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I have been researching Hybrids for the last year. U am also currently driving a Honda Accord. Here is what I have come up with. The Honda Insight is an engineering wonder. Everything is designed to be light. The word on the street is that this car will be discontinued at the end of this year [www.businessreport.com]. And if you have kids forget it, as it is only a two seater and doesn't have an airbag cutoff switch. The Toyota Prius is an interesting car. Advantages are that it is SULEV (at least in California), and that it can run off the electric battery without the engine running (at speeds lower than 30 mph). Disadvantages I saw on my test drive was that the first one I tried wouldn't start cause the battery had drained (don't know if it was a stupid dealer or design flaw). Also, I didn't like the center mounted speedometer or the weird shift (mounted on the dashboard). Finally, the Prius uses small low rolling resistiance tires, which people are complaining about. According to one post I saw, someone said they had to change tires at 14,000 miles. And since the tires are both small and low rolling resistiance, they are hard to find. Also, during my test drive, it seemed that the gas engine was revving really high at speeds of 40 to 50 mph. Another small nit is that the breaking is non-linear (it seems rather grippy when you press hard). Finally, I have been considering the Hybrid Civic. I have test driven this car twice, and I really like it. It seems to drive really well. Although it has low total horsepower, it acheived that horsepower at lower rpm, meaning that the accelleration felt pretty normal. The tires are bigger than the Prius, and it feels very much like a normal car. It is also quiet because the bottom of the car is insulated for better aerodynamics. One disadvantage is that, at $21,000 sticker price, this car is about $3000 over the price of a comparably equiped Civic. After driving all three of these, I am going with the Hybrid Civic. The IRS recently has announced a $2000 deduction for hybrid cars [detnews.com] Also, if you are interested in enviornmental issues, check out [www.greenercars.com]. It has green ratings for all the cars mentioned.

Gasoline is so ridiculously cheap in US ($1.5/gallon), compared to Europe ($4/gallon) anyway. I guess the fuel consumption is not so important factor when choosing a car in US, and that's also affecting the car industry in general.

Dennis Hwang does them, I think just for fun.
There's more info out there for those who want to search.

You can find an article about the man here. And all I had to was type "google logo designer" in my favourite search engine...

Lew Platt, Hewlett-Packard's former CEO, was not a management wonder, but Ms. Fiorina is worse. She just cannot handle the job. She does not have sufficient technical background, for example. At present, one of the most common reasons for corporate failure is thinking that a good salesperson with little technical understanding can manage a high-tech company.

Ms. Fiorina's bad judgement at her previous job didn't become apparent until after she was already working for HP. When you work at that level, however, failure is successful. This [undated] Time Magazine story says she is worth $2.2 Billion dollars: Carly Fiorina, Makeover Artist. $2.2 Billion!

Ms. Fiorina was previously at Lucent. A January 12, 2002, Detroit News article, New chief for Lucent [Patricia Russo] is exception to numerous departures, tells of Lucent's problems. A lot of Lucent stories are filled with positive spin, but obviously something is very wrong. Apparently Ms. Fiorina led Lucent to overspend seriously on investment in communications. Again apparently, the new debt has crippled the company, making it a difficult place to work.

The September, 2001, BBC News article, Profile: HP's Carly Fiorina, mentions an interesting fact: "... she has consolidated her power, now holding down the jobs of chief executive, president and chairwoman - the only woman to control all three top jobs at a major tech firm." Maybe someone who merely wants to have all three top jobs should be considered incompetent.

The BBC News article also says, "A Business Week cover story in February [2001] concluded that she was 'gambling with Silicon Valley's proudest legacy' - and that was before she unveiled an 89% profits slump..."

The thieves steal from you and me Archive everything

I especially liked the part of the artcile where Rosen complains that people will spend "thousands of dollars" on hard drives but won't pay for music. Makes me wonder where she buys her hard drives??

Obviously, she buys from the same vendors that the Pentagon does!

Section added to comply with non discrimation policies:
For those international readers, the US Pentagon has been known to pay $75 for a screw, $400 for a hammer, etc.

Ummmm.....GM isn't making the Oldsmobile anymore.

People with nothing to lose and who are willing to die have nothing to fear--maybe it'd be best to outlaw things like blacklists that create them.

At least they didn't try to carve it out. On the other hand, he probably got preferential treatment 'cause he's a high-and-mighty elected official. (Yeah, right.)

