Too Lazy to Fail

I drive by this place about 12 times a week, and at least a couple times a week after dark.

Those lights were not there two days ago. The entire shopping center is decked out in them.

It’s not even October.

(I went to OfficeMax to get a chair mat for my desk. I came back with a chairmat and a chair. Stupid salespeople and their stupid cheerful helpfulness.)

Apparently my new firmware has Microsofts Voice Command built-in. Which means that I can say “Call Tracie” and it will call her. Other commands include “What is my next appointment?”, “What is my signal strength?”, “Read messages” etc.

Now all I need is an equivalent that is scriptable, and I will be able to rule the world through my bluetooth headset.

I’ve seen some of you poking fun at people with bluetooth headsets, and I’ve joined in from time to time, but I think I only did so because headsets were the popular thing to hate, like the 9mm or Pokemon.

It started last night. I was looking for a piece of Windows Mobile software I had been telling my uncle about, and along the way found a bunch of shiny new freeware playthings for my AT&T Tilt. One of them locked up my phone. Hard. So hard that I had to do a wipe of the system memory. Normally this is not a big deal since you’d have a backup of your contacts, etc on Outlook where you last synced the PDA. But I don’t have Outlook. I also never got around to getting one of those nice programs that backs up your contacts to your flash card.

So I uh, guess now’s as good a time as ever to do those firmware upgrades, huh?

Long story short, I found a program that tricks your phone into playing an MP3 over a bluetooth headset. I’m not planning to listen to the White Stripes over a mono bluetooth audio signal, but it seems like a dang handy thing for listening to audiobooks while doing housework or (maybe?) sitting at my desk at work. When a phone call comes in, it reads the name of the caller, and I press the button on my ear to pause the audio file and pick up the phone.

That’s a neat capability, but it’s not worth buying the $35 headset on its own. So why did I swallow my pride and get one? I suppose that the best way of putting it is that I have a certain technology fetish: a pipe dream that nobody is likely to make happen for me any time soon, but which I’ll still spend unhealthy amounts of time fantasizing about.

My tech fetish started way back in middle school when I read the Ender’s Game series (by the way, the first book is great, don’t ruin it by reading the rest unless you’re a diehard fan with low expectations). In the mostly bland sequels to the first fantastic book, an accidentally created artificial sentience named Jane communicates with Ender via a small device in his ear:

Jane is first introduced in Speaker for the Dead as an advanced computer program. She is extremely complex, capable of performing trillions of tasks simultaneously, and has millions of levels of attention, even her most unaware one being much more alert than a human. Jane is hesitant to reveal herself to humanity, because she knows that she is the epitome of humanity’s fear: an intelligent, thinking, computer program that cannot be controlled. She decided to reveal herself to Ender after she found out he wrote The Hive Queen and The Hegemon. She also “remembered” he was the only student to pass the Giant’s Drink, one of the many Fantasy Game situations.

A jewel in Ender’s ear allows both of them to communicate and for her to see and hear everything from Ender’s vantage point. She helps Ender with many things. For example, in the very beginning, she contacts an orbiting ship and pays $40 billion for it and the cargo. Ender’s reliance on Jane becomes obvious when she no longer helps him; he must ask Olhado to help him with his finances but Ender doesn’t even know what his own password is.

It continued when I recently read Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, which featured a logistics computer that became self-aware and was nicknamed Mike:

In Robert A. Heinlein’s novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), the character Mycroft Holmes is a self-aware computer system entrusted with running the life-support systems, communications, payroll and many other things, in a penal colony underground in the Moon or “Luna”. Mycroft eventually sides with characters inciting a revolution to free Luna, and is instrumental in their victory against the Lunar Authority on Earth.

In both these books the friendly omniscient computer helped the protagonists by being their eyes and ears, handling things for them and allowing them to effectively be in several places at once. The computer was awake and alert when its human friends were asleep or distracted, it had a perfect memory, and access to a vast network of rapidly available public knowledge.

Why can’t we have something like that now? I mean, yeah, we’re not quite ready for sentient computers. But surely some clever scripting, some speech recognition, and some synthetic voice work could be combined to give a human being quick answers to specific queries, driving directions, email/SMS notifications, and access to news and weather. Maybe one could click one’s earpiece, say “What’s Jena Six?” and have the computer retrieve and read the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry. Then one could choose to have the computer continue reading the info, or tag it for later listening, or tag it for later browsing in front of a proper terminal, or have it brought up on the screen of the PDA so it can be read without messing with navigating to the proper page.

