Apoc
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Windows 8–An Early Impressions Review
Sep 14th
As many of you may or may not know, last night marked the official release for the Windows 8 Developer Preview build. This is, of course, free for all to download and test.
After having a chance to play around with it a bit, I have some first impressions to share, in hopes that Microsoft will take notice and make some quality of life changes for us.
I tested both 32-bit and 64-bit builds of Windows 8 under VirtualBox. I was unable to successfully get the 32-bit version to work. 64-bit installed without any issues, however that’s not to say it runs without issues.
While I can appreciate the simplicity of Microsofts “Metro” style desktop, I am sure it will be great on tablets, which is something we know Microsoft is betting on. It is not, however, intuitive on a desktop system.
The old start menu is completely gone, instead bringing up the Metro desktop, even if you switch to the old Windows desktop. You switch between sets of tiles by (ugh) dragging a horizontal scrollbar on the bottom of the screen. The start button is hidden until you mouse over it. The start button here only provides contextual options and settings.
The included Twitter client, Tweet@rama, is certainly well designed. With vertical scrolling, and its two pane view, it feels natural to use. I am a fan of this one.
A stocks app is also included by default, although as of the time of this writing, it only tracks the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and MSFT markets. I could find no way to add my own stocks to track, which is a deal breaker for most of us (I need to track my IBM stock!).
As mentioned, the new start menu is hidden until moused over in the far bottom left corner, and even then, is a shell of its former self. I certainly hope for an option to revert to the old start menu behavior. I could not find this option myself, but I only spent 5 minutes looking for it.
You can still access your old control panel if you want, but for non-power-users, you get a new, simpler interface that provides quick access to common settings.
It’s nice to have an RSS reader built in, which is another default app I am sure tablet users will appreciate, but there is no clear defined way to add your own feeds aside of the defaults provided here. I hope that option makes it way into the final build, or I can see this RSS app being rarely, if ever, used by anyone, especially on a desktop.
The built-in weather app is certainly nice, although with no options for location settings. I’m beginning to understand that the developer preview is basically void of any real settings, and is more or less just a preview of things to come (obviously) with basic functionality. The clouds in the background here are animated, so I look forward to seeing this when it’s done.
The new star button is a dark grey, and stands out from the taskbar very noticeably. I hope this is something that doesn’t stick around. Contrast is nice to have, but I hope to find an option for changing this later, but I would hope when you’re on the old Windows desktop that you can get your old start menu back.
Oh, that dreaded Office ribbon. It’s definitely in Windows 8, and I am proud to announce that you CAN hide it.
Final Notes
I know that a final release for Windows 8 is a long ways off, but I have some notes that I hope Microsoft will listen to.
- Give people the option of using their old Windows desktop, please. If this functionality is not included, most people will not upgrade. I don’t know of any enterprise clients who would.
- Provide infinite customization options. If you’re going to try and make a prettier desktop environment, let people tweak it any way they want. Not everybody likes the same thing.
- Horizontal scrolling may be second nature on a tablet, but it’s AWFUL on a desktop, especially when it doesn’t work with the scroll wheel on the mouse. Provide an option for vertical scrolling, or the Metro desktop will never be a part of my desktop.
- Turn the Explorer ribbon off by default. Some power users MIGHT want this, but most people will not. It’s horrible by design, and will confuse non-tech-savvy users.
- Give me back my old start menu! It’s been a cornerstone of Windows for years, don’t change a good thing now.
I also have additional concerns regarding Microsofts plans to get into the tablet market. I understand that most (if not all) Windows 8 tablets will run under an ARM processor. While this is fine and dandy for battery life, I know there will be software compatibility issues, since most of us use x86 software. Here’s the important part: If I can’t run my desktop apps on my tablet, I won’t get the tablet, especially if the tablet costs more than an iPad or Android tablet with similar functionality. If it doesn’t run all Windows apps, it isn’t Windows!
Your move, Redmond.
How Hardees Lost a Lifetime Customer
Sep 8th
It pains me to have to do this, because I have always loved Hardees as a restaurant. It was my opinion before that a Hardees meal was every bit as good as a Five Guys meal, at around half the cost. Sadly, I cannot make this recommendation any more.
Why? What happened to taint my experience so badly against Hardees? Here’s my story.
Last night (September 7, 2011) my girlfriend didn’t want to eat at home for some reason. After a little while of debating over where to eat, I had an idea: Hardees! We love(d) Hardees, and it had been a while since we had been, since we live in Daytona Beach, and would have to drive to the far end of Port Orange to get there (not a terribly long drive, but very much so for fast food).
