The Initial Post

Well, here we go. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and had resisted, mostly because I expected it to be nothing but advertisements and because I was not sure where the value might be. After all, who wants to read my rants and complaints? Which is exactly what this could turn into unless I am careful.

I thought I might cover the home-front happenings, computer going on's and maybe some politics and other untouchables.

I suppose I should start with a couple of rants, just to get things going.

I hate Windows, Microsoft and Bill Gates. While I use his products (it is somewhat unavoidable), I am making every effort to dispose of everything Microsoft. This is an on-going thing that has evolved over the last 3 or 4 years, reaching it's peak around April of this year. I started seriously investigating a Linux alternative. Altho I had played with it as far back as Red Hat 6.0 and later 7.0, it was never really a serious attempt at replacing MS systems.

There is more detail on my web site, but the gist is the uncooperative attitude of Microsoft was finally too much and I cracked. Went Postal, so to speak. Sometimes it just stands out in glaring neon letters "I don't want you to do that, so I'm going to make it as hard as possible...." It revolved around FireFox, Intenet Explorer and Windows Favorites. It wasn't even important as I didn't really use Favorites, I just was trying to integrate FireFox with Windows and it was obvious that MS did not intend to cooperate. I seem to remember there was a big flap with the government over things like this. Leopards never change thier spots, so they say.

So, I started down the Linux path. With several years as a system admin for a small system running the Southern California version of UNIX, Linux seemed like a natural. Sure enough, I was immediately comfortable with Linux. It took a while to figure out whch distro, what programs I needed and how to configure the system, but I eventually got there. Just when things were running smoothly, my system crashed. HD failure. Oh, Damn.

My systems (I have 4 in my home network) are all home built out of mostly old junk collected from everywhere. Mine in particular is a big collection of salvaged junk. Only the motherboard and hard drive were purchased new and were cheap. I finally decided that was it. I had had enough. I wanted a new machine.

Anyway to make a long story short, I got a new HP referbed P4 3 GHz box at Fry's (Ugh, but that's another story). Now I was back to Windows and this thing had more trash on it than you could believe. I took me 3 full days of work to get rid of the trash. Everyone wanted their share of the action. From Microsoft trying to get me to buy Plus! (programs that should have come with Windows), HP trying to sell me accessories and every media company in the world trying to sell me music, It was frantic. I hate everything connected to Marketing, particularily misleading, money grubbing advertising. As Dylan said in the 60's, "Propaganda all is phoney"

Then I lost a file. I wasn't sure where the installer (FireFox again) had put the profile file, so I popped up the search screen. What was this? A fucking puppy, blinking his eyes and wagging his tail? Setting there scratching, trying to look cute, wanting to know what I wanted to do? Give me a break. Who's bright idea is this? It's a damn machine not a stupid puppy! I want a puppy, I'll buy a puppy. I bought a computer, not a puppy. Damn, things like this just prove they just don't get it. So, now I'm looking for some way to KILL THE FUCKING PUPPY! See what they've done to me. I spent over $500 for a stupid animated puppy and can't even find a way to get rid of it. I'm not even sure it's house broken and I sure don't know how to break it. It sure shit all over my day. God, I hate it. I'm gonna put in a new HD and load Linux as fast as I can Put Windoze in the back room and when the MS Police come, pretend I don't know what they are talking about . "I swear, guys, I never killed no puppies."