Tag: Things Having Nothing to do with Anything

Why Owning a Car is a Good Thing

First let me shamelessly steam a status update from a friend of mine:

Apparently next week, all public transportation workers will be on strike. This means: a 45-minute walk to class every day, and perhaps no weekend trip to the Alps as was planned. >:(

On top of that my friend already purchased a pass for something like 60 euros. Although my friend is currently on vacation (thus can’t really have a car there) I thought this would still be a good time to bring up the fact that owning a vehicle just makes sense. I have several friends who don’t own a vehicle and seem Hell bent on never obtaining one.

This status update reflects why I’m such a fan of owning a vehicle. Relying on public transportation for everything means just that, you’re reliant on somebody else. If the public transportation system goes down you have no means of getting to work. Likewise if you need to go a distance away you’ll either have to find a friend who is going that way as well or sit tight and not go. Self reliance is a good thing and everybody should attempt to achieve a little bit in every major part of their life. Of course if you bring this up most people will just call you paranoid.

Science Fiction Spaceships

Linoge over at Walls of the City made a topic near and dear to my heart, a top 10 list of science fiction spaceships. I have some knowledge in the field of science fiction so I figure I might as well join in the fun (read steal his idea). As a ground rule I will not select any ships Linoge has and I will not select two ships from the same series (just to keep it interesting). So here a top 10 list of spaceships from yours truly:

  1. Shadow Vessel: Much like Linoge I chose a ship from Babylon 5 for my top one. Why? Because Babylon 5 is the best damned science fiction series that has even been on television. The Shadows are a race billions of years old. Being that old means two things; you’re cranky and you have kick ass technology. The ships used by the Shadows are large, black, spidery looking craft. Part of the thing I like about them most is their unique design. The other things I like about their ships are the fact they are heavily armed, heavily armored, and use a living being as a central processing unit because the Shadow are dicks like that. They also materialize out of nowhere and disappear into nothing making them a bitch to target and shoot.
  2. The Alliance battle cruiser Dauntless: I’ve mentioned The Lost Fleet series before. It’s hands down one of my favorite science fiction series. The series does a great job of bringing up the ideas of fighting large navel battles in space along with the tactics and technologies needed to do so. Dauntless is the ship the main character of the story spends a huge majority of his time on. There isn’t anything special or fancy about the ship except for the fact it’s carrying a key piece of cargo that can be used to win the war for the Alliance (the good guys). Dauntless is heavily armed while remaining maneuverable and has all the awesomeness of a futuristic star ship.
  3. The Lexx: What’s not to like about a giant living ship that can blow up planets as easily as you can blink your eyes? The Lexx’s sole reason for existing is to destroy planets, that’s it. Of course the ship is also incredibly stupid and takes any given orders in their most literal sense.
  4. USS Daedalus: The USS Daedalus was the second star ship built by humans in Stargate SG-1. The ship is a combination of human and Asgard technology. For those you who haven’t seen Stargate the Asgard are the generic “gray” alien but instead of being anal probing bastard they’re actually pretty decent folk. The Daedalus comes equipped with 32 railguns, a good load of missiles, and some naquadria enhanced nuclear warheads making it a virtual death machine. Late in the series the ship also gets equipped with Asgard kill-everything beams. Yes I like high firepower as you can tell and the Daedalus manages to have that and look awesome at the same time.
  5. Union Class Dropship: What’s more terrifying than a drop ship armed to the teeth? A drop ship armed to the teeth and transporting 12 BattleMechs. The Union class dropship is one of many dropships in the BattleTech universe, it just happens to be the most memorable for me. The only purpose of a dropship is to get your 50 foot tall heavily armed walking robots from an orbiting spaceship to the ground. The Union class does this while also managing to be a heavily artillery piece to boot. Death from above baby!
  6. GTF Hercules Mark II: In Decent Freespace 2 many of the ships from the first game got some upgrades. The Hercules Mark II was one of those and ends up being your primary workhorse throughout the game. Although not the most maneuverability craft in the Glactic Terran Fleet the Hercules was heavily armed and armored. Its heavy shields generally made up for it’s lack of quick movement. It works pretty well for sending those Shivan bastards back to their little part of space.
  7. SA-43 Endo/Exo Atmospheric “Hammerhead” Fighter: I too am one of the people on a relatively short list who have seen Space: Above and Beyond. The Hammerhead was the main fighter used by the humans to blast those Chiggers out of our sector of space. Hammerheads are maneuverable on their won as they have thrusters the can propel them in almost any direction but also mount their laser cannons on rotatable turrets. This makes flying one direction and shooting in another very practical. These maneuverable little bastards were great for the one season they graced our television screens.
  8. GDI Kodiak: In Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun the Kodiak served as your command and control ship. Although having no demonstrated armaments the Kodiak does have the ability to fly inside and outside of Earth’s atmosphere. The only real advantage it presents is the ability to rapidly get to a battle zone but it looks awesome while doing it. I guess the fact that you can use it to call down orbital ion cannon strikes does mean it has some form of offensive capabilities. It should also be noted that the Kodiak appears in the new Battlestar Galactica series as a refuge ship for a brief scene.
  9. VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech Fighter: One of the best ways to get a giant walking robot from one point to another is by putting it on a giant dropship. A more expedient way of getting said walking robot from one point to another is by having it transform into a jet and fly you there. The VF-1 Valkyrie was the first veritech, a class of craft capable of transforming from a walking robot to a fighter jet-like craft. The craft is powered by an internal reactor making it capable of flying both in atmosphere and out in space. The Valkyrie carries a machine gun as well as a bank of good old fashion missiles.
  10. Rama: Last but most certainly not least we have Rama. The first space craft designated Rama by the human race was a giant cylindrical craft that did a flyby of Earth. Although apparently dead the Rama craft was a self-contained world. The environment was built on the inside of the cylinder and used rotational gravity to keep creates from flying off into other sections of the ship. Rama was not a hostile craft and contained no weapons but was certainly interesting to read about as astronauts from Earth explored the inside of the massive beast.

