Their bumpers are also going to be lowered by about 2", thank god. Having different safety & emissions requirements for cars and trucks was fine back when trucks weren't used as extensively as they are now. Back when the laws were made people than needed truck bought them. Now people that need a station wagon buy a truck because they don't want to feel like their mom.
By the way, as for your small cars that can't carry 4 adults comment... My Volkswagen Jetta GLX has 174BHP and 188 lb/ft of torque. It has hauled (probably) over 800 lbs of flesh before with plenty of power leftover to run the a/c and get to 60MPH quickly. It also gets about 30MPG on the highway (my measurements). My personal best is 32MPG on a fairly flat highway with the climate control cranking.
that you need your car? cause i don't own one. it saves me on the order of $10k a year, it's good for the environemnt, and it builds community.
But you have to pay for all of your deliverys. You have to pay someone at least $3 a day to transport you. You probably go out to eat more often because of the inconvienience of walking to the grocery store. If you want to go away from the city you have to use a taxi (anything but cheap) or annoy a friend with a car.
Maybe you save some money, but I wouldn't say it's $10,000 a year.
No, there are no buses or trains in the country. It doesn't make sense. There simply isn't enough population density to make it worthwhile. Basically, 'public transit' would be one bus for everyone... hardly an improvement.
You don't like cars? Was your mother killed in a car crash or something?
When you drive a battery car, you are charging it from the power grid.
A lot of the recharging can come from brakeing -- where a lot of energy is normally wasted by being transferred to heat. I'm not sure of whether or not the Honda & Toyota hybrids do this or not, but I read about an electric car recently that gets quite a good charge from brakeing.
There is a huge installed base of gasoline internal combustine engines (ICE). As an analogue, there is a huge installed base of 4:3 NTSC TVs out there now. DTVs are here. Unfortunately half of them are 4:3. They aren't selling very strongly. Every now & then you'll see a press piece on the death of DTV.
Oil companies to pay off, or threaten companies that are developing alternatives to gasoline as a fuel, and to ICE as an engine. We've been hearing about other forms of propullsion for decades now, and just recently we have two alternative cars that are produced in number: Honda's Insight and Toyota's Prius. Have you noticed that both of these cars also have gas ICE's in them as well as electric engines? Sure, part of this is because of longevity (another problem alternative engines must overcome), but I'd bet that the oil companies had more than a little bit to do with it.
Any other alternative car that has ever come out has never been put into production in 'large' numbers.
The mass market doesn't want anything put a gas ICE because it's what they're familiar with. Examples: The Ford Excursion & Expedition are perfect candidates for diesel engines. They are massive beasts that desperately need better mileage, and they have to tow large loads so they need the torque that a diesel engine will give them. However, the majority of these vehicles are equipped with gas ICEs. I don't even know if a diesel engine is available. The Volkswagen Passat has a diesel engine as an option in Europe and Canada. It is not available in the US. I don't know whether this is a regulation issue (as the dealer tells us) or a market issue. I lean towards a market issue because the previous model Passat had a diesel engine option, while the current does not. Volkwagen's new $75,000 seden they have planned includes diesel engine options, but all of the automobile magazines say they don't think we'll be getting the diesel engines here.
Now, we have supposed environmentalists saying that diesel is too dirty so we need to make the fuel itself cleaner, when the majority of the problem is in the engine itself. Transfer truck diesel engines are rather dirty, however Volkswagen's new TDI that is available in the Golf and Jetta (and tecnology from which will soon be in Toyota's) burns rather cleanly.
Oh well, I'm at work so I shouldn't spend anymore time on this. Sorry, if it wasn't very well thought out.
