DreamHost Blog » A Strike on Strikes!

A Strike on Strikes!

February 8, 2008 on 6:27 pm | In Rants, Updates by Josh Jones |

Why can't unions ever strike against strikes?

Ha, did you think you’d gotten through those stupid strike-themed posts?

Well, apparently you are!

The writer’s strike seems to be finally coming to an end, and I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. On the one hand, it means I can finally get back to writing awesome blog posts. On the other hand, it means I can no longer get away with writing these blog posts… which is bad news because this well of creativity is tapped, my friends.

The sad truth is, I did that entire “billing mistake” thing just so I’d have easy blog fodder for another week.

A Last Hurrah

I guess I’ll just quickly wrap up a bunch of stupid things I was planning on “striking” against but never got around to. I never expected this thing to end and was pacing myself.

Hopefully this strike really is settled or you ain’t going to be seeing any new posts here until at least the first Sunday after the Ecclesiastical Full Moon date after March 20th!

A Strike on Fax Machines!

If only the web had come FIRST.

How in the hell is it 2008 and everybody still uses fax machines?

Give me some widespread e-signature standard already, world!

A Strike on Social Networks

Is it just me, or do social networks only appeal to people who 1. are single 2. have no job or 3. care about what their friends are doing?

Because I, for one, am none of those things.

A Strike on Cell Phones

And sometimes, I swallow them. Up my butt.

Why do cell phones still keep any data locally?

When you get a new cell phone, you should just have to log into it, like you do, say, a new email client, and whammo, all your contacts/pictures/text messages/themes/preferences/ETC.. are syncronized with a (non-proprietary) server.

We need IMAP for Phones.

(I lose my cell phone once a month.)

A Strike on Global Warming

And I even met him!

Dallas warned me not to post this, but he’s in Thailand (trying to enjoy it while it’s still above the ocean.)

There’s just three things that bother me about global warming.

1. There’s literally no way we can be even reasonably sure about what will happen. There’s just no experiment we can run on our entire planet that we can set up an adequate control for!

2. Even if the earth does get warmer, we can’t really know (again, what would the control be?) all the effects that will have on us until it actually happens. The earth’s climate has changed a lot over the billions of years it’s been around, and yet here we are, over 6 billion strong and fatter than ever!

3. Even if the Earth does warm, and even if it is bad for us, there’s again no way we can possibly verify what actually caused it, nor if there was anything we could have done to prevent it.

I mean, I’m all for clean air and water and not wasting electricity and saving the whales, but isn’t just having clean air and water and more money and whales to ride reason enough?!

And if we want to focus on literally saving the human race as we know it, maybe we should be spending more R+D on stopping near Earth objects!

We know they’re out there, we know they’ve hit Earth before, and we know it’s very bad when they do!

A Strike on Getting Old

I broke my left foot playing basketball when I was 27.

It took about a year to heal, but it’s pretty much been fine since.

Now all of the sudden, 3 years later, everytime I get up after being inactive for a half hour or more my left foot kills!

And that’s the real reason why I don’t worry about global warming in the future … I refuse to get older.

Now, please feel free to hold your own stikes in the comments, before the writers settle!

28 Comments »

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1

What? No comments? Is everybody on strike?

Comment by sdayman — February 8, 2008 #
2

A strike on down servers?**

A strike on fat-finger-typing?

**my server has not had any problems, that is just an obvious joke.

Comment by pace — February 8, 2008 #
3

DO NOT MAKE LIGHT OF THE BILLING ERROR. *GRR* *PISSED OFF FACE* *GRRR*

JANUARY 15, 2008 - NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE, REVENGE IS OURS!!!!

Comment by Jayson — February 8, 2008 #
4

looks like you had a (very short) strike on Rs there in the last sentence. :)

Comment by JeremyK@DH — February 8, 2008 #
5

What the hell was that post about?

That was one of the most random things I’ve read in quite awhile.

Comment by Tim — February 8, 2008 #
6

Haha, yes! I love it! A strike on believing the ridiculous global warming hoax! Nicely done! I’ve been striking on putting your “my site is green because I’m terrified by Al Gore’s crappy movie” image on my site, but now maybe I’ll consider ending that since I see that’s not really what you’re saying…

Comment by Christopher McCulloh — February 8, 2008 #
7

Precautionary principle:
The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.

Comment by Matt — February 8, 2008 #
8

I just don’t see fat fingers as a threat.

1. There’s literally no way I can be even reasonably sure about what will happen. There’s just no experiment I can run on our entire billing system that I can set up an adequate control for!

2. Even if I do press the wrong key, I can’t really know (again, what would the control be?) all the effects that will have on you until it actually happens. I’ve been pressing wrong keys and messing up in harmless ways a lot over the thirty-something years I’ve been around, and yet here my fingers are, over 6 inches long and fatter than ever!

3. Even if I do make a big mistake, and even if it is bad for us, there’s no way I can possibly verify which key it was, nor if there was anything I could have done to prevent it.

Seriously, read this: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg1.htm
If you have a real dispute with the evidence in there you’ll be in a better position

Comment by kestasjk — February 8, 2008 #
9

Matt: what if for all possible actions, there are people arguing that it could cause harm to the public?

I don’t even know if you used this principle _against_ or _for_ the actions that would prevent global warming.

State-enforced “global warming prevention” is an action. Releasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is an action too. For both, there are people who argue that it might cause harm to the public. Personally, I think _both_ cause harm to the public.

