xbox360 and netflix

Hello, I have just purchased an Xbox360 60GB model. I think I may have jumped the gun on purchasing the xbox because the whole reason I bought an xbox instead of another product was because of some hype I found floating around on the Internet about being able to stream my Netflix to my xbox.

This is partly my fault for not researching it further before investing my money. However, I am still extremely disappointed that I will not be able to participate in this venture because netflix tells me that the functionality may not be ready until late fall.

I am young and impatient and desperately in need of a more promising solution for the consumption of my media. Streaming is the only way to go. Digital and physical storage are both bulky, costly, and a pain in the butt to manage.

I was under the impression that the xbox360 would be the answer to my needs. At this point in time I feel differently. If there is anyone who could provide me with any more information about what is going on with the partnership between netflix and Microsoft I would very much appreciate hearing from them.

Until then, I feel I may be forced to find a different solution to my media and gaming needs. The Xbox360 right now is not fulfilling my wants and I really could use that investment toward a more practical solution that would better fit my needs.

This is an opportunity for Microsoft to shine and set an example in customer service. My *minimum* expectations are that I will receive a reply from somebody who can at least smooth talk me into being happy with what I already have but I fully expect that this issue immediately be escalated past your first level of support as I doubt Microsoft has given them the tools to resolve my issue.

One of two things can happen here. I can be contacted by somebody with greater lee-way in dealing with unsatisfied customers or I can receive an auto response or template email telling me marketing information about the netflix deal. I will change from an unsatisfied customer to a passionately angry customer if the second of the two is what happens.

I hope for the best and I would have faith that Microsoft will want me as a customer enough that some care will be shown in handling this situation.

Thank you for your time, Holden Caulfield (yes, it is an alias)

this email was sent through the E-mail live support feature found on help.xbox.com/eform
this email can also be found at http://keldwud.blogspot.com/2008/08/xbox360-and-netflix.html

Television Pie

Stole this from wired.

Take a closer look at that pie:

• Besides Bravo and Sci Fi, NBC Universal also owns USA, the highest-rated ad-supported cable channel; MSNBC; CNBC; ShopNBC; Oxygen; Telemundo; and one-third of A&E Television, itself a conglomeration that includes A&E, the History Channel, and the Biography Channel.
  
• Disney owns ABC, ESPN, SoapNet, ABC Family, its own one-third share of A&E, and half of Lifetime. It also, of course, owns the Disney Channel, the top-rated basic-cable outlet of any kind.
  
• Viacom and CBS, though now traded separately on Wall Street, are both controlled by one man, Sumner Redstone. CBS owns Showtime, the Movie Channel, and half of the CW. Viacom’s list of properties includes MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Spike TV, BET, and Comedy Central.
  
• Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. owns Fox, Fox News, FX, and, well, everything with the word Fox in it, from Fox College Sports to the Fox Reality Channel.
  
• Time Warner owns the other half of the CW, as well as CNN, TNT, TBS, TCM, HBO, Cinemax, the Cartoon Network, and TruTV (formerly CourtTV).

mmm pie.

the list

Okay, here are the places that the document has been posted

• Google Docs - http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddwb25rk_124bbh4dhk
• Blogger - http://keldwud.blogspot.com/
• Myspace - Bulletin Post http://is.gd/P5h , Blog Post http://is.gd/P5u
• Craigslist - http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/mis/748085974.html

Thanks for the commuter info. I just want to share that I have checked it out and I do not have any assurance that this program is not a scam.

Basically, they are selling you a prepaid debit / credit card. I have not been able to find a schedule of fees associated with the cost of maintaining the card. I have thought about this and it sounds pretty much like any other company that sells prepaid cards, they have to make their money somehow and the only way for that to happen with this program is through “cost of service” functionality. The reason I feel that this is a scam is because they are not up front about any of the costs associated with the “service” and you cannot find out until after you sign up.

This kind of service also is reminiscent of other services kind of like the free trial services that require you to set up automated payment before you can participate. I do not see any information of how to cancel or back out once you have started. No offense, but it has scam written all over it. They are tapping into a market that appeals to the common man because they dipping into pre-tax money. It is a lucrative industry, selling pre-paid debit cards and credit cards. I just don’t see how this company is making money unless there is some sort of maintenance fee associated with getting the card.

