Archive for category Uncategorized
Why I Hate Apple, Reason 1: itunes 8
Posted by Mike in Uncategorized on April 2, 2009
About a month ago I was working on my PC at home and decided that I wanted to listen to music. Normally, I use itunes for listening to music, so naturally I got online and downloaded the install file. First problem, you either download “itunes + quicktime” or nothing. Lame, but whatever. Quicktime never hurt me, I’d just like to have the option. So I start installing it. I notice it’s really big, but continue anyway. One progress bar after another fills up. I’m reminded of the scene in Office Space when Peter is trying to log out of his computer. Each progress bar says something like “installing files” or “configuring blah blah.” Seemed like an awful lot of steps for 2 programs. Finally it finishes installing and I add some music and enjoy a little Easy Star Allstars as I work.
After the work comes the play. I decide I want to play Red Alert 3, so I insert it into one of my DVD drives. Nothing. I open up “My Computer” and my DVD drives are gone! I spend the next 2 hours or so messing with settings and looking for answers online. I finally discover the problem: itunes8. That’s right, itunes made my disk drives vanish (at least virtually. Luckily they were still in my tower when I checked.)
So I uninstall itunes and voila, my Disk drives are back. Solution: don’t use itunes. Well, one of the reasons I use itunes over other media players is that I love how it keeps my music folder organized. So I decide to give it another go. Same thing. So I recruit Google to find a solution. As it turns out, itunes 8 is full of extras that you had no idea it was installing. You can never trust such programs to uninstall everything after you’ve installed it. Here is a link to images of the multiple progress bars. I don’t really want to go through my computer searching for these programs. If only Windows had the coveted “Time Machine” that Apple enthusiasts rant and rave about. Oh wait. It does. It’s called System Restore and has been around since the early days of Windows. Restore to before the itunes 8 install. Problem solved.
Unfortunately, I have an ipod. ipod – itunes = brick. Luckily other programs will support it, such as winamp, just not as well. And heaven forbid I should ever have to restore it (which I will, as it crashes often). I guess I’ll just go find an old itunes 7 installer somewhere in the dusty cellar of the internet.
University of Utah Utes are National Champions
Posted by Mike in Uncategorized on January 12, 2009
University of Utah | National Champions
Yes! They did it! Utah finished the season the only undefeated team in the nation, and are therefore considered the National Champions!
“Not so.” says the BCS. Over the last couple of weeks, I have spent many an hour pouring over articles written by sports professionals about Utah’s place in the NCAA Football National Standings. In case you weren’t aware of what the issue is, I’ll lay it all out here.
Utah finished the year the ONLY NCAA football program undefeated. Yes, the only one. 13-0. Yet, they were ranked #2 in the AP Top 25 and #4 in the USA today poll at the end of the bowl season. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only point that matters. In any other sport, the last undefeated team standing is the champion. No questions. But not in the Wacky World of the Bowl Championship Series.
The Utes also dominated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, shocking the college football world. As the first quarter came to an end, the overrated Alabama Crimson Tide trailed the Utes 21 – 0. After that the game was a little closer, but Utah never lost the lead, sacking their quarterback (John Parker Wilson) 8 times.
Now to the purpose of this thread. There have been a lot of really lame excuses out there as to why the Utes do NOT deserve to be National Champions. Here are my rebuttals:
Let me start things off by saying that this is an argument for who deserves to be National Champion, not for who the best program is. That argument would likely be among the last words spoken as the human race comes to an end some hundreds of thousands of years in the future. Even after the Super Bowl, you can still argue that the victor is not as good as other teams, but nobody disputes their right to their title. That said, let’s get started:
Lame Excuse #1 “They had a weak schedule.”
This is the token response from any BCS supporter. These babbling idiots say this without even looking at the schedule. During their season, Utah beat 4 teams that finished the season in the top 25 (BYU, TCU, Oregon State, and Alabama.) Utah dominated two of those four games. Is that not good enough?
