I am not getting into a battle of who can find the best deal at the Dell web site but you must have worked really hard to find and paraphrase the worst deal you could possible find there as a comparision.
They have an 1150 (that you referenced) with a CDR/DVD combo (as you referenced) and a P4 2.8 and a 1 year warranty for $799 with free shipping. ** I am not trying to compare this laptop to the Apple in any way, just that your attempted comparision was not very good.
I have come across quite a few financial sites that have issues with FF. Luckily, my credit union and the integrated web bill pay functionality works great with FF. It even works with Lynx from a console if I select the frame links provided (easy slection as there are only a few frames on the site).
There is a FF plugin that provides a right click on link option to open the link with IE, it is IE View. You can still use FF for 99% of your browsing and have an easy method of opening links with IE.
I have not used IE in quite some time for/. so I do not know if the problems I've been having with/. and Firefox problems would also happen with IE. With Firefox, I occasionally get the left table merged with the main table (comments overlap the left table) and an occasion, get a page with no comments but the left and right tables are present. With both of these, a refresh will resolve the issue. Is these issues also noticed with IE users? I have Firefox on many W32 machines and they all exihibit this behavior here. I do not recall my Linux versions of FF having a problem though.
I have been using a scaled down version of a Linux recovery CD at work. I use it at least once a week to backup data from a non booting XP/W2K computer. Even if the person only needs Favorites and My/ Documents, it provides a method for recovery that my Microsoft stacked IT department did not have before.
It is not as robust as Knoppix but simple, quick and to the point.
Boot with CD, start the network through an included script, manually mount the Win partition, manually mount the network share, run MC and copy off what you need. I know that does not sound exciting and sexy but if you know the commands and what you need to mount and where, it is a faster process then booting up Knoppix and using the GUI.
I believe the iso I am using is from here. I am not completely sure as I've been using the same thing for over a year now and at the time, I downloaded several different recovery iso's to test them out (kind of makes my entire post useless if I can not reference what ISO I actually use;)). I picked this one because it was the easiest and quickest to use for what I need, at around 25MB is was relatively small also.
And I believe they make no effort to actually have them in inventory.
Wal-mart or Best-Buy? I have found Best-Buy to be one of the biggest and worst offenders of not enough stock to support a sale, almost to the point that I seriously consider it unethical, misleading and on purpose. It is a running joke in my family that even without a Best-Buy ad, you can always tell what is on sale that week by the open space on the shelves. See a section with nothing on it? I bet it is Monday and the item is on sale that week. I understand the after Thanksgiving sales but it seems all too common of an occurance to be an isolated incedent based on poor planning. How can they ethically advertise this crap and have only have 8 in stock. That is not even worth the paper the ad it is printed on. The entire supply for the week is gone Sunday morning. They definately do not make an effort to have adequate supply. I call it a scam and the practice borderlines fair advertising. I have no idea how Best-Buy is doing financially but based on the amount of tricks and methods with multiple mail in rebates (that I have very low success rates on), the relatively new method of a mail in gift card rebates, low sale item inventory, and "instant" discounts, they are going to run of ideas and the whole thing will come crashing down. Those practices can not sustain a retail business.
I do not like how they change out the seasonal items earlier then other stores. It is in their best interest and actually impressive that they can manage the inventory that efficiently but it does not help me when I need a garden hose nozzle or chemicals for my pool in mid-late August. It works out in the end though as I can go to Target and get what seasonals I need for 50% off at the clearance rack.
Your argument makes no sense. Are you telling us that an entire subset of the consumer electronics industy about to die because "most" people are not using it? Who the hell cares if "most" people are not doing it. There is one hell of bunch of people that ARE doing it and companies make products for them. You would have a very hard time finding a retail store that does NOT carry car stereos. Pretty odd situation if no one was actually buying them and installing them.
Once you figure that out, it will become clearer to you why expensive hard disk decks have not sold well.
Although $500 would put this deck in the high average price range, there are many more that are far more expensive, even BestBuy carries a few above that range and they are far from a specialty retailer. I paid $400 for my previous headunit and it only has preouts (no built-in amps). To each his own I guess. People pay $500 for a video card every year or so to obtain a higher level of performance (BTW, far from "most" people do that), no different then a $500 head unit. I will admit, factory stereos have got better over the years but those that want more will rip it out.
