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Mark Newman has a very nice sliding rock poster with a good shot of rock and trail in a variety of sizes.

PDF conversion is experimental. The experimental category represents the features we are working on to enhance the Kindle experience even further. You can email your PDFs wirelessly to your Kindle. Due to PDF's fixed layout format, some complex PDF files might not format correctly on your Kindle.

Take a look at the specs.
This thing doesn't sync, nor use WiFi. Instead, it downloads content through Sprint's wireless 3G network (the same one that their phones use). There is no subscription fee for this (the data service). It will also download newspaper and magazine subscriptions daily (no syncing or need to find a WiFi hotspot).

Perhaps their pricing model is built around including some type of specially negotiated data plan with Sprint that is amortized over the projected lifetime of the device. (Just speculation).

I agree--I've always loved this stuff. I'll have to dig out my copy of Yesterday's Tomorrows when I get home.

It's doubtful that Google or most other online storage provides will offer that however - they want to tie your data to their applications (e.g. edit your documents online, share your files through their web site) - and that just doesn't work if they can't read your encryption.

Personally I'd read a lot more ebooks if more ebooks were available without the restrictive DRM and hardcover prices as compared to paperbacks.

I'm not going spend $400 and $20/book*.

Though I'll admit to considering it as long as I can transfer my webscription ebooks to it.

*Yes, they advertise "New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise." The whole 'unless marked otherwise' is real assuring. Besides, I don't normally read best sellers, and pay less than $10/book.

On a sort-of-related off-topic tangent,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKJZVJI9V0ZUYB

Dogs in Space

4:27 PM PDT, September 18, 2007

Increasingly, graphic novels are dealing with historical subjects,
some in a hybrid form that's halfway between conventional story and
documentary. Laika, by Nick Abadzis, from First Second, is the latest
in this mode, while also being a timeless animal story. Telling the
story of Earth's first space traveler, a dog named Laika that was part
of the Soviet space program, Laika is by turns moving and informative.
It's also beautifully drawn, in subdued but evocative color. Recently,
I interviewed Abadzis about this latest project via email. He replied
from "the middle of a fairly leafy green suburb in London."

Amazon.com: What inspired you to pick this particular topic for a
graphic novel? And why, for example, a graphic novel as opposed to a
strictly written account?

Nick Abadzis: I'd known it was a good story since I was about six
years old. It had always been at the back of my mind as a story to
tell. In 2002, new information came to light about the Sputnik II
mission and specifically Laika's death. That was the spark, although
back then I envisaged something much shorter. It, uh, grew. Why a
graphic novel? Well, comics are my language. It's the medium that I'm
most familiar and comfortable...so it was first choice.

Amazon.com: What most surprised you while researching Laika?

Nick Abadzis: There were a few things. I had no idea there were so few
Soviet engineers and scientists involved in the nascent space
program--not to trivialize their incredible achievement but, in many
senses, they just winged it, borne along in great part by Korolev's
force of will and political maneuvering. Also it was interesting to
find out how much the Soviet scientists cared for their cosmodogs.
Events conspired to make Laika a sacrificial passenger on board
Sputnik II, but they really did honor their canine cosmonauts. There's
even a statue of Laika in Moscow. Perhaps this book will go some small
way to re-establishing her position in history: whatever the
circumstances, and whether you agree with what they did or not, she
was the first earthling in orbit around this planet.

Amazon.com: Was there anything that didn't make it into the graphic
novel because it just didn't fit?

Nick Abadzis: There was quite a bit, actually. I could have done with
another hundred pages. But I'd taken a bit of time to write and
thumbnail it (which I do at the same time) and when that stage was
finished, the publisher and I realized that the 50th anniversary of
the Sputnik launches was fast approaching. When I first pitched the
idea to Mark Siegel at First Second, neither of us realized that it
was so close. It felt like we needed to be a part of that, so I drew
it extremely fast--two hundred pages in a little over eight months.
It's an understatement to say that it was extremely hard work. What
got left out was a longer explication of Laika's origins; the scenes
with Mikhail, her first owner were much longer.... Originally, I did
have an idea of doing three books: Laika would be the first, Gagarin
the second and a full-on comic strip biography of Korolev [the driven
engineer on the project] would be the final part that would bind
together events seen in the first two. Maybe one day. Certainly,
elements of Korolev's life that I felt were important to the story
made it into the final version of the book.

