the questions starting of what in the heck they are supposed to do with that.  Because, the only way most people have to listen to surround, if they have a way to listen to surround at all, is on the home theater system, which has been taylored for 5.1 surround playback of movies.  Which means the primary format that allows surround easily is compromised. 

Dvd is the most common way an average consumer would be able to playback surround in their home.  And most of those will only do dts or dolby digital, which are lossy compressed formats.  Which, in this day and age with the technology available to us, shouldn't even exist anymore.

Sure, bluray is catching on, and can do surround lossless, but it's still an exception rather than the norm, so if one wants to get their things in the most homes as possible, when it comes to surround, you're still living in a dvd world.

Yes, the music industry did try to utilize the available technology in the early 2000s and make a new disc based audio system that allowed better than CD sound quality and surround sound.  But, they fucked it up big time.  They released 2 competing formats, didn't promote them, and hardly released any titles for them, causing them to fizzle out and be niche formats that still somewhat linger on.

This has allowed one compromise to exist, when it comes to distributing 5.1 surround sound to consumers, the dvd-a/v hybrid disc.  A disc that will play in dvd-audio players with lossless mlp compression, but is backwards compatible with regular dvd players to play in dts and dolby digital.

Of course, this has become a nightmare in dvd authoring.  Now, don't get me wrong, I can author a disc, and it's not too complicated once you get the process down.  But, today I found myself questioning.....why am I still doing this? 

I've gotten to a point where I'm fucking sick and tired of dicking around with menus for audio discs.  The CD...you put it in the player and just push play, and music comes out. 

Why am I dicking around with menus?

At this point, I'm moving away from physical media myself.  I still buy CDs, but the first thing I do is rip it to flac on a 2 TB hard drive which contains flac of all my CDs, and iso images of all my dvd-audio, and some music dvd-video.  Which means, when I create a new disc, I don't even burn a disc anymore, I save an image of a disc on my hard drive.

I'm creating emulated physical media, just to stay compatible.

Why do I do this?

Because the fucking music industry can't establish a standard in 5.1 audio playback.

They didn't stand behind the SACD or DVD-Audio, so neither of them is a standard one should consider a reasonable expectation for a consumer to be able to playback.

They haven't established flac a standard in surround playback, or even stereo playback.  Sure, lots of things can playback flac, but can you play it in an ipod?  Why not?  Huh, apple?  If you're so fucking cool, why can't you playback the obvious choice for a lossless standard?  What, apple lossless?  Please.  You're not an authority in audio standards, your just a creater of colorful devices that do things that aren't new, with a really good marketing department. 

As it is, I'm limited to what I can do with flac.  My oppo bluray player will playback flac, and 5.1 surround flac, but it won't do it gapless, which means I either have to listen to gaps in between every track on Dark Side of the Moon, or rip my albums into one huge flac per disc and lose the ability of selecting what song I want to listen to on demand.  So, dvd-audio has continued to be the only viable standard for me in my system, I'm stuck emulating an old physical format that never caught on.

The only affordable device I've found that will do gapless flac is boxee box, and with a little research I found out that it won't do 5.1 properly, because it hasn't been programmed to playback the standard channel layout properly.  This bug was reported a year ago, and boxee has continued to ignore it.  Way to go, assholes.

Which means, if one wants to listen to 5.1 surround flac, you need specialized equipment, or a computer hooked up to your audio system (still counts as specialized equipment I suppose), or you need to know how to author a disc from it.

So, that leaves me stuck.  I'd like to say to hell with this ancient technology, to hell with dvd, to hell with dvd-audio, to hell with menus, to hell with disc images, and just convert everything to flac and only create flac.

But then, those that I share with would for the most part not know what to do with the flac I provide.  Which is understandable, I still can't find a way to use it without having to deal with conversion.

So I say.....come on music industry.....get with it.  Establish a standard in flac.  Ditch mp3, go flac all the way.  Or at least make it a standard option.  Also, establish a standard in 5.1 surround playback of flac, make devices that are able to detect and playback flac properly on home theater systems.

Yes, it would take time for a standard to work it's way into people's homes.  But, if it's ever going to happen, it needs to fucking start.  Establish the standard, make equipment that does it, release files in the format.  Get the ball rolling already.

Do it.

NOW!
NOW!
NOW!
NOW!
NOW!

Tipping is getting to the tipping point!

Growing up, you learn certain customs in our society.  One of which is tipping.  It's a topic one learns about from observing your parents leaving money on the table before you leave a restaurant, and then you learn more about in math class when learning how to calculate percentages. 

As I learned it, the standard tip is 15%, with 20% for excellent service.  10% for poor service, or lower for exceptionally poor service.  Of course, one is welcome to be more generous if they wish.  But, that's the general rule. 

This is a concept that I understand, having part of a worker's wage depend on the quality of their service is a good way to promote quality service.

I do recall a former co-worker of mine, someone that was a bit older, who had this real attitude about tipping.  She wouldn't tip, or would tip real lousy.  She would always gripe "don't make me pay your workers".  I tried to point out the concept, and pointed out that if they did pay their workers more, that would result in the prices being higher, so in the end you still pay it, just that this way you have control over it and can determine your price based on performance.  She didn't care, she was set in her ways, as far as she was concerned, tipping existed because employers were just too cheap to pay their workers.

Well, I still think the tipping system is fine by me, but she may have a point...

Now then, as we all know, people that work for tips are allowed to make less than minimum wage, due to the way that tips supplement their income.  But, every now and then, reports come out that tips are too low.  And, I can understand that as prices go up, wages need to go up, we all understand that concept.  But, in theory....tips shouldn't need to go up.  Not the percentage anyways.

As prices increase, tips automatically increase, since we would now be paying 15% of a larger price as places increase their prices.  So, a worker's pay automatically goes up with a places prices.

However....this morning I read a story that now places in NY are calling for 30% tips, as they had already been calling for 20%.


Ok, NOW I'm agreeing with my former co-worker.  I think the problem here is the below minimum wage pay hasn't been going up.  And now, employers want us to pick up the rest of their workers pay, rather than increase the hourly wage.

Well, fuck you!  I'm sick and tired of minimum wage staying low while prices of everything continue increasing.  I'm sick and tired of prices of our basic needs increasing at a far faster pace than our wages. 

And now....you want us to pay more for your low wage workers?

FUCK YOU!!!!

I'm sick of this attutitude from the wealthy and business owners, that those of us that aren't wealthy are leeches, and that they are entitled to even more of our money.

Pay your own damn workers, and leave our tip rates alone.

If you aren't going to provide it, don't sell it!

I know what some of you will say to this.  So before I start this, I'd like to say in advance, that this rant is about a current service, that we pay thousands of dollars for every year.  Every year, the bill comes, and we pay it.

So, in my job, one of my responsibilities has been with the document imaging system.  I suppose it is kind of fitting, in my last job I was very involved in administrating and maintaining the document imaging system.  At that job, it was OnBase, which is a nice system that I found easy to use, a little complicated to figure out at first since I was thrown into it without basic training, but once I finally got some proper training it all came together.

But then I came here, and we had this system called ixos.  Now, I can't really fairly compare the two systems, because the ixos system we are on is a rather old version of the system.

Currently, the system runs with a unix server that has a 4 drive 64 slot juke box attached to it.  The juke box is loaded with optical platters that hold somewhere around 5 gigs on a platter.

Holy fucking shit, that's outdated.

But, we must archive these documents to a write once read many type of media.  So, replacing it wouldn't mean just grab a server with disk space, turn it on, and start saving there.  We would need to get in a new array for this purpose.  Plus, changing out hardware would basically be a project, which would probably require help from ixos support, which would mean we'd need to upgrade to a new version....so, getting rid of that juke box would mean an expensive time consuming project.

Which means, until that day comes, if it does, it needs to keep working.

