Day: December 14, 2006

From Little Green Footballs an amazingly transparent recounting of the life of a man’s grandfather and what it means in these days when some would stand and demand the the Nazis did not try to eliminate the Jewish culture from the face of the planet….

It’s a tale of derived understanding, of knowing pictures of people who are no more, did in fact exist and that cannot be denied.

If you choose to read his post, be ready, it’s an emotional account in a factual matter, written like Peter Falk playing his character of Colombo, but in a far more reverential manner. You may need Kleenex – so don’t tell me I didn’t warn you first.

From How my grandad invented the Holocaust by Eugene:

My father’s father died when I was 16, 15 years ago. Or was I 18? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago. My memory fails me, the daguerreotype has faded. I know that he was. And then he was not. I know this because I saw him when he was. And then I saw him again. And he wasn’t any more. He lived, and then he died. It is a fact.

My grandfather had a little sister. I know what she looked like. I have seen the photo. A 1941 photo. Or was it 1940? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago that I saw it last. My grandfather knew. But he has been dead for a while, so he cannot tell me. If the photo was taken in 1941, that is the year my grandfather’s sister died.

In his 60s, towards the end of his days, my grandfather got very sentimental. He had had three heart attacks, the first one when he was in his 40s, so he wasn’t good for much towards the end of his days. He would sit on the couch, clutching his sister’s old photo, and cry. About 40 years had passed, but he would still cry. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that, many years after my parents go, may they live a long life, I will cry exactly like he did. My people, the Jews, are like that. Cry babies.

So his sister lived, and then she died. It is a fact. I know that, because I have seen my grandfather cry over her photo.

Read and be enriched by this story and know the truth is nothing but the truth, so help us God.

X-posted from Chaotic Synaptic Activity.

An abbreviated comment on tech support hell.

I don’t mind at all providing the occassional freebie tech support to family and friends. Kinda like a doctor making sure his kids take essential meds or something. 🙂

But. What I hate is having to call HP or Dell tech support (especially HP, recently) for naive users who are unable to navigate the bullshit spouted by “tech support” personnel whose only goal seems to be to make the customer keep the piece of crap they’ve been saddled with, unrepaired, cos dealing with tech support is just too painful… Seriously.

Well, it’s either that or their Indian accents are so thick that their “solutions” are incomprehensible, as well as wrong. (That doesn’t bother me, I just tell them I’m nearly deaf and need them to speak very slowly and distinctly. After asking them several times to S-P-E-L-L simple words, they usually take the hint… *heh*)

“We are sorry you are still holding… ” Yeh, they really are. In more ways than one. Sorry I’m still holding, because that means they might have to actually make whole the person I’m navigating their system for. Sorrier I’m still holding, because they cannot, CanNOT bullshit me.

“I will have a case manager call you at your convenience. What time will be best for you?” And the check is in the mail. Right. Another lie.

But more and more it’s become typical of the outsourced tech support offered by such as HP. It’s little wonder HP is having to “reinvent” itself.

Do yourself a favor: do NOT buy HP products. Oh, their cameras are pretty nice lil consumer goods (as long as you understand the parameters they can operate within), and HP printers are nice enough MOR printers, again within certain limitations. But when you need tech support? Frankly, in recent days, even Dell is better. At least the Dell techs I’ve talked to have actually known what they were talking about when pressed hard enough (or when thimngs are escalated high enough *heh*). And the onsite Dell people I’ve supervised (for clients who had Dell products still under warranty but wanted to make sure they were actually treated properly–yes, there’s sometimes legitimate cause to have such folks supervised *sigh*) have seemed to be at least moderately competent.

But HP tech support? Painfully bad. Agonizingly unprofessional. Often wrong. And even more often unintelligible.

Not who ya want Aunt Tilly’s computer to have come from.

“Eh? Whatcha say, sonnie? I can’t understand a word you’re saying!”

Buying a computer this year? Do yourself a favor: build it yourself. It won’t cost less, but it will be built better; you’ll know the components, and tech support is as near as the mirror. If you are inexperienced in assembling simple electronic puzzles, see one of the many excellent tutorials on the web. Heck, the one at TigerDirect isn’t half bad, and it’s at the bottom of nearly every page where TD is selling motherboards, etc. Or this one.

Yeh, yeh, I know: I do this stuff all the time so I think it’s no big deal. But seriously, folks, it’s worth it if only to escape tech support hell. And I’d sleep better at night not having to talk to the “day shift” in some country 10 hours ahead of my time zone… because the call center is swamped with customers “having issues” during U.S. waking hours. *sigh*

And,

“I’m very sorry the case manager did not call within the designated time. I can reschedule the call for sometime in the next 24-48 hours… ”

Translation from an execrable Indian accented English: “We wish you to be inconvenienced enough to just give up and go away.”

