I Drivel » rants

Yahoo Finance message boards

justin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:32:07 +0000

… has to be the biggest waste of space on the interwebs. Clearly Yahoo doesn’t give a shit about them since they are not policed in the slightest and riddled with spam, trolls, and crazies. There are absolutely no insightful conversations going on for any stock. I wonder why they even bother keeping them around.

Commerce Bank’s huge security failure

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:31:37 +0000

My checking account is part of Commerce Bank which about a year ago was bought out by TD Bank. Up until this summer their site http://www.commerceonline.com still worked for all my online banking. The theme had changed on the site but all the same login functionality was there. Then September 20th rolled around and I goto log into my account to check on some things only to find that http://www.commerceonline.com now is a search engine spam page?! A whois lookup on commerceonline.com shows…

% whois commerceonline.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: COMMERCEONLINE.COM
Registrar: CYDENTITY, INC. D/B/A CYPACK.COM
Whois Server: whois.cypack.com
Referral URL: http://www.cypack.com
Name Server: NS1.TRAFFICZ.COM
Name Server: NS2.TRAFFICZ.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 20-sep-2009
Creation Date: 30-jul-1996
Expiration Date: 29-jul-2011

For the non-technical person, they let their fucking domain name expire. If they did this purposely they don’t deserve to be a bank, if this slipped passed someone… they don’t deserve to be a bank. Why this is bad you ask? Right now there is nothing preventing the owner of the site from going to web archive of commerceonline.com and just copying the old look of the site and stealing X number of identities by faking a registration page or login page.

Besides the whole fuckup of their old domain, apparently the login mechanism is different on tdbank now and my login information doesn’t work. Yet I can’t sign up for a new account as it says I’m already registered. I’m seriously considering switching off TD Bank because of this pisspoorplanning .

Sound pollution

admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:21:00 +0000

I must finally reveal to the world my secret for the solution to help curb NYC sound pollution and hope someone out there somehow finds a way to get this done. The solution… ::drumroll:: is to track taxi cab horn usage and impose fines based on excessive horn use. I know , I know I’m a genius , stop it, please. In my ignorant mind about cars, it seems simple enough to create a device that would activate anytime the horn is pushed, record the datetime, and record the duration of the honk. You can give the taxis some sort of quota for honk time, maybe even impose a point system based on the time of day?

Right now I’d say a majority of the time (just based on my own personal experience) that a taxi uses it’s horn, its either excessive or just serves no purpose but to release anger. I know the horn is primarily a safety device to warn of impending danger and get another drivers attention but when I have to hear a taxi driver hold onto his horn for 20 seconds at a time outside my window, it makes me want to setup a sniper rifle and take them out one a time (joking ECHELON). NYC would benefit from some extra cash from all the crazy cabbies and neighborhoods will all be a little more quieter. So someone please do this and give me credit, thanks.

smokeping’s whacky source

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:34:00 +0000

I’ll first start off by saying I think smokeping is a great program and Tobi Oetiker is a great programmer whose contributions to the community have been great and in no way could I ever create MRTG or RRDTool. But…. After downloading the source to smokeping today and trying to configure it to run, I was completely shocked at how poorly it was put together. It’s clear that Tobi did not bother with making his code easy to run on any other system but his own with constant absolute paths to his own home directories on his personal machine! His own documentation and install notes are vague at best and I can’t figure out why he did not use relative paths at all in the source. While you do have to edit most files anyway to reflect where your RRD perl libraries are and your perl location, I just find it very odd that he left the paths in like that. Even his example configuration file is catered to his machine and his network making it confusing to delete out what is not needed.

Instruction booklets for furniture

admin — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Since moving into the city I’ve had to assemble a lot of furniture from ikea and other various places. Today while putting together snack tables from bed bath & beyond I believe I discovered my source of why I hate putting this crap together, the instructions.

You see in order to save money on printing costs places like Ikea use picture only instruction manuals so they don’t need to translate every booklet into every language where they ship to. Ok, that’s fine , and anyway you don’t need much verbal explanation when it comes to fitting round pegs into round holes, you just need to know which is the proper hole to place said peg in.

Here is where Ikea, and all those other places fail , they lie to you in the number of steps it takes to assemble. “This drawer assembles in 3 easy steps!”, fuck you, step 1 has me placing 10 screws in and involves 5 separate pieces , step 1 should only involve one smooth motion of me inserting one item into another, bam step 1 is over with, now lets take a look at step 2. Got 5 screws? 5 separate steps. Stop with these shortcuts. When you have 453 things happening in step 1 the picture becomes a massive scribble of fail. I have yet to completely assemble anything 100% correctly that involved picture steps , my ikea draw has a piece on backwards and one of my side tables is missing a few screws, but as long as they don’t collapse on me without warning, I’ll feel mildly content.

Guest Rant – Leaners

admin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:39:00 +0000

What’s the deal with the leaner’s on the subways? You know who I mean, the dude who can’t be bothered to hold on the support poll, instead he has to lean against it. In order to hold on and keep yourself from falling all over the place, you have to wedge your fingers in between the poll and his sweaty back.

I understand sometimes we all don’t want to stand on the subway. I also understand that those polls can be nasty and sticky and the last thing you want to do is touch them with you hand. But come on! I am 5’4″ tall when lying down flat, I can’t hold on to the ceiling or the horizontal support poles that are up high, which leaves the poll you, in all your laziness, are lounging against.