For the most part, I don't mind owning this responsibility.  Adding platters, finalizing platters, swapping them out as requested.....basic stuff, and it puts something on my plate that involves logging into a unix server every now and then, which isn't a bad thing.

But, when it goes wrong......holy fuck.

Not holy fuck, it really goes wrong.  Holy fuck, it's a bitch to get fixed.

Now, this wasn't always the case.  The first few times I needed to call for support, I would get a call back from someone within a few hours, and over the course of a phone conversation, the problem would be fixed.

There have been a few times that the problems were quite involved and complicated.  One time, it was determined we may have a bad drive in the juke box.  So, the tech guided me through unix to edit a file that would comment out all but one drive, and then run a command that requires the use of the drive, to determine whether or not that drive is working.  And one by one we determined, we had 3 bad drives.  And then the 4th failed before we got the tech in.

The tech came, with 4 refurbished drives, of which 2 were bad after we tested those.

So, yeah....keeping this thing alive is a bit of a chore, and at times a nightmare.


But then....the techs that actually knew how to do this stuff, moved on.  And nowadays, I open a ticket, and usually at some point in the first 5 minutes of any discussion, it is pointed out to me that the version we are on is no longer covered by support, however, they will see what they can do.

Now, at first that sounded fair enough.  But then I found out, we pay thousands of dollars a year in support for this.

So, let me get this straight......every year, when it's time for us to renew support, you do offer support, being that you sell it to us.  But, then when we call for it, you don't support it, but only do so out of the kindess of your hearts?

That's absolute bullshit!

You do too support it.  You just want to give a bullshit line that will let you weasel out of difficult situations.  If you don't want difficult situations, then either keep on the techs that know what they're doing, train people on these things, or stop selling the support.  You can't have your cake and eat it too.

So, nowadays, I find it is more and more difficult to get anyone on the phone.  It used to be so simple, open a ticket, get a call back, fix the problem.  Now, I open a ticket.  I get an email asking to see the logs.  The first few times, I had to go around in circles to find the logs.  I would ask, how do I get the logs.  They don't know.....could be anywhere.  I didn't set this system up, so I don't know where they are.  Past techs.....usually didn't even ask for these logs, or if they did they knew how to get them in a remote session.  So, after a few times going through this song and dance, I have an ftp setting saved to get right to the logs folder, so I can grab them all, zip them up, and send an email.

Then this song and dance goes on, with them asking me to do things I don't know how to do, so I have to get clear instruction, which either does something or nothing....and basically things go around in circles until I lose it, and start calling supervisors.

Now, it used to be that once I pulled in a supervisor, they would defend themselves, pointing out this is above and beyond the normal support they provide, and they've already gone beyond their normal scope of things, and if I want the type of support I'm asking for we'd have to pay more for that level of support.

I push back pointing out the many times in the past I've had people do these exact same things, without having to ask for it, and in the first call.

Usually they would say, oh, ok, we'll make an exception, and get you in touch with that tech again....and then things would get done.



Well, 2 weeks ago, I opened another ticket.  This time for failing backups.

Next thing I know, I'm going on a wild goose chase to try and test our drives.  Now, I haven't seen the typical behavior for a failing drive.  But, they looked at the logs, and have seen errors that they want to focus on.  Errors.....which are different from the problem I opened the ticket for.  So now I'm 2 weeks into solving THEIR problem, and I still can't get an answer to my problem.

And, I already am familiar with the process that would satisfy what they are trying to do.  Except that, I don't know the details of it since it was done by better techs of their on remote sessions, and it has been a while.  So, I try to explain to them that, yeah, so-and-so had walked me through this before, I need you to give me the right procedures and commands to do this.

They don't know them.....the ones they give me, don't work.....

Well.....is so-and-so still with the company?

Yes....but she's in the consulting department, you'd have to pay to talk to her.

Um....she works for your company....she has knowledge that would help your department adequately do their job, on this ticket, and future tickets......you can't get in touch with her to get that knowledge....

No, can't do it, wish I could.


WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD?



I think next time they come looking for us to renew the support, we should demand a lower price.  The quality of support has greatly deteriorated.  Why should we pay the same rate?

Think before you call

Livemeeting.....what the fuck is wrong with the assholes that created this piece of shit?

Some time ago, the parent company started holding certain training meetings, and would send out these livemeeting requests.  By doing so, certain assumptions were made on both sides.  The person sending these requests seems to have assumed that everyone is automatically setup or knows how to use livemeeting.

Now, to be fair to the person sending these requests, these requests come with links to the installer for livemeeting, which means in theory the request sends one all they need in order to join the meeting, so long as the recipient reads the thing, and runs the install well in advance of the meeting.

Of course, there are 2 problems here. 

1 - Everyone runs this installer as the meeting is starting, and then calls me in a panic
2 - The installer isn't all that is needed


So, we kept getting these panicked calls, and by the time we got the install completed, the meeting was done, cancelled, or rescheduled, leaving us going "well, if you had called us in advance, like you're supposed to do.....but, you should be all set for the next one"

But then we kept getting repeat calls from people with vague messages about not connecting.

At this point, I became a middle man in all of this, because I don't know how this thing works, I don't know how this system was all setup and configured by the parent company, and all I can do is tell the end user to follow the damn instructions on the webpage, which I found people weren't following.  And, for some people it worked, so I figure, "just follow the damn instructions, like so and so did, and it'll work.  Stop calling me now"

This then resulted in a bunch of people going around in circles.  A problem would be reported.  We'd look into it, find instructions, send it back.  They'd report that they'll try that.  We hear nothing for weeks and assume it is fixed.  Then, just as everything would calm down and we think we have it solved, the calls would come back in.

After months of going around in circles over these livemeetings, I was at a point where I was ready to grab the nearest heavy object and throw it through a window if I heard the word livemeeting uttered, hoping that would get people to just shut the fuck up about this stupid livemeeting crap that, I just plain and simple don't know what the fuck is going on about.  At this point, I told them, don't call me, I don't know, talk to the parent company, it's their damn system, so it's their damn problem.

So, next thing I know, helpdesk tickets opened about this on the parent company's helpdesk system start getting assigned to me. 

WHAT

THE

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS ISN'T MY FUCKING SYSTEM, THIS ISN'T MY FUCKING THING, WHY ARE YOU ASSIGNING THEM TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!

And, it turns out, while the parent company's helpdesk can assign tickets to our helpdesk, we can't assign them back to them.

Way to go, assholes!

So, after weeks of going around in circles calling various different people at the parent company to try and find the person that actually is responsible for all this stuff, we find out a few key pieces of information:

A. In order for a user to be able to join a live meeting, their network account must be configured for it.  this is not done by default.

B. There is a document with configuration settings that must be filled in after installing livemeeting in order for it to work.

Well, that's just great.....WHEN IN THE FUCK WAS ANYONE PLANNING ON PASSING ALONG THIS INFORMATION TO US? 

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG AND HOW MUCH WE'VE BEEN GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES BECAUSE WE DIDN'T HAVE THIS NECESSARY AND VALUABLE INFORMATION?

So, alright, we requested this be enabled on all network accounts, and now we have the configuration information. 

And now, the parent company has been sending out massive invites to just about everyone, flooding me with confused people calling since they can't get into the livemeeting, since they don't have their livemeeting properly configured.  Well, at least now I know how to fix it, but still....requests are getting sent out to people, and people expect it to just work.  Why isn't this configuration able to be automated with the install, or at least the instructions sent with the requests?  These requests come with a link to install, as if it has all you need to join the meeting.  But, without this info, you don't, you won't get in without a call to the helpdesk if you haven't already been setup.

But, ok....I can work with that.

But I have to ask one question......

WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD YOU CALL ME WHEN YOUR COMPUTER ISN'T EVEN STARTED UP YET?

I get a call this morning, I try to shadow the session to set it up, and I can't......oh, my session is still loading up. 

Now I get to spend 2-3 minutes sitting on the phone with nothing to talk about while we wait for a computer to load up.

