jamotto

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Now to make room for all the fixings

Link quote:Fred Hale Sr, a US citizen documented as the world's oldest man, has died at the age of 113. Hale, who gave up driving at 108 because he found slow drivers annoying, died in his sleep on Friday in Syracuse, New York, his family said. Fred Hale was only 12 days short of his 114th birthday when he passed away. His death leaves Germany's Hermann Dornemann, 111, as the oldest living man. A woman from Belarus, Hanna Barysevich, is said to be 116. She has said that she had never thought of applying for recognition to Guinness World Records. Slow drivers "It's hard for the family, but it's nice for him," grandson Fred Hale Hale III told the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse. Until his death, Hale was mentally sharp and physically healthy despite being nearly deaf and in a wheelchair. Hale outlived three of his five children. He also had nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren. The railway postal worker and beekeeper, who retired 50 years ago, "had a routine and he rarely broke it because anyone else was around," Hale III said. He ate three full meals a day - at the same time each day. Once in a while, he would make an exception and have a slice of pizza. He ate at least a teaspoonful of honey and bee pollen every day - washed down with the occasional breakfast nip of whisky, the Guinness Book of Records says - but never smoked and only rarely drank alcohol. At 103, Hale was still living on his own - and shovelling the snow off his rooftop. Hale also was a Guinness record-holder for the oldest driver. At 104, he had his driving license renewed, and stopped four years later because he found slow drivers annoying, Fred Hale III said. The supercentenarian lived through 21 US presidents, and was in his 70s when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon.

To a casino? I can hear the pitch now. Come to our casino, where you don't need lady luck b/c we have the Virgin Mary instead!

Things to know before you buy a DS [*]The DS can not play multi player GBA games... there's no port to plug in a GBA link cable. [*]When you buy a DS, try it out before you leave the store. In particular, look for any dead pixels on the two screens. If you see one, exchange it for a different DS. and relating to the second point. I have been hearing that DS's that have a serial number starting with "NU1..." use LCD screens that are inferior to units that have a serial number starting with "NU4..."

Link quote:By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer DALLAS - J.L. Hunter "Red" Rountree, the nation's oldest known bank robber, who turned to crime in his 80s and said the robberies made him feel good for days afterward, died in a prison hospital. He was 92. A spokesman for the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., said Rountree was transferred there shortly after his sentencing in January for a bank holdup in Abilene when he was 91. He died Oct. 12, two months shy of his 93rd birthday. The Abilene job was the last of three bank robberies Rountree began in 1998, when he was 86. In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, he said he walked slowly to a teller's window, handed over an envelope indicating his intent and was greeted with a surprised, "Are you kidding?" The teller complied anyway, but Rountree was later caught and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison ÔÇö a death sentence for a man of his age. "You want to know why I rob banks?" Rountree said in the interview. "It's fun. I feel good, awful good. I feel good for sometimes days, for sometimes hours." Born Dec. 11, 1911, in his family's farmhouse near Brownsville, Rountree was once a successful businessman who made his fortune in Houston by building Rountree Machinery Co., a relative said. Before that, he had a business bank loan turn sour and the bitterness stayed with him, he indicated in the March interview from his wheelchair in prison. About a year after his wife's death in 1986, Rountree, then 76, married a 31-year-old woman and spent $500,000 putting her through drug rehabilitation programs, he said. In 1998, Rountree robbed SouthTrust Bank in Biloxi, Miss., and was sentenced to three years probation, fined $260 and told to leave Mississippi. A year later, he robbed a NationsBank in Pensacola, Fla., but this time he was sentenced to three years behind bars. He was released in 2002. In August 2003, Rountree robbed First American Bank in Abilene. No family member claimed Rountree's body, said Al Quintero, a prison spokesman. He is buried in a cemetery near the Springfield prison.I thought you got wiser as you aged?

quote:Originally posted by $iLk: [QB] I hear you can get cash moneys if you can recreate it as Oswald did it. Well lucky for them one can't recreate the event.

Does it work with Game Boy Color games?

