The Argument with Hello Bloggerbot

I don't know if it's just me... which it probably is... but the Hello Bloggerbot that is supposed to be all handy-dandy for uploading image files to Blogger just suffers javascript errors trying to do so for me.

I was going to upload an image from that website I talked about yesterday. The image was of a smiley-face sun that had the caption "Nothing here is public domain! Shed the light on copyright!"

I figured that would be the most ironic one to swipe to prove my point. But the Java errors have denied me my satisfaction. It seems to work, but when I try to edit and post the photo, Blogger just declares There were errors.

Well shit, that's not right.

Ah well. I'm pooped and I really don't feel like struggling with it. This is nothing a good ole Flickr account won't cure.

But I'm going to make it short today. I'm dead tired and still have more work to do. So 'til next time, rock on.

Correction to Prior Post: Knight Puts Foot in Mouth

So there I was, berating the poor programmers who write AIM...

Now, there are still problems with your program (I'm a software tester after all. I make a living out of finding errors in programs! I'm good at finding them!) But it wasn't you this time. So I'm gonna eat crow here.

Right after I submitted my last rant, I managed to log back into AIM. And my cousin went "Whoa, I just lost my IM for forty minutes."

Crap.

So it wasn't the codemonkeys! It was the servers! So even though they don't read my blog:

Sorry!


And just because I use it to end every other post:
So 'til next time, rock on!

AOL IM Minirant

While I'm at it:

<minirant>

Speaking of craptastic design, who the fuck managed to screw up the login process for AOL Instant Messenger so badly? I hate bitching about free software, but I'll make an exception in AIM's case.

I was sitting here, minding my own business, talking to a friend and my cousin and AIM fucking boots me off. So I try to reconnect. It sits there for five fucking minutes before returning an error saying "AIM service can not be reached."

Hell, you say!

So I try again. And again. And again and again and again to the point where I'm getting mad.

Finally, the damn thing gets beyond Step "1: Connecting" and moves to "2: Verifying name and password." Ahh, good. Since I have password saved for autologin, that shouldn't be a problem. Zero chance it's the wrong password, ya know?

Again, it sits there for a minute before bouncing the error "Connection lost. Check your internet connection."

Of course, I'm over here doing everything short of hacking the fucking Pentagon, and I'm supposed to check myinternet connection?

How about the codemonkeys over at AOL check their fucking login scripts instead. I could have retarded aardvarks smoke crack and they would still write better code.

If it wasn't for the fact that everyone and their aunt's sister's brother's son's cousin uses the damn program nowadays, I wouldn't be using it. I was happy with ICQ.

I need to switch to Trillian really badly.

ah, well. I'm done for the day.

</minirant>

Time for sleep. So 'til next time, rock on.

Easiest Way to Make Your Website SUCK

I was kind of wondering what I was going to blog about this evening, but since I fell asleep for most of the time between walking through the door and now, I didn't really have time to launch into the political and ethical tirade I planned on. So I was sitting here stumped, and just sat down and browsed the web. I found rant fodder very quickly.

<rant>

So I was looking up a map of Canada (Don't ask why, long story), and I went and clicked the good ole right mouse button so I could open a link in a new window. Instead, I got a popup box saying:

"Function Disabled."

Well WHAT THE FUCK?!

Of course, I knew what the lame-ass idiot was trying to do. "Oh me oh my, I need some way to stop people from stealing my precious graphics! I better disable a ton of useful right-click functionality just so people don't take them!"

Dumbass.

A brief internet lesson for you folks who don't know about the Internet.

The content does not magically stay ON the internet. Every web page you see is stored on your computer in the internet cache. Yes, that's right! Everything you see on this webpage, for example, has been downloaded from the internet and dutifully stored on your very own PC! Which means if I want an image bad enough, I can search my computer or dig through my cache and find the stupid picture!

Furthermore, even if you didn't know about the internet cache... Have you ever heard of the Print Screen button?! You see, there is this nifty button on every standard keyboard called "Print Screen." If you hit "Print Screen..." Guess what? It copies an image of what is ever on your screen to your clipboard. Then, you can go into Paint (or another image editor of your choice), click "paste", and voila! You have an image!

