Personally, I'd rather have two bills - one for the physical layer (cables, swtiches, and maintenance) provided either by the government or pseudo-governmental corporation, and one or more for the data (of any kind - voice, video, internet). By segregating the two, you can allow local issues to be dealt with as a local problem, and offermake up funding for low-density where "the government" feels necessary (rural electric comes to mind as an example, if not the best one). For those afraid of government, realize that most areas run their own water and sewer, and do a fairly good job, on the whole. And I'm not saying it has to be government - a corporation can run the plant (under gov. supervision - any monopoly needs close oversight).
By separating the physical and the data, you can offer _real_ competition by local or national providers. Think of long distance telephone service - it's in a hell of a lot better shape (for the consumers and competitive pricing) than, say, local telephone or cell service (Verizon, anyone?). Most places don't even have the possibility of a competing high speed carrier because the physical plant operators can charge whatever they want for access, and as a result their services will always end up being more competitive.
Power would be nice this way, too. I already have the physical plant portion broken out on my bill with generation costs separate. By prohibiting the physical plant operators from having any financial interest in the service operators, there will be a more level footing - and more opportunity for competition.
Oh, in case you're curious, the incumebents know this, and would lobby to their deaths against any mandated separation.
Hey, I didn't say it wasn't unintentional - just not a miracle. When you look at your resources and the demands of the world, then figure out how to capitalize, that's not rocket science. Bargaining from your strength is the way any sucessful business works. The question to be answered is whether or not the power base has the forethought to anticipate the upcoming changes.
It's no secret that some of the gulf states (UAE comes to mind) are taking the phenominal oil revenues they are generating and putting that money into other industries (tourism, particularly), in anticipation that the oil game won't last forever. That's a smart move, imho, though they are being a bit dramatic with it. It may or may not prove economically viable in the future (the hair salon owner/wife of a doctor who's shop has marble floors and an espresso counter comes to mind), but it may be enough splash to give them the momentum it takes to be a self sustaining economy without the mountain of reserve cash. Las Vegas manages to do it.
A comic (whos name I cannot recall now) commented on the amazing popularity of March of the Penguins a couple of years ago. He pointed out that this was a turning point for Hollywood, to see a well-shot documentary with a solid actor doing narration and a storyline to hold the piece together. He felt that with the commercial success of this documentary we would see many more like it in the coming years. Not other documentaries, of course, but lots of penguin movies.
"...or are relying on an xmltv grabber to scrape some websites..."
Barring the embedded data (which I belive is in the US ATSC OTA broadcasts), screen scrapers seem to be the norm for cabletv work. It's a preocess that's a bit hands on - time from my life or money from my pocket. I'm not a programmer (not since I was in grade school), so it's more efficient to pay someone.
Your machine spec almost mirrors mine - PIII/550, and I went with Knoppmyth. Unfortunately, I found that I would need a new video card (and PCI at that) and a new capture card to get the capture and output to a TV. A actually ran into a couple of network card issues during hte install, and I'm not really comfy in linux, and the knopp install wasn't too friendly wrt tinkering. I considered ubuntu, since I use that on my daughters laptop, but I was hoping for a less complex solution. With the two cards and a stock-compliant network interface (had to be USB - only 2 slots in the PC I had) that would mean close to 3/4 the cost of a TiVo, just to get it working on an "underpowered" box. Yikes.
You can definietly do more with your own box than a TiVo. Actually, I have satellite and a hacked TiVo I use for video extraction. It's an older, orphaned unit, so I'm just hoping it lasts, but at the same time the new TiVos do more. *shrug* Nobody will manufacture the box I want, for fear of it being used to steal content. Heaven forbid those of us who are willing to purchase content should have an easy time of making things simple.
Come now, you have dirt cheap labor, little to no government environmental/personnel regulation, and a fixed yuan-dollar ratio. There's no miracle, it's just simple economics. Had China not been closed for so many years, they would have reached this point a couple of decades ago.
