The Toyota Echo and the new Corolla have a similar VVT gas engine as the Prius, and Consumer Reports tests suggested that their real-world gas mileage was only marginally worse than the Prius.
If you looked at about 80% highway driving, 20% city, yes, the Prius is an Echo that costs $7k more. However, Prius users in a very urban area like San Francisco have reported 60-70MPG or more, since the gas engine is almost never used! The electric motor has the capability of reaching 47MPH without needing the gas engine (though painfully slow accelerating is needed, I've found that 23-25MPH is the "real world" threshold before the gas engine kicks in), so if you're not the kind of person who wants to get to the next red light, one block away, as soon as possible, you can get amazing gas mileage from a Prius.
"Unfortunately", since my drive to work involves a small amount of city driving, some country backroads and a small highway trek, my gas mileage tops off at about 48MPG.
Modern hybrid cars don't get plugged into electrical outlets. They use some sort of conservation strategy to burn gasoline in order to charge up a battery while you're driving, that way you run part of the time purely on electric power. Thus, you still fill it up with gas; just less often than normal. That's why you'll see hybrid cars advertising some big number of miles-per-gallon.
As TheOnlyCoolTim also mentioned, resistence from braking (and even coasting to some extent) is used to power the battery. This is called regenerative braking. Modern hybrid cars use both that and what you mentioned; taking extra energy from the engine and essentially turning the electric motor backwards into a generator. This is all computer controlled, allowing maximum power to be automatically used if it's needed (climbing up a hill or whatnot), but not wasting too much energy when the extra power is not needed.
A mid-20s man and woman walk up to Bill Gates' house and ring the bell.
Bill: Umm, it's 9AM on a Sunday morning. Can I help you?
Woman: Hi! We're Linux Witnesses...
Man: And we would like to explain the awesome power of the Open Source business model.
Bill: Sorry, I'm perfectly happy with my b usiness model. Begins to close door.
Woman: Wait, Open Source is the one true business model! It has the potential to make money in the retail and services market, while allowing you to give back to the community!
Man: Plus, it creates the ability for external competition, thereby guaranteeing that you're on your toes to make the best product possible!
Bill: Not interested.... Look, it's SUNDAY MORNING, the business model's HOLY DAY, I was about to go work on mine right now...
Woman: We understand, but when you can, please look at our literature. Hands Bill a pamphlet that says "Linux is Your Savior" and a wristband that says "WWTD (What Would Tux Do?)"
... or perhaps their internal systems are so screwed up that they lost track of mine. When I moved from CA to NV and dropped at&t for cable internet, I called to cancel and specifically said "what should I do with this modem?" "We'll send you a shipping label to send it back to us."
3 months later and the modem is still sitting in a corner collecting dust. Unfortunately, these specific CyberSURFR modems are not 100% DOCSIS compatible, meaning they won't work on pretty much any other cable system. And AT&T is smart (mean?) enough to not provision customer-bought modems that are not DOCSIS. So that leaves me with a useless piece of hardware. Maybe I'll turn it into a wall clock.
In what state do you live? Do you know in some states you can get a tax refund for using such car?
I live in Reno, NV. There are no tax breaks (no income taxes period:P), and registration reductions only for zero-emission vehicles. I believe the only thing I can get at the state-level is a waiver from getting smog tests, since I live in a county that has mandatory smog tests, except for ULEV, SULEV, or ZEV vehicles.
On Tuesday I bought a Toyota Prius, mentioned in the article. Very nice car for the dollar. Hybrid gas/electric car, uses the gas engine only when needed. In fact, I still haven't gotten used to the fact that the onboard computer will actually turn off the engine while driving, when it is not needed.
Gas mileage on the sticker is very impressive. 52 city, 45 highway. No, that is not a typo. It actually performs better in traffic, mostly because slow acceleration is almost exclusively under electric power. Coasting and deceleration use regenerative braking to recharge the battery, meaning you never have to plug the car into an external power source.
