Missing Brake Pads On GM Sonic – & Long Rant

GM is recalling 4,296 Chevrolet Sonic’s because they “may be missing brake pads”. These missing brake pads may cause an increase in stopping distance… I had to hold back my coffee so it wouldn’t spew all over the computer. Increase stopping distance?!?! Ya think?!?!? How the heck does this get past QC? How does 4,296 of them make it past QC and how do they know it’s that specific number?

Funnier yet, why are they waiting until January 14th to notify customers?!?!? Does this sound patently insane to you or am I alone here? Of course GM states no accidents have happened because of this, no of course there hasn’t been after all you have three other wheels that “should” have brakes on them and will do the job no problem.

Some of these wonder cars have been on the road for 6 months!Yet another reason why I will never own GM, this one takes the all time cake. Somebody needs to have a talk with GM, the UAW and GM suppliers because all failed here. The sad fact it took 6 months to figure this out and issue a service bulletin and then finally a recall is beyond belief.

On to the rant… if I lose you from here, I understand, just need to vent.

I don’t believe in bailouts, back when Fischer, the company that made horse carriages went bankrupt horses were still used to pull carriages. From the rubble of the bankrupt Fischer came GM. What’s the point of my story? Too many people believe that if GM failed too many jobs would have been lost, the same thought’s were spoken back when Fischer failed only back then, there were no bailouts. They went bankrupt and life went on, new companies were born. Hey that was over 100 years ago, it’s different now right? Last time I checked, the law and our Constitution give companies ample opportunity to get help in various legal ways, nowhere do I see “bailout stupid companies” listed.

Failed companies failed for a reason and from the ashes new companies arise and new jobs are created and lessons are learned and at times an entire industry is formed. Creating many more jobs than were lost. What happens when you bail companies out? Lessons are not learned, they are rewarded and the same type of bozo’s that were a part of the problem are still there to create the same problems all over again. Hello Fannie & Freddie… they are once again an issue, are you shocked that they need help, again? Have you seen the pay packages they still get? Where are the OWS protestors to scream about that?

We live in a society today where mediocrity is rewarded, participation awards given, no score kept, all so everybody is “equal”. Funny, at work if I don’t do a good job I don’t get rewarded or given the same pay as somebody else because it wasn’t earned. Life isn’t fair and doing the least to get by shouldn’t be rewarded. Sometimes we aren’t “equal” to another person doing the same kind of task, forcing equality in everything helps who exactly? I really want to know because if somebody who does next to nothing is getting the same benefit as I do while working my butt off what reason do I have to continue working so hard for? Anybody?

We are losing our position of world leader in practically everything because of this mentality. The Occupy Wall Street Movement exists because of this mentality. Yes, there are corrupt people in Wall Street and guess what, much of that corruption came at the heals of Government regulations that left the door open for it. Dodd and Frank get a pass for the legislation they help write that made it possible for people to get loans and not be qualified for them, do some leg work and see if I’m wrong, let me know what you find. Wall Street doesn’t write the law, the mental midgets we put into office do and I see no OWS protestors at any door step of anybody in Congress, do you?

Our debt is 100% of GDP and we are quickly trying to catch up to Greece which is 150% of GDP, in 3 years we have incurred 6 TRILLION more in debt and we think that incurring more by way of socializing health care is the way to go? Really? That’s the answer? Think I liked Bush? He created 4 Trillion in 8 years, but Obama is making him look like a spend thrift! I had a lot of issues with Bush but as a President you knew what he said is what he meant, even if he was wrong. All I have seen from Obama in 3 years is blame and apologies to foreign countries for any slight the US may have perpetrated to them.

I have never seen a President so keen on blaming others, so lets put him back in office for 4 more years of the blame game, great idea. 6 trillion in 3 years, how much more can he spend in 5 more? How much before even the left says enough, wait, the left will never say enough, they don’t know how. Heck neither party says enough is enough, they talk about it but that does nothing.

