Commented 14 years ago2010-02-11 23:25:35 UTC
in journal: #6390Comment #59827
You know what hlife_hotdog, I think you just posted the smartest post so far in this journal. I think I will end my participation here, this journal has become a runaway train that jumped tracks.
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-11 15:36:48 UTC
in journal: #6390Comment #59826
"Hard-core drinking is cool! Assassinate anyone who dislikes America!" Hold on a second there, Strider! Are you suggesting that I previously said all that? Really now?
First off, I never said drinking is cool. In fact, I said...quote - "then I just might be a little questionable in that",......big difference there!. To be honest, I don't really drink that much. Sometimes I will go for 2 or 3 months without drinking a single beer.
And then that bit about "Assassinate anyone who dislikes America!"....definitely did not come from me like that!. If you are referring to that one other journal post a while back where I threatened this other TWHL member (which I forget his name), I need to point out that I did take back what I said by posting a subsequent apology to the TWHL member that I offended. As far as I am concerned, that been buried, it's in the past.
Well, well.....it seems that Huntey (and potatis_invalid for backing him up) took it a big notch further than I did by bringing up God in this! To really be honest here, I did not think anybody here in TWHL would have had the balls to lay it out like Hunty did, but I guess I was wrong. It is the right course anyway, after all, the Bible does say that gays have it coming, it's not going to be pretty for them.
Now, can we get back to bashing the Playstation Network?......
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-11 04:23:50 UTC
in journal: #6390Comment #59825
@Rimrook: If you are going to call both the Xbox and PS3 gay, then I take it you don't like consoles too much, uh?
"Second Life is gay" Yep, it is. Never tried it, never will. Besides, I hear their 3D is very dated, is not that good. Sure, they are very popular and huge in social everything, but their particular 3D/chat platform is not my cup of tea. I rather stick to the official specifications from the web3D consortium (X3D & VRML).
"Tito is questionable" If you mean as in gay, then HELL NO! I hate homos. But if you mean as a hard core drinker, then I just might be a little questionable in that.
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-10 23:56:09 UTC
in journal: #6390Comment #59824
I think the ones that are really going to get hit hard first with fees are the users of Home, which is like a Second Life wanna be. The PS3's Home membership is massive, it's in the millions already, making it one of the biggest 3D virtual chat worlds ever. It's probably only second to Second Life's membership size, which is also in the millions.
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-09 01:11:07 UTC
in journal: #6380Comment #48988
@Tetsu0: I'm happy for the Saints too, this win will be a good lifting-up therapy for New Orleans, which in some ways is still hurting from Katrina.
@Trapt & naserve: Do you two hold hands while showering together? If so, that would explain a few things......
Oh by the way Trapt, comparisons between American football and rugby have been done about a million times by sports reporters for years. Hell, even some of the football and rugby team owners have gone on record to point out the similarities of both sports. Yes, both sports are unique and different, but to a point, they do have some common traits and both share the same origins. Next time, do some research before spewing out venom out of your ass:
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-08 10:45:33 UTC
in journal: #6380Comment #48986
To all non-Americans, a quick noob introduction to American Football:
The team names "Saints" and "Colts" that Tetsu0 mentioned are part of an American only sport that belongs to a professional league called "National Football League", or NFL: http://www.nfl.com
Have you ever heard of a very long running video game sports franchise called "Madden" published by Electronics Arts? Well, that's it, that's American professional football on the Madden video game series.
There is a European NFL league, but I hardy ever hear anything about them, in fact, I don't know if they even exist anymore. Now, American football is also similar in all aspects to Australian rugby: http://www.australianrugbyleague.com.au/
Anyway, coming back to the NFL Super Bowl, no other sports event in the world with the exemption of perhaps the World Cup, gets the massive media attention and viewership as the NFL Super Bowl does. Across the U.S., football is big in many communities, especially so in high schools. In some universities and collages, football is practically a religion.
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-06 16:37:10 UTC
in journal: #6376Comment #54262
That's really sad and depressing to hear. If that ever happened to my cat, I will just tell the Vet to put him to sleep. I just don't have it in my heart to see my cat suffer day to day due to a missing limb. Cats are very physically active with their acrobatics, but above all, are very independent mind wise. It would be a huge blow to them mentally with this kind of injury.
