Simplicity

Success is simple.
And simplicity = success.

People don’t want a gadget that requires a 340-page manual written, poorly, by someone closeted in Taiwan and unfamiliar with the English language;

We want:
  • Something that does precisely what it promises;
  • Something that defines itself simply;
  • Something that, in practical use, is in itself intuitive;
I have two recent examples; one I have personally experienced and one of which I only read reviews and testimony.

First:

I wanted a compact but professional radio that I could install into my wife’s house whilst writing and investigating websites for potential posts on BZ.com. I like to listen to (imagine this) talk radio whilst writing posts.

I have a Bose Acoustic Wave player at home which has managed to replace a formerly-extensive stereo system to include a 500-watt amp, preamp, a set of massive JBL speakers and the like. The $1,100 dollar Wave is now a stand-alone system and it is all that I need. It picks up my FM stations just fine; AM stations cannot be found up here in the mountains. So I listen to many CDs and certain FM stations. The Bose is a great radio.

For my wife’s house, I chose the Tivoli Audio PAL (Portable Audio Laboratory) radio. It is remarkably compact (6 1/4″ high by 3 3/4″ wide) and remarkably SIMPLE.

It offers only THREE dials. The first is a large tuner for both AM and FM stations. The lower left dial is a selector for AM, FM and Off. The lower right dial is for volume. Below these dials is a single speaker covered by round metal mesh.

Period.

The radio works off either rechargeable batteries or by an outlet plug, both provided.

It is also covered in a rubberized and colored exterior with extendable FM antenna and top side insets for easy grabbing.

You can plug headphones into this radio, or any MP3 player (via aux jack), and the radio carries a standard 1-year warranty.

Results? The speaker sounds clear, rich, deep, with excellent volume levels. Frankly, it has absolutely excellent sound.

$200 through Tivoli; $150 through Amazon.com.

Apple iPhone:
Again, many people make reference to this gadget’s simplicity. Its reliability and functionality have yet to be ultimately proven but, at this juncture, it is receiving rave reviews.

For its SIMPLICITY.

Simplicity and, in my opinion, clarity is always best.

BZ

It’s The Economy, Stupid

Give this one to President Bush:
The US economy is kicking ass as clearly documented by Hugh Hewitt — but you’ll never read about it in any newspaper save the Wall Street Journal, or trumpeted on ANY Mainstream Media DEM (what I call the Defeatist, Elitist Medi) TV outlet. To wit:

U.S. employment posted a solid rise last month on strong hiring in health care and government and previous months’ gains were revised sharply higher, suggesting labor market conditions remain very supportive of economic activity at midyear.

The figures suggest a continuation of the Federal Reserve’s lengthy interest-rate pause is likely for the next several months at least amid signs of well contained wage pressures. They could even put the prospect of rate increases on the table for next year if confirmed by future data.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 132,000 in June, after swelling 190,000 in May and 122,000 in April, the Labor Department said Friday. Previous reports showed job growth of just 157,000 in May and 80,000 in April. Monthly job growth has averaged a robust 145,000 so far this year. The unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 4.5%.

Funny how this economy is running along with NO NEW TAXES. And, of course, despite having experienced the economy-killing events of 9-11.
And, by the way, what is the very FIRST THING the Democrats shall increase if elected to power in 2008? You guess it: TAXES.

IMPORTANT WEBSITE ALERT:
For those interested in actually keeping fairness in media, I would suggest visiting a new website instigated by NZBear:

This website features up-to-the-minute information on the Democrats’ pushing for the return of the Fairness Doctrine which, naturally, has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with the smashing of right wing or Conservative success and the reacquisition of the power the Left has managed to let slip through their fingers because they are:
  • 1) Incompetent
  • 2) Valueless
  • 3) Vapid
  • 4) Based solely in emotion and not facts
  • 5) No longer have a stranglehold on the dissemination of facts
The Fairness Doctrine is an attempt to reacquire this stranglehold on all forms of media. This cartoon portrays it best, I believe:

The Democratic base is apoplectic; they are splitting ventricles because the Democratic Congress has, as I indicated a post or two ago, not yet completely pulled out of Iraq and not yet impeached Bush and strung up Cheney by a yardarm.

