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How this got modded interesting is beyond me. Linux desktops are far from a joke, they blow away anything Microsoft has offered. Working in windows makes me realize just how much windows isn't very good at, well, windows. There is so much missing from the OS that being productive is nearly impossible. Examples? Heres just a couple: Can I tab windows from different applications together? Can I have a file browser that can actually give me tabs/splitviews/decent filters/ and integrate with a command line so I can record my movements and use/review them later? Can I have a clipboard (or better still a dynamic one)? How about keeping all my work during a reboot - or better still, not requiring a reboot every week. Can I set up a desktop for an activity just the way I want it, and have that load with just one button and then close it with another? Can i have more then one desktop and possibly, just possibly Expose like effects? Can I push a thin client work station out to my workforce and not really care that some are on Arm, i386, x686 or whatever?

Windows on the desktop is a sad joke. Seriously, drag and drop a picture from a webpage onto your desktop. Nothing happens in windows. IN WINDOWS! A decent linux DE will just ask what you want to call it. Oh and dont get me started about the stupid windows file extensions. Oh and why is it right clicking a title bar not a way to set the windows properties? Whys is that buried under colors/advanced in win 7? And what is it about win 7 modal dialogs that seem to want to own everything, but the desktop lets you clear the whole screen in one click? WTF?

Look, you may complain that there are some things, like sound, that has been tricky on some systems. But if I was in a work environment I would gladly trade sound for some rational sense of functionality. (Although I dont think I have ever had a sound issue in the last 5 years on linux, and in fact was just this evening recording though a microphone on one linux box and passing it to another remote box using ssh and dev\audio. Try that with windows).

However, you probably are right. Instead of realizing that the most important thing to any business is actually doing that business, and that software should be seen as a common commodity and therefore development shared, people will keep believing the vendor offerings of shiny crap. And instead of implementing time and money saving ideas like this guy: http://davelargo.blogspot.com/search?q=ipad , the asshats that support windows in corporations will continue to believe that it cant be done, and cant be that simple. How could 2 guys support hundreds of peoples desktops (with opengl, effects, video/sound etc) with one server and no licenses. Oh heaven for fend. Nope, they will continue to buy the completely brain dead, virus hatching, nonsensical windowing, license chasing, reboot fest that is windows.

This guy has a nice review for the new iPad. http://creativefisher.blogspot.com/2012/03/ipad-3-kahaani-and-corruption.html

As far as I can tell, TFA thinks that Google should only spend money on things that have a guaranteed short-term return.

Fuck that guy. Google is insanely profitable.
It probably gives him ulcers that Google's cash reserves are only second to Apple's.

http://googinvestor.blogspot.com/p/google-financial-performance.html
"The capital to assets ratio increased to a very strong 80.12%. Google is incredibly liquid with a current ratio of 72.70%."
"Google has over $44.63 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities!"

Those numbers are insane and that is after they spent $12.5 billion to buy Motorola Mobility.
Brin and Page are lucky that they can spend billions on R&D without having to answer to anyone.

I wouldn't call Moebius representative of french SF comics but maybe it's easier to see the common elements from a distance. There could be a strong sense of visual esthetic in french comics. Or spanish. Italian. Belgian.

Here's Silvio Cadelo in Italy ? http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L8xXmJGGy_U/TZALHN0GziI/AAAAAAAAiw8/JdKZ1qydi-k/s1600/015_Silvio-Cadelo_The-Jealous-God.jpg . Looks similar if you don't look too closely.

Einstein believed in God as a concept, more along the lines of Taoism or pantheism (although he denied being either of these)

Perhaps because he really wasn't either of these? Yeah, that's right reading comprehension is not a skill of yours. People applying those religious labels to him are people trying to claim him as their own. He stated very clearly what he felt on the subject and needs no religious apologist to reinterpret it for us.