Commented 14 years ago2010-02-01 02:38:44 UTC
in journal: #6365Comment #59802
With what hlife_hotdog said in mind, let's do some math here:
Let's assume the PS3's in question are the 120GB models that retail for about $300, okay? Now, the article says they will start with 1,700 PS3 units, but will eventually number well over 2,000 PS3's. So, since we don't know the exact final number of PS3's to be used, let's just then stick to the nice round middle number of 2,000 PS3's.
2,000 X $300 = $600,000
So my question is, does anybody here have over a quarter of a million dollars to spare?
And another thing.......can you imagine the awesome frame rate that could be achieved on any game regardless the number of players on screen? It gives me goosebumps just by thinking of it.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-31 22:28:04 UTC
in journal: #6365Comment #59801
My guess is, they must have gone directly to Sony so they can get a sweet volume discount on their wholesale purchase. But then again, knowing how it is with the federal government and big business, I won't be surprised if Sony charged the U.S. Air Force over $1,000 for each PS3.
You know, this reminds me of a story from several years ago about some university in the U.S. that hooked up in the same way several hundred of the top of the line Macs of that time, to create a "Super Mac".
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-31 18:59:11 UTC
in journal: #6364Comment #52063
@srry: You should go for it anyway, it's not everyday one gets to travel so far away. You just never know what new neat surprises could come up about. And who knows, you just might meet a nice French girl.
@Daubster & Soup Miner: So, while you were in Mexico, how was that tequila? I also bet you were in food heaven too!
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-31 16:36:22 UTC
in journal: #6363Comment #44490
You know, there's a rumor that the Catholic church keeps a collection of videos that are actual recordings of past real exorcisms locked away in a secrete location at the Vatican.
I bet it would be very scary to watch those videos, since it supposedly will be the "real thing" in action.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-30 03:48:30 UTC
in journal: #6358Comment #54108
Why thank you srry, I will take that as a compliment. You know what, I should then go to Las Vegas and enter the million dollar poker challenge! On second thought, nah! I might end up as a street bum.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-30 01:58:02 UTC
in journal: #6358Comment #54107
In theory, I agree with you Huntey. To tell you the truth, I was being a bit sarcastic, I don't really mean he should spend his hard earned money that way. Too much vanity is not smart. That's why I said that I might have watched too many Pimp My Ride shows, you know.....as a hint to my little joke.
Now, as for the attitude you mentioned, all I can say is what's perceived as tacky and then cool varies from country to country. It's really a question of people's different cultures. In the United States, in cities like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, cars, limos and SUV's with tinted windows and chrome rims are the norm. They are cool in not just the poor neighborhoods, but also the rich ones. Where I live, in Puerto Rico, it's the same story. I'm sure it's a different story in Europe though, tricked out and pimped up cars Hip-Hop style are not really popular there, it's just not part of the society's fabric there, it would be considered "foreign".
One other really big culture difference between the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, is guns. In the U.S., owning a gun is practically a God given right to Americans. In fact, it's part of the national constitution. But in the U.K., most of Europe, Japan, and some other countries, it's a big no-no to own guns for no good reason. Australia, I'm not to sure about their guns laws, so I can't comment on them.
Anyway, coming back to the car with tinted windows and chrome rims, personally I will not bother with such a thing, I'm already past that age group, it does not suit me.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-30 00:55:20 UTC
in journal: #6358Comment #54106
Ahh yes, nice....new car!
Now, the question that I have: Any plans to pimp it up? You know.....tinted windows, chrome rims, killer sound system? Yea, assuming you got the money, you can turn your new car in to a real "chick-pick-her-upper"!
But then again, I think I might have watched too many episodes of the TV show "Pimp My Ride". If you are a car buff, this is the show to see. Anyway, I'm very happy for you Livewire, a guy of your age should always have a good set of wheels. Just take good care of your car and enjoy it, have fun!
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-29 02:42:15 UTC
in journal: #6357Comment #61814
Really Penguinboy? Let's put things in perspective here...........
I have already gotten paid over $22,000 from the past 3 years part time doing a few commercial websites for small business. I know it's not a lot, but it's a start. On top of that, my PayPal account gets about $400 to $600 a week from my various web stores that I created and own. The amounts will just be getting bigger as time goes on. And in April, I will be joining a web developer team as freelance consultant to work on an online state government project dealing with law enforcement. This job has a completion budget set at 4 million dollars! For this consultant job, I will be getting paid $36 an hour for the space of 4 months. I might not have the fancy I.T. degrees or be completely fluent with all the web developing technologies out there, but I do know enough for what I really need to know to get the job done. And you know what is the best part about all this from me? I am my own boss, I do not work for no body else, period. So, you still want to tell me that I don't know anything? There's a little saying that I always liked a lot: "Money talks, bullshit walks".
