America, Jr. That's pretty funny. Although Australia is probably closer to that definition considering most of their public wants to move towards a Republic as their government form.
Then again, Canada is a federated crowned republic. You say tomato, I say tomato, and Dan Quayle spells it "tomatoe."
"Canada has lower standard of living as well as lower average income..."
But a *free* health care system (of various quality), supposedly a better education system than the U.S., cleaner streets, etc. But then again, since we're [USA] next door, they don't have to spend as much money per capita towards their defense.
Re:Online music prices sometimes can be higher
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Napster Canada Launched
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· Score: 2, Interesting
"USA Today recently had this article on how some albums were cheaper to buy brand new in offline stores than online."
That's nice, but if there is copy protection on those audio cds, "fair use" does not cover you from the anti-hacking provisions of the DMCA. Thus even if you are not distributing MP3s or whatever you rip them into, they are illegal whereas buying the digital copies - from say, iTunes - is legal. I guess it all depends on what you want to do with the music you purchase. I personally would like to see a Joe Consumer sue the music labels for fraud since the CD patent holder Philips stated that encrypted audio CDs are not actually compact discs and thus the record companies representing them as such are committing fraud.
"So honest question. Other then the fact you like Apple, why iTunes? If you have an iPod, then I understand. If not, why? Not trolling, but really just curious."
Uhm, perhaps its a philosophical choice not to support a Microsoft based platform (AAC from Dolby/Apple vs. WMA by Microsoft). Perhaps its an audio quality choice (to me, WMA sounds *tinny*). Perhaps its because of exclusive content on iTunes. Perhaps its because iTunes doesn't want to charge a subscription fee. Perhaps its because of the simplicity of the iTunes interface. Perhaps its because Apple is rather committed to keeping the prices reasonable. Perhaps the parent likes Apple and wants to support Apple. Perhaps the parent doesn't like Napster's name being used in conjunction with supporting the RIAA. Perhaps the parent doesn't like Roxio. Or, like you speculated, perhaps the parent owns an iPod like 55% of the other people buying portable MP3 players...:)
I will gladly donate my spare CPU cycles to render the long awaited death scene of Jar Jar Binks... Even better if the distributed computing project devotes its efforts to erasing the character completely from the prequel trilogy special editions...:)
I mean seriously. XM Radio is 96Kbps whereas audio cd is 128Kbps. Sure, its better than analog FM radio, but still inferior to the CD. Why would anyone low-or-midjack that when you can get an already ripped MP3 file also for free off P2P? That's like recording straight off FM to audio cassette in today's market. Total ghetto fabulous.
I was just thinking about this since Sarah of The ScreenSavers on TechTV (soon to be the monstrosity known as "G4techtv") pronounces it "Skoh" instead of spelling it out S-C-O like I would assume most of us do.
I mean, nobody references IBM (I-B-M) as "ibbbb'mmmm" or SGI as "sss'gee" or "sss'guy."
Then again, we're all about to pronounce SCO as "toast."
And be sure to check out "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent" on TechTV (G4techtv) weeknights. He's a funny mo-fo.
"The problem is and was media companies are generally run as fiefdoms by individual group, division (or even subsegment heads) who have really run amuck at TimeWarner. Adding AOL to the mix could have presented many opportunities, but didn't as TWX can't agree to share between it's old media divisions for the good of the overall company. I'm not sure why this is such a problem at especially media companies (look at Disney's row with Eisner)."
It is too bad that Time Warner does not have more knowledgeable institutional shareholders as you have proven yourself to be (if you do own shares). Considering the whole accountability craze going on in the financial marketplace, I'd think the instutitional shareholders would be demanding a return on synergy by now. In terms of Time Warner, its been overdue since 1991.
Somehow, I don't think Nintendo should be pontificating about the whole industry; they should be focusing on their own selves.
The only thing Nintendo has going for it is the Gameboy line. And now with Sony gunning for them with the PSP, they are in serious trouble.
The DS is all about gimmick (VirtualBoy?). Personally, I haven't bought a handheld since the Atari Lynx because none of them have been as innovative since then. However, I am attracted to the PSP. I'd also venture to say that there is a majority of gamers who own PS2s and Xboxes who do not use portables. The PSP is going to target them, and hard. I do believe the PSP will fail as an iPod killer, but for games (if the games measure up), it is going to be a big success.
