Pixelbath

This site has been toeing the line for quite some time now by making its answers available below the “fold” of links, as seen in Google’s cached version.

They now seem hell-bent on removing even the pretense of compliance with Google’s webmaster guidelines, which clearly state that a violation is:

Serving different content to search engines than to users

I have an account with Experts Exchange, so that’s not what I take issue with. I take issue with them thinking they are somehow above the rules the rest of us are bound to follow.

Also of note is the “20071212-EE-VQP-20 - Google” tag at the bottom from the cached version, and “20080206-EE-VQP-25″ from the current version.

 

Tip for anybody getting married: if you’re searching for items for purchase or rental, don’t attach the word “wedding” to it, because you immediately increase the price 15-100%.

 

Example: Cake vs. Wedding Cake (prices are per-serving, so at the cheapest, $3.50 per serving at 75 guests, is $262.50), Dress vs. Wedding Dress (note that this is a cheap wedding dress; most range from $800-$3000 dollars, sometimes higher), Bouquet vs. Wedding Bouquet, and so on.

In looking around at various vendors for tables, chairs, catering, and other necessary supplies, Stephanie and I have frequently come across the same item for hugely different prices from different vendors. This has led to us coining a new phrase: “your margin is showing,” as in “your [ridiculously freaking huge profit] margin is showing.” It’s glaringly obvious that some people are making a disgusting pile of money from those who don’t bother shopping around, and it’s convinced me I’m in the wrong business.

Screw web design; this work doesn’t pay me enough. I need to become a wedding web designer.

After watching Sarah Palin debate Joe Biden last night, I figured if she’s qualified to do it, I should be too, right? I mean, my name’s not Joe Six-Pack, but I think I could figure out how it’s done, and having read a newspaper once or twice, am just as much or more informed then her on the duties of the Vice President.

Forgive the craptastic quality of this flowchart. I blame Visio.

Props to adennak for the original idea, and issa for the heads up.

Clocking in at a whopping 1:39, including random pauses and condescending smirks:

 

Good morning.

My administration continues to work with the Congress on a rescue plan.

And we need a rescue plan. This is hard work; our proposal is a big proposal, and the reason it’s big and substantial is because we’ve got a big problem. We also need to move quickly. Now, any time you have a plan this big that is moving this quickly that requires legislative approval it creates challenges. Members want to be heard, they want to be able to express their opinions, and they should be allowed to express their opinions. There are disagreements over aspects of the resucue plan but there is no disagreement that something substantial must be done.

The legislative process is sometimes not very pretty, but we are going to get a package passed. We will rise to the occasion. Republicans and Democrats will come together and pass a substantial rescue plan.

Thank you very much.

In what has to be EW’s best cover ever (if they decide to run with it):

Please vote for this cover.

Terrorist fist jab!

 

In yet another pathetic gambit by the McCain camp, they wish to suspend the first presidential debate with Barack Obama.

Now, this debate has been a long time coming, ever since McCain alleged that the “tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all across America.”

Town hall meetings are a way for GOP candidates to spout the mindless drivel that hits all the emotional centers of people who live their lives according to knee-jerk reactions, shutting down any and all logic. I think McCain knows that in a serious debate, Obama would tear him limb from limb without breaking a sweat.

McCain and Obama both already agreed to put politics aside for a moment and issued a joint statement about the economy:

Now is a time to come together - Democrats and Republicans - in a spirit of cooperation for the sake of the American people. The plan that has been submitted to Congress by the Bush Administration is flawed, but the effort to protect the American economy must not fail. This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country. We cannot risk an economic catastrophe. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

With them both being senators, I wholeheartedly agree they should focus on the economy, but only to the extent that they are needed. This raises the question: who the hell do you think you are, McCain? You’re one senator. Your bowing out of one debate on a Friday night is not going to save this country from economic disaster; you’re not even proposing legislation.

He says he will “suspend [his] campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative,” even though he’s uh, not the President. He’s not the House leader, nor is he the President of the Senate.

(On an aside, he also said, “I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me,” which is almost complete bullshit.)

Neither McCain or Obama will singlehandedly save this country, and suggesting that refocusing their efforts elsewhere is disingenuous, and smacks of the shallow sort of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place.

Update while this post was sitting the draft queue: According to the AP, the Senate has reached an agreement only hours before Obama and McCain were scheduled to meet with President Bush on this very issue. Since he’s no longer pivotal to this agreement, maybe McCain can show some balls and move forward with the debate? If not, Obama says he’ll go forward with it anyway and answer questions from the moderator himself.

Talk about having somebody by the balls.

—–Original Message—–
From: [Some Guy]
To: Customer Service

[Part of your course] is in error in stating that double velocity is quadruple kinetic energy. Also in error stating that kinetic energy and stoping distance are directly related. Double velocity is double kinetic energy. Double velocity means double stopping time over which quadruple stopping distance will occur. Please use correct science when teaching Physics. Thanks and I hope that this mistake is not repeated on your exams.

