So, let me get this straight. Their target market is to sell something that costs $150 to people who can't afford to pay $350 to upgrade to something that's 10 times better and would even *include* this new software?
The real reason for the lack of upgrading over the past 10 years is because a) a *complete* lack of funds, in which case they can't afford the new software either, or b) They're too clueless to even know the difference, or c) don't even use the computers enough to *care* about upgrading anything.
This is PC hardware we're talking about, not old mainframes running legacy code that the company can't upgrade because the software they rely on will have to be rebuilt from scratch. If you want to run the old software, you just take out the hard drive and put it in the new computer, or copy it all over the network.
Like the Model M, it has a clean tactile feedback that doesn't feel mushy at all. Unlike the Model M, it's pretty quiet. It also has a light touch, and a shorter key throw that lets me type at least 15 WPM faster than on any other keyboard I've ever owned. Just as important, it doesn't go for the gimmicky crap "features" that glut the market today. Its only concession is a row of 6 shortcut keys that are unobtrusive. The | key is even in the *right* place, with the same layout as the Model M. In fact, I like this keyboard so much, I bought a second one for work. When I leave this job, my keyboard comes with me.
*This* is the keyboard *I* will be buried with. And mine does USB.
More importantly, why doesn't *Apple* point out the alternatives? It's their job to point out that you have a choice.
Imagine if anyone (Apple especially) were to make these claims:
"Viruses don't affect our OS." "Spam doesn't get through our filter." "We have no bugs in our software."
There's three problems with this:
1) They're not true. 2) People will nail you to the wall in court when they find out about 1). 3) People will go out of their way to *make* them false, even if they're currently true.
I'd have to admit though, letting the world know that they don't *have* to use Windows would be a pretty damn good marketing strategy. Now if only they could get all those windows apps to work...
2. Long-term reliability and replacement costs of hybrid system (especially the batteries). 5 or 10 years from now, are these cars going to be proven as reliable as their traditional combustion-engine brethern? Or are they going to be visiting the shop more often to fix issues in their hybrid systems, replace their batteries (which do have a pre-determined lifetime), or whatever??
Well, Vancouver Taxi has 6, the last time I asked. And if you want to know about the reliability of a vehicle, ask a cabbie. Their highest-milage Prius has over 300,000 Km, with only regularly-scheduled maintenance. Only one of the hybrid-related systems have failed so far, and it was under warrantee.
Other specific experiences of fleets with Prius' in them can be found online.
Just remembered that the other great thing about txt-email compatibility: I use it as my work pager. It's a lot easier to get unix to send e-mail than to make it use a modem to phone a pager number.
Or more likely, when you're supposed to be quiet. Like at the library, the theatre, work, or church.
Even if it's just being trendy cool an' shit, at the very least it's better than the obnoxious turds who shout into their cellphones to show the world how "incredibly important" they are.
I like the fact that they're compatible with e-mail. I can send an e-mail to my wife at work to let her know something important and she'll get it right away. That and it's a lot faster to type than to txt.
Reason #1: An entrance fee - no matter how small - makes all the scammers, spammers, trolls and assholes go away.
Reason #2: $20 for a year? That's like, $1.67 a month. I spend more on junk food. And slashdot subscriptions are about as much and you get even less benefit.
he US wants the same laws as often as possible. It makes commerce easier. What if canada suddenly made oranges illegal.
Or what if the US made Canadian beef illegal? Or Canadian lumber? Or Canadian wheat? Well, the last two aren't banned, they're just heavily tarriffed despite a "free trade" agreement between the two countries. But that's not the point.
America doesn't care about the effect it has on other economies. It just wants its way. And because Canada needs the US more than the US needs Canada, they can use that leverage to force us to change our policies to benefit their industries.
And in this particular case, American jobs and American revenue aren't lost, because the industries affected are reimbursed by the taxes the Canadian government collects on the blank media people use to copy the stuff that the DMCA is supposed to protect. The RIAA just doesn't like it that way and wants to have laws that force us to buy new copies of the same stuff every time the technology to play it back changes.
Some time ago, I bought my wife a Sony Network Walkman(TM). It was exactly what she wanted, a portable MP3 player that could hold all her CDs, and it can even be used as a network hard drive to back up all the photos and artwork she creates on the computer.
About a month later she joined one of the music sites available in Canada. Try as she might, she couldn't copy the songs she downloaded onto her mp3 player and get them to play, even after talking to the site's tech support. She closed her account and tried to get her money back.
