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TV Ain’t Worth Watching

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

I’ve talked about TV before, such as Freakazoid, Batman the Series, and how they really need to release X-Men (the cartoon from the 90′s) on DVD. Well, apparently the future of The Simpsons is up in the air, and quite frankly, I say good riddance. Not that I don’t like The Simpsons, I love them, but they haven’t really been The Simpsons for many years. I’ve been diligently buying each season as it comes out on DVD, except for season 20, I’ll buy that when a) they’ve already released season 19 and b) they put the same level of effort into a re-release of season 20 as they’ve put into the release of the rest of the seasons (apparently, season 20 is basically a menu and the raw episodes, no extras). Of course, they haven’t released season 14 yet, normally they release it around my birthday, and the wife gets it for me, but no The Simpsons Season 14 on DVD until December, gee thanks Fox. Maybe they couldn’t figure out a good character to use for the cover after the brilliance of Ralph on the last one, but still, that’s no excuse for not release a new season on time.

Anyway, they might cancel the Simpsons, and I won’t be too sad, they had a good run. But the news brought up memories of other shows I’ve enjoyed (not necessarily loved) that got canceled quickly. I rather enjoyed Threshold, but the plot was quickly becoming bizarre, probably didn’t have a good direction to take the show. ‘V’ was okay (I posted about the show before), but again, they had no where left to take the show. I watched Testees on FX, pretty funny, but it didn’t get picked-up for additional seasons (probably because it wasn’t at the level of Always Sunny). They canceled Futurama, but luckily Comedy Central picked it back up.

They canceled Family Guy, but brought it back (and I LOVE the list of shows Fox started and canceled since they canceled Family Guy). However, I really don’t care for Family Guy anymore. All of Seth MacFarlane’s shows have just gotten stupid. I only watched a couple episodes of The Cleveland Show, no thanks Seth. South Park is only making like 5 episodes a year, and those are beyond absurd as well (though a couple gems like Mysterion and Go God Go do come along). I guess my point with Family Guy and South Park is, there really aren’t any worthwhile animated shows left. There are some shows left on Adult Swim, but the fad with live action shows is quickly killing the channel in my mind (Children’s Hospital: not funny). I do like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, though changing the name to Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 caused my DVR to miss an episode or two (couldn’t tell if the commercials were real or fake). Squidbillies is funny, Superjail is good, but these are not big-time shows. They don’t have the broad appeal of a The Simpsons. Moral Orel was fantastic, but had to come to an end, Moral had to grow up at some point. I actually liked Titan Maximum, but I don’t think they’re making more episodes. I’m not so sure about Venture Bros anymore, I haven’t seen the last season yet, but I’m not sure what direction that show is going either.

Anyway, point is, TV sucks these days, and I don’t see it getting better any time soon.

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What happened to my draft?

Monday, March 14, 2011

Huh, I had a draft saved up on my phone, and now its gone. I was gonna delete it anyway.  I guess my app isn’t setup to read drafts off my we site, its probably sitting their and I have to edit it in a web browser.  Anyway, some things about that new V series.  First off, the fifty column was a group of insurgent Vs, right?  But now its a group of humans who don’t trust Vs in any form?  Strange.  Second, only a few people know the Vs are really reptilian, but when Tue Fifth column has a perfectly good V corpse to show the world, they choose to dissolve it instead?  Maybe they needed to protect the FBI agents secret identity as a Fifth Column member, but really?  And why is the production value so bad for a prime-time network TV show?  Blue screens, locales, its all crappy.  I watch it, they have plenty of ads, oh well.  And am I the only one who gets the impression they didn’t expect the show to go this long and that they are running out of ideas?  One and a half seasons, respectable run.

Anyway, I want to bitch about the Wisconsin union thing (i hate unions) but I won’t, don’t got the time.

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Pornstars Don’t Own Cats

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Ok, so maybe they do. My point is, when was the last time you saw a pornstar with a serious cat scratch somewhere on their body? Yeah, I know makeup and airbrushing work wonders, but that’s mostly for pictures and soft-core videos. In a full-on hardcore shoot, there’s no way makeup is gonna last the whole time. Why do I bring this up, well, because we own a couple cats, de-clawed in the front, and they still scratch the shit out of us. I got scars on my legs, arms, chest, and stomach. It’s not like these are feral cats, they’re quite calm. But whenever something scares them, they jump, and they push-off with their back claws, and bam!, nice painful scratch. And what scares them? Cell-phone rings, stuff falling onto the floor, knocks on the door, weird noises on the TV, etc..

Crap, I was going to ramble on and on about random things, but now I all I can remember is the stupid cat thing. Well, maybe something else will come back to me later.