Lame Excuse #2 “Alabama had a heart-breaking loss to Florida and didn’t want to be in the Sugar Bowl.” (aka “Their heart was in Miami”)
So what? So the Utes can’t be credited with their fabulous win because the other team wasn’t ready?? How does that make sense? A win is a win. The whole point of the contest is to determin which team is better at the moment they meet, not over the whole season. In the sports world, we call this an “upset.” I’m also really sick of hearing about how Alabama didn’t have Andre Smith, their left tackle… If you recruit in such a way that your quarterback gets sacked 8 times because one player is out (because of a stupid decision on his part, not an injury), you don’t deserve to win. In the sports world, we call that a “shallow roster.” Roster depth as much a part of having a good team as anything. Not to mention, he is a LEFT TACKLE. It’s not like they lost their quarterback.
Lame Excuse #3 “There’s no way Utah could beat Florida.”
This is the most ridiculous excuse since Utah DIDN’T play Florida. Florida’s and Utah’s schedules did not require that they meet. Once again, this isn’t about who is better since you can argue that for ages and not get anywhere. Utah beat every team they were scheduled to play and Florida did not. If you don’t like that, then you are saying the system is flawed. But no BCS (Gator) supporter would ever admit that…
Lame Excuse #4 “Utah barely won some of their games.”
Florida barely beat Alabama in the 4th quarter to make it into the National Championship. Once again, the point of a contest is to determin a victor. Utah came out victorious in every one of their games. Show me in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, or any other NCAA sport where a team is required to beat a team by more points than another team. I thought it was considered un-sportsmanlike to run up the score anyway. Now you’re telling me a team has to do so to play in the National Championship?
Lame Excuse #5 Preseason Rankings
This isn’t as much of a lame excuse as a lame reason. Utah started the season not ranked in a single poll (Florida was ranked 5th in both the USA Today and AP Top 25 polls.) This could be the sole reason utah did not enter the national championship. How is this not bias? Shouldn’t all teams start the season out on an equal playing field?
Other issues to chew on:
- BCS is biased toward their conferences and continue to feed them money and recruits as all the others falter. In golf, this is called a “handicap.” Take this handicap into consideration when deciding if the Utes deserve to be #1
- Automatic bids are blatant favoritism.
- In no other sport involving a series of games where one team always comes out the winner do you vote who will be number one (or which two will play for number one) at the end of the season.
- The BCS is monopoly that needs to be toppled.
If anybody has any qualms with any of my points, they need only blame the system. Any system where a team can go undefeated and only end up 2nd/4th is flawed beyond any excuses. As far as I am concerned, the BCS can take their rankings and stick them where the sun don’t shine. The numbers tell the truth, the Utes are the National Champions.
What does the “G” in the Freemason logo stand for?
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on December 31, 2008
“Guess”
At least that’s what I’ve decided. Recently, I was doing some SEO work for a site that sells fraternity and sorority merchandise. They also have some Freemason stuff. As I was looking through the products, I noticed that there was a G in the center of the logo:
If you ask a mason what the square means, you might expect to get varying answers, as you would if you asked about the compasses. However, one would expect that if you ask a mason what the “G” stands for, you would get one answer. After all, the U on the mountain stands for Utah, and the Y stands for Young. The “D” on a coin stands for Denver, where a “P” stands for Philadelphia, determining where the coin was minted.
Now go online and try to find an answer to what the “G” stands for and you will get one of the following answers:
- God
- Great Mathemetician
- Geometry
- Greatness
- (my favorite) “It means what you want it to mean.”
For a group that supposedly has all the answers, this sure doesn’t help their cause much.
Parking in a Winter Wonderland
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on December 16, 2008
As I drove to work this morning, I was full of joy. Freshly fallen snow covered the land, Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts Christmas album played through my speakers, there were many an opportunity for an e-brake pulling rally car slide. I love Christmas. But my joy was relinquished as I pulled into the parking lot here at work. I had forgotten about the absolute worst part of freshly fallen snow… no, it’s not crashes, cleaning off your car, or even getting snow in your shoe… it’s all the idiots who don’t know how to park.
