Ramblings of a Wayward Code Slave

I turned 40 yesterday and had a chance to reflect upon the past four decades of my life -- the things I've done wrong, the things I done right, and the events that stand out the most. And in that brief moment of introspection I realized that I had received a tremendous gift, one that transcends all others. And at the same time, I never noticed it and never thanked anyone for it.

People will often cite birth as his or her greatest gift until parenthood arrives at which time it typically becomes the birth of a child. I don't have any children and, while I certainly can't argue that my birth wasn't the greatest gift of all, I'm thinking more along the lines of a gift that you receive once you're already breathing oxygen.

Stumped? I was too as it took me four decades to fully realize its presence, significance, and impact upon my life. So here it is: my parents let me fully control my own path through life without interference. It doesn't sound like much at first, but consider what I mean. My parents emphasized education but without pushing me in any one direction. Artist, philosopher, scientist, or retail store clerk, my parents wanted me to have an education but understood the need for people to discover themselves. My parents didn't want me to live a lonely life, but never pushed for me to marry and have children. After I did marry, my wife and mother didn't get along -- mainly due to my wife's insecurities -- but my parents were always friendly and welcoming and never got between she and I, even up through the divorce seven years later. I've had some great experiences and made some gloriously horrendous mistakes, but they were my experiences and my mistakes.

So that's it, my greatest gift was the freedom to take what God gave me and make the most of it. It's not a tangible gift that I can wear or show off, but in its own respect it is one that I wear and show off every single day. Thanks, Mom and Pop, for everything.

I'm fat, obese actually. It's a problem that is becoming increasingly common among Americans: as our incomes rise and the number of fast food places increase, so do our waistlines expand. I'm presently having to reap the harvest of the sinful seeds that I've sown in the past and living with this condition day to day is both humiliating and debilitating. Moreover, we the obese are the final frontier of discrimination. Consider a common rendition of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act statement:

It is our policy to promote equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program of specific practices designed to ensure the full realization of equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age or sex.

Notice how it covers different races, religions, ages, genders, and countries of origin but how it says bupkus about height and weight. I could be a one-eyed Islamic Malaysian lesbian and the government will help me fight for my right to have a job somewhere. If I'm overweight, the EEO Act says nothing. This is both an interesting oversight and a glimpse into the disparity of what different people consider "equal."

What got me to rant on this tonight? Well, it seems that researchers from Harvard Medical School have concluded a scientific study that shows that having fat friends tend to make you fat. I don't know about others, but I tend to overeat to compensate for feelings of lonliness or pain; hey, telling all of my friends that associating with me is helping to put the pounds on them is really doing me a big favor. Thanks guys! I appreciate you taking the one thing that gives me happiness -- interpersonal relationships -- and trying to eliminate them. Good going, Harvard! What's next for them? How to curb bulemia through removing food sources? How to combat diseases in the elderly by placing madatory age caps and instituting euthanasia?

Here's something they can do: come up with some nonhabitual medication that gives me the same feeling as when I eat. I don't mean those appetite suppressants that make you feel full, but something that affects the brain chemistry, kind of like what eating chocolate does in lieu of feeling in love. That would actually be useful. In the meantime, those Harvard researchers had better check their own waistlines because if they're in the Sansabelt Club then they might just find themselves at home checking TV Guide instead of attending swank Ivy League parties.

Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista Features and Services Harvest User Data for Microsoft - From your machine! - Softpedia

George Orwell theorized that by 1984 we'd have a totalitarian government that he referred to as Big Brother. I won't speculate here on how true his prediction was or was not; however, it seems that the true Big Brother is turning out to be Microsoft. In order to use Windows Vista, you truly have to give your privacy away to them on a silver platter. I don't know about you but I'm going to stick with XP Pro for as long as my software will allow it. I cringe at the thought of the embedded calls-to-home in XP Pro, but it pales in comparison to what the article I linked above is mentioning.

We all knew that getting on the Internet was a sacrifice in privacy just because of the nature of the technology. But now the desktop is proving to be less and less secure as well. What browser do you use and what software do you have installed? Microsoft knows. Is it all legal? Microsoft knows. Just think of what information Microsoft is capable of collecting -- I'm not implying that they already do.

1. Your most recently accessed files including name, type, and size.
2. Your most often accessed files.
3. Your most popular folders.
4. Your most filled folders, either by number of files or size in bytes.
5. The contents of files, if accessible by a Microsoft application (Word, Excel, etc.).

Based just on these five things, Microsoft could feasibly determine if you maintain your checking account on your computer and figure out where it is and what kind of software you use to edit it. They might even manage to get your current balance. Microsoft could figure out how you use your PC based on how you organize your files. Are you writing a novel? Microsoft can be your editor. Are you doing research? Microsoft can help with that grant proposal. Do you have a porn stash? Microsoft can be your pimp.

Okay, okay. The pimp thing was a bit over the top, as was the porn stash; I'm sure there are plenty of people with nice clean machines like me. However, it does serve to make a point. Think inwards right now and consider the things that you wouldn't want strangers to know about you. When you lock the door at night and close the curtains, just what are you not wanting the world to witness? Do you have any of that on your computer? Then it's not private. And if you're thinking that my paranoid ramblings have gone completely off the deep end, bear in mind two things: first, I'm not saying that these five things are happening but am postulating what if; and second, I've discovered in my forty years of life that the line between possibility and eventuality is infinitesimally thin and often trampled upon.

As for me, about the only thing I have to hide these days is the tub of Blue Bell mint chocolate chip in my freezer and the fact that I like to air-dry after showering (watch at your own peril). But it's the principle of the matter. Regardless of whether you're a boring old fart like me or someone with a more interesting nature, you should be outraged at the true price of Vista. So don't buy it. Microsoft invested so much in Vista that if it flops it'll be the worst disaster the company has had in its lifetime. Just refuse to buy it. When Vista's revenue stream dries up the company will very quickly bend to consumer demand and the monitoring will get yanked out. Believe me, I work for a software company and if our customers aren't happy with something we quickly change it so that they are.

So just don't buy Vista and wait them out.