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1960 preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In much of the south, blacks were considered the equivalent of beasts. The Catholic Church still abducted native Americans from their families and put them in Catholic schools, reasoning that their tribal culture did not meet the standards of rational thought. For a more academic viewpoint, check out the 1971 book The Pre-Columbian Mind, where a MD/historian Francisco Guerra weighs historical evidence to promote the viewpoint that people living in indigenous societies were indeed capable of rational thought. Or, maybe have a look into the Eugenics movement. http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Weak-Eugenics-Americas/dp/0914153056/ref=sr_1_1 It's unwise to assume that the vast majority holds your intelligent, enlightened opinions.

I have nineteen titles on amazon: four novels in my science fiction comedy series, one novel in a junior science fiction series, and a bunch of short stories and collections. They're all on Kindle/Smashwords/Apple/etc except the junior SF novel, which is Kindle only. So, I just switched that one over to Amazon Kindle Select just to see what happens.

It's still available in print, and the only reason the junior novel didn't make it to Smashwords is because they insist on DOC files.

Heh heh I love the irony! I have to agree, I tried some of the $3 books on Amazon and probably won't try any more. The books were sorely in need of not only basic error correction but some professional editing. Contradictory plot elements, repetitive characters, and other nightmares were common. I wouldn't look forward to self-published world, unless 'edited by xxxx' became a valuable marketing tool where people shopped editors as well as authors. Meanwhile, I don't begrudge a few extra dollars for the added service of a professional editor.

Blatant self-vertisement. Try mine: http://www.sff.net/people/N7DR or http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001HD36FU. You will not find the kind of errors you mention. I work very, very hard on the content of my books and the formating for the hard-copy versions (I use plain TeX). The weak point is formatting for the e-book versions. I hate the lack of control. It's still better than most of the others I've seen, but it's far from the perfection I seek in other aspects of my creations.

The huge problem is how to distinguish oneself from the dross that, as you say, fills the self-published universe. I haven't got that figured out at all.

Exactly! You can read all about this in my eBook about Value and Quality!

http://www.amazon.com/Her-Own-Words-After-death-Princess/dp/0967596130

I guess we were speaking of different discworlds :-)
I meant Niven's one: http://www.amazon.com/Ringworld-Larry-Niven/dp/0345333926/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3

add on to my post:

http://www.amazon.com/End-Fed-Ron-Paul/product-reviews/0446549193/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

Yes, not even Amazon has any sub-100 dollar bluetooth mice. And the certainly have no sub-100 dollar bluetooth keyboards either!

And don't even get me started on Apple and their price gouging 100$+ mice, keyboards and trackpads! Granted, I can't find any 100$+ keyboards, mice or trackpads on Apple's store, but I'm sure they're there! It's not like you'd just pull that 100$+ number out of your ass, right?

Yes, not even Amazon has any sub-100 dollar bluetooth mice. And the certainly have no sub-100 dollar bluetooth keyboards either!

And don't even get me started on Apple and their price gouging 100$+ mice, keyboards and trackpads! Granted, I can't find any 100$+ keyboards, mice or trackpads on Apple's store, but I'm sure they're there! It's not like you'd just pull that 100$+ number out of your ass, right?

Not that I'm a staunch defender of Twitter (I actually hope it dies sooner rather than later), but that isn't to say one can't use it for interesting research. See Duncan Watts' Everything is Obvious Once You Know the Answer

For a DSLR simply buy a spare Battery Power Grip http://www.amazon.com/Zeikos-ZE-CBG50-Battery-Power-Canon/dp/B001E0Y3KI/ref=sr_1_16?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1323318130&sr=1-16/ and you get to use regular AAs

I don't think current battery technology lasts that long, especially store bought AA's.

It's a good thing Amazon sells batteries with future technology then. ;-)

Timex makes several watches with an advertized battery life of 10 years.

Besides, the battery doesn't particularly need to be in any standard form factor if it will never be replaced.

You mean one day in the future we'll be able to have one of these?

Boy, can't wait...

Already exists from Logitech, though it uses Logitech's standard RF receiver, and is not BT. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Solar-Keyboard-K750/dp/B004MF11MU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323304614&sr=8-1

Transfer in is currently free as a promotion, but yeah transfer out is pricey.

For what it's worth, I don't think free inbound transfer is a promotion. If it is, it sure isn't presented that way on their pricing page.

Obviously that doesn't change the fact that outbound transfer is on the expensive side.

