troy mcferron dot com

Twitter.com has become a real obsession for me. I have been updating it non stop since I signed up, and it really is amazingly fun. It becomes a personal web forum for you and your friends that you can update from anywhere, anytime.

You can add it to your Myspace, Facebook, website, and pretty much anywhere you can paste some Flash or Javascript.

I have also been playing with Campfire all day, and it is amazing, even if you use the free account that lets four people chat. I can imagine it would be very nice at my job for getting our management team on the same page and keeping them there.

I love the internet.

I have been using Steadfast.net for a few months now, and it has been a wonderful experience. Their web panel is amazing. Everything is very easy to configure. They charge me a very low price for a very realistic amount of service.

My site is never down, and always loads very quickly.

Thanks for making web presence cheap!

It has been great watching the odds of a Hillary win decrease over the last few weeks. She is now scrambling around trying to get pledged delegates to “vote independantly”, once again showing that she does not give a shit about the voters.

I need to say this now…

THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES ARE FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

Now kids, I do not mean any of our past, present, or future presidents, but the funky rock band.

I am off now to watch some Final Four Basketball!!!

Please take the time to read this note from Michael Moore:

It would have to happen on Easter Sunday, wouldn’t it, that the 4,000th American soldier would die in Iraq. Play me that crazy preacher again, will you, about how maybe God, in all his infinite wisdom, may not exactly be blessing America these days. Is anyone surprised?

4,000 dead. Unofficial estimates are that there may be up to 100,000 wounded, injured, or mentally ruined by this war. And there could be up to a million Iraqi dead. We will pay the consequences of this for a long, long time. God will keep blessing America.

And where is Darth Vader in all this? A reporter from ABC News this week told Dick Cheney, in regards to Iraq, “two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.” Cheney cut her off with a one word answer: “So?”

“So?” As in, “So what?” As in, “F*** you. I could care less.”

So? … A Note from Michael Moore

This is utterly disgusting. What happened to government by the people, for the people? Are we too stupid to make decisions?

Our current executive branch can kiss my ass.

I really was not going to even post about this because anyone who states an opinion on this topic that goes against the consensus is being called a delusional fanboy, but I cannot resist.

I do not see this as sleazy.

Truthfully, I see this as a situation where Apple is following the unofficial Windows software development guidelines. The list of applications that either side-jack your install to get on your Windows computer, or offer you an option to install unrelated software during the install process is nearly endless. This is a very common practice with third party Windows software.

Does the fact that everyone does it make it less sleazy?

That is a grey area.

Bundled software is a reality you face when you run Windows. You can either avoid this software altogether or choose not to install the optional software. In some cases, people even install software that comes with other software and offers no option not to install it, then remove the offending piggybacking software. I think many, many Windows users are aware of this situation.

This is a marketing opportunity for Apple. They have provided iTunes as a free application for Windows. They did this because it gets a music store onto your computer and may possibly lead users to go out and purchase an iPod.

This is literally Apple asking “Hey, would you like a free piece of software that you may not have even heard of?”

They are doing this on an operating system where a large majority of the users are using the browser they use only because it comes bundled with their operating system. They are offering an alternative browser to a large market of people who may not have even thought of such a thing. if anything, they are doing a wonderful public service.

Not only is this not a sleazy situation, it is a situation where people are being educated. This is not a bad thing. I can see why people think what they do about this, but I really cannot see eye to eye with you all on this.

You know what? I do not care what Barack Obama’s preacher says.

You know what else? I also do not care if he made a couple of racial remarks that made a few folks uncomfortable. Race is an uncomfortable topic for a lot of people. People are still quick to defend their race. People are still very wrapped up in their race. People still care far too much about their race.

Any time someone who is African American mentions a negative thing about someone who is white, racism is mentioned. This goes both ways. It will probably always be this way.

This is a bad thing. This is not Obama’s fault. This is a handicap that is going to be over the head of any African American person running for a major office.

Look at this….

…and tell me that this thing has killed his campaign. We still care about him. We still support him.

There are more Americans now than ever who are not ignorant enough to let a few racial smearjobs on the front page of websites sway us from our candidate. His ideas are the same as they were. His vision remains unchanged. He is the same leader we wanted to vote for before we found out that his pastor made a few controversial comments. He is the same man he was before he called his grandmother a typical white person.

So what if he makes a couple of generalizations about racism? People from her generation were overwhelmingly and overtly racist. Barack Obama is multiracial. You know what that means?

It means he has had to put up with more intolerance than any white man. He has had to put up with more intolerance than any black man. He has experienced both sides of the fence. He gets to say just about whatever he damn well pleases regarding race. He is in a position where a lot of people are going to hear it. If what he says is enough to sway you from voting for him, please by all means vote for John “8 More Years of Tired Republican Bullshit” Mccain.

The fact is, Obama now stands a 70% chance of grabbing this nomination. He will be up against a white man for the presidency. Race is going to play a major role in the outcome of this contest. Let’s take the gloves off, America. Let’s have it out. Let’s say what is on our minds. Let’s stop demonizing public figures when they do the same.

Can’t get enough of them momjeans!

My big fat cat named Linux just sent me a message from my wife’s computer.

I have been happy watching Obama keep the lead in the democratic primaries during my absence from posting on my blog. He is handling this contest very well now, and barring anything absolutely amazing, he has this thing locked down. I think he is going to make a wonderful president.

Things I have done since I last posted on this blog:

1) Bought a ton of music on the Amazon MP3 store.

Amazon never ceases to amaze me with all of the wonderful things they offer. They have everything I could ever want to buy online and their prices are very nice. I have ranted about their MP3 service before, but their selection has really been pleasing me. I have discovered some new music through the site as well, such as Catch 22. Listen to “The Spark” in it’s entirety… what an awesome anthem.

2) Had a small traffic accident this morning.

My insurance is probably going to go up, YAY! No one was hurt though, and there was very little damage to our vehicles.

3) Stopped smoking, started eating better.

I am trying to get into better shape. I need to live a while.

4) Registered another domain name.

I have an idea for a user-submitted content site that I think is going to be pretty awesome.

5) I bought a TV Tuner for my Mac.

Watching college basketball on an Apple computer is the closest thing to heaven I can imagine.

This blog will be updated more often from here on out. I took a break.

This isn’t an advertisement, I promise. I received an IngenuiTEA tea maker + herbal tea samples from Adagio today, and this company really knows what they are doing.

All of the teas are wonderful, and the tea maker is one of the neatest devices I have ever used.