- what's up with that? Don't you just hate it? I mean, who got the "brilliant" idea to label fruit individually? Ok I don't mind so much if you have to peel it first, because the fruit is not in contact with the edible parts. But apples? Who thought "Gosh - I better put stickers on these GRANNY SMITH apples, in case some of them elopes to the box with COX ORANGE". Or even worse as it has been my case at work lately : the plums. Seriously. Plums. But why? WHY? It was so bad on one occasion that the sticker actually tore of part of the skin, upon removal. Is it not bad enough that you have to scrub your fruit to get rid of other peoples germs first? Apparently not. You ALSO have to steam the stickers first, and remove the remaining glue with alcohol, to ensure a "safe" and healthy snack.
- and then you bite down, split it, and find out that someone lives inside the plum. What a waste of time...
The whole shebang is just ludicrous. An apple is NOT an egg. I can understand the need to stamp eggs individually - that in case of illness you can trace the chicken and have it removed before it infects the others. But you're not gonna trace down a specific tree, and that's clearly not what the labels on fruit is for anyways. An apple is just empty advertising space, and empty advertising space makes baby jesus cry... So there.
Showing posts with label Idiocy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Idiocy. Show all posts
5.27.2008
4.24.2008
Jack Thompson is a friggin idiot... again...
U.S. Attorney, and computer game-hater, Jack Thompson is on a quest. A quest to ban computer games completely. And having not succeeded previously, he is now taking new methods in use. Prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, he sent the following letter to Take-Two exec. Strauss Zelnick's mother:
Dear Mrs. Zelnick:
Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don’t know), is Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., whose most popular video games are the Grand Theft Auto murder simulator games banned in some countries but sold to children here.
Your son last week was reported to have said the following about Grand Theft Auto IV, due to be released Tuesday, April 29: “We’ve already received numerous [GTA IV] reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn’t write better reviews…” Taking your son’s thought, I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn’t killed someone yet.
What you will see in your son’s game, if this iteration of GTA is anything like its predecessors, is incredible interactive violence aimed at police officers (whom you can shoot in the head and see the blood spray), innocent bystanders (whom you can run over with your car just for the heck of it), and of course the plentiful female prostitutes you can have sex with and then filet with a knife or stomp with your feet in order to get your money back. Experts note that the recent plethora of cop killings is caused in part by your darling son’s entrepreneurial energy. There are three policemen dead in Alabama because of Grand Theft Auto. I was on 60 Minutes about it. I hope Strauss has provided you with a flat screen tv to see the grief of the bereaved families that fills the screen.
The pornography and violence that your son trafficks in is the kind of stuff that most mothers would be ashamed to see their son putting into the hands of other mothers’ children, but, hey, your son Strauss has recently assured the world that he is “a Boy Scout, everybody knows that.” I’d love to see the merit badges that Scout Troop handed out. Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now. It should be red and green, for obvious reasons.
With Passover having just come and gone, it is appropriate to note the following from the Old Testament, Proverbs 22:6:
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Mrs. Zelnick, did you train up your son, Strauss, to make millions of dollars by pushing Mature-rated video games to children? Any kid can go right to little Strauss’ corporate web site and buy GTA IV with no age verification. Strauss is even marketing the new Grand Theft Auto IV on World Wrestling Entertainment tv shows seen by millions of kids. If you trained up Strauss to do this, then shame on you.
But maybe the explanation for your son’s corporate sociopathy is to be found in Old Testament Proverb 29:15:
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”
Maybe you, Mrs. Zelnick, were so taken by your handsome son that you spared the rod and spoiled the child. That would explain why he has brought you, by the way he presently acts, “to shame.”
There’s another mother you would do well to talk to. Mrs. Crump in Alabama had a son who was a police officer. He’s now dead because a teenaged boy unwittingly trained himself to kill him on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. She has a grief she carries every day that only a mother can know.There are other such mothers in the heartland of America whose inhabitants your son simply sees as commercial targets.
Your son, this very moment, is doing everything he possibly can to sell as many copies of GTA IV to teen boys in the United States, a country in which your son claims you raised him to be “a Boy Scout.” More like the Hitler Youth, I would say. Happy Mother’s day, Mrs. Zelnick, which this year is May 11, two weeks after your son unleashes porn and violence upon other mothers’ boys. I’m sure you’re very proud.
