Monthly Archives: May 2013


This would be a real loss although I don't even know where these cars are

This would be a real loss although I don't even know where these cars are

Reshared post from +Justin Hyde

1963 Ford Cougar II. 1963 Ford Mustang II. The first Cadillac…

Detroit bankruptcy could force sale of city’s historic car collection
Facing a debt estimated at $15 billion and with cash running short, the state-appointed emergency manager overseeing the city of Detroit’s finances has repeatedly warned that a municipal bankruptcy remains a strong possibility. Last week, the city’s arts patrons raised alarms over the prospect that creditors could force the city to sell art from the […]

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We truly do live in a golden age of motoring

Whether it's +Volkswagen USA's most efficient new Golf vs and ancient GTI or the current generation +Ford Motor Company Shelby GT500 with its 662 hp and 631 lb-ft of torque absolutely slapping a 1960s equivalent while getting much better mileage and cleaner emissions, life has rarely been better for drivers.

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+Honda first showed off this device back in 2009 when it was known by the unfortunate…

+Honda first showed off this device back in 2009 when it was known by the unfortunate name of stride management assist device

I had the opportunity to actually try it when I visited Honda R&D while I was in Japan for the Tokyo Motor Show and it worked really well. 
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/22/tokyo-2009-autoblog-samples-quirky-honda-u3-x-and-other-assist/

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very nice!

very nice!

New ‘Arrested Development’ Pulls Off The Geekiest Gag Ever, Confuses Much Of The Internet | TechCrunch
New Arrested Development is here! Have you heard? I could probably fall back on an “Unless you’ve been living under a rock..” joke here, but I’m pretty sure they’ve got WiFi under rocks now.

Anyway — if you’re just catching the first few episodes of the new seaso..

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Do you remember the scam in the movie Office Space? That's what AT&T is doing…

Do you remember the scam in the movie Office Space? That's what AT&T is doing to its customers?

In the film, the protagonists decided to get back at their evil employer by running some software on the company servers that would round down all the transactions to the nearest cent and then dump all those fractions of a penny into a new account. The premise is that no one would notice those fractions but over millions of transactions it would add up to some serious cash. 

That's exactly what AT&T is doing to customers. By adding a $0.61 administrative fee to each customer every month. While it might not amount to much per customer, it amounts to half a billion dollars per year when you add it all up. 

By locking customers into two-year contracts, they guarantee that those customers can't leave.  The "downside" from AT&T's perspective is that they can't just raise their prices because the customers are under "contract." Instead they just create a new administrative fee that looks like a government charge. Nice if you can get away with it, which only big corporations like AT&T can do.

Why is AT&T milking subscribers for an extra $500 million? ‘Because they can’
AT&T said earlier this week that it will add a new administrative fee to each of its wireless subscribers’ monthly bills. The fee is only $0.61, which doesn’t sound like much, and an AT&T s…

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The liquidation of Better Place leaves unanswered questions for customers 1

The liquidation of Better Place leaves unanswered questions for customers

Yesterday's announcement from Better Place that they would liquidate leaves some serious questions for the relatively few customers they actually have. When BP started offering Renault Fluence electric car in Israel, they took a different approach from other manufacturers. 

Customers could buy or lease the car itself but the battery was not included for that price, making it essentially a brick. Just as you can't buy a smartphone from a US carrier today without signing up for 2-year data plan, Better Place customers had to pay separately for lease on the battery. That lease entitled customers to get charging at public stations and battery swaps at BP change stations. 

Presumably those customers will get to keep the battery they have now, and keep plugging it in, but we don't know. With a conventional purchase, if the company such as Fisker goes belly up, you still have the car and can drive it as long as it keeps running.  

Will anyone else try this approach in the future? Will customers try the approach?

Renault will end Better Place partnership after bankruptcy filing
Renault is ending a five-year partnership with Better Place LLC after the operator of electric-vehicle charging stations announced plans to shut down. The two companies have worked together in Israel and Denmark since 2008.

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