Another resolution is coming sometime later this month to be proffered by Pelosi. Expect it soon.

BZ

And Now, Back to Reality, Which Is Already In Progress

Back to the real world: some stories and articles you need to see and read:

Tuesday July 3 ,2007
By Macer Hall, Political Editor
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the terrorism crisis.

The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ­terror” is to be dropped.

The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.

Note to actual United Kingdom inhabitants: you’d best start making plans for some trips to the United States or Australia — you know, places where their governments still have a scrotal sac or two left, having them not yet been completely tin-snipped by Muslim fuckheads.

Just one perhaps very important question: how did Gordon Brown GET to become the new UK Prime Minister? Was he — ahem — voted into his current postition by an electorate?

No? Oh, really . . . ?

HERO CABBIE..
By Karen Bale
A HERO cabbie who took on the Glasgow Airport terror suspects told yesterday how he booted one of them in the privates.

Alex McIlveen, 45, kicked the man, whose body was in flames, so hard that he tore a tendon in his foot.

But he said last night: “He didn’t even flinch. I couldn’t believe he didn’t go down.

“A doctor told me later I’d damaged a tendon in my foot.”

The burned suspect was named last night as Khalid Ahmed, a Lebanese doctor.

There clearly IS a reason that soccer is a UK national sport and clearly practiced in Scotland.

3. Thanks To the Ranando Report:
Herein exists an article (entitled Democracy’s Problems With Islam) that I feel deserves reprinting in its entirety here, though I seldom do so unless massively warranted:

A relatively recent demographic change—significant increase in Muslim population—poses a serious challenge to the American system of governance—democracy.

*
Historically, people from all over the world came to this land-of-take-all and made it their home. In becoming American, each new aspirant had to meet specific provisions and take the “Pledge of Allegiance” as sworn affirmation of his highest loyalty to his new homeland. After a couple of generations, all hyphenated Americans saw themselves as Americans with a special
affection for their ancestral heritage. An Irish-American, for instance, considered himself every bit as American as a German-American, or a Chinese-American.

*
Traditionally, America did not homogenize its diverse people. The notion of the “melting pot,” is inaccurate. Instead, America did one better. As it welcomed its diverse people, America united them around a set of core values such as respect for human rights, democratic governance, and the rule of law. The large number of Muslims arrival of recent years is posing a serious problem to this nation of all nations. Bluntly speaking, no one can be a faithful Muslim and an American at the same time. Here are some of the reasons.

*
A Muslim is, first and foremost, an Ummehist—a citizen of international Islam. So, when a Muslim takes the Pledge of Allegiance, he is either ignorant of the implication of his pledge or is lying willfully. Ignorance is never a valid reason in the court of law, and lying in the process of becoming a citizen is a ground for denying the application and even deporting the violator. Sadly enough, tagyyeh—lying, or dissimulation—is not only condoned, it is recommended to the Muslims in their scripture. Hence, a Muslim can and would lie without any compunctions, whenever it is expedient.

*
Muslims, by belief and practice, are the most blatant violators of human rights. We hardly need to detail here Muslims’ systemic cruel treatment of the unbelievers, women of all persuasions, and any and all minorities across the board. To Muslims, human rights have a different meaning, and its protective provisions are reserved strictly for Muslims—primarily for Muslim men. Just a couple of examples should suffice for now.

*
Oppression of women, for one, is so systemic in Islam that to this day women are, at best, second class citizens under Islamic law. Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islamdom, denies women the right to drive, vote or hold elective offices—the most basic rights of citizens in democratic societies.