After getting caught up in a long conversation with a neighbor on our way out, we begin our journey, one filled with peril as apparently every driver on the road at this time was apparently suicidal.
About a half hour later, we arrive at our destination, now starving. My girlfriend orders a 1/4 lb burger with chili cheese fries, and a shake. I order a Frisco burger without tomatoes (because I love those sourdough buns) with fries and a drink.
We sit at our table, with our order number sign neatly placed on the corner as we wait. It takes about 10 minutes, but we finally get our food. The first thing I notice is the tomatoes on my burger, when I had clearly asked for none. I am not one to just pick them off myself, because then I have to get all messy disassembling a burger that should have been made right the first time. I catch the employee who delivered the food before he even makes it back to the counter. The employee at the counter who took our order looks and sounds agitated, but apologizes and tells me he will bring a replacement out to me.
So now, here I am, starving, foodless, watching my girlfriend eat her food. That’s bad enough, just ending up out of sync with your meals when eating out with someone. I was already getting into a pretty bad mood from this. I took out my PV (Personal Vaporizer, aka electronic cigarette, an invention made for the purpose of “healthy” “smoking” and mainly being able to use it indoors where smoking is not allowed) and began to “vape” on it.
After about 5 minutes of using it, and several customers eyeing it and smiling, as is the usual routine because it is still so new to many people, the “agitated” employee approached me to tell me that smoking is not allowed in the store. I kindly explain to him that I am not smoking, it is a water vaporizer, etc. He just stood there and looked at me like he was dumbfounded. He then told me that it was corporate policy not to allow use of these in the restaurant. That’s not a policy I’ve ever heard of, since I’ve used it in hundreds of establishments without issue, including several times in previous visits to Hardees. If this truly IS a company policy of Hardees, would someone please link me to a legitimate place proving it?
That was strike two. Mess up my order and then deny me the thing that calms me down? Not a very good idea. Regardless, rather than argue the point, I just complied, because I don’t want to be rude.
Another 5 minutes go by, and my food, now tomato free, is delivered. At this point I am pretty angry, but too hungry to care, I just want to enjoy my food and go home. I notice that this burger has what appeared to be buttered, untoasted sourdough bread for a bun. My previous bun was toasted, and this confused me. “Whatever” I thought, I can’t wait ANOTHER ten minutes for them to get it right, I am too hungry.
I bite into the burger… only to discover that I cannot physically bite into the burger.
This was the hardest, most stale thing I had ever tasted, and the bread tasted like expired buttermilk.
I tried to bite into it again, as hard as I can, just to see if maybe it was just that edge that was bad. I got a mouthful of meat that tasted like Styrofoam.
At this point, I am furious. I’m done, over it, I want my money back. I take the food back to the counter yet again, and the employee is clearly very angry at this point, as am I. He went to take it into the back to replace it again, when I told him I just wanted a refund. He hands me back cash instead of putting the money back on the credit card we paid with (seriously?).
I am now fed up, and begin filling out a comment card, because this has been the second most horrifying eating out adventure ever.
That’s when my girlfriend reaches the bottom of her chili cheese fries, and discovers the short, curly black hairs.
Seriously? What the F**K?!?!?
AGAIN, I go back to the front counter, this time with pubic-hair-laced chili cheese fries, and the employee at the front counter just looks even more agitated than before, and just looks at the black guy in the back of the kitchen angrily, then says “Let me guess, you want a refund for these too?”
You’re damn right I want a refund for this too.
And to top things off?
My girlfriend had food poisoning from it, and was up all night in the bathroom until about 1:30am.
The only time I have ever received worse treatment in a business establishment was Taco Bell, and they have been on my “Never again” list for years. (The manager there cursed me out for returning my food because the order was wrong… I had ordered soft tacos and got hard tacos, with none of the ingredients I had requested. According to the manager I was supposed to just “suck it up”)
I did turn in my comment card to Hardees, and I also emailed them on their web site this morning, because I know the employees there will likely toss out my comment card so they don’t look bad.
I had always regarded Hardees as one of my favorite restaurants, but this experience has been so bad, and so disgusting, I can never go back, ever. There is nothing they can do to win me back as a customer at this point. I do, however, want to know what they are going to do to satisfy my anger from being treated like this.
Update: 9/10/11
I received a phone call from the district manager, apologizing profusely for our experience. He wants to make it up to us, and is sending us coupons for free meals so we’ll give Hardees one more chance. He assures me this kind of thing will never happen again.
