fourthtunz
Feb 15, 10:34 AM
I'm waiting for the Mark of the Beast = RFID comments to begin.
Serious, there are several segments of the population out there that have objections to this type of technology. I don't know if Apple cares though.
I guess we can already be tracked with the phones we already own?
Rfid would give more info though.
Our populace is largely ignorant of our own governments history and thus oblivious to the freedoms that would be given up freely by this being included in our phones.
Our government is trying to get rfid included in our licenses and has been met with stiff resistance. Now the sheeple will fall for the "convenience" of rfid in the phone.
Fools.
Serious, there are several segments of the population out there that have objections to this type of technology. I don't know if Apple cares though.
I guess we can already be tracked with the phones we already own?
Rfid would give more info though.
Our populace is largely ignorant of our own governments history and thus oblivious to the freedoms that would be given up freely by this being included in our phones.
Our government is trying to get rfid included in our licenses and has been met with stiff resistance. Now the sheeple will fall for the "convenience" of rfid in the phone.
Fools.
yurarse
Sep 20, 07:48 PM
Updated the EFI and the beast is moving faster (I did'nt hear any loud fans), SMC was already updated so I didnt need to download it.
But I dont see the other Hard drives; can u point me to a link that has the information?
But I dont see the other Hard drives; can u point me to a link that has the information?
francisq
Mar 26, 04:18 PM
SJ: I know It was you Schimdt!!! you broke my heart!! you broke my heart!!
mrgreen4242
Dec 10, 11:23 AM
what kind of ram does it use? DDR?
No, I'm guessing it's PC133. I'll pull it apart to double check when I get a minute over the weekend.
No, I'm guessing it's PC133. I'll pull it apart to double check when I get a minute over the weekend.
more...
ChrisA
Oct 9, 03:37 PM
I agree, except for one little thing===> HD Content distribution. No real solution for that one yet.
If you can watch an HD movie over your satilite or cable system then somehow the cable or stilite company found a way to electronically distribute the HD content to you. That 25GB of data found a way to get into your house. Not only did it get into the huse but it did it in real time
If you can watch an HD movie over your satilite or cable system then somehow the cable or stilite company found a way to electronically distribute the HD content to you. That 25GB of data found a way to get into your house. Not only did it get into the huse but it did it in real time
jTreu
Oct 10, 04:29 PM
i doubt apple with update the MB soon, there just wouldnt be enough distinguishing the MB from the MBP if they both got C2D at the same time, mostl ikely it will be like the mini, it will get a small speed bump.
more...
Jeepman88
Mar 26, 06:03 PM
First post, been on the site for a while though. Couldn't hold back and bought an iPad, tried to sell me some accessories but didn't really push too hard. Pretty excited and a GREAT DEAL!! 16GB
zMudvayne
Apr 30, 01:39 PM
Guess we could always cancel the order and preorder in store to get the code immediately. If I haven't gotten a code by tonight, then that is what i'll do. Can't do much till after my finals though, so... push it outta my mind.
more...
Rend It
Nov 21, 06:24 PM
... sooo, a thermocouple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple) on a chip? Thermocouples have horrendous efficiency. I don't see how a such a chip in an enclosed environment (like a laptop motherboard) can achieve enough of a thermal gradient to produce enough current to be useful.
I dunno, i'm skeptical.
Skeptical you should be, but these aren't really thermocouples. The same physical principle applies, but thermocouples are really only for temperature measurement. These are thermoelectric coolers. See here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier-Seebeck_effect).
If you want to power the temperature change yourself, you need a high current. But if you want to generate electricity from them, then just connect them into a circuit with out any powersupply i.e. stick a fan's power terminals on that, stick one side of the TEC on a hot chip or cup of tea etc. to setup the delta T. (temp difference) then the fan will start spinning!
Dan :-)
While what you're saying is true in principle, I seriously doubt the practicality of what you're suggesting. TECs are moderately efficient at converting electricity into a temperature differential (or being used as a heat pump), but their efficiency in the other mode of operation (Seebeck effect) is very, very low (typ. < 5%). If you take a chip-sized (~ 1 cm^2) TEC, connect it between a hot processor core at 100 C and ambient temperature at 25 C, you will not have enough power to turn a computer fan at any modest speed. Furthermore, even if you could harvest that electricity and store it, the added energy would be less than 0.1% of a typical laptop battery. :rolleyes:
If you wanted to use a larger TEC module (say 16 cm^2) on top of the 80 C CPU case, then the added energy would be less than 1%.
