HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bkottmann@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil (Brett Kottmann)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re: New Mortgage Scam
Date: 14 Sep 92 15:18:22 EST
Organization: Logicon Technical Services, Inc.

In article <1992Sep11.185218.16917@chpc.org>, rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) writes:
> My mortgage holder (Huntington Mortgage) just wrote to inform me that 
> I qualify to save $48K in interest over the lifetime of the loan.  All
> I have to do is pay them 1/2 mtg payment per month (and sign an 
> agreement allowing them to collect this directly from my checking account).
> They will keep this money in a separate account, and apply it to the 
> mortgage at the regular due dates (though with a slightly larger amount
> since there will be 13 instead of 12 payments per year).
> 
> The catch?  I only have to pay a "one time processing fee" of $495.00
> for them to set this up, and a $1.00 fee on each bi weekly payment
> processed!

	Scam?  Yes.  I'm prepaying $200/month (equal to two extra payments a
year) on my current mortgage, and the company sends a for that asks for extra
principle.

	The company?  Huntington.

> The "questions and answers" in the accompaning literature answered the
> question "Is there any other way to reduce the interest?" with mention that
> payment of additional interest as per contract terms is permitted, but that
> this is the only systematic way of arranging for Huntington to collect
> bi weekly payments on a regular basis.

	It should be free.  It sounds like what they are trying to do is a)
take money from your account whenever they feel like it and the b) putting it
towards your mortgage at some later date, allowing them to earn interest (and
you to forfeit interest) for N days and c) charge you $500 for the privilege!

	Send them a check every month, that way you can vary the pre-payment if
you want.

> I guess I don't understand why they gave me a mortgage in the first place
> if they think I'm stupid enough to pay them $495 for this non-service.
> (I'll just keep sending in extra principal with each month's payment and
> do it myself).

	Maybe I'll get one of those soon.  I'll send it back asking for $10,000
"account access fee".
:)

Brett--------------------------------------------------------------------------
	"Why the courts don't tell a husband who has been living off his wife
to go out and get a job is beyond my comprehension."--Joan Lunden
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
From: mgreen@cs.toronto.edu (Marc Green)
Subject: BUYING CHEAP BY 800
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 7 Sep 92 14:24:49 GMT

For both practical and purient reasons, I want to put together a list
800 number discount places where you can by things cheaps.  I have in
mind places like Noteworthy, the North Carolina furnitures stores etc.
but for other items such as well household goods, electronics, pet
supplies, you name it.

I'd appreciate names and numbers plus estimates of the discount and
delivery times and any personal comments that you might feel relevant.

Marc Green
Trent University


Newsgroups: misc.consumers
From: mccrate@netcom.com (Joe McCrate)
Subject: Re: Which cordless phone to buy
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 92 19:53:51 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

msingh@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (The Supreme Commander) writes:
>I have a Sony SPP120 cordless. The sound is fantastic on it. My only
>complaints are:

>1) Some times the phone will start to scan for the best channel, lock
>on it, but the indicator lights still keep going.
>2)...
>3) Twice (in a 2 year period mind you...) the phone refused to power on.

>It has been my experience that the phone is better than an AT&T 5550
>(I believe) and that Sony products occasionally exhibit some
>electronics problems which go away.

I have an AT&T 5510 cordless, and it's great -- no problems.   I also have
a Sony A600 answering machine and corded phone.  It has inferior sound
compared to the AT&T cordless.  Also the Sony has various infirmities.
E.g., you sometimes have to jiggle the wire to the handset to make it work.
An expensive piece of junk, I would say.

