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  1. But... on Walgreens To Build First Self-Powered Retail Store · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is it powered by the tears of employees?

  2. Re:Jackpot? on Tesla Motors To Pay Off Government Loan 5 Years Early · · Score: 1

    I love Tesla, and I think they've got the right idea with the design top-down approach. But I don't know if I'd buy one even if I could afford them. They may have near-zero routine maintenance costs compared to an ICE car (gas or diesel) but how much does a replacement for that battery pack run when it comes due? And how often? I have yet to find solid numbers for maximum lifespan in miles, or replacement cost. Neither are things Tesla Motors wants to share, and I don't blame them.

    For the record, I own a $3600 Mercedes (a diesel W123). Unlike Tesla's cars, there is a thriving used market for those.

  3. Re:Clarification on White House Petition To Make Unlocking Phones Legal Passes 100,000 Signatures · · Score: 1

    Agreed! That's an important distinction... after the contract is up, the carrier has no legal right to dictate what I do or do not with my device (within the limits of it not causing havoc with the carrier's network) so why are we bending over backwards to give it to them?!

  4. I Knew It on Apple Said To Be Working On a 'Watch-Like Device' · · Score: 4, Funny

    The return of the iPod Nano!

  5. Re:Build your own on Apple To Discontinue Mac Pro In EU Over Safety Regulations · · Score: 1

    I have a similar vintage Mac Pro, and I've been looking for ways to get it to run 10.8 (I've got 10.6 on here at the moment). Any chance you could spare a link to relevant information on how to do this? Google-fu hasn't turned up anything helpful, and I'd really appreciate it.

  6. So... on Nokia Receives $1.35B Grant To Develop Graphene Tech · · Score: 1

    Who will get Nokia's share of this grant when they go under in a few years? I highly doubt they're going to be still solvent in five years, let alone 10.

  7. Re:Translation on We The People Petition Signature Requirement Bumped To 100,000 · · Score: 1

    I believe that falls under the umbrella of "crazy shit", or at least the related "ill-informed and excessively simple ideas". But undoubtedly that plays a part as well.

  8. Translation on We The People Petition Signature Requirement Bumped To 100,000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "We got tired of answering crazy shit like building a Death Star or putting a Starbucks on the moon, so we want to make it more difficult for the people to express crazy shit while still looking like we give a damn about them."

  9. To The Europeans on 2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In US · · Score: 1

    ...who are saying that our $4/gal is nothing compared to what they pay, it's true. But you astronomical gas taxes (which is where the disparity is) are why you have mass transit systems that are actually usable. In this country, your options for work are cut severely from the already limited pool if you don't own a vehicle. And fuel efficient ones are even more expensive, since they tend to be newer, and often less reliable.

  10. Re:Apps suck, but works great as a media player on 'Connected' TVs Mostly Used Just Like the Unconnected Kind · · Score: 1

    This and the Netflix app are the ONLY things I use my (Samsung) TV for, actually!

  11. Wow on Critic Cites Revenge of the Sith As "Generation's Greatest Work of Art · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And I thought my opinion of art critics couldn't get any lower.

  12. Re:As a classic car enthusiast... on Massachusetts "Right To Repair" Initiative On Ballot, May Override Compromise · · Score: 1

    Owner of an '84 300TD here. You bet your ass. Sanely designed to be easy to service, and run bloody forever.

  13. Re:What about networks on Malware Is 'Rampant' On Medical Devices In Hospitals · · Score: 1

    "keep your medical bill down"? You have clearly never been to a doctor.

  14. Unsolved Problems on As Gas Prices Soar So Does City Biking · · Score: 1

    I wish I could bike more, but there are several considerations that make it far from a good solution for me.

    I live about 15 miles (via an interstate) each way from work. Since biking on said interstate is suicidal and illegal, I'd be looking at closer to 20 miles taking local routes instead. That's each way. 40 miles a day seems a bit excessive to me for a biking commute, not to mention the time it takes to get to/from work goes from 40 minutes to 2-3 hours.

    I would bike locally to errands within a reasonable distance (grocery store, and such). But often when I get groceries, I find myself picking up perishable items. And a 45m bike ride in 90F weather would undoubtedly render anything perishable unsafe. I also tend to buy a lot of groceries at once, and carrying that much crap on a bike would be bad for my already iffy back. One of those adult-sized tricycles with a large basket in the rear (with a cooler) would solve both of those problems, but those are bulky and impossible to store in an apartment, unlike a standard bike.

