I emailed Netlfix and asked why they forced us to go to SilverLight, no response as yet.
I also sent this to Microsoft, I wonder if I’ll get a response:
Why did you foist such a piece of crap on the public as Silverlight? Were you trying to kill Flash? Well, I’m not very happy with it, it does stuttering wonders on my older PC. I’ve expressed my displeasure to the team at Netflix too and I figured that you at Microsoft also deserve a ration of shit for such a crap product.
Yes I’m pissed off.
So we once again rented a zipcar. It’s becoming a weekly thing, head to Trader Joe’s, the markets, etc. It seems I keep getting the Honda Insight Hybrid named Irina. One funny thing, you always have to adjust the seats, mirrors etc. I swear I always get Irina after someone of Lilliputian dimensions has had it. You get into the car and your knees are scrunched against the dashboard and the steering wheel is pretty much jammed into your testicles.
Here’s a tip for Zipcar. It would be fairly trivial to put power drivers seats in the cars, and interface them to the card reader. Hell, that and the mirrors could tie to the card ID.
Anyhow first we went out for breakfast at the Classic Cafe. It’s a nice little place with friendly staff and the depending upon what you order, the food is decent. And who did we bump into walking into the place, but my city councilman Bryan Principe. Apparently the project to move a public MESH network forward in the city’s 13th Ward is moving ahead. He’s going to give me a call this week about it.
And of course I would have to have a head cold starting Friday evening all through Saturday but it wasn’t enough to stop me. My usual allergy meds plus a couple Dayquil caps and I was good to go.
Did laundry in fact the last load is in the dryer now.
But I did find Red State online. I’m not going to jinx it by telling you WHERE I found it but suffice to say it was DVD quality. I approached it with some trepidation knowing that Kevin Smith is well known for movies like Clerks, Clerks II, Chasing Amy, Dogma and hell, even Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, as Smith plays Silent Bob.
What can I say, I had seen Quentin Tarrantino’s thumbs up for the movie so I had to watch. And in true form I won’t tell you about the ending. But it did a very good job of getting inside the true mind of folks like Westboro Baptist, and the other hate groups out there. If they could, they’d try what was shown in this movie. If you get a chance, go and see it. It’s fairly entertaining with a pretty good cast.
I’ve done everything. Updated all my plug-ins, dumped network cache, dumped regular cache, and yet, if I try watching Netflix I see PlugInContainer sucking up most of the CPU time on the machine and it’s a stuttering wonder.
I have to wonder why the hell Netflix chose to go with the SilverLight player. The Flash based player worked just fine, no problems whatsoever.
But what really irks me is that since Microsoft pushed this piece of shit player upon us, they pulled the plug on any future SilverLight development.
And I hear that the next version of IE won’t allow Add-In’s like Flash player. What the fuck? I know Flash player has issues too, but none like that piece of fucking shit SilverLight.
So Netflix, please switch back. I’m not the only one of your subscribers having this issue. And I’ve replicated the issue in Firefox 6, Google Chrome 13.0.782.220 m, and IE 8. The only common factor among the three browsers, SilverLight. So please, I implore you at Neflix, go back to the Flash player.
I am amazed by the progress that has been made regarding LGBT rights. There was a time when I thought we’d never see gay marriage, never see a repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell and a host of other things that have happened to further the cause of LGBT equality.
And in just one week DADT will be history, that gay people can be themselves in the military is unprecedented in the United States.
When I was younger I had considered the USAF Academy. I had the grades, but I had thought it was the thought of Uncle Sam owning my ass for so many years. But the reality was I knew being gay in the military was a serious no-no and I knew even then that my sexuality couldn’t be suppressed. A shame really, I wonder what rank I’d have achieved had I gone that route. I’m pretty sure I would have advanced beyond 2nd Lieutenant. But that was never meant to be.
And now, another gay youth will have an opportunity to serve this country without fear of reprisal for their sexuality. That is the progress I have been pushing for most of my life.
I remember it well. I was the I.T. Director for the RI Department of Attorney General.
My first red flag was when I got a call that nobody could get on the web. So I went upstairs to the Director of Administration’s office and she had the television on in her office. I could see the gaping hole in the side of the WTC tower.
By the time the first tower collapsed there was a crowd of us in the office. There was a collective gasp that emanated from the group while watching the first tower plummet.
