They are worth the wait - we were watching "Cry Wolf" and "Danger at Ocean Deep" this morning - yet another generation of children entranced by the Master, Mr Anderson. You should see the Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 masters - superb - but they are apparently going to be the last ones 'cos Carlton is in trouble.

I must say, in spite of the fact I know Jonathon Frakes is directing and producing, I am absolutely dreading the new Thunderbirds movie - they didn't even ask Gerry to provide any advice on scripting and characterisations. They have also signed up some absolute WALLIES for the cast members. Arrrghh!!

Really? I personally think your English is fine It's way better than my French or German but that's not hard!

- Trevor

I think the French are pretty horrible at pronouncing their language. You may have a sentence of 5 words with 6 letters each. They will leave out half of the syllables and then half of the words.

-Biscuits

They are worth the wait

Well, TechTV is showing them, and is how I discovered them... in fact it was discovering Thunderbirds (by accident) that caused me to finally attach the digital cable box to the TiVo, then play some games so the analog channels get tuned by the tuner, and the digital stations come through the cable box. (Same "head end" for 2 different inputs)

I also ordered Captain Scarlet, Stingray and Fireball XL5

Sadly Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6 seem to be on Region 2 DVD but not Region 1. If I had a PAL to NTSC converter or some software that would deal I'd buy PAL DVDs and convert them myself.

And no sign of Joe 90 yet either.

As early as 1998 neither Gerry nor Sylvia Anderson appeared to be in danger of providing advice for the movie (assuming this is the same project) so I don't really have hope.

If I had a PAL to NTSC converter or some software that would deal I'd buy PAL DVDs and convert them myself.

I have an Apex AD-600A simply for the purpose of watching Region2 Fururama DVDs and soon 'The Family Guy.' I highly recommend the player as it has the hacks built-in from the factory. Although, one of my friends also has an AD-600A with newer firmware that does not have the secret hacks menu.

I would like the fight more then I have. The problem is the time. I am a full time student and sitting on the phone or driving out to places doesn't leave much time to do much. I do of course have some "free time" but I hardly want to waste it trying to get my $800 back. I also fear that I may spend more money trying to get it back then it would be worth. When I get some time i'll post the whole story, its quite a trip.

-Greg

Considered getting one, but I really want a "real answer" and not a DVD player I have to drag around with me. Or I could use my laptop, but I don't want to do that either.

There's a whole page about Sampo DVD players and adapting the firmware to work with Apex DVD players along with patches for extra features. It's here. I've not personally got one so I can't really say much about it.

- Trevor

I talk, argued, screamed (in that order) to just about every UPS department and the insurance company they used with no results. I still have not received any money to this day.

I have a three-word suggestion: Small Claims Court

You don't need an attorney, the paperwork is easy to fill out, you file the claim and if they fail to come to court to defend against it, then you automatically receive a default judgment for the amount of the claim.

At that point, if they refuse to honor the judgment, you can take whatever collection actions you deem necessary -- take the judgment paper, go to one of their depots, and impound a delivery truck if you want. Or, hire an attorney to really go after them, and they will be liable for the collection costs as well as the judgment amount.

The downside is... you have to file the claim in the home state of their corporate offices, which might prove difficult from a logistics point of view. Or maybe you don't... it might be in whatever state the services (or lack of) were provided. It's worth looking into.

On the few occasions where I have filed small claims actions, I have found the personnel at the courthouse (where you get the forms and file the papers) to be very helpful and informative.

tanstaafl.

Yeah I did look into SCC but the problem is that I am in Miami, FL and the insurance company they use is in the carolina's I think, I dont have the information offhand. The only real time I have that I could make that adventure is during spring break and I have other plans for that

-Greg

I don't even have a good feel for how well the British are at speaking English.

On average, no weller than Americans.

There was a study several years ago of British students studying foreign languages at university (a friend of mine reading German at Aston actually participated). Almost all had a much better grip on the grammar and syntax of their adopted language than they did on those of English.

