Slashdot Mirror

Have you been living under a rock?

So why is RafaelAngel's original comment modded as "Funny"?

Gawker is just mad they didn't get the scoop. Maybe next time they should offer Assange cash. Apparently that's how they get their scoops.

Citation needed.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/04/gizmodo-iphone-4g.html

See, that wasn't so hard...

Have you been living under a rock?

Gates Foundation makes for-profit investments that are killing the very people they claim to be helping

Gates is personally heavily invested in big Pharma

You have stuff to learn from this guy.

Yeah, how to hide in plain sight and control governments.

The schools have very little to do with the performance of the students. Its all about the communities that form the student bodies. You can dump a trillion dollars into Los Angeles schools and your still going to have neighborhoods with high murder rates, teen pregnancy, and high school drop outs. You know why? Because the communities are so completely dysfunctional and broken that no amount of "school" is going to fix it.

Last week a 15 year old and a 16 year old were shot to death in South East LA. Didnt even make the front page of the news papers. Just two more "latino youths". I'm absolutely appalled at the murder rate of young black and latino's in Los Angeles. Who's in control of LA? Who's been in control of California for quiet some time? Who's been in control of our government for the past 18 months? Why are these problems being swept under the rug instead of fixed? Where is all the money going?!? 1 Trillion dollars and still cities like LA are littered with killing fields. The dead: Black and Latino boys. Hows that hope and change working out?

http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/blog/page/1/

This comparison is particularly useful because it tracks students over time so that the effect of a teacher can be separated from other preexisting conditions (like poverty). This graphic from the LA times really says it all. The image shows how on teacher greatly improves the standing of students in his class, while the other does the exact opposite. This ranking has merit.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers-value-20100815,0,2695044.story

This is *why* I don't go to cons anymore, as it's now for vapid teenagers

It's always started with vapid teenagers (or younger). The original Star Wars movies (4, 5, 6) were making 3 times as much on toys as they were on the movies. The good stories operate on an adult level and hold our interests as we grow. Others lack longevity. And many are infused with longevity through more adult oriented remakes (Batman Begins?).

How old were WE when we first got into sci-fi, fantasy, etc?

At last a challenger to onetime New Hampshire governor Meldrim Thomson as the craziest governor ever. Amongst numerous bizarre actions and ideas, Thomson wanted to arm the New Hampshire National Guard with nuclear weapons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldrim_Thomson,_Jr.
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/apr/20/local/me-53359

Of course, it's possible that a goodly portion of LA's pollution is actually China's fault too:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/01/ozone-smog-air-pollution-greenhouse-gases-china-pollution-owen-r-cooper-kathy-law.html

Ozone from Asia is wafting across the Pacific on springtime winds and boosting the amount of the smog-producing chemical found in the skies above the Western United States, researchers said in a study released Wednesday.

The study, published in the journal Nature, probes a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists in the last decade: Ground-level ozone has dropped in cities thanks to tighter pollution controls, but it has risen in rural areas in the Western U.S., where there is little industry or automobile traffic.

China actually claims to have access to such 'weapons' too:

And I believe that was an official statement on their part, not a lone Russian conspiracy theorist. Obviously, that is no proof in itself but it'd be a bit hasty to dismiss the possibility right away.

Can anybody confirm if it actually rained during the Beijing olympics? I'd like to see their bluff called.

If your father punches you in a drunken fight, and you tell the cops you don't want to file charges, you better hope they want to cooperate... They can charge, or not charge, whoever they want. You have no control over it.

Kinda like what happened to Roman Polanski:

Samantha Geimer: "Roman Polanski had sex with me when I was 13, decades ago. I guess it's technically a crime.
Power-hungry, career-climbing District attorneys: "Whhhhharrrrrrrrgarrrrrrrrrbl!"
Average idiot suburban American: "Polanski BAAAAAAD!
Samantha Geimer: "um...okay, I mean...he didn't tell me beforehand, but everybody who showed up at those things back then knew what they were in for. I kinda...liked it...the attention.
Power-hungry, career-climbing District attorneys: "Whhhhharrrrrrrrgarrrrrrrrrbl!"
Average idiot suburban American: "Polanski BAAAAAAD!
Samantha Geimer: "Oh, come ON! Mick Jagger had sex with his friend's 13 year-old daughter! Pete Townshend was caught buying boy boy porn online! Don't you all still listen to the Who and the Rolling Stones?!"
Power-hungry, career-climbing District attorneys: "The 'Stones rock! If only I were half the stud Mick Jagger was!"
Average idiot suburban American: "The Who rock, especially in the beginning of the CSI series!
Samantha Geimer: "Look, guys, give it a rest, okay? Your circus is humiliating me."