China will find the same problem that the west has - everyone want's to be upper (or middle) class eventually. Very few in China are reaping the benfits of the changes, and many are happy just to make a better living than they had before. Eventually, thier children - or children's children - will want far more, and will expect more. A growing middle class will not put up with the destruction of their natural environment and unsafe (or "unfair" - definine it as you wish) working conditions. Pressure will be placed on the govenerment from many sides, and the government will start changing things.
It is simply a matter of time before things change. There are still places where manufacturing is cheap in the US. There are places in the US where $50k can provide a pleasant lifestyle for a family, and $80-90k is the local upper class. And some of those places are pretty darned nice places to live. Some may think those numbers are high, and those of you in the major metro areas will wonder how anyone can afford groceries on such an income. (Hint: in the next town over from me, there are new, 2000SF houses on a acre of land selling for under $100/sf, and taxes are under 1% of the value) As the middle class increases in China, the same wage pressures will occur, and - if they ever de-link their currency - it's going to result in the cost of goods from China increasing at a dramatic rate.
There will be more IP based production - it's the hallmark of modern civilization. Interestingly, I think we will find globalization retreat a bit in the next 50 years. As the cost of production increases in low-wage markets, transportation costs will shift marginal items back to a local advantage. This may become accellerated by the increasing cost for fuel (which, imho, is artificially inflated by the speculation markets...but that's another show). It will not put things back to the 1960s or 70s, but a new dynamic balance will form.
It is interesting that it's all pay for service. I went about trying to get Myth running on an old box to see what it was like, and gave up after a week of frustration. The whole idea was (a) minimize the box cost (extsing HW) and (b) eliminate the recurring costs.
After spending a dozen hours, and reading about the transition, it occured to me that TiVo is offering not just the data, but a software maintenance contract. As with all non-do-it-yourself projects, the black box approach is somewhat limiting, but if I were to value guide data at $5/mo, then TiVos s/w maintenance would be about $11/mo at full-fare, or $3/mo on a 3 year "contract". Since I am an american, I both understand the contract (cell phones, sat service) and I'm eligible. And based on the time spent^wwasted on my vain attempt - $3 seems pretty affordable to hire out the ugly work.
And now, getting a tivo hd box up costs less than even a bargain myth box that isn't built from old parts. Personally, I'd like to see TiVo drop their per-month prices to their "extra box" or "long term" rates ($7 and $8, respectively) - or at least figure out a way to do so, perhaps with auto- or e-billing. Of course, I'd like unfettered video extraction, too...but then we're off into "I want a pony" land for the commerical products.
Do you realize the kind of productivity spike we could get if the 'net was down for, say, a week? One day would be lost to people trying to get back up, admittedly, but then we'd all just start doing work, checking the 'net connection more and more infrequently. After a week, we'd probably run out of work on our desks that didn't need internet lookups, though most of us still have paper catalogs around so it wouldn't be a total loss. Faxing would get popular again, as would phones and voicemail...but no outside IM and email to deal with.
I'm going to call it a net win for productivity and busniess in general. Which means that it's most likely that big business is behind the internet shutdown...and the Storm worm.
Does the java applet disable the always-on-top functionality of the taskmanager brought up using ctrl-alt-delete? Otherwise, you could just bring it up and close the application or - if that's not playing nice - close the processes.
This must be nature's way of compensating for the reduction in sex. When I was twenty, it was no big deal to go three times in a night, and 5 or 6 times in a 24 hour period was possible (being at a different college than my gf made for some frantic weekends). Twenty years later, the ability to go all the way more than twice a day - even when the opportunity is available, which is almost never once you have kids - seems like a feat.
It also becomes so clear how good a shape you need to be in to have really, really good sex. What was easy before takes effort now. Not that I'm complaining...
Good for expensive electricity areas. I currently pay about 6.5-7c/kwh, and have zero (okay, net zero) to be on grid. Ignoring TVM, you still have to be in a more expensive area to beat the electric co. fwiw, I get most of my power from AEP, which had rates - all inclusive of fees and transmission - for about 5.8c/kwh as little as three years ago.
I like solar, but it's hard to beat efficient, centrally generated power. I'm hoping, though, that that fact changes with time...or at least that central power generation starts to use more solar. It's about as low on the energy food chain as you can get here on earth.
