Computers are not self sufficient (They should be !)

As my friends can attest, I am a nerd, a geek, a computer electronics maven. You couldn't exactly call me an early adopter though, because I never buy tech in version 1.0, but If they make it I've probably had one or considered it anyway. I have closets full of junk I have not thrown away yet to prove it. Ask my wife. We don't have linen closets, we have electronics closets.

The myth is that you can buy a computer and it just works (insert I'm a PC commercial with Intel sound here) and the facts are that I have never found that to be true. Never. As a matter of fact, I've never had anything that was truly maintenance free and never had a computer or any electronics at all that did not require some level of care to keep it operating. Remember when car batteries had those tops you could remove in order to refill the water? Then along came "maintenance free" batteries. Still had to replace them every 4 years or so huh?

So no repairs and no keeping them full, just plan them to be obsolete on a twice as frequent scale?

The thing that kills me though is that NO ONE considers reliability or repair cost or expected life when buying electronics, televisions or computers. Some of the most studious people I know research TV prices and components until they could sell them, but when they buy a printer, laptop or a desktop computer, the only thing they look at it price. The only thing in the AD is price. The only thing looked at with any diligence is price. I get these phone calls and the only thing I hear is "...And I only paid $XXX for it". Who cares, but, Good for you.

Here's what I mean.

Look at your brand of Laptop or your brand of desktop. Chances are, in the next year you may need to replace a power supply on your desktop or the screen on your laptop. Why? Because on desktops, heat is never exhausted as fast as it should be because it always increases noise level unless you use a more expensive solution (like water cooling) they usually do not have enough fans and almost no one ever takes the back or side off their computer and vacuums the dog hairs out of it.

And the laptop screen, Why ? Because we lug the thing around like a women's purse, forget what it is and stop putting them away in their padded cases and sooner or later fat Uncle Bill will set on it. That's why.

With every new generation of products there is also a planned obsolescence factor and a planned discard/replace factor to consider as well. Yeah the printer was only $18.The ink is $175 a cartridge and you cannot find it 3 years from now, but hey, IT WAS CHEAP !!

Now , go to your computer manufacturer's website and price a power supply for your computer. Chances are you are like everybody else and you have one of 2 or 3 major brands of desktop (Compaq/HP, Dell, Gateway) or one of the top 5 laptops (IBM-Lenovo, Toshiba, Compaq/HP, Dell, ACER). Here is what you will find. Take a stress pill and price a new screen, if you can even figure out which one your system uses.

Parts are expensive. Putting them in is confusing. Having them serviced costs about twice as much as the parts do. Oh, and parts for one model do not fit parts for another model, or brand. HP and IBM used to be famous for using single brand power supplies that would not fit any other machine.Now you start thinking. Since you only paid $XXX for your computer in the first place, should you spend $XXX to fix it ? After all its a toaster isn't it ? A better non brand specific power supply is probably 50 % of what IBM or HP charges for the mediocre system you have, but hey, IT WAS CHEAP !! Don't worry about your files, your software you will have to re-buy and re-install, just throw it away and keep going. Think e-machines at Wal-Mart. Cheap and plentiful too !!



The sad fact is this.

Every Tech company has the ability to add sensors and to standardize parts and to simplify their replacement. Everything could be a plug in module if they wanted it to be that way. That would not keep you coming back to the supply chain to buy a new product though would it ? Every product made could be engineered to be simple to maintain. You ever looked at the back of any TV , Radio or virtually any electronics where it says "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE? yeah, well right about there is where the door ought to be that allows you to open it and vacuum it out.

Ah well. I like getting paid.

Keep buying net books and tablets and touch screens.
Keep sitting on them. Keep ignoring the dog hairs.

It s a lucrative business.

Ahhh, the recession is almost over. (right?)

I begin this remark with an understanding that not everyone shares my point of view and really I am OK with that. Many times I don't have my opinion fully formed as I write these blog entries, and like many people I may not know all the facts or my opinion may be colored by my personal circumstances. If this describes you and you don't want to read this , well I understand. I would however like to know one thing though,

How the hell is everybody else doing it? How is everyone else surviving? I just am stupid I guess, because I don't get it.