The smartest thing Nintendo could do is take a cash prize from Sony or Microsoft to exit the console business altogether (ala Sega) and focus on porting their great platform titles to those systems. There simply isn't enough room for 3 consoles in the American industry; time and time again this has been proven:
*Atari (2600/5200) vs. Intellivision vs. Colecovision
*Nintendo (NES) vs. Sega (SMS) vs. Atari (7800 and XEGS)
*Sega (Genesis) vs. NEC (TurboGrafx16) vs. Nintendo (SNES)
*Nintendo (Gameboy) vs. Atari (Lynx) vs. NEC (TurboExpress) vs. Sega (GameGear)
*3D0 vs. Atari (Jaguar) vs. Nintendo (N64)vs. Sony (Playstation) vs. Sega (Saturn)
*Sony (Playstation - and the PS2 on the horizon) vs. Nintendo (N64) vs. Sega (Dreamcast)
*Sony (PS2) vs. Microsoft (Xbox) vs. Nintendo (GameCube)
*Sony (PS3) vs. Microsoft (XboxNext) vs. Nintendo (GameCube2)
This translates to Nintendo being beaten out the door in the next generation console race and facing a decline in their trusty Gameboy franchise. They should take the sensible road instead of trying to fight a trench war against Microsoft and Sony.
"TimeWarner was and is in great shape, it's too bad that half their company is owned by shareholders of a former internet company that dont contribute half the current comapny's value."
No. Time Warner lacked vision, and that's why they agreed to the AOL buying, to save themselves from themselves. It happened before when Time Inc. was forced to buy Warner Communications (instead of the tax-free merger once Paramount created a bidding war), or when Apple acquired NeXT to take it over. Time Warner did not have a coherent strategy to profit off the internet. The Full Service Network (FSN) in Orlando failed. So did Pathfinder.
AOL brought itself (which is still America's largest ISP), along with all its holdings: Netscape, Digital Cities, Nullsoft WinAMP, Mapquest, AIM and ICQ, stakes in Google and Amazon.com, etc. etc. etc. It is the Time Warner executives who have run AOL into the ground because each head of a Time Warner division treats itself like a fiefdom and they rarely cooperate. Key point, Time Warner Cable still promotes Road Runner instead of pushing AOL. Time Warner failed to pressure the FCC and FTC to intervene and place stronger restrictions upon Comcast during their acquisition of AT&T Broadband, like forcing Comcast to open up their cable modem business to offer AOL.
It was Time Warner executives who pursued the AOL "merger" to nullify Ted Turner's influence on the company. It was Time Warner's executives who blocked Turner from acquiring NBC.
Time Warner executives allowed Warner Bros. Pictures to produce the atrocious "Catwoman" film that will be this summer's stinker at the box office. Time Warner executives won't intervene and force Warner Bros. Pictures to drop Jon Peters and the wretched Superman screenplay penned by J.J. Abrams that none of the fans want produced.
Time Warner executives failed to prevent the WB Network from cancelling "Angel" in order to promote the second rehash of "Dark Shadows" and a re-imaginging of "Lost in Space," again.
It was Time Warner who seriously tried to sell New Line Pictures a year after acquiring it through the merger with Turner Broadcasting, and only failed to dump the company because no other studio would pay $1 billion. Had this happened, Time Warner wouldn't have profited off the "Lord of the Rings" blockbuster trilogy.
It was Time Warner that voted to sell off the Atari Games Corporation to Midway back in 1996 for a mere $50 million. The very same Midway that Summer Redstone of Viacom has been quietly acquiring shares in ever since.
It was Time Warner that decided to sell off Warner Music to Edgar Bronfman because they could not get Warner Music to work with AOL to profit off the whole commercial music downloading trend that Apple has mastered.
It was Time Warner that forced AOL to settle its $10 billion antitrust case with Microsoft for a mere $750 million when they would've won and the damages would've been trippled. It is also Time Warner who signed an agreement with Microsoft to consider using Windows Media Player9 as the basis for digital distribution of motion pictures in theatres with digital projection.
Yeah, like AOL is really the key problem with Time Warner.
"And SBC haven't been telling Wall St anything good about profits (we're sort of hoping that Cinglar stops sucking rocks prior to the collapse of the wired phone market)."
Well, that's SBC's fault for not spinning off Cingular as a separately traded stock (or even a tracking stock) and keeping it anchored to SBC proper. It makes absolutely no sense. To think that AT&T shareholders forced AT&T to issue a tracking stock for AT&T Wireless so that people could invest directly into it instead of the POTS (plain old telephone service) part of the company. Finally, AT&T Wireless became an independent company but now is facing digestion from Cingular. So any long time AT&T Wireless shareholders are going to face the same problem they had when it was tied to a wired phone company. Considering how SBC likes to bundle their residential phone service with everything they touch, it is not far fetched to speculate that in the near future (following a decline in independent wireless players), if you want Cingular service, you'll have to subscribe to a local SBC landline (if they service the area). That is yet another reason why Vodaphone was a better choice for a merger partner for AT&T Wireless, not to mention that Vodaphone wouldn't have laid off as many people as will the SBC/Cingular acquisition.