Those sales figures are still a bit misleading- they reflect Apple's performance against flash players, which they do not make.
No, your quotes are misleading.. The figures are based on portable compressed music players which the iPod is one of many. Why is the subset of HD based player even need to be considered seperately? I mean, it is a portable music player just like the others. You could break it down further and claim the iPod is has 99.9% of the HD based players that are white. Does that really change anything? I guess you could throw out any comparision or statisitic to prove just about anything you'd like though. Imagine how many of those $29-59USD portable mp3 cd players have been sold and are in use. They are a portable compressed (MP3 marketspeak) music players. Take out the technical types that understand the technology within the player and the general consumer is left with the basic comparison for players of size, price, battery life, convienence, and space available for songs.
few people are willing to have the stereo shop monkey around behind their dash to wire in an aftermarket stereo. Are you kidding me? There is and has been a good car stero market for at least 15 years. If there was not, the big electronic retail stores would not devote so much space in their stores for it. There are many different levels of car stereos just as with computer hardware. People spend $500 for a video card, people also spend $500 (or much more) in amplifiers for their car.
Also they're unlikely to have good built-in amps so probably you'll have to put on of those in too. I agree, but there is no aftermarket stereos on the market where the built in amp is "good", some of the streros do not even have amplification at all and *require* external amplifiers. I think you seriously under estimated the market of aftermarket car stereos and accessories. I'm am not saying this newly introduced device will have success but there is potential.
I do not view Cringely any different then ANY other news source, opinion writer, or any article I read or hear about. 95% of people standing in front of someone telling them a story (tv, public speech, soapbox, radio, web page, blog etc..) are also trying to convey an opinion (either their own or what appears to be popular and the most exicting at the time) along with the facts. The Cringley article referenced also had links to the released documents for you to read yourself. Read them and form your own opinion. Keep in mind though, those actual court documents are also trying to swing an opinion in a specific direction also.
I got a laugh out of the recent Dan Rather flap. Not so much that it was proven wrong or questionable but the fact that people do not realize that this kind of thing happens all the time.
Considering the US only produces a small fraction of the physical goods that it used to, the only thing businesses and our economy can compete with for actual generation of money in the global economy is IP (copyright, tradmark, patents etc). I see it as a big gamble or some type of last ditch attempt to give the US some type of advantage over the rest of the world as the manufactoring of real products is all but gone and not coming back. Can the US actually create and secure more IP then the rest of the world and sustain itself from the money that might flow in with it? I see the IP laws following this trend and I assume it will get much worse in the power grab. As I see it, IP can only support a much smaller crowd or group of people then real property does as you do not a large support structure to create it and maintain it.
Entering my house is covered under trespass, not theft, you did not steal my house or chair by using my chair. You will NEVER be charged for stealing for doing such a thing. I can not recover anything from you for such an act as I did not loose anything. I am sorry you can not understand that. As for my car, you took it which is stealing, it is no longer around for me to use, it is OUT OF MY POSSESSION. We can not share the car, you took a singular unit material thing from me. Again, if it was returned, my damages that I could collect for the theft would be limited to the gas used and any ACTUAL physical damage you did while you had the car. If you never actually started it and it was pushed out of the driveway and you pushed it back in the driveway, my damages are nothing as I suffered no loose at all (still theft on your part though). A radio broadcast or bandwidth service is not a material physical unit. I am not saying some court systems will always side a certain way but IT IS NOT CUT AND DRY at all as it is a common and an acceptable practice for someone to setup a access point for people to use. If I setup a web server reachable from the internet, throw up some html files with absolutely no access controls at all, would the police be able to arrest every person that visits my web site as they are stealing my bandwidth and using my computer resources without my explicit permission? Can/. sue you for loading up their index.html? Hell no.
