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Comment Carrier Subsidy (Score 1) 291

I agree with this 100% but I hope everyone realizes that with no ability to force customers to stick around, there will be a dramatically reduced incentive for carriers to offer subsidies on fancy phones. I think this is fine but I wonder if there will be an uproar when $600 iPhones cost $600 instead of $200 + contract and/or lock.

Comment Re:Interesting... (Score 2) 349

This is a problem of expectations, not economics.

Nobody needs a new car every 3 years, nobody needs 1/4 acre and nobody needs 4 bedrooms unless you have about 12 children, which no one on LI has.

Adjust your expectations and I suspect you could live well on 65k, even on LI.

Comment Re:what progress? (Score 1) 769

Boric acid is to stop the reaction, there is no indication the nuclear reaction is still ongoing. The issue is residual decay heat can be many megawatts and needs to be dissipated. If they can't dissipate it, mother nature will take of that but the results will not be pretty (molten core, possibly breaching reactor vessel, etc etc)

Submission + - Conversion Error costs AXA $242 Million (wsj.com) 1

stu72 writes: TFA only explains, "an error" discovered by a junior programmer and subsequently covered up by senior management. However the SEC report is here: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2011/33-9181.pdf and it gives some more details:

"Some Risk Model components sent information to the Optimizer in decimals while other components reported information in percentages; therefore the Optimizer had to convert the decimal information to percentages in order to effectively consider all the information on an equal footing. Because proper scaling did not occur, the Optimizer did not give the intended weight to common factor risks."

Comment Insanity (Score 1) 112

Parking spots in most cities in the world are scarce because they are priced well below what they are worth. By letting demand set the price (i.e. raise it dramatically) you deal with several problems all in one fell swoop:
- parking unavailability
- people polluting the air and causing congestion endlessly circling for a cheap/free spot
- enforcement of time limits currently in place for free spots
- using space age technology to detect free spaces

The tech sounds neat but it's just over-complicating an already over-complicated situation.

Comment Re:Oh happy day (Score 1) 449

Telco's have no interest in selling new hardware except as a means to attract new subscribers. Most smartphones sold in North America are heavily subsidized by the carrier, meaning they *lose* money every time they "sell" a new phone. The only people in North American telcos who will be upset at the loss of the upgrade imperative will be their marketing department - they'll lose their easiest grab on people's attention.

Comment Re:The myth that they want to "collect the oil" (Score 1) 593

uh...

revenue from 1000 barrels of oil they are collecting with their "straw" = $70,000/day

Cost to BP in the last 30 days for cleanup, drilling, etc = $33 million/day (http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/05/13/bp-cause-and-effect/)

Cost to BP if they don't get this sorted ASAP and scenes of oil slicked beaches up the eastern seaboard galvanize support to ban offshore drilling = priceless

I'm sorry but the idea that the "straw" is any sort of attempt to goose revenue from this situation is ludicrous.

As poster said, this hole is toast and everyone knows that. It cannot be rehabilitated or repaired.

Comment warned? (Score 1) 585

I fail to see why toll roads are a bad thing. The license plate photo idea has privacy and authentication concerns, but the economic case is rock solid.

I drive and I have driven on toll roads. Drivers, including myself, need to pay their way, that means as roads (supply) stay static, and demand (drivers) increase, prices to use those roads should go up high enough to either encourage more supply (infrastructure investment and/or private roads) and discourage demand (people realizing that cars suck).

There is a planned parking change in my city to have variable parking pricing. The price will continue to go up, until 15% of spaces are free at any given time. I think it's fabulous and should be applied to all drivers as some sort of traffic/congestion fee. Based on size of vehicle and continually jacked up until traffic decreases to your city's target level.

Everytime I've driving a toll road it's been a pleasure, as the high price kept traffic down and it was immaculately maintained. I would prefer to see all roads toll roads, it would be the fastest way to:
- reducing / eliminating traffic deaths
- reducing pollution
- eliminating congestion
- eliminating noise pollution
- eliminating road rage
- increase health/exercise

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