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Go and read the Dance of the Gods tetralogy.
hint: first three tomes ale almost pure fantasy. ...and there's the fourth one.

http://www.gaslightbooks.com.au/4part/authorb2.htm l#Brenner/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-ur l/104-9121897-9397556?_encoding=UTF8&search-type=s s&index=books&field-author=Mayer%20Alan%20Brenner/

My favorite source of statistics - Amazon.com

Blu-ray - 257 hits.

HD DVD - 342 hits.

DVD - 170749 hits.

My point is that both HD formats have long road ahead. Regardless of "last month sales figures" of RTFA. I think it would take about 2 years to really find who would be a winner. Probably both - with demoed combo-discs. Probably technically superior BD. Probably cheaper HD DVD. (My bet would be later. I know myself and if I can get something cheaper I would do precisely that.)

My favorite source of statistics - Amazon.com

Blu-ray - 257 hits.

HD DVD - 342 hits.

DVD - 170749 hits.

My point is that both HD formats have long road ahead. Regardless of "last month sales figures" of RTFA. I think it would take about 2 years to really find who would be a winner. Probably both - with demoed combo-discs. Probably technically superior BD. Probably cheaper HD DVD. (My bet would be later. I know myself and if I can get something cheaper I would do precisely that.)

My favorite source of statistics - Amazon.com

Blu-ray - 257 hits.

HD DVD - 342 hits.

DVD - 170749 hits.

My point is that both HD formats have long road ahead. Regardless of "last month sales figures" of RTFA. I think it would take about 2 years to really find who would be a winner. Probably both - with demoed combo-discs. Probably technically superior BD. Probably cheaper HD DVD. (My bet would be later. I know myself and if I can get something cheaper I would do precisely that.)

Why are so many nerds just dying for the nanotechnology future to get here?

The crossed out price on Amazon is the $30. If they could claim a higher percentage discount from 35, they would.

Tetris at Amazon
Tetris at Gamestop

Our medical system is based on the principle that if for have something wrong with you, you see a doctor, and the doctor prescribes the right drug for it if one exists.

This is the fundamental reason why our medical system fails it. While drugs have their place, they usually aren't the best response to an illness. But, in Fascist America (de facto integration between corporations and the government), all the health options that are NOT drugs or surgery get labeled 'alternative', and you generally have to discover those options on your own.

The basic requirements for health haven't changed at all for thousands of years. The father of western holistic medicine called them assimilation (the taking in nutrients) and elimination (clearing out waste products). See Dr. Reilly's Handbook for Health through Drugless Therapy for a manual (of a sort) on nutrition, exercise, massage, and other unconventional approaches to health that ought to be mainstream.

Results are what we should be concerned about, and by this margin the focus on finding the right drug falls down. A pharmaceutical company's ideal product is a 0drug that manages a sick person's symptom well, but doesn't address the underlying cause, so one has to keep going back to the drugstore for perpetual refills. There's not much money in "curing" disease - all the money's in managing the symptoms.

Reilly's handbook is all about the "cures" that he had much success with in his busy mid-20th-century practice. Not every patient got a cure, of course, but many found therapies that allowed them to be pain-free well after they'd been written off by their regular doctors.

How you could forget to include 1984 is beyond me.

(There will be those that try to cast this argument as an "anti-warming" statement, so I preface.)

Climate change and warming are happening. It's the cause, the driving force that is at issue. There are those that claim the debate is over, that man-caused climate change is in progress, and that all the scientists agree, case closed. Not exactly the case.

There 2 books, one published in December, the other due out shortly that make a very strong case for cyclical change.

Two powerful new books say today's global warming is due not to human activity but primarily to a long, moderate solar-linked cycle. Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, by physicist Fred Singer and economist Dennis Avery was released just before Christmas. The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, by Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark and former BBC science writer Nigel Calder (Icon Books), is due out in March.