<joke> I guess the people manning that particular security station voted for his opponent... </joke>

Enshrined in a popular play, movie and a game involving actor Kevin Bacon, the notion that disparate people are connected by a short chain of mutual friends caught on after 1967 research by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram.

I do believe that Willie Wilson now operates the King George Inn in Warren NJ. I currently serve as special assistant to general manager Allard Baird. Baird is, of course, a horrible GM, as Rany Jazayerli and Rob Neyer have written time and time again.

This is FOX... the same network that initially cancelled Family Guy, only to bring it back after they received a lot of letters. From what I recall, FOX didn't initially know they had a gem with Malcolm in the Middle either.

Bottom line is, if enough snail-mail letters are sent to FOX (trust me on this, networks give snail-mail more weight than e-mails), there is a possibility that the show could be saved. It's worked in the past for the original Star Trek (thus its third season) as well as Roswell (thus its second season).

In the case of Roswell, fans sent thousands of bottles of tabasco sauce to The WB as a show of support. With The Tick, perhaps fans can instead send... spoons?

This is a great example of either nerd-paranoia or journalistic exaggeration. All the "cybercourt" is doing is taking technology solutions from business and applying them to bureaucracy. The court will not handle criminal or civil cases, only business cases involving sums of more than $25,000US. The Small Business Assocation of Michigan supports the new procedures.

Even the term "cybercourt" is hype. It's a loaded name intended to, first, make Michigan look tech-nice, and second, to cloud the system's basic simplicity and justify whatever the government spent to build it. It's idiotic to compare Judge Dredd-style future AI with a few video cams and electronic form shuffling. The only advancement here is one of marketing... which I would mock as feeble marketing, if it didn't apparently succeed enough to send the softer-minded Slashdotters into a Chicken-Little-like tizzy.

The sky is not falling. Microsoft will not eat you. Our courts have not been compromised by cam whores.

A related story found at the top right of the michigan cybercourt site can be found here.

Cut six judges so that one judge can basically test something new? Is that dumb or what?

I hate to boast, but a broadband over cable only costs $CDN 29.95 per month up here in Frezzeyerassoffland. Since our dollar continues its slide against the mighty greenback, that works out to about $US 19.25 per month.

When you combine that with the fact that I don't have to put up with strip searches when I fly off to Moosejaw, it just proves the point that Canada is the best country in the world for high speed internet users that like to keep their clothes on in public places.

The architect of the WTC is dead. Minoru Yamasaki died of cancer Feb. 7, 1986 at age 73.

I don't know where you got the information in your post, however CNN's Leon Harris did interview Aaron Swirsky, part of the architectural team.

Since a lot of major news/network sites are down I'd suggest trying local newspapers. Both mine, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press seem to be holding up okay. The free press is reporting that the Pentagon was hit, too.

The Internet is supposed to be...

• TO EMPOWER K-12 LEARNERS
  
• the promise of our future
  
• to save the American medical system
  
• a global, multipurpose, multimedia communications network
  
• to strengthen Hispanic families and communities
  
• to open the door for competition
  
• for English as a Second Language
  
• for freedom from sysadmin
  
• to transfer the power of the high-speed network effectively to society at large
  
• to compete successfully with Fortune 500 companies
  
• To center learning around the student instead of the classroom
  
• to regain the tails of the normal distribution
  
• to test the founding vision of the framers of the Constitution
  
• to propel the economy forward
  
• a truly democratic means of communication.
  
• to increase mail usage and expand paper consumption
  

although its a somewhat dark film for Mouse

Well, Disney could have released the film under one of their many other brands. Like GM (Oldsmobile, Buick, Saturn, etc), Disney has many brands. So, if Miyazaki's film is "too dark", then why not just release it under Dimension or Miramax?

Much like how many people don't know that Pontiac and Oldsmobile are "cousins" (the Grand Am and Alero are almost identical under their skin), most people probably aren't aware that Disney owns these other brands. So, by releasing the movie under a different brand, Disney could give the film a "new image".

Actually, that's not correct either. The job of The Supreme Court is to determine the validity of laws. Your average Circuit court just decides whether you've broken a law, without regard to the validity of that law. That's why only the Supreme Court can declare a law unconstitutional, and circuit courts aren't blasting acts of Congress left and right.

• Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules NEA Decency Requirement Unconstitutional
• Court strikes down statute blocking gun industry lawsuits
• Appellate court rejects COPA

John Marshall seized the power of Judicial Review in the case of Marbury v. Madison.