In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.

Yeah but have you seen how cheap the report is from IDC? It's a mere $3,500.00 which is a steal considering I just shelled out twelve and a half large for their forecast on computing devices. My god, the forecast I bought was a piddly 27 page PDF while this Windows 8 report is a weighty tome totaling 17 pages in girth and might even result in a printed copy that that I can set on my desk and hold down with a real human skull paperweight completely encrusted with diamonds. At this price, I am buying one copy for every member of my extended family -- these things will make great stocking stuffers next to moon rocks, 1913 Liberty Nickels and the keys to each person's personalized yacht. Of course he tweeted the meat and potatoes of this report -- they're practically GIVING it away on their site already! Be sure to stock up on these before they sell out!

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/

For 500GB you are looking at 46.50 or $70 a month for storage alone. I'd think the transfer costs (HTTP traffic) would be pennies based on the traffic patterns described.

You won't be able to use rsync ... but I'd guess there are solutions our there that allow mirror like functionality you describe.

Addendum: with an Arduino you could do it even cheaper and you could build it this weekend, although it would involve more DIY software dev and result in less overall capability (with a Raspberry Pi and a tiny USB wifi module you could read RSS feeds or email, etc).

Arduino would be about $20; Longtech makes a cheap 128x64 LCD for $17, keyboard would be $10, and if you fabbed the case yourself for free, total cost would be about $50.

Perhaps you should try building one with a Raspberry Pi (once they're released)? A credit card-sized 700 MHz ARMv6 board with SD storage, USB, and it can run off a pair of AA's. You could connect a small cheap 128x64 monochrome LCD like this one from Sparkfun to the GPIO, hook up a keyboard, and run a minimal Debian distribution.

$25 for the Raspberry Pi, $40 or so for the LCD, $10 for the keyboard; throw another $25 in to order a 3D-printed plastic case, use an old 1 GB SD card....total cost would be around $100.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-04y.html

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/06/the_economics_o.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_9_115/ai_n27050480/?tag=content;col1

http://matter2energy.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/space-power/

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2011/01/08/january-8-2011/#Voyager+Launches+the+Third+Age+of+Discovery

http://www.economist.com/node/18897425

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/06/the-high-frontier-redux.html

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/10/why-not-space/

Space Nutters generally also have an overabundance of blind, naive enthusiasm for almost anything vaguely sci-fi sounding, the limitless growth of the human species, that there will even BE a human species 100000 years from now, etc... But mention life extension research and all of a sudden they turn into the most rabid anti-technological, skeptical "don't mess with Nature" types.

We'll never understand biological processes that occur all over the planet and require little energy, but we'll have Martian colonies (entire COLONIES) and all the other space garbage that require stupendous resource-inputs for zero return, no problem.

Oh, and the absolute Bible for Space Nutters:

http://www.amazon.com/Millennial-Project-Colonizing-Galaxy-Eight/dp/0316771635/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323225862&sr=8-1

The amount of delusion and flat-out denial needed to believe in the claptrap that Space Nutters do makes it a religion to me.

Sorry, but that's the first thing I think of when a new super material is described.

I can't think of any other technology that, barring a really huge breakthrough (like anti-gravity) would truly make space travel a practical reality for millions. Even Arthur C. Clarke in his "Fountains of Paradise" book alluded to this saying that the supposedly hyper-efficient rockets of the future would create so much environmental damage (pollution, sonic booms) that really heavy traffic couldn't be sustained.

Maybe if we had cold fusion (or something like it like muon catalyzed fusion or zero-point energy) space travel on a large scale would be practical but these "breakthroughs" might be just as far (or impossibly far!) away.

By the way, did anyone see the developments (at MIT?) where they showed a nano structured "tape" able to support the weight of a full grown man with only a few inches of surface area? And it was able to be re-used thousands of times before using its grip? Perhaps the space elevator could be made of material structured this way, I mean if that thing is ever going to be built it will essentially be a gigantic 23,000 mile long SINGLE MOLECULE anyway so nano structuring should be almost trivial!

Perhaps magnetic catapults, a la The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress?

Every day: http://amazon.com/kindledailydeal

There already are several sub-$100 Android tablets out there. Here's one, for example: http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-SYTAB7MX-7-Inch-Screen-MiniTablet/dp/B0065DVTHO/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1323185519&sr=1-8

Spoiler alert: the reason they're not sweeping the nation is because they're crappy. Quality does matter.

