It's not difficult, gentleperson: people don't care. Some people are so self-centered that they consider it a right to drive as they wish and do whatever they want while they drive, and the rest of us be damned. No matter that turn signals are only mostly for other drivers, and that by using them you can make yourself safer (by lessening the chances of an accident). We need to stop ego-driving, and pay attention to the driving task, which includes, among other things, being considerate of other drivers and using the turn signal.

Nunyabiz and friends, here's some other behaviors to watch out for and some new groups of people to hate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHaVUjjH3EI&feature=player_embedded

I know the problem you speak of, and I have a camera that can be affected. It sucks knowing it might happen at any time. I do think it's a pretty common practice, however, to send refurbs for such things (but I wish they'd just give people a new one).

Well said, Tabbie.

Sue: the Bible "clearly says" lots of stuff that (I hope) you don't do or believe. How is it you can pick and choose what to believe? Please see http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2002/WhyCantIOwnACanadian_10-02.html and http://shipoffools.com/features/2009/chapter_and_worse_results.html

I hope you're considering contacting your local Better Business Bureau as well: http://www.bbb.org/us/

Inasmuch as any of us are "meant" to do anything, I'm hoping it's more than just to procreate and fill the world up with (sometimes painfully ignorant and intolerant) humans (msek, I'm pretty sure we've populated the Earth and established our biblical dominance over the place, in the best way there is: by wrecking it). I must have missed the HGTV shows where people discussed their sexual orientation or engaged in homosexual behavior right there on camera, but I'm glad we have a bunch of you out there really keeping an eye out for this kind of thing, seeking it everywhere, and decrying loudly how it's wrong and you aren't gay no way.

Or: wise up to the fact that you're displaying your uninformed intolerance like you're proud of it. I am now gong to *specifically* support HGTV and their advertisers, and will encourage other people to do the same.

I can see your point, but I like the shows where you get to see properties for sale. I'm not even considering moving, and it's just fun to go through other houses. I especially enjoy Houe Hunters International... I live in an area with very cheap housing, so it's always a blast to see 400 square foot apartments sellign for eleventy-seven godzillions. But one thing I can't stand is when people speak negatively of a bathroom because it only has one sink. Why is that such a big deal? When I'm in the bathroom doing my ablutions, or other stuff, I want to be alone. Use the kitchen sink if you have to brush your teeth so bad. :-)

Yup, scoundrels and thieves everywhere you look. But there is a place to get free credit reports: a site run by the government... http://AnnualCreditReport.com . You can get a free report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies yearly... so get one from one of them every 4 months and you'll have a way to keep an eye on your credit happenings. Also, check out a site where you can get an actual prepared credit report: http://www.creditbloggers.com/2009/09/credit-report-card-a-truly-free-look-at-your-credit-record.html

Uh, you're complaining because the language you want is the first option, and presented in your language? And English may be the *main* language, but it isn't the *only* one. Isn't there something on Fox News you could be watching?

True that, man. SyFy has gone downhill, name and all. There's a few shows worth watching, but it's not even worth it to surf it any more.

There's hope for us in the U.S.: "CALM Act plans to put loud TV commercials to sleep": http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/calm-act-plans-to-put-loud-tv-commercials-to-sleep.ars

I love my children enough to protect them from actual dangers, with products that have been shown to protect them from those dangers. I suspect you spend a lot of time listening to Jenny McCarthy frothing at the mouth, and have never seen anyone dying of polio or the many other diseases vacciantions protect us against. But if you love your children so very much that you want to make decisions regarding their health and lives based on radical fringe anecdotal evidence, then by all means, continue to love your children that much. It's your right as parent to endanger them with misinformation however you see fit.

I can show you multiple studies where vaccinations have been deemed safe. I think I'll stick with the scientists, thanks. And do you know why those diseases have gone away (and are kept away)? Because of the very vaccinations you damn. And when people *stop* vaccinations, there's a resurgance of those diseases.

