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Around here, we don't have any B&N stores, so the main competitors were Chapters (Kobo + physical store/books) and Amazon (Kindle, or internet-order).

Frankly, I'm fairly disgusted with the price of books in Canada. The mark-up over U.S. prices is usually at least 20%, often higher, even when the Canadian dollar was higher.
Amazon - on the other hand - allows me to shop both the U.S. and Canadian store, meaning I could get U.S. prices and just pay the conversion/exchange rate. While many e-book prices still suck compared to their physical counterparts, you'll still find some things with crazy prices in physical medium compared to eBook (for example Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" trilogy. $15 for the dead-tree version at local bookstores, or $22 for all three on Kindle.
On the Nook store you won't see ANY of that series, Chapters is either $38 or $25 (I can't tell which because they seem to have the same damn thing twice,

In general, Amazon tends to work well in terms of convenience, price, and selection compared to the competitors.

*posting AC to save the mod points*

I'm with you. I'm currently looking at purchasing 'A Million Miles In A Thousand Years' by Donald Miller and I can get new paperbacks for the same price (or darn near) as the epub and I go 'why?' Seriously, a server cannot cost as much as warehousing plus delivery.

Indigo's got it: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/kobo-vox/

Not sure about the non-book content, but my wife has one of the ebook reader Kobo's and has been pretty happy with what's available.

Mafiaboy!
A great book was made about it: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Mafiaboy-Craig-Silverman/9780670067480-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3A+'mafiaboy'
Got that book for Xmas. Great read and cool story

Yeah. Like, just the other day I came across this ridiculous book. Let's throw that crap right out and get started on a proper OS.

It could be worse, they could call it a "Human Rights Commission". Oh wait, they already did that in Canada to stomp on free speech rights (and lots of other insanity occurring too). Read Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy In The Name Of Human Rights to get a summary of how much things like this have screwed up anything resembling free speech in Canada. I've been following the insanity of HRCs in Canada and I was STILL surprised by the content of this book, and it's a STRONG forewarning to anybody in any other countries trying to stifle free speech in the name of preventing "hate crimes."

Plase, slashdotters weigh in, because I've missed something here.

Would you like to buy a vowel? An 'e'?

I'll post something useful later when I get home to dig through my electronics box/books. I have some "From the ground up" stuff - theory and then some simple projects (burglar alarm, strobe light, colour organ)

For some adult projects try this book: Build Your Own Laser, Phaser, Ion Ray Gun & Other Working Space-Age Projects

The author also has other books and if you search for them on Amazon as well it'll likely have other book recomendations.

Plase, slashdotters weigh in, because I've missed something here.

Would you like to buy a vowel? An 'e'?

I'll post something useful later when I get home to dig through my electronics box/books. I have some "From the ground up" stuff - theory and then some simple projects (burglar alarm, strobe light, colour organ)

For some adult projects try this book: Build Your Own Laser, Phaser, Ion Ray Gun & Other Working Space-Age Projects

The author also has other books and if you search for them on Amazon as well it'll likely have other book recomendations.

See The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

See also The Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen

Like 20 years ago a while?? I think I'd find it hard to believe someone who seems to be making up obviously false 'facts' as he goes...

Best Book I ever read on Design is by far Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Designing-Web-Usability-Practice-Simplicity-Jakob-Nielsen/9781562058104-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3A+'Jakob+Nielsen' It provides factual, mesurable data for it's conclusions.

The author (and the scientist) also touches on the imigration of Native Americans from Asia.

Warning: I am extremely biased against Chiropractory and believe it should be shut down. Any arguing with me on it will be pointless. I am sure you are a nice person and so is your chiro but I look at it as snake oil. I am not going to try to convince you not to go but I will give you some facts. Maybe talk to your "doctor" about it but if you decide to continue seeing one, that is your choice and I hope it works out for you...

I can agree with the parent comment. My wife was given a neck adjustment on Dec 28 2003 and on the 2nd of 2004 had a mild (thankfully) stroke. It appears what happened was when the chiro torqued her neck one of her vertebrae moved. Of course a little while later the muscles pushed it back in place which they will do. At the same time a blood vessel was pinched off to her brain causing her left eye to not track quite as well as her right. She is fine but she still gets a bit of vertigo. Talked to a lawyer about it and they said unless we were willing to go through years of heartache and stress her time would be more worthwhile spent telling people her story. Her GP informed her that she has another patient who is middle age who's right arm is now useless due to a bad chiro adjustment.