Singer and Avery note that most of the earth's recent warming occurred before 1940, and thus before much human-emitted CO2. Moreover, physical evidence shows 600 moderate warmings in the earth's last million years. The evidence ranges from ancient Nile flood records, Chinese court documents and Roman wine grapes to modern spectral analysis of polar ice cores, deep seabed sediments, and layered cave stalagmites.

Unstoppable Global Warming shows the earth's temperatures following variations in solar intensity through centuries of sunspot records, and finds cycles of sun-linked isotopes in ice and tree rings. The book cites the work of Svensmark, who says cosmic rays vary the earth's temperatures by creating more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that cool the earth. It notes that global climate models can't accurately register cloud effects.

The Chilling Stars documents how cosmic rays amplify small changes in the sun's irradiance fourfold, creating 1-2 degree C cycles in earth's temperatures: Cosmic rays continually slam into the earth's atmosphere from outer space, creating ion clusters that become seeds for small droplets of water and sulfuric acid. The droplets then form the low, wet clouds that reflect solar energy back into space. When the sun is more active, it shields the earth from some of the rays, clouds wane, and the planet warms.

Unstoppable Global Warming documents the reality of a moderate, natural, 1500-year climate cycle on the earth. The Chilling Stars explains the why and how.

(There will be those that try to cast this argument as an "anti-warming" statement, so I preface.)

Climate change and warming are happening. It's the cause, the driving force that is at issue. There are those that claim the debate is over, that man-caused climate change is in progress, and that all the scientists agree, case closed. Not exactly the case.

There 2 books, one published in December, the other due out shortly that make a very strong case for cyclical change.

Two powerful new books say today's global warming is due not to human activity but primarily to a long, moderate solar-linked cycle. Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, by physicist Fred Singer and economist Dennis Avery was released just before Christmas. The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, by Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark and former BBC science writer Nigel Calder (Icon Books), is due out in March.

Singer and Avery note that most of the earth's recent warming occurred before 1940, and thus before much human-emitted CO2. Moreover, physical evidence shows 600 moderate warmings in the earth's last million years. The evidence ranges from ancient Nile flood records, Chinese court documents and Roman wine grapes to modern spectral analysis of polar ice cores, deep seabed sediments, and layered cave stalagmites.

Unstoppable Global Warming shows the earth's temperatures following variations in solar intensity through centuries of sunspot records, and finds cycles of sun-linked isotopes in ice and tree rings. The book cites the work of Svensmark, who says cosmic rays vary the earth's temperatures by creating more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that cool the earth. It notes that global climate models can't accurately register cloud effects.

The Chilling Stars documents how cosmic rays amplify small changes in the sun's irradiance fourfold, creating 1-2 degree C cycles in earth's temperatures: Cosmic rays continually slam into the earth's atmosphere from outer space, creating ion clusters that become seeds for small droplets of water and sulfuric acid. The droplets then form the low, wet clouds that reflect solar energy back into space. When the sun is more active, it shields the earth from some of the rays, clouds wane, and the planet warms.

Unstoppable Global Warming documents the reality of a moderate, natural, 1500-year climate cycle on the earth. The Chilling Stars explains the why and how.

The gray-haired boys and girls of science are at it again, talking up the good, not presenting the bad or anything that opposes the science. So, two obvious points:

1. It is immoral to produce fuel from food. And the more fuel-from-food you call for, the more immoral you are, whether you are a President, or a country. We will NOT be able to produce both food and fuel no matter how hard they try to tell us we can. Linear projections of food output ignore the limitation of fixed water resources. Read "When the Rivers Run Dry: Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century," by Fred Pearce. The USA is exporting vast amounts of its ancient water resources already in the form of "virtual water" grain exports. The water tables in the West are alarmingly low in places. But that is also a problem worldwide. And this source of irrigation water does not replenish itself for thousands of years. In India, the cheap Japanese pumps that hit the market in the 70s allowed farmers to irrigate to the point that they are poisoning large areas of arable land with salt, taking that land out of food production. Like the buried hydrocarbon resources of the Earth, once ancient water is pumped up and used, it is gone. And there is also the problem of disappearing rivers, rivers who's water is being almost completely used right now for irrigation. There is no more water in these rivers to "fuel" increased production of food. The Russians have almost completely destroyed the Aral Sea since the 1960s, using its feeding rivers' water to irrigate crops. Food prices and fuel prices must not be placed in competition with each other for their common natural resource.

