Who are these people who credit the controversial religion Scientology for changing their lives for the better? One of them is tv's Jerry Seinfeld who told the typically worthless Parade magazine that the church helped him communicate early in his career so that he could control his audiences. I last really studied, oh, it’s almost 30 years ago. But what I did do, I really liked, in terms of it’s very...it was interesting. Believe......

Ok maybe it's not the worst DVR ever made Oh yes it's the worst. And it's not just me, customers hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. I'm writing this post to let Time Warner LA know that this cannot stand for long before customers such as myself switch back to satellite providers. I'm talking very soon, like as soon as I can get a day off from work to have......

I try to avoid rants here, but some of the cavalier responses to the recent taser stories have made me feel like I need to go above and beyond a simple comment. Accusations were made that the agonized screams of people being tasered were just the person being "dramatic". One commentor actually said, "Torture?" LOL! LOL? Are you kidding me? Try getting tasered LOL! Of the three recent incidents, there is not a single......

Steve Jobs is a very smart and powerful businessman. So did he purposely bite his tongue last week when he announced a $200 iPhone price cut -- just two months after launching the product? Was it a plot to steer additional hype toward the iPhone so the new iPods wouldn't steal all the thunder? Did he plan all along to offer store credit to those who shelled out $600 for an iPhone? Was Master......

Last night Spoon played alongside Kool Keith at the Henry Fonda Theatre. Need I say more? Oh and it was for a great cause! Both artists rocked out to raise money for the non-profit organization Creative Commons. This was the third time they've held a CC Benefit. Prior CC Benefits featured David Byrne, Gilberto Gil, Girl Talk, Diplo, and Peeping Tom. I had no idea who was opening this special event until I arrived......

Last Friday, a hundred or so technology and internet locals filled up the offices of ThisNext.com in Santa Monica for a little lunch and lots of conversation and networking. It's called Lunch 2.0, a phenomenon that began serendipitously in Google's lunchroom. In short, this is how the free meal with geeks got started: Guy gets fired from Google, makes big headlines, invited to Google's lunchroom to eat with a friend, fired guy brings a......

In order to appease the overwhelming influx of dissatisfied early adopter iPhone customers, Steve Jobs has issued an open letter addressing the $200 qualm. Although the logistics seem to be in the works, Jobs has decided to offer $100 of store credit to those who bought the iPhone through either AT&T or Apple without a rebate or any other consideration whatsoever: Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from......

As if I don't feel badly enough for shelling out nearly $600 for my iPhone. Today Apple unveils a bevy of product updates. The iPhone's touch screen, internet browsing glory was jacked for the brand new "iPod touch", a Wi-Fi ready iPod with a 8GB or 16GB capacity. This is essentially the iPhone without the phone capabilities and much more thinner. Great. So, what you're telling me is that I'm not going to be one......

I was one hour into a four-hour flight out of LAX that had been delayed multiple times. Just as the beverage cart was making its way down the aisle, the girl in front of me put her chair all the way back so that the tray was nearly in my lap. I figured a nap sounded like a good idea, so after I finished my drink, I decided to lean my own chair back......

Had Las Vegas been imagined by a bunch of nerds instead of alcoholics and real estate speculators, it'd probably look a lot like Comic-Con. Far more than the name suggests, Comic-Con is not simply a comic book convention anymore. Over the course of two decades, it's become a four-day PG-13 style orgy of audiovisual overstimulation combined with an obscene amount of stuff - comics, movies, games, costumes, posters, gadgets, paintings, and tens of thousands......

The folks at Omni Hotels realize that many of you are still hungering for an Apple iPhone, and they have two cool ways to feed you this week. First, each hotel location will be giving away a brand spanking new iPhone, and there is no purchase necessary. All you have to do to be entered in the sweepstakes is to get yourself down to our local Omni Hotel, which is located Downtown in California Plaza,......

I love food. I love talking about food. I can spend hours discussing the merits of different mustards, or trying to figure out the mystery flavor in a pasta sauce. But I think food should be accessible. It should not be intimidating. I avoid saying things like ”flavor profile”. I am more likely to say things like, “This gravy is so good I want to fill a jacuzzi with it and jump in naked.”......

Attention all gamers: Guess what, there’s a new video game expo in town. No, I’m not talking about the enormously underwhelming downsized version of E3, but an aptly titled “E for All” convention. Amidst the drug-infused connotations of the show's title, E for All will be a more consumer-based spectacle geared directly towards nerdy and sexy gamers alike. From the E for All website: “Entertainment for All™ Expo (E for All) is the event......

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Josh in Los Angeles. He asks: There's no problem downloading .avi files, converting to .mov, and playing on the Apple TV, is there? Or showing .mov files generated by iMovie? Also, does it run with 10.3.9? The answer to your questions are pretty simple, fortunately. Anything you can......

• Apple makes a deal with Music giant EMI to offer music at the iTunes Store with no DRM. If you don't know what DRM means, don't worry. It may not be around much longer. • Like Apple, Microsoft is apparently going to be making a deal with EMI for no DRM music too. Microsoft copying Apple? I'm shocked. • The saga continues for VOIP provider Vonage. First, they lose to Verizon. Then, they......