My wife was 30 at the time of the stroke, in perfect health as she was an avid runner even doing a half-marathon, doesn't drink, never smoked, so not even close to being someone classified as a normal risk for strokes.
My wife isn't bitter, I am I admit as I had to look her in the eyes when she was terrified as we didn't know what was happening and whether or not this was the beginning of something bigger. She thinks the big problem was that the chiro glossed over the risks, she doesn't even recall ever being told about them. She had been a semiregular patient for 5 years for lower back pain (which visits to a physical therapist fixed in a couple months after she stopped going to the chiro). I agree with the person up the thread that Chiros should stay away from the neck area and as well they should drop the whole "latent intelligence" BS that moving bones makes your organs work better.

An interesting read (albeit definitely not an unbiased view on the world of chiropractory is book called Spin Doctors, which you can order on Amazon or Chapters .

Shouldn't that be from Stanford Research Institute to xerox to...

SRI is where Engelbart and crew started (he later ended up at Xerox PARC). What the doremouse said has a good review of the beginings of the PC.

You don't need religion to let a book tell you what to eat. (over 7000 hits on a single chapters search).

You don't need religion to let a book tell you what to eat. (over 7000 hits on a single chapters search).

You don't need religion to let a book tell you what to eat. (over 7000 hits on a single chapters search).

You don't need religion to let a book tell you what to eat. (over 7000 hits on a single chapters search).

It's no wonder Strunk's view about a phrase like everyone in the community, whether they are a member of the Association or not was that it should be "corrected" to everyone in the community, whether he is a member of the Association or not: women still didn't have the vote in America, so who would care if this sort of use of he excluded them.

If you find the site funny I highly recomend the book.

The book is wet your pants hilarious and one could argue it has a deeper back story about a kid who want/needs acceptance. Well worth the read and the measely $14CAN (I assume it is cheaper in the 'states as the US dollar is still stronger than the looney).

Yours is the first of many posts that mentions technical books on their bookshelf. The story is about buying books as a Christmas gift... The last thing I want are work-related books as a gift!

One of my favourite authors at the moment is JM Coetzee. He just gets to the point when it comes to writing about life. Somewhat relevant to this /. story is his memoir as an immigrant progammer in the UK in the 60s: Youth. Inspirational stuff!

I think the book that has stuck in my mind the most in the last couple of years though is Hopeful Monsters. It seems rather hard to find these days though.

Yours is the first of many posts that mentions technical books on their bookshelf. The story is about buying books as a Christmas gift... The last thing I want are work-related books as a gift!

One of my favourite authors at the moment is JM Coetzee. He just gets to the point when it comes to writing about life. Somewhat relevant to this /. story is his memoir as an immigrant progammer in the UK in the 60s: Youth. Inspirational stuff!

I think the book that has stuck in my mind the most in the last couple of years though is Hopeful Monsters. It seems rather hard to find these days though.

This Alien Shore - C.S. Friedman

Before the discount This plus taxes was more than 80 bucks CDN

If the union had all these great ideas for cost cutting, why didn't they suggest them earlier, at some point before the axe was in it's downward swing?

I understand why sometimes the labour and capital components of business have to have an adversarial relationship, but I also know that they need to have a co-operative relationship as well.

It's as if the union had these great ideas for saving IBM money, but kept them quiet until IBM started to cut jobs, and they said, "Wait wait wait...".

In the original black-and-blue article, the union made the point that IBM's "first quarter profit for 2005 was $1.4 billion, and $9 billion for the whole of 2004". Unfortunately, a corporation has a legal imperitive to make as much money as possible for the shareholders. The problem is not IBM, but rather corporations in general.

Some of the more interesting books on the subject are,

Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen

The Corporation (the book that the documentary was based on)

Confessions Of an Economic Hit Man

If the union had all these great ideas for cost cutting, why didn't they suggest them earlier, at some point before the axe was in it's downward swing?

I understand why sometimes the labour and capital components of business have to have an adversarial relationship, but I also know that they need to have a co-operative relationship as well.

It's as if the union had these great ideas for saving IBM money, but kept them quiet until IBM started to cut jobs, and they said, "Wait wait wait...".

In the original black-and-blue article, the union made the point that IBM's "first quarter profit for 2005 was $1.4 billion, and $9 billion for the whole of 2004". Unfortunately, a corporation has a legal imperitive to make as much money as possible for the shareholders. The problem is not IBM, but rather corporations in general.

