TomTom: When a paid upgrade is a downgrade:
Stick this one in the extremely shady business practices category. In order to add more revenue to the coffers, a paid upgrade from existing TomTom 910 and 510 maps that currently include locations of Starbucks will result in losing the locations of said Starbucks! Hey, that's darned good service for all us long-standing customers.
It wasn't until after the map upgrade that my folks told me that they could no longer find any Starbucks when they did a POI search. What's the cause of this? TomTom has decided that these POIs are now a Paid For option. And, to make matters even worse, after calling support, I was informed that:
What's the solution?
For me, I think the solution is going to be getting the POIs from someplace else. I'm not sure how up-to-date they are, but the POIs available from POI Handler seem to work fine and many are free. There's a database of over 7000 Starbucks available. You may need to register for the site (I had already registered previously), but I have yet to receive anything annoying from them. Once there, follow the Download POI link to get to the screen where you can get your POIs. They're tailor made for a bunch of the common GPS devices and have pretty up-to-date data.
Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt; has this country gone completely insane?:
Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt; has this country gone completely insane?
By Mike Ferner
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 5, 2006, 01:49
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Friday afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago's south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "Okay, you've had your 15 minutes, it's time to go."
"Huh?" I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about.
"You can't be in here protesting," Officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
"Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You're protesting and you have to go."
Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, "Not before I finish my coffee."
He insisted that I leave, but still not quite believing my ears, I tried one more approach to reason.
"Hey, listen. I'm a veteran. This is a V.A. facility. I'm sitting here not talking to anybody, having a cup of coffee. I'm not protesting and you can't kick me out."
"You'll either go or we'll arrest you," Adkins threatened.
"Well, you'll just have to arrest me," I said, wondering what strange land I was now living in.
You know the rest. Handcuffed, led away to the facility's security office, past people with surprised looks on their faces, read my rights, searched, and written up.
Needless to say, I do NOT recommend Merrill Lynch.
]]>NEWS HILTON'S FLIGHT DRAMA Music, movie & Entertainment News:
Socialite PARIS HILTON was forced to drive from Las Vegas, Nevada to Los Angeles after airline officials told her she couldn't bring her six pets on her planned flight home.
The hotel heiress brought her monkey, tiger and her ferrets
to Sin City for a weekend of partying and was unimpressed when she realised she would have to spend the long drive with all the animals.
Hilton says, "I bought, like, a monkey, a tiger and some ferrets. I tried to bring them on a commercial flight and they wouldn't let me fly with all the animals. They said it wasn't a travelling circus.
"So I had to drive all the way home from Vegas in the limo with all these animals, there was like six. It was a lot."
Gaige's Pages - Network neutrality is about control:
Whereas the rhetoric is certainly intended to incite and not to inform (I don't believe that either side of any argument uses a slogan to inform, by the way), it isn't just empty fluff. In particular, as you noted earlier in the piece, the costs for services will eventually be borne by the customers regardless of who they pay for them and how they're provided. The purpose of the net neutrality folks is to put the control of paying for service in the hands of the consumers, where a customer who wants to use any number of services that consume large amounts of bandwidth pays for a higher quality, higher bandwidth, and probably higher-priced connection. This does two things: first, it makes the payments transparent, since the users know they are using bandwidth to watch television or movies, or other things that either take a long time or involve a high level of interactivity; second, it provides an avenue for innovative, high bandwidth services to get a start in the world.
Please, if you are in the mood, write letters of education to info@wecaretoo.com and to all of their sponsors located both on their website and on http://www.wecaretoo.com/Mall/lobby.html to let them know how bigoted their stance is, and how misleading it is to hold oneself out as a neutral registry for non profits, while inserting your own religious bias.
My letter:
Were you aware that you have many sites contrary to your states policy of:
%%%%%%%%%%%
Thank you for your application for a free web page in the WeCareToo
non-profit online directory. We must inform you, however, that we will not
be able to list your organization in our directory. While we do list
religious groups of various faiths, we have adopted a policy not to offer
listings to groups that are either atheist, pagan or support belief in
witchcraft. We acknowledge your right to hold your own beliefs and hope you
can accept our right not to assist you in extending your beliefs as they are
completely counter to ours. In good conscience we do not feel we can be true
to our beliefs and convictions where we to help you extend your reach to
others through our web site.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Under your definition, Al Qaida or other groups that embrace jihad would be welcome, yet Wiccans would not. You welcome Hindus, a Pagan religion by definition, yet exclude Wiccans. You accept Protestant Fundamentalists who "support belief in witchcraft" by maintaining the myth that it exists and is dangerous, yet exclude Wiccans, who strive to harm no one in their daily lives.
You state that the beliefs of atheists, Pagans or "supporters of witchcraft" are counter to your own. Are you so sure, obviously not understanding or being aware of the beliefs you exclude? Wiccans are far from "anti" any other religious path, and instead desire that all paths live together in harmony. How sad that you rail against something you don't know anything about.
Your message of bigotry is being widely disseminated. Jesus preached tolerance. Perhaps someday you can aspire to follow his words.
]]>CNN.com - Cops: Couple ordered hit on grandkids - Jun 2, 2006:
TAVARES, Florida (AP) -- A couple tried to hire a hit man to kill their three grandchildren and daughter-in-law to stop them from testifying against their son in his rape trial, authorities said.
The couple, ages 60 and 59, were charged with four counts each of criminal conspiracy to commit murder. They were being held without bond.
Police said the pair initially offered $100 to an undercover sheriff's deputy to kill their son's wife, their 10-year-old granddaughter, two step-grandchildren, ages 14 and 16, and the family dog.
More money was promised after the killings, said Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Christie Mysinger.