As a side note, I'd hate to see gas ICE's outlawed so that I won't be able to drive the Boxster S I'm striving for, and Red Barchetta will become a true story.:)
Every DVD review Web site that I know of gets the vast majority (greater than 90%, I'd guess) of the DVDs they review from the company that made the DVD. The DVD is not expected to be returned (which is why I was interested in reviewing DVDs for a Web site).
trying to hold your phone, dial it, hold it between your ear and shoulder as you tilt your head sideways and converse and drive in this position -- then that's not so great. Should be an offense that can be fined.
This is an offense that can be fined already. It is called wreckless driving. Driving while doing anything wreckless should be punished under this existing law, including cell phone usage. However, wreckless driving isn't something that the Highway Patrol concentrates on too much. They'd much rather pull the guy driving 15 MPH over the speed limit on a deserted road than someone failing to use their turn signal when merging during rush hour traffic while eating a Egg McMuffin!
The good thing about having a few standards licenses instead of everyone tailoring their license to their company of application is that the licensee doesn't have to take time out to look over the license and make sure that they fully understand it. As most licenses are now, you have to spend quite a bit of time reading each one trying to find the one sentance (or paragraph, or word) where they're going to fuck you. So, most people don't read them.
With standard licenses (or better, no licenses on software) you can at least say "Oh, this is the GPL, I know what I'm agreeing to" or "This is the MSL, I know not to agree to it because I have to fuck a goat or pay $50 each time I start the program -- even after it crashes."
A programer does retain the copyright when he GPL's his software. He then has the choice of keepting the copyright to himself, or assigning it to another entity, such as the FSF.
However, I don't think the GPL can cover itself. Wouldn't that be an infinite loop?
The trashcan idea was actually Apple's before it was Microsoft's. It was on the MacOS before Windows 95 (the first MS OS to use the recycle bin) copied it. I have no idea who's idea it was before Apple's -- if anybody's.
I agree, the Greedo shooting first thing is gay. But not because he shoots first, it't gay because the action is extremely jumpy due to poor editing. It's hard to know what is going on there at first. I'm also pissed because they took out the Ewok Celebration from Jedi. But, I have no qualms with Phantom Menace, unless George decides to take Natalie Portman out of it.:)
As for other reasons, I don't think innovation and swimming against the current should be so lightly dismissed. USB and Firewire are really cool technologies. Macs, though they didn't pioneer USB, were one of the first systems to deploy it widely. Wireless ethernet is also very cool and very useful. Again, though not the originators, Apple has made it affordable.
Apple did help with development of USB, AFAIK. They were the ones that designed the USB icon/logo for what it's worth.
Apple is dedicated to the idea that form is more important than function, even if Apple is straining to provide function as well. For example, the latest cases with the four handles are easy to move around (four handles, yay) but they're far more about appearance. Too bad they scratch so pathetically easy.
You complain that Apple puts form ahead of function, but then go on to over-look Apple's wonderfully designed (function) cases because they scratch (form) too easily. Based off of this, it seems that you find form more important that Apple.
I'm all about form follows function, and I love how Apple's G3 & G4 cases function well and have a beautiful form.
And, no, I do not own an Apple or any stock in the company.
This is what I don't get: car companies get away with this and worse all the time.
They take pictures of Porsche's new 996-based 911 Turbo doing test-runs on the Autobahn in disguise. They publish computer-altered pictures of cars. They have artists develop renderings of what they expect Ferrari's new car to look like. They bring tape measures to auto shows.
They've gone so far that Honda produced a 9:10 scale MDX for an auto show so that the journalists couldn't report actual measurements, or be sure of the interior & exterior styling. But, I've never heard of Porsche, Ferrari, or Honda sueing a car magazine for publishing rumors.
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Their bumpers are also going to be lowered by about 2", thank god. Having different safety & emissions requirements for cars and trucks was fine back when trucks weren't used as extensively as they are now. Back when the laws were made people than needed truck bought them. Now people that need a station wagon buy a truck because they don't want to feel like their mom.