Then she said "Fuck that then. I'm going to steal the music instead. At least I know it will work." (Of course, stealing the music in Canada is legal thanks to our current tax on such things as MP3 players and blank CDs and DVDs)
Find a bunch of these l33t h4x0r5, then one day after school there's a rash of incidents like this:
A black van screeches to a halt at the crosswalk that 13 year old Brody Seminuk is standing at, the side door opens and men in black ski masks yank him off the sidewalk and into the van, in full view of his friends. The van jackrabbits away from the curb and the interrogation immediately begins.
MIB: WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR! BS: What?! I don't have a job! MIB: DON'T BULLSHIT US! WE KNOW YOU'RE WORKING FOR INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS! BS: International terrorists!? But...! But...! MIB: Don't lie to us boy! We'll beat the truth out of you if we have to! BS: I don't know any terrorists! What are you talking about!? MIB: You tried 32,812 times to break into www.edwards.af.mil! BS: Oh shit!
Van stops in an underground parking garage, where Brody is shoved into a new van, with new interrogators.
MIB: WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!! BS: I'm not working for anyone! I don't know any terrorists!
An old, battered van that has "Ed's plumbing" written on the side stops briefly and Brody is pushed out the back door, wearing only his underwear.
Friend 1: Dude, are you alright? We thought you were going to die! Friend 2: They didn't rape you or anything, did they? Brody: Got any money? I need a cab home. Friend 1: Yeah, yeah, I have about $12. Brody: call me a cab then. Friend 2: What was that all about anyway. Brody: Don't hack into Edwards. They really mean it. Friend 2: You mean Edwards AFB? Brody: Yes. Friend 2: Um, what's that smell? Brody: Shut up and dial.
Likely because they have to take every security threat seriously, and when you're getting thousands a day just from little kids trying to manually guess the secret password for the "Authorized users only" page at whitehouse.gov, it gets a little tiresome.
Hardly. Contacting customers is a big problem for any ISP. Sure, everyone gets an e-mail address when you sign up with the ISP, but do they use it? You'd be astounded by how many people on the internet don't *use* e-mail. Either that or they use a hotmail or yahoo account that the ISP doesn't know about. Calling them is a real pain, because most people aren't home during business hours, and many don't bother to respond to their voice mail. Nevermind that it would take weeks or months to contact everyone, should the need arise.
Back in the day, we were sending out all our bills by e-mail for a while. I think maybe 20% of them didn't even get those bills. Now, about 50% of our customers prefer to have their bills sent out by regular mail.
Who said anything about sniffing? Generally ISPs only act when they get complaints from other people. Since it's *their* DNS servers that are being affected, they can determine who's causing the problem right away, instead of having to wait for a third party to send them e-mail.
I work for an ISP and we filter spam at the mail server. When that spam filter isn't working, or isn't working properly, then we get all sorts of calls from people complaining about it. Our customers hate spam. And this is because they *aren't* desensitized by it.
Heck, I seem to recall that about 80% of trips are less than 5 miles. And those are where you have the least fuel efficiency.
Of course those trips don't really count for a lot on the odometer.
The real trick here is that since the Prius doesn't *need* to be plugged in, you've essentially got an electric car that can run off gas *when needed*, which eliminates one of the biggest arguments against electric cars - short range. This desipte how people very rarely use the long range of their gas-powered cars.
Slashdot Mirror
So, let me get this straight. Their target market is to sell something that costs $150 to people who can't afford to pay $350 to upgrade to something that's 10 times better and would even *include* this new software?
The real reason for the lack of upgrading over the past 10 years is because a) a *complete* lack of funds, in which case they can't afford the new software either, or b) They're too clueless to even know the difference, or c) don't even use the computers enough to *care* about upgrading anything.
This is PC hardware we're talking about, not old mainframes running legacy code that the company can't upgrade because the software they rely on will have to be rebuilt from scratch. If you want to run the old software, you just take out the hard drive and put it in the new computer, or copy it all over the network.
About 4 months ago, I acquired a . I was looking for a keyboard that was nice to type on, and would take the brutalizing that my last keyboard died from after less than a year. Once I tried my hand at one of these for 30 seconds in the store, I knew that I found what I was looking for.