Time Warner is in great shape. Its the stupid market and short-term shareholders that keep the stock down. Its too bad their chairman is too gunshy for acquisitions because it would be a great time for Warner Bros. Pictures to acquire the entire MGM film library.
"Thats why everything that a union member touches costs 10x more! Want to move your desk? gotta call a union guy. wanna turn a screw? gotta call a union guy."
Spoken like a true champion of Indian outsourcing...
SBC Communications is the former Southwestern Bell Telephone company. Over the years since the 1984 antitrust breakup of AT&T's Bell Telephone System, SBC has been hard at work putting the pieces back together.
Over that time, SBC purchased Pacific Telesis (PacBell and Nevada Bell), Ameritech, a New England based Bell phone company, and I believe Bell Atlantic.
After acquiring Pacific Telesis, SBC took PacBell's mobile phone division, lumped it together with SBC's holdings, and then merged it into Southwestern Bell's mobile holdings to create Cingular Wireless. Cingular is now trying to acquire AT&T Wireless.
SBC has approached AT&T in the past few years for a complete merger but has been rebuffed each time.
SBC went out of its way to bankrupt DSL competitor Covad Communications. After going into bankuptcy, SBC started funding their old competitor and now owns 4% of their stock.
SBC has a partnership with Yahoo to co-brand SBC's DSL and dial-up internet services. This follows SBC's rather dismal tie-up with Prodigy.
An immediate family member of mine has worked many years, starting out in Bell, then PacBell, and now SBC. SBC has been the worst of the bunch in terms of treating rank-and-file employees and shortchanging them at the negotiation table.
CWA, the union, is even worse. Those chuckleheads wound up settling for a contract that paid 5% less than what SBC offered the last time around. Many SBC employees view the CWA as a company union because of such stupidity at the negotiation table and the lack of interest the CWA exhibits in terms of solving employee disputes.
CWA has also been enlisted in supporting Cingular's acquisition of AT&T Wireless. The poaching of positions stemming from the merger will no doubt fall upon the employees of AT&T Wireless considering they have no union representation and Cingular's employees are fully CWA represented. No wonder the CWA president endorsed the acquisition.
I have rid myself of dealing with SBC. Although I hate Comcast with a passion, I'd rather deal with them so no DSL for me in NorCal. I have Vonage as my *landline* account thereby denying SBC income through that back door. And if the AT&T Wireless acquisition goes through, my contract will end one month after and I'll be switching to another wireless provider with no ties to the monolith. Personally, I was hoping Vodaphone would've won the bidding war for AT&T Wireless, but they don't have the monopoly cash pile to fall back upon.
Finally, SBC is also the company that has Tommy Lee Jones do voiceovers for their "feel good" commercials. Commercials they spend a fortune on when last year they laid off 5,000 employees. SBC claimed they built America's telephone system and AT&T took offense and fired off a commercial claiming quite truthfully that it was AT&T that built the nation's telephone system. SBC tells regulators they cannot make a profit when they are forced to lease their telephone lines to competitors, but then tells Wall Street they are making record profits.
It is also interesting to note that the former Commerce Secretary in the Clinton Administration (as well as Democratic Party and union big-wig) William Dailey is SBC's chairman. Amazing how such a leftwing and former champion of labor can be the head of one of the worst anti-labor companies in America today. I think Orwell had a few lines about that near the end of his "Animal Farm" book.
"Yoda needed cane to walk and then doing double back flip, mctwists while fighting."
How hard is that to believe? Yoda used the Force to do such moves. Of course, it requires a great amount of energy to pull off, thus Yoda has to go back using the cane. It made sense.
However, I concede that I think Lucas and Co. got the idea from that Dryer's Ice Cream commercial where the old man is using a walker to get around, and then he hears that there is Dryer's ice cream is in the freezer and he starts doing dancing moves. You see his shadow do the moves. That was on television a couple of years before Episode II hit the silver screen... ILM may have even worked on that commercial too...
Since Microsoft considers Google a major competitor and has its target set on Google with Longhorn's capabilities, I think it would be a great idea if Google started distributing their own version of the Mozilla web browser. With Google's reputation, there would definitely be more people making the switch to Mozilla based browsers if Google were to do this. After all, Netscape is considered a failure now by the public and Mozilla to a casual observer lacks credibility no matter how great the product is.
If anyone can send out a GMail Beta invitation, I'd be happy to accept! C'mon, don't Bogart the access!:)
Re:It's worse than that
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Out of Gas
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· Score: 1
"Here's a real question, any hybrid 1/2 ton trucks? That might actaully make a difference."
I believe Ford is planning on releasing a hybrid F150 in the next year or two. They paid some lip service to that a year or so ago. It is probably all riding on the success of the Ford Escape Hybrid that has now been pushed back to an August release this year (the last push back was for July). Although I have to wonder how serious Ford is with the endeavour since there are 30,000 people signed up to buy the Escape Hybrid when it is released by Ford is only planning on producing 20,000 this year.
