Ok, if "Jenny" can get her credit card debt paid off for being a random girl, and Pirate Bay can raise 20k in a matter of days to buy an island that was never offered to them for purchase, I would *think* that a guy in the computer industry could setup a website asking for donations to "send me to space" and a latte says he'd be going no problem... Someone/thing seems VERY short-sighted here... 25k is a stupidly small number to NOT go to space considering everything... He could probably make that much setting up tip jars in his own town let alone utilizing the vast power if the intar-tubes (assuming they don't get clogged of course).
If *I* were this guy, I would setup a website and ask for a 10 dollar donation and in exchange, you get a "salute" from space with your name or photograph or something (obviously pre-approved) that he could do that would "nifty-fi" the whole donation! Come on man, use that brain!!
I had an old Nokia phone on Cingular - actually on AT&T years ago, who I LOVED incidentally - that was first rolled into Cingular, and then I decided to give it to a family member with a new phone number so that *I* could get a new phone on MY number for myself. No problem, Cingular did this, no extra cost besides the extra line added to my plan. BUT, the older phone physically died a month into its two-year contract.
I went to buy a new phone, no big deal right? NOT. Cingular imposes the early terminatino fee because even though it's an old phone, it had a new NUMBER with a new CONTRACT and that contract did not allow "upgrading" of old phones. I insisted, "this was not an upgrade, it's a replacement, which I will pay full retail price for." "Nokia doesn't make that phone anymore" I was told "so it's not a replacement."
"Can I have it repaired?" I asked. "Yes, you can send it off to Nokia and they'll repair it for about 200-250 dollars and you'll get it back in about 3-5 weeks." they replied. "Can I have a loaner phone in the meantime?" I inquried. "No, your contract does not provide for replacement phones, it would cost you 350 dollars for a replacement phone."
Our conversation almost escalated to trading blows when I asked politely to speak to a manager and was told bluntly that he WAS the manager and that if I was unhappy with the service I could go to another provider. I asked him if this would entail 350 dollars in early termination fees per contract times the four contracts in my plan for a total of 1400.00 dollars and he said that was correct...
In related news, I'm already involved in a class-action suit against Cingular about their "fewest dropped calls" claim which for those that don't know is an arbitrary statistic that means when CINGULAR drops a call for a "non-specific, non-environmental" reason, meaning that outages, cell tower coverage, solar flares and everything in between does NOT augment this statistic. That statistic means simply "calls dropped that were definitely Cingular's fault and could in no way be blamed on anything beyond their control." The suit is being filed on the basis of unethical marketing practices (an oxymoron in and of itself, no?)
I LOVED AT&T. Best service area ever, NEVER a problem, and best part is that it worked in the most unusual places where none of my associates had service, I always had full bars. The one and only thing I like about Cingular is rollover minutes, and you need em when you're spending all your time returning dropped calls, believe me...
Anyone try "Cricket mobile"? These days, I see new cell phone companies and my first thought (sadly) is "maybe they won't have dropped calls or early termination fees to replace a phone?
In the meantime, my daughter can't check her voicemail, make outgoing calls or do anything else that uses the "3" the "#" or either of the top menu buttons of a basic Nokia phone...
Even funnier was when I saw "Speed" on an airplane. Remember the scene where the bus dramatically explodes into a PARKED jetliner? EDITED out completely!!! They just skipped to them being on the subway, it was the most bizarre thing...
I asked a flight attendant and she said very matter of factly that movies shown on airplanes are edit to not show any airplane, passenger or airport/travel-related trauma.
Not sure if she was right, but she acted like she had a script memorized, and when I looked back on movies I'd seen, I can't think of a single movie that had any "air trauma" in it at all! Interesting...
If you're so afraid to fly that you can't handle seeing a fictional movie about a plane getting hit by a bus, why not drive?
I've seen more traumatic things on the bus - as far as actual passengers are concerned, than I've seen in most movies...;P
No, TFA doesn't say anything specific, but they should have. Hollywood Video does this as well BIG TIME.
I remember being a desperate pre-teen geek, and perusing the "unrated" section for foreign flicks, (cause that's where ALL the TnA is you know...) Movies that are actually stand-alone good films like Boxing Helena, Manon of the Spring, etc... But when you're twelve, you sit on the ff button til you see boobies... But they edited THESE.
As an adult, I was FAR more annoyed when I went back to re-rent them, wondering if they really were censored... part nostalgia, part curiosity (and I'm sure, some small part 70's porn music rattling through an ex-12 year old's head) and yep, still edited, and not even subtly. Usually blacked out video with sound in the background.
When inquiring to the local manager, I played dumb and said I thought my copies were broken because scenes were blacked out and then they'd come back and I politely requested a refund. He showed me (and highlighted with a neon yellow pen) the "acceptable viewing material" of their member lease agreement that allows them to edit films "as they see fit" with no returns allowed.
I've never rented at Hollywood again...
