If you read it backwards and upside down through a coke bottle, it also says the smooth talking man would be from Texas and that his master would share the name of the phallus. So I really don't think you have too much to worry about there. Looks like the worst is over.

They're all undercover cops.

Reason number [insert huge number here] to get a mac: no stickers. I'm pretty sure steve jobs frequents this place and I wouldn't be shocked to the sticker issue on an upcoming PC/Mac ad.

@Chris Future, I think DBlock was talking about the U.S. Presidential election. What election is Ron Paul running in?

DBlock's got it right, "Let the Wookie win."

get your kids an xbox.

You are so totally right. I wish we only had more narrow minded, Christian conservative, closet homosexuals in leadership positions to help keep this country on track. Hopefully these types of fearless leaders are still out there and they're listening... and, man I hope they have serious ties to the oil industry because those are the ties that bind and the oil industry could really help to pull us out of this nose dive these liberals have put us in these last 7 years. Liberals can't do anything right and they're driving this country into the ground. I mean seriously, come on... when was the last time a liberal started a war, let alone a totally successful war like the one we have going on right now. And while we're on the topic, @Mike, yeah man - totally again on the immigrants. I can't stand having people work menial task low paying jobs that nobody else wants to work, and then work the crappy job better than the high school drop outs that normally occupy the position. It's unbelievable how liberals have let immigrants take away jobs from high school drop outs and drug addicts. It pisses me off to no end everyday when I'm driving to work and I see those Mexicans being carted off to put roofs on houses for a couple of bucks an hour. If I had the balls to do it, I'd pull up real close to that fat ass white dude liberal who rounds them up and carts them off to work each day and run that guy off the road and into a ditch. And please don't get me started on all of the immigrants who actually enjoy working at McDonald's. When they serve me my happy meal with a Bioncle toy in it that was made in China and the immigrant serves it to me with a smile like it's the greatest friggin' job in the world... man that pisses me off to no end. I'd much rather have some good ol' American trailer park trash serving me with attitude and getting mad at me when I ask for an extra ketchup. Damn liberals, it's all their fault.

Yes! A thousand times - Yes! Subway is a ripoff. You said it, I live it. I stopped in a Subway with Mrs. Bacca and the little Bacca's to get a quick lunch and wound up spending 27.00 on lunch for a family of four. I could have gone across the parking lot and had fun at BK for half the price and a playzone. Sure, I would be consuming twice as much fat as Subway but the kids are young, they can handle it. Hell, burn it off in the playzone.

Why can't your ex-girlfriend have her rent and tuition paid for her by the new guy who she's having sex with close the "open" relationship? That sounds like your standard issue open relationship setup to me.

No Dblock. I haven't been preparing since last Christmas. In fact, I'm still trying to clean up the mess from last Christmas. The other day I found a wrapped up present I forgot to give somebody last year. Guess what they're getting this year? Actually, your guess is as good as mine because I can't remember what's in the package. The real bitch about the whole thing is that I just remembered I took my extensive collection of Christmas lights to a friend's house this summer so he could use the lights for his wedding. I never got the lights back and now I'm already in the hole as far as the neighborhood light competition goes.

Yep. They are deadly from downtown. But they won't dare drive the lane and I've heard some commentators call them "ball hogs" because they won't share the love and are too cheap to dish it off.

@texapino, you said

and don’t you dare accuse dog of being money-hungry. the only money he earns for his family is from his bounties.

