feuervogel: (fail)
I can't upgrade the software on my Captivate from 2.1 to 2.2, because they require you to use this bullshit proprietary WINDOWS ONLY software.

And since I own a Mac and don't have the cash to spare to a) buy Windows 7 and Boot Camp it or b) buy a cheap Windows computer, there's no way to do it. Multiple rounds of @ conversations on twitter and an email to customer support later, I have a blog post detailing the fuckery.

I'll never purchase another Samsung product again, and if asked for recommendations for Android handsets or other consumer electronics, I'll say to get anything but a Samsung. Because their customer service is legendarily shit. Put it this way: AT&T customer service has given me less of a problem than Samsung's.
feuervogel: (godless liberal etc)
I make no secret of my far-leftward (at least in the US) leanings, nor of my distaste for privileged assholes living in a thought experiment which, unleashed upon the world, would result in the deaths of millions, and corporate feudalism.

It is an immoral "philosophy" because their dogma, applied to the existing society, would result in "unintended" consequences, and for people whose battle cry is "laws have unintended consequences, therefore laws are stupid and should be abolished," the hypocrisy is, well, not charming or funny, just typically appalling. Allowing GM to fail, for example, wouldn't "punish" just GM's board for their bad decisions, but the thousands of workers who would lose their jobs at GM factories, those workers' families, the various store owners and employees in the town where the GM employees, now laid off and spending less money, live and shop, and even further reaching consequences, such as the suppliers of parts for the now-closed factory, their employees, their employees' families, and the various store owners and employees in the towns where GM's suppliers live and work.

Ignoring the real-world consequences because they're inconvenient for your theory is not only immoral, but monstrous and disgusting.

Their naïvete is inextricable from the enormous socioeconomic privilege that Libertarians have. They pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, attached to the finest hand-tooled leather boots their parents' money could buy.

A common Libertarian argument is that if people don't like the conditions at job X, people can negotiate better conditions, or they can leave and find a new job. They also apply this to their perfect, free-market "minarchist" society, where each city/state/corporatofeudal region has its own system of laws and rights, so for example in Libertarian Utopia America, San Francisco would be able to have its own set of LGBT-friendly laws, while Alabama could have its own set of racist, homophobic laws, and the Holy Invisible Hand of the Perfect Free Market would sort everything out, because people who want gay-friendly places to live and work could move to SFO, and bigots could move to Alabama.

(Sorry, non-bigoted Alabamans. I know there are some out there. Just your state came to mind because of the Christofascism evinced by an elected official recently, in which he said that only Christians are his brothers.)

In a perfect world, where packing up and moving 2000+ miles is inexpensive and risk-free, SURE. But people aren't robots without ties to places, like friends or family. There are a lot of reasons that moving is difficult, like the cost of hauling all your things, or even some of your things, 2000+ miles, wondering whether you'll make friends there, giving up free or low-cost child care if you're leaving your family behind.

Only someone who's never had to worry about making this month's rent could so blithely say, "Well, you can just move."

Only someone who's never had to worry about being fired for missing work to take their sick kid to the doctor could so blithely say In the USA, we have the freedom to negotiate whatever vacation we want. The idea that it’s generous to force employers to give holidays is just populism for suckers. I get 5 weeks holiday per year, because the free market works just fine. Some people have other interests.

Disgusting.

There are other reasons, like their privatization fetish and ludicrous belief that corporations are people, but other people have discussed those elsewhere.
feuervogel: (godless liberal etc)
I'm sick unto death of the clueless, usually-white, often-male, frequently-straight, almost-always-cis and able-bodied, middle-class-or-higher-born republibertarian who thinks that hard work* is sufficient to succeed in life, or become wealthy, or just not be One of Those Lazy Fucking Poor people.

These clueless people need to learn and internalize that their success in life (defined as, idk, not being lazy welfare mooches or some classist bullshit) is not solely the result of whatever actions they have taken in life. They were born into families with the resources to help them succeed. It's not the result of their extra-special, superior character that makes them not lazy and less likely to be encouraged to be dependent on social welfare.

There are plenty of people born in the middle class who understand they had advantages in life that others didn't. They don't attribute their success to greater moral character, or others' failings to inferior moral character. They understand that environment, socio-economic status (class), race, and all sorts of other things have an influence on people.

Dear clueless middle-class-born republibertarians: check. your. privilege.

*whatever the fuck that means; if you tell me my mom, who's a secretary and had a second job as a cashier so she could keep the roof over our heads when I was 10, isn't "hard working" because she didn't fucking go to college or doesn't run her own business, those are the last fucking words you'll ever say to me, because I will cut you out of my life faster than Mark van Bommel can get a yellow card.
feuervogel: (black haru)
I got free lunch starting in 4th grade.