He also informed me that he has never heard of a policy regarding the banning of electronic cigarettes in their restaurants.
An Open Letter to the FDA, and all smokers
Aug 17th
This message concerns all of you who either smoke currently, used to smoke, or support the FDA guidelines regarding cigarettes.
I feel prompted to write this after reading an article on The Consumerist regarding the cigarette companies suing the FDA (http://consumerist.com/2011/08/abercrombie-fitch-offers-to-pay-the-situation-to-stop-wearing-its-clothes.html)
This is sort of a role-reversal taking place, and is definitely humorous for many of us. It does, however, raise a point.
When is enough, enough?
I started smoking when I was 14 years old. I recently turned 30, which means I have been addicted to cigarettes for 16 years, more than half my life, which I am sure has shortened it by a good bit, but maybe I stopped early enough to make up the difference. I officially quit on April 1st of this year. I’m telling you that because it is relevant to my point.
Anti-smoking groups, along with the FDA, would love it if everybody quit. Or would they?
There’s no doubt that smoking is an epidemic, and is more likely than not the single, most preventable cause of death among people worldwide. It is a filthy, disgusting habit, and my addiction to it kept me doing it for way longer than I wanted to. It caused great emotional distress, health problems, and made it so that I cannot afford health insurance. It also took a large chunk of my income for many years. Even the quit-smoking aids tend to cost as much as smoking, or more, and typically don’t work. (usually a 2%-7% success rate)
That being said, so my point is clear: I don’t like cigarettes or the tobacco companies. I don’t work for them. Never have, never will. Now, let’s get to the real meat and potatoes of what I have to say.
Ready?
Wait for it…
I knew all the risks before I lit the first cigarette. I think anyone born from 1980 and on knows instinctively that smoking is just plain bad for you. Mothers know it causes birth defects. Everyone knows that if you smoke, you will in all reality probably die a horrible, cancer-related death. It’s a little thing called common sense, and I would like to believe that a person of average intelligence is capable of understanding what they are doing.
Try walking up to random smokers and telling them that smoking is bad for them. Try to find one person who seems surprised by this information. All you will accomplish by doing that is pissing them off. They know. Leave them alone.
It is a free world (mostly) and certainly (supposedly) a free country. So we should have the right to put whatever we want into our own bodies, right? Of course, if that were true, drugs would be legal, and nobody would be sitting in prison for smoking a joint.
But it seems that the FDA, if they had their way, would have everyone quit smoking. Why? It’s detrimental to what they do, since such a large portion of federal funding comes from the very taxes earned on tobacco sales, funding that they get in the form of their pay checks.
No, they won’t get rid of tobacco, and they certainly can’t ban it. We’ve seen what happens when alcohol is prohibited, and a nation full of nic-fitting americans is not something we want to see. Alcohol, I might add, is far more dangerous than tobacco, and worlds more dangerous than marijuana. My opinion would be to ban the alcohol, and legalize the marijuana. But that’s another rant.
Simply put, placing graphic images on tobacco products won’t accomplish anything more than increasing production costs for cigarettes due to the change in packaging/inks, because smokers don’t care.
A smoker is a smoker and will smoke until they don’t smoke any more, either because they finally quit, or they die. The harm caused to the tobacco companies by laws like this simply drives costs up, and we have to remember that a fair majority of smokers come from lower income brackets, and as such, can’t afford the price hikes.
STOP BLAMING THE COMPANIES
It’s the people that are stupid. I’m one of them, and I was just as stupid.
We know the risks, and don’t care. Attempting to further educate people who already know smoking is dangerous is not accomplishing anything. It will not go away. Let people smoke and die in peace.
Anyone who says the opposite is dying without health insurance and trying to get somebody other than themselves to foot the bill. It’s exactly like the woman who spilled McDonalds coffee on herself, and then sued McDonalds because it was hot. Well, what the FUCK did you expect, lady? It’s coffee! Maybe if I go to McDonalds, and shove a burger in my mouth without swallowing all the way, and almost die, I can sue them for not putting a warning label on the burgers telling me specifically not to do that.
Frivolous lawsuits and the attorneys representing them are the true cancer that is killing this country.
Seriously, America… STOP IT.
Disclaimer: I know this will be interpreted as a satire, but I am serious here… don’t be retarded.