I'm likewise surprised about the need for trackballs. I suspect it's a support issue. I've got a logitech bluetooth MX900(?) (optical) thatI've used for the past three years. I do lots of CAD work as well as some minimal illustrating and layout and with my mousepad I've got pixel-exact control of the mouse and can still get from one side of a 1920 pixel wide screen to the other without lifting the mouse in a 4 inch (+/-) wide stroke. In fact, I can't imagine not using a wrist-supported mousepad. I like the gel-filled ones, personally. The rest keeps my mouse hand relaxed and I put almost no pressure on the mouse itself. The zoom ring on the kesington looks cool, but I use the scroll for that on my mouse (I wish all programs did pan and zoom like autocad with the center click-wheel - are you listening, Adobe?).
For the road, I've got a smaller BT mouse that is more sensitive. Unlike the logitech, which needs to be charged every 3-5 days (it's got a cradle), the travel mouse has a real on-off switch and has been on the same set of AAs for at least 300 hours of mousing (a full year of evening surfing and on-the-road stuff).
I misread "downtown Winnipeg" as "down to WalMart".
For the $200 I spent in 1982...
on
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With most TVs, you just take your player, plug a single (HDMI) cable from your player to the TV. At this point, you're pretty far past the bleeding edge of the tech curve, and any new device is pretty likely to work. Since 40-50" televisions of any kind have never been under $400, I wouldn't hold your breath.
Me? I just dropped $1850 to put together a 7 speaker home theater system with a 125" 16:9 motorized screen, Onkyo 630W (90x7) HDMI upconverting and 2:1 switching amplifier, and an Epson 720p front projector. If you disregard the speaker wire, there's an HDMI cable from my player to my amp, and an HDMI from my amp to my projector. Oh...I'm lazy, so there's a headphone cable from the projector to the screen - that way with the PJ turns on, the screen drops automagically, and goes up when I power down. Hardly rocket science. It's going to take a movie a week to "make back" that money compared to taking the family to see a movie in the theater, but - honestly - my popcorn is better anyway.
It could be done for less - probably $900-$1000 with an HD projector, 100" fixed or manual screen, and a home-theater-in-a-box package. Is a 100" screen worth 2.5x as much to you as a $400 40" LCD?
Actually, price per watt is probably just below price per lifetime watt-hour. If it costs more to buy than the cells will produce, it's just an off-grid luxury item.
Cost. I'm not really at liberty to spend another 20k on a car so that I can get shitty mileage in town. If I'm going to spend more than twice my annual mortgage payment on a third vehicle for the family, it had better be something I'm going to want to drive. As far as I know, the tesla and EV1 are not commercially availble vehicles. The RAV4 looks like a kids toy and I haven't seen a all electric one in the local dealer (by "kid", I mean teenager or 20something), and - sorry - the prius _is_ pretty damned ugly.
The mini is, admittedly, cute. The driving I do, though, requires either an electric or hybrid. I barely got 20 mpg when I drove my wife's Subary Legacy around town, though we could easily top 30 in "normal driving". My area just isn't laid out for economy - lots of sharp turns, stop signs, lights, and speed bumps...excuse me,"traffic calming devices." Anyway, if I'm going to spend 20-30k on a car, I'm not really looking to get an extra 7-10mpg better mileage for 6000 miles a year. It just isn't economically viable, and still wouldn't be viable if gas were $10/gal. It needs to make up that cost gap in "fun" and I just can't justify more than a couple thousand dollars from my "fun" budget. I don't think a lotus is going to be more economical to purchase, and the catterham isn't really my style - again, something mass market would be nice (hence the miata, rx-8,...).
Why does every damned economical car have to _look_ like an economy car? Why not put an all-electric concept into a Miata, MR2, RX-8, S2000, or other coupe (or coupe+)? Give me a damned spyder hard-top. I would really like an electric car. I drive a 5.4L V8 F150 for work - and I need it for some of the construction sites I'm on - but it gets absolutely horrible mileage, about 14mpg. I commute about 1 mile to work (yes, I do bike from time to time, and walk occasionally, too) and many of my in-town meetings could easily be done from a little 2 seater. I could probably put about 1/2 the mileage on my truck if I had something smaller. I'm no fashion diva (see F150, above), but there is no way I'm going to be seen in some fugly eco-box. If you're going to make me feel cool by driving a green car, at least keep me from being taken for a dork by driving something that looks like it came out of the back end of a chicken.
