Spotted this on Engadget today, and they found it on BoingBoing

Seems this was spotted driving around the Harajuku district of Tokyo this past Sunday. For those unfamiliar with Harajuku, especially on Sundays, it is the “hip” area of Tokyo where, supposedly, all street fashion begins. Yes, this is the place Gwen Steffani was singing about in her song “Harajuku Girls”. On Sundays it turns in to a Cosplay heaven, with people walking around in all sorts of outrageous outfits.

Little is known about our little robot friend here as he did not stop to talk to anyone. It was seen managing to go up and down curbs though, and easily navigating through the crowded streets. It was spotted with a different passenger at another time, but again, no info.

So, is this someone’s home-brewed project? A university experiment? What the heck is it??

According to the annual Morgan Quitno Press list of the most dangerous cities in America, St. Louis came in number 1. Go us! According to the same study, crime in the midwest is up 5.7% overall in my region.

I can gaurentee you most of it is meth-related.

Last week’s episode of South Park was named “Hell on Earth 2006″ and featured Satan having a Super Sweet 16 Halloween party. (Their running portrayal of Satan as either gay and/or a teenage girl at heart is always good for laugh). During the episode though, the following scene took place at Satan’s party, mind you it was full of dead people:(Taken from the South Park Scriptorium)

Frank Sinatra: Hey, Satan, you got a little problem.

Satan: What?

Frank Sinatra: Somebody showed up in a Crocodile Hunter costume. It’s really offending some of the other guests.

Satan: Oh jeez. [walks over to the offending guest, who happens to be none other than Steve Irwin, with a stingray attached to his chest. Steve looks around with a smile on his face. Satan arrives] Hey, uh, hi, listen, dude, ya know, the whole Crocodile Hunter thing? It… it’s just a little soon, you know? I mean, he just dies a few weeks ago and… it’s just not supercool and you gotta leave.

Steve Irwin: But it’s me, Satan. Steve Irwin. I am the Crocodile Hunter.

Satan: [thinks a moment] Oh… oh, but then, dude, no costume. Sorry, you gotta go. [two bouncers come and escort him away]

Steve Irwin: Wait! I thought we were friends!

So, yeah, they went after Steve Irwin…or did they? There is an uproar with some bloggers saying they will stop watching the show and a media watchdog group in England calling for the scene to be pulled. Did I find it offensive? A bit. Do I think they shouldn’t have done it? Probably not. Will I stop watching the show? Nope. South Park, to me, is one of the greatest arguments ever for free speech. They take on all subjects with an equal amount of gusto, and that is only possible in a free speech system.

Now, as for people pulling their support of the show over one joke…good riddance. This reminds me a lot of the whole Isaac Hayes debacle from earlier this year. He stood by the show for years as they took on other religions, but when they got to his, Scientology, he left the show. It’s slightly different working on the show from watching it, but if you have sat and laughed at the other episode, how can you decide the whole show is a wash because of one joke? It is the height of hypocrisy to me. “Oh, well, it was ok to laugh at this offensive joke, but not this!” Whatever.

What kills me was the other things going on in this episode that no one is saying a word about. Catholic priests leading naked young boys around in harnesses and on leashes. Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer as modern-day Three Stooges trying to bake a cake for Satan. But no, no, only the Steve Irwin joke was offensive.

Dear Satan,

As I see your dark influence spreading across the Earth, I felt it was time I threw my hat in to your ring to hedge my bets. You know, in case your plan actually works.

Your Dark Disciple, Rachael Ray…as I know you have so many, most of them in politics, has again opened her enormous mouth and set loose the dark bile from her chipmunk cheeks, to spew forth another cog in her Dark Empire…a burger joint. I mean, it must be your work since the article said:

“Tuna burgers, swordfish burgers, turkey burgers,” Ray said, “I like anything you can pick up with your hands — portable food.” Ray said she also plans to open fast-food versions of the flagship.

A fast food chain serving swordfish burgers? Obviously your dark handy work. Not to mention that her magazine is going from a circulation of 350,000 for the first issue to 1.6 million for the 13th. Having written for magazines, I know what an insanely larger number that is. Again, an obvious sign of your being involved.

So, as your dark disciple does her work, please be kind enough to spare some of us.

Sean

“I obey my Dark Lord!”

