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John Shirley wrote in the 90s about just such systems, and how terrorists/freedom fighters* can and will game them.

Eclipse: http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Song-Called-Youth-Book/dp/1930235003

* Depends on your point of view, innit? (Well, if you're willing to disregard little niceties like the distinction between "combatant" and "civilian".)

problems

As are you. In her book "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression" the political economist Amity Shlaes argues FDR's economic policies lengthened the Great Depression. Economist Milton Friedman goes further, he argues "The Great Depression Could Have Been Avoided if the Fed Had Not So Badly Botched Its Monetary Policy". Why the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act practically shutdown international trade in 1930. In retaliation other nations passed their own protectionist and anti-trade laws. The US was a great exporter but new tariffs drove US employers out of business.

the only entity that can truly stimulate demand is government.

Again BS!!! If you're so dense you believe that then how do you explain Al Capone and all the other MAFIA figures who became rich, and dead, during Prohibition and the War on Drugs going on now? No, people stimulate demand by wanting to buy, and by having the money to do so. People will even steal from others to get the money. Witness the gangland warfare south of the US/Mexican border, which is spilling over into the US. Legal, and taxed, drugs would end most of the violence. And releasing all those non-violent drug offenders will turn them from a drain on taxes to tax payers.

Falcon

I read Bruce Schneier's Secrets and Lies, and in one chapter, he describes different tiers of access controls, ranging from discretionary access control, as on Linux, Unix, and newer versions of Windows, to mandatory access control, based on the Bell-LaPadula model, which I can't imagine using for anything but narrowly defined tasks. In Schneier, and elsewhere I've read descriptions of the more restrictive access controls, I get the impression that there are decades of experience with implementing these systems, that sure, Linux or Windows are fine for kids playing games, but people doing anything important are using operating systems with security systems that make damned sure you're using your system only for its intended purpose.

And yet, as people pointed out above, the article points out that the IT staff was using malware removal advice from Kaspersky's public Website, which strongly implies that the infected systems are running some version of Windows and the malware is common.

So, if the US military isn't using strict access controls or other exceptionally strong security measures when the stakes are this high, if they're just using conventional operating systems that everyone uses, then who ever actually uses secure operating systems?

Rossi stands on the shoulders of giants.

Thanks for the comment and reading what I wrote.

Herbert Snorrason might agree with you (and this is not to disagree):
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/msg/b9664aa1473d6d53?hl=en
"But there's another point I want to make: I'm a humanities major; history, in particular. That's a subject not exactly known for clarity or brevity. But even so, you manage to surpass everything I've read during my studies. That includes the writings of people like Karl Marx. In the original.
    Say what you will, but that doesn't seem very practical-minded to me. "

I guess that leaves lots of work for others to say what I say in better ways. :-) Which might be a good thing given stuff coming out of the lab like this: :-)
    "PR2 Fetches Sandwich from Subway "
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIYRQC2iBp0

One attempt by me to be less verbose and more clear and simple: :-)
"The Richest Man in the World: A parable about structural unemployment and a basic income"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p14bAe6AzhA

It would help to have better tools for everyone to have better discussions:
http://pcast.ideascale.com/a/dtd/-The-need-for-FOSS-intelligence-tools-for-sensemaking-etc.-/76207-8319

I guess the key point is that cheap energy, like cheap robots, can be in many cases be substituted for human labor and human intelligence and so the economy is fundamentally transformed.

Links you might like about the research-proven value of detailed diverse discussions:
http://www.amazon.com/Difference-Diversity-Creates-Schools-Societies/dp/0691128383
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/researcher-responds-to-arguments-over-his-theory-of-arguing/
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Focused-Conversation-Access-Workplace/dp/0865714169

Thanks for the comment and reading what I wrote.

Herbert Snorrason might agree with you (and this is not to disagree):
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/msg/b9664aa1473d6d53?hl=en
"But there's another point I want to make: I'm a humanities major; history, in particular. That's a subject not exactly known for clarity or brevity. But even so, you manage to surpass everything I've read during my studies. That includes the writings of people like Karl Marx. In the original.
    Say what you will, but that doesn't seem very practical-minded to me. "

I guess that leaves lots of work for others to say what I say in better ways. :-) Which might be a good thing given stuff coming out of the lab like this: :-)
    "PR2 Fetches Sandwich from Subway "
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIYRQC2iBp0

One attempt by me to be less verbose and more clear and simple: :-)
"The Richest Man in the World: A parable about structural unemployment and a basic income"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p14bAe6AzhA

It would help to have better tools for everyone to have better discussions:
http://pcast.ideascale.com/a/dtd/-The-need-for-FOSS-intelligence-tools-for-sensemaking-etc.-/76207-8319

I guess the key point is that cheap energy, like cheap robots, can be in many cases be substituted for human labor and human intelligence and so the economy is fundamentally transformed.

Links you might like about the research-proven value of detailed diverse discussions:
http://www.amazon.com/Difference-Diversity-Creates-Schools-Societies/dp/0691128383
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/researcher-responds-to-arguments-over-his-theory-of-arguing/
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Focused-Conversation-Access-Workplace/dp/0865714169

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum/dp/0672316498

Can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/American-Atlas-Expanded-5th/dp/0935127380

Note the various negative comments on the Atlas regarding this case, maybe mod those up a little.

Many people wrote about Norman's books, they are indeed very useful. Only one person mentioned Raskin's "The humane interface", and that's a pity.

It is a very valuable resource, he shares his ideas in a very clear fashion. You will be exposed to concepts such as "interface monotony" or "modeless interface". Once you go through his examples, you will realize that these simple ideas can make a big difference.

http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-Interactive/dp/0201379376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317979903&sr=8-1

This is being used in my course on human-computer interaction at CMU, is not particular to software, but the advice goes deeper than icons or widgets, into real human behavior: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Sign up for Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox and read his past postings.

The Design of Everyday Things

Don't Make Me Think

Web Form Design

Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rule

All of the books by Edward Tufte

Information Dashboard Design

Various resources available from Juice Analytics

Sign up for Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox and read his past postings.

The Design of Everyday Things

Don't Make Me Think

Web Form Design

Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rule

All of the books by Edward Tufte

Information Dashboard Design

Various resources available from Juice Analytics

Sign up for Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox and read his past postings.

The Design of Everyday Things

Don't Make Me Think

Web Form Design

Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rule

All of the books by Edward Tufte

Information Dashboard Design

Various resources available from Juice Analytics

Sign up for Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox and read his past postings.

The Design of Everyday Things

Don't Make Me Think

Web Form Design

Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rule

All of the books by Edward Tufte

Information Dashboard Design

Various resources available from Juice Analytics

One good practice is to observe how other UI designers have fucked up.

You might like this book:

Set Phasers on Stun: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human Error

It's an anthology of short stories about real life technological disasters caused by differences between the way things are designed and the way people act. While not speaking about hand held devices specifically (these are mostly industrial level accidents where people are injured or die) the writing itself is targeted at the lay person and is very interesting compared to most case studies. The lessons gleaned are universal and will improve ones ability to think about and design better user interfaces for a wide variety of applications.

Another good old Mac-type book is Tog on Interface. While many of the examples are old Mac-based, there's lots of interesting and useful information in there.

The best usability book I ever used is "Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies)" by Janice (Ginny) Redish.
http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868

The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper is one of the best books on usability I've ever read. It's entertaining, highly thoughtful, and contains a lot of timeless lessons about usability and UX. My favorite story in the book is a case study of the software bundled with the Logitech ScanMan. They used personas to understand their users and strip out all of the extraneous features, and instead concentrate on making a much smaller feature set easier to use:

What surprised us was that every one of the test subjects expressed the opinion that Peacock was the “most powerful.” In literal terms of the number of features, this was far from true. In terms of effective power realized by the user, we had increased it significantly. page 141

As others have already pointed out, Don't Make Me Think is great and to the point, but I'd like to recommend to you The Design of Everyday Things, which doesn't talk specifically about computer user interfaces, but does provide useful advice and gets you into the necessary mindset for the task. Good UI design isn't something you can just get from a book, but a book can help you get you thinking.
Also, look at horrible interfaces to learn what not to do.

As others have already pointed out, Don't Make Me Think is great and to the point, but I'd like to recommend to you The Design of Everyday Things, which doesn't talk specifically about computer user interfaces, but does provide useful advice and gets you into the necessary mindset for the task. Good UI design isn't something you can just get from a book, but a book can help you get you thinking.
Also, look at horrible interfaces to learn what not to do.

Designing Interfaces by Jennifer Tidwell http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Patterns-Effective-Interaction/dp/0596008031 Actually you could be better of if you hired UX expert who makes the decisions regarding usability - the developers may not be the best people making usability related decisions.

