You can ride a bike. You just need to focus on achievable destinations. If you live far away from where you work and do other activities (i.e. suburbs), then the next time you choose a place to live, try to locate nearer to these attractions. You can minimize your consumption of petroleum by performing errands by bike. Even two errands a week can add up to significant savings over time.
Sorry to hear about your altercation in San Francisco. Sounds like Grapes of Wrath 2004.
Here in Austin, TX, the city wanted to hire a pedestrian czar for $30k a year. This individual would review all city development plans to ensure that pedestrian and bike needs are considered. A bunch of SUV-driving tax-obsessed voters complained and now the work is done on an ad-hoc basis by volunteers.
The reality is that in America, our cities are designed to be too dependent on automobiles. If something should happen to the Saudi Royal Family, and our access to oil is lost, America is going to be shit out of luck.
SOLUTION:Support denser development instead of sprawl. Support mass transit systems such as light rail. Reduce our dependence on petroleum.
Indirectly. Halliburton, which was run by our Vice President until 2000, frequently receives no-bid contracts for millions of dollars, and then subcontracts the work for tens of thousands of dollars. And requently, there isn't any work being done under contracts, anyway.
"We saw very little concern for cost considerations," David Walker, head of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the Congress, told members of the Congress who attended a hearing at the Government Reform Committee in the House of Representatives. "There are serious problems, they still exist, and they are exacerbated in a wartime climate."
Yeah, Canon made all the apple inkjets until the last ones. They were made by HP.
By re-branding the Canon inkjets, Apple was able to sell inkjet printers without having to make them, but was incurring the support costs while Canon was not.
Support cost is why Apple got out of the peripherals market save for anything that is brain-dead simple to troubleshoot, like the iPod. "Does it turn on? Ok, it works."
You are absolutely lucky that you didn't get your phone call answered by me. I would have run you through all manner of schenanigans...
"You monitor isn't turning on? Please clap your hands loudly near the monitor. Yes, we find that a lot of customers have their monitors connected to a 'clapper' device and this usually fixes the problem."
"Ok. We're starting to reinstall the Operating System. Tell me when you see the Software License screen appear. It's up now? Ok. Please read that license to me out loud. Yes, the whole thing."
"Oh, I'm sorry for the long wait time. Yes, the UPS strike has backed everything up. You wouldn't think these things are related, but trust me, they are."
But seriously, if you care about a company doing well, call in to tech support only as a last resort. If you buy basically anything and you call in, the cost of handling your call has consumed the entire profit the company made from your purchase. That's why Apple stopped selling inkjet printers. The profit margins were thin and the % of support calls were high. Didn't make good business sense to stay in the market.
Most support issues can be resolved by a skilled Google search.
Microsoft has more resources available for such an attack on Open Source. And they've got more of a vested interest in discrediting Open Source in the eyes of the US gov. than the Taliban has in defacing the Commerce Department's website.
The fact that Microsoft hasn't succeeded in this effort proves it's a false concern.
I think you are right on the money. I wouldn't try to get a replacement on a 4 gig HD from 1999. On the plus side for consumers, though, I doubt Seagate will continue to stock 5 year-old drives. They'll probably give out the current price-point match product as a replacement.
Thanks for the correction on the figures. Pulled straight out of my ass....
Please explain to me what work Homeland Security does that the FBI couldn't do. This department should NEVER have been created. Gifted leadership would have modified the responsibilities of the existing FBI and CIA organizations in order to handle this need. You want an example of redundancy? How about the simple task of domestic intelligence gathering. The Homeland Security Department will fully employ 170,000. The only department that is larger than that is the Dept. of Defense.
Hatch has been steadily earning the name "RINO" in conservative circles for his "Republican In Name Only" politics.
Orrin isn't the only RINO. One of the basic tenets of the Republican Party is that they favor 'smaller government'. In the past four years, the Republicans have lost the ability to taunt the democrats as the 'tax-and-spend liberals'. We now have a $500
trillion deficit and an entire new department in the government with tens of thousands of new federal employees (Homeland Security). Talk about beaureaucratic redundancy! We've now got the CIA, the FBI, and Homeland Security all working in the same field.
