Here’s the gist of it though. 2008 was the biggest year for cable TV viewers on their networks in their 29 years of biz. You can read the article here . So, they figure they’ll charge the crap out of cable TV providers for their programming because they’re such a hit now. Problem is Time Warner and other cable providers don’t want to pay what they are asking.

So who suffers? Well, the people that work hard everyday for a paycheck to pay the outrageous cable bills each month. We’re already paying just under $100 a month for unreliable high speed internet and basic cable with box (70 something channels). We just got a notice in the mail saying they were increasing our rates across the board. Then if you want to switch to Time Warners wonderful Free HDTV programming that’s a joke too because the “service is free”, but they don’t tell you that you have to pay more for the HDTV cable box. LOL When I asked the Time Warner representative on the phone about making adjustments to my monthly plan because we are losing 18 channels, she said, “well we’re still currently at the bargaining table with them. As soon as a final decision is made, we will make adjustments”. That has bad news written all over it, why do I feel another “increase” coming on???

Point is that the consumers are already getting ripped off enough. Cable TV is such a monopoly and the government allows it. If there was a bigger market for cable companies, our programming would certainly be cheaper. It’s no wonder why people choose Satellite TV! Happy New Year from all the corporate jerks!

First and foremost the Assessor Rick Auerbach announced early in the year that the Los Angeles County Assessors Office would do a proactive review of single family homes and condos purchased between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2007 who were most affected by the recent decline of the market.

Since this news release, several individuals have decided to start a “side business” by soliciting this same group of people. What they are doing is charging homeowners for something that can be done for free by anyone by downloading the form from the Assessors website or by calling for more details. They are completing the FREE form offered by the Assessors office and providing comparable sales for anyone who signs and returns the form with a nominal fee of $95 plus. On some of these forms when the homeowner signs they are agreeing for this company to bill them the same fee annually for these services for the next 3 years. Other companies are charging a % of the tax savings which could be upwards of $500. In other instances these newfound companies have offered to appeal your values with the Assessment Appeals Board for $900-$1200, which can also be done for free by filing an application with the Assessment Appeals Board.

These companies are offering a money back guarantee if the application they submit receives no reduction, but the sad part is a lot of these people will be taken advantage of. All of the people that were part of the proactive review got their first review complimentary instead of being required to apply. Those with reductions from the proactive review then pays one of these agents to submit an application after they got a reduction already from the Assessors proactive review.

So, will these companies refund the money to the homeowner because the reduction given was based on a free review by the Assessors office and not because of the application? My guess is probably not. And what about the people that did get a reduction and signed up for 3 years or more of this service? Once you qualify for proposition 8 you are automatically reviewed by the Assessors office free of charge to determine if your values should change each year until it’s restored.

If you or someone you know thinks they may be due a refund by one of these private companies, you should contact the Assessors office to determine if the 2008 Assessed value decrease was because of the Assessors Proactive review, and application submitted by you, OR because of an application submitted by a third party company. You may also try to get a hold of the company that was paid to provide the service as well as Consumer Affairs and possibly the Better Business Bureau.

How Proposition 8 works: The state of California adopted this proposition in 1978. It states that if any year your current assessed value is greater than the market value you may qualify for a temporary reduction while the market is down. You apply for this reduction and once you qualify your value is reviewed annually against two factors: your Proposition 13 value (purchase price or base year value plus 2% compounded annually) and the market value as of January 1st of that year. If your the market value declines you receive and additional reduction, if it increases you receive an increase, but no greater than YOUR proposition 13 value.

Weather or not you find yourself affected by any of this, it is truly sad to see the people that feed off others in a time of need instead of coming together when it’s needed most. Just some insider insight during a trying time and a helping hand to help save uniformed people a little $ and unneeded frustration.

Jay Rodriguez/JPMCHASE
06/22/2007 01:16 PM

Subject:Farewell

Dear Co-Workers and Managers,

As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type “Today is my last day.”

For nearly as long as I’ve worked here, Ive hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.

I would especially like to thank all of my managers both past and present but with the exception of the wonderful Saroj Hariprashad: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation, ignorance and intolerance for true talent. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake - it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.

Over the past seven years, you have taught me more than I could ever askfor and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects - an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.

Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, “meets expectation.” That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of meets expectation scotch with a meets expectation cigar. Thanks Trish!

And to most of my peers: even though we barely acknowledged each other within these office walls, I hope that in the future, should we pass on the street, you will regard me the same way as I regard you: sans eye contact.

