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Uh... I've heard of one too many cell phones smoking. I don't want to see another one....

:-)

You forgot a big, huge factor in staying out of debt or bankruptcy: don't get sick. Don't have a spouse who gets sick. Don't have kids who get sick.

Making up a list like that and then leaving the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US for a tiny parenthetical reference is a serious distortion of reality.

"They all love it, but it's only a good place to live; not to make money. Things are scarce, money is scarcer."

Although I understand the need to save money for a rainy say and retirement, there is more to life than purchasing power. Saying "they all love it, but it's only a good place to live..." seems to be missing the point.

"Although the Pocket World in Figures somehow calculated that Canada has the highest quality of life (the US second),"

Perhaps they somehow included things such as quality of education, infrastructure and (yes) healthcare.

I will not get into the experiences of your relatives in in Regina as I do not know the specific facts, but I do know that many of these "can't get healthcare in Canada" stories are years old or are blown out of proportion. In the past five years there has been more federal money made available to the provinces for healthcare, and some overall reform too. Each province runs its own health care system, so there are differences in each province.

Besides that, if there are shortcomings to the healthcare system (as there are in every country), at least they are spread across the board, not suffered exclusively by uninsured or poorly insured people. I have experienced health care in California and three Canadian provinces. I will take the Canadian model any day.

Considering all the problems the US has with its healthcare system, it still amazes me that the US spends the most per capita on health care. Where is the money going, and who is benefiting?

'The study estimates that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans annually -- counting debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children.

Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by illness had health insurance. More than three-quarters were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness. However, 38 percent had lost coverage at least temporarily by the time they filed for bankruptcy.

"The paradox is that the costliest health system in the world performs so poorly. We waste one-third of every health care dollar on insurance bureaucracy and profits while two million people go bankrupt annually and we leave 45 million uninsured" said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.'

In 2001 it was 50%. It will get higher as the population becomes older and suffers from more chronic illnesses.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankrup tcy_study.html

Single payer is a step in the right direction.

The government loses computers all the time.
VA Contractor Loses Computer Containing Personal Data
August 7, 2006
A government contractor hired by the Veterans Administration (VA) to help process insurance claims announced that a desktop computer containing information on as many as 38,000 veterans had disappeared from its home office.

Energy Department lost computer equipment
At least 18 pieces of "computer processing equipment," including at least one laptop, are missing from the Energy Department's Office of Intelligence (IN), and department officials do not know whether any of it was used for or contained classified information, according to a new report from DOE's inspector general

Government Hit by Rash of Data Breaches
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government agency charged with fighting identity theft said Thursday it had lost two government laptops containing sensitive personal data, the latest in a series of breaches encompassing millions of people.

So why the House Panel Approves Electronic Surveillance Bill The government can not even keep track of their own computers. Let them monitor, then some one will lose the computer it is on.

Maybe, with the all the problems the government is having keeping track of their computers, we should ban the government from using computers. It seems to be helping the terrorists.

To regurgitate more of TFA, 'Ralph Nader has criticized the automobile safety agency as nothing more than a lap dog for the auto industry. The consumer advocate said NHTSA "is now a consulting agency to Detroit and federal regulation is essentially dead.'

Old news, maybe. At least Hakia is cool. I was thinking I'd rather have someone with experience in the area to run DHS but on the other hand, lobbyists can probably kick ass too, and it's probably safer in the end to have them busy making money instead of of busy handing out parking tickets. Is it legal for a lobbyist to run the DHS?"

I didn't say hybrids were measured differently. I said that the in-the-lab tests tend to overstate a hybrid's fuel economy. Or at least did. My information is older than 2006. I saw several reports such as one mentioned in this article that indicated the EPA testing was dodgy for hybrid vehicles. From the article:

Data from Consumer Reports indicates that hybrid cars get less than 60 percent of EPA estimates while navigating city streets. In Consumer Reports' real-world driving test, the Civic Hybrid averaged 26 mpg in the city, while the Toyota Prius averaged 35 mpg, much less than their respective EPA estimates of 47 and 60 mpg. Hybrid cars performed much closer to EPA estimates in Consumer Reports' highway tests. Consumer Reports' senior auto test engineer Gabriel Shenhar says that while the EPA test is a lab simulation, Consumer Reports puts the cars on the streets and measures the fuel consumed to more accurately reflect gas mileage.