Beat me to it! I posted this link about a year ago, but it's still good. The design of everyday things, by Donald Norman. My personal favorite is the use of "natural mappings" versus "arbitrary mappings". Make things naturally intuitive to the user. Enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0385267746 My apologies for the double post :(

I'll second this one. Very insightful. Redirects your entire approach towards the design of usability: The Design of Everyday Things

Old but authoritative. Start here

http://www.amazon.com/Macintosh-Human-Interface-Guidelines-Computer/dp/0201622165

I work in a different area of usability, so I'm not up to speed on books specifically about app usability, but the principles in recent books will still largely apply. Have a look at About Face 2.0 to get started. User-Centred Design (UCD) is the current way of thinking: there is some good background in Contextual Design. There are of course, lots more...

I work in a different area of usability, so I'm not up to speed on books specifically about app usability, but the principles in recent books will still largely apply. Have a look at About Face 2.0 to get started. User-Centred Design (UCD) is the current way of thinking: there is some good background in Contextual Design. There are of course, lots more...

Set Phasers on Stun: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human Error

By the way, there is a very interesting Sci-fi book called The Speed of Dark where Autism is central to the story (In terms of Sci-fi, it's a near future type of Sci-fi, so it really isn't about science-fiction if that's what you're looking for). This same idea reminds me of that book. All the analysts had a particular form of Autism.

The audio version is quite good. I actually didn't read the book, but just listened to its full audio version.

Drake's Fortune is still in line of pricing for other PS3 new releases so it isn't like they are making the game cheaper

Huh what?

Currently it's $23.25 at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Uncharted-Drakes-Fortune-Playstation-3/dp/B000UW21A0

It's been under-$20 at Fry's a few times (yes, sales). The uncharted dual pack (uncharted 1 & 2 in one package) is $39.99, making each game under $20.

As the article notes, they already use "throwable" robots, and have for a while. This is just an R&D effort to come up with a lighter-weight one.

They've been around at least a decade I'd guess. When I read the "Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots" in 2003 (alas, I didn't build any robots, guide or not), it already included a section where it mentioned in passing that the military had something called a "throwbot" that soldiers could throw into confined areas for reconnaissance, so it must've been common knowledge by then.

Gwynne Dyer has written a book that is an excellent starting point for this issue: Climate Wars. He is a journalist and military historian who spent a year or two interviewing military planners who see exactly this issue on the horizon. Check out his website for a three-part radio series based on the book, for those who might not want to invest the time to read the entire book.

Along these same lines, several additional survival courses are available:

• Direct Meteor Strike Survival Course, offering tips on how to survive a massive meteorite landing on your city,
• Ground Zero Nuclear Blast Survival Course, giving pointers and expert advice on surviving the nova-like heat and shock waves of a direct nuclear bomb hit, and
• 16-Ton Weight Falls On Your Head Survival Course, dispelling the myths and misconceptions that are common among people raised on Saturday morning
  cartoons.

Sign up now, spaces are limited!

Or just buy the book.

The science behind these issues are inconvenient to certain aspects of liberal ideology,

The biggest liberal blind spot with regards to science, is the absurd quality of the nature-nurture debate -- which challenges the "truth" that liberal political thinking is based on. This has been a research specialty for me. The best book on the topic is Steven Pinkers "The Blank Slate: The modern denial of human nature". If you hunt around academic for criticisms of this book, you will note (hopefully with much amusement), that liberal ideologues make purely political arguments against Pinkers' academic arguments. Another great book on the topic is Matt Ridleys "The Agile Gene", although this book does not directly address the political aspects of the debate.

Is it sold to consumers as a game?

Yes.

I don't know if LA Noire is good as a game, but I love the albums! Check It Out!. Amazon has these three, Spotify has these and one more (sorry, no linky).

(and here's how to d/l yt vidyas)

I don't know if LA Noire is good as a game, but I love the albums! Check It Out!. Amazon has these three, Spotify has these and one more (sorry, no linky).

(and here's how to d/l yt vidyas)

I don't know if LA Noire is good as a game, but I love the albums! Check It Out!. Amazon has these three, Spotify has these and one more (sorry, no linky).

(and here's how to d/l yt vidyas)

Petrol car has 400km range? What happens if it's all hilly? The petrol car doesn't even get to recover lost power through regenerative braking!!!

The energy expended to get a car from point A to point B does not change just because the drivetrain is electric.

