text:
Da'shawn Hand's New Top Three
Alabama doesn't have an undergrad sports management program, so I'm not sure he will ever be meeting the sports management guy.
He did meet the head of their 122nd ranked engin department, you know, the one ranked lower than UAB.
that 'bama has accepted his being good at sport to as a prereq to their grad school sports management program, which is unsupdeproprecedented
I would almost guarantee that being the truth.
"We will pay you to play sports. You manage the money we pay you. Thats our sports management. Welcome aboard!"
Then Alabama shakes Hand until Hand turns BLUE
Per SBNation, who has some quotes from Hand, that is precisely the reason (LINK).
Straight from Hand himself:
"I eliminated Virginia Tech because they don't offer a sports marketing program. And with South Carolina, the professor just didn't wow us. "
...and regarding Michigan and Alabama:
"At Michigan, the [sports marketing] program was so impressive, I wanted to sign up right there. During my visit to Alabama, I met the dean of their [sports marketing] program, and it's an excellent program."
He seems to be very serious about sports marketing. If he's making his decision based on an academic department, then I think it bodes well for us.
He must come to Michigan. He can learn Sports Marketing at the foot of the absolute Master, Dave Brandon.
1. "?? What the hell is a professor?"
2. "Christ, who let him talk to a professor..."
In a totally unrelated story , The University of South Carolina hires
Jerry Mcguire as their new Sports marketing professor.
I would say that it is better than not fighting Saban for a recruit.
Tell that to Henry Poggi.
Let's not kid ourselves. Poggi was a huge get for us but not nearly as big a priority for Bama.
Hand's recruitment is going to be a dogfight. Saban's track record of getting guys into the NFL has got to be attractive to recruits.
I have no doubt that Hoke will return Michigan to the level of a top 5 destination for college football recruits but that isn't the case yet.
For a recruit who seems to see through BS, it's not a terrible thing. Saban is not totally full of poo like Urban Meyer is, and he's great at getting the most out of his players, but I think Hand is going to see that Alabama doesn't offer quite as much as Mich, total college experience considered.
definitely not good if you're a Hokie. I think it's good news for us though.
Before today, we were presumed to be in his Top 2. We weren't the ones eliminated, so this is a good thing.
I liked being matched up vs VA Tech more. Well we've beaten Bama for recruits before and we'll do it again.
SATAN?!?!?!? Nick Satan keep your HANDS off HAND!
Link ($) straight from TomVH's mouth (keyboard?)
So, sum that up...
You should pay for Insider. Then TomVH can hold you too.
Normally I'm patient enough for it to hit the board, but not today
Seriously, you can find it for like $8-$10 a year. It's too ridiculous of a deal to not do it.
I have the ESPN Insider. You are right. It is a great deal and is very cheap for what you end up getting. I didn't use it as much until they came up with Wolverine Nation. Now I use the Insider quite a bit which is well worth it.
In this case here I think what everyone was saying is that they were expecting some tidbit of information besides just a link.
I wouldn't give ESPN one fucking penny of my money...
You can get it sent to you via email, which you then can delete w/o even opening, like I do.
Because that means you missed the fashion issue. And the music issue.
Because those things are important in a sports magazine.
first sustainable industry. They give the trees a shot of painkiller before they cut them down. They don't feel a thing.
The problem is that you don't get access to Insider until you start getting the magazine which takes 8-10 weeks to start from when you sign up. I know because I signed up a few weeks ago when the latest great deal was announced and was really bummed to learn that I would have to wait this long because I only signed up for the Insider access.
Welcoming news to start a Wednesday.
Is this good news, or did Bama just jump everyone?
I think it bodes well for us being in his ear so long and that he loves our staff, but if you were 17 and the best player in the country it would be hard not to take a look at Bama and all there rings and early draft picks.
So you're saying that the reason he isn't interested in OSU is that they've sold all there rings?
Sam Webb just got off the phone with D. Hand and he's going to cover it on the other side of this commercial break. He said Michigan just took a major step in the direction of landing Hand. Sam sounds VERY giddy....tune in!
Details for those of us at work. I expect a detailed synopsis in this thread. Pretty, pretty please...
The "revelation" is that Hand dropped VaTech (which should be a reminder of how ridiculously well informed we MGoCultists are) and he is now considering Alabama because he likes their engineering program, and was blown away by the engineering professor he spoke with. He also said something about how the professor is a "football guy" and Sam doesn't know what that even means.
Sam reitereated several times that this is "a step closer" to Michigan landing Hand because he believes it is about relationships and he implied that Alabama would not be able to make up the ground that Michigan already has in that department. He kept saying again and a gain that he could never have imagined that Hand would drop Virginia Tech but the academics aspect was just too important. Ira was blown away by that part. I think that is basically everything.
I think someone said above Alabama is 122nd in engineering whereas Michigan is typically top 5. For comparisons sake, I think MSU, Tech, and Western are all in the top 50 so Alabama at 100+ effectively means their engineering school is a big joke
I think the real reason he dropped VT isn't because of the sports managment program. I don't have any concrete info but logic dictates that if he considers Alabama's engineering program and he still really liked the coaches at VT he wouldn't just drop them because of no Sports Management. That would mean he would have to drop Alabama too because no SM.
Thanks. I bet their website is going to crash now.
If I had to say my top three, I'd say:
1. Jimmy Johns
2. Quiznos
3. Anything not Subway
Eat fresh. The plastic seals in the freshness.
It's actually a "crunch-enhancer". A non-nutritive cereal varnish that's semi-permiable. It's not osmotic. What it does, is it coats and seals the leaf, prevents the dressing from penetrating it.
Allright, so their lettuce is a non-food item. I had the new bravacado yesterday -- turkey, bacon and avocado -- and it was awfully good.
Automatic +1s for Christmas Vacation quotes. Nice.
Has your Christmas bonus been delivered yet, Clark? Have to pay for the pool.
It's like a sandwich made from the plastic ingredients found in a children's playhouse.
Always get the spinach
DAE not like subway?!
i did not expect my innocent "gun to my head panera" comment to generate another sandwich conversation this morning.
it was crazy!
Quiznos is nasty.
As long as we stay amongst his top schools, I remain confident in Hoke, Mattison and Commish Peppers closing the deal on this one.
will be talking about it now. When it's on the podcast it's right after the Marcus Ray segment.
Hand called Webb while he was on with Marcus for his regular segment.
isn't that unusual? I've never heard that before. It's either a classy move or is replete with symbolism.
Perhaps the phone call may have been scheduled well ahead of time?
I guess Allin4blue was right after all.
Yeah. You can't blame anyone for doubting him though. 1 out of every 500 times someone on the internet says that he has a friend of a friend of a guy, it's legit.
Oh, I agree. There always seems to be someone who knows somebody, and more often than not it doesn't exactly pan out the way they say it will. However, he said it definitively before anybody. I wondered while I was reading it what the reaction would be either way and I was really hoping he was right. think one or two people might owe him an apology.
Just like when I smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins and Sloan Kettering and Johnny said he was playing LAX in the B1G, and I was all like Dude, your crazy.
I'm inclined to agree, but I just can't be sure how often it's legit when someone on the Internet posts a statistic.
No hate! It was just a "lucky" guess on my part!
Hand said VT is off the list because they don't offer sports marketing.
Neither does Bama for an undergrad...?
he eats exclusively at Potbelly.
I've heard rumors (not sure how legit as they're VT guys) that he's been buying into Saban's pitch that he could play the Jack LB position in their 3-4 and slide down to DE when they go to the 4-man front nickel they play quite a bit. While I think he's more of a pure 4-3 SDE and could potentially be an instant impact guy in the B1G, I can't entirely blame guys for buying what Saban's selling given how successful his defenses have been lately.
If you think he's a pure 4-3 SDE, I think you're underrating his athleticism. I think he could play WDE, and I also think he could be an strongside OLB in a 3-4 look. Long-term (later college years, NFL, etc.), I think he probably fits best as a SDE but you might as well use his athleticism while he's got it. He's probably going to lose some of his quickness and burst once he bulks up to 285-290.
Magnus, does he remind at all of a LaMarr Woodley in terms of build and position flexibility? Depending on 4-3 or 3-4 system Woodley switched from DE to OL etc.
If I had to pick a doppelganger from recent Michigan history, it would probably be Pierre Woods, not Woodley. However, I think Hand will grow to be bigger and stronger than Woods ever was.
Somehow I doubt that those are the kinds of things that will determine where he goes to school.
That sounds like message board-rationalization, something we should be familiar with after watching the infamous Eleven Warriors' meltdown.
F5 F5 ...looks like im not getting any work done today lol
I consider this good news even if its Alabama. He had 2 major loves - one was dropped. He is replacing that with a new fling. Do you go with one of your 2 original loves or a fling? Yes I understand the fling is the current Victoria Secret model but who do you marry - her or the love? ;) His personality is not that one of a Treadwell - so take that into account.
p.s. I expect this to be a long slog - I mean he is going to Michigan for the ND game and that is months away so the # of Hand speculation posts between now and committment day is going to be enormous. Just let it play out - a long road ahead.
p.s.s. you guys are fast, just saw Sam's tweet and headed over here and already 24 posts sheesh.
He's talking about it right now on wtka
Sam says he would consider sports management at Michigan and engineering at Alabama. Head of engineering school at Alabama is a "football guy" which resonated with Hand, per Webb. But Webb says Michigan will be hard to beat since it will be very dependent on relationships and Hand is a relationship guy.
Overall Sam sounds very happy since VaTech dropped out. He thinks it is huge - Webb would not have predicted that... and says Hand wouldnt have either (and it came down to academics - that VaTech did not offer).
lol, love how that post was voted flamebait. I see the "neg any post" crowd is out today. Or is the IP address in VA, or AL? Wow.
There's no logic to the neg regardless.
I don't know why but I have this sudden urge to neg you for no particular reason.
No problem. It's become redundant. ;)
nevermind my comment was redundant once I saw the next page where the same point was made several times.
Sam leaves the segment with Marcus Ray to take the call. He tells Sam that he has definitely OUT, no doubts about it, regardless of his relationship with Bud Foster. This was due to academics.....not offering Sports Marketing. He loves our Sports Marketing program and was blown away with the presentation he was given. Alabama is in the picture due to "engineering"....due to a prof that is a "football guy". Hmmmm.....that seems a little odd seeing that M and VT both have good engineering programs. Webb thinks M is going to be VERY tough to beat, he sounds like an excited 12 year old girl. I think he's getting that gut feeling.....
What doesnt make sense is Alabama doesnt have sports marketing, it has engineering. And Im sure VATech has engineering. Hence I find it circular and frankly I think Hand is just trying to come up with a reason.
If he was choosing a progam at Bama that VaTech does not offer that is one thing - but to say a certain program is lacking at VaTech (sports management) but choose Alabama which also lacks that program.. well it sounds like he is just trying to come up with a reason to let Bud F down gently.
Sports Marketing is an entirely different thing.
VT definitely has engineering. After the sugar bowl I met a few of their players, and they were nothing but very impressive, smart, polite young men who were committed to engineering and football together. /anecdote
Yes, which makes the comments about willing to go to Alabama for engineering but not VATech for engineering (and instead focusing on lack of sports management) speak to a much larger point. Looks like he just is trying to find a reason to drop a long standing relationship. The academic reason for dropping VaTech makes no sense - it would have come up months ago if lack of sports management at VaTech was true reason. Anyhow as long as it is not us, the exact reason doesnt matter much to me.
he thinks relationships with the coaches will be huge in his final decision, which will put Michigan in very good position. He also said Prof. Mark Rosentraub's academic presentation "blew away" DaShawn on his campus visit.
This is almost a damn near gut feeling. I like this lots.
247 has Alabama and Florida as 'warmer' and Michigan as 'warm'. Please tell me this is climate based. Oh my god, where's the nearest tall bridge!?!??!?
EDIT: They changed their temps. Thank god I never found that bridge...
Where do you live? I'll google it.
might be unwarranted. The supposed academic lure at Alabama of an engineering prof being a "football guy" doesn't sound very impressive.
What does "Football Guy" = an easy grade!?!? Will he get the "football guy" in every engineering course he's enrolled in?
Hold off on that until December, a lot can happen.
He's just trying to recall some positive things to say during a media interview. Ever been interviewed? Lets not have unfounded criticism of the kid.
Where is the best place to get Sam Webb's podcasts each week?
It's not up just yet...
Anyone else think it's funny that Hand took the time to call Michigan insiders this morning? That to me is a pretty big sign. To my knowledge, he did not do this with other teams insiders.
He's now live on a podcast with RDT.
I have RDT's podcasts on my I-phone. You should have heard his interview with Bear Bryant, it was pretty epic.
was how similar RDT and Bear Bryant's voices were. Who knew?
Was tired of being outside on this one. Just figured out the whole RDT/WolverineBag thing. Holy shit that was confusing. Did anoyone ever figure out why the hell he made two different accounts and wanted to pose as a Bama fan?
The way everything is falling I think Hand comes here. And I am not a rose (or maize) colored optimist. A lot of this comes from (a) his personality - introspective, intellectual and (b) his reaction to OSU visit which mirrors the SEC programs in "intensity" lol. He just seems like a fit for a Michigan Stanford type program and with the now long courtship and type of culture Hoke has, he seems like the type of kid who fits like a glove in the intangibles department with the school.
That said, I am preparing for months of speculation and jumping on and off bridges - will be very interesting to hear how his and Peppers relationship develops in the coming months as well.
It's very telling.
the NSA
Hand said the dean was a football guy. Who the hell at Alabama isn't a football guy?
all the females?
Even the girls are football guys; they'll kick your ass.
are football guys at Alabama.
Damn I swear I "guessed" this yesterday but for some reason got flame-baited to death. NO love I swear!! http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/rivals-mike-says-today-i-think-michigan-woul...
And you have survived. Bravo.
I barely survived man! I thought for sure I was going to Bolivia but I was lucky the plane was delayed and allowed reentry into the MgoCommunity!
I'm sure you do understand why people would be skeptical about your statements. Nonetheles props (and a completely meaningless +1 for your correct prediction)
I was obviously joking about "being right" and for what it's worth I realized after I posted that most would doubt the info was accurate.
Don't take it personally. Not sure if you were around for the Roll Damn Tide fiasco, but we're all sorta in a once bitten, twice shy situation right now. Great, crowd sourced info like this is a big reason I visit the site, so keep it coming even if you get flamed (doubtful now that you've been vindicated big time).
There's only so much you can learn about driving a train.
After about week three of class, I think all attention should be turned toward footbaw.
It's true, they pretty much drive themselves now.
Pretty much sums up how I feel since I heard about the podcast.
So what are you doing with your hands there?
Oh Don, there are children present.
"Hand told me Michigan's sports marketing professor, 'blew me, my coach and my dad away. My dad wanted to sign back up for school.' " -- TomVH
...is when you're taking college classes with your dad.
This might not be a good development for Michigan.
I'm glad Hand is considering Alabama. Why wouldn't you want to go to one of the best football schools in the country, if you're one of the best athletes in the country? If Michigan wants to compete with the best, we need athletes who are considering going to Alabama, Florida, USC, LSU, Texas A & M, Ohio, Stanford, Texas, etc.
I also get tired of people who can't understand why someone would even consider another school academically. Alabama certainly isn't Michigan, but you can get a good education at a number of schools.
...out recruiting the #1 team/recruiting force in country to get him. :)
Jim Harbaugh agrees....
(too soon?)
I understand your point, but it's different with each recruit. I am surprised that someone who is as focused on academics as Hand is considering Alabama. To me that clearly indicates football is a priority over acadmics and that we are going to be in a dog fight for Hand.
Signing Day is a long way away. Right now I like Michigan's chances, and for now that'll do. We've beaten Alabama before.
Why doesn't THE KNOWLEDGE just tell us where Hand will end up and save us all this heartache - I am frustrated because he just toys with my emotions...........
He's too busy soaring.
Hopefully this works out for 'Bammer about as well as trying to nab Henry Poggi at the last minute
Da'Shawn Hand on Smashmouth: Will take 5 officials. Alabama, Michigan, Florida, USC and LSU. That's the list. Won't change.
— Kevin Scarbinsky (@KevinScarbinsky) June 12, 2013
That's some pretty good company.
Hey, where's Ohio State?
That's also the preseason top 5 in 2015. Good choices.
...I am good.
based on prior Hand claims that green is his man according to his latest tweet. Forgive me I am new and do not know how to embed tweets. However this has to be good for us
Are you taking about Derrick Green?
The aforementioned "green" you speak of is indeed Derrick Green
Off topic but sort of on topic - how does Hand look relative to Clowney when he was coming out? Is Hand at that level of beastliness? Or is this a down year for DEs making him the default #1 so-to-speak?
Clowney is a rare commodity. It would be very difficult to expect a high school junior to compare with next year's potential #1 draft pick. That said, Hand is a beast and will be an impact player wherever he ends up (hopefully with the good guys).
Many say Clowney would be the #1 overall pick if college kids could come out after their frosh or soph years. So hard to compare people to a "generational" type of talent like that. With that said, Taylor contained him nicely ;)
Would finish out the class again? I kinda forgot anyone remember the list?
Hand reportedly ain't considering ohio because he wants to play school.
I think #Michigan is clearly the team to beat [email protected]dekeglahn: @rivalsmike who do you think the leader is?
— Mike Farrell (@rivalsmike) June 12, 2013
Two bombshells in two days regarding Hand's recruitment. We have a puncher's chance w/ Hoke and Mattison. Not to mention Ferns and team 135 talking to him. Still shocked V Tech was dropped.
"I eliminated Virginia Tech because they don't offer a sports marketing program. And with South Carolina, the professor just didn't wow us. I have the utmost respect for Virginia Tech and South Carolina, and their coaches, and wish them the best of luck.
At Michigan, the [sports marketing] program was so impressive, I wanted to sign up right there. During my visit to Alabama, I met the dean of their [sports marketing] program, and it's an excellent program. He actually played football, and he gets it. And I haven't been to Florida, yet, but I've heard their defensive coaching staff and that defensive line with coach [Brad] Lawig and coach D.J. Durkin is amazing. And Alabama's engineering program was working on a $25M project when I was down there."
I feel positive that we are a strong contendor for the #1 player in the country. If you look at his final 5 teams, that's pretty good company. For some reason I have been kind of "meh" regarding his final choice. But now I'm starting to believe we could actually land the #1 and #2 players in the country and all this after an 8-5 season. Do you think this is an anomaly and these guy's personalities just happened to match up with Michigans or could this be more of the norm for the future?
The norm as long as the recruiting success translates to performance on the field.
Peppers is a unique case in that Michigan was his childhood dream team. Consider his top 2 of Stanford and Michigan. Let's be blunt and say that is not the normal top 2 for a top 5 team, even as homers. You'd usually have a few SEE EEE CEEE teams in there, a USC, a Michigan/OSU/ND mix etc.
Hand is unique just from a personality standpoint and again its a weird top 2 (or was a weird top 2) in that none of the typical players were involved again ... well until today with the new top 3.
I think the other thing that helps here is these are east coast kids and college football is not huge on the east coast in terms of national powers. When a kid from New Jersey or Virginia is top 5 rather than a kid from Florida, Texas, Cal, Ohio, PA etc it opens up the roadmap more. Contrast this with Fournette which is basically a LSU lean and until recently no one thought would even look outside the "normal characters".
I see Fournette as a Treadwell type guy. Heavy lean to a particular school for the entirety of the process. We point to a lot of Michigan recruits as trying to find a reason not to commit. It works both ways, so maybe Fournette has stated LSU leads, but isn't in love with them as much as many think. Man, is my glass full, but I feel like we have a shot...
I think that from what Laura Hoke said to me, Treadwell was someone who was wowed by a "red carpet" experience. He (and his mom) liked all the bells and whistles and steak and lobster and bling. That is NOT Hoke or Mattison or Borges, and they're not going to change. They're not going to coddle a recruit and promise the sun, moon and stars, and then things change once you're on the team.
One of the things that has been consistent with the recruits coming in is that they know what they're getting at Michigan. Michigan in and of itself has great facilities, coaches, and the like. But partly this is a personality thing. Some people like to be wowed, some people like it straight.
I'll tell you a personal story by way of analogy. I remember when I first met my wife, thinking, wow, she looks pretty good without makeup, etc. There were other girls who might have looked better when they were all dolled up, but they took a half hour or so to put on their makeup every morning, and weren't that good looking without putting all this stuff on. I thought to myself, I like the way my wife looks, with or without makeup. I'd like waking up next to her. I liked that I saw the real woman, and was still pleased.
Hand strikes me as one of those no nonsense guys, no BS guys, what you see is what you get. He wants the same from coaches or programs he is looking at.
Now, Fournette, I know nothing about. But I'd tend to think that he is a guy who wants to work hard and be around good coaches and good athletes who are willing to do what it takes to win. Especially with Peppers, but possibly Hand and a few others, and the coaching rep of Mattison (possibly Borges,) he could see a good thing building here. And want to be part of it.
I really haven't seen any interviews with Fournette. Take it FWIW, but that probably means he's really not a flashy, attention-seeking guy, and just likes to be low-key. If that's the case, and we get him to visit, we really may have a chance.
On the one hand, I think it's clear we are going to be recruiting at a very high level for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, I do think the stars aligned at least a little bit - how often is it that both the #1 and #2 players are truly that dedicated to academics and finding the right SCHOOL (not just the right football program) and it's not just the usual lip service?
Hoke beat out Meyer, now it's his turn to beat out Saban.
We've beat Saban before for D-linemen (Pipkins and Poggi). We can do it again.
Whenever Da'Shawn Hand is free.
/s (?)
re: Alabama, the Sports Management graduate program is part of their Human Environmental Sciences department. Although there is no sports mgmt undergrad major/concentration, it'd be easy enough based on what i'm seeing in the course catalog to design a custom curriculum with a sports/general management focus, and they do have a sports mgmt elective (although it's just a single course). Could be what they're selling to Hand.
So apparently OSU fans are convinced that Meyer is too intense and business-like for him, and he was never a right fit for their program anyway, and yet somehow, he's interested in Saban and Alabama?
Wonder if it ever occurred to them that Hand just flat out might not like their program or their school?
It's the relationship. I also don't see Saban having anything in common with Hoke personality-wise. I hope that is in our favor. I think it is.
Urban much like Saban is very slick and business like. He came away from osu unimpressed. Advantage :The Good Guys
247's CEO just switched his pick from UM to Alabama. Genuine perspective or whorish move to drive clicks?
Business move! Sleezy.
Shocked I seen this. Fellow wolves, lets not rule out Nick Satan! What a change of events quickly...due to this not making much sense scares me. Due to VT being hometown I thought would be in it due to respect.
Go get em Mattison!!!
This is why you come to Michigan, suck it bama.
Is Hand coming to Night game vs Notre Shame?
Please tell me yes?
If so lock it up done deal.
Also heard Tom Brady might be at that game!
Yes. That game will have more 5 stars on the sidelines than on the playing field... awesome.
But I thought nicknames like these were left to State and Ohio fans....
Here is how you get Hand to Michigan!
Firefox one- Ferns
Firefox 2 - peppers
Firefox 3 - have Charles wodsoon say hi.
Atom bomb. - Gregory Mattison
Welcome Da Shawn :-)
Edit: it's been moved to diaries. I am not a smart man.
I think the fact that with this staff what you see is what you get will play a deciding role in Hand's choice.
Trying not to be excited and failing miserably. If we land Hand, already having Peppers on board, we are talking about an historic class in terms of its top layer. Just WOW.
Due to a vicious tackle that may or may not have actually happened (I get forgetful whenever Michigan loses) in last year's bowl game, I like to stay away from the word "Clowney" or any variation of that.
This is the first time i can actually say all i want is hand
If would love to up vote this I'd I wasn't on my phone!!
And the autocorrect shows it.
This must have been the story that spiked all the crystal ball predictions because Bama, Florida, and Michigan all got a few more votes today.
Sucks to be Virginia Tech fan today.
You grow ferns and peppers in your backyard and Mone Drake.
Then go down to Marshall and start Bunting for Cole.
On your way back, stop in Ohio and get a Hand-job
You will wake up the next day a champion
Props, however, an Ohioan hand job sounds repulsive and dirty.
To everyone unsure of Hand's excitement over Bama's engineering program, while ours is clearly superior, you have to realize that our program is extremely intense, both in course difficulty and in workload, and your average football player can't just take a couple of engineering classes, pass them easily, and walk away with a degree. Guys like Jordan Morgan are absolutely the exception. What I get from him being impressed by Alabama's program is less "it's the best I've ever seen!" and more "it's the best I've ever seen that I could reasonably balance with being a star athlete at a major university," which I think is reasonable. The head of the department being a "football guy" just says to me that he understands what Hand's football workload will be like, and won't make his life impossible with academics, as Michigan's elite engineering program would do.
I thought I saw a tweet from Tom V that he wants to study sports marketing. Which is why he eliminated VT.
the crystal ball was 75% VT and 25% Michigan before the announcement. With the other 75% being removed, we have 25 of a total 25% percent chance to land him. We win!!!!!
Only school out of those other four (including the two that "could" get visits) that concerns me is Alabama, and that didn't concern me until the rumblings that have just recently been coming out. Until last week, I would have considered this a lock (basically us and then putting a couple others out there to make it feel like a contest) but now I see it as maybe 75% us, 25% Alabama.