Environmental Extremism

So we’ve all come to an agreement that Mr. Environment who took over the Discovery Channel headquarters was just out and out bat shit crazy. He decided to focus that crazy on environmental issues and even wrote up a manifesto of sorts (which I’m not linking to because violent nut jobs get no link love from me). For shits and giggles I read through his manifesto and shortly after had to take a couple shots of vodka to prevent brain damage in the form of remembering anything from that manifest.

Alas what he wrote reflects ideas I’ve often heard spouted by environmental extremists. I’ve been trying to determine how a person can develop so much hatred for their own species that they believe the only way to save the planet is to wipe out the human race. What leads somebody to develop that view? That view requires self-hatred as you ultimately are stating you believe you should be dead.

Personally I like to look on the brighter side of things. To that end I’m presenting a series of solutions to the “population problem” as the wackos like to call it that don’t involved death camps and violence.

All of you environmentalists need to start donating money to companies researching practical space travel. If you believe the Earth is unable to support the human population then it’s time to relocated some of the people. Mars is another planet which in theory could be setup to support a large population of people. The sooner we get there and colonize it the sooner we reduce the population of Earth. As an added bonus Mars is already a lifeless wasteland so there isn’t a previous Mother Gaia to destroy. Seriously what could we do to Mars that the universe hasn’t done already?

There you go a non-violent means of reducing the population of the planet. Next up a peaceful solution to extinction. Although extinction is nature’s way of eliminating creatures unable to adapt to their changing environment some people believe the human race must be wiped out to save these creatures. Here is a better idea, cloning. Get a genetic sample of every creature you can and put some of your money into researching the science of cloning. Did your beloved Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal get wiped out by slash and burn operations in the Amazon? Good news with a genetic sample and proper research you can just make some more. Hell you could open a wildlife refuge dome on Mars for wayward animals and bring back all those species that nature decided no longer fit to survive. Hell if you want to seriously considering bringing back dinosaurs let me know and I’ll chip in some money.

