So I'm watching Insomniac With David Attel on TV again, and they flash these cool underpants that say "I love to fart" on them.
Well, my websurfing radar went off at that point, and I just had to see where that would lead me.
Well, it turns out that the "related newsgroups" feature of deja is more truthful that one could be lead to believe.
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More fun with deja...
Ugggh... Bell Canada actually has popup advertising on their site. Not for other companies, mind you, just for their own stuff. Popups that ask you to buy cell phones, participate in some sort of sweepstakes, etc, etc.
Well, due to incompetent web design, their popups are pop OVERs. They actually cover up forms when you need to type things. Some of them pop up after about 5 seconds, thereby screwing up form input. So I thought I'd be nice and ask the webmaster about it...
Here's my submission (they don't give out email addresses on their site... I assume because they don't understand how to do spam filtering... probably too hard for them):
I just noticed all the new popups on your site. They are very annoying, distracting, and some of them make it impossible to fill in various fields on your forms (such as the title-less popup that covers the 'enter your phone number' section with the deceptively hard to find 'close' button when I'm looking to see if DSL is available in my region). I just wanted to let you know so you could improve your site by removing the popups.
I thought this was pretty reasonable, although sometimes I do come off a little forward.
Their reply (I've stripped it a bit for copyright reasons, and because they had a lot of marketing-speak in it) [my comments are in italics]:
I apologize that the pop-up messages on the Bell Canada site are a
source of annoyance to you. I can certainly understand your point of
view if you are not interested in this type of informational service.
How is it informational if all the info is already on your site?
The use of pop-up boxes is a common marketing practice on the world
wide web and one that Bell will continue to utilize, as the majority
of our customers want to be kept informed of new developments and
service offerings.
Uhhh, the use of popups are a way for free websites to make money. I didn't realise bell was a charity. If you need money so bad, why don't you just increase your prices? (on second thought, forget all about that) How many customers actually care about entering some really lame-ass sweepstakes that could win me about $5? ZERO.
A bunch of suggestions to use popup blockers (!!) removed. For a laugh, here's the link they provided:
http://www.4degreez.com/popupsmustdie/index.htm
I haven't replied to the message. Any suggestions?
So many messages, so little time to read them all...
Well, due to slashbugs, I can't calculate my karma anymore (slashdot only stores 50 messages [give or take] at a time). Basically, though, as usual, Karma: Excellent. I'm happy everyone finds my comments so insightful!
I really wish this was something that showed up when people clicked user info. Maybe in the future!
Update: I have seen people wonder why it is that I seem to dislike environmentalists so much.
It's been my experience, unfortunately, that the majority of environmentalists have this type of attitude. They like to tell people like me I'm evil, bad, horrible, whatever.
Well, GUESS WHAT... You don't attract flies with vinegar, do you? And then people like greenpeace wonder exactly why it is that they can't get through to "big oil". Let me give you a hint: It has a lot to do with calling them "big oil". Sort of like how you don't get friends with people at work by calling them "fatass", "loser", etc...
Now, don't get me wrong. I like a good environmental solution as much as the next guy. My problem is that these same environmentalists that fly off the handle at every turn are _exactly_ the same ones trying to get new laws passed to restrict what you and I can do. And again, you get our backs up.
Don't get me wrong. I don't go out burning forests, or throwing away perfectly recyclable things. But too many environmentalists use laws to push what is actually just a hippie agenda. Case in point: The town of Guelph, Ontario, Canada has to pick through their trash and separate it into "Wet" and "Dry" trash so that it can be "better" recycled/composted. UGH! I'd love to see some numbers on it, but I doubt it's the great success it was supposed to be since it's never made it into any other local towns. Just another hippie using the environment as a pawn in their agenda.
People like that make me sick.
Let's get with it and come up with solutions that are viable and useful. And let's not throw about facts and figures in an attempt to decapitate each other's arguments.
Enough for now...
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Nice to see how environmentalists use their power to quash the ideas of the "rebel" forces.
Please, mod me down some more! For each -1 mod point I will buy another 10 ft. of vinyl siding for my shed. And I'll treat myself to a rainforest destroying Big Mac (I'll ask for whichever container has the most styrofoam).
Mmmm... this could get tasty. And it could get the shed finished in record time!
I proudly wear my anti-stupid environmentalism badge as a personal honour. You should too. Nothing is more wasteful than inane environmentalism.
And I promise my kids (whenever that happens) will see and enjoy the circus bros. yearly. They deserve at least that much education.
At least this year idiot environmentalists didn't get an extra million turkeys killed by poisoning a gross. It might take decades, but eventually stupid people learn. I guess that's why it took so long to go from global cooling to global warming!
Update: Well, it's all over now. Everything has been dealt with, and life goes on. I want to thank everyone who posted here with support and suggestions, and I now consider this matter a closed case
Again, thanks for noticing and everyone on slashdot: Don't let the bastards get ya down!
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Well, it had to happen sometime, I suppose.
I don't have a clue what he's talking about, though. What the hell is Rose-Hulman, and where did he get the idea that I'm going to a US college?
Interesting that someone would make it their job to anonymously stalk me. I just want to take this moment to let them know I'm not at all interested in having a relationship with them, not matter what their personal feelings are for me.
I truly hope this isn't some form of jealous retribution from someone whom I may have earlier surpassed in number of comments.
Just FYI, it's been my experience that most posters on slashdot are Men. I should let you know right now I'm not gay and have no interest in pursuing a gay relationship with you. And if you're a woman, and only if you're hot, I might go for a one night stand. But realize I won't pursue a lasting relationship with a stalker -- it's too dangerous.
