Dialectical Reasoning

I found a great AdWords mess-up this morning while doing some research for one of my projects. This is a classic case of someone not proof reading their Google Adwords. This ad stating the you can Grow Back Hair Fast is obviously targeting the right market (my search was for Hair Loss Surgery) but isn’t quite hitting the mark. Who wants to grow back hair? Certainly not me. I recommend having someone proof read your ad’s before they go live. At worst, walk away from your computer for a couple of hours and go back and have another look at them. Sometimes the break away from the monotonous environment of your computer workstation will do you a world of good and you’ll find mistakes like this one before they go live and you spend your money on them.

I think it is awesome, Google that is. They have opened up a new economy to the entire world. If you are willing to put in the time to learn about the web, you can turn your back (hair) to day jobs that involve putting on business clothes, commuting to work, dealing with some old asshole’s attitude just because he has been in the business world long enough to know everybody. No more cubicle and no more standard bi-weekly paychecks. On a more negative note, no more wasting time at the water cooler with the hot chick, now that you work for yourself, time is a precious money making commodity.

The best and worst part about this is that all the high dollar big wigs and all these large corporations don’t even know we exist. They don’t even have the slightest understanding of the true potential behind the super economy highway. The Internet, yeah, it’s pretty awesome.

A friend of mine turned a very horrible situation into a lifetime learning experience. A time that will change him forever. He sent me a letter from prison. With nothing but time on his hands, he drew on the envelopes he was sending out to friends and family. My envelope came with a pile of skulls on it. Check it out:

I guess now would be a good a time as any to go on a rant about how broken and fucked up our civil justice system is. Both sides of it. The court systems are run by District Attorneys with unlimited power, use of all government authoritative positions as witnesses and over zealous Assistant DA’s willing to convict anyone once the state is committed to prosecuting regardless of the accused guilt. If it weren’t for all of the advancements in science to disprove the one track minded charismatic District Attorneys thousands of people would still be in prison and on death row. A three letter word that is more valuable than S-E-X to someone wrongly convicted. That word is D-N-A.

The other side of the US justice system that is all screwed up is the ‘rehabilitation’ part of it. Come on, do you really think long term prison sentences are going to help first time offenders? Prisons themselves are a whole new society to first time offenders with a learning curve that doesn’t allow mistakes. Race segregation, new rules on who is charge, new ways instill prison justice on inmates and guards and wardens that know exactly what is going on, but choose to turn their backs to it rather than fight to correct prison life. To most, prisoners deserve whatever punishment they receive in prison because they are there, but if someone is wrongly convicted, everyday is a new hell. It’s not just about being physically or sexually abused, it’s also about being the one that needs to assault other prisoners because your new boss told you to. And I’m not referring to a guard or warden, I am referring to the leaders of each race in each cell block. Races need to keep their race in check. If an inmate is told by his cell blcok leader to assault someone, he/she needs to do it for fear of starting a race riot if the Wood doesn’t take care of the other Wood that is not following the prisoner rules. Kill or be killed. Put him in check, or we’ll put you in check.

This country needs quality affordable criminal defense for the accused. This country needs to hold state prosecutors personally accountable for people they wrongly convict. If DNA exonerates someone, the DA that prosecuted that person should go on trial to prove their innocence in wrongly convicting that person. We need accountability in our government, not a boys club of judges and district attorneys rubbing elbows to better their careers at the expense of innocent people.

It is the nature of my job. I speak to people about the work I do for them and then I sit in front of my computer and do the work…not necessarily in that order. If you read the About Stefan Rest page, then you know I cozy up to my desk, surround sound stereo and get work done.

I have always been an electronics guy and like to have nice stuff, even when it’s nicer than what I need. Having rad electronics helps me stay motivated and makes work seem easier. Yeah, I could probably save money every year by getting by with an older computer, smaller screen or shitty speakers…but I work a lot…and that’s just no fun.

Today, I finally upgraded my home office phone system. I have been looking at expensive VOIP phone systems all over the web and also looking at plantronics headsets because I do a lot of work in front of my computer while on the phone. As far as sales guys go, I don’t really recommend a headset because you will remain less animated and that will be projected in your voice inflection. If you are the sort of sales person that paces around and talks with his hands, you can get away with a headset. For the rest of you phone jockeys, speak into the microphone on your handset and be who you want to be.

I decided to buy the Plantronics Calisto Pro Series home office phone system because it is the entire package all in one. It is a phone and a headset which means there are no worries on whether or not it will be compatible with your current phone system. It doesn’t have any type of answering system, but my VOIP service with Vonage provides voice mail for me and eventually, when Google Voice is open to the public, I will centralize all of my numbers and voice mails to one location.

Check out the features of the Calisto Pro Series hands-free home office phone:

Stay connected, wherever you work, with the Calisto Pro Series hands-free home office phone system. Its integrated multi-function Bluetooth headset offers professional sound for your home office as you remotely answer landline, VoIP and even mobile calls. Combined with a compact cordless/VoIP phone offering a built-in speakerphone, interference-free DECT 6.0 technology, and ability to download Outlook contact numbers, you’ve got powerful communication options like never before.

I had to spend an extra $30 in shipping to have it sent down to the office in Puerto Rico, but considering the access we have to quality supplies and equipment down here, that is a small price to pay. I’ll do a customer review on the Calisto Pro as soon as I receive it and plug it in.