Your porch light is on and shining into the street, if I use that light to power my solar calculator, am I stealing from you? Can I use that light to guide me up the sidewalk or is that stealing from you also? Assuming your bandwidth is charged per month and not per MB (like 95% of those with high speed access), if I use 10MB of your pipe, exactly what did I steal or take away from you that you no longer have for yourself? What are your damages, and how much do you plan to recover from me to replace what I took? Illegal and theft is not so cut and dry as you seem to think it is when dealing with an unlocked and uncontrolled access point.
Well a lot of factors go into the comfort. My Mustang is a bear in stop and go traffic. It has a cable operated clutch which requires a lot of force to move. Add to the fact I have a Centerforce clutch which grabs great and has a very small distance from full clutch to no clutch, a 2.73 rear end which means at 600-700 rpm idle, the car moves at 5-10 mph without my foot on the gas, anything under that and the car bucks back and forth based on the engines torque curve at that RPM. Point being, it is a real pain in the ass. The clutch is my own doing but the rest is 100% Ford.
My real commutor car is a small Ford Aspire 5 speed. Complete opposite and not a problem at all in traffic.
Losing the power steering and power brakes is a slight inconvienence but something a person is easily able to overcome the a little added force applied (if said person can not overcome that increase in resistance, they should not be driving a car to begin with). The problem with shutting off the car "completely" is the steering wheel will mechanically lock if the steering column is so equiped with such a device (which I believe 99.9% of cars are).
I did not read the referenced article yet but I find it VERY hard to believe the cars brakes were less powerful then the engine. Even worse is this same situation of failed brakes and stuck accelerator comes up often (search google) in garages, parking lots etc.. There was one study that showed certain year Jeep Cherokes actually had the gas pedal a little closer to the brake pedal then the average car implying that people were getting confused when the panic stuck. Further tests revealed the brakes where more then powerful enough to stop the car from full speed at full throttle and the car did not move at all from a dead stop with the brakes and the gas to the floor. I can not belive that a gas pedal sticking and brakes failing at the same exact time could possibly be that statistically high for how many people claim. Keep in mind for the brakes to fail themselves, it would require two seperate faults as the brake system is divided into two seperate hydralic systems on all cars, either one front and one back brake (most often) or front and back. I guess the brake pedal itself could fail as it is common to both. Two or three failures all at once. I don't know...
You seem to think the other reasons I mentioned are not factors? I believe they are a major factor and any retailer that does not consider them would be doomed as well. Consistant products, layouts and policies are a core business goal wether it is a law firms with remote offices, retailer, gas station or fast food. All Mcdonalds and Burger Kings have the same products, and a familiar consistant menu structure across the world and breakfast served until 10:30am no matter what system wide. When you walk into one, you know what they have and why you are there. That concept is not by chance, it was well thought out and by design. The consistant product and service is why people go there. Ever been to a Sheetz or WaWa gas station? If so, I'd bet it looks the same as the ones I've been too and they are always busier then the Exxon or Sunoco across the street even with the same price for gas. People like the consistancy and desire the familiar layout.
Do you really think Wal-Mart advertises more then any other retailer? I personally do not think so, they do not even have weekly "sales", they simply have ads that show the regular everyday prices of select products.
I can not agrue your import claim as it is very obvious that any import is one less thing made in the US. From my observations though, no other general major retailer stands out from the crowd that specializes in US made products. Are you saying Kmart, Target, the dollar stores, department stores etc all have a larger percentage of US made products and Wal-Mart is the exception?
Oh, hands tied. Got ya. It that case, send or suggest a basic plan up the ladder to use such a blocking feature or the XUL modification that another poster suggested and the advantages each has. Someone may listen. Maybe that would be a start of getting you out of being what you described as being at the bottom of the barrel;)
On a somewhat related note, is there a way to disable altering "connection settings" by regular users in Firefox? We run on a filtering proxy and that's how it's set up to restrict access.
Then it is not a good setup.. You are looking for the wrong solution. You should NEVER trust the settings of $application on a client machine for a security purpose. What you need to do is block all outgoing port 80 traffic for everything but your proxy server(s) (or setup a working transparent proxy solution which will eliminate any client config). Any and all web browsing clients trying to bypass the proxy will be stopped.
