A fourth standard girl from rural Tamil Nadu has become the youngest to qualify the Microsoft certified professional examination. The Microsoft exam, usually taken by techies for better job prospects, measures problem-solving skills and Lavinashree (9) passed it with flying colours. By achieving this feat, she broke the record held by Arfa Karim, a ten-year-old Pakistani girl.

I’ll start off by saying this is a wonderful time when the youth of this world is so gifted. Though I am extremely pissed off about this and it has nothing to do with the fact she is an Indian but with the fact that she actually is certified by Microsoft! I don’t know about these stupid tests they give out to prove you have enough brains to help people with their technical issues. That doesn’t stop the fact I am freaking tired of getting Technical Support from people that know nothing about computers cause they can pass one of these stupid tests. Yes, you heard it first here, when I call for help and I get someone as smart as a 9yr old trying to help me, that is why I am pissed off.

Now I know there is a certification that is so easy that a 9yr old in a county that is technologically inferior in many ways to the United States can pass. Then it seems these are the people that are supposed to help me with my computer problem. Does this make sense to you? Instead of droning on and on about how it makes me angry I am going to end with a simple request.

When I call Technical Support I don’t want someone to read to me from a book. Give me the book, I learned how to read and read well. Please employ people who can talk well on the phone, I have a hard time enough understanding my friends on the phone, hell I can hardly understand myself and I know my own language well enough.  Finally please try to help me when I call, if you cannot help me please find someone that can and yes I don’t care about your policy. I do not want to spend an hour repeating myself and trying to understand someone while they read from a book about what problem they ‘think’ I may be experiencing. I am not looking for a free ride, I am looking for a solution to a problem without jumping through hoops, if you are unable to accomplish that for me, please fuck off and hand the phone to another person that can find that solution, Thank You.

via 9-year-old TN girl cracks Microsoft exam.

Let me start here so you can understand. Now suddenly there is a browser that a certain community is told they can use to stay connect to their community. Next there can be content designed for this certain browser that other browsers cannot use. It starts with add-ons and themes then if it catches on there will be certain websites that can only be viewed with that certain community browser. After that is the final straw, they will start deviating from the web standards and demand that your website be compatible with their browser or you will be neglecting an entire community of people.

You might be saying “Josh you are silly this would never happen!” Bullshit! It already has. One special community browser is called Internet Explorer. While this is not restricted to race, it is restricted to a certain Windows based operating system, and thankfully so cause being a racist bigot is terrible.

Show your support for not being racist, sexist, or anything else and use the same browser as everyone else and support multi-platform browsers such as Firefox. If connecting to your community is important, join a forum or chat room, and in a rare chance there might be a plug-in for your browser that might assist you in that goal.

Blackbird staff if you read this, make a plug-in! Not an edited browser, thank you.

Gabe Newell from Valve which is part of Steam has made his view on DRM very clear.

As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I’ll be able to play my game and maybe I won’t).

This is possibly be the reason why I will be buying games through Steam now instead of shopping in any other way. Maybe I do want increased service value and not decreasing of the value of my product. Imagine that, they will be getting more of my money.

http://xkcd.com/511/

The Dumbest Players I’ve played with - Steam Users’ Forums

The Dumbest Players I’ve played with

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Shotgun Sally:
- Convinced the shotgun(s) is the be all end all
- Uses the Shotgun at long range
- Thinks peeling zombies off you with the shotgun is a good idea
- Usually likes to stand in the back

Petey Pyro:
- Doesn’t know what a pipebomb is
- Shoots every gas tank / explosive as soon as it’s in sight
- Thinks Molotovs are useful when someone is “boomed on”
- (duffdaddy67) Thinks throwing a Molotov on downed survivor with zombies swarming him is the ONLY way to save him

Ricky Rambo:
- Runs ahead of the pack no doubt trying to race to Zombie Genocide
- Complains when he gets jumped by a Zombie Special
- Usually also a Shotgun Sally
- (Disodium) Upon death proceeds to abuse team about how noob they are for not keeping up
- (MWM|Talon) Always rushes the people in the lobby, even if there is only you and him

Health Pack Harry:
- Never shares pills and/or health packs
- Heals himself from yellow health whilst you stand there with red health
- Sometimes a Ricky Rambo

Wally Witch B♥T♥H:
- Must disturb the witch
- MUST
- Does not know the essence of stealth
- Will never get “Do Not Disturb”

Car Alarm Carl:
- Shoots the car alarm… everytime
- Will run back from the safe room, just to shoot the car on the apartments map
- Almost always a Wally Witch B♥T♥H as well

Stu Spammy Spam:
- Doesn’t know you can turn off the mic once it’s been turned on in the lobby
- Plays music in game
- Doesn’t hear your pleas to turn off the mic over his own mic spam
- Generally a young male who has not hit puberty yet
- (XM20k) Offenses increase in direct relation to their alcohol consumption

Norman No-Melee:
- Prefers to shoot the Smoker / Hunter that’s got you pinned, even tho he’s standing right next to you
- When told meleeing is faster, will argue to the death you’re wrong
- Almost always in the “dedicated to” category
- Jumps out in the open after being “boomed on” versus finding a corner
- Requires the most healing indirectly making him a Health Pack Harry
- Almost always a Shotgun Sally

Schoolmaster Steve: (Zombie Pawn)
- Bosses his fellow gamers around in-game because he perceives everyone else as a stupid pupil (i.e., newb) who isn’t taking the game seriously
- When not playing the game, he is writing long forum postings on how other players are stupid and/or publishes various “Survival Guides for Newbs”
- Like a boss zombie, generally ruins the game for everyone else

Pistol Pump Petey: (Gunner_Guardian)
- Always uses a pump shotgun and never an autoshottie
- OR Always uses pistols because he “looks cool”
- Has trouble understanding why tanks, witchs, all special infected keep killing him.

