The problem with IT

I've had a headache now for like, 4 days, so I'm going to take this opportunity to bitch. Not that I need an excuse...

So I play a game called Eve Online. It's a fun game, and I pay the monthly fee because I enjoy it. It's astonishing to me, however, the game has the problems it does. I can't really get into detail too much without describing the game, but problems with delays caused by information being stored on the server instead of the client is probably my single biggest beef.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. Eve deployed a new patch to fix a stupid feature, and they had to take the server down for 'hardware problems' apparently, which is ok, I don't play it enough to be bothered by that, but I got on Eve this evening, and commented about it, and some guy starts bitching me out because he works in IT, and I don't realize how difficult things are, and hardware can be funny, and ISP problems are beyond your control, and a whole slew of crap. And I think to myself, Wow...this guy takes care of servers, and he thinks it's ok for them to be down...

Like the real problem in IT is the people who expect things to work. Like people should be sympathetic because they're not being provided with the service which it is the IT department's job to provide. There are more than enough tools to provide consistent and reliable service to IT customers, and there is no excuse for not doing so. ISP related issues can happen, but it's your job to make sure that the ISP your company uses is reliable and is held accountable for any issues that do come up.

Anyway. The guy just burned me. There was a time when that kind of crap might have passed, but modern day, if IT is inconveniencing your customers in ANY way, it's a big problem, and it needs to be fixed.

Sinfest - A comic I stumbled upon

Number 63

Just a sample. The comic covers a wide variety of topics.

Jerry Caldwell?

Overheard at home tonight:

Mom: What did he die from?
Rob: Being a dumb motherfucker.

I wonder where I get it...

A pretty funny video clip of some of the worst movie moments ever, courtesy of Liz:

Worst Movie Scenes Ever

Thermometer Trivia

Thermometers used to be filled with brandy instead of mercury. This was good because even if you didn't want to know the temperature, you could still drink the thermometer.

Deli Ham

I stood in line at the Deli for a while today...

When you walk up to the Deli counter, and ask for Ham, they generally have different kinds available. They generally differ in price by like, less than 20%. Surprisingly, they don't offer 3 different kinds of ham because they want you to be able to choose how much you pay. People don't walk into the store and think, 'Gee, I'd like to pay extra for my food today'. They offer different kinds because they taste different. It's really simple to solve the whole Ham dilemma, and I encourage you to do the following:

1. Go to your deli, and ask for a sample of their three different kinds of ham.
2. Taste them.
3. Buy the one that tastes the best for the value.

If, on the other hand, you don't give a shit about what the things you eat taste like, walk your ass over to the pre-packaged meat and get out of my way so I can buy my ham.

HD-DVD Processing Key

Incase you don't travel the tech-savy circles of the internet, there's currently some business going on with the key that has been used by most HD-DVD disks released thus far. The key was released accidentally, and it's all over the place now.
Apparently, someone in the know can use this key to get around all the encryption present on these HD-DVD's, and do what they like with them. Which I wholly support. A lot of sites, including Digg and Google are bending to get away from this number.
Anyway, the whole thing presents a plethora of angles for commentary, but the one I'm really interested in: Can you copyright a number? The answer, at least for now, appears to be "Yes, if you're an asshole." In light of this, while I've unfortunately found prior art for the number '9', there are several other numbers I'm currently applying for copyrights on.

Finals Week

As the semester winds down, I'm finding myself with more time to think about life instead of just what crazy assignments I've been given. On that note, I always thought the phrase "Like white on rice" was racist...but when I got to thinking about it today...I guess it's not, is it? Rice, or at least common rice, is white. So it's got white on it. I don't know where I came up with the racist thing.