Cobra

Alright, just to clarify...I am NOT an avid MS basher. I use, administer, and fix Windows desktops and servers daily and they do the job for most people.

The only problem I have with Microsoft is that they're gradually starting to creep into more areas of our lives. I remember the days of Windows 98 when you bought a computer, turned it on, and it was ready to rock. Now with Windows XP systems, you set it up, turn it on, activate Windows, activate Office (if you have it), download security patches...oh no, you have to download the Windows "Genuine Advantage" tool before you can do that!

This nifty little ActiveX script was originally intended to check your copy of Windows to make sure it was legit. That's all fine and good, I don't fault them there. Lately, however, it has been discovered that the WGA tool does more than just validate your copy of Windows/Office...

Take this snippet, for example, from Groklaw:

A computer user is suing Microsoft Corp. over the company's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy tool, alleging that it violates laws against spyware.

The suit by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks class-action status for claims that Microsoft didn't adequately disclose details of the tool when it was delivered to PC users through the company's Automatic Update system.

And yet another from ZDNet blogs:

Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is an anti-piracy technology that checks in with Microsoft's servers across the Internet that Microsoft recently pushed out to users of Windows via its Windows Update service. Unless the software is able to validate that you have a legitimate copy of Windows, you may be denied certain important updates according to an entry in Microsoft's online knowledgebase. But now comes new news that WGA is phoning home on a daily basis. Some are likening it to spyware and even Microsoft has acknowledged that it should be doing a better job disclosing what the program is doing and why.

Apparently, Microsoft has slipped in some code to "phone home" on a daily basis. Yet they failed to mention this nifty little feature in the EULA for WGA. And just what does Microsoft get from these "phone calls"?

I don't mind using Windows or Office, but I draw the line when they decide to put a tracker on my personal computer to get who knows what kind of info. Bad Bill, no cookie for you!

Yes, it's the Fourth of July. A time of celebration of our great nation's independece. Food, fireworks, and fun for all ages...indeed.

This date holds another sad significance for me personally. July 4, 2005 was a day like any other, alas it had that holiday feeling to it. At the time, I was still living in North Carolina and had gone to visit a friend of mine. After visiting for a while, I left that afternoon to go back home. I was driving down a curvy, hilly road in the NC foothills and enjoying the particularly nice weather that day. As I rounded a bend and crested a hill, I found myself headed straight for a late 80s Taurus station wagon with nowhere to go. I hit the brakes but it was too late...the lack of ABS in my Focus may have actually lessened the damage of the impact but it was still severe enough to push the front of my car back about 2 feet and deploy the airbags. The other car was spun around and ended up off the opposing side of the road while my car went up an embankment off to the right.

What happened? Well, there was a street off to the right side of my lane which was on the crest of the hill. Rather than pulling up to see if traffic was coming on the other side, the driver cut the corner only to have me find him in mid-turn. I escaped with only an airbag burn to the inside of my left forearm. He was more unfortunate, however. I noticed at least a cut forehead among possibly other things. Thank God for airbags.

So what does this have to do with the title? Well, you see, the elderly drivers seem to hunt me down, this gentleman was no exception. In the, oh, say five accidents I've been involved in since I was 16, all but one involved an elderly person. Not to mention the numerous near-misses I have encountered. My Senior year of high school, I worked hours and hours and saved to buy my first car of my own...a pristine '89 Chevrolet Beretta GT. I had the car for no more than 2 months before an elderly woman failed to stop for a traffic officer outside the high school and took it out. She then had the nerve to say it was my fault...HAH. I also had an old woman lock up her brakes in front of me (to this day I still have no idea why...) and I slid under her bumper. My car was sideswiped by an old man. And then the old man cutting the hill corner.

Maybe I'm one of those "young punk" drivers they seek to get off the road. I am by no means an aggressive driver but I have to be defensive. Who knows what evils those old people will use to take out my current vehicle...

So yeah...for those of you who don't know, I make my living as an IT Consultant. It wasn't exactly my first choice when searching for a job but it's okay most days and pays the bills until I find something else.

So anyway, we deal mostly with small businesses. I like most of our small businesses as they're all pretty laid back in regards to they flex to our busy schedules most of the time and I like that. The ones that don't flex, I send to my boss so he can deal with it. Very nice indeed.

Unfortunately, we also have picked up more "residential" business in the past few weeks. Mostly people who don't know someone 'tech savvy' that have problems with their computers. Some of them have been simple hits...clean up some spyware, remove a few viruses, maybe restore Windows.

Then, there are the users from hell. The ones that you are 'asked' to rearrange your schedule for because they had a paper due yesterday but their computer died 2 weeks ago. One customer in particular has been a large annoyance. His hard drive died, spectacularly I might add, taking some of his college coursework with it. I somehow managed to get into it via Knoppix and copy his files off to a server on our network. I then burned these to a CD for him and checked the files I could with my workstation. He had several documents in Wordperfect that I was unable to test but I warned him that some might have been corrupted...

He has called our office every day for 2 weeks. He first called to say that the CD had viruses (which was bogus, I scanned it while he watched to prove it). He then called to say he could not open any of the files (again bogus, I opened a handful in Word). I asked him to try opening files in Wordperfect and he looked at me like I was asking him to give a donkey a blowjob. He called today and I spent 10 minutes trying to explain to him that the Wordperfect files would not open in Word...I know, I tried it. So I asked another coworker to talk to him. When that coworker contacted him, he said everything was fine.

I'm expecting his call first thing Monday morning to say it's broke again.

Okay, first rant and I'm feeling pretty fucking pissed off about my current living situation so here we go...

I just moved back to Indiana about a year ago. I lived with the parents for a few months until I felt comfortable financially to get a place of my own. That day finally came right before Christmas of last year as I found a place just south of town in the suburbs. Excellent. That's where my housing nightmare began...

My first visit to the complex was flawless. I had picked out the unit I wanted and filled out the application. I was promised a unit by the end of the month as my fiancee was soon going to be out of a place as of the beginning of the year. All fine and good there.

Two days later I drop off the check for the deposit. When I did this, I was informed that they had given my apartment to someone else less than an hour before. I later found out that this person had turned in their application AFTER I had done so and they informed me when I turned in my application that there were "several" units available when there was only ONE. Asshats! "No problem," the manager assured me, "we'll have another one coming open soon." Alrighty then, we'll see if they can redeem themselves.

Sure enough, a few days later they called me. They were evicting a resident and they assured me that they would have the unit ready for move in by the end of the month. They made good on this promise, only they did a rush job on their "repairs." One of the closet handles literally fell off in my hand, the tub drips constantly, the bathroom door didn't close properly...ARGH!#@!#!

I have lived here for a total of 6 months...and they're the worst 6 months I've ever spent in an apartment. The dishwasher leaks (though they still to this day say there's 'nothing wrong'...), the water heater had to be replaced because it leaked EVERYWHERE, we've lost water on two occasions (once it was out for 24 hours...). Not to mention our downstairs neighbors are the WORST NEIGHBORS EVER. They blast their Spanish television during the day, constantly beat on the ceiling and/or walls, and claim that we had a "dog" in here. Our complaints to management about them warrant no more than a "we'll write a letter" response and my request to relocate was flatly denied.

Well, there's an out in our lease. If we're buying a house, we're out. Therefore, I'm buying a house. Ha. Take that, fuckers.