So, people, for the love of god, don't call your helpdesk until you're ready to be helped. 

Thank you.

Apparently 8 inches just isn't enough...

So, it's that time of the year again.  Time for the wife's birthday, which is an opportunity to go to extra effort to make it a special day and make her extra happy.  And of course, it means there will be a cake in the apartment.  Mmmmm.....cake....  Which means at least a week of cake, since it's just the 2 of us. 

So when the birthday came around last year, I asked Kristen, "what kind of cake do you want".  She replied that her favorite type of cake is german chocolate cake.  Now then, I've made plenty of chocolate cakes from scratch, so I figured, ok, no biggie, another chocolate cake, I just pick up a pack of german chocolate from the grocery store, some coconut and pecans for the frosting, and I'm on my way.

Not so fast...

I don't remember the details, but somehow I didn't check the ingredient list close enough last time when shopping.  Plus, somehow I got sidetracked and didn't get the cake made on time.  Which, whatever, that was fine.  Somehow I think it was a month later before I made the belated birthday cake.  And, I get the chocolate out, gather my ingredients, and....wtf?  This thing calls for 8 fucking eggs?  And I have to separate them and whip up the egg whites?  And then mix that into the batter?  But....but.....my mixer only has one bowl.  Either I have to whip up the egg whites, transfer them to another bowl, whip up the batter, and add the egg whites.....or, to save time, I do the egg whites by hand in another bowl, so I don't have to clean the mixer bowl for the batter. 

It worked, I knew it would, but damn was my arm tired after that.

Plus, before I even got started, after I got back from the store with eggs, I find it calls for buttermilk.

Buttermilk?  Wtf. 

I swear, whoever came up with this god forsaken recipe of a chocolate cake, sat down, and thought to himself, or herself....what would be the most difficult way to make a cake?  I know, lets have it call for buttermilk, since that is something that is never found around the house, so it will definitely call for a special shopping trip.  Lets make it 3 layers, so that those people that have 2 cake pans for their common box cake will not have the necessary equipment.  Instead of just greasing the pan, we need to spray the sides, and put waxed paper in the bottom.  Lets require whipping up the egg whites....no, we're not making meringue, I just feel like making you have to use another bowl, separate all the eggs, and whip up egg whites, why not?

So, I was at a point where I couldn't push this off any further since I was already over a month late on this damn cake, I made 2 special shopping trips, and I find.....wtf?  It calls for 3 layers, and I only have 2 pans.  And I don't have waxed paper or cooking spray.  Fuck this, it's a fucking chocolate cake, I'm doing this the way that works for any damn chocolate cake.  2 layer cake, grease and flowered pans.

Well, while the edges were clearly finished and couldn't spend any more time in the oven, i had a soft middle

Fucking 3 layer cake. 

I was screaming and swearing up and down the entire time I was making this cake that I would NEVER make this fucking god awful cake ever again.  No way in hell.  Not a chance.  This is not how to make a cake, this is just some asshole coming up with a method to torture people that like trying to make different cakes. 

Well, despite the issues, Kristen loved the cake, and now enough time has passed that despite the fact I clearly remember the cursing and misery, I think to myself, well, it won't be as bad this time since I know what I'm in for.  And this time, I'll make sure to have everything I need to properly make this cake.

So, the recipe does call for 9" cake pans.  But, I have 8" pans.  Big fucking deal, I'll just get a 3rd pan, and that should clear up the issue I had last time with it not cooking through with too much batter in the pans.  Besides, 8" is more than enough.  I don't have a cake plate, I just put it on a normal plate, so adding another inch is going to make for less room around the outside of the plate.  And it just makes more sense to only buy one cake pan to go with the ones you already have, than to buy 3 whole new pans.  It's not like these are old pans handed down for generations, we got them when we moved in together around 4 or 5 years ago.  Surly I can still find these types of pans.

So, at the grocery store, I pick up the box of german chocolate, we get plenty of eggs, buttermilk, coconut, pecans, evaporated milk, and all the other stuff this damn cake calls for.  But, the cake pan selection at the grocery store was limited to 9" pans.  Oh well....we'll just go to walmart tomorrow.

Which is today.

Tomorrow is her birthday, so I need to make the cake tonight.  So, I reviewed the recipe, which was tucked away inside the box, and that's when I discovered, oh yes, that's right, it also calls for waxed paper and cooking spray.  Ok, well, we'll get those when we're out at walmart for the cake pans.

So, we go to walmart.  And, at walmart, they had a variety of different 9" cake pans to choose from.  And kits of baking supplies that also include 9" cake pans.

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?

Walmart is no longer carrying 8" cake pans? 

Ok, fuck walmart, we'll go to target.

Same thing there.  Same make and model cake pans actually.

I went to the mall, checked out sears, pennys, macys, and kohls.  They all had the same shit.

Same shit everywhere I went.

WHY EVEN BOTHER HAVING MULTIPLE STORES?????

THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!  NO WONDER WALMART IS PUTTING ALL YOU CHUMPS OUT OF BUSINESS, YOU DON'T CARRY ANYTHING DIFFERENT AT ALL!!!!!!

WHY THE HELL WOULD I EVER BOTHER TO GO SHOP SOMEPLACE THAT JUST CARRIES THE SAME SHIT AS EVERYONE ELSE DOES????

HUH????

AND, WHO THE FUCK DECIDED OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS THAT WE'RE DOING AWAY WITH 8" CAKES?  I DIDN'T GET THIS MEMO.

WAS THERE SOME KIND OF INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF BAKED GOOD SIZES THAT I WASN'T AWARE OF?

"Now see here, people just aren't eating enough cake.  And we really need to increase our sale of flour, since the ridiculous price increases on it are just not helping boost our financial income enough.  What can we do.  Yes....the fat guy in the back.  Right, you're all fat.....um.....you in the chef hat.....um....whatever, one of you guy speak"

"What if we made all recipes call for 9" pans, and stopped making 8" pans, thus increasing the amount of ingredients needed, and increasing the portion sizes for everyone as well.  Plus, this will help the cake pan industry by forcing everyone with 8" pans to replace them with 9" pans"

"Yes, bingo, brilliant.  From this day forward, no longer will we offer 8" pans in stores, and all boxes and recipes shall demand a 9" pan."


Well, you know what, whoever is responsible for this?

FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING 9" CAKE PANS.  MAYBE I LIKE 8 INCHES OF CAKE.  MAYBE 8 INCHES IS ENOUGH FOR SOME OF US.  MAYBE IT'S NOT HOW BIG THE CAKE IS, BUT THE QUALITY OF THE CAKE THAT COUNTS!!!!

SO, TAKE YOUR 9 INCHES OF CAKE, AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, this didn't help, because while I could probably find a pan online, I need to bake a cake today.  So, one last store I could check.  K Mart.  I figured, they're about 5 years behind at least, maybe they'll still have 8" pans.  Well....certainly the decor is dated.  They're still sticking with that ugly orange and brown color scheme?  Really?  Uh.....the 70s called, they want their ugly orange and brown back. 

So, while the K-Mart decor is still stuck in the 70s, even K-Mart is carrying the same shit that every other damn store is carrying.  Once again, I have no reason to go to K-Mart, there is nothing they can offer me that I can't get anywhere else, unless I happen to like shopping in ugly buildings.

So, defeated, I bought 3 new 9" cake pans, along with waxed paper and cooking spray. 


To whoever is behind this conspiracy to rid the world of 8" cakes and pans, fuck you!  Really, fuck you!

Seriously, Microsoft, restart means restart, ok means ok.

I am getting fucking sick and tired of this shit.


When I click start - restart, and then click the ok button, that means I want the computer to restart.

That is really pretty fucking simple.

I select restart, I confirm with an ok.  What I want is for the computer to restart, and I've communicated that in a simple way.