[ Meanwhile, in a dark alley in Petaluma, California ]
Shadowy figure: "Look, you got the money, or not?
Chris Hansen: "Do you know who I am? I used to be famous! Come on, man, gimme the rock...
Shadowy figure: " Better start suckin'...
[ First the sound of a zipper, then a horrible mixture of tears and slurps...]

I just love how the audience in the video goes nuts about one dinky little, heretofore unseen lightsaber scene. That's almost as bad as the crowd at that Windows 7 tech demo clapping as someone demonstrated the revolutionary "new" feature of snapping two windows to each half the screen.

Anyway, some insight by former Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz is the real news for the exiled Star Wars fans who aren't drinking Lucas's Kool-Aid.

Some Android phones. And if you have a dev bootloader (ie. the folks you bought your phone from aren't assholes), there aren't any security exploits involved in the process anywhere.

Also, the set of things you can do on an Android phone without root is substantially larger than the set of things you can do on a non-jailbroken iPhone (replacing the built-in apps, for instance).

- Even Google's own Nexus One needs to be rooted.
- Replacing the bootloader similarly isn't easy to begin with and not getting any easier either : "DroidX bootloader locked tight." And it will only get worse now Google itself is out of the handset game.
- The most popular Android phones come with undeletable crapware.

I want to like Android, I really do, but it doesn't help that most of the things people say about it are half-truths at best.

For quite a while, they have had significant interest in high dollar crimes, versus no dollar crimes. A missing person is a missing person. Unless they are a high profile person (celebrity, politician, or wanted fugitive in the media), there is little to no interest.

I do recall a few instances (personal knowledge, not from the media) where there was a crime committed. They did involve a financial loss. About 15 years ago, the amount had to be greater than $3,000. About 4 or 5 years ago, the amount had to be greater than $6,500.

If, for example, someone broke into a large network, which incurred a large dollar amount of damages (securing equipment, changes of company security protocol, recovery of lost data from backups, loss of income due to media coverage), that's a big deal. High dollar companies always donate well to political parties. While it makes the news that Company X donated to a particular politician, you'll likely find that they did the same to all politicians. Businesses don't usually gamble on anything as unpredictable as elections. They'll play all sides to ensure they are covered. Donations to the wrong people are just considered part of playing the game.

Compare that to say a serial killer who has killed 3 people in the last 5 years, and those victims were not well politically tied to anyone. The interest level goes down to almost nil.

There was a bit of activity regarding a known serial killer activity. It likely involved 500 female victims. Wow, 500 women killed by serial killers, they'll surely put everyone they can on it. The last update was in 2009, and in 5 years there were 10 suspects in custody, suspected to be involved in 30 murders. Have you heard any updates on this? "Suspects" in custody does not mean the killers are in custody. They're just people who they believe may be the killers. Meanwhile, the murders continue.

It isn't due to mismanagement of resources exactly. Companies lean on their political "friends". The politicians then lean on the FBI, and the work gets done. While this should be considered mismanagement, the FBI is a government organization, and political pressures do come into play. Sure, if my company just lost $100 million dollars, I'd prefer the FBI take that over another case, but it shouldn't work that way. I, a multibillion dollar firm (I wish), may need to remind a few Congressmen that they are in office because of my huge donations, and my case will get priority.

Political pressures aren't the only ones they are under. High profile media cases get handled differently. A friend of mine was a victim of a Nigerian scam. It was a high dollar case. First I laughed at them for being stupid. There was an exception to the normal case though. The scammer was still in communications with them, and they hadn't told the scammer that they figured out what happened. They called the local FBI field office, and their statement was taken. A couple weeks went by, and nothing had happened with the case.

I pulled a couple strings, and I asked a media outlet to make a friendly request that it be looked at further. The media outlet was very friendly about it. They simply sent an email over saying "Please have a look at this. We understand the difficulties in prosecuting such a case. If you do manage to make an arrest, we would love to publish the story. If not, we won't run anything about it." They mentioned a bit more about the information on the case, and that the scammer was still in contact asking for more. My friend got a call at 9am from a FBI investigator, and they were at my friends house later that day (agreed upon by my friend). Emails between the parties were gathered (with consent, not warrants). My fir. A voluntary tap

Current events. Keep up with them much? Around 70% of Californians (a super majority, or the overwhelming majority) voted on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Going to have to call you out on this. The number is 52.3% voting for, which is just over half, not a the overwhelming majority. It can also be said that at least a few of those who voted for it were actually confused, and thought they were voting to affirm gay marriages. Get your shit straight.