We now live in a country where a Union and the Government can try to dictate where planes are built. Surely this is Russia right? Nope Boeing may not be my cup of tea but they should be allowed to build where ever they want, free from union demands and Government dictates. 

Back to GM, GM is proving why bailouts don’t work, UAW pay offs, 350 million dollars in new battery plants for cars that don’t sell, forcing out a car 6 months early and not meeting sales goals… all brought to you by the Government, more proof that we need them out of our lives, not further encroached into our lives. Building a car that in the end costs so much more than they can sell it for they have to subsidize the car further by giving incentives to buy it, again paid for by the tax payer. The utter gall of it, where is the outcry? The media sits quiet. Solyndra and other multi billion dollar losses by Government hand outs, no problem, just tax payer money never to be seen again.

I predict GM won’t ever fully repay the tax payer, the Government may cook the books so it looks like they did but if you follow the money and see how much is still being poured into GM you would see how it’s impossible to get out of the debt. I don’t see the battery plants or the Government incentive programs being listed as part of the debt incurred by GM and yet, those are tax dollars at work.

Anyway I digress, too many people think Government is the answer, the very same Government that pays $500.00 for a toilet seat, creates a healthcare plan that Congress doesn’t have to use because they have 200 private plans to choose from and a fully funded tax payer paid for pension plan. Take a look at the list of companies that fought for the new healthcare law that have now gotten waivers from having to be part of it.

Somebody explain to me why the ARRP, SEIU, too many Unions to list are on the waiver list after they fought so hard for this new law?? 12% of the total US workforce is waived because of who they work for or are protected by in Unions. I guess Unions really do work then, put untold millions into Democratic coffers to get the law passed, then be put on the waiver list so you don’t have to be part of it and get backing by the Government during contract disputes.

I see the GOP side running for President and I see Obama with a different face, nothing will change until we decide it needs to. Until then we get more of the same and if this debt and bail out mentality continues and we Govern by feelings instead of by what really works, it’s going to end badly for this country.

We have gotten the Government we deserve due to complacency and ignorance while the people we elect fill their pockets through legal insider trading, pork barrel spending and whatever they can squeeze from corporate hand outs and out right bribes. I could point out the millions made by Nanci Pelosi in insider trading, there are names from both sides of the isle on insider trading but you know what, insider trading is legal for members of Congress etc.. what puts you or I in jail, they do on a daily basis and profit from, how insane is that??

Obama says the free market has failed, he also says that individuals can’t make it without him in office so to vote for him again or we are lost and people call him a genius. I say to you using the words of Winston Churchill “Socialism is a dream, sooner or later you wake up to reality”. Or “A nation trying to Tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle”. Here is a few more “Socialism works until you run out of other peoples money”.

The very best quote yet “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

We are at 14 trillion pushing hard to get to 15 trillion in debt, we are literally proving why doing things with Government running the show and taking more from us doesn’t work. Congress approved of the new healthcare law forcing us to pay for it but hey, they need a few years to fill the fund first, remind you of Social Security? Yeah, the very fund they robbed from for decades and is now in serious trouble, so the money I have paid into it since 1977 will likely never see my pocket when I retire. Imagine seriously what a Government run program like healthcare will be like. If that doesn’t scare you, nothing will.

They rob from these tax payer funds and we re-elect them and they tax us more to re-fill them so they can rob them some more. But hey, we’ll just do as Obama does and blame the GOP for everything… yeah that works… both sides are to blame pure and simple, change needs to come from both… but the blame game is fine for the most powerful man on the planet.  

I have to stop now, I have droned on and on and this started out being about brake pads missing and turned into a full out political vent. If you’re one of those that thinks everything is great and going as it should, have a great time during the next great depression because at the rate of Government spending, it’s coming and if you think we can survive as a country at plus 100% GDP, you failed economics class in school.

On this last note have a great night everybody… sorry for the lengthy post, it’s how I feel and sometimes you need to let it out or burst.