• Its official, June 11th is iPhone day. Start saving now. • Is Google too powerful? Business Week speculates that it might be. • The Treo 755p in the wild. If you still care at all. • SonyBMG music retires the requirement for new artists to submit a demo tape -- at least in Europe. Now, artists can upload demos to the company's website instead. They will probably still be rejected but at least......

• The legal dispute between media giant Viacom and Google owned YouTube just gets more unpleasant. • Is Viacom engaging in a bit of hypocrisy when it comes to enforcing copyright on its programming? Maybe so. Take a look. • Did Viacom overstep its bounds a little when issuing those takedown notices for videos over at YouTube? Some people think so and are suing. • In other more pleasant Google news, one of its......

• Social giant MySpace is prepping a new news service that may require users to verify their ages before entering. • Worried about the upcoming change to Daylight Savings Time? Find out what it means to you in the handy FAQ. • Sony launches its "Home" and "Little Blue Planet" services for PS3 users. And the world reacts with a thunderous yawn.......

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask the MACist, the column where I answer your Mac and Mac-related questions with hopefully more clarity and insight than you could ever need. As always, I want to thank those of you who sent in questions this week. They are much appreciated. Please, keep it up! This weeks question comes from Susan in Encino. She asks: "At the moment I'm on Verizon but I think I really......

- Mike Tyson spotted at the Arclight? - Defamer - That's a sweet iPod-ish desk, but it doesn't look very ergo-friendly - Gizmodo - Tina Fey on Aaron Sorkin at the WGA's: "I hear Aaron Sorkin is in Los Angeles wearing the same dress - but longer, and not funny." - Jossip - No Cal has the biggest drain hole in the world - Fogonazos - We approve of Britney's new friends - Superficial......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the......

Today is Groundhog Day, and in keeping with the arbitrary tradition of letting overgrown rodents dictate our seasons, George Bush and his Energy Policy Act of 2005 have decided to give us a large order of Spring, with four extra sides of Daylight Savings. Yes, for real. The bill amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 by changing the start and end dates of daylight saving time starting in 2007. Clocks will be set......

You’ve seen it all day. We’ve seen it all day. We refreshed and refreshed as we waited for a new banner ad to appear in Yahoo’s top right ad space. No luck. So now, as we count down to an appropriate moment for Happy Hour drinking to begin, we must ask the obvious: What the hell is David Beckham doing on a white horse? Riding in to save the future seasons of LA’s own......

Welcome to the LAist weekly tech news roundup. Each week I'll be bringing you the latest, and hopefully most interesting, technology news from around the city, the state, the country and maybe even the world. Also, if you have any news, tips or things of interest you want to point out, feel free to drop me a line at: themacist [at] gmail dot com. Now, let's get to the news: More that 25 million......

Welcome to the LAist weekly tech news roundup. Each week I'll be bringing you the latest, and hopefully most interesting, technology news from around the city, the state, the country and maybe even the world. Also, if you have any news, tips or things of interest you want to point out, feel free to drop me a line at: themacist [at] gmail dot com. Now, let's get to the news: The iPhone has got......

- Too costly, Cingular sucks, Battery life concerns - Infinite Loop - Top 10 things to Hate about the Apple iPhone - APC - The Five Biggest Issues with iPhone - Infectious Greed - Cisco Sues Apple over the name iPhone, Cisco's had it for Six Years, Yo - Cisco - Carriers lukewarm on iPhone - The Australian - History of false rumored photos of the iPhone - Gizmodo - How Apple Kept the......

Dear LAist, One of my friends is dating a football player. The season is over and after he gets back from Hawaii he will probably spend a lot of time at our condo. The big problem is he's a BIG guy. Like, huge. There's no way he can be comfortable using our toilet. Is there a seat or a toilet accessory that we can get for him so he might invite some more of......

Last Tuesday, Toshiba announced it has developed a miniscule 1.8-inch, 100 GB hard drive, leading tech watchers like those at CNET to speculate that Apple will soon announce a 100 GB iPod. That's either the last tech boner of 2006 or the first one of 2007. Toshiba will formally launch the MK1011GAH miniature hard drive next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (Jan. 8-11), which happens at the same time as......

- California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has surgery on his broken femur that got busted during a ski trip in Idaho. No word if he had any other work done while under the knife - ABC News - Angels give $6.5 mil to Shea Hillenbrand to play first base. Shea was the fella who wrote "the ship is sinking" on the Blue Jay blackboard before he was traded - ESPN - LA's richies give more......

Cingular customers have been experiencing a system-wide problem today in the Los Angeles area. The current glitch comes two days after announcing a shiny, new mobile/web deal with MySpace. Maybe the Verizon/YouTubers have taken to knocking down towers? I speculate. Below, please find the dramatic re-enactment of my customer service phone exchange. The grumbly lady that answered my call was less thrilled about answering my questions: Is there currently a problem with service in......