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Car chase notification service
acb writes "A company in Los Angeles is now offering a service where for 99c a year it will notify clients by pager of high-speed car chases on television. Perfect for those who can't stand to miss a car chase. As Gibson wrote, the street finds its own uses for things... "
All this technology, and for what?
This is pathetic. It will be interesting to see how many people actually subscribe to this garbage.
-SONET
Meanwhile, we in Allentown, PA, need a pager whenever a car drives by, though.
so exciting,
bobby
For safety reasons.. it might be handy to know a high speed chase is happening on the road you are driving on.. similar to a traffic update.. this
could even be considered useful for accidenta, major congestion etc.. but you can get that listening to
the radio.. this is just silly.
Holy bejeezus....
:-)
Only in America
Well, I'm going to to move to LOS ANGELES right NOW!!!
Taking money away from stupid people is a duty of all thinking people in the world. First they'll get them hooked, and then, jack up the price baby!
The wife and I were watching Brimstone last week, in LA, of course, and they cut the last 20 minutes with a chase of some cretin. Actually I had the thing recorded, but Fox in LA sure fucked-up thier priorities here. I don't get it? It's soooo boring watching some idiot driving down the freeway. In the rare instance where they crash, it's hardly worth mentioning. Give me a some serious "blockbuster" explosions or don't waste my bandwidth.
Dumb/rich enough? And the service costs, what, all of 99 cents per year? Oh my ghod, you must be really loaded in cash to be able to afford this.
*gasp* BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
stupid r...... nevermind. my post might get deleted.
Man that's another good story I can't believe he did. There was this other one about a guy who can see your future by touching you. That one was far more eleet than the pathetic "Knee Knockers" crap he's been putting out lately where everything from weight loss programs from hell, to runaway microwaves and hedgeclippers are out to kill you and all you have left to save you is a bunch of fucking CATS... (whew that's a lotta movies
Man, I'd watch that. The United States is to freakin' conservative about our television (witness HBO's sex on tv around the world series...)
btw, william gibson is the man!
hear hear. he should have left it at that. the dead zone was awesome.
Don't like the service? Don't subscribe.
Now whatever happened to that company that was producing serial killer trading cards?
If you want to dodge the bullet you should move
to a civilized country, not just another state..
I just hacked their service. I subscribed to the 99 cent/year plan and gave an email address which is a mailing list rather than a pager. I can redistribute their service to all my email-capable devices -- and all my friends. And this does not violate their terms and conditions in any way. And their terms don't have the usual "these terms subject to change at any time" disclaimer.
Did anyone notice the last paragraph of their terms and condtions? It basically says "we consider it likely that we'll go out of business and not refund your money." Weird.
What's wrong with it? I think you are a bit jealous that you didn't think of it
Fortunately, I live in a civilized country where American car chases mean big ratings.
Sinjirarenai TV! So, right there in the middle of prime time, I get ALL of the CA car chases without the bothersome lead in and follow up. That and people blowing away convience store clerks (and sometimes vica-versa). Shit that is completely unacceptable on T.V. in the US turns out to be just right over here (mainly because it's not happening to a Nihonjin and because it demonstraites an abject but positive lesson about Japanese culture and its' inherient civility).
They have a cops like TV show for Japan as well, but it consists mostly of koban bench warmers russling up the drunks at the end of a hard day's party and middle age, busy body fujin keikans chasing down all those anjokosai skebe-ojis and their Gucci bag toating 14 year old "dates".
I would say that the average Japanese police officer would wilt if transplanted to American, but then I know the average police officer in Japan is more than capable of whipping my ass any time he wants, despite being a good 50-80 pounds lighter (I've seen it happen before to other people). Still the system has it's share of desk jocky, donut eaters too...
same as it ever was, everywhere.
OK, anyone yet have a Linux script to take the data from a pager interface and emit the IR to turn the VCR to the proper channel to tape the chase?
DUUDE.. this was on a week ago or so.. I remember!
ahh.. well.. I had seen a blurb on TV last night about it, so this is just the second round of coverage...
- A.P.
--
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Been there, done that.. I get an alpha page on my cellphone for each batch of new /. stories. ;>
THE SPORTS INJURY PAGING SERVICE: For only 99 cents per month, our team of experts will watch every professional football, basketball, hockey, baseball, lacrosse and foozeball game and page you whenever a "Oh, my God!" injury occurs so you can be sure to watch SportsCenter that night and see the incident along with witty commentary. For a small extra fee, we'll also alert you if Dennis Rodman assaults anyone else.
THE SOAP-OPERA SEX PAGER: For a mere 99 cents per month, our team of highly trained housewives will watch all your favorite daytime dramas and alert you whenever two of the characters end up in bed together. For a small extra fee, we'll also alert you whenever a hunky male lead takes off his shirt (warning: this service may cause severe pager battery drain).