The Warner Brothers Censored Eleven
Jun 28th
The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists (UA) in 1968. UA owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions library at that time, and decided to pull these eleven cartoons from broadcast because the depictions of black people in the cartoons were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences. The ban has been upheld by UA and the successive owners of the pre-August 1948 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies[1] catalog to this day, and these shorts have not been officially broadcast on television since 1968, and have only been exhibited once by Warner Bros., since then, theatrically in one theater in spring 2010 (see below for more details). They have turned up, however, on low-cost VHS and DVD collections over the last thirty years.
About the cartoons
Many cartoons from previous decades are routinely edited on international television (and on some video and DVD collections) today. Usually, the only censorship deemed necessary is the cutting of the occasional perceived racist joke, instance of graphic violence, or scene of a character doing something that parents and watchdog groups fear children will try to imitate (such as smoking, drinking alcohol, ingesting pills and dangerous chemicals freely, playing with fire, and abusing animals).
For example, one classic cartoon gag, most prominent in MGM‘s Tom and Jerry cartoons, is the transformation of characters into a blackface caricature after an explosion or an automobile back-fire. A script for an episode of Tom and Jerry entitled Mouse Cleaning (1948), had plans to turn Tom into a black-face caricature. Upon questioning by the maid, Tom answers “No, mam. I ain’t seen no cat aroun’ here…uh unh, ain’t no cat, no place, no how-no mam,” in stereotypical African American dialect.[2] Such small amounts of objectionable material only require relatively minor cuts in the cartoon to make it palatable to censors, in spite of objections and sometimes boycotts by fans.
However, in the case of the Censored Eleven, racist themes are so essential and so completely pervade the cartoons that the copyright holders believe that no amount of selective editing could ever make them acceptable for distribution.
Of the cartoons included in the Censored Eleven, animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Bob Clampett: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and Tin Pan Alley Cats. The former, a jazz-based parody of Walt Disney‘s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is frequently included on lists of the greatest cartoons ever made, while the latter is a hot jazz re-interpretation of Clampett’s now-classic 1938 short Porky in Wackyland. Author Michelle Klein-Hass wrote the following:
“
. . . some even look at Clampett’s Jazz cartoons and cry racism when Clampett was incredibly ahead of his time and was a friend to many of the greats of the LA jazz scene. All of the faces you see in Tin Pan Alley Cats and Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs are caricatures of real musicians he hung out with at the Central Avenue jazz and blues clubs of the ’40s. He insisted that some of these musicians be in on the recording of the soundtracks for these two cartoons.[3]
”
Bob Clampett himself explained the evolution of "Coal Black" during his public appearances in the 70s and 80s, and during taped interviews:
“
In 1942, during the height of anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II, I was approached in Hollywood by the cast of an all-black musical off-broadway production called Jump For Joy while they were doing some special performances in Los Angeles. They asked me why there weren’t any Warner’s cartoons with black characters and I didn’t have any good answer for that question. So we sat down together and came up with a parody of Disney’s "Snow White" and "Coal Black" was the result. They did all the voices for that cartoon, even though Mel Blanc’s contract with Warners gave him sole voice credit for all Warners cartoons by then. There was nothing racist or disrespectful toward blacks intended in that film at all, nor in Tin Pan Alley Cats which is just a parody of jazz piano great Fats Waller, who was always hamming into the camera during his musical films. Everybody, including blacks had a good time when these cartoons first came out. All the controversy about these two cartoons has developed in later years merely because of changing attitudes toward black civil rights that have happened since then. Hopefully, someday all this overreaction to these innocently-intended cartoons, which we finished in 1943, will settle down and people will be able to see them in their proper historical context.
