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March 31, 2014
Also announces a new initiative, the Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles program, which will provide rebates of up to $2,500 for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.
February 18, 2014
The former secretary of transportation led the Federal Transit Administration's Clean Fuels Program, which helped fund the purchase of electric vehicle buses by several cities across the U.S.
December 16, 2013
Attorney Lanny Davis, acting as the company's spokesman, said there are facts that are beyond dispute that can and will be substantiated by documentation.
September 12, 2013
Representatives from Phoenix Motorcars, BYD, Proterra and Complete Coach Works featured their buses on the show floor and explained their products as well as their outlook for the future of electric buses in the transportation industry.
August 16, 2013
The company more than doubled in size in the past nine months, adding a second production line and shift and increasing its number of employees by more than 50%.
July 30, 2013
Registration for the 18th Annual BusCon Expo, taking place Sept. 9 to 11, 2013 at Chicago's Navy Pier, is now open.
May 23, 2013
Company has more than tripled transit agency orders under contract for the company's flagship EcoRide in the past 12 months alone and is planning for its current growth path to continue.
September 26, 2012
The Worcester Regional Transit Authority estimates that replacing these three buses will eliminate 53 tons of harmful emissions and reduce petroleum consumption by more than 23,000 gallons per year, while reducing operating costs by more nearly $500,000.
April 11, 2012
Based on the award-winning Solo low-floor bus, of which over 4,000 are in service worldwide, the Solo EV produces zero tailpipe emissions
March 21, 2012
Of the $30 million being invested by the province, $27 million has been earmarked for the design and manufacture of a 40-foot electric bus to be developed by Nova Bus, Bathium Canada, TM4, Giro, René Matériaux Composites and Précicad.
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Best Buy is certainly struggling. The company's stock was above $50 per share back in 2007. Today it is trading at about $20. The company is closing stores and analysts are skeptical about the future.
The company has a number of issues to address but I suspect the most important issue is what I call the Great Amazon Tax Subsidy.
The Great Amazon Tax Subsidy comes from the strange way local sales taxes are applied in the United States. Many municipalities raise revenue by taxing retail purchases. But companies that don't have a physical presence in a given area don't have to pay the tax. The result is that a retailer with a physical store location is at a substantial disadvantage when compared to an on-line player. In some cities this is a meaningful figure. In Chicago, where I live, the sales tax is 9.5%.
This means that in Chicago Amazon has a 9.5% cost advantage over Best Buy. This is a hopeless situation for Best Buy. In 2012, Best Buy only had a 2% margin (pre-tax income/revenue). There is virtually no way that Best Buy can overcome this.
Customers that buy from Best Buy have to pay a substantial premium versus Amazon. They get the item immediately but in many cases waiting one or two days isn't a big deal. Amazon is also more convenient and probably has a wider selection. Best Buy can't win this battle.
Best Buy will continue to struggle if the tax policy remains in place. The company might not survive at all.
Of course, this isn't just Best Buy's issue. Many local retailers face the same problem. Politicians should shut down the Great Amazon Tax Subsidy and do it quickly before more local retailers go out of business.

