Barney's Place

Hello world!

barneytheblueheeler — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:54:13 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Talking about YouTube – BP Blocking Media Access to workers – WDSU TV

barneytheblueheeler — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:27:49 +0000

Quote

YouTube – BP Blocking Media Access to workers – WDSU TV

New Locations

barneytheblueheeler — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:45:17 +0000

Just wanted to let everyone know that you can now find me at my new website, kworthy.com. It’s still a work in progress, so don’t expect too much. Also, I also have some newer content posted over on a Blogspot account, called Barney’s New Place. The only problem is, China’s Great Firewall prevents me from doing anything except posting info there (which is weird, right, I can post but not view). So, if you want to see what I’m up to, go check those out.

P.S. Microsoft sucks. I had to get on my work PC just to make this post.

New Blog

barneytheblueheeler — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:35:40 +0000

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that right now I’m giving a place called bloggers a try for my new posts. I’ll be leaving this one open, mainly because I don’t want to spend the time transferring everything from here to the new one.

The link is barneytheblueheeler.blogspot.com.

So far, it’s pretty barren over there, no music yet. But, I’m working on it and still finding everything that I can add to it. I’ve also got another one I’m working on, but I don’t really like the format it has. I’m thinking about popping about $75 and getting my own server (like my friend Rick – www.pandapassport.com) and loading my own software and doing pretty much anything I want with it. Still just thinking though.

Anyway, I’m going to watch some smallville and eat a little.

Why I don’t like Microsoft

barneytheblueheeler — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:22:11 +0000

Recently, I made the switch from Microsoft Windows to Ubuntu Linux. Some of you may ask why, well, it’s not Microsoft.

Over the past few months, I have noticed that Microsoft websites are becoming increasingly incompatible with internet browsers other than Internet Explorer. This does not make sense to me. When I go to MSN.com and try to watch a video and it tells me that I’m using an incompatible browser, I don’t close my current browser and try in Internet Explorer, I go to www.bbc.co.uk or www.cnn.com and look for the same/similar video.

At first, I thought it was something that would be quickly corrected, an oversight. But, after a couple of months went by and the issue did not improve, it actually got worse on some MSN pages – I can no longer make a post here, my Windows Live space, without errors unless I use Microsoft’s internet browser and Windows. So, I will keep posting here, for the time being, but I am going to be looking for a different website to continue this. So, keep your eyes open, I’ll send out a group email and make one final post here before I move for good.

If this really is Microsoft’s strategy, it is really backwards. It would be like Ford saying you could only drive their cars within the state of Michigan, no one would go to Michigan just to drive a ford, and I’m not going to use Microsoft Internet Explorer just to visit MSN.com, use Hotmail, or post more blogs here.

Anyway, I have added a couple of links to my websites section, down and to the left of this post (or, that’s where it is now). One link is for Adobe Photoshop Express, pretty cool online photo editor. Not only does it give you 2 Gigabytes of online photo storage, it also allows you to embed your photos in websites or email links to your friends.

The second website is for my online pictures with TwitPic (www.TwitPic.com). With this website, I can post pictures from anywhere, including my phone, by email. Right now, I’ve only got 5 ot 6 photos posted, but I will be adding more.

I’ll keep everyone that follows this updated as to where I’ll be moving my online stuff to.

Update

barneytheblueheeler — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:20:46 +0000

Hey everyone, (especially Mom and Dad)

Skype account’s bone dry right now so it’s going to be a while before I’m able to make another phone call. The new OS is working great. It’s really cool not having to pay for any software (99.9% of all Linux software is free) and being able to do everything that expensive software for the other OS’s.

My best friend at work (Rick), is resigning soon. Actually, he’s already gave notice, he’s just waiting for the paperwork to go through. He got sick of all the B.S. that goes on at my job and told the boss that with the current metrics, he could not compete without sacrificing customer service. Which is true. Right now, your patted on the back and given all kinds of rewards for taking the most calls and providing questionable service, whereas you’re not given squat for taking half as many very high quality calls. Really sucks. It’s going to be hard to work every night without him there to keep things interesting.

Anyway, every thing’s the same here. I’m not going to leave my job right yet. I, for some reason, still feel I can make a difference there and with all of the training I’m doing, I can. Only problem is, I encourage one thing in training, quality, and when they hit the floor, the first thing they realize is quality isn’t nearly as important as quantity (they’re young, not stupid).

I’m off to bed now so I can get up and get my triple pay tonight (oh yah, May 1st is a holiday in China… I have no idea which one, but it’s a holiday).

P.S. There’s a new social network out there (fairly new) called Twitter (www.twitter.com). It’s a pretty good way to make some really good contacts as far as the job market and things like that go. If anyone decides to sign up, you can find me at www.twitter.com/warped0ne (that’s a zero, not an ‘o’) or you can send me a message by typing @warped0ne (again, that’s a zero, not an ‘o’) followed by your message.

Later.

