As far as the middle east goes they are a lot closer to it than we are. If they want to take on those problems, I'd argue for letting them. The bulk of the oil money has already been made, the minor loss of influence over there in exchange for giving up the cost of responsibility for it is worth it.
Actually, a good swat of Eastern European countries are NATO members, to the infinite dismay of Russia.
I am sure that if you're in the middle of a long term contract with unlimited data use, Verizon will let you walk away with no penalty when this change comes into effect. But I would guess most unlimited users are in month to month contracts, and both they, and the company can terminate at any time. What surprises me is that both Verizon and AT&T allowed unlimited plans to be grandfathered in for so long.
Just to make it clear where I stand: I would love to have the option of a truly unlimited plan. I don't think the companies should be forced to offer it though. There really is a competitive market in US wireless, go to a different provider if you don't like your current one.
I will never set foot in a dealership until I know exactly what car I am going to buy (down to VIN), and how much I am going to pay for it, including taxes and fees and how am I going to pay for it, i.e. cash or pre-arranged finance with a third party. Everything is negotiated and agreed upon in advance. If they try any bait and switch I leave. They might try to lure me with their low APR financing, and I might take it if it is significantly better than what I have - say 0%. They might try to sell me extended warranty, which I will refuse. That's it. Any snag in the process and I give them a warning. Things don't go smoothly after the warning, I leave.
So yes, I never pay MSRP. I pay less.
Was crossing over from Austria into Germany, have to say that the first that I was in a different country was the No Speed Limit sign on the highway... then I noticed the border sign, because I specifically looked for it. Similarly, driving between Brussels and Amsterdam, the border sign between Belgium and Netherlands is positively tiny.
Hmm, that's funny, I've been using right clicks on my macs for the past 10 years or so... what am I going to do now that I know this feature does not exist???
Infrastructure projects are not sexy, they aren't politically appealing - and they don't attract donor money. What corporation is going to give you campaign finance because you "promised to patch the crumbling concrete of a bridge in your town" ?
Umm, the construction company that stands to get the contract to rebuild the bridge?
Funny, I've never seen ANY kind of visible smoke coming out of my new diesel sedan, even under hard revving. Not a VW though. Modern diesels come with filters that capture soot particles and urea exhaust treatment systems to neutralize NOx emissions. Barring cheating, a well built modern diesel vehicle is as clean as its gasoline counterpart.
Actually the Asus router comes with their own firmware called AsusWRT, which is licensed under GPL. There's at least one hobbyist derivative by the name AsusWRT Merlin. Asus has been known to cooperate with Merlin by providing them with beta versions and by pulling patches into their mainline firmware. Third party firmwares such as Tomato or DD-WRT can also be installed. The factory firmware isn't too bad as of now, but if you're the kind that likes to mod routers, Asus is a pretty good choice
Cost. Diesel engines, plus the associated emission control equipment, are expensive. Batteries, electric motor, regenerative brakes and other hybrid equipment are also expensive. Both provide pretty good mileage improvements, but having both on will hit diminishing returns, so it's not worth it.
No, the 2.0L 4 banger 2008-2015 models don't have urea injection. The 2016 models supposedly have it, as well as all V6 diesels.
I have one of those cars loaded with tech. Going through the top five list from TFA:
- concierge: came bundled free for the first 3 years, never used it so far. Not worth it in itself, but I think the bundle includes some other things I like, such as controlling various things on the car using my smartphone. We'll see at the end of the free period.
- mobile router: don't have, don't want, smartphone hotspot ftw
- Automatic parking system: was available, did not get the package. I'd like to feel that I am driving the car, plus I can parallel park myself
- HUD: gads yes please. Best tech toy in the car. Love it. Wish more info was available on it, right now it can do speed, nav directions, playlists/radio channels, phone notifications and general car warnings. I'd like to see at least the RPM along with the speed.
- Built in apps: have them, don't use them, simply because they suck compared to their smartphone counterparts. Would love to use them if executed well.
I will have to call BS on this one. Both my MBP and my old school MP run 3rd party drives, including SSDs (Crucial and OCZ - yeah, I know). No problems whatsoever so far, fans are spinning at their normal rpm.
Sorry, but there is no way you can "apply like everyone else". If they scrap the H1B -> GC path, what's left either marry a US citizen, the GC lottery, invest $1M and create 10 jobs, or be a Noble prize laureate. US does not have a points based immigration system like Canada or Australia.
The catholic church, by itself, probably delayed the scientific progress of humanity by at least a couple hundred years. I think it deserves a little bashing now and then.
Uhm, in order to receive calls???
Such an antiquated concept...
Work is the crab grass in the lawn of life. -- Schulz