Amazon.com: Did you worry about the sentimentality inherent in the
situation? How did that affect your decisions in creating the graphic
novel?

Nick Abadzis: I suppose it would have been easy to make it another
cutesy, twee and overly saccharine dead dog story but that wouldn't
have bee

If you're really interested in the subject matter read The Ultimate History of Video Games instead of watching this watered down pablum. Trying to watch the first episode of this series, I was bored silly.

I'd buy this for Christmas if I could, but it looks like I'll have to wait a bit. Only four more episodes - have to make sure I don't miss those, they all sound pretty interesting. And I'd like to see how it compares to Video Game Invasion.

What about those non-lethal weapons we hear about from time to time that are just around the corner, like shooting a big gob of glue to stop someone in their tracks? It seems that DARPA and similar agencies hype these, but they are never actually ready for production.

In Minority Report you had the "sick sticks" which cause vomiting and presumably get the suspect to stop resisting. Was there any science behind those, or were they just Philip K. Dick's own invention?

Here is the coat on Amazon. Slashdot should allow me to edit posts.

Any joy on pointing us to those sources? I can't see any details of this guy posting in any medical journals.

Here is a paper by David Ayoub http://www.jpands.org/vol11no2/ayoub.pdf in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. I suggest you trace the references therein. For a good general overview of vaccine issues with many detailed source references, I can recommend this book http://astore.amazon.com/medical-bookstore-20/detail/1881217302.

So investing time and money into understanding and combating both types of flu is understandable.

Indeed, infectious diseases should be carefully researched and closely monitored. But does that warrant the scare mongering enacted in the public media concerning flu and bird flu when the actual risk is very very low in comparison to other common risks? And does that low risk warrant the side effects and cost of all those yearly flu shots people are given?

Why not verify the data that is supposed to show that vaccines are even effective? Here is a book to help you out with that http://astore.amazon.com/medical-bookstore-20/detail/1881217302. Yes, you can interpret statistics in many ways, but the fact of the matter is that vaccines have been sold to the public and policy makers based on statistics of infectious disease reductions that occurred with improvements of hygiene, not with the later introduction of vaccination programs.

"Actually, the Zune has been a failure.... The fact is, consumer electronics do not "Slowly gain market share" - they are hit or miss."

This is at odds with how things tend to work in the electronics and CE industry.

Microsoft started by looking at the market, looking at what they wanted to accomplish, set a budget, and then built a unit and market share forecast. And, they hit that forecast. This makes it a success. Sorry -- that's not the politically correct answer, but it's the truth.

"the iPod is king and will remain king - the Zune, in it's wildest dreams, may become a distant also ran in the top 20 selling."

Again, I'm not sure where you're coming from, as your statement is at odds with the actual situation that's occurring. As of this writing, Zune models occupy the #1 (yeah, #1), #9, #16 and #20 slots in the Amazon top 100. This matches up with the NPD industry data (available via subscription only), which consistently shows that Microsoft has no problem keeping Zune models in the top ten.

More importantly, they've passed Sansa in dollar sales. They've passed Creative. Their dollar share is greater than 10% (something that Sandisk and Creative haven't been able to do for a while), and it's growing. So, I'm having trouble understanding why you claim that the "wildest dreams" for Microsoft are to place it low in the top 20 when they're already doing quite well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/172630/ Zune has occupied the top spot for quite some time. Is this a failure?

Looks like whoever wrote the article read this book recently.

When I lived in Spain, the local FNAC was a great place to browse, but a lousy place to buy. Their CDs are ridiculously expensively priced compared to other options. I'll pick a general classical CD that, as far as I know, is still always full-price, the DG disc with Anne-Sophie Mutter as the soloist on the Berg violin concerto. FNAC has it for a steep 23 euro. Meanwhile, Amazon has it for US$16. Even though I've settled in Europe for good, I've grown accustomed to ordering from Amazon, having everything shipped to a relative in the US, and getting my stuff every few months when someone flies over. But if I didn't have that option, like most European music lovers, you better believe that I'd be downloading nonstop. Retailers like FLAC should realize that outright gouging of your customers doesn't spur business.

