"By skipping commercials, I can watch 2 "1-hour" shows in 1.5 hours. Watching 10 "hours" of TV programming can be done in 7.5 hours with Tivo. I do a lot of things that interest me with an "extra" 2.5 hours of time!"
I watch *more* television shows/programs in *less* time than I watched before.
By skipping commercials, I can watch 2 "1-hour" shows in 1.5 hours. Watching 10 "hours" of TV programming can be done in 6.5 hours with Tivo. I do a lot of things that interest me with an "extra" 2.5 hours of time!
If I want to go out to dinner, go to a movie, or go out of town, I don't have to worry about taping and/or missing any of the shows I *really* want to watch - this is especially handy on weekend nights.
Yes.. I skip commercials.. BUT, I would say that I have absolutely no interest in > 90% of the commercials being shown:
-I'm not looking to buy a new car -I'm not looking to buy a new PC - "Dude! I'm NOT getting a Dell! -I don't eat fast food -I'm a guy and don't need make-up, feminine hygiene products, nor do I want to have an "organic experience" when washing my hair -I am not looking to refinance a house -I don't watch Oprah, Dr. Phil, or any of those other mindless talk shows. -I don't care about commercials for other shows tha I have absolutely no interest in - I don't care what time they come on nor do I want to see whatever stupid teaser you're going to put in the commercial -I'm 33 years old - I don't need senior citizen "supplemental insurance" and/or home delivery of drugs, etc....
Have I left anything out?
It's not my fault that the delivery model for television advertising is lagging behind the technology. Why should I waste my time watching commercials that do not apply to me or that I have no interest in seeing? Now.. there are a few commercials that I will watch - even on the Tivo -- Commercials for TV shows that I am interested in, funny commercials, commercials for other sci-fi shows, commercials for motorcycle stuff, some commercials for home remodeling/etc.
What I would like to see is more targeted advertising that gives me information that I really want to see. Have the commercials downloaded to the Tivo and insert them dynamically into the program at the commercial breaks. Maybe embed a signal in the broadcast that would indicate the start of the commercial break and how long it is to run.. Let me "rate" the commercials like I can "rate" programs on the Tivo - 1,2, or 3 thumbs-up or thumbs down and give me 85% of the commercials that I have said I want to receive and 15% of commercials that you think I would want to receive based on the ratings of my tv programs and commericals.
Just like with the TV shows, give me something tha I want to watch and I will watch it.
For years, frustrated Netizens have sought new ways to eke out a few more bits per second from their poky 56K connections. Most speed-up schemes (modem doublers, caching programs, and registry optimizers, such as Internet Rocket) generate a lot of hype but little else. Propel Software, on the other hand, offers a subscription service to boost your browsing that actually works.
When we used Propel Accelerator to download Web pages, they arrived two to three times faster than with a standard 56K connection. In some cases, pages displayed more swiftly than on a high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL). Truly, we were amazed. If you visit the same sites day in and day out--and your ISP budget isn't already stretched to the max--Propel is worth the $5 monthly fee. Keep in mind that it's no substitute for a cable modem or a DSL connection, and if you don't visit the same graphics-intensive sites often, this Internet-caching app's benefits won't be as compelling.
Easy does it Propel offers the fastest, most painless installation imaginable. After downloading the file, simply click through the install wizard--no need to log off the Internet, close your browser, or reboot. The program simply places an icon in your system tray, and you're ready to go.
Propel works its internal magic in a handful of ways. On your desktop, it compresses graphics and other large files as they download, then decompresses them on the fly inside your browser. The program also caches the pages on your hard drive and updates only the data that's changed, so the same site will load even faster the next time you visit. The software also fools your ISP's servers into thinking you have a persistent connection (à la cable or DSL) by routing Web pages through the Propel network of servers, eliminating annoying dial-up time-out disconnections.
Speed you need How fast is Propel? To test its speed, we timed a few graphics-intensive pages without Propel, then cleared our browser's cache before accessing the same sites with Propel. When we first visited CNET's home page using a standard 56K connection, the site took 24 seconds to download; using Propel, it took only 8 seconds. The next time we visited, Propel loaded the page in an amazing 4 seconds. The same held true for Amazon--20 seconds without Propel, 11 seconds with, and we eventually got down to an average of 6 seconds. These rates held their ground with a half dozen other sites that we checked. We even tested it using a supercheap ($7 per month) ISP account, and it worked just fine. But the software does nothing to speed up streaming media, file downloads, or POP3 e-mail connections--areas where broadband really shines.
