Cranky Greg's View

Microsoft Drones

Cranky Greg's been reading about Microsoft's new money-making, customer-gouging gimmick, Office 2010!!

Watch some of the videos hyping Office 2010 and then thank The Good Lord that you don't work for a big-ass corporation like Microsoft.  Cranky Greg would last about 2 minutes in an environment like that.

The Word video is pretty funny.  Most people use Word to create typical documents.  But Microsoft is doing its best to make it so complicated and annoying and cluttered.  Cranky Greg thinks that people often get caught up in all of the little graphics and fonts that they forget about the underlying message they are trying to convey.

It's like lawyers and PowerPoint.  Attorneys can go to classes to learn how to use PowerPoint.  "PowerPoint for Lawyers!  Win your next trial using PowerPoint!!"

Cranky Greg gets sick of lawyers that are tied to the PowerPoint teat.  They often forget the underlying point they are trying to make.  Many lawyers believe that if they put up a PowerPoint presentation they will win!

As if witnesses and other evidence don't mean anything.

Oh well.  Cranky Greg suggests that if you are having a bad day, watch the Microsoft videos by the Microsoft drones and be thankful you aren't one of them.

The Kindle Experience

Cranky Greg finally got a Kindle in March.  He loves it!  One device that holds all of  CG's reading material is pretty cool.  CG has definitely been reading more since he got the Kindle.

Last week, Cranky Greg and family went to Colorado for a vacation.  He was up in the mountains with no cell phone or Internet reception.  So last Thursday CG wanted to spend the day reading.  CG got out his Kindle and to his horror, the screen was BLACK with LINES ALL OVER IT!

CG was devastated!  He had nothing else to read!  He tried everything in a rushed panic to get the Kindle to work, but it was dead.

So, in his despair, Cranky Greg drove down to Estes Park and called Amazon.  CG was not a happy camper.  He was thinking that he bought all of these books that are usable only on the Kindle.  He was tied to Amazon!  He figured Amazon better make it good or he was going to throw a fit.

Fortunately, Amazon did the right thing.  The customer service rep, who actually spoke English, was very reassuring.  She apologized.  APOLOGIZED!  And Cranky Greg doesn't think she was reading a computer screen when she apologized!

Amazon immediately shipped a replacement Kindle that arrived at his office the next morning.  That didn't help CG in Colorado, but CG was happy that Amazon did the right thing without a fuss.

There apparently is another problem with the Kindle that CG learned of today....apparently Kindle covers, which are sold by Amazon, can crack the Kindle.  Some guy in Seattle got mad and sued Amazon.  So now Amazon is agreeing to repair the cracked Kindles.

Cranky Greg has some advice for Amazon:  the Kindle needs to be a very sturdy device or it will not succeed.  Leaving a Kindle in a hot car and sticking it in a backpack, etc... should not hurt the Kindle since thaat is where people often put books.

But the Kindle is new and Amazon is learning.  And Cranky Greg is impressed with Amazon's customer service.  Let's hope Amazon keeps customer service a very high priority.

Where is Cranky Greg?

Cranky Greg is messing around with Google Latitude.  It's a Big Brother type of program that allows others to see where Cranky Greg is, or at least where his BlackBerry is.

Cranky Greg is posting it in the right side column, and is going to leave it up there for about a week.  It's kinda creepy, but he wants to see if it works.

The photo you will see is of Cranky Greg - it's his good side.

Of course, if Cranky Greg ventures into the wrong part of town, he hopes to remember to turn the stupid thing off.

The Computing Cloud

Kyle Monson spent a week in the Cloud.

Interesting, but Cranky Greg thinks the Cloud will not ultimately take over, but things like Google Calendar are awesome.

CherryPal

Check out this new computer - CherryPal.

Is this the future of computing?

Maybe.

Almost Famous

Cranky Greg's rant about mandatory arbitration and Christine Varney's lame attempt to sell consumers some oceanfront property in Arizona has generated lots and lots of e-mails.

