So many tough choices…and great conversation topics.

How to hack your POS VCR for $$$ profit.  Great success!

I will preface this by saying this is mostly me venting a pretty akward situation me and my shop was placed in recently.  In working on compters, naturally we are entrusted with very intimate details of people’s lives, be it pictures, movies, browsing history, etc.  While myself and the people I work with never make it a point to invade those areas, we do get exposed to much of it just in the normal course of fixing viruses and other computer problems.  Yesterday, a coworker came across child pornography.  I personally never watched it, but the question I kept asking is this:  On one hand, I want to make sure people like this are brought to justice, but on the other hand, even with nothing illegal on my computer, I would be pretty damn pissed off if I brought it into repair knowing the technician was going to snoop around my computer.  At what point does protecting the innocent and looking out for others become invading people’s privacy.  For those of you that know me, I take great pride in my work, and feel peoples privacy is something that should always be honored.  If this guy is guilty, he should be dealt with, but what if someone else did that to his computer?  What if he truly is innocent?

Part of me is hoping he is guilty so we didn’t accidently ruin someone’s life, but on the other hand, nobody likes being the person responsible for destroying someones life, regardless of whether or not they deserved it. 

Now that that is off my chest, let me know what you think.

@michaelgwd rockin his pro devil sticks skills.

With 1600+ movie kills, see how each of #TheExpendables actors ranks from their past movies. http://bit.ly/cr23y4

azizisbored:

Arsenio goin ham!!! I can’t stop watching this!!!!

He is my new idol for at least the next week.

English Englander is a new meme.  I love how these are so accurate… #stereotypes

Local chinese shop want to thank it’s patrons.  #translationfail

This is what is wrong with American media.  Stories like this go completely ignored while single catastophic events receive over-coverage.  It’s all the little things that make a difference, not bandwagoning behind a popular cause.

I will be the first to admit I am by no means the most green person (infact, maybe very ungreen), but I also know dozens of people who claim to be but do so many things in their daily lives to contradict themselves that I feel temped to call them out on it.  Fortunately for them, I only impose my morals and views on people behind the anonymity of the interwebs. ;)

In the words of DMX…”Talk is cheap muthafucka!”

Blitzen Trapper - Not Your Lover.  Live @ First Avenue, MN July 27th.  iPhone video, so please forgive the quality.  Thanks tumblr for rotating the video.  Since I can only upload a certain amount of video per day, I will get this corrected soon.

“Every three years, the Library of Congress has the thankless task of listening to people complain about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA forbade most attempts to bypass the digital locks on things like DVDs, music, and computer software, but it also gave the Library the ability to wave its magical copyright wand and make certain DRM cracks legal for three years at a time.”

What was surprising to me was that Apple is concerned with jailbreaking, not because of the potential revenues lost, but almost completely because it releases some of the control on their oh-so-balanced “Apple Eco-system.”  Jailbreaking gives iPhone users MUCH more control on what they can add or change on their phone, most notable, hacked or unapproved Apps. 

Apple is legendary for being simplistically easy to use and I can partially sympathize with them on this.  If I made something and put great efforts into having that product be delivered in a particular manner, so as to control the end user experience (in hopes of delivering a superb one), all to have someone circumvent that software and install a shoddy, unchecked piece of software that ultimately may cause unintended slowness, battery performace, etc.  Needless to say, while I am a strong advocate for free use, both in the digital and material realms, I can understand while Apple is a bit upset.

Now that I finally figured out I can just have a Tumblr Tab on my Facebook profile, and created and alter ego on Twitter (@evilskwa), I don’t feel the need to push all my interests down everyone’s throats with updates you probably don’t give a shit about.  Most of the posts I’ve made are in hopes that they indexed by Google to point to my blogs so people hopefully read my articles ;).  Thanks for reading!

Android phones are being pre-loaded with trial software and apps that can’t be deleted off the device by the user. These apps touting mobile TV, football games, location-based search and games are the new face of bloatware, also known as crapware or craplets in the PC world. The term is shorthand for non-essential software or media files bundled with a device in a bid to boost revenue and ostensibly give consumers a chance to try new services.

Having worked in computer repair for years, I can say this is a little sad for Android users.  In the fiercely competitive smartphone market, I think this is a bad move by Android phone providers, as MANY people including myself, HATE bloatware, especially when you don’t even have the option to remove it.  It just gives people another reason to pick something else.