What's stopping *EVERYONE ELSE* from doing it is ignorance or laziness.
I remember reading a report when the first Honda Insight and Prius came out that about half of their city energy mileage improvement came from the fact that they shut off their engine while stopped. (Or, in the Prius' case, also when it's just coasting.) Merely turning the A/C on on the Insight (which forces the engine to stay on,) would drop its mileage to about the same as the old CRX that it was obviously based on.
The US requirement one is based largely on the SMART fortwo. Before it came to the US, it was touted as a cheap, small, highly-efficient car. By the time it came to the US, it was a mid-priced, small, middlingly-efficient car. With mileage no better than a four-place Honda Fit. I don't know what they did to it to kill the mileage, but they did. (It was implied before it came over that US-testing of mileage it would get 60 MPG. Once they modified it for the US market, it only got 40.)
Too many foreign cars have promised really high mileage, only to be dropped significantly once U.S. requirements are tacked on.
Personally, I just want to see engine auto-stop added to all cars. It would require only a slightly bigger standard 12V battery, and a slightly bigger starter. And you could cut city gas usage by a decent amount. Heck, assuming 70 MPG means highway, it could probably hit at least 60 MPG city with engine auto-stop added.
Large infrastructure needs reliability. Reliability is no better for generic-built than for name-brand, and you give up easy replacement. Costs will *SKYROCKET* purely in the man-hours needed to build and maintain them.
If Dell is giving you a crappy price, turn to HP, etc.
Yeah, I ended up replying to myself on this. Looks like the original submission had the citation, but it got stripped when posting to the main page. A bit mean, since it looks like Engadget is the immediate source, when it's actually the OP citing MacRumors citing Engadget.
Correction: The original submission from Kildjean has the link to MacRumors at the bottom. The approved/. story does not. Kildjean did right, samzenpus removed it.
You mean like how they're trying to patent the Prius' drive train as if it's their own, while selling the car for years as if it's not a Prius clone?
I have no problem with Chevy releasing a "full hybrid" that is also a Plug-In Hybrid. But to sell it as a battery electric vehicle with onboard range extender is disingenuous. Just tell us it's a PHEV. By being sneaky, you just piss people off unnecessarily.
Now if they send this as a generic "to all developers who are presently, or may be targeting mobile phone development at some point in the future" it would be one thing.
Next you're going to tell me that Java developers prefer cross-platform compatibility 10-1, with a slight lead for Solaris as the preferred environment.......
The only reason they are asking about WikiLeaks is because it's the current website that's "okay to hate/censor". Once they get approval for WikiLeaks, they'll move to other sites that actually target THEIR industry.
Depending on what you're doing, a Xeon LV would be better; and, again depending on the workload, the 12-core Opterons might win out, too.
Of course, those have higher non-CPU system power requirements, so an Atom's whole-system power requirements might win out.
But, as someone else mentions, ARM has excellent SoC power usage for the performance, so a massive array of ARM A9s could very easily smoke anything else.
It's true! In spite of the fact that we were using the same hardware, and same software player, somehow the OS must have more cleanly delivered the audio signal!
The Original Trilogy - remastered VHS released immediately before the Special Editions. The Original Trilogy - Special Edition Widescreen VHS. Later decided this was a mistake and gave these to my sister, kept the pre-SE versions.
My wife bought Phantom Menace on VHS, for the kid.
Haven't bought 2 or 3, haven't bought any copy on DVD.
*IF* he includes the un-altered versions, even in SD, on the Blu-ray, I might pick up the set. I came close to buying the 2004 release that came with the unaltered versions, but decided against it when I saw that they were letterbox, not anamorphic. My dad ended up buying this set, so I just borrow them when I want to watch them.
Just like how I'm not buying the theatrical release of LotR on Blu-ray, I'm waiting for the SEs.
The study doesn't say that people claimed Schindler's List in Real Player 25 kbps 160x120 video looked better than Plan 9 From Outer Space in 4K raw RED footage.
It says that the content had a large impact on the *perceived* quality of the video.
Obviously, the same content was higher-rated in higher quality.
But the content itself had a lot to do with the relative quality rankings. So Schindler's List in 1.5 Mb/s would likely have been considered "better quality" than Plan 9 From Outer Space at 5 Mb/s. But obviously Schindler's List at 5 Mb/s would be better still. Likewise, Gigli at 10 Mb/s would probably be rated worse than The Dark Knight at 1.5 Mb/s. However, Gigli at 20 Mb/s would almost assuredly be rated as "higher quality" than The Dark Knight at 500 Kb/s.
You are correct, the 2002 Jetta is *WAY* bigger than the 2002 Prius.