So I’ll continue to listen to my podcasts between answering calls on the silly button attached to my ear. You can mock me, but I’m afraid that this is the price of progress. We got used to people flying through the air and being able to call up information about the War of 1812 in under five seconds and being able to propel a multi-ton hunk of steel and dead dinosaurs just to go get ice cream. So come on, tell me that a small headset in public is all that crazy.

So it turns out that Ray Boltz is gay.

Now, I know that many of you will disagree with my objections to homosexuality. That’s not the point of this post. I don’t approve of his lifestyle, and I think it’s disgusting that he left his wife and four kids because he suddenly decided he couldn’t pretend anymore, but that has very little personal impact on me.

What is personally significant about this for me is that I will no longer have to play Thank You for every. single. missionary. It must have been some unwritten rule among missionaries that they either sing or play this stupid song for every fund-raising presentation to a church.

Knowing that many churches still won’t play Disney movies at their daycares, I can only hope that folks will think “Oh yeah, isn’t the guy who sang that song gay now?” and never play it ever again.

Just saying.

This exchange just took place with a telephone operator at a company that has provided outstanding customer service in the past:

Operator: How may I direct your call?

Paul: Oh, hi. I think I messed up while navigating your phone system. I’m trying to reach Kevin at extension 11.

Operator: Kevin isn’t available today. Is there another person who can help you?

Paul: Well, it’s not time-sensitive, and Kevin knows our account. I’d be happy to leave a voice mail message.

Operator: Well, let me see if someone else is available to assist you.

Paul: But I don-

(Hold music plays for 90 seconds)

Operator: I’m very sorry for this, Mr. Simer, but there’s nobody else available to help. Will it be OK if I send you to Kevin’s voice mail?

Paul: I suppose I will have to make do. Thanks.

This afternoon on my way home from work I stopped by a local sporting goods store to see if they had received their broken Kahr PM9 back from the service department yet. They had not, but I spotted something under the counter that had not been there before: a completed DPMS AR-15 lower at a price low enough to make me wonder if I wanted to assemble my own after all. While I was looking at it, the salesman asked me what kind of AR I was looking to build:

Paul: Well, I’ll probably go with a light-weight, no-frills carbine. It’s my first, so I want to save money where I can and get a short, handy first rifle.

Salesman: And that lower would be great for that. In fact, you could get a 10.5″ upper online if you’re willing to risk it.

Paul: And become a felon, sure.

Now folks, I don’t like the NFA any more than the next guy. The $200 tax stamp required for SBRs, the paperwork, and the wait are annoying, but not nearly as annoying as skipping them, getting caught, and having “FELON” stamped onto your background checks for the rest of your days. Not to mention the whole going to jail and losing the right to vote and own firearms. As I’ve stated before, I don’t consider legality and morality to be intrinsically linked, but let’s not be stupid here: $200, though unjust, is not the end of the world. I know folks with SBRs, and aside from the wait the process was no big deal. It’s a violation of my rights, but not enough of a violation to justify an action that could take me away from my family for a few years, and away from productive employment for a lifetime. All that is an especially bad idea for a “feature” on an AR that sacrifices a large portion of its utility.

As I was processing this, I overheard the following exchange:

Customer: Man, that EOTech sight sighted in like nothin! I got it off eBay for $400, and you can’t beat that!

Salesman: Yeah, I like them a lot. I’ve got one on my rifle at home.

(It should be noted that earlier, when I asked if they had any fixed or folding AR sights, he tried to sell me a $30 red dot.)

Customer: They say that mine can be used with night vision gear. I can’t afford it, but it sure looks nice.

Salesman: Yeah, and you don’t see much of it. Most of the newer night vision stuff you see at shows are from the military. Soldiers just write ‘em off as losses and take ‘em home to sell. Hell, I’m going off to war myself soon, and I’m planning to stick a few in my bag when I come back.

First off, I must point out that Gen III NVDs are available to anyone, though it’s worth noting that there are export restrictions. Pricey, yes, but perfectly legal.

Making a personal decision to break what most consider to be an unjust law (unregistered SBR) is one thing. Advocating noncompliance with such laws from a storefront is stupid, but I’m not going to judge. Announcing that one is planning to steal from the US Government for personal gain, though? I mean, he knows everyone in that room pays for that stuff, right? Do people have no shame?

