dear netflix: people really hate the price hike & threaten to cancel

but #NavigatingNetflix will always be free...

from reuters: Subscribers have been up in arms since Netflix announced a changed pricing structure on Tuesday that will raise the price for a combined DVD and streaming subscription from $10 to $16 a month. The company is also offering DVD-only and streaming-only subscriptions for $8 a month each, but most people don’t seem to like the prospect of having to choose: The Netflix blog has seen more than 4,200 comments, most of which are negative, with a number of customers threatening to cancel.

Countless consumers have also turned to the company’s Facebook page, with negative feedback far outweighing any other kind of response. And on Twitter, the discussion around the plan changes has made “DVDs” an unlikely trending topics in a number of cities... [see also "dear netflix"]

What does all of this uproar mean for Netflix? Of course, it’s unlikely that any price increase would be met with a thumbs-up by many consumers. However, the intensity of the backlash seems to suggest that Netflix really does have a problem.

Netflix has long enjoyed a lot of good will from its customers, simply due to the breadth of its DVD offering. Consumers tolerated the lack of selection in the company’s streaming catalog because it was seen as a value-add to their existing DVD subscription. Recent hiccups, such as Sony removing titles from the streaming catalog, also didn’t lead to many complaints.

However, with streaming and DVDs effectively being separated from each other and users being forced to pay twice as much, many customers are seemingly losing their patience with Netflix. The company may have to go back and do a better job at explaining these changes — or even unveil some great new streaming catalog additions before the September 1 deadline that will force people to pay more, choose between streaming and DVDs or cancel altogether.

restored 'trip to the moon' debuts on cannes opening night

from hollywood reporter: Before CGI and 3D, there was French film pioneer Georges Melies, the forerunner of modern-day movie magic. His newly restored 1902 short A Trip to the Moon will precede Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris to open up this year’s Cannes Film Festival. A must for any film student or special effects lover, the 14-minute space fantasy was adapted by Melies from the work of Jules Verne, and shot in a studio he built in the Paris suburb of Montreuil. Filled with dazzling set pieces and uncanny visual trickery, the most iconic being an image of a rocket ship poking into the moon’s eye, the movie went on to achieve instant success both in France and the U.S.

The massive restoration, budgeted at E400,000 and jointly financed by Serge Bromberg’s Lobster Films (Henri-George Clouzot’s Inferno), the Groupama Gan Foundation and the Technicolor Foundation, began in 1993 when a rare, hand-tinted print was uncovered in Barcelona. In 1999, Lobster began digitizing the footage frame by frame, and over ten years and 13,000 frames later, the film can now be seen in a full-blown color version for the first time since its debut more than a century ago. Although silent film purists may gasp at the restorers’ choice to add a catchy soundtrack by French electro duo Air (Lost in Translation), Moon should continue its voyage after Cannes to play plenty of fests and film museums before it lands on DVD.

assange: internet greatest spying machine

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange warned Cambridge students, who waited hours to hear him speak, internet is "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," in article at guardian.co.uk. Assange continued, "It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for." Has Assange been directed to convince Anglo-American elite the internet represents a threat? The present writer views Assange as an agent for the global elite and enjoys a relationship with Israel as related in a previous post here.

Assange also responded to an inquiry about Bradley Manning, "we have no idea whether he is one of our sources. All our technology is geared up to make sure we have no idea...there is no allegation that he was arrested as the result of anything to do with us. The allegation is that he was arrested as a result of him speaking to Wired magazine in the United States."

Is Assange's message shutdown the internet to stop "totalitarian spying regime"? Is there a war on technology? It seems, both, the web and nuclear power are under attack. The global elite do not fancy technology as it represents a challenge to their control and domination!

related defcon updates:
nasa to use lasers to shoot space junk around earth*
nytimes again seeks to charge for web news*
'homefront': new video game features nkorean invasion of US*

1/6 defcon: bad calls & fake claims

warrantless cell phone search gets green light in california*
voip decision means skype now illegal*
first solar eclipse of the year jan4*
quadrantid meteor shower due jan4 night*
reporter behind wmd claims calls assange 'bad journalist'*
fake white house holiday email is cyber attack*

growing up digital, wired for distraction

from nytimes: On the eve of a pivotal academic year in Vishal Singh’s life, he faces a stark choice on his bedroom desk: book or computer? By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” his summer reading assignment. But he has managed 43 pages in two months.

He typically favors Facebook, YouTube and making digital videos. That is the case this August afternoon. Bypassing Vonnegut, he clicks over to YouTube, meaning that tomorrow he will enter his senior year of high school hoping to see an improvement in his grades, but without having completed his only summer homework.