This car is the perfect geek toy -- many functions are performed via the touchscreen LCD screen, and all the other displays are 100% digital. Sound system is very good for a stock system, and you gotta love the static cling sticker on the back: Eat my voltage.
Sticker price was about $21k, and from my experience, has been worth it. I'm currently getting about 42MPG according to the consumption display. More pics are located here.
I just took a new sysadmin job with an overly-lawyerfied inventions agreement. However, I did look over and change things to TRY to protect my existing open-source work, including changing the "we own all your code" clause to "we own all your code that you made, relevant to your job".
However, a sysadmin position is a very broad job. Does the 100-line perl script I wrote to move SNMP data into a database (which I did for my own use) count as something relevant to my job? Yes, it very well can.
Any idea how to navigate these invention clauses when you are a jack of all trades?
Does it even matter at all if he got the letter, if he lied about it or even if he told the truth about this company? It's very VERY clear he's telling his opinion and the moment people get fined for telling their opinion is the moment the US can be considerd on par with China and many other countries they can't stand. Emigrate while you can!
You know, I tried that once. I got pulled over for speeding, and the cop gave me a ticket, with a court date written on it. I didn't bother showing up, or paying the ticket, because I knew I was innocent. Then they issued a warrant for my arrest, I can't figure out why.
The grandparent post is right -- something seems up if the prosecution claims he received the summons via certified mail. You can't just ignore a court summons, whether you (or Slashdot) think you're innocent.
As usual, everything in the universe eventually ends up hitting jwz at some point. This story (read: rant) is a perfect example on how something as trivial as non-company-related-email lists set up by a few employees can land them and the company in hot water.
So if you live in Missouri (and another state, I can't remember which), your Social Security Number will become your National Identification number by proxy (in MO, the driver license numbers are the individual's SSN).
The comment at top is talking about downloading Solaris 8 for Intel. Sparc is still available, Intel is gone.
You can still order the media kit for either platform. My guess is they took down the Intel version because of too many people with PCs grabbing them, eating away at the bandwidth. Hell, if the customer wants Solaris 8 Sparc, most likely they bought their hardware from Sun. I personally have not paid a penny to them yet (not intentionally, I have nothing against the company).
They're cutting their losses. I may not like it, but I understand why they're doing it.
Dear Friend , Especially for you - this red-hot intelligence
. If you no longer wish to receive our publications
simply reply with a Subject: of "REMOVE" and you will
immediately be removed from our mailing list . This
mail is being sent in compliance with Senate bill 1622
; Title 1 ; Section 307 ! This is not a get rich scheme
! Why work for somebody else when you can become rich
within 60 days ! Have you ever noticed society seems
to be moving faster and faster and nobody is getting
any younger ! Well, now is your chance to capitalize
on this ! WE will help YOU deliver goods right to the
customer's doorstep and decrease perceived waiting
time by 160% ! You can begin at absolutely no cost
to you ! But don't believe us ! Mr Simpson of Connecticut
tried us and says "My only problem now is where to
park all my cars" . We are a BBB member in good standing
. We beseech you - act now ! Sign up a friend and you'll
get a discount of 60% ! Thank-you for your serious
consideration of our offer ! Dear Professional , Thank-you
for your interest in our letter ! If you no longer
wish to receive our publications simply reply with
a Subject: of "REMOVE" and you will immediately be
removed from our mailing list ! This mail is being
sent in compliance with Senate bill 1620 ; Title 9
; Section 306 . This is different than anything else
you've seen ! Why work for somebody else when you can
become rich in 37 days ! Have you ever noticed the
baby boomers are more demanding than their parents
& society seems to be moving faster and faster . Well,
now is your chance to capitalize on this . WE will
help YOU increase customer response by 170% and deliver
goods right to the customer's doorstep . The best thing
about our system is that it is absolutely risk free
for you . But don't believe us ! Mr Ames who resides
in Delaware tried us and says "I was skeptical but
it worked for me" ! This offer is 100% legal ! We implore
you - act now . Sign up a friend and your friend will
be rich too . Thanks !
