Friday, March 18, 2011

The Self Proclaimed Experts

Hello fellow Shitwetalkabout Nation!

I am back from holidays and I feel as refreshed as I’ve ever been. This post goes out to all of you who are SELF PROCLAIMED EXPERTS! You drive me nuts!

I had the fantastic privilege of taking a luxurious holiday at all inclusive resort for 2.34 days (destination to be kept a secret). While I was sipping on my strawberry dakerys and mango tangos,  I noticed a certain person who looked out of place at the resort. He was walking around with bright red shorts and a red ball cap. There was a distinct cockiness to his walk....er walz I should say. Needless to say, I found out by talking to the locals and people I was vacationing with that this dood was a "Trip Advisor Expert" (said with a echo like in the Spatula City commercials...if you get what I’m referencing, 15 points for you!). Naturally I ask, "What makes him an expert?". The response I received shot me to the bitter bone. It chilled my crow toe, it hurt my feelings and kicked me in the schmass while calling me sally! My companion said "Oh, he posts on the trip advisor blog alot....".

I was stunned! I couldn't believe it, here is a guy, who claims to be an expert and all he did was "Post on a blog a lot?". So I went to the site to go read his posts and things he says. I couldn’t believe how people took this guy’s word as if God was parting the Dead Sea again (which I must say is a pretty wicked awesome thing that happened back in the day). I mean, what makes this dood such an expert. The fact that he has red shorts (which he didn't change ONCE while he was out there), or was it because his tan was darker than mine (which also isn't that hard).

Anyhow, in this day and age, I come across more and more people who claim to be experts only because the prop themselves up. THEY are the ones claiming they are experts. Not other people, but themselves. This is fundamentally wrong on so many levels. I mean I can claim to be an expert at pooping in a toilet, because I POOP IN A TOILET! I don’t claim to be an expert because I post on a blog that I poop in the toilet…does that make sense? Do you get what I mean? It's so wrong man, wrong wrong wrong.

Anyhow, what I’m trying to say is, I just wish people would stop trying to be superstars and just be normal. Let others congratulate you and claim you are something instead of needing to do it yourself. We are all turning into narcissist! The self-proclaimed "EXPERT" status, is mearly a smokescreen which in the end reveals nothing.

Self proclaimed experts = dumb.

....and that's the shit!

Alan Hucklebin

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Sony suing smart people....

I read today on Cnet.com that Federal magistrate ruled this week that sony can subpoena the ISP of a hacker who has released a PlayStation 3 jailbreak.

Sony is suing hacker George Hotz, for distributing on his website some tools he made for jailbreaking the PS3 so that owners can run homebrew and other applications on their consoles. Sony was also granted the rights to ask the ISP for ip addresses of visitors to Hotz site as well as server logs and information related to the account, and info on computers that accessed or downloaded files from it. If you wanna read the whole report it was published by Wire

To me this seems pretty rediculous. When i buy a ps3, i would only assume that i am buying the right to do to it what i want. If i buy a new Truck and im i not allowed to put a 6" lift on it with some beauty rims and some huge ass tires? I think i am. (i know this is a pretty dumb example, but its what came to mind.) So why is it that i can't take my PS3 and put some software on it that allows me to use it the way i want?

I understand that sony isn't going after Hotz for jailbreaking the PS3, but rather for posting their info. Sony says that Hotz violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, for distibuting on his Website the tools for the jailbreak. I can understand that its not legal to download pirated games and burn them and play them, but to take my system, which i paid for and not be allowed to manipulate it, that is rediculous. Holz didn't take this jailbreak and then put a gun to anyones head and say use this and make sure you pirate a bunch of software.... no he merely came up with what i would say is a pretty intelligent idea, and then share it with the world. I'd say sony should take the info and use to to fix what they think is a problem...

Along with this it says that Sony has the right to request info on people who have looked at his website and tools? This is crazy. Just cause anyone looked at it doesn't mean they contributed to it and it definitly doesn't mean they used it for anything illegal...... So basically what this says to me is now that people agreed it was sweet and looked at it or downloaded it they are suspects??

Anyways, i'm really going no where with this, i just read the article and thought it was effin stupid. The fact that anyone would waste time and money on this case is rediculous. Personally i think Sony should give this kid a job, cause from what i see he made there console a little sweeter.

I hope some of this makes sense, if not sorry to have wasted your time.

The End.

-Jeff Alberson.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Caps Lock

I think it’s pretty safe to say that we live in a world where text based communication is used more than ever. I don’t know actual statistics but I would guess that I send at least 20 – 30 sms messages and emails for every 1 phone call I make.

