Posted 11/24/2008 at 11:25:03am

How about instead of docking pay, get IT in there to provide a solution.  Wipe out all the BS in everyone's startup items, optimize other settings to speed up boot time, or send out Wake-on-LAN packets at 6am.

Either way, if the PC belongs to the company, this is a cost of operation.  Just like sorting through mail (either type) or reading memos, this is part of the daily routine that prepares employees for the workday.

If will fight to the death ANYONE who suggests that getting coffee is not a critical part of beginning a day of work. :-)  Just ban coffee from the jobsite and then see how much value you get from your hourly workers. :-P

Posted 11/14/2008 at 02:38:00pm

Mail-in Rebates must always be avoided.  Assuming you've danced precisely to their tune, your chances of getting a check are, obviously, slim.  It's not worth the time, effort, worry, and ultimately the financial loss.

10 years ago you could be reasonably certain you'd get one, and the hoop-jumping was considerably less complicated.  Now I am always careful to never purchase a product advertising a MIR.  Let the money do the talking.

MIR are just another gimmick to get you to buy impulsively without realizing your true cost.

Posted 11/03/2008 at 11:19:35am

Yes.

Posted 10/22/2008 at 01:20:21pm

Umm, all internet traffice could be considered "upstream" depending on your point of view--especially on a P2P network.  So you're downloading content from a P2P.. that means someone else is uploading to you.  Sounds like a good way to inflate numbers to advance ones agenda!

Posted 10/21/2008 at 03:49:46pm

I think one of the big problems with RSS is that "Live bookmarks" in Firefox make it look useless.  If that's the extent of your RSS experience, you'll see many comments like maniacm0nk3y's.

I didn't fully appreciate what RSS can do for me until I began using Google Reader.  Now, it's an indispensible part of my day.  I can quickly go through MANY news & blog sources, share the ones my friends are interested in, and save ones I want to follow up on later, or open ones I want more detail on----all without leaving a single webpage.

RSS feeds can include summaries, entire articles, or images and media.  It's entirely up to the content provider.  But you're missing out if you think that RSS is simply a list of links in a menu on your browser.

Posted 10/21/2008 at 02:57:12pm

China has a lot of experience managing technology on a national scale.  Maybe they could provide someone for the post?

Posted 10/20/2008 at 03:09:33pm

I heard a radio ad for Yahoo search the other day and wondered if they were starting to get desparate.  I guess this explains it.

Posted 10/14/2008 at 08:25:16pm

"Heck this guy is already buying a 30 minute commercial I read too."

Try his very own channel on Dish Network!  Gag.

Posted 10/13/2008 at 08:40:21am

Comments on youtube are next to useless.  I wrote greasemonkey scripts to collapse them as well as the related videos.

Posted 09/16/2008 at 11:58:35am

Unfortunately, applying a crack does indeed violate the DMCA.  The law states that taking any action to circumvent copy protection is a violation.  It doesn't matter whether you do or intend to copy the protected content or even if you would have otherwise had the legal right to copy it for personal use.  This is why it raises such a stink with people--it effectively eliminates your right to a legal copy for personal backup

Of course you're not likely to get caught or prosecuted unless EA or whovever is scanning your drive for modified files.  Even then, they'd probably just disable your CD key or whatever they use and be done with it.