The Law and Video Games...

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/violent-games-pc-games-downloads,news-6596.html

An interesting article, which I want to point out something very interesting:

The state's appeal argues that violent games should be classified in the same category as porn, and should apply the same legal consequences to parties who sell the "violent" material to minors.

I italicized the interesting point, and even BOLDED the one thing I find fairly hilarious.

Violent games should be classified in the same category as PORN...

Now hold on here... I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Witnessed the whole tirade about how Doom and the Basketball Diaries was the 'whole reason' the two boys went on a shooting spree in Columbine. I grew up playing games like Doom, Duke Nukem, and other violent games and I have hardly went out of my way to get a gun and want to shoot up where I work, or where I went to school out of rage because of some stupidity.

I grew up watching movies like Terminator, hell, even saw Tourist Trap when I was Young and scared crapless about it that I didn't want to touch certain things again for the longest time. Now I watch horror movies and Zombie Apocalypse movies without feeling nauseousness.

But the simple statement of regarding Violent games, which involves violence to human beings on the same level as PORN... Then let's consider how the ramifications of all this, shall we?

What should be on that list, besides games that also is 'pornographic', by this definition that is NOT Rated R currently, but fits all this.

Star Wars - An Epic Fantasy that has good guys SLICING OFF people's hands or body parts. Even a depiction of Darth Maul getting cut in two. People DYING from getting shot, and that is violent. What's it rating? PG to PG-13

Toy Story - No humans involved, but I heard one person who said, "Should I show this to my kid... He was pretty sensitive to scary things and there are some things in there he knows something bad is going to happen." And let's be honest... Anthropomorphized toys where some of them get blow up by Butch... That's pretty messed up for little kids.

Disney Animated Cartoon Movies in general - Where do I begin... Classic Sleeping Beauty, you have the prince fighting a dragon, Snow White, the Queen wanting Snow White Dead and again, the Prince fighting the Queen in her evil form. 101 Dalmatians, where Cruella DeVil wants to skin puppies for her fur fetish and we have anthropomorphized dogs once again. Alladin where again violence used on Jafar to win the day...

Here is one thing also in this article:

The "Governator," California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (who coincidentally is in several older "violent" video games), told Reuters that he looks forward to the final Supreme Court ruling. "We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultra-violent actions, just as we already do with movies," he said.

I agree... We, not just the government, but WE the people, should have the responsibility to our kids and to our communities to protect them against the effects of things of these nature.

It isn't just games that have this, but simply the fact that TV and Movies also depict this and even things that supposidly have 'better' ratings are not depicted as 'porn' despite hitting the 'norms' one person alleges violent games seem to be.

The ESRB is there despite the fact that parents back when it first came to be didn't BOTHER to look at the games they were getting their kids. I remember those games before ESRB as well as how certain things on TV were easy access, but I also had parents who made sure I knew right from wrong.

These days, protecting the kids seems more of the 'Other person's' job, than that of the parent.

Just cause your paranoid...

As the saying goes:

Just cause your paranoid, doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you.

Here is an article from C-Net back in March 22nd, 2010:

Malware delivered by Yahoo, Fox, Google ads

Malware delivered by Yahoo, Fox and of all people Google ads.

Now this is not a rant towards Google, (Given the fact blogger is with Google)... This is to point out something people have always wondered how the hell they are getting Malware on their computer.

The sad thing of it all, it is mostly because people aren't paranoid enough about where they browse. It used to be the joke that it is just going to the porn sites... All those damn pop ups and what not. But now a days, it isn't JUST the porn sites that are creating the problems.

6 years ago... It spread to the Lyric Sites, the cheap sites where they have ads or even some popular sites that focus on ads to support themselves. A lot of those sites have affiliates that are not well secured.

Now Yahoo, Fox and Google Ads are considered the 3 of the few sources of Malware delivery based on their advertising methods.

The problem is, the current methodologies to stop this are not 'easily' available to people. The current Security Suites rely on a 'signature', just like anti-virus programs, but of course, Anti-Virus programs are only as good as their most recent definition updates, which means a new malware or virus hitting the net is like you taking a sneeze in the face from someone with the flu before you got the flu vaccination.

And this is where the paranoia has to kick in... With the need to support websites with ads, there is the need to make ads be 'attractable'. Which means using scripting or other flashier means... And to make it easier to do it, the tools to make them are put out, but at the same time, it enables hackers and the like to create their malware and find weakly defended servers to host their malware and infect others, by passing all possible security measures...

