Big House Justice

The details are still coming out, but it looks like this is a case of inmate justice. That's probably not the worst that can and perhaps will happen to this guy in prison. Welcome to Oz asshole.

Car Buying Tips

These are some good tips for buying a new car. But they left out a couple of things.

1. Always be prepared to walk out if you're not getting the deal you want.
   
   The last thing a dealer wants to do is spend time negotiating with a buyer and then have that buyer walk out without closing the deal. Time is money for them and if they see that you're ready to walk away, they suddenly remember a "special" discount that allows them to meet your price after all.
   
   


2. Get the best financing available
   
   High interest rates increase the costs of a car. If you have excellent credit, hold out for the lowest interest rate you can get. If they won't budge on interest, see number one above.
   
   


3. Insist on the best price on your trade-in
   
   If you're trading in your old vehicle, insist on the best price for your car. Dealers make a good profit off of trade-ins and they will generally try to give you the least amount they can. Look up your car in the Blue Book and don't let them tell you that the Blue Book is meaningless. If the Blue Book was meaningless, BMW wouldn't cite it in their ads. Trade-in value doesn't have to kill a deal, you can always sell your old car yourself, but it does make it easier if you can get good value for you car from the dealer.
   

The Edmunds site has some great resources including an article called "Confessions of a Car Salesman" that provides some incite into how car salesmen get customers to pay more for a car than they should. It's a must read if you're going car buying in the near future.

What?! No Personal Jet Packs?!

I'm not going to be any robot's pet. I noticed no one mentioned the development and advancement of nano-technology. They also left out flying cars, homes on the moon and clones. What kind of future doesn't include these things. Come on you guys, haven't you read andy good SciFi recently?

Stealing Signs

What makes these guys think that their opponents wouldn't figure out what the QB's signal to receivers meant? Musberger's "revelation" is not that earth-shattering, and it doesn't give opposing teams any more information than they already had. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the quarterback throws to the man-to-man side after he makes his little gesture. If a pitcher is tipping his pitches, he either has to figure it out and change his behavior, or just live with the fact that batters know what's coming. This is no different. If anything Musburger did him a favor by forcing him to be more clever and come up with a better system for signalling his receivers.

Feasting on Lamb Chops

It's too bad the Niners can't play the Rams every week. Smith threw for a touchdown. Gore ran for a touchdown. The defense got six sacks. The Niners defense haven't had more than six sacks in a game since they played the Rams last year. They looked a lot better yesterday, but they're still along way from beign a contender. Baby steps I guess.

Another Darwin Award Nominee

Here's a dad who won't be awarded any parenting prizes. I guess it's already too late to save the gene pool. Hopefully his daughter takes after her mother.

Survivor Race Relations

Say what you will about the latest twist in Survivor, they're getting a lot of press for separating the contestants into race-based "tribes". There's already been controversy thanks to Rush Lumphead's lame-brained diatribe about the strengths and limitations of the various ethnic groups. Much of the criticism touches on the stereotyping that Lumphead has already espoused in his ignorance.

My only thought is that the presence of asians in primetime just quadrupled. Other than that, I don't give a damn, and I won't be watching.

Brand Monopolies

They're introducing a new version of the game with tokens from the likes of Toyota and Starbucks. I don't buy the statement about not branding every new token. I think it's more likely that they couldn't get any airlines or computer makers to buy in. I'll stick with the classic game. Afterall, if you get $2 million for passing go, just how are Mediteranean and Baltic avenue going to cost you?

It's a Boy!

The one benefit about Britney Spears having another kid is that it keeps her out of the studio and off the stage. The potential consequence is that she'll raise her kids to be tiny pop stars that perform songs with vacuous lyrics and infectious beats.

The Raiders Suck More than the Niners

At least the Niners looked competitive. The Raiders simply sucked. Home shutout!!! Nine sacks!!! Home crowd boos in the first quarter!!!

That's some really bad football.

Niners in Last Place Already

So much for the new beginning. The 49ers lost to the Cardinals and because the Rams and Seahawks also won, the Niners are alone in last place. I don't buy all the talk about the good effort and positive performances. When push came to shove, the Niners didn't deliver.

They couldn't stop Arizona on third downs. They had two key turnovers that led to points for Arizona. They couldn't generate a decent pass rush. They even failed at the end on a catchable last-gasp pass. The only difference between this year and last is the close score and the fact that Smith wasn't responsible for the turnovers. If they're satisfied with such meager progress, then it's going to be a long season.

Another Bad Break for the Warriors

The Warriors number one draft pick broke his foot and will be out 4-6 weeks. Even worst is that fact that centers typically have foot problems later in their careers, so this may not bode well for O'Bryant. How typical for the team with the worst luck when it comes to healthy centers.

It's uncanny how much center trouble Golden State has had. They're center woes began when they traded Robert Parrish and the third pick in the draft(which the Celtics used to pickKevin McHale) for the rights to draft J.B. Carroll at number one. The Celtics went on to win three championships and the Warrriors began a run of mediocrity that continues to this day.

Sure they made the playoffs a couple of times since then, but only the Clippers have been worst than the Warriors and they've finally gotten things turned around. Meanwhile, GS is going backwards with the return of Don Nelson and another sore-footed center. Unbelievable.

I Hate IE

It never ceases to amaze me at how much IE sucks. As a web designer I often find that I have to fix CSS bugs in IE so that my designs work in that browser. It's usually stupid things like having to assign a height to a table cell so that a child element can have a height relative to the parent cell. Why isn't the cell height inherently 100% unless the height is specified? Why make me clutter my code with unnecessary declarations?

I've heard that IE 7 is supposed to be so much better. Too bad I can't test with it since, true to MS form, installing 7 means you can't run 6. So I either have to have a separate test machine (not in my budget) or continuously install and uninstall 7. I'll stick with 6 and keep pulling my hair out trying to make this stupid piece of shite work.

Jones is Clean After All

Big news for track and field star, Marion Jones. She tested positive for a banned substance earlier this summer. Now a "B" sample has come up negative for the same substance, which means that the initial test is nullified. So she's clean this time.

Giants Win, and Barry's Back

The Giants are fighting their way back into the playoff race. Barry's return to form has helped. The elephant in the room of course is whether Barry is finally healthy again that he can hit for power, or is he on a new kind of juice. It's a shame that he'll always face that kind of question.

Football is Here

Go Niners!! Maybe they'll actually reach .500 for a change.