2. Who wants gasoline-tasting bread? It sounds funny, but it isn't. Yeast is ubiquitous. Unless they create this food-sourced, genetically-altered- yeast-produced "gasoline" in biosafety level 4 factories, these little buggers are going to get out into the environment and we can look forward to smelling the stink of gasoline in food and water. We'll long for the day when we "only" had gasoline from oil. Oh, I know, they'll say they can make it 100% safe.

Dude, that's your problem. Get rid of that cheap 2700K shit.
5100K is where it's at, yo. 90% on the colour-rendering chart, I think. I forget, but I use them exclusively, and there's no greenish white. Might be a tiny bit bluish white, but not bad. Reds do seem a a tiny bit saturated, so now that I think about it, it's probably a bit weak in green. Still looks as good as the 4' 40w 5000K bulbs I've got, and I know they're rateda 93 CRI.

On a related rant, 5840K is hotter than 2700K. Why in the FUCK do retards call 2700K "warm"? That is some ignorant, hillbilly, Arkansas, mouth breating stupid shit right there. Weed those inbred fuckers out of the gene pool, stat!

There are specific methodologies for modeling risks / threats and estimating their impact, that are used for justifying
Information Security budgeting.

Principles of Information Security is one book that I'm familiar with that has quite a bit of coverage of this topic. We used this for my course in Information Security a couple of years ago, and I found it pretty useful, FWIW.

Additionally, check this OWASP Page for some good stuff.

And finally, try googling for terms like Security Risk Analysis, Security Risk Assessment, and / or Security Threat Modeling.

OK! Any recommended titles?

You can't go wrong with Intimate Invasion: The Erotic Ins and Outs of Enema Play by M.R. Strict. Changed my life.

Thanks in advance!

No problem.

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Please. You're reading a site with the tagline "News for Nerds". You should already know the required reading.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• the Ender's Game series
• Lord of the Rings
• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
• A Brief History of Time
• The Cuckoo's Egg

You should already own and have read all of these, and if you're truly pretentious you should be able to quote relevant passages. Also, to retain your nerd and/or geek credentials, you must be able to quote from two or more of Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Firefly, or Andromeda. You will be expected to pick one of these as a religion* and from time to time wage holy war on the rest for forsaking The One True Way. Also you must be able to recite on demand the Spam sketch, the Dead Parrot sketch, and 90% of the Princess Bride script**.

If you wish to branch out from required reading, other popular choices are Twain, Shakespeare, Crichton, and Mark Minasi.

While either is correct, the "Enlightened" tend to use "theatre". I tend to make a distinction in that "theater" is the building and "theatre" is the performance within, but that's mostly because I suffered with a thespian roommate for a while and the brainwashing eventually wore me down. You may choose as you wish.

My pleasure! Please feel free to stop in again anytime you need a helping hand :-)

* - Star Trek, ** - Inconceivable!

Seriously: why isn't something advertised as an X-watt replacement as bright in lumens as what it is supposed to replace? How is this not false advertising?

Barnes and Noble is selling this book for $39.95, but Amazon.com is only selling it for $21.57!
 
Save yourself $18.38 by buying the book here: Game Writing. That's a total savings of 46.01%!

There is a decent book on this from the Cisco Press: The Business Case for Network Security: Advocacy, Governance, and ROI by Catherine Paquet and Warren Saxe. Not only does it help put this in terms the execs and bean counters can understand, but the appendix shows you the equations to compute ROI for preventing security breaches. If you've never taken a business administration or accounting class and feel lost when the PHB asks for this stuff in a power-point deck, this book can help.