I’m just about sure that a complaint letter to the owner is in order. What do you guys think? How would you approach this? This guy is giving firearm retailers and gun-owners everywhere a bad name, but it’s possible that he’s not the only one and that such a letter would be ignored.

In any case, I won’t be purchasing that Kahr, or anything else, from that establishment unless they kick the guy to the curb.

Rangemaster sent out a Memphis-area anecdote yesterday:

This past Sunday evening there was a very instructive incident in East Memphis. A couple was in town for a special event, and were staying at a local hotel. They got into a domestic dispute, and the wife became quite angry and picked up the .380 semi-auto her husband had brought along.  From a few feet away, she shot him in the head with the .380. At that point, he moved quickly, causing her second shot to miss. He then grabbed the gun away from her and went outside and called the police on his cell phone.  When police and paramedics arrived, they found that the bullet had entered the skin on his head, and burrowed around a few inches without entering the skull. This left what the officer described as a “mole tunnel” in the skin. The shootee refused to be taken to the hospital, and was treated and released at the scene by the paramedics.  At no time did he lose consciousness or the ability to fight back.

This is a perfect example of why we say the .380 is not adequate as a defensive round. This lack of effectiveness is the rule with this caliber, not the exception.

A few bloggers have commented approvingly of the admonition from the instructors at Rangemaster, and I can partially agree: the .380 is not a round I would voluntarily rely upon to protect myself and my family. I am mildly bewildered, however, at the dogmatism with which some folks attack sub-caliber pistols.

While those that preach the virtues of the .45 over the 9mm usually do so either without data or with data that ignores modern cartridge design, those who warn us against sub-calibers like the .380 usually do so with good reason, as the modern hollow-point design and hotter potential loading which rescue the otherwise anemic 9mm aren’t as feasible in a cartridge that has the lighter bullet and lower safe pressure threshold of a .380. Simply put, 9mm works because it can go fast, causing the hollow-point bullet to expand while having enough energy left to penetrate. With the .380, one often must choose between penetration and expansion. Without expansion, you’re just punching tiny holes. Without penetration, you’re not reaching vital organs that will cause the aggressor to involuntarily stop what he’s doing.

It sounds like I’ve come not to praise the .380, but to bury it. It’s not the case, or at least, not entirely.

I’m a lucky guy. I carry a Glock 19, which is a full-size, double-stack 9mm pistol. In addition to the pistol I carry a spare magazine and a 2oz can of pepper spray. These items are neither light nor small, but I’m fortunate enough to work in an environment where a nice untucked camp shirt is acceptable attire for the 20-something office manager, so I can conceal what I consider to be a very adequate personal protection configuration. In addition, my employers know that I carry and have no qualms about it. If someone spots the weapon I’m carrying, I’m not in trouble.

Not everyone is so lucky. Most folks work in less permissive environments, where getting caught with a weapon would lead at best to an uncomfortable conversation, and at worst to an escorted trip to the door, with a quick stop to box up personal effects. Some even make the intensely personal decision to protect themselves when not only the employer, but the state itself has required that they disarm. For these individuals, being “made” will result not only in the loss of respect or employment, but the loss of freedom and all the rights of upstanding citizenship.

So what is a person operating in a non-permissive environment to do? Some would tell them to find a new line of work, but that’s easy to say when you’re secure in a job that allows you to protect yourself. The “undercover carrier” is then stuck between a rock and a hard place, between employers that will fire or imprison him if they discover that he carries a weapon, and trainers/writers/gun store employees who imply that there is no excuse for not carrying at least a 9mm, and who mutter under their breath that you’re really not safe with anything but a full-size .40 or .45. Again, I note that full-time trainers work in environments where concealment and secrecy is not a factor.

One option is to go to great lengths in attempting to conceal a full-size pistol. There’s lots of great options out there, and effective every-day concealment in comfort is attainable, but slipping under the radar at Walmart is a lot easier than hiding a large, hard object (Stop snickering!) from people who see you up close nearly every day. For a time I wore a Glock 26 in a tuckable holster with my shirt tucked in and properly bloused. One day a very bright 14 year-old intern with the church’s Urban Ministry program spotted the clips outside my belt while standing beside me at a copier, ruled out a knife or a cell phone, and asked very innocently, “Mr. Simer, do you carry a gun?”