This is basically what agnosticism is

No this is what self-proclaimed "agnostics" should read to promote their understand of the English language:

http://jhayeshappyheretic.blogspot.com/2001/06/there-is-no-such-thing-as-agnostic.html

You guys all remember that we read this back in 2010, right?

I mean, s/Fark/Gawker/ and all that, the only notable difference is that the Fark guy said only 1% of the comments were worth anything, while the Gawker guy says 1 in 5. Which would be a huge improvement if it had any basis in reality.

all Gawker media sites (I'd entertain a counterargument defending Jezebel)

Jezebel is definitely included in that category, it's just that it's aimed at trolling feminists specifically. For example (and I found that blog post through Google in a couple of minutes)

This guy is playing through all of the computer RPGs ever released in chronological order and gives them a critical, but fair review from a modern perspective in addition to interesting observations while he's playing them. He's currently at the end of 1988. It's definitely worth reading if you're interested in the history of CRPGs.

Why I Hate All Computer Programming Languages

Yep, all programming languages are crap.

Pony schools are far more intense than ours, especially in the maths and sciences.

No kidding. If you want a really disturbing screencap to illustrate the point, consider that they're already up to special relativity.

like this Windows XP Professional SP3 Integrated January (2012) (32 - Bit) + SATA Drivers

While you quote from the blog (even from an older entry), you seemed to didn't really read his other blog entry about Android. And BTW, their opinion is important because their apps are successful and of high quality.

The most frustrating part about developing for android is actually just dealing with the deluge of support e-mail, most of which is related to download and installation problems which have nothing to do with the app itself, and everything to do with the android OS and market having innate technical problems. Do some googling for "can't download apps from android market" or similar wording, and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue for all devices and all OS versions. There are numerous possible causes, and there's nothing I can really do about it as a developer, since its essentially just a problem with the market itself. Based on the amount of e-mails I get every day, download problems effect 1-2% of all buyers, or in more practical terms, somewhere between two and three shit-loads. I have an FAQ posted which offers solutions for the most common problems, but lots of people can't be troubled to read it before sending off an e-mail demanding a refund.

Porting work: "The technical side of supporting android isn't so bad, but it is a bit of a nuisance. 95% of the heavy lifting is handled by Unity, the game development engine we use to develop our apps. Actually porting the game only took about a day."

Quality:" On Android it's a stunning 4.8, with 1000 ratings. So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often, with a huge percentage of android users taking the time to rate the app. I think the lack of competition makes quality apps really stand out, and generates a lot of enthusiasm from app-starved android users. "

Sales: "Battleheart on Android is currently very high in the android charts (top 50 apps) [...] Edit: It's come to my attention that Battleheart became a featured tablet app on the android market while I was writing this post, and saw a sales bump the following day as a result. "

It's not Android that's unsustainable, it's their business model on Android that appears to be unsustainable.

That's not what they thought at all: http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2011/06/android.html

I've also been fairly surprised by the revenue potential of the platform. While it's still a much smaller market than iOS, there's money to be made through paid apps. I don't know how it became so widely believed that free, ad-supported apps are the only way to make money on Android... I think you can thank Rovio's decision to go that route with Angry Birds. I feel like I've disproven that myth pretty thoroughly. Daily revenue from Battleheart on Android is fairly close, within 80%, of it's iOS counterpart at the moment. This statement needs a couple qualifications though... 1) Battleheart on Android is currently very high in the android charts (top 50 apps), whereas Battleheart for iOS is not even in the top 200 games anymore, and yet still outselling it. It's clear the overall size of the iOS app market is still significantly larger.

One last quote from the blog... "Edit: Just to be clear (since I'm getting more traffic than expected), my experience with Android has been overwhelmingly positive, and I have every intention of continuing to support the platform. " Hmmm.

Yes, that quote is from 9 months ago when he started:

http://mikamobile.blogspot.com/2011/06/android.html

Since then, he's learned more about what it takes to support an Android app.

It's not very hard to be "as good as Google" if you're copying their search results...

Everyone knows Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it, yet they even screw this copying process up?