text:
An annual pilgrimage for a Washington church had drivers and the Highway Patrol taking extra precautions Tuesday night.
On Highway 264 between Greenville and Washington, the Mother of Mercy Catholic Church held its annual Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe pilgrimage. An estimated 200 people took part in the 10 mile walk, while troopers blocked off traffic and rode alongside the participants. Eberarbo Machabo Salscar says he's done the 8-day pilgrimage in Mexico, and even though Tuesday night's was only 4 hours, he was proud to be a part of it.
"I can't even describe it to you because it's something you can't even say, it's something inside of you, you know what I mean? People think you're crazy for doing it but it's something you really love to do." said Salscar
The walk started at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and ended at the church on west 9th Street in Washington, where the feast began at 11:00 p.m.
Previous Story
An annual pilgrimage for members of one church means drivers on a busy highway need to be extra careful this evening.
If you travel on Highway 264 between Greenville and Washington, heads up; the Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Washington will hold its Annual Feast of The Virgin of Guadalupe Pilgrimage. Father Arturo Cabra says an estimated 200 people will walk starting at 6:00 p.m. on Highway 264 East, from the Poorman's Flea Market to their church on West 9th Street.
They expect children and adults to participate. There will be DOT signs alerting drivers of the pilgrimage and there will be troopers escorting members during the 10-mile event.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Printing for the Impatientby Michael W. Lucas
Printing on a UNIX-like operating system has traditionally given headaches to even experienced sysadmins. The FreeBSD Handbook has a big section on how printers work, and it's well worth reading if you want to become intimate with the innards of printing. Personally, I don't want to struggle with identifying file types, input filters, and output filters; I want to plug in a printer and have the Magical Printer Pixies do all the work for me.
That's almost possible with Apsfilter. Apsfilter handles all of the ugly details of printer setup for you, making printer setup almost painless. With a couple of moments of preparation, you can make almost any printer work reliably. While this article is written from a FreeBSD perspective, Apsfilter works nicely on other BSD, Linux, and even commercial BSD-like operating systems such as Solaris (with the occasional tweak).
If you have a PostScript printer, Apsfilter can speak PostScript directly to
it. I'm not that lucky; my printers are consumer models that expect custom
drivers. Apsfilter uses Ghostscript to actually talk to these printers. The
FreeBSD ports collection includes two versions of Ghostscript:
print/ghostscript-gnu and
Pick either one. As a general rule of thumb, the AFPL Ghostscript is slightly
more up-to-date than the GNU one. While AFPL Ghostscript version comes with
licensing restrictions that make it problematic to resell, it is perfectly
suitable for home or office use. If licensing purity is important to you, use
the GNU version. You might already have a version of Ghostscript installed on
your system, as many other programs require it as a dependency. Choosing what
you already have installed is always a good place to start.
Then identify the Ghostscript driver for your printer. As printer drivers are usable across any UNIX-like OS, the LinuxPrinting.org database is quite useful for this. I also find that typing the printer model and the words "Ghostscript driver" into Google gives me excellent insight into how well the various drivers work and which driver I should try first.
Many popular inkjet printers have "best" available drivers in the
gimp-print port (
/usr/ports/print/gimp-print) instead
of in Ghostscript itself. If your printer uses one of these drivers, you'll
want to install
gimp-print. Specify the
WITHOUT_CUPS=yes environment variable when building
gimp-print; we'll use standard
lpd(8) in this article
and to avoid the clutter of CUPS.
Finally, note what sort of interface your printer uses: parallel or USB? While parallel printers are hard to find on store shelves these days, quite a few of us have older parallel printers that are still quite serviceable.
Armed with this information, proceed to the installation of Apsfilter. Apsfilter
includes a variety of filters to enable it to print a wide variety of
documents. Like many people, I don't care what format a document is in. When I
hit Print, I just want whatever I'm looking at to appear on paper. By
default, Apsfilter gives you the option to choose which sorts of files it can
handle. Similarly, the Ghostscript port install scripts present options to
install all sorts of different drivers. These are nice, if you're concerned
about minimizing your install size or if you have a dedicated-purpose machine.
For an average print server or small machine, however, I find it simplest to
install absolutely everything available. This takes a while to run, but time
for the computer to compile is far more plentiful than time for me to determine
which features I will need in the future. By setting the variables
APSFILTER_ALL and
BATCH to
YES when
building the Apsfilter port, you can tell Apsfilter and Ghostscript to compile
in every possible feature.
FreeBSD's Apsfilter port defaults to using GNU Ghostscript. If this is your
choice, the standard
make install will do everything you need. If
you choose AFPL Ghostscript, however, tell the Apsfilter port about it with the
WITH_GHOSTSCRIPT_AFPL variable.
So, installing absolutely everything, using AFPL Ghostscript, is as simple as:
# cd /usr/ports/print/apsfilter
# make WITH_GHOSTSCRIPT_AFPL=yes BATCH=yes APSFILTER_ALL=yes install clean
This is a good time to go do something else while your computer downloads and compiles a whole heap of source code.
Just to make this a little more fun, I have two printers on my home system. One printer is a Brother HL-1240 laser printer with both USB and parallel connections. The other is an old Canon BJC-250 inkjet with only a parallel connector. As I only have one parallel port, I'll use the laser printer's USB interface and dedicate the parallel port to the color inkjet.
Google tells me that my Brother HL-1240 laser printer is supported by the
ljet4 driver and by a HL1240-specific driver. People
report varying success with each, and the LinuxPrinting.org database recommends
that I use the HL1240-specific driver. Similarly, my BJC-250 is supported by
bjc50 and the
gimp-print-ijs drivers. (While the
BJC-50 looks like a different printer than the BJC-250, they're apparently
quite similar inside. This is not uncommon.)
Once Apsfilter is installed and you have the necessary information about your printers, run the Apsfilter setup program.
# cd /usr/local/share/apsfilter
I first chose to use AFPL Ghostscript version 8, and I get a rather amusing error at first.
Found ghostscript version 8.00 ...
You have to upgrade at least to gs version 6.50!
But you should upgrade to gs 7.00 for full driver support
prior installing printers with SETUP.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
A quick glance at the code shows the very simple but harmless problem. I've already notified the Apsfilter people about this, and hopefully it will be corrected before you read this article. Ignore this warning if you see it and have a newer Ghostscript installed.
While Apsfilter is available under the GPL, the author also collects postcards. Apsfilter will ask you to request his snail-mail address so you can send him one in gratitude for setting up your printer. Sending someone a postcard is much faster and simpler than figuring out how to work out printing on your own, and I encourage you to indulge him. The setup script also provides a few screens of caveats and warnings, and you should at least be aware of them before continuing. It then makes one final check:
Your line printer scheduler's spooldir seems to be: /var/spool/lpd
drwxr-xr-x 3 root daemon 512 Sep 2 19:12 /var/spool/lpd
The Owner of your spooldir seems to be: root
The Group of your spooldir seems to be: daemon
Is this correct? [y/n]
If this isn't correct, it probably means that you've installed some other printing software or someone has been doing unnatural things to your system. Fix it before continuing.
If you've previously run Apsfilter's setup script, Apsfilter will ask if you want to add another printer or overwrite the existing entries in /etc/printcap. If you don't have any working printers yet, go ahead and overwrite the existing entries. If you have a working printer and are adding a second, tell it to add another entry. As printer setup is rather tedious, I usually track working printer configurations via RCS.
After all of these preliminaries, you'll reach the main Apsfilter menu.
(D) Available Device Drivers in your gs binary
(R) Read Ghostscript driver documentation (devices.txt)
(1) Printer Driver Selection []
(2) Interface Setup []
(3) Paper Format []
(4) Printing Quality [medium]
(5) Color Mode [full]
(6) Print Resolution in "dots per inch" [300x300]
(7) Default Printing Method [auto]
(A) Abort installation (don't do anything)
(Q) ==> Finish installation
Your choice?
The most important steps are numbers 1, 2, and 3. Once you know your printer works at all, you can back up your working /etc/printcap and re-run the setup script to adjust other settings. If you're interested in the Ghostscript drivers, it's much simpler to read about them online at the Ghostscript web site. Start by selecting your printer driver, option 1. I'll set up the laser printer first.
Related Reading
The Complete FreeBSD
The printer driver option will bring up a menu of choices, most of which are irrelevant for most users. If you have an actual PostScript printer, select PostScript. Some manufacturers have provided UNIX drivers for their printers, and those are also options. Those of us with commodity printers almost certainly want to choose the "printer driver natively supported by Ghostscript" option.
AFPL Ghostscript turns out to include the HP Laser Jet 4 driver
ljet4, but not the
hl1240 driver. As this is
"Printing for the Impatient," I just tried the HP Laser Jet 4 driver. After choosing a driver,
Apsfilter returns to the main menu.
When choosing an interface, Apsfilter gives options to talk to Novell printer servers, Microsoft print servers, and other network operating systems. We'll look at sending print jobs to a remote Windows print server via TCP/IP printing in a future article. For a locally connected parallel or USB printer, choose the "local parallel/USB" option.
You then need to enter the device name. On any BSD, you have three options.
/dev/lpt0 is the first parallel printer port on the system.
Computers these days have at most one parallel port; if you have more than one,
you'll need to identify to which one your printer is attached.
/dev/ulpt0 is the first USB printer attached to the system. While
this works for most USB printers, some printers misbehave when addressed via
/dev/ulpt0. For example, my Brother laser printer resets itself
and does not print whenever I send a print job via
/dev/ulpt0. If
your printer has this problem, use the
/dev/unlpt0 device
After selecting the device, Apsfilter will return to the main menu so that you can choose a paper format. Be certain to enter the proper size paper for your printer!
Finally, test your setup. Enter
T at the main menu, then go
through the various
OK prompts until you finally see a message
like this:
Printing test page...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 224354 Sep 19 20:36 /tmp/apsfilter30802/test_page.aps
At this point, your printer should start producing a test page with a bunch of different sized fonts, a detailed drawing of a tiger, and a photograph of the author. If you get this you have successfully given Apsfilter everything it needs to talk to your printer, and you can continue. If not, then go back and try some different settings or research your printer's requirements further. If you printer has multiple drivers, you can print a test page under each and see which produced better output on your particular system.
When you're ready to have Apsfilter set up the printer once and for all,
I from the main Apsfilter menu. Apsfilter will prompt you
for a name for the printer. The standard for UNIX-like operating systems is to
call the main printer
lp, and many programs use that as their
default printer.
Once you name your printer, Apsfilter will automatically set up /etc/printcap with the proper filters.
Now that you have your first working printer configuration in /etc/printcap, back it up! All of this work has generated a measly eight lines of configuration information, but you don't want to go through it all again.
Adding a second printer is just as easy. When starting Apsfilter a second
time, be certain to tell Apsfilter that you wish to add a new printer, not
overwrite your existing entries. In this case, the BJC-250 is supposedly best
supported by a
gimp-print print driver, so select that option from
the driver selection menu. Other than this minor change, the rest of the setup
process is absolutely identical. Also be sure that you give this printer a
unique name. While Apsfilter will suggest a name, feel free to come up with
your own.
Finally, start
lpd(8), the line printer spooler daemon. Ensure
lpd starts automatically at boot by making the appropriate
entry in /etc/rc.conf.
Apsfilter includes a wide variety of additional features, including the ability to do duplex printing on printers that support it and the ability to fake duplex printing on printers that don't, as well as nifty tricks like printing to a file instead of the printer. We'll look at those in a future article. Next time, we'll fine-tune printer setup and configure a client to print from this machine.
Read more Big Scary Daemons columns.
Return to the BSD DevCenter.
problem in printing using apsfilter
2007-07-18 05:21:00 gpraveenya [View]
Printing sucess at last
2004-10-31 04:34:48 MrBluez [View]
Printing sucess at last
2004-10-31 04:33:50 MrBluez [View]
doesn't work
2004-04-27 08:17:14 joepekoe [View]
hahaha the irony of this article is just rich
2003-11-20 09:49:42 anonymous2 [View]
RE: hahaha the irony of this article is just rich
2004-01-02 10:19:42 anonymous2 [View]
2003-11-11 12:43:07 anonymous2 [View]
2003-11-11 04:25:36 agshekeloh [View]
2003-11-10 20:14:15 anonymous2 [View]
2003-11-10 13:49:39 anonymous2 [View]


