... total lack of QC on the part of the manufacturers. A while ago I bought two (allegedly) identical pairs of jeans from the same manufacturer and found they were anything but identical. They were the same cut, same waist, same length. Only difference was the color.
Then I got home and found they were made on different continents. One pair fit pretty close to what the label said (though not exactly the same as the last pair of the same), the other fell right off me. The second pair wasn't even remotely close and I have to wear a belt any time I put them on.
That's not sci-fi though. Most overrated author in general, sure.
Well, it is fiction, and people treat it as if it is thorough indisputable scientific proof of the validity of their world view. Hence it could just as well be called science fiction.
Besides, Rand's followers have been taught that it is perfectly acceptable to re-categorize anything they want, any way they want, any time they want. By that logic it is perfectly reasonable to place her work under reference (where they place it), fantasy (where it belongs), or science fiction.
Malda left after destroying what used to be a good website. Now, we let the resident king of editorial failure go and interview him. What, exactly, do we expect to be learned from this? Or is samzenpus just trying to get interview tips from Rob so he has a chance at a job after this site finally dies?
Termination fees exist to make up for the phone subsidy. If you buy an iPhone from Verizon for $200, you're getting it for several hundred dollars below Verizon's cost. Part of your monthly fee goes to paying off the phone. If you cancel your contract early, the termination fee pays off the balance on your phone.
That is assuming that everyone who signs a new contract purchases a maximally-subsidized phone every time they sign. Some people will sign a new contract and buy a much less expensive phone that is sold near - or even above - retail cost for the carrier. Those people would still be subjected to the same early termination fee as a user who purchased a new iPhone when they signed.
On top of that, they could write off the subsidy anyways. There is no reason why they have to pay it off with a termination fee.
I always figured termination fees would come in at close to 100% profit, as it takes less than 10 minutes of an employee's time to cancel a contract (and the employee is paid terribly so those 10 minutes are trivial in comparison to the fee itself). Considering Verizon and - to a lesser extent - AT&T are masters of the termination fees, I would think their profit margins would actually be higher than what was stated in the summary.
The headline really should specify that it is a private grant to study immortality. We're bound to get some people coming in here to bitch that the federal government is funding this (because after all even reading the summary is a lot to ask for some).
You'll be making too many diagrams and formulas in your notes to be able to reasonably keep up on a laptop or tablet. On top of that pens & pencils don't run out of batteries or crash at inopportune times. Your paper won't makes noises when you don't want it to, and your pens are super cheap to replace.
If you really feel the need to get your geek on, get a digital voice recorder for the lectures, and then use Dragon to dictate the notes to files. You'll still be way ahead.
I see you've been hit pretty hard for your trolling yesterday. Just to make it abundantly clear, I did not moderate your comments down. For that matter, it has been a very, very, long time since I last had any mod points to hand out.
I assume none of the share buyers or anyone that was involved ever had or seen a FB account.
I would wager it was exactly the opposite. Likely the vast majority of the buyers had accounts and thought "hey, if everyone is using this, then it must be on the road to insane profitability!". The problem is none of these people realized that there was no business plan behind it - at least, none beyond selling members' personal information.
On top of that, a lot of people thought it would be the next Google. What they would have realized if they were paying attention before spending money is that in reality it is the next AOL.
Zuckerberg's big mistake was not having a meaningful business plan. It seemed OK to casual investors, but when people bought in and realized the business plan was "gather personal data and sell it", they were less excited. Facebook is not the next Google, it is instead the next AOL.
If it was instead running Itanium (yes, I know that nobody uses Itanium any more) it would have been well suited to be called "Power BBQ" just by the heat output.
As a lot of big research universities are incorporating high performance computing into pretty well every scientific discipline imaginable, the CSci depts are working pretty hard to keep staff that can meet and consult with people from these other departments. You'll be walking - and thinking - on your feet quite a bit but its a lot more interesting than just some desk IT job.
Many years ago I received an email claiming to be from Al-Qaeda with an order to kill me. If they are actually trying to kill me, it must from boredom because I haven't seen any other serious effects from it. They also said they would spare my life if I sent them a large sum of cash.
Oddly enough when I replied to them from a throwaway email address asking them for more information they never got back to me.
100,000 mile gasoline expense $13,863 at 22 mpg with $3.05/gal.
100,000 mile diesel expense $10,612, at 31 mpg with $3.29/gal.
So at 100,000 miles, I am still down $2,749 by choosing the diesel option.
