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Category: Commentary

Tech Support Woes

Published by NiteMayr on November 26, 2002

There are many unfortunates out there who have been “cutting the ends of the brisket off”1 for so long that they never asked why.

1 This refers to an old story where a new bride asks why her husband always cut the ends off brisket before cooking. The husband says that his family has always done it this way. Eventually the bride asks her mother in law why, and her mother-in-law says that her mother always did it that way, so she kept up the tradition. So, the confused young bride goes to the hospital bed of her Grandma-in-law and asks, Grandma, why do you cut the ends off of the brisket? To which the Grandma replies, ”The pan was always a little too small”

Lack of Writers forces Webmaster to Speak

Published by NiteMayr on September 9, 2002

After a long, long long delay in posting my next daring missive I’ve returned to put down my latest words on digital paper. As some of you may or may not know the Real World does exist and is not a fairy tale created by llamas who want to stop playing CounterStrike.

Sadly the real world (and not just the one one MTV) has rules, and one of those is that the ethereal world that is the Internet is fueled not just by fark and slashdot, but by money too. So, I, the webmaster, need to focus on my job as well as my website. Sad isn’t it?

And so I present, the Top Ten Reasons why webmasters neglect their Websites:

10. Pure Laziness, too busy stuffing our mouths with Mountain Dew and Cheetos!

9. Three Words, Never Winter Nights (I know it is normally two words)

8. Beer, and its buddy Liquor.

7. See number 8 and Repeat.

6. Locked up in a Tape Closet.

5. Stupid IE 6 Security Patches!!!

4. The Terrorists stole my keyboard. Or was it Swiper the Fox?

3. Innumerable showings of Star Wars Episode 2 or Spiderman, pick your poison.

2. That last peice of news about Natalie Portman, you know the one.

1. Grand Theft Auto 3.

Hilary Rosen Sez

Published by NiteMayr on June 22, 2002

“For the first time ever, our end-of-the-year survey of heavy music buyers showed that 23 percent of our heaviest buyers actually said that they bought less music because they were able to get what they wanted for free,” said Hilary Rosen, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, which has led the legal fight against Napster and other file-sharing services. quoted from this article at CNN.com.

While it is just a quote in the middle of an “are the lables dead..no, no they are not sir” article; this quote is the kind of comment we can expect form someone who is fiercely fighting to keep a fat bottom line.

As the file sharing revolution continues its perceived assault on the RIAAs chattel, I mean artists, we can expect for and more of this propaganda, I’m sure.

Pay attention, you are missing the point

Published by NiteMayr on February 13, 2002

I was listening to a local show called “speakers Corner” on City TV, a local TV station here in Toronto. The person on screen was talking about how it is more important to be compassionate than it is to be a “nice person.”
Initially I thought this was pure pap, aren’t they the same thing?
However, when you look at it from their angle, the speaker was right. Take for example the “Martha Stewart” model of nice, she appears to be a kind host with her guest’s interests in mind. However, if we observe the motives she is putting forth we see it is her own self-gratification that is at stake, by means of her guests. This is not to say that being nice should make you happy, but it should be the motivation for kindness. I think what the speaker was saying is it is better to be kind by design, rather than as a means to an end.

As a means to an end kindness will always work, unless you are disingenuous. The old saying is “…you catch more flys with honey…”, but what if you are only waiting for the flys to eat the honey, to get at the ring at the bottom of the jar? Extending the metaphor even more, isn’t that the hard way of emptying a jar?