Based on the graduates I've seen and hired, it is clear that colleges are not really preparation for the workforce. I've encountered everything from fundementally inept to merely inadequate - the latter just needs some real life experience, the former should be practicing enunciation so that they can be understood on the drive-through speaker.
College should be designed to prepare you for a career. If it isn't, then it's quite a waste of $100,000-$200,000. Unless of course you're rich and have a general interest in knowledge, in which case it's fine but not really salient to the point here. If you're going to drop 6 figures on a higher education and expect to get that money back (TVM...take that $200G and invest it when you're 18, and you'll likely end up farther ahead in 30 years) you damned well better get a good paying job. If you want a good paying job, you need useful skills. I hired a guy at about 10k less than he wanted to get. He came on because he had to be in the area, and there were few jobs for fresh-outs. Guess what - in two months, he hasn't made a penny. I fact, I'm taking about $500-$800 a week out of my pocket (since I'm the owner) above what he is doing in gross billables ) to write him a paycheck. He's a smart kid, and is learning fairly quickly, but I'll be lucky if I break even on him in the first 6 months. I know he'll only stick around for 4 years (local commitment not related to the job that I happen to know about), so I'm paying a hefty sum in hopes that he can make me some money in the 3 years he's here and useful.
Taking an extra class every semester is a good idea. I suspect your friends aren't taking more than the minimums required, as that would require more effort. Most people are lazy. I can't blame them really - I'd be lazy, too, if there weren't a need for money for things like food and shelter. Since most colleges don't charge extra for classes above the "full time" level, you're getting those for "free" - and that's a bargain, though you might be missing some beer time. OTOH, if you could graduate a semester early by taking an in-major class, you might save yourself enough money to take an extra vacation every year for the next decade and see the sights / experience the language / take an educational trip. It would keep your mind healthy and offer a break your debt-ridden, lazy, slaving classmates won't get. Or you could blow the money on blackjack and hookers. Life is all about choices.
No, it's a troll because it can work with multiple cable providers (can your 622 work with multiple satellite providers?) and more importantly it has the TiVo(R) interface. I know that seems like a dead horse argument, but it really makes a difference. TiVo is a bit like Apple (with all the fanboi problems, too) - it just works. It may not do what some enthusiasts want, but what it does, it does well - and with sparkling simplicity.
I've tried some of the PC (win/linux) versions of DVRs, have seen some non-TiVo DVRs in action, and currently have two DTiVos. Based on what I've seen, I'm probably going to dump DirecTV when they turn off my TiVo and just go back to OTA and packaged video products. The only weakness in that plan is the lack of ESPN - I'm not sure I could make it through football season without that.
Anyway, as with all DVRs, specs mean almost nothing - the usability is the first item on any list. If that weren't the case, we'd all be running myth or MCE, or we'd be happy with whatever the cablecos send us (you do seem to fall in the latter category).
It's the responsibilty of the vendor to verify the systems are in compliance. If the error is in favor of the consumer, then there should be no recourse; if the error is in favor of the house then it's false advertising and the consumer is entitled to compensation. The house has control over all aspects of the game; the player has none. Imho, its similar to a contract: if one party writes the contract, then any errors therein are generally adjudicated in favor of the non-writing party.
Casinos are the rare exception to simple rules like this: anyone caught playing by the rules and winning too much is prosecuted, hence the prohibition against car counting in blackjack, which is simply smart play. They give you sheets to keep track of roulette spins, and will let you make notes on dice throws all day long.
To put it in simpler terms: You cut the cake, your brother chooses which piece. If you're the one cutting the cake, don't get pissed if your brother chooses the bigger half.
Slashdot Mirror
Man, can you imagine what it will cost to ship _that_?
(Actually, it'll probably be one of those damned "local pickup only" auctions)
...of plant and service.