And the reason for this is simple: pupils learning foreign languages at school are taught grammar; nobody ever teaches the grammar of English.

True story #1: in a French lesson at age 14, just beginning the two-year course for the new-for-our-year GCSE examination, our French teacher was telling us of her horror at the dumbing-down that had occurred since the previous year's O-level syllabus. "You don't even have to be able to use the past tense correctly any more," she said, "I mean, how many of you can use the past tense already, two years before the exam?" Several hands went up, but she must have also got some blank looks, because she said, "OK, how many of you understand the concept of past tense and present tense -- whether in English or in French?" Not every hand went up -- and this in the top French set out of five. And I only knew about it from other French lessons -- no English teacher had ever mentioned it.

True Story #2: in the sixth form, we had "General Studies lessons", where for six lessons each we'd get a smattering of economics from an economics teacher, an overview of biology from a biology teacher, and so on. When we got an English teacher we basically ganged up on him and forced him to teach us grammar. In thirteen years of education, those six lessons were the only formal instruction in English grammar any of us had.

Peter

nobody ever teaches the grammar of English

Well, there I got lucky. My English teacher (when I was about 11 years old) taught us proper English grammar. I've also learnt French, Latin and Ancient Greek (and a little German and Spanish), which also gives one quite a good handle on grammar.

I don't necessarily use it correctly, but I do (mostly) know how.

I never got taught any grammar until around GCSE time. Then I had a new English teacher who'd just started teaching and felt that we should know some English grammar at least. A lot of people I know would be hard pressed to say what a noun, verb, adverb etc... is and they've all got university degrees so it's not for lack of trying.

I've been told that if you learn Latin then you get a good feel for English grammar.

- Trevor

However, what I meant was, are Dutch speakers, on the whole, as poor at using Dutch as Americans are at using English? And so on for the French and French, Spaniards and Spanish, etc...

Well, I can't speak for all those languages, but I can speak for Dutch. And the the answer is a big YES.

In the days when I was still in school grammar and spelling was actually taught. Now it isn't anymore. And this shows. A lot.
I'm not claiming to be the best writer in the world, but when I see the stupid mistakes that are often made I can't help but think : "are you doing this on purpuse or are you really that dumb?"
Nah, the school system hasn't improved much in the last years. In my days at school making certain mistakes (which I won't elaborate on now, otherwise I'll have to teach you the basics of Dutch and this will end up to be a VERY long post ) was considered to be a deadly sin. Now the same mistakes are considered more or less "normal".

I still can't stand to watch them though. I guess I got that hammered in hard when I was a kid.
And so it should be. The native language is part of who you are. If this gets neglegted, it feel to me as if the whole heritage gets negleted. And that's truely a shame.

Can you not "abuse your position" and make an "official visit" with a couple of colleagues, flash badges and so forth? I realise the stupidity of this type of abuse of power, but if it was done with subtlety, it might work....

Well, I have three problems when it comes to that.
The first one is integrity. I can honestly say that I've never abused my power to get personal gain, and I'd like to keep it that way. Call it a concience thing if you will.
The second reason is that it's out of my jurisdiction. Here in Belgium, the police has no jurisdiction in civil matters (which this clearly is)

However, this DOESN'T mean that I don't know what to do when push comes to shovel. If UPS wants a fight, I'll let them have one. I know my rights and I know which legal institutions I can use and how to use them.

The third reason is that I don't have a clue where to go to to complain in person. UPS is one of those firms that doen't have a real address, and the people you need are never where you expect to find them. E.g. when I phoned to complain about what happened yesterday, somehow I ended up in Holland in their Dutch department. Patching me though to the correct department was not possible of course.

Come to think of it : I have flashed my badge once when I wasn't on duty (which doesn't make much difference because according to the law I'm 24/24 "on duty").
See, I had parked my car on a parking spot near the dorm where my girlfriend lives. I stayed there for the night. When I got back the next morning the number plate of my car was gone. There was a note behind the windshield wipers. It was from the janitor (sp?) The note stated that the space I occupied was a private space and that I had no business being there. It said I could pick my number plate up at his office and that I had to pay a 100 euro fine.

