January 7, 2008 at 4:53 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: internet, software, technology
So, I’m testing out using Windows Live Writer to see how it works as a blogging software. I like Zoundry to a degree, but it is a bit of a pain with some things. I like some of WLW’s features, and it could very well become my blog software of choice.
We’ll see.
–Jer
Now Playing: Black Eyed Peas – Monkey Business – Don’t Phunk With My Heart
January 5, 2008 at 12:39 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Amazon.com, books, internet, wtf
So, in my email this morning (checked from the wife’s computer, ’cause mine’s still net-hosed), from our good friends at Amazon.com…
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by White Wolf have also purchased From Your Heart to Theirs: Delivering an Effective Sermon – Participant’s Guide by Tony Franks. For this reason, you might like to know that From Your Heart to Theirs: Delivering an Effective Sermon – Participant’s Guide will be released on January 15, 2008. You can pre-order yours by following the link below.
Um. White Wolf (i.e. the World of Darkness roleplaying games) and ministering? Yeeeaaah. Just further proof that Amazon’s little recommendation algorithm need a little work. I’m sure that those who rated or purchased the above book rating White Wolf stuff…just not very highly.
I am amused.
–Jer
January 3, 2008 at 4:17 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: internet, wtf
So, I woke up this morning and couldn’t connect to the Internet (the wife’s computer, which is connected to the same cable modem via a Switch, is fine). Comcast couldn’t help, because it’s not their issue, it’s something with my computer. I spent three hours on the phone with HP, and luckily, my computer is still under warranty (for 6 days! How’s that for timing!), so even assuming my PC Recovery that’s going on while I’m at home doesn’t help, my disconnection should be relatively short. Still…frustrating as all sorts of fuck.
Yup. This year’s starting out just like last year. B-E-A-utiful.
–Jer
December 20, 2007 at 10:23 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: internet, technology
For those that don’t know, my IM preference of choice is GoogleTalk (and for those interested, my GTalk ID is ravynfeatheratgmaildotcom…take that, potential spammers!). I love the fact that it stores my conversations server-side, so that whether I’m using it at home or at work, I always have access to my archives. It may have a couple minor annoyances, but all in all, it’s a sweet little program.
And it just got a little sweeter.
Yesterday, Google unveiled translation bots for Google Talk. Essentially, they’re bots (automated software that acts as a contact) that will spit out whatever you type in, in the language it’s programmed for. To give you an example of what I mean, here is a screenshot of a conversation I had with it…
Glad you agree, my good friend en2ja!
To find out more, click the link above (or the one here).
Google keeps impressing me. I’m pleased.
–Jer
December 14, 2007 at 3:48 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: internet, music, ramblings, work
So, as part of supporting our online protection software for my company’s broadband partners, we often get logfiles that include various bits of information about the user’s computer. One of the key elements is the system.nfo file, which shows several crucial pieces of system information. (If you’re curious what I’m talking about, you can see your own system.nfo file by going Start –>Accessories–>System Tools–>System Information) One of these things is the user’s directories.
So, I’m looking through the directories of a particular user to see if they have anything that might interfere with our installation, such as other anti-virus software, firewalls, or a host of other problems–A/V and Firewalls are notoriously picky about this–and I find their iTunes folders.
Brooke Hogan
Paris Hilton
NOW 26
Hannah Montana 2
High School Musical
Kanye West
Among others.
So, I suppose it would be wrong to include this in the troubleshooting steps…right?
“Also, please advise the user that per the logfiles they sent, their music tastes are defective. Advise the user of the following artists….”
I’m just doing a public service, really!
–Jer
November 20, 2007 at 11:40 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: internet, news, rant, wtf
So, last week, I posted about the suicide death of Megan Meiers as a result of a sick, sadistic, twisted act from the parents of an ex-friend down the street. The parents in question had not been named. That’s changed…and more sick details have come out as a result of the Smoking Gun’s publishing of the police report about it.
Most of it is sick enough, but allow me to quote the worst of it (bolding, italicizing, and underlining is mine, for emphasis):
In reference to their daughter’s suicide, Drew explained she wanted to “just tell them” what she did to contribute to the Meier’s daughter’s suicide. She instigated and monitored a “my space” account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier’s daughter. Drew said she, with the help of temporary employee named “Ashley”, constructed a profile of “good looking” male on “my space” in order to “find out what Megan (Meier’s daughter) was saying on-line” about her daughter. Drew explained the communication between the fake male profile was aimed at gaining Megan’s confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people. Drew stated she, her daughter, and Ashley all typed, read, and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan. Drew went on to say, the communication became “sexual for a thirteen year old.” Drew stated she continued the fake male profile despite this development.
Right there. See that? Right there. An adult created a fake identity, the communication with a thirteen-year-old became sexual, and she continued. That’s a motherfucking crime. Or if not…if SOMEHOW, this isn’t, it fuckin’ should be.