Personally, I'd rather have two bills - one for the physical layer (cables, swtiches, and maintenance) provided either by the government or pseudo-governmental corporation, and one or more for the data (of any kind - voice, video, internet). By segregating the two, you can allow local issues to be dealt with as a local problem, and offermake up funding for low-density where "the government" feels necessary (rural electric comes to mind as an example, if not the best one). For those afraid of government, realize that most areas run their own water and sewer, and do a fairly good job, on the whole. And I'm not saying it has to be government - a corporation can run the plant (under gov. supervision - any monopoly needs close oversight).
By separating the physical and the data, you can offer _real_ competition by local or national providers. Think of long distance telephone service - it's in a hell of a lot better shape (for the consumers and competitive pricing) than, say, local telephone or cell service (Verizon, anyone?). Most places don't even have the possibility of a competing high speed carrier because the physical plant operators can charge whatever they want for access, and as a result their services will always end up being more competitive.
Power would be nice this way, too. I already have the physical plant portion broken out on my bill with generation costs separate. By prohibiting the physical plant operators from having any financial interest in the service operators, there will be a more level footing - and more opportunity for competition.
Oh, in case you're curious, the incumebents know this, and would lobby to their deaths against any mandated separation.
Hey, I didn't say it wasn't unintentional - just not a miracle. When you look at your resources and the demands of the world, then figure out how to capitalize, that's not rocket science. Bargaining from your strength is the way any sucessful business works. The question to be answered is whether or not the power base has the forethought to anticipate the upcoming changes.
It's no secret that some of the gulf states (UAE comes to mind) are taking the phenominal oil revenues they are generating and putting that money into other industries (tourism, particularly), in anticipation that the oil game won't last forever. That's a smart move, imho, though they are being a bit dramatic with it. It may or may not prove economically viable in the future (the hair salon owner/wife of a doctor who's shop has marble floors and an espresso counter comes to mind), but it may be enough splash to give them the momentum it takes to be a self sustaining economy without the mountain of reserve cash. Las Vegas manages to do it.
A comic (whos name I cannot recall now) commented on the amazing popularity of March of the Penguins a couple of years ago. He pointed out that this was a turning point for Hollywood, to see a well-shot documentary with a solid actor doing narration and a storyline to hold the piece together. He felt that with the commercial success of this documentary we would see many more like it in the coming years. Not other documentaries, of course, but lots of penguin movies.
"...or are relying on an xmltv grabber to scrape some websites..."
Barring the embedded data (which I belive is in the US ATSC OTA broadcasts), screen scrapers seem to be the norm for cabletv work. It's a preocess that's a bit hands on - time from my life or money from my pocket. I'm not a programmer (not since I was in grade school), so it's more efficient to pay someone.
Your machine spec almost mirrors mine - PIII/550, and I went with Knoppmyth. Unfortunately, I found that I would need a new video card (and PCI at that) and a new capture card to get the capture and output to a TV. A actually ran into a couple of network card issues during hte install, and I'm not really comfy in linux, and the knopp install wasn't too friendly wrt tinkering. I considered ubuntu, since I use that on my daughters laptop, but I was hoping for a less complex solution. With the two cards and a stock-compliant network interface (had to be USB - only 2 slots in the PC I had) that would mean close to 3/4 the cost of a TiVo, just to get it working on an "underpowered" box. Yikes.
You can definietly do more with your own box than a TiVo. Actually, I have satellite and a hacked TiVo I use for video extraction. It's an older, orphaned unit, so I'm just hoping it lasts, but at the same time the new TiVos do more. *shrug* Nobody will manufacture the box I want, for fear of it being used to steal content. Heaven forbid those of us who are willing to purchase content should have an easy time of making things simple.
Come now, you have dirt cheap labor, little to no government environmental/personnel regulation, and a fixed yuan-dollar ratio. There's no miracle, it's just simple economics. Had China not been closed for so many years, they would have reached this point a couple of decades ago.
China will find the same problem that the west has - everyone want's to be upper (or middle) class eventually. Very few in China are reaping the benfits of the changes, and many are happy just to make a better living than they had before. Eventually, thier children - or children's children - will want far more, and will expect more. A growing middle class will not put up with the destruction of their natural environment and unsafe (or "unfair" - definine it as you wish) working conditions. Pressure will be placed on the govenerment from many sides, and the government will start changing things.
