I frequent ESPN’s website for my dose of sports, mostly for their football coverage, but in the last month or two, a video automatically starts on the right sidebar. It usually starts with a commercial followed by their sports coverage. The quality of their video content is fine, that isn’t the issue. The issue is I want to choose to watch it rather than having it forced down my throat.

A few things come to mind when I see this:

1) What about the people with slow connections?

2) What about the all of the bandwidth they’re wasting on people who don’t want to see the video?

3) How annoyed are their visitors?

I’m usually not too annoyed by the video since I can turn it off, but as of lately, I haven’t been able to turn it off until the commercial is over. I do understand they’re in the business of making money, but where do they draw the line?

Why would the general public feel the need to carry around a handgun? I hear people argue that it’s to protect themselves, but from what? I think it’s a load of shit so a bunch of frightened redneck conservatives can carry around guns with them all the time.

There is something like 37 other states that have some sort of “conceal and carry” law. Wisconsin is one of only four states that doesn’t allow citizens to carry conceal weapons, other than police officers. Should Wisconsin follow the other states, or lead by example. I hope lawmakers put politics aside and never pass this law. Better yet, let the public decide.

Trust me, I’m not one of those gun-haters; hell, I own a Remington 870 20-guage shotgun, but I also don’t think it’s necessary for the general public to have the ability to get certified to carry around handguns. I do understand there are special cases where someone might “need” to carry a handgun, but those should be handled on a case by case basis. For example, a friend of mine transfers money on a daily basis for small company in Iowa, so he got a special permit to carry a handgun. He never carries it outside of work, and has “never” had to pull it out of its holster.

Liberals seem to think all hell is going to break loose if this law is passed, which I don’t believe is true. For me to ever support this idea, there has got to be a good reason, and personal protection is a weak excuse. Do people honestly need a gun these days to protect themselves? Whatever happened to rolling up your sleaves and using your fists?

Links
stupidity.com

Editorial: Uphold veto on gun bill

Leath Furniture is closing their Madison location so they’re having a “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” sale. I’m always looking for a good deal, so I checked it out last Saturday afternoon. I walk in, and the first thing I notice is they have big red X’s on all of the original prices. I checked a few tags, but couldn’t find any sale prices. One of the customers told me I had to find a salesperson if I wanted find out the price.

Are you kidding me? They boast this big sale and they can’t even put prices on their merchandise? How am I supposed to know if there’s a good deal on something? I personally like to look at something, see the price, and then determine if it’s a good deal or not.

What made it even more annoying, was the fact that the future unemployed sales staff was completely swamped. There were cars lined up all the way around the store. I walked through the entire store without having a single salesperson approach me; which was nice, but if I wanted to find out the price of something, I was screwed.

Also, I was surprised at how high the original prices were. I saw a dining table, nothing special, with a veneered top, for $1,500, and that didn’t include the chairs. It was crap! I could get a better quality table at Ikea for $150.

The find of the day was a plain cylinder stand painted silver for $95. Who in the right mind would pay for a wooden cylinder painted silver for $95?

It is clear why they’re going out of business.

I really want to buy a Mac-Mini, or two, but why should I buy one now when they’re eventually coming out with the “Intel” Mac-Mini? Apple has recently released the new Intel version of the iMac and the MacBook Pro, but I don’t want either of those.

First of all, why do I want two mini’s? I want one mini for my living room to play music, videos, and eventually Apple’s DVR application in place of Tivo. The other one will be used in my office for programming and audio recording. My current Windows machine will eventually turn into a Linux server.

I’m worried if I buy a mini now, I may have problems running software in the future once all of these software companies port over their software to work on the Intel hardware. The Intel Mini isn’t supposed to come out until later this year; which to me, is asinine.

I believe the Mac-Mini sales are going to drop, along with their prices until the new one is released sometime toward the end of the year. It sounds like a nice Christmas gift to me.

I went to Borders last night and as usual I browsed through the computer section. I flipped through a couple of Ruby and Ajax books, and then I noticed a book titled, “Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks, Second Edition“. I’m amused that someone actually wrote a book on the annoyances of a Microsoft Windows XP, and is making money off of it.

It’s typical to hear Linux and Mac users complaining about Windows, but this book was actually written by Windows users. It’s refreshing to see Windows users complain, and I can only hope they start researching other options.

I was a Windows user for years, but in October 2004, I switched to Mac. I used to support Macs but grew to hate them in the 90’s due to their awful OS. I’m now doing a lot of programming, so I wanted the Linux environment, but with a better GUI. I started a new job, took a chance switching to Mac, and now don’t forsee myself going back.

I have a new PC at home running Windows 2000, which I only for gaming purposes. Once that thing dies or becomes too slow, I’m done with Microsoft for good. I have no plans on ever using Windows Vista.