You seem to be confusing VoIP with Net2Phone. VoIP in general is a very cool technology. A friend of mine worked at a company where all extensions were VoIP. If you had to move your desk, you could just take your phone with you, plug it into a network socket, the PBX would see your mac address, and you would be on your way. quality was indistinguishable from a regular phone.
Personally, if I were to build a house, I'd forget about regular copper pair for phone, and wire Cat5e instead. (Not that I ever use telephones anymore, but still...)
It's companies like Net2Phone that confuse real VoIP with garbled crap over a 28.8k connection.
As for Cisco VoIP equipment, it's neat, but a little difficult to understand at times (as pretty much all Cisco gear seems to be:)
Jeez CmdrTaco, way to continue your tradition of poor spelling and error checking... It's spelled center, not centre! Pretty soon you'll be using made-up words like defence and revolutionise!
Well, it's all about convienence. I use pgp4pine which does automatic decryption/signature checking on incoming email, would automatically try to fetch public keys from PGP key servers, let you choose if you want to encrypt outgoing messages, just sign them or don't bother....
Appearantly mutt has some decent PGP tie-ins. Hell, I remember Eudora used to have a PGP mode.
Unfortunately, the implementation across OS's and mail packages are inconsistent, and that will probably be the demise of PGP/PKI.
*shrug* What do I care? I don't mind using the clear envelope theory of sending email 98% of the time... The other 2%, it's usually to a friend or colleague who also has PGP.
EOF
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (FreeBSD)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
Right on! My neighbor and I would build capsela bots and then would do a "total competition" consisting of a race, a tug-of-war competition, and to see who could piss off my sister the fastest.
Unfortunately I never got the kit with the yellow buyoys, so I never got the chance to make speed boats.
God, I haven't thought of capsela in years... now it's all coming back to me (like the fact that the battery compartment would always keep getting undone).. Thanks for the reminder!
Slashdot Mirror
If you looked at about 80% highway driving, 20% city, yes, the Prius is an Echo that costs $7k more. However, Prius users in a very urban area like San Francisco have reported 60-70MPG or more, since the gas engine is almost never used! The electric motor has the capability of reaching 47MPH without needing the gas engine (though painfully slow accelerating is needed, I've found that 23-25MPH is the "real world" threshold before the gas engine kicks in), so if you're not the kind of person who wants to get to the next red light, one block away, as soon as possible, you can get amazing gas mileage from a Prius.
"Unfortunately", since my drive to work involves a small amount of city driving, some country backroads and a small highway trek, my gas mileage tops off at about 48MPG.
As TheOnlyCoolTim also mentioned, resistence from braking (and even coasting to some extent) is used to power the battery. This is called regenerative braking. Modern hybrid cars use both that and what you mentioned; taking extra energy from the engine and essentially turning the electric motor backwards into a generator. This is all computer controlled, allowing maximum power to be automatically used if it's needed (climbing up a hill or whatnot), but not wasting too much energy when the extra power is not needed.
Bill: Umm, it's 9AM on a Sunday morning. Can I help you?
Woman: Hi! We're Linux Witnesses...
Man: And we would like to explain the awesome power of the Open Source business model.
Bill: Sorry, I'm perfectly happy with my b usiness model. Begins to close door.
Woman: Wait, Open Source is the one true business model! It has the potential to make money in the retail and services market, while allowing you to give back to the community!
Man: Plus, it creates the ability for external competition, thereby guaranteeing that you're on your toes to make the best product possible!
Bill: Not interested.... Look, it's SUNDAY MORNING, the business model's HOLY DAY, I was about to go work on mine right now...
Woman: We understand, but when you can, please look at our literature. Hands Bill a pamphlet that says "Linux is Your Savior" and a wristband that says "WWTD (What Would Tux Do?)"