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-29 01:45:22 UTC
in journal: #6357Comment #61813
I once did a website with a similar conditional redirect page, but instead of PHP, I used Javascript. Now, seeing as you are only talking about PHP, then I will point you to a PHP related resource.
It might or might not help you out on what you need, but at least it's free to use. Here is this little PHP redirect script that I found called "GoTo".
PHP GoTo will redirect a user to an URL that they select from a form. The allowed protocols are HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP. If the protocol is not specified with the form data, it defaults to HTTP.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-28 18:19:54 UTC
in journal: #6355Comment #39058
.....and yet with everything bad about it said here and on other countless forums all over the web, Apple is going to end up selling millions of them anyway, people will be standing in lines for hours, just like they did for the iPhone. In less than 60 days, the madness starts all over again.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-28 01:26:01 UTC
in vault item: de_dracula - bad mapComment #17913
Just because it's uncompilable and has a whole bunch of errors like you say, does not mean the map's mesh can't be salvaged and used in some other way. If it's okay with you DiscoStu, I'm going to go ahead and download the map, extract the map's mesh (brush) via a format conversion to another 3D format (.obj or .3ds), and see if I can turn the castle in to the center piece of an online virtual world (Java or X3D powered). I will do this strictly as an experiment, just to see how well it can be done. I will keep you up to date via PM's on the progress.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-27 02:30:19 UTC
in journal: #6352Comment #61802
Huntey or Penguinboy will most likely help you out on this one. I wish I could, but my raw CSS code skills are rather limited, I tend to use a WYSIWYG style sheet editor for whenever I do a website involving CSS.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-27 00:54:18 UTC
in journal: #6351Comment #59791
Well yea, I'm afraid you are. You see, BILLIONS of $, ?, ?, ? says other wise, there's just to much money to be made from tie-in merchandise, and that's not even counting the movies themselves. And then there's the millions of hard core fans world wide that want new movies made at any cost.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-26 19:08:30 UTC
in journal: #6351Comment #59790
I have a message for George Lucas!:
Make Star Wars Episodes 7, 8 and 9 now in full 3D! Use Avatar's level of CGI for all the aliens. Oh, and while you are at it, film all 3 movies back to back, like it was done with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-26 18:54:15 UTC
in journal: #6351Comment #59789
I'm afraid that I will have to agree with TheGrimReafer. I to will not like to watch ALL the movies in 3D, especially while wearing those cumbersome 3D goggles they lend you at the theaters. Don't forget also, that the first generation of 3D TV's will be hitting the market later this year, at least that's what they said on this past CES. And if that happens, it will just fuel even more the 3D hysteria that's going on strong right now.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-26 09:01:23 UTC
in journal: #6349Comment #63089
Besides what SpaG said about defragging the drive, you might also want to look in to seeing how many programs or services are running at windows startup, some of these could even be trojans, some of which are notorious for steeling memory resources, thus bogging down the computer's operating speed.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-24 22:44:56 UTC
in journal: #6344Comment #55530
Oh man, this is what I get for being genuinely polite to a girl, go figure. Now, it's true what you said, "trying to get ANY internet pussy is sad", I agree with that. But where you fail big time, is when you try to apply that to me, it just does not compute in my case. For the record, I have a girlfriend, been with her for the past 16 months, am 100% happy with her and absolutely no need to be going after other women. Oh yea, I have plans to eventually marry her soon.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-24 21:02:08 UTC
in journal: #6346Comment #44484
Well yea, that "shitty bootleg DVD" as you put it was most likely burned from a low quality video source commonly known in the bitorrent world as a "R5 cam" recording. In other words, somebody recorded the movie inside a theater where it was being shown at using a camcorder. Sometimes the pirate will even use a cell phone to record the movie. Anyway, The Fourth Kind movie will come out on Blu-ray and DVD March 16th, 2010. So until then, a good quality DVD or BD Rip will not be available online for download.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-24 18:09:15 UTC
in journal: #6346Comment #44483
For the past two weeks or so, it's been one of the most heavily downloaded movies across the entire torrent circuit. It's definitely in the top 5 for sure in download popularity. But I will wait for the DVD though.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-24 09:21:05 UTC
in journal: #6344Comment #55529
LOL, you have too much of a suspicious mind there, ATDestroy.