Re:That's the stupidest thing I've heard all day
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Inside Wal-Mart IT
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I don't agree to the plot with prices to over power local competition. In general, Wal-Mart has the same exact price for merchandise across the entire country and set the price at the national level. A ream of paper costs the same in any Wal-Mart, as does car batteries, blank cds, bed sheets, PS games, bottled water etc.. The prices are set at the national level, not locally. There is not some strange plan that when Tiffanys cosmetic shop goes out of business in a suburb of Atlanta, they are going to raise the price of skin creme nation wide. Maybe there was an isolated incedent in the past but that low then high practice is far from normal based on their current pricing model. That consistant pricing model is yet another reason people use Wal-Mart instead of other retailers. Good or bad, Wal-Mart is doing what consumers want and the sales numbers back it up.
Those frustrated with Wal-Mart and similar stores are venting in the wrong location. No one should expect a retail store or ANY business to educate the public on what is good and bad for them in the long term. It is a business, it exists to make money. The government should create the incentive for businesses and educate the people as to what the long term solution should be. The US Government now supports what appears to be the short term, the corporations profits. It is not retailers job or interest to turn that trend the other direction.
Thanks to WalMart, existing retailers go out of business and people lose their jobs.
It is not Wal-Mart causing that. It is the people who START shopping at Wal-Mart and STOP shopping elsewhere that cause the other businesses to fail. Why do people choose Wal-Mart over other stores? Consistant, clean, and logical store layout, prices average lower then other retailers, have most general items that someone needs, stock on shelves is usually there, dead non selling items are not hanging around causing clutter, clear wide aisles, easy pricing (no rebates, clearly marked), a very good and consistant return policy. Extended hours (many open 24 hours) etc.. That is why people shop there. When other retailers including mom and pop can do the same, they too will continue to increase sales. Compare a +10 year old Kmart to any Wal-Mart new or old and you'd think the Kmart never had a manger. People can clearly see the difference and choose to shop elsewhere.
Wal-Mart pays the same wages as any other retailer.
I wonder over to/usr/local/bin/firefox/components/ and check it out.
nsHelperAppDlg.js is 0400 and all of the other files are 0664. I assume the update was installed and working as it should but maybe my method of installation of Firefox is an issue? I made myself the owner and group of the Firefox directory but it seemed like the logical thing to do (or pick another person but someone has to own it). I know nothing of this patch and file but I assume if left at 0400, the other users on my machine could not access the file nsHelperAppDlg.js when they use Firefox. If I am completely screwed up here, left me off easy..
Although I have a 4plus at home that still chuggs along great, I believe the peak model model for value and durability was the 5si. IMHO, it went downhill from there. I helped deploy many model 4200s recently and they are way to cheap feeling. Some of the plastic pieces (doors, flaps etc) were pulled from the unit by simply removing the shipping tape attached to them.
That same concept applies to your car keys with an alarm remote attached. Someone finds your keys, walks around the parking lot clicking the button until he/she hears your alarm and pinpoints your car. A crime of opportunity for someone that would not normally steal a car a chance to trash and joyride in yours. You can have the greatest alarm system in the world but if it is capable of being disabled with the remote, it would be useless in this instance.
I disabled my chirp confirmation on my alarm and I have a seperate fuel pump cutoff installed via a small hidden normally open pushbutton switch that MUST be pressed everytime for the car to actually start regardless of the alarm. Maybe I am being paranoid but it is better then nothing I guess. If someone wants any car, they will get it one way or the other. Hopefully my security through obscurity cutout is just enough to trip someone up if they try to take my car.
To stay on topic.. I do not carry a spare key in my wallet, I can unscrew the antennea and get it through the door frame and the body and push the power door lock button, takes about 60 seconds.
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I am not getting into a battle of who can find the best deal at the Dell web site but you must have worked really hard to find and paraphrase the worst deal you could possible find there as a comparision.
They have an 1150 (that you referenced) with a CDR/DVD combo (as you referenced) and a P4 2.8 and a 1 year warranty for $799 with free shipping.
** I am not trying to compare this laptop to the Apple in any way, just that your attempted comparision was not very good.