You seem to see BNW and 1984 as utterly different books. I read them in the same year; perhaps that's why I see them as two sides of the same coin. I think many people do. I remember arguing with my father over which was more likely to come true. I backed BNW, because it continued the trend of dumb and happy consumers. My Dad favored 1984 because a) it's cheaper (who needs soma when you have rubber truncheons) and b)it's closer to the real and gritty texture of life, with all its malfunction and beauracracy.
Anyhow, people frequently use the expression 'brave new world' to refer to an alarmingly different regime under which they'd lose their rights and freedoms. Example: Gene discovery: Brave new world has an ambiguous attitude towards genetic research.
So this ebook-peddler's use of the phrase seems unintentionally ironic.

One of the people mentioned in the story is David Minnaar, who works for the Michigan DEP. He's certainly a real person; see Antique crock turns out to be radioactive and Michigan DEP site with his e-mail address (minnaard@state.mi.us) and phone number (517-335-8197).

Another person mentioned is Donald Erb, mentioned on International Isotope Society Membership List, and can be reached at
U.S. Department of Energy
22404 Goshen School Road
Gaithersburg , MD , 20882-9801
Phone: (301) 253-5530
Fax: (301) 903-5434

So at the minimum they're real people, and can certainly easily confirm or deny the story or its details, unless they refuse to talk about it, which would be a bit silly.

There was a long cross-posted thread in alt.folklore.urban, sci.physics, and sci.skeptic at the beginning of last year about this, Some good posts:

• the young Mr. Hahn did not build a nuclear breeder reactor...
• one about his Geiger counter readings: More likely, he was measuring stuff on his clothes, or perhaps his body...
• Actually, I'm not AT ALL impressed with the young Mr. Hahn's "accomplishments"...

Remember, this is 19th century chemistry that he was doing, and had the advantage of extracting radioactive materials from already purified sources.

--

I'd trust this stuff a lot more than a lot of the things we have trusted on the road in the past .

Texaco big enough for you? Jesse Jackson and his boys sure did a good job changing policy with the mere threat of a lawsuit. Any more challenges?

The only folks who win in class-action lawsuits are lawyers and the defendant. The suits take a large proportion of the award. The defendant is usally punished by requiring them to send out dollar-off coupons to the plaintiffs, like what happened with GM. This decision most certainly isn't a coup for the common man. It's just an opportunity to get a discount on your next purchase of Windows.

If I buy your house for $250K, and turn around that day and sell it to someone else for $325K, have I stolen anything from you?

Without any other restrictions on the purcahse, No. You paid the agreed upon price for said house. Once it's yours, you can do anything within legal reason your heart desires.

I was driving one of my 8 series (an M Tech believe it or not, we're talking a potential 200 MPH + ). Anyhow, on a country road we were forced to slow down (I don't speed BTW) because some loon had been pulled for speeding. Anyhow 5 minutes later, said loon is behind and harrassing me 'cause I'm only doing 30 in a 30 zone. I hope he gets banned 'cause he just doesn't understand.

No, you haven't been allowed to say that in at least 12 years, as Jimmy The Greek found out when he was fired by CBS in 1988 for saying that blacks were better athletes because of genetics.

Like everyone pointed out, the best MPEG4 codec is Microsoft's. We need to get rid of patents, or else the only way we'll get technology on Linux is when M$ doles it out to their lackeys at Corel and Apple. And it definitely won't be free, then!

Given the sort of control these organisational linkups can have, it seems to me that providing a "slow lane" for other people's traffic is pretty minor.

The link between sleeplessness and memory loss has always been intuitively known for eons. We've also known for quite some time that sleeplessness takes a toll on the workforce. According to some reports, 51% of Americans report that sleeplessness interferes with their productivity. People are going to bed late and failing to get up early, and not surprisingly, (according to that same source) a third of the population wishes they could nap on the job (and surprisingly, 16% of employers "endorse naps on the job" -- I wish I had that sort of employer).

Unfortunately, the outlook isn't good for people who fail to get their eight or so hours of sleep per night. Sleeplessness increases stress and raises bloodpressure (which can increase heart attacks), can precipitate ulcers, and can even promote alzhe ime rs. Sadly, very techies and engineers who are designing the technology that will preserve more information in the next few years than has been recorded in the history of humanity won't "be around" to see it happen, as debilitating diseases rob them of the ability to perceive the world they have constructed. What begins with immediate memory loss will ultimately be cemented in their old age.