Link quote:By Ben Berkowitz LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new video game to be released on Monday allows players to simulate the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The release of "JFK Reloaded" is timed to coincide with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy's murder in Dallas and was designed to demonstrate a lone gunman was able to kill the president. "It is despicable," said David Smith, a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), the late president's brother. He was informed of the game on Friday but declined further comment. Kirk Ewing, managing director of the Scottish firm Traffic Games, which developed the game, said he understood some people would be horrified at the concept, but he insisted he and his team had nothing but respect for Kennedy and for history. "We believe that the only thing we're exploiting is new technology," said Ewing, a former documentary filmmaker and senior executive with Scottish developer VIS, responsible for games like "State of Emergency." He said he sent Edward Kennedy a letter before the game's release. Ewing said the game was designed to undermine the theory there was some shadowy plot behind the assassination. "We believe passionately there was no conspiracy," he said. Traffic Games said the objective was for a player to fire three shots at Kennedy's motorcade from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's digitally recreated sixth-floor perch in the Texas School Book Depository. Points are awarded or subtracted based on how accurately the shots match the official version of events as documented in by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination. Shooting the image of Kennedy in the right spots in the right sequence adds to the score, while "errors" like shooting first lady Jacqueline Kennedy lead to deductions. Each shot can be replayed in slow motion, and the bullets can be tracked as they travel and pass through Kennedy's digitally recreated body. Players can choose to see blood by pressing a "blood effects" option. Players can view the motorcade from a number of angles, including the perspective of filmmaker Abraham Zapruder and a view from the "grassy knoll" where some conspiracy theorists believe a second gunman was stationed. The game will be available via download for $9.99.

Link quote:By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The fastest-swiveling space science observatory ever built rocketed into orbit Saturday to scan the universe for violent celestial explosions that astronomers believe represent the birth screams of black holes. NASA launched the observatory ÔÇö named Swift for its speedy pivoting and pointing ÔÇö following weeks of delays caused by hurricanes and a three-day postponement due to rocket trouble. The unmanned rocket climbed smoothly through a cloud-flecked midday sky, and delighted flight controllers wished the spacecraft a successful mission. Swift, a $250 million collaboration by NASA, Italy and Britain, should begin its hunt for gamma ray bursts by January and erase some of the mystery surrounding these explosions and black holes. Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful events in the universe, exceeded only by the cosmic curtain-raising Big Bang itself. Lasting just a few seconds on average, the bursts appear out of nowhere like flashlight beams and are thought to signal the formation of black holes. Astronomers theorize the collapse or collision of massive stars is what produces black holes ÔÇö so dense not even light can escape ÔÇö and that the resulting gravitational energy sends gamma rays shooting out across time and space. "We think that, perhaps, bursts are the birth cries of black holes and we're seeing these throughout the universe," said NASA's Neil Gehrels, principal scientist. A single gamma ray burst releases more energy than the sun will emit in its entire lifetime at all wavelengths, Gehrels said. Put another mind-blowing way, "If you added together everything in the rest of the universe during that second, it would not be as bright as the gamma ray burst," said Pennsylvania State University astrophysicist John Nousek, director of mission operations. So far, astronomers have managed to identify only a couple dozen gamma ray bursts, as close as a few million light years and as far as 12 billion light years. Swift should zero in on two gamma ray bursts a week as far away as 15 billion light years, representing the very first generation of stars, for a grand total of more than 200 during the planned two-year mission. The spacecraft will scan one-sixth of the sky at any one time and thus see one-sixth of all gamma ray bursts out there. The observations will help scientists learn more about what the bursts are and how many are out there, and how and when black holes form. As soon as Swift's gamma ray burst-alert instrument spots an explosion, the spacecraft will quickly turn all by itself so that two other on-board telescopes can observe the X rays and ultraviolet and optical light streaming from the afterglow. This swinging into position will take just a minute, lightning speed by astronomical standards because of Swift's six momentum wheels, double the usual number for a science satellite. Speed is crucial because once the ever-so-brief gamma ray burst subsides, the afterglow is difficult to find and fades within hours or sometimes weeks. News of the gamma ray burst and its precise location instantly will be relayed to astronomers everywhere by the mission control center at Penn State. Ground observatories can then be aimed to assist in the afterglow analysis. Deputy project manager Tim Gehringer calls Swift "the roadrunner of spacecraft, speeding from birth to birth as it advances mankind's knowledge of the most violent explosions in the universe." Scientists are quick to point out that military spy satellites may well exceed Swift's swiftness. On the scientific front, though, this rapid-response observatory has no peer. Until now, 15 minutes was considered "really fast" for a space observatory and its team to respond to a late-breaking astronomical event, said Anne Kinney, director of NASA's universe division. Swift "is a completely different level of fastness, one minute, one minute and designed to do that consistently, not dependent on anybody answering their cell phone," she said. The Hubble Space Telescope, by contrast, takes hours if not an entire day or two to swivel into an impromptu viewing position. After chasing gamma ray bursts for a year or two, Swift will expand its repertoire to other rapidly occurring cosmic events. "If you want to see something like that," Nousek said, snapping his fingers, "who you going to call? Swift is the people to call."