New OS Update

barneytheblueheeler — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:32:19 +0000

Well,

I have an online, working version of Ubuntu for over a week now, and despite a couple of problems, it’s still much better than WinXP or Vista. The one problem I’m coming across right now is Adobe Flash. Whenever I go to a website with Flash, Firefox closes. I’ve tried Firefox 2, 3, Konqueror, and a couple of other no names browsers and all have had the same result. Anyway, I’ll keep working on it.

Again, hope everyone’s enjoying their spring.

Later

New PC OS

barneytheblueheeler — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:51:10 +0000

Hey all,

Just wanted to leave a quick message and let you know that I’m using a new OS (for my parents, that means Operating System )
on my desktop. I finally got an ethernet aDSL modem and was able to
start playing with Ubuntu Linux. I went for the latest version, Hardy
Heron (ver. 8.04) and I’ve got to say, this beta is much better than
WinXP’s SP2.

Anyway, I’m ok here in China. Too far from Tibet I guess . Hope everyone’s doing good and having a good spring.

Take it easy.

my experience purchasing a cell phone on my own

barneytheblueheeler — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:22:29 +0000

I went shopping for a new cell phone the other day and I did it alone (some people think I’m incapable of doing anything by myself here). So, I was looking for the Nokia N95 8GB cuz it has lots of really cool features. I found one and talked the sales people down from over 5500RMB to 3000RMB yay for me. I forgot something my parents told me a long time ago… if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Today, I went out again to get a package my parents sent me and to get 2 photos printed (for my visa renewal) and Celina called me. I answered the phone and just had dead air. So, I hung up and she called back… the only way I could talk her was on speaker phone. So, encouraged by my recent success in bargaining, I thought I would go back and get the phone replaced. That was easy. One of the girls behind the counter spoke a little English, so I told her it was broken and she used it to try and call her own cell phone to confirm, then she went and grabbed me a different one. Now, this time, I did remember something I was told a long time ago… if something breaks, get it replaced. If the replacement breaks, get your money back… The second phone they brought out wouldn’t power on. They tried 3 different batteries, the phone just wouldn’t turn on. The girl started to go grab another and I just told her I want my money back. She started to argue with me, but I just stood there with a blank look on my face (she was trying to argue with me in Chinese) and said "Bu ming bai" (I don’t understand). Then her manager started to argue with me, again, blank look and "Bu ming bai." I was starting to draw a little attention, because I was standing in front of their stall for about 25 minutes at this point and people always look to see what the "laowai" (foreigner) is doing. And, though most of them probably couldn’t understand me, I’m sure they could understand the manager telling me whatever he was telling me. This is when the manager went away and came back and said a lot of words, the only part of which I understood was "liang chian" (two thousand). At this, I pulled the receipt out of my pocket and pointed at it and said "san chian" (three thousand). I had guessed right, he was trying to give me 2,000RMB back for the phone to get me to leave. He said "liang chian" again, and I just said "san chian." When I said this, I also sat down… kind of to emphasize that I wasn’t going anywhere without the 3,000RMB I paid for the phone. I don’t think I was being unreasonable, I only had the phone for 3 days. If something doesn’t last more than 3 days, then the offered replacement doesn’t make it out of the box, I don’t want it.

The manager said something to me really long, I didn’t understand any of it (at this point, I wasn’t even trying to anymore) and just said "san chian." He walked away again, came back with a lady who opened a safe and counted out 3,000RMB for me. I said "xie xie" (thank you) and went back to doing what I was doing before.

I think the only reason I got my money back, and Celina agrees, is that:

a) I am a foreigner and foreigners draw a lot of attention in this city.
b) I didn’t understand much that was said to me and I absolutely refused to leave without my money.

Let’s chalk this one up to dumb, blind luck and keep it at that.

Somebody must have finally heard me

barneytheblueheeler — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:38:07 +0000

One day after posting that last message about not having any water, it snowed, it snowed a lot. I think we ended up with 2 or 3 inches of snow (that’s quite a bit for here) and some ice as well. I work with some people from the Philippines and Singapore, a few of them had never seen snow before. It was so much fun to be part of their first "winter wonderland" experience. We had some snowball fights and they took lots of pictures. Other than that, not much else is going on. I’m going through some pretty intensive training at work (when I say intensive, I mean I have to learn a lot of really boring stuff in a very short period of time). Later today, I am going to play some basketball with some of my coworkers. Desktop versus Portable, it’s going to be the game of the century and the talk of water holes everywhere plus, the winner gets bragging rights until we play again. I have been having some trouble sleeping lately. I’ve had to go in early to work a few times (for before mentioned training) and it seems to have my sleeping regime all screwed up. Oh well, wouldn’t be the first time I’ve went through this and it probably won’t be the last. At least I got about 3 hours of sleep today (to go with the 3 hours I got yesterday).

Oh ya, by the way, my apartment now has running water once more. It came back the same day it snowed.