All year long, we park in the exact same parking spaces 5 days a week. Even on the weekends, we travel to malls, movie theaters, and grocery stores. All the parking spots are pretty much the same size. So why is it that when the lines get covered up, people lose all common sense? I promise you, the parking spots are not twice as big as they were yesterday! Honest to goodness, I saw about 20 cars that were parked at least 5 feet from the car next to it, and about 10 that were parked 99/100 of my car width away.
Please, people. I’m pleading with you, park as close to the car next to you as you would normally do. And for those people who are first in the parking lot, park at the end of a row. If you’re next, park next to that guy, etc. Save a few people from having to trench their way through the snow, between you and the next car, into the building.
Short Sale Homes
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on December 12, 2008
Recently, my wife and I decided it was time to get into a home. With the market the way it is, the timing is just right. We met with a real estate agent who immediately sent us a list of homes. As we looked down the list, we found a couple of homes that seemed too good to be true:
2257 sq ft | $169,000 | 2 Car Garage | 2006
2167 sq ft | $160,000 | 2 Car Garage | 1977 | .18 acres
Naturally, we were very excited to see such great values standing out above all of the others. I would consider $100/sq ft a really good value, and these are around $75. So I called up my real estate agent and we scheduled an appointment to go see both houses. I was particularly impressed with the town house and kept looking around for the catch. There didn’t really seem to be any. There had been a mud slide a few years back that took out some units, but that couldn’t be it because most houses in the neighborhood are going for over $200,000.
Finally, in conversation, my real estate agent mentioned the fact that both homes are ‘short sale.’ I vaguely remembered reading that in the description of the home, but didn’t think much of it. ‘Short sale’ just sounds like a term for a house that needs to be sold quickly. As he mentioned this fact, he could tell that neither my wife nor I recognized the significance of this fact, so he explained it to us. He said “It’s called ‘short sale’, but that doesn’t mean it’s a short process. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.” He then continued on to explain what short sales are.
A Short Sale is what you call a situation where an owner of a mortgage wants to sell a home, but owes more on the mortgage than what the home is worth. Technically, the house still belongs to the bank, so they could just foreclose on the people and kick them out of the house.
The problem with that is that they would then have a vacant house with no mortgage payment coming in. The bank would then have to sell the home anyway to get any value out of it. It’s easier for the bank to just let the occupants sell the home and take the hit now, instead of the bank selling the home and eventually taking the hit later anyway.
So what does all of this have to do with the buyer? You might think it doesn’t matter what the reasons are for selling a house, a price is a price. In fact, the process is much different than a regular home for sale.
In most cases, a price posted is what the seller is posting as what they are willing to give you the home for. The seller ultimately makes the decision. In the case of a Short Sale, the banks has the final say. The seller will get nothing out of the deal, they just want to get out of the house. Home prices on Short Sales are low because the seller knows that the lower the price is, the more offers they will get. But these offers have to go to the bank for approval.
Just because a seller is willing to sell you a home for cheap doesn’t mean you’re going to get the sweet deal. If the bank doesn’t want to to sell the home for that cheap, they will reject it and the price will go up and the process will start all over again.
If that’s not enough, it can take up to six months to even get a response from the bank. Because they’re just going to lose money on the house anyway, the bank isn’t in a hurry to sell the house, so your offer will go on a stack of papers that somebody will eventually get to. Finally, to top it off, you there might be several offers sitting on that stack above yours! And, oh yeah… banks also don’t cover closing costs.
Today my wife and I decided we might as well put an offer down on the town house just in case. We aren’t in a big hurry to get into a home, so we figured we might as well give it a shot. I went onto the internet to look at the listing one more time and found that the price had jumped from $169,000 to $183,000! Next time you’re looking for a home, do yourself a favor and avoid Short Sales. They’re not as great as they look.
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