text:
Ocean Clocks Tides of Long Island Tide Time Clock, 3" Dial Brass
Ocean Clocks Tides of Long Island Tide Time Clock, 3" Dial
The Ocean Clocks Tides of Long Island Tide Time Clock is a unique and easy to read tide clock indicating Long Island tides and tidal state for ports along the coast of the Long Island area.
Once set this region specific tide clock can act as a Long Island area tide chart displaying the High Tide times and Tidal time differences between the major ports and waterways of Long Island.
During the 90's, Ocean Clocks had an idea that would enhance the standard tide clock currently produced today by offering a tide clock that would display High Water at the major and minor ports of local regions. If you have checked your local tide time tables you will see that the high tide times will differ from port to port. There is a time difference from one port to another as the tide makes its way around the coastline. In some regions the tide difference between one port to another can be as much as 6 hours stretching over the length of the State or regional coast. This could be due to many factors such as local land masses, estuaries, currents and ocean basins. The calculation of these time differences will generally not change except under the influence of bad weather. Over the many years that Ocean Clocks have been developing their clocks, they have collected and plotted data from around the world. This data aids in calculating the correct time difference of the high tide related to the port angles situated on the face.
The blue tide hand on the Ocean Clocks Tide Time Clock is designed to track the moon's orbit to approximately predict the tides. The tide time differences between all of the ports have been calculated to predict the high tides before and after the major port in your region.
Choice of Standard White Dial or Authentic Nautical Map background of the area. Displays Long Island Tides, and high tide times of the area.
Note: Built to order item, imported directly from Australia. Allow 2-4 weeks (approx.) for delivery.
Ports include:
Clock Features:
- 3" Dial
- 4.5" Base (Back Flange)
- 1.5" Deep (including turnbuckle)
- Weight: about 1.5 lbs.
- Authentic Marine Fittings
- Heavy lacquered brass case
- Machined back
- Heavy beveled glass crystal
- Accurate Quartz Movement
- Time accuracy: approx. +/- 15 seconds per month
- Independent lunar day tide movement
- Highly localized for specific coastal regions
- Limited 5 year manufacturer's warranty
We Also Recommend


