A few months ago we bought a new car.  We were long overdue.  One of the features that came standard on the new vehicle was a Sirius satellite radio and a free trial subscription.  We had no idea what we were getting into.

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I haven’t had a good rant in a long time.  Trust me, I’ve had plenty to bitch about but I’m old and tired, and Cole keeps me occupied enough that I just don’t feel like spending the time.  But, after moderating another round of spam comments I thought I’d pipe up.

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Every time I need to talk to Qwest (our ISP) about anything I get the same thing:  in their focus to upsell me with bundled packages they forget all about why I actually called.

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I've seen a lot of stuff in the blogosphere lately (Mini has a good roll up) about Microsoft's horrific working conditions. Microsoft engineers are so taken advantage of the only recourse is to unionize. Bollocks. While everyone loves to "stick it to the man", all of this is nothing more than political rhetoric.

Unions

Microsoft's competition would love to see us unionize. Look at all the successful companies unions have contributed to over the years. The auto industry. The airline industry. Oh, wait: those industries are floundering. Unions create an "us vs them" mentality that forces tension between a company and its workforce. Unions sever the relationship between the quality of work performed and success of the company. Once unionized a workforce has no incentive to create revolutionary products. We can just sit back and relax, while the union negotiates salary increases regardless of how well the company is doing.

A while ago I bought a HP z540 media center PC. I have this PC up in my media room in my audio rack. It has been an acceptable experience -- a little too much like a PC for my liking, but still acceptable.

I've left the PC to look after itself via Windows Update since I bought it, but yesterday I checked HP's site for software updates and found nearly a dozen upgrades and patches, many of them covering issues I had experienced using the z540. I guess Microsoft only wants Microsoft to update software on your PC, and it leaves HP out in the cold. About half an hour later the HP was all patched, my extender upgraded and everything was working.