In my day job we occassionally sell hardware to clients.  As our business has ramped up with a Government entity we’ve hit the radar of the hardware manufacturer.  It turns out the manufacturer has a Government contract with a set price list.  This price list is not negotiable.  The Government can purchase from this manufacturer strictly off this pricelist.

The cost for the same items on the manufacturer’s website are 30% better than the Government contract.  However, the Government is bound by their contract to pay ~30% over the price any person could purchase the exact same items for off the street.

This is a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars. It seems criminal. The Government has entered a contract to guarantee they grossly overpay. I’ve heard of $10,000 toilet seats for the Space Shuttle etc. Now I know how these things happen.

The worst part is that no one does anything to stop it.

Where’s the email address for government whistle blowing?

Now that the good stuff is out of the way…wow did that movie fucking suck. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 95% fresh? That seriously dampens my faith in Rotten Tomatoes. Every sequence of events was cliche or partially borrowed from another movie. I’m going to highlight just a few areas because I don’t have the time to detail the level of pure crap that this movie put on the screen for two hours. Spoilers galore, you’ve been warned.

-In the future, Vulcan and Earth have zero defense. Drop a tethered planet core mining drill from space in the midde of San Francisco because we have no way to stop it. Awesome.
-When sending three people to blow up the mine, we’re going to give the only explosives to Ensign Olson. Guess what happens to Ensign Olson.
-Romulons have Red Matter which grants them the ability to create blackholes. Guess where they keep it! On an unguarded spaceship that can be flown right off their own ship in minutes.
-Hey, let’s do this Star Wars thing with a monster chasing Kirk only to get eaten by a bigger monster because we can’t write an original scene to save our lives. Also, lots of bouncy cameras.
-Old Spock has just seen his planet blown up but he’s going to deceive Kirk because he wants Young Spock and Kirk to be BFF. OK! That sounds super logical.
-Check it out, we’re gonna beam only our Capt and First Officer aboard the enemy ship because that’s how they did it in the ’60′s and we are gonna rock it ol’ skool!
-Kirk in bed with a hot green chick, because we can’t stop ourselves from recycling tired ideas.

To sum it up Star Trek is a good looking movie. Excellent casting. Purely horrible story. I can’t believe it’s getting great reviews. Society as a whole is braindead.

Terminator: TSSC, which is based on the Terminator movie series, has had it’s ups and downs. Tonight’s season finale (and the previous two episodes) were FANTASTIC. I hope that Fox will realize that there is value in keeping good TV on TV and not be solely driven by revenue. One can dream! No one needs another reality show pukefest on television. Terminator has potential to run a long time, if Fox can keep the faith.

Terminator has taken chances. If you’re a fan of the show, you know what I mean. If you’re not but curious, check out how they kill one of the main characters (MAJOR SPOILER). You have never seen a main character die this way. Shocking, but completely in line with how Terminators roll. Makes the show even more awesome!

I’m doing my part. You can vote to keep the show on television. Go there, vote early, vote often.

Three final reasons this show deserves to stay on-air: Shirley Manson (yes, from Garbage), Summer Glau and Lena Heady. These ladies kick ass on this show and I feel their characters are just now hitting their full stride.

Removing Hulu integration with Boxee is a lose/lose idea for Hulu, Boxee, Content Providers and Users.  Let’s break it down.

Content Providers:
The content providers want eyeballs because eyeballs mean revenue. To gain those eyeballs content providers want NEED to expand across multiple delivery services. Discontinuing a popular cutting edge LEGAL content delivery frontend like Boxee is shortsighted and hurts the content providers’ revenues.

Hulu:
Hulu is an early leader in delivering almost real-time media content via the Web. Boxee took the Hulu idea and enhanced it with direct integration into their (very slick) Media Center application. Viewing Hulu on Boxee is still a Hulu experience and it retains the revenue stream for the content providers.  Discontinuing Hulu on Boxee upsets a lot of loyal Hulu users who access Hulu content solely via Boxee. No more Boxee integration means less Hulu viewers. This hurts Hulu which hurts the content providers and Users.

Boxee (aka the users!):
Boxee has a loyal following in the Home Media Center space. Boxee is producing a socially integrated media center experience. Think Facebook for your Movies/Music and TV. The potential of services like Boxee are huge for Hulu and their content providers. The market Hulu is destorying by nixing Boxee consists of consumers that are Hulu’s IDEAL customer. Your average Boxee user will consume more Hulu content with a larger audience on their HDTV’s than the typical Hulu user chained to their monitor in front of their keyboard. Plus, Hulu/Boxee users can go viral with media via Boxee’s built in “recommendations” feature. Taking Hulu off of Boxee discourages a large subset of Hulu’s power users and encourages media torrents. This hurts the consumer which hurts Hulu which hurts the Content Providers.

How did we get here?
The problem is that the Content Providers agreed to sign up for Hulu but are poorly equipped to understand how Hulu, and their content, integrates with other “new media” products. When an application like Boxee writes their code to support Hulu the networks feel like their control on content distribution is slipping. The predictable result: the networks freak out and demand that Hulu discontinue Boxee support. This is short sighted. Content Providers want NEED Boxee as a legal frontend to the content which generates revenue for them on Hulu. However, Content Providers don’t understand the entire situation, feel threatened and would rather take their ball and go home. Dumb!

The media companies who want consumers to view their content so they can monetize the activity via advertising have just removed one of the most creative and legal ways for them to accomplish their prime directive with the added beneift of advancing the stereotype of clueless “old media” and alienating loyal fanbases.

What else can you say to that? While you’ll be discussing this article I’ll be resuming my commercial free torrents.

I am an unapologetic VMWare fan, but this is a huge screwup. Tomorrow will be interesting.

This occurs within 24 hours of Gmail going down for an hour. Anyone think too much success is leading to sloppiness at these companies?

NBC is doing their best to build drama around Michael Phelps’ quest for medals. I watched the relay. I hate to use this word again, but it was boring. I can’t help but think the announcers are faking it.

Swimming as a spectator sport. I don’t get it.

10. Teller asks, “How may I swindle you?”

9. Instead of Andrew Jackson, their $20 bills have a picture of Tito Jackson.

8. They promise they’ll have your money if you come back after tonight’s Keno drawing.

7. Interest paid not in money, but in Saltines.

6. ATM looks suspiciously like a Ms. Pac-Man machine.

5. Loan officer will approve your mortgage only if you let him rub you.

4. Bank robbers leave with a sack of IOU’s — that how bad things are, ladies and gentlemen.

3. Most banks are backed by the FDIC; your bank is backed by KFC.

2. They made $2 million loan to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

1. Manager giggles whenever he says, “Early withdrawal.”

These walk signs are on many busy intersections across San Diego. To cross the street pedestrians are supposed to push the button to change the traffic signals. The result: pedestrian controlled traffic signals causing traffic jams and wasting gas across the city. Even worse, many pedestrians have so surrendered common sense that they walk blindly into an intersection because the walk light signaled them to walk.

This logic reminds of an event at the San Diego Zoo a few years ago when a visitor climbed into the bear exhibit and got mauled.  When asked why he climbed into the exhibit, his response was “they motioned me in.”

A little common sense would replace this expensive and wasteful San Diego project.

Have we become so dependent on Government Regulation that we can’t cross the street safely on our own?