I suppose your complaint could have been about anybody intentionally perpetuating their stereotype. It happens all the time, like white people who don't train very hard as a race to increase their vertical leap, or Wookies who don't manage their anger. On certain levels, stereotypes work and some people are perfectly OK with their stereotype. The Goldsteins might not mind being perceived as being cheap. I know many people like the Goldsteins who would take being labled "cheap" as a compliment. If someone is happy with a stereotype, there is no incentive to work against it. Take for instance the example of white people and jumping again. Somewhere along the line, the stereotype became easier to accept and everybody just started hitting shots from the outside. Now, nobody works on their ups. The stereotype is perpetuated because it becomes comfortable and then at some point people identify with the sterotype and become proud of it. I'm almost certain that's what you would have found from the Goldsteins.

archer and DBlock, you are right and speak the truth my brothers ( at least on this post :) ), but the numerical value is the whole point, I suppose. I'm guessing "Race 2" was not White. I don't think it was "Asian" either. And I certainly don't think it was "Pacific Islander" because that has virtually disappeared as an option on most forms that ask for race. I'm pretty damn sure "Black" is got runner up to "White" and that does seem to be an unnecessary shove in the face. Sure, I'm on board with archer and Jon Lennon, too. But for the time being, numbering the races is both technically and ethically unnecessary.

Agreed, they need to get some tough guy commissioner to lay down some rules and at least ban the blast helmets like the one in the picture. Helmets should be outlawed before it gets out of control and the sport loses credibility...

@Frank, now wait a minute... are you saying he just covers up the top of his boots with his normal suit pants so it looks like he's wearing red dress shoes with his suits? Come on, dude. He's Clark Kent, not Prince. Not even the folks at the Daily Planet would let shiny red dress shoes day in and day out slide by without getting a little suspicious.

I sold a pair of skis like this once and it worked really well.

Please God no, not Ewokese. DBlock, I'd rather you guys pick Huttese before you go off half-cocked and pick that Ewok crap. Like suckfish said, it's total jibberish. Whatever you do, please don't start butchering Shyriiwook. Just stay as far away from it as you can.

I live in a high tourist area with lots of seasonal jobs. The best thing that ever happened to customer service in this area was the influx of eastern european college students on temporary work visas who fill these types of jobs and are as nice as they can be. When the "euros" are in town and working these customer service jobs, I try to go the places that I know they are working as opposed to going somewhere else where I would be subjected to the idiocy and bad manners you describe.

Why does it take months to investigate the case and file charges against Michael Vick and days for the Vegas prosecutor to file against O.J.? Answer: better, smarter prosecutors in the Vick case. Witnesses are already falling to pieces in O.J"s case. One of them was in the hospital from a heart attack and another swears up and down he doesn't want to go forward with the case. This case could actually help O.J.'s image if the case falls apart. This is not really a clear cut legal issue. @thinkfuture, don't be so sure about closing the case in the court of public opinion, a lot of people are having trouble with the idea of being convicted of robbing someone else of your stuff. That being said, my biggest complaint about the O.J. trial, scratch that... NEW O.J. trial? If I had been acquitted of double murder, I would be laying lower than grass. I'd be paying my taxes early and registering my car twice. I sure as hell wouldn't be busting into hotel rooms.

Hang on a minute, Mark... so if I go wipe my ass with my hand and return to the buffet for some delicious crab legs and happen to coat the tongs with feces, that's not a problem? E. Coli has shut many a restaurant down. Granted, the complaint is about licking your fingers at a buffet and I'm talking about feces, but some people have pretty dirty mouths.

And while you're on the topic... why the arbitrary number of 10%, or at least cool numbers that look good on bags like "1/3 less" or "1/3 more"? Do they just pick a number and cut everything back by 10% or did they recalculate the recipe and start from scratch? If they're just picking a nice round number to cut back to, it seems like less of a move towards health consciousness and more of a marketing decision.

Dude, you don't even want to know what Ewoks do.

You have every right to flush. I do confess, at home, I love to take my laptop in the can with me. WiFi was made for getting business done and there's no place to do business like the can. I can bust through all my email while I'm busting through. I don't talk on the phone while I'm releasing hostages but I do love to skype. I will usually be very forthright with whomever I'm chatting. Although I've threatened, I've never been called on my dare to go video on the can.

