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I got a new camera. It takes some interesting pictures.

I saw “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” last night. It was okay. I’d say it was worth the price of a matinee.

It took me a second to figure out what was, um, interesting about this picutre .

We will given him a fair trial and then execute him . Okay, that’s probably what’s going through a bunch of peoples mind, both those for and against the US. My personal feelings on the death penalty aside, ultimately he will be “found guilty” and executed. Despite the US assurances that he will have a fair trial, he won’t be found not guilty. This is as much because of the overwhelming evidence against him, but also because the US will push for his conviction on multiple counts.

Of course, I would love to see the hoopla caused in the governments if he was found not guilty .

I send in a lot of rebates. I mean a lot of rebates. I currently have about $400 in outstanding rebates waiting to come in because I don’t like to buy technology unless it has some sort of rebate attached to it.

On each rebate that I file, I automatically have to agree to the terms the company lays out, including “lost rebate” and “the company can change the rebate at any time” clauses. I accept these as par for getting my money back. But each time I do, I have to wonder about the integrity of the company and the ability for them to have a “intentional mistake”. Case in point, I recently submitted an $80 rebate for a cable modem I bought (driving the final cost of the modem to -$.05). After waiting about a month, I checked the status online and saw that the rebate had been rejected due to an “incomplete submission”. One thing I am careful about is submitting all of the information required, some of which is buried in the text of the rebate legalese instead of the standard “list of required items” most rebates provide. Tuesday, I called up the company and asked why the rebate had been rejected and they said that they needed the MAC from the modem. Checking the rebate form again, I told them that it doesn’t list that as a requirement for the rebate. Further, the receipt that I provided had the MAC on it. After a bit of chat between us, I agreed to submit the needed information on the soon to arrive form letter and hung up. Yesterday I got the letter, filled out the information, and mailed it off. I should see my rebate in 8-10 weeks (assuming it’s not lost again)

This got me thinking about the entire situation. It seems to me that a company that offers a rebate can benefit greatly from these types of mistakes, given on average, the amount of the rebate equals the percentage of people filing for the rebate ($5 = 5%; $40 = 40%, to a limit), it behooves a company to make these types of mistakes or to hire people inclined to make these mistakes in order to maximize their profits.

Then today I read an article on the New York Times griping the same thing and giving figures to back it up and I have to wonder, are corporations really evil . Ah well, I gotta go fill out another rebate ($5).