$15B fine on 11M defective by design units? That's a shade over $1000 a unit in fines. Does that fine even cover the profit per unit. VW shouldn't be making a profit per unit after fines.
If the fine for violating the emissions standards is so low and still appropriate, couldn't I just pay $1500 more to buy a car without all the emissions gear? The lower cost of servicing a slightly more expensive car without all the emissions baggage would more than cover the extra $1500.
If not, then the fine isn't appropriate now is it?
Nope.. not 11M cars.. only the 480,000 2L TDI and potentially the 90,000 3L TDI (still being negotiated). spread across 7 years.
Given that the gas models sell more than the diesel models and that the body work is equivalent.. those parts won't last long.
Even the diesel parts will get reused.. if and only if VW gets an approved fix. Blow a passing 2L TDI engine component (think turbo) get one for half price from a non-compliant 2L sold back to VW.
"This is a public street. You're not expecting privacy on a public street."
and my immediate reaction was "then perhaps you should be".
You aren't expecting not to have your car seen by someone passing in the street who wouldn't give it a second glance or remember it 10 seconds later. However, that's a totally different thing to having its identity and location digitally scanned, recorded indefinitely, and searchable in combination with arbitrary other data sources, giving rise to the reasonable privacy concerns mentioned in TFS and many more.
And don't forget, that the scanners read everything within their field of vision... so they will also collect information for vehicles sitting on the driveway as well as in the garage, if the door is up.
I want a required "Good till" date printed on them, that guarantees they last at least X days, just like soda.
Yeah, most of them will last a lot longer than the printed date, because chances are you won't buy them and install them on the day they make them.
But still, if a curly bulb is supposed to last 5 years, and it dies one year after you install it, there should be an easy way to get a refund.
And just how do you propose to prove the CFL only lasted less than the rated life? It doesn't have a built in run timer, the serial number on the bulb is typically too small to capture with the average cell phone camera, and you can't expect the stores to track when they sold each and every bulb (Google probably would).
Even if you could prove that it failed early, then you get into the arena of the manufacturers adding usage direction that say "This build may only be run X hours per day. Any usage out side of this, voids your warranty"
Probably the biggest reason behind all those thousands (if not milions) of failed projects in the industry is coderz who learned how to code without learning why to code. A degree in computer science doesn't teach you how to code but how to think.
As well as constant scope creep and timeline reduction.
My only complaint is that e-filing should be free software provided by the government and not commercial entities. Seems like that's the prerogative of the Feds, but those under a certain income bracket do get free filing and software.
Do you really think that the Govt and in particular the IRS could ever get the software done? Look at how many millions if not billions of dollars the IRS has spent trying to upgrade their hardware... and they still haven't managed to do it.
Your list of potential crimes is insanely stupid and completely unrealistic. What next? Are you going to outlaw all sodas sold in cups 17 oz or larger? That will be the day.
That was the point.. the vastly increasing number of laws, rules, regulations and policies for which the American public is willing to surrender their constitutional rights. Yes, some sanity prevailed in the NYC case, but not common sense. The NYC ban was struck down because the judge decided it was unfair to say certain merchants couldn't sell 17+ oz sodas, but someone next door could because they were classified differently.
It all boils down to the rapidly disappearing concept of common sense. Everyone should know that consuming 2000 calories a day in sugary drinks is bad for you.. but people still do it.
All I know is that, I've got nothing to hide, so I don't care, but, for those who do, they may have to switch to another provider....
And what happens when it becomes a felony to possess $100 bill, or to take 4 pain killers when the bottle says 2,.. speeding over 5 mph not taking reusable bags to the grocery store..
In this day and age.. no telling what will be the next big federal crime... streaming copyrighted video from a site not owned by the copyright holder comes to mind.
I'm happy for overseas people to pay to be able to get access. I see no reason why overseas subscription isn't an option. The BBC is wonderful and the content should be seen.
Basically, the oversite board ruled that if the BBC sold "internet license" to non-UK residents, it would be canabilizing the overseas alternatives like BBC-America, BBC-Canada etc. and thus reducing there profits
when you watch programs the day after they are first aired
Wouldn't that suggest they can use that 15 minutes for something else?
How about better story lines as well as plot and character development.... oh wait, poor johnny grew up watching ads, so he can't write to save his life.:-(
So yeah, there may be a certain value in not having to get a new prescription each year, but don't go overboard.
Seeing an ophthalmologist is more than just getting a new prescription. It is about catching the myriad of treatable disease before they make you go blind.