On Thursday, the FCC dropped plans to build a framework for Net Neutrality

"The FCC had been engaged in closed-door meetings with companies such as Google Inc., Skype, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to work out a compromise. But on Wednesday, rumors surfaced that Google and Verizon were close to hammering out their own separate deal on how to manage Web content.

The FCC warned against such a deal Thursday.

"Any outcome, any deal that doesn't preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet for consumers and entrepreneurs will be unacceptable," Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a news conference after an FCC meeting Thursday.

Google and Verizon have denied the rumors."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc-broadband-20100806,0,298861.story

Wait...you actually have to get a freakin' license for a swimming pool on your own property?!?!?

Wow..never heard that one before.

What's next, having to apply for a license to own a fscking charcoal grill on your own patio?

I think it has mostly to do with insurance as well... If there is no license for the pool in a township/municipality that has ordinances on the books that do require permits, then you are most likely required to get the proper insurance coverage as well. I read a report of a leaking pool in California causing a small landslide that affected several houses down slope and caused several millions in damage.

No imagine if the guy built the pool without permit. I can’t an insurance underwriter would cover this without a permit in place that might at least attest to the quality stands used in the construction. What assets do you think those affected home owners are going to go after then?

"And exactly where does the government 'heavily subsidise' the EVIL OIL COMPANIES?"

Google is your friend!

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/25/nation/la-na-oil-spill-subsidies-20100525

Why did you think that we pay less than $3/gallon for gas and Europeans pay $7-$8.

You also had the largest number of anti-semetic incidents in the country last year.... ... but then, who could blame you?

Is it any wonder?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-funds-20100727,0,3856364.story

You see, when all us crazy liberals were saying we were going to Iraq to steal their oil, we were right. That's what we did.

http://torrentfreak.com/tech-news-sites-tout-misleading-bittorrent-piracy-study-100724/

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100708/02510310122.shtml

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-disney-20100708,0,4051564.story

Here's what I sent to Indiana's AG...

TO:
Office of the Indiana Attorney General
Indiana Government Center South
302 W. Washington St., 5th Floor
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: 317.232.6201
Fax: 317.232.7979

E-mail: Constituent@atg.in.gov

FROM: Mike Warot

Hi
    I'm Mike Warot, from Hammond. I'm a network administrator working in Chicago.

I've recently learned that 37 states are joining in an investigation of Google's collection of WiFi data, as typified in this story from the LA Times

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/07/google-street-view.html

The issue at hand seems to be quite simple. They were trying to make a list of open (unencrypted) WiFi access points as a supplement to GPS to help in navigation. Because the software used to collect this data (Kismet) defaults to collecting entire packets instead of just the names of the access points, there is now an uproar that "passwords were stolen" and other Bull Shit. It was a simple technical oversight, not an evil plot.

Please DO NOT WASTE MY TAX DOLLARS on this wild goose chase. I'm sure you have plenty of other more important work to do.

Thanks for your time and attention.
 

BP is just the liberals' whipping boy right now. They are riding it as hard as they can to drive hits to their worthless whiny blogs.

Oh yes, THAT'S all this is about.

You're clearly not quite used to having a full brain to work with, but don't fret. You'll figure it out eventually, but until you do, try to slow down. Telling the difference between those M's and W's can be really tough on the newbies.

http://www.slate.com/id/2173965
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v10/n10/abs/nn1979.html

-FL

Yeah, lot's of things are claimed in the interest of "national security"... it's the most abused term since you can't possibly be against security of your nation (and yourself). But no country is really free of this abuse...
Example: the story of a mom (ironically named Freeman) who was arrested, convicted and lost her kids in the interest of national security. She surely must have been a terrorist... right???
The only thing different about China is the blatant censorship, most western nations try to be more subtle with their censoring... but it still happens (and guess which two words are always the reason).

Nowhere have I seen any information about tagging the turtles to monitor their progress. It might be impossible given their small size at birth in comparison to their adult size, and the fact that this population takes about 18 years to reach sexual maturity. The LAT has a few more details: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-turtles-20100715,0,2244379.story

Gizmodo is a third party, and they have been pretty consistent in reporting on both points of view on this issue.