Estimates based on info here (http://www.ferrotec.com/technology/thermoelectric/thermalRef13.php).
I dunno, i'm skeptical.
Skeptical you should be, but these aren't really thermocouples. The same physical principle applies, but thermocouples are really only for temperature measurement. These are thermoelectric coolers. See here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier-Seebeck_effect).
If you want to power the temperature change yourself, you need a high current. But if you want to generate electricity from them, then just connect them into a circuit with out any powersupply i.e. stick a fan's power terminals on that, stick one side of the TEC on a hot chip or cup of tea etc. to setup the delta T. (temp difference) then the fan will start spinning!
Dan :-)
While what you're saying is true in principle, I seriously doubt the practicality of what you're suggesting. TECs are moderately efficient at converting electricity into a temperature differential (or being used as a heat pump), but their efficiency in the other mode of operation (Seebeck effect) is very, very low (typ. < 5%). If you take a chip-sized (~ 1 cm^2) TEC, connect it between a hot processor core at 100 C and ambient temperature at 25 C, you will not have enough power to turn a computer fan at any modest speed. Furthermore, even if you could harvest that electricity and store it, the added energy would be less than 0.1% of a typical laptop battery. :rolleyes:
If you wanted to use a larger TEC module (say 16 cm^2) on top of the 80 C CPU case, then the added energy would be less than 1%.
Estimates based on info here (http://www.ferrotec.com/technology/thermoelectric/thermalRef13.php).
DPinTX
Mar 11, 11:32 AM
Line is about 46 now at Stonebriar. Posting pics on twitter @dpedini
Cookies are still calling my name must resist.
Stop by say Hello
DP
Cookies are still calling my name must resist.
Stop by say Hello
DP
more...
redeye be
Aug 24, 05:00 PM
Things are about to change...
In order to let version 1.0 of this widget really blow your socks of, some changes had to be made on the ExtremeOverclocking side.
The guys are great in adding some extra info i requested. Small bummer: the current version of the widget doesn't work anymore (it has no idea the xml file changed - no AI yet, sry). I'll try to do a quick fix by the end of the week (should be faster, just not in the mood right now :cool: ). 1.0 should be out before the end of the month (september that is ;)).
Sorry about this,
Keep up the fold,
Cheerio,
me
In order to let version 1.0 of this widget really blow your socks of, some changes had to be made on the ExtremeOverclocking side.
The guys are great in adding some extra info i requested. Small bummer: the current version of the widget doesn't work anymore (it has no idea the xml file changed - no AI yet, sry). I'll try to do a quick fix by the end of the week (should be faster, just not in the mood right now :cool: ). 1.0 should be out before the end of the month (september that is ;)).
Sorry about this,
Keep up the fold,
Cheerio,
me
AppliedVisual
Oct 10, 11:39 AM
How long can the limited supply situation be true though? I mean we're talking Intel here they must have huge amounts of manufacturing capability being ramped up for these chips. Possibly even being switched away from the production of Yonahs.
I guess we'll see. It's literally anyone's guess.
Yeah, usually a shortage today means a surplus tomorrow. And I still have yet to see or read any tangible evidence of this shortage. Intel is very forthcoming about such shortages and they have said NOTHING. Every major PC manufacturer, even Apple with their C2D iMac systems, are shipping 2.33GHz C2D chips just as fast as anything else. All the rumors of delays are complete bunk. The people squaking over Dell's web site showing 10 to 17 days to ship a C2D XPS notebook are obviously uneducated in the ways of Dell. It always takes them 7 to 24 days to ship a system.. Always. And adjusting your CPU choice on those systems makes no difference to the ship date.
In other words, there is no shortage and no reason to even consider a shortage as a reason for the delay. Other forces are at work here... Be it Apple pride, stupidity, heat problems or just a genuine deisre to totally mind-****** their customers, Apple knows what they're doing.