There's a book mostly intended as a resource for sf writers, What if the Moon didn't Exist? , which details many of the poor consequences for creatures like us given the absence of a large moon for earth. Its been years, but I remember two of the big ones.

First, without tidal interaction with a large moon, the earth would spin a great deal faster on its axis, resulting in much stronger and consistent winds. It would be hard for anything to be more than a few inches tall except in the windshadow of tall mountains, which themselves would erode much faster.

Second, without the tides, the transition from ocean life to land life would have been much more difficult, since there would be nothing like tidal pools to serve as temporary havens and opportunities for the creatures making that transition.

As you probably know, Asimov wrote not only fiction, but non-fiction for the masses, and was rightly well-known for the way in which he made science not just understandable but interesting. He explained in a number of works, including The Tragedy Of The Moon, explaining how unique the moon is.

As noted in the parent post, Asimov will often incorporate real science into his fiction.

So, what's this about how the Earth's moon is unique? Is this something new?

Amazon's editors (not the fans/buyers) have been pretty consistent in picking good stuff.
Basically, if you haven't used it before, I'd recommend the following way to get a really good variety:

1.Best of by Years will get you started with some great CD's you haven't heard of.
2. Get a download account
3. An account to find the music.
4. A program to download the music.

Total price is about $20/month, though well worth it to get your collection started. Such a shame the record companies are too thick-headed to get their share of the pie; On the other hand, what value are they providing here with this model, anyway??

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-StorCenter-Network-Hard-Drive/dp/B000UODGV6

In Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars , the terraformer Sax Russell releases little wind-powered heaters all over the surface of the Red Planet in order to raise the temperature. Over the course of the novel, they end up heating the planet by about 1 degree Celcius. Would such a similar trick work on our planet, could global warming or cooling be tamed by the action of thousands of dispersed devices?

I have to say I am impressed with their selection, which can get downright esoteric. Sony's selection(which has gotten better recently) has always left me wanting. I would watch Jon Stewart interview some author and then I would go see if I could find their book only to find out it's either not there or too expensive.

One of the things that really showed promise was having comic books delivered to the device. However, it never really panned out for Sony, one year on and there are only 14 items in the manga section, and Kindle isn't looking much better. The sample they gave with the Sony eReader actually looked pretty good in terms of readability, shame there isn't much content that I want on it though(I suppose I could go track down pdfs, but too much of a pain)

If the first buyers are big fans of Amazon, then they probably will soon leave reviews on the product page, giving us some descriptions of the product that aren't tarred by marketing hype. However, at the moment the reviews that are up are by people connected to Amazon, or those who haven't even used the product.

why does this reads so much like an add for the book ?

I don't think I've ever seen a harsh review here on Slashdot. Perhaps the editors are of the opinion that a book need not be mentioned unless the reviewer thinks it's good, and since the has already been established to be good, the reviewer can go all out with hyperbole in praising it. If you want to see more critical opinions on a book reviewed here, check out the Amazon listing, where among the bogus reviews that often appear immediately for tech books, there is a pretty good examination of the book's weaknesses.

I could see it used as a pretty spiffy media player/phone of some kind (it can do Voip and play music (mp3, ogg, m4a), and even some movies already, with the right homebrew software - even browse the net with either homebrew software or Opera browser), if you use a headset/mic like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-DS-Headset/dp/B000MXSP2K

This is what i did for my storage at home. I subscribed to Amazon's S3 Service http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261 it is inexpensive and easy to use. You will need a client to hook into their infrastructure http://jungledisk.com/ and then you have very reliable inexpensive off line backups. I backed up 4GB of data and it cost me $.40 i was amazed how easy it is to use and the price is right. :)

It is not really a NAS, but I use the Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo RAID and set the RAID to mirroring that way I have a fail point and I can get the data via USB or Firewire for all my Mac and Linux systems.