And yet the candidate pool doesn't even appear to be that deep.

Bear in mind where you're talking about relocating to. I've written about this before. The big wind farms like these are going up on the Great Plains which have been in a depopulating spiral for decades. Groceries may be 25 miles from where you live. The nearest health care may be 50 miles away, and the nearest specialist in a particular field you need 100 miles. The school systems and other public services are collapsing. Or alternatively, you live where there are still services and drive 50-60 miles each way to work.

For the large majority of the unemployed, who haven't grown up there, it looks like tossing most of your life away for $20/hour.

Everybody knows that everything causes cancer in California.

Thank California's Prop 65 for this nonsense.

I've seen a lot of warning labels on electronic products with California-specific cancer warnings. Stuff like "The state of California has determined that this product may be a cancer risk". One of them was... I kid you not... a keyboard.

Certain areas of Texas, however, have likewise not been without controversy regarding the accuracy of their tests.

http://www.stockchase.com/ has a nice message on the front page.
http://boingboing.net/2012/03/08/canadian-copyright-consultatio.html boingboing as well
http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2011/10/bill-c11-locks-limits-levies-litigation.html

How do you figure they aren't taking on any of the risk when going with a traditional publisher? As I understand it the money they are fronted, much like the music industry, is a loan and is paid back on sales of the book

However, the author's book advance is generally non-repayable - so if the book flops the author gets to keep the advance anyway; essentially a no-risk proposition for him or her. .

The costs of having artwork done and editing done aren't huge. There are even editors that are willing to take on this sort fo work for a small percentage of the sales. Small being way less than the 50+% normal publishing houses take. Some authors are trying this, others are hiring agents independent of the publishing houses and allowing them to handle getting editors and art lined up.

Lots of models being tried and written about -> http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ Some very interesting reading in that blog IMO from an author who has been publsihed by the NYC publishers and by Amazon. Guess which one earns him really good money?

I agree the model is changing and as the distribution channels change the money split will change as well. Of course, the downside is the barriers to entry are so low that it will be harder to stand out from the crowd; or compete with people who are basically willing to give away the services unless you are a really well known name in the business.

bullshit!

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

That guy is pulling in over 100K a month and many of his books are 99cents, he often gives them away for free too. Not my style of writing and I don't read his books but I damn sure read his blog and pay attention to what he says about pricing. It's true he finds that 99cents may not be the best price point and that slightly higher can sell better but neither is $19. Read his blog, read back over a year or more to when he first started all of this. He's played with prices, promotions, and had long talks with Amazon execs about how best to sell. He's successful and doing VERY well. IMO you could probably learn alot from his experiences and some of the contacts he posts about that do editing and art. No way in this world would I ever even consider using a normal publisher after reading what he's had to say about them - and what so many others have had to say.

How do you figure they aren't taking on any of the risk when going with a traditional publisher? As I understand it the money they are fronted, much like the music industry, is a loan and is paid back on sales of the book. Certainly a publishing company could ask an author to write as work for hire, I'd like to see them try. I bet it's done for some things like text books actually.

The costs of having artwork done and editing done aren't huge. There are even editors that are willing to take on this sort fo work for a small percentage of the sales. Small being way less than the 50+% normal publishing houses take. Some authors are trying this, others are hiring agents independent of the publishing houses and allowing them to handle getting editors and art lined up.

Lots of models being tried and written about -> http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ Some very interesting reading in that blog IMO from an author who has been publsihed by the NYC publishers and by Amazon. Guess which one earns him really good money?

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

I think you're wrong, I believe Joe has published the numbers to prove that too. All of those things can be farmed out and done right, you don't have to pay NYC prices either. As a published author you no doubt have a back catalog of rejected books yes? Take a chance, look over that blog, maybe even publish them under another name. Instead of getting as little as 17% for each sale get 50+% and see how much further that might take you...

I must use this link a dozen times whenever this topic comes up but.... http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

Some authors "get it" and are making a much better living having walked away from the big 6 publishers...