Another tenet they've left by the wayside is 'less government intrusion' in peoples' lives through fewer regulations. Well, it seems like regulations are bad when they concern big business, but if it has anything to do with the Bible, then the Republicans will spend countless days trying to pass laws (i.e. Ban on Gay Marriage).
On the plus side, the Republicans seem to be deftly wielding fear and it seems to be working well on controlling the majority of the American Public.
If this disc is in 'releasable' condition, why are they dragging their feet on it to begin with? They say they can have hard copies in stores within a month. Why not just go ahead and do it?
I liked this sitcom better when it was called "RIAA vs. Diamond Multimedia-- Ban the Rio."
Apple critics have poor track record
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Birth of the iPod
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Ha-ha! Thanks for that link. It reminds me of how tech pundits have predicted failure for several recent (post-Jobs' return) Apple products and then failed to step up to eat their own words publicly.
I remember a guy here in Austin who does the saturday morning computer radio show saying the iMac was doomed because it doesn't have a floppy disk drive. Back then it was a safe bet to predict failure for Apple's new products. Not anymore.
I think the only predictions that went the other way on a recent Apple product was for the Cube. People thought that was going to be the hot-shit computer because it was small and had no fans. Although it didn't last long on the market, the resale value of them is still strong---
All that said, I'm still looking forward to Doom III, but I'll get it next year when the price is down.
In order to save maybe $20 off the cost of this game, you're willing to give every other FPS fanatic a >six-month headstart in playing Doom III? You must love to be everyone's easy frag on deathmatch servers!
Just as an FYI. I didn't see this mentioned in the article or any posts, so I thought I'd throw it in.
It will behoove DOOM ]|[ upgraders to use a video card that boasts an 8x AGP pipeline and correspondingly a motherboard that supports 8x AGP.
A nice-to-have, but not hugely necessary is DDR dual-channel memory. I bought a gig of OCZ 'high performance' dual channel memory at Fry's for about $139 after a rebate. I've noticed the framerates on Enemy Territory have improved significantly, though that could have been due to me also overclocking my CPU a tad at the same time I installed the dual channel memory.
If you want to make your own project, get a piece of crap video camera for $500 that will at least let you screw on a wide angle adapter. Make your video and edit it on Final Cut Pro on you laptop. If your story is worthwhile, this equipment should suffice.
Need lessons in filmmaking on the cheap? Rent the El Mariachi / Desperado split DVD. Watch Robert Rodriguez' tutorial contained on that disc. Think he's full of shit? Well, trace his career from El Mariachi (made for under $4k) to Spy Kids III. The fucker knows of what he speaks.
I've been to the SXSW film fest 5 years in a row. I've seen these kids make films who had more money than ideas, and it shows on the screen. Then I've seen the guys who had awesome ideas and no money. Guess who walks away from the festival with a pocket full of studio business cards....
I doubt Cheney will risk sending Bush out to give a speech about invading a country that can so easily be mispronounced by Bush.
Bush's thought process--"I know the country is full of black people, but the name doesn't sound like that word for black people. It doesn't sound like that word... It doesn't sound like that word.. Whoops! I just said the word I wasn't supposed to say."
In spite of our half-trillion-dollar deficit, the Bush Administration is going to send humans to Mars someday. While the
announcement was a feel-good distraction from the Iraq war, perhaps the actual mission will distract us from having to don space helmets to go outside because the Clean Air Act was undermined to help big business.
Freedom of Speech is not just an issue that affects speakers. It affects listeners. Decency is being used to quiet people in the media who have been critical of the current administration. The definition is intentionally vague such that it can be applied arbitrarily against political enemies.
Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the case where some stations broadcasting Howard Stern were fined by the FCC because he described (without profanity) what a 'Blumpkin' is. Meanwhile, stations broadcasting Oprah Winfrey are not fined when one of her guests defined what 'tossing salad' means.