Of course, the benefits of Propel vary depending on how you surf. If you visit graphics-rich (and painfully slow) sites such as ESPN.com, CNN.com, or MSNBC.com, it's a godsend. But if you spend most of your day doing Google searches, you may see little or no difference since Google is already quite fast.
Poor pics; no phones On the downside, we ran into a few glitches using Propel. Page downloads occasionally stalled, and some pages displayed without any graphics. Propel was also slightly inconsistent; a page might load quickly once, then more slowly the next time. But hey, it's the Internet; bad things happen even to good connections.
Propel doesn't provide any phone support, either, just an extensive online FAQ and e-mail support. We e-mailed a question and received a response--from a human, not a computer--in less than four hours. That's darned fast. In any case, the program is so straightforward, odds are good that you won't need much support.
LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - Big Brother is listening!
That's the message the recording industry hoped to send Tuesday by announcing it had collected $1 million from a company that let employees swap songs on an internal server.
Arizona-based Integrated Information Systems Inc., which ran a dedicated server permitting employees to access and distribute thousands of music files over the company network, agreed to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $1 million rather than face the music in court.
The trade group, which represents the major music companies like AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music, Vivendi Universal and EMI Group Plc has been on a legal crusade to stamp out online copyright infringement since successfully hobbling Napster, the original song-swapping service, with a preliminary injunction last year. "This sends a clear message that there are consequences if companies allow their resources to further copyright infringement," said Matt Oppenheim, RIAA Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. "We applaud IIS for accepting its responsibility and working actively with us to settle this case out of court."
IIS is an Arizona-based company offering various technology and business consulting services. One of the products offered by IIS, ironically, included software that provided secure distribution of copyrighted digital material.
In mid-2001, RIAA became aware of IIS's company server dedicated solely to allowing employees to post and share thousands of copyrighted MP3 files, which are digitally compressed music files, at work.
The infringing works included songs by such artists as the Police, Sarah McLachlan , A Perfect Circle, Ricky Martin , Aerosmith, Better than Ezra, and The Caifanes. "We hope this discourages other companies from similar activity and serves to remind the public of their important role in helping us to combat music piracy," said Frank Creighton, RIAA's director of anti-piracy, who said the RIAA got a tip about IIS via an email. In August 2001, the RIAA asked IIS to stop the practice and the two parties entered talks for a settlement.
The RIAA on Tuesday also said it reached a $3.2 million settlement from CD manufacturing company DOCdata USA to resolve claims the company had pressed dozens of infringing CDs, including albums by Santana, Toni Braxton and Destiny's Child.
Last week, the RIAA sued Technicolor Inc., one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of music and video programming, for allegedly producing pirated CDs of major artists.
Yeah, but the difference is that it's spam that you "agreed" to receive! So is it really spam if you agree to receive it? I wonder if David Copperfield is a partner in this venture!!
Have you noticed that when they display Jolene Blalock's name during the intro, that it's over a scene of a very phallic launch of a Saturn V (?) rocket? Subliminal suggestion, maybe?
I believe the original name for 7 of 9's character was "2 of 38".;)
PRESIDENT BUSH AGREES TO MORE INSPECTORS IN IRAQ
on
Updates on War in Iraq
·
· Score: 0, Troll
PRESIDENT BUSH AGREES TO MORE INSPECTORS IN IRAQ
(AP) Washington DC Wednesday, March 19, 2003 3:45 PM
President George Bush has announced that the US will not attack Iraq. The President announced that he is agreeing to deploying additional inspectors throughout Iraq.
The US will send 250,000 additional inspectors:
24,000 members of the 1st Infantry Division
15,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
15,000 members of the 82d Airborne Division
More than 5,000 members of the 4th armored division with their "M1-A1 all-terrain vehicles"
Additional US Army personnel, as needed for inspections
A variety of US Air Force personnel for aerial recon missions and other "surveillance" activities
A significant number of United States Marines to aid with inspections
United States Coast Guard personnel to inspect coastlines
An undisclosed number of Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, Delta Force, and other Special Operations personnel to inspect Iraqi "hideaways"
Special air deliveries to aid the inspections will be made by aircraft from the USS Constellation, USS George Washington, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Enterprise.
