Movie Junkie

Don't get me wrong. I do agree with you that what they are doing is great (besides being a good business model) and they do deserve the credit. You don't often hear about mega-corporations like Microsoft doing charity work of that magnitude. The only only other one that I can think of is the Pew Foundation. I am sure there are others but I doubt there are more than a handful.

That is the only thing I like about him. Of course being in as high of a tax bracket as he is, he probably get back in tax savings nearly all of what he spends in charity donations.

I guess that would bring new meaning to the term "Service Pack".

You've got that right.

Or, will he be part of this?

Cary Granite was another, I think. And Alvin Brickrock being based on Alfred Hitchcock. I thnk I remember the Cary Granite character but the Alvin Brickrock one I don't remember.

I agree with your sentiments 100%.

Thank you.

...in which you get to the sermons more quickly than in the previous beta release.

DISTANCE Two blondes living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking........ and one blonde says to the other, "Which do you think is farther away...Florida or the moon?" The other blonde turns and says "Helloooooo, can you see Florida...?????" CAR TROUBLE A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died. After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly. She says, "What's the story?" He replies, "Just crap in the carburetor" She asks, "How often do I have to do that?" SPEEDING TICKET A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license. She replied in a huff, "I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!" RIVER WALK There's this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank. "Yoo-hoo!" she shouts, "How can I get to the other side?" The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, "You ARE on the other side." AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it. "Impossible!" says the doctor. "Show me." The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left breast and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed in even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream. The doctor said, "You're not really a redhead, are you? "Well, no" she said, "I'm actually a blonde." "I thought so," the doctor said. "Your finger is broken." KNITTING A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!" "NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!" BLONDE ON THE SUN A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day. The Russian said, "We were the first in space!" The American said, "We were the first on the moon!" The Blonde said, "So what? We're going to be the first on the sun!" The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads. "You can't land on the sun, you idiot! You'll burn up!" said the Russian. To which the Blonde replied, "We're not stupid, you know. We're going at night!" IN A VACUUM A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night. It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science and Nature. Her question was, "If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?" She thought for a time and then asked, "Is it on or off?" FINALLY, THE BLONDE JOKE TO END ALL BLONDE JOKES! A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were. The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex. Her friend said, "Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?" "HELLLOOOOOOO......," answered the blonde. "They're watch dogs!"

No, no. You mis-understood. He's going to become Thelonious Monk.

Was he one of "The Children of the Corn"?

By Steve Holland and Susan Cornwell Fri Mar 10, 6:25 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives will forge ahead with a vote on blocking an Arab-owned company from managing U.S. ports, to ensure the firm sheds its U.S. holdings as promised, a leadership spokesman said on Friday. The Republican-run House's refusal to back away from the showdown vote was another blow to President George W. Bush, who suffered a stinging defeat Thursday when Dubai Ports World said it intended to back out of the deal his administration had approved. Reverberations from the political earthquake continued on Friday. The United Arab Emirates suspended talks on a free trade pact with the United States, although a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office said delays are common. Bush said he was concerned the opposition sent a worrying message to Middle East allies. "In order to win the war on terror, we have got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East," Bush told newspaper editors. State-owned Dubai Ports World surrendered to unrelenting criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in giving up the management of some terminals at six major U.S. ports. The UAE company said it would transfer the ports to a U.S. entity to allay concerns the deal posed a threat to American national security. Details of the transfer were not outlined. The White House had hoped the announcement would resolve the unprecedented crisis between Bush and a Congress run by his own party in open revolt. But Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said the House vote on a provision to bar the deal would go ahead Wednesday or Thursday anyway. "It's a smart move to keep it (the legislation) in there, in case the Dubai thing doesn't work out," he told Reuters. NATIONAL SECURITY The outlook for a Senate vote was less clear. Senate Republican leaders have been trying to avoid one in the near future. Deal critic Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat, wants more information from the White House. "If things are as they appear, this is a great victory for national security. But make no mistake, we are going to scrutinize this deal with a fine-tooth comb to make sure the separation between American port operators and Dubai Ports World is complete and security is tight as a drum," he said. Dubai Ports Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, asked if the firm would sell the U.S. port management rights, told Reuters: "All this is being worked out by our parties in the States." But David Hamod, president of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, said it would be hard to find a U.S. company to step in. "The advantage that the overseas company has is economies of scale. They're doing this on a global level and so it will be very difficult to find a U.S. company in this business large enough to take over the operations," Hamod said. He also said his group was hearing calls for retribution, including keeping Americans out of Arab markets. "But it's a tiny minority of people who are arguing that," he said. Bush, who had vowed to veto efforts to block the deal, praised the UAE as a committed ally in the war on terrorism. "I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," Bush said. White House economic adviser Al Hubbard, in a CNBC interview, described Bush as "very distressed about this whole port situation." Treasury Secretary John Snow said his department's lawyers were in contact with DP World about its intentions. He also said the political furor was an isolated case, as he tried to limit damage to the U.S. free-trade image. In a post-mortem on the defeat, a senior White House official said there should have been better notification to ensure Congress knew about the deal before it blew into a "prairie fire." He said members of the government board who approved it had been told to be aware of the political sensitivities of their future decisions. The official said there were no regrets about Bush's veto threat, saying it was a principled position that Bush had been committed to see through. "At it's end, it still was his position, that he felt strongly about it, and the logical extension of the legislative process was that you'd be willing to veto a bill. We understand that made some people upset," he said. Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, said congressional Republicans are running away from Bush this election year. A new poll Friday registered another low of 37 percent in Bush's approval rating. (Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Doug Palmer, Tim Ahmann and Matt Spetalnick)