Link quote:BEIJING (Reuters) - South China tigers, among the rarest of the five remaining tiger subspecies, are on the verge of extinction in the wild with less than 30 remaining, Xinhua news agency said on Friday, citing a recent survey. Scientists from the State Forestry Administration of China and the World Nature Fund conducted the study of the wild tigers, most of which are scattered on mountains along the borders of Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangdong provinces in south China, Xinhua said. The survey's findings were released at a symposium on South China tigers held in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. Xinhua said China had 66 South China tigers raised in 19 zoos but the animals are all offspring of six wild tigers seized in 1956. The South China tiger, also known as the Chinese tiger, is native to southern China and used to be found in mountain forests in the country's south, east, center and southwest. But war, hunting and environmental deterioration over the past century has pushed the species to the verge of extinction and it is listed on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Red List of endangered species. International experts predict tigers will disappear by 2010 if they are not protected, Xinhua said. To help save the big cats, China would send five to 10 South China tigers to South Africa to help re-acquaint them with the ways of the wild. The Chinese tigers and their offspring would be returned to China in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Xinhua said. The other four tiger subspecies are the Siberian, Bengal, Indochinese and Sumatran tigers.

Well just got back from seeing this movie. Overall didn't think it was too scary. The movie uses music very well to create a creepy environment and the different variations of the ghosts where very unique in my opinion. If you are startled very easily then this is not the movie for you. In short it was worth the money spent.

Link quote: By Aleksandrs Rozens NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Michelle Brown, a corporate banker outside of Los Angeles, filled out paperwork for an apartment rental, little did she realize that financial details offered to a landlord would lead to identity theft that plagued five years of her life. The theft of her identity took place in 1998. Yet Brown did not notice that someone had used her name to apply for utility and cell-phone services until the thief purchased a Dodge truck -- a year after the actual theft. It took six months -- about 500 hours -- to clear up the problem. But the ramifications of a stolen identity and financial fraud still linger for Brown. Her wages were garnished last year related to an unpaid ticket for a traffic violation. The unpaid ticket was tied to a traffic violation committed by the woman who stole her identity. "I'm more vigilant," Brown said, adding that she checks her credit four times a year. She does not mind, as she puts it, being paranoid about the chance that someone might steal her identity again. Faced with the daunting task of clearing her credit after the fraud, Brown said victims are "guilty until we prove ourselves innocent." Brown is not alone, according to regulators and credit specialists who gathered at a luncheon sponsored by credit card company American Express Co.. Identity theft targets a wide range of people and sometimes the thieves take the names of newborn babies, the elderly or even the dead. Thieves chip away at an identity by snaring bits of personal information like Social Security numbers and income, and bank and credit card account numbers. The information is used without a consumer's knowledge to commit fraud or identity theft. Sometimes complete strangers commit these crimes. For instance, Brown did not know the thief who stole her identity. But neighbors and roommates also have turned criminal and stolen someone's identity or misused their personal information. Barbara Anthony, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Northeast Region, estimated that identity theft has victimized about 27 million people and cost businesses about $48 billion in losses. She did not give a time frame for those numbers. There has been a dramatic increase in reports of identity theft in recent years, she added. 'PHISHING' ON THE RISE "Identity theft is a very high priority," said Wayne Abernathy, assistant secretary for financial institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He said there have been more attempts recently to commit identity theft by using the Internet and sending bogus messages to tempt consumers to reveal personal financial information. The use of this technique, called "phishing," has jumped to the extent that the Treasury Department (news - web sites) hears about 400 to 500 such instances each month, Abernathy said. According to an American Express survey, one in five consumers has received unsolicited e-mail from a bank or online shopping service requesting information. "Unsolicited e-mail can be indicative of phishing -- requests for personal information either online or over the phone that appear to be valid, but aren't," the American Express survey said. About half of these phishing messages come from offshore Internet users. This has led the Treasury Department to increase its scrutiny of identity theft over the Internet. The U.S. government is concerned that terror groups could use identity theft to commit fraud to finance their attacks. "One suspects a connection" between attempts at identity theft by overseas Internet users and terrorism, Abernathy said. "It is a possibility." Identity theft experts urge consumers to shred important documents and regularly check credit reports. They also said businesses should conduct extensive background checks of employees handling clients' personal information. Susan Grant, vice president of public policy at the Council for Better Business Bureau, said new rules, which will go into effect in December, will require merchants to strike consumer credit-card details from paper receipts because lost receipts can be used for identity theft.

