Midspot

Netflix has launched a new feature called Watch Now
that will enable subscribers, at no additional cost, to watch movies
immediately on Netflix.com. The new service does not limit the number
of movies a customer can watch, instead it gives users 1 hour of video
for every $1 they spend monthly (18 hours of online video is free with
the $17.99 plan). Customers can watch 5 minutes of a movie, decide that
they don’t like it, and switch to another without penalty (many online
movie rental options require watching a movie within a certain time
period, such as 24 hours or 14 days, or the movie will have to be
re-rented at additional cost).

Interesting…

Technorati Tags: netflix, downloads, video, news, breaking

Monson plans this week to apply to become the nation’s first licensed
industrial hemp farmer. He will have to provide two sets of
fingerprints and proof that he’s not a criminal.

The farmer,
school superintendent and state legislator would like to start by
growing 10 acres of the crop, and he spent part of his weekend staking
out the field he wants to use.

“I’m starting to see that we maybe have a chance,” Monson said. “For a while, it was getting really depressing.”

Always nice to see North Dakotans make national news…

Full Link

Technorati Tags: life, news, hemp, farmer, ND

Violent Acres has another amusing post, this time on marriage:

When I got married, I had a lot of grand ideas in my head of what
married life should be like. I thought that our marriage would be 100%
fair, completely diplomatic, and that all household duties would be
split 50/50. I thought my husband would be constantly self motivated,
perpetually thoughtful, and always on my same wavelength. There would
be beauty and harmony in my home.  Never in a million years would I
become that shrewish fishwife shrieking from the doorway because my
husband had spent the night carousing with the boys in avoidance of his
husbandly duties.

Amazing true in many ways…

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Technorati Tags: marriage, violent acres, funny, amusing

After 8 months of development we are ready to release Drupal 5.0 to the world. Today is also Drupal’s 6th birthday, so the timing could not be more perfect. Drupal 4.0 was released in 2002 and finally we feel confident to increase the major version number from 4 to 5.

more…

Technorati Tags: drupal, 5, release, cms

This was so well written, I almost had tears in my eyes after reading the encounter…

Technorati Tags: plane, emergency, landing

Bush declared he is sending another 20,000 troops to Iraq.

Not surprised that he didn’t show this photo…

Technorati Tags: troops, Iraq, war, Bush

At CES this week, Microsoft announced the forthcoming Windows Home Server and Apple quickly upped the ante with a great new mobile device tagged the iPhone.

Guess who won the limelight?

Apple of course. Their stock is up 8% as of writing and RIM is down 8%. I watched the keynote. I want one of these things and I can’t even use it. (no Cingular in this neck of the woods)

Oh and Microsoft, no one cares. By now everyone has already created a file server for their house, if they need one. And guess what, it’s more than likely Linux based cause it’s free, stable, and you don’t have to pay separately for every option.

Technorati Tags: Apple, news, CES, Windows, Home Server, iPhone

This guy has a pretty neat idea. If my server room was not on the opposite side of the basement as the pool room closet, I might have tried it.

Technorati Tags: pool, computer, cooling

The Free File program is a free federal tax preparation and electronic
filing program for eligible taxpayers developed through a partnership
between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Free File Alliance
LLC, a group of private sector tax software companies.  Since Free
File’s debut in 2003, more than 15.4 million returns have been prepared
and e-filed through the program.  Free File allows taxpayers with an
Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $52,000 or less in 2006 to e-file their
federal tax returns for free.  That means 70 percent of all taxpayers –
95 million taxpayers – can take advantage of the program.

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Technorati Tags: taxes, IRS, file, free, 2007

About to become law is an agreement allowing illegal aliens to get
Social Security benefits after only 18 months of employment in the U.S., further burdening a system on the brink of collapse.

Surveys have shown that more Americans believe in the existence of unidentified flying objects than in the promise that they’ll ever get back what they’ve put into the Social Security system. It also is against current law for employers knowingly to hire individuals who are in this country illegally.

So it must be somewhat disconcerting for them to find out that about to become law is an agreement signed on June 29, 2004, between the U.S. Commissioner of Social Security and the director general of the Mexican Social Security Institute that allows illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits if they have as little as 18 months of employment history. U.S. citizens must show 10 years, or 40 quarters of job history, to collect benefits.

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Technorati Tags: government. illegal, aliens, Social Security