siegen

The article does have one point though. If you don't make small <40 mile trips, you are hauling around a whole lot of useless weight. The Volt is a short commuter car, for going to/from work and to the store, and that is all. I am still very curious to know what mileage the Volt gets without the battery charged up.

No more than Mac's do. Where is the logic in this statement? If you want to play the latest games on PC, like me, you end up upgrading a few times a year. That isn't as big of a problem on Mac's because most people don't buy Mac's for gaming. As far as running the latest Adobe and other programs, you don't need to constantly upgrade a PC any more than a Mac. Upgrading a PC is easier and cheaper than a Mac, usually. I can build a top of the line gaming rig now, upgrade it in 8-12 months with the latest components, and still have spent less overall than the Mac would originally cost. If you have deep pockets. My $450 (total after S&H) Compaq refurbished Laptop is exactly what I needed for college. It is fairly quick with an AMD Athlon X2, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, and has all the features I need including a DVD burner. Memory can be upgraded cheaply, but I don't really need more for Office programs and the web.

They may not expand yet, but they won't lay off as many workers and may hire more if their bottom line is better. I'm just saying. I do think the most important thing to do right now is improve consumer's buying power. Lowering taxes is one way to do so. When consumers see their weekly pay check increase, it will go a long ways to improving their confidence and encouraging them to use their buying power.

Businesses that are in a better financial situation are more able to hire workers and pay more, meaning their workers can go out and buy stuff from other businesses more, which in turn improves the financial situation of those businesses and their workers. It should also help with the unemployment rate. It doesn't really matter who tax cuts go to, as long as they go to people that need it, which would be the lower/middle class and businesses. If McCain implements tax cuts that will benefit the wealthy/aristocrats/famous as well, then I think that even though it may be "fair", it is not wise. The wealthy are in a position to use their wealth to make them even more money. They likely pay less taxes on their wealth than most of us do already, since our wealth is mostly spent as fast as it is received, and we're paying full taxes on most everything we purchase and on the income itself (since it is mostly made from working). The wealth gap, as others have said, is enormous. People may not like the idea of Obama's "rob from the rich give to the poor" tax plan (which is sensationalism), but I think it is beneficial to the large majority of citizens and businesses (businesses generally aren't run by the upper class, at least the majority of small/medium size businesses). Obama's plan may not appear to benefit businesses, but consider that the lower and middle class will pay lower taxes, and these are the people that purchase from small and medium sized businesses, and work for those businesses. That's my take on it anyway.

I have never used an anti-virus except for once when I gave AVG a try for a while until I realized I didn't need it. I honestly don't see how everyone around me, all my coworkers who constantly need help, get so many viruses and malware. It's incredible. I used a no-service-pack WinXP for several years when I built my first (Windows XP-based) PC, no security updates, and never had a problem. For the dumb people, Mac's really are an ok choice. They are far less likely to screw it over just from surfing the Internet. I've never experienced a BSOD other than either faulty RAM or unstable RAM from overclocking. A good Windows computer doesn't "just crash". Most performance problems on PC's are the result of users that load them up. In that case, they may be better using a Mac. And AAS, the orange cones is VLC Media Player. ;-]

It's easy........ as long as you're using a Windows server. Well, there probably is a way to use IIS and develop asp/.net in MacOS X locally, probably with a dual boot. I wouldn't want to set it up though, and I don't see why anyone would want to do coding on a Mac.

I feel compelled to weigh in on this post. I have roughly 10 years of web and graphics design experience (and a degree). I started on a 6500-series Power Mac, then upgraded to a G3 B&W Mac. I used to think Macs were better. However for the last 6 years it has been PC only for me (except for class). I do 100% of my design work on PC's using mostly Adobe CS3 master collection, the same software they have loaded on the college Apple computers. I have used G5's and iMac's at college extensively (the latest C2D iMacs), and despite becoming completely comfortable with the OS, I am not nearly as productive as I am on the PC. I even bring my MX518 to college because the "Mighty Mouse" is a mighty gay attempt at a mouse. Windows may not look as nice or be as newb-friendly as MacOS X, but it is far more comfortable and productive for someone who uses mostly keyboard shortcuts to navigate and needs precise mouse acceleration (as opposed to gay MacOS mouse acceleration). Also, from my experience with both OS's, they are roughly the same in terms of stability and crashing potential.

Because battery capacity is the only thing that matters.

What drivetrain are they using for the EV T&C? Are they developing their own? Gotta love the media. Makes for great headlines.

Google and Microsoft are supporting Obama, interesting... I haven't read every page of the thread, have the interview debates been posted yet? (http://www.youdecide2008.com/2008/08/17/video-clips-from-the-rick-warren-civil-forum) Are you guys excited for the debate this Friday? I may watch it, or watch it later online, depending on what I do that day. I have a feeling McCain is going to do well. He is quick to answer questions with little delay, while Obama tends to think and do the "uhh..." thing prior to answering a question.

but....but..... it's a game changer!