But to those few souls with whom I’ve actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:

To Philip Cress, I will not miss hearing you cry over absolutely nothing while laying blame on me and my coworkers. Your racial comments about Joe Cobbinah were truly offensive and I hope that one day you might gain the strength to apologize to him.

To Brenda Ashby whom is long gone, I hope you find a manager that treats you as poorly as you have treated us. I worked harder for you then any manager in my career and I regret every ounce of it. Watching you take credit for my work was truly demoralizing.

To Sylvia Keenan, you should learn how to keep your mouth shut sweet heart. Bad mouthing the innocent is a negative thing, especially when your talking about someone who knows your disgusting secrets. ; )

To Bob Malvin (Mr. Cronyism Jr), well, I wish you had more of a back bone. You threw me to the wolveswith that witch Brenda and I learned all too much from it. I still can’t believe that after following your instructions, I ended up getting written up, wow. Thanks for the experience buddy, lesson learned.

Don Merritt (Mr. Cronyism Sr), I’m happy that you were let go in the same manner that you have handed down to my dedicated coworkers. Hearing you on the phone last year brag about how great bonuses were going to be for you fellas in upper management because all of the lay offs made me nearly vomit. I never expected to see management benefit financially from the suffering of scores of people but then again, with this company’s rooted history in the slave trade it only makes sense.

To all of the executives of this company, Jamie Dimon and such. Despite working through countless managers that practiced unethical behavior, racism, sexism, jealousy and cronyism, I have benefited tremendously by working here and I truly thank you for that. There was once a time where hard work was rewarded and acknowledged, it’s a pity that all of our positive output now falls on deaf ears and passes blind eyes. My advice for you is to place yourself closer to the pulse of this company and enjoy the effort and dedication of us “faceless little people” more. There are many great people that are being over worked and mistreated but yet are still loyal not to those who abuse them but to the greater mission of providing excellent customer support. Find them and embrace them as they will help battle the cancerous plague that is ravishing the moral of this company.

So, in parting, if I could pass on any word of advice to the lower salary recipient (”because it’s good for the company”) in India or Tampa who will soon be filling my position, it would be to cherish this experience because a job opportunity like this comes along only once in a lifetime.

Meaning: if I had to work here again in this lifetime, I would sooner kill myself.

To those who I have held a great relationship with, I will miss beingyour co-worker and will cherish our history together. Please don’t bother responding as at this very moment I am most likely in my car doing 85 with the windows down listening to Biggie.

One!

So what do YOU think?

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=107 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=104 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=104#comments Thu, 31 May 2007 23:46:02 +0000 kgirl555 and universal orlando resort universal studios orlando announced a 787 acre harry potter theme park films disappointedâ�  if the theme park turns the harry potter films universal studios orlando so late 2009 production designer stuart craig designing â� œthe wizarding world harry potter http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/2007/05/31/harry-potterthe-theme-park/ Today Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Universal Orlando Resort (Universal Studios Orlando), announced a 787 acre Harry Potter Theme Park. They will call it “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” which will be comprised of the village of Hogsmeade, the mysterious Forbidden Forest, Hogwarts castle, Hogswart express, rides, shops, restaurants, interactive attractions an much more.
Construction is said to begin next month, June 2007, and open in late 2009. Production designer Stuart Craig of the Harry Potter films will be lead man in designing “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”, to maintain it’s authenticity to the major motion pictures.
The auther of the books, J.K. Rowling said, “The plans I’ve seen look incredibly exciting, and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed”.
If the theme park turns out anything like the movies, then it’s sure to be a fun time of exploration in the shoes of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando.
So, where do we make the reservations?

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=104 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=103 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=103#comments Thu, 31 May 2007 13:00:45 +0000 Robert
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kgirl555/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/autometa/autometa.php on line 364
http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/31/google-maps-street-view-check-out-daves-robe/ Google maps street view. If you haven’t seen it yet, its an addition to Google maps which we all know and love that allows you to look up and down streets, and move around on streets as if you were actually driving down them and able to look 360 degrees. Now I know you might not believe me just saying it without showing an example so have a look at the below video for confirmation of how it works.

Now that you’ve seen the video Looking up Market at 1st in the Financial district of Downtown San Francisco.

As you can see it pretty much gives you the ability to put in a location and get a street level view of that location. Google is still very limited in their city coverage but from my exploring it looks like they’ve got all of the SF (San Francisco) area covered already, and are moving out from there. I’m sure they’ve probably got Mountain View and some of the other Google campus locations covered as well.