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Fucking Python Losers

Thursday, January 20, 2011

My god, I can not stand the language python, and for only one reason, that stupid whitespace.  I mean seriously, why the fuck is whitespace ever important in a language?  If code isn’t readable, you know what you do?  You run it through a mother fucking pretty printer.  You can turn completely unreadable c code into the most flawlessly indented code by use of a pretty printer.  Did you know python can NOT be run through a pretty printer?  That’s because its layout is non deterministic.  Nothing other than the goddamn whitespace tells python when a block of code has ended.  Oh, but I save time because I only have to type a single : instead of two brackets (which don’t even appear as typable characters on my phone oddly enough).  Anyway, {}, hah, there they are.

Anyway… I saw one example that went like this: in C you can do the following:
if (test)
    do_something;

But, you cannot do the following:
if (test)
    do_something;
    do_something_else;

This won’t work as intended.  Now, a python purest would say its the fault of the compiler, as the whitespace clearly shows the intent of the programmer to execute both lines under the if(if my fucking phone turns “the” into “Tue” one more time…).  I say, it shows that the programmer messed up or doesn’t know much about C. Will any intent on the part of a carpenter allow a hammer to screw-in a screw?  No, because a hammer is a simple tool with one intended purpose.  If you don’t know how to use a hammer, you don’t invent a hammer that screws in screws, you use a mother Fucking screwdriver.  It’s the same with a compiler, of only does one thing and you have to learn how to use it properly.  In C, an if statement ALWAYS executes one line and one line only, that could be a single statement like “do_something;” or it can be a group of statements as indicated by, you guessed it, brackets.  The if only executes the starting bracket, which tells the compiler that multiple statements have been grouped together on a single block.  You know what an if statement in python does?  Neither does the compiler, its non deterministic.  It executes code until it finds a line that happens to be at the same or greater indentation than the if statement itself.

There is no if statement terminator in C, as it executes only one line. Now, there is a block terminator, and only one block terminator (the } bracket).  In python, there really aren’t any terminator either, not technically, but a block can be terminated by differing indentation or even the end of a file.  Yeah, that’s right, the end of a file.  So either you were done coding, or it failed to read in the whole file (maybe it was.  on a network source or you made a copy and paste error).  This might not be a problem with if statements, but what about a while or for loop?  Thats code that is going to be repeated.  In C, when you fail to terminate the code block, it tells you.  Python has NO ability to determine if you made a mistake or not.  Python is a never measure, cut once language.  You better get it right the first time you type it, because who knows what can go wrong afterwards.  With C, you don’t even have to intent or even write code over multiple lines.  You can write the code as you see fit and then pretty it up afterwards.  In python, if you accidentally indented one block too far, you have to fix everything afterwards by hand (your editor can’t help you, because it can’t possibly know what goes where).

Now, most every other language I’ve ever seen uses block indicators of some sort.  C is just a handy and common example, but python is the only broadly used language I’ve ever seen that makes you use indentation.  The fact that people defend this is just assinine.  It is no extra effort to type in brackets, hell, I spend a lot more effort correcting the indentation that my text editor gets incorrect than I would typing brackets.  “oh, but you should use a more python-aware” text editor?  Oh I should?  Maybe your mother Fucking language shouldn’t be dependant on what Fucking text editor I use.  I know every wheezing nerd out there whose ever used that excuse never used a real text editor in their life.  I’m not some greybeard programmer who punched out FORTRAN by hand, but I have typed assembly code into a raw text editor (think like notepad, but for DOS).  I know you won’t always have emacs or eclipse installed with all the proper libraries and add-ons.  The fact that I would even have to think about what editor I’m using before I begin to program is so absurd it makes my head hurt.  Of course, all these python kiddies probably never saw a real language before.  They probably started with java (dont get me started) then moved into scripting languages before they could even appreciate what little amount of real programming goes into java.  If they ever saw C code, or Ada, or any industry standard language, they’d probably shit themselves and run upstairs out of their mom’s basement crying.  I’m not saying python isn’t handy, I’m saying it would be a thousand times better without that stupid whitespace issue.