Diabetes's Doctor Visit

Last week I went in for my blood test and doctor visit, today she gave me the results, which weren’t very good. Not that there wasn’t good news, there was. BP of 110 over 70, lost 10lbs, no protein in the urine test which means kidneys are still working fine. The bad news, A1C was 10, up from 7.8 to 10, not good but at least it’s not 14.9 which I have been at before. Cholesterol was 250, up from 170, LDL was 138, up from 100, Triglycerides are 238, up from 126 and pretty much everything else was high as well. This was depressing news to say the least.

I explained to the doctor I’m still having lower leg pain issues including my right foot so in 6 weeks I get to go through various tests again since taking me off of Lipitor didn’t solve it. I walk a lot which is good, but walking in pain stinks, I’m taking up the treadmill again to add to the 3 miles I currently walk to see if that helps but who wants to walk more when it hurts so much. There has been times that I have to stop on the bridge going over I-90 by my work to let my legs get some feeling back before going the last block to work. My diet has been bad the past 3 months so I’m going to work on that as well.

I was doing pretty good for 2 months after my previous A1C but the Victoza has been an issue since. So the Doc has me on some new meds, including one to help me sleep because that alone can be hurting my numbers and when I told her I haven’t woken up refreshed in the past 15 years ever, she was shocked, I could have sworn we discussed this before but apparently not. If anybody reading this actually wakes up feeling refreshed let me know what that’s like because I haven’t a clue, I wake up feeling like warmed over crap. Thank God for hot showers or I wouldn’t function in the morning at all.

Confession time, I haven’t done my best the past 3 months to care for myself and after reading this you’re thinking to yourself no duh dufus! It’s hard work trying to keep your numbers down, I guess with everything that’s been going on I took the easy way and that has to end. My goal is to be back in the 7’s in 3 months. They are going to do more tests in 6 weeks because my white cell count is still too high and a few other things that came up from the test last week.

They want to verify things before going further and they want to find out what's causing the muscle pain in my calf's and right foot. Trying to explain the pain isn’t easy but it gets bad at times, thankfully the Doppler shows blood flow is fine but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some kind of nerve issue or something else going on. We’ll hopefully find out more after the next test.

Not much else going on to report, still working on getting that last PowerMac sorted out, finalizing plans for New Years Eve and beginning the new year with my act sorted out, I hope.

Powermac Update

I received 2 of the Dual 2.0GHz last Friday. I replaced the hard drives with Western Digital 10,000rpm Raptors and upgraded the OS to OS X Leopard which just happens to be the newest OS that can be installed. No Snow Leopard or Lion for the G5 folks, not exactly backward compatible friendly considering how much grief people are giving Microsoft from discontinuing product support for 10 year old OS’s but you can still install Windows 2000 on current hardware.

The Powermac ceased production in August of 2006, the last OS that supported it came out a year later in October of 2007. Snow Leopard came out less than 2 years later and left G5 users with no upgrade. So Apple left people out to hang after spending over $3,800 for a computer that can’t even run Netflix… ugh. I’m the idjit that just found this out. The part about Netflix not running on non-Intel Mac’s anyway, the rest I knew about but just ticks me off a bit. When I sell them I’ll be adding this as a note so people buy knowing full well what they’re getting.

Thankfully the Dual 2GHz Powermac I refurbished works perfectly now with parts I already had on hand. The box used to ship it to me is perfect for re-using it as there is no way it will get damaged when I find a buyer for it. For general computing this will work perfectly for a student or parent.

Anyway, I just received the Dual 2.7GHz Powermac that was the most powerful G5 released, I paid 72 bucks for it. It needed work but the case was good and worth the 72 bucks by itself, until I opened the box anyway and found this. Now, it’s worth nothing but what little I can get from what might still work inside and I have no way of testing it.

I of course contacted the seller to ask them why they would use so little bubble wrap. They are closed until 1/2/12, of course. I have seen many like this on eBay after they received poorly shipped Powermac’s like this. I have to cross my fingers that this seller does the right thing, we’ll see. I photographed everything so tonight I’m going to see if I’m as good as people say I am, maybe I can get this turd working. If so I’m going to ask the seller to send me a case at his cost, if not I expect a full refund and he pays shipping back. Only difference will be I’ll ship it properly where they apparently don’t know how.

