Slashdot Mirror

Nor to anyone who currently get free Amazon shipping via a family member who is a member of Amazon Prime. The free video only applies to the single Amazon Prime member account:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200572880

"Prime instant videos require an Amazon Prime membership and are not included with the free shipping benefits provided by Amazon Mom, Amazon Student, or if you are a guest of an Amazon Prime member. To watch Prime instant videos, sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership at http://www.amazon.com/primevideos. If you are a member of Amazon Mom and sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership, you will lose any additional months of Amazon Prime shipping benefits you may have earned."

Amazon video on demand:
http://www.amazon.com/Video-On-Demand/b/ref=&node=16261631

Subset of "Prime Eligible" movies that Amazon will stream free to Prime members today (2153 results):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_al_bw_srch?rh=n%3A16261631%2Cp_85%3A1&page=1&rw_html_to_wsrp=1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1G4XGFTBQHGKXW5S6ZP3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1288998822&pf_rd_i=16261631

Nor to anyone who currently get free Amazon shipping via a family member who is a member of Amazon Prime. The free video only applies to the single Amazon Prime member account:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200572880

"Prime instant videos require an Amazon Prime membership and are not included with the free shipping benefits provided by Amazon Mom, Amazon Student, or if you are a guest of an Amazon Prime member. To watch Prime instant videos, sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership at http://www.amazon.com/primevideos. If you are a member of Amazon Mom and sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership, you will lose any additional months of Amazon Prime shipping benefits you may have earned."

Amazon video on demand:
http://www.amazon.com/Video-On-Demand/b/ref=&node=16261631

Subset of "Prime Eligible" movies that Amazon will stream free to Prime members today (2153 results):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_al_bw_srch?rh=n%3A16261631%2Cp_85%3A1&page=1&rw_html_to_wsrp=1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1G4XGFTBQHGKXW5S6ZP3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1288998822&pf_rd_i=16261631

Based on the books by Steig Larsen (http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Millennium-Trilogy/dp/0307473473/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1298415990&sr=8-4/).

• Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
• The girl who played with fire
• The girl who kicked the hornets nest

It's actually a rather good set of movies (haven't finished the third one yet), though it does have some disturbing content. It's in Swedish, with English subtitles. All three are currently available on Netflix streaming.

I heard that they're planning an Americanized Hollywood adaptation. I can only expect it to end up as awful and vile as "Point of No Return" was compared to "La Femme Nikita".

Oh so those tablets are going to sell for sub $200? Why are you hiding this news?

Or are you simply trolling because you failed at reading my post or even knowing anything about the android tablet market? Most of the manufacturers are in fact making junk. You named 3, I know of 12. so 3 out of 12 are good making the MAJORITY of all android pads junk. Even the big names out there are making crap. The archos tablets are utter garbage at a high price point. The 8+ china makers all make junk. The Pandigital tablet is junk. The viewsonic tablet sucks. Please point me at one that exists and I can buy right now that is not junk? The three you played with are the late to the game not released yet units that are finally being made correctly.

Here is a nice list of utter crap android tablets... http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mozilla-20&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=android%20tablet&sourceid=Mozilla-search

Please show me ONE that is not garbage, because I will buy it. Until then I need to wait for Samsung's 10.1 tablet as it will actually be the FIRST android tablet released that is a decent size and not built like crap. I have owned and returned or sold on ebay 8 android tablets over the past 13 months, How many have you owned over the past year?

Universal HD aired them all in order for several runs a few years back (in HD too). So this is hardly something new. And, what's more, they're all already available on blu-ray anyway. So I'm not sure why this is even news (unless you want to use it as a further example of how the "Science" channel is a joke).

Parody is protected, so just make Tolkin, Toking, and turn him into an old doobie smoking proto-hippie.

Been There. Done That.

Mod parent up funny please ...
Hahahahahaaa!

Parody is protected, so just make Tolkin, Toking, and turn him into an old doobie smoking proto-hippie.

Been There. Done That.

I met many, many people like you in the early 90's
shaking their canes at me, tellin me to get off their
lawn, as I was trying to sell them on this new thing
called the internet. And that they should buy their
domains NOW before the land-rush when they won't
be available anymore. "Stake out your presence on
the internet, it's not going away... it's where all the
commerce will eventually take place."

Oh, btw... I can tell alot about you from #1. I didn't
tell you to make a website you ludd. In fact, since I
said PRIVATE WEBSITE, that should have been an
indicator as to the NATURE of the site. I said store it
on a website. MUCH difference there.

And if you can't cough up $50 PER YEAR for hosting
with a provider like 1and1 you need to get a better job.
(No, I understand the difference between can't and won't)
But won't(s) only excuse is lazy, scared, etc. Can't may
have mitigating factors.

Being in the cloud is a HUGE advantage and just
like 1993, there are going to be those that get it and
those that will have great stories to tell their kids and
friends (if they will listen) about how they missed out
on the next big thing.