THE SLASHDOT PAGER: Never miss another chance at a FIRST COMMENT! This handy-dandy paging service will alert you whenever Rob Malda or any of his merry men post an article to Slashdot. For a small extra fee, we'll only page you when there's actually geek news posted (note: you may have to call our 800 number every so often to confirm that this additional service is actually working).
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Dateline NBC had a segment on Russian TV shows. Apparently the most popular one was one where a person tries to steal a car and the police try to catch him (they clear a route for this); if he manages to evade the cops for the entire show, he gets to keep the car.
Personally I preferred the one where the guy has to talk a woman into taking off all her clothes (on TV), again to win a car. (She doesn't get anything other than, um, exposure...)
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
In the book, as opposed to the movie, that's how it works. There's no game grid, the player (not a criminal) tries to evade actual police capture. He has to send in a postcard each day, and gets a bonus based on the number of police he manages to kill.
In many respects, the book has a darker view than the movies . . .
I spent a weekend in the fall in L.A... that place is funny. In the span of two days, I had witnessed three-four car chases on T.V., and a story about gunfire at a club in Santa Monica that my buds & I were thinking of going to the night before.
No thanks, I'll be staying North.
-Stu
Xenophobia is alive and well, and living in the USA.
Hope I will never see such junk here in the old world.
It is just in line with americans demanding total privacy, but forcing their *president* to unveil his sexualities in *TV*. Think about Sadam surfing the net for reading every detail how Monika did her blowjob; laughing all night. Making your president ridiculous in front the whole world, watching live car chases, jeez you americans are strange folks.
About the car chase thing I think we agree.
About your President: IMHO nobody more than the presidents family and Monica is affected. Monica was not forced to do anything, therefore she had no right to make it public. IMHO it can therefore be absolutely justified to not tell the truth in this case. I wouldnt have either.
Given the activities of the president, it can be argued that Monica would not have been treated as well as she was had she NOT performed sexual acts on the president. It can be argued that it is necessary to perform sexual acts in that administration for advancement
Youre not seriously going to tell me, Monica *had* to do this job, because if she would have refused to do it, she would not have been treated that well?? On the one hand thats exactly my argument: She had a *CHOICE*. She *chose* to do so, so nobody but she can be blamed. By doing it she could imagine that it would bring advantages, it is a deal and she *CHOSE* to do it.
By making it public Monica was just driven by:
-money
-public attention
-revenge
-egoism
-stupidity
The american president is one of the world most powerful men. *Now* everbody's laughing on him and the american nation, which allows their leader to be screwed up by a (sorry to say so) bitch.
On the other hand this statement is speculative, it cant simply be proven that she would have been treated worse if she would have refused it.
>All this technology, and for what?
Why, to catch those warez kids that distribute the dope that is pushed from Redmond. Watch them flee, only for so long. Nothing outruns a Motorola!
You are obviously unfamiliar with the UK sat/cable channel 'Sky One'.
Typical Sky One show - "When invertebrates attack dumb criminals during the worlds scariest police killer shark chases VII"
Sky One is owned by Rupert Murdoch (i.e. Fox) and from what I hear the Fox network in the states is in a similar vein.
On the plus side, they do show the Simpsons & South Park, so its not all bad news.
-- Stu
Bruce Perens.
"I remember Babylon" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke (I think it's included in the "Nine Billion Names of God" anthology, but that's not a promise). It's very interesting and thought-provoking reading for anyone wondering where entertainment is going and dragging us along with it. Gil Scott-Heron was wrong. The revolution will be televised. With commercials.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
This same note was on Memepool a few days ago. It's good to credit sources.
Yeah ok ok I know LA's a little more stressed out, but what's next a pager for everytime there is a "good" episode of springer, or there is an upset in the WWWF (getting ready for flames after posting that last one) isn't there enough of a problem with TOOO much useless information floating around out there, without having to worry about someone who would think it would be quicker to rush home to view the show, or worse yet, actually try to intercept it? I dunno It just makes me believe in the whole De-evolutionary principle and the "dumbing" of the US. in general. Or was that the De-evolution of the US as a general dumbing principle....... donning the asbestos
"Here's 50 bucks, take this in case I get drunk and call you a bitch later." - Ricky (Vince Vaughn)Made (2001)
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Wow.
I'm not sure how I'm going to make it without such a "network" in my region. Perhaps I can get a satellite. I would say it's worth it...
joedoe
to be taken seriously, as always...
You could automate this sort service and adapt it to many different purposes -- I want a service that pages me whenever there is a show about Astronomy on PBS ... or whenever a TB-303 shows up on E-bay for $800 ...
I'm all for a real version of "The Running Man", just no gimmicks :)
if Prevue Guide is carried in your locale, they will page-remind you of scheduled programs ...
maybe that helps, maybe not
Corollary to Moore's Law: The IQ of new computer owners is declining.