Monthly Archives: October 2008

Political/Intellectual Arrogance – Defense of the Average American

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I’m tired of political commentators who depict the voting public (except their own circle) of being stupid. Both sides do it and it makes me sick. Listen, Barbara Streisand isn’t brainwashing young dumb impressionable voters to vote liberal. Also, conservatives aren’t dumb war mongering racists who don’t want a Muslim (yeah I know, I know) in office.

I’m more tired of people buying into this sentiment.

There are plenty of news videos and YouTube videos of stupid Americans who don’t know how many states there are or how many senators there are, etc. Do you think they keep or cut footage of everyone who answers right? Don’t you think they are sensationalist for ratings? How fun would it be to watch a video of people answering correctly? So they cut the boring footage, produce the video, and then publish it for the enjoyment of “highly intelligent” finger pointers. Plus, and a BIG plus, I bet a lot of the people who don’t know how many states there are aren’t even registered to vote–or know when Election Day is. These hand-picked sound bites don’t represent every American! C’mon!

There are outliers on both sides. If you draw conclusions based on them, well then you are generalizing. Shame on you!

Seriously look around you. I know my friends and family aren’t stupid. People in my social/work/neighborhood network aren’t stupid. Sure I disagree with others’ views. But I don’t think any of them are stupid. A few may make me go hmmmm, but I don’t think they are dumb.

If you think anyone who doesn’t share your political views is stupid or misinformed, then well you are viewing the world through a narrow, arrogant, pretentious, and ignorant lens. And no matter what side you favor, it makes you a hypocrite.

Deducing that people think the way they do because they are unintelligent is a lazy cop-out and defeatist as well. It’s easier to label someone stupid or uninformed than trying to figure out what really makes them tick and what makes them think the way they do—their background and values. It’s easy to throw your arms up and blame everything on these stupid people.

If Americans were stupid, then how would companies run? How would anything get done? America isn’t perfect, but it isn’t stupid.

Congrats Microsoft, you lost me

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I’ve been a Microsoft defender for the longest time. I never really understood all the negative sentiment they’ve received.

I actually despised the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials. I thought they were overly pretentious. Plus, I never got the meaning of the commercials. Because up until a month ago, I’ve been using XP. Well, then my computer dies and I go out and get a new laptop with Vista. Jeez, what a downgrade.

I’ve been using it a month and not only do I think it’s a downgrade from XP, I can’t find one single advantage of it over XP. I’m not uber-technical, so I’m sure (sceptically sure–if there is such a thing) that there are “behind the scenes” improvements to it over XP. I held back, figuring I’d just have to get used to it. A month in and I hate Vista with a passion. It’s hard to navigate folders, hard to navigate the start menu, slow to log in and out (switch users, etc). I don’t know why on earth there are so many usability downgrades.

Had I known it would be such a disaster, I would have “downgraded” to XP. But now that I have everything set up, it would be too much of a PITA for me to do now. I’ll be thinking Mac next time around, since the Mac commercials are loud and clear now.

Bookmark Site I’d Like to See

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I use both delicious and Google Bookmarks. Both are ok, but both also have their limitations. Not so much for capturing and saving bookmarks, but for giving you access to them. It hit me when I saw All My Faves that delicious or Google Bookmarks (or any other for that matter) should let you customize a page and lay out your bookmarks the way you want. Perhaps even giving your “public” or “shared” bookmarks a public url.

Google AdWords – Display Ad Builder

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I have to share my love of a new feature of AdWords. Their display ad builder allows you to create banner ads with just a few clicks. This is great for testing out new placements without having to have a creative team build out many different sizes (or if you have no creative team or they are slow). Ad Builder lets you choose colors, text, and pull together other image assets you might already have (e.g. a logo). All in all it’s a fast and inexpensive way to dip your toes into display advertising water.

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em

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No not poker, but cars. It’s great having cars with no car payments for years. It kind of feels like playing with house money. But sooner or later you’ll be faced with weighing mounting repair costs vs. the cost of getting a fresh new car. That’s where I am now. With 2 cars mind you. A 2000 Mazda Protege and a 1994 Ford Explorer. The car is holding up well (knock on wood). But the truck’s 4 wheel drive doesn’t work anymore, the AC doesn’t work anymore, has a crack in the windshield that spreads more and more every day, it’s been making more and more noise, and now the speedometer is acting funky. Just the windshield alone isn’t worth fixing, in my opinion. Because the next day might bring a more costlier repair. When do you stop? Well, I fold on the truck. Time to go car shopping!

Thank you craigslist

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I’ve dabbled with selling online both on eBay and reselling books on Amazon. Not to profit, but to get a little pocket money for things I don’t have use for anymore. Until last weekend, I never tried to sell anything on craigslist. We sold a dresser in less than a day and an entertainment center in only two days. The dresser had been laying around for months, waiting for that perpetually re-scheduled garage sale. Actually it hadn’t sold at our last garage sale. Storage at our house is at a minimum, so having stuff lay around endlessly is not ideal. So with a few clicks of the camera, one or two sentences, and prices to sell, we were able to find buyers quickly. Each came to pick up their items too. Could not have been easier.

Ugg. New iGoogle

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From what I’m reading on blogs and hearing from friends, I’m not the only one not pleased with the new iGoogle. For me it’s not the layout, it’s the functionality. It’s not working all the time as it should. Links become unclickable, check boxes become uncheckable, feeds don’t update properly. So I find myself refreshing the page hundreds of times a day. What’s supposed to help with productivity is actually hindering productivity. Hopefully they get the bugs resolved soon. Or let users revert to the old (working) version.

Gerber – Great E-mail, Just a Month Late

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Gerber just sent me a very informative e-mail update on all things for a 4 month old baby. One problem. My son is a few days away from 5 months old. I logged in to check the birth date, and it was right. Someone over there lost track of count. Or maybe they didn’t round up? Or maybe production time is slow? There’s a big difference month to month. Sorry Gerber, you have to get your timing right.