Actually Gizmodo may have an axe to grind, too. And the difference in reporting w.r.t. Apple since the "lost iphone" debacle is pronounced.

... They will be wanting their geeky friends to put non-compromised software on it. Seriously: 'Junkware' comes standard on Verizon, T-Mobile smart phones - and cannot be removed. What - the - heck - are - they - thinking? Shovelware ... on a phone. That can't be removed. Son, I am disappoint.

We finally get a cutting edge, utterly awesome Android phone platform and it comes with the modern equivalent of AOL that can't be removed - and not just one, but a whole suite of demo-ware, trial-ware, nagware, a freaking MOVIE - none of which can be deleted. Fabulous.

Does anybody at Motorola even understand what this Android thing is about?

'Junkware' comes standard on Verizon, T-Mobile smart phones

So yeah, I was looking forward to owning this phone and now I'm not. How can Motorola go so far astray with an Android phone?

In all fairness, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal deficit, the bank bailout, the lack of oversight in the oil industry, and the phenomenon of waxy buildup are all recent developments under the Obama Administration. And, as everyone knows, 9/11 happened because Clinton didn't take national security seriously. If Bush had been in office just a few months longer, he would have found a way to stop it.

See, when a Democrat is the president, the recession can be his fault even before he's inaugurated. When a Republican is president, I'm not even sure any blame can be assigned to him, especially when he had no information to go on. I have been assured that this viewpoint is entirely rational.

Reference link from two years ago: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/10/digital-billboa.html

one form of citation: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/12/u2-tops-highestgrossing-concert-tour-list-for-2009.html

Apparently the US Department of Homeland Security is looking into this technology - but they want to combine this with the phenomenon of Internet Hunting - they view this as a more expensive alternative to the highly-effective Drone Aircraft in use in various theaters of operation...

The feds and states have been working hard to ensure there are no known collision rates above zero by prohibiting searches of the database to see just how bad it is. The LA Times has a nice writeup about the problem. Basically they don't want scientists doing blind studies because it shows DNA isn't absolute especially for cases that have no other evidence.

and you could really see it in avatar: all that beautiful day glo flora was obviously inspired by your average earth coral reef

and cameron has said avatar ii is going to be an aquatic adventure on pandora:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/04/james-cameron-talks-the-enironment-the-avatar-sequel-and-more.html

We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That's not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story - not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film. I've already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment - a different setting within Pandora. And I'm going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won't be a rain forest. I'm not saying we won't see what we've already seen; we'll see more of that as well.

considering how cameron's diving hobbies inspire his creative works (look at titanic and the abyss), i welcome whatever comes out of the creative ferment of his mind from his interest in deep caves. perhaps the abyss ii? some sort of horror movie? avatar iii will be in a galactic cave? who knows...

Paris by Night http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0711-paris-20100711,0,6607368.story/ The LA Times is running a story on a production show that relies on DVD sales. The show is a unquestionable hit, but DVD piracy might end the show.

I work on communications and control systems for subway and light-rail.

A lot stuff is recorded in case there is an incident or accident that they want to investigate. Even phone calls to the control center and radio transmissions are recorded. CPUC and FRA regulators come by, especially during construction and early service, and poke around, ask questions, pull records and so on.

There is a regulatory retention period. If nothing happens for that period, the stuff gets deleted. But a lot of minor stuff gets investigated. Supervisors check reports of safety rule violations and such.

I think financial auditing is similar. The auditor wants to be able to randomly select some
set of transactions during the audit, but is not going to look at the totality of records.

On another note, I do remember a story about a system admin who worked for the legislature.
He was asked to destroy some backup tapes. Instead, he handed them over to the FBI.

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-09-23/news/mn-2790_1_legislative-counsel

In the case of IT, perhaps they should have whatever number of meetings it takes to come up with a written retention policy. That way, you are covered when you delete something according to written policy.

There are no niggers in Ventura county. Some of them try to come up through L.A., but they never make it past Simi Valley.

This isn't a surprise at all.

In most elections where a whack job gets nominated to run in a primary for a major office like Senator, it's because the will of the majority is split amongst several moderate candidates. In most elections, Ranked Choice Voting would have prevented the ascendancy of the whacko, by letting voters express their preferences more clearly, voting their preference for a non-whacko candidate. In the Nevada GOP primary for Senator in 2010, however, it appears that two whacko candidates were highly favored over the other candidates (election results show them getting collectively a total of 66% of the GOP primary vote), of which there were several.

