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Comment Re:what happens when the batters wears out? (Score 3, Insightful) 398

The overall maintenance schedule is ridiculously light. No $600/year checkup. No oil changes. It's pretty much just cabin air filters and brakes.

Which is why dealerships in the various U.S. states have been fighting Telsa so vigorously. The Leaf doesn't scare them... yet.

There's a lot of money to be lost in empty service bays.

Comment Re:Oh noes, I can't drive X miles (Score 2) 398

Everything is relative... In west Texas, pickup trucks with dual fuel tanks are not unheard of.

Urban drivers (most the the US population) would still be well-served by an electric vehicle.

Most people are more than willing to pay for more than they need, which explains a lot about cell phone data plans and such.

Comment Air-Condition Compressors (Score 1) 250

I know a couple people in Austin who've paid for air-conditioning techs to "fix" their AC. It turns out that a relays in the compressor boxes outside their homes are caked with dead ant bodies, creating an insulating layer. Kinda pisses people off that nothing is actually broken but the service bill is tendered, just the same. ...and, of course, it's 100-degrees outside so it does need to be dealt with promptly.

Comment Re:Did TWC see this coming? (Score 1) 72

You should have seen Charter drop prices from $75/m to $30/m within 3 days of another ISP announcing fiber. Too bad the naked 30Mb was only for new customers and for me to get the deal, I would have to bundle in a ton of extra channels and phone and a 2 year contract with a $300 cancellation fee.

Wonderful story, and EXACTLY why I avoid long-term contracts with all of the energy that I can muster. Long-term contracts are great for service providers but very bad for customers, regardless of the "discounts" that they are promising you get. Once you are in a contract, you are their bitch.

I want my service providers (not just ISPs but providers of all stripes) to wake up every morning, wondering what they will to do to keep my business -- I want to be a new, potential customer every day.

--Richard

Comment Re:Smack the Incumbents! (Score 1) 72

It is good to point out the Austin has Grande Communications, which actually has pretty good service for the price. The problem is they have limited coverage.

Grande coverage is so limited that no one I know has it -- not a single person. Maybe someone in Round Rock gets Grande but I know only a couple people out there and they use TW.

No, effectively Austin has just two large ISPs providing service and controlling the market: TimeWarner and ATT. They both pretty much suck.

Comment Re:Translation ... (Score 3, Insightful) 893

Intelligent people go to great lengths to avoid having to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to. But if you're poor you don't pay much tax at all, so what the hell are you complaining about? You're using the same roads, bridges, schools and hospitals. All for a few hundred bucks a year.

I guess what you don't understand, Dunbal, is the difference between legal/illegal and right/wrong.

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