If there is a single nerd, geek, whathaveyou on /. that
doesn't have some type of cloud account... turn in your
badge...

... and you better look out your front window, I think
someone is on your lawn.
[for the ludds that use expense as an excuse...
it's FREE for a t1.micro instance, that you can run in
perpetuity for the entire year on EC2... did I say FREE?]

-AI

FWIW, EC2 is like having a FREE 2.66 GHz Xeon PC,
with a (unfortunately paltry) half gig memory but 7 Gigs
of drive storage... that you could hold in the palm of your
hand. [For those of us that have smartphones.] Yeah, I
know you can do that with your home PC, but you don't
have to expose your home computer this way and that's
not really the point anyway. The point is, it's a free box.
A +1 to your collection. And you can access it just like
any other computer you sit in front of (or access via
some wireless device)

I ran a half million prime sieve on it... and I got every
cycle promised. Loaded a rainbow in 'memory' and did
some hash blasting. You can do heavy cracking of
encryption from a cell phone.

EC2's been around for a long time. No excuses geeks.

EC2 is really simple. Get an Amazon account.
[ https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/developer/registration/index.html ]
Then get the AWS account. Log in. Click on Launch
Instance. Click on the Community AMI's tab, select the
OS image of your choice. They have Linux AND Windows.

                            SELECT A t1.micro INSTANCE!
If you select another one, it won't be free but it won't cost
an arm and a leg either. It's nice, you can scale up to a
[pay] BIG iron box with multi CPUs, tons of RAM to test
on, after you've made your distro and did dev on a free tier.

Set up the params, security and storage, and grab a snack
or coffee (Takes like 2-3min).

Then log in... here's the LAMP I just assembled as a
test bed for a WordPress blog. Yeah, it's not exposed yet.
http://ec2-50-17-49-155.compute-1.amazonaws.com/
just has a hi world on it.

They have LAMP instances, but I put mine together
myself so I could test some install scripts.

where good and evil can sometimes swap places in the minds of the reader if not the populace in the story. Many of his books were recently reprinted in large paper back format making the stories accessible to many. His The Black Company series is a great story where the mercenaries start working for the bad guys but eventually end up for working for the good guys and even team up again with the bad guys. A nice back and forth. The one good point throughout is that being the good guys doesn't mean your not just as rotten as the bad guys, they can even be worse at times as justification comes from not being the other side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Company

http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Black-Company-Glen-Cook/dp/0765319233/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298297648&sr=1-2

If y'all are interested in this kind of fiction, Jacqueline Carey did a really good duology on it in her Banewreaker series.

She's mostly known for steamy fantasy/romance novels (the Kushiel series), but she does a very good take on a LOTR-analogue world in which the Sauron equivalent is shown as the good guys. Or not good guys, precisely, but as more or less a guy wanting to be left alone, with the Gandalf-equivalent instigating the "good" races to destroy him in his Mordorish fortress. You really end up hating the good guys by the end of the series. =)

I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Banewreaker-Sundering-Book-Jacqueline-Carey/dp/0765305216

That is probably one of the most insightful and thought provoking things I've heard anyone say about Facebook, and one with which I entirely agree.

I've already cut down my 'friends' list, to about 50 now. When I did this, I felt relieved in a sense. I now check it once a week but this is dwindling as I make it a personal goal to keep in touch with friends using phone/meetings. I believe Facebook does not improve my life nor bring anything new to it. Reconnecting with old friends, yeah, but I haven't actually made the effort to meet up with them yet. There's been the obligatory 'we should catch up', of course, but no action. Facebook seems to subconsciously deter me from meeting up with people.

I'm currently reading a good book which relates to this topic called Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by William Powers, about disconnecting from screens and reconnecting with people.

Please don't; I expect you to refute it. See here. Or just leave it, if you agree?

I enjoy your optimism, but...

The 2030's see an energy revolution.

...we need to be a little faster than that. Despite the current wars and recession, we live (historically) in a period of unprecedented wealth and global political stability. If we don't sort out our energy use before 2030, we aren't going to have the global stability necessary to mess around in space much longer.

The book Harmful to Minors may be interesting to you. It pretty much supports what you say, and the reviews are pretty interesting as well.

I think the idea would be that the energy beam arrives at the mirror evenly distributed over its surface. The mirror would then do the focusing and targeting. As for execution, I don't know if this is feasible, but it made for a great Tom Clancy novel though. (The Cardinal of the Kremlin)

http://www.amazon.com/Cardinal-Kremlin-Tom-Clancy/dp/0425116840

The comparison here is how much of anything it takes to make $1160. That's the unit, everything else is variable. If the reader doesn't understand that, I don't think that counts as psychological games, just ignorance

Part of the unit is what the thing is. Since an album consists of tracks the right thing to do is normalize everything on either tracks or albums, using a value of average tracks per album to convert between the two. I can make some amounts look much bigger in comparison to other amounts simply by using a different unit of measurement.

