"Originally it was set at $82,000 - but we've since casually chugged on past that point."
Who knows how much this really cost.
I think that hasn't been true in a long time. You might be able to get a similarly spec'ed laptop if you didn't care about form-factor or style that much, but then it's not really the same product. The new Mac Book Pro has taken things even further by giving the best resolution available for the money. Doing a quick price comparison can show you they aren't overpriced at all. The Dell Ultrabook XPS 13 currently retails for $999, while the Mac Book Air 13" retails at $1199. Of course the Mac is more, but it has a 1400x900 screen as opposed to 720p resolution, 1.8GHz CPU as opposed to 1.6GHz CPU and a height of 0.68 inches vs. 0.71 inches. The rest of the main features seem to be about the same, and while some may say, what's the difference between
They're overpriced regarding "How much money do I need to spend to get the task done" not "What gives me the most features for my dollar." A $400 laptop can type Word documents, create Excel spreadsheets, browse the internet, send email, haul it around a job site looking at PDFs, watch movies, and play games just as well as the $1200 mac book pro. I don't need to do that in 720p resolution, I don't need a super drive sitting idle, I don't need 500 gb of hard drive storage, or the cutting edge RAM speed.
This actually seems like a pretty sane plan for most people who aren't diehard pirates or Netflix users. Most users don't use 300GB.
I just hope they give the option to shut off buying extra bandwidth automatically. I'll buy the 300gb a month, but I don't want anymore. If I hit the cap, cut me off to just a Comcast website where I can buy more. None of this, "For an extra $10 a month we'll give you parental controls to limit the automatic purchase of more bandwidth" crap that cell phone companies pull with text messaging.
folks who find themselves in dangerous situations
I wonder if those folks will remember to put their phone on silent before sending a text message to 911, in the heat of the moment. Otherwise the reply message might attract some unwanted attention.
TSA employees took payments of up to $2,400 to provide drug couriers unfettered access at LAX over a six-month period last year.
Up to $2,400 bucks. That's less than the cost of a first class ticket for the average Joe who doesn't want to deal with TSA. It's also well within the budget of a terrorist organization. That's awfully cheap.
That's a bit like me building a big garage, installing a big-ass natural gas generator and saying my building returns power to the grid.
LEED doesn't recognize natural gas, coal, or large-impact hydro (like Hoover Dam) as sources of renewable energy. So while you could still LEED certify you're building with a natural gas harvester, or a coal fired power plant, or an oil rig (assuming the oil rig isn't movable and has a mailing address per the LEED minimum project requirements), you will have to do so without achieving the "On-site renewable energy" credit.
Also that being said, LEED projects are based on a theoretical energy modeling protocol that is full of holes and easily gamed. Per TFA the building hasn't even opened yet. I'd like to see an article after a year of operation stating the building does actually produce more energy than it consumes or if the energy model was full of crap and this is just a bunch of marketing hyperbole for the architect.
Same. $3 per year is reasonable to save on energy costs. Unfortunately my "7-year" CFL bulbs died in 1 - 2 years.
Keep in mind too that if you live in an area that requires cooling most of the year, using a light bulb that puts out less heat savings on cooling energy, and makes your house more comfortable.
The other thing, of course, is that the company might be installing them just to get this kind of "look how much we care about your data" type of publicity...
This is exactly what they're after.
I worked in Salt Lake City during the Olympics and the local news was talking about how we should expect our commute times to triple, especially if travelling around the venues. My commute went through Salt Lake City and Park City, past a ton of the venues, and I was expecting a nightmare. I ended up leaving 2 hours early and arrived to work 2 hours early the first day. After that I just left at normal time, the nightmare transportation scenario didn't pan out at all..
A) restocking fee for opened items that are not defective.
This is already in place, or maybe this is on bigger ticket items only, but the last few things I've bought from Best Buy had a big yellow piece of tap across the opening that says if this tape is cut and you return the item there will be a 15% restocking fee.
for example, the people who buy a giant TV before the big game and then return it on Monday.
How does this system eliminate that example? The customer was still able to return the Blu-Ray.
Won't be long before Best Buy joins Circuit City.
You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken
