If you are 40, or older, you might think this is hilarious!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot… BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay  a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it  and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that I’m over the ripe old age of forty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You’ve got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!  And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter – with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3′s or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!   Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!  There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your “friends”. OH MY   GOSH   !!!  Think of the horror… not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there’s TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent… you just didn’t know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen… Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait   ALL WEEK   for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

And we didn’t have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play… all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside… you were doing chores!

And car seats – oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were luckily, you got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!

See!  That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

Regards, The Over 40 Crowd

I downloaded the PlayOn media server two days ago and have been playing around with their fully functional demo. I have to say it simply works as advertised and took no more than 2 minutes to set up. In a matter of minutes I was streaming Hulu and Netflix shows right to my TV via my iMac and it works GREAT!

It works so well as a matter of fact that I purchased a lifetime license for the software. If you are interested in grabbing your own copy hurry because they are offering a special discount… The normal price is $39.99 but if you buy it before this Sunday you can get it for only $19.99! That really is a sweet deal. If you want to quickly try before you buy you can download the demo and give it a good test drive.

Hulu users especially know that they make it very difficult to watch network TV shows on an actual TV as they try to keep you limited to watching in your PC’s or Mac’s browser or the Hulu desktop client. I’d much rather watch shows on a 50″ Plasma and I’m sure you would as well… With PlayOn this is no longer a problem and I’ve yet to find an easier solution.

PC users can just install the software/set up your account logins for Hulu, Netflix, etc. and you are done. Mac users like myself have to take a few extra steps but it is extremely simple to set up. Here is a link that will guide OS X users through the basic setup/install (some of the screen shots are a bit outdated but you will still be able to follow the set up very easily).

What you will need to run the PlayOn media server:

• PC running Windows OS
• Mac (OS X) running windows via Virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or even apple’s boot camp.
• 512 MB RAM
• 100MB of available hard drive space for the install
• A networked PS3, Xbox 360, Wii or DLNA compliant device

I tested PlayOn on an HP Desktop PC / 24″ iMac 2.8Ghz extreme and a macbook. The PC was running Win XP pro and I tested XP pro and Win 7 on my iMac and macbook. It worked seamlessly on all three setups with no snags at all. Depending on the speed of your ISP you may need to tweak your streaming settings (or you can just choose auto).

The bottom line is I’ve played around with various media servers on my Mac and this by far is the simplest and easiest to set up solution I’ve found. It was a good deal at $39.99 but it truly is a steal at $19.99! Give it a go and enjoy all the perks of streaming to your actual TV

You can view the full size image here that shows all of the different pre-configured styles.

INFO:
19 highly detailed, layered and fully editable Chrome text and graphic styles (including the ability to tweak all layer style effects). Tested on Mac (CS4) “and” PC (CS).

Pre-configured Chrome Text / Rough Chrome Text / Color Tinted Chrome Text / Color Tinted Rough Chrome Text as well as pre-configured round images that are great to use for buttons or misc. graphics for your work . The image layer style will also work great with many shapes and sizes.

- All of these items are on their own editable layers and are very organized so you can easily work with the file.

INCLUDES :
• 1024×1200 .psd that you can easily change text and effects.
• .asl file including 15 different pre-configured effects.
• very clean design and easy to follow layer organization.
• very detailed readme file with screen shots to guide you.

I really want to sincerely thank Ben and the support staff over at Graphicriver for really excellent support. Very fast and more important very good support! Let me know what you think about the Chrome text Photoshop style I added for sale….

My wife and I took her to the vet right away and and our vet was able to aspirate the lump and get a sample of what was inside. She saw some spindle cells and was a bit concerned (those can mean there is cancer) and shipped the sample off to the lab for further examination. The results came back the same and after another visit to the vet she suggested we make an appt. with the oncologist at our local VCA. Buffy dog goes in on the 28th to get it looked at by the doggy oncologist and they suggested a biopsy with wide margins to get a real good idea of what is going on.

The bottom line is we truly love our animals and if you can just take 2 seconds and think of a positive thought I would really appreciate it. She is the kindest most gentle creature and we want nothing more for her to live a very long, healthy and happy life with us.

I just downloaded the wordpress app and I have to say it seems very easy to use and has a lot of built in features.

I am posting this entire entry (took screen shot from my phone / and added picture using the app) from my iPhone using nothing more than the wordpress app and my phones built in features.

As I post this the one thing I see I would really miss is a full featured editor to make posts in. Now if I want to post a direct link to a specific word I’ll have to use raw HTML, so I’ll just paste the link to the app at the end of the story.

I also can’t add custom field data (other than the apps built in geo tagging) like an image field to use screenshots for my showcase scroller you see at the top of the page here.

All and all though for basic quick blog posting on the fly I see no reason to look any further than the “free” wordpress app

http://iphone.wordpress.org/

The “only” thing I actually plan to edit via my computer is the custom image field addition for my scroller.

How is this not just an over-sized iPod touch? You really cannot call it a computer (no usb, firewire, etc. ports) can you? I can’t install software on it or multitask nor even do a video chat, unless something comes out as a surprise when it is released in a couple of days. You will be able to purchase tons of app’s from the app store and many of those I’m sure will be very good, but it’s just not the same freedom I have on my Macbook.

To me that is the question… How does the iPad bridge that gap between my iPhone and and my Macbook? To me it doesn’t make that leap, at least not with the version one product. Do I want one? Sure, it would be a great little toy to have and millions of people will find a use for it or it will bridge that gap for them.

I also found this article to a PC magazine review of the iPad. So for all the Apple haters here is an unbiased raving review from a ‘non’ apple base So please don’t take this post the wrong way, I love apple and their products. I was just really hoping this would be more of an actual netbook competitor and not a slick looking toy.

http://www.tuaw.com/ – Great Apple Blog
http://www.macrumors.com/ – One of the busiest Apple forums and a great resource site. Be sure to check out their buyers guide if you are looking to purchase a new apple product. They break down the refresh cycles and let you know if it is a good time to buy or to wait.
http://www.maclife.com/ – Good site/forum and I also subscribe to their magazine
http://www.macworld.com/- Another very good site/forum and I subscribe to their magazine as well.

There are many more but these are on my daily hit list.

Sarah Palin is an ignorant twit:

Just a few rants so forgive me but this chick drives me fucking nuts….

Tea Party people listen up / you started out with some good common sense endeavors/ideals (constitutionally limited government, balanced budgets, free markets, anti-bailouts and the list goes on).

Many republicans and democrats stand for these issues. This is not some right wing movement, it’s a common sense movement.

Stick with your original plan and drop the Obama bashing (and yes I disagree with Obama on the majority of his issues/decisions), weed out the fanatic’s, and do EVERYBODY a favor and employ a rally sign checker/reviewer for your rallies (nothing worse than some white trash asshole with a shitty misspelled, strewn together sign). Stick to your original plan….

The best advice…. Find a new face for your movement as Palin is doing irreversible damage to you and whoever made her the face of the Tea Party movement should be flogged. She most likely appointed herself as the face of your movement since she is nothing more than an opportunist jerk off.

Just see what would happen if she was no longer paid 6 figures for speaking engagements. I would bet anybody a hundred bucks she would abscond into obscurity if she had no ulterior motives and no longer could profiteer at the detriment of the meek.

Just a few unbiased fact checks:
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/sarah-palin/statements/

Oh, and by the way, I am not a Tea Party member. I just loathe stupid and ignorant people.

** Official end of rant **