This site http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ has some interesting things to say about eBooks from the stance of an author who has been abused by the big publishing houses and now sells via Amazon and others instead.

Frankly he sounds like a bit of a nut. I like this author's explanation of The Way Things Are better, because he offers some non-ranty insight into how the publishing houses and traditional paper publishing work as well as why Amazon's ebook model is not a good replacement. (Not to say that he thinks conventional publishers and especially their approach to ebooks are the most awesome thing ever, but he also doesn't seem to think it would be a good idea overall to just blow them up and replace them with Amazon, for reasons he goes into.)

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-misconceptions-about-pu-1.html

âoebut do you know how to check and is there any point checking when we already know NSA/KGB, etc etc have the globe encircled with satellites?â

try lining your windows with tinfoil and check it after a few months. Youâ(TM)ll discover straight LINES and DOTS (tiny peep holes). This is with the tinfoil on the inside of the windowsâ(TM) surface, in-house/apartment. What causes this?

I believe most, if not all consumer computers and devices are, if not monitored, swept and mirrored by big bro using satellite technology.

One anonymous poster to pastebin, claiming to be representitive of Mossad, fired a shot across the bow of Anonymous and other hackers by saying, paraphrased, âoeAll of your hard drives are mirrored in (locations A,B,C as I forget which countries were mentioned) certain places on Earth anyway.

I find this to be true, Iâ(TM)ve used Microsoftâ(TM)s SysInternals programs to monitor processes and discovered my drives being swept, a chat program running I never installed and could find no trace of, files where they had the most interest were mp3 and graphics files, but they scraped the whole drive, and an iso creator/mirroring utility was running.

You only make it easier for them if you willingly install video streaming programs (VLC) with command line counterparts, music programs with command line counterparts, Office programs, which I noticed PDF files were being made in the background, and all of this activity was happening when I was monitoring a computer isolated from any wired/wireless/LAN network(s).

Google: Subversion Hack archive for a glimpse into this mysterious activity

Itâ(TM)s all about the waves.
==
âoeWell, if this is true or not, I cannot tell, because I use GNU/Linux,â

The same is true for *nix, you just have to have the right monitoring tools and know what to look for inside binaries which are easily messed with by injecting malware into them and tools used by âoeTHEMâ to obscure the code injected into the ELF binaries so as to avoid being picked up as malware.

One simple command you can use to check for modifications to your files:

sudo find /usr/bin -mtime -60

That will search /usr/bin for files modified within 60 minutes, adjust the command as needed for other directories and time frames.

ALWAYS generate sha256sums or better (NOT MD5 or SHA1) of your initial install and the LiveCD and store them on a READ ONLY media like a once writable CDROM. The free utility known as âoemd5deepâ offers more than md5 checksum generation and unlike the simple tools like sha256sum, sha1sum, etc., md5deepâ(TM)s options offer RECURSIVE and directory stripping options, perfect for backup on CDROMs.

Hereâ(TM)s one example out of many mysterious *nix trojans floating about:

- Linux/Bckdr-RKC
â"- http://caffeinesecurity.blogspot.com/2012/02/linuxbckdr-rkc-still-undetected.html

âoeFor those who arenâ(TM)t familiar with this trojan, an anonymous internet user has taken the time to put together a Pastebin post highlighting my research on this trojanâ: http://pastebin.com/DwtX9dMd

More questions without answers:

- Malware for Windows, *nux (and MacOSX?) which HIDES in FIRMWARE on routers, PCI and AGP cards and devices (including CD burners), system BIOS, MBRs, ethernet (nic) cards most if not all surviving hard drive wipes/formats and preloaded again and updated âoethrough-the-airâ mysteriously or when youâ(TM)ve plugged into the net.