Now, everyone in the room except for this young man knew the answer to that question, but I’m in a permissive environment where it wasn’t a big deal. I give that example to point out that full-size weapons WILL be discovered eventually. Somebody will give you an unexpected hug, or spot some outside bulge or attachment point for the holster, or hear you go “clunk” as you walk too close to a doorframe and hit it with your pistol. Ask yourself: What are the ramifications of discovery? If they’re too costly, as with my friends that carry in spite of state law, then you’ll need to re-evaluate your carry gun.

Someone once said that comparing stopping power among handgun rounds like like comparing ranks among army Privates. ALL handgun rounds stink for self defense, and will “fail” in the manner Rangemaster described occassionally. Some fail more often than others, and while we must take that into account when equipping ourselves, we must also make practical considerations that will allow us to carry in the first place. Rule one of a gunfight: “Have a gun.”

So I’m a big fan of the pocket pistol. I’ve carried a .380 in my pocket when any other gun would have been impossible to conceal under the mandated atire. I carry a larger pistol because I’ve made arrangements for it to be comfortably concealed, and I operate in an environment that endorses my decision to carry. If I ever have to work in a non-permissive environment again, I will not feel ashamed to put a sub-caliber pistol in my pocket. Hey, it beats throwing rocks.

You know that the nature of your wife’s job has fundamentally changed when a phone call with her includes you stating the following:

That’s great, sweetie! Good for you! Be sure you stay close to some hard cover, and give me a call when you’re back at the office, OK?

You may not know this if you don’t know me in meatspace, but part of my “Office Manager” position at the church where I work is running the audio/visual during the services and doing all the planning and preparing that is involved in that. It’s a holdover from my part-timer days as “Audio/Visual Technician” and probably constitutes about 20% of my time working at the church now.

(As an aside, I don’t know for certain why they hired a Computer Science major with poor hearing and no formal education in the matter to run the technical side of their programs. This goes both for ECC and for Union University, who paid me for a while to help run their Instructional Technology and Campus Media office. I suspect the answer in both cases as to do with gullibility, but on whose part, I couldn’t say.)

So as someone who is not at all qualified to be doing what I do, I’m now going to gripe about people who aren’t qualified to do what they do. If you’re reading this and you’re one of those people, just know that I do love you, I appreciate what you do for the church, and I wouldn’t kick any of you off the stage because I know that you’ve got a willingness to do your best and, despite my gripes, you do a great job.

This issue you run into any time you do anything which requires skill, talent, or professional ability from folks at a church is that, requiring volunteer effort, you usually get to deal with folks whose cups do not run over with every one of those qualities. They try really hard, their heart is in the right place, and they do pull off some pretty great stuff, but the ones that do it for a living would rather not do it on the weekends, and those that don’t rely on their talent for a paycheck probably don’t have the experience to know when they’re doing the right thing and when they’re causing problems.

One problem that folks who sing in a group often have is microphone discipline. What I need them to do is hold the microphone really close to their lips while aiming it into their mouths and project their voice outward. I’ve tried several things to get some folks to effectively do, you know, what they’re up there to do, with little success:

Sing to the Clock

The advice that always worked for me as a choir member is: “Pick a point on the back wall and sing as if that’s the microphone, or the ear of the person you’re singing for. Make sure you can be understood all the way back there.” Again, I’m not a professional, but it seems to me that if you do this, biology kicks in, and your posture and breathing problems go away or are at least mitigated. People don’t do it, or if they do, they don’t make it a habit, and I have to keep pointing to the clock above my head, which makes me look silly and makes them look like they’ve been caught slacking off. A look of surprise on the faces of worship team leaders makes the audience try to figure out what happened, and my objective is always to be unobtrusively helpful in my amplification during services.

Glug, Glug

I’ve thought up a handy rule of thumb: “Hold the microphone as if you are drinking a glass of water that is about half full. That puts the microphone at the correct angle and distance from your lips.” People get what I’m saying, but we once again see that knowing the right thing to do and doing the right thing are often far separated. Besides, at least with the clock thing I have a handy visual signal I can give a floundering worship team, but the best visual aid I can give for this can easily be incorrectly interpreted as “I need a drink,” and some church folks are just too uptight about that sort of thing.