For example, suppose I say that you need to sell 2,000 jelly beans or 5 pounds of jelly beans. Those two numbers reflect approximately the same amount of jelly beans but it creates the possibility of one measurement sounding much larger than the other. In order for you to figure out a proper relationship you have to go out of your way to do the conversion yourself, something that is a barrier to the reader for quick and easy comprehension.

Changing the units in a comparison is a common trick to confuse the reader. Yes, everyone should be savvy enough to see through that trick but even highly-intelligent people often fail to catch on to it. Perhaps the author didn't intend to deceive but the fact remains that any good comparison uses the same units for all of the examples in order to be as clear as possible.

Welcome in the ever growing militarist America. First it was WWII, the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, War on Terrorism and now the Cyberwar. See also Wikipedia for a more complete list. Ask your self why the budget for the military is continuing to rise year after year and never returns down even to the level at the Cold War. Ask your self why America continuing to have a standing army of no less then 1,4 Million active personnel and another 1,4 Million in reserve.

For further reverence please read The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic

Personally I prefer the WD Live. Has an HDMI output or component if you don't have HDMI, can support USB devices, as well as access to your SAN via an ethernet connection, or you can buy a USB WiFi dongle.

Here we go: OpenSUSE at Amazon.

Some people still don't grok the GPL. Amazon is completely complying with the GPL here. It distributes software unter GPL (which they are entitled to do) and also give you access to the source code - each medium either comes with the source code anyway, or the written documentations contains a description how to get it - at the OpenSUSE project's site.

And you just hit the nail on the head as to why BD is ultimately doomed. I've had several customers come in asking about BD and when they found out the extra gear and hoop jumping they'd have to do to rip it compared to DVD they were all "How much is an upscaling DVD player again?". Most around here have either figured out how easy it is to rip DVDs or has a relative that does it for them, and between that and media tanks like this one (which is one of my hottest sellers ATM, people just love the thing) while BD will have the videophiles I just don't ever see it reaching DVD level support.

But what really pisses me off about the *.A.As is the double standard bullshit they try to pull. They say "oh you didn't buy the (insert movie/game/CD) you bought a license to use it!" (and thus getting around first sale). Okay, I'll play. That means I get to replace it for free if anything happens to the media, right? After all I already have a license to use it? "Oh no" they say "You bought a copy thus you have to go buy a replacement!"

BULLSHIT! Total unbelievable bullshit! Never in history have we allowed ANY company to use either/or when it comes to copies and licenses.Physical media and licenses have clearly written rules and obligations under the law, and what these bastards are trying to pull is getting the protections of both and the responsibilities of neither. We are already being held back by a bunch that if anyone would have listened to them back in the day both video recorders and recordable media would have never existed, and now that we are finally getting all the pieces to where one can simply have all their media in a box that you can access anywhere they are holding everything back once again.

All they are doing with this kind of bullshit is yet again making piracy the more attractive option as there isn't any hoop jumping or bullshit to back up or copy that .MKV rip, no different than how the DRM and limited activation bullshit is making the pirate version of most games the more stable and nicer running version compared to the legit. If they would just listen to their damned customers for once, and give them good value in easy to use media, maybe we wouldn't have all this BS in the first place. Instead the *.A.As don't seem happy if they aren't finding a way to actively fuck over their customers, so is anyone surprised when the customer fucks them back?

You'll really shudder when you see what Fantastic Mr. Murdoch did.

In his novel A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge's vision of a galactic internet was basically Usenet newsgroups writ large. Once the web took off, he got a lot of flak for that seemingly outdated vision, but perhaps he's right. As easy as real-time communication is nowadays to people around the globe, once the internet moves into space, the incredible latency of long-distance communications could return us to a series of groups and threads that one logs into periodically, downloads en masse, and reads locally.

Agreed, there are lots of shady sites selling crap.

What about from Amazon (sold by Amazon, with 110 reviews?): http://www.amazon.com/Coby-MID7015-Android-Internet-Touchscreen/dp/B0047Q9GT4 I think the same thing is pretty commonly available in the same price range at local stores.

At $150, you aren't buying an iPad, but then again you aren't paying for one either. It's a cheap way to play with a tablet, as long as you don't take it too terribly seriously.

It would certainly seem that tablets should be in the realm of netbook pricing giving computing power, storage, display size, etc (especially when considering how much less mass and mechanical parts are involved with a tablet compared to a netbook).

You mean they're not?

http://www.amazon.com/Superpad-Tablet-Google-Android-Webcam/dp/B004HIXDEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-G-Tablet-Multi-Touch-Screen-Android/dp/B004EPV7TK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-14
http://www.amazon.com/10-2-Google-Android-2-1-Tablet/dp/B004H3ZXCG/ref=sr_1_14?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054094&sr=1-14

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1001PX-EU17-BK-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B004AP90R0/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054126&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-NB255-N245-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B003LPUU5G/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054154&sr=1-8

True, the Apple iPad is somewhat pricier (and for that you get good build quality and a supporting infrastructure, which is either worth the cost or not based on your own personal preferences). But there are plenty of tablets in the netbook price range.