"ET sucked because it was developed in less than 2 months. Even the person who did it wanted a ton of money up front because he knew it would clobber his reputation."
The whole point of the ET videogame was to lure Steven Spielberg away from his exclusive commitment to making motion pictures only for Universal Pictures. Atari was ordered by Warner Communications Chairman Steve Ross to pay $25 million for the rights to the videogame. While the game is blamed for causing the collapse of Atari (and Warner's stock at the time), it was successful in getting Spielberg to agree to making half of his films with Warner Bros. Pictures.
"No it's not. Chamberlain attacking Germany would not have been pre-emptive - Hitler had already attacked Poland and broken the treaty of Versailles."
Yes, but Germany had not yet attacked the United Kingdom. Therefore it was pre-emptive war in that Britain decided to attack Germany first before they thought Germany would do the same to them. Its too bad the British and the French (and the United States not entering the war earlier) didn't attack Hitler before 1939 and then perhaps the war would've been over sooner. Perhaps.
"The problem with the Iraq situation is that the US broke international law, and now other countries can point at this and say; well, if the US can do it, why can't we? The US does not respect international law, and by flaunting it so openly, paves the way for other, less "civilised" countries to do the same."
So what? We broke the "law" to topple a regime who had not respected international law throughout its entire reign. And we wouldn't have even "broken" international law had the French and the Germans not fought us at the Security Council. They weren't doing it for altruistic reasons, they were doing it to cover up their own dealings with Saddam throughout the sanctions, not to mention the whole debacle they took part in with the Oil-for-Food Program that is just now being told.
The US more-or-less respects international law, but it won't be held hostage from taking action just because a couple of has-been nations think they can dictate our foreign policy to suit their own shady business dealings.
If anything, the action by the United States and the United Kingdom showed various regimes that we'd take them out at no matter the cost. And guess what? It has worked already. Libya gave up their "hidden" program. I call that success.
So please stop crying over the toppling of a dictator. Its pathetic, just like the calls for saving Mumia from foreign nations.
Re:It's worse than that
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Out of Gas
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· Score: 1
"You are mixing two different things that don't go together. There are three hybrid cars in common production right now--Honda Insight, Honda Civic hybrid, and the Toyota Prius. There are a few more to come out later this year and next year. You selected the 3-cylinder engine from one car and matched it with the lowest fuel economy from one of the other cars. The Insight has the 3 cyl and gets 60+mpg."
I really don't care if I mixed up the MPG figures with the wrong hybrids. The point of my posting was that none of the hybrids currently offered equal the same mileage as the Ford Taurus hybrid V6 from 1997 that the UC Davis Engineering Department built with funds from the US Air Force. If they can get a V6 to perform that well, then there is no reason why Honda or Toyota can't squeeze out more MPG considering their engines are far weaker horsepower-wise than a V6. I'd rather have a V6 than a 4 cylinder. The Ford Escape Hybrid that has yet to be released has a better MPG figure than the Honda or Toyota models considering it is an SUV and it has a lot more cargo room. Plus, many have stated in the press that that particular hybrid performs as well as the V6 model.
"(You hauled your Taurus up a mountain to start your gas mileage test, right?)"
You are an ass. I never said the Taurus was my project. It was done at UC Davis when I attended university there. The Engineering team put it on display during one of the campus events. That was in 1997. So if anyone pushed it up a mountain, it was them, not I. I am merely reporting what I saw.
"Your quote about the Metro getting 59mpg is a complete load of fertilizer."
Oh really? Then it was the EPA's load of fertilizer because that is the MPG figure that was reported for that model year. It was what was placed in the windows at the dealerships too.
"I fear I have fed a troll, but at least the information is good for other people."
You are calling me a troll? You drive a Prius. Yeah, that'll get you laid even more than riding a Vespa in the States. Troll indeed...
Re:It's worse than that
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Out of Gas
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· Score: 1
"Reference?"
Call up the UC Davis Engineering Department. I said it was at UC Davis, circa 1997.
"There is probably not a "next country on the hitlist", because for that the US needs more troops, resulting in more bloodshed and that doesn't look good just before an election."
Bah. Winning wars and toppling dictators is always popular at the polls as long as it doesn't take place long before the election so that elector euphoria does not peak prematurely.
Toppling Hugo Chavez would be easy and quick. It would also lower (for a short time) the gasoline prices. I'm surprised the Bush Administration hasn't concluded the same since Chavez is an embarassment, especially after the failed coup last year.
Slashdot Mirror
"Dear Retard: Canada doesn't have the DCMA. Sincerely,Seth Finklestein"
Dear leprotard, its the DMCA, not DCMA...