@mr.sqeaky, if you're asking whether or not I need any penis enlargement products, like my profile says "I'm a 7ft 4 3/4 inch (2.28 meters) Wookie from Kashyyyk." Let's just say 'Wookies are gifted' and leave it at that. You should have seen what we had to do in the movies in makeup to make it so "mr. squeaky" (oddly enough, that's what I call mine) wouldn't be dragging the floor on set. But I digress and I'm getting off track of the complaint topic which is really about these two poor souls who will live forever in internet lore.

DBlock said: [quote]you actually open penis enlargement emails?[/quote] I never really open any emails, I just kind of scroll them and the image keeps popping up. Apple Mail, like GMail does catch about 99% of these things so that leaves me with only maybe 5 in my inbox each day instead of the 50 that are sent. I wish someone could identify these poor girls for us so we could track their spam careers.

macaddict said: [quote]We can line them up with the cable company, cell phone companies, itunes, my hosting company, and on-and-on, and flog them in unison if you want.[/quote] But we can't line them up with the telephone company because absent some act of God, the phones work.

@macaddict, I think you missed the point of the complaint. The complaint is not about the unreliability of Skype. The complaint is about the excuse Skype gave for the outage. How does a glitch in an algorithm appear over night when everything was working fine the days and months before unless Skype loaded something that wasn't tested properly? It makes one suspicious quite honestly. It sounds like Skype is trying to tell you a few pieces of code here and there messed everything up but certainly they have a massive testing network they use before they unleash rogue algorithms on the network on which millions of people now rely.

Lynz said: [quote](ex. $15 x 26 = 391 and $16 x 26 = 416)[/quote] @Lynz, would you agree that the $16 "fee" you describe on a two week $100 loan equates to a 416% APR?

Lynz said: [quote]The average fee for a payday loan is $16 per $100 borrowed.[/quote] @Lynz, where did you get this figure? $16.00 for every $100.00 borrowed would be 16% interest. That's slightly less than the going rate of somewhere between 900% and 300% interest commonly reported on payday loans. Are you reporting an annualized figure for the interest? Or do you really mean "interest" in the first place? You say "fee" is that on top of the interest charged or does "fee" mean "interest" as far as your figures are concerned?

@ replication - I don't think too many people would argue with you or RP on abolishing the IRS in theory. The only thing I'm asking you and the other Ron Paul hacks is how will Ron Paul "abolish the IRS"? Ron Paul obviously loves and respects the Constitution a great deal. What you hacks don't realize is that Ron Paul as President or any other President for that matter could never "abolish the IRS". Have you read the Constitution, replication (and other hacks)? Silly question, I'm sure you keep a copy in your back pocket. I'm sure you're familiar then with how to repeal Constitutional amendments. Go read the Constitution again just for the hell of it. Then come back and tell me again how Ron Paul will "abolish the IRS". This time, don't tell me "by making our government smaller" because that, replication, is not one of the ways to repeal an amendment.

What's the deal with the Apple employee that wants to fight being a lawyer? Is he working at the Apple Store for some extra cash or is he just totally geeked out and loving every minute of the Apple Store limelight?

I agree completely, which is it? Do laptops need to be turned on after x-rays or not? If one organization is doing an extra step and the other (TSA) is not, why are they not? If the TSA leaves out an entire step they are slacking. If the other security checkpoints are adding a step, they are either wasting your time or are underfunded and don't have the equipment the TSA does and are not providing all the security you need. I've always found it hard to believe that a laptop could not turn on and still be a bomb. It's a ludicrous presumption in the first place.

Doug said: [quote]Ever notice that Disney does not use trash can liners in the parks?[/quote] I have seen Disney use liners in some instances and I have also seen what you describe where they cart the entire can off. It seems like Disney would be smart enough to let the visitors do some sorting work for them by having separate receptacles like they do for plastic bottles and cans.

