EV TCO is already favorable compared to your average compact
That's true, but the Volt has the unfortunate position of having a couple extra thousand dollars worth of complexity added so that it can run on both gas or electricity.
The sad fact is that the only people who a volt makes sense for are the same people who could do alright with an electric conversion that might cost them $10,000 - and they could buy a $11,000 Versa to park in the driveway for those "long trips" that theoretically kill the electric car . Then they could take $15000 and bury it in the backyard and still have money leftover vs. buying a Volt.
I'm intrigued by cars like the all-electric Leaf - but until battery prices come down (or until they offer a lower-range version) they are wayyyyy overpriced. My wife only needs to go 15 miles per day total. She currently drives a Camry. She puts less than 5000 miles on the car each year. With low mileage like that, it would take forever to pay for the Volt/Prius difference - but a safe electric car with maybe 40 miles of range would be ideal if they could price it close to other (gasoline) cars in it's class. Hauling around hundreds of miles worth of battery for her 6-mile commute is silly.
I agree with you that this guy never should have been locked up - and for a week! But I agree with Artraze: people should be searched for contraband when they enter prison (or jail if you prefer).
The tragedy in this case is not that the guy was searched, because that is a prudent thing to do before you put men in a cage. The tragedy is that this guy was put into a cage at all.
Even though his (previous) crime was evading an officer, his crime was still non-violent and he should probably have never been in anything other than a holding cell or area while they processed him. That would still require a frisk, or maybe even a non-invasive strip search - but certainly throwing him in with the general prison population (requiring a cavity search) seems excessive and I think he was wronged.
We're getting ready to head into a presidential election where the "left" is actually center and the "right" is actually "holy fucking shit I didn't know the scale went this far".
When both candidates are perhaps best known for implementing a socialized healthcare system, I'd say you are way off base. The differences between Romney and Obama really boil down to personal differences unless you have a stake in one of the wedge issues (gay rights, abortion, etc.). I'd prefer that the government stayed out of the bedroom, and I'd prefer if abortion stayed legal - but I won't pretend that the future of our Republic hinges on these issues.
Also, a petition is not a secret ballot - it is the opposite. If you don't want the flak that comes with signing a petition, don't sign it - it is a public document. People who actually harass you should be arrested, but it is important that a petition be open to scrutiny. I agree that it is important to have open campaign funding laws and I like open governance - but that includes petitions.
Of course not. You could work really, really hard washing clothes by hand and it still wouldn't make your work any more valuable than the $2 that it would otherwise cost for a machine to do it.
If you have 2 systems, then you're doubling the workload of the teachers
I think you are being disingenuous. How about the teachers send all take-home announcements as a Word/PDF/whatever to a given email address. The receiving computer simultaneously sends the document to a queue. The queue executes in the evening, printing and collating the take-home pile as well as sending out the documents in a nightly email to opted-in parents.
Perhaps you if are a lawyer, that is trivial to do, but if you have no idea how to bring them into legal compliance (say, you are an expat and don't even speak the local language correctly), it can be a real PITA.
I don't think the situation is as dire as you think. Here in the US, we also have some states that have longer "implied" warranties than the typical manufacturer's express warranty. And some products are subject to lemon laws as well. I honestly have no idea how one forces a seller to comply because it has never been a problem for me - I've never had a problem with a return on something that was obviously faulty. I've even had T-Mobile give me a replacement on a phone that had clearly been exposed to water (and salt water no less), simply because not ALL of the telltales were red. More apropos, I've had Apple replace a badly-designed (IMO - poor strain relief) power cord for a MacBook with the newer version when it started fraying.
I imagine most products would be fair game for small claims court - no lawyer needed. My first stop would probably be the Better Business Bureau.
But that's not how they market AppleCare. They primarily market it as an extended warranty and extended support. Even the revised ad I linked to is slimy, with it still saying 1 year but then having a footnote.