The President said: "With these additional inspectors, the inspections should be completed in a few weeks."
The advertising companies are wasting money with their "shotgun" approach to distributing commercials:
I am not in the market for a new PC: "Dude! I'm not getting a Dell!"
I live in a great apartment about a mile from work - I am not interested in a new mortgage or refinancing a current mortgage: "Die, Ditech.com. Die!"
I'm a guy. I don't care about having an "organic" experience if/when I wash my hair nor do I care about feminine hygiene products.
I am not in the market for a new car.
I don't eat fast food and don't care what the lastest Super-Duper Fast Food Combo is.
Bottom line: my time is valuable and advertising agencies are wasting *MY* time by wanting me to watch commercials for things I don't givie a hairy rat's ass about. I can watch two "1-hour shows" in an hour and a half on my Tivo by nuking the majority of the commericals. That means that I've freed up a half hour to do something that I like - like read Slashdot.:) It's not my fault that they are losing advertising revenue because their delivery method is ineffective and antiquated.
Give me targeted commercials. Let me rate the commericals with "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on my Tivo and have TiVo download commercials from a TiVo commercial database based on my ratings for commercials *and* TV shows and then insert those commercials on the fly. Maybe do something like reserve 20% of the commercial space for loading new commericals for user rating.
If I could get targeted advertising for sci-fi stuff, shows that I'm actually interested in, motorcycling, travel information, and home decorating information, etc.,I would be more inclined to not nuke them with the 30-second skip.
"Super Windows XP Pro Ultimate Championship Edition will be out, will have backwards compatibility to all prior 8-, 16-, 32-, 64-, and 128-bit architectures, take 8 solar days to load, require 800 terabytes to install..."
Wish I had some mod points.. I got a good laugh out of that one!:D
I was cleaning out some storage boxes over the holidays and found a Micropolis 1.6 GB drive that I paid $1600 for back in 1989 or so. About all it's good for now is a doorstop.:[ Is there anything that depreciates in "value" ($-wise, that is) more than computer hardware?
Ya know, the whole violence issue wouldn't be an issue if parents would actually *parent* their kids. Where this sort of thing (violent games/tv/etc) becomes a problem is when parents use these games/shows/etc as baby sitters and then don't bother to communicate/interact with their kids on a meaningful level.
I grew up on The 3 Stooges, Wyle E Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons, many "classic" Bugs Bunny cartoons that are now "banned" because of violent and/or "controversial" content, Castle Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, etc. My dad took me hunting and fishing - I shot and gutted many kinds of animals and caught and cleaned lots of fish. My parents made sure that I knew the difference between games/cartoons/etc. and the Real World - try any of that cartoon/game crap in the real world and someone (parents, cops, etc) will kick your ass. Also, what percentage of "violent punks" grow up to have a nice life - "If you wanna have nice stuff when you grow up, stay out of trouble and get an education." I got my education, a nice job, and am well respected by my peers and did it all without psychotherapy!
We wouldn't need all this ratings crap if parents would do their job and be aware of what's going on in their kid's world and if they would set appropriate boundaries and actually punish their kids when they do something stupid.
Yeah.. but how many people will take the test at $3500 vs something like... $500? Did they do the market research on this test to see if there was a 'price point' that would encourage people to actually take the test, even if they are not high risk? It would seem to me that with a lower price and some savvy marketing, more people could afford to take the test and would want to take the test... and the test "owners" would be making more money.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay.. it should say:
:)
"By skipping commercials, I can watch 2 "1-hour" shows in 1.5 hours. Watching 10 "hours" of TV programming can be done in 7.5 hours with Tivo. I do a lot of things that interest me with an "extra" 2.5 hours of time!"
sorry for the stupid math.
I have a TiVo as well..
...
I watch *more* television shows/programs in *less* time than I watched before.
By skipping commercials, I can watch 2 "1-hour" shows in 1.5 hours. Watching 10 "hours" of TV programming can be done in 6.5 hours with Tivo. I do a lot of things that interest me with an "extra" 2.5 hours of time!