I have come across quite a few financial sites that have issues with FF. Luckily, my credit union and the integrated web bill pay functionality works great with FF. It even works with Lynx from a console if I select the frame links provided (easy slection as there are only a few frames on the site).
There is a FF plugin that provides a right click on link option to open the link with IE, it is IE View. You can still use FF for 99% of your browsing and have an easy method of opening links with IE.
I have not used IE in quite some time for /. so I do not know if the problems I've been having with /. and Firefox problems would also happen with IE. With Firefox, I occasionally get the left table merged with the main table (comments overlap the left table) and an occasion, get a page with no comments but the left and right tables are present. With both of these, a refresh will resolve the issue. Is these issues also noticed with IE users? I have Firefox on many W32 machines and they all exihibit this behavior here. I do not recall my Linux versions of FF having a problem though.
Offtopic I know, I'd post at 0 if I could.
News for Nerds, ya.. ;)
It seems the It-Kutch, Preep, Nerkle, Proo and Seersuckers seriously out number the Nerds here
I have been using a scaled down version of a Linux recovery CD at work. I use it at least once a week to backup data from a non booting XP/W2K computer. Even if the person only needs Favorites and My/ Documents, it provides a method for recovery that my Microsoft stacked IT department did not have before.
;)). I picked this one because it was the easiest and quickest to use for what I need, at around 25MB is was relatively small also.
It is not as robust as Knoppix but simple, quick and to the point.
Boot with CD, start the network through an included script, manually mount the Win partition, manually mount the network share, run MC and copy off what you need. I know that does not sound exciting and sexy but if you know the commands and what you need to mount and where, it is a faster process then booting up Knoppix and using the GUI.
I believe the iso I am using is from here. I am not completely sure as I've been using the same thing for over a year now and at the time, I downloaded several different recovery iso's to test them out (kind of makes my entire post useless if I can not reference what ISO I actually use
And I believe they make no effort to actually have them in inventory.
Wal-mart or Best-Buy?
I have found Best-Buy to be one of the biggest and worst offenders of not enough stock to support a sale, almost to the point that I seriously consider it unethical, misleading and on purpose. It is a running joke in my family that even without a Best-Buy ad, you can always tell what is on sale that week by the open space on the shelves. See a section with nothing on it? I bet it is Monday and the item is on sale that week. I understand the after Thanksgiving sales but it seems all too common of an occurance to be an isolated incedent based on poor planning. How can they ethically advertise this crap and have only have 8 in stock. That is not even worth the paper the ad it is printed on. The entire supply for the week is gone Sunday morning. They definately do not make an effort to have adequate supply. I call it a scam and the practice borderlines fair advertising. I have no idea how Best-Buy is doing financially but based on the amount of tricks and methods with multiple mail in rebates (that I have very low success rates on), the relatively new method of a mail in gift card rebates, low sale item inventory, and "instant" discounts, they are going to run of ideas and the whole thing will come crashing down. Those practices can not sustain a retail business.
I do not like how they change out the seasonal items earlier then other stores. It is in their best interest and actually impressive that they can manage the inventory that efficiently but it does not help me when I need a garden hose nozzle or chemicals for my pool in mid-late August. It works out in the end though as I can go to Target and get what seasonals I need for 50% off at the clearance rack.
Your argument makes no sense. Are you telling us that an entire subset of the consumer electronics industy about to die because "most" people are not using it? Who the hell cares if "most" people are not doing it. There is one hell of bunch of people that ARE doing it and companies make products for them. You would have a very hard time finding a retail store that does NOT carry car stereos. Pretty odd situation if no one was actually buying them and installing them.
Once you figure that out, it will become clearer to you why expensive hard disk decks have not sold well.
Although $500 would put this deck in the high average price range, there are many more that are far more expensive, even BestBuy carries a few above that range and they are far from a specialty retailer. I paid $400 for my previous headunit and it only has preouts (no built-in amps). To each his own I guess. People pay $500 for a video card every year or so to obtain a higher level of performance (BTW, far from "most" people do that), no different then a $500 head unit. I will admit, factory stereos have got better over the years but those that want more will rip it out.
Those sales figures are still a bit misleading- they reflect Apple's performance against flash players, which they do not make.