Of course Nintendo doesn't have to do this. I'm somewhat shocked that a tech site like slashdot would be so woefully unaware that this problem has already been completely solved by Nokia with the N-Gage. If you check the reviews you will find that it is " A great multi-function device that plays games too!". So let's get with the times slashdot.

Of course Nintendo doesn't have to do this. I'm somewhat shocked that a tech site like slashdot would be so woefully unaware that this problem has already been completely solved by Nokia with the N-Gage. If you check the reviews you will find that it is " A great multi-function device that plays games too!". So let's get with the times slashdot.

HP makes a Windows home server for $600. Half a Gig, with hot-swappable trays for SATA, etc. just plug into your network and voila.

http://www.amazon.com/EX470-MediaSmart-Server-Sempron-Processor/dp/B000UY1WSK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3_s9_rk?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&s9r=8a585b431588ae070115f9650cd90da1&itemPosition=3&qid=1195658849&sr=8-3

This discussion is largely being predicated on the statement that any one calorie is just like any other calorie. That weight gain is a simple matter of calories consumed minus calories burned. Clearly this isn't the case. I've just given an example where the chirality of an otherwise identical molecule with determines the usefulness to the body.

In a balanced diet, it averages out. You burn a certain amount of the energy in digestion, but on average you absorb about 85% of the calories you ingest, from whatever source. Your body throws away the rest - it's really quite good at keeping what it needs and getting rid of what it doesn't.

The same is true for fats, proteins etc, it isn't a simple case of calories in and calories out, they all push specific chemical processes which have specific effects on the body and it's function. If the balance is wrong, people become malnutritioned. Replace calories supplied by sugar with calories supplied by proteins and there is an entirely different effect on the body.

Again, it's not a big deal with a balanced diet. Once you have your essential nutrients, the rest comes down to calories in -> glucose and glucose->energy/fat. Once digested, a calorie is a calorie. I'd recommend The UCSD Nutrition Book by the late Paul Saltman, M.D., if you want a good, straightforward guide to what matters and what doesn't.

I'm tired of arguing. Look, you seem to be hung up on one admittedly weak comparison I made between the wording of the First and Second Amendments. The fact remains that my other arguments are perfectly credible, but you are dismissing them and my conclusions as irrational simply because you disagree.

To answer your question, I was not cut-and-pasting as you suggest, but trying to paraphrase something I read once in A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America, of which unfortunately I do not own a copy. Further, I find your assertion, that the intent of the Second Amendment is not to allow citizens to bear arms in their own defense, a completely ludicrous one. When taken all together, the amendment guarantees (not grants as you suggest) citizens a pre-existing right to bear arms, with the purpose of protecting a free state. The amendment specifically says "state" and not "states". Of course, the states were free to form their own militias, and the preference at the time was for a weaker federal government. Make no mistake, though, the "state" they refer to meant the country in general, or depending on the circumstances, a subset. In addition, you may be misinformed about what the militia really is, of which the organized militia (which gun-control advocates point out has been rendered unnecessary by the National Guard) is only a part.

Also, you seem to think that the Second Amendment is an anachronism, based on your statement that the US is a different place now when compared to the time the Bill of Rights was written. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but as you say, the framers were not idiots. They knew they could not foresee future events, which is why the Bill of Rights is written in more general terms. It's telling that they chose to use the word "arms" and not "muskets" or "firearms" in the Second Amendment, just as they say "the press" and not specifically "movable type" in the First. From this, we could deduce that they likely were aware that technological progress would take place and accounted for it, just as they knew they couldn't foresee all circumstances when a militia would be needed when saying "state" in vague terms. What they could not account for, however, were future changes in the English language that could alter the meaning of their text.

I disagree with you that the Second Amendment is no longer relevant. In fact, I believe it is even more relevant today, not only with current events but also because we pretty much almost have the too-powerful federal government the founders feared. Of course, this is only my opinion.