text:
The AMT has provided cover for sleazy tax policy ever since it was enacted. It works like this: a politician promises a tax benefit. The tax benefit is written so that it doesn't work for AMT....Read the whole thing, including Joe's assurance that they can't repeal the AMT. Yeah, I pretty much knew that. So, go ahead, accuse me of writing "Why I love the new Democratic Congress!" just so I could condemn the Democratic Congress when they break their vow.
The politician gets to brag about a brave new loophole, and the taxpayers think he's a great guy, or gal. Then they complain about how that darn AMT got them. It's the ultimate bait-and-switch of tax policy.
This trick has been part of every major tax break in the last 20 years, and many of the minor ones. Perhaps the biggest example is the 2001 Bush tax cuts...
ADDED: Here's a NYT op-ed from 2005 about TurboTax and the AMT:
In a world without paid preparers and TurboTax, taxpayers would face the tedious process of calculating their taxes twice - once under the regular income tax and once using the cumbersome alternative minimum tax rules. But software does that calculation in the blink of an eye - and for taxpayers who have to pay the tax, tell them how to adjust their withholding so that next year they won't even notice that they're paying it....
We have created a vicious cycle. Congress has made taxes increasingly complicated and burdensome over the years. To cope, taxpayers have sought help from tax preparers and computer software. But that consumer convenience has bred inertia, shielding bad policy from the wrath of taxpayers who bear the burden of it.
AND: Here's an old post of mine, from 2005, before I started using TurboTax:
[It took me 20 minutes to figure] out my AMT, and Turbotax would have spared me from having to feel very bad about this, I suppose. I feel bad about the federal tax for having the AMT and bad about the state taxes for being so high in the first place and for being the reason I owe so much on the AMT.
Rationally, I admit that it isn't fair for people in states that charge high taxes to get away with contributing less to the federal effort. Why should people in low-taxing states, deprived of the benefits of the local services more taxes would fund, have to pay a larger portion of the costs of the federal government?
Rationally, I know my real problem should be with the state taxes, yet the feds are irking me with their complicated forms. In which case, I really ought to use Turbotax, not only to avoid the aggravation of witnessing the AMT grinding out the extra thousands, but so that I won't irrationally blame the federal government for doing something that is actually fair. Or am I losing my mind?