Is your 60MPG number from the onboard computer or from pencil and paper figuring? The article also points out that the Prius' onboard computer reports unreliable MPG figures.

It is not really a security issue but it is a real fire hazard problem. Dell batteries have a documented history (some with pictures or videos) of bursting into flames, and I would not want to be on an airplane at 40,000 feet when somebody's Dell bursts into flame. I know that the recall is only for certain models but it would be too onerous for the flightcrew to sort out which Dells or Apples could become airborn flambeaus.

http://wcco.com/consumer/local_story_148150249.htm l
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/dell-laptop -explodes-in-flames-182257.php
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/dell _fire.html

I don't know what study you're talking about, but the one I'm talking about was conducted by a team composed of people from both Harvards' Medical and Legal schools, and headed up by a Dr. David Himmelstein.

Today's health insurance policies -- with high deductibles, co-pays, and many exclusions -- offer little protection during a serious illness. Uncovered medical bills averaged $13,460 for those with private insurance at the start of their illness. People with cancer had average medical debts of $35,878.

"The paradox is that the costliest health system in the world performs so poorly. We waste one-third of every health care dollar on insurance bureaucracy and profits while two million people go bankrupt annually and we leave 45 million uninsured" said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.

"With national health insurance ('Medicare for All'), we could provide comprehensive, lifelong coverage to all Americans for the same amount we are spending now and end the cruelty of ruining families financially when they get sick."

Its actually cheaper to cover everyone, but that would end the "class system", and the waste that HMOs promote.

Interesting timing. Just a moment ago I opened my mailbox and found a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs. It seems they found the stolen hard drive that contained personal info on 26.5 million veterans. According to the letter, the FBI found the laptop and hard drive.

"Based on the results of forensic tests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has told us that they are highly confident the sensitive data were not accessed."

As a further backup, the VA has "obtained data breach analysis services as a means of further ensuring no misuse of this data occurs in the future."

Like Chase, the VA is "throughly examining every aspect" of their information security program. In the case of the VA snafu, an employee took the laptop home in violation of VA policy. The rash of these incidents makes me wonder how we can expect any sort of large organization to keep a lid on data spills like these, given that most people can't be bothered with basic security precautions even on their own computers. Even if the VA spends millions upon millions of dollars upgrading their security technology and processes (which of course will draw the wrath of opponents of government waste), I'm not sure it will make much difference.

Not if you ask these people.. Or this blogger.

Obviously, I could go on. Oh, and don't place much weight in their advertised prices until you learn about their rebates.. Here's a postcard I keep on my desk:

DELL MAIL-IN REBATE

Dear Consumer:
Thank you for participating in this promotion. Unfortunately, we could not honor your request because of the following reason:
Your request was postmarked beyond the eligibility period for this promotion.
For status, visit www.rebatestatus.com.

That's a $150 rebate I expected based on their advertised price, which I never got.

Not if you ask these people.. Or this blogger.

Obviously, I could go on. Oh, and don't place much weight in their advertised prices until you learn about their rebates.. Here's a postcard I keep on my desk:

DELL MAIL-IN REBATE

Dear Consumer:
Thank you for participating in this promotion. Unfortunately, we could not honor your request because of the following reason:
Your request was postmarked beyond the eligibility period for this promotion.
For status, visit www.rebatestatus.com.

That's a $150 rebate I expected based on their advertised price, which I never got.

The current wireless providers cancel accounts when people actually use them; the boards are littered with EVDO users complaining that, for example, Verizon axed them when their throughput hit 10 gigs a month. Heck, even Consumer Affairs got shafted.

Will there be similar limitations on WiMax? Without a reasonable TOS, I'd turn it down.

For example, one of the biggest variables outside of rent/mortgage is auto insurance. It's really easy to see the difference between Los Angeles and your pick of small town. Granted, the following numbers are just quick and dirty rate quotes, but the point is clear. I am a 26-year-old single male with a clean driving record. For me to insure a 2006 Chevy Cobalt 4-door base model with AllState, the 6-month premium in L.A. is almost 1600 dollars. In Arlington, Virginia, comprable insurance would be one third of what it is in L.A. (500 dollars for six months).