And... Hell, I could just print the damn thing out!

Which means that trying to circumvent it by not allowing right clicks is a slow-witted and simple-minded idea! There are between ten and sixteen commands avalible from the right-click with web browsers, and you're disabling them all to keep us from using one?

Firstly, you suck. Secondly, you're a fucktard. Thirdly, limiting people's options is BAD DESIGN.

Just because I now hate the website and, by extension, the web designer, tomorrow when I'm feeling more ambitious, I will dig through my internet cache and post a bunch of his images here. Not for any particular reason, just because anyone that disables right-clicking sucks.

</rant>

Ahh. I feel better now.

Well, that's all I got. So 'til next time, rock on.

Contact Info and the Hunt for the Chocolate Dinosaur

First off, I wanted to remain more or less unknown for bloggin' purposes, so I recently set myself up an E-mail account solely for this blog. So in other words, if you got a problem with me or my blog and don't want to put it in the Comments section (or nice things! Those are good too!) then sent your mail to: modernknighterrant#gmail.com

Of course, replace the "#" with "@". I did that to reduce the amount of spam that gets sucked in via computer crawlers dutifully recording every email addy they find. It probably won't work for long, but any delaying tactic helps, right?

That, and if you can't figure out that you need to switch out the # for a @, then I don't want you e-mailing me anyway.


So in other news, work still goes slow, but I can at least claim accomplishments for the day. Man, though, it went a lot smoother a few weeks back. When it rains, it pours, I suppose.

I don't like it when it does not go smoothly. Makes the day longer.

One funny thing that happened today. We had some clients walking through our cubefarm, taking a peek at how "professional" we are or some-such. (No, that's not the funny part.) Suddenly, from the middle of the cube-farm someone yells "Jedi Master! HII-YAH!"

Man, talk about timing. Half a dozen QC were sitting there trying their damnest not to crack up in front of suddenly befuddled clients. It was the bright spot of my day.

If you work in a cubical farm, I recommend doing that. Man, it really lightens the mood!

Just don't do it in front of clients.

From the RSS feeds I've read today, I'm likely about to launch into a long rant about stupid politics. Instead, I shall do that tomorrow. I have time to do that tomorrow, you see.

Instead, I shall hunt for a chocolate dinosaur. Easter candy that I misplaced that I wish to eat. So now I must hunt him down.

The dinosaur will know ph34r. And then he will be c0|\|5u/\/\3d.

Tasty.

(He has a peanut butter center! :D)

S'all I've got for today. Good thing too, that crazy bunch of comments about the dinosaur started freaking even me out. So 'til next time, rock on.

Special Edition Post: Pocky Fans of the World, Unite!

Well, I noticed some comments had been added about the "Pocky" post, so I read them. And then I linked to the other person's blog. And then I noticed that they had linked to my blog!

Linkage! 5\/\/337!

So I was thinkin', in all fairness one who has the good grace (and obvious intelligence) to read, post on, and link to my Blog deserves a comparative link on mine, n'est ce pas?

Good thing I did too, because I noticed several mistakes I had made recently. For example, yesterday's post had been set as a draft, but not published. And I accidently posted today's post twice. Whoops! So I fixed that.

But yes, this Special Edition post of KnightErrant's blog is to attract attention to the blog called The Farrago of a Meshuggner. Link. Read.

And remember:

Pocky Rules!

So 'til next time, rock on!

Work, or Lack Thereof

I really need to get my ass in gear on this Work thing. Another day, all burn, no earn. I'm writing a test scenario for a form that hits up a server for a certificate, and I don't know if I need to write the program to mock the server function or if the developer has already made one. I need to ask him.

Anyhoo, so instead of actually working, I read about copyright law all day. The Taubman Company vs. Webfeats et al. is a remarkably interesting read... For those of you who like Legalese. It's about this guy, Henry Mishkoff (who is a self-employed web designer working under the nonincorporated business name "Webfeats"), who was so happy about this new mall (The Shops at Willow Bend) being put in he created a fan site about the mall, full of information about the mall, and offering links both to the Mall's website and the websites of stores within the mall.

His reward for praising the mall? The mall's owner sued him!

