| Xbox 360 team skipped quality testing of console to beat Sony to ...
Last summer, amidst a flurry of reports from Xbox 360 gamers, DailyTech exposed retailers' estimates that up to one-third of Xbox 360 consoles experience hardware failures within the first year of ownership. Just days after the report, Microsoft extended its warranty to cover the specific hardware failure for three years from purchase. Now, six months later, a supposed Microsoft insider confirms that around 30% of Xbox 360 consoles, most based on the original 'Xenon' design, fail. "It's around 30 percent, and all will probably fail early," the source told 8Bit Joystick. "This quarter they are expecting 1M failures, most of those Xenons. Some of those are repeat failures." Although Microsoft now covers all Xbox 360 consoles for three years against the Red Ring of Death (RROD) – the sign of a hardware failure – there is no specific time frame for the defect to appear.
Thrashers In An Un-Good Place
They even took a 1-0 lead into the first break thanks to a Mark Recchi power play goal. But the Leafs scored three unanswered goals, one by Mats Sundin, another by Alexander Steen, (who just signed a 2 year, $3.4 million contract extension), and then the last when Nik Antropov notch the 100th goal of his career. Toronto ended the season series with Atlanta 3-0-1. Rubbing a little salt in the wound, Florida scored a game-tying goal with 4 seconds left in the 3rd against Philadelphia and then won it in overtime. That leaves the Thrashers in 4th place in the Southeast Division and 13th in the Eastern Conference
just one point ahead of Toronto in the 14th spot. Obviously, the frustrating 3-1 loss to Toronto leaves Don Waddell and the Thrashers in an un-good place, to put it mildly.
Checking 2nd bag?
The fees are another sign of major airlines' growing movement to "a la carte" pricing, in which customers pay separate charges for certain services such as priority seating and food. Low-cost carriers already routinely charge such fees. Other airlines likely will adopt similar baggage fees, said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. He predicted those fees will be followed by other new fees as major airlines charge for services previously covered by the cost of a ticket. US Airways, which has its largest hub in Charlotte, announced the new $25 fee for checking a second bag Tuesday. Similar to one adopted by United Airlines three weeks ago, the fee is aimed to offset increased fuel prices, which have raised operating costs, US Airways officials said.
Reality lost on those who put faith in universal health care
It is no wonder that none of the candidates have sparked much interest this campaign cycle.Let's go back to basics. I did the numbers on my hospital test. I added in every cost including salaries, equipment, utilities, insurance, and then gave everyone a 100 percent profit margin. The cost of my test: well under $200.Prior to the test, I did not call the hospital and ask about the cost.Suppose that I did not have insurance and health care was sold in a free market. Here is what would have happened.I would have called the hospital. They would say the cost would be $900.I would call another. In a free market, some hospital is going to settle for only 300 percent profit and ask for $450. Sooner or later, I would find a hospital that would do the test for $150.Would I travel 200 miles for $700 in savings? Yes, I would.The people who demand "free" universal health care maintain that the medical industry is ripping us off.
Velocita Wireless and Paynet Transactions to Provide Credit Card ...
WOODBRIDGE, N.J., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Velocita Wireless, a provider of custom wireless M2M data delivery solutions for businesses and government, that owns and operates the only nationwide, narrowband, data-only, M2M network, announced today that in conjunction with Paynet Services, it will provide credit card transaction authorization services for all merchandizing at Super Bowl XLII, held this year in Phoenix, Arizona. Paynet Transactions, a leader in credit card processing for special events, enabled by Velocita Wireless will open and operate three hundred (300) wireless Point of Sale (POS) terminals in temporary facilities in and around the University of Phoenix Stadium, the site of this year's Super Bowl, to wirelessly process souvenir sales of official NFL merchandise.
In the Age of the Superbugs: What is the Remedy?
Firefighters said these forest fires have been getting worse for ten years. Why are we only finding out about the ‘superbug" of forest destruction now? Oil is another issue. For years, the Administration scoffed at suggestions that the Iraq war was motivated by the need to control more oil reserves. The media scoffed at critics who chanted “no blood for oil" while politicians were in denial. And then, none other than former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan asserted that oil was always a main motivator. At that, the media and the government went silent, as if attacked by a superbug of amnesia. Ditto for the suggestion that oil production was peaking. Nonsense said the oil companies when the suggestion was made. They seemed gripped by a superbug of certainty.
Community Chest
This "rails to trails" project, due to be complete in May, will link Eastern Market with the new parklands set on the Detroit River. Though many of the bridges spanning the trench will likely have to be replaced, much of the spectacular graffiti on the concrete bridge bases is to stay. And the restored overpasses would remove one more boundary, linking long-separated neighborhoods, which should change the area's tone for the better. Best Way to Watch your Tax Dollars Disappear
Detroit's light pole protection program
In 2004, we took snide note of the city's $1.2 million effort to protect streetlights from wire-stealing scrappers by installing easy-to-lift plastic covers, called "shrouds," on 21,000 light poles in the city of Detroit. At that time, Al Fields, the city's deputy chief operating officer, told us the shrouds were intended to both improve the look of street lamps and thwart scrap thieves who crave the copper wiring inside.
Docs Across America: Can Michael Moore Save the Theatrical Nonfiction ...
Will Moore's plan take off? And if it does, is it a good or bad thing for documentary releasing? Reactions to the plan are largely split between documentary filmmakers, who welcome any initiative that helps get their work out to the world, and industry insiders, who are skeptical about the plan's feasibility and disturbed by what they see as a further ghettoization of the documentary form. But everyone agrees on one thing: they want more information. (Calls and emails to Michael Moore's people were not returned.) Documentary filmmakers and insiders have several astute questions that the program will have to address before it moves forward: - Who will select the documentaries that are chosen? And on what basis will they be chosen? - Will the documentaries already have distributors or not? Or will there be a mix? - Will participating filmmakers pay a fee? Or conversely, will they get a split of the ticket sales? - If most multiplexes are film-only, and the majority of documentaries are finished in a high-definition digital format, how will they be screened? Will expensive projectors be rented? Or will filmmakers need to pay for costly film transfers? - Will Moore's next film also go out through the program? Even with such questions, however, doc director Doug Block ("51 Birch Street") admitted, "I think any initiative that tries to do something about the hellhole of documentary distribution is better than sitting back and whining." Other filmmakers welcome the potential of such a program to garner much-needed press.
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