It is interesting that you bring up the auto insurance point when comparing large cities and small towns because here in California something (Proposition 103 - the prop was passed in 1988 but it has taken this long to wind its way through all of the legal challenges in court) has just changed the whole equation when it comes to pricing your auto insurance based upon your geographic location. For more information see California Dumps Zip Code-Based Auto Insurance Rates. What this means for many Californians is an INCREASE in auto insurance rates because the insurance companies are now unable, by law, to charge drivers living in higher accident rate areas more simply because they live in a high accident rate area. The cost of those extra accidents in Los Angeles will now be spread out evenly among the entire pool of insured drivers in California regardless of location. The Los Angeles drivers like this because it means that they will pay less than under the old system, but the people living in the more rural areas will see their rates go up significantly with respect to what they are currently paying. Personally I think that banning the use of a functional statistical correlation, simply because it is unpopular with a large block of California voters, is ridiculous but then again this is the same state that thought it was wise to allocate three (3) BILLION dollars of public taxpayer money, funded by bonds of course so we get to pay interest too (yay!), on stem cell research which, even if it does ultimately prove fruitful, will be hijacked by the drug companies, patented, and sold back to us at ten times the cost (btw thanks for paying for all that risky research for us! and our shareholders thank you too!).

I know the interface is better on the Palms, you're preaching to the choir. OS/2 is a much better OS than Windows; I'm sure it'll beat out Windows any day now... ;)

-a.d.-

I never thought of long-term unemployment because of medical illness as "spending like a drunken sailor" but to each his own.

I would recommend a Pocketmail device. You can compose email and upload it to a toll-free service from practically any phone with the built-in acoustical modem. (Just hold the device up to the handset.) Also, bring a good phone card; payphones can be a bitch, and collect calls are risky.

Funny, didn't these same companies loose millions of customer records recently? Oh, but that's just tin foil hat talk. If Visa says so, it must be the merchant. Given that Visa doesn't get a cut of the transaction unless you use your card as credit, there couldn't possibly be any reason for Visa to deter you from using your check card as a debit card...

This isn't any different than the phantom console, magnets which supposedly help your arthritis or whatever book that Kevin Trudeau is bilking people into buying claiming this is information that the government doesn't want you to know about.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Not the least of which that there are VC idiots who will gladly pony up the money for a non-existant, never-to-be-made product simply because it has oodles of neat sounding words in its description.

*PT Barnum never actually said those words but people routinely attribute the phrase to him.

> The New AT&T could probably buy Lucent for a medium sized bag of P-type ringers.

And by lining his grave with magnets, they can use the power of a furiously-spinning Judge Greene to charge their backup batteries.

I hesitate to think what's going to happen to the big telecom infrastructure vendors. When their customers merge, can it be far behind for Alcatel, Cisco, Ericsson, Lucent, Marconi, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, or Siemens?

Great idea! I think the government should let the markets decide, and stop subsidizing oil companies.

After all, the market has clearly decided that the big oil companies, with their record-breaking profits, are the appropriate market solution to our energy problems. So why is the government interfering with the market and giving away $7 billion to the oil companies?

From BioDiesel.org's FAQ:

Does biodiesel take more energy to make than it gives back?

No. Biodiesel actually has the highest "energy balance" of any transportation fuel. The
DOE/USDA lifecycle analysis shows for every unit of fossil energy it takes to make
biodiesel, 3.2 units of energy are gained. This takes into account the planting,
harvesting, fuel production and fuel transportation to the end user.

Can I use biodiesel in my existing diesel engine?

Biodiesel works in any diesel engine with few or no modifications to the engine or the
fuel system.

For example, a San Francisco tour cmpany uses BioDiesel. And they are not the only ones. Google is your friend.

Peace!

Apple has good customer support? *LOL* Nice support

That's not necessarily what's being done.

Many of the largest SUVs (Suburban for example) are on a longer redesign schedule than your standard passenger vehicle. Going 8 years between a full redesign means you're still getting crash technology that's nearly a decade old.