”
The cartoon output of Warner Bros. during its heyday even sometimes had censorship problems more complex in some respects than those of features. Unlike feature films, which were routinely censored in the script, the animated shorts were passed upon only when completed, which made the producers exceptionally cautious as to restrictions.[4] Clean Pastures, for example, had considerable censor trouble during its production much more than its basis for parody – The Green Pastures – ever did. The words "De Lawd" were not allowed and censors also wanted to eliminate a halo from a black character.[5] In 1983, director Chuck Jones commented on the television censorship of the Warner Bros. cartoons: "I don’t like to see the films cut at all. […] They make some cuts that are so arbitrary and stupid, you can’t believe it."[6] Independent stations that once ran the syndicated Warner Bros. cartoons never had the same type of censorship as first-run networks such as ABC and CBS did for the cartoons. Some stations even owned syndication rights to "a few they consider[ed] racially stereotypical," but never ran them.[7]
When he obtained distribution rights to all pre-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons in 1986, Ted Turner vowed that he would not distribute or air any cartoons from the Censored Eleven. They were the only cartoons in this package not to be featured in the laserdisc series The Golden Age of Looney Tunes.[8]
Since Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting in 1996, this policy has largely been upheld, but has also shown signs of weakening. A total of twelve Bugs Bunny shorts were not aired on Cartoon Network during its "June Bugs" marathon in 2001. However, Warner Bros. began to release DVD collections of classic cartoons in 2003 entitled the Looney Tunes Golden Collection with one of the cartoons (Frigid Hare, which depicts a stereotypical Eskimo trying to kill a baby penguin, and was still seen on Cartoon Network as late as 2002 and featured as a DVD extra in March of the Penguins) featured on the set uncut and uncensored. Also in 2001, Cartoon Network animation documentary show ToonHeads had a one-hour special centered on World War II-era cartoons and two World War II-era Bugs Bunny shorts Herr Meets Hare shown in full and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips shown in clips in a short montage about the depictions of Japanese people at the time were shown.
While none of the shorts included on the discs are part of the Censored Eleven, many of the cartoons that were included were routinely censored on television, but were included uncut on DVD. Furthermore, each DVD from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 opens with a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg, where she warns the audience about some of these shorts, stating that although the behavior was and is not acceptable, the cartoons depicting this are a vital part of history and should not be forgotten. The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 collection includes a similar disclaimer, written on a gold card and merely summarized the point that while the cartoons are considered offensive today for what they depict, they are not going to be shown censored because editing out the racist depictions—and therefore effectively denying that the racism of the era ever happened—is worse than actually showing them.
Many of the Censored Eleven are available on bootleg video. Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land, Jungle Jitters and All This and Rabbit Stew are now in the public domain and frequently appear on home video releases and internet video searches.
Source: Wikipedia
And now, without further interruption, here they are, presented for your enjoyment, if you can take a joke, anyway.
Hittin’ The Trail For Hallelujah Land
Sunday Go To Meetin’ Time
Clean Pastures
Uncle Tom
Jungle Jitters
The Isle of Pingo Pongo
All This And Rabbit Stew
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
Tin Pan Alley Cats
Angel Puss
Goldilocks and the Jivin Bears
Boge 510 Cartomizers Review
May 18th
Have you been thinking about trying cartomizers lately with your electronic cigarette? Maybe you already do, but you’ve been looking for a better solution?
Maybe you should give Boge 510 cartomizers a try.
I’ve been pretty lucky in getting good parts this time around, and the Boge 510 is no exception to this rule.
These cartomizers are available in low resistance (1.9-2.1ohms), standard (2.9-3.1ohms), and high. They are available from Pure Smoker for $1.50 each, come empty, and are re-fillable.
I ordered the Boge 510 because I was put off by the expense of regular atomizers, especially given the track record I have of burning them out. That’s not to say I haven’t burned out a carto or two, but it’s a much rarer occasion.
Low Resistance Boge 510 Cartomizer
Let me just start by saying… WOW.
I’ve tried a multitude of electronic cigarette products, but this was the first method I tried that really stuck.
Low resistance is not necessarily the best for all flavors, since it can have a tendency to burn some flavors, but if you use lighter colored juices, I recommend you give it a go. Just remember that LR atomizers should not be used on anything higher than 3.7v. If you’re using anything stronger, I recommend you try…
Standard Resistance Boge 510 Cartomizer
Standard resistance, for me, is a different animal. Many people start here and move on to LR, I went the opposite route.
I find that vapor production drops off a bit between LR and SR, but the SR Boge 510 is still quite nice, and really brought a sweetness out of my Firecracker flavor that I had never seen before. If you want more flavor without as much risk of burning, go with SR.
Of course, I still prefer the LR Boge 510 myself since it vapes like a king.
Use-ability
I find the cartomizers to be more convenient for me, and provide a few hours between refills. Filling them is rather simple, particularly when using the condom method or the taryn spin.
Reliability
Most retailers will tell you that cartomizers are disposable, one-time-use things. Most retailers would be right. Unless they are talking about the Boge 510 of course.
These cost me about $1.50 each, and I haven’t lost one yet due to a failure. I’ve had a couple get slightly harder to pull on after about a month of use, but still usable, especially after cleaning by soaking in alcohol.
Maintenance is a snap, and these things last. If you use a thin, light colored e-liquid, always keep the filler wet, and never burn them, they will likely last you for several months each.