"5 years late, way to go America Jr.!!!"
America, Jr. That's pretty funny. Although Australia is probably closer to that definition considering most of their public wants to move towards a Republic as their government form.
Then again, Canada is a federated crowned republic. You say tomato, I say tomato, and Dan Quayle spells it "tomatoe."
"Canada has lower standard of living as well as lower average income..."
But a *free* health care system (of various quality), supposedly a better education system than the U.S., cleaner streets, etc. But then again, since we're [USA] next door, they don't have to spend as much money per capita towards their defense.
"USA Today recently had this article on how some albums were cheaper to buy brand new in offline stores than online."
That's nice, but if there is copy protection on those audio cds, "fair use" does not cover you from the anti-hacking provisions of the DMCA. Thus even if you are not distributing MP3s or whatever you rip them into, they are illegal whereas buying the digital copies - from say, iTunes - is legal. I guess it all depends on what you want to do with the music you purchase. I personally would like to see a Joe Consumer sue the music labels for fraud since the CD patent holder Philips stated that encrypted audio CDs are not actually compact discs and thus the record companies representing them as such are committing fraud.
"So honest question. Other then the fact you like Apple, why iTunes? If you have an iPod, then I understand. If not, why? Not trolling, but really just curious."
:)
Uhm, perhaps its a philosophical choice not to support a Microsoft based platform (AAC from Dolby/Apple vs. WMA by Microsoft). Perhaps its an audio quality choice (to me, WMA sounds *tinny*). Perhaps its because of exclusive content on iTunes. Perhaps its because iTunes doesn't want to charge a subscription fee. Perhaps its because of the simplicity of the iTunes interface. Perhaps its because Apple is rather committed to keeping the prices reasonable. Perhaps the parent likes Apple and wants to support Apple. Perhaps the parent doesn't like Napster's name being used in conjunction with supporting the RIAA. Perhaps the parent doesn't like Roxio. Or, like you speculated, perhaps the parent owns an iPod like 55% of the other people buying portable MP3 players...
I will gladly donate my spare CPU cycles to render the long awaited death scene of Jar Jar Binks... Even better if the distributed computing project devotes its efforts to erasing the character completely from the prequel trilogy special editions...
After all, Campbell's alter ego Ash doesn't like zombies (Deadites) either, and he's rather magnificent at dispatching them...
I mean seriously. XM Radio is 96Kbps whereas audio cd is 128Kbps. Sure, its better than analog FM radio, but still inferior to the CD. Why would anyone low-or-midjack that when you can get an already ripped MP3 file also for free off P2P? That's like recording straight off FM to audio cassette in today's market. Total ghetto fabulous.
I was just thinking about this since Sarah of The ScreenSavers on TechTV (soon to be the monstrosity known as "G4techtv") pronounces it "Skoh" instead of spelling it out S-C-O like I would assume most of us do.
I mean, nobody references IBM (I-B-M) as "ibbbb'mmmm" or SGI as "sss'gee" or "sss'guy."
Then again, we're all about to pronounce SCO as "toast."
And be sure to check out "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent" on TechTV (G4techtv) weeknights. He's a funny mo-fo.
"The problem is and was media companies are generally run as fiefdoms by individual group, division (or even subsegment heads) who have really run amuck at TimeWarner. Adding AOL to the mix could have presented many opportunities, but didn't as TWX can't agree to share between it's old media divisions for the good of the overall company. I'm not sure why this is such a problem at especially media companies (look at Disney's row with Eisner)."
It is too bad that Time Warner does not have more knowledgeable institutional shareholders as you have proven yourself to be (if you do own shares). Considering the whole accountability craze going on in the financial marketplace, I'd think the instutitional shareholders would be demanding a return on synergy by now. In terms of Time Warner, its been overdue since 1991.
Somehow, I don't think Nintendo should be pontificating about the whole industry; they should be focusing on their own selves.
The only thing Nintendo has going for it is the Gameboy line. And now with Sony gunning for them with the PSP, they are in serious trouble.
The DS is all about gimmick (VirtualBoy?). Personally, I haven't bought a handheld since the Atari Lynx because none of them have been as innovative since then. However, I am attracted to the PSP. I'd also venture to say that there is a majority of gamers who own PS2s and Xboxes who do not use portables. The PSP is going to target them, and hard. I do believe the PSP will fail as an iPod killer, but for games (if the games measure up), it is going to be a big success.