Like the Model M, it has a clean tactile feedback that doesn't feel mushy at all. Unlike the Model M, it's pretty quiet. It also has a light touch, and a shorter key throw that lets me type at least 15 WPM faster than on any other keyboard I've ever owned. Just as important, it doesn't go for the gimmicky crap "features" that glut the market today. Its only concession is a row of 6 shortcut keys that are unobtrusive. The | key is even in the *right* place, with the same layout as the Model M. In fact, I like this keyboard so much, I bought a second one for work. When I leave this job, my keyboard comes with me.
*This* is the keyboard *I* will be buried with. And mine does USB.
Because we're talking about food.
*cough*
Lemme introduce you to a couple girls I know...
Heh. You would prefer gammavoltaics perhaps? :)
;)
The other interesting angle is that since we're starting with Tritium, we'll have to go through a whole lot of fusion reactions before we go gold.
More importantly, why doesn't *Apple* point out the alternatives? It's their job to point out that you have a choice.
Imagine if anyone (Apple especially) were to make these claims:
"Viruses don't affect our OS."
"Spam doesn't get through our filter."
"We have no bugs in our software."
There's three problems with this:
1) They're not true.
2) People will nail you to the wall in court when they find out about 1).
3) People will go out of their way to *make* them false, even if they're currently true.
I'd have to admit though, letting the world know that they don't *have* to use Windows would be a pretty damn good marketing strategy. Now if only they could get all those windows apps to work...
Uh, you should be comparing to the Honda Insight, not the Accord. The Insight gets some 60+ MPG if you buy a standard.
2. Long-term reliability and replacement costs of hybrid system (especially the batteries). 5 or 10 years from now, are these cars going to be proven as reliable as their traditional combustion-engine brethern? Or are they going to be visiting the shop more often to fix issues in their hybrid systems, replace their batteries (which do have a pre-determined lifetime), or whatever??
Well, Vancouver Taxi has 6, the last time I asked. And if you want to know about the reliability of a vehicle, ask a cabbie. Their highest-milage Prius has over 300,000 Km, with only regularly-scheduled maintenance. Only one of the hybrid-related systems have failed so far, and it was under warrantee.
Other specific experiences of fleets with Prius' in them can be found online.
Just remembered that the other great thing about txt-email compatibility: I use it as my work pager. It's a lot easier to get unix to send e-mail than to make it use a modem to phone a pager number.
Or more likely, when you're supposed to be quiet. Like at the library, the theatre, work, or church.
Even if it's just being trendy cool an' shit, at the very least it's better than the obnoxious turds who shout into their cellphones to show the world how "incredibly important" they are.
I like the fact that they're compatible with e-mail. I can send an e-mail to my wife at work to let her know something important and she'll get it right away. That and it's a lot faster to type than to txt.
LOTR wasn't trying to be a kids' movie(s). Unlike Star Wars.
Reason #1: An entrance fee - no matter how small - makes all the scammers, spammers, trolls and assholes go away.
Reason #2: $20 for a year? That's like, $1.67 a month. I spend more on junk food. And slashdot subscriptions are about as much and you get even less benefit.
he US wants the same laws as often as possible. It makes commerce easier. What if canada suddenly made oranges illegal.
Or what if the US made Canadian beef illegal? Or Canadian lumber? Or Canadian wheat? Well, the last two aren't banned, they're just heavily tarriffed despite a "free trade" agreement between the two countries. But that's not the point.
America doesn't care about the effect it has on other economies. It just wants its way. And because Canada needs the US more than the US needs Canada, they can use that leverage to force us to change our policies to benefit their industries.
And in this particular case, American jobs and American revenue aren't lost, because the industries affected are reimbursed by the taxes the Canadian government collects on the blank media people use to copy the stuff that the DMCA is supposed to protect. The RIAA just doesn't like it that way and wants to have laws that force us to buy new copies of the same stuff every time the technology to play it back changes.
Some time ago, I bought my wife a Sony Network Walkman(TM). It was exactly what she wanted, a portable MP3 player that could hold all her CDs, and it can even be used as a network hard drive to back up all the photos and artwork she creates on the computer.
About a month later she joined one of the music sites available in Canada. Try as she might, she couldn't copy the songs she downloaded onto her mp3 player and get them to play, even after talking to the site's tech support. She closed her account and tried to get her money back.
Then she said "Fuck that then. I'm going to steal the music instead. At least I know it will work."
