Pain_Man

Happy birthday. (Scary how close 40's getting, ain't it?)

I've been thinking about the TrackPhone/Pay as You Go, etc for a while now. Since I'm disabled and don't work, I don't need a cell phone all the time. So my wife and I didn't see the reason to hand them another $30/month (or more) for a phone I might use a few times a month. The "rechargeable" phone is definitely the way I'm going to go. No monthly fee and I pay strictly for what I use. One of my brothers-in-law just got out of the joint and my wife got him set up on a rechargeable. He just buys the cards (you can get them anywhere) and enters the pin number thru the phone and he's all set up. It even shows him how much money he's got left on his phone. (Interestingly, the phone co is Virgin.) Yeah, they are wildly profitable. In the US, the gov't auctions off the bandwidth for the phones and the amount of money the companies pay is insane. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Of course, they know they'll make billions in profits...

Thanks. I thought people would find it interesting. I naively assumed it worked the way regular landlines worked. I'm sure you remember the long distance calling cards that everyone had before cellular got cheap enough to practical for most of us? Someone stole one from one of my aunt's and charged several thousands dollars worth of calls to--Iraq! (This was 1990 or so...) My ex-wife managed to crib mine from me and ran up a $600 bill. I reported it stolen and that was that. I should have reported her but I figured if Sprint had known the relationship they'd have gone after me. Not that it would have matter back then (1995). I couldn't have gotten a loan from the Mob back then. I don't really know how things work in the UK in re: cell phones. And obviously some of the stuff in the article ("contact the FCC") wouldn't apply. I don't understand why your friend either didn't buy the phone or just pay the buy-out clause. Every cell phone constract I've ever signed or heard of has included a "Termination Fee" if you cancel the contract before it's up. It's usually 50% of the amount of the contract, give or take. Several phones ago, I had a really good Nokia that had a security lock. Now we've got this super "advanced" Samsung (it can surf the web, take pictures, text, the whole nine yards) but it doesn't have a security lock! I don't need to surf the friggin' net on a 2 in screen. I do need to lock scumbags out of my phone. The contract's coming up soon. NEXT time I'm going to make sure the phone has a security lock. If a thief can't make calls, he's going to just toss it or sell it to someone who can reprogram it with a different number. Either way, it limits my exposure.

My old man's got that same kind of...scariness. Not quite the word, but it comes close. When we were kids he could just say one word and we'd freeze like deer in the headlights. When the Chargers remodeled Qualcomm stadium they tried to nearly triple the price of the seats my parents had had for 30 (yes THIRTY!) years. My old man got on the phone went totally ballistic. Next day the Vice Prez of Marketing for the team called him and gave him different seats, but in equally as good a location. Sometimes it helps just to have people think you could postal. People tell me I have a look that is very intimidating. Personally, when I look in the mirror, I don't see it. I'm of average height and, unfortunately, a little pudgy. On the other hand, my Dad's only 5'9. Size, to coin a phrase, doesn't always matter most.