What if the company added solar panels on the roof along with the regen braking? Not sure how large the roof is but you should be able to mount a 30W panel on the top of it. Probably 60W max. If the math is correct it can put back 2.5-5Ah into the batteries and whatever the regen braking can recover. 30W / 12V = 2.5Ah 60W /12V = 5.0Ah I've seen some flexiable solar panels before but I'm sure if they laminated (or whatever the proper term/procedure is) it to the roof they can pack the solar cells tighter. http://www.amazon.com/Powerfilm-F15-1800-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B001QL0EB2 http://www.amazon.com/Powerfilm-F15-3600-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B001QKWTJ8

Petrol car has 400km range? What happens if it's all hilly? The petrol car doesn't even get to recover lost power through regenerative braking!!!

The energy expended to get a car from point A to point B does not change just because the drivetrain is electric.

What if the company added solar panels on the roof along with the regen braking? Not sure how large the roof is but you should be able to mount a 30W panel on the top of it. Probably 60W max. If the math is correct it can put back 2.5-5Ah into the batteries and whatever the regen braking can recover. 30W / 12V = 2.5Ah 60W /12V = 5.0Ah I've seen some flexiable solar panels before but I'm sure if they laminated (or whatever the proper term/procedure is) it to the roof they can pack the solar cells tighter. http://www.amazon.com/Powerfilm-F15-1800-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B001QL0EB2 http://www.amazon.com/Powerfilm-F15-3600-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B001QKWTJ8

Yup. Think of it like you're an ant on the surface of an expanding balloon. There is no "center" to the _surface_ of the balloon. Every point on the balloon is moving away from every other point on the balloon, and the further apart two points are, the faster they are moving apart. The "surface" of the universe is 3D though. (Read Flatland, then Sphereland.)

Yes there is a need for labour laws. There are sometimes very intimidating for an employer. Some even say that they prevent creation of jobs. The question what jobs are created if there is no protections at all does not appear important to those that go with this job creation argument. Of course some liberty for employer is needed after all s/he is in besting his own money well at least most of the time. In any case London Hanged is an interesting lecture not only because of brutality needed to get industrial revolution going but also because the violent changes in (also labour) markets is nothing new raise and fall of whole sectors of (British) economy was happening sometimes within a dozen years, sometimes improvement of work conditions was directly followed by demise of whole sectors which were moved to say Holland because of 'better' i.e. less labour protective laws there. All has its pros and cons it seems.

You are having a logic failure. Correlation does not equal causation. The US economy was a powerhouse and people moved to the US in droves during the 19th century, when there was no income tax at all. Even if it were true that the tax cuts over the recent years were all for the wealthy, that doesn't mean there should be nothing wrong with the economy.

The current flailing economy is a product of:

• Short-term thinking on the part of investors, demanding short-term gains without regard for long-term effect. For example, cutting workforce to raise the current quarter's profits, or hiring an external company to provide customer service because its cheaper.
• Individual lack of ethics and/or intelligence. Since brokers were paid by the dollar amount of mortgages they sold, and banks were being paid by the amount of mortgages they re-sold, and buyers were buying with the expectation that they would be able to sell again before the bubble burst, property values continued to climb until they lagged, then they crashed. As many people predicted.
• Interference in the mortgage market by the Federal government, causing mortgages issued to those who did not have to prove that they could pay it back. Unsurprisingly, this caused mortgages to be issued that had little chance of being repaid. It's not like nobody saw that coming.
• An education system that is designed to enforce social ideals, rather than to teach necessary skills. This has also been discussed.

The wealthy are sitting on the largest sums of money for a century, and they aren't doing shit for anyone else, such as giving them a job or investing in start ups.

Can you cite an example, please? Only the most extreme idiot would "sit on" money, since the value of the US dollar decreases with time.

If a wealthy person didn't finish college and that's their excuse for not knowing algebra, then they are simply a moron considering you learn it in high school, contradicting your "The wealthiest 10 percent are the smartest" theory.

I'm not even sure how to parse that. But perhaps I should state the underlying point I was making, which is that an education is not needed to be rich. Many rich people dropped out of school altogether, during or before college. And some of the most thoroughly educated people are not rich. The reason is that education does not make a person rich--being industrious, gutsy, and smart do.

there are millions of workers that work twice as hard as any CEO since their jobs are long and demanding, like construction.

People are paid based on value of their product, not based on how hard they work to make it. A good CEO can make the company billions in profit, and a good construction worker can't. They're getting a percentage of the eventual return on investment that's made in their work. And if they want to go into business for themselves, instead of get paid to perform their duty, they can partake directly in that return on investment (and inversely, take the loss if the investment turns out to be a bad one).