Making matters even better, is that the largest of SUVs, by virtue of their GVWR (a number that's made up by the manufacturer) are not required to meet several bare-minimum government safety standards.
The current Suburban, with a GVWR of 7000-8600 lbs, is exempt from government roof crush tests. (PDF)(As is any vehicle with a GVWR over 6000 lbs.) Unfortunately, passing them wouldn't mean much either - as the minimum only requires a vehicle with windshield intact to withstand 1.5 times its weight pressed down on the roof.
In a rollover, the windshield is usually gone by the end of the crash, and forces can easily exceed 1.5 times vehicle weight.
The current standard has been in place - and unchanged - since 1971, and many SUVs aren't required to pass even that lax standard. Many are also exempt from other minimum standards, like Steering Wheel Rear Displacement (only applies to cars with GVWR 4,000 lbs and less), and basic braking standards (applies to vehicles with a GVWR of 7,716 lbs and less).

Detroit, of course, insists the existing rules are adequate - the rules that often don't apply to their vehicles.

Even better, it's been shown that they misrepresented data from their own tests to the NHTSA.

Obviously, we all have to be more proactive in researching the safety of the vehicles we purchase - and not just go out and buy something "big" that "feels safe". Often, we may be safer in that type of vehicle, but only in multi-vehicle-non-rollover crashes - and to what expense? Raising the weight of your vehicle may reduce the risk to your family by 1/3 in some wrecks, but you've increased it threefold to the other car.

First AOL has lost nearly 6 MILLION customers since 2003, bringing their total subscriber base close to 20 million, down from about 26.5 million in late 2002. Their numbers will exponentially decrease as cable, DSL, VoIP and numerous other broadband technologies both mature and become more stablilized, therefore bringing in more customers. This is inevitable.Dial up is dead. As a side note, these 9.95 dial up NetZero conglomerates are riding the same wing, milking a dying technology to the very end, to get rich quick or get as much profit as they can before they will not be able to sustain a lucrative business with little or no customer base.

Secondly, why does google want to associate themselves with a company that is has been and is under class action lawsuits for unethical business practices, such as billing people even after they cancelled their subscriptions , double-billing schemes and recent news of their underhandedness at the expense and personal well-being of customers. If you think this is just nonsense go over to the gripe Logs and here to read what people are saying -- some pretty amazing and maybe surprising stories. I am sure there are sub-links to other stories from there.

Lastly, about AOL's so called "exclusive" content.. what is so exclusive about it? What information does google not have for free out on the web for users that AOL has? Is it worth 5%?? It just seems like AOL is buying old garbage waiting to be thrown out on trash day. The AOL for broadband scheme is a complete and utter joke. First off AOL doesnt offer broadband, they just offer their neat little toy interface to go along with your broadband connection.. and all that for $9.95...and for what?

Can someone shed some light?

This guy is full of it. Sometimes you get lucky, but way too many times the rebate gets processed incorrectly or never at all. I've had to contest 4 (non-computer) rebates this year alone: (1) Glidden Paint, (2) Behr Paint, (3) RIData, (4) Home Depot/Clopay. One is still unresolved.

I guess this guy has also never heard of CYBERREBATE.COM -- the ultimate scam. Some people are still in court over this one. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/cyberrebate. html

So I should trust rebates to work, despite class action lawsuits against Sony, Best Buy, Comp USA, Dell, and others for failing to pay?

That said, I have had good experiences with small ($5-$20) manufacturer rebates in the past. Retailer rebates have earned their foul reputation, and now even the good ones are paying the price for the unscrupulous ones. If only there were some way of lowering prices ahead of time, taking the intent of the rebate into account... Nah, can't be done!

If you can hear it, it's not ultrasonic.

I'm serious. Age doesn't matter, hearing quality doesn't matter.

TV remotes used to be ultrasonic, operating at 38KHz, 40KHz or 44KHz. No one could hear these. It's just not possible. If you can hear this thing, then it's only near-ultrasonic.

Additionally, note that ultrasonic bug repellers don't work. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/ultrarat.html Or you can check The Straight Dope.

So you've got a friend who abuses his consoles. That's certainly not representative. My release day PS2 is still working just fine.