- Ethernet cards using packet radio modules/protocols

- Linux distributions including LiveCDs including more modules than they need to run, especially for LiveCD purposes, including build essentials, dpkg-dev, ISDN drivers/modules (sometimes in multiple places, as binary files and

Were it not for Amazon and a few other sites going the publisher route you wouldn't be able to find books at a dollar. The big publishers didn't like the idea of a $9 ebook and colluded together using the new iPad in order to raise prices. Had they not colluded we'd have competition, instead they all agreed to raise prices above what Amazon USED to be able to sell books for. I wonder why this model isn't being used for paper books too since they claim it was so necessary?

While the price of one book that you desire isn't influenced by prices of other books you don't care about the price of the book you desire is most certainly influenced by all of the publishers getting together and agreeing to raise prices across the board!

BTW do some research on how much Amazon and other publishers pay authors vs the big publishers that the DOJ is now questioning. The big boys take nearly all of the cost of a book when it's sold, Amazon and the others pay the authors MUCH better! You can start your research here -> http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

How about back catalog? You know those books that are no longer printed? Big publishers hold onto these "rights" like they're gold and refuse to publish books. When an author wants them back they often refuse and the book is in limbo. Physical stores can only hold so many books and have only so much display space, not so electronic books. Back catalogs is where existing authors have a TON of opportunity, it's also where big publishers screw up and try to charge sky high prices for books that have been paid for multiple times over.

Konrath is just such an author. He has been publishing his catalog of REJECTED books and making more money on that and self published stuff than he has ever gotten from his "big publisher" deals. He has been posting stories by other authors and encouraging authors to go it on their own for a year or three now. His posted numbers and tales of getting screwed ought to open any author's eyes. http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ My personal favorite is how publishers talk about advertising budgets and then authors end up having to arrange all of the book signings themselves as well pick up the travel expenses. The big publishers are fast on their way out and it can't come soon enough. They are as bad if not worse than the music industry IMO.

Yep, as they detailed back in 2009:

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/08/bright-side-of-sitting-in-traffic.html

Sure it is

This site http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ has some interesting things to say about eBooks from the stance of an author who has been abused by the big publishing houses and now sells via Amazon and others instead. He farms out cover art, editing, and other things - he also reveals the numbers for all to see. There's no reason why big publishing houses need to be taking more than $50 of the cost of a book sale other than to support top heavy overhead IMO. They are holding onto their position and holding down authors much like the music industry has tried to do. They secured a sweetheart deal using Apple as a lever against Amazon and it is now FINALLY blowing up in their face - but not without eBook piracy having gone rampant and many early adopters such as myself no longer buying overpriced books.

I'm happy to see this finally coming home to roost but I feel it's pretty late in the game having taken YEARS to come about. The big publishers have had it fat for awhile now, their house is about to come tumbling down and I will stand and applaud when it does. Who knows, when prices are finally sane again perhaps I'll consider buying books again much liek I am back to buying music from Amazon....

The users of Google's products do not physically pay money to Google, advertisers do. Advertisers physically pay money to Google's advertising business unit.

The users of the construction company's products do not physically pay money to the construction company, bankers do. Bankers physically pay money to the construction company's mortgage loan business unit.

Disprove this fact. Not by straw man comparisons to hypothetical unrelated businesses or analogies, but by disproving that Google makes money from ads.

I am not contending that they make zero dollars from advertising. They make the same commission on advertising by having an internal ad network as they would have to pay a third party ad network if they didn't. And it turns out that that commission is 49% for custom search and 32% for everything else (and the 49% is obviously only that high because they're in part charging for their search service rather than just the ad network). The remaining value, a majority of the total in either event, comes from the value of the services themselves, their main business comprising some two thirds of the total revenue.

http://lawpundit.blogspot.com/2011/08/who-copied-from-whom-sony-ericsson-p800.html

(Yes, I'm one of the original developers of the P800. We just smiled when the iPhone was introduced)

Let's try it this way instead, since there is room for a full URL:

I don't contest that the system is screwed. I do contest that Google is innocent. Even this company that strives to do no evil falls into the same pattern as everyone else, as that is the only course of action that allows survival in todays market. There is indeed no chance in hell for us.