I generally really like Apple, but these last two marketing stories have me a bit miffed. First it was the misleading 4G service with the iPad and now it is this warranty business. My only consolation is that I don't live in the EU, where all this misleading stuff is happening... so sure, Apple marketing is a bunch of liars, but at least they aren't lying to me directly (yet):)
In general, I agree - but I've always either regretted not buying AppleCare or been glad to have it. I don't find Apple's products to be any shoddier or less reliable than other electronics in the same price range, but even if they were the AppleCare service has always been fantastic for me.
But selling a redundant warranty is slimy as hell. That's like Best Buy crap.
It really doesn't matter what Apple's warranty duration is, because there seems to be a statutory warranty of 2 years in at least part of the EU.
What this story is really about is Apple selling 2-year AppleCare plans in places with statutory warranties of 2 years, which is pretty darned slimy IMHO.
Yup - the trick is just to design the laser so that the light slows down enough to get into a stable orbit... then you can just fire the laser and it will follow the contour of the earth. Things like mountains and hills can be overcome by firing it even more slowly in a ballistic trajectory.
Yeah and it's even easier, more enriching and more personal for me to just IM or phone someone.
Good for you! I wish I had either that much time or that few people that I cared about. Facebook lets me keep tabs on people that I genuinely care about, but otherwise would be lucky to keep up with more than a few times a year. This is especially true of people who work outside the country now, where the time difference makes it hard to stay in touch. Also, since having kids my minutes usage has gone way down!
e-mail lists are easy to setup for making announcements, but even then I will take the time to contact my friends and family members individually because it is more personal, I actually care about them enough to do so and the event is important enough to warrant it.
Yes, when my son was born, I sent emails to close friends and family - but also posted it on Facebook. My daughter was born pre-Facebook, and so my email list was much longer. It surprised me greatly how many bounces I got and how many people I forgot.
With that in mind, if you only want to play public games with people you know, you're not being very social, now are you?
Hey, different strokes - we can't all be social clubbing butterflies. I think playing Scrabble with a friend whom I have a rivalry with is more fun than a stranger - but I'll play with a stranger in a pinch.
It seems most people on social networks don't care so much about building relationships with others, they care more about saying "Look at me and look at what I did."
They definitely dominate the content, but "most people" on social networks seem to be wallflowers. The hardcore facebookers seem to post several times a day. I tend to share really interesting/funny thing that I come across that I would have email forwarded in the past, or I post an occasional life event. But maybe a few times a month tops. I have "friends" on there that I haven't seen since high school, and they post every bowel movement. C'est la vie.
Get bounce because you have an old address - or worse, send to an old address that they don't check anymore and have a silent failure.
Group email. You know, take the time you did with FB and include those you want in the group. No difference.
What? Update status with baby and birth weight - optionally include picture vs. sort through my entire address list? Yeah, that's the same.
You have me there. No interest in Farmville whatsoever.
Me neither, which is why I used a "Scrabble" clone as an example.
Everyone keeps listing reasons *THEY* like FB and then projects those as reasons *OTHERS* should. Then they act as if it's somehow the others failure to desire the same trinkets.
This goes both ways - the Facebook avoiders try to make you feel like an idiot for using it.
It will just get rounded up or down. If the total is 1.12, then it should go to 1.10. If the total is 1.13, then it should go to 1.15. It's even more straightforward than rounding to the nearest dime, since you don't have to deal with evens and odds.
Slashdot Mirror
EV TCO is already favorable compared to your average compact
That's true, but the Volt has the unfortunate position of having a couple extra thousand dollars worth of complexity added so that it can run on both gas or electricity.
The sad fact is that the only people who a volt makes sense for are the same people who could do alright with an electric conversion that might cost them $10,000 - and they could buy a $11,000 Versa to park in the driveway for those "long trips" that theoretically kill the electric car . Then they could take $15000 and bury it in the backyard and still have money leftover vs. buying a Volt.
I'm intrigued by cars like the all-electric Leaf - but until battery prices come down (or until they offer a lower-range version) they are wayyyyy overpriced. My wife only needs to go 15 miles per day total. She currently drives a Camry. She puts less than 5000 miles on the car each year. With low mileage like that, it would take forever to pay for the Volt/Prius difference - but a safe electric car with maybe 40 miles of range would be ideal if they could price it close to other (gasoline) cars in it's class. Hauling around hundreds of miles worth of battery for her 6-mile commute is silly.