The couple's 31-year-old son has been jailed since November on 22 charges of sexual battery on a child, lewd and lascivious molestation and showing obscene material to a minor, court records show.
Detectives say his daughter and stepdaughter are the victims. The Associated Press has withheld the names of the grandparents and the family members to protect the children's identities.
The man tried to solicit a fellow jail inmate to kill his family, the arrest report said.
An informant told detectives about the plot and they arranged to meet the man's parents Tuesday at a Best Western motel in Tavares, a lakefront community about 30 miles northwest of Orlando, police said.
"(The deputy) said, 'You want me to kill everyone, including the dog?' They agreed," Mysinger said.
The son's attorney, Peter Sartes, said he had no details on the parents' arrest. It was not clear who was representing them.
IRS plan would allow sale of tax data to marketers:
PHILADELPHIA -- The Internal Revenue Service is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns.
If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers for the first time would be able to sell information from individual returns -- or even entire returns -- to marketers and data brokers.
The change is in a set of proposed rules the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."
IRS officials portray the changes as housecleaning needed to update outmoded regulations adopted before it began accepting returns electronically. The proposed rules, which would become effective 30 days after a final version is published, would require a tax preparer to obtain written consent before selling tax information.
Critics call the changes a dangerous breach in personal and financial privacy. They say the requirement for signed consent would prove meaningless for many taxpayers, especially those hurriedly reviewing stacks of documents before a filing deadline.
"The normal interaction is that the taxpayer just signs what the tax preparer puts in front of them," said Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America, one of several groups fighting the changes. "They think, 'This person is a tax professional, and I'm going to rely on them.'
"Criticism of the proposal also came from U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. In a letter March 14 to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, Obama warned that, once in the hands of third parties, tax information could be resold and handled under even looser rules than the IRS sets, increasing consumers' vulnerability to identity theft and other risks.
The IRS announced the proposal in a news release the day before the notice was published, headlined: "IRS Issues Proposed Regulations to Safeguard Taxpayer Information."
The announcement did not mention potential sales of tax information.
IRS spokesman William M. Cressman said, "The heart of this proposed regulation is about the right of taxpayers to control their tax return information. The idea is to emphasize taxpayer consent and set clear boundaries on how tax return preparers can use or disclose tax return information."
]]>A few days ago, the hubby got a letter addressed to him, saying that our truck was speeding down a road in DC, complete with pictures of the truck, demanding 200.00. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS! And their evidence for this? Tick marks on the road that say that they measured the time it took the truck to pass... not 100 feet... not 200 feet... but 20 feet.
So why do I say this is unconstitutional? First, your accuser is not a person, but a device. This device is not being run by a person who then can be cross examined as to his or her training in interpreting this information, etc. As this is the ONLY evidence provided, without an officer to say "I observed the driver doing this or that" how can you tell who is driving?
The "who is driving" issue is likely the most interesting part of this. One of the check boxes you can use in responding to the ticket is the "I wasn't driving the car" box. In this case, they want you to sign a notarized statement that you were not the driver, and turning in the person who WAS driving. You must swear this under penalty of purgery. So, if you aren't in the car, or observing the car being driven, how can you swear who was driving the car at that place at that time?
In this age of alien abductions, perhaps it's the aliens who are speeding to bring media attention to their plight as unpaid comedy objects?
]]>One would wonder "why would someone pay 2 million dollars for a cookie cutter McMansion on 1/8 acre of land?" Answer - Lots of idiots would, and DO. A pristine field across from our house is stacked with 2 million dollar crapola houses, adding more wells tapped into our existing awful water supply, more traffic stacked up at our intersection (where the VDOT won't put in lights or other traffic safety devices despite the fact that we have an elementary school bus stop at the end of our road, despite the houses driving the deer, fox, possums, raccoons, and other assorted wildlife into people's back yards, causing them to whine and complain that living in the woods would actually mean they might have to put up with *gasp* ANIMALS!
Greed. Selfishness. Inability to understand that they are part of a connected whole. Me Me Me. All of these reasons and more cause this ridiculous urban sprawl, obviously encouraged by ridiculous tax assessments making one's land SO valuable that people are encouraged to attempt to subdivide and make some money by saying "to hell with everyone else."
*ARGH*
]]>And what has "Can Spam" done about this? Not a damned thing. So instead, AOL wants to charge businesses .01 for every single commercial email sent to AOL members while AOL members can spam at will for free. AOL doesn't differentiate between DESIRED commercial emails for which their members sign up, and unsolicited mail. So how is AOL going to figure out what email is commercial and which is some get rich quick scumbag claiming fatal disease to glom money off of well meaning individuals who want to help?
AOL's "solution" is just as bad as the "Can Spam" act, except that legitimate businesses will pay, and spammer twits will continue their free ride off of the rest of us.
]]>reviewjournal.com -- News - Sergeant's space left blank:
FERNLEY -- Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart gave his life for his country when the Chinook helicopter he was in was shot down in Afghanistan in September.
But those wishing to honor Stewart, who should have his name on the memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, 34 miles east of Reno, would have a difficult time doing so.
The space reserved for Stewart, right next to Chief Warrant Officer John Flynn, his comrade from Sparks who also died in the attack as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, is vacant.
Stewart was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which is not recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs for use in its cemeteries.
Stewart's widow, Roberta, said she will wait until her family's religion -- and its five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, with one point facing skyward -- is recognized for use on memorials before Stewart's plaque is installed.
"It's completely blank," Roberta Stewart said, pointing to her husband's place on the memorial.
She said she had no idea the pentacle could not be used on her husband's memorial plaque until she had to deal with the agency after the death of her husband.
"It's discrimination," she said. "They are discriminating against our religion.