And now, evidence is surfacing that the intelligence community knew about the plans to attack on 9/11/2001. Not only did they know, they had that knowledge actively suppressed.
I’ll give you one more, in order for it to be quashed like that it HAD to come from high up the chain of command more likely than not to the offices of Vice President and President.
I’ve always had this feeling that the Bush Administration knew the attack was going to happen. And in the back of my mind I always thought that they took every action they could to enhance the effect.
They beat that drum and got us into Afghanistan despite the fact that the Russians had their collective asses handed to them there. They got us into Iraq and the reality there was that Saddam Hussein was once the friend of the United States.
Hussein was our friend because he prosecuted a war with Iran for many years. To the point that the population of Iran today is mostly under the age of 30.
No, Hussein was not a nice man. But he was an effective man. He kept the Sunni and Shia from killing each other in Iraq. But when we invaded we opened Pandora’s Box or if you like, we let the D’jin out of the bottle and there’s not putting it back.
So in essence President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Condoleza Rice, and even Colin Powell have some very difficult questions to answer here.
And I think we should make an exception in their cases. If found criminally guilty, they should be executed and their heads placed on spikes around the Capitol as a gruesome warning.
Overall I agree with him. I see the immediate impacts here in my own state, as in $24 Million more for unemployment insurance, that’s a good start.
I see it in his vision for transit in this country that would shame China. Lets see if RIPTA gets say a couple hundred million for building out not just a streetcar line, but a streetcar network, and maybe even some light rail.
Tax breaks for businesses that hire new employees, check!
Middle class tax cut while increasing the taxes on those who can most afford it. Check, check!
But the best part, how he implored them to pass the bill. And how he stated the fact that a lot of what he proposed was also supported by Republican in congress.
He’s basically laid the trap now. It should be interesting to see what happens next.
If you want to get the U.S. back on its feet again I have a few suggestions. They may not be popular with either Republican or Democrat but they are in my opinion not so much progressive as rectifying.
1) Enact law that penalizes employers, specifically companies with more than 200 employees, for outsourcing jobs to anyplace other than the U.S. Make it so it’s economically more feasible to keep the jobs here than to ship them to India or China.
2) Scrap NAFTA and all the other free trade agreements. All they did was to let the big companies push their manufacturing outside the country.
3) Enact law to make it illegal to discriminate against the long term unemployed. Make the penalties for doing so draconian.
4) While we’re at it, age discrimination in employment has to end too. We’re living longer lives and the likelihood of us not needing a job in our 70’s is rapidly increasing.
5) Enact STRONG, and I mean STRONG environmental law. You think all these cancer clusters are because of family? Try again. Most of them have strong environmental causation. I mean, how else do we all have strontium in our bodies?
6) Invest in education. Look at the model from Finland. It’s quite fascinating, they have astoundingly high matriculation rates.
Get us back on track!
So I was perusing the stats on the blog and I noticed something. Prior to April of 2010 this blog only got about 500 hits a month, or approximately 16 hits a day.
But in April of 2010 I called out the TV show Fringe for failing to use the proper colors and station names for the MBTA/MBCR commuter rail. And it’s taken off and average monthly traffic is now 1000 hits or 32 hits per day.
So thanks to everyone who keeps visiting. I wonder what other controversial thing I’ll write that might double that 1,000 to 2,000?
How I friended the guy, probably we have friends in common. But anyhow, read through. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be minus one facebook friend very soon:
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella he’s not going to get a second term
3 hours ago ·
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Tony Pelliccio I don’t know Domenic, what the Repugs are offering thus far, each one is seriously flawed.
2 hours ago · LikeUnlike
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella anyone is more compentent then Pres Obama… he has accomplished what he set out to do which is to destroy this country…hope and change i hope he is a 1 term pres he even said if unemployment stays above 9% hes ‘s ok with being a one term president
2 hours ago · LikeUnlike
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Tony Pelliccio Domenic, Obama is competent. If only the Repugs weren’t such bigoted, racist assholes trying to block him at every turn.
2 hours ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella no no he had control of the house and congress for two years and couldn’t even pass a budget all he does is blame bush hes a cry baby
2 hours ago ·
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Tony Pelliccio Actually he couldn’t pass a budget because, you guessed it, the racist pricks of the Republican party wouldn’t let him. I suggest you read up a bit before posting asinine comments like you do.