So now, Cranky Greg's almost famous.  Consumerist, one Cranky Greg's favorite blogs, linked to the rant!!

The last time Cranky Greg was almost famous is when Instapundit linked to Cranky Greg.

Sunday Morning Ramblings

Brett "Huckleberry" Favre is still messing around with the Green Bay Packers.  Huckleberry retired and now says he wants to play again.  The Packers said 'NO!" and so did Aaron Rodgers, the Jesus-looking former Cal Bear QB poised to take over the Packers.  So now Huckleberry wants a trade so he can scam another NFL team out of some money.  It's time for Huckleberry to stay in Mississippi (it used to be so hard to spell it used to make Cranky cry.  But now that Cranky's learned it - it's just like pumkin pie!  M-I-S  S-IS  S-I-P-P-I)  Huckleberry needs to call up Emmit Smith who refused to retire and looked ridiculous playing for the hapless Cardinals.  Huckleberry needs to ring Joe Montana, the greatest QB of all time, and ask Smokin' Joe what it felt like to look stupid playing out his final days in KC.  And he needs to buzz Troy Aikman and ask Troy what it felt like to look just gawd-awful his last two years in the NFL.  And finally, Huck should call Barry Sanders and Jim Brown and ask them what it felt like to leave on top.  But Huckleberry, being Huckleberry, won't do that.  He's got that monumental ego to deal with.  He doesn't care what he does to the Packers.  Throwing interceptions to end games is not enough for Huck.  He's pretty dumb.  Heck, Huck can't even pronounce his own name correctly.

The new IPhone is out, and Cranky Greg is not one of the guys who waited in line in order to get ripped off by AT&T.  The IPhone looks pretty cool, but the fact that it is tied to AT&T is anti-consumer, and is stupid.  Cranky Greg is sold on his BlackBerry 8830, and will buy the BlackBerry Bold once it is released.  With a BlackBerry, the user is not tied to a particular service.

It's amazing that the first IPhone was tied to an inferior network, and now the buzz is that it will be faster.  The problem is, AT&T's fancy network is rather limited.

And that sucks if you live in Winnemucca.

Not everyone is a fan of Apple, but you can't please all the people all the time.

Perhaps the Neo FreeRunner is the answer?

The housing crisis escalates, and The New York Times, ever on the cutting edge of every news story, reports today that many mortgage lenders are not working very hard at restructuring mortgages for those who can't pay on their current mortgages.  Well, imnagine that?  Trying get a person to speak with at a big ass company like Countrywide!  The problem with the housing crisis, in Cranky's humble opinion, is that it's going to get much worse before it gets any better.  Housing prices in California are much higher than the incomes earned in California can support.  A lot of people were addicted to the home equity ATM.  Now it's catching up.  And the part that makes Cranky Greg think it is going to get worse is that many couples purchased homes and fancy cars based on two salaries.  Now that the economy is faltering, if one loses a job, then the family cannot afford the mortgage and the car payments based on only one salary.  So imagine a couple that earns $180,000 combined.  Very good income, but not if there are two huge car payments and a big mortgage.  If one loses a job in this scenario, cars won't be paid off and then mortgages won't get paid off.  So, Cranky Greg is a pessimist about the economy.  Especially in California.

Former U.S. Sen. Jesse "Mr. Happy" Helms died, and Cranky Greg shed no tears for this racist bastard.  Unfortunately, the slug was a Republican, which used to make Cranky Greg kinda queasy, back in the days when Cranky Greg was a Republican.  Cranky used to wonder how a party led by Ronald Reagan could include such dour and petulent little racists like Jesse Helms.

Not only was Mr. Happy a symbol of Jim Crow politics, he looks like he would be no fun to be with.  Cranky's not too fond of Bill Clinton, but figures it would be fun to hang with Bill for a day and go out and have a beer with him.  But can one even imagine having a beer with Mr. Happy?  Even being in the room with him for more than a minute or two had to be a chore.