It would certainly seem that tablets should be in the realm of netbook pricing giving computing power, storage, display size, etc (especially when considering how much less mass and mechanical parts are involved with a tablet compared to a netbook).

You mean they're not?

http://www.amazon.com/Superpad-Tablet-Google-Android-Webcam/dp/B004HIXDEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-G-Tablet-Multi-Touch-Screen-Android/dp/B004EPV7TK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-14
http://www.amazon.com/10-2-Google-Android-2-1-Tablet/dp/B004H3ZXCG/ref=sr_1_14?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054094&sr=1-14

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1001PX-EU17-BK-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B004AP90R0/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054126&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-NB255-N245-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B003LPUU5G/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054154&sr=1-8

True, the Apple iPad is somewhat pricier (and for that you get good build quality and a supporting infrastructure, which is either worth the cost or not based on your own personal preferences). But there are plenty of tablets in the netbook price range.

It would certainly seem that tablets should be in the realm of netbook pricing giving computing power, storage, display size, etc (especially when considering how much less mass and mechanical parts are involved with a tablet compared to a netbook).

You mean they're not?

http://www.amazon.com/Superpad-Tablet-Google-Android-Webcam/dp/B004HIXDEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-G-Tablet-Multi-Touch-Screen-Android/dp/B004EPV7TK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-14
http://www.amazon.com/10-2-Google-Android-2-1-Tablet/dp/B004H3ZXCG/ref=sr_1_14?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054094&sr=1-14

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1001PX-EU17-BK-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B004AP90R0/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054126&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-NB255-N245-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B003LPUU5G/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054154&sr=1-8

True, the Apple iPad is somewhat pricier (and for that you get good build quality and a supporting infrastructure, which is either worth the cost or not based on your own personal preferences). But there are plenty of tablets in the netbook price range.

It would certainly seem that tablets should be in the realm of netbook pricing giving computing power, storage, display size, etc (especially when considering how much less mass and mechanical parts are involved with a tablet compared to a netbook).

You mean they're not?

http://www.amazon.com/Superpad-Tablet-Google-Android-Webcam/dp/B004HIXDEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-G-Tablet-Multi-Touch-Screen-Android/dp/B004EPV7TK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-14
http://www.amazon.com/10-2-Google-Android-2-1-Tablet/dp/B004H3ZXCG/ref=sr_1_14?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054094&sr=1-14

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1001PX-EU17-BK-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B004AP90R0/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054126&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-NB255-N245-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B003LPUU5G/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054154&sr=1-8

True, the Apple iPad is somewhat pricier (and for that you get good build quality and a supporting infrastructure, which is either worth the cost or not based on your own personal preferences). But there are plenty of tablets in the netbook price range.

It would certainly seem that tablets should be in the realm of netbook pricing giving computing power, storage, display size, etc (especially when considering how much less mass and mechanical parts are involved with a tablet compared to a netbook).

You mean they're not?

http://www.amazon.com/Superpad-Tablet-Google-Android-Webcam/dp/B004HIXDEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-G-Tablet-Multi-Touch-Screen-Android/dp/B004EPV7TK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1298052461&sr=8-14
http://www.amazon.com/10-2-Google-Android-2-1-Tablet/dp/B004H3ZXCG/ref=sr_1_14?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054094&sr=1-14

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1001PX-EU17-BK-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B004AP90R0/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054126&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-NB255-N245-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Black/dp/B003LPUU5G/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1298054154&sr=1-8

True, the Apple iPad is somewhat pricier (and for that you get good build quality and a supporting infrastructure, which is either worth the cost or not based on your own personal preferences). But there are plenty of tablets in the netbook price range.

"This is asinine."

But sadly, true. For a related example:
"Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance" by Mike Moore
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-War-Folly-Space-Dominance/dp/1598130188
"Moore warns of the dire consequences of the U.S. drive toward the military dominance of space. Twilight War is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to get smart on a possible new cold war in space. Wide-ranging research and an elegant writing style make for an easy tutorial. This is a marvelous book." (Joseph Cirincione, vice president for national security, Center for American Progress)"

Or;
http://www.cfr.org/united-states/toward-american-space-dominance/p12179
"The Pentagon has avoided specifics about the report, but soon afterward the Bush administration released an unclassified version of its new U.S. National Space Policy, which goes far beyond previous policies in asserting America’s right to respond forcefully to such threats. Bill Martel, a space policy expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, tells CFR.org in this podcast that the new space policy “sounds like a precursor to the weaponization of space.” Supporters readily concede the point. “Space supremacy is now the official policy of the U.S. government,” writes Michael Goldfarb in the Weekly Standard."