For me, without insurance, 1 drug is $10 per quarter( $40 for the year), the other is $900 per quarter($2,700 for the year) total outlay $2,740.. with my insurance I pay an extra $120 a year for drug coverage so with my insurance I pay $10 per quarter for 1 and I pay $600 for a full years supply of the other for a total outlay of $760 for the same drugs..
To get the drug coverage, I simply see my primary doctor 1 time (covered 100% by the insurance) and get 2 prescriptions for 90 days worth of meds with 3 refills.
If you are dealing with a chronic disease, you go in for an annual checkup and get prescriptions for a years worth of all your drugs and never see the doctor again until next year unless you get sick or hurt..
I remember when Comcast put on the extremely low 250GB caps per month, a lot of people around here said that anybody using more than 250GB a month was probably a pirate.
Does anybody still believe that?
What 250GB caps really means is that your ISP won't invest in infrastructure, because its expensive.
It may have been slightly more true in some cases back then, but let's see: 1) GOG.com 2) Steam 3) Origin 4) XBLA/PSN demos, games and videos 5) Netflix instant watch 6) An occasional Linux ISO 7) Everything else
I've probably forgotten a few things, but I see it as pretty easy to hit 250GB on some months, even if not every month (seriously, if you bought Dragon Age complete pack from Amazon.com when it was on sale, that is 40 GB or more worth of downloading for those two games alone!).
For me it isn't a true cap.. at 250GB in month for the third month, I get hit with $2 per GB over fee. Been that way for the last 2 years.
Funny thing is.. in 2 years time the most I've ever pulled in a month was 160 GB.. that includes me working from home using the connection 8-18 hours a day running multiple vpns and ssh sessions, along with another 6-8 devices on constantly (3 of which are doing email/facebook/myspace/bebo/itunes for wife and daughter) and we collectively timeshift about 15 hours worth of shows a week via the internet ( it has become our DVR - replacing the 3 VCRs in the house).
Most months my usages ends up in the 80-100GB range..
We already charge by the mile via gasoline taxes; is there evidence to show that the current level of taxes is insufficient to cover the cost of road building and repair? Or is the problem that a large portion of such taxes is siphoned off to pay for mass transit, bicycle paths, transportation-related museums and other programs that are only tangentially related to road building and repair?
That is so wrong as to be funny. Gas taxes have NOTHING to do with miles driven. In fact as the average vehicle mileage climbs the amount of gas tax money falls. Which is why governments at all levels are looking at taxing by mile.. that way the bozo commuting to work 40 miles a day in SUV that gets 10 miles to the gallon will pay the same amount of taxes at the person driving 40 miles a day in a Prius.
The real trick is figuring out how many cents per mile will keep people driving and how rapidly it will drop off if you go higher.
You would need to provide a shipping address to get a tax amount, but it wouldn't be that hard to code. You can get a database of tax rates by zip code pretty trivially. I think (when I programmed for a brick-and-mortar that delivered all over the state of CA) that we paid $100 annually for a CSV of the whole state's data, and if my memory serves me correctly, a national database was $500. It was updated from time to time, when tax rates changed, but it was a matter of dumping the CSV into a MySQL database a few times a year. I don't think that Amazon could legally set a flat "tax rate" and charge that for purchases, but charging by delivery zip would not be that hard.
No one said it was hard. The issue is how current is the data. With the current 7,500 or more taxing jurisdictions all changing the data on some unknown period ( in Texas it could be monthly, quarterly, or yearly).. depending on the jurisdiction and the whim of the people setting the rates or better yet changing the rules on what gets taxed.
Given that situation, you can bet that every jurisdiction will want to have every corporations books audited make sure they are being handed the right amount. Without a doubt New York, California, and Illinois will be the first in line claiming that online company XYZ under collected taxes for their state.
I don't want to read this kind of stuff on Slashdot. I come here for tech news that has some bearing on the world. This story is specifically about American politics and should have no place on this site.
And if the position of the court swings to support more ridged software patents or towards supporting what is proposed in the ACTA treaty.. won't that have an extreme impact on the technological realms ?
If you tried to apply your "lactose intolerant" analogy, don't you suppose your opponent would point out that the makers of your favorite foods don't project those foods into your home against your wishes?
If these sensitivities were real (though I very much doubt that they are), he would have a point. Just because something has become socially common doesn't mean it's ok to do if it later turns out that it harms others in their own home. The key phrase is if they were real; so this point is moot unless someone can show some credible scientific basis for anything beyond the psychosomatic.
So where do we turn off the electronics.. radio silence for planes flying over New Mexico, no commercial radio or TV broadcasts with in what? a 1000 miles ? Going to ban all medical electronics as well ?