*
For another, no non-Islamic literature is allowed in Saudi Arabia. A visiting Christian, for instance, is denied to enter the Kingdom with a Bible. Further, severe punishment is meted out to anyone daring to disagree with Islam or espouse a different religion. Iran’s resurgent Shiism often vies with Saudi Arabia in its mistreatment of religious and non-religious minorities. To the fanatical ruling gang in Iran, it is their brand of Islam or disenfranchisement of rights of citizenship and even death for the “sin” of apostasy. And of course, there is no point at all in talking about the savage Islamic Taliban.

*
Respect for the rule of law, as it is understood and practiced by civilized people, is an instrument of convenience to beused to advantage and to be violated when it is not, for the Muslim. A Muslim believes in a different law—the Shariah: a set of stone-age rules. Violation of the non-Muslim laws, therefore, is no violation at all to a Muslim.

*
What is incredible is the gall and audacity of Muslims in demanding that Western and other democracies legalize Shariah in their societies. Due to large populations of Muslims, mostly recent arrivals, in countries such as Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden, these countries are experiencing the insistent demands by Muslims to have Shariah rule their Islamic communities. This is just the beginning and it may seem relatively harmless to the simpletons in our midst. Yet, once Shariah is recognized to any extent, it will reach out to rule not only on matters that concern Muslims, but also those that may involve a Muslim and non-Muslim. Under Shariah, a Muslim man married to a non-Muslim woman is able to divorce the woman at will, automatically have custody of the children, and literally toss the wife out of “his” home with practically no compensation.

*
As for democracy, the rule of the people, Muslims have no use at all. Muslims believe that Allah’s rule must govern the world in the form of Caliphate—a theocracy. Making mockery of democracy, subverting its working, and ignoring its provisions is a Muslim’s way of falsifying what he already believes to be a sinful and false system of governance invented by the infidels.

*
To Muslims, Ummeh-ism—international Islamism—is the legitimate form of government. Ummeh-ism is another form of despotism such as Communism and Fascism, with the added feature of enjoying “divine” authority.

*
The world has good samples of Ummeh-ism in practice to scrutinize in Islamic autocracies. Khamenei of Iran is not called “Caliph.” He is called the “Supreme Guide.” The Saudi King is just another Caliph vessel of the “divine.” These Islamic despots are every bit as vile as the Hitlers, the Stalins, the Pol Pots, and the Mussolinis. The government these Islamic autocrats head is infested to the core with the Islamic disease of oppression, corruption and the absence of accountability to the people.

*
Democracies believe that government must be of the people, by the people, and for the people. Ummeh-ism is anathema to this sacrosanct fundamental democratic ideal.

*
As more and more Muslims arrive in non-Islamic lands, as they reproduce with great fecundity, as they convert the disenchanted and minorities, and as petrodollar-flush Muslims and Muslim treasuries supply generous funds, Muslims gather more power to undermine the democratic rule. A consortium composed of pandering politicians, blinded with short-term self-interest and egoism; attention and fund-seeking self-proclaimed prima donna professors; and, bastions of useful idiot liberals, universities, is the witting or unwitting promoter of Ummeh-ism.

*
It is human nature to be concerned, first and foremost, with his personal well-being. Some people evolve to a higher level of humanness and place the welfare of the general public above their own. Yet, many remain fixated at the constricted stage of “self first, self, last.” Even if you belong to this latter group, your self-interest demands that you do all you can to make sure that the disease of Islamofascism does not devour democracy. Democracy is both fragile and corruptible. It takes vigilant citizenry to protect its integrity.

*
We fully agree with Churchill’s observation, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest.” Yet, as imperfect as it is, democracy is still humanity’s best system of self-rule. We, one and all, must defend it with our all.

I tend to cringe at the comparison (though there are some similarities but for different reasons), but there is one constant with regard to Mexicans and Islamists:

  • Illegal Mexicans feel that it is Americans who must adapt to illegals;
  • Muslims feel that it is Americans who must adapt to Islam.

And NOT the other way around.

