Eric P. Metze » Rants

Incomprehensable Spam

Eric P. Metze — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:54:24 +0000

I get a lot of spam. Who doesn’t? Fortunately, I have Gmail and less than 0.01% gets through to me. Most of the time I just report it and go about my business. But I happened to read this one and I’ve gotta admit I still don’t know what the hell they want from me. They don’t even have a link that I can click (if I was stupid enough to fall for whatever scam they’re attempting). Can you figure it out?

Dear Sir
Delinquent Account Services.
This is a request from our company for your legal consultation services on behalf of Wong Chow Company Limited. We are based in Hong Kong and our principal activity is manufacturing/producing textile Products, textile manufacturing material, Yarn Products and other knitting cloth Works. Other activities include constructing, provision of investment services. We are presently incapacitated due to international legal boundaries to exert pressure on our delinquent customers in USA, UP North and Europe. We request for your services accordingly.

We got your contact profile through the lawyerâ€™s network and after going through your profile, we are of the convention that you are qualified to provide the legal services we require. Please accept my sincerest appreciation on behalf of Wong Chow Company Limited, in advance for your willingness to render your services to our company.
We wait to hear from you
Amed Fasasi

So my question is, what is the point? Are they just trying to annoy people or do they have some other, more nefarious intention? Either way, it’s amazing to me what worthless crap gets passed along via the internet. And yes, I’m aware of the irony of passing that crap onto you. It’s just that it was so remarkably incomprehensable that I had to share.

Vote for McCain/Palin = Vote for Evil

Eric P. Metze — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:19:07 +0000

If you’re voting for McCain and Palin even after they engage in tactics like these, don’t fool yourself: you are voting for evil. You’re already reading my post, so why not read the article that inspired it? Palin hits Obama for ‘terrorist’ connection

Unsubstantiated bullshit like this is what led us into a disastrous war and only further contributes to the decline of our once-great nation. It is an insult to the intelligence of the American voter because it takes advantage of the fact that a vast majority of us won’t take the time to find out the truth. People hear Palin say Obama has ties to terrorism and people gobble that crap up. She is deliberately lying to her potential constituents because she knows it’s easier than the truth. Why doesn’t this piss Republicans off? We are supposed to trust our leaders because they have our best interests in mind, and yet it seems like the only thing McCain and Palin want to do is win the election. They could care less about what we want as long as they get their way. And in case you’ve been asleep the past eight years, the Republican party will say/do anything is order to get what it wants.

I just wish incidents like this would motivate all those decent Republicans to reclaim their party from people like Palin, Cheney, and Guiliani.

Hey Hey! Ho Ho! IE6 Has Got To Go!

Eric P. Metze — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:11:16 +0000

Please, please â€“ if youâ€™re still using Internet Explorer 6, STOP!

Why? Microsoft wants you to. IE6 has many issues with security and display. Comedy Central wants you to. Once you upgrade to FireFox (Windows or Mac), or IE7 (Windows), youâ€™ll get faster download times, smoother animations and better looking pages.

All of the new browsers have useful new features that IE6 doesnâ€™t, such as tabbed browsing (multiple pages displayed conveniently in a single window).

Click on any of the links above to upgrade to the latest version of one of the browsers mentioned for FREE!

Wii? No. Why? No $.

Eric P. Metze — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:39:48 +0000

Why You Can’t Get Your Hands on a Wii Annotated

I have owned a Nintendo since 1985, and I’ve never owned an Xbox, a Sega, a PlayStation, or anything since my Atari when I was (literally) too young to walk. So, Nintendo’s success here is kind of a great thing for me to watch. The sad irony is that I have patiently waited for almost two years to get my hands on one. Mostly because my video game fix comes from programming on my laptop, but mostly because I refuse to pay over retail price for it. Still, it’s getting harder to resist this “toy.” Now, that seems like brilliant marketing…
– post by metzae

Last week was Nintendo’s best since the Wii’s launch, with 350,000 sold in the United States alone. In comparison, Microsoft sold about that many Xbox 360s last month. It’s a remarkable triumph for a console focused on the kind of simple games skeptics originally wrote off as “thumb candy for dummies.”

You can’t waste a worthless vote.

Eric P. Metze — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:41:48 +0000

I know how this is going to make me look to some people, but I just stop reading certain emails when I realize it’s their attempt to convince me that voting for Stephen Colbert is a waste of my vote. Is it because I’m intellectually lazy or obstinate? No. I just know from their opening statements that they are working from a premise I do not hold: the elections for president of the United States are legitimate.

I voted for the winner of the past three presidential elections, and Bill Clinton was the only one who actually got into office. And even then, I didn’t know what I was voting for, really. I just knew I didn’t like that weasel whose last name was code for a wimp, and I wanted a saxophone player in the office over him. Yes, that’s how deeply I thought about politics the first time I voted. Sadly, since I’ve become aware of politics and my world, I’ve participated in two of the biggest frauds in American history. Popular vote? That don’t matter none! We done had arselves a elekshun! Two-thirds of the nation doesn’t approve of the incumbent, and yet he gets re-elected? That don’t matter none! We already had arselves a elekshun! An’ besides, them terrists maht git us!

But, I digress…

Until I see proof that our elections have been overhauled, I can’t feel any regret for wasting an already worthless vote. I mean, our elections should (at least superficially) reflect the desires of the people, right? People will go on and on about the same things I used to say. Things like, “this election is too important to throw away.” Well, I’ve got news for anyone who thinks this election is too important: every election is too important to throw away. This is supposed to be a democracy, right? To me, the fact that the elections are rigged is the main issue, not which puppets or parties might be better suited to “run” this nation.

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate their concern, and in the past I would otherwise be on their side. But I’ve seen and read things that have convinced me that the presidential election is a farce. And, therefore, all assumptions based on the premise that they are legitimate is just plain illogical. So, trying to convince me of the merits of a pseudo-democracy and an archaic electoral system is a complete waste of my time and theirs. I definitely see their point, but it’s just not relevant to me anymore.