subset: commoncrawl


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Is Apple More Evil Than Microsoft?
Apple is less open than Microsoft
Microsoft is derided for its closed, proprietary software (often rightly so), but people seem quite alright with the idea that you have to buy a Mac (which outside of the pretty box is no different than a Dell) in order to use the OS X operating system. Its tightly integrated apps, like Safari, Mail, iTunes, QuickTime, iCal, and Time Machine, don't seem to ruffle nearly as many feathers as their Microsoft counterparts. For instance, Microsoft being forced to dump Internet Explorer (IE) isn't the first time the European Union (EU) has clipped the company's wings -- in 2003 the conglomerate of governments forced Microsoft to release a version of XP without Windows Media Player.
If that isn't evidence enough, consider that it wasn't until this April that Apple finally started offering DRM-free music through iTunes that could be played on non-iPod devices (something Microsoft had already offered for over a year through its Zune Marketplace). It's not just software, either -- Apple's MacBook Pros and MacBook Air have batteries that can't be replaced by the user. So forget carrying a spare battery as backup.
When it comes to openness, the iPhone is even worse. Apple lords over the mobile environment with an iron fist and seems to be making up the rules as it goes along. Take, for example, last week's rejection of Google Voice. After giving the thumbs down to Google's application, the company rifled through the App Store and unceremoniously booted several previously approved third-party Google Voice options. Of course, many point the finger at AT&T for this crime against consumer choice, but Apple -- the company that was previously able to bend the RIAA to its will -- caved like a flan in the cupboard to the maligned carrier's demands. It isn't even opening up to the developers (largely responsible for the popularity of the iPhone) by offering an explanation as to why the programs they've spent time and effort on are being denied the chance to be sold in the App Store.
Apple copies other companies, just like Microsoft
Everyone likes to complain that Microsoft doesn't innovate; it just copies the successes of others. But Apple is just as guilty of stealing what works from competitors. Take a look at Dashboard, which puts widgets on your Mac desktop. Dashboard copied not just the functionality, but much of the look of Konfabulator, a widget program that debuted for the Mac in 2003, two years before Dashboard debuted. Or take Spaces, which brings virtual desktops to OS X: it's a feature that has been available on most Linux distributions since the early '90s and was included on Amiga systems way back in 1985.
Apple doesn't stop at copying features, however. Mac OS X is Unix, a freely available operating system first released back in 1969, wrapped in a pretty package, and Safari is heavily based on Konqueror, a Web browser for Linux. There is nothing wrong with incorporating open source elements like these in your products, but developers on these projects have been very vocal in complaining about Apple's failure to contribute its fair share to the open source community.
Apple is a bunch of jerks
What about the jailbreak crowd? According to a recent complaint filed with the U.S. Copyright Office, jailbeaking is a danger to national security. Apple claims that jailbroken phones could shield terrorists and crash cell phone towers, spurious claims at best and at worst reckless fear mongering.
Then there is the cult-like air of secrecy, and a Scientology-like penchant for destroying all those who might penetrate. Apple sued Nicholas Ciarelli, publisher of popular Mac blog ThinkSecret, and successfully shut down the Apple rumor site, known for breaking stories such as the release of Leopard, iWork, and the MacMini.
Oh, and let's not forget about Apple's attempt to force everyone who installed iTunes to download Safari. Apple tried to sneak the browser onto your system the same way other shady apps try to slip in Yahoo! Toolbar and the like.
Apple only cares about the money
These childish complaints, however, affect only those of us who can afford to drop $299 on a 32-gigabyte iPhone or $1,799 on a MacBook Pro. Though not for entirely noble reasons, Microsoft at least attempts to engage the third world and developing nations by offering Windows at steep discounts and participating in programs like One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Intel's Classmate PC project. The projects may be flawed but Apple offers no similar discounts and is involved in no comparable programs for getting computers into the hands of the world's poorest. Apple is perfectly happy to have its products manufactured by migrant laborers in Shangai, but targets all sales in China at its small upper and middle classes.
Is Apple more evil than Microsoft?
It's hard to say if Apple is definitively more evil than Microsoft, but what we can tell you is that it's just as guilty of many of the same bad business practices. Despite sizable gains in market share in the PC world and a group of utterly dominating portable media players, Apple has managed to maintain its perception as an underdog, allowing it to get away with things that Microsoft wouldn't.
Then there is the "cool" factor. Windows and Office have become synonymous with stuffy corporate environments and cubicles, while Apple has forged an identity as the favorite of creative types and hipsters -- often the very types of people who staff the editorial departments of the publications that turn a blind eye to Apple's crimes.
We've previously discussed how the media gives Apple a free pass -- but the more important question is, what is it up to while everyone is distracted by railing against Microsoft?