You know Spinner, as funny as it is, I wouldn't overlook any possiblity with Gates. The man has smarts, or at least surrounds himself with people that do, and with his money............. nah! that wouldn't be possible would it? Microsoft EU.... #39;( #39;( . Just think of how many security flaws it would have.

My review of CMC media.

It could be used for data storage that you don't plan on ever retrieving. You mean like Pretty Woman or Gigli.... Exactly!

Mar 10, 12:20 PM (ET) By AOIFE WHITE BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission told Microsoft Corp. on Friday that it was "still not in compliance" with a 2004 antitrust ruling that ordered it to share information with rivals to make their software work with Microsoft servers. The EU has already threatened the company with 2 million euros ($2.4 million) in daily fines, backdated to Dec. 15, and said it will make its final decision after a hearing for Microsoft to plead its case later this month. "The Commission takes the preliminary view that this information continues to be incomplete and inaccurate," the regulators said in a statement, basing their view on two reports from independent experts who looked at the latest version Microsoft had submitted. Microsoft said the fact that the Commission looked at the evidence after it filed charges last December showed that the charges were "fundamentally flawed and should be withdrawn." "Microsoft has submitted, in its response to the Commission's statement of objections, a large volume of expert testimony that finds in the clearest terms that Microsoft's documentation reaches or exceeds every industry standard for the documentation of such technologies," it said. "That documentation, coupled with free technical support and source code access for licensees, meets and surpasses the requirements of the Commission's 2004 decision." The man appointed to monitor Microsoft's compliance with the ruling - computer science professor Neil Barrett - found that although the documentation had improved slightly, "nothing substantial was added." "The improvements required to the documentation are not merely refinements or improvements to the text: The documentation as it stands is unusable," the Commission said. Another report from information technology consultancy TAEUS Europe Ltd., described parts of the Microsoft documentation as "entirely inadequate,""devoted to obsolete functionality" and "self-contradictory." It said the document was written "primarily to maximize volume (page count), while minimizing useful information." Both experts said Microsoft seemed to assume that users should inform it of incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate information. TAEUS compared this to a car manufacturer responding to a customer complaint that a car had been delivered without wheels: "This would be like the manufacturer supplying wheels only to have the next deficiency come up - namely that the automobile has no engine, and then no steering wheel, then no brakes, etc." Last December, the EU charged that Microsoft had not obeyed the 2004 ruling and threatened daily fines. Microsoft will get an oral hearing on March 30 and 31 to plead its case. The EU will afterward decide if it will fine the company every day from Dec. 15 until the date of its decision to impose the fines. It warned it might take other steps to extend the daily fines. "What they have done is insufficient," said EU spokesman Jonathan Todd. "It's now two years since the decision." Earlier Friday, the EU defended Barrett from Microsoft's allegations that he, EU officials and Microsoft rivals had colluded ahead of Barrett writing a report last autumn that criticized Microsoft's earlier efforts to provide documentation. Microsoft wants to see correspondence between them to see if Barrett had been influenced in any way. Last week, it asked three U.S. courts to compel Sun Microsystems Inc. , IBM Corp., Oracle Corp. and Novell Inc. to hand over correspondence to use as evidence in its legal challenge to the EU charges. Microsoft said Friday the EU was still failing to address its main criticism that the regulator is acting both as prosecutor and an independent judge of how much access the company should have to documents connected to the case. The EU levied a record 497 million euro ($613 million) fine against Microsoft in March 2004. It also ordered the company to share code with rivals and offer a version of Windows without the Media Player software. Microsoft is appealing the ruling and the case will be heard in late April by the European Court of First Instance, the EU's second-highest court.

It could be used for data storage that you don't plan on ever retrieving.

I wish I knew. I guess if we do a Google search they could be found. Hell I still wear my Bush/Cheney shirt that says "Meet the Fuckers" on it.

Thanks Spinner.

...and all is right with the world.

And his second-in-command is Poppin' Fresh.

I must agree with Polo. CMC IS PURE UNADULTERATED CRAP!!! Why anyone, after reading about it either here, Digital Digest, Clinks or anyother place would buy it is mind-boggling.