So I went there. And I let him speak. He had that look in his eyes like : "I've got this sucker now and I'm going to give him a piece of my mind"
The conversation went something like this :

Him : "Aren't you ashamed to occupy somebody else's parking space ?"
Me : "I'm sorry, I had no idea this even WAS somebody elses space. How was I supposed to know, there's no indication of this anywhere. But aren't you ashamed to steal somebodys licence plate?"
Him : "I have the right to do so"
Me : "Says who ?"
Him : "The police. I've contacted them and I know who you are, this is your identity" (he showed me a small piece of paper which indeed stated my identity)
Me : "Oh, I see we have a problem here. What do you suppose to do now ?"
Him : "Simple. You pay 100 euro's, you get your licence plate back and you move your car"
Me : "That might be a problem"
Him : "Howso ?" (It was clearly showing that he was feeling pretty good about himself at this point)
Me : "Because you've made the mistake of unscrewing the wrong person's licence plate!"

At that time I flashed my badge. His face turned as white as paper, and this didn't improve when I told him that he had exactly 10 minutes to screw my licence plate back on, or otherwise I'd arrest him for stealing and damaging personal property, embezzeling (sp?) an official document (which a number plate is) and deliberately trying to rip off people (can't remember the official term in English).
I also demanded to know WHO the police officer was that gave him my personal data through my number plate, because this was clearly a breach of that person's professional secrecy. (I don't know if this is the correct term, but you know what I mean).
I fully intend to contact the police force's internal affairs and inform them about this collegues' loose morals when it comes to his profession secrecy. In my book that's one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make when you're an officer of the law.

Anyhow, ten minutes later I drove on, WITH my number plate.

Every time I see this guy now, he's extremely polite. Up to a point where he would probably even wash my car if I asked him to.

It still feels pretty good when I think about it.

Really? I personally think your English is fine It's way better than my French or German but that's not hard!

Why thank you kind Sir! Coming from a native Englishman, that's truely a compliment!

I agree. As I said, I try not to correct niggling errors when it comes from s non-native English speaker, but you had me fooled. You even have those things right that I don't have any concrete definition for (like when to use ``did run'' instead of ``ran'', etc.).

That being said, I don't know if it's a typo or not, but it's ``push comes to shove'', not ``shovel''.

``[D]eliberately trying to rip off people'' is fraud, BTW. I can't think of a good word for ``professional secrecy'', but I feel like there must be one. ``Confidentiality'', maybe?

I got 12 years of grammar in school. I had it coming out of my ears. They pounded it in so well, I can still recite every preposition from memory, diagram a compound-complex sentence, and tell the difference between a predicate nominative and a direct object. I couldn't believe it when I got to the University and they were still teaching grammar. Needless to say, I placed out of those classes. I'm pretty sure this isn't representative of most Americans though. I was fortunate enough to attend private schools.

Out of curiousity, if they don't teach grammar, what do they teach in your English classes? Literature? Spelling?

And I've got no idea what half your post actually means...

I'm fine with grammar and can usually construct a sentence which is spelt correctly and has correct grammar. It's just that I've never really been taught it. I've just had to pick it up as I go along from what little I was taught and books I've read.
It's weird, I just sort of know if a word is spelt correctly or not. I actually quite good at knowing the spelling of words but I have to write or type it first though. If you just ask me to say it then I'll have trouble remembering. *shrug*

- Trevor

I don't even have a good feel for how well the British are at speaking English.

On average, no weller than Americans.

Oops.

In my defense, I edited that sentence to change its structure, and just forgot to change that word from ``well'' to ``good''. Oh, good.

I mean ``well''!

In thirteen years of education, those six lessons were the only formal instruction in English grammar any of us had.