Hypochondriacs, Rejoice

I’ve tried telling them that “If you aren’t worried about picking up harmful bacteria from the microphone, your lips aren’t close enough to it. I clean these mics every week.” This is a lie. I never clean the mics. Maybe they can tell? People are way too afraid of a few germs these days, in any case.

No, Really: I Won’t Let You Ruin Everything

Sometimes people will intentionally hold the microphone far away because they are afraid they’ll sound bad. I’ve tried to reassure them that I will not leave them turned up if they’re distractingly bad, but to no avail. I actually had a student who helped lead chapel worship at Union tell me that some days she didn’t feel that she was singing well enough for the Holy Spirit to work through her on some songs, so she alternated between holding the microphone far away and lip syncing while not actually singing anything. I told her that the Holy Spirit was working just fine for me through the marginally-developed intellect that the good Lord put in my noggin, so she could feel free to do her cheery best and let me objectively decide for her, but if she really thought she was too useless for even God to use, that perhaps she should stay off the stage and let them get someone with less talent who would at least do it wholeheartedly. She never came back, and that’s a shame, because when she tried she was the best voice we had.

The point here is that consistency is more important than talent, and I still struggle with getting folks to believe that at the church. The folks I would call the top vocalists on the team aren’t necessarily the people with the greatest voices, just the people who give it their best shot every single time. Some of my most frustrating brethren I’ve heard sing like superstars, but they’re too gosh-dern concerned about how folks will perceive them if they mess up, so they just choose to rarely contribute at all instead.

I Finally Did It!

I finally figured out how to get people to maintain microphone discipline. Most folks know that I can listen to each channel individually through my headphones, even if they don’t understand that I can also see who is slacking by the column of lights on their channel. I discovered that if I put one headphone up to an ear and look around as if I’m confused about why things don’t sound right, they quickly stop lip syncing and start producing sound again. Bingo! This has the added bonus of not requiring them to look surprised or to acknowledge the correction in any way, and likely allows most of them to think that they got away with it and that I didn’t notice.

But I did notice, because I am always watching. Watching and listening and judging.

I love ‘em, anyway. Maybe I’ll even start cleaning the microphones once in a while.

Of course, I’m pleased. It did not accomplish much in terms of practical, immediate gains for most of us, and even for those it immediately effects the fight isn’t over (expect news of significant delays in the permit process, draconian restrictions on weapon type, ammo type, liability insurance requirements, etc), but what makes it really significant is that the wholesale question of “Guns for civilians, yes or no?” is not a question that will be asked again. We may not have gained massive ground with Heller in terms of immediate lifting of infringing laws, but a line was drawn. Here. No futher. From this line we can push forward for victories in individual battles without the risk of losing the war.

Some have reminded us that the NRA was against this case moving to the Supreme Court, but is now one of the first to the microphones proclaiming what a great day it is for America. How dare the NRA swoop in as the champion of all of us, when they didn’t want to fight the battle in the first place? What these critics forget is that the decision was 5-4. As some have noted, we were just one heart attack away from a 5-4 ruling against Heller and a recognized individual right to bear arms. Maybe one slip of the tongue in the oral argument. Maybe one bad day for a Justice. That’s frighteningly close, and the ramifications would have been far-reaching and devastating. By opposing the movement of the case into the Supreme Court, the NRA was doing the safe–not irresponsible–thing. Gura and his team scored for us a huge victory, but to go for it required risking everything. Thank God it worked out in our favor.

It’s also been mentioned that had Gore or Kerry been President, the Second Amendment would be gone today. I don’t think that’s the case. The move by Heller’s representation to test the Second Amendment in the Supreme Court was ballsy enough as it was, and very nearly ended in disaster. Had the makeup of the Court been tilted–had, say, Roberts never seen nomination and a liberal elevated in his stead–I would like to think that any attorney not secretly hostile to his client and the ideas his client represents would never take a suicidal run straight to a catastrophic ruling against the individual right.

But it’s over. I’m glad it worked out. Celebrate tonight, because tomorrow there’s still work to be done.

Chris goes into detail about the benefits, misconceptions, and practical ramifications of open carry.