Any and every excuse to sling propaganda. The press reported more about the kid in Germany that killed 12 students and then 2 more people in a shootout with police at a Volkswagon dealer before killing himself. The press said two things that annoy me:

• A teenage gunman who killed himself and 15 people on Wednesday in a rampage that began at his former school had apparently signaled his plans on an Internet chat room hours before embarking on the murderous spree, German officials said Thursday, as a portrait of a troubled and depressed youth began to emerge.

• Mr. Rech said Mr. Kretschmer had been treated for depression but had broken off his therapy. The Stuttgart chief prosecutor, Siegfried Mahler, said Mr. Kretschmer’s personal computer contained pornographic images. The teenager had also spent time playing violent computer games.

Regarding the first quote. He revealed his intentions in an Internet chat room. OOOOOOOh, he talked about it in a chat room. People talk about crazy stuff all the time, even in chat rooms. If you hunted down every single person that acted weird, crazy, suicidal or violent in public or on the Internet, 89% of the world would be arrested. Come on now people, the world is crazy, people are crazy, you’re crazy. There was no way to stop this kid ahead of time and saying that if our civil liberties were violated by the government tracking our Internet usage is pure propaganda. Fuck that. Better parenting will prevent murderous rampages from happening, not invasion of our privacy.

I don’t have much to say about the second paragraph than this. Every single kid out there that is 12 years old with a computer has seen a naked girl on it (porn) and every kid has blown some shit sky high playing Halo. The way the article above is written, it is setting you up for the governments final blow on your civil liberties. I can hear it now: You support the murder of young women, like in Germany, if you don’t vote to make violent video games and pornography illegal.

If you listen to everyone in the news and all the worry warts, the United States is in a recession…hell, the world is in a recession. Down here in Puerto Rico, all the local Inn’s and Hotels are complaining about a slow down in business but most of them are still doing well. I wonder if Rincon Puerto Rico is going to get more of the college spring break crowd with the lack of desire to go to Mexico…for fear of your life.

There have been more murders in Mexico in the past 18 months than in the Iraq war. That’s a lot of death. It makes me think that the drug cartels are really gaining power down there as the government looses power along with the rest of the world because of the recession. Recently, a retired army general hired to put together an elite squad of drug agents was kidnapped from the strip in Cancun and murdered. Analysts say that Cancun is less susceptible to the drug wars because it is a peninsula with only one way in and out allowing for the police and military to intercept any trouble makers. That is the reason they say that it is safe for spring breakers to go to Cancun Mexico, because it would be too hard for drug cartel hit men to get away after they kill someone or fill Senor Frogs up with a spray of bullets from one of their automatic weapons.

Just yesterday, five human heads were found in coolers in the Mexico state of Jalisco. The coolers all had messages etched into the outside with sayings like; “Like these, I’m going to finish you all” and “Here we go idiot”. Man, when did decapitations become so popular?

The US has issued a travel advisory on Mexico but mostly in the border towns like Tijuana. Tijuana has never been safe, but at least you only had to deal with corrupt cops and not kidnapping drug cartels.

My call, let Mexico work out their problems without US tourist money. Don’t be a hero, Mexico isn’t worth loosing your head.

The Rest clan finally made it down to Puerto Rico. We have been down here close to two years and no one has been able to make the visit. My dad, Susan and Skyler finally made it down last week and spent a couple of days with us. It was a lot of fun. Summer and I were both really busy with work but we passed time with them on the front porch over coffee, went snorkeling, drank Ron Cana (Puerto Rican moonshine) and went down to Villa Cofresi for a few of their famous Piratas. A Pirata is a rum cocktail served in a coconut…it’s a must have for every tourist here in Rincon Puerto Rico.

Villa Cofresí Hotel & Restaurant in Rincón Puerto Rico.

I was using Apple’s iWork program (as I always to) to edit a few lines in a .doc file that was sent to me. I guess I just figured that I could save my revisions, re-attach it to an email (web based gmail) and then ship it back off to the recipient. I guess I wasn’t really thinking straight because the guy that was supposed to receive the attachment has a PC and wouldn’t have been able to open a Pages file anyway…but I was very surprised when Google wouldn’t even send the pages file as an attachment!

I guess Google saved me the trouble of apologizing for sending a file that they couldn’t open..but if the recipient also had a Mac, I probably would have been really annoyed. Regardless, I still think it’s strange that Gmail won’t send Pages files as attachments. No warning, it just kept saying “still working”.

Stay tuned for my favorite clips from North Shore the movie.

I am on my cell phone a lot for work, and I am on my cell phone a lot because I am addicted to it. The technology aspect of cell phones these days has me checking my iPhone for emails, FaceBook and Twitter updates constantly. If I am bored, I will be playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker or shuffling through pictures that I most recently taken. Hmmm…maybe there is something wrong with me. Why can’t I just sit in the hammock and chill out! :-)

The last time I went to San Diego with Summer, I spent a lot of time at Cafe 976 in Pacific Beach. I like their coffee, their food is healthy and very fresh and their Wi-Fi is fast. It’s a great place to people watch and get some work done. I loved this sign they had at the register so much, I took a picture of it with my iPhone so I could preserve it forever. Check it out. Classic.

Summer and I are 16 weeks into becoming a family of three. We had our ultrasound two weeks ago and could make out the babies head and body clearly, but hearing the heartbeat made it all very real. There is something growing inside of Summers stomach!

We are 95% done with the construction of the main level of our Rincon Puerto Rico Home which consists of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a great room and the kitchen. The guest bedroom upstairs is going to become the nursery but we have sworn not to paint it pink or blue depending on the gender of the baby.