Another link You're welcome

It is almost 20 bucks cheaper at Amazon. It has a four star average review there.
 
    (that's an associates link. if that is a problem, don't click on it.)

Clearly, you don't understand women at all.

Here's something to get you started. This book will change your life.

http://www.amazon.com/Sperm-Wars-Infidelity-Confli ct-Bedroom/dp/1560258489

No joke. You will understand women much better. You might be able to get laid, even.

What does Ayn Rand have to do with philosophy? Indeed. Whenever someone professes admiration for Ayn Rand, I can only assume that it is out of ignorance, a mere reading of her two fat novels without any training in real philosophy. I recently read Jeff Walker's The Ayn Rand Cult (Open Court, 1998) which, besides being a chronicle of how many lives her and her immediate followers wrecked, talks much about how the philosophy community--even scholars with ethical views similar to her own--reject her work as lacking in rigour, containing much inconsistency and back-peddling, and showing a lack of understanding of the earlier philosophers she cites (putting words into Kant's mouth, for example).

It doesn't reflect well on Jimbo at all to claim such a crackpot and madwoman as a role model. Besides, isn't part of Objectivism supposedly rejecting gurus? Why doesn't Jimbo just say he's an individualist, why bring up Rand at all?

"How does it violate it?
What to be searched is described: All of the class C that the suspect can get a DHCP address from."

You left off the word PARTICULARLY.

particular (pr-tk'y-lr, p-tk'-) pronunciation
adj.

      1. Of, belonging to, or associated with a specific person, group, thing, or category; not general or universal: has a particular preference for Chinese art.
      2. Separate and distinct from others of the same group, category, or nature: made an exception in this particular case.
      3. Worthy of note; exceptional: a piano performance of particular depth and fluidity.
      4.
                  1. Of, relating to, or providing details: gave a particular description of the room.
                  2. Attentive to or concerned with details or niceties, often excessively so; meticulous or fussy.
      5. Logic. Encompassing some but not all of the members of a class or group. Used of a proposition.

You cannot target a SPECIFIC PERSON by targeting 254 INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE.

The rights of the other 253 outweigh the hypothesized benefit to Law Enforcement.

Remember the 9th Amendment? We have a whole LOT of rights not enumerated in the Constitution, the 4th is just one example of how a specific subset are to be protected.

I'm in favor of the literal reading: Since the Constitution doesn't explicitly grant the power to tap our internet, they don't have it. This is the crux of the 10th Amendment, but it's in stark contrast to the way your Average Federal Employee sees it.

Of course, these egregious violations this will continue unabated, because obedience to The Law isn't for Government Employees, is it?

On that topic, when it comes to mistruths, 1/2 truths and outright fraud, they sent Martha Stewart to prison for less than Bush has done.

I suggest reading a copy of Elizabeth De La Vega's book, United States v. George W. Bush et al. for a further treatment of THAT topic. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1583227563

But I digress, and it's time for lunch...

"According to NASA officials, the Hubble onboard computer reported an error with the Alpha-Echo 35 unit and called for a human to repair it."

Microsoft has twenty titles in the top fifty.

Interesting. That datum made me decide to check something a little more relevant: The status of Apple in Computer hardware sales. Given that Apple doesn't focus on selling its operating system off the shelf, it seem more appropriate to check the GP's assertion that people are 'stampeding' to the Mac by seeing how Apple computers are selling.

Now, this list is updated hourly, so it's subject to change, but when I checked, Apple had the top 3 positions in the best-seller list, and a total of five entries in the top ten.

So, according to this unscientific metric (albeit chosen by you): The majority of new computer buyers are buying Apple products. Sounds like a stampede to me.

it has been updated to account for IE7's ideosyncracies, but does it also cover the other browsers well?