You see , ever since the economy turned south in about early 2006 I've been trying to figure out what in the hell I am doing wrong.

We'll be driving down the interstate and get passed by a big old decked out motor home or a huge pickup truck pulling a boat and I think "Where in the hell do these people get the money?" Friends of mine go on vacations every 6 months or at least once a year. I haven't been able to take a vacation in about 7 or 8 years. Haven't been able to find the money or a job for that matter to get a new car since 2003. We came about 7 days from having my house repossessed. I lost my position in 2007 and have been basically underemployed ever since. I am extremely grateful for the job I have and thankful my Boss saw some value in keeping me around, but I have to know "What the Hell am I doing wrong?".

On top of that, health issues get in the way of doing physical things. My brain works just fine, my back sucks, so I can't even cut lawns for money. Couple that with the price of EVERYTHING going up and I wonder how we are supposed to hold out and how much longer until and before we just collapse in upon ourselves and start forming the soup lines. Gas is 4 times as expensive as it was in 1999, Milk and Bread are both double or so what they used to be. All my utility Bills are higher than they were 3 years ago. We basically do not have any savings anymore. Its been wiped out slowly but surely , one drip at a time until all that's left is the memory of money. I've combed through expenses over and over again eliminating , reducing, doing away with and cancelling everything we don't absolutely have to have to live and It feels like I am just about out of options. 

Jokingly I told my wife that we needed to buy a new refrigerator, just in case, so we would have a spare house, if worse comes to worse.

Now , its not that bad, but its dumb enough to piss me off, you know what I mean. ?

Then talking heads on TV, newspaper columnists and Internet reporting are all saying "Well its bad, but not that bad." , "Its getting better", "The end of the recession is in sight" and so forth and so on. I wonder in amazement where these guys are looking? I mean if you mean that the recession is almost over for the BANKERS and for the POLITICIANS , then I would have to agree.

The only thing I see at the end of this tunnel is an oncoming train.

Hell you can't use an ATM to check your balance without a fee being charged and just getting your own money out of one can be like getting charged 30 % interest to use your own money. Say you want to make a 30 $ ATM withdrawal. Your bank charges a fee if you use a "Foreign ATM", the "Foriegn ATM" charges a fee for not being a customer of their bank, and you have just paid $6 or more to get to your own money. When you say to your bank, "Why don't you guys have an ATM on my side of the county", they say the business isn't there to support it. Then I look at their balance sheets and see they made 38 MILLION dollars last year on fees and administrative services. Looks like they are doing just fine what with all that hard work they are doing printing receipts and cashiers checks and counting access charges and the like. Oh and don't get me started on "NSF charges". Lord knows it is real expensive to accidentally overpay 12 bucks. It has to be at least three times the value of the charge to make it worth 35 bucks a pop right ?

Personally I don't see how most of those greedy bastards sleep at night. I really don't. They are bleeding us dry like the mafia would and what they do is "legal". It shouldn't be, but heck, there isn't a Washington DC Politician, Attorney, Lobbyist, or Banker alive who understands what it is like to try and live on less than a quarter million dollars a year. They don't have a clue. It pisses me off that we are in such bad shape and they still don't get it. What has to happen to make them understand that we are dying out here, while they keep getting re-elected and keep collecting 30,000 dollars a speech?

There is over 10 % unemployment by the way Washington DC  and the states measure it. That is millions of folks out of work, and barely getting by. What they do not tell you is that this statistic is designed to be misleading. It really only represents those folks who are currently drawing an unemployment check or have filed for it. It doesn't include anyone who is underemployed, unemployed but not filed for unemployment, self employed business owners who lost work or businesses, people that used to work two jobs to make ends meet that cannot find a suitable second job and it doesn't include students who don't work or anyone who has exhausted their unemployment benefits and still can't find a job. It also does not include anyone discharged from the military medically even if they have no other income, every retired person and every homeless person in America even if they don't have any other income and anyone scratching to survive in the underground economy like illegal aliens, the mentally ill, the mentally handicapped etc.

If I had to guess I would say we are actually closer to 20 % unemployed and its not getting any better.  There could potentially be 60 Million people without income and under the gun tonight in America. Does this sound like it is getting any better to you ?

