Jim Davies: Rants

iPhone contacts

2010-10-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

I recently got an iPhone 4 and sometimes I miss my Android dream.

I moved to the android from a Palm Treo. I found a program that would put my hundreds of contacts into google contacts. The only problem was that it gave "Buro" for the type of phone number (rather than, say, "home.") Whatever.

But now when I synch my iPhone with google contacts, it decides to not synch any numbers that are buro. Rather than placing it in some "unknown" or "other" category, I just can't see the number. This renders most of my contacts on the iphone useless.

So now I'm faced with going through my contacts on google contacts and changing buro to office.

If you bore me on the phone, that's what I'll be doing.

Getting quieter when I get closer

2010-08-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

I hate it when I can't hear someone, and I get closer to hear them better, and they quiet their voice in response.

Shitdog!

Why is it so hard to see my keyboards?

2009-11-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

I use three computers at home. And it's hard to see the keyboard of any of them in certain lighting conditions.

My primary home machine is a Dell laptop. The thing is silver, but the keyboard is black. So if I'm in the dark, like in bed with my wife sleeping, or I just don't have the lights on, I can barely see the keys.

My Gigabyte netbook is the same way, except it's even harder to see, and because the keyboard is so small I have much more trouble touch typing.

Finally, I have my HTC dream android phone. I picked the white phone for aesthetic reasons, but I am starting to regret it. The keyboard is white, and the letters light up when you start typing. Good idea, right? Unfortunately when in a bright environment it makes the letters the same color and brightness as the surrounding keys, so you can't see what's what.

Very annoying.

shitdog!

Chrome Rant

2009-06-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Love Google's Chrome browser.

Hate the "feature" of being able to drag a tab away into its own, new window.

I have never intentionally used this feature, but unintentionally use it about once every two or three days when I try to click on a tab and accidentally drag it a nanometer. Once made into a new window, there appears no way to turn it back into a tab. Drives me insane.

Shitdog!

Lame Claws

2009-05-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

How could it be that the claws in X-Men Origins: Wolverine look less realistic than they did in the original X-Men movie that came out years ago? In that scene in the bathroom, they reminded me of the toon gun from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Shitdog!

Xavier

2009-05-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

I hate it when people pronounce the name "Xavier" as "Eks-ay-vee-er" rather than "Zay-vee-er" like it's supposed to.

Shitdog!

What :P Means

2009-03-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

I hate it when IM programs interpret the :P emoticon as a SMILING face with a tongue out, as though it's a good natured, goofy expression. The letter P has a straight post, my friends, and that means the smiley should be a straight face with a tongue sticking out, which indicates a negative feeling like regret or disappointment. I hate it when I want to express this and this stupid smiling face with it's tongue out appears.

Shitdog!

People who pronounce "why" as "hwai"

2009-03-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

And let us not forget people who pronounce "at all" as "uh-tall"

shitdog!

Club DJs with censored versions of songs

2009-01-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

I really really hate it when I'm at a club and the jackass DJ is actually playing a CLEAN version of a song. I mean, come on.

"You can do it put your back in to it / I can do it put your BLEEEEP in to it"

Unnecessarily Locked Doors

2008-07-06T05:54:00.000-07:00

I really hate it when I approach a set of doors and the one I happen to try to use is locked, where some arbitrary other ones are unlocked. I hate it for a few reasons:

1) I feel like an idiot and look like an idiot, pushing into a door, expecting it to move and it not moving. This is exacerbated by others with me going through nearby doors with no problem.

2) I think of all the time wasted by all the people all day trying to get through the door and failing, just because some jackass custodian was lazy and didn't want to take the extra twenty seconds in the morning to unlock all the doors.

At Georgia Tech I actually used to call in complaints about this when I discovered it in my building. It never got better. So much for local activism.

Once I was in a foul mood and I encountered this. I bitched about it to someone and he said "You shouldn't let the little things get to you, man." He was right, of course.

Shitdog!

A Book Ahead of its Time

2008-03-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

As a professor I get sent free books sometimes, which is great. I just got one about AI that is really ahead of its time. How do I know?

It's March 6, 2008, and the copyright on the book is 2009. How is this possible?

Shitdog!

Please Expand Your Abbreviations

2008-03-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

I just got an email that starts like this:


"Announcement
-------------------------------------------------------
Last Call for Papers/Abstracts and Invited Sessions Proposals for EISTA 2008, (Orlando, Florida, USA. June 29th- July 2nd, 2008) http://www.socioinfocyber.org/eista2008

Deadlines:
Papers/Abstracts Submissions and Invited Sessions Proposal: April 3rd, 2008
Authors Notification: April 25th, 2008
Camera-ready, full papers: May 22nd, 2008
-------------------------------------------------------

All Submitted papers will be reviewed by a double-blind (at least three reviewers), 
non-blind, and participative peer review. These three kinds of review will support 
the selection process of those that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal."

It goes on, never saying what EISTA stands for. So annoying.

Shitdog!

