Bent Corner

My PC has been running slow lately. When I would check out the performance in Windows Task Manager, the CPU would often show something close to 100%. I thought it had something to do with Firefox since it was when I had several tabs and even browser windows running when the problem showed up. Then again, my PC usually has a couple Firefox windows up all of the time.

It wasn’t until I tried setting up my new external hard drive that my PC was heavily fragmented.

If you are Mac user or a fake UNIX (Linux) user, you probably don’t even know what a fragmented hard drive is. It’s something only we Microsoft users have to deal with. I used to be hyper diligent when it came to defragmenting my hard drives. Over time I just got out of the habit of doing it. I guess one of the reasons I let the task fall to the wayside was because I don’t think I’ve ever fixed a PC problem by running Defrag. It was always just something I did before actually finding the real cause of whatever problem I was dealing with.

Since defraging my C: drive, I’ve noticed a remarkable difference. It’s ridiculously fast now.

NBC has launched something they call NBC Direct. It allows viewers to watch complete episodes of most NBC shows. I guess NBC chose to do this as a result of their recent blow up with Apple iTunes. NBC chose not to sell their programing through iTunes, or iTunes chose not to sell NBC programing. I honestly lost track of which came first.

I’m watching the newest episode of The Office. Though it’s just as funny as the first time I watched it, it’s a real pain in the ass to view. The episodes have enough DRM to choke a goat. You have to use Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to launch the player. NBC Direct does not support Firefox. You also have to be a Windows XP or Vista user. If you are an Apple user or a fake UNIX (Linux) user, you are out of luck.

It also features paid advertising. Annoying paid advertising. Every commercial break shows the very same stupid commercials. The good people from Lipton evidently want me to know that the way I look at tea will forever change. That’s good because the way I currently look at tea is that it sucks. My view on tea can only get better. With that said, Lipton seems to think that I will now like tea because they have placed their tea in tea bags shaped like pyramids. That’s not the way to make me change my opinion on tea.

If they want me to like tea, they need to figure out a way to make it taste just like coffee.

Other then showing why the WGA writers are on strike, I don’t see why NBC decided to launch this crappy service. It’s clear NBC plans on making money by featuring content on the web. It’s also clear that they need to realize they will need to actually pay the very people that create this content. Also, putting cumbersome restrictions on customers forcing them to watch content a certain way will only turn away customers. I should be able to put content on my iPod and watch it where and how I want. Because of NBC’s restrictive DRM, I cannot do that.

• What does all the software I enjoy using and ATI video cards have in common? ATI video cards won’t work with Fake UNIX (Linux).

• Producers of the The Comic Book Haters podcast have announced the first annual Schooly Awards. Voting ends June 31 and people of Irish decent are discouraged from participating.

• Steve of Steve Likes to Curse has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the MySpace page of Deryk Schlessinger, son of conservative radio fake psychologist Laura Schlessinger. In case you haven’t heard, young Deryk is a soldier stationed in Afghanistan fighting the enemies of freedom. When he’s not doing that, he evidently is posting cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation on MySpace. Has any good ever come from MySpace? I hate MySpace. Make sure to checkout my MySpace page. It’s awesome!

• Marvel Comics is at it again. The cover of HEROES FOR HIRE #13 features three young women wearing tight revealing clothing with their hands chained above them on a stone pillar. There is some kind of tentacle creature feeling them up. Who’s calling the shots over at Marvel, Deryk Schlessinger?

• Some kind of massive outage hit XM Radio yesterday. I thought it was my radio. While driving home from work I was constantly losing the XM signal. I even stopped at one point to see if my antenna was still where it was supposed to be. It would have been nice if the good people of XM Radio could have perhaps made an announcement that they were having problems. It wasn’t like it was constantly down. Instead I had to learn about it later from reading the Internet. My opinion of XM Radio has really taken a dive lately.

• John Edwards currently running for third-place for the Democratic Presidential nomination is calling for mandatory military service. He said that we should have some level of mandatory service so that everybody in America and not just poor kids are serving this country. What a hypocritical prick. Edwards never served in the military. Who is he to call for mandatory military service?