I’ll post back tomorrow after I determine if this thing is salvageable or not.

RV Update – No Mice

No mice! Everything fired up normally and looks to be doing fine. I’ll be going back in 2 weeks to check it out and the weather should be much colder by then so if the mice are going to be a problem the next few weeks will show it I think.

I hope everybody had a great Christmas and you all have a very happy new year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

People Flip Houses, I Flip Computers…. Sometimes

Back in the 1980’s and ‘90’s a person could make decent money building and selling computers. I could easily make a profit of over $1,500 on each computer. I would build them and sell them to the local computer repair shop or to people directly, the more I could build the more were bought. I miss the ‘90’s!!!

Flash forward to 2011, I’ve built one computer this year, the profit margin, nearly zilch, simply not worth the effort. You can’t make a profit on new computers anymore, not even the high end custom ones. Heck, they practically give them away at Best Buy and the other box stores, nobody seems to care that they’re junk, price is all that matters, at first anyway. When they call me to complain it doesn’t play games like the guy at Best Buy says it should I have to resist saying what did you expect from the $450.00 computer you bought? My video card costs more than their entire computer, I tell them if you want a gaming computer don’t go to Best Buy or any other typical computer company, you get what you pay for, don’t expect Mustang GT performance from your Focus!

There is a reason why cheap computers/laptops are cheap, they cut corners. I never get calls to build a computer anymore, not in this economy and I refuse to build cheap junk. The one computer I built this year was a replacement for one I built my customer 8 years ago. When you build them so good they run 8 years with no down time, you wait a long time for repeat business! It will likely be another 8 before I hear from him again. But I digress.

I figure I can make some money on refurbishing old Apple’s so I’m trying my luck out on two that I just got my hands on.  Apple fans are still buying the old Power PC G5’s from 5 years ago. Are they better or faster than anything today? No, heck they were just even with what was out at the time but the faithful are still buying so why not sell to them? They certainly aren’t bad machines and since I don’t sell junk these are good machines to sell. I bought 2 Apple Powermacs for a ridiculously cheap amount. The first one is a no brainer, a dual processor 2ghz G5 that just needs to be refurbished and sold, should make a few hundred in profit easily.

The second one, well, that one is the risky one. I got it for the price of shipping, it powers up and that’s all the previous owner knows about it. It’s the most powerful G5 ever made, the dual 2.7ghz liquid cooled Power PC. The risks are they were known to leak, if not caught, the leak will destroy the motherboard making the computer a big door stop.

I’m hoping that the G5 2.7 is in running order so I’ll order new O rings for the cooler and install a new hard drive, video card and 8 gigs of memory. If this thing goes well it should net a $400 plus profit. Hopefully by this Spring I’ll have enough to buy new tires and get the front and rear caps painted after taxes are paid of course. I can’t afford to keep doing the liquid cooled machines because of the risk involved but they do offer the most return so we’ll see.

I know this isn’t RV related but there isn’t anything RV related going on right now so I’m just posting life in general…

Until later!

Picture Of The Day

My nephew Tyler is in the Navy and snapped this picture back in October while aboard the ship he is assigned to.

Unreal isn’t it?

Last Man Standing Is A HAM!

How cool is that? As some of you may know, I sold my Icom 746Pro to pay some bills. Here is an article from the AARL about how the show is going to integrate Amateur Radio into the TV show. He is using the radio I hope to get some day, the ICOM IC-9100 all mode transceiver. A bit, no, way out of my reach for quite a few years I’m sure, but it’s fun to see others enjoying the hobby.

13 House Christmas Light Display Set To Music

Check out this awesome 13 house Christmas light display set to the “Little Drummer Boy” music. Simply awesome!

13 House Christmas Light Display Set To Music

Here is a LINK to the YouTube video. Here is what they had to say about the project.

“This video shows more of the street and how the sequence moves up and down the entire block. Hope you enjoy it. During this Holiday season, the street of Bainbridge Cir, Murrieta CA thought we would do something to put a smile on peoples faces. The entire neighborhood had so much fun doing this last year, we made it better this year.