BTW, despite all the loud claims here, there was a double-blind study long ago that found that some people can hear the difference caused by harmonics up to about 30kHz. Nobody can hear pure tones at those frequencies of course, but the interference patterns with the base frequencies affects the "tone" of the sound. Unfortunately, that was so long ago that I wouldn't even know where to start to look for a reference.

No need, I know it well.

Can you provide a reference?

Here's one, and here's another.

Basically, the idea is that ultrasonic tones (say, 30kHz and 29kHz) may be inaudible, but generate a difference tone that is audible (at 1kHz in that example).

Stop, please stop with the rhetoric. What happened on 9/11 were terrorists acts. It was not a declaration of war, it was not an invasion. It was not an attack in any meaningful way.

That's what YOU think!

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7452/snapshot20101030225346.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gSsm9yc-GXg/TNCTaybvWhI/AAAAAAAAAtU/GejbwCZeUCM/s1600/turkey+al+quada+south+park+it's+a+jersey+thing+2.jpg

The saddest example I see of pseudoscience is in the birth communities, medical technology has taken us out of the tragic "good old days" when 1 in 10 babies and 1 in 100 mothers didn't survive a birth. But suddenly everyone thinks it's a great idea to run away from hospitals and doctors and use untrained homebirth attendants, even for high risk pregnancy.

I suppose you have some science to back up this claim?

In Australia death rates are four times higher for homebirth babies.

Oh a blog. Excellent. Hang on a second while I setup a blog to counter your claims.

On second thought, let me take a piece of the original study your blog is quoting and fix that sentence for you, shall I?

In Australia, death rates are four times higher for homebirths with untrained attendants.

In other news, cars repaired by your cousin the high school drop out with a 68 IQ break more. But I bet if I set up my own blog I could claim car repairs are dangerous and have people re-post it.

Having recently been pregnant and seen the "trust NATURE" mantras thrown at me again and again in online communities

Nature of course being notorious for failing to notify you of complications through electrical impulses flying down your nerves.

, I'm so afraid of who else is being mislead. But the consequences are unimaginable.

In all fairness, there are a lot of untrained attendants misleading people. Unfortunately there appear to still be trained doctors doing the exact same thing, as is evidenced by your post.

Now for just the facts that are backed up by reputable published scientific studies (not blogs :):

• trained attendant home births have the same mortality rate as trained attendant hospital births
• home births result in fewer post-natal complications

Imho, far worse than the anti-science crowd is the misquoting science crowd.

The saddest example I see of pseudoscience is in the birth communities, medical technology has taken us out of the tragic "good old days" when 1 in 10 babies and 1 in 100 mothers didn't survive a birth. But suddenly everyone thinks it's a great idea to run away from hospitals and doctors and use untrained homebirth attendants, even for high risk pregnancy. In Australia death rates are four times higher for homebirth babies.

Having recently been pregnant and seen the "trust NATURE" mantras thrown at me again and again in online communities, I'm so afraid of who else is being mislead. But the consequences are unimaginable.

Exactly. Those who say the US can use mass transit have never been here.

San Francisco is not like Denton, is not like New York City, is not like Kansas City, is not like Conshohoken, is not like Phoenix, is not like Columbus, etc.....

You also can't use mass transit in farming communities.

umm...i live here. i live in los angeles, capital of sprawl. i've used mass transit for over 10 years to commute (normally, i don't like shameless self-promotion, but if you want proof of at least the last year and a half or so, check my blog.). i say we could use more.

you can always find places where it won't work (sorry, can't speak to whether denton and conshohoken actually fit the bill). but are we making the most of where it can work?

Oh wait.. this is an open source community that understood what his intentions where and didn't have a knee jerk reaction.
What I guess intelligence trumps mass panic and ignorance.

