May 7, 2008
Morning Roundup: Primaries and Power Prices
Good morning, Washington. It's Wednesday, which means it's time to once again lament the interminability of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Barack Obama won handily in North Carolina; Hillary Clinton won by a narrower margin in Indiana. This likely means a net gain of a few delegates for Obama. In other words, very little has changed. However, it does seem like the press has finally grown tired of the contest, and is suddenly acknowledging what has been true for weeks: that there's no way for Senator Clinton to pull ahead of Senator Obama without an unexpected (and unlikely) intervention by the party's uncommitted superdelegates.
Dominion Seeks Rate Increase: Virginians may soon find their power bills climbing. The Post brings word that Dominion Power is seeking permission to increase its rates as a means of dealing with rising fuel costs. If the State Corporation Commission approves the request, customers' electricity costs would increase by about 18 percent.
Convicted Sniper Seeks to End Appeals Process: John Allen Muhammad, the man convicted and sentenced to death for masterminding the 2002 D.C.-area sniper killings, has written to Virginia prosecutors asking for help stopping the appeals process associated with his case, according to NBC4. Muhammad says that his lawyers' filing of appeals has occurred without his consent, and that he wants to waive his right to the process. He maintains his innocence, however, and his lawyers are expected to say that Muhammad is not competent to make these sorts of decisions.
Briefly Noted: MARC service disrupted after pedestrian struck and killed in Rockville... Southeast residents asked to conserve water after yesterday's watermain breaks... Proposed bill would put cameras on MPD cops' guns... Other proposed bill would allow diners to take leftover wine home... Manassas approves FiOS (no, D.C. residents still can't get it)... Herndon reelects mayor...
This Day In DCist: One year ago Metro was looking for buskers and DCist found itself in possession of a full-time editor.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user picture prefect
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happy one year anniversary Sommer. keep up the good work!
The best part of police gun cameras is that, if the gun jams, you can bludgeon the perp to death with it. Which of course paves the way for the Indestructible Pistol Whip Cam, made out of a recycled Betamax camera and an arquebus. That's some spicy steampunk police brutality!
Good to see Councilman Harry Thomas is on the cutting edge of convergence technology.
keep it up sommer, you're doing a bang-up job!
I think it's amazing Roy Pearson hasn't sued you yet. Probably too busy suing the coathanger manufacturer for ruining his pants.
RE: Dominion increase. NOOOO
Hopefully the water main break gets fixed soon and people can go back to drinking as much water as they please. How else are residents supposed to get their daily dose of free anti-seizure meds??
How about a posting on the yet-again increased DC budget deficit. We've gone from around $90M up to $130M or so.
Time for all city workers to shake the coins out of the couches.
anyone else annoyed at the NY Times article for using the titles of "Mr." and "Mrs." for Obama and Clinton? after reading months of "Sen." or just their last names, it almost looks degrading.
What is this "leftover" wine you mentioned?
The NYT always uses Mr. and Mrs. And they aren't only news outlet that does so. Browse through the Economist and you'll see that they regularly refer to Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton. No periods after the abbreviations though. Now THAT is degrading!
Re: McGillicuddy and IMGoph: I third that emotion. Congratulations on one year, Sommer. DCist rules, and you're a big reason why.
The "leftover" wine legislation will allow someone who purchases and entire bottle of wine, but doesn't finish it at a restaurant to have it re-corked, sealed in a special bag and taken home...most other states allow this...our boy Jim, who oddly hasn't met an ABC establishment he doesn't like, for some reason opposed this legislation, but fortunately he was the only one.
what TW said. That's just the NYT style. Has been forever. Wall Street Journal as well (well sort of. They do generally use titles like Sen./President, everyone else gets a Mr./Mrs.). Personally I'm not a huge fan of the style, but maybe that's because I've used AP style for the last 10 years of my life.
Any legislation that allows me to take the remains of my bottle of Thunderbird home from Hillman's stoop is alright in my book. I still reserve the right to pee on his flowering arbutus.
I'd be more impressed if the bill let you take the wine home in a box.
Re: Mr/Mrs Obama-Clinton
In the Post's Style Invitational contest *many* years ago (mid-90s I'd guess), the contest was to come up with a tag for the Post equivalent to the NYT's "All the news that's fit to print". There were *many* humorous suggestions, the one relevant to this discussion was
"At least we don't have to call him 'Mr. Hussein' "
or updating for today maybe
"At least we don't have to call him 'Mr. Bin Laden.' "
[The winner, by the way, was "All the news that's fit to prinf". Many other suggestions were about corrections as well.]