The 2004 Prius, on the other hand, is larger than the 2004 Jetta for everything except raw cargo capacity. (And even then, it's close.)
The Jetta and the Hyundai Elantra GT (hatchback) were the two other cars we considered when we bought our Prius.
My wife ruled the Jetta out for some reason I can't remember, so I did calculations comparing the Prius to the Elantra GT. By 80,000 miles, the Prius had "won" financially; and on features and size, it won right up front.
(I was aiming for the Jetta TDI, so I could convert it to run on grease. The TDI would have won over the Prius on fuel prices over 80k miles, too; especially converted to nearly-free grease.)
Red herrings. Even coal produces less CO2 per EV-mile driven than a gallon of gas.
And batteries are fully recyclable; most of the Lithium needed is already "in the stream" as it were. Yes, we'll have to mine more; but mining Lithium is a one-time process, not a continual process that involves drilling and pumping hazardous and flammable chemicals out of the ground; with real potential for massive environmental damage (see: Gulf of Mexico)
Yeah, it was funny, when the 2004 Prius first came out, I thought "Man, that thing's just a design ripoff from the Honda Insight, made bigger!"
How when I see the new Insight, I think just the opposite "Man, that thing's such a ripoff from the Prius, only smaller."
If the original Insight had a disablable passenger-side airbag, I would have bought one in 2006 (its last year.) But I had a small child at the time, so no airbags allowed in front of the carseat. Now that she's older, I'm tempted to get a used one.
(Doesn't it feel funny to call 45 MPG "terrible"? I find it funny when I catch myself feeling "guilty" for getting "only" 45 MPG sometimes.)
And I wouldn't say the Prius has "great EV only range", it's about 2 miles at best. (As soon as my warranty expires, I'll be converting mine to a plug-in to get about 10 miles.)
Sadly, it is the expected lifetime of a car nowadays...
When I was doing the calculations before I bought my hybrid, I did a 10-year comparison. Over 10 years, all of the "full hybrids" come out noticeably ahead. And if you compare proper trim levels, even some of the mild hybrids (the pickups, for example,) will come close or even ahead.
This was a big problem with the big claim last year that a Hummer was "greener" than a Prius. They claimed a lifetime of the Hummer of 300,000 miles, while they claimed a lifetime for the Prius of only 100,000 miles. Improper timeframes can have a big effect.
Pretty much. The idea is to encourage responsible behavior through financial incentives.
Once the responsible behavior has become prevalent, they can slowly take away the financial incentive, and the market will push products toward that responsible state.
(See the benefits provided through marriage, whose "responsible behavior" is intended to be creating children for one such incentive that has been bastardized over time to the point of unrecognizability.)
They have flawed comparisons in their "hybrid-only" cars.
They compare the Prius to the slightly smaller and noticeably less well appointed Matrix XR. The Prius has a unique spot in Toyota's lineup, falling between the Corolla and Camry. The Matrix may be closest - being basically a Corolla wagon, but it is still smaller. The $1700-over-5-years buys you more than a $1700 upgrade in car size and appointment.
Same with the Honda Civic DX-G vs. Insight. The Civic is a smaller, less well appointed vehicle, the upgrade to an Insight is more than worth the $1200-over-5-years difference.
Not to mention they quote some of the hybrids at higher-than-base packages, while the conventional equivalents are base. (Or they compare versions that have higher-than-base stock to the base conventional, such as all the Lexus models - which all come at higher-than-base packages compared to their non-hybrid equivalents. The LS coming at 'fully loaded' as the only choice on the hybrid.)
When I bought my Prius, gas was $1.49 a gallon. I had calculated the break-even point between the Prius and the other car we were looking at was at 130,000 miles.
Because of the doubling of gas prices, with flirtations at the $4.00 mark occasionally, we hit break-even at 80,000 miles.
5% interest over the last 10 years would have been a miracle. My conservatively-funded retirement plan is barely positive over the period of time I have owned my Prius. (Depending on wether you pick the week before or the week after I bought the car, you get either 7.6% increase or 7.8% increase total over 6 years. Hardly 5%/year.) My aggressively-funded retirement plan is *NEGATIVE* over that time.
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What's stopping *ME* from doing it is nothing.
What's stopping *EVERYONE ELSE* from doing it is ignorance or laziness.
I remember reading a report when the first Honda Insight and Prius came out that about half of their city energy mileage improvement came from the fact that they shut off their engine while stopped. (Or, in the Prius' case, also when it's just coasting.) Merely turning the A/C on on the Insight (which forces the engine to stay on,) would drop its mileage to about the same as the old CRX that it was obviously based on.