I’m waiting for this to come to an area where I live cause I think its really a neat feature, but I can only imagine some of the privacy concerns a tool like this would bring up. Imagine you happen to be out front of your house getting your newspaper in your robe as the Google mapping van comes by. It snaps your photo as its cruising by, and there you are in the Google street level view in your robe fetching your paper. You know your friends that are tech saavy are going to see you like that, because they don’t only google you, but they google map your address too. Imagine the talk at the parties now. Did you see Dave on Google Maps. He was wearing a pink frilly robe with ruffles and its on Google Maps for the world to see. Wait till your boss finds it and see how your perceived at work after that.

Here are a couple of my thoughts based on my briefly playing with Google Maps Street View this afternoon.

1. Date the images in the map so you know when they were taken
2. Allow someone to remove potentially embarrassing photos
3. Give home owners and business owners the right to opt out
4. Monetize it by including banner ads, and billboards pointed to businesses. i.e. Domino’s Pizza, or Jewelry stores and more

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=103 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=101 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=101#comments Wed, 30 May 2007 18:10:04 +0000 Robert eating a surface computing device a table although surface isnâ� ™t latest vista os launch surface choosing cell surface product named surface surface display a collage witness surface interaction device disguised http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/30/microsoft-surface-bill-gates-and-co-can-still-innovate-after-all-these-years/ Well today marked the announcement of a new product from Bill Gates and Co (Microsoft) that is nothing short of revolutionary. Microsoft’s new product named Surface is the next step in computer interaction. If you haven’t had the opportunity to witness what Surface is yet have a look at this short video that gives you a glimpse at this new computer interaction device disguised as a table.

Although Surface isn’t yet being released for mass consumption it will be out Winter of 2007 they say, though Microsoft is notorious for having to push back release dates similar to their latest Vista OS launch.

Surface if adopted widely could change the way things in our world are done, imagine sitting in a restaurant and the table your eating at is actually a Surface computing device. You could preview the dessert menu, and place your order for a chocolate cheesecake. Or maybe you want to split the bill among 3 people. Just put each of your cards on the table and divide of the bill by dragging the items from the bill to the individual credit cards. Or maybe you’ve got digital photos of your recent trip to the beach and you want to load them onto your cellphone for a new desktop background. Well then set your camera and cell phone on the Surface and let Surface display a collage of all your images and then drag the images of your choosing to your cell.

Surface could really revolutionize the way that we all interact with technology in the future and I for one can’t wait to get one of these as a new coffee table at the house. Imagine how much fun Christmas at our house would be if we had this in the living room.

Below is a video of a longer and in-depth technology showcase of the Microsoft Surface in action while presenting it to the press.

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=101 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=98 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=98#comments Wed, 30 May 2007 17:25:58 +0000 kgirl555
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kgirl555/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/autometa/autometa.php on line 364
http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/30/a-night-at-the-museumlos-angeles-county-natural-history-museum-that-is/ On the Memorial Day weekend I took my daughter to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. She had been there before, but she was much younger and didn’t remember everything, so it was a real treat to take her again.

Once we got there it became rather disappointing. Two of their rooms with the coolest animals, The African Mammal room, and the North American Mammals were only partially viewable. They had ½ of each room blocked off for Asian Heritage celebration.

In the North American room we were only able to view up close about 4 animals while we enjoyed headaches of drums pounding amplified by 100 from the enclosed wooden room. In the African Mammal room we were able to view about 6 of the animals because they had loud music and dancing occupying the other 2/3 of the room.

The mineral room was pretty cool. My daughter kept looking at all the “green” gems and minerals and saying it was Kryptonite. All I could do is laugh. It was the cutest thing that she was searching out all of the Kryptonite in the room. Most of the interactive computer screens in the mineral room were not functioning, so that was a let down for my daughter the button pusher.

We made our way to one of the dinosaur rooms. It was actually mostly cats, rhinos, and horse skeletons from millions and millions of years ago. They main dinosaur hall along with the Rotunda and Native American Cultures were closed for renovation.

When I asked an employee there they told me that the discovery room where the kids get all their hands on and get to look at live animals like snakes and fish were in the Rotunda and closed for renovation. After leaving there I found out that the discovery center was actually relocated to the basement and it was opened for child exploration. BUMMER!!!

The thing that ended up being most impressive to my daughter and me was the Night at the Museum exhibit. In this exhibit they have several costumes, wax figures, and props from the movie. Like the shrunk hummer that the cowboy (Owen Wilson) drive through central park. They also had the bone Ben Stiller used to play fetch with the T-Rex and his “instruction sheets” for taking care of the museum after closing.