I had heard of this ages ago, but I was hopeful the International Olympic Committee would tell NBC to blow it out their collective ass. See, the 2008 Summer Olympics will be in Beijing, China, this means that the only events to air live on prime-time USA television will be events from the next morning. (i.e. when it’s Thursday night here, it’s Friday morning there) Well, this presents a problem to NBC because all the good stuff usually happens later in the day, which, some studies show, is better for the athletes.

Seems NBC doesn’t care what’s good for the athletes, only what’s good for their ratings. They petitioned for the finals in swimming and gymnastics be moved to the mornings so that they could air them in prime-time in the USA. Much to my dismay, the IOC agreed to it!

Excuse me, but when did the Olympics become “The USA Games”? Are they not about the world coming together to compete? So the traditional schedule is messed with to appease one country? What about all of Europe? These events will be in the middle of the night for them! Australia? “Oh sorry, we know you just got to work and will have to miss some of the most exciting events.”

This just seems exceedingly selfish of us to me. NBC is concerned about weak ratings because people will learn via various news sources who won before they could air them if they stick to the traditional schedule. Boo-freakin-hoo. NBC knew full well when the paid the outrageous sum of $3.5 Billion for 5 Olympics that they might not get everything in prime-time.

Shame on NBC for asking, and shame on the IOC for giving in. I guess we know who runs the Olympics now.

The other day I wrote about how Microsoft would only give you the rights to install Vista only once past it’s additional install. In the sense of fairness, I will point out that they have now said you can transfer the license up to 10 times, the same as XP. It’s better, but still isn’t sending me running to join the Vista bandwagon.

If you want to have real fun, go read the linked article where you can see me get in a fight in the comments section with guys who finally retreat to the saftey of saying that I dislike Windows because all the “kiddie porn” I look at is why my stem crashes. Good job guys, way to retreat to the level of school yard name calling.

It seems that Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights from which the movie and TV show is based, is unhappy with the television show’s ratings. Instead of possibly blaming the quality of the show, the subject matter, the actors, the bad time slot, instead he blames people who watch Dancing With The Stars.

“It’s distressing that so many people are flocking to a show that’s obviously contrived and ridiculous, our show is about real issues. It’s a shame it’s been struggling.”

Ok, let’s look at this, first off, your show about “real issues” is on during the all important 8 EST/7 CST family dining time. Not the best time slot for a drama. There is a reason it’s heavily populated with reality shows and sitcoms, it is a time for families to watch lite entertainment while they discuss their days, or, better yet, just turn the TV off completely. Secondly, if your high school career was anything like mine, you don’t paticuraly relish watching a show about a high school football team, a subject that holds zero interest to me. As I have said before, I am a TV junkie, and I have no desire to go near the show, don’t you think this might be a sign it is a subject that does not hold much interest as a weekly series to the majority of the population?

Instead of analyzing the problem, Mr. Bissinger takes the easy road out and blames the viewers themselves. I mean, “if they aren’t watching my wonderful show, there must be something wrong with them!” A good way to make sure I never check out your show is to insult my taste. I will laugh heartily when I see the notice your show is canceled.

I didn’t get to head to The Blue Note as early as I wanted, which resulted in my first Taco Bell meal in 3 years…I remember why I quit eating it, but I still got excellent seats. My friend and I got the furthest forward balcony seats on the side, so were maybe 15 feet from the stage, and above the amazing crush of people on the floor.

Zox - You know, I was really expecting to be bored with them, but they were saved by one amazing talent/presence, their violin player, Spencer Swain. Someone seems to have forgotten to tell him violin players aren’t supposed to bounce all over the stage, run his instrument through effects pedals, and play “air guitar” with it when not his part. Although, in an attempt to tone down the band, the bass player, Dan Edinberg, hardly moves and looks like he’s still a freshman in college with no clue how he got in a band. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a solid musician, just not exactly an eye-catching presence. John Zox, the drummer, looks like he’s ready to jump on a surf board, and the lead singer, Eli Miller, looks a bit to much like Justin Guarini, first runner-up on the first season of American Idol, for comfort.

All comments aside, they were well put together, good clean sound and fun to watch. Well worth seeing.

The Whitest Kids U’Know - I wondered how they were going to pull off 4 acts and I guessed correctly! Go me! In between the bands, The Whitest Kids U’Know would show us clips of their upcoming show on Fuse. Good use of time since watching bands change out equipment is quite boring. The majority of their humor is not repeatable here, but let’s just say the “iPod shuffle-mistaken-for-a-pregnancy-test” sketch killed me. I will be checking out their show for sure.

