Why you should boycott Blockbuster Video
by d3pth

I went to my local Blockbuster Video location the other day to rent a movie. A classic, Requiem for a Dream. They had it in the independent section, one copy, usual box cover, looked great. I rented it, and got it home and took it out to play it and on the disc in red font I see "Edited Version." So I took it back to the store and demanded a refund because it does not say Edited Version on the box that they have on display. So they refunded me for it. Then I went down to the local mom and pop video store and rented the full unedited directors cut for an even cheaper price.

Blockbuster is known for only renting the edited versions of films, and for not renting pornography. I have no problem with them doing that, because it is a free country and they can rent whatever they want. What I don't like, is that they do not tell you that they only rent out the edited versions of some films, they should make it more apparent.

If you're like me, and think that the discretion should be up to the viewer and not up to the video store chain, as far as what is acceptable and what isn't, you will not rent from Blockbuster.

The other thing that bothers me about Blockbuster is that they are relentless about collecting late fees from customers, they have been sued multiple times for this, and I have received several checks in the mail because of class action lawsuits that they have been involved in. I recently got a statement in the mail letting me know that I owe them $4.04 and it needs to be paid ASAP. I just returned the movie a week or so ago, and haven't even gone back to rent again since. It was a 5 day rental, and I accidentally had it for 6 days, so I would have just paid it the next time I went to rent, but no, they have to treat me like I robbed a bank or something.

You should also boycott Wal-Mart, they only sell censored versions of CD's. And they are also selling a new DVD player that filters out all of the bad content from movies. But we will save that for a future article. Sound off in the comments if you have had similar problems with Blockbuster Video. Or if you have heard anything regarding their lawsuits.
- posted by d3pth @ 9:00 PM (0) comments

 
THE MAYHEM'S FULL Gmail Review -
by d3pth

I have finally gotten around to writing my review of Googles new email service Gmail. I have been Beta Testing it for a few months now, and have a lot to say about it. If you read some of THE MAYHEMS earlier posts regarding Gmail (Found here, and here) you will see that we were very skeptical about it at first, and who wouldn't be. You know what they say, if it seems too good to be true..... Well, it may be, and it may not be, unfortunately it is too early to tell in the Beta stage, but I can at least give you a solid review and appraisal of it's worth in my humble opinion.

The Look and Feel - The Logon screen I am assuming will change after the Beta Test is over, but I hope that they keep the same basic look and feel of it, very simple and Google-esque. Once you actually get into the inbox, the look keeps the same familiar Google feel, very basic and functional, a pleasant change from a lot of other free email providers. You see an ad once in a while, small text on the right side of an email, but I have yet to see any ads when simply viewing my inbox.

When in the inbox, you can select messages, and move them to the trash or archive them into the "all mail" folder for later searchability, or simply check them and label them, and archive them having never read them. Once you open them, there are small drop down boxes near the top of the message that allow you to archive, label, and delete the messages. All very simple options with very nice colors that are not at all offensive to the eyes.


Options for email and for Email handling -

Labels - With Gmail you can "Label" your email messages. It is the equivalent of putting the messages into a named folder, but easier. All of you mail will inevitably end up in the "All Mail" folder where it can be searched and archived as you wish. You can create a list of labels such as "mom", "work" or whatever you choose, and you can label the email with a selected label. Your list of labels appears on the lower left portion of the page under your Inbox, and other Gmail provided folders. If you click one of the Label names, it pulls up all of the email messages that have that label. A very simple and efficient way of sorting email, new users should just think of a Label like a folder to keep things simple.

Filtering - You can also set your filter to eliminate spam, or to have Gmail automatically label email from certain addresses as certain things. Such as, all email from sister@family.com would get the label "Sister." Starred Messages - You also have the option of "Starring" messages. Starring a message is kind of like highlighting it, or like bending the page corner of a book down. It places a little glowing star next to the message, and you can click on Starred Messages and it pulls up all of the email messages that you have done that to. Kind of handy for things that you think you won't have around for very long but may need to access a few times, or for very important messages and info that you need to hang on to.