This is a must read for US cell phone owners.... I admit I didn't know some of this. Original url: Cell Phones' costly secret Cell Phones Costly Secret Ten Steps to Cell Phone Security by David Bach Email this Page IM this StoryBookmark this StoryAdd to your Del.icio.us accountDigg this StoryPrint this Story Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007, 12:00AM Americans love their cell phones -- most of us can't live without them. Yet the Better Business Bureau reports that cell phone providers are the No. 1 cause of complaints among consumers. This is mostly due to incorrect billing, confusing fees, unexpected charges, and deceptive contracts. These can certainly add up, but I was shocked to learn that the most significant -- even devastating -- monetary damage can occur when your cell phone is lost or stolen. A $26,000 Cell Phone Bill San Francisco resident Wendy Nguyen was even more shocked to receive a bill for $26,000 after her cell phone was unknowingly stolen before she left for an overseas vacation. Cingular held her responsible for charges incurred after the phone was taken, up until the time Wendy discovered the theft and called the carrier. She was able to prove via airline and passport documents that she was out of the country and couldn't possibly have made the unauthorized calls from San Francisco during that time, but Cingular still held Wendy accountable for all charges. Not only that, they advised Wendy that if she couldn't pay the bill she should consider filing for bankruptcy! Adding Insult to Injury Eileen Perrera's phone was stolen while she was on vacation. She filed a police report and contacted Sprint immediately, but then received a bill totaling almost $16,000. Sprint claimed to have never received the call from her reporting the stolen cell phone. Eileen was able to submit proof from landline phone records that she had indeed called Sprint customer service. As her late fees piled up, the situation remained unresolved for months. Then there's Pamela Woodson's story. When her cell phone was stolen, she reported it the very next day. However, by that time her account had already incurred over $1,800 in unauthorized charges. Due to the suspicious nature of the fraudulent charges, she was actually interviewed by the FBI -- and cleared of all responsibility. Nevertheless, T-Mobile pressed on, insisting she pay the outstanding charges in addition to late fees and interest. Can This Be Legal? If you dig through all the fine print in your cell phone contract, you'll most likely discover a statement that reads something like this: "Should your cell phone be lost or stolen you are responsible for any costs incurred for unauthorized calls made prior to reporting the cell phone missing." Unlike a credit card, cellular contracts are not required to limit liability for fraudulent charges. But it's also important to realize that the extent of your liability as stated in your contract is your provider's policy -- it's not a law. The laws that give consumers the right to dispute unauthorized charges vary from state to state. In states where the laws do exist, they're not doing much good because there's no single independent agency set up to review evidence, enforce the laws, and provide a timely resolution. Why? It all comes down to money. In California, for instance, the significant financial contributions made by the wireless industry to state government gives the telecommunications industry enormous influence over entities like the Public Utilities Commission. In effect, this allows the wireless industry to make up its own rules. Avoiding and Responding to a Theft Are we at the mercy of an unregulated industry that's free of consequences and penalties? Not if we learn how to defend ourselves. This year, an estimated 600,000 cell phones will be reported lost or stolen. Here are the 10 things you need to know to protect yourself from cell phone theft and fraudulent charges: 1. Guard your cell phone like you would your wallet. Yes, this is obvious advice, but frankly the best way to not get stuck with fraudulent charges is to do what you can to prevent unauthorized calls in the first place. On a related note, think twice about what information you store on your device. A stolen cell phone can not only lead to a huge bill, but to identity theft as well. 2. Password-protect your device. Check the user guide that came with your phone and start using the "lock" or "password" feature to potentially prevent a thief from making unauthorized calls. There are ways to override passwords, but at the very least you might be buying yourself some time until you discover the loss and call your provider. 3. Don't be fooled by cell phone insurance. Purchasing cell phone insurance will provide coverage for the device itself, but it won't protect you against charges for unauthorized calls. 4. Call your cell phone provider as soon as you discover the loss. Report your missing device, and be sure to keep meticulous records including the date and time you called your carrier, the name and ID number of the representative to whom you spoke, and what you were told. Also note the state or region of their call center, plus their telephone extension number. Finally, ask for confirmation in writing that your device has been disabled. Some companies can even email this to you. 5. File a police report. This may not help your chances of getting the stolen phone back, but it still provides an official record of the crime. Your carrier may even require the police report number when you phone in the loss. 6. Open an investigation with your carrier if necessary. If you find that you're not getting an immediate resolution by working directly with your cell phone company, don't waste another minute. Call your carrier and request an investigation, then follow up in writing. Generally, requesting an investigation gives you a better chance of preventing any formal collections action to be taken and should also delay reporting to any of the credit bureaus. When you request an investigation, advise your carrier that you'll be filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), your state attorney general's office, and your state's public utility commission (PUC). Your carrier is more likely to pay closer attention to you when they know you're an informed consumer. According to a 2006 AARP/Roper cell phone survey (of adults 18 and over) 48 percent reported not knowing who to call in the event their cell phone carrier could not resolve a billing or service problem to their satisfaction. Items 7 through 9 below shed some light. 7. Contact the FCC. The FCC will forward your complaint to your service provider, requiring a response from them within 30 days. You can contact them via their web site or call them directly at (888) 225-5322. 8. Contact your state attorney general's office. According to ConsumersUnion.org, state attorney general offices will handle complaints about cell phone fraud and contract disputes. This office has filed lawsuits against wireless companies based on consumer complaints, resulting in refunds to consumers and agreements by some companies to reform certain practices. Find the contact information for your state attorney general's office here. 9. Contact your state's PUC. Each state has a government agency, usually called a public utility commission, that oversees telephone companies. To locate your state's PUC online and to file a complaint, visit the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners web site. 10. When all else fails, contact the media. The wireless companies are particularly adverse to negative media attention, so until effective laws are put into place you may have to resort to contacting your local TV station.