Will someone please tell me how the news coming out of Washington DC about our debt limit and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell fighting with President Obama is helping us right now? If I don't have a gallon of milk, a job, a loaf or bread, or money for gas to get any of it how does what these morons are doing help me? And then , if it doesn't help me , somebody please tell me how it takes care of Senior Citizens, the disabled or injured or disabled military veterans ? In the past 3 to 5 years, what benefit have we gotten by having higher prices for gasoline, food, natural gas, health care, credit, and everything else. What good have we gotten from  a policy of billions of dollars spent on waging war overseas? What good have we gotten from sending hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign countries just to see our jobs and bonds and raw materials go there with them. What good has come of removing any of the price supports for farm products when the end result has been nothing more than higher prices?

So please, feel free, tell me, unload on me, make me feel stupid. "What the Hell are we doing wrong ?"

Getting Old SUCKS !!!

Yeah , yeah , yeah 50 is the new 40. Whatever. I wasn't all that thrilled with 40 !

Man I gotta tell ya, getting Old sucks !

Nobody really prepares you for whats coming and whats coming , well it just ain't pretty. Pretty much after you turn 50 you can just forget about and lose a whole lot of words you used to use describing yourself to others. Words like smooth, fast, fit, tight, agile, mobile uh, none of those words apply. You will never be tight or fast at anything, ever, again. You have wrinkles where just a couple of years ago you didn't even realise it was possible to have wrinkles, everything hurts all the time and all of those bad decisions you made back in the day come back and bite you on the butt.

Tackle football without pads in the park ? No problem ! Right !

Nobody tells you that sleeping becomes a secondary issue. You never get enough, it never happens when you need it and when you want to sleep. forget it. Either a kid needs you to be awake, the place you are trying to sleep in is keeping you awake, its too loud or too quiet or you just lay there watching the headlights on the highway wondering if you will ever sleep again. Did I piss off the sleep gods ?

The best thing is the tendency to notice new symptoms and marvel at how fast things you used to be able to do just...go away. Poof - You don't play baseball no more. Poof- No more football with the kids. Kazaam - climbing ladders all day long is out of the question. Hundreds of things you used to do without a second thought now are major decisions. Go bike riding ? Are you mental ? Lets go play some basketball - Seriously? I gotta go take a nap. Where did this funny mole come from ? Wow - When did my elbows start hurting ? Stupid stuff like that.

It makes you insane because the changes come with frightening quickness and your body forgot to tell you about it. You just wake up one day and you are done with something else.  Ha ha , very funny.

The worst part is how you feel on the inside versus how you look on the outside. How you look on the exterior determines how people treat you. How you feel on the inside determines how you think you should be treated. Hey ! Get that AARP mail crap outta here. WTF?

Here is a couple of examples - 

• A pretty good looking girl comes walking directly towards you and a doorway is in between you. Just as you think "I'll hold this door open for her", she grabs it and says "Here you go SIR I have the door, please go ahead." /deflation sound - ego disappears. 
• You are standing in a checkout line at a supermarket, the cashier greets you and says "Do you have one of our senior cards?" /ooooohhhhh let the cursing begin ! 
• You are at a table in a restaurant. The server walks up and says "Do you need a senior menu ? / aww man , I didn't wanna kill anybody today !

The problem is nobody let me in on the joke. I woke up today with no prior knowledge of all these changes going on every day and let me tell ya, it ain't friggin funny ! I had an easier time with the whole "PaPaw" thing. Its like being buried alive and nobody can hear you screaming from inside the coffin. Like going into surgery and they think you are asleep but you can hear and feel everything going on all around you. Inside I still feel like the same person. I have the memories of playing with my kids, but my grand kids will never know how far I could hit a baseball. Inside I still feel like me, but I bear an uncanny likeness to some old dude I've never met that sorta looks like me. I look in the mirror and think "Why am I looking in the mirror?, Oh yeah. who is this old dude staring back at me ?

I'm sure the best is yet to come. I probably haven't even scratched the surface yet on all the crap that goes on. I haven't talked at all about prostrates, doctor visits or sex.