I guess we'll see. It's literally anyone's guess.
Yeah, usually a shortage today means a surplus tomorrow. And I still have yet to see or read any tangible evidence of this shortage. Intel is very forthcoming about such shortages and they have said NOTHING. Every major PC manufacturer, even Apple with their C2D iMac systems, are shipping 2.33GHz C2D chips just as fast as anything else. All the rumors of delays are complete bunk. The people squaking over Dell's web site showing 10 to 17 days to ship a C2D XPS notebook are obviously uneducated in the ways of Dell. It always takes them 7 to 24 days to ship a system.. Always. And adjusting your CPU choice on those systems makes no difference to the ship date.
In other words, there is no shortage and no reason to even consider a shortage as a reason for the delay. Other forces are at work here... Be it Apple pride, stupidity, heat problems or just a genuine deisre to totally mind-****** their customers, Apple knows what they're doing.
more...
RacerX
Apr 3, 03:00 AM
I think that Apple was probably aiming to make Pages into a desktop publishing program but then found halfway through that most of the features added in were pretty similar to what word has. Maybe that's why Jobs decided to put it head to head with Word?
Pages is a resurrected application from more than 10 years ago. It's feature set and implementation are pretty much the same, just as the reaction of both the media and users.
Pages was never designed to be a page layout replacement. It is designed to be a step above the standard word processor layout aimed squarely at people who know nothing about page layout. This has been (in it's original form) and currently is a template driven application.
What is so amazing is that people are reacting the same way now as they did before. Always thinking that it'll become more than it currently is. This application has had more than 10 years to be rethought out and improved. If it was aiming for page layout, there was plenty of time to move it in that direction.
Pages is to page layout what painting by numbers is to art. Anyone expecting the freedom that a page layout program offers has missed what this is about. It isn't about freedom, it is about empowering people with little or no experience to produce quality documents.
The only reason Pages has been resurrected is that it was an application that Steve Jobs really liked and thought had a place even if it didn't fit into any defined category.
Steve Jobs, 1993: Pages is a stunning product, and I believe it will become a major mainstream product on NEXTSTEP.
Pages could be a good product... as soon as people start taking it for what it is rather than projecting what they want it to be onto it.
Lets look at a 1992 description of Pages from NeXTWorld:The flip side of PasteUp's carte-blanche approach to page design is a layout program from Pages Software, which after several years in the making is close to release under the name Pages by Pages. It guides users to produce well-designed business documents by limiting their choices to a preset range provided in a companion "design model."
Pages by Pages will ship with seven design models, most aimed at corporate design (other models will be available separately from Pages and third parties). A separate program, the Pages Designer Edition, is used to create models.
Each model contains rules for typeface control, column layout, headline styling, and other elements that make up a page design. The idea is that an organization will use the product to standardize on a common look for all its documents. The constrained approach also allows users to create attractive designs easily, with a fairly flat learning curve.
The Pages user interface groups 26 page elements under six basic palettes. All elements are dragged and dropped on the page, and they interact appropriately. For example, a subhead will know that it lives in a column, so it scales to the column width.
Once users are comfortable with a design model, they have several ways to expand or change it. Every element has an inspector with controls to adjust the behavior of the element. Users may also alter a design model by overriding one or more rules, and then saving it as a style sheet. They can also create a design model from scratch with the Designer Edition.
Pages believes it has hit on a fundamentally new ap-proach to page design. It is aimed squarely at business publishing, leaving the graphic-design market to other products.
Does any of this sound familiar?
The first week Pages was out a lot of people were crowing about a new "Word-killer" and I really felt that was offbase because the better comparison really is to Microsoft Publisher. It reminds me of a light version of Pagemaker from 10 years ago.
Pages was compared with PageMaker during it's original run also.
PageMaker was a very powerful application 10 years ago, I should know, I have PageMaker 1.0-6.5 (and still use Aldus PageMaker 5.0a on my PowerBook 2300c today).
Trying to compare Pages to PageMaker does both a disservice. Pages wasn't attempting to be like PageMaker and PageMaker was never as limiting as Pages.
As for the comparison to Publisher... that I don't know about.