This reminded me of a post regarding thoughts on Yellow Dog Linux being ported to velocity's stuff. It made me wonder if a more X11 friendly version of Linux could be ported to another inexpensive tablet running MIPS. Maybe more tablets like these will help make that happen. I'm getting to like the idea of running a phone inside Xnest.

They did not remove SACD playback. SACD playback was no longer available in new models, because there is no market at all for SACD titles, so it wasn't seen as a useful feature anymore. But your PS3 will keep playing SACD titles forever. Assuming that you really have SACD titles at home, since nobody sells them anymore.

Nobody sells them? At all?

Weird.

There's like 7500 matches for SACD music on Amazon.

Are all of these in error?

From my perspective, they played very little part. The signs of digital's dominance have been around for a decade, at least..

Real, trained, professional photographers adopted digital photography as early as 2000. It meant they could take hundreds of pictures of an event, with practically no overhead cost. An assistant could pick out the few not-terrible shots, and they would be sent to the traditional lab (or a minilab) for printing.

The first megapixel cameras were still slower than film cameras, so a good photographer going to an event (such as a wedding) would have a digital camera on hand for routine use (like taking pictures of the bridal party, preparations, and decorations), but still keep a film camera loaded and ready for moments of action (like exchanging rings), hoping for that perfect shot when something spectacular happens (like when the groom goes diving for the falling ring).

Photography (when done well) is a fast-paced and high-risk business. If a wedding photographer misses some special moment because they were reloading a camera, they can and do get sued. When digital became even remotely practical (several thousand dollars for a 2-megapixel DSLR), professionals jumped at the opportunity.

That improvement didn't come without its own problems, though. Many labs couldn't handle the differences in workflows, and that drove up their prices. Now, lab prices aren't very high compared to photographers' rates (about $10 for an 8x10 with finishing coat and manual retouching (which will be the comparison henceforth), compared to the $20-$50 that the photographer will likely charge), but the lack of integration also meant that orders often were lost, delayed, or damaged, and storing several gigabytes of pictures (at $10/GB) for each event was impractical for a small studio. As workflows, cameras, and hard disks improved, film became less important as a fallback, and digital was very clearly the future.

The next major change came in minilabs. I've mentioned them in passing already, but they deserve more discussion. As also mentioned, a full professional lab could produce an 8x10 for $10. That involves having several people preparing the film (or disk), moving it between chemical processors (or workstations), darkrooms, and printers, sitting at desks painting the white spots where dust prevented the paper from being exposed, spraying the print with any of several finishes, and eventually packaging the whole thing for shipping. A professional lab could easily fill a 30,000 square foot building. A minilab does the same job in a 60 cubic foot space. It's what you'll see in the back of a Wal-mart or pharmacy photo department now, but back in 2000 their quality was still catching up to the full capabilities of a professional lab. It cost about $0.65 for that same 8x10.

The "photogs" I see now are working in a different sort of industry. Sure, they can press a shutter button and arrange a decent shot, but I often question their ability to anticipate the "Kodak moments" than make photo albums entertaining. Many will take pictures, and provide the digital copies, but don't understand how artistic retouching and finishes can improve an effect. Sure, there's a lot of 'em, but I don't see them as being major players in the professional supply industry. There's enough "real" photographers out there that trends are still obvious.

For comparison, consider the differences between the bona fide audio engineering industry (where digital mixers and cheap-but-unique equipment reigns supreme, and professionals can artistically combine processors to achieve a particular desired sound) and the audiophile-supply industry (where noisy analog processors, vinyl, and high-purity copper digital cables are believed to sound "better" by being highly distorted).

Source: I used to work for a lab that was one of the first to integrate a complete digital ordering system (including a minilab, ironically) into their workflow. Said lab was eventually driven out of business in 2007 as minilab quality and prices drastically cut down the number of customers.

It wasn't a shot at religion, it was a shot at religious fanaticism. There's a difference, and pretending otherwise is disingenuous at best.

Oh, come come -- this is a story about how many of us scientists don't just believe in invisible tea-sets in space (Russell's accusation of religion), we believe there's more invisible tea-sets (dark matter) than visible matter! And bet millions of dollars of research funding on that belief. While the chap who's saying "maybe there's no dark matter" is fighting an uphill battle. Trying to knock religion isn't going to do anyone many favours in this thread.

