- Yes, we’ll be reviewing the movie.

No, not tonight- Pylorns still hasn’t seen it because he wussed out on seeing it this weekend.

The short version of the review is- believe the hype. It is that good.

- So, Myspace is getting hit by spammers/spyware douchebags.

See, it seems that people are creating myspace profiles then adding these pictures to them that would make the average unsuspecting IE user think they have to install a Windows update.

This would be great… if I weren’t using Firefox in Leopard. Naturally, I picked up on the ruse.

Fucking spammer douchebags. See, I know- I KNOW- I’ll have to fix this on my dad’s computer at some point since his family can’t figure out not to click on every damn popup that comes along. That’s going to be fun to fix- AGAIN.

Out.

Let’s just say they are more than helpful useless.  With today’s technologies and methods of being efficient.  AT&T is succeeding in throwing up more red tape and paper pushing in an otherwise normal business transaction. (Names changed or blotted out to protect the wicked)

Thank you for your patience! An AT&T sales representative will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with SXXXX, an AT&T sales representative.
SXXXX: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support.  How may I assist you with placing your order today?
Pylorns: I would like to know if I could do the credit check for the iphone online instead of going into a store.
SXXXX: No I am sorry Pylorns that is not available online. You would have to order a phone and plan to see if you are eligible.
Pylorns: SO, going into a store would be doing the same thing then right?
SXXXX: Yes, that is correct.
Pylorns: Ok, if that is the case then would I actually be buying the iphone and not receiving it until Friday?
SXXXX: No, you would have to order another phone to see if you are eligible.
Pylorns: Why would I want to order another phone when I want to buy an iphone. Your website says to do a pre-qualifying credit check
Pylorns: Reduce your wait time on launch day, July 11. Visit the AT&T store where you will purchase iPhone 3G today for a pre-qualifying credit check.
SXXXX: Yes, you would have to do the credit check at an AT&T store.
Pylorns: And by doing that am I buying a phone prior?
SXXXX: No, you would just be checking to see if you are approved.
Pylorns: So you can’t do that online though?
SXXXX: No, I am sorry the only way to do it online is through an order process.
Pylorns: ok thank you for your time.

Nothing much to say after watching this.

Out.

Two days ago, I was set to get a rebate of $800 from the feds. Today, it’s $300.

And the reasoon why is because the previous plan would have left out 30 million Americans.

See, I could have lived with that… until I read that the reason they were left out is because they don’t make enough to even PAY taxes.

…

Are you shittin’ me?

Really? That’s the best our elected officials could come up with? Give me less of my money back so someone who didn’t pay taxes in the first place can get a rebate check on taxes they didn’t pay, and THAT’s supposed to make me want to spend more?!?

Am I really fuckin’ surprised that the Democratic Congress came up with this “compromise?” Or that the Bush Administration thought that throwing in some tax breaks for businesses was just as good?

I want my extra $500 back, damnit!

Out.

FOLLOW-UP: Okay, so CNN is reporting that those of us who, y’know- actually PAY these taxes would get $600. Not bad, but it wouldn’t come until June at the earliest. The $300 is for those who don’t pay inome tax.

Still seems a bit unsavory, but there’s no real point in arguing. To be fair though, shitty reporting was done by other sites.

Out.

That’s right, he’s a douchebag.

And why do I say this?

Well, take a look at this article. Read through, to about two-thirds of the way down.

Then, read the following quote:

“Some guy killed somebody and now I have to deal with it,” he said.

He’s a 23 year old contruction worker. Read the rest of the article, including his behavior in the car with his mommy.

Now, try and tell me he’s not a Grade A, High Lord Douchebag.

Out.

He commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby. Despite everything saying “leave this alone,” he did it.

…

Fuck.

Y’know what, folks? I’m done with him. I voted for him twice, both times eagerly. Hell, I’ve defended those two votes on multiple occasions when I lived in Austin. But after George W. Bush commuted the sentence of Libby yesterday, thus damning my party’s chances of taking either Congress or the presidency in 2008 or any year any time soon for his own political motivations (or more to the point, Cheney’s motivations), I’m done with him.

Bad enough that the man can only speak coherently in public when he’s so tightly scripted that the word “airtight” comes to mind. Bad enough that the only proof he can give that the “war on Terror” is succeeding is by saying “Well, there haven’t been any attacks since 9/11.” Bad enough that the letters “WMD” have had to become a punchline given the joke that is the invasion of Iraq.

Bad enough he politicized 9/11. (That’s the one that really sickened me.)

