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User: Drathos

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  1. Cost and Experience on Box Office 2014: Moviegoing Hits Two-Decade Low · · Score: 3, Interesting

    IMHO, ticket sales are tanking due to the cost of tickets and the movie going experience. I'd pretty much stopped going to see movies in the theater because I was sick of paying a lot of money for a terrible experience at my local Regal. Starting with the supposed show time, you'd get about 15-20 minutes of commercials, the MPAA PSA that accuses you of being a thief, a couple of trailers, and finally, a half hour after it was supposed to start, the movie. Then, during the movie, half the audience would be jabbering away, cell phones going off all the time, and even people shining laser pointers at the screen. And the theater wouldn't do anything to try to stop it.

    Now that I have an Alamo, I'm starting to go to movies again because it's completely different. Tickets for regular showings are cheaper than the matinee showings were at Regal and the experience is FAR better. Add to that good food and drink, and it's wins all around.

  2. Re:Luggage? on United and Orbitz Sue 22-Year-Old Programmer For Compiling Public Info · · Score: 1

    I realize it's not in their job description, but they chose to take over the only point that everyone has to go through. People can check in online and skip the ticket counter.

    It's one thing for a bag that is slightly too big for the overhead on a smaller regional jet, but they're letting through the full sized bags that are blatantly oversized.

  3. Re: tfa says carry-on, one-way on United and Orbitz Sue 22-Year-Old Programmer For Compiling Public Info · · Score: 1

    I don't know if this is still OK in the United States of Scaredy-cats, but I got on a flight at the first stop (Las Vegas, instead of my booked origin of Salt Lake City) of my booked route without issue when I was on my way home from vacation several years ago.

  4. Re:Luggage? on United and Orbitz Sue 22-Year-Old Programmer For Compiling Public Info · · Score: 1

    My last few flights on Delta, they were gate checking bags though to your destination. There was no option to get it back at the next stop.

    Frankly, I prefer this since it prevents the massive clusterfuck of people blocking the ramp waiting for their bag while everyone else is trying to get off the plane. A few years ago, you'd only see a dozen or so folks waiting, now it's half the plane since nobody wants to pay the the check bag fee. This wasn't helped by the idjits at the TSA checkpoint allowing bags that were obviously too large through as "carry ons." The security checkpoint should be making those people go back to the ticket counter and check their bags before letting them through.

  5. Re:what? on Google's Lease of NASA Airfield Criticized By Consumer Group · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google got that fuel at discounted prices by using those planes to do work for NASA. It's not like they just showed up and said 'fill 'er up!' out of the blue.

  6. Re:That's not the reason you're being ignored. on Flight Attendants Want Stricter Gadget Rules Reinstated · · Score: 1

    If that's the case, they should also be calling for a ban on books and earplugs and should stop providing magazines/SkyMall for people to thumb through during those phases. But they're not and, as far as I know, they never have.

    Before the electronics ban was lifted by the FAA, I demonstrated to a few of flight attendants how my noise canceling headphones made it easier to hear and understand them (since it's really only effective on the steady (engine and wind) noise, not on variable sound (talking)).

  7. Re:They really landed on the other moon on WSJ Reports Boeing To Beat SpaceX For Manned Taxi To ISS · · Score: 1

    You mean Cruithne?

    (As seen on QI)

  8. Re:billing address checks? what checks? on Quickflix Wants Netflix To Drop Australian VPN Users · · Score: 1

    The content owners don't let Netflix have the same content everywhere. They have to negotiate whole new licenses for each country they want to serve.

    They're allowing the VPN users because, to Netflix, it looks like it's coming from a valid IP in the US. That's the whole point of the consumers using the VPN services - to trick the geolocation check that Netflix has.

  9. Re:Quickflix? You call that a streaming service? on Quickflix Wants Netflix To Drop Australian VPN Users · · Score: 1

    And here I was thinking that you were going to link to this..

  10. It's all Dante's fault on Where are the Flying Cars? (Video; Part One of Two) · · Score: 1

    It's obviously because Dante wouldn't let some insane German scientist diddle his pennie..

  11. Re:Connect with a VPN on Verizon's Accidental Mea Culpa · · Score: 1

    Netflix should connect directly to Verizon and pay them.

    They did. And it's getting worse, not better.

  12. This is news? on Hawaii's Oahu Used To Be a Bigger Island · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My first reaction was "Um.. Duh?"

    I learned this in middle school, I believe. The Hawaiian Islands are a chain that's formed by the movement of the Pacific Plate across a hot spot. As it passes over, a volcano builds up and builds up, eventually forming an island that keeps growing as long as the vent stays over the hot spot. Eventually, it will move on and start eroding, while another volcano starts up at the ocean floor. All of the Hawaiian Islands except for Hawai'i (The Big Island) are currently shrinking, while Hawai'i is still growing. If you look at charts of the Pacific Ocean's floor, you can see a long chain going all the way to the subduction zone at the Aleutian Trench.