Remember:

It is the educated, considered, well-grounded, common-sensical and fact-bearing individuals who bear the brunt of saving the world — as opposed to those who dwell only in the world of their own shallow, naive and emotional minds. I’ll let you determine who is whom . . .

BZ

Why I Have Come to Hate the PC World and Microsoft

Things have been somewhat acceptable for a number of years; until this year, until now.

Perhaps your adventures have been more maddening earlier than mine; I only know what I know and when I know it. What I mean by that is this:

My first foray into computers took place in the 80’s. My former girlfriend’s brother, Tom, was a engineering geek of the First Degree, a whiz who had a huge house in the Santa Cruz mountains of Fornicalia — a house that he built himself and a house that completely survived the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 because he had the miraculous foresight to build a house on JACKS that were not unlike the springs in your car. Yes, he lost his swimming pool; the house took the hit mostly undamaged whilst others around him were damaged horribly and beyond repair.

At that time, in the mid-80s, he had one of the first MacIntosh computers — the kind with the computer and small screen built into one unit — called the 128k if I remember properly. It had the screen, drive and floppy built into one vertical unit with, zounds, this new thing called a MOUSE. I found it an absolutely amazing device!

After seeing his computer, I bought MY first computer, an Apple Macintosh IIcx. I had to drive to Cupertino, Fornicalia, in order to buy this computer (in 1989). The thing cost me OVER $5,500 and I had to prove to the seller that I was good for the check I wrote. I can recall having to CALL my credit union to verify I could cover my check. But I walked out with a IIcx, a monitor, a full keyboard and an Apple Imagewriter printer. For Christ’s sake, I had to take a LOAN out to cover the purchase.

For $5,000, here’s what the Mac IIcx had: it ran at 16 mhz (but even then, Mac had a 32-bit data path!), and came configured with 1 meg of RAM and a 40 meg hard drive. The Imagewriter printer had to make TWO to THREE PASSES to complete ONE LINE OF TEXT. One line of text, therefore, took at least 15 to 30 seconds to finish, depending upon its motivation at the time.

From there, however, because of my work, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the PC world. I had just promoted to detectives and was the recipient of a crazy, boxy kind of thing called a PC which ran at 32 mhz and had a green screen. But I could type into it and produced prodigious amounts of reports. And from there came my first PC, a Dell laptop running at 75 mhz ($4,200), two Dell desktops, then my current custom PC desktop (4 gigs RAM) and my current HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop (where I have been making my posts for 2 years now), with its flawless 17″ screen.

But boys and girls, I am so verily TIRED of screens that are becoming more prevalent day by day:

Was this information helpful to me? How about fuck no, Microsoft, and fuck you.

Already VISTA is having nasty problems that Microsoft knew about for months.

And, after all this, after having my PC work just fine for quite some time, I am wondering (am I really a tinfoil-wearing Conspiracy Theorist for thinking this way??) if Microsoft has built into its OS certain cues that FORCE the user to either upgrade or become so incredibly irate with his or her system that they, in disillusion, throw up their hands and acquiesce to all the ridiculous Service Packs that seem not to work or begin to consider slamming down hundreds more for the NEWEST Microsoft OS — this time entitled VISTA?

Am I a loon for even thinking this??

All I hear about, all I read about (I subscribe to PC World) are the doom and gloom dangers of any PC coming into any contact whatsoever with the internet or various other nets. I hear and read of dozens and hundreds and thousands of viruses and corrupted codes written for no other reason than to fuck with or kill the hard drive of your PC. It’s an entire sub-culture, for Christ’s sake.

I already lost one entire PC hard drive to a virus.

I think I have HAD IT with the PC world. I think my NEXT computer is going to finally get me BACK to my roots. I think my next computer is going to be some form of an Apple laptop. Because, you know what? I just want shit to be simple; and I couldn’t care one wanton fuck less HOW it works — I just want it to WORK.


Because, when I actually start to don my tinfoil Conspiracy Theorist Hat — well, maybe it’s time for me to change my entire computer mindset.

BZ