So what can you do to protect yourself? Besides being paranoid and never going out to the internet again?

Well, self-education would be a good start. Learn what the hackers are trying to do to mess with your computer. Take the time to do research on things, both online and off.

Next, look at what you use to browse the internet, also WHERE you browse to the internet. Internet Explorer, not one of the best Browsers out there at the moment. Why? Well, besides the usual banter and insults about it being a Microsoft Product, it is because it is a Microsoft Product you want to be careful where you go out on the web for. The reason why: Ease of programming. Microsoft got most of its power from how it made things easy for users, which also included interoperability with its OS, its Office Suite, and also with many of their other products, which means their Web Browsers, their Web Servers products and basically anything Microsoft. The original intention, just like many things, was to provide a medium for users to develop communication and linking of things.

The real drawback on it, was not considering the security ramifications and making sure such things were properly secured to avoid how they could be easily exploited. And unfortunately, you can't put in a lot of security if you want things to have interoperability, the quintessential catch 22.

Now Google's Chrome... I haven't played with it, but I know there are some complaints about it for other reasons. Opera and Safari, well, not enough information for me to comment on them either. The one thing I seem to prefer is Firefox and some of the Add-ons like NoScript and AdBlock Plus to help in some of the issues, if not all of them.

The drawback of using this solution is taking the stance of "OMG - BLOCK EVERYTHING!"... Which is what they sort of do... And then you slowly go, "Ok... I will let you do what you do..." Which can be annoying at times when you keep going to a site for the first time and you are filling out stuff, and finding out you can't go further unless you allow scripting for that site, which means... Re-entering all that information you spent x minutes filling in the first place.

But again... Even with this precaution, this doesn't stop the e-mail tricks, which rely on you to be informed and paranoid to not trust the link!

The best way to be internet savvy... Is to question everything!

The 'Customer'...

One of my bosses referred people we help in IT as the 'customer'... And IT is sort of Customer Service.

The sad thing of it all, the motto of "The customer is always right..." is always touted so many times when it comes to Customer Service. Sometimes, it is ranted about by the very customers in the face of the Customer Service Rep who is doing their job.

Now, I will tell you, I am no 'shining' or 'happy' type of person at times. It always makes me want to hang up on some people who think that yelling at me would make me be 'more effective'.

Now, let's point out some examples of 'customers' that make me wonder just how they could be 'right' in any sense of the word.

1) The Angry Customer
Now these are the usual, red in the face "I'm PISSED and you are going to give me what I want or I will just yell at you!" type of people. You've all seen it, some of you have actually acted it out with the customer service agent when they don't give you what you want and thinking that yelling at them will make them cower and bow down before you.

Seriously... Take a moment to consider what you are doing. The whole angry routine just stresses out the agent. He or she wants to help you, but treating them with hostility isn't really winning you points. Sure, it might get their manager to come over and see what they can do, but the thing you all have to understand is, there are some things just throwing a fit at won't really solve.

2) Playing the 'Title' Card
I have had this pulled on me a few times. One where I literally had a VP ask me if it would help if they called a vendor and use their name and title to help 'grease' the wheels. Sometimes it works, but often times, a title doesn't mean anything unless you happen to be Mr. Moneybags who can move mountains of cash and can afford to throw money like you were exhaling gold.

On the flip side, I had to take a call from someone, he was actually using his company to get tech support on something of a personal nature, and given I was contracted only for company support, I couldn't help him. Now he tried to pull the whole "I'm one of the principles of this company..." with me, but I was told that given the nature of his call wasn't company related, I couldn't help him.

So something has to be said about this. Be realistic. There are limitations to what a title can seriously do. In the first case, the problem was there was a procedure, one that couldn't be expedited any further than the situation, but given the answer wasn't good enough, time to throw the title around. Same with the second part, given I had to tell him I couldn't help him with a personal problem with his company's account, he tried to use his title to justify that we HAD to help him.

In both cases, the customer was simply in the wrong.