Thanks for your other comments. Personally, I would not like to be president. :-) I feel sorry in general for politicians etc.

As I quoted Alfie Kohn here from "No Contest: The Case Against Competition":
http://www.pdfernhout.net/reading-between-the-lines.html#Moving_beyond_competitiveness_towards_cooperation_at_PU
"If competitiveness is inherently compensatory, if it is an effort to prove oneself and stave off feelings of worthlessness, it follows that the healthier the individual (in the sense of having a more solid, unconditional sense of self-esteem), the less need there is to compete. ... I do not want to shy away from the incendiary implications of all of this. To suggest in effect that many of our heroes (entrepreneurs and athletes, movie stars and politicians) may be motivated by low self-esteem, to argue that our "state religion" is a sign of psychological ill-health -- this will not sit well with many people.(Page 103)"

That said, one can learn a lot by playing games and being challenged. So, how to interpret all that in daily life for the rest of us is open to question. Also, it is compounded by this fact:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/07/health/la-he-mean-girls-20110208
"Faris and a colleague studied the relationships among 3,722 middle and high school students over the course of an academic year and found that the teenagers' propensity toward aggression rose along with their social status. Aggressive behavior peaked when students hit the 98th percentile for popularity, suggesting that they were working hard to claw their way to the very top. However, those who were in the top 2% of a school's social hierarchy generally didn't harass their fellow students. At that point, they may have had little left to gain by being mean, and picking on others only made them seem insecure, Faris said."

I agree with you on reflectiveness, and thanks for saying that in such an interesting way about quality. In any case though, if I take credit for anything, it is mostly reading and learning about the ideas of many, many others who have gone before me (including people like Leon Shenandoah).

We need better tools for community-powered reflectiveness IMHO, as I su

The governments immunity to lawsuits is what will stop it. Maybe all federal employees should be required to read "Unintended Consequenes" once a year...

somebody should add these to Anonymous' amazon wishlist : http://www.amazon.com/George-Hayduke/e/B001IYTP9E

Interestingly, LO crashes randomly when saving a document while OO does not. Maybe it's a fluke on my system, but that's how it is. Drove me crazy until I decided to try OO, not believing that it would actually help. Using OS X SL.

No wonder, if you're using it in OSX you're really using X Windows. I use the native Mac port of OO, NeoOffice, and the only problem I've had with it is that I think it takes too long to launch. That may change after I increase my RAM from 2GB to 4GB but I don't think so, it was slow when I got my Mac more than 3 years ago.

As for OSX SL, I'm still using Leopard as my primary OS. I installed SL on an external drive to test it, once testing is done I'll install it on the internal drive. Actually I plan on replacing the HDD with a larger one like the 500GB Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32 MB Cache 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive . I'd rather get a bigger drive but having a Solid State Hybrid Drive may be faster.

Falcon Falcon

Balance of Power by Harry Turtledove on the Kindle is a prime example of an eBook plagued by OCR typographical errors. (see user reviews) Yes, somebody ran a spell-checker on the resulting text. The problem is that words are misused throughout. Man becomes men. Commas are in place of periods. It's quite distracting.

I submitted a message to Kindle support about the typos in this title just to give them a heads-up on the issue. Without any discussion, Amazon's off-shored tech support decided to refund my original purchase price and then remove the book from my collection. I wasn't complaining. I wasn't demanding a refund. I just sent them a message to alert them of the sub-par quality of their content conversion process. Instead of wanting to fix the problem, they are choosing to ignore it by dishing out refunds.

Seth

Amazon is so intent on opposing commoditization, that they stop authors from selling their work at low prices. I'm acquainted with an author who is trying to build some audience by not-quite-giving-away a couple of his novels at impulse-purchase prices on Kindle, but Amazon insists on selling his ebooks for a higher price.

Clearly that depends on the author.

Amazon is so intent on opposing commoditization, that they stop authors from selling their work at low prices. I'm acquainted with an author who is trying to build some audience by not-quite-giving-away a couple of his novels at impulse-purchase prices on Kindle, but Amazon insists on selling his ebooks for a higher price.

Clearly that depends on the author.

Amazon is so intent on opposing commoditization, that they stop authors from selling their work at low prices. I'm acquainted with an author who is trying to build some audience by not-quite-giving-away a couple of his novels at impulse-purchase prices on Kindle, but Amazon insists on selling his ebooks for a higher price.

Clearly that depends on the author.

Amazon is so intent on opposing commoditization, that they stop authors from selling their work at low prices. I'm acquainted with an author who is trying to build some audience by not-quite-giving-away a couple of his novels at impulse-purchase prices on Kindle, but Amazon insists on selling his ebooks for a higher price.

Clearly that depends on the author.

Amazon is so intent on opposing commoditization, that they stop authors from selling their work at low prices. I'm acquainted with an author who is trying to build some audience by not-quite-giving-away a couple of his novels at impulse-purchase prices on Kindle, but Amazon insists on selling his ebooks for a higher price.