What I don't want is  TO PLAY A FUCKING GAME OF 20 FUCKING QUESTIONS WITH MY COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SERIOUSLY, MICROSOFT, WHEN I SAY RESTART AND CLICK OK, THAT MEANS I WANT THE COMPUTER TO RESTART!!!!!!!!!!!

What I don't want is the computer to inform me that it has to stop certain processes in order to restart and to check with me that it is ok.



NO SHIT SHERLOCK!  IN ORDER FOR THE COMPUTER TO RESTART, ALLLLLLLLLLL PROCESSES HAVE TO BE STOPPED!  I UNDERSTAND THAT, AND ALREADY INDICATED I'M OK WITH THIS WHEN I CLICKED OK FOR RESTARTING!!!!!!!!!!!!  JUST STOP THE FUCKING PROCESSES AND RESTART THE MOTHERFUCKING MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Did anyone in microsoft ever stop to think that someone might be multitasking, very busy, have lots of things to get done in a short period of time, and NEED SOMETHING TO FUCKING HAPPEN RIGHT WHEN I COMMAND IT TO DO SO?

What I don't need is to make an announcement that a server will be rebooted at 9 and back up by 9:15, send the restart command at 9, and find at 9:15 that THE SESSION IS STILL OPEN ASKING ME IF I'M OK WITH IT STOPPING A CERTAIN PROCESS IN ORDER TO DO THE RESTART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have no option but to click ok and MAKE THE SERVER GO DOWN WHEN EVERYONE IS EXPECTING IT TO BE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Seriously, microsoft.  Seriously.  I ask of you, if you can make your OS do one thing, MAKE IT FUCKING RESTART WHEN I RESTART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CAN YOU HANDLE MAKING AN OS THAT IS CAPABLE OF SHUTTING DOWN AND RESTARTING?  IS THAT TOO COMPLICATED FOR YOU TO GET RIGHT?  IS IT?  IS IT REALLY?  IS IT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR A RESTART COMMAND THAT ACTUALLY WORKS?

Fuck texting.

Hi, I'm Gators, and I hate texting.

I FUCKING HATE TEXTING!!!

I remember years ago sitting the the Wal*Mart break room, watching people write texts on their cellular telephones, thinking how stupid this is.  This was before having some form of a full keyboard on a phone was typical, people were using their number pads, with 3 letters to each key, to type out sentences.  I didn't get it, why in the hell would someone go through all that shit to type out a sentence that could be spoken so quickly, on a device that has the capability of making a phone call to the phone you are writing the text to?  You got something to say to someone, make the call and say it, don't fiddle with your damn number pad trying to type out words.  God, fucking idiots.

But, whatever, if people want to be idiots, that's their god given right.

Then I remember one Easter sitting around at a family gathering, my sibblings in different corners of the room.  Every now and then a rumble came from their pocket, they'd take out a phone, press some buttons, and put the thing back in their pocket.  WTF?  Oh....we're just texting our friends.  Um, HELLO!  You're holding a phone, just call them. 

But, once again, whatever, if people want to do these stupid things that make no sense to me, whatever, it's not like it effects me.

But, somehow my siblings have got my dad doing it now.  And the work issued phone I used has texting abilities, and I can't turn it off.  I wish you had to opt in to texting.  Instead, it's that you have to opt in to a plan, otherwise you just get charged a buttload for them.  There seems to be no opting out.  It would be nice to be able to say, "well, I'd love to be able to get texts from you, but this darn phone.....doesn't do texting.....oh well, just give me a call if you have anything to say, or send an email"  But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I have this device that accepts texts in my pocket now.

But, whatever, so the occasional text from Dad hasn't been that unmanageable, a quick ok, or a "I'm good tnx, u?", or if it's something I need to say in more than a quick line I can just call and go, well, I figured I'd just call.

But then you start getting texts about things that, maybe texting wasn't meant for, and then I have to figure out how to deal with that, using a medium I hate to begin with.

So, today I get a text from my dad that my step mother's surgery has just finished and she's in recovery and he's going in to see her soon.



What do I text back to that?


Do I ignore it?  I mean, it seems like the kind of thing that warrants a reply.

Do I type a quick text back?  This seems like something that requires more than a "k, tnx, bye"

Do I call?  I mean, he's about to go in to see her, perhaps now isn't a good time for him to be occupied on the phone.

So now I'm stuck trying to figure out, what to say, which I would struggle with enough just talking, but in a format that I'm completely uncomfortable with, and want to keep the message short since I can't stand the two thumbed method of typing.

Damn you, brother and sisters, you got our dad texting, and now I have to deal with that.

Arrrgggghhhhh.....

Well, after bitching about it enough, Kristen said "oh here, give me the damn phone, I'll text back"


Problem solved.


I fucking hate texting.

Thank you microsoft, for fucking up the tools I rely on.

Ok, so one of my responsibilities in my job is to setup new computers.  This is one of the things in my job I actually enjoy doing.  For the longest time now, we've been deploying computers with Windows XP on them.  Since everyone uses pretty much the same software, and we buy pretty much the same computers, I've relied heavily on Windows Automated Installation Kit to setup and deploy new workstations.

It has been a great tool, easy to use.  I have image files, ready to go, and I simply.

1.  Boot up to a windows PE disc
2.  Type in some commands
3.  Windows XP computer, with software installed.

Simple.  Easy.  Making my life much easier.



Well, it's getting to be time to start rolling out Windows 7, so in preparation for that, I've started working on figuring out the process for doing this with windows 7.  A while back, I downloaded the latest version of WAIK, and made a newer Windows PE disc.

Now, the first issue I take with this whole process, is that you don't just get a Windows PE disc.  You don't just pick one up, or just grab an image of one.  Noooooooooooo.....you have to jump through a series of hoops to find the right things to do, the right commands to run, to end up with what will hopefully be a Windows PE disc.  Why microsoft doesn't just give you a fucking .iso file ready to go, I don't know.  I mean, ok, maybe they want you to work for it.  But, I'M THE FUCKING CUSTOMER, WE BUY ALL THESE WINDOWS LICENSES FOR THESE INSTALLS, THEY LEAST THEY CAN DO IS HAND OVER THE FUCKING TOOL THAT WE NEED TO EASILY DEPLOY THEIR PRODUCT!!!!!

So, whatever, I have this windows pe disc.  Which, this newer one doesn't automatically assign letters to the partitions I create, so I had to figure that problem out and learn that command.  Ok, cool, new command under my belt.

So I setup a computer with windows 7, all the software I want, and I use windows pe to take an image of that install.  Great, I now have the image I need, all set for the next time I need to set one up.  So this morning I'm setting up another computer, and figure, ok, today is the day.  I grab my trusty Windows PE disc, boot up to it, and run through the process.

Now, for some reason, microsoft has decided, hey, lets waste even more diskspace than ever.  So, for some reason windows 7 requires setting up another partition that you'll never use.  Fucking great....come on, microsoft.  Really?  One partition is not enough for a fucking OS install?  But, whatever.  So, I create my partitions, assign my letters, deploy my image, and am all set.  I restart the computer, and....


BOOTMGR is missing


WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DOES THAT MEAN?  I INSTALLED THIS JUST FINE, LIKE I ALWAYS DID WITH FUCKING WINDOWS XP!!!!  ALL THE FILES ARE THERE ON THE C: DRIVE, JUST FUCKING BOOT UP TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, they had to add an extra step to the process now, for no fucking good reason.

So, I go back, find instructions, and see that after deploying the image, I need to run a command called bcdboot.  Ok, simple enough, so I boot back in to Windows PE, and run the command.