text:
Council OKs hearing for rezoning
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Monday, Punxsutawney Borough Council approved holding a public hearing to address the suggested rezoning of the south side of Union Street to allow for a beauty shop to open in a house on the Shumaker property.
Members of the borough's Planning & Zoning Commission passed a motion at their Jan. 25 meeting, which recommended to council permitting the temporary occupancy for the Shumaker property to allow a temporary variance beauty shop in the traditional neighborhood district, pending approval by Solicitor Jay Lundy.
Michele Lorenzo, council member/planning commission member, said the commission recommended that the south side of Union Street from South Gilpin to South Jefferson be rezoned as a town center commercial district from a traditional neighborhood.
Lorenzo said the neighborhood was already surrounded by businesses.
Council approved advertising a public hearing in order to change the area's designation.
Lundy said that it is a 30-day process, and must be advertised in the newspaper twice prior to the hearing.
Council member William Spencer asked if there was any way to allow the owner of the shop to operate temporarily until that portion of Union Street is rezoned. Lundy said the matter must go through the process, and that a temporary variance is not possible.
Jeff Gross, whose wife, Cabyn, owns the beauty shop, said he appreciated what council was doing, and they would be happy for some closure regarding the zoning issue, even if they have to wait another 30 days.
Also at Monday's meeting,council:
• Approved a motion for a new definition of a commercial building: "A commercial building is a structure planned for commercial practices of which its design reflects a purpose to display goods or services, and consumer access to the goods and services."
The motion was approved 5-2, with Spencer and Eric Story voting no. Council President Larry Chenoga and council members Toby Santik, Lorenzo, Mike Porada and Robert Reesman voted for the motion.
• Did not approve the town center commercial district addition which would prohibit using the first floor commercial space for apartments.
The motion was defeated 4-3, Chenoga, Santik, Spencer and Story voted against the motion. Reesman, Porada and Lorenzo voted in favor of the change.


text:
Learn how to help a stalker grow with today's question . . .
Dear StupidAssQuestions.com
Some guy called me last night and said he saw me getting undressed. I said "WHAT" and he said, "I will call you right back ok? I said, "Ok". But when he did I didn't answer. Now I feel bad. Should I have answered and found out what he wanted? Maybe he just wanted me to move so he could see better or maybe he just wanted a ham sandwich.
Dear Emma Stone,
You misunderstood - Jim Carrey is a ham & is sandwiched between his fantasies of you undressing & a call back. So I'm pretty sure he couldn't see you from his basement. Also there's no need to feel bad for rejecting him, that what makes things grow in Farmville.
Views: 46
© 2018 Whirled Wide Network Powered by You! Thank You for your continued support.


text:
Although many professional prognosticators see President Obama as the favorite tomorrow, some notable conservatives are dissenting. Their maps show everything from a slim win by Mitt Romney with 275 Electoral College votes to a 325-vote landslide, with some maps putting Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and even Michigan in play.
One thing six of their seven maps agree on, however, is a Romney win in Ohio.
In an appearance on Fox News, conservative commentator Dick Morris predicted a massive Romney win with 325 Electoral College votes. To get there, Romney would have to win all of the swing states but Nevada and turn Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania red.
Swing states for Romney: Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida
Swing states for Obama: Nevada
To see the complete article visit our partner site, The Denver Post, by clicking HERE