Name one credible source that shows *any* of those ingredients are dangerous or are causing any of the maladies that The People With All The Exclamation Points are always going on about. There's a lot of misunderstanding out there. Parents are within their rights to be concerned about every aspect of their children's lives, but they're wrong to base decisions like this on anecdotal evidence and media fearmongering. (Even if there is danger, think of it like seat belts. Seat belts do cause some injuries, and even some deaths, but there's no perfect solution for anything: Vaccinations (and seat belts) still save far, far more lives than might be negatively affected by them.) Here's a good article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1808438-1,00.html

I think you are confusing honking alarms (which may be 97% unsuccessful, because people just ignore them), and what we're talking about: locking your car with the remote and it honks to let you know it's locked (which is irritating 100% of the time :-). By the way, there's a good movie about urban noise out: "Noise" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425308/); it was most cathartic to see a bunch of cars "fixed". Also, I note with dismay that one of my neighbors seems to have a new car alarm, that, when triggered (as it was recently by the concussion from fireworks) honks like there was a coked-up idiot in there who couldn't figure out how to open the door (not a steady honk, but semi-random).

Thank you, Mark, for your mature response. I think most people would say that a honking horm is far more annoying than flashing lights. Even if that is not the case for you, it's good of you to consider others in your decision-making.

My last TV was purchased specifically because it had volume leveling, which unfortunately doesn't work completely. So now I Mute everything. It's supposedly against FCC guidelines here in the US to run the commercials louder than the show.

True that. And I wish people would be considerate and knock off the whizz-bang at midnight. Not everyone is drunk and stupid, some of us have to get some sleep.

You shouldn't have to put up with it, ever. Try talking to your neighbor calmly, and if that doesn't work, contact the police or local animal control.

Between rude hoomans and the high prices, I'll stick with Netflix, thanks very much.

Germs, true, but it's also just plain gross and inconsiderate.

I hate seeing cig butts all over, it looks trashy. No wonder a lot of people have a bad opinion of smoking. And I really appreciate your last sentence: too often people think their responsibility stops at what is legal or not. That's just the starting point.

True that. I live down the road from a convenience store, and I daydream about hiding in the tree and when someone carelessly drops their big gulp container or candy wrapper, I squirt them with the garden hose.

I agree, this is reprehensible... but you have to be careful, it isn't always the customer's fault. I've seen Express Lane clerks with nobody in line wave over someone who's way over the limit, so it would be unfair to be mad at the customer in that case. Also, I disagree about "one more": if everyone would just play by the rules things would be a lot easier.

Aw, too late! They're changing their name to Syfy: http://www.avclub.com/articles/sci-fi-channel-to-change-name-to-syfy,25130/

I agree, that can be irritating. Here's a trick that can help some of the time: there's a javascript command that you can type in to show when the page was last updated; see: http://www.irvingisd.net/last_updated.htm . But be aware that there are some things that can update a page and change that date even if the content itself hasn't changed (for example, in a FrontPage web if you use an Include Item on each page (such as a header or footer), and then edit that item, each page that uses it gets rebuilt and the modification date gets changed, even if the content itself didn't change). So you can use this trick and be fairly confident if it says the page is *old* (hasn't been updated in years), but you can't really believe it if it says the page is *newer*. Ouch, I just gave myself a headache.

To me it sounds like the opposite: his voice now seems artificially high, in a forced way; like someone trying to *sound* like a kid instead of *being* a kid.

Ah, most of the ones I deal with can be accessed from both sides (so there's not even really a "front" or "back"). So I guess I must recuse myself from the discussion. :-) And you're right that you can't judge the situation if you come upon a person using the "back" pump, as the person at the "front pump" may have just pulled away. There's plenty of *real* bad things going on at gas stations anyway: people not turning their cars off, or pumping gas into cans in their trunk or truck bed, or getting in and out of the driver's seat while the gas is pumping.

Okay, let me try again: if I pull into the pumps and use the one at the *back*, I'm leaving the pump in front open for someone whose gas door is on the other side, who is pulling in from the other side. Car manufacturers carefully adjust cars so that at any given time exactly 50% of them have the door on the left, and 50% have the door on the right. Although I may just made that up.

What about the cars with the gas door on the other side?

My car's manual has two maintenance schedules: one for "Severe" conditions, one for "normal". I could almost get by with "Normal" except that for half the year I meet the criteria for "Severe", in that the temperature gets (or stays) below 32 degrees F. So the half of the year that it's above freezing I can go with the "Normal" schedule, which is oil change every 6,000 miles. Severe calls for oil changes every 3,000 miles.

The studio they record the voices in is probably technologically advanced enough to fix whatever is changed, if they cared to do it... besides, this is now about way more than the voice, check out all the comments about how the writing and characters have changed. I appreciate what you're saying, Jimsrs... but this show has gone downhill in many ways.