If I want to go out to dinner, go to a movie, or go out of town, I don't have to worry about taping and/or missing any of the shows I *really* want to watch - this is especially handy on weekend nights.
Yes.. I skip commercials.. BUT, I would say that I have absolutely no interest in > 90% of the commercials being shown:
-I'm not looking to buy a new car
-I'm not looking to buy a new PC - "Dude! I'm NOT getting a Dell!
-I don't eat fast food
-I'm a guy and don't need make-up, feminine hygiene products, nor do I want to have an "organic experience" when washing my hair
-I am not looking to refinance a house
-I don't watch Oprah, Dr. Phil, or any of those other mindless talk shows.
-I don't care about commercials for other shows tha I have absolutely no interest in - I don't care what time they come on nor do I want to see whatever stupid teaser you're going to put in the commercial
-I'm 33 years old - I don't need senior citizen "supplemental insurance" and/or home delivery of drugs, etc.
Have I left anything out?
It's not my fault that the delivery model for television advertising is lagging behind the technology. Why should I waste my time watching commercials that do not apply to me or that I have no interest in seeing? Now.. there are a few commercials that I will watch - even on the Tivo -- Commercials for TV shows that I am interested in, funny commercials, commercials for other sci-fi shows, commercials for motorcycle stuff, some commercials for home remodeling/etc.
What I would like to see is more targeted advertising that gives me information that I really want to see. Have the commercials downloaded to the Tivo and insert them dynamically into the program at the commercial breaks. Maybe embed a signal in the broadcast that would indicate the start of the commercial break and how long it is to run.. Let me "rate" the commercials like I can "rate" programs on the Tivo - 1,2, or 3 thumbs-up or thumbs down and give me 85% of the commercials that I have said I want to receive and 15% of commercials that you think I would want to receive based on the ratings of my tv programs and commericals.
Just like with the TV shows, give me something tha I want to watch and I will watch it.
Bigboo-TAY! Tay! TAY!!!
From the ZDNet.com review of Propel Software Accelerator
Editors' Rating 9.0
Interface and ease of use 10
Installation and setup 10
Service and support 7
Performance 9
Features 9
For years, frustrated Netizens have sought new ways to eke out a few more bits per second from their poky 56K connections. Most speed-up schemes (modem doublers, caching programs, and registry optimizers, such as Internet Rocket) generate a lot of hype but little else. Propel Software, on the other hand, offers a subscription service to boost your browsing that actually works.
When we used Propel Accelerator to download Web pages, they arrived two to three times faster than with a standard 56K connection. In some cases, pages displayed more swiftly than on a high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL). Truly, we were amazed. If you visit the same sites day in and day out--and your ISP budget isn't already stretched to the max--Propel is worth the $5 monthly fee. Keep in mind that it's no substitute for a cable modem or a DSL connection, and if you don't visit the same graphics-intensive sites often, this Internet-caching app's benefits won't be as compelling.
Easy does it
Propel offers the fastest, most painless installation imaginable. After downloading the file, simply click through the install wizard--no need to log off the Internet, close your browser, or reboot. The program simply places an icon in your system tray, and you're ready to go.
Propel works its internal magic in a handful of ways. On your desktop, it compresses graphics and other large files as they download, then decompresses them on the fly inside your browser. The program also caches the pages on your hard drive and updates only the data that's changed, so the same site will load even faster the next time you visit. The software also fools your ISP's servers into thinking you have a persistent connection (à la cable or DSL) by routing Web pages through the Propel network of servers, eliminating annoying dial-up time-out disconnections.
Speed you need
How fast is Propel? To test its speed, we timed a few graphics-intensive pages without Propel, then cleared our browser's cache before accessing the same sites with Propel. When we first visited CNET's home page using a standard 56K connection, the site took 24 seconds to download; using Propel, it took only 8 seconds. The next time we visited, Propel loaded the page in an amazing 4 seconds. The same held true for Amazon--20 seconds without Propel, 11 seconds with, and we eventually got down to an average of 6 seconds. These rates held their ground with a half dozen other sites that we checked. We even tested it using a supercheap ($7 per month) ISP account, and it worked just fine. But the software does nothing to speed up streaming media, file downloads, or POP3 e-mail connections--areas where broadband really shines.