If you wish to interpret the Constitution yourself in modern terms, go right ahead. However, please don't pervert the meaning of the text based on modern language usage. Also, if you think even modern law is written in plain English or is even intelligible to most, you obviously haven't looked at the U.S.C. or other statutes. By comparison, the US Constitution is far more readable than most modern laws. What you are not understanding, or choose to ignore, is that to an 18th century reader the text of the Second Amendment would read differently than you choose to in your modern interpretation. This is why judges often consult other sources when interpreting the law, as I've mentioned earlier. You may disagree with this, but it is a standard practice in constitutional law, and the influence of these other texts can not simply be dismissed. No, these texts are not law, but they do affect how laws are applied, in a very real sense. Judicial activism refers to an abuse of this practice, not using these clues to put the actual text of the Constitution into historical perspective while keeping in mind these other sources are not authoritative.

Judicial activism aside, are liberal judges who reinterpret "the people" to mean something other than everybody any bet

No no no, you've got it all wrong. After Bush read this book, it all became clear to him: he must follow the words of the prophet.

without present danger, of course...

Bookmarks and Annotation
By using the keyboard, you can add annotations to text, just like you might write in the margins of a book. And because it is digital, you can edit, delete, and export your notes, highlight and clip key passages, and bookmark pages for future use. You'll never need to bookmark your last place in the book, because Kindle remembers for you and always opens to the last page you read.

But can you lend a book to a friend or just give it away?

Lend books to friends, are you kidding? Novels and light reading can be had from the public library; the type of books I collect tend to be those that are vital for my research, and those are expensive and only get more so with time. When I succeeded in getting a fairly cheap copy of Joseph's The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive , which now costs fifteen hundred bucks, do you think I'm going to lend it out to someone who might lose it? Granted, this doesn't hold for all, but the other academics here know what I'm talking about. Kindle would only make things easier for us if it meant easy replaceability from digital copies, but unfortunately there's often DRM involved.

What about take it to the toilet and not have to worry? What about a low replacement cost?

Some of the folks who frequent this News for Nerds site are already used to using their notebook on the toilet with no problems, except for that poor guy who burnt his penis a couple of years back.

My God, even Heavenly Sword is longer than Portal.

Well Heavenly Sword costs $59.99 and reportedly lasts about 7 hours. Portal costs $20 and lasts about 4 hours. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, and this isn't taking into account time taken to complete the advanced levels or achievements.

Go look at the prices again. $9.99 is for any book on the NY Times best seller list which are *all* hardcovers books. The average price of the ebooks this is referring to is less then *half* the cover price of the paper copy, and generally 50% lower then the paper copy from amazon.

Examples:
You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty
Cover price: $26.00
Amazon print Price: $15.60
Kindle price: $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/You-Staying-Owners-Extending-Warranty/dp/B000UZNS36/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508317&sr=1-1

Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)
Cover price: $26.99
Amazon print price: $16.19
Kindle price: $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/Am-America-So-Can-You/dp/B000UZJR9U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508317&sr=1-4

Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Cover price: $18.00
Amazon print price: $12.24
Kindle price: $11.02
http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/B000QCSA7C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508465&sr=1-1

No, I don't work for Amazon, and I don't work in the publishing industry. It just irritates me when people scream about greed when the actual data doesn't bear out their assertion. There are plenty of cases of actual naked greed out there, why pick on things that don't bear that out.

Go look at the prices again. $9.99 is for any book on the NY Times best seller list which are *all* hardcovers books. The average price of the ebooks this is referring to is less then *half* the cover price of the paper copy, and generally 50% lower then the paper copy from amazon.

Examples:
You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty
Cover price: $26.00
Amazon print Price: $15.60
Kindle price: $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/You-Staying-Owners-Extending-Warranty/dp/B000UZNS36/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508317&sr=1-1

Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)
Cover price: $26.99
Amazon print price: $16.19
Kindle price: $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/Am-America-So-Can-You/dp/B000UZJR9U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508317&sr=1-4

Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Cover price: $18.00
Amazon print price: $12.24
Kindle price: $11.02
http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/B000QCSA7C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508465&sr=1-1

No, I don't work for Amazon, and I don't work in the publishing industry. It just irritates me when people scream about greed when the actual data doesn't bear out their assertion. There are plenty of cases of actual naked greed out there, why pick on things that don't bear that out.

