I don’t remember seeing any previews or ever hearing about Shoot ‘Em Up at the theaters. If it was ever on the big screen, I missed it… thankfully with the magic of Comcast OnDemand, I was able to see this movie today.

If you enjoy the fast moving, action packed, ultra unrealistic stunts, then you’ll love this. For me, it ranks up there with Crank, Snatch, The Transporter, and maybe even Equilibrium. You can bet that I’ll be adding this one to my collection. There are so many things that make this hilarious, I couldn’t even begin to describe them all, lets just say that all most all of them involve bullets.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4), and was very happy to see it available on Comcast OnDemand. For the fourth installment in the series, it rocked! I didn’t think Bruce had it left in him.

The only thing I didn’t like about the movie was the street jumper that they had playing the bad guy. I found him bouncing around all over the place to be a tad bit annoying, though I enjoyed his death! :p Could we have another Die Hard down the road? After watching this one, I think they could make it work. Though it does bring one question to mind, how many more bad days can John McClane have?

I was thinking about this during the movie. While I’ve never seen 24, I think it’d be cool to have a cross over Die Hard - 24 season. Have Jack and John trying to save the day. It could happen, Fox owns both.

Fantasy moment aside, I really liked Live Free or Die Hard. I think it is the best since the original.

There’s been a lot on TV as of late, and several things I’ve found myself watching. It’s not all good, but for some reason I continue to watch it. Why not, after all once I find a show that I really like (Black Donnellys, Jericho, The War at Home) it ends up on the chopping block.

So, here is what I’ve been watching so far, and my initial thoughts of the show:

Continue reading »

The wife and I just finished watching Hot Fuzz thanks to Comcast OnDemand. This was a very entertaining movie, and I wish I had made it to the theater to see it. I about died when he jumped through the air and kicked the old lady. My side still hurts from laughing so hard.

If you haven’t seen the show Dexter, you need to. It’s fraking great! I first found out about it after seeing this thread on Neowin.net. I’ve been hooked since the first episode, and finished watching the first season on Comcast OnDemand. Oddly enough, there were three episodes that Comcast was missing. Not to worry, I found a way to watch them.

Now, I’m waiting for Season 2 to pick up on Showtime next month. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it!

Over the weekend the wife and I rented ordered a number of movies on Comcast OnDemand. I’ve really taken a liking to the service, it’s far less hassle than dealing with Blockbuster and their late fees. Speaking of Blockbuster, did you know if you return a movie late, and don’t rent another movie for a few months, you’ll get a letter from a collections agency? True story.

So, what movies did we watch?

Epic Movie - I expected the movie to suck, and it lived up to my expectations. I did enjoy some of the spoofs it was making toward Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, and Chronicles of Narnia.

The Fountain - I’d tell you what I thought of this one, except we stopped watching it after about 40 minutes. Does Comcast give a refund for movies that suck?

R.S.V.P. - This was on the free list (FEAR.net, I think), and was one of the better movies we watched all weekend. It’s very Hitchcockian, so if you like that kind of movie this is probably one for you… and if you need another reason, it’s got Jason Mewes in it. It’s got a couple other names in it too, but I’ll let you find them for yourself.

Turistas - This is basically a rip off of Hostel, but with a better cast and less blood. Better? Meh… it’s about the same.

There was some other movie that we watched early Sunday morning, but I had a Tequila hangover, and ended up falling asleep during the movie. I forget what the heck the name of it was, but it involved a group of friends, a graveyard, a cap near the graveyard (never a good idea), and people dying (duh!). It looked like it could have been a semi-ok movie.

A bit of piece of mind on my end, I just called 911 via my Comcast Digital Voice service and after a funky ring I was connected with a Knox County 911 Operator. I don’t think I’ve had to call 911 in the past 10 years, but it is nice to know that it works, especially after a story like this.

Here is a story that you need to read if you have Comcast Digital Voice (VoIP) service. I’m posting this because I have CCDV, and I hope that maybe by some chance the “internet revolution” can help change Comcast so that no one else ever experiences this issue.