Ya see, the Taubman company, the owners of the mall, decided that the mall's official website (www.theshopsatwillowbend.com), and Mishkoff's fan site (www.shopsatwillowbend.com) were "confusingly similar" despite a disclaimer that Mishkoff was not associated with the mall, and also decided (for some bizarre reason) that Mishkoff was using it to take away business from the mall, and furthermore accused him of Cybersquatting (That is, they accused him of planning to place horrible objectionable stuff up on his website hoping to shame them into paying him reams of money for the domain name). So they decided they should take his fan site away from him.

Long story short, after almost two years of utter bullshit in which Taubman's legal team spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and tried to bludgeon Mishkoff into submission, the Little Guy managed to win. If you like to read long stories in which large corporations try to bully the average Joe by hammering them with confusing bureaucracy and the Little Guy winning, you can read about it at http://www.taubmansucks.com/ .


I really don't have anything else today. I'm really tired. I even came home from work and immediately took a two hour nap.

I think I will now continue said nap.

So 'til next time, rock on.

Easter and HGTV

Ahh, Easter.

First thing I did was sleep in until 2 PM. God, I love weekends.

Then I went to visit family. That is sort of neccessary on holidays, you see.

My cousin and I are both thinking of purchasing houses. Myself, I just want a place to live. Good reason to get a house, right? My cousin wants to start doing the whole real-estate thing. Buy a house, fix it up while living in it, and sell it for more than you paid.

But anyway, so we're both thinking of buying homes, so my aunt makes us sit down and watch Home & Garden Television.

Ach.

Strange relatives aside, I did get a lot of free candy. And free junk food is never bad.

That's all I got. So 'til next time, rock on.

Pocky

I've spent most of the day out in the city shopping with the family, so I am tired. (For the sake of annoying people, I'll just call it "The City" without telling you where I was. Mwah ha.) Plus, I have a headache the size of a Politician's ego. But I told myself when I started this, "Self, you'll write something in this blog every day."

So... "Something."

Eh, in all seriousness... I really do not like cities. From the hills around it, the city I went shopping in looks quite nifty. Big towers, pretty buildings. When you get down to the nitty gritty though, the streets are filled with trash and graffitied buildings and it looks like crap. Actually, it's quite depressing.

At the risk of being cliché, "...Thank God I'm a country boy!"

One thing I do like though, is that I can get Pocky. For you poor people uneducated in the goodness that is Pocky, it is a Japanese snack. A thin biscuit-stick-type thing (Crackerish, but not quite) dipped in chocolate. So simple, yet so delicious. I bought six boxes of it.

Mmm. Pocky.

They do not sell Pocky in the sticks, so rural people lack Pocky. And that makes me sad. :(

But in all seriousness, I don't have all that much to say today. I think I'm going to go take a nap now.

Happy Easter! (Or whichever summer solstice celebration you care to celebrate.)

So 'til next time, rock on.

Dues, Thumbdrives, and Random Utterness

I'm a member of a particular political organization. They charge $35.00 a year in dues, and in addition to membership, you get a nifty magazine about what's going down. So far so good.

Problem is, they want more cash than the dues cover. So about once a month, I get a "Special Renewal Notice." In other words, they want me to renew my membership before it's actually expired.

If I had sent in my money every time they did this, I would have active membership until 2064.

Now, the insulting thing is eventually they get within a few months of your actual renew date, and in the letter it includes the line "By renewing now you'll save us the cost of sending you another notice later."

Second problem with their method of not-quite-real renewals is you start to ignore them as junk mail. I've missed my renewal twice in five years because I didn't realize it was my real renewal.

Hey, dumbasses. I have a brilliant idea. How about just sending me one renewal notice a year. I'll pay, really. But only if my membership is actually about to run out. THAT way, I'll renew without throwing your stuff out as junk mail AND most of my money will be used for something better than begging for more money.