Good question, each browser has different levels of support. If you check out some browser usage you can see a decent estimate of what browsers are most used. Then you can check out browser CSS compatibility.

Besides IE6 (I'm not supporting IE5 Mac), I do not see issues across (modern or heavily used) browsers very often, unless I'm trying to do some sophisticated, multi-column, nested, floating DIV design. Also, in my experience, complicated float designs usually can be simplified with other means to avoid X-browser issues.

The biggest problem with CSS is that it also required good (X)HTML markup. Sometimes your CSS is sound, but the HTML code is not proper or designed by design instead of designed by content. A good book on working through this is Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design whose authors are also well known in the CSS/Website world and quote from Eric Meyer (the author of the book being reviewed on this page) as well as others.

I've been starting to learn that lots of my CSS frustrations of the past have mostly been part of my fault not thinking about CSS properly and trying to make easy things more complicated. Though, it can still be said, there's still lots of room for improvement, in both browsers and CSS specs.

Cheers,
Fozzy

This is a great book, but my binding cracked after 2 weeks. Worth buying anyway though.

Your binding cracked. How was it bound? I don't buy too many books from O'Reilly recently, but the last one I bought, Python in a Nutshell uses a rather novel binding that allows the book to lay flat and is quite durable. I assumed all O'Reilly books would use this newer system. And even my oldest O'Reilly books from the mid-90s are still fine, no weaking of the glue in the traditional binding. Did you write to the publisher to complain? Often as a gesture of goodwill they will allow you to exchange the book if you write a paper letter written sweetly enough.

Barnes and Noble is selling this book for $35.99, but Amazon.com is only selling it for $29.69!

Save yourself $6.30 by buying the book here: CSS: The Definitive Guide.

That's Dr. Jane Prey to you!

http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/conference/wipte/pr ey.cfm

Has a book
http://www.amazon.com/Impact-Tablet-Pen-based-Tech nology-Education/dp/1557534349/sr=1-1/qid=11701004 65/ref=sr_1_1/002-4935735-1745604?ie=UTF8&s=books

She's an academic who went ROGUE!

Here's one of your pathetic friends. You might want to look him up and arrange some sweaty sex.

Norton Ghost isn't free, it's about $70. That's the difference between an upgrade and a full version for some flavors of vista. Though I guess there are free alternatives to ghost. Either way, ghosting is not for the average user.

To help people identify and avoid Digitally Restricted products, many of them are now tagged on Amazon:

Link

Perhaps Mr. Bezos should spend more time working for Amazon.com. They used to be the best, but now they are a barely maintained database of discontinued products with bad specs and irrelevant search results.

Amazon is still the best bookstore for in-print books. Since books don't have "specs" (except things like page number and dimensions, which I've never seen screwed up), I suppose you are bitching about electronics. Well, Amazon's core mission is books. Just because they branched out into other areas which weren't as successful doesn't mean that they suck entirely.

As for out of print books, often one can still order them through the "Used and new..." listings of third-party sellers. But even with a product is not available through any avenue on the site, I'd still prefer that Amazon list them. Why? Because people can review them, and give you an idea of whether you want to search for the book in more obscure venues. To take one example, I've recently discovered that Amazon lists the original Danish publications of Pia Tafdrup's poetry. A book like Tusindfoedt isn't available for order in the U.S., but I'm currently writing a review that will tell people this book is so good that it's well worth ordering it from Tafdrup's publishers Gyldendal in Denmark

Sony Ericsson W810i
Cheapest I can find is US$ 247 (minimum price during the 6 months)

I decided to do the research with the phone for your example...

If someone had no phone service, they might buy the W810i through this deal here, which will give you a rebate of $50.

Phone price=$50
Rebate with contract=$100
Actual phone price= -$50

Cingular 450 plan (450 day minutes, 5000 night and weekend minutes, rollover for unused day minutes)=$39/month.