—–Reply—–
From: Me
To: ["Letters You Don't Send to Customers" Department]

Your assertion that doubling velocity will also double kinetic energy is incorrect (using metric, since it’s easier):

Using the formula,
Kinetic energy = (1/2) * mass * velocity²

A person, assumed to be about 80kg, travelling at 40mph (17.8816 meters/sec):
(1/2) * 80 * 17.8816² = 12,790 joules
Doubling the velocity:
(1/2) * 80 * 35.7632² = 51,160 joules (12,790 * 4)

Or, four times the kinetic energy, measured in joules. You are, however, correct in stating that doubling velocity would translate to four times the stopping distance, but fail to mention why. We mean they are “directly related” in that an increase in velocity will directly lead to an increase in stopping distance. To round out your understanding of this topic, stopping distance is directly proportional to the square of the starting velocity:

Where x is the stopping distance, and assuming a friction coefficient of 0.8 (new tires, new tread), and gravitational constant of 9.8m/s:

distance = -17.8816²/2 * 0.8 * 9.8 = 1.8945m
distance = -35.7632²/2 * 0.8 * 9.8 = 7.5780m (1.8945 * 4)

Please don’t try and prove how smart you are to us; we’re not impressed, and incidentally, not changing our course content.

Why, when I’m over being pissed off for something, you go and pull additional bullshit?

Installed .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, and after restarting Firefox for unrelated reasons, notice that a new add-on has been installed:

The installer didn’t ask, and what’s this? I can’t uninstall it? Are you fucking kidding me? Oh look, they changed my user-agent string too:

To remove this bullshit, do the following:

1. Open Regedit
2. Goto HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\extensions
3. Delete the key {20a82645-c095-46ed-80e3-08825760534b}
4. Restart Firefox.

To remove the user-agent string (add-ons like User Agent Switcher will not change the default), open the about:config page, and in the Filter box, type “useragent” and you should see “general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet” somewhere near the top.

Reset this value so it becomes empty (it will be automatically deleted).

Fuck you, Microsoft. Next time, ask. You also went out of your way to ensure it couldn’t be uninstalled. What’s up with that? Just provide a link to the installer. If the add-on is something we want as users, we can install it ourselves.

Update (9/19): Commenter Matti brings up that it’s because of the method of install that you can’t uninstall this add-on, like any other add-on installed via the registry.

I’ve noticed that during the past eight years, there seems to be a huge distortion of reality that the current administration projects that makes them invulnerable to political attack. Despite the widespread knowledge that our rationale for invading Iraq was completely false (and how that rationale mysteriously changed), despite the facts coming to light about warrantless surveillance while ignoring existing FISA laws, despite McCain reversing his position on certain torture techniques to strengthen his conservative base, conservative pundits and followers still cling to their party.

Recently, the GOP has decided they’d like to pander some, and pick as his Vice President someone who is less qualified than the Democratic nominee they’ve been bashing for the past year. With McCain’s acceptance speech for nomination, and Sarah Palin’s subsequent whipping of the media, they’ve now insulted your intelligence, and continue to do so daily with the soundbites and hypocrisy I keep seeing.

Why are you not angry at these people? They have, for months, told you how unfit Obama is to be our leader because of his inexperience. They have implied that he is secretly a Muslim, that he engages in “terrorist fist jabs” (for proper use of the fist pound, see here (note that this does not imply that anyone involved murders hundreds and hundreds of people)), and that he wants to raise your taxes.

Now, with the nomination of Sarah Palin, they tell you ridiculous things like, “Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia.” I suppose that implies that Alaskans are constantly fighting off Russian attack, and Russian leaders come through Alaska on diplomatic missions? She’s the “commander-in-chief” of the Alaska National Guard (by the way, Tucker Bounds is a fucking weasel…he can’t even answer a question on GOP-mouthpiece Fox News, bonus points if you notice that after being pinned down, he says McCain will absolutely not raise taxes, after McCain himself has said that “nothing is off the table”).

It’s obvious to anyone who looks at it objectively that the GOP continues to sling mud to defend a candidate who, like George W. Bush, is vastly unqualified to be the President of the United States. Whether you “trust” Obama or fear him because of his charisma, consider this: he started as a civil rights attorney, met his wife while championing the rights of the working man, and ran a very upfront and honest campaign (especially when you consider the 2000 and 2004 elections), and won. As the presidential candidate, he continues to focus on issues to help America, and the right continues to make it about terrorism and taxes, the bane of redneck-thinking everywhere. Can we just for once not elect a candidate based on how he feels about abortion and gay people?

Unless you make well over $120,000 per year, there is absolutely no reason to support McCain, because he’ll continue doing what the right has been doing since the Bush administration started: lower corporate taxes, deregulate industries (which only helps the industry, never the consumer), and strive keep working poor people in the poor house. They constantly insult your intelligence by spouting a load of pandering crap (which you inexplicably gobble up and repeat endlessly), telling you things that are easily verified as untrue, and waffle back and forth on key issues. I honestly don’t understand it. Why are you not lynching these fucking people?

At least candidate I support doesn’t treat me like a dumbass.

There is so much more to this, but it would take forever to write, and who’d read the whole thing? Honestly, even I’m starting to get tired of how long this is.

I’m glad someone could finally call Karl Rove to task for his total douchebaggery. Was it Anderson Cooper? Wolf Blitzer?

No.

This is why they’re the “Best F**king News Team on the Planet.” Why is Jon Stewart still the only one taking these fuckers to task?

Grow some balls already, media.