Google, sticking it to the little guy!

OK, I admit, I'm a bit bitter right now.

For three years or so I have had Google Adsense advertising on my website. The monthly income has varied based on the amount of traffic I receive and could vary from nothing to $15-$20 a month. This is mainly based on the fact that most of my traffic comes from netizens looking for circumventor links. The hits climb in the winter and fall in the summer, when schools of all sorts are in session.

This past month I finally pushed my all time income over $100 so I was entitled to a pay out. This would have been my first pay out ever! After three years I finally made $100 total!

But, Noooo !!!!

Google goes and suspends my account for illegal clicks! In essence they say I have been clicking advertising links on my own site or having someone do it for me to up my payout.

Hey Google, don't you think if I wanted to cheat I would have started a little earlier? Are you that stupid?

So I figure, if the drugs you are taking in Mountain View that good you really need to start share them with the rest of us. Or maybe you could check into one of those fancy "health spas" you have out there in California and come back to reality.

Jackasses !!!

The Washington Post printed a nice piece of FUD in it's Opinion page today. They allowed Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, to write an opinion piece expressing his concerns about how FISA has not passed and what it means to America. The Daily Kos has a good point by point rebuff of the opinion piece.

What appalls me is that basically McConnell wants retroactive immunity for the telecoms He doesn't want AT&T and Verizon to be held accountable for breaking the law.

With one vote, Senator Ken Salazar (D - CO) has lost my vote and gained my angst. The Senator recently voted for FISA bill, which gives amnesty to the telcos and legalizes President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.

In the Senators news release on the passage of the bill, he talks about how he "supported several amendments that would have gone further in protecting civil liberties and would have limited the immunity protection provided to telecommunications companies involved in helping the government collect intelligence". I believe if he truly was concerned about these items he would have voted no for the bills passage. To me his statement is just more hot D.C air.

It galls me to believe I voted for him. I expected more of him rather than just being a Democratic pushover who is only concerned about being re-elected in this rather conservative state.

Senator Salazar, shame on you for not caring about nor protecting my civil liberties. Be sure to expect me to do whatever I can to prevent you from being re-elected in the next election if you chose to run. Hopefully you will chose not to run again.

Do the news media think they own the world and we have to move to accommodate them? Based on my morning bike commute today, that is definitely they case. While going by station 1 on West Colfax all the local tv stations where there reporting on the sad death of a 30 year veteran. The problem develops when a camera crew (Fox 31) sets up in the sidewalk/bike-path along Colfax. This leaves the only way to get around them is to go onto Colfax and deal with the westbound traffic. This is whether you are walking or riding a bike as the other local stations had set up in part of the firehouse yard, out of the way of pedestrians and bike commuters. Yes, Fox 31 could have set up in the yard, there was room for them, they just chose to be numskulls

Fox 31 News receives a Worst Person In The World award today. 

What I am thinking about the day before election day.

It is my opinion that those Americans who choose not to vote, give up the right to:

Bitch, Moan, Cry, Complain, Whine, Grumble, Criticize, Denouce, Protest, Bemoan, Boohoo, Find Fault, Snivel, Whimper, Cackle, Bellyache, Carp, Grunt, Mutter, Caterwaul, Hiss, Blubber, Refute, Squall, Sob, Lament (or any other synonym you can come up with)

Those officials or policies that the rest of us vote for (or against) and end up either in office (or not) or on the books (or not).

Some people may say that the first amendment gives us the right to freedom of speech and thus we can say anything we wish. I disagree. If you are not part of the process of democracy in this country, you are not part of this country.

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Get your ass out there and vote!

So, I went to the Windows Update page and found that there was a new driver for my Linksys USB Network Adapter. I decided to install it. What a huge mistake.

First, I backed up my system, as I usually do. Next I went for the driver update. I then rebooted WascallyWabbit and found that I could no longer connect to my network.

Ok, just roll-back the driver. Nothing.

I then tried System Restore. Nada.

Alright, uninstall the hardware device, reboot and try again. Nope, still out in the dark.

I spent about fourty-five minutes playing this game until I found the right combination of things to do.

First you disconnect the hardware,
then you uninstall the device,
then you reboot with the device unplugged,
then you try plugging in the device,
nothing happens so you unplug and then plug the device back in
and, boom, it works.

Man, what a pain in the ass!

Note To Self: Don't update drivers unless something is wrong!

Boy, You Stupid!

While perusing my local computer store, I picked up the current ComputorEdge and found this article. It definitely hit a cord with me and all those "Big Brother" types out there trying to control my world. What is suppose to be a free world where I can make my own decisions.

You’re a child, unable to protect yourself. Unable to make your own decisions about your privacy, not allowed to negotiate on your own behalf. Apparently unable to venture online without Big Brother holding your hand.

That, at least, seems to be the opinion of the European Union, a California legislator and the self-proclaimed “privacy rights” movement.

All three of the above-mentioned players are scrambling to try either to force Google to change the basic economic model for its pending free e-mail service, or, failing that, simply to ban it.

In the name of freedom, of course.

http://www.computoredge.com/colorado/Editorial/hotonweb.htm

Yes I am 40, and maybe the first paragraph does not apply to me (depending on who you ask!), but I remember a day in age when we didn't have shootings in schools, there where no seat belts in the family station wagon - in fact the back seat was left down and we just scambled all over the place!. No it was not a simpler time! The problems that our parents faced and we as children faced are just the same as today. How are we going to making ends meet, what click are we in, what am I doing with my life, I want that bike. Now they are pushed harder into our faces my the media that is just trying to make money. I blame it on a dysfunctonal country (Don't blame the family, they have always been dysfunctional) where money is more important the the human. Where the media has made it more important to have a bigger SUV that your neighbor than being conscience of what this does to our environment. Hell, I don't know, maybe I am being narrow minded, but I think this fixation on media is what is bring this country down. And, yes, I do believe that US of A is on a downward spiral. We no longer appriciate the simple things.

No We Don't!

When was the last time you went to your local ice cream store, bought an ice cream cone and walked around the neighborhood saying good evening to the people you saw?

How often do you say hello to people you walk by?

What would you do if you could not connect to the internet and read this of all things?

Life is as simple as we wish to make it. We just need to start needing to make it simple. Or maybe seeing it for what it really is, a brief travel through time. We really don't know what happens when we die! You can't do anything about tomorrow and yesterday is already gone. In fact if you think about it, tomorrow never comes, it is always today!

But that is just my humple opinion and I feel better having expressed this jumble of thoughts!