My Gen III Prius is rated for 50 MPG highway. I regularly take extended trips where I get 52-54 MPG. Even my daily highway driving is in that same range, depending on traffic (heavy traffic = less MPG.). Typically the worse I do is 47-48 for combined City/Highway. Of course I can drive like a maniac and get mileage in the low 40's.

yes. of course, and if something doesn't get picked up, they can crowd source fund a few episodes.. and they should use more of the British model where a 'season' might be just 3 to 4 episodes.. all done with quality..

They should sign people up for subscriptions and allow them to watch anywhere, any time.. and be part of the process of picking what they wil be watching.. after all if you ask nicely most people will tell you what they think.

They are basically creating content (by buying it or paying for it) and then finding advertisers to fund it.. that's a model that easier to do online than offline, esp. now that people are time shifting, Etc. They need to forget that they are going out Over The Air and start to incorporate everything they can do when they to OTT (over the top)..

Let's hope they are not all frozen in the basement.. ;)

Today in new media hmmm I mean social media, it's very popular to "engage" the audience, something you did exceedingly well.. You basically went out and found your audience... It was heroic and it made the experience that much more awesome, that we could ask you questions and they were answered. I asked about how the Narn had defeated the Shadows and even though that was a major turning point of plot you still answered, "That would be telling..."

My question is today's humans 25 like to think that they invented everything in media that is social; can you give us any examples where you feel a TV show is or isn't doing a good job with audience "engagement" and any tips or suggestions on how to do correctly?

For me you basically invented the genre of the audience being able to communicate with the producers/writers of a show, which is now far more common... for me it made TV very interactive and I of course I still remember you answering a question I asked (that's for another day)...

Do you know of any earlier examples of this that influenced you to "engage" with the audience?

While I haven't read the Posterous TOS i doubt they "own" people's content... however, the issue I think that Mike was trying to highlight is while you own your content you might not be able to migrate it and/or loss access to it..

We need a postal service but we don't need one that is cheap or subsidized in anyway. All bills can be sent and paid for using a computer. Ditto letters.

No one is ever happy to pay more, but starting tomorrow they should only charge what it costs to operate the system. They should deliver 4 days a week and anything else should cost even more. They should charge 100% plus 15% of what things cost. The profit should be used to pay back the tax payers all the money we have pumped into the system.

The Apple IIe was my first computer. At Bell Labs I also used the Lisa, which was interesting and a bit buggy but also the first "fun" computer to use.. but I had more fun using TROFF.

I know in Japan that Union management is more aligned with company management.. is it similar in Germany?

This maybe stereo typing but I think in general German engineering is really top quality in terms of building products to a set specification in a reliable and predictable manner. Given that they have been able to hold onto manufacturing jobs is also a plus..

Until the cost of living and the cost of labor in China is at parity with the US you can't compare $$ for $$; you also have to assume that the R&D talent (Engineers, Project Managers are equal); assuming that the talent is of a high quality.. if the talent costs less over there, than they don't have to spend the same $$$ to get the same results.

IF the talent is equal and the cost is 1/2 to 1/3 cheaper than they are probably already at parity. If the talent isn't equal than no amount of $$ can really get to parity (e.g., bad technology leadership can waste a lot of $$). If the talent is better and equal or cheaper in cost then this game is over; although there is always an other round to play for the next generation..

I'm not an engineer.. but some random thoughts?

1) Can you use out of band communications to trigger a special mode of the router (assuming you control it)? (e.g., A special listening mode that gives certain devices priority)

2) Rather than use typical QAM type of modulation, can you use a more limited constellation but BOOST the power so you can punch it through the noise? (which would also allow you to make very good use of forward error correction (FEC); again assumes that you are able to program both the sender and the router.

Assuming you can't alter the Network Stack on either device than you have to look at the communications itself

3) Other than that, it would seem you would need to use a programmable antenna/software antenna, Etc. turning your own Antenna into a high directional Antenna with as much gain as possible. Basically find the WIFI router you want (geo locate it, perhaps triangulation with the help of friendly nearby devices) and the push all your signal towards (a dynamic Yagi antenna that auto-magically maintains it's "aim" at the router even as the sender and/or the receiver move about.

4) If you did have some control over the router and you were sure that you could depreciate other traffic then the router would also get the same auto-magical antenna system and the two devices would "focus" on each other.

Other than digital controls the article doesn't say how this design is different.. is it just the controls?

Google Fiber will put much of them out of business... not that I think Google wants to but if they keep the prices so artificially high they are not going to survive..

Future crime and skynet merge...