Bill: Uhhuh... closes the door
Melinda: Honey, who was that?
Bill: Oh, just some Linux zealots.
Shipping cost of laser printer with toner on eBay: $75
3 months later and the modem is still sitting in a corner collecting dust. Unfortunately, these specific CyberSURFR modems are not 100% DOCSIS compatible, meaning they won't work on pretty much any other cable system. And AT&T is smart (mean?) enough to not provision customer-bought modems that are not DOCSIS. So that leaves me with a useless piece of hardware. Maybe I'll turn it into a wall clock.
I live in Reno, NV. There are no tax breaks (no income taxes period
heh... Actually it was a 35MPH zone, heading toward a 15MPH curve.
On Tuesday I bought a Toyota Prius, mentioned in the article. Very nice car for the dollar. Hybrid gas/electric car, uses the gas engine only when needed. In fact, I still haven't gotten used to the fact that the onboard computer will actually turn off the engine while driving, when it is not needed.
Gas mileage on the sticker is very impressive. 52 city, 45 highway. No, that is not a typo. It actually performs better in traffic, mostly because slow acceleration is almost exclusively under electric power. Coasting and deceleration use regenerative braking to recharge the battery, meaning you never have to plug the car into an external power source.
This car is the perfect geek toy -- many functions are performed via the touchscreen LCD screen, and all the other displays are 100% digital. Sound system is very good for a stock system, and you gotta love the static cling sticker on the back: Eat my voltage.
Sticker price was about $21k, and from my experience, has been worth it. I'm currently getting about 42MPG according to the consumption display. More pics are located here.
However, a sysadmin position is a very broad job. Does the 100-line perl script I wrote to move SNMP data into a database (which I did for my own use) count as something relevant to my job? Yes, it very well can.
Any idea how to navigate these invention clauses when you are a jack of all trades?
Was I the only one who read the article, saw the enhancements, and thought "Samus"?
Database machine (Dual 1.2ghz, 512MB, 80GB RAID Array, $6000 price tag): san francisco (it's big, ugly, and unnecessarily expensive)
Lotus Notes server that always seems to be broken: atlantic-city ('nuff said)
Printer: boston (first newspaper in america, but it's not as funny as the previous two :)
You know, I tried that once. I got pulled over for speeding, and the cop gave me a ticket, with a court date written on it. I didn't bother showing up, or paying the ticket, because I knew I was innocent. Then they issued a warrant for my arrest, I can't figure out why.
The grandparent post is right -- something seems up if the prosecution claims he received the summons via certified mail. You can't just ignore a court summons, whether you (or Slashdot) think you're innocent.
As usual, everything in the universe eventually ends up hitting jwz at some point. This story (read: rant) is a perfect example on how something as trivial as non-company-related-email lists set up by a few employees can land them and the company in hot water.
They must be ignoring their own rules then... Not only are they indexing themselves, you can visit a cached version of their home page.
So if you live in Missouri (and another state, I can't remember which), your Social Security Number will become your National Identification number by proxy (in MO, the driver license numbers are the individual's SSN).
Scary.
You can still order the media kit for either platform. My guess is they took down the Intel version because of too many people with PCs grabbing them, eating away at the bandwidth. Hell, if the customer wants Solaris 8 Sparc, most likely they bought their hardware from Sun. I personally have not paid a penny to them yet (not intentionally, I have nothing against the company).
They're cutting their losses. I may not like it, but I understand why they're doing it.