Some of the more interesting books on the subject are,

Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen

The Corporation (the book that the documentary was based on)

Confessions Of an Economic Hit Man

If the union had all these great ideas for cost cutting, why didn't they suggest them earlier, at some point before the axe was in it's downward swing?

I understand why sometimes the labour and capital components of business have to have an adversarial relationship, but I also know that they need to have a co-operative relationship as well.

It's as if the union had these great ideas for saving IBM money, but kept them quiet until IBM started to cut jobs, and they said, "Wait wait wait...".

In the original black-and-blue article, the union made the point that IBM's "first quarter profit for 2005 was $1.4 billion, and $9 billion for the whole of 2004". Unfortunately, a corporation has a legal imperitive to make as much money as possible for the shareholders. The problem is not IBM, but rather corporations in general.

Some of the more interesting books on the subject are,

Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen

The Corporation (the book that the documentary was based on)

Confessions Of an Economic Hit Man

FUCK! I just made a pretty useless post several layers down. And now I wish I didn't just so that I could mod this up. Specially after reading Generation of Swine, I'm really up for that kind of humour.

It's the Canadian version of Amazon.com.

..And Linux is Just For Fun" too.

Douglas Adams' classic geek book, I'm buying it for a geek girl. I found that Chapters (Canada) sells the entire trilogy in 4 parts for $6 or so. Yeah, I'm a cheap geek. I've already received the shipment, it really is the whole damn set of books for $6.

While the book is great, the parent copied his "review" from http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.asp?Item=978059 600787&Catalog=Books&N=35&Lang=en&Section=books&zx ac=1 and also links to a has a amazon.com referer account.

If you want it cheap, addall.com (the book search engine) lists bookpool.com with the lowest price.

There are a couple out there. I got one for Christmas a few years back, called CookWise by Shrley O. Corriher. I haven't used it much (I tend to use Extending the Table more often). Most of CookWise is about the how and why - the science behind cooking.

There are a couple out there. I got one for Christmas a few years back, called CookWise by Shrley O. Corriher. I haven't used it much (I tend to use Extending the Table more often). Most of CookWise is about the how and why - the science behind cooking.

I don't think the population is that big, and I belive the population growth is going to slow down in the next years, as China and India begin to develop.

Population growth may indeed slow, but experts suggest that we are already at or near our sustainable carrying capacity. Slower growth is not the answer - population reduction may be.

There's more to consider than just carrying capacity, too - like quality of life. I'm fortunate enough to live in a country with vast natural wealth, both overall and per capita. I want it to stay that way. I want my descendants to be able to hunt and fish and canoe and hike in unspoiled wilderness just as I can. Many regions of our planet have already reached or surpassed their carrying capacity, and the environmental consequences are not pretty (to say nothing of the human tragedies).

The whole First World is facing demographic problems due to population reduction, now. It's mathematical, the more developed a country, the less the people have kids.

I agree that demographics are shifting, and there are short-term difficulties inherent in the shift (my generation having to pay the medical bills of the generation that prededed it, for example). To the best of my knowledge, though, the only other "problems" presented by the shifting demographics you site relate to business models that rely upon constant growth. I don't believe such models are any more sustainable than population growth; in fact, I believe they are inherently dangerous to our environment and our quality of life.

As to fusion, think about an infinite, clean power supply. Imagine you can depolute the rivers, recycle everything, turn deserts into forests, because energy is cheap. This is great. If the fusion, when possible, is offered to the world and not locked by private possession, it can solve our environmental problems for good.

I'm not knocking fusion - it would be great! My original post intended merely to point out the often-overlooked demand side implications of population dynamics.

If you're interested in a very good read on population, allow me to recommend Lindsey Grant's excellent Juggernaut: Growth on a Finite Planet. Cheers!

The Efficient Society is a book I wish were available when I was in high school/college. It is an easy read, full of entertaining examples taken from economics, sociology, politics, psychology that help explain the workings of the human society and how & why we have the laws we do.

Truly excellent for a person about to start an independent life.

Warning: the perspective is Canadian and it might offend some Americans.

I was reminded of the classic Canadian novel Who Has Seen the Wind which takes place in roughly the same part of Canada.

Apparently, Monsanto has seen it, and owns it too.

I also recommend it, it's a wonderful book.

You've got some good points and you're on the right track, but you're making the mistake so many of us make. You have to understand just how much money, power and corruption the establishment is willing to throw at us in the form of propaganda, disinformation, changing laws, bending the constitution, etc.