3) The stupid customer...
Now this is a story someone mentioned:

'I graduated in 2009. How can I get my student e-mail account back?'
'You'd have to re-enroll as a student.'
'Okay, transfer me to Admissions.'
'okey dokey'

Now, just to be clear... Someone graduated from this College/University... And they want their student e-mail account back... So, the person is going to re-enroll to get their student account. *boggle*

Now, sure, I can understand people wanting to keep certain things, but there is also some things you can't keep. Unless this person wanted a copy of their old e-mail, which would be kind of amazing if it was still there after several months of not being in the system anymore.

It does make you wonder about how people like this could be 'right' in any way. As I posted before, there are some people who make these lame ass arguments from no real experience other than their ASSUMED belief. And as the old saying goes for 'ASSUME'...

4) The Arrogant Customer
This type of customer is right next to the angry ones in 'numbers'. They are sort of a mixture of 'stupid' or 'title' types as well, but they tend to push their ego in enough to try and beat people in doing what they want, ignoring the whole 'reality' thing all together.

It doesn't matter that in the existence of Reality, what they believe is utterly wrong and completely insane... It is simply not something they will accept and will just put forth that something can be done simply because they said so.

These types tend to make you want to back hand them, but of course, being the customer service person, you have to make them happy.

These few types I put up are just ones I can think of that bug me the most. It bugs me because they prove that there are people who aren't grounded by being rational or willing to be rational, simply because it does not 'fit' their view of things.

To follow up on the iPad...

Something to share with people from Gizmodo... I am one for some pranks, and given it is after April Fool's day that the iPad came out, doesn't stop people from playing pranks with it:

8 Cruel, but completely justified iPad Wallpaper pranks

Not too original, but still ones people could easily pull on other people, just like many others. :)

iPad and Star Trek's PADD...

So here we are... We have finally reached the point were we have a device similar to the Star Trek: The Next Generation PADD. Yes, originally, we could have said that for the Blackberry, or for the iPhone or even with the Droid, as they have touch screens and display stuff, but then again, they were small in comparison to what the Star Trek PADD is. There is even eBook readers now about the same size as the iPad, but in this case, not quite as 'versatile' as what the iPad is now.

Now, the iPad isn't really original technology. Microsoft pushed out TabletPC several years before Apple made iPad. Why is it not popular? Well, partially, spin. Tablet PCs, like PocketPCs weren't advertised as much as the iPad is, the style of it is basically an expensive laptop with a flip and touch screen.

Apple is taking advantage of its current iPhone and iPod 'look and feel' appeal that is the hit for many of their iPhone and iPod users. The simplicity of it. Amazon's Kindle is working on the same premise, although given it is using eInk, basically plain black and white technology for basically, pure paper and ease of Reading, which is what an eBook focuses on... The iPad will blow the pants of eBook reading as it will allow users to not only read documents, but watch videos and compose documents on something simple.

Looking at the technical specification, it is literally an oversized iPhone/iPod... The biggest storage capacity is about 64 gigs. It comes with WiFi or WiFi/3G (Through AT&T), so it isn't going to act like a laptop, more like a Netbook without the keyboard. At best, it is literally an iPhone/iPod for people who don't want the small screen, but a much better size screen to read text like papers and one of the pushes, comic books.

Now I know some people have written some interesting comments about the iPad and what it will do for some of us.

1. Publications - Reduces the need to use paper for various publications, such as newspapers, books and comics that a lot of us have nowadays. Which means less impact on the tons of wood and chemicals needed to make these items.
   
2. Faster access to information - No longer waiting for things to be delivered to your doorstep or to your store, it can be pulled up when you are near a WiFi or using a cellular service.
3. Elimination of multiple forms - While I saw this before the iPad, there are some medical facilities using Data Pad entry systems to help get patients registered without having to do 'double entry'. Double entry being that the patient puts down the information, and then the nurse or person at the office has to re-enter it into the computer system. The multiple forms would be for areas who have large ethnic diversities, where not everyone reads or writes in the same language.
   

But there are some things that people didn't consider to be a drawback

1. Publications - The old Science Fiction book by Ray Bradbury, 451 Fahrenheit, comes to mind. Controlled publication and information. Similar to the movie, 'The Net', where electronic information can be manipulated, where as printed information can also be manipulated as well, but once printed, it cannot be unprinted. A record of something is now physically manifested until it is destroyed. Paper based information, while not environmentally friendly, is also harder to manipulate short of destruction, and eventually, it might lead to such things.
2. Eventual dumbing down of technology - As more and more electronic toys are being made for the simplistic use, the less need to care how it works, just that it works. A classic example is something my junior high school teacher noticed that annoyed the crap out of him. Go to a fast food restaurant. When the computer is down, watch how they tend to twiddle their thumbs. "Can't take your order, our system is down." This was back in the 80s. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but paper orders and calculating the cost of something on paper when you have posted prices... Isn't that hard.