By the way, as for your small cars that can't carry 4 adults comment... My Volkswagen Jetta GLX has 174BHP and 188 lb/ft of torque. It has hauled (probably) over 800 lbs of flesh before with plenty of power leftover to run the a/c and get to 60MPH quickly. It also gets about 30MPG on the highway (my measurements). My personal best is 32MPG on a fairly flat highway with the climate control cranking.
Refrag
But you have to pay for all of your deliverys. You have to pay someone at least $3 a day to transport you. You probably go out to eat more often because of the inconvienience of walking to the grocery store. If you want to go away from the city you have to use a taxi (anything but cheap) or annoy a friend with a car.
Maybe you save some money, but I wouldn't say it's $10,000 a year.
Refrag
No, there are no buses or trains in the country. It doesn't make sense. There simply isn't enough population density to make it worthwhile. Basically, 'public transit' would be one bus for everyone... hardly an improvement.
You don't like cars? Was your mother killed in a car crash or something?
Refrag
If your story is true, your professor friend got ripped off!
Refrag
Buy a Volkswagen Jetta TDI or Volkswagen Golf TDI. The cars have ~14 gallon tanks, and get 50 MPG on the highway. That's gives you a range of 700 miles.
Refrag
A lot of the recharging can come from brakeing -- where a lot of energy is normally wasted by being transferred to heat. I'm not sure of whether or not the Honda & Toyota hybrids do this or not, but I read about an electric car recently that gets quite a good charge from brakeing.
Refrag
There is a huge installed base of gasoline internal combustine engines (ICE). As an analogue, there is a huge installed base of 4:3 NTSC TVs out there now. DTVs are here. Unfortunately half of them are 4:3. They aren't selling very strongly. Every now & then you'll see a press piece on the death of DTV.
:)
Oil companies to pay off, or threaten companies that are developing alternatives to gasoline as a fuel, and to ICE as an engine. We've been hearing about other forms of propullsion for decades now, and just recently we have two alternative cars that are produced in number: Honda's Insight and Toyota's Prius. Have you noticed that both of these cars also have gas ICE's in them as well as electric engines? Sure, part of this is because of longevity (another problem alternative engines must overcome), but I'd bet that the oil companies had more than a little bit to do with it.
Any other alternative car that has ever come out has never been put into production in 'large' numbers.
The mass market doesn't want anything put a gas ICE because it's what they're familiar with. Examples: The Ford Excursion & Expedition are perfect candidates for diesel engines. They are massive beasts that desperately need better mileage, and they have to tow large loads so they need the torque that a diesel engine will give them. However, the majority of these vehicles are equipped with gas ICEs. I don't even know if a diesel engine is available. The Volkswagen Passat has a diesel engine as an option in Europe and Canada. It is not available in the US. I don't know whether this is a regulation issue (as the dealer tells us) or a market issue. I lean towards a market issue because the previous model Passat had a diesel engine option, while the current does not. Volkwagen's new $75,000 seden they have planned includes diesel engine options, but all of the automobile magazines say they don't think we'll be getting the diesel engines here.
Now, we have supposed environmentalists saying that diesel is too dirty so we need to make the fuel itself cleaner, when the majority of the problem is in the engine itself. Transfer truck diesel engines are rather dirty, however Volkswagen's new TDI that is available in the Golf and Jetta (and tecnology from which will soon be in Toyota's) burns rather cleanly.
Oh well, I'm at work so I shouldn't spend anymore time on this. Sorry, if it wasn't very well thought out.
As a side note, I'd hate to see gas ICE's outlawed so that I won't be able to drive the Boxster S I'm striving for, and Red Barchetta will become a true story.
Refrag
Every DVD review Web site that I know of gets the vast majority (greater than 90%, I'd guess) of the DVDs they review from the company that made the DVD. The DVD is not expected to be returned (which is why I was interested in reviewing DVDs for a Web site).
I still see bad reviews.