Hydrogen being more dangerous than a tank of gasoline or a pressurized tank of propane is propaganda.
Solar cells being inefficient and expensive is a combination of industrial control and propaganda. Who just bought the three big solar cell companies? BP, Shell, Exxon-Mobil. Why? To give us all a better, cheaper, cleaner life? No. To control it. And keep the status quo with oil. Also STmicroelectronics just announced a new polymer solar cell for $0.20/watt.

It's going to be very interesting to watch how they shut that one down. Also, this plant costs exactly the same as a coal or oil plant.

Everybody who wants to understand the power, history and politics of oil must read The Prize.

The main thing we all have to understand is that it's not just about your CAR.
A hundred years ago 80+% of us worked in agriculture and less than 20% lived and worked in cities. Today the opposite is true. The only way that 15% of the population can feed us is through use of massive machinary and massive quantities of fuel. The fertilizers are made from petroleum (petra(rock)-oleum(oil):), the plastics, the smelters for steel and iron, your Goretex snowboarding suit, etc.

Look at the computer in front of you. Try and imagine building it without oil. Hmm.

Anybody who thinks we're not going to enter a new dark-ages when the oil supply starts shrinking dramatically isn't thinking about it hard enough.

A few years ago a document was leaked that was allegedly from the Peoples Republic of China's central intelligence. It claimed that the United States would be mostly washed up by 2012. And that would be the true dawn of China's power. There' something to be said about that with regards to securing resources and power.
China is _still_ largely fed by rural peasants using ancient farming techniques -- not massive industrial power. China also has alternative and renewable energy sources they can deploy at a moments notice. One example: evacuated tube solar collectors, you can google it, China is the number one manufacturer. Never heard of it, right?

Anyway, if you dig the way I've been digging lately what you find is... astonishing.

cheers

• Rio Karma (20G) for day to day use, Rio Cali (256mb version) for the gym (Wow just did a currency conversion, and even with the exchange it's about $100CND cheaper to buy this in the states (assuming the $169USD pricetag seen on froogle.google.com)
• AOpen DRW4410 DVD Writer (at under $100 US it'd be cheaper than the above items :)
• Linux compatible Serial ATA card for my fileserver (the Silicon Graphics chipsets don't seem to do linux RAID, but according to some of the forum posts it is possible to get it working). This is just an interim solution until I upgrade the whole box and put in a motherboard with a SATA chip, so just looking for something that works :)
• A couple of big ass SATA hard drives to go with it.
• Aliens Quadrilogy DVD
• A USB keychain storage device... 64 or 128 megs of storage to keep important files safe. According to a recent Linux Journal article, they are the floppies for the new millenium.
• Canon Digital Rebel or...
• Pentax Digital *ist
• Add on bits for my Canon A70 Digital Camera
• Another nice shirt like I got from mom for my birthday
• $1,000,000
• A house that exactly meets what I want (and only costs $1)
• A subscription to Popular Photography Magazine
• A huge and over priced flat panel TV, ungodly expensive reciever, and speakers of such high quality that even the most freakish audiophiles will cry for mercy (this will go in the house I mentioned above).
• CDRs
• CDRWs
• DVDRs (to go with the DVD writer mentioned above)

I agree with this. Any well-written application should be able to determine reasonable defaults based on context. Therefore, on general principles, there is no need for an interactive installation process.

The only exception I can think of right now is for security. Even there, digital signatures can go a long way towards streamlining the "install" process.

Here's a link [chapters.indigo.ca] to the Chapters.Indigo.Ca website. The price is only $136 CDN if you purchase it online.

The price is $195 CDN if you purchase it at a store or an in-store kiosk... reason for the price difference is that the website doesn't have to pay people like me to sell on the floor or pay rent, etc...

Enjoy.

>Now it is "Don't educate people on WHY a movie costs 8 dollars".

If they were really $8 I'd be all over buying them. You can't even see them in a decent theatre for $8 anymore (I pay $10 US per viewing)!

Most movies cost $22 US nowadays (I did the conversion for you).

Has anyone noticed the huge proliferation of "RedHat as Linux" over the linux literary and driver (closed-source drivers, generally) community? The amount of articles that go on about teaching linux, and then teach "Red Hat" are huge. In addition, if you notice hardware that "Supports Linux" you will often find that it supports "Red Hat" (IMHO, the only way to support "Linux" properly is to have an Open-Source driver).

If you search for linux on chapters you will find a lot of literary material. 8 of 20 results are specially about redhat on the first page...