Ahhh, if only you were modded up past 2... this is one of the better comments on this story IMHO.
I agree with you that this guy never should have been locked up - and for a week! But I agree with Artraze: people should be searched for contraband when they enter prison (or jail if you prefer).
The tragedy in this case is not that the guy was searched, because that is a prudent thing to do before you put men in a cage. The tragedy is that this guy was put into a cage at all.
Even though his (previous) crime was evading an officer, his crime was still non-violent and he should probably have never been in anything other than a holding cell or area while they processed him. That would still require a frisk, or maybe even a non-invasive strip search - but certainly throwing him in with the general prison population (requiring a cavity search) seems excessive and I think he was wronged.
We're getting ready to head into a presidential election where the "left" is actually center and the "right" is actually "holy fucking shit I didn't know the scale went this far".
When both candidates are perhaps best known for implementing a socialized healthcare system, I'd say you are way off base. The differences between Romney and Obama really boil down to personal differences unless you have a stake in one of the wedge issues (gay rights, abortion, etc.). I'd prefer that the government stayed out of the bedroom, and I'd prefer if abortion stayed legal - but I won't pretend that the future of our Republic hinges on these issues.
Also, a petition is not a secret ballot - it is the opposite. If you don't want the flak that comes with signing a petition, don't sign it - it is a public document. People who actually harass you should be arrested, but it is important that a petition be open to scrutiny. I agree that it is important to have open campaign funding laws and I like open governance - but that includes petitions.
If the ID is just going to be sequential, then why bother? Just count lines.
If you want to delete data, just put 3 Ds in front of the line.
If your data starts with a D, escape it with E.
If your data starts with an E, escape it with two EEs.
Simple!
LOL, well when I forgot to bring something home and it came to "get a detention" or "forge the signature", my elders could go fuck themselves! :)
My point was that signatures are, while not "trivial", very easy to forge.
There is no link between work and wealth.
Of course not. You could work really, really hard washing clothes by hand and it still wouldn't make your work any more valuable than the $2 that it would otherwise cost for a machine to do it.
If you have 2 systems, then you're doubling the workload of the teachers
I think you are being disingenuous. How about the teachers send all take-home announcements as a Word/PDF/whatever to a given email address. The receiving computer simultaneously sends the document to a queue. The queue executes in the evening, printing and collating the take-home pile as well as sending out the documents in a nightly email to opted-in parents.
I bet one of the kids could put that together.
How do you positively validate the identity of a parent in a household where the student is the most computer literate
You never forged your parent's signature?
Perhaps you if are a lawyer, that is trivial to do, but if you have no idea how to bring them into legal compliance (say, you are an expat and don't even speak the local language correctly), it can be a real PITA.
I don't think the situation is as dire as you think. Here in the US, we also have some states that have longer "implied" warranties than the typical manufacturer's express warranty. And some products are subject to lemon laws as well. I honestly have no idea how one forces a seller to comply because it has never been a problem for me - I've never had a problem with a return on something that was obviously faulty. I've even had T-Mobile give me a replacement on a phone that had clearly been exposed to water (and salt water no less), simply because not ALL of the telltales were red. More apropos, I've had Apple replace a badly-designed (IMO - poor strain relief) power cord for a MacBook with the newer version when it started fraying.
I imagine most products would be fair game for small claims court - no lawyer needed. My first stop would probably be the Better Business Bureau.
Best Buy and WalMart are far worse, no question. But that doesn't make Apple's misleading sales pitch any better.
But that's not how they market AppleCare. They primarily market it as an extended warranty and extended support. Even the revised ad I linked to is slimy, with it still saying 1 year but then having a footnote.
I generally really like Apple, but these last two marketing stories have me a bit miffed. First it was the misleading 4G service with the iPad and now it is this warranty business. My only consolation is that I don't live in the EU, where all this misleading stuff is happening... so sure, Apple marketing is a bunch of liars, but at least they aren't lying to me directly (yet) :)
In general, I agree - but I've always either regretted not buying AppleCare or been glad to have it. I don't find Apple's products to be any shoddier or less reliable than other electronics in the same price range, but even if they were the AppleCare service has always been fantastic for me.