text:
* Changing language is only available in some games.
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text:
(shakes head)
You got negative bars on your signal strength meter?
ridiculously low 0.1%.
...what's your basis of calling it ridiculously low? Do you know the dropped call rate of other companies?
Perhaps 0.1% is very high compared to other companies? Heck, assuming 10 million calls a day, that's 10,000 dropped calls daily!
Anyway, I'm just trying to say the number has no context. If I said my penis was 5,000 flagoogles long, it might *sound* impressive, but maybe a hundred flagoogles is only half of a nord?
If I said my penis was 5,000 flagoogles long, it might *sound* impressive, but maybe a hundred flagoogles is only half of a nord?
Isn't a flagoogle a unit of time and not distance?
If your penis was a car, would it be an 18 wheeler or a hatchback? Please phrase your answer in a way that would make Alex Trebek's ears flutter in glee.
...what's your basis of calling it ridiculously low? Do you know the dropped call rate of other companies?
There are periods when I have no dropped calls. There are also periods where I drop a call two or three times in a single hour. This is in an area that typically has 3-5 bars of signal. A number as low as 0.1% can't possibly be correct unless their methodology is flawed. Most likely, their methodology is the same as the methodology used for determining whether to credit the customer: if the customer
Ah. Actually, that
Pfft the bars don't mean anything. If they want to present a meaningful comparison, they could show decibels of microvolts emf, microwatts received power, SNR.. Even the bar representation could have been meaningful, if they'd only declare a meaning for it.
More "bars" in more places?! what the hell is that even supposed to mean?
Pfft the bars don't mean anything. If they want to present a meaningful comparison, they could show decibels of microvolts emf, microwatts received power, SNR.. Even the bar representation could have been meaningful, if they'd only declare a meaning for it.
More "bars" in more places?! what the hell is that even supposed to mean?
Best as I can tell, iPhone users fret about bars all the time.
Since switching to Android my dropped call rate on ATT has gone to zero, and I never pay any attention to bars at all, because I just never get calls dropped anymore.
FTR: My android reads out actual dBm. But who cares, since the calls don't drop.
"Dropped call rate" doesn't mean anything; a 60 minute call is more likely to drop than a 30 second call. And any call is more likely to drop if I'm driving through a tunnel while on the phone.
Bad Summary / RTFA. They say "our dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent - the equivalent of just one call in a thousand - of the industry leader." NOT that they have fewer than 0.1% dropped calls.
Bad Summary / RTFA. They say "our dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent - the equivalent of just one call in a thousand - of the industry leader." NOT that they have fewer than 0.1% dropped calls.
Yeah, but even that way is mighty sketchy wording. AT&T knew what they were doing when they worded it that way.
no shit
From TFA,
"The GWS drive tests also revealed that 98.59 percent of voice calls connected over the AT&T network nationwide are completed without interruption. That's a difference of about one-tenth of one percentage point, or one call in 1,000, from the only higher score in the industry."
So no, they do not drop only 1 out of 1000 calls, they drop more like 15 out of 1000 calls.
Not that my anecdotal evidence has any weight, but I personally experience more like a 5 to 10% dropped call rate with AT&T (
Not that my anecdotal evidence has any weight, but I personally experience more like a 5 to 10% dropped call rate with AT&T (one time I was dropped 4 times in a half hour).
I don't have that kind of rate overall, but I have had the experience of being dropped multiple times in about 10 minutes. Each time, I used AT&T's "Mark the Spot" application to report a dropped call. On the last couple of reports, I added a comment to the effect of "Please get out here and fix this cell base station!" -- I was at home and never had any problems with dropped calls until then.
A couple of days later, I noticed that the signal strength on my phone was 0-1 bars, instead of the usual
I had two different iPhones over two years. I experienced dropped calls all the time. It was awful. I hated AT&T. During this time, I even moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and still had the same poor experience. I was ready to leave AT&T. I had friends on AT&T that didn't have iPhones and they said they had a good experience with AT&T. So, I decided to get a new phone. I got a Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7. Now, my experience is really good. The network seems fast and reliable. No more dropped call issues. I can't speak for everybody. But, this is my experience. I wish I had changed phones sooner. It would've saved me tons of aggravation.
My experience is different. The only place in Seattle I have problems is Safco/Quest during a game. Drop back to Edge, problem solved.
I used to have dropped calls by the airport in SeaTac, but not since I switched to Android from iPhone. Even in the I5 underpass I don't drop calls.
AT&T in NYC and San Francisco may have serious problems, but in Puget sound area, AT&T is solid. If you are still stuck with an iPhone you may still think AT&T sucks, but not more so in Seattle than anywhere else.
I'm really hoping Verizon gets the iPhone because I think a LOT of people will flock to that network. After a year or so, I'll see how the reports look for both sides and make an informed choice...
Verizon better be ready, because AT&T sure had issues with the load they got.
Although in my region too, these days AT&T is actually pretty decent.
The iphone experience on CDMA will send lots of those right back to AT&T. It just can't do all the same things that iPhone users have gotten use to being able to do.
You are correct in stating AT&T had issues with the load of iPhone users they got. The cheap infineon chip sets in the first three iPhone releases had them tweaking the network in stupid ways trying to keep the iPhone running.
Meanwhile, Blackberry users in the same time period had nowhere near the problems.
And when the hoard of iPhone users flood another carrier (Verizon?) when at&t loses its exclusive contract with Apple,
maybe two things will happen.
1. The speeds on at&t's network will increase
2. The call quality/service will increase.
at&t will have to try harder, to keep customers because you won't have to go there if you want an iPhone.
I have been with them for 8 years, never had a problem. It will just be nice to walk into an at&t store and
not have to look to see if you accidentally didn't wonder into an Apple store LOL.
Yeah, lots of people say that: "I've had AT&T for years and never had a problem." But how can you know? You've *never* had a problem? Every cell network has problems. You don't have reception everywhere, none of the networks do. So how much reception is acceptable? Have you ever gone on vacation to somewhere remote and lost reception? Yes, we shouldn't focus on technology on vacation, but what if you just needed to make one call? I think every cell user in the world has experienced that.
So then, what is
Yeah, lots of people say that: "I've had AT&T for years and never had a problem." But how can you know? You've *never* had a problem? Every cell network has problems. You don't have reception everywhere, none of the networks do. So how much reception is acceptable? Have you ever gone on vacation to somewhere remote and lost reception?
Well, yes, there are some places in the west that are out of AT@T range. You first fall back to Edge, then to GPRS, then sometimes nothing.
But I knew that going in. And Verizon has some of those holes as well. (Far fewer than AT&T, which in turn has far fewer than T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.
But to your main point, You DO know when the network has problems. You pick up our cell and can't make a call. Or you finally drive over a pass and three voice mails come in.
Occasionally you might notice, even in stro
A lady I know over at my favorite coffee shop also complains of problems with AT&T data service and dropped calls both at home and at the coffee shop, and she doesn't use an iPhone either.
There are a lot of variables involved, and it's hardly a scientific study, but it only ever seems like AT&T users I hear complaining about the service, and the complaints are not uncommon.
Same here. I use an htc EVO on Sprint, and I have absolutely no problems with AT&T.
My room mate just had to drop AT&T as her carrier because conversations were garbled and she could not understand about one word in four. She tried three different phones while trying to resolve the problem, and borrowed my HTC from Sprint a couple of times. She just switched over to Sprint, problem solved.
I'd be curious if your roommate's cell tower is forcing all her calls into half rate encoding. Could be the case if the tower is highly congested or if the phone's battery is low. Moving to a differ
If your service sucks and your customers hate you, citing studies and statistics won't make them hate you less...
If your service sucks and it costs billions to make it better, citing studies and statistics is the only direction that is open to you.
There are only about three cell phone companies in the USA (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint; some say T-Mobile is also a cell company
Most of the iPhone users i've talked to say its been just fine on AT&T. I've got an iPhone 4 and it's working great, 3G speeds are plenty fast, and calls haven't dropped at all. Voice sounds bad, and AT&T might be worse in that respect than other carriers, but poor call quality seems to be part of a trend that followed the switch to digital phones, they just sound worse than the older analog ones and definitely worse than landlines.
Most of the AT&T hate seems to be coming from users in large cities like SF and NY. I expect that the signaling issues that TechCrunch and others have reported on that are specific to AT&Ts network are hitting hardest there.
The response by AT&T reminds me of almost every episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Gordon goes in, finds out the food is shit, and the owners always respond "but the customers all tell us the food is great!" (to which Gordon usually responds "What customers?").
"but the customers all tell us the food is great!" (to which Gordon usually responds "What customers?").
Yeah because AT&T has no customers and none of them think the service is acceptable--nope, not one. Please. I have an iPhone and while I wish I had a phone with a physical keyboard and true multitasking, the iPhone is a killer device and certainly still the best available for the touchscreen only market.
I rarely have dropped calls, I have 3G most everywhere I happen to be, and the service is acceptabl
I was in Seattle back in April. I didn't have any reception problems anywhere while I was there.
I don't know where AT&T gets their numbers. I don't have any hard statistics, but as a regular iPhone user, I've experienced a 5-10% dropped call rate, times when even texts wouldn't be sent, and depending on where I am in this large metropolitan area I call home, download speeds of 0.03 Mbps (though right now I'm getting 2.12 Mbps down and 0.180 Mbps up). I'm certainly not impressed with AT&T's network. On the other hand, Verizon's customer service was what prompted me to switch in the first pla
You're in a long distance relationship and you get a lot of dropped calls?
Have you considered the possibility that you are not, in fact, in a long distance relationship..?
I can tell you I am completely satisfied with ATT, but ONLY when I'm in Brooklyn. In fact, 3G service has better latency than my cable connection through Cablevision.
As soon as I go to Manhattan, ATT provides the most horrible experience I've ever had with a phone.
I'm not totally sure if this is ATTs fault though, for two reasons: 1.) Buildings interfere with cell signal, and 2.) Tons of people there have an iPhone/smartphone.
I find that the latency in Manhattan (especially lower down in Hell's Kitchen, the Village, or near the WTC) can sometimes be atrocious, especially when just coming out of the subway. When you're looking up directions or reviews, you don't want to have to wait a minute for results to come back... That minute can feel like much longer especially if it's freezing cold out.
Does android on verizon or sprint have similar issues, or is it just ATT? Anyone?
Seattle area, iPhone, AT&T, fully satisfied. No problems.
(Plus, the SB baristas all know my drink, so I don't take up time ordering it.
I'm sure dissatisfaction has a lot to do with the iPhone antenna issue. I'll tell you - I switched from Sprint when I bought an iPhone and I've never been happier. U.S. based call centers. You don't have to wait 30 minutes to talk to a person. And the service just works. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to go back to Sprint.
With Sprint, they double-billed me, tried to blackmail me from leaving by stating that I agreed to a new contract when I did not, and they made me spend countless hours on th
I'm sure dissatisfaction has a lot to do with the iPhone antenna issue.
Doubtful. Customer satisfaction with AT&T was in bad shape long before iPhone 4 came out. It is, however, regional.
For a great way to check your coverage in many major cities, go to CNet's cell coverage map [cnet.com]. As soon as you look at the San Francisco Bay area, you'll understand why the reviews are so negative. Verizon's data service map looks awful, but their voice service map looks good. AT&T is the reverse. Guess who is opt
Bay area being what it is (I don't go there much), I do travel extensively. The only area AT&T ever gave me problems was in a small area near the New Hampshire border in Massachusetts.
I'm not much of a bandwidth user - just email and google maps. Google maps isn't what I'd hope often enough, but meh - it's a phone.
Still - my coverage would have to take a major drop from what I currently experience to put myself through the horror of offshore call centers and subpar customer service.
I guess if I didn't
When did you switch from Sprint? I've been using them for about a year and a half now, and I must say that I have been impressed with the customer service:
They called me up a couple months into my plan saying "You know how we gave you free Sprint to Sprint calls? Now you have free mobile to mobile."
At about the one-year mark they told me that even though I signed a two-year contract, I could resign and get a reduced phone rate.
They've called me up to see how my weekend was going. (Really)
And I can get caple
It's been years, and I'm still upset about the way they treated me as a long-term customer.
AT&T has done things for me above and beyond what sprint ever would have done.
1) You chose a plan below your activity. We'll go ahead and backdate a plan upgrade for you because that'll be cheaper. If your calling habits change, you can downgrade at any time.
2) My phone was stolen, they activated GPS tracking on it immediately and gave me the location for law enforcement.
3) Provided me with a discount on a new p
I'm sure dissatisfaction has a lot to do with the iPhone antenna issue.
I don't think so. I use an iPhone 4 without any form of bumper or case and have never had a single dropped call or data slowdown etc. But I don't live in America and don't use AT&T.
The iPhone is a GSM/HSDPA phone like any other. Problems such as dropped calls lie with your carrier, not the hardware.
I suspect 90% of the antennagate 'issue' in the US was in fact a problem with AT&T and people living in areas with terrible reception, rather than a major issue with the phone itself. Yes if you bridge th
If Verizon had the iPhone too, albeit the results would be similar. 2GB is a ridiculous monthly cap. $10 for every additional GB? What is this, 1995? OK, throttle bandwidth as needed to deliver QoS, but don't put an artificial per-month cap on my usage.
The main advantage of having the iPhone on Verizon will be that it will drive down data plan prices and drive up caps.
And $20/month extra for tethering? Really AT&T? Go shove it up your ass.
Or Verizon will adopt a "Let's fuck iPhone users too, what are they going to do, go to AT&T?" stance, like they did with the blackberry.
Demand, not cost, will drive the prices. Verizon won't rock the boat as far as pricing. Why should they?
What? They must be counting all the minutes you're NOT using your phone as them NOT dropping your call.
They paid Jobs massive $$$ for exclusive iPhone rights, got a lot of customers, and now their network is overloaded. There's no money left for infrastructure upgrades because Apple has it all!
What I like about AT&T:
* They use SIM cards
* They offer the iPhone
What I dislike about AT&T:
* Everything else
I've been with them since they were Cellular One and I had a big old bulky NEC phone - They were great back then. Now, not so much. I'd love to be able to use the iPhone on T Mobile (I know, I can unlock it blah blah blah)
I got hired with Convergys, a company that handles AT&T customer service. During the course of the training, we were told that, yes, AT&T is the most expensive carrier. We learned how AT&T grades their customers, on a scale of 1 to 0 to 5, with 0 being the type of customer they want to lose, the one who always calls with complaints and requesting adjustments. Meanwhile the 5's they will bend over backwards to keep.
The most astounding thing I learned, however, was during a discussion about intern
They must be referring to voice traffic. Nothing else makes sense. AT&T doesn't even KNOW you are using some dude's Wifi in Mexico if you are just using it for pure data...
My phone, wife's phone, son's phone, in the same room in our house, literally within 10 feet of each others. My phone shows four bars, the other two nothing. Happens all the time, just in a different combination. First contract expires in April, at which point we're "phasing out" AT&T.
That symptom suggests (or in fact, screams) 'cell overload'.
The cell/tower only allows x simultaneous connections to it. Your phone has one. However there are no slots left for the other phones, so they have to seek to the next available tower, which will obviously be further away and have worse reception (or in fact, no reception at all).
So yes you are right to point the finger at AT&T. Sounds like they are not provisioning their network adequately in your area.
I just came back from a semester abroad in Sydney, Australia. I bought an iPhone 4 there unlocked, and used it every day, chewing through a lot of minutes and using a lot of data. I was on Telstra in Australia, and their 3g network is hands down the best I've ever seem anywhere. During my entire time there (6 months), I didn't drop a single call. I had wonderful service and fast data almost everywhere, and even with low signals (-110dbm and lower) I was able to make and hold good voice conversations.
In New
I recently completed a round the world trip that included the US, Australia, India, sub-Saharan Africa, and the cell phone experience in the US (which was mainly AT&T) was by far the worst. Dropped calls, no coverage in many places for no reason (certain block in NYC, on the freeway).
3G wasn't deployed in Africa when I was there, but for talking I would pick an African carrier over AT&T (or T-Mobile for that matter) any day.
Though well-intentioned, the CRO report is meaningless. I've used four different carriers in the last 12 years. Saying that one is better than another is like saying one of Satan's minions doesn't stick you with the pitchfork as much as another of Satan's minions.
Disraeli was pretty close: actually, there are Lies, Damn lies, Statistics, Benchmarks, and Delivery dates.