********

Did you ever get a gadget, and then later wonder how you ever lived without it? I'm like that with my thumb drive (also called flash drive, USB drive, pen drive, etc.). They are small devices, most are about the size of a package of gum. They plug straight into a computer's USB port and immediatly act as a mini hard drive. I have an I-Stick, a really small USB flash drive (claimed World's Smallest... And I believe it.) . It has almost a full 1 GB capacity. In short, it is awesome. I do not know how I every dealt with 1.44 MB floppy disks. (My I-stick has the capacity of 693.75 floppy disks!) I've actually almost stopped using floppies entirely. In fact, it was six months before I noticed my floppy drive had died when I tried to transfer data from an older system without USB to a newer one. I just didn't need them until then.

I have a friend who recently acquired a 256 Meg USB drive, and he has decided the same thing. So has my cousin.

I prefer the I-stick (Short for Intelligent Stick.). They are tiny, and they are excellent gadgets, almost beyond belief. My friend has a simple keychain based one, quite handy and a wee harder to lose (the I-stick has a pocket clip, but I mostly carry it in my briefcase. Awesome though it may be, it is also easy to misplace). My cousin has one with a titanium case. You can run it over with a truck, it will still work fine. I gave a very good friend of mine one that had a lanyard (Handy for one who moves around a lot and doesn't always want to dig for keys. Or maybe just for a hightech fashion statement). She is a writer who transfers files a lot, and I decided I needed to spread the joy that is Flash Drives.

In short, those things are utterly necessary for anyone who works with computers in any capacity larger than playing Minesweeper. If you do not have one, I feel sorry for you. Go to New Egg and look up Flash Memory->Pen Drives right now and get one. (I've used and can recommend PQI, who make the I-Stick, or SanDisk for good brands. I'm sure others are fine, I've just not used them.)

Now, I know that sounded uncomfortably like a commercial... But seriously, flash drives are the greatest thing to happen to portable data storage since... Data.

********

A bit of utter randomness here (Or is it random utterness?) ... I have a family member who knows a girl who's name is Mecca Nism. (Not a product of cruel parents, the girl's last name really is Nism, and she had her first name legally changed to Mecca.)

Mecca Nism. Now how awesome is that? If she gets married, and the husband wants her to change her last name, I would like the dude to be savagely beaten. That is just too cool of a name to tamper with.


(For those of you who are brickheaded and don't get the joke: Mecca Nism sounds like "Mechanism." It's a play on words, you see...)

**********

Well, that's all I've got for today. I have to try to find my MAC Card before going to bed, and my desk is a mess so i'll not be fun.

So 'til next time, rock on.

The Curse of RSS, and Other Thoughts.

Today's blog post contains much crap. So I will separate the sections with a line of asterisks!

**************

RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, is a great concept. You have a program on your computer (I use FeedReader, for example), and every hour or so it nabs content from RSS feeds. RSS feeds come from blogs like Boing-Boing or news sites like CNN.

So news and stories of interest straight to your desktop without even having to think about it. It is the definition of Groovetastic.

However, there is a dark side to RSS. It is a very simple one.

I do not get any freaking work done anymore! I sit and I read Boing-Boing, CNN, and other technical and political blogs all day when I should be testing out the next version of my company's applications or writing programs to mimic responses from credit check servers or learning the webservice test program or doing something functional to convince them I should keep my job.

It would help if I actually understood the webservice program, or if I had programmed anything in two years, or if the developers would actually fix the bugs instead of going "It's on your end." (Note: Even after testing it against three separate databases on five different machines... It was "still me.") But still, my work is slowing down a bit, and because of it I am less interested in working and more interested in reading about the latest copyright law outrages, or Dilbert, or an awesome story about upside down rooms and vampire bats.

In short: If you like to read about current events and whatnot, keep RSS off your workstation if you like your job.

Addendum to Post:Although it's fairly unneccessary as I only post about once a day, this Blog does have an RSS Feed. Alas, it looks better in the actual blog than through a feed reader. BUT! If you want it for some reason, the RSS link is as follows: http://modernknighterrant.blogspot.com/atom.xml . Enjoy!

**************

Off on a computer tangent, I was looking at Alienware the other day, and came up with the Holy Grail of current computing, as far as I'm concerned. It cost $6,000. It had an AMD FX-55 for the processor, 2 Gig of DDR RAM, dual 150 gig 10,000 RPM harddisks RAIDed together, a DVD±R/W, high quality soundcard, and watercooling as icing on the cake. The pièce de résistance, though, was the dual GeForce videocards. They were linked together: one controlled the top half of the 21 inch monitor, and the second controlled the bottom. As loads increased or decreased on the separate cards, they would modify their loads for maximum optimization.

