Telling it like it is

Dear God we've plumbed new lows in the conquest for the stupidest ideas ever. By 2005, most ATMs will be running Windows! What! Did the whole banking world just take collective leave of its senses? ATMs are hooked directly into the banks networks, and thus everyone's accounts. And you want to put Windows on them? The most insecure operating system ever? What the hell? Have you guys not heard of SoBig, Blaster, Slammer? To quote an MS press dude "It's a stripped down version of NT. We've tried to cut out the unnecessary rubbish that clutters up the typical PC." Wait - so MS just admitted that they artificially bloat up Windoze for the home user too.

Holy snot. That hurricane must be giving the mail a tail-wind. We posted mum's birthday card on monday and she got it this morning. 4 days to go across the Atlantic - bloody miracle!

***WAR NEWS*** Top American scientists assigned to the weapons hunt in Iraq have found no evidence Saddam Hussein’s regime was making or stockpiling smallpox. Remember now that smallpox fears were part of the case El Busho used to build support for invading Iraq. 6 months after we went to war to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (that Saddam long denied having), and the military still hasn’t been able to find any evidence. Nothing. Not even so much as a mildly radioactive spoon. Meanwhile senator Ed Kennedy has stuck his boot in too. He reckons the case for going to war against Iraq was a fraud made up in Texas to give Republicans a political boost. He's also pointed out that El Busho has failed to account for nearly half of the $4 billion the war is costing each month. He reckons most of the unaccounted-for money is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send in troops.

Oh and Thank God the whole Bennifer thing is finally over and done with. The world's largest arse and Ben Affleck are now single again. Phew! That was close, Ben. Nice escape. The last thing you need is to be married to a talentless cow with an arse the size of jupiter.

I'll take swords for $400, Trebek. That's "S" words. Which "s" is a powdery white substance that falls from the sky and enables people to ski? That's right - it snowed today down to about 1000ft in elevation above the offices. The foothills got a light dusting and the peaks were smothered. It was mostly gone by this afternoon, but a 50mph blast to work on the bike was quite refreshing in 4°C.

Mmmmm . Paula made peach jam yesterday with some of the peaches we got off our tree. And it was goooo-oooooood.

Flash! El Busho has just been on to tell everyone that there's no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the WTC attacks. Well duh! Sadly, 70% of Americans will be disappointed and confused by that statement, because the Pentagon News Network has done a fabulous job of brainwashing everyone into believing Iraq carried out the WTC attacks. The truly sad thing is that most of the other 30% think Afghanistan was behind it. I've yet to find someone who remembers that most of the hijackers were Saudis....... El Bush went on to explain how grass is green, the sky is blue, and we all breathe air.

Hurricane Isabel is bearing down on the east coast this afternoon looking to make landfall in Virginia or the Carolinas. And it's big. It's been upgraded to a Cat-3 hurricane. This could make hurricane andrew look like a gnat's fart when it comes ashore. The New Jersey shore has been evacuated and low-lying areas are all at risk. There's a horrible chance it could go as far north as New York. And if 160mph winds hit the Big Apple.........

All this crap surrounding the latest layoff has causes a lot of us to rethink our time at E&S. I could have handled pretty much and decision made higher up, but now that RF has gone, and having discovered that not one middle manager or VP got laid off, I've got seriously question where my loyalties are. This is now just a way of making money for me. It's no longer a job with a motivation to help my managing director have good sales, and have the best simulator visual in the world. Now it's just a way of living from hand to mouth, and that pisses me off. My motivation has evaporated. There's no reason to bust a gut any more - if we ship a few more systems because of something I do, JO gets his bonus and we all get a cactus up the arse. Mind you. JO gets his bonus anyway.

From Fark today : Nutjob predicts major earthquake for Tokyo on Tuesday or Wednesday, Japanese media writes article on him. Hilarity sure to ensue Of course there's an outside possibility he could be right..... Meanwhile, David Blaine continues to regret his decision to do his latest stunt in England. Some guy used a remote-control helicopter to test David Blaine’s resolve by dangling a cheeseburger in front of him. Sweet.