I think your best bet would be to look for it on your motherboards manufactures website. Should be part of the chipset drivers.

Thank you sir, I think I will mosey over to the Avault story now

quote:Originally posted by Grizzle: LOL, that's not the Virgin Mary, it's a young Bette Davis.Oh, ya I see it now. Honestly the only thing I saw was a burnt grilled cheese sandwich.

quote:Originally posted by $iLk: If you are having problems running old games on your new computer, use DosBox.If you are using DosBox I would use D-Fend with it. It makes it much easier to configure DosBox.

Metrosexual McDonald Commercial video clip Female McDonald Commercial video clip

Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary Up For Auction

Looks great. Out of curiosity what kind of rig where these screen shots taken on

It is important to find out why we have become the way we are.

Link quote:JEDDAH, 17 November 2004 ÔÇö With the rebel city of Fallujah under US and interim Iraqi government control for the first time, the war-torn country appeared to be heading for a broader urban guerrilla challenge affecting a dozen towns in the so-called Sunni Triangle. While US troops were largely in control of Fallujah yesterday, they were still meeting sporadic pockets of fierce resistance. IraqÔÇÖs Interior Minister Faleh Hassan Al-Naqib admitted for the first time at a press conference in Baghdad that the interim government and the US led coalition faced a broad insurgency covering the Sunni heartland of the country. Naqib made a number of other major revelations: ÔÇó Contrary to previous assumptions that the insurgency consisted of dozens of disparate groups, it is a unified movement with a large measure of central command and control. ÔÇó The overwhelming majority of the insurgents are Iraqis, not foreign fighters. In fact, non-Iraqi Arab fighters represent between four and six percent of the combatants. In Fallujah of the 1,200 insurgents killed, only 24 were non-Iraqis. ÔÇó The remnants of Saddam HusseinÔÇÖs regime play a much bigger role in the insurgency than previously assumed. ÔÇó The insurgency has developed some form of political leadership, operating from Syria. Naqib named the principal coordinator as Muhammad Yunus Ahmad, a former Baath party security official. ÔÇó SaddamÔÇÖs regime had prepared special units for waging urban guerrilla warfare long before the US-led invasion in 2003. Those units have now been activated throughout the Sunni Triangle. ÔÇó The insurgents aim at dispersing American firepower in what looks like a dress rehearsal for fomenting enough chaos to disrupt the elections scheduled for January 2005. A series of apparently well-orchestrated and simultaneous attacks in Baiji, Baqubah, Ramadi, Haditha, Tikrit, and other localities showed that the insurgents have switched to hit-and-run tactics, abandoning their previous strategy of seizing and holding terrain that could be turned into safe havens. The most dramatic illustration of this new tactic came in Mosul where insurgents attacked and temporarily seized control of nine police stations, looting arms and materiel stores. Mosul, IraqÔÇÖs third largest city, was never in danger of falling into insurgent hands. But the daring raids achieved their two key objectives: Easing US military pressure on other localities in the Sunni Triangle, and rattling the nerves of the still fragile Iraqi police and army. The three-day raid on Mosul drew some 1,200 American troops away from Fallujah and Ramadi. It also provoked the desertion of at least 300 newly recruited Iraqi policemen and troops. Mosul is ethnically very mixed with large communities of Kurds, Turkomans, Christians and Yazidis. Thus it is not a place where Sunni Arab insurgents could strike root. Saddam HusseinÔÇÖs efforts to Arabize the city by moving in his Sunni supporters inevitably created tensions. Lightly armed insurgent forces are like grains of sand. As combat power is deployed against them they tend to drift away, either going to ground or seeking another battlefield on which to fight. They could also hide their arms and melt into the local population to reappear when and where an opportunity arises. This is exactly what has happened in Fallujah. The insurgents appear to have suffered serious losses in Fallujah, but not necessarily a knockout blow. It is clear that some insurgents left Fallujah before the US-led assault and have embarked upon a coordinated series of attacks in Baqubah, Samarra and Mosul. This implies a reasonably sophisticated level of centralized command. But in military terms it is far from clear what these various attacks amount to. It is also clear that the US simply does not have sufficient troops on the ground to maintain order in several key cities at once while launching a major offensive against another. Once Fallujah is secure the US may have more troops available to put down the sporadic violence elsewhere. But it is still far from clear what message Sunni leaders have taken from the Fallujah operation. Despite expectations that the fall of Fallujah would break the back of the insurgency it seems to have produced unintended consequences. The insurgents were using an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 men to hold Fallujah. It seems that at least half of them got away and were almost immediately deployed for attacks in other localities. This means that the insurgents, abandoning their tactic of holding to territory, can wreak havoc in many more places with fewer fighters. In Fallujah they were fixed targets while the US-led force was moving. Now they become mobile while the US-led forces, especially Iraqi police and army units, become fixed targets. Analysts say the fighting the past few days has shown that the insurgents have little chance of winning a war over territory. But they can achieve tactical political objectives that could prevent IraqÔÇÖs stabilization anytime soon. The big prize is the January 2005 elections. If the insurgents manage to have it postponed or canceled they would emerge as winners, at least of this round. If, on the other hand, the elections are held on time, the insurgency might find it hard to sustain itself even within the Sunni Triangle. The first signs that the interim government, headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi may have been rattled came yesterday when Naqib hinted that the elections might be postponed. Hours later, however, Deputy Premier Barham Salih rejected any suggestion that the exercise could be postponed. ÔÇ£We have a moral pact with the Iraqi people to hold the elections,ÔÇØ he said.