ONLY IT WON'T RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!  THE INSTRUCTIONS SAY TO RUN THIS COMMAND!!!!!!!!!  THE PROCESS REQUIRES ME TO RUN THIS COMMAND!!!!!!!!!!!  BUT THE THING WON'T LET ME RUN IT?????????????  WHAT IN THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  IT GIVES ME SOME FUCKING BULLSHIT ABOUT THE VERSION BEING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!   HEY, ASSHAT, I'M RUNNING THIS FUCKING FILE RIGHT OUT OF THE WINDOWS INSTALL THAT I'M TRYING TO RUN IT FOR, IF EVER THERE WAS A RIGHT VERSION OF THIS FILE, IT WOULD BE OUT OF THE INSTALL I'M TRYING TO RUN IT FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I have no idea what's going on.  I follow the instructions, and it doesn't work.  Which to me clearly means, some dipshits at microsoft didn't do their job right, either made programming mistakes, or improper instructions, which now has caused MY job to include fixing THEIR fucking mistakes because they didn't want to do their job properly.

Assholes!

So, I figure, it seems that this problem may have something to do with me trying to setup the 64 bit version of Windows 7, and I've googled and found things referencing 64 bit versions of windows pe.  Maybe it's the windows pe that doesn't like the version of the command I'm running, and I need a fucking 64 bit version of windows pe to run this extra step I shouldn't need to run this command that should just fucking work.

So, I find again the documentation on making a windows pe disc.

And, it includes steps that may or may not be optional, commands that don't fucking work, and results in me creating a windows pe disc that WON'T FUCKING BOOT!!!!!!!!!!

So, I'd just like to say to all the fine programmers at Microsoft

FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK YOU FOR NOT DOING YOUR FUCKING JOBS RIGHT, MAKING THIS PROCESS THAT IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE LIFE EASIER AS FUCKING COMPLICATED AS POSSIBLE, AND FOR TRYING TO RUIN ME HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHY DON'T YOU TRY, OH, I DUNNO, DOING YOUR FUCKING JOBS PROPERLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A PROCESS THAT'S MEANT TO MAKE OUR LIVES EASIER, WHY NOT TRYING TO ACTUALLY MAKE IT WORK RIGHT, AND NOT MAKE IT MORE COMPLICATED THAN IT NEEDS TO BE????????????



Oh, also, I bought a roku box today, which I don't need, can't use, and won't work how I want it to, so I have that frustration to look forward to.  Thank you Vamp, you suck.

What a morning of stupidity.

Don't get me wrong, I like my job.  I don't know that I love it, I'd love to be doing something that involves making surround sound music dvds much better, but I could do worse as far as jobs go.  And, although I hate getting up in the morning, and always grumble as I make my way to the alarm clock, which is strategically on the other side of my room, even if I did work a normal shift, waking up 1 or 2 hours later would be just as annoying.  So, having my hours of 7 - 4, and waking up at 6:15 in the morning, all in all works out good.  I like having at least an hour of time that I can actually get assignments done before the helpdesk starts going nuts, and I like being able to bolt for the parking lot at 4.

But, there are some mornings that the few people that also get an early start decide to make sure that you get nothing done in the calmness of the early hours of the shift.

Now, mind you, usually what I want to do when I get in is, calmly settle down at my desk, power on my stuff, get some coffee, work on setting up some new workstations, and perhaps check out cracked.com while waiting on something to complete.  So, usually my mornings are pretty relaxing, as they should be, to ease into the work day.  So, when someone walks into my area before 8:00, I just get that feeling of "oh god, what the fuck now, go away"  I'm perfectly willing to help people out, but that doesn't mean I have to like the fact that I'm being interrupted before I can even finish my first cup of coffee of the day.  Also, 9 times out of 10, these things are the most stupid things ever.

So, this morning, I had 2 of the dumbest interruptions I have ever had the misfortune of having.  Someone walks over, and is all like, my computer isn't working, it was stuck on a screen, so I turned it off and turned it back on, and now I have nothing.  I walked over there, and there was a turned off computer.  To be fair, she was right about a few things.  She was correct in that she had turned it off.  She was also correct in her assessment of the current situation of having nothing on her screen.  What she was incorrect about was TURNING THE DAMN THING BACK ON!

Seriously?  You can't figure out how to:
A. Properly turn back on an electronic device
B. Determine if a device is on or off, which has a power button that lights up when it is on for your convenience.

So, I pushed the power button, watched it power up, watched the login screen come up, held my comments at what an idiot this person is to myself, and said "here you go, all fixed", and made my way back to my desk to actually get something done.  I have a pile of computers just waiting to be sent out, once they're all set up.

So then, as I'm getting settled back down, and take another sip from my already cooling first cup of coffee, I hear the sounds of someone else walking into my department.

OH GOD, NOT ANOTHER ONE!

It was someone I've not seen in quite a while, so I had a little, hey, how's it going moment.  Nice to see you again.  Apparently he had been out for some months.  Which of course means that he no longer knows his password.

Now then, in the past few weeks, we had a little change to our password policy, due to our new owners having a different password policy on their network than ours.  It used to be we had a policy of the password having to be at least 6 characters, and different from your last 5.  Now the password must meet the following requirements
A. At least 8 characters
B. Not the same as one of the last 5 passwords
C. Must meet 3 of these 4 requirements
     1. Contain at least one upper case letters
     2. Contain at least one lower case letters
     3. Contain at least one number
     4. Contain at least one non-alpha numeric character

Now then, the easiest way to deal with this policy for someone that has a history of a password change involving a 3 minute phone conversation is to give specific instructions, and not even think about characters that aren't letters or numbers.  So I set a default password that was rather simple that he would be required to change, and explained to him, your new password has to be at least 8 characters, and MUST contain upper case letters, lower case letters, and numbers.

"8 letters"

"at least 8.  And upper case, lower case, and numbers"

"upper case number?"

"No, no such thing."

"Oh, ok.  It used to be 6"

"Yeah, now it's different.  8 characters, and it has to contain upper case letters, lower case letters, and numbers"
"ok"

So I go to dump out my 3/4 cup of now cold coffee and refill my official Amateur Hour coffee mug (complete with url that is no longer valid), and come back to a red light blinking on my phone.

Dear god, what now.

Before I have a chance to listen to the message, he's already back at my desk, telling me it didn't work.

Sure enough, he's locked out, he has entered the default password, of Password1, incorrectly at least 5 times.

Mind you, I wrote this down on a post it for him, and said at least 3 times that the P is capital, and that there is no such thing as a capital 1.

I unlocked it, reminded him that the P is capital, and he went on his way to try it again.

As I'm about to take a nice hot sip of coffee, the phone rings again.  And it's him.

Oh for the love of........


I pick up the phone

"It doesn't work"
"What doesn't work"
"The password, I can't get in"
"Ok, why didn't it work"
"It no work"
"ok, but I need to know what it told you, can you not get past the first part to get to the screen to change your password, or does it tell you that the two new passwords don't match, or does it tell you that the password isn't complex enough?"
"hold on"


The next 15 minutes consisted of him not entering Password1 correctly, or him getting past that and having the two entries of his new password not match, or having the old password be incorrect since you have to fill that in again if you don't get it right on the first time, or being told his new password doesn't meet the requirements.

At this point, my direct supervisor has come in, and can see I am visually about ready to hurl the damn phone across the room, as I try to hide my anger that is hinting in the tone of my voice.

So, after several times of this, and after twice getting the error that the password doesn't meet the requirement, among several instances of the other errors, I ask him what password he is trying to pick.

He gives me a string of 8 letters.

Ok, which letters are upper case.

All lower case.



At this point, my supervisor sees all kinds of silent gestures happening at my desk as I pause to compose myself to be able to speak again without speaking a string of words that would get me fired instantly.

Not only did I explain the password requirement several times when he was at my desk, but on this 15 minute phone conversation, I had said at least 10 times:

Your new password must be at least 8 characters, contain upper case letters, lower case letters, and numbers.

At this point, my supervisor was lecturing me on how to do my job, that at this point I need to walk over there.

First of all....I didn't think a password change should require me walking over to their computer.  Second, I absolutely hate it when this person tries to tell me how I should do my job and gets all up in my business.