The US requirement one is based largely on the SMART fortwo. Before it came to the US, it was touted as a cheap, small, highly-efficient car. By the time it came to the US, it was a mid-priced, small, middlingly-efficient car. With mileage no better than a four-place Honda Fit. I don't know what they did to it to kill the mileage, but they did. (It was implied before it came over that US-testing of mileage it would get 60 MPG. Once they modified it for the US market, it only got 40.)
I'll believe it when I see it.
Too many foreign cars have promised really high mileage, only to be dropped significantly once U.S. requirements are tacked on.
Personally, I just want to see engine auto-stop added to all cars. It would require only a slightly bigger standard 12V battery, and a slightly bigger starter. And you could cut city gas usage by a decent amount. Heck, assuming 70 MPG means highway, it could probably hit at least 60 MPG city with engine auto-stop added.
Large infrastructure needs reliability. Reliability is no better for generic-built than for name-brand, and you give up easy replacement. Costs will *SKYROCKET* purely in the man-hours needed to build and maintain them.
If Dell is giving you a crappy price, turn to HP, etc.
Yeah, I ended up replying to myself on this. Looks like the original submission had the citation, but it got stripped when posting to the main page. A bit mean, since it looks like Engadget is the immediate source, when it's actually the OP citing MacRumors citing Engadget.
Correction: The original submission from Kildjean has the link to MacRumors at the bottom. The approved /. story does not. Kildjean did right, samzenpus removed it.
Why, with the exception of removing direct internal MacRumors links, this "story" looks to be identical wording to the MacRumors story on this.
Nike+ uses the same (unlicensed) frequency, but it is not Bluetooth. The Nike+ iPod adapter is not a Bluetooth adapter.
You mean like how they're trying to patent the Prius' drive train as if it's their own, while selling the car for years as if it's not a Prius clone?
I have no problem with Chevy releasing a "full hybrid" that is also a Plug-In Hybrid. But to sell it as a battery electric vehicle with onboard range extender is disingenuous. Just tell us it's a PHEV. By being sneaky, you just piss people off unnecessarily.
I love Goog-411. I use it at least once a week. While it may be flaky on the voice recognition more than I'd like, it's usually pretty good.
Yup, I read it the same way.
Exactly.
Now if they send this as a generic "to all developers who are presently, or may be targeting mobile phone development at some point in the future" it would be one thing.
Next you're going to tell me that Java developers prefer cross-platform compatibility 10-1, with a slight lead for Solaris as the preferred environment.......
Seconded. And it's 18 months. (Just checked.)
The only reason they are asking about WikiLeaks is because it's the current website that's "okay to hate/censor". Once they get approval for WikiLeaks, they'll move to other sites that actually target THEIR industry.
Depending on what you're doing, a Xeon LV would be better; and, again depending on the workload, the 12-core Opterons might win out, too.
Of course, those have higher non-CPU system power requirements, so an Atom's whole-system power requirements might win out.
But, as someone else mentions, ARM has excellent SoC power usage for the performance, so a massive array of ARM A9s could very easily smoke anything else.
It's true! In spite of the fact that we were using the same hardware, and same software player, somehow the OS must have more cleanly delivered the audio signal!
The only copies I have ever purchased are:
The Original Trilogy - remastered VHS released immediately before the Special Editions.
The Original Trilogy - Special Edition Widescreen VHS. Later decided this was a mistake and gave these to my sister, kept the pre-SE versions.
My wife bought Phantom Menace on VHS, for the kid.
Haven't bought 2 or 3, haven't bought any copy on DVD.
*IF* he includes the un-altered versions, even in SD, on the Blu-ray, I might pick up the set. I came close to buying the 2004 release that came with the unaltered versions, but decided against it when I saw that they were letterbox, not anamorphic. My dad ended up buying this set, so I just borrow them when I want to watch them.
Just like how I'm not buying the theatrical release of LotR on Blu-ray, I'm waiting for the SEs.
The study doesn't say that people claimed Schindler's List in Real Player 25 kbps 160x120 video looked better than Plan 9 From Outer Space in 4K raw RED footage.
It says that the content had a large impact on the *perceived* quality of the video.
Obviously, the same content was higher-rated in higher quality.
But the content itself had a lot to do with the relative quality rankings. So Schindler's List in 1.5 Mb/s would likely have been considered "better quality" than Plan 9 From Outer Space at 5 Mb/s. But obviously Schindler's List at 5 Mb/s would be better still. Likewise, Gigli at 10 Mb/s would probably be rated worse than The Dark Knight at 1.5 Mb/s. However, Gigli at 20 Mb/s would almost assuredly be rated as "higher quality" than The Dark Knight at 500 Kb/s.
