The overall mpg efficiency of passenger cars is pretty steady at 22.5 mpg. --> overall car mileage probably has plateaued.
Overall car mileage plateaued because CAFE standards plateaued. Now that CAFE standards are (finally) rising again, actual car mileage will [be forced to] follow suit.
I'd still sooner commute from a exurb of DC (home) to another exurb of DC (work), then have to actually live inside DC and walk/bike. I would feel like I had been sent to hell. (I don't like tight spaces or concrete.)
Living in an exurb because you don't tight spaces or concrete is fine and dandy, but it doesn't mean you have the right to force those of us who do live in the city to pay for all your roads for you!
If he has a first-gen (aluminum, 2-seat) Honda Insight and drives carefully, he can make 80 MPG. But that's the only car ever sold in America that can do it. The new Chevy Volt will sometimes be able to match it, give or take how long the highway drive in question is.
Virgin Mobile is offering unlimited data for $25, actually. (On tetherable Android phones, at least; I don't know about stand-alone modems.) The $40/month plan just gives you 1200 minutes (instead of 300) along with that unlimited data.
Also, is Virgin Mobile actually owned by Sprint, or does it just contract with Sprint to use the same network?
Except the problem was previously called "Global Warming" and when it became clear that maybe that wasn't panning out, "Global Warming" morphed to "Climate Change".
The only reason "global warming" didn't "pan out" is that there are too many idiots around who call BS every time it snows because they can't comprehend that the warming is on average. What "global warming" really means is that you're adding more energy to the system and thereby increasing volatility -- hot places get hotter, cold places get colder, storms get stronger, droughts get drier. It's like how the surface of a glass of water gets less flat when you shake it. But you dumbasses just don't fucking get it, so it got renamed "climate change" to try to help you understand.
[I] guess real life is not like [Star Wars, where] everyone always calls each other by their title and the way to convince people is to tell them it's the right thing to do.
I don't know about that; I think the Clone Wars TV series gets it pretty right: the galactic Senate keeps getting intimidated, attacked, interfered with by circumstance, and generally manipulated by the Sith. It seems pretty realistic to me.
Releasing the information was, at best, arguably illegal only on a case-by-case basis, as much of it was (supposedly) public information anyhow.
More importantly, it was only Pfc. Bradley Manning who leaked the information (and thus broke any applicable laws). Julian Assage/Wikileaks only published it afterward.
Where is this in the Constitution? Where does our Constitution compel the Federal Government to be fully transparent?
The US Government is "of the people, by the people, [and] for the people," which means that the people need to know what's going on or the whole thing turns into a schizophrenic psychopath, metaphorically speaking. (And yes, I realize the quote is from the Gettysburg Address, not the Constitution... it still counts as an official assessment of what our government is supposed to be.)
I've seen such references to EULA URLs on the packaging of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office.
Better than nothing ("better" in the sense of "less legally worthless," anyway), but don't real contracts have to be actually presented to the interested parties, not merely alluded to in passing?
It appears you're raising a privity [wikipedia.org] point. Wouldn't requiring product activation work around the limitation of privity?
How do you go about "requiring" the activation? In the (irrelevant) EULA? By disallowing a technological workaround (i.e., infringing upon the user's right to modify his own property)? It still seems problematic to me...
There's no $99/year ransom on a PC. What's the advantage of modding an Xbox 360 vs. developing for PC?
There doesn't have to be an advantage; the point is that modding the Xbox is the property owner's Right!
It's like we're living in some Bizarro world where virtual "intellectual property" rights are more important than real, physical, property rights! Do you not see the problem with that?
You have no idea how difficult it is to be perfectly anonymous.... The only way to be anonymous is to never use the same computer in the same location more than once.
Using TOR with public WiFi doesn't really seem all that hard, actually.
In a wired world, the only way to do that is to play it straight, not lie and do what you say you'll do. As of yet, no political organization or movement in the USA is up to that task. When they appear, I'm sure they will be regarded as dangerous radicals by the mainstream media.
Imagine the stuff they could have on Russia, or China! The truth is, no one knows, but it's telling that the Russian government is becoming concerned.
Unless I'm mistaken, all the stuff they've released so far has been from the same single US Army soldier. Why would that soldier have info on Russia or China?
Although I've never tried it, it seems to me that anonymously releasing information to the Internet ought to be ridiculously easy: all you'd need is a free WiFi connection and TOR.
The way the leaker ends up getting identified is not from how they release the information, but rather by the investigation of the (relatively short) list of people who had access in the first place.
...and yet we've not followed through on the international arrest warrant for him.
An arrest warrant for what? Other than the bullshit sex crimes (which are a Swedish thing anyway), has Assage actually been charged with anything? It was that Army guy that actually leaked the information, after all. The only things we've heard from the US are fascist nitwits like Palin advocating assassinating him without due process.
Before payment is accepted, you have access to view a notice on the package: "By purchasing this product, you agree to the standard form contract at http://www.example.com/eula/productname [example.com]."
First of all, normal boxed software doesn't actually have that sort of notice written on it.
Second, it's still irrelevant because when you buy an item the contract is between you and the retailer, not you and the copyright holder. In order to create an actual valid license agreement, the store would have to be acting as the legal agent of the copyright holder or something.
What does this let you do that the stock firmware doesn't and, say, hooking your PC up to your HDTV doesn't?...there's even an official $99/yr mod to make and even sell homebrew games.
It allows the console owner to not have to pay a $99/year ransom to make full use of his own property!
