Apple has perhaps the greatest marketing department that has ever existed. They know how to make people want to buy their shit. They know what kinds of information to stifle and how to allow buzz-generating rumors to get around. I halfway suspect it's Apple themselves that generate many of these rumors, but I think they just know how to make sure those things get around. There's a reason new iPhones are usually released around June/July rather than Novemberholidayshoppingtime like most electronics: Apple knows that early adopters will buy the product immediately, and Apple knows that those who have to wait for Christmas presents will not want to wait the extra 8 months to get the next new one regardless of what awesome rumors may or may not be spreading around. To a company like Apple, these sorts of rumors -- true or not -- can only serve to be a positive factor upon their bottom line.

But quantity DOES equal ad revenue, and that's what it's all about.

You know how sometimes when you use a multimeter, you stick a couple leads into a power source of (usually) up to 600V? That's the time things can catch fire. It's happened to me twice using cheap multimeters. Now I stick with Fluke. Milwaukee's supposed to have pretty good ones too, and for a little less money than Fluke.

Be careful with the cheap Chinese multimeters... they're known to catch fire and whatnot. Probably not as big a deal as the mechanical Wiggys literally exploding in your hand, but still bad.

In which case that's the risk you take if you plan on crossing the street at a location without traffic control. I don't need the ADA or other bullshit rules to tell me that I should stop to let a blind person cross the street, even in the event that I would have the right of way. And I don't need regulations that eliminate personal human compassion and replace it with annoying sounds so a blind person can hear me speeding by.

Absolutely not. There needs to be a balance between safety and regulation. The fact of the matter is that a pedestrian has absolutely no business being in the street unless he is crossing at a crosswalk, or entering his parked vehicle on the street side. There are laws exactly to that effect. Most people are taught since they are two years old to look both ways before crossing the street and to never cross the street anywhere but a crosswalk. There's a reason for that. Most vehicle/pedestrian injuries are the result of a pedestrian being somewhere he is not supposed to, an inattentive driver striking a pedestrian who was already crossing, and/or a pedestrian entering a crosswalk assuming the driver sees them. The last two situations will not be solved by louder vehicles, and the first one might be reduced by louder vehicles but you have to ask whether the extra regulation is worth it.

I DO live here. Well, I live in Santa Rosa (I used to live in Marin), and I worked in San Francisco until a couple months ago. And to add yet another twist to this riveting story, I drive a Camry Hybrid... except I only bought it because I wrecked my F-150 and needed a more economical vehicle than another truck... and I got a great deal on it. I absolutely agree that cyclists are the fucking worst. I've intentionally avoided downtown SF during critical mass because I don't WANT to learn what it's like to deal with that bullshit. Luckily, my drive took me straight up Park Presidio and 19th and I never encountered cyclists on those dreaded days... traffic was a little worse though.

All that being said, hybrid drivers are still pretty high on the holier-than-thou scale. I find that they tend to be more oblivious and stuck in their own happy little world than intentionally screwing with you like the cyclists.

I think there are way too many smug hybrid drivers with their heads up their asses thinking they're better than you because they're "saving the planet"... but to say that they break more rules than anybody else is unfair because everybody breaks all those rules frequently. The fact of the matter is that if you're looking where the fuck you're going and you check the street before you walk into it, it won't matter if a vehicle is making any sound. If they're around a blind corner and going fast enough that they will not be able to stop before hitting you, a hybrid will be making plenty of noise (mainly from tires rolling on pavement, but you can also hear the engine and electric whirr) for you to hear.

That's why you LOOK where you're going before you stupidly step into the street.

Animal Fries...... mmmmmmmmmm..........

Whoever told you that was completely incorrect. DRAM capacitors discharge fully within one second of power loss.

That's a problem with the stubborn fucks who refuse to let anything go... not a problem with the people who are too forgiving. I love open source software, but this zealotry that you're expressing is a little overkill.

Wow there's more currency exchanges for Bitcoins than merchants that accept them!

Not that it would ever happen... but if there were a big, successful political push demanding that we drop all industry subsidies, they could all be dropped in one act in one day. Too bad those that are receiving all these subsidies are the ones paying our representatives their second paychecks.

We need to get rid of all subsidies first.