Friendly fire Freddy: (Gunner_Guardian)
- Will shoot you in attempt to shoot zombies near you
- Gets startled easily when you jump in front of you and accidently shoots
you
- Claims Expert and advanced are way too hard.
- Often a Shotgun Sally

Take my Sweet A♥♥ Time Terry: (PFC Erik(music))
- Must explore every room
- Has always walk turned on because
- Can’t understand why everyone is in such a rush
- (Mongis) Usually Hunter / Smoker bait
- Ricky Rambo’s sworn enemy

Dancing Dan: (frederf)
- Does not know the meaning of tactical camping
- Is constantly moving
- Usually in front of your line of fire

Competitive Craig: (Stryde22)
- MUST kill the most infected
- Gets angry when he/she isnt first on the stat lists
- Weakens the AI characters so he/she can do better than them
- NEVER is greatful when someone saves them
- Always is cocky when they save someone
- Generally isnt saved when attacked by hunters, then left in every
subsequent closet

No-Knees Nobu:(Stryde22)
- Cannot grasp the idea of crouching
- Has difficulty climbing the ladders
- Will never travel to an area that involves climbing or jumping (such as
the high roof in the no mercy finale)
- Always ruins the ’safety first’ runs

Sam the Sneaky Sniper (Rhllor)
- Always picks the Hunting Rifle
- Failing that, uses Pistols
- Insists on everyone waiting while he picks of every Infected in the area
from afar
- Had Jump Shot and Brain Salad as his very first achievements
- Will always take his time and aim for a headshot
- Even when his target is just two metres away
- Especially when it is a tank
- Gets into strange/useless positions just to have as much distance as
possible between him and incoming hordes
- Quite often also a Norman No-Melee and/or Competetive Craig

Boom Box Jacob: (Sh4dowz)
- Always claims to be the best Boomer
- Says that Smokers and Hunters got to attack first
- Thinks he “owned” everyone, even if he vomitted on one person only
- Keeps waiting at the wrong spots
- Keeps killing himself when he is not a Boomer

Sergeant Green Bars: (Sh4dowz)
- Claims to have the best internet connection
- Never has any lag, according to his greenbars
- Does not know the net_graph command
- Keeps being annoyed if people try to go back to the lobby, to find another server

Nigel Rage: (Sh4dowz)
- Has the command “quit” binded to at least three keys on the keyboard
- Quits after he has lost one round as survivor
- Enjoys playing infected rather then survivor
- His number one rule, if you die as a survivor, you failed, you need to QUIT

Infected Jack Red: (Sh4dowz)
- Only plays infected
- Always starts of playing infected
- When it’s time to changes sides, its time for him to change server
- Even though he plays infected so much, he still sucks
- Is usually a Boom Box Jack aswell

Will Wannabe Bill: (Sh4dowz)
- Hates everything about left4dead
- Keeps playing to find more things to hate
- Keeps posting on the forums about how much the game fails
- The only thing he likes about l4d, is Bill, because he hates everything too
- But eventually he will hate Bill too

Silent Bob: (AngryJawa)
- Has no microphone
- When hes getting choked out or pounced he fails to tell his teams hes
being hit (usually happens when everyones been boomed)
- Never communicates at all

Oblivious Oscar: (Luckseven)
- Continues pouring lead into any zombies within a 10 mile radius despite
the fact that other players are incapacitated
- Walks right by any incapacitated players
- What health kit? I forgot I had one (you can also insert guns, ammo,
bombs, or basically anything remotely helpful)
- Is liable to let you die to a smoker/hunter despite the fact you have 100% health
- More than likely is stoned/drunk off their gourd and is suffering from
severely reduced reaction time
- Probably watching porn in the background while playing
- Mic is on so you can enjoy too!

Gas Can Gary: (Lunarbunny)
- Has to pick up every gas can, propane tank, and oxygen tank he sees.
- Has an order to which he prefers and will always drop (and possibly then shoot it) “lesser” containers to pick up a “better” one.
- Will carry a container until he finds a better one or finds a “good use” for it, even if the group is overrun and needs more than a melee attack
- Will try to carefully place the container for “optimal coverage” no matter what the situation

and last but certainly not the least

The N00B:
- Three or more of the above

Too Human Soundtrack Now Available From Amazon and Others

It is amazing such a simple animal is really extremely complex. Plus they give us eggs and provide us with meat, handy animal.

http://cad-comic.com/sillies.php?d=20081115