The only service they are providing me is by getting my money before it is taxed. They put it onto a prepaid card and there you go. I still have to go get my bus pass, or my bus tokens. I don’t even get them at a discounted rate. The only thing they are saving me is maybe a couple of dollars in taxes each paycheck. But how do they profit?

I’m not meaning to come across in the wrong way, I just have red flags going up in my mind and did not know anything about the process that Unisys went through to obtain WageWorks as a client to sell services to Unisys employees.

• Bank Rate’s take on pre-paid cards
  http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020506a.asp
  
• Some advice from a financial dude about checking out companies in full before letting them sell pre-paid cards to your employees.
  http://www.fairisaac.com/NR/exeres/1CCFBE75-4A1A-4217-8E46-C8E276FDE7C5,frameless.htm

From WageWorks’ knowledge base:

• A participant who has funds loaded to both a transit and parking account is only a single service fee.
• A participant who has supplemental funds (i.e., one-time addition of funds) added to their account is only charged a single service fee. In other words, they are not charged twice -- once for the monthly load and once for the supplemental load - just once. .
• A participant who has supplemental funds, but does not have a monthly load, will be charged a service fee for that month.
  A participant who does not have any funds loaded to an account but has a transit pass sent to them will not have a service fee charged because no funds are loaded to the employee's account. Same for an employee who has a claim against a prior election.

There is a huge industry that revolves around grabbing consumer money before it hits the tax bracket. I’m not saying that these guys aren’t legit, I’m just saying that there are some unanswered questions that are not immediately available through their website and that in itself is a huge red flag for me. Even if it is a scam, nobody is going to speak up or notice anyway because they are only going to be losing dollars per month anyway which is something that your average employee will not notice and if they do, it won’t be enough for them to get their panties in a bunch like I have. It is a small amount for us, the consumer, but you put together several hundred thousand people and multiply that by several dollars a month and you have a business. It is unethical and I feel it is my responsibility as a critical thinker and an educated consumer to point these things out. Everybody else is free to vote with their dollar however they want but they should at least be informed about what they are voting for with their dollar.

After digging through their knowledgebase I finally found that these services seem to be backed by Ameriprise. Now I understand why the service is offered but I still have not been able to put at rest any of the red flags that made me concerned in the first place.

• Absolutely no transparency
• No schedule of fees available
• Have to enroll before you find out how the program works (unless you do some digging before hand)
• No obvious way to cancel the service except some mysterious references to an “Employer Contact” (that would be you right?)
• No pro-rated cancellation rates. This is not explained up front and they pocket all the money for the month that you are attempting to cancel in PLUS whatever time it takes to cancel.

Anyway, what most of this amounts to is that I have plenty of free time on graveyards so if I came across in the wrong tone, I apologize. ;) Just wanted to share some thoughts with you.

Thanks

early memories

my earliest memory..
I don't know which is which but I know they are all from when I am 3 years old.
a spider bite on my thumb
a dead bird to bury in the yard
a cat
alone in my room with my toys
I think it was my third birthday that I remember and that was after these memories
I was on a chairand upside downand everybody that came in for my party was upside down
starbursts on the ground outside
reading the newspaper in my grandmother's lap
a red fire truck
my dad on a motorcycle and I'm hiding on the roof
a catsome weeds, a fence.
stairs that go to this lady who speaks spanish
neighbor kids throwing cherry pits around the world
walking into the neighbors house without knocking
having a bath with the neighbor girl
my first time getting chicken poxI was 3 or 4
cylons from battlestar galactica.

Dualities Emo vs Prey

It appears that I am going to be updating five blogs on a regular basis. I have my wordpress, my blogger, my O-G blog, tumblr, and well there was a fifth one in there somewhere but I completely forgot what the hell it was as I was inserting my links. Interesting.

One site is for multimedia snippets and randomness, one is for my deepest darkest secrets, another for umm, well should I have a different goal for each site? What *are* my goals?

