In a recent commercial, Hummer proclaims with the sort of manic exuberance that only exists in psychotic episodes that the Hummer "midsize" H3 attains an "amazing" 20mpg. Imagine, after a hurricane degrades much of the US gasoline refinery capacity and a leaky pipeline cuts off at least 5.oo% of our domestic crude oil production, General Motors actually rejoices in the production of a passenger vehicle that gets worse gas mileage than most civil utility vehicles.
I haven't driven many 5-ton trucks that got less than 20mpg. When I think of 20mpg and below, I tend to think of something a little less agile than a four wheel drive vehicle.
I wish companies like General Motors would stop paying huge creative agencies millions of dollars only to be told "People are stoopid...tell them anything!"
Hey Rick Wagoner! the Emperor is naked! ...and he's FAT!
Monday, August 28, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Friday Come And Gone
And here I sit languishing, Vexxless, while another godless QuickTime renders for another godless client. Such is the life of a freelance video professional.
While I'm venting otherwise unblemished spleen for the benefit of those few readers who have not yet turned away in disgust at my tardiness...let's talk Macs again, shall we?
Those of you who read this comic (and the subset of you who scroll down to discover that there is actually a BLOG attached to it) will know by now how I feel about Macs. I can sum up the breadth and depth of my emotional totality with regards to the Macintosh computer in one sentence: They are computers.
They hold no special magic, they perform no special tasks. In a world of silicone thralls each bound to our every whim regardless of how vile or base. Macs rate a perfect 5 on a cosmic scale of 1 to 10. That is to say they exist.
To further bring this implacable truth to blinding light of public consciousness I wish to relate my afternoon's experience.
Now, if I were to bring you a woe-laden tale of sudden hardware failure what word would first leap to mind? PC? Dell? Windows? And if I also mentioned that my computer had been running fine when suddenly is simply froze and refused to reboot what would your impression be? If I added the fact that after that crash and reboot, my computer was unable to see the MONITORS - the stinking monitors! Instead, all my files, drives and documents were clumped together on the NTSC monitor to the right of my setup. Visiting the settings showed that my computer not only had forgotten that it was attached to two perfectly good flat-screen LCD's but had in fact FORGOTTEN WHAT THEY WERE? What would you think? An HP pavilion running Windows M E?
No, if you hadn't realized by now, I was using my Mac dual 2.5 ghz monster G5 with 2gigs of RAM. I started the day with several sequential lock-ups resulting in a persistent boot condition which left the VGA monitors dark and wanting. Solution? Well, this is a Mac we're talking about. As with most problems, there is no fix. Mac simply won't give you access to the tools you need to address the problem. The button USUALLY found on the settings windows, "detect displays" was mysteriously missing. Unplugging the Blackmagic capture card did nothing to help. In the end, I reached into the off-monitor void with my mouse and was eventually able to retrieve my finder. With that, I was able to open my Preferences folder and start trashing my Mac system preferences until my computer eventually forgot that it had forgotten it had two LCD VGA monitors. On THAT reboot, I got my monitors back.
Now let's be clear here - I never solved the issue. I never even understood what the issue WAS apart from wanting to kick my Mac. So I want all those Mac and OSX apologists out there to take note - to date all of my PC bug experiences ended with a long learning curve, a deeper understanding of the operating system and ultimately a fixed computer. All my Mac bug experiences ended either with trashed preferences or the guy at the Mac store telling me the motherboard had died and charging me $800. Yet I bought one of these beasts for my very own and watched it repay my offer of home and family with pain and mental torture.
That guy at Cult Of The Mac is welcome to keep drinking his iCoolaid. Me, I'm still waiting for machine that runs as well as it's slavish proponents wish it did...
While I'm venting otherwise unblemished spleen for the benefit of those few readers who have not yet turned away in disgust at my tardiness...let's talk Macs again, shall we?
Those of you who read this comic (and the subset of you who scroll down to discover that there is actually a BLOG attached to it) will know by now how I feel about Macs. I can sum up the breadth and depth of my emotional totality with regards to the Macintosh computer in one sentence: They are computers.
They hold no special magic, they perform no special tasks. In a world of silicone thralls each bound to our every whim regardless of how vile or base. Macs rate a perfect 5 on a cosmic scale of 1 to 10. That is to say they exist.
To further bring this implacable truth to blinding light of public consciousness I wish to relate my afternoon's experience.