Notice that I spent more on writing on the cons than the pros, and unfortunately, that is the pessimistic side of me kicking in. Yes, a techno-geek insulting technology, but at the same time, look at the types of people we have nowadays. Look at the trend of how things are being handled and of course, the paranoid in me kicking in on regards to certain things like... How things change to fit the needs of the people.

Political Correctness tends to do that. And eventually, would direct some of the technology to allow it to happen much easier.

The treatment of IT...

Well, given I am currently working at an IT Consulting firm as well as part of a corporation IT, I have seen something that really makes me think people really don't understand how they treat IT people.

1) We're human... - I know it is a shock for some of you. When IT people are hired, they are expected to know everything technical about things. But believe it or not, we get sick, we get tired, we even pitch hissy fits like the rest of the human race. And at the same time, there will be things we have no clue about.

This means, there are things we don't know, and need to look it up. Certifications also don't guarantee those people know what is wrong. Believe it nor not, even certified people ask others if they have encountered a situation that comes up, because complex systems can have multiple things go horribly, horribly wrong.

2) We tend to get treated like crap - While I admit, there are times some of us IT people seem like we are condescending to people, at the same time, stop and think for a moment too. We get people who come to us, sometimes with a "I'm better than you..." attitude at times.

Case in point, my former boss (The one with NO IT experience.) In a meeting, he tells us that our Internet should be faster. The company has 2 T1 Data lines, that is about 2.8 megabit/second pipe for up and downloading data. Now, for a small company, that is within reason for just mail and some web browsing. Big file downloads, well, they will slow things down for a company, but it won't kill the business unless we are talking downloading gigabytes of information. For those of you who don't know, roughly 10 gigabits == 1 gigabyte. (For the more literal types, it is closer to 8 gigabits == gigabyte).

Getting back to the 'I know better than you...' part of the story... In this meeting, he tells me that GE's Internet is faster than what we have... Amgen's Internet is faster than what we have.

Well, this is literally true. GE is a NATIONAL based company. Amgen is, at the very least, a large corporation. Our company, on the other hand, just shy of 200 people.

The thing is, you want to know how he measured how fast the internet is?

By how long a web page loaded up on a web browser.

Yes, my friends... He measured our internet speed by how fast a web page loaded up. But it gets better. He has never WORKED for GE. He has never WORKED for Amgen. So, I am being told that the internet is too slow for our company, based on his perception of how fast a web page loads up, and also his belief that bigger companies have a web page that loads up in 2 seconds.

But wait! It gets better!!! Despite having an ISP help us look into a few things and making some minor changes... He feels it STILL has not improved. Despite my assurance that this isn't going to be any better, he insists that his internet connection at home is FASTER.

Now, to put this in proper perspective for everyone... Both he and I are on cable modem. Same provider. We time the web page, getting an average of a 9 to 10 second load time for it at the corporation, sitting behind a Firewall, an ISA server and using a 3 or so year old computer.

At home, for both of us... We get about 10 to 13 second load time for the same page. Me, I am sitting behind a D-Link Wireless Router, directly wired to the router and sharing with some people here. He is, presumably behind some wireless router. But basically, the same amount of time as me.

So now there is egg on his face about this. But it seems he approached other people about it, and of course, not giving them the same criteria... They give him different results.

Now, to help educate some of you a little on this... Faster Internet speeds does mean 'faster downloads'. However, it depends on what you are transferring and how. A web browser downloads content a little at a time. Most web pages have tons of content, little stuff as well as just the basic information. Things like tracking pixels that retail sites use to register hits. The pretty background pictures to various image farms all over the US cause having thousands of users hitting one little server for images and content would kill one internet connection. The ads hosted by another group to fund the page. The media hosted by another server for more data. After a while, you are establishing multiple attempts to get the stuff on one web page. Your computer is chugging along, saving some of that locally, writing it to your hard drive to make it faster to look at if you were to go back to the page at some point, which, in itself, slows things down cause the browser is waiting for that to be done before getting more stuff.

