May 3, 2006

           Wow, is the craigslist thing exploding. At least at this little part of the world. Where I am the master at picking up on a person’s education and social background by listening to their choice of words, I fully admit to using this talent for evil. I figure it balances things out when dealing with the weak-minded because they waste everybody’s time. I’ve long since known how to pick up on demographics on the Internet. The recent events on craigslist show I may have mastered this skill – these people swear I must know who they are and demand to know my identity. Fat chance.
           Most people are mentally lazy and instead of thinking, adopt the attitudes that make them most comfortably fit into their environment. Thus, knowing either factor lets me quickly and accurately judge the other. For a relevant example, women who work together in an office will all agree that older men should hit on older women, not because they have thought things through (which they have not), but because it is in their own personal and collective best interests to take such a stance regardless of their personal feelings. Continuing, a group of jocks who hang around a male-dominated sports bar will spout off that they are the protectors of the innocence in womanhood. It goes beyond groupthink because it is totally selfish; they secretly hope the group will toe the line, thus increasing their admittedly slim chances.

           Yeah, yeah, I know that none of this is groundbreaking. Maybe so, but merely knowing about it does not compare to what I have done, which is define and refine. It is a matter of degree and I have twenty jocks out there convinced beyond a doubt that I am spying on them right over their shoulders.
           Later – I spent the day cloning and installing various disks to upgrade the shop. The rent is up $500 and my share is $200. I’m installing 80 GB drives on the Internet computers. This is a tedious process, giving me plenty of time to take gouges at the inevitable group of morons on craigslist. They couldn’t have timed their idiotic replies any better for a day I had nothing much else to do but expose their ignorance. This is a continuation of y’day.

           Some of them really do think I know how to trace them out. They are using Still, an anonymous email service. Not one of them suspects I am a single person taking on the whole lot of them at once. These threads evolve and it has come to the issue that I am pointing out to women how every one of their stupid jock pick-up tactics are juvenile. The women, of course, already know this, but the jocks think they don’t and I am giving away their secrets.
           Talk about fun, for I understand this whole jock mentality fifty times better than you suspect. Jocks break the Law of Synergy . They are so wrapped up in this team thing that they forget there is only one captain, and it ain’t them. I’ve often considered teams as a hiding place for those who can’t stand on their own or plain have trouble meeting problems head-on. I know all the existing bullshit about teamwork – I spent 15 years with some of the worst born followers in this Universe, pal.

           Some people not only need to be led, they assume that if there is a crisis and you become leader, they have a right to follow you. Don’t underestimate this factor, especially if your own supplies are limited. Now myself, I don’t mind leading, or babysitting as I often call it, but I expect to be paid. In advance. Thus, I’m not so good in business but great in life experience, if I may point that out myself.
           While I’m philosophizing about male groups, I’m watching the series Band of Brothers. To study men, you can look at either the military or groups of monkeys in the jungle, same thing. I agree with the genius who once wrote that any time in history a group of more than one hundred men got together, it was to form an army bent on conquest. Or something similar. I, on the other hand, will show you another picture of my apple pie from last day. I think I’ll send a copy of these to Cheryl. She won’t last, with me or anyone. She is far too old and opinionated for how good looking she is, and you know women have to eventually pass that test. There is nothing wrong with opinionated, but if you think anyone is going to stick around to listen to it, then something is wrong indeed. So sad.

           Bill, my top student was in for an email lesson today. I see there is a misconception or two about how the thing works. I won’t go there and instead I will give you a couple or three helpful hints. When you forward an email that has attachments, you have to attach the attachments, at least until further notice. When you send and email, always use jpegs, small jpegs. When you received a blocked email, such as something flagged as junkmail, you have to unblock it to see any attachments. Be careful how you do all of the above.
           Also, Cowboy Mike called and says there is a problem with the site. He had his niece check it out and she says that at least two of the pictures are blurry. These are the exact photos Mike took with his own digital camera, and although Justin had to detune them to make them download faster, they are the orginal resolution and visual quality displayed at 72 dpi. You cannot tell them from the megapixel originals. I think it is his niece that is blurry.
           Mind you, Fred had a similar problem with displays showing differently on different browsers. I’ve had trouble getting pictures to fit within the table borders of what I define. Fred got this big time, with his pictures often resizing themselves on different browsers or possibly just different monitors. It usually takes the form of an ordinary picture blowing itself up to huge size so you only see the corner of it without scrolling. Yet exactly such a glitch is to be expected from most people who program computers, where almost every error is service-affecting. That is, when there is a problem it is not something you can live with.

           Mike says the light wood pictures on the opening page are the culprits. Here are copies of those pictures so you can judge for yourself. This are the exact size and quality that I tested on the actual web to make sure they were top notch.
           Take a look and tell me what you think. I’ve noticed this new computer does not do some things very well or have the same default characteristics. The pictures are very hard to embed and keep in one position. They are also hard to group and drop behind the text when moved at all. I’ll have to figure out the settings.
           I spent almost 45 minutes looking for my printer driver. That is about the fifth time this year. Time for a database on the disks. I made up a whole mess of advertising, this one pushing the hobby shop aspect of the business. I need that $200 per month extra and need to take in more work. Expensive work. I’m also pushing that you can come in and try out software before you buy, also $5.00 per hour. That is why I’m hooking up a third, then a fourth computer as soon as I can. The nice units are running me close to $400 each because I’ve been too lazy to network what I have and share the speed I have.