Link quote:By Gina Piccalo Times Staff Writer When it debuted in 1999, TiVo revolutionized the TV experience by wresting control of screen time from advertisers, allowing viewers to record shows and skip commercials. TiVo's slogan said it all: "TV your way." Behind the scenes, though, TiVo was courting advertisers, selling inroads to a universe most customers saw as commercial-free. The result is a groundbreaking new business strategy, developed with more than 30 of the nation's largest advertisers, that in key ways circumvents the very technology that made TiVo famous. By March, TiVo viewers will see "billboards," or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a viewer "opts in" to the ad, their contact information will be downloaded to that advertiser  exclusively and by permission only  so even more direct marketing can take place. By late 2005, TiVo expects to roll out "couch commerce," a system that enables viewers to purchase products and participate in surveys using their remote controls. Perhaps even more significant is TiVo's new role in market research. As viewers watch, TiVo records their collective habits  second by second  and sells that information to advertisers and networks. (It was TiVo that quantified the effect of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction," reporting a 180% increase in the number of replays reported by viewers.) For advertisers it's an extraordinary boon, a quicker and more effective way than they've ever had of measuring the effects of their TV commercials. For viewers, TiVo's new strategy means the technology famously christened "God's machine" by Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) Chairman Michael K. Powell is rapidly becoming a marketer's best friend, proving that try as they might, consumers cannot hide from marketing. "TiVo looked like it was going to be the weapon of mass destruction of Madison Avenue," says Robert Thompson, Syracuse University professor of television and pop culture. "However, we knew that the [TV] spot ad would not go gently into the night, and this is the next battle strategy." The shift underscores what industry observers have been saying since TiVo started  that TV advertising and programming must change dramatically to survive. These are anxious times for marketers, who are faced with commercial-busting technology that's evolving faster than they can keep up. Broadcast-ready cellphones, hyper-real video games, interactive DVDs and the Internet give consumers the on-demand, often commercial-free entertainment they crave. Traditional network television viewing, by comparison, can seem antiquated. The number of American households with a TiVo or TiVo-like recording system is expected to increase from 5% to 41% in five years, according to Forrester Research, which studies technology's effect on business. For this reason, ad agency executives who initially ignored TiVo and its digital video recorder technology, or DVR, are now praising it as an industry savior. "I look at TiVo being first generation of the TV advertising of the future," says Tim Hanlon, a vice president at Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the world's largest media-buying companies, with clients including General Motors Corp., Procter & Gamble Co. and Best Buy Co. "There's a whole witch's brew of change coming to the linear television form." But what about TiVo's devotees, those folks who send the company fan mail and photos of their pets posed with TiVo boxes, and act as missionaries, converting their friends to the technology? Some say they don't mind a little pop-up advertising  just so long as they can fast-forward through it  because it could help keep TiVo in business. (A September report from Forrester shows that DVR owners typically fast-forward through 92% of commercials.) Others are wary of the changes and concerned the company's priorities may be shifting away from the consumer. "A company can get too big for its britches, you know?" says Bill Calogero, a Chicago computer business analyst and TiVo subscriber since 1999. "I just don't want them to interfere with the experience. If it isn't broke, don't fix it." Yet from its inception, TiVo engineered its system with advertisers and networks in mind. While competitor ReplayTV (news - web sites) had allowed its subscribers to skip commercials entirely  TiVo restricted its fast-forward capabilities so viewers could still see the commercial, albeit eight times faster than intended. (ReplayTV last year was forced by litigious studios and networks to adopt a more TiVo-like system.) TiVo also sold space on its main menu to advertisers as a venue for commercials that ran longer than the usual 30- or 60-second spots. And the company developed "tagging" technology