I just remembered the fifth one, it is under development and will not have an official launch until I throw a party to let everybody know how cool slcguide will be.

Want to know what's been happening? I lost my guitar of 12 years to a little shithead gutterpunk. Nobody knows what happened to my motorcycle key either. It all went down like this:

Sunday was a very long day for me. Got off work, did some web shit for a couple of hours and went home to my new roommates. Laundry day, because I have a vehicle. It's a fucking gorgeous day and use that as an excuse to drive around with the top down (thanks for the car Jay!!). My goal today is to get my bike back on the road because it was broken, get some clean clothes, vacuum the floor, visit the drum circle, eat some yummy food, and get plastered.

We did our laundry in Midvale behind that little shack of a coffee shop on state street just north of 7800 south. Left the girl and the baby and took my buddy with me out to draper where my motorcycle was, put some screws in and drove off with the convertible behind me. Played around with my bike some more at the laundry facility and replaced my spark plugs.

We're freaking starving by this point because they neglected to eat breakfast in the two hours that I gave them to get ready so we tried going to the miner's something or other but I only had enough money for two people to eat after paying for laundry, gas, spark plugs, and some other things. We ended up eating at McDonald's. Have you ever seen somebody take a double cheeseburger and place half of a spicy chicken in between the beef patties? I didn't know whether to drool or puke.

I honestly could not make up my mind, I could go fifty-fifty on whether or not I liked thinking about it or even looking at it. For instance; right now I could really go for it because my tummy is grumbling and it is one in the AM when your body craves things that are possibly not so yummy for it.

--Oh I shouldn't write when I am hungry. I forgot to bring food to work with me. -not, that I am blogging from work or anything- Blogging plus hunger = weird writing--

After lunch we decided to check out the drum circle. I was hoping to run into my sister whom I hadn't seen for quite a while. I forgot there was our yearly get together that I had missed and they were all still up in the mountains. I couldn't make it because I work graveyards. Anyway, at the drum circle I got to see a few people I hadn't seen for a while. A girl who says nothing to me these days other than "where's my hoodie? it cost me 80 dollars", a girl that I like a bit, another girl that I hung out with but when she got a boyfriend she stopped talking to me altogether, and my buddy Sam.

This is turning into a damn novel, maybe I should break up the story into segments? The second part of the story is where shit got all fuckered up. And my fingers are tired. If I get any comments, even one, I will finish the story.

SaltLakefreecycle twatwaffles *UPDATE*

I received a response and am applying once more. Lets hope it turns out better. I still didn't get an answer about why the process included rejecting me as an applicant. Maybe it's because I smell like a troublemaker. ;)

This is my experience with SaltLakefreecycle. WTF hippies? Seriously. Over four thousand members and you reject me? What a serious fucking ego bummer. It makes me question my worth as a human being when I get rejected by hippies like fucking FreeCycle in Salt Lake City of all places.

Excuse my while I go listen to hootie and the blowfish and then shoot myself.

On 8 Jun 2008 06:09:38 -0000, SaltLakefreecycle Moderator
wrote:

Hello!

Thank you for your interest in joining the Salt Lake Valley Freecycle group. We're glad you want to join us!

Because we are trying to lower the amount of spam
we receive, we need some information from you! Please reply to this email with the answers to the following
questions:

1. Where are you located? (a city, a county, or a zip code will do.)

2. Name a business or landmark near you.(this is to help us verify that you are actually in or near the Salt Lake Valley) You can name a store near specific coordinates, any well known local business and basic coordinates, or a famous landmark.

3. Please verify with us that you have read the rules and guidelines. We follow these strictly to make sure everything continues to run smoothly.

Thanks agan for your interest in joining! We hope to hear from you soon!

