Food and TV....mmmmmm....

Perhaps it's a testament to the fact that I watch too much TV (or maybe too much TV about food) that I have some observations about food and TV:

Am I the only one who sees Hell's Kitchen as the white trash Top Chef? Seems like all they do is take run of the mill cooks and see how much yelling they can endure. Maybe that's Fox's intent because it is somehow entertaining to watch a British guy yell at people. Or then again, maybe I should do something useful with my life other than watching TV. Or maybe not.

Of fear of outsourcing and stupidity

Yet again, too many times to count, John Carroll hits the nail on the head. If he ran for a political post I would be the first to move to California to vote for him; unfortunately he has sensible economic positions, which is why he would lose. In America we want protection from global competition because we "deserve" it! Because we're Americans! Because heaven forbid that someone who can do a job of the same or better quality for a fraction of the cost should take it from a lazy American who has a birthright to the best pay for the least effort!

I think I'm sweating sarcasm right now...

goodbye dual boot

I've been reading about how virtualization is going to be the next big thing in computing for a few years, but today was my first day of direct experience with it. I bought my first new computer since about 2001 (I was in dire need of an upgrade) and I'm starting to put it to good use; I downloaded VMWare the other day and I must admit that I was worried that it would be complicated to set up and run; I was dead wrong. VMWare is incredibly easy to use; I had an Ubuntu system running in 5 minutes with about 5 clicks. And it actually works! The previous decade of dual booting is finally over; good riddance.

So I just spent the last approximately 10 hours (minus sleep) binge reading the last Harry Potter book. Holy crap. I won't spoil it for you; I'll just state one thing: it was worth the wait.

Whoa nelly!

What?? Could Congress actually be doing something constructive? Heaven forbid!

Blind and stupid

I feel that. Let's all blindly follow Al Gore and his legion of actors and musicians who all clearly have well-informed scientific opinions.

Humankind

Humankind has advanced so far...

Netbeans 6

I downloaded Netbeans 6 the other day and my initial impressions are very positive. I can't stand Eclipse: I really dislike the look and feel, the code completion isn't as nice as IDEA, the perspectives are annoying to use, and I don't find it nearly as intuitive as IDEA (which is my main IDE for work). Netbeans 6 was comparable to IDEA for me in the short amount of time I have used it; check it out if you haven't already.

Fairness is foolish

The Fairness Doctrine mandates "fair" talk radio broadcasts by requiring equal amounts of airtime for both sides of the issues. Last time I checked, we lived in a capitalistic economy where "fairness" has no place. If you want "fairness" in your economy go to Europe where the economy is sluggish at best, the tax rate is astronomical, and the unemployment rate is at least double the rate it is here. Capitalism centers around efficiency, not fairness. It makes no difference to me who has more presence in talk radio; unprofitable businesses go bankrupt; that is the way capitalism works and that's the best system ever developed in the history of mankind.

For a wonderful example of how successful government supported media can be, check out PBS sometime; what an entertaining channel.