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Struck By Lightning
"Struck by Lightning" is a perfect storm of amazing actors and a unique and witty script by "Glee" standout Chris Colfer. Sadly, Colfer's character choice and underutilizing some of the hottest actors on television make it less than electrifying. The Blu-ray doesn't feature much in the way of bonus features but does have alternate endings that would significantly affect the film.
Carson Phillips (Colfer) tells the story of his life. He has an alcoholic, pill-popping mother (Allison Janney), an absentee father (Dermot Mulroney) and an oblivious best friend (Rebel Wilson). Despite being the unpopular leader of the writing club and school newspaper, he isn't picked on. Instead, he picks on administrators, gay students and popular kids. To get into Northwestern, he devises a literary magazine and decides to blackmail the popular kids into contributing. In the end, he's changed the lives of everyone around him.
Colfer's Carson Phillips is like an anti-Ferris Bueller. He says whatever is on his mind without reproach. He achieves the impossible with witty banter and balls of steel. However, Colfer's pained cherubic demeanor comes off as whiny and bitchy rather than charismatic or inspirational. He spends the whole film being bitter and snarky while charismatic actors shine through superficial, one-dimensional roles.
Rebel Wilson really elevates her role. She plays a quiet simplistic girl but still manages her genius comic wit while being vulnerable, sweet and tugging at your heartstrings. Ashley Rickards ("Awkward") plays the Goth girl, Sarah Hyland ("Modern Family") plays the cheerleader and Allie Grant is the type-A yearbook girl. These three actress shine and really showcase how skilled and dynamic they are given their somewhat simplistic roles. Also, Christina Hendricks who stars on "Mad Men" is completely underutilized.
The Blu-ray has some wasted special features. The two interview featurettes, "Story Behind the Scenes" and "An Interview with Chris Colfer" are short viral video length moments that feature Colfer and director Brian Dannelly discussing the film. However, considering the fact that Colfer is a first time screenwriter and some of the most amazing television personalities appear in the film, there should be more off-screen interviews. The blooper reel is also a little lackluster. There are some funny improvised lines, but it does continue the general flat tone of the film.
The highlight of the film is the deleted scenes. There are alternate endings that really save the tone of the film. Colfer's character is somewhat loathsome in the film. To have more scenes of Carson inspiring everyone around him and seeing more of the great actors in the film would make the film seem less morose and misanthropic.
"Struck by Lightning" shows Chris Colfer's skills as a screenwriter. Sadly, he does not have the range to carry a film when surrounded by much more dynamic actors. The film falls a little flat despite the wit and heart of the script.
"Struck by Lightning"


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WOBURN -- A Lowell man who claimed voices in his head told him to fatally stab his former landlady 100 times has been ruled competent and scheduled for a retrial next month.
In Middlesex Superior Court last week, defense attorney Kevin M. Mitchell told Judge Maureen Hogan that there are no competency issues for Nino DiPadova, who has been on a series of medications in prison since his 2004 conviction for first-degree murder for the murder of 56-year-old Nancy Garignan on July 26, 2004.
Hogan told attorneys that at a motion hearing on March 6, the issue of competency will be finalized, then jury selection will be held March 7 and 8, with opening statements set for March 11.
In August 2011, the state's highest court overturned the 2004 conviction because the jury was given the wrong instructions on certain testimony concerning the defendant. The trial judge's instruction to the jury on the interaction of drugs DiPadova claimed he consumed, combined with his mental illness, was "flawed and incomplete," Justice Margot Botsford wrote.
Botsford wrote that trial Judge Kenneth Fishman didn't go far enough in providing the jury with instructions on the interaction between voluntary consumption of drugs and a mental illness.
Appeals attorney Kevin Nixon argued before the SJC that DiPadova , 41, was insane and under the influence of crack cocaine when he killed Garignan in her home at 3 Wachusett St.
Nixon argued in the appeal that DiPadova had been hospitalized 18 times for treatment of his mental illness and had attempted suicide numerous times. DiPadova allegedly confessed to police that voices often told him to do things, according to Nixon.
"The voices were very vindictive and conned the defendant all the time," Nixon wrote in his appeal. "If he didn't cooperate with them they made his life a living hell."
During his interview by police after the murder, DiPadova told police the voices told him to get money from the victim, but that he just "wanted to talk to her." When Garignan "refused," DiPadova said the voices told him to kill her. He tried to fight the voices but "it just didn't work," he told police.
In the Supreme Judicial Court ruling, Botsford wrote that the impact of the defendant's mental illness on his criminal responsibility was the crux of the defense and a central point in the trial as a whole.
Extensive testimony and other evidence were presented to the jury regarding both his illness and his drug use. If the jury credited testimony by defense-paid psychologist Tali Walter, Botsford wrote, the jury instructions from Fishman did not explain to them the law they were to apply and, in fact, steered them toward returning an improper verdict on the basis of the defendant's drug use.
Prosecutors conceded that DiPadova has a history of mental-health issues, including being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but they argued that the motivation for the murder was money to pay off his drug dealer, not the voices in DiPadova's head.


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Fairfield resident fires ace at Longshore Country Club fundraiser
Updated 6:01 pm, Thursday, June 5, 2014
Photo: Contributed Photo
Fairfield resident Dave Swanson sank a hole in one at Westport's Longshore Country Club on Monday during the Staples Gridiron Club/Sal Romano eighth annual fundraiser. Swanson won a trip for two to Pebble Beach and Cypress Point in California for firing an ace on the second hole.
Swanson, who works in Westport, used a seven-iron on the second hole, which measures 155 yards from tee to green. The pin was located in the back of the green.
The tournament was a scramble format. Swanson competed as part of a foursome with Joe Massoud, Tim Chiodo and Alan Offenberg.


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"Someone To Witch Over Me" - (TBA)
Sunday , May 01 2005 (R)
GUEST STAR DREW FULLER RETURNS AS CHRIS AND THE DONNAS PERFORM - Agent Brody (guest-star Kerr Smith) convinces Paige (Rose McGowan) to help him solve a mysterious string of accidents, only to discover that the demon Sarpedon (guest star Neil Hopkins) is capturing innocents' Guardian Angels and using them to protect himself from the forthcoming threat of a New Power. Meanwhile, Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) convince Leo (Brian Krause) to go on a Vision Quest to face his demons. While on his Quest, Leo finds guidance from his son Chris (guest star Drew Fuller), but awakens to find Piper and Phoebe killed by Sarpedon. An Avatar, part of the New Power, offers to bring them back to life if Leo turns over his free will. The Donnas perform at P3. John Par� directed the episode written by Rob Wright (#62015-07-141).


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The Division of Dermatology is pleased to welcome Dr. Ryan B. Turner as the Director of Dermatologic and Laser Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center.
Ryan B. Turner, M.D. is a board certified dermatologist in New York City who practices Mohs Micrographic Surgery, laser surgery, and light therapies. His clinical interests include skin cancer surgery and cosmetic treatments that enhance and rejuvenate aging skin. He has extensive training in FRAXEL® laser treatments which reduce photodamage, wrinkles, and stimulate new collagen growth. In addition, he uses laser therapies for the treatment of unwanted sun damage, broken blood vessels, and brown spots. His research interests vary from the treatment and management of skin cancers to the successful placement of injectable dermal fillers such as Restylane, Juvederm, and Radiesse.
Dr. Turner graduated summa cum laude and valedictorian of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School and was honored with the Henry Asbury Christian Award for his research accomplishments at graduation. He completed his internship in medicine and his dermatology residency at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital, respectively. He has also completed an ACGME-accredited fellowship in Procedural Dermatology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
Grand Rounds
Clinical Lectures
Academic Office
Fax: 718-944-4219
Schedule an Appointment
More info
American Academy of Dermatology
American Society for Dermatologic Surgery
Society for Investigative Dermatology
Dermatologic Society of Greater New York
American Skin Association
American Medical Association
Dermatology Foundation
Nanodermatology Society (NDS)
National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases
Derm Atlas


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bother with link, just go to any search engine and click on the first story you see (typically in bright red with BREAKING NEWS flashing).
This event is on part with Columbine and is very, very scary. There are social/economics/technological factors at play in our culture right now that are truly blurring lines between reality and make believe, possibly between right and wrong. I cannot believe that took place.


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I could get used to this weather. We needed the rain and the temperature is wonderful. I know it can't last, but it feels good to my old bones.
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Merge Records
Above all else, Merge is about releasing music by artists its staff respects and admires. The first couple of releases on Merge were cassettes: MRG 001 was
Since then, Merge has released hundreds of recordings by bands from across the U.S. and around the world. What began in 1989 as a preposterous idea concocted by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan on a cross-country trip has expanded and flourished: operations have grown from boxes strewn about Ballance's bedroom to boxes strewn around a small house. McCaughan and Ballance still run the label, but they actually have a few employees these days, and the label continues to be centered around bringing together bands and creative-minded people.