Now, he’s ruined any chance of the party that I loved, the party of Reagan and Lincoln, to retake the White House in 2008 because he couldn’t keep his political dick in his pants long enough to realize that he was screwing over his own party with it.

It doesn’t matter if Scooter Libby was a fall guy or not. It doesn’t matter, because he became much more than that. He became a symbol of an Administration that has made every political battle personal and ugly, and that has used every bit of influence within its power to retain said power. Bush has managed to find every wrong step in the Scooter Libby affair, and it’s fairly obvious that the short-sightedness of this move took into account nothing involving what would happen beyond the initial “Hey, Scooter’s free! Heh heh.” I’m convinced that sometime in the next few weeks, someone high up will resign from the White House staff for”personal reasons.” I’m expecting that person to be the one man or woman who stood up and said “Hey, this is an incredibly bad idea and this is why.”

Congratulations, Dubya. You’ve managed to completely fuck over the Republican Party, and the American People in one fell swoop. In the process, you’ve alienated a man who had never even once considered abandoning the party he loved until now.

Fuck you.

Out.

Imagine that you’ve just violated the terms of your parole on drunk driving charges. The judge can sentence you to up to a year in jail. The judge is lenient on you, and give you 45 days.

Now, imagine you’re Paris fucking Hilton.

Well, in that case you’re living the dream, since the LA County Jail system sees fit to let your skanky, whorish, vacuous, having-less-brainpower-or-usefulness-than-dog-shit ass out today.

My hatred for this useless mass of flesh known as Paris Hilton is pretty well-known. So, my anger at her release today was tempered merely by the fact that the judge in the case, who ordered that she not be released to an electronic surveillance program, now is having her brought back in front of him for possible return to incarceration. Dude was apparently so pissed off that his orders weren’t followed that he may bring up the sheriff in LA County on Contempt of court charges.

Maybe then, just maybe, justice isn’t completely perverted by this bitch.

Out.

I’ve found it.

I’ve finally found that line of demarcation between Generation X (My generation, natch) and the one that came after me. It’s rather obvious actually, once you see it.

I refer, of course, to MTV’s My Super Sweet 16.

If you haven’t heard of this show, the premise is simple. Take one teenage girl whose parents are filthy rich. Add one spoiled attitude combined with a MASSIVE sense of entitlement, throw in a few temper tantrums about “Daddy not paying enough to get Usher” as well as a couple hundred thousand in cash, mix it together with an MTV crew following around and you have “like, the best Sweet 16 party ever!”

Ask anyone above the age of 20 about this show, and they will rail against its very existence. Never mind that MTV sold out about a decade and a half ago when they stopped showing music videos. THIS is the last straw, damnit!

Now, go to any teenage girl below the age of 18 and you’ll hear quite the opposite. See, this show is everything that their life should be! I mean, like, shouldn’t mommy and daddy like, you know, do this anyway for them? I mean, it’s like… SO not fair that they can’t get two brand new cars for their 16th birthday and that they’re stuck with whatever crappy car they got instead. And God forbid, that it’s USED!!!

(By the by, if you haven’t guessed where I fall in the spectrum then make sure you start wearing diapers since you’re obviously too stupid to keep from shitting yourself.)

Me, I’m hoping that MTV is purposefully editing this to show it for what it really is: a spotlight showing how pathetic it is to be this bunch of spoiled little bitches who never had to want for anything, never had to suffer from mommy and daddy not giving them every little desire from their cold black little useless-as-fuck hearts, and never knew the pain of being (GASP!) middle class. That would be the only excuse for showing this tripe, other than as a warning spotlight for any potential suitor for these wastes of youth.

Oh, and if they’re not? If MTV isn’t intending for the irony to drip from this like water from an bad faucet?

Then that, my friends, is the true line in the sand for Generation X and Generation Y. We’ll just completely give up on hoping MTV can stop completely SUCKING ALL ASS, at that point.

Out.

I’m done with Radio Shack. For good.

Seriously.

After reading this article about their latest firings, I have decided I cannot do business with a company that treats its employees as badly as they did, especially when they have a history of treating customers just as poorly. I avoided Radio Shack previously after I got the third degree every time I went to buy something, and this just takes the cake.

With that said, I offer the amended version of this insult by Kevin Smith…

Fuck Radio Shack. Fuck them up their stupid asses.

Out.

… At least, if I’m reading this right.

So, yeah. Turned out Star Wars Kid (and I know his real name is Ghyslain, but I don’t give a damn and he will forever be known as Star Wars Kid on this site) pussed out after the video of him acting like a spastic, fatass Darth Maul (which HE recorded and left in the camera, mind you) got found by other kids and posted online. He (or, to the point, his family’s money-hungry ambulance chasing scumbag lawyer) sued the families of the kids and is getting a $300,000+ settlement from it.

