(no subject)

A memo to Dell.

Dear Dell,

When sending me a new hard disk that you have promised is already partitioned and formatted, with the recovery partition fully configured and a full set of the default right-out-of-the-box software (including, say XP) installed, it is perhaps advisable that you should maybe, possibly, potentially PARTITION AND FORMAT AND INSTALL SOFTWARE ON IT. Opening the bag the drive came in might have been a start, there.

I should not have to spend 3 hours partitioning, formatting, installing, and patching to get the system back up again, because you promised me that it would already be done for me, because a system that's a month old had a complete hard disk failure.

Oh, and the "product recovery" CD you sent with the computer in the first place? Doesn't work if the drive isn't already formatted in all the right ways, and you don't tell me what those ways are.

You suck and you're wasting my time,
John

(no subject)

Fred Clark speaketh:

This train

The camera shows an empty subway platform. The shot frames the small platform perfectly, with both sides of the screen showing the entrance to the tunnels on either side. A sign on the far wall reads "To Brooklyn," with an arrow pointing to the right.

The scene at first is quiet, but then a rumbling begins, growing steadily louder. Suddenly a train bursts into view, moving from left to right. The sound is deafening as its lighted windows roll by in a blur. With a startling suddenness, the last car of the subway train passes, the rumbling recedes, and we see again the empty subway platform.

Where is the train?

"Probably in Brooklyn by now," I say.

"That's not what the text says," my friend says, correcting me. "We did not see the train in Brooklyn. We never even saw Brooklyn. 'Brooklyn' was just a word on a sign. The only time we ever saw the train it was here, in this station."

"But the train was moving ..."

"We can only know what we have seen, what we have been shown."

"But the tracks are headed to ..."

"We couldn't see the tracks. We couldn't see where they are headed. You're trying to go beyond what we could see, and in doing so you're denying what we actually saw. You're denying the text. The text shows the train here, in this station, and that is all we can know about the train."

"And yet it moves."

There's a reason I tend to classify slacktivist as a must-read.

(no subject)

(no subject)

Convenience shoppers walk right over dying woman, stop to take picture of her on their cellphones - but don't make any attempt to help.

(no subject)

Warren Ellis brings me Japanese movie trailers!

Watch on YouTube