Composing messages - Gmail allows up to 10MB of files to be attached to a single email, which is very nice. If you think about it, that is 5 times the size of an entire Hotmail account attached to one email, and 2.5 times the size of a Yahoo account. Gmail also does a wonderful job remembering and auto filling your contacts into the field when you are typing the address. I have tried it in Mozilla and in IE, and it has a local device of some sort that remembers your contacts, and which you have and have not typed in before. I have cleared every last piece of cookie and cache on my machine, and when I go back, even on a machine I have never used Gmail from before, it recalls the address after I type in the first few letters of it. It also has all of the standard things like Spell check, options for colors, etc. The only thing missing form the Beta Version is the option to create and manage a signature, or multiple signatures. I suspect this option will become available when the full version launches, or shortly before. I do not believe I have ever seen a single ad on the compose page either.

Replying to Messages - This is one of the places where Gmail shines. It keeps track of email between people almost as if you were posting to a message board or something. It has all of the replies that have went back and forth between you and the other person in tabs, making it very easy to reference past parts of the "conversation" as they call it. It also places a number next to the message letting you know where you are at in the conversation and how long it has been going on. After the name of who sent the message, and before the subject there will be a number in parenthesis, indicating how many times the message has went back and forth. If I send you an email and you reply to me it would say (2), and if I reply to your reply, it would say (3) and so on. Very clever and easy to use. One of the top 3 features of Gmail.

1GB of Storage - The main attraction to Gmail, and what Google feels is the main selling point, is the 1GB of storage that you receive for your email. It is such a relief after years of using things like Hotmail and Yahoo, where you get a lousy 2-4MB of storage, and often one simple email can fill your mailbox and cripple it. Google wants you to hang onto things, that way their computers can search through your email looking for patterns and keywords, and figure out how to advertise to you. So it is kind of a win/win situation. For now the ads are very minimal, but once the service launches to the general public, expect the advertising to be a bit more common and prominent. Hopefully they don't try to get me to click on the bouncing monkey for a chance to win a steak dinner or anything like that.

Advertising - Keep in mind this is only the Beta version of the service, and they want all of us Beta testers to tell everyone else about how awesome it is and how there really aren't that many ads on it, and all of those nice things. Keeping all of that in mind, I really have not seen many ads. And the ones that I did see were very small text ads on the right hand side of the email message, off on the right frame of the page, separate from the actual email message. To read THE MAYHEM's full speculation about what will happen with Google's Gmail advertising, click here. But for now, it seems like it is tolerable.

Archiving and Searching - The search feature in Gmail is really nice. You can search for basically anything you choose, something out of the actual text of the email, or the subject line too. It searches everything. The only thing that I wish it would do is be able to search the attachments, not for content, because that would be ridiculous, but for it to search for types of attachments, like search for anything that is a .pdf, or a .doc or something like that. That is my only complaint about the search feature, otherwise it seems solid.

Overall Opinion - I think Gmail has some definite potential, I would recommend it to anyone. For now, given that computers search your email for keywords, etc, I would stick to only writing things that you would want the public to see, kind of the same way you talk when you post on a message board.

Top 3 great features that make Gmail Worthwhile -

1. Tabbed Replies - This feature is awesome. It reminds me of the first time I ever used Mozilla and was exposed to tabbed browsing. Imagine sending messages back and forth with someone and having them all tabbed out nice and smoothly for you, and not just having one HUGE email that you have to scroll down through tons of garbage to recall previous parts of the conversation, those days are over. This feature is simply amazing.

2. Archiving and Searching - Another great feature, the search feature works great, and I love the Labeling idea, that way all of my email is in one huge archive, that is sorted with labels, and is completely searchable. It even highlights instances where it finds your search query in yellow. Fantastic.

3. 1GB of storage. Weighing in with 500 times the size of your standard Hotmail account and 250 times the size of your standard Yahoo account. Simply the greatest out there for storage, and it was wise to include this feature for Google, it has created a huge buzz, I am guessing that after Gmail goes public, it will be the email to have. Unless they can think of something great, in a hurry, say goodbye to hotmail and Yahoo.

- posted by d3pth @ 9:33 PM (0) comments

 
President Bush wipes out on his bike.

I would say that we all have awesome memories of wiping out on our bikes as kids, but when we do it as an adult, we feel kind of stupid. And when you do it as an adult, and you're the president, and all of the major news sites have a headline on their main pages about how you wiped out, and they post big pictures of your face with scrapes on it right next to the story about how you wiped out....then you feel really really stupid.