Now, there are some bright sides to this. First, the settlement is in Canadian money- so, it’s really about $150,000 in US money. Second, do you realize the potential moneymaker from doing dumb shit like this? I mean, hey- I act like an idiot from time to time. If I could somehow “accidentally” record it and “accidentally” leave it in a camera, thus leading to some “mean guy” finding said “accidental” recording, I could sue his ass off and make some serious bank here!

On second thought, no. After all, who would want to follow the example of Star Wars Kid on ANYTHING?

Out.

THOSE BASTARDS.

I almost never buy cd’s because I can use one of the wonderful tools available to find the music I am looking for, IRC for instance was around before napster and will continue to be around long after napster files for bankruptcy. And I’m not saying that I download illegal “pirated” music because thats illegal! That said I was in Barnes and Nobles last night and saw the New Santana CD “all that I am”. Now I love Santana, but I am not a fanatic fan and own every CD, but I feel that when I really enjoy an artist they should get credit where credit is due. Meaning I should buy their cd… Had I looked on Amazon prior to my compulsive purchase I would have seen this:

All That I Am [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]

But I missed that part in browsing through the recent albums, the only thing I was thinking about was about how it’d be nice to have the cd. I listened to it in the car and then this morning brought it into work and low and behold what pops up?

Yep you guessed it. This piece of crap intrusive big brother software. Now, I don’t know what I am going to do, I’ve of course opened the CD so taking it back is out of the question, but the thought of wiping my ass with it and lighting it on fire comes to mind too. Here’s what I want to do. I want to mail $20 to Carlos Santana myself with a picture of me lighting his album on fire. I will explain that while I want to buy his record, I feel that he diserves the whole $20 and not the Record Company SONY BMG that pays him pennies on the dollar. Not only that, I plan on Ripping the CD to microsoft secure WDM format(not to be confused with WMD’s but fairly similar), then burn it to a regular audio cd, then convert back to MP3 since that’s the only way that you can actually get around the whole issue. Then I plan on just formating the test computer I use to do this. Because if you look below, this is what people have found out:

I, too, bought this Santana disc and unknowingly loaded this crap onto my pc. I contacted Sony and went through all of the hoops to remove it, only to find out it sunncomm is responsible for this DRM. The website`s FAQ claims they cannot remove it:

“Is there a way to remove your software from my computer?”

“Please note that MediaMax was designed to manage and safeguard the copyrights of specified artists’ CDs while giving you an enhanced visual and listening experience. It does not interfere with or impact any of the normal operations and/or functions of your computer.”

“Is there a way to remove the DRM files?”

“Please note that because the keys are very essential in controlling access to protected music, Windows Media doesn’t allow anyone to have access to them directly. They are located in a license store file that is handled exclusively by Windows Media Player, in accordance with the way your Windows system is configured. Since those keys are very small and literally do nothing other than help the user play content that would otherwise be inaccessible, Microsoft never envisioned that anyone would have a desire to remove them. As a result, we do not have a way to tell the Windows Media Player to remove a particular key.”

Bullshit. The people who have tested at the machine level have found considerably more.

Russinovich also discovered that the DRM software is poorly written and could cause system crashes — often referred to as a Blue Screen of Death — on Windows. “This flaw highlights my message that rootkits create reliability risks in addition to security risks,” he said.

Now I know that a lot of the artsits are simply at the whims of the record companies. So don’t just blatently copy and distribute without contributing to the artists. But once you’ve paid them their dues, make sure you make SONY BMG pay. Don’t buy any CD that has the DRM software on it. Oh and all of my friends are mysteriously going to get a copy of this CD, not from me of course because music piracy is bad, and I’d never do that. But most likely from SANTA.

Update:
Here is how to get around the autorun feature

When an Autorun-enabled CD-ROM is inserted into a CD-ROM drive, Windows automatically launches the program contained on the disk, whether you want it to or not. Similarly the audio CD player pops up whenever you insert an audio CD and starts playing it immediately. This is cute the first or second time, but soon gets infuriating. What’s worse, is that if you double-click on the your CD icon in My Computer, the autorun fires up, instead of a folder window as you’d expect. This is especially irritating on slower computers, where you have to wait for what seems like an eternity for it to load some ridiculous welcome screen. Here’s how to do it:

Any OS

* If you hold down the Shift key when inserting the CD, the autorun is bypassed. (although it’s not exactly graceful trying to insert a CD while holding down keys on the keyboard.)