Sorry, in this day and age it is impossible to turn off all intentional and unintentional electronic signals. If he is truly sensitive (not saying he is), then suing the neighbor will not improve anything other than the contents of his bank account.
Personally, the lawyer that is taking this case forward needs to be disbarred.
USAA has offered "Deposit@Home" for years. Instead of taking a photo you can just scan the check and upload it. The only problem is they require you to have a credit card with them as well to qualify for the service. Hopefully, if other banks offer this service for free than USAA will change that policy. I hate having to mail in checks and sit around for two weeks waiting for them to deposit it.
USAA has been offering services via cell phone including check deposits for better than a year now. Everything you can do via computer and the web you can do via cell phone
Judges, lawyers, court clerks, and bailiffs.. all are duty bound to report any and all violations they see or hear about.
As for not getting thrown of the jury for being college educated, technical professional.. easy.. neither lawyer had any challenges left after the swap.
In my case, the lawyers both used up their 3 free challenges and couldn't find any cause to remove additional potential jurors. So 12 people impaneled for a murder of a child case. Then the lawyers looked at the make up of the jury... 11 women, 1 man.. so the defense lawyer called for a rotation of the potential jurors. (96 people called - 15 excused for various reasons mostly age young or old, leaving 81 people sitting in numbered chairs.. at the finish of jury selection anyone sitting in seats 1-12 were the jury, the rotation consisted a basically of randomly calling a row number to replace another row.. so rows 1 and 2 were dismissed.. I had the misfortune of sitting on called row). After the rotation, the jury was 7 women, 5 men.. which is about as balanced as can be expected with the degree of randomness involved.
The problem is the circle of friends. If you violate the judges orders, you are in contempt of court no matter where you are.. Within 3 degrees of separation, my wife and I know probably 100 couples (so 200) people that are connected to the court. All it takes is one off handed remark in the presence of any of those 200 people to start an investigation and possibly get you sited with contempt (probably a light sentence if the judge determines it had no material affect on the out come of the trial vs a potentially substantial penalty -- felony record with jail time in Texas if the judge determines there needs to be a retrial.)
So, I guess it is all up to how willing you are to risk a felony record and a few years of jail time for not following instructions.
I would suggest that if you do violate the judge's orders, don't get divorced for the next 3-5 years, as your spouse might just decide to inform the courts of your wrong doing.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Sears *HAD* Craftsman, recently sold it though
And *HAD* Diehard .. and is now selling Kenmore through Amazon
Against at $15 charge for a cable box they no longer have .. sounds like a sweet deal for Comcast
$15B fine on 11M defective by design units? That's a shade over $1000 a unit in fines. Does that fine even cover the profit per unit. VW shouldn't be making a profit per unit after fines.
If the fine for violating the emissions standards is so low and still appropriate, couldn't I just pay $1500 more to buy a car without all the emissions gear? The lower cost of servicing a slightly more expensive car without all the emissions baggage would more than cover the extra $1500.
If not, then the fine isn't appropriate now is it?
Nope.. not 11M cars .. only the 480,000 2L TDI and potentially the 90,000 3L TDI (still being negotiated). spread across 7 years.
Given that the gas models sell more than the diesel models and that the body work is equivalent .. those parts won't last long.
Even the diesel parts will get reused .. if and only if VW gets an approved fix. Blow a passing 2L TDI engine component (think turbo)
get one for half price from a non-compliant 2L sold back to VW.
Indeed. I read this
"This is a public street. You're not expecting privacy on a public street."
and my immediate reaction was "then perhaps you should be".
You aren't expecting not to have your car seen by someone passing in the street who wouldn't give it a second glance or remember it 10 seconds later. However, that's a totally different thing to having its identity and location digitally scanned, recorded indefinitely, and searchable in combination with arbitrary other data sources, giving rise to the reasonable privacy concerns mentioned in TFS and many more.
And don't forget, that the scanners read everything within their field of vision... so they will also collect information for vehicles sitting on the driveway as well as in the garage, if the door is up.
way too early.
I want a required "Good till" date printed on them, that guarantees they last at least X days, just like soda.
Yeah, most of them will last a lot longer than the printed date, because chances are you won't buy them and install them on the day they make them.
But still, if a curly bulb is supposed to last 5 years, and it dies one year after you install it, there should be an easy way to get a refund.
And just how do you propose to prove the CFL only lasted less than the rated life? It doesn't have a built in run timer, the serial number on the bulb is typically too small to capture with the average cell phone camera, and you can't expect the stores to track when they sold each and every bulb (Google probably would).
Even if you could prove that it failed early, then you get into the arena of the manufacturers adding usage direction that say "This build may only be run X hours per day. Any usage out side of this, voids your warranty"
Probably the biggest reason behind all those thousands (if not milions) of failed projects in the industry is coderz who learned how to code without learning why to code.