Watch out for when Netflix implements this.
When you see a movie that has a bit rate of 1.5 Mb/s, it's probably good.
When you see a movie that has a bit rate of 40 Mb/s, steer clear.
You are correct, the 2002 Jetta is *WAY* bigger than the 2002 Prius.
The 2004 Prius, on the other hand, is larger than the 2004 Jetta for everything except raw cargo capacity. (And even then, it's close.)
The Jetta and the Hyundai Elantra GT (hatchback) were the two other cars we considered when we bought our Prius.
My wife ruled the Jetta out for some reason I can't remember, so I did calculations comparing the Prius to the Elantra GT. By 80,000 miles, the Prius had "won" financially; and on features and size, it won right up front.
(I was aiming for the Jetta TDI, so I could convert it to run on grease. The TDI would have won over the Prius on fuel prices over 80k miles, too; especially converted to nearly-free grease.)
Red herrings. Even coal produces less CO2 per EV-mile driven than a gallon of gas.
And batteries are fully recyclable; most of the Lithium needed is already "in the stream" as it were. Yes, we'll have to mine more; but mining Lithium is a one-time process, not a continual process that involves drilling and pumping hazardous and flammable chemicals out of the ground; with real potential for massive environmental damage (see: Gulf of Mexico)
Yeah, it was funny, when the 2004 Prius first came out, I thought "Man, that thing's just a design ripoff from the Honda Insight, made bigger!"
How when I see the new Insight, I think just the opposite "Man, that thing's such a ripoff from the Prius, only smaller."
If the original Insight had a disablable passenger-side airbag, I would have bought one in 2006 (its last year.) But I had a small child at the time, so no airbags allowed in front of the carseat. Now that she's older, I'm tempted to get a used one.
(Doesn't it feel funny to call 45 MPG "terrible"? I find it funny when I catch myself feeling "guilty" for getting "only" 45 MPG sometimes.)
And I wouldn't say the Prius has "great EV only range", it's about 2 miles at best. (As soon as my warranty expires, I'll be converting mine to a plug-in to get about 10 miles.)
Sadly, it is the expected lifetime of a car nowadays...
When I was doing the calculations before I bought my hybrid, I did a 10-year comparison. Over 10 years, all of the "full hybrids" come out noticeably ahead. And if you compare proper trim levels, even some of the mild hybrids (the pickups, for example,) will come close or even ahead.
This was a big problem with the big claim last year that a Hummer was "greener" than a Prius. They claimed a lifetime of the Hummer of 300,000 miles, while they claimed a lifetime for the Prius of only 100,000 miles. Improper timeframes can have a big effect.
Pretty much. The idea is to encourage responsible behavior through financial incentives.
Once the responsible behavior has become prevalent, they can slowly take away the financial incentive, and the market will push products toward that responsible state.
(See the benefits provided through marriage, whose "responsible behavior" is intended to be creating children for one such incentive that has been bastardized over time to the point of unrecognizability.)
They have flawed comparisons in their "hybrid-only" cars.
They compare the Prius to the slightly smaller and noticeably less well appointed Matrix XR. The Prius has a unique spot in Toyota's lineup, falling between the Corolla and Camry. The Matrix may be closest - being basically a Corolla wagon, but it is still smaller. The $1700-over-5-years buys you more than a $1700 upgrade in car size and appointment.
Same with the Honda Civic DX-G vs. Insight. The Civic is a smaller, less well appointed vehicle, the upgrade to an Insight is more than worth the $1200-over-5-years difference.
Not to mention they quote some of the hybrids at higher-than-base packages, while the conventional equivalents are base. (Or they compare versions that have higher-than-base stock to the base conventional, such as all the Lexus models - which all come at higher-than-base packages compared to their non-hybrid equivalents. The LS coming at 'fully loaded' as the only choice on the hybrid.)
Invalid assumption:
Gas will be $3 for the next 195,000 miles.
When I bought my Prius, gas was $1.49 a gallon. I had calculated the break-even point between the Prius and the other car we were looking at was at 130,000 miles.
Because of the doubling of gas prices, with flirtations at the $4.00 mark occasionally, we hit break-even at 80,000 miles.
5% interest over the last 10 years would have been a miracle. My conservatively-funded retirement plan is barely positive over the period of time I have owned my Prius. (Depending on wether you pick the week before or the week after I bought the car, you get either 7.6% increase or 7.8% increase total over 6 years. Hardly 5%/year.) My aggressively-funded retirement plan is *NEGATIVE* over that time.