Now, judging by the statement by Trent Duffy (Whitehouse Spokesman) this was more than a "Bike Mishap" as FoxNews.com put it, I bet he flew over the handlebars. "He had minor abrasions and scratches on his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees," Duffy said. (Quoted from the FoxNews.com story found here.)

So if he has scratches on his chin, upper lip, and nose, that means that his face hit the ground. His right hand, so he tried to brace himself from the fall and failed, a useless and painful human instinct when falling. You will get hurt less if you go limp and keep your arms near you, but in that split second of panic we always stick our arm out and it always gets wounded.

THE MAYHEM is trying to formulate exactly how he would have fell, not for any reason other than a funny mental image. He didn't just fall over to the side, as if his tire hit some dirt and slipped, because he would not have scratches on BOTH knees. He has to have physically left the bike. Maybe he was cruising along riding and was taking a kind of sharp turn at a high speed, and the tire jackknifed and he was thrown. He would have been making a left turn at a high speed, wheel jackknifed, he went flying, stuck his right hand out because that is the direction he would have been falling, and scraped up his wrist, face, and knees. A funny mental image indeed.

It is also embarrassing because John Kerry also wiped out on his bike ealier in the month. He was riding around in Massachusettss with some secret service agents when his bike hit a patch of sand, but......he was not injured.

Told about Bush's mishap, Kerry said, "I hope he's OK. I didn't know the president rode a bike." (foxnews.com)

I bet John Kerry's bike hit some sand, he lept from it and did a triple back flip in the air while slamming a mountain dew, and then landed on a shark that was fighting a bear.

Experts at www.somethinglike.net also informed us that he fell off
a Segway last year, and choked on a pretzel and fell the year before...
and you can imagine how much falling he probably did during his several
decades of being an alcoholic...

SomethingLike.net suggests that Kerry should challenge him to a bike race... old school rules... winner gets the white house.





- posted by d3pth @ 5:10 PM (0) comments

 
Quick Review of the film TROY

THE MAYHEM has still not forumulated an official opinion of this film, but here are a few quick likes and dislikes.

The Bad -
Orlando Bloom's little puberty mustache. You would think with a budget that huge they could hook this kid up with a nice Mach 3 or something.

Helen looked Swedish.

The Good -
Great special effects.
Eric Bana's great performance as Hector.
Casting choice for Brad Pitt, even though he is blonde, he is just as vain as Achilles, so it worked nicely.






In this climactic scene, Achilles calls the King of Troy to invite him to a boat party for some Miller Lite. And to tell him to inform Helen that someone in his army likes her "More than a Friend."









- posted by d3pth @ 1:18 AM (2) comments

 
THE MAYHEM has done away with the HaloScan Comments for now. We have started using the new Blogger.com comment system. If you have any trouble with it let us know and we will switch back to HaloScan. The comments section is still located right beneath each entry, just in a little bit smaller font.
- posted by d3pth @ 2:25 PM (3) comments

 
Go David letterman. Praise from the late crowd.

David Letterman has decided to do a taping of his show at 4am. His show is usually taped approximately 6 hours before it airs. The show has still not released a list of the guests who will appear on the show that is taped at 4am. I don't think he will have a hard time finding some nightowl celebrities though. Maybe they will more interesting interviews if the guests get there shortly after bar close.

THE MAYHEM just wanted to give a quick salute to the David Letterman show. For whatever reason, even if it is only a one time thing, breaking the norm is always a good thing, and the rest of the world's nightowls appreciate it when someone does something like this. According to a CNN article found here the show is even pondering the idea of setting up cameras around the city to show the city life how it is at 4am, which should be interesting.

The show will still air in Lettermans usual time slot unfortunately. But nevertheless, a great idea!
- posted by d3pth @ 10:59 PM (0) comments

 
The American Taliban -

The story of John Walker seemed to kind of fade away from the headlines rather than reaching a dramatic conclusion, and also failed to include any real facts and/or details about much of the case itself. You can find information of you really dig, but the amount that was produced and displayed by the major media outlets to the American public was very minimal.

There is a great article on CNN.com found here, it is an interview of John Walker in late 2002 from his hospital bed in Afghanistan.

After a fairly long process, in which both Walker's parents gave statements found here, and also a request to speak before the court by the father of the first US soldier killed in Afghanistan against Walker. Found here.