I choose to be as obnoxious as possible when dealing with the leaner. I shove my fingers into the fat of their back as I make a grab for the poll. Then I try to make my hand stick out as much as possible to make it clear that I am holding on here. When I get home, I go boil my hand.

CVS, Walgreens, Duane Reade

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:20:00 +0000

You are kidnapped and dropped off in one of these stores with all name brands removed. Can you tell which one you are in?

I believe all of these stores are too similar and would never invest in any of them for that reason and also there are just wayyyyy to many of them. If I see a CVS next to a duane reede, my only incentive to goto one over the other is which one is physically closer to me at the given moment. These companies are expanding way to quickly, in the last 3 years within a 5 mile radius of my house there has been a CVS, Walgreens and Duane Reade opening and the CVS that opened there was one already 2 miles away from the next closet CVS.

Also I’d like to add how sick I am of seeing all these stores pop up when I see new retail space free up. They are the least exciting store to see come to your neighborhood, I’d rather watch a starbucks open up across the street from another starbucks than see another one of these cookie cutter “pharmacy” stores.

Optimal Configuration for 3 vs 3 seats: PART 1

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:04:00 +0000

THE PROBLEM

The LIRR has a section of seats in each car that are 3 seats facing one another (see diagram to right). I always aim to sit in these set of seats due to the fact that I’m 6’5 and sitting in the regular seats hardly offers me enough leg room to sit comfortably for an hour long train ride. Of course this only works in my favor if no one sits across from me. If they do, I gain nothing from this seat and in fact I’m no better off than I would have been sitting in a seat with my knees in the back of the seat in front of me. This fails in every situation a person sits across from me no matter how old they are. I’ve calculated the only way this could work out is if the person were to have no legs at all.

I had a 5 year old (estimate) sit across from me last week on the train that his legs were too small to go over the edge of the seat and flex his knee, so I was left with him kicking my bony knees all the way to NYC. Petite women think they are special and can fit without a problem, but no matter how skinny you are, you are fat to me in this position. There’s the occasional person who thinks “Oh I’ll just spread my legs and they can put their legs in between mine or vice versa.” First of all lady, I barely do that with my girlfriend and I just met you, and quite frankly you’re ugly and you sir, I’m not homophobic but I’m not inviting you into my personal space with myself spread eagle, nor am I entering closer to your jean bulge(is it a penis or not? I’ll never know) with my freakishly long legs just so we can have a “little leg room.”

There are a couple of reasons I put myself through these risks everyday.

75% if the time I’d say everything works out optimally. No one sits across from me because I make it abundantly clear how my massive frame(more of a portrait than a landscape) is mostly made up in my legs(think pencils).
When people do sit across from me, it usually doesn’t occur till Jamaica station, which is only about 20 minutes into Penn, but this annoys me even more as I will explain shortly.
If everyone follows unwritten commuter code for sitting in this seating arrangement, then 3 people can sit here optimally with maximum comfort level and thwart off all attempts at anymore people sitting. I will explain more in Part 2 when I discuss the optimal seating arrangements.

Rush Hour Escalator Respect

admin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:31:00 +0000

Situation:
You have 5 minutes to make your train. You are about to enter Penn Station and you are presented with the stairs on one side and 2 escalators going down on the other. Which is faster?

Optimal solution:
The left hand side of the escalator , when sane people are riding it, is reserved for those who choose to maximize the escalator by walking down it. You fly down that sucker , lickity split, no shit. Blowing past people on the stairs, you scurry off and make your train.

Reality:
You make the decision to go down the escalator. See a great lane to walk down on the unofficial passing lane of the escalator. Actually it’s more like official cause I’m pretty sure that woman’s voice coming from the escalator has a little blurb about not being a douche and letting people walk by. Anyway, you hop on that bad boy and a jackass 3 people in front of you decides they are going to talk to their friend Margaret and sip on their frappachino on this enjoyable rush hour evening. Plans are crushed right than and there cause Billy the investment banker(person behind frap drinker) doesn’t have the courage to just say “Excuse me” or maybe he just wants to enjoy the free ride. How can you possibly just sit there staring at a whole empty lane in front of you and not think to yourself, “maybe there is some people behind me who want to walk down.” It’s the equivalent of driving 40 mph,on a 2 way highway ,in the left lane, and not having the common sense to move the fuck over.
Yea escalators were made for “standing”, fuck you this is NYC I say! People are pissed here when their Big Mac’s don’t arrive in 30 seconds and I start getting antsy when the waiter hasn’t given me my check within 2 minutes of finishing my last bite.

Dear Inner Ear Headphone Guy

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:21:00 +0000

….I can hear your music. It’s really loud. Me and the 4 other people around you aren’t staring at you cause we think your fake diamond earrings are kinda cool. Yea that new Timbaland song is kinda catchy but it’s 7:45 in the morning and well I’m trying to read the WSJ and the woman to my right was sleeping until you came on the train. Man you are totally feeling the beat right now, huge adrenaline rush I bet. No none of us are going to approach you and tell you your headphones are too loud, we are all far too passive aggressive for that. You must take the hint from these awkwardly long stares we are giving you.

Here’s a simple test to prevent you from being a douche bag with your headphones on too loud. Turn your iPod on before you slap those Swarovski crystal laced ear buds into your ears, and listen for how loud it is. Chances are if you can hear the song well from 3 feet from your face, then so can 10 other people around you. Asshole