2 hours ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella I know if you critize this man you’re a racist…well i’m not a racist but facts are facts.he’s useless incompentent he’s never even run a business he just wants and thinks government should take care of everyone spread the wealth he went to marthas vineyard but moochelle had to leave 4 hours b 4 him such a waste of tax payers $$$
2 hours ago ·
Domenic Tristian Gambradella tony i’m very well informed don’t debate me on this kk
2 hours ago ·
Tony Pelliccio Ok Domenic, so tell me what has Obama done that you object to?
about an hour ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella ummm every thing carter was a better prez then him
about an hour ago ·Domenic Tristian Gambradella what has he done that benifits you
about an hour ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella like i said dont debate on this
about an hour ago ·
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Tony Pelliccio Ok Deomenic, there you go. When asked to produce evidence you refuse. Typical of most conservatives and neo-cons.
49 minutes ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella oh not a problem ur pro obama thats fine u want stats on his dissmel presidency
5 minutes ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella bring it dont sing it
4 minutes ago ·
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Domenic Tristian Gambradella don’t do it
3 minutes ago ·
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Tony Pelliccio Ok, I’m bringing it now. Your refusal to provide specific examples which one could find with an easy google search leaves me one possibility: You’re pissed that a black man was a elected President of the United States. By that reasoning, you are a racist prick.
Thus far he hasn’t responded and he’s online. He’s probably mad as hell that I’ve called him on it. Good, I want people to confront their own bullshit.
So to add salt to the wound I added this:
Tony Pelliccio And Domenic, let me get this straight, it’s ok for President Bush to have been on vacation for most of his presidency, but let a President who is black try to vacation at Martha’s Vineyard and you get pissy about it? Yeah, you’re a racist prick. Have a nice diurnal anomaly asshole!
I run into this crap because I’m politically active. And so I get friend requests because I’m a friend of some politician or someone else who is politically active and the fun starts.
And you know what, I derive great pleasure out of dealing with nitwits like Domenic. It’s a catharsis for the soul to call them on their crap.
This is too funny. I’ve been saying it for some time because I too have noticed the changes on Providence’s center of Federal Hill, Atwells Avenue.
If you read the article the true problem is in about the fifth paragraph. I’ll parse it out just so you can see:
Traditionalists on the Hill complain that some nightspots offering entertainment are doing a rough trade that bothers their customers and nearby apartment- and condo-dwellers and that challenges law enforcement. There has been minor violence, too-loud music and a tendency to put out too many tables and chairs, clogging the sidewalks.
Note I bolded the term ‘condo-dwellers’. Yes, they have been working diligently to turn all the apartments that were once on Atwells Ave. into condos. And when people pay a fairly high price to live in the center of it all, they don’t want to contend with any bullshit.
I’ve seen the same thing happen on Fountain St. in Providence. They took a disused office building and turned it all into condos. On the ground flour a pub/deli opened up. And across the street in one direction is The Roxy/Lupo’s, and entertainment venue.
And of course the condo owners complained to no effect. Both businesses are still going strong.
And you know what, the cops will probably crack down on the late night scene on Atwells. The one I hope they really clamp is the tables and chairs on the sidewalks. You can do that in wide open plazas, but not on city sidewalks. It’s to the point if you want to walk down that section of Atwells you have to dodge patrons and chairs. And not for anything, DePasqaule Plaza used to be a nice little plaza with a fountain. Now it’s all gated off with tables and chairs inside the fences. The fountain is still there but the plaza has lost its charm.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. Another part of the article mentions that Providence is no longer majority Italian-American and that Latino and Southeast Asians are now a large contingent. They did miss one group, a fair number of those nightclubs on Atwells are owned by Lebanese and Moroccans.
And I can completely understand why you’d want to open a nightclub on Atwells Ave. The rents are fairly inexpensive, and running a club/bar is one of the lower overhead enterprises. If all you sell are booze and snacks, you’re looking at a markup percentage in the 200% to 300% range.
And eight years ago the City Council voted to rescind the cap on liquor licenses. How’d that work out?
But there does have to be some compromise to restore at least part of the character of the district. I’m glad to see that the entertainment licensees are being forced to pay for the police detail. It’s going to get to the point where it will become so expensive to open a nightclub on Atwells that it’ll fade. You can see it coming.