Joe McCrate
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
From: jjoslin@kingcong.UWaterloo.ca (Jeff Joslin)
Subject: Re: ATM interface design
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 01:40:50 GMT

simnet@ssc-vax.boeing.com (Mark R Poulson) writes:

>There are human factors experts in everywhere. Whether ATM designers
>use them I don't know.  Half the problems are physical and not computer
>software related. Yes, most usenet readers are probably familiar with
>following computer menus whereas my mother is not. I haven't seen many
                                  ^^^^^^^^^
Ha!  The other day my officemate and I were talking about our mothers using
the remote control for the TV.  Both of them sometimes make the following
mistake:  She enters the two-digit channel number, say "12".  But the first
digit doesn't register, so the TV sees "2".  Then she re-enters the numbers,
except that the TV takes the first digit, the "1", and puts it with the
previous "2", to get "21".  Then the second "2" is left over, and Mom
re-enters "12" again, again creating "21" with a "2" left over.  This goes 
on for maybe five minutes or an hour, until her loving son screams 
in frustration, grabs the remote, and does it right.  

Having an "Enter" key would eliminate this problem, but would be
annoying to us who can perform our own error-correction.  It's the age-old
conflict between making an interface easy to use for the non-expert and
making it fast to use for the expert.

-- 
Jeff Joslin                            University of Waterloo grad student
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re: "Things of Science"
From: <BIGCU@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Friday, 4 Sep 1992 16:55:17 EDT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center

In article <1992Sep2.034254.8415@bbxrbk> russ@bbxrbk (Russ Kepler) writes:
>some science exploration kits from an outfit called "Things of
>Science"...
>...Anyone out there know of a source for this sort of thing?...

I remember those... they were really a good value too, if I remember correctly.
Anyhow, I think they were put out by Science Service in Washington, DC - the
same people who public Science News (which, IMHO is a great weekly science
publication and ALSO a good value at $39.50 a year).

Science Service has a book division and they may still sell those kits or
something similar.  I haven't seen the ad for a while but it's worth a try:
800-544-4565; Science News Books, 1719 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.

(I have nothing to do with them other than a being a satisfied customer.)
-------
Bill Gruber   BITNET: BIGCU@CUNYVM  Internet: BIGCU at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
City University of New York Computer Center

Newsgroups: misc.consumers
From: hberg@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Steven D Hilberg)
Subject: Re: Rechargeable batteries??
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 13:12:02 GMT

In article <BuL69n.MIt@acsu.buffalo.edu> C058SJLX@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
>
>    Do they really work?.  Please post/mail a review on these
>    chargers/batteries (AA, AAA, C, etc) that claim to save a
>    lot of money and to be friendly to the environment.
>     What I want to know is, How long retain their charge as
>    compared to alkaline batteries?  Do they have "memory", like
>   the batteries for camcorders (i.e. as they get older they need
>   to be recharged more often)?.
>       I have seen some of them in the '93 Radio Shack catalog, not
>   very cheap.  GE also has some, cheaper.
>       Thanks for any help!
>           Eleazar Puente


Yes, they really work.  I've had really good luck with the GE 
rechargables.  I have four C batteries I use in a radio.  The radio
ran for 8 hours a day for three to four days (I was working on a 
project outside) before the batteries needed to be recharged. The
batteries are about 3 years old, and there appears to be no memory
problem.  We're also using some Panasonic rechargables, and they seem
OK...we haven't been using them long wnough to be able to say much
more.
 
 However, I have had some poor experiences with Radio Shack batteries.
 Aside from the fact they are more expensive than most other batteries,
 I have two out of six batteries totally fail after only a few uses.

 We don't even buy regular batteries for anything that gets a lot of 
 use like radios, battery operated toys, and the like.

-- 
Steve Hilberg       __     "Some people are weatherwise but 
               *   /--      most are otherwise."  BF
              * * x
               * 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.discrimination,alt.censorship
From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Waldenbooks fires staff for refusing to sell racist book!
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 14:22:13 GMT

jsdph@acad3.alaska.edu (Dennis P. Harris) writes:

[...]
>i also got dumped on about defending employees who refuse to sell trash.
[...]

I perfer bookstores that let me decide what is and isn't trash.
"Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or
doctrinal disapproval."

[...]
>no, i don't believe in censorship.  but when someone publishes something
>obnoxious, i think that it *should* generate some discussion.
>  and i would urge
>the publisher to publish something else instead.
[...]