I, personally, don't have a need for Pages. TextEdit (with the help of services from other apps) does most of what I need and when I need more than that I have Create. But even though it is not a product I would want, I know people whom this product would be great for.
The best thing to do is to stop comparing it and give it a fair chance based on what it does. If it fills a need for you, great. If it doesn't, then move to what does.
Pages is a resurrected application from more than 10 years ago. It's feature set and implementation are pretty much the same, just as the reaction of both the media and users.
Pages was never designed to be a page layout replacement. It is designed to be a step above the standard word processor layout aimed squarely at people who know nothing about page layout. This has been (in it's original form) and currently is a template driven application.
What is so amazing is that people are reacting the same way now as they did before. Always thinking that it'll become more than it currently is. This application has had more than 10 years to be rethought out and improved. If it was aiming for page layout, there was plenty of time to move it in that direction.
Pages is to page layout what painting by numbers is to art. Anyone expecting the freedom that a page layout program offers has missed what this is about. It isn't about freedom, it is about empowering people with little or no experience to produce quality documents.
The only reason Pages has been resurrected is that it was an application that Steve Jobs really liked and thought had a place even if it didn't fit into any defined category.
Steve Jobs, 1993: Pages is a stunning product, and I believe it will become a major mainstream product on NEXTSTEP.
Pages could be a good product... as soon as people start taking it for what it is rather than projecting what they want it to be onto it.
Lets look at a 1992 description of Pages from NeXTWorld:The flip side of PasteUp's carte-blanche approach to page design is a layout program from Pages Software, which after several years in the making is close to release under the name Pages by Pages. It guides users to produce well-designed business documents by limiting their choices to a preset range provided in a companion "design model."
Pages by Pages will ship with seven design models, most aimed at corporate design (other models will be available separately from Pages and third parties). A separate program, the Pages Designer Edition, is used to create models.
Each model contains rules for typeface control, column layout, headline styling, and other elements that make up a page design. The idea is that an organization will use the product to standardize on a common look for all its documents. The constrained approach also allows users to create attractive designs easily, with a fairly flat learning curve.
The Pages user interface groups 26 page elements under six basic palettes. All elements are dragged and dropped on the page, and they interact appropriately. For example, a subhead will know that it lives in a column, so it scales to the column width.
Once users are comfortable with a design model, they have several ways to expand or change it. Every element has an inspector with controls to adjust the behavior of the element. Users may also alter a design model by overriding one or more rules, and then saving it as a style sheet. They can also create a design model from scratch with the Designer Edition.
Pages believes it has hit on a fundamentally new ap-proach to page design. It is aimed squarely at business publishing, leaving the graphic-design market to other products.
Does any of this sound familiar?
The first week Pages was out a lot of people were crowing about a new "Word-killer" and I really felt that was offbase because the better comparison really is to Microsoft Publisher. It reminds me of a light version of Pagemaker from 10 years ago.
Pages was compared with PageMaker during it's original run also.
PageMaker was a very powerful application 10 years ago, I should know, I have PageMaker 1.0-6.5 (and still use Aldus PageMaker 5.0a on my PowerBook 2300c today).
Trying to compare Pages to PageMaker does both a disservice. Pages wasn't attempting to be like PageMaker and PageMaker was never as limiting as Pages.
As for the comparison to Publisher... that I don't know about.
I, personally, don't have a need for Pages. TextEdit (with the help of services from other apps) does most of what I need and when I need more than that I have Create. But even though it is not a product I would want, I know people whom this product would be great for.
The best thing to do is to stop comparing it and give it a fair chance based on what it does. If it fills a need for you, great. If it doesn't, then move to what does.
MattSepeta
May 2, 03:31 PM
Birth rates have fallen dramatically and the explosion of diabetes and other modern ills in countries like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, the UAE, etc. means things will change simply because they have to. Although social inequality will remain as long as kings and dictators or republicans are in charge.
Fixed it for you ;)
Fixed it for you ;)
more...
Dooger
Mar 22, 06:19 AM
I bet my students can't wait to run products like AutoCad, Final Cut Pro, Logic, Sonar and Visual Studio, on the ipad. They'll be so excited I'm sure.