I’d add that open carry isn’t for everyone. Most folks I know work in environments where, even if there’s not a sign posted, there is a written policy against employees going armed. In some places, management is so frightened of the idea of a person going through an extensive background check and receiving training carrying a scary gun recklessly that it becomes a bad idea to even let on that one knows how to work the tools with which to defend one’s family death dealing killing machines. For these folks, open carry is a bad move because one may happen to run into a co-worker or boss while outside the job. People who are afraid of guns may be irrational, but they’re not stupid. Whether you choose to carry a gun at work against policy or not, your anti-gun coworkers may be more likely to cause problems for you on the job because of your lifestyle outside the office.

I’m fortunate to work at a place where my coworkers are aware and appreciate that I’m armed. Though I don’t open carry at work, I don’t worry about the patrons of our establishment (read: congregation) spotting me with a gun if I choose to do so outside of work.

My experiences open carrying here in Jackson have been very positive. Those who are observant enough to notice and bold/nosy enough to approach me about it are usually very receptive and reasonable when I explain the legal framework around carrying a handgun in Tennessee, openly or concealed. I’ve offered on the spot to take more than one person to the range.

Provided one is knowledgeable about the topic and level-headed, open carry is a great way to make folks aware that any law-abiding citizen can have the peace of mind of being armed, and that those who choose to do so are not the psychopaths that the media makes them out to be, but rather reasonable, responsible folks who want to do the right thing for themselves and their families.

Dear Apple, Nokia, and Palm:

I don’t really care which one of you wins a page-loading speed contest when the winner still takes longer than a low-end computer on dialup would take.

I mean, really. 21 seconds? You may have gotten away with that in 1995, but in an age where I can get a 10 Megabit connection $50, this looks kinda silly for technology that’s supposed to be the latest and greatest.

I love my AT&T tilt, but the only connectivity I need for it is for Google Maps and email.

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080618/1a_bottomstrip18_dom.art.htm

HOLLY SPRINGS, Ga. — The surging price of gasoline has come to this: a “fuel surcharge” on your next speeding ticket.

Drivers caught speeding in this north Atlanta suburb soon will have to pay an extra $12 — to cover $4-a-gallon gas costs for the police officers who stop them.

The City Council passed the fee hike, effective July 1, to offset fuel prices that have eaten up nearly 60% of the police department’s 2008 fuel budget, Police Chief Ken Ball says.

He expects the fee increase, which applies to all moving violations and can be rescinded if gas prices fall below $3 a gallon, to generate $19,500 to $26,000 a year for the town of 7,700.

This means that they expect to ticket 1,625 to 2,166 people this year. That’s between 21% and 28% of the general population. Does a quarter of the population really get a ticket every year?

Holly Springs Mayor Tim Downing says: “This is a self-taxing system. If you don’t break the law, you don’t pay the tax.”

I imagine that a statement like this could only be made if one viewed fines for breaking the law as a primary revenue stream for a community. The excessive number of tickets seems to me to suggest that lots of their tickets are given to through traffic, not citizens of Holly Springs.

EDITED TO ADD: Hey, thanks Wikipedia!

The City of Holly Springs recently annexed all the way down to Sixes Road, and their police have been seen giving out many tickets along this stretch of road, leading some to believe it may be used as a speed trap in order to increase city revenue. Holly Springs was notorious for decades for the speed trap it had set up on the former S.R. 5 prior to the completion of I-575 and has apparently carried over this practice to the interstate.

I guess that in this age of $4 gas, even small-town revenue enforcers police departments have to figure out ways to make ends meet.

Taxes are what a government collects to pay its bills and keep public services running. Fines are primarily intended to punish those who do wrong. When municipality-employed peace officers get tasked with punishing more folks to turn the latter into the former, there is born a deep conflict of interest.

What a boneheaded thing to do. My wife and I maintain a 2/1 split on our three-disc subscription because she watches many more movies and TV-on-DVD releases than I do. I have no interest in her stuff and she only has a passing interest in most of mine. Now that our queues will be smashed up into each other, we’ll have to manually manage what is coming to us (difficult, if not impossible) to make sure we aren’t stuck with an overload of video for one user and media starvation for the other. This move pretty much kills the utility of Netflix for my household, and I can’t understand for the life of me what practical purpose they have behind it. Sure, I guess they could be hoping that people will pony up more dough for additional subscriptions, but if I wanted to spend $35+ instead of $18 on entertainment, I’d get digital cable and a Tivo.

If someone knows of a compelling technical reason for them to do this, please tell me.

When the wife gets home, we’re going to talk this over. We may well decide to cancel Netflix.