So material that you consider obnoxious should be suppressed? You may
not believe in censorship-proper, but you believe in something almost
as bad.

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)

=================
library/bill-of-rights.ala
=================
The Library Bill of Rights from the American Library Association.

=================
library/int-freedom.ala
=================
"Intellectual Freedom Statement"

An interpretation by the American Library Association of the "Library
Bill of Rights"

=================
=================

These document(s) are available by anonymous ftp (the preferred
method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp
to ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):

  pub/academic/library/bill-of-rights.ala
  pub/academic/library/int-freedom.ala

To get the file(s) by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):

send acad-freedom/library bill-of-rights.ala
send acad-freedom/library int-freedom.ala
--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.discrimination
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Subject: Re: Waldenbooks fires staff for refusing to sell racist book!
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 19:02:21 GMT


In article <18ia69INNh9c@bach.crhc.uiuc.edu> guillory@crhc.uiuc.edu (Stanford Guillory) writes:
>jsp@uts.amdahl.com (James Preston) writes:
>
>>jsdph@acad3.alaska.edu (Dennis P. Harris) writes:
>
>>}I have already informed WB that I intend to boycott them until they stop
>>}selling the book and reinstate the fired employees . . .
>
>>to get your posting privileges revoked.  Neither do you nor the employees
>>of that bookstore have the right to censor book publishers.  Freedom of the
>
>What is wrong with everyone? The guy has decided he wants to
>boycott Waldenbooks. This is America isn't it? He can boycott
>anyone or thing he wants no matter how stupid it is, can't he?

You're absolutely right, he most certainly has the right to do that.

We, on the other hand, also have the right to tell him how stupid it is!
;-)

Seriously, I don't recall seeing any posts which FORBADE him from his
proposed boycott, merely tons and tons of dissenting opinions.


Xref: sparky misc.consumers:16507 alt.censorship:7470 alt.discrimination:4369
From: greeny@top.cis.syr.edu (J. S. Greenfield)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.censorship,alt.discrimination
Subject: Re: Waldenbooks fires staff for refusing to sell racist book!
Date: 13 Sep 92 05:31:27 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Syracuse University, CIS Dept.

In article <1992Sep11.204848.10576@tss.com> burke@tss.com (Jim Burke) writes:
>|> 
>|> I oppose this boycott not because I think boycotts are inherently
>|> immoral, but because I oppose its goals, namely, the suppression of
>|> material that some people find offensive.
>
>
>It seems to me that there are two types of boycott, and this is reflected
>in the definitions given in my own dictionary.  One definition is given
>as "To join together in refusing to deal with, so as to punish, coerce, etc."
>This would seem to be the definition Mr. Kadie is applying to his 
>understanding of Mr. So's article.  However, another definition of boycott
>is "To refuse to buy, sell, or use [to _boycott_ a newspaper].  The second
>definition is less agressive and it is one that I use all the time.  I
>don't agree with the editorial policies of the San Jose Mercury News - I
>feel they slant the news with their own editorial bias, so I personally
>boycott the SJMN.  I am not trying to suppress their rights, I simply don't
>agree with their journalistic policies.  I have not organized a public
>boycott in order to shut them down, however.  I also boycott lots of products
>I consider shoddy.  

I dunno.  It happens that my dictionary lists only the first breed of boycott,
but then again its a pocket dictionary.

In any case, in common use, the first meaning of "boycott" is by far most
likely to be the intent when someone uses the word.  When the word carries
such baggage with it, I think it's fairly safe to assume that they mean
"boycott" in the sense of the first definition, unless they explicitly
suggest otherwise (or at least the context suggests otherwise).

In this case, the context clearly suggests a "boycott" of the first type.


-- 
J. S. Greenfield                                         greeny@top.cis.syr.edu
(I like to put 'greeny' here, 
but my d*mn system wants a 
*real* name!)                        "What's the difference between an orange?"
From: bernard@sirius.gte.com (Bernard Silver)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re: New Mortgage Scam
Date: 15 Sep 92 13:12:09 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories Incorporated
In-reply-to: neilw@informix.com's message of 14 Sep 92 21:58:45 GMT

In article <1992Sep14.215845.9761@informix.com> neilw@informix.com (Neil Williams) writes:
   [Huntingdon Mortgage Biweekly details omitted.]