Actually, he takes good care of his consoles. He does use them roughly 6-8 hours a day. So far, the last gen old PS2 has lasted the longest, the other two died within 6 months to a year. The Xbox was a first Gen, and the Cube is still going strong. Again, If the PS2 drives were so good, there wouldn't be a Class action lawsuit Thrown at them.

They did the same with the DVD drive in the PS2 in 2000. And this is a Sony technology we're talking about, it would be saying a lot more if they didn't trust Blu-ray enough to include it.

So Sony would rather put a drive in their next gen platform that could possibly be susceptible to cause system failures rather than let the Bluray Market mature enough to make a more stable system just to make their own tech look better to a few MPAA execs. Sounds like a company I want to buy from, but then again, they have been doing this to their customers for years now and they still come back.

And by the way, DVD players were out around 96-98, which gave them a good 2 to 4 years of market share to work out cost and reliability issues. Show me where all the BluRay players are. It wouldn't susprise me one bit that the PS3 will be the first one (if not the second or third) to come to market.

StarOcean: Till the End of Time is, to the best of my knowledge, the first PS2 game released which required 2 DVDs.

That's one game out of how many? hundreds? Thousands? Hell I still see PS2 games today shipping with CD's. A good majority of games don't need this much space, and the ones that do will simply swap.

That's not necessarily true. In my state you can only sue an out of state defendant if they own property here. The party I was looking into suing was in Georgia, and you must sue where the defendent resides there too.

• Talks about the GPL Hit Squad
• Took forever to repudiate SCO, if he ever did.
• Predicted SCO's victory and cheered them the rest of the time, trumpeting every extortion.
• Never did get free software. No money from free software? Ask IBM how they made one billion dollars on all that "crazy" talk. SCO declared winners!
• Recently stirred shit about mySQL
• Stirred the shit between OpenBSD and Linux

How's that for a short list of inflammatory shit? This guy has a long history of flamebait. Forbes, you suck.

This "lynch mob" baloney and the smear response has been floating around the M$ moronosphere for a while now, and it's being taken up by other big dumb companies. Everytime someone makes a reasonable complaint, M$ has paid these nutcases to scream "extremism, liars, lynch mob!" Yes, I mean you Laura DidioIt's amazing how big dumb companies can dish out the insults like that but have a hard time when someone's little blog complains, rightly, about a billing dispute or some other notorious practice. Cry me a river Dan, your corporate task masters are having another "best year ever" screwing their customers. They are not going to take it quietly and trying to smear your customers is not going to win you new ones.

Oh yeah, I know how the "expert" knows that 50% of blogs are written by competitors. He or someone he knows is being paid to robot post bullshit. That's the one thing missing from the sidebar learned from the RIAA: pollute the space. It's not going to work.

Good luck to you. Google Canon and e18 if you are curious. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/canon_c lass.html

Instead of product recalls, they went right on shipping cameras with serious flaws in their retractible lenses. The result? A class action lawsuit: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/canon_c lass.html

It all seemed innocent enough when checking out at buy.com. "Are you interested in getting $25 cash back on this purchase?" "Well yeah." But, by clicking "yes", you aren't answering that question. Then the welcome email shows up to tell you about wonderful discount programs your membership entitles you to. Surprise! You just signed up for a membership which has a monthly membership fee. "But they didn't even ask for a credit card?" Surprise again! buy.com supplies them with the one you just used to make a purchase. Screwed? Only if you don't realize something is fishy and go to the GreatFun (front name for Trilegiant) website and start reading the fine-print about how to cancel your membership. You wouldn't know a thing until the charges started showing up on the card. So, I canceled my Great Fun membership. Trilegiant, the big credit-card scam company, pays buy.com for access to their customer's credit card numbers. Put another way, Buy.com helps them run their scam on it's own customers and then they split the money. Trilegiant has been sued by several states already and is being investigated for class action law suits. Apparently, Trilegiant has its sticky fingers everywhere, including some large banks. And everywhere they go, they seem to be playing the same game with unwanted memberships. I'm very careful about who gets my card numbers and would have never given them the number without finding out why they wanted it. "Hey, are you offering a rebate or what?" The way buy.com is just handing over information to this third party under false pretense just has to be illegal. I'm sure there was a link to some fine-print somewhere before I clicked "yes" but damn, I trusted buy.com. When I give a website a credit-card number to make a purchase, I trust them to keep that number confidential and not to turn around and hand it to some banner ad scammers that happen to be also on their site. WTF? Am I naive? I say this should be stopped! I'm sure there are thousands that don't even notice for months if ever. Good luck getting your money back. Anyone have similar experiences or ideas on how to shut these scumbags down?