It is simply a matter of time before things change. There are still places where manufacturing is cheap in the US. There are places in the US where $50k can provide a pleasant lifestyle for a family, and $80-90k is the local upper class. And some of those places are pretty darned nice places to live. Some may think those numbers are high, and those of you in the major metro areas will wonder how anyone can afford groceries on such an income. (Hint: in the next town over from me, there are new, 2000SF houses on a acre of land selling for under $100/sf, and taxes are under 1% of the value) As the middle class increases in China, the same wage pressures will occur, and - if they ever de-link their currency - it's going to result in the cost of goods from China increasing at a dramatic rate.
There will be more IP based production - it's the hallmark of modern civilization. Interestingly, I think we will find globalization retreat a bit in the next 50 years. As the cost of production increases in low-wage markets, transportation costs will shift marginal items back to a local advantage. This may become accellerated by the increasing cost for fuel (which, imho, is artificially inflated by the speculation markets...but that's another show). It will not put things back to the 1960s or 70s, but a new dynamic balance will form.
It is interesting that it's all pay for service. I went about trying to get Myth running on an old box to see what it was like, and gave up after a week of frustration. The whole idea was (a) minimize the box cost (extsing HW) and (b) eliminate the recurring costs.
After spending a dozen hours, and reading about the transition, it occured to me that TiVo is offering not just the data, but a software maintenance contract. As with all non-do-it-yourself projects, the black box approach is somewhat limiting, but if I were to value guide data at $5/mo, then TiVos s/w maintenance would be about $11/mo at full-fare, or $3/mo on a 3 year "contract". Since I am an american, I both understand the contract (cell phones, sat service) and I'm eligible. And based on the time spent^wwasted on my vain attempt - $3 seems pretty affordable to hire out the ugly work.
And now, getting a tivo hd box up costs less than even a bargain myth box that isn't built from old parts. Personally, I'd like to see TiVo drop their per-month prices to their "extra box" or "long term" rates ($7 and $8, respectively) - or at least figure out a way to do so, perhaps with auto- or e-billing. Of course, I'd like unfettered video extraction, too...but then we're off into "I want a pony" land for the commerical products.
Do you realize the kind of productivity spike we could get if the 'net was down for, say, a week? One day would be lost to people trying to get back up, admittedly, but then we'd all just start doing work, checking the 'net connection more and more infrequently. After a week, we'd probably run out of work on our desks that didn't need internet lookups, though most of us still have paper catalogs around so it wouldn't be a total loss. Faxing would get popular again, as would phones and voicemail...but no outside IM and email to deal with.
I'm going to call it a net win for productivity and busniess in general. Which means that it's most likely that big business is behind the internet shutdown...and the Storm worm.
Shit, where'd I put that damned tinfoil hat...
Does the java applet disable the always-on-top functionality of the taskmanager brought up using ctrl-alt-delete? Otherwise, you could just bring it up and close the application or - if that's not playing nice - close the processes.
Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right.
Oh, we were talking about vote swapping. Sorry...got all caught up in that electoral college thing.
No, but it does mean that you're TV isn't a vampire.
I just found out yesterday that the son of a colleage is working for google...in voice/speech recognition technologies. Hmmmm.....
...then you're not doing it right, or not doing it with the right person.
This must be nature's way of compensating for the reduction in sex. When I was twenty, it was no big deal to go three times in a night, and 5 or 6 times in a 24 hour period was possible (being at a different college than my gf made for some frantic weekends). Twenty years later, the ability to go all the way more than twice a day - even when the opportunity is available, which is almost never once you have kids - seems like a feat.
It also becomes so clear how good a shape you need to be in to have really, really good sex. What was easy before takes effort now. Not that I'm complaining...
Good for expensive electricity areas. I currently pay about 6.5-7c/kwh, and have zero (okay, net zero) to be on grid. Ignoring TVM, you still have to be in a more expensive area to beat the electric co. fwiw, I get most of my power from AEP, which had rates - all inclusive of fees and transmission - for about 5.8c/kwh as little as three years ago.