   Well, actually I recall reading in a home-buyer's guidebook that
   bi-monthly payments are an easy way to reduce interest paid.  By
   paying in the middle of the month rather than the end, you save
   interest on that portion that you pay early.

   If you're still early in your loan, the $500 fee may be offset
   by the savings you make.  Work out the math yourself, but I wouldn't
   dismiss the offer out of hand.

   In addition to going to a bi-monthly schedule, you can keep
   pre-paying principle, and you should save both ways.


Well, no.  What Huntingdon does is a) take the money from your bank account
every two weeks, b) credit it to your mortgage *once a month* (+ one extra
payment at the end of the year).  So there is no savings to you this
way.  You get the same effect by paying one extra payment at the year end,
and you get to keep the bank interest until then, and you don't pay
the $1 transaction fee!

I recently refinanced with Huntingdon.  My old mortgage was with
Source One (nee Fireman's Fund).  They had a similar offer, but it
cost less ($395) and didn't have the $26 a year charge.  Also, it was
much more up front about why they were offering it ("It's to your
advantage as you pay off earlier.  It's to our advantage as we get
free use of your money for part of each month").  In contrast,
Huntingdon was much less open and thus seems more sleezy.

Hell, I'm so mad I think I'll go and pay my mortgage off today!
Damn.  I left the $148000 at home.

--
				Bernard Silver
				GTE Laboratories
				bsilver@gte.com
				(617) 466-2663
Xref: sparky misc.consumers:16286 rec.video:11013 sci.electronics:15348
From: lsg001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Graham Wilson)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,rec.video,sci.electronics
Subject: Intelligent HQ ( was Re: Best Tape Brands)
Date: 8 Sep 92 11:43:06 GMT
Organization: abUSENET, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

In article <HX7PqB8w165w@flex.com> dcha@flex.com (Doug Cha) writes:
>Amiga@cup.portal.com (Philip Barry Kirschner) writes:
>
>> OK,This lead's to the nequestion. Which brands of tapes are better?.
>>  
>>  
>> I would say any tape that does not leave oxide droppings. However each
>> tape is different as they use different manufacture processes!
>> Phil 
>
> 
** Out of interest Akai produced a video recorder fitted with their own 
   Intelligent HQ or IHQ system. The recorder would analysise the tape for
   10 seconds before starting to record. The system would automatically 
   compensate for the different levels of oxide on each tape. Similarly, 
   upon playback the system would conduct a 10 second test to allow 
   maximum playback. The system is fully compatible with VHS.

   Even tapes recorded using IHQ and then played back on a conventional 
   video recorder look very impressive. In particular the picture quality
   is very sharp, detail is clearer and the colour is superb.

   I think this shows the variation in manufacture of each video tape.



   
-- 
          ****************************************************
          *      Graham Wilson      *  lsg001@uk.ac.cov.cck  *
          *     LL.B.  Law  III     *  Coventry  University  *
          ****************************************************
From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re: Carburetors, gasoline and why I don't recycle
Date: 5 Sep 92 16:08:51 GMT
Organization: I.E.C.C.

>	7.  Landfilling is, at present, much less costly to me and most  
>other people.

>	A recent article in the Wall Street Journal told us that the  
>USA is awash in landfill space.  So much so, in fact, that the cost of  
>landfilling is actually going down across the country.

True enough, although there is the nagging problem of externalities.
Landfills have an embarassing tendency to leak polutants into the ground
for years after they're closed, tainting groundwater and causing other
expensive problems.  Despite the Superfund theory, the costs of cleaning
up these messes is rarely borne by the people who originally put the stuff
in the dump, and if you factor it in the cost of landfilling is somewhat
higher than it seems.