Dear Friend , Especially for you - this red-hot intelligence . If you no longer wish to receive our publications simply reply with a Subject: of "REMOVE" and you will immediately be removed from our mailing list . This mail is being sent in compliance with Senate bill 1622 ; Title 1 ; Section 307 ! This is not a get rich scheme ! Why work for somebody else when you can become rich within 60 days ! Have you ever noticed society seems to be moving faster and faster and nobody is getting any younger ! Well, now is your chance to capitalize on this ! WE will help YOU deliver goods right to the customer's doorstep and decrease perceived waiting time by 160% ! You can begin at absolutely no cost to you ! But don't believe us ! Mr Simpson of Connecticut tried us and says "My only problem now is where to park all my cars" . We are a BBB member in good standing . We beseech you - act now ! Sign up a friend and you'll get a discount of 60% ! Thank-you for your serious consideration of our offer ! Dear Professional , Thank-you for your interest in our letter ! If you no longer wish to receive our publications simply reply with a Subject: of "REMOVE" and you will immediately be removed from our mailing list ! This mail is being sent in compliance with Senate bill 1620 ; Title 9 ; Section 306 . This is different than anything else you've seen ! Why work for somebody else when you can become rich in 37 days ! Have you ever noticed the baby boomers are more demanding than their parents & society seems to be moving faster and faster . Well, now is your chance to capitalize on this . WE will help YOU increase customer response by 170% and deliver goods right to the customer's doorstep . The best thing about our system is that it is absolutely risk free for you . But don't believe us ! Mr Ames who resides in Delaware tried us and says "I was skeptical but it worked for me" ! This offer is 100% legal ! We implore you - act now . Sign up a friend and your friend will be rich too . Thanks !
You seem to be confusing VoIP with Net2Phone. VoIP in general is a very cool technology. A friend of mine worked at a company where all extensions were VoIP. If you had to move your desk, you could just take your phone with you, plug it into a network socket, the PBX would see your mac address, and you would be on your way. quality was indistinguishable from a regular phone.
:)
Personally, if I were to build a house, I'd forget about regular copper pair for phone, and wire Cat5e instead. (Not that I ever use telephones anymore, but still...)
It's companies like Net2Phone that confuse real VoIP with garbled crap over a 28.8k connection.
As for Cisco VoIP equipment, it's neat, but a little difficult to understand at times (as pretty much all Cisco gear seems to be
You know how many efnet servers have closed or reduced availability because of the kiddiez? More than one, I can tell you.
Jeez CmdrTaco, way to continue your tradition of poor spelling and error checking... It's spelled center , not centre ! Pretty soon you'll be using made-up words like defence and revolutionise!
Will Red Had Linux ever make it to version 7.3? I'm just amused and curious by the release cycle: X.0, X.1, X.2, X+1.0, X+1.1, X+1.2, etc...
:)
Just an observation. I want my grandchildren to see 7.6.32 (ala kernel numbering scheme
foo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
g 1V 2SLuQH9ACfU/HG
Hash: SHA1
Well, it's all about convienence. I use pgp4pine which does automatic decryption/signature checking on incoming email, would automatically try to fetch public keys from PGP key servers, let you choose if you want to encrypt outgoing messages, just sign them or don't bother....
Appearantly mutt has some decent PGP tie-ins. Hell, I remember Eudora used to have a PGP mode.
Unfortunately, the implementation across OS's and mail packages are inconsistent, and that will probably be the demise of PGP/PKI.
*shrug* What do I care? I don't mind using the clear envelope theory of sending email 98% of the time... The other 2%, it's usually to a friend or colleague who also has PGP.
EOF
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (FreeBSD)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
iD8DBQE7xmqUKZYQqSA+yiURAiDRAJ9G3rMyNRJOHfpRDt+
9yhh23ifyYH57o1h5c+Y3Gg=
=VK6P
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Right on! My neighbor and I would build capsela bots and then would do a "total competition" consisting of a race, a tug-of-war competition, and to see who could piss off my sister the fastest.
Unfortunately I never got the kit with the yellow buyoys, so I never got the chance to make speed boats.
God, I haven't thought of capsela in years... now it's all coming back to me (like the fact that the battery compartment would always keep getting undone).. Thanks for the reminder!
Am I the only one who finds it funny that Ximian's army of good monkeys are fighting Microsoft's army of evil monkeys?
Is it me, or does nothing in the article even metion e-mail? It's all concerning their netzero-ish free ISP service.