A degree in computer science doesn't teach you how to code but how to think.
As well as constant scope creep and timeline reduction.
>
My only complaint is that e-filing should be free software provided by the government and not commercial entities. Seems like that's the prerogative of the Feds, but those under a certain income bracket do get free filing and software.
Do you really think that the Govt and in particular the IRS could ever get the software done? Look at how many millions if not billions of dollars the IRS has spent trying to upgrade their hardware ... and they still haven't managed to do it.
the subject says it all pick your favorite distro and LookXP to it.
...and all online. There's just the minor issue of geolocation to circumvent.
Everyone's coverage is better than NBC's .. NBC spends more time doing profiles, interviews and commercials than the spend showing sports..
Your list of potential crimes is insanely stupid and completely unrealistic. What next? Are you going to outlaw all sodas sold in cups 17 oz or larger? That will be the day.
That was the point .. the vastly increasing number of laws, rules, regulations and policies for which the American public is willing to surrender their constitutional rights. Yes, some sanity prevailed in the NYC case, but not common sense. The NYC ban was struck down because the judge decided it was unfair to say certain merchants couldn't sell 17+ oz sodas, but someone next door could because they were classified differently.
It all boils down to the rapidly disappearing concept of common sense. Everyone should know that consuming 2000 calories a day in sugary drinks is bad for you .. but people still do it.
All I know is that, I've got nothing to hide, so I don't care, but, for those who do, they may have to switch to another provider....
And what happens when it becomes a felony to possess $100 bill, or to take 4 pain killers when the bottle says 2, .. speeding over 5 mph ..
not taking reusable bags to the grocery store
In this day and age .. no telling what will be the next big federal crime... streaming copyrighted video from a site not owned by the copyright holder comes to mind.
And? So what? How does that harm the public?
It reduces the stream a licensing royalties the non UK BBCs pay, which in the end would cause the UK Tele license fee to go up.
And I guarantee any money made from overseas tele licensing wouldn't make up for the lost revenue from royalties.
I'm happy for overseas people to pay to be able to get access. I see no reason why overseas subscription isn't an option. The BBC is wonderful and the content should be seen.
Basically, the oversite board ruled that if the BBC sold "internet license" to non-UK residents, it would be canabilizing the overseas alternatives like BBC-America, BBC-Canada etc. and thus reducing there profits
when you watch programs the day after they are first aired
Wouldn't that suggest they can use that 15 minutes for something else?
How about better story lines as well as plot and character development.... oh wait, poor johnny grew up watching ads, so he can't write to save his life. :-(
So yeah, there may be a certain value in not having to get a new prescription each year, but don't go overboard.
Seeing an ophthalmologist is more than just getting a new prescription. It is about catching the myriad of treatable disease before they make you go blind.
Depends on the drugs you require...
For me, without insurance, 1 drug is $10 per quarter( $40 for the year), the other is $900 per quarter($2,700 for the year) total outlay $2,740 .. with my insurance I pay an extra $120 a year for drug coverage so with my insurance I pay $10 per quarter for 1 and I pay $600 for a full years supply of the other for a total outlay of $760 for the same drugs ..
To get the drug coverage, I simply see my primary doctor 1 time (covered 100% by the insurance) and get 2 prescriptions for 90 days worth of meds with 3 refills.
If you are dealing with a chronic disease, you go in for an annual checkup and get prescriptions for a years worth of all your drugs and never see the doctor again until next year unless you get sick or hurt ..
I remember when Comcast put on the extremely low 250GB caps per month, a lot of people around here said that anybody using more than 250GB a month was probably a pirate.
Does anybody still believe that?
What 250GB caps really means is that your ISP won't invest in infrastructure, because its expensive.
It may have been slightly more true in some cases back then, but let's see:
1) GOG.com
2) Steam
3) Origin
4) XBLA/PSN demos, games and videos
5) Netflix instant watch
6) An occasional Linux ISO
7) Everything else
I've probably forgotten a few things, but I see it as pretty easy to hit 250GB on some months, even if not every month (seriously, if you bought Dragon Age complete pack from Amazon.com when it was on sale, that is 40 GB or more worth of downloading for those two games alone!).
For me it isn't a true cap .. at 250GB in month for the third month, I get hit with $2 per GB over fee. Been that way for the last 2 years.
