technology: October 2006 archives
Wait, Which Way Does Time Go?
[ rakaur on Tue Oct 17 at 11:58 AM // category: school, siue, technology, web ]
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”
— Voltaire
This is about Facebook, SIUE, and a kid named Mike Turk. If you don’t want to hear about it, then by all means stop reading.
Now, before I start, I’d just like to make it clear that this isn’t about Mike Turk. This is about idiots. I don’t know Mike Turk, but I’m willing to bet that he’s probably an idiot. The “anonymous” girl is even more of an idiot. Also, and more importantly, the SIUE administration are all big blubbering idiots.
The parts of the story that I’ve heard (and I haven’t taken the time to learn it thoroughly, mostly because I don’t care) go something like this. An “anonymous” girl (hereby referred to as “DrunkenSlutBag”) had sex (or some sort of sexual contact) with Mike Turk, probably as the result of alcohol. Mike Turk decided to post it on Facebook, and make a big deal about what a slut she was. DrunkenSlutBag decided she took offense at this. Apparently when I wasn’t looking, Congress passed a law that made it illegal to offend someone. DrunkenSlutBag made a big deal over it, and long story short, Mike Turk is now up for expulsion from SIUE.
Now, let me be clear here: this is a big steaming pile of bullshit. I don’t care about Mike Turk, I don’t care about DrunkenSlutBag, I don’t care. What I do care about is Mike Turk’s right to say what he wants, when he wants, where he wants, how he wants about anyone he pleases, without fear. SIUE and a bunch of English majors have taken this away from him. I’ve heard people throw around words like “libel” and “slander,” but apparently no one actually knows what these words mean, despite the fact that they’re all English majors. Let me help you out. Now, “slander” doesn’t apply at all, because it was written about, and that makes it libel. Let’s have a closer look:
libel noun
1 Law: a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation. Compare with slander.
2 the action or crime of publishing such a statement
3 a false and malicious statement about a person.
4 a thing or circumstance that brings undeserved discredit on a person by misrepresentation.
Take a close look at those. Notice the words “false,” “undeserved,” and “misrepresentation.” Mike Turk told no lies. DrunkenSlutBag may not have exactly deserved what he did, but it was by no mean misrepresentative or false. Mike Turk has committed no crime. When it comes down to it, she banged that dude, and she doesn’t want to own up to the fact that she’s a whore.
So, then, why is he up for expulsion? Because he offended someone. Next thing you know, people will get the crazy idea that they have the right to express their opinions as they see fit. Who knows? Maybe this idea will catch on and they’ll add it to the Constitution of the United States, giving it a catchy title like “freedom of speech.” I’ve heard people say “freedom of speech ends when it violates someone else’s rights.” Whose rights have been violated? We’ve already established there’s been no crime here. So my question is:
What on earth gives the University the right to think that they can tell Mike Turk, or anyone for that matter, what they can or cannot say, or where they can or cannot say it? What gives the University the right, when something that happened outside of their control was talked about on a medium also outside of their control? The only way the University ties into any of this is the fact that they’re both students. I remember paying the University money to teach me things, not to tell me what I can and cannot say or do, thank you very much. Perhaps they have forgotten a basic fact: we are your bosses. We pay your salary. If we’re not here, then neither are you. Your sole purpose in life is to serve us. So please, stop being idiots, and get your acts together.
This is absolutely ludicrous, and it should under no means be tolerated. The University has absolutely no reason to do what they’re doing. He didn’t “misrepresent” the school anymore than any other student that gets drunk at some party. What about DrunkenSlutBag? She’s the one sleeping around; doesn’t that make the University look bad? Shouldn’t we kick her out, too?
I don’t know either of these people, and I probably wouldn’t like either of these people if I did meet them. This isn’t about them. This is about what is basically right, and what is basically wrong; and, what the University is doing is very basically very wrong.
-- rakaur // 2006.10.17 @ 11:58 AM
Ding-a-Ling
[ rakaur on Mon Oct 16 at 10:01 PM // category: eastgate, hardware, subway, technology, work ]
So, Helio is pretty awesome.
I’ve been taking full advantage of the unlimited data. I use it to check sports scores (go Cards!), send tons of SMS and MMS, upload photos to Facebook, etc. The service is great, and the phone calls actually sound pretty good, which is high praise coming from me (I think all phones sound like varying degrees of shit). The Internet is fast when on Sprint’s 1xEV-DO, and really, really, just terribly and utterly mind-blowingly slow when on Verizon’s 1xRTT network. It was a nice feature after having used Sprint’s Vision service.