The ability to communicate without actually having to talk to people is wonderful in most cases; however it does come with its challenges. Expressing emotions through a message can be a little tricky. I know there is the option of using emoticons, however those are super douchey so I generally try to stay clear :). It’s very hard to express things like sarcasm anger or even happiness.

I received an email today that was obviously of extreme urgency from an angry person… how do I know this? Not because they said, please please help me this is urgent and I’m angry! No, because the whole message was typed in CAPS LOCK. When reading this email, I must say I was disturbed. The content was not obscene, or degrading however it did make me feel like I was being violated rushed and bitched at while I was reading it.

I am going to outline two sentences to explain myself. “Can you help me out please?” “CAN YOU HELP ME OUT PLEASE?” Although the two sentences above contain the exact same wording, to me the first one says “I need some help, when you get a chance.” The second sentence however says to me, “I’m a huge dick and if you don’t help me I will kill you!” Using caps lock for an entire sentence is one of the few things that is worse than someone ending a sentence with !!!???!?!?!!? (We will touch on that another day). To me it comes across as brash and rude, the equivalence of angrily yelling. And although one might feel it brings across a kind of urgency, really it doesn’t make me read it any quicker, and it most definitely will not get me to reply quicker.

In conclusion: Caps lock is just as annoying as YELLING, but far less effective. So please, use your shift key to start a sentence and leave it at that. If you need to be sarcastic or loud, then pick up the freakin phone and give me a call.



Thanks for listening…. That’s the shit I be talkin about today.
Jeff Albertson

Monday, January 31, 2011

The White Fluffy Cloud

Hey there, Alan Hucklebin here and this is the shit I am going to talk about today...

Have you ever been torn by technology and what it has to offer? For example this thing we call the "Cloud". I must admit at first I thought this was the best thing since sliced bread (whole wheat of course). But as I thought more about it and started to use it it hit me how crazy this thing whole “Cloud” thing is.

For those of you who don't know what "The Cloud" is it's rather simple. Its just a place in cyberspace (I know, so 2001), that allows you to access data which is stored out in nowhere land. So you can store files, access information like Google calendars, syncronize contact lists, bla bla bla, all at a central location. This is then accessible by and device you choose because it's stored out in nowhere land. Simple concept, with some crazy implications.

For example, I noticed the other day when I was writing an email with our big brother Gmail (Google). I was writing a very private message to a foreign security minister (I will leave out the country due to security and personal reasons) when I start getting advertisements on specific things I was talking about in the email. I was asking him about what sort of Ammunitions and Ballistics gel they used (for curiosity sake). Well behold Elija, suddenly I get pumped with advertisements that directly correspond to my questions. It struck me as rather strange because how in the world would Gmail know what to direct the advertisements too? I'll tell you how! They freeeken "read" and word categorize every single email. Follow by a profile and then it is run against a huge database and spit out on your page! Heck they are doing it to this post right now! Kind of scary hey? I agree.

The irony in all of this is that the more you email, the more data they collect on you. Now don't get me wrong, I’m not some sort of conspiracy theory kind of guy, but why doesn't this scare anyone? It certainly scares me. But does it scare me enough to not use their services? Probably not....and perhaps that's the sad part.

I should also note that if you ever read the user agreements before you sign up for a Gmail account you'd be surprised at what they can do with the data they acquire from you. You basically sign it over.

Assuming this post doesn’t get deleted by Google I am always surprised at how much we give up for the sake of convenience. I mean, being able to access files from my iPhone, Laptop, PC and Mac all up to date, anywhere in the world any time is a pretty cool thing.

So just be aware, when using “The Cloud’ remember someone/something is reading, someone is watching and someone knows! (dah dah dah….). One day someone may tell you things you didn’t’ even know about yourself!

....and that's the shit!

Alan Hucklebin

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Introduction....

As you may have gathered from the previous post, this page has been created as a space to both vent frustrations and express the very important and correct views and opinions of its writers.

Whatever this is will consist of two different writers. Both of us work with current technology in both our personal and professional lives. We are very very smart, and if you disagree with any of our views or opinions you are likely not.

As you read this you will be informed on some things we find awesome, but more often things that suck. For instance playing sweet video games and watching Batman movies is awesome. However ISP’s capping bandwidth and monitoring downloads is not awesome.

Anyways I believe this post should suffice as a little introduction as to what we got going on here. Check back later to hear about either something awesome, or hear about something that sucks from someone that is awesome.

Take care interweb friends.
Take care.

Jeff Albertson out….