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We decided to offer up our Shotwell stem in a white powdercoat finish:
IRD just released their venerable Crossfire tire in white, and we had to get our hands on a set. Just in time for cross season, have the fastest looking bike out there.
Our new straight-blade track fork, Tange tubing, 100% pretty. Click.
One more bit of shameless self-promotion: we have the Stanyan, Van Ness, and Saga Framesets in stock and are now listed on the Soma Shop.


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Alien Warrior:
When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, place 2 A-Counters on the monster that destroyed it. (If a monster with an A-Counter battles an "Alien" monster, it loses 300 ATK and DEF for each A-Counter during damage calculation only.)
SP = Short Print (Common);
SSP = Super Short Print (Common);
DNPR = Duel Terminal Normal Parallel Rare;
DRPR = Duel Terminal Rare Parallel Rare;
DSPR = Duel Terminal Super Parallel Rare;
DUPR = Duel Terminal Ultra Parallel Rare;
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The Volt's been around for about a year now and still no one that I ran into during my week with this high-profile vehicle seemed to understand how it works.
"Don't you have to plug it up?" "Wait, so it's a hybrid?" "I can't drive a car that only goes 40 miles!" These quotes come from automotive enthusiasts, people who I talk cars with regularly. Clearly Chevrolet/GM has some issues with its message.
The confusion probably lies in Chevrolet's unwillingness to call the Volt what it is: a plug-in hybrid. Instead, the automaker prefers the term range-extended electric vehicle (RE-EV). Granted, neither designation is technically wrong, but when people hear the term "hybrid" they immediately understand that there's a gasoline filler somewhere on the vehicle. Instead, every conversation about the Volt has to begin with a long explanation about why you'd put gas into an EV.
It's an EV that's also a hybrid... but not really. Wait, what?
At this point, you're either shaking your head in agreement or scratching your head in confusion, so let's get into the nuts and bolts of what's happening underneath the Volt's sheet metal.
Turning the Volt's front wheels is a 111kW electric engine. In regular, car guy/gal terms, that engine outputs 149 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. Since this is an electric motor that we're talking about, all of that torque is available from zero rpm, so the Volt actually has pretty good get-up-and-go when floored in its Sport mode, but we'll get back to that.
Electricity is first provided by a 16kWh T-shaped lithium ion battery pack that runs the spine of the vehicle, wrapping behind the rear seats. Find a charging station (or have one installed at your home) and plug its 240-volt power into the port on the front driver's-side fender, and the Volt will charge the battery from empty to full in about 4 hours. If you're using a conventional 110V and the included charging cable, you'll see that charging time jump to about 8 to 10 hours. The Volt can be programmed to charge immediately upon plugging in or to wait until off-peak utility pricing to start juicing the battery pack. Chevrolet recommends that you leave the Volt plugged in even when you're not charging to allow the battery conditioning system to keep the lithium ion battery pack at the optimal temperature for retaining its charge.
Once fully charged, the Volt will run for about 35 miles, depending on your driving style, before its battery is depleted. Here's where things get interesting. A 1.4-liter gasoline engine and its 9.3-gallon fuel tank spring to life. However, unlike in, say, the plug-in Prius, the Volt's gasoline engine doesn't take over turning the wheels. Instead, the engine acts as a generator (or range extender), jiggling enough electrons to keep the electric motor turning and to trickle-charge the lithium-ion battery pack. With the range extender running, total range jumps up to about 380 miles.
This is why GM/Chevrolet hesitates to call the Volt a hybrid. Ideally, the gasoline engine never has a physical connection to the wheels: even when it's spinning, the electric motor is running the show. That may seem inefficient, counterintuitive even. However, with this setup the gasoline engine's rpm can be set independently of the vehicle's road speed, theoretically allowing the Volt to get optimum efficiency out of every drop of fuel. Because the bulk of the range extender's energy is going into turning the wheels, there isn't a ton of energy left over to recharge the battery with (although a bit of trickle charging does occur). As a result, the Volt's gasoline engine will never be able fully recharge its own battery the way a conventional hybrid can.
Your mileage has never varied more
The EPA further confuses things by supplying a hodgepodge of fuel economy estimates and equivalents that you, the consumer, must make sense of. Under electric power, the Volt is rated at 94 miles per gallon equivalent (the Chevy's own trip computer claims an eye-roll-inducing 250+ mpge). Under gasoline power, the Volt drops down to 37 mpg. Combine the two and the EPA guesses that you'll average 60 mpg. The catch is that you won't.
Your fuel economy will vary wildly depending not only on your driving habits, but also on your ability to keep the battery pack charged with regular plug-ins. For example, if your daily commute is within the Volt's 35 or so miles of electric range, it's possible to go weeks without using a single gallon of petrol. If you have a 60-or-so-mile round trip, and make use of chargers where you work and where you shop, it's also possible to keep the trip computer above the 100 mpg mark.
However, I'm an apartment dweller. My building doesn't have a charging station or outlets in the parking garage. During my week with the Volt, I was only able to charge the vehicle fully twice (during visits to a movie theater with ChargePoint stations), with an hour or so here and there at various restaurants and shopping centers around town. I also made two long-distance trips from San Francisco to visit friends in and around San Jose (about 100 miles round-trip for each visit). At the end of the week, my trip computer was reading around 52 mpg. That's about on par with what I achieved during my week with the standard Toyota Prius. While it was nice to be able to exceed the Volt's electric-only range and go days without recharging, my week represents a bit of a worst-case scenario for the Volt. Potential owners should definitely have a charger installed in their home to maximize the fuel economy.
One of the most flexible power trains on the road today
For as complex as the power train and fuel economics are, the driving experience of the Volt is surprisingly simple. You get in, hit the start button, shift gears, and drive. The electric power train is amazingly silent when the range extender isn't running, and the power delivery is linear and predictable. The EV's single-speed transmission means that there's also no jerky shifting, no interruption of power as you accelerate, and no waiting for the vehicle to downshift to pass. You push the pedal more and the Volt just thrusts forward. This isn't my first trip around the block in an electric car, but that sort of effortless torque is something that I'm still not used to.
Past the 35-mile mark, the range extender's rumble is both annoyingly audible and tangible, but that annoyance is probably artificially heightened by the stark contrast with the smooth silence of EV mode. Because the gasoline engine's rpm never changes, the engine does tend to drone on a bit, but that's easily drowned out by the audio system and regular road and wind noise. The pros greatly outweigh the cons here and the Volt has been blessed with what is arguably one of the most flexible power trains on the road today.
The Volt features three different drive modes, selectable by a button on the dashboard. Normal mode is the default and Volt's most economical mode. Sport increases throttle responsiveness and power delivery at the expense of a bit of efficiency. The oddly named Mountain mode forces the range extender to power on, even if the battery isn't depleted. This mode is designed to sustain the battery's charge through excessively hilly terrain, but some owners have speculated that by using mountain mode for long cruises above 50 mph (the cap of the electric motor's optimum efficiency) and saving the 35 miles of battery power for the low-speed city segments at the beginning and end of a long trip, the driver can get closer to eking maximum efficiency out of the Volt.
The Volt's handling is inoffensive, its battery pack both increasing the vehicle's weight and lowering the center of gravity, which allows the dampers and springs to be soft enough to soak up bumps without generating terrifying levels of body roll in the bends. The steering is light and responsive enough to make the Volt feel effortless at the low city speeds that it's most comfortable at without feeling ponderous and twitchy at the highway speeds that it's capable of.
If the Volt driving experience has an Achilles' heel, it's the brakes. The balance between the regenerative braking system and the Volt's friction brakes is both out of whack and inconsistent. Applying the same amount of pedal pressure for two subsequent stops would produce noticeably different deceleration rates. This made it difficult to judge stopping distances, which led to more than a few "Holy crap" emergency stops, jostling the vehicle and its passengers. At lower speeds, the brakes were excessively grabby with a digital on/off feel that was difficult to modulate, making the simple act of parallel parking a herky-jerky affair.


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If you are like me and think yahoo is better than google i would go to mobile.yahoo.com on your storm and sign up to be a beta tester for yahoo mobile. it looks to be a very promising app!
a beta version is not available yet as far as i know but im still signed up to try it out and am waiting anxiously =)


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Take it for whats its worth since its a local sports guy....
"The compensation in the trade is not confirmed, but might entail a 2nd round selection in the 2013 NFL draft and a conditional 4th round selection in the 2014 NFL draft."
Seems pretty low if this guy is right.
"The compensation in the trade is not confirmed, but might entail a 2nd round selection in the 2013 NFL draft and a conditional 4th round selection in the 2014 NFL draft."
Seems pretty low if this guy is right.
Sorry, I overlooked the pro football reference, so it may be just the usual media garbage.
I hope they can make a deal soon!
A #2 this year and a #4 next year? No thanks.
I'm not even interested in trading Revis unless there is a first round pick involved in this year's draft or next year's.
Probably another pick as well somewhere. Remember, the actual deal facts come later.
What would make it worth it things like "Tampa Bay would absorb all the remaining salary owed to Revis by the Jets".
Things like that make it bigger than just the picks.
Just terrible exchange of franchise value if true.
Izzy will be vilified forever in jets shame if that deal happens.
What about the Eagles... 2nd rounder and Foles?
The problem is, too many people are thinking of the pre-injury Revis. He is an unknown commodity right now. Will you feel short changed if he goes to TB and fizzles out b/c of a bum knee? You have to deal in the present, not in the past.
Harvin is also coming off a bad injury (not an ACL obviously) and has had injury issues his whole career.
He has been a tough player to deal with for the Vikings
And is an UFA after this season.
Revis should be bringing back more then a mid-2nd round pick.
2 and a 4? No deal, go pound sand. At that price we keep him for the year and have the best CB duo in the league. there has to be a line in the sand that you draw and a 2 and 4 is just not enough.
A first round pick in 2014 and the rest is details. But the jets have to get a first round pick for Revis and preferably in next years draft.
If it's from the Jets camp, then that's a smoke signal.
"Oh, we're getting offered a 2nd. Anyone willing to do 'a little' bit better? How about a 1st?"
If it's from the team offering, then it also means nothing. Why would you show your cards? So other teams can offer a 2nd and a 3rd?
It's all crap.