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Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius?
"So far I have gathered that XM seems to have better audio quality, and a larger selection of music channels. Sirius has less music channels, but more "commercial free" music channels and more talk channels. Also, it scares me that Clear Channel has a stake in XM -- does this mean XM will eventually turn to utter crap like every Clear Channel station seems to have? Does Clear Channel have enough ownership to have a say in programming?
I'm looking for more strengths and weaknesses from people who have used one (or better yet, both!) of the services. I'm leaning towards XM right now, with the Clear Channel issue being my main fright. Sirius streams their stations online, giving me a good sample. So far I have been fairly impressed. But, I like the fact that XM carries Art Bell, more than one 80's station, and VH1 content. It's a toss up, so I'm looking forward to some info from the Slashdot community."
First Post!
If i were you i'de jsut invest in an In-Dash MP3 Player, they're not that expensive. It give you the freedom of selecting your own music and over the long run it will actually save you money.
A rabbit in the hand is worth 4 in the cage
Strate up dogs, I be the first nigger to reply to this here thread up in this bitch!! Course, I ain't got much compitition but that be okey by me! Peace!
Practitioners of the oldest profession have been found at work on the icy shores of Antarctica plying their trade in a dress of black and white feathers - they are penguin prostitutes.
The first recorded examples of bird prostitution have been observed in colonies of Adelie penguins on Ross Island, about 800 miles from the South Pole, by Dr Fiona Hunter of Cambridge University and Dr Lloyd Davis of the University of Otago, supported by the New Zealand Antarctic Programme.
They observed how male Adelies pay for sexual favours with rocks and stones, a limited resource that can prove crucial for the survival of broods. In no other bird have such extra-marital exchanges been recorded, said Dr Hunter, a post-doctoral researcher who has made annual visits to Antarctica to study their sex life.
She described how, at the start of the breeding season, the penguins hunt for stones. Once all the loose rocks have been collected, they attempt to peck them out of the frozen mud to construct a nest platform, crucial to keep eggs high and dry above mud and chilly melt water.
Stones are so valuable that they will steal them from each other, though they risk being attacked by the owners of the hard currency. In the journal Auk, Drs Hunter and Davis describe how females have developed another strategy: they lure nearby male penguins for sex in exchange for the rocks. "Females have figured out that one way to steal the stones without being attacked is to swap copulations for them," said Dr Hunter.
They slip away from their partner and wander over to the nest of an unpaired male. Standard courtship follows, with a dip of the head and a coy look from the corner of her eye. If he shows interest, she will lie prone which, in the language of penguin love, is an invitation to mate or carry out what the scientists call "extra-pair copulation".
Once mating is over, the female picks up her payment, a stone, and carries it to her nesting platform. Sometimes their customers are so satisfied that the females can return for second helpings of stones, without having to offer more sex. Other females found that a little courtship was enough to persuade a male to allow them to play with a rock, then cart it away. One especially teasing female managed to collect 62 stones this way, said Dr Hunter. "The males were probably duped into thinking that she was a possible partner."
The zoologists are now analysing the benefits of penguin whoredom. While the male may lose some of his rocks, he gains the possibility of fathering extra chicks. The benefits to the females are less clear. "I don't think that she is just after his stones," said Dr Hunter. "Perhaps the female mates with an extra male for another reason, say to increase the quality or genetic variability of her offspring. This seems reasonable given that not all males actually father the chicks they help to rear."
Another reason for seeking male company could be to form a relationship with a potential mate for the next season if her partner dies. The team is now planning another trip to the frozen continent to uncover more details of the penguin's complicated love life.
Informative? Idiot moderators. A loudmouth claims to have made a few bucks selling stock and that makes him an expert on the company's future? Who's more idiotic here: Dr. Bent, or the moderator?
I think he just needs to smoke some weed. That always makes trips much more bearable for me.
... look (physically) awful.
:(
:/ I want a simple and elegant deck, not something that looks like a 747 jet landing strip... at night.
I hope this isn't rated off-topic
Who wants to have a piece of hardware mounted to a random point in your car so you can get the stations? I understand it's a solution for older cars... but it's pretty pricy if you ask me. For the price they're charging for the hardware, it should, at least, be TINY.
Tech companies can cram a hard drive and mp3 decoder into a footprint that's about the size of a deck of cards, but the current satellite solutions are about the size of a 10 disc CD changer, if not larger. What the hell is up with that?
Furthermore, most of the replacement decks out there with XM/Sirrus tuners built-in look kitschy. Hell, the entire car audio section of my Crutchfield catalog seems completely rice-burner oriented.
I wish the car audio manufacturers would realize that not everyone who wants a new deck for XM/Sirrus has a Civic.