Clearly that depends on the author.

Amazon is so intent on opposing commoditization, that they stop authors from selling their work at low prices. I'm acquainted with an author who is trying to build some audience by not-quite-giving-away a couple of his novels at impulse-purchase prices on Kindle, but Amazon insists on selling his ebooks for a higher price.

Clearly that depends on the author.

And pundits say printed magazines are dead. TFA cites the kindle edition of the Economist as costing more than a subscription which includes the print edition and full access to the website. Of course it gives the costs in the UK. In the US the Kindle edition costs $10.49. I semi-regularly buy the print edition from Barnes and Noble for a few dollars less. Thing I notice though is that the Kindle edition seems to be monthly whereas the print edition is weekly. And I bet the web edition, which has the archives, is updated daily.

Falcon

I bought my first Kindle book last week -- "Selected Stories by Philip K Dick"
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0027MJTNS

I'm very unhappy with the Kindle experience.

There are typographical errors on 50% of pages (usually missing spaces between punctuation). And most importantly, the Kindle edition simply LACKS those "blank-line paragraph breaks". In the physical copy I can tell that time has jumped forward or we've switched planet by that half an inch of whitespace. But on the Kindle, it all just flows together and I have to slow down, stop, reverse, and figure out that there should have been a break there.

Blame that on Cory Doctorow.

You can get it now if you're willing to shell out 5 grand.

It's striking how many people are willing to die for things they don't understand, let alone converse about them.

I was struck in Wired for War by the stories of EOD units in Iraq who would name their bomb-defusing robots, give them ranks, promotions, and ribbons, and, touchingly, would mourn their robot's destruction. There's one story about an operator who was literally bawling to a support rep at iRobot, asking if they could please somehow repair their bot. They were real creatures to them, and they were completely unintelligent. What really made the robots alive to them is that they were balky, seemed to have a personality in difficult situations (operator's confirmation bias at work), and had saved the operator's lives many, many times. It didn't matter that the robot didn't "understand" why it was being destroyed, the operators were often in a similar situation... what mattered was its (nominal) selflessness and heroism, something the operator's were required to display as well in a war situation.

I mean like, the Chinese Room is interesting, but the dark secret is that, when it comes to the way human beings confer personhood on other things, it makes it so there is no door to the Chinese Room. Only a mail slot, and it's impossible to see what's on the other side. An an unknowable truth is no truth at all.

That's Nikko.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikko-230-Stereo-Power-Amplifier/dp/B000E304YA

cheap ass jap crap, consumes VA, 620 of them, as if I have VA coming out of my ass

Product Description
Continuous Power Output 120w + 120w Min RMS per channel into 8 ohms from 20 to 20,000 Hz at rated T.H.D both channels driven Both Channels driven at 1,000Hz - 8ohms 120w +120w - 4ohms 130w + 130w Total harmonic distortion at 8ohms at rated power 0.008% Intermodulation distortion 0.008% Power Bandwidth (T.H.D. 0.05%) 5 - 70kHz Damping factor - 8ohms 70 Slow Rate 100V/uS Input sensitivity/impedance Main In - 1,000mV/50kohms Signal to noise ratio Main in - 110dB Frequency Response Main in (5-100kHz) +0/-0.5 DB Power AC 120v 60Hz Power Consumption 480W 620VA

That their out-of-print books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that are currently making them ZERO money, could be sold for $2-$5 as pdfs

This is unlikely to happen.

Having dealt with academic publishers I've found them to be the most ignorant bunch of incompetent rent-seekers imaginable, whose entire business model is fortunately doomed.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030291070/

This is easily the best text I've ever seen on the topic of elementary algebra.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534353169/

I also bought this as follow-up. The idea of wasting time to follow up and solidify math teaching, btw, is completely abominable in America. Waste of time. For the interested, there is a newer edition.

http://www.amazon.com/College-Algebra-Enhanced-Graphing-Utilities/dp/0136004911/

This is what they assigned for teaching in my college algebra class. I retook algebra because I need a serious refresher; I stopped taking math in 2003, and by 2008 I couldn't handle calculus 2. Turns out I can't handle algebra either... actually, I can; but this book is really shitty at teaching it.

In English class, you read classic English literature. Lord of the Flies [soon to be banned], Catcher in the Rye [banned], To Kill a Mockingbird [banned], Huckleberry Fin [almost banned that one time, but it's now safe], A Tale of Two Cities [never in danger of banning]. All books I hated. Not the point. The point is that, while there's an abundance of amazing new literature coming out, we still read classics.

I have found the same appreciation for subject matter text: the books I cited above are absolutely the most amazing math texts I've ever seen, far better than anything else I've read on the subject, because it seems the author actually wanted to teach math. The algebra book covers graphing calculators and programs and such, but only as an aside; it takes the teaching of algebra as a core subject, with call-forwards to Geometry and real-world applications. The Geometry book is a huge crawl through Algebra to introduce Geometry, but only as an aid to strengthen the understanding of Algebra.