The smartest thing Nintendo could do is take a cash prize from Sony or Microsoft to exit the console business altogether (ala Sega) and focus on porting their great platform titles to those systems. There simply isn't enough room for 3 consoles in the American industry; time and time again this has been proven:
*Atari (2600/5200) vs. Intellivision vs. Colecovision
*Nintendo (NES) vs. Sega (SMS) vs. Atari (7800 and XEGS)
*Sega (Genesis) vs. NEC (TurboGrafx16) vs. Nintendo (SNES)
*Nintendo (Gameboy) vs. Atari (Lynx) vs. NEC (TurboExpress) vs. Sega (GameGear)
*3D0 vs. Atari (Jaguar) vs. Nintendo (N64)vs. Sony (Playstation) vs. Sega (Saturn)
*Sony (Playstation - and the PS2 on the horizon) vs. Nintendo (N64) vs. Sega (Dreamcast)
*Sony (PS2) vs. Microsoft (Xbox) vs. Nintendo (GameCube)
*Sony (PS3) vs. Microsoft (XboxNext) vs. Nintendo (GameCube2)
This translates to Nintendo being beaten out the door in the next generation console race and facing a decline in their trusty Gameboy franchise. They should take the sensible road instead of trying to fight a trench war against Microsoft and Sony.
"TimeWarner was and is in great shape, it's too bad that half their company is owned by shareholders of a former internet company that dont contribute half the current comapny's value."
No. Time Warner lacked vision, and that's why they agreed to the AOL buying, to save themselves from themselves. It happened before when Time Inc. was forced to buy Warner Communications (instead of the tax-free merger once Paramount created a bidding war), or when Apple acquired NeXT to take it over. Time Warner did not have a coherent strategy to profit off the internet. The Full Service Network (FSN) in Orlando failed. So did Pathfinder.
AOL brought itself (which is still America's largest ISP), along with all its holdings: Netscape, Digital Cities, Nullsoft WinAMP, Mapquest, AIM and ICQ, stakes in Google and Amazon.com, etc. etc. etc. It is the Time Warner executives who have run AOL into the ground because each head of a Time Warner division treats itself like a fiefdom and they rarely cooperate. Key point, Time Warner Cable still promotes Road Runner instead of pushing AOL. Time Warner failed to pressure the FCC and FTC to intervene and place stronger restrictions upon Comcast during their acquisition of AT&T Broadband, like forcing Comcast to open up their cable modem business to offer AOL.
It was Time Warner executives who pursued the AOL "merger" to nullify Ted Turner's influence on the company. It was Time Warner's executives who blocked Turner from acquiring NBC.
Time Warner executives allowed Warner Bros. Pictures to produce the atrocious "Catwoman" film that will be this summer's stinker at the box office. Time Warner executives won't intervene and force Warner Bros. Pictures to drop Jon Peters and the wretched Superman screenplay penned by J.J. Abrams that none of the fans want produced.
Time Warner executives failed to prevent the WB Network from cancelling "Angel" in order to promote the second rehash of "Dark Shadows" and a re-imaginging of "Lost in Space," again.
It was Time Warner who seriously tried to sell New Line Pictures a year after acquiring it through the merger with Turner Broadcasting, and only failed to dump the company because no other studio would pay $1 billion. Had this happened, Time Warner wouldn't have profited off the "Lord of the Rings" blockbuster trilogy.
It was Time Warner that voted to sell off the Atari Games Corporation to Midway back in 1996 for a mere $50 million. The very same Midway that Summer Redstone of Viacom has been quietly acquiring shares in ever since.
It was Time Warner that decided to sell off Warner Music to Edgar Bronfman because they could not get Warner Music to work with AOL to profit off the whole commercial music downloading trend that Apple has mastered.
It was Time Warner that forced AOL to settle its $10 billion antitrust case with Microsoft for a mere $750 million when they would've won and the damages would've been trippled. It is also Time Warner who signed an agreement with Microsoft to consider using Windows Media Player9 as the basis for digital distribution of motion pictures in theatres with digital projection.
Yeah, like AOL is really the key problem with Time Warner.
"And SBC haven't been telling Wall St anything good about profits (we're sort of hoping that Cinglar stops sucking rocks prior to the collapse of the wired phone market)."
Well, that's SBC's fault for not spinning off Cingular as a separately traded stock (or even a tracking stock) and keeping it anchored to SBC proper. It makes absolutely no sense. To think that AT&T shareholders forced AT&T to issue a tracking stock for AT&T Wireless so that people could invest directly into it instead of the POTS (plain old telephone service) part of the company. Finally, AT&T Wireless became an independent company but now is facing digestion from Cingular. So any long time AT&T Wireless shareholders are going to face the same problem they had when it was tied to a wired phone company. Considering how SBC likes to bundle their residential phone service with everything they touch, it is not far fetched to speculate that in the near future (following a decline in independent wireless players), if you want Cingular service, you'll have to subscribe to a local SBC landline (if they service the area). That is yet another reason why Vodaphone was a better choice for a merger partner for AT&T Wireless, not to mention that Vodaphone wouldn't have laid off as many people as will the SBC/Cingular acquisition.