(Of course, stealing the music in Canada is legal thanks to our current tax on such things as MP3 players and blank CDs and DVDs)
Find a bunch of these l33t h4x0r5, then one day after school there's a rash of incidents like this:
A black van screeches to a halt at the crosswalk that 13 year old Brody Seminuk is standing at, the side door opens and men in black ski masks yank him off the sidewalk and into the van, in full view of his friends. The van jackrabbits away from the curb and the interrogation immediately begins.
MIB: WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!
BS: What?! I don't have a job!
MIB: DON'T BULLSHIT US! WE KNOW YOU'RE WORKING FOR INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS!
BS: International terrorists!? But...! But...!
MIB: Don't lie to us boy! We'll beat the truth out of you if we have to!
BS: I don't know any terrorists! What are you talking about!?
MIB: You tried 32,812 times to break into www.edwards.af.mil!
BS: Oh shit!
Van stops in an underground parking garage, where Brody is shoved into a new van, with new interrogators.
MIB: WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!!
BS: I'm not working for anyone! I don't know any terrorists!
An old, battered van that has "Ed's plumbing" written on the side stops briefly and Brody is pushed out the back door, wearing only his underwear.
Friend 1: Dude, are you alright? We thought you were going to die!
Friend 2: They didn't rape you or anything, did they?
Brody: Got any money? I need a cab home.
Friend 1: Yeah, yeah, I have about $12.
Brody: call me a cab then.
Friend 2: What was that all about anyway.
Brody: Don't hack into Edwards. They really mean it.
Friend 2: You mean Edwards AFB?
Brody: Yes.
Friend 2: Um, what's that smell?
Brody: Shut up and dial.
Likely because they have to take every security threat seriously, and when you're getting thousands a day just from little kids trying to manually guess the secret password for the "Authorized users only" page at whitehouse.gov, it gets a little tiresome.
playing with snow outside at some -10C and under blizzards
-10 C? Pansies! The best sledding doesn't even start until -20!
b3 4ll j00 c4N B3!
J01n t3h 4RmY! T1s 133t!
Hardly. Contacting customers is a big problem for any ISP. Sure, everyone gets an e-mail address when you sign up with the ISP, but do they use it? You'd be astounded by how many people on the internet don't *use* e-mail. Either that or they use a hotmail or yahoo account that the ISP doesn't know about. Calling them is a real pain, because most people aren't home during business hours, and many don't bother to respond to their voice mail. Nevermind that it would take weeks or months to contact everyone, should the need arise.
Back in the day, we were sending out all our bills by e-mail for a while. I think maybe 20% of them didn't even get those bills. Now, about 50% of our customers prefer to have their bills sent out by regular mail.
Who said anything about sniffing? Generally ISPs only act when they get complaints from other people. Since it's *their* DNS servers that are being affected, they can determine who's causing the problem right away, instead of having to wait for a third party to send them e-mail.
I work for an ISP and we filter spam at the mail server. When that spam filter isn't working, or isn't working properly, then we get all sorts of calls from people complaining about it. Our customers hate spam. And this is because they *aren't* desensitized by it.
Don't use them at all. Turn the damn thing off at night and save a little power for the next guy.
If you want to save barrels of oil, pressure automotive companies to get their acts together.
Yes, but that pisses off those people with lots of money and power. If you just do things to fuck around with the little guys, who cares?
A lot of trips are less than 30 miles.
Heck, I seem to recall that about 80% of trips are less than 5 miles. And those are where you have the least fuel efficiency.
Of course those trips don't really count for a lot on the odometer.
The real trick here is that since the Prius doesn't *need* to be plugged in, you've essentially got an electric car that can run off gas *when needed*, which eliminates one of the biggest arguments against electric cars - short range. This desipte how people very rarely use the long range of their gas-powered cars.
Ever since Microsoft started this campaign against spammers, we haven't seen a reduction in the 100,000+ spam messages we get on our mail server.
This is like the lawsuits they launch against people who pirate Windows. Horribly, horribly ineffective.
The fact that he's sitting pretty right now, makes me think that he didn't pay anywhere near enough for his folly.
Please. Even if he did go to jail for that (rather than getting say, probation, having a clean criminal record) he would be out by now.
But hey, you know, if we're going to crucify someone for lying, let's pick another president. Say... any of them.
Please. Pick a single president yet that *hasn't* lied to everyone. Over and over. To get elected, to keep his job, or just to get what he wanted.
An honest politician is like Duke Nukem Forever. They don't exist, and it's likely they never will.