Searching for "Red Hat" Linux shows that at least 106 books specifically contain the words "Red Hat" in addition to linux.

While I'm all for use-your-own-distro, and I'm sure that RedHat is a good OS for newbies... I get this tingling feeling that there is a whole mentality that "Red Hat" IS linux. I understand that distros like Debian Linux might be more daunting with text-based installs, etc, but I hate to see future admins being taught that the "Red Hat" way is the only way.

Of course, it may be because many of those in the Debian-oriented mentality simply hate to document or make book-like material, whereas many more RedHat newbies have gone on to share their experience with the masses?

Give it a few months, and I'm sure we'll see a few more "Using RedHat 10" books to add to the pile. Version-chasing AHOY!

Has anyone noticed the huge proliferation of "RedHat as Linux" over the linux literary and driver (closed-source drivers, generally) community? The amount of articles that go on about teaching linux, and then teach "Red Hat" are huge. In addition, if you notice hardware that "Supports Linux" you will often find that it supports "Red Hat" (IMHO, the only way to support "Linux" properly is to have an Open-Source driver).

If you search for linux on chapters you will find a lot of literary material. 8 of 20 results are specially about redhat on the first page...

Searching for "Red Hat" Linux shows that at least 106 books specifically contain the words "Red Hat" in addition to linux.

While I'm all for use-your-own-distro, and I'm sure that RedHat is a good OS for newbies... I get this tingling feeling that there is a whole mentality that "Red Hat" IS linux. I understand that distros like Debian Linux might be more daunting with text-based installs, etc, but I hate to see future admins being taught that the "Red Hat" way is the only way.

Of course, it may be because many of those in the Debian-oriented mentality simply hate to document or make book-like material, whereas many more RedHat newbies have gone on to share their experience with the masses?

Give it a few months, and I'm sure we'll see a few more "Using RedHat 10" books to add to the pile. Version-chasing AHOY!

Has anyone noticed the huge proliferation of "RedHat as Linux" over the linux literary and driver (closed-source drivers, generally) community? The amount of articles that go on about teaching linux, and then teach "Red Hat" are huge. In addition, if you notice hardware that "Supports Linux" you will often find that it supports "Red Hat" (IMHO, the only way to support "Linux" properly is to have an Open-Source driver).

If you search for linux on chapters you will find a lot of literary material. 8 of 20 results are specially about redhat on the first page...

Searching for "Red Hat" Linux shows that at least 106 books specifically contain the words "Red Hat" in addition to linux.

While I'm all for use-your-own-distro, and I'm sure that RedHat is a good OS for newbies... I get this tingling feeling that there is a whole mentality that "Red Hat" IS linux. I understand that distros like Debian Linux might be more daunting with text-based installs, etc, but I hate to see future admins being taught that the "Red Hat" way is the only way.

Of course, it may be because many of those in the Debian-oriented mentality simply hate to document or make book-like material, whereas many more RedHat newbies have gone on to share their experience with the masses?

Give it a few months, and I'm sure we'll see a few more "Using RedHat 10" books to add to the pile. Version-chasing AHOY!

That's how it works. With transplants becoming basically a way to extend life... people kept demanding more organs. Since the idea of being chopped into parts freaked people out, crime decreased, which resulted in lesser crimes being upgraded to a "death via dissassemblement" in order to keep the organ banks up.

Just finished reading the book Flatlander: The collected tales of Gil "the Arm" Hamilton.. It covers the organleggers in a lot of detail (Gil being a cop assigned to hunting 'leggers), and is a great read

If you're truly serious, you'll find that the exact words are unimportant if you're able to understand their intent. That's what the NIV Bible is trying to accomplish (although I don't agree with their results, but that's another matter). This ain't easy, however -- it generally requires a pretty good understanding of the era in which the sources were written, the sorts of mythology from which certain portions are lifted or evolved from, etc.

I've found the New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) and the Complete Gospels to do a good job of putting stuff in its historical context. They're both good study resources, from both a spiritual and a secular viewpoint.

If you're truly serious, you'll find that the exact words are unimportant if you're able to understand their intent. That's what the NIV Bible is trying to accomplish (although I don't agree with their results, but that's another matter). This ain't easy, however -- it generally requires a pretty good understanding of the era in which the sources were written, the sorts of mythology from which certain portions are lifted or evolved from, etc.

I've found the New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) and the Complete Gospels to do a good job of putting stuff in its historical context. They're both good study resources, from both a spiritual and a secular viewpoint.

Just as long as it's not called a skelwank device. ;)