Rants and Raves

On the 17th of March in what could well become the basis of the next Hollywood crime caper movie, $75 million worth of pharmaceuticals was stolen from a warehouse in Enfield, MA from Eli Lilly & Co.

The thieves disabled the alarm system, scaled an exterior brick wall, cut a hold in the roof, rappelled inside, loaded pallets of merchandise onto an awaiting vehicle, and left with a semi-truck full of stolen goods.

Prozac, Cymbalta, Zyprexa according to Eli Lilly no narcotics or painkillers were stored in this ware house.

Why worry about drugs from abroad when it seems the drug trade is very much alive right in our own back yard.

Tags: Health, History, Legal // Add Comment »

All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be Effort, and the law of human judgment, Mercy.

· John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice II, (1853)

Tags: Axiom // Add Comment »

Arizona Senator John McCain has described SBInet as a “complete failure”.

And I would not only agree it’s a complete failure, but a poorly conceived project from the beginning (Senator McCain supported the project and funding in 2005).

SBInet for those who don’t know is a high tech border security system pushed for by the George W Bush (another waste of money he got through because it wasn’t patriotic to question him and his war on terrorism) in 2005 that was supposed to be fully operation by 2011.

The initial project was along the Arizona / Mexico border (you know, that state Senator John McCain represents)…

Yesterday US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano halted the project and pulled $50 million from it and is allocating it to use tested technology to achieve the same goal.

Oh, don’t worry; I’m sure some defense contractor or at least a contractor well represented by lobbyist will get their hands on that money; and since Boeing (the original contractor for SBInet) had huge costs overruns they’ll probably be fine as well.

My view; yes we need to do something to curb the illegal shipments of drugs into this country (and help the Mexican authorities curb the drug related violence in Mexico); but maybe we should learn from prohibition and find a real solution to the problem.

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If you run an older version of Microsoft Windows (Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 for instance) and you don’t use Outlook Express, or you’ve replaced it with Live Mail (or another program), you can remove it by typing the following command (all on one line)

“%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\setup50.exe” /APP:OE UNINSTALL /PROMPT

Or download a batch file (in a 7z archive) via remove_outlookexpress.7z

Tags: Windows, ► Downloads // Add Comment »

I’m not sure that I believe in good spirits, but I have the uncanny feeling that there might be evil spirits.

· Peter H. Rossi

Tags: Axiom // Add Comment »

The Anglicisation of the Gaelic phrase used to express allegiance to Ireland; most often translated as “Ireland forever”.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Tags: History // Add Comment »

Poetry should seem to the hearer to have been always present to his thought, but never before heard.

· Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Tags: Axiom // Add Comment »

There are a number of comparisons between the Canadian and US health care systems; and like with any complex issue you can make the comparison show almost anything you want depending on the metrics chosen for the comparison and the facts included (or omitted).

Often the Canadian and American systems are compared since until the 1960s they were extremely similar, and Canadian and Americans share a large common history and to some extent culture.

This comparison on Wikipedia appears to be an honest attempt to compare and contrast the two systems, it includes a number of citations.  I recommend reading it, and considering what it has to say in light of the the current state health care in the US.

Comparison of Canadian and American health care systems

Tags: Health, History, Politics // Add Comment »

You are the noblest and dearest thing that the world has had to show me; and if no lesser loss than the loss of you could have brought me so much bitterness, I would still rather have had this to endure than have missed the fullness of wonder and worship which nothing else could have made known to me.

· Dante Gabriel Rossetti, letter to Jane Morris, 1870

Tags: Axiom // Add Comment »

Around the end of last November I ordered a Kingston DataTraveler 150 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (DT150/32GB Orange/Black).  When it came in it seemed to work, and I didn’t really think anything of it, but when I started to try and copy large files to it, or put a significant amount of information on it (which actually wasn’t until around the first of this year) I continually had issues with it.

I contacted Kingston the first week of March to try and get a handle on the problem or an RMA to return it for a replacement.  Kingston then requested that I send them some identifying markings from the metal USB plug — well my unit didn’t have any of those identifying markings, and since those marking would have been covered by the cap I couldn’t have told whether a new product I was interested in purchasing had them or not without opening the package in the store and taking off the cap (and of course mail order there’s no way to do it).

What was really alarming is I had a few other Kingston USB flash drives, and I took a look at them — they also didn’t have any markings on them.  So from that I would have to conclude either Kingston just implemented this and the units I have are from before that time, or all the units I have are counterfeit.  The truly alarming thing is I’m 99.9% positive that all of these units came from Fry’s Electronics, Microcenter, and Amazon.

This indicates to me that there’s a severe problem with the distribution channel of Kingston products, and that the Kingston name brand (and the Kingston warranty) is worthless.  Which means, the purchase of Kingston products should be avoided since they are frequently counterfeited and Kingston appears to be only interested in protecting themselves, not the consumers of their products (since consumers really have no way of knowing if a product is counterfeit).

As Nancy used to say “JUST SAY NO” to Kingston products.

Tags: Computers, Hardware, Shit List, Shopping, Technology // Add Comment »