Windows XP - Solution 1

* Right-click on the drive icon for your CD drive, CD recorder, or DVD drive, and select Properties.
* Choose the AutoPlay tab, and choose the desired action for each type of CD. For example, choose Music CD, then click Select an action to perform, then select Take no action.

Windows XP - Solution 2

* Obtain and install TweakUI (part of the PowerToys for Windows XP package), and then start TweakUI.
* Expand the My Computer branch, then the AutoPlay branch, and then select Drives.
* Turn off the checkbox next to each drive letter for which you want AutoPlay disabled.

Windows 2000/XP

* Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
* Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom.
* Double-click the Autorun value, and type 0 for its value. (If it’s not there, create it by selecting Edit -> New -> DWORD Value, and typing “Autorun” for its name.)
* You may have to log out and then log back in for this change to take effect.

* Note: With this solution, Windows will no longer be notified when you insert a new CD. To make sure the correct icon and title for the current CD are displayed in My Computer and Explorer, press F5 to refresh the window.

Windows 95/98/Me - Solution 1

* Right-click on the My Computer icon (or whatever you’ve renamed it - hopefully something less cute and more meaningful than “my computer,” such as “Bart”), and select Properties.
* Choose the Device Manager tab.
* Open the CD-ROM branch, and select the entry for your CD-ROM drive.
* Click Properties, and then choose the Settings tab.
* Turn off the Auto insert notification option.
* Click OK, and then OK again. You’ll have to restart Windows for this change to take effect.

* Note: With this solution, Windows will no longer be notified when you insert a new CD. To make sure the correct icon and title for the current CD are displayed in My Computer and Explorer, press F5 to refresh the window.

Windows 95/98/Me - Solution 2

* Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
* Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer.
* Change the Value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun from 95 00 00 00 to BD 00 00 00.
* You might have to restart Windows for this change to take effect.

* Note: With this solution, Windows will no longer be notified when you insert a new CD. To make sure the correct icon and title for the current CD are displayed in My Computer and Explorer, press F5 to refresh the window.

Windows 95/98/Me - Solution 3

* Because of new features in TweakUI, this can now be truly disabled by turning off the Play audio CDs automatically and Play data CDs automatically options in the aptly-named Paranoia tab.
* Also, make sure that the AutoInsertNotification option is turned back on - see Solution #1 above for more information.

* Note: With this solution, Windows will still be notified when you insert a new CD, so you may not want to do this if you use CD Recorder software (the constant polling can interrupt the recording process).

.

But with that said, browsing the Santana CD turns up no actual audio files that can be ripped. Here is a list of other CD’s to avoid buying:
A Static Lullaby - Faso Latido
Acceptance - Phantoms
Ahmed Jamal - The Legendary Okeh and Epic Recordings
Amerie - Touch
Amici Forever - Defined
Anna Nalick - Wreck of the Day
Bob Brookmeyer - Bob Brookmeyer & Friends
Buddy Jewel - Times Like These
Celine Dion - On Ne Change Pas
Charlotte Martin - On Your Shore
Chayanne - Cautivo
Chris Botti - To Love Again
David Gray - Life In Slow Motion
Dexter Gordon - Manhattan Symphonie
Dion - The Essential Dion
Elkland - Golden
Foo Fighters - In Your Honour
George Jones - My Very Special Guests
Goapele - Change It All
Hitch - Soundtrack
Horace Silver - Silver’s Blue
Kasabian - Kasbian
Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Life of Agony - Broken Valley
Los Lonely Boys - TBD
Mario - Turning Point
Mary Mary - Mary Mary
Montgomery Gentry - Something To Be Proud Of: The Best of 1999-2005
My Morning Jacket - Z
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
Neil Diamond - 12 Songs
Nivea - Complicated
Our Lady Peace - Healthy In Paranoid Times
Patty Loveless - Dreamin’ My Dreams
Pete Seeger - The Essential Pete Seeger
Raheem DeVaughn - The Love Experience
Ricky Martin - Life
Santana - All That I Am
Sarah McLachlan - Bloom Remix Album
Shelly Fairchild - Ride
Susie Suh - Susie Suh
Switchfoot - Nothing Is Sound
The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity
The Coral - The Invisible Invasion
The Dead 60s - The Dead 60s
Van Zant - Get Right with the Man
Vivian Green - Vivian

Here is the issue now, Sony is offering an exchange for the CDs that contain the XCP DRM software but not the sunncomm software which is just as bad. So remeber to tell people Sony Suncomm DRM is crap too!

So if you have a Santana CD or any other CD that has Suncomm software on it, and you are annoyed - use this form to tell them!

Heck even if you don’t have a CD just use the form to tell them what you think of them.