Go look at the prices again. $9.99 is for any book on the NY Times best seller list which are *all* hardcovers books. The average price of the ebooks this is referring to is less then *half* the cover price of the paper copy, and generally 50% lower then the paper copy from amazon.

Examples:
You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty
Cover price: $26.00
Amazon print Price: $15.60
Kindle price: $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/You-Staying-Owners-Extending-Warranty/dp/B000UZNS36/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508317&sr=1-1

Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)
Cover price: $26.99
Amazon print price: $16.19
Kindle price: $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/Am-America-So-Can-You/dp/B000UZJR9U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508317&sr=1-4

Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Cover price: $18.00
Amazon print price: $12.24
Kindle price: $11.02
http://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/B000QCSA7C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1195508465&sr=1-1

No, I don't work for Amazon, and I don't work in the publishing industry. It just irritates me when people scream about greed when the actual data doesn't bear out their assertion. There are plenty of cases of actual naked greed out there, why pick on things that don't bear that out.

For the ODEX issue, the works in question were already licensed works.

Communism (or socialism) works for ants, but humans are possessive animals

Your analogy is not valid. Ants, bees and termites in the same colony share the same genes. An ant colony is a single organism split into many parts rather than a society. It functions as a single organism, determined by bettering the changes for gene survival, not survival of individual ants (most of whom are incapable of producing offspring, anyway). In a human society, unlike the ant colony, individuals bearing different genes compete. This is explained well in The Sevfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

When my nephew gets old enough, he's gonna get this bad boy: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IG4FMK/ref=wl_itt_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3JXNPYEWKM4KG&colid=38BL97SIGW5TR . It's basically an electronics lab that snaps together like legos. There's motors and lights and I think there's even a really basic ADC that you can plug into your computer and see the waveforms you generate.

I think that the term you'd be looking for would be 'displacement'.

Thanks, "displacement" may work. Another word I thought of when I read the above was "distort" and I'll try it too.

My house needs to be heated. I'm outside of NG range, so my main choices are electric or propane. Right now propane is substantially cheaper than electric - but with the right setup(like a geothermal heat pump), electric would be cheaper.

I rent now but it's kind of like "rent to own". When the building is transfered to me I plan on converting the heating as well. Right now a boiler in the basement, burning propane, provides heating with only 1 thermostat covering the building. What I want to do is first improve the insulation, my apartment on the first floor can get warm while the apartments above will be cold. Then if feasible I want to use a geothermal heat pump as well. I'll use radiant floor heating and create heating zones for each apartment controlled by thermostats in each apartment. A person would be able to have the bedroom warming up before they hit the sack then lower the temp once they're out the door. The kitchen zone would then warm up before they got up so the floor wasn't cold while cooking. Now, do I really expect people to setup the room like that? No, but they will have the ability.

It'd just take a large capital investment - which isn't worth it at this time.

Yea, I hope I'll be able to save enough after a few years, I want to get a loan for it but still want to make sure I have at least most of the money. I could either take out a second mortgage or an equity line of credit, then roll it into a new mortgage when interest is low.

If it gets bad enough - you see more people driving electric cars because they're cheaper.

I think it was late last year but it of been early this year when I read about a study the "Economist" had that basically said those in the US pay something like 17% of their income on transportation. When oil prices are low they'll drive expensive gas guzzlers but when oil prices are high they drive fuel efficient vehicles.

On to your list of links... I found #4 interesting, because it considers not charging for CO2 emissions a subsidy.

In a way I consider a subsidy myself. Instead of the government giving the money, it's future generations who will have to pay. The Inuit in Nunavut are already paying. And not just for Global Warming, but for industrial pollution as well. Although the Inuit neither make nor consume Polychlorinated biphenyl, known to be highly toxic, their blood as been shown to have high PCB levels. Heck they even have high levels of DDT.

I hate to say it, but I think that they need to stop concentrating on reducing energy usage for a while and concentrate on appliance longevity. Chopping 10% off the electricity usage of an appliance makes sense when it lasts 20 years, but the average today is often less than 10, and for some is as low as 5, on average.

