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LoL, no such thing. We're still trying to figure this out and even had an electrician come in and meter peak usage. No changes since the last time (when the bill was less). There was a recent rate increase (but not double or even close), so next we are trying to get an idea of whether there's some new idiotic method (of billing) they are doing things that may be causing this. Our power usageis generally consistent every hour of the day (we run a stack of always on servers - same stack for years, same server loads), so maybe a "residential" increase that's "only a few percent" could be affecting our more business-like current draw.

Regardless of our current power usage though, companies like BGE have been found to "mis-bill" multiple times, including "verified" readings for empty buildings not connected to anything. So, maybe LIPA is on the up and up, but with such bad experiences with BGE, one (we) tend to wonder when we see such odd discrepencies.

Here's one news report on BGE's billing idiocy and the problems it has created. Voice

Note how much effort it takes to fight their "errors" and the 40% refund granted. Most people there dont know how to fight the errors or have the time to survive long enough to do so (without power, etc).

And an interesting reading about how (as of 2005) BGE gets away with not paying for power generated by self-sufficient homes (ie: solar powered, etc): http://www2.citypaper.com/printStory.asp?id=10295

And even more complaints "aired" by a local Baltimore TV station: http://wjz.com/local/bge.bills.2.944635.html

Makes it hard to trust any utility company.

Maryland's Calvert Cliffs reactors seem to be becoming unreliable: http://wjz.com/wireapnewsmd/NRC.inspectors.sent.2.1514222.html And, South Carolina's Oconee just sprung a leak as well http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/feb/09/oconee-nuclear-station-reports-tritium-exceeds-ind/ It is probably a mistake to run these plants past their 40 year design lifetime.

Oh, it's a problem all right:

http://wjz.com/local/black.guerrilla.family.2.1008915.html

This was just one of a number of problems we've experienced recently. We've also been treated to the sight of a prison guard and inmate working in tandem to extort money from the family of another inmate for not killing him.

The CTIA's position is kind of interesting and involves the expenditure of lots of taxpayers' money:

http://www.ctia.org/consumer_info/wow/index.cfm/2009/03/

Don't know if it's a problem elsewhere, but it's a huge problem here in Homicide territory.

armed assailants killing innocent grandmothers in their bedrooms...

Actually the scenario you describe happened a couple months ago in Baltimore right next to the Johns Hopkins campus.

A thief had apparently been casing a house about two blocks off the southern end of JHU's main campus where a woman in her seventies lived alone. When they broke in they thought she'd be gone, but she was there in her bedroom. They stabbed her to death.

News article:
http://wjz.com/local/release.suspect.sketch.2.724024.html

I'm especially interested that the company involved is Constellation Energy. They're the parent company of Baltimore Gas and Electric, which serves my hometown. BGE recently railroaded through a 72% rate increase for electricity. That took effect in July after much controversy. The utility now wants 25% more. This more recent increase is supposed to enhance their profits; the previous increase was supposed to cover the cost of energy they purchase from Constellation. Actually, they sell electricity to Constellation, then they buy it back at inflated prices and pass the cost on to their customers. There's no shortage of technical talent in Maryland. I suppose it's too much to expect that Constellation would pay fair wages to Maryland-based programmers.

I think there are quite a few factors at work:
1) It takes either lots of money or a civic-minded attorney to put up a fight. Many good fights don't get fought because they're too expensive.
2) When taken at face value, a lot of what the RIAA says it stands for can look very acceptable to people who aren't thinking critically. That includes colleges and universities who deem it appropriate to give up their students; mainstream newspapers and other media in a lot of places; and anybody else who doesn't take the time to think clearly. I learned from a local news outlet just yesterday that the RIAA is fighting against drug money, illegal gun money, and even "terrorism." So even the news outlets aren't taking the time to observe and evaluate.
3) People are just flat-out terrified when they find they're being sued by such a massive organization.

People who read Slashdot, and other people who've taken the time to think this through, are scandalized by what RIAA is getting away with. We've all seen and read about their abuse of elderly people, single mothers, recent orphans, and children, and that's had an obvious impact. It's going to take something truly spectacular that is widely reported out there in the mainstream before the general public wakes up.

In Maryland the demand was so high for absentee ballots that some people didn't get them till yesterday. Several groups appealed for a 1-day extension to allow them to be postmarked Wednesday and still counted, but it was shot down. http://wjz.com/topstories/local_story_310102437.ht ml

Regarding Marty Bass's comments:

I can't imagine that this merger will in any way affect local news gathering or viewing. To duplicate the job we do would require setting up a newsroom.


It seems Time Warner is already working on providing local news channels to the larger markets. In December, Time Warner had a very public battle here in Columbus with the local media conglomerate that owns the local CBS affiliate and the city's daily newspaper. The local company has been running a regional news network called the Ohio News Network for the past several years and they wanted Time Warner to add it to their channel line-up. TW refused, saying they did not have the capacity to do this. As a result, the local company threatened to pull the CBS affiliate from TW cable unless ONN was carried. Full page ads were run in the daily and weekly newspapers in town and television ads were run by both companies. Engineers were interviewed by both sides of the issue to support/refute the capacity claims. TW was offering antennae to their customers in case CBS was pulled. Eventually, a settlement was reached, but not before it was revealed that Time Warner has plans to offer their own regional news networks in the next few years in Ohio and other large markets. So yes, local media outlets do have reason to worry as AOLTW will have plenty of resources at their disposal to get such a thing running and integrated with the Internet. And surely they could avoid providing a broken link on WJZ's website to the local news that Marty feels can't be reproduced.