So, ok, I calmly hang up the phone, I vent a little bit, I count to 10, I shake it off, and walk over there.

I basically walked up to the computer, took the password he was trying to set it to, made my modifications to it to make it meet the requirements, typed it all in for him, wrote the new password for him, and told him "this is what you will use to log in tomorrow"


$20 says I get a call from him tomorrow morning when he tries to log in.

And now, if you excuse me, I have a full cup of cold coffee I need to dump out to refill my mug and try again.

Half-assed modern technology

Modern technology allows us to do such great things.  And yet, somehow, despite the amount of technology we have, mankind seems to be unable to actually build the perfect device.  My experiences with the Oppo BDP-93 bluray/dvd/sacd/dvd-a player is a perfect example of this.

So, for a long time I've been half-assing my audio system.  For quite a while, I didn't even own a dvd-audio player, and was just settling for dts or dolby digital playback of dvd-a discs.  This was quite ironic given my status in the converting world for creating quality dvd-a home conversions, for backup purposes.  I went through 3 half-assed methods of dvd-a playback before I finally did it right.  First was trying to setup a computer to playback dvd-a, which is doable, but problematic at best.  Then I picked up a panasonic bluray player, which never worked right with my 4.0 setup.  Dvd-a is a fickle format that doesn't like it if you dare try to have a system that doesn't have a center speaker, downmixing to create a phantom center is problematic.  Then I picked up a samsung sacd/dvd-a player.  It downmixes properly, and will playback dvd/sacd/dvd-a, which is great, but....it doesn't actually play dvd-a and sacd properly consistently.  It will do things like randomly skip to the next track before the first track is finished, or stop the disc partway into the first track or other annoying random things like that, piece of garbage.

So, doing dvd-a on the cheap was turning into an impossible nightmare.

So, ok then, maybe it's time to pick up a new player.  And, when it comes to dvd-a, the best bang for your buck is the Oppo BPD-93.  It does dvd-a and sacd, and does it through hdmi, and is a decent bluray player as well.  Great, what doesn't this player do?  Plus, I found out, it will playback .iso images of discs, including dvd-a discs, from external hard drives.  Wow, that's an awesome feature.

However, the man is trying to keep us down, and doesn't like us being free to do what we want to do with our personal property at all.  So, Oppo has been forced to phase out the .iso playback feature.  Boo!  So I ran out and purchased the player while I could still get it with this feature, and for that reason a firmware update will never be applied to this player.

So, ok, $499 later, I am happy with a kickass player that will play just about any disc you can throw at it, and will also let me play backed up images of dvd-a discs.  So, of course, I had to take advantage of this feature, and I ripped my entire dvd-a collection to an external hard drive.  And I found out, wow, this is awesome, I sit back, relax, and have all my dvd-a discs available to me without having to get up and stand in front of the rack, and pick what disc I want to listen to.  I can easily go to a disc, listen to a few tracks, go to another, if I just want to kinda pick through and listen to a few songs.  This is modern convenience.  How could this get better?

Well...that's nice, but that's only dvd-a.  Which is a minority of my music collection.  So, I decided, ok, lets try ripping an .iso image of a CD, and do that.

*BUZZZZZ*

No go.  The player won't playback .iso images of CDs.  Or .bin images either.  Which gets me to another confusing thing.....some CDs will rip to .iso, and some it forces me to do to .bin, and no one can explain why.  This makes no sense to me.  But, neither of them work with the Oppo, so that doesn't really matter.

Well, that's ok, because there is a great universal format out there called free lossless audio codec, flac.  It's great, and will do multichannel, and various bitrates and samplerates, it does just about everything.  So, using flac, I can easily get a bit for bit backup of my CD collection.  And, the oppo player will playback flac from hard drive.

So, I get a nice, big, 2 TB hard drive, and I get all my dvd-a images onto it, and start ripping my CD collection to it.  Finally, I have a backup of a large chunk of my music collection.  So, I hook up my hard drive, sit down, thumb through my collection I spent much time ripping, and think....well, I should verify that this is gapless.  I mean, it's got to be, certainly no developer in their right mind would make a device to playback flac files that isn't gapless.  Who would waste our time with that?

Well, turns out the fine developers at Oppo are just those people that would waste our time with that.  I cue up Abbey Road, start the medley on side 2, and sure enough, gaps.

Now, one at first might think, ok, rip DSOTM and Abbey Road to large flac files, and you're set.

And then you realize, wait a minute, what about live albums?

And then there's Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star.

And then theres........

You never really realize just how important gapless playback is until some dipshit develops a device that doesn't have it.

So, in discussions with this, someone pointed out that they have their computer setup as a media server, to play their music collection via networking, and that he thinks that might be gapless.  But isn't sure.  So, I decide, ok, lets see if I can get something via networking that is gapless.  I'm not against getting techy and doing networking stuff for playback, but I figured if I can keep it simple and just connect a hard drive directly to the player, why not?  But, hey, if this works, great.

My experiments found that, no, no gapless playback via networking either.  I wasn't sure if this was still the fault of the player, the software, or both.  So I decided, ok, lets check with Oppo, and Oppo confirmed that no, there is absolutely no way to get gapless flac playback at all with their players.

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently, the chip that they use for sacd/dvd-a/and all that disc playback just doesn't support it.  So, there you go, the buck gets passed to the chip developer.

Now then, there are boxes that will do gapless flac playback.  People have been recommending squeezebox to me.  But, after spending $499 on one player, I don't fancy having to buy a 2nd box to do what you would think someone could build into the one box I already spent nearly 500 on.  Plus, the squeezebox is a bit pricy.

So, ok, lets look at the roku.  I have a friend that has been nagging me, suggesting I should've bought a roku instead of the Oppo.  I had to force him to attempt to rip an SACD to demonstrate to him just why a roku box could never take the place of an Oppo.  But, roku boxes are pretty cost efficient, maybe that can do it.

Well, right off the bat, you can't play flac at all directly from a hard drive to a roku box.

NEXT!

So, basically, yes, I got exactly what I paid for with the Oppo, the features I wanted from the Oppo all work as I want, so really I shouldn't complain.  But, when I delve into the possibilities of what else it can do, it fell flat, and so now I'm left wanting to expand my capabilities further.  And, I'm a bit frustrated that I can't find a 1 box solution to do all that you would think someone should be able to build 1 box to do.  We can put a man on the moon, but we can't build 1 box that will playback bluray/dvd/dvd-a/sacd and do gapless flac playback?  Seriously?

Why is it that, despite the great technology that exists, mankind can never really see and use it to the full potential?  I just don't get it.

A little social experient.

It has come to my attention that 1 Damon Fibraio has decided to give me his undivided attention.  Now, this Damon Fibraio is a person who
A. Is part of the management team at www.nhbradio.com
B. Has a lot of opinions of which I don't care about
C. May or may not have touched a young boy by the name of Billy.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm perfectly willing to follow the policies put forward by the management team of www.nhbradio.com.  But, I'm sick of Damon's whining, bitching, complaining, and constant repetition of his opinions.

So, since he's decided to turn his focus to my twitter account, I've decided to start using a random tweet generator.  This is why my tweets are going to start to get a little weird for a bit.  I'm not sure how long I'm going to do this for, but it should be fun to see what reactions this social experiment gets.

A 2nd class TV viewer.

I'm really getting fed up with the asshats that are running the TV networks these days.  Quite often I've found myself saying, "those damn executives over at (insert TV network here) need to have a window installed in their stomach just so they can see where they are walking." 

I seem to be a minority when it comes to TV viewing.  I like humor.  But I like intelligent humor.  Don't get me wrong, I like a good dick or fart joke as much as the next guy.  And I do own all the Beavis and Butthead DVDs.  Although I wish the music industry would get it's head out of it's ass so that a proper DVD set with music videos could be released, but that's a whole other rant.  But, there were so many shows that have been killed in their prime, that were very funny, and intelligent.  Right off the top of my head, Arrested Development comes to mind.  Only 3 seasons?  Really? 