It's just a glorified web slate and note taker. By no means bad but I don't see any students where I work, or staff for that matter, rushing to get one. We may buy one or two for R&D.
I completely agree. It's probably being aimed at the computing illiterate or perhaps commuters but in its current form with an iPhone OS, it's just not powerful or versatile enough for the vast majority of students.
It's just a glorified web slate and note taker. By no means bad but I don't see any students where I work, or staff for that matter, rushing to get one. We may buy one or two for R&D.
I completely agree. It's probably being aimed at the computing illiterate or perhaps commuters but in its current form with an iPhone OS, it's just not powerful or versatile enough for the vast majority of students.
Gasu E.
Mar 25, 09:20 AM
i bet they had people there with MBA's from good schools running financial what if's and telling management to avoid digital because they will make less money due to not selling the film or anything other than the camera
They did not avoid digital at all, in fact they were an early entrant to digital. The problem was that they were used to having a lucrative near-monopoly in film, a fat side business in film processing and a nice low-end camera business built around proprietary "connvenience" film packaging. They were now facing aggressive consumer electronics companies who were used to relently feature upgrades and short model lifecycles. Moreover, they could not rely on their film dominance to keep competitors at a disadvantage. In other words, they had to change their business model completely-- from near monopoly to completely competitive-- in order to success in the new business. Only a fraction of companies manage to do this successfully.
Keep in mind, also, due to the increased competition and lack of a film component, that the opportunity for Kodak in digital was much smaller than their film and related businesses. It's very hard to manage a shrinking company, and even harder if you are also trying to reinvent yourself.
They did not avoid digital at all, in fact they were an early entrant to digital. The problem was that they were used to having a lucrative near-monopoly in film, a fat side business in film processing and a nice low-end camera business built around proprietary "connvenience" film packaging. They were now facing aggressive consumer electronics companies who were used to relently feature upgrades and short model lifecycles. Moreover, they could not rely on their film dominance to keep competitors at a disadvantage. In other words, they had to change their business model completely-- from near monopoly to completely competitive-- in order to success in the new business. Only a fraction of companies manage to do this successfully.
Keep in mind, also, due to the increased competition and lack of a film component, that the opportunity for Kodak in digital was much smaller than their film and related businesses. It's very hard to manage a shrinking company, and even harder if you are also trying to reinvent yourself.
more...
MovieCutter
Sep 27, 12:46 PM
Me too. And I wish Safari had a "Sure you want to quit?" dialog box for those times when we accidentally do a Command + Q in it.
It does in Leopard...
It does in Leopard...
campingsk8er
Mar 13, 12:31 PM
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)
Mine went an hour back on Saturday morning. :/. But as soon as I even clicked date & date it fixed it back
Mine went an hour back on Saturday morning. :/. But as soon as I even clicked date & date it fixed it back
paulvee
Sep 19, 10:02 PM
I unplugged everything and that made it work.
Network Cable
USB devices (3)
Firewire400 (1)
Firewire800 (1)
I didn't think to unplug them one at a time to control for where the problem was. Oh well. If your drives comes out and snaps back in right away without updating the firmware. Remove all devices before rebooting.
Same here. It would not work till I removed stuff. If I had time, I would have done it methodically, to save time for others, but I'm super busy. Got the tone and the in/out disk tray, then no update until I removed the two USB cords, the FW 800, FW400 cords, replaced the FCP keyboard and Logitech mouse with the stock ones and, for good measure after it shut down, the network cable.
Then it worked fine.
Plugged in the network cable for the second update and it worked with that.
Network Cable
USB devices (3)
Firewire400 (1)
Firewire800 (1)
I didn't think to unplug them one at a time to control for where the problem was. Oh well. If your drives comes out and snaps back in right away without updating the firmware. Remove all devices before rebooting.
Same here. It would not work till I removed stuff. If I had time, I would have done it methodically, to save time for others, but I'm super busy. Got the tone and the in/out disk tray, then no update until I removed the two USB cords, the FW 800, FW400 cords, replaced the FCP keyboard and Logitech mouse with the stock ones and, for good measure after it shut down, the network cable.
Then it worked fine.
Plugged in the network cable for the second update and it worked with that.