Bedouin Soundclash - You know, I was really expecting to like Bedouin Soundclash… I didn’t. It was 40 minutes of pure pain. I liked their albums, but they are for sure a “studio band”. That’s to say, they’re a band that benefits heavily from the abilities of a good mixer in the production booth of the recording studio. Jay Malinowski their…”singer”…has a cracking voice and covers up his total lack of vocal talent with as many echo effects as he can add. The bass player, Eon Sinclair, has to be the single most boring performer I have ever seen. Way to nail down that foot shuffle, Eon! You had me enthralled!

I wandered off during their set to hit the bathroom and grab another Guinness, odd how many guys were in the bathroom, all bemoaning the audio horror that had been unleashed upon us. Many speculations of how they even got signed abounded. I couldn’t agree more. One of the absolute worse bands I have ever seen live.

The Whitest Kids U’Know, 2nd set - Super Size Me With Whiskey…genius. The disturbing song about how kids can “get a new daddy”…wow. This show is SO for me.

Flogging Molly - The pain of Soundclash was quickly forgotten as Flogging Molly took us on a non-stop tour de force of their body of work. Taking few breaks between songs, and letting them slide organically in to one another, just built the energy that much faster. I came away from this show having nearly lost my voice to the many sing-alongs. From opening with Another Bag Of Bricks (one of my personal faves) to closing the encore with The Seven Deadly Sins, this band epitomizes everything I want from a concert; tight sound, unstoppable energy, and an obvious love for what they are doing. This easily ranked as one of my all time favorite performances by any band. If this band is ever near you, they are a must-see. One word to the wise though…don’t stand on the floor unless you like being beaten senseless by the mosh pit.

As an aside, to The Blue Note….HOW could you run out of GUINNESS before Flogging Molly had played even one song?!? If any band ever screamed “Hey, we should lay in X amount of Guinness, and then triple that order!”, it’s Flogging Molly! And to their security…you guys really suck. I am so thankful I wasn’t on the floor for this show. You know those signs you had up about “Absolutely no crowd surfing!”? How about enforcing that? And when you saw the two girls fall and not get up for 3 minutes, did you think to jump in and try to help them? They were within reach. Idiots.

Overall, a fun night, and Flogging Molly was worth it all.

Hard to believe that 5 years ago today, Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod to the world. I didn’t jump in until July of 2005, but somehow I’ve already managed to rack up 2 of them. (a blue iPod Mini and a white 60gb Video) Rumors are circulating we are only months away from the 6g iPod (the long rumored “full-screen” video iPod), but I’m not holding my breath until Jobs takes the stage in his jeans and black turtleneck.

Picture created by Engadget.com

I know you’re all shocked when I actually go out and do stuff, but here I go again! Three weeks ago it was the Combichrist/KMFDM show at The Blue Note in Columbia,MO, this time it’s a quadruple bill! Originally it was three bands, but now they’ve added an up-and-coming sketch comedy troupe. First up will be The Whitest Kids U’Know, who will soon be getting their own show on Fuse. I know very little about them, but should be interesting to see.

Then we get to the bands. Zox, who at first listen sounds like a rip off of 1980’s bands like The Cure. Not sure how much I’ll enjoy this part of the show. Next up is Bedouin Soundclash, and though they hail from Canada, they sure sound like they are from Jamaica. I should enjoy this one, I like the two albums I’ve heard.

And then, then we get to the part of the show I’m dying for…Flogging Molly! This band is just infectious and I am so excited to be seeing them again. I’ll never forget seeing them the first time, October 16th, 2000. I walked out of the show to the news that my state’s Governor, Mel Carnahan, had died in a plane crash….and he went on to win the election in November of that year against future Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft. Yes…leave it to Missouri to elect a dead man! Anyway, I love Flogging Molly, but I am hoping seeing them again doesn’t bode ill for elected officials!

The Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area have a new, exclusive “activity patch” they can add to their credentials; “Respect Copyrights”. It seems the MPAA has somehow teamed up with the greater Los Angeles area Boy Scouts to offer this new activity patch that will teach the Scouts about 5 different copyright laws, and the scouts will either visit a movie studio to meet the people illegal downloading would put out of work, or they can make public service announcements. Ars Technica has a great article with a few more of the details.

The part that really bothers me in all of this is this statement as one of the requirements:

“There are peer to peer groups who offer legal downloads and those who offer illegal downloads. Make a list of both. Suggest ways to detect peer to peer software like the MPAA Parent File Scan.”

