Month: February 2016

(credit: TheBen91)

Google Fiber recently went live in apartments and condos in Atlanta, making it the fourth metro area to get Google's gigabit Internet service. Perhaps not coincidentally, Reddit user TheBen91 yesterday posted the above photo of a mailing from Comcast, in which the nation's largest cable company tries to convince customers that it offers a better deal than Google Fiber.

"So I got this in the mail today. I think someone is scared of Fiber coming to Atlanta," the user wrote.

Comcast's mailing touts "The fastest in-home Wi-Fi," "9X more FREE TV shows and movies On Demand," "DVR recordings to go," and the "X1 voice remote" as features that Google Fiber doesn't offer. Notably absent from the Comcast/Google Fiber comparison are prices and data caps. Google Fiber offers gigabit downloads and uploads for $70 a month, without any monthly data caps. "Basic Internet" of 100Mbps costs $50 for Google customers in Atlanta.

Mad Catz was counting on these plastic instruments to save its business. They didn't.

Things are looking mighty grim for long-lived gaming accessory maker Mad Catz this week, the company perhaps best known for making those cheap off-brand controllers you forced your younger sibling to use. Despite seeing significant sales from a publishing deal for Harmonix's Rock Band 4, Mad Catz announced that it is laying off 37 percent of its staff amid massive financial losses and a significant executive restructuring.

There were hints of trouble earlier in the week, when Mad Catz announced that longtime President and CEO Darren Richardson was resigning, alongside SVP of Business Affairs Whitney Peterson. Then the real bad news came down last night in the form of the company's quarterly earnings report: a $4.36 million loss for the last nine months of 2015, up from an $809,000 loss from a year before.

Mad Catz has been in dire financial straits since last summer, when the company notified investors that it was at risk of defaulting on its debt. At the time, Mad Catz executives said they were counting on a Rock Band 4 publishing deal to lead to "significant growth in sales and gross profit."

Rest assured, the EPA is not coming for your racing car. Besides, it was already illegal to remove the emissions equipment in the first place. (credit: Alex Bellus)

The Environmental Protection Agency is at the center of another controversy, this time with automotive racers and enthusiasts. At issue is a proposed rule that sounds to some like the EPA wants to ban anyone from turning a road car into a track-only toy or race car.

Last July, the EPA published a lengthy 629-page proposed rule called "Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles—Phase 2." Buried within the text was an amendment to an existing federal rule that reiterated Clean Air Act policy on road vehicles equipped with emissions controls. According to that rule, owners, operators, aftermarket companies, and service businesses may not tamper with or remove emissions equipment on vehicles so fitted, be they dedicated race cars or not.

The two-month window for public comments on the proposed rule came and went (closing on September 11, 2015) with little notice or fuss. But earlier this week, the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer's Association (SEMA) circulated a press release claiming that the "EPA Seeks to Prohibit Conversion of Vehicles Into Racecars." While this headline correctly assesses the EPA's position, it overstates the notion that anything has changed. Regardless, it inflamed passions in the racing and car enthusiast world in no time.