anger management

Here I am, under a warm comforter, with a warm kitty curled at my side, while it is in the 60's outside. In late January. I have a few items that have been bugging me, and instead of sending numerous tweets; www.twitter.com/ninjamunkeyI have decided to post stuff here. Odd I know but sometimes things happen......


1) Dear MLB network. I love that Verizon is carrying you. I hate that your commercials feel like 4 am PSA's instead of actual ads. I also hate that it appears you believe there are only two teams in the MLB, Red Sox and Yankees. Grr. Cover the Cubs, or Braves, or anyone. I know that my lowly Rangers are barely a blip on the national coverage, save for the Josh Hamilton story, and I think people are getting tired of that, as great of a story as it is.


2) National news people that want to keep reminding me that President Obama is "the first African American" to be president. He is also the first president to win that I voted for. He is the first president that I felt was "too good". His skin color has nothing to do with it.


3) My biggest rant is about my medical care. I feel like I have gone to a shady mechanic and the parts he put into me are starting to fail. I think the mechanic (doctor) put sugar in my gastank, and sand in my radiator, guaranteeing a repeat visit by me, and another 25 copay. 86 dollar office visit, test that is going to cost me 500 bucks in the end, endless bloodwork that costs more each time, the calls from bill collectors. I am tired of the mail that tells me it is not a bill, but eventually becomes a bill. I am sick of meds that I have to have in order to be somewhat normal, but cost more this month because generics are not available. I am tired of the dry mouth that creeps up in the middle of a conversation making the person I am talking to look at me like a nutjob, due to the medicine. I hate the hours I sit wide awake at night, either from the tremors of pain in my legs and hips, or because one of my drugs has decided to keep me up.


4) I hate that with little income we have right now, everything is so damn expensive. The video games, the take out, the movies and popcorn, all the necessities in life. :) Ok done ranting, off to watch a show about the best Red Sox of all time.

I have a question for you....

You know those questions that people around the world ask, that everyone has to answer one way or the other? Questions that sum up a persons stance based solely on their answer. For example:

“Paper or Plastic?”
“Chevy or Ford?”
“Coke or Pepsi?”

Well today I am going to answer one of those questions.

“Mac or Windows?”

I actually get asked that question quite a bit in my line of work. Neighbors, family, friends, clients, that guy that throws the paper, the mailman,…well you see how it can be.

My answer was always a hedge, a waffle. I could list the benefits of both platforms. I used both platforms, daily.

I went out yesterday and purchased a copy of Windows XP professional, for a clients machine I was working on. 299.99. It was necessary, so I choked it up and bought it. I went to install it, and the factors to install it were pretty simple, but then I got to the registration. You see, you plug in the CD license key, a 16 digit number that makes your install legal. Then, well you call Microsoft and get another key, something like 25 digits,to show that not only is your software legal, its activated as well. And you give them all your information so they know who bought what. If for some reason your hard drive crashes, and you put in another one, you install windows, activate the key from the cd, then activate the windows by calling again, and begging for another key, because your machine broke.

To me there is a trust factor there. Microsoft trusts that your going to buy the software. They know you have to have it. Then they trust you to use your license key from the packaging, because otherwise, the installation will not start. Then they trust you will call and activate that software, otherwise a small grimlin will jump out of your fan in 30 days and uninstall your pictures and music. Or so I hear.

I really am getting to my point. When you buy Mac OS on disk, its 129.00. When you buy it, its activated. When you install it, it asks your name, and then it can send stuff back to Apple, or you can choose to register now, later, or never.


So macs trust you o use the software on one machine, but the ability to install on several is there. Windows, not so much.

I choose Mac. They are to a point now that anything you can do on a PC running windows, you can do on a Mac. Now Macs can even run windows, with the help of Parallels software, or using Apple’s Bootcamp software.
Of course if you install Parallels and Bootcamp at the same time and want to see which you like better, you have to install a copy of XP. Then you have to call Microsoft and get 2 license keys, but they will only give you one. See installing it in 2 different locations on the same machine, they see that as installing it twice, and want you to pony up with another 300 bucks.


So Hi, Im a Mac.

Fuuuuuudge

So Thursday I had yet another procedure on my back. The pain, well it was quite present. My buddy Greg drove me to the doctor and then back home, stopping on the way for some food and beer. We had been hanging out on the patio for most of the evening, drinking and generally catching up. We each had our laptops out, being drunk geeks for the most part. My macbook pro, 7 months old, was starting to run low on juice, so I figured I would take it into the kitchen right off the patio, and plug it in.

Foggy from the beer, I set it on the island, plug it in and start to walk away. As I turned around, hearing a faint "ssssssssssss" I saw what can only be described as a walking laptop. You see, under the mac, the mail from that afternoon was sitting piled up. One of those shiney magazine like circulars was sitting under the mac, and was providing just enough to allow the thing to slide.

Of course having had said back procedure a few hours before, I could not leap for it. I could not dive towards the ground, I could only yell "shit" as it bashed into the floor. There was a sickening thud, and as I gingerly reached to pick it up, said a small prayer to the computer gods. I opened the screen saw no cracks (usually at least 500 to fix) and sighed in relief. I mean it was still running.


That is where the reality set in. One of the worst things you can do is drop a hard drive, only thing worse, have it be running. All of the Ipods that fail? Usually dropped or beaten to death because someone runs with it. So for the past 4 days I have been trying to find a way to recover my stuff.


Yes I had a back up. However, when I was working quickly to back up again overnight right after the fall, I hastily deleted my only good backup to make room for the new one.

Uh huh, yeah, your local computer guy, that does this for a living, screwed himself pretty good.

Its just stuff, and most of it can be replaced. I am going to attempt to recover the drive bit by bit, but I dont have much hope. So if you see me sitting in a corner, cursing hardwood floors and the effect on Macintosh computers, well you know I was not successful.