  15. Re:My Civic CRX got 56 MPG in 1985 on How We'll Get To 54.5 Mpg By 2025 · · Score: 1

    That's the ugly truth. I did a side-by-side comparison of two identical vehicles once (1994 and 1995 Ford Escorts). The 1994 had a driver's airbag, and the 1995 had driver and passenger airbags. The dash bulged slightly more to accomodate the airbag. Other than that and the airbag hardware itself, they were identical. The difference in weight? 200 freaking pounds. For one airbag. Modern vehicles have as many as seven or more of them.

    All this five-star safety crap is heavy. It's that simple. You can't have a small, light car anymore because it'll never pass modern crash tests. And those crash tests simulate a large, heavy vehicle. It's a catch-22.

  16. Re:Ford makes the engin allready. on How We'll Get To 54.5 Mpg By 2025 · · Score: 1

    Buy used. The hoops have already been jumped through, or if it's old enough, it's exempt (as is my ancient Mercedes).

  17. Re:If you don't mind paying through the nose on The Fastest ISPs In the US · · Score: 1

    That article (while informative) misses an important point: poor people often have children, which entitle them to additional governmental benefits. My sister for example was on WIC, SNAP, and old-fashioned food stamps at one point, and her family ate better than I did when I was working full-time.

  18. Re:Considering... on DNA Analysis Suggests Humans Interbred With Denisovans · · Score: 1
  19. Re:Dumbest Company of the Century on HP Launches Beta of Open webOS · · Score: 1

    Whatever happened to the video game console industry model of selling hardware at a loss initially, but making a profit at some point into the lifecycle? People like to complain about the "anemic" hardware in the TouchPad, but it's embedded hardware, they all have some drawbacks. I love the hell out of mine, I only wish I'd been able to buy more than one at that price.

  20. And thus, the used car market exploded on White House Finalizes 54.5 MPG Fuel Efficiency Standard · · Score: 1

    Forcing these standards onto an industry that is ill-equipped to provide them (American automakers have shown time and again that they are very bad at efficiency and reliability) will only drive up prices on used vehicles that the restrictions do not apply to. Who thinks up such short-sighted crap? Don't they see that this will just drive people away from buying new cars when we just barely coddled the American auto industry back to life again?

  21. Re:Is it worth it? on Patient Just Wants To See Data From His Implanted Medical Device · · Score: 1

    Actually, I don't buy into any of that crap. Except chiropractic. Despite all the MDs shitting all over it as useless, it has been more help for my chronic back problems (and cheaper!) than all the muscle relaxers and surgery they've tried to give me over the years. I have proof (in the form of xrays) that chiropractic undid a bone spur in my lower spine over the course of several years.

  22. Re:This is a nonstory on Patient Just Wants To See Data From His Implanted Medical Device · · Score: 1

    Doctors.They always know better than you, because they're so smart(tm!)

  23. Re:Is it worth it? on Patient Just Wants To See Data From His Implanted Medical Device · · Score: 1

    And people think I'm cynical for refusing to trust doctors.

  24. Re:Compare BeOS with Mac OS X today? on How Haiku Is Building a Better BeOS · · Score: 1

    Responsiveness, namely. While OS X was growing up (it didn't become seriously usable until 10.3 or 10.4) I missed the lightning-fast UI of BeOS. Nothing slowed it down. You could go something, and let it chug away at it while you did something else. Everything felt light or responsive. Applications started instantly, it had Spotlight-quality instantaneous searches built into the filesystem (and none of this "indexing" crap spotlight likes to pull).

    Also, it had the absolute best-written SMP support I have ever seen. In Windows and OS X, it's glued-on by comparison. Fast, elegant, usable, simple, and powerful. OS X is nice, but it takes a lot more hardware power for it to manage to be as snappy and responsive. And even then, it lags in odd places.

    The Haiku team have made good if slow progress, and I hope they continue to do so.

  25. Re:That's good news! on US Army Developing Armor Tailored For Females · · Score: 1

    And thus, the entire military history of France was explained.