Of course, the benefits of Propel vary depending on how you surf. If you visit graphics-rich (and painfully slow) sites such as ESPN.com, CNN.com, or MSNBC.com, it's a godsend. But if you spend most of your day doing Google searches, you may see little or no difference since Google is already quite fast.
Poor pics; no phones
On the downside, we ran into a few glitches using Propel. Page downloads occasionally stalled, and some pages displayed without any graphics. Propel was also slightly inconsistent; a page might load quickly once, then more slowly the next time. But hey, it's the Internet; bad things happen even to good connections.
Propel doesn't provide any phone support, either, just an extensive online FAQ and e-mail support. We e-mailed a question and received a response--from a human, not a computer--in less than four hours. That's darned fast. In any case, the program is so straightforward, odds are good that you won't need much support.
The next best thing next to broadban
From: http://www.top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=2593
Recording industry collects $1 million fine
LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - Big Brother is listening!
That's the message the recording industry hoped to send Tuesday by announcing it had collected $1 million from a company that let employees swap songs on an internal server.
Arizona-based Integrated Information Systems Inc., which ran a dedicated server permitting employees to access and distribute thousands of music files over the company network, agreed to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $1 million rather than face the music in court.
The trade group, which represents the major music companies like AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music, Vivendi Universal and EMI Group Plc has been on a legal crusade to stamp out online copyright infringement since successfully hobbling Napster, the original song-swapping service, with a preliminary injunction last year.
"This sends a clear message that there are consequences if companies allow their resources to further copyright infringement," said Matt Oppenheim, RIAA Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. "We applaud IIS for accepting its responsibility and working actively with us to settle this case out of court."
IIS is an Arizona-based company offering various technology and business consulting services. One of the products offered by IIS, ironically, included software that provided secure distribution of copyrighted digital material.
In mid-2001, RIAA became aware of IIS's company server dedicated solely to allowing employees to post and share thousands of copyrighted MP3 files, which are digitally compressed music files, at work.
The infringing works included songs by such artists as the Police, Sarah McLachlan , A Perfect Circle, Ricky Martin , Aerosmith, Better than Ezra, and The Caifanes. "We hope this discourages other companies from similar activity and serves to remind the public of their important role in helping us to combat music piracy," said Frank Creighton, RIAA's director of anti-piracy, who said the RIAA got a tip about IIS via an email.
In August 2001, the RIAA asked IIS to stop the practice and the two parties entered talks for a settlement.
The RIAA on Tuesday also said it reached a $3.2 million settlement from CD manufacturing company DOCdata USA to resolve claims the company had pressed dozens of infringing CDs, including albums by Santana, Toni Braxton and Destiny's Child.
Last week, the RIAA sued Technicolor Inc., one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of music and video programming, for allegedly producing pirated CDs of major artists.
Yeah, but the difference is that it's spam that you "agreed" to receive! So is it really spam if you agree to receive it? I wonder if David Copperfield is a partner in this venture!!
Have you noticed that when they display Jolene Blalock's name during the intro, that it's over a scene of a very phallic launch of a Saturn V (?) rocket? Subliminal suggestion, maybe?
I believe the original name for 7 of 9's character was "2 of 38". ;)
PRESIDENT BUSH AGREES TO MORE INSPECTORS IN IRAQ
(AP) Washington DC Wednesday, March 19, 2003 3:45 PM
President George Bush has announced that the US will not attack Iraq. The President announced that he is agreeing to deploying additional inspectors throughout Iraq.
The US will send 250,000 additional inspectors:
24,000 members of the 1st Infantry Division
15,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
15,000 members of the 82d Airborne Division
More than 5,000 members of the 4th armored division with their "M1-A1 all-terrain vehicles"
Additional US Army personnel, as needed for inspections
A variety of US Air Force personnel for aerial recon missions and other "surveillance" activities
A significant number of United States Marines to aid with inspections
United States Coast Guard personnel to inspect coastlines
An undisclosed number of Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, Delta Force, and other Special Operations personnel to inspect Iraqi "hideaways"
Special air deliveries to aid the inspections will be made by aircraft from the USS Constellation, USS George Washington, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Enterprise.
The President said: "With these additional inspectors, the inspections should be completed in a few weeks."
They would have had a tough time getting into the space station:
from CNN.com
"The 90-ton shuttle, heavier than other spacecraft in the fleet, was the only one not outfitted to dock with the international space station."