Hostilities were opened a long time ago. Your objection makes as much sense as saying to the captain of a US Navy ship, "I agree that if that Japanese ship over there shoots at us, we should blow them out of the water, but can we just hold off the hostilities until in happens?" in 1943.

An utterly misleading analogy -- to make it more realistic you'd need a large number of sailors to be simultaneously on both boats and (same study) only a small minority of the US Navy ship's crew to be actively hostile to the Japanese ship.

I can't find the blog or news site where I originally saw this, but they gave a perfect example of a design that Samsung could have used that wouldn't violate any of Apple's design patents:

http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-LeapPad-Explorer-Learning-Tablet/dp/B004Z7H07K

Habitable doesn't mean complex life though.

Lots of things about the habitable zone environment you are leaving out.

1) Is there a moon to stabilize the axis of the planet? This is turning out to be a very critical requirement the more it is studied.
2) Is the Planet tidally locked to its star? See number 1, which if it doesn't have a moon probably is which would dramatically reduce the chances of complex life developing.
3) Does the habitable zone have a gravitational well to reduce the number of impacts planets orbiting in the habitable zone suffer? Also very very important for complex life to evolve. In our case we have Jupiter outside the habitable zone protecting Mars and Earth from large numbers of impacts. It sucks in or ejects objects out of the way of the Earth and Mars. Also stabilizes the solar system from outside invaders.
4) Does the Star have the right metal content? Also very important. It turns out stars like our sun with a large metal content have very long lives and very stable output. Can't be a variable star, and it has to shine steady for a _very_ long time so it can't be very big either. Very important for complex life to evolve.

I think the best book written on the subject is Peter Ward's "Rare Earth".

http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/dp/0387952896/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323124580&sr=8-1

Lots and lots of things have to happen for animals to evolve. Very well thought out.

Until NASA starts qualifying its planets in much more detail, habitable zone doesn't really mean much for life by itself in my book.

-Hack

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-tablet-barnes-noble/1104687969
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Amazon-Tablet/dp/B0051VVOB2/ref=amb_link_359054002_4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0AFK4GHC3RQ6S7FCBEQR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1337057902&pf_rd_i=507846
http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TF101-A1-10-1-Inch-Tablet-Separately/dp/B004U78J1G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323112954&sr=8-1

The results disagree with that assessment.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-tablet-barnes-noble/1104687969
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Amazon-Tablet/dp/B0051VVOB2/ref=amb_link_359054002_4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0AFK4GHC3RQ6S7FCBEQR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1337057902&pf_rd_i=507846
http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TF101-A1-10-1-Inch-Tablet-Separately/dp/B004U78J1G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323112954&sr=8-1

The results disagree with that assessment.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

The thing I don't like about the Zagg keyboards is that they are just a tad too small. I understand that they are trying to fit the form factor of the iPad for creating a nice looking and natural feeling case. So I use the Zagg when I am on the go, but use a standard apple wireless keyboard when I am at my desk. I can't say I have completely switched over to the iPad for productivity apps, though, I prefer a much larger screen for my workspace.

Surely if you connect a keyboard to a tablet device you just destroyed the entire point of having a tablet. What you want is a lightweight laptop or netbook instead.

The thing I don't like about the Zagg keyboards is that they are just a tad too small. I understand that they are trying to fit the form factor of the iPad for creating a nice looking and natural feeling case. So I use the Zagg when I am on the go, but use a standard apple wireless keyboard when I am at my desk. I can't say I have completely switched over to the iPad for productivity apps, though, I prefer a much larger screen for my workspace.

Surely if you connect a keyboard to a tablet device you just destroyed the entire point of having a tablet. What you want is a lightweight laptop or netbook instead.

The thing I don't like about the Zagg keyboards is that they are just a tad too small. I understand that they are trying to fit the form factor of the iPad for creating a nice looking and natural feeling case. So I use the Zagg when I am on the go, but use a standard apple wireless keyboard when I am at my desk. I can't say I have completely switched over to the iPad for productivity apps, though, I prefer a much larger screen for my workspace.

The thing I don't like about the Zagg keyboards is that they are just a tad too small. I understand that they are trying to fit the form factor of the iPad for creating a nice looking and natural feeling case. So I use the Zagg when I am on the go, but use a standard apple wireless keyboard when I am at my desk. I can't say I have completely switched over to the iPad for productivity apps, though, I prefer a much larger screen for my workspace.

They sure shot a lot of SAMs at something they "didn't intend to down"... why would they do that?