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Smokescreen Turns Flash into JavaScript
Conversion tool plans to go open source sometime soon.
As the war between Flash and HTML5 wages on, developers are finding all kinds of workarounds to get Flash-based advertising content onto the slew of mobile devices that can't or in some cases won't support Adobe's format. Chris Smoak's Smokescreen skips the Flash plugin and instead uses JavaScript and HTML5 to decode the media.
This is great news for banner ads, but for those of us looking forward to watching Hulu at the gym, Smokescreen is more than lacking, as video is hardly watchable on most mobile devices. What's more, in its current state, Smokescreen is 175KB and about 8,000 lines of JavaScript. There are bugs to be fixed, addition Flash support and improved performance also need to be achieved. To do this, Smokescreen is going open source later this month.
For previews and news on Smokescreen, head to smokescreen.us. We'll update the story when the tool becomes open.
Issue 170/2015
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TOR Network Isn't So Anonymous
A new study says it is possible to unmask 81% of TOR users.
.NET Goes Open Source
Redmond joins the revolution by turning the .NET Core Runtime into a GitHub project.
Drupal Advisory Unleashes a Torrent of Attacks
Users only had 7 hours to update before the intrusions started.
HTML5 Gets Promoted to a Standard
It's official: The new web arrives
Linus Addresses Criticism for Harsh Language
Kernel king admits his tone has alienated volunteers, but says the demands of the process require directness.
New SSL Attack Lets a Malicious Listener Steal Session Cookies
New flaw in an old encryption scheme leaves the experts scrambling to disable SSL 3
Leading Open Source Coder Rants about Rants
Lennart Poettering wants to change the way Linux developers talk to each other.
HP Splits into Two Companies
Enterprise giant frees itself from ink and home PCs (and visa versa).
Mozilla Labs Shuts Down
Mozilla's product think tank sinks silently into history.
Internet Giants Launch Collaboration to Improve Open Source
TODO group will focus on open source tools in large-scale environments.


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PLYMOUTH — A win, is a win, is a win... and Plymouth's Pilgrims made it three wins in their last four games with an extra inning NLC victory over Wawasee by a final of 7-6 in nine innings Wednesday.
"It was a good win," said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. "You have some of those games, what it comes down to is that we have seven and they have six, and that's all that matters. You'd like to get there a different way, but it is what it is."
"We could have folded. Just like Monday we got down, but we didn't. We battled back, got some bunts down there in the extra innings when we needed to and got guys in scoring position, and it paid off."
The Pilgrims were in position to win the game in "regulation" leading 4-3 with just three outs to play. Wawasee turned a pair of leadoff walks off Plymouth starter Joe Dragani in inning seven into three runs off reliever Bailey Clark, who entered and took a bunt from pinch hitter Bailey Yoder and threw it into right field.
Plymouth returned the favor in the bottom of the inning with leadoff singles by Braydon Davidson and Clark. Then in a wild series of events that included Trent Briles being hit by a pitch, a balk that wasn't, and RBIs by Cody Gamble and Justin Drudge, the Pilgrims found themselves headed to extras.
Clark shut down the Warriors (1-6) for two more frames, and in the ninth a wild pitch by Wawasee reliever Nate Hare plated Gamble with the winning run.
"Give Bailey credit, he battled back," said Wolfe. "He could have folded after that throw, but he didn't. He hung in there and gave us a couple innings, and he's there to get the win."
Plymouth starter Joey Dragani took the game into the seventh but had to give way after crossing the 100-pitch mark and surrendering the leadoff walks. He was still able to have another strong start, minimizing his early damage and giving the team a chance to win.
"He threw 55 pitches in innings one and two," said Wolfe. "I might have made a change earlier, but he told me he was alright and he showed me he could get his change up and curveball over, and he did a good job of battling back."
But it was a night for shortstop Justin Drudge, who ended the marathon with four hits in five at bats, including a double and RBI, scored two runs and set up the winning run with a perfect sacrifice bunt.
"Drudge has squared some balls up the last few games; he did a good job squaring some up tonight," said Wolfe "He's got great hands, anything on the outer half he drives to right field and with his speed I can do a lot of things with him up there at the top of the order."
Plymouth moves to 5-6 on the year and will be at NorthWood on Friday.
• PLYMOUTH 7,
WAWASEE 6 (9 inn.)
At Plymouth
Wawasee: 030 000 300 — 6 8 0
Plymouth: 310 000 201 — 7 10 2
Andrew Milligan, Drew Anderson 7, Jordan Currie 9 (LP), Nate Hare 9, and Nate Prescott; Joe Dragani, Bailey Clark 7 (WP 1-0), and Elijah Nixon.
2B: Anderson (W), Donovan Navarro (W), Justin Drudge (P), Trent Briles (P).
JV score: Wawasee 9, Plymouth 8


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Homestead Exemption applications are now being accepted for Tax Year 2015.
What is the Homestead Exemption?
Who is eligible?
How do I apply?
If you applied for the Homestead Exemption and your application was not approved, you may still be eligible. View the list of denial reasons and find out how to reapply.
A selection of terms relating to Homestead.