The phone itself, the VK650C, or Kickflip, is pretty sweet. The interface is beautiful, and just as polished as the phone itself (which is more than I can say for the RAZR and friends). It has a two megapixel camera, which I paid $250 for three years ago. Of course, the opening device is also cool.
Alas, this would not be written by me if it didn’t contain complaining somewhere. The phone has its quirks, which is disappointing because I have the second rev, and I would have thought they would have had to time work this stuff out. The internal photo album gets corrupted from time to time. It’ll list one picture under one name, but when I try to MMS it to someone it’ll send a different picture. I have to go in through the PC software and reset the memory. The camera takes pretty good pictures outside, or where there is a lot of light, and it takes really, really shitty pictures otherwise. The “flash” is just a light that shines for a little while, which is pretty crappy. There are also various bugs in the software that are just enough to irk you. I also loathe the fact that I can’t add words to T9. Obviously, none of these are deal breakers.
Being that it uses Sprint’s and Verizon’s network, I tend to have coverage everywhere. My old Sprint phone barely held onto a signal in my basement, and I have 4/5 bars on the Kickflip right now. I’ve also been told that the phone itself has a fantastic antenna. In fact, the only place I don’t get service is in the storm shelter basements in the buildings at my school. Unfortunately, I’m subject to the same retardedness that I got from Sprint. Things like getting voicemails from people that my phone never rang for, or getting voicemails two days after they’re left.
So far, I’ve dropped it twice. Once onto grass in my backyard from about three feet up, and it flipped open and got some dirt on it, but that was it. I stopped carrying it in my hoodie pocket after that. The other time was out of my pants pocket from about a foot up (I was sitting in a theater chair) onto carpet, and that somehow managed to make the battery fly six feet away. It’s still undamaged, and unscratched. I need to buy a case to keep it that way.
The PC sync software is… shitty. I was disappointed to find that it requires special software to do things. The software isn’t all that terrible, but I’d prefer something standard. The phone also has media playback, but I haven’t tried it out since I just use my iPod. If I could purchase a sufficiently large transflash card for a sufficiently low amount of money, it might be worth it, but otherwise my iPod wins. The headphones that came with it were apparently designed for elephants, because I’ll be damned if I can fit the things in my ear.
Anyway, it’s cool, check it out. Be sure to use me as a reference if you decide to sign up!
On another note, I got fired from Subway. There’s a guy there that talks about how attractive the younger girls are, and he’s like 45. I was joking with one of the girls there, and said “oh yeah, he’s kind of a pedophile.” Well, someone heard me, and told him. He didn’t care; he knew I was joking. He told the manager, and he fired me.
Kind of sucks. Now I’m back at hellho—Eastgate until I can find a better job, again.
-- rakaur // 2006.10.16 @ 10:01 PM
Sprinting from Sprint
[ rakaur on Thu Oct 05 at 05:47 PM // category: life, technology ]
So, Sprint sucks ass.
My phone died yesterday. I put it on the charger, and went to bed. I woke up. My phone did not. It refuses to turn on no matter what I do. So, what are my options?
Drop Sprint. Fuck you. Good bye.
This is what would really be nice. Unfortunately, I can’t afford an early termination fee.
Buy a new phone at discount, sign another two years with Sprint.
This is what I was thinking about doing, because it’s the cheapest. The thing is, I’d have to renew the contract. Being with Sprint for another two years doesn’t sound all that bad until I remembered—oh wait—I’d rather die.
Buy a new phone at retail price, and just suck it up until my contract’s over.
If I’m going to buy a new phone at full price, why oh why would I bother to stay with Sprint?
Cancel my line, and change my mom’s plan.
This is what I wanted to do. I thought, “Hey, I’ll drop my line from her plan, change her plan to a cheaper one, and let her just renew for two years.” Oh wait, dropping even just my line would incur an early termination fee. This is what pisses me off. I can’t even drop just one line without fucking myself. I tried to call customer service, but I got nothing but a bunch of Pakis that don’t understand what the fuck I’m talking about and just keep repeating “Ok, so you want new phone? Ok.”
Suspend my line, switch my other line to an individual plan.
This is actually what I have to do. If I just suspend my line, it’s $10 a month (which is cheaper than the termination fee), which I can manage. That way, I can just say “fuck you, Sprint” and get a new plan, and my mom can have her own plan because you can move phones from a family plan to an individual plan. She still has to renew for two years, but she doesn’t care.
How much fucking bullshit is all of this? I feel like I’m really sticking it to them by only paying $80 for a phone I’m not using instead of $175 for a phone I’m not using. I’m still paying for a phone I’m not fucking using.
I’ll be switching to Helio. No contracts.
-- rakaur // 2006.10.05 @ 05:47 PM
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