You're right that Michael and Marcus "no longer represent Virginia Tech". This is not a "Virginia Tech thing" its an "Atlanta Falcons thing" , a "Nike thing" and an "NFL thing". Those organizations have to answer for how a star of this magnitude could be involved in something of this magnitude without one single person on the team or in the organization realizing what was going on.

Oh, sorry. That was an important point that I missed. I now bow to you in your infinite wisdom and uncanny grasp of universal truths. In that case, you're dead on!

@Nabeel - You can't possibly think that Apple, of all companies, would produce a sleek sexy thing like a macbook pro and purposely put a bend in one of side of the screen that is clearly visible when the lid is closed. Don't answer that. You're not supposed to. The fact that you have seen the bend on, by your own admission, 20+ mbp's is proof enough that this is major defect. Yes, I have it on my as well. What "intentional" purpose would a half bent screen serve on a laptop. Ok, that one you can answer.

I do this. But wait... there's a reason. Many elevators will close the door if you press a lit floor button. A lit floor button is way easier to find than the "Close Door" button. Not every elevator has this feature and obviously there's no way to tell if the elevator you're in does this. I'm only trying to help you get the doors shut quicker. Really, it's for your own good.

@ Tony DDT, or any other Ron Paul hack with "poor people skills", answer me this: How exactly will Ron Paul "abolish the IRS". Presidential fiat?

I almost complained about people who don't use their blinker when they get on the interstate. If you are dealing with a cloverleaf entrance/exit ramp situation, cars can go two ways - off or on, from the same lane. The only real way to tell what's going on is to use a turn signal. It becomes a little less important when there is only one lane for someone getting on the interstate, but even in that situation you at least have an idea of what the driver is going to do. Now, people who don't turn their blinkers off after they're on the interstate... that's a whole different complaint for another day.

You have no idea how much this pisses me off. This must happen to me 10 times a day at least. I also can't stand it when I'm talking to the time travelers and they say some smart ass comment like "I know, you've already told me that" or "I know, that already happened." I guess it's really the way it comes across. It's just so condescending some times.

There would be law enforcement gridlock if everyone stopped giving cops permission to search. This is a basic technique taught to cops early in their training, probably the first week of the academy. In most circumstances the cop asks the question after the person is told they can leave. It's a giant psych job. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if every cop who asked to search a car was told "No" and the cop then tried to get a warrant? You're talking about adding hours to a routine traffic stop. Multiply that by 20 stops a shift and . . . I say stick it to them. Particularly if you have "nothing to hide".

Was it me or did Obama's speech sound slurred at the debate the other night? He had kind of a Captain Jack Sparrow thing going when he was taking on John Edwards.

@ moeffju - You can't possibly be serious, can you? Sure, appending ?s to the url will work but is that something a user should have to do to search a blog? This would be way at the bottom of user friendly things to force upon a visitor. moeffju said: [quote]Site-internal searches are not that useful anyway.[/quote] What are you talking about? How else are you supposed to access 5 years of content rich archives on a great blog like Matt's? Please don't tell me the trick about limiting my Google search to a single site. This is less user friendly than the original suggestion. Bottom line - it's very unusual to leave a search box off of a website. There must be a reason why Matt does it.

@ Mr. Squeaky - I hardly think its appropriate to say a hoax like this could ever be called a success. Is this any different than a terriost threat hoax to bring attention to security issues. I hope I'm not sounding too ego-American-cetrist, but these execs who approved of this wouldn't have their jobs tomorrow.

Derek said: [quote]I have never had any problems with mine opening. My complaint would be that the button is so slender, the average person's fingers are too thick to easily push it.[/quote] I completely agree with you, Derek. Fat fingers and you might have trouble. The Pros need the magnet latch just like the MacBook.

Walk on, Puddles. I can respect that. Morning walkers seem less militant anyway. They glisten less.