  13. Re:Lame duck President on Former Head of NSA Calls For Obama To Reject NSA Commission Recommendations · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Lame Duck" in politics means they're on their way out. Either they've already lost an election or, in this case, in his final term and can't run again. It has nothing to do with what he's done or what his goals are/were. It basically means he can do as he pleases and doesn't need to worry about what the voters think anymore.

  14. I don't get it.. on Anti-Poaching Lawsuit Against Apple, Google and Others Given the Green Light · · Score: 2

    Maybe I'm not understanding this agreement, but to me it sounds like they just agreed not to actively recruit from each other. I've never seen anything indicating that, for example, an Apple employee couldn't apply for a position at Google (and vice versa).

  15. Re: Or maybe on Why Automakers Should Stop the Infotainment Arms Race · · Score: 2

    Not entirely true.

    If someone cuts in front of you and immediately slams on the brakes, there's not always enough space to avoid a collision. I've had that happen multiple times in the DC area (luckily no actual collisions, but many close calls).

    There's also people who intentionally get themselves rear ended for insurance/lawsuit claims. Supposedly, the reason everyone seems to have a dashcam in Russia is because this is so prevalent there and I've seen vids of it being done in California, too.

    That being said, in normal driving conditions, the person doing the rear-ending is generally at fault.

  16. Re:Transferring purchased apps on Competitors Complain To EC That Free Android Is a 'Trojan Horse' · · Score: 1

    Perhaps they reversed the policy after 6 months, but they kept selling phones based on it for a while after. I know people who bought phones later that year (Oct-Dec time frame) that were still locked down and never got an update unlocking it.

  17. Re:Transferring purchased apps on Competitors Complain To EC That Free Android Is a 'Trojan Horse' · · Score: 1

    For a long time, AT&T was blocking the option to sideload apps on their Android phones. No Amazon Appstore or Swype for you!

    And I'm convinced that Samsung is trying to work their way to having their own Android-based environment, separate from Google, including their own app store.

  18. Re:because microsoft is always completely original on Microsoft: Facebook Home Is a Copycat, Windows Phone Is the 'Real Thing' · · Score: 1

    Yes, but that doesn't make Facebook Home uninstallable. It will almost certainly be a system app that cannot be uninstalled unless you root the phone. And some of the apps in the suite may be set up to start automatically even if you don't actually use them.

    Thankfully Android 4.1 (or was it 4.0?) added the ability to disable apps you don't like but can't uninstall.

  19. Re:Transferring purchased apps on Competitors Complain To EC That Free Android Is a 'Trojan Horse' · · Score: 1

    The same could be said of Amazon's Android Appstore, the iTunes App Store, and the Windows Phone Store. Or how about Kindle vs Nook vs iTunes? Or OSX vs Windows? Or Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs Wii?

    Your complaint is meaningless.

  20. Re:No bias at all... on There Is Plenty To Cut At the Pentagon · · Score: 1

    Btw, there's no actual A-8 the for the F-35 to substitute, unless you are saying the F-35 substitutes a drawing.

    They probably meant the AV-8B Harrier II, which one variation of the F-35 was specifically designed to replace.

  21. Re:The carriers don't care. on Wireless Carriers Put On Notice About Providing Regular Android Security Updates · · Score: 1

    And when the GSM carriers have crap coverage where you live?

    Believe me, I'd love to leave VZW, but I've got to go several miles away to pick up a signal from AT&T or T-mobile - and I'm not far outside Washington, DC.

  22. Switzerland? on German Laser Destroys Targets More Than 1Km Away · · Score: 1

    So are they planning on using it to make enormous Swiss cheese?

  23. Re:Thank the ghods. on Judge Refuses Apple Request For Samsung Ban, But Denies New Trial, Too · · Score: 1

    And only a small piece of that $148B was from sales of smartphones. They do a hell of a lot of business elsewhere, be it TVs, Blu-Ray players, RAM/Flash chips, display panels, etc.

    You shouldn't be comparing the total revenue but that related specifically to the products involved.

  24. Re:And I'm the God Damned Easter Bunny on The World's Fastest-Growing Cause of Death Is Pollution From Car Exhaust · · Score: 2

    You did read the part about 2/3 of the deaths being in India and China, right? They've got very few of the emissions controls that we have in Europe, North America, and other parts of Asia (like Japan and South Korea).

  25. Re:Absurd? No, not really. on California Sues Delta Air Lines Over Mobile Privacy · · Score: 1

    It's not data mining the phone. All of that info (except the geolocation) is input by the user.