The parents are named in this report. Lori and Curt Drew. Well, congratulations, Lori and Curt Drew. You’ve just been named the winners of the First Annual “Ravyn’s Douchebags of the Year” Award. I’d make a statue, but unfortunately, the Ebola virus can’t be made into a plaque.
Since then, according to reports, the Drews have been constantly harrassed. They’ve been targeted with vandalism, prank phone calls, paintball attacks and a “prank” call to the local police which led to “as many as 15 deputies [drawing] weapons and [charging] the home.” GOOD. You drove a thirteen-year-old to suicide, you sick fucks. You deserve a little harassment.
I could post their contact information, but frankly, that’s beneath me…and if you wanna find it, just look for “Megan Meier” on the internet, it’s been published ALL over. I won’t harass them, but I would hardly blame anyone who did.
Meanwhile, there’s legislation being considered to fit this into a crime. Apparently, it doesn’t fit the 2006 federal statute against internet harassment because most of the harassing messages were MySpace bulletins, not direct messages. Yeah…THAT’S a huge distinction.
Again. People fucking suck.
–Jer
November 16, 2007 at 1:08 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: hugs, images, internet
Yes, yes. I has hugs now…even if I did have to resize the counter so it didn’t crowd into my actual blogs. Whee!
In other news…
I can TOTALLY relate.
That is all.
–Jer
November 13, 2007 at 5:51 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: internet, news, rant, wtf
Wow…okay, so this is the week of rants, it seems…but I don’t think I know ANYTHING that can top this one. This is, quite possibly, the most sick, disgusting, unbelievable story I’ve ever heard.
Which story, you ask? This would be the story where (get this)…adults taunted a teenage fucking girl in their neighborhood into SUICIDE on MySpace!!!!
Yes, I’m really serious. I wish to the GODS I wasn’t, but I’m 100% fucking serious about this. It’s not a fake…two people actually did this. For those who don’t want to read the entire story, here’s a selected synopsis:
Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend.Yes, he’s cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. “Do you know who he is?”
“No, but look at him! He’s hot! Please, please, can I add him?”
Mom said yes. And for six weeks Megan and Josh – under Tina’s watchful eye – became acquainted in the virtual world of MySpace. …
Megan went to her room and Ron [her dad] went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner.
Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence.
“I had this God-awful feeling and I ran up into her room and she had hung herself in the closet.”
Megan Taylor Meier died the next day, three weeks before her 14th birthday.
Later that day, Ron opened his daughter’s MySpace account and viewed what he believes to be the final message Megan saw – one the FBI would be unable to retrieve from the hard drive.
It was from Josh and, according to Ron’s best recollection, it said, “Everybody in O’Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you.” …
The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed.
She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan’s former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out.
Are you FUCKING kidding me? What the fuck is wrong with people??? Your daughter isn’t friends with someone anymore, so you manipulate yourself into their confidence under false fucking pretenses, and then torment them like a sadistic kid with a gods-damned magnifying glass?
There’s no criminal charges to be filed, apparently, because there is no crime to apply to this. There fucking ought to be. Those parents should be facing SOME kind of very, VERY serious criminal charges. Instead, Megan’s family suffers, the father has a misdemeanor charge of property damage, and the trauma has split them apart…they’re getting divorced.
This is the fucked-up criminal justice system we live under. If this couple (who frankly, should have damn well been named, they deserve NO protection WHATSOEVER for what they’ve done) had done these exact same things for another purpose, they’d have been talking to Chris Hanson on Dateline: NBC right now. But because they sought to inflict mental and emotional trauma, not sexual, it’s all okay in the eyes of the law.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is seriously–VERY seriously–wrong.
To the sick, deranged individuals who not only did this, but have professed to not feeling all that guilty? Go to hell. There’s something very wrong with you two, and you should be in jail right now. A teenage girl is dead, because of you. Make no mistake…you’re murderers. And you’re going to have to deal with that the rest of your gods-damned lives.
Christ, I hate people. Absolutely fucking hate them.*
–Jer
*This statement doesn’t apply to you good people out there. Fret not.
October 25, 2007 at 2:31 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: friends, internet, ramblings, rpg
So…one may notice, if one has been paying attention, that I’ve been quiet here for a while. And apparently, according to my blog stats, a few people at least have been paying attention…it’s weird, it’s like people like to see what I have to say or something. Who’da thunk it? 
So, there are myriad reasons for my recent silence; changing work schedule (and subsequent craziness at work) is a contributing factor. The big one, though, is the fact that I’ve been putting an end to a long, long chapter of my life; my ST’ing at World of Darkness: New York City. For those unaware of the World of Darkness, it’s a roleplaying game set in the modern world, where you play vampires, or werewolves, or modern mages, or so on. And it’s been my online hobby and home for no less then eight years. Over 25% of my life has been spent playing characters and running storylines for players there.