Gun Cameras
Exactly what police need, a large, bulky camera attached to a gun that they may need to pull in a split second. I can't imagine that this would be a good idea.
who doesnt finish a bottle of wine?
I really can't think of a reason not to support the "doggie bottle" bill. Seems like everyone wins--except maybe the waitstaff, who might have otherwise downed the remnants after their shift.
But pehaps it's the idea that this opens a loophole in the city's law concerning liquor sales beyond sanctioned hours. We know what the intended consequence of the law is: you are having dinner, you order a bottle of wine, you drink some, you take the rest home. Now imagine someone cracks the cork at midnight--well after the 10 PM limit, then immediately has the waitstaff seal it. This is the equivalent of selling an entire bottle of wine, thus subverting the Disrict's holiest of holy blue laws. One might even try to have them --gasp-lock up your daughters--seal an unopened bottle right there and take it home. Just walk up to the bar, order, and take it home. You'd be giving restaurants the power to sell wine after the doors had been locked at the corner grocery stores and Ho Foods. Dear Lord, I can see the four horsemen now.
Now, one might argue that if public safety related to drinking were of such paramount importance they should stop liquor sales EVERYWHERE at the same time, but now, I guess we won't want to get too many panties in a bunch after all.
Way I see it is: if you're willing to go through that trouble, and pay the 100% markup, you deserve to get the hooch.
If you think the "Mr." and "Mrs." label is annoying, take a look at the New Yorker. They put freakin umlauts on the word "reelect". Thanks New Yorker, without that fancy umlaut I would have gone around wondering why all these candidates wanted to be "re-lected", when getting lected once would seem to be enough.
comment of the week goes to McGullicuddy
No, I'm not at all annoyed. As previously mentioned, it's standard NYT style. GOPists got their panties in a wad about "Mr. Bush" and "Mr. bin Laden" after 9/11, and "Mr. Hussein" in the runup to Iraq.
So why doesn't Verizon expand FIOS into the District? Bad infrastructure? Contractual agreements? The District would not be a lucrative market?
@G Lover: I agree - this is a good law since it treats wine-drinking adults as (shock! gasp!) adults. But the more fun angle is that Jim Graham lost two consecutive votes dealing with alcohol. He sees that as his personal and exclusive domain. So for him to have gone 0-2 on those votes, he must not be a happy camper today.
@trebek: DC is negotiating with Verizon on getting Fios here. Verizon has focused on suburbs first, and then urban areas. I think the last Fios prediction was that it should be offered here by the end of this year or early 2009. Fios is also now expanding into NYC.
If you check the FIOS Google map, their rollout doesn't seem to make much sense. Huge swaths of NoVA, really affluent parts, have zero coverage. Really piecemeal; but with all the Cox/Comcast hate, Verizon could really clean up.
i'm sure in time, people will learn to hate FIOS/Verizon just as much as they hate Comcast.
that being said, the day i can get FIOS in my house is the day i'll have to immediately change my underpants.
Even once Verizon decides to bless DC with its Fios presence, if you live in an apartment building, you're probably looking at another huge fight and wait getting it from the street to your TV.
My question: I've got one of those fancy HD tee-vees. However, the quality of even the HD channels seems to be pretty variable (i.e. digital noise, particularly when there's a lot of movement on the screen). I surmise that the digital noise is the result of bad compression. Does FIOS have less or otherwise better compression such that there is less digital noise?
We finally got the FIOS in Moco and it was the happiest day of my life! I loves it sooo much! So many people are switching from Comcast that Verizon has had to bring in workers from other parts of the country to keep up. Apparently they come here on 3 month tours working 6 days a week and getting some ridiculous amount of money to do it.
My MoCo friends who switched from Comcast to Fios are also deeply (in heart) with it. They say they never saw porn download so quickly.
From what I've heard, don't expect FiOS in the District anytime soon. I'd say the end of 2009 would be extremely optimistic.
In the meantime, does anyone know why RCN isn't more widely available? My friends who have their service love it, and it seems to be worlds better than Comcast (more/better HD channels, faster, more reliable internet, phone service, etc.)
Reid: According to Verzion, they don't do additional video compression (the signal that they receive is already compressed).