I do appreciate the custom crafted troll, though. Thanks for the thought.
Who says you can't buy love?
[And I always thought stuff like that was an in joke that some cartoonist started up...]
So why this journal entry?
I want to discuss something that has troubled me for some time.
For better or for worse, mothers and fathers are removing themselves from their maternal and paternal roles. It began with the grandmother taking care of the kids centuries ago when the parents weren't around. It progressed to be the uncle or aunt. Soon after cousins are taking on the duty of parent.
It doesn't take long before the oldest child becomes a filial parent.
Then we enter the age of the babysitter. Have a friend come over and look after your kids for a while as a parent.
Next the baby sitter becomes a stranger called from a phone book.
Later the baby sitter is removed from the equation and instead laws are made to "protect" kids from what their parents won't.
And now we have software like Cyber-Sitter and MSN 8 to complete the transfer of parental duty from mother and father to a faceless corporation.
How long until the transfer of duty is complete and we finally become the Brave New (corporate) World many english teachers have feared?
I think it's about time that parents got down to some good old fashioned parenting. Your child should come home to a house filled with a happy mother or father always. That's your duty. If you can't fufill your duty it's your job to find a way to fix the problem.
Make it happen, parents. Make a difference in the world. Do your job at home as well as you do at work.
Just my 2 cents. And no, I'm not a parent, so don't expect me to understand the difficulty of juggling both jobs. I just see it as a black and white case of be a parent, or don't.
I can't believe it. I've heard the name before, but never bothered till I got bored tonight watching The Screensavers for the umpteeth time (hey, if it's good enough for the creator of DeCSS, it's gotta be good enough for me! But only on C-Band, none of that CanCon analog-rights-management-Max-Headroom-and-The-Thunderbirds-are-evil crap for me). I mean, it's has to be another cheezy site with nothing but crap music on it, right? emusic.com has turned me from the usenet junkie I was to the legal downloader I am now.
Best $9.99/month I've ever paid. Jondi & Spesh, Touchtone Terrorists, Jerky Boys, 808 State, Theivery Corporation, the list goes on.
I'm so glad these guys exist. DJing just got easier. Now, if only they had a way to list by artist's homeland, it'd be my CanCon special weapon.
Go there and try their free subscription (requires credit card). I think you'll find that 50 songs doesn't last.
Now, if only everything was 192kbps, I'd be happy. But even at 128kbps, the quality is quite good -- certainly good enough for my radio show.
emusic, count me as a happy customer.
--- Update [Oct 25, 2002]
emusic just passed my quality tests. No albums from William Shatner or Lenord Nimoy. Excellent.
Oh MAN this pisses me off.
My only windows machine gets infected with this when-u.com spyware crap and even Ad-Aware can't take care of it.
Their text file LIES -- they say it isn't spyware, well, shit, if it walks like a chicken, acts like a chicked, looks like a chicken, it must be so.
If you've been infected by when-u.com's crapware, try the following steps (I'll update if this works once I've rebooted):
Remove this key using regedit:
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\WhenUSave registry key.
Stop "save.exe" process.
Delete "C:\progra~1\save" directory.
Just one more time, when-u.com, FOAD. I will firewall you permanently for the rest of my life on any router/system I ever touch. I hope you go out of business and they DON'T let you chapter 11. I hope the creditors send the repo men to steal your house. In short, piss off forever. I'm now looking for the names of whoever owns your company, because you'll NEVER get a job anywhere I work. Oh, and by the way Sears (any any other company I got ads from with this shitware) you're on my "don't buy from these companies for Christmas presents for the rest of my life" list.
Any why the hell does it take 20MB of memory to stream ads at me? I've seen trained monkeys program better than you guys.
I hope you're happy.
...other than slashdot screwing up when I post to my journal.
This USB cable is advertised with these features, which are lies and deceptions:
"...the Belkin Pro Series cable features molded-strain relief, double- shielding, and 24K gold-plated contacts for maximum conductivity and error-free data transmission."
No, gold makes it less conductive than the copper cable inside. Period. Staples, you can't change physics, sorry.
"It is constructed of the highest quality wire and has 20-guage power conductors for superior readability."
You read data from USB power lines now? This is just plain idiotic.
Have you seen any stupid product advertising lately? Discuss away!
Have a read of this metafilter thread. Slashdot is accused of banning user accounts.
Is it 100% true? I had always hoped not, considering the effort the editors appear to go to to keep the trolls on the site, but out of sight.
Reminder to self: Use "to go to to" next time I write an accounting report.
What a bummer. I just busted one of the antennas on my WiFi AP. Anyone have any simple OmniDirectional 2.4Ghz designs they'd like to share with me? I really don't want anything particularly high-gain -- the "crappy" antenna on the AP did the job just fine, and I have no burning need to use it outside the house. Replacing the antenna with something else should be easy -- the AP uses (what appears to be) a TNC connector.
If you do have anything you can suggest, please post it. I don't mind some soldering/etc. but my skills in the Ham radio department are seriously lacking, just FYI.
Thanks!
Is it safe to cook hot dogs through electrocution? If so, is it safe to eat them? If not, any suggestions to make it safe?
Hungry people at workplaces banning microwaves want to know...
The nice people at FutureShop swapped it for a decent Nokia 8390 which was priced the same.
I guess my extended warranty had something to do with this.
But either way, I guess I'll have to eat all those horrible things I said about FutureShop in the past (either that or simply state that they're a fine company as long as you avoid buying from the website or using their credit cards).
Thanks guys! If you're looking for a company that does support it's products, I guess this store isn't a bad place to start.
Software production is assumed to be a line function, but it is run like a staff function. -- Paul Licker