(Incidentally, this book is a pretty interesting read if you're into this stuff...)

Try the introduction.

Looking at the specs, does the 1GB RAM limitation have a negative impact on performance? I have also heard complaints on the responsiveness of the UI at times, is that still an issue?

While the political themes of Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy beginning with Red Mars have divided readers, I found the constitutional debates within to be fascinating. The settlers of Mars come together in a constitutional convention that takes new, present-day technology and ecological themes into account, and examine a far larger set of models of political organization than the American Founding Fathers knew about. Junking it all and starting from scratch seems like a wonderful opportunity. Ever since I read those books in the mid-1990s, I've felt sad that not only is American democracy co-opted by special interests and the inevitability of a stagnant two-party system, but even at best it would be limited to a late 18th-century worldview.

If you want a computer spscificly built as a media center, you're going to spend more for less just for the fancy case.

Except a fancy case has a much better spouse acceptance factor than a big, loud tower. What's the most cost-effective way to address media center PC aesthetics?

Hiding the PC in a cabinet or closet somewhere is a great option, especially with HDMI and SPDIF, both of which can be quite long without major signal loss. You'll just need an IR extender for the remote capabilities though. As for cost-effectiveness with an HTPC case, here's a good looking somewhat inexpensive HTPC case. Thermaltake and SilverStone are, IMHO, the two to look at. Their cases are both beautiful and very well built.

Singular is playing a single player game, plural if playing a multi player game.

Provided the game even supports multiple controllers. Console games are historically much more likely to support this sort of multiplayer than major-label PC games. Otherwise, no matter how many controllers I have plugged into a hub, the game is going to see only one and expect the other players to be using their own computers and their own copies of the game.

Yeah, that could be a problem with PC games. Not many of them support multi players on the same system. Then, again, most of the popular console games are single player locally as well. Like I said though, I'm not a hard core gamer, so I could be wrong on this. It just seems to me that most of the multi local player games are for kids, and that seems to be changing as well. The trend now seems to be network gaming - something where they can siphon even more money out of the players wallet with monthly or yearly fees.

Oh, and in case you're too lazy or stupid to scroll up and find the link you responded to, here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Personal-Cloud-Storage/dp/B0047FL85U

Go on. Take a good long look at it and hang your idiot head in shame.

If you have a P-Key, a Cable lock terminator tool and a Jonard F Connector Torque Wrench, Speed Head, 30 in/lbs, you can always cancel cable completely, wait until the cable guy disconnects you, and then go downstairs/out to your cable box and hook yourself for free. Just be sure not to tell anybody.

You will get all of the extended basic lineup, the digital channels for your local feeds, and probably your cable company's "premium music service" for free if you have a standard television with an ASTC tuner. Once you hook yourself up, do a channel scan, and you'll have a package somewhere between the Digital cable package, and Basic extended, (since you will still recieve local digital and "Radio on TV" stations.

Maybe if Amazon, Google and a few other major cloud storage providers take a huge hit, they'll tell the government to fix the situation.

No, shops large enough to have influence are likewise large enough to simply setup European subsidiaries, with hardware in Europe and a cadre of European compliance officers, and it's business as usual. "You can choose a Region to optimize for latency, minimize costs, or address regulatory requirements ... Objects stored in a Region never leave the Region unless you transfer them out. For example, objects stored in the EU (Ireland) Region never leave the EU." http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ (emphasis added)

note to self research iPhone controlled bidet

Not quite an iphone, but one with a remote control

It doesn't matter how hard you try the vast majority of the world's books, music, films, television and art, you will never see.[1]

Consider books alone.

If you read two books a week for your whole life, that's about 6500 books.

Two full Kindles worth.

The number of book titles on Amazon.com is: 1,748,230 [2]

[1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/04/21/135508305/the-sad-beautiful-fact-that-were-all-going-to-miss-almost-everything
[2] http://askville.amazon.com/book-titles-amazon/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=7298162

That's why I use the Personal Cloud

You must be living in USA, the country of locked phones, but just check the Nexus line, Sony Ericcson and even Nokia

You must be living in USA, the country of locked phones, but just check the Nexus line, Sony Ericcson and even Nokia

You lose, sucker.

No Contract iPhone 4 8GB $549
No Contract Galaxy SII 16GB $552.45

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-i9100-Unlocked-Smartphone-Touchscreen/dp/B004QTBQ2C