I like solar, but it's hard to beat efficient, centrally generated power. I'm hoping, though, that that fact changes with time...or at least that central power generation starts to use more solar. It's about as low on the energy food chain as you can get here on earth.
I'm likewise surprised about the need for trackballs. I suspect it's a support issue. I've got a logitech bluetooth MX900(?) (optical) thatI've used for the past three years. I do lots of CAD work as well as some minimal illustrating and layout and with my mousepad I've got pixel-exact control of the mouse and can still get from one side of a 1920 pixel wide screen to the other without lifting the mouse in a 4 inch (+/-) wide stroke. In fact, I can't imagine not using a wrist-supported mousepad. I like the gel-filled ones, personally. The rest keeps my mouse hand relaxed and I put almost no pressure on the mouse itself. The zoom ring on the kesington looks cool, but I use the scroll for that on my mouse (I wish all programs did pan and zoom like autocad with the center click-wheel - are you listening, Adobe?).
For the road, I've got a smaller BT mouse that is more sensitive. Unlike the logitech, which needs to be charged every 3-5 days (it's got a cradle), the travel mouse has a real on-off switch and has been on the same set of AAs for at least 300 hours of mousing (a full year of evening surfing and on-the-road stuff).
I misread "downtown Winnipeg" as "down to WalMart".
With most TVs, you just take your player, plug a single (HDMI) cable from your player to the TV. At this point, you're pretty far past the bleeding edge of the tech curve, and any new device is pretty likely to work. Since 40-50" televisions of any kind have never been under $400, I wouldn't hold your breath.
Me? I just dropped $1850 to put together a 7 speaker home theater system with a 125" 16:9 motorized screen, Onkyo 630W (90x7) HDMI upconverting and 2:1 switching amplifier, and an Epson 720p front projector. If you disregard the speaker wire, there's an HDMI cable from my player to my amp, and an HDMI from my amp to my projector. Oh...I'm lazy, so there's a headphone cable from the projector to the screen - that way with the PJ turns on, the screen drops automagically, and goes up when I power down. Hardly rocket science. It's going to take a movie a week to "make back" that money compared to taking the family to see a movie in the theater, but - honestly - my popcorn is better anyway.
It could be done for less - probably $900-$1000 with an HD projector, 100" fixed or manual screen, and a home-theater-in-a-box package. Is a 100" screen worth 2.5x as much to you as a $400 40" LCD?
Actually, price per watt is probably just below price per lifetime watt-hour. If it costs more to buy than the cells will produce, it's just an off-grid luxury item.
Cost. I'm not really at liberty to spend another 20k on a car so that I can get shitty mileage in town. If I'm going to spend more than twice my annual mortgage payment on a third vehicle for the family, it had better be something I'm going to want to drive. As far as I know, the tesla and EV1 are not commercially availble vehicles. The RAV4 looks like a kids toy and I haven't seen a all electric one in the local dealer (by "kid", I mean teenager or 20something), and - sorry - the prius _is_ pretty damned ugly.
The mini is, admittedly, cute. The driving I do, though, requires either an electric or hybrid. I barely got 20 mpg when I drove my wife's Subary Legacy around town, though we could easily top 30 in "normal driving". My area just isn't laid out for economy - lots of sharp turns, stop signs, lights, and speed bumps...excuse me,"traffic calming devices." Anyway, if I'm going to spend 20-30k on a car, I'm not really looking to get an extra 7-10mpg better mileage for 6000 miles a year. It just isn't economically viable, and still wouldn't be viable if gas were $10/gal. It needs to make up that cost gap in "fun" and I just can't justify more than a couple thousand dollars from my "fun" budget. I don't think a lotus is going to be more economical to purchase, and the catterham isn't really my style - again, something mass market would be nice (hence the miata, rx-8,...).