Detect them where? Your own computer? Doubtful, you wouldn’t know they are on there, so what computers then? Friends? Family? Does this program send a report to the MPAA? Are you supposed to report your own family members? Is this a back door way of making a little army of downloading narcs? “Come on kids! Rat out your family and friends!”

And would someone care to explain to me how the MPAA came to this deal with the Boy Scouts? If this doesn’t seem like turning the Boy Scouts in to the mouth piece for an industry association, I don’t what is. I was not aware that the BSA was willing to help with the spreading of propaganda. Always nice to know what the kids today are learning. I am sure there was some sort of large donation involved in this, but doubt that will ever become public knowledge.

“Mr. MPAA man? I think my mommy traded a copy of “Under The Tuscan Sun“…is she going to jail now?”

“Yes she is Jimmy, yes she is…now, here’s your patch.”

Remember how I mentioned Amazon was deciding to effectively shut me down on October 24th? I think making a decision like that close to the holiday shopping season was rather unfair of them, but oh well. I prefer no big technical upgrades or changes this close to the biggest selling season, but that was their choice. Imagine my thrill today when I discovered Yahoo Shopping was choosing now to totally change their store editing system!

ARGH!

Who is advising these ecommerce portals that now, October, was a good time to make major changes? They should be taken out and personally flogged! So the new Yahoo structure is requiring me to spend this weekend rushing through changing my Yahoo store, which was not in my plans because this is the last weekend of my Amazon store! Yes, there are benefits to the changes in the Yahoo system, but it still should have been done back in the Summer, or even after the beginning of the year, not now.

So, instead of going in to the holidays calmly, like I like to do, I have a main site I am still tweaking after our redesign, an Amazon store shutting down, and my Yahoo store being redesigned….good times, good times. Never let it be said my life is boring.

Yeah…I was writing my recap for Amazing Race 10, Episode 5 and…I’m bored with these recaps. I really doubt anyone reads them, so unless someone says “Sean! I count on your recaps!”, they are probably dead. I will do the occasional random commenting, but I think the recapping of every episode is dead. Blame the current Survivor, it’s awful.

I am beginning to feel like an extension of Luis over at BlogD, but he keeps coming up with some of the greatest info! This entry was about some info he found on Microsoft trying to gouge people for even more money. It seems the licensing agreement for Vista is out-and-about, and it’s not all that friendly to Mac’s without ever saying the word “Mac” or “Apple”. As you may know, Mac’s can now run Windows at the same time as Mac by using programs such as Parallels. This program “emulates” the Windows environment, but under the Vista license, this is a no-no with certain versions.

You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker. We advise against playing or accessing content or using applications protected by other digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other rights management services or using full volume disk drive encryption.

The only versions of Vista you can use would be Business ($299) or Ultimate ($399). Home, the version not allowed, runs around $199. So Microsoft just basically said “either you pay the price of a low end PC, or you don’t get to use Vista”.

I am notmally not a fan of replacing the “s” in a company name with a “$”, but sometimes it just fits. Micro$oft is out of control and trying their hardest to alienate everyone they can it seems. Every decision they have made just seems to be as customer-unfriendly as possible. I have been using Microsoft products since I got my first PC in 1986, and after 20 years I am jumping ship due to the way everyone is being treated by them. My prediction is Vista will be the best frend Apple has ever had and they will see more people switch operating systems than ever before.

The weird thing about this? The license doesn’t seem to cover if you “boot” the Mac in Vista using Boot Camp. Go figure.

As you all know, I love my Firefox browser. I didn’t think I could love it more than I already did, but then…then came Firefox 2.0.

W-O-W

There are numerous small improvements, and a couple of whoppers. The overall look of the browser is streamlined. Corners are more rounded, search boxes in the toolbars are larger, and easier to read, and the tabs have a minimum size, so when you get too many you can use arrows to scroll through them.

Two big improvements were real stand outs though:

Spell checker - I never thought I would see the day when a browser included a in-line spell checker! Even as I type this, it is watching what I type. When you hit on a mis-spelled word, or a word it doesn’t know, it gives you a red underline to let you know. Right click with your mouse on the word and it gives you the option to add the word or use one of it’s suggestions. Hopefully this will lead to a FEW less typos in my blog entries. *cough*

Crash recovery - Ever had your browser crash with numerous tabs open? You then sit there and think “Oh man, how will I recreate all those? What a pain!” Well, the new Firefox will ask you when you reopen it if you want to continue the previous session, or start a new one if you feel the page you were viewing caused the crash. So, today my Firefox crashed, I reopened it, told it to continue the session and…WHAM! All eight of my tabs reopened right where they were with no data loss. This alone could make me marry Firefox.