We have now synchronized 13 houses in the block to music, and have added 4 more songs. This is a must see as the video does not do it justice. This was a team effort with the entire neighborhood getting involved. It has really brought the entire neighborhood together, and now is bringing the entire community together. You have to see it to believe it. Check out the YouTube Video”

Hitch Itch – Yep…

We got it… 5 months of the RV in storage…..

 

Blah….

Computer Talk – Upgrade Time

I know I know… I talk about being broke and here I am talking about upgrading. Before you slap the screen or hunt me down to slap me, the computer I’m talking about I have had since Feb of ‘07 and I’m not going to replace it. It is the famous (in the tech world) HP HDX Dragon 20” laptop. The thing is, I doubt anybody uses this on their lap, why you ask, because it weighs in at about 16lbs! It’s a 20” BEAST that is really a mobile desktop than laptop. Where am I going with this, keep reading!

 

Compared to a 16” HP laptop, almost laughable the size difference.

It makes this women look like a child! It really is that huge!

When I first got it I actually brought it back and forth between work and home. That quickly ended, this thing is simply too massive for that. However as a desktop it has been the best computer I have ever owned. Stability is better than any of my other laptops and desktops, including my Mac’s. Acer, Dell, Toshiba all have tried 20” laptops, the only company to build a truly excellent one is HP so this is worth keeping.

Here is the problem though, it IS GOING ON 5 YEARS OLD! It has a Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz, 4gigs of memory (maxed out) the best screen I have ever used on a laptop with a 1980x1200 resolution that is drop dead gorgeous. You see, almost all high end laptops today use a maximum of 1080p for their laptop screens. While this is fine for a TV, us tech guys prefer higher resolutions. I would really like to meet the people who decided what was good for TV is good for laptops. I know why they did it, but I don’t agree with them, I digress.

I have to give Apple  kudos for using their excellent 1920x1200 LED screens for the 17” MacBook Pro’s. My 17” MacBook Pro has this LED backlit screen and it’s excellent. Back to the point, the Dragon has 7200rpm hard drives which were fine for 2007, for 2012 they are slow and the system has slowed down considerably. In fact it drives me crazy sometimes. I could format and start fresh, this would definitely increase the performance but the thing that will boost performance more than anything aside from buying a new machine, would be upgrading to a new SSD based hard drive. SSD is an electronic drive uses flash memory, I won’t get into the technical side of it but lets just say it compares to going from a Chevette to a ZR1 Corvette, the performance difference is that drastic.

Since I can’t change out the CPU or add more memory and I don’t want a new computer, I ordered a new Intel 320 120gig SSD drive. I am going to use the 320gig hard drive for storing data and the SSD will be used strictly for OS and applications. I have upgraded several people this way and they all swear their computers are incredibly faster. The response times for SSD' drives are so fast.

For the technical folk out there I didn’t buy a SATA 6Gbps drive because the interface in the laptop doesn’t support it. Also, because of the cost, way too high!

This is what the drive looks like, the bottom picture is of the NAND memory chips. I’ll take some before and after benchmarks and post them next week.

Pearl Harbor Day – Mom’s Birthday

My Mother was born on December 7th, she was a year old when the US was attacked in 1941. Norway’s reaction was pretty much the same then as it was in 2001, 60 years later. Horror and an outcry of support, as much as they could while being overridden with Nazis at the time.

So I’m honoring two important events today, my Mothers birthday and Pearl Harbor day. Take a moment to remember Pearl Harbor and the men and women who died that day. Their memory lives on.

Mom has been dead 2 years as of November 29th, we miss her and mourn her passing, it’s still hard to believe she is gone and I still pick up the phone to call her and catch myself. She was the one person you knew you could count on no matter what, I miss her very much.

We are going out tonight, like last year to celebrate her birthday and (Skål) toast a very special woman and Mother.

 

Skål Mom!