@brendanmint: No, there are plenty of girls on the internet. They mostly hangout in social sites like MySpace, IMVU or any forum board dedicated to the The Vampire Diaries TV show.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-23 02:15:52 UTC
in journal: #6339Comment #59779
Sometimes you got to fight fire with fire. Otherwise, rolling over and getting your ass kicked is the only other option left. Like it or not, this is the way the real world works.
Anyway, I don't think any real action is ever going to happen between the United States and Venezuela. Hugo Chavez is just a talker, likes to blow a lot of hot air, he does not have it in him to really start something big with the U.S. Right now, Venezuela his having some civil and economical problems which are so serious, they are actually threatening his hold on power.
If he ever gets removed from office, either he be banished from the country or killed on the spot, it would most likely be done by his own people, not the U.S. government.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-22 19:09:15 UTC
in journal: #6339Comment #59778
Oh man, you really don't know who Hugo Chavez is, and what he really stands for, don't you?
Look, to put it in simple terms: He's a democracy hating communist. Every single Venezuelan journalist that has spoken or written recently against is administration has either been locked up, found dead or just simply disappeared, all for speaking out on his mission for turning Venezuela from a democracy to a dictatorship. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-22 15:38:00 UTC
in journal: #6339Comment #59777
You know, Barack Obama needs to stop being the punk-bitch he is and have this Hugo Chavez assassinated. If George Bush would still have been President, Hugo Chavez would not have said that, because he knows he would have been a dead man the next day.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-21 23:19:26 UTC
in journal: #6338Comment #41302
"spoiler: the salesman was Tito"
@Trapt: Ha,ha,...nice one. But even if I were to try to get a job with Verizon as a salesman, I would not qualify, due to the fact I don't meet Verizon's "artistic rip-off skills" standards. In other words, I'm not evil enough for them.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-21 18:17:50 UTC
in journal: #6338Comment #41301
It's very curious you mention that you could not log in, I was having trouble also logging in to TWHL for about 20 minutes earlier today, I kept getting a "HTTP 404 error", instead of TWHL's front page. And this was like the 3rd time it happened in the space of two months.
I too once had Verizon as both my residential telephone service and my ISP when I lived in Pennsylvania 5 years ago. And I can tell you, you really have to be careful and alert with them. Just like you, I too got hit broadside with some mysterious fees that did not add up with my actual contract. Now, you do know that if you really feel you got screwed over by Verizon, there are consumer protection options at your disposal from your local government (city, county or state). You can start by going here: http://www.consumeraction.gov/caw_state_resources.shtml
Also, if you are going to be short on your rent payment because of the Verizon bill, then just pay part of the Verizon bill, not all of it. Verizon can not hit you with a late charge fee if you pay at least part of the bill on time. The rest can be carried over to the next month penalty free. At least that's how it is in Pennsylvania, it should be the same way too in your home state, but you could always double check to be sure.
This comment was made on an article that has been deleted.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-19 01:19:22 UTC
in journal: #6332Comment #55666
Do you know how people are always getting unsolicited offers (SPAM) and links to download trail software on their email inboxes?
Well, a few of those same companies that fill your email inbox with spam sometimes send out stuff like CD-Roms filled with trail software through the regular postal mail service. Once your name and address gets listed on some database of software buyers, you too might start getting software CD-Roms through the mail. It's happened to me a few times over the years.
Commented 14 years ago2010-01-18 21:37:31 UTC
in journal: #6332Comment #55664
Well, if you are more in to creating and designing stuff, I would say Autodesk Inventor. I must point out, Autodesk Inventor is a world class, super high end program for designing anything and everything mechanical and in between for eventual manufacturing. This is no mere 3D modeler, it requires some serious understanding of it. And at a cost of $5,295.00 for the full use license, it's not cheap. If you do manage to create something with it, by all means post it here....
Hold on a second there, Strider! Are you suggesting that I previously said all that? Really now?
First off, I never said drinking is cool. In fact, I said...quote - "then I just might be a little questionable in that",......big difference there!. To be honest, I don't really drink that much. Sometimes I will go for 2 or 3 months without drinking a single beer.
