I spend lots of time bashing Microsoft, while simultaneously extolling the virtues of Linux. However, I've been careful to avoid the blanket Windoze comments because, by and large, Microsoft has done a decent job making computers accessible and usable to pretty much everyone. However, Bill Gates' baby tends, at times, to act like a baby: crying, whining and generally acting immature. Case in point in this decision by Microsoft. Excerpt:

In a move that's sure to draw fire from opponents of digital rights management technologies and anger customers, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said it will disable consumers' ability to play songs purchased and downloaded from its defunct MSN Music service on new devices after Aug. 30.
"As of August 31st, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," Microsoft said in an e-mail that was sent Tuesday to former MSN Music customers.

That means consumers who purchased songs from MSN Music and who want to port their library to a new device -- in case of, say, a hardware failure or desire to upgrade -- won't be able to do so after the end of August.

Given the life of today's computer hardware and mobile devices, Microsoft's decision effectively places an expiration date of about three to five years on song libraries that MSN Music customers thought they had purchased for life.

Microsoft did not provide a reason for the decision.

I guess saying "I'm a stupid fucking dumbass" doesn't play too well in a press release. However, in this case, I'll assume that that message is implied.

Update: Crikey! That Puppy Blending fool sure gets around the Innertubes.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 03:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Dr. Helen links to a PMSNBC article wherein some ball-busting harpy sees fit to publicly malign her husband as a useless turd. Dr. Helen is having none of it. Excerpt:

I have some advice for your long suffering husband, Jeremy. Next time you need something fixed around the house, your wife needs help lifting something, or you need a blowjob, resort to yelling and complaining. Threats are also effective, as long as she knows you mean business. Huff and puff and complain to all of your friends about her inadequacies and let the world know what a loser she is. Then crow about your newfound equality. Finally, call yourself a hero and write a lousy piece for Men's Health or some other men's magazine about your loser of a wife and see how your married life takes off after that. For deep down, even if Jeremy won't admit it, my guess is, just like the women mentioned in the article, he is seething inside. It's no wonder he won't scrub toilets for this woman.

Update: From Ace, of course:

Men and women simply have differing opinions as to what constitutes "clean enough." Quite frankly, doing half of what you ask in this regard is already quite a compromise, because, honestly, It looks fine to us, honey.

No, we're not just saying that. We mean that. It looks fine to us, honey.

Sink's got a bit of orange-ish mold growing around the drain? Shrug. Last time I looked it hadn't grown tentacles and began reaching out rip my face off. It's just the wonder of nature. Circle of life. Chain of being. Didn't you always say you wanted to go on nature-walks, hon? Well there you go. I made you your own private nature walk right in the head.

Soap scum building up along the rim of the tub? Um, it's soap, baby. Scum or not, it's soap. That means it's pure cleanliness, cleanliness in diatomic elemental form. Clean up the soap? What, are you crazy? That's counterproductive. If anything we should be trying to plaster the whole house in soap scum.
...
Feminism seems to be teaching women that narcissism, unpleasantness, selfishness, and hectoring, nagging, domineering, insufferable behavior are somehow virtues to be praised.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 03:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not a particular blogger, but Blogger itself. I recently signed up for a backup blog because, (a) it seemed like a good idea and (b) I wanted a Blogger Id to post comments on some blogs I like. Immediately, my blog was disabled as a potential SPAM blog. My readers might agree that my blog is Potted Meat, but it certainly isn't Spam. Anyway, I tried to click on the embedded link in the warning email I received and it asked me to login. Said login failed because my account was blocked. So I waded through Blogger groups to find a contact for a real person to help. It turns out that others were in the same boat as me. It also turns out that Google gives itself 20 days to verify a blog once you request a review, which review is difficult to request when you can't fucking login.

Anyway. I was finally able to login this morning and request a review. Once they open up my account, I'm going to rename it from [not available at this time due to possible SPAM BLOG] to Blogger and Google suck big black donkey dicks. I'll go out on a limb and guess that that might violate the terms of service.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:32 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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