Modern textbooks seem to be gutter trash pushed only to make money. The truth is math doesn't fucking change. Basic physics doesn't fucking change. Algebra, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, statistics, these are parts of fields that have a solid base. There is nothing new in Calculus 1 and 2, ever. There is nothing new in introductory and intermediate Statistics and Probability Theory, ever. There is nothing new in fundamental physics, ever. The fields of advanced mathematics, statistics, high level newtonian physics, quantum physics, nuclear physics, and high level chemistry are always changing. The base material is simple and fully explored; if it ever changes, it will be a huge change.

We don't need a new text on this shit every six months, a new updated edition... there are no updates to the field of intermediate college algebra. There are no updates to the field of basic chemistry. There are no updates to College Physics 1 and 2. There are no updates to introductory statistics and probability theory. There are no updates to Calculus 1 and 2. The ever-changing text is at the end of these subjects, several courses or several dozen courses ahead. All you have at 90% of the BA/BS level is errata because 6 x 7 doesn't equal 49, oops.

The textbook mills produce shit-quality shovelware that needs to die.

That their out-of-print books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that are currently making them ZERO money, could be sold for $2-$5 as pdfs

This is unlikely to happen.

Having dealt with academic publishers I've found them to be the most ignorant bunch of incompetent rent-seekers imaginable, whose entire business model is fortunately doomed.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030291070/

This is easily the best text I've ever seen on the topic of elementary algebra.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534353169/

I also bought this as follow-up. The idea of wasting time to follow up and solidify math teaching, btw, is completely abominable in America. Waste of time. For the interested, there is a newer edition.

http://www.amazon.com/College-Algebra-Enhanced-Graphing-Utilities/dp/0136004911/

This is what they assigned for teaching in my college algebra class. I retook algebra because I need a serious refresher; I stopped taking math in 2003, and by 2008 I couldn't handle calculus 2. Turns out I can't handle algebra either... actually, I can; but this book is really shitty at teaching it.

In English class, you read classic English literature. Lord of the Flies [soon to be banned], Catcher in the Rye [banned], To Kill a Mockingbird [banned], Huckleberry Fin [almost banned that one time, but it's now safe], A Tale of Two Cities [never in danger of banning]. All books I hated. Not the point. The point is that, while there's an abundance of amazing new literature coming out, we still read classics.

I have found the same appreciation for subject matter text: the books I cited above are absolutely the most amazing math texts I've ever seen, far better than anything else I've read on the subject, because it seems the author actually wanted to teach math. The algebra book covers graphing calculators and programs and such, but only as an aside; it takes the teaching of algebra as a core subject, with call-forwards to Geometry and real-world applications. The Geometry book is a huge crawl through Algebra to introduce Geometry, but only as an aid to strengthen the understanding of Algebra.

Modern textbooks seem to be gutter trash pushed only to make money. The truth is math doesn't fucking change. Basic physics doesn't fucking change. Algebra, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, statistics, these are parts of fields that have a solid base. There is nothing new in Calculus 1 and 2, ever. There is nothing new in introductory and intermediate Statistics and Probability Theory, ever. There is nothing new in fundamental physics, ever. The fields of advanced mathematics, statistics, high level newtonian physics, quantum physics, nuclear physics, and high level chemistry are always changing. The base material is simple and fully explored; if it ever changes, it will be a huge change.

We don't need a new text on this shit every six months, a new updated edition... there are no updates to the field of intermediate college algebra. There are no updates to the field of basic chemistry. There are no updates to College Physics 1 and 2. There are no updates to introductory statistics and probability theory. There are no updates to Calculus 1 and 2. The ever-changing text is at the end of these subjects, several courses or several dozen courses ahead. All you have at 90% of the BA/BS level is errata because 6 x 7 doesn't equal 49, oops.

The textbook mills produce shit-quality shovelware that needs to die.

That their out-of-print books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that are currently making them ZERO money, could be sold for $2-$5 as pdfs

This is unlikely to happen.

Having dealt with academic publishers I've found them to be the most ignorant bunch of incompetent rent-seekers imaginable, whose entire business model is fortunately doomed.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030291070/

This is easily the best text I've ever seen on the topic of elementary algebra.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534353169/

I also bought this as follow-up. The idea of wasting time to follow up and solidify math teaching, btw, is completely abominable in America. Waste of time. For the interested, there is a newer edition.

http://www.amazon.com/College-Algebra-Enhanced-Graphing-Utilities/dp/0136004911/

This is what they assigned for teaching in my college algebra class. I retook algebra because I need a serious refresher; I stopped taking math in 2003, and by 2008 I couldn't handle calculus 2. Turns out I can't handle algebra either... actually, I can; but this book is really shitty at teaching it.