Now if you’re an environmentalist reading this (why your reading this site and an environmentalist baffles my mind honestly) your next question will probably involve pollution. Due to our awesome ability to build shit the human race does create byproducts. Everything from sulfur in the atmosphere to mercury in the water are byproducts of industry. Remember the statement about colonizing Mars? We can move a ton of industry there as well. Think about it, who the fuck cares if we’re pumping shit into Mars’s atmosphere? We can’t breathe it and apparently nothing else living has found it useful enough to park their butts down on that planet. What’s a little more toxic material in the atmosphere on a planet who’s atmosphere is already deadly toxic? We could also setup orbital factories that could pump byproducts into space. I don’t care how many widgets you build, you’ll never be able to create enough particles of any pollutant to fill the massive vacuum that is space.

Instead of wasting your time with creeds an whining about how terrible the human race is and how great Mother Gaia is why not work to correct it in a peaceful and practical manner that may actually have popular support? Just imagine how much you could accomplish if you put all that time and effort into something useful instead of bitching and moaning?

Let’s all work together to make a better future… a future with bad ass space ships.

Building a “Green” House

Anybody who reads what I post was probably struck with a bit of worry upon reading the title. Don’t worry I haven’t jumped on the green movement bandwagon I still drive a horribly fuel inefficient truck (take that hippie scum!), have two computers running 24/7, run my air conditioners even while I’m away (sure I turn them up but that’s to save me money not the Earth), and believe if you’re eating more vegetable matter than meat you’re doing it wrong.

With that said I did find an interesting article by Scott Adams (the guy who does the Dilbert comic) about building a green home. I found it interesting because Mr. Adams is capable of cognitive thought and realizes there is a trade off between green and ascetically pleasing. He also is able to bring up the fact that bike riding hippies are hypocrites:

The greenest home is the one you don’t build. If you really want to save the Earth, move in with another family and share a house that’s already built. Better yet, live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don’t want. Don’t brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lot of energy went into building that bicycle. Stop being a hypocrite like me.

He also has a useful definition of the term green:

I prefer a more pragmatic definition of green. I think of it as living the life you want, with as much Earth-wise efficiency as your time and budget reasonably allow. Now back to our story.

I wish more hippie scum would understand the fact that their green lifestyle is OK for them because they’re hippies and don’t have jobs. Those of us who have jobs can’t pick and chose what devices we want (for instance if I can’t use a computer I don’t have a job). I like Mr. Adam’s definition of green because it’s pragmatic and I can still ignore it and thus piss the hippies off.

Alas this was the thing that really caught my attention:

As a rule, the greener the home, the uglier it will be. I went into the process thinking that green homes were ugly because hippies have bad taste. That turns out to be nothing but a coincidence. The problem is deeper. For example, the greenest sort of roof in a warm climate would be white to reflect the sun. If you want a beautiful home, a white roof won’t get you there. Sure, you could put a lovely garden on your roof, because you heard someone did that. But don’t try telling me a garden roof wouldn’t be a maintenance nightmare. And where do you find the expert who knows how to do that sort of thing?

Ding, ding, ding. I’ve always through greener labeled homes, cars, etc. were ugly as sin. Take the Toyota Prius, it’s an ugly piece of shit. It seemed purpose designed to look as much like ass as possible without it being an actual ass. There is no character to it at all, it extrudes ugly wherever it rolls. You want an awesome looking modern car? Get a new Ford Mustang or Dodge Charger. Both look and drive bad ass. They’re also about as green as the color brown. Green homes are ugly as sin as well. I’d rather spend my money on a nice looking home and deal with the slightly higher energy bill. What’s the point in going home to a domicile that you can’t stand the look of?

This whole concept of being green is one thing. I’m green so far as saving myself money. In other words I don’t turn the air conditioner down when I’m out to save the planet, fuck that. The only reason that thing gets turned down is because it’s a power hog that costs me money the more it runs. Unfortunately for hippies I’m not so cheap as to make my life something they would approve of. I’m willing to spend extra money on gas just to piss off the green group simply because I don’t like them. Why don’t I like them? Because 99% of them try to force their lifestyle and belief upon you while regarding themselves as better people because their “saving the planet.” If more of these hippies would explain things such as Mr. Adams does in the linked article I probably wouldn’t invest time into pissing them off.