No, your quotes are misleading.. The figures are based on portable compressed music players which the iPod is one of many.
Why is the subset of HD based player even need to be considered seperately? I mean, it is a portable music player just like the others. You could break it down further and claim the iPod is has 99.9% of the HD based players that are white. Does that really change anything?
I guess you could throw out any comparision or statisitic to prove just about anything you'd like though. Imagine how many of those $29-59USD portable mp3 cd players have been sold and are in use. They are a portable compressed (MP3 marketspeak) music players.
Take out the technical types that understand the technology within the player and the general consumer is left with the basic comparison for players of size, price, battery life, convienence, and space available for songs.
few people are willing to have the stereo shop monkey around behind their dash to wire in an aftermarket stereo.
Are you kidding me? There is and has been a good car stero market for at least 15 years. If there was not, the big electronic retail stores would not devote so much space in their stores for it. There are many different levels of car stereos just as with computer hardware. People spend $500 for a video card, people also spend $500 (or much more) in amplifiers for their car.
Also they're unlikely to have good built-in amps so probably you'll have to put on of those in too.
I agree, but there is no aftermarket stereos on the market where the built in amp is "good", some of the streros do not even have amplification at all and *require* external amplifiers.
I think you seriously under estimated the market of aftermarket car stereos and accessories. I'm am not saying this newly introduced device will have success but there is potential.
I do not view Cringely any different then ANY other news source, opinion writer, or any article I read or hear about. 95% of people standing in front of someone telling them a story (tv, public speech, soapbox, radio, web page, blog etc..) are also trying to convey an opinion (either their own or what appears to be popular and the most exicting at the time) along with the facts. The Cringley article referenced also had links to the released documents for you to read yourself. Read them and form your own opinion. Keep in mind though, those actual court documents are also trying to swing an opinion in a specific direction also.
I got a laugh out of the recent Dan Rather flap. Not so much that it was proven wrong or questionable but the fact that people do not realize that this kind of thing happens all the time.
Considering the US only produces a small fraction of the physical goods that it used to, the only thing businesses and our economy can compete with for actual generation of money in the global economy is IP (copyright, tradmark, patents etc). I see it as a big gamble or some type of last ditch attempt to give the US some type of advantage over the rest of the world as the manufactoring of real products is all but gone and not coming back. Can the US actually create and secure more IP then the rest of the world and sustain itself from the money that might flow in with it? I see the IP laws following this trend and I assume it will get much worse in the power grab. As I see it, IP can only support a much smaller crowd or group of people then real property does as you do not a large support structure to create it and maintain it.
Entering my house is covered under trespass, not theft, you did not steal my house or chair by using my chair. You will NEVER be charged for stealing for doing such a thing. I can not recover anything from you for such an act as I did not loose anything. I am sorry you can not understand that. /. sue you for loading up their index.html? Hell no.
As for my car, you took it which is stealing, it is no longer around for me to use, it is OUT OF MY POSSESSION. We can not share the car, you took a singular unit material thing from me. Again, if it was returned, my damages that I could collect for the theft would be limited to the gas used and any ACTUAL physical damage you did while you had the car. If you never actually started it and it was pushed out of the driveway and you pushed it back in the driveway, my damages are nothing as I suffered no loose at all (still theft on your part though). A radio broadcast or bandwidth service is not a material physical unit. I am not saying some court systems will always side a certain way but IT IS NOT CUT AND DRY at all as it is a common and an acceptable practice for someone to setup a access point for people to use. If I setup a web server reachable from the internet, throw up some html files with absolutely no access controls at all, would the police be able to arrest every person that visits my web site as they are stealing my bandwidth and using my computer resources without my explicit permission? Can
Your porch light is on and shining into the street, if I use that light to power my solar calculator, am I stealing from you? Can I use that light to guide me up the sidewalk or is that stealing from you also?
Assuming your bandwidth is charged per month and not per MB (like 95% of those with high speed access), if I use 10MB of your pipe, exactly what did I steal or take away from you that you no longer have for yourself? What are your damages, and how much do you plan to recover from me to replace what I took? Illegal and theft is not so cut and dry as you seem to think it is when dealing with an unlocked and uncontrolled access point.