It all seemed innocent enough when checking out at buy.com. "Are you interested in getting $25 cash back on this purchase?" "Well yeah." But, by clicking "yes", you aren't answering that question. Then the welcome email shows up to tell you about wonderful discount programs your membership entitles you to. Surprise! You just signed up for a membership which has a monthly membership fee. "But they didn't even ask for a credit card?" Surprise again! buy.com supplies them with the one you just used to make a purchase. Screwed? Only if you don't realize something is fishy and go to the GreatFun (front name for Trilegiant) website and start reading the fine-print about how to cancel your membership. You wouldn't know a thing until the charges started showing up on the card. So, I canceled my Great Fun membership. Trilegiant, the big credit-card scam company, pays buy.com for access to their customer's credit card numbers. Put another way, Buy.com helps them run their scam on it's own customers and then they split the money. Trilegiant has been sued by several states already and is being investigated for class action law suits. Apparently, Trilegiant has its sticky fingers everywhere, including some large banks. And everywhere they go, they seem to be playing the same game with unwanted memberships. I'm very careful about who gets my card numbers and would have never given them the number without finding out why they wanted it. "Hey, are you offering a rebate or what?" The way buy.com is just handing over information to this third party under false pretense just has to be illegal. I'm sure there was a link to some fine-print somewhere before I clicked "yes" but damn, I trusted buy.com. When I give a website a credit-card number to make a purchase, I trust them to keep that number confidential and not to turn around and hand it to some banner ad scammers that happen to be also on their site. WTF? Am I naive? I say this should be stopped! I'm sure there are thousands that don't even notice for months if ever. Good luck getting your money back. Anyone have similar experiences or ideas on how to shut these scumbags down?

Don't be a retard try thinking before posting it may help....

Brakes as a consumable (brake pads etc) are the responsibility of the driver, RTFM for you car.....maintenance guides etc....
If theres a serious design flaw in a critical system, Brakes Gearbox Trans Suspension Steering etc there would be a recall and refit at manufacturers cost. Theres precidents for this try......

Theres a new thing called a search engine...i hear google.com is a reasonably good one.... try typing something like automobile recalls and clicking some of the blue text bits...it may lead to something like this

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls/arecalls_au to.htm

Thats link 1.....you sir are an idiot

Unless you're in a GM vehicle, where if one wheel happens to be on a slick spot, it will immediately release ALL the wheels from braking, thus sending you careening into a busy intersection/tree/house/biker.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2005/gm_a bs.html

Dude did you hear?

No man, what?

Shock and Burnie has been ported to the PS2! It's 'bout time, I mean Sony needed something to sell more PS2s this holiday season.

Yeah, I was geting bored with DVD Blowout. I'll bet the Gamecube doesn't get this game.

Dude, no one cares about the lamecube, it's just for kidz. Nintendo wouldn't dare do something like this.

Do you want a dirty bomb attack in the US?

Oh no! Whatever you do, be as scared as is humanly possible! Live in constant terror of death! It's the only way to defeat terrorism!

Give me a break. I live on the Great Plains. I'm in much more danger of being killed by a tornado, or dying from cancer caused by oilfield runoff. Should we declare "War on Weather"? Or, since 42,800 people died in automobile accidents on US roads in 2004 http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/suv_hig hway.html, we should declare "War on Cars"!


They must have some evidence, but to take him to trial now might compromise other investigations because just airing evidence in public court can reveal information to people involved in terrorist conspiracies againsst US (e.g. if the gov't provides eveidence in court - the terorsits know that we know about what ever it is). We can't afford to tip our hands.


Of course, they must have evidence, because they say so. Just like SCO obviously has evidence in SCOvIBM, they just can't show it right now because, uh, because they just can't.