Were all the other candidates even bigger whackos? Between scientology and chickens for health care level stupidity, you would think there would have been at least one better choice, but most of the other candidates received tiny shares of the vote. The "will of the GOP primary voters" in Nevada in 2010, seems to be "give us a whacko, please."

I wish I could find the references I'm looking for, but 10 minutes of google seems to be failing me.

There was an environmental scientist who had his own show in the 70's and 80's, one of the first pro-environmental shows, big into opposing deforestation, one of the first to advocate recycling, and so on. When global warming started becoming a hot topic, he said;

1) I don't see conclusive evidence it's caused by man
    and
2) If it is happening, the best way to fight it isn't emission controls, it's protecting the rainforests.

He lost his show, was removed from the public eye, any further work was mostly ignored; he was blacklisted.

There's a few people that agree with him, of course, (Here and here for example), but by and large he's been ostracized because he didn't toe the line. In the parlance of grant work, emission studies were sexy, and pushing protection of rain forests was not.

There are many environmental scientists that have been blacklisted for having dissenting views. This is what I really have a problem with.

I find that the debate about whether global warming is due to man or not is being handled with politics, not with reason. Perhaps this is why even in the small group of posters here, I see obvious evidence of closed minds. When I see an individual state a hypothesis (even one with good evidence) as a fact, it's bad enough, but when it is followed up with a statement indicating that anyone doubting them is an idiot - that is not science or rationality. I see individuals making a claim, and then stating that because no argument they accept disproves it, that it must be true - a negative proof, and a fallacy.

That's not science. That's a religion.

Nice (second attempt) at this revisionist history, but you are the one that has it wrong.

Nope, that proves nothing other than some people are as ignorant as yourself. That article was written in December, 2009. And the author apparently didn't know anything about the Tea Parties that had been happening for almost three years - he seems under the (mistaken, or intentionally misleading) assumption it had something to do with Obama's election.

Here's an article, and a video from an early tea party where nobody called themselves "teabaggers" (yea, it came from the snarky left, apparently in fear of a grass-roots conservative movement).

Nope, that proves nothing other than some people are as ignorant as yourself. That article was written in December, 2009. And the author apparently didn't know anything about the Tea Parties that had been happening for almost three years - he seems under the (mistaken, or intentionally misleading) assumption it had something to do with Obama's election.

Here's some insight from some of the progenitor tea parties.

There are now a great many copies of his birth certificate in circulation. So many so that Hawaii has stopped honoring public recoreds requests for it:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/04/barack-obama-birth-certificate-linda-lingle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+topoftheticket+(Top+of+the+Ticket)

Give it a rest.

Really? That crap again....

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/obama-birth.html

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

I could find plenty more confirmations for you.

Modern day Iraq (prior to Saddam's ouster) is primarily dominated by Sunnis. The southern portion of Iraq, which includes Basra, is historically a predominantly Shiite area - So yes, culturally, politically, religiously

The cultural, political and religious similarities between Sunni and Shia Arabs in the Middle East are rather clearer than between either and Brits/Americans :-).

Looking in more detail, the Shiite population in Basra city and province has varied radically over the past few decades. And what do you expect, when the West supplies and supports a man for his hatred of Shia Iran? Saddam hanged al-Sadr, outlawed membership of al-Dawa, exiled about 200k Shiites in the '80s and early '90s, and assassinated thouasnds more following the first Gulf War. 500k Madan marsh Arabs responsible for guerrilla operations against Baath were tackled by draining 90% of swamps. The post-Saddam backlash brought Shiite population in Basra back up to 60% by 2005.

We re-engineered Kuwait; we re-engineered Iraq even later. To "where does it end?" the answer is "quite recently".

I would not call it "immoral" for a Canadian unit to accidentally kill American non-combatants, as much as I would mourn the loss of those civilians.

When it has been established that war is just, yes, there is no argument that accidental killing of a non-combatant can be "immoral". The question then becomes, "What is reasonable care to avoid this accidental killing?" I would argue that the bottleneck is tactical and strategic, and technology should be applied toward intelligence-gathering (or, if I'm wearing my tinfoil, I'd argue that existing intelligence technology should be provided to ground forces). This is how you execute a war with minimal casualties - not by wasting money on a missile which hits the wrong target for the wrong reasons even more accurately than the last one didn't quite.

do not have any "personal power" over the military, but they are still being used on my behalf

I'm not sure if I'm about to engage in a semantic game, but let us say that they should be being used on your behalf, but aren't. And haven't been for a while. If this is true, it doesn't matter whether the legal framework of your government is such that they should be operating on your behalf; and it doesn't matter that every service member promises to operate to protect you. What matters is that if they're not.