The solution is clear. OSHA already has standards in place to prev ent RSI injuries in the workplace. Federal laws already exist governing how often and for how long truck drivers must sleep before returning to the road. New guidelines must be set for how much IT workers can be forced to work without sleep. In the footsteps of pioneers of the 10-hour work day of the nineteenth century, we must today pioneer the 8-hour sleep day. The safety of our IT infrastructure and ultimately of our fellow workers demands it.

The following is the first few hits off Google using those search terms. I got 6,750 hits from them. I think your story is in there somewhere.The evidence points in one direction, and nobody on either side of "DRUGWARS" should have any interest in arguing it.

ABCNEWS.com : Study Finds D.A.R.E. Ineffective

Several Studies Suggest DARE Programs Ineffective

Project DARE Ineffective 10 Years Later!

Falcon's Cry: DARE found ineffective

Herald - Ineffective D.A.R.E. prevention program should be replaced

DARE's clout smothers other drug programs

Here's a quote from the article,"According to a Detroit News analysis of 33 Metro area school districts, there is no difference between teen drug and alcohol use in districts that offered DARE and in districts that did not. DARE is used in 70 of the 88 Metro districts."

I grabbed that one because it's from this year.

Do you get it now? There is no good news about DARE outside of the press releases from the people on the payroll.

My guess at an average game: 100,000 copies of an "A" title computer software game, at $45. That's 4.5mil for the whole title.

My guess at an average movie: 10,000,000 tickets of an "A" title cinema release, at $7. That's 70mil for the whole title, and that's just in the theater.....

And it takes $40 million to make that movie. And there are more games made than Hollywood movies. And the best games sell way more than 100,000 copies, even on computers. Oh yeah -- let's not even get into Nintendo and Playstation games, since PC games are small potatoes by comparison.

So there, I can invent my own incomplete (and basically arbitrary) premises to prove my own conclusion too. Or I could just point you here or here, or, if that's not enough, here. Hogwash indeed.

Cheers,
Greg

During this seminar, he was talking about using his method of robot-building and applying it to satellites. (There's an article here.) Basically what Mark was saying is that there's a fundamental problem with current satellites; they're digital. And digital components don't like the harsh radiation of space. Plus, NASA's so-called "microsatellites" weigh in at over 600 lb. Not very "micro", if you ask me.

What he was proposing is whipping up a crop of "nanosatellites", maybe as big as your head, all out of analogue components (which he usues exclusively, at least last that I saw), which don't need to be radiation-hardened for space. Plus they're dirt cheap, and you can make them by the thousand.

NASA's "faster better cheaper" may be so, but it's all relative. If they really wanted that, they'd send out a fleet of Tilden's nanosatellites. Send 100 to Europa... some with cameras, some with infrared, some with spectrometers, some that talk to the others and beam back data to earth... and I'd bet it would be a lot cheaper than the Mars rover ever was.

If anyone has more Tilden links, please post them. He's done some amazing work, but I can't seem to dig up any large cache of web sites about his work. Pity - it fascinating!

But they do! Yes, I am serious! There's a condition often called 'lazy eye'. Where by one eye cannot focus and/or be controlled as finely as the other. One treatment for this is to cover the 'good eye' with a patch, forcing the 'bad eye' to 'practice'. Now here's the 'videogame treatment' angle; 20 minutes of viewing PONG is worth approximately 8 hours of 'normal' viewing on average. (yes, some videogames have more value in the matter than others) This is scientifically supported but I can also provide personal anecdotal evidence. My niece had a 'lazy eye' and the doctor said the condition was so progressed that it would probably take three years of wearing the eye patch to correct it. But in only 4 months with at least one hour a day of various videogames the doctor pronounced the condition cured. And yes, this 'videogame treatment' was done with the doctors full support.

Videogames to treat ADD/ADHD
Diffamblyopia (lazy eye)
Videogames and Parkinson's Disease
Videogames to treat inflammatory bowel disease and juvenile diabetes
National Institutes of Health and Videogames
Amblyopia (advice from another doctor)
more amblyopia advice
yet another doctor's opinion)
Reduce risk of getting Lyme Disease
Healthy anger management for kids
Avoiding/dealing with Nebulizer side-effects
still more amblyopia advice
Super Nintendo treatment for asthma (Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus)
Super Nintendo treatment for Diabetes (Packy & Marlon)
Super Nintendo anti-smoking (Rex Ronan)

The LA Times quoted Bove calling the McDonald's bombing "pointless and imbecilic". I can't find it on the Times site, but the Detroit News has it here

"Software evolution is a controversial theory holding the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of better software. Use at your own risk."