6 months service=$184 (not that it matters since it's a 2 year contract anyway ;-)

Now that allows me to make 450 minutes of outgoing calls for $40/month, but that would cost you $63 per month.

I'm pretty sure this. is responsible for 50% of piracy. Can someone explain to the MPAA that Waterworld is not worth $20, in any possible way? It could be on a disc made of solid gold, and still not be worth money.

Obviously it's a small example, but the reason people aren't willing to part with $20 for a crappy movie is because... well, it's a crappy movie.

And what accounts for the other 50%? This. Stop punishing me for paying for movies. Every time I see this, I want to give you my money even less.

There's also The Toy & Game Inventor's Guide, but it's rather old. It's pre-internet, which means the whole world has changed. However, it still has some really good stuff on the legal side of things, so you might see if a local library has it anyhow.

If you haven't already, I would definitely say make a few prototypes and get people to play them. Get honest comments, don't be offended by constructive criticism, and improve it based on the comments.

There's also The Toy & Game Inventor's Guide, but it's rather old. It's pre-internet, which means the whole world has changed. However, it still has some really good stuff on the legal side of things, so you might see if a local library has it anyhow.

If you haven't already, I would definitely say make a few prototypes and get people to play them. Get honest comments, don't be offended by constructive criticism, and improve it based on the comments.

When will they outlaw razor blades that only fit one razor?

Only when they can't buy safery razor blades and double edge razor blades and you have to go to a Gillette. There is a standard razor format still out there. The blades fit box cutters and paint scrapers, art tools, medical tools, as well as razors. You can buy the blades at either the grocery store, drug store, or hardware store. Your other option is to go the single vendor lock-in route. You don't have to pirate blades if you decide not to go with a single vendor solution.

You can't find many online music stores selling a variety of formats for several brands and functions of devices. This is the issue. I can buy several brands of razor blades at any one of the stores to fit my open format razor and can shop for the best brand and price. There is no online store selling competing brands of DRM content compatible with whatever brand of music player you happen to like. There is also no price and quality choices. If you buy online for your iPod, the only choice in the USA is 99 cents a track at the only quality level of 128Kbits. If you have a Zen, you can't buy compatible content for any price. If your device plays MP3's, you are SOL at the iTunes store. It's like having a safety razor and absolutely nobody sold blades for it so you had to rip your own from tin cans. (I know e-music, but try to buy any mainstream music there..)

Here are some examples of safety razor blades to fit your any name and function device that uses safety razor blades..

Mekur brand http://www.amazon.com/Merkur-Double-Safety-Blades- 3-Pack/dp/B0001XGNRK/sr=1-1/qid=1169789189/ref=sr_ 1_1/104-5655065-6533564?ie=UTF8&s=beauty
Auto Parts blades
http://www.parts4cars.com.au/cart.php?target=produ ct&product_id=19167&category_id=439
Feather brand
http://www.classicshaving.com/catalog/item/522941/ 906451.htm
Excel brand
http://www.dickblick.com/itemgroups-r/razorblades/
Wilkinson brand
http://www.blademail.co.uk/acatalog/Classic_Twin_E dge.html
Gem brand
http://www.2spi.com/catalog/tools/smtol14.shtml

There are more not listed here.. You can't mix music and players like you can razors. MP3 format works fine, but everyone wants to be the defacto DRM single vendor instead.