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Nine Months After Knee Injury, Kory Lichtensteiger Returns At Full Speed
By ZAC BOYER | firstname.lastname@example.com | @ZacBoyer
ASHBURN – When Kory Lichtensteiger woke up Friday morning, a day after the Washington Redskins' first full day of training camp, he expected his surgically repaired right knee to twinge with shooting pains.
Instead, it was his whole body that ached.
"My knee feels pretty good actually, all things considered," the left guard said. "Maybe it was the heat yesterday, but it was all I could focus on. I couldn't catch my breath. It wasn't anything else."
Nearly nine months removed from tearing the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his knee in a game against Philadelphia on Oct. 16, Lichtensteiger participated in his first full-speed practice when training camp began on Thursday. He went through individual and positional drills during spring workouts and in minicamp, but was held out of team drills by the coaching staff until returning this week.
The injury wasn't the sole reason why the Redskins lost 10 of their last 12 games, but it didn't help. Head coach Mike Shanahan said last season Lichtensteiger was the team's best offensive lineman at the time of his injury – their best run blocker and a competent pass protector who didn't allow a sack while playing every down until he got hurt.
"It was crushing – the low point of my career by far," the 6-foot-2, 284-pound Lichtensteiger said. "It was just shaping up to be a good year for the team and a good year for me individually, and you know, it kind of just all came crashing down at one point. Yeah, the lowest of the low for me."
Lichtensteiger said it won't be until the first preseason game against Buffalo on Aug. 9 until he's fully confident in the knee. The Redskins will hit, but not tackle, during training camp, and he's likely to be precautious about the knee until then.
"You can't simulate a game, or even an NFL practice, in a walkthrough," Lichtensteiger said. "When I got out there yesterday, there was still a little bit of hesitation at times, but as the practice went on, I realized, 'Hey, this thing's stable. It's just as good as it was before,' and I don't feel like I've lost a step at all."
Permalink: http://news.fredericksburg.com/redskinsjournal/2012/07/27/nine-months-after-knee-injury-kory-lichtensteiger-returns-at-full-speed/


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DokuWiki plugins
DokuWiki is a useful wiki system already, but you can take its functionality to a whole new level using some of the available plugins.
DokuWiki is an easy-to-use, open source wiki with an impressive feature set. In this article, I will show you how to turbo-charge DokuWiki with a few useful plugins, including gCalendar, Task, DataBase, and Blog.
Of the two ways to install plugins in DokuWiki, the easiest is to use Doku-Wiki's plugin manager in the Administration section. First, log in to DokuWiki as administrator, click the Admin button at the bottom of the page, and click on the Manage Plugins link. Enter the link to a plugin package in the URL field and press the Download button to install the specified plugin. The plugin manager requires write access to DokuWiki's lib/plugins directory, so it might not work on your particular DokuWiki installation.
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TOR Network Isn't So Anonymous
A new study says it is possible to unmask 81% of TOR users.
.NET Goes Open Source
Redmond joins the revolution by turning the .NET Core Runtime into a GitHub project.
Drupal Advisory Unleashes a Torrent of Attacks
Users only had 7 hours to update before the intrusions started.
HTML5 Gets Promoted to a Standard
It's official: The new web arrives
Linus Addresses Criticism for Harsh Language
Kernel king admits his tone has alienated volunteers, but says the demands of the process require directness.
New SSL Attack Lets a Malicious Listener Steal Session Cookies
New flaw in an old encryption scheme leaves the experts scrambling to disable SSL 3
Leading Open Source Coder Rants about Rants
Lennart Poettering wants to change the way Linux developers talk to each other.
HP Splits into Two Companies
Enterprise giant frees itself from ink and home PCs (and visa versa).
Mozilla Labs Shuts Down
Mozilla's product think tank sinks silently into history.
Internet Giants Launch Collaboration to Improve Open Source
TODO group will focus on open source tools in large-scale environments.