On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification.” Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

wikileaks will soon post biggest military leak ever

from the register: Wikileaks is just weeks away from posting a huge cache of classified documents related to the US war in Iraq in what one journalist says will be history's biggest military leak. Iain Overton, editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, told Newsweek his non-profit organization is working with Wikileaks and several TV and print media outlets in advance of the release. It's not unlike the time Wikileaks published secret records concerning the war in Afghanistan, when it gave advanced copies to The New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian on the condition they publish reports on an agreed-upon date. The airing, Overton told Newsweek, will be the “biggest leak of military intelligence” ever.

corporate news sacrifices wikileaks to get 'shield law'

from techdirt: A few weeks ago, we noted, with some disappointment, that the politicians who had been pushing for a much needed federal shield law for journalism, Senators Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, were taking the politically expedient route of adding a specific amendment designed to keep Wikileaks out of the bill's protections. Apparently, a bunch of newspaper folks have stepped forward to support this move. Douglas Lee, at The First Amendment Center has an opinion piece calling those people out for sacrificing their overall principles just to get the shield law approved... It is the nature of politics today to compromise principles to get things through, but this move certainly seems unfortunate - and one that I imagine many news organizations will regret down the road.

disney, warner bros. spied on children's web surfing habits

users profiles 'bought & sold on stock-market-like exchanges'
from raw story: A class-action lawsuit filed in a federal court last week alleges that Disney and other large corporations spied on visitors to their Web sites using "Flash cookies" installed on users' browsers.

The lawsuit, filed in a US District Court in California on behalf of a group of parents and their children, alleges that Clearpsring, a company contracted by Disney, Warner Bros. Records, Playlist.com and other Web site operators, used its AddThis Web page tool to install "Flash cookies" in computer browsers which would then track individual computer users.

According to a report at CNET, the lawsuit states these cookies can't be erased using the usual methods of erasing browser history because they are built on Flash technology. Additionally, SecPoint.com reports that these Flash cookies can even un-delete, or "re-spawn," regular cookies that were erased by the user.

Once installed, these small pieces of software tracked users "across numerous Web sites, even spotting and tracking users when they accessed the Web from different computers, at home and at work," the lawsuit alleges.

google-verizon deal: the end of the net as we know it

verizoogle unveils private net neutrality deal
from josh silver: For years, Internet advocates have warned of the doomsday scenario that will play out on Monday: Google and Verizon will announce a deal that the New York Times reports "could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."

The deal marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as you know it. Since its beginnings, the Net was a level playing field that allowed all content to move at the same speed, whether it's ABC News or your uncle's video blog. That's all about to change, and the result couldn't be more bleak for the future of the Internet, for television, radio and independent voices.

How did this happen? We have a Federal Communications Commission that has been denied authority by the courts to police the activities of Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast; All because of a bad decision by the Bush-era FCC. We have a pro-industry FCC Chairman who is terrified of making a decision, conducting back room dealmaking, and willing to sit on his hands rather than reassert his agency's authority. We have a president who promised to "take a back seat to no one on Net Neutrality" yet remains silent. We have a congress that is nearly completely captured by industry. Yes, more than half of the US congress will do pretty much whatever the phone and cable companies ask them to. Add the clout of Google, and you have near-complete control of Capitol Hill.

A non-neutral Internet means that companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google can turn the Net into cable TV and pick winners and losers online. A problem just for Internet geeks? You wish. All video, radio, phone and other services will soon be delivered through an Internet connection. Ending Net Neutrality would end the revolutionary potential that any website can act as a television or radio network. It would spell the end of our opportunity to wrest access and distribution of media content away from the handful of massive media corporations that currently control the television and radio dial.

So the Google-Verizon deal can be summed up as this: "FCC, you have no authority over us and you're not going to do anything about it. Congress, we own you, and we'll get whatever legislation we want. And American people, you can't stop us."

This Google-Verizon deal, this industry-captured FCC, and the way this is playing out is akin to the largest banks and the largest hedge funds writing the regulatory policy on derivative trading without any oversight or input from the public, and having it rubber stamped by the SEC. It's like BP and Halliburton ironing out the rules for offshore oil drilling with no public input, and having MMS sign off.