You raise an interesting point. The Diesel might not win immediately on cost alone. However I have some questions in response.
One, did you compare the same trim levels? Last I checked the TDI comes mostly at one trim level with few selectable options aside from manual or automatic transmission. The base Passat, however, has a lot of options. Maybe you already accounted for this, but to make sure you are doing an apples-to-apples comparison I would check to see that the options of the TDI are present on the gas model you are comparing to. Obviously things like a premium stereo don't change the fuel economy but they do change the sticker price.
Second, 100,000 miles is average life expectancy for a gas engine but barely getting started for a Diesel.
Third - and this varies a lot by market - Diesel prices often tend to stay put more so than gas prices. Gas prices in places where I have lived have jumped all over the place (both up and down) in the past year while Diesel has stayed on a rather constant slow march upwards. This could of course favor either engine based on when you need fuel.
Fourth, the total maintenance costs should be compared to determine which is the better car for cost. The Diesel of course has no spark plugs or distributor. It does, however, have a turbo. I don't know what the oil change intervals (or oil pan capacities) are for each, or other routine maintenance requirements. This is another one that could go either way.
I will, for this case, ignore the "greasel" or "grassoline" options that a Diesel could do, as few people want to invest the effort into that process - especially on a new car.
It will never sell worth a damn in the US. Hopefully, that isn't your target, but it's worth noting just in case. The average US consumer still thinks of the terrible Diesel sedans made by the big three in the 70s and 80s when they think of Diesel, and everything that was terrible about them. The notion of Diesel as clean, reliable, and efficient has never entered the thoughts of most US consumers.
The Olympics is about making money. If letting artificially enhanced athletes on the field will sell more coca-cola and big macs, it will eventually be allowed.
Slashdot Mirror
Damnit! I knew Congress shouldn't have written the Affordable Care Act in Comic Sans!
Fixed that for 'ya. I know you're trying to be funny, but you can be factual at the same time.
Almost everyone has a reaction to it, positive or negative. Few people see it and just read it.
... total lack of QC on the part of the manufacturers. A while ago I bought two (allegedly) identical pairs of jeans from the same manufacturer and found they were anything but identical. They were the same cut, same waist, same length. Only difference was the color.
Then I got home and found they were made on different continents. One pair fit pretty close to what the label said (though not exactly the same as the last pair of the same), the other fell right off me. The second pair wasn't even remotely close and I have to wear a belt any time I put them on.
That's not sci-fi though. Most overrated author in general, sure.
Well, it is fiction, and people treat it as if it is thorough indisputable scientific proof of the validity of their world view. Hence it could just as well be called science fiction.
Besides, Rand's followers have been taught that it is perfectly acceptable to re-categorize anything they want, any way they want, any time they want. By that logic it is perfectly reasonable to place her work under reference (where they place it), fantasy (where it belongs), or science fiction.
If so, my vote for that is Ayn Rand - especially in this community where her writing has become a handbook for life for many.
Bad software also runs unimportant websites.
Malda left after destroying what used to be a good website. Now, we let the resident king of editorial failure go and interview him. What, exactly, do we expect to be learned from this? Or is samzenpus just trying to get interview tips from Rob so he has a chance at a job after this site finally dies?
Today Best Buy closed at $19.99.
Termination fees exist to make up for the phone subsidy. If you buy an iPhone from Verizon for $200, you're getting it for several hundred dollars below Verizon's cost. Part of your monthly fee goes to paying off the phone. If you cancel your contract early, the termination fee pays off the balance on your phone.
That is assuming that everyone who signs a new contract purchases a maximally-subsidized phone every time they sign. Some people will sign a new contract and buy a much less expensive phone that is sold near - or even above - retail cost for the carrier. Those people would still be subjected to the same early termination fee as a user who purchased a new iPhone when they signed.
On top of that, they could write off the subsidy anyways. There is no reason why they have to pay it off with a termination fee.
I always figured termination fees would come in at close to 100% profit, as it takes less than 10 minutes of an employee's time to cancel a contract (and the employee is paid terribly so those 10 minutes are trivial in comparison to the fee itself). Considering Verizon and - to a lesser extent - AT&T are masters of the termination fees, I would think their profit margins would actually be higher than what was stated in the summary.
The headline really should specify that it is a private grant to study immortality. We're bound to get some people coming in here to bitch that the federal government is funding this (because after all even reading the summary is a lot to ask for some).