The Barter System

Yesterday I picked up my Meade ETX 125 UHTC telescope. In 2006 I sold it to my previous boss with expectations his kids would get a lot of use out of it. 4 years later the wife and I buy an RV and find so many perfect skies for using a telescope but give up the idea of ever buying one again because the cost for a good one, let alone a $1,200.00 plus ETX 125 set up is now beyond our reach since we are avoiding credit cards like the plague.

He contacted me and asked me if I was interested in buying back the telescope because it never got touched after he bought it. I told him I couldn’t afford it. He told me he had several laptops that needed work and I asked if we, wait, maybe he asked, can’t really remember but a deal was struck to trade. My skill/time for the telescope and all accessories that came with it. This included the series 4000 eye pieces, 2x-Barlow, moon filter(s), upgraded controller, computer connector cable, software, books, dew shield and upgraded deluxe field tri-pod. 

 

 

I think the wife is as happy about this as I am, she knows how much I missed having the telescope. Even if I only looked at the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter.

My dream was a home based observatory but I never felt smart enough to be able to build one let alone afford one. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m no dummy but running one of these properly requires patients and smarts of a different level that I don’t have. Which doesn’t matter because I could never hope to afford my dream telescope, the Meade MAX 20 ACF. A truly monstrous  $35,000 20 inch telescope that has to be seen to understand the size, it’s unreal.

For an idea on how truly massive it is here is the previous version 20 RCX. Can you imagine the photography possibilities? Simply unreal. Click either picture to read about this spectacular telescope the size of a garbage can and weighing in without the mount at over 200lbs!

Since our ultimate goal is to down size, telescopes like this are out of the question unless we become very wealthy and establish a home base some place with excellent night skies. We can dream right?   Until then reality is the thing we have to live in so I think the ETX 125 UHTC will do. I can’t wait until we get a clear night so I can dial it in! I know I haven’t talked about telescopes before but after I sold mine I had no reason to, now that I have it back I have to keep the urge to accessorize in check. For instance, in order to take photographs using the ETX and Canon T3i I’d have to get a T mount and camera adapter, about $60.00, oh want to take pictures of real bright objects like the moon? Need filters for that, the filters I have are for the eye piece, not for the camera…

Help…. 

No Mice!! :)~

I went up to the RV today and everything was fine, no mice and everything started and ran smooth for the 10 mile trip. It’s only been a month but it seems like much longer! The end of March won’t come soon enough.

I still put down mouse traps and more dryer sheets. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and not have any rodent visitations this winter.

 

Crossing my fingers!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Apple/Steve Job’s Comment(s) Response

 

Big Matt – Many people would agree, not so sure about the last part but I can see where you could think that.

DeanO – Thanks, I enjoy your blog as well!

Michael Ultra – Bill Gates loaned them 170 million, of course part of it had to do with the whole monopoly thing going on with the Feds. It was in his best interest to keep Apple going, plus he got them to make IE the default browser on the Mac which really pissed off the faithful.

Lou – Apple has gotten mostly good press,even when so many bad things were happening in China. Steve would say they are dealing with it and that would be it, the truth is he did nothing but toss them an extra $.30 which was 30% but 30% of almost nothing doesn’t amount to much. Had that been Michael Dell, you can lay odds the press would have hung him out to dry.

Rae – Agreed, 100%, well said.

Doyle and Terri – Many Windows PC’s are made in China, but not all of them, you’ve heard of Dell right? They have lots of manufacturing right here in the USA. The blog post was about Apple and Steve Jobs who held themselves as innovators and LEADERS in the computer, mp3 and cell phone field. I am being real, Apple makes claims of being green and above the fray and the truth is they are leaders in how to use people for as little pay possible. Name one American computer company with as many violations and deaths as Apple, can you even find one?

The only manufactured computer I own is a Mac which was built in China. My American made PC was built by me, sure it was built with many parts from China but I have zero control over that, Apple has 100% control of where their gear is made. Except for my Mac’s I have built every single computer before and since. In fact I built clone Mac’s while they were allowed to be built, Apple squashed that as well. Apple is dropping the Mac Pro and I don’t really do any support work for Mac’s anymore so I can sell off their gear with a smile on my face.