Refrag
This is an offense that can be fined already. It is called wreckless driving. Driving while doing anything wreckless should be punished under this existing law, including cell phone usage. However, wreckless driving isn't something that the Highway Patrol concentrates on too much. They'd much rather pull the guy driving 15 MPH over the speed limit on a deserted road than someone failing to use their turn signal when merging during rush hour traffic while eating a Egg McMuffin!
Refrag
This is what SMS is for... :)
Refrag
The good thing about having a few standards licenses instead of everyone tailoring their license to their company of application is that the licensee doesn't have to take time out to look over the license and make sure that they fully understand it. As most licenses are now, you have to spend quite a bit of time reading each one trying to find the one sentance (or paragraph, or word) where they're going to fuck you. So, most people don't read them.
With standard licenses (or better, no licenses on software) you can at least say "Oh, this is the GPL, I know what I'm agreeing to" or "This is the MSL, I know not to agree to it because I have to fuck a goat or pay $50 each time I start the program -- even after it crashes."
Refrag
A programer does retain the copyright when he GPL's his software. He then has the choice of keepting the copyright to himself, or assigning it to another entity, such as the FSF.
However, I don't think the GPL can cover itself. Wouldn't that be an infinite loop?
Refrag
Katz is now going to go back to doing what he does best: regurgitating other author's words.
Refrag
The trashcan idea was actually Apple's before it was Microsoft's. It was on the MacOS before Windows 95 (the first MS OS to use the recycle bin) copied it. I have no idea who's idea it was before Apple's -- if anybody's.
Refrag
I agree, the Greedo shooting first thing is gay. But not because he shoots first, it't gay because the action is extremely jumpy due to poor editing. It's hard to know what is going on there at first. I'm also pissed because they took out the Ewok Celebration from Jedi. But, I have no qualms with Phantom Menace, unless George decides to take Natalie Portman out of it. :)
No, I am not trolling.
Refrag
Why doesn't he (& others) quit whining and port/reverse-engineer Quicktime?
He shouldn't refuse to post articles just because something related to it won't run on Linux (right now).
Refrag
I liked The Phantom Menace! I didn't even think Jar Jar was annoying -- contrary to my opinions of him after seeing the trailers.
It's basically the same type of thing as the first Trilogy, only now people seeing it are older and don't like the comedy relief characters as much.
Now if only Georgie would get around to releasing some Star Wars DVDs, I won't have to boycott Lucas% anymore.
Refrag
Nokia's (or at least mine) can go to silent mode by hitting the power button, and selecting silent mode from a menu.
Refrag
Apple did help with development of USB, AFAIK. They were the ones that designed the USB icon/logo for what it's worth.
Refrag
You complain that Apple puts form ahead of function, but then go on to over-look Apple's wonderfully designed (function) cases because they scratch (form) too easily. Based off of this, it seems that you find form more important that Apple.
I'm all about form follows function, and I love how Apple's G3 & G4 cases function well and have a beautiful form.
And, no, I do not own an Apple or any stock in the company.
Refrag
Funny... I always thought of Apple computers as great hardware held back by bad software. This is why I may buy a Mac once MacOS X comes out.
Refrag
This is what I don't get: car companies get away with this and worse all the time.
They take pictures of Porsche's new 996-based 911 Turbo doing test-runs on the Autobahn in disguise. They publish computer-altered pictures of cars. They have artists develop renderings of what they expect Ferrari's new car to look like. They bring tape measures to auto shows.
They've gone so far that Honda produced a 9:10 scale MDX for an auto show so that the journalists couldn't report actual measurements, or be sure of the interior & exterior styling. But, I've never heard of Porsche, Ferrari, or Honda sueing a car magazine for publishing rumors.
Refrag
...or considering the fact that /. is based in the US as well.
Refrag
Why does the preview button exist, if not even the /. employees use it?
"while you?re making sure the kids"
Is it just there to keep the submit button company?
Refrag
No. Based upon the merits of the MP3s, I bought two Foo Fighters CDs and plan to buy a third.
Refrag