No matter how fast your internet speed is, there will be a limit to how fast a web page will load up. If you were on dial-up, yes, you would notice it. Dial-up speeds currently cap out at 56 kilobits/second, if you are lucky. DSL's cheapest, slowest connection is 512 kilobits/second. If the content is over the 50 kilobytes (That's roughly 500 kilobits in size), you will notice an improvement in loading web pages, but it will still cap out, purely on the amount of multiple connections to pull content and also how fast the sites can give the content out, because they can only go so fast with X number of people also trying to access that content or similar.

So with that little education, why all the hype about 'High Speed Internet'? Well, the high speed internet hype is true when you look at '1' file transfer. When you and the other side have as much speed possible, you will download content faster. This is why Bit Torrent is currently the most widely used and reviled method of getting files. But we will save that for another rant.

3) We aren't mind readers... - You will be surprised how many calls I get where I know people are frustrated. However, the biggest gripe all IT people have is that when we get calls from people, we are expected to know what you are talking about.

Case in point: One location is having a problem with their computers. The manager is frustrated and he is calling me. The problem is, he is saying some things that just doesn't make sense. To him, it makes perfect sense, but again, I am not there, I can't see what he is talking about and I try to speak with him to get a better idea of what is going on.

Now, I don't expect people to be a tech to know what I am talking about. But when you tell me the computer isn't working, when your location has like 5 computers, it helps to know which computer is having the problem... And what the problem is. It's like taking your car to a mechanic and saying your car isn't working and then expecting him to fix it, and he has no idea WHERE to begin short of that the car engine MIGHT be ok because you drove the car to him.

4) Rage... - Now, a lot of techs are expected to be professional to people. But just like those people who take your phone calls for customer service, IT techs also get the fair share of 'angry' people yelling at them. This goes along with my earlier mention of being Human... We aren't smiling yes men, but expected to be smiling yes men.

I will tell you, when we have vacations... We want to turn off the phones and hope that the building doesn't, or more work piling up. When you walk away, there will be times we want to close the door and pull out the voodoo doll and stick pins in it, thinking bad thoughts about you because you raged on us and we have to sit there and take it. Or some, like me... Go home and vent our rage in very violent games, imagining you being on the other end of the virtual gun to satisfy the grief of having to deal with you.

Now while some of these things we all could go to HR about this, the problem is, most times, people don't take the time to understand the simple fact that the IT's job is to help the company as a whole.

5) Unfair expectations... - This happens a lot. Believe it or not, someone comes to IT, expecting them to whip out something with little prep time or proper testing.

You want IT to set up a new user, new computer and everything. That new user starts tomorrow. Well, unless you bothered to check with IT to see if they have a new computer stored in their department (Which 90% of the time, this is not the case)... It takes a minimum of 2 days to get a computer to the company. A minimum of 2 hours for the IT to prep the computer for the company needs (This is provided the belief that they have a prepared system image for the computer in question to put onto the computer, and then preparing any additional software or setups for the particular user.) So you are at least looking at 2 days of no computer availability to a user, longer if you want specific, custom setup, which means, no image to load, software needs to be loaded, and properly setup and waiting for specific parts to show up based on availability. Even more fun, is the haggling of the COST of it.

Again, unfair expectations given to the IT department. What I just outlined to you is what I have seen commonly among some companies when they want to setup new people, but don't plan ahead, they just assume it magically appears and is ready to go.

This is the same with projects getting assigned. Some groups think, "Hey, this is a good idea, have IT implement it in two weeks." The problem is, some projects take longer than that depending on what is involved, which requires research and testing. However, many people don't bother asking, they just assume it can be done and push it forward. Again, unfair expectations given to the IT department and we are treated as the villain or the fools for not meeting your expectations.

6) Just make it work... But we don't want to pay for more... - There are some companies who have a setup that is working, but it is amazing it is still holding together. One company I am supporting has a Windows Domain Controller with DHCP and DNS for their domain. They also have some Router... Which is also doing DHCP and DNS. For those of you who don't know what either are... DHCP, in layman's terms, is what tells your computer what address you have and where your computer goes next to get to the internet. DNS is the service that translates things like www.yahoo.com to a computer address, so the computer can send a communication to.