As for Steve Jobs holding out longer than anybody else please cite your source. Apple pulled up anchor in 1992, this was actually sooner than most other computer companies. Steve Jobs wasn’t even involved with Apple at the time so he couldn’t have held out, so I have to assume you just made that up.

When he took over in 1997 he could have done something then, he could have done something every single time a person died while making Apple gear, but he didn’t, he covered it up, made excuses and EXPANDED production. So if I seem a bit focused on Apple and Mr. Jobs it’s for very good reason.

Apple had many chances to do the right thing, that’s what leaders in an industry do, instead they chose and continue to choose to expand and expand at such a rate people are stressed even further to keep up. If you can show me any other American computer company with as many violations, deaths and conditions that Apple condones in China, please tell me, I’m all ears.

I support networks in Chicago, Naperville, Washington DC and in California. 90% of the computers in all four locations are Dell’s built right here in the USA, if you’d like, I’ll sit at one and take a picture.

For all of the products I have bought that were made in China, only one is associated with suicides, unpaid overtime, abuse and forced public humiliation for not performing to unreal expectations that would get huge headlines in the USA, and that is Apple.

If this isn’t getting real enough I can post articles for the past 16 years of Apple covering up problems in China, no other US based computer company can hold a candle to the violations Apple has so I am being real…

First Winter Check

Heading up to the rig shortly to drive it for 10 miles, fill up the tank, run the genny, put a load on it and check for mice. I think I found where they got in last year, the dealer removed a panel in one of the bays so I replaced it and hopefully that helps.

Bringing mouse traps, already put down dryer sheets everywhere but have heard that doesn’t help but it can’t hurt the smell of the rig so I’m leaving them.

Wish me luck, knock on wood everything is fine.

Pictures Of The Day

I love the rising sun, makes for such nice pictures.

These are some of the servers I manage. 16 of them I designed and built by hand up to 9 years ago and they’re still running. Knock on wood!

Why I wasn’t an Apple or Steve Jobs Fan

I held off on my opinion of Steve Jobs because I felt it would be rude to post what I’m about to say about both him and his company at the time of his death. I don’t wish anybody dead and I was NOT happy about his death, I didn’t hate the man. His death saddened me, plus he died of the same cancer my Mom died of 2 years ago, 11/29/09. But his death didn’t fill me with feelings of there goes a man the likes of Edison or Einstein or even Bill Gates. I don’t feel he compares to any of these three favorably and here’s why.

I have been in the computer industry professionally for over 20 years. I started toying with them back in 1978 when I worked for a stereo store. I have A LOT of experience with both PC and Apple products, to be fair calling a post 2006 Mac a Mac isn’t fair, it’s a PC pure and simple. Apple, no, correction, Steve Jobs realized that saying a computer is faster isn’t the same thing as actually being faster, the Byte mark was a joke but millions bought because of the commercials where Jeff Goldblum would brag about how much faster a Mac was. Well, using the Byte mark, which was compiled to run optimally on Apple’s G series CPU’s, when run on an x86 (Intel and AMD) computer they lagged behind, much to the joy of Apple fanboys everywhere.

As an honest computer nerd it ticked me off that Apple would knowingly run a rigged game and then brag about the outcome. I was about 50/50 into Mac’s at the time (even though I hated that they were built in China) but this turned me off enough where I stopped working on them completely, one could say I had my priorities backwards and they would likely be right.

Reality set in for Apple when they realized even cooked numbers weren’t going to continue working and they couldn’t shoe horn a molten hot G5 or the never to be built G6 into a laptop, enter Intel (I could write about their tactics as well, maybe someday) with a big shit eating grin on their face to save the day, literally. Apple development on the G6 stalled because it couldn’t do the job.

The crow Apple had to eat was mighty indeed and Apple fanboys will tell a different story I’m sure, hey whatever floats yer boat boys but the truth is the truth. Intel put an ass whuppin on Apple (at the time AMD put a whuppin on both Intel and Apple) and they knew it and they knew they had to make the switch or not have anything to put into their laptops. Try and imagine the backdoor meetings for that eh?

