I am a curmudgeon

According to a lot of folks, people my age are “curmudgeons”. That is we ain’t cool, we ain’t hip, we don’t get “it”. I have never really been sure what "it" is however being this old design sucks and it seems as if it is something I don't have according to a lot of folks anyway. Then I look around at what passes for news and information and the things that people ought to know and I see garbage. I don't mean to disrespect anyone's talent level or anyone's news source or any of the kinds of music that they listen to or any of the TV shows they watch or what their activities are, or god forbid where they go out and have fun for the evening. Far be it from me to say what is right or wrong.

On the other hand there is a long laundry list of things that I just must be so out of touch with that it is incredible. Sometimes I'm a bit stunned over what is referred to as news by sources that used to be credible. What I mean is used to be able to turn on a television show and see something called "News" and actually get news. See this is one of those things that I guess I don't get as I can tell you everything and bore you to tears with how a computer works but apparently I don't have enough "it" whatever that is, to define what news is anymore or music or clothing or something that should be important to everyone or anything else. 

I now understand why my parents said getting old is hell.

Here is sort of what I mean, you see I thought Albert Einstein was a genius, apparently I was wrong. Apparently Kanye West is a genius.

See I thought this huge media cycle that's been ongoing for the past month or so about this airplane being missing in the Indian Ocean was terribly important. Apparently however the more exciting and important news is that the group OutKast is reuniting at Coachella and Johnny Depp has been subpoenaed to testify in a murder case. The fact that he doesn't know anything about the murder case at all is irrelevant. The news is that he is going to testify or has been subpoenaed, I am not sure which is more accurate. I can read everything I want to know ad infinitum about Tori spelling and her lack of sex with her husband and barely a word is printed about Russia taking over the Ukraine.Unbelievable.

Basically we told Vladimir Putin that it better not be that way when we got home from work or there'll be hell to pay when our father got home or some such nonsense. I mean we shook our finger at him real hard. Oh and Stephen Colbert is apparently going to take over the late show for David Letterman when he retires at the end of next year. I cannot stand that guy and I don't know what they see in him but okay I have already said I am a curmudgeon. I'm too old understand I suppose.

It seems to me that John Stewart would've been a better choice, however the powers that be like that moron over someone with talent. I suppose his mother thinks she's funny I don't know. Basically I can't stand to listen to the man talk in character or out. Is that wrong of me?

I don't know see, and I don't understand or like "The Amazing Race", have never watched one single minute of any show called "Survivor" anything, and  I do not understand why some moron runs around the uninhabited parts of our planet trying to prove that he knows how to survive in it while he's getting filmed. Seems to me the guy that should be called the survivor there is the cameraman but what do I know. 

There is a whole slew of television programming starting with a show like Dancing with the stars and ending with one that is called American Idol that I just don't get and cannot make myself watch. They suck and everything like it sucks. Most of the programming that is called "reality television" is just garbage. 

It is the detritus of our society, crammed into a plastic bag,  surrounded by inane crap filled advertising and product placements, then endorsed in so many ways that you go to sleep singing the jingle and want to go on a rampage. I think that is where this shooting madness comes from. Constant never ending barrages of advertising. Most of it is annoying to me. 

Other people call me laughing or excited and say did you see blah, blah, blah. Either I answer affirmatively and let them talk or I piss  off my friends by saying why do you watch that shit? It just makes me wonder if they have anything to do at all that involves their own life that is important to them.

I could care less and will never care what Paris Hilton, Britney Spears or a single member of the Kardashian family did yesterday. I don't care what they're wearing, do not care what kind of car they drive, do not care where they drink their alcohol or eat their dinners and cannot understand why someone thinks I care who they have sex with or how frequently. I don't want to see their crotches when they get out of a car. Hell I say "Put some panties on you sluts !! Your kids are going to see this someday when their friends ask them about it. Damn, have a little respect for yourself. 

It is insane to me that there are paid photographers following so-called celebrities around in droves making their lives miserable for a society that has an insatiable need to read news about the size of one woman's ass. It makes no sense. 

The television show TMZ makes a living, a very very good living, talking about whether or not Justin Bieber had a hangover or had some run-ins with the law. I just don't understand why anybody including any respectable news outlet pays attention to these guys. Nowadays, if anything happens in the entertainment world and it's being reported, I will guarantee you that all the major networks will now use them as a source. That is what is stunning. A gossip rag using unverified no source based crap &  purveyor of celebrity nonsense is a credible news source for CNN. Unbelievable.

Microsoft has spent the last six months scaring the entire world into believing that windows XP is the second coming of the Antichrist and that if you continue to run Windows XP after April 8 it will melt down your system, start your house on fire, impregnate your dog, turn your car into a YUGO and other assorted bad things. 

The truth is this is a cleverly designed and well executed marketing plan that is designed to sell more surface tablets and more copies of Microsoft Windows 8.1 and that is just about all it is. Guess what? When they end support, what that really means is they will not provide more updates and they will not provide programming updates for free anymore. Everything they have already provided is still there just like it is for Windows 2000 and Windows NT. 

Now I am not advocating that you should stick with old equipment for the sake of sticking with old equipment. That is not my point. My point is that while most of their marketing points were true, in a sense, they were also huge gaping fat ass false holes in that there were a intentionally huge errors  of omission and the media followed right along with them. 

