22????

I decided to uninstall Visual Studio 2008 from my work computer today to try and fix a problem I was having.  Logically I went to the Add or Remove Programs control panel and selected Visual Studio 2008 and hit uninstall.  After about 15 minutes the uninstall completed and I noticed there were many other programs listed that were related to Visual Studio 2008 that hadn’t been removed.  I did a google search to figure out which to remove and found the official instructions on how to remove Visual Studio 2008.  From Microsoft’s website:

Manual uninstall instructions

1. Go to the Control Panel and launch Add/Remove Programs
2. Remove all instances of Visual Studio 2008/Codename Orcas products
3. Remove any remaining supporting products in the specified order.
   1. Remove “MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008”
   2. Remove “Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5”
   3. Remove “Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Design Tools”
   4. Remove “Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 for Devices”
   5. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio Performance Collection Tools”
   6. Remove “Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Pocket PC”
   7. Remove “Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Smartphone”
   8. Remove “Crystal Reports 2007”
   9. Remove “Visual Studio Asset System”
   10. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring Component / Microsoft Web Designer Tools”
   11. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Runtime”
   12. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Runtime Language Pack” (non-English editions only)
   13. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime 3.0”
   14. Remove “Microsoft Document Explorer”
   15. Remove “Microsoft Document Explorer 2005 Language Pack” (non-English editions only)
   16. Remove “Microsoft Device Emulator 3.0”
   17. Remove “Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5”
   18. Remove “Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP1”
   19. Remove “.NET Framework 2.0 SDK”
   20. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio Codename Orcas Remote Debugger”
   21. Remove “Microsoft Visual Studio 64bit Prerequisites Beta” (64-bit platforms only)
   22. Remove “Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5”

22!! I kid you not, 22 seperate “programs” to uninstall to get rid of this beast!  They also provide a handy .exe you can download that will do it all for you but you have to go to their website to get it.  WTF did the one that I ran do?  Conveniently removed 1/22 of the installed product.  Who designs this stuff?

Facebook is Listening

Facebook has apparently figured out that I am Christian. Instead of the usual advertisements for singles in my area, with thinly veiled suggestions that they wouldn’t mind hooking up for a night, they are now telling me about “hot local Christian singles”. This could be from me being listed as “Christian – Seventh-Day Adventist” under religious views in my profile, but as it just started happening after I wrote about missionary work in a private message I think they are reading my messages. Further evidence is the fact that I also started getting ads for “Patagonia Mountain Climbing School” about the same time (also mentioned in my message). It is somewhat amusing that they go through the considerable effort to sift through my private messages and try to figure out what I like while seemingly ignoring the considerable amount of publicly posted information I provided about myself: religious views, political views, favorite TV shows, books, movies, etc.

Ahhh Progress!

I was browsing through Barnes and Noble and I found a book on Detroit history, it had this:

It is an advertisement for an electric car with a range of 80-100 miles, it is from 1916. It is nice to know that after 92 years, landing a man on the moon, inventing the computer, cellphones, and building super-sonic jets modern electric cars have a range of: 50-160 miles. You could replace the picture and price and run this exact same ad in a magazine today.

A New Low

You know you have been spending too much time randomly browsing the internet when you find yourself here.  I really need to go buy another book.

Thumb Screws

I read a really good article over at ars-technica about the music industry. Sales of CDs are dropping and they are desperately seeking something to staunch the flow of lost revenue. For some reason none of them have come up with the revolutionary idea of offering their customers the option of downloading CD quality music for a slightly reduced cost (as there is less overhead). Instead their approach has been to erect larger and larger barriers to keep people from pirating, the latest of which is apparently filtering internet traffic. The article has a great quote:

the real issue is that filtering won’t work until the thumbscrews are so tight that blood is pouring from people’s hands. Should that day ever come, the revolucíon won’t be far behind

The article goes on to say that they need a different business strategy not tighter thumbscrews.

This is turn reminds me of the circus that is airport and border security. The Washington Post has a great article talking about the search and seizure of electronics at international borders. Right now your laptop can be seized without a reason given, held indefinitely, all of your data copied, and you can be forced to reveal all of your passwords. To me this doesn’t seem much different from them holding you in the airport while the police in your home town do a thorough search of your home and office. I’m not really sure what they are hoping to accomplish; maybe that a randomly selected business traveler will somehow turn into a terrorist and keep all of their plans and Osama’s home address on their laptop? The above quote is just as true here as it is with the music industry, it isn’t that this might not help, it’s that for it to help we have to surrender all of our civil liberties. The police/intelligences agencies/military/homeland security don’t need less restrictions, they need a new strategy.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety

