Month: June 2007

RANT! Times for TV shows

RANT! Times for TV shows

I have a TiVo. Most of you probably do also. Actually, I am a little weird in that I have TiVo as well as a HD-DVR from my cable supplier (I will definitely rant on this in the future).

I get really ticked off when television shows decide to start a couple minutes earlier or stay on a couple minutes longer. Do the TV execs really think we don’t know what they are doing? It isn’t that they couldn’t figure out how to edit the show down to 60 minutes. No, they are trying to screw up our TiVo programming! They want your love of ER or Lost (or whatever) to screw up their competitor.

TV executives KEEP YOUR LOUSY SHOWS IN THEIR TIME SLOT! STOP MESSING WITH MY TIVO!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! Smoking is for idiots

RANT! Smoking is for idiots

I will rant on this many times in the future. I am bringing it up now because of recent news article that I read on Chron.com. You can read the full article here, but it was on AP so it is everywhere.

People need to take some responsibility for their own actions. Smoking causes cancer and much of the cancer kills. The scientific facts are irrefutable and only an idiot would smoke.

So here is a story that says that teens are smoking because of Katrina. GROW UP! People smoke because they are idiots. That is the only reason. If there were any other reasons, those reasons would be overridden by the fact that they are idiots.

You buy a pack of cancer sticks and it says right on the package that smoking causes cancer. The stuff is so bad for you that they don’t even allow most advertising for it.

IF YOU ARE NOT AN IDIOT THAN STOP SMOKING!!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
http://gripernews.blogspot.com/2007/06/stuff-i-didnt-get-to-62507.html
http://smoke-n-cough.blogspot.com/2007/06/questions-about-smoking-tobacco-and.html

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RANT! What date is on the magazine – its wrong!

RANT! What date is on the magazine – its wrong!

Why are the dates on magazines always wrong? Is there a good reason why magazine publishers always date their magazines weeks or months ahead of the actual date? Do they think we are stupid?

I am sure that this has something to do with magazines on the shelves and some study of decades ago that said that people didn’t buy magazines from the bookstand if the date had passed. So now all of the magazines pre-date their magazine so that the date is essentially useless. All they have trained us to do is to accept that if we see a magazine that has today’s date then we know that it is yesterday’s news.

Publishers: PUT THE CORRECT DATE ON THE COVER OF YOUR MAGAZINE, WE KNOW YOU ARE ONLY PLAYING GAMES!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.

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RANT! Bloggers: Use Less with More

RANT! Bloggers: Use Less with More

I read a lot of blogs. I enjoy getting thoughts on a variety of subjects that only the blogging community can give me. I encourage more people to create and run a blog, it is quite enjoyable and most people have something worthwhile to write.

A fairly common technique in the blogging community is to reduce the length of the post with the MORE command (check out this link for information and background). However, in my opinion, the MORE command doesn’t work correctly for most blogging platforms, especially WordPress out of the box. The blogger must also use the equivalent of the Less plug-in for a better experience.

The MORE command out of the box will open a page that has the rest of the blog post and will place the top of the page to be exactly the next line after the MORE command. The problem is that there will be a several second delay in generating this page and then the user will not be sure that the top of the line is exactly where they want to be. They will then have to scroll up a few lines to read the last few sentences and then continue reading.

Also, the MORE command assumes that you actually read to the last line, the user may have actually clicked on the continue button without finishing the last few words. This is way to presumptuous – software and authors should not presume that they know what I want to do. You aren’t that smart!!

When reading a typical website, when you hit the Page Down button, you will scroll down a full page but the next page down will show the last few lines of the previous page. This allows you to quickly find out where you are and continue reading. It eliminates the issue of wondering “Did I miss anything” causing the reader to scroll up a few lines and waste time.

The solution is to add the Less plug-in or modify your code to not go to top of page.

I have implemented Less on this site and so it is easy for you to see how this experience should work. Just go to my main index page.

Bloggers: IMPLEMENT A “LESS” TYPE PLUGIN IF YOU USE “MORE”

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.

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RANT! Incomplete emails

RANT! Incomplete emails

Why do people write emails without finishing the process?

I despise it when someone writes me an email saying that we should talk, have lunch, etc. but then don’t suggest a time and place. Asking someone if they want to go to lunch is not any easier than asking someone to go to lunch next Thursday at McSnoops at 11:30AM.

The former method simply creates more work if no one takes charge. You ask me to go to lunch. I say yes. You ask me where. I say McSnoops. You ask me when. I say next Thursday. You ask me what time. I say 11:30. 8 emails that should only take 2.

FINISH THE THOUGHT!

TAKE CHARGE!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm
http://www.emailreplies.com/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/to-bcc-or-not-bcc-email-etiquette.html

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RANT! Software doesn’t know best- it should be stupid

RANT! Software doesn’t know best- it should be stupid

I despise software that thinks it knows best! I want it to be smart enough to know what to do no matter where I put it or where its data resides.

Why do software companies think they know where to put stuff? I hate it when the install of the software doesn’t allow me to put the application on the hard drive that I choose (it is rarely the C drive that it likes). Software programmers that don’t ask where to install should be FIRED and their software should be THROWN INTO THE BIT HEAP!

I also don’t like it when it tells me where to store my data. Sometimes, I want it in My Documents and sometimes I don’t. If I know I am going to back up that data then I want it in My Documents. If I am not going to back it up, I don’t want it in My Documents. Apple is really guilty of this with their iTunes software (don’t ever let them manage your music – it will be lost forever).

While I am at it, here is a good reference to show how to change the location of your My Documents. I didn’t know how to do this until a friend showed me.

Software developers – YOU NEED TO BE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW YOU DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
RANT! Music formats should get along – 1 of 2
RANT! Music formats should get along – 2 of 2

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