Trat said: [quote]The lock on the MBP also uses magentic hatches...[/quote] I think you might be talking about the interior mechanism being magnetic. The MacBook has no visible latch system other than the magnetic closures and honestly, you can't even tell they are there. Does the MacBook Pro have to have the magnets on the inside released by a latch because of the aluminum casing? It doesn't make any sense, the MacBook is plastic and they've integrated the magnetic closure, so do it on the Pro, too. Trat said: [quote]You have to push it at the right side (opposite of the led light). It always pops open like a charm at my MBP C2D.[/quote] Pushing the button at a particular spot to open the latch is the very point of this complaint. You almost have to be like Fonzie hitting a jukebox.

@Jak and desimo, hmmmm, let me see . . things I can do in iTunes that I can't do with anything you mentioned: purchase songs from iTunes store, catalog all of my media not just audio files but videos that I (you guessed it!) purchase from the iTunes store. Well, come to think of it . . . why go any further? Mr. Squeaky isn't talking about how to make your iPod work with Linux. He's talking about full integration. You guys can fumble all around with amarok or whatever you want. Hell, spend a day or two trying to figure out what version of ALSA to use or what sound engine you want. And then once you've settled on Xine, flip flop back to Helix every now and then because you'll have to. In the meantime, I'll sync my iPod with iTunes effortlessly and I'll focus on Mr. Squeaky's point that this is really a complaint about Apple and the fact that they don't support Linux. Why not? OS X is part of the unix family too. Apple could get iTunes to work with Linux with a flip of the switch. But they won't. That would create to much of a threat and they don't need that right now.

When I saw this title, immediately I thought a female had written it. I was so glad to see this was written by a male that I've got to add my support to the cause. The worst part for me is a urinal that has a puddle in front of it that becomes a moat. You cannot pee in the urinal yourself unless you step in the puddle and ruin your shoes or stand at a safe distance and try to launch your shot from dry land. Obviously trying to arc across the puddle to save your shoes is likely to add to the problem because, as with all target sports, the degree of difficulty of hitting the target increases exponentially as you move away from the target.

You will be amazed at the reactions you get from people if you ask them "Did you know that Obama smokes cigarettes?". In my own sampling, half the people I asked thought it was a lie or unfounded rumor. Most of the remaining people didn't think it was that big of a deal but I could see it in their eyes that they were trying to craft a reason why. I'm almost certain that if I inserted "Hillary" for "Obama" in the question, the reaction would have been way different. On another note, it's very difficult to find a picture of Obama taking a drag. I went through a few pages of Google images and couldn't spot anything.

Robbie L. said: [quote]I too have a treo 650 and I don't use the touch dialing but that's because my stupid screen is cracked and it doesn't respond to my fingers anymore. Stop bitching about not having to LOOK at the screen to dial a number. With something so beautiful, why would you NOT want to look at it??[/quote] It's a phone, not art or porn. Those may be worth staring at. Phones - not so much. Phones should be functional first, aesthically pleasing second. Why would I not want to look at a phone to dial a number? Possibly to avoid wrecking people (including myself) while driving? Robbie, at least your Treo has an alternative method to dial if the screen is broken. With iPhone, when the screen breaks as it is bound to do for many people, you're out of luck. Better throw a couple of bucks a month onto your contract for insurance or get ready to slap down really big bucks to get the screen fixed. With no alternative to touchscreen dialing, you're up the creek if your screen breaks. Don't you agree?

@Mr. Squeaky - I see your memory card and raise you 1 kid's toy. Christmas and birthdays are impossible at my house. Every kid's toy has at least one super heavy duty wire twist tie, heavy duty clear scotch tape and hard molded plastic holding the item in the box. Each doll has at least one super heavy duty wire twist tie holding each extremity in place and is usually secured by a flat plastic brace at the rear of the package. Last Christmas, we went so far as to purchase a pair of Black and Decker power scissors to help with opening the gifts. Luckily we were smart enough to make a test run with them because if we actually ended up using the power scissors to open the packages, we would have easily lost a finger or two on Christmas morning.