Now, this is NOT the final release of 2.0, but if you download Release Candidate 3, it will overwrite you previous Firefox and will do an automatic upgrade when the Gold Master (final release) is ready. With this release of Firefox there is really no reason to continue to use Internet Explorer, and believe me, you’ll be happier.

Back in August I wrote how the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was arguing with the consumer electronics industry over devices that allow “time shifting”, i.e. items that record from the radio for later playback. They said that this was same as “permanent ownership of copyrighted material without paying for it”. Yeah, whatever.

Well, sadly it was brought to my attention today that Creative is giving in and in their latest firmware upgrade, they have removed the ability to record FM radio from their already released devices. Basically the RIAA has demanded Creative to strip a feature out of a device that you paid for, against your will. For all they know you were recording the hog report (a regular feature on my radio stations…no…I’m not kidding), but the RIAA assumes that since you have the ability to do something illegal, you must be and they have to take that ability away from you.

May I just state for the record that the RIAA are nothing but bastards? They are so out of touch with reality that they don’t realize from a business perspective they are just making more pirates. Every move they make just makes them appear more money grubbing and the act of illegally downloading music almost seem noble. Now they take away the ability to listen to radio on your own schedule, something we do every single day with VCRs and DVRs on our TVs. For some reason the RIAA feels they know better than the entirety of the television and movie industries and that they have the right to mess with legally purchased electronic equipment because in this day and age, they can.

The funniest bit about this whole article was the 1980’s graphic they dug up that was used by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI)

You mean…this is a fight the recording industry has been fighting for over 20 years and we’ve been on the verge of the death of the music industry the whole time? WOW! I mean, imagine living for that long not knowing when you woke up each morning if you’re industry still existed?!? Those, brave, brave recording industry executives *sniffle*

Some of the greatest DVD news ever just came to my attention…the very first season of Saturday Night Live is coming to DVD! I can not tell you how personally exciting this is to me. I have no idea why, but for some reason my folks let me watch it with them when I was 4 years old, and I can so vividly remember that first sketch. A foreign accented John Belushi being taught non-sensical English by a slow speaking teacher. I can still hear it in my head, though it has been years since I saw that sketch.

“I would like to buy a badger.”

The set will also include a 32 page booklet about the history of the show, but, by far, the best news is that it’s going to be completely unedited, including the musical performances. If this is true, I will be stoked beyond words, as I’ve written before, studios do release “complete” DVD sets with out some music or skits. So, if they have truly gotten all the musical acts to sign off on this, this set is a steal at $69.95 SRP (but it’ll be cheaper than that on all of the online stores). So let’s just hope that this isn’t a line of bull they are feeding us about it being unedited.

For those who don’t remember, or weren’t even born yet, the original Not Ready For Primetime Players were:

Dan Akryod
John Belushi
Chevy Chase
Jane Curtain
Garrett Morris
Laraine Newman
Gilda Radner

Yep, you read that right…no Bill Murray. A lot of people think he was an original, but he actually joined in the second season as a replacement for Chevy Chase who was only a regular for the first season. The host and musical guests for that season included (host/musical guest), list from Saturday-Night-Live.com:

October 11, 1975
George Carlin / Janis Ian, Billy Preston

October 18, 1975
Paul Simon / Simon & Garfunkel, Randy Newman, Phoebe Snow

October 25, 1975
Rob Reiner / Joe Cocker

November 8, 1975
Candice Bergen / Esther Phillips

November 15, 1975
Robert Klein / ABBA, Loudon Wainwright III

November 22, 1975
Lily Tomlin

December 13, 1975
Richard Pryor / Gil Scott-Heron

December 20, 1975
Candice Bergan / Martha Reeves, The Stylistics

January 10, 1976
Elliot Gould / Anne Murray

January 17, 1976
Buck Henry / Bill Withers, Tony Basil

January 24, 1976
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore / Neil Sedaka

