November 2009 — The Angry Drunk

Layaway

November 8th, 2009, by The Angry Drunk

Warning! Non-Techie Content Ahoy!

You may have seen a commercial that K-Mart has been running lately encouraging people to make use of the “layaway” system for purchases this holiday season. To explain layaway for those who didn’t grow up middle-class in the last few decades, here’s the deal: Back in the hoary days of yore, when you wanted to buy something but didn’t have sufficient scratch on hand, one of the choices available was layaway. The way it worked was, you put some money down, and then made payments every one to two weeks until you had paid for the item. Then it was yours.

I know that, sadly, there are probably some people who have been struck dumb with incredulity at that description. “Mon Dio!” you say, aghast. “Surely you would just put such a purchase on your credit card.”

And, of course, nowadays that’s exactly what you would do. But, as horrifying as it may seem, there once was a time when people didn’t leverage their futures just to have the new shiny now. Maybe it’s actually a good sign that stores are bringing the concept of layaway back. Of course, the banks will

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I Get Mail (Sort Of)

November 8th, 2009, by The Angry Drunk

Today, when I came to I was informed that the following epistle was left on one of the family vehicle’s windshield last night

For those who, for some reason, can’t see the picture there the text is as follows:

NANCY, PAINT MY ?(ALL) FENCE WHITE OR I WILL SEE YOU IN COURT ! DK

So, for background. “DK” is my next-door neighbor. DK is an asshole. DK is the sort of person who massively remodels his house without a singe permit or inspection. DK is the sort of cock-sucker who puts building materials in other people’s trash bin so that the city doesn’t bitch him out for doing so. Basically, he’s a cunt.

The story of the “fence,” it’s really a block wall is this. Many years ago, while my old man was in the hospital dying of cancer and my mother was in the hospital with a perforated intestine. DK took it upon himself to extend the common wall between our properties out to the street, and to stucco and paint my side of it

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App Store Shenanigans Part Eleventy Billion

November 6th, 2009, by The Angry Drunk

Jason Snell at Macworld writes about the bullshit that Macworld went though to get an eBook version of their iPhone and iPod Touch Superguide published to the App Store. Every time that someone reveals the details of this process it reinforces to me my belief that the fundamental flaw in how Apple is handling the approval/rejection process is that it is being treated as a “call center” process instead of a “quality assurance” process. Having done both I can attest that I have witnessed scenarios almost identical to what Jason describes during my technical support days. Sadly, my experience in this field tells me that the only way this process can be fixed is to raze it to the ground and start from scratch. Monkeys like “Steve” from the article are fundamentally incapable of being re-educated.