Wartime Accessories for your tank:
Reactive Armor by Orville Redenbacher!
"mmmm... I smell buttery goodness! We're under attack!!" *pop* *pop* *popopopop*
Google Cache of article link
Google Cache of Jun 2 revision of paper with missing reference added
Google cache link of http://www.ufomag.co.uk/euroseti.htm
Garment Care Tag Addendum: do not wear clothes while microwaving
"so is that a RFID tag in your pants, or are you just happy..."
From the article:
"RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand."
Um. Are you dating a chick from Fantastic Voyage or something?
Coming soon: Dulcolax PE (Privacy Edition)
Maybe they *really* meant to say Kazaa Lite? :)
The advertising companies are wasting money with their "shotgun" approach to distributing commercials:
:) It's not my fault that they are losing advertising revenue because their delivery method is ineffective and antiquated.
I am not in the market for a new PC: "Dude! I'm not getting a Dell!"
I live in a great apartment about a mile from work - I am not interested in a new mortgage or refinancing a current mortgage: "Die, Ditech.com. Die!"
I'm a guy. I don't care about having an "organic" experience if/when I wash my hair nor do I care about feminine hygiene products.
I am not in the market for a new car.
I don't eat fast food and don't care what the lastest Super-Duper Fast Food Combo is.
Bottom line: my time is valuable and advertising agencies are wasting *MY* time by wanting me to watch commercials for things I don't givie a hairy rat's ass about. I can watch two "1-hour shows" in an hour and a half on my Tivo by nuking the majority of the commericals. That means that I've freed up a half hour to do something that I like - like read Slashdot.
Give me targeted commercials. Let me rate the commericals with "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on my Tivo and have TiVo download commercials from a TiVo commercial database based on my ratings for commercials *and* TV shows and then insert those commercials on the fly. Maybe do something like reserve 20% of the commercial space for loading new commericals for user rating.
If I could get targeted advertising for sci-fi stuff, shows that I'm actually interested in, motorcycling, travel information, and home decorating information, etc.,I would be more inclined to not nuke them with the 30-second skip.
"Super Windows XP Pro Ultimate Championship Edition will be out, will have backwards compatibility to all prior 8-, 16-, 32-, 64-, and 128-bit architectures, take 8 solar days to load, require 800 terabytes to install..."
:D
Wish I had some mod points.. I got a good laugh out of that one!
I was cleaning out some storage boxes over the holidays and found a Micropolis 1.6 GB drive that I paid $1600 for back in 1989 or so. About all it's good for now is a doorstop. :[ Is there anything that depreciates in "value" ($-wise, that is) more than computer hardware?
That's fine, but for the sake of all that is holy, turn off the webcam!!
Ya know, the whole violence issue wouldn't be an issue if parents would actually *parent* their kids. Where this sort of thing (violent games/tv/etc) becomes a problem is when parents use these games/shows/etc as baby sitters and then don't bother to communicate/interact with their kids on a meaningful level.
I grew up on The 3 Stooges, Wyle E Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons, many "classic" Bugs Bunny cartoons that are now "banned" because of violent and/or "controversial" content, Castle Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, etc. My dad took me hunting and fishing - I shot and gutted many kinds of animals and caught and cleaned lots of fish. My parents made sure that I knew the difference between games/cartoons/etc. and the Real World - try any of that cartoon/game crap in the real world and someone (parents, cops, etc) will kick your ass. Also, what percentage of "violent punks" grow up to have a nice life - "If you wanna have nice stuff when you grow up, stay out of trouble and get an education." I got my education, a nice job, and am well respected by my peers and did it all without psychotherapy!
We wouldn't need all this ratings crap if parents would do their job and be aware of what's going on in their kid's world and if they would set appropriate boundaries and actually punish their kids when they do something stupid.
Yeah.. especially those of us with Tivo. :)
very cool website.. but watch out for the @#%@$% pop-ups.
Yeah.. but how many people will take the test at $3500 vs something like... $500? Did they do the market research on this test to see if there was a 'price point' that would encourage people to actually take the test, even if they are not high risk? It would seem to me that with a lower price and some savvy marketing, more people could afford to take the test and would want to take the test... and the test "owners" would be making more money.