But that's not what has me pissed off tonight.

Once again, I've had that familiar feeling of being screwed over because of some shitty sports programming.  Apparently there are some people in this world that are entertained by cars going around in circles.  While I am tempted to talk about just how stupid that is, and question what moron would be entertained by cars going around in circles, I am reminded that my Dad will always put the TV on for a race.  I guess the car nut gene skips a generation.  So, ok, fair enough, some people like watching cars go around in circles. 

But, I have to ask the question, why in the hell do they get special preferential treatment to the rest of us?

In this world, we are taught the values of commitment, taught to honor our commitments.  That it is rude to be late to an appointment.  If you schedule or announce something, that it is rude not to follow through on it.  But, somehow, sports programming seems to trump common decency in this country.  Never mind the fact that 8:00 pm on a Monday evening is the regular time slot for House.  Never mind that there is a new episode that is scheduled this week in that time slot.  Never mind the fact that there has been advertising running all week long enticing us to tune in to that slot.  Somehow, a bunch of morons that can't do anything more than drive a fast car around in a circle trumps this schedule that some of us were counting on.  Then, on top of that, it turns out that other time zones did get to see the new House episode.

Well, how do you like that?

When do we get to watch it?  Huh?  Did you give any consideration to those of us that watch your programming week after week, saw your schedule, watching your advertising, and prepared to watch this show, based on your announcements?  Do you have any thought for us, your regular viewers, at all?

And this isn't the first time I've had this happen.   And then, if I dare to complain to fox, they act like I'm the bad guy.  In Maine, apparently the police department doesn't have enough real work to fill their schedule, so they have to waste my time for stupid shit like this.  One Sunday evening, after doing my show, I did my normal routine of getting some dinner together, sitting in front of the TV, and turning on Fox for an evening of Simpsons, Family Guy, and such.  And...what was on? 

FUCKING CARS GOING IN FUCKING CIRCLES!!!!!!!!!

Oh hells no.  And this was like the 2nd or 3rd time they did this to us recently.  So I looked up our local Bangor affiliate, called their number, picked a random employee from the directory, and left a piece of my mind on their voicemail.

Next thing I know, officer McClaron of the Bangor police department is harassing my roommate, shaking him down for my work number, and then I have a police officer calling my place of work, asking to talk to me.

Talk about ridiculous.

Apparently leaving your opinion on a voicemail is a fucking federal offense or something.  I made no threats of any kind, just conveyed to Fox my displeasure in their scheduling, or lack of.

Well, Fox, you live in a time where, we don't have to put up with your shit anymore.  Network broadcasting is becoming less and less relevant.  And if you keep dicking us around and treating us like 2nd class TV viewers, we aren't going to take it anymore.

That's right.

Fuck you and your little TV operation there.  I don't need you anymore.  That's what torrents are for.

What?  You don't want me to download the programming from a torrent, and watch it on my terms?  You want to claim that that is illegal and copyright infringement.

Well, you know what?

FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

I've given you more than enough chances.  I'm done being treated like a 2nd class TV viewer.  I'm not watching TV on your terms anymore, I'm watching it on mine.  I'm taking TV back!

And now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go take my external hard drive that I've copied my download of this week's house to, hook it up to my Oppo bluray player, and watch me some House now.  And you damn Fox executives with your heads up your asses, you can take your Nascar racing, and go fuck yourselves.

Me fail english? That's......quite likely, actually.

A funny thing happened last night.  I was sitting in front of my computer, and as I was continuing in the long, tedious process of ripping my CDs to flac files, I heard the sound of a message coming in from facebook.  And it was one of my facebook friends asking kindly for a favor, to read over a work related official letter and give my feedback, due to me being knowledgeable and intelligent.  As I smiled a bit to myself for this very nice compliment, I thought back to my years of struggling through English class, feeling like I was the last person on earth that anyone should ever come to for advice about writing.  And yet, here I was, in a situation where someone who knew me primarily through email had thought enough of my writing style that she felt my opinion was valuable.  I said I was happy to take a look, but pointed out that I felt writing was a great weakness of mine.  She shrugged it off, pointing out she had read my rants.  So I read it and gave my comment.

Now, the thing that started me thinking is, this isn't the first time I've been complimented on my writing in recent times.  I've had a co-worker ask me for advice on some emails, and her reaction has been the same when I've mentioned how horrible I am at writing.  A bit surprised.  Somehow, these days I'm coming off as competent in writing.  Do I have everyone fooled?  Have I greatly improved from my school days?  Or were my teachers wrong all along?

I'm not sure if either of those questions deserves a yes answer (although I have a strong desire to answer yes to the last one).  I don't think I'm necessarily fooling anyone.  And I don't think that if I were to take my high school and college writing classes again that I would do better now than I did the first time around.  But, I don't think it would be fair to say my teachers were wrong.  Although, I can clearly say one of them was clearly wrong about one thing, and I had one of those great opportunities in life to subtly throw it in her face.  But, we'll get to that later...

Is ending a paragraph with three dots like that acceptable when writing an assignment for a high school or college teacher?  I'm not sure.  I'm sure there are many things I do in these posts to try and convey a feeling I have in what I'm saying, that would be dismissed as bad writing.  But, that's the thing, when I write these rants, or a multi-page email with my thoughts on why Damon is wrong and I'm right, I write them for me.  Fuck the rules.  The rules go right out the window.  And suddenly, when there are no rules, I'm writing in a manor that seems to be respectable enough for people to come to me for advice.  So, maybe the teachers need to let up on the rules some.  But, lets reflect back.....

Uh oh, more than 3 dots.  If the office has taught us anything, it's that 5 dots is just asking for trouble......  Wonder what 6 dots means then.

Anyways, as I've said, I always struggled with writing throughout school.  But I think it was High School where it really got to be something to the point of a traumatic experience that will be with me for the rest of my life.  Don't get me wrong, I had my struggles before then.  I remember being up all night the night before my paper on The Quakers was due for a 6th or 7th grade paper, struggling to finish that assignment, with help from Mom.  But, that doesn't compare to High School.  I think Junior year is where it really started to go bad.

To sidetrack a bit, I had also struggled with Biology.  Mainly because there was too much of my personal Biology going on in Biology class.  I was far more interested in the cute girl sitting behind me that I would joke around with than I was in what Mr. Rockhead had to say about Biology.  And so, somehow I was perceived as a student that should be signed into the Chemistry for the slow kids class.  Although that wasn't the official title, it was called something like selected topics in Chemistry.  When I found out what this class was, and I pressed him for an explanation, he claimed to have signed anyone up for this class that suggested they weren't going to major in Science in college.  Sounds like a lame excuse to me.  So, 2 weeks into my Junior year, after coming to the realization I was in a slow kids class where I didn't belong (not for a Science class anyways), and having time to think and reflect on if this is what I really want, I decided to request to be switched out of this class.  My hesitance was due to the fact that, I liked the teacher of this class, I had her for Freshman Science.  And she too was confused to my presence in this class.  So, 2 weeks into Junior year my schedule was juggled around, and that's how I ended up going from reading "The Catcher in the Rye" in Mrs. Gottlieb's english class, into the personal hell that was Mrs. Mahevich's English class.

Now, don't get me wrong.  Mrs. Mahevich was a nice enough person, and I never had problems with her on a personal level.  But she was a bit more focused on the writing than any other English teacher I had.  I felt a bit of panic as I started in this class, and a special folder was given to me with special instructions for writing projects.  I don't remember the details, but it was very clear to me, this was going to be one of my most difficult classes yet.  I ended up failing one of my quarters in that class, but somehow managed to pull things up enough to have a passing grade for the semester and final grades that year.  But, what was a preview of things to come was the period of time she was out, and Mrs. McKenna filled in.  The details are a blur now, but I don't recall having any serious problems with Mrs. McKenna Junior year, and while I wasn't thrilled to then have her for Senior year, I wasn't panicked either.