Time Warner is in great shape. Its the stupid market and short-term shareholders that keep the stock down. Its too bad their chairman is too gunshy for acquisitions because it would be a great time for Warner Bros. Pictures to acquire the entire MGM film library.
"Thats why everything that a union member touches costs 10x more! Want to move your desk? gotta call a union guy. wanna turn a screw? gotta call a union guy."
Spoken like a true champion of Indian outsourcing...
"A little clue anyone? Please?"
SBC Communications is the former Southwestern Bell Telephone company. Over the years since the 1984 antitrust breakup of AT&T's Bell Telephone System, SBC has been hard at work putting the pieces back together.
Over that time, SBC purchased Pacific Telesis (PacBell and Nevada Bell), Ameritech, a New England based Bell phone company, and I believe Bell Atlantic.
After acquiring Pacific Telesis, SBC took PacBell's mobile phone division, lumped it together with SBC's holdings, and then merged it into Southwestern Bell's mobile holdings to create Cingular Wireless. Cingular is now trying to acquire AT&T Wireless.
SBC has approached AT&T in the past few years for a complete merger but has been rebuffed each time.
SBC went out of its way to bankrupt DSL competitor Covad Communications. After going into bankuptcy, SBC started funding their old competitor and now owns 4% of their stock.
SBC has a partnership with Yahoo to co-brand SBC's DSL and dial-up internet services. This follows SBC's rather dismal tie-up with Prodigy.
An immediate family member of mine has worked many years, starting out in Bell, then PacBell, and now SBC. SBC has been the worst of the bunch in terms of treating rank-and-file employees and shortchanging them at the negotiation table.
CWA, the union, is even worse. Those chuckleheads wound up settling for a contract that paid 5% less than what SBC offered the last time around. Many SBC employees view the CWA as a company union because of such stupidity at the negotiation table and the lack of interest the CWA exhibits in terms of solving employee disputes.
CWA has also been enlisted in supporting Cingular's acquisition of AT&T Wireless. The poaching of positions stemming from the merger will no doubt fall upon the employees of AT&T Wireless considering they have no union representation and Cingular's employees are fully CWA represented. No wonder the CWA president endorsed the acquisition.
I have rid myself of dealing with SBC. Although I hate Comcast with a passion, I'd rather deal with them so no DSL for me in NorCal. I have Vonage as my *landline* account thereby denying SBC income through that back door. And if the AT&T Wireless acquisition goes through, my contract will end one month after and I'll be switching to another wireless provider with no ties to the monolith. Personally, I was hoping Vodaphone would've won the bidding war for AT&T Wireless, but they don't have the monopoly cash pile to fall back upon.
Finally, SBC is also the company that has Tommy Lee Jones do voiceovers for their "feel good" commercials. Commercials they spend a fortune on when last year they laid off 5,000 employees. SBC claimed they built America's telephone system and AT&T took offense and fired off a commercial claiming quite truthfully that it was AT&T that built the nation's telephone system. SBC tells regulators they cannot make a profit when they are forced to lease their telephone lines to competitors, but then tells Wall Street they are making record profits.
It is also interesting to note that the former Commerce Secretary in the Clinton Administration (as well as Democratic Party and union big-wig) William Dailey is SBC's chairman. Amazing how such a leftwing and former champion of labor can be the head of one of the worst anti-labor companies in America today. I think Orwell had a few lines about that near the end of his "Animal Farm" book.
"Yoda needed cane to walk and then doing double back flip, mctwists while fighting."
How hard is that to believe? Yoda used the Force to do such moves. Of course, it requires a great amount of energy to pull off, thus Yoda has to go back using the cane. It made sense.
However, I concede that I think Lucas and Co. got the idea from that Dryer's Ice Cream commercial where the old man is using a walker to get around, and then he hears that there is Dryer's ice cream is in the freezer and he starts doing dancing moves. You see his shadow do the moves. That was on television a couple of years before Episode II hit the silver screen... ILM may have even worked on that commercial too...
Since Microsoft considers Google a major competitor and has its target set on Google with Longhorn's capabilities, I think it would be a great idea if Google started distributing their own version of the Mozilla web browser. With Google's reputation, there would definitely be more people making the switch to Mozilla based browsers if Google were to do this. After all, Netscape is considered a failure now by the public and Mozilla to a casual observer lacks credibility no matter how great the product is.
"I dated a girl named Chanda once. Dark energy is a good way to describe her."
:)
Gary Condit, is that what you are doing with your free time these days...posting on Slashdot? I didn't think ex-politicos hang out here...
If anyone can send out a GMail Beta invitation, I'd be happy to accept! C'mon, don't Bogart the access!
"Here's a real question, any hybrid 1/2 ton trucks? That might actaully make a difference."
