should be noted that at the current time the touchpad is not supported in Linux distros, so it must be used either entirely from keyboard shortcuts, or with a usb mouse/trackpad/rollerball. Still a great deal but thats quite a failing in a laptop that doesnt have a touchscreen (unless you buy the C720P touchscreen version which is 50% more expensive)

Americans drug their children instead of dealing with their behaviour. We are aware of this. ADHD isn't a disability, its just the result of too much energy and not enough exercise.

I think you will find that none of your friends are still on MSN messenger, as its closed down

Also, a word for your personal safety, using phrases like 'check your ignorance' will get you bitchslapped in polite society

Which can apply to most media subscription services: What's Excluded?

I suspect that new releases wouldnt be in it, which dilutes the customer value somewhat as in the UK at least, new books start appearing in Charity shops within a few months of the release anyway, and their price for old-releases only has to compete with the negligible cost of pre-owned literature.

*slashdot activity drops as people go off to search for Jamie Lee Curtis videos....*

In Accounting theory there's a concept called Semi-Strong Form Efficiency which basically suggests that the markets will indicate the nature of as-yet unreleased information. In other words, tacitly acknowledging that the volume of insider-trading is high enough to detectably move the market.

aaaaargh noooooo (Dont give them ideas, they're desperate to think of one...)

I bought a used Blackberry when it was still a current phone and was appalled to find it required a Blackberry account to work properly. This was just at the point when even dumbphones like the Sony W810i I was using could receive email in real time and notify the user, with nothing more than some configuration and a basic GPRS connection. Needless to say I never considered going any further and my Curve 4310 sits in a drawer for use as a spare handset just in case

I think a 75 horsepower all-aluminium motorcycle engine plus generator in one corner of the boot would be the solution. Ideally, removable on some sort of pallet or dropping subframe so as to reduce the weight for local use.

the 'miles of range' your car reports in would represent a mixed power consumption profile as it wouldnt know whether to expect inner-city crawling (which is probably the best possible situation for an electric), steady motorway (sorry, Interstate..) usage or steep hills on back roads. 50 miles charge per hour at 19 kilowatts could easily represent 70 miles actual distance at a steady speed. OK the trailer might drag that back to 50 miles but my point stands. If you set out with 2 hours charge onboard and the generator running, you'd run out of charge after 3 to 3 and a half hours then be limited to what the generator could support unless you waited a while. Every time you stopped , braked, drove downhill.. you'd gain even more miles. It would be tricky but its possible.

Further up the thread a Volt owner posted about that, claimed his was 10% more efficient above 50 with direct drive than through the electric transmission - the effect being particularly noticeable when the batteries were drained.

If you have land - and depending on the tax costs - it might be just about viable to keep an old conventional pickup for the snow days and harvest the fuel savings from the electric for the other 150+ workdays

Does it need to? If you set off from home with a fully charged battery and the generator running, it could meet a significant proportion of your power needs while cruising.. and when you stop for lunch, or for calls of nature, traffic lights and traffic jams.. it keeps running and charging the car up. I'm pretty sure most cars could maintain a steady 60mph on 25 horsepower anyway.

Arguably though, the big companies are taking small steps towards a future everyone can see but few can grasp. I wouldnt buy a Volt but even I can see that it would get me to and from my office daily without using any liquid fuel, and if I clocked up enough miles doing that the fuel economy on longer runs would be insignificant as a consideration. I like and respect Tesla for going all the way electric so early in the game but big changes come not with the actions of the advance guard but with creeping acceptance by the main body of suppliers.

They're all a lot nearer to making proper electric cars than a few years ago when a Prius without a charging socket was the closest available (and easily beaten by most diesel cars on efficiency)