Rant

Energy

The form of energy we use to get from A to B is not the problem. Whether it's electric, internal combustion, nuclear powered, or peddle cars, we're missing the point. Using electric cars is is like treating skin cancer with a band aid.

The real problem is how we design our cities.

Ever since auto manufacturer's decided that everyone needs to have a car, and that they need to drive those cars everywhere, cities have been designed around the concept. Literally everything is deigned with only the slightest thought of where people will walk.

Go to your local mall. Try walking from the street, through the parking lot, into the mall. There probably isn't any place designed for you to walk. You're walking where the cars go, and battling them for space as you make your journey.

We gave our entire country to the auto industry, and now we're dependent on oil, pollute in excessive amounts, and design our cities so that they only way to get around is to own a car.

It didn't used to be like this. Here's a graph showing historical per-capita vehicle ownership.

 Vehiclesandfuels Images Facts Fotw469

Compare that graph with this one of obesity rates from 1960 to 2000:

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I'm not saying that driving cars is making us fat, but I am saying that people used to walk a lot more. It used to be okay to walk two blocks to go to the corner store, but now we don't give hoping in the car a second thought.

Think about it - which of these two places would you rather live?

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One place has lasting value, one place does not.

I saw an old photograph of downtown Provo and was surprised to see trolley tracks right down Center Street. Salt Lake City used to have one of the most impressive public transit systems in the country. Then the car came and made it all unnecessary. Now we all get to stay in our own little air-conditioned bubble as we move about the city.

So the solution for our energy crisis is not to come up with new innovative ways of powering a car (although that's okay too), it's to start designing our cities like they used to be designed. Remove our dependence on cars and the energy crisis solves itself.

Think of the effect that this would have not only on energy, but on pollution, obesity, social interaction, and an overall sense of community? This is the way the world should be.

Average: 2.7 (6 votes)

Netf**ks - Epic Fail

One of the most awesome things about Netflix is that you are allowed to have User Profiles. In my case, that means my room mate Dean can "give" me one of the three slots he has available for renting movies. I have my own account, ratings, profile, friends, etc.

Netflix just announced they will be removing this feature. Not only are they removing it, but they're deleting my profile too. All the ratings I have taken considerable time to make will be deleted. My queue will disappear. They actually suggested printing out my queue and re-entering all the movies into the master account. Wow, really? Netflicks couldn't even be bothered with the hours-long project of creating a migration tool.

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Netflix says that this move will allow them to "improve" their service. Interesting - I didn't know that deleting all your users data and removing a much used and loved feature is an improvement. Seems like maybe they need to work on their definition of the word.
After about 70 bajillion people pointed out that this is not an improvement, Netflix came out and said that it was actually to simplify their shipping process and that the profiles feature had been causing problems. This is a perfectly reasonable explanation too, as in - in what way could shipping DVDs to the same address really be that difficult? If this is true, Netflix has some truly craptastic programmers on their hands.
On their company blog they changed their tune once again, stating that the ultimate real reason they're canceling user profiles is because it was too confusing for customers to use. That's right everyone, we're too dumb for such an advanced feature, therefore we don't get it anymore. That makes a ton of sense.
A spokesperson for Netflix has made the point that the decision is "final." They claim that it only affects just over 150,000 homes, so it's no big deal (really, they said that). Epic, epic fail.
The real reason they are getting rid of profiles, is that they hope people will start their own accounts thus bringing in more revenue for Netflix. Unfortunately people are canceling in droves (if a thread full of pissed off Digg users and this petition are to be believed, anyway).
If you're as angry about this as I am, you can leave Netflix a suggestion here. Although something tells me they're not listening:

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"Please remember that suggestion emails are not sent to Netflix Customer Service"
Average: 1.8 (4 votes)