I just finished my university degree in physics (I also had a brief unsucessful engineer degree debut) and no graphing calculators are allowed in exam rooms. The McGill science faculty, engineer faculty, and the Polytechnique de Montreal only allow certain calculators at exams. If you plan on seriously investing in a calculator don't spend more than 25$. I have a Casio fx-991MS (on all the faculty's white-list) and I love it; it did everything I ever needed a calculator to do. For anything more complex I used maple or wrote a C program, and rarely did I ever need to graph something on a calculator (I got pretty good at approximating curves by hand). I won't deny that TI makes a nice graphing calculator (the TI-89 is quite impressive), but in all honesty graphing calculators are just toys. Link to user's guide: http://ftp.casio.co.jp/pub/world_manual/edu/en/fx1 15MS_991MS_E.pdf Link to Amazon product page: http://www.amazon.com/Scientific-2-Line-Display-Ca lculator-fx-991MS/dp/B000KIFUVG (actually 35$, but my school bookstore sold it cheaper at 20$)

http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Say-Play/dp/0674965 906

I skipped through most of the storytelling segments but the underlying message and treatment sound good to me. The author proposes that children be taught from kindergarten up that they can't exclude playmates from games while at school. Sort of an extension of the "don't bring cake unless you have enough for everyone" rule. She finds that if children are not allowed to form cliques, you don't get kids being pushed to the bottom of the pecking order by 2nd grade and staying there for the next decade. I remember how some kids in my school were untouchables at the age of 6-- now it breaks my heart to think of it.

As a parent of a preschooler, the bullying issue concerns me. My son's a pretty sturdy little guy, and we'll teach him to not mind rough teasing, but I refuse to let him bully or be bullied. I'd rather see him suspended than not hit back if he's physically hit. I want him to recognize when another kid is not comfortable with teasing. I'll expect him to step in and defend the powerless, and include them in his games. And, I'll make sure he knows my expectations.

Though I was generally able to take care of myself, I was bullied in middle school, during a vulnerable time after coming back from a semester in another country. Actually it occurred because a teacher, who clearly disliked me but in the absence of nothing else to criticize, picked on me for not speaking loudly enough from my seat in the back of the room. After she singled me out, the classroom bullies realized that I was fair game. Because I'm a polite person, I refrained from answering back for months, but finally I made some comments that questioned their motives and underlined how pathetic they were being... Then somehow many of my classmates, who must have felt uncomfortable throughout the bullying, came out on my side and it stopped. But I have never forgotten the feeling of dread and helplessness, to be surrounded by hostile enemies and indifferent bystanders.

Good luck to all of you who were scarred by this unacceptable behavior... know that many more people may understand your experience than you think.

It's not preferential. Other companies can make products that interoperate with PlaysForSure.

Really? Then show me where I can get a software player not made by Microsoft capable of playing PlaysForSure Media!

• Nullsoft Winamp
  Can I play my purchased music from services such as the new Napster, MusicMatch, MusicNow, or BuyMusic.com through Winamp 5?
  Yes. Yes you can.
• Amazon Unbox video player
• Musicmatch Jukebox

In particular, show me where I can get one that works on operating systems other than Windows!

In contrast, other software companies are prohibited from licensing FairPlay. Some companies want to license FairPlay so that their software can play iTunes Store media, but Apple refuses to license their DRM.

That said, I'm not sure if I agree with Norway's decision to ban FairPlay. This might be excessive regulation.

So now Google's gunning for Uncle John's Bathroom Reader ?

Honestly, I don't see this as a positive development. My time on the pot is a time for reflection and grunting. If someone leaves the section with the comics and "Dear Abby" in the stall, I might elect to read, but I prefer to dump and run (TMI??). Also, knowing what Google employees are reading while they crap... Would "disquieting" be the right word for the sense of unease this gives me?

- Greg

Or another way to look at it, from Amazon's DVD section, the top sellers for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Both #1 top spots are held by The Departed (preorders):
the Blu-Ray version is #80 in the "DVD" parent category
the HD-DVD version is #63.

Further down the list,
Babel (Blu-Ray) is #915
Babel (HD-DVD) is #440.

At least for multi-format titles sold through Amazon, HD-DVD appears to hold a substantial lead. Also the number 1 position (Departed) sells much more in HD-DVD than Blu-Ray's #1. You could go through each position for a more scientific approach to it, to see if the entire top 25 or 100 sell more in HD-DVD format.