-Benjamin Franklin (or perhaps Richard Jackson)

I think I’m going to be sick

On a whim I looked up how much we have spent on the war in Iraq as of right now. It is about $440 Billion with a B. Estimates of the total cost by the time we get out are in the neighborhood on $1 Trillion, but lets just focus on the 440 right now. $440 billion that is about $1500 for every man, woman, and illegal immigrant in the United States. Thats a good amount, I think most families of four could use an extra $6000, but if we are going to spend it what could we get for it? Well we could have given it to the Iraqis directly, it would have been about $15,000 for every man, woman, and child in Iraq. If you thought your family of four could use $6000 think what a family of four in Iraq could have done with $60,000. Considering that the average salary there is about $1000 a year (as far as I can tell) I am thinking that would have gone a long way.

We always could have spent the money at home, fixed that pesky social security problem, repeated the Apollo project four times (we could have gone to Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter!) or maybe just not DOUBLED our national debt (seriously when he took office $5.6 Trillion, now over $9 Trillion, its not double yet, but I’m sure it will be before he leaves).

After all of this Bush is complaining about the proposed budget from congress because it was over budget by $10 billion. Is he f***ing insane? Lets see where could be get an extra $10 billion…where indeed.

Sissy Ass Pics?

I was looking through the web stats for my blog, it tells me what terms people have searched for that have brought them too my site. Most of these are for my projects from Walla Walla, things like “double inverted pendulum”, or “8051 alarm clock”. Today however there was a new one, someone got to my page by searching for “sissy ass pics”. Curious I typed it into Google to see how this could possibly lead to my page. This turned out to be a mistake, as I got page after page of results about bondage, strap-ons, and other worse things from the seedy side of the Internet. Not exactly the crowd I want to be associated with. I really have no idea how this happened as I don’t think I have used the words “sissy” or “ass” on my site before this post.  I suppose then that writing about this is somewhat dangerous as I might start getting more visitors from this search term.  So I guess I should say if you are here looking for “sissy ass pics” and/or sex toys you can move along.  Nothing to see here folks, nothing to see here.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Over 92.1% of statistics are made up on the spot, including this one. You would think that in a modern society where science is supposedly replacing religion people would be a little more skeptical when random numbers are thrown around.

“You only use 10% of your brain”. You hear this everywhere, it seems to be accepted by everyone as fact, written in stone by God himself. I have even heard it repeated by doctors who should know better. It seems to be permanently lodged in the American psyche even though there is no evidence for it, and never has been. I am going to start asserting that we only use 18% of our sense of smell, if we could only use that other 82% man what a world that would be!

Tipping Is a City in China!

The idea behind tipping is a good one, you give someone who is serving you a little something extra for good service.  The important words in that sentence are “extra”, “good service”, and maybe “little”.  Somewhere along the line tipping has morphed into this terrible beast which will smite you if you dare oppose it.  Everyone wants to be tipped if they do anything at all, I had a taxi driver demand a tip, and the worst part is I gave him something.

Restaurants are the nexus from which this cancer is spreading. The whole idea of a “mandatory tip” for large parties (to the tune of 18%) is both an oxymoron and plain insulting.  Not to mention that the level of bad service that is required before not tipping is acceptable is for the waiter to light your hair on fire, on purpose, then laugh at you.

I would start on a campaign and boycott tipping.  This would have the advantages of striking out at an evil situation and saving me 20% when I go out to eat. However, this tends to upset others in the party resulting in me being called names (cheap) and cries for the poor waiters (How will they eat? How will they feed their children? Oh the humanity!).  So instead I will merely grumble about it on my blog.

Something is Missing…Sunburn? Nope Got That!

I drove to Traverse City in northern Michigan this weekend to go camping. The weather up there is really nice this time of year and as an added bonus they are having a Cherry Festival. This is in the middle of cherry country, it is surrounded by cherry orchards and every shop proudly features everything from cherry juice and ice cream to cherry beef jerky (seriously). As I wander through the festival I get the feeling that something is missing. Lots of tourists? Nope. Artsy craftsy stuff? Nope. Fair food (hot dogs, funnel cakes, etc)? Nope. Oh yeah, Fresh Cherries!! I looking around for a while and I finally find a few tiny over priced cartons. Disappointed I ask where I can get a large box of cherries, the helpful reply, at the supermarket. Not exactly what I was expecting.

Oh yes, I also got a memorable sunburn. Not that it is that bad, but as Raelynn was eager to point out, I have a tan line that looks like I was wearing a bikini top. I was lying on my back reading with the book propped on my chest, which of course left a very distinct tan line right below my pecs. Awesome.