After adamsmorgan's and ces12's comments, I kinda wish I hadn't said anything.
What a couple of comedy killers.
I recall signing up on the Fios page circa 2005 to be notified when it was available. Still nothing. I would not hold my breath.
I assume FIOS won't be in DC soon because installing all the necessary fiber optics in the District will be a little difficult than out in the suburbs. And frankly, I hope DC doesn't revisit it's policy of the from the late 90s/early '00s of letting companies haphazardly dig up city streets to lay cable, etc. But given the way the city operates, I'm sure that's what will happen, if/when Verizon or others decide to do the upgrades.
"Reid: According to Verzion, they don't do additional video compression (the signal that they receive is already compressed)."
Does Comcast do video compression, or is the compression I see a product of the original feed?
Bob I was with ya and then Adams killed it....
Comcast does additional compression. There was an AP article about this recently:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiPYwYib2axruGqnjHWVYBagm3WQD905PKIO0
And apparently a Post article, too, but it seems to mainly just be repackaging the AP article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042800037.html
GOPists got their panties in a wad about "Mr. Bush" and "Mr. bin Laden" after 9/11, and "Mr. Hussein" in the runup to Iraq.
Anything that pisses off the GOP is aces with me.
i'm sure in time, people will learn to hate FIOS/Verizon just as much as they hate Comcast.
You're absolutely right. All things considered, Comcast isn't completely worthless; but that still doesn't keep me from hating them with a fiery passion that consumes my soul.
Politburo, Reid: for specific screenshots, see here and here for specific examples of what Comcast's compression does to the signal. It's pretty miserable.
Cable, telco, satellite, and yes FIOS all compress their HD content. It's just a matter of how much you're willing to put up with. With providers looking to crowbar more channels into a finite bandwidth, this is only going to get worse.
ah, thanks for the info everyone. i've never been an avid NYT reader - stuck to the Jersey papers when i lived there - and around here, i'm known to buy the Post from the newsbox across from my house.
Rat:
It's the simple fact that you felt the need to post your Comcast hate to it's own web page that makes me feel a special sortof love for you.
I'll never forget when I first moved to DC and had Comcast. I called to complain about serious 'ghosting' issues, and they actually had the balls to tell me that this sort of thing was to be expected in 'new technology'.
I'm a bit surprised they didn't charge me twice. I mean, I was getting the images twice, right?
Anyone that can should switch to satellite TV. FAR better customer service (at least with DirecTV) and a lot more HD channels. But Comcast's On Demand is a pretty cool feature that DirecTV hasn't really got (even though they claim they do).
Anyone that can should switch to satellite TV. FAR better customer service (at least with DirecTV) and a lot more HD channels.
I've heard conflicting reports on DirectTV's customer service. Like Comcast, DirectTV often uses sub-contractors to do their installations and there are a number of horror stories about them. One guy in particular told me about a dangerously shoddy dish install they did that blew off the roof two months ago and has yet to be fixed.
BTW, the Comcast hate page was simply a Twitter update.
If MPD officers get gun-cameras, will they be required to yell "Smile when you say that!" when they draw their weapons, or will "Say cheese" suffice?
I seem to recall that one of the reasons Verizon was not installing FiOS in the District was because the City Council insisted they wire the entire City. Verizon would rather cherry-pick neighborhoods, as they have done in the suburbs. It is more cost-effective for them to only wire neighborhoods where they are installing new plant anyway, or where density and income lead them to believe they will maximize their return on investment. Verizon balked at this and decided to just skip the District. Of course, as Reid noted, if you live in an apartment or condo, the fact that a FiOS line passes your building does not mean you can get it.
As far as Starpower (RCN) goes, they did file a plan to wire the entire City, but due to their insolvency, they have not been able to complete their network. I have been on their waiting list almost ten years. According to their most recent 10K filing, "Our losses are principally attributable to insufficient revenue to cover our operating expenses, which we expect will remain significant."
Interesting. Cherry-picking neighborhoods totally makes sense from a business perspective. Hopefully, they'll pick my cherry.
HR - The only problems I've had with DirectTV were because I screwed something up (messing with the wrong wires and accidentally knocking a dish out of alignment), or the cable company screwed up. Both times, the guys sent out the fix the problem went out of their way to get me up and running. Unlike, say, the Comcast people who rewires boxes at the wrong address.