Wendy's Self-Service Kiosks Signal Bad Times Ahead For Teenage Workers.

The future is here, folks.

Wendy's has announced that they'll be doing a nationwide launch of self-service kiosks in their 6,000+ restaurant locations. Instead of a thirty-something mother of five with a neck tattoo taking your order, a robot will do it with much less complication (and no mistakes).

Executives with Wendy's point to rising wages as the reason for the self-service kiosk expansion. In states like California and New York, the minimum wage has recently gone above ten dollars an hour (with some cities at $15 per hour). Since we've yet to learn how to grow money on trees, the kiosks are a natural alternative for offsetting labor costs. Less employees and more kiosks help Wendy's meet their bottom line and turn a profit. It's as simple as that.

Of course, there's a downside to this whole turn of events. The short-sighted fast-food employees that have been pushing for a $15 minimum wage will soon see themselves without a job at all. For teenagers whom are looking for their first job, they'll now find themselves competing with a computer. Guess who is going to lose 99% of the time.

Idiots like this are why teenagers will soon be competing with robotic self-service kiosks for jobs.

While I'm actually thankful to see a large corporation move towards self-service for order taking (something companies like Sheetz have done successfully for many years), I'm also sad to see the realm of teenage employment shrink even further than it already has. Working at a fast-food restaurant is not a career. It's a pit-stop for young people to learn how to be responsible and earn a paycheck. And yet, fast-food work has been held hostage by grown adults unwilling to do anything else, much less better themselves for more reasonable employment opportunities. These fools have demanded $15 an hour to do menial work meant for young people. You reap what you sow.

I guess you can call this progress?

When Hard Work Pays Off.

I just dropped almost $700 on a new computer. In the past few months, Crystal and I have been hustling hard, as to not have to put out a single dime of our own money to pay for it. I feel pretty damn good right about now. Very literally, we made money appear from right out of the trash. Could we have just bought a computer at any time? Of course. But this... oh it feels so much better.

We spent all evening determining the specs on the new PC. Now that the order has been placed and I have to wait three weeks to get it, I'm just going to sit back and relish this moment for a bit. Let's watch some videos of computers being destroyed. Ah, so satisfying.

01010000 01101111 01100101 01101101 00101110

Electric circuits glowing with passion
Pushing harder, farther, faster
A swarm of numbers flooding the horizon
Spilling over a jagged cliff of VGA monitors
Into a crypt of dial-up modems and Zip drives
The old replaced with the new
Layer upon layer of humanity's latest and greatest
Here today, gone tomorrow
Never a dull moment
In the tomb of zeroes and ones
Necessity is the key to survival
Every cassette tape and 5 1/4 floppy disk
From dot matrix to coding BASIC
Nothing is sacred in the land that time.gov forgot
And yet, a peak behind the wizard's curtain reveals the formula
If everything is obsolete
Then nothing is

How To Get The Classic Windows Starfield Screen Saver On Your Modern PC.

You know what I miss? The classic starfield screen saver application.

Back with Windows 3.1, Microsoft provided a nifty little screen saver that simulated traveling through space. While the screen saver was running, it was as if you were watching through a window on the Starship Enterprise. Little stars would blast past you at warp speed, recreating faster-than-light space travel. The starfield screen saver was a wonderful feature, but unfortunately there's a whole generation of computer users whom know nothing of it.

The last version of Windows to offer the starfield screen saver was XP. As of Windows Vista, the application was terminated. It has also not been included with Windows 7, 8 or 10. I've never seen a reason as to why the folks at Microsoft decided to cut the starfield from future releases, but I think they made a real mistake. The starfield screen saver is as synonymous with Windows as Solitaire and Minesweeper!

But, all is not lost. If you want to put the starfield screen saver on your modern Windows-based computer, there's a simple workaround. You'll need access to a computer still running on Windows XP. Perform a search on the XP system for a file named 'ssstars.scr'. This is the file for the starfield screen saver. Simply copy the file to a jump drive and then place it on the computer you want to use it with. Drop the file in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. Ta-da! You can now run the classic starfield screen saver!