After all was said and done Walker received a sentence of 20 years in prison for aiding the Taliban and possessing explosives in carrying out a crime.

Here is a PDF file of the counts to which he pled guilty.

Here is a copy of Walker's plea agreement.

Another story that THE MAYHEM will be doing an in depth report on is the issues at the Tri-State Crematory where Raymond Brent Marsch was found to have stashed over 300+ bodies on the grounds of the facility over a several year period. As son as authorities reported finding sexually themed pictures on his computer, and also more bodies when they drained a lake on the property, the story quickly faded from the headlines.
- posted by d3pth @ 10:55 PM (0) comments

 


Ouch!

From an article on CNN.com today. A construction worker had 6 nails driven into his head and neck in an accident involving a high powered nail gun. The nails barely missed his brain stem and spinal cord. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

Mejia, 39, was atop an unfinished home when he fell from the roof onto a co-worker who was using the nail gun, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Mark Newlands said.

The two men tried to grab each other to keep from falling, but both tumbled to the ground. At some point, the nail gun discharged and drove the nails into Mejia's head.

"They're extremely powerful," Newlands said. "They've got to drive through three-quarter-inch plywood."

Click here for the full story.
- posted by d3pth @ 8:40 PM (0) comments

 
Leave it to Wal-Mart

DVD player filters out nudity, violence
(CNN) -- The world's biggest retailer is offering a DVD player that slices out potentially offensive content from movies, such as nudity, violence and foul language.

The device, available at Wal-Mart for about $70, merges video-editing technology developed by ClearPlay with an RCA brand DVD player.

The DVD player works by cutting scenes or muting parts of the movie, according to guidelines from ClearPlay's staff of editors, said ClearPlay CEO Bill Aho.

"This gives you virtually unprecedented control over movies," Aho said. "You can decide what you want to see and what you don't, and the end result is something that is seamless."

Using a checklist of 14 categories, ranging from graphic violence to explicit drug use, buyers can skip over any scenes they deem inappropriate while leaving the rest of the movie intact.

So people have jobs filtering out all of the "naughty" parts in movies. Why does Wal Mart think they know what people "should" see. This is seriously messed up. Click here for the full story.
- posted by d3pth @ 12:05 AM (0) comments

 
Absolutely Hilarious

This hilarious story was found on CNN.com yesterday.

Gun safety presenter shoots self

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- A federal drug agent shot himself in the leg during a gun safety presentation to children in what police describe as an accident. His bosses, however, are still investigating the incident.

The Drug Enforcement Administration agent, whose name was not released, was speaking April 9 to about 50 adults and students organized by the Orlando Minority Youth Golf Association, witnesses and police said.

He drew his .40-caliber duty weapon and removed the magazine, according to the police report. He then pulled back the slide and asked an audience member to look inside the gun and confirm it wasn't loaded.

Witnesses said when the agent released the slide, one shot fired into the top of his left thigh. The gun was pointed at the floor.

The agent was treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center and returned to work, a DEA official said.

Click here for the full story.
- posted by d3pth @ 10:19 PM (0) comments

 
Sex Offender Released

An interesting story about a daycare worker (Gerald Amirault) who was convicted of sexually abusing children in 1986 that was just released from prison today after serving 18 years. His case was one of the most disputed cases in the history of the country.

His sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, and his late mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted in a separate trial and released in 1995. Their cases changed the way that child sex abuse cases are handled.

Among the things that Amirault was accused of…..dressing up as a clown and raping children with knives, and the ritualistic slayings of animals.

Amirault disputed all of the charges, then and now, claiming that they were false and that he is innocent. "I'm going to fight this case to the day I die," he said. "I'm going to get my name back."

Click here for the full story.
- posted by d3pth @ 10:15 PM (0) comments

 
Macedonia Staged Alleged Anti-Terror Action
Courtesy of d3pth.

SKOPJE, Macedonia — Macedonian police gunned down seven innocent immigrants, then claimed they were terrorists, in a killing staged to show they were participating in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, authorities said Friday.

Police spokeswoman Mirjana Konteska told reporters that six people, including three former police commanders, two special police officers and a businessman, have been charged by police with murder.

Click here for the full story.
- posted by d3pth @ 12:35 AM (0) comments