Recently, though (okay, not SO recently; more like over the past year), I’ve lost the fire for NYC. There’s a host of reasons that I could get into, but what it came down to is that I was burned out on the setting, and it’s no longer become the place for me. And so, with a somewhat heavy heart, Monday is my last day as a member of the site. I have so many emotions about leaving the place that’s been my online home; mostly, though, it boils down to one thing: relief. I’m relieved that I’m no longer tethered to the place, and my creativity is no longer stunted by the burnout I feel. I feel free to express myself again, and that is, in itself, an amazing feel. And I almost feel guilty for that, somehow.
I know this may not seem like a big thing to most, and is kind of weird that I have so much invested in something like this. It’s kind of hard to explain. Online RP is, to me, like an interactive sort of writing, a collaborative fiction (just with rules and occasional die-rolling). Writing has always been a passion for me, as well as acting; I believe acting is why I got into RP in the first place, way back when I was in grade school. The idea of getting into a character, reacting in-character to the things that the Storyteller/Gamemaster/whatever you want to call the person who runs the game throws at you is like an exercise in improvisational acting for me.
Regardless, that part of my life, at least on NYC, has come to a close. And I reflect back at everything, all the time spent there, and I remember it fondly. It’s funny, how sometimes, even the bad times seem like good ones (and believe me, there were some very bad times). The sepia tint of an aged photograph covers the memories and gives them a nostalgic feel. It’s almost enough to make me want to stay.
Almost. But not enough.
I’m self-aware to know that it’s not the place for me. Not anymore. I will continue to enjoy online RP, I am positive; it will not be at NYC though, I think, for a long time. And that crossroads…is interesting to me.
On the plus side…hey, I have more free time, now. So expect more ramblings from me.
I leave you with a quote from my new favorite active show, Heroes. It has no relevance to this post, I just love the quote.
“We dream of hope. We dream of change. Of fire, of love, of death… And then it happens – the dream becomes real.”
–Mohinder Suresh, Heroes 1.23: How to Stop an Exploding Man
No one ever said I had to make sense, after all.
–Jer
September 14, 2007 at 12:21 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: images, internet, ramblings, rant, work
Okay…so I create this post (the first real post I’ve made in a while) due to a bit of a rant. It’s a work-related rant, so it’s internet and technology ranting (and user idiocy), so you’ll have to excuse me a bit.
Seriously. Why do some people believe they can just leave all their messages in their web-based email’s inbox? I’m not talking about when you have a personal email account, you have 300 messages from over the last year or two, and you leave them there. That’s…you know. SANE. What I’m talking about here is people who, like this customer of ours, don’t understand the purpose of a little thing I like to call “E-Mail Maintenance.”
Just for those of you who don’t know (if there’s any such out there who read my blog who don’t)…E-Mail accounts don’t just exist in the ether. There isn’t some mythical God of Email, sort of a Cyber-Hermes (wow, I know someone’s going to mistype a web search and find this post instead of either Transgender Sex Role-Play or STD-Related Sex Role-Play) who delivers your email from the time you hit “Send” straight to the person on the other end. E-Mail is stored at your ISP (Internet Service Provider)’s home servers until such time as you delete it out of your account. A server is a computer, much like a home computer, only much bigger. They look like this:
Don’t look quite like what you’ve got at home, does it? If it does, I’m jealous.
Anyway, these servers have a finite (huge, but finite) amount of disk space to them. Because of that, limits have to be imposed. Most people would realize that an email box has a limit to it, right?
Well, here’s a hint, idiot customer of the day….IT’S NOT 70,000 FUCKING EMAILS!
Or, more specifically, it’s not 65,535 emails, for a total of 42 megabytes of email. In ~ONE~ folder. Shockingly, the server is coming up with an error. And this person has the temerity to refuse to move their e-mails from their Inbox.
My question is this…why, in the name of Hades’s Enlarged Sensitive Third Nipple, would you WANT to keep that many emails (dating from September of ‘06 to now…yes, almost 70,000 emails in one year) in one folder? Doesn’t anyone have any idea of organization? What, do they say “Oh, I need to find that one e-mail from February 23rd of this year” and then don’t MIND going through page after page after page (Yahoo! limits the number of mail showing on one page to a maximum of 100 for page-loading purposes) after page after page after page after page after…well, you get the idea…to find it? What’s wrong with moving stuff to another fucking folder?
Oh, that’s right. You’re LAZY. Thaaat makes sense now. You’re lazy and stupid. Bad, bad user. No Twinkie for you. You only get Ding-Dongs. Because Ding-Dongs suck. And keep your grubby little hands the HELL off of my Zingers. Bad users don’t get Zingers. Mmmm, Zingers…
Sorry, had a moment.
Oh, and of course…guess what all those e-mails were? You guessed it right…porn. Lots…and LOTS…of porn. At least I didn’t have to test-read them to make sure they worked.
New Rule, Folks: Your I.Q. must be this tall to ride the internet. No excuses.
Fucking people.
–Jer