I had to call Gateway with a question about my rig's TV Tuner card. I actually got an American. At least one company's still using American TSRs. After all, that's the way most people--who don't got to college or teach themselves programming like my brother--get into IT. Take away those jobs...

The standing policy was: 1.) Ask if they had a home network. 2.) If they said yes, then we were to tell them, "Sorry, sir/ma'am, we can't help you until you disconnect the Dell inquestion from the network, uninstall all network software and drivers and then call us back. Until then, there's nothing I can help you with." <click!> If you got three or four calls like that, your call time would go way down usually. The "goal" was 15mins a call. My avg was about 12. One guy I worked with actually had an avg of 9 mins. The managers bitched him out about that saying he wasn't spending enough "quality time" with the customers. (Apparenlty Dell wanted a minimum number of mins per customer.) This was despite the fact that he and I became friendly and sat next to each other frequently. He almost always solved the problem. But it didn't matter. He was "out of the zone" or something and that's what they cared about. Not whether the problem had been solved. Sometimes I'd argue with the customers just to see if they'd be eavesdropping. If so, they never let on. Sometimes the stupidity just got to be too much. "How can you own a fucking computer?! You're probably can't zip your fly!"

Gotta love that. LMAO. That's one of the great things about part-time jobs. You can quit or get fired and it doesn't affect your employment record at all. I had a part time job once I absolutely hated, so I just ditched my shift one day. I called back the next and said, "Just tell me I'm fired and I'll be in to get my check next pay day." The stupid bitch actually lied to me. "Oh no, you're not fired. We just have to talk." Of course, when I got there, I was fired. But technically I'd abandoned the job so they couldn't fire me. The dumb asshole was too stupid to even realize that. When I did get my last check they tried to get me to sign some bullshit. I looked at the store manager and said, "I know I don't have to sign anything and you know I don't have to sign anything. Now give me my check." When you know your rights, it's a lot harder for them to fuck with you. Conference in the president of Ameritech? Don't you love it when customers try that kind of horseshit? They're so stupid they think they'll actually scare you or something. What a joke. If a customer got to annoying, I would "accidently" hit the disconnect button. "Sorry, bawse, there's so many dern buttons on this heah phone, I jes' gets all confused when they's yellin' and cussin' me." Fuck 'em. Dell. What a joke. If you've have a Dell and it works for you, great deal. But they'll never get any of my money again. Never.

Sorry you're having tough time, my friend. Not everyone's got it that bad. And there are companies that treat employees decently. My wife's, for example. She works for an architecture firm in marketing. My wife's had $5000 raises (and bonuses) three years in a row. She started at $7 an hour and now makes $27/hr.

@Kirk: The outsource "provider" I worked for was Client Logic (which we wage slaves referred to as C*nt Logic). (http://www.sitel.com/. The company was a ridiculous joke. They docked our pay for taking a piss! I kid you not. If you were off the phone queue for more five minutes, they docked you 15 mins pay. I was paid $9/hr. B4 I signed on they had a bonus program that could raise your pay to $18/hr. Naturally, that didn't last long. As soon as they replaced the floor manager, his first move was to drastically slash the bonus program (which, I'm sure, led to his bonus increasing dramatically). Naturally, nearly all the really good TSRs bailed, leaving a collection of morons and part-timers like me. Though I didn't work there long. Interestingly enough, they didn't care if we told them we were a contractor or not. I worked there in 2002. Tell me this: were you forbidden to help customers back up data? We were told we'd be fired if we helped a customer to back up data in anyway. They claimed that there'd been a lawsuit where a customer supposedly lost data while a Dell TSR was helping them to back it up and the court found Dell responsible for it. The logic, I don't need to explain, is ridiculous.