Funny thing is .. in 2 years time the most I've ever pulled in a month was 160 GB.. that includes me working from home using the connection 8-18 hours a day running multiple vpns and ssh sessions, along with another 6-8 devices on constantly (3 of which are doing email/facebook/myspace/bebo/itunes for wife and daughter) and we collectively timeshift about 15 hours worth of shows a week via the internet ( it has become our DVR - replacing the 3 VCRs in the house).
Most months my usages ends up in the 80-100GB range..
Texas is close to the ocean, if they're going to spend money, why not also include desalinization equipment -- plenty of water there.
rtfa.. it says West Texas .. depending on the town it could be 1000 miles from the nearest ocean.
We already charge by the mile via gasoline taxes; is there evidence to show that the current level of taxes is insufficient to cover the cost of road building and repair? Or is the problem that a large portion of such taxes is siphoned off to pay for mass transit, bicycle paths, transportation-related museums and other programs that are only tangentially related to road building and repair?
That is so wrong as to be funny. Gas taxes have NOTHING to do with miles driven. In fact as the average vehicle mileage climbs the amount of gas tax money falls. Which is why governments at all levels are looking at taxing by mile.. that way the bozo commuting to work 40 miles a day in SUV that gets 10 miles to the gallon will pay the same amount of taxes at the person driving 40 miles a day in a Prius.
The real trick is figuring out how many cents per mile will keep people driving and how rapidly it will drop off if you go higher.
You would need to provide a shipping address to get a tax amount, but it wouldn't be that hard to code. You can get a database of tax rates by zip code pretty trivially. I think (when I programmed for a brick-and-mortar that delivered all over the state of CA) that we paid $100 annually for a CSV of the whole state's data, and if my memory serves me correctly, a national database was $500. It was updated from time to time, when tax rates changed, but it was a matter of dumping the CSV into a MySQL database a few times a year. I don't think that Amazon could legally set a flat "tax rate" and charge that for purchases, but charging by delivery zip would not be that hard.
No one said it was hard. The issue is how current is the data. With the current 7,500 or more taxing jurisdictions all changing the data on some unknown period ( in Texas it could be monthly, quarterly, or yearly) .. depending on the jurisdiction and the whim of the people setting the rates or better yet changing the rules on what gets taxed.
Given that situation, you can bet that every jurisdiction will want to have every corporations books audited make sure they are being handed the right amount. Without a doubt New York, California, and Illinois will be the first in line claiming that online company XYZ under collected taxes for their state.
And if the position of the court swings to support more ridged software patents or towards supporting what is proposed in the ACTA treaty.. won't that have an extreme impact on the technological realms ?
So where do we turn off the electronics.. radio silence for planes flying over New Mexico, no commercial radio or TV broadcasts with in what? a 1000 miles ? Going to ban all medical electronics as well ?
Sorry, in this day and age it is impossible to turn off all intentional and unintentional electronic signals. If he is truly sensitive (not saying he is), then suing the neighbor will not improve anything other than the contents of his bank account.
Personally, the lawyer that is taking this case forward needs to be disbarred.
USAA has been offering services via cell phone including check deposits for better than a year now. Everything you can do via computer and the web you can do via cell phone
Judges, lawyers, court clerks, and bailiffs.. all are duty bound to report any and all violations they see or hear about.
As for not getting thrown of the jury for being college educated, technical professional.. easy .. neither lawyer had any challenges left after the swap.
In my case, the lawyers both used up their 3 free challenges and couldn't find any cause to remove additional potential jurors. So 12 people impaneled for a murder of a child case. Then the lawyers looked at the make up of the jury... 11 women, 1 man.. so the defense lawyer called for a rotation of the potential jurors. (96 people called - 15 excused for various reasons mostly age young or old, leaving 81 people sitting in numbered chairs .. at the finish of jury selection anyone sitting in seats 1-12 were the jury, the rotation consisted a basically of randomly calling a row number to replace another row.. so rows 1 and 2 were dismissed.. I had the misfortune of sitting on called row). After the rotation, the jury was 7 women, 5 men.. which is about as balanced as can be expected with the degree of randomness involved.
The problem is the circle of friends. If you violate the judges orders, you are in contempt of court no matter where you are.. Within 3 degrees of separation, my wife and I know probably 100 couples (so 200) people that are connected to the court. All it takes is one off handed remark in the presence of any of those 200 people to start an investigation and possibly get you sited with contempt (probably a light sentence if the judge determines it had no material affect on the out come of the trial vs a potentially substantial penalty -- felony record with jail time in Texas if the judge determines there needs to be a retrial.)
So, I guess it is all up to how willing you are to risk a felony record and a few years of jail time for not following instructions.
I would suggest that if you do violate the judge's orders, don't get divorced for the next 3-5 years, as your spouse might just decide to inform the courts of your wrong doing. :-)