Sincerely, Jack Thompson
I noticed that he apparently has no problem with youngsters watching wrestling - no not traditional wrestling, but the WWF one, where people team op 2-3 against one, smash guitars and chairs and whatnot in eachothers faces - but that's just a show... it's entertainment. It's only pretend, right?
- just as computer games, you moron!
Besides - the games come with a rating that basically means "do NOT let your underage teenage kids play this, or we're not responsible if they grow up to be schoolyard killers". A rating that most parents choose to ignore.
I think Jack Thompson should go on a quest to put warnings on ignorant parents instead, so the rest of us will know who's kids are likely to blow a gasket at some point.
Why don't you quest against those idiot clerks who sell the games to kids not old enough to play those games?
And those old testament quotes are just fantastic. The old testament is just full of nice little sayings about how you should dicipline your offspring by violent means. Right. What do you honestly think, Jackie dearest, will spawn troubled kids, hmm? Kids who have been beaten, or kids who have been playing computer games?
Sociopaths usually comes from troubled homes.
So once again bravo, Jack Thompson. You've managed to make a complete ass of yourself - but hey, at least we can always count on you to deliver.
You're so keen on eliminating the computer games industry, but you never will. You will eventually pass away, knowing that you spent half a lifetime on a futile quest. Time you could've spent with your loved ones.
- isn't it time to give up, Jack? You can't win. Just face the obvious and get over it.
Dear Mrs. Zelnick:
Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don’t know), is Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., whose most popular video games are the Grand Theft Auto murder simulator games banned in some countries but sold to children here.
Your son last week was reported to have said the following about Grand Theft Auto IV, due to be released Tuesday, April 29: “We’ve already received numerous [GTA IV] reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn’t write better reviews…” Taking your son’s thought, I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn’t killed someone yet.
What you will see in your son’s game, if this iteration of GTA is anything like its predecessors, is incredible interactive violence aimed at police officers (whom you can shoot in the head and see the blood spray), innocent bystanders (whom you can run over with your car just for the heck of it), and of course the plentiful female prostitutes you can have sex with and then filet with a knife or stomp with your feet in order to get your money back. Experts note that the recent plethora of cop killings is caused in part by your darling son’s entrepreneurial energy. There are three policemen dead in Alabama because of Grand Theft Auto. I was on 60 Minutes about it. I hope Strauss has provided you with a flat screen tv to see the grief of the bereaved families that fills the screen.
The pornography and violence that your son trafficks in is the kind of stuff that most mothers would be ashamed to see their son putting into the hands of other mothers’ children, but, hey, your son Strauss has recently assured the world that he is “a Boy Scout, everybody knows that.” I’d love to see the merit badges that Scout Troop handed out. Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now. It should be red and green, for obvious reasons.
With Passover having just come and gone, it is appropriate to note the following from the Old Testament, Proverbs 22:6:
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Mrs. Zelnick, did you train up your son, Strauss, to make millions of dollars by pushing Mature-rated video games to children? Any kid can go right to little Strauss’ corporate web site and buy GTA IV with no age verification. Strauss is even marketing the new Grand Theft Auto IV on World Wrestling Entertainment tv shows seen by millions of kids. If you trained up Strauss to do this, then shame on you.
But maybe the explanation for your son’s corporate sociopathy is to be found in Old Testament Proverb 29:15:
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”
Maybe you, Mrs. Zelnick, were so taken by your handsome son that you spared the rod and spoiled the child. That would explain why he has brought you, by the way he presently acts, “to shame.”
There’s another mother you would do well to talk to. Mrs. Crump in Alabama had a son who was a police officer. He’s now dead because a teenaged boy unwittingly trained himself to kill him on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. She has a grief she carries every day that only a mother can know.There are other such mothers in the heartland of America whose inhabitants your son simply sees as commercial targets.
Your son, this very moment, is doing everything he possibly can to sell as many copies of GTA IV to teen boys in the United States, a country in which your son claims you raised him to be “a Boy Scout.” More like the Hitler Youth, I would say. Happy Mother’s day, Mrs. Zelnick, which this year is May 11, two weeks after your son unleashes porn and violence upon other mothers’ boys. I’m sure you’re very proud.
Sincerely, Jack Thompson
I noticed that he apparently has no problem with youngsters watching wrestling - no not traditional wrestling, but the WWF one, where people team op 2-3 against one, smash guitars and chairs and whatnot in eachothers faces - but that's just a show... it's entertainment. It's only pretend, right?