Getting back to Steve Jobs, there was a reason why he was ousted at Apple in ‘85. He couldn’t be managed period, the company was suffering and while John Scully says things a bit differently now, the way Jobs did things back then simply didn’t work. After he was gone for 11 years the environment for Steve to come back was right, the company was again suffering but now Steve was older and much wiser and he had a relationship with Bill Gates that he put to good use and between Gates money and Jobs taking full control Apple was saved.

So, that being the case why am I not an Apple fan? Because in 1992 Apple, after building facilities and hiring thousands pulled up stakes and moved almost all production to China. A country known to be euthanizing baby girls and working people in sweat shops for next to nothing. This had the needed result of huge profit margins for Apple which today is more than Exxon Mobile. You would think that production could be brought back to the States when Steve Jobs heard the reports of conditions at the major plants in China right? Nope!! Apple did nothing without the approval of Steve Jobs who pushed for more production capacity which in turn caused the operators of the plants to push workers even harder for longer. Would YOU make that choice?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for profit but there is a point when you must look at HOW you’re making that profit and who it affects. This has become a problem all over the country, to the point where people are saying Capitalism is bad, no, it isn’t. The problem is people, no matter what system is in place, people will subvert it, pollute it and twist it to their agenda. Capitalism provides a way for ALL PEOPLE to become wealthy should they choose to do so but of course there are no guarantees and is a post for another time. Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs made a pile of money on the backs of people they hurt and instead of taking the reports coming from China and stepping back and saying enough is enough, they tried to cover it up, they had about as much success as the virus cover up but people don’t care and that says something about people.

Steve Jobs will go into the history books being compared to Einstein, Edison and many others. In my view he doesn’t belong there. I didn’t come to this conclusion based on bias, I wanted to like him and Apple, but both kept giving me reasons not to. Apple will continue to make hardware in China, as many companies do but I believe in karma and what has happened to the thousands upon thousands who suffered to work insane hours in conditions American’s would never put up with will probably come back to haunt them.

My opinion on this is the unpopular one, people look at Apple and especially Steve Jobs with loving eyes, everything they have done makes these people smile and brag about how the world was changed by them. Two countries were changed for sure, can you say for the better? Do better toys really make for a better life? The fact that Apple moved some manufacturing 1,000 miles away to another part of remote China where it’s difficult to check on how employees or iSlaves are doing is very telling also.

Hearing Steve Jobs defend conditions at the factories should disgust you because he ignored the conditions completely. He stated “We’re all over this”, really… lying about what you’re doing isn’t being all over it, talking about the restaurants and other things Foxconn had to put on premises because of the sheer size of the compound may make him happy but the promised 30% raise from $1.00 per hour to $1.30 per hour making him happy, disgusting.

Quote from Steve Jobs "We hope the hike in wages will help improve the living standards of the workers and allow them to have more leisure time, which is good for their health." Quote "You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice.” Amazing, what did he think they would show him when staff went to check it out? Come on, really?

The 12+ hour work shifts, the abuse and having to ask for permission to use the bathroom are just part of the benefit package right? Steve Jobs completely ignored what was going on in China, deluded himself into believing Foxconn treated their employees the same way American employees are treated only they have theater, swimming pools and restaurants in the compound. Hey, so does Google but I’ll lay odds they aren’t abused, forced to work without overtime pay and forced to confess poor job performance in front of their co-workers.

I’m done, I wrote this because I am sick of people who know I am in the computer field saying how awesome Steve Jobs was. The last person who did that had to endure a 30 minute explanation about why Steve Jobs was NOT awesome, just a guy very good at marketing and figuring out what people would buy.

I’ll put on my fire suit now because I’m sure I’ll be taken to task for saying anything negative about Apple and burned in effigy for talking smack about the almighty Steve Jobs. If you doubt the things I have said here do a little research, what you find may actually shock you.

You may want to start HERE.