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More Like PowerStupid, HA!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Ok, so I saw something today about GM possibly installing PowerMat chargers into many of their cars starting in 2012. This nearly made me blow a head vein. I mean, do you know about these stupid PowerMat things? They use induction to charge your phone. Long story short, they use electrical current in the pad to create a magnetic field. You place a corresponding charger close enough to the pad, and it interacts with the generated magnetic field, turning the magnetic energy into electrical current and charging your phone. Now, technically, there is no wire between the wall socket and the phone. However, you have to plug-in the PowerMat charger/receiver to your phone (sometimes with a custom-fit case). Therefore, if you leave the case on, you don’t have to plug your phone in and out, which can save a few seconds every time your phone has to charge or is done charging or when you have to move it farther away from the wall or your computer. But the problem is, your phone can only charge when in very, and I mean VERY, close proximity with the PowerMat. You see, magnetic fields decay exponentially. This is why your fridge magnets can only hold up so many sheets of paper before falling off to the floor, along with your papers or your kids macaroni sculpture of a giraffe, or maybe it was a turtle, who can really tell, that kid has no talent. Whenever your phone is more than a few millimeters from the PowerMat it loses power and disconnects, no longer charging your phone. This means, if you got a text message and lift your phone to see what it says, your phone is no longer charging. Sure, you didn’t have to plug it in to charge, but if you had a power-cord, you shouldn’t have to unplug it just to check a text message or make a call or set an alarm or play Perturbed Pigeons or whatever. Yeah, so basically, you can’t really use PowerMat efficiently unless you plan to leave it there. No charging it while in a call because you realized your battery was real low and wasn’t going to survive the rest of your chat with your best friend. No, when you need to charge with a PowerMat, it’s stuck on the PowerMat, or it’s not charging. Now, you might say, “I charge my phone overnight so its not a problem!” If you charge your phone overnight, you can’t spare an extra 5 seconds to plug it in before you go to bed and unplug it when you wake up?

Now, don’t get me wrong, if you happen to already own a $100 power mat, and you have one of the very few (and I mean, like less than twenty) devices that natively support PowerMat via a custom-fitted case or battery cover ($30-$40 extra), then more power to you. However, if you’re like me and a few hundred million other cell-phone/pda owners, your device is NOT supported. But don’t worry, no, the makers of PowerMat thought of that and created a PowerCube that comes with many of their PowerMat devices. This device can be placed on the PowerMat. It then has a cord, yes a CORD, with various adapters that you can then plug in to your phone. So basically, you can spend $100 on a PowerMat and PowerCube that allows you to replace the cord that probably came FREE with your phone with the CORD that comes out of the PowerCube. If you can’t see how asinine that is, go shoot yourself in the head.

Back to putting this thing in your car. We’ve already discussed that it doesn’t charge unless in near-direct contact. Therefore, how are you going to use your phone as an in-car GPS unless they angle the mat just perfectly, and if you’ve ever tried to angle your own GPS, you know there is no “just perfectly”. We discussed how they don’t have receivers for most phones and PDAs, so you have to use an adapter WITH A CORD to connect to the power mat, essentially buying you nothing (except this cord is like, 4 inches long). What good is this thing, and why would GM put them in a damn car? The only answer I can come up with is that after they needed a $20-billion dollar bail out to keep their 100-year-old car-building philosophy alive. GM wanted something to convince people that they are looking to the future, instead of trying to figure out how they can keep everyone in the past. They have the Volt, an electric car that’s really just a Hybrid car. They have OnStar, which is such an important, critical safety feature that they charge you an extra $200/year, not available in all models, see dealer for details. Now they’ll have PowerMat, charge you an extra $who-knows-how-much, and all without changing their failed business models or corporate strategies.

What about safety? How safe are these power-mats for the sensitive electronics in your cell-phone? If you leave your phone on so you can make phone calls with your bluetooth headset, will the reception be good enough, or will the device interfere? If you lean up against the dashboard, will it disrupt your pacemaker? These are all good questions and I don’t know if PowerMat, GM, or anyone else has fully looked into these things (this is my own little Glen-Beck style propose the ludicrous until some one tells me otherwise).

Anyway, I had to write about this because it was so infuriating. Rather than make the cars more fuel efficient or come with features people will actually use (I had to rent a Chevy Cobolt recently, it didn’t even have an in-cab trunk release), they’re going to put in PowerMats, the most over-priced useless device you’ll buy next to your cell-phone. And remember, they needed $20-billion of YOUR tax dollars to do it.

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Too Bored to Par-tay!

Monday, August 9, 2010

I dunno what that’s supposed to mean, but when does it ever mean anything?

So, according to wikipedia, when you put spaces between sentences you are supposed too use only one space. Now, believe it or not, I’m actually old enough too have used a typewriter. See, with mono-spaced font (like Courier for you Word morons), there’s not a clear enough break between the period and the next letter, so two spaces were traditionally used. However, with the advent of dynamically spaced fonts, supposedly you are (and apparently always were) only to use a single space. My phone has a shortcut to end a sentence by hitting space twice in a row. However, this inserts a period and a SINGLE space. Talk about confusing.

