Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/09/car-insurance-general-vs-geico/
Well, I was earlier excited about Geico giving me a deal on auto insurance, and pretty quick they sent me a letter saying my policy was revoked because Daniel Howard had his license suspended for two months back in 2003. (“Kid, have you ever been . . . arrested?”)
So . . . back to Google, ask for car insurance, click two of the top banner ads. One for Progressive, one for The General, and skip Geico, for being policy-cancelling bastards. (more…)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/07/salesmanship/
Terms not to use:
“I’ll be honest with you . . .”
“It would be in your best interest to . . .”
“I think I can get you . . . at an unheard of price point.”
I first contacted the sales person in question about a technology solution that cost $6something. I got him down to $4.5something. I looked around, and found a competitor with a more appropriate solution for $3something. I suppose he could have beat that, possibly even with a superior solution, but I can only play “the NetApp game” for so long before I actually go buy something else.
Ah, well, it is a big world.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/07/negative-reader-feedback/
(I tried Google Reader today. It sucked. Then I went back to my other “Google Reader” and saw they had posted about Reader to the blog . . . I tried to keep it civil . . . but I failed.) (more…)
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/03/ups-heat-dissipation/
Last Thursday I was picking up Yayoi when I got a page from one of my UPSes that it had switched to battery power. That’s never a page you want to get, unless there is shortly afterward a subsequent page about switching back to AC. (more…)
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/03/nerdtv-library-alexandria/
I just finished watching the most recent episode of NerdTV, which, if you are a nerd, especially a Silicon Valley type nerd, you ought to check out. You don’t need cable to watch, you can download from the Internet. Using BitTorrent. Truth in distribution!
NerdTV is a blast because they basically take all-star nerds, people who are often not far removed from myself, and interview them, 1:1 for an hour, about, whatever, and while you have to be in the right mood to watch a one-hour interview with a Nerd, well . . . insightful. “Charlie Rose with Nerds,” I think is the tagline. (more…)
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/27/huzzah-underdawg/
It’s the car that drives itself. Taught by a bunch of college alumni, and all for the low low price of $30,000 or so.
Article: San Jose Mercury News Business Section
Web site: http://www.teamunderdawg.com/
Photos I took when I visited the ranch: Over at Flickr
Yayoi and I are trying to get down to LA this weekend to give some cheer and maybe some elbow grease as Underdawg fights the odds to make it to the Grand Challenge!
It is an awesome beasty, which is all the cooler for being made out of a lot of spare parts and a lot of creative energy. The core team members … awesome guys!
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/26/buncha-squares/
Man, it is one thing when the media flame the powers that be, but I think it is a bit more tasty when people flame those of us who may well be reading. My first taste is from David Denby, in the September 26 New Yorker magazine:
Movie taste has turned very square in this country, and I don’t know if audiences are prepared to accept a shitheel as a hero. “Lord of War” tells you why intelligent people may enjoy doing evil things, and it lets you in on the fun. It has been made without hypocrisy . . .
My, such potty-mouthed writing in The New Yorker! But for the proper lashing we turn to a local independent, The Wave magazine, which feature’s Seanbaby’s “The Final Last Word” in the September 21 issue: (more…)
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/16/pledge-of-allegiance-under-god/
Well, they haven’t updated their website yet but the AFA are advocating that Congress pass a bill that reads:
S.1046 – The Pledge Protection Act of 2005 – reads as follows: ‘No court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance, as defined in section 4 of title 4, or its recitation.’
Now, while I can appreciate concern that some might have about “activist judges” this “activist legislative pre-judgement” or whatever you’d call it, uhmmm. Well, Jesus McChrist wrote them back: (more…)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/09/geico-rocks/
Thirty minutes online with that lizard saved me over 50% on car insurance over Progressive.
And better coverage.
Thanks, Geico!
4 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/08/not-voting-republican/
Well, just spent the better part of an hour bitching about skyrocketing health care costs, pitiful emergency response, and the over-extension of our military and falling recruitment with the boss and a coworker.
“Well, I guess I’m not voting Republican.”
We’re all non-Republicans to begin with, but I like to think some similar discussions are taking place around water coolers in Redder companies.
If nothing else, maybe the Democrats have something to work with?
God Bless America, we need it. At least we’re now getting assistance from Mexico.
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/06/tale-two-pictures/
So, I got linked to Ray in Austin by Brett and Hiromi (NSFW). Ray is closer to the scene in New Orleans than we are, and I enjoyed scanning over his blog.