Well, here's the problem with having a Windows Domain Controller with DHCP and DNS service competing with a Router that does the same thing. If you happen to have a computer that needs to talk to the domain controller for things like accessing a server for files, or some services, and your computer gets its DHCP from the Router... The router will tell your computer, "You get your DNS from me..." Well, if you are trying to talk to the domain controller named \\Server1... Sometimes, your Domain controller doesn't tell the router 'I'm Server1, I'm the Domain Controller'. And when your computer is trying to authenticate for your Domain of 'MyDomain', the router doesn't know that 'Server1' is the 'Domain Controller'. So it won't let you know where to go for the domain controller.

Well, for this company, their problems are slowly beginning to show as their computers are slowly going, "Hey, I can't talk to the domain controller!" And my company is offering to fix the whole thing properly, but we are told, "No, it is only affecting this one computer, fix it for just this one..."

Well, you know... If you don't want to trust IT to help you to fix it right... Be sure not to fault them for future problems when they are trying to help you do it the right way the first time, and you aren't willing to go there.

Now I know... A lot of people are not IT type people, they have no IT experience or know what it is like. And that is also the reason why you get irritable techs or high turn over with those types, it is simply the fact that people don't realize that IT is treated like that by people in the company. No place is immune to this unless they take the steps to understand this, the sad thing of it all, however, is that most people are not willing to see that.

The idiocy of corporate decisions...

So, as an IT tech, it is amazing how you can see poor decisions being made.

The one that comes to mind is the where I last worked at.

The company's VP of IT is leaving... So a decision is made to promote someone within the company to run the IT department. Who gets picked to run the department of IT? Not one of the four guys who have been in the IT department for 9-10 years... Not a VP who might have some IT experience or again, one of the four guys with over 10 years of IT experience...

A 27-28 year old person who started in marketing, goes into inventory, and becomes some planning manager gets picked. No IT experience, and with the rumor that he was 'recommended' by the VP of IT as a joke.

Suffice it to say, ever had to deal with a person with no IT experience trying to run an IT department?

Here is an example of a train wreck waiting to happen:

You have a person who is only familiar with some aspects of the company, mostly in marketing and inventory of the company. A person who believes he has a better grasp of the company than anyone else. Now take said person, and give him a job that allows him to direct IT to do whatever he wants, he just has to run it. It's like giving a kid the keys to a toy store and telling him to run it. He will only care about what he wants, and others will just have to accept it.

Well, this happened. One decision was, "Hey, let's go redo this server room. Clean it up and rewire everything."

Great idea. Only one problem... No redundancy for the business to afford a lot of down time.

His response, "Well, we will be down a day... No big deal, it is for the good of the company."

Ok... As long as they know that...

But wait, it gets better. The company has a call center, that accesses some of the servers. We get told that we will plan to do this server redo next weekend. But wait, was this worked out with other departments? NOPE.

What's real fun is also how he handled the situation... We informed the Call Center about this plan and they said this can't happen, because they have scheduled people 2 weeks in advance, they can't afford to have servers down because they were not prepared for this. When he heard about this, he tried to end run around the manager to push it through. Luckily, the person above that manager had sense enough to state that this had to be worked out with the call center manager.

Another problem this 'director' had, is his inability to listen and reasonably plan out things. As you can see above, he never really bothered to talk to other departments or see how it would affect people. One of his 'great' ideas is to make departments pay for their IT needs. Which for Finance, it was great... But for the other departments, which were not told about this... Found it to be a shock to their budgets... And most wouldn't have had an issue, had it been discussed to them before hand.

Another good example of inability to listen: Explaining migration of Windows Servers, namely, going from an older Windows System to a Newer one. It is generally recommended to do a clean install of a Windows Server OS and run things parallel. We had an old Windows 2000 server running some business critical systems. He wanted to upgrade it to the latest and greatest. I informed him the proper way to do it, but he wouldn't hear that it isn't the best way... Truly professional to ignore your own staff and treat them like they don't know what they are talking about when you, yourself, don't know enough about IT.

So now the question is... How sane is it for people to keep a director in a position he is not suited for or in this case, making the department that has supported the company, no longer care about the company's well being?

Well, sadly, the company is still having said person running the department. Two of those people, myself included, are no longer with the company. One of the two remaining people are frustrated and wants to be fired.

So people, if you see something like this happening... It's time to bail the ship. When the monkeys want to run the show, it is something bound to go down burning.