JoeG4
May 6, 04:31 PM
Except of course, the Unix backend that powers OS X also powers ATM machines, practically every cellphone, a lot of cars, and many other servers/embedded devices as well.
You're right that Windows has the major retail cash register & ATM market down. However, a lot of stores don't use Windows (pretty much any small business that uses those casio cash registers doesn't, and many chains like 99 cent stores just use those tiny keyboard-is-the-computer registers that I am 100% certain DO NOT run Windows).
On that note, I can tell you that Dish Network uses Linux on all of their receivers, but then Comcast and VZ use Windows on their receivers *ponders*
You're right that Windows has the major retail cash register & ATM market down. However, a lot of stores don't use Windows (pretty much any small business that uses those casio cash registers doesn't, and many chains like 99 cent stores just use those tiny keyboard-is-the-computer registers that I am 100% certain DO NOT run Windows).
On that note, I can tell you that Dish Network uses Linux on all of their receivers, but then Comcast and VZ use Windows on their receivers *ponders*
Tailpike1153
Mar 28, 08:53 AM
I can't think of any good rumors to start spreading. Lion, iOS 4+/5, new iPhones, MobileMe cloud. Hmmmm.... what to make up? The iPhone is heading to Sprint and Cricket. j/k. I'm just hoping to be able to get a new iPhone this summer. New iMac & iPad 2 will be pluses on the year.
MattSepeta
Apr 14, 03:55 PM
I wonder why I often see signs like this in stores ...
Seems to me that I have only seen those signs at places where excessive inebreation by customers could be a problem, ie: bars, some places downtown in the bar district, etc.
Anyways, if you don't want to sell something to somebody for WHATEVER reason, no matter how ridiculous, shouldn't that be your right?
Seems to me that I have only seen those signs at places where excessive inebreation by customers could be a problem, ie: bars, some places downtown in the bar district, etc.
Anyways, if you don't want to sell something to somebody for WHATEVER reason, no matter how ridiculous, shouldn't that be your right?
Ugg
Apr 29, 11:58 AM
The Economist, that stalwart of conservatism has this to say (http://www.economist.com/node/18620944?story_id=18620944) about the state of US transportation.
America is known for its huge highways, but ..... American traffic congestion is worse than western Europe�s. ....More time on lower quality roads also makes for a deadlier transport network. With some 15 deaths a year for every 100,000 people, the road fatality rate in America is 60% above the OECD average; 33,000 Americans were killed on roads in 2010.
America�s economy remains the world�s largest; its citizens are among the world�s richest. The government is not constitutionally opposed to grand public works. The country stitched its continental expanse together through two centuries of ambitious earthmoving. Almost from the beginning of the republic the federal government encouraged the building of critical canals and roadways. In the 19th century Congress provided funding for a transcontinental railway linking the east and west coasts. And between 1956 and 1992 America constructed the interstate system, among the largest public-works projects in history, which criss-crossed the continent with nearly 50,000 miles of motorways.
But modern America is stingier. Total public spending on transport and water infrastructure has fallen steadily since the 1960s and now stands at 2.4% of GDP. Europe, by contrast, invests 5% of GDP in its infrastructure, while China is racing into the future at 9%. America�s spending as a share of GDP has not come close to European levels for over 50 years. Over that time funds for both capital investments and operations and maintenance have steadily dropped (see chart 2).
Although America still builds roads with enthusiasm, according to the OECD�s International Transport Forum, it spends considerably less than Europe on maintaining them. In 2006 America spent more than twice as much per person as Britain on new construction; but Britain spent 23% more per person maintaining its roads.
America�s petrol tax is low by international standards, and has not gone up since 1993 (see chart 3). While the real value of the tax has eroded, the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure has gone up. As a result, the highway trust fund no longer supports even current spending. Congress has repeatedly been forced to top up the trust fund, with $30 billion since 2008.
Other rich nations avoid these problems. The cost of car ownership in Germany is 50% higher than it is in America, thanks to higher taxes on cars and petrol and higher fees on drivers� licences. The result is a more sustainably funded transport system. In 2006 German road fees brought in 2.6 times the money spent building and maintaining roads. American road taxes collected at the federal, state and local level covered just 72% of the money spent on highways that year, according to the Brookings Institution, a think-tank.