I do consider the current terorist threat to be serious. Way more deserving of attention than gay marriage, which the republicans in the Senate spent all week trying to ban. But I also think that as a country, we've proven time and time again that our freedoms are more important than human lives. That's why we send soldiers into battles-- for our freedoms.
Movie/radio studios may be fined for not abiding by it but it isn't affecting your level of freedom whatsoever and the role of the gov't is to protect the views of the many over the views of the individual, otherwise there is no reason to be voting on anything if the majority means nothing in this country anymore.
I know this will sound condescending, but please ask your teachers about the validity of what you've said here. The original framers of the Constitution couldn't disagree with you more. Consider this quote from James Madison:
The traditional American philosophy teaches that The Majority must be strictly limited in power, and in the operation of government, for the protection of The Individual's God-given, unalienable rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and, therefore, of the rights of The Minority--of all minorities.
How about this other quote from James Madison:
No majority, however great even all of the people but one Individual--may properly infringe, or possess the power to infringe, the rights of any minority, however small--even a minority of a lone Individual.
Movie studios, by the way, are not at risk of fines from the government. There is no government regulation of content restricting movies, books, newspapers, cable TV, or magazines. Just broadcast radio and television. Somehow, our civilization has survived through the onslaught of bare nipples and four-letter words found in these other media formats.
You bring great clarity to the points I raised. In terms of the libraries, I would modify my original example. Instead of local public libraries, please consider the Library of Congress, which is a federally-managed library. Any child may walk into the Library of Congress and examine a copy of Playboy.
they have to be argued into being protected by really good lawyers.
Perhaps this is what R. Dreyfuss hopes will happen.
A book in a library is not 'disposable'. It's not just read by one kid and then discarded. Books remain in libraries for decades. They are checked out hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.
I don't think words are a threat to society. I think vague definitions of indecency are being used to threaten our freedom, however.
You claim that the govt. deserves to have control over the public airwaves. Well, the govt. owns the public libraries operated in every city in this country. For some reason, though, the government does not apply FCC restrictions to the content of the books it buys to fill these libraries.
At some point, our society decided that books=art and regulating the content of the printed page is censorship. Dreyfuss is pushing for his medium (public television) to also qualify as art.
And a kid can go to the public library and check out a book featuring every four letter combination imaginable for free. But the govt. still hasn't implemented the library version of the FCC for some reason. Perhaps that's part of Patriot Act II: The Clampdown.
A child can walk into a school library and check out a book containing the words you mention. The child can read the book aloud on a street corner with a megaphone. The child may print the words from the book on a poster and hang it on the side of a building. The child may make t-shirts and bumper stickers containing the words in the book and display these items in public. The local newspaper can even print a book review written by the child that quotes these words from the book. But if the child visits a radio or tv station and reads the book over the air, the FCC will fine the broadcaster a sum of
possibly $275,000. Do you not see the draconian perception our government has of the broadcast media?
Mr Dreyfuss could probably pay these fines and call it the cost of doing business
Please note that the legislation pending intends to increase fines for broadcasters to $275,000 per violation of the indecency law. How many PBS stations are there? Can Dreyfus really afford that? I ask because I don't know how much money he has left from Jaws.
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Yeah, Canon made all the apple inkjets until the last ones. They were made by HP.
By re-branding the Canon inkjets, Apple was able to sell inkjet printers without having to make them, but was incurring the support costs while Canon was not.
Support cost is why Apple got out of the peripherals market save for anything that is brain-dead simple to troubleshoot, like the iPod. "Does it turn on? Ok, it works."
Thanks for the correction on the figures. Pulled straight out of my ass....
Please explain to me what work Homeland Security does that the FBI couldn't do. This department should NEVER have been created. Gifted leadership would have modified the responsibilities of the existing FBI and CIA organizations in order to handle this need. You want an example of redundancy? How about the simple task of domestic intelligence gathering. The Homeland Security Department will fully employ 170,000. The only department that is larger than that is the Dept. of Defense.