I heard somewhere that they justified it by having one of the characters be a zombie (not technically science fiction either). They are probably doing it because wrestling appeals to their core demographic: young males. I too find it detestable. But no more so than their run of movies such as "Mansquito", and the upcoming film titles that I just made up that they must pay me for if they use: "The Stoat That Ate Detroit" and "Caterpillars of Terror". I wish they'd concentrate on good material, but the market rewards "cheap and good enough". So many good shows have gone bust because they cost more than the drivel that's left when they leave.

Okay, apparently I misunderstood the intent of that video (although I still am not sure what it was supposed to prove, by mixing old video with new audio). The poster has said they'll make a version featuring old clips and new; I feel confident the difference will be as painfully obvious there as it is every time I surf by (and stay with) a new episode.

One giveaway is that the video is titled "Season 4-5 Voice Clips, Season 1-3 Video Clips". Sheesh.

Not even a good try. The video and the audio don't match. My dog could edit video better than that.

It's a member of the squarepants set.

Also, when people type (especially when they use speakerphone), it can sound as loud as a robot falling down a flight of stairs. If for some reason you decide to split your attention away from what I'm saying (not a good idea, given that I may say something brilliant at any time!) you could at least learn to use the Mute button.

It is quite different than being at the office, and not all in a positive way. I wouldn't want to work more than a day or two in a row from home. I'm too used to interaction with others (and having a fast connection to the network).

They may very well be aware of the lessening in quality, but they don't necessarily care... if the show is still being watched by most people and those people are still obeying the commercials, the owners of the show don't necessarily care about the 1% of us that can no longer stand the show. Maximizing profit sometimes means leveling the product quality to match what most people will still put up with. It's a shame, but it happens all the time. Products become popular based on high quality, then the quality slips but the product momentum carries on. But like my grandma says: "you vote with your wallet, or you vote with your feet". I no longer watch Spongebob.

It looks like the only way to contact them is snail mail. I'll send them a printout of this page.

Broadband internet should be considered a basic human right, in my opinion. I hope you get things worked out. Like my grandpappy says: "you vote with your money, or you vote with your feet". If you have another option, take it. And let Tata know why you did.

Wow, check this out! http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/spongebob-voice-overs (Spongebob voice actors dub over some classic movies). Hilarious!

Somebody hasn't been watching the show very carefully! They found food in the hatch, and more of it airdropped. It's a regular Dharma-brand food buffet around there. I actually found some fake wrappers for Dharma products (as featured here: http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=27.) and that was fun watching people catch on to it in the kitchen (peanut butter doubletakes; I left the jar out for months).

Interesting article here: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/75333/?page=entire . And perhaps something that people just aren't aware of: no matter how well you think you're doing the job, when you pee you get urine on your hands; when you flush, the flushed materials get aerosolized and flung around the room. Washing your hands after using the bathroom is just part of being a member of a civilized society. And I think our society, at least here in the USA, is becoming, in many important ways, less and less civilized.

I think we are quite the opposite of "sanitizing ourselves out of existence". Ever-increasing population densities, increased ability to travel bringing illness much farther and faster, bodies weakened by the constant chemical soup in which we live, sealed indoor environments awash in cheap florescent lightning that doesn't have the sun's strength to kill viruses... one could make a case that we're more at risk than ever before. And it's not just that: it's the lack of concern and basic etiquette exhibited by our fellow humans: I don't want your urine/feces/genital exudate or skin oils on anything of mine; I don't care how free of germs it is. People should know better, and care enough to be polite.

Also, every word that ends in an 's' doesn't also need an apostrophe. And I echo what dw17 says: if you don't get good service, you have the right to complain. Now all too often this complaining is an attempt to get a discount or some other goody, and I think that's wrong: when I complain about stuff, and they offer this or that, I tell them no thanks, I didn't do it for that reason and and I'm not going to be bought off; I want the problem fixed so it doesn't happen to me or someone else in the future. (If the thing is bad enough, and alternatives are abundant, I just tell them that reason x is why they just lost my business, and they needn't bother contacting me again.)

Plus in Europe they're all like "I'm driving two hours east and going to another country, where I'll be staying in a 900-year-old castle and going to a wine and cheese festival." Sheesh. If I drive two hours east I'm stil in the same state, staying at a Motel 6, and drinking thick-even-when-warm Mickey-D's shakes. They're definitely spoiled over there.

It's all about the money. I always look for "Print" options, that, when available, provide everything on one page with less graphics.