You have to realize this isn't some random dude, but a guy "well known" as having an octocat tattoo on his arm...

http://homakov.blogspot.com/2011/07/octocat-tattoo.html

It's not like the USA and Israel don't have the same thing, or similar construction methods that Iran does not have. The 13.6-ton "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea, the report said. http://thecomingcrisis.blogspot.com/2012/01/us-bunker-buster-not-powerful-enough.html We would have to use TWO of those! OH NOES!

You know what's the best about the uneducated people from the US that thinks the entire world looks like Afghanistan?

a) Their faces when they finally travel a little bit and get to see, for example, the city where I live:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QRpO2B1C6Xg/TT1yt1_PggI/AAAAAAAAACA/qal-vpr50pI/s1600/buenos-aires.jpg
http://buenosairestourism.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Buenos-Aires-Tourism2.jpg
http://www.ladygardens.net/storage/buenos_aires03.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1243881190062

And realize their vision of the world was completely misleading.
b) How many other citizens of the US are so embarrassed of people like you, when they vacation at some of our best touristic destinations, they say they are Canadian (I can always tell by the accent and lack of sophistication)

or be driving around on octagons.

Actually, the wheel in circular shape is just the most common type as it is pretty fit for a frequently found - albeit boring - shape of surface to ride on, i.e. a flat surface, in an over-simplified manner called a "road". ;-)

If the surface (the "road", in a more general sense) given had been designed properly (and skilfully), a square wheel might just be the right shape for a smooth ride on it:

http://mathtourist.blogspot.com/2011/05/riding-on-square-wheels.html :-)

Expected replacement? What are you smoking?

I'll grant you this: I expect *somebody* will need to replace their hybrid battery at 10 to 12 years. Is that an average time? Certainly not. For examples to the contrary, how about 350,000 and 500,000 km before battery replacement on some Australian taxis (the only two battery replacements in the country as of the date of the article)? And of course, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", so here's some statistics: The first-generation Prius had a failure rate of about 1% post-warranty; they were sold in the US from 2001-2003. The second-gen Prius had a failure rate of 0.003%, probably helped by improved design after Toyota's experience on the 1st gen, and it being a newer car. Similarly, Honda reports a failure rate of 0.2%.

My hybrid has a 10-year/150,000-mile warranty on the battery. You can bet that if the failure rate were above a couple percent by 10 years, they wouldn't be able to provide that warranty economically.

The battery is not like your electric razor or computer, where the battery dies after a few years. They put huge amounts of engineering and testing into these things; for example, the Prius only uses about 40% of its total battery capacity - when it says "full" on the gauge, the battery is 80% charged. When it says "empty", the battery is 40% charged. By doing this, they get hundreds of thousands or millions of cycles on the battery during its lifetime. And most of the time, a "charge cycle" is just a few percent of the battery's full capacity (e.g., accelerating from a stoplight discharges it a percent or two, then stopping several blocks later puts a percent or two back in).

Yes, a few unlucky people will have to replace their battery. But the total maintenance cost is about the same as any other vehicle. In fact, my regular maintenance is quite a bit lower than most; I change my oil once a year/10k miles. Every three years/30k, I replace the air filter. And at 10 years/100k, the coolant needs to be replaced. That's pretty much it; everything else is just the "visually inspect" or "adjust fluid levels if necessary" type stuff.

They launched the total patent war and honestly pretend to be the only ones to be allowed to sell a rectangle device with a touchscreen and a button.

They are using patents in a way that is counter to the interest of technological progress. They do so to squash competition. I don't know if "patent troll" is the correct word, but Apple is using patents is a non-defensive way and that is to be considered wrong.

I just saw this after having spent the last hour playing World of Goo, and I must say I find it hilarious.

are you kidding me? Pasang Sitemap

http://whyihatecca.blogspot.com/2011/06/fbi-investigates-blatant-corruption-in.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-23/justice/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges_1_detention-judges-number-of-juvenile-offenders?_s=PM:CRIME
http://archive.feedblitz.com/715643/~4042404

This is just the tip of the iceberg.