Kirk got mucho lucky with that. We bought a PC for my wife's (former) best-friend and, naturally, Dell fucked up the Ship To Address, sending the rig to me in Nevada, instead of to the friend in Utah. So I refused it when UPS showed up with it. It took TEN DAYS to get shipped to Utah! Ten friggin' days. I used the 'chat' function (twice!) Kirk did. I talked to 426 (East) Indians and 1 Filipina Customer Annoyance Reps. I sent a dozen emails at least. (You CANNOT talk American CSRs anymore when dealing with Dell. When I quit the company where I was doing Tech Support for Dell, they lost the contract not long after; Dell's moved everything to India and the Phillipines. Why pay a honest American $10/hr when you can pay some incompetent Indian 50 cents an hour? What they think they are saving in TS costs, they're losing in sales. People got so pissed after dealing with Indians and Filipinos whose English was only slightly worse than their computer knowledge. So as soon as they got one of us, they'd spend ten minutes bitching about the Indians. Now there maybe plenty of PC-savvy Indians, but Dell doesn't hire them.) It wasn't until I wrote an email telling them to cancel the order and refund my money that an actual American contacted me and she actually shipped the rig where it was supposed to go. It was a complete and total nightmare of incompetence, stupidity and lies. Then they gave me a $32 (!) "refund" for my "trouble." Nice touch, but I still haven't figured out how they settled on $32 American. It wasn't the sales tax. The shipping was free, so it wasn't that. It's as though somebody pulled it out of their ass, "Ok, we'll give him, mmm, $32, how's that sound? Good? Ok, cut the check." Dell. I did Tech Support for them back in 2002. What a nightmare. I will NEVER buy a Dell for myself. No way, no how. They actually shipped a DVD drive with a bent data connector pin!! I know the customer didn't do it because it took 20 minutes to tell the shithead how to open the latch to get inside the rig. With my new screamin' fast Gateway rig, I bought the Idiot/Kid insurance. For $49 for three years, if I knock it off my desk or my kid spills a Coke on it, I get a new one. Nice.

I have to admit anagrams never occurred to me. on the money corn I believe what Donta posted were anagrams

No, I haven't seen them. Are any types of media made in the US? I think Taiwan & Japan are the optical media manufacturing capitals.

Price seems to have gone back up again. They were down to $1.60-$1.75 there for a while. Now they're up to $2. I bought a 20pk a week or so ago and the cost was $38 and change (free shipping US only though). From meritline.com. As for difference in qualities, I suppose being flown over the Atlantic in an unheated cargo hold could cause problems with the discs. I'm sure Lightning's better informed on the subject... The scan dontasciime got was about the average got when I had my Bink 1650 up and running. In my new rig I've got a Plex 760A (I know, shoulda bought the SATA one but I had an incidence of cerebral flatulence when placing the order) and an Optiarc AD7170 (Sony-NEC partnership, but the website sucks, not product info; the burner works quite well and reads/write DVD-RAM for $35).

Last time I tried to put this up, before the, ah, hiatus, Firefox crapped out so I was never sure if the info got posted or not. So if this is a dupe, sorry... New album, Snakes & Arrows is due out 1 MAY (in the US; not sure about the UK, et al). Tour starts 13 JUNE in Atlanta...and ends in Helsinki on 29 OCT. In addition to a CD, there will also be a "DVD Album"-- which does not appear to be DVD-Audio (as most of us know this is a totally different format than DVD-Video & requires a special player and basically is as dead as Beta or SACD--BestBuy, for one, has quit carrying both formats...). It's said to include 5.1 mixes of the songs as well as other goodies. You can find tour information at www.rush.com. They've released a single from the album, "Far Cry"--you can get it at the iTunes Store (and probably elsewhere). Reminds me a lot of "YYZ"--the classic instrumental--esp at the beginning. They are playing Europe, five dates in England as well as the Continent and Scandinavia. At least in the US/Canada, if you join the "Rush Community" you're eligible for the ticket pre-sales. (Don't know if this works for the overseas venues). Info at the website, click on "Tour" after skipping the Intro... Glad the forum's back up!