Terminology

I’m by nature a meat eater. If it wasn’t for the fact that I often have something along with my steak, burger, pork chop, bacon, or other form of dead animal I’d be a complete carnivore.

The other side of the camp are vegans who eat no product derived from animals (which means milk for instance) and vegetarians who simply don’t eat meat. I have no problem with either of these groups what you eat is your choice just don’t try to force it upon me. Of course not I’ve noticed new terms popping up; flexatarian and inflexatarian.

Who are these groups? Apparently they’re people who don’t have the will to be vegetarians but want to hipster creds of not eating meat. Well because of these people I’ve decided to write a little mini-rant on terminology.

I have news for those who label themselves as flexatarians and inflexatarians, you’re omnivores. As an example an inflexatarian will say they’ll only eat meat three times a week. You know what that means? I means you’re still eating fucking meat. That makes you a carnivore. Being you also eat plant material that makes you an omnivore. You shouldn’t feel bad about that fact though since our species has evolved to be exactly that. Some our our teeth are made for grinding down plant material while other teeth are made for ripping into tasty animals.

Here’s the thing, your desire to make up new terminology to gain hipster creds is pointless. Hell I’ll go a step further, it’s fucking stupid. Vegans have a reason for a new term as they are distinctly different from vegetarians. Vegetarians have a reason for a new term as they are distinctly different from us meat eaters. But you little twits on the fence are not distinctly different than us meat eaters you just eat less meat. But hey in the spirit of things I’m making up a new term, fucking awesome!

What is the fucking awesome group? Well we are the group that ensures we eat more dead animal than plant material. We only eat plant material three times a week, tops. Beyond that everything we eat must be derived from a formerly living creature. At least two of those meals each week must come from a disgustingly cute animal to boot.

Why I Never Delete Anything

One thing that is true about me is the fact I never delete files. OK I delete applications I’ve downloaded from the Internet once the versions I’ve obtained are outdated, and maybe a few other little files here and there. But in general I do delete files and that’s because storage is cheap.

I just picked up another 2TB 7200RPM hard drive for about $129.00. With space at that price level there really is no reason not to keep everything you’ve ever created, purchased, or downloaded.

Bloody Fast Internet

So I have Internet access at home again which means regular updates on this site again. It also means I get to talk about said Internet connection for a bit because I’m happy with it.

Since I now have to pay a third party for Internet access I decided it was going to be done my way. One thing I didn’t like about my apartment complex’s Internet service was the inability to get a static IP address. This prevented me from effectively running a VPN server. Well I called all the ISPs that service my area (which is to say I called Qwest and Comcast) to find out what services are offered.

Qwest had shit speeds so I pretty much decided to ignore them from the get go. Additionally I’ve heard nothing good about Qwest from my friends. Comcast will only provided a static IP address for business accounts which is what I signed up for.

In the past I’ve only had DSL. Comcast’s business service is provided through cable so that’s a whole new experience for me. I’ve been running periodic speed tests (both during peak hours and non-peak hours) and so far have been averaging ~40 Mbps down and ~11 Mbps up. That’s quite a bit better than what I’m paying for so I’m impressed. Additionally my computer is now accessible remotely… at least once I figured out how to get my VPN server running correctly.

But yeah now for some advice. If you’re getting Internet service through Comcast just forget about the residential service and talk to their business department. The price for the lowest tier business account is the same you’ll be paying for the residential service after the six month introductory pricing and you don’t have to deal with the schmucks in tier one technical support (you automatically are bumped up to tier two). Likewise the business representatives can actually answer you questions (the lady in charge of the residential service in my area couldn’t tell me if they could provide a static IP address or not).

We’ll see how the next few weeks go before I give an official endorsement. But as it sits right now I’m pretty happy.

Only in Australia

Read this article:

A drunk man who climbed into a crocodile enclosure in Australia and attempted to ride a 5m (16ft) long crocodile has survived his encounter.

The crocodile, called Fatso, bit the 36-year-old man’s leg, tearing chunks of flesh from him as he straddled the reptile.

Seriously where else in the world could a headline like that be made?