January 31, 1976
Dick Cavett / Jimmy Cliff

February 14, 1976
Peter Boyle / Al Jarreau

February 21, 1976
Desi Arnez

February 28, 1976
Jill Clayburgh / Leon Redbone

March 13, 1976
Anthony Perkins / Betty Carter

April 17, 1976
Ron Nessen / Patti Smith

April 24, 1976
Raquel Welch / Phoebe Snow, John Sebastian

May 8, 1976
Madeline Kahn / Carly Simon

May 15, 1976
Dyan Cannon / Leon and Mary Russell

May 22, 1976
Buck Henry / Gordon Lightfoot

May 29, 1976
Elliot Gould / Leon Redbone

July 24, 1976
Louise Lasser / Preservation Hall Jazz Band

July 31, 1976
Kris Kristofferson / Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge

This is soooooooo number 1 on my Christmas Wish List! And considering how weak the latest seasons have been, it’ll be nice to see how it should be done!

Survivor Cook Islands had so much promise. Had a great opening concept, which they ditched after two episodes, and left us with what has to be the most unexciting cast ever. In there need to come up with five people from four different ethnic backgrounds, you can tell they really scraped to come up with enough people.

The morning after the last Tribal Council, where J.P. got sent home, the women of Raro awoke to find the men busily working on things around camp. Gee, I think they got the message they had been too lazy. Over at Aitu though, it seems they have their own lazy people in the form of Candice, Becky and Sundra. Cao Boi comments that he hopes his tribe keeps winning, but if they don’t, then those three will have to go.

Reward Challange came up and it was…

Both the tribes will split into three pairs, each of whom will stand on a platform. Each person on the platform will use one arm to hold onto a hook. Every two minutes members from the opposing tribe will load one of those pairs with five-pound bags. The more weight added, the harder it will be to hold on to the hook. The last pair holding their hooks and weight for their tribe wins Reward: fishing supplies, spices and bottles of wine. In addition the winning tribe will choose one person from the losing tribe to send to Exile Island.

The tribes took very different strategies: Raro split the weight amongst all three pairs, while Aitu decided to load down only one pair, Nate and Adam. Aitu’s strategy made no sense to me, and I was correct since Raro won with two pairs still in the game. They sent Jonathan to Exile Island, where, after much searching, he came to the conclusion that the hidden Immunity Idol has been found.

Adam from Raro caught an Octopus…well…kinda caught an Octopus as it wrapped itself around his leg and he just stabbed it. His tribemates get it off of him and Cristina gets all bossy about cooking it. Yeah, it was boring and she will be soon to go I’m sure. Over at Aitu, they are running out of food, so Cao Boi, Ozzy and Jessica set off to explore other islands for food sources and wander in to Raro’s camp by accident. They are less than thrilled to see them, and when Cao Boi asks for some spices and coconuts from the other tribe and is told “Adios” with nothing. Seemed fine to me.

Immunity Challange time:

The tribes must assemble stepping poles which they will use to transport two tribe members from one platform above water to another platform a short length away. Once both tribe members are across, all eight tribe members will climb up and over the platform, swimming out to a smaller tower. The first tribe to climb the last tower and get all eight tribe members on or above the top deck wins Immunity and is safe from Tribal Council.

This was kind of fun to watch just for the absurdity of it, and looked like Raro was going to win…until they all fell off their platform. Airu wins again, sending Raro to Tribal Council again. This time it was Stephanie who went for, again, making a stupid remark about wanting to go home.

This will not bother most people, but if you reconfigure your hardware, or have to re-install Vista for some reason, better only do it once! In yet another in a long line of consumer un-friendly moves, it seems you are allowed only 1 transfer of the license. Now, to the non-techs out there, that doesn’t sound so bad, but, it really is.

Windows recognizes a system via it’s hardware setup, and if you should happen to change your motherboard or video card, Windows thinks you need to update the license. Well, under the new Vista rules, you can do that only once and that’s it. Want to build a whole new machine and transfer your copy of Vista? Ok, but only once!

This truly won’t effect the vast majority of users, but it is just yet another sign that Vista has to be the most unfriendly OS ever. Between crippling the system if it is suspects illegal software, and now limiting how often you can use something you legally purchased is just not a wise business move. By treating all of your customers as thieves, to defeat just a handful of wrong-doers just causes animosity from those who have done nothing wrong. For the life of me, I can not even begin to fathom what they think they’re accomplishing.

Perhaps it is the right time to again suggest you buy an XP machine right now, or maybe a shiny new Mac?

(Just before I posted this I had to check….yep…Luis beat me to this story!)