Rants

I've got some rants backed up. Eleven as of April 9th according to my notes. As I either get angry enough to write them, or collect enough information to turn it into an essay, I'll post them.

• Reviews - Reviews of movies, books, video games, and anything else.
• Visual SourceSafe: Microsoft's Source Destruction System - Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe is bad software. You will regret using it. Here are details on the problems with Visual SourceSafe. (2002)
• Herbalife: Scum sucking leeches - Who is littering your neighborhood with signs, rocks in bags, and bogus job offers? Herbalife, a multi-level marketing scheme that makes Amway look legit. (2003-04-23)
• Web Forums: Ignoring twenty years of work - The problem of allowing online public discussion was first addressed over twenty years ago with mailing lists and Usenet. It was refined into an efficient, high quality experience. Now web forums (aka bulletin boards) are dragging us back into the dark ages of public discussion. (2003-05-16)
• The Defense of Suffrage Act - A argument for the Defense of Suffrage Act, a law that protects voting rights by denying those rights to women. (2003-06-30)
• The PlayStation 2: Insult to Customers - You can't accidentally design a product with as bad usability as the PlayStation 2. I'm forced to conclude that Sony designed it that way because they hate their customers. (2003-09-12)
• A Tale of a Bad Web Site - A brief rant about a bad web site (LucasArts). (2004-01-08)
• The Dane County DeJope Casino - Should I vote for or against a casino in my county? It's a hard call. (2004-02-06)
• Sony: 2. Usability: 0. - Sony continues to show contempt for basic usability and out of the box experience as I start using my new Clie. (2004-04-12)
• Oppose a deceitful system - Displacing part of health insurance costs onto employees is a dishonest way to cut pay. The State of Wisconsin cheated employees in exactly this way. For the Wisconsin State Journal to suggest that this deception is justification to similarly cheat teaching assistants is to buy into this lie. (2003-04-29)
• Palomino: How a Restaurant Can Make a Bad Situation Worse - A brief rant about extremely bad customer service received at the Palomino restaurant in Indianapolis. (2004-08-25)
• Visiting TSR - A rambling tale of the coolest moment at my first real job: visiting TSR in Lake Geneva. (2004-04-27)
• FYI -or- Don't waste my time with your email - Email etiquette is fundamentally about not being rude to the people you're emailing. Too many people forget this, wasting lots of my time. (2005-05-05)
• Be polite, don't inline other people's images - (2006-06-03)
• C++'s mutable and conceptual constness - What does "mutable" in C++ mean (allow changes in a const object) and when should you use it (almost never)? (2006-10-16)
• Not Notable: Wikipedia's Arbitrary Deletion Policy - On Wikipedia's deletion policy for non-notable topics. (2006-12-11)
• Actual Impact of 2007 Democrat Minimum Wage Proposal - What's the real impact of the minimum age proposal from the Democrats in early 2007? (2007-01-25)
• USPIRG's Bad Carbon Dioxide Statistics - USPIRG's 'The Carbon Boom: State and National Trends in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Since 1990' unfairly labels Texas and other states as being terrible CO2 polluters, but the numbers don't bear it out. Includes corrected tables. (2007-04-16)
• A weight loss graph's story - A great hand-made graph about weight loss that tells a compelling story. (2008-01-17)
• Guaranteed Health Care Is a Good Idea - Guaranteeing health care to everyone in America has many down sides, but is far superior to the alternatives. (2009-02-05)
• Corrected "Yes on 26" FAQ - Corrections to the Mississippi "Yeson26.net" FAQ (2011-11-04)
• Telltale misleads with review snippits - Everyone is praising Jurassic Park's authenticity, but not the game. (2010-11-30)
• Xbox Live Gold is a rip-off - If you don't want online play, Xbox Live Gold is a massively overpriced. (2011-12-05)
• Rejected by Kickstarter's secret rules - My wife and I's failed attempt to use Kickstarter (2013-05-11)
• Alternative Medicine and Kiki Havivy - Kiki Havivy's suffering presents a sad example of the dangers of alternative medicine. (2013-01-07)
• Why Women Cry - Dissection of a supposed tribute to women deeply undercut with sexism. (2013-02-13)
• Tracey Alley, Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement - My investigations into accusations that Tracey Alley is a plagiarist and copyright infringer. (2013-06-15)
• What's on my Android Device? - The apps I recommend for Android devices (2013-07-04)
• A Link to a Discussion is Neither an Answer Nor a Discussion - (2013-09-29)
• Backing a Kickstarter is not a donation - When you back a Kickstarter, you're not making a donation (2014-07-20)
• License Plates and the Failures of “Efficiency” and Journalism. - Why Wisconsin license plates are peeling, and how journalists failed us. (2022-07-13)

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