It’s probably THE primary reason for offshoring the first level of tech support to Indian call centers, saving “a whole lotta lumps” money for HP (et al) in customers who just give up and make their computers into doorstops rather than pursue having the company actually go to the expense of repairing the thing. Probably “makes” them a lot more than the $5 a day or so they pay their unintelligble Indian English speakers (for the service of driving tech support callers away) “makes” for the company. (Both false economies, IMO: how much goodwill is HP willing to write off?)

That super cheap HP you saw on a TV ad? Skip it. They have to skimp on something somewhere to offer it so cheaply. Components and support. It’ll never be worth the tech support hell when it obsolesces itself one month out of warranty (whether you have the OOB or extended warranty)… right on schedule*.

Comment on your own “tech support hell” experiences here or in email, if you would.

Trackposted to Pirate’s Cove, Rightwing Guy, Blue Star Chronicles, Renaissance Blogger, Culturetastic, and Dumb Ox News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Continue reading “Tech Support? I Dunno. I Think It Gives Me a Headache”

Fake but accurate? Yep, boys n girls: the peer review system is well and truly broken, and science reporting is even “brokener,” if that were possible.

Johnathn David Carson cites only a couple of the many recent cases of published, well-recognized, influential “scientists” whose work is/has been widely referenced and relied upon who simply faked their data. He focuses upon one, Michael Mann, and the (once) highly respected and (still) influential American Association for the Advancement of Science journal, Science.

Go, read the whole thing. Here’s a sample:

The so—called “hockey stick” graph appears in the 2001 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations organization that dominates climate change discussion. The graph purported to show that world temperatures had remained stable for almost a thousand years, but took a sudden turn upward in the last century (the blade of the hockey stick). It was the product of research into “proxy” temperature records, such as tree rings, ice cores, and coral reefs, by Michael Mann, the Joe Wilson of climate change. It can be seen here. Charles Martin took a critical look at it last March for The American Thinker.

The problem is that the world was almost certainly warmer than it is today during the “Medieval Warm Period” or “Medieval Climate Optimum” of the 9th through 14th Centuries, which was followed by the “Little Ice Age” of the 15th through 19th Centuries, whose end is the occasion for today’s global warming hysteria.

But Science magazine stuck to its argument. “Politicians Attack, But Evidence for Global Warming Doesn’t Wilt” in the July 28 issue of Science not only employs the typical deceitful rhetoric of the scientific establishment, here presenting an argument among scientists as an argument between scientists and politicians, but also uses the fake—but—accurate excuse for the corrupt activities of its favorite scientists.

Info not in the paragraph above? That Mann fatuously uses his “fake but accurate” hockey stick graph to assert that the 20th Century was the warmest in over 1,000 years… a period that included the much, much warmer “Medieval Warm Period.” Oh, there’s more, not limited to climate alarmist lies urm, “fake but accurate” statements.

May I also once again strongly recommend James P. Hogan’s book, Kicking the Sacred Cow: Heresy and Impermissible Thoughts in Science? Hogan begins with the fakery of Darwin and contemporary Neodarwinists and from there romps merrily through misbehaving “scientific” positions from a wide array of disciplines. Fun.

And slightly frightening. Politicians *spit* aren’t smart enough, for the most part, and just (almost to a person) don’t give a damn (almost entirely) for honesty, to either be able or have the predisposition to search for truth in matters of science that bear upon public policy. So, it might well serve the republic if more citizens cast a gimlet eye upon “scientific” shennanegans… and also upon our political masters, measuring both classes for attire suitable for introduction to Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether…

Trackposted to Planck’s Constant, Renaissance Blogger, Culturetastic, The Random Yak, Dumb Ox News, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

Via the ACLU we find out the U.S. government is finally being proactive against the ACLU in protecting classified information from being leaked for our enemies to know.

The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has asked a federal judge to quash a grand jury subpoena demanding that it turn over to the FBI “any and all copies” of a December 2005 government document in its possession.

The ACLU called the subpoena, served on November 20 by the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York, a transparent attempt to intimidate government critics and suppress informed criticism and reporting.

“The government’s attempt to suppress information using the grand jury process is truly chilling and is unprecedented in law and in the ACLU’s history,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “This subpoena serves no legitimate investigative purpose and tramples on fundamental First Amendment rights. We recognize this maneuver for what it is: a patent attempt to intimidate and impede the work of human rights advocates like the ACLU who seek to expose government wrongdoing.”

The three-and-a-half page document, issued in December 2005, is marked “Secret” and apparently is classified. The ACLU received the document, unsolicited, on October 23, 2006.

Apparently a document marked “Secret” is classified? You don’t say! Quite a scary thing that such a dangerous organization like the ACLU has its hands on classified information. I think the ACLU has already demonstrated how reckless they can be with secret information. You can bet there would be no regard to National Security.

The ACLU think that exposing government wrongdoing is exposing to the enemy the government’s efforts and techniques to secure our nation.

Continue reading “Stop the ACLU: Calling the ACLU on the carpet for possession of classified document”