As Senior year developed, it became clear and obvious to everyone in the class that Mrs. McKenna had preferences in the students in her class.  Anyone who's name didn't start with J and end with onathan was preferred.  And I should point out, I was the only Jonathan in the class.  This wasn't just something I felt.  Actually, I didn't feel it.  I always figured I was dumb, but I didn't necessarily feel like I was being treated unfair at the time.  But, I have a clear memory of overhearing a conversation before class started going

"oh, I see, there's a preference to the students in this class"
"yeah, pretty much anyone that isn't (points towards me) him"

I suppose I owe Will Cursio a bit for pointing this out.  I did make an attempt to stay in touch with him, and got kicked out of class for it.  I should explain that sentence...

So, the last day of regular classes, Mrs. McKenna gave us an assignment to write a letter to our future selves.  She wouldn't say when we would get it, but it would be mailed to us at some point in the future.  So, I dealt with this the only way I could, humor.  I started writing a lame letter to the effect of "Hi me.  How am I.  I am good..."  At some point, Mrs. McKenna made the suggestion that we could exchange numbers or addresses with the person sitting next to us, so that in this future we could get in touch again and catch up.  Now, the kid sitting next to me in that class, Will Cursio, was not exactly my favorite person in the world, nor was I his.  I was picked on a lot in school, and he did a fair amount of picking on me.  At this point, we clearly did not like each other.  So, to me, the thought of asking him to exchange information was the obvious joke here.  I figured, I'd turn to him, ask him for his information, which was clearly and obviously a joke since neither of us had any desire to be in touch with each other at all, we'd have a little laugh over it, and continue with our letters.  Instead, he got all pissed off, yelled at me to leave him alone, which resulted in Mrs. McKenna immediately siding with him, and kicking me out of the class, basically telling me "I don't care where you go, just get out of here."

If ever there was a doubt to what her personal feelings were towards me, it was clear now.

But, to give an idea of how well I was doing in that class, and what the teacher thought of me, there is a story that clearly spells that out.  But first I must explain, when I was in 8th grade I had some testing done, and was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.  As a result of this, there were certain meetings that would take place with my parents, school faculty, and members of the panel that deals with learning disabled kids.  And I would later find out that senior year, one such meeting occurred.  My mother had gone in for this meeting with the guidance counselor, someone from the panel, and one of my teachers.  The teacher for this meeting happened to be Mrs. McKenna.  From what I was told, Mrs. McKenna was very negative at this meeting, and had nothing much good to say about me.  At some point into the meeting, my Mom was asked about my progress in the SATs and college applications.  It was at this point that Mrs. McKenna scoffed, and said something to the effect of "you'd be throwing away good money sending that kid to college."  Apparently the others in the room were quite taken aback by this comment, which I imagine caused a moment of stunned silence.  Which was then followed by my mom pulling out my SAT scores of 1250, and making Mrs. Greer McKenna eat crow.

I made my way through college fine, but there were certainly some college moments where the equation D=Diploma worked in my favor.  Freshman year required 2 semesters of English that was very focused on writing.  Supposedly these classes were to prepare us for writing papers in other classes, but never in any other class was my writing judged as harshly as in these classes.  And, as you can see, I now wonder if these classes were more damaging to me than helpful.  They certainly left me with absolutely no confidence in myself to write a paper adequately.  When I sat down to write an assignment, whatever class I was writing in, an A wasn't even on my mind.  I was aiming to at least get that D, hoping for a C, with a barely attainable B a possibility.  But, I don't think I was ever hopeful for an A when turning in a paper.  I had been told my whole life I was horrible at writing.  And college writing classes were no exception to that rule.

I had Walter Labonte's writing class for 2 semesters in college, and he was a nice enough guy, someone I'd get along with perfectly fine on a personal level.  But, for a teacher.....god, I hated that class.  We had our "toolbox" of writing "tools".  To this day, when I try to explain this toolbox concept, I can't, because I don't know what tools were supposed to be in there.  I don't need to know this stuff anymore.  I'm not writing a book here, I'm just conveying my thoughts for personal or professional purposes.  I don't need to reach into my toolbox to put my thoughts into words to convey a feeling that I'm trying to convey.  Fuck the rules, they never worked for me.  But, I had to get through the class.  Somehow I did, and I think maybe I owe a bit of thanks to Walter for that.  I stumbled through the first semester well enough, but the second was really a challenge.  And to this day I wonder if I really passed.  There was a final paper that was to count for a large portion of the grade, and I really struggled with that paper.  I never really believed in the paper.  I never really believed in the topic it was on, which was people collecting things.  I didn't pick that topic, it was kind of a "well, you collect stuff, right?  Write about that"  And, well, what could I say about it?  I had nothing I felt I needed to say about collecting.  Why do I collect stuff?  I like the stuff I collect.  But, it didn't even fit what the assignment was supposed to be.  I forget what it was at this point, but he tied this in by having me work in the topic of people that collect war memorabilia.  Something I had no interest in, at all.  And, it really threw me off that the thing that was to tie this paper in with the assignment, wasn't even really the focus of the paper, just a tacked on part of the whole concept.  So, I never believed in this assignment, but I got stuck with it, and backed into a corner of writers block on things I had nothing to say about.

So, as we got down to the last weeks of class, I had a sit down with Walter to go over the progress on this paper, or lack of.  And, it was at this point he looked at me, and said something to the effect of, "Ok, Jonathan, here's what you do.  You go down to the 2nd floor, you take a left, and the 2nd door on the right is the office you want to go to.  You fill out a form to withdraw from this class, and then we'll try this again next year."  I pointed out the one flaw in this plan, which was that to withdraw from a class past the halfway point in the semester meant withdrawing with a failing grade.  He had somehow misunderstood, or remembered wrongly, that the first year you could withdraw up to the last day.  I had to remind him, no, it's only the first semester, not the 2nd.  So, to me it didn't make sense to go with a plan that meant guaranteed failure, so I proceeded with likely failure.  He continued to help me, we got the paper in some kind of shape, and somehow, I got the D I was so hoping for.

A few years later, after I graduated, I took my diploma, and made a special trip back to my High School.  I had a nice visit catching up with teachers that I had got along nicely with.  It was great to be able to share my good news of my recent graduation, catch up a bit, and see all the changes in the years I had been away from this place.  And then I made my way to Mrs. McKenna's classroom.  I had thought long and hard about the different ways I could throw this in her face.  But, I just wasn't the kind of person that could be confrontational for it.  So, I walk into the room, diploma in hand, a smile on my face, to visit Mrs. McKenna.  We both played a game of pretending to be happy to see one another, one of the weird habits of humans.  She asked, what brings you here, and with that I whipped out my diploma and said "well, I recently graduated, and wanted to show you my diploma."  She acted like she was all glad and proud, as if we ever got along, and gave me a hug, which I really did not want, but wasn't about to fight off either.  She made some comment to the effect of "oh, you even brought in the diploma to show me."  Well....I had to, otherwise you wouldn't believe it, I quietly thought to myself.  So, nothing was said about the previous events, but she knew what she had once said, and by the way I came in with the diploma in hand, I think she knew I knew, and knew why I had made that point to show her.

So, yeah, my bad experiences in high school didn't hold me back.  And may have even made me the person I am today.  But, up until now, I never really realized the damage that my experiences with writing classes really had on me.  They really left me with no confidence at all in my writing.  I've always felt like, when it comes to writing, I'm a failure, and thank god I have other things to make up for it.  But, now that I find myself in a position where people will ask me for my opinion on their casual writings, I wonder if maybe I've been wrong all along.  I'm not suggesting that I'm William Shakespeare.  (Of course not, I'm far less boring.)  But, I'm beginning to think that maybe my writing isn't as bad as I've always assumed it to be after years of being told how bad it is.