Ever heard of a closed hearing? Sealed court documents? I was in a child support hearing and the backwater hick judge there sealed the evidence and closed the courtroom. Can't the Federal judiciary do the same thing? Or are you asking us to assume that some Federal judges are working with terrorists and would provide Al Qaeda with copies of any evidence presented at trial?


We are at war.


Yeah, at war with a country which had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, absolutely no infrastructure to manufacture WMD, and absolutely no stockpiles of the same. A country which, at the time of the invasion, had only begun to rebuild the civil infrastructures such as water purification, electric service, and sewer systems which the US military had bombed into oblivion just over a decade previously. We're at war, alright, but only with those we can defeat and whose oil we can take, not those who have hurt us.

Alternatively, you could have bought a diesel. Even less fuel consumption than a hybrid.

Diesel is cheaper than petrol too.

The trouble with hybrids is that they simply don't make ecomomic sense.

Actually, taking into account the total cost of ownership (fuel and maintenance costs, depreciation and other factors), hybrids may save enough money over the long term to more than make up for the "cost" of the hybrid drive system ($2,500 to $3,000, in the case of the Prius).

With the latest Swedish study showing that the risk of developing brain tumors from cell phone usage appears to be highly correlated with the typical power output, it becomes important to use a service with good reception.

Generally, the less bars of reception you see, the more power your phone is putting out and hence the more is getting beamed into your brain.

There have also been claims made that CDMA, because it uses asynchronous bursts is less damaging than GSM which uses synchronous bursts of power.

Two good reasons to use Verizon which is CDMA with the best coverage.

The biggest gripe I had with Sony and the PS2 was that the hardware was absolute shit. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/home_electronics/so ny_play.html

My unit needs regular cleanings to be at all playable, which would cost me $90 and a trip to the factory. As it is, I've voided the warranty and cracked it open a number of times to clean the lens. What's the point of cheaper hardware if you have to ship it off to the factory every 3 months? Longest lasting PC I've ever owned *still* runs, and we bought it when it was new. It's a Sony VAIO, with a Pentium 200 in it. Everything works. And what's the point of having 200+ FPS on a console when regular televisions (NTSC) can only process 29.99 frames per second? I'd rather pay the extra $250 and purchase a solid, dependable set of parts that I can assemble myself, be assured that they wont break down, and have some options in the visuals.

Why assume that all a gamer wants is graphics? I'm not going to go into the graphics over gameplay argument, but I will argue that a mouse is a much more versatile HID for first-person shooters than a puny little joystick any day.

So, to conclude my rant, I'm just going to say that being able to customize my system, have reliable equipment, and the versatility of a computer, I'm willing to spend about $300-$400 more on a computer, than on a console.

Googling "tiger" puts tiger direct at second spot from Australia.
Googling "tiger drect" shows http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/tiger_dir ect.htmcustomer complaints at the eighth spot -- something I'm sure they are proud of...

Ameritrade "has every reason to believe" that the tape has either been destroyed or is being held by the shipper.

The have surely been destroyed by UPS.

SD

Of course that "choice" is really made by an attorney general. Last night I remember hearing that 19 states have demanded people in those state be informed. We never would have heard about this without the one state that required people be informed of known thefts like this.

If you don't live in Illinois, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington, you may never be informed.

Just to echo what's already been said: the standard hard drive failure rate is less than 1%. Even the evil Deathstars, one of which (75GXP) took out a lot of my music, writing, and email (didn't recognize the warnings), still had a failure rate below 30%, which while utterly unacceptable, is still not the kind of failure rate you're talking about among multiple manufactures. Unless you're installing hundreds of hard drives a year, the kind of failure rates you're talking about are absurd and indicative of some other problem. My WD1200 has been humming along, problem free, since I installed it to replace the Deathstar, along with an ATA card to get around the bad ATA controller chips on the Rev 0 B&W (whole other story).

One: It's another proprietary crap-pile from Apple.

Two: You're forced to pay for MacOS X, when you'd rather just put your own Linux distro in for Free.

Three: It's $499. Considering items one and two, that's highway fucking robbery for vendor lock-in.

= 9J =

Yeah, Apple can't catch a break.

The amount of money donanted after 9/11 was large in relation to the need. That seems to be less likely with this disaster.

more guns = an increase in innocent deaths.