Well a lot of factors go into the comfort. My Mustang is a bear in stop and go traffic. It has a cable operated clutch which requires a lot of force to move. Add to the fact I have a Centerforce clutch which grabs great and has a very small distance from full clutch to no clutch, a 2.73 rear end which means at 600-700 rpm idle, the car moves at 5-10 mph without my foot on the gas, anything under that and the car bucks back and forth based on the engines torque curve at that RPM. Point being, it is a real pain in the ass. The clutch is my own doing but the rest is 100% Ford.
My real commutor car is a small Ford Aspire 5 speed. Complete opposite and not a problem at all in traffic.
Funny, I just searched for Honda Civic, used in the New York city area.
One search with MANUAL turned up 46 cars, One search for AUTOMATIC turned up 36 cars.
I did not go through each and every result though to verify.
Losing the power steering and power brakes is a slight inconvienence but something a person is easily able to overcome the a little added force applied (if said person can not overcome that increase in resistance, they should not be driving a car to begin with). The problem with shutting off the car "completely" is the steering wheel will mechanically lock if the steering column is so equiped with such a device (which I believe 99.9% of cars are).
I did not read the referenced article yet but I find it VERY hard to believe the cars brakes were less powerful then the engine. Even worse is this same situation of failed brakes and stuck accelerator comes up often (search google) in garages, parking lots etc.. There was one study that showed certain year Jeep Cherokes actually had the gas pedal a little closer to the brake pedal then the average car implying that people were getting confused when the panic stuck. Further tests revealed the brakes where more then powerful enough to stop the car from full speed at full throttle and the car did not move at all from a dead stop with the brakes and the gas to the floor. I can not belive that a gas pedal sticking and brakes failing at the same exact time could possibly be that statistically high for how many people claim. Keep in mind for the brakes to fail themselves, it would require two seperate faults as the brake system is divided into two seperate hydralic systems on all cars, either one front and one back brake (most often) or front and back. I guess the brake pedal itself could fail as it is common to both. Two or three failures all at once. I don't know...
It's price and advertising.
You seem to think the other reasons I mentioned are not factors? I believe they are a major factor and any retailer that does not consider them would be doomed as well. Consistant products, layouts and policies are a core business goal wether it is a law firms with remote offices, retailer, gas station or fast food. All Mcdonalds and Burger Kings have the same products, and a familiar consistant menu structure across the world and breakfast served until 10:30am no matter what system wide. When you walk into one, you know what they have and why you are there. That concept is not by chance, it was well thought out and by design. The consistant product and service is why people go there. Ever been to a Sheetz or WaWa gas station? If so, I'd bet it looks the same as the ones I've been too and they are always busier then the Exxon or Sunoco across the street even with the same price for gas. People like the consistancy and desire the familiar layout.
Do you really think Wal-Mart advertises more then any other retailer? I personally do not think so, they do not even have weekly "sales", they simply have ads that show the regular everyday prices of select products.
I can not agrue your import claim as it is very obvious that any import is one less thing made in the US. From my observations though, no other general major retailer stands out from the crowd that specializes in US made products. Are you saying Kmart, Target, the dollar stores, department stores etc all have a larger percentage of US made products and Wal-Mart is the exception?
Oh, hands tied. Got ya. ;)
It that case, send or suggest a basic plan up the ladder to use such a blocking feature or the XUL modification that another poster suggested and the advantages each has. Someone may listen. Maybe that would be a start of getting you out of being what you described as being at the bottom of the barrel
On a somewhat related note, is there a way to disable altering "connection settings" by regular users in Firefox? We run on a filtering proxy and that's how it's set up to restrict access.
Then it is not a good setup..
You are looking for the wrong solution. You should NEVER trust the settings of $application on a client machine for a security purpose. What you need to do is block all outgoing port 80 traffic for everything but your proxy server(s) (or setup a working transparent proxy solution which will eliminate any client config). Any and all web browsing clients trying to bypass the proxy will be stopped.