The reason the media followed right along with them is that they know which side their bread is buttered on. Most all of the technical reporters and writers went along with whatever Microsoft said because they wanted to be able to still talk to all of their inside sources next year. They knew that if they went against Microsoft in the reporting, in any way,  that they would not be welcome at all in Redmond. This smacks of the old movie studio system that controlled all the images of their contract stars. It was easy to spot and you could tell that Microsoft controlled the message, no matter who was writing it, just by paying attention to how lockstep everyone at Microsoft was in all of their talking points as they discussed it. Every writer reported virtually the same thing. It was impressive.

See here's what nobody ever said. 

What equipment is Microsoft trying to sell right now? Oh, it's that tablet thing, the Microsoft surface tablet. It is touch screen and is  less than a laptop computer but more than a smart phone thingy. You know the commercial where they have the dancers with the snap on keyboards? 

What operating system does their latest tablet run? Oh coincidentally Windows 8.1 (or to me more accurate it came out with Windows 8). It is the Microsoft answer to the iPad. IPads are all about touch screen. How the world are they going to get you to give up your Microsoft XP equipment and buy a Microsoft produced tablet running the latest Microsoft software unless they somehow convince you that there is a compelling reason to do so? 

One of those sort of "The only way were going to win this war is if we have the help of all the country" kind of things. Sort of like food and gasoline rationing in World War II, this marketing campaign was designed to tell you that the world will end if you continue to use Microsoft Windows XP in any version and in order to prevent that you should get a Microsoft tablet running Windows 8 or some other version. 

So they began a very intricate and multifaceted campaign to get rid of XP in order to help them to increase sales and profitability over last year and the year before by introducing a new version of Microsoft office that is based on a month-to-month subscription, by propping up flagging sales of the Microsoft tablet and by achieving new sales of their latest operating system by replacing older machines running Windows XP. 

All of those were done at the expense of the consumer and with our hearty congratulations for a job well done. Every technical writer in the country is patting them on the back for the great job they did in executing this campaign.

Except wait a minute, most of the automatic teller machines in America are running Windows XP (or some version of it), sometimes an embedded version and I read that 20+ percent of the world is still running Windows XP and millions of users in China are still using Windows XP and millions of users in America are still running Windows XP and that some 30% of the Fortune 1000 is still running windows XP, and a very large portion of small business is running Windows XP. A very large part of our own government still runs older computers and a very large part of our military uses proprietary technology that is built upon the XP framework.

Anyone that is willing to pay for service above and beyond the ability to look up a problem on the Internet and actually talk to somebody at Microsoft or to have a patch created that goes directly to the heart of a problem, they have to pay for it. Microsoft is going to make a projected $800 million on the support strategy alone.Companies are going to pay for this because they can't roll out new hardware right away (cannot spend the money) and they are faced with a fight with their own shareholders to get proprietary software updated and to make the transition to newer machines. 

See they have told us for the last 90 days or so the Microsoft Windows XP is the worst thing that you could possibly do and then they're going to turn around and sell everyone that still runs it in a large organization updates. So the updates will still be made available, however you don't get them, unless you pay for them and at a very hefty rate.  But somehow getting rid of XP is a good thing. 

I do not get any of that either.

This is a test, this is only a test. if this had been anything except opinion you probably would've seen it on Google.

I have a few questions. 

Is anyone aware that there's a problem with the international space Station right now? And if so do you have any idea what it is? Do you know what the new prototype is that NASA has created for their Mars missions? Do you have any idea what has been grown in a lab this week to replace what was not there when someone was born? Have you heard anything about the experimental hepatitis drug that cures 95% of patients, in a recent clinical trial? What new company did Condoleezza Rice go to work for (well as a member of the board anyway). What big change did Face book make this week to privacy settings and to the news feed that has not been widely reported? What 2 large automakers have recalled hundreds of millions of cars in the last month or so? And what for? Who made laptops that catch on fire? Have you seen the video about the self parking car? The one where you actually just get out of the car and go do whatever you're going to do and it goes and finds its own parking space and parks itself? Is juicing really good for you? I wonder why it is that more people do not register as organ donors? What big scary disease is making its way through what country right now? Why are the feds investigating Herbalife? What women's clothing store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plants close every store they have by summer? How much is the initial public offering worth for Tinder? And finally which company is offering dissatisfied employees money to quit them?

The only reason I asked any of those questions because if you were watching the size of someones ass or how often Lindsay Lohan got drunk or were paying attention to something that Oprah had to say you may not had a shot at reading any of the real news. 

I didn't even scratch the surface. I didn't talk about Russia, I did not talk about politics, I did not talk about computers except in a general sense, I didn't really ask anything that had anything to do with business or the economy or unemployment or the politics of any of those situations or the politicians that run them. If I had , you would never have read this rant because that would've went on for days. 

I just don't understand why any of the things before my questions were news. I understand why they would've been in the Inquirer magazine or on the TV show TMZ, because they are gossip rags and it is instant gratification. 

What I don't understand is why it is on the same show labeled news?

I think this is the dumbing down of America. It sickens me.

They, who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

- Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for reading my rant,

BIGMIKE