Your point about economic factors is dead on, though.  I am currently at
my beach house in a small resort town on a sand bar near Atlantic City.
This town and all the ones nearby have effective and convenient mandatory
recycling.  (You put the commingled recyclables in one can, the trash in
the other, and the town picks them both up.)  The year-round residents who
run the town are hardly a bunch of liberals.  Where did they get their
recycling religion?  Money.  The soil in this part of New Jersey consists
entirely of sand, which makes it extremely difficult and expensive to to
build a landfill that doesn't leak.  When the town saw its tipping fees
heading up past $100/ton, recycling looked darned attractive.

People have also become somewhat more aware of source reduction.  Five
years ago when I started bringing my own bags to the store, people looked
at me like I was from Mars.  These days, the baggers are entirely used to
it.  One store even rebates a nominal 2 cents/bag if you bring your own.
This gets rid of a surprisingly large fraction of my trash at next to no
effort on my part.  I also note that laundry detergents have been
repackaged in much smaller boxes -- it turns out that for thirty years the
contents of detergent boxes have been 2/3 filler so the volume would be
the same as it was for laundry soap!  There may be hope yet.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,misc.books.technical,alt.discrimination
From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Waldenbooks fires staff for refusing to sell racist book!
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 01:09:20 GMT

mwbg9715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mark Wayne Blunier) writes:

[...]
>But as you can see from the response, many of us do not feel
>that selling racist material is enough of a problen (concern?) for us to
>boycott the chain.
[...]

I might boycott a store that sold only racist material or that never
carried any antiracist material, but I won't boycott one that sells
all kinds of material and leaves the decision on what I will read to
me.

- Carl

--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
From: jslee@nrtc.nrtc.northrop.com (John Lee <jslee>)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Absurd Recycling Efforts
Date: 6 Sep 92 02:21:58 GMT
Reply-To: jslee@nrtc.nrtc.northrop.com (John Lee <jslee>)
Distribution: usa

I just opened a box of size 10 (legal size) envelopes. They are blank, with
no safety printing on the inside. But then I found the goofy triangular
recycle symbol printed in the lower left rear corner. 

It may seem on the surface that the envelope mfr is a green-conscious
company, until you think a little more and wonder how much more
printing that goofy symbol added to the cost of the product, and how
much in ink and printing chemicals was used.

Sometimes, as in this case, it is just not worth it to recycle, or to
tell everyone about it.  That's why I will recycle when I can, but I
don't make it an obsession.

I think the recycle triangle on SHRINK WRAP on a CD package is
obsessive.

JSLee
From: yuanj@ucbeh.san.uc.edu
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re: Not Sony (was Re: Best 27 - 30" Big Screen T.V.)
Date: 10 Sep 92 01:05:53 EST
Distribution: usa,world
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati

In article <BuArGH.B11@well.sf.ca.us>, casey@well.sf.ca.us (Kathleen Creighton) writes:
> 
> A common cause of color "pooling" in the corners is close proximity to
> stereo speaker magnets.  The fact that it's doing it on all four sides
> makes me wonder if he's got stereo speakers on either side that aren't
> properly shielded.

 But he did not have the TV near any speakers.  I think the deguassing portion
of the circuit is at fault and that is a quality control problem.  The set
worked well at the beginning.  The unit has not been moved since purchased. 
And it went into trouble.

People from Taiwan and Hong Kong regard Sony quality lower than Toshiba and
Matsushita (Panasonic, etc.), Hitachi and so on.  I am not from these places 
though.
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,misc.books.technical,alt.discrimination
From: ghica@fig.citib.com (Renato [Titanium Cranium] Ghica)
Subject: Re: Waldenbooks fires staff for refusing to sell racist book!
Originator: ghica@duck
Organization: Citibank IBISM
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 15:31:06 GMT



No wonder we're in a recession: We're boycotting our own stores and
paying bookstores clerks to not sell what's popular!

-rtcg
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"These views are my own. / Mail me or Flame me"

>@)
Xref: sparky misc.consumers:16526 alt.discrimination:4380 alt.censorship:7486