Julian Assange is fighting against the government's privacy, not ours. The difference? Unlike individual private citizens, the government doesn't deserve privacy!
the pro-slavery terrorist organization, the "Confederacy", which once enjoyed support in the South
The Confederates were not terrorists; they raised a regular army and fought on established battle lines. Terrorists, in contrast, both hide amongst the civilian population and intentionally target civilians.
If you call the Confederates "terrorists," then you must also call all other revolutionaries so -- even the ones who succeeded, such as the Founding Fathers.
Releasing the private communications means less diplomacy, and without making you think too hard, please tell me what happens when diplomacy fails!
That depends on what you think diplomacy is about, doesn't it? If diplomacy is inherently about lying, then you're right. But if diplomacy is about negotiating, then full disclosure (on both sides, of course) would leave the playing field just as equal as it had been before.
Slashdot Mirror
They have those; they're called electric mopeds.
Overall car mileage plateaued because CAFE standards plateaued. Now that CAFE standards are (finally) rising again, actual car mileage will [be forced to] follow suit.
Your "current trend" isn't so current anymore. For about the past decade, people (especially young middle class) have been moving back into cities.
Living in an exurb because you don't tight spaces or concrete is fine and dandy, but it doesn't mean you have the right to force those of us who do live in the city to pay for all your roads for you!
If he has a first-gen (aluminum, 2-seat) Honda Insight and drives carefully, he can make 80 MPG. But that's the only car ever sold in America that can do it. The new Chevy Volt will sometimes be able to match it, give or take how long the highway drive in question is.
When Mugabe invades Polan--err, Mozambique, you'll have a point.
I haven't seen a menu option for it (I own one), but it's an Android phone, so it's hackable.
Virgin Mobile is offering unlimited data for $25, actually. (On tetherable Android phones, at least; I don't know about stand-alone modems.) The $40/month plan just gives you 1200 minutes (instead of 300) along with that unlimited data.
Also, is Virgin Mobile actually owned by Sprint, or does it just contract with Sprint to use the same network?
The only reason "global warming" didn't "pan out" is that there are too many idiots around who call BS every time it snows because they can't comprehend that the warming is on average. What "global warming" really means is that you're adding more energy to the system and thereby increasing volatility -- hot places get hotter, cold places get colder, storms get stronger, droughts get drier. It's like how the surface of a glass of water gets less flat when you shake it. But you dumbasses just don't fucking get it, so it got renamed "climate change" to try to help you understand.
The difference is that individuals deserve privacy, while government organizations don't.
I don't know about that; I think the Clone Wars TV series gets it pretty right: the galactic Senate keeps getting intimidated, attacked, interfered with by circumstance, and generally manipulated by the Sith. It seems pretty realistic to me.
More importantly, it was only Pfc. Bradley Manning who leaked the information (and thus broke any applicable laws). Julian Assage/Wikileaks only published it afterward.
The US Government is "of the people, by the people, [and] for the people," which means that the people need to know what's going on or the whole thing turns into a schizophrenic psychopath, metaphorically speaking. (And yes, I realize the quote is from the Gettysburg Address, not the Constitution... it still counts as an official assessment of what our government is supposed to be.)
Better than nothing ("better" in the sense of "less legally worthless," anyway), but don't real contracts have to be actually presented to the interested parties, not merely alluded to in passing?
How do you go about "requiring" the activation? In the (irrelevant) EULA? By disallowing a technological workaround (i.e., infringing upon the user's right to modify his own property)? It still seems problematic to me...
There doesn't have to be an advantage; the point is that modding the Xbox is the property owner's Right!
It's like we're living in some Bizarro world where virtual "intellectual property" rights are more important than real, physical, property rights! Do you not see the problem with that?
Using TOR with public WiFi doesn't really seem all that hard, actually.
What about the EFF and/or FSF?
Unless I'm mistaken, all the stuff they've released so far has been from the same single US Army soldier. Why would that soldier have info on Russia or China?
Although I've never tried it, it seems to me that anonymously releasing information to the Internet ought to be ridiculously easy: all you'd need is a free WiFi connection and TOR.
The way the leaker ends up getting identified is not from how they release the information, but rather by the investigation of the (relatively short) list of people who had access in the first place.
An arrest warrant for what? Other than the bullshit sex crimes (which are a Swedish thing anyway), has Assage actually been charged with anything? It was that Army guy that actually leaked the information, after all. The only things we've heard from the US are fascist nitwits like Palin advocating assassinating him without due process.
First of all, normal boxed software doesn't actually have that sort of notice written on it.
Second, it's still irrelevant because when you buy an item the contract is between you and the retailer, not you and the copyright holder. In order to create an actual valid license agreement, the store would have to be acting as the legal agent of the copyright holder or something.
It allows the console owner to not have to pay a $99/year ransom to make full use of his own property!
Julian Assange is fighting against the government's privacy, not ours. The difference? Unlike individual private citizens, the government doesn't deserve privacy!
The Confederates were not terrorists; they raised a regular army and fought on established battle lines. Terrorists, in contrast, both hide amongst the civilian population and intentionally target civilians.
If you call the Confederates "terrorists," then you must also call all other revolutionaries so -- even the ones who succeeded, such as the Founding Fathers.
That depends on what you think diplomacy is about, doesn't it? If diplomacy is inherently about lying, then you're right. But if diplomacy is about negotiating, then full disclosure (on both sides, of course) would leave the playing field just as equal as it had been before.
That said, I'm not about to disagree with you!