I believe Ford is planning on releasing a hybrid F150 in the next year or two. They paid some lip service to that a year or so ago. It is probably all riding on the success of the Ford Escape Hybrid that has now been pushed back to an August release this year (the last push back was for July). Although I have to wonder how serious Ford is with the endeavour since there are 30,000 people signed up to buy the Escape Hybrid when it is released by Ford is only planning on producing 20,000 this year.
"ET sucked because it was developed in less than 2 months. Even the person who did it wanted a ton of money up front because he knew it would clobber his reputation."
The whole point of the ET videogame was to lure Steven Spielberg away from his exclusive commitment to making motion pictures only for Universal Pictures. Atari was ordered by Warner Communications Chairman Steve Ross to pay $25 million for the rights to the videogame. While the game is blamed for causing the collapse of Atari (and Warner's stock at the time), it was successful in getting Spielberg to agree to making half of his films with Warner Bros. Pictures.
"No it's not. Chamberlain attacking Germany would not have been pre-emptive - Hitler had already attacked Poland and broken the treaty of Versailles."
Yes, but Germany had not yet attacked the United Kingdom. Therefore it was pre-emptive war in that Britain decided to attack Germany first before they thought Germany would do the same to them. Its too bad the British and the French (and the United States not entering the war earlier) didn't attack Hitler before 1939 and then perhaps the war would've been over sooner. Perhaps.
"The problem with the Iraq situation is that the US broke international law, and now other countries can point at this and say; well, if the US can do it, why can't we? The US does not respect international law, and by flaunting it so openly, paves the way for other, less "civilised" countries to do the same."
So what? We broke the "law" to topple a regime who had not respected international law throughout its entire reign. And we wouldn't have even "broken" international law had the French and the Germans not fought us at the Security Council. They weren't doing it for altruistic reasons, they were doing it to cover up their own dealings with Saddam throughout the sanctions, not to mention the whole debacle they took part in with the Oil-for-Food Program that is just now being told.
The US more-or-less respects international law, but it won't be held hostage from taking action just because a couple of has-been nations think they can dictate our foreign policy to suit their own shady business dealings.
If anything, the action by the United States and the United Kingdom showed various regimes that we'd take them out at no matter the cost. And guess what? It has worked already. Libya gave up their "hidden" program. I call that success.
So please stop crying over the toppling of a dictator. Its pathetic, just like the calls for saving Mumia from foreign nations.
"You are mixing two different things that don't go together. There are three hybrid cars in common production right now--Honda Insight, Honda Civic hybrid, and the Toyota Prius. There are a few more to come out later this year and next year. You selected the 3-cylinder engine from one car and matched it with the lowest fuel economy from one of the other cars. The Insight has the 3 cyl and gets 60+mpg."
I really don't care if I mixed up the MPG figures with the wrong hybrids. The point of my posting was that none of the hybrids currently offered equal the same mileage as the Ford Taurus hybrid V6 from 1997 that the UC Davis Engineering Department built with funds from the US Air Force. If they can get a V6 to perform that well, then there is no reason why Honda or Toyota can't squeeze out more MPG considering their engines are far weaker horsepower-wise than a V6. I'd rather have a V6 than a 4 cylinder. The Ford Escape Hybrid that has yet to be released has a better MPG figure than the Honda or Toyota models considering it is an SUV and it has a lot more cargo room. Plus, many have stated in the press that that particular hybrid performs as well as the V6 model.
"(You hauled your Taurus up a mountain to start your gas mileage test, right?)"
You are an ass. I never said the Taurus was my project. It was done at UC Davis when I attended university there. The Engineering team put it on display during one of the campus events. That was in 1997. So if anyone pushed it up a mountain, it was them, not I. I am merely reporting what I saw.
"Your quote about the Metro getting 59mpg is a complete load of fertilizer."
Oh really? Then it was the EPA's load of fertilizer because that is the MPG figure that was reported for that model year. It was what was placed in the windows at the dealerships too.
"I fear I have fed a troll, but at least the information is good for other people."
You are calling me a troll? You drive a Prius. Yeah, that'll get you laid even more than riding a Vespa in the States. Troll indeed...
"Reference?"
Call up the UC Davis Engineering Department. I said it was at UC Davis, circa 1997.
"There is probably not a "next country on the hitlist", because for that the US needs more troops, resulting in more bloodshed and that doesn't look good just before an election."
Bah. Winning wars and toppling dictators is always popular at the polls as long as it doesn't take place long before the election so that elector euphoria does not peak prematurely.
Toppling Hugo Chavez would be easy and quick. It would also lower (for a short time) the gasoline prices. I'm surprised the Bush Administration hasn't concluded the same since Chavez is an embarassment, especially after the failed coup last year.