as a way for networks to advertise TV shows by embedding a green thumbs-up sign in the corner of the screen during a show's promo, reminding the viewer to record it. Advertisers saw tagging as an opportunity and jumped at it. By 2002, TiVo was selling "tag" time to Lexus and Best Buy. The thumbs-up icons appeared during live commercials, inviting the viewer to "click here" for a chance to enter a contest, receive a DVD or brochure or watch a glossy, long-form commercial. Over time, General Motors, Nissan Motor Co., Coca-Cola Co., Walt Disney World and Royal Caribbean International cruise line paid their way into the program. And all the while, TiVo recorded viewer response. The tags proved so lucrative for TiVo, and so popular with viewers, that the Alviso, Calif.-based company expanded their capabilities significantly. They created "billboards," more robust tags that are larger and promote greater brand awareness with logos and text. Until now, the new technology has been relatively subtle and not widely seen; by spring, it will be hard for TiVo users to miss. (The technology is part of the software provided to all TiVo users.) "The message we really want to get across," says Davina Kent, TiVo's advertising and research sales manager, "is that we now have a dedicated road map for advertising." There are TiVo users who say that as long as the new technology doesn't interfere with their ability to fast-forward through a commercial, they're happy to ignore it. It's the timesaving apparatus they say they cherish most. "To be able to see things when I want to see them is the real advantage," says L.A. radio promotion executive Jennifer Sperandeo. Other TiVo users say they hope the new partnerships prove lucrative enough to keep the company afloat. Five years after its launch, TiVo still hasn't turned a profit and doesn't expect to until January 2006. (Kent says the advertising revenue will probably bring down the cost of TiVo to its 2 million subscribers  currently $12.95 a month.) And in the year since Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. took control of satellite operator DirecTV Group Inc., TiVo's largest source of customers, the future of that relationship has grown increasingly uncertain. "I want them to be successful," says Gary Beck of Long Beach, who bought his first TiVo in 1999 and now has three. "They have clawed their way up. As long as they're not giving out personal data, I don't mind." Some observers, however, interpret TiVo's new ad campaign as a profound change in its ideology that won't sit well with devotees. Matt Haughey, whose Portland, Ore.-based PVRblog.com gets 10,000 hits a day (PVR is short for personal video recorder), says he wasn't surprised by the shift. After last year's lawsuit against ReplayTV and TiVo's hiring of NBC executive Martin Yudkovitz as president, he figured the glorious "David versus Goliath" days, when TiVo was the best defense against corporate tyranny, were numbered. "My first impulse is, this is going to start the slippery slope," Haughey says. "TiVo is dependent on a psychology," says Neal Gabler, a senior fellow at the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg and author of "Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality." "It is not just a technology. You don't want people to intrude in your life. That's the whole point of it  to give you control of that mechanism. I think they're going to find themselves losing customers. I say this as a TiVo subscriber." To Syracuse University's Thompson, the concept of interactive advertising interrupts the most relaxing aspect of watching TV. "People seem to forget that what we've loved about television so dearly is its abject passivity," he says. "That's why they call it couch potato. TV was so great because it wasn't interactive." But TiVo research suggests that notion is out-of-date. Between 5% and 20% of TiVo viewers given the opportunity to "participate" in an ad  either by clicking on a tag or by selecting a long-form commercial from a main menu  take it. That's because TiVo has done its homework and knows its customer, Kent says. The new ads intrigue viewers instead of annoy them. They pop up and disappear in a matter of seconds if the viewer isn't interested. "You'll never see TiVo roll out any kind of intrusive advertising," Kent says. "It's very core to our mission." What remains to be seen is whether consumers will embrace this culture shift at TiVo. "Watching [an ad] is one thing," TiVo loyalist Calogero says. "Interacting with it is something that the consumer is going to need a little more reassurance that their information isn't being sold. I mean, TiVo knows how many times I rewinded to see Janet Jackson's breast come up. How much more do they know about me?"