Alter: Was that a typo, or did you really mean 112,000 pounds (they took the Pound key off our keyboards a long time ago...)? Means testing. If only we had that. One of the things that is means tested is student aid (i.e. free money) for college. If your parents make more than $35,000/yr (about 18,000 pounds?), you can't get shit. It's either scholarships or loans. Hence, US doctors typically start their careers with six figure debts. And you can't bankrupt out of it either. Warren Buffet (net worth about $40,000,000,000) is eligible for Social Security (retirement payments) and Medicare (free healthcare) despite being worth more than Central America. I'm disabled so in addition to the laughable pittance the government sends me, I also get Medicare. Only I can't ever leave it. IF I opt out, there's a 10% year surcharge for whenever I might rejoin it. I'm 36. My retirement age is 67. If I drop it tomorrow...31 years X 10% (compounded) = enough to buy my own jet fighter*. Nice, hunh? *If I made the joke I really wanted to, I'd end up with government weenies in the US & UK starting files on me...

Reich/Seamus et al... Do they provide the vaseline or is like here in the states, bring your own lube and forget about the kiss? I wish it was just immigrants. 75% of testimony before Congressional committees is by Federal government agencies asking for more of our money. Yep: the government lobbies itself for more of our money. That's when they aren't stealing it. Wait: it gets worse. The US Government cannot count to within 200 HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS how much money it collects (in taxes) and how much it spends. ($200B is more than the entire GDP of Russia or Mexico.) I'm sure it's just an accounting error.

Nothing on IMDb about it. Also need to remember Wesley Snipes is looking at decades is prison for tax evasion. News reports say he owes $18,000,000 (about 8 million pounds sterling) in back taxes. He's been indicted for tax evasion, failure to file returns for five years* and some other stuff. He could get up to 40 years. (one of the Isley Brothers got 20 years for basically the same thing last year) Hopefully, Wesley will be able to settle with the government without spending the rest of his life in the joint. I only in the last two weeks saw the first Blade and I was highly impressed. The stunts and special efx have clearly influenced a lot of action/sf films, especially The Matrix trilogy. Of course the father of this type of film, i.e. Blade, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, etc, the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell--doing the best John Wayne impression ever--Big Trouble in Little China. *For non-US taxpayers: don't know how it works elsewhere, but every year we Americans have to file a document called a 1040 with the Internal Revenue Service--the equivalent of Revenue Canada and Inland Revenue in the UK. It's required to file this even if you don't owe any taxes. Be interesting to know how it's done in the UK, AU, NZ & the GWN...

New album hits stores on 1 MAY, entitled Snakes and Arrows They are going to tour. No details/cities yet. http://rush.com/php/home.php?f=1 There's a brief sample of one of the new songs. Has a distinctly Hemispheres/Permanent Waves/Moving Pictures feel. At least the five seconds you get to hear. (FINALLY some relief from American Idol!!!)