Fortunately, while they are outnumbered, there are several powerful Net Neutrality champions on Capitol Hill, like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, Jay Rockefeller, Ed Markey, Jay Inslee and many others. But they will not be able to turn this tide unless they have massive, visible support from every American who uses the Internet - whether it's for news, email, shopping, Facebook, Twitter - whatever. So stop what you're doing and tell them you're not letting the Internet go the way of Big Oil and Big Banks. The future of the Internet, and your access to information depends on it.

defcon 4/29: global strike, space planes & electronic warfare

missing soviet nuclear electrocar found on the moon!*
lockmart supports nsa's 2010 cyber defense exercise*
ex-nsa official pleads not guilty to helping reporter*
air force launched secretive x-37b space plane:
'we don’t know when it’s coming back'*
US military launches top-secret robotic spacecraft*
launch of secret US space ship masks even more secret launch of new weapon*
chavez accuses US plane of 'electronic warfare'*
pentagon's mach20 glider htv-2 disappears, whacking 'global strike' plans*
police seize gizmodo's computers in lost iphone probe*
students struggle to go without media for 24hrs*

decrypted video from wikileaks shows collateral murder

wikileaks releases video of civilians killed by US in baghdad
from sunshine press: Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths ocurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com

leaked video of collateral murder - long version

wikileaks under surveillance over forthcoming military murder video

dutch translation: US authorities deal with wikileaks
from nu.nl: Employees of whistleblower site Wikileaks claim to be monitored and maintained by employees of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Icelandic authorities. The occasion would be a video, which an air of Americans to see.

On April 5 to Wikileaks at a meeting of the National Press Club in Washington a video showing an attack by the U.S. Air Force. It would involve a murder carried out by the Pentagon. The staff of the site also draw on information from CIA aircraft have as supporting evidence.

Wikileaks claims on Twitter regarding the upcoming screening to be at work. Employees would be monitored by the U.S. and Icelandic authorities. These are photos and videos taken of the employees, an employee is 22 hours would be arrested and tried to get the video.

Employees express on Twitter concern: "If anything happens to us, it is the video of April 5.

The Web site Wikileaks is very controversial, because the documents of governments and companies with scandals reveals. Last year the site was ordered by a U.S. court concluded ten days, because the Swiss bank Julius Baer about his money laundering in the Cayman Islands did not read back online.

That Iceland is involved in the story has to do with the fact that the site is trying to go to escape. Currently there working on a number of legislative amendments, which should provide legal protection for journalists and whistleblowers. This Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, the country attractive to the establishment of data centers to lure.

Wikileaks currently faces major financial problems and trying to secure the continued existence by asking donations.

internet overtakes print in US news consumption

from arstechnica: The Internet has surpassed newspapers as a primary way for Americans to get news, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That makes the Internet the third most popular news platform overall, with many connected users taking advantage of nontraditional consumption methods such as social media postings, personalized news feeds, and getting their news on-the-go. National and local TV stations still dominate the news cycle for most Americans, but the Internet now stands third in the list, ahead of national and local newspapers. Additionally, the majority of news consumers say they use two to five websites per day to get their fix - a number we think sounds about right - but a surprisingly high number (21%) rely on that one favorite site to get everything they need.

download: 'understanding the participatory news consumer' [2.7mb PDF]

I gotta show more...

I had to show Hypebeast's pics of their Coraline Dunks. I always like their pictures, they're clear & detail oriented.
Jump for more

21-7 Weekly Poll:

This week we asked you ma' fuckas which Hip Hop rappers movie did you think was the best.

38% went to Notorious
61% went to 8 Mile

8 Mile was most definitely one of the best rap movies. Eminem killed it in this film. His acting skills were watchable & the story itself is a great one.
Sadly no one voted for Tupac: Resurrection.

Here's Eminem's best part in the film...Rabbit's freestyle battle at the end
& hey peep the new poll!

Transformers 2 - Revenge of The Fallen [HD Movie Trailer]

I watch the first one every time it shows on tv, so you already know ! I am a huge fan and already counting down the days to part II.



Check out other movies coming to theatres near you in our Trailer Time section!

Friday the 13th

I'm really excited for this Friday the 13th. Scary movies rated R are the only good ones. And it's Friday the 13th, so I doubt it will fail. It looks scary to me.

Check out other movies coming to theatres near you in our Trailer Time section!

In theaters next Friday the 13th!

Gary Coleman Gets Prank'D Via Spy Cam!

I think he was more happy people still want him on a show !

Nina Sky Blender shoot

I fucking love these bitches yo.
Check it out, they look hot...as always

Jump for their vlog on their Vibe Vixen shoot

Grrrrrrrrr

1 of the Missbehave girls got those Coraline dunks sent to her...and here's what she wrote:
"Wow! Look at these crazzee crazzers shoes I got from Nike for the new Coraline movie. What do you think? The shoes have tails! I don’t know much about the Coraline Movie because I’m not…ummmmm….8"

I'm pissed, they should of sent them here! And she took this whack pic of them for their readers. Just this pic. SMFH. In the words of Emily from DWP

"You don't deserve them! I mean you eat carbs, for Chrissake!"