If there weren't inheritance and disproportionate privileged for the children of wealthy parents I would agree with your "upper 10 percent are the hardest working". As it is you can inherit a bunch of money and live the rest of your life making investments...

As I've discussed here and elsewhere, investing money is a good thing.

...or you can work for your daddies company making way more than you are worth...

Your rant makes me think that you have history with a specific person. I'm not sure what you expect to gain from this extreme minority of people whose daddies are bad parents

You can have your files (such as PDFs) converted for free by sending them to [yourkindlesname]@free.kindle.com. That'll deliver it free wirelessly via wifi or allow you to download the file to your computer and copy it manually to the device.

Full details:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_email_200375630?nodeId=200375630&#email

It's likely they shoved out a hobbled $80 model with the expectation that most people will buy the next one up but they can still claim the lower price point.

No.

$199 Kindle Fire = Upgrade to $399 Kindle

$79 Kindle = for people who never owned a Kindle before or used the free Kindle smartphone app.

$79 is also a great price point for Christmas gifts. The average US adult spends $658 on gifts and $79 allows them to buy one for everyone on their list rather than only a few $199 Kindle Fires.

Yeah because poor people are well known for a) their disposable income to spend on electronics other than cell phones and b) their desire to read books often enough to have a dedicated device for it. I mean, when you hear that ghetto street slang you think "wow, he must be a well-read sort of fellow".

Do only poor people clip coupons? Do only poor people visit sites like FatWallet to save $$$? Do only poor people wait in line overnight for Black Friday sales?

No, we're not talking about "poor" people, these people have the money to spend they're just looking for a bargain and they didn't see spending $200-$400 to read an ebook when they already have a smartphone with Kindle ebooks. But now that they can buy a Kindle for $79 Amazon is hoping that's the magic price-point to encourage them to finally buy a Kindle and hopefully spend more $$$ on books.

Smart move by Amazon.

2*4GB SO-DIMMs cost 40$ on Amazon, that's $5/GB. Or am I missing something here?

Amazon already has a CDN; it's called cloudfront. Since Amazon is already in the CDN business, I can't see how your question makes any sense. Are you suggesting people will flock away from limelight and akamai just because they want to serve some kindles faster? lol....

I found a MIMO UM-720S Touch Screen USB Powered 7 Inch Swivel LCD Screen Mini Display for $174.99 rather than the $87 quoted in the investigative journalism research article.
http://www.amazon.com/MIMO-UM-720S-Screen-Powered-Display/dp/B002QFP4Z8

So if they get those then they will lose more like $98 per Kindle.

And, I could sell them enclosures for $113, not the $11 they quoted.

Then Amazon could lose $200 per Kindle. Now that's a really big scoop.

Yep. He also seems a bit of an instigator. This happened just as he was publishing a book entitled We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (American Empire Project). Given that the book has been reviewed thusly:

"In this shocking and darkly hilarious expose of the reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq, former State Department team leader Van Buren describes the tragicomedy that has been American efforts at nation building, marked by bizarre decisions and wrongheaded priorities... "We made things in Iraq look the way we wanted them to look," Van Buren writes. With lyrical prose and biting wit, this book reveals the devastating arrogance of imperial ambition and folly."

...his complaint might seem a trifle disingenuous. I guess he didn't mind getting all those lucrative government employee benefits...

Posting anonymously only because I've already moderated in this story.

eInk is, of course, inherently incompatible with back lighting, and as far as I know (Though I could very well be wrong about this)

It's true, pretty much by definition - a reflective screen has to reflect light, therefore it cannot be transparent. Well, maybe with some polarization tricks - but for eInk at least, the particles, both black and white, are solid matter (titanium oxide for white and colored plastic for black).

only major manufacturer to make a eInk device with a front light was Sony

I've seen that in a store, and it's very meh. It's not really a front light - rather, they've put LEDs around and above the screen. It gave very uneven lighting with large blotches of light and dark stripes in between.

Until a manufacturer comes up with a decent built in lighting scheme for a eInk device, I'm sticking with TFTs.

Amazon sells a cover with integrated LED light for Kindle 3. Unlike alternatives, it uses Kindle's own battery to power itself (via the metal hooks that connect the cover to the device), and its angle is practically perfect - it gives enough light to comfortably read the screen even at night with no other light sources (which I often do), distributes it more or less evenly without bright spots, and does not shine in your eyes. It's quite expensive ($50), but well worth it.

I very much dislike reading from TFT screens at night because of backlight - the "black" on the screen lights up too much. On the other hand, OLED screens with black background and amber text are awesome, because black on them really is pitch black.