I burned a disc without problems, a copy of a friend's student film project, and during the Verify process I got the error message below. I'd like to know what it means since I don't understand it. Particularly: "L-EC Uncorrectable Error". What's an L-EC error? (While I haven't watched the entire disc yet, it did load with no problems in WinDVD8 and I watched several minutes of it.) Disc: Ritek-D01-01 Burner: Plextor 760A OS: Media Center Edition 2005 CPU: Core Duo 2 E6700 2.66GHz RAM: 4GB Total hdd space: 1.2 TB As can be seen, the burn went off with no problems but the verify choked throwing out the above message. I clicked both "Try Again" and "Continue" but the only result was a repetition of the error message. Here is the IB Log as well (the relevant area is bolded): I 15:22:10 ImgBurn Version 2.1.0.0 started! I 15:22:10 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2) W 15:22:10 Drive D:\ (FAT32) does not support single files > 4 GB W 15:22:10 Drive O:\ (FAT32) does not support single files > 4 GB W 15:22:10 Drive V:\ (FAT32) does not support single files > 4 GB I 15:22:10 Initialising SPTI... I 15:22:10 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 15:22:10 Found 3 DVD-ROMs, 1 DVD?RW and 1 DVD?RW/RAM! I 15:23:14 Operation Started! I 15:23:14 Source File: M:\DVD Hold File\XXXXXXXXXXX\XXXXXXXXXX.MDS I 15:23:14 Source File Sectors: 3,773,976 (MODE1/2048) I 15:23:14 Source File Size: 7,729,102,848 bytes I 15:23:14 Source File Volume Identifier: XXXXXXXXXXXXX I 15:23:14 Source File Implementation Identifier: UDF Toshiba DVD Video I 15:23:14 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 15:23:14 Destination Device: [1:1:0] PLEXTOR DVDR PX-760A 1.06 (I:) (ATA) I 15:23:14 Destination Media Type: DVD+R DL (Disc ID: RITEK-D01-01) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x) I 15:23:14 Destination Media Sectors: 4,173,824 I 15:23:14 Write Mode: DVD I 15:23:14 Write Type: DAO I 15:23:14 Write Speed: MAX I 15:23:14 Link Size: Auto I 15:23:14 Test Mode: No I 15:23:14 BURN-Proof: Enabled I 15:23:14 Optimal L0 Data Zone Capacity: 1,886,992 I 15:23:14 Optimal L0 Data Zone Method: Copied From Original Disc I 15:23:14 Filling Buffer... I 15:23:15 Writing LeadIn... I 15:24:05 Writing Image... I 15:24:05 Writing Layer 0... (LBA: 0 - 1886991) I 15:38:35 Writing Layer 1... (LBA: 1886992 - 3773975) I 15:50:31 Synchronising Cache... I 15:50:34 Closing Track... I 15:50:36 Finalising Disc... I 15:51:15 Image MD5: d69b043ad9096035aadb6f5161aa7601 I 15:51:18 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:28:00 I 15:51:18 Average Write Rate: 4,759 KB/s (3.4x) - Maximum Write Rate: 5,592 KB/s (4.0x) I 15:51:18 Cycling Tray before Verify... I 15:52:17 Device Ready! I 15:52:19 Operation Started! I 15:52:19 Source Device: [1:1:0] PLEXTOR DVDR PX-760A 1.06 (I:) (ATA) I 15:52:19 Source Media Type: DVD+R DL (Book Type: DVD-ROM) (Disc ID: RITEK-D01-01) (Speeds: 2.4x, 4x) I 15:52:19 Image File: M:\DVD Hold File\XXXXXXXXXXX\XXXXXXXXXX.MDS I 15:52:19 Image File Sectors: 3,773,976 (MODE1/2048) I 15:52:19 Image File Size: 7,729,102,848 bytes I 15:52:19 Image File Volume Identifier: XXXXXXXXXXXX I 15:52:19 Image File Implementation Identifier: UDF Toshiba DVD Video I 15:52:19 Image File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 15:52:19 Verifying Sectors... W 17:35:50 Failed to read Sector 992768 - L-EC Uncorrectable Error W 17:35:50 Sector 992768 maps to File: VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB W 17:35:59 Failed to read Sector 992769 - L-EC Uncorrectable Error W 17:35:59 Sector 992769 maps to File: VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB W 17:36:20 Failed to read Sector 992770 - L-EC Uncorrectable Error W 17:36:20 Sector 992770 maps to File: VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB E 17:36:29 Failed to read Sector 992771 - L-EC Uncorrectable Error E 17:36:29 Sector 992771 maps to File: VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB E 17:36:29 Failed to Verify Sectors! E 17:36:29 Operation Failed! - Duration: 01:44:10 I 17:36:29 Average Verify Rate: 317 KB/s (0.2x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 8,349 KB/s (6.0x) I 17:40:24 Close Request Acknowledged I 17:40:24 Closing Down... I 17:40:24 Shutting down SPTI... I 17:40:24 ImgBurn closed!

the old Aristotlean question. Which basically means, are events independent or do they happen only because they are being observed? Or maybe it was the Stagyrite (showing off a bit, Aristotle was born on the island of Stagyros) verion of "What is the sound of 1 hand clapping?" A sort of logical Rohrshach test. Minter's a got a great understanding of Relativity, Schrodinger's Cat, Quantum Physics, Heisenberg, etc. He can provide us with the formal theoretical grounding here. I've always thought Spenser's (the fictional detective) question was better: "If a TV's left on in a room by itself, does it make any noise?"

...And many more!

Happy belated birthday. Sorry I missed the day of.

Uhh, what?!

Yeah, they run this sale all the time. It's the reason I have 300+ of these (+ & -).