My cousin, a computer engineer who loves speed, called it "Unnecessary." Which means I really, really want it.

**************

Continuing on about my earlier post: I was thinking about time and money. I have come to a decision. Time is by far the most important resource you have. You can replace lost money and lost equipment, but a moment squandered can never be replaced. So be more careful how you spend your time, eh?

Sorry for the out-of-nowhere philosophy session. I think too hard sometimes.

**************

Take a brief pause in your day and boogie-out to this: http://www.ded.kiev.ua/mus.swf .
It is a Flash animation featuring a tune created entirely in old Win9x Sound Recorder using the system sounds on Windows. It is 73h r0xX0r, f00. ph34r 73h 1337\355. Most importantly, it is fun. So therefore, it is a good way to spend a minute of your time. :)

**************

Damn that was long. But you're safe now. That's all I got for today.

So 'til next time, rock on.

Comics, Cookies, Time, and Money.

"I have killed things. We must eat them. I cannot eat raw sparklebunny" - Largo, from MegaTokyo Book 3's "Endgames" comic.

Ahh, webcomics. I love those things. So I shall make recommendations! Especially good "laugh a day" ones are Men in Hats and Sinfest. Good story based ones include Scary-Go-Round, RPG World, and Errant Story.

Plus, there are the classic ones. The ones that got me into the habit of reading them. MegaTokyo, Penny Arcade, and the very first one that got me started wasting my time reading these things, Sluggy Freelance.

There are many more, but these are a few of my favorites.

I actually wrote a webcomic once. It lasted twenty-five comics before I decided the plot had become terrible to the point of nonrepair. So I stopped it.

I was about to start a new one mocking my life. It was funny, but I never posted any of the comics I finished. My scanner broke, and I didn't feel like purchasing a new one.


On a side note, I love cookies. Mmm...Homemade chocolate chip. Grandmothers that bake cookies are awesome.

But I digress.

I was thinking (which is something I like to try to do as often as possible, as it seems to differentiate me from 99% of the rest of the human race) about time and money.

As a general rule for most of the general population, if you have one, you do not have the other.

I was thinking about this, because now that I have a job I have plenty of money. But I have almost no time to spend it in. Back when I was unemployed, I had tons of time but I still couldn't do anything due to lack of funds. It's quite the conundrum. I do not like this.

UNREST AND OPEN REVOLT IS THE ONLY OPTION!!!

Or not.

Anyway, today, I noticed something else. Unemployed people always want employed people to do stuff on work nights. I was guilty of it, and now I am on the receiving end.

And finally, as you may have noticed, inspiration did not strike today. Sorry for the crud of today's post. At least I tried.

So 'til next time, rock on.

Employee Numbers & Unusual Singles Ads

It's time for Employee Reviews where I work. Yay. So in preparation for our employee review, we're supposed to go online to our company intranet and create an employee profile. Yay. To do that, we need our employee number.

Whoops... I don't know that.

So I call the Help center. I have them look me up, and much to my surprise I hear: "Sorry, Hon, you're not in the employee database." Well, that's news to me! I wonder why I've been going there every morning. That could explain why I don't have a nameplate for my desk yet. I don't really work there!

At least I'm getting a paycheck for some reason or another.

It is still significantly better than my prior jobs. Before this one, which I hope to keep for several years, I bounced from job to unemployment to job. Since high school (Yes, I went to college, but I still needed a job!), I've been a janitor, a painter, a movie theatre projectionist, a lab assistant, a computer teacher, and a yardsman at a lumber yard.

I didn't mind being a janitor. It was after-hours. I just swept and vacuumed rugs and such. Another janitor had to clean the toilets. Poor them.

The painting job was nice. I enjoyed it. Lots of time to think. The projectionist job was good to take naps. "Turn lights off. Turn projector on. Read or take nap. Turn projector off. Turn lights on. Go home." The lab assistant was okay. Nothing major.