- just as computer games, you moron!
Besides - the games come with a rating that basically means "do NOT let your underage teenage kids play this, or we're not responsible if they grow up to be schoolyard killers". A rating that most parents choose to ignore.
I think Jack Thompson should go on a quest to put warnings on ignorant parents instead, so the rest of us will know who's kids are likely to blow a gasket at some point.
Why don't you quest against those idiot clerks who sell the games to kids not old enough to play those games?
And those old testament quotes are just fantastic. The old testament is just full of nice little sayings about how you should dicipline your offspring by violent means. Right. What do you honestly think, Jackie dearest, will spawn troubled kids, hmm? Kids who have been beaten, or kids who have been playing computer games?
Sociopaths usually comes from troubled homes.
So once again bravo, Jack Thompson. You've managed to make a complete ass of yourself - but hey, at least we can always count on you to deliver.
You're so keen on eliminating the computer games industry, but you never will. You will eventually pass away, knowing that you spent half a lifetime on a futile quest. Time you could've spent with your loved ones.
- isn't it time to give up, Jack? You can't win. Just face the obvious and get over it.
2.29.2008
Shooting sparrows... [part 2]
In this post, I ranted about buying DVD's and hence actually supporting the industry, and STILL having to be faced with the suspicion and criminalization of my person, from the "You wouldn't steal a car..."-intros and printed inlays with the "now-now little Nicky - don't you go downloading movies"-raised finger messages.
- unfortunately at that time, I could not produce the inlay, as I had probably pissed on it, burned it, hanged it, stabbed it, burned it again, and finally tossed it out.
This time I kept it. It does have another sound to it compared to the first one though - it is not as much a raised finger as it is a thanks - and then again...
It's a small 12x18 cm leaflet with a logo on the entire front, saying (in danish):
"Skip the copies, keep the originals".
On the flipside there's first a little note saying:
"Thanks for keeping the movies alive. When you watch a movie in the cinema, buy or rent an original DVD rather than copying or downloading it illegally, you're participating in ensuring that actors, script writers, instructors and all the people behind the movie gets paid for their work. And thus you're participating in ensuring that there will also be someone who cares about making movies in the future. Because who want's to work for free?"
- and that was just the introduction. Fair enough. A little appreciation is absolutely commendable, and I DO agree with the gist of the text. But the lesson that follows about how many people it takes to make a movie (in the given example, Shrek), and how fast internet connections and DVD-recorders in every home are making it too easy to break the law, and so on and so forth, really bugs me. I already know this. And if people are buying the DVD, you really don't need to tell them that they shouldn't download it. Surprise - THEY ALREADY BOUGHT IT! So these little cards were much better off as free postcards on the many cafés and diners around town. I really resent having these lectures thrown in my face, when I am in fact not doing anything wrong. It just has this feeling of "yes yes, so you bought the DVD, but technically you COULD go and copy it or download it illegally". Come on - technically I COULD also use a crowbar to break into a house or smack someone silly with. But the crowbar doesn't come with a blurp like that... "Thank you for buying the Dyson Crowbar (tm). Use it for it's designed purpose, but remember - breaking into peoples houses and killing them with this item, will make a lot of people sad - including the Dyson staff, who worked long and hard to bring you the finest in demolition equipment".
Technically I could run someone over with my car - on purpose - yet the car does not come with a blurp of such kind either.
- it's just so wrongly aimed.
Furthermore, I'm sure they spend a fortune on the little informercials and printed campaigns and whatnot. But I'm almost willing to bet my entire DVD collection (yes, it is HUGE - the dvd collection, not... well...) that not one of those who intended to copy a DVD, decided to NOT do it when they saw the "You wouldn't steal a car..."-intro, or read the little inlay. Not one.
These campaigns are pointed at the ignorant. People who don't know it is illegal. But there's not really that many who don't know it's illegal, is there? They should instead target their campaigns to those who profit on the illegal copying/distribution. Those who refuse to pay anything to be entertained. But more importantly they should stop trying to dictate when and how we play our legally purchased entertainment. Don't bother with the copy protection - everything that can be coded, can be decoded. So it really is futile, and it stops nothing. On the contrary. Some people get off on being the first to crack a new protection, and it turns into a sport in those circles. And it usually never takes more than a day or so anyways. So it's expensively paid, but still borrowed, time. And all you get in the end, is pissed off consumers, who in sheer frustration of not being able to play their newly purchased cd on the car stereo because of some crappy protection which does not reckognize the 20 year old CD-player, goes and downloads it illegally instead - and maybe does so the next time too, without bothering to buy an original first.