Supporters of a National Infrastructure Bank�Mr Obama among them�believe it offers America just such a shortcut. A bank would use strict cost-benefit analyses as a matter of course, and could make interstate investments easier. A European analogue, the European Investment Bank, has turned out to work well. Co-owned by the member states of the European Union, the EIB holds some $300 billion in capital which it uses to provide loans to deserving projects across the continent. EIB funding may provide up to half the cost for projects that satisfy EU objectives and are judged cost-effective by a panel of experts.
American leaders hungrily eye the private money the EIB attracts, spying a potential solution to their own fiscal dilemma.
The upshot is that we built too much, too fast and are unwilling to pay to maintain it although we continue to build bridges and highways (http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/04/28/third-houston-outerbelt-would-turn-prairies-into-texas-toast/) to nowhere.
America is known for its huge highways, but ..... American traffic congestion is worse than western Europe�s. ....More time on lower quality roads also makes for a deadlier transport network. With some 15 deaths a year for every 100,000 people, the road fatality rate in America is 60% above the OECD average; 33,000 Americans were killed on roads in 2010.
America�s economy remains the world�s largest; its citizens are among the world�s richest. The government is not constitutionally opposed to grand public works. The country stitched its continental expanse together through two centuries of ambitious earthmoving. Almost from the beginning of the republic the federal government encouraged the building of critical canals and roadways. In the 19th century Congress provided funding for a transcontinental railway linking the east and west coasts. And between 1956 and 1992 America constructed the interstate system, among the largest public-works projects in history, which criss-crossed the continent with nearly 50,000 miles of motorways.
But modern America is stingier. Total public spending on transport and water infrastructure has fallen steadily since the 1960s and now stands at 2.4% of GDP. Europe, by contrast, invests 5% of GDP in its infrastructure, while China is racing into the future at 9%. America�s spending as a share of GDP has not come close to European levels for over 50 years. Over that time funds for both capital investments and operations and maintenance have steadily dropped (see chart 2).
Although America still builds roads with enthusiasm, according to the OECD�s International Transport Forum, it spends considerably less than Europe on maintaining them. In 2006 America spent more than twice as much per person as Britain on new construction; but Britain spent 23% more per person maintaining its roads.
America�s petrol tax is low by international standards, and has not gone up since 1993 (see chart 3). While the real value of the tax has eroded, the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure has gone up. As a result, the highway trust fund no longer supports even current spending. Congress has repeatedly been forced to top up the trust fund, with $30 billion since 2008.
Other rich nations avoid these problems. The cost of car ownership in Germany is 50% higher than it is in America, thanks to higher taxes on cars and petrol and higher fees on drivers� licences. The result is a more sustainably funded transport system. In 2006 German road fees brought in 2.6 times the money spent building and maintaining roads. American road taxes collected at the federal, state and local level covered just 72% of the money spent on highways that year, according to the Brookings Institution, a think-tank.
Supporters of a National Infrastructure Bank�Mr Obama among them�believe it offers America just such a shortcut. A bank would use strict cost-benefit analyses as a matter of course, and could make interstate investments easier. A European analogue, the European Investment Bank, has turned out to work well. Co-owned by the member states of the European Union, the EIB holds some $300 billion in capital which it uses to provide loans to deserving projects across the continent. EIB funding may provide up to half the cost for projects that satisfy EU objectives and are judged cost-effective by a panel of experts.
American leaders hungrily eye the private money the EIB attracts, spying a potential solution to their own fiscal dilemma.
The upshot is that we built too much, too fast and are unwilling to pay to maintain it although we continue to build bridges and highways (http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/04/28/third-houston-outerbelt-would-turn-prairies-into-texas-toast/) to nowhere.
Mattie Num Nums
Apr 13, 01:27 PM
In a LOT of people's mind, it's broken until they put support for Exchange 2003/WebDAV back in.
Why would they do that? Support for Exchange 2003 is going away. Microsoft gave a roadmap 5 years ago which showed companies when to start planning Exchange upgrades.
Why would they do that? Support for Exchange 2003 is going away. Microsoft gave a roadmap 5 years ago which showed companies when to start planning Exchange upgrades.
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