But selling a redundant warranty is slimy as hell. That's like Best Buy crap.
There are states with strict implied-warranty laws - I think as long as 4 years. Some states won't even allow as-is sales!
For once, the headline is understated.
It really doesn't matter what Apple's warranty duration is, because there seems to be a statutory warranty of 2 years in at least part of the EU.
What this story is really about is Apple selling 2-year AppleCare plans in places with statutory warranties of 2 years, which is pretty darned slimy IMHO.
I can see the mission brief now, with the "black hole" icon positioned over the mountain range standing between the ship and the enemy emplacements. :)
Yup - the trick is just to design the laser so that the light slows down enough to get into a stable orbit... then you can just fire the laser and it will follow the contour of the earth. Things like mountains and hills can be overcome by firing it even more slowly in a ballistic trajectory.
Given that lasers are line-of-sight, I would think this would mostly be used as a defensive weapon.
Yeah and it's even easier, more enriching and more personal for me to just IM or phone someone.
Good for you! I wish I had either that much time or that few people that I cared about. Facebook lets me keep tabs on people that I genuinely care about, but otherwise would be lucky to keep up with more than a few times a year. This is especially true of people who work outside the country now, where the time difference makes it hard to stay in touch. Also, since having kids my minutes usage has gone way down!
e-mail lists are easy to setup for making announcements, but even then I will take the time to contact my friends and family members individually because it is more personal, I actually care about them enough to do so and the event is important enough to warrant it.
Yes, when my son was born, I sent emails to close friends and family - but also posted it on Facebook. My daughter was born pre-Facebook, and so my email list was much longer. It surprised me greatly how many bounces I got and how many people I forgot.
With that in mind, if you only want to play public games with people you know, you're not being very social, now are you?
Hey, different strokes - we can't all be social clubbing butterflies. I think playing Scrabble with a friend whom I have a rivalry with is more fun than a stranger - but I'll play with a stranger in a pinch.
It seems most people on social networks don't care so much about building relationships with others, they care more about saying "Look at me and look at what I did."
They definitely dominate the content, but "most people" on social networks seem to be wallflowers. The hardcore facebookers seem to post several times a day. I tend to share really interesting/funny thing that I come across that I would have email forwarded in the past, or I post an occasional life event. But maybe a few times a month tops. I have "friends" on there that I haven't seen since high school, and they post every bowel movement. C'est la vie.
Click email icon, click desired recipient, type email, click send. Rough stuff.
Get bounce because you have an old address - or worse, send to an old address that they don't check anymore and have a silent failure.
Group email. You know, take the time you did with FB and include those you want in the group. No difference.
What? Update status with baby and birth weight - optionally include picture vs. sort through my entire address list? Yeah, that's the same.
You have me there. No interest in Farmville whatsoever.
Me neither, which is why I used a "Scrabble" clone as an example.
Everyone keeps listing reasons *THEY* like FB and then projects those as reasons *OTHERS* should. Then they act as if it's somehow the others failure to desire the same trinkets.
This goes both ways - the Facebook avoiders try to make you feel like an idiot for using it.
Remind me again why I want to participate in social networking?
Convenience?
It's much easier to just go to facebook when I need to contact someone rather than keep their information up-to-date in at least one address book.
It's much easier to post a baby announcement on facebook than to send out individual emails.
Casual multiplayer games are much more fun when your friends are the opponents (e.g. Words with Friends).
Don't you buy everything down south anyway? :)
LOL @ "convenience fees".
Of course, I'll just setup another store and emblazon "NO CONVENIENCE FEES" across the front...
That will only work when merchants typically sell only one item.
It will just get rounded up or down. If the total is 1.12, then it should go to 1.10. If the total is 1.13, then it should go to 1.15. It's even more straightforward than rounding to the nearest dime, since you don't have to deal with evens and odds.