Trust me when I say , whatever you can imagine is about what happens to some degree. None of it is good and Hugh Hefner is a friggin liar ! I don't care how much Viagra that idiot is taking every day, he is in no way the same man sexually that he was even 20 years ago, let alone half a lifetime removed. Heck I'll bet he takes Viagra in a management sense only to keep it stiff enough so it doesn't dribble on his shoes. He probably sits down to pee. 

Now I understand why all my older relatives sit around talking about aches and pains all the time.

It s all they have left.

Just Five minutes is all

Hey, I'm not Nancy Grace or any of the talking heads that have been screaming for the head of Casey Anthony for the past 3 years. I don't get paid a big salary to sit around and think of cute phrases that will be used on my blog banner to describe this woman. Hell I've never came close to meeting her or any of her family and have only spoken with 2 or 3 celebrities in my life (Magic Johnson, Sam Kinnison, Vince Neil, a couple others), so I ain't nobody famous and I don't have any kind of vested interest in a book deal or movie rights or anything else.

I am sorta pissed off at everybody involved about this Casey Anthony crap though.

I just have a couple of questions? What a bunch of pathetic dumb asses. How do you lose a case like this?

1. How the hell do you take a woman , in this society, charged with this kind of crime, to trial without enough evidence to put her under the jail, for the rest of her miserable life ? How stupid were they ?
2. They still don't know 3 years later why it happened and never got to the point where they know what happened to the baby.
3. I'm sorry, you went to trial without a cause or manner of death? Are you frickin kidding me ? How could they have failed to obtain a conviction for something substantial.
4. If she didn't do it (and she might not have done it WHO KNOWS ?)  Then I have a couple of questions. Who did it? How did it happen? How did the duct tape get on her mouth? Who put her in the grave? WHY AINT YOU LOSING YOUR MIND WITH GRIEF ? WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?
5. Casey if you didn't do it, you cannot be retried for it You are forever free of charges related to her death. Tell us WHO KILLED YOUR BABY ? I could not just let it go and think that getting out of jail next week was the end of it.
6. If it was one of my kids and I didn't do it, I would have to know. WHY isnt she asking these questions? I would do life or take the needle for one of my kids. I just can't understand this loser.

See here is the thing.

I don't think they (every lawyer involved) were interested in knowing what happened. I think the lawyers were just interested in winning. Anymore, that's all they care about. File the most charges, get the most wins, get a bigger desk with a bigger job, bill more hours, buy a bigger house, enjoy life. That's the problem with attorneys. It is rarely about the truth anymore. Read one story about one trial without someone mentioning what it costs to conduct the trial. It just doesn't happen because that cost is also all about what an attorney is paid to bring or defend the action. How in the hell did anyone make the decision to bring her to triual on evidence this weak? I imagine the conversation was sorta like Boss- "Whelp, yeah the baby is gone, must have been the mother right?, Underling -Right. Boss - Well arrest her and charge her and we'll figure it out later. Underling - Duhh, Um Okay Boss. 



Put her in a locked room for 5 minutes with a couple of Marine Corps Drill Instructors or a couple of Navy Seals or a couple of Gangsters. We would know what happened to that baby. I'd beat her within an inch of her life to find out. No good lying piece of trash.

Me ? I couldn't care less what happens to her.I know that sounds cold hearted and cold blooded but as a father I cannot understand this , and do not want to.

It pisses me off. She is worthless and useless and the world be better off if she wasn't inhaling air.

The reason why is because of her actions.

Here is 5 reasons i think she knows what happened to her baby.

1. Did she yell and scream at the top of her lungs that her baby was missing, within minutes of discovering that she was?
2. Did you ever see her cry about her baby being gone? Ever? Especially in the first 30 days ? (Oh wait, thats right, she didn't let on the baby was missing for a month or so, I forgot)
3. Did she get a tattoo showing her love for her missing baby? ( or was it one that said "Glad that little paperweight is gone !")
4. Did anything she ever said about where the baby was make any sense at all to anyone? If she was innocent, then why make up the stories? Why change the details ? Why make up shit that had nothing to do with it ?
5. Does anything she said or did in the 3 years it took to get her through a trial look like the actions of someone that was totally innocent?

Thankx for reading my rant !


bigmike


Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/