When it first came out, the promises of commercial-free broadcasts were to be our reward for paying a monthly fee. DTV/Dish echoed this in their early days. I'm disappointed - but not surprised - by this move at all... Just like MTV used to play music videos, things change into new an creative ways to gouge us and subject us to advertising AND monthly fees.
To echo another post, I still have a VCR and PC-based DVR, and more power to em if they figure out a way to disable my ability to FF my own non-proprietary digital media source.
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Ok, if "Jenny" can get her credit card debt paid off for being a random girl, and Pirate Bay can raise 20k in a matter of days to buy an island that was never offered to them for purchase, I would *think* that a guy in the computer industry could setup a website asking for donations to "send me to space" and a latte says he'd be going no problem... Someone/thing seems VERY short-sighted here... 25k is a stupidly small number to NOT go to space considering everything... He could probably make that much setting up tip jars in his own town let alone utilizing the vast power if the intar-tubes (assuming they don't get clogged of course). If *I* were this guy, I would setup a website and ask for a 10 dollar donation and in exchange, you get a "salute" from space with your name or photograph or something (obviously pre-approved) that he could do that would "nifty-fi" the whole donation! Come on man, use that brain!!
I went to buy a new phone, no big deal right? NOT. Cingular imposes the early terminatino fee because even though it's an old phone, it had a new NUMBER with a new CONTRACT and that contract did not allow "upgrading" of old phones. I insisted, "this was not an upgrade, it's a replacement, which I will pay full retail price for." "Nokia doesn't make that phone anymore" I was told "so it's not a replacement."
"Can I have it repaired?" I asked. "Yes, you can send it off to Nokia and they'll repair it for about 200-250 dollars and you'll get it back in about 3-5 weeks." they replied. "Can I have a loaner phone in the meantime?" I inquried. "No, your contract does not provide for replacement phones, it would cost you 350 dollars for a replacement phone."
Our conversation almost escalated to trading blows when I asked politely to speak to a manager and was told bluntly that he WAS the manager and that if I was unhappy with the service I could go to another provider. I asked him if this would entail 350 dollars in early termination fees per contract times the four contracts in my plan for a total of 1400.00 dollars and he said that was correct...
In related news, I'm already involved in a class-action suit against Cingular about their "fewest dropped calls" claim which for those that don't know is an arbitrary statistic that means when CINGULAR drops a call for a "non-specific, non-environmental" reason, meaning that outages, cell tower coverage, solar flares and everything in between does NOT augment this statistic. That statistic means simply "calls dropped that were definitely Cingular's fault and could in no way be blamed on anything beyond their control." The suit is being filed on the basis of unethical marketing practices (an oxymoron in and of itself, no?)
I LOVED AT&T. Best service area ever, NEVER a problem, and best part is that it worked in the most unusual places where none of my associates had service, I always had full bars. The one and only thing I like about Cingular is rollover minutes, and you need em when you're spending all your time returning dropped calls, believe me...
Anyone try "Cricket mobile"? These days, I see new cell phone companies and my first thought (sadly) is "maybe they won't have dropped calls or early termination fees to replace a phone?
In the meantime, my daughter can't check her voicemail, make outgoing calls or do anything else that uses the "3" the "#" or either of the top menu buttons of a basic Nokia phone...
I asked a flight attendant and she said very matter of factly that movies shown on airplanes are edit to not show any airplane, passenger or airport/travel-related trauma.
Not sure if she was right, but she acted like she had a script memorized, and when I looked back on movies I'd seen, I can't think of a single movie that had any "air trauma" in it at all! Interesting...
If you're so afraid to fly that you can't handle seeing a fictional movie about a plane getting hit by a bus, why not drive?
I've seen more traumatic things on the bus - as far as actual passengers are concerned, than I've seen in most movies... ;P
I remember being a desperate pre-teen geek, and perusing the "unrated" section for foreign flicks, (cause that's where ALL the TnA is you know...) Movies that are actually stand-alone good films like Boxing Helena, Manon of the Spring, etc... But when you're twelve, you sit on the ff button til you see boobies... But they edited THESE.
As an adult, I was FAR more annoyed when I went back to re-rent them, wondering if they really were censored... part nostalgia, part curiosity (and I'm sure, some small part 70's porn music rattling through an ex-12 year old's head) and yep, still edited, and not even subtly. Usually blacked out video with sound in the background.
When inquiring to the local manager, I played dumb and said I thought my copies were broken because scenes were blacked out and then they'd come back and I politely requested a refund. He showed me (and highlighted with a neon yellow pen) the "acceptable viewing material" of their member lease agreement that allows them to edit films "as they see fit" with no returns allowed. I've never rented at Hollywood again...
When it first came out, the promises of commercial-free broadcasts were to be our reward for paying a monthly fee. DTV/Dish echoed this in their early days. I'm disappointed - but not surprised - by this move at all... Just like MTV used to play music videos, things change into new an creative ways to gouge us and subject us to advertising AND monthly fees. To echo another post, I still have a VCR and PC-based DVR, and more power to em if they figure out a way to disable my ability to FF my own non-proprietary digital media source.