There’s lots of speculation over whether the programming director of WNEW was rather… in the holiday spirit… while broadcasting.
Report also here.
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Censorship DENIED. Gadget review? DENIED.
Satellite radio will not be censored in the same heavy handed manner as traditional broadcast radio. Thank God for that.
The threat came when a killjoy in the form of a traditional radio broadcaster decided that if they (being publicly available for free) were subject to decency standards, then satellite radio (which is not publicly available, and must be subscribed to by consenting adults with credit cards) should be subject to the same standards. A petition was filed to that effect, but the FCC thankfully disagreed.
That said, I must say that if you’re still looking for a gift to get a tech-gadget-enamored friend or relative, I would recommend AGAINST getting satellite radio as a gift this late in the game. The reason being that satellite providers are evidently swamped with new radio activation requests, and what should normally take 10 minutes or so to get a newly opened radio working is currently taking hours, possibly days due to a massive backlog. If you’re an audiophile who is tired of listening to the crap on FM, then satellite IS for you… but you might want to wait until after New Year’s Eve, to save yourself some frustration. Oh, and if you’ve chosen XM as your provider and are activating your radio on new Year’s Eve, use promo code NEWSPRFA4 to get free activation and waive that initial startup fee. 😉
As a sidenote: this article was supposed to be a last-minute-gift review of the XM MyFi, but although I have the hardware in-hand, I can’t review it because despite several hours of waiting, the much-needed satellite “hit” to activate the radio and enable it to receive content has not been broadcast yet.
What I will say is that the MyFi shows promise, with lots of nice enticing buttons and features that I’d love to play with, if only I could get past this confounded screen that thwarts all my efforts…
I’m trying, little enticing silver-buttony-thing, I’m trying…
UPDATE 13 hours after the “hit” was overdue (why do I sound like a heroin addict?), a call was placed to XM customer care and it was determined that the friendly rep who handled the activation last time was also clueless, and didn’t set the account up properly. I was assured the “fix” was in (there’s that heroin addict talking again), and sent on my merry way.
Sure enough, 5 minutes later the radio started showing signs of life… but only on half of the channels one is supposed to get. Another call to XM, and more apologies, as the configuration was STILL not right. Another “hit,” I am assured, is forthcoming.
Gotta love seasonal untrained hired help. 🙂
How Creepy People Capitalize on Tragedy
This link has made the blog rounds quite a bit, not because of the artist’s talent or the tune’s poignancy, but because of three factors:
1. The obviously horrid LACK of talent, and how. (sorry, Mike)
2. The idea that such a terrible singer/songwriter would be so crass as to take a tragedy for which he has absolutely NO connection to and use it in an obvious and pathetic attempt to (unsuccessfully) try and launch his career. And how.
3. Despite trying very hard to create a heartwarming tune, this guy is just plain creepy. And how.
Prepare to make your eardrums bleed, folks. Here it is: “Remembering Laci” by John Strand.
(Note: The Modesto Bee has decided that only those people who use Internet Explorer are to be subjected to this horror, so be aware that IE is required to follow this link. Sorry.)
Ph33r this creepy cretin’s backup tracks, and revel in his oh-so-cheesy Casio music.
PH33R AND REVEL, DAMN YOU!!
There are a couple of other no-talents who submitted works of their own, and those fine auditory nuggets are lumped into a drop-down playlist with this guy, but none seem to match the utter… train wreck? That is John Strand.
No, this is not a joke. This was evidently done in all seriousness. What caused these people, especially Mr. Strand, to think they had actual musical sense? What compelled them to apply this self-professed talent to the Laci Peterson tragedy?
Why, God, why?!
I’m going to take a pair of scissors and gouge my eardrums out with them now.
::whisper:: “We Love You.” ::shudder::
$100 million later, the US launches another dud.
So another $100 million were spent on a missile defense system test, and the test was a total failure, again. What a surprise.
Gee, I feel so much safer now.
GPS: In an emergency, let’s trust the the government… to shut it down!
The Bush administration has ordered that plans be drawn up that allow for the disabling of GPS during an emergency:
Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.
The LAST thing anyone needs is the likes of Dubyah being at the killswitch of something that has become an integral part of our daily lives, whether the military likes it or not. A GPS receiver used to be a toy for the exotic geek with a lot of money to spend, but now GPS functionality is built into everything from passenger jets to cell phones (in fact most cell phone networks require a stable time reference to function, and that stable reference is almost always GPS).
So, picture it. Another terrorist act is afoot. The powers that be have failed to detect it, again, and this time the terrorists are using GPS. BAM! The act is completed, lives are lost, monuments and other structures are aflame and panic spreads throughout the land. Presumably, the terrorists and their GPS receivers are burnt to a crisp by now, after the act has been completed.
Once the deed is done and we’ve come to realize that this was in fact a terrorist act, does Dubyah NOW decide that this is a good time to kill the signal, long after disabling GPS could possibly be of any benefit? Probably. So now search efforts are disrupted, cell phone networks begin their cascade failures hampering communication, legitimate air, land and marine craft can’t navigate reliably, and we’re in even worse of a mess than we were before.
Real smart, Dubyah. What’s the next secret weapon in your mighty arsenal, shut down Thuh Intarweb whenever al Qaeda sends an e-mail?