I plan on getting Mac-Mini for my living room and either a G5, Powerbook, or another mini for my office. I enjoy playing games on my PC, but I’m hopeful more games will come out for the Mac soon, and I do own a PS2.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m anti-Microsoft, but rather I’m just fed up with their crappy software. I’m tired of dealling with all of the spyware and viruses that come out on a daily basis. I’m tired of the security holes. I’m tired of running Windows Update. I’m tired of overpaying for buggy software. I’m tired of Microsoft forcing businesses to update based on their schedule. Plain and simple, I’m tired of Microsoft’s bullshit.

Click on image…

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5657037337

One of my pastimes lately has been finding weird items on eBay, but I can’t take credit for this one. A buddy of mine stumbled upon this and IM’d it to me this morning. I knew eBay would end it immediately, so took a snap shot.

I’ve found people selling bags of rabbit poop, a kangaroo scrotum, and fossilized dino dung. The dinosaur dung is obviously a scam, but if some sucker out there is dumb enough to buy it, their loss. I suppose there might be some use for rabbit poop, but what in the hell would anyone do with kangaroo’s nut-sack?

Should people have a day off of work for Martin Luther King Day? Of course. I have no problem with recognizing Martin Luther King Day by having a day off of work, but I’ve only worked for one employer that gave me that day off.

I’ve talked to some of my friends and family about having the day off of work for MLK Day, and most chuckle at the idea. Why? It’s not that they don’t think it’s a good idea, but rather feel like there are other days of importance that are skipped.

What about Veteran’s Day? In my book, this one is a given, but only certain businesses; for instance banks, allow employees the day off. Shouldn’t veterans at least have the day off? Why should some pencil pusher working at a bank be allowed the day off?

Do people really need a day off of work for Columbus Day and President’s Day. I think not. I wonder if the president actually takes the day off on President’s Day. President Bush is such a lazy ass, it wouldn’t surprise me.

My girlfriend was showing me her new suit she just bought, and we noticed they forgot to take off one of those security inktags. She’d normally take it back to the store and have it removed, but this particular store leaves them on a lot, and she wanted to wear her new suit to work the next day.

I’ve removed security tags before, but never an ink tag. I examined the tag, and I couldn’t tell where the ink was hiding. I thought the ink was probably hiding on the back part, which is shaped like a cone, but I was wrong.

I began to destroy the top tab with a pair of pliers, and BOOM! The ink squirted out onto her new pants, which smelled more like paint, so I ran some water over it and cleaned out all of the ink. This is one weak-ass security device. If they had used real ink or some type of substance that would immediately stain the material, fine, but they used something that easily washes away with water. The only thing this device does is scare people from breaking it open. Completely useless.

Nice try suckers.

I’ve been closely watching the hiring process for the new Packers head coach and I believe Ted Thompson should have hired Jim Bates. If not Bates, what about Sean Payton? I don’t know what happened in the interviews, but I do know the track records of the candidates, which speak for themselves.

The top two candidate in my mind were Sean Payton and Jim Bates. Payton is a true scholar of the game, and if there’s an up and comer that is for sure to be a head coach someday, it is Payton.

I typically like an offensive-minded coach, but I thought Jim Bates earned the job. There’s no question Bates has an impressive resume. He has put together some great defenses in Miami, and when he was their interim head coach, the players rallied around him and beat a tough New England Patriots team.

Bates, then comes to Green Bay to work with a horrendous defense, and made them into a top 10 unit, with mediocre talent. Green Bay did end up 4-12, but he had the defense playing as well as they could with those players, and he is now loved by players and fans.

I welcome McCarthy to Green Bay and I wish him well, but if he fails and Bates has success elsewhere, expect fans to want Thompson’s head on a platter.

The game of football is a violent game that includes athletes trying to knock each other out. The media loves to highlight the unsportsmanlike actions from moronic players such as Bill Romanowski, but rarely give credit to players that deserve praise.

Last weekend, Steeler’s defensive end, Kimo Von Oelhoffen, unintentially rolled up on Carson Palmer’s leg, which took him out of the game. Kimo was upset immediately, and seemed to care about nothing except Palmer’s well-being. Kimo realizes football is just game and has a respect for all of the players on the team.

This incident really made me rethink the Warren Sapp hit on Chad Clifton a few years ago. Sapp’s hit was clearly a legal hit, but was it necessary for Sapp to hit Clifton so violently when Clifton was so far away from the play?

The only thing that was on Sapp’s mind was making some media’s highlight reel. Clifton spent weeks in a hospital wondering if he’d even be able to play football again, and did he didn’t even get a phone call from Sapp to see how he was doing, let alone an apology. Kimo stood by Palmer until trainers got to him, and he issued an apology today. It was clearly an accident, but the apology shows his respect for other players, not to mention that he’s a class act.

Warren Sapp may very well be a better football player, but he could learn a few things from Kimo Von Oelhoffen.