Welcome to the real world. Did you really think the market, and your precious RHAT were going to keep going up indefinitely, that they'd really be worth what they were trading at forever?

First year economics tells you that these sort of valuations are unsustainable. If you didn't do your research, and you didn't understand how the market works, then it's your own stupidity that cost you money. I don't want to gloat about it, but I don't want to hear people whining about their own ignorance either. Greed has a flip side, welcome to it. If you borrowed money to invest in a company with an unproven business model, you should not be surprised when it appears to be failing.

Note: I'm not saying that the Linux stocks deserve to be zero-valued, but rather that there's no justification for the prices they were previously achieving.

The fact that this post was moderated up to even 3 worries me. I guess there's a lot of the greater fools reading slashdot.

Some days, I do read the newspaper:
Detroit News
Detroit Free Press
'Nuff said.

The US isn't doing to well on 'innocent until proven gulity' either. If a cop decides that it's suspicious that you take money to Las Vegas to gamble with, or that it's possible to use an innocent item in a drug related way, then you can loose all your assets.

As Mr. Z's comment points out, the survey questions were of the unfair "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" variety.

Back in the spring of 1998 Microsoft attempted to orchestrate a "Grassroots" movement, in which they staged a phony letter writing campaign to the press. Here's a little article about the incident, from the Detroit News, "Microsoft may try to orchestrate grassroots support":

"...The Los Angeles Times, in an article Friday, disclosed plans for a media strategy that includes opinion pieces and letters to the editor that appear to be local testimonials but are written by Microsoft's publicity machine..."

"...The documents reported by the Los Angeles Times, some labeled as draft copies and carrying [MS Spokesman] Shaw's name, stated that the media blitz was "geared to generating leverageable tools for the company's state-based lobbyists" and positive press clippings that "state political consultants can use to bolster the case..."

I'll bet this latest survey will be used as part of their "Freedom to Innovate" program. Here's a little quote from that page:

"...Contact Your Elected Officials Think your public officials need to hear from real consumers about Microsoft and the industry? Send them an e-message..."

"...We formed the Freedom to Innovate Network (FIN) as a response to the overwhelming amount of correspondence we received from around the U.S. and overseas regarding the trial with the Department of Justice and other public policy issues. The FIN is a non-partisan, grassroots network of citizens and businesses who have a stake in the success of Microsoft and the high-tech industry..."

So let's all do as they suggest, and "Contact Your Elected Officials" and let them "hear from real consumers about Microsoft and the industry." And then let's see just exactly what our congressmen think of MS's tactics.

I'm with you. I haven't read a decent slashdot comment in a looong time.

...of course, the other alternative is to cremate her, smoke her ashes, and get stoned, incidentally jamming radio frequencies.

...but, that sounds more likely than waiting for some good slashdot moderation.

Please, moderate this *story* down, so we can get some News already.

Actually, here, I'll help. It's POSSIBLE SLASHDOT STORYTIME, boys and girls!

Let me just search through the OBITUARIES real quick.

OH MY GOD! Did you know that at least FOUR important people DIE in every MAJOR CITY in every AMERICAN NEWSPAPER, every DAY?!?!?!

I'll list a few here so you'll all be posted for tomorrow.

Seattle

Boston

Grosse Pointe

This just in: Only famous people in America in big cities *actually* die!

And you can read all about it in Slashdot! "News for Nerds; Dead people that Mattered".
---
Posting Anonymously Out Of Slashdot Community Mistrust.

CBS said it wasn't intentional. BS!

CBS might be misrepresenting its news more often than we think.

I saw the movie "The Informant" lately and it was detailing CBS's coverage of a whisleblower. Apparently it was a true story and it showed how the CBS execs fucked up and caved into the tobacco industry.

Its was a good movie and I'd recommend seeing it if you like watching big companies squishing little people like bugs.

1. rigging a survey,
2. faking video evidence in court,
3. using cash reserves to affect profits, then firing the internal auditor that questioned it,
4. mounting a bogus grassroots PR marketing campaign

   The actions of a desperate company? An overly arrogant company?

   Or both?