We wore off-brand, knock-off clothes, or clothes from second-hand shops.

We got food at the store where they send the dented cans.

When my mom's 78 Olds started to die (in 1991), she wasn't sure she'd be able to get a replacement vehicle.

When I got The Letter from CTY, mom wouldn't let me go because we couldn't afford it, even with the scholarships available.

When my high school German club did an exchange program, I begged and pleaded to go, because I thought it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. (My grandparents paid for most of it. I was lucky to have extended family with money.)

It was the first time I was on a plane.

I was 16.

I didn't get new eyeglasses as often as necessary.

We didn't have health insurance.

I know it could have been worse, and I know I'm lucky -- privileged -- to have had a PhD grandfather who worked as a grant reviewer at NIH, who could cover things like clothes or food or help with the house payment when mom was laid off again.

I also know that there are a lot of people in the 15% of the population we were better off than who don't have access to middle-class grandparents or other forms of help than welfare.

Those of you who grew up in your comfortable middle-class families, whose parents didn't have to worry about being able to repair the roof when you found a puddle in the living room, and don't realize just how goddamn lucky you fucking were and think your experience is what everyone has, who think that everyone can do what you did through Hard Work, are really goddamn naïve.

That naïvete is your privilege. The way you think the world works only holds true for the top 50%.

Examine your fucking privilege. You might gain some compassion in the process.
feuervogel: (katara not a victim)
This thread discusses several incidents of sexual assault at Dragon*Con this year. This is the first time I've heard of it happening, but that doesn't mean it's never happened before. It just means that this year was worse than years past. And the assaulters weren't all con members (some were LSU fans in town for the game), so the con's policy of yanking badges won't do any good.

We need to get the hotels, con staff, and fellow con attendees to prevent such issues from happening again. We need to get a stated, publicized anti-harassment policy on the con webpage and in the con materials (program guide). The location of security staff in all areas of the con needs to be better publicized/signed/whatever.

People need to get through their heads that a women wearing a skimpy outfit isn't asking to be hit on, let alone groped or worse.

People need to know that this sort of shit won't be tolerated. At all.
feuervogel: (black haru)
Yeah, it's TOTALLY fucking mockworthy that people are in their 30s. FUCKING LOLARIOUS.

Note to all and sundry: this is PRECISELY why I quit.

ETA: It's been pointed out that said person has welcomed mockery. My opinion is still the same. I hate the idea that because you've reached an arbitrary number of years lived, which really isn't all that goddamn many tbh, that's worthy of scorn, derision, or mockery.

It's ageist bullshit, and society needs to stop propagating it with bullshit black cakes and balloons and "over the hill" nonsense.
feuervogel: (german team 06)
I no longer get cable, so I don't get ESPN. I live in the US, so the World Cup isn't one of those major things people give a shit about. ESPN is showing the weekday games (Mon-Fri) and 2 of the 3 games Sat & Sun. ABC is picking up the other 2 games.

ESPN has an online video streaming service, which, for the previous World Cup I couldn't utilize because it didn't run on Mac. That was 4 years ago, so, hey, why not give it another shot and see if they fixed it, right?

I checked into it today, only to be met with bullshit of an even more bullshitty variety: ESPN360 can ONLY be accessed through certain ISPs, and there's not even an option to say, "hey, I'll give you money to let me watch this." My ISP, Time Warner, isn't one of them. ESPN tells me I should a) bother TWC until they affiliate with ESPN or b) switch ISPs to AT&T (DSL & slower than my current provider, if it's even available at my address) or Verizon (whose service I've never heard ANYTHING good about.)

This means I won't be able to watch ANY of the games I'm interested in in the round of 64 and very few of the round of 16, quarterfinals*, or semifinals. Watching via text-based liveticker on spiegel.de ... is SO not the same.

*(Two quarterfinal matches and the finals are playing on ABC.)

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

(OK, I know one person* who has cable, but the games are playing at 7 am, 9:30 am, and 2 pm local time. Not exactly conducive to popping over to borrow the TV & cable. Also not conducive to popping into a restaurant or bar to watch the game.)

*Seriously, of all the people I spend any time with, I pretty much only know one who has cable.
feuervogel: (black haru)
Trying to explain to somebody why the method currently in use is resulting in shitty results that aren't useful for the decision-making process and that we may have to turn it over to the pros and having the only response being incoherent grumbling and "I don't think that'll make it any better."

Right, because having a huge spike due to stress at the time the NADIR is supposed to be happening is going to be really fucking useful in evaluating the current insulin regimen's efficacy.

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