Haiti in 2010

With all the hoopla about how horrible a tragedy this situation is, I felt like airing some views on the subject. Again, it's my opinion. Of course that means that here, on this blog, I am right and you... well... ain't.

It's not a tragedy. Tragedy requires a conscious decision by an individual or individual group-entity that creates the disaster which then affects those around them. The earthquake was neither caused nor encouraged to happen by any individual. It is possible to argue that the inaction of the Haitian government to plan for such an occurrence is the tragedy; however, since the government is democratically elected that would mean its inaction caused hurt to itself - in other words the people did it to themselves.

The aid workers can only do so much. Yes, it's great to go in and help people who are a bit dazed by events they can hardly cope with. I see on the news that people are complaining about bodies lying around and why isn't someone doing something about it. Hello? Are the people really that stupid? Do they require a city to maintain stability? Where is the food grown? Isn't that in the countryside? Do they require motorized vehicles to get there? Do they not have feet? If the bodies have piled up then the people who are complaining about it should do something about it.

How soon will the food run low? How soon will the opportunists seize control of that food and what is the military going to do about it? Shoot civilians? On foreign soil? Over food? I highly doubt that. Once the scavengers have control of the food it just a short jump to control of the remaining populace. How do you suppose the warlords of the world have gained control over so many people? It isn't pretty words - that only works on well fed people with little cogitation ability (see Osama bin Laden). It is by controlling two resources: food and water. Anyone who doesn't do what you say doesn't get either. No need to kill them unless they attempt a coup because dehydration and starvation will do it for you. When the medicine does start arriving, the Haitian government will not be in control of it.

The opportunists have already struck here in the US with bogus charity scams. They've struck in Haiti by spreading danger rumors that panic the people and make them run so as to take what they leave behind. I don't doubt that the body looters started as soon as the shaking stopped.

We are dealing with a very large group of primates here. In large enough groups they stop thinking for themselves and look to anything that might lead them to the resources they crave unless they can somehow stumble upon those resources themselves. Whether it means following a river or following a nutcase, it won't matter so long as they get what they want. I give it about a week before the first armed confrontation for food happens. After that, it's anyone's guess.

Nutrition in Schools? Preposterous!

The link leads to the California Department of Education's Food program page. What is of particular interest to me is the fact that, although one can find any combination of data analysis and training materials regarding transport, acquisition, distribution, and costs (in the form of grants or reimbursements) there is missing something very important to the actual use of the food itself (I'll cut-and-paste):

Nutrition Analysis of School Meals

School meal nutrition analysis report from National School Lunch Program reviews conducted by the California Department of Education (CDE).

* School Meal Nutrition Analysis Report: 1998-2005 (In Process)

Yes, that's right. the actual nutritional value of the food served in the public schools of Cal-ee-Foh-nee-a is not only 4 years past due, but hasn't been properly analyzed in 11 years. I checked the "nutrition information" page of my local school district and I found all sorts of information regarding the carbohydrate values of the food they serve. Where's the vitamins? The salt? The sugar (well HFCS [gag] anyway)? McDonald's has a more comprehensive nutritional list (almost kept a straight face there) than our public schools.

This is not good. I don't really care if the food improves or not. I don't even care that what they serve is truly a tragic approximation of food. Okay, the fruits are good as long as they haven't soaked everything in lemon juice. All I want is the information necessary to correct nutritional deficiencies arising from the ingestion of this meal. I need to know what vegetables to serve to give the right balance of vitamins and minerals. How, exactly, are parents supposed to compensate with such a lack of information?

I'm sick of Mcafee no-Service

McAfee is absolute crap. I keep trying to find answers on their site and can't find them. the FAQ section is crap - you can only ever see the front page,which is only the first ten of the results (of usually hundreds). Clicking on "next" to see 11 - 20 takes you right back to the support home page. I've told this to their technicians, I've told it to the supposed technical support manager and you know what I was told? "It works fine from here."

No shit? Really? Guess what? You are not accessing it from my location. Every other site I go to works just peachy, but NOT YOURS!

Now I can can understand that the technicians are clueless lumps working from a set-script. Hell, I've written half those scripts (for other companies) so I know what kind of crap they are forced to spew. But to have a "manager" come across as totally lost in his own little world and not caring a whit about customer service? No, that don't cut it.

My original concern is that their software insists on trying to update itself as many as 5 times a day. I was told that this was normal. In whose fucking universe? Any software manager that actually thinks I want my computer bogged down by a useless update five times a day is an absolute twit. Not only should they be fired, but the person who hired them should be fired and both their mothers slapped twice for raising such incompetent boobs. They aren't unnecessary you say? Okay, where's the change notes? Oh, there aren't any? Anywhere? Really? You're going to push updates 5 times a day and you aren't even competent enough to put together a change list that appends to a file that the CUSTOMER can read to see what the changes are? Well, don't allow it to update if you don't want it to you say? Tried that - told it to let me know about the update 2 days from now and in less than 2 hours it was prompting me, again, to make an update.

Umm, Mr. security dude, if you're worried that the hackers might find out that you've figured out their thing and have blocked it... well... hate to break it to you, but they don't care. They wrote it, sent it out, and started a new project. They are NOT salivating waiting for you to fail or not fail to stop their toys. You are nothing to them, just some corporate entity that acts like "Big Daddy" patting customers on the head calling us poor, deluded, public persons who don't know what's in their best interest.

This is the result of allowing people in their twenties to write or enact corporate policy. You get boneheads working management, a huge customer turnover rate, and losing revenue.

Oh, wait, you make up for that by charging for semi-competent, semi-sentient customer support in the form of access to the download area. Oh, yeah, you can download that crap without the agreement by the way.. and it's easily opened and read and therefore hackable. If that ain't the absolute definition of incompetent, then the dictionary needs some revision.

Although my current subscription dates from 2005, I've been a customer since 1994. Not anymore. If everyone else had any sense they'd pull you off of their computers so fast it would make your investors heads explode. When my current subscription expires I will be using someone else's product.