I had several years of school where grammar was taught, but it ended by the time I was in 6th grade (10 - 12 years old). I don't think that kids that age really have the ability to relate formal rules like that to natural language, to abstract anything that natural and ingrained. They should teach basic grammar at a young age, so that you have some basis for what later seem like arbitrary rules (like ``well'' vs. ``good''), but then teach it again, more in-depth, once you get older.

I think this may be the basis for no longer teaching much grammar at all, in that kids simply don't or can't comprehend it, so it seems like it's just not working. I know that I didn't start to understand grammar at all well until I took German in my last two years of high school, and I still don't know it that well.

I work at FedEx. Carefully handling packages isn't a priority. The only packages that I'll even think twice about not throwing 20 feet or dropping on the ground are the ones that say glass only because it makes a mess. Fragile doesn't even register since at least 50% of the boxes say fragile. You'd be surprised at how durable a Dell computer can be.

It's weird, I just sort of know if a word is spelt correctly or not. I actually quite at knowing the spelling of words but I have to write or type it first though. If you just ask me to say it then I'll have trouble remembering.

I have the same symptom. My mother always thought it was odd that when asked to spell things out loud that I didn't spell in syllables, but I'm basically reading what I've written down on the virtual piece of paper in my head, so syllables are irrelevant.

I've always figured it was some sort of idiot savant type of thing.

At the same time, there is a small subset of words that I can never remember how to spell correctly, no matter how hard I try. Most of them have to do with sets of double consonants and which ones are doubled. ``Necessary'' vs. ``neccesary'' is probably the biggest one.

...but you had me fooled. You even have those things right that I don't have any concrete definition for (like when to use ``did run'' instead of ``ran'', etc.).

*wooooosh* (sound of my heart swelling with pride)

That being said, I don't know if it's a typo or not, but it's ``push comes to shove'', not ``shovel''.

a lot less proud now. I knew that! Stupid typos!

``[D]eliberately trying to rip off people'' is fraud, BTW
Oh yeah...fraud...that was the word I was looking for... usually when I can't remember a word I look it up in the dictionary; but I'm not at home for the moment, so sorry about that...

Out of curiousity, if they don't teach grammar, what do they teach in your English classes? Literature? Spelling?

Mostly literature... but grammar is also thought. Did I say somewhere it wasn't? If I did then I'm sorry. I meant to say that when small children are taught Dutch there isn't that much emphasis on grammar anymore, but this isn't the case when it comes to English (at least I hope it isn't; it's been ten years since I had my last English lesson)

Hey, don't feel bad. Typos have nothing to do with understanding. They just have to do with uncoordinated fingers. But I could believe that in a colloquialism like that that got mistyped in a translation book somewhere and then got propagated. I figured it was a typo, but, again, it was kind of a funny one. (I get images in my mind about what these things look like.)

Thanks for the tip! Next time I want to use a shipping company I'll make sure that there's a sticker on the package saying : "careful, glass contents" on it!

I have the same symptom. My mother always thought it was odd that when asked to spell things out loud that I didn't spell in syllables, but I'm basically reading what I've written down on the virtual piece of paper in my head, so syllables are irrelevant.

Same here, too. When I find I've got a word wrong, assuming it's not just due to the font size in the BBS edit box being too small or to an editing error like "well" above, I usually find that I've always got that word wrong, that I've been faithfully remembering an incorrect spelling.

I've always figured it was some sort of idiot savant type of thing.

What's interesting is that this ability -- to look at an entire word and see whether it's correct or not -- is often described as exactly the ability that dyslexics lack. It sounds as if dyslexia is a less-than-average facility at an innate skill which it's also possible to have a greater-than-average facility at.

Peter (resisting the temptation to reword that sentence with "at which...")

It's weird, I just sort of know if a word is spelt correctly or not

I have this too. Do you also recognise this : somebody else has written a text and asks you to read it. And even if there is only one spelling mistake in that entire text your eyes are magically "drawn" to it. It's like I don't even have to read the text to see the fault.

Funny thing, but I've been able to do this for as long as I can remember.

Absolutely! And I can't not think about it, too.