You'll be making too many diagrams and formulas in your notes to be able to reasonably keep up on a laptop or tablet. On top of that pens & pencils don't run out of batteries or crash at inopportune times. Your paper won't makes noises when you don't want it to, and your pens are super cheap to replace.
If you really feel the need to get your geek on, get a digital voice recorder for the lectures, and then use Dragon to dictate the notes to files. You'll still be way ahead.
I see you've been hit pretty hard for your trolling yesterday. Just to make it abundantly clear, I did not moderate your comments down. For that matter, it has been a very, very, long time since I last had any mod points to hand out.
I assume none of the share buyers or anyone that was involved ever had or seen a FB account.
I would wager it was exactly the opposite. Likely the vast majority of the buyers had accounts and thought "hey, if everyone is using this, then it must be on the road to insane profitability!". The problem is none of these people realized that there was no business plan behind it - at least, none beyond selling members' personal information.
On top of that, a lot of people thought it would be the next Google. What they would have realized if they were paying attention before spending money is that in reality it is the next AOL.
Oh, that's right. Obama uses blackberry. Wouldn't want him to know who Mitt chose for a running mate.
Zuckerberg's big mistake was not having a meaningful business plan. It seemed OK to casual investors, but when people bought in and realized the business plan was "gather personal data and sell it", they were less excited. Facebook is not the next Google, it is instead the next AOL.
...so I can first post mote quickly!
let's fix you're spelling frist, then work on the spead of you're posting.
You head two many correctly sppeled wurds you must be a bot.
If it was instead running Itanium (yes, I know that nobody uses Itanium any more) it would have been well suited to be called "Power BBQ" just by the heat output.
As a lot of big research universities are incorporating high performance computing into pretty well every scientific discipline imaginable, the CSci depts are working pretty hard to keep staff that can meet and consult with people from these other departments. You'll be walking - and thinking - on your feet quite a bit but its a lot more interesting than just some desk IT job.
We all know that this is the result of your party's politics, because the politics of my party would never lead to this.
Many years ago I received an email claiming to be from Al-Qaeda with an order to kill me. If they are actually trying to kill me, it must from boredom because I haven't seen any other serious effects from it. They also said they would spare my life if I sent them a large sum of cash.
Oddly enough when I replied to them from a throwaway email address asking them for more information they never got back to me.
I submitted this as a story 2.5 hours before ndogg did, and he gets the credit for it. Well played, sir.
Diesel adds $6k to the price of a Passat.
100,000 mile gasoline expense $13,863 at 22 mpg with $3.05/gal.
100,000 mile diesel expense $10,612, at 31 mpg with $3.29/gal.
So at 100,000 miles, I am still down $2,749 by choosing the diesel option.
You raise an interesting point. The Diesel might not win immediately on cost alone. However I have some questions in response.
One, did you compare the same trim levels? Last I checked the TDI comes mostly at one trim level with few selectable options aside from manual or automatic transmission. The base Passat, however, has a lot of options. Maybe you already accounted for this, but to make sure you are doing an apples-to-apples comparison I would check to see that the options of the TDI are present on the gas model you are comparing to. Obviously things like a premium stereo don't change the fuel economy but they do change the sticker price.
Second, 100,000 miles is average life expectancy for a gas engine but barely getting started for a Diesel.
Third - and this varies a lot by market - Diesel prices often tend to stay put more so than gas prices. Gas prices in places where I have lived have jumped all over the place (both up and down) in the past year while Diesel has stayed on a rather constant slow march upwards. This could of course favor either engine based on when you need fuel.
Fourth, the total maintenance costs should be compared to determine which is the better car for cost. The Diesel of course has no spark plugs or distributor. It does, however, have a turbo. I don't know what the oil change intervals (or oil pan capacities) are for each, or other routine maintenance requirements. This is another one that could go either way.
I will, for this case, ignore the "greasel" or "grassoline" options that a Diesel could do, as few people want to invest the effort into that process - especially on a new car.
It will never sell worth a damn in the US. Hopefully, that isn't your target, but it's worth noting just in case. The average US consumer still thinks of the terrible Diesel sedans made by the big three in the 70s and 80s when they think of Diesel, and everything that was terrible about them. The notion of Diesel as clean, reliable, and efficient has never entered the thoughts of most US consumers.
Sportsmanship? Camaraderie? No, and no.
The Olympics is about making money. If letting artificially enhanced athletes on the field will sell more coca-cola and big macs, it will eventually be allowed.