Isn't it so soothing to watch? Boldly going where so many have gone before!

Dumpster Computing!

Around 11 AM this morning, Crystal and I were out taking our routine walk through the local park for some exercise. The wind was calm.  The temperature was brisk, but not chilly. The sun was bright and warm. Everything was wonderful about the walk.

And then... we found two computers in a dumpster.

There's a large waste bin in the local park we go to. It's not uncommon for people to come and drop their garbage off there, even though it's not legal to do so. While walking past the dumpster on our journey home, I noticed a black, metallic box peaking out one side of the bin. Upon inspection, we discovered two personal computers, two monitors, two printers and various others cables associated with them.

What were the odds?

Crystal ran home to fetch a vehicle while I stood guard and gathered our treasure. The computers were in good external condition with little wear and still looked very presentable. Getting them home, we immediately sorted out their various plugs and crossed our fingers.

Would the computers turn on?

Sure enough, they did! We didn't have a single bit of trouble getting either computer to work. Upon further investigation, we determined that they were created sometime around 2011. One is a Compaq and the other an eMachine. Each operates on a 64-bit Windows 7 platform and has a moderate amount of memory for their era. Both systems work great and could be put to good use! The two accompanying flat screen monitors also work and look very nice. In fact, I'm using one of them right now in a dual monitor set up. I've always wanted two computer monitors at my desk. Yes!

Hilariously, one of the computers was password protected. But, we guessed the password on the first try. Why? Their password hint was 'or the highway'. Obviously, we guessed the password was 'myway'. Sure enough, it let us right in. Let this be a lesson to my readers... USE BETTER PASSWORDS!

One of the computers had been wiped of almost all personal data and photos, but the other still had the original owner's documents. They deleted all of their files, pictures and music before tossing the computer out, but failed to empty the Recycle Bin folder to make the deletion permanent. Good thing I'm not an identity thief, or I could cause this nitwit a great deal of trouble.

Folks, this is why I go dumpster diving. You can't believe all of the good stuff people just callously throw away. Much less, it is illegal to toss electronic goods in the trash. Even worse, throwing them away in a public park? What the hell is wrong with people?!

I'm going to see about using these two computers as credit towards a custom built modern system. Or, if you happen to be interested, make me an offer. I'm always willing to negotiate a deal. And before you get all huffy about me wanting to charge for something I found for free, I'll rely upon Crystal's sage advice...

"Finders-fuckin'-keepers."

I couldn't agree more.

More Than Just A Game.

For those of you that have used practically any version of the Microsoft Windows operating system since 1990 (Version 3.0), you're most certainly familiar with the game Solitaire. We've all known it as a simple card game -- shuffle through the deck, create chains and complete the four foundation piles. But... there's something you don't know about Solitaire.

It was never intended for entertainment or fun.

Windows 3.0 included Solitaire as a tool for easing computer users into the new computing paradigm. On through the late 1980's, many computers functioned via command line operating systems, like MS-DOS for example. There were no windows or screens to click, nor a mouse to point at what you wanted to do on the screen. The user would type a command and enter it into the computer, which would then run whatever task or program that was asked of it. It looked much like the image below. I'm fondly reminded of playing the DOS version of Battle Chess. Man, I loved that game!

Old school computing at its finest.

If you don't remember using a command line operating system, then you're young.

As a way of introducing computer operators to the new functionality of a graphical user interface, Solitaire was included as a means of acclimation. That's right folks, there was a time when computers didn't use a mouse. For you youngsters out there, that must seem ridiculous... but it's totally true. Solitaire, which relies solely upon the computer mouse to be played, did just that -- it taught computer users how to use a mouse. With Solitaire as a simple disguise, you would learn how to click, drag and drop, and so forth. It was all quite ingenious really. And to think, that was a meager twenty-five years ago. Operating a computer mouse is instinctive at this point; we all know how to use one!

Just for laughs, here's a game play video of Battle Chess on DOS. Those sure were the days!