As such, they are no better than a bunch of pirates which you're forced to pay for by the local laird. I too could promise that I'll protect you, even make a public oath to the effect, then do nothing but leech off you and make life worse for you: does this make me any better than someone who has openly admitted that he's going to leech off you and make life worse for you?

So, respect a military working on your behalf, perhaps, from general down to infantryman. But one which merely claims to? The military must never state that it is "only following orders". So what if it is emphasised at all levels that it must only either follow legitimate orders or do nothing?

OK, end of semantic game.

Each case must be taken individually, and evaluated on its merits

But with some underlying principles to limit where war may even be considered, no? Without restraint, eventually war will be abused for any possible interest, declared in terms of an unwinnable war on an undefinable enemy. Which may be what's happening.

It's possible to do very immoral *things* while attempting to achieve a legitimately moral end

I'm not sure that it is. If you decide that the end is so important as to outweigh the harm caused by the means then the whole act is moral. It's like killing the wife and daughters of the Generalissimo because they happen to be sat next

Well, when you donate money to the men in charge, the US Government doesn't get so upset at you.

http://theweek.com/article/index/202679/Do_BPs_big_donations_to_Obama_matter
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/rahm-emanuel-bp-gul-oil-spill.html

Found the turtle story!

(Not this one)

It's those coal lovin' bastards the Sierra Club!

(Not that one)

When making a comparison, how can you ignore the ONLY benefits of the e-reader (e-ink, battery life, and the free data on some models)? Tablets win for the same thing that all superior products win: for anyone looking for MORE than a decent platform for reading text, e-readers suck. If that's all you want to do, that's great, enjoy your e-reader. The price cuts certainly help. The problem is that there are *so many* disadvantages to an e-reader that you're neglecting, along with a complementary list of advantages for tablets.

A tablet does many things well. The eReader is cheaper and does one thing well. As I said, the iPad will have its fans, but there will be people who want a single purpose device.

Of your four "advantages", two are restatements of each other (battery life is a function of power draw) and one is highly subjective at best ("easier on the eyes").

Not the same point. When you are sitting reading a page on the iPad, you are using just as much battery life as when you flip the page. Whereas you can leave an e-Ink page up for several minutes and the draw will be very minimal. e-ink uses big amounts of power to change the state, but keeping the text on screen takes virtually no battery power.

As for the allegedly subjective claim..., you are right, there is debate. Based on personal experience, that is my opinion.

Then there are the disadvantages: page flips are slow and clumsy, artwork is terrible unless it's line art, there's no color (and the color e-ink prototypes aren't going to cut it, either), there's essentially no interaction other than scrolling, it has limited/no multimedia capabilities, and it is, in the words of Alton Brown, a unitasker of the first degree.

As I said. Some will want everything and the kitchen sink, and others will want a good book reading device.

Compare a tablet, with a full range of information, Internet, multimedia, gaming, productivity, communication, and reading applications. Tablets done right have screens with good color, viewing angles, and contrast, and highly responsive multitouch interfaces. Battery life north of 10 hours is enough so as to make no difference to most people--they can use it all day, drop it into a charger at night, and use it all day again. The reading applications aren't limited to text, but fully-featured magazines, comic books, illustrated texts, and interactive content, all of which can be used without an external light source with a simple adjustment of background brightness.

Which appeals to some people and not others. A lot of people would enjoy the benefits. If I had infinite resources, I'd get some very nice (and expensive) technology, and my computer would have top of the line components.

People who complain about "headaches" when using an LCD are just doing so in an environment with insufficient ambient light, which e-readers only avoid because they're illegible without sufficient ambient light. Whining about staring into a "lightbulb" is only based on poor ergonomic choices that they've made themselves. There is no physical difference to the eye whether light is backlit or reflected; turn on a lamp and/or adjust your brightness in low-light conditions and your problems are magically solved.

True, to some degree. I would still prefer to read E-ink for hours over a regular display, even with a large amount of ambient light (either from bulbs or natural).

That said, personal preference is personal preference. If e-ink is the fairy dust cure-all, then it counts against tablets. Does it count enough to give up all the other functionality? That depends on what you're buying it for. But there's little question that