Then there was the computer teacher job. Twelve hour days, got paid beans, but I enjoyed it. Two months in, I have to quit. My predecessor rang up $4,000 in debt and left me $200 to pay it with. Wasn't going to happen. (Then the boss fired the accountant. Allegedly for refusing to cook the books.) Other stuff. Very crappy. I miss the job, but nothing else.

Then came the yardsman's job. For six months, I woke up in the morning and asked myself the question "Should I go to work, or jump out my window?" Unfun. The yard's business was quickly going down the crapper. And the managers don't care. So the employees don't care. So it sucked. I was glad to get out of there.

Finally, I managed to get a job in my field. Yay! So far, so good.

But yeah, enough about my boring life story. On to the funny anecdote!

Like many people, I get spam from dating services. Unlike many people, I read them. They're good for a laugh! Especially if the damn spammers know where you live. They tend to filter
"matches" (i.e. people who live somewhat close to you) and include a few in the e-mail. You'd be surprised how many people you know end up in those things. And considering I live in Small Town, U.S.A., where everybody knows everybody... It gets funny fast.

But I ran across an unusual one the other day. A girl that goes to my Alma Mater... (that's the place where I went to college, for those of you who "don' know them thar big words") ...had a listing. I read the listing. Meh. Nothing funny.

So I reread it. I can find humor in almost anything, so I must've missed something. I did.

From the post, I gathered she already had a boyfriend, BUT would like to have an online chat-relationship with someone who knows Visual Basic and philosophy.

Let me translate: "I am signing up for this dating service to con gullible dorky men into helping me with my homework."

What ever happened to peer tutoring or student services? Has my Alma Mater really become that destitute and desperate?!

That would be kind of funny. "Now, Class... We no longer have tutors, so you have to turn to online dating services for help."

Hint: If your professor says that, run.

Anyway, that's all I got for today.

So 'til next time, rock on.

A New Weblog: The Product of Knight's Night of Drinking.

So here I sit, almost two days latter. I am still not sure why I got this blog.

I believe it was because I came home after a night of alcohol filled merriment, and I just decided I needed one. I think I wrote very well for a man well into the drink.

T'is my Irish blood, lad. (Or rather, my Irish liver.) Helps me stay coherent.

Now, before I scare the teetotalers too badly, in my defense this was my first serious night of any alcohol consumption in about six months, and my first round of drinks in two weeks. I don’t drink that much. And if you are upset about someone drinking at all and think that I am evil because I drink, and I should stop to save my soul or for the good of humanity or somesuch… Kindly go fuck yourself and leave. Trying to dictate morality to me will only piss me off.

(Note: I really don’t care if someone is a teetotaler. I sort of respect it, and I don’t try to push teetotalers to drink. In return, I expect not to be pushed not to drink. To put it bluntly, on occasion, I will drink. I will always do that. I waited until I was 21 like a good little boy, and I think I should be allowed to if I want. Ah, but I digress… Sincere apologies.)

Now, I have this blog, and I still don’t know what to do with it. I believe I will first talk about myself, and then discuss the finer points in life: like religion, politics, philosophy, and why American beer tastes roughly analogous to ice-cold piss.

Irish Whiskey, all the way, baby.

But back to the blog. I mean, I have it now, I should use it. A blog could be a handy, fun little thing to do in my off time. So what the hell? Why not?

So let me think up something to write, and it shall appear.


So 'til the next time, rock on.

So this is what they call ..."Blogging"...

So I sat down at my computer and went, "Hey, I want a Blog." Why do I want a blog? I still have no clue. Do I really have something interesting to say? I would like to think so, but most would disagree with me. Furthermore, why use a "free-n-public-n-otherwisehosted" blog? I have my own website, why not put it there? Still, I don't know.

Likely, this will be "rantspace." A simple, anonymous way to go, "Hey, World! You stink!"

So, what in general, can you expect out of KnightErrant? Naught but commentary, good people. Commentary brought to you from a lens likely different then thy own: the perspective of a quaintly honorable young fella stuck in a neochivalristic mindset. And of course, Chivalry is dead and honor has no place in the modern world, so generally, I just get screwed.

Of course, that's just more fodder for my Blog!

So 'til the next time, rock on.