Now, if I were to bring you a woe-laden tale of sudden hardware failure what word would first leap to mind? PC? Dell? Windows? And if I also mentioned that my computer had been running fine when suddenly is simply froze and refused to reboot what would your impression be? If I added the fact that after that crash and reboot, my computer was unable to see the MONITORS - the stinking monitors! Instead, all my files, drives and documents were clumped together on the NTSC monitor to the right of my setup. Visiting the settings showed that my computer not only had forgotten that it was attached to two perfectly good flat-screen LCD's but had in fact FORGOTTEN WHAT THEY WERE? What would you think? An HP pavilion running Windows M E?
No, if you hadn't realized by now, I was using my Mac dual 2.5 ghz monster G5 with 2gigs of RAM. I started the day with several sequential lock-ups resulting in a persistent boot condition which left the VGA monitors dark and wanting. Solution? Well, this is a Mac we're talking about. As with most problems, there is no fix. Mac simply won't give you access to the tools you need to address the problem. The button USUALLY found on the settings windows, "detect displays" was mysteriously missing. Unplugging the Blackmagic capture card did nothing to help. In the end, I reached into the off-monitor void with my mouse and was eventually able to retrieve my finder. With that, I was able to open my Preferences folder and start trashing my Mac system preferences until my computer eventually forgot that it had forgotten it had two LCD VGA monitors. On THAT reboot, I got my monitors back.
Now let's be clear here - I never solved the issue. I never even understood what the issue WAS apart from wanting to kick my Mac. So I want all those Mac and OSX apologists out there to take note - to date all of my PC bug experiences ended with a long learning curve, a deeper understanding of the operating system and ultimately a fixed computer. All my Mac bug experiences ended either with trashed preferences or the guy at the Mac store telling me the motherboard had died and charging me $800. Yet I bought one of these beasts for my very own and watched it repay my offer of home and family with pain and mental torture.
That guy at Cult Of The Mac is welcome to keep drinking his iCoolaid. Me, I'm still waiting for machine that runs as well as it's slavish proponents wish it did...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Friday update
Vexxarr will likely post a tad late Friday...although you never know. I was really impressed that I got two comics up Tuesday for this week. I'm on location with a job right now and I'll be getting back home just about the time Friday's comic should post. I'm not making any predictions...but I bet I choose sleep over a Friday update when I get back. Vexxarr will post later this Friday afternoon but for those of you who know me...that is no surprise.
Still, I bet I post before Gabe and Tycho...which is a bit like betting on the house in Vegas.
Still, I bet I post before Gabe and Tycho...which is a bit like betting on the house in Vegas.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Late...again...sorry.
I'm running to Atlanta to shoot a car dealer. Regretably, I'll be using a camera.
With Beta SP - the dead format that wouldn't die.
[See, Sony decided that it was time to end the dominance of the Beta SP format - partly due to it's attempt to promote the vastly superior and vastly more expensive Digibeta and partly due to the fact that Sony was no longer the largest manufacturer of SP cameras and tape stock. So Sony declaired Beta SP dead and they announced the end of support for SP products. This lasted about six months. Today Beta SP remains one of the most common video formats for commercials and long format video world-wide. Digibeta died a lingering and expensive death - despite the fact that it really was all that and a bag of uncompressed 10 bit full component chips.]
By The way...I just moved my last anti-Sony rant to the rants section. I think I'll just delete the above...
Where was I?
Oh yes. Vexxarr will post in the evening tomorrow. Fear not, it is written and inked already. I just need time to scan, color and post it. And a new Vexx ontime Friday.
Huzza!
With Beta SP - the dead format that wouldn't die.
[See, Sony decided that it was time to end the dominance of the Beta SP format - partly due to it's attempt to promote the vastly superior and vastly more expensive Digibeta and partly due to the fact that Sony was no longer the largest manufacturer of SP cameras and tape stock. So Sony declaired Beta SP dead and they announced the end of support for SP products. This lasted about six months. Today Beta SP remains one of the most common video formats for commercials and long format video world-wide. Digibeta died a lingering and expensive death - despite the fact that it really was all that and a bag of uncompressed 10 bit full component chips.]
By The way...I just moved my last anti-Sony rant to the rants section. I think I'll just delete the above...
Where was I?
Oh yes. Vexxarr will post in the evening tomorrow. Fear not, it is written and inked already. I just need time to scan, color and post it. And a new Vexx ontime Friday.
Huzza!
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