Anyway, what’s my point? My point is, I hate purists who come along and tell you that everything you grew up doing is wrong, it was wrong when you learned it, and just because most of the rest of the world does it too, doesn’t make it right. Guess what? Majority rules bitch, and if you think your pencil neck geek friends can take on the world, you can sure fucking try. Just don’t be upset when a bunch of double-spacing, preposition sentence-ending hillbillies beat the shit out of you.

I remember when everyone celebrated Y2K as the end of the millennium. Some nerd out there said that 2000 was the last year of the millennium, so it won’t actually end till new years 2001. Well, I don’t know what happened to that guy (I’m guessing a terminal swirly from some 3rd grade girls), but the rest of the world celebrated the end of the millennium anyway.

Point is, these things are all meaningless anyway. These non-scientific rules came out in an attempt to define and clarify. Why can’t you end a sentence with a preposition? Supposedly the sentence is harder to read if you do that? What’s a dangling participle? If it’s not what I saw that girl in Juarez do that one time, I ain’t got no clue. Old, arbitrary rules should just be done away with, like the tuck rule, or the fact that you can’t buy mustache wax on a Tuesday if you’re wearing brown trousers.

Bah, I’ve run out of crap to bitch about, go away.

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Phone post #2

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

image

I think I posted an article from my phone once before. It was really difficult because I was using the website on my tiny screen. Well, no more. My bi-yearly updates can now be made directly through this nifty new Android app, assuming it works.

Don’t really have much more to say. So until next year, latah playah!

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College is for Chumps

Monday, February 23, 2009

Just like our last wonderful administration convinced morons that everyone should own a house, the current administration is trying to convince morons that everyone should go to college. This is not true. College is only for people who want to advance their understanding of a very specific field. Its not for some fresh out of highschool moron who has too much free time and doesn’t know what to do with their life. If you don’t know what to do, you certainly shouldn’t go to college, it will just be a waste of your and everyone else’s time.

I don’t know how many people I saw in college studying whatever they thought sounded cool, or perhaps studied nothing at all, and were just going for their “general studies” degree. What a waste. Why would you spend 4+ years learning nothing you cared about? Go out into the real world and get a real job, be a productive member of society instead of a leech for those 4 years. I was worthless for those 4 years. No job, no hobbies, nothing. Just homework, video games, and TV. Of course, I knew exactly what I was going to do, knew exactly which degrees to take, and actually became a productive member of society once I graduated. Bunch of people in my class found nothing to do after college. They ended up take chump jobs they could have gotten without the college degree, and loads of student debt they incurred.

Worse yet, since more people get degrees they don’t use, it devalues the degrees of others who actually do use them. The national labs back in ABQ like to hire people with masters of doctorates. They don’t place any value in a bachelors, even though I am probably a lot more capable than half the people they hire (no, I did not apply and was not turned down for a job at any lab). Of course, I do have 2 bachelors, so thats a leg up on lots of other graduates.

Long story short, if you don’t know what you want to do, stay out of college. People who do know what they want to do don’t need you crowding the classrooms and taking the good parking spots.

Of course, maybe you do know what you want to do, and you still don’t need college. If you want to be a policeman, a plumber, a welder, or something like that, you certainly don’t need a formal 4-year education you’ll never use. There’s no reason not to go to a trade or vocational school or community college. Why not take a two-year course and get a job or apprenticeship doing something you actually want to do. It’s like those commercials for those car repair schools. IF you want to repair cars, good for you. No shame in getting a certificate instead of a degree if it means you get a steady, well-paying job. Just think about that next time you get your coffee served to you by some MBA, and maybe laugh a little inside.

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New Phone New Post

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Ok. I’m typing this on tiny little keys on my new phone. It’s one of them new-fangled Google Android phones. At least it has a qwerty keyboard so i don’t have to try to tap this crap onto the screen.

I think that’s enough for now, my fingers are getting tired.

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Instanitology

Monday, February 9, 2009

I’m creating my own religion. It worked so well for Joseph Smith, Muhammad, Peter, L. Ron Hubbard, and so many other self-professed prophets. Shit, L. Ron had himself his own fucking fleet of ships that he sailed around the world, avoiding extradition for his various crimes. Smith had his legion of wives (ok, he wasn’t a polygamist). Peter turned his experience into the worlds richest religion (God needs your donations for pointy pope hats). Muhammad had it all wrong, he seemed only to preach to spread his faith, he didn’t seem to make any money at all. What a weirdo.

Anyway, I haven’t come up… I mean, been bestowed with any of the details yet. But as they are divined to me (or beamed into my brain by space aliens) I will share them with the world. In the mean time, I’m going to figure out what kind of entrance fees I should charge people to enter my religion. I’m debating if women will be allowed, and I’m not too keen on magic underwear, but it is under consideration.

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