In English class, you read classic English literature. Lord of the Flies [soon to be banned], Catcher in the Rye [banned], To Kill a Mockingbird [banned], Huckleberry Fin [almost banned that one time, but it's now safe], A Tale of Two Cities [never in danger of banning]. All books I hated. Not the point. The point is that, while there's an abundance of amazing new literature coming out, we still read classics.

I have found the same appreciation for subject matter text: the books I cited above are absolutely the most amazing math texts I've ever seen, far better than anything else I've read on the subject, because it seems the author actually wanted to teach math. The algebra book covers graphing calculators and programs and such, but only as an aside; it takes the teaching of algebra as a core subject, with call-forwards to Geometry and real-world applications. The Geometry book is a huge crawl through Algebra to introduce Geometry, but only as an aid to strengthen the understanding of Algebra.

Modern textbooks seem to be gutter trash pushed only to make money. The truth is math doesn't fucking change. Basic physics doesn't fucking change. Algebra, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, statistics, these are parts of fields that have a solid base. There is nothing new in Calculus 1 and 2, ever. There is nothing new in introductory and intermediate Statistics and Probability Theory, ever. There is nothing new in fundamental physics, ever. The fields of advanced mathematics, statistics, high level newtonian physics, quantum physics, nuclear physics, and high level chemistry are always changing. The base material is simple and fully explored; if it ever changes, it will be a huge change.

We don't need a new text on this shit every six months, a new updated edition... there are no updates to the field of intermediate college algebra. There are no updates to the field of basic chemistry. There are no updates to College Physics 1 and 2. There are no updates to introductory statistics and probability theory. There are no updates to Calculus 1 and 2. The ever-changing text is at the end of these subjects, several courses or several dozen courses ahead. All you have at 90% of the BA/BS level is errata because 6 x 7 doesn't equal 49, oops.

The textbook mills produce shit-quality shovelware that needs to die.

That their out-of-print books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that are currently making them ZERO money, could be sold for $2-$5 as pdfs

This is unlikely to happen.

Having dealt with academic publishers I've found them to be the most ignorant bunch of incompetent rent-seekers imaginable, whose entire business model is fortunately doomed.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030291070/

This is easily the best text I've ever seen on the topic of elementary algebra.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534353169/

I also bought this as follow-up. The idea of wasting time to follow up and solidify math teaching, btw, is completely abominable in America. Waste of time. For the interested, there is a newer edition.

http://www.amazon.com/College-Algebra-Enhanced-Graphing-Utilities/dp/0136004911/

This is what they assigned for teaching in my college algebra class. I retook algebra because I need a serious refresher; I stopped taking math in 2003, and by 2008 I couldn't handle calculus 2. Turns out I can't handle algebra either... actually, I can; but this book is really shitty at teaching it.

In English class, you read classic English literature. Lord of the Flies [soon to be banned], Catcher in the Rye [banned], To Kill a Mockingbird [banned], Huckleberry Fin [almost banned that one time, but it's now safe], A Tale of Two Cities [never in danger of banning]. All books I hated. Not the point. The point is that, while there's an abundance of amazing new literature coming out, we still read classics.

I have found the same appreciation for subject matter text: the books I cited above are absolutely the most amazing math texts I've ever seen, far better than anything else I've read on the subject, because it seems the author actually wanted to teach math. The algebra book covers graphing calculators and programs and such, but only as an aside; it takes the teaching of algebra as a core subject, with call-forwards to Geometry and real-world applications. The Geometry book is a huge crawl through Algebra to introduce Geometry, but only as an aid to strengthen the understanding of Algebra.

Modern textbooks seem to be gutter trash pushed only to make money. The truth is math doesn't fucking change. Basic physics doesn't fucking change. Algebra, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, statistics, these are parts of fields that have a solid base. There is nothing new in Calculus 1 and 2, ever. There is nothing new in introductory and intermediate Statistics and Probability Theory, ever. There is nothing new in fundamental physics, ever. The fields of advanced mathematics, statistics, high level newtonian physics, quantum physics, nuclear physics, and high level chemistry are always changing. The base material is simple and fully explored; if it ever changes, it will be a huge change.

We don't need a new text on this shit every six months, a new updated edition... there are no updates to the field of intermediate college algebra. There are no updates to the field of basic chemistry. There are no updates to College Physics 1 and 2. There are no updates to introductory statistics and probability theory. There are no updates to Calculus 1 and 2. The ever-changing text is at the end of these subjects, several courses or several dozen courses ahead. All you have at 90% of the BA/BS level is errata because 6 x 7 doesn't equal 49, oops.

The textbook mills produce shit-quality shovelware that needs to die.

> For those still unaware, "human trafficking" is basically a euphemism for slavery. See River of Innocents for a good primer. In the US alone, tens of thousands of kids are at high risk for being enslaved every year.

Victor Malarek's The Natashas is also good.

I've always heard Scientology engaged in some disreputable tactics, but seriously, this is a new low.

Excuse me, my Kitchen is on fire.