That reminds me of when I tried to take a few years off without working in my 20s. It was a lonely existence since I lived in a rural community (not by choice) and the only others around were the unemployed and the unemployable. I went back to work just to have something to do, but I’ve always been able to live without what others call a steady job. The crowd I thought I’d be hanging out with had rich parents and they were backpacking around Europe. That is something I could not afford until I was too old to do it and did have a steady job—at the phone company.I’ve got the current rock and country hit tunes downloaded and converted. They are suitable for bingo, although “Knee Deep” is okay due to the presence of Jimmy Buffett. The rest, well, it’s like listening to Michael Jackson. You’re not sure he’s all there, maybe they should dance or sing but not both, the music lacks edge, and although it is listenable, you don’t mind when it ends. There, I just defined Jackson’s entire career. Ta-dah. Of these top 20 tunes, 18 are slow music, generally unsuitable for my stage act. I wonder if those guys know how dumb them cowboy hats are going to look in fifty years?
Yeah, the dickheads at MicroSoft got me again. Their 2007 system is so incompatible with my XP files that I will have months of headaches ahead of me with their crap. The spreadsheets won’t save right, the word processor default has some weird Calibri font I can’t get rid of and worst, opening and closing files has become a three step process. No matter how many times I reset the default, it always goes back to the crap on its own. And no, I don’t have time to relearn the whole thing from the ground up. The least the bastards could have done is include a single button that made everything XP compatible.
Why did I change? Because MicroSoft did the same screw job in the rest of America. If I didn’t change, my files would not work on the library computer and other people could not open my attachments. I can understand the logic of MicroSoft, that they have to make these changes because secretaries are getting “stupider” every year and now require help capitalizing the first word of sentences. There is no default to indent the first sentence of paragraphs (you have to drag a marker) and their Thesaurus only works in the simple singular present. The sooner Redmond goes under, the happier the world will be. I’d switch to Open Office if it was just an eentsy bit more popular.
What the world needs most, mind you, is an adjustable search engine. Since the scumbags will never obey any rules, it is not enough to design an ordinary search engine for a browser. You need a search engine that lets users “vote” on the effectiveness of searches. Thus, when I look up “verbal blunders” I can vote down all the sites that instead try to sell me a book on the subject. When a site advertises “free” but then demands a membership, I can cast my vote against them. Over a short time, the search engine would reach the critical mass where those who didn’t comply would be weeded out.
But the real genius of such a system would be the way the votes are controlled. Like the American Federal government, we would only let people vote on alternatives of our own choosing, that is, they will only think they are voting. By never asking the big questions, we bog them down on the small issues and maintain overall control of the searches by channelizing their responses. Thus, no matter how much the majority may want results that sell books, they would now be the ones who have to take extra measures to get them. The nice part is that the more outraged they get, the better the system works.
Allow me to bloviate. China is overtaking the USA as the top nation in almost every category. It is a sad thing and I’ll tell you why I think so. This is only my opinion. What did China ever accomplish in the last 3,000 years? They invented paper, firecrackers and famine, whoop-de-doo. What did America do in the last 100 years? We popularized the car, ended two World Wars, invented the airplane, invented the computer, fed half the world, explored every science known, put a man on the moon and the list goes on practically forever. This world does not need another new China. It needs a new America.
There are now a quarter million apps for the iPhone. The overall sales of that product have put Apple back in the running. The standing joke amoung oldsters is to intentionally call an iPod a tripod. Like the laptops, I question how much real work anybody is getting done on these things, I suspect they have become a status symbol. Um, guys, I had a laptop and a cell phone back in 1984 and you same people used to stare at me in disbelief. You are only 25 years behind me, and now I’ll tell you the naked truth: 99% of your apps are useless.