Link quote:By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer WASHINGTON - Democratic Party leaders said Wednesday they want to know why Sen. John Kerry ended his presidential campaign with more than $15 million in the bank, money that could have helped Democratic candidates across the country. Some said he will be pressured to give the money to Democratic campaign committees rather than save it for a potential White House bid in 2008. "Democrats are questioning why he sat on so much money that could have helped him defeat George Bush or helped down-ballot races, many of which could have gone our way with a few more million dollars," said Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 presidential race. Brazile is a member of the 400-plus member Democratic National Committee, which meets early next year to pick a new party chairman. One high-ranking member of the DNC, speaking on condition of anonymity, said word of Kerry's nest egg has stirred anger on the committee and could hurt his chances of putting an ally in the chairmanship. Congressional Democrats and labor leaders also privately questioned Kerry's motives. One said he would personally ask the Massachusetts senator to donate some of the money to the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. Three former Kerry campaign aides, also demanding anonymity out of concerns about alienating their former boss, said they were surprised and disappointed to learn that he left so much money in the bank. Kerry had roughly $45 million left in his primary campaign fund as of mid-October, according to his Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) report, and could use that as seed money for another presidential bid. His final report is not due until next month, but officials close to Kerry said he has $15 million to $17 million in that account, with no outstanding debts, after giving the DNC about $23 million and state parties about $9 million since the mid-October report. In addition, the report showed that Kerry had about $7 million on hand in a legal and accounting compliance fund that he could use for legal expenses in a 2008 campaign. Officials said he raised several million more for that account since the filing. Last summer, Kerry donated $3 million each to the House and Senate campaign committees and $2 million to the Democratic Governors Association. While Kerry has likely given more money to state committees than any other nominee, no other Democrat has raised as much as he did. And second-guessing Democrats said Wednesday they couldn't recall a candidate leaving so much money on the table after a campaign. "He's going to have to give some of it up for 2005 and beyond," Brazile said. "The party will demand it."

thanks for the input Chavik