My guesses: Car: 1st: Genesis 2nd: CTS-V 3rd: Fit Truck: 1st: RAM 2nd: Forester 3rd: X6

Refresh my memory, what are these awards based on again? Is it just which car the 50 journalists like more than the others?

I found a leaked image of Obama as a teenager. Now that I have the men in tights song stuck in all of your heads, my work here is complete.

They should have called it the........ Gaveo! *snicker*

Every negative statement I hear about Obama's healthcare plan says generally that he will make our healthcare system universal, and we will lose good doctors and have overcrowded clinics and hospitals, like in European countries. I do not pretend to know a whole lot about how healthcare functions in other countries, but from what I've read on Obama's website and in articles, it doesn't sound to me like what he wants to do is like in the "horrible" European countries. From what I read, Obama wants to offer a government healthcare service, that will not be free (it will have premiums, copays, deductibles, like private insurance), and it will supplement the current private system. There will be subsidies for low income peoples and children to purchase healthcare, either from the government system or private companies ("Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP but still need financial assistance will receive an income-related federal subsidy to buy into the new public plan or purchase a private health care plan"). People will continue to be able to purchase healthcare individually or through their work, and they will have the option of purchasing the government's healthcare plan or private insurance. From what I read on McCain's website, he wants to offer everyone free money to purchase their own healthcare system ("every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families"). He also wants to create a nonprofit group to work with private companies to offer healthcare to those who can't afford it. So is free money.

The article compares the Volt to the iPhone, saying that people bought the $400 original iPhone because it was "cool", even though they could have chosen "free phones". And somehow this is like comparing the Volt to regular cars and hybrids, and warranting the rumored $42,000 initial price. The problem with this idea, is that the iPhone shouldn't be compared to free phones, but to the smart phones available from other manufacturers, which are also in the $200 and up range, with contract. Comparing the iPhone to a "free phone" is like comparing the Volt to a scooter. Sure they both get great gas mileage, but that's about the only thing that's similar between them. The iPhone was a bit overpriced when it first came out, as admitted indirectly by Apple with the $200 price cuts. However there's a huge difference between someone willing to pay $400 for an iPhone instead of $200-300 for a Smart phone from someone else, and someone willing to spend $42,000 for a Volt as opposed to $20,000 for a regular economy car (or Insight, for example). To put it obviously, a $100-200 price difference is something the average consumer can easily swallow, but $20,000? Not quite. The "working folks who really need to cut their gasoline bill" will not be the ones to buy the Volt at first, which is one of the complaints the article says is incorrect, but is actually indeed correct. It will be interesting to see what leasing programs GM offers for the Volt...

I thought I was faster than that.... Anyway, I read about Occidental and Barry. I don't see what the problem is there. I signed my driver's license with my nickname and have always had trouble getting my signature notarized because I like to sign my full name now. I may actually have signed up with community college with my nickname, although I don't remember, I know I used my full name for my university, and I make sure to use my full name now. As far as the religion goes, perhaps he was confused or didn't really care. If it said Atheist I'm sure he would never hear the end of it from the Republican party, but it wouldn't affect my opinion. He has also admitted to drinking and using drugs in high school. The full 6 page article To sum up the first page of the article, he was having an identity crisis, and finally decided he wanted to go by his formal name. This is almost exactly the same thing that happened to two of my friends during and shortly after high school. They both had Americanized versions of their last names (at least in pronunciation), then became quite adamant about having it pronounced properly. It's almost like they suddenly became proud of their heritage, maybe it was something their parents told them, I don't know and I never asked them.

I tried to Ninja edit my post but didn't get it in time. :AH-HA_wink: Does he go by Barry?

Edit: Awesome super man! He plays basketball too. ;]

They can't tell you what to buy, but they can influence buying trends by providing tax credits for the plug-in hybrids, like the Volt. And 1 million of them by 2015 isn't really that much, considering that number will start building in 2010 with the Volt and Pious plug-in hybrids (essentially 200,000 per year from 2010 to 2015, to oversimplify it, I know it would be more on a curve, with a relatively small number sold in 2010, and building up to 2015). That's a very small percentage of the total number of cars sold every year, and is well within the production abilities of GM and Toyota alone, not to count the various other manufacturers that will be releasing plug-in hybrids before 2015. Regardless of who's voting for who, you seem to have this idea that the two candidates are so incredibly different. In reality, they are not too dissimilar, aside from the various issues that they have differing ideas on. Is the line "I'd rather lose the election than the war" in any way a factual statement, or is it purely aimed at taking advantage of American's pride as Americans? Is it not also just political fluff?

Samsung A437 AT&T ~$55 / month after fees and other costs I am very happy with both the service and phone.

Interior looks great!

Edit: I wonder what MPG it gets like that (if the gas engine is running constantly to keep the battery charged).

Just FYI, the R-series Civic engine uses a plastic valve cover and intake manifold.