And then that bit about "Assassinate anyone who dislikes America!"....definitely did not come from me like that!. If you are referring to that one other journal post a while back where I threatened this other TWHL member (which I forget his name), I need to point out that I did take back what I said by posting a subsequent apology to the TWHL member that I offended. As far as I am concerned, that been buried, it's in the past.
Well, well.....it seems that Huntey (and potatis_invalid for backing him up) took it a big notch further than I did by bringing up God in this! To really be honest here, I did not think anybody here in TWHL would have had the balls to lay it out like Hunty did, but I guess I was wrong. It is the right course anyway, after all, the Bible does say that gays have it coming, it's not going to be pretty for them.
Now, can we get back to bashing the Playstation Network?......
"Second Life is gay"
Yep, it is. Never tried it, never will. Besides, I hear their 3D is very dated, is not that good. Sure, they are very popular and huge in social everything, but their particular 3D/chat platform is not my cup of tea. I rather stick to the official specifications from the web3D consortium (X3D & VRML).
"Tito is questionable"
If you mean as in gay, then HELL NO!
I hate homos. But if you mean as a hard core drinker, then I just might be a little questionable in that.
You said it right the first time around. I'm pretty sure "Grandpop" means the same thing as "Grandfather" in all English speaking countries.
Anyway, my sincere condolences for your loss.
@Trapt & naserve: Do you two hold hands while showering together? If so, that would explain a few things......
Oh by the way Trapt, comparisons between American football and rugby have been done about a million times by sports reporters for years. Hell, even some of the football and rugby team owners have gone on record to point out the similarities of both sports. Yes, both sports are unique and different, but to a point, they do have some common traits and both share the same origins. Next time, do some research before spewing out venom out of your ass:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_football_and_rugby_union
http://www.diffen.com/difference/American_Football_vs_Rugby
Um, I don't know about that...
"and don't wear full body armour"
Very true.
"I hate alot about this country...I wish I was english...which I am half of"
Oh my, that might not sit well with the other Aussies here in TWHL.
The team names "Saints" and "Colts" that Tetsu0 mentioned are part of an American only sport that belongs to a professional league called "National Football League", or NFL: http://www.nfl.com
Have you ever heard of a very long running video game sports franchise called "Madden" published by Electronics Arts? Well, that's it, that's American professional football on the Madden video game series.
There is a European NFL league, but I hardy ever hear anything about them, in fact, I don't know if they even exist anymore. Now, American football is also similar in all aspects to Australian rugby: http://www.australianrugbyleague.com.au/
Anyway, coming back to the NFL Super Bowl, no other sports event in the world with the exemption of perhaps the World Cup, gets the massive media attention and viewership as the NFL Super Bowl does. Across the U.S., football is big in many communities, especially so in high schools. In some universities and collages, football is practically a religion.
Let's assume the PS3's in question are the 120GB models that retail for about $300, okay? Now, the article says they will start with 1,700 PS3 units, but will eventually number well over 2,000 PS3's. So, since we don't know the exact final number of PS3's to be used, let's just then stick to the nice round middle number of 2,000 PS3's.
2,000 X $300 = $600,000
So my question is, does anybody here have over a quarter of a million dollars to spare?
And another thing.......can you imagine the awesome frame rate that could be achieved on any game regardless the number of players on screen? It gives me goosebumps just by thinking of it.
You know, this reminds me of a story from several years ago about some university in the U.S. that hooked up in the same way several hundred of the top of the line Macs of that time, to create a "Super Mac".
@Daubster & Soup Miner: So, while you were in Mexico, how was that tequila? I also bet you were in food heaven too!
I bet it would be very scary to watch those videos, since it supposedly will be the "real thing" in action.
Now, as for the attitude you mentioned, all I can say is what's perceived as tacky and then cool varies from country to country. It's really a question of people's different cultures. In the United States, in cities like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, cars, limos and SUV's with tinted windows and chrome rims are the norm. They are cool in not just the poor neighborhoods, but also the rich ones. Where I live, in Puerto Rico, it's the same story. I'm sure it's a different story in Europe though, tricked out and pimped up cars Hip-Hop style are not really popular there, it's just not part of the society's fabric there, it would be considered "foreign".