The mods, Salt Lake Valley Freecycle


On 6/8/08, Holden Caulfield wrote:
1. Salt Lake Cit, Avenues, 84103
2. Cathedral of the Madeline
3. I have read the rules and guidelines and I understand them.

howabout now, did I pass the Turing / Void Comp test yet? Have I been
judged as "Human"? I swear I am not a Replicant ;)


Hello,Your request to join the SaltLakefreecycle group was not approved.The moderator of each Yahoo! group chooses whether to restrictmembership in the group. Moderators who choose to restrictmembership also choose whom to admit.Please note that this decision is final and that Yahoo! Groupsdoes not control group membership.You may find other groups to join by searching or browsing theGroups directory:http://groups.yahoo.com/If you would like to create your own group, please visit:http://groups.yahoo.com/startThank you for choosing Yahoo! Groups.Regards,Yahoo! Groups Customer CareYour use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

hmm, maybe I was wrong in assuming that the person on the other end of this process was a person as well. Was it an algorithm designed to process my application and my numbers didn't add up? Like a credit score? I would like to know more about this process if it is a real process and not an automated scripted process.

Is there a limit on membership? Did I already get my two Strikes? Did I have too many spelling errors? Grammatical Errors?

I don't take rejection well, especially when it seemed like such a simple process. Can you explain to me why I'm going home from Prom without a date tonight?

It's because I'm in the Avenues isn't it? We are shunned up there because of the stigma attached to sexuality in the avenues. That's it isn't it ;)

Is it because I used a winky emoticon? I was not professional enough?

I *thought* that I read the rules and guidelines and I *thought* that I understood them, but I did not see anywhere what your basis for applicant rejection is. Maybe I can do some searching around on the website.

Really, what is going on here?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Response from Salt Lake Valley freecycle

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry I was such an ass about it :) I just wasn't understanding the process too well and like I stated before, I suck with rejection and I take it very personally :) Thank you for not taking my childishness personally.
On 6/8/08, Evelyn Cox wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Thanks so much for letting us know what is going on. With so many
> applicants, it's easy for the moderators to miss a mix-up.
>
> Please re-"apply" to join the freecycle group, and I will make sure your
> membership is approved. I will also forward this message to the other
> moderators on the group so that they will know that I've asked for you to be
> approved.
>
> We ask the questions we do to avoid spammers and scammers, and you are
> obviously local, and so I personally apologize that your membership was
> rejected.
>
> Thanks again for letting us know. We do, in fact, LOVE the avenues, and
> winks! Promise.
>
> Evelyn, co-owner Salt Lake Valley Freecycle
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaltLakefreecycle
>
>
> Holden Caulfield wrote:
> I had the false impression that freecycle was a user created and user
> supported community. Without people offfering or wanting stuff, things
> just get thrown away.
>
> I wanted to support my local community and do my part by joining the
> Salt Lake City group for freecycle. This probably does not reflect
> upon freecycle, but the Salt Lake City freecycle group in particular.
>
> I applied, I answered some questions, and I was rejected. Sure, I
> don't take rejection well but for a group like this, with over 4000
> users? And no explanation anywhere in the policies or returned emails
> asking "wtf doodz?" I really don't understand.
>
> Of course, me acting like a little bitch about it doesn't help my
> chances of participating in their closed community, but I think I got
> over it when they denied me for no apparent reason. Either that, or
> they don't have a sense of humour.
>
> Here are their polices, and my correspondence is available through the
> link at the end

Swingin employers

Hot new item for the next decade. Swingin employers. You heard it here first. It will be like wife swapping, except employee swapping. That will be my calling in life, to create services to manage and facilitate the swapping of employees between companies that have different accountants. Anybody want to sign on? Gold mine waiting to happen there and I will patent the idea. Like amazon and their one click.

Venture capitalists, future CEOs, early adopters, start paying attention and I will line your sidewalks with gold.

Irregularities

Am I ever going to make a commitment to updating all of these little snippets that I have left throughout the web? I finally started work on the original keldwud theme again. Projects in order. slcguide, blog, social media, whatever. Let's just keep up the good work keldwud. Don't stop now.

fizz with a why starts with dee

Dizzy, I make myself do it like that tecmo fighting game of the same name. I really should do something about this and go smoke a cigarrete. There is a command in posix based instructions. It goes something like cat. I feel myself cat'ing keldwud every moment and then it is as if I am running a diff opposite the rythm which is piped to our display.

Did you find them all? I don't think I could find them all even if I wanted to.

Start counting.

Om nom nom

keldwud's aggregation

I said aggregate. Not aggravate.

coming soon...