Comment by Eduardo Habkost — February 8, 2008 #
10

@Eduardo
There are plenty of ways that we can mitigate the release of carbon into our atmosphere without causing harm to the public.
ie. walk to work, eat less meat, avoid air travel…

For instance, look at dreamhost here. At this very momement, dreamhost has nearly 90 servers offline for the next 8 hours. Josh suggests that he’s not concerned about global warming, but I beg to differ - Think of all electricity that will be saved! Dreamhost, you’re doing a damn fine job for the environment. Thank you.

oh wait…. but what about all the customers and web surfers that are being screwed tonight?…. hmmm…

Maybe you’re right Eduardo… maybe our hands are tied… and we should just wait and see what happens with this “global warming” craze.

just so no one gets hurt.

Comment by Matt — February 8, 2008 #
11

I put a strike on bodily functions. I’m tired of having to pee at 4am when I have to wake up to feed my baby, if I want her to GO BACK to sleep quickly I don’t have TIME to pee, so i sit while she eats, on the computer, having to pee very badly. Reading about global warming and WATER doesn’t help!!!

Comment by pixie — February 9, 2008 #
12

JOSH PUT HIS BIG TOE IN MY NAUGHTY PLACE!!!

Comment by Zimmy — February 9, 2008 #
13

If anyone at Dreamhost could put down their tacos and spliffs for a few minutes? You completely f’d up the Randy cluster move earlier today. A good number of your paying customers have been completely without our web sites and emails for almost 18 hours. You have now gone 9 hours past when you said all would be back to normal. Not a single person affected has had ANY response to their support requests - granted, there were two or three hours where we couldn’t even access our control panels - there have been NO updates to the status blog, and you marked the issue “resolved” before you grabbed your coats and left! This is absolutely pathetic, almost as much as me having to write a comment here in a desperate attempt to get SOMEONE’S attention!! Get your fucking act together.

Comment by Anonymous — February 9, 2008 #
14

Didn’t take long for the off-topic crying and whining to start. Someone get the little baby a pacifier.

Comment by John H. — February 9, 2008 #
15

I thought this blog was for Dreamhost related topics, not so you could pretend you have writing ability.

Still not getting that whole “don’t make light of major mistakes that caused others pain” message I see.

Comment by Lisa — February 10, 2008 #
16

Hey Anonymous! You’d have a lot more fun blathering on http://fuckdreamhost.com, and it would be just about as effective as your “desperate attempt to get SOMEONE’S attention!” by your “having to write a comment here”.

Comment by RighteousIndignation — February 10, 2008 #
17

Thailand is still above the ocean, so far.

Comment by Dallas Kashuba — February 12, 2008 #
18

Nice post! It’s nice to see random non-work related posts.

Comment by Kevin Hatfield — February 12, 2008 #
19

Heh. Like that tiny cell phone that you have in that one picture.

@Anonymous: You won’t get the attention of support by posting here.

Comment by Robert — February 12, 2008 #
20

How about this; we set aside the arguments of WHAT us causing global climate change for now. Let’s just look at the fact that despite what’s posted here, we DO have a fairly good idea of some of the bad things that will happen with climate change. higher sea levels, more extreme weather, millions of people displaced, etc. This isn’t really debated to any great degree.

Let’s instead focus on what we can do, and DO it, then, LATER, when we’ve avoided a lot of the worst, THEN we can go back to arguing if it’s man made or not. If we then decide it’s man made, we fixed out problem. If instead we decide it was natural, we avoided a natural disaster. It’s what we call “win win”.

Comment by Grey Hodge — February 14, 2008 #
21

A strike on down roundcube?

and this is not a joke

Comment by vostorga — February 14, 2008 #
22

So glad you mentioned NEO (Near Earth Object) research. I met a researcher who specializes in this stuff last year, at a party - and yes, it is really scary how poorly funded these scientists are.

Definitely as important as global warming and clean water, clean air, and removing all but the “quality” reality shows from TV.

Comment by Sibby — February 14, 2008 #
23

> If instead we decide it was natural, we avoided a
> natural disaster. It’s what we call “win win”.

I’m not going to dispute to what percentage can be attributed to man vs. nature, but…

If it is mostly nature there really isn’t much that we can do (short of plugging volcanoes or constructing a gigantic sun-shade and placing it in low Earth orbit).

It seems possible/likely that at least some of the changes are exacerbated by human activity and we can make changes to mitigate that - but I’m not sure it’s a guaranteed win/win if the changes we make have little positive impact (and, given the associated economic costs, it could even turn out to be a losing proposition).

- Jeff @ DreamHost

Comment by Jeff @ DreamHost — February 14, 2008 #
24

Haha. I agree, random. But funny!

Comment by spearfish — February 15, 2008 #
25

Global Warming: I know you’re based in the states, and I know that the states are a place full off fucked up complete fucking IDIOTIC MORONS WITHOUT BRAINS, but I actually believed that the folks at Dreamhost was a bit above the mediocre norm of USA. Not so, apparently.

.. and you assholes have changed the TOS “under my feet” to not allow backups, now suddenly demanding lots of money per month for a service which, when I signed up with you, was free. The possibility to stick “random data” on the disk was an extremely nice feature, and the reason for several of your customers to come to you, including me.

I don’t like you anymore.

Comment by Endre — February 22, 2008 #
26

Wow, we might be idiots, but at least we are nice.

If you’re so smart though… Why do you have to resort to name calling instead of giving a well reasoned argument?

Comment by idiot — February 22, 2008 #
27

Hi, nice post. I couldn’t understand some parts of the article but it sounds interesting..
Continue writing…

Comment by Buy Phentermine Online — February 23, 2008 #
28

Man if Shaq saw this post it would be over for you Josh. No X’s on the big man please.

Comment by Dave — February 27, 2008 #

A Strike on Strikes!

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