I don't agree to the plot with prices to over power local competition. In general, Wal-Mart has the same exact price for merchandise across the entire country and set the price at the national level. A ream of paper costs the same in any Wal-Mart, as does car batteries, blank cds, bed sheets, PS games, bottled water etc.. The prices are set at the national level, not locally. There is not some strange plan that when Tiffanys cosmetic shop goes out of business in a suburb of Atlanta, they are going to raise the price of skin creme nation wide. Maybe there was an isolated incedent in the past but that low then high practice is far from normal based on their current pricing model. That consistant pricing model is yet another reason people use Wal-Mart instead of other retailers. Good or bad, Wal-Mart is doing what consumers want and the sales numbers back it up.
Those frustrated with Wal-Mart and similar stores are venting in the wrong location. No one should expect a retail store or ANY business to educate the public on what is good and bad for them in the long term. It is a business, it exists to make money. The government should create the incentive for businesses and educate the people as to what the long term solution should be. The US Government now supports what appears to be the short term, the corporations profits. It is not retailers job or interest to turn that trend the other direction.
Thanks to WalMart, existing retailers go out of business and people lose their jobs.
It is not Wal-Mart causing that. It is the people who START shopping at Wal-Mart and STOP shopping elsewhere that cause the other businesses to fail. Why do people choose Wal-Mart over other stores? Consistant, clean, and logical store layout, prices average lower then other retailers, have most general items that someone needs, stock on shelves is usually there, dead non selling items are not hanging around causing clutter, clear wide aisles, easy pricing (no rebates, clearly marked), a very good and consistant return policy. Extended hours (many open 24 hours) etc..
That is why people shop there. When other retailers including mom and pop can do the same, they too will continue to increase sales.
Compare a +10 year old Kmart to any Wal-Mart new or old and you'd think the Kmart never had a manger. People can clearly see the difference and choose to shop elsewhere.
Wal-Mart pays the same wages as any other retailer.
I have reservations about multiple update systems. Example. I just downloaded and installed the patch on my Mandrake machine.
l eases/0.10.1/patches/259708.xpi -- 2004-10-02 11:51:08
/usr/local/bin/firefox/components/nsHelperAppDlg.j s /usr/local/bin/firefox/defaults/pref/bug259708.js
/usr/local/bin/firefox/components/ and check it out.
The tail end of my install log:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/re
Patch for bug 259708 (version 1.0.0.0)
--------------------
[1/2] Replacing:
[2/2] Installing:
Install completed successfully -- 2004-10-02 11:51:08
I wonder over to
nsHelperAppDlg.js is 0400 and all of the other files are 0664. I assume the update was installed and working as it should but maybe my method of installation of Firefox is an issue? I made myself the owner and group of the Firefox directory but it seemed like the logical thing to do (or pick another person but someone has to own it). I know nothing of this patch and file but I assume if left at 0400, the other users on my machine could not access the file nsHelperAppDlg.js when they use Firefox. If I am completely screwed up here, left me off easy..
Although I have a 4plus at home that still chuggs along great, I believe the peak model model for value and durability was the 5si. IMHO, it went downhill from there. I helped deploy many model 4200s recently and they are way to cheap feeling. Some of the plastic pieces (doors, flaps etc) were pulled from the unit by simply removing the shipping tape attached to them.
That same concept applies to your car keys with an alarm remote attached. Someone finds your keys, walks around the parking lot clicking the button until he/she hears your alarm and pinpoints your car. A crime of opportunity for someone that would not normally steal a car a chance to trash and joyride in yours. You can have the greatest alarm system in the world but if it is capable of being disabled with the remote, it would be useless in this instance.
I disabled my chirp confirmation on my alarm and I have a seperate fuel pump cutoff installed via a small hidden normally open pushbutton switch that MUST be pressed everytime for the car to actually start regardless of the alarm. Maybe I am being paranoid but it is better then nothing I guess. If someone wants any car, they will get it one way or the other. Hopefully my security through obscurity cutout is just enough to trip someone up if they try to take my car.
To stay on topic.. I do not carry a spare key in my wallet, I can unscrew the antennea and get it through the door frame and the body and push the power door lock button, takes about 60 seconds.