Wednesday, June 23, 2004

 
BROKEN HOME.
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In the past week, my air conditioner has broken, my TiVo has stopped recognizing my network adapter and can't get new program information, My caller ID box has stopped working, I can't get my spare computer to connect to the Internet, that back computer has been flooded with spyware that my spyware detecting software isn't finding, I just bought a CD player from the Sharper Image yesterday that won't turn on, my Internet connection on my primary computer has suddenly gotten incredibly slow, and I can't get Photoshop to print anything.

I don't know, maybe that's normal? I'm always hearing technophobes say how nothing ever works for them, and I always believe them, that the problem is them and not the technology. Indeed, practically all these things can be repaired, but I don't know how to repair any of them. And I can fix some things that are easier to fix, enough to the point where things usually work for me, and that's probably why I'm technofile instead of a technophobe. And when nothing will work, all at once, it's very easy for me to turn inward and think the problem must be me. But it's not me; that's crazy. I'm still the same person I was a week ago, and I'm going to fix every single one of these problems or have them fixed by somebody else.

This is The Official Record. 11:40 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2004/06/broken-home.html

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Friday, June 11, 2004

 
KOCK BHITCH RAYPE.
External link: http://www.nextup.com/

I love Textaloud MP3 from nextup.com/. It translates any text into computer generated speech. The newest voice from neospeech, Paul16, is absolutely amazing, and could easily convince most anybody that he or she was listening to a human speaker, under the right circumstances.

Here's my problem with it.

When it comes across a "curse word" it says "beep" instead of the word. It doesn't make a beeping sound-- it says the word "beep," as though that's what the letters F-U-C-K or S-H-I-T spell. Now I'm a grown-up, who doesn't need to be protected from the text files he already has access to. But I also don't need to be sitting up late at night trying to think of curse words that might be beeped out, and then checking them to see if they'll be pronounced or not, and then spelling them out phonetically, so that the things I read or listen to won't be censored. I'm a sensitive guy, and I don't need that beep in my life. Seriously, what the beep, man? Ah. Beep this.

No, seriously, I had to come up with alternate-yet-correct pronunciations for "fuck", "shit", "cum", "ass" and such words. Fair enough, I guess, maybe. But it actually beeped out "cock" (a male chicken), "bitch" (a female dog, and a word I truly, truly hate when used in any other context), and "rape"-- seriously, it said "beep" instead of "rape." These are non-profane, English words. I shouldn't have to think about them, much less think about spelling them "fuhk", "shitt", "come", "ahss", and so on, so that they'll be pronounced correctly, and I won't be treated as a child by my computer.

Beep!

This is The Official Record. 4:00 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2004/06/kock-bhitch-raype.html

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Wednesday, June 02, 2004

 
CONDOLEEZZA RICE IS AN ANTI-WAR PROTESTOR?
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I was watching Inside Politics on CNN today, and Judy Woodruff asked how she could be sure that Iraq had turned a corner (i.e., and are ready to assume sovereignty). In her answer, Condoleezza Rice said "The Iraqis don't like occupation any more than we would like occupation, and it is time for that occupation to end."

She sounds like an anti-war activist to me! Where was that thinking when the US decided to invade, and we were promised that they would greet us with open arms? This really re-enforced my impression of an administration that will say anything and twist any fact to make it support their viewpoint.

This broader statement is my number one complaint about the Bush administration.

For example, when the economy was obviously getting worse, that proved that we need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, in order to help the economy. But when some data showed the economy improving, that proved that we need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, because they are working. When victory in Iraq seemed at first to have been easy and quick with a minimal loss of life, that proved that we did the right thing to invade. But when attacks against Americans increased after the "end of major combat operations", that proved that the enemies of freedom were getting more desperate, and we therefore had done the right thing to invade. Obviously, if we had found proof of WMD before the war, that would have proven their existence and that we needed to invade. But when we didn't, we were assured that the absence of a smoking gun was because you can't see the smoke from guns that are hidden-- in other words, our failure to find WMD before the war proved that they were well-hidden, and that we needed to invade.

It's like that with them, with everything. Like words are just weapons that can be pointed in any direction with identical effect, and are totally disconnected from the truth or even from meaning.

This is The Official Record. 4:49 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2004/06/condoleezza-rice-is-anti-war-protestor.html

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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, THE OFFICIAL RECORD!
External link: http://www.creamy.com/blog/

The second anniversary of this blog, The Official Record, came and went on May 31. It's third year is well underway. Where does the time go?

UPDATE: I don't know what I was thinking. My anniversary is July 31, not May 31. That's probably why it flew by so quickly.

This is The Official Record. 4:47 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2004/06/happy-anniversary-official-record.html

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