Two pictures that made an impact: (more…)
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/06/global-warming-elevator-pitch/
I keep getting this spam from relatives about how The Man is charging us too much for gas. Why, even $1.50/gallon is being overcharged! We should stop buying gas! Except, we can’t stop buying gas or how would we drive around? So, we’ll boycott different stations in turn . . . on every third Thursday, don’t buy gas from Chevron, etc.
And I wonder, please, let this be a tongue-in-cheek parody thing! Except, ah, we are Americans, and the people who send me this crap are well-intentioned consumer-advocatin’ types!
So, I wrote back, sort of a shorter version of my previous “America Hating” rant … keep it short, sell the point: Global Warming is Bad, Please Act Now. I wanted to convey that gas actually isn’t all that cheap, but not run it into a crazy-person rant. Here’s what I got: (more…)
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/01/new-orleans-livejournal/
Pointed to a fascinating blog from someone who is manning a Data Center in New Orleans. I haven’t been preoccupied with the disaster, and pretty good about focusing on work, but this is really interesting stuff.
Highlights:
- They’re still online. But are down to one carrier at the moment.
- Bell South is working on bringing lines back up.
- Looting is completely out of hand. Civilians and police.
- Civilians are firing at Police and Fire workers.
- New Orleans PD has no command and control.
- The Data Center has taken on diesel fuel to keep generators running.
- “Dead bodies everywhere: convention center, down camp street, all over.”
- Building management is still functioning, and has requested supplies from tenants, including ammunition.
Why are these people so uptight about staying online? Well, apparently the guy works for “Directnic” and the “NIC” implies that they control WHOIS and DNS information for a lot of domains that may have nothing to do with New Orleans. So, it is pretty critical that they stay online, if possible.
I saw some other chatter on IRC that national fuel rationing may come within a month due to the refining capacity that we have lost in the Gulf of Mexico. I take that with a grain of salt, but it is an interesting possibility. It sounds as if a lot of the nation’s oil is offloaded and then refined down there, and then transported throughout the Midwest and East . . . so, that doesn’t trouble me so much in California, but that doesn’t sound so great as you move East.
Update: “THE REAL MILITARY IS NOW FLOWING IN. National Guard is being replaced before our eyes. Watch the feed. Word is that the Marines are at 1515 Poydras where our OC4s are. I think we’re coming back online in force shortly.”
Also, BBC has some excellent coverage, particularly pictures. I find this one especially moving, whereas this guy ought to be target practice.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/30/more-america-hating/
I feel bad for all the people suffering in New Orleans right now, but every time I hear that the South is being battered by ever more and stronger hurricanes, especially when it comes to Florida, I can’t help but remember that those are red states, and they support the President, and the President’s position is that global warming is an abstract, secular theory that scientists don’t agree on. You know, like evolution? It’s just a theory! And besides, we should call it “climate change.” I mean, even if our activities are changing the atmosphere and the climate, you don’t want to call it something vaguely threatening like “global warming:” please, it’s “climate change!”
And, even though the rest of the industrialized world has reached a consensus, the Kyoto Protocol, and are working to limit their emissions of Carbon Dioxide, I listen to the news that New Orleans in inundated, an entire city, quite possibly destroyed, and I’m reminded that “had we joined the Kyoto Treaty it would have cost America a lot of jobs,” and that acting to curb global warming would be overly damaging to our economy.
I read in the New Yorker that the last time our atmosphere was as thick with CO2 as it is now, alligators lived in the swamps of Colorado, not far from the ocean. It is going to take hundreds, maybe thousands of years for the Earth to adjust to this new point of equilibrium, and the transition period is going to be filled with lots of climatological uncertainty. It is mostly going to make the equatorial regions, which are already very hot, where the largest number of people live in the greatest poverty, all the more uninhabitable. The rest of us get to deal with extreme weather, prolonged droughts, prolonged flooding, and likely sudden, sharp rises in sea level as chunks of Antarctica and Greenland slip off and become seawater. (more…)
5 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/26/google-hates-usa/
I’m a Google fan, and I’m a contrarian idealist. And I know the pain of being ignored by technical support while travelling abroad. So, I bring you Greg Kaiser‘s explanation of why Google Hates the United States: (more…)
5 Comments
« Newer Stuff . . . Older Stuff »
Site Archive