Juan Williams' thoughts on Mr. Happy are worth reading.

Cranky hopes that Mr. Happy and Strom Thurmond are suffering together as slaves for Rosa Parks.

Computer Issues.....

Cranky Greg has some thoughts on some computer issues.  First of all, he stumbled across a very cool website, MP3Tunes.com.  It is a website that gives you 25 gigs of space to upload your music.  You can then sign on to MP3Tunes from any computer with broadband access and listen to your music just as if you were at home in front of your computer!  So, if you're in Bangalore for the weekend and you're dying for Starland Vocal Band's Afternoon Delight, Voila!  Obviously, it's great if you listen to music at work.  Instead of lugging the IPod and docking it at the office, you can just stream your stuff over the Internet and it works great.

The sound quality is fantastic, you would hardly even know it's being streamed over the Internet.

You can upgrade your account, too.  The free account is 25 gigs, and for $40 per year, you can upgrade to 50 gigs, and also access the music from your phone!  There are other upgrade plans, too.  Another benefit of this service is that you can easily have off-site backups of your music.

Regarding Cranky Greg's MagicJack, it has been working fine for the past two days.  Whatever dogged the service over the few days before that apparently has been fixed.  When it works, it's great.  When it doesn't, it is a pain.  Cranky's hoping that the fine folks at MagicJack will stay on top of things.

MagicJack Troubles Continue

Cranky Greg's MagicJack is having problems again today.  He did make a couple of outbound calls, but calls to Cranky Greg's MagicJack number don't work.  Instead, the caller hears the "We cannot complete your call at this time..." recording.

Cranky Greg has his MagicJack number forwarded to his cell phone.  That doesn't even work.

More updates later......

Saturday Morning Ramblings

It's gonna be so damn hot today in Fresno that Cranky Greg's gonna even be crankier.  Cranky had plans to work outside in some flower beds and in the yard but those plans have been canceled.  Cranky Greg will stay inside all day, except he might go jump in the pool which may be more like a hot tub than a refreshing dip.

Maybe Cranky Greg should take his boat to Shaver Lake?!  Just thought of that!  Maybe another plan change!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is determined to build nuclear weapons so he can destroy Israel.  He says it all the time.  But that doesn't bother the fine folks at the United Nations.  Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a "ball of fire" and lead Iran to a more-aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear program.

And Cranky Greg supposes that genius believes everything will be peaceful in the Middle East if Iran gets nuclear weapons!  What a gas bag!

Cranky Greg always thought it was kinda a corny idea to think that fuel made from corn - ethanol - is a panacea to our energy problems.  The floods in Iowa have shown what a bad idea it is since the supply is easily disruptable due to weather.  Bad weather, Al Gore claims, that is caused by humans burning fuels, such as ethanol.  Even though ethanol's a "greener gas."

Not only is it hot in Fresno, it's hot in the Bay Area and in the Southland.  Hell, San Luis Obispo was 108 degrees yesterday!  In a state that is home to Silicon Valley, one might think that California is on the cutting edge of damn near everything.  But not when comes to such basics as providing electricity.  According to this story in The Los Angeles Times, some 20,000 customers lost electricity for a time yesterday.  And there were some minor brownouts in Clovis.  Cranky always laughs at BIGMEDIAPRESS when it gets hot because they tell people to drink lots of water and to stay cool.  Like this advice from the L.A. Times:  Take advantage of shade and air conditioning.  Thanks for the advice, man.

Just because abortions are legal doesn't mean that the back-alley abortion business has been stamped out.  Bertha Pinedo Bugarin has been accused of performing abortions for $500, even though she is not a physician.  She operated six clinics in Southern California, and she wasn't even successful at killing all of the babies.  In one case, she failed to kill the targeted child, but the child was later born prematurely and died three hours later.  Sounds like a murder or manslaughter charge would be appropriate here.