ah balls wrong story. lol

You certainly made the "short list" of features that led to me giving up my Linux install and my wonderfully uber-compatible XBMC installation. In fact, you were the most important factor leading to the change. The fact that XBMC and MythTV work together as well as the Bundys when it comes to broadcast televison, well, now that I think of it, that's the only other reason. Rest assured, you were the reason for the switch.

Now, Microsoft made $50 on the transition; I'm a student. And Windows Media Center is pretty damn good, once sufficiently beaten into submission. I have it now as compatible with videos as XBMC, with metadata collection and display almost as good. However, you guys were nice enough to build an add-in to WMC, cool. $8 a month is pretty awesome for HD movies to just be THERE. Schweet.

However, that just ain't the case. Even though I'm a lucky bastard and can pull down about 3MB/s (and yes, I mean a little over two 1.44MB floppy disks, or maybe 0.0001 Libraries of Congress), "HD Video" just won't play. I don't use quotes for effect, I use them because that's what you call it, I can't get your player to cough up any information about what the hell resolution, frame rate, color profile, or codec. It skips and sputters, surely because Silverlight 4 isn't hardware-accelerated - but Silverlight 5 just isn't there either.

Now, I can: 1. Minimize WMC. 2. Start Firefox. 3. Go to your website. 4. Log in (WMC is logged in separately). 5. Go to My Account. 6. Click Video Steaming Settings (or whatever the hell it is) 7. Change the rate to 1GB/hr. and 8. Click Next. This gives me a 404 error, but it's been changed. 9. Return to WMC, completely stop the movie, and restart. Then we have video. I can't change that shit in the WMC client. That's cool, but it's not HD. Can I get a discount?

Now, I'd be cool with the fact that my HTPC (which is otherwise quite capable of 1080p, thankyouverymuch) isn't getting HD content, because I could at least have that thing playing and use another device, like my iPhone. Now, I was paying for the ability to stream HD to one device, and I wasn't getting that. I can't give you numbers for sure because your client is so locked down. However, I'm pretty sure that the SD-only stream my HTPC receives plus the mobile video on my iPhone still isn't the resolution I was paying for, but that's now blocked.

Can I have my money (and time) back?

Well that's because most people think men's rights are nuts.

I have a B.S. in social work, and let me tell you what, any time I came to the front of my classroom - where I was usually the only guy, at the least in a very, very small minority - I was looked at like a crazy man for mentioning men's rights.

And when I didn't watch a foreign exchange student on the edge of tears as she was swabbed down for explosive residue.

lol whut? on the edge of tears from having a swab run on your palms? must be her first trip outside the family home.

We need to know this. If that's the case, the two can become symbionts, and I don't have to hire someone when I go on vacation. Parrot orders the dog around, so he's getting fed and watered, and the dog can let itself out. Exercise? We just repeat eclectus's parrot's method, 40 times daily.

This is especially important for animals like cats. For example, I could tell my cat I wanted to roughly play by turning by body sideways, puffing my body, and slowly progressing toward him. Oddly enough, this is the same language they use with each other and what he used with me. Its funny as hell for a human to do, but it communicates everything to a cat.

Ha! Me too! Unfortunately, I have nothing on my cat's version of it, which is to pop like a piece of popcorn in the air to about chest level and let out this horrendous "barking" sound that he could only have learned because he was the "tester cat" for dogs at the pound for a while. It's downright demonic, but he sure didn't learn that from me, and he's sure trying to communicate (chase me, or get the laser, or wtf have I been ignored all day?)

So basically, what you're telling me is that if my neighbor is blasting music at my property day in and day out, it's not cool to go ask the DJ to play a different song if the neighbor neither notices nor seemingly cares?

Assuming you're not bullshitting, and have an actual license, call the number it asks for and explain the situation. They're likely to not give a shit unless that same key has been activated a bajillion times.

Anyone who thinks animals don't have feelings or the ability to perceive pain either haven't spent enough time with animals, are terrified of them, or have autism. Seriously. Have you never stepped on a cat's tail? Not only will it react in pain - much as a human would if you stepped on them - it will likely hold it against you. Dogs are practically ruled by their emotions. In fact, us humans borrow their reactions to describe emotions - one who is beaten walks away with their tail between their legs. My buddy had a dog with anger issues for no particular reason, and he was treated with an antidepressant. My dog is visibly upset when a human family member leaves the house, and I've seen him give up eating for days, lethargic because he was depressed when a house member died - a cat.

And it's not anthropomorphism either. Us humans are certainly not unique for our emotions, we're unique for our ability to reason past them. The cat in question stares with the same look of revenge that a person would until you're dumb enough to look away. There's no hiding his emotions when he bites the fuck out of your calf. The damn dog lies by the missing person's door, face under his paws. When someone walks by, he'll look up, face still under his paws, make eye contact, and make a big sigh. What the hell do you call that?

Sure as hell, the grandparent is right and animals sure don't talk like people. But if you cannot communicate with an animal, you're a dolt. Seriously. They're not mythical creatures. Like zombies in a B horror movie, they're EVERYWHERE. Back here in the real world, they're more useful.

At sky harbor airport in Phoenix they simply run everyone through the scanners - you can choose the scanner, the pat down or not to enter the secure area. that's it.

What the hell are you talking about? I have flown through Sky Harbor about ten times now, and not once did I even have to LOOK at a scanner, much less use it or get a pat down. In fact, the worst thing that happened to me was that they made me throw my hair gel out, but not before they apologized profusely and told me I could mail it. The elevated bag search took less than five minutes, and even though I looked nervous as shit, my person got no additional searching. Sky Harbor is probably the best airport I've ever used, BY FAR. Compare: PHL.

Did you forget some people tried to bring a fake bomb aboard flying out of PHX like two weeks ago?

(sorry for the karma burn, mods)

But she was USING the camera! It wasn't hidden.

Or, you get like we have, where you're free to do your own work, but it must be certified by someone. Last time I did any work a house I was about 15, and I remember having to instruct my mother on what I'd done so that she could tell the inspector - a 15 year old clearly can't wire a socket, so she had to say she did the work. Cost? $3.50 to inspect a socket, $75 or so for the visit, in 2000.

Actually, on the payments page, AT&T says you may be limited in the number of payments that can be made in a 24-hour period, so the legalese is already there!

But of course! In fact, in the latest issue, I've expanded my driving tactics due to a move to Arizona. Subscribe now to learn such techniques as "Yield-less Yielding," "Causing Traffic Jams On Roads With Empty Lanes," and "Rain on the Road: DRIVE LIKE SHITCOCK!"

How the hell do you get to DC from NYC in 2 hours?! Just ram all the cars out of the way on I95?