Why does every damned economical car have to _look_ like an economy car? Why not put an all-electric concept into a Miata, MR2, RX-8, S2000, or other coupe (or coupe+)? Give me a damned spyder hard-top. I would really like an electric car. I drive a 5.4L V8 F150 for work - and I need it for some of the construction sites I'm on - but it gets absolutely horrible mileage, about 14mpg. I commute about 1 mile to work (yes, I do bike from time to time, and walk occasionally, too) and many of my in-town meetings could easily be done from a little 2 seater. I could probably put about 1/2 the mileage on my truck if I had something smaller. I'm no fashion diva (see F150, above), but there is no way I'm going to be seen in some fugly eco-box. If you're going to make me feel cool by driving a green car, at least keep me from being taken for a dork by driving something that looks like it came out of the back end of a chicken.
Based on the graduates I've seen and hired, it is clear that colleges are not really preparation for the workforce. I've encountered everything from fundementally inept to merely inadequate - the latter just needs some real life experience, the former should be practicing enunciation so that they can be understood on the drive-through speaker.
College should be designed to prepare you for a career. If it isn't, then it's quite a waste of $100,000-$200,000. Unless of course you're rich and have a general interest in knowledge, in which case it's fine but not really salient to the point here. If you're going to drop 6 figures on a higher education and expect to get that money back (TVM...take that $200G and invest it when you're 18, and you'll likely end up farther ahead in 30 years) you damned well better get a good paying job. If you want a good paying job, you need useful skills. I hired a guy at about 10k less than he wanted to get. He came on because he had to be in the area, and there were few jobs for fresh-outs. Guess what - in two months, he hasn't made a penny. I fact, I'm taking about $500-$800 a week out of my pocket (since I'm the owner) above what he is doing in gross billables ) to write him a paycheck. He's a smart kid, and is learning fairly quickly, but I'll be lucky if I break even on him in the first 6 months. I know he'll only stick around for 4 years (local commitment not related to the job that I happen to know about), so I'm paying a hefty sum in hopes that he can make me some money in the 3 years he's here and useful.
Taking an extra class every semester is a good idea. I suspect your friends aren't taking more than the minimums required, as that would require more effort. Most people are lazy. I can't blame them really - I'd be lazy, too, if there weren't a need for money for things like food and shelter. Since most colleges don't charge extra for classes above the "full time" level, you're getting those for "free" - and that's a bargain, though you might be missing some beer time. OTOH, if you could graduate a semester early by taking an in-major class, you might save yourself enough money to take an extra vacation every year for the next decade and see the sights / experience the language / take an educational trip. It would keep your mind healthy and offer a break your debt-ridden, lazy, slaving classmates won't get. Or you could blow the money on blackjack and hookers. Life is all about choices.
American automakers have been doing this for years...
No, it's a troll because it can work with multiple cable providers (can your 622 work with multiple satellite providers?) and more importantly it has the TiVo(R) interface. I know that seems like a dead horse argument, but it really makes a difference. TiVo is a bit like Apple (with all the fanboi problems, too) - it just works. It may not do what some enthusiasts want, but what it does, it does well - and with sparkling simplicity.
I've tried some of the PC (win/linux) versions of DVRs, have seen some non-TiVo DVRs in action, and currently have two DTiVos. Based on what I've seen, I'm probably going to dump DirecTV when they turn off my TiVo and just go back to OTA and packaged video products. The only weakness in that plan is the lack of ESPN - I'm not sure I could make it through football season without that.
Anyway, as with all DVRs, specs mean almost nothing - the usability is the first item on any list. If that weren't the case, we'd all be running myth or MCE, or we'd be happy with whatever the cablecos send us (you do seem to fall in the latter category).
It's the responsibilty of the vendor to verify the systems are in compliance. If the error is in favor of the consumer, then there should be no recourse; if the error is in favor of the house then it's false advertising and the consumer is entitled to compensation. The house has control over all aspects of the game; the player has none. Imho, its similar to a contract: if one party writes the contract, then any errors therein are generally adjudicated in favor of the non-writing party.
Casinos are the rare exception to simple rules like this: anyone caught playing by the rules and winning too much is prosecuted, hence the prohibition against car counting in blackjack, which is simply smart play. They give you sheets to keep track of roulette spins, and will let you make notes on dice throws all day long.
To put it in simpler terms: You cut the cake, your brother chooses which piece. If you're the one cutting the cake, don't get pissed if your brother chooses the bigger half.