Archive for April, 2006
Florida Police Retaliate Against Journalist
And they wonder why utterly no one respects the police in the US. This is disgusting – and it just reaffirms what the news station was saying. The old boy’s network is the most disgusting thing in the world.
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After CBS4 News exposed police intimidation of citizens attempting to make complaints against police officers, Broward PBA retaliates by putting the CBS4 journalist’s name on a list of criminals to be on the lookout for along with personal information on their website. Cross the cops, get your personal information released on the web.
My first standards-complaint website.
Normally I have to hack old stuff when putting together a website. However, when I saw the shambles of the old code for the blogs section, I knew I could put together something better than what I did (and what Barry had done before me)
I’m pretty happy with it. 4.01 Strict complaint (or it will be once I fix one problem with the forms), and CSS complaint as well. I like the site too, it is simple and colourful (my two criteria for any well designed site).
I can’t take all the credit – John Williams fixed the Javascript issues I was having, and brought to my attention a lot of the layout issues it was having. It was a snap thereafter.
Getting the Best Deal on a Rental: Part 1
Renting a car is a hassle. The desires of a rental company and its clients are often directly in conflict. A client wants to be free to drive as long and as far as he wants, for the least cost. The Rental agency wants minimum wear and tear on the car, with the most return. The various rental companies in Canada resolve this issue in various ways. My question is, how can we, the clients, use their rules to our own advantage?
Canada has a fairly competitive Rental Car industry. For the purposes of this Blog entry, I will compare the following:
- Avis
- Budget
- Dollar
- Hertz
- National
- Thrifty
To find out which one is cheaper, I am creating three fictional trips.
Long Range: A Tour of Western Canada: A one month trip in which one travels from Calgary to Winnipeg, then to Vancouver (via Edmonton) and back to Calgary. This is meant to show the various cost advantages / disadvantages of the different mileage options available.
Obscure Location: A Tour of the Yukon: A one-week trip from White Horse to Dawson City and back. Not all companies have locations in the Yukon, thus we can see the effects of a lack of competition on the local rental businesses.
Weekend Trip: Nova Scotia in Three Days: A drive from Halifax until Highlands National Park and back. This is a relatively short trip, perfect to see if there is any benefit to mileage-restricted contracts for short-range travel.
Example #1
According to Microsoft Streets and Maps, a tour of Western Canada (sans any side trips or in-city driving), our plan would be approximately 4,912 kilometers.
Assumptions:
- 25% inefficiency (for in-city driving, exploring side roads, etc..), our trip is 6,140 kilometers. That translates to about 69 hours of driving.
- We leave May 1st and return on May 30th
- We will take a Compact or an Intermediate class car (good enough for 2-3 people)
Avis
For this rental period, Avis offers 3103 Kilometers, with a $0.15 charge for each extra kilometer. There are no cheaper rates available on the Avis website, regardless of which coupon is entered.
An Intermediate Car (Pontiac G6) comes out to $902.72 + 0.15 * (6140-3103) = $1358.27
The difference between Intermediate and Compact class cars is 20$ at best.
Budget
Budget has an awful deal on its website. Basically, they offer 1400 kilometers (total) with a $0.20 charge for each additional kilometer. The kilometers do not change based on how long you rent the car – it is a flat 1400 for the entire rental period. The website is pretty deceptive as well, with no indication of the mileage conditions throughout the website.
Intermediate Rental (Ford Focus 4DR – 5PSGR): $903.74 + 0.20 * (6140-1400) = $1852
Dollar doesn’t allow 30 day rentals, so I checked with a 28-day rental. Dollar has unlimited mileage, even for long rentals.
Intermediate Rental (Dodge Stratus): $1054.37
They also allow an upgrade to a Full-sized (Dodge Magnum) for $1.93/day more. In that case:
Full-Sized Rental (Dodge Magnum): $1,116.82
Hertz, sadly, only rents out garbage in its Intermediate class – in this case, the post-apocalyptic horror called the Pontiac Sunfire. Since our rules are specific, we go with the Ford Focus ZS. You get 3000 free kilometers, which is followed by 15 cents each additional kilometer.
1590 + 15 * (6140-3000) = $2061.
National
National, sadly, rents the other garbage GM car in its Intermediate class – the Pontiac Grand Am. Not as appropriate a tool for suicide as the Sunfire (did you know all its designers killed themselves to distance themselves from the shame?), but it is pretty awful nonetheless. The next class down is the Sunfire’s co-conspirator, the Chevrolet Cavalier, so downgrading is not an option. (Upgrading to the boring Buick Century is an extra 100$)
Intermediate Rental (Pontiac Grand Am): $1,209.64
Thrifty is described to me by a good friend as “Ghetto Rental”. Take that for what you will – how are their deals?
Sadly, Thrifty only puts up its specials at the start of the month so I have no basis to know if it gets any cheaper – but to rent a Mid-Size (Sebring), you get a base rate of $1050 with 3000 kilometers. Factoring everything else in..
Intermediate Rental (Dodge Sebring): $1050 + $ 0.10 * (6140-3000) = $1364.00
For Long Term renting, with long distances involved, it is clearly
The irony of “Budget” being the most expensive is not lost on me, I assure you. Personally, I’d probably go with Dollar since they have the best deals for a larger car, and they have better quality cars than Hertz – who feels safe in a late 90s GM anyway?
-edit- After re-reading the article, I realized I forgot to put in the real information for Hertz. It is in now.
Happy Small-Town Life.
LOCATION: Totori City, Japan
DATE: August 11th, 2006
Small town life has been unfairly mangled in the popular media. Chattering women spilling all of your secrets, a lack of culture and sheer boredom are pretty much the standard Hollywood view of small towns. This is, of course, a distinctly unfair image. Small communities are more human, and it is a lot easier to get up once you hit rock-bottom if you know your neighbours. In happy times, everyone shares your joy with you, and in sad times, there is always someone to help you out. That feeling might offend the Emo-generation, but as a human being, I appreciate the love.
In Japan, you don’t get much smaller than the Prefecture of Tottori. Nestled along the northern coast of central Japan, Tottori is generally ignored by foreign tourists. After all, who would want to come to a small city? (I guess the smart-mouthed answer is me and Moe, but I supposed you guessed that already?)
Buckminister Fuller
Who were you, Dr. Fuller? And did we betray your vision when we didn’t conquer povery by Y2K?
More proof that genius skips a generation, when you compare him to the wretched creations of the Baby-boomers.