Oh, I'm in total agreement. It seems nobody takes pride in making something that can be handed down to grand and great grand children today. I lost it but about 15 years ago I had the shell of a Zippo lighter with the graving of a Chinese dragon that was made in the 1930's. It was in great shape. Design today is for planned obsolescence. Things should be made to last a long tyme, then easy to recycle. There's a good book partially on this, "Natural Capitalism". It has case studies of how company X improved it's bottom line by cleaning up pollution,

1) I live in the third world (Costa Rica)
2) I read books? Check this one out. Of course, books are never a source of knowledge. Especially ones written by Pulitzer prize winners.
3) I have traveled a hell of a lot.
4) I stay up to date with current events (and I don't mean Paris Hilton, Britney Spears or Angelina Jolie).

As pointed out in the editorial, software developers make mistakes, and this is true regardless of whether that developer is a proprietary software vendor, or a free/open source software project.

Goro Shimura used to say that 50% of all published "mathematics" was rank nonsense.

Personally, I think he was being generous - I'd guess the figure is more like 95%. Maybe even 99%.

Heck, I'll bet there are even some mistakes somewhere in Higgins on Sampling Theory:

Volume I; $171.60
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198596995/

Volume II; $264.00
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198534965/

It's just a crying shame that I have to pony up almost $500 for the honor of discovering them.

As pointed out in the editorial, software developers make mistakes, and this is true regardless of whether that developer is a proprietary software vendor, or a free/open source software project.

Goro Shimura used to say that 50% of all published "mathematics" was rank nonsense.

Personally, I think he was being generous - I'd guess the figure is more like 95%. Maybe even 99%.

Heck, I'll bet there are even some mistakes somewhere in Higgins on Sampling Theory:

Volume I; $171.60
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198596995/

Volume II; $264.00
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198534965/

It's just a crying shame that I have to pony up almost $500 for the honor of discovering them.

A book some of you might find interesting, with relation to the fear in todays society is "Last child in the woods" by Richard Lou. It is available at most book stores including http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/1565123913. Though it talks mostly about and other topic, it speaks a lot about how parents fears are keeping kids away from unstructured play time in the outdoors.

I'm not going to disagree with the "laid open" part, but the "free of charge" nonsense is just typical marxist university professor hypocrisy.

Let's price some math texts:

Atiyah & MacDonald, Commutative Algebra; $57.54, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201407515/

Eisenbud, Commutative Algebra; $41.30, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0387942696/

Hartshorne, Algebraic Geometry; $59.10, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0387902449/

Elements de Geometrie Algebrique; out of print, http://www.amazon.com/dp/3540051139/

Rudin, Real and Complex Analysis; $142.50, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0070542341/

Rudin, Functional Analysis; $137.16, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0070542368/

Dym & McKean, Fourier Series and Integrals; $85.00, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0122264517/

Sugiura, Unitary Representations and Harmonic Analysis, 2nd Edition; Out of Print, http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Sugiura&tn=Representations[Someone wants $495.00 for the first edition.]

Or try a few titles which might be a little more familiar to Slashdotters:

Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set; $145.00, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201485419/

Sedgewick, Algorithms in C++, Parts 1-5; $93.00, http://www.amazon.com/dp/020172684X/

Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest & Stein, Introduction to Algorithms; $61.88, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262032937/

Aho, Ullman & Hopcroft, Data Structures and Algorithms; $53.20, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201000237/

McLachlan, Discriminant Analysis and Statistical Pattern Recognition; $90.40, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0471691151/

Haykin, Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Foundation; $120.12, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0132733501/

Duda, Hart & Stork, Pattern Classification; $117.00, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0471056693/

Fukunaga, Introduction to Statistical Pattern Recognition; $74.40, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0122698517/

Bishop, Neural Networks for Pattern Recognition; $82.81, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198538642/

Bishop, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning; $66.54, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0387310738/

Higgins, Sampling Theory in Fourier and Signal Analysis: Volume I; $171.60, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198596995/

Higgins & Sten, Sampling Theory in Fourier and Signal Analysis: Volume II; $264.00, http://www.amazon.com/dp/0198534965/

Princeton, which has the finest mathematics department in the world [or at least had the finest mathematics department in the world, before Harold Shapiro & Shirley Tilghman decided they wanted to turn the