Although, the museum was still enjoyable for both of us it was simultaneously disappointing. When you go to the museum you want to see it in its entirety. Explore history and see things you don’t get to see everyday. In retrospect, the only thing we were prepared for was an Asian celebration at the museum. It did not disclose the closing of exhibits nor renovation. I guess sometimes maybe a phone call before you go is better than relying on a website to be current.

So now we’ll revisit once the renovation is complete and I’m sure the experience will be much more enjoyable when we go.

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=98 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=95 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=95#comments Wed, 23 May 2007 01:35:50 +0000 Robert
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kgirl555/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/autometa/autometa.php on line 364
http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/22/need-for-speed-2008/ Well just saw the video preview for Need for Speed 2008 and it looks sweet. I’ve loved each of the Need for speeds to date. I actually prefer their arcade style game play to the sim type racing games. Nothing beats racing against the bots and slamming people into the walls, or spinning people out. In Carbon (the last NFS game) they had a new feature where you had team members that you could use to do special things for instance some were drafters, while others were explorers etc. Though it was a cool part of the game the essence of the game is in the graphics, speed of game play as well as the overall look and feel of the modder scene. I’m really looking forward to seeing the new Need for Speed 2008 of NSFS2008 as I’m sure lots will abbreviate it too.

And for those of you that want to check the video here it is.

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=95 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=92 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=92#comments Mon, 21 May 2007 20:27:12 +0000 kgirl555
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kgirl555/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/autometa/autometa.php on line 364
http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/21/a-modern-day-treasure-hunttreasure-found/ A modern day treasure hunt may not be as bright for the hunter as they hoped. A Florida based treasure hunting company called, Odyssey Marine Exploration found a sunken treasure worth over $500 Million dollars off of the coast of Gibraltar. Spanish authorities are trying to determine if the treasure was taken from their waters or from a Spanish galleon, HMS Sussex that shipwrecked in 1694.
Spanish authorities are calling the find suspicious. According to current laws it is unlawful to take treasure from Spanish waters or a shipwrecked Spanish galleon. However, Odyssey Marine Exploration claims to have found the treasure in international waters and had nothing to do with the sunken ship the Sussex. Gibraltar’s government also said the find was not related to the Sussex either.
Now that it’s under investigation will the Spanish laws prevail?
My thought: While it is important to preserve history in this type of situation, I think that the treasure hunter should still receive a hefty finder’s fee at least. If this ship really did sink more than 3 centuries ago, why didn’t the Spanish try harder to find it?
It’s not right to allow them to search in nearby waters and when they find something try to take it away, just because the Spanish didn’t put enough effort into finding their sunken ship. Now the Spanish want to be the pirates!

Read full article here

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=92 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=87 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=87#comments Sat, 19 May 2007 14:00:41 +0000 Robert
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kgirl555/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/autometa/autometa.php on line 364
http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/19/xss-free-inbound-link-hacking/ Well I haven’t posted a neat little trick that I learned awhile back about how to obtain free inbound links, so what the heck I’ll share the secret since its not a secret at all anymore. Now to be clear I don’t actually condone the use of this technique, I’m just showing you the door and you can determine whether or not you choose to use this blackhat method of inbound links. This is a hack of the phpinfo() command in PHP. Essentially the way it works is you pass the page an array via the URL GET command. Rather then go into indepth explanation though. Let me show you. Click Here as you can see if you go to that link I’m passing it a variable that is creating a link back to this site 2 links actually. By adding ?f[]=%3Ca%20href%3Dhttp%3A//www.mayhemnetworks.net/%3Ewordpress%202.2%20blog%3C/a%3E to the end of the URL I am creating an array on the page that will make 2 inbound links without the nofollow attribute to my site. Good stuff huh? So now your asking yourself alright well thats sorta cool, but how in the world do I find all the phpinfo() pages out there on the internet. Well don’t worry my friends, I’ll show you that too. Let Google do the work for you. This simple search will give you more phpinfo() pages then you know what to do with.

Alright now go out there, have fun, and don’t get in trouble.

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=87 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=86 http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?p=86#comments Sat, 19 May 2007 04:40:21 +0000 Robert
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kgirl555/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/autometa/autometa.php on line 364
http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/index.php/2007/05/18/wordpress-22/ We’re running on the latest version of WordPress now. Version 2.2 is awesome. I hadn’t upgraded our blog platform in awhile but now that I have I’m super happy that I did. One of the unexpected features we got that I didn’t even plan on was an autosave feature built into the blog backend. Also support for CRON jobs and more makes administering the blog that much easier.

I’m so excited it just makes me want to write about anything because I’m having so much fun with the new platform.

Alright well thats the end of my praising for WordPress 2.2. I’ll get back to work now.

]]> http://www.mayhemnetworks.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=86