Tom Jones's cover of Prince and the Revolution's "Kiss"

2008-01-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

I like what my aunt said about it: "That man should be shot."

Shitdog!

More with the change!

2008-01-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

I've blogged before about how much I can't stand getting the coins on top of the bills when I get change. Today some jackass took the offense to new heights!

I just bought my drugs at the supermarket. The change was $40. The jackass hands me one big package, with the bag (with the medicine in it) on the bottom, the receipt over that, and then the money on top. Like I'm going to carry the whole thing out into the freezing cold like that. As though I wasn't going to put forty dollars in the wallet I still had out.

I took the money. As I put it in my wallet, Jackass was standing there holding my receipt and bag. I told him to put it down. When I was done putting my money away, I took the bag and left.

Shitdog!

Why Do People Drink So Much Coffee?

2007-12-14T10:13:00.000-08:00

I was just reading in Ottawa's "Centretown News" about these people did a budget and found out they were spending $100 per week at Starbucks.

As someone who doesn't really like coffee, I have to ask: what is wrong with you people?

Yeah, I think I'll go out to a bar so I can order a $4 GLASS OF MILK.

Shitdog!

Gracie Films and the King of Wishful Thinking

2007-11-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

At the end of "The Simpsons" you see the logo for Gracie Films, and they play a little tune that sounds suspiciously like the chorus of that annoying 1990 song "The King of Wishful Thinking."

You can hear the tune at http://www.graciefilms.com/

And the King of Wishful Thinking here. at time 2:02.

Shitdog!

Buffalo Wings

2007-11-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

Buffalo wings must be made with Buffalo sauce. The standard Buffalo sauce is composed of only two ingredients: a vinegar-based cayenne hot sauce and margarine or butter.

It drives me nuts when places offer just "wings" or "hot wings" and then give you wings with hot bar-b-que sauce or some other damn thing. It's even worse when they advertise "Buffalo wings" and commit this culinary sin. I always send such wings back, and I recommend you do too. They should not be getting away with this. The Buffalo sauce has a specific taste, and that taste is delicious! Shitdog!

When giving me change, don't put the coins on the bills

2007-10-25T14:28:00.001-07:00

Sometimes cashiers hand me my change with the bills on the bottom and the coins on top. I figure they think it makes sense because it looks pretty and you can see at once what change you're getting. However, it really bothers me that they do this.

The problem is that I've only got one hand free. The other one is holding my wallet, which is waiting for the change. So I only have one hand to take money with. I want the coins directly in my hand and the bills on top, because if the coins on on top of the bills they slide off too easily. Sometimes I try to "dump" the coins off the bills, and slide them into my change purse. This is tricky, and if I drop a coin I really get steamed.

The cashier has two harnds free; I don't. So what they should do is this: place the coins in my hand, and then with the other hand give me the bills. When cashiers do this they get rewarded with a smile and a big "thank you!" or sometimes even a "thank you for putting the coins on the bottom!"

Shitdog!

Boring things that stupid people who've had some college think are very interesting

2007-10-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Written by a friend of mine.

* Conspiracy theories
* UFOs and alien abduction
* Vague speculation on what does it all mean?
* Dreams (not always boring, but usually)
* Celebrities
* Meta meta meta
* Banal one-liners from a handful of intellectually glamorous thinkers,
many french, most namechecked in Woody Allen films
* Serial killers and mass murderers (school shooters)
* The insidious effects of television
* Their drug trips
* Psychic powers and predicting the future
* Alternative medicine and the failings of the current medical model

New ones since 1989, when the movie Slacker was shot:
* Quantum weirdness
* Chaos theory

Shitdog!

So-called "Miracle" Whip is NOT Mayonnaise, Canada

2007-10-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

I can't stand the tangy taste of Miracle Whip.

But hey, it's a free country, so if you like it go ahead and serve it.

However, if you try to pass it off as delicious mayonnaise it will piss Jim Davies off.

I have sent back several sandwiches, pita sandwiches and wraps because I ordered mayo and the dipshit salesperson squirts Miracle Whip on it.

Here's a very short open letter to restaurants worldwide (but especially in Canada):

Do not try to pass off Miracle Whip as mayonnaise.

Shitdog!

Used Book Stores Suck

2007-10-20T13:48:00.001-07:00

It's not common for an over-educated intellectual like myself to hate used book stores, but I really do. Why? Let me count the ways...

They are not all that cheap.
They never have what I'm looking for
They never have much at all
There's nowhere to sit
The books are never attractively arranged (the image shown was actually on the webpage of a used book store. Note the books piled on the floor. Attractive!)

There is one exception, but this being the Rants blog, I cannot mention anything positive.

Shitdog!

I can't stand "Rent."

2007-10-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

I can't stand "Rent."

"525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love."

I've been capable of love since, let's say, when I was 14 years old. I'm 36 now, so that means 22 years. I've been in love three and a half times. So this means each year is 0.16 loves. How about love? Seems like love is a terrible way to measure a year. And this is the great idea they START the show with?

Shitdog!