Comment Re:Back at you. (Score 1) 585
They might be on something. Internet also increased the use of the unlucky number 13...
Comment Re:3 people in 2 don't know math. (Score 1) 1042
You are right on many points (Ethanol, shipping) and might have a point with some other info (Batteries - are they recycling or using new nickel/lithium?). I will keep reading on this subject.
Comment Re:3 people in 2 don't know math. (Score 4, Insightful) 1042
But when I bought my last car, I looked squarely at the L/100km measurement. I did the math. And I realized that for what I'd save in the ticket price between buying a 2007 Chev. Aveo (which I did end up buying) over buying something like a Smart car or a hybrid, I could pay for the total gas I'd use over the entire lifetime of the car. The difference between 6L/100km and 3.8L/100km just isn't *that* significant, and certainly isn't significant enough to justify spending another $15,000 on a car that probably won't see 100,000km in its entire 5 year lifetime before I trade it in for a new one. The price of gas would have to be 7x what it currently is for that to have become an economical proposition.
The choice for an Hybrid or a fuel efficient car should not only take in to account the cost of the fuel, but also the cost to the environment. If you add the cost of a "carbon fee" for the extra fuel you burn, for the energy required to bring that fuel to you, the damage to the environment to extract that fuel, you get quite a good deal...
Comment Re:Any chance we can draw circles and boxes now (Score 1) 639
It's not because it's one more click than the Rectangle tool that people wants it. It's because it's not as visible to the new user. It increase the learning curve.
Bookmark McCainâ(TM)s Secret, Questionable Record (thelangreport.com)
1 In 3 Sysadmins Snoop On Colleagues 392
klubar writes "According to a a recent survey, one in three IT staff snoops on colleagues. U.S. information security company Cyber-Ark surveyed 300 senior IT professionals, and found that one-third admitted to secretly snooping, while 47 percent said they had accessed information that was not relevant to their role. Makes you wonder about the other 2 out of 3. Did they lie on the survey or really don't snoop?"
Confessions of a Wi-Fi Thief 849
Michelle Shildkret from Time wrote in to tell us about a story about "the ethics of stealing Wi-Fi. Many of us been guilty of the same crime at one point or another — according to the article, 53% of us at least. But how guilty do we really feel? As it is officially a crime to steal wi-fi (Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47 of the United States Code, which covers anybody who 'intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access')."
Helping Some Students May Harm High Achievers 1114
palegray.net writes "According to a new study performed by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, increased emphasis on helping students with a history of lower academic achievement results in lower performance for high achievers. This trend appears to be related to the No Child Left Behind Act. Essentially, programs designed to devote a large number of resources to assisting students who are deemed to be 'significantly behind' leave little room for encouraging continued academic growth for higher-performing students."