According to this blog entry, the guy’s son had a seizure and he tried to call 911 (via Comcast) twice and ended up with some odd noise rather than an emergency dispatcher. The guy ended up getting in touch with medical help by calling 911 on his cell. The problem of course, is that 911 via his home phone (with Comcast).

Thankfully the guy had a cell phone. Playing the what-if game, we could really change things… what-if he didn’t have a cell phone, or what-if the cell phone was dead… granted, if you have Comcast Digital Voice (or any VoIP service), you’ll probably own a cell phone… again, this is just a what if. What if the guy had been alone, hurt and couldn’t get to his cell? Better yet, what if it hadn’t been a medical situation… what if someone was breaking into the house.

Yes, things need to change. To be honest, I haven’t even tested the 911 service with Comcast. You better believe that this evening when I get home, I am going to test it out. — Important note here, if you plan on testing 911 with Comcast (or any other service), DO NOT JUST CALL AND HANG UP WHEN THE OPERATOR PICKS UP. You need to tell the operator that you were testing to make sure the service worked, if you hang up they will spend time and money trying to call you back and possibly dispatch police and medical to your residence.

Back to the original story…. after his son (along with his wife) had been taken via ambulance to the hospital, the guy (still at home with the other son) tried to call Comcast support and get some answers. Can’t blame him there, I would have. He was bounced around from person to person and center to center.

Now, I don’t know exactly what happened, or what was said, but I can guess some of the things I would have said. Truthfully, there probably wasn’t a thing that any minimum wage call center tech could have done for the guy, even the call center supervisors were probably helpless… add that to a rabid customer, and they probably were willing to do even less than they could.

I agree with the guy on the point that this is something that should go all the way up. If the 911 service does not work, it needs to. It has to work. It doesn’t matter what the cost is to Comcast, this service needs to be in place. They’re squeezing enough out of the millions of TV subscribers that they should be more than able to pay for any necessary changes that need to be made to make 911 work.

I encourage everyone to Digg the original blog entry (not mine) to help spread the word about this.

Well, so far Comcast isn’t off to a great start. I had an install scheduled yesterday between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to set up my Digital Cable, High Speed Internet, and Digital Voice (VoIP). So, silly me, I get there before 1:00 PM and wait… and wait… and wait.

Around 3:00 PM I get a call from someone at Comcast that tells me that the installer is on his way. Could have been good news, but she follows up by telling me that the installer had used his last Digital Box, and we’d have to schedule someone else to bring one back to me…. or I could go pick one up at the main office. No biggie I though. If he was out by 4:00 PM, I’d be able to get my other errands done and still swing by the Comcast office.

So the guy arrives, looks at a few jacks, and mumbles something about the wiring. Apparently the new house (20 year old hose that is) has what he called “old 45 wiring” which isn’t going to work to well. He tells me that they need to schedule someone to come back out and run all new wiring. Thankfully, they will be able to get someone out there this Saturday… again, between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. There goes that day.

Thankfully, I was able to talk the guy into at least turning on the TV. With a little reluctance, he does so, but not before saying “I don’t know how well the reception will be”. So, after he leaves, I hook up TiVo and the TV. Crystal clear. Don’t know what the guy was smoking, but it works, and works just fine. I’d bet that the internet would have worked as well had the guy at least tried to turn it on.

Oh well… at least I was able to watch Heroes last night, and schedule TiVo to records the episodes of Battlestar Galactica and The Dresden Files that I missed.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several months, you’ve probably heard the term “Net Neutrality“. It’s a big issue, and as a web user it directly impacts you. It doesn’t matter if you use the net to play games, VoIP, IM, or just surf… there are things brewing in congress that could change the web as we know it.

You see, the suits at Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and others want to control what sites work best. How could this impact you? A new site, savetheinternet.com has all you need to know right here.

Everyone needs to join in if we are going to save the internet. Write your congressman / senators and tell them to save the internet, and to vote against a multi-tiered net.