One other really big culture difference between the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, is guns. In the U.S., owning a gun is practically a God given right to Americans. In fact, it's part of the national constitution. But in the U.K., most of Europe, Japan, and some other countries, it's a big no-no to own guns for no good reason. Australia, I'm not to sure about their guns laws, so I can't comment on them.
Anyway, coming back to the car with tinted windows and chrome rims, personally I will not bother with such a thing, I'm already past that age group, it does not suit me.
Now, the question that I have: Any plans to pimp it up? You know.....tinted windows, chrome rims, killer sound system? Yea, assuming you got the money, you can turn your new car in to a real "chick-pick-her-upper"!
But then again, I think I might have watched too many episodes of the TV show "Pimp My Ride". If you are a car buff, this is the show to see.
Anyway, I'm very happy for you Livewire, a guy of your age should always have a good set of wheels. Just take good care of your car and enjoy it, have fun!
I have already gotten paid over $22,000 from the past 3 years part time doing a few commercial websites for small business. I know it's not a lot, but it's a start. On top of that, my PayPal account gets about $400 to $600 a week from my various web stores that I created and own. The amounts will just be getting bigger as time goes on. And in April, I will be joining a web developer team as freelance consultant to work on an online state government project dealing with law enforcement. This job has a completion budget set at 4 million dollars! For this consultant job, I will be getting paid $36 an hour for the space of 4 months. I might not have the fancy I.T. degrees or be completely fluent with all the web developing technologies out there, but I do know enough for what I really need to know to get the job done. And you know what is the best part about all this from me? I am my own boss, I do not work for no body else, period. So, you still want to tell me that I don't know anything? There's a little saying that I always liked a lot: "Money talks, bullshit walks".
It might or might not help you out on what you need, but at least it's free to use. Here is this little PHP redirect script that I found called "GoTo".
PHP GoTo will redirect a user to an URL that they select from a form. The allowed protocols are HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP. If the protocol is not specified with the form data, it defaults to HTTP.
You can download the script directly from here: http://www.lampscripts.net/node/3/release
Oh a few,.....the same millions of Apple minions who bought the iTouch and iPhone.
Make Star Wars Episodes 7, 8 and 9 now in full 3D! Use Avatar's level of CGI for all the aliens. Oh, and while you are at it, film all 3 movies back to back, like it was done with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Am I asking for too much?
@brendanmint: No, there are plenty of girls on the internet. They mostly hangout in social sites like MySpace, IMVU or any forum board dedicated to the The Vampire Diaries TV show.
D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!........
Anyway, I don't think any real action is ever going to happen between the United States and Venezuela. Hugo Chavez is just a talker, likes to blow a lot of hot air, he does not have it in him to really start something big with the U.S. Right now, Venezuela his having some civil and economical problems which are so serious, they are actually threatening his hold on power.
If he ever gets removed from office, either he be banished from the country or killed on the spot, it would most likely be done by his own people, not the U.S. government.
Look, to put it in simple terms: He's a democracy hating communist. Every single Venezuelan journalist that has spoken or written recently against is administration has either been locked up, found dead or just simply disappeared, all for speaking out on his mission for turning Venezuela from a democracy to a dictatorship. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
@Trapt: Ha,ha,...nice one. But even if I were to try to get a job with Verizon as a salesman, I would not qualify, due to the fact I don't meet Verizon's "artistic rip-off skills" standards. In other words, I'm not evil enough for them.
I too once had Verizon as both my residential telephone service and my ISP when I lived in Pennsylvania 5 years ago. And I can tell you, you really have to be careful and alert with them. Just like you, I too got hit broadside with some mysterious fees that did not add up with my actual contract. Now, you do know that if you really feel you got screwed over by Verizon, there are consumer protection options at your disposal from your local government (city, county or state). You can start by going here: http://www.consumeraction.gov/caw_state_resources.shtml
Also, if you are going to be short on your rent payment because of the Verizon bill, then just pay part of the Verizon bill, not all of it. Verizon can not hit you with a late charge fee if you pay at least part of the bill on time. The rest can be carried over to the next month penalty free. At least that's how it is in Pennsylvania, it should be the same way too in your home state, but you could always double check to be sure.
Well, a few of those same companies that fill your email inbox with spam sometimes send out stuff like CD-Roms filled with trail software through the regular postal mail service. Once your name and address gets listed on some database of software buyers, you too might start getting software CD-Roms through the mail. It's happened to me a few times over the years.