Skip the regions on DVD's. Stop releasing movies on different times in different countries. Start working HARD on bringing digital content to people through the internet, rather than try to stop it. Give people options for the content. Cheaper=lower resolution/sound quality - More expensive=higher definition/THX or Surround. Give people the option to not spend everything they've got, but still be able to enjoy the stuff while still at least paying a little to the artists. It's so damned easy and the solution is right there. You can't get rid of it completely. As long as there's laws to break, there's people who will break them. But you can stop criminalizing people without any reason, and start caring for them as your customers - the same way a good restaurant cares about their customers. Give them a GOOD reason to buy your products, rather than point your finger at them the minute they set foot in the store.
- unfortunately at that time, I could not produce the inlay, as I had probably pissed on it, burned it, hanged it, stabbed it, burned it again, and finally tossed it out.
This time I kept it. It does have another sound to it compared to the first one though - it is not as much a raised finger as it is a thanks - and then again...
It's a small 12x18 cm leaflet with a logo on the entire front, saying (in danish):
"Skip the copies, keep the originals".
On the flipside there's first a little note saying:
"Thanks for keeping the movies alive. When you watch a movie in the cinema, buy or rent an original DVD rather than copying or downloading it illegally, you're participating in ensuring that actors, script writers, instructors and all the people behind the movie gets paid for their work. And thus you're participating in ensuring that there will also be someone who cares about making movies in the future. Because who want's to work for free?"
- and that was just the introduction. Fair enough. A little appreciation is absolutely commendable, and I DO agree with the gist of the text. But the lesson that follows about how many people it takes to make a movie (in the given example, Shrek), and how fast internet connections and DVD-recorders in every home are making it too easy to break the law, and so on and so forth, really bugs me. I already know this. And if people are buying the DVD, you really don't need to tell them that they shouldn't download it. Surprise - THEY ALREADY BOUGHT IT! So these little cards were much better off as free postcards on the many cafés and diners around town. I really resent having these lectures thrown in my face, when I am in fact not doing anything wrong. It just has this feeling of "yes yes, so you bought the DVD, but technically you COULD go and copy it or download it illegally". Come on - technically I COULD also use a crowbar to break into a house or smack someone silly with. But the crowbar doesn't come with a blurp like that... "Thank you for buying the Dyson Crowbar (tm). Use it for it's designed purpose, but remember - breaking into peoples houses and killing them with this item, will make a lot of people sad - including the Dyson staff, who worked long and hard to bring you the finest in demolition equipment".
Technically I could run someone over with my car - on purpose - yet the car does not come with a blurp of such kind either.
- it's just so wrongly aimed.
Furthermore, I'm sure they spend a fortune on the little informercials and printed campaigns and whatnot. But I'm almost willing to bet my entire DVD collection (yes, it is HUGE - the dvd collection, not... well...) that not one of those who intended to copy a DVD, decided to NOT do it when they saw the "You wouldn't steal a car..."-intro, or read the little inlay. Not one.
These campaigns are pointed at the ignorant. People who don't know it is illegal. But there's not really that many who don't know it's illegal, is there? They should instead target their campaigns to those who profit on the illegal copying/distribution. Those who refuse to pay anything to be entertained. But more importantly they should stop trying to dictate when and how we play our legally purchased entertainment. Don't bother with the copy protection - everything that can be coded, can be decoded. So it really is futile, and it stops nothing. On the contrary. Some people get off on being the first to crack a new protection, and it turns into a sport in those circles. And it usually never takes more than a day or so anyways. So it's expensively paid, but still borrowed, time. And all you get in the end, is pissed off consumers, who in sheer frustration of not being able to play their newly purchased cd on the car stereo because of some crappy protection which does not reckognize the 20 year old CD-player, goes and downloads it illegally instead - and maybe does so the next time too, without bothering to buy an original first.
Skip the regions on DVD's. Stop releasing movies on different times in different countries. Start working HARD on bringing digital content to people through the internet, rather than try to stop it. Give people options for the content. Cheaper=lower resolution/sound quality - More expensive=higher definition/THX or Surround. Give people the option to not spend everything they've got, but still be able to enjoy the stuff while still at least paying a little to the artists. It's so damned easy and the solution is right there. You can't get rid of it completely. As long as there's laws to break, there's people who will break them. But you can stop criminalizing people without any reason, and start caring for them as your customers - the same way a good restaurant cares about their customers. Give them a GOOD reason to buy your products, rather than point your finger at them the minute they set foot in the store.
7.10.2007
Bank of Anerica
I got a mail from Bank of Anerica, saying that my bank account is locked (see above).
Bank of Anerica.... hahaha - suuuuure.
I just had to open the mail - I know, I know - it's stupid, but curiosity killed the cat, eh?
Here's what it said :
----------------------
Account: NO INFO Date: 07/09/2007 As the Internet and information technology enable us to expand our services, we are committed to maintaining the trust customers have placed in us for protecting the privacy and security of information we have about you. In order to protect your information against unauthorized access, identity theft and account fraud we earnestly ask you to update your profile. To get started, please click the button below and login to your account :
Your Online Banking Account has been blocked on 07/09/2007 Because email is not a secure form of communication, please do not reply to this email.
-----------------------
Really? Email is not a secure for of communication? Well then, I'll just log in through this fine button (which, in the mail, originates from Geocities) you supplied in this (according to your own statement) non-secure communiqué of yours, and hand over my account info.
- idiots! And even bigger idiots! to those who actually press the sign-in button, and hand over the info. You should not be allowed on the internet.
6.08.2007
Shooting sparrows with an H-bomb
Here's a thing that totally pisses me off : DVD's with the well-known "Downloading illegal movies of the internet, is theft, and you wouldn't steal a bag/car/whatever"-campaign video. Or even better yet : Finding a little printed inlay that says something about how it's illegal to download movies of the internet and blah blah blah - INSIDE THE FRIGGIN COVER OF MY LEGALLY PURCHASED (and very overpriced) DVD. What the fuck is that about? I bought the friggin movie, so why do I need to read that downloading movies is a sin? How about telling the REAL criminals? And because of the expenses associated with producing such campaigns, my next LEGALLY PURCHASED DVD, will cost 50 cent more...
Sheesh! It's like if the clerk at the counter of your local deli in a very judgmental manner said "shoplifters will get punished", AFTER you've paid for your groceries.
Yes I KNOW it's illegal, that's why I PAY for my entertainment.
They are totally missing the target with these campaigns, because obviously when you download a movie of the internet, you don't get the cover with the annoying little inlay. Furthermore noone is a stranger to all the legal mumbo jumbo, and hence they're just considered nag-screens. And nag-screens gets removed on illegal copies. So who the hell are they trying to reach?
Imagine if you had to listen to 3 minutes of legal crap, that you already friggin know, before you could enjoy the new CD that you LEGALLY PURCHASED! Or if the new book you bought, flipped open on page one and was stuck there for 2 minutes, untill "The Industry" was sure you had enough time to read the legal stuff, before finally allowing you to start reading the book. That'd suck, huh?
I was searching my office garbage bin for one of those inlays that I just threw away the other day, but I can't find it. And somebody would probably sue my ass, if I posted a scan of it here on my blog. Man these people are morons, and they should totally fire their entire legal and marketing departments!
Sheesh! It's like if the clerk at the counter of your local deli in a very judgmental manner said "shoplifters will get punished", AFTER you've paid for your groceries.
Yes I KNOW it's illegal, that's why I PAY for my entertainment.
They are totally missing the target with these campaigns, because obviously when you download a movie of the internet, you don't get the cover with the annoying little inlay. Furthermore noone is a stranger to all the legal mumbo jumbo, and hence they're just considered nag-screens. And nag-screens gets removed on illegal copies. So who the hell are they trying to reach?
Imagine if you had to listen to 3 minutes of legal crap, that you already friggin know, before you could enjoy the new CD that you LEGALLY PURCHASED! Or if the new book you bought, flipped open on page one and was stuck there for 2 minutes, untill "The Industry" was sure you had enough time to read the legal stuff, before finally allowing you to start reading the book. That'd suck, huh